Jase smiled so wide Luis could see his gums. He lowered his voice and said, “Well, thanks. I try to do my best. I'm that kind of guy. I guess football just comes naturally to me.”
Luis looked the other way. Betsy should have seen the way Jase was watching Luis last night while he jacked off. That would have opened her eyes.
“I'll see you later at lunch,” Betsy said. “And there's a student government meeting later today. She giggled and leaned in to another girl who was standing beside her. They way she gazed at Jase, as if he were a Greek god, caused Luis's stomach to tighten.
“I'll see you later, baby,” Jase said. Then he pulled away with a dramatic screech and headed to the student parking lot.
When the car came to a halt, it jerked forward and Luis had to hold the door to keep from falling over.
Jase was still smiling. Evidently, he'd forgotten all about the argument they'd had in the driveway. “The blond girl back there was Betsy Melchiorri. What do you think of her? She's hot for me. I know it. She'd do anything for me. I bet I could get her to blow me.”
Luis took a quick breath. The last thing he wanted to hear about was Betsy Melchiorri's blow jobs. When it came to sucking dick, Luis was of the opinion no one could do it like him. He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. Before he unfolded from the car, he shrugged and said, “I think she's wonderful, a real keeper. I think both you and Betsy Melchiorri were made for each other. I hope she sucks your dick so hard the sheets get stuck between your ass cheeks.” Then he climbed out, slammed the door, and started walking toward the school.
Jase got out and laughed at Luis. He said, “Don't be so emotional. I'll see you back here at around five o'clock today. I'm involved in a lot of after school things, like student government, and I usually stay until five.”
Luis continued walking. Evidently, Jase was a workaholic in high school, too. He waved his hand and said, “I'll see you at five, asshole.” He couldn't deny he was ready to kick something hard. But he also knew he had to let Jase's normal life take its course. He was only there by some kind of weird accident and he had no right to play around with Jase's destiny. Even though he wasn't happy about his present situation, he took satisfaction in knowing how things would turn out in the end.
The Principal asked Luis to fill out some forms. Then he told Luis to go to the maintenance department and introduce himself to the guy in charge of grounds and landscaping. From what Luis could gather, his timing couldn't have been more perfect. The maintenance department was short staffed. The young guy who always cut the grass and trimmed the paths and hedges had broken his leg and would be out sick for the next month. The head guy in landscaping brought Luis to a large riding mower and showed him how to work it. He showed him how to work the weed trimmer and the leaf blower, too. Though Luis had never done this kind of manual labor before, he was quick to learn. He didn't want to let Judah down, and he really did want to work for his keep.
Because it was Luis's first day, the head guy asked him to walk around the campus and look for any shrubs or hedges that needed to be evened out. He handed Luis a set of pruning sheers and told him he would be working on the bleachers in the football field if Luis needed him.
There was an unusual heat wave passing through Alaska that week. It was warm out that day and Luis didn't want to get his white shirt dirty. He was going to ask Jase if he could borrow a few things later that day, but he didn't want to ruin the only shirt he had. So he removed his shirt and hung it on the hook in the outbuilding where they kept all the landscaping tools. Then he took the sheers and went outside to work.
When it occurred to Luis that what he was doing wasn't unlike the things he normally did in his real life at Cider Mill Farm, he went about his work without even thinking about it. Though Luis and Jase had a full time handyman named Corey, who was also dating Luis's identical twin brother, Gage, Luis often did a lot of the yard work at Cider Mill Farm himself. One year he planted tons of pumpkins, but then that nasty Darius ... the creepy nanny ... wound up ruining them all when the Reverend von Klingensmith ran Darius over and he went sailing into the pumpkin patch. Luis didn't consider gardening work. He thought of it more as therapy after the end of a long, stressful week of modeling with a bunch of vicious, competitive vipers in New York City.
Being outdoors this way calmed Luis. He liked the way the warm sun hit his naked back. He only wished he could take off his pants and prune in his underwear so he wouldn't get one of those hideous tan lines below his waist. But he was still wearing the red see-through thong and that wouldn't have worked out well for him. Luis was so calm, he almost forgot about his argument with Jase that morning. That is until he ran into Jase right outside one of the back doors around lunchtime. Luis was trimming a tall juniper and people were coming and going all around him. He knew the girls were staring at his naked torso and murmuring things to each other as they passed him. He knew the guys were looking him up and down and wondering where he came from.
Then Jase came through the doors with Betsy Melchiorri on his arm. Luis looked at them fast and turned back to his pruning, pretending he didn't see them. Betsy had her arm looped through Jase's and she was looking up at him, batting her eyelashes. Luis hadn't seen anyone fawn this way since he'd been a male escort in New York and one of the trannies he knew met a ninety year old multi-millionaire at a downtown club. And Jase seemed to be enjoying Betsy's undivided attention. He walked with his head up high and his back squared. He almost didn't notice Luis.
Luis stepped out into the walkway on purpose. He missed bumping into them by inches. When he turned and looked at Jase, he smiled and nodded. Jase looked at Luis's bare chest and made a face. The vein in his neck started to pop out again.
As they continued walking, Betsy Melchiorri said, “Who is that guy anyway, Jase? Do you know him well?” Then she gazed back at Luis's naked torso a minute longer than she should have.
Jase sent Luis a dirty look. He didn't say a word. Then he pulled Betsy closer and said, “He's some guy who's staying with my family for a while. He's just passing through town. He's no one important.”
Luis bit his bottom lip and shoved the pruning sheers into the juniper so hard he wound up lopping off a huge chunk that left a gaping hole. He couldn't help himself. He'd never been this mad at Jase and he felt like chopping the whole juniper down and stepping on it.
After lunch, Luis went to the side of the school and pruned a long group of yews that were seriously out of control. Whoever had been maintaining this place hadn't been doing his job very well. Luis liked things perfect; he worked hard to achieve excellence. And this campus was a downright disgrace. While he was there, a group of students and one of the younger teachers walked outside and sat on the lawn not far from where Luis was working. The teacher seemed like one of those old hippie types. He had long brown hair, a thick beard, and he wasn't wearing a tie. Luis had a teacher like that when he was in high school. Every school had one: a quasi hipster. They can't wait to get outside on the first warm day in spring and teach a class on the grass.