Something Like Spring (33 page)

Jason elbowed Emma so hard that she cried out.

“Oh, go ahead!” Keith said.

“Sorry,” Emma said, managing somehow not to blush. “All this talk of food got me excited.”

There were a few appreciative laughs, including one from the handsome girl she’d been checking out.

“My name is Emma, and I was born to love you. Unfortunately I can only love one of you, so let’s keep things civil. No cat fights, please, but I do accept bribes.”

The whole room laughed this time, Jason glancing over to catch sight of William’s white teeth.

“And who did you bring with you?” Keith asked.

“Jason,” he said, averting his eyes back to the group leader. “And I… uh…”

His throat made a wheezing noise like he’d taken his last breath, which was appropriate since he now felt like dying.

“That’s okay,” Keith said. “How about you, Lisa?”

Jason’s face burned, and felt like it would catch fire when he glanced over to see Kelly staring at him with one eyebrow raised. Kelly didn’t look away, either. Not at first. Eventually his eyes rolled over to the current speaker. Jason turned his attention to the carpet rather than discover what William’s reaction was. God, he missed being able to hide behind his hair!

Jason alternated his attention between the ceiling and floor, taking quick peeks when he heard a male voice introducing himself, but he didn’t see any other guys he was interested in. Mind-blowingly beautiful Kelly or deliciously sweet William were his only choices, and if he was honest, he didn’t think he had a shot with either. Not unless he could somehow redeem himself during the meeting. The topic was relationships, something he at least had experience with. He paid close attention as Keith lectured them on the basics. Then Keith rolled a marker board out and made two columns, one labeled
Men
, the other
Women
.

“Psychologists and trashy magazines insist that men and women have different priorities in relationships. In other words, men and women want different things. But does that apply to gay men and gay women too? Let’s find out. What do you look for in a potential partner?”

Emma’s handsome lesbian raised her hand. “I want to be understood.”

This caused a murmur of agreement.

“Okay,” Keith wrote this on the board. “What else?”

“I want to feel appreciated,” Emma said, looking directly at the object of her desire.

“Excellent,” Keith said, still writing. “Let’s hear from the boys too.”

“He has to be hot!” someone called out.

“Goes without saying,” one of the girls chimed in.

Keith nodded. “So both sides want someone they are attracted to. Everyone has their own definition of hot, so this can be anything. What else? Yes, William.”

Jason latched on to this excuse to glance at him. After all, everyone else was looking too. Just like before, Jason felt that strange sense of familiarity.

“Commitment,” William said. “Loyalty is important.”

“Trust,” Kelly chimed in immediately. “You should be able to trust the person you’re with.”

“Very good,” Keith said.

The markerboard squeaked as these points were added, but Jason’s focus remained on William, whose expression was now slightly pained. He reached over to take Kelly’s hand, placing it over a balled-up fist that eventually relaxed to allow their fingers to intertwine.

Jason turned his attention back to Keith. He wasn’t completely surprised. Two super-hot gay guys were sitting next to each other. Of course they were together! Maybe part of him hoped they weren’t, but he wasn’t distraught over this. Like seeing a Ferrari driving down the street, he felt a sense of awe and a desire to hop behind the wheel, but reality soon caught up. Things like Ferraris—those were for other people. Not him.

“Humility,” Jason said out loud.

Keith stopped writing and glanced over at him. “Humility?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I don’t want some guy I have to impress or one who feels like he needs to show off. I just want someone who loves me that I can love back. Simple as that. That’s all it takes. I don’t really care about honesty or being totally understood or any of the other stuff, because being human is all about messing up and breaking trust and telling lies. I wouldn’t want to be with someone perfect. Just some humble, totally normal guy will do.”

The room was silent; Jason’s eyes met countless other pairs. Few seemed to get what he was saying except the girl Emma was interested in, who nodded her head in understanding. Kelly didn’t look pleased. Finally Jason made eye contact with William, and he swore he saw recognition there. So they really did know each other?

“Humility,” Keith said at last, writing it on the board. Then he took a step back. “So as you can see, we all have a lot of emotional needs, despite gender or sexuality. It’s important not to give in to gender stereotypes or keep perpetuating them. Now let’s pair up, boy-girl, boy-girl, and do some role-playing. Come on now, everybody find a partner.”

“You take mine,” Emma whispered. “I’ve got yours.”

To his horror, she hopped to her feet and made a beeline for William. Like witnessing an impending disaster, Jason was torn between shielding his eyes and staring. He didn’t need to do either, since the girl Emma liked soon occupied his field of vision.

“Jason, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, and you’re… Sorry.”

“Bonnie. It’s okay. It took me tons of meetings before I got half the names down. You want to be partners?”

“Sure.”

Keith explained their assignment, which involved pretending to be the opposite gender, and then pretending to be that gender pretending to be the other. Most of the group didn’t seem to get this—Jason included—and chose instead to socialize. Bonnie sat next to him, dark eyes twinkling.

“I like what you said back there.”

“Thanks,” Jason replied. “I was kind of winging it.”

“Well, it makes sense,” Bonnie said. “I’ve been in a lot of relationships, and I can deal with the lying, arguing, cheating and almost everything else because love feels so good, even with all the baggage. But some people won’t come down to your level or let you up onto theirs, and those are always bad relationships.”

“Yeah.” That wasn’t exactly what Jason meant, but he was glad she got so much out of his impromptu speech.

“There’s one thing you weren’t totally honest about,” Bonnie continued. “We all want someone we find attractive.”

“True,” Jason said, “but that kind of goes along with the rest of it. Sure, you can find someone attractive when you first look at them, but even the hottest guy or girl can get ugly when they open their mouths and say something stupid. Likewise, some people are hotter when you get to know them.”

“I guess so,” Bonnie said. “Speaking of which, your friend is cute.”

“You think so?” Jason asked.

“Yeah. Do you think I’m her type?

Jason decided to play this carefully. “I’m sure she wouldn’t be offended that you find her attractive.”

“Hmmm. There’s just one thing. How old is she?”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Oh, well, she just turned sixteen, so you’re not so far apart.” A lie, of course, but Jason wanted to give Emma a fighting chance. “She lives out of town though, and still hasn’t gotten her license.”

Bonnie shrugged. “I have a car.”

The rest of their conversation focused mostly on Emma, but Jason did nod to a few random people and ask who they were. He didn’t really need to know, but he didn’t want to ask about William immediately. Eventually though, he nodded to him.

“Do you mean Kelly or William?” Bonnie asked before shaking her head. “Doesn’t matter since they’re inseparable. It’s too bad they can’t breed. I bet they’d have beautiful children. Kelly has been coming here since he was thirteen. He was here the first time I showed up. That was before the accident.”

“Accident?”

“Yeah. You didn’t notice? Tell him that. It’ll make him happy.”

Jason stole a few glances at Kelly, looking him up and down. He looked perfectly normal—aside from being exceptionally hot. He was on the verge of asking Bonnie what she meant when he noticed a leg of the dark pants he wore was deflated toward the end. Kelly sat with one leg crossed over the other, but from the knee down, only flat denim remained. Jason didn’t feel sorry for him, because he felt that would somehow be insulting. He took note of it as he would any other trait and turned his attention back to Bonnie.

“What about his boyfriend? What was his name again?”

“William,” Bonnie said, not at all convinced by his ruse. “I don’t know him that well, but he’s just as sugary sweet as he looks. And hopelessly loyal to his boyfriend.”

“Message received,” Jason said. “Loud and clear.”

“Sorry,” Bonnie said.

“It’s fine. Story of my life!”

Role-play came to an end, and everyone returned to their seats. Keith’s lecture on relationships didn’t last much longer, officially ending the group meeting, although everyone hung around to socialize. After whispering in Emma’s ear that she was now sixteen, Jason left her to have her fun. He hung out with some of the other guys—avoiding both Kelly and William—and tried to be friendly even though he mostly just wanted to leave. After twenty minutes of this, Emma came to free him from his misery.

“Didn’t work out?” he asked.

“Worked out fine!” Emma countered. “She has to go to work or we’d still be talking. And who knows what else!”

Jason chuckled, guiding them to the hall. “Think she’ll visit you in Houston?”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Emma said. “And since we both know there was, yes. Yes, she is. Next weekend.”

“Emma’s first date!” Jason said.

“With a real lesbian, anyway,” Emma said with a sigh. “An honest-to-goodness lesbian.” Then, in a quieter voice, she whispered, “There’s yours!”

Jason looked ahead. Down the hall, he saw Kelly first. The missing leg was obvious now, since one pant leg was folded up and pinned to keep it from dragging. Two crutches gripped his forearms and helped him move forward. He seemed comfortable enough using them. William was just ahead, and having reached a door, he opened it and held it open.

“You know I don’t need help,” Kelly snapped, breezing past him and outside.

“Trouble in paradise,” Emma said, perhaps a little too loudly because William noticed them and kept the door held open.

Then she whispered something about running interference before picking up the pace. William playfully moved to the opposite side of the door while still holding it open, his arm becoming a bridge she had to duck under, but only just, since he was fairly tall. His figure was a silhouette against the daylight. Jason, barely able to make out his features, paid attention instead to the shape of his body—the broad chest, the narrow waist, the curved muscles of the arm he was about to pass under. Jason breathed in as he did so, taking in a scent that was chemical and yet clean. He struggled to place it. Not cologne. Whatever it was, he liked it. Then again, he seemed to like everything about William without actually knowing anything about him.

He could see Emma in the parking lot, talking to Kelly and not-so-casually moving back and forth to block them from view. Jason might not get another chance to talk to William alone, so he stopped and turned around.

“Have we met before?”

William stared at him, then laughed. “That’s an old line.” A second later he looked taken aback. “Wait, you’re serious?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. I feel like… okay, this is
really
going to sound like a line, but I feel like I know you.”

William smiled again briefly, but this time with less amusement. Then he looked at Jason. Not at his features or at his body, but right into his eyes, like he was reading his soul.

“Hey!” Kelly yelled from somewhere behind them. “Are we going or what?”

William blinked, looked over Jason’s shoulder, then back into his eyes again. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we’ve never met. But now we have. See you at the next meeting?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, even though he had no intention of being there. “I’ll see you then.”

He turned and walked diagonally across the parking lot, waiting by the car until Emma caught up with him.

“Well?” she asked.

“He’s with someone,” Jason said, getting into the car.

“I know that,” Emma said as she settled into the passenger seat. “But I thought that maybe, I don’t know, he might bonk you over the head and drag you by the hair back to his cave. That’s what guys do, right?”

“Exactly,” Jason said with a wry smile. “Unfortunately, Kelly is gorgeous, so I don’t think William is going to ask me to be his cavewoman anytime soon. Or ever.”

“You never know,” Emma said. “I sensed tension.”

“I sensed chemistry,” Jason perked up. “Unless William said something to you about wanting to break up with Kelly?”

“Afraid not. But he didn’t talk much about him either. I do know where William works, that he’s still a senior in high school, and that he likes to swim.”

Chlorine! That was the scent on his skin. Jason always liked how clean it smelled, how it brought back memories of summer days spent by the pool. “I don’t suppose he told you where he swims?” Jason asked. “Maybe I can hang out in the bushes with some binoculars.”

Emma put her hand on the door handle. “Want me to go ask?”

“No!” he said quickly, starting the car to discourage her from trying. “Thanks, but there’s no point.”

Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “I think you should go for it.”

Jason put the car in reverse and shook his head. “Someone got there ahead of me, and honestly, even if William was single, I don’t think he’d spare me two glances.”

Emma scoffed. “You need to spend more time checking yourself out. There’s such a thing as too much humility.”

Jason looked into the rearview mirror, considering the eyes William had stared at only moments before. Grayish-blue rather than any certain color, and thick eyelashes that he worried made people think he wore mascara. The eyebrows a darker hue than his brown hair didn’t help either. Then again, when taken all together, he supposed they weren’t too bad.