Fireworks Chapter 4
First of all: I want to thank Xpud so much for helping me out fixing some errors of my story and furthering my thoughts! Please go and check out his stories: Stories of an old boy and Lucky Chances.
I want to express how sorry I am for the long radio silence...For some reason I couldn't get a single word on paper.
Author's Note: This is my first published series ever, if you have some constructive criticism or praise please send me an email. As my story takes place in Germany, you might come across some proverbs that don't make much sense translated. If that's the case don't hesitate to ask or yell at me. And never forget to support Nifty! If we don't chip in we wouldn't have this site.
Fireworks - Chapter 4
My dreams that night were pretty weird. At least the stuff that I remembered. It had a lot of naked ankles and this weird music that people associate with striptease. If I remember correctly the song had something to do with hats, please don't ask me how they bring hats in a relation with naked people. But the night had had an effect on me. My thoughts were flashing back to Lukas's smile, the smell of his hair and him sitting in the Mall's fountain having his clothes drenched. I felt like I had sweat a bit, so to feel fresh again I jumped in the shower.
Dressed in my sloppiest pair of sweatpants and one of my plain blue t-shirts and a lot more energy than usual for a Sunday morning I headed down into the kitchen. My mom was already sat down eating breakfast. She had some buns in our best Sunday bread basket and the smell of scrambled eggs was in the air. I always loved when we had a hearty breakfast on Sundays. "Oh look, I indeed DO have a son. For a second I thought I imagined having you around for the last fifteen years." Up until now I didn't even pay attention to a clock. "I didn't sleep for twelve hours, did I? Come on mom, you messed with the clock!" But she shook her head. "9:15. I was curious to see when you'd fall out of your bed." Waving at her I sat down. The scrambled eggs smelt so enticing that I didn't even care for my mother poking fun at me. "I'm not gonna entertain you. There are eggs on the table and I want to eat a lot of them!"
About ten minutes into breakfast I had two dinner plates full of scrambled eggs plus two sandwiches in my belly. Finally sated I raised my cup of chocolate milk to finish off this meal. "Ahh...that was a good breakfast" I announced. Mom was shortly done after I came down so there were only the cheese and assorted meats on the table that I had just used. As I said the day before to make amends I tried to be the best son in the world. Usually for me cleaning the table would just mean to put away the dishes and toppings and quickly wiping over the kitchen table with a wet cloth would be taken care of by my mother but not today! I even went the extra mile to put back the table cloth and vase back on.
For today we had planned a super awesome roast meat. It always took many hours to let it simmer slowly but in the end it was always worth it! In the past I sometimes helped out cutting some vegetables this time though I had planned on doing the cooking mostly on my own. After many years of practice Mom was more skilled with a knife than any hitman so I let her chop the vegetables. For me there was enough stuff to do. I heaved our biggest pot out of a cabinet right next to the oven. When the roast was in the sauce for such a long time it lost some of its meat that's why we always got a big chunk of meat. The giant piece of pork shoulder was fried from all sides and then put to the side for now. I threw the onions and bell peppers into the pot together with some margarine. With her keen eye my mom already prevented the first mistake. Before I had a chance to put anything else in she waved a small bottle of red wine in my direction. Of course I had to boil down the red wine! A few minutes later I gave in about half a litre of tomato purée and half a litre vegetable broth.
"Did you know that somebody died while stirring a soup? That's what my own mother used to tell me."
For quite a while now I stood there with a wooden spoon stirring the sauce every other minute. The heat was down to low and the meat rested in the bath of tomatoes and vegetables. "But if I don't stir it will burn." We both knew it wasn't true. She saw that I was like a squirrel on crack trying to break the speed of sound on my own two feet.
"No it will not burn in five seconds that's why we put it on low. If you need something to do why don't you go clean up your room? You should have plenty to do there."
Maybe I really did have to clean my room. While I wasn't motivated to go to school she cut me some slack with my tidiness but now it was a different story.
"Don't forget to put your laundry in the basket if you want clothes to wear tomorrow."
My room wasn't really that big. It had space for a double sized bed, my TV hanging on a wall opposite to the bed with my PS4 and games on a shelf underneath, a closet with three doors and a mirror, my desk with two monitors for the pc and some space in the middle to wrestle with a whole boy band. Now that I look back it was an oversized room for a teenager that never had sleepovers. Unfortunately in the middle of the room there were no boys piling up – there was a heap of dirty clothes. Sighing heavily I made this my top priority. In a small broom closet attached to my room I had my personal hamper. The broad hint of my mom suggesting she wanted to do some laundry I already sorted my clothes in different piles by colour. Now I didn't have one giant pile in my room I was stuck with five of them. Four for regular clothes and one with just underwear. I groaned a bit at the sight. This seemed like way too much laundry for just one boy. To finally get rid of one pile I put the hamper at the foot of the stairs. "Mom, you wanted to do laundry? I've got underwear in here, can you bring it back up in a bit?" She nodded and I made my way back up. Why couldn't Jess kick my ass to clean this mess sooner instead of dragging me to school?
All in all I was stuck in my room till 11 am! The way I realized it was already 11 when I was done? I finally took a glance on my phone. Over the music in the background I didn't hear my phone giving its notification sound.
Lukas: Hey :) What's your address? See you in a bit!
For a second I panicked thinking that Lukas would never find his way to my home. When the rational part of my brain kicked in I was finally able to type a coherent sentence with the address in it. All this cleaning up made me sweat like a pig. So another shower was to be had. Fighting every cell in my body I took a quick shower and changed into a new pair of black jeans and a green shirt. Simple but not as sloppy as sweatpants. I didn't want to give my mom any wrong ideas.
Due to me being stuck in my room for the last three and a half hours the dough for the dumplings and the red cabbage were already done. I only had to mould perfect dumpling balls and season the sauce. Shaping the balls was harder than I thought. Took me way too long to get every last one into an acceptable shape! Seasoning the sauce was easy. The wine and broth did most of the seasoning so I just had to put in some black pepper and a pinch of salt. Now I could tackle the last challenge. Setting the table. No one ever told me how hard it is to put a plate, a small bowl, one glass and a fork and a knife in perfect relation to each other. Luckily it got easier after I finally had the first set done. My `work' just finished when the doorbell rang. Immediately I could feel my heart in my throat. Since I stood like a statue the door was opened by my mom.
"Hello Miss Braun, thank you for inviting me to lunch!"
My legs got mushy for a second.
"Such a polite young men. Please come in but leave your shoes at the door."
Without me having a say in the matter the once mushy legs made their way over to the doorway from where shuffling could be heard. Lukas was wearing a black jeans jacket that snug pretty tightly to his body. I guess my face must've been really dreamy so that my mom had to grab my attention with her fingers snapping.
"Yes? I'm here, sorry."
The smile on my face was goofy beyond reason.
Both Lukas and I reverted back to the shy boys that met at the bus stop yesterday.
"Hey Lukas..."
"Hi Ethan..."
"Boys. Don't just stand there, get into the kitchen." Mom shooed us from the hall into the other room. The two of us smiled a bit at each other but ultimately moved ahead.
"Oh Ethan, that table looks lovely." My mom pat me on the back. "You went all out didn't you?"
A surge of blood rushed into my cheeks. "Moooom." Embarrassed I sat down. "No I didn't...I just wanted it to look good."
"I think you did great." At that point my cheeks began to burn. Lukas complimenting me made it even worse.
On the table we had three rather nice looking bowls that my mom usually only took out for Christmas or a birthday. At the time I didn't realize that fact. In one bowl we had the dumplings, the other had the sliced roast meat with the sauce and in the last one there was the red cabbage. As Lukas had sat down opposite of my Mom held open her hand. It took both of us a second but Lukas and I raised our plates at the same time. We giggled a bit and in the end I lowered my plate again. Can you imagine how rude I would've been to have my platter filled first?
After all of our plates had been filled with dumplings and meat and the small bowls with the red cabbage Mom was the first to start eating. It was hard for me to not keep my eyes glued to Lukas's face.
"So Lukas. Why don't you tell me something about yourself?"
Without even missing a beat he put down his cutlery in his and wiped the edges of his mouth with a napkin to the right.
"Of course. I'm in the youth basketball team and got a little sister who is just the cutest little bugger. My mother is in the marketing department of a big ISP, my father manages this part of the local bank. "
"Oh that sounds like your parents are well off" said my mom but Lukas only shrugged.
"I don't know. For me it's probably the same as for Ethan. I still have to do chores and save up my allowance to buy stuff that isn't inherently necessary."
I was amazed how down to earth he could talk about this.
"Yes, that pretty much sounds right." Both of them were now smiling at me.
"Stop looking at me like that" I whined a bit before stuffing the fork with a piece of pot roast into my mouth. For the last weeks I had ignored almost all of my chores around the house which, I'll have you know, wasn't my fault! Stupid Mia with her stupid new boyfriend.
Lukas just chuckled while Mom resumed eating.
About half an hour and some light conversation later we all had finished our meals. My plate looked like it just came out of the cupboard. Of course I didn't lick it clean, I had some manners after all, just used some of my dumplings to scrape every last drop of sauce off. To be honest I made a pretty good lunch!
Content and with a filled belly Lukas leaned back patting his abs. "That was really awesome. Ethan didn't lie when he told me you were making good food."
"Thank you for that compliment but it was Ethan who prepared lunch today. It was part of a deal after he lied to me yesterday."
For a moment Lukas had a worried look on his face. He knew exactly what my mother meant with that. "Oh...I hope I didn't cause too much trouble yesterday."
"No you didn't. After talking to your mother yesterday you probably understand that I just like to know where my boy is and who is with him."
Again Lukas chuckled a bit and looked me in the eyes. "I definitely understand. I wouldn't like to be lied to either."
"Come on...I didn't lie that much...Jess was with me until I got on the bus...After that I was in good company!" To prevent me being questioned even more I got up and took my plate to the dishwasher. Lukas coming up next to the open dishwasher surprised me bit. "What are you doing?" I asked him.
Confused he looked at me. "Putting away my plate you dummy." I just sighed, grabbed my plate from the worktop and proceeded to put it in the machine. As it seemed Lukas had the exact same idea. While both of our plates rattled in the small plastic nooks of the dishwasher our hands touched for a moment. Stupid hormones! Embarrassed and flushing I ripped away my hand and walked over to the table to collect Mom's dishes.
"Why don't you guys go upstairs and I'll finish cleaning up."
Glad to get some alone time with Lukas I nodded enthusiastically. "Thanks mom!" A bit too excited I started to run out of the kitchen and rushed up the stairs. Behind me I could hear a much slower walking Lukas.
Now I was happy to have cleaned my room before Lukas came over. I was already nervous as hell without my room being a mess. The embarrassment of having dirty laundry lying around would've been too much. "How...how do you like it?"
For a moment I thought Lukas was about to walk out on me. "I love it." His smile melted away all of my fears. "It looks a lot like my room at home. You want to know a secret?" Lukas leaned over a bit. "It looks like every other boy's room I've ever been in." This definitely made me feel a lot better.
"I appreciate that..." I whispered. After a quick look around the room I settled down on the floor at the footrest of my bed. "Soooo...You want to play Zombies?"
Lukas peeked up at me. "You already got the new WW2?"
I smiled jumping on my heels. "Of course. I saved up every last cent I could muster." Back on the ground I handed him the second controller. On the TV we had Call of Duty World War 2's main menu. From there I went to "Nazi Zombies", my favorite game mode. Stomping 12 year olds in multiplayer was fun but that whacky story of the Nazi Zombies mode? That's what I bought the games for.
"Let me warn you...this time it's not as good. I mean the story is good but the gameplay?" To give good emphasis I literally shuddered.
"Ahhw come on, it can't be that bad!" Lukas was laughing and soon enough we started playing. He was right. Playing together wasn't as bad. Back in the first Black Ops game they released a fan favorite: Kino der Toten, which translates to cinema of the dead. The new maps couldn't hold a candle to it. In Kino, with a bit of memorization or a map you always knew where to go, which upgrade was at which spot. Now it all was a bit more random, making getting big scores a lot harder and more annoying. Well, let's just say that time flew right past us. While were sitting there our bodies moved ever so slightly closer to each other. At first I made sure to keep a bit of distance to Lukas but after the game engrossed me so much I didn't care. From time to time our elbows and knees touched, neither of us caring the slightest. The first time we ever stopped playing was after three hours! I had some pressure on my bladder while Lukas's stomach roared.
"Seriously dude? How can you be hungry again?!" My laughter boomed through the room before I shoved Lukas a bit.
"Don't ask me, not my fault!" He chimed in.
"Let me go get some snacks and drinks...but before that..."
I could still hear Lukas laugh his ass off. Just a few seconds ago I almost stumbled over him while rushing to the toilet next door. Even downstairs in the kitchen his voice rang.
"Sounds like you're having fun?"
"Yes mom. I almost ate dirt, that's why he's laughing so hard."
"Good, don't eat too much, I'm baking a pie." Only now I saw that the oven was on.
With two bottles of apple juice and a small bag of chips I went back upstairs to find Lukas sitting cross legged on my bed, the TV off. "I thought you'd like to do something else" the boy expressed.
"Oh yeah, a break would be nice. Got some juice and chips." I sat with my back against the headboard and placed the bottles and chips between us. "What should we do now?"
Clearly Lukas hadn't thought so far ahead. He was smart, hands down but right now he seemed a bit unsure.
"How about Truth or Dare?" I asked cheekily. Immediately Lukas began fidgeting his hands.
"I guess we could play...but no wild dares!" Seeing him this shy warmed my heart. Even though I didn't plan on having him run down the street just in his boxers I agreed. "No crazy stuff, I promise."
Our game was rather chill. We began with stupid questions and dares. The most exciting one was `try to lick your elbow' which Lukas obviously failed spectacularly. Then I decided to spice it up a bit. I wanted to really get to know that boy. When Lukas chose another truth I went for it.
"Who was your first kiss?" For a solid minute I thought I had messed up really badly. Lukas's cheeks were red and the fidgeting got worse. Right as I wanted to tell him he wouldn't have to answer that one question a timid "No one" escaped his lips. I couldn't believe my ears. How did nobody ever kiss that boy? Shuffling a bit forward I looked at him. "Huh...odd...I thought you got all the boys in your basketball club."
"What? No! Do you think we all make out in the showers after a game?"
The two of us started laughing, that idea having an effect on Lukas. "Now you have to tell me who your first kiss was."
I didn't mind him asking, as it was fair. "She was my first girlfriend. Dumped me for a stupid soccer guy but..."
"But what?"
I smiled. "I think I'm finally over her. Let's keep going: Truth or dare?"
"Hm...I'll take a dare."
Pondering what to do I blurted out "Close your eyes."
"Easy" Lukas grinned although a bit unsure whether or not I'd now pull out a giant gummy spider. His eyes opened up surprised to see me just millimeters away, our lips touching lightly. Let me tell you, oh boy he was a hungry one. After realizing what I just had done Lukas leaned forward his hands nearly crushing every last chip in the bag. His lips were pushed greedy against my own slowly getting into motion. This moment definitely felt right. I didn't care whether or not it was my hormones dictating my actions but my hands laid down on his cheeks. Breathing heavier than before our lips parted again. "Wow..." I'm not sure who said that, a big chance that we both were a bit speechless.
"Ethan...?"
"Yes...?"
"Are we...a thing?"
"You mean...B-...boyfriends?"
When he nodded, I froze for a moment before asking.
"Do...do you want to be?"
Jess was right. I at least had to give this a chance even though it confused and scared the living shit out of me.
"Y-y-yes...If you want to of course!"
How could I say no to him? "I could try...I mean I don't want to hurt you when I'm a bad boyfriend...last time I apparently wasn't good enough..."
"Ohhh...Ethan you'll always be good enough for me!"
"In that case...I guess...yeah...we can be a thing if you want to."
That was more than enough to make Lukas's day perfect. "Gimme a sec," I said as I quickly grabbed the small bag of almonds from my desk and leapt back onto the bed. "Here, take one, they're my favorites!"
With a big smile Lukas fished an almond out of the plastic bag. The all too familiar crunch cut through the silence. Everything felt awkward but we were happy. I somehow wanted to express how happy I was. "Can...Can I take you in my arms again?"
Lukas shrugged. It looked so damn cute when he was uncertain. "I don't see a reason why you couldn't."
I fully prepped myself against the headboard and opened my legs a bit, patting the space in front of my crotch. A bit shaky Lukas snug up to me, laying into me with his back. Just like the day before his head was in a perfect position to hear my heartbeat. Carefully I draped my arms over his shoulders. When Lukas didn't pull away I relaxed. A comfortable sigh escaped his lips. "I feel ya" I assured him that indeed I felt good in that position.
"Heehee...I can hear your heart again."
"Is it weird when I say that I like your shampoo?"
The two of us started giggling once more.
"Yes, it is. I can live with you being weird."
Being so at ease with each other the two of us zoned out. While I was in another world my arms got heavy which I only realized when my hands began caressing not only Lukas's arms but also the area around his thighs. "Oh shit I'm sorry" I quickly mumbled and put my hand back on his arms.
"It's okay, that felt good."
Too scared to go any further I just sat there having my hands slide over his arms repeatedly.
"I wish we could sit like this forever, Ethan..."
"Yeah...that feels really gre-"
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Frantically we started to shuffle apart. "One second" I yelled, unaware of possible implications. With a slight red tint on my cheeks I opened the door.
"Pie's ready, are you...hungry?"
I smiled at Mom, trying my best to not seem suspicious. Wait...we didn't do anything wrong.
"Yeah, of course, we'll be down in a sec."
Embarrassed we went down into the kitchen, the awesome smell of apple pie in the air. "Ohhh I know that smell!" I swiftly proclaimed. After taking a whiff Lukas chimed in. "There is nothing better than homemade apple pie."
Lukas was right. A homemade apple pie was the perfect ending for this day. While the other two ate their pie with a bit of whipped cream I handled the situation a bit different. I had some pie with my whipped cream.
"What is wrong with him" whispered Lukas way too loud to Mom, looking not so subtle in my direction.
"I don't know. One day Ethan woke up and demanded half a litre of sauce on his spaghetti."
Even though I was pouting I was really happy that they hit it off so well. "Make fun of me all you want, I don't care the least."
Halfway through our belated dessert Lukas's phone rang. A short conversation later we all knew that in about thirty minutes the day would end. Wanting some more alone time Lukas and I went back upstairs after whe had finished.
Back in my room we sat back down on the bed. Suddenly Lukas blushed. "Can we...can we kiss some more?"
"I don't see a reason why not?" I chuckled and leaned over. This time there was no greed on Lukas's part. Everything was slow and sensual. No hands wandering just a warm embrace.
God knows for how long we were laying on the bed just kissing each other. Unfortunately we got ripped out of that togetherness once again. Neither Lukas nor I ever heard his mom parking the car in our driveway or our mothers talking downstairs.
"Boys, come downstairs!" Was is already time for him to leave?
Red in our faces, not wanting to part ways we went downstairs for the last time. Unbeknown to us the mothers shared a look between them.
"Did you have fun today?" Lukas's mother asked him with a smile.
"Yep, Mr. Braun is a REALLY great host." I thought that was bit too kiss-ass but I didn't care.
"Ready to go home then?" At that moment I would've given an arm and a leg and a brother to keep Lukas with me. Maybe, just maybe a sleepover was possible next weekend?
"I'll text you when I'm back home." It was so cute. We didn't want to give away too much so we just gave each other a fist bump.
I just stood in the door, watching as their car took off the driveway. If this really is how love feels I wouldn't want to miss any second of it. "Will I be seeing Lukas more often now? He seems like a really good guy."
Closing the door I turned around, still smiling from ear to ear.
"Definitely."
End of Chapter 4
A massive thank you to everyone who read this story. It was a fantastic learning experience for me and hopefully a good read for you people.
With this chapter I want to at least freeze the story for now, I'm a bit depleted regarding ideas for those two.
One of my friends who is really good with words and colours made those two wonderful pictures for me.
The first one is our boys sitting near the small river, the second one is them close to making out. Hope you like them!
http://imgur.com/a/vNIQMkz
I'd love to hear your thoughts on chapter four so please send a message to silverfirestorm@outlook.de
If you want to get notified whenever I decide to either continue this journey or begin another please say so in an e-mail.