Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:38:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: YerrBoi <yungin060@yahoo.com>
Subject: "His smile" Chapter 2: Home alone

     I froze right there and looked her dead in the
eye, trying to figure out how she could know about me,
how she knew I liked Henry, just from one class
together.  Nobody knew I liked boys, except possibly
my big sister, and Henry certainly doesn't do anything
that would lead you to question his sexuality. "Well,
umm.... How did you..."?
"Duhh stupid, don't you see how Drew (Andrew) looks at
Sandra?  He's completely in love with her".
"Oh, OHHH I see.  Yea, I knew that".
"Wait, who did you think I was talking about"?
"Nobody, just......dazing".
"Get your head out of the clouds; I need somebody to
do that damn project for me".
"Sorry, not this time.  Me and Henry got a lot of work
to do so, maybe Drew can get it done for you".
"If I can get him to shut up about that skinny
bitch......speak of the devil, I'll see you later", Hilda
said as she left in a hurry.
"Hey Derek, where's she going"?  Sandra asked.
"She.... had.... to...... pee."  Yea, nice save.
 "Excited about that project?  I can't believe you get
to work with Henry.  Every girl in the class wanted to
work with either him or you, and you two got each
other. Damn".
"Ha-ha, well ain't that a trip.  Too bad for all of
y-wait, they want to work with me"?!
"Yea boy, well more him cause he looks soooo good, but
you too".
"Wow, but you know, there are other guys out there,
like Jared, Carlos, DREW".
Well Jared is too goofy, Carlos goes out with
Cassandra, and Drew....is just Drew.  But anyway, I was
wondering if maybe you could conveniently invite me
over whenever you and Henry work on your project".
That didn't sound like a good idea to me.  Why would I
let a pretty girl just come in and take away any
chance I could have with Henry, even if she was my
friend, I saw him first. Sort of.  But being the good
friend that I was, I had already decided I'd help Drew
get a date with her, so even if I didn't help her get
Henry, I'd help her get somebody.  "I'll tell you
what, how about we all get together and go out
somewhere, I'll try to get Henry to go and that way
you don't both have to conveniently show up in my
house".  Yea, I just won't try too hard to get Henry
to go.
"Oooooh yes, thank you love, you're the best".  She
gave me a big hug that nearly squeezed the life out of
me.  She may be little, but the girl is probably
tougher I am.  "Well I'll see ya this weekend, call
me".
I waved her off and went about my usual business.
Later that day, Drew had agreed that we could work on
our projects together at my house, since he would be
doing all the work anyway.  Sure I could've asked
Sandra to come over today so she and Drew could spend
some time together, but I planned on calling Henry
over.  I needed Drew there for some support; I don't
think I could contain myself if Henry and I were here
alone.  I might make the wrong move and scare him away
forever.  But with Drew there, I knew I'd be careful
around him so I wouldn't out myself to either of them.
  Once we got home, I decided it was the best time to
give Henry a call.  My parents and my older sister
were gone for the day, she's probably in some sort of
trouble again, so we'd have the living room to
ourselves.  I couldn't tell you how excited I was to
have his phone number, but hopefully it wouldn't show
too much over the phone.  After I made sure Drew was
comfortable, I made my phone call.
"Hello"?
"What's good Henry, this is Derek".
"Oh hey, what's up"?
"Nothing, you want to come over?  My parents aren't
home so I'm working on the project while the house is
quiet".
"I don't know.....where do you live", he asked with a
hint of worry.
"Off Park Ave, next to the little pizza restaurant".
"Ok, I can walk there, I'll be right over".
"Cool, I'll meet you at the porch".  So we hung up and
I quietly did a little hallelujah dance.  How often do
you get the boy of your dreams inside your house?!?
Whether or not he's attracted to me, I get to spend
time with him, and that's really more than I could
ever ask for.  Before he was to arrive, I tidied up
the place and made some popcorn because.....oh, I forgot
about Drew....well because Drew liked popcorn, or
anything you can eat really.
"What the hell took you so long", Drew asked jokingly.
"Nothing, I had to call my partner over so he could
help work on it".
"And you were on the phone with him for almost a half
hour"?
"Uhhh no, I was making popcorn".  He stopped with all
the questions as soon as I handed him the bowl.  As I
was getting my papers ready, the doorbell rang.  My
mind went blank; I jumped out of my seat and ran to
the door.  I didn't bother looking to see who it was,
even though we do live in a rough neighborhood, there
wasn't too much to worry about on my block.  I opened
the door, and just as I had hoped, there he stood.
"Hey Derris, how's it going", Henry asked politely.
"Um, it's Derek", I stuttered, but the sound of a car
horn cut me off.  Henry turned around and waved to
some guy in a tattered red car.  "I thought you were
walking over", I asked.
"I was, but my brother said he'd take me.  Just
because he's in a gang, he thinks everybody else in
the neighborhood is in one too, so he wanted to make
sure I wasn't getting into any trouble.  He's a little
overprotective of me. You're not in a gang right"?
"No, of course not", I continued as we walked in.
"Who's your brother again"?
"His name's Enrique, but he hates that name so all the
bloods call him Ricky.  They aren't real bloods
though, don't worry, they just act hard and want to be
tough.  Did I mention you have a really nice house"?
"Thanks", I said with a smile, though not nearly as
bright as his.  I was also aware that he was trying
hard to change the subject.  As soon as we walked into
the living room, he stopped, and his smile turned
upside down, to put it frankly.
"I thought you said nobody was home", Henry said
sounding a little disappointed, to my surprise.
"Oh no, I meant my family wasn't home, this is my
friend Drew", I quickly blurted out.  I swear if he
wanted me to I would kick Drew out in a second.
"I know Drew", Henry said as he walked over and gave
him a pound.  "What's your fat ass doing over here
anyway", he asked him jokingly.
I sighed in relief as they seemed to be buddies
already.  But even though that sounded like a joke, it
kind of sounded like a serious joke.
"I could ask you the same thing.  I didn't realize
Derek was partners with...you", Drew replied in a very
non-sarcastic tone.
A little confused, I sat down between the two and
immediately pulled out our supplies for the project.
I handed both of them a poster board and spread the
markers and pens between us.
"So what should I draw"? Henry asked.
Thinking for a second, I responded, "I was thinking
something about the section on oppression.  Maybe you
could draw you and I behind Martin Luther King or
fighting off an angry mob with picket signs and all
that".
"You know sometimes I think school is worthless, but
then people like you remind me that some of us
actually learn something", Drew giggled out.
"You mean Derek right"? Henry confirmed.
"Yea, I was looking at him wasn't I?  How was school
for you anyway?  We haven't said anything to each
other since we graduated 8th grade", Drew said.
"You two went to middle school together?  Why didn't
either of you tell me"?  All this time the boy of my
dreams and one of my best friends were old buddies.
But something wasn't adding up, just like Drew said,
all this time we've been in class together and I've
never seen them speak a word to each other.
"I try to leave the past where it is, I make new
friends and move on with my life.  Me and Andrew
weren't best friends or anything, just knew each
other.  Can you pass me the yellow?", Henry said while
focusing on whatever he was drawing.  For a second
there I forgot we were working, but apparently he had
been drawing since I told him what to draw about.
"Oh that's cool, can I see what you're making", I
asked him?
"NO, please, I like to wait until it's finished before
I let anyone see.  Don't worry, I'll just do it over
if you don't like it".
"Okayyy.....", I must admit, that scared me a little.  I
was starting to think this guy was more of a mystery
than I bargained for.  Not that it was bad, but I
wanted to be as close to him as possible, and I really
don't feel like he's letting me.  Meanwhile, I looked
over at Drew and he seemed borderline pissed for no
apparent reason.  He was giving me some sort of look
that I couldn't quite figure out, but I'm sure it had
something to do with Henry because he was avoiding his
line of sight.  This made me feel uneasy, so I tried
to stir up some conversation.  "So do either of you
like any music right now"?  Crap, dumb question.  Of
course, who doesn't like music?!  Well not too many
people I know like music as much as I do, but it
seemed like a good question before it came out of my
mouth.
"I really like Jay-Z's last album, and Fall out boy is
my favorite band out right now.  And I know you guys
aren't Spanish, but there's this really cool band
called Calle 13 that I think you should listen to",
Henry said without taking his eyes off of his art.
"Are you kidding, I love all of those guys I have both
Calle 13 albums and Kingdom Come is in my CD player
right now And Drew and I listened to This Ain't A
Scene, It's an Arms Race like 20 times yesterday,
right Drew". I blurted out all in one sentence.  Being
in his bad guy attitude, Drew ignored me.  Not to
mention he hadn't even written anything down since we
started the project.
"For real, that's great, I didn't think anyone liked
all those different kinds of music as much as I did",
Henry stated, making eye contact for the first time
since we started.  "Hey, there's a party going on
tomorrow night, I think you guys should come.  I know
the DJ and he's really good".
"I don't do parties", Drew said bluntly.
"What about you Derek"?
"Yea, I'd love to go.  I already asked Sandra if she
wanted to hang out soon, you should consider going
Drew".
"Cool, my brother can take us.  A lot of people from
our school will be there anyway so it should fun",
Henry said.
"I don't know, I'll think about it.  Anyway, I have to
go do something at home so I gotta go now".  He got up
and walked toward the door without so much as a pound
or a wave goodbye.
"Hold on Drew, wait here Henry, I'll be right back".
I caught up to Drew as he rounded the corner before he
could get out the front door.  "Hey, are you okay?  It
seems like there's something going on that I might not
know about"?
"Nah, I'm fine.  This project is stressing me out,
prom's coming up and I haven't found the balls to ask
Sandra yet.  Thanks for helping though, you're the
man".  He gave me a five and a friendly nudge to try
and persuade me not to worry.  "Call me when you're
done with this guy, I haven't decided if I'm going to
that party yet or not.  I'll see you tomorrow".  With
that he walked out the door and left me to a sudden
realization: I'm home alone with the hottest guy I've
ever met.  I needed a few seconds to cope with this,
so I mustered up my strength, took a deep breath and
returned to the living room where Henry sat continuing
his work of art.
Suddenly I didn't know what to do or say; Drew was
keeping calm more than I realized.  He was holding up
a good part of the conversation, but now it's just us
two.  His back was toward me and he hadn't noticed me
yet.  What I did notice was his small shirt rising up
a bit so that his white and blue striped boxers were
showing just over a fine imprint of his b- oh man I
think I'm going to faint.  Say something before I hit
the floor!  "So....Henry....where are you from"?
"I was born here, the rest of my family is from the
Dominican Republic".  He turned around to see where I
was and saw that I looked a little light headed.  "Why
don't you come and sit down?  You can help me figure
out how I'm gonna explain this poster".  He patted a
spot very close to him to signal me to sit down, so I
did.  As I took my seat less than ten inches away from
him, I started noticing things I hadn't before, like
the light scent of Old Spice he must be wearing, the
small veins in his forearm that grew whenever he added
more detail to a specific spot on the poster, the
perfect jaw line that accentuated his features and
that he was warming up to me rather quickly.  I just
stared at him, but he was too into his art to notice.
Then it was over all too quickly, because the fricken
doorbell rang.  Henry looked at me and noticed my eyes
were already fixed on him and I was somewhat in a
daze.  Now with our faces so close to each other I
could feel him exhaling, he asked me, "You gonna get
that"?
"Oh yea, of course".  As soon as I got up out of his
sight, I gave myself a dummy slap across my forehead
for getting caught checking him out.  Maybe he didn't
notice though, maybe he didn't care.  And of all the
times, now the household wants to come back home.  I
opened the door and in came my mother, father and
sister.  My sister Tori was 21, and we were really
close.  Although I hadn't told her I was into boys, I
never really told her I wasn't.  I suspected she knew
anyway, and I wasn't comfortable with letting people
know yet.  "Hey Dare, wats up", she asked.
"Nothing, me and a friend are working on a project in
the living room".
"Female friend or male friend", my dad asked with my
mother giving me the exact same look right next to
him.
"Come on, why don't you meet him".  We all went to the
living room and Henry stood up to greet my family.
"Oh hello, and who is this handsome young man", my mom
asked.
"Hello ma'am, I'm Henry, Derek's friend from school".
He seemed really happy to meet my parents, and he was
more polite than any other 18 year old in New York I'd
ever met.
"Nice to meet you Henry, would you like to stay for
dinner"?
"No thanks, I actually have a school meeting in about
an hour".  He picked up his poster, making sure to
cover whatever it was he was drawing for the past
hour, and gathered the rest of his things.
"Okay then, Dare will walk you to the door".
He and I went out to the porch so we he could say bye,
it was getting kind of loud with the house full again.
 "Thanks Dare, I mean Derek, I had a good time".
"No problem.  If we don't get a chance to finish in
class tomorrow then we can meet again to finish up.
And it's ok if you call me Dare", I said with a smirk
that I hope wasn't too gay.
"Alright, then I'll see ya tomorrow for the party"?
"You bet".  He pulled me into a half arm hug, said
piece and started toward his house.  I stood there to
check him out while he was walking the other.  I
couldn't help myself.  Whatever happens now, atleast I
finally succeeded in becoming friends with my biggest
crush of all time.  But as I proved earlier, I'm not
so great at hiding my feelings, so I don't know how
long this friendship will last.



That's it for now, I promised longer chapters, and I
have delivered.  Thanks so much for the support
everyone, I still hope to hear from you, and I promise
we will get to the good parts by chapter 3!!!