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It is two days until August. William stands behind the counter of the shoe rental, leaning back against the cubbies of worn shoes, idly chipping off bits of his black nail polish. It is his second year working at the Hokey Pokey Bowl. Luckily, it's a Saturday with no birthday parties scheduled. He has one month left of relative freedom before the crash and clatter of balls and pins are replaced with school bells and slammed lockers.
“Hey William, you’re up for break!”
Immediately William pulls down the long black mesh sleeves hidden under his staff uniform bowling shirt. He sticks his thumbs through the holes, grabs his bag and heads to the food counter. He fishes around in his bag for his tarot deck and lets his hands start shuffling. Time to find out what August has in store for him.
“Lemme guess. Chicken tenders and fries?”
Startled, William looks up into Eddie’s grinning face.
“You’re a mind reader!” he gushes, then immediately gets hit with a flood of embarrassment. William bites the inside of his lip as Eddie spins around to call in his order. He trys not to let his eyes linger too long on any one part of his body. It is not easy. He swallows. Eddie is wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off under his apron. The tie in the back is causing his shirt to lift up away from the waistband of his acid washed jeans. William looks up at the ceiling to avoid the slice of exposed skin.
“It’s the only decent thing on the menu.” Eddie winks. WINKS. William can feel the heat rise in his cheeks. He looks away, scanning over his shoulder for a free table. Eddie clicks his tongue and decides to try again. “Sooo.. how do those work?”
“Huh?”
“The cards. Those aren’t normal cards, right?”
“Right! They’re tarot,” Billy palpably relaxes as he lets his mouth take over, “You can still use them like normal cards if you take the trumps, that is the major arcana, out. Tarot actually evolved from a card game, but of course everyone is just interested in the fortune telling aspect now. I mean who can blame them! I really see it more as an intuitive tool though. I-I’m still learning…” William tapers off as Eddies’ eyebrows raise. Eddie smirks.
“Order up!” interrupts them as William’s fingers’n’fries appear on the pass. Eddie grabs the red plastic basket and hands it over towards Billy who snatches it and gets out of there as fast as he can.
- - -
William polishes off his last chicken tender and pushes the red basket of fries to the side of the table. He sits cross-legged on the hard plastic chair that awkwardly connects to the table in the bowling alley eating area. Giving his hands a cursory wipe on his jeans, he pointedly decides to stop dwelling on Eddie’s magnetic eyes and wide easy grin, and picks up the tarot deck again. He lets his hands take over shuffling and shifts the cards around on auto-pilot. He stops, cuts the deck and peeks at the card. THE FOOL.
“I was enquiring about the future not the past...” he mutters under his breath. He needs to focus. He closes his eyes and keeps shuffling.
“Ooo, I’m just in time!” Eddie crunches down into the seat opposite William, grabbing a fry from his basket. William stares at him, heart thudding in his chest. “Thought I’d take my fifteen and join you… if that’s okay?”
“Y-yeah, I..” William scans Eddies’ face for any mocking intent and finds none, “Sure.”
Eddie smiles and makes a dramatic bowing gesture for William to take the lead.
“I was just doing a future reading for the month of August. Go ahead, you can cut the deck.”
“Oookay, now what? Where do I put-”
“Just place the top at the bottom and bottom on top. Here give it to me.”
William fans the cards out in a smooth line face-down in front of them. He pulls the first card.
THE LOVERS.
Eddies’ eyebrows shoot up again and William can feel his stare but he is determined to not meet it.
"Y-you know, that card doesn't actually always mean what you think it means. It's actually the two of cups that can more commonly indicate the start of a new romance…” He flips over the next card. TWO OF CUPS. “Oh.. um. Hmm.”
William’s hands are suddenly clumsy in his haste to move on to the next card. TEN OF CUPS.
“Is that… a rainbow?”
William grits his teeth and frantically gathers all the cards back up. “I CLEARLY didn’t shuffle very well, sorry!”
He takes a quick breath, trying to clear his mind and starts shuffling again. He cuts the deck and pulls three cards in quick succession.
ACE OF WANDS. THE TOWER. EIGHT OF WANDS.
William chokes. This is punishment. He is being punished for being too horny. Honestly, if you take a look at Eddie, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is clearly entrapment. He slams his hands down over the cards and sends half the deck flying off the table.
“Oh. My. God.”
He peers over the edge. The ACE OF CUPS. FOUR OF WANDS. MAGICIAN. KING OF CUPS. THE WORLD. stare back at him face-up in a sea of face-down cards. There is no conceivable way he is not blushing. His entire body feels like a furnace. Is this what a stroke feels like? He buries his face in his hands.
“Hey, um William,” William peeks through his fingers to find Eddie crouched on the ground beneath him, picking up the cards, “I really like you too.”
Eddie hands the cards back to him and reaches out to steady himself with a hand on Williams’ thigh.
“Oh,” William says. Eddie leans up and softly brushes his lips over Williams.
“Oh!” William grabs Eddie's shirt collar and pulls him in for a real kiss.
“Maybe I’m better at tarot than I thought.”