He kissed me. He smiled at me. I felt like laughing, I felt like crying. I felt like jumping his bones.
"Carter, I don't think that you should do that."
"You don't think that I should kiss you? I was just saying "thank you." Didn't you like that?"
"Well, yeah, I did. I liked it too much. The thing is, I'm gay, Carter. I think - I'm pretty sure that I am. Don't know if you are or not, but, even if you were, you're way, way out of my league."
"You stop that David Coddington! I don't know much about friendship. I've never had one until now - never wanted one. But I do know that I
don't like anyone putting my friend down, including you. Look, what do you see?"
He stood up, held his arms out from the sides and turned a couple of slow circles before dropping his arms and standing looking at me.
"What do you see?"
"I, umm, I see you. I see Carter."
"Yes, you see Carter. Do you see any labels anywhere?"
"No, Carter," I grinned, understanding beginning. "I don't see any labels on you."
"Good, because I don't want to wear any. You shouldn't either. So, how many days can I have?"
It was bloody hard to keep up with this boy.
"How many days can you have for what?"
"How many days can I have you for my friend."
He was talking really slowly, like he was talking to an idiot, which he was.
"Umm. Lots. Lots of days, forever maybe. I'm not going anywhere."
"Yes you will. Not today, maybe, but soon. Soon you'll go back to your real friend, to Chalky."
"My real friend? You look pretty real to me. Screw Chalky. He's not talking to me and I don't want to talk to him anyway. Whatever we had is gone."
"Oh. Well, that was a short friendship. Might even be a world's record. 'Bye Davey."
And, he left! He walked out and closed the door behind him and I was left alone, sitting on my bed, wrapped in my damp towel.
"Carter!" I yelled, but there was no reply, he'd gone. "Well, screw you too. You are a friggin' loony. No, you're not really, but you're way too deep for me."
What did he mean, a world record for a short friendship? Chalky and I had been friends for years and years - that's not short. He must've meant us - Carter and I. But why? What did I do? Was it because I told him that I was gay? No, that didn't worry him at all.
But, what then? It must've been because I said that Chalky and I were finished. Why would that upset him? He seemed to think that I'd go back to Chalky, to my 'real' friend in so many days, and then Carter and I couldn't be friends anymore?
That didn't make sense. I can't be friends with Carter if I'm friends with Chalky, and if I'm not friends with Chalky, then I can't be with
Carter anyway. And he said that he, (Carter), wanted me for his friend. Confused? I certainly was.
Then I got mad. "Bugger him! He's not leaving me up in the air like this. I want to know what's going on here!"
I wanted Carter. Chalky would be back sometime, he always was. Why couldn't I have two friends? It looked like I had none at the moment.
"We're going to sort this out, Carter, or Jordan Bloody Carter, or whatever your name is!"
I threw on some clothes, stormed over to the Matthews' house and banged on the door. Matt answered.
('Whoah! He's a big bugger. Well, I don't care!')
"I want to see Carter. Where is he?"
"You want to see Carter? He just came home crying. Carter never cries. What have you done to him?"
('Crying? What the hell for?') "I don't know, Matt. I don't know why he's crying. I just want to find out why and fix it, okay?"
"Well, okay then. Come and follow me. But, I'm warning you, Neighbour Boy, you'd better fix it. You hurt my cousin and I'm going to bust your arse."
"Fair enough. I don't want to hurt him. I just want to find out what went wrong and fix it, if I can."
"All right then. But you've been warned and I mean it. Down there, third door on the left. I'll be waiting right here."
He sat down at the top of the stairs. I went to the third door and knocked. Here was no answer, so I opened it and went in anyway.
The drapes were drawn and the light was off, I turned it on. Carter was lying face-down on the bed, quiet and still, like he'd been thrown
there.
"Carter, it's me, Davey."
There was no reply, of course, so I went over and sat down next to him.
"Look, Carter, you came over to my room and told me that you want to be my friend. Now I'm returning the favour, I'm here in your room and I so want to be your friend. Why can't I? What went wrong, Carter?"
He sighed, turned over and lay looking up at the ceiling. I looked down at him. He was so beautiful and, yes, he had been crying. Did I do that to him? I leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
"Hey!" He sat up, wiped his eyes and looked at me. "What did you do that for?"
"Lots of reasons. I wanted to. I'm sorry if I hurt you and I do want to be your friend, and thank you for listening to me. What happened? What went wrong, Carter?"
"Oh, what do you care anyway? Chalky was right, I am a loony."
"You are not! Look, Carter, I do care. I care very much. I think you're great and I want to get to know you. Please Carter - I'm begging you here. Besides, Matt's waiting out there and he says that I don't fix what's wrong, he's going to bust my arse. And I wouldn't blame him."
"You wouldn't? Well that's good!" He was smiling again, that had to be good. He got up, went over and looked out the door.
"Matt? Thank you, Matt. Now go away and leave my friend alone."
He came back and sat down. I grinned at him. "Thanks. So are we friends then?"
"If you want to, yeah, for now, but, how many days can I have?"
I sighed. "We're back there again. You can have as many days as you want. I don't see what the problem is."
"The problem is Chalky of course. You and Chalky. You're not talking at the moment but, according to Chatty, you've been best friends forever
- for all of your lives. I will not, I cannot, just walk in here and take that away from you, either of you."
"You're not taking anything away. Chalky's always been my best friend, but that doesn't mean that I can't have other friends as well. I have
got other friends and so has he - lots of them - lots more than I've got. We've had a row, but that's nothing new. We've often fallen out, but we always get back together, sooner or later.
I probably could have fixed it by now, but I don't want to - not this time. He's in the wrong and he can come crawling this time."
"But he's not, is he? He's not crawling and you should swallow your pride and go and fix things up with Chalky. You need to. Friends are important."
"Now you're sounding like my mum. You've got a good heart, Carter, a really good heart. I'll go and see him if you think that I should, but I still want to be friends with you, that's important too."
"That's good, Davey, but go and get your friend back. I need you to teach me about friendship - I've never had one before."
"Well. It must be true if you say so, but I find that hard to believe. I don't think I could teach you anything, you already know."
"Okay. That's good. Not true, but nice of you to think so. Now, take your clothes off."
"What?" I squawked. "Do you want to have sex, Carter? I don't think we should. I've been doing that with Chalky and that's part of the problem. We should never have done it."
While I was burbling, Carter was busy stripping his own clothes off. "No I don't want to have sex with you; I can't be bothered with all that. I want to look at you. I want to see you, not your clothes. I could go visit your wardrobe if I wanted to see your clothes."
Totally naked now, he sat cross-legged on the bed next to me. I was right the other day, he had no pubes, no body hair at all. He had no boner either. Trouble was, I did. I couldn't help it, he was so incredibly beautiful, all over. I'd never had a friend like Carter. Shit, had anyone?
I started taking my clothes off, all embarrassed now. I didn't want him to see the state of me. But, whatever. I'd already told him that I was gay. Probably gay.
"You might have a hang-up about being naked. Most people have. You can leave your boxers on if you want."
"Thanks, I have - I will leave them on."
But, when I got down to them, I thought, 'Oh, whatever. Let him look. Just maybe. . .'
I slid my fingers down my belly, inside the waist-band and pulled it out over my boner. I released the boxers and let them fall to the floor.
Then I had an attack of modesty and quickly sat down on the bed, crossing my arms in front of me to hide my privates.
Carter stood up in front of me. He took hold of both of my hands and pulled them out, uncrossing my arms and exposing everything. Embarrassing! I was blushing right down to my toes. He just nodded as he stared at me, and then he smiled.
"Nice. Thank you Davey. Thank you for showing me all of you."
And he kissed me.
Our still-linked hands went back onto the bed on either side of me as he pushed forward and I leaned back. Our hands were joined, our lips were joined and our bare chests were almost touching together. The bedroom door opened and Bruce walked in.
"Davey, do you want to . . .Oh!"
He froze. We all did as he stood and stared at us.
"I, ah, I. . sorry."
He turned and fled, closing the door behind him.
Man! I thought I was embarrassed before. Carter wasn't worried at all. He just shrugged, grinned and said, "Maybe we should put our clothes on now."
I didn't need telling twice. I dressed in record time, Carter was much slower. Then he stood in front of me, straightened my collar and patted my stupid hair into place, and he smiled.
"Nice," he said. "Davey, can you cook? I'd love an omelet."
"An omelet? Well, yeah. I guess I could manage that."
"Good boy. That's great. You're going to be a good friend, Davey, just what I need. But you will tell me, won't you? If you think I'm using you, then you've got to tell me so I'll stop it."
"Yeah, I'll tell you, if it bothers me. You'll tell me too, won't you?"
"Well, of course I will. Come on, let's go eat."
We went down through the busy house. There were people everywhere, we ignored them and they ignored us - except for Bruce and Chalky, they were staring. Let them.
In the kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. were sitting talking across the table, they stopped and stared at us - at me - when we came in. Carter went to the fridge and opened it.
"Eggs, onions, tomatoes, milk. What else do you need, Davey?"
I just stood and looked at the eyes staring at me.
"Um, well. . .we'll need some flour and. . . " My voice choked up and faded away.
Carter looked back, looked at the parents, and then he came and hugged me. He stood with an arm around my waist and said, "David, Marie, stop bothering my friend."
Mrs. Matthews smiled. "Okay, Carter. Since when have you had a friend?"
"Since now. This is my friend, Davey, and he's a good one too."
Mr. Matthews smiled as well. "Right, Carter. He must be a good one if you've chosen him. Hello Davey, you be nice to our boy. He needs a friend."
"He's got a friend, David. Come on Davey, you're cooking. I'm hungry here."
Mrs. Matthews asked, "Do you want me to do that for you?"
"No Marie. I didn't ask you, I asked Davey. But thanks."
So, I made omelets. They weren't my best effort, but they were okay. Carter was delighted anyway. I made his first, but he didn't touch it. He just left it in the oven while I made another for myself.
I put my plate on the table but Carter picked his one up and headed for the door.
"Well, come on, Davey, back to my room. You're not going to masticate in public are you?"
What did he say?? I stood there, gulping like a stunned mullet as he left the kitchen. I grabbed up my plate, fork and knife and followed Carter back upstairs. How was I ever going to keep up with this kid? I'd just have to go with the flow. Normal rules didn't seem to apply around Carter.