Don't Touch Me

“So I heard you and my brother basically declared your love for each other yesterday.”
Oh, Shark.
I laugh. “Um, no.”
He smirks and is about to make a snide comment.
“Hey, Addy. Is mom working late tonight?” Brys asks, standing behind Shark.
Shark looks up at him with twinkling eyes, but Bryson doesn’t seem to notice.
“Um, yeah. I think so. Why?”
“I was thinking about bringing Liam over after school.”
How to get him not to . . .
“Um, I wanna hang out after school. Just me and you.”
Bryson’s eyebrow raise. “Okay . . .”
He walks away before anything else can be said.
“I can’t believe he’s your brother,” Shark mumbles, dreamily staring after my brother.
“Bryson? Why not?”
Shark just continues staring.
Wait . . .
“Do you . . . like my brother?” I ask, closing my locker slowly.
Shark’s eyes widen and he looks at me. “N-no.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“I’m not gay.” It sounds like an automatic response.
“It’s . . . okay if you are . . .”
Shark gulps.
“So you’re not gay, but you’re staring at my brother like he just confessed his undying love for you?” I smirk.
He sighs. “I’ve never felt this way about any other guy, it’s just . . . him.”
I hum and mumble “What an interesting week,” to myself.
Shark seems nervous. “D-don’t tell my brother, okay?”
I smile. “I’d never.”

“Hey,” a deep voice calls and I lift my head from the desk.
Tiger is staring at me with those unfathomable forest eyes.
“Hey,” I reply. He smirks a little. “So when are we starting our ‘testing methods’?”
Tiger’s face pales. “Uh, I don’t know.”
I smile, a plan unfolding in my head. “Let’s start after school.”
Tiger’s breathing picks up. “A-at your house?”
Eyeing him carefully, I reply, “Yes . . .”
He gulps, eyes wide. “I-I’ve gotta take my brother home. I can’t.”
“I invited him over too.” After agreeing to keep Shark’s desire for Bryson a secret, I told him he should come over with Tiger and chill with my brother. He deserves Brys way more than that Will kid does.
“Uh. Then okay. Let’s meet at my car after school.”
I suddenly realize an issue. “Hey, uh . . . My brother is gonna have to ride with us.”
Tiger turns to me with glowing forest eyes. “Oh, joy.”

“Brys, you’re gonna have to be nice.”
Bryson rolls his eyes. “I’m not five years old, Addy.”
“Whatever,” I grumble as we near Tiger’s Mustang.
I have a feeling this won’t go well.
Tiger stands next to the driver’s door, his eyes searching the crowd of students coming out of school.
“Hey,” I mumbled standing next to the passenger side door.
Tiger glances at me, then Bryson, then back to the crowd. “Hello.”
Brys smirks at Tiger’s obvious discomfort. I slap his stomach.
“Uh, hey man. Thanks . . . for the ride.”
Tiger glances at Brys, then me, then back to the crowd. “Uh-huh,” he hums.
Bryson rolls his eyes again.
After another minute, Shark walks toward the car. When he sees Bryson standing next to me, his green eyes widen.
Tiger gets in the car, followed by Brys. I open the passenger door and Shark slips into the seat before I can.
I glare at him. He smiles innocently.
He’s such a wimp.
I climb over my brother’s legs and sit behind Tiger.
The ride is silent and awkward, Bryson being the reason. He doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that he’s creating the awkward atmosphere though.
As soon as Tiger’s parked, Brys hops out and lights a cigarette.
“Your brother’s an asshole,” Tiger mumbles.
As true as it may be, Tiger doesn’t need to say it.
“Shut up, dick,” Shark glares, hopping out too.
Tiger seems shocked that his brother just defended one of his bullies. I don’t say anything as I get out of the car.
Shark is watching my brother smoke with dreamy eyes.
This will be interesting.

“You love your mother right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And your brother?”
“ . . . Mostly.”
“So what’s so scary about loving someone else?” Tiger inquires.
“My mom loved my dad, but he still broke her heart and our family. I don’t want that to happen to me.”
Tiger stares into my eyes for a long time. My stomach starts to tingle. “I guess that’s understandable, though I can’t see how anyone could ever hurt you.”
We lock eyes for a while.
“So,” Tiger sits back in my desk chair, “Ready to interrogate me?”
I laugh. “Sure.”
I lay back on my bed and look at the ceiling.
“Why did it start?”
I look over at Tiger when he takes a while.
“I’ve asked myself that so many times.”
My chest tightens at the pain in his voice. He sounds so helplessly broken.
“Did you tell someone?”
Tiger looks out of my window for a long time. “My dad. He asked me what he needed with a wife who liked children. He said he wasn’t going to stick around and watch her watch me. He said I was the man of the house because she obviously wanted me more. Then he left and she came to my room a lot more. How fucked up is that?! What kind of fucking person does that kind of shit?! How could he- how could he just leave me like that?”
I just stared at Tiger. How could someone do that? Leave their son like that?
“So, I, uh, kinda blame him, my dad, because he was so personally hurt and didn’t care about how it was affecting me. He could have stopped it and I’d be the quarterback jerk who only cared about himself instead of the freaky weirdo who can’t be touched.”
I let him calm a bit before continuing. “Do you let anyone touch you?”
Tiger shakes his head quickly, but before he can say anything I hear a manly scream. My door bursts open a few seconds later.
“T-Tiger! He has a-a freakin’ bearded dragon!”
I laugh, remembering my first reaction to Red.
Shark runs behind Tiger and grasps his shoulders. Tiger doesn’t even flinch. He laughs a little as Shark pushes him from the chair.
Bryson walks into the room with Red, his bearded dragon.
Shark squeaks from behind Tiger. What manly sounds.
Bryson chuckles darkly and approaches Tiger.
I see Tiger tense and pray he doesn’t touch him. Instead, Tiger reaches out and takes Red from Brys, then turns to Shark.
“Chill out, bro. He’s not gonna poison you. This isn’t Holes.”
Shark hesitantly touches Red’s back and relaxes a little when Red doesn’t start sucking his blood.
“Brys, put Red away before Shark pees his pants,” I laugh.
Bryson laughs too and leaves the room after taking the lizard from Tiger. Shark looks after him longingly and I smirk at him.
When Tiger and I are alone again, I sigh.
“So where were we?” Tiger asks, raising an eyebrow. He let’s Shark touch him. He touched his shoulders and pushed him. Interesting . . .
“Uh, nothing.” I don’t want to ruin it by making him think about it. “Let’s do something fun.”
He raises an eyebrow again. “Okay . . .”

Half an hour later, Tiger, Shark, Bryson, and I are sitting in my room, watching a scary movie. Really it’s only mildly frightening and a little funny.
“Shit!” Shark jumps. Even though his voice is normally almost as low as his brother’s, it takes on a lighter lilt.
Bryson chuckles and shakes his head.
Tiger shakes his head. “Stop acting like a fag,” he laughs.
Instantly, Shark and I tense up and share a glance. Bryson catches it, but Tiger doesn’t.
Brys laughs. “I know, right?”
What?
Did my “closet case” little brother just laugh at a fag joke? And did Tiger really just use such a slur toward his brother?
Oh the irony.
Once that joke has calmed, Tiger yawns and puts his arm on the bed behind my head.
Is this his way of putting his arm around me? I scoot closer to him. Not close enough to touch, of course, but close enough to feel all of his body heat.
I see Bryson eyeing Shark’s body, scanning his lean, baseball-player muscles all the way up to his sparkling jade eyes. Sparkling because of the lights from the TV he’s hypnotized by at the moment.
Brys catches me watching him and raises a brow.
I raise one back ,challenging him.
He smirks before looking back at the gory movie. Shark flinches and looks away from the TV. Bryson catches his eyes in a piercing honey stare.
Shark doesn’t seems to be breathing.
I don’t see how he finds Brys so mesmerizing.

“I think Shark likes me.”
I glance at Brys as he stands in my doorway.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, is he gay or whatever?” Brys asks nonchalantly.
But this sends my thoughts reeling: Does he know I know he’s gay? Do I tell him yes? Do I tell him that Shark is practically in love with him?
No, no. Stay calm, play it cool.
“Um, I don’t think so. Why? Because he was scared of that movie?” I seem more convincing on the latter sentence.
Brys shrugs a little, smirking. “Yeah . . . And because he couldn’t keep his eyes off me the whole time he was here.”
I almost laugh. “You don’t seem too bothered.”
He shrugs again. “A kid likes me What’s new?”
“That it’s a guy?”
Brys smirks. “Not new.”
For the first time in a while, I hate how cryptic he is.