Up the Block

Chapter 1

"Ugh. Just five more minutes. Damn."

I covered my head with the heavy winter blanket I'd pulled out of storage just last night, attempting to block out the alarm blaring from my cell phone on the nightstand beside my bed. Unfortunately, it just got louder and louder the more I ignored it. BZZZT!

"Goddammit," I said, reaching a hand out from underneath the blanket to grope for my phone.

I pressed the power button to silence it and exhaled a sigh of relief once tranquility reestablished its presence in my room. The peace and quiet didn't last long before my mom came pounding on the door to wake me up for school ("Mijo, despierta! Wake up or you'll be late for school!"). Sighing once again, I threw my super comfortable heavy winter blanket, off myself in one swift motion, and jumped out of bed.

"Ya! I'm awake. Dejame en paz, por dios." I replied to my mom. She would not stop knocking until she received a response. One of her more annoying motherly habits.

"Breakfast is already served on the table. Just get ready quickly and come down. It's almost 6:30, Miguel."

"Okay cool. Be right there." I said.

Not being particularly in the mood to rummage through all my clothes for a fly outfit to wear, I grabbed a shirt and pair of jeans almost at random and headed to the bathroom to get ready. I took a quick shower, and examined myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. It was crazy how almost overnight I'd gone from the scrawny-little-messy-haired-chap-lipped-bespectacled middle school kid, to the naturally slim, and slightly taller, decent looking high school freshman staring back at me from the mirror. My curly hair was now shorter and neater, my "Tom Hardy lips", as my friend Emmy liked to call them, moisturized. I'd even gotten a fly new pair of Ray Ban glasses that made me look less nerdy. Cool, even. Thank god for puberty. Sure, I was still only fourteen years old, and while not as short as before, still not exactly towering at a measly 5'7", but you could actually see muscles under my light brown skin now. (If I flexed!) Not just bone. I had a little v-cut going and everything. My mom had even noticed, and said I took after my dad.

"People always thought he was a swimmer," she would say, "with that body of his."

My father died when I was only four years old. Guilty only of trying to diffuse an altercation at the bodega in town, and being stabbed five times as a result. I'm told he got in the middle of a man publicly berating and abusing his wife in front of their own kid. The man was arrested and sent to prison for life as a result of the situation. The wife divorced him, and moved with her son to live with her family back in Brooklyn. All in all, his sacrifice was not in vain. His memory was cherished and kept alive by pictures around the house, and stories told by my mom and older brother, who had actual memories of him.

Once downstairs I looked at the stove clock and realized I was running late. Dammit, I thought. I grabbed my coat and wolfed down the cheese omelet and toast my mom had left on the table before kissing her goodbye and running out the door.

"Ya me tengo que ir! Or I'll miss the bus!"

Outside it was typical late November weather. Not quite Winter, but not quite Fall anymore either. I stuck my hands inside my pockets and half ran to the bus stop on the corner where the yellow bus was just pulling up. "Dammit! Wait" I said as I picked up the pace. My mom would be pissed if I missed the bus for the third time this week. "Wait!" I yelled, this time so the bus driver could actually hear me. Just as the doors were sliding closed two hands shot out and caught them. The doors reopened and standing on the first step of the bus entrance was Winston, my older brothers best friend, who lives just up the block.

"Running late again huh," he said smirking, "no worries I got you."

He stood aside so I could pass before him.

"Alright alright hurry it up young man we're running a little late already as it is!" said the bus driver gesticulating a hurry-it-up motion with his free arm.

"Thanks," I said sheepishly. To both of them.

I went to sit down in one of the always empty front seats, but Winston grabbed my shoulders from behind and pushed me along to the back of the bus which was unofficially known to be his reserved seating.

"Sit with me today little maaan," he said. Dragging the word "man" like he always did.

Not having any friends of my own on my side of town, I usually sat somewhere in the middle rows, with one of the nerdy kids who didn't mind. Either that or the always empty front rows, the "loser seats," which luckily never brought me too much shit, since I was protected by the lasting influence of my cool older brother. If only he'd been left back too, I thought, like Winston. Then he could have been my bus buddy, and his direct cool-ness would have made me cool and popular by proxy. But although he did have his gangster drug pushing phase early on, almost inevitable in Corona Park, he matured in time to graduate AND get accepted into a four-year college. Winston on the other hand, though not selling dime bags anymore, never quite outgrew his rebellious hard-headed nature. According to my brother, school assignments and teachers constantly telling him what to do were just not for him. Ironically enough he was almost never absent. He would later tell me it was because he hated being at home, his overbearing Jamaican mother being his only other immediate family, it was a pretty depressing and boring place to be.

"So how you been, Migos?" he asked once we were seated.

Two years ago, at my brother's 16th birthday party, Winston played the song Versace by Migos, and my twelve year old ass went around saying "Versace! Versace!" the rest of the night. It's been his nickname for me ever since. It being similar to my actual name, Miguel, pure coincidence.

"I been aight man," I said, "still getting used to this new school."

"Yeah I feel you. It's mad different. I remember when I first came here. Transition was a bitch!"

He laughed his deep baritone laugh. I remember my brother once saying that almost as soon as Winston turned thirteen, his voice went from Alvin and the Chipmunks high, to Vin Diesel deep. Minus the funny pronunciation. Now at nineteen, his voice was probably even deeper than it had been then. One of many reasons why upon entering Corona High I wasn't in the least bit surprised to find that he was pretty popular with the ladies.

"You been doing aight though my man," he continued, "I been watching you. Your bro would be proud."

"I guess." I'd be doing a lot better if he were still around, I thought. "I'll never be as cool as him though."

"What? Nah fuck that man. Ricardo was just street cool. You like book smarts cool. Y'all just different." He put an arm around me and gave me a playful side hug as he spoke. I caught the strong scent of Axe, and what can only be described as straight up masculinity, when he pulled me towards him. I was suddenly aware of how muscular and strong Winston's arm felt around me.

"Plus, everybody knows not to fuck with you," he continued," Ricky aint been on the streets like that in a minute, but his boys from back in the day still got his back. I still got your back. He told us to watch out for you and your fam before he left."

"For real? I didn't know that."

"Yeah," he replied, "my bad for being kinda distant and shit since you came though. It just ain't been the same without Rick around you know?"

"Yeah, tell me about it" I said, looking out the window.

"Not to mention my ass got left back."

I punched his shoulder. "Like half of Corona gets left back. You good man."

"Ha! Motherfucker! You right." He laughed his deep laugh again. "Nah but forreal though. I got you. You my boy too. Known you since you were a little Puerto Rican midget."

We both laughed, and he ruffled my hair like my brother would do when we were younger, to make me feel like a kid, which used to always rile me up. The rest of the ride we just cracked jokes and talked about my brother some more.

Once we got to Corona Park High School, Winston walked me to my first period class and gave me dap before heading to his. It might have been just me but I swear he held me and my hand a second longer than your typical dap lasts. I caught his manly Axe scent again, just as he let go. Again, I was struck suddenly by how attractive a guy he actually was. His high cheekbones, dark brown skin, dimpled smile, all seemed new to me. It was as if I was seeing them for the first time.

He gave a final wave before turning around. "I'll see you in Gym, Migos."

"Oka- wait what?" I replied. But he had already turned the corner into the other hallway. Did he say he'd see me in Gym?

Almost three months into a new school year, at a new school, and I was still rolling with the same two friends I'd had since middle school. Juan and Emmy. I had yet to make any new friends. Sure, people respected me because of my older brother, and the school dickheads steered clear of making me one of their bullying victims, but not many really went out of their way to engage with me outside of a simple "Sup" here and there. Perhaps it was my blatant lack of swag in an inner-city-esque High School, or maybe it was that I just didn't live up to the towering figures that were my brother and father. The cool kid and the hero. Both well known to almost everyone in the town. I, on the other hand, was just the smart skinny kid-brother with glasses. But, to be honest, it hardly phased me. I had two ride-or-die's, and for me that was more than enough.

"Hey Miguelito" said Juan as I sat at my self-assigned seat between him and Emmy.

"Miguel please tell that slacker that the History homework is due today and NOT on Monday," grumbled Emmy without a greeting.

First period was Algebra for the three of us and my sitting in between my two friends was intentional so as to reduce distractions. Juan always knew how to push Emmy's buttons. Though she was like the mother hen of our little group, she could be a little intense. But she was always looking out for us and making sure we did our homework, and studied, and ate healthy, she was even already talking about college, when we had just started High School. Knowing her though, it wouldn't surprise me if she whipped us into shape, and get us into Harvard or some shit.

"She's right dude," I said laughing, "those current event summaries are due later today."

I was lucky enough to have either Juan, or Emmy, or both, in every one of my class periods that semester, besides Gym. I wasn't exactly the most social person on the planet, and making new friends, as previously mentioned, wasn't exactly going great. So the thought of being stranded alone in a class without one, or both, of them, would have been a nightmare. We all met in our seventh-grade French class, where due to proximity, we were assigned to work as a group on a conversation exercise, and became inseparable. I'd had plenty of "friends" before, in elementary school and from around the neighborhood, but those are what I would call my first true best friends. They knew me, and I knew them.

Juan grinned and leaned back on his seat. "Well thank god I got study hall next period."

"Yeah, and thank goddess I bought a newspaper on the way to school just in case you forgot," Emmy threw the Daily News on my desk, "pass that on will you?" ________________

It was the last day before Thanksgiving break. Though less of a break, and more of a four-day weekend. Still, everyone was anxious for the day to end already, as was I. My first five periods came and went normally, aside from the Thanksgiving excitement in the air, and as I was heading for Gym class, I again remembered what Winston had said that morning. I'll see you later in Gym, Migos.

Why would he say that, I wondered. Though, not for long. After entering the locker room, and making my way towards my locker in the far corner, sure enough, there he was. Bent over. Shirtless. His locker apparently in the same nook of lockers as mine. He was built like a slightly leaner football player. Every wiry muscle seemingly visible under his umber, dark-brown skin. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was staring before snapping out of the spell his bare upper body had cast on me. He finished tying his shoes and straightened up just as I resumed approaching my locker, as casually as I could, which was just a few over to the right of his.

He beamed his big smile as soon as he saw it was me.

We dapped. "Sup little man!"

When he pulled me in for the one arm hug thing, I noticed, for the first time, how soft yet strong his bare back felt.

"I told you I was gon' see you in Gym," he put on a fitted white tank top, which left little to the imagination, "I just switched in. I couldn't stand my morning gym class."

As he was putting his tank top over his head I had gotten a full frontal view of his defined chest, and abs, which had stirred something in my pants. I gulped.

"Man, how you know I had gym sixth period though?" I put my coat and backpack on the bench and noticed I was trembling slightly.

Winston crossed his vascular arms over his chest and shrugged.

"I know a guy," he said smiling, "and I told you I been keeping an eye on you like your bro asked me too, lil man."

I laughed as I opened my locker. Trying to act as normal as possible, despite a racing heart, and shortness of breath. What was going on with me? I've been around Winston shirtless countless times growing up. At the pool, when he's slept over, playing basketball with him and my bro, or just from playing in the yard during the summer, being boys. He was my brothers best friend, after all. But ever since that morning something changed. Maybe it was the side hug on the bus, or the dap and gaze that lingered afterwards. I don't know. Whatever it was, he'd been on my mind all day. I'd always seen him as sort of another older brother, since he lived just up the block from us, and was always at our house growing up. But now, for the first time, I saw him as something else. A very sexually attractive something else.

Truth be told, I'd noticed him watching me from a distance ever since school started. I figured he was looking out for me, as my brother would have if he was still around. It made me feel good. Like I was more important to him now or something. I'd secretly hoped we'd become better friends, and possibly be as tight as he and my brother had been. But after one week, and then two, and then three, had passed without him really reaching out beyond greetings and small talk, I'd figured that's all it would ever be.

"Man, I don't need no bodyguard" I said smiling back at him, "but thanks. I appreciate it"

I took out my gym clothes, and started undressing when some of the other guys in my class started to pour in and the whole locker room exploded into pandemonium. It might have been my imagination, but amidst the clamor of half naked bodies getting changed, I swore I caught a glimpse of Winston staring at me. Not only that, but it looked like he was checking me out. It made me shudder, and not in disgust. I quickly pulled on my white tee, gym shorts, and sneakers, and made to head back upstairs to the gym.

"All set little homie?" he asked once he saw that I was ready.

"Yessir leggo," I replied.

He flashed that perfect, eyes practically closing, cheeks dimpling, pearly white smile. Again, it was as if I was seeing him for the first time. I felt butterflies in my stomach.

It turned out to be a free basketball day, as days before holidays usually are at Corona High. The gym teachers already in break mode along with the students. The rolling rack of basketballs was brought out and the boys given half the gym to play ball, while the girls played soccer in the other half. Winston grabbed a ball and smirked at me mischievously as he approached. He dribbled and feigned crossing me while laughing like a fool.

"Just like old times huh youngin?" He feigned again but this time I swiftly caught the ball from his hand mid dribble. "Oh word!?"

"Yeah, son." I said laughing too now. "You game?!"

"Ha! Yo!" He puffed out his chest. "Yeah I'm game!"

It really was like old times. Winston, my brother, and I, all used to play ball in our backyard, since we used to have a hoop back there..

We started playing a little one-on-one, and were joined eventually by some of the other guys, since we were kinda hogging a whole basket all to ourselves. I noticed Winston paid special attention to me, even though he seemed to know most of the other guys we were playing with as well. Again, it might also just have been my imagination, but when he was guarding me during the game, it felt like he was pressing up on me a lot more than when we played in the past. It even felt like he was staring at me sometimes.

It was a good game though, neck and neck till the very end, when one of the gym teachers whistled just as I scored a layup. My team bugged out and hounded me screaming as if it was an actual championship game we'd just won or something. I'd never been particularly athletic or good at sports, but I loved playing ball with my bro, and some of the kids on the block, including Winston, growing up. More because it was time spent hanging out with my older brother, who I looked up to, and loved dearly, but also because it provided my antisocial ass an opportunity to interact with other kids, which otherwise wouldn't happen often, if left to my own devices.

Winston clapped me on the back while we walked back into the locker room. "Well go on then, Migos! I didn't know you could ball like that!"

I laughed, stopping to drink some water from the water fountain. "Man, I learned that shit from you and Rick, whatchu mean?"

When I looked back up he had taken his sweat soaked tank top off, and was drying his face with it. Trickles of sweat ran down his lean chest and stomach, disappearing into his basketball shorts.

"You right" he said laughing, "Ima get a drink man. I'll be right down, you go on."

He motioned for me to go on ahead to the locker room, which I did.

I had study hall next period, so I wasn't in a rush to get changed like all the other guys were. I was in my boxers pulling my regular clothes out of my locker when Winston came back down. Again, I caught him in the corner of my eye, stop briefly and look me up and down, before coming to his own locker and taking his things out.

"Whew, that was some good shit." He exclaimed nervously, sitting on the bench. Or at least that's what it sounded like to me.

I chuckled in agreement as I pulled my shirt on. "Yeah, it was. We should make me kicking your ass in ball a regular thing."

"Ha! Yeah oookay," he said, "we'll see about that."

"Yeah ooookay we'll see about that" I repeated in a dumb sounding voice.

He burst out laughing.

"Yoo!" He lunged for me, and we started play wrestling, just like we used to with my bro. "You got jokes!"

Laughing all the way to the floor, he quickly pinned me down easily. Arms above my head. His face inches above mine. Sweat dripping from his half naked body down onto mine. Again I noticed just how ruggedly beautiful he was. Fade on point, beard slightly grown out, soft looking pink lips, eyes the deepest shade of brown. Everything suddenly became eerily quiet. The room had emptied minutes before, so there wasn't a soul in the locker room but us, looking into each other's eyes.

I don't remember if it was him or me that made the first move. All I know is one second I was there, arms pinned above my head on the locker room floor, with Winston straddled on top of me in his drawers staring intently down at me, and the next we were kissing passionately, tongue and all. He ripped the shirt I'd just put on back over my head and threw it aside. Our sweaty naked bodies slid against each other. We groped, kissed, and licked, every part of the others body we could get our hands on. We rolled around the dirty locker room floor without noticing or caring, being too absorbed in the feel and taste of the other's sweat soaked body to even think about stopping. Eventually he hooked his hands under my armpits and picked me up, only to slam me into the lockers and kiss me even more passionately than before. I stuck my tongue completely inside his mouth, and he sucked it hungrily. He stuck his hands in my drawers, and tugged them down and off in one swift motion. He then grabbed my both my ass cheeks in each hand and squeezed them, groaning as he did so into my neck.

"Damn..Winston-" I gasped suddenly, feeling one of his fingers around my hole.

"Mmmm. Fuck lil boy you tight as hell," he said biting my neck, "if I had some lube on me I'd fuck the shit outta you right here and now."

He put a finger in his mouth to wet with spit, and this time stuck it inside my virgin asshole. I jumped, and he groaned in pleasure, feeling how tight it was. He kept fingering me, and kissed and sucked his way down from my mouth, to my neck, and chest, then attacked my brown nipples with a hunger and aggression I'd never seen in him before. I couldn't help but moan and mumble nonsensical shit the whole time.

"Aghh! Fuck! Damn..feels good!"

His fingers inside me hurt at first, but as he licked and explored my young body, I gradually relaxed, and started to notice how good it felt.

I eventually pulled him up, and slammed him into the lockers this time. I attacked his lips again, getting drunk off the taste and feel of his thick pink lips against mine. I sucked and bit his bottom lip softly, while exploring his defined chest with my hands. My lips and tongue left a slick trail down to his perfect dark black nipples, just as he had done to me, and he grabbed the back of my head and moaned so loud I thought for sure someone had heard us. I kept licking down, tasting each ab, and just as he had done, I pulled down his boxer briefs, but instead of grabbing his ass, took his precum soaked dick straight in my mouth. I had seen porn before, so I wasn't completely out of the loop when it came to sex, and oral. I had seen plenty of clips of women sucking dick and licking balls and shit. I could taste each drop of precum as it oozed out of Winston's thick chocolate dick. I sucked and slobbered all over that tasty 8" dick till it was dripping a mixture of both precum and saliva. He could barely get out a coherent word the whole time either.

"Damn son! Suck that shit! FUCK, Migos, that feels GOOD!"

He slapped my face, which normally would have pissed me, or anybody off, but in the moment was so hot I nearly nutted.

"Yeah you like that black dick don't you? I bet you always wanted this dick!" he said in that sexy ass deep voice, which made me suck his dick harder.

"Open your mouth!" he demanded, and slapped me again.

He spit in my mouth and tongue kissed me, before ramming his dick back down my throat. He face fucked me until my eyes teared up and I was gagging uncontrollably.

I was so turned on by the whole situation that I'd started leaking myself. I started jacking my dick as Winston face fucked me, until he noticed and pulled his dick out of my mouth. "I'm gonna make you bust first," he said, "watch." He picked me up by the armpits again like last time, but this time sat me down on the bench. He kneeled between my legs and proceeded to give me my first, and most intense, blowjob to date. I didn't know at the time, but I was pretty big for my age at 6". Not that it bothered him, as he gagged on and jerked and licked my dick so hard I was squirming underneath him and nutted almost immediately. He sucked the cum right outta me when I did. I moaned like a bitch as he swallowed it all without flinching, all the while jerking his own dick too. He smiled, and then forced open my mouth and stuck his cum tasting tongue inside, and I tasted myself for the first of many times to come with Winston.

"You taste good as hell baby boy," he whispered into my ear, giving it a lick that sent a shiver of pleasure down my whole body, "fuck I'm about to bust now too!"

He grabbed the back of my head and stuck his rock hard dick inside my mouth and pumped and pumped until he was shooting one of the biggest loads I've ever experienced to date, down my throat, and all over my chest.

"SHIT! FUUUCK!" he roared as the last few shots of cum covered my face.

He sat leaning against the lockers on the bench across from me to catch his breath.

"Damn baby you look so good with my nut all over you," he said, looking me up and down.

He came over and licked up some of the cum that had landed on my chest, before also cleaning up my face with his tongue, which was also covered in his cum. He once again let me taste some more, by letting some of the cum he licked up drip from his tongue onto mine. He had already shot like half his load down my throat, but it felt so freaky, and hot, tasting his cum from his own tongue. It tasted so good, like mine, creamy and thick, but even better, probably because it came from Winston.

"Goddamn that shit was fire," he said panting, "damn."

He laughed and sat down on the bench next to me, putting his arm around me, and leaning me against his chest.

"Thank god Mr. Rivera's class is swimming this month, otherwise we woulda been caught," I said.

I could hear his heartbeat. "Oh, word they got their own locker room for the pool," he replied, "damn, that's lucky as shit, cuz I don't think I woulda been able to stop even if somebody woulda walked in on us!"

"Haaa. You nasty son."

Though I probably wouldn't have been able to stop either, I thought.

We stayed that way for a few more minutes before getting up. Drying ourselves off, and horsing around a bit more in the process, I wondered how the hell I was going to get through the rest of the day after some shit like this.

We both got dressed and ready pretty quickly, afraid our luck at not having been caught would run out any second, only to realize it had only been thirty-five minutes since we came down downstairs. It had seemed like hours considering all the shit that we just did, I thought. Only missed one class though, I realized, thank goodness.

Once we were dressed and ready to go, Winston pulled me in for one last hug. His tall and solid frame were the perfect complement to my slim and shorter one. His strong arms wrapped around me completely. I'd never felt so safe and protected in my life. A quick wave of panic had briefly passed over me once we finished doing what we just did, worried that things would be weird between us from now on, but being enveloped in his arms like that, with such tender affection, dispelled those negative thoughts almost as quickly as they had arisen.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Like I said before, I got you baby boy, always." He squeezed me a bit tighter and whispered, "your sexy ass mine now, I hope you know."

We both laughed, just as the end of class bell rang.

"Damn right. And you mine." I replied.

He smiled. "All yours lil man. We gon' keep this between me and you for now though, aight? Don't want it to get weird with your bro and fam just yet, you feel me?"

"Yeah I know. I was thinking the same thing," I said.

After all, I was just then coming to terms with the fact that I might be gay. Anything else seemed way too much to handle at that moment. He kissed my forehead, and we climbed back upstairs to the gym.

"Aight Migos," he said smiling at me, "time to go back to the real world before people think we cut class for the rest of the day or some shit."

I decided we should walk out of the gym one after the other so as not to look suspicious. We dapped goodbye and I went on ahead first. Next period was History, I realized climbing the stairs to the second floor, I hope Juan did his homework during Study Hall. I stopped by the bathroom before going inside the classroom, just to get my bearings and make sure I didn't look too busted. Besides being flushed, and still slightly sweaty, which was expected after (an extra long) gym class, I didn't look too bad. There wasn't "I just got face fucked by my older brothers best friend in my high school locker room" written all over my face like I thought there would be. Just then I heard the bell ring again, so I quickly washed my face with water and reapplied deodorant to make sure I was extra fresh, before heading for History. I walked in a minute late, just as my teacher was seemingly introducing someone to the class.

"So we'd like to give a warm welc-" Mrs. Baxter stopped, slightly startled mid-sentence, as I entered, "-Oh, Mr. Martinez! Perfect timing," she said, "We were just welcoming Jamal here to the class, he's a new student from Brooklyn, and we just found out you and him have some history."

I barely caught what she said. Having just been face-fucked in my high school's locker room and all. "Excuse me?"

"Jamal here is the son of the woman your father saved," she said, turning to Jamal for confirmation "isn't that right?"

Jamal looked older than me, but only by like a year or two. He was slightly taller too, probably around 5'9", and was the darkest shade of ebony I'd ever seen. Despite it being November, he was in a Brooklyn Nets tank top, which gave away his athletic build and seemingly blemish free black skin. All which made what perhaps was his most striking feature of all, his silver septum ring, stand out all the more prominently.

He nodded. "Yup."

I could feel myself turning redder than I already was.

"O-Oh okay, wow" I stammered out.

I was momentarily overwhelmed. There was way too much going on today than I could handle, I thought. I could feel Juan's worried eyes on me as I walked towards my seat. He knew how delicate of a topic my father was to me. I suddenly felt extremely lightheaded, so I tried to just focus on Juan, and sitting down beside him, but to no avail. I think I heard Mrs. Baxter ask if I was feeling okay. But I'm not entirely sure. The last thing I clearly remember before fainting though, was Jamal's stone cold glare following me as I tried to walk past him to get to my seat, almond shaped eyes so dark and intense, you'd think he had laser vision, drilling into my skull.

To be continued...

Thanks for reading. For comments, questions, and/or feedback, you can reach me at: esp-ada@hotmail.com