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mom was back in the kitchen. "I can't decide which I like
better, this surprise or the one you gave me a few minutes
ago."
"There should be no comparison," Brett laughed.
After breakfast I ran downstairs and immediately
changed into my new duds. God, I wanted so badly to talk
to Elaine right now. She totally would not believe any of this.
I knew, however, that I could not tell anyone. I knew that
Brett was not going to be able to be open about his
feelings for me. It wasn't safe for me either. We would have
to keep the whole thing our own secret.
I wonder what Brett's mom thought about us. It was not
exactly normal for a seventeen year old high school jock to
go around calling his fourteen year old tutor "Sport". She
probably thought that I was a cute kid, a child prodigy or
something. She certainly could have no clue that Brett and I
were anything more than tutor and student, or at the very
most "friends".
Brett and I did watch Wild World of Sports that afternoon.
His parents had gone out and we lay in the basement,
again in front of the futon. He also asked me to help him
work out and I "spotted" for him. I thought it was peculiar
that he would entrust me with this responsibility, being that if
he were to lose control and drop the weights on himself, it's
not like I'd be strong enough to get them off from him. I think
he just enjoyed seeing me stare at him while he
demonstrated his prowess.
I was so sad as six o'clock approached and I knew I'd
have to be leaving him soon. I sat on the bed next to him
and looked up at the pictures on his wall. We were in his
bedroom. "I love that school picture of yours there. Is that
from last year?" He nodded.
"You want it?"
"Really? Well yeah, of course I want it, but you can't just
take it off your wall and give it to me."
"Sure I can. I didn't want that picture hanging in my room
anyways. Who hangs pictures of themselves in their own
bedroom?" he laughed. "It is an extra. My mom has that
same picture upstairs as an 11x 14. She is a picture freak.
You know; you've seen the photo albums."
I walked over and removed the picture from the wall,
leaving the nail in the drywall. I clutched it to my chest, and
he smiled at me. "Com'ere!" I moved over to him again and
he pulled me into him.
"Brett, I don't want today to end. Please don't let it end! I
think I'm gonna wake up tomorrow morning and realize this
was all an incredibly wonderful dream. Then I will be so sad
that it didn't really happen."
"It's not a dream, Sport. But speaking of tomorrow, what
are you going to do? I mean, what are we going to do? It is
not like we can go back to school Monday and act like
nothing happened. It has been hard enough these past few
weeks to pass you in the hall every day and never speak.
Now it will be impossible!"
"Well, you can't just go up to McDonald and the rest of
the football team and tell them you did it with another guy in
the shower Saturday morning. Can you imagine what will
happen if anyone finds out? We have to keep this between
us. We have to keep it as our secret...at least for now."
"I know. You're totally right, Jeff. It will ruin both of our lives
if anyone finds out. I don't want all of Boyne City High
thinking their star quarterback is a faggot."
I shook my head. That would be unthinkable.
Brett got me home about eight o'clock that night, and my
mom was sitting at the dining room table when I walked in.
She was sitting there with her Bible open in front of her, an
ashtray to the left of the Good Book and a cigarette in hand.
I always found it extremely ironic that she polluted her lungs
with toxic carcinogens while feeding her spiritual soul. She
actually had tried so many times to kick the habit, always
returning to the monkey that wouldn't get off her back. The
church people pissed me off so badly, always condemning
her and telling her to quit smoking, yet sitting down the pew
from her was huge Mrs. Fulton, weighing in at over 350
pounds. Did anyone scold her for her compulsive eating?
"Hi Mom," I greeted her as I headed for the stairwell.
"Jeff, come here. I want to talk to you." There was
something in her voice that gave me pause, and I stopped
in my tracks, walking over to the table and sitting opposite
her.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"You were not at Joey Potter's house last night like you
told me. I saw his mother in the grocery store this morning."
I looked down at my lap, ashamed for having been
caught in a lie. I had never been able to lie to my mother.
This time it had been a lie of omission. When I told her
about the science project and my sleepover at Joey's, I had
honestly thought I would do exactly that. It's just that after my
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