This story contains male/male consensual relationships of a romantic and sexual nature. If it is illegal for you to read this type of material, please adhere to your laws.
Join my group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/storiesvi/ *********************************************************
Part Three
Everett:
You should have seen the look on Jared's face when I told him that Kyle was gonna be hanging out with us at the lake on Saturday. Total euphoria. I spent half of Thursday night watching him go crazy in his closet, picking out one outfit after another.
He finally settled on some frayed cargo shorts and this grayish-blue t-shirt that did beautiful things to his eyes. Paired with flip-flops and sunglasses, he was going to look perfectly laid-back and casual. The kind of nonchalant attitude that he wanted to project to Kyle that weekend.
I went home and called Kyle to make the deal more solid. I got his address and promised to pick him up early Saturday morning when we headed out to the lake. It was warm enough that I could borrow my brother's jeep to get us there.
Since Jared and I went pretty regularly, I had everything pretty much down. My mom made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli (which we pretty much never ate), along with plenty of fruit and juice.
I asked her to make more than the usual amount since we had an extra mouth to feed and I lay across my bed late that night looking at the ceiling.
I had a game the next night and really I should have been thinking about that, but truthfully I wasn't as into basketball as I had been for the last two years. I mean, it was senior year and I wasn't that great of a player that I was gonna try to play in college or anything like that.
I still liked the game and I cared a lot about my teammates, but I would be kind of glad when the season was over. That would leave me with more time to hang out with Jared and that was kind of important to me since we might not be going to the same college the next year.
Okay, that was the one thing about my life that completely sucked at the moment and I didn't really like to talk about it...or even think about it. Senior year was supposed to be this intense celebration of burgeoning adulthood - my last year of irresponsibility, but the only thing I could think about ninety-nine percent of the time was the fact that Jared was planning to go to fucking New York University...and he got his acceptance letter last year thanks to some anime videogames he designed sophomore year. I, on the other hand, am still basically waiting to hear word from them either way.
I applied early this year. My grades were okay, but not all that and I didn't have some spectacular skill to make me stand out from the billion other people who applied to the school. It was my worse fear that Jared would traipse off to NYU and I would never hear from him again.
What can I do about it, we're just best friends? It's not like I can declare undying love for him and tell him that I'm such a loser that I can't bear to even think about being separated from him for four years.
Anyway, we still had a lot of time together and I was going to enjoy every single, minute of it.
Which was why I had planned this stupid thing with Kyle at the lake on Saturday. I think I was hiding the fact that even the thought of Kyle in the car with us pained me. I couldn't imagine what the day was gonna be like and I really didn't even want to. What if they hit it off and spent the whole time flirting or - even worse - making out? Once, I sat through an entire movie while my brother generally felt up and swapped spit with this girl he was into. It was not fun...'cuz there's like this general awareness of semi-sex only a foot or so away from you, but you're supposed to act like you don't care. Add to that the fact that if anything actually did happen between Jared and Kyle, I was going to be nursing a fucking broken heart, and the situation was not exactly ideal.
I did what I could not to think about it. I wanted things to be perfect for Jared. He didn't need me sulking around, pining away after him when the guy of his dreams was finally within reach. I had to suck it up.
Still, I didn't exactly know how things were gonna go. I didn't know all that much abotu Kyle Riley.
When we were alone, Jared would rant and rave about Kyle, but now that Kyle was going to be with us, we would have to find another topic of conversation and I was in serious doubt of what that would be. We really had nothing in common with Kyle as far as I knew. If he didn't play videogames, we were shit out of luck.
*** Jared:
By Saturday morning, I was on pins and needles. I had never been so nervous before, not even when I was grouped up with Kyle in class. Because basically, I would be able to have a one on one conversation with Kyle. I could potentially have his full, undivided attention and honestly, I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do with it.
I peered out of the front window for the umpteenth time, waiting for Everett to show up in his brother's sacred jeep. I'm an only child so I don't know all that much about sibling relationships, but its even wierd to me how well Ev and his brother get along.
"How many times you gonna look out that window?" my dad asked from his place on the arm of the couch. He grinned at me amusedly.
I threw him a look and his grin widened. I really do love my dad even when he is getting on my nerves. I love my dad because of how the fact that I am gay was such a non-issue for him. I know some horror stories from my GSA meetings about reactions from the parental units and I honestly wasn't sure how my dad would feel about it.
Its just been me and my dad since I was three when my mom married one of my dad's best friends. Its wierd, I know, but my dad and my mom were part of this group of friends that always hung around together in high school. My mom always had a crush on my dad's friend Carl, who was kinda wild. My dad wasn't super into my mom or anything, either. He dated another girl for like all of his high school years, then when they broke up he got drunk at a party and my mom was there and drunk, too...and that night they conceived me.
For a few years, they tried to live together to make us into a family, but it just wasn't working. My mom wasn't all that ready for mother hood and my dad wasn't all that ready for my mother. So, they agreed that we shouldn't try to make something work that just wasn't meant to be.
I guess I should have felt really bad about her leaving, but I didn't. I've always been closer to my dad than anybody else and its not like I wasn't ever gonna see her again. I see her three or five times a week and she and Carl come over for dinner every once in awhile. She's around for my birthdays and all the holidays and she's into gaming and everything. I guess it's like I don't care if my family doesn't exactly line up with the American dream. My mom and dad love me the best way that they know how and thats the most any kid can ask from a parent.
I just depend on my dad more than anything else. He's the one who cooks my dinner and basically takes care of me...and he's good at it. My dad decided right away when he found out that my mom was having a boy that he really wanted a son.
My dad was the first person I came out to. I told him how I felt about other boys when I was twelve and he explained to me that some people are gay and some people are straight. He told me what it meant to be gay, about religion and how people might react. And he told me about how it was possible to be confused about my sexuality, but one day I would know for sure whether I was gay or not and when I knew all I had to do was let him know and it wouldn't be a big deal.
A year later I told him that I was gay and he hooked me up with a local GSA and joined PFLAG right away. We've been open and honest about everything since then. Including everything about Kyle Riley. Which was probably why my dad thought it was funny the way I kept pacing back and forth to the front window to see if Everett had shown up yet.
"Shut up, dad," I rolled my eyes at him and he giggled wickedly. He was enjoying himself way too much. I turned to look at him, suddenly panicked.
"Do I look okay?" I asked.
"You and Everett picked that outfit out, right?" he asked and I nodded, swallowing hard. "Everett's got excellent taste, Jared."
"That means I look okay?" I asked again.
"Yeah, that's what it means," he said with a grin.
Just then, there was a knock at the door and I almost dashed to it and flung it open. Everett was on the other side, peering at me with smiling brown eyes. I grinned back at him.
"Hey, Jared," he said, then looked over at my dad. "Hey, Mr. Barnes."
My dad waved at Everett and gave him a warm smile.
"So, you all set?" Everett asked, his eyes back on me. I stared at him completely stiff for a moment.
"Do I look okay?" I asked him and his smile softened a little.
"You look awesome, Jared, no way Kyle's not gonna notice you today," he told me and I relaxed a bit. "Are you still nervous?"
"God, yes," I breathed, letting him see the terror in my eyes. He put a hand on my shoulder, gently.
"Don't worry, I'll be there to smooth things along," he told me and I started to relax more. "Just be yourself. Everything's gonna be fine."
I nodded, smiling.
"Get back here before one am," my dad reminded us both and Everett, nodded, smiling at him. Not once in over two years had Everett ever missed my curfew. He practically had my dad in the palm of his hand.
"Is it okay if I sleep over?" Everett asked my dad and my dad nodded, standing up and walking towards the kitchen.
"I'll see you two later," he called over his shoulder and Everett turned back to me.
"Let's roll," he said with a lopsided grin and my insides took a dive. God, please let Kyle Riley like me! ************************************************ To be continued.........
Join my group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/storiesvi/