Electric Tacos (Wattys 2023)

THIRTEEN

It was half ten on Sunday Morning, and Mateo was settling into one of the pews, beside Sr. and the other side of Marisol, who was smirking at him. Mateo glared back at her, when Sr. was looking down at his hymn book at the Spanish lyrics of the song, Dios tu eres Bueno.

Bueno para mi,

para mi para mi,

Eres mi salvacion.

Mateo let out a yawn as the song went into its first verse, and his mind began wandering over to the empty space behind him, where Tito always sat.

With his strong, strapping shoulders, baritone singing voice, and shiny hair illuminated by the light of the window, and the rare glimpses of his white smile.

He made the slog of a service tolerable when he showed up in his black hat, tight shirt, perfectly ironed khaki pants, and polished boots.

He was the kinda man that Mateo aspired to be like when he finally grew into himself. When his hormones settled down, and his voice had finally stopped cracking.

And he knew what he wanted to do with his miserable life.

He let out a groan as the song finished, and turned into another one.

The clock ticked on for what felt like another ten minutes as the song seemed to last an eternity. The harmonics weren't helping distract him from the fact that Tito wasn't there.

He was letting him down.

Mateo was growing more frustrated with every foot tap.

Every out-of-tune note.

Every hum.

Every breath.

Second by second.

He was about to give up hope and sit down in his chair when the door swung open.

Tito jogged to his seat, panting. He was sweating, and his shirt was sticking to his perfectly chiseled body. He ran his hands through his hair to fix it up before smiling at Mateo as he made his way into his seat directly behind Mateo.

"Sorry, I was late," Tito whispered. "Something came up."

Mateo mouthed back. 'Did you get the car?'

Tito nodded, checked his watch, and then sat down as the song finally ended. Sr. shook his head at Mateo, who sighed back. They all faced the front of the hall as Padre Dave began his sermon and opened up his Bible to Romans and cleared his throat.

He started to drone on a bit and put in some Spanish words about the topic. The topic was temptation, and how sin makes people tempted. And the wages of sin, and what some of the most common sins were. And the consequences of them:

"The wages of sin is death–"

"--More like unpaid dishwashing service," Mateo muttered under his breath.

Sr. didn't hear it, but he looked at him and hit his shoulder. "Focus."

Mateo nodded.

The only thing he could focus on right now was catching a glimpse of Tito from the side of his eye. Patiently waiting for the service to end so they could work on the car together, and make it look epic.

For them to have another moment together, and grow closer.

Maybe have another kiss.

Or get something to eat together.

He smiled and looked back at Tito who had the top two buttons of his shirt undone and was fanning the sweat from his face.

He wanted him to take it off.

He wanted to go somewhere quiet alone with him and—

–Oh mierda.

He was beginning to burn up, and he could feel something uncomfortable happening down there.

Again.

Padre Dave looked around the room, and he spoke louder:

"For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:" he said, "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet."

Moments later, he looked down at Mateo and shook his head in his general direction.

Mateo's face was turning red, and he was struggling to hold in his urges. Sweat was dripping from his forehead, and he was shaking his leg.

"Temptation is one of the devil's key devices to get to you. If Jesus can be tempted, then so can you," Padre continued, "Let me tell you a story about my sobrino, Paco. He was talented, with a lot of potential, but then he fell down the trap of the party lifestyle. He got carried away with the drugs, and the lustful abominations of man-on-man sex–"

Mateo's head started to spin as his ears rang, and his heart pulsated throughout his body. He was finding it more difficult to focus with each passing second.

"--Eventually, we found him dead in his apartment in Las Vegas two years after he left college, and let his flesh control his mind and body–"

Mateo began to feel sick to his stomach. His throat was dry and he started to splutter.

Concerned members started to look at him as he tried to hold everything back. An elderly man looked down at him, and a middle-aged lady asked him if he was alright.

Luis was sitting across from him and Tito's row, shaking his head, and gritting his teeth.

He balled his fists up.

Be Mateo could react, he ran out of the building as fast as he could and into the caballeros bathroom. He slammed the door behind him and relieved himself into the toilet.

Afterward, he washed his hands, splashed water over his face and sat down on the seat, and almost stuck to it.

He exhaled several times to try and cool down, and sat there for the next five minutes, thinking about Tito. Thinking about how much he wanted to be with him, even if he couldn't have him; strange, forbidden hormonal urges of lustful thoughts filled his mind.

They got more intense with each moment, and every time he tried to think of something else, Tito came back twice as much.

He was standing there, topless in the middle of a rose bed, blowing Mateo a kiss. His abs were well-oiled and he was luring him closer with every heartbeat as they got in sync.

Mateo was aroused. He was sitting there, pleasuring himself and about to come to the climax, when there was a loud banging noise on the door.

"Mariposa, you in there?" Luis hissed as he kicked the wood more. "Come on!"

Mateo froze and pulled his hands up. His fingers were sticky and he panicked as Luis burst the door open. He marched over to Mateo and tried to push him off the toilet but he pressed down and refused to move.

Luis shoved him some more, until he fell onto the floor, awkwardly onto his arm.

Mateo started to get annoyed, and he grabbed Luis's leg.

He tugged hard and pulled him off the toilet. Both of them were rolling around on the cold floor, with their pants down. Mateo managed to hit Luis in the stomach before Luis grabbed Mateo's sore arm and smacked it against the sink as hard as he could.

There was a loud cracking noise.

Mateo started to scream in pain as Luis pulled himself up to pee.

He washed his hands and spat on the floor before kicking Mateo hard on the way out.