I froze right there and looked her dead in the eye, trying to figure out how she could know about me, how she knew I liked Henry, just from one class together. Nobody knew I liked boys, except possibly my big sister, and Henry certainly doesn't do anything that would lead you to question his sexuality. "Well, umm.... How did you..."? "Duhh stupid, don't you see how Drew (Andrew) looks at Sandra? He's completely in love with her". "Oh, OHHH I see. Yea, I knew that". "Wait, who did you think I was talking about"? "Nobody, just......dazing". "Get your head out of the clouds; I need somebody to do that damn project for me". "Sorry, not this time. Me and Henry got a lot of work to do so, maybe Drew can get it done for you". "If I can get him to shut up about that skinny bitch......speak of the devil, I'll see you later", Hilda said as she left in a hurry. "Hey Derek, where's she going"? Sandra asked. "She.... had.... to...... pee." Yea, nice save.
"Excited about that project? I can't believe you get to work with Henry. Every girl in the class wanted to work with either him or you, and you two got each other. Damn". "Ha-ha, well ain't that a trip. Too bad for all of y-wait, they want to work with me"?! "Yea boy, well more him cause he looks soooo good, but you too". "Wow, but you know, there are other guys out there, like Jared, Carlos, DREW". Well Jared is too goofy, Carlos goes out with Cassandra, and Drew....is just Drew. But anyway, I was wondering if maybe you could conveniently invite me over whenever you and Henry work on your project". That didn't sound like a good idea to me. Why would I let a pretty girl just come in and take away any chance I could have with Henry, even if she was my friend, I saw him first. Sort of. But being the good friend that I was, I had already decided I'd help Drew get a date with her, so even if I didn't help her get Henry, I'd help her get somebody. "I'll tell you what, how about we all get together and go out somewhere, I'll try to get Henry to go and that way you don't both have to conveniently show up in my house". Yea, I just won't try too hard to get Henry to go. "Oooooh yes, thank you love, you're the best". She gave me a big hug that nearly squeezed the life out of me. She may be little, but the girl is probably tougher I am. "Well I'll see ya this weekend, call me". I waved her off and went about my usual business. Later that day, Drew had agreed that we could work on our projects together at my house, since he would be doing all the work anyway. Sure I could've asked Sandra to come over today so she and Drew could spend some time together, but I planned on calling Henry over. I needed Drew there for some support; I don't think I could contain myself if Henry and I were here alone. I might make the wrong move and scare him away forever. But with Drew there, I knew I'd be careful around him so I wouldn't out myself to either of them.
Once we got home, I decided it was the best time to give Henry a call. My parents and my older sister were gone for the day, she's probably in some sort of trouble again, so we'd have the living room to ourselves. I couldn't tell you how excited I was to have his phone number, but hopefully it wouldn't show too much over the phone. After I made sure Drew was comfortable, I made my phone call. "Hello"? "What's good Henry, this is Derek". "Oh hey, what's up"? "Nothing, you want to come over? My parents aren't home so I'm working on the project while the house is quiet". "I don't know.....where do you live", he asked with a hint of worry. "Off Park Ave, next to the little pizza restaurant". "Ok, I can walk there, I'll be right over". "Cool, I'll meet you at the porch". So we hung up and I quietly did a little hallelujah dance. How often do you get the boy of your dreams inside your house?!? Whether or not he's attracted to me, I get to spend time with him, and that's really more than I could ever ask for. Before he was to arrive, I tidied up the place and made some popcorn because.....oh, I forgot about Drew....well because Drew liked popcorn, or anything you can eat really. "What the hell took you so long", Drew asked jokingly. "Nothing, I had to call my partner over so he could help work on it". "And you were on the phone with him for almost a half hour"? "Uhhh no, I was making popcorn". He stopped with all the questions as soon as I handed him the bowl. As I was getting my papers ready, the doorbell rang. My mind went blank; I jumped out of my seat and ran to the door. I didn't bother looking to see who it was, even though we do live in a rough neighborhood, there wasn't too much to worry about on my block. I opened the door, and just as I had hoped, there he stood. "Hey Derris, how's it going", Henry asked politely. "Um, it's Derek", I stuttered, but the sound of a car horn cut me off. Henry turned around and waved to some guy in a tattered red car. "I thought you were walking over", I asked. "I was, but my brother said he'd take me. Just because he's in a gang, he thinks everybody else in the neighborhood is in one too, so he wanted to make sure I wasn't getting into any trouble. He's a little overprotective of me. You're not in a gang right"? "No, of course not", I continued as we walked in. "Who's your brother again"? "His name's Enrique, but he hates that name so all the bloods call him Ricky. They aren't real bloods though, don't worry, they just act hard and want to be tough. Did I mention you have a really nice house"? "Thanks", I said with a smile, though not nearly as bright as his. I was also aware that he was trying hard to change the subject. As soon as we walked into the living room, he stopped, and his smile turned upside down, to put it frankly. "I thought you said nobody was home", Henry said sounding a little disappointed, to my surprise. "Oh no, I meant my family wasn't home, this is my friend Drew", I quickly blurted out. I swear if he wanted me to I would kick Drew out in a second. "I know Drew", Henry said as he walked over and gave him a pound. "What's your fat ass doing over here anyway", he asked him jokingly. I sighed in relief as they seemed to be buddies already. But even though that sounded like a joke, it kind of sounded like a serious joke. "I could ask you the same thing. I didn't realize Derek was partners with...you", Drew replied in a very non-sarcastic tone. A little confused, I sat down between the two and immediately pulled out our supplies for the project. I handed both of them a poster board and spread the markers and pens between us. "So what should I draw"? Henry asked. Thinking for a second, I responded, "I was thinking something about the section on oppression. Maybe you could draw you and I behind Martin Luther King or fighting off an angry mob with picket signs and all that". "You know sometimes I think school is worthless, but then people like you remind me that some of us actually learn something", Drew giggled out. "You mean Derek right"? Henry confirmed. "Yea, I was looking at him wasn't I? How was school for you anyway? We haven't said anything to each other since we graduated 8th grade", Drew said. "You two went to middle school together? Why didn't either of you tell me"? All this time the boy of my dreams and one of my best friends were old buddies. But something wasn't adding up, just like Drew said, all this time we've been in class together and I've never seen them speak a word to each other. "I try to leave the past where it is, I make new friends and move on with my life. Me and Andrew weren't best friends or anything, just knew each other. Can you pass me the yellow?", Henry said while focusing on whatever he was drawing. For a second there I forgot we were working, but apparently he had been drawing since I told him what to draw about. "Oh that's cool, can I see what you're making", I asked him? "NO, please, I like to wait until it's finished before I let anyone see. Don't worry, I'll just do it over if you don't like it". "Okayyy.....", I must admit, that scared me a little. I was starting to think this guy was more of a mystery than I bargained for. Not that it was bad, but I wanted to be as close to him as possible, and I really don't feel like he's letting me. Meanwhile, I looked over at Drew and he seemed borderline pissed for no apparent reason. He was giving me some sort of look that I couldn't quite figure out, but I'm sure it had something to do with Henry because he was avoiding his line of sight. This made me feel uneasy, so I tried to stir up some conversation. "So do either of you like any music right now"? Crap, dumb question. Of course, who doesn't like music?! Well not too many people I know like music as much as I do, but it seemed like a good question before it came out of my mouth. "I really like Jay-Z's last album, and Fall out boy is my favorite band out right now. And I know you guys aren't Spanish, but there's this really cool band called Calle 13 that I think you should listen to", Henry said without taking his eyes off of his art. "Are you kidding, I love all of those guys I have both Calle 13 albums and Kingdom Come is in my CD player right now And Drew and I listened to This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race like 20 times yesterday, right Drew". I blurted out all in one sentence. Being in his bad guy attitude, Drew ignored me. Not to mention he hadn't even written anything down since we started the project. "For real, that's great, I didn't think anyone liked all those different kinds of music as much as I did", Henry stated, making eye contact for the first time since we started. "Hey, there's a party going on tomorrow night, I think you guys should come. I know the DJ and he's really good". "I don't do parties", Drew said bluntly. "What about you Derek"? "Yea, I'd love to go. I already asked Sandra if she wanted to hang out soon, you should consider going Drew". "Cool, my brother can take us. A lot of people from our school will be there anyway so it should fun", Henry said. "I don't know, I'll think about it. Anyway, I have to go do something at home so I gotta go now". He got up and walked toward the door without so much as a pound or a wave goodbye. "Hold on Drew, wait here Henry, I'll be right back". I caught up to Drew as he rounded the corner before he could get out the front door. "Hey, are you okay? It seems like there's something going on that I might not know about"? "Nah, I'm fine. This project is stressing me out, prom's coming up and I haven't found the balls to ask Sandra yet. Thanks for helping though, you're the man". He gave me a five and a friendly nudge to try and persuade me not to worry. "Call me when you're done with this guy, I haven't decided if I'm going to that party yet or not. I'll see you tomorrow". With that he walked out the door and left me to a sudden realization: I'm home alone with the hottest guy I've ever met. I needed a few seconds to cope with this, so I mustered up my strength, took a deep breath and returned to the living room where Henry sat continuing his work of art. Suddenly I didn't know what to do or say; Drew was keeping calm more than I realized. He was holding up a good part of the conversation, but now it's just us two. His back was toward me and he hadn't noticed me yet. What I did notice was his small shirt rising up a bit so that his white and blue striped boxers were showing just over a fine imprint of his b- oh man I think I'm going to faint. Say something before I hit the floor! "So....Henry....where are you from"? "I was born here, the rest of my family is from the Dominican Republic". He turned around to see where I was and saw that I looked a little light headed. "Why don't you come and sit down? You can help me figure out how I'm gonna explain this poster". He patted a spot very close to him to signal me to sit down, so I did. As I took my seat less than ten inches away from him, I started noticing things I hadn't before, like the light scent of Old Spice he must be wearing, the small veins in his forearm that grew whenever he added more detail to a specific spot on the poster, the perfect jaw line that accentuated his features and that he was warming up to me rather quickly. I just stared at him, but he was too into his art to notice. Then it was over all too quickly, because the fricken doorbell rang. Henry looked at me and noticed my eyes were already fixed on him and I was somewhat in a daze. Now with our faces so close to each other I could feel him exhaling, he asked me, "You gonna get that"? "Oh yea, of course". As soon as I got up out of his sight, I gave myself a dummy slap across my forehead for getting caught checking him out. Maybe he didn't notice though, maybe he didn't care. And of all the times, now the household wants to come back home. I opened the door and in came my mother, father and sister. My sister Tori was 21, and we were really close. Although I hadn't told her I was into boys, I never really told her I wasn't. I suspected she knew anyway, and I wasn't comfortable with letting people know yet. "Hey Dare, wats up", she asked. "Nothing, me and a friend are working on a project in the living room". "Female friend or male friend", my dad asked with my mother giving me the exact same look right next to him. "Come on, why don't you meet him". We all went to the living room and Henry stood up to greet my family. "Oh hello, and who is this handsome young man", my mom asked. "Hello ma'am, I'm Henry, Derek's friend from school". He seemed really happy to meet my parents, and he was more polite than any other 18 year old in New York I'd ever met. "Nice to meet you Henry, would you like to stay for dinner"? "No thanks, I actually have a school meeting in about an hour". He picked up his poster, making sure to cover whatever it was he was drawing for the past hour, and gathered the rest of his things. "Okay then, Dare will walk you to the door". He and I went out to the porch so we he could say bye, it was getting kind of loud with the house full again.
"Thanks Dare, I mean Derek, I had a good time". "No problem. If we don't get a chance to finish in class tomorrow then we can meet again to finish up. And it's ok if you call me Dare", I said with a smirk that I hope wasn't too gay. "Alright, then I'll see ya tomorrow for the party"? "You bet". He pulled me into a half arm hug, said piece and started toward his house. I stood there to check him out while he was walking the other. I couldn't help myself. Whatever happens now, atleast I finally succeeded in becoming friends with my biggest crush of all time. But as I proved earlier, I'm not so great at hiding my feelings, so I don't know how long this friendship will last.
That's it for now, I promised longer chapters, and I have delivered. Thanks so much for the support everyone, I still hope to hear from you, and I promise we will get to the good parts by chapter 3!!!