Chapter 27
Chad’s right forefinger tapped the top of the round cement table in perfect rhythm as he sat under one of the palms located in front of Miami's International University’s Student Lounge. With today being a semi-clear day - that is, if you didn’t count the gray thunderheads building over the Everglades - he and Maria made plans to have lunch together, just before entering Freshmen English.
“Uh oh,” he said, upon catching sight of his roommate heading in his direction. “Mike’s the last person I want to see.”
Mike smiled as he approached, but his wordless greeting only met a turned head and a cold shoulder. “You obviously don’t want to talk to me, do you?”
Chad stayed silent - as if the countrified, boy-stealing, piece of stinking scum didn’t exist. Maybe with a rare stroke of luck he’ll just go away.
Mike frowned and dropped his books before taking a seat. “Listen, Chad. I already told you I was sorry. What more do you want?”
Chad displayed a wicked grin and turned to face him. “Do I really need to repeat what I told you yesterday? … I want you to pack your shit, Mike, and get your boyfriend-stealing piece of ass out of my dorm room and out of my life," he growled in a low, overly controlled tone. “You knew Eric was my boyfriend, and we’d been a couple ever since middle school. … You had positively no right to take advantage of him in his moment of weakness.”
“Me? … take advantage of Eric?” Mike almost laughed as his forefinger curled toward his chest. “You gotta be out of your fucking mind, Chad. I had no idea he was going to show up Friday night, and I certainly didn’t have any plans to jump in his pants. It was quite the opposite. … Like I already told you, before Eric stopped by, I was taking a shower and was planning on seeing the Miami Dolphins/ New England Patriots game at the Student Center.”
“But the moment you saw him; you decided to seduce him,” Chad accused.
Mike looked at Chad and chuckled. “Me. Wanting to seduce him? You’ve got to be kidding. ... Just ask yourself, Chad … since the day we first met at the beginning of this semester, have you ever seen me show any inclinations of being gay?”
Chad paused to think, and while doing so began to gaze at the scenery surrounding him. In the distance, two robins in an apparent quarrel over a discarded potato chip were squawking and wildly flapping their wings at one another.
“No,” Chad humbly admitted, tapping his finger on the tabletop. “But how am I to know you haven’t been a closet queen all along, and all that big talk about wanting to go on a date with a girl wasn’t just a ploy. After all, you've never been on one.”
Mike’s cheeks blushed and he gazed in Chad’s direction. “I know I haven’t. But it wasn’t due to a lack of trying. Girls just don’t seem to like me.”
“I know,” Chad said with a smile. “And it’s no wonder. With the comments I’ve heard you make whenever one walks by, I’m positive they all think you’re a jerk. Which, by the way, you are.”
“Just because I stole Eric from you?”
“Yes,” Chad replied, crossing his arms. “So tell me, dufas maximus … For being such an asshole that females run away from you on sight, how in the Hell did you convince Eric to sleep with you?”
“I didn’t,” Mike replied, noticing Maria was about to walk up. “When I opened our door, the kid saw me wearing nothing but a bath towel and instantly went crazy about my bod.”
Chad shook his head and guffawed. “No way, Mike. I know Eric, and he would never react to anyone like that … unless it was me, of course.”
“Oh really Saint Mary’s blessed one,” Mike countered. “Not even if he found out that not only am I good looking, I was also a virgin?”
“A virgin?” Chad repeated, glancing skyward. “You’re actually a virgin, country boy?”
Mike nodded in embarrassment. “I was … until Friday night.”
“Whoa,” Chad exclaimed as Maria approached the table.
“What’s up”, she asked, looking directly into each of the teens' eyes. “What’s got you two so riled?”
“This asshole stole my boyfriend; that's what’s up,” Chad answered, pointing a finger at his roommate. “I found out from Eric yesterday that Friday night while we were spending the evening at Biscayne Bay, these two were in our dorm room having an orgy.
“They were?” Maria said, raising an eyebrow. “But how can that be? Mike’s straight as an arrow.”
“Not anymore,” Chad replied. “This arrow's developed a few curves in it recently. Yesterday, when I went to get together with Eric for our usual Sunday afternoon rendezvous, not only did Eric remind me how ever since the beginning of this semester I had spent almost all of my free time with you instead of him, he informed me that he had decided to replace me with someone new … and that special new someone happens to be Mike.”
“But Mike’s not gay,” Maria said, repeating herself. “He's no doubt a country hick. But he certainly isn’t gay.”
“Then explain the two encounters he’s had with Eric this weekend.”
“Two encounters?” Maria’s eyes rapidly widened. “And sexual ones? Are you sure?”
Both Mike and Chad nodded yes.
Appearing to become suddenly weak, Maria lowered her purse and took a seat. “That’s unbelievable. I didn’t think a person could instantly switch sexual preferences like that … especially so easily.”
“One normally wouldn’t,” Mike replied. “But as Chad pointed out a few minutes ago, I’ve never been with a girl, not even for a date. And even though I always like them and thought someday I’d marry, Eric showed me how fulfilling a relationship with him might be, so that’s what I decided to pursue.”
“But what about Chad?” Maria said, turning to face her friend. “He’s been Eric’s companion for umpteen years now. Wouldn’t stealing his partner be wrong?”
“Yes. In a way,” Mike admitted. “But as Eric let Chad know; he'd been considering dumping him for quite some time now.
Maria’s jaw abruptly dropped, and she silently shook her head.
“You seemed to be worried about something when you walked up,” Chad stated, wanting to change the topic. “Has something bad happened?”
Maria looked at him as if for a moment she was puzzled. “Happened? ... Oh. … Yes, there has. And it couldn’t have possibly occurred at a worse time.”
Chad’s expression immediately became troubled, and he deeply inhaled. “What happened, Maria? Did someone die or something?”
“Almost,” Maria answered as her face whitened. “My Papa’s sick and had to be sent to the hospital, so very soon now I’m going to have to return to Chile.”