Marie Sexton - Coda 02 - A to Z by Marie Sexton Page B

shrugs. “Anyway, afterward, I freaked out and left. I didn’t see him for a while. But then I realized how much I missed him, so I went to see him. I was planning to give him this big let’s-just-be-friends speech.”
    “But this guy, Cole, was there?”
“Right.”
“So what happened?”
    “Nothing, really. Cole let me in. He was actually flirting with me. And Jared came out of the bathroom, all wet from the shower, wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants. And all I could think about was what had been going on before I knocked on the door. And I wanted to kill them both. And I mean, really.” He smiles a little and looks at me in embarrassment. “I wanted to beat the shit out of Cole, who’s about your size. He probably weighs one-thirty with his boots on. And his boots are probably pink.” I laugh at that, and he does, too, a little, before goin’ on. “But I also knew I had no reason to be so pissed. And that really made me stop and think, you know? I realized that Jared and I could be ‘just friends’, but then he would have other lovers, and I wouldn’t be able to say a thing about it. And that just about sent me over the edge. Jealousy is a powerful thing, Angelo.”
    We get back to the blanket where Zach and Jared are and sit down. Zach looks over at Matt and says, “Jared said you hate it here.”
Matt raises one eyebrow at him and says lightly, “Not all of it.”
     
“What parts do you like?” Zach asks.
     
“The food’s good,” he says, glancing at Jared, “and the nighttime entertainment.”
     
’Course Zach is one step behind. “You mean you like the headliners?” he asks.
     
Matt looks over at him, crinkling his eyes at him like maybe he’s gonna laugh. “No, that’s not what I mean.”
     
I’m laughin’ my ass off, and I’m not sure who blushes more, Jared or Zach.
    That night Matt and I leave Jared and Zach at the show while we walk into town to eat. Food at the festival’s good, but it gets old sittin’ on the ground all the time. We end up talkin’ ’bout all kinds of things while we eat, and before I know it, I’m tellin’ him ’bout my parents. Somethin’ I hate to talk ’bout, and now I’ve told two people in one summer.
    Matt surprises me, though. He doesn’t give me that look I hate seein’ so much. He just shakes his head and says, “Some people shouldn’t be parents.” I can tell by the way he says it that he’s not just talkin’ ’bout mine. Somehow, after that, I know we’re gonna be friends. Not just hangin’-out-together kind of friends but really, truly understandin’ each other. It’s a new feelin’ for me. Even Zach doesn’t quite get it. Not like that.
    We spend Sunday with them too. That afternoon, Matt and Zach start talkin’ ’bout A to Z. “It’s doomed, really,” Zach says. “Little stores like mine are being driven out of business by the big corporations. There’s one on every corner.”
“Not on ours,” Matt says. “We don’t have a movie rental place in Coda.”
    “Really?”
“Really. I wish we did.”
“Maybe I should move there,” Zach says jokingly.
“Maybe you should,” Matt says back, not quite jokin’. “We even have a location for you.”
     
He looks at Jared, and Jared nods. “That’s true. My family used to own a hardware store. It’s closed now. But we still have the building. It’s just sitting there.”
     
Zach just laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Zach…
    I
T WAS great spending the weekend with Jared and Matt. Jared and I had a lot in common. We were about the same age and had both grown up in Colorado. Both came out in college and were lucky enough to have families who took it well. We were also both surprised at the sudden easy friendship between Matt and Angelo. It was like Matt had just been waiting to adopt a little brother, and Ang was the lucky winner. I wouldn’t have expected Angelo to so readily fill the role. Still, it seemed to work for both of them, and I knew