Queeroes

Queeroes



Before Mandy could spot Jesse, Chad led her towards the food court. He tossed his empty Etienne water bottle into the recycling.

It was then Chad began to feel different. He swore he could smell two of the most annoying cheerleaders on their squad coming their way.

Lacey and Stacey, he thought, without turning around.

“Lacey and Stacey,” Mandy called out, standing on tiptoes and waving over Chad’s head.

“Not a word about Jesse,” Mandy muttered under her breath, and with a grin she clapped enthusiastically. “Hey, hotties!”

“Hey!” the two girls squealed, running up to them, shopping bags bouncing as they hugged Mandy tightly.

From the scrunched-up look on Mandy’s face, Chad knew she just wanted to push them away. They were vacuous to the point of making Mandy and Chad appear deep. He prepared to play the old “I think I have diarrhea Mandy, can you drive me home?” card, but from the corner of his eye he caught sight of his own reflection, and what he saw made his

heart beat quickly.

His eyes there was something messed up about his eyes.

...I have to go pee,” he said.

“I’ll come with,” Mandy offered.

“No!” Chad said hastily, shielding his face with his hand and darting away from the trio.

Out of sight, he hid behind a giant fern and pulled out a My Little Kitty compact. He stared into the mirror. Instead of his beautiful blue eyes, he gazed at a pair of pupils in the shape of vertical slits, surrounded by a yellow iris.

“This is effed up,” he said, trying not to panic.

There was a light tap on his shoulder, making him shriek. He whipped around, and when he saw who it was, he restrained from hitting him.

“Gibbie!”

“Hey,” the gawky redhead replied, fidgeting from foot to foot. “Funny running into you at the mall.”

“Sure,” Chad said. “Listen, do I look weird to you?”

Gibbie’s eyes were huge behind his thick glasses. His gaze drank in Chad’s strong thighs, tiny waist, and rounded pecs, barely contained in a Nuffim High cheerleader zippy.

“You look awesome.”

“Nothing...off?”

“Really awesome.”

Chad looked back into the mirror. His eyes were normal again. Still, things were not as they were. A kid dropped a small bouncy ball and Chad flipped in the air, diving after it instinctively. He caught it in his mouth and landed on his hands and feet.

The kid, his mom, and Gibbie all stared. Chad bashfully removed the ball from his mouth, wiped off the saliva and returned it to the little boy. His mom grabbed it away from him and threw it in the garbage with a disgusted look on her face. Chad was uncharacteristically speechless.

“So where you headed tonight?” Gibbie asked, as if nothing untoward had just happened. It was as if he was on autopilot, and was not deviating from his assigned trajectory no matter what.

Meeting Gibbie’s four eyes, Chad growled, “I’m going hunting.”

The little nerd blinked uncertainly, and Chad had to shake himself as if from an altered state.

“I mean, I need to get home, that’s all,” Chad said.

Copyright © 2009, 2010 by Steven Bereznai. All rights

reserved.