My Dream Boy

“I don’t know, Jess. I can’t decide. You pick what you want, I’m game for anything you choose,” I said, giving up.

I couldn’t make up my mind about the right outfit to wear to Matt’s place.

I was usually the one who gave advice on clothes. I know, I’m gay and good at fashion, so cliché, right? But I happen to have a good taste in clothes. What can I do? I was born that way: fashion adequate.

But now, for the life of me, I couldn’t pick anything. My wardrobe had exploded all over my room, my floor, my bed—there were even a few pieces hanging by the window sill.

None of my clothes seemed good enough for my date. Hangout. Whatever. I was getting desperate.

It was already near midday, and I was running awfully late.

Matt had been waiting for me to arrive at his house since early in the morning. He had called a bunch of times, yelling for me to “get my pretty butt up there right now.”

I had giggled at that because he had admitted that I had a pretty butt. It only made him shout at me more.

He hung up after that and hadn’t called since, which was worrying me. I was still stuck with my fashion emergency predicament here, which was doubling the worry for me.

I didn’t want to be overdressed, since this wasn’t a real date. Plus, Matt might think it was weird if I showed up dressed for a date there.

But I didn’t want to go dressed too casual or too sloppy. I wanted to look good for him.

Why did I want to look good, you may ask?

Because I was a delusional pathetic loser and had a crush on him. Don’t blame me for wanting to look good on the off-chance the guy would actually notice me!

I could maybe make him fall madly in love with me if I happen to choose the right outfit, okay?

What? It could happen!

Jesse had been at my house for the past couple of hours, trying to help me. She took out a black T-shirt and found some old blue jeans in the dark recesses of my wardrobe.

“Put this on. You will look fab in those.” She shoved the clothes in my hands.

I frowned at the outfit she had picked.

“You want me to wear this old thing? Really?” I asked, incredulously. I had to dive away when she threw a boot at me.

“It’s your damn clothes, Taylor! Not my fault if you don’t have anything decent and new in here!” she shouted, yanking at her hair.

I guess you could say I was testing her patience a little bit today. Just a tad.

I grabbed the clothes and inspected them again.

“I guess it’s fine. This looks kind of good, I suppose.” I lied.

“Just put them on, Taylor,” she ordered, annoyed. “You can’t afford to miss this date. This is it, Tay. This is the perfect time to win over Matt. He’s all vulnerable now with the breakup.

“He’ll need a shoulder to cry on, someone to make him feel better.

“You show up, dazzle him with your hotness, make him realize he’s in love with you all along. It’s a freaking gay fairy tale, I’m telling you. So hurry up, boy! Chop, chop!”

“I gotta say, I do like the sounds of this fairy tale of yours, Jesse,” I mused in a thoughtful mood. “Fairy tales always end up with happy endings, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, he’ll ‘happy end’ your brains out, lover boy. Matty has a reputation as outstanding in bed, so you better buckle up.

“But you need to stop stalling and start getting ready, sweet cheeks, or you’ll miss all that good loving he has to offer.”

“Yeah, but be real now. Do you really think these jeans are a good choice? My ass looks so flat in them!” I protested, still holding the jeans with a doubtful look on my face.

“Go get dressed, hot ass! Your date is waiting for you!” she yelled again and threw the other boot at me.

I hurried to put the jeans on but when I was inspecting myself in the mirror, almost convinced that this was in fact, not the right outfit for today, my phone rang again.

“Please tell me you’re rounding the corner to my house.” Matt’s irritated voice buzzed at the other side of the line.

“I’m almost ready, just need to take care of my hair and—”

“Oh God, no. Not the hair,” he cut in. “You literally take freaking forever to fix your hair!

“You know what? I can see that you’re not that into this, Taylor. Maybe we can do this some other time. It’s not like I’m feeling bad or anything.

“Go do your things. I think I’m going to go out by myself and see a movie or something. I’m sick of sitting here waiting for you. I’ll talk to you later.”

“What? No, wait! No! NO! MATT?” I shouted at the phone, but there was no reply. “Matt? Matt! Are you still there?”

There was a pause and then he said, “Yeah. I’m here.”

“Just give me ten minutes! In ten minutes I’ll be knocking on your door. I swear to God! You have my word! Please!”

There was another poignant silence before Matt spoke again.

“All right, man.”

“Okay! Thank you! I’ll be there! Wait for me!” I shouted in desperation.

“Fine. And Taylor?”

“Yeah?”

“You have ten minutes. Not one second more. I’m going out in ten minutes if you’re not here.”

“KAY! BYE!” I yelped, hanging up.

I tossed my backpack over my shoulder, grabbed a surprised Jesse by the hand, ran down the stairs yelling to my parents that I was staying at Matt’s for the night, and jumped inside Jesse’s car.

All of this was done in less than a minute. I was the frigging Flash!

“Jesse, step on the gas! We have nine fucking minutes to get to Matt’s house!” I yelled, gripping at her and shaking like a maniac.

“What?! But it’s a twenty-minute drive there!” Jesse yelled back.

“Then, drive like crazy, woman! Go! Go!” I yelled some more.

I forgot how Jesse takes things way too literally. She did drive like crazy. Mental-hospital-I’m-going-to-kill-everyone crazy.

I saw my life flash past my eyes multiple times during the whole time she zigzagged through lanes on the street while honking madly and shouting at people to get out of the way.

“Oh my God. I’ll need a drink if I manage to get out of this ride alive,” I groaned as I was being tossed back and forth and sideways on the passenger’s seat like a sack of terrified potatoes.

“Oh, yeah, speaking of drinks, fetch that bottle there on the floor, will ya?” Jesse asked, taking a sharp left onto a less busy side street to try to avoid traffic on the main.

“This bottle?” I asked, bending down to get the annoying bottle that had been rolling around on the floor and thumping against my feet.

“Why do you need a bottle of vodka, Jesse? You really shouldn’t be drinking right now, it won’t get us there faster, just deader, you know,” I berated her with a stern frown.

“Shut up, you idiot. I don’t drink and drive. This is for you.”

“Me? Why me?” I asked, confused.

“Remember when you took a bottle from your parent’s drinking cabinet a couple weeks ago, when I needed it for that party? We need to replace it, so your parents won’t notice it’s missing. There you have it.”

“But—but—I can’t take this now, Jesse! Why didn’t you bring it to my room earlier when you came to my house?”

“I forgot, okay? And I can’t leave this here in my car.

“Can’t take to my room either, my mom has been snooping all over my stuff lately, because—well, it’s a long story, it doesn’t even matter, she’s overreacting and those accusations are all false anyway.

“But you need to take this bottle, Tay. Just put it in your backpack there and when you get back home on Sunday you sneak it into your dad’s cabinet. Easy-peasy.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, shoving the bottle into my backpack.

And then I heard her mumble “Oh, shit” before she slammed on the brakes and the car screeched into a halt.

“OUCH! Son of a—Jessica!! What the hell?” I groaned, massaging the dig that the seat belt had made into my collarbone. I turned to her and she pointed to the street in front of us.

Despite Jesse’s high-speed mark and outstanding reckless driving, we found ourselves now stuck in a major traffic jam only a couple blocks away from Matt’s house.

“Sorry, hot ass. It doesn’t seem like this will move any time soon,” she said, looking worriedly at the line of cars in front of us.

I glanced down at my watch. I glanced up at the cars up front.

Then I mumbled a “screw this,” grabbed my backpack, opened the door, and bolted out of the car, leaving a smiling Jesse behind yelling “Go get him, tiger!” at the top of her lungs.

I ran like frigging Forrest Gump and never stopped until I was at Matt’s doorstep, clutching at my sides and wheezing like an old man with an asthma attack.

I rang the doorbell multiple times and prayed for Matt to be still in the house.

The door opened, showing a half surprised, half amused Matt standing there in all his glory, wearing sweatpants and a snug white tank top.

“Sorry…late…,” I coughed out, gasping for air.

Matt looked at his watch and arched both eyebrows.

“Dude, how did you manage to get here in twelve minutes?”

“I…you…said…ten minutes!” I winced as a sharp pain stabbed into my rib cage. Boy, was I having a stroke or something? Because I don’t remember the taste of copper in the mouth being a good thing.

“I was joking, Taylor! You know that, don’t you?” Matt laughed and then stopped when he saw the deep scowl on my face.

“You really thought I would only wait ten minutes, Taylor?”

“You…ass…face…,” I wheezed, angrily.

“Why are you out of breath like that?” he asked curiously.

“I…was…running.”

“You ran all the way here? In ten minutes?! That’s impossible!”

Annoyed, I rolled my eyes and walked past him.

“No…Jesse…drove me here. By the way…I’m never getting…in the car…with her…again. That girl’s crazy!”

“But if Jesse drove you here, why were you running?” he asked as he followed me inside the house.

I slumped on the couch and he sat by my side, waiting for me to catch my breath.

“We got stuck in traffic. I just ran the rest of the way,” I finally managed to say after a few minutes.

“I was afraid you’d left like you said you would. Thanks for lying, ass face,” I grunted, punching him in the arm.

It was like a baby squirrel trying to punch a rock boulder. He didn’t even bother to pretend to flinch, the buffed-up fit bastard.

He raised his hands in surrender.

“Hey, I’m sorry, man! I didn’t think you were actually going to try to come in ten frigging minutes.”

“I almost made it, though,” I told him with a smug grin.

“Yeah, I’m glad to know you care so much about our hangout that you almost broke the speed of light on your way over here,” he teased with a chuckle.

“Of course, dude! I know how heartbroken you must be right now! You can’t be left alone, grieving like this,” I said, all serious.

We stared at each other in silence for a second, before bursting out laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m devastated all right.” Matt let out one last chuckle before slumping down on the couch next to me.

I tensed a little with his sudden proximity. I was just noticing the closeness, but really, I wasn’t complaining. Then he turned to face me.

“So. Are you ready for some action?” he asked in an excited tone that promised a myriad of possibilities.

I turned my head slowly to face him and gulped dryly.

“A-action?”