Hey readers! I know... I've left everyone hanging again. Well, life is starting to settle down again, so here's chapter 11. Hope you all like it.
I hated to leave Zack, especially to go to work. I was still consumed by the question of whether it was better to leave him to think, or to be there for him. It was a slow night at work. It gave me a lot of my own time to think, and I arrived at my answer. I would do both. I would give him his space, and go about my life as it used to be, but all of my free time, at least for now, would be dedicated to being there for him.
I was close to done closing up the salad bar for the night, when an announcement came across the intercom, "Aaron in the salad bar, you have a call on line 3." I knew who it was. My parents rarely ever called me at work unless it was important. It had to be Zack. I grabbed the phone, and pushed line 3. "Salad bar, Aaron speaking," I formalized, just in case. "Hey sweetie," the voice I knew well and loved began. "I just wanted to let you know that the doctors say he is out of the woods for now. They still want to go ahead with the bypass surgery, but he should be OK." Zack sounded a little happier than he had all day. I could still detect the obvious traces of fear and reservation in his voice. "Oh that's excellent Zack!" I sighed, mitigated. "Yep! So how's work going?" he queried. "It's a bit slow tonight. I should be done really soon," I said, thinking he would ask me to come over. "Oh that's good. Well, I'm going to get some sleep now. I just wanted to let you know what was up before I went."
A little surprised by what I had just heard, I said, "OK. I'll see you at school tomorrow then." "Yep, goodnight. I love you," he said. I echoed his salutation, and repaired the receiver to its niche on the desk model phone. I knew he was stressed. I decided not to dither about Zack's well-being. He had been through a lot in one day, but he sounded happy enough on the phone. This was just one of those times that I would give him his space.
When I arrived at school the next morning, I went through my normal routine as I had promised myself I would. Zack was waiting outside my homeroom door when I got there with a big smile on his face. It was at that moment that I realized something. We hadn't really had a chance to discuss how we were going to do things at school. I knew I wasn't ready to come out. I wasn't quite comfortable with it myself, so I would never have been comfortable telling everyone else! I returned his smile, trying to hide my concern for what he might do. We exchanged, "Hey"s. There was a few minutes left before homeroom began so I started walking down the hall with Zack.
Once we were in an unpopulated section of the hall, he began. "Listen, we didn't talk about this yet, and I don't know what you think, but I'm thinking we should keep our relationship a secret." He looked at me for a response. I was most relieved to hear those words from his mouth. The last thing I needed to add to the stress of a senior year of highschool was controversy. "I agree completely," I said, nodding my head. Having said that, the bell rang, scattering all of the students toward their respective homerooms. Zack pursed his lips a little, as if to blow me a kiss. I winked in response, and headed toward my homeroom.
School passed mostly uneventfully. Zack and I saw each other a few times between classes, and nodded or smiled at each other. Between eighth and ninth period he handed me a note that read:
We're both off tonight! Hope to see you!
Call me when you get home. Love, Zack. Yup, same Zack. Good as new.
When I got home, I had the house to myself. I went straight up to my room, and called Zack, while I changed clothes. "Hello?" he uttered. "Hey baby!" I responded. "So what do you wanna do tonight?" "I was thinking maybe you come over and we'll, uh, take it from there," he spoke seductively. "Uh-huh," I responded. "So I take it you're going to be home alone?" "Not if you come over," he chuckled. "OK, I just gotta finish changing, and then I'll be on my way," I said. "OK, I'll see you then." I finished getting ready, left my parents a note, and was out the door.
As I approached the front door to Zack's "mansion," a piece of paper hanging there came into focus. I pulled it off the door and read it out loud. "Walk in," I said to myself. Another note on the staircase read, "go upstairs." At the top of the stairs there was a piece of paper with an arrow pointing to the right. Halfway between that note and the end of the hallway was a note that read, "take off all your clothes, and go to the bathroom (don't forget your towel)" and had an arrow pointing to a tan bath towel on the floor. "This is getting interesting," I thought to myself, as I obeyed the notes.
I wrapped the towel around my naked waste, and walked into a bathroom lit only with candles, maybe ten of them scattered around the room, and with Zack sitting naked as the day he was born in that humongous bathtub of his. I was starting to become intoxicated with the smell of the bath oils and the candles when I dropped my towel and climbed into the tub to sit up against him. I rested my head on his chest as he massaged the fragrant water into mine. I couldn't believe Zack could be this romantic, but I didn't want it to stop.
We soaked in the tub until we were wrinkled beyond recognition. Zack took me by the hand and led me to his room where we made love in his bed. To this day I think it was the most pleasurable, romantic, and emotional sexual encounter I have ever had.
********************** Whew! That should hold everyone over for a while. There's at least one more chapter to come. Hope you liked this one. Recklissmind@aol.com Cheers!