Six
Monday. Classes, classes, and more classes. I spotted Dennis across the cafeteria, surrounded by his teammates, looking like he belonged in a sports drink commercial. I was flying solo at my table until David and May swooped in to rescue me from my own company. Shockingly, David actually looked up from his phone for once. We started talking about Adam’s wedding, which is apparently the only thing anyone in my family can talk about now. May whipped out her phone to show off a bunch of dresses she was considering, plus the two that David had picked out for her.
I saw that she kept to the rule of not wearing white to a wedding, but I didn’t know if that applied to a gay wedding. She had some pastel colors that made me think bridesmaid, so I leaned more toward the darker ones. Black was always safe, but what about any of this was safe? I liked the dark blue with the faux gemstones, but it felt a bit too similar to the wedding decor. I already knew what it would be because Adam kept calling to get my opinion whenever they couldn’t decide. I’m still not sure how I ended up as the tiebreaker.
I went with the yellow-and-white strapless dress for May. She could figure out the hair, shoes, and whatever else on her own. I handed her back her phone with my pick, and she made these happy squeaky noises that got David to look up from his mac and cheese. Turns out, it was one of the two dresses David had picked for her. If she told me before, it clearly didn’t stick. So, once again, I was the human tiebreaker.
Five
We were meeting all of the Cromwells. Yes, we had met, talked to, and had dinner with his parents. And there was the 4th of July fireworks viewing. But now we were meeting everyone who would be at the wedding. And this required the formal dining room with seating for eleven people, with my family taking up five of those seats. Only married couples and blood relatives were invited. So only the immediate family of the couple this whole dinner was in honor of were going to be in attendance. Can I say this was an honor? My family was hitting way above our weight class, and it was on their home turf. Mom and Dad drove with Adam, and I followed in my car with David.
You would think that Mom might have taken the longest to get dressed, but she already had a good dress picked out, rewashed and hanging under plastic two days ago. David’s first choice received a unanimous ‘no way in hell’ and similar comments when we saw him coming downstairs. So, Mom pushed him back up the stairs to change what he was wearing. We heard him talking to May as he tried on different pieces, so he must have left his door open. Thirty minutes later, Dad yelled up the stairs that he’d be coming up if he wasn’t downstairs in two minutes.
I pulled up my messages with Dennis to just chat when David bounded down the stairs. “Ok,” Dad said as he gave the outfit a once-over. “Let’s go,” he said as he turned towards the front door.
What was my impression of the Cromwell’s house? Impressive as you drive up to it. Once you parked by the door, it was daunting. The daunting feeling grew as the butler opened the door and led us to the formal dining room. Actual paintings hung on the walls. The hall runners weren’t plush, but practical for foot traffic, and the thickness provided a small spring to my steps. We didn’t see any more servants until we were ushered into the dining room. The wallpaper on the ceiling shimmered silver above a light fixture that looked like falling bubbles. The walls were a light, rich peach over a black chair rail with matching wood paneling below it. At the far end of the room stood a pair of closed French doors, part of a glass wall that opened onto what looked like a rose garden, with a fountain in the center glowing softly in the night.
The atmosphere was more welcoming than what I feared it would be, and the last of my nerves started to truly melt away. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell, there was my soon-to-be brother-in-law, Tony, his wife, Ashlee, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lisa, and her husband, Matthew. They were both older than Jamie and had been married for years. So they were happy to see their little brother settling down. Jokes were passed around, and David took photos of everything and everyone. During dessert, he was able to make his way out into the garden, letting the smell of flowers into the room as he took a few shots of himself and the fountain.
By the time we left, the daunting feeling had mellowed into something warm and comforting, just on a much larger scale than we had fully comprehended.
Four
I got tired of waiting for Dennis to meet me in the parking tower, and after asking a few people where to find him and them asking what I wanted with him, I came up with a convincing reply. His car was blocking mine in. Paired with the true annoyance of having to repeat that answer, no one thought twice about doubting me.
His trail ended at the shower in the locker room. It was bright white and clean. The locker room that is. I was impressed. I didn’t hear anything as I walked through the rooms, even though the last guy I met said that Dennis was still inside. A lot of people knew I came here looking for him; there was no point in trying to be low-key now. I twisted up my lips before calling out.
“Dennis,” I hollered. I thought about saying his last name, in case someone else actually heard me, but out of habit I ended up just saying his first name.
“Joshua?” was his questioning reply as it bounced off the walls a bit further back.
“Yeah,” I answered back as I made my way past some more lockers.
I now heard the water from the shower, and I saw some clothes in the hallway part of the room that faced the open showers. Well, I think there was an open shower. I wouldn’t know until I got there, but I stopped ten feet from the wall separating that room from the one I was in. The clothes on the floor weren’t Dennis’. How do I know that? One of them was a skirt, for starters, and on top of it was a fabric covered in small blue flowers.
I wasn’t scandalized or thought that he was cheating on me. At least not with some girl. I was just surprised. I started walking again, wondering who it was.
“Mr. Dennis Phillips,” I started as I stood over the very small pile of clothing. “Didn’t think you would like wearing such things,” I stated as I thought of how to have fun with this situation.
“Joshua,” he answered back. I don’t know if he was trying for annoyoned to save face in front of our third wheel or if he was a little worried about where I was taking this situation.
“I know, I know,” I continued as I squatted down to get a closer look. “I have no right to tell you what you can or can not wear, but this looks a few sizes too small for you,” I commented before finally turning to look in his direction. Shit. The shower area had compartments. But two off the center showed two sets of legs before the curtain was yanked to the side as an angry brunette stormed out in my direction.
“You stupid fag, their mine!” She aimed at me. Amazingly, she was only topless. Her blue and white striped panties clung to her wet skin. With her hair wet and flat from the shower, I was having a hard time placing her face. Her face became a little odd as she saw me intently looking at her face.
“Why are you still here?” she started to sputter. “It’s clear that you are interrupting something, and no one wants you here,” she claimed.
“Nicole!” I said suddenly as I now stood at having remembered her name. Her scorn struck a bell. Whenever our paths crossed on campus, she always looked at me with disdain, but I can only recall her saying anything remotely in my direction once. Oddly enough, it involved Dennis. She was with a group of people, and in one breath she outed me, my attraction to Dennis, and made it known that I was beneath her and not worthy of sharing the same space as Dennis Phillips, who, of course, was as straight as they came.
“H-H-How do you know my name?” she stammered as she, now on reflex, lifted her hands to cover her breasts. I barely glanced at them before looking for something more enticing. The curtain had been pulled back in place, and I frowned as water started up again.
“Leave, you leach,” she shot at me when she saw where I was looking. She was now trying to stand between me and my boyfriend, and the sound of her voice quickly began to wear down the amusement I had with the whole situation.
“I came here for a reason, Nicole,” I told her as I waited for Dennis to come out. “Clearly our reasons are different,” I said, giving her a quick glance. At the sound of the rings for the shower curtain sliding along its metal pole, I turned back to see Dennis with a towel wrapped around his very wet waist as he walked towards us.
“And what is it you want, Joshua?” he asked as he now stood in front of me. I instantly became the leach that Nicole accused me of being. Hair, black and dripping. Skin, clean and inviting. Towel, intrusive and clearling cock blocking.
“Joshua,” Dennis said again. He must have seen something in my eyes since his tone held a note of warning. I wasn’t so far gone that I didn’t understand the situation. I was just figuring out if it was worth holding off on jumping him.
Just a few more days, I reminded myself. I pulled myself back from pulling off my own clothes and physically took a step backwards to remove myself from temptation. Even as I did, it did nothing to squash down how tempting he was now that I had a fuller view of him.
“Your car is blocking mine in Phillips,” I informed him. “But if you are busy, I don’t mind waiting until you’re done since I can’t leave campus without you,” I said, glancing at Nicole before looking back at him.
“I’m not going to put a show on for you,” Nicole said with a sneer. I turned to look at her. Really look at her. Her hair had half dried while we were standing there, and her brown hair was fuzzing out, but you saw its true color now, which really wasn’t a bad shade. Her arms still crisscrossed her breasts. They looked to be about a handful from what I could still see and remembered from earlier. I skimmed her waist, pelvis, and slightly shivering legs. There were about three possible reasons her legs might have been shaking, and I couldn’t care less which one it was.
“You are not the one I would be watching,” I said as I turned to look at a much more appealing body. The smile that was on my face grew a bit wider as I saw Dennis’ skin start to darken to a richer pink around his collarbone.
“Four or zero Phillips?” I asked him. Would he understand the question? I wondered. I saw when the light lit up his eyes as he got it. He turned to look at Nichole, who seemed to be getting angrier the longer we ignored her.
“Nicole, you aren’t going to get what you came here for tonight. Get dressed and leave,” he said without giving her a glance and turning to walk back towards the lockers.
“Pity. No show,” I said, sounding a bit put out as I also ignored Nicole as I followed Dennis out of the room.
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