BLUE SKY by reid
-16-
When the alarm clock went off at 4:30am, I immediately felt like I was dying. My stomach churned and my head ached, my face burying itself in the goosedown pillow. Next to me, I felt Teddy squirm. Then came the chilly feeling as he threw the comforter and sheets off, stumbling across the room to the clock. He mashed the button and it shut off, giving my head a rest.
Feeling like death warmed over, I sat up on the side of the bed. I had to fight really hard to not just lay back down and go back to sleep. My head was still woozy and my legs felt numb, not ready to support my weight just yet. My chest rumbled as I hacked and coughed, spitting into a kleenex.
"Feel like makin' love?" Teddy asked, his voice hoarse.
I couldn't help but laugh. I listened from my half-awake world as Teddy stumbled into the bathroom and started the shower. I was glad that Teddy was showering if we were going to spend twelve hours in an airplane together. First class or not, having him clean and smelling nice would make it a lot easier.
When my legs didn't feel stuck full of needles, I stood up and walked blindly around the bed. Being careful not to trip over the few boxes left in the hallway, I felt my way into the kitchen and turned on the lights. Shielding my eyes from the harsh fluorescence, I pulled a Pepsi out of the fridge and downed half of it in one chug. Early morning called for drastic measures in caffeine consumption.
My eyes opened and I blinked several times as the caffeine finally found it's way into my nervous system. I sat down in front of the computer in the living room, bringing up Outlook Express. After a tediously long time downloading, I smiled as I saw the long list of e-mails from friends and well-wishers. Immediately, my eyes picked out Kylie's address from her college in Norway.
I felt a small pang when I saw it. If I could have had only one thing at that point in time, I would have had her back there. Or I would have gone there some how. It felt wrong to leave the country without seeing her in person. I felt like I was betraying her, somehow.
Her actual e-mail was quick and to the point. I knew that if she tried to get too in-depth, she'd probably get all verklempt and start being all weepy. To her credit, however, she was very concise in what she said. Even though she might have seemed cool and distant to an outsider, I knew that in it's quickness, her message was more poignant than any long, rambling sappy letter. It made me feel a great deal less guilty.
Just as I finished lingering over the message, Teddy walked into the kitchen. Wearing only a towel around his waist. Water still clung to the muscles of his upperbody, making them shine in the light. My throat went dry again and I rubbed my eyes, forcing some sort of sexual control over my being.
He went to his already packed suitcase by the counter and pulled out a pair of black Adidas pants and a grey T-shirt. I couldn't keep myself from watching as he took off the towel, pulled on his boxer-briefs, and followed with the clothes. The brief glimpse I caught of his taught, bare ass was a quite delightful way to start such a potentially traumatic day.
"You hungry?" He asked as he put on his shoes and socks.
I smiled, considering a bawdy response to the question. My dick perked up at the idea of sex first thing in the morning, especially with Teddy freshly showered and smelling all sweet and nice. But I didn't need the fatigue or the empty feeling so early in the day. Instead, I went the more boring, mundane route.
"Nah, I have my caffeine. I'm good."
Teddy wrapped his arms around me from behind. He smelled so good.
"Anything good?"
I shook my head, "Just the usual guilty checking in that comes when you're not going to be around for a while."
"Anything from your old man?"
"Yeah, right." I chuckled, rubbing the last of the sleep from my eyes.
Teddy stroked my hair gently, "You never know."
I shrugged and concentrated on the pleasure that his touch was giving me. Just as I felt myself slipping back into some weird half-sleep, half-relaxed place, he stopped. Playfully, he ruffled my hair and walked back into the kitchen.
"Get dressed. We gotta be at the airport no later than 5:45 for our 8:10 flight."
"How are we getting there?" I said, finally on my feet after two tries.
"They said they'd send a shuttle at 5:20."
"And we're flying first class, right?"
Teddy smiled, "Yeah. I forget what a survivalist you are."
-17-
My body didn't enjoy being awake while it was still dark in the morning. It was a biochemical mistake that had no means of escaping. My stomach still churned and the obscene amount of caffeine I'd consumed was making me really jumpy. Possibly because of the stress of the day but I was pretty sure it was the early morning being-awake thing.
As much as I tried to go back to sleep on the ride to LAX, I just couldn't. Every time my eyes closed, my stomach turned over and a bolt of adrenaline shot through my body. It definitely sounded weird to me, but I was beginning to get excited. Really, truly excited. For being so initially repulsed by the idea of moving to Japan, I'd managed to warm up to the concept. Wether it was going to Japan or getting the hell out of Los Angeles, that still remained quite debatable.
But I was excited, so it was cool. Not only excited, but actually almost - giddy. It felt like I was about to get on some dangerous, freaky roller coaster and get my intestines twisted into unholy shapes. I could hardly sit still in the brushed tweed seat of the shuttle.
Next to me, Teddy stretched out and yawned. He seemed quite a bit more relaxed about the idea than I was. For all my warming up to the concept, he'd seemed to cool to it. Whenever we'd talked about it, the closer it got to our departure, he seemed more interested in the paycheck he'd be getting. I just dismissed it as guilt about leaving the kids behind.
I draped my arm across his shoulders. He smiled and snuggled against me. Even if he was a little apprehensive about it, I could tell that he was excited, too. Even if the job wasn't going to be what he'd imagined, there would still be lots of new TV to watch and lots of time to spend on a different couch in a different place in a different country.
Snuggling back against his broad shoulders, I sighed happily and did my best to relax. I looked out the window, at the passing concrete of the highway, getting another jolt as I thought about what we were doing. Never in my twenty-three years, did I ever imagine that I'd do something so completely big as moving to a foreign country.
Well, besides moving to Canada to dodge a draft or something.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
E-mail me at fear1980@yahoo.com
Links to my other stories can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/fear1980/