If We Found Heaven ✓

three ☀

Arthur Wright was, in short, gay. That's all the school seemed to know about him, at least. And that frustrated him sometimes. It frustrated him a lot. After storming away from Sullivan and Cass (rather childishly, even he had to admit), Art had made his way back home. The garage where he was working on the broken car had been the first place he had thought to go, once inside. Now, he was sitting on the ground, hands coated in grease, leaning back against a shelf that held an abundance of unopened paint cans. Art was dozing off when the phone on the wall rang - a high, shrill sound that seemed on a mission to permanently damage your eardrums. Arthur picked up the phone as fast as he could for this reason.

"Hello?" Art said.

"Hi," replied a voice on the other end. Curls. "It's Reid."

"Curls," Art corrected.

Curls shifted on the other end. "Sure. Curls. Whatever."

"You wrote down this number, right?" Art asked. "Here, I'll give you Sullivan's and Cass's."

"Alright," Curls said. "Let me get a pen." Art waited patiently, twirling the phone cord around his fingers. "I'm back," Curls informed him.

"Good," Art said. He passed along Sullivan's home phone number and Cass's too.

"Thanks," Curls said awkwardly when he was done.

"No problem," Art replied. There was a beat of silence. "So you're Bennett's brother." Art said. "That must suck."

Curls let out a short laugh. "Yeah, a little bit," he admitted. "Do you have any siblings?"

"A sister," Art said, an involuntary scowl rising to his face. Laura wasn't his favorite person, to say the least.

"Cool," Curls said, and Art felt a surge of gratitude that he wasn't pressing further. "So... You said we were going to have a fun summer."

"Yeah," Art replied. "Cass plans all sorts of things."

"Really? Like what?"

"One time," Art began, "she took us on a road trip to Vegas." Arthur grinned at the memory. "On a complete whim."

"That's crazy," Curls replied, sounding genuine. "Vegas? What did you guys do when you got there?"

"Drove back."

Curls laughed. "Actually?"

"Yeah, actually." Art wound the phone cord around his finger. "Are you into the whole adventure thing?"

"Not exactly my cup of tea." He sounded uncomfortable.

"Me too," Arthur said honestly.

"Really? I wouldn't have expected that," Curls replied.

Arthur grinned. "You've gotta stop with all the 'really?'s."

"I'll try my best," Curls said, snorting.

"You're kind of shy, huh?" Art asked.

"I wouldn't say shy," Curls sniffed. "Maybe quiet or socially inept."

Art laughed. Cass was right - Curls was funny. "Socially inept?" he repeated. "I'm going to have to start using that."

"Oh come on," Curls sighed. "That's my only good material."

"Socially inept," Art mused again. "I love that." Curls was silent, and Art felt the prick of annoyance in his gut. "I'm not hitting on you," he said for the second time that day.

"I didn't say you were," Curls replied calmly. "How self-centered do you think I am?"

"Bennett was pretty self-centered," Art pointed out.