Standing In Shadows - 20. Chapter 20

SIS 20

We rode in silence towards town where my home for the next few months would be. No one said it but it would be unlikely that this would be a quick fix, that we wouldn’t be here very long. Mom tried to be optimistic before we started moving, now that we arrived and I saw the large white moving truck I suppressed a sigh, knowing it would only upset Mom.

“Stay here while I go get you some things,” she ordered, giving me a tight smile. She was preparing to do battle with Dad. She knew I couldn’t face him yet. My face flushed, I had shown Dad just how weak I was and he had reacted like I expected. I wondered if he even knew that he caused me to break my cast when I hit the ground. Mom looked so small compared to the truck and the building. She walked up the stairs to our door on the second floor of the three story building. No one lived on the third floor and I didn’t know who lived on the first.

She wasn’t gone long before she returned with a plastic grocery store bag filled. She slid into the driver’s seat and plopped the bag into my lap. My toothbrush and deodorant were on the top of the stack of clothes, more clothes than I would need for just one night.

“I’m only staying overnight, right?” I asked and she smiled.

“We’ll see,” she answered as she started the car and backed out of the small parking area. The large truck was parked on the street taking up two parking spots. I looked away when Dad walked out onto the top of the metal staircase. He leaned onto the railing shooting us a glare. He probably couldn’t see us inside the car. The street lights were a dim orange glow that offered just enough light to see by.

“I’m alright Mom, really,” I countered, “I could just stay here.”

“I know you better than that,” she said glancing in my direction. She reached over and took my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. She held it as she drove the short distance out of the town square to the residential parts. I was about to tell her that Clinton’s house was coming up, but she slowed and turned into the driveway. I saw her lips pucker as she scanned the house. All the lights were off, but it wasn’t late. My heart sank thinking that Clinton could be out somewhere else. He had other friends apart from Cj and I. Friends on the baseball team like I had on the football team that were away at camp. The summer would have been different if Andy and Keith had stayed. They would’ve been surprised that Mom gave me a free summer. All the years growing up I wondered what it would have been like spending all my time with my two best friends. What sort of stuff we would get into. They were closer to a lot of the people that go to our high school though, so they would have gotten invitations to parties. They probably wouldn’t have been pushed into the river by Cj and Clinton either. By the time their football camp ended, Dad’s summer training and skill camp would start at the school.

“He’s probably out, Jenny lives over there, I’ll just stay with her until he gets back,” I said trying to hide the disappointment. Mom seemed to think it over with a frown. Staying overnight at a girl’s house would be a first for me. Something that Mom wouldn’t allow, but the earlier fight with Dad actually had her glancing over at Jenny’s house. The lights were on in her house at least, so I knew that someone was there. I didn’t like the thought of spending time with her Mom and Dad. Although her Mom seemed nice to me the one time I saw her after the wedding, it didn't mean that they liked me after what I did to Jenny before our Junior prom.

“I don’t know about that Corey, although you are shy, you do have hormones,” Mom said, not looking at me. I was glad the darkness hid how red my face had to be. She was worried about me and Jenny, but Jenny would be the safer option and she didn’t even know it. Part of me wanted to tell her that it was fine, that Jenny and I were just friends. She knew that we were hanging out more now, Jenny had been there when Dad and I fought.

“If you want, me and you can camp out at the house,” Mom said, looking at me. “Make a fort out of bed sheets, something like we used to do.”

“Mom,” I said offering her a smile. “Dad and I can get along, let’s just go home.”

“You can’t go home right now,” Mom said, “not because of your father, but because I have a surprise for you when we get home.”

“Oh,” I said, about to argue, but the porch light came on over Clinton’s front porch, causing me to jump. Mom shielded her eyes, the sudden brightness in the dark made it difficult to see. When my eyes adjusted I saw Clinton walking slowly over the gravel, his feet bare as he tiptoed on the rocks to the car. I rolled down my window when he walked over to my side.

“I thought that was your Mom’s car,” he said smiling at me. Mom raised one eyebrow, but offered Clinton a small smile. Probably remembering that this was the guy that pushed me into the river and ruined my cell phone and watch.

“Do you mind if I stay the night?” I asked, “the apartment is a mess and the house is empty.”

“Tell him the truth, Corey,” Mom said and I turned to study her expression. She nodded her head and squeezed my hand. “It’s better to always tell the truth.”

“I will Mom,” I said, “I just didn’t want to upset you.”

“I’m a big girl,” she countered letting go of my hand. “Call when you want me to come get you.”

“Alright,” I said as I grabbed my bag as Clinton opened the door. I remembered that neither of us had given Clinton a chance to answer my question about staying over, but he took the bag and I slid out of the car. I closed the door and gave Mom a wave as she backed out of the driveway and headed back towards town and the apartment.

“This is unexpected,” Clinton said as we walked back towards his house. I felt my hands begin to sweat. I didn’t want to tell anyone that didn’t already know what happened. I was also nervous about spending the night with him again, since we had gotten more comfortable being around one another.

“Sorry to just drop in on you,” I said as he led me to the porch and through the door where I kissed him last night and how different tonight felt in comparison.

“It’s alright, I was playing a game when I saw the lights, but it took me a while to recognize the car,” he answered then sat my bag on the end table in the living room. “What was that with your Mom though, about telling the truth?”

“Me and Dad kind of had a falling out,” I said, hoping this was enough to satisfy him, but I knew it wasn’t when Clinton frowned. “Mom just wanted us both to cool off a little bit before we saw one another again.”

“What was it over?” Clinton asked and I watched his eyes searching my body. His living room was dark and we were in the shadows. I was still shirtless and in a pair of shorts. What I really wanted was to wash the dried sweat off and go to bed, so that I could be alone. I didn’t want the looks from people that Clinton now had on his face. The worried look, but he was still looking me over, almost expecting to see some mark or sign that it was worse than what I was making it out to be.

“The damn puppy,” I answered when his eyes finally found mine again.

“Her name suits her,” he said, “are you hungry or anything?”

“A little,” I said and he smiled and walked into the kitchen, flipping the kitchen light on. I followed him over to the refrigerator knowing I couldn’t hide my bruises and new cast in the darkness of his living room all night.

When he turned around, his smile quickly vanished. His eyes started searching me all over again, now that there was more than enough light to see every injury. When he noticed the new cast his eyes landed on my face again, more expectant.

“He just grabbed me and then pushed me,” I said, “I broke my cast when I fell backwards.”

“He must have pushed you hard,” he said, “since it left marks on your chest.”

“It wasn’t soft, no,” I answered, reaching up and scratching the back of my head with my broken arm. “I don’t want it to be weird.”

“Ok,” he said, then opened the door of the freezer. “Do you need any Advil or anything?”

“No, I’m ok,” I answered then he grabbed a bag of pizza rolls and flopped them onto the kitchen counter. Then he grabbed a plate and used a knife to cut open the bag.

“What did the Doctor say when he saw all that?” Clinton asked, not looking at me as he arranged the pizza rolls onto the plate then placed them in the microwave. He pressed a few buttons and it started cooking.

“I think he was damn near close to calling the cops,” I responded shrugging, “I’m glad he didn’t.”

“Might be too much for this dumb town to handle,” Clinton added, but he wasn’t smiling. “The good coach roughing up the already injured football star.”

“I’m not a star really,” I countered and this time he did smile.

“I hit the longest home run in the history of our high school,” he said, “and no one knows who I am.”

“It was in the newsletter,” I said remembering the small article in the school’s newsletter. It was mostly about football and what the Drama students were working on. In the sports section though, the ones that write the newsletter do make an effort to write about all the other sports this town doesn’t really care about.

“They misspelled my name,” he countered and I chewed my bottom lip to keep from laughing. “It’s ok to laugh, it’s funny.”

“I know,” I said laughing slightly.

The buzzer went off and Clinton checked the pizza rolls before he grabbed the plate and set them down on the counter. He grabbed two glasses and filled them with milk. We sat at the counter as we ate. I noticed that he let me eat most of them, but I hadn’t really eaten anything all day and the emptiness in my stomach hit me after the first pizza roll. I could feel him looking at my bruises and for any signs that I was about to break. I didn’t like when people were careful around me, except for when Mom did it. I always would wonder if Dad was right, that I did need to look and act more tough. Mom’s soft blue eyes that I inherited made me look sad, even though I wasn’t.

“Do you want anything else?” He asked after the plate and glasses of milk were empty.

“I really want a shower,” I answered, “could you help wrap my arm in a plastic bag?”

“Yeah,” he said and he walked over to a drawer and pulled out a plastic trash bag and some duct tape. I held the bag over my arm as he sealed it with the tape. Then I followed him upstairs to the bathroom. It was all white with marble sinks and tiled floors. There was a walk in shower with an overhead shower head. He grabbed a couple towels out of the small closet and placed them on the sink.

“Thanks,” I said and he hesitated by the door, his face flushed.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’ll bring your clothes up, I can’t see into the shower, so.”

“Ok,” I said and opened the door of the shower to look inside. It was round with slip proof concrete flooring. I pulled my clothes off and stepped in, turning on the hot water. I let out a small shriek as the cold water hit me before turning warm then to hot. I adjusted the temperature and rested under the gentle shower, letting it wash over me. I could taste the salt of my sweat on my lips, my eyes closed. I couldn’t hear anything under the water. I wanted to stay in here and wondered how long I could before Clinton got worried.

“Here’s your clothes,” Clinton yelled causing me to jump.

“Ok,” I responded, hoping I was loud enough through the shower wall and the water. I settled in to relax when the shower door opened. I stepped out of the reach of the water. “What are you doing?”

“I wanted to ask if I could join you,” he said, he was already naked, but he held a hand towel over himself. My heart started racing as I looked him over. I hadn’t seen him fully naked, just in shorts when we were out in the boat. I only managed a small nod, my mouth too dry. He stepped inside and closed the shower door behind him. I let him step into the shower, but he left room for me. The steam heated the space and caused the privacy glass to fog.

He didn’t touch me and I was too nervous to touch him. Then he smiled, his eyes closed, the water cascading down his face and over his tanned chest. He had a light dusting of blond hair on his chest.

“We actually should shower,” I said and he laughed and reached for the shampoo. He squirted some in his hand, the clean fragrance taking over the small space. It surprised me when he reached up and rubbed it through my hair. He pushed me against the warm tiled wall, pressing himself completely against me as his fingers, soapy, ran through my short hair. I leaned in and kissed him, he was never really focused on washing my hair. I didn’t want to touch him with the bulky plastic covering my cast, so I reached up and ran my other hand over his shoulder and down his side. He shuddered, letting a sigh escape between kisses. He wasn’t being careful now and I could feel his cock pressing against my hip, mine was pressing against his. The water was hitting his back and I could smell his scent mixing with the shampoo still in my hair. The bubbles were sliding down the sides of my face, threatening to get into my eyes. I opened them when his lips kissed across my jaw, to my neck and collarbone. He hesitated, his eyes closed before he went lower. I held my hand on his shoulder, guiding him to my chest, as he flicked his tongue over my nipple. The new sensation sent a shockwave through my body, causing goosebumps despite the heat of the water. I tried not to think much about what was happening, knowing it would be the farthest I had gone with anyone. I was trying not to remember that a few days ago I was still questioning Clinton’s motives for talking to me and inviting me out on the boat.

I grunted and jumped slightly, when his mouth suddenly slid lower as he went completely down on his knees and took me into his mouth. I looked down at him noticing my knuckles were white against his shoulders. He didn’t seem to notice, but I loosened my grip afraid I was hurting him. I knew I wouldn’t last long, not having ever been part of something like this. I felt my face go flush with the quickly approaching climax and I looked down to see Clinton watching me.

“I’m really close,” I breathed and he smiled and stood, replacing his mouth with his hand. He kissed and sucked on my neck, jacking me off.

I shuddered when it happened and he danced away from me in the small shower stall.

“You’re dangerous with that thing,” he said, but I was too out of breath to laugh. After the rush subsided I leaned in and kissed him. The shampoo was mostly washed from my head and bubbles were cascading down my body. I watched as he grabbed the body wash from the shower counter and opened it. He squirted a little in his free hand and then I offered my hand and he squeezed some soap into my palm as well. Then he rubbed his hands together before he started running them over his body. I watched as the bubbles lathered his body before running down with the water. I looked down at my hand noticing the soap slowly running out of my palm and dripping onto the floor of the shower. I didn’t know if Clinton expected anything from me, he wasn’t acting like it. But I wanted to do something.

Too nervous to get down on my knees, I reached over with my soapy hand and grabbed hold of his cock. It had gone soft, and I looked up to see him looking down, his hands paused on his chest where he had been rubbing the soap across himself. It didn’t take him long to recover from the surprise and he leaned back, closing his eyes as I kept moving my hand up and down on his cock. I watched him breathe deeper, his lips pursed to keep the water from his mouth. I moved forward and I licked my tongue down his jaw line to his neck, then lower.

When my mouth slid over his right nipple, I felt his cock began to spasm in my hand and I looked down as his cum barely missed my leg and hit the slip resistant floor of the shower. He shuddered and opened his eyes, giving me a short smile.

“You didn’t have to do anything back,” he said, his cheeks reddening.

“I wanted to,” I answered, returning his smile. I washed my hand, then he turned off the shower. The hot water had gone from hot, to warm. Then he stepped around me and opened the door. He had to stretch to reach the towels on the sink. He handed a large soft white one to me and we dried off before stepping out. I saw two piles of clothes folded on the sink counter and looked over at him. He shrugged, dropping his towel and grabbed his underwear placed on top and slid them on. I struggled into mine, then he helped me rip the tape off the plastic bag so it could slide off of my cast. The heat from the shower had made it sweat and I sighed, knowing I would have to wear the annoying thing for a while still.

After the shower it was quiet as we dressed and left the bathroom. It had exhausted me and I tried to remember the room I slept in up here the last time I spent the night. It had been an uneasy night the last time. Remembering it made my heart quicken and I looked over to find Clinton looking sideways at me in the dimly lit hallway.

“What now?” I asked and I could see a smile playing on his lips.

“I’m pretty tired,” he answered, “do you want to go to bed?”

“I guess so, yeah,” I responded.

“You don’t have to,” Clinton said, “there’s food in the fridge and the television is easy enough to work. I could go down and watch with you for a while.”

“Are you alright?” I asked and he shrugged his shoulders.

“I wanted to,” he said, “I just hope it felt good.”

“It did,” I responded quickly, causing him to laugh. “Well you saw the ending to it anyway.”

“And you really didn’t need to do anything back,” he continued.

“I know,” I answered, “sorry I didn’t do as much as you did.”

“I don’t think I minded,” he countered elbowing me in the side.

“Was it the first time that you did?” I asked letting the question die in the air. I didn’t want to get into the terms, my nerves wouldn’t let me say most of them right now anyway.

“Yeah,” he answered, reaching up and scratching the back of his head. I was starting to notice that he did that when he was nervous.

“It was mine too,” I said and that seemed to relieve him a little.

“I figured Jenny would have been all over you, or that Greg guy that had eyes for you,” he countered, looking expectant.

“I don’t really like girls,” I said, causing him to smirk. “Greg only wanted to drag me out of town to do stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” Clinton asked as he started down the hallway, I followed him not remembering the layout of the second floor.

“Camping,” I said remembering the night we went camping and the storm surprised us. I didn’t want to talk much about the first guy that I felt things for, it ended abruptly when he surprised me and then disappeared back to the life that he was comfortable with.

Clinton looked at me like he knew I wasn’t being completely honest with him. That I had left more of the story out, the important parts. He finally smiled and opened the door to his bedroom. He flipped on the lights. His room was neat and I wondered if it ever really got messy. It was large enough that a few dirty clothes or game controllers lying on the floor didn’t seem cluttered. A pair of shorts in my old room wouldn’t be forgotten in the smallness of the room. His out of place things, just made the room look used and lived in though.

“I was thinking that the guest bedroom didn’t sleep all that well,” he said looking over his shoulder.

“It seemed alright to me,” I countered, smiling.

“Are you going to make me ask?” He asked, turning around, he was standing between me and the bed.

“Yeah I think so,” I answered watching as the color started coming back to his cheeks. For a brief moment I thought he was going to back out and not ask me. Then he squared his shoulders and smiled.

“I was hoping you would want to share the bed, since my parents aren’t due back yet,” he said and I glanced around him to the large bed with fluffy white covers and pillows. It looked more like a hotel room bed, nothing about it customized to Clinton. My bed sheets had my favorite football team on it.

“Yeah, I’d like to,” I answered and he let a relieved sigh escape and I stepped further into the room as he walked around the bed and turned on his bedside lamp. I reached over and turned off the lights and walked to the open part of the bed as he slid the covers down. The sheets were rumpled on his side of the bed.

“Does it matter which side you sleep on?” He asked, his eyes appeared dark in the low light of the lamp. His room was all cast in shadows now.

“I don’t really have a side of the bed,” I answered.

“Good, because I do,” he said and slid into the bed. He slid off his t-shirt and tossed it to the floor. I never put one on, so I pulled back my side of the covers and slid in. We had enough room to ourselves and when I was settled into bed, he reached over and turned off the lamp. Then I felt the bed moving as he slid against me, our shoulders touching as we both lay on our backs and shared a pillow.

“This is nice,” I sighed and he moved his head and kissed me on the cheek. Then reached up and turned my face toward his, so that he could reach my lips. It was an awkward kiss since both of us were still on our backs, but it still sent chills down my body and I wondered if I was ever going to get used to this or even if I had the time to. The thought made me break the kiss that Clinton had tried to deepen by finally moving to lay on his side.

“What is it?” He asked, his breath hitting my face.

“What happens when your parents get back?” I asked, looking towards the ceiling. I could barely see in the darkness of the room, but I could just make out the ceiling fan, which gave me something to focus on, so I didn’t turn my head to look at him.

“We become more sneaky,” Clinton answered and I felt the excitement in his voice as he said it. It wasn’t the real question I wanted to ask, but the answer did make me feel better. The real question involved someone else, someone that wouldn’t be so easy to deceive, if Clinton even wanted to.

“What about Cj?” I asked and he let out a sigh.

“What about him?” He asked, reaching over to rub my stomach.

“Cj and I aren’t friends,” I answered, trying to ignore the goosebumps his fingertips caused. “But he’s your best friend.”

“Cj and I have been friends forever, like you and Keith and Andy,” he countered, his voice careful, but I could hear the defensiveness he was trying to hide.

“Yeah, but they aren’t out to embarrass you and with me living in his Dad’s run down apartment building, he’ll be sure to make that hell too,” I said and he stopped rubbing my stomach and let his hand rest there.

“I know,” he said, “I’ll talk to him about it.”

“He’ll suspect something,” I said, “and I think we’ll go back to normal when school starts anyways. Probably worse since I won’t have the football player reputation anymore.”

“Don’t let it worry you,” he said, “your family will get back on its feet, like before your Mom quit her jobs to take over the store.”

“Don’t blame her like Jenny does,” I said, and he slid his hand off my stomach completely.

“I wasn’t!” He countered quickly, then let out a sigh. “I’m not saying this right.”

“All I want to know is, how is this going to work?” I asked, finally looking away from the ceiling fan, hoping to find his face in the dark. He had laid back on his back and he was looking at the ceiling now as a quiet fell over the two of us.

“I don’t know,” he answered, “what I do know is, I don’t want to go back to being your stupid High School enemy.”

“I could use one less pain in the ass,” I said, hoping to make him feel better. I heard him laugh and he moved closer to me, on his side with his hand propping his head up.

“Cj won’t get between us,” he said and I could hear the determination, “school won’t, my parents, nothing.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said and even though I was worried, I felt myself smile. Then he nuzzled his head against mine, draping his arm over my chest. I closed my eyes, letting his even breathing soothe me to sleep.