Ash and I both burst into more snickers before she says “Ok, there is no way I was going to sit in that tree house and stare at Aiden’s lily white ass for twenty minutes.”

“Actually, it’s pretty tan,” Glen and I say at the same time and Ashley gives us both a disgusted look. “Well, it never used to be,” she mutters. “Ok dung beetle, get out of my car.”

“Whatever man. C’mon Spence,” he says, climbing out of the car.

“Actually I was going to stay at Ash’s tonight. If that’s okay?” I ask, looking at her.

“Of course,” she replies, beaming at me.

“No, Spencer,” Glen cuts in, “I think you should be home tonight.”

Normally there’s no way in hell I would listen to Glen when he tries to act all big brotherly, but the way he’s looking at me right now…I don’t know, it just makes me uneasy and I’m not going to argue with him.

“Ummm okay?” I say, rolling my eyes at him. “I’ll be in in 10 minutes.”

“Make it 5,” he says, with an edge to his voice and then he walks into the house. Maybe he’s not as dumb as I thought.

___________________________

Uh oh. Glen knows something is up. This is not good at all. It’s not that he’s a complete homophobe but….ok we need to back track a little.

Glen was my on again off again boyfriend from like 8^th grade until the end of freshman year. I was pretty much switching back and forth between him and Aiden and the occasional girl. We broke up for good after the whole bio teacher fiasco. Things were really rocky between us for a while, especially because Spencer was my best friend, so I still saw him a lot. He and Aiden basically bonded over their hatred for me but eventually they got over it and the 4 of us were really close.

Then Madison came into the mix in the middle of our sophomore year, Glen’s junior year.  Aiden and Glen were both pretty much gaga over her, and when she picked Glen, Aiden set his sights on Spencer.

But back to why Glen is not going to accept Spencer being gay. Ok, so obviously it stung when he got dumped because his girlfriend was gay, so he got this kind of grudge going against all gay people. It wasn’t really intense, I mean, he’s always been really sweet to me, but I think that’s only because of our history. But there is no way in hell he would ever except Spencer if she came out, he seems to think that with them living under the same roof, he’ll catch it or some bull shit like that. That’s one reason.

Reason number 2 is Paula Carlin, Spencer’s mom. Glen and his mom are really close, and Spencer is really close with her dad. This basically divides them up into 2 halves of the Carlin family whole – tolerant and nice, and homophobic and not nice.  If Spence came out to her dad and brother, Glen would go tell Mrs. C in a heartbeat, and even though she doesn’t live with them anymore, she’d find someway to keep me and Spencer apart.  And Paula already treats me like dirt for being gay; I’d never want that for Spencer.

I’m snapped out of my little trip down memory lane because someone is waving their hand in front of my face.

“Ashley? Ashley!” Oh, it’s Spencer. Right that would make sense.

“Huh? Sorry what was that Spence?”

“I said I have to go, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She seems irritated. And cold.

“Oh… umm yeah ok sounds good. Maybs we’ll hit the beach?” I say, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe.” She starts to open the door and I grab her hand.

“Spencer, it’s going to be fine. Okay?” She just gives me a skeptical look.

“Good night Ashley.” And then she’s gone. No kiss…ok well not that I really expected one, but no hug or warm Spencer smile. So I just watch her walk inside, and then I leave.