Page 17 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
"Ow." He rubbed his head, pretending to be hurt even though I'd barely touched him. "I'll get you back for that. I'll show your new lover baby pictures of you when you bring him to solstice."
"You don't have baby pictures of me."
"Not yet." He grinned again. "But I'm getting back to the island before you and I'll make sure to use that time wisely."
I scoffed. "Whatever." He couldn't really annoy me. Not while I had a day with Zim to look forward to. A day with Zim to prepare for. What to do...
Finn was right; the situationwascomplicated. If I read Zim correctly, not only had he been raised in an environment that was homophobic, but that was also anti-dragon. Undoing all that damage was going to take some time.
But giving up was not an option.
7
Zim
The morning after my birthday, I called my friend Derick. He'd gotten me into this mess; he could help me get out of it. Besides, he was the only one in my life who knew about my... fantasies now. Well, the only one aside from the dragon anyway, and the dragon had cheated.
I had to call twice before Derick picked up. By the tone of his voice when he finally answered, I could tell that he was hungover. He'd probably gotten shit-faced the night before. Not that I was judging. It was his life—and his hangover.
"Maxy?" he asked sleepily, using the nickname I hated most of all, but I swallowed my groan.
"Wake up, man. I need some advice."
"Advice?" The word did not seem to compute for my friend. "What happened?"
"I listened to what you said, that's what happened." I felt myself grow a little bit hysterical, lying in bed, staring at the morning sun outside my window and contemplating the fact that I had about five hours before I had to give a dragon a tour of my city.
"What I said? Dude, I don't remember half the words I said last night. You're gonna have to help me out here."
Of course he didn't remember. I groaned. "Lowen slipped me a note, you know? You saw it. You..."figured out that I was gay.Did I really want to remind him of that when he might have forgotten?
"Oh yeah," he said before I could make up my mind. "I found out some pretty disturbing things about you." He laughed like it was all a big joke to him. Thankfully, his amusement lasted only for a few seconds, though. Maybe he noticed that I wasn't laughing, because the next thing he said was, "Don't worry about that homosexuality thing too much, man. You know I still love you. Platonically."
"Yeah, platonically," I repeated, mouth dry. "Can you keep it to yourself, though?" Not what I'd called to ask, but an important question anyway. I had to know that my friend could keep his mouth shut before I could breathe easily again.
"Of course I can," he said. "C'mon, we've always kept each other's secrets."
"Yeah..." I remembered our high school days. We'd gotten each other into so much trouble, but we'd never told. I hadn't told anyone that he'd started smoking, and he didn't tell anyone that I sold my homework to other students.
"Do you really think this should be a secret, though?" Derick asked.
"Dude." Was he serious right now? "You know the fit my parents would throw if I was gay. They'd start some sort of intervention to get me back on the right path. My mom would cry for days, thinking she'd never get grandkids." I shook my head even though I knew my friend couldn't see me now. "I could never do that to her."
"You know," Derick said slowly, "at some point, you're gonna have to put your own interests first. This is your life. Not your parents'."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll think about it." Like I hadn't done that a thousand times already. "But this is really not what I called you about. I'm seeing that dragon again today."
"That dragon? Oh. Lowen?" I couldn't see Derick's face, but I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Things worked out between the two of you? What happened in that hotel room last night? Tell me everything. Well, maybe not the details. No offense, man, but I'm not gay."
"I wouldn't have told you the details anyway." I scoffed. "If anything had happened. But nothing did." And the worst part was that I didn't know how to feel about that. Part of me wished something had happened. The rest of me was relieved... and maybe a bit apprehensive about today. Tonight. Lowen had given me another chance.
Time to think, as well.
What did I want?
I wasn't any more certain now that I had been the night before.
"Why do you need my advice anyway?" my friend asked. "I mean, I know I'm super knowledgeable in all things, but gay sex isn't really my area of expertise."
