Russell observed when you enjoyed being around someone, nothing was boring. You didn’t have to look hard for things to do. They walked through the streets to the south of campus till they came to the old quarry lake and stood by it, watching the sun turn the water into bronze. Flipper skipped rocks, and Russell watched him, and then they sat together in silence, watching the fragile birth of spring around them. They got up and walked some more and went around the old graveyard, looking at the names of long gone people. They stopped in at the library, then the WalMart, and got ice cream cones at the Tasty Freeze, then went through the basement under the church and Abelard Hall where the coffee shop and the old cafeteria were. One was closed down and the other was a fluorescent lit space. Overhead they heard Mass, and Russell went up the little stair well that led to the sacristy, where he could hear clearly:
“Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.'
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence. The word of the Lord.”
The student congregation intoned: “Thanks be to God.”
“I’m going to miss Church this week,” Russell whispered as the choir began to sing:
“Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble!”
“You’re on the choir, right?” Flipper remembered.
“Yeah?”
“You wanna sit and listen now?”
“Kind of,” Russell said.
“No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.”
“We could actually go inside,” Flipper suggested comically. “I could make myself sit through a Mass.”
“No,” Russell said. “This is good enough.”
Flipper had a flip phone, and Flipper flipping his phone open made Russell laugh.
“What?” Flipper looked at him.
Russell shook his head.
“Nothing.”
Flipper shook his head. He had just gotten a call that they would all meet for dinner at about six, then rest and head to the party. It was when the two of them came to the dining hall that they saw Andy sitting with the usual companions, and Macy and Coral both shrugging at Flipper.
“Flip,” Andy said, “can I talk to you?”
Flipper looked at Russell, and Russell nodded and Ross said, “Let’s get in line and get food.
From the line they could just as easily see, past the glass wall of the cafeteria, Andy getting more and more worked up, telling off Flipper, who seemed to be a littlie irritated himelf, and then Andy marching up the stairs and out of the student center and Flipper gesticulating and then stomping back into the cafeteria and coming quickly to the line.
“Is anything wrong?” Ross asked before Russell, who would have felt disingenuous asking.
“Nothing is wrong,” Flipper said. “It’s just Andy being stupid.”
“If you need to go after him or make things right you should,” Russell said as they were all sitting around Abelard Hall in those hours before heading out to the party.
“He’s always here. I’ll be gone tomorrow.”
“Well then,” Flipper returned, tying his laces with especial fierceness, “I’ll handle it tomorrow.”
“Where’s Macy?” Anigel asked.
“Probably in bed.”
“Where’s Jimmy?”
“Probably in bed with someone. But where is Russell?”
“With Flipper, or didn’t you notice?” Anigel said.
“I noticed that fight Flipper had with Andy. Andy’s not terrible, but he gets jealous about a lot for no reason.”
“Are you sure it’s for no reason?” Anigel said.
Ross raised an eyebrow.
“Flipper came down with you to Geschichte Falls, but he definitely didn’t come for my sake. And we’ve barely seen Russell.”
“You think they are…?”
“Russell’s taken up with stranger people that Flipper. I don’t ask, and I don’t completely know, but…”
“Do you care?”
“Only a little.”
They were on the roof of Abelard Hall, smoking cigarettes over the coffee shop, and with her last exhale, Anigel put all thoughts of gossip out of her mind.
“What I always like about this place is how I can see the stars,” she said.
“You can see the stars in Geschichte Falls,” Ross said. “It’s hardly Chicago or Detroit.”
“You can,’ Anigel nodded. “But not like this.”
They were both in baggie jeans and hoodies, and Ross thought how pretty his friend was, and how she didn’t even care. What a wonder of a human she was. Jimmy had been watching her this whole afternoon, and the girls had been in envy of her tumble of black hair.
“I had the maddest thought,” she said.
“Tell me.”
“To go to church. To go back to that church. In the convent. I think about my life, what would make me happy, and the oddest thing is it’s a religious life. It’s a serious life. You know what I think?”
“Huh?”
“I think I love God. I think I always did. I just don’t like the silly things I was told. The first time I started to get it was at the monastery in winter, and when we went into the little church, that plain church, with those monks and nuns the local people, nothing else mattered. Not all the dumb politics, not the Vatican, not how much I hated most of Catholic school. Not even the hypocritical assholes. Just this silence.”
Aside from whatever else Flipper was, Flipper was sanity. Flipper was clarity, and this day with Flipper had not been clear at all. He had come, planning to sleep with him that night, be his boyfriend, and even though he recognized completely how unfair it was to think Flipper would be sleeping alone and waiting for him, he had not planned to see Flipper in bed with Andy. What was more, when Flipper suggested they sleep together that night Russell had been repulsed by the idea of being in bed with someone who had, in the same day, been in bed with someone else. Andy was still in those sheets, an Andy who didn’t like him. Russell decided that he and Flip would have their day together, be friends together. And if Flipper came back to town later on, well then, they could see where things went.
But none of that meant much when they had returned, a little fuzzy, a little drunk and in high spirits, from Miskatucket, when they had all sat on the roof smoking and Russell felt like a human being and was glad for his friends. When they left Anigel and Ross on the roof, Russell headed for Jimmy’s room, but at the touch of Flipper’s hand, and the urgency in his eyes, he followed the black haired boy and quickly, Flip Sanders pulled him into his room, shutting the door fast behind them.
He kissed him hard and Russell’s body went loose while his hands clasped Flipper’s neck. Russell lifted up Flipper’s shirt while Flipper lifted his. They were so quick to it. Lube came out. He bent on his hands and knees and arched his back, and Flipper, his underwear around his knees, his jeans around his ankles, shoved himself inside of him. They both cried out in relief. The fucking was quick and necessary and only a few minutes later, Flipper pulled out and while he groaned in surprise, Russell felt a shower of hot semen across his back and shoulders, saw it spray on the pillow case. Flipper made a staggering, whistling sound while he held Russell’s hips and Russell’s ass still ached with him. Slowly the two of them collapsed to lie side by side. The first act had been done. Now Russell felt something in him melting. Contented, Flipper turned to pull Russell to him. They would be together the whole night.
