Seth. Probably trying to talk me into coming back or some shit.
I let it ring and go to voicemail. He tries again, and I put the phone on the counter, watching it skitter across the surface as I scratch my belly.
Then, a message pops up.
Seth: Hey, want to go for a walk?
Seth: I’m downstairs
He sends a photo, and sure enough, he’s standing on the steps of my building, the street where I live clearly visible over his shoulder.
I snatch up the phone.
Me: Hey, just give me a minute to put on a clean shirt
Me: I’ll be right down
When I open the front door a little while later, Seth is squinting in the sunshine, giving me a wry smile. His arms twitch as if he’s thinking about giving me a hug, but he thinks better of it and cocks his head, motioning down the street.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
We start down the street, and we only make it about half a block before I decide that silence isn’t doing either of us any good.
“How’s Cole?” I blurt.
Seth shakes his head. “Not real great, I’d say. He was pretty hysterical when you left, and none of us got all that much sleep. When I left early this morning, he was curled up on the couch with Bree.”
“She really cares about him,” I concede.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she would disembowelanybody who hurt a hair on his head.” Seth gives me a half smile. “So, you know, maybe sleep with one eye open for a while.”
“Noted.”
We continue on a little further, our hands shoved in our pockets. It’s one of those muggy late summer days when the whole city smells like hot garbage and you hear an ice cream truck jingling every thirty seconds. August really is the armpit of the year.
“Cole and I —” I venture, and Seth looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Well, fuck, I don’t know what to call it. I was in love with him once, when I was a kid. Probably still am, but I’m fucking pissed at him right now. We’ve been — I don’t know, hooking up? Since the beginning of May. But we didn’t tell anybody because that was all it was. Or all that Cole said it was.”
I’ve been thinking about this shit all night, and this is still the best I can do to sum it up.
Seth sighs. “Yeah, I think we got most of that out of Cole last night. He seemed to think that you wouldn’t want us to know, but we could sort of tell something was up.”
“Yeah, we did make kind of a scene,” I agree. “I’m bi, by the way. I figure you’re not gonna be shitty about it because Bree is some flavor of queer and Cole is gay, but you know — if you’re gonna be shitty about it, now is the time, I guess.”
“I’m not going to be shitty about it.” A beat, andthen he continues. “And for the record? I fucking love you and I wish I was finding this out in a happy way so that I could — I dunno, buy you a cake with a rainbow on it. Maybe put onIt’s Raining Menand dance around. My little bro isfinallytelling me something real and I’m fucking ecstatic.”
“Don’t get too big of a head about it,” I grumble, but I can feel the corner of my mouth twitching.
“Does Dad know?”
“Not as far as I know.” We’ve reached the entrance to Prospect Park, and I turn in, leading Seth along the tree-lined paths. “Fuck, I guess I should tell him. I dunno. Do you think he’ll be weird?”
Seth shrugs. “Far be it from me to understand how that man’s mind works. But you know Bree and I have your back, if you do decide to tell him, no matter what he does.”
“I thought you told me a little while ago that Bree wanted to disembowel me.”
“Well, I mean, she sort of does,” Seth acknowledges. “But she loves you, too. She just — I think she knows things about Cole that nobody else does. Maybe not even you, from the way it sounds. And for the record — I don’t think she should have blurted out Cole’s business last night the way she did, and I told her so. Not when we didn’t know the whole story.”
“Whydidshe?” I demand. “If Cole told her something in secret, she shouldn’t have used it like that.Did she know he was talking about me?”
