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Andy had been home a lot in the 10 years since he graduated high school. For holidays, birthdays, for Molly’s own graduation, and just because. Now, though, he felt like he was home for a purpose – a different dynamic that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. His high school reunion – a place where’d been pretty popular and never had to deal with the every day drama a lot of his classmates did. He’d been a star athlete, prom king, and member of nearly every club in school. Andy was voted Most Likely to Succeed and he and Melanie Carlucci were voted Most Adorable Couple.
Andy broke up with Melanie his first semester of college after a frat party with beers and a bong had morphed into being sucked off in the bathroom, his fingers digging into the cold porcelain of the sink.
He hadn’t been surprised when it happened; he’d thought about it enough in high school except the one guy he thought about it with hated his guts for seemingly the mere fact that Andy was well-adjusted. Dating Melanie was easy and uncomplicated, if rather a dick move. Then again she never like to have sex all that much so really they were more friends who kissed.
Andy was completely unsurprised when he received an invitation five years later to her commitment ceremony.
Now he was 27 with two failed relationships under his belt and a mother bemoaning that fact because she wanted some ‘damn grandchildren’ as she liked to put it, even though Andy firmly expressed he had no interest in adopting; he loved kids but it wasn’t like the types of guys he dated were even looking for something that permanent, hence the two failed relationships.
Andy worked in Columbus as a literary assistant at a publishing firm. The hours weren’t grueling, the pay was decent, and he didn’t dread what he did; he assumed that was all anyone could ask for. Everyone had expected Andy to choose some kind of outlandish profession but honestly, he just wanted to be around books. He majored in English, minored in comparative literature and took a few internships before getting hired at his current job. His first serious boyfriend was an intern with the firm and he’d known it was a bad idea but in the end the internship latest 2 months and Andy’s relationship 2 years. His next boyfriend was older, a doctor and his mother nearly cried when it ended after 4 years.
With Josh, it had been because he was too young and didn’t want to settle down with anyone. With Billy it was because he was older and decided the things Andy wanted: a house, a dog, a huge backyard, weren’t what he needed right now. Apparently what he needed was to fuck hot pieces of ass in their apartment in the middle of the afternoon.
Andy was a little over a year out of that relationship and had only been on a handful of dates since. He was headed to a reunion with no one on his arm and no flashy job to boast about. Part of him didn’t know why he was even going until he’d thumbed through his yearbook the other night and paused on a picture: Sid Phillips.
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Sid Phillips was the bad boy; the kind of kid his mom literally told him to stay away. Sid would regularly get thrown into detention, cut class, smoke in the stairwells, and walk around in a leather jacket, chain wallet hanging from his baggy ripped jeans and a backwards hat. It didn’t compute that Andy had wanted him more than anything in high school. He thought maybe it was just a rebellious streak since the kind of guys he ended up dating were nothing like Sid. Sid would glare at Andy in the halls, tilting his chin up when he walked past as if daring Andy to say something about his hair which sometimes looked a tad too greasy under his hat. Andy never did and for some reason that seemed to egg Sid on even more. He’d occasionally taunt Andy during gym class, making fun of his long, skinny legs. Andy was a runner but Sid didn’t seem to know or care.
Sometimes Sid would bring up their childhood when they lived next door to one another, just to announce to the class that Andy played with dolls while Andy would say at least he didn’t almost cinch his eyebrows off with amateur fireworks. The class had laughed with Andy, not Sid, while Sid had seethed. Andy never felt good about it; instead just tried to imagine it was Sid’s mouth he was kissing instead of Melanie’s. Except Melanie was too soft and Sid had a bit of stubble and small goatee that Andy had wanted to feel between his thighs.
So, Sid Phillips was that one unattainable, ill-advised crush that everyone had in high school and seeing his picture brought it all back. In that moment Andy knew he couldn’t possibly turn down the opportunity to see Sid 10 years on in life. Wasn’t that what reunions were all about anyway? Everyone had a motive and Andy wasn’t above admitting to himself this was his. He knew it was ridiculous and Sid, who never gave a shit about school when he was in it, wouldn’t show up in a million years. Still, it was worth a shot.
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Chagrin Falls High School has been named one of top 100 schools in the country. The school was small but well-meaning. The teachers were dedicated and the library was filled with eclectic and knowledgeable individuals – sometimes Andy had spent more time there than he did at home. He walked back inside those walls wearing a black blazer, blue shirt and dark jeans and felt huge. It looked exactly the same but he was a stranger here now. The auditorium was decorated with signs and random blown-up pictures from his classes’ yearbook.
Andy was surrounded by ghosts from his past and terrible music that he hated back then and hated even more now.
They did the whole nametag thing, which Andy found so silly. If people recognized him, cool. If not, why broadcast it? A few people came up to him, shook his hand; Chuck from the football team, Mary from debate club, and Brian from newspaper club who was so obviously gay and flirting with Andy it wasn’t even funny. They stood by the bleachers catching up, Brian’s body angling into Andy’s own. Brian wasn’t terrible looking. He worn glasses and clearly dressed exactly the same as he did back in high school but he had a nice smile and Andy remembered him being smart.
Brian’s sentence trailed off as he sipped his drink and looked out at the room. “Jesus, who brings a kid here?”
“Huh?” Andy said, and followed his gaze. There was a little boy standing at the punch table, picking at the finger food selection.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Andy glared at him, revising his opinion in one second flat. “Excuse me,” he said and walked toward the boy who now had turned and was looking around, a little helplessly.
“Hi there,” Andy said, smiling down on him. He had short black hair and even darker eyes. There was something familiar in the cut of his jaw but Andy couldn’t quite place it. “Where’s your mommy?”
“It’s my daddy and he’d beat you up if he found you talking to me. I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
Andy jerked a little at the abruptness of his words and then found his mouth curling into a smile. “Sounds like your dad’s a smart man.”
“You never used to think so,” came a voice from behind him, similar to the one he’d just heard but so much deeper; and terribly familiar. Andy froze, turned, and found he was face to face with Sid Phillips.
He looked Sid up and down. His hair was still a bit long at the ends and on the sides. He was wearing flannel and jeans that were considerably less baggy than his high school days. Naturally, he wasn’t wearing the designated nametag.
“Hey,” Andy said, as if they were old friends.
Sid raised an eyebrow at him and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Andrew Davis. All around golden boy,” Sid said, by way of greeting, holding a hand out around Andy; the kid took Sid’s hand immediately and Andy watched with fascination as Sid pulled him to his side and ruffled his hair. “I told you to wait outside the auditorium, Matthew. I was just going to the bathroom. I wouldn't let him in those filthy stalls if you paid me,” Sid added to Andy with a wink.
“I know, but I was thirsty.”
Sid looked down fondly and ruffled Matthew's hair again. “Please tell me this punch isn’t spiked,”
he said, glancing up at Andy.
Andy let out a startled laugh. “Not that I know of.”
“What’s spiked, Dad?”
“You’ll find out in a few years I’m sure,” Sid said, looking down at him fondly. Andy looked back and forth between them, wanting to know their story, Sid’s story. He also felt like a pervert thinking that any outlandish hopes of a hot one-night stand were now dashed as Sid was clearly straight and probably married. Jesus.
Sid clapped him on the arm. “Anyway, thanks for keeping an eye on him, Davis. We’ll let you get back to mingling now,” Sid said, and took a step to leave.
“Don’t go,” Andy called.
Sid looked back at him over his shoulder and then shrugged and walked back to stand in front of Andy. Andy found himself at a loss for words.
“Let’s have a seat?’ he motioned toward the bleachers.
Sid shrugged again. “Alright. Meet you there.” Andy watched he and Matthew walk toward the punch table.
When they both joined him, Sid had a cup full and Matthew had a plethora of meats, cheeses and pigs in a blanket on his dish.
“So uh, did you just get here or were you hiding?”
“Just arrived, after multiple stops. This one is a terror on car rides. Has to pee more than an 80-year-old man.”
“I’m bored, Dad,” Matthew said. Andy surmised he couldn’t be more than 7 or 8.
“I know buddy.” He kissed the top of his son’s head and Andy found his mind blown. How was this the same guy who set off fireworks in his backyard and spray painted school sucks on his own locker?
Sid must have noticed Andy watching and looked at him, mouth drawn into an unpleasant line. “Look, I know he shouldn’t be here so spare me the judgment. The sitter literally cancelled at the last minute.”
“I wasn’t judging you,” Andy said honestly.
Sid snorted. “I’m sure. You always thought you were better than everyone else, always on your high horse.”
Andy suddenly felt angry but didn’t want to raise his voice in front of a kid. “I never felt that way at all.”
“Sure seemed like it, the way you’d walk around school like you were tough..” he glanced at his son and then back at Andy, “doo-doo.”
Andy laughed heartedly at the word and the entire situation. He could see Sid’s mouth quirking even as he said, “Shut up, Davis, I’m airing out old grievances. You’re supposed to be able to do that at these things.”
“Is that why you actually showed?” Andy asked, still smiling and the last of his angry evaporating. The question felt oddly important to him.
“My therapist thought it would be a good idea,” he quipped, stealing a pig in a blanket off Matthew’s plate. Andy couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. In high school, Sid had the most sarcastic sense of humor Andy had ever encountered.
“Are you actually listening to authority figures now?” He hated the lilt in his voice, the slightly flirtatious tone he couldn’t control. Sid was even more unattainable now as he was back then.
Sid smirked at him. “She’s terrifying, man; damn straight I listen.”
Andy grinned at him and held Sid’s gaze, feeling his stomach clench with desire. Sid was even more attractive now, face fuller and more defined. He still had a goatee that he managed to pull off to a ridiculous degree. Sid’s eyes darkened slightly as they looked at one another, causing Andy to swallow hard.
He watched Sid run his tongue over his bottom lip. “I think the real question,” he began, voice a low rumble as he leaned on his arm, shifting his upper body forward slightly, “is why you’re hanging out with the class loser instead of your jock buddies.”
“My therapist told me to?” Andy tried, voice cracking slightly.
“So unoriginal,” Sid said with mock disappointment.
“I’m seriously bored, Dad! Can’t I just go home and play video games?”
Sid tore his gaze away from Andy almost regretfully so and Andy jerked out of whatever surreal world he’d just fallen into.
“Knew this was a bad idea,” he mumbled to himself. “Alright, we won’t stay much longer, buddy. Go get some more food, I’ll be right here.”
Matthew looked from his Dad to Andy and back again. “Okay.” He turned to leave and then looked back. “You have freckles,” he said to Andy.
Andy blinked at the non-sequitur. “Yes, I do.”
“Dad says Mom had freckles. I don’t have them, though.”
Andy felt his stomach twist. “Oh, um. Well come here, I’ll share some of mine with you.”
Matthew looked at him skeptically but took a step closer. Andy didn’t look at Sid even though he could feel his eyes on him. “Here,” he said, cupping a hand to his cheek then closing his fist tightly until he reached Matthew’s face. He opened his hand flat and made like he was sprinkling dust all over his face.
“There you go,” Andy said.
Matthew wrinkled his nose and felt his face. “That’s silly. I’m 7 years old, I know you can’t give me freckles like that.”
Andy raised his eyebrows, smiling at him. “Oh no?”
“No silly, you have to use a freckle machine.”
“Ahhh,” Andy nodded, trying not to laugh. “You caught me.”
Andy watched as he rolled his eyes at Sid, looking exactly like his dad, and then turned away. “He’s a lot like you,” Andy said awkwardly, finally daring a glance at Sid.
Sid studied him. “You’re good with him.”
Andy shrugged, feeling the heat rise to his face. “I obviously missed the freckle memo.”
“Yeah, what am I saying? You suck, man.” He leaned back on his arms, looking around the room. “I have nothing in common with any of these people.”
Andy looked around as well, recognizing some faces. Brian caught his eye again, scowling a little. Andy laughed to himself. “I really don’t either.”
They were silent for a moment, Sid’s focus clearly on Matthew as he was now taking his plate over to the DJ.
“I’m sorry if I reminded him of his mom,” Andy said, not knowing how to approach the subject or even if he should be doing so.
“He never knew her. It’s okay.”
Andy turned his head but Sid was staring straight ahead, shoulders squared. “I’m sorry,” Andy said again.
Sid waved his hand. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. She wasn’t my wife. She was a week long fling who was strung out on Meth and I knocked her up. 9 months later she shows up at my door looking like death and hands me the kid. It felt right to keep him. Not like I was doing much with my life up to that point.”
Jesus. Andy stared at him in awe, thrown by the responsibility Sid took on at the age of 20 while most people were off at college getting drunk and playing beer pong.
He found himself wanting to know Sid’s story – how he balanced a job and a kid, what he was doing now. He bit his tongue against the questions that threatened to flow out and instead said, “He seems like a great kid. And it looks like you’re a great father.”
Sid turned his head to the side, looking at Andy. “I took him all the way from Columbus to come here and now I’m just gonna be putting him right back in a car because he’s cranky. I’m not that great of a dad.”
Andy’s eyes widened. “You live in Columbus?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“So do I!”
Sid looked at him patiently. “Well, it is a big city, Davis.”
Andy flushed, feeling foolish at his own excitement. He couldn’t help it, being here, being near Sid was turning him into a teenager again. Sid was the only one who could make him tongue-tied simply because Andy didn’t know what to do with him, how to talk to him in a way that didn’t make him sound like a total geek. No one else ever had affected him that way.
Sid clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s cool, though. Maybe I pick up your trash again, just like old times.”
“Oh, you still..”
Sid cut him off. “Yeah, transferred to their city’s sanitation department a few years ago. Better pay and hours; great benefits and schools for Matthew. How bout you? Married? Family?”
Andy took a breath and let it out before meeting Sid’s eyes. “Gay, single, no kids. Have a dog, though.”
“Huh,” Sid said, sitting leaning back against the bleachers again and watching Matthew dance in front of the DJ booth. “Part of me thought maybe, but then again you were always attached to that chick’s hip.”
“Melanie,” Andy supplied. “She’s a lesbian, got married a few years go. Couldn’t make it tonight, their daughter was sick.” Andy knew he was babbling and felt his palms sweating. He wasn’t in the closet and was completely unashamed of his sexuality but in his mind telling Sid was equal to revealing his crush, even though logically he knew that didn’t make sense.
Sid was quiet for a few moments, seemingly lost in staring at Matthew. “Guys kind of suck, and not in the good way, when they discover you have a kid.”
Andy turned his head so flash he gave himself whiplash. “Um,” Andy said.
Sid was grinning at him. “Just because someone has a kid and slept with a chick doesn’t make them straight. Jeez, Davis, is this Homo 101 or something?”
Andy laughed, a little hysterically. “Was there something in the water at our school?”
Just then Matthew bounded back to him and into his arms. Sid smiled into his hair. “Hey, kiddo. You looked good out there. Breaking any hearts yet?”
“Those people are stupid. They laugh weird.”
Andy and Sid shared a look. Sid rubbed his back. “Yeah, that’s called being fake. You’ll meet a lot of people like that.”
“I’m tired,” he said, yawning against Sid’s chest.
Sid met Andy’s eyes again and this time there was definite regret in them and something else. Something Andy always wanted to see. “We should to be going.”
Andy swallowed around the lump in his throat. “You driving back tonight?” Andy asked, even though Sid had hinted as much before. He just wanted to keep talking.
“Yeah, he’ll sleep in the car. He likes his own bed.”
Andy nodded. “I’m staying till tomorrow. Visiting my mom.”
Sid met his eyes and yeah, there was definite interest in them; heat. Andy ran a hand through his hair.
“You look good,” Sid said, voice a near whisper.
Andy’s hand faltered and he licked at his dry lips. “So do you.”
Sid’s gaze fell to Andy’s mouth and a thrill shot through his body.
“Now show Matthew not everyone here is fake and walk us to our car,” he ordered, standing and hoisting his son firmly into his arms.
“Yes, Mr. Phillips, Sir,” Andy quipped.
Brian raised his eyebrows at Andy as they walked by. Andy flipped him off. It felt good.
Sid gently eased Matthew into the front seat, buckling him in and putting a blanket over him. He was out like a light already.
He shut the door gently turned to face Andy, resting back against the passenger side door.
“What do you do in Columbus?”
“Work for a publishing firm.”
Sid nodded. “Cool.” He ran his hand through his hair. “We should hang out sometime.”
Andy felt his pulse race. “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
“I can get a sitter,” he said, taking a step closer into Andy’s space.
Andy’s throat bobbed and he felt his cock stir. “I don’t mind… I like him,” Andy said, honestly, nervous energy threading through him.
Something akin to relief flittered across Sid’s face and then it was gone, a smirk replacing it as he traced his fingertips down Andy’s face. “Just because I’m a dad now doesn’t mean I’ve turned wholesome, Davis. I’d like to take you out and show you first hand how much that isn’t true.”
Andy let out a shaky breath as the fingers trailed down his jaw and over his neck. “Yeah, okay.”
Sid’s hands left his face as he pulled out his phone. Andy did the same and they exchanged numbers.
“I should go,” Sid said. “I’ll call you.”
Andy smiled and walked with him to the front of the car. “I’d like that. And I’ll try to track down that freckle machine in the interim.”
Sid paused at the driver’s side and looked back at Andy, face serious. “I’m sorry I treated you like shit in school.”
Andy blinked. “Okay. Is that your therapist talking?”
“No; that’s the kid who knew you were kinda perfect but didn’t want to admit it.”
Andy felt his chest unlock, warmth blooming throughout his body. “You’d better call me.”
Sid grinned. “Goodnight, Andy.”
Andy hadn’t realized how long he’d been waiting to hear that voice say his name. He couldn’t wait until it happened again.
He watched until Sid drove away and then walked to his own car, not bothering to head back inside; he already found what he came for.