I left the front door open as I ran excited down the street to the next block over to see my best friend. I was in love with him. I leapt up the steps and knocked on the large red front door, this hurt my knuckles but I didn't care. Waiting, the wind picked up and I was startled by some leaves skating across the driveway. I looked up at the cloud obscured crescent moon and only then noticed how cold it was. The door opened and it was Kevin.
He was expressionless which disappointed me but I entered with my glee intact. Immediately inside this gateway was a linoleum landing with stairs leading up on the right, and down on the left. To the left, the basement is where Kevin and I spent most of our time. His bedroom as well as the rest of the house was on the right.
The screen door slammed shut with a loud bang that made me flinch. I closed the door, and felt in it something more substantial than the one at home. Somehow it was a pleasure to close. Kevin did not have a door knob like I did, but a large brass handle which was warm to the touch. When my hand turned the knob at home, it was always cold and somehow pulled me from my body. There was something insulating this vacant feeling here. I could smell the air, it was perfume, and I could see more clearly somehow under these lights.
Kevin had walked upstairs to talk to his family and I took off my shoes. I could feel the cool floor through my socks. I slid across the landing to the top of the basement stairs. There was a wooden hand railing with shiny brass mounts to the plain white wall. I descended the flight gripping the railing intently. I stepped onto the basement's tan carpet and again scooted across the floor, feeling my socks pull, bunching in the arches of my feet, curling my toes back.
The basement was a rectangular room with a television on the longer wall and opposite, a large chair and sofa both with a particular smell that can only be described as old. At the end of the basement was a small bathroom and a spare bedroom where I slept when I stayed over. The ceiling creaked as feet passed over my head in whatever night time ritual was native here. I looked around at the familiar room as I waited. He walked down the steps and this time when I saw him cross the threshold there was a smile on his face looking at me. I don't know if I ever smiled back or if I simply glowed.
Sitting in the center of the couch, he sat beside me so that first I felt his leg touch mine and then his elbow firmly press against my own. With the same smile he said, "Scoot over," in a playful way, and I did not. He moved to the arm of the couch. I was facing the TV when I heard him say, "I love you." I looked at him, he was leaning towards me, and still had the smile. My chest sunk. This was not the first time or even the 100th time he had told me he loved me. The texture of his words rushed across my brain crystallizing the moment.
I looked over and saw his wonderful asymmetrical dimples, and though I have touched them running my fingers down his face, it now felt like the cushion between us was the vacuum of space. Kevin was wearing shorts and I reached over to touch his bare knee, feeling the hair on his leg in my mind as a forest to the fingertips of a giant.
He crossed the gulf and laid his head in my lap. I could feel his longish brown hair bunch against my leg. Then his jaw moved as next I knew he bit my thigh. His hand reached down my right leg to my ankle, moving up the leg of my pants to touch my skin. "Let me get you some shorts," he said and walked into the spare room where he had put a pair of his own for me. As he came out with the blue Nike shorts, he balled them up and threw them at my face, but they fell about 3 feet short. I got up to grab them but he raced me. We both stood up, and he kissed me lightly. Then, he pressed the shorts into my hand. I walked into the doorway of the bedroom to change. I tossed my jeans into the corner and walked back into the main room. He had grabbed the remote and turned on the DVD player. I walked over to the couch and this time pressed my side against his as I sat next to him.
I could smell all that was Kevin and moved my nose to his shoulder, then to his neck and kissed the angle of his jaw. His stubble was rough and in need of shaving but I gently moved my lips over it, across his cheek to his lips. I paused and opened my eyes. His mouth and mine, slightly open, lips touching, our eyes locked. He grinned from the moment, which made me grin. I kissed his smile. Here we had our best memories, and I will always love Kevin for loving me.