Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Six

"Are you ready for our game?" Blake Beckson asked me. His usually pouty mouth was set in a hard line. This nasty green eyes were focused in on me. I had his entire attention, unfortunately.

"Ah. No."

I'd read enough gay fiction to know where games lead to. I did not want to go there with Blake.

His disgustingly determined look faltered just a little bit at my response. Deep down, I was satisfied to see his weakness. "Wait, really?" he whined.

"Really," I confirmed. "I refuse to play a game with you."

"But Twenty Questions is pretty—"

"I don't care. I refuse."

We sat in awkward silence, staring at each other. Eventually, he shrugged and sighed. "Well, alright then."

So weak-willed.

"Let's finish this project already," I said. Blake was such an unhelpful partner, always trying to get us off topic.

He had the audacity to facepalm. "I just had to spend ten minutes explaining the project to you, because you can't pay attention in class for shit. All you ever do is talk to that little boyfriend of yours."

Boyfriend?

I was genuinely confused. I knew Blake didn't care about anyone but himself, but was he really so detached from reality that he thought I was in a relationship?

"...Kevin? The trombonist?"

"No! You don't even like Kevin I thought!"

"I don't."

"Then what the fuck, man?"

Ugh, his voice was so annoying. Once when I was a kid, I visited a farm. One of the farmhands accidentally fell and landed on a pig. Blake's voice sounded alarmingly similar to the sound that the pig made after being fallen on.

When Blake realized I was too annoyed by his general characteristics to answer, he rolled his eyes and continued insensitively dominating the conversation. "Ben, obviously."

Before I realized what I was doing, I was tipping my head back and laughing. In fact, I cackled so hard and for so long that my stomach actually started to hurt.

Ben? My boyfriend?! Blake was tapped.

"Are you laughing?" Blake asked, an oddly alarmed look on his face.

"Are you stupid?"

"Wow, thanks." Blake shook his head, but he still had a kind of dazed and flushed expression on. I wasn't convinced that he wasn't stupid. "Um, I've never heard you laugh before."

"Maybe you're just not funny," I considered, which made the flush on Blake's face completely disappear. Instead, it was replaced by anger.

"Okay, fine, it's time to work on our project so I don't have to talk to you anymore," he said grumpily.

For the first time ever, I could actually agree with Blake on something.

He made me pick a theme out of a whole list and then we searched through the book for related quotes. I was enjoying the peace and quiet of Blake Beckson's silence, until he began talking twenty minutes into our searching.

"It's fine if Ben's your boyfriend," Blake said randomly. I stifled my chuckles. "I can tell that you're into each other, even though he's obviously in the closet."

"Blake, you're so wrong. So, so wrong," I said, amused. "Ben would probably kill you if he heard you say something like that about him. Even though he's definitely gay, he hates it when people assume that. Plus I would never like Ben."

"Why?" Blake said, an odd look on his face. "What kind of guys do you like?"

Why Blake Beckson cared what kind of guy I liked was absolutely beyond me, but I liked this topic of conversation. Since Blake was a homophobe, it was either numbing his hatred for gay people or making him uncomfortable.

Win win either way.

I hummed, truly thinking about it. "Well, I generally like guys who are short and sort of athletic, but not super muscular like I am. And they have to be good at school, because it's kind of hot when people are smart. I like curly brown hair and green eyes and men who care about other people."

Blake Beckson was giving me an absolutely flabbergasted expression.

"Of course," I added sadly, "There's nobody out there like that really."

Blake blinked.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" I snapped. "You're so weird."

"I think you're really stupid," Blake said. He glared at me and his green eyes were doing that piercing thing again. "There's people out there like that. Closer than you'd expect."

I leaned forward and studied him, trying to get a good read. But nope, all I saw was a load of annoying Blake. "Are you trying to be motivating? To make up for calling me a fag?"

"I didn't do that!" Blake threw his hands in the air and shot me the most exasperated look ever. "And you're ridiculous! I'm like that. You just described me, word for word, and yet you totally hate me! Clearly you aren't really sure what your type actually is."

I scoffed. "I did not describe you. You're not sho...well, you aren't athletic...huh. I guess the hair and eye color was right too." This was very alarming and perplexing. But then I remembered the one very important detail and calmed down. "You don't care about other people."

Because yes, physically, Blake was exactly what I would want in another man. But there was so much more to an attractive person than their looks. And Blake didn't have a lot going for him on the morality side of things.

"How can you say that?" Blake whined. "You barely know me."

"I know enough," I scoffed. "Don't forget, I was your neighbor for years. I know the real you that you hide from other people."

The evil part.

Blake shook his head in wonder. "I have absolutely no fucking clue what you're talking about. Actually, that goes without saying for everything that comes out of your mouth."

Blake just didn't realize that I knew what I did. Because so many years ago, I witnessed Blake show his true colors. And he could pretend to be as kind as he wanted, and everyone in school could love him, and he could walk around looking adorable, but I wouldn't ever forget what he did that one summer...