The Theatre Jock - Part 2

All characters are consenting adults (18+)

“Coach was pissed that you weren’t at practice” Butch informed me, and inhaled an entire sandwich in one bite, “said you’re going soft” he added, with chunks of cheese falling from his open mouth.

“Did you tell him I literally have no choice, and it’s because of you two dipshits that we’re here in the first place?”

“Everyone else got out of it” Gary shrugged, “just trip someone up, or shove that Adler kid out the window”.

Butch guffawed. Gary did, too.

“I better get going” I told them, checking my phone, “places to be”.

“Places?” Butch growled, “you’re supposed to be going to practice”

“I am” I said, and left the two dimwits for the drama room.

It’s not that I was enjoying it exactly, it was more of a peculiar interest. Seeing these students being completely unbothered and totally free, was a completely different ordeal than I was used to. In baseball, you either won or you lost. If you won, everybody loved you, and if you didn’t, nobody cared whether you lived or died. The theatres kids, however; it didn’t matter what the outcome was. They didn’t have a coach screaming at them, or a dad who constantly pushed for more. They all appeared so… Happy.

“And what if you’re wrong? What if all of this is wrong, and the only thing that’s right, is what we have here? What we have now?” Lucas recited the lines with ease, and kept his eyes on mine with each word.

“Uh…”

“No uh, Mr. Brooks” Mrs. Adelaide clapped, “there is no uh in the script, so there is no uh on your lips!”

Perhaps I was wrong about the psychotic coach part.

“Yeah, yeah I know, it’s just that um… Well, this scene is supposed to be between me and Cherry Valance” I reminded the erratic drama teacher, “and Lucas is a bit um… Well, he’s a dude”.

The woman looked appalled that I had made the distinction, and whipped up from her chair before rushing over to us.

“Boy, girl, fruit, flower?!” She spat, her finger aimed at my chest, “this is art, boy. Art is about the beauty that you cannot see with your eyes. Is he a boy? Or is he Cherry Valance?”

I gawped at Lucas who was stifling a laugh.

“He’s a boy” I confirmed, and Mrs. Adelaide let out a ferocious sigh.

“Oh mon diu!” She barked, waving her hand, “Lucas, please help this lost soul before I weep tears of blood”.

“Is she always this insane?” I whispered, and the bell sounded just in time.

I considered catching the last twenty minutes of baseball practice when I finally left the school, but I was drained. There was something even more exhausting about using your brain instead of your body, that I still hadn’t gotten used to. The last week had been awkward, somewhat embarrassing and extremely new to me, and I was still trying to get used to it.

“You’re getting better” Lucas called from behind, and caught up a moment later. I looked around, and felt ashamed of the fact that I didn’t want Butch or Gary to see me with him.

“Uh… Thanks” I half laughed, “not really though”.

“Don’t worry” he continued, walking with pride, “your friends are still jerking each other off in the changing rooms. They won’t see you with the school queer”.

“It’s not that” I started, but what else could I say? It was that.

“Don’t lie to me, Austin” he smiled, “you’ve always been a terrible liar”.

The two of us walked side by side in silence for a moment, and I felt the sting of shame. Lucas had been my best friend for far longer than I’d even known Gary and Butch.

“What’s it like?” I asked, and almost hoped he’d just know what I was referring to so that I wouldn’t have to finished the sentence. He cocked a brow, and I sighed. “What’s it like being gay? I mean… Are people assholes to you?”

“Just you and your friends” he said with nonchalance, and I laughed at his joke, until I realised he wasn’t joking.

“I’ve never been an asshole to you!” I barked, “I’m walking with you right now, aren’t I?”

“Oh god, yes!” He gasped, “what a beautiful person you are, walking in public with a lowly homosexual like me! It must be terribly difficult for you, Austin. What if someone were to see!” He said the last part in a theatrical whisper, and I could see why he was Mrs. Adelaide’s favourite.

“But come on” I said, “it’s not like they beat you up or anything”.

Lucas scoffed, and I could tell that he was growing frustrated.

“So who do I thank for that?” He replied, “you or the others? Who’s boots do I have to kiss for the honour of not getting my ass kicked? You see, that’s your problem, Austin. You’re a dick without even trying to be”.

“That’s not fair” I said, but he cut me off with the wave of his hand.

“Life isn’t fair” he quipped, “but it’s a lot fairer to you than it is to me”.

With those words, Lucas parted ways, and I watched as he strutted across the street and toward his house. There was no witty remark as he disappeared, and I felt a sharp pain in my heart.

I stood there and sighed.

“I know, Lucas” I whispered, “more than you realise”.

Gary stood next to me wearing nothing but a curious look on his face. He wasn’t handsome. He was even less so when he was naked, but still, he stood there.

“So you’re going to be on a stage” he said again, mindlessly scratching his cock and balls. “In front of the entire school. Pretending that Lucas fucking Adler is a chick?”.

Butch doubled over with laughter, which made his hairy ass spread apart, and I felt a torrent of vomit begin in my stomach. I winced and blocked the view.

“Apparently” I told them, and quickly pulled on my own underwear as the rest of the baseball team changed around me.

“Dude, you do realise that he probably begged that old hag to change the script so that he could suck your dick or whatever”.

“You know, Butch” I said, still grimacing, “for some reason I don’t think there’s going to be any dick sucking in the high school play this year”.

He shrugged his naked shoulders, but Gary couldn’t let it go.

“Is there a kissing scene though?” He asked, his voice almost hopeful.

I froze for a moment. I had no idea. My entire week had been spent trying to learn the lines of the opening scene, so I hadn’t even considered anything after that.

“No” I lied, “don’t be disgusting”.

When I finally escaped the changing rooms, and scurried through the busy hallway, I ripped through the script and frantically searched for a scene or a line that would put my mind at ease.

I don’t know what I was hoping to see. On the surface, I wanted the entire play to have as few scenes with Lucas and I as possible, but another part of me, a tiny, secretive part that nobody in the world knew about, almost hoped for a quiet, soft, romantic scene where Cherry Valance kissed Ponyboy.

“Mr. Brooks!” The voice almost cut me it was so sharp. I stopped dead, inches before crashing into Mrs. Adelaide, and stared down at her. She looked as though she was about to tell me off for something, until she saw the script in my hand, and her hard features softened slightly.

“Oh” she said, and nodded, “this is good. You are rehearsing”.

I nodded.

“Well, Lucas has suggested that the pair of you partner up after school” she continued, “because you are currently here” she explained, and held her hand down by her waist, “and you need to be here by next Friday”. She held her other hand way over her head. “Do you understand?”

I cocked a brow.

“Um… I don’t think Lucas would want me going over to his place after school, Mrs. Adelaide”.

“Nonsense!” She snapped, “it was his idea. One rotten apple turns the whole bunch bad, and Lucas has a bright future ahead of him”.

“Right, it’s just that um…”

“There you go with your ums and uhs” she spat, “these are filler words, and we do not use filler words! Lucas will set you straight”. She disappeared into the crowd, which wasn’t difficult for her considering her size.

“Lucas will set me straight?” I smirked to myself, “I very much doubt it”.

It had been a long time since I’d stood outside the white door with number 12 on it. It flooded me with memories of my childhood, when I’d stand here excitedly with my arms filled with treats, eager to get inside to watch movies with my best friend. I hated that those memories made me sad, rather than happy.

The door swung open, and Lucas stood there with a sour look on his handsome face.

“You’re late” he said, his lip pursed.

“I um… I didn’t know there was a time”.

“There wasn’t, but you’re still late. Get in”.

He stepped aside and I entered for the first time in a long time. Not much had changed, either. There were still countless photographs of him and his siblings all across the walls. The old coat hanger still held the families jackets, and I instantly remembered being six years old, when Lucas’ dad had to lift me up to get my own one from the hook. I smiled.

“My parents are out” he told me, “so we can use the living room”.

As I followed, Lucas spun around and glared down at my shoes.

“Oh shit, yeah” I said, remembering the family rule. I slipped them off, and followed in my socks.

“Look” I said, as we sat next to each other on the sofa, “about the other day, I didn’t–”

“Forget it”.

“It’s just that –”

“Forget it, Austin” he said again, and pulled out the script, “where did we leave off?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. He’d always been so stubborn.

The hour that commenced was one of the most awkward hours of my life. Lucas was a strict teacher, and I was certain that I’d read one single line at least five million times before he deemed it acceptable.

“You’re thinking about it too much” he told me, “don’t think about it”.

“If I don’t think about it” I growled, “then how the fuck am I supposed to remember it?”

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

“You’re forgetting it because you’re thinking about it. Look, pick any scene, any at all, from the entire script”.

I grabbed the sheets of paper and angrily swiped through them. I wanted to prove him wrong, and so I pulled out one from the end.

“Act twenty, scene seven” I grinned, without even reading it, because I knew that there was no possible way that Lucas could –.

“I like to watch sunsets” he said, without missing a beat, and kept his eyes closed as he spoke, “but Soda says they’re not like real sunsets in the country”.

I gawped at him, and quickly found my line.

“Um… They’re not” I said, almost choking, “they’re um… I’ve been there”.

He spewed off the entire scene without a single fault, and just as it came to a close, I realised what was next.

Lucas leaned forward, just like he was supposed to. His eyes opened, if only for a second, and our lips met in the middle.

My entire body came alive. Every inch of me buzzed with electric excitement as we sat there, on the same sofa that we’d sat on a million times before, with our lips together, and our eyes closed.

I wanted it to last forever. I didn’t care about the script. I didn’t care about the play. I didn’t care about Mrs. Adelaide, or Butch or Gary. All I cared about in that moment, was Lucas.

He sat back a few seconds later, and turned back toward the script. “See?” He said, “you just have to stop thinking about it”.

I couldn’t move a muscle. I sat there in awe, whilst Lucas resumed normal programming, and before I could stop myself, I grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him again.

That wasn’t part of the script.