Banks
“You don’t really have to buy the snacks, Banks.”
Banks smirked, nudging Harper with his hip as they walked ever so slowly across the leafy green campus of Piedmont State.“Not sure if you read the fine print, buddy, but the snacks are free, too.”
“Cheap ass,” Harper chuckled, a fresh burst of near joy that didn’t quite mesh with the old Harper he’d known back in the day.
Banks waved his arms across the mostly deserted campus, banners and signs and balloons in every conceivable shape, size, and direction they looked.“It’s Welcome Week, baby.For a few brief days, we freshman are the big men on campus.Free movies and popcorn are just the beginning.”
“Don’t tell me you’re falling for his ooh rah crap.Are you, Banks?”
“Hardly, but if it means a little VIP treatment after flipping patties at Burger Barn all summer, I’m not opposed to taking advantage of it.”
“Flipping burgers sounds a lot better than lifeguarding for bored housewives and spoiled brats at the country club pool for the last three months,” Harper bemoaned, scratching the smooth brow beneath the brim of his freebie cap.
Banks struggled not to gush.“Yeah, but at least you got a good tan doing it, right?”
Harper glanced at his own arms, smooth and caramel colored like the rest of his body.“Lot of good it’s doing me around this ghost town,” he sighed, making Banks feel, of all things, jealous.
“Just give it a little time,” he bluffed with a playful elbow to Harper’s ribcage.“Once the pep rally vibes of Welcome Week wear off and the upperclassmen are hustling around, you’ll have no problem finding, uh ...companionship?”
Harper chuckled, glancing over at Banks with a knowing expression.“That your plan, Banks?Hold out until all the sexy young coeds show up?”
Banks hemmed, finding it harder and harder to hide his replies from an ever observant Harper.“Sure, Harp.Something like that.”
Harper relented, not pushing.He sighed, lean and limber in the day’s last light, orange and blue and yellow hues filtering through the leafy green trees that lined their scenic path back to the student dorms at the far end of the campus.“Anyway,” Harper sighed, sounding reflective to match the picturesque postcard setting they were currently strolling through, “have you ever heard the expression, wherever you go, there you are?”
Banks grunted.“Sounds like the title of some self-help book my mom would read.”
Harper all but ignored him, as if he was merely walking alone, waxing eloquent beneath the green, leafy canopy above them.“My point is, I thought I’d show up on campus feeling out and proud and big and bad and sexy and irresistible but, honestly?I’m still the same sad sack, anonymous gay boy I was back home, skulking in the halls, shy and just out of focus.”
Banks glanced over.“It won’t always be that way for you, Harp.It may just take time.You can’t just change an entire way of small town, small-minded thinking overnight.The way our families thought?Our friends thought?Our teachers and pastors and counselors thought?That’s all woven into the DNA of our childhood brainwaves.You can’t just snap your fingers and out yourself overnight.”
Banks hadn’t meant to wax so eloquent himself and found Harper peering back at him slack jawed and wide eyed.“Now who’s reading self-help books, Banks?”
Banks was suddenly sheepish, on unsure footing, not sure how much to say, or if what he’d already said, what he’d already done, what he’d already asked, had already been too much.“Sorry, I just...You spent two years trying to be anonymous, and now you’re out here wearing rainbow letters and acting like that’s gonna erase the past.I’m just not sure it works that way, or happens quite that fast.”
Harper nodded quietly, as if digesting a particularly fatty piece of steak.“Maybe not, Banks, but I have to try somehow, right?”
Banks nodded in reply, walking a few more quiet, careful steps.“Believe it or not, Harper, I’m trying to.In my own way, I suppose.”
They took a few more steps before Harper nudged him this time.At first Banks tried to deny the thrill of that simple human contact, but found it impossible to do so.“I mean, youdidlose the letterman’s jacket, Banks.That’s something, right?”
Banks chuckled too fast, too loud, for his own good.Still, he couldn’t deny the way Harper made him feel, such a surprising and unexpected discovery after how long they’d known each other.Then again, as Harper had pointed out, they hadn’t really known each other at all.Not even a little.
Not until today, anyway.
When he found the balls to glance back at Harper, he was grinning, too.“Well, like I said Harp—baby steps, right?”
Harper nodded at the stack of old brick dorms, three tiers of student housing straight from 1972.“Speaking of, which one are you?”
“Brigham, on the right?”He wore a wince, as if waiting, hope against hope, that Harper might actually live in the same dorm building as he did.
Harper sagged gently, as if thinking the same thing.“I’m Satchel, on the left?”
Banks nodded, suddenly nervous in a way he hadn’t been in years.Maybe even ever.He’d never had to ask anyone out on a date before.Hooking up, for high school Banks, anyway, had been as easy as looking at some drunk chick across the crowded living room of somebody’s parents’ house during some weekend kegger.There was no standing around, shuffling from foot to foot, thinking of what to say or how to say it and not look too desperate.There was a nod, a grunt, maybe a wave of a red plastic cup and then, boom, off to the races.
Now, suddenly, here he was, standing at the literal crossroads of where he and Harper would be living for the next school year, wondering what the hell to say before they both peeled off for their respective shitty little dorm rooms.
