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“Honey, the new pool guy will be starting today” his mom warned him, walked down to the kitchen.
He sat at the bench by the table, looking a little confused. It was still too early for him. “Pool?”
“Pool!” his mother agreed, biting an apple. “A whole on the floor, filled with water?” she tried, when Jason squinted, looking even more confused. “Here, take some coffee, and then you’ll understand any words”
He grabbed the mug and drank from it. Jason was the type of person who was never completely awake until the morning coffee. He drank it black and with a lot of sugar.
Five minutes later he looked much more awake, and actually paying attention to what his mother was saying.
“… and then she said I can’t skip it today, so I’ll be home late. Also, my agent called me and said I a pilot came up in New York, so I maybe I’ll fly there somewhere this month.” She finished, and served more orange juice on her glass. “Okay. Did you heard what I said?”
“Yes” he replied, looking out of the window.
“Then repeat to me” she asked, staring at him, until he looked back at her.
“You’ll be out for brunch with a reporter and will probably say something embarrassing, then lunch with your publicist, which means that I’ll have to cook for myself”
“…or you can call Meg” she interrupted
“I’ll cook lunch for myself” he repeated, to make sure she was listening. Jason didn’t like to have their cook when his mother wasn’t at home. It always made him feel too spoiled. “And then you have an AA meeting, and then you’ll probably go out with your sponsor to buy shoes or something like that, which means that you probably get home by eight” he smiled. “is that all?”
“You make me so proud” she joked, faking a smile at him. “No, but seriously. Be responsible.”
“Mom, I’m on this house alone five times a week. If I want I could throw a party, or have an orgy on the living room, or start a cult and you wouldn’t even be aware of it for at least a month”
“You make me sound like a careless mother”
“…because you are so busy working to provide for your beautiful son” he added “is that good?”
“Yes.” She shook her head “what went wrong when you were growing up and turned into a sarcastic little shit?” she asked, more to herself than to him.
“Top class education and too much free time” he offered, smiling.
“Oh, shut up” she chuckled “But anyway, what matters is: new pool guy is coming today, and he is about sixteen, I think, and you be a nice person and talk to him.” His mother insisted that he treated all employees of their house with respect and courtesy.
“When have I not?” he smiled at her.
“Be responsible” she warned him again.
Less than an hour later, he heard a car stopping at the front of his house. He ran to the window and saw a navy blue old pick up, and a teenage boy getting out of it.
Jason prepared his best “mysterious male love interest” pose against the door of the backyard, looking straight to the pool. He had this thing in him, that in order to boost his confidence he had to flirt with anyone new he met - which had led to several make out sessions in bathrooms at celebrities houses – and this time wouldn’t be different.
He expected the boy to be the typical Los Angeles guy: tanned, fit and with a easy smile.
And he was completely right. The pool boy was completely what he expected. And more amusingly, he jumped when he saw Jason on the door, staring at him. This sounded extremely fun.
“Hello” Jason offered, giving him a smile.
“Hello” the boy replied, hesitantly.
“I’m Jason”
“Mrs. Grace’s son?” the boy looked less hesitant now. Jason nodded. “Yeah, she said you would be here. I’m Percy” he introduced himself.
Jason spent the whole morning in the kitchen, “accidentally” in a point where he could see the pool clearly, cooking. He decided to make one of those fancy meals that his mother hated because it tasted too salty. He hoped Percy didn’t share the same thought of Mrs. Grace; Jason could cook for three hours and not even notice the time pass, so it was clearly a surprised when Percy called him at the door.
“Hey, Jason, right?” Percy stopped at the door.
“Yes” Jason turned to him, still holding a knife.
“I just wanted to say I’m finished here,” he pointed at the pool over his shoulder “And uh, we’re all set” he smiled.
“Already?” Jason sounded surprised. “I was going to invite your for lunch”
“Oh” Percy looked kind of embarrassed “I had no idea, sorry.”
“Do you want to stay anyway?” Jason offered.
“I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a thing with my friend and yeah, sorry” he apologized, looking seriously embarrassed. “But next time I’ll do it”
Jason smiled gracefully “I’ll wait until it then”
He had no reason to be mad at Percy, but he had reasons to be bitter at missing a great opportunity of knowing him better. And damn he was going to blame himself for that for, at least, the rest of the week.
“Did the pool boy came?” His mother asked, when she got home, later that evening.
“Yeah” Jason answered, not looking at her.
“What do you have to say about him?’
“Eh” Jason shrugged
“Really?”
“Yeah. He seems cool but that’s mostly it”
“I guess you’re staying today, right?” was the first thing Jason said when he saw Percy Parking his pick up in the front of the house, a week later. “You promised me” he reminded.
“I know, I know” Percy laughed “I’m a man who honors his words. Set the table for two”
“Actually three” Jason corrected “My mom is here today”
Percy regretted his decision “Are you sure you should invite me for lunch?” he asked, raising an eyebrow “I mean, your mom is here”
“What’s wrong with her?” Jason chuckled.
“I’m a little scared of her” Percy said, honestly. “I mean, she is a movie superstar and all of that. It’s a little scary.”
“Oh, believe me, she is not scary at all” Jason scoffed “She is not what the magazines say, she is pretty nice.”
“If you insist” Percy agreed.
While Jason convinced his mother that he did not had any second intentions with the pool boy, Meg cooked the dinner.
Mary Grace never been a relationship expert, but she could definitely see when something was sparking. And she could even expect Jason denying everything, but she knew her son. She knew how he bit his lower lip when he was nervous, and ran a hand through his hair far too much when he was trying to impress someone, but most of all, he laughed at every single stupid thing Percy.
“Your crush is showing” she whispered at Jason, when Percy went to the bathroom.
“I don’t have a crush” he complained, whispering too.
“Oh, so you just want to make out with him, then?” she smiled suggestively.
“Mostly, yes” Jason agreed. It was common for them to talk about relationships, and Mary never missed a chance to make fun of her son. “I hate you. And don’t say anything!” he asked.
Percy came back, told a stupid joke and laughed. Jason laughed too. And did it through most of the lunch. Meanwhile, Mary kept glaring at him and smiling, and even winking at one point. To which Jason replied with a threatening look.
Two weeks later and Jason had lost the subtlety – and a part of his dignity – and was completely ready for war. Which meant that he would be lying in the sun while Percy cleaned the pool. Of course he still had some decency, so he planned to even do some small talk, to not keep things awkward, or too obvious.
(But considering how obvious he had been in the prior week… he had two options: a. Percy wasn’t interested or b. he was, in fact, blind)
When the blue pick up stopped at the door he was already by the pool, shirtless and with his hair perfectly in place, with a book by some russian author. It wasn’t the perfect excuse, but it was good enough. He was this obsessed with the pool boy exactly because were not there yet, wherever "there" was. Every time Percy ignored one of his not-so-subtle hints he felt dumb. So he had to keep going.
“Hey there” Percy greeted, once he saw Jason on the chair.
“Hey” Jason smiled to him. “Do you mind if I stay around?” he asked, putting the book down “I don’t want to get in your way or anything like that…”
“No, I don’t mind. In fact it’s good to have some company” Percy smiled, and Jason felt even more obsessed with him.
For the next forty five minutes, none of them spoke a word. Percy did his job in silent, barely looking away from the pool; and Jason did his reading very poorly, barely looking away from Percy.
“Why do you do this job?” Jason asked, finally, breaking the silence, because he couldn’t handle it anymore. “Why do you clean pools?”
“Because your people don’t like to do it?” Percy replied before thinking about it. “Shit. I’m sorry.” He was blushing really hard. “I didn’t mean to… I mean… I don’t..”
“It’s okay” Jason chuckled, and tried to take Percy out of his misery “I wouldn’t know how to do this anyway…” he shrugged and closed his book. “Want to try again?” he offered.
“Okay” Percy took a deep breath. “I do this because I can’t stand being at home feeling useless while my mom goes out and gets stuff done. And beside surfing, I didn’t used to do anything. And I couldn’t get a job at any store, so here I am”
“What does your mom do?”
“She is a writer” Percy said, proudly.
“A writer?” Jason sounded surprised. “Is she any good?”
“She is the best” Percy smiled. “But now she is forced to work for some shitty tv show and can’t really do what she likes, but it pays the bills” he shrugged.
“Oh yes. My mom had a phase like this” he said, laying back again “But if it serves of any help, your mom will get her big break soon, just like mine did”
“I hope she does.” He sounded very serious about it. “I really do”
“Me too, man” Jason offered, out of kindness.
Later, when Percy finished his job and was packing up to leave, and Jason hadn’t even left his chair, he kept going back and forth on a thought, he didn’t know if it was inappropriate or not.
“Uh, hey, do you… do you surf?” he asked Jason, stopping by the chair, covering the sun.
“Uh… t’s been a while since I did it’ it was somewhat embarrassing for him to admit it, considering he lived pretty much on the beach.
“Do you want to go again?” He asked again, more sure, this time.
Jason considered the invitation, and once again wondered if he was seeing things were there wasn’t anything. “Sure, why not?”
Percy smiled. “I’ll come by after lunch? At 2:30 or 3:00, maybe? I like the sunset…”
“3:00 is okay” Jason agreed.
“Okay. I’ll see you there. Here, I mean” and he left, before Jason could see him blushing.
If there was one thing that Jason would be forever glad to be invented was wetsuits, because Percy looked ridiculously beautiful in that.
“Are you ready to go?” Percy asked, holding his board.
“Yeah” Jason tried to smile, but it was too nervous. It had been a while since he tried to surf, and back then he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. (And even now, he was still in denial, swearing to himself he wasn’t trying to impress Percy) “Just, don’t have too high expectations, okay?”
“I won’t” Percy promised and ran to the water. Jason had no other choice but to follow him.
He felt nervous walking into the water, mostly because he was really looking forward to not suck at this. He had to be just a little good at it.
Swim, swim, a little wave, swim more and more. Soon they were distant from the beach, waiting.
“See, this is why I like the sunset” Percy says, sitting on his board, while Jason floats by his side. "It makes the waiting much more worth.
Jason had to agree. The sunset was indeed a very beautiful moment. But when he was starting to appreciate its beauty, the surfing part was about to actually become. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping he didn’t suck at it.
Minutes later – and several failed attempts – they floated side by side again.
“Well, you can’t blame me” Jason defended himself. “I did said I sucked at it!”
Percy rolled his eyes. “I didn’t expect for you to be so bad!” he laughed “Have you ever managed to stand on a board?”
“yes!” Jason replied quickly “A long time ago, but I did”
“But now I’d suggest some beginners classes for you, because you definitely need it” he joke.
Jason punched his arm and Percy fell in the water.
“You’re an idiot, do you know that?” Percy complained, but laughing, while holding to his board.
“I do” Jason grinned.
“Good” Percy jumped and tackled Jason onto the water.
For a moment Jason panicked, feeling like he was drowning, but he could feel the ground beneath them, and Percy’s hands holding his arms, making sure they wouldn’t get separated. When they surfaced, Jason had barely a second to catch his breath, before Percy grabbed him into a kiss. And it took him by surprised, he didn’t know how to react. But he realized that not kissing back was probably the worst reaction. Just a little too late.
“I’m sorry” Percy said, letting go of Jason, “I though… with all the shirtless… and the underwear inside the house and the flirting… I thought” he was blushing. “I’m sorry”
“No” Jason shook his head “I was just surprised” He was used to make the first move. Smiling and extended his arm, he invited Percy to come closer.
This time the kiss was gentler and longer. Jason’s hand was on Percy’s neck, holding the boy close to him. Percy, on the other hand, grabbed Jason by the waist, his fingers slipping on the wet wetsuit; he separated their lips to kiss the little of neck that the wetsuit left uncovered, and then moving up on the other’s jawline. Jason moaned slightly, and Percy laughed.
“You really are an idiot” Percy shook his head and gave him a little kiss on the lips. “We should get out of here.” he suggested.
They ran up to Jason’s house, with boards in hand, and giggling like two idiots who had did something very stupid. To their surprise, they found Mrs. Grace sitting by the pool in sunglasses and a giant hat, reading from a pile of scripts.
“You’re home early” Jason said, as soon as they got close to her. “You’re never home so early. Something happened?”
“Not really” she put down the script.
Suddenly Jason became very aware of his proximity with Percy, and hoped it wasn’t completely clear what they were doing. Anyhow, he felt his ears getting warmer. “Oh, right.”
“But you weren’t home,” she started, “And then Percy’s truck was here, so I came here to wait for you” she smiled at him.
Jason blushed even harder, and Percy couldn’t say anything at all. “Well, Percy was about to leave, weren’t you?” he asked, and saw the other boy nod “So I’ll go upstairs and take a shower, and uh,”
“Percy can shower downstairs” she offered, interrupting him. “Is right by the kitchen” she pointed. “Jason, may I have a word?” she asked, taking off her sunglasses.
He gestured to Percy to get inside and sat on the chair besides his mother’s.
She waited until Percy was inside and the bathroom door closed. “I thought I said for you to be responsible” she whispered.
“I was being! I still am” he whispered back.
“The pool boy? Seriously? I thought you were better than being such a cliché”
“He invited me to go surfing!”
“You were practically rubbing yourself on his face!” she shook her head. “Do what you want, but be responsible” she warned him again. “Now go and shower, you want to look clean to bid your boyfriend goodbye” she mocked.
“He’s not my boyfriend, mom” he hissed and she laughed at him.