UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
By
Rev. Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters and situations are purely imaginary. Any resemblence to any living persion is coincidental. This story is primarily a romance but does contain some scenes of explicit sex, primarily homosexual but not exclusively.
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SEVENTEEN
I got back before lunch on Sunday and it was a brilliantly cool but sunny day, a late winter's day when you could almost feel spring about to begin. I sat around my room for a little while talking with Robbie. He was depressed because he had recently split with Erica after she caught him cheating on her. We both commiserated with each other about the twists and turns of relationships since I had resolved to move on from Reed. However, Reed called me and wanted to meet. I was reluctant but we agreed to meet at the Chili's in the village, which is a BearCard location. I figured that breaking up in a public place was a good surgical way to end it. Unfortunately, I was wrong about that because I ended up going to his place for break-up sex. I'm not proud of that.
Overnight the front moved in. In my dazed sleepy state, I could hear the wind blowing but I didn't think much about it. I just turned over and went back to sleep. In the morning, looking out the window, I could see an inch or so of snow on the ground and it was continuing to snow heavily. If you live in Michigan or Wisconsin, an inch of snow is no big deal. But living in the Deep South, snow is huge. I've probably only seen snow twice in my life and then only a few flurries. This was enough to make a snowman out of. I was giddy with excitement, like a schoolboy. Excitedly, I pulled on my jacket and rushed outside to the little park outside of Reed's building. Katherine Court sits at the very base of Coleman Hill on Mulberry Street. Right before the apartment, the westbound lanes of Mulberry split with one lane going on the apartment and around down to Riverside Drive and the other lane up the hill toward Georgia Avenue and the law school. Right at the split is a little green space and I rushed out there, slipping and falling trying to climb the small but pretty steep hill. There were a couple of other people out too, just as foolishly excited. I joined in a short snowball fight, a first for me, and made a very small snowman before the wind and cold got me. There were strong gusts of wind blowing the snow around and the wind chill was terrible since I only had a thin jacket. Pretty quickly, I had to retreat back indoors. It was just too cold.
Walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor was when the reality of it hit me. In Detroit, they would shrug this snowstorm off. But this is Macon. There are no snow plows and no stockpiles of salt for the roads. An inch of snow would paralyze the city and nobody would be going anywhere. It was, after all, Monday morning, a business day, and there was no traffic. Schools and businesses were going to be closed and wouldn't reopen until the snow melted. Sadly for me, that meant I was stuck in an apartment with a guy that I didn't want to be with. Inside, Reed and I consulted the Weather Channel. They predicted that it would snow all that day and all night with high temperatures only making it into the low 20's. With the wind chill, it was presently just above 0. And today was the warm day. It was going to be 3 or 4 days before we got over the freezing mark.
I was depressed about that. I was stuck in Reed's apartment until Wednesday at the earliest and probably later, maybe even Friday. He was shallow, vain, status-conscious, self-absorbed and used people like toys. I had been stupid to be with him in the first place and now I was stuck here with him. It didn't take long for us to get on each other's nerves. The truth was that he was as eager to be rid of me as I was to get rid of him. He made it clear that he thought I was a naïve, moralistic, backwoods, redneck, pompous little boy that needed to grow up. He began to make fun of my accent and my background. By early afternoon, we both loathed each other.
Around two o'clock, a knock came at his door. I hoped that whoever it was had come to stay for a while. I just wanted to be around just about anybody else besides Reed. It turned out that it was his friend Luke who lived in the building.
"Well, now we can get the party started," Reed exclaimed giddily, throwing the door open wide.
Reed went from being surly to being charming in an instant. He made vodka and cranberry juice cocktails for us while he and Luke gossiped. Between the alcohol and a bong hit or two, I was feeling pretty loose and resolved to make the best of the situation.
"I have a little something that'll make the party complete," Reed said, producing a bottle of clear liquid and pouring a capful of it into my drink.
"What is that?" I asked, eying the glass suspiciously.
"G" Luke answered. "It's even better than booze but you're still able to perform, if you know what I mean."
"Not a chance" I said, pushing the glass away.
"What's the problem?" Reed asked in an almost half sneer. He was sitting on the edge of the couch, facing me while I sat on the other end. His stance was vaguely menacing. "We're going to do it too. It's not like you ever turn down free drugs, you know."
I knew I wasn't going to do this. I wasn't about to be talked into it. "I guess there's a first time for everything."
"I don't know what you're being so picky about. You didn't mind a three way Saturday."
Luke sniggered. I stared at them both. "I want to choose my sexual partners. I don't want to be fucked while I'm unconscious."
Reed exploded with rage. "You've been listening to that little shit Phillip. That little whore. Who the fuck do you think you are anyway? You're fucking nobody. You're fucking nothing. You don't know shit about anything. Nothing but a free-loading wannabe."
"Yeah well, fuck you," I retorted, standing up. "I may be fucking nobody but I'm still better than you."
"You gonna take that off of that little shit?" Luke challenged Reed. He then sat back for the fireworks. I was sure that they had a plan of some kind.
"What are you going to fucking do, kid? Walk back to campus? Good luck." Reed stood up and stood in front of me. I felt threatened and began to panic a little. I could feel his hostility, his rage. There was one little rational part of my mind working and it told me that he thought that he wouldn't have to pay for whatever he was going to do. He counted on my not telling because I didn't want to be outed to my parents and if I died, it was a merely a tragic drug accident. He was counting on having the money for good lawyers and my parents being too poor to fight. It was no comfort to me that he was seriously underestimating my mother, who would go to the ends of the earth hunting him down if he were to hurt me. By then, I would dead or just as bad. I truly felt like my life was in danger.
I didn't back down. Luke stood up and began a little singsong: "Come on little freshman, time to play."
Reed was in my face. I lifted one leg and brought my foot down hard against the inside ankle of Reed's left leg. Stunned and hurt, he grabbed it and began to hop in pain. Hurriedly I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door. Luke moved quickly to stop me, slamming the door shut.
"Just get the fucker" Reed shouted.
Luke spun me around and I let my knee ram hard into his balls. The pain Reed felt was nothing compared to Luke. He fell to the ground clutching his crotch and went to the fetal position, desperately trying to breath. I escaped through the door and flew down the stairs. Bursting through the glass doors to the outside, I ran down the long courtyard to the street and stumbled, slipping up the slope of the hill.
Free from immediate danger, I stopped and looked around, taking stock of my situation. Reed hadn't followed me. Either he didn't want to face the cold or he figured I would have to come back. I knew I wasn't but what to do now? There was no traffic and the snow was now more than 3 or 4 inches thick and falling rapidly. It was bone chillingly cold and all I had was a jacket. My shoes, just plain running shoes, were all ready wet from the snow. I knew that I was in a desperate situation. To get back to campus would mean climbing Coleman Hill and then down College Street. That was a mile and half. maybe two miles. How long could I last in this cold? I could run it about 15 or 20 minutes ordinarily but it was icy and slippery, not mention the snow. Based on the difficulty of the climb up the hill from the apartment to street level, that would not be easy. I tried running on the level ground to the base of Coleman Hill where Georgia Avenue began. My feet didn't have good traction and I was slipping.
Instinctively, I pulled out my phone. For some reason I dialed Xander's number. On the third ring, he answered.
"I'm in trouble," I told him.
There was a pause on the other end. Then he said, "What do you need me to do?"
Briefly I told him what had happened and where I was.
"Go to Cass's place. You know where it is. I'll call them and tell them you're coming. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"How can you? The roads are closed"
"4 wheel drive, buddy. I'll see you in a few."
I struggled up the hill. Even though my hands, feet and face were numb from the cold, I tried walking on. For every foot I went forward, I slid back 6 inches. I was frustrated and freezing, long since past shivering. It took half an hour to finally get up the hill as far as the law school and I was exhausted and breathing hard. I knew then there was no way I would have ever made it back to campus. Just getting to Cass's place was going to be almost more than I could do and I was a fit guy, a runner. It took another 10 minutes of sliding and catching myself to make it Orange Street. I saw Cass's car there, smoke pouring from the exhaust. He had gone as far as he dared to get me.
"Get in, fuckhead," Cass said, as I opened the door to his warm vehicle.
"Thanks," I whispered as my teeth began to chatter. The little hint of warmth from the car had caused me to begin to shiver violently.
"I'm not doing it for you, asshole. If it were up to me, I'd let you fucking freeze."
"Thank you anyway." I chattered. Whatever the reason was, Cass had saved my life.
The car had traction because the ground was flat and the street was paved unevenly with brick. We were able to get to his apartment with only minimal sliding. I struggled inside. Dex and Dante were there, as was the girl Haley that Xander had been with at the beginning of the year. I guessed that either Ashley or Cass had moved on since fall semester. Dante and Haley seemed indifferent to me but Dex and Cass were almost hostile. But Dex did make me a cup of coffee to help me warm up. Haley got a blanket for me to wrap up in. Neither Dex nor Cass asked me anything about how or why I was in the cold walking.
It took another 15 or 20 minutes for Xander to get there and it was a long time basking in the hostility of Xander's friends. Normally it was no more than 10 minutes and he should have been long there. He was animated and smiling as he rushed into the apartment.
"I'm not sure how I got up the hill on College but down the hill to Riverside was mostly ass first."
"You're nuts to do it" Dex replied.
"And officially diagnosed." Xander laughed. Then he knelt down in front of me. "How you doing there, Dill?"
"Better" I admitted. "Cass saved my life."
Xander turned to Cass. "I owe you one, bro."
"You don't owe me shit. Anything, anytime. You know that. But he's not worth it, Xander. You're a hundred times better than him and you've fucked yourself over because that piece of shit looked down his nose at you. If you were smart, you would have just walked away."
Dex chimed in. "You're our brother, dude. We just want what's best for you and he's not it. You put yourself through a million types of pain because of him and I just don't see it."
Xander sat on the floor and rested his back on my legs. He shrugged and said, "I can't help how I feel. Can't do anything about it."
Cass started to say something but caught himself. I saw him look at Dex and then shrug. "Okay, bro." I knew there was a lot left unsaid, things that didn't need to be said.
"Me and him, we're gonna need to work some things out," Xander said.
"You're crazy to go back out there," Dex said, looking out the window at the snow that continued to fall.
Xander laughed. "Dexter, I wish you would stop calling me crazy. Come on, Dylan, let's go."
I actually figured that Dex was right. Going out there was crazy and I knew how bad it was. But I had called him to help and I would just have to go with it. Cass told me to just take the blanket since my jacket was too thin for the weather. We steeled ourselves for a dash to his jeep and then took the plunge. He cranked it up and turned on the heat.
"Okay, you want me to take you back to campus or are you coming to my place?" Xander asked.
This was the moment of decision. What I chose right then was going to determine a lot about how my life would be for the foreseeable future. If I choose going back to the dorm I would be turning my back on a new relationship with him. Going to his place meant that I was choosing him knowing all the things that I did about him: how he made his money, his mental health, all of it. The thing that stuck in my mind was that in my moment of peril and desperation, his only thought was to help me. And so far, he had not held my decision to go with Reed in the first place over my head, even though he had every right to do so.
"Your place," I answered.
He smiled and leaned over to kiss me. Then he grinned and said, "Well, if we don't die, this is going to be a shitload of fun."
Beyond the intersection with College Street, Georgia Ave runs into Hardeman Avenue. Sitting at the top of Coleman Hill, you can look completely downhill to the interstate. On normal, non-snowy days, you don't have to have your foot on the gas at all to pick up quite a bit of speed by the time you get to I-75. Xander was gunning it to get up the last bit of hill to College Street and then flew through the intersection and began the steep descent down Hardeman. The main post office was a blur as it passed and very quickly we found ourselves sliding down sideways down the street. Xander had put the jeep in neutral and then we spun around and continued going downhill backwards, staring up at the Post Office as we rocketed down the hill. Georgia Avenue became Hardeman and we continued to fly downward backwards. The jeep sledded across the overpass and slightly up the hill on the other side before rolling back onto the overpass. We came to stop pointing in the wrong direction on an empty overpass above an unused freeway.
Xander was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. His face was red and he was holding his sides. "What's so goddamn funny," I screamed at him.
"You were screaming like a little girl" he answered in small gulps, fighting back the laughter and banging on the steering wheel. "You were yelling at me to stop, like I could fucking stop."
I shook my head in wonder. "Well, it's the second near death experience for the day."
"Hate to mention it," he laughed, "but we still got to get up that hill. Maybe the third time's the charm."
"That's not funny." I replied petulantly, settling into my seat with my arms crossed across my chest in the ultimate passive-aggressive pose.
"Any suggestions for the hill?"
"Gun it and hope for the best?" I offered.
"Sounds good to me."
Amazingly, it worked. Xander put it in gear, got turned around and gunned it. The tires refused their traction some and spun but we generally kept moving forward and soon we were up the hill. For some unknown reason, the traffic lights were still working despite being turned nearly sideways in the wind. At the intersection with Pio Nono, I could see the red light and yelled at him to stop. Xander hit the brakes and we spun wildly into the intersection and through it, ending up with one wheel on the sidewalk and again pointing the wrong way.
"We're just going to run `em in the future," Xander remarked wryly as he reversed off the sidewalk and got us oriented again. Driving slowly, we got to the turnoff of Vineville and then to his place without further disaster. The sky remained gray and angry and the snow was blowing parallel to the ground, building large berms against any wall or barrier. We rushed up the stairs to his apartment, heedless of slippery wood.
We didn't make it the bedroom before we started making love. We started kissing and pulling off clothes in the small kitchen area and were almost fully naked by the time we got to the couch. We kissed and touched for what seemed like hours. Every part of his smooth, young, hard body was mine. We finally made it the bed and he entered me as we lay in the spoon position. The sex wasn't raw or urgent but long and loving. I was back where I was supposed to be.