Sunset Park Read Free

“Zio—”
    I was way too late. Nunzio wasn’t just seeing my open bottle of lubricant—he was picking up my phone and staring at it quizzically. Craning my neck, I saw an ad pop up on the screen for live chat with sexy gay dudes in my area. Nunzio glanced at me, then at the phone, and closed the pop-up with a flick of his fingers.
    “Probably, like… a virus.”
    “I thought iPhones didn’t get viruses?”
    “What are you, a fucking expert? Maybe it’s an act of God. Or terrorism.”
    “Hmm.” Nunzio looked about as convinced as he had the time I tried to tell him that I’d forgone job hunting for years due to a lucrative career uploading Xtube videos. But he didn’t question me or make any smart comments until my phone went apeshit with the vibrating and flashing, and David’s insistent messages popped up again. Nunzio’s expression went from quizzical to dismayed with a steady sense of purpose. “I can’t believe you’re so chummy with that kid.”
    “Why? He’s not so bad.”
    “You think that because you didn’t have to work with him.”
    “Yeah, aiight.” I plucked my phone from his grasp and thumbed through the texts. It was nothing more than ongoing, one-sided commentary about the annoying conversations David was enduring at a housewarming party in an uptown penthouse full of people more WASPy than himself. There was also a mopey text complaining that I hadn’t even considered his invitation to join. Because that was totally my scene. “You barely worked with him before switching to that GED center. You’re just all bent out of shape and jealous because he had a crush on Michael for three minutes.”
    Nunzio grabbed my pipe and a lighter. “First, it’s not a GED center. It’s an LGBT center, and I teach GED classes there. Second, it was longer than three minutes. Your brother just downplays it so I come off looking like an insecure little bitch.”
    “Maybe ’cause you are one.”
    His answer came in the form of a flicked lighter and a deep inhale.
    I sent a semicomforting message to David, telling him that I was suffering the nosy inquisition of my faux brother-in-law, and he responded with an ugh . Apparently, David hadn’t quite recovered from the days of Nunzio mean mugging him out of jealousy. What a soap opera.
    Nunzio blew smoke at me, his hooded eyes more observant than I felt comfortable with at the moment. “What do you even do together? You have nothing in common.”
    “So? I’m only supposed to hang out with people who play video games and handball?”
    “No, stupid ass. Why are you being so defensive?”
    “Because you people act like I can only get along with certain types of people, and that’s annoying.” I held up my hands, pretending to cower before making an exaggerated sign of the cross. “¡Dios mío! Keep back, blanquitos! I’m so skurred ’cause you is more learn-ded than me!”
    “I didn’t say that at all, Ray.” Nunzio’s voice went all low and patient, like he was talking down an ornery student. I hated when he did that, but at least it wasn’t as bad as Michael’s teacher-mode. All exasperated and pointing things out and trying to make me see the light. “I’m just curious about what you’ve been up to. Michael and I being together doesn’t have to mean that you and me aren’t close anymore.”
    “Uh-huh.” He passed the pipe, but I waved it off. “I don’t know what we do. Just stuff. Go out to eat. He makes me watch his entire Netflix queue, I try to teach him how to hold a console controller….”
    “I see.”
    “He also smokes with me sometimes.”
    Nunzio’s brows shot up. “Do you drink together too?”
    “Nah. He knows I don’t drink much, and we never go partying or whatever.”
    The idea of going out to get wasted with David’s crowd was as desirable as using warming lubricant on my dick—interesting in theory, but a terrible idea in practice. But David pitched the idea a lot, as if I had anything in common with