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Chapter Eight

On the phone with Ci, Jovian whined about what all had happened, and once he was finished, Ci said a long, high-pitched, “Ewwwww!”

“I know!”

“You have to share a bathroom? That’s disgusting!”

Out of everything he’d just dropped on her, that was where she’d landed. “Ci, that wasn’t the point.”

“It should be!”

“You use public restrooms when we’re at clubs or restaurants!”

“I don’t live at those places, and when have you even seen me actually sit on a public toilet. That’s right, never. I hold it until I can be sure of how clean the toilets are.”

“Right. Well, it was nice talking to you, Ci.”

“You too, Jovian! Call me anytime, oh except for tonight. We’re going to a club here where the waiters all dress in tight leather pants.”

She ended the call, but Jovian didn’t pull the phone away from his ear for at least a minute. “Gee, thank you, Ci,” he said snidely as he finally dropped the phone on the bed, surprised when it didn’t shatter on the stiff mattress.

Mike and Kathy saw him once they entered the tent. “Ready for dinner?” Mike asked him. “Fish tonight.”

“What kind of box did the fish come in?”

Kathy giggled, but Mike answered, “Caught fresh. One of the other cabins went fishing today.”

“I’m not hungry either way,” he sighed. “My life is over.”

As they neared his bunk, Mike asked, “What happened?”

“I was doing a facial mask, and that is the exact time Dixon came into the latrine. He saw me with a green mud mask. I’m done. I’m lying here the rest of the time I’m here. Maybe one of you would be good enough to bring me food and water now and then.”

After letting out a long sigh, Kathy walked over and sat on the next bunk, laying her hands demurely on her lap. “It’s all that bad, huh?”

“It’s the worst. It’s horrifying.”

Mike grunted, “Good lord.”

“Well, it is!”

“Jovian, I’m empathetic, sure, and I’m not saying anyone’s problems are less than others, but I think you need some perspective.

The second I told my mother I was trans; she kicked me out of her house.

Yeah, I was nineteen, but I was in college, and I didn’t have a dime.

Friends took me in, thankfully, but I still can barely keep from crying because my mother couldn’t accept me.

There are a hundred stories like that, or much worse, here. ”

“Yeah, man, like I know you like the dude, but stop putting all your eggs in his basket, no matter that the man has a big basket.”

“You’re not helping,” Kathy told Mike.

“Sorry.”

“I know! I know, my problems are small, but to me, they’re big. I’ve embarrassed myself in front of him so many times now! What the hell else can I do?”

“Be real with the man.”

“Don’t you get it? This is the real Jovian. This is me.”

“I don’t mean that. Be real with him. Stop trying to get his attention and maybe just talk to the dude.”

Kathy was nodding in agreement. Sitting up, he looked from one to the other in awe. “You guys really think that works? Do either of you ever get laid?”

That had them both rolling their eyes. “I gotta hand it to you, Jovian,” Mike said as they both rose and started for the cabin door. “Come and eat and stop pouting. I guarantee he’ll never like a pouty little princess.”

“Rude,” Jovian said to himself, but as he did, his stomach groaned. “Traitor,” he said to his stomach. “Fine. I’ll go revel in my humiliation.”

Expecting the entire camp to turn and laugh at him once he entered the Mess Hall, he was a little surprised when no one took notice of him at all. Not even Dixon, who was sitting at a table with a bunch of admirers.

Well, he would just ignore him. That was what he hadn’t tried. Playing hard to get had never been his thing, but he could always try something new.

Once he sat with Mike and Kathy, he took a tiny bite of the fish, expecting it to be terrible, but actually, it was delicious. “This is wonderful!”

“True cooks the fish. She does it over her grill out back and spices it perfectly,” Mike bragged, as if True was his partner instead of Bernie’s

“It is really good,” Kathy agreed. “I think we’re fishing next week. Mike always gets his limit. We’ll get seconds.”

“I’m watching my figure, so one is enough for me.”

“Fish is pure protein,” Mike told him.

“So is sperm, and I’d rather have that,” he said, smiling.

Mike cracked up, and even Kathy laughed. “You can be funny, when you’re not a snotty prick,” Mike told him.

“Thanks…I think.”

After they ate, True was by the door and told the three to make sure they met around the main fire for the marshmallow roast. After he said it, Jovian grumbled, “way too much sugar.”

“One won’t hurt you.”

“Maybe.”

Mike prodded, “Come on, and try it. You have to be here, right? Why not try to enjoy it a little?”

“Sitting on an uncomfortable log and holding a stick over the fire? That’s enjoyable?”

“Have you ever done it?”

The thought alone had Jovian blanching. “Do I look like I’m a big camper?”

“Like I said, try something new.”

“Fine. Since I obviously won’t be getting laid, food is the next best thing.”

Kathy giggled more, but Mike groaned, “If you knew the sex that went on…”

“No way! Where?”

Kathy scolded Mike, “Why did you tell him?”

“Because I’m an idiot.”

“Like, how? Where?”

After all, just because he’d never get Dixon, there might be someone worth fucking. He hadn’t really noticed, but…

“I’ll show you later. Be warned, you might see girls fucking.”

“Ew, but that’s fine. I’ve walked in on my best friend a few times. Not pretty, but I won’t vomit or anything.”

The campfires were roaring. There were three of them just off the offices, and everyone in the camp sat on logs, and a steady stream of murmured conversations could be heard, laughter breaking through that din now and again.

Sitting with Mike and Kathy was an eye opener. Jovian had marked them both as outsiders wherever they went, but many of the other campers came over to talk to them. Mike introduced Jovian to some that he didn’t know, but the others nodded in a friendly way to him. No one pointed and laughed.

That meant Dixon had kept his faux pas to himself. At least that was something.

When Bernie started passing around the marshmallows, Mike forced one on the stick that Kathy had handed Jovian. “Hold it over the fire until it gets brown. Some people like it burnt, but for your first one, just toast it a little.”

“Like this?” he asked as he held it close to the fire.

“A little more. You want the flames to be close.”

The flame closest to him licked the white marshmallow and Jovian watched, entranced, as it began to turn brown. “What do you know?”

“Turn it, so it’s even.”

“Right! I didn’t think about that.” He turned it left, then right until it was golden brown all the way around it, then he brought it close and gave it a sniff. “Wow, that smells heavenly.”

“Taste it, but it’s hot, so be careful.”

After blowing on it long enough, by Mike’s estimation, Jovian bit carefully into the gold marshmallow and the sweet, toasty favorite of it hit his tongue and his eyes widened.

“There ya go.”

After swallowing his first bite, he said, “Are you serious? This is the best thing ever!”

“See, camping isn’t all that bad.”

“Okay, I won’t go that far, but the fish and the marshmallows are good.”

“It’s a tiny step, but a step, nonetheless.”

Dixon came to the campfires, and Jovian’s eyes caught his. He didn’t sit near the one where Jovian, Mike, and Kathy sat, but the one next to it, close enough for Jovian to watch him sit and shake hands with two guys close to him.

His smile was wide, and he looked happy. Jovian wondered if he’d taken a trip to wherever it was where people fucked by the camp.

“Mike, where is that…hookup place?”

“You’re still thinking about that? I thought food was replacing sex.”

“I just want to know. Does, uh…Dixon ever travel that way?”

“If he does, it’s chasing people.”

Jovian cocked his head at that. “What do you mean?”

“We’re next to a state forest, and anyone could walk by. He doesn’t want that reputation for the camp. This place is supposed to be more than that. Besides, why would he need to go there when he has his own cabin?”

“He does? They make us live in squalor, all together like some prison, and they get their own cabins?”

“Did you think they stayed like us, all together?”

He refused to admit he’d never thought about it, or anyone else, and the inconvenience of communal living. “No, but…that seems, I don’t know, unfair. We’re the ones paying to be here, after all.”

“Jovian, I know you think it’s so terrible, but they have kept the price down for years, so everyone can afford to come. How they do it, I’ll never know. The taxes alone…”

“Taxes, Mike’s first consideration,” Kathy said, laughing.

“It’s a hobby, okay?”

That caught his attention. “You do taxes for fun?”

“Sure! It’s a challenge to get the biggest refund, or the lowest owed. Better than a video game, and I would know, I love those too.”

“I’m rooming with weirdos. Great.”

“What is your hobby?” Kathy asked.

“I…well, shopping, makeup, fashion, though that is my work too. I help run a fashion website part of the time, and the rest of the time I work at this little boutique downtown.”

Mike shook his head and said, “See, that holds no interest for me, clothes and shopping.”

“Wow, really?” he asked sarcastically as his eyes moved over Mike’s cheap T-shirt and even cheaper cargo shorts.

“Rude, Jovian,” Kathy whispered. “Stop that.”

“What?”

The next survival class was more boring than the first one had been. He sat watching Dixon, seeing the others hanging on his every word, and wondered how many, besides him, of course, were picturing their instructor naked.

Feeling bloated and fat from the three marshmallows he’d eaten the night before, Jovian had his folded arms over his stomach. But it didn’t matter. He’d already assured Dixon he wouldn’t look at him crossways.