CHAPTER 8

In the days leading up to the Sabbath, Calem made an effort to stay occupied, pushing himself into a rhythm of completing outstanding paperwork for the start of university. When Sabbath arrived, unusually, Calem loitered around the house after breakfast, attempting to delay going to church. Upon his arrival, he felt extremely nervous as he entered the church. Bible study began with a slight delay, as the class leader had an additional duty as the sound engineer, dealing with an ongoing sound issue. Everyone else was present except for Ben and Sarah.

Calem’s attention was drawn to the entrance with every sound that reached his ears. In due course, the laughter of a girl captured everyone’s attention and turned their heads towards the doorway, except for Calem, who immediately recognised the voices. Without delay, he picked up his Sabbath Study Guide, opening it to a random page. When Ben and Sarah walked into the room hand-in-hand, everyone resumed their conversations. Ben grew irritated because Calem was deliberately ignoring him.

Lilli gestured warmly to Sarah.

“Girl, come sit with us!”

Sarah returned Lilli’s wave and turned to Ben.

“Is it okay if I sit with Lilli?”

“Sure. I’ll be in the corner with Larry.”

While Ben spoke to Sarah, he kept Calem in his sight. When Sarah joined the other girls, Ben walked past Calem without greeting him. He chatted amiably with Larry, not once acknowledging Calem. Larry, feeling uncomfortable, glanced between Calem and Ben, noticing the tension between them. At the end of the class Ben got up and walked past Calem, again ignoring him, to join Sarah who was still chatting with her friends.

In confusion, Larry turned to Calem and pulled a face in reaction to Ben’s strange behaviour. Calem, ignoring Larry, looked away, while Larry dismissed Ben’s behaviour as a bad mood.

“Are you coming to the dance tonight?” Larry said.

“No.”

As Calem gathered his books and stood up to leave, Larry swiftly jumped up and walked over to him.

“How come?”

“Don’t have a lift.”

Calem shrugged his shoulders in order to reinforce his feeble excuse.

“Aw man, I’ll pick you up.”

Calem looked up at Ben and Sarah and noticed her speaking to her friends very quietly, showing them pictures from a jewellery magazine. He felt a sudden stab of jealousy as he looked back to Larry.

“Nah, I think I will sit this one out.”

“Come on bra! It’s going to be a blast!”

Calem was about to say ‘no,’ but then he noticed Ben staring at the two of them, growing more and more frantic as their conversation continued. Calem deliberately leaned in closer towards Larry, brushing his lips against Larry's ear.

“Hmm… why not? Okay then. See you at seven?”

A smile spread across Calem’s face as he saw Ben’s eyes flashing with anger.

“Sure, it’s a date.”

Larry aimed for his words to convey a message that Calem disregarded as he made a hasty exit from the room. Ben, focused on Calem, barely acknowledged Sarah as they left the room.

“Yeah, it looks nice,” Ben said.

“Ben, you aren’t even looking! Pay attention, please!” Sarah said.

“Nothing, just trying to get Larry’s attention. I have to ask him something about tonight.”

Ben looked very distracted as he turned toward Larry.

“I didn’t know they were close,” Sarah said.

Ben stopped and turned to Sarah.

“Who?”

“Calem and Larry.”

“They’d better not be.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Wait here. I have to speak to Larry quickly.”

Ben, ignoring Sarah’s objections, walked over to Larry who was also leaving the room. Ben finally caught up with him on the stairs, making an effort to act casual.

“Larry, what’s up with you and Calem?”

“With what?”

“Just now, what did you and Calem talk about?”

“Oh yeah, nothing important. I’m just giving him a lift to the dance tonight.”

Larry turned around and looked at Ben more closely. Ben avoided eye contact with Larry, looking downward as he clenched and released his right fist.

“Bra, stay away from that guy. He is bad news. Trust me.”

Ben looked up and saw a look of confusion spread across Larry’s face. Larry laughed as he landed a fake punch on Ben’s shoulder.

“Oh, don’t worry. I just wanna have some no-strings-attached fun tonight. I heard he is a great time had by all.”

Ben’s reaction to hearing Larry speak about Calem in this manner was immediate and visceral. A surge of anger coursed through him, his jaw clenched in frustration. The words stung, and his eyes narrowed as he struggled to contain the fury rising within him. A possessive instinct had been triggered within Ben - a fierce desire to exclusively shield Calem as his own. His hands curled into fists, and he felt an almost instinctual urge to confront Larry physically - to channel and release the intensity of his emotions into a forceful response. The internal conflict of asserting and maintaining his claim over Calem while resisting the urge for violence in church created further strain within Ben. Yet, with a deep breath, he restrained himself, recognising the importance of handling the situation with restraint despite the raging turmoil within him.

“Larry, seriously, shut the fuck up!”

Larry, looking nervously behind them, turned around.

“Ben, after you left the pool, Tom and David couldn’t stop talking about the great head they got from him.”

Larry, laughing, did not notice the rage bubbling behind Ben’s calm exterior.

“Larry, please... do me a favour... just stay away from him!”

Larry turned around again to check if anyone was within earshot.

“Bra, looking at him, I would never have guessed he was such an easy lay!”

As Ben started to speak, Larry turned around to look at Nicky, who had called out to him.

“Larry, please stop!”

Larry turned back to Ben.

“Lucky me, I think that chick is dying for it, too!”

“Larry, why don’t you just go with Nicky to the dance?”

“Bra, nah... that one comes with ‘maintenance’!”

Larry laughed, ignoring Ben’s increasing frustration. Ben felt that Larry was forcing him to say out loud what he was unable to admit.

“Larry, for fuck’s sake! Just listen to me. He is...”

Larry turned around and was shocked when, for the first time, he noticed the panic in Ben’s eyes. Larry stopped laughing.

“Sorry... he is... What did you say?”

The words had hardly left Larry’s mouth when Ben took a menacing step toward him. Before Ben could reply, Elder Phillips approached them and informed Ben of the persisting sound system problem that now required his attention. As Ben left, Larry slapped him on the shoulder. Ben turned around, but Elder Phillips dragged him away. When they got upstairs, Tom had already solved the problem. As Ben was leaving to catch up with Larry, Sarah walked up to him and asked him to join her for the Divine Service. Throughout the service, Ben struggled to focus, and Sarah had to prompt him multiple times to participate in the congregation’s responses.

“Ben, where are you?”

Sarah blushed as she became aware of several members of the congregation noticing Ben’s conspicuously odd behaviour.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I just have something on my mind. I’ll wait for you in the car.”

Ben got up and left before the service ended. When he reached his car, he lit a cigarette in an attempt to calm his nerves, but the mental replays of Larry and Calem’s closeness earlier, and his conversation with Larry, had the opposite effect. He had hoped that Calem would stay away from the dance that evening. Instead, he now felt desperately disturbed by the thought of Calem with anyone but him. Ben resolved to put an end to whatever was going on between them that evening.