FicWad

I tasted blood in my mouth, and I realized I’d chewed my lips to the point where they were bleeding. And that was when I realized that my lips were actually hurting.

I licked them, wishing for Chapstick, and wrung my hands as I waited for him to stop staring at the sugar packets and start speaking.

“Hi,” said a tall, scrawny guy with acne on his forehead, placing our drinks on the table, “I’mjackandi’mgoingtobeyourwaiterbecausemelodygotcalledawayanywaywhatdoyouguyswant?”

Gerard didn’t move.

I frantically perused the menu and bit my lip again. Blood literally squirted out.

“Yourlipistotallybleeding,” said Jack.

“Yeah, I know,” I said, sucking on my lip in an attempt to quench the blood flow. The taste was starting to make me a little sick. “Um. He wants a hamburger,” I said. “I’ll have a BLT.”

“We’reoutofthose.” Jack studied his order pad like it held the answers to life.

“How can you be out?”

“Don’taskmewejustare.”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll have a hamburger, too.”

“Wantfrieswiththat?” Jack lazily drew something on the fascinating order pad.

“Yeah, sure, fine.”

Jack took the menus and shuffled off.

I turned my attention back to Gerard, who was still staring at the sugar packets.

“Gerard.”

He grunted.

“I ordered you a hamburger.” I don’t know why I said that. I mean, it was incredibly likely that he’d heard me.

This was greeted with yet another grunt.

I sighed.

He sighed.

I started drumming my fingernails on the table.

He glared at my hand.

“Come on,” I said, hating the annoying nagging sound in my voice.

I knew what was coming, of course, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say. And that sure as hell didn’t mean that I wasn’t about to end this, once and for all, before it got weird.

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “Forget I said anything.”

“No!” My voice came out my higher than usual. “This is going to drive me crazy, you know it will.”

He smirked. “Yeah, you always do go kind of batshit when someone knows something you don’t.”

I tried giving him the puppy-dog eyes, even though it never works on anyone, because I look like a sad person about to fall asleep. “Please?”

He started laughing. “That face,” he said. “I don’t know . . . What you do, but it’s hilarious.”

I grinned.

“Look, Alixz,” he said, seemingly normal again. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

I came just short of biting my lip again. I really have to stop that habit before I eat my lips. “Why are you sorry?”

“I don’t know, okay? It’s just . . . I don’t want things to be weird for you. Or between us.”

The urge to snicker and sigh at the same time came over me, and I managed to quench them before either one escaped me.

BECAUSE I WAS RIGHT.

I knew it, I knew it all along.

But, thanks to my years of acting experience, I managed to keep a straight face while asking why in the world things would be weird.

He bit his lip. “It just might, that’s all.”

“Well, the only way to find out is to tell me.” Seriously. I was about to start bouncing up and down in my seat, which is something I always do when I get impatient.

He sighed. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

He cracked his knuckles and then sat on his hands. “I think . . . I think I might be gay.”