Kyle Part 3 Chapter 8
Kyle, Part 3
Chapter 8
Disclaimer: This story is a continuation of the story of Kevin Foley, Rick Mashburn, and their "sons," Tim Murphy, Kyle Goodson, Justin Davis, and Brian Mathews that started in "Tim," continued in "Justin" and "Kyle," "Kyle, Part 2," and now continues in "Kyle, Part 3." It is about gay men and gay boys living and loving together as a family, and it contains descriptions of sex. The sex is never intergenerational, though. If you are offended by descriptions of gay sex, or if the law in your area forbids you to read them, please exit the story. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy it. I appreciate feedback, and you can send it to me at brew_drinker23@yahoo.com.
--Brew Maxwell
(Brian's Perspective)
I had the best birthday of my life. I hadn't even had the official one yet, but the birthday party was wonderful. I knew Kyle had been in charge of everything, and I knew he worked really hard to make it so nice.
I used to want Kyle for my boyfriend. He has it all, I think, and I think he's really, really sexy, too. I used to sit on the sofa or in a chair in the den and watch him sometimes. He might be reading or watching TV or something, and every time I did that I got an erection. The first time I saw him naked I couldn't take my eyes off him. His penis isn't any bigger than Justin's or Tim's, but it's beautiful. I know that's a strange word to use about a penis, but it's true, at least to me. I've seen Kyle hard a few times, too, and every time I see it I want to just take it in my mouth and swallow it. That time we were playing strip pool and he lost all his clothes, he got an erection. I looked at Jus and Tim, and they were just as hard as I was from looking at him.
Now that Jus and I are boyfriends, I really don't want Kyle as a boyfriend anymore. I think I'm in love with Justin, and he sure makes me happy. He and Kyle are best friends, and I try extra hard to please Jus because I'm afraid he'd leave me for Kyle in a heartbeat, if Kyle wanted him to. Tim and I are best friends, and we've talked about it.
"Tim, do you ever worry about losing Kyle," I asked him one day.
"What do you mean? Like him dying like Clay," Tim asked.
"No, I mean him finding another boyfriend."
"Kyle loves me," Tim said.
"That's pretty obvious, Bubba, but he could have anybody he wants. You see how people look at him, especially girls. And a bunch of guys, too."
"You used to want him, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but that was before Jus and I got together and before you and I became best friends. I'd never go after Kyle now, Tim. I want you as my friend forever, dude. I'm not going to do anything to risk losing you."
"Do you think Jus would ever go after Kyle," Tim asked.
"I hope not, but I know there was a time when Jus wouldn't have said no to whatever Kyle wanted. I think Justin is in love with me now."
"Yeah, I know he is. He'd kill somebody for you, man. I know that."
"I know."
"Bri, this is making me kind of scared. If Kyle left me, I don't know if I could make it. It would kill me, I think," Tim said.
"You and I need to make sure neither one of them has any reason to ever want to leave us," I said.
He didn't say anything. We were working on my Eagle project, and we just went back to work without talking about it any more.
The other kids at school love Kyle, too. He's always friendly with everybody, and he has tons of friends, from what I can tell. He has a couple of real good friends who are girls, and I know they'd do anything sexual he wanted them to do. I heard some guys talking in the library one time about him. They called him Goodson, instead of Kyle, and one guy said he thought Goodson might be a fag. I got kind of scared when I heard that. Another guy said, "Goodson ain't no fag, asshole." The third one said, "Even if he is, he's still a hell of a good guy." That made me relax when I heard that. I thought about it for a few days, but I decided not to tell Kyle or Justin.
The day after my party, Tim, Jus, Rick, Kevin, and I played with my two new model airplanes after the New Orleans company left. I had to show them how to do it. It looks easy when you see somebody who has some skill do it, but it's a lot harder than it looks, especially when you first start. Justin got kind of bored after he had had a couple of turns, and he went into the house. He said he was going to take a nap.
I stayed out a couple more hours, and we all went inside around four o'clock. I went up to our room to put the planes away. Justin was in bed naked, and he was watching TV.
"Did you take a nap," I asked.
"Yeah. It was a good one, too. It was too late for me to give you your birthday present last night, so I want to give it to you right now." He was smiling so cute. I was hoping it was what I thought it might be.
He got out of bed, and he was hard. He walked over to me, and I put my hand on it, soft and gentle.
"Does my birthday present involve this big boy," I asked.
"It sure does." He was still smiling, and I was getting harder and harder by the second.
He took me in his arms and kissed me. He put his tongue into my mouth, and we rubbed our tongues back and forth, kind of teasing one another. Then he started undressing me. I love for him to do that. It seems so intimate to me, like he's taking possession of me, unwrapping me like a present.
We kissed some more, and we rubbed our dicks against one another. I was a little shorter than he was, but our dicks were almost the same height.
"I love you so much, Brian," he said in a kind of half whisper. We were both breathing hard, and he probably didn't have the wind to say it much louder. "I'm a different person because of you. I want to make you proud of me, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep you the rest of my life."
"Jus, that's beautiful. I love you, too. Sometimes I think about what would happen if you left me, and I get so sad I could cry. I do cry, in fact."
"Well, I'm not leaving the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. That's for damn sure."
He led me to bed and got on top of me to kiss some more. He moved down my body, kissing and licking every part of it. He tickled and touched and licked and tongued my butt hole, and that felt so good I almost shot. Then he put on a condom and got inside me. He held me close and kissed me while we moved back and forth. I knew I was whimpering, but it felt so good I couldn't help myself. I got real close to exploding a few times, but he changed his pace or something, and I didn't shoot. We kept doing that for a long time, much longer than usual. When I did shoot, I thought I was going to faint, it was so powerful.
Tim had told me that sometimes Kyle stays in him after they shoot, and they've even fallen asleep like that. We were on our sides that afternoon, and Jus didn't pull out right away like he usually did. He says he can't soften up inside me because the condom might come off and get lost in me. That day, though, he stayed hard and inside me for quite a while, and that felt wonderful. If ever I started having doubts about Jus, all he would have to do is make love to me like he did that day and I'd be his forever.
(Jeff's Perspective)
I had thought the Web site for the family was a good idea as soon as I had heard Arnie if we had one when we were in Sarasota. Kyle was a superb photographer, and he had a ton of pictures, one better than the next. I had gotten a lot of it up by party time the night before, and I spent Sunday afternoon teaching Kyle how to update it. Everybody who looked at it at the party raved about it.
We had decided to password protect the whole thing, except the first page, of course. Since we had announced the URL at the party, I figured some of the family and friends might try to access it before they got their passwords. I decided that the password would be the same for everybody, and that the user name would be the first and last name of the person, separated by a period. Mine, for example, would be jeff.martin. If someone entered a user name that wasn't on the list of family and friends in the database, they couldn't get in. In the case of some people--Arnie Jacobs being the prime example--I entered his name on the list as arnie.jacobs and arnold.jacobs. I tried to be really clear in the directions that a person's user name was how they were addressed by people in the Foley-Mashburn circle, but some people, like Arnie, answered to two different names. I had visions of Pat Taylor, for instance, typing patrick.taylor and getting frustrated because it wouldn't let him in, so I put his and Jerry's names in the list both ways, too.
"What if I want to show it to one of my friends," Kyle had asked.
"Let 'em use your login," I said.
"But won't that fuck it up, eventually? I mean, suppose I show that to someone, and he shows it to someone. It could get around, you know?"
"Good point, but I don't have the technical knowledge of how else to do it," I said.
"This'll be good, though. I mean, it ain't Ft. Knox we're guarding here. The worst anybody could do would be to see our dicks, and I don't care who sees my dick," he said.
I laughed at him.
God, it was hard for me to be around Kyle, especially when it was just the two of us like that. He looked and acted so much like Clay that sometimes I thought I was with Clay.
"Let's put the pictures from the party up," he said.
"Okay, but I'm going to let you do that by yourself. This is the kind of updating you'll be doing, and I want to make sure you know how. Ask if you have questions, though."
"Okay."
He used the template I had created for the basic page, wrote some text to explain what the event was about, and used the software I had downloaded to create the thumbnails. I read over the text to make sure it didn't have any mistakes, and it didn't. In about an hour, we had a new page to add to the site. He used the FTP software to upload everything to the server, and voila, we had a new page on the site. It had captions and everything.
"Jeff, would it be tacky if we had a memorial page for Clay," he asked.
I got big tears in my eyes, and I felt them roll down my cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Jeff. Don't cry, man. I didn't say that to be mean."
We were sitting side by side, and I grabbed him in a hug.
"Kyle, I'm crying because that is such a wonderful idea and because you are so loving. Thank you for thinking of that. Let me make that page, though, okay?"
He hugged me back, and he was crying, too.
"Okay. Do you know how to digitize regular video," he asked.
"Yeah, why," I asked after we had both settled down.
"We have a ton of video tape of our whole family through the years, and I think it might be nice to use some of him on his page. What do you think?"
"Where is it," I asked eagerly.
"It's at my house."
"Do you think your parents would let me take it back to Gainesville? I want to watch every minute of it and pick the best sequences," I said.
"I know they'll give you a copy of them. A couple of our hotels have Business Centers that have high-speed dubbing equipment. We could go to one of them and make copies for you to have," he said.
"Can we call your parents to see if that would be all right," I asked. "I'd love to have those."
"We don't have to do that. I know where they are. Jeff, you still don't get it, dude. They think of you as their son now, and that makes me your fucking brother. Deal with that, okay?" He was grinning his face off.
"Well, let's go," I said, and we took off.
(Kevin's Perspective)
Friday afternoon we left our house promptly at 3:00 PM to go skiing in North Carolina. Jeff had been all set to go with us, but he had to regret the invitation at the last minute. It seems he had been preoccupied with his and Kyle's Web site all week, and he hadn't gotten much work done on an assignment that was due Tuesday morning.
"Jeff, I feel terrible about this," I said to him on the phone.
"I feel bad, too, because I wanted to be with you guys," he said, "but A.) I don't ski, B.) I spent the time I should have spent on the project getting whole, and C.) I found out today that I couldn't miss class on Tuesday, even if I had the damn thing done."
"You spent the time you should have spent on the project getting whole? What the hell does that mean, Jeff?"
"Kyle gave me a bunch of videotapes of their family when he and Clay were growing up. It was like thirty hours worth. I watched every minute of it looking for clips for the memorial page for Clay. I found some absolutely wonderful footage, and I digitized every bit of it. That page for Clay is going to be a pretty complete picture of the man I love. I'll have it up by tomorrow night when you guys get to the cabin. Can you get the Internet there?"
"Yeah. There's actually a cable modem there," I said.
"Please call me when you look at it. It doesn't matter how late it is, okay? Call me."
"Okay."
We talked a little more about his project, and then we hung up.
The boys did not take it well at all that Jeff wasn't going to go with us to the mountains. They got better about it when I explained why.
*****
We were packed and ready for the trip when they got home from school the next afternoon. Ordinarily, Rick and I did the driving on the highway, but we had decided that Tim and Brian needed some experience. They both had their learner's permits by then, and they had both taken Driver Ed in school. Either Rick or I was right beside them in the passenger seat when they drove, and I know that I, at least, had stomped on the floor board at least a couple of times in an imaginary attempt to slow that buggy down. Teenage drivers! Jeez!
We got to the cabin late, but I insisted we look at our Web site before we went to bed. We had a huge fire going, and we were all in just our briefs in preparation for bed. We all huddled up on the floor in front of the computer in the living room, and I went to the site. I logged in and saw the new link to Clay's page. The page itself had pictures of him through the years. In one that must have been taken when he was around six, he had Kyle in his lap. The photographer had done a wonderful job, and they were obviously laughing. We all remarked at how cute they were.
"Yeah? He beat the shit out of me right after that was taken," Kyle said.
We laughed, of course, but I imagined that was probably true. It would have been if it had been my brother and me.
There were lots more pictures of him. Clay was an extremely handsome kid and young man. In several pictures he was wearing glasses.
"What's with the specs," Jus asked.
"He got contacts when he was fourteen," Kyle said. "That's all he wore after that."
At the bottom of the page, there were links to several videos. The first one we watched was of Clay tickling Kyle. Clay was about ten and Kyle was about seven. They were on the floor, and Clay was working him over. Kyle's laughter was pure joy. Clay then rolled off Kyle, and there was a huge wet spot on Kyle's light blue shorts.
"Daddy, he peed," Clay said.
The camera bounced up and down, and all we could hear was Gene laughing hysterically.
When the camera settled down, it focused on Kyle's face.
"I didn't do it on purpose," he said, and that was the end.
Everybody in the room, except Kyle, was roaring with laughter.
"That's coming off. I don't want people seeing that," Kyle said a bit angrily.
"Bubba, you were so cute, man. You've got to leave it," Justin said.
"Shit," Kyle said, and he was very cute saying that, too.
"Babe, you were just a little kid, and Jus is right. You were very cute in that video," Tim said.
"Let's look at the next one. It'll probably be me trying to eat a load of dog shit, or something," Kyle said.
We all laughed at that.
The next few were sports videos. In the first one, Clay was at bat in a baseball game and hit a home run. He slid into home, no doubt because that's what his coach had told him to do, but the ball had gone over the fence.
The second one showed Clay scoring a goal in soccer.
The third sports one was of some kind of martial arts. It featured Clay and Kyle in a bout. They laid into each other hot and heavy, and then Kyle kicked Clay in the crotch. Clay doubled over in pain and finally fell to the mat, holding himself, screaming. Again we heard Gene's laughter, but this time we also heard Rita's rather hysterical voice as she ran out onto the mat to see about her son.
Kyle was laughing his ass off as we watched it, but I think the rest of the guys were re-living Clay's pain.
"He didn't get hard for a week after that shot," Kyle said, laughing.
"Why'd you do that, dude," Justin asked.
"I didn't do it on purpose. I was aiming for his stomach, but I missed."
The last sports picture was water skiing. Clay and Kyle were both nude, and Kyle was standing on Clay's shoulders. They both were haired up in the pube department, and both of them were obviously man size.
"I was fifteen and he was eighteen when this was taken," Kyle said.
They did several tricks, including Kyle coming down off Clay's shoulders and getting behind him on the skis.
"I better have fun on this trip because I'm probably going to be grounded for a year when my parents see that," Kyle said.
"Because you guys are naked," Tim asked.
"Yeah. They don't mind skinny dipping in our pool, but that was in the lagoon in broad daylight. Philip was driving the boat and a friend of Clay was taking the movie. Both of them were butt naked, too," Kyle said.
"You were bad boys, weren't you," Brian asked, grinning. "Drunk?"
"Yeah, we had had a few beers," Kyle said. "And I don't need a private talk, Kevin."
Everybody howled.
The next clip was a collage of Clay in varying degrees of dress clothes. There were some of him in a suit, some of him in a tux as he left for a prom, and some of him in regular clothes walking to different places.
The last one was the best, by far. It had been taken about two months before Clay had died, and it was a "formal" interview between Clay and Kyle. They were seated on a sofa in their parents' house. Here is a transcript.
Kyle: We're here with Mister Clay Goodson. He's the brother of the famous (infamous Clay interjected) Kyle Goodson, so that should help you place him. Mister Goodson, I understand you have finally gotten a friend. Tell us what it's like to finally have a friend.
Clay: What do you mean?
Kyle: Tell us about your friend, if you can remember anything about him.
Clay: My friend is the best person in the universe.
Kyle: Oh, so it's your brother Kyle.
Clay: No. It's Jeff.
Kyle: Oh, so tell us about Jeff.
Clay: He's beautiful. He's smart. He's funny. He's extremely nice. He makes me happy. He gives me a reason to do my best and to be my best. More than anything, I want him to be proud of me . . .
Kyle: All right, that's enough. Thank you for the interview. God, Clay! (facing the camera) Ladies and gentlemen, he just let loose the biggest and most powerful SBD known to mankind. It smells like a cesspool in here now.
Clay was laughing his ass off at Kyle, and he grabbed him in a way that showed the immense affection he evidently had for Kyle. Then Clay came on the screen by himself.
Jeff, if you ever see this, erase it. Tape over it, even if it's a Montel Williams show about a paternity test . I know we'll see each other in a few days back at school, but I miss you a lot. Take care, Jeff. I think Kyle is now going to hurt me very severely for the fart I just laid on him. It truly was SBD, Silent But Deadly. Goodbye, everybody.
"God, almighty, Kyle. That was awesome, man," Justin said.
"Are you okay, Bubba," Rick asked Kyle as he put his arm around him.
"Jeff did an unbelievable job with that. Can we call him," Kyle asked.
"Shit, I told him we'd call when we looked at the page. Yeah, let's call him," I said.
We called Jeff, and we all got around the speaker phone.
"Hello," he said when he answered.
"Hey, Bubba," Kyle said. We all joined in a greeting right after that.
"You watched it, didn't you," Jeff said.
"Yeah. Dumbass Kevin forgot you wanted us to call you so we could watch it together. We just finished watching the videos. That page is totally awesome, man," Kyle said. "Thank you."
"I can just hear you now, Kyle. You want to take down the one of you pissing yourself, right?"
"I did when I first saw it, but not anymore. That happened, and you have full rights to this page to do whatever you want," Kyle said.
"You did a masterful job with the whole thing," I said. "Congratulations, Jeff."
"Thanks, Kevin. Do you think the last video is too self-serving," Jeff asked.
"Not at all, Jeff," I said. "It showed two brothers playing together, and you know he meant every word he said about you. I think it's a beautiful tribute to your relationship, and it's playful and serious at the same time. I love it, man."
"Kyle, what did you think of the water skiing clip," Jeff asked.
"I'm probably going to be taken to the woodshed for a good ass whipping when my mom and dad see it, but I thought we looked pretty good skiing together. I wish I had had a bathing suit on, though," Kyle said.
"Were you guys drunk when you did that," Jeff asked.
"Yeah, but you can't tell from that clip, can you," Kyle asked, a touch of concern in his voice.
"Not from that, but I've seen the rest of the video, remember? Kyle, watching those movies really helped me, brother. Clay was here with me on the screen, and spiritually he's here with me right now. I believe he'll never leave me. I'm really ready to get on with living now. Thank you."
Kyle got huge tears in his eyes, but I knew they were happy tears.
"Did you find any more good clips of Kyle being bad," Tim asked.
"I've got at least thirty more, but we might have to have a separate Kyle page to do them justice," Jeff said. "I've got a lot more good ones of Clay, too."
"Bring 'em home next week so we can see 'em," Tim said.
"Oh, don't worry. I will. Tim, I know Kyle calls you a monkey, but he's the real monkey in our family. You won't believe how cute he was when he was little," Jeff said.
Kyle was grinning then, and he was enjoying, for once, being the center of attention.
"Jeff, it's late, buddy, and we want to ski tomorrow morning. Thanks for doing all of this for us, man. You're one in a million, that's for sure," I said.
"I wish I was there with you so bad it hurts, but I wouldn't give up the time I spent with those videos this week for all the money in the world. Good night, my brothers. Kyle, can I talk to you for just a minute in private?"
"Sure," Kyle said.
We all told Jeff good night and thanks once again, and then Kyle picked up the handset and shut off the speaker. He walked into our bedroom from the living room for privacy. He came back in about ten minutes.
"He's okay. He really is okay," Kyle said when he joined us. "God, I've been so worried about him, but he has turned the corner, and he's in the lead."
Justin put his arm around Kyle and put his hand on Kyle's chest.
"Kyle, I wouldn't say this in front of anybody else but us, but you're a good person, man. You really know how to heal people. Don't crack a joke, okay? Just let us praise you."
"Thanks," Kyle said softly. Then, "Are we going to go in the hot tub tonight? I feel like I need to. I'm so wired I'm about to start sparking."
"I'll go in with you Kyle," Tim said. Tim, always loyal to his boy.
"I'm really tired," Rick said. "I didn't get a nap on the trip up like some people I know."
Rick was one of those unfortunate people who cannot sleep in a moving vehicle of any kind. All of the rest of us had slept, and Kyle had slept a good four hours, or more.
"Do you mind if I go in with them, Babe," I asked Rick.
"You might as well. Nothing's going to happen tonight with me in that bedroom," he said.
"What's the matter? No lead in the pencil," Kyle asked, grinning hard.
"Plenty, but I think four times in one day should be enough, even for him," Rick said.
"Ohhhhhh, he got you last hard that time, Kyle," Jus said.
"I know. Go to bed. All of you. Come on Tim and Kev, let's relax," Kyle said.
"You're going to freeze your balls off in that water. Kyle, all that white stuff out there is called snow, and it's cold. It'll take thirty minutes or more for that water to heat up," Rick said.
"For your information, I turned it on when we first got here while you were in the bathroom trying to figure out how to get your fly unbuttoned so you could pee," Kyle said.
"Kyle, I hope and pray that somebody doesn't cause an avalanche tomorrow right above you on the slopes," Rick said. He and Kyle were both laughing.
Kyle went to Rick and hugged him. Rick hugged him back and kissed him on the forehead.
*****
We scampered out to the hot tub and eased ourselves into it. It was probably in the mid-to-high twenties that night, but it didn't feel as cold, with 20% relative humidity, as forty felt at home with 95% humidity. The sky was perfectly clear, and we could see about a million stars.
"Tim, your job is to count the stars, okay," Kyle teased him.
"Do you want me to go see if I can find us each a bowl of weenie-water soup after that," Tim asked. They both laughed.
"Kev, would it be all right if we sat close to one another and I put my arm around him," Kyle asked.
"That will be fine, Kyle, and thanks for asking first, man," I said.
"Why do you and Rick do what you do," Kyle asked.
"What do you mean," I said.
"You know. Take care of us. Tim and I have families, but this is like my real family to me. My parents are busy people, but Clay's death shot a huge hole right in the middle of the Goodsons. Don't think it didn't. You probably don't see that, but we're not the same as we were."
"That doesn't surprise me, Kyle. About your family, I mean. I didn't know Clay very well at all, but I get the impression that you're a carbon copy of him," I said.
"Yeah, in a lot of ways I am," he said. "We look a lot alike, and we have the same basic personality, I guess."
"I don't know what losing Clay was like, but I know that losing you would be devastating for a whole lot of people," I said. "God doesn't make too many Clays and Kyles, and there has to be a huge void when they're taken away. Do you mind saying what Jeff told you when the two of you talked in private tonight?"
He hesitated for a few moments. He looked at Tim, and then he looked at me.
"Jeff has this strange idea that somehow I'm responsible for him 'getting whole,' whatever that means. He basically thanked me for giving Clay back to him. Kevin, that can't be good, can it? I mean, that he would think that?"
"Kyle, I think that's a very common thing that happens for people in love. When my grandfather died a few years ago, my grandmother was a basket case for a few weeks. She stayed with us for about two months after he died. I was a senior in high school, and she would just sit and stare off into space for hours on end. One night she and I were in the den watching TV. My parents were out, so it was just the two of us in the house. All of a sudden she got a smile on her face, and then she said, 'He's here, Kevin. Grandpa's here with us.'"
"Did that scare you," Tim asked.
"Not really, Tim. There was so much peace that came over her all of a sudden that I knew that whatever was going on was good, not bad. She went home to her house about three days later, and she was her old self again. It was like she had gotten whole, just like Jeff told Kyle. He told me the same thing when I talked to him yesterday. He said he couldn't come because he had spent the week watching the videos and getting whole. Because he had spent his time doing that, he was behind in his work, and he had a big project due that he had put off working on."
"I think Jeff is okay now. Do you," Kyle asked.
"It sounds like he is, Kyle. He's been getting better since New Orleans."
"Tim, he brought up that stuff we did in Sarasota. He said that the four of us returned his sexuality to him," Kyle said.
"Wow," Tim said, obviously amazed.
"Kev, I'm not going to tell you the details because I know you don't want to know that. But all four of us thought Jeff needed some physical release. Tim and I didn't do anything with him that we would only do with each other, and Jus and Bri didn't either, but all four of us did stuff with Jeff to let him know we love him. Physical stuff," Kyle said.
"The details aren't important, Kyle, but the love is. Guys, this conversation has been incredible, but I'm tired as hell. This hot water has really relaxed me. I'm going to bed," I said.
"Yeah, we are, too," Kyle said. "Kevin, we haven't had a private talk with you like this in a long time. I don't know how many kids will come through your house eventually, but don't ever forget that we're the original little brothers, okay?"
"Kyle, hell will freeze over before we'll ever forget that."
(Kyle's Perspective)
Kevin, Tim, and I went to bed a little before one o'clock in the morning the first night we were there, and it must have started snowing right after we went inside. It was real clear when we first went out there, but forty-five minutes later, when we went to bed, the sky had been covered with clouds. When we woke up Saturday morning, the sun was out bright, the sky was dark blue, and there were ten inches or more of fresh powder on the ground. You couldn't hear a sound.
"Boys, God worked his wonders last night for us," Rick said. "This is an awesome snowfall for skiing."
"I'm so excited, I can't wait," I said. I was very excited. All my life my mom and dad had told me to calm down, and I knew they would have said it that morning, too, but I couldn't help it. I was pumped.
We were all dressed in our warm clothes for the day. We were in the den, and somebody had thrown a couple of damn logs on the fire. To tell you the truth, I had only worn thermal underwear a few times in my life, and I wasn't used to it. I was hot.
"Aren't y'all hot," I asked.
"I am," Rick said. "Let's get coffee and grab something to eat on the way."
And that's what we did. We stopped along the way and ordered a ton of rib-stickers at a fast food drive-thru. We were in North Carolina, but we had to drive south into Georgia to get to the ski place. It all looked the same to me, though. Mountains are mountains.
We rented equipment when we got to the place. I actually had a pair of snow skis at home, but we hadn't brought them because they didn't have a rack for them on the top of their Bronco. There was a place to sign up for lessons, and Kevin made Jus and Brian do that.
"I'm going to do a lesson, too, okay, Babe," Tim said.
"I thought you've been skiing before," I asked him.
"I have been, but I'm kinda scared."
He was so incredibly cute when he said that. I wanted to just kiss him.
"Okay. I'll wait for you," I said. I said it real gentle and loving because that's how I felt just then.
"No, go ahead. You can do it. There's no need to wait for me. It makes me feel good when you have fun, Kyle. Go do it, Babe."
"Okay. If you're sure."
"I'm sure. Break a leg," he said.
I laughed. We said that 'Break a leg' line before plays at school instead of 'Good luck,' and I knew that's what he meant. But you can break a lot of legs for real on a ski slope.
"Thanks," I said, and I made a little kiss with my mouth.
Kevin, Rick, and I took off. We did three runs on intermediate slopes to warm up, and then we moved to advanced slopes. We did five of those, and then it was time to get something to eat. We met up with Tim, Jus, and Brian. Their lessons were over, and they were ready. The six of us ordered big lunches, and it was very good food. Jus and I ordered second hamburgers while they had dessert. Meat is my favorite food. They got Key Lime pie, which I think tastes nasty. It's too bitter. It was a touch of sunny Florida in the middle of the snow-capped Georgia mountains. I knew they got a lot of Florida people there, though.
After lunch we all skied down some beginner hills. Jus and Bri were kind of awkward, but Tim damn sure didn't need to be on no beginner hill.
"Did you like it," I asked Jus when we got to the bottom of the first hill.
"That was awesome," he said.
"You did really good, too. Let's do a couple more beginner hills, and I want you to go down an intermediate slope before the day is over," I said. "Him, too," meaning Tim.
I made twelve runs that day, and I was very happy with that. Rick and Kevin each made seventeen, but they didn't have those boys to look after, like I did.
We skied till nine o'clock that night, and we only quit then because that's when they closed the mountain and shut off the lights. We got home in about thirty minutes, and it only took us that long because we stopped to pick up pizza. We called ahead and told them what we wanted, and it was waiting for us at the drive-thru. It was about two miles to our house from there, and everybody in that truck made stomach noises from smelling that stuff. We all ate fast when we got home because we needed it.
After we ate, we all got into the hot tub.
"Where did this shit come from," Rick asked, pulling some of the hair on my chest. For some unknown reason I had started growing that stuff about three months before. He'd seen it before, I figured, but it was a lot more noticeable when it was wet.
"Ow! It's hair, and it's coming out of my skin. That hurts when you pull on it," I said. He wasn't pulling it hard, and I was more carrying on than anything.
"Big hairy-chested he-man here," he said.
"You have hair on your chest," I said to Rick. "Why do you shave it off?"
"I started doing that when I started running triathlon," he said. "Now I do it because I prefer the look."
"I'm going to probably shave mine this summer. Tim likes it, though, don't you, Babe?"
I figured he was blushing, but it was too dark to see. He reached down between my legs and squeezed my balls hard enough to hurt a little, but not real bad. He'd never hurt me on purpose except to tease me like that.
"Today was the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on," Justin said.
"I know. It was great," Brian said.
"We're teaching you stuff, aren't we," I said.
"Shit, I'm learning constantly," Jus said. "You ski really good, Kyle. I reckon nobody ever turned you out."
"No, but they're fixing to when they see that video of me skiing naked down our lagoon," I said. "They're going to turn my ass out into the yard."
"Babe, you can live with us, or with Kevin and Rick, right," Tim asked.
"I'm just carrying on, Tim. My mom is going to pretend to be shocked, my dad is going to laugh his ass off, and that's going to be it. My dad has always called Clay and me high-spirited boys, and he likes high-spirited boys. In fact, I think he was one himself. Clay had a little bit of a wild streak in him; more so than me."
Rick said, "Changing the subject, but is anybody interested in snow tubing? They have some snow tubing runs on that mountain."
"I am. I've never done that," I said.
The others said "me, too."
"It's like tubing down a river, but it's on the snow. I think you go pretty fast, especially on the second day after a snowfall, when it's all packed down."
"Pad your nuts, boys," I said.
They all laughed. We got out of the hot tub right after that. We all went to bed. If the others did what Tim and I did that night, they had fun.