“You’re fine.It’s…” they glanced at Marin and then adopted a guilty look.“I’m sorry.I fucked around and I found out and it was at your expense.”
“No, it was atMarin’sexpense,” Blake corrected, his voice terse.“Go park.”
“Okay,” Celeste replied, and Blake heard the sound of the Camry’s door closing behind him.By the time he’d reached his apartment door, the car had peeled away into the lot.
“I’m gonna set you down,” he let Marin know.“Do you think you can stand?”
Marin nodded, determined.“I think I can manage it.”
Blake lowered him to the ground and Marin touched down gingerly; first on his tippy toes before thunking back onto his heels.He teetered for a moment, arms akimbo, before he found his footing and flashed Blake a smile.
“Easy-peasy,” he said.
“Easy-peasy.”Blake released an anxious breath.He’d been half-expecting Marin to pitch face-forward into the concrete.He took a moment to dig around in his pocket for his keys before opening the door and stepping into the living room.Ryan’s bike helmet and keys were on the kitchen counter, but his door was closed and the light was off.
Blake turned to Marin and whispered, “We have to stay quiet.My roommate is asleep.”
Marin nodded and took a careful step forward.Blake reached out to support him, grabbing his torso before he could topple over.Marin clamped his hands onto Blake’s thick biceps, giving him a shaky smile before taking another, more confident step.Little by little, Blake led him into the apartment before closing the door behind them.
Marin stopped in the middle of the living room, peering around.For the first time in his life, Blake was ashamed of the abysmal state of the stereotypical bachelor pad that he and Ryan shared.In the living room, there was nothing but an old sleeper sofa from Goodwill, the TV, and a PlayStation on a cinder block table in the middle of the room.
“Where is Netflix?”Marin asked.
Blake had to chew his lower lip to keep from laughing.The cute quip was a welcome change of pace, and a little of the tension seeped out of his bones.
Marin pointed at the PS4.“Is that Netflix?”
Blake reined himself in, smothering a laugh behind a cough.“No, but it has Netflix on it.Netflix is a…” He shook his head.He was not in the mental space to be explaining streaming to a merman.“Here—uh—why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you set up while we wait for Celeste.The PS4’s gonna be too loud right now so I’ll grab you something else to watch it on.”
He guided Marin to the sofa, settling him down onto it before dashing into his room and looking for the iPad that he’d inherited from Matt.While the tabletwascharged, he was also locked out of Netflix and nothing short of waking up Ryan was going to get him logged on.
“Shit.Uh…” As he exited his bedroom, he glanced up at Marin, who was peering over at the tablet in curiosity.“Sorry, I can’t pull up the same documentary right now.Is there anything else you’d like to watch?”
“I saw something about ‘Project Runway’ on the little TV in Celeste’s car?”Marin asked.“That looked promising.”
“Sure, let me pull up a clip,” Blake agreed.But before he could select a YouTube video, the door swung open and Celeste strolled in, dumping their purse next to Ryan’s helmet.
“Quiet,” Marin warned them with a wince.
“Your boyfriend’s asleep,” Blake filled them in, pointing towards Ryan’s door.
“He’ll live,” Celeste said, sweeping their judgmental gaze over the living room.“Jesus, now I know why he’s never invited me over.It looks like a homeless encampment in here.”
“Real classy, Celeste,” Blake scowled; even Marin was shooting them a scathing look.Celeste folded their arms, making a point to glare at the floor.
“Okay, so I’m here,” they said.“Now what?”
“Hold on, I need to grab some paper or something,” Blake told them, heading back towards his room.“I want to take some notes.”
After excusing himself, Blake rooted around his closet for several minutes before he managed to unearth an old poster board and a pack of markers that had gone unused for a class project.He returned to find Marin and Celeste poring over the iPad, watching a gay man have a mental breakdown over a miniskirt.
“Okay,” Blake said, moving the PS4 off of the makeshift coffee table and laying the poster board over it.He uncapped a red marker and divided it into bottom and top.“Celeste, can I see the picture of the poem again?”
“Sure,” Celeste said, kneeling down beside Blake.They handed over their phone, upon which the picture of the vase was displayed.It was less zoomed in than it had been before, displaying a small collection of other sculptures and ceramics around it.Blake was about to crop the picture so that he could better view the verse, but paused when a familiar logo caught his eye.
“What is that?”he asked, adjusting the picture to enlarge the logo.
Marin leaned down between him and Celeste, squinting at the screen.“It looks like it says ‘Lakeside Art Studios’,” he read.
