There's Something About Sweetie(51)

Hey man you ok? Need a ride?

Oliver: Is HE getting a ride?

It didn’t take Stephen King’s imagination to get who “HE” was. Yeah

Then NO thank you. I can make my own way

Dude what is going on??

Why don’t you ask him? He’s the one with all the answers

“Who’re you texting?” Elijah was looking over his shoulder.

Ashish put the phone away. “Oliver.” Elijah made a motion to get into the Jeep, but Ashish put a hand on his arm. “What’s going on, E.?”

Elijah tossed his bags into the back and turned to face Ashish, his arms crossed, his jaw hard. “What did he tell you?”

“Just that I should ask you.”

“Okay, fine. Apparently, Oliver heard a rumor that I hooked up with some guy on the Eastman team two weeks ago.”

Ashish was afraid to ask the next question but forced himself to anyway. “And is it true?”

Elijah scoffed. “No.”

“Okay. So then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that Oliver wouldn’t believe me. He said several people had seen me, and he knew the truth, so I should just come clean. Never mind that the Eastman team is totally homophobic. Never mind that they’ve given Oliver and me crap ever since we started going out. So I told him we should break up.” Elijah rubbed a big hand along his jaw, agitated.

Ashish stared at him for a good ten seconds. “You said what?”

“We’ve been going out for two years, Ash. I’m his first serious boyfriend. And now he’s acting like some jealous spouse. I just think, you know, if he can’t trust me, then it’s time we take a break. Maybe things are becoming too serious.”

Ashish blew out a breath and tried to compose his face to look like something besides You moron. You’re making a huge mistake. How can you not see that?! “Look, man. I’m no expert on serious relationships. But what you and Oliver have …” He shook his head and looked away. “People would kill for that, you know? People spend their entire lives looking for it. And you’re kicking it to the curb because … he cares about you too much? You care about him too much? I don’t even—”

“You’re not in our relationship. You don’t know.”

Ashish didn’t know what to say to that. “Are you saying you’re not happy?”

“No. I’m saying I feel like I’m married. And I’m seventeen. I don’t know what I want yet; I don’t even know where I want to go to college or what I want to major in. How can I make arguably the biggest decision of my life right now?”

“You’re scared. I get it—”

“No, you don’t.” Elijah shook his head. “You can’t.”

There wasn’t much to be said to that. Ashish nodded. “You’re right. I don’t.”

Elijah hopped into his seat through the Jeep’s open side. “Can we just go?” he said, staring straight ahead.

“Yep.” Ashish got in and started the engine. He glanced at Elijah again, but his friend refused to look at him. Ashish might not be an expert at relationships, but he knew a broken heart when he saw one.

“Samir is in the garden,” Ma said as soon as Ashish walked through the door. “Everything is okay, na?”

Guess he wouldn’t be eating dinner first after all. “Yeah. Everything’s just fabulous.” Sighing, Ashish set his backpack down on the floor in the den and crossed to the back door. He saw Samir through the panes of glass, sitting on a bench under a sycamore tree, his head bent, hands clasped loosely between his knees. He looked … beaten. There was no hint of defensiveness or annoying arrogance about him now at all.

It caught Ashish off guard. He walked down the path to the bench and sat next to Samir. The evening breeze was cool and stiff, riffling his hair and shaking the bushes around them. “Hey.”

Samir glanced at him for only a second. “Hey. Thanks for letting me come over tonight, man.”

“Sure. What’s going on?”

“You haven’t been answering my calls.”

Ashish ran a hand through his damp hair and tried not to let his annoyance show. Samir sounded just as beaten as he looked. “After the stunt you pulled at Roast Me, you can’t really blame me.”

There was a pause as they listened to the wind sing in the trees. “No, I guess not.” Samir turned to Ashish and held his eye. “I’m sorry. That was really insensitive of me.”

If he thought it would be that easy, he had to be kidding himself. “Yeah. It was.”

Samir’s gaze dropped down to his hands. “Is it true, what Pinky said? None of you like me?”

The landscape lights were on a timer, and they came on, casting a soft glow on all the trees and bushes around them. Ashish drew a breath, smelling roses and green stuff he didn’t even have a name for. “Bro, can you blame us? You’re constantly ragging us about stuff we’re sensitive about. Me with Celia, Pinky with that whole green-hair phase she went through, Oliver and Elijah about their PDA. You don’t make it easy for us to like you, you know?”

Samir actually looked surprised. “But … but that’s what friends do. We tease each other. It’s all in fun. I think Oliver and Elijah are the most solid couple I’ve ever known.”