Everlasting Love
Chapter 2
NOTE: This is a fictional biographic love story as Macy Strickland and his companions make their way through different stages of their lives. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. This chapter is definitely more dialogue compared to the first which front loaded background information on some of the principal characters. If you liked this chapter, please send me some feed back; I have a rough mental outline for how this goes but some extra details or inspiration along the way are always welcome. If you are offended by intimate male on male emotional and physical relationships, you should be asking yourself why you are here in the first place. Lastly, please consider a donation to Nifty to maintain this website.
As my mind processed, "Mitch Humboldt talks non-stop about you," an image of a sort of Ashton Kutcher jock flashed up on the big screen in my head talking to his friend Robbie Lawson about me over a casual game of one on one hoops and all I can muster is a mumble was a quizzical, "Oh?"
Robbie continued, "Karen and I had an ice cream date the other night and for some reason, you became the main topic; and, I'll admit, she held out as long as she could but finally let it out you're gay."
"Well, I guess I kind of deserved that," I said thinking out loud as I pumped a little more air into the rear tire of Jacob's bicycle.
Asserting himself, Robbie said, "C'mon Macy, listen to me and listen carefully."
I felt a shiver run down my back, my face flush, like my fight or flight reflex was dumping adrenaline into my system. I stopped what I was doing, taking in the serious look on Robbie's face as I steadied myself for what was coming next.
"Don't take this the wrong way but from what I've seen and what I've heard since you got here, since you got to our school, you really don't strike me as one of those limp-wristed-tap-dancing-showtune-singing drama queens, but rather, more like somebody I know," Robbie started, "am I right?"
I smiled a bit at Robbie's limp-wristed-tap-dancing-showtune-singing drama queen description and answered, "pretty much; I mean, I kind of keep to myself, I'm trying to figure things out; I'm definitely not here recruiting members for an LGBT Glee or Drama Club or anything like that."
Robbie smiled at my recruiting comment and I could tell we were beginning to get in step together, "there have been some rumors about Mitch, never a date to a school event, never a girlfriend, you know what I mean?"
"I'm following, I can do the math, I can see how such rumors would start," I replied, "no different than rumors starting about Karen and I."
"Exactly," Robbie said in agreement, "it just is, I know for a fact, that, he, is, um, like you."
I took a stab at humor, "no shit, you mean he's a swimmer too?"
Robbie sighed, "no man, c'mon, it's hard enough for me to do this."
"I know, I'm sorry, I was just trying to..." I smiled but Robbie was having none of it, "never mind."
"Mitch Humboldt is gay, okay? Aside from his parents, me and now you, nobody else knows; at least I don't think anybody else knows. And it has to stay that way, do you understand me? I didn't even tell Karen and I won't; for now," Robbie firmly stated, "he's my best friend, that's the way he wants it and I will do my best to keep it that way for him for as long as he wants."
"I read you loud and clear," I answered, "but then why does he talk about me so much?"
Robbie stared at me with his serious face for a more few seconds that seemed more like an hour to emphasize how much he would protect Mitch and then broke into a slight smile as he began to reminisce, "we were at the Y after Christmas to lift and shoot some hoops and we stopped on the observation deck overlooking the pool to check out swim practice and that's when Mitch first saw you. Obviously neither of us had never seen you before and he whispered loud enough for me to hear, "who the fuck is that?" And I have never, ever heard him say anything like that ever since he came out to me."
Mitch's best friend continued, "and it was pretty easy to eliminate who he wasn't looking at. It was like his eyes had some sort of laser lock on you as you stepped up on the starting block and launched off into butterfly. I practically had to drag him kicking and screaming to the weight room to lift."
I smiled, trying to picture the big strong silent type Mitch Humboldt coming unglued at little old me, "yeah, then what happened?"
"Afterward we saw you walk out of the pool deck in your team hoodie and warm-up pants, we saw Karen waiting for you and then you two walked out together and we both just said, "no fucking way" but for obviously different reasons"
I almost laughed but regained myself, "Robbie, listen; I promise not to try to hold his hand or plant a big kiss on his lips or anything else like that in the hallway or anything; but I'm not going to live a lie either. I'm comfortable in my own skin, I'm not trying to be way out there; I'm not trying to organize a gay student alliance, I'm not sewing a rainbow flag on my backpack. I just want to be me, Macy. Mason Strickland, student, swimmer, friend and confidant, and maybe someday, somebody special for somebody else like me."
Robbie smiled and nodded, "I can respect that; I just don't want to see him get hurt; I mean, that's what friends are for, right?"
"Hell yes!" I exclaimed and then with a touch of sarcasm and a flex of my arm, "but aside from my rockin' bod, what else does he say about me?"
"Listen, it's no secret, just about everybody knows why you are at Towson now. What happened to you and your family is totally whack; I mean, my own messed up family situation is nothing compared to what you must be enduring," Robbie said.
I nodded and fought back a tear, "I have good days and bad days, just try to screw on my happy face as much as I can."
"No doubt," Robbie said, "and a lot of people have noticed. They're wondering how you do it and Mitch is one of them."
"Whoa!" I exclaimed.
"Whoa what?" Robbie asked in a surprised tone.
Now it was my turn to stand my ground, "I'm NOT looking for a freakin' pity party, okay?"
Robbie quickly intoned his apology, "no dude, sorry if that came out wrong! I mean, Mitch likes your confidence, how you handle yourself whether it's in Raley''s French 3 or phys-ed class, that's all. Nobody's trying to dis you or your situation."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off on you like that; it was uncool," I said offering my own apology to Robbie as I finished tightening the rear wheel back onto his brother's bike, "I just maybe get a little defensive sometimes. My bad."
"No problem," Robbie replied, then changing the subject, "you're kind of a whiz at that."
I smiled, "fixed my own bike enough, I'm kind of good at fixing things, runs in the family."
"How so?" Robbie was now curious.
"My dad was a mechanical engineer, worked at a steel plant in Pennsylvania, my grandfather is one too, has a small machine and fabrication shop here so I guess it's in the gene pool," I explained, smiling thinking about my dad and Cal, "Cal and I did an overhaul on my grandmother's Subaru and I drive it around now when she doesn't need it."
"Wow, no way I could do that," Robbie said learning something new about me; "you totally aren't some sort of a drama queen!"
"With a good teacher you could too," I answered before changing the subject back to Mitch, "so what do I have to do to tell Mitch I'm interested, go through you?"
I fingered the chain back onto the sprockets and cranked the crankshaft, a few turns holding the rear wheel off the ground while Robbie answered in a half kidding half serious voice, "that would be advisable, I'm sure we both want to live a little longer."
"Listen, if he is going to be this uptight, then maybe I should just forget about Mitch Humboldt right here, right now," I said with a degree of frustration.
"Macy, chill dude; I don't know about you but Mitch has never been on a date with a guy that I know about, okay?" Robbie said defending his best friend.
I sprayed the bike chain with WD-40 and pondered what Robbie was saying, trading hand jobs and stuff with Danny Engel weren't exactly dates. Then it dawned on me, I had never been on a real date with a guy either and it made me laugh a little bit, "yeah, I guess middle school sleepovers with my team mate Danny don't really count."
"Was Danny your first?" Robbie asked.
"Yeah, Danny and I were best buds all through middle school, played soccer, did the swim and wrestling team thing together. Had a few sleepovers, boy talk happens, boy stuff happens, other boy's parents find out, other boy's parent's flip out" I said giving a very undetailed summary, "game, set, match...no more sleepovers."
"Yikes, that bad huh?" Robbie asked, seemingly on the hunt for more details.
"Yeah, Danny's parents' sucked and not in a good way. My parents were cool when I came out which was right after Danny's mom called my own mom," I said with a little bit of sadness, "I wish I knew how to approach Mitch without betraying you."
"You know what Macy, it's okay, go for it; the way I see it, both of you deserve a chance at this. Just be the same cool Macy I'm getting to know now," Robbie said, "I'm pretty sure I can trust you with my bestie."
"I guess I should probably leave my inner limp-wristed-tap-dancing-showtune-singing drama queen at home when Mitch and I go out?" I asked trying to make Robbie laugh.
Finally Robbie smiled a bit, "Probably, I don't know what else you can do to make him laugh but you are going to need do something since Karen and I are going out tonight for our first date tonight."
"Oh? Sounds promising. Just be good to her, I like her a lot and, well, I don't want to see her get hurt either," I said in my own protective voice.
"I've always liked her, I was just a big goof in middle school," Robbie said, "what do I owe you for fixing Jake's bike?"
I smiled as I replied, "not a dime, just Mitch Humboldt's phone number."
"Fair enough my new friend, fair enough. Just promise me just you will do the right thing," demanded Robbie.
"I promise; I'll do my part to make it a good thing for all of us, does that sound like a fair deal?" I said, offering to shake Robbie's hand.
We shook before Robbie found a pen and wrote Mitch's phone number down on a torn piece of the inner tube bicycle box and handed it to me.