Alan knew. They had talked about it at the end of their senior year. Martin had confessed when they sat, sharing a joint.
"So gay huh?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure"
"Done anything, I mean stuff you see on the internet, not us fooling around like we did when we were kids"
Martin knew what he meant.
"Not really, thought about it, but ..... just hasn't happened"
"With me?"
Martin hesitated to answer just as he had hesitated telling Alan in the first place. They had been friends since 6th grade. They compared everything that happened to them from armpit hair to erections. And they told each other about their private orgasms.
"I mean you thought about it with me" Alan added.
"I guess" Martin almost whispered his response.
"Gotcha. When you taking off?"
No reaction, Martin thought that was a good thing. "Not till September, you?"
"I signed up. Waiting for them now" Alan had enlisted in the military "Wish I could go to college but damn, no money, grades not great. Hope the Army helps"
"It will. I read that it will" Martin said
"What make me smarter?" Alan nudges his best friend.
"Want to jack off?" Alan had asked one summer afternoon. Martin didn't answer. He lay there on the sand under the hot sun alongside Alan.
They ran into the cooling ocean letting their summer fun press their nearly naked bodies together wrestling as they loved to do.
"Anybody at the house?" Martin asked as they toweled off.
"Naw, they went back up to the city"
There was no plan, no discussion. The two trudged thru the sand to the shore and straddled the bikes headed to the house Alan's folks had rented every summer.
The shower sprayed their naked bodies and their hands moved over each other. They had bathed together before but never beyond soaping backs and playful goosing. That time was different as soap have their hands excuse to move over each entire body. As if they had never touched each other before they explored and without hesitation their lips met.
What was to have been a simple side by side bodies touching, mutual masturbation became something more. It wasn't so much they didn't know how to proceed, it was a natural expression of their love for each other.
"So hell I won't see ya for months" Martin said as he reached out to touch Alan then withdrew.
"Basic, Advanced and if I get in OCS" Alan sighed
"Wow an Officer. If I went in I'd have to salute you" He laughed and mimicked a salute.
"Don't worry, they wouldn't take you. Too smart" Alan said "Besides you'll be a College Man by the time all that's over"
They wrote for a while. Then Alan's letters became emails and eventually less often. He warned Martin that training was hard.
Martin had been home for two months from his first year. His Mother told him Alan was home on leave. He wondered why there was no email. First he was confused, then mad.
He drove to Alan's family beach house. The same one where he and Alan had expressed their friendship as something more only 2 years before.
"He's upstairs sleeping I think, you know his old room" Alan's mother said after her hug greeting. "He'll be thrilled"
"I'm not sure" Martin said
"Go up honey" She left the house on some errand.
Martin thought about leaving a note asking Alan to call.
He turned and instead he crept up the creaking stairways. He paused at the top floor eyeing the bathroom where he and Alan had shared that infamous shower. Alan's bedroom door was closed.
The door knob turned.
Martin inhaled deeply seeing Alan laying on his bed, totally naked and face down. The gentle snore was the same. The body seemed slimmer, more muscled.
On a hanger was his uniform. Ribbons and insignias told Martin his friend had indeed achieved what he wanted, an Officer in the Army.
Martin smiled. He was proud of his friend.
He removed his shoes and got on the bed laying half on and off the body. His arm connected and he closed his eyes.
"Boys, Papa is barbequing again. Come on down"
Martin heard the voice and slowly awakened. How or when he got naked, Martin couldn't remember. The cover tented his and Alan's body now.
"Hey" Alan sleepily said
"Hi" Martin smiled. It was as if they had never been away from each other.
"You were horny as hell" Alan said
"Was I?" Martin replied
"Yea, it was nice" Alan moved over Martin and they kissed.
They kissed like time had never past and nothing had changed.