Direct Confusion - 8. Chapter 8

We finish practice with a mini match while the football team use the weights room, and then everyone heads for a quick shower before home. Already it’s getting darker in the evenings, and by the time I’ve spoken with the freshmen, checked in the gear and gone over the training schedule with the coach before our first friendly match next week, almost everyone has gone from the showers and its dark when I get to my car. Derrick is sitting on the hood of his shiny little Merc, chatting to the Parker twins. I cannot get there fast enough.

“Hey!”

“Hey!” The louder shout is from Jameson. “How was training?”

“Hard, long.” My gaze creeps across to Erin, who is grinning. “Were you guys working in the gym today?”

“Yeah, we were doing choreography and high intensity cardio. I’m exhausted.” His flat stomach rumbles. “And hungry.”

“It’s Tuesday.” Erin mutters. “Mum will have made that thing she tries to pass off as meat loaf. Again.”

“Not great eh?” Derrick grins. “Well hey, why don’t we all go out for some food? Cherrie is busy tonight anyway.”

“I like a double date!” Jameson giggles, and then looks around. “Or not. No offense Derrick.”

“You’re not really my type Parker.” Derrick deadpans. Erin is sniggering, his knuckles pressed against his mouth.

“You aren’t mine either. I prefer my dates with shorter skirts.”

Derrick gapes.

“Why don’t we get pizza and head back to mine?” I have to say something to fill the space in which Jameson is looking cocky and Derrick looks like he’s seen a ghost. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who was surprised. “These guys haven’t seen the house yet and it’d be nice to hang out before the party on Saturday.”

“That sounds nice.” Erin is sufficiently recovered from his near silent giggling fit to smile and take my hand. It is my turn to blush, and I can feel all the blood draining rapidly to either end of my body. My dick twitches in my jeans and I can’t adjust it without being obvious.

“Why don’t you guys follow me back to mine and Derrick can go grab the pizzas.” I throw my friend a meaningful sort of expression. “He knows the way.”

“I’ll come with you.” Jameson bumps Derrick’s meaty shoulder with his own. “I’m really picky about pizza toppings. Erie can drive.”

I nod and smile, and Erin blushes. His brother had just engineered time for us to be alone in my room, and now I can think of very little else.

Erin’s car has good headlights for tailgating and he follows me as I drive rather slower to my house than I usually do. When he pulls his jeep in behind me on the drive way I find myself with my hands fused on the steering wheel. The pop of the passenger door opening makes me jump.

“Well sure we could go inside.” Erin shrugs as he slides in beside me. “But your car is nice too.”

“Sorry.” I have no idea what’s wrong with me. I’m the one with all the experience at things like this. I’m good at flirting. Erin relaxes back in his seat with a small smile.

“This does not count as a date y’know.” It’s not a question. “And neither does the party. I want to take you on a real date.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Now can I kiss you again?”

I nod, and reach for him, but Erin wastes no time in swinging his leg over mine. He somehow avoids hitting the car horn with his back. He ends up straddling my thighs, hands rubbing over my newly shorn scalp. The air between us is suddenly hot. Now that he is only inches away, he seems to get suddenly shy again. The moment I see the pink blush flooding his cheeks I can’t resist, and I cup his face with my hand as I press my lips against his.

We both taste a little of left over sweat and salt from training with the aromatic tang of body wash from the showers. Erin melts in my lap, no longer a bundle of nervous energy, but a pool of warmth. His heat is seeping into my skin through our clothes. My jeans are way too tight. I wrap my fingers around the back of Erin’s neck and he shivers and groans in my mouth. Surely nothing is sexier. His hands are gripping my rib cage like he might fly away if he lets go. I’ve just begun to grind my burning erection into his nether regions when I hear the engine of the shouty Mercedes die next to us. Erin pulls back looking embarrassed, and leans on the horn. We both jump.

“Stop steaming up the car boys.” Derrick bangs on the bonnet as he passes. “Pizza’s getting cold.”

I manage a small chuckle, watching Derrick and Jameson walking towards my house through the slightly fogged up windscreen. Erin looks guilty as hell, as though he’s been caught opening his Christmas presents early.

“So, you wanna come meet my parents?”

“Are you gonna introduce me as your boyfriend?”

“I want to.” And I do. “But if you don’t want to…” I desperately want to tell my mother she does not have to worry, to show off this beautiful man I have found. After a whole summer of lying to them, I want to be able to tell my parents, and the whole world, I have a boyfriend who is proud of me.

“Good.” Erin takes a deep breath and I can see him shouting down his lust like I do sometimes. His blue eyes are much more focused when he opens them again. “OK. We’d better go steal the pizza back before Jameson eats all the pepperoni.”

Erin gets off my lap, which is both a welcome move and one that makes my brain pull in a very particular direction, mostly downwards. It’s full of things I really should not say in mixed company, and we each slink out of opposite sides of the Dodge. Derrick has let himself in, and we walk in on him introducing Jameson to my father, who is standing in the hallway in his suit and a pair of ridiculously colourful fluffy socks one of my aunts knitted, with a cup of coffee in one hand.

“Good Lord, there’s two of them.”

“Hi Dad.” I smile. “This is Erin.”

“Twins. Excellent.”

“We got pizza.” Derrick lifts the stack of flat cardboard boxes. “We’ll go eat in Luke’s room yeah?”

“Soda and mayo in the fridge boys!” Mum calls from the kitchen. “Oh, who’s this?”

I elbow Derrick in the ribs.

“This is Jameson Parker. He’s new on the Cheer squad. And this is his brother Erin.” I pause, for just a moment, and Erin grabs my hand. “He’s my boyfriend.”

There is a moment when all I can hear in my head are the words: Don’t freak out, please don’t freak out, don’t freak out… going around and around at a thousand miles an hour before my mother smiles with warm joy.

“How lovely to meet you both. Welcome to our home. Don’t let us keep you from your pizza, it’ll go cold. With me Luke.” I am eternally grateful she didn’t call me ‘sweetie’ or something else saccharinely sweet. “Come get the drinks, Derrick knows the way.”

I rather unwillingly follow my mother into the kitchen, where she hands me four randomly picked soda bottles from the fridge.

“You are going to tell me everything afterwards right?”

“Not everything.” I grab for the mayonnaise in her hand.

“Luke!”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Go then. You’ve got a boyfriend waiting for you!” She pushes me back out into the hallway where my father is still looking surprised and slightly smug.

“Your brother sent another letter. You wanna write him back with your news?”

“Dad!” This is all way too new to be putting down on paper and sending halfway across the world. “I gotta go!”

I hurry through the house and out into the back yard towards my little annexe room. The lights are on, and Derrick is flicking the remote for the TV. I dump the soda bottles on the table and glance around for the Parker Twins.

“Jameson’s in the bathroom. Erin went to check out your kitchen thing. Dude, eat something.”

I take the proffered slice of pizza from my best friend. I am strangely tense. I have just introduced my boyfriend to my parents, albeit super briefly, and now I feel like I might pass out or throw up or something. But Erin reappears with a small smile, and my heart beat slows down, back to a normal pace.

“Hey you.”

“Hey.”

“Your house is really nice.” Jameson says as he comes back into the main room. “And I didn’t know we had such a cool pizza place in town.”

“It’s good?” His twin asks.

“Yeah, the servers are really cute. You’d hate it.”

“You are completely useless bro, you know that?” Erin grabs for a slice of pizza, but Jameson takes it from his fingers and gives me a very specific sort of look I can’t interpret.

“I am not completely useless little brother. I have my good moments.” Jameson’s words make me blush. I get the feeling he is never going to let me forget the incident when I kissed him.

The four of us end up on the two big sofa’s eating pizza, though no one else share my odd love of pizza and mayo, and watching the repeat of the Patriots playing the Jets. It’s Erin’s sport, but I doubt if he could tell anyone what is going on on-screen. While Jameson and Derrick shout enthusiastically at the players, we are bust stealing silly little glances at each other across the expanse of the sofa between us. Considering Derrick caught us making out in my car with the windows steamed up, we are being very, very careful. I’d like to simply reach over and pull him to my side. We could watch the game, cheer the Jets and eat pizza. And maybe sneak a kiss or two. But I don’t dare. Apart from being in the showers this morning and being in his parent’s kitchen last weekend, this is the first time we’ve been together outside of school, and we aren’t exactly alone.

“I missed the Cowboys game at the weekend.” Jameson says as the game comes to a close.

“You are shitting me?” Derrick looks shocked. “You guys aren’t from Dallas.”

“Jame used to have a thing for one of their cheerleaders.” Erin mutters to me. “I support the Pittsburgh Steelers just to annoy him, but I ended up really liking them.”

“We like the Patriots.” Derrick says, gulping own the last of his soda. “Though I think Luke would much rather be watching soccer.”

Erin shoots me a glance, and I shrug in a non-committal sort of way. Dad and I watch soccer together, all the boys like football. Only Jim will watch the cliff diving finals with me. Jeremy always refused to watch sports, he said they were pointless.

“How are you finding the team?” I ask casually. It seems like a safe enough topic. I’m keen to know how he’s getting on. Derrick, as much as I love him, is bad at giving progress reports.

“I love it. The schedule is way better than I had it at our last school and combined core training is fun.” Erin flashes me a quick look, and there’s no mistaking he blush across his cheeks. “The captain is really mean though.”

“If you wanted an easy ride you shoulda’ tried out for soccer.” Derrick jokes, throwing a cushion at us. “You reckon it’s safe to leave them alone?”

I freeze as Jameson looks over at us on the sofa.

“Probably. Erie, you wanna drive yourself home?”

“How are you going to get back?” The twins live pretty much on the other side of town from me.

Jameson jumps up out of his seat and stretches. Just for a moment when he smiles, he looks so completely different from his brother I wonder how they can even be related.

“Derrick promised to let me have a go in the Merc!” He squeals. “One day when I get my own car I’m going to have something nice and sporty and sleek.” Jameson sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Leather interior, reclining seats, convertible. The girls’ll love it.”

“You know he’ll burn through all your tires right Cap?” Erin shakes his head at his brother. “See you at home Jame.”

“Luke, you wanna work on the report in study hall tomorrow?”

“Sure.” I am much too excited by the prospect of being alone with Erin to think much about anything which might happen tomorrow.

“We’ll see ourselves out.” Derrick shakes his head. “Night dude.”

The moment the door shuts behind them, I turn to Erin and discover I have forgotten how to speak. We are alone, properly alone, and there is so much to talk about, so much to say and do. I suddenly can’t think of a single thing I want to ask him. He gives me a small smile, and looks at his lap, twiddling his thumbs.

“I swear if my brother crashes my captain’s car, things are not going to work out well for me.”

“Is that likely?”

“I prefer it usually if he doesn’t drive.” Erin shakes his head. “He’s got all the coordination in the world if it involves throwing and catching girls in short skirts and the shortest attention span in the world when he’s behind the wheel.”

“I’m sorry about today.” I get up from the sofa and pace over to the stereo, shutting off the TV as I pass. Something melodic and not too distracting would be nice. “I could have handled Chase better.” An old Fall Out Boy album on low volume will do the trick.

“It’s not your fault Luke. I did sort of attack you in the shower.”

“And what brought that on anyway? I not that I’m complaining.” I add quickly as the music starts. “You really did make my day.” Hell, he made my entire life.

“Super-hot boy in speedo’s under the shower?” Erin grins, looking suddenly confident in his fantasy. “Is there anything hotter?”

“Added suds?” I counter, arching one eyebrow. If I play into Erin’s fantasies, he certainly plays into mine.

“Oh that could be arranged.”