This is the fifth chapter. Do note that in this chapter, I have employed a point of view technique to show both sides of the story, but for people who get befuddled by complications of plot, like me, do not worry. The switches are demarcated properly, I hope, and put into sections and will only occur when I see fit. Comments are welcome as always.
A story part 4
Copyright. All rights reserved. +This chapter has no explicit sexual content+
=== He looked as if he had something that he wanted to tell me, but was too afraid to say it out. 'Hey, just spit it out babe. You look like you have something on your tongue that you can't shake off.' He looked at me defensively, 'No I don't have anything to say. Now, help me out with the dishes.' I went up to him and took him in my arms, and with our foreheads touching and my arms encircling around his waist, I pressed on.
It worked.
'Well, er, it's just that I have this competition on next wednesday, and... and...' He looked away. I gently pushed his face and focus back to me, and urged him on. 'And...' He looked at me, then immediately the words rushed out. 'And I was wondering if you could come along and watch it.' I looked at him and smiled. It was so cute. He obviously thought that I still had a problem with the sports issue, so he had tried to not tell me this.
But I could do this for my mikey pikey. 'What time and where?' His eyes lit up and rushed out instructions: 'Tuesday 4 pm at Gallagher Stadium. We're playing against Oaklands. They're a ruddy good soccer team, so there, I need all the support from you to win. Say please hon... please...' He then proceeded to give me a hickey on my neck, and tried to use the pleasure element to win me over. But I long ago caved in.
'Course I will be there, just for you. You had better win.' His smile was all that was worth dying for, and as he dove in for another attack, I giggled. This was the best nirvana could get on earth.
Mike wanted to spend more time with me in the afternoon, but I shooed him away back home, since he himself had to train for his upcoming competition. He sulked all the way, but when I promised to go over to his house tonight to have dinner and bring him to james's house, he lit up and left.
I went back to my room and booted up the computer to surf the net for stuff on my latest literature holiday assignment, all the while lifting weights. I was a busy man, and the only way I was going to squeeze in exercise was when I was studying. Lear was read on the treadmill, with the only salvation(pardon the pun) the cranberries blasting off my headphones. By 3, I was all washed up and prepared to go to James's house for my weekly jacuzzi sessions. (Yes, his house had a nice, blue jacuzzi)
When I got there, I immediately stripped down and entered the pool. He knew I was coming, and had set it up for me. Usually, he let me use it alone, but today, he decided to join me in the pool. I saw him walking towards me, and I whistled. 'Someone's been working out eh?' 'Oh shut up bitch.' 'Whatever James. Joining me today huh?'
He submerged himself fully, eliciting a sigh. 'Yeah, hockey training drew a hella energy from me.' I nodded, and totally lost myself in the warm, fuzzy jacuzzi. James in the process had slowly moved towards me, so that he was now sitting beside me. He rested his head on my shoulder and let out a contented sigh. I was comfortable with such intimacy with him.
'Seth?' 'Yeah?' 'Why can't we ever be closer than this platonicity?' 'Because I can never view you in that light James. I can't see you being my BOYfriend for that matter, and I love you. Just not in that way. I'm sorry.' 'Never mind. I just figured that I have to cherish this closeness with you then. Too bad, why must I fall in love with a straight guy?'
I left his house by 6 and promised him that I would be at his house with mike by 10, (I gave an excuse that I had to go to town to get some CDs.) and went over to Mike's house. I was greeted by his father, who was wearing a cheshire cat grin, and invited me in enthusiastically. I tried replying in a similar tone, and I think he bought it, cuz he showed me to Mike's room, where Mike was. He was currently hunched over his work, and too engrossed to see me there. I slowly approached him, then hugged him from behind.
He jumped over a feet, and swore so loudly. 'Whoa, babe! It's only me!' 'Oh god. You scared the hella out of me. But it was a good shock. Hey hon.' and he planted a kiss sloppily on my lips. 'And now, for me to finish my work.' I still held him, and waited patiently for him to finish his work, all the while with him sitting on my lap and caressing his hair. Only when his parents' yelled that dinner was ready did we disentangle ourselves and dragged ourselves downstairs to have dinner.
Dinner was perfectly alright, and Mr and Mrs Wright were nice and brilliant, though Mr. Wright was acting as if I was his son already, which was highly embarrassing. But what happened after dinner was a shocker.
Mike and I were talking about the birth of Aphrodite when suddenly Mrs. Wright came to our door and told us that Mike's friend, Josh, had come over to get something from Mike, and that he was waiting at the door. Mike's eyes glossed over, and I thanked his mother.
'Shit. I forgot he was going to come down here tonight.' 'Yeah, and what would be the problem?' 'Er, they don't know about me-' 'Yeah, but I am your friend, they aren't gonna make conclusions, are they?' He looked at me positively scared, waiting for me to come up with something. I looked at him and sighed. 'I will just leave by the backway. See ya tomorrow.' I packed up my bag and was about to leave, when Mike pulled me up, with a resigned look on his face. 'Look. I don't care about what they think. I have a right to choose my own friend, and they are about to know it. Come on, you're gonna meet him together with me.' WIth that, he dragged a rather speechless me down the stairs.
We were greeted by a sight of a boy with similar build as Mike, and like him, also a soccer player. He was attractive enough, but he just didn't let me tick, unlike the boy standing beside me now, who was definitely bringing me off the richter scale.
'Hey Mike! What took you so- Who's this?' 'This is Seth. Remember him?' He looked at me carefully, as if sizing me up. 'Isn't he in some of your classes?' 'Yeah.' 'What is he doing here?' I decided to take matters in my own hand, and attempting my real stab at conversation, I spoke up. 'Mike here had some trouble with trig and he wanted to help him, so I decided to stay over to help him out. By the way, sorry for a proper introduction, I'm Seth.' I smiled and put out my hand. He looked at me, then his frown turned into a grin, and he shook my hand. 'Josh Berten. Hell, so stupid jockboy Mike decides to finally come down off his pedestal to seek help eh?' Mike whacked his head, and immediately asked him what he wanted. 'Well, I need the training schedules dungbrain.' 'Wait here. I'll get it for you. In the meantime, you can talk to Seth.'
Surprisingly, we had a good conversation. He had started talking first, stuff about the movies and songs. Then I told him about my love of hiking and windsurfing, when he suddenly turned total attention. 'That's like cool man! How the hell do you get the guts to do all that?' He seemed awed by me, and this was good, since in a way, I knew I was accepted into his 'good friend' list. Therefore, I talked to him all about the hiking trips i had, which was only one, since stupid Mike came down rather quickly.
'Here's everything you need. Anything else?' 'Yeah... it's all here. Ok, I think I should make a move now. But here, Seth, this is my number. Call me anytime when you wanna go hiking or stuff, I love doing such things! See ya!' 'Sure thing Josh! Will hear from ya soon!'
When we went back to his room, Mike didn't look like a happy man. He was pouting and turning his back towards me. 'Why the sudden change in attitude babe?' 'I don't like the way you were talking to Josh.' Incredulously, I exclaimed, 'WAIT. You're jealous aren't you?' 'Yeah I am! I can't stand the way he gave you his number. He obviously wants you.' All I could do was laugh.
And all he could do was to pout further and left me alone in the balcony and sit on the bed. When I fully recovered, I composed myself. 'No, you really are blind. He was asking me if I was gonna go hiking, then call him. He doesn't like me and you don't have competition. And even if you did,' I placed my head on his lap and looked up, 'I only have eyes for you. This I promise you.'
'Did you really mean that?' I pushed myself up with my elbow so I was face level. 'Yeah, I was.' 'That's all I need to know. I love you hon. By the way, make sure you never contact him again without my consent.' I assented. And then he started to kiss me and a makeout session ensued.
I had to literally pull him off me to change into my party clothes to prepare to go to James's party. He frowned, and decided to take off his shirt to change into new clothes. I whistled, and he suddenly threatened to make out with me again; 'Hey, no more baby. Later, yeah. But now, let's settle going to James's house first babe.' He tugged on my jeans(I wasn't wearing anything on my upper body) 'But I wanna be with you tonight.'
'We promised him babe... I promise, if u hate the party, we'll leave earlier. K?' 'ALright... fine then. Now, you pick up what clothes you want me to wear. I wanna look good for you.' 'Ok. Then go naked.' Taking off his shorts, he complied. Shocked, I immediately intervened. 'I was only joking babe!' going to his wardrobe, I picked out some clothes. 'Here, you wear this brown shirt and washed jeans.'
He looked at it, and shrugged. 'But only if you wear what I want you to wear.' I assented, and then he procceeded to rummage his wardrobe before producing what I call clothes which literally exude SEX all over it. He wanted me to wear a button down shirt that was one size too small, and a pair of jeans which were baggy, but hung so dangerously low and had a tight fit around my butt and package. It was weird. I tried to refuse it, but then, he came up, cupped my butt, and whispered:'Please. I like it when you wear it. I just know it.' I reluctantly changed into it. He looked good in his outfit, and when I came out of the bathroom, well, he literally jumped on me.
While making hickeys all round my neck, he managed to squeeze in so erotic sentences that I was more than aroused, and decided to make this stop, and within half an hour, went out of his house to go to James's house. All the while when I was in a cab to his house, he held my hand secretly and I enjoyed it. Despite the discreetness.
I arrived at James's house fashionably late, at 10.30pm. Mike immediately led me up, and from the looks of it, the party had started. Now one thing that you have to note. James was notorious for his parties. He had the place, money and booze to carry it all out. But because of that, the parties were highly exclusive,and usually only had between 5 to 10 people only. It was some sort of elitist thing, and by the time I got there, Brit, Michele, Mitch, Anna and James were there. They were sipping beer by the table and obviously enjoying a ball of a conversation. All heads turned to us when James opened the door. Then the jaws dropped.
I could have sworn James's eyes popped out, and his pants didn't hide an ever growing torchlight. He didn't bother giving Mike a glance, but simply gawked and let us enter.
'Hey Seth. Looking HOT eh?' 'Yeah. I just wanna get laid.' Both Michele and Mike blushed. Weird.
The party was not a bit fun. Mike was sitting down there awkwardly, getting interrogated by my friends. Obviously his idea of a party was simply to dance and drink. Not this personal. I had to fend off Michele and James's groping, flirting and touching. Anna just sat there and laughed, and occasionally talked to Mike who was looking like he needed help.
The torture only ended by 2. It could have gone on longer, but I put a stop to it by telling all of them that I had to bring Mike back home by 3. This information garnered a few eyebrows and sniggers, but after I had explained to them that he lived rather far from james's house, they let us all go.
'Hey, let's just go to my house. My parents aren't back yet.' 'Hell yeah. I just wanna jump you tonight. And what with all their interrogation, my god. Thank god you intervened; the girls were simply incorrigible.' 'You'll learn to get used to them. They may be bitches, but they are fantastic bitches.'
The conversation was on this similar thread throughout the walk to my house, and he slugged his arm around me all the way through too.
When I closed the door to my house, he simply started kising me ferociously and stripping me of my clothes. In between haggard breaths and stumbling down to my room, he was turning me so on... 'I just wanna jump you right now. You looked so hot the entire night. You have no idea Seth. God!' What happened in the house is not up to you to know, but to be simple, we didn't have sex, but the makeout that we had was way heavier and longer. This was getting heavy, and boy, whether I could handle it was another matter altogether.
He left my house the next day at roughly around 11 am, a few hours before my parents came back. Which meant it gave me time to clean up and perhaps start on my revision which I had neglected in lieu of the distraction that Mike provided me. I had barely started on my treadmill when James decided to pop by. I greeted him by the door with an irritated look, and he just waltzed past. Resigned, I ignored him and went back to my treadmill. He followed me.
'So, looking good for your boy eh?' 'You know what james? Go fuck yourself.' 'Nah, I want you to do it.' 'THen dying would be a better idea.'
He gave up conversation and simply sat down on the bed while watching mtv while I tried to exercise while reading lear. It was so hot after an hour that I took off my shirt, and after that, mtv was pretty much neglected. But because I was so afraid of James, and the fact that somehow I was cheating Mike, I decided to put it back on. MTV was on again.
When I finally decided to be social again, James revealed his agenda. 'Just wanted to tell you that the entire clique loved your mikey boy, so much so that it seems that Brit has a new target. And Anna is wondering why she ever let Mike go.' If not for the fact that I knew how to be a pokered face, I think my expression would have given us away completely. I was pissed, worried and scared all at the same time. It was not a good feeling. But I played along anyways. 'Oh yeah man, it's her problem anyways. And tell Brit that Mike's taken.'
He raised an eyebrow when the last statement came out. 'Who?' 'Someone from his physics class. A girl called Carlisle or something. He likes her I think.' He pondered over that for a while, and then continued on his normal vein of conversation, in which I tuned out of it and started to think about all the implications. This holiday had barely started, and already the issues were getting a little hard to take. He stayed on all the way till my parents came back, and nothing was said of Mike staying over.
'Hey hon.' 'Who are you?' 'I am hurt. You can't even recognize your boyfriend's voice?' 'Oh hey mike. What's up?' 'Are you ok? You sound tired and weird. Are you fine? Do you need me to come over or something? huh?' 'Calm down babe! I am alright... it's just that I, well, I received... ah... never mind.' 'Yeah. Something's wrong. I'll come over now!' 'No. It's alright... Seriously.' 'You can't lie to me hon. I know that voice. Gimme 10 yeah.' 'Argh. Fine. Stay put. I'll come over to your house.' 'U sure? fine. I'll wait here for ya. Love ya hon.'
I went up to my parents' room to tell them where I was leaving, and with a sleepy eyed look they nodded and I went off. I reached his house under 15 minutes. He immediately came down and hugged me and led me off to his room. I acknowledged his mother's presence, (Oh hello Seth! Nice of you to pop by!) and popped up the stairs. 'Now tell me what's going on.'
So I told him everything, and went that happened, he thought for a really long time, while I hugged him from the back, and then he said,' I don't really care. I just want you and if the world cares about it, then fuck them. I waited so long for you I can't lose u now.' I was touched, and hugged him closer. But I was afraid of the consequences. The rumours, the treatment. It was going to be bad if the scenario turned out to be that.
===[Point of View of Seth: (i)] (Note this takes place way before the first few chapters)
I looked at Seth as he continued to talk about everything that James had told him. He looked scared, and I perfectly understood everything that he said. I wanted to comfort him so bad, so I snuggled right into his lap. It was comfortable, and I felt right at home when he held me safe. It was right. There was no other way to say it. But when everything was done, he turned to me and looked at me for an answer. I thought for a while, when finally I said, 'I don't really care. I just want you and if the world cares about it, then fuck them. I waited so long for you I can't lose u now.'
It was true; for one whole long year I waited for him, and he was too important for me to lose him to a stupid influence from his clique.
Perhaps you might think that I was stupid, puppyloved and weird. True, he was only my boyfriend for relatively around 3 weeks, but I was IN LOVE with him since the day he stepped into my class. I was 16, in the peak of my teenage angst and sitting in the back row of the lecture theater when Seth Sjorn walked into class. He simply took the row one in front of me and without even glancing at me, took a seat directly in my peripheral vision. Mitch then came up, said hi to me and decided to talk to the enigma in front of me. Mitch managed to break the ice to him, and being me, I had listened on to the talk.
'So, what's up? How are you finding the school so far?' 'I guess it's all right, though I'd wish they had a rock wall.' 'Yeah, me too. I hate it when all we can do is abseil down out school's flat wall.' THe conversation rattled on, but all I was tuning into was his voice. It was beautiful, and the way he seemed that he didn't seem to care about the world made it even better. My introduction came soon enough.
'Oh, by the way, this is my friend Mike Wright. Seth, this is Seth Sjorn. Mike, Seth.' He looked at me firmly, and I swore I melted. I stood his gaze and gave him my hand. 'Hi.' 'Hey. Pleased to meet you.'
'So Mike, what do you do in your free time?' 'Oh. I play soccer.' He looked at me dismissively (or so I thought) and then nodded, and the conversation stood still. I cursed myself for the stupid folly. I was pretty sure he was very very against soccer, and there I did it. My worst fears came true when Mitch updated me that Seth didn't find me rather worth talking to, and my day pretty went downhill after that.
The rest of the year went on quite boringly, and everytime he would sit in front of me and briefly acknowledge my presence. I tried making conversation, but he simply wouldn't listen. Therefore, in order to keep up with appearances, I stopped talking to him altogther, though me drilling through his head throughout lessons were very very common. It hurt so bad to have such a crush and not to do anything about it. ANd he was so near to me all the time.
By the end of the second term, I knew what cologne he was wearing, what shampoo he used, (when he lies back to stretch and when my head is lying on the lecture chair table, his hair would bump right into my nose.) Obviously, I would look irritated and he would apologize, but I WANTED it to happen. What no one knew was that I loved to breathe in his scent deeply and it was brilliant. WHich is why I swore in my New Term's Resolution that I HAD to get him next year. And I started planning it out carefully.
My parents knew about my sexuality long ago and were comfortable about it, so all I had to do was to come up with a strategy: 1. Get close to his clique, ie hook up with Anna, his best friend. 2. Try and communicate: face can't matter so much. 3. Be nice all the time. Oh, flirt too.
Oh yeah. Get-Seth operation was going to work no matter what. I just had to have him. The nights with me pleasuring myself with all the mental images of him had to be replaced by the real Mccoy. But somehow, I felt that the sex didn't matter: as long as he was my boyfriend, it would all work out. I wasn't sure about his orientation, but the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend yet despite girls throwing themselves at him lifted my spirits up a bit.
Yeah, Seth would be mine next year.
Strategy step 1 was simple enough. I was in the school's soccer team, so it was pretty easy for me to get Anna. It took place way too simply; she was well known for going out and dumping girls, and I wasn't that bad looking, so getting her was a breeze. Although when times she tried making out with me, I tried to decline it, but it seemed that she sensed it too. But all I needed was her for at least one term. That was the deadline. So she was my girlfriend before the third term.
Then I shaved my head. Just an afterstatement here. It was mainly because I hated my uncontrollable hair. But still, it looked fine. So now, all I had to wait for was third term to come to put my plan into action.
As usual, at the first lesson which I had with Seth, he came in dragging his feet, having the same cute half asleep look on his face. He just looked, so, so, so edible! I gulped and waited for him to sit down right in front of me. He simply nodded at me and I nodded back. If he was surprised by my hair, he sure didn't say anything. (Another quality I liked: he kept comments to himself. Perfect) THe lesson started as dreary as ever, but I was kept awake by my plan and my the demigod right in front of me. He seemed to have grown since the holidays; his shirt seemed way too small for him. It was beautiful. Everything about him. But I should focus instead of gushing. Yes. So, then I saw that Seth was beginning to fall asleep. So I tried my first attempt in breaking the barrier:
'Hey, wake up bastard!' I whispered, and smirking as I did. He obviously heard me, as he shot up, turned, looked at me and shot me a very disapproving look. Damn. Clearly, I said out loud, 'CHill man...' He didn't bother at me and just continued sleeping.
Score nil for Get-Seth Operation.
Break saw a new opportunity for me. Anna made sure I sat next to her and when Seth finally came down to sit with us, I could barely contain myself. He had woke up fully, but because he had rather floppy hair, his hair simply hung down and covered his eyes partially. Mix that in with the way he wore his uniform: god. I was hiding a boner and trying not to drool at the same time. There he was, carrying a not so glamorous tray of salad and milk, with his hair, and deliciously low school pants with a hot tight school shirt. Yeah. You get the picture. I stopped staring when I realized that no one on the table seemed to bother.
When he came to the table, everyone simply nodded and continued eating. Anna stopped for a while to introduce me as her boyfriend, where his head snapped up, cocked at an angle to look at me, before acknowledging it and then back to eating. Damn. Anyways, I tried to make conversation with him on the table. I started off with a relatively easy one.
'So how was your hols?' He replied in a very nonchalant manner, and all I could do was to listen to his voice speaking, lost in fantasy. But when he more or less said windsuring, I decided to gush, in an effort to try to spark some interest. 'Oh, I like so like that sport!'
Score negative for the operation. He raised an eyebrow, looked at me quizzically, and said yeah, and continued eating. The rest of the table were still buried in food. I decided to follow the status quo. Well, then all of a sudden, he shot up, looked at Anna and us, and said, 'So, when's the wedding?'
I was thoughtfully chewing on my fries and Anna sipping on coke when he said that. We simultaneously decided to vomit at that moment, and it splashed right across his salad. So much for dressing. He didn't look too pleased, but still, Anna smacked him for making such a conversation, and all I did was to blush.
I tried my third plan of attack. Take the same bus as him. Which I did. I just tagged along with him and Mitch, and he didn't look surprised or anything. He greeted me, shrugged and we boarded the bus. The only seat empty was this 3 seater. I got in first, and prayed really hard that Seth sat beside me. It was this childish thing about physical intimacy I think, but when he finally did(Mitch had to get off earlier) I jumped for joy. I attempted small talk with him, and whenever the bus bumped, I could feel his strong arms. God, heaven never felt so good. He looked uncomfortable and even more when Mitch departed. I grilled him on Anna still, and when his stop came, I made a brave move to attempt my first real step:
'Hey, I'll treat you to coffee bean k?' He looked at me blankly, and I took it as a yes, more like because I was afraid that he would decline. I just dragged him along, and he willingly obliged. Like a gentleman, I treated him to a cup of pure vanilla while I gorged myself on a fav. I continued to grill him, but then, I decided to ask him the real question.
'why didn't u like to talk to me last year? it seemed as though u were avoiding me all the time?'
'er, i did?' he said quizzically.
'dude, u were way out of ur world! i thought u hated me or something for being u know, below u or stuff.' I reiterated.
'wait a minute, how can u be below me when i thought the exact same thing which is why i didn't bother which is why i dont understand your niceness and stuff but i never hated u at all, whatever gave u the-'
I needed to know all that was needed. He was nice, and that the coldness was all purely a misunderstanding. Well, I was happy about it and simply smiled. He took it as that he was rambling, and stopped. He's so cute when he does that. The rest of the talk was uneventful, but he had to go off soon to meet up with one of his friends, and with a shrug I sent him off. It was brilliant. This was my step to conversation and he was warming up to me. THis was gonna work, the hopes were up.
I would skip all the other days to tell the reader about the more important stuff... The jealousy that I felt about James. I do my research on people I like, and I managed to get side info from Anna that James, his closest friend, was gay. She had blurted it out, and I caught it, shrugged, and looked as if it was no great deal about it. But I was worried and excited. Here was the man of my dreams, a friend with a gay guy who was very smitten by him and still not turn him down; but yet still his friend: it could be taken two ways. Either he was comfortable with gays and wasn't gay himself. THe latter notion wasn't a nice one.
I was warming up to him rather well and was fast on the road to becoming fast friends. THis was good, and I ensured that I helped him out proper. Then I decided to go one step further by asking him to come to my house to help me, in masking, trigonometry. It was purely an act. Nothing else. I just wanted his company.
TO my surprise, he assented. I was doing leaps in my heart. HE was coming to MY house this evening and no one could stop it.
=== [The end of a change in the point of view(i)]