Roomies (boyxboy)

The Sleepover: Part 2

"So...what the fuck am I supposed to do?" Diego looked down at the bowl with a scoop of rice at the bottom then back up at Cameron's earnest face.

"Didn't you just watch me showing the kids how to do it?" Cameron's voice was slightly exasperated but he smiled to take the sting out of his words.

"Naw man. I zoned out. How come we just didn't order pizza?" There was laughter from the kids watching Moana on Disney Plus, squished together on the couch in the living room.

"I...I..just thought it would be cool to do something different.." Cameron sighed. He just thought pizza was boring. One of the girls in choir had shown this onigiri video to him in class the other day and he'd thought it would make a perfect new dinner. But this must be why he didn't have close friends. God, he was such a dork. Diego must think he was so stupid.

"I watched! I know!" Nate pushed in between Diego, scooping rice onto the plastic wrap in his bowl, flattening it out against the side of the bowl. "I had onigiri in Japan a couple summers ago, but I've never made any myself.  What a cool idea, Cameron." He added avocado, salami, and tuna into the bowl, grabbing the plastic wrap around the sides and twisting it until it made a rice ball with the fixings inside. He unwrapped the ball from the plastic, smeared on some wasabi and wrapped it in a strip of seaweed. "It's fucking delicious."

Nate popped the whole thing into his mouth, smiling at Cameron, cheeks bulging. After Ryan had spilled Nate's secret, Cameron was more aware of Nate, looking at him frequently, hoping he was being subtle. He realized Nate's exaggerated friendliness was only directed at him, something he hadn't noticed before.

"I'm glad you like it." Cameron smiled at him shyly, blushing, which made Nate choke. Ryan pounded him on the back. Diego rolled his eyes and grimaced.

"I'm just not used to it." He fumbled with getting the toppings to stay inside the rice ball.

"I think you put in too much crushed hot cheetos." Cameron noticed, his eyes going back to Diego. "It might not look pretty, but I bet it still tastes good."

All of a sudden Mia started screaming. "I hate you Manny!!"

Manny whimpered, "I like the green slime. It's spicy. I thought you would like it too!" His tiny voice could barely be heard over the shrieks.

Nate and Diego moved to the living room to deal with the kids and their struggles with wasabi.

Cameron turned to Ryan.

"You should have told me it was dumb." He beat his head on the refrigerator.

"You were so excited. I thought it would be mean to say no." Ryan laughed, turning Cameron around, using his own words from this morning. "So what. Pizza is boring. I think this is cool, if a little complicated for a sleepover."

Cameron moved back the table. It was littered with a huge bowl of rice and several smaller bowls filled with different vegetables, meats and weird things like dried shrimp and crushed cheetos. Ryan had laughed when Cameron told him to text Jess with his grocery list. She came home bewildered but incurious, saying she had tons of papers to grade and would be staying in her room tonight.

Now, after the kids and Diego and Nate had made several rice balls each, more of the ingredients were spilled on the table then in the bowls. Cameon's stomach growled. He'd been so busy explaining his needlessly complicated sleepover dinner that he didn't make any for himself yet.

"I'll make you some. What do you want?"

Ryan followed Cameron's directions, making a few with just carrots, cucumber and mushrooms, and some with tuna and avocado. All of them got a sprinkle of hot cheeto dust before they walked over to join everyone in the living room. They sat down together on the floor in front of the recliner. Nate and Diego both noticed that Ryan stole bites from Cameron's balls.