she thought I was about to undo
all her hard work dragging me out in the first place.
Mel closed the book and turned the chair to face me. “Good. Now
talk.”
67
Dirk Hunter
I avoided her eyes. “About what?” I asked with exaggerated
innocence.
“Fine. Be that way. I’ll just have to make a few guesses about what
has been going on lately.” Yeah, right. Like she could possibly…. “First,
you and Malachi have been getting sexy, to some degree or other, until
about three weeks ago when I’m going to say it was you who called it off.
Possibly because Adam found out and got jealous. How am I doing so
far?” Okay, what was it about me that everyone could apparently see
completely through? Do I have any secrets at all? Am I actually an open
book for anyone to read at their leisure?
“I take it from the look on your face I was pretty close. So let’s see,
you stopped talking to me because you’re an idiot, you’ve been trying to
get Adam to talk to you at school ’cause, again, you’re an idiot, and went
ahead and got yourself suspended. Like an idiot.”
“How did you know?”
Mel muttered “idiot” under her breath. “Dylan, I pay attention. I
know you only got into drama club because you went through an ‘am I
gay enough’ phase and decided you needed to do a musical, and Malachi
followed you like the little lost puppy he is. But theater is what I actually want to do with my life. I pay attention to people, how they behave, why
they behave that way. So when you and Kai started acting like you had
this giant secret no one could ever find out while simultaneously being
very careful not to accidentally touch in public, ever, it wasn’t much of a
mental workout to figure out what was going on. And then there was the
sudden transformation of Adam, from bully to buddy, not to mention the
covert looks he kept casting your way when he thought you weren’t
looking. Plus there was the time—”
“Okay, okay! I get it!”
“Good. Now that we’ve established that you can’t hide anything
from me, ever, why don’t you actually tell me what’s been going on? At
the very least you’ll feel better.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Yeah, ’cause keeping it in has been working so well.”
I sighed. She was right, of course. “Okay, fine. So, um, remember
that day I got punched in the face?” She nodded. “Well, that’s when Adam
68
After School Activities
and I started to be… well, friends, I guess. Which made Kai all kinds of
jealous….”
I recounted the entire story, right up to my brief interaction with
Adam before I got suspended. Mel listened quietly to the whole story,
occasionally asking a question or two. I told her everything. Well,
maybe I glossed over a little bit of the sexy-time details, but that didn’t
seem entirely appropriate. When I finally finished, over an hour later,
she sat there silently for a minute, absorbing.
“So, what are you going to do?” she finally asked.
“What can I do? I mean, I can’t talk to him. It’s still too weird. I
know he’s my best friend, but that’s exactly why I have to….”
“Malachi’s fine where he is. He knows you need space. I meant
about Adam.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip, thinking. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t even talk to
me.” “Did you apologize?”
“Of course I… wait, no. I just said that he didn’t understand.”
Suddenly I got really angry. “And why should I apologize? It’s not
like I did anything wrong! Kai and I had been fooling around for
weeks before Adam snuck into my bedroom. What’s more, Adam has
spent his whole life trying to make mine miserable. Am I supposed to
just magically forgive him for all of that, be whatever it is he wants
me to be? Fuck that. All we did was fool around one night. What did
he want, to be my boyfriend? No, he wanted me to be his secret fling,
to use at his leisure. So why should I apologize? It’s not like
all her hard work dragging me out in the first place.
Mel closed the book and turned the chair to face me. “Good. Now
talk.”
67
Dirk Hunter
I avoided her eyes. “About what?” I asked with exaggerated
innocence.
“Fine. Be that way. I’ll just have to make a few guesses about what
has been going on lately.” Yeah, right. Like she could possibly…. “First,
you and Malachi have been getting sexy, to some degree or other, until
about three weeks ago when I’m going to say it was you who called it off.
Possibly because Adam found out and got jealous. How am I doing so
far?” Okay, what was it about me that everyone could apparently see
completely through? Do I have any secrets at all? Am I actually an open
book for anyone to read at their leisure?
“I take it from the look on your face I was pretty close. So let’s see,
you stopped talking to me because you’re an idiot, you’ve been trying to
get Adam to talk to you at school ’cause, again, you’re an idiot, and went
ahead and got yourself suspended. Like an idiot.”
“How did you know?”
Mel muttered “idiot” under her breath. “Dylan, I pay attention. I
know you only got into drama club because you went through an ‘am I
gay enough’ phase and decided you needed to do a musical, and Malachi
followed you like the little lost puppy he is. But theater is what I actually want to do with my life. I pay attention to people, how they behave, why
they behave that way. So when you and Kai started acting like you had
this giant secret no one could ever find out while simultaneously being
very careful not to accidentally touch in public, ever, it wasn’t much of a
mental workout to figure out what was going on. And then there was the
sudden transformation of Adam, from bully to buddy, not to mention the
covert looks he kept casting your way when he thought you weren’t
looking. Plus there was the time—”
“Okay, okay! I get it!”
“Good. Now that we’ve established that you can’t hide anything
from me, ever, why don’t you actually tell me what’s been going on? At
the very least you’ll feel better.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Yeah, ’cause keeping it in has been working so well.”
I sighed. She was right, of course. “Okay, fine. So, um, remember
that day I got punched in the face?” She nodded. “Well, that’s when Adam
68
After School Activities
and I started to be… well, friends, I guess. Which made Kai all kinds of
jealous….”
I recounted the entire story, right up to my brief interaction with
Adam before I got suspended. Mel listened quietly to the whole story,
occasionally asking a question or two. I told her everything. Well,
maybe I glossed over a little bit of the sexy-time details, but that didn’t
seem entirely appropriate. When I finally finished, over an hour later,
she sat there silently for a minute, absorbing.
“So, what are you going to do?” she finally asked.
“What can I do? I mean, I can’t talk to him. It’s still too weird. I
know he’s my best friend, but that’s exactly why I have to….”
“Malachi’s fine where he is. He knows you need space. I meant
about Adam.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip, thinking. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t even talk to
me.” “Did you apologize?”
“Of course I… wait, no. I just said that he didn’t understand.”
Suddenly I got really angry. “And why should I apologize? It’s not
like I did anything wrong! Kai and I had been fooling around for
weeks before Adam snuck into my bedroom. What’s more, Adam has
spent his whole life trying to make mine miserable. Am I supposed to
just magically forgive him for all of that, be whatever it is he wants
me to be? Fuck that. All we did was fool around one night. What did
he want, to be my boyfriend? No, he wanted me to be his secret fling,
to use at his leisure. So why should I apologize? It’s not like
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