Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1

by Michele Notaro

  I knew my eyebrows shot up in surprise. I could hear Cal snickering behind us, but I ignored him and answered Colt, “Uh, sure.”

  He gave me a small smile before looking away shyly.

  A minute later I added, “I’m buying it though.”

  “No, dude, I w—”

  I insisted, “You already paid for my ticket for some unknown reason, and you’re driving. Maybe I can pay for some gas or something when we get back.”

  He was staring at me again, and I hated to admit it, but I was starting to like when his blue-green eyes caught me in their depths. He took a step closer to me, and instead of moving back like a normal person, I just stood there, frozen by his gaze. He was about the same height as me—I actually didn’t know who was taller—so our eyes met easily, even when we were standing closer than two people should. After a long moment, he finally said in a quiet voice, “I bought it because I wanted to.” Then he put his hand on my upper arm and squeezed, making me suck in a breath. His hand left my arm before I could really enjoy the warmth, but I still felt the loss, especially when he stepped back again.

  I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath to get my bearings back. I wasn’t sure if he was really flirting with me or not, he never had before and I didn’t even think he was into guys, but if he was, his weird behavior would make sense. The music was loud so I used that as an excuse to step closer to him and breathe into his ear, “Well, thank you, Colt. I really appreciate it.”

  I watched in amusement as a shiver rocked through him. I stepped away from him and accidently looked behind myself at Cal and Nolan who were just staring at me. I didn’t know what they were thinking, so I offered a slight smile and instantly tensed when I saw Cal lift his hand toward me, but all he did was pat my shoulder.

  “So, uh, you looking forward to having a long weekend?” Colt asked.

  “Definitely. But I’m not looking forward to finals when we get back,” I admitted.

  He shrugged a little. “You’ll be fine. You’ve done well on all your tests so far, so you already know the stuff, you just need to review it.”

  I blinked at him, surprised that he had actually been paying attention to me the past few months. He was usually around when I met Cal and Nolan, but he seriously barely talked to me. “Uh, yeah, I guess.” When we moved up in the line our shoulders brushed and I heard him gasp a little. I glanced at him, and for lack of anything better, asked, “You know how Mina’s playing violin now?” He nodded, so I continued, “Well, I’m working on a painting for her. It’s a little girl with Mina’s likeness playing the violin. It’s a little abstract, so it doesn’t really look like her, but I’m gonna give it to her for Christmas. You think she’ll like that?”

  He grinned at me. “I think she’ll love that. You know she looks up to you, so she’ll love anything you give her. But painting her favorite thing; she’ll really love it.”

  I smirked at him and lightly elbowed him in the side. “Thanks.”

  “What are you working on in your sculpting class?” he asked.

  “I’ve been working on this dragon that’s taken me weeks to make,” I answered.

  “Oh yeah, I heard you talking about that the other day. I thought you were almost done?”

  “I am.” We moved up in line a little. “I just keep adding detail. Maybe I can show it to you when I finish it. I’m going to put it in my room because it’s kinda badass.”

  “I’d like that,” he said quietly.

  I tilted my head at him because I noticed his cheeks pinking again. He is blushing! What in the hell? Maybe he was flirting with me. To test my theory, I stepped a little closer to him and his eyes went wide, but he didn’t move away. Nope, he just stared at me in surprise. When I leaned in close to his ear, he shivered again, so I said, “I’ll be sure to bring you up to my room to show you.”

  He swallowed and just stared. He stared so long that I started to worry that maybe I’d gotten it wrong. Maybe he hadn’t been flirting with me and was only being nice.

  My shoulder got pushed and I noticed that we needed to move up in line, so I blew out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I glanced back and saw Cal and Nolan laughing at my expense, but I ignored them and stepped forward to order some kettle corn and cotton candy to share.

  “You’re getting cotton candy too?” Colt asked me after I placed my order.

  “I have a sugar addiction.” I smiled at him.

  His returning smile was gorgeous. “Cotton candy is pretty good.”

  I remembered something we all used to do as kids, so I said, “Just pretty good? No. It’s not pretty good, it’s fucking cotton candy. You’re gonna have to do better than that if you want any of mine.”

  He snorted, “Fine, it’s…” he thought for a moment, “delicious.”

  I shook my head. “You can do better.” I was glad he was playing along with the little game, but I was gonna make him work for it.

  “Appetizing.”

  “No way.”

  “Delightful.”

  I laughed, “Nope.”

  “Heavenly.”

  I snorted but shook my head.

  “Scrumptious.”

  I laughed again, “Uh uh.”

  “Delish.”

  “Pathetic.”

  He laughed, “Palatable.”

  “No way.” We were both laughing now.

  “Exquisite.”

  “Close.”

  “Delectable.”

  “One more.”

  “Fit for a king?” he said it like it was a question.

  I snorted that time and said, “Fine, you can share mine.”

  He laughed a little, then seemed to get a little shy again because he didn’t say anything, he just kept smiling at me.

  The woman working the booth handed me a giant bag of popcorn and a hefty-sized cone of cotton candy. I handed Colt the popcorn to carry and we walked over to the next booth that was selling jewelry to wait for Cal and Nolan. I ripped a piece of cotton candy off with my index finger and thumb and popped it in my mouth, closed my eyes and moaned. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had cotton candy, and that stuff was just too freaking good. When I opened my eyes, Colt was staring at me. He licked his lips, which made me lick mine. His eyes went wide at the sight.

  I ripped off another piece, popped it in my mouth and held out the rest to Colt. He looked over his shoulder to where Cal and Nolan were still waiting for their order, then mumbled, “You have something…” he reached up and swiped my upper lip with his finger. Then he looked at his finger, shrugged, then closed his eyes and licked the crumb off of it.

  I whispered, “Holy shit.” I didn’t think he heard me.

  He opened his eyes and looked right at me while he pulled his finger out of his mouth with a pop. Then he smirked at me as Cal and Nolan came over.

  “What’s wrong with you, nerd?” Cal asked me when he saw what I knew was a shocked and possibly lust-crazed face.

  I cleared my throat and moved my feet, trying to quell the blood flow to my half-hard cock. “Um, nothing.” To Colt I said, “Wanna keep walking around?” I offered the cotton candy again.

  He smirked at me again, his usual cockiness making a reappearance at my reaction. He must’ve been worried I wasn’t into him or something. Which was ridiculous since I’d been lusting after him since middle school. Although I came out years ago, I didn’t think he was gay, so this was strange but definitely not unwelcome. He tore off a piece of the cotton candy, saying, “Sure, I heard they usually have some kind of salsa booth here. My ex had a jar of peach salsa that was pretty good. Do you want to try and find it?”

  I had no idea who his ex was, or even if it was a guy or a girl, not that I cared, but I was now more curious about that than I was about the salsa. Still, I said, “Sure, lead the way.”

  He stayed right next to me, our shoulders bumping every now and then. We were both silent as we finished off the cotton candy. Then he opened the kettle corn bag
and I moved even closer to him so I could reach. My shoulder was up against his, but he didn’t seem to mind because he didn’t move away or even look at me weird or anything.

  After his second handful of popcorn, he asked, “So what made you choose art as your major?”

  “You obviously know I’ve always loved art,” I answered and he nodded. “So it just seemed like the natural thing for me to do. I would love to be able to paint, sketch, and sculpt for a living, but I’m also doing graphic design as a backup.” I shoved more popcorn in my mouth and chewed before adding, “My dream is to write a comic.”

  He laughed a little. “I can definitely see you doing that.”

  That surprised me. “Really?” He nodded, so I said, “Thanks. So what made you want to be an engineer?”

  He shrugged and was quiet for so long that I didn’t think he’d answer, but eventually he said, “Remember when we would sneak up to the roof to look at the ships in the sky?” I hummed in agreement, so he continued, “Well, I wanted more than anything to know how they were floating like that. How they traveled through space for god only knows how long before coming to Earth and just settling there. Just floating in the sky, you know? The technology they have… man, I can’t even imagine it.”

  “So you want to work for the government or something?”

  “Somethin’ like that,” he said with a smile.

  “So, where’d you run off to last night? Did you have a hot date or somethin’?” I asked him, only half-joking. When he didn’t answer right away I looked over at him and noticed him looking extremely uncomfortable, so I shoulder-bumped him. “You don’t have to tell me. I was just messing with you.”

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking at me. “I didn’t have a date. I really was just meeting a friend. He’s been helping me with something.”

  “That sounds cryptic,” I said with a smile.

  He shot me a little smirk. “I assure you, it’s nothing too exciting.”

  We talked for a little while longer about our classes and professors and the gross cafeteria food at school. I was so engrossed in our conversation that I completely forgot my two best friends were supposed to be with us until Colt said, “Where did Cal go?”

  “Hm?” I looked around. “I don’t see either of them.”

  We turned around and started heading back the way we came to look for them. After about five minutes, I was starting to get worried, so I pulled my cell out to try and call one of them.

  “Is this what you bitches were looking for?” Cal’s laughing voice called from the other side of the booths.

  I looked up to see him holding a jar of what I was guessing was salsa. Apparently we had walked right past it.

  “Hm, funny man,” I called to him as we made our way through the moving crowd to the salsa tent.

  We all picked out a couple of jars of different flavored salsa, paid, then made our way over to the big stage—there were three total, but we wanted to see the band Eternal. We all loved their music, so there was really no question which stage we’d sit at. We still had an hour before they performed, but we wanted to sit close. The stage crew was setting up for the next band, so it wasn’t crowded over there yet and we were able to get pretty good seats in the front, on the right side of the stage near the fence.

  We set up our blanket and sat down; Colt was on my right, Cal on my left, and Nol next to him. Not surprisingly, we still had popcorn left and since it was in front of me, I couldn’t help but eat it. Damn, kettle corn is so freaking good.

  Before the concert started, Cal and Colt decided to go get us some real food. Nolan and I stayed with our stuff so we wouldn’t lose our spot. I sat on the blanket, cross-legged, still munching on popcorn.

  Nolan was leaning back on one elbow, looking at me when he said, “So, you and Colt, huh?”

  I gave him a look like he was crazy since I didn’t understand the random statement. “Me and Colt, what?”

  He looked up and took a deep breath like he was praying for patience—even though I didn’t do anything—then he blurted, “You like him.”

  I shrugged. “He’s my friend, I guess.”

  “Oh, for the love of…” Nol sat up cross-legged to face me. “Jeremy, it’s pretty obvious that you like him more than that.”

  My eyes went so wide I thought they might pop outta my head. I knew I’d been flirting a little, but I didn’t really want Cal to realize I liked his brother, so I stuttered, “No… I… what?”

  Nolan placed a hand on my knee. “It’s okay, you know. I mean, it’s not like we didn’t know this was coming. Cal doesn’t care that it’s his brother, just so you know.”

  Of course they didn’t give a shit that I was into guys. Kinda obvious when, a couple years ago, they were talking about which of the hot girls at school was the hottest and when they asked which one I thought deserved the top spot, I blurted out the quarterback’s name. For about five frightening seconds, I thought I might get punched in the face, but Nolan and Cal were awesome because they just laughed and continued their debate, and they never treated me any differently. We had been in Cal’s basement and Colt was down there, too, playing a video game or something. I remembered him staring at me, and when he noticed being caught he gave me a small smile and a nod. I remembered being overjoyed that he accepted me as I was. I was definitely lucky because all three of our families grew up telling us we could marry and love whomever we wanted.

  So now, the only problem was that Colt was Cal’s brother. I looked into Nolan’s baby blue eyes desperately. “Dude, does Cal think I like Colton?”

  “Uh, I’m pretty sure everyone here knows you like Colt. And probably everyone at home, too, since you’ve had a crush on him since middle school.” That was true, unfortunately, but I’d never told him that.

  I closed my eyes. “Shit.”

  “I told you, J, Cal doesn’t care. He actually thinks it’s kinda funny.”

  I opened my eyes. “Why would that be funny?”

  “’Cause if you and Colt ever get married, you and Cal would be brothers.”

  “Holy mother of… fuck. Why would you guys even… I mean… why would… you seriously talked about me marrying him?” My voice went up an octave at the end, thinking of that horrifying idea.

  Nolan burst out laughing and started patting my back. “Man, I’m just messing with you. Jesus, if you could see your face right now… no we never talked about that, idiot.” He continued laughing in my face for a few more minutes and I just sat there, waiting. Finally, he added in a serious tone, “Cal doesn’t care, as long as Colt’s not an asshole to you.”

  “Cal’s worried about me? Not Colt?”

  “Obviously, dude,” he said in a tone like it should be completely evident to me.

  I took a second to absorb the information. I always thought if Cal found out about my crush on Colt, he would be pissed at me and would want to kick my ass, so this… this was good, right? I looked back at Nol, “Are you sure?”

  “Yep,” he said with a smirk. I stared into his eyes to gauge his sincerity, and I couldn’t help but believe him.

  Now the more important thing. “So Colt’s gay?”

  Nolan laughed like he thought it was a joke. When he realized I was honestly asking him, he stopped and asked, “You didn’t know?” I shook my head, then he stated, “It must’ve been when you were at the beach last summer. Sorry, man, I thought you knew.”

  “What happened when I was at the beach?”

  “Colt told his family that he’s bi.”

  “Oh.”

  “I thought Cal told you.” I shook my head. Nol patted my knee. “Sorry, man, must’ve slipped his mind.”

  Colt and Cal came back a few minutes after that with a ton of food. They resumed their previous seats and passed everything out. The band started playing when I was halfway done eating my sub and I was completely engrossed in the music for a long time after that.

  I jumped when I felt a chin on my left shoul
der. I turned as far as I could and saw Cal giving me his puppy dog eyes, so I asked, “What?”

  “I’m sorry,” he responded without moving his chin off me.

  “For what?”

  “I thought you automatically had that gaydar thing,” he responded.

  I snorted. “I don’t think it works like that.”

  “Oh,” he wiggled his lips around, thinking, “Well, I just assumed you knew, but I guess you didn’t, so now you do. And, you know, I’m cool with whatever.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He lifted off my shoulder and made a shooing motion with his hands. “If you guys wanna go be gay together, then go be gay together. I already told my brother that I’ll kick his ass if he’s mean to you, so there ya go.”

  I laughed a little and shook my head at him. “You are such a dork sometimes.”

  “You still love me.”

  I pushed his shoulder and he laughed before shoving a fry in his mouth. I turned my attention back to the stage, but was acutely aware of the eyes boring into the side of my head. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I turned to my right and found Colt just staring at me. He didn’t look away like he had in the car, instead, a slow smile spread on his lips and I had the sudden urge to kiss him. It was an urge I’d been dealing with since Colt had to go and get all muscular a few years ago, but knowing that he might reciprocate the kiss, well, now the feeling had intensified tenfold.

  I wasn’t going to do anything with Cal and Nolan right next to us, but we did, however, just stare at one another for at least an entire song. Our stare-off was interrupted by a commotion happening farther down the fairgrounds. I couldn’t hear what was going on, but it looked like a bunch of people were starting to gather.

  And then I heard it; the screaming. A woman at the blanket next to ours started screaming so loudly I could hear her over the music. She stood up and started pulling at her hair, screaming words I didn’t understand. Then two blankets down from that, a man started screaming along with her. Two more men and another woman stood up around our blanket, screaming at the top of their fucking lungs. The band stopped playing as more and more people joined in the madness.