I blushed again. I couldn’t believe I was telling mymomabout what had happened!
During PE, we usually had to run laps at the end, then when we were done we hit the showers. I was always among the last ones to get done. I’d been coming out of the showers when I’d seen Vinnie and Eddie Garrett in the locker rooms.
Vinnie was a grade or two higher than we were, and he shouldn’t even have beeninour locker rooms that time of the day. Eddie hadn’t been dressed yet, which was odd, because he was on the track team and was usually one of the first kids finished with their laps. Vinnie had been leaning against the locker, kind of boxing Eddie in with both his arms. Eddie was standing there, wearing just his underwear and socks, with his hands at his sides and a bright blush on his face.
It was easy to see that something had gotten him excited, because his cock was tenting his briefs in obvious fashion. It was part of the guy code not to comment when someone popped a boner, especially in the locker room. We were all teenagers, and we all got hard at the drop of a hat. It happened.
I’d come around the corner and froze seeing the two of them standing there. Vinnie had looked over his shoulder and smirked at me, then deliberately leaned down and whispered something in Eddie’s ear that made him blush all the way down his neck. Then Vinnie turned to go, and he brushed his hand across Eddie’s crotch. I might have thought it was a relatively innocent contact, but I could swear I saw his hand squeeze Eddie through his briefs. The thought of how hurt Kaine would be if he’d been the one seeing this, had me seeing red.
I’d hightailed it out of the locker room, the blood roaring in my ears. When I passed him in the hallway a short while later when we switched periods, Vinnie grabbed my arm and said, “Just remember, Carrots, nobody likes a tattletale.”
That, on top of everything else, had me seething by the time I got home.
“Yikes. That’s a tough one, baby,” Mom said as I gave her the edited version. What happened in the locker room, stayed in the locker room.
“I know,” I sighed. “I want to tell him so bad, but I know it’s just going to hurt him! And Idon’twant that! I mean, Kaine will probably figure it out on his own, eventually, right? It just makes me mad that Vinnie would do this to Kaine! Why does he have to cheat on him? Hasn’t he been hurt enough?”
Mom sighed again and seemed to be weighing her words carefully.
“People have… people have different reasons for cheating, baby. Some people… some people cheat because of the thrill. Some people cheat because they want to hurt someone. Other people—” she stopped a second. “Other people cheat because they were never meant to be with that person in the first place.”
I looked at my mom curiously. Her eyes had a faraway look to them, like she was thinking of something a thousand miles away from where we were. Then she smiled at me, refocusing on our conversation and she continued.
“When Kaine finds out, he’s going to need you, Nicki. He’s going to need a friend to love him and help fix his broken heart. It won’t be easy,” she said, smoothing a stray curl back behind my ear. “But waiting and being there for him when the time comes could be the best gift you ever give him.”
Mom had been right. A few weeks later when Vinnie had dumped him, Kaine had been devastated. Vinnie had given him a list of all the things wrong with him. A god damnedlist! Kaine had disappeared from school for a week. He wouldn’t even talk to me when I came over and pounded on his door. I’d spent Thursday and Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday camped outside of Kaine’s bedroom door. He wouldn’t open it while I was there, but I kept up a running commentary about what was happening at school. I read him all the notes from all our classes and had even read our textbooks out loud to him.
His brothers had given me loads of shit over it, especially when I started reading the geometry textbooks out loud, but I wanted Kaine to know I was there for him.
I’d had to go back to school the next day, but Monday night when I came over to see him, he’d opened the door to his room when I knocked.
I’d looked at him in shock. Gone was the mop that usually sat on top of his head. In its place was a chic looking haircut. The sides were cut close, the hair long on top. The dirty-brown color was gone, replaced by vibrant-blond highlights.
We had looked at each other in shock as he’d opened the door. It wasn’t just the hair, there was a little bit of attitude change as well. He’d smiled shyly at me, his eyes a little uncertain, as if he wasn’t quite sure what I would think. I’d stared at him, and my mouth must have fallen open, because he laughed.
“Careful, you might start getting flies in there,” he’d teased.
“Wow!” I’d exclaimed. “You look…”
I paused as I collected my thoughts as I took everything in. His eyes started to lose that beautiful, confident glow as I took too long to finish my sentence, and his hand came up to brush nervously through his hair.
“Um, if it’s that bad, I could get my moms to shave it, I think—” he started to say, his face turning bright red as he stepped back from the door.
“No!” I almost yelled, and he halted. I didn’t usually raise my voice, over anything. I stepped forward slowly, reaching my hands out tentatively to stroke across his new highlights before whispering, “I think… I think it’s perfect—”
He looked at me strangely, as though he was seeing me for the first time as my fingers played across his hair.
“—just like you. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
It felt as if someone else possessed my body at that moment, because I couldn’t stop myself from leaning forward and laying a gentle kiss across his lips. At first, Kaine stood there unmoving, stiff and frozen under my touch. I started to back away, thinking I had screwed up royally, my eyes flashing to his. Then his hands had flashed out and gripped my arms, pulling me back into him. Then… then he’d kissed me back.
That kiss had to be one of the most passionate things that had ever occurred between two mortal beings. Or, at the very least, twoveryhorny teenage boys. By the time we came up for air, we were both a mess. Hair disheveled, shirts askew. Kaine looked at me with a kind of wonderment in his eyes.
“Um…” he’d said as we sat next to each other on the edge of the bed. I wasn’t even sure how we had made it there. Kaine looked at me shyly, his cheeks bright pink as he rested his hands on his knees. “…Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, a laugh burbling up from deep inside me. “I think I’m gay. Would you go out with me? Also, want to play video games?”
We’d gotten through the aftermath of Vinnie together, but it had been only a few months afterward that my parents had announced we were moving to Florida so we could be closer to the specialists.
