Sunset Park Read Free Page A

people who swanned around Williamsburg and talked about the number of hops in their beer like they were too good for a Corona.
    “You’re better off,” Nunzio said, still watching me a little too closely. “The guy turns into a needy slut after you put a couple of drinks in him.”
    “I doubt he’s always like that.”
    “It’s true.” The corners of Nunzio’s mouth started to twitch upward. “But maybe that wouldn’t be so bad for you. The kid is a gold medalist at deep throating.”
    “Man….”
    “What? Just turn off the lights and let him go to town,” Nunzio said, keen on making my life embarrassing and horrible. He popped his tongue in the inside of his cheek and made a pumping motion with his right hand. When I scowled, he dissolved into chuckles. “I’m just saying, you might as well take advantage of the situation. I know he’s willing.”
    “And how do you know that?”
    “Because you’re a piece of ass, and David has a jones for hot Latino dudes.”
    “Yeah, whatever.”
    I’d intended to say something more forceful and hetero-horrified, but I was more nervous than disgusted by the possibility of David wrapping his lips around my dick. When we’d first met, he’d hit on me for a few weeks before abandoning the I-will-make-you-gay-for-me thing. I had never taken him seriously. Each sassy comment and cute smile had garnered him nothing more than blank stares and a litany of details about just how much I liked pussy. Apparently flirting with me wasn’t worth hearing about the inner workings of a vagina. I didn’t see what the big deal was. If it wasn’t for vagina, his ass wouldn’t be in the world.
    “Are you visualizing it right now ?” Nunzio leaned across the bed and started his lame hand-pumping motion again.
    “No, I’m not.” I wondered if he could see through my lies. “Why don’t you traipse your ass downstairs and climb on my brother’s dick again? I saw you down there begging for it. A dude can’t even go to his own kitchen without bearing witness to profane homosexual acts these days. What would God say?”
    “He’d be, like, ‘That’s why I gave dudes the p-spot. No worries, Nunzio. I still love you.’”
    He cracked up at his own joke while I sat there wondering what the hell a p-spot was. Something I’d be googling later.
    “Michael has a perfectly good room he can defile your ass in, man.”
    “I know. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I started it.”
    “What a surprise.”
    “But now that you mention it….” Nunzio went serious, sitting up straight. “We were going to talk to you about it in the morning, but I might as well give you a heads-up now.”
    “Uh. Okay…?” He studied me, trying to determine whether this heads-up would send me flying off the handle or responding with my usual brand of apathy and sarcasm. “Are you going to talk?”
    He rubbed the stubble shadowing his jaw, far too hesitant, given his usual tendency to say whatever the hell he wanted. “We were talking about moving in together. As in, Michael moving into my apartment.”
    I stared at him, insolence evaporating. Panicky internal flailing sped my pulse. “But—”
    “And he wants to rent the house.”
    “Rent the—” I was on my feet so fast, I sent my phone flying across the room. “Where the fuck am I supposed to go?”
    Nunzio didn’t get up, but he did fold his hands together in a pleading gesture ingrained from years of attempted religious indoctrination by his Catholic parents. “Don’t freak out. It’s going to be fine. He’s just going to talk to you about it. He isn’t planning to force the idea on you. The house is in both of your names.”
    I almost didn’t hear him. I was still stuck on the bit about Michael wanting strangers to live in our mother’s house.
    “He can go wherever he wants, but I’m not leaving.”
    “Ray—”
    “Get out.”
    It looked like he wanted to argue, to figure out a way to appease me, but Nunzio knew when to pick his