I sat in the same chair and listened to some music for a while until it was nearly five. Gabe and Ken had been by to tell me that they would pick up the court order in the morning. Gabe told me it was nice that I took care of Lyka and got him back to his floor. I took that to mean she had seen him and he was feeling better. When they left to go to their respective hotels, I decided to go and see if Lyka was hungry and when I stepped off the elevator on the fourth floor, no chimes sounded to warn of a psych patient at large.
"Oh hello, you must be looking for Michael" a nurse offered, in fact, it was the same nurse who intercepted me earlier. "You'll find him in room four, bed one."
What a difference three little dings make. I did in fact find him exactly where she said he would be. The boy in the next bed was blabbing away at him and when I appeared at his bedside, he looked like a condemned prisoner receiving a reprieve.
The other boy, "Weezer" by name, asked me if I liked Legos.
I shook my head mimicking Lyka who was mouthing the word 'no' emphatically.
"No," I replied, "I've never been to Nigeria," Lyka stifled a snort.
Weezer looked confused but tried again, "No, Lego blocks, you make things with them."
"Oh, those Legos, of course; nope, I never got into them." A blatant lie, I have a ton of them but something told me not to admit that at that moment.
Instead, before Weezer could respond with incredulity I invited Lyka to dinner in the café. I suggested we just cut to the chase and grab a wheelchair. I also asked if he needed the restroom. "No, I've just been," he said, so I bagged a chair from the hallway and spirited him away to dinner.
In the cafeteria we ordered our meals and just talked about stuff, eventually, I asked about Weezer.
"Oh man, you don't wanna know. Did you ever see Forrest Gump?"
I indicated that I had, not sure where he was going with this.
"Weezer is like the big guy, Buford Blue, the one that talked for, like three days about the kinds of shrimp there are? Well, Weezer is the Buford Blue of Legos, he talks about nothing else and he talks about it all the fucking time!" Lyka was getting a little agitated.
"I'm sorry, it must be a pain," I commiserated.
"I almost shit when you mentioned Nigeria, ha! He wouldn't know Lagos from Salt Lake. Look, Weezer isn't a bad guy; he's just so fucking dull."
Our dinner arrived and we chatted and munched. "I could sure use a glass of wine with this," Lyka said.
"You drink wine?" I asked.
"Sure, a nice Riesling would make this a much better meal," he added.
"Oh yeah, living in Italy must be cool, everybody drinks wine there they say," I mused.
"Italy!?" Lyka barked, "who lives in Italy?"
Now I was perplexed; "Your Mom said she wanted you back in Genoa A.S.A.P." I retorted.
Lyka began to snicker, the snicker grew to a full-on laugh and I sat there bewildered.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm not laughing at you, well maybe a little, but it's the situation. It's so comical I can't help it. Man for a smart dude you really missed that one."
I must have looked strange or pissed or something because he calmed down and went on, "Duncan, we live in Genoa, Nevada, not far from Uncle Dan and Aunt Cheryl and Trevor. He's my best friend, didn't you know?"
I couldn't focus, my eyes were streaming tears and his face was a blur. He wheeled his chair around the table and took my hand and squeezed it.
"I thought I'd never see you again after tomorrow," I uttered when I could finally talk through the lump in my throat.
"Nope," Lyka said, "you won't get rid of me that easy, I practically live at their house. Trev and I go to school together, hell, half my uniforms are in his room. You're going to love it there."
I digested that information for a bit as he snitched some of my fries.
"What, no Smeagol for the fries?" he asked.
"Actually, they aren't very good. But their bacon is done just right and any way that was for Jerry's benefit. He's had a really rough time. But I'm sure glad I was wrong about Genoa, it would have hurt a lot to lose someone like you," I told him, being completely honest.
"Really?" Lyka said, "I wasn't sure you felt anything for me besides pity and curiosity. Sorry I didn't mean it to sound that way. I mean, I'm really glad you care about me. I would have missed you, too, if we really were going to different places. I'm sorry I laughed; I didn't know you were upset about it."
I put my other hand over his and said, "You better finish your dinner, it's going to get cold. And I don't need some nurse coming over to see if I'm okay."
He smiled his pretty smile at me and wheeled himself back to his plate.
We talked about the school he goes to with Trevor and it sounded great. It was a private school in the academy discipline. There were rules and uniforms, but they were mild rules and decent uniforms, not military, and the faculty was great as well as the curricula. Math, Science, Language and History as well as great athletics, such as Judo and Fencing and a fantastic Soccer program. But the big thing was that there was no bullying at all. It wasn't tolerated and Lyka said he had never encountered it in any form. The older students treated the younger ones like brothers and helped them to adapt to life away from home if they boarded but the day students were treated the same way. Sure, there were arguments, but that's where they stayed. The Music program was fantastic, Lyka was learning classical guitar. If I ended up there, I would want to continue with piano.
Once dinner was done, we decided to go to the lobby and watch the snowfall. On the way, I heard my name being paged and picked up a courtesy phone. Dan was calling to say he would see me in the morning and we could head out from here as soon as I was signed out.
I told him okay and good night and he hung up.
We sat in the lobby and Lyka asked about Jerry. I told him what had happened to Jerry, and letting him sleep with me. I also told him what he did to me that morning.
"Man, that's messed up. I thought something was a little off with him, he offered me the same thing if I wanted to go in the restroom. I told him no thanks. It was kind of creepy. He's going to ask the wrong guy and get his ass kicked or raped," Lyka said.
"Yeah, that's why I told our doctor what he did. He could get hurt doing that to strange guys. I felt like a jerk for telling on him though," I admitted.
Dr. Chandler happened to pass by on her way out the door and bade us both good night.
We talked a bit longer and Lyka started to look tired, so I wheeled him back to the elevator and returned him to his bed. Thankfully, Weezer was out cold and never stirred. I took Lyka to the bathroom to empty his bladder and got him into bed. I looked around and then bent down and kissed his cheek. He put an arm around my neck and pulled me back and quickly kissed my lips. A nurse came in with his meds just as I straightened up, so I said good night and walked back to the elevator and went to my own bed.
When I got to my bed, a sullen-looking Jerry complained to me that I told on him. I cited my reasons for doing it and told him I liked him and didn't want something bad to happen to him.
"There are bad people in the world, Jerry, and even after we talked this morning you offered yourself to another older boy. It's dangerous for you and I don't want you to get hurt, because I like you and I protect my friends. Even if it means I have to rat them out," I told him.
Jerry sighed and nodded, "You really think of me as a friend?" he asked.
"Yes, I do."
He was silent for a bit and then conceded, "I'll try to stick to other boys like me from now on. Dr. Chandler said the same thing you did about that. How come neither of you told me I should just stop doing it with anybody?"
I had to think before I answered that one. "Well, what you're doing isn't wrong as far as I'm concerned; I was just worried about who you were asking. And the 'not asking first' thing, remember?"
"Jerry, you're a nice guy and there are other boys out there that would love to have a boyfriend like you, but there are also boys who would just use you to get off and then tell everybody you suck dick. There are other guys that will beat you up just because they heard you do it. So you have to be careful. Discrete, is that a word you know, because you should; I'm telling you the truth here because I've seen it happen at my school in L.A., if they find out you're gay there your life becomes a living hell, at least in Reseda.
Jerry's eyes were wet now; it was obvious he had never considered what it meant to be gay.
"Man! I never thought about that. It seems so scary but I like boys and I don't see that changing, so I guess I'll have to learn to pay attention. I'm sure glad I haven't done it with anybody from my school though." He hugged me and I hugged him back.
I had been changing into my sleeping stuff, just hospital underwear and a tee. Jerry was already changed.
We were still hugging when the nurse came in to see if we were ready for bed. We let go of each other and crawled into our beds.
"I'm here if you need me," I told Jerry.
"Thanks, good night, Duncan," he mumbled sleepily. I lay on my side facing him and dropped off in seconds.