Pirate

aXXo

I type this on the search field and then click on SEARCH.

“Carl, do those two Xs have to be in caps?” Al asks from beside me. The side of his bubble butt touching my arm and his right hand rests on my shoulder. I swivel my chair to face him but I really do it to rub my arm on his legs. He doesn’t move.

“No, search engines are not case sensitive. But I make it a point to capitalize the two Xs to give respect to aXXo,” I say while I watch his face turn from mildly interested to bored. My elbow rubs his groin area. He doesn’t move. His hand shifts and I watch it grab the tip of his cap and takes it off his head. His dark hair bounces slightly and I see sweat on his temple. I move my elbow further in between his legs and he says “It’s getting hot. Mind if we turn on the AC?” I think I agree it’s getting hot but I don’t tell him. I don’t want to get up and turn on the air conditioner. Moreover, I don’t want to lose my vital position as my elbow is barely an inch away from his crotch.

“Uhm, later, OK? Let’s finish this first.”

“So how does Limewire work anyway?” Al asks, fanning himself with his cap.

“Well, it’s simple really, you install the Limewire software, which is basically a computer file browser that searches the internet through the Gnutella network for,” I see Al suppress a yawn and I continue “oh, here we are, see? aXXo is kinda like a brand name and he has all these movies to offer.”

Al leans closer to the monitor and we read the search results silently. I look at him, my lips almost touching his face and I smell the sweat on his neck and I know the scent because I gave a bottle of imitation CK One to him two days ago and I forget and I let out a heavy breath of air and I see the tiniest hairs on the back of his neck move and he leans closer and my nose touch his neck and he finally straightens up and says “Jackass.”

“Jackass one or two?” I ask.

“I haven’t seen both,” Al says, so I click on the two links.

“Anything else?” I ask, my right hand on the mouse scrolling the screen, my left hand covering my boner.

“Get Crank,” I click.

“And Alpha Dog,” I click.

“Is 28 Weeks Later any good?” I click.

“Oh and get that gay cowboy movie, Brokeback. Mark just loves drama,” I click.

“Thanks, Carl,” he says and sits on my bed.

“You do understand that not all movies you want will guarantee a full download,” I say. I wish Brokeback Mountain doesn’t download. “And it’ll take around four hours for a movie to download,” I look at the clock. It says 15:32.

“It’s ok, I won’t be meeting Mark until after midnight. He’s taking the night shift this week. You don’t mind if I stay here a bit, do you?” But of course, I don’t, but I don’t answer.

He met Mark the night we graduated from college. We partied at Titan, got drunk, got high. I had planned to finally tell Al I loved him since high school but when I went to the toilet I saw him kissing a complete stranger who turned out to be Mark.

Mark is middle class oddity. Typical broken family, fast-food financed education with only his height and face going on for him. Let him open his mouth and you get a dose of pre-formatted social climber sensibilities. The kind who has heard what Gucci is but wouldn’t know the logo if it slapped him on his half-Caucasian nose or who would think that Dolce and Gabana are members of the Black Eyed Peas as they were mentioned in My Humps.

Two years and they’re still together and now he wants me to burn them movies for a new weekly activity they’re doing.

“Four hours? It’s too long though, isn’t it?” Al asks still fanning himself with his cap.

“It’s actually fast enough cause sometimes it could go on for seven to twelve hours,” I stare at his reflection on the monitor “and besides, don’t you think it’s worth the wait? Granting that it’s free, I mean.”

“I guess so,” he says, sweat forming on his shirt. “Look, if you’re not going to turn on the AC, I’ll have to strip. But don’t get any ideas.”

“You’re fucking assuming, you know?”

He takes off his shirt and covers his stomach quickly, conscious of the little flab on his waist.

“Oh come on, admit it, you like me, you really, really like me!” he says mockingly, trying to do a Sally Field impression, badly.

“You wish,” I give him the finger without turning.

“I know you’ve been watching me through the monitor,” he says.

“I am not!” I face him.

“There, isn’t that better? Now you see me in full view.”

“I always see you in full view, Al. Your enormous head alone is hard to miss. I wonder how you fit through my door,” I say, but I don’t look at him directly. Instead, I look at the fresh leaves of the coconut out my window and remember how Al used to climb to get the nuts in the summer.  It has been two summers already since we harvested the tree.  I want to ask him to get us fresh buko juice, it’s the weekend anyway and it’s hot, but I stop myself.

“Come on, Carlo, it’s obvious. What about the rubbing a while ago? The breathing down my neck? The gifts you gave me? I’m not stupid, Carl.” Al says, crossing the line between joking and confrontational.

“You’re an asshole, Al,” I swivel back to face the computer.

“I can still see you from here,” Al makes a funny face and I see his reflection off the monitor and we laugh.

“Let’s go raid your mom’s ref.”

_________________

“It’s not illegal, right? The downloading thing?” Al asks. His instant pancit canton is almost finished.

“Technically, it should be. But they can’t police the internet. Not everyone. The way I see it though, it’s just there. The movie, for example, is just there for the taking. If we don’t take it, somebody else will.”

Al forks the last strand of his pancit and drinks water and falls silent.

We don’t speak for a while. I pretend to text on my mobile phone. He’s deep in thought.

“Carl, I think you can stop the download,” he says, finally. “I don’t think movie night will be of any help anyway.”

“Not going to help what?”

“Mark and me,” Al stands up and puts on his shirt.

“What do you mean?” I ask, but I know.

“Listen, I’ve got to go. Thanks for cooking. And stop downloading if you want.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see you later. In a few hours,” he smiles, comes to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

“Al, this is not funny, ok? Stop teasing me,” I feel my heart thump faster, liquid sting my eyes.

“I’m not teasing you. I haven’t been teasing you the whole afternoon.” I can smell the pancit on his breath but I still want to put my tongue in his mouth.

He hugs me and I reluctantly hug him back.

“I’ve always known, Carl,” Al whispers, his breath warm on my nape, ”Your love is the only original thing you’ve given me.”

_________________

I watch the last file complete its download.

I read the text message on my mobile. Al asked me to wait for him very early in the morning.

I look at the clock, 23:19.

aXXo

This I type on the search field. I have time for one more download. It should be worth the wait.