Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Eleven

I ended up kicking Blake's ass in go-carting. It was so much of a disaster that I ended up rear-ending his go-cart and causing the tire to pop.

While Blake was given another car and most likely prayed that we didn't have to pay for damages, I did laps around the six year olds like there was no tomorrow.

One of the six year olds even cried. What a fucking sore loser.

I was awesome at go-carting.

After I'd won my fifth round, I met Blake outside of the track. He was wearing his sunglasses and leaning up against the fence.

"I think I'm going to have to get insurance involved," he told me the second he showed up. "That was a hell of a rear end... you nearly totaled my vehicle. Cops are gonna show up any minute."

I snorted and grabbed his sunglasses off of his face. "Alright, fuck off. What are they going to do?"

"Nothing. I guess it wasn't included in the waiver we signed, so they can't hold us to anything," Blake shrugged. "They said they'd never seen anything like it before."

I grinned. "I'm exceptional."

Blake snorted. "Dude, you're psycho. I don't think I've ever met anyone as competitive as you are."

"Why would I try to lose?"

Blake pointed over to where a six year old was sobbing into her parent's shoulder.

I shrugged. "I don't see your point."

"Oh my God," Blake laughed. I found myself yet again distracted by him. The longer we were on this date the more appealing he seemed.

He held his hand out and smiled. I didn't even hesitate to take it.

"Let's go grab some food or something. I seriously hadn't expected you to try to kill me on our date, but looking back I should've thought of it," Blake said with a grin. Was he teasing again?

"I hate you," I said, "but not enough to kill you."

I figured he'd appreciate the statement. Instead he snorted and shook his head.

"Thanks," Blake sighed, a small grin on his face. "You're so sweet."

I was making him smile an awful lot. Annoying.

Then Blake did an awful thing: he rested his head on my shoulder as we walked. He had his arms wrapped around mine like a cobra.

"Are you showing me affection?" I grumbled. "Ew. That's disgusting, please let me go."

Blake glared at me. "We're on a date, dude. You let me hold your hand first!"

"You were only doing that to make me feel better," I accused, wishing I could shake Blake off. He was doing weird things to my emotions, which was confusing everything.

I didn't like Blake. I was giving him a chance as an apology for our previous misunderstanding. And for constantly keeping a ten foot distance between us. And for calling him Blake the snake. And Blake the mistake. And for talking about him badly behind his back for almost a decade. And for saying I had the flu every time my family was invited to one of his family's cookouts. And for—

"That's not true!" Blake sputtered. "I was awkward about it at first because I'm still in the closet, but there's nobody here that we know. I know 'cause I already looked around a bunch. And even if there was, maybe I should stop being in the closet. You're out and nobody makes fun of you for it."

Because I was, quite simply, an intimidating person. People made fun of Kevin and Greasy all the time.

If they made fun of me, I would give them a free ticket to the hospital. Everyone knew that.

"You're thinking of coming out?" I asked, wisely deciding not to share my malicious internal monologue.

He kicked a rock and unfurled himself from my arm. "I don't know, maybe. I'm bi and I've never liked a guy, so I kind of thought there was no point until now."

Relieving.

"Ah," I said. "Then don't; there's no point."

He glared at me.

I blinked.

"What?" I asked. "I'm agreeing with you."

Blake turned on his heel and faced me. "You're an idiot, do you know that? Or are you just trying to be mean?"

I cleared my throat. "I'm actually not trying to be mean. I'm agreeing. If you aren't interested in men, why does the school have to know that, under some circumstances, you might be?"

He stared at me for a second longer, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Never mind. Alright, c'mon. We're getting hot dogs. I need some sustenance if I have to deal with your boneheaded behavior."

I wrinkled my nose. "I don't think Kevin the trombonist would've called me a bonehead."

"Kevin the trombonist is a loser and a coward."

"You just don't like him because he wears crocs. Which is rich coming from you and your pizza socks."

"No," Blake snapped, kicking another rock emphatically. "I don't like him because he has a crush on you. And everyone within a mile radius can see it except for you."

I looked up and was surprised to see him scowling. "What do you mean?"

Blake reached the hot dog stand and glared at me for a second before ordering. I said what I wanted and Blake paid.

It was kind of an awkward beat of silence between us as the guy at the stand started to prepare our food.

I broke it by saying, "What do you mean?" again, because Blake had been rude and ignored me.

"I mean he has a crush on you." Blake rolled his eyes and sent me an irritated look. The top of his cheekbones had a tiny flush of red on them. "And that bothers me."

I nodded curtly. "Because you're homophobic."

"No, you idiot," Blake growled. "Because I like you too! How many times do I have to say it? You are seriously the biggest moron I have ever met."

It was weird to hear those words coming from a guy who looked pissed. His electric green eyes were narrowed in on me, his body tense like he was ready for me to hit him. And best of all, he was blushing.

"No way," I scoffed.

"You idiot! I told you that the reason I was mean to that kid when we were younger was because he liked you. I asked you on a date. I held your hand, I cuddled with you for the half-second you let me. I seriously can't think of a single thing that could be any more obvious that all of that."

The guy leaned out of the stand. "Um." He coughed. "Your hot dogs are ready."

I took mine. Blake continued to glare. The hot dog guy just kind of accepted the situation and left the hot dog by the register.

"How could you like me?" I asked, honestly baffled. "We hardly talk."

Blake bit his lip, still glaring. "Just because you suddenly decided you hated me doesn't mean my crush is gonna go away, dude. That's not how it works."

He was making that annoying thing happen to my emotions again.

I felt my heart, actually paying attention to the quickening of it this time, and admitted something that I never thought I would. "I guess I might like you too, Blake. Really deep down. In hell deep down."

"Fine, that's good enough for me."

And then he was leaning towards me, on his tippy toes...

"Jake," Blake snapped. "You're tall. Bend down and kiss me."

He grabbed the back of my neck and I bent down to meet him halfway.

And then, in front of the poor hot dog guy, I kissed my arch nemesis.