Under the Cherry Tree

UNDER THE CHERRY TREE

By

Rev. Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters and situations are purely imaginary. Any resemblence to any living persion is coincidental. This story is primarily a romance but does contain some scenes of explicit sex, primarily homosexual but not exclusively.

THREE

It takes time to dress in the perfect casual way for a party. We considered clothes, shorts versus swimming trunks vs. jeans, and debated T shirts. I am sure an adult would see us and think that we were a pair of scruffy college kids, but the whole preparation, from showering to cologne to clothes, was a carefully thought out enterprise. Carter had done the same, apparently, for the BSU mixer because he came out of his room wearing crisp khaki's, an unbuttoned Oxford and a blazer. Robbie had decided on cargo shorts and a T shirt that highlighted his generous musculature. I had on jeans and a pullover. It was different sorts of parties.

We drove in Robbie's truck over to the Commons which is just across the interstate from campus, but too far to walk, especially at night. Willingham may look like idyllic but it borders on a pretty poor neighborhood. The University tries to encourage upperclassmen who want to live off campus to rent lofts at the Village, because it is a co-development deal with a property management company, but more people live at the Commons, which is totally independent of the Dub. That means fewer rules, of course. It is located on Pio Nono Avenue, which every freshman makes fun of. `Pee O No No" is a common joke. That doesn't last long because it loses its humor after the first telling and soon you pronounce the street like the locals, Pi-a nona. Southerners have a gift for not pronouncing things the way they are spelled.

The crowd at the clubhouse at the Commons was huge, at least 200 hundred people and maybe more. We had to park in a dead end lane and walk. You could hear the general hum of the crowd blocks away and thumping bass of house music when you got close. Multiple noise complaints were going to be inevitable that night. We entered through the clubhouse, which is where the sound system was pumping out electronic music, but the bulk of the crowd was outside by the pool. There was a large knot of people in the kitchen area, which is where I assumed the alcohol was.

Robbie and I just looked at each other as if to say "what now?' I didn't see anybody I recognized, which isn't surprising on day 4 of college life, and clearly Robbie didn't either. He just shrugged and jerked his head toward the back patio area. We plunged into the crowd there, which were clumps of people laughing and talking, most holding plastic cups of beer, or bottles of beer, or cups of purple stuff. Then, over in the corner of the patio up against the clubhouse next to some shrubbery, I saw Xander talking to a girl. He was holding a bottle of water but was talking to her in a real animated way. I grabbed Robbie and headed over to him, stepping around clumps of people standing in circles or pairs.

Xander grinned broadly when he saw us. He was in a pair of board shorts. Blowing off the girl, he headed toward us. He looked kind of flushed and he was rubbing his fingers of his free hand repetitively against his palm.

"You came, cool."

"Yeah, "Robbie said. "Looks like a cool party."

"Yeah," Xander said, looking past us vacantly in the distance for a moment. It was obvious enough that Robbie turned around to see if anything was there and I looked too. But then, in a flash, Xander was back to normal. "C'mon, you guys need a beer."

"Sure" Robbie said.

I was going with the flow. It was a party, after all. The thing is, though, the couple of times that I had beer, I really didn't like the taste. Still I followed along behind Robbie and Xander as he took us back to the kitchen area of the club house. On the floor against the far wall was a keg in a plastic tub filled with ice. Xander grabbed a couple of plastic cups and pumped the keg.

"Um, dude. We're only 18" Robbie reminded him.

"So?" Robbie pointed at the sign on the wall over the keg that said that you had to be over 21 to drink.

Xander studied it for a long minute. "Yeah, okay. So?" he asked as he poured one cup for Robbie and one for me.

"Um, so who's putting this party on" I asked Xander.

Xander cleared his throat. Then he coughed a little before answering, "It's a group effort, I think." He stared up at the ceiling and squinted briefly.

"Well, totally cool to do, that's for sure."

"Oh, shit. I totally forgot," Xander exclaimed, suddenly animated. "Erica. You're totally here to meet Erica. Fuck, flaked."

"Is she here?" Robbie asked.

"Oh, man," Xander smiled, then laughed. "C'mon. You have got to meet this girl. What a fucking great idea." It was as if he had just thought of it. Now, like a little kid wanting his parents to see and buy a new toy, he was tugging on Robbie. "You, Dill. Mix, mingle. I'll be back."

"Okay" I said, eyeing him suspiciously. There was something definitely not right about him. I was forcing myself not to think the worst. He and Robbie melted into the crowd and I walked back out on the patio and stood there sipping my beer. It wasn't super cold and it didn't taste good to me but I guessed that people didn't drink it for the taste. But I've only been drunk a couple of times in my life and I was pretty sure that tonight wouldn't be one of those times. I was just nursing the beer along, taking a few sips every so often, watching people laugh and joke with each other, too shy and awkward to just walk up and join in. To be honest, I was pretty bored by the whole thing and was wondering if maybe the BSU mixer wasn't more my style.

I saw Xander break away from a clutch of people on the far side of the pool, leaving Robbie behind to talk with a pretty girl. As he walked around the pool, I just drained the rest of the beer in the cup. I figured suddenly that if I was going to enjoy myself I needed to loosen up a bit.

He walked up to me and smiled, "Taken care of. C'mon, drink more beer. Loosen up. Let's go."

I got another, even though I noticed that I was drinking and he wasn't. Xander was clearing his throat quite a bit, which was a little odd. Plus, it wasn't like he was completely tracking. One minute he would act totally normally but then he would just space out.

"So, you homesick yet?"

"Nah," I said. "Well, a little actually. You know it's like camp. It's fun at first but then after a few days you want to go home. Except this is a 4 year camp. How about you?"

"Nah," he answered and then stared blankly into the distance. "Don't have anything to be homesick for. I bet you have a dog at home."

I laughed. "Yeah. He's a lab/golden retriever mix. His name's Bo. I miss him a lot too. He's a great dog. You?"

He shook his head no and looked down at the ground. He was shaking one leg slightly, restlessly. "Maybe one day."

Before I could speak, Dex walked up with a thin, light skinned black guy. The black guy seemed pretty effeminate to me just at a glance. "I thought you were going out of town."

"Next weekend."

Dex cocked his head and squinted, looking at Xander's eyes. "Are you candy flipping?"

"No" Xander said with a devilish half smile.

"Well?"

"Bees" Xander answered, drawing it out.

"And you didn't think to help a nigger out?" the black said with a flamboyant flick of his wrist.

"Get your shit together, Tyrone. Ask yourself: who's my boyfriend?" Xander shot back.

"It damn sure ain't you, you white ass mother fucker. I'd have to spend all my precious time whooping ass all over town, boys and girls."

Xander laughed hard, a lot harder than appropriate. "I'm the friendly sort."

"You're the slutty sort."

"C'mon Dylan, I want to go swimming," he said, grabbing my hand.

Dex grabbed my elbow. "You're the kid from across the hall, right? You sober?"

"Yeah" I answered.

"Listen, do you mind keeping an eye on him for a little while. Make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid. I'll catch up with you and take him off your hands."

"C'mon, let's go swimming. We need to get away from these two. They have bad ch'i."

Xander was dragging me off by my hand, through the crowd. I turned to see what Dex thought about this sudden inspiration, since he obviously knew what Xander was on and I didn't, but he and the black boy, who was apparently named Tyrone, were all ready walking away. As we got close to pool, I jerked my hand away from him.

"I don't have any swimming trunks, Xander."

He stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. "Go naked."

"No, I'm not going in the pool naked. That's crazy. Besides, nobody else is swimming."

"So? Why do what everybody else is doing?" he shrugged. "I'll go in naked with you. It'd be better naked."

"No, if you want to get in the pool, fine. But keep your trunks on. I'll watch you. I'll hold your wallet or something."

He pointed at me. "Totally right." He pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and from his front pocket, his keys, a lighter, a brass stem and a pill bottle, the kind you get a pharmacy but without a label on it, and handed them to me. I just stood there holding them, a little amazed that in a crowd of a couple of hundred people he was going to be the only one in the pool. He leaned in toward me and whispered in my ear, "Why don't you put the drugs in your pocket? Just a thought."

Suddenly alarmed, I rammed the brass stem and the pill bottle in my pocket. My heart was racing. I had no idea what I was holding or how serious it would be if I were caught with them. Xander pulled off his T shirt and handed it to me. Kicking off his flip flops, he laughed hard and dove in the deep end. The water splashed and people on the side of the pool screamed and backed away as the water hit them. It seemed like the whole party turned and looked, and there I was like a doofus holding his shirt. I felt like every eye was on me. Xander slid through the water effortlessly and emerged out of it, shaking his head, before turning and doing a backstroke toward the shallow end.

"Shit," some guy in the crowd called out. "Fucked up again, Xander?"

"It's a party" he answered, totally unconcerned.

To my surprise, within a minute or two, about a dozen people had jumped into the pool at the deep end, some of them doing cannonballs to maximize the splash. The knots of people next the pool scurried away, some them laughing and some not, but you could feel the vibe of the party pick up. It just seemed more electric. I moved down the shallow end where Xander was. He just was floating serenely away from the splashing at the other end, staring up at the clear sky. I sat down on a chair and watched him. I told myself that I should be really angry with him. Clearly, he was high on some drug, which is wrong in itself, and worse yet, I was holding his drugs. But to be honest, I really wasn't angry. Hanging around with him was going to be an interesting adventure, probably dangerous and probably I wouldn't like everywhere that adventure took me. But I was at the time of my life for adventures, for new experiences and this was one. And to be even more honest, more honest than I was really comfortable with, I like looking at him. I was definitely attracted to him and if there hadn't been a couple of hundred people around, I would have gone skinny dipping with him. Well, maybe. And what Tyrone had said about both boys and girls piqued my attention.

Sitting there I saw Cass walk up to the side of the pool and squat down. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Floating"

"Yeah, I got that. Get the fuck over here, I need to talk to you."

Xander stood up in the shallow water and moved slowly to the side of the pool. I stood up and walked over to the side too. After all, I was supposed to be looking out for him.

Cass looked up at me and said, "You're the kid from across the hall, right? Pre-med, has a scholarship?"

"His name is Dylan. He's my friend."

"I'm Cass, by the way. We met the other day. How'd you get roped into babysitting this fuck-up?"

"Your brother appointed him. Or he volunteered. I don't remember. It was something."

"You still have those 4 tabs of E from last week? I'm guessing the 2CB is gone," Cass said.

"Oh yeah, definitely. It is most definitely gone"

"I need them."

"Okay" Xander said, pulling himself out of the pool, straining his picture perfect oblique's. Once out, he shook himself like a dog to dry off. "C'mon"

We walked over to the railing and jumped over into the parking lot. Cass looked at me as if he was going to ask why I was coming along but he didn't and I ignored him. We ducked behind the shrubs lining the pool area and Xander held out his hand for me to give him the drugs. Nervously, I fumbled for them and handed the bottle to him. Then he told me to give him the one hitter too. I figured that was the brass stem, so I gave it to him.

"I got some freshman willing to pay 40 bucks a hit. I'll split it with you." Cass said.

Xander opened the bottle and on top was 4 blue pills in a tiny zip lock bag. "Nope. A gift, me to you," Xander said, handing it to him.

"It's just that we're having a little supply problem. Late delivery."

"That sucks"

"We'd find somebody else but the quality is top notch."

Xander nodded but didn't seem too interested in Cass's problems. Maybe it was the two cups of beer kicking in but I wasn't even that nervous about standing there. I haven't been gone from home a week yet and I am all ready a minor part of a drug transaction. It was surreal.

"Thanks," Cass said. "Hey, did you bang Ashley?"

"Yeah"

"You don't mind if I ..."

"Go for it. She likes you to play with her tits."

Cass nodded. "Cool. Hey Dylan, if you don't mind hanging out with him for a while, I'd appreciate it. Just don't leave until I get back. I'll make sure he gets home safe, okay."

"Yeah, sure. We're just hanging out, anyway." I said. Cass nodded and walked back around the shrubbery to the pool area. I turned to Xander, "So what now?"

He grabbed his shirt and tucked it in his waistband, staying shirtless on the warm September night. "Let's go smoke a bowl. It's getting really intense now. I want to get away from people for a little while."

"Cass said not to leave" I protested

"We'll go look at the cars on the interstate" he said, tugging at my arm. I could tell he was having trouble concentrating. He was kind of closed in and shaking a little bit. Strangely, his speech wasn't at all slurred. "We're not leaving, we're walking."

We walked out of the complex and down the street near to where Robbie's truck was. The night air was warm and heavy. Xander was moving slower than me, seemingly caught up in whatever it was he was seeing. But all he said was that his depth perception was fucked. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad thing. I couldn't even tell if he was enjoying himself or if this was a bad trip, since I assumed that what he was on was more or less like LSD. He took the brass stem, the one hitter, and loaded it with some marijuana. He began to pat himself furiously, looking for the lighter which I handed to him. He lit it and used the metal top of the lighter for a mirror at the end of the stem to see if it was burning. As the ember burned out, he held the smoke in his lungs for a long time before exhaling. He loaded it again and held it out toward me. I didn't want to and I told him so but he just continued to hold his arm out. Reluctantly, I took it and lit the end, trying to replicate what he had done with the lighter. The smoke was very acrid and sickly sweet. I tried to hold it in but my lungs rebelled and I began to cough violently. My airway was on fire. As I coughed up a lung, Xander put his arm around my neck and led me down the street. It was a dead end and we stumbled through the brush to a small clearing. There was a fence there and steep embankment leading down to I-75. I looked at the cars speeding down the highway under the soft yellow glow of the street lights. It was, I admit, a pretty scene but it didn't hold much fascination for me. But Xander was entranced, silently and expectantly watching the cars go past.

He turned to me. "Can you just talk to me? Just anything. Tell me everything about you. I want to hear the sounds."

"What do you want to know?" I asked, confused. Actually, I could feel my mind scrambling a bit. Despite coughing most of the smoke up, enough had gotten into my bloodstream to make me high, I guess. "It's pretty boring really."

"Life is never boring" Xander said, sinking to the ground, still looking at the interstate through the fence. So, I just started jabbering. Talking about my home, my parents, living on a farm, going to a small high school, beta club, band. I knew it was boring and I felt really self-conscious doing it, fearing that inwardly he was making fun of me. But every time I trailed off, he would ask me a question to keep me going. I wasn't a 100% sure he was listening or comprehending since the questions were like "and?" or "then what?" but still he wanted to keep talking, so I did. As I talked, he loaded another hit and gave it to me. I didn't resist as much this time but still I was afraid of another coughing jag. This time, it went down a little easier and I didn't cough nearly as much.

"So, can I ask you something?" I said as I handed him back the empty one hitter. He loaded a hit for himself. "You do this much?"

He blew out the smoke. "Yeah. And thanks for staying with me. You're a real friend. I know you don't approve."

"It's not that. I don't understand it, that's all."

An ambulance came screeching down the highway. Xander jumped up and leaned over the fence to see it for as long as possible as it's red lights flashed away from us. He turned to back to me. He seemed dazed and lost as he slid back down to ground, the ground I felt welded to. The pot was really beginning to kick in.

"Is this a good trip or bad trip?"

Xander smiled broadly. "This is a great trip. This is euphoria. I feel totally connected to you, for one thing."

"You know I don't really get high," I admitted sheepishly. "It's kind of a new experience for me."

He smiled a little and leaned toward me. "I know. Right now you feel disoriented, kind of closed in, a little giddy, maybe even paranoid...super self conscious. But it's totally okay. It doesn't matter. You can be whoever you are. I feel nothing but love and harmony. Peace. "

"So if I wanted to try some of that, you'd sell it to me?"

"That's not what I do. If you want drugs, you'll have to buy from somebody who sells them."

"Give it to me then. If I wanted it, would you give it to me?"

"No" he said flatly.

"If it's so great, why not?"

"Because you don't want it really. You just wantt to see what I'd say. I think one day you will want to because part of you is curious and you can ask me then."

"I don't know about that" I said. "Maybe, maybe not. Shouldn't we maybe get back"

"You having fun at the party?" he asked

"I'm having fun with you, I guess"

He laughed. "You guess? Breaks my heart. I thought everybody always had fun with me. Well, not everybody. Not all the time. You wouldn't be doing this back home, huh?"

"No, definitely not. It's good though, a new experience. That's what it's all about, right?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely. I really like you by the way"

"Yeah, me too" I said. I think in one more second, he would have kissed me. I'm not sure that's a road I really want to go down. Definitely not when I am under the influence of drugs and alcohol. "Why don't we head back?"

We were both laughing, at nothing really, as we walked back in. There were more people in the pool than when we left and hum of the people was louder. They were drunker. I found a perch next to the clubhouse outside and sat there, dazed and stoned, looking at the people. Xander, I thought, was more into the music being pumped out from inside. In the haze of my high, Robbie came up, holding the hand of a girl. She was probably good looking, I guess.

"Hey, Xander" the girl said.

"Hey guys."

Robbie leaned toward me. "Hey, dude. I am kind of am going to need the room tonight, if that's cool."

I was too addled to really think but I heard Xander say that it was cool. I could crash with him tonight. I saw the girl looking at Xander with a look of concern. "Um, Xander, you know, you should probably slow down some."

He smiled. "Have fun, guys."

Robbie nodded, a sort of guy to guy nod, a thanks for being a stand-up guy sort of thing. I looked at Xander, "Did you two..."

"Yeah, we had a thing a couple of years ago. She really hated my guts for a while. It was a bad scene."

We just kind of chilled there for a while until Dex and the black guy came up. I glanced at my watch, it was after 1 am. "Hey Dex, Tyrone" I said, trying to be cool.

"My name ain't Tyrone you white assed motherfucker" the black guy said as Xander doubled over in laughter. "It's Dante, piece of shit."

"Sorry" I mumbled, which made Xander laugh harder.

"Okay, so plan A was junior here was going to take you home. But it looks like Junior is pretty fucked up himself."

"I think so" Xander said, still laughing. "Shit happens."

"Yeah, welcome to Xanderworld, kid." Dante said, rolling his eyes. "That's where the fucked up fairy jumps out and gets ya."

"You take my car. I'll take Xander's jeep and meet you at my place. Is the kid coming too?"

Xander nodded. "I think he's going to have to."

The wind in my hair from the open jeep felt good, knocking away some of the haziness in my mind. But I was still feeling very inward, isolated, in my stoned state. I couldn't say at that point whether I really even liked the sensation of being high or not. But it was definitely something different. Even though I noticed that Dex drove really fast, I didn't seem to mind. It just seemed funny. We turned at this big gray stone church that looked weird in the night with its sides illuminated by spotlights in the ground shining upward. We sped down that street and across the interstate and turned again left at the big post office building. Then it was another right at the stop light and an immediate left onto a brick lined street that ran behind the Law School. Then Dex whipped into a small lane and came to a stop at the back of an old house, in a clearing under a tree. I fell out of the jeep and followed them inside. It was an old house that had been broken up for apartments. The funny thing was that the first room we entered was a bedroom, with some clothes strung about and unmade bed. Beyond a door of the far side of the room I could hear the unmistakable sounds of sex, a bed squeaking in rhythm and moaning, but I followed them through a bathroom into a living area, dining area, kitchen space.

"I guess he got in Ashley's pants" Dex remarked, pulling a couple bottles of water out of a refrigerator. Dante pulled off his shirt and headed back through the bathroom.

"Sounds like it," Xander agreed.

"Okay, you guys sort out who's sleeping where and doing what. We're gonna go fuck."

"Cool, thanks" Xander said.

I chimed in by thanking him too. Xander went to small closet and pulled out a blanket and tossed it to me. "Take the couch"

"You gonna sleep on the floor?" I asked yawning. The need for sleep was catching up with me.

"Slept in worse places," he said, flinging a pillow at me. "But I couldn't sleep now anyway. Too much of a body load. I'll be awake for a while yet"

I offered to sit up with him but he shook that off. He said that he was used to being up when everybody else was asleep. But he offered to share a joint with me. I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted it because it seemed like his pot was really strong, but I have no basis for comparison. Still, aware of my weakness, I agreed. We sat on the couch and he rolled a joint using papers stashed in a wooden cigar box. It seemed as if there was some ritual with it. He knew the ritual, though, and rolled it with practiced ease. He lit it and took a drag in before handing it to me.

When I gave it back, he smiled and said, "I'm going to show you something. It's called a shotgun." He turned the joint inside his mouth and blew smoke out the end of the joint. I had my lips just inches from his lips and sucked it in. It was an incredible rush.

"It's almost like kissing," I giggled.

"we could do that too" he said. Just then, in a total surprise, he put his lips against mine and kissed me very gently. I was shocked. BUt I opened my mouth and his tongue went into mine. They called french kissing in high school and I put my tongue in his mouth before breaking off and backing away.

"I don't, I just, I don't, um" I stuttered. My heart was beating hard and fast and I was incredibly anxious. "I don't, don't know"

"It's okay, it's cool. You don't have to do more than you want to do"

"I, I, I don't know Xander" I said, looking at him confused and scared and aroused too.

"Go to sleep" he said, running a fingerly firmly down my torso from my chest to past my belly button. "It's all okay"