CHAPTER 3
DISCLAIMER This story contains depictions of male on male, graphic sexual interactions. PSA TO ALWAYS USE A CONDOM! The characters are highschool aged and sometimes have sex, if this offends you, why are you here? This is a complete work of fiction and any similarities to persons or events is purely coincidental. Enjoy the story and any feedback is welcome.Do not post this story to any other website unless you have explicit permission from the author. All rights reserved.
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ASPEN
Monday afternoon at lunch I sat, absentminded and guilty out of my mind. I felt so bad about taking Leon to Kennedy's secret spot. I didn't know it was for my eyes only and I had taken a place sacred to him and defiled it. I felt just terrible. I didn't have his number, but at any rate I was glad to have given him time to cool off. But now here I was, staring across the lunchroom, wishing I could get a moment alone with him to apologize to him.
"Right, Aspen?" my twin brother asked from across the table.
"What?" I snapped out of my head and back to the table I was sitting at. Cypress was staring at me, annoyed that I didn't listen to whatever he had said.
"He was telling us about how fun the Samhain ritual at your house every year is," Serena Harris said as she fixed the bow in her hair and smoothed down her cheer uniform.
"Yeah, like, do you guys dance naked under the moon?" Jake Ahlers asked with a laugh.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Queer?" Leon joked. I frowned at him. He knew I hated when he said it and he continued to say it anyway. He thinks that just because he's gay, it means he's allowed to use slurs like that. It isn't.
"Not as much as you would," Jake retorted. I glanced over and saw that Kennedy had left his spot. I scanned the lunchroom and found him heading through the hall doors. I got up and grabbed my backpack.
"Where are you going?" Leon asked, grabbing my wrist.
"To get away from you hooligans," I said with a small forced laugh. I didn't want to fight with him in public, I would berate him for his slur later. I kissed him on the cheek and said goodbye to the people at the table then I hurried to the hall that I'd seen Kennedy go down. He ducked into the library and I followed. When I got inside, however, there was no sign of him.
He must be somewhere back in the stacks, I thought. The library in my school was huge and there were stacks for days. I wandered back and started looking for him in the classics section, since he had just been reading Pride and Prejudice. I found him up against the wall under the window. He was reading Peter Pan.
"Hey," I said as I sat down next to him.
"Hey," he didn't look up from the book.
"Listen, Kennedy, I'm sorry I brought Leon to your special place. That was very out of line and I didn't mean to upset you. I didn't realize it meant so much to you," I said, putting my hand on his arm.
He looked up at me and smiled, "I'm sorry for acting the way I did," he apologized.
"I would have too if there were people in a spot that was sacred to me," I admitted. I took my hand away and reached into my bag. I pulled out Batgirl #20, the one where Cassandra Kane takes on Spoiler aka one of the later Batgirls. It was the only one missing from his mom's collection.
"How the heck did you find this?" he asked excitedly flipping through the pages.
"It came in yesterday at A Novel Idea. I found it while I was stocking the other comics and sneaked it back and bought it before anyone else could," I smiled.
"Thank you, this means a lot to me."
"I figured it would be easier to earn your forgiveness with a gift," I giggled.
"It worked. Do you maybe wanna go study at the diner after school? We can share some fries and work on homework or whatever."
"Yeah that sounds like fun!" I grinned. The bell rang and I stood up, "Well, I got to get to history, see you in science!"
"Later, Aspen," he went back to his book.
After school, I was waiting on the front steps when Cypress came out with Carlee Grimes on his side.
"Hey, Aspen, what's up?"
"Just waiting for someone," I shrugged and looked down at my feet.
"Who?"
He didn't have to wait long for an answer because Kennedy strolled up a second later, "You ready to- oh."
"Hey Valentine. You gonna hang with my twin?" he asked in a snotty voice.
"Yeah, we are gonna go study at the diner," he said nonchalantly.
"Well what a coinky dink, Carlee and I were just headed there to study too! Let's all just go together."
"I don't have room on my bike for all four of us," Kennedy said, annoyed.
"Well we can all take my car! Come on!" Cypress and Carlee took a head start to the car. Kennedy looked at me.
"I'm sorry. We can go somewhere else if you want," I said.
"No, I'm not gonna let that tool ruin our plans. No offense," he said. He held out a hand and hoisted me up when I grabbed it. Then we followed after my brother and his girl. Kennedy and I got into the back seat and headed to the diner.
KENNEDY
When we got to Helena's Diner it was already packed with most of the guys on the football team, including Leon.
"I hope you don't mind, I texted a few other people to join our study group," Cypress smiled slyly. That jerk. All I wanted to do was spend some time hanging out with my new friend and this idiot decided to bring his whole squad of bozos. That's when I noticed Kira Banner sitting with the other cheerleaders at the end of the table.
I'd had a crush on her since I don't know when. This could be my chance to finally talk to her. I mean I know I was on the football team but I hardly spoke to anyone and I would always go home immediately after practice and games because I didn't want to hang out with my teammates.
Kira's tiny black curls hung around her head in a pretty afro. She'd parted it on the left side and it framed her beautiful dark brown face. She looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back.
"Hey I'm really sorry about this, I didn't know-"
"It's fine," I shrugged, "It could be a fun time, I guess."
"Are you looking at Kira Banner?" Aspen eyed me suspiciously.
"What? No!" I said, nervous, then I sighed, "Yes."
"Let's go sit by her," he said devilishly, "I think I've heard her talk about how cute you are once."
"Only once?" I asked.
"Don't get greedy!" Aspen pushed me over to the seat next to her and pulled it out. I sat in it.
"I'm gonna go over there and sit with Leon," he grinned and winked at me.
"Hey, Kennedy," Kira said, brushing some of her wildly curly hair behind her ear.
"Uh...hey," I said slowly. God I'm an idiot. I should not be allowed to speak in public.
"How's it goin?" she smiled and tilted her head to the right. I practically melted. She was so dang gorgeous.
"It's um...it's- ha... Clean," wait. What did I just say? Did I really just respond by saying "clean"? Why did God give me a mouth if I only use it to say stupid stuff? I stood up so fast my chair fell over. I glanced frantically at Aspen as the room quieted and all eyes were on me. Then I stuffed my hands in my pockets and walked out of there. Embarrassed as heck.
I started kicking a rock down the street as I walked the three miles back to school to get my bike.
"Kennedy! Kennedy, wait!" I heard a familiar voice calling out behind me. I turned to see Aspen running down the sidewalk, flailing his arms at me.
"What?" I asked curtly, still angry with the whole thing.
"I'm sorry that Cypress invited a party to our study date," he said remorsefully.
"It wasn't a date," I replied defensively.
"Fine, our study hang," he said, rolling his eyes, "Either way, it wasn't a cute thing for Cy to do and I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize for your dickhead brother," I shrugged, "he's never liked me. None of the team does, which is fine because I don't like any of them either."
"Well...I like you," he said sheepishly.
"Thanks," I sighed, "You'd be the only one."
"Oh, I'm sure that isn't true."
"It really is. Mom's dead, Dad doesn't care, my siblings only talk to me on my birthday and at holiday gatherings. Nona is always busy with her shop. I don't have anyone," I was now choking back tears. Why was I telling him all this? I'd never opened up to anyone before.
"Well now you have me," Aspen said matter-of-factly, "Let's go someplace else and hang out alone."
"Wanna maybe go to the boxcar?" I suggested.
"I thought you'd never ask."
ASPEN
We sat on the tattered old couch in the boxcar, flipping through comic books and listening to an old Pink Floyd cassette. A cold breeze blew in the old car and nipped at me, causing me to shiver under the two blankets I already had on me.
"Are you still cold?" Kennedy asked, turning to face me.
"Yes, I'm freezing!" I said, shivering and pulling the blankets up around my arms.
"Here, I'll shut the door," Kennedy said, standing up and shutting the door. Aside from the little cracks in the wood, where light spilled through, the boxcar was dark as heck. I heard the sound of a matchbox rattling around and then the spark as it ignited. He brought it down on the wick of an old oil lamp before replacing its glass chimney. He then proceeded to light a few candles and another oil lamp.
"Is that better?" he asked as he came back to his spot on the couch.
"I mean it's still cold, just less breezy."
"Ha. I only wish I had the problem of being cold. I'm constantly way hotter than I should be. Like right now I'm roasting!" he said as he shucked his flannel shirt, leaving only the black t- shirt he'd been wearing under it. I put my ice cold hand on his very hot skin. He wasn't lying. He was real toasty.
"Holy math! You weren't kidding when you said you were cold."
"I know," I shivered again, my teeth on the brink of chattering.
"Well come get closer," Kennedy put his arm on the back of the couch.
"Like...cuddle with you?" I asked suspiciously. That seemed like the opposite of something he would ask me to do.
"Platonic touch is very important. Cuddling releases oxytocin, which does everything from making you feel better, to making you feel more connected to people. My mom taught me that it's very important to have physical touch in life. As we get older, we are two times less likely to be touched as much as we were as children and even more so when you become an adult. Like...babies will straight up die without physical human touch," he shrugged and smiled.
"Well then come here, you big scientist, because I'm so frozen, I almost started singing Let It Go."
I scooted closer into him and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. His body warmth immediately warmed me to my core. He was so warm and I was stealing every ounce of it. I leaned my head onto his shoulder and quietly, we went back to reading comics.
"Didn't you and Leon used to be best friends?" I asked him, after a while.
"Yeah, once upon a time."
"What happened there?" I pried. I knew what Leon had told me but I wanted to hear the story from Kennedy.
"It's all...It's not really a great story. I don't think you'd like it."
What does he mean? Leon told me that one day, Kennedy just stopped talking to him and I wondered why that was.
"I wanna hear it."
"Nah, I still feel like a jerk about it all. I mean I don't feel like I was outta line but..." he trailed off.
"Now you have to tell me!" I exclaimed.
"Well, back when we were fourteen, he was like the only friend I had after my mom died. There was this one day that we were hanging out and he pulled this...are you sure you wanna hear?" Kennedy asked again, looking for any reason to not have to tell the story.
"You'd better tell it to me or I'll burn down the boxcar!"
"In that case- he pulled out this old porn mag he'd swiped from his older brother. We were looking at it and we started to get hard. He suggested we beat off. At first I was a little weary of the idea of us jerking off together but I decided that I didn't wanna be lame so I whipped mine out and he did the same.
"So there I am, minding my own business, whacking off and his hand snakes over and grabs hold of it. I got really confused and nervous and I told him to not but he held on tight and then he tried to put it in his mouth. I pushed him backward and punched him in the face and then I bolted. I never spoke to him again half because I was young and dumb and homophobic. The other half was because I felt so bad for punching him about it."
"Well that's definitely not the story Leon tells," I wondered why he had lied to me. Of course, if I'd done something like that, I'd probably lie too.
"What did Leon tell you?" Kennedy asked, getting rigid.
"He just said that he started dating the girl you liked and that's why you guys stopped being friends."
"Well he did start dating the girl I liked out of spite for the fact that I didn't want to hang out with him ever again. But then he started dating you because he realized he was gay so," he shrugged and leaned back into me. I put my head back on his shoulder. He leaned his head against my soft, wavy hair and in a few minutes his breathing became very steady. I could tell he'd fallen asleep so I closed my eyes and I fell asleep too.
KENNEDY
About an hour and a half later I woke up and Aspen was laying on top of me, his head resting on my chest. At some point, I must have laid out on the couch and he just followed suit and then he was on top of me. His breathing was soft and steady. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was almost four thirty.
"Aspen, wake up, I'm gonna be late for practice," I said as I gently rocked him. He perked up his head and looked at me with sleepy eyes.
"Practice? Oh heck!" he jumped off of me and quickly grabbed his backpack, "I'm gonna be late to Gardener's League!"
I pulled on my flannel and threw open the boxcar door. It had already started getting dark. I grabbed a flashlight that I kept in my satchel that I kept just for these occasions.
"C'mon! We still gotta get out of the woods!" I said and he nodded in agreement. We bounded through the woods trying to avoid low hanging branches and logs in the way. Finally, we made it to my bike, got on and drove like the wind for the high school.
We were still late but only by like five or so minutes. I got out on the field and Coach Daniels immediately started scolding me and made me run thirteen laps around the field before I was allowed to participate in practice. Part of me wasn't even mad. I was glad to be late. I was glad that I had spent time with Aspen. I could still feel his small frame on my chest, hear the soft breathing that he was doing. I smiled to myself as I thought of my new best friend. I wondered if he thought of me as a best friend yet too.
After practice, Cypress and Leon cornered me in the locker room.
"What's the situation with you and my brother?" Cypress asked, chest puffed. He was hardly intimidating though. He was only wearing a towel and I had already showered and changed back into my street clothes.
"What do you mean?" I asked, playing stupid.
"Why are you hanging around him?" Leon asked sternly.
"We are partners for the science project," I shrugged.
"Yeah but you guys have been hanging out even when you aren't working on the project together," Cypress crossed his arms and leaned back on the lockers.
"So what? Are you guys the friend police for Aspen? If he wants to hang out with me, he can," I was getting pissed. Why were these ass hats accosting me about my relationship with Aspen? We were just pals; it's not like I was gonna try to steal him from Leon or anything. Besides, Aspen was in love with Leon, it's not like I would have stood a chance anyways, even if I was gay.
"More like friend security. We don't want him to become best friends with someone who might ghost him and never speak to him ever again," Leon hissed.
"You know why that happened, Leon. Listen, I don't have time for this," I pushed past the two boys and made my way out to my motorcycle. Why was it everyone's business that I had become friends with Aspen? Was I really such a pariah that when I got a new friend, it was a big debacle? I just wanted someone to talk to and hang out with and I just felt like Aspen really understood me. That's all, I swear.
AUTHOR'S NOTE Hey Guys! I hope you've been enjoying so far. I want to thank all the wonderful readers who have emailed me and told me that you like the story. It helps me decided if I should keep writing it or let it go when i know how many people are reading it. I could still use an editor so if anyone is available. I'd send you the latest chapter on Sunday, you'd edit and send it back to me before Wednesday. I just kind of need someone who first can make sure I have no typos and next to kind of toss ideas around with so that I can decided where my story is heading. Thanks again to everyone who is sticking by me till the end! =^.^= Kit