“It’s the best time. No one’s around, and the sky’s lit up with a million stars.” Travis stumbled and fell, with one palm to the ground. He let out a hearty laugh. “This is a lot easier to do when you’re sober.” He wiped his hand on his jeans and kept climbing. “Race you to the top!”
“What? Wait!” Thiswasn’t the best idea in the world, nor the most thought out, especially in his inebriated state, but Travis was already sprinting up the mountain, and Derek had no intention of being left behind. His competitive side kicked in and he stomped up the hilly terrain, floundering over the unfamiliar ground and uneven gullies with its spattering of succulents and rocks.
“Woo hoo!” Travisshouted, which meant that Reckless’ lead singer had made it to the top of the mountain first.
Derek reached the plateau a few minutes later, with a scuff on the knee of his jeans and dirt stinging his eyes.
Travis clapped his hand onto Derek’s shoulder. “It’s astounding this close up, isn’t it?”
Wiping the dirt off his hands, Derek stood up straight and leanedhis head all the way back to take in the full height of the enormous Hollywood sign. Slightly dizzy, he wrapped his arm around Travis’ waist to steady himself. The close proximity, the body contact, and the labored breaths from hiking up the mountain all had Derek’s heart beating faster, and his eyes darted to the man next to him. Travis glanced at Derek briefly, flashing a boyish, lopsidedsmile that almost knocked Derek off his feet, before looking back at the iconic monument.
Derek pulled his gaze away from Travis and looked up at the texture in the letters, noting their brightness in the dusty mountain. He and Travis were dwarfed by the signage that stood at least 40-feet tall and spread out to a length as long as a football field. “It’s fucking incredible. I’velived in Southern California my entire life and never thought about hiking up here. You’re a fucking rebel, Fontana. And I like it.” He flashed a whimsical smile at his new friend – someone as crazy as he was. “You’re from Orange County, right?”
“I’m not really from anywhere. Right now, I’m living in Hollywood. My apartment is kind of a dive, but at least it’s close to this place.I’ve lived all over California.” Travis climbed a few yards higher. “Come on. You didn’t get to the best part yet.”
“There’s more?”
Travis slipped behind the giant letter “O” and disappeared in the darkness. It was pitch black and no one was around. Somewhere nearby, the soft yipping of a coyote pierced the silence. Derek looked to his left, then to his right, and thentook off after Travis. For a split second, he envisioned Travis jumping out from behind the letter, startling him and sending him tumbling down the rocky hill to his death – or with multiple compound fractures which necessitated wearing a full-body cast for a year. The other part of his brain, the naughty part, envisioned Travis giving him a blowjob behind the sign, bringing new meaning to the giantletter “O”. Derek laughed and quickly shook the thought from his head. Too much alcohol definitely planted that idea in his mind, and he chuckled at the absurdity. When he rounded the sign, Travis was climbing the scaffolding that supported the structure. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Travis gingerly swung from the metal bars like an acrobat, until he stood perfectly inside the hollowcenter of the letter, balancing himself on one of the metal bars. He called to Derek with the wave of his hand.
A sly smile spread across Derek’s lips, as the idea of climbing into the sign suddenly seemed awesome. The bars were surprisingly cold against his hands, and the muscles in his shoulders tightened and stretched as they propelled his body upward. When he was within reach,Travis grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him into the letter. They stood facing one another, literally on top of the world. Derek hung onto the bars tightly, clearly less at home in the precarious setting than Travis, and turned in a semicircle while he took in the expansive city of Los Angeles sprawled in front of him in all its glittering glory. The reflection of the Hollywood Reservoir to hisleft mirrored the night sky with its blackness and twinkling stars. A glistening stripe of moonlight ran down the center like a splash of silver, almost breaking the lake in half. The scene in the distance engulfed him with its artistry. “This is really fucking beautiful.”
“I know. I used to come here all the time when I was a kid. I couldn’t wait to move back when I turned 18.”
Concealed by the darkness, camouflaged by the expanse that surrounded them, they were invisible in the open space, spying on the world below. There was only one thing that could take Derek higher. He stuffed his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a joint. It was a little crumpled, but still nice and fat, and he held it up to show Travis. “Smoke?”
“Alright!I knew I liked you right away.”
“I like you, too,” Derek said, feeling overly seductive with the knowledge that he and Travis didn’t play on the same team.
Travis pulled a lighter from his pocket and put a flame to the end of the joint, while Derek drew on it. He took a few long tokes, glancing up at Travis through the smoke.
Travis had his eyes trained onDerek, while the sweet smelling haze filled Derek’s lungs and floated toward Travis, framing his face in soft wisps. He was devilishly handsome, with a wayward glint in his eyes and a taunting smile that sent a charge deep into Derek’s core.
Derek passed the joint to Travis, who drew on it heavily. The mist of smoke surrounded them in a cloud of bliss, and Derek’s raging hormonessettled into a peaceful and tranquil state. His gaze drifted to the sky, and he fell into the universe. “Look at the moon.” The large, round orb stared back at them like a giant face in the sky. As he stared at it, the shadows on its surface morphed into eyes and a mouth mocking him from space. He began to snicker, slowly at first, and then laughter rolled from his mouth uncontrollably.
It was contagious, and Travis laughed along with him without knowing why. Between bits of cackling, they passed the joint back and forth, half laughing, half coughing, the effects of the alcohol now replaced by a mellow comedic high.
Too small to handle without burning his fingers, Derek flicked the roach down to the ground. He watched the tiny, orange glow flicker until it dieddown. The night had cooled and the breeze picked up, fanning the ember. Seconds later, flames shot up from a small, dry patch of weeds below. “Oh fuck!” Derek stood at attention, hoping the small brush fire would extinguish itself since the field was mostly dirt, but another breeze fanned the flame and another bundle of grass ignited.
Travis leapt down from the scaffolding with thegrace of a jungle cat, landed on his feet, and ran toward the fire. He suffocated the flames with a few kicks of dirt, reducing the only telltale signs of burning down the mountainside to a billowy spiral of white smoke rising into the sky.
“It’s all good,” Travis yelled up to Derek. “Fire’s out.”
Derek let out a deep breath, and a laugh escaped him. “I can’t fuckingbelieve we almost burned down the Hollywood sign!” He jumped off the scaffolding, but lacked the grace and agility that Travis possessed, and twisted his ankle when he landed on the uneven ground below. “Ow!” He limped another step before his knee gave out and he went down, rolling and tumbling. A rock hit him in the ribs like a fist, and he grunted. Fear gripped his throat as he realized that thehorrific fall he had envisioned on the way up the mountain was actually happening right now. Just when he resigned to the fact that he’d meet the grim reaper in the canyon below, he slammed into something.
“I gotcha!” Travis caught Derek in his arms, but instead of breaking Derek’s fall, Derek bowled over Travis, and they both tumbled several yards while clutched together like someweird ball before being pulled apart.
Derek came to a hard stop, with his back flat on the ground and a rock underneath his left shoulder. He barely took a breath before Travis landed directly on top of him with a loud huff, and knocked the air from his lungs.
“Oh, man, that was fucking funny.” Travis laughed as he stared down at Derek. Then something shifted. The smileslowly disappeared and his gaze took on a lusty hue.
A tingle ran through Derek at the unexpected vibe he received, and his cock swelled. He lifted his hand and placed it on Travis’ waist, where he met a hard cord of muscle. Tiny, invisible flickers of heat passed between them as they lay face to face, their mouths only inches apart. The breeze in the night air surrounded them andsparked the sexual tension the same way it had ignited the small brush fire, but this was ten times the blaze. Steel at Travis’ crotch hit Derek in the hip. Derek battled with the consequences of what was about to happen, but couldn’t concentrate on anything except the man lying on top of him, covering the full length of his body and looking directly at him.
Travis’ lids slowly closedand his mouth came down on Derek’s, soft and fleshy. There was no tongue, at first. Just a succulent brush of lips on lips, then Travis’ mouth opened and deepened the kiss. Slow and leisurely, the unrushed union of their mouths evolved into a sweet rotation that offered an enjoyable lavishing of desire, as if their lips had all night to get acquainted. Travis didn’t paw at Derek’s clothes orrun a greedy hand over Derek’s body. He lightly cradled Derek’s cheek with one hand, while he propped himself up on one elbow.
This was new for Derek. He was used to hungry men pulling his pants open and covering his body with a ravenous, impatient tongue. Void of any kind of lingering connection, his past hook-ups were fleeting encounters, packed with as much instant gratificationas could fit into whatever small window of time they had together. This was different. It was a moment that was savored. A dreamy kiss under the stars.
