Page 53 of Walk the Line

Me: Relax.

Julius: No.

Me: Your brother seems cool.

Julius: He is.

Me: Very different from you.

Julius: That doesn’t sound complimentary to me.

Me: It’s not.

Julius: Good.

It’s just one word, yet it sums up the dynamic we have that we both find attractive for some reason.

I shift in my seat as the tingle I was anticipation makes its way to a certain lower region.

Me: Don’t start.

Julius: What?

“If there are people from the team coming, I can go meet them outside and bring them in.”

Sierra said no one’s coming just yet, so I have to take the opportunity when I can.

“They’ll be like fifteen minutes,” she says without looking in my direction.

“That’s cool,” I respond anyway.

Me: Tell them you’ll come too.

Julius: Is than an innuendo?

Me: Leave the jokes to your brother.

Julius: Damn.

“I’ll come too,” Julius says and he follows my lead as I stand up from the table.

I’ve heard about the second Sports hall that’s around here, for sports like Basketball, and I don’t waste time pulling Julius along with me so we can go and check it out. “We have like five minutes,” I say when we arrive. I haven’t been here before but I guide us into a room that turns out to be the Basketball court, and quickly spot the area in the corner where they keep all the balls. I almost laugh at the fact that it’s dark, which seems to be the type of place Julius and I are attracting these days, but instead I watch him. “Why haven’t you taken this off?” I demand, tugging at his jeans.

“Why do I like this so much?” he says as he hurriedly follows my instructions.

“What?”

“When you talk to me like that,” he answers. “In that tone specifically. And with that stern expression.”

I think we’re figuring some things out about ourselves and it’s crazy that it’s with each other.

“Probably the same reason I like it.”

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Now be a good boy for me and make me come right now.”

“Yes, Captain.”