Lucy watched from the wings as her boyfriend practiced his lines with that Ella girl. Technically Jamie wasn’t her boyfriend… yet… But he would be if all went well today. She planned to corner him and talk about the prom, which despite being months away, was as good an excuse as any to drag Jamie to “planning” sessions.
She watched as Jamie said something, causing Ella to curl up, her hands on his arm, laughing to the point of tears. Lucy thought she would be jealous if it wasn’t for the fact that cardigan-wearing hippy Ella was the least of her rivals in the school for Jamie’s attentions. Still, she was cross Ella felt she could touch Jamie in that way and stepped forward, making herself known. Since Lucy had decided Jamie was going to be her first, she had been stalking him relentlessly. She knew his timetable, his address, his cell phone number, his shoe size, his eye color, his basketball stats… everything. It was a military operation she and her girlfriends had dubbed the “getting into Jamie’s pants” plan.
He was so gorgeous. Tall, blond, confident, and with the most stunning blue eyes. Top that with he was captain of a team and that made him king as far as she was concerned.
"Jamie," she called in her best laughing isn’t-this-a-coincidence-to-see-you-here voice. He turned, surprise and a small amount of embarrassment on his face.
"Hey, Lucy," he said, turning to Ella and saying something low before jumping down off the stage with a cat’s grace and standing tall next to her.
"Jamie, we really need to start thinking about prom, I need to pin you down for a chat."
"Okay, yeah, I’ve been meaning to catch up with you, sorry."
"No worries. How ’bout Saturday? My parents are away this weekend, and I thought we could have the first committee meeting at my house."
"Sounds cool. What time?"
"Seven."
"I’ll be there."
When he turned to climb back up on stage, his tight ass clearly visible in his jeans, it was all Lucy could do not to drool. This Saturday, he was all hers.
* * * * *
Daniel had observed the exchange from the side of the stage where he sat with Steve, humming along to his guitar, lost in planning music for the latest show. He had watched carefully as Lucy Simmonds had simpered and smirked around his brother, running manicured nails across Jamie’s bare arm, seeing his brother’s answering smile and relaxed stance.
So far Jamie had managed nothing but short-term flings, and Daniel knew for certain none of them, despite Jamie’s reputation, had gone past third base. Mark teased him for it, Daniel silently thanked him for it, but at the end of the day, Jamie, at sixteen, wasn’t like a typical sixteen-year-old boy and had evidently waited until seventeen to finally get with the program. Mark despaired.
"You’re the basketball captain; you’re bright, good-looking-ish. You could have any girl you want. What is the matter with you?"
"They’re just boring, man, and all they do is shop and talk crap about shoes and stuff."
"So stop them talking. Jeez, do I need to draw diagrams?"
Jamie had been stubborn in his resolve. He wasn’t waiting for marriage, or long-term, he just wanted his first time to have meaning, to be what he wanted, and most of all, it would be nice if he was sober when it happened. Mark huffed, left new porn mags on his brother’s bed, and told him wild stories of college life. None of it worked. Jamie was not changing his mind.
So as Daniel watched this Lucy girl touching and flirting, he hoped this wasn’t the girl that gave his brother meaning in his life, hoped he wouldn’t hand himself over on a plate for meaningless sex just because Mark told him to.
He wanted Jamie to wait for the one. And in his wildest imaginings that one would be him. He sighed. Fighting this attraction to freaking Jamie was killing him.
It wasn’t as if Daniel would ever have Jamie anyway. This one-sided attraction would forever remain that way. Jamie would go to college, meet some girl, preferably not skanky Lucy, have a lot of heterosexual no-ties sex, fall in love or get married someday.
He never spent much time analyzing his attraction for Jamie. He just knew it was there and had been for a few years, ever since he realized he was fantasizing about Jamie’s hands, arms, legs, ass, eyes, hair… and not about the girls in the porn mags he had grabbed from Mark’s stash.
He would never even dream of doing anything about it. Jamie was his foster-brother, the other half of him, and college would give him the breathing room he needed to find a partner and forget the love he felt for his best friend as well as he could. It was self-preservation that made Daniel choose different colleges from Jamie. If they went to the same one, and Daniel was exposed to the heartbreak of seeing Jamie happy with someone else… shit, it wasn’t worth thinking about.
* * * * *
Before
He didn’t come out of his bedroom for dinner. He was a little bit scared and a lot worried that his part in the destruction of Mark’s prize toy would be a big thing. As big a thing as when Daniel got scruffy and dirty playing with the neighbors’ dog when he was seven, just as his mom and dad were hosting a party thing in their house. They were both horrified and embarrassed, and the tears that fell down his face that night had been hot and scorching.
He didn’t want that again; it had made him feel small and sad.
"Daniel." That was Sue’s voice at his door, and he felt the mattress dip as she sat on the side of his bed. She lay back against the headboard, her hands soft in his long hair. "Are you okay, sweetie?"
"M’okay," Daniel replied, his breath hitching and his eyes raw with holding back more tears.
"Honey, I know this is all overwhelming for you. It doesn’t help you’ve landed in a family as boisterous as ours. I just want you to know that, at this moment, Mark and Jamie are on the Nintendo, desperate for you to come down and see the new game they have." She paused, waiting for that to sink in, smiling softly as Daniel moved his thin body round to face her.
"They… they don’t hate each other?" he said, wondering, his face creased in confusion.
"No, Dan, they could never hate each other. Of course Mark is hurt that Jamie chose his dearest possession in the world to use for a prank; Jamie is hurt because we all see he did it to score marks with you, and now he feels embarrassed and ashamed at his stupidity."
Daniel knew all about embarrassed and ashamed. Poor Jamie. "So it’s okay?"
"Of course. Their dad and I have spoken our bit, Jamie has promised to buy Mark a new one, Mark has also exacted punishment on Jamie and is making him do the dishes for two weeks, which is normally Mark’s chore. It’s all handled."
"What about me? Is Mark angry with me? He should be; I was just as involved. I deserve punishment as well."
"No, Daniel, he knows what his little brother is like, knows you were just pulled along for the ride."
"Oh." Daniel felt oddly disappointed he was being left out of the punishment. He didn’t want to be a special case.
"But, Daniel, I think it would go some way to making Mark see you are sorry if you were to do the dishes with Jamie."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Now, why don’t you freshen up and come downstairs and watch this battle thing the boys have? It’ll be time for dinner soon."
"I will."
And then Sue left, leaving a very happy Daniel lying back on his bed, a tiny, very tiny, feeling of belonging starting to grow inside.