That I Would Be Good

Chapter Ten

“Sometimes, to do the right thing, we must keep a promise we never made.” --Robert Brault

    The weeks that led up to Christmas break, I was with Leo more than anyone else.  We’d always find something to do.  Whether it was smoking in the parking lot or going to The Pool on the weekends.  The Pool was even busier around the holidays and neither of us really liked getting high or drunk when there are a lot of people around, so it was a rare occasion when we did go.

    The thing we did most together was stop off at 7-Eleven, pick up some snacks and soda, then head out in the direction of the back roads of town.  When there, we would just smoke and eat, not really talk.  Nothing sexual had happened since the one day after I sprained my ankle, though.  Neither of us brought it up, not much a surprise there. 

     We would sit in silence, with the occasional wise crack here or there.  Things weren’t doing well at home and being with Leo just made everything seem better.  For a few hours a day I could forget about Fritz slowly dying. 

      Leo, like I’ve said before, wasn’t a big talker, but since our game of seductive chicken he was talking more and more.  Not about himself, but about things no one really cared about.  I told him before I didn’t care about the things he was talking about but he just brushed me off and continued talking.

     He seemed to like talking about movies the most.  Every type of movie, even chick flicks which creeped me out.  I didn’t even like chick flicks that much, but a guy liking them?  Now that was weird.

     Now sitting in my car, on one of the back roads he was going on and on about the latest chick flick he watched… something called “You’ve Got Mail” starring Tom Hanks and some chick I didn’t know.

    “Why do you like chick flicks so much?” I had asked him one time.  I was expecting him to say something about the message in each one, the hot girls, the sex scenes.  But what he told me completely surprised me and seemed out of character.

    “They’re the only movies that really give you hope, ya know?  Like these people have the worst lives in the world at the beginning of the movie then they find someone and their lives change.”  His eyes lit up at this

    I gave him a look and rolled my eyes.  “Are you gay or something?  Because I’ll completely be cool if you are, and forgive you for talking about chick flicks.”

     He stuck his tongue out at me, and then brought his face closer to mine, his eyes flicking to look at my lips.  I met his stare, eyebrows rose daring him.  He just smirked, and whispered, “Do you want me to show you how non-gay I am?”

    I kept the same look on my face when I answered him and shrugged.  “It’s your rep, not mine.  I could care less.”

    He chuckled and leaned back into his seat, still looking at me.  “Wanting to be a great director means having to study every type of movie out there. I’m not gay, I just appreciate the great movies.”

    “What kind of director?  A director of pornos?” I shot, giving a smug look.

    “Ha ha.”

     “So you want to be a director?  You and Ziggy should get together.  He wants to be an actor,” I mused, remembering when Ziggy told me this.  I hadn’t thought of Ziggy since the week we stopped being “friends”.  The thought of him surprised me, and instantly I pushed him to the back of my mind.

    “What happened to Ziggy anyways?” Leo inquired.  Great, now he was going to butt into my business.  For all the weeks Ziggy hadn’t been around he didn’t even seem to notice, but the second I bring him up he suddenly remembers him.  I should have just kept my big mouth shut.  Sometimes I really hated myself.