Snow Day

This story is about male/male relationships and contains graphic descriptions of sex.

You should not read this story if it is in any way illegal due to your age or residence.

This is a work of pure fiction. It mixes fictional characters and events with real people. However any real person mentioned in this work is purely an actor playing a part. This story in no way is meant to imply anything about the sexuality, personality, or behavior of the actual person.

Copyright 2005 Jason Calme. This story is the sole property of its author and may not be copied in whole or in part or posted on any website without the permission of the author.

Questions and commentary can be sent to: "JasonCalme@yahoo.com". My blog: http://jcalme.blogspot.com/

Snow Day - Chapter 2

"Sam?"

A voice woke me from my sleep and I opened my eyes. It was darker than I expected; totally dark in fact. And then I realized that my electric clock was off. The power must be out.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" I mumbled.

"Are you cold?" Howie whispered.

"I think the power is off," I whispered back.

"I'm really cold."

I sat up and tried to see him, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything. I climbed out of the sleeping bag, and quickly realized how cold it was. I went over to the bed and leaned down to him. I couldn't really see much, but I could hear his teeth chattering. My eyes were adjusting and I could see he'd kicked off the comforter.

"Dude," I said, grabbing it off the floor and putting it on top of him. "You kicked off your covers."

"I'm so cold," he just repeated.

I stood there for a second trying to decide what to do, and then I just climbed in beside him, and hugged him to me.

I guess it was only after I got in that I realized exactly what I was doing. I was more than a little shocked that I'd done it, but thankfully Howie didn't object. Since I'd already taken the biggest step, I figured I might as well go the whole hog. I put my arms around him and rubbed my hands up and down his back. Slowly the shaking subsided, and the bed began to warm up.

"You okay?" I whispered.

"Yeah...uh thanks," he kind of laughed a little.

I grinned back. I guessed I wasn't the only one feeling a little embarrassed.

"Okay...uh...I'm gonna get back in the sleeping bag," I said, unwrapping myself from around him and starting to pull away.

"Sam?" Howie softly whispered.

"What?" I asked, stopping half-way out of the bed.

"I know this is weird and all, but would you mind staying?' he asked tentatively. "I'm all creeped out and I don't want to wake up shaking again."

"Uh...you sure?" I asked, and immediately kicked myself. "I mean, okay," I said, and climbed back into bed beside him.

"Thanks Sam," he said, and in the poor light I could see him smile. "I won't tell anybody if you don't."

"Uh, okay," I said.

Howie rolled over and I resisted the urge to cuddle up to his back. Instead, I just lay there, concentrating on my breathing and trying to calm myself. For a moment I worried that I'd spend the whole night lying there fretting, but after a couple of minutes I turned on my side and fell asleep almost instantly.

When I awoke in the morning it was much warmer. The power was back on and so was the heat. And then I realized another reason why I was so warm; Howie was wrapped around me. I was on my back and he was lying up against me on his side, his face partly on my shoulder, an arm over my chest and his leg thrown over mine.

After a moment of panic, I just relaxed and realized how nice it felt.

And then he woke up.

It wasn't sudden. Rather, he slowly started to fidget and move, and then his eyes opened, and he actually squeezed me and nuzzled against me. After a second or two I saw him startle and pull away.

"Morning," I whispered.

"Uh, morning," he replied uncertainly.

"How you feeling?"

"Okay," and he grinned sheepishly. "Nice and warm thanks. You make a great hot water bottle" he smirked and then he laughed.

I poked him and he laughed and yelled, "Hey!" as I kept poking him and he writhed away from me.

Just as I was considering the possibility of jumping on top of him, the door opened and in came my mother.

"What are you two up to?" she asked, and both froze. Her voice had been casual, not accusing, but still I felt nervous and embarrassed. I was in bed with a guy, and both of us were in our underwear.

"Uh..." I stammered.

My mother surveyed the two of us with a wry smile and I started to feel guilty.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Time to get up boys."

"Okay Mom," I said. "You got back okay?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes, the snow let up a bit during the night and they plowed the road."

"So Howie can get his car?"

My Mom shook her head. "The roads aren't all clear, and they still have a snow emergency. I already called the garage. They say there's no way they can do anything until tomorrow morning. Sorry Howie, you're going to have to put up with us for another day."

I was secretly thrilled that I'd get to spend a day with him. Howie grinned, so it seemed he wasn't too upset about it, which made me feel even better.

My mother stood in the doorway for a moment, then she noticed Howie's bags.

"You need anything washed Howie?" she asked.

Howie looked up from under the covers. "Uh, no, everything's okay, thanks."

"You're going to be stuck here until at least tomorrow," my mother said skeptically.

Howie glanced at me and I didn't know what to do, so I just stared back at him uneasily.

Mom went over and looked at his opened bags and the clothes arrayed inside. She bent down, picked up a T-shirt and sniffed it.

I glanced at Howie and saw a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance flash over his face; just the way I felt sometimes.

"This all needs to be washed," she announced, dropping the shirt back into the bag. "After breakfast, you two bring all of Howie's clothes down to the basement and wash them."

Howie looked even more embarrassed.

"Mom!" I said, coming to Howie's defense.

"Okay, hurry up and get up," my mother said, and turned and walked out.

I looked over at Howie. "Sorry," I said.

He raised his eyebrows.

"It's okay," he said.

We tumbled downstairs to the kitchen and found pancakes and sausages waiting for us. I grabbed a couple of plates and handed one to Howie, then we loaded up our plates and sat down at the counter. It was fun just to sit there beside him, eating breakfast, making small talk, and nervously glancing at him now and again but being careful he didn't notice.

It was a good breakfast.

My Mom came in with two clothesbaskets and put them down where we could see them, but didn't say a word. I looked over at Howie and rolled my eyes and he grinned at me.

After breakfast we went back up to my bedroom, taking the clothesbaskets with us.

"You don't have to do this," Howie said.

"I don't mind," I shrugged, tossing a basket down and going over and peering at the open bags. I looked up at Howie and he shrugged.

"They're not that bad," he said, coming over to stand by me.

I leaned down and poked through the clothes, pulling at a pair of striped boxers.

Howie made a grab at them, but I pulled them away from him.

"Eww, man! There's some really bad skid marks in these!" I said.

Howie went bright red and lunged at me, and I shrieked and sprang away from him. He chased me back and forth across the room, finally cornering me by the closet.

I was laughing and holding the shorts tightly in my hand and he was trying to get them and I was waving my hand around as he used his body to push me against the wall. I was loving every minute of it.

"Okay! Okay!" I finally conceded before he could crush me.

He relaxed a bit and I went like I was going to hand them to him and then tossed them at the bag. Howie glared at me. I just smirked at him.

He seemed unsure quite what to do next, and then he relaxed and stepped away from me and we stood there, staring at each other, both breathing hard.

"I'll..I'll take my clothes down," he said, and I shrugged at him.

He straightened up and walked over and picked up the fallen boxers. I noticed him opening them up a little and then he turned back to me and I couldn't help it, I collapsed against the wall laughing.

"You shit!" he yelled, though he had a smile on his face. He ran up to me and started shoving me against the wall again, and I was laughing so hard I was helpless to defend myself.

"I should make you eat these!" he growled, and he started to shove them into my face, and then he stopped and stepped back with this odd expression on his face.

"Uhh," he looked embarrassed.

"Dork," I said, and made a face at him.

"Doofus," he smiled, tossing the clean boxer shorts into the basket.

Declaring a truce, I helped Howie fill up the baskets and then led him down to the basement and helped him load the washing machine. We made a half-hearted attempt at sorting the clothes into coloreds and whites, but it was mostly colored stuff anyway. There were two white t-shirts and it seemed stupid to wash them separately, so we just tossed them in and set it for a cold wash.

"Cool basement," Howie said, looking around.

The basement was mostly finished, with a pool table at one end, a couple of old couches, a TV and some bookcases. When we were kids we used to spend a lot of time down here. Now I only came down to do laundry and sometimes to shoot some pool.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Hey," Howie said, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "Get your guitar and we can jam."

"Oh no, I'm no good," I said.

"Don't worry about that, I'll teach you how to fake it!" he grinned, and since I couldn't think of anything else to do, I agreed.

"Okay," I said. "After we get dressed."

Howie nodded agreement. We both ran up stairs to my room.

"You want to take a shower?" I asked Howie.

He stared at me. I don't know if he thought I was inviting him to share the shower with me or not, but he looked a little confused.

"I'll get you some towels if you do," I quickly added, hoping that would make it clearer why I was asking him.

"Oh," Howie nodded. "Eh...I seem to remember a bath last night," he said, grinning.

"Oh yeah," I said. "Well, I'm going to take a shower," I said.

"I'm gonna get changed, then I'll take my stuff down to the basement."

"Okay."

I grabbed some clothes out of my dresser and looked up to see Howie looking a little confused.

"What's the matter?"

"Uh, I kept some jeans and a shirt to wear, but all my underwear is in the wash."

"You'll have to go commando," I joked. Then I saw the jeans he was holding. They had some rips and holes, including what looked like a fairly large hole in the back above the back pocket. It would be kind of obvious that he wasn't wearing underwear.

"Well," I said. "You're already wearing my underwear and sweat pants, so I suppose I can lend you another pair of boxers till your laundry is done."

Howie stood there looking thoughtful. "Are they clean?" he asked, a fake expression of suspicion on his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, you wanted clean ones?" I asked.

I gave him a pair and went to the bathroom to shower and change.

It was a quick shower. I debated the pros and cons of masturbating and I was oh, so tempted to do it. But for some reason it just didn't seem right.

Or maybe it was because I was worried that if I took too long Howie would figure out what I was doing.

Or maybe it was because I was in a hurry to get back to Howie. Forget about jerking off, I could do that all I wanted to once he was gone; I was going to spend every minute I could with him until then.

When I came back to the bedroom Howie was still there, still wearing the sweat pants, though he'd changed his shirt.

I raised one eyebrow and he blushed.

"Eh...I thought your mother might not approve of the other pants," he said.

I nodded. She wouldn't have said anything to him, but I knew my Mom would not have liked them, underwear or no underwear.

Howie went out the door and I finished tidying myself up and threw my clothes in the hamper, then I grabbed my guitar and headed downstairs. Going down I met Howie coming back up the stairs from the basement.

"Gotta get a couple more things," he said by way of explanation as he passed me.

He ended up bringing down most of his stuff to the basement. He set up an amp, mic stand and two pedal boards.

"I didn't realize you were going to put on a show," I joked. He grinned.

"Nah, just setting up some stuff."

Finally he was finished.

"So what do you know?" he asked me.

"Uh...how about you just play something?" I said, not even moving to take the guitar out of the case.

"Come on!" Howie laughed. "Take it out!"

"Umm..."

"Come on," he gently prompted.

I shrugged and reached down, unlatched the case and took out the guitar. Then I sat down on the couch a little way away from him. Howie came over to where I was sitting, and stood in front of me.

"So, any song you'd like to play?" he asked.

"Uh...." I shrugged. "I like the second song on your CD a lot," I said.

"'She Says'?" he asked.

"Umm...I'm not sure of the title."

Howie strummed a couple of chords and began to sing; "Sweet as the sight of a room..."

"Yeah, that one," I said.

"Okay, you know the C chord?" he asked me.

"Uh, yeah," I said, putting my fingers on the fretboard.

"That's a G," Howie said gently.

"Oh, shit!"

"Don't worry; like this," he said, and showed me.

"Oh, yeah," I nodded, and strummed the chord.

"Okay," said Howie. "So a lot of it is variations on the C chord. So start with C..." he continued, and for the next hour or so Howie taught me bits of the song and I sucked really bad. But it was a lot of fun, and he sounded good even when I was messing things up.

Then Howie showed me how the pedals worked, which was really fun. With one of them he could loop things and record over and over and play it back. But he didn't tell me that straight out. Instead he just turned to me and said:

"Say something into the mic."

I looked at him blankly.

"Anything," he prompted.

"Uh...hello?"

"No, no, you gotta say it right away," he said.

"Say what?"

"Anything. When I poke you, you say something."

"Poke me?!"

Howie laughed.

"Just...I'll give you the signal," he said.

I stood waiting and then he pinched me right under the ribs and I gasped "What the fuck!" and Howie burst into laughter.

"Yeah, funny," I growled.

"What? You didn't like that? Well..." and he tapped the box on the floor and my voice came out of the speaker 'what the fuck' and Howie laughed again.

"So Sam, what do you think of the weather?" Howie said.

'What the fuck' came my voice out of the speaker.

"You got any other comment for us?" 'What the fuck'

Howie then hit another button and it played at twice the speed and sounded like the Chipmunks. 'what the fuck!' 'what the fuck!'

I gave him a withering look and Howie laughed so hard he couldn't speak. He'd start to say something and then choke on the words.

The upstairs door opened.

"Sam!" my Mother called.

'what the fuck!'

"Sam!"

Howie dissolved into giggles.

"Yeah Mom!" I yelled back.

"I'm going out to show a house. Will you two be all right?"

"Yeah Mom. We might go down to the sub shop."

"Okay."

The door closed and Howie hit the button one more time 'what the fuck!'

I gave him a strong glare and he tried to stop laughing but was doing a poor job of it, and then I started laughing too.

Eventually we calmed down and there was one of those awkward moments of silence. You know the kind; where it starts to feel unnatural and you have this desperate need to fill it but you don't know what to fill it with.

Howie started softly strumming his guitar, his eyes closed as though thinking of something, so I didn't like to interrupt him, and then he opened them and our eyes met and we just stared at each other for a second... ten seconds...I don't know how long, and I just blurted out; "So what's it like?"

"Like?"

"Traveling around, performing?"

"Oh, it's great," he smiled. "It's tiring sometimes; I'm on the road a lot."

"A lot?"

"Yeah...just about as much as I can. If there's somewhere that will let me play. I think I was on the road about nine months of the year last year."

"And you're okay with that?"

He shrugged. "It's..." he screwed up his face for a moment. "It's what I want to...what I like doing."

"Wow," I said. "I don't think I could do that."

Howie looked a little embarrassed.

"But it's cool," I added hastily. "You know what you want to do and you're doing it," and he nodded and I felt like such a fool because what did he care what I thought? Was I giving him permission to do what he was doing? I felt myself blush.

"Ah, so it must make relationships hard," I said thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Howie nodded.

"Fuck, I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I don't mean to sound so negative I just...what you're doing, it's not something I've ever imagined, you know?"

"It's okay," he smiled.

"You're so...like you've got a plan and you're doing all this stuff and you're so driven and I'm...you make me feel like I'm pissing my life away."

"Uh...sorry," he looked guilty.

"It's okay. Not your fault I'm a loser," I tried to cover my embarrassment with a joke.

Howie grinned. "You're not a loser," he said, and bumped his shoulder against mine. I grinned back at him.

"So play me a song," I said.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Come on," I said, stepping back to the couch and sitting down and indicating with my hand that he should start.

"I'm giving you a free show?" he asked.

"No way!" I said, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out a dollar note. "What do I get for this?" I asked, snapping the note between my hands and then holding it out to him.

He rolled his eyes.

"You get about a verse for that," he said, and ignoring the proffered dollar, started playing. He actually played a couple of songs for me and it was spellbinding, but by the end of it I think we were both getting hungry. I thought I heard Howie's stomach rumble.

"You want to go get something to eat?" I asked him.

It didn't take him a moment to think about that. "Sure," he said. "Where?"

"We can walk down to...there's this sub place not far away; we could walk."

"Sure."

We walked the half mile or so down to the local sub and pizza place, called 'Pizza and More.' As we went I pointed out the interesting parts of our neighborhood and told Howie some of the stories of the place. I told him about the house that had the couple that used to have big screaming matches and the police came to them five times in a row. I showed him the tree I fell out of and where I slid off the road once.

It was fun to just talk about nothing, and thankfully there were no more awkward silences.

'Pizza and More' is your typical pizza and sub store; I think nearly every neighborhood has one, and there is little to distinguish this one from any other. The only noteworthy thing about the place is that I used to work there during the summers and after school. It wasn't the most exciting or well paying job, but I actually liked it.

Unfortunately, when we got there the only person I saw in the place was Leonard. I sighed to myself. For some reason Leonard and I had never gotten along. He was this nerdy kid with glasses and bad acne who always seemed to get in my face. No fights or anything, just asinine comments and put-downs. Like me, he worked there after school, though I had done my best to avoid working the days he did.

Seeing him there was enough to ruin my mood. I really didn't want him making us any food; I was worried he'd spit in it.

Fortunately, Paul, another guy who I'd become really friendly with when I'd been working there, appeared from the back of the store. We didn't pal around beyond that, but Paul was always friendly whenever I saw him in the shop or on the street. I was relieved. I'd have Paul make us our sandwiches.

As we walked up to the counter Leonard stared at me impassively, but then he noticed Howie and his expression changed to a scowl. Talk about friendly.

I ordered from Paul, while Leonard glared at us.

We both ordered cheeseburgers and fries and coke's. "Do I get the house discount?" I asked, half jokingly.

"You wish," Leonard said derisively. God I hated Leonard. But Paul, not saying a thing, rang up just one burger, fries and drink, and didn't say the price as I handed him a $10 note and he gave me the change.

"Thanks," I said to Paul and gave him a big grin, and then I went and sat down with Howie.

"So you used to work here?" Howie asked.

"Yeah, I stopped at the end of the summer as they didn't need me full time and I wanted a full time job so now I'm working down at the plant across town."

"Doing what?"

"Packing and shipping," I said.

"So you're not going to college?" Howie asked me, sounding surprised.

"Gonna go next year," I said.

Howie still looked puzzled.

"Some stuff happened and I just wasn't ready...and I guess I wanted to take some time and make sure I knew what I wanted to do."

Actually, I was pretty sure I wanted to work in the movie business, but I didn't really know doing what. But that wasn't the reason I'd taken a year off. What really happened was that last summer I was a complete wreck. In the space of four weeks I came out, broke my leg, my grandmother died and my brother was badly injured in a car accident. Fortunately my brother was only in hospital for three weeks and is okay now, but it freaked me out pretty badly. I'd been put forward a year when I was young too, so I was always younger than my peer-group, and being very shy; well it just seemed to be a good idea to take a year and 'find myself.'

The weird thing is that it was really my mothers idea. I was blindly gearing up to go off to college because I assumed that was what I was supposed to do. I probably would have had a mental breakdown if one day mom hadn't said 'I was thinking...'

And it really had been good for me. I've spent a lot of time working this mindless job, but I've also traveled a little, and spent more time thinking about what I want to do.

And now I met Howie too.

But I wasn't going to bore him with all that. Instead I just said; "I guess you could say that I'm kind of finding myself; though mostly I find myself hanging out here," and I made a funny face and Howie laughed.

Paul brought over the hamburgers, and we had just started eating them when the door opened and in walked Louise, one of my cousins.

Louise is my Uncle Jim's oldest daughter. She's one month older than I am and she's always liked to rub my nose in that fact. We never got along. I think it went back to when we were about three or four, and there was this cuddly bear that we were both arguing over. We each had an end and were pulling and pulling and it broke in half. I don't think we have ever forgiven each other for that.

On top of that, she's always been one of 'the cool' kids. Since starting high school she has pretty much ignored me. It never became mean or got so far as name-calling or anything. It wasn't so much hatred as antipathy, though it was antipathy that seemed to grow into hatred whenever we spent any time together.

It was probably just as well we never did spend much time together.

If this had been a typical day, Louise would have walked past me, maybe nodded, maybe ignored me completely, and that would have been that.

And it seemed to be going that way as she walked towards me, catching my eye for just a second, and giving me a slight nod of the head. I'm sure she thought I was with one of my usual friends, since she could only see the back of Howie's head. But as she drew up to the table I saw her glance over at Howie and do a bit of a double take. To her credit, she kept on walking, but I saw a look of curiosity on her face. She continued up to the counter and I heard her order several sandwiches, probably to take back home for lunch. I just hoped she'd hang out up there and not come talk to us.

"Hi Sam," I heard Louise's voice behind me. I turned around reluctantly.

"Hi Louise," I said, not trying to sound too friendly or too distant. Just move along Louise, nothing to see here.

"Who's your friend?"

Inwardly I sighed.

"Ah...this is Howie. Howie, this is my cousin Louise."

"Hey there," said Howie through a mouthful of hamburger. He gave her his big grin, which would have made me feel all warm and fuzzy, but when he gave it to her I didn't feel happy at all.

"Hi," said Louise, and uninvited, she sat down beside Howie.

"Are you from around here?" she asked.

"No, just passing through."

"Passing through?" she repeated.

"Kind of," Howie answered evasively. He didn't seem that happy to have Louise sitting there either, and took another bite of burger.

"So how do you know...Sam?" she asked, the pause between 'know' and 'Sam' just long enough to suggest she had difficulty remembering my name. I hated her the more for it.

"Oh," said Howie, chewing his food and looking at me and smiling large. "He saved my life."

"He what?' Louise almost gasped.

"No I didn't," I objected.

Howie swallowed. "Yes you did," he said firmly.

"Wait," Louise interrupted. "You have to tell me what happened."

"Well," Howie began. "My car broke down yesterday on this miserable road that no one ever seems to travel on."

"Yes they do," I interrupted.

"Well only like every three hours or so."

I rolled my eyes.

"...and I'd be dead if Sam hadn't stopped and given me a ride."

"Someone would have come along, you wouldn't have died," I protested. "Anyway, what were you doing up that road anyway?"

"There's a guy that makes guitars up a few miles and I thought I'd stop in and see him...but he wasn't there," he paused. "That's what you get for not calling first as my mother would say. And you don't know what might have happened...I could be frozen solid under some snow bank right now if you hadn't come along."

"Sure," I laughed. It actually felt good having him say such nice things about me, even if they were an exaggeration.

"So Howie, how long are you here? Where are you staying?" Louise asked.

I sighed inside. Louise clearly had her sites on Howie, and it depressed me. I had to admit that she wasn't all that unattractive. She could be charming - in small doses - and though she didn't sleep with everyone, I kind of had the idea she was pretty active. Am I accusing my cousin of being a slut? Maybe. Or maybe I was jealous she was getting so much.

And Howie was a red blooded, male, musician. Of course he had to be interested.

I stared off into space, not paying attention to their conversation, wondering whether I'd be walking home alone. I'd had a good time with Howie so far. About as much as I could really hope for from any straight guy. I should be grateful. Maybe I'd just make an excuse to leave and let them both do whatever it was they were going to do together.

For a moment I had a vision of the two of them naked - Howie on top doing her doggy style - and the thought revolted me.

I decided that I should excuse myself and let Howie do what ever he wanted to do. That was the "good-friend" thing to do. Leave him to it, so to speak. And better to go on my own accord than have them have to come up with some excuse for getting rid of me. How embarrassed I'd be if that happened.

I was just coming out of that thought when I felt something brush past my hair. I put my hand up by instinct, but didn't feel anything. I looked around and Howie and Louise were talking; well Louise was doing the talking and Howie was nodding his head while fiddling with a french fry in his fingers.

I turned away again and 'thud' a french fry hit me on the top of my head, and fell down in front of me. I turned back and Howie was looking extremely innocent; staring off into space and pretending to whistle, trying to suppress a smile on his face.

I thought about it for a moment, then I picked up a french fry and tossed it at him.

"Hey!" said Howie.

"What?"

"Will you two grow up?" asked Louise, obviously frustrated.

Howie and I both stopped and stared at Louise. "No!" we said in unison, and burst into laughter.

"Oh! oh!" said Howie. "Open your mouth."

He broke a fry in half.

"Open my mouth?"

"Yeah, like..." and he opened his mouth wide and tilted his head back just a little.

"Oh," I said, suddenly realizing what he meant. I opened my mouth and tilted my head back as he'd done, not sure whether I could keep my eyes open.

Howie took the fry and was bouncing his hand back and forth, trying to aim, and readying for the wind up. Then he tossed the fry at my head. It bounced off my chin and fell on the table and we both laughed.

"Okay, my turn," I said, and I took a fry and tried to get it into Howie's open mouth, missing and hitting his cheek.

We both turned to look at Louise, who seemed completely uninterested. I didn't care, I was playing with the cuddly bear and I wasn't going to give him up.

And just then Paul came to my rescue - again - calling out that Louise's order was ready. She got up, paused, as though expecting us to stop out little game, and when we didn't, she cleared her throat. "It was nice meeting you Howie," she said.

Howie glanced up. "Yeah, you too," he said and then he turned back to me and tossed another fry at my mouth and it landed inside and we both hooted with glee.

I was so glad Louise was leaving. Leaving Howie to me. The cuddly bear was mine.

Louise picked up her order then walked past us, casting a backward glare at me as she went out the door. It didn't even phase me, I was too happy.

"Hey," said Paul, and we stopped and turned towards him. "You guys want some ice cream?" he called from behind the counter, giving me a big, knowing smile.

"Uh...oh...sure..." I said, turning to Howie. "Want some?"

"Uh..okay," he said, obviously wondering why we were so excited about the idea of ice cream.

"Come on," I said, getting up and indicating that he should follow me.

We went behind the counter, where there was a soft-serve machine off to the side. There was no one in the store, so we were pretty safe; particularly given that what we were about to do was probably a health code violation.

I grinned at Howie, and walked over to the soft-serve machine. "You like soft-serve?" I asked.

"Uh..sure," he said, hesitantly, obviously clued in that something was going on, but not sure what.

I glanced around. Leonard was in the corner giving us an angry look, but I didn't care. He'd done the soft-serve game a few times, so he wasn't going to blab.

I turned around and, in a technique perfected one long boring evening several years back, I leaned back so my head was beside the machine and under the nozzle, then reached up and pushed the bar and ice cream oozed out the nozzle and into my mouth. I half filled my mouth - one of the secrets is not to over fill - and then stopped and stood up, trying to swallow the ice cream as I extended my hands as though I'd performed a magic trick.

"Yeah!" Paul clapped, cheering the performance, and Howie laughed.

"Gotta be careful of brain-freeze," I said. "Wanna try it?"

Howie looked hesitant. He glanced between Paul and I, and then shrugged and walked over. At the same time, I noticed Paul had a paper cup in his hand and was nodding to me. I nodded back.

"Okay," I said, turning Howie around and helping him get in position. "Be careful now," I said. "When the ice cream falls in your mouth it can be a bit of a shock. Don't want you banging your head on the machine."

I had Howie's head in my hands now, one hand underneath, and the other at the top of his head, partly because it was true, I didn't want him to bang his head on the nozzle of the machine, and partly because it was damn cool to be holding him.

"Okay," I said, moving his head into position, while nodding to Paul who was now beside us. I glanced down and was reminded that Howie still had on sweatpants. This was going to be more fun than I had thought.

"Here we go," I said, keeping my left hand firmly on Howie's head, while reaching up to the lever of the machine with my right. At the exact same time as I pushed it, Paul reached out, grabbed hold of the front of Howie's sweatpants, pulled them out and poured the cup of crushed ice down.

Howie screamed and his head shot up; thankfully missing the nozzle as I pulled him out from underneath it. His face was smeared with ice cream, and he was dancing around trying to get the ice out of his pants. Paul and I howled as Howie literally shoved his hand down his pants and pulled out the ice, and then shook himself.

We were laughing so hard we could barely stand up. But then Howie stopped and glared at us; and he looked mad. We both knew we were in trouble, and turned tail and ran.

Now normally, you might stand a chance because there's two of you; and the person that got iced would be after both of you. Unfortunately, since Howie didn't know Paul, he focused just on me, and he caught me before I'd got half way to the front door. He practically drove me into the wall, and if I hadn't been still laughing, it might have hurt. Howie was yelling something like "I'm gonna get you," or "you'll pay for this," or something, and for a moment I thought he was going to punch me, but then he started tickling me, and I was laughing all over again, and he was laughing as he did it. I was trying to get away from him, or get him to stop, but he was all over me.

"What's going on?" asked a loud voice, and we both froze. I looked over Howie's shoulder to see Frank, the owner of the store standing behind the counter.

Howie ceased the attack and stood up, looking very nervous.

"I was just showing my friend Howie around," I said.

Frank was a nice guy, though he sometimes came across as rather gruff and serious.

Frank stood there for a moment. "Okay, well just don't damage the walls. I just had them painted," and he turned around and went back into the storage area.

I looked at Howie, who looked back at me with shock on his face. I poked him and his expression softened a little and then he laughed and we both chuckled.

"Bastard," he hissed, though I knew he didn't mean it in more than a friendly way.

I slapped his shoulder. "You've now been initiated into the soft-serve club," I said.

"Uh...thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," I said. "After you join, you're soft all afternoon," I joked.

We stood there for a moment and then I said, "We should head back, have to shovel the driveway again,"

"Yeah," agreed Howie. "Just got to get the last of the ice out of my pants."

I laughed as Howie groped around and pulled out a couple of bits of ice.

"Ha, ha.." said Howie. "It's not your balls that are fucking freezing."

I went over and got some paper towels and brought them back to him. He took them and stuffed them down his pants, which I thought was hilarious, then I went back and got some more.

He was standing there, his hand in his pants, trying to absorb some of the water, though the front of the sweatpants were now showing a rather embarrassing water mark. He stopped and looked up at me, and he actually looked embarrassed and I felt sorry for him. It had been a great joke, but now I felt a little guilty.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. Not really sounding it.

I gave him a couple of the towels. "You've got some..."I pointed to some ice cream smeared on his face, "...on your face." Howie swiped at it, but there were still bits left.

"Here..." I said, and I stepped up to him, and with a paper towel, reached out and wiped the ice cream off his chin. He stared back at me as I did it, not moving, just letting me do it. We were staring into each others eyes and I kept thinking I should look away, but I couldn't help myself.

"There...you..." I paused. "That's better," I said. I stepped back and looked down. "With your coat on, no one will notice you had an accident," I joked.

Howie rolled his eyes.

"Come on," I said.

We said goodbye to Paul, and Leonard grunted at us, and we headed back home.

The walk home was kind of tiring. It was cold, the snow had started again, and we got into a snowball fight half way there. Well, actually, Howie stuffed a snowball down my back - I guess to try and get even with me - and then we fired snowballs back and forth and ran at each other trying to shove handfuls of snow into the others face or down the others back. It was a pretty evenly matched game until Howie slipped as I was chasing him and plowed into a snow bank. I jumped on top of him and started grabbing fistfuls of snow and tossing them at his face as he yelled at me and struggled to roll me off him.

His struggling slowed and then he lay still and I stopped trying to shove the snow in his face and I just lay there on top of him.

"Can you get off me?" Howie's muffled voice came from underneath me. "I'm fucking freezing."

I laughed.

"I'm serious!" he yelled.

"Oh, sorry." I relaxed and got up off him. Howie half rolled over and looked up at me, his eyes squinted.

"You okay?" I asked.

"No," Howie whined.

He started to get up and I saw now that his jacket had unsnapped and opened, and his front was entirely wet.

I put out my hand. "Come on," I said, grabbing his hand and helping him up. "You're gonna freeze again." I said.

"Yeah." he agreed.

"You're hopeless," I said. "Why didn't you zip up your coat?"

He shrugged.

"You okay?" I asked softly.

He nodded. "I'll be okay...dickhead." Though he said it without menace.

"Dork," I responded.

"Doofus," he said, and then he stuck his tongue out and made a face and I laughed and he stepped back quickly before I could take a swipe at him.

We were only a few steps from our driveway, so Howie didn't get any colder before we got home. I suggested that Howie take a shower to warm up. He went and retrieved some clothes from the dryer in the basement and went and took a shower while I went and sat in the living room and fretted. Fretted because I knew I was falling into serious like with this guy and was loving the time I spent with him. I was a little confused too, about how he felt about me. If I didn't keep telling myself he didn't, I'd swear he liked me. As in 'liked me,' liked me.

After a few minutes of fretting, I went to get a drink and found my mom in the kitchen.

"How are you and Howie getting along?" my Mom asked.

"Okay," I said noncommittally.

"Looked like you were having a lot of fun out there," my mother said.

I blushed. "Yeah," I agreed.

"Have you told him?" my Mom asked.

I stopped and stared at her.

"Told him?"

"About..."

"Mom," I whined.

She stood there staring at me.

"Don't you think it might be a good idea to tell him now, so no one gets the wrong idea...especially you."

I rolled my eyes.

"I haven't got the wrong idea," I objected. "He's straight. I'm not going to do anything. Anyway he's gonna be gone in a day or two."

I stood staring at my Mom and she stared back at me evenly.

"Alright," my Mom finally said, and turned back to what she was doing. I stood there staring at her, but she ignored me, so I took my drink and went into the living room, and worked on a resolution in my head.

'Howie is just a friend. That's all I will think of him as....'

And then Howie walked in, his hair damp and disheveled, wearing a light blue t-shirt and a pair of long, dark blue basketball shorts with white stripes that went to his knees, still rubbing his hair a little with a towel, the sexiest guy I had ever spent time with. I just sat there and stared. My mouth was probably hanging open.

Howie stopped rubbing his hair and looked up and saw me staring at him and he just stared back. Then he said:

"What?"

"What?" I asked him blankly, still staring.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

I shook myself out of the dream.

"Oh, yeah! Sorry, just kind of day dreaming."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm gonna get a snack. Want something?"

"Yeah," he said.

I went out and got us both snacks and a drink for Howie. When I came back in Howie was sprawled on the couch, watching the weather channel.

"Anything good on?" I asked, putting down the drink by him and sitting in the chair next to the couch.

Howie sat up. "You can sit on the couch," he said.

"It's okay," I said.

We watched the weather channel for about ten minutes, and then I got bored.

"Hey," I said. "Want to watch a movie?"

"Sure," he said.

"Do you like the Beatles? I have 'A Hard Days Night'" I said, going over to the tapes to look for it.

"I love the Beatles man."

"Cool," I said. "Me too," and I looked back at him and grinned.

So we watched 'A Hard Days Night' and had a blast, playing along with the movie, 'He's very clean!' dancing and singing. We acted out some of the scenes, did the 'running around on the field' sequence, and at the concert we were dancing and singing as loudly as we could. At the end we collapsed on the couch laughing and smiling and I was feeling so great.

I didn't think it could get any better.

----------------- to be continued.