A Good Enough Reason (13 page)

“Why do you care, though?” Damien asked. “Are you queer?”

Something flashed in Dale’s eyes, but it was too quick for Ellis to read. “No, but that doesn’t matter. We should all have equal rights. How would you have felt if you couldn’t have gone with your girlfriend when you had prom?”

“She wasn’t a guy.”

Connor slapped Damien on the back of the head. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Yes, Damien. Listen to your brother,” Ellis’s mom said as she entered the room again. “I didn’t raise you to be an ass or to think you’re privileged just because of what you like in the bedroom or what you have between your legs.”

“Oh, yuck. Mom, you can’t say stuff like that!” Damien said.

“Why not? I had a sex life before you did.”

“Mom!” Ellis, Connor, and Damien yelled together. Even Dale didn’t look too comfortable at the spin the conversation had taken.

Ellis’s mom held her hands up. “Fine, I’ll shut up. My embarrassing-my-sons quota for the day is done anyway.”

Ellis groaned. It could have gone better.

ELLIS CLOSED
his bedroom door behind them with relief. “I’m sorry for my mom. And my brother.”

Dale chuckled. “You don’t need to be. They’re nice.”

“Damien? Nice? Are you sure you were down there with me?”

“He’s just trying to protect his little brother.”

Ellis snorted. “That’ll be the day.”

“Don’t underestimate the way a big brother feels.”

“Whatever. It’s not like I’ll ever be a big brother anyway, right?” Ellis was actually happy Dale had liked his family. More than anything, he was glad he hadn’t run for the hills as soon as he’d met them. He flopped on his bed and reached for his backpack. “Why don’t we work on the project now and wait until after dinner for the movie? Unless you have a curfew?”

“Not today. My mom tends to let me stay out late when she’s home with Alicia. I think she feels guilty about me staying home with her the other nights. Besides, she knows where I am.”

Dale sat on the mattress next to Ellis and opened his notebook. Ellis had a hard time concentrating, even though studying had been his idea and the reason they were supposed to be there in the first place. He couldn’t pry his eyes from Dale, not now he’d admitted to himself he had a crush on the guy. His gaze strayed over to Dale, going from his lips to the long fingers holding his pen.

Ellis shook himself and tried to concentrate again, but he wasn’t sure he’d succeeded when his mom finally called them downstairs for dinner. He let himself fall backward on the bed and looked at the ceiling, wondering what else the evening had in store for him.

“Shouldn’t we be going?” Dale asked as he poked a finger in Ellis’s ribs.

Ellis giggled and slapped his hand over his mouth to stop himself, but it was too late. Dale had heard him. “I already know you’re ticklish, El.”

“Who, me? Nope, not at all.”

“Stop lying!” Dale moved quickly. He pinned Ellis on the bed with one hand and used the other one to tickle him again.

Ellis howled in laughter, twisting his body in hopes of somehow escaping Dale, but Dale had size and bulk on his side. Dale’s fingers played along Ellis’s rib cage and stomach, and a few even slipped under his T-shirt as he squirmed to try to get away. When he realized he wasn’t accomplishing anything, Ellis tried to curl in on himself instead, but Dale’s fingers always managed to get through.

The door opened. “Hey, guys. We’re waiting.” Connor arched a brow at the scene before him, but Ellis was too breathless to say anything.

“We’re, uh, we’re coming.”

“Sure. Take your time.” Connor turned and walked away, closing the door as he went.

Ellis’s attention went back to Dale, who was still pinning him to the mattress. Their faces were too close together, their bodies pressed against each other, and it was making Ellis feel both confused and happy. “We should go,” he whispered.

Dale seemed to realize how close they were. He let go suddenly and straightened, then rose from the bed. He offered Ellis a hand, and Ellis accepted his help to get up. He pointed at Dale. “You’ll pay for this.”

Dale looked at him for a few seconds, his gaze intense, before finally dissipating the tension. “Oooh, should I be afraid? Is big, bad Ellis going to hurt me?”

“Me? No, but I have two brothers downstairs, you know.”

Dale smirked. “You wouldn’t.”

“Just try to stop me.”

Ellis launched himself at the door and swung it open, then propelled himself into the hallway and down the stairs. He nearly fell twice, but he managed to make it downstairs in one piece. He could hear Dale behind him as he stumbled into the kitchen, still laughing.

Ellis froze when he noticed his entire family was staring at him from their seats.

Dale chose that moment to slam into him from behind, and they stumbled forward, Dale’s arms slipping around Ellis’s waist to keep him upright. The contact lasted only seconds because as soon as Ellis stopped moving Dale moved away, but it had been enough to fluster Ellis.

“Boys, have you washed your hands?”

“No ma’am—sorry. Sarah. We’re going right now.” Dale took Ellis’s wrist and pulled him to the bathroom as if he were at home. They washed their hands in silence but exchanged smiles in the bathroom mirror, then returned to the kitchen.

“So, Dale,” Ellis’s father started.

Dale immediately extended his hand like the polite guy he was. “Nice to meet you, sir. I’m Dale.”

Ellis’s father chuckled. “I know. You can call me Thomas.”

“Thomas. All right.”

Ellis speared a piece of lasagna and listened to his father and Dale talk about sports. A nice warm feeling had settled deep in his chest. He knew it shouldn’t have been there, but he couldn’t help it. He liked Dale, and he liked how Dale seemed to have integrated himself in Ellis’s family without too many problems.

“Ellis told me you play.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m on the school’s soccer team.”

“Why not football?”

“Didn’t feel like being flattened. Besides, there’s less expectations on me than if I’d played football.”

“I have to admit, I don’t know much about soccer.”

Damien snickered between two bites of pasta. “That’s still more than what Ellis knows of it.”

Ellis scowled and kicked under the table, praying he wouldn’t hit his mother instead of his pain-in-the-ass brother. He didn’t.

“Oww! Who was that? Huh?”

Ellis looked at his plate and tried to appear innocent. He felt Dale’s thigh nudge against his and glanced sideways as Dale said, “Ooops, sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“You didn’t mean to kick me?”

“Muscle spasm?”

“No fights at the table, boys. You can go at it later, but no blood and no broken bones,” Ellis’s father said.

Ellis laughed at the way Dale gaped. “They don’t like taking us to the ER.”

“We’ve been there so many times they should give us a family discount,” Ellis’s mother said.

“So, soccer?” his dad asked, effectively changing the topic.

Connor was snickering toward his plate while Damien pouted, and Dale looked a bit bewildered. “Umm, yeah. Soccer. What do you want to know?”

“What role do you play in?”

“I’m a forward.”

“You’re the one who scores.”

Dale chuckled. “Hopefully. Hey, why don’t you all come to my next game?”

“When is it?”

“Ah, well, it’s on a Tuesday, but the one after that is on Saturday afternoon.”

Ellis’s dad smiled “I’ll see if I can make it. Should be interesting.”

“Don’t expect me to be there. I don’t see the point of having boys running after a ball just to kick it around,” Ellis’s mother added. “But Ellis should go to the Tuesday one.”

All eyes went to Ellis, and he tried to make himself smaller in his chair, to no avail. “Ah, well. I don’t really like sports, you know.”

“Nonsense. I’m not asking you to play, just to go there to support a friend. When does it start, Dale?”

“Four, ma’am.” Ellis’s mother narrowed her eyes, and Dale corrected himself hurriedly. “Sorry. Sarah.”

“Did you have something else planned, El?”

Dammit! She knew he had nothing, of course, and that he was going to have to say yes.

“Come on!” Dale exclaimed. “It’ll be fun. We can go celebrate after it.”

“So sure to win?”

“Of course. I’m that good,” Dale said with a grin.

Ellis wanted to say no, because he thought very much the same as his mom. He also knew Dale would probably be too busy celebrating with Stephanie and his other friends to be with him, but the hopeful glint in Dale’s eyes made saying no impossible.

Ellis nodded. “Okay, sure. I’ll come. But you better win.”

Chapter Seven

“YOU’RE GOING
to
what
?”

Ellis shushed Anna. “To see Dale’s next game.”

“But… it’s soccer. Sports.”

“I know, but thanks for checking and thinking I was stupid. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Anna slapped Ellis’s arm and lugged her bag higher on her shoulder. “No need to be sarcastic. You know what I mean, El. You don’t like sports. You don’t like baseball or football, and have you even ever seen a soccer game?”

“Ah, no, but I looked up the rules.”

“You looked up the rules.” Anna shook her head. “You know, I never understood why you don’t like sports. They’re fun to watch for the most part, and you get to ogle all the hot men.”

“They run after a ball, like dogs. Yeah, incredibly fun.”

“Why are you going to watch Dale, then?”

They walked into the classroom for their study hall hours and sat next to each other. The room wasn’t full, thank God, so Ellis didn’t have to worry too much about Anna getting overworked and yelling. “Because Dale asked me to go.”

“Do you do everything Dale asks you to do?”

Ellis’s mind flashed to the movie they should have seen when Dale had come over to his house. They’d ended up watching the first
Transformers
movie instead. Explosions and giant robots were safer than porn. Definitely safer. “No, but why shouldn’t I go?” He asked. “And it’s not like it’s costing me anything but some of my free time.”

Anna looked at Ellis, her head tilted to the side as she tried to read him. Ellis prayed she didn’t, but he could already tell he’d been caught. She had that glint in her eyes, the one she got when she sniffed out a secret. She’d had the glint when she’d found out who Lucy Redmont had a crush on and when she’d discovered why Alec had been suspended for a week before everyone else. It was scary.
She
was scary.

“Nuh-uh. I don’t want to talk about it, not now, and not ever.”

“But, El,” Anna whined.” You can’t cut me out, not when I know you have a secret.”

“Is that all I am to you? A juicy secret?”

“No, but I know you’ve been hiding something for a while, and I know Dale has something to do with it. It’s like…
oh
.”

“Oh?”
Please, tell me she hasn’t figured it out.
Ellis slapped a hand over Anna’s mouth when she opened it to answer.

“Not right now.” Not that he really thought he would be able to keep her quiet. But hope was the last thing to die, right? Still, he looked around again, relieved to see no one was paying attention to them.

One. Two. Three.

“You like him. You
like, like
him,” she said in a hiss.

“What are we, twelve?”

“Ellis!”

“How’d you come to that conclusion anyway?”

“Oh, come on. It’s kind of obvious now that I think about it. You’re even going to watch him play soccer!”

“We’re friends, Anna.”

“You’ve never come to one of Rick’s swimming competitions,” she pointed out.

Ellis knew denying it wouldn’t change her mind, not now. She was worse than a dog on a bone once she got her teeth into something.

“Fine. I might have a tiny crush on him. Can you blame me, though? He’s gorgeous, nice, sweet, and we have so much in common.” Ellis sighed. Saying it aloud brought everything to the front of his mind, including the fact he’d never have Dale. Never.

“I like him, El, but I don’t want you to be hurt.”

Ellis could see the concern in his best friend’s eyes. “Yeah, I know. It’s not like I decided to… to crush on him. It just happened. It doesn’t matter. He’s not the first guy I’ve had an unrequited crush on, and he probably won’t be the last. It’ll pass. It always does.”

“El—”

“No, Anna. No. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. It’s only for another six months anyway, then we’ll be headed to college, and I won’t ever see him again.”

If only Ellis believed it were so easy.

THE EARLIER
conversation had left Ellis angsty, so he shook his head when Anna asked him if he wanted a lift home, and sent her and Rick on their way. Ellis didn’t live far from school, and he needed the walk to clear his head, to let out the heavy feeling he’d had since his chat with Anna. Hopefully a walk would be enough, but he wasn’t expecting a miracle.

“Hey, cock-breath! Did your boyfriend break up with you?” Laughs followed the question, and Ellis clenched his fists at his side. He wouldn’t answer. Really, he wouldn’t.

“I’m talking to you, asshole.”

Ellis took a deep breath and looked at Mark. Nope, not going to answer.

He turned around to leave the school’s parking lot. Steps pounded behind him, and he braced himself for what he knew was coming. Sure enough, someone pushed him, and he stumbled. A hand grabbed his arm, so hard it was painful, and used that hold to twirl Ellis around. It took all Ellis had not to stumble against Mark’s chest.

“Where’s your boyfriend, huh?”

“I don’t have one. Why are you so interested anyway? Are you hiding something?” Dammit! Ellis hated losing control of his mouth-brain filter!

Mark’s nostrils quivered in anger. “What the fuck did you say?”

“Nothing.”

“You want a black eye, huh?”

“Umm, Mark, we’re gonna be late to practice.”

Ellis looked around Mark at the group of guys standing not far behind. They were all on the football team, of course, and of course not one of them made a move to help Ellis. He could only hope they wouldn’t want in on the beating he was about to get.