Chet Watakeekul

As much as I loved my Intro to Sports Management class, I couldn't focus. I kept thinking about Vincent. He had kissed me again. It was a simple kiss compared to the one I received last night, but it had filled me with warmth - warmth that had spread from my chest to my fingers and toes. I wanted to see him again even though I had just seen him.

"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked me. We were in the locker room before soccer practice.

"I'm good," I said. "Why? Do I not look okay? Is there something wrong with me? Do I have something on my face? Something on my clothes?" I was already changed into my soccer uniform, but I looked down at my shirt anyway. I couldn't imagine I had spilled anything on it. I didn't eat in my soccer uniform.

"No," Jimmy said. "You just seem unusually preoccupied."

"Oh." My lips lifted into a smile. I tried not to be obvious, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop thinking about Vincent and thoughts of him filled me with happiness.

"Are you dating someone?" Devon asked as he came up to stand behind Jimmy.

"What?" I scoffed. "No," but it was so obviously a lie to my ears and I still had that stupid smile plastered on my face.

"You seem like you are dating someone," Jimmy said with a teasing smile.

"He definitely does," Devon agreed.

"You're dating someone?" Mateo asked me in disbelief. He had just walked into the locker room and was still in his street clothes with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

My smile disappeared. "No," I said.

"Of course he's not," Mateo said and opened his locker. "He would tell me first if he was."

"You didn't tell me right away that you were dating Alex," I pointed out.

"That's different," Mateo said. "Besides, you just said you weren't dating anyone." Mateo pulled off his green t-shirt and began to change.

"Okay so not dating someone," Jimmy said, "but you like someone right?"

"Is it that girl who keeps showing up to the games?" Devon asked.

"No," I said. "It's not her."

Mateo's fingers faltered, but I wasn't sure why.

"She's pretty," Jimmy said. "Introduce her to me sometime."

"Why you?" Devon asked. "I'm the other striker on the team." He threw an arm around my shoulders. "He should introduce her to me."

"I can introduce her to both of you," I said. "It's up to her to decide if she likes either of you."

"But you do like someone," Jimmy stated.

The blood rushed to my cheeks and I smiled again.

Devon's arm around my shoulders tightened as he smiled in response to my smile. "You do like someone," he said. "Who is she?"

Mateo's locker slammed shut and he left the locker room without looking at me. No one else noticed.

"I'm not ready to talk about it yet," I said. I rushed after Mateo. I left the locker room and saw him heading towards the field. He was walking so fast I had to run to catch up.

"Mateo," I said. He ignored me. I grabbed his arm and forced him to turn to look at me. His brown eyes scowled at me. "What did I do?" I asked.

He sighed and the scowled disappeared. "You didn't do anything," he said.

"Then why are you mad?"

He didn't answer right away as Devon and Jimmy walked by us. Jimmy tousled my hair. "Chetty has a crush," he said and the two of them continued onto the field. I noted how Mateo's eyes darkened at Jimmy's words.

"You don't want me to have a crush?" I asked him when we were out of earshot. "You don't still have feelings for me do you? I thought you loved Alex."

"I do love Alex," Mateo said. "It isn't about that." He sighed. "Look, it's silly and childish but after you turned me down I told myself it wasn't because of me but because you didn't like anyone and I've never seen you show an interest in anyone so I believed that. But now apparently you have a crush on someone so it wasn't you, it was me. You just weren't ever attracted to me and I love Alex and don't want you now, but it's a blow to my ego."

He would hate it more if he knew I was actually dating the man who had tried to break up him and his love for so long.

"So who is it?" Mateo asked me. He was smiling now.

We started walking to the field. I hesitated. I couldn't tell him the truth and not just because Vincent couldn't tell his family. Mateo wouldn't take it well if he found out I was dating Vincent. Not now. Not after what Vincent had done last night.

"It's still new," I said, "and it feels special. I'm not ready to talk about it yet. I might jinx it." That was all true.

"Okay," Mateo said. "You have to tell Gareth you have a crush though."

"Okay," I said.

"I mean it. Right after practice, call him and let me hear the conversation. He was so sure you were asexual."

He ran onto the field. I followed a little more slowly. Alex was in the stands as usual.

Once practice really got started I stopped thinking about Vincent and focused on soccer. After practice, I hoped that Mateo would forget about me calling Gareth so I could disappear and call Vincent. Mateo finished changing first and was out the door. I changed extra slow hoping he would be gone by the time I was finished. I was the last one out of the locker room, but when I exited Mateo and Alex waited for me.

"See?" Mateo said to Alex. "He's had that stupid smile on his face all day."

I was smiling? I did a quick internal inspection and came to the conclusion that I was indeed smiling.

"Quick, call Gareth," Mateo said.

I wanted to be alone so I could call Vincent, but I pulled out my phone and called Gareth. I put the call on speaker.

He answered quickly. "Hey," he said.

"You're not in class again are you?" I asked.

"No," he said. "What's up?"

"Chet has a crush on someone," Mateo spurted out.

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"What? That's impossible," Gareth said.

"Impossible?" I said. What did Gareth think of me?

"It's true," Mateo said. "He's been smiling like a fool all day and even admitted it."

"Wow," Gareth said. Was it really so incomprehensible that I would have a crush? "Who is she or he? I don't want to assume."

Mateo faltered for a brief moment. It seemed the possibility that I might have a crush on a 'he' hadn't occurred to him and that was another blow to his ego.

"He doesn't want to say," Mateo said. "He said it's new and special."

"Okay. Now it all makes sense," Gareth said.

"It does?" Mateo and I both asked at the same time.

"Yep."

Mateo and I paused but there was no further explanation from Gareth.

"Are you going to be home all night?" Mateo asked Gareth.

"I don't have to be. I can leave if you want another makeout session with your boyfriend."

Alex turned a deep red.

"I can be gone all night if you want me to," Gareth added.

"No," Mateo said. "No sex in the apartment, remember?"

"You're the one who made that stupid rule not me. Seriously, I'm fine with it."

"No," Mateo said. "I'll keep to my word."

"Alex must be so frustrated with you," Gareth said.

Mateo's expression darkened. Alex blushed even deeper. I hadn't thought it possible.

"Fine," Gareth said. "I'll leave and be back by nine. Do you think you'll be finished making out by then or do you need more time?"

"Nine is fine," Mateo said.

"See you later then." Gareth hung up.

I wasn't sure what to say in the silence that followed. I already knew more about Mateo's and Alex's love life than I wanted. Wait. I had a boyfriend now too. When could I have a makeout session? I wanted one. Didn't Vincent have his own apartment? Was that something that was reality or something I had just assumed? If he did have his own apartment, we could have sex anytime we wanted. Maybe I would have sex before Mateo. Now I wanted sex. No, no. I was getting ahead of myself. Again. It was getting hot in the hallway.

"How was Vincent last night?" Alex asked breaking my inappropriate thoughts.

"What?" I asked thinking of the kiss.

"He's a jerk," Mateo said. "Why worry about him?"

"He was a jerk," Alex said, "but he apologized - keeps apologizing and I believe he is sincere. I don't think he will do anything like that again. He says he will support us now and I believe him."

Mateo frowned, but didn't say anything.

Alex turned to me. "Mateo said you stayed with Vincent last night after he left so I'm asking, how was Vincent?"

Of course that was what he was asking about. He wasn't asking about the kiss. He wouldn't know about the kiss.

"He seemed distraught, broken," I said. "I don't think he meant to hurt you and he realized last night that was what he was doing. I don't think he'll do anything like that again."

"He did post that nice comment on our picture," Mateo relented.

Alex nodded. "I just still can't believe he would even consider using that incident with Jason against me like that."

"If you want to cut him out of your life, I'll support you," Mateo said, "but if you want to forgive him, I'll try being friends with him. He does seem sincere now."

"I will forgive him," Alex said. "I just need a few days."

"I've got to go catch my bus," I said because I really wanted to call Vincent. I rushed away from them and as soon as I thought it was safe, I called favoriteentrepreneur.

"Hi," he immediately answered as if he had been waiting. That thought warmed my insides.

"Hi," I said.

"How was soccer practice?"

"Good." I walked under the changing leaves to my bus stop. A gentle breeze blew and a few leaves fell to the sidewalk. "I couldn't stop smiling though so the guys on the team started asking me if I was dating someone. I convinced them I had a crush, but not dating."

"You couldn't stop smiling?"

"No." I still had a smile.

"Me neither," he said.

"Good," I said. "Alex asked about you."

"What did he say?"

I arrived at the bus stop. There were a few other students waiting, but I didn't recognize any of them.

"He asked how you were last night. I told him you were truly sorry."

"He wasn't suspicious about you and me was he?"

"Of course not. I think he will forgive you sooner rather than later. And I think Mateo will too."

"Thanks, Chet."

"No problem."

The bus arrived. I got on, put my card to the reader and found a seat near the back.

"So how was your day?" I asked.

"Overall it was good," he said. "My last teacher tends to drone on and on in this monotonous tone and I tend to zone out. She only tests on the book though so I could skip class and still ace the tests, but I don't want to make a habit of missing classes."

"I'm fortunate I don't have one of those teachers this semester," I said. "I had some in high school though. So boring."

We talked about our classes and schedules the rest of my bus ride home.

"Do you have an away game Saturday or a home game?" Vincent asked me as I walked passed homes towards my own home.

"I have an away game. It's far away this time so the bus is going to leave tomorrow night. I'll be back Sunday morning."

"Guess we can't have a date night Friday then."

My heart sank and for the first time in my life part of me wanted to miss a soccer game.

"Would you have time for lunch tomorrow though?" Vincent asked.

I stopped walking and stood on the sidewalk at the end of my street. I didn't want to go home quite yet. "I would have time," I said.

"Good," he said. "I'll pick you up at the same place and time as today then. It's probably better that you can't do it tomorrow night anyway. I should really go back to my family home and apologize to my grandma for missing her retirement party."

I couldn't just not go home. I began to walk down the sidewalk again. "My dad did mention that to me. I guess your grandma told my dad to go to my soccer game when he told her both were on the same night. His work has always been good about letting him off for that kind of thing. I guess that's your family business. The way my dad speaks of them, I thought they would all be really nice."

"My grandma is nice, and my dad and brother are professional when it comes to the business."

I stared at the red door of my house not wanting to go in. My dad's car pulled into the driveway at that moment.

"I'm home," I said, "and my dad just pulled up so I guess I should go."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for today, Chet."

That silly grin was back on my face. "See you tomorrow," I said and hung up.

I ran up to my dad and greeted him with a hug. He chuckled under his breath.

"How was your day, son?"

"Good. How was yours?" I followed him into the house.

"My day was great," he said.

It didn't seem like Kannika or my mom were home.

"Have you eaten dinner?" my dad asked.

"Not yet," I said. I placed my bag down in my bedroom and then went into the kitchen. My dad was already taking chicken out of the fridge.

I sat at the table and watched him as he cooked. "Do you want some help?" I asked after he had the chicken, broccoli and rice cooking.

"Nope," he said easily. "I got it."

"Where's mom and Kannika?"

"Shopping. Some school dance is coming up. Kannika needs a dress apparently."

"Oh."

My dad finished making a cheese sauce. He combined the ingredients and then got a plate for me and him.

I got the utensils and filled two glasses with water. It was the least I could do.

I took a bite of my dad's delicious food before I spoke again. "I found out today that my new friend's last name is Kinsington."

My dad's head shot up. "Vincent? He's your age right?"

I smiled hearing his name. "Yes, Vincent."

"He worked at the manufactory for two summers in between school," my dad said. That surprised me. I had assumed wrongly that his family would shelter him and he wouldn't have any work experience.

"He worked between sophomore and junior year and junior and senior year. He was a hard worker and he learned fast. So did his brother when he used to work summers. And I think his brother is doing a good job now as a manager. Their grandmother instilled good work ethics in them," he said.

I was glad to know they weren't completely spoiled, but that didn't change the fact that they had told Vincent all those horrible things. Well, Vincent seemed to exclude his grandmother from those horrible sayings so maybe she wasn't bad.

"What about their dad?" I asked as I ate more of the chicken, broccoli and rice in the cheese sauce.

"I like him," my dad said. "He is always fair and wouldn't ask us to do anything that he wouldn't do himself. He sometimes goes to the workers and works alongside them. The founder used to do that too. Actually, she did that up until last year."

"What about Vincent's mom?" I asked.

My dad's face instantly darkened and he looked down at his plate of food. "I don't want to speak ill of the boss's wife," he said.

"It's just to me," I said. "It's not like I'm going to repeat it."

He looked back up at me and sighed. "She doesn't work. And I don't mean just at the factory. She doesn't work at all, which I have nothing against except she will come into the factory and chat it up with the caucasian workers so they can't do their job. Mind you she talks only to the caucasian workers. She even had the audacity once to say to one of them that he should be promoted to plant manager even though he had never managed anything a day in his life and had only been there 3 weeks. And she said it right in front of me as if I wasn't there. Do you know how many promotions and degrees and knowledge you have to have before you're a plant manager?" His accent came through like it did only when he was truly upset.

"She's racist?" I asked. That surprised me because Vincent didn't seem racist at all and it didn't sound like the rest of his family was either. They were definitely homophobic though.

"You didn't hear it from me," my dad said. The accent was gone so he must have calmed down.

"She's racist against everyone who isn't white or just Thai Americans?" I pointed to myself.

"Anyone who isn't white," my dad whispered to me as if there was someone else in the room who might overhear us.

Great. So now I already had two things against me in dating her son. First I was the wrong sex and second I wasn't white. Oh well. I liked me as I was. I didn't care what she thought of me.

"I'm glad you're friends with Vincent," my dad said. "He's a good kid and a hard worker and I always thought he needed more friends."

I smiled as I stuffed my mouth with another bite. At least Vincent seemed to have everything going for him with my family.