Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

“Sometimes this starts to feel too overwhelming. Can we change subjects? So, when are you going to call Sergio?”
    “Why hasn’t he called me ?” Lance replied, pushing his french fries around his plate.
    “Come on, babe,” Allie said. “You can do this.”
    He knew she was right. That afternoon during swim practice, he psyched himself up with each lap.
    When he got home, he started to dial Sergio’s number. But then he decided to eat something first and made himself a PBJ sandwich. Then he checked to see if maybe Sergio had e-mailed him. While he was online, Leo IM’d him for help with their English homework, and Lance did his own homework along with him. By the time he finished, his mom was calling him to dinner. After eating with his parents and helping to load the dishwasher, he got a text from Allie. Have u called him?
    Too embarrassed to tell her no, he closed his bedroom door, deposited himself on the bed, and dialed.
    “What up?” Sergio answered, sounding out of breath. “Hang on a sec.” He turned the volume down on the video he was watching. “I’m learning some new steps to teach at Dance Club.”
    “Cool,” Lance said, recalling his dream of one day dancing with a guy. “How’s it going?”
    “Good.”
    They both avoided discussing what they most wanted to find out. Instead they chatted about dancing, school, and friends, while Sergio continued to practice dance steps, excited that Lance had finally called. Maybe he wasn’t dating that Jamal guy, after all.
    “So, um, who was that guy you were with at the chick-flick the other night?”
    “Jamal? He’s a friend from school. We’re on the swim team together.”
    “Only a friend?” Sergio asked.
    The question took Lance by surprise. He hadn’t considered that Sergio might think Jamal was a date. Lance didn’t even know if Jamal was gay. One time he’d asked, but Jamal had merely mumbled, “I’m not sure yet” and changed the topic. After that, Lance had never brought it up again.
    “Yeah, he’s just a friend,” Lance now told Sergio. “Why?”
    “Just askin’,” Sergio replied. He sounded a little jealous.
    Lance gave a nervous giggle. He’d never experienced a guy feeling possessive of him. He kind of liked it.
    “So, um, who was the girl you were with?” he asked Sergio.
    “Serena? She’s a new girl in Kimiko’s creative writing class. . . . She asked me out.”
    “You mean . . . like on a date?” Lance nervously ran his hand across the bedspread. Even though he’d imagined that Serena might be a date, having it confirmed made him feel all jumbled and jealous and hurt.
    “Yeah . . .” Sergio stopped dancing as he became aware of Lance turning quiet. “Since you didn’t call me after our date, I didn’t know if you were interested in going out again. I asked you out last time, so I figured it was your turn to call.”
    Lance took a breath, trying to clear his head. He felt angry with himself that he hadn’t called sooner, like Allie had told him to.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t call,” he told Sergio.
    Sergio wiped the sweat from his brow. He felt bad hearing the regret in Lance’s voice. “Well, I’m sorry I didn’t call you, either.”
    “So, um . . .” Lance grabbed a tube of hand cream from the nightstand and tossed it in the air. “Are you going out with her again?”
    “No,” Sergio said. “She doesn’t really do it for me. Like in my car afterward, she was sort of waiting for me to make out with her. But I didn’t want to, so I didn’t.”
    Lance let out a sigh of relief. At least Sergio hadn’t kissed the girl. That was some consolation. He recalled his own make-out session with Sergio and suddenly wanted to repeat it more than anything in the world.
    “So, um . . .” Lance continued to nervously toss the hand cream. “Would you like to go out again?”
    “Yeah . . . ,” Sergio replied and started to dance again. “Would you?”
    “Yeah,” Lance said, sitting up in bed. They