Chapter Five – Don’t Kiss Other Boys

April had preferred to pretend to be still asleep when Jett opened the door, probably to check on them, quite early in the morning. He waited for a while, attuned to the noise of the house until he heard the front door opening and closing. Only then he got to his feet and took a look at Jay who was already awake and having fun with his own fingers, which appeared extremely fascinating, for some reason.

“You look like a smart kid, Jay. How about you and I go to school today, huh?”

April had no intention to skip classes. Jett probably was out most of the day, and Jay needed some fresh air anyway. He wouldn’t listen to that tyrant. Like hell, he and the baby would stay cooped up indoors until the powers that be would allow them to get out of the house, like all normal human beings.

After he packed a knapsack with everything he needed for Jay and himself and going through what he hoped to be a morning routine for both of them, he was ready to go out the door.

A single look at the baby carrier gave him pause. Was there a trap Jett was setting for him? Yeah, sure, April had put it down on the list, and Jett had bought it, but he didn’t have half a brain, and he could figure out such a thing could only have one purpose, which was to go outside without a stroller.

Eventually, he shrugged. He would deal with Jett later, one way or another. Jett wouldn’t hurt him too badly. After all, Jay liked him, and April needed moral support. “You’re on my side, aren’t you, buddy?”

He put up his hand, and Jay did it, too. Smart kid. “Nice high five, buddy!”

Jay giggled in reply.

***

“Oh my god,” a girl exclaimed as soon as he put his foot on the college grounds. “What a beautiful baby!”

April stopped. It was Gabriela, one of the girls who were in his physics class. “Hi, Gaby,” he said. “Say, do you think that if I sneak inside with Jay, can I remain inconspicuous to Mr. Trenton?”

“He’s blind as a bat and half deaf,” Gabriela confirmed. “Wait, what the hell did you do to your hair?”

“Long story,” April said with a long sigh.

“And the baby? Jay, you say?”

“That’s an even longer story.”

“All right.” Gabriela nodded and seemed to decide not to prod him any further.

A couple more girls stopped by their side and began to talk animatedly with the baby. Within five minutes, Jay was the center of attention. Quite the lady killer, just like his daddy, April thought. He would have expected Jay to be bothered by the noise and ruckus around him, but he was a natural charmer and enjoyed the attention.

“Guys, I think we need to head over to class.”

The girls waved a collective bye and finally April managed to head over to the building where his classes took place.

“April, my man,” someone called from behind. It was his friend, Raj, who hurried to reach him, a heavy bag on his shoulder. “How’s the crypto mining going?”

“It’s a bit complicated right now,” April said, opting to remain vague.

“Are you thinking about diversifying your portfolio? I can’t endorse that,” Raj said.

“I have a bit too much on my plate right now to think properly of it,” April replied. “And I kind of have my hands full.”

“Yeah.” Raj stole a slightly confused look toward the baby. “What’s with the chick magnet? Weren’t you gay? And the new hairstyle?”

April sighed. “It’s a long story.” He had a feeling he would have to repeat that multiple times throughout the day.

“Okay,” Raj said with a small shrug.

That was one thing about his friends and partners into science April loved. They didn’t care about gossip and never pressed him to reveal something he wasn’t comfortable to talk about.

They began walking together toward their class. Loud laughter and hooting made April turn his head to see who was making so much noise in the morning. Instant regret hit him.

“Just ignore them,” Raj said and began walking a bit faster. “It’s like with dogs. If you don’t pay them any mind, they forget about you.”

“I’m pretty sure starting to run might make dogs chase you and bite your ass,” April said but began walking faster, too.

“Hey, girlie,” someone shouted. “Got knocked up or something? Whose kid is that?”

The idiot’s pals began laughing.

“You would think college should be a bit better than high school,” April said.

“Just imagine what a bunch of losers with brain damage, beer on their shirts, ugly wives and kids, they will all be about one decade from now,” Raj said in the most philosophical manner possible.

“It’s a nice exercise in imagination. There is a chance they might sign up with some big team and become rich, though.”

“Hey, I’m trying to be positive here,” Raj replied.

“Aren’t you going to talk to us?” A jock jumped in front of them, and April stopped.

“Dan, I’m not in the mood for your bad jokes,” he said and tried to move past the other.

“Hey, I just asked you something,” Dan said.

April knew that trying to make Dan move out of the way couldn’t be easy. The guy was big, but, if April thought a little, he wasn’t as big as Jett, and that alone put a smile of his face.

“Something funny, girlie?” Dan came closer and hovered over him.

“No, nothing,” April said as he chose the path of least resistance.

Dan had been trying to pick a bone with him lately. April was well aware of the reason, but he didn’t want to go there, not even mentally.

“So, whose kid is this?” Dan insisted. There was something strange in his blue eyes, as he searched April’s face for something only he knew.

For the first time in a while, April didn’t find Dan as attractive as he had always thought. He seemed washed out with his blond hair, cropped close to the head, and blue eyes, taken like from some commercial advertising the new football player of the year holding a beer. Or vice versa. The beer was missing, but that wasn’t the issue.

Jett was better looking, regardless of his smoking and bad habits of threatening people with debts.

“Do you want me to sign something, to tell over the local radio, or put on a billboard, just so the world knows it wasn’t you?” April asked directly.

It hadn’t even been his fault. Dan had kissed him while half-drunk and mumbling incoherent things like how he found April pretty. April hadn’t exactly pushed him away, and the bad thing was that someone had seen them. Now Dan was trying to save his reputation by picking on April everywhere they met. It was never more than the usual taunts, but April found it tiring. While he was not the out and proud type, he had never hidden his orientation, either. Now Dan was making him question whether it wouldn’t have been better to keep it under wraps.

Dan blushed, and he seemed to lose his bearings for a second. “I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, Summer.”

“Yeah, me either,” April said airily. “Are we done here? I’m going to be late for class.”

“Sure thing, girlie,” Dan said loud enough to be heard by the others, “but only if you say please.”

“Please,” April said in a deadpan voice.

Dan seemed stunned by his quick surrender. “Hey, are you pulling my leg?”

He got closer, and April took a step back. “Hey, there’s a baby here. I did what you told me, so now you can go back to your friends and tell them how you put the queer kid in his place. Isn’t that enough?”

Raj had watched everything in silence, but now he intervened. “Frasier, April here might be too much of an old-fashioned gentleman to tell on you, but if you insist on being a douchebag, I’ll do it. Being good at football won’t save you. I can guarantee that.”

Dan seemed to consider, but then he walked away, not before pointing two fingers at his eyes and then to their general direction.

April turned toward Raj. “Thanks, man. It was cool, awesome even, but crazy, too.”

“I’m not afraid of these idiots. They act all high and mighty because their dicks are small.”

April burst into laughter, and Jay giggled with him. “Oops, I forgot to tell you. We shouldn’t use cuss words in front of the baby.”

“Hey, I think he liked my joke,” Raj pointed out. “Can you tell me what’s going on between you and Frasier? It’s like all of a sudden, he wants a piece of you.”

“Raj, you’re my friend. If I told you, I’d put you in mortal danger, and I can’t have that. I don’t have many dude friends around here.”

“Ah, so the rumor is true.”

April threw his friend a crossed look.

“Everyone knows it,” Raj said. “That you and Dan made out under a certain tree, at a certain party.”

“It was only half a kiss, and also instant regret,” April said.

“Half a kiss? How is that?”

“Never mind. Let’s get to class already and hope that Jay won’t need a diaper change anytime soon.”

***

Jett had a feeling. He couldn’t say what it was, but it was in his gut. The moment he entered the house, he felt that it was too quiet, but the feeling had started before.

“April!” he called out loud.

Maybe the dweeb was busy setting up his rig in the basement. Jett opened the door and looked down. It appeared that all the boxes were exactly how he had left them. Okay, there was no need to panic. April could listen to music on his headphones or something.

Nonetheless, Jett began walking fast, opening all the doors, and then going upstairs. There was no sign of April. What made the situation double worse was that there was no sign of Jay, either.

Could it be that April had gone outside? But where? Jett pulled his phone and called. No one was picking up, and a thin film of sweat was starting to form on his forehead.

All right, he needed to think. The Z brothers weren’t particularly clever, so there was still a chance the dweeb had just taken Jay out for a walk. But why the hell wasn’t he picking up?

Because he might have a ball gag in his mouth, while gangsters are forcing him to hack into the government’s network or whatever.

Jett pushed that stupid thought away. He tried the phone a couple more times. All right, so he needed to know where the hell April was. Last night, he had pretended not to be tech-savvy just for the sake of having April close while browsing through his exes. Why he had done that was unclear even to him, but that wasn’t something he had time right now to think about.

He hoped April had the GPS on and congratulated himself for thinking about that in advance by fiddling a little with April’s phone while the guy was bathing Jay. Jett stared at the screen and cursed.

The idiot had gone to school! Had he taken Jay with him? Most probably! Jett grabbed his jacket and was out the door in seconds. April Summer was in for some rude awakening about who owned his ass.

***

April felt good now that he had attended a couple of classes, and was ready to go back home before the ogre might return. Maybe Jett ate lunch at home, although April couldn’t see why since, usually, there was no food in that house. Also, he didn’t need to make Jay too tired. He was, after all, just a little baby, although very nice behaved. When he wanted, he could be an angel.

He was about to call an Uber when someone’s shadow fell over him. April pursed his lips in annoyance. “Dan, seriously, dude, just drop it. Tell me what the hell you want and let’s end it.”

The look in Dan’s eyes was intense. “Come with me.”

“No. Whatever it is that you want, you can tell me right here.” April didn’t feel particularly trustful of being alone with Dan. Who knew what that guy was thinking?

“I said, come with me,” Dan said through his teeth, and this time, he grabbed April by one arm.

Jay started crying right away as if he could sense April’s distress.

“You’re making a scene, and I have no idea how you think that would work for you. And see? You made the baby cry.”

Dan seemed disconcerted by Jay’s louder and louder cries but didn’t remove his hand from April’s arm. April tried to shush the baby, but Jay didn’t care about that.

“The fuck you think you’re doing, dude?”

April felt his hair standing on end at the sound of that voice. Jett was by their side in one second and pushed Dan hard.

For a moment, Dan considered holding his ground, but it looked like Jett’s surprise attack, and maybe the wild stare in his eyes were enough to make the jock reconsider. Yeah, April thought with mild satisfaction. Jett was bigger.

“What? Is he your wife or something?” Dan sneered, probably conscious of the stares of bystanders.

“Yeah,” Jett replied and took another step toward Dan, pushing him back just with his presence. “Got a problem with that? That’s my kid crying over there because of your ugly mutt face.”

“What a bunch of queers,” Dan said through his teeth and walked away, obviously trying hard not to break into a sprint.

April would have laughed if the fact that Jett was there hadn’t already caught up with him. “Oh shit,” he murmured.

“Get in the car,” Jett ordered.

April obeyed without a word, careful only to appease Jay. The cries seemed to subdue as they climbed into the car. Jett climbed in front and slammed the door hard enough to make a point. Jay wasn’t appreciative of that and started another series of wails.

“I know you’re mad at me, but can we leave it until we reach home and I manage to make Jay stop crying?” April said.

“Sure,” Jett replied. “But get ready for some serious ass-kicking.”

“All right,” April said and gulped.

Jay seemed content with the grownups finally falling silent, and April succeeded in making him forget all about the nasty man from earlier or that his daddy was pretty much pissed with the help of a squeaky toy.