Chapter Text
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I heard someone say to me as I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes until I was awake enough to see who it was. It was Karine, my girlfriend.
I sighed. “Good morning,” I smiled at her. She was curled up against me under the bedsheets of my bed. I lay there in silence, absentmindedly playing with Karine’s hair.
“I guess we should get up, huh?” she sighed, her eyes closing. She seemed content right where she was, and I didn’t really mind having her here.
“I suppose,” I said, sitting up a little straighter.
“What time is it?” she asked me.
I glanced over at the clock on my bedside table. “9:23,” I told her.
“Shit,” she said, suddenly sitting up straight in bed. “I told Patricia I’d be at her shop by 9:45!”
“To do what?” I asked.
She stared at me blankly like I was an idiot. “To pick up the acid, dummy,” she told me, and then stood up from bed.
“Right,” I said. “Well, uh… do you want me to come with you?”
“Nah,” she said, pulling on a t-shirt over her head. “You’ll only slow me down,” she joked.
I laughed softly before standing up as well and getting dressed.
“You cool to meet up tonight?” she asked as I clipped my belt buckle into place. “At the usual spot?”
“Yeah, um,” I trailed off, turning around to face her. “Sure,” I said, and nodded casually. She was already dressed and ready to go.
“Cool,” she said, walking over to me. She gave me a quick kiss before walking over to the door and opening it. “See you then,” she said, and then she was gone.
As soon as I heard her footsteps creaking down onto the hardwood floors of the stairs, I flopped back down onto my bed. Why had I said yes to her invitation? Having sex with Karine was fine, and I was fairly used to it, but doing it two nights in a row? That was too much.
Suddenly, the phone rang downstairs. I decided to go get it, seeing as Dad was probably working, and Mom was probably out running errands. She usually went grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. So, I walked across my room and opened the door and made my way down to the kitchen and picked up the phone.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hey, Stoof,” I heard a familiar voice say. It was Ismaël, my best friend, and, admittedly, my crush.
“Hey, Isma,” I said, the sound of his voice bringing a smile to my face. “What’s up?”
“I, uh…” he trailed off and sighed. He didn’t sound too great. “I sorta… got kicked out,” he told me.
My eyes widened. “Seriously?” I said. I knew his Dad could be strict, but this seemed too far. “Why, what happened?” I asked, unable to hide the concern in my voice.
“Pye’s dad found Pye’s patch of weed in his orchard and he was somehow convinced that I was the one growing it,” he said. “The guy’s totally racist, no wonder Pye’s as messed up as he is.”
“Damn,” I said, sighing. “That sucks, man. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s ‘aight,” he said. But he didn’t sound alright.
“Well, uh…” I trailed off. “Is there anything I can do?” It sounded so dumb to say out loud, but I had to know if there was any way I could help him.
“Yeah, actually,” he said. “Could I borrow some of your camping gear?
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“Thanks again, man,” Ismaël said as he continued helping me set up his tent.
“Of course, Isma,” I said, smiling.
He suddenly stopped and looked up at me, still grasping one of the poles firmly. The manner in which he stopped and stared at the ground was as if he’d been considering something he thought important. “Hey, um…” he started to say, then shook his head.
“What?” I ventured to ask. The two of us had both fully paused in our operation of working to set up this tent.
“Nevermind,” he said. Then he seemed to change his mind about… Well, changing his mind. This was getting confusing. “Do you wanna camp out here with me tonight?” he said, his gaze momentarily lingering on my eyes, before looking away again.
“I…” I trailed off. “Well, I would, but I–”
“No, yeah, totally, I get it.” He shook his head again and resumed putting up the tent pole he had been holding in place, trying to seem casual. “It was a dumb idea, anyway,” he muttered, barely loud enough for me to hear.
“No, no, it’s not dumb!” I assured him. “I swear. Not dumb. It sounds fun.” I smiled at him. “It’s just that I made plans with Karine to meet up tonight and I feel bad cancelling.”
“Damn,” he said, looking up at me in surprise. “You’re meeting up again tonight? I mean, good for you, bro. Didn’t she go home with you last night, too?”
“Yeah, she did,” I admitted awkwardly, somewhat embarrassed.
“Damn,” he chuckled, stabbing the tent pole into the ground. He groaned softly, trying to force the thing into the ground again. He was working up a sweat trying to put this thing together. It was honestly pretty hot… Wait, what am I thinking? I have a girlfriend! Get your head in the game, Stéphane! I thought to myself.
“Yeah, it honestly, uh…” I trailed off, inspecting Ismaël’s technique of setting up this pole into the ground. “Isma,” I laughed. He clearly was not very experienced in setting up tents.
“What? I’m not doing this right?” he laughed. He knew he wasn’t, that’s why I was there in the first place.
“Not quite,” I laughed, walking over to where he was standing. “Here, let me.” I took the metal pole from his hand and raised it up in the air before slinging it through the sleeve attached to the tent.
“Ooh,” Isma said. “Yep, that… That makes more sense,” he chuckled, sounding a little embarrassed.
“We’re not done yet, Isma,” I chuckled. “We still have three more polls after this.”
“Right,” he said. He was looking right at me, yet he seemed… distracted by something.
“Y’know what?” I said, handing the pole back to Ismaël and backing up a little. “I think I’ve got a tent assembly manual somewhere here…” I said, turning and crouching down to rummage around through the pile of my dad’s camping gear on the ground. “Here we go,” I said, standing back up and turning to face Isma.
“Thanks, man,” he said, smiling at me. I walked over to him a few steps, somehow transfixed by his gaze. I then handed him the manual, and his fingers brushed against mine as he took it. Barely, but enough for me to notice. I shook my head, attempting to clear my thoughts.
“Yeah, o-of course,” I said, somehow flustered by this whole interaction. There were butterflies in my stomach. I often felt this way around Ismaël, but even more so when we were alone. I tried to ignore it for the most part, but that was difficult. I couldn’t just ignore the way I felt for Isma. I cleared my throat before making a decision aloud, “I’m gonna go call Karine,” I said.
Ismaël took his eyes off the manual to look at me. “Oh,” he said. “Y-you don’t have to, I mean… Of course you’d rather be with your girlfriend rather than me,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, I mean, I guess,” I said, awkwardly raising my right hand up to scratch the back of my head. I always felt awkward when talking about girls. It never really felt right. That I was together with Karine, I mean. I loved her, of course, but… Maybe not in the same way she loved me. “It honestly gets kind of exhausting at some point,” I said. I immediately regretted it. Who says that kind of thing about their girlfriend? Me, apparently.
“Yeah?” he said. “Does it?”
“I mean, not, like, exhausting, just…” I trailed off, trying desperately to salvage this. “Tiring? Like… I mean, Karine’s great, obviously, but, like…”
“What? Is the sex not good?” he asked, which definitely caught me off guard.
“I-I mean…” I stammered. “Nah, it’s, uh… I dunno. I’m not very experienced,” I said. “But, like… I dunno, she seems to want to more than I do,” I said honestly. “Or at least more often,” I added.
“Huh,” he said. He actually seemed dumbfounded by my saying this. “I mean, you don’t… Do you, like, enjoy it? Like, at all…?”
“I-I don’t know, I–” I stuttered. “I don’t… um… I…” I gathered my thoughts and said, “I’m gonna go call Karine,” and walked away.