Arthur Sakho

Danny came into the studio hand in hand with one of the freshmen. They smiled sweetly at each other and then she found a spot near the other freshmen while Danny came to stand by me. I stretched a leg up on the bar. He followed suit.

"You're dating a freshman," I teased.

"So are you," he said easily.

"Oh yeah. I forgot Trevon is a freshman."

"Did you ask if he would mind if we did a romantic concept?" Danny asked.

"He said he was fine with it," I said.

"Good," he said. "I came up with a few ideas last night. Are you okay with lifts?"

"Me lifting or you lifting or both?"

"Both," he said. "We've got to take turns."

I smiled. "Let's do it."

Samantha came on the other side of me and said, "I'm warning you both that Alice is going to be with us today."

"Why?" Danny asked, but Samantha shut her mouth and put a pained smile on her lips.

"Hi," Alice said to us. She stood on the other side of Samantha.

"Hi," Danny and I said at the same time.

Mrs. Madsen came in then and we started our warmups. Then she told us to get into the groups she had already designated us into. Her assistant went to help the freshmen and Mrs. Madsen came directly to us.

"What did you decide?" Mrs. Madsen asked us. I couldn't help but notice that Samantha and Alice were standing with us as if they were part of the group with me and Danny.

"We are going to be romantic," Danny said and he swung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close to his side. We were the same height, had the same body type.

"Us too," Samantha said indicating her and Alice.

I couldn't quite explain why I was so excited that there was going to be a woman/woman duet as well as a man/man duet.

"Yay!" I said brightly and high fived Samantha while Alice high fived Danny. Then Alice's hand was in my space and I was high fiving it before I realized it. And just like that, things were comfortable with her again.

"Good," Mrs. Madsen said. "I'm going to let you come up with your own choreographies this time. Even though the four of you aren't dancing together, I still want you to work with each other. Play your ideas off each other. Perform for each other to see what works and what doesn't. And ladies, the men can help you learn the proper technique to lift each other and men, the ladies can teach you how to properly be lifted."

Mrs. Madsen left us to go to the next set of sophomores. For the rest of the time we practiced lifting each other. I showed Alice where to put her hands on Samantha to lift her properly while Samantha scolded Danny for not keeping his core straight when I tried to lift him. Then the situations were reversed when Samantha tried to lift Alice and Danny tried to lift me. By the end of the class, we weren't perfect, but at least we were getting the hang of lifting each other. Danny was a lot heavier than Alice.

As we walked out of the studio, Danny told me some of his choreography ideas. I liked most of them and it made me think of a few myself which I shared. His freshmen girlfriend ran up behind us and grabbed Danny's arm. She politely said hello to me. The two of them left together, but not before Danny threw me a look that let me know he had completely forgotten about her. I didn't think that relationship was going to last long.

"I made you more cookies," Alice said by my side.

I jumped a little. I didn't hear her approach or feel her presence. "You startled me," I said.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to." She held out a square tupperware. "I made them a little different this time so hopefully they won't be dry."

I took them from her and playfully said, "Are you trying to get me fat?"

"No," she said aghast.

"I'm teasing," I said.

"Oh," she smiled. "Next time I'll bring carrots."

I laughed as we walked side by side down the hallway. "You really don't need to bring us anything more. We're good."

"We're friends again?"

"Yes," I said, but I wouldn't forget her words that she would bide her time. Things were better between us, but I was going to keep an eye on her.

"Good," she said. We parted ways and I stepped out to go to my car. That was when my phone rang. The name calling in came up as Scotty.

"Hiii," I said when I answered.

"Hi," he said. "You said I could call if I never needed to talk."

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"Of course," I said. I got in my car, but didn't start it up. "What's up?"

There was a pause and then he said, "I'm just lonely. There is no one to meet in this town."

"Go to the gay bar," I said.

"That's two towns over and it's a weekday."

I rolled my eyes, but of course he couldn't see it. He was as obstinate as ever. "Then go on the weekend."

"I have night classes on the weekend."

"Are you being difficult on purpose?"

He laughed. "No?"

"Then why are you questioning yourself. Just watch gay porn and jerk off."

"I live at home, remember? In my parents' house?"

I sighed dramatically. "Look, precious, I don't know what to tell you. You argue with everything I say."

"You used to like that."

"Not anymore." Although I kind of did, but I liked Trevon's way a lot more. We were different, but just seemed to let our differences blend together in beautiful swirls.

"Do you ever miss me?" he asked.

"As a friend," I said. "But I don't have to miss you because you called me."

"Right," he said. "We are friends. Friends can imagine each other naked though, right?" he teased.

"No," I said, "I have a boyfriend."

"Then I'll imagine you both naked," he teased even more.

"You better not," I said in the most threatening voice I could muster.

He laughed. "Okay. I won't imagine you or your boyfriend naked. Do you ever miss any of your exes?"

Jackson.

"No," I lied. "I'm perfectly happy with Trevon," and that was true.

"I miss my last boyfriend," he said seriously. "Do you think if I called him and begged him to take me back he would?"

"Listen, precious, if he broke up with you because you lied about coming out to your family and you still haven't told them you are gay, I don't think he is going to take you back."

He sighed heavily into the phone. "I miss him."

"If you want him back, you know what you have to do."

"I can't come out to family yet. At least not until I finish trade school and have a professional job. Do you think he will wait for me if I ask him to?"

"I don't know. I don't know him."

"Okay," Scotty said. "I'm going to drive my truck up into the mountains and hope I get reception on my phone so I can jerk off to gay porn."

I laughed. "Good luck." We hung up and I sent a text to Trevon.

Me: I'm on my way home. Do you want to come over? I'll need to shower and eat something.

Tall Dark and Handsome: I'll bring something to eat.

Me: 😘

I drove home. I left the door unlocked in case he came while I was in the shower. When I came out, he sat at my dining table eating a cobb salad. He smiled handsomely when he saw me. My heart fluttered rapidly against my chest. I hugged his shoulders from behind and placed a kiss on his cheek.

He grabbed my arm as I tried to slip away and pulled me down to his lips for an urgent kiss. I licked my mouth as I pulled away tasting the salad on his lips. I circled the table and sat across from him.

"Alice gave us more cookies today," I said. "I told her she was going to get me fat. I told her we are good now and she doesn't need to bring us anymore cookies."

Trevon frowned slightly. "I can't eat those cookies."

"I know," I said. "I'll toss them. Don't worry about it."

As we ate, I told him about my day, about the choreography I was working out with Danny and I told him that Scott called me asking for advice on how to get back together with his most recent boyfriend. Trevon told me all about his astrophysics classes and science classes and I pretended to be interested, but I didn't think I fooled him. He might have talked about aliens a little bit while I tuned out. I wasn't sure though.

We cleaned up after dinner and then ended up on the couch. I turned on the t.v.

"You haven't done your homework," he reminded me.

I pouted. He rubbed his thumb along my bottom lip. "That's not going to work today," he said. "If we were going to be spending so much time together, you can't let it interfere with your school work."

"Fine," I said dramatically and retrieved my school bag. I didn't turn off the t.v. though. I let it run while I did my homework. Trevon would occasionally tap the page I was working on as I got wrapped up in the show.

"All done," I announced and put my homework back in my bag.

He looked at me skeptically. "You don't have any other work?"

"Nope," I said. I wasn't sure if that was true, but I was willfully telling myself to forget if I had anything else.

"Alright," he said. That was when his phone rang. I leaned over his shoulder to see who was calling. Alex.

Trevon accepted the call.

"Let me talk to him," I said. I tried to grab the phone out of his hands, but he held it above his head. "No," he said.

"Please," I said, but I was already standing on my couch and crawling over him to reach his phone. I snatched it out of his hands.

"Arthur!" he scolded.

In a moment he had me pinned with my back against the seat cushions. He hovered over me. That position could get dangerous really quickly if I allowed it. Instead I said into the phone, "Hiii. I'm Arthur, Trevon's boyfriend."

"Hi," a soft voice said into the phone. "I'm Alex, Trevon's best friend." I liked his voice. It was soothing. I could use it for ASMR. Trevon snatched the phone away from me and stood up so I couldn't snatch it out of his hands again.

"I wasn't done talking," I pouted.

"Hi," Trevon said into the phone.

I grabbed his arm with both of mine and said, "At least put it on speaker. We shouldn't have secrets between us."

He gave me a strange look I couldn't discern, but into the phone he said, "Arthur wants me to put it on speaker. Is that okay?"

He took the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker. I smiled triumphantly and pulled him back to the couch. I curled up into his side.

"So, what's up?" Trevon asked.

"I was calling to tell you I finally told Vincent about my boyfriend."

"How'd that go?" Trevon asked. From his tone of voice, he didn't expect it to have gone well.

"As well as you'd expect," Alex said. "He doesn't like Mateo only because he isn't rich. He told me I should dump him. He actually told me I should dump him and date you."

I stiffened. The thought had never occurred to me that his best friends might be a threat to our relationship, but it probably should have. I knew that Alex was gay and Trevon was the greatest guy ever. How could everyone not fall in love with him?

Trevon laughed. "That's ridiculous. Don't worry. He wasn't being serious, just desperate."

"Why would he be desperate?" I asked. Trevon and Alex got very quiet. Had I said something wrong?

"His family has brainwashed him into thinking anyone who isn't rich is only out for your money," Trevon finally said.

"Okay," I said. I wasn't sure that would warrant their silence or his desperation. There had to be something else.

"You like Mateo though, right?" Trevon said into the phone.

"I love Mateo," Alex said. "He is nice and sweet and strong. He is smart too. He is a biology major. We met in general chemistry. I told him all about Jason and he still accepts me."

"Who is Jason?" I asked. Silence.

Trevon looked like he didn't know if he should throw up or beat someone up. He swallowed hard.

"Anyway," Alex said into the phone. "It's going to be hard to convince Vincent that Mateo is genuine, but I think in the end he will accept it. He just has to see how dedicated and loving Mateo is."

"That's right," Trevon said.

I wanted to ask about Jason again, but it was obvious they weren't going to answer me.

Alex was kind enough to ask me about my major and about dance in general before he hung up.

"Who is Jason?" I asked as soon as Alex was no longer on the phone.

Trevon's hands balled up into fists. I placed my hand over his and felt the tension. I rubbed my fingers back and forth over his hands until he relaxed. Then I curled into his side.

"That's not my secret to tell," he said.

"Okay," I said. I left it at that for now.