Marie Sexton - Coda 02 - A to Z Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Will your boyfriend be there?”
    I bit back the urge to say that Tom wasn’t my boyfriend. Somehow “boyfriend” implied that I actually knew something about him, other than that he talked dirty during sex. “No.”
“Why not?”
     
“Does it matter?” That came out sounding angry and bitter, but he just smiled at me.
     
“No. What we gonna do?”
     
That was a good question. I had no idea. I looked around the store. “Watch a movie?”
     
His smile got even bigger. “Only if I get to pick.” “You’re on.”
     
Just then one of my regulars walked in. The one I thought of as Eddie, because he always wore Iron Maiden T-shirts.
    Angelo immediately walked over to the counter to help him. “Hey, Justin. I got it right here.” He pulled a movie out from under the counter. “Knew you were comin’ tonight.”
Eddie, whose real name was apparently Justin, smiled. I realized I had never actually seen his teeth before. “Thanks, man.” After he was gone, I turned to Angelo. “How did you know what he was going to rent?” I asked.
     
He shook his head at me. “He rents the same movie every time, Zach. Heavy Metal . You never noticed?”
    I shook my head.
“You gotta pay more attention to your regulars, man.”
“If he always rents the same movie, why did he spend so much time here?” I asked, trying not to sound defensive.
    Angelo smirked at me. “’Cause he couldn’t ever find it. Said you put it in a different place every time. He thought you were doin’ it to fuck with him. I told him you were just clueless.”
That explained why Justin always seemed pissed, but I wasn’t sure being known as a dumb ass was much better.
    I stopped on the way home and picked up sushi for myself, teriyaki chicken for Angelo (because the look he gave me when I mentioned raw fish wasn’t very enthusiastic), and a small bottle of sake.
    We settled on the floor around the coffee table, and he put the movie in. It was Seven , with Brad Pitt. At least it was in color—and had Brad Pitt.
“That was seriously disturbing,” I said when it was over. He just laughed. “Kevin Spacey kicks ass as a bad guy, doesn’t he?”
    I split the last of the sake between our cups, and then I remembered that he still had to work. “Are you going to get in trouble for drinking before your shift?”
    He shrugged. “As long as I’m not shit-faced, nobody will even know. Nobody there but me and the customers, and they don’t notice anything.”
    “Doesn’t it bother you, working so much?”
“What else am I gonna do?” he asked lightly.
“Do you have family around here?”
He hesitated a minute, then said, “No, man. No family.” “No family around here , you mean.”
“No,” he said with just a hint of annoyance in his voice, “I mean, I got no fuckin’ family.”
     
“How can that be? Are you an orphan or something?”
    “Or somethin’.” He kept staring at the TV, even though it was just credits rolling, but when he realized I was still waiting, he sighed. “My mom was Indian. Not like… from India but American Indian. She married my dad in New Mexico. She said he was Italian.”
“And his last name was Green?” I asked skeptically.
    He gave me his lopsided smile. “Apparently. Not like I ever met the guy. All I know is, they moved to Denver before I was born. And then a year later, my dad split. And then when I six or seven, my mom left me with the neighbor, and she split too. After that it was foster homes ’til I turned sixteen and dropped out of school and started takin’ care of myself.” He looked over at me, and I was trying to not look too horrified. “It’s not a big fuckin’ deal, so don’t go all after-school-special on me, all right?”
    “Sure.” But I had to look away from him, in case my face betrayed me. My family had been stereotypically Cleaver-ish. My homosexuality was the worst thing that had ever happened to them, and even that hadn’t shaken things up too much. I couldn’t