The Activist

The Activist, Pt 7

Jack Edwards
jnuanced@gmail.com

The Activist , Pt 7

It’s easy to be idealistic when you’re young, especially back when I was young. It was the end of the civil rights movement. The anti-war movement was still strong, as was liberalism in general; at least in colleges like UT. The Stonewall riots occurred only a few days before, and the first gay pride marches had taken place in major cities all over the country.

Three UT professors came out of the closet that fall. Most of my professors seemed straight and uninvolved, but my Social Sciences professor was pretty far left about everything. He spoke glowingly of anyone who ever stood up to ‘The Establishment’ in any way… from Martin Luther King to Che Guevara. One class period, he took off on gay activism, challenging everyone in class to rise above backward prejudices we had been raised with and support the movement.

“Encourage anyone you know who is gay,” he said. “It takes real guts to be ‘out of the closet’ in our society, and those who are, suffer. But society will change. We will change it. You will change it.” He glanced around the room. “If any of you are gay, and you are willing to talk to our class about what it’s like to be gay in our society, I’ll give you extra credit; a lot of extra credit.”

His eyes roamed the classroom. I looked away, afraid to meet his eyes if he happened to look in my direction.

A student writer for campus paper, The Daily Texan, came to me after workout one day and asked me questions, making notes. I thought he was writing something about the track team, but the article he wrote was about me. It was a short article at the bottom of one of the sports pages, mentioning me as someone to watch. There was a small photo of me on the track.

People recognized me from the photo, and I got a few comments.

“You should have told him you’re gay,” Travis said, standing over me.

I was studying in the living room while waiting for Nathan to get home from work. I glanced up at Travis, impatiently.

“It was a story about my running, Travis,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, and the reporter asked you where you were from, and what you were majoring in… stuff like that. You could have told him that about yourself.”

“Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, trying to read.

“He asked if you had a girlfriend and you told him ‘no’,” Travis pointed out. “You could have told him that you had a boyfriend.”

My mouth twitched as I fought off an ironic smile. I actually had thought of answering that way, in the interview; mentioning Nathan.

I had introduced Nathan to Tom, my roommate. Nate started coming to watch my workouts. He went with me to the university library. I was no longer keeping Nathan like a mistress. I was treating him like my best friend; like my boyfriend.

And it was great, being together, out in the world. I found myself thinking that if I was ‘outed’ at UT, it wouldn’t be all bad. I even began to think that it was inevitable that I would be outed because of Nate, I might simply want to get it over with.

I was, after all, young, idealistic, and naïve. And… afraid.

“We should all be ‘out’,” Travis insisted. He gazed around the room at the two-dozen of us who had come to his meeting. There were even girls; a pair of lesbians and one girl who hung out with a gay guy. I recognized a couple of new faces from campus. Keeping my ‘gayness’ secret was going to become increasingly difficult.

“We can’t be strong when we’re all hiding in our closets. We need to be out, and proud of it, and we need to tell the fucking police, and the fucking politicians, and the fucking religious nuts to go fuck themselves because we’re gay, and we’re proud of it!”

“It’s not a disease,” he said, pounding his fist into his hand. “The American Psychological Society has taken homosexuality off the list of mental disorders because it so obviously is not one; just as it is obviously not a crime for one man to love another simply because a few latently homosexual lawmakers say it is.”

He turned to look directly at me.

“We need to quit being such fucking cowards,” he said, eyeing me. “We need to show people that we’re not creeps, not queer, but we’re the best among them… the best looking, and the smartest, and the most creative people in society.”

The others looked at me. They all knew how ‘in the closet’ I was. Paul, sitting to my left on the couch, must have thought they were looking at him because he sank lower in the couch, trying to drop behind me. Pauly was such a quiet little guy, people probably didn’t know if he was in the closet or not. Until then, I didn’t.

Travis went on, of course. I would have left, but I’d become friends with these guys, and there was Nathan, of course, sitting beside me on my right. I even liked Travis, except when he was spouting his shit. And I even agreed with him about most of it.

“Maybe we should all wear badges,” Travis suggested, and held his finger up to his chest as if he was wearing one. “I’m gay, and I’m a man.”

I laid my head back on Nathan’s arm. I was almost ready to do it, I thought. No one from back home was at UT. I had planned, after all, when I chose UT, to be gay here… just secretly so.

And there was, of course, my roommate and my friends in the dorm, and in classes, and on the track team. How would they react? I knew the longer I waited to tell anyone, the more difficult it would be to ever tell any of them; unless I was drunk.

I was invited to a fraternity kegger, the Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving week. It was a fraternity that several of the track guys were in. There were girls at the kegger, and a couple of them flirted with me. I got a little blitzed, and almost gave in when the frat guys wanted me to take one of the girls upstairs. The girls were pretty, and I’d screwed plenty of girls, and I was drunk. I didn’t, though. In fact, I almost told everybody at the kegger that I was gay. Blitzed out of my mind, I pictured them all laughing at how funny it was that they were trying to get a gay guy to fuck a pretty girl instead of them doing it.

Fortunately, I didn’t say anything. When I showed up at Nathan’s, completely wasted, he put me to bed, literally.

The night before Thanksgiving, my younger brother, Stefan, and two of his buddies, Chase and Jason, were waiting for us at the airport gate. Driving to Tulsa didn’t bother them at all. Stefan had just turned sixteen and had his driver’s license.

We weren’t huggers in our family, back then, but Stefan was glad enough to see me that he slapped my back, grinning broadly. He looked a lot like me, but was a little chunky. I hadn’t realized till then, how much I’d missed him. He obviously had missed me.

Chase and Jason had been my little brother’s best friends for as long as any of us could remember. Chase was a short guy; a cute smart ass who always delighted in giving me a hard time.

“I bet you’ve missed me more than Stefan has, Chase,” I said, poking his ribs. “You’ve had no one to pester.”

“What? You’ve been gone?” Chase asked with a grin. He gave me a double punch to the belly and I cuffed the back of his head. His grin was happy.

I introduced Nathan to Stefan and his friends. They wanted to know about Nathan, and I told them what Nate and I had agreed on; that we met through mutual friends, that he was my age, but not a student, and that we simply had become friends.

Chase was a smart kid and it concerned me that he studied Nathan as we talked. But soon we were at the car.

I let Stefan drive. Nate and I got in back. Chase started in front, between the other two, but he kept teasing me and I bopped the back of his head. Laughing, he came over the front seat after me. I had tickled him into surrender a gazillion times, and had no trouble getting him under control, trapping him between Nate and me with a head lock. He acted up from time to time, and I poked or tickled him.

“You must be Nathan,” my mom said, stating the obvious as well as ever, while shaking his hand.

“Good to meet you, Nathan,” my dad said, shaking Nate’s hand next and looking Nathan in the eye. “I’m Jeff.”

Nathan looked scared to death. I’d warned him too much about my dad. I was scared myself; watching my dad studying Nathan.

Nathan smiled uncomfortably. “Is it alright if I call you Mr. Wainwright?”

Dad smiled and nodded… approvingly, I thought, hopefully.

Mom and Dad were creatures of habit. Every night at ten-thirty, after the news, they went to bed. My little sister Jessica went to bed soon after they did that night. Stefan, though, wanted to talk, and we stayed up until after midnight.

Stefan and I each had our own room, and bath – Dad was a successful lawyer. Nathan returned to my room with me.

When I turned to close and lock the door, Nathan grabbed me from behind, wrapping his arms around my chest and belly. I could feel his erection against my butt through our clothing as he pressed his mouth to the nape of my neck. I leaned back into him. I loved being held like that… by him.

Nate pulled up my shirt up my belly with one hand, and ran his other into the front of my pants.

“Geez, Nate,” I whispered, my head lolling back, “you’re as horny as I am.”

His hand closed around my cock.

“That was a long flight,” Nathan murmured.

I kicked out of my shoes, unfastened my pants, and shoved my pants and underwear down my legs. From behind me, Nathan pulled my shirt up and off, then wrapped his arms around me again, grinding against my bottom.

“Oh, hell, this is hot,” I murmured, steadying myself with my hands on the door. “Just push your pants down and stick it in me.”

Nathan pulled his shirt off, pushed down his pants and underwear, spit in his hand, applied it to the head of his cock and had his crown at my hole with an amazing economy of effort.

Suddenly, there was a light rap at the door and we jumped back, pulling up our pants and arranging our erections as best we could. I opened the door a crack while Nathan picked up our shirts and my shoes, dropping them beside the bed.

“I brought my scrapbook,” Stefan said, holding it up for me to see through the crack.

I opened the door and Stefan came in with his scrapbook of photos and awards, along with school and hometown newspaper photos and clippings in which he was mentioned – mostly sports clippings; Stefan was a little chunky, but highly coordinated. He had added several articles to his scrapbook from the football season that fall. Stefan quarterbacked the varsity squad for the entire second half of the season, after the first-string quarterback, a senior, had been injured. Stefan had done well.

We sat at the foot of the bed – me in the middle with the scrapbook – while Nathan read over my shoulder, leaning his bare chest against my bare side and back. From my other side, Stefan pointed out things in the articles and pictures. I gave Stefan leg slaps and the wows that he deserved.

“Do you have a scrapbook, Loren?” Nathan asked.

“I’ll get it,” Stefan volunteered. “Lore’s got more stuff in his scrapbook, but I’m catching up.”

“Only until track season,” I warned him.

Stefan returned, placing my scrapbook in my lap. My pictures and clippings weren’t only from track. I played football and basketball as well. I had a couple of clippings from homecoming and that led to Stefan hauling out my high school yearbooks to show Nathan all the things I’d been in and about me getting voted best looking, and all.

It was almost two in the morning when Stefan left for his room. Even then, I think he wanted to sleep in my room with us. As Nate and I sleepily brushed teeth at the sink, I wondered what Stefan would think of me being gay? How would he react?

Nate and I finished undressing and crawled into opposite sides of the bed, meeting in the middle. I had a king-sized bed. Honestly, I think Dad always hoped I’d bring a girl home to it. Nathan and I embraced, cheek to cheek, entwining legs.

“I miss my brothers,” Nathan said sadly as I hugged him, and I hugged him harder.

“How did your brothers react?” I asked. “Did things change when they found out that you’re gay?”

Nathan shrugged. “Jimmy was the only one who hadn’t guessed,” Nathan said, resting his forehead on mine. He reached between us to grab my stiffening cock. “Jimmy and I weren’t that close anyway.”

He smiled. “You were really cute as a kid,” he said. “I bet Chase has had a crush on you since he was little.”

“Chase never had a crush on me,” I said, grabbing Nate’s thick cock. It was still a little rubbery as I closed my hand around it and slid his skin up and down.

“You’re kidding,” he said.

I paused a moment, reflecting, then shrugged. “I guess he could have at some point,” I agreed.

“He still does,” Nate said, changing his hand motion on my cock from pushing to pulling. “He’s cute,” Nathan observed.

I frowned at him and squeezed his now-rigid cock. “Forget Chase,” I said, and I covered Nathan’s mouth with my own.

Our tongues wrestled. Nathan rolled me to my back. He kissed down my neck and throat, fondling me. He sucked my nipples up hard and had me squirming. He kissed down my belly and when I felt his warm, wet mouth close over the end of my dick I partly sat up, tensing.

“Nate,” I said, pulling him up my body. “Let’s sixty-nine, because once I come, I think I’m going to want to sleep.”

Nathan nodded and kissed me. And then he reversed body position on me so that his thick erection was at my face. I cocked up his top leg and took a whiff.

“This will be good,” Nathan said. “No cum on the sheets.”

I nosed into his soft, warm scrotum. His scrotum was loose and I nosed around between his balls. I remember thinking, happiness is a warm scrotum.

We took as much time with sixty-nines as anything else we ever did. We liked sixty-nines; maybe not as much as some of the other things we did, but we wouldn’t do without it. There was always something genuinely intimate about having our faces buried in each other’s crotch. Nathan seemed to like my cock and balls as much as I did, and I liked his as much as he did. It was fun, it was intimate, and though this may sound strange, it was comforting… well, until we really got going. Fondling and nuzzling each other between the legs, was comforting. We’d even gone to sleep that way.

That night I played with Nathan’s heavy balls and thick cock, admiring them, smelling them, kissing them, licking them, and feeling over them lovingly with my hands and fingers. He did the same to me, taking an occasional, deep breath of my scent. I ran my hand inside his lean legs and over his taut belly. I rubbed my face on the underside of his shaft, and then, finally, I closed my mouth over his cock, tickling his slit first with my tongue, teasing out his precum. I swirled his crown before swallowing him down and bobbing several times.

It sounds crude to just say it, but I loved his fat cock in my mouth at the same time mine was in his. Damn I loved it! I loved holding his cock in my hand, sliding the skin up and down the hard, curving, thick shaft. It was beautiful. I loved holding it against my face. I loved Nathan, and I loved his cock.

I swirled his crown again, and saw his balls pull up.

Nathan pulled his hips back; a sign between us to slow down. I had learned the things that brought Nathan off, but this was early for him. He really was hot.

I released his cock from my mouth and propped my head on my elbow to watch Nathan bob on my erection. I tickled his balls with a fingertip, and drew my finger up the taut skin of his erection. I ran my hand admiringly over his tight hip, down the side of his slender waist, then back over his firm butt.

Suddenly, I felt my own balls tighten, and a stirring down between my legs. “Nate,” I said, clutching his bottom and pressing my cheek to the underside of his erection, “do you want to go ahead and come, because I’m about ready?”

Nathan pulled off briefly. “Yeah ,” he said.

We took each other into our mouths again. I could take his entire length now, and I did it, relaxing my throat. He fucked my face and I fucked his. We bobbed our heads, working together in a well-practiced, syncopated rhythm, taking care of each other.

When he came, I sucked him dry, and he did the same to me before crawling up again beside me. We kissed, sharing cum tastes, and then Nathan rolled to his side, backing to me. I spooned him and draped my arm around his chest for sleep. It was strange to have Nate naked in bed with me, back in my own bedroom, in my own home, with my parents, brother, and sister all sleeping just down the hall.

I kissed the back of his head and hugged him to me.

“Damn, I love you,” I whispered.

Nate murmured happily and pulled my arm more tightly around his chest.

I woke to someone trying the door. It was locked, which was good because I was asleep with an arm and a leg over Nathan’s backside.

“What?” I called out.

“Mom says shower up,” Stefan called through the door. “Gram and Gramps will be here in an hour.”

I glanced at my alarm clock. It was noon, Thankgsiving.

“The pre-game’s already on TV,” Stefan added.

“Okay,” I mumbled, snuggling onto Nathan. I had morning wood, and he had a great butt.

Nathan turned his face to mine and smiled sleepily. I kissed the side of his face.

“You hard?” I asked

He nodded, eyes closed, smiling.

“We don’t have much time,” I said. I hugged the back of his head with my forearm and nuzzled his ear. “Let’s rub ‘em,” I whispered.

Nathan groaned sleepily, and moved up over me, rolling me to my back. I opened my legs to his hips, and he settled onto me, and then relaxed completely, as if going back to sleep. I smiled. It did feel comfortable; damned comfortable.

I stroked his back and we lay there, our cocks between our bellies. Then he adjusted his hips and our cocks ground. It felt good, and I rubbed back. He lifted his head and kissed me. We had morning breath, but somehow, it never seemed to bother us much when we had morning sex.

Nate was always polite. My grandparents liked him. My mom certainly did. Dad was difficult to read. After dinner, he helped Mom and Grams wash up in the kitchen, so I did, too.

“Nathan’s a good influence on you,” Grams observed, as she and I made a trip in from the dinner table with dirty dishes. “You never help in the kitchen unless forced to.” She paused, blocking the door to the kitchen. “Loren, is Nathan colored?”

I frowned at her. “His mom’s dad is black,” I told her. I almost added something like, You know how it is with grandparents, Grams. No choice in what you get. I didn’t, of course. Grams had little sense of humor in the best of times.

Grams leaned closer. “Your mom says Nathan’s estranged from his family,” she said. Her brow furrowed. “Why?”

I shrugged. “His dad, mainly,” I said. “They don’t get along.”

Grams considered that a moment, then looked me in the eye. “Does his father drink?”

“Yes,” I told her. I figured that everybody drank something, and it wouldn’t hurt having my family think that the reason was something other than Nate’s being gay.

I fought back a smile, thinking I could have told her, It’s okay, Grams, if he’s ‘colored’, ‘cause he’s gay. I didn’t, of course. I just met her gaze.

Grams shook her head sadly and backed on into the kitchen.

When the conversation in the kitchen turned to baking pies, and Nathan began to share recipe ideas with Mom and Grams, I left for the den and the game. Dad was asleep on the couch. Gramps was asleep in Dad’s recliner. Stefan was in Mom’s. My little sister, Jessie was no where around. I took some of Mom’s throw pillows and stretched out on the floor to watch the game.

“The Cowboys suck,” Stefan observed. I thought about the derivation of the phrase.

The phone rang.

“Loren, it’s Linda for you,” Mom called out.

I took the call on the kitchen phone and glanced at Nathan as I took the receiver around the corner.

“I’ve missed you,” Linda said. “I’ve missed you so much. Are you coming over?”

“Not today,” I said. “My grandparents are over.”

“Tonight?”

“I have a friend up with me. He’s going to help me drive my Mustang back to UT.”

“So? Stefan can keep him entertained.”

“No, Linda, Nate’s my… best friend.” I almost said boyfriend accidentally. I made a mental note to be more careful. It was so easy to say things I’d been saying freely around Nathan’s house and around all the gay guys there.

“Best friend?”

“I mean my best friend at UT.”

“Loren,” Linda said, impatiently, “it’s been months!”

“It just may not work out this time,” I told her.

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“I knew it would happen,” she finally said. “I knew I’d lose you. You’ve barely written or called. You’ve been seeing other girls, haven’t you?”

I leaned against the wall and whispered. “We agreed, Linda,” I reminded her. “It’d be too hard not to date other people. Have you dated other boys?”

“Only because I missed you,” she said, sounding angry. “But I haven’t done anything with another boy.”

“Well I haven’t done anything with another girl, either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Her tone changed, becoming soft and longing. “I’ve missed you holding me. I missed your body.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Come over tonight.”

“I’ll try to drop by tomorrow,” I said. “You can meet Nathan.”

She hung up.

Grams, Mom, and Nathan baked a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, a pecan pie, and chocolate chip cookies. Mom and Grams liked Nate, and honestly, Mom’s baking never tasted so good.

The next day, I drove Nathan around town, showing him the sights; what there was of them. He met some of my high school friends. I kept wondering if my friends would spot Nathan as gay, partly because he was simply so different from us Okies.

The reception we received at Linda’s was cold. And yet, the sight of her slender body, in shorts and a loose blouse, gave me an instant hard-on. Linda and I had had a lot of sex together. I was surprised it happened after all the sex I’d been having with Nathan,

Linda was coldly cordial. Her parents were friendly, though. They’d always treated me like a son. And they greeted Nathan warmly enough. They even showed Nathan pictures of me and Linda, including our prom picture. It was embarrassing, especially since it seemed to make Linda more unhappy.

At the door, as we left, I lingered. “Linda,” I said quietly. “I…”

She threw her arms around me, and began to sob.

“I’m sorry, Linda,” I murmured. “I’m really sorry. It’s not you, okay? It’s me.” I rocked her in my arms. My own eyes began to water. I cared for Linda. You can be gay and love a girl as a friend… as a close friend. We were lovers for over a year. “Sometime,” I said, “we need to talk, okay. Maybe at Christmas. I just need to tell you some things.”

I hugged her and rocked her in my arms. Her body, her scent, the feel of her… were all so familiar.

“I’ll come to UT,” she said, pressing her forehead to the nape of my neck. “We can get a motel room and be alone and talk.”

I patted her back. “I need to go. Nathan’s waiting.”

I pulled away. She turned, crying, and slammed the door behind her.

Back in the car, Nathan took my hand. We rode silently.

I began to think that even my dad liked Nathan. Dad worked Friday on some kind of big case, but he was home Saturday morning. Nathan and I made it up in time to have coffee with him. I didn’t drink coffee without a lot of cream and sugar, but my dad is a coffee purist and very picky about the coffee he buys and about how he brews it. Coffee purists were rare back then. Nathan, though, interested in all things culinary or related, listened raptly while my dad went on and on about coffee.

When my dad finally wound down, Nathan said, “Loren told me that you’re really into wine.” That got Dad going again.

“Where will you be spending Christmas?” Mom asked Nathan Saturday evening.

He shrugged. “It’s a busy time of work at Penny’s. I won’t be going anywhere.”

“Oh,” Mom moaned. “You must come here. You can help Loren drive up. Try to get the time off.”

Nathan smiled, and I could swear he blushed.

“Maybe I should just go ahead and tell my parents,” I said to Nathan that night. “I can tell them tomorrow before we leave.”

Nathan stroked the side of my face. “Don’t tell anyone yet,” he said, and I realized how dense I had been. Nathan liked my friends and family, and he was without his. Nate didn’t want to spoil his new relationships with my family and friends anymore than I wanted to spoil my relationships with them.

Nathan moved on top of me, and I smiled up at him, sadly, and rubbed up and down his back. “Sooner or later, they’re going to figure it out, Nate,” I said. “I hate the tension. I hate worrying about it. Part of me just wants to tell them and get it over with. But I love that my family likes you and you like them. I won’t tell them yet.”

Nathan rested his forehead on mine. “Not yet,” he whispered. “It’s not time.”

“Okay, baby,” I whispered. “We’ll decide together.” I opened my legs wider to him and rubbed his butt, affectionately. “I love you,” I said. I smiled. “What do you want to do… now?”

Nathan smiled and kissed me. We ground mouths and cocks. He worked the tops of his legs under the backs of mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist.

“If we make enough noise,” I told him, “we won’t have to worry about telling anybody anything.”

He chuckled and reached for the lube which I had put in the nightstand drawer, dragging me with him. Nate got the lube. I grabbed a pillow and lifted my butt to slide it under my bottom, and then unwrapped my legs from around Nate’s waist so he could lube us easier.

With his left hand under my right thigh, he pushed my legs up. I watched his face as he pushed in. When he hit bottom, he had such a pleased look on his face, I expected him to say, “Ahhh!” I chuckled, and his eyes met mine.

“It feels damn good to me, too,” I told him, gently. I held my arms open to him, and he lay down onto me the way I liked. His face hovered over mine, and for a brief moment, the pleasure and desire in his eyes became a softer look.

“I love you, Loren,” he whispered. He shook his head slowly. “I love you so much.”

I took his face into my hands. “I know, Nate.” I shook my head slightly. “I really know.”

He wrapped his arms under me, wrapping me up tightly and driving his cock far into me. I wrapped my arms over his hard back, returning a tight embrace. I arched my cock up into his hard belly. It felt even better than normal, and normal was always incredible.

“I’m not holding back tonight, Nate,” I whispered. “Bring me off, all you want.”

He murmured assent, grinding forward with his hips and holding me tightly.

“And I,” I whispered, “will see how many times I can bring you off.”

“Could be a long night,” he murmured.

I kissed at his ear. “Yes,” I murmured.

I woke first. Nate was asleep on my shoulder. His mouth was open; I could feel drool on my chest. His hand cupped my balls and cock. It wasn’t the first time he had done that in his sleep. I smiled and nuzzled the top of his head. I stroked his hard back muscles with my fingers. I felt like I could spend my life in bed with him.

The clock indicated that it was almost eleven. I could smell Mom’s roast. She promised one for a dinner before we left. We’d need to leave soon, or we’d be really late into Austin. I heard someone try the door, and I worked my way out from under Nate. I pulled on shorts and crossed to the door.

I looked back at the bed. Nate was almost in the middle. It might be obvious that we’d slept together, so I tried to block the view into the room as I opened the door.

Stefan was walking away, stopped, and came back. “How come you’ve been locking the door every night?” he asked.

I frowned. “Nathan’s like, really modest,” I said, knowing it sounded lame.

Stefan cocked his head, eyeing me closely. “He’s not modest around you?”

I shrugged. “He’s just worried about Mom or Jessie barging in.”

Stefan frowned and shook his head. “Well, Mom says dinner will be ready soon.”

“Thanks,” I said, and leaned back to close the door on Stefan.

I didn’t like lying to my brother, and I was never good at lying. I glanced at Nate, lying on the bed. My Nate. I wasn’t going to give him up, but I didn’t want to keep lying; sooner or later, even Stefan would need to know.

I was dead tired when I pulled into the dorm parking lot that night. I’d survived the weekend, introducing Nathan to my family. Nate and I had made incredible love, and had a fun drive back; talking about everything, singing along with the radio, holding hands, taking turns napping and driving.

My roommate, Tom, was asleep. I put down my bag, took a piss in the bathroom, stripped to my briefs, and crawled into the top bunk.

“So?” my roommate asked from the bottom bunk, “how was it.”

“Fine,” I said. “Had a great trip.”

“See your girlfriend?”

“Saw my old girlfriend,” I murmured, sleepily. “She’s not my girlfriend anymore.”

“Oh?”

I lay there a moment, wondering about telling Tom. I would think about that. He might be a good one to tell first. He was my friend and roommate. I could ask him how he thought the other guys on the track team might react, or the guys in the dorm. Of course, I’d ask him to tell no one else.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

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I heard from a few more of you guys since posting six. Thanks for letting me know you're still out there!

As I've said before, reader emails are the only pay we Nifty writers ask for or receive. It's also the only way we have to guage whether our work is being read. I'd love to hear from you if you enjoyed this chapter.My email address is jnuanced@gmail.com.