Arthur Sakho

I lifted Danny in the dance routine we were working on and then set him back gently on his feet. We went on to the next move, but he stopped and said, "I can make my expression better. Let's try it again."

We got back in our original positions facing the mirror. I lifted him again. He softened his expression trying to convey that he was in love with me through the dance. I caught Alice scowling at my back. She hadn't realized I noticed, but then Samantha was in front of her to get her attention. Alice turned away from me so she could practice with Samantha. I set Danny down, but it wasn't as gentle as before since I had been distracted by Alice. We went through the move a few more times until we were satisfied with it and then worked on the next few moves.

By the time class was over, Danny and I both were drenched in sweat. Danny and I sat on the floor. I took several swallows of water from my water bottle. Danny did the same.

"How's everything going with your freshmen?" he asked.

"Good," I said. "He's perfect. But he has to have a flaw of some sort right? No one is perfect. But I just can't find it. Well, I guess he does read too much, but that's actually a weird turn on for me so I guess that's not a flaw. Hmm. I don't know."

"You said he has a telescope to look at the stars right? Has he taken you anywhere to look at the stars with him?"

"No," I said. "That does sound romantic though doesn't it?"

"You should do it now. It's already cold at night because it's fall. You don't want to wait until it's even colder."

I shrugged. "That would just give us an excuse to cuddle."

Samantha collapsed next to us and drank from her water bottle. Alice sat in front of us. She smiled at me, but it was forced as it always was these days. She drank water from her own water bottle.

"Are you seeing anyone?" I asked Danny because I didn't want to talk about Trevon when Alice was around. I didn't need to give her anymore reason to hate me more than she already did.

"No," he said. "I don't know. No one is very interesting. Maybe I need to give dating a rest for awhile."

"Or maybe," I said, "you should look at someone close to you."

"What do you mean?" he asked as Samantha elbowed me hard from the other side.

I didn't give any indication that her elbow had hurt, but it did and I was probably going to have a bruise. "I didn't mean anything by it," I said. "I was just talking. How about you, Alice, are you seeing anyone?"

Her eyes went cold. "No," she said.

"We should get going," Samantha said. "Class is over." She stood up and Alice followed her lead.

"See you guys later," Samantha said.

"Bye," Alice said with the fake smile and then she followed Samantha out.

Danny and I exchanged a glance. "She gives me the creeps sometimes," he said quietly so that only I would hear.

"Me too," I said.

When we went into the hallway, Samantha and Alice were already gone. I went out to my car and sent Trevon a text.

Me: I'm on my way home. I need to shower. Bring over some food when you come.

Tall Dark and Handsome: Ok

I drove home. The apartment was quiet when I arrived. I took a thorough shower. I had just put on fresh boxer briefs and pants when the doorbell rang. I quickly pulled my shirt over my head and went out. Trevon leaned down and kissed me when I opened the door.

"Hi, sweetie," I said.

He kissed me again. I backed up while we kissed and he followed me so he was now fully in the apartment. He kicked the door closed behind him as his lips followed mine.

"Hi, beautiful," he said against my lips.

I pulled away and grabbed the take out bag from his hand. "I'm starving," I said. He brought the chicken wraps I liked. I placed the bag on the table and got two plates and glasses of water. Trevon already sat at the table when I brought the plates and glasses over. He must have been hungry too because he scarfed down his chicken wrap slightly faster than I did. I was just cleaning up the dishes when my phone rang. Lizzy's number came up as a video call. I answered and my sister-in-law's face was next to Jade's sweet face.

"Uncle Arty," Jade called out lovingly to me.

"She was hoping to see your boyfriend," Lizzy said.

"He's here," I said. I angled the phone as Trevon came up behind me so we would both be on the screen. "Say hi," I said. I wasn't sure if I was saying that to Jade or Trevon.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Hello," Trevon said politely.

"Handsome," Jade said.

"He's there?" my brother's voice said offscreen and then he walked onto the screen behind Lizzy and Jade.

"That's my oldest brother Joseph," I said to Trevon.

"It's nice to meet you," Trevon said.

"And me," Jade said and pointed to herself.

"And my most favorite niece, Jade."

"I'm your only niece, silly."

That made me smile. "And my favorite sister-in-law, Lizzy."

"Your only sister-in-law, silly," she said just as Jade had. She smiled at her daughter.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Trevon said. "I'm Trevon, Arthur's boyfriend."

Joseph and Lizzy smiled wide at this.

"What are you doing?" Jade asked.

"Right now?" I asked and she nodded. "We were cleaning up after dinner."

"Ask Trevon the question you wanted to ask him," Lizzy said to Jade.

Jade looked into the screen and said, "Do you looooove Uncle Arty?"

"Yes. I do," he said without any hesitation and my heart warmed. I leaned back slightly into him. One of his hands came to my hip, but they couldn't see that on the screen.

"Not more than me," Jade said matter of factly.

"At least equally," Trevon said. "I love him a lot."

"I love him more," she said.

"You're cute and very sweet, but we're going to have to disagree on this one," Trevon said.

"He said I was cute," Jade whispered loudly to Lizzy.

"Well, you are," Joseph said. "You are the cutest."

"Ask him the other question you wanted to ask him," Lizzy said to Jade.

"What is NASA?"

"Ugh," I groaned. "Don't ask him that. It's boring."

"It's not boring," Lizzy scolded me, but there was humor in her tone.

"NASA," Trevon said completely ignoring me, "is National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is very important. By studying more about the sun, the moon, the stars and space, we learn more about Earth and our universe. Man was first able to walk on the moon because of NASA not to mention all the research that went into the first satellites and the rover they sent to Mars. Not to mention, we can see comets and meteorites coming and make sure they are on a safe projectory. Not that there is much we can do if they are not. We can also seek for new planets - including possible habitable planets. And blackholes, and novas, and..."

I closed my eyes and snored. Trevon poked me in the ribs, but Jade giggled so that was all that I cared about. "Okay," I said into the phone. "We're going to go now. It was nice chatting with you. We'll talk to you soon."

"Bye," all three of them said at the same time. Jade blew us a kiss and then I hung up.

I turned and gave Trevon a look.

"What?" he said. "She asked me a question and I responded."

"She's only five. She doesn't need to know all that stuff yet."

"Okay," he relented. "Come on." He started to pull me into the living room. "You've got to work on your homework."

I rolled my eyes, but followed him to the couch. I unzipped my backpack and pulled out my homework. He read a book he brought while I worked. When I was finished, I turned on a reality show and leaned back into Trevon. He put his arm around me while he continued to read.

"If our lunch schedules match up," he said after a while, "do you want to eat together?"

"Yes," I said. I sat up and turned slightly so I could look at him.

"We don't have to if you usually eat with friends," he said.

"I want to," I said. We discussed our schedules and we wouldn't be able to meet up everyday, but there were days when we could.

"When are you going to take me up to the mountains to look at stars?" I asked.

He sat up a little straighter and there was a bright sparkle in his eyes. "You want to?"

"Yes," I said. "It sounds romantic."

He smiled wide at this. "Let's go camping then. Soon."

"Camping?"

"Yeah," he said. His smile faltered. "You don't want to?"

"I thought we would just drive up to the mountains for a few hours and then come back."

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back into his side. "How about we go camping just for one night? We can come back the very next day."

"Okay," I relented. I didn't really want to, but he smiled so excitedly after that I couldn't retract my words. I smiled and settled in his arms. "You can watch whatever you want to." I handed him the remote.

He set down his book and changed it to the science channel. I tried to pay attention as they droned on and on about atoms, but I let my head fall to his shoulder and I closed my eyes.

"Art," his low voice whispered. I was instantly awake. I lifted my head off his shoulder. "It's late," he said.

I stood up and took his hand. I led him to the bedroom. I went to my side of the bed while he went to his. I took everything off except for the boxer briefs and slid under the covers. He did the same. I immediately scooted to his side. We stared at each other for a moment and I wondered if we were really just going to sleep without fooling around at all. He leaned in and kissed me. His arms came around my waist and crushed me to him. I caressed his warm cheeks. He rolled over me so I was now on my back as our kiss continued.

His phone rang. He pulled away from the kiss and looked down at me.

"Ignore it," I said. I tried to pull him back to the kiss, but he rolled off me and reached for his pants.

"I can't," he said. "No one calls me this late. What if it is an emergency?"

He had a point. He brought his phone out of his pants pocket and answered. "Hello." There was a pause before he sat up with his legs over the edge of the bed. "Vincent did what? That idiot. I'm sorry, Aley. Are you okay?" There was a longer pause. "At least he knows he's an idiot now. What are you going to do?" Pause. "Yeah. You're a good guy, Alex. Better than me. I'm not sure I would forgive him if I was in your position. Are you going to be okay? Can you sleep tonight?" Another pause. "Okay. Good night. Hang in there." He hung up. He settled back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"What did Vincent do?" I asked.

He sighed. "Such an asshole."

I knew he was talking about Vincent and not me. I waited. I wasn't sure if he was going to tell me or not and I told myself it was alright if he didn't tell me.

"You know how I told you about that incident in high school?"

"Yes."

"And how Vincent has been trying to break up Alex with his boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"He started to use that incident in high school as a means to break up Alex and Mateo. He stopped himself and he has apologized, but Alex is having a hard time knowing Vincent even thought to use that incident against him."

Silence filled the room.

"He is an asshole," I finally said, "but if he isn't normally like that and he knows what he has done is wrong and is apologizing, maybe Alex should forgive him."

"Alex will forgive him because he's a nice guy and they've been best friends since they were toddlers. It's going to take some time though."

I brought my hands to Trevon's cheeks and turned his head so he could look at me. "Are you going to let this affect your friendship with Vincent?"

He paused and that worried me because if I ever made a mistake, I hoped he would forgive me.

"No," he finally said. "I am going to call him up in the morning and chew him out though because that's what good friends do."

I smiled. "Yes. Do that." And then I kissed him so we could continue what we had started.