Forever 21

I stare at my lab table as the boy of my dreams walks by. He is gay--which would make me gay too, huh? Well, he is openly gay. No one gives him a hard time though. Mainly for one reason; he doesn't act gay. He is strongly built, the sort of boy that makes girls fall over him. He has rich, tan skin from the summer and fall months outside, and a head of beautifully deep red hair that compliments his pale hazel-green eyes. He looks like a straight boy; he could pass as a straight boy. Most people won't believe he's gay. He is starting pitcher in baseball and a forward in hockey so he even acts like a straight boy. He hangs out with boys all over town, plays video games, watches movies, eats pizzas and nachos and junk food.

He's smart too. He has almost all A's and takes two AP classes. He's very good at physics, which is our class together, and he helps me if I don't get something in class-- which I pretend there's a lot of because I like having him around. His name? Wayne Leonardo III. He is a very important young man who surprisingly chose our dingy public school instead of a fancy private school. He brings a lot of students to the school, which helps with our reputation. The principal loves him. I mean, who wouldn’t? I certainly do.

Who am I? Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Damian Cayos. Yes, pronounced 'chaos'. I've been enjoying that amazing joke all my life. I definitely don't mean to add to the Cayos legacy but dark hair, eyes and clothing apparently terrifies people. I wear normal things; jeans, t-shirts that have unsavory things, and sneakers that are apparently "emo" or something. The fact that my black hair is hanging loose around my head, I have a lip ring, smoke, and take no shit from no one doesn't help the image, huh?

"Mr. Cayos," snaps my teacher. The woman is lean and shapely. She has long black hair that she ties into a braid down her back. She has a sharp, almost vindictive face--if you could have a vindictive face--and snappy, hateful green eyes. The woman is my cousin. My oldest cousin, actually, who is rounding on her 30th year of life. I make fun of her. There are a few rules in my physics class; don't slack, don't eat/drink, and don't let one person do all the work. Of course, I never follow those rules. The two girls and guy at my table don't bother to let me do anything since they either think I'm an idiot or too scary to approach.

"Yeah?" I ask as I turn my matching green eyes to look at her.

"Why aren't you working?"

"I'm writing down the data," I say as I hold up the notebook Cameron--the boy at my table--has. He looks at our teacher and nods.

"We were worried his hands are too big for the scale so we're having him sit this one out until we get to the actual testing," says Cameron. I grin at my cousin, who glares at me heatedly from behind her black glasses.

"Yeah," I say. "So scoot your boot over to some other table." She glares at me but leaves none the less.

"You should really be nice to her," says one of the girls, Madeline.

"You going to make me?" I ask. She looks away and continues to work. I stand and stand next to the other girl, Vanessa. "What can I do to help?" I ask her. She glances up at me, her brown eyes guarded.

"Why do you want to help?" she asks.

"Do you see Ms. Psycho over there?" I ask as I point to my cousin who is walking around, still glaring at my back. "Since she knows I'm not doing anything, she'll probably give you guys a zero. As much as I love to tick her off, I'm not a total asshole and you guys are working hard." Vanessa stares up at me and after a moment, her guard drops and she hands me a beaker.

"Get me 100 mL of water and bring it back here." She turns away and I can see Cameron and Madeline smile a little. I walk away and head to the only sink in the whole lab. I see Wayne standing there, goofing off with another girl Emily. She has brown hair and a good sense of humor. She usually is the one at my table, cracking jokes with me (when one of us isn't sleeping) but my cousin decided to throw us for a loop and made us switch up groups.

"Cayossss!" Emily says as she throws me a grin. I do the same and bow my head. "You're actually doing something? What's got you in a good mood?"

"Seein' you." I reply as I stand behind Wayne. While his back is turned, Emily fans herself with her hand and smiles wide. I roll my eyes. She likes Wayne too; well, every girl does.

"Damian," Wayne says over his shoulder. "Do you get the lab?" I fight the urge to smile as I shrug.

"I'm making due," I say.

"If you need help," he says as he turns around. I stand maybe two inches taller than him with my height of 6'4 and looking down at him makes me feel better. It makes me feel like I'm not so weak to like a guy like him. "I'm over at my lab table. Just come and see me." He smiles at Emily and salutes with two fingers. "Pleasure as always, Em." She smiles at him and curtsies.

"Pleasure was all mine, Wayne." Wayne smiles at both of us once again before returning to his table. As he leaves, one of our other friends Melissa joins us. She is a tall Chinese girl with a very sassy attitude. She stares at him and makes that 'Oh hot damn, he's hot' noise that Emily and I find so amusing.

"Ooh that boy can fill my beaker any day of the week," she says as she turns to face us. I roll my eyes and fill up my beaker with 100 mL of water. "Ooooh, sorry, Damian. I forgot he played for your team." I cut her a glare and she grins. "Hit a soft spot there, Cayos? Mr. Sexual Deviant?" I glance up at my cousin who is walking towards us. She never approves of my friends and believes I am corrupting Emily and Melissa. Melissa notices where I'm looking and quickly moves to get her water. Emily places her beaker down and grabs another one while I head back towards my table.

Melissa and Emily have been my friends since back in the day when Rugrats and Hey Arnold were on. I grew up down the street from Melissa and Emily lived two streets over. I used to play with a lot more kids but eventually, they all moved around to their own things and Emily and Melissa got into the things I liked; guitars for me and Emily, skating for me and Melissa, and crazy and nostalgic things. Emily and Melissa were always willing to do anything crazy from running down the street in purple dinosaur suits and dog costumes to sticking forks into kid's lawns. I usually tagged along since I was the only one who could drive. My car, whom we all named Sir Reginald Enrique Jean-Paul Tran II, is a sleek black Ford Taurus 2005. He has given me a lot of good times; like the time I was chased by a cop for stealing his doughnuts and Reginald Enrique Jean-Paul Tran II hid in the bushes. It took me an hour to push him out of the woods but I got him out and he made it.

I am back at my table, and from the corner of my eye, I see Wayne heading our way. I am scribbling down the things Cameron is telling me to write down and I don't bother to question what it is. He looks up at Wayne and offers a smile before getting to work. Wayne greets everyone at the table and finally looks at me.

"Hey," he says as he leans on the table, mirroring how I am. "My mom just asked if you wanted to come over for dinner. I know the thing with your mom is tough and your dad--" I slam my pen on the table and turn my angry eyes to him. He had no right to talk like that in public. "Alright," he mutters. "I'm sorry. I just…I thought you would want to come over." I glance at the other three kids, who jumped and stared at me like I was crazy, and stare down Wayne. He lets out a sigh, turns and heads back to his table.

"What's wrong with your mom?" asks Vanessa after a long moment of silence.

"That's none of your business." I say softly as I begin to write again. My mom is in the hospital. She is having problems with her lungs and my father won't come home. He says he loves my mother more than he loves me. I have been living at my home alone for a few weeks and the only one who knows is Wayne. He invites me over a lot whenever he needs to help me with physics.

"Damian," says my cousin from over my shoulder. I can tell she wants to check on me since she was obviously eavesdropping on my conversation.

"What?" I demand in an apathetic yet rude tone. She glances at the kids and then back at my paper.

"You are labeling those, correct?"

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot." I say. She nods and walks away, leaving it at that. When the bell rings, I hand Cameron's notebook back to him, get my bag and head off to my locker for my English notebook. I don't bother to say goodbye to my cousin, who is staring at me expectantly. I walk to my AP English class and standing by the door talking to my teacher is Wayne. He turns to me and smiles.

"Speak of the devil," says my brother-in-law Frank Land, otherwise known as my English teacher.

"We were just talking about you, Damian. I need you to help me with some stuff for the baseball team. Coach Dan needs you."

"Go help your uncle, Damian." I grind my teeth and glare at Mr. Land before walking away with Wayne.

"You have a lot of family here." Wayne says.

"Well, I blame my sister."

"I thought you were an only child." Wayne says.

"No," I say with a sigh. "I have two sisters; Amanda and Elaine. They are older than me by 4 and 6 years. In my family, when one of us turns 21, something important is supposed to happen so everyone comes together and celebrates. Everyone in my family comes; aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, nieces, nephews, and then the ones by marriage. My father's family doesn’t come around though. Good enough I suppose. He'd probably be sacrificed to appease the mob of my family."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," I say quickly.

"What's so special about 21?" Wayne asks as we round a corner that led to the field.

"Well, when my sister Amanda turned 21, she got a very important gift from my grandmother when she died. And now, my mom is sick and my family thinks she's going to die and leave something for Elaine. I hate the whole idea of this stupid birthday thing."

"I don't get it," says Wayne.

"It's better that you don't," I say as I hold open the door for him, watching him as his hazel-green eyes stare into me. I lower my green eyes to the ground as he walks past me before following him. My Uncle Daniel is a big man. Bigger than a lot of guys at the school. He stands six feet eight inches, had a broad, wide chest, and well muscled arms. He looks like every other person in our family; dark hair, piercing green eyes and a stern face.

"Cayos, Leonardo. What's going on? Where's my gear?" he demands as I step forward. "Damian," he snaps. "How's your mom?"

"Go see her and you'd know."

"You know I can't," says my uncle as he glances at Wayne.

"Then I guess you will have to suffer and wait for Elaine's birthday." I growl as I turn around and follow Wayne towards my uncle's car.

"You don't get along with anyone, do you?" he asks.

"Nope." I say.

"Why?"

"Just a habit. A few shrinks have said it was a defense mechanism." I say with a shrug.

"Do you have things to hide?" I glance at the boy and for a minute, I forget that I can't tell him about my family, my life and my love for him.

"Everyone does." I say quickly as I walk to my uncle's big, black truck. I hand him some boxes and he almost falls over. "Are you serious, Wayne?" He shrugs and I take the boxes off his hands before giving him a lighter box of football equipment.

"Hey, Damian," he says. "When's your sister's birthday?"

"Next Friday." I reply.

"How many more people are coming?"

"Well, so far, there are only about ten so maybe a few dozen more." He starts to laugh and I glance at him around the big boxes on my shoulders. "What?"

"You must want to get away from your house, huh?" I shrug.

"I stay over Emily's house a lot since my house is empty. The family is going to move into my house when they cant fit anymore in their houses."

"How many family members live in town?"

"About seven."

"You say that so flippantly."

"A lot of your family lives here too," I say.

"That's not the same. There's my one aunt, my grandmother and then us." He says with a laugh. I glance at him and smile a little. He's so adorable when he laughs. "A smile!" he says as he drops the box. "I saw Damian Cayos smile!" he shouts as he turns around in circles.

"Wayne!" I snap as I glance around.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you have a very fetching smile."

"Is that word even in existence anymore?" I ask as I stomp away grumpily.

"If it isn't," he says as he catches up to me. "Then it is now. I am obviously the most important trend setter in this school." I give him another smile. "What an honor, Mr. Cayos," he says. "Getting to see you smile twice? I never thought I'd be so lucky." I try to hide my smile behind the boxes but he manages to find me behind the boxes. "Today's not so bad, is it? I'm sorry I can't make it better for you."

"It's alright," I say as I hide my slight blush.

"It's not though," he says as he helps me put down the boxes. "It's not fair. Come over for dinner, Damian. My parents can make you a nice meal."

"Nah, Emily and Melissa are taking me out," I say with a shrug. "Do…Do you want to come along?" I ask suddenly.

"Can I?"

"I'd really like it if you came,"

"That's what she said," Wayne says with a bright smile. I smile back and chew on my lip ring. "And I would love to come with you. Where are you going?"

"I don't know. They said it's a surprise."

"I'll dress up nicely anyway." I smile at him, thinking anything he wore would make him look handsome. It didn’t matter to me what he wore, or even if he wore anything at all. I just wanted him to be there.

"You don’t have to," he smiles at me and hands me a bag of footballs.

"I want to. I'll come pick you up. It'll be like a date," I turn around to hide my face, to hide the fact my heart was beating so fast I could hear it in my ears.

"Sorry, Damian," he says. "I didn't mean to say that," he adds quickly. "I just thought I'd throw it out there and I didn’t mean to say it cause you know, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression--"

"It's okay," I say as I look back at him. "Let's just get moving." Wayne lagged behind but when he fell instep with me, I put my arm around his shoulders. "Besides, I don’t think you could handle me as a date." He smiled a little, his cheeks growing a soft shade of pink. When we finish putting the stuff on the football field, we head back to my English class. "I'll see you later, Wayne."

"Hey Damian?" he calls as I open the door. I look back at him and he smiles. "Happy birthday." I can't help the smile that breaks out on my face. I nod to him and walk into my class, composing myself again. The rest of my day may end up in the shit hole but at least today wasn't so bad.