NOTE: Thanks for all the recent compliments and encouragement many of you have shared about the tale of Jake Grimke. This continues to be the fictional coming of age story of Jake as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Being an only child, Jake had no need to rush down the steps to get to the presents under the Christmas tree before any other sibling. As he stirred in bed, he reached under his shorts and grabbed himself, and gently stroked until he was somewhere past semi-hard and let the soft nylon mesh fabric lay against his dick as he let the waist band of the shorts conform to his waist. His eyes closed and he tried to stitch together the pieces of the dream he had earlier, the vision of Jose Valdez that had entered his head a few hours before.
He continued stroking, evoking the image of Jose burned into his memory from the Christmas concert at Children's Medical Center. In those few short minutes, he assessed the man's visible as well as not so visible features and recalled them. There was of course the prominent Latino features; his bronze skin, defined high cheek bones, smoldering dark brown eyes, full lips, perfect teeth and a perfectly even haze of black stubble on his face.
Jake continued stroking, remembering the upturned cuffs of the button-down shirt he wore, noting the trace of black hair on each forearm as they appeared below the cuffs and the apparent strength in the size of his hands. He could easily envision Jose in a soccer uniform, complete with cleats and shinguards, kicking a ball down the field towards the goal, looking perfectly natural doing it. Keeping his eyes closed, Jake imagined himself the goalie and Jose driving towards him, getting closer except Jake didn't want to defend the goal, he just wanted Jose to score.
Laying in his bed, with his left hand stroking the contour of his shaft outlined in the soft fabric of the shorts, Jake slid his right hand up from his hairy right quad and across his mid-section until it reconnected on the smooth skin of his abs until he found his right nip atop his defined right pec. He flexed and relaxed, flexed and relaxed as he kept the vision of Jose front and center in his mind until he felt the inevitable results of his labors beginning with a tiny tremor in his left quad.
He sped up the stroking, picturing Jose between his legs, Jose's strong hand on his pec and the big lips coming lower and lower until they met Jake's and cemented together as he began to shoot under his shorts repeatedly while clutching his right pec hard and tensing his legs, thinking it helps propel every drop out of him. Spent, he lay in bed, for a few minutes, catching his breath in a blissful daze as the once crystal clear vision of Jose began to fade and into the fact that it was Christmas morning and there were presents to open became first and foremost in his mind.
Jake glanced at his IPhone's display, 7:37 am it blinked, willing himself out of bed and leaving Jose behind. He headed for a quick shower, getting a nose full of the breakfast scents wafting upstairs and an ear full of the friendly chatter between his parents and grandparents. After the shower, he dressed up nicely in a red sweater, khakis and black shoes before grabbing the gel and fluffing his mostly blonde hair into the new style Will had taught him.
"Happy Christmas," Jake announced to everybody gathered in the family room by the tree, hugging his mom and dad and then grandparents and leaving his present for Will under the tree.
"Merry Christmas Jake" each grandparent said.
"Merry Christmas son," each parent said.
It was a bit cold but not snowing and John Jr. had lit the fire in the fireplace to take the chill off the room. Jake doled out the presents he bought for his parents and grandparents and waited for each of them to open and like or dislike what he bought for them before he settled down to open his own gifts. It was kind of funny for John and Emma to watch Jake's face when he realized there were only a handful of gifts with Jake's name on the tag.
He shrugged it off, opening a shoe box sized gift from his grandparents. As the paper was ripped off, he saw it was just that from the Nike trademark on the box.
He opened the box, and it was pair of Nike running shoes; a gift he could definitely use but seemed somewhat disappointed. He opened another box, shirt sized and found a UVa hoodie which didn't seem to jive with what Emma had said a few nights ago about that "sweat thing."
By now, Emma and John were practically giddy with excitement, seeing Jake trying to be genuinely excited about the presents he had already opened and not knowing what was on the driveway between the house and the garage. "Hey Jake, before this goes any further," John said as more of a parental directive than just a suggestion, "how about if you go out to the garage and get a couple more pieces of wood for the fire."
Jake looked at the fire in the fireplace, blazing away but no extra logs in the wood holder sitting on the hearth. At first Jake was kind of non-plussed with the idea but remembering just a year or two ago that his parents wheeled in a kick-ass mountain bike, he figured they needed the diversion to bring something else in for him. By the time Jake was halfway into the kitchen, parents and grandparents were trying to stealthly trail behind him as he exited the side kitchen door and saw the Saab.
As Jake got stepped out, he just assumed the car had been returned from the mechanic. It wasn't until he got closer that he saw the red paint was new, that the canvas on the roof was new. He began to walk around it, opening the driver's door and inspecting its interior. Gone were the broken and worn leather seats, replaced with new ones and a new digital stereo with a dock for his IPhone to charge and play his music through the reworked sound system. He sat himself in the driver's seat, his left foot engaging the clutch and moving the shifter through the gear box while his parents and grandparents walked out and watched.
"How about that wood, Jake?" John hollered, beaming, holding his wife around her hips.
Jake bounded of the car, smiling ear to ear, "forgot Dad, kind of got distracted."
"You like it?" Emma asked.
"I think he does," Margaret said, "you did good John."
"Well done son," John Senior added, "he never had a clue, did he?
"Not a single one," John Junior said and then turned to his own son, "did you Jake?"
Jake got out and walked around one more time, touching the new wheels and tires before stopping at the rear bumper and noticing the vanity Maryland license plate, 7RN LAX. As his smile got even bigger, he just pointed and asked, "really, it's mine?"
"Totally yours Jake," Emma said, "I know my faithful little Saab is in good hands."
Then Jake looked a little dumbfounded and asked, "Mom, what are you going to drive then?"
Jake's dad replied, "you can take your Mom to the Honda dealer in another day or two, we ordered a new one since the first one has been so reliable. This is yours now Jake, you have to take care of it; pay for the insurance, the fuel and of course the maintenance; which it should need very little of for now. We, your mother and I, expect that this car will carry you through your college years. You've always been very responsible Jake and we expect that you will continue to do so."
"I know Dad, Mom. Thank you so much, this is such a surprise," Jake said before he looked at his mom with a grin, "I thought you said iit wasn't running right?"
"Well, we heard enough commentary about how obsolete cassettes are and your father and I began planning this in the fall when we talked about a new car for ourselves. We weren't going to get much in trade and decided to spruce the old girl up a bit and give it to you. We took it to Mr. Schabb's garage and ordered what it needed and when all the parts came in, we took it down for the work."
"And the license plate," Jake asked?
"I took care of that one day at work," John said, "new tillerman had to get the tractor trailer endorsement on his license and I ordered it then and had it shipped to the firehouse."
John continued, the grandparents going back inside to warm up, "we have to sign the title over to you and you have to get it insured yourself by January 1st when you come off our policy. With your good grades and just that one moving violation right after you got your license, you should be able get a decent rate with our agent; but it won't be cheap. You are just going to have to suck up that fact of life until you're 25 or so, and, keep your driving record clean."
Emma concluded the inevitable parental warnings that come with such a gift with "and, don't turn that thing into anything found on the "Fast and Furious" or I'll take it back and give you the old Honda."
"No way Mom! I love it just the way it is, it's perfect," Jake replied.
"Good enough for me, now come inside and have Christmas breakfast with your grandparents. They want to get on the road to Philadelphia and your father and I are going over to the Kauffman's for their traditional Christmas barbecue, you're welcome to come along if you want."
Ralph Kauffman could barbecue anything and did so twelve months out of the year. Jake pondered his options knowing Evan was at his mom's with his older sisters young nieces and nephews and didn't want to barge in their get together. He took a picture of the Saab on his IPhone and sent it to Evan and then to Will tagged with the caption "look what I got!".
After breakfast and getting his grandparents on the road, Jake got a call from Will. "Hey bro, we need to talk," Will said, adding, "in person."
"Yeah, I want to talk to you too, my place or yours?" Jake answered, holding the phone in one hand to his ear while he helped clean up with his parents.
"What's going on at your house?" Will asked.
"Not much, my grandparents just left and the `rents are heading to a neighbor's house for a barbecue for an hour or two. Dad's got to work tonight so he will want to take a nap later this afternoon," Jake said, filling in Will on some of the Grimke rituals before he offered, "I got a present here for you."
"You do, really," Will inquired.
"Yep, c'mon over, I'll show you the car," Jake said trying to sweeten the offer.
Will agreed and arrived at the Grimke house in less than an hour just as Jake's parents were leaving for their neighbors' party. They greeted Will as they left and Emma reminded Jake of "the rule" as they walked down the driveway. Jake showed Will the car and all the work that had been before they went inside to warm up, Jake offering Will a cup of coffee still warm from the earlier breakfast.
Will sat on the couch in the family room while Jake retrieved his gift from under the tree there and handed it to his friend, "Here Will, thanks for being my friend. I hope you like it."
"You're going to hate me Jake, I didn't get you anything." Will said, not ready to accept the present with nothing to share with Jake.
"No problem, this just sort of popped in my head yesterday, I hope you like it," Jake said as he watched Will unwrap the box from Brooks Brothers.
"Wow, Brooks Brothers, very nice Jake Grimke," Will said as he took the lid off and unfolded the tissue paper inside and pulled out the cashmere muffler, "oh my God, you picked this out?"
Jake just nodded, happy that Will was happy, then, turning to face each other they looked at each other uneasily, not sure what was going to happen next. Will took the lead and pulled Jake into a hug but only quick peck on the cheek before releasing the hug and letting Jake relax back into a normal sitting position.
"Now you are really going to hate me," Will said.
"Why's that?" Jake asked, kind of confused.
"Jake," Will thought about what he practiced saying in the mirror, "that whole date thing at Jackie's the other night. I'm not very comfortable with that, at all. Granted, in my eyes and the eyes of many, you are hottest dude that walks the halls of Severn High but it just doesn't seem right to me."
Jake just listened in silence as Will continued.
"Maybe I, maybe we, made a mistake the other night in your garage. I'm sorry if I led you on to believe that there was more but I am very uncomfortable with all that happened. Do you hate me?"
Jake shook his head no, put his hand on Will's knee, not unlike he would do with Evan when they were having a serious talk, "I don't hate you Will, in fact, I have kind of admired you from afar, admired that you were strong enough to be who your are. You gave me the courage I needed to "ring the bell" even though it was a bit earlier than I planned."
"You were planning to come out?" Will asked.
"Yeah, the fuse had been burning for while for me to do it and well, watching Ernie and Chord start in on you again at Jackie's made me realize you needed somebody to stand with you," Jake said before he continued, "you are the only gay guy I know and, well, I need somebody to teach me some things, and I don't mean the sex things, I mean, just what you know that I need to know. That can be your present to me, Will. Just be my gay friend."
They hugged again, longer and slightly more intimately before Will whispered in Jake's ear, "I'll share what I know, won't be much, but I'll share it with you. Merry Christmas Jake Grimke."