Wes & Toren

a seat,” Wesley said, coming from the kitchen with a brown bottle in his hand. “You’re so uptight.” He sat down on the shaggy sofa and patted the cushion. I sat down, pulled my book bag onto my lap, and pulled out a spiral notebook and folder from our history class. He held his cigarette between his thumb and index finger and put his foot up on the coffee table while I fumbled around for a pen.
“Relax. I don’t bite. Are you sure you don’t want a beer or something?”
“No, thank you.”
I watched him from the corner of my eye. He seemed different but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. He was one of the coolest guys in school, drawing attention whether he wanted to or not. He was the type of guy who would probably end up flipping burgers when he was forty with three ex-wives and a mountain of child support.
Maybe I was a little resentful because everyone liked him and I didn’t really have many friends. He seemed to have it so easy. Most teachers liked him even though he skipped class a lot and never studied. Even Mr. Hannity liked him, despite his constant interruptions and obnoxious behavior. Belittling his future was all I could do to keep my self-esteem from bottoming out.
“You really wanna get started on the project now? We just got home from school. Relax a little first,” he said, taking a drink from his beer and another hit of his cigarette.
“But I’ve got other stuff to do, so we might as well just get started.” I stared at the textbook on my lap.
Wesley looked at me for a moment, then stood up and retrieved his book bag from near the front door. “So you wanna do the railroad thing or the Chinese-whatever-Acts?”
He sat down next to me, leaned back into the couch, and crossed his ankle on his knee. His leg pressed into mine and I jerked to the side a little, but his leg still touched mine.
“Yeah, I’m kinda interested in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Most people don’t even know that the Chinese built most of it, and basically for nothing. They were really exploited—I guess it just shows where the values of this country come from. Slaves weren’t the only ones exploited. Basically, if you weren’t a white European, you were pretty much screwed. And the Chinese Exclusion Acts were part of that too. The government actually excluded Chinese from entering the US. But the Chinese used the courts to gain entry, basically outsmarting the government.”
Wesley stared at me with a grin on his face. I suddenly realized that I was just rambling. Did that sound stupid? No wonder everyone called me a nerd.
“You really like this stuff, don’t you?” Wesley asked, tilting his grin to one side.
My cheeks were hot with embarrassment. “Yeah, I do.” Like I could hide it after my educational rant. “Actually, this is what I wanna study in college.”
“You wanna be a teacher or something?” he asked. I nodded without looking at him. “I can totally picture you doing that. I think you’d be good at it.” I tried to hide the smile that was curling my lips. “So which do you wanna do? The railroad or the Exclusion thing?”
“Let’s do the Chinese Exclusion Acts. I think we’d be able to find more resources about them, anyway.”
“Cool. Now that that’s decided,” Wesley said and leaned forward, opening the cabinet on the coffee table, “you wanna get high?”
“Huh?” I glanced at Wesley and he pulled a small pipe and a clear plastic bag from the cabinet and laid them on his lap.
“It’s my way of saying thanks for doing this project with me, even though you could’ve had a better partner,” he said, sticking his index finger in the bowl of the pipe and tapping it a few times.
“Don’t—don’t worry about it,” I stuttered. I pulled my book bag up to the side of the couch and tried to push my notebook and folder in.
Wesley stopped fingering the bowl and looked at me. “You don’t wanna? C’mon, it’s my treat.”
I had never smoked pot; I had never even seen it before now. Wesley felt dangerous to me, but it was also part of his charm.
“I should get going,” I stammered, still trying to fit my notebook and folder in my book bag.
Wesley set the pipe and baggie down on the coffee table and sighed lightly. “You know, Toren, you might look good on paper, but you’re boring as hell in person.”
I looked up sharply. “What? No I’m not.” I looked down into my lap again. He didn’t even know me. How could he make such a quick judgment?
He rested his arm on the sofa behind my head and leaned toward me with his same grin. “Prove it then,” he said, moving his face closer to mine. I could smell the tobacco and beer on his breath. “I mean, you’re into boys, right?”
My eyes widened, and I stared at Wesley. He smiled devilishly and leaned closer. I swallowed hard and looked down. He didn’t know that I sort of had a crush on him, did he? Was he trying to make me admit it? Or was he just making a joke?
“Wh-what? Why are you even asking that?”
“’Cause you always look at me like you wanna fuck me,” he answered, with a grin that was almost a sneer.
“What? I—I don’t—”
“No, that’s not quite right,” he said calmly, looking up at the ceiling and shaking his head. “No, it’s more like you wanna be fucked by me.”
My heart stopped. I didn’t know what to do. I pulled my book bag onto my lap and stood up. “I have to go,” I said quickly and rushed toward the front door.
“You want a ride?” Wesley asked, lighting a cigarette and looking at me over the flame. He sank back into the couch.
“I don’t live too far.”
“See you at school,” Wesley called as I pulled the door closed behind