Chapter Five:
Tap tap tap.... I couldn't keep my foot still as I sat on the couch in my living room. It was 5:37 and I was a nervous wreck to no end. In 23 short minutes, I'd be on my way to pick up the man of my dreams and then, together, we'd be going to see a movie together. Just thinking about it got me excited all over again and my hands trembled and my palms were soaked. An odd thing because they never sweated from nervousness before. I closed my eyes and layed my head back on the couch, trying desperately to relax before trying to drive. I figured I'd be even more of a demon if I were a nervous driver.
I leaned forward and yanked a Sports Illustrated out from under the coffee table and began to flip through it. My hands were shaking so much I couldn't even read what was on the page.
"Arrgh!" I growled and tossed the magazine across the room. What the hell was wrong with me?! I'd been on dates with girls before and I'd hung out with cute guys, but I'd never gotten this nervous. Ten years of gazing at Chris flashed before my eyes. All of this over one stupid movie? My hippie aunt always said I had "karma" but I never thought it could work like this!
I looked over at the clock. 6:47. Close enough! I yelled goodbye to my parents and hurried out the front door. Once in my car, I sat for a second, trying ease my nerves. Once I trusted my hands to work the ignition, I drove as close to the speed limit as I could and I soon reached THE house. I took a deep breath and walked up the front walkway to the door, his house was really nice. Nice white paint, no flowerbeds though. That kind of made me feel bad.
I had no time to wallow in it because the door opened and I was met with Chris's older brother, Kevin. The big hulk looked down at me and scoffed, "Hey dickhead! Your escort is here!"
Fighting hard not to kick the asshole in his balls, I walked into the house and stood in the foyer, waiting for Chris. After a minute, he came down the stairs, taking my breath away yet again. He was wearing a cute red t-shirt and baggy black pants. He smacked his brother playfully in the arm, and got a rather savage smack on the back of the head in return.
"Hey!" A sharp voice yelled from the living room to our right, "I've told you about that before, Kevin. Don't do that."
Sitting on the couch was a man who looked to be in his mid-40's with short, almost buzz cut brown hair. I saw where Chris got his striking green eyes and I realized his blond hair came from his mother. Before I could get too weepy and introspective, his father broke the silence, "Hi. You must be Josh. I'm Mr. Flemming. Call me Jim."
He stuck out his hand and I shook it, reassured by the gentleness in his handshake. "Have a seat." He said, and I took him up on the offer, sitting down on the end of the couch opposite him. Chris sat on the arm of the sofa, his cute butt only inches from my face.
"So, Chris has told me about you." Uh oh. "He says you're on the soccer team. Am I right?"
"Yeah. I've been Varsity since the season started. 9th grade, I was stuck on JV. I'm the youngest player on Varsity and our season just ended." I tried my hardest not to say anything that would go over the line. I felt like I was meeting the father of the bride.
"I used to play a little soccer in highschool. I never had much ability in sports, I'm ashamed to say. Luckily, Chris got his basketball apptitude from his--" Jim cut himself off.
I glanced behind me and noticed that Chris had turned away and was looking at the wall. I could tell that this was a pretty touchy subject in the family and I could definitely see why. "I think it's pretty cool how some of these NFL and NBA stars talk about their father's not being able to dribble or pass a ball, and how they got their ability from their mothers. It goes to show that sometimes the chromasomes dont always go the traditional way." I tried my best to change the subject.
Jim laughed and reached over, patting my knee. "I hear that. I get a lot of my students asking if I play any sports and I feel like such a putz. Anyways, enough of the depression. Isn't about time for you guys to head on out?"
Yikes! I looked at my watch and realized we had spent alot of time just talking. Jim looked at his son, "You ok?" Chris nodded and smiled at his dad. "Yeah, I'm good now. You ready to see Godzilla wreck New York?"
I smiled and nodded and we got up to go. I walked to the door and noticed that Chris wasn't next to me. I turned around and saw Jim hug Chris and ruffle his hair. In that moment, it finally dawned on me how close they were. Then I began to think about me and my own dad and my brothers and just as I was about to get weepy, Chris came up to me and pulled me out the door.
Something inside me didn't care about Godzilla or New York. Or soccer. Or my dad and my brothers. All that mattered was the blond beauty that I would be sitting next to in the dark for a few short glorious hours. The only question was: could I get us there and back without killing us both?
Chapter Six:
We got into the theater just as it was beginning to fill up. It was an evening feature so we were subjected to joy of seeing teenage couples, many from our school, cramming themselves in to the seats and making out before the previews had even started. We shoehorned into two seats in the middle of the theater and got situated with our popcorn.
As soon as we were settled, Chris asked me, "So... now that we're here, tell me about yourself. I don't know much about you."
"Ummm...well, let's see. I'm the youngest of six brothers. They all tortured me. I like classic rock and alternative music. I never miss The Simpsons or NewsRadio. I'm a Libra... anything else?"
"No, thats pretty good for starters." He laughed, "I know how you feel about your brothers. I love alternative except I can't stand Marilyn Manson. And the people who write The Simpsons are comic genuises. I'm a Pieces. And I love peanut butter." He took a deep breath and smiled at me. God, he was beautiful.
"Your dad seems real nice. You two seem really close,"
"I love my dad so much, dude. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have him around at least some of the time. He's my best friend, and I know how scary that sounds." I could have listened to him all night, "I'll bore you with the details after the movie."
He couldn't have said that at a better time. I felt like I was going to melt and luckily, the darkening lights of the theater covered my puppy dog expression. Thank god for Roland Emmerich.
By the middle of the movie, I was totally lost. I didn't understand what was happening and you know what else? I couldn't care less. At one point, Matthew Broderick was being kidnapped by the freaky dude from Mission Impossible. I settled back and put my arm on the rest, letting my hand dangle down.
I almost jumped out of my seat when I felt his hand brush against mine. His warm soft fingers seemed to gently stroke my hand before I pulled it away. I looked nervously at his face and he smiled and mouthed "sorry about that" and turned back to the movie.
Calm down, I told myself. Just chill the fuck out. I closed my eyes and relaxed as best I could. Just calm down, it was an accident. I swallowed hard and turned my attention to the screen.
Just an accident...
The movie was finally over. As I stood up and stretched, I decided that the soundtrack would be a better investment. I looked over and saw Chris sitting there, looking at the screen.
"Hey, are you ok?" I was worried.
He looked at me and smiled, "Yeah, I'm cool. I'm just trying to figure out what the hell was going on, ya know?" He nudged me with his elbow and we walked out of the theater. "What did you think?" He asked, "... of the movie." He added.
"Confusing. They never crammed all that "story" bullshit into the Japanese movies. That got in the way."
"I know! You don't go to see a movie like Godzilla to see two nerdy ex-lovers get back together. You go to see a giant lizard chew up the town, man. Am I right?" He was so cute.
Eventually we made our way to the car for the long drive home. We got to talking and it turned out that Chris and I had a lot in common. We both had rather screwy upbringings. We both liked lots of different kinds of music. You name it, we had it in common. By the end of the car ride, we were conversing like old friends and I had ALMOST forgotten that he was my object of swooning since 7th grade.
I pulled the car to a stop outside his house and he sat there and smiled out the window before turning to me. "I really had a good time, Josh. It was nice to get away from my older brother for a while."
"I understand how you feel. It's good to get out of the house."
"You're not gonna be such a stranger anymore, I hope. I liked getting to know you a lot. I hope we're gonna hang out more often. Right?" Uh oh. I felt the wall building back up.
"Sure. We'll see each other at school and Summer is coming up real soon I know where you live and we both like to hang out."
"That's one thing I wondered about. How did you know where I lived? Did Carrie tell you or something? It's not like I'm paranoid or anything but I don't remember telling you. I thought about it right after we hung up last night." There was no harshness in his voice, but it was getting to be too much regardless.
"Yeah. Carrie told me. She's got kind of a big mouth."
"Tell me about it. Her and her damn matchmaking. See you at school tommorow?"
"Of Course." I smiled as best I could.
"Great," His smile lit my world, "See ya later, Josh."
With that, he was on his way into his house and I was left to drive home...alone. It wasn't idea but I was pretty damn happy at that moment. I had made friends with my crush and at that point, I was more than willing to accept and be happy.
Chapter Seven:
"....I'll be your dream. I'll be your wish. I'll be your fantasy. I'll be your hope. I'll be your love. Be everything that you need..." Savage Garden played from my alarm clock and woke me out of a dead sleep. It was probably the best night's sleep I'd gotten in a LONG time. I rubbed my eyes and threw the comforter off me. It was so warm that morning that I felt smothered and just layed there in my boxers looking at the sun coming through the blinds. I sighed and got up off my bed and stumbled into the bathroom and showered quickly.
As I walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, I plopped down on my bed and continued to dry my "nether regions". I smiled to myself and enjoyed the sensation and my cock responded in kind. A familiar rush pulsed through my body and I wondered if I had enough time to fool around before school. My heart began to pound in my chest as it always did when I was getting ready to either jerk off after a long abstinence excercise or I was going to do it and I didn't have much time.
7:16. I had to be at school by 7:30. I bit my lower lip and smiled after a second of considering and I gently rubbed my clean, air dryed chest. My nipples began to harden in the cool morning air which seemed so much colder after my hot shower. I reached over and pushed my sheets and comforter down to the foot of my bed and propped my head up on the pillow. Looking down at myself in the mirror, my cock pulsed and I shivered with sexual delight. Stretching my slim legs out on the bed, I ran my hand down my chest and over my stomach before taking my cock in my hand and stroking it quickly. My balls began to slap my thighs and I massaged them with my other hand and I knew this wouldn't take long.
As I jerked myself, all I could think of was Chris. I imagined his strong, basketball toned body mashing against mine. Rubbing against my body. Our muscles grinding together. I closed my eyes and imagined us in a 69 position. His hard cock sliding in and out of my mouth. His plump balls thumping my nose. Wiry blond pubic hairs tickling my chin...
All these images soon became too much for me and I let out a moan as my balls pulled up in the sac and my cock swelled even bigger. My hips bucked and a thick glob of cum squirted out and landed on my chest. A second. Then a third. The rest dribbled down my shaft and onto my hand. I knew I didn't have much time to relax so after a few seconds, I reluctantly picked up my damp towel and wiped the cum off my body.
"JOSH! Are you up yet?" My mom could make a dolphin sound like Barry White, I swear to God.
"Yeah, mom! Hold on!" I hurriedly yanked a pair of khaki shorts, a black t-shirt, an undershirt, and a pair of boxers and pulled them on. Soon followed by my socks and boots, I gave myself the once over in the mirror and rearranged the bed covers. Seeing that everything was ok, in my eyes at least, I grabbed my backpack, watch, and wallet and rushed down the stairs. I had taken a bit longer than I had expected.
Chapter Eight:
What is it about a foreign language class that requries it to go on and on and on and on and on forever and ever and ever and ever? Is it something they ask you in the interview? 'What are your credentials, sir? We don't care if you spent 20 years studying the language. Can you make a 40 minute long class seem like 4 hours?' Holy shit. I liked my German II class just fine but.... it just went on and on.
"Du bist mir ruft in ich stallen..." The teacher just kept talking. And I took notes because without the notes, I couldn't do the work. And without the work, I'd fail. And if I failed, my GPA would go down. And if that went down, no soccer team next year. It didn't seem worth it but I kept going. I looked at the clock. 9:16. Thirty four more minutes.
"All right. Now that we've completed the grammar exercise, you guys should be more than ready for the final. You'll take it next Tuesday and you'll have 50 minutes, I think. Thats the schedule for the last week. So for the last five minutes, just hang out." Huh? Did he just say we could hang out? It's so tragic when adults try and act hip.
I stretched and put my notebook back together and shoved it into my bag. It was so warm. It couldn't have been cooler than 73 degrees and that was just the way I liked it. God, I loved this time of year. The beginning of June, school is almost out, summer is right around the-- oh GOD, if my parents try and tell me that I have to get a summer job, I'm gonna--
"Hallo Joshie!" Deion, an "accquaintance" got my attention, "I was at the movies last night and I saw you there."
Oh God.
"The thing was, you weren't there with a girl. What's up with that? You ain't battin' for the pink team, are ya?"
"I was at the movies with a friend. Is that ok with you?"
"Hey kid, no problems here. I just was wondering."
"Uh huh," I put on my "pissed off loner" look. "He was a friend of mine. We aren't 'boning' each other or 'turd pushing' or 'knob gobbling'." Not yet, at least.
"That's cool, Josh. Like I said, I was just wondering."
With that, he took off to find someone else to bother and left me alone. I sat there quietly thinking about how obvious it could have been that I liked Chris. I mean, I didn't spend ALL my time gawking at him and even at the movie, I didn't look at him like THAT.
Did I?
My third period class got sent to the library for the second half of the period to research our English finals. Gee, thanks. I think. Of all my classes, I think this one was the class I was the most concerned about as far as the final test went. I found my way to the correct section before anyone else and dug out a few books on The Telltale Heart and Edgar Allen Poe and staked out a table and cracked the books open. After about fifteen minutes, I was totally immersed in it and didn't notice the other class entering the library. As I turned to page 149 in "English Literature Reader vol. 23"...
"Hi Josh. Can I sit here?" I looked up and, who else? Chris was standing there smiling at me.
"Sure, have a seat." I found it much easier to talk to him now.
He dropped his backpack on the desk and it made a loud thud which got a loud shushing from the librarian. He smiled and stifled a laugh, "I have to find a book on Edgar Allen Poe. Be back in a sec."
"Ummm... which book do you need?" Not this one. No way.
"I think it's a biography type thing. Is that it?"
"Yeah... yeah it is. You can use it. I can study from it later."
"No. It's all right. I'll just read whatever pages you're on and catch up on it later or something." My heart damn near stopped as he sat down in the chair next to me and leaned over. Oh God, he was so close. I could smell his alpine fresh Dial soap. His apple scented shampoo. The spearmint gum he was chewing.
"Josh? You there, man?" He was looking at me. Inches away from my face. His green eyes were so much more vivid and lively up close. This was too good to be true.
"Yeah. I'm fine." I gathered myself and read from the page I was on. I studied the text and when I reached the bottom of the page, I peeked over and it looked like Chris was still reading. "Where are you at?" I asked.
"Right here," He said, pointing to the page, "It's this thing about his son that really gets to me. I mean, the little guy died when he was like 10. That's so young." Be still my heart. Oh God, aww hell. He was so sweet. I could have kissed him right there.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. You can turn the page if you want." He sat back and smiled again.
"No. It's ok. The teacher said we wouldn't be tested that much on the authors. Mrs. Daniels is kind of vague sometimes but she was pretty clear about this." I was about to shut the book, "Do you need to study on him?"
"Uhh...no. Not at all. I mean, my teacher said the same thing." He stammered for a second and before I could start thinking, "My teacher, Mr...uh..Mr. Stephens is really cool about that. He doesn't make us learn much about stuff that isn't in the story that we're studying. He's more, uh, more worried--"
"It's ok," I cut him off, "Don't blow a gasket."
"Cool, man." He smiled, "What class do you have next?"
"Advanced Art. I know how uncool it sounds."
"No way!" That got him a look from the librarian so he bit his lip and lowered his voice, That class sounds really cool. What stuff do you do? Like painting or what?"
"Mostly drawing and stuff with perspective. We do paintings sometimes but I wish we could do more craft oriented stuff. I wore my older, less 'chic' clothes for class today because we're 'shellacking'"
"What do you mean? I think you're outfit is kinda cool. Really casual." He said, "Alot like mine."
He couldn't have been more right. That day he was tempting me with a white Adidas t-shirt, khaki cargo pants, and his black Nike Airs. Damn, he was beautiful. My bare leg brushed against the fabric of his pants and I tried not to shiver audibly, "Did you take a final in first period?"
"Yeah. I have Home Ec. so we took a test on ingredients that go into baked goods." Oh lord, he knew how to cook. "I think I did pretty well. I mean, I knew what was going on. Now if only I could get my learner's permit." He pouted jokingly. He was so cute.
"You don't have your learner's permit?" I was genuinely surprised then I understood. "Is it because you can't get a ride?"
He nodded, "Yeah. And if I did get my permit, I have like no one to teach me how. To get my license, I'd have to take driver's ed and that would need money. Kinda short of that right now."
"If you want, I mean, I could take you to the DMV and get the drivers guide and we could study it. Then go somewhere and I could show you how to drive the car and all that. If you want to..." I babbled and felt stupid until I saw his face light up.
"Are you serious? That would be so cool, Josh!" He lowered his voice again, "You'd do that for me? That's so nice. How could I repay you?"
I had to fight the urge. "I dunno. You could teach me how to play basketball, maybe?"
"Of course. Anything." Our happy little conversation was interrupted by Chris's teacher saying it was time to go. "Oh man, I gotta go. Will you call me? Or I can call you. What's your number?"
He searched but alas, he didn't have a pen. But that was no problem for him apparently as he stuck his arm right out there and told me to write it on him. I fought for self control as I put one hand to steady it, revelling in the firm, musular, warmth beneath my fingers. I managed to write my number without jabbing him or shaking my hand too much. He quickly gathered his stuff, "Thanks, Josh. I'll call you tonight. We can just talk or something. Is that cool, man?"
I nodded and he smiled again. He waved and hurried out the door to catch up with his class. I took a deep breath and just sat there with my thoughts. After a while, I looked at the clock and it was almost time to go to lunch and I was more than welcome to the idea.
He was going to call me. Holy shit. Chris was going to call me on the phone. That meant that he actually wanted to talk to me. Deep in the back of my mind, I tried to dismiss that odd eager tone that was in his voice whenever he spoke to me. It seemed like more than just friendliness...but I wasn't going to take a chance.
To be Continued...