Once Upon a Rainbow Volume Three Read online

  José picked out some clothes from one of the cleaner piles. He needed to get his room under control. Tecún didn’t seem to mind, but it was weird to sleep next to someone, surrounded by all your laundry. Tecún sat up and watched him get ready. Knowing someone was watching, José kept his back to him. Maybe that wasn’t fair—Tecún hadn’t had that chance—but being watched made him nervous.

  “Listen, I have class until four. Do you think you can handle yourself until then? It’s, like,”—José bent to look at the clock—“six hours.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Tecún promised.

  José pursed his lips.

  “Really.”

  “Okay, just don’t go anywhere. Here—” José pulled his laptop out from under some of the mess on his desk and put it in Tecún's lap. He opened it up and opened his browser. “Netflix. Watch whatever you want. Fae’ll be in and out if you need anything, okay?”

  Tecún nodded. José breathed out through his nose. He felt crappy about leaving, but he didn’t have much choice, did he? Tecún would be fine.

  He swung by Fae’s room to tell her he was going to class. It wasn’t common practice, but he thought he should give her a head’s up in case Tecún needed something, though he didn’t think she heard him from buried deep in her blankets.

  He probably should’ve stayed home. The guiltier he felt, the more he contemplated finding some way to pop back in between classes. If lecture let out early, he’d have time.

  It was just a few hours, though. What could go wrong?

  Everything. Everything could go wrong. You didn’t leave a day-old infant at home alone, and Tecún seemed like he could get himself in a lot more trouble than a baby.

  The chair in his art history classroom squeaked when he moved it back to sit. From the seat in front of him, Anthony twisted to look at him.

  “Hey, man, I went by the studio this morning. You already finish your project, or did that wood get up and walk away?” Anthony’s tone was teasing, but José caught his eyes and they both knew he wasn’t entirely joking.

  José sucked his cheeks in and shrugged.

  “I finished,” he answered. “I brought it home to, you know, polish and stuff.”

  “That fast, huh? Damn, man, I didn’t think wood was your medium.”

  There it was—that underlying current of envy that ran through every BFA student when someone else’s project was going well. José didn’t know how to tell him that his project was throwing him for a real loop, and frankly, he didn’t want to give up the feeling of superiority he got from having accomplished something so quickly.

  “It was nice wood,” he said offhandedly. “Inspiration struck.”

  Anthony narrowed his eyes. “Well, congratulations, dude. I can’t wait to see it finished.”

  “Yeah. The exhibition’s right around the corner. I can’t wait to see yours too,” José offered with a smile.

  Dr. Penn came in at the bottom of the lecture hall and pulled their attentions off each other and onto thirteenth-century reliquaries, which, apparently, she loved. She used every minute of her lecture.

  Chapter Four

  JOSÉ HAD LEFT his Netflix with Tecún, but Tecún didn’t know which buttons to press to watch something. He pushed the big one, and the picture scrolled down. He pushed it again, and the same thing happened. Nothing else happened, though, and it wasn’t worth watching, exactly. There was something he was missing.

  He tried a few more buttons, turned it over, and shook it, but it was no good. Carrying the Netflix with him, he dragged his feet to Fae’s room to get help.

  “Good morning, Fae,” he said to the lump in her bed. She didn’t reply. There were tufts of short turquoise-blue hair sticking out from under her dark-blue blanket. Balancing the Netflix in one hand, he crawled over her on top of the covers and turned to sit with his back against the wall. She groaned.

  “You are so freaking heavy,” she said, her voice muffled. Finally, she folded the blanket down under her arms and glared at him. Under her eyes, she had dark rings like a raccoon, but he tried not to laugh. After all, he wanted her help, and Fae did not seem to like mornings.

  “José told me to watch his Netflix, but I can’t get it to work, Fae. What am I doing wrong?” He held it up, but before he could jiggle it again, she grabbed it out of his hands.

  Fae budged over so that she could lean against the wall beside him and set the Netflix into her lap. Her fingers skirted across a square at the bottom of the buttons, and the screen moved around again.

  “What do you want to watch?” she asked him. He pointed to a rectangle on the screen that was under the words “Your Queue.” There was a pretty man in the rectangle who looked like José.

  She tapped her fingers, and then the arrow hit a triangle when it came up. The Netflix started to play something. Music filled the room as the credits rolled, and Tecún grinned. This was magic!

  “You good?” Fae asked. She turned her grumpy-raccoon eyes on him.

  “Yes, thank you!”

  “Okay, not to be rude or anything, but get out.” Her backside stuck in the air as she crawled front first back into her blankets. “Not done sleeping.”

  Pleased in spite of Fae’s mood, Tecún got up and went to the living room. For an hour and a half, Tecún watched the men on the screen fall in love. One of them fought with his parents. He cried, and the other man hugged him and kissed the tears off his cheeks. The one who was crying turned in his arms, searching out his lover’s comfort. Before Tecún knew what was happening, they were pulling each other’s shirts off, then their pants, touching and kissing each other all over. He didn’t realize when his lips fell apart or when he sank down into the couch, bent his legs, and pulled the Netflix closer to his face. He wanted to see more. The man who’d cried, now under his lover, made the most beautiful face that Tecún had ever seen. His moan caught in his throat. His eyes fluttered shut—

  “What are you watching?” Fae asked from the door to the hallway. Her lips had a teasing lilt to them. Tecún snapped the Netflix shut and sat up.

  “Nothing,” he snapped out. He drew his brow down heavily over his eyes as he glared at her and gathered the Netflix against his chest. He felt a tug between his legs. His cock felt swollen.

  “Sure.”

  “It was nothing!” he insisted again. Tecún tucked his chin down into his neck and crossed his arms.

  “Whatever. I’m going to class. Need anything?”

  Tecún shook his head. All he wanted was for her to leave.

  “Okay. See you later.” She picked up a bag in the corner, shifted it onto her shoulder, and headed out. The lock made a sound, and her footsteps faded as she walked off the porch.

  When he was sure she was gone, he opened the Netflix again and hit the long button so it started to play again.

  TECÚN PRESSED THE back arrow a few more times so he could watch the man make that pretty face, his mouth like an o, and his cheeks flushed the same pink as José’s, but not quite. José’s were a dusky rose color that the sun made in the clouds when it first began to rise. Could José make such a face?

  For a while after the movie stopped, he sat and considered what would make José look like that. The man was so happy, and José’s smiles were only ever shy and sweet.

  Finally, he snapped the Netflix shut and marched back to José’s room. He was curious about the strange feeling he got between his legs. He took off his clothes in front of the mirror and touched his cock. It was bigger and felt heavier than it had before. He frowned and gave it another tentative touch. It felt nice.

  Curling his fingers, he gave it a slow tug, then another. Tecún twisted to recline on the bed, propped up on his arms.

  He might’ve kept going—maybe forever, it felt so nice—but there was a knock on the front door. He hastily pulled his pants back on, wiggling his hips in front of the mirror to try to get the jeans to lie in a way that made his shaft less obvious. Fae’s reaction had proven that it wasn’t appropriate to walk around without trousers, but she didn’t seem especially bothered about his top half.

  From the hallway, he could see straight to the front door. A dark-brown face was peering back at him from the top window. The man had his hands curled around his eyes so he could look in.

  José had said not to go anywhere, but he hadn’t said what to do if someone came there, so Tecún walked up to the door and smiled at the man. On closer glance, he was familiar.

  “Hello,” he said through the glass panes. The lock took some finagling, but he got it open and pulled the marigold-yellow front door open. “Can I help you?”

  “Is José around?” the man asked. When Tecún heard his voice, he realized it was the same man that’d whacked him with a chisel before José. Anthony, José’d called him. He was clumsy and had hit a lot harder than he’d needed to. Brushing past Tecún, Anthony stepped around him into the living room, peering around and down the hallway.

  Tecún shook his head. “He’s in class until four.”

  Anthony nodded. Finally, he looked straight at him. “Sure.”

  The way he surveyed Tecún was oddly intense. Defensive, Tecún lifted his chin. Anthony raised his hand in a fist, and Tecún flinched back, but not fast enough to keep him from knocking on his bare chest with his knuckles.

  “Goddamn,” he breathed. “So you’re José’s project?”

  Tecún scowled. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “His senior project. You know, his make-or-break studio submission for the senior exhibition.” Tecún didn’t get it. Anthony was saying an awful lot of words that, together, should’ve made sense. Anthony was looking at him like he was stupid. Tecún’s eyes narrowed. “You know what,” Anthony continued, “don’t worry about it. Are you, like, alive?”
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  “Aren’t you?” Tecún shot back at him.

  “Obviously.”

  Tecún tried to inventory the things that made them different—the breathing, the blinking, the warmth, and the suppleness of his skin. Were those the things that made up life? If so, what did that make him?

  Anthony reached for him again, and Tecún pushed him back. He didn’t like that. He didn’t mind when José touched him, but José didn’t touch him like he was categorizing his parts for sale at auction.

  Defensively, Anthony threw up his hands. “All right, man,” he said. “No harm intended. Listen, if you get sick of being a tool, here’s my number. I can help you.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a cream-colored card. It had his name, Anthony Fox, followed by “intern” and a series of numbers.

  “Okay, thanks,” Tecún said, voice clipped. “You should go.”

  “I thought José wasn’t getting back until four. We could hang out. Chat or whatever,” Anthony suggested, but Tecún was sure that José wouldn’t like it if he came back to find him hanging out with Anthony on the couch. José didn’t seem to want anyone to recognize that he wasn’t “normal.”

  Tecún shook his head. “Fae’s coming back soon,” he lied. He felt that familiar swell between his legs and squirmed. Anthony stared at him, eyebrows high on his forehead.

  “Whatever. Another time, woody,” he said with a snicker.

  “Maybe,” Tecún replied, shuffling Anthony out the door. He locked it behind him and leaned back against it with a thunk! Next time, he wouldn’t be so quick to open the door.

  AFTER HIS STRANGE encounter with Anthony, Tecún was in no mood to return to José’s bedroom and resume his explorations. Instead, he walked around the circle made by the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway. He trudged through one door of the kitchen, out the other, back into the short leg of the L-shaped hall, through the living room, into the dining room, and back to the kitchen. He trod his path half a dozen times before he discovered the light in the cold box turned on when he opened it.

  That kept him busy for a while, and the sink, which housed its own tiny waterfall. There were boxes of crackers, bags of rice, and cans of beans in the cupboards. In the cabinets, there were cups of every different shape and color.

  At a scraping, jiggling sound by the front door, Tecún popped up. He’d been on his hands and knees with his head shoved into a low cabinet, digging through Tupperware. Rather than appear to be snooping, he sat back and stood up in time for José to manage the lock.

  “Tecún?” José called from the living room.

  “In here,” Tecún replied. He met him in the dining room and leaned against the doorframe. José looked him over and visibly relaxed when he saw that nothing was wrong.

  “I still have all my parts,” he assured José, earning a gorgeous, soft laugh.

  “I’m glad,” José replied. Tecún did not think that he was imagining the fondness José’s gaze held for all his parts. “How was your day?”

  “I spent it well. I watched the Netflix, like you said.”

  “Yeah? What’d you watch?” José asked as he dropped his bag on the counter. He reached for one of the mismatched cups in the cabinet, took it to the cold box, and put it under a spout. The cold box had a tiny waterfall inside it too!

  Tecún grinned. “A love story. Something in your queue.”

  José sipped from his cup. When he lowered it, Tecún noted that his pleasant pink flush had returned. He fidgeted with his glasses.

  “What else did you do?” José asked, his voice a little gruffer.

  “Nothing,” he lied. The words caught in his throat. He did his hip shimmy when he felt another growth spurt. That only served to draw José’s attention right to his crotch. His dark brows skyrocketed. His full lips fell apart. Tecún hummed, embarrassed.

  “Don’t lie to me, T,” José chided. Apparently, he was choosing to ignore Tecún’s strange behavior, but Tecún knew that he’d seen. He just couldn’t tell what José thought, and that bothered him. However, it didn’t bother him quite as much as being caught in a lie. He was going to get into trouble.

  “Well”—Tecún pursed his lips and looked away—“someone came over. Anthony, from before,” he mumbled, as if saying it softly would temper José’s reaction. He was annoyed at being found out and didn’t want José to be upset with him.

  When he stole a glance at José, he saw that he did look worried.

  “Did he recognize you?” José asked quietly, after a moment’s awkward silence had hung between them. José said not to lie, though Tecún considered it again.

  He hung his head. “Yeah.”

  José drew in a sharp breath of air and nodded. “It’ll be fine,” he said assuredly. “What’s he going to do? We made a trade, fair and square. It’s done. You’re mine, so…it’s fine. He can’t do anything, and even if he told someone, they’d just think he was high. I mean, hell, I did.”

  Tecún rather liked being his and decided not to correct him on that front.

  “It’s fine,” Tecún repeated, not because he knew, but because José did not seem completely convinced by saying it. He might need to hear it too.

  “Jesus, guys, who died?” Fae asked as she walked in.

  José shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

  “Fine. Whatever. Guess what!” José and Tecún both cocked their heads and looked at her, distracted, for the moment. “Corina’s having a party tomorrow. We’re going.”

  “On a Tuesday?” José complained.

  “It’s Thirsty Tuesday,” Fae explained. Tecún had never of heard such a thing, but it sounded like a holiday.

  “Okay, that’s not real. You can’t just make shit up,” José chided, but Tecún had already begun to grin. He’d spent one whole day inside so far, and he was eager to see more of the world. He wanted to go to Corina’s Thirsty Tuesday party, real or not.

  “We’re artists. That’s what we do,” Fae insisted. She budged José’s arm, giving him a little jolt. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

  Tecún leaned forward on the balls of his feet to give José a pleading look. José’s eyes met his before he heaved a sigh and said, “Fine.”

  Victorious, Fae and Tecún shared toothy grins.

  “So,” Tecún began, “what are we thirsty for?”

  Chapter Five

  JOSÉ HAD SPENT the whole day feeling like an idiot for leaving, and it didn’t get any better the next. He could miss class for one day, couldn’t he? He might’ve if it weren’t so close to the end of the semester or if he hadn’t already taken too many days off. Thankfully, Tuesday’s course load was lighter. He only had to be gone for a couple hours, and Tecún had promised not to open the door for anyone else.

  Still, he’d taken a risk, and it’d bitten him in the ass. Anthony knew about Tecún, and José didn’t know what he was going to do about it. A party was the last thing on his mind, but Fae had insisted and Tecún seemed excited. He couldn’t really say no after T gave him that look.

  When José got home, he turned on the radio, picked an outfit off the floor, and chucked it in the dryer in the basement. Standing at the top of the rickety wooden stairs, Tecún peered down at him worriedly.

  “Where are you going?” Tecún asked anxiously.

  “Just have to get the wrinkles out of my shirt,” José said, biting back a laugh. It wasn’t fair to laugh at him.

  “It’s dark down there,” Tecún informed him, like he couldn’t tell that the flickering, uncovered bulb was doing a miserable job lighting the corners of the space.

  Tecún was visibly relieved when José made it back upstairs. They spent most of the afternoon talking about college parties—what to do, what they were like, and how they weren’t really holidays, unless you wanted to celebrate being young and free.

  When José had said that, Tecún had smiled distantly and said that it was as good a reason to celebrate as he’d ever heard.

  Fae got home from class and, despite the early hour, insisted that they all start getting ready. She went all out with her makeup and touched up Tecún’s. Tecún even asked for teal eyeliner. No harm no foul, José figured. Corina’s parties were outrageous. It’d be weirder if he didn’t show up with funky eyeliner and hot pants—okay, Tecún definitely wasn’t allowed in hot pants. He needed a little more coverage for his bulge. Apparently, a guy didn’t need to worry about staying hard if he was made of wood in the first place.