Lasagna

Vinny Vitale

Kyle isn't straight. I learn this the hard way.

He comes onto me after music class one day. He backs me up into a corner and accuses me of staring at him the whole class (which, yes—I was, making sure he kept his eyes and his hands off Jimmy.)

Anyway, he takes this the wrong way.

"Listen, buddy," I say. "I'm not interested. This class is boring and I zone out. I'm sorry if it happens to be on your face."

He cocks his head at me. "I don't believe you." And then he's kissing me.

And of course, Jimmy forgot his text book in class. So he walks in and sees the whole thing.

James has never told me that he's gay. He has never told me has a crush on Kyle. So I honestly have done nothing wrong. Nothing at all. But for some reason, I'm a guilty fuckin' mess.

On the way home from school, he puts his headphones on and doesn't even look at me.

"Jimmy, he came onto me, what was I supposed to do? Push him off?" Jimmy doesn't answer me, but he's got his phone in his hands and it clearly is not connected to his headphones. He hears what I'm saying. "Why you even care? You don't like him. You're not gay." I'm provoking him.

"I'm not mad, Vin," he says in the voice of someone who is clearly mad. "I'll catch you later," and then he turns down the street before mine and is walking off towards his apartment. He isn't coming over. He's come over every single day since September 8th. It's January.

"Jimmy! Where you goin?"

He doesn't respond.

I text him later that night. Wanna sleep over? I got kettlecorn

He doesn't respond to that either.

The next day I sprint two blocks to catch him on the way to school. I run ahead of him so I can stop and catch my breath until he reaches me, and so I won't scare him because he's wearing headphones and probably would have screamed if I tried to pull them off him.

He fights a smile as he sees me huffing on the sidewalk. He pulls one ear free from his stupid headphones. "You good, Vin?"

"Yeah," I stand up straight. "Totally good. Couldn't answer my text last night?" Jimmy pales.

"Sorry," he says. "Mom's boyfriend took my phone. I only just got it back."

"Why the fuck he do that?"

Jimmy shrugs. "New Macklemore song," he says, taking his headphones off and putting them over my ears. It's already playing so I don't hear him say "Listen" I only see his lips move.

__

It's Sunday morning and I'm sitting on the couch watching TV. Anthony jumps in front of it and flashes me his ass. "AY! Get the fuck outta here! I'm watching Shark Tank!"

"Did someone say Shark Tank?" Jimmy comes bounding into the family room. He looks out of breath in a pair of my Vitale Bakery sweats. He's smiling.

"Why do you look like you just ran a marathon?" I ask him, taking a bite of cereal. My dad appears behind him, placing a gigantic Vitale man hand on his shoulder.

"We just did six miles. Missed you, Vin."

"You two go running without me?"

Jimmy laughs from his belly. "Vin, I tried to wake you up like four times this morning."