8
Jasper: Silver Platter
“I have something to tell you,” Curtis says.
I stiffen. Ever since I caught Curtis and Liam kissing in the bathroom, a few weeks ago now, I’ve tried my best to act like I don’t know anything. I even tried to convince myself that maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe what I heard wasn’t a kiss at all.
But I see the way they look at each other, and they hang out together during lunchtime, when before Curtis couldn’t stand Liam.
“Yeah?” I answer.
“So, um.” He looks down at his lap, and I realise he’s scared.
“Yeah?” I say again, in a more encouraging tone. Curtis looks up, and I smile at him, which seems to relax him.
“I’m dating Liam,” he says.
Okay, he said it. It’s true. I can’t feign surprise, though, so instead I nod. “That’s good.” Fuck, that sounds lame. “Er…congratulations?”
He cocks his head. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“Well… I guess I’m sort of surprised that it’s Liam. You used to hate him. But…um…”
He watches me.
Shit, do I tell the truth or lie? “I think I heard you in the bathrooms together, once,” I say in a rush. “I didn’t see anything, but I kind of suspected. I didn’t say anything because…well, I assumed it was a secret and…yeah.”
Curtis blinks at me. “Oh.”
“I’m happy for you, though. You’ve been a lot more cheerful recently.”
“Well,” Curtis begins, looking through the homeroom door. “He makes me happy.”
Usually romantic stuff makes me feel grossed out — I have a sex problem, not a love problem — but watching Curtis right now cheers me up. So that’s what it’s like.
“So, you’re telling people now?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah, but we don’t want it to be a big thing. We just don’t want to hide it anymore.”
The awkwardness that used to linger between us seems to totally disappear and I rib him about Liam the way I used to when we were still close friends. He tells me the whole story, about how he decided that he was wrong about Liam.
Later, when Mrs Burke arrives and we have to stop talking, I think about what he said.We just don’t want to hide it anymore.Makes sense, I guess, if you’re dating. For me, though, I feel like it’d be pretty hot to sneak around. To have a secret only the two of you share, to have clandestine meetings after school. To share looks loaded with meaning only you two can decipher.
Why would those couples stop sneaking around when it sounds like so much fun? Maybe it’s some romance-love-emotions thing I don’t understand yet.
*
The Saturday morning before the last week of term one, Senior invites me over to his house for a cup of tea. Just as I walk through the front garden, my phone buzzes. It’s a text message.
Mum: What did you place in cross-country?
It’s the weekend, so I don’t know why she didn’t call me. Then again, knowing her, she’s working overtime.
Jasper: That was weeks ago, Mum.
Why is she asking me now? Probably because she forgot about it, like she probably forgot about me.
I shove my phone into my pocket and walk through the front door, finding Senior in the kitchen, making tea.
