Paradise -- Chapter 1
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction that contains gay themes, among others. If such themes offend you, please close this window now. Also, there are adult themes at various points in this work. All characters are fictional, any resemblance to real characters is strictly by coincidence.
Now...with that out of the way, please take the time to enjoy my latest work for nifty.org, a story called "Paradise." If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me on: thefuturecanadian@yahoo.CA . Also, if you'd like to stay updated on my works, or real the other works that I've posted on nifty, please join my yahoo group at http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/futurecanadiansgroup.
David :)
Paradise Chapter 1 "Fuck the Men/The Dawn"
`The Heat' was a dive of a place on Paradise's northeast side. It was a gay bar that was typical of small establishments like it. It was dark, and the loud thumping of dance music almost shook the building off its foundation.
It was at that place, though, that JD and Lindsay could be found almost every Saturday night. They had cheap liquor, good music, and scenery matched only on those bright, sunny, mornings during the summer months as guys ran and played on the beaches in the town that sat on Alabama's frontier with the Gulf of Mexico.
On the night of the 14th of June, 2008, they walked in as if nothing were any different. It was the first time in a month, though, that they'd come out. Until then, JD just hadn't felt like being around large groups of people, especially gay people that would only leer at him as if he were a piece of meat. Being that he and his boyfriend of two years, Paul, had broken up in the middle of the May, just after Paul's graduation, JD knew that if he went out, everyone would start looking like him.
That evening, though, Lindsay arrived at his house around nine o'clock. She was completely dressed in a bright yellow top and some black pants. She was wearing a pair of shoes whose heels increased her height by a good two inches, and her long black hair was bouncy and plush.
"I'm not going out," JD said after she just walked into the condo.
"Oh yes you are!" she said as she set her purse onto a table in the living room.
"I don't feel like it..." JD whined.
"You haven't felt like it in a month. It's time to start moving past that bastard or you'll regret it," she said as she looked at him. "And besides, if you don't, I tell them about that `special toy' you had when you were younger."
"You wouldn't!"
"Oh yes sir, I would," she said as she put her hands on the hip.
"I'm not gonna win, am I?" he asked.
"Not tonight, Mr. Barrington," she said.
JD took a couple of deep breaths and looked away. He finally climbed from the comfortable sofa and walked toward his bedroom. As he walked past the threshold, Lindsay walked into his kitchen and began mixing them both drinks from the vast collection of alcohol that JD had amassed.
In his bathroom, JD turned on the water as hot as it would go before stripping his body of the clothes in which he'd been lounging around the house all day. As the steamy hot water fogged the sides of the glass shower, JD inspected his body. There was a little bit of hair on his chest and abs, but he would take care of that in the shower. When the mirror started fogging over, he climbed into the shower and let the warm water envelop his being.
In the shower, JD had developed a bit of a routine. He would completely lather his whole body, completely rinse it all off. He would wash his hair, rinse out the soap, and then rinse it out. If he needed to shave, he did it right then, for after that was all finished, he repeated the whole big circle. He never understood why he did it, but it had been that way since he was a teenager. He'd always been obsessed with having a near flawless body, but he'd also been almost fearful of smelling like he had just left the gym.
As he finished and walked out into his bedroom from the bathroom, a complete ensemble for the evening was lying on his bed ready for him to just put on. He smiled as inspected the outfit. He laughed as he checked out the red jock strap that was lying with the rest of the clothes. With the towel wrapped around his waist, he held the jock on the end of his finger and walked into the living room.
"Do I really have to wear this?" he asked his cousin, who was sitting on the couch, talking on her phone.
"It was on the bed wasn't it?" she asked.
"I'm wearing boxers."
"If you don't put that shit on, JD, I'm so telling..."
"OK!" JD said as he walked back into his room.
In just a second, he walked out of his room wearing not only the thong but also the khaki shorts and a red polo that looked great against his tanned skin. The shorts showed off his muscular calf muscles; the shirt was tight against his muscular chest and arms. The white and grey puma shoes with no-show socks finished off the ensemble.
"And what about your hair?" Lindsay asked.
"I was gonna put on a cap," he told her.
"No. You're gonna do that shit up right!" Lindsay said as she stood from the couch and walked through his room into the bathroom. After a minute, she came back. "JD. How is it that you're gay and have no hair gel?"
"I hate hair gel," JD answered as he took a sip from the drink that she'd fixed for him. "You know that."
"Well. You're in luck," she said as she walked over to the overnight bag that she'd brought with her. "In anticipation of you saying that," she started, "I bought you some."
"Lindsay," he protested as she squeezed a little bit into her hand and rubbed it together in her hands.
"Fucker! Put your hands down!" she said, as JD tried to cover his head.
"Yes ma'am," he complied as she fixed his hair just perfectly. His jet black hair was standing on end atop his head.
"Perfect!" she declared as she stopped. She walked into the kitchen and washed the remaining goop off her hands and down the drain. "Now. Finish your drink. By that time, the taxi should be here."
"Taxi?" he asked. "I know that I don't have the money for a taxi...and you shouldn't either."
"Your parents are paying for it."
"So Maxima and Tom put you up to this?" JD asked as he stood and took another sip of the drink.
"No. It was my idea to take you out, and your mother offered to pay for the taxi so that neither of us would have to drive home drunk," Lindsay answered as she finished fixing herself a second drink.
"Oh...OK," JD said.
The two turned up their drinks and quickly consumed them. True to Lindsay's word, the taxi driver was calling to announce his arrival as the final sips of the beverages were passing their lips. After checking to see that he had his license, keys, and some cash, the two of them were walking out the door and downstairs to the waiting yellow vehicle.
The driver was a regular kind of guy, a country man who enjoyed a good country song. When Trace Adkin's "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" came through the stereo, JD asked him to turn it up. He sang every single word of the song, all as Lindsay laughed at him.
JD wasn't, after all, the kind of guy that one could easily classify. Sure, he was gay; he was obsessed about being muscular and clean. There were sides to this man, though, that few saw. Few ever learned of how his mother's family came to be in Alabama; Paul wasn't even privy to such things until they'd been dating a while. JD forbade his mother, aunt, and great aunt from talking about it around him until he was sure that Paul wouldn't think he was crazy by declaring his heritage to him. He never had to worry about Lindsay spilling those beans, though, as they lived their lives without thinking about it.
JD was the type of guy that could listen to any and every type of music, but he seemed to really enjoy country. He was born and raised in the Heart of Dixie.
JD also wasn't a fan of small cars. Lindsay had a black BMW, two-seater convertible that he hated getting into because he always felt so cramped. To that end, he drove a huge Dodge Ram, 2500. It was black with darkly tinted windows; the truck rumbled when he pushed the pedal and let the gas flow into the large, V8 engine.
In terms of the guys he found attractive, JD wasn't normal either. He didn't mind hanging out with feminine gay guys, but he could never date one. In fact, he could get along with most everyone as long as they didn't obsess about his body or their body. His first boyfriend, David, was a pudgy, nerdy guy that he met when he showed up to tutor the guy in Spanish. They ended up getting to know each other, going out on a date, and dating for the rest of high school, until college pulled them apart. Paul was his exact opposite, though. Like JD, he was muscular and always obsessing about his health. Paul was a ginger-boy who also described himself as a power bottom, which didn't bother JD until he began giving it up outside of their relationship. Those events, coupled with the fact that Paul `wanted different things from life', were what led to the argument that ended their relationship. Unbeknownst to Lindsay, Paul had come by his apartment once after they separated, but JD sent him away. Paul was complaining of being so horny, so JD said for him to go find a random trick at the gym, like he'd done before.
Despite an obsession with his body, JD couldn't stand shopping. The only time he ever went was when Lindsay said that he needed some new jeans or a pair of shoes that didn't make him look like a pauper. From time to time, she would just show up with stuff for him, as she knew his sizes for everything. She enjoyed doing it, and he enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to go.
JD was very proud of his heritage. He considered himself Southern, being that he had lived in Alabama his entire life. His father's family, though, was a amalgamation of ethnicities from the British aisles: his grandfather was English and Irish. His grandmother on that side was Scottish and Welsh. From his father, he also developed a great appreciation for being American.
On his mother's side of the family, he was Morovian. Because of his great aunt, he and Lindsay both spoke fluent Morovian and Castilian. His heritage on that side is a little bit harder for him to explain that simply saying that he's Morovian, though. His maternal grandfather, a man whom he'd never met, was known to the world at one point in his life as His Majesty, David XII, King of Morovia. When civil war broke out in their homeland, JD's mother and aunt were sent to live in America, far away from the storms that were swirling in the once bright Morovian sky. Like so many other Morovians who hadn't managed to escape the brutal dictatorship set up after the war's end, his grandparents were presumed to have perished. Technically, his mother was Queen in exile' of Morovia, which made JD Crown Prince' of a nation that no longer recognized the prominence of their royal family. The family, incidently, hadn't travelled to Morovia since Maxima and Lidia were sent away. It was illegal, from a Morovian standpoint, for them to do so. Despite this little fact about them, though, they were able to lead a relatively normal childhood and adolescence, and the two were entering into a preciously uneventful adulthood, at least as far as they could see.
Within moments of their departure from JD's condo, they were arriving at the bar. Outside, there was a long line of people standing waiting to get in. It wasn't long, though, before they were paying their cover charges and walking into the place.
For JD, it brought back so many memories to be in that place. He'd gone there with Lindsay more than anyone else, but it was also the place where he'd met Paul. It was the place where he and Paul had gone together, with Lindsay, on many a Saturday night. The place hadn't changed very much since he was there a month ago. As they walked in, the front bar was still there, filled with people stammering to order drinks from two guys that were working behind the bar. It was like a circus, with those two men serving as the ringleaders.
Lindsay turned to JD with a joking smile, and told him that he should take his shirt off so that they would get faster service. JD laughed it off and said that, with the number of straight guys that the owners, Ashton and Justin, had hired, it might be easier if she took hers off. After a bit, though, the two took their extra-large Cuba Libres and went toward the back bar, where the thumping of dance music was far more obvious. In that part of the bar, there were so many twinks' dancing shamelessly on the floor. All the chicken hawks' were standing around the stage, being entertained by the sight of the smooth, thin men dancing around.
"Cuando van a venira los hotties?" JD asked Lindsay in Morovian. (So when are all the hotties gonna get here?)
Lindsay chuckled a little bit. "Espera un pou. Van a venira," she responded as she took a sip of the beverage. (Just wait. They'll come.)
"Suenas como una película antigua. `Si lo creces, venirán'," JD said as he began to move his body with the flow of the song that was playing. (You sound like an old movie. If you build it, they will come.)
"OH MY GOD!" they heard someone scream over the volume of the music behind them. "JOSEPH DAVID!!!!" she screamed as she jumped up to give him a tight hug.
"CARRIE!" JD called out.
"I'm so happy you're here! OMG! I can't believe it!" she said just before she jumped down. "It is so good to see you. How have you been doing?"
"I've been good," he answered as he looked at Carrie. Carrie was a bit of an interesting addition to his life. She was Paul's twin sister. They didn't look anything alike, though. He was tall, redheaded. She was shorter, with dark brown hair. Paul was a dick, though, and Carrie was the sweetest person in his family. "How have you been?"
"I'm GREAT! And for what it's worth, baby, my brother fucked up when he cheated on you."
"I know," JD said, hiding his hurt feelings toward her sibling behind a smile that Paula had fallen for in the first place. "I'm glad he did it, though," he lied. "It's made me appreciate things a little bit better."
"Good!" she said as she patted his defined chest.
"Is he..." he said, pointing around.
"No. He's...at home."
"What are you not telling me?" JD asked as Lindsay protectively watched over the conversation.
"He's at home with his new boyfriend," she said. "JD. I can't stand the boy..."
JD stopped hearing her after that. He could still see Paul from his most recent birthday. Paul had sneaked into his apartment and prepared a lavish dinner. He'd procured a projector from the university that they both attended at that point and projected a movie onto an empty wall of JD's living room. He called the night dinner and a movie.
"Fuck them both!" JD said after a second lost in thought.
"Exactly," Carrie and Lindsay said at the same time.
The three of them talked for a few minutes more until Carrie was called away by the friends that she'd come with to the bar. She hugged JD and Lindsay and was then off with them.
"You OK?" Lindsay asked as they stood close to the back of the bar.
"Linds?"
"Yeah?" Lindsay asked as she reached up and rubbed his back. "Will you get me really, really drunk tonight? That will make the rebound booty that much better."
"Let's go get another," Lindsay said as they walked from the dance bar to the quieter front bar.
As they were walking out, the DJ began playing a song called `Screw U' by a local artist also of Morovian descent named Ahmi Pernaso. It seemed to fit the mood that he was in at that moment. He was so ready to grunge fuck the first guy that came up to him, just as a way to say to Paul that he wasn't going to let his final terms at Owens University be plagued by the fact that he was single.
They got up to the bar a few minutes later and JD ordered three of the drinks that they'd enjoyed a moment before. Lindsay took hers and watched as JD chugged the 32oz beverage before her eyes. He set the cup on the bar and grabbed the other. Amazed that he could still walk, they returned to the dance bar. Rather than just standing around, though, JD dragged her onto the dancefloor and moved to the beats of a Britney Spears song that was playing through the very loud sound system.
After a few minutes, the heat from the dancing and the crowd of people around him caused JD to start sweating. He gave Lindsay a drunk smile as he handed her his half-consumed drink. She looked at him oddly as he reached up and took the collar of his polo in his hands. In just a second, she witnessed something that had never happened before. JD removed his shirt and let his muscles breath in the smoky club air.
Almost instantly, people began to stare at him. Some were staring at him because of his almost flawless body. Others were admiring the skin art that covered his left shoulder and pectoral muscle. It was an ornate design done totally in black. Around his tan skin, it gave him a certain badboy edge. He half-folded the shirt and tucked it into the back of his shorts so that he wouldn't end up cockblocking himself. He took the drink back from Lindsay and finished it off as quickly as he'd consumed the one before it.
As both he and Lindsay got into the next song, a remix of the Spanish version of Thalia's `The Mexican', JD looked around them to find a few of the guys still staring at him. There was this one twink that was standing close to him. He turned from Lindsay for a moment and took this guy's hand and starting dancing to the rhythm of the music. The guy joined him, movement for movement in the dance. With his free hand, the guy reached up and began gently tugging at JD's perky nipple sexily. Feeling all the sensations that were streaming through his body as a result of not only the alcohol but also this guy's touch, JD felt compelled to reach down and give this guy the best kiss that he was sure to have ever experienced.
"Shit," the guy said as their kiss broke. "If I didn't have a boyfriend, I would so drop to my knees right now." JD just winked at the guy before he and Lindsay took their leave of the dance floor.
"Let's go sing karaoke," JD suggested as they walked back to the front of the bar.
Lindsay thought about it for a second and agreed. Since there was a karaoke bar just up the street from where they were, they just decided to walk up there.
"Are you OK?" Lindsay asked as they walked outside.
"Oh. I'm great!" JD said as he looked straight ahead of where they were walking.
"Joseph David Thomas Leandro Barrington," Lindsay said as she stopped.
"What? I found out that my ex has already moved on and a twink that I had every intention of fucking tonight has a boyfriend that he's loyal to. How am I supposed to feel right now?" he asked. He sounded angry, but Lindsay knew that it was just everything that had gone on talking. This wasn't the confident JD that she'd always known; this wasn't the man that had protected her from her own father on more than one occasion. This was him, hurt and unhappy with the world around him.
JD pulled the shirt from his shorts and pulled it back over his body. They stood there for a moment as people walked past them. "JD. Do you want to just go back to your house?"
"No," JD answered emphatically. "I'm fucking something tonight, even if I have to try to get up for a girl."
"We both know that's not happening!" Lindsay smiled.
"Why did he do this to me?" JD asked. "I gave him everything he wanted, and he cheated, then he dumped me, and now he's got a new man that was doing something that I couldn't. What was it?"
Lindsay wrapped her arms around him and pulled the man that was easily twice as large as her in all directions into an embrace. "I'm sorry for forcing you to come out," she whispered as he cried into her shoulder.
"I'm glad you did. I haven't been dealing with things," JD confessed. "I've just been drinking and watching TV."
"It's OK," she assured as people looked at them.
"OK," JD said, lifting himself from her and wiping his eyes, "let's get to the damn karaoke bar."
Lindsay smiled. "Damn right!" she proclaimed as she thought that the JD that she knew, loved, and admired, was asserting himself once again.
The pair walked into the Sterling Bar and quickly found two seats at the bar that weren't occupied. They ordered two rum and cokes and turned to watch the person who was standing on the stage. The person was singing "Because the Night", the version given to the world by 10,000 Maniacs. It was quite obvious that the person on the stage was a little more than wasted as the words were all garbled as they tried to read the lyrics as they ran across the screen.
A few acts went onto the stage as Lindsay looked through the book for a song that the two of them cold perform together. She smiled as she wrote something onto a slip of paper.
"What song did you choose?" JD asked as she shut the book and folded the piece of paper.
"You'll know in a few minutes," she said with a smile as she stood from the stool and walked toward the karaoke deejay. She winked at her cousin as she walked back over and took the seat that she'd previously occupied.
A little while passed as various people came to the stage. JD was captivated by a guy that was obviously so drunk that he couldn't read the words to his song as they rolled across the screen. JD laughed as the guy fell as he stepped from the stage. His red hair made him think of Paul and all the shit that he used to do when he was drunk. A group of sorority girls from Owens University, JD and Lindsay's college performed a version of "Spice of Your Life" by the Spice Girls.
As they consumed their second drinks at that bar, the DJ stopped the music and looked toward the bar, smiling at Lindsay as she sat with JD. "OK guys," he said with a smile on his face. "Tonight. We have a couple of people here that are celebrating being single. Please welcome to the stage Lindsay and JD!" he declared as Lindsay stepped form the stool and took JD's hand. He grabbed his drink as the two of them walked toward the stage.
"You've got the chorus," she said as they walked onto the stage just before they took the microphones that the DJ was holding out for them.
"OK..." JD agreed.
"Ladies...I'd like to make a toast on behalf of men," Lindsay started before the music started. "Here's to the men we love...here's to men who love us...here's the men we love who don't love us...Fuck the men, let's drink to us!" she claimed as JD's drunk ass smiled and shook his head. She continued as the lyrics began to roll across the screen, "There was this tattoo artist, partied for hours...huge in the pants love to screw in the shower...bitch done keyed up his new Eddie Bauer...I should dumped him, but I was too cowrd...till I met this school boy that studied at...Owens...nerdy, but he called and be sending me flowers...I'm feeling him...but had to get rid of him...nerd boy turned out to be a minute man..."
"Here's to the men we love to love...here's the men in love with us...here's to the men who pass on us...FUCK THE MEN LET'S DRINK TO US!!!" JD sang as he carefully read the lyrics on the screen.
Lindsay went into the second verse; JD followed with the second chorus. After a bridge that the pair rocked, together, they left the stage to a resounding applause from most of the people that were there. They walked past a couple of tables where the girls were cheering for them as they returned to where they'd been sitting before.
"I feel a little better now," JD told Lindsay.
"Good!!" Lindsay said. "JD. You trust me, right?"
"Sometimes," JD said with a smile.
"Sometimes?" Lindsay asked, acting as if she were about to get offended.
"Yeah..."
"OK...So I said you would hot with a tattoo..."
"And I do," JD confessed.
"And I told you that you should go skydiving once..."
"I know...I know," JD said, trying to move her back to the reason for her questioning his trust in her.
"You're gonna meet the one, OK, but not tonight. Just know that you sometimes got to go through the bad apples to find a good one."
"This is why you're my favorite cousin!"
"What about your dad's brother's kids?"
"Who?" JD joked with her. His paternal cousins were much younger than the two of them were, given that his uncle had waited a while to marry and start producing offspring.
"Be nice!" she said.
"So what do you say that we he leave here and grab some waffle house before we head home?" JD said as he looked around the place, soaking in his cousin's words.
"That works. We could both use something that was scattered, smothered, and covered tonight!" Lindsay said as she pulled out enough cash to pay their tab.
"Don't forget chunked!" JD said with a smile that Lindsay hadn't seen in a little while. It was a symbol of the old JD, of the man he was before Paul-related drama started.
Outside the bar, they experienced an instant chill. They didn't realize just how hot the inside of the place had been until they walked outside and into a cool breeze that was coming off the Gulf of Mexico. They crossed the street and walked in the general direction of the beach. It wasn't long until they came to one of the several yellow roofed buildings in the city of nearly a million people.
They walked in to find that a crowd was already there. There were a couple of large groups occupying multiple booths; a few smaller groups took up the rest of them. The only two seats in the place were at the bar. The two climbed up into the stools as a lady missing several teeth came up and set napkins and silver where they were sitting.
"Si estuvieramos en Morovia, no tendriamos que comer con cucharras sucias," Lindsay told him in Morovian. (If we were in Morovia, we wouldn't have to eat from dirty spoons.)
"Sí," JD answered with a smile.
"What to drink?"
"A coffee please," Lindsay ordered.
"Three orange juices, please," JD ordered. The lady looked at him like he was crazy, but JD knew himself well enough to say that the little glasses that were used to serve juice wouldn't last very long.
"OK," she said as she began fixing their drinks. They pulled the laminated menus from where they were sitting and began looking for what they wanted to consume over the course of that night.
A moment later, a group of very loud people that had obviously also just come from the bars sauntered into the establishment. One of them, a woman who stood about 5'4" but who had a very powerful personality was laughing at something one of the people in their group had said as they came in. They caught the attention of the entire place as they came in, including JD and Lindsay. It was in that moment that JD laid his eyes on one of the few guys in the history of the planet that had forced him to do a double take.
There wasn't really anything `special' about this guy, except that he was tall, about 6'1". He had brown hair, brown eyes, and obviously had a little bit of body hair, given that his arms and lower legs were covered with dark hair. Like JD, he was wearing khaki shorts and a polo. Adding to that, though, he was wearing a camouflage hat with the logo for Owens University. JD could hear his voice, it was deep and masculine.
"Somebody give me five dollars," the more vocal girl of the group said as someone gave her some money. The girl, with hair as big as her personality, walked over to the jukebox and began choosing songs. After choosing 20 or so, she walked back over to her group and continued to wait on a table to come open for the five of them.
The first song to come over the jukebox was `Holiday' by Madonna. The girl grabbed the guy that JD had checked out a couple more times and started dancing with him right in the door of the waffle house. JD and Lindsay smiled at each other, as it had always been a song that made them smile. "It would be so nice," they said as Lindsay sipped her coffee and JD started on the second glass of juice.
"So...ele es guapo," Lindsay said, noting the number of times that JD had turned his head to covertly look at the man that had come in with them.
"Sí..." JD agreed, a wicked little smile coming across his face.
Holiday' swapped to Lucky Star', and again, the two mouthed the chorus to one another. Jen, the girl who had stopped dancing for a second after she realized that she was getting dirty looks from a couple of rednecks in the back of the place, smiled as she realized that the muscular guy in red was, in fact, a `mo', as she called those of a heterosexually challenged nature.
"Ty," she called as she motioned for him to come closer.
"Yeah?" he said.
"You know that guy that you were looking for tonight?" she asked. She motioned with her eyes for him to look in the direction in which JD and Lindsay were from them.
"Oh no..." Tyler whispered, hoping that the guy couldn't hear him. "I'm so not even anywhere in his league."
"Yes you are, bitch!" Jen declared. "Go talk to him," she instructed.
"No..." he said as Lindsay realized that they were talking about JD.
She looked at JD, who was looking over the menu, oblivious to the conversation going on behind him.
"Excuse me," Lindsay said as she turned around. "I just want to compliment on your taste in waffle house music!"
"Thanks!" Jen said as she walked over to them. "Just wait, though," she said, "it gets better!"
"Nice!" Lindsay answered. "So I'm Lindsay."
"I'm Jen," she said.
On the surface, it just seemed like it was simple small talk, but there was something much deeper happening as they exchanged words. They were so obviously speaking `fag hag', a code that neither of their gays had ever picked up on.
"And this is JD," she introduced, slapping her cousin's shoulder to get him to turn around.
"Hi. Nice to meet you," he said as he carefully stole glances at the man before him.
"And this is Tyler," she introduced.
"Tyler. Sexy name," Lindsay said as she took his hand. He gently shook hers as he blushed and grinned.
"Thank you," he said.
"So JD," Jen started, "you look familiar. Are you a student at Owens?"
"Yes," he answered. "I'm studying Morovian Literature."
"THAT'S WHERE I'VE SEEN YOU! I'm took Morovian 101 in the Spring, so I saw you around," she said.
"Oh OK. Usually, when I'm at school, I'm rushing to class or away from that place," JD smiled.
As JD spoke, Tyler was trying as hard as he could not to say something foolish. He didn't want to seem like a dork, even though he found himself in an uncomfortable situation induced by his best friend in the world. He loved JD's blue eyes, though, and the way he casually sat as the whole group ended up talking. They only time did they turn their attention away was when the lady finally came by to bring JD more juice and to take their orders. Lindsay ordered two orders of hash brown scattered, smothered, and covered; JD ordered three eggs over easy.
JD and Tyler took glances at the other, more obviously sizing each other up as they looked. One time, their eyes met, and they just smiled at each other. "So are you a student, man?" JD asked him after Lindsay and Jen started talking.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm in Land Management."
"Will you forgive my ignorance?" JD asked.
Tyler smiled. "I want to work with farmers to help them maximize the use of arable lands. I'm actually gonna do a senior thesis applying land management theories and then studying the results."
"Very cool."
"Thank you. Vos estudias el morovi, no?" (You're studying Morovian, right?)
"Sí. Lo hablas?" JD asked. (Yes. Do you speak it?)
"Un puo," Tyler responded. "Like. I could ask for a bathroom and order a drink, but there is so little beyond that," he went on to confess. (A little.)
"Pues, tenés un buen accento," JD said as they officially smiled at one another. (Well, you have a really good accent.)
"Graça," Tyler said. (Thank you.)
After a few minutes, the booth right beside where Lindsay and JD were sitting came open. After it was quickly cleaned, they took a seat. "Tyler? Would you like to sit up here with JD?"
"Yeah. Go sit with JD," Jen suggested as she and Lindsay looked at each other. She took her coffee and moved to the table with the other girls as Tyler moved over to sit next to JD. After a quick arrangement of things, JD and Tyler were basically left on their own as Lindsay enjoyed the company of the girls that had come with Tyler.
"Did y'all go out tonight?" JD asked.
"Yeah. We went to `The Heat'," Tyler said.
JD smiled. "Your first time?"
"Yeah. I avoid gay bars at all costs, but they pulled me out tonight. They said I needed to find a man and just get my rocks off," Tyler confessed. "Sorry for the honesty."
"Oh no. It's fine. Lindsay made me come out for the very same reason," JD said as his eggs arrived. The lady set more silverware at Tyler's station and quickly grabbed him the cup of coffee that he'd ordered.
"You probably have guys all over the place," Tyler added to the conversation.
"Not really," JD said. "I just broke up with a guy recently."
"I'm so sorry, man."
"Don't be. He cheated. He deserves to get crabs or something for cheating on me."
"That's a way to look at it," Tyler smiled as he sipped his coffee. "He did the rest of the world a service, though."
JD turned and looked at him with a puzzled gaze on his face. "How's that?"
"He freed you up so that ugly guys like me have a chance," Tyler added. He followed it with a smile.
"Dude," JD said. "You're not ugly." He could almost see something change in Tyler's eyes as the man in the camo hat processed what the guy had just said.
"Wow. I think I'm speechless," Tyler said.
JD looked at his lips for a seconds and then into his lovely brown eyes. "I bet you're an amazing kisser, too."
"I've been told I am," Tyler smiled.
"So what kind of stuff do you do for fun?"
"What's that again?" Tyler joked, earning a hearty laugh from JD, who was taken off guard by the guy's sense of humor. "Seriously, I have so little free time. Usually, when I do, I'm consuming beer."
"Cool. Free time is overrated, isn't it?"
"It really is. I mean, between school, work, and sleep, I might have a couple of hours free a week," Tyler added.
"What do you do, outside of school?"
"I work at the Paradise Golf Club. I am a `lawn maintenance specialist'," Tyler answered. "I basically cut grass."
"Nice..."
"You?"
"I manage a branch of Paradise Fitness Center," JD said.
"The one on Grand Avenue?" Tyler asked.
"Oh no! I'm at the one in Baursville," JD answered.
"Cool," Tyler said as the lady brought him a plate of food that he'd not ordered. She huffed and walked off to find the person that had actually ordered the food. "Aren't your eggs gonna get cold?"
"Probably," JD said. "It's just that my mom would throw a fit if she found out I was being rude by eating in front of you."
"Wow. See, my mom would be pissed if I didn't tell you to eat...that I would be fine."
"Here's to Moms," JD said as he held up a glass of juice. Tyler pulled the mug from the counter and toasted JD. "So are you from Paradise?"
"No sir. I'm from North Alabama, originally, a little town called Oneonta."
"That's a beautiful part of the world," JD said.
"You've been there?"
"A couple of times. My ex was from there."
"That bastard! What's his name, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Paul Williamson," JD answered. "He actually lived in Remlap."
"Oh! I thought I might know that guy that let you get away."
JD smiled. "You're gonna give me a big head, dude."
"I must be in perv mode, cause I so just had a visual of that!" Tyler joked. JD laughed.
"It's cool, man. I thought about it after I said it."
"What were you going to order?" the waitress asked again as she walked back over with the plate of food still in her hand.
"Um..." Tyler answered. "What you got?"
"Two scrambled eggs, toast, and sausage," she said.
"I'll take it," Tyler said as she set the plate in front of him.
"It's on the house, by the way," she said to him, smiling.
"Thank you," Tyler said to her. "Now. I guess you can enjoy your eggs," Tyler said to JD as he pulled the plate back to him and consumed the first bite.
"So what kind of car do you drive?" JD asked, continuing their small talk without taking their conversation to a more perverted place.
"I have a 1995 Ford F-250, red," Tyler answered.
"A truck man!" JD smiled.
"What about you?"
"2007 Dodge Ram 2500," JD answered. "Black."
"And here I was starting to think you were perfect," Tyler joked.
"Ooh...I could make so many comments about your...fucked over rebuilt Dodge...or your `found on road, dead' vehicle."
"They're talking about trucks," Lindsay turned to Jen.
"JD's in good then," Jen smiled at Lindsay. "They look cute together, don't they?"
"They do. Earlier, I so caught JD checking him out as y'all were standing at the door," Lindsay gossiped.
"I know. Tyler saw him and told me that he was...and I quote... `so far out of JD's league'."
"Please. You should see his last boyfriend," Lindsay said. "JD was so in love with him, but he was ugly. He was a ginger-kid with freckles all over his face. And they weren't even cute freckles."
Jen laughed as Lindsay made a hand gesture around her face. "That is priceless!" Jen added as the rest of the girls with them laughed.
"10 bucks says that they're talking about us," JD offered.
"That's a bet that I'm not gonna take. I know they are," Tyler said quietly so as not to alert the girls that they knew what they were talking about.
"So any siblings?" JD asked.
"Two brothers, one older, one younger. You?"
"Only child."
"Fun..."
"It had its moments. I always wanted a cool kid brother or something," JD said. "Lindsay and I might as well be siblings, we were born and raised together, and she's only two months younger than me. I do have cousins on the other side, but they're all dorks," JD answered. Tyler laughed. "Gotta love cousins, for real."
"Exactly," Tyler added.
Before any of them realized it, they'd been in the eatery for over two hours. The girls that had come with Jen and Tyler had long since left, as they all had things to do the next morning. Jen and Lindsay, though, couldn't bear to leave their boys, as it looked as though they were having such a good time getting to know one another.
The truth be told, JD, at first, was prepared to take him home, fuck him, and forget his number. Tyler was too, but as they got to know each other, it was obvious that there was more of a connection between them than just the physical. In addition to all that they'd already talked about, they also talked about music. They were both aficiandos of country music; Tyler impressed him by talking about performing in local rodeos when he was younger. Tyler fondly recalled watching them when he really little and then getting the chance, as a teenager, to participate in a few around the Birmingham area. Tyler was impressed, though, that JD knew the difference between bronc riding and bull riding, and that he knew that barrel racing was exclusively performed by women in professional rodeo circuits.
"We should go to a rodeo sometime," JD suggested.
"There's one in Biloxi next weekend, wanna go?" Tyler asked.
"Sure. That would be fun. I'm driving, though."
"Oh shit."
"What?" JD asked. "I drive well."
"No. It's not that. I just realized something," Tyler started as he sipped from yet another cup of coffee.
"What's that?"
"We both went out tonight to find a piece of ass, right?"
"Right..."
"But we're going to leave the Waffle House with a date for next Saturday night."
"This is true..." JD thought.
"Is that cool with you?" Tyler asked.
"It is..." JD responded, pausing for a thought, "...but more because it's with you, Ty."
Tyler smiled. "So I have a question for you since you used my nickname."
"What's that?"
"What does JD stand for?"
"My first two initials. My full name is Joseph David Thomas Leandro Barrington."
"Wow. Long name. One would think you were royalty or something," Tyler joked. JD smiled at him, not laughing.
"It's a tradition in my family to give every boy four names. The first two are from his grandfathers. The third is from his father, and the fourth is his name."
"Interesting. If my family had that tradition, I would be Herbert Nathanial Robert Tyler Ray Hall."
"So Tyler Ray is your given name?"
"Yes sir, and it has been screamed from over the hills by my mother," Tyler answered.
"So here's another question for you?"
"What's that?"
"How out are you?"
"Never been in," Tyler answered. "For country folks, my parents always raised us to be ourselves. They told us never to hide from anyone or be scared because of a difference that we possessed. My little brother, for example, has a Madonna obsession, but he's not gay. Everything thinks," Tyler explained, "that he's gay before they think that I am."
"Nice," JD said.
"You?"
"I waited about a year after I realized it before I came out to my parents. I don't think my dad warmed up to the idea until he realized that I was committed to my first boyfriend."
"Not the one that cheated, right?"
"No. Different one. Cheater is Paul...First is David," JD explained.
"Guys!" Jen said after she and Lindsay had a few minutes-long discussion about the time of day. "Do y'all realize that the sun is gonna be coming up in a little while?"
"Ooh!" JD said. "Why don't you guys come back to my place for a while? There is no place in Paradise like the balcony of my condo to watch the sun rise."
"For real?" Tyler said as he looked at JD.
"Yeah. Would you like to, Jen?" JD asked Tyler, knowing from the tone of Tyler's question that he'd already hooked him.
"You know," she started, looking at Lindsay "somebody's gonna keep me up till nine in the morning anyway, so I might as well get something good out of the whole thing."
"Right!" Lindsay said as they all asked for their checks. JD pulled out his credit card, though, and told the waitress that he was paying for all of their food and drinks. Jen and Tyler argued for a second, but JD used the power inside him to convince them that the evening was worth more to him than the cost of the meal.
As they walked out, Jen unlocked the door to Tyler's truck. It was truly a beautiful monster. It was bright red, a crew cab cab, with four full doors giving access to the cab. It had a tool box just behind the window. Using the step bar, Jen and Lindsay climbed into the front of the car. JD and Tyler were left to manage themselves into the back seat. As Jen started the truck, Tyler took a deep breath.
"See. JD. You just can't a sound more perfect than that from that piece of shit you've got," Tyler joked, smiling at the man sitting next to him.
"Ooh. Them's fightin' words!" Lindsay joked from the front seat.
"It's OK. He'll bow down once he's been in the Ram for 10 seconds."
"You mean, he'll bend over!" Jen joked.
"JEN!" Tyler joked. JD smiled and winked at Tyler.
With accurate directions from Lindsay, the four of them ended up at the Sandstone Condominiums a few minutes later. Somewhat quietly, the four of them took the elevator to the 14th floor of the 16 story building. JD grabbed his keys out of his pocket and quickly opened the door.
"Wow," Tyler and Jen said as they looked around the unit in which JD lived.
It wasn't the kind of place that one would expect a college student to live in. They walked through the foyer to realize that the entire place was covered with hardwood floors. The kitchen was small, but it was adequate and modern, with stone counters and stainless appliances. The living room contained nice furniture, not the thrift store sofa and folding chairs that were found in most college apartments. He had a regular definition TV, but it was connected to an entertainment system that was quite impressive. True to his word, the view from his living room of the ocean was amazing. Looking from the living room, one could only see ocean. It took actually going out to the balcony to see the beach below. With it being dark still, they couldn't really see anything anyway, though. The walls were decorated with artwork that the world had never seen.
"Who's this?" Jen asked as she admired a piece.
"That would be JD's mom and dad," Lindsay answered.
"This is amazing. Whoever painted this really captured the love between them, it seems."
"Thanks," Lindsay answered.
"You did this?" Tyler asked.
"Yes," Lindsay answered, proud of her work.
"Lindsay has been drawing all our lives, I think. I used to want to go play outside, and she would be like `I wanna draw'," JD said of his cousin.
"Wow. I was thinking of getting my parents a portrait sitting for their anniversary," Jen answered. "All the prices are way too high. How much would you charge?"
"Just get the supplies," Lindsay said as she took the overnight bag that she'd brought and placed into one of JD's two spare bedrooms, both of which were furnished, "and buy me a bottle of rum."
"Wow. That would be awesome!" Jen said to the woman with whom she'd become friends over the evening.
As they talked about other things, JD and Tyler took bottles of water and slipped from the living room onto the balcony of the apartment.
The only light was coming from inside the unit; everything else was black. They could hear the girls talking, but it was as if their voices were quickly drowned out by the sound of the waves below them crashing against the sandy shores. JD pulled two chairs over, and they each took a seat. There wasn't a word said between them as a gentle breezed caressed their bodies like a mother's protective embrace. The sound of the ocean was like a symphony to their ears: it was the kind of sound that can't be reproduced by man, as it is only a product of God's infinite creativity.
Tyler reached over and readjusted the cap that sat on his head. As he did, the black sky slowly began to get lighter. Black turned to dark blue, which then turned to royal blue. The water still appeared black, but they could see the miniature waves caused by wind and other things that they couldn't explain or predict. Small wiry clouds hung in the sky as the blueness of the sky was augmented by the rising sun.
"My ex," JD started, "hated the sunrise. When he first started dating, back when he was still cute, he said that it meant that the party was over and that you had to go home."
"The fucker," Tyler responded simply as he gazed in awe at the sight before him. "Have you ever seen the sunrise over the mountains?"
"Nope," JD answered.
"It's beautiful. It's as beautiful as this moment," Tyler explained.
The sky continued to brighten. As the sun crept to its place in the heavens, the sky took an orange hue. The clouds began turning from grey to white as the sun orange orb hurriedly made its way up and up. The green luminescence of the water began to exert itself over the shade that it seemed to take at night.
Instantly, to the east, the gilded orb in the sky crested the horizon, bringing with it all the might and force associated with day. In the symphony of nature, this was the climax, the moment when all the glory and energy of the universe became clear to both the sight and the mind. The moment before peace would descend over everything and everyone, before the hustle and bustle of the day would grind at everyone's nerves.
"I would take a picture, but that picture wouldn't do any of this justice," Tyler said.
"No lie," JD responded.
"I'm so glad I didn't meet anyone to hook up with," Tyler said as he took a sip of water and did everything in his finite power to take in and remember all the sensations that were affecting him in that moment.
"I concur," JD simply offered as they gazed out over the horizon.
Tyler, for the first time that evening, yawned. JD smiled, just before yawning himself. "I could fall asleep right here," Tyler added after a moment of quiet yet active observation.
"That's fine," JD said, "but I do have three bedrooms."
"JD. I'll be honest with you. I appreciate your offer, very much, but if I were to spend the night over here, I would want to sleep next to you. Sleeping next to you would lead to...other things..." Tyler turned to him. "I'm a big believer in signs, and I think that the seeing the sunrise was a sign."
"For what?" JD asked, turning to look into the vast complexity of Tyler's brown eyes.
"I think that we didn't find anybody to hook up with tonight because it was meant for us to meet each other." He smiled, "Does that sound hokey?"
"No..." JD answered as Tyler looked into the beautiful gems that belonged to this man whom he had just met hours before. JD expressed so much emotion in those eyes; it was as if one could feel the very essence of his being in those sapphires.
"So you gotta say something right now to keep me believing that I've just said something to fuck something else up," Tyler instructed.
"Tyler. As you get to know me, you will learn that I try not to sugar coat anything. Maybe that's why I'm a good personal trainer," JD offered, "and I will tell you now that you have said nothing that I've not been thinking for a little while."
"OK," Tyler smiled.
"So what are you doing...tonight...for dinner?"
"To be completely honest," Tyler said, "I was going to eat pizza left over from tonight. Why? Do you have a better idea?"
"You should save the pizza for another night and go to dinner with me," JD said.
"Where to?"
"How adventurous are you?" JD grinned.
"Um..." Tyler started. "I don't know. It depends."
"Have you ever had Morovian food?"
"I had some ovasi once," Tyler said, referring to a uniquely Morovian tapenade.
"Where?"
"A place in Birmingham," Tyler answered.
"I've eaten there. It pales to this little place here in Paradise," JD explained. "What do you say?"
"Sure," Tyler said. "What time do you want me to pick you up?"
"Six?"
"That works. You'll have to ride in the Ford again," Tyler smiled.
"Oh well," JD began firing back, "At least it's not a GMC!"
"Damn right!" Tyler said as they laughed. "Well. I guess I should be going," he went on, making no real effort to move from that very comfortable spot.
"I just remembered that I promised my mom that I would go to church with her in the morning," JD said.
"What time?"
"Ten," JD answered.
"What are you, if you don't mind me asking," Tyler inquired.
"My dad's family is English/Irish. My mom's is Morovian..."
"Catholic," Tyler put the piece of the puzzle together.
"Yes sir," JD answered. "You?"
"Bapto-Methodist, depending on which side of the family I'm visiting on a Sunday morning," Tyler said as he adjusted his cap and took the final sip of water from the bottle. With that, he stood from the chair and looked out once more at the ocean. He could get used to that sight, he though as he blinked and then turned to find JD standing. "I had a great time tonight. Well...it was great from the moment I walked into Waffle House."
"I agree," JD said as they smiled at one another. They walked into JD's home to find the girls sitting on the couch smiling.
"You ready to go?" Tyler asked Jen.
"Are you is the real question," Jen joked. Tyler smiled. "Yeah. My bed is calling out to me, Ty."
"Well," Lindsay said as they both stood. "It was a pleasure meeting both of you," she added as she offered a hug to Jen and then to Tyler.
"Likewise," Jen answered on hers and Tyler's behalf.
"So I'll call you this afternoon," Tyler said as JD escorted them to the door a moment later.
"I can't wait," JD answered as Jen and Lindsay offered up smiles that the other couldn't see because of where they were standing.
"Me neither," Tyler said just before he and Jen turned to walk toward the elevator that would take them back to the lower level of the building.
JD shut the door, and with a smile on his face looked at his cousin. "We should really get in bed. We promised our mothers that we would go to the private mass in the morning."
"I forgot about that!" Lindsay expressed as her eyes opened wide. "How much sleep do we get to have?"
JD looked at his clock and smiled. "Three and a half hours!"
"Oh! That much?" Lindsay joked. "Night, Primo."
"Night, Linds," he said as he wrapped his arms around her. "Thanks for making me go out."
"You're very welcome," she expressed. "Now. Let's get some sleep."
"OK..." JD smiled as he walked into his bedroom and shut the door behind him. He stripped off all his clothes, and, completely naked, the man climbed between the sheets of the bed that had gone for days without being made. As his eyes closed, he contemplated what might have happened if the twink from earlier were single. He shuttered to think that they might not have gone to Waffle House and they might not have encountered the richly intriguing man that was Tyler Ray Hall, a prince among thieves, a gentleman leaps and bounds above the average.
As they drove back to the apartment they shared in Baursville, close to Owens University, Jen and Tyler talked about everything that had gone on the night before. Jen wanted details, details that Tyler found he couldn't express easily in words. He could only tell her that he was grateful that he'd been coerced into going out. As they reached their apartment, Jen pulled the truck into their assigned space and the two walked up to their apartment. Tyler deeply yawned as they walked in.
In his room, like JD, he stripped off all his clothes and climbed, completely exposed to the world, between the blue super hero sheets that Jen had bought him for Christmas the previous year. He wrapped them around his body, and as he closed his eyes, he relished all the visual and emotional memories that came with the package that was...Joseph David Thomas Leandro Barrington, super-hottie extraordinaire.