Everlasting Love Chapter 10
NOTE: This is a fictional, biographic love story as Macy Strickland, his family and friends navigate their way through different stages of their lives. All of the characters in this story are purely fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this chapter, please send me some feed back; I have a rough mental outline for how this goes but some extra details or inspiration along the way are always welcome. If you are offended by intimate male on male emotional and physical relationships, you should be questioning yourself why you are here in the first place. As always, please consider making a donation to Nifty to maintain this website.
Other than the morning sunlight shining through the window I really wasn't sure what time it was but Mitch was already out of bed somewhere. Shelby had climbed into the bed with me and her tail started thumping against my quad as she wagged it when she finally saw me stir and make eye contact with her. "Did we make too much noise for you last night girl?" I asked, still naked and feeling like a donut glazed with sex.
I looked around the room, some of Mitch's clothes were gone and my own just strewn about from wherever they landed as we rapidly undressed each other. At first I was nervous that he was gone but his bag and everything else were still where he dropped them before we lost our virginity with each other. I lumbered out of bed, dug through my own stuff and unpacked enough to be functional. After pissing and brushing my teeth I found his Warrior Lacrosse shirt and slid into it and then a pair of my own khaki shorts before following Shelby towards the aroma of coffee being made in the kitchen.
"Black, right?" Mitch asked, shirtless in just a pair of maroon Towson lacrosse shorts.
"Of course," I said with a big smile, "I could get to liking this, waking up, my sexy boyfriend making coffee for us."
I took the mug after he poured it, warmed my hands on the outside of it momentarily, kissed him long before I took a sip asking "how, um, does your butt feel" ending with a squeeze of his left glute.
"It's sore, but in a good way if that makes sense," he confessed.
"Sorry, I didn't want it to...." I started.
He pushed his right index finger over my lips, shaking his head no, "I wanted that, I knew there would be, um, consequences for trying to go the wrong way on a one way street."
It was easy to kiss is finger and smile, "okay, so what are we going to do today?"
"Just chill for now, Robbie and Karen are going to try to come down later in the week," Mitch said thinking out loud, "might be cool for all of us to hang out for a bit, plan some sort of end of summer thing before Robbie and I start football practice."
I smiled devilishly and sipped more of my coffee, "hot damn, that ass of yours in tight football pants? I'm already having a whole new set of bad thoughts"
"You're a mess....ever been to Assateague Island?" Mitch asked.
Needless to say, I looked dumbfounded, "Assawhat...where's that?"
"Just an hour and half or so south of here, in Maryland. It's a barrier island preserved as a national park; it's pretty, wild ponies all around; always something cool to photograph there and along the way."
"Cool, but I am starving, I seriously need some carbs, a cup of coffee isn't going to be enough," I said playfully, "and I need to shower."
"Go shower up, I'll be right behind you; then we can hit Sammy's; they do a decent whatever-you-want for breakfast at a fair price and on our way back we can get some hunger prevention supplies," Mitch said.
"Hunger prevention supplies," I pondered to myself out loud, "never mind, I get it" before I filled Shelby's bowls with kibble and water and refilled my coffee mug before heading to the bathroom.
Just as I finished, Mitch came into the shower and we traded places after a few kisses and tugs. I stepped out and dried off most of the water with a towel and then strutted around naked, air drying as I liked to call it while I made the bed and picked up our remaining clothes from the floor. Once I heard the water shut off I shouted, "What should I wear, I didn't bring any hiking shoes?"
"Just your shorts and some running shoes will be enough, a long sleeve tee shirt if you got one, otherwise, I probably have one here you can wear."
We were dressed almost the same as we started our post-breakfast jaunt down south, through Dewey Beach, then Bethany Beach before we got to Fenwick and then crossed into Maryland's Ocean City. Compared to the Delaware beach towns, Ocean City was a honky-tonk crazy town; people coming and going all over the place. We inched our way down Ocean Highway and then into the older part of the beach town on Philadelphia Avenue before turning west onto Route 50, a sign announcing two thousand eight hundred some miles to Sacramento.
Less than half an hour later we were through the towns of West Ocean City and Berlin, Maryland before we paid our entrance fee to Assateague National Seashore. Once inside we pulled off the roadway, Mitch saying to me, "you drive."
After switching Mitch pulled out his Nikon DSLR with a zoom lens from the center console as I began driving slowly at his direction. It wasn't long before we spotted three beautiful wild horses just grazing not far from the roadway, Mitch quietly commanded me to stop as he rolled down the window, steadied the camera and rapidly clicked the shutter. The horses didn't seem to mind us and to be honest, aside from seeing some from a distance, it was the first time I ever really paid any attention to a horse.
Something seemed to spook them and they quickly moved on together as I asked Mitch, "did you get any good pictures?"
He nodded, switching the camera to its preview mode and showed me one on the LED screen, the trio of horses, two grazing on the natural grass while the third was looking around, just to see what was going on, "I like this one a lot!"
I drove us around a little more and we found more horses, some willing to pose, others a little jittery around humans with large lenses aimed at them until we got to the beach parking area and I parked the Volvo. "Let's go check out the beach," I suggested.
Instead of taking in the beach, I was taking in Mitch Humboldt, the side of him I never knew existed; wild horse lover and beach guy. He wasn't all about being a lacrosse player or firefighter and it made me wonder how I could, how I would measure up to this man. As we were walking towards the beach, there was an extended family trying to organize themselves for a group picture with one family member's smartphone. Mitch walked up to the designated photographer, "jump in the picture, I'll take it for you."
I fell in love with him all over again, how kind he was to a family of strangers as well as how deep and genuine his kindness was. Part of me wanted to reach over and hold his hand or to lean in and kiss him for that small, beautiful gesture but I knew it wasn't the time or place. We walked towards the beach, Mitch's eye framing random images to photograph before he raised the camera: a partially blown over section of weathered snow fencing along a sand dune or a group of sea gulls out on the rocky jetty.
"Kind of an amazing place, humans and nature together," I said taking in all the campers and SUV's as well as the tents and their campsites along the beach.
"It's one of those places not completely destroyed by man," he stated warmly as we turned around before adding a cautionary, "yet. Seen enough? Wanna head up to OC for some lunch?"
"Sure," I replied, slapping my shoes together as I carried them to get rid of the sand before I put my feet back into them as we got to the parking lot's edge.
Mitch took the wheel as we began our trek northward back through Ocean City, stopping at Dumser's Dairy Drive-In for a late lunch just north of the convention center. As we parked I noticed some surfers carrying their boards towards the beach and asked Mitch, "you ever surf?"
"Nope, never had the desire plus I got plenty of other ways I can hurt myself," he replied before adding, "and it's not cheap either."
I watched a few more surfers going to and from the beach as we sat and plowed through some decent cheeseburgers, "I think I'd like to give it a try."
Mitch gave me his "really?" look that I had started to get used to as he found his iPhone, tapped the screen a few times and after a pause he started, "Hey, bro....no, Mace and I are down at the beach...yeah...are you and Karen going to make it? ... By the way, what's that surf shop you always get your tee shirts from? ... Delancey's ... No ... Macy has a bug up his ass to try surfing ... 58th and Coastal ... okay ... see you guys on Friday ... later Robbie."
"Just up the street," Mitch said, after hanging up with Robbie, "we can stop in, hear their spiel about lessons and stuff."
"Thanks, Mitch" I said, letting my sneakered foot rub on his under the picnic table we sat at which had become one of our informal and private ways of showing affection out in public.
We drove less than a mile up to a small strip shopping center where we found Delancey's and let ourselves into the surfing emporium. Some pretty girls were stocking another shipment of tee shirts and ringing up customers when a very attractive beachy sort of male close to our age came forward from the back of the store, "Mitch? Mitch Humboldt?"
"Kieran! Oh my god, how are you? I totally forgot about the Delancey surfing empire," Mitch replied as he hugged the dude.
"Slaving away at the family business and you?," Kieran replied, "who's this?"
"Macy Strickland, I present my uber-best buddy from lacrosse camps far and wide, Kieran Delancey," Mitch said before elaborating, "Kieran and I were roomies just about every summer at whatever lacrosse camp we were at; he's got game and plays a little guitar on the side to try to impress the girls."
"Great to meet you Macy, any friend of The Bolt here is a friend of mine," Kieran said as we shook hands.
My eyebrows scrunched up in puzzlement as I asked, "The Bolt?"
"Let it go Kieran," Mitch pleaded.
"You see, Mitch here, is wicked fast when he plays attack, like a bolt of lightning," Kieran spelled out, "and well, naturally, the name Humboldt easily morphed into The Bolt."
I looked at Mitch with a snarky grin, "The Bolt, huh; is that what I got to deal with now?"
"C'mon Macy, you know I play defense now," Mitch said.
"I know, I know," I replied, "but you have to admit it's kind of cool."
The Mitch shoulder shrug and that smile, "I guess."
"Hey Mitch, there are still a few of us playing pick-up around 6:00 pm at Northside Park, up at 125th Street, you know you'd be welcome," Kieran offered before changing the subject, "what brings you guys in anyway?"
"Hoping to find out about some surfing lessons," I said.
I felt Kieran's eyes sizing me up, "sure, I can make that happen, I'll hook you guys up. Lessons start at 8:00 am right here; want to do a two for one deal? "
A glance to Mitch and I caught his reservation about the whole concept and I didn't want to rock our boat, "I think it will just be me."
Kieran nodded and grinned, "I figured as much, The Bolt would rather take a lacrosse ball at 100 miles per hour into his sac then fall off a skateboard or a surfboard."
Mitch nodded his head in silent agreement as Kieran beckoned me to the back of the store, "C'mon Macy, let's find a board for you."
Kieran was smoking hot, sized between Mitch and myself, longish light brown hair that bleached from the summer sun and a killer tan. I immediately liked Kieran with his huge perfect smile and an easy going laid back with a touch of can do attitude as he started pulling surfboards taller than either of us from a storage rack until he settled on one that was probably taller than Mitch, "What are you, about 160 pounds?"
I nodded yes, "Yeah, 158 but why is it so big?"
Kieran explained, "it will be more buoyant, you'll need that extra buoyancy until you learn how to get up, find your balance and get your footing."
"Gotcha," I said acknowledging Kieran's explanation as he took a piece of tape and wrote MACY on it and put it on the board, "how long does it take to learn?"
"I can get you schooled up on the ABC's in a couple of lessons but, once the bug bites, you are going to spend the rest of your life trying to surf better and search for the next perfect wave," Kieran said before asking, "are you decent underneath?"
"Huh?" my face registering visible shock at the directness of the question, did he know something?
"Are you wearing underwear? You're not commando are you, you have to have underwear on in order to try on a wetsuit," Kieran stated.
"Oh," I smiled almost embarrassed, "yes, I'm decent; I got clean underwear on,"
Kieran searched through a rack of shorty wetsuits and found a medium sized one for me, tossing it to me, "try this one."
At first I was shy but then again, I figured it was Kieran's business to be around dudes in their underwear trying on wetsuits. I stripped down and stepped into the suit, feeling it hug me tighter than any of my wrestling singlets ever did as I pulled up on the zipper strap before I checked myself out in the mirror, the bump not too bad.
"How does it fit, too tight?" Kieran asked, then he showed me paddling with his arms like swimming, "do that, how does it feel, do you have full range of motion?"
I moved my arms like I was doing freestyle, "it's snug but I can move my arms pretty easily."
"Good, because all surfing starts with paddling out to the waves," Kieran said.
By now Mitch had found his way to the back of the store and saw me about to unzip the wetsuit and commented, "it's my little surfer dude."
"C'mon Mitch, I'll hook you up bro," Kieran half joked and half pleaded, "otherwise, I'm gonna be Macy's surf bud for the next three mornings."
Mitch shook his head no again, "go for it Macy, you can have the car to come down for lessons; I'll even take Shelby out for a run. I know you are in good hands with Kieran."
"Alright, Macy, I'll see you here at 8:00 am," Kieran said sealing the deal with a handshake before turning to Mitch, "and I hope you guys will come down to Northside to hang out for a while; Mitch, I definitely want to get my game on again with you; we were a pair of sick players back in our camp days."
"Mace, you mind? Maybe you can take some pictures of Kieran and I playing together again, I know you always get some good action shots," Mitch asked.
"Sure, anything for the cause and my new friend Kieran," I said fist bumping both of them.