Chapter 79

The Christmas vacation went by way too fast. Suddenly it was a new year and Jacky was back at school, although he did have one little thing to look forward to: seeing Ryan in his new scarf. It wasn’t the biggest of the gifts Jacky and his mom had picked out for Ryan, but it was the one he had bought himself, and the blue matched Ryan’s eyes so perfectly.

Oh, and there was the little matter of the winter formal.

Tickets to the dance had been Ryan’s gift for Jacky. “You’re really ready for this?” he had asked Ryan quietly, before his mother had noticed what the gift was. She was busy exclaiming over the hand soap Ryan had given her.

“I will be.” Ryan had looked determined.

And then Mrs. Jennings had asked what the gift was and she was thrilled. Up until Jacky’s grandparents arrived, all she talked about was taking them out to be “outfitted” for the dance. “This isn’t like prom, Ma,” Jacky had said. She waved him off.

Jacky and Ryan had talked about how Ryan might come out to the rest of his friends. He didn’t want to tell everyone all at once. But it wasn’t exactly easy for him to hang out with his friends lately, and he worried that telling anyone while they were at school would result in rumors and gossip.

A flash of red caught Jacky’s eye, and he called out, “Hey, Nina!”

Nina turned, and so did Haylee, who was walking arm in arm with her. “Dyusha, hello,” she said. “What is up?”

“Nothing much,” Jacky said, glancing at Haylee. “How was Christmas?”

“I received many gift from my host family. And soon will be shipment from my family in Russia. How is your holidays?”

“Good, good.” Then he remembered Haylee. “How was your Christmas?”

“Great,” she said. “I got a new coat.”

Jacky had noticed the peacoat she was wearing. “You sure like purple, don’t you?”

Nina hugged Haylee close and glared at Jacky. “I think matching coat is cute. Haylee is very cute, yes?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jacky said. “I like her matching outfits.”

Haylee smirked at him.

“Yes. Haylee is cute.” Nina turned her face and kissed Haylee’s cheek. Haylee blushed.

Jacky wasn’t sure where this was going, but he had a feeling Nina might be trying to pawn Haylee off on him, like Cody had. Maybe Haylee had told Nina that she liked Jacky. Nina seemed to understand that Jacky was gay, but sometimes he wondered if something wasn’t lost in translation.

“Okay, we must go,” Nina said.

“Bye,” said Haylee, and as a unit, the two of them turned and headed off down the hall.

Jacky was still shaking his head when Cody finally showed up. “Are they gone yet?”

“Were you… were you hiding from them?” Jacky asked.

Cody sighed and collapsed against the lockers. “Dude, I am in deep shit here.”

It wasn’t Ryan’s first day on the job. He had worked a couple of shifts over the break. Both times he had shadowed a girl named Kamala who had a tendency to babble. She was a senior and Ryan recognized her from the tutoring center, where he had volunteered last year for community service hours. Today, however, was the first day Ryan was working on his own, not shadowing. And his coworker turned out to be Cody.

Ryan arrived promptly after school – pretty easy, considering all he had to do was cross the street. Cody, on the other hand, showed up fifteen minutes later, reeking of smoke. The manager was a guy named Wade who didn’t seem to care much one way or the other. “Late again, Mitchell,” Wade said with supreme indifference.

“Yo,” was Cody’s response.

Cody tied on his apron, then noticed that all the prep work had been done already. “Sweet,” Cody said, squinting at Ryan. “I love working with noobs.”

Students stopping by for an after-school snack started trickling in. “Oh, hi,” said a girl Ryan knew from science class – Emily Pittman. She blushed and stammered out her order. After he rang her up – slowly, he was still learning the cash register, and the whole exchange made him feel like an idiot – Ryan saw through the big windows that some of his friends were heading this way. Matt, Lance, and Brayden.

He hadn’t told them about his new job. Now he felt like big jerk. Once again, he was going to look like he was keeping secrets from them.

Behind the counter, he took a deep breath and resolved to not be a coward about this.

His green uniform shirt seemed to help him fade into the background for a couple of minutes as the three of them looked up at the menu. Then Brayden noticed him. “Hey! When did you start working here, Sullivan?”

He tried to block out the shock on Matt and Lance’s faces. “Last week,” he said. Then, before he could get any questions about Why do you need a job? or How come you didn’t tell me?, Ryan added, “Gotta pay for college somehow.”

“Do you have to work every day?” Lance asked, probably already thinking ahead to next year’s football season.

“No. Just a few hours a week. I’m working today and Thursday.”

Lance nodded. Matt rocked on his heels. Brayden was still looking up at the menu board.

“So… what can I get you?”

“I want a meatball pepperoni melt,” said Brayden immediately.

While Ryan asked the requisite questions and prepared Brayden’s sandwich, he felt Lance and Matt staring at him. Pitying him.

Cody finally roused himself from his stupor. “Yeah, so like, you guys decided what you want yet?” he asked Lance and Matt.

Thank god, Ryan thought. Cody took Matt’s order, and after Ryan had rung up Brayden (who made sure to count through his change to make sure it was correct, then said, “Nice, you didn’t screw anything up”) he headed back down to get Lance’s order.

“When does your shift end?” Lance asked.

“Five.”

“You wanna come over after? My mom won’t mind.”

“It’s okay, someone’s picking me up. But maybe another day?” Ryan hoped there would be another day. He hoped Lance wasn’t mad.

“Yeah, you said Thursday? We could do Thursday.”

“Cool,” said Ryan in relief.

The bell over the door rang and Ryan glanced up to see a dark-haired girl coming in. It wasn’t until Cody said, “Hey, Haylee, what’s up?” that Ryan remembered this girl often sat with Jacky at lunch.

Lance looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead took his sandwich from Ryan and plunked his change in the paper cup next to the register. Someone had written in Sharpie on the cup: Tips for Good Service. “Can you come sit with us? Hang out?” Lance asked, turning back to Ryan.

A glance through the plate glass windows showed no more customers, for the next couple of minutes anyway. Cody had his elbows up on top of the counter and was talking to Haylee in a low voice. “So I should wear a purple tie then?”

“Just the boutonniere,” said Haylee. “A purple tie would be cute, though.”

“Yeah, I can sit with you guys.” Ryan lifted the counter top and let himself out into the small dining area.

The topic of conversation was the dance.

“I don’t know who to ask,” Matt muttered. He had barely touched his sandwich.

Brayden, on the other hand, had mostly finished his. “Hey, Ryan, you mind if I ask Monica? She’s super hot.”

“Hmmm,” said Ryan noncommittally. He didn’t think Monica would want to go with Brayden. But she hadn’t mentioned having a date yet, and he didn’t know how desperate she would be feeling.

“I have a date,” Ryan heard himself say. Was he imagining how quiet the sandwich shop had become?

“Who?” Matt asked.

Apparently, declaring he had a date to the dance was all his throat was going to let him say.

“It’s a surprise,” Lance said after an awful silence.

“Is she hot?” Brayden asked.

“I can’t believe this,” Matt muttered, balling up his wrapper with the uneaten portion of his sub inside. “I’m the only fucking loser without a date.”

“You’ll find someone,” Lance said. “You could take Stef, if you want. She’s cool.”

“Whatever.” Matt got up and stormed off.

Brayden seemed content to sit there and finish off his sandwich, but Lance kicked him. “Come on, man,” Lance said. “We gotta go stop him from destroying the city.”

“Sorry,” said Ryan, because he didn’t know what else to say.

“You’ll get there,” Lance said. He gave Ryan a clap on the shoulder and then he and Brayden left.

After a while, more customers came in, and Haylee and Emily had both gone, and then it was just him and Cody. After they had finished washing anything that needed washing, and prepping everything for the inevitable dinner rush, they were left standing behind the counter without much to do.

“So… you’re goin’ to the dance with Jacky, right?” Cody asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan said.

Eventually five o’clock rolled around and the next shift arrived and the group home van pulled in. Naturally, Ricky, Sean and Dave wanted to get sandwiches, and they wanted Ryan to be the one serving them. By then Ryan had a huge headache.