Something Like Summer (7 page)

When lunch break finally
came, he had a hurried meal with Allison, his stomach bubbling with
nervousness the whole time. Then he made a break for it. Ben had
never skipped school before, at least not like this. He had
previously feigned illnesses and had his mom call it in; who
hadn’t? But this was different. He had imagined running into
teachers or security guards on the way to the car and had a
selection of excuses prepared. His best was to claim that he had
forgotten some books in his car. That seemed reasonable enough.
Once he was in the car he would simply drive away, or maybe he
would retreat and try again between classes.

As it was, he had nothing
to worry about. There were plenty of seniors who worked jobs the
second half of the day, so he wasn’t alone in his excursion across
the parking lot. He made it to the 3000GT, cautiously pulled out of
the parking lot, and then went the exact speed limit all the way to
the hospital. No sense in getting pulled over at this point in the
game.

Ben entered through the
emergency entrance, which was impractical in retrospect since it
was no longer an emergency. A different receptionist, one even less
friendly than the night before, gave him a vague idea of which
direction he should head. He wandered the hospital halls for what
felt like an eternity, wrinkling his nose at the sterile smell and
trying not to stare at patients through the doors. After asking
twice more and travelling two floors up, he finally reached Tim’s
room.

The victim of his
affections was stretched out on the bed, an ivory-white cast now
covering his foot and lower leg. Currently an attractive young
nurse was taking Tim’s blood pressure. At least, that’s what she
was supposed to be doing. The cuff was still on his arm but so was
her hand as she giggled at something Tim had just said. She sat
down on the edge of the bed just as Ben cleared his throat, causing
her to jump back up again.

“
Benjamin!” Tim exclaimed
happily. “And here I thought you had stolen my car and hightailed
it to Mexico.”

“
That’s the plan--” Ben
smiled “--but I thought I’d bring you along. We’re checking out,”
he said to the nurse.

“
I’ll let the doctor
know,” the nurse said as she left.

“
Feeling better?” Ben
suddenly wished he had brought flowers or a teddy bear or
something. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do in such
situations?

“
A little, yeah. Did you
call my parents?”

“
No. Yes! Sorry, yes,” Ben
backtracked once Dr. Baker’s shadow filled the doorway. “They don’t
think they can change their flight, but they’ve arranged for a
nurse to take care of you and everything.”

“
They’re probably pissed,
huh?”

Ben found this comment
surprising. Why would they be angry at their son for getting hurt?
“Not at all,” he replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

“
Do you have their number
handy?” Dr. Baker interjected.

“
Oh! No, sorry,” Ben
apologized. He had been prepared for this question. “I totally
forgot it.”

“
Well, as long as they
were informed,” the doctor said meaningfully.

Ben gave him his best
innocent, doe-eyed look and nodded. This seemed to satisfy the
doctor, who began scribbling on his clipboard.

The nurse returned and
began to help Tim dress. While she was doing this, Dr. Baker gave
Ben some papers and went over instructions that were to be given to
the in-home nurse. Ben tried to keep up and nod when appropriate,
hoping to get through it as quickly as possible since the doctor
was standing in his line of vision. By the time the droning had
ended, Tim was dressed. The doctor and nurse helped Tim into a
wheelchair and gave him over to Ben.

He couldn’t help but be
reminded of when they adopted Wilford. Ben’s family had visited the
animal shelter and picked him out from among his litter mates. Then
there was a grueling waiting period of one week, during which the
dog received his shots and was neutered before Wilford could be
picked up. When they finally handed Ben the leash, he had felt
proud, excited, even nervous. But mostly the experience had made
him happy. Much like he was feeling now. He hoped that Tim would
feel the same once he caught wind of his plan.

* * * * *

“
So, no nurse?”

“
No nurse,” Ben
repeated.

The expression on Tim’s
face was hard to read. He looked concerned, or maybe just confused.
He leaned back on the peach living room couch and raised an
eyebrow. “And you never called my parents? They have no idea I was
in the hospital overnight?”

Ben started having second
thoughts. What sort of monster intentionally kept parents in the
dark about their son being injured? “They have no idea,” he
admitted.

The worry scattered from
Tim’s face as a broad smile appeared. “Thanks, man! That was really
cool of you!”

Ben breathed out in relief.
“I’m glad you think so! I was worried that I’d done the wrong
thing.”

“
Naw, they would have been
pissed.”

“
Really?”

“
Really. A couple of years
ago I came down with the flu the day before they were flying to
Japan. It totally messed with their plans. They had to reschedule
everything, missed out on some group tour thing. I don’t know.” Tim
scratched at the skin near his cast. “They were so pissy the whole
week after that I wished they hadn’t bothered staying.

“
I’m a mistake you know,”
he continued. “My parents are pretty cool and all, but it’s obvious
that it was never in their plans to have kids. I’m an only child,
and my parents have done everything in their power to keep going
with the lifestyle they had before me.”

Ben wasn’t sure what to say
to this. His own parents were always supportive, loving. In a way
he wished he had some dirt to dish on them so he could commiserate,
but there wasn’t a single bad memory that sprang to mind. “So you
have two weeks to survive without them,” Ben said, guiding the
conversation where he wanted it to go. “I’ll help you of course.
That’s why I didn’t think we needed a nurse. I can come by a couple
of times a day to cook, clean up, that sort of stuff.”

“
You can cook?”

“
Sure,” Ben lied. As much
as he’d been stretching the truth in the past couple of days, it
was practically instinctual.

“
That’s good, because I’m
hungry.”

“
Well, let’s get you set
up comfortable here, and then I’ll whip something up.”

“
Not here,” Tim insisted.
“I hate this room.”

With the assistance of his
crutches, he stood and swung his way toward the back of the house,
Ben following. He led them through the dining room, across a large,
open kitchen, and down a hall that ended in a dimly lit
room.

The den, as Tim introduced
it, was his father’s stronghold. His mother was in charge of the
rest of the house, but here his father had full reign. He decorated
the room in typical masculine style. A big-screen TV dominated one
wall with massive boxy speakers to each side. A number of
bookshelves held everything but books--namely sports memorabilia,
business awards, and an impressive video collection. Bar signs and
beer advertisements hung on the ebony, wood-paneled walls that
complimented the equally dark carpet. This combined with the
shuttered windows kept the room cool and comfortable.

“
I figure this is a good
place to make camp,” Tim said, as he headed toward a brown leather
couch. “There’s even a fridge to keep drinks in.”

Ben turned and found a wet
bar in the corner. The unit was basically just a sink, shelves for
glasses, and one of those tiny refrigerators that he always
associated with college dorms.

“
So what all do we need
then? Blankets and pillows obviously… Um.”

“
In one of the hall
closets,” Tim said. “I want my pillow from upstairs. And some real
clothes. Throw something in the oven too, will ya?”

“
Right,” Ben managed to
say just before the TV blared into life. His patient had certainly
taken to the idea of him playing nurse!

Ben realized with some
delight that he now had free reign over the house. With Tim settled
in, he was now free to explore. He had been tempted to last night
when he dropped the car off. He figured arriving home in a shiny
new sports car would be beyond suspicious, so Ben had returned it
to Tim’s driveway. As he had done so, the keys in his pocket had
been a major temptation but the idea had felt too creepy. Now he
was free to look around anyway.

He started with the
kitchen. The refrigerator was well-stocked with frozen entrees,
which meant cooking wouldn’t be too hard. He chose two pizzas and
fiddled with the oven for a while before he got it running. Once
that was finished he went upstairs and located Tim’s
bedroom.

Ben entered and felt
strangely intoxicated for a moment. The whole room smelled exactly
like Tim, as if someone had bottled up his essence and sprayed
generous puffs of teenage boy into the air. Being there felt so
personal. In a way, everything present was an extension of Tim,
representative of what he liked and the place where his private
life took place. Adults had an entire house and maybe an office or
workspace to spread their existence over. For their kids, personal
life was contained to just one room. In this small space Tim lived,
slept, talked on the phone, watched TV, jacked-off, and did
whatever else he wanted to do.

Ben sat on the king-sized
bed and looked around. Music and baseball posters covered most of
the walls. He found all sports boring, but at least some of these
featured pretty hot athletes. The only exception to the generic
posters was an abstract painting, a collection of cool colors that
might be depicting an ocean or waves. He stared at it for a while,
wondering why it had been included. Did Tim choose it, or was it
his mother’s idea?

Across from Ben sat a
dresser that supported a medium-sized television and VCR. A closet
door and bookshelves were to his right, this time actually filled
with the intended content. Ben browsed the titles, hoping to get a
hint of what Tim liked to read but unable to do so. They were a
completely eclectic mix, some even written in Spanish. His music
choice was easier to discern, the CD rack containing nothing but
popular alternative music. Well, that and the
Little Mermaid
soundtrack. Ben
mentally filed that one away as potential ammunition.

He paused to gaze out the
bedroom window at the long, well-groomed backyard before returning
to the dressers to collect a change of clothes. Socks were easy to
find, as was underwear. He didn’t examine the contents of this
drawer too carefully. Doing so felt like cheating, like peeking
ahead at the end of a book, since he hoped to discover Tim’s
underwear one by one over a series of hot encounters. Ben laughed
at his own presumptions and went to the closet for a shirt and
jeans.

He brought these items and
the pillows back downstairs to his patient. The pizza was soon done
afterwards
and
served. They ate together
while flipping back and forth between MTV and VH1 to avoid
commercials, laughing at most of the videos but genuinely enjoying
a handful. There were quite a few songs that Ben wanted to sing
along to, but for the first time in his life he was feeling too shy
to perform. Finally the Fugees’ new version of “Killing Me Softly”
came on, which was too perfect of an opportunity to show
off.

Ben gave it all he had,
belting it out along with the lead vocals and almost putting Lauryn
Hill’s voice to shame. Tim sat straight up, his eyes wide in
amazement. He clapped and raved when the song was over and spent
the next hour trying to get Ben to sing along to some of the other
videos. A few, like Beck, were a hopeless cause, but for some of
them Ben was able to comply.

After a while Tim switched
off the TV.

“
So what’s it like being
gay?” he asked, catching Ben off guard.

“
Like anything else I
guess,” Ben answered. “What’s it like to be whatever you
are?”

“
Straight,” Tim assured
him. “Don’t you catch a lot of slack for it? I mean, everyone at
school knows, right?”

Ben nodded.

“
I’m surprised you don’t
get beaten up every day.”

“
I get a lot of crap,” Ben
said with a shrug, “but I got crap before I came out for totally
different reasons. It’s no different now. Not really.”

“
I guess that’s true. If
it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Like
you would know. It must be hard being a jock with rich parents and
a brand-new sports car. People must tease you
unmercifully.”

Tim’s grin was cocky. “When
you put it like that, I do have it good, but I still get crap from
other people. Miss a catch or don’t make it to base and your team
turns on you, especially if you lose the game.”

Ben made sure he didn’t
look convinced.

“
Well, all right, how
about this then?” The smile dropped from Tim’s face. “At my last
school my ex-girlfriend went around telling everyone that I raped
her, just because I dumped her. I had every girl in the school
coming up to me and saying the craziest shit. A few even tried to
knee me. It was insane.”