Looking for Group - Alexis Hall Page 0,66
on the edge of the bed.
“This is way classier than my room,” said Drew. He glanced at Kit’s posters. One of them might have been an actual print. It was one of those old-fashioned, hand-drawn adverts where there wasn’t even a slogan, just a picture of a dude with the product, and everybody else staring at him like he was awesome. “I like your . . . uh . . . man picture.”
“Thanks, it was the effect I was going for. I went into the shop and said, ‘Give me your finest man picture.’”
Drew gave him a look. “No, seriously, the geometries are really interesting. It’s sort of sharp and fluid at the same time.”
“It’s a Leyendecker.”
Drew made the over my head gesture.
“Sorry, I just find it intriguing. The way everyone is gazing at the man in brown, and how easily he’s being gazed at. I keep wanting to make up stories about him, but then I remember he’s just trying to sell a shirt.”
“What about that one?” Drew pointed at the three-panel poster on the opposite wall.
“It’s a film poster for the Back to the Future trilogy.”
Drew gave him another look. “I know that. It says so on it. But how is it the Back to the Future trilogy. It’s just dots and semicircles.”
Kit laughed. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
They assembled underneath the needlessly oblique Back to the Future poster, and Kit took his hand as if drawing stars in the sky. Drew stole a sideways glance at him because this felt weirdly romantic, and Kit’s lashes were really long and very gold from this angle.
“So—” Kit drew his finger to the third dot on the top row “—we start in 1985, go back to 1955.” They followed the line to the second dot. “Then back to 1985.” They closed the circle again. “In the second movie—” they slid to next panel “—we start in 1985, go forward to 2015.” Their joined hands moved from the third dot to the fourth. “Then back to alternate 1985.” They followed the spiral round to the single dot in the second row. “And finally back to 1955 to stop Biff getting the sports almanac.”
“Oh, I get it.” Drew pulled Kit over to the second dot on the third panel. “They start in 1955, then go back to . . . shit, like, the Wild West, whenever that was.”
“1885,” offered Kit, wickedly.
“And then finally—” their fingers traced the spiral to the third dot “—Marty comes back to the present. By which I mean, back before I was born.”
Kit turned and pressed his lips to Drew’s cheek, swift and a little shy. “Do you know they’re making a musical?”
“I really don’t do musicals.”
“You have to. It’s part of the Gay Laws.”
“Stop labelling my sexuality.”
They kissed again under Kit’s no longer confusing Back to the Future poster.
And, afterwards, they both sat on the bed, side by side, with their shoulders nudging, and their backs against the wall.
Drew mimed casting a line into the water, and Kit laughed and did the same.
They fished for a little while.
Suddenly, Drew remembered something. “Shit, I haven’t done my dailies.”
“You can borrow my computer if you like.”
“Like, no. Seriously, no. I’m not going to sit in your room with you doing my dailies on your computer.”
“It’s cool. I don’t mind.”
Drew swivelled round, scurfing up the duvet. “I’d rather do something with you.”
Kit’s eyebrows went up.
“Not in a sex way. Not that I wouldn’t in a sex way. I mean. Um. Do you want to play a game or something?”
“I’d love to.” Kit slid to his feet, grabbed his laptop, and came back. “I’m not sure I’ve got much that’s two player.”
Thinking about it, Drew couldn’t remember the last time he’d played a co-op game on one screen. That was what the internet was for. But then he remembered Sanee and Steff, and their weekends playing Total War: Era Number, X-Com, and Europa Universalis. “I’ve got a couple of mates, I mean I’ve got mates who are a couple, who play strategy games together. They pause a lot and argue about what they’re going to do next. Like, ‘No, flank the catapharcts.’ Or ‘We have to core Granada.’”
“That sounds really nice except, y’know, the arguing. And the only strategy games I’ve got are Civ and CKII, and that’s only because—”
“—it’s secretly an RPG.”
Kit beamed. “Aw, you remembered.”
“So what are we going to play?”
“I’ve mainly got RPGs.”
“I’m good with anything. We can decide which elf to sleep with and whether the Staff