Chapter Six

Chase sat on my bed, examining the room a little more closely than he had last night. He also seemed more comfortable. His small, slender body didn't take up much space on my queen-sized mattress, but neither did mine.
I wasn't sure where to sit, so I stood by my dresser, weighing out the gram he wanted to buy. I was supposed to hand him over to my brother, but he was still out doing business. It's not like I really minded. I was glad I was able to have my free time with Chase.
My mom was downstairs, making dinner. I wanted her to make some chicken breasts, but she never really listened to my wishes for dinner. I didn't mind, but when Chase sparked an interest in the idea, my mom submitted to defrosting the chicken.
"Find anything incriminating about me, yet?" I asked Chase, who was now looking through my collection of DVDs.
He turned to look at me, then looked at the small pile of pot on my dresser, then looked back at me. The expression almost asked me why I asked the question.
I blushed, "Other than this."
Chase smiled, pleased he got his point across again. He went back to looking at the DVDs, then pulled out and began to read the back.
"That's one of my favourite movies," I said, as soon as I saw the title. "I also have the video games, which came before the movie. They just hit popularity after the movie came out."
Chase nodded, almost absent-mindedly. He was so engrossed in the movie's plot, I wasn't sure if he'd seen it.
The movie was about a woman who finds herself in a somewhat apocalyptic world. It was a scenario where the power race all the world had gone into.
The U.S. made up some biological weapon which was supposed to submit anyone infected into taking their orders. Basically, they created a serum for zombies, and they destroyed their country.
At that same time, other power hungry nations were also taking advantages of the biological weaponry.
The English made up some serum for faster, stronger, and immortal beings. They succeeded, but the side-effects were something they were not able to control. And Russia decided to make one for superpower animality. They thought they failed, but when the effects took place, the government tried to cover it up, with a devastating outcome.
Basically, this woman, a journalist who had been held prisoner by some foreign country during these breakouts — we were never told which country she was in, but the people she meets suggests the Southeast. She came out of her prison to find a raging war against zombies, vampires, and werewolves.
"Do you want to watch it? Or would you prefer the video game first?" I asked. I was pretty sure I knew what the answer was going to be.
Chase looked up from reading the case, and he smiled. He pointed to my game console, and I smiled.
"It has a two-player feature, so both of us can start from the beginning and fight until the end. It's a Saturday, maybe your mom will let you spend the night. My mom obviously won't mind," I said.
"She usually doesn't spend the weekend home, anyway. She comes home for dinner, then she goes off to her boyfriend's place. I'm old enough to take care of myself."
Chase smirked at me. I looked at the pot and grinned. If I didn't have the freedom to smoke my dope, I would probably have been a little less accepting about my mom's constant absence. However, lately, I've only been thinking of her as a room mate rather than a mom.
"The game is on the shelf over there," I pointed across the room to my million video games and turned toward the door. "I'm going to go and see if mom needs any help with dinner."
Chase nodded, already scanning the shelf for the game.
After I got out of the room, I stopped and took a breath. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but when my mouth opened, everything just poured out. So now Chase was willing to spend the night. There wasn't even any sign from him about where he'd sleep. Where would he sleep?
'He can't be in my bed. I've only known him for… two days?'
As I wandered into the kitchen, my mom was already getting the chicken ready to go into the oven. She had everything else boiling, simmering, or cooling for dinner.
"Oh, I guess you don't need help," I said, moving around her to get to the fridge.
"Well, it's not really hard for me to make dinner. All I really had to do was wait for the chicken to defrost."
"Oh, okay then," I paused. "Can Chase stay over tonight?"
"Will his mom know about this?" My mom has been somewhat cautious about overnight guests since the police showed up at my door looking for Kyle.
"Yeah, he said he was going to text her and let her know."
"All right then, just don't stay up too late. I'm going over to John's tonight. I'll probably be there until tomorrow."
"Aren't you going to work tomorrow?"
"Honey, tomorrow's Sunday. I don't work on Sundays. It's supposed to be the day we all go to church." I held two bottles of water in my hand, heading back out the door.
"Oh. Well, have fun with John. Maybe you can go to church with him."
"Sweetie, John's an atheist."
I stopped at the doorway of the kitchen and turned to look at her. "And yet you won't give up about me not going to church. Mom, I'm gay. Most people in the neighborhood know that. How do you think they'll react if I walk through those doors?"
"'Love thy neighbor,' Trevor."
"Yeah, right." I turned around and walked right back up to my room. I heard my mom call up after me, telling me she'll just leave the chicken in the oven, and let us get it when we were ready.
As soon as I opened the door, I saw Chase sitting in front of my gaming console, already setting up the profile of his character. He turned and saw me, he smiled and pointed to my controller.
'Aww, what a sweetie,' I thought.
"You know, Chase, most people take the absence of the person owning the game as an opportunity to take the player one. I seriously wouldn't have minded if you did that."
Chase snuggled into the seat he was sitting in. Pointed to the television, then to where he was sitting. I quirked a brow, then realized he was sitting on the right side of the screen, and he would prefer to sit closest to his character.
"Okay then, but you could have taken my seat. Or do you just prefer that one better?"
He nodded.
My seat was my favourite. It was close to the floor, and allowed one to lean back. It was either meant for some really kinky sex or lounging around, playing video games for hours. Either way, I loved this chair.
Chase chose Dwayne's seat, almost something along the lines of a loveseat, but again, close to the floor. It was almost a cross between the therapist's couch, a loveseat, and my chair. It was understandable why Dwayne loved that chair, but I always found it to be too roomy for me. Although, it was a wonderful place to lay down and listen to music for hours on end — while high, of course.
I set up my character, and Chase decided to spark one of the joints I had rolled before he arrived. I had handed it to him the moment we came into my room. My mom knew I smoked pot, but she didn't want to smell it. I told him that, and he relaxed. So here he was, ignoring the screen, which was asking him to say he was ready. I guess he wasn't ready.
When he passed the doober to me, I took it and began to puff on it. I loked at the screen, and saw it switch to the loading screen. I held in the smoke as I looked at Chase.
"Dude," I said, while still trying to hold in the smoke, "You'd think you would wait until we finished this."
He looked somewhat apologetic, but I had a feeling he really didn't care. I could tell you I didn't, I just enjoyed picking at people for no real reason. I smiled at him, passed the joint back, and blew out.
"No pausing, we're multi-tasking."
When we loaded ourselves into the game, I allowed Chase to read the game so I could get my hoot in. I passed it back to him, asked him if he were ready, and we started after I saw the thumbs-up.
We went on for the first half hour, and managed to blow off the heads of every zombie available before stopping the game in a safe room just outside a run-down hotel.
Chase paused the game, and I turned to look why. He stared at me for a second or two, and I couldn't figure out why he had paused the game.
"Oh, right. Are you hungry?"
Nod.
"Want to take a break?"
Another nod.
"Good, good, good. We'll have to fight vampires inside that building anyway, and man are they tough little fuckers."
Grin.
"Well, they're not little, but they're tough."
Nod.
We stared at each other for a minute. The smile, the blush, the blinks. It all made me want to kiss him, but I couldn't move. I just wanted to watch him, and see what he was really about. The lack of words coming from him made things difficult. I wanted to move closer, I wanted to nuzzle into his neck, and place a kiss. I wanted to feel his body run across my hands, and I wanted those eyes to tell me he wanted the same.
"Right then," I cleared my throat. "Let's go get some food."
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