Marcus and Kyle

A Shift in the Universe Christian Mitchell Copyright 2004

CHAPTER THREE:

When I arrived at school I debated whether to meet Kyle like I always did before our first class. Since I hadn't heard from him since he left my house the day before I was beginning to wonder about what he might be thinking. Maybe he was embarrassed and seeing me might make him uncomfortable. Yet, despite the fact that I contemplated not searching for him, I immediately started to look for Kyle. I spotted him standing with Ashley at his locker. As I approached I realized that they were arguing about something. Ashley noticed me out of the corner of her eye and greeted me with half a smile. She released her grasp of Kyle's hand and turned to walk away. "Good morning," she said to me as she disappeared around the corner.

Kyle patted me on the shoulder. "Hey, buddy."

"Is everything alright? It looked like you guys were arguing."

"Yeah, I'm fine," he beamed. "Ashley and I were just talking about something, but it's okay." He grabbed a couple textbooks from his locker then shut the door. As always, he checked the latch to make sure that it was indeed locked. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Good," I answered. "I'm looking forward to school being over though."

"Hell, yeah. Me too!" He leaned up against his locker door. "One more summer then we're off to college, man. Kinda hard to believe, huh?"

"Yes and no," I replied. "It seems kind of weird that college is right around the corner."

He nodded his head in agreement. "Well, I need to get my ass to class because I've been late a lot lately. Meet me here after class."

I told him that I would meet him then walked into my American History class, which was about ten feet from Kyle's locker. As usual the teacher ranted on and on, boring me in the process. I always found it difficult to concentrate on what the teacher was saying when they would speak for long amounts of time. It made me sleepy and I became ill at ease in my seat. Although I attempted to pay attention I just couldn't do it and soon I let my thoughts drift away from the classroom.

I was curious about my relationship with Kyle and how the fact that we had sex might affect our friendship. I didn't regret what we did and I hoped that he still had no misgivings. I was also a little confused about my feelings because I've always loved Kyle but something was stirring deep inside me. I believed that our bond was strengthened by sex but I also feared that it might also tear us apart.

As I waited at Kyle's locker Tyler ran up to me as if he was going to jump on me then acted as if he was going to punch me in the stomach. I reacted by doing the same to him. It was the typical behavior among the guys in our group of friends. "What's up, mother fucker?"

"Not much," I replied. "What's up with you, mother fucker?"

"Making it through another Monday," he smiled. Tyler was the quarterback of the football team. He was also quite good looking. His dark brown eyes were looking directly into mine and for the first time I got nervous. I quickly diverted my eyes elsewhere.

Tyler was dating a girl from another high school that I didn't see very often. "How's Lisa doing?"

"Oh, man, you know. She's great. Things are good between us, man."

"Cool," I smiled.

Kyle arrived and I moved out of his way so that he could put his books in his locker. "Hey, Ty, what's up?"

"Making it through another Monday," he repeated. "You guys going out anywhere tonight?"

"I don't know," Kyle replied. "What are you up to tonight?"

Tyler shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. Just thought maybe some of us guys could get together and hang out."

"Maybe. Give us a call later," Kyle suggested as he shut the door to his locker.

"Okay," Tyler responded and began to run down the hall. "If you guys think of anything call me," he yelled as he vanished into the crowd of students.

I noticed that Kyle had put all of his books into his locker. "So, what's up?" I asked.

"Let's get out of here, man."

"You want to skip school?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "C'mon let's go. We can come back later, if you want. Then we won't miss the whole day." Kyle could tell that I was entertaining the idea so he began to encourage me. "Let's get out of here, Marcus. You know you want to."

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I just don't feel like being here today."

"Well, I can understand that. I really don't feel like being here either."

"We can go to my place, if you want."

"Okay, but if we get into a shit load of trouble, I'm going to kill you."

"Cool," he grinned as if he had just won some wonderful prize. "You wannna drive or ride with me?"

"You can be the chauffeur," I smiled.

We decided to go to a coffeehouse to drink and sit a while. Once we were seated there was a minute of complete silence. Kyle and I always had something to talk about so the lack of conversation seemed very odd. I'm sure we were both a little nervous about spending time with each other since we had sex. Yet, the sudden quiet was a bit too much to bear. I decided to break the silence with a stupid question. "Did you finish your American History homework?"

Kyle sipped his coffee and smiled. "No. I didn't do much homework this weekend."

"Damn," I replied. "I didn't do any. I need to get my ass in gear."

"It's okay. One assignment isn't going to keep you from graduating."

"You're right," I granted. Another moment of silence was suddenly upon us.

Kyle leaned in closer toward me and folded his arms on the table. "You want to go to my house? We can -"

When I realized that he wasn't going to finish his sentence I asked," what?"

Kyle grinned and straightened himself up in his seat. "You know."

I glanced around to make sure that no one was listening to our conversation. In a hushed tone I asked," you want to go to your house so we can have sex?"

The smile on Kyle's face became twice as big as it had been. He relaxed in the chair and seemed somewhat embarrassed by my question. "Yeah, if you want," he shrugged.

Thoughts began to plague my mind. Were Kyle and I establishing a sexual relationship with each other? Were we ever going to have a serious conversation about what happened between us?

I had known Kyle for ten years. We had experienced many things together over the years. I guess it wasn't too much of a shock that we were sexually experimenting with each other. Because we were such good friends it was easy for me to accept the new intimacy as not much out of the ordinary. My mind was telling me that we were embarking on a strange journey, but my heart wanted more. I needed to feel Kyle's touch just as much as he wanted to give it to me.

I grabbed my coffee and stood up. "Let's go."

During the drive to Kyle's house I was starting to become anxious. He looked over at me and I guess he could sense that I was somewhat tense. With a smile he reached over and grabbed my hand. He squeezed it once then continued to hold my hand the entire time that he was driving. As we approached a red light a large black pickup pulled up next to us on Kyle's side of the car. It was one of those trucks on big wheels that some guys like to drive because they think that it somehow boosts their masculinity to be the owner of such a big vehicle. Because of the truck's size the passenger was at an elevated height compared to most vehicles and he could easily look out his window and down into Kyle's car. The guy glanced over at us and his eyes widened when he saw that we were holding hands. My initial reaction was to pull away from Kyle's grasp but he held me more tightly. The guy said something to the driver of the pickup then returned to looking at us. I think he was about to say something to us but the light turned green and Kyle started driving again.

"Fuck those guys," he said.

"That made me uncomfortable," I replied.

"Why?"

"Well, I've never held hands with a guy before. Plus that guy looked like he wanted to kick our asses or something."

Kyle frowned. "Who cares what strangers think of us. It's you and me, man. He doesn't know us. That guy is some asshole who will probably never see us again. Maybe he's gay and he thought we were hot."

"I guess I'm being paranoid," I said and began to relax again.

"I don't care what people think," Kyle continued. "I love you, Marcus. And I know that we're not dating or anything like that, but I'm not ashamed of my feelings for you."

I smiled and squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like an asshole."

"You're not," he smiled and repeated, " you're not."

Once we arrived at Kyle's house he immediately led me up to his bedroom. The room suddenly seemed different to me. Growing up we had spent countless hours playing and talking in his room. I'd slept in his bed many times and now all my memories of the room were going to include sex as well.

He pulled me into a tight embrace and began to kiss me. It was long and passionate. When he pulled his lips from mine he asked," are you alright?"

"Yeah," I smiled.

"Good," he replied. "If you're having second thoughts, it's okay."

"I'm not." I kissed him quickly. "We're going to have to talk about this soon though, you know? We can't just keep fucking our brains out without discussing what's going on between us. Right?"

"I know," he answered, tugging on my shirt to free it from the waistband of my jeans. "But right now, at this very moment, I wanna make love to you."

We both undressed quickly and got into bed. He pulled the sheets over our bodies and began to kiss my neck. "Marcus you feel so good lying next to me." His hands were rubbing my chest and abs as he continued to kiss and suck on my neck.

I pulled away. "Don't give me any hickeys," I warned. "Those things are harder than hell to hide and even harder to get rid of."

Kyle laughed. "I won't. I promise."

I grabbed his face and pulled his lips to mine. We kissed for several minutes, with our hands exploring each other's bodies. I used to be envious of Kyle's muscular body because working out allowed his muscles to develop more than mine did. I discovered that his body was becoming a turn on to me. It was a wonderful feeling to have his hard body against mine as we made out.

Kyle maneuvered himself on top of me. "I want to fuck you and then I want you to fuck me, okay?"

I nodded in agreement and positioned myself so that I was more comfortable under his weight. "Yes," I exhaled. "Fuck me, Kyle."

His fingers grasped my hair and tilted my head back. He stuck his tongue out and licked the length of my neck, chin and bottom lip. "I'm not gonna fuck you, buddy. I'm going to make love to you."

For a second I wanted to laugh at his statement but my urge to giggle was quickly replaced with desire. "Yes. Make love to me."

I woke up and glanced at the alarm clock on Kyle's desk. It was nearly noon. When we had finished having sex we immediately fell asleep even though I didn't think that I was tired enough to. I nudged Kyle's arm to wake him up.

He slowly opened his eyes and smiled at me. He pulled my body close to his and I let him hold me for a few minutes before I suggested that we get out of bed.

"Just a couple more minutes," he protested. He ran his hand through my hair and kissed the back of my neck. Kyle hugged me then released me from his grasp. "Okay, let's get on with the day." He jumped out of bed and extended his hand to pull me up off the mattress. "Do you wanna take a shower?"

"Sure," I replied and followed him to the bathroom.

We had been in the shower for only a few minutes when I heard the bathroom door open and close. Then I instantly recognized the voice of Kyle's older brother. "Hey, man I gotta take a piss."

"Why don't you use the bathroom downstairs?" Kyle asked with a tone of irritation.

"Because I'm upstairs," Brad retorted.

Kyle continued to wash his body while I stood there completely frozen, not wanting to move or even breathe for fear that it may attract Brad's unwanted attention. I was surprised that Kyle didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that his brother was only a few feet away from us. The horrible image of his brother pulling the shower curtain aside and discovering us was beginning to make me panic. I heard the toilet flush and instantly felt the water become much hotter as it sprayed against my back. It stung like hell and I quickly moved away from my side of the shower toward Kyle, nearly slipping and falling in the process.

Brad laughed. "Sorry, bro, I couldn't resist."

"Yeah, thanks, man," Kyle replied.

The bathroom door opened and closed again. I released a huge sigh of relief and ran my hands through my hair. "That was fucking close."

Kyle shrugged. "No big deal."

I was confused. "What? Of course it would have been a big deal."

"Ah, just relax," Kyle smiled. "Brad and I have seen each other naked plenty of times."

"Yeah, but I'm sure he hasn't caught you in the shower with another guy before," I replied.

He shrugged his shoulders. "No, he hasn't. But Brad and I have showered together before."

I looked at him with a surprised expression on my face. My eyebrows arched with interest," really?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter. We've never done anything sexual with each other." He chuckled when he realized that I was relieved to hear that bit of information. "He did teach me how to masturbate though," he added.

"Wow," I grinned. "Now I know what I've been missing by not having a brother of my own."

"Believe me, it has its advantages and disadvantages."

"I bet."

"I'm getting out," he said as he stepped out of the shower. "I'll get you a towel."

I turned the water off and stood there waiting for Kyle to return. The cool air was sending chills throughout my body. "Um, I'm beginning to freeze in here!" I called out. He walked in and handed me the towel while placing his finger to his lip to let me know that I needed to be quiet.

"Brad's in his room," he warned. "I thought you wanted to be discreet and sneaky."

"Sorry," I whispered. "And sneaky isn't exactly the word I would use."

Kyle gave me a quick kiss and turned on his heel to return to his bedroom. "I'm going to get dressed."

I dried off as quickly as possible and began to rush back to Kyle's room.

Unfortunately his bedroom doesn't have its own private bath so I ran into Brad as I was walking down the hallway. The second he spotted me he stopped dead in his tracks then smiled. "Hey, stranger."

"Uh, hey, to you too," I managed to stutter in reply as I wrapped the towel more tightly around my waist. "What's up?"

"I didn't realize that was you in the shower. Sorry about walking in on you."

"Oh, I just got out of the shower. You must have walked in on Kyle," I lied.

Brad shrugged his shoulders as if he believed what I had just told him. "So what's the occasion?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you guys must be skipping school for some good reason or another," he said, placing his hand beneath his shirt to rub his stomach.

"Ah," I nodded. "No reason. Just didn't feel like it." We looked at each other for a few seconds then Kyle walked out into the hallway. Like Brad and I had done a couple minutes earlier, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Brad directed his attention to Kyle. "You know mom won't be happy with you if she finds out that you're skipping school again."

"Oh, give me a break," Kyle complained. "I'm gonna tell her about it later so she won't be caught off guard when the school calls."

"Good," Brad replied. "She'd be pissed if she had to lie that she knew you weren't in school. Then she'd kill you later."

Kyle offered his brother a fake smile. "Thanks for the advice, big brother."

"You guys wanna go get some lunch somewhere?" Brad asked. "I'm starving."

Kyle looked at me and I simply shrugged my shoulders. "Sure," he answered.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes," I said as I walked into Kyle's room. I practically fell onto the bed in disbelief regarding the scene that had just taken place in and out of the bathroom. I was nervous as hell that Brad had guessed what Kyle and I had been up to or would soon figure it out. When I heard Kyle enter the room I stood up and began to put my clothes on as quickly as possible. "What the fuck?"

"It's okay," Kyle smiled. "Don't worry. Brad doesn't suspect a thing."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure," he answered.

"Oh, that puts me at ease," I replied as I pulled my jeans on. "First my mother and now your brother. This is getting ridiculous. Not only that, but food is always mentioned afterward, too. This is weird." I half-heartedly laughed," sex, people, food."

"Hey," Kyle quickly interjected as he crossed the room to hand me my shoes. "It's okay. Don't get yourself all worked up over nothing." He leaned in to kiss me and for a moment I was about to deny him the privilege but I gave in and accepted his kiss. "We can figure all of this out later, okay?"

I nodded and pulled myself away from his lips. I began to look for my shirt. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Brad was standing in the doorway with a completely shocked expression on his face.

"What the fuck?"

Kyle quickly turned around to face his brother.

"I can not believe what I just saw with my own fucking eyes," Brad said in a very pronounced manner. "If I didn't see it, I never would have believed it," he continued. "Are you guys lovers or something?"

Neither Kyle nor I immediately responded. I seriously thought I was going to die on the spot. I was utterly embarrassed about being discovered and paranoid that Brad might try to kick the shit out of me. I returned to putting the remainder of my clothes on as I did my best to avoid direct eye contact with Brad.

"Are you guys lovers?" he asked again.

"Brad, don't get the wrong idea," Kyle responded. "You walked in on us and yeah, you saw us kissing. I understand you're confused, but - -"

"I'm confused?" Brad laughed. "Seems to me that you two are the confused ones around here."

"You know what, Brad, I don't care what you think. Yeah, I kissed Marcus. No, we're not lovers. We were just - -" Kyle paused and took a deep breath. "We - -"

"What?"

Kyle sat on the edge of his bed and placed his head in hands. He didn't say anything. Brad sensed that his brother was upset and kneeled down in front of him, resting his hands on Kyle's knees. "Hey, it's okay," he said softly. "Don't get upset, Kyle. I'm sorry. Everything's cool, man."

Despite the fact that Brad had calmed down and was sincere about consoling his brother, I still wanted to get the hell out of there. I knew I couldn't just run out of the room and leave them in a cloud of dust. So I continued to stand there like an idiot hoping that the floor would open up and swallow me.

I was also uncomfortable because Brad was paying attention to Kyle as if I wasn't even in the room to begin with. Oddly enough I felt somewhat guilty about observing the interaction that was taking place between the two of them.

It seemed like I was spying on an intimate moment I shouldn't be seeing.

Kyle lifted his head and sighed. "Marcus and I were just fooling around.

Nothing to get all worked up about. I'm slightly embarrassed, but at the same time, I'm not."

Brad rested his hand on Kyle's shoulder and squeezed it like he was giving him a massage. "It's alright. Lots of guys experiment and play around with each other. It's part of growing up, man."

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. My uneasiness with the situation still had not vanished.

"Yeah, I know, but the way you looked when you asked us - -" Kyle paused.

"You looked pretty disgusted and pissed."

Brad shook his head. "No, I was surprised."

"I thought you were going to kick our asses," Kyle continued.

"Me, too," I said as I tied my shoes.

"Remember Kevin?" Brad asked as he stood up. "We used to jerk off with each other a lot ever since we were fifteen. We even kissed a couple times and he gave me head a couple times. Harmless stuff."

Now an expression of shock painted Kyle's face. "Well, that makes me feel better," he sighed. "Kevin?" he asked in disbelief.

"Are you guys doing more than that?" Brad questioned with a great deal of interest. I could tell that he was doing his best to conceal a smile but soon he was grinning from ear to ear.

I remained silent as I looked at Kyle. He glanced at me and smiled.

"You are!" Brad exclaimed. "So you guys are lovers, right?" He was becoming a bit more excited than I believed he should be. He even jumped up in the air once with enthusiasm. "Okay, it's none of my business. But, hey, with four sons and one daughter it probably shouldn't be a surprise that at least one of us is gay."

"Brad, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about," Kyle responded.

"So, you're telling me that you two aren't gay?"

"NO!" Kyle yelled. He walked toward the door. "Can we just go get something to eat. Or maybe Marcus and I should just leave."

"Hey, dude, I'm sorry," Brad apologized and hugged Kyle. "I'm an asshole."

Kyle looked at me and motioned for me to move closer toward him. "You still wanna go eat?"

For a second I thought I should just go back to school and leave the two of them alone to talk. Then Brad walked over to me and placed his arm around my shoulders.

"Everything's cool. I'm sorry."

"Um... what do you want to do?" I asked Kyle.

"Let's eat," he answered.

"You know, I have a couple gay friends at college," Brad offered.

"Brad, shut up," Kyle replied without even looking back at his brother.

While we ate lunch at a Greek restaurant Brad entertained us with stories about college life. He had returned home the night before to enjoy a break from school with family. Then he was planning on meeting his buddies for a camping trip in Northern California.

Kyle and I returned to school and attended the remainder of our classes as if we had been there all day. As I was about to get in my car and drive home Tyler appeared at my window. Because I didn't notice his sudden appearance he scared the shit out of me when he said hello.

Tyler laughed and slapped his hand on the roof of my Mustang. "I'm sorry, man."

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

"I just wanted to know if you and Kyle wanted to do anything tonight."

"Well, we didn't talk about it. I'll call you later and let you know."

"Cool," Tyler smiled. "I think I'm going to invite the guys over to my house. We can order pizza or something and just hang out."

"Alright," I replied. "Then you call us."

"Okay," he agreed. "See you later."

Once I was home I immediately started to do my Algebra homework. I hated Algebra and from time to time the work irritated the hell out of me because I couldn't comprehend needing to know the information in the future. Just as I was about to solve the last problem there was a knock on my bedroom door. "Yeah," I called out.

My mother entered the room with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. "Mr. Marcus Anderson. The next time you skip school I would appreciate it if you informed me of your plans."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry, mom. I totally forgot. I was going to tell you. I didn't realize it was this late. I guess the school called you, huh?"

"Yes, they did. Thankfully, for you I wasn't caught completely off guard and I told them that you were sick."

"Thank you," I replied as I moved my chair away from the desk to stand up.

"What did you do with your extra free time?"

"Kyle and I hung out."

"Oh, he skipped school, too. Of course."

"Well, we had lunch with his brother, too. He's on break from school."

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about Kyle."

My face must have turned completely white with fear or guilt.

"Don't look so horrified," she smiled. "I just want to talk to you about this past weekend."

"Oh," I replied as I walked toward her. "Can we talk about it later? I'm supposed to go to Tyler's and hang out with the guys."

"Well, okay," she surrendered. "You're not going to be late, are you?"

"No, we're just gonna hang out a while. Order pizza and probably play ball or something."

"Fine," she responded as she stepped out into the hallway so that I could exit my room. "I would like to talk to you before I go to bed."

"Okay, okay. You make it sound so urgent," I complained.

"It's not urgent. And it's nothing to be worried about. I just wanted to ask you about the extent of your relationship with Kyle."

Once again my face lost all its color and returned to white with fear or guilt. For the most part, I wasn't surprised that my mother wanted to discuss the scene she walked into Sunday morning. I had hoped that she had forgotten or not thought much of it. Naturally, I couldn't have been so lucky. So now my mother and I were going to have the BIG TALK about Kyle and me. And to make matters worse, Kyle and I hadn't even had a conversation about what was happening between us.

I was truly embarrassed.

With my best front at acting nonchalant, I replied. "Okay, sure. When I get home tonight we'll talk."