Girls Like Boys

Travis booked it down the stairs faster, even, than the rest of us. His pace caught the attention of his family, who were in the process of migrating from the kitchen to the living room now that the rest of us, sans Mathias, had vacated it.

Travis’s uncle - Ryan’s dad, gave him the starkest expression and I caught the look as I followed the dark-haired boy down the stairs, curving into the living room with Ramsy on my heels. Trav darted around the couch, dipping between his aunt and brother as they shuffled out of his way.

“Where’s the fire, Trav?” Lorin asks casually, raising his eyebrows.

Trav climbed to a knee on the couch, leaning down to search the cushions for something he must've dropped. He shouldered his dad out of the way, paying no mind to how Lorin hitched a step back – just enough to give Travis’s slender self the room he needed. 

“We’re going to get going,” he said, his words casual but his tone urgent. He pulled his hand from between the couch cushions, the lanyard of his keys hanging from his fingertips. Without looking up to anyone specific, he added, “Ramsy and Code need to get back.”

Lorin turned his attention to us as we hovered on the stairs, not quite in the room. “What do you guys have going on?” he asked casually, shrugging past Travis as he moved to the couch. The rest of the family took it as a hint that they could settle too, and Travis backed away.

“Our dad is on his way,” I said, frowning at the look Ram secretly tried to shoot me. I couldn’t see the point in lying – Lorin didn’t know that we’d kept our invitation today to ourselves. My frown deepened when I saw the same look on Travis’s face.

Lorin’s interest peaked. “From Alabama?” he asked. “Travis didn’t tell me that when he mentioned you were coming. I would’ve extended the invitation. Your dad is more than welcome to join us if you don't have plans already.”

Ramsy shook her head, pressing her shoulder back into mine. “Our brother and grandma are with him,” she said, “but thank you.”

Travis cut in before Lorin could respond. “Dad, we have to go,” he said, dragging out the last word. “I’m sure their dad has something planned already.” He stepped to the stairs and motioned us down, trying to usher us out of the house before anyone could draw us back into conversation. We headed toward the front door and Chloe moved more into the living room, saying goodbyes.

“Travis, I need you to move that car before you go,” Lorin reminded him before we could leave. “If you’re taking the Supra, then you need to put that one - ” He pointed to the bright blue Nissan that was parked in the driveway – “needs to go into the garage. My driveway is not a parking lot for your cars.”

Travis gave his dad the blankest, unamused expression that he could muster. “If I leave the keys, can’t you just move it? We’re in a hurry.”

Lorin shook his head adamantly, refusing to take back the keys. “Travis, this is your ‘hobby,’” he said, nodding in the general direction of the cars. “You’re responsible for storage, moving them, and taking care of them.”

Trav sighed and rolled his eyes. Immediately, he turned to Mathias and tossed him one of the keys off his lanyard. “I’ll take you out for dinner next week if you do this for me,” he said quickly, not giving his brother a chance to rebut as the key landed in his lap. Instead, Travis checked to make sure that he had the right key in his hand and ushered me and Ramsy out of the house, saying quick goodbyes to everybody else.

“I’ll go get the car,” he said, meaning for us to wait for him by the house. He took off before we could respond, darting toward the two story garage that sat kiddy-corner to the house.

Travis pulled open the oversized garage door and rolled it back along the outside of the building. With the gaping opening in the front and the light pouring in front the outside, I could see just enough to tell that Lorin was right – Travis used this place as personal storage. There were cars pulled in all the way to the back in three rows, making nine total, plus one or two that I couldn’t make out along the sides.

Travis went toward one of the ones off to the side that I couldn’t see well. The shadows and the shape of the building obscured him completely as he went to get the car, practically jogging. When he backed out, I wasn’t surprised by the fact that he came back with a car much sleeker than the one we’d driven here in. It was obvious he was gearing up for a race.

He pulled out and turned around, stopping the car straight out for us.

“Seriously, Travis?” I muttered as we moved to get in. The car was black, skiny, and rounded at every opportunity. The windows were tinted so dark that I couldn’t see Travis until I was standing right outside. The car was made to be beautiful and I knew, if Travis was coveting it, it was also made to be fast.

I climbed into the backseat through the passenger’s door and Ram got into the front seat after me. Like a lot of the race cars, it was two-doors and low to the ground.

“This is what we’re taking to meet my dad?” I asked incredulously, sliding into the center seat and looking at him with hard eyes. “This won’t go well.”

Travis answered, “If we’re lucky, I won’t have to meet your dad.” He shifted in one smooth go and pulled down the long driveway, careful of the cars parked alongside it.

“Oh, you’ll have to meet our dad,” Ramsy retorted. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. Both of us watched the confusion slide over his face. “If he sees you, you’ll have no choice,” Ram added.

“Then he won’t see me,” Travis said. “You guys can get out down the street and walk back. I’d rather not have to deal with Charlie and Wesley.”

“It’s Esther you should be worried about,” Ram said. “Especially after she realizes that Cody’s never mentioned you.”

Travis rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the road in order to avoid the rest of this conversation.

Mostly, I was on Travis’s side about this. It would be easier to jump out of his car, meet Charlie down the block, and pretend that Travis didn’t exist. That’s what I’d been doing for most of the semester anyway. I’d had plenty of opportunities to tell Charlie about Travis – to mention the person who I spent almost every day with – but I never did. It was easier to keep Travis in this world and keep Charlie in another.

Mine and Ramsy’s phones started going off when we were about twenty minutes away. Wes’s group chat sent us both the same messages at the same time, and made us both panic simultaneously. The first was a picture of Main Street, just blocks from our dorm.

“Trav, I know you don’t race with other people in your car because you’re a decent human being who only wants to risk his own life, not anybody else’s, but I really need you to speed up a little bit,” I said, reaching between the seats to lightly grab his shirt at his shoulder.

Travis’s green eyes met mine in the rear view, but he didn’t say a word as he shifted into another gear and sped up.

“Thanks,” I said, pulling my hand back as another text dinged into my inbox.

"Were those all your cars?" Ramsy asked him, referring back to his father's garage.

Travis shook his head. "My dad's a mechanic," he said. "He keeps some around for parts and lets me fill up the extra space."

I nodded even though they weren't paying any attention to me. I didn't know how I hadn't heard that Lorin also made a living off cars. It made sense. Travis was raised on cars, starting driving them when he was too young, and turned them into a career.

We knew the minute Charlie, Wesley, and Ramsy pulled up outside Tutwiler. My phone started ringing immediately and Ramsy turned in her seat to stare at it. Nervously, I picked it up and answered the call, putting it on speaker.

“Dad,” I greeted.

“We’re downstairs,” he said. “Come meet grandma so that your brother and I can park the car.”

“About that,” I started slowly, looking to Ramsy in hope that she’d pick up where I left off. She shot me a look, shaking her head. “We’re actually on our way home right now,” I said, speaking the first thing that came to mind. “We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes – I’m sorry, we thought we’d be back by now, but we’re just running late – ”

”Where are you?” he asked, his tone relatively normal, but a bit surprised. ”We’ll come pick you up so you don’t have to walk back.”

Ramsy’s eyes widened, not out of surprise, but more in a I-can’t-believe-this type of way. She eyed me in a way that suggested Charlie’s line of questioning was my fault.

“What do you want me to do?” I mouthed to her, trying to force the phone into her hands. She pulled back into the front seat, trying to literally distance herself from it. Travis pulled to a stop at a light.

“We’re almost there, Dad,” I said, repeating myself, unsure of what to say. If we told him that we had a ride, then there was no way of letting Travis avoid them, but if we didn’t, then Charlie would come and get us.

“A friend is dropping us home,” Ramsy added quickly.

Trav and my eyes shot right to her. She held her hands up in defense.

“Oh, okay,” Charlie said in response to Ramsy. “You should’ve mentioned that you and your friends had plans today. We should’ve told you ahead of time that we were coming. We’ll see you both when you get here.”

Charlie said a couple more words and then ended the call. He wasn’t angry about anything because he didn’t know enough to be angry, but Ram and I both felt terrible about that fact that it seemed that we had no time for them – that even though we made the decision not to go home for Thanksgiving, all they planned to do was come see us anyway, and we hadn’t even been home when they got there.

“What do you want me to do?” Travis said as he turned onto our block and slowed the car. He glanced to me and Ramsy, waiting for one of us to give him an answer.

“We should just get out,” Ramsy said, reaching for the door handle already, practically jumping out of the car. “We can just tell Charlie that our friend lives in Burke and we got out at the parking lot.”

“He’s still going to ask about who we were with,” I replied, shaking my head. “I don’t want to lie to him, Ramsy.”

She looked incredulous. “You’ve been lying to him the entire semester, Cody.”

Travis’s eyes met mine. I shook my head. “I didn’t lie to him,” I rebutted. “I just didn’t tell him who I was hanging out with. I know that doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but it is. I’ve never straight out lied to his face.”

“One of you has to decide,” Travis said. “We can’t just sit here forever.”

“Fine,” Ramsy said, throwing her arms up. “Take us home. Cody can explain why some boy Dad’s never even heard about invited her to his family’s for Thanksgiving. I’m sure he’ll totally understand.”

I rolled my eyes, but when Travis looked my way for confirmation, I nodded. Trav pulled back onto the street and headed down toward the Tutwiler tower. Even as we passed Burke and the coed dorms on the street, we could see the brown building looming over us. I could only imagine the people waiting for us, and despite the nerves I felt over introducing Travis, there was a subtle excitement getting more prevalent.

I’d never been away from my dad and my brother and my grandma this long in my life. For as much as I enjoyed my life here and how little I really thought about going back home, the thought of seeing them now was the most appealing aspect of today.

Travis pulled past our building and whipped a U, pulling up behind the lime green ’69 Camaro. I perked up and unbuckled, leaning forward to see as Charlie, Wesley, and Esther eyed the car behind them, most likely wondering if it was us.

Ramsy unbuckled and popped her door open. I saw the moment when our family recognized us. They couldn’t see me through the tinted windows, but when they saw Ramsy getting out, the Camaro’s doors opened on either side.

I leaned against the back of Travis’s seat, wrapping my arms around the headrest and around his shoulders. “It won’t be that bad,” I said, grinning as he turned to look at me skeptically. “I promise I won’t let them interrogate you. And you don’t even have to stay.”

“This would be easier if your dad actually knew,” he commented, squeezing my arm as it brushed against his chest.

I nodded, resting my head on his shoulder briefly from behind. “Too late now,” I said as I pulled back.

Travis sighed and opened his door. Ramsy was preoccupied on the side-walk to our right, her arms around Wesley and his around her as they said their hellos. The exchange between Travis and I lasted only seconds, and before Charlie had even closed his door, Travis and I were getting out of the driver’s side.

I watched Charlie as Travis got out and I followed, staying by the dark-haired boy’s side. Charlie’s eyes ran over him first before they finally snapped to me. I grinned.

“Hi, Dad,” I said easily, glancing over the roof of the Supra to Ram as she pulled back from Wes and said hello to Esther. I pulled my eyes from the tall woman and focused on my dad.

When I was a kid, I thought Charlie was a giant. He was literally taller than everyone I knew, but he also walked as though he had his place in the world. Like everyone else was too small to disturb him or knock him off his feet. But, startlingly, I realized that he was inches shorter than Travis.

Charlie stood next to the closed car door and, for a moment, he didn’t say anything at all. Part of me wondered if he saw differences in me like I found in him, and I knew that Travis, standing next to me, was the biggest hang-up – the only reason Charlie didn’t gather me up in his arms.

I grabbed Trav’s arm as I stepped away, brushing past him, reassuring him to just hold on a minute. Then I hurried forward and grabbed onto my dad, wrapping my arms around his stomach. I felt him put his arms around me and crush my shoulders into his chest.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, his face in my hair. “Cody.”

I felt his arm lift and then Ram’s weight next to me. Charlie said her name too, repeating it and then mine.

“We’ve missed you, Dad,” Ramsy said, speaking for the both of us, speaking correctly.

Charlie half-laughed and nodded, pulling back finally. “I’ve missed you both too,” he said, smiling as he looked at us.

Ramsy and I took a couple steps back, and I saw the moment that Charlie’s eyes lifted and saw Travis again. His expression changed just a little bit, tightened, and then his eyes dropped back to us. Wesley and Esther made their way from the sidewalk to this side of the car, quiet as they looked at the tall boy standing next to the Supra.

I took a couple quick steps back and grabbed Trav’s arm, offering him a smile, half-reassuring, half-apologetic for leaving him standing there alone. “This is Travis,” I said easily, trying to keep the tone casual. “He had us over to his house for lunch today.”

I wasn’t sure who to look at first and who I wanted to look at least, so I glanced at Ramsy. She looked even less thrilled about this than me or Travis.

Travis took one for the team. He spoke first, “It’s nice to meet you,” he said, meandering up his usual demeanor from underneath the quiet, nervousness that settled over us. “I’m glad you could make it down to be with them today.”

Charlie dipped his chin in a slow nod. “Yeah,” he said.

I sighed obviously and grimaced. “Well, okay,” I said, dropping my hand from Travis’s arm and moving forward so that I was between him and the others, standing enough to the side so that I could face them both. “Trav isn’t staying. He just brought us back.”

I turned to Travis to excuse him and he nodded, relieved, practically jumping at the opportunity to get back into the tinted car and get away.

“Wait –” Charlie said, uncertainly.

Travis and I both froze halfway to opening the Supra door. I turned back first and Travis reluctantly followed. “Yeah?” I asked, folding my arms over my stomach.

“It’s good to meet you, Travis,” Charlie said with a simple nod. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

Travis smiled politely and glanced to me. “Happy Thanksgiving,” he said, eyes running over Esther and my brother too, who looked apprehensive about everything. “Talk to you later, Cody,” Trav said, yanking the door open. “See you, Ram.”

I offered a smile and nod as he climbed in and started the race car up. When Travis pulled out and weaved around me and my family, I turned my attention back to them.

“Hi Grandma,” I said finally. “Hey, Wes. How was the ride?”

Charlie reached out and touched my shoulder, urging me out of the street and onto the sidewalk as the rest of them headed back toward the dorm. We huddled together in front of the glass doors of Tutwiler, trying to find some semblance of normality. Neither Ramsy or I knew what to say, and Wesley seemed too stunned by Charlie to say much. It was Charlie’s reaction that I cared about most, but, of course, Esther spoke first.

“Who was that boy?” she asked, waving her hand in the general direction that he’d driven off in.

“He’s a friend,” I commented, stressing the last word. “He’s a Mechanical Engineering major.”

“He looks older than you,” Esther said, eying me.

“That’s because he is,” Charlie perked up. “I remember him, y’know. He’s that boy from the pizza place we went to your first day here. Have you been around him ever since?”

I frowned. “Kind of,” I said, “but not really. We met at a party-.”

“'Party,'” Esther echoed, looking as though we’d just sacrificed someone for Satan right in front of her.

“Grandma, it’s not a big deal,” Ramsy said, stepping to my side. “It was one party the first weekend. It was basically a school-sponsored event. Everyone went.”

Esther gave us a look. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“Why does it matter?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “That was months ago.”

“We were talking about Travis,” Charlie informed me. “You went to his house for Thanksgiving?”

“It was at his dad’s house,” I replied. “His entire family was there.”

Charlie nodded slowly, not meeting my eyes. Finally, he said, “So if you’re such good friends that you’re attending family holidays now, then why have you never mentioned him?”

“It never came up,” I said, shrugging. “And I didn’t want to deal with this.” I motioned towards them.

“Watch yourself,” Esther replied.

I sighed. “Travis and I are friends,” I said again, talking to Charlie directly. “He drives me to class. We get dinner. Ram does all the same things with her friends.” I glanced at her. She nodded.

“Do you want to see our room, Grandma?” Ramsy asking, trying – albeit abruptly – to change the topic of conversation. “It’s actually really nice.”

Ramsy managed to wrangle Esther away and Charlie followed, a bit reserved and in his own head. The three of them headed in first and Wes and I followed, side by side. As I held the door open for him, Charlie and the others already in the lobby, Wes asked, “What happened to ‘no boys, just books’?”

I shot him a look, surprised by the comment and annoyed by his joke. “There aren’t any boys,” I said as I hurried up to his side.

“I mean, technically you’re very wrong,” Wes said. “Unless ‘Travis is a somehow not your friend or not a guy. Which, it seemed like he was both to me.”

“I’m allowed to have guy friends,” I answered quietly, considering Travis. “But that’s all it is, Wesley. We get along.”

Wes nodded slowly, his eyes on me as we caught up to everyone else at the elevator. “Okay, Code,” he said simply, “but don’t get too caught up.”

I frowned at his words, but didn’t say anything else as the five of us stepped into the elevator and headed up to the third floor so Ram and I could introduce Esther to the life she didn’t think we should be living. And one that now, perhaps, Charlie was reconsidering too.