Falsettos one shots

Painting class

I always got jumpy on those Thursdays. it wasn’t exactly because I felt bad, don’t get me wrong, I did feel bad, but I didn’t feel horrible. I had been cheating on Trina for a month, thirty-one and a half days, seven hundred and fifty-six hours. Forty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-seven minutes.

I hadn’t been sleeping much, my guilt and anxiety fuelling my writing, also being a good way to avoid Trina. Sometimes Whizzer would come over, usually once or twice a week in the beginning, he would bring a floofy Frappuccino for both of us. I hated to admit it, but I grew to love them.

The sex gave me endorphins and it continued my cycle until I would collapse in a bar or in my apartment, most nights I would wake up alone, head on a table, but sometimes I would wake up to Trina’s face in mine and I would have a heart attack.

I got cagey when she came over now, scared she would find something of Whizzers, my apartment was always suspiciously clean once she left.

But that didn’t compare to the anxiety of going back to the college each week.

Whizzer told me once that he didn’t try to be monogamous and preferred when the other guy was in a relationship, stopped them from being as clingy, but that just made me worry more. He was manipulative, a whore, but I knew that if he had ever met Trina, he would tell her everything. Jealous of everyone, able to be anyone, had to have them all, couldn’t let anyone get in the way of what he wants.

It was always tricky, pacing through the halls on the Thursday, Trina clinging to my arm as I would duck out of the way every time I saw the blur of a figure. She would laugh as though it was a joke, but that just made the pit in my gut sink lower and lower.

And then, and then one day we bumped into him. Whizzer Brown. He was carrying stacks upon stacks of portfolios and different photographs and as Trina rounded the corner, he tripped over, his endearing clumsiness one of the many things that irritated me about him. He landed sprawled on the floor, the slippery plastic of the folders sliding out of his grasp as he looked up, a wicked smile on his face as he saw me.

“ah, you’re one of the couples that go to that painting class Cordelia runs!” he exclaimed, “Marvin and…” He trailed off, pretending he didn’t know her name.

“Trina. let me help you with that.” She was too sweet, way too sweet and I felt the helplessness bubble up inside me as I knew that all Whizzer was doing was leading up to an extraordinary reveal of some kind, maybe just dropping a few hints that would make Trina think about us.

“and what about you Marvin?” Whizzer asked.

I blushed as I realised I had just been standing there and quickly dropped to my knees, causing Whizzer to adorn a look saying, ‘that’s where you will be tonight’ and I quickly looked away. “about what?”

Trina replied in a surreptitiously sweet tone, “I was just saying that Whizzer has a really nice body, do you agree Marv?”

“um…” I made eye contact with Whizzer again, watching as he bit the skin on the inside of his cheek, his skin stretching over his cheekbones. “yeah of course. Must take a lot of courage to get up there.”

“oh, it’s nothing if you’re confident in your own skin. I’m modelling again tonight.” I could almost feel the smug stare bore into my skin as I weighed up how many ways I could commit suicide within the next five minutes, “I was just taking these to my car so I could mark them.”

He stood up as Trina picked up the final few loose papers scattered around, “oh, I’m sure Marvin will help you with that, won’t you Marv?”

It wasn’t a question it was an order, so I took the paper from her, “of course baby.”

Whizzer loaded several more portfolios into my arms and smiled brightly to Trina, “thank you so much, you are so sweet.” He looked at me pointedly before walking away. I pressed my lips to her cheek, trying to block my nose from her sweet scent that made me feel sick. I ran slightly to catch up with Whizzer. “what the fuck Marvin!” He hissed loudly once Trina was out of earshot.

“what!?”

“she’s beautiful, and- and sweet and you’re cheating on her!”

I raised my eyebrows shaking my head slightly, “and?”

“and?” His mouth dropped open, “and! Come on Marvin, don’t you feel guilty?”

“hmm… nope.” We reached his car and he stood awkwardly, “what are you doing?” I asked.

He locked his jaw, “my keys are in my pocket and I can’t reach them.” I smirked at him, reaching my hand into his back pocket and rooting around for them, watching as his face seemed to set harder and harder into stone. It was fun watching him squirm for a change. “Marvin!”

“got em.” I grinned, unlocking the car boot and dropping in my pile of portfolios and moving out of the way as I watched him bend over, sorting his own pile out. I smiled at the view of his ass, slowly taking a couple of paces forward and taking his waist with my hands, pressing myself into him and grinding on him slightly.

“come on Marvin, I’m not in the mood.” He said, standing upright and I nipped at his ear, biting on it slightly. “Marvin!” He spun around, staring at me with sincere eyes. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

“What?!” suddenly I let go of him, taking a step backwards, he never gave me that kind of honest look, he would always play games.

He locked the car again, walking back into the college as he picked a packet of cigarettes out of the inner pocket of his zip up hoodie, shaking one out. He placed it between his lips, patting down his body before sighing as he realised he didn’t have anything to light it with. “The way you described Trina, I thought she’d be a bitch.”

“she is.”

“no, she’s perfect, she’s incredible, she’s… I’m going to tell her.”

“what? No, you can’t!”

“you’re hurting her!”

“it would hurt her more if you told her.” Suddenly Whizzer drew back from me, a look of repulsion on his face as he stalked away from me. I waited a moment, scared of what he was going to do, before following him into the class, taking a seat next to Trina at the front.

She grasped my hand tight and gave me an anticipating smile as Cordelia began talking to the class, Whizzer standing moodily in the corner, whispering to a girl I had never seen before.

“alright everyone, this is Whizzer, he’s modelled here before, and this is my girlfriend Charlotte!” The girl saluted. She was gorgeous, curvaceous and tall in her cutthroat shiny black heels with red soles, and a white silk dressing gown flowing over her elegant silhouette. Then I looked to Whizzer, and I realised exactly what I needed.

I watched him undress like he had done many times in front of me before, but this time methodically, not me ripping his shirt wide open, not him pulling out his belt from its loops in a single swoop. Instead he did it almost like a strip tease, speaking to Charlotte as he changed as though he wasn’t even bothered.

They ended up entangled on the futon at the front of the room, giggling as they talked, every now and again saying ‘no hetero’ before breaking out into fits of laughter again.

And for the first time, I actually tried painting the scene, not in detail, instead the smiles and laughs and how I really felt about Whizzer.

It ended up being a mess, not figures exactly but instead bright colours swooshing and blending together on my canvas, creating murky browns and awful greys. In some ways it mimicked my life exactly. A hot mess. One mistake followed by another and another and another.

I sighed, allowing myself a moment to forget Trina was there, letting the world melt away as I watched Whizzer help Charlotte into her robe, smiling sweetly. I couldn’t help but feel the hint of jealousy as I saw him so happy, sad that I wasn’t on the other end, wondering if that’s what it was like to be in a loving relationship.

“hey.” She cooed.

I was snapped out of my dream state by Trina snaking her arm around me again and kissing my cheek nuzzling into my shoulder. I accidentally rolled my eyes; it was more like a reflex now than anything else.

She trailed a finger up my shirt “so, I was thinking, we could go to your place…”

“I have syphilis.”

“what?” Yeah, what the actual fuck, I know nothing about syphilis, where did that come from? “but we use condoms and we haven’t had sex in… in- “she took a second to think about it, “a pretty long time!”

I pulled away from her slightly, trying to figure out how far I could take the lie, “well, I… it’s not just transferred sexually…” IS IT BECAUSE I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE? “I think I caught it at a party.”

She pulled away from me, her eyebrow in her hairline. “oh, can’t we still do… stuff?” she put her hand in my lap and I crossed my legs over one another uncomfortably.

“I would Trina, I really would, but It’s kind of painful.”

“oh.”

Maybe I do have a type, dumb, pretty and creative. Trina packed her handbag in silence, her jaw locked tight as I stared over to Charlotte, Cordelia and Whizzer, wondering if I could whisk Trina away fast enough to not have to deal with Whizzer.

Having nothing else to do, I listened in on their conversation, watching Cordelia hand over an envelope to Whizzer.

“thank you so much Cordelia, I really need this.” He said as he thumbed through a large wad of cash.

“how much are you going to be down this month?” Charlotte asked quietly as she caught my gaze, I quickly turned to Trina.

He sighed, “I’m about a hundred down, but I can’t keep this up. I haven’t really eaten in a couple days unless it was the leftovers at the cafeteria.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes, “this is on you, you fucking idiot.” She started washing out the acrylic paint from under her fingernails, “I mean, what kind of community college photography teacher decides to rent the most gorgeous apartment in this expensive ass city?”

Whizzer bent over, tying his shoelace, his voice going slightly nasal as the blood rushed to his head, “it was a steal.” He said sassily, “plus a sensitive artist such as yourself should understand where I’m coming from.” The trio cackled loudly as Whizzer was obviously joking “if I’m a couple twenties short I usually just sleep with the landlord, but I don’t think I can do it with over a hundred.”

Trina suddenly yanked the collar of my shirt, leading me to the trio.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, Whizzer you were saying about your rent?” Trina asked as she let go of me, I straightened up, putting my hands on my hips. Whizzer rolled his eyes at me, and I could almost hear him say ‘and people think you’re straight’, I looked away.

“yeah, I’m not gonna make it this month, but I always land on my feet, hey! I could live at the school for a while!” He joked.

“I wish I could help, but I live with my parents and they’re really strict about guys.” Trina replied making a sympathetic face.

“oh, I’m gay.” Whizzer cut in as though it was obvious.

I almost snorted as I saw the flicker of terror on Trina’s face before it went back to her polite, now much tighter lipped smile. “you see, Trina comes from quite a… conservative family.” I pointed out, she nudged me hard, hard enough for me to almost lose my balance before Whizzer yanked me upright, me savouring the feeling of his hand digging into my bicep.

I laughed nervously at him as Trina flicked the back of my head.

“What about Marvin?” she said quietly.

I felt my life flash in front of my eyes as I ripped myself away from Whizzer, terror in my voice as I spoke, “what about me baby? you know I love you right, and that I’m straight.”

She giggled as though I was stupid, “silly billy, I love you too Marv.” She said, kissing my lips as the disdainful look crossed my face again. “what I meant was, why doesn’t he stay with you?”

I scrunched my eyebrows, “umm… babe? We’ve literally met three times; I don’t think I can ask a stranger to move in with me.”

“Trina, it’s really sweet of you, but I don’t think I can do that to Marvin.” Whizzer interrupted, looking slyly at me. “I have a… a specific lifestyle.”

I couldn’t help but snort, understanding Whizzer meant whoring around with whoever, whenever. Charlotte and Cordelia’s heads suddenly snapped towards me, then straight back to Whizzer before they communicated with that secret lesbian mind conversation that made me roll my eyes.

“well, you’d be helping Marvin out too.”

“sorry?” I asked snidely, turning to Trina, “what do you mean by that?”

She took my hand in hers, forcing her fingers into the unwelcoming gaps between mine, “I just mean that when I took you home the other day, after you collapsed at the library, I did some cleaning and came across some of your financial statements- “

I pulled my hand out of hers, hands back on my hips in my dominant position, “I told you to stop cleaning my apartment, it’s my own space, do I go to your parent’s house and clean it?”

“no.” she replied, submissively, “but that’s not the problem. Marv, your funds from your first book are running low and you refuse to take up a second job while you’re writing this one-“ she reached out, putting a hand on my shoulder “- if you want to keep your apartment, you should probably consider a roommate, and you know how my parents are about us getting married before we can live together.”

I watched Whizzer make a face out of the corner of my eye, hopefully getting what I meant about her being a psycho bitch, before I weighed my options.

“I guess I’ll think about it.” Was all I said, shrugging her hand off of my shoulder.