Camping Can Be Fun - 5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The village wasn’t too far away, about fifteen minutes, although it did seem like Adam was driving slow, perhaps to prolong the journey. He knew that arriving at our destination meant he would have to talk and so far the journey had been pretty quiet, broken only by my request to charge my phone through the adapter he had plugged into the lighter socket. He let me of course. I hadn’t used my phone much, so it still had quite a lot of battery life left, but going to the village meant there was a chance of getting a better signal and maybe even checking Facebook or calling my mum.

When we reached the village he drove us to a little Italian bistro he said he’d tried before. The atmosphere had turned very awkward and it felt like we were still in the middle of an argument. Perhaps I had made a mistake going out with him. Time would tell. He parked up outside a cute little place, got out of the car and closed the door behind him. I unplugged and pocketed my phone and reached for the door handle, but Adam beat me to it. He’d rushed round to the other side of the car and opened the door for me. The gesture both surprised me and kind of embarrassed me too if I’m honest. I saw the whole “after you”, opening doors, and general romancing thing as more of a boy girl affair, although, when you think about it, how else were two guys supposed to treat each other on a date? It probably doesn’t call for brotherly chest bumps and farting humour so the fact that he was making an effort to be gentlemanly towards me softened me a little. No one had ever treated me with that sort of affection.

“Thanks,” I said as I pulled myself from the vehicle.

He smiled at me as I brushed past, which in turn made me smile. His adorable boyish grin just melted me sometimes and was the perfect ice breaker. I was starting to feel more comfortable as we entered the restaurant.

It was quite a small place with it being in a village, but it seemed very popular and we struggled to find a seat. A lovely young waitress saw we were having trouble and came over to seat us.

“Table for two, boys?” she asked cheerfully.

“Yes please, your nicest one,” Adam replied with a wink and in a tone that was rather cringe worthy.

The waitress grinned and eyed us both, obviously assuming we must be on a date.

“Not a problem, follow me.”

She found us a window seat with a view of the river that ran along the side of the bistro. It was very pretty. Two swans could be seen swimming side by side occasionally ducking under the water, bobbing for food. It made me remember an episode of some wildlife thing I’d once watched in which I learned that swans, unlike us, mate for life with one partner. It’s not uncommon for the other to show signs of deep depression and even die themselves shortly after their partner has died. They completely love each other. I couldn’t help but think about me and Adam, so soon into our “relationship” and already struggling. “I wonder if you get gay swans?” I mused.

I went to pull out my chair, but again Adam beat me to it and pulled it out for me.

I gave him a look that even a simpleton would have understood to mean, “What the fuck?”

“Here are some menus guys,” said the waitress, pretending not to notice our odd behaviour. “Get settled and have a look at what you might like and I’ll come and get your orders in a few minutes. In the meantime can I get you anything to drink?

“I’ll just have a coke please, bit of a late night last night, wasn’t it Dan?” said Adam grinning from ear to ear. “Do you want anything, babe?” he asked me.

I bit my tongue and hid my blushing face from the waitress.

“I guess he’ll have a coke too,” answered Adam for me.

“Two cokes coming right up,” she said cheerily before skipping off to get our order.

“Could you have made it any more obvious that we’re on a date?” I asked in hushed tones and a little annoyed.

“What? I’m only having a little fun. Why shouldn’t people know we’re on a date?”

“Well for one, this is sort of new to me, Adam, and I wouldn’t mind keeping my private life just that, private.”

“Oh lighten up; I’m trying to be nice to you.”

“I know you are, and I appreciate it, but reign it in a little bit could you? I’m still a guy. I feel like your treating me like a girl. I mean pulling my chair out? Opening car doors? BABE? Come on!”

“Ok, ok I’ll stop messing around. I thought it would be funny.”

“It’s fine, just cut it out yeah? Now what have we got here, I’m starving,” I said changing the subject and browsing the menu.

“I think I’m going to get a pepperoni pizza,” said Adam.

“Mmmm that sounds good,” I agreed.

“Well so much for having breakfast then.”

“Technically it’s still breakfast if it’s the first thing you eat that day,” I offered, happy that the conversation had steered away from the previous topic.

When the waitress came back we both ordered our pizzas and when the food arrived we ate, rather gratefully. It’s amazing how food can be the answer to a hangover some days. As for conversation, we got by on idle chit chat.

“I’m stuffed,” declared Adam, forcing down his final slice.

“Me too,” I replied, finishing off my own pizza and wiping my hands and mouth with a napkin. “Look Adam, are we going to discuss things or was this little excursion just an excuse to have something to eat?”

“If it was an excuse for anything, it was an excuse just to spend time with you,” he said with one of his melting angelic smiles.

“Adam!” I pressed, not satisfied by his distracting compliment.

“Ok,” he said with a sigh, dropping the façade and becoming rather subdued. “What do you want to know?” he asked, looking worried.

“Well let’s start with something easy, like your name?”

“Adam Keats. What’s yours?”

“Daniel Smyth.”

“Is that Irish?”

“My Granddad was Irish.”

“What about your parents?”

“Both American.”

“Do you get on well with them?”

“Yeah, we’re pretty close. I don’t know how they’d react if I told them about you though,” I laughed, although the idea was a little worrying. “What about your parents, are you close with them?”

“Not really. I was pretty open about my sexuality with them and it was sort of ok at first, but then when I started bringing my boyfriend home it turned a bit nasty. I think maybe they didn’t really believe me at first, but when they saw me with another boy they found it hard to deal with. We still talk and spend Christmases and birthday’s and stuff like that together. I guess it was just time for me to move on.”

“So where do you live? I asked, rather concerned for him.

“I share an apartment with an older friend of mine. He’s straight, by the way, in case you were wondering,” he said defensively.

“So how old are you?” I was trying to work out how long he’d been away from home.

“I’m nearly nineteen. You? “

“Same. So when did you move out? You must have been pretty young?”

“I was sixteen.”

“Sixteen?” I asked shocked.

“Yep.”

“Jesus, that must have been pretty tough.”

“I got over it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. It gave me the freedom to become who I wanted to be.”

“So…your boyfriends?” I queried.

“Here we go. What do you want to know?”

“Who were they, what happened between you?”

“Well unfortunately, there are no happy endings, or even amicable ones at that. I’ll start with my first, Tom. We had been friends since kindergarten, did everything together; he was my best friend besides Karl. We were like the three amigos once upon a time. One day me and Tom were alone at my house and were fucking about fighting over the remote control. I can’t even remember what I wanted to watch. Anyway I had him pinned down on the couch but he had the remote behind his back and wouldn’t give it up. We wrestled and struggled over it for a bit and then before I knew it I had innocently perched myself on top of him and our faces were inches away from each other. We stopped what we were doing and took each other in. I could feel his breath on my lips and I just went for it. I kissed him, and he quickly kissed me back. Our relationship started from there.”

“Well that sounds hot as fuck,” I laughed.

“It was, back then,” he replied rather sombrely

“What happened between you two?”

“Well, we decided that we would be open about our sexuality and, more importantly, our relationship and so we told our parents and then some friends and very quickly the whole school knew we were a gay couple. We were bullied pretty badly for it. There was this one guy, Matthew, who was just a complete bastard to us. He did nothing short of torture us for the few months we were together. Eventually Tom decided it was too much for him to handle and he split up with me. He got together with a girl about two weeks later, and tried putting our relationship down to “experimenting”. I remained honest though and the bullying continued. I was pretty heart broken when he left me. I thought we loved each other, but I guess I wasn’t worth the struggle. I had already moved out by this point as my parents didn’t want me to see Tom. I moved in with Karl’s older brother actually. He was kind to me, and felt sorry for how I was being treated. You’re right about Joey; he was there for me like no one else. He was only fourteen at the time and I guess it must have been pretty difficult for him to understand what I was going through. He didn’t care whether I was gay or not; to him I was just his big brother and he loved me.”

I could see his last sentence was bringing tears to his eyes. God only knows the memories that must have been rushing through his head as he divulged this personal information to me. Somehow he managed to keep it together and he found the determination to continue his story.

“I don’t know how many times he held me as I bawled my eyes out over that prick. He even tried to get me to move back in with mum and dad, but that was the last thing I wanted. It was one thing to be tormented by my peers for the feelings I had for Tom, but I couldn’t have tolerated hearing ‘I told you so’ over and over from my parents.”

“When did you meet your second boyfriend?” I instantly felt ashamed of myself for asking such an insensitive question. The guy was spilling out years of pain to me and instead of consoling him I was asking him to tell me more.

“Well you’re not going to believe this,” he said half laughing to himself. “It was Matthew.”

“What, the guy that bullied you?” I asked in disbelief.

He nodded in reply.

“Are you kidding me? After all the horrible shit he put you through?”

“I’m an idiot I know. One day he cornered me alone and I thought for sure it was to beat me up again or do something horrible, but it became clear quite quickly that he was upset about something. And even though he’d been so horrible to me in the past, it didn’t feel right to ignore him when he was like this. He couldn’t even get his words out properly and he was actually shaking whilst he tried to speak to me. In the end he stopped trying to tell me what was on his mind, shouted something about being sorry and kissed me. I’ve never been so shocked in my whole life.”

“What did you do?”

“I ran away.”

We both laughed, which brightened the mood a little.

“But then I just started getting loads of texts from him. He had got my number off someone at school. He sent me messages saying he was sorry for the way he’d treated me, that he’d been confused and scared and he didn’t know how to deal with the feelings he had for me and that he thought they might go away if he could make himself hate me. But he couldn’t fight it anymore and would do anything for a chance to be with me.”

“Fucking hell,” I said, leaning back in my chair trying to take everything in and picture the situation. “That must have been a mind fuck.”

“It was, believe me. At first I assumed that this was another elaborate hoax that would end in me being humiliated and hurt, but the texts didn’t stop and every time he saw me in school or even out of school, alone or with friends he would make an effort with me. He was actually being nice to me. He even made the bullying stop. So I started to fall for him, thought I saw the good in him and eventually we started dating. In the beginning it was great and he made me completely forget about the monster he once was. I fell in love again. Everything was perfect. That was until we got to the sex, which admittedly didn’t happen for a while, as I was very adamant about taking things slow. He was patient with me, but when we did eventually… you know… it became clear that his patience was more tolerance than anything. He was rough with me, and I don’t mean in a kinky way.”

Again he seemed to fill up with emotion and this time he had to take a moment and breathe through his anxiety.

“Hey it’s ok,” I offered. “Just let it out. You might feel better for it.”

“He basically raped me,” he said before turning his head away to look out the window. “He forced himself in me and beat the shit out of me.”

He looked back at me now, a single tear rolling down his face. His voice became much higher as he delved deeper and deeper into his vault of secrets. Secrets I imagined he’d never really shared with anyone else before outside his brother and maybe Karl.

“I don’t know why he did it, but I begged him to stop, told him that he was hurting me and he just turned savage on me. After he was finished he told me if I told anyone how he’d treated me he would kill me. So I didn’t tell anyone and we still remained a couple. Each time he wanted sex it was the same. He could only get off if he forced it out of me. Every time he fucked me I had to take time off school because of the bruises and marks he would leave. Eventually Joey became concerned by my frequent absences and came looking for me, he nearly had a heart attack when I answered the door to him. I was a mess. My eyes were blackened, my lip busted. It’s a wonder I don’t have a broken nose out of it. And that was just the marks you could see.”

“Didn’t you go to the police?” I asked him in utter shock at hearing of these horrendous assaults.

“No. Joey wanted me to, so did Karl and his brother. But I made them swear they wouldn’t and in exchange for their silence I agreed to break up with Matthew. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? He was horrible to you; he should be locked up…”

“I loved him!” interrupted Adam defensively. “I loved him and to me that’s all that mattered. He took it rather well actually. Said he had been getting bored with me anyway. This only made me feel worse of course. I even tried backing out of it, told him that I was sorry and asked him to take me back. In the end it felt more like he’d dumped me. I was pathetic I know, but I just loved him, it was unconditional. I can’t explain it in words. It’s over now,” he said, wiping his tears. “I feel much better now. What love I had for him is gone and I can see it all for what it was. It makes me feel stupid.”

“You’re not stupid!” I declared, reaching across the table and putting my hand on his with a reassuring squeeze. “You’re ridiculously brave and loving and good. Don’t ever feel stupid for loving someone. If everyone loved each other the world would be a better place.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he muttered. “I suppose you want to know about number three?” he asked nonchalantly, trying to put his emotions once again to bed and out of sight.

Trying was the key word there, because I had seen him now, completely bare. I was wrong about his anger and his aggression, hell he deserved to be angry for what he’d gone through. I could now see past his mask. He wasn’t as confident and happy as he made out. This façade was probably for the benefit of his nearest and dearest - his brother, and his friends. I could see how much he was hurting and I just wanted to hold him and make him feel...safe.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I told him, already satisfied by his honesty.

“No, fuck it, I’m on a roll and it’s cheaper than therapy,” he replied, again trying to make it sound like this was no big deal.

“My third and final disaster was Kane. Admittedly this wasn’t love and I can’t really justify why I stayed with him other than the fact that I was completely fucked in the head by this point and had gone off the rails. He was a lot older than me; I don’t actually know how old really. Everything that came out of that guy’s mouth was a lie, but I’d say he was in his late twenties/early thirties. He was hot, rugged, charming and an expert in seduction. All qualities he put to good use when he cheated on me with five different guys, and that’s just the ones I’ve found out about. To be honest I don’t really want to know all the facts. He was a serial cheater and a complete bastard, open and shut case. He filled a void and he allowed me to go crazy for a few months… drink, drugs, sex, just crazy. Again super Joe came to the rescue and got me sober, woke me up and saved me for the third time. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him; he’s more like my big brother.”

He broke down, burying his face in his hands, and sobbing silently. It took me by surprise as I thought he was past the emotional stage, but again he’d been holding things back, probably for my benefit. I quickly got up and moved my chair around to the end of the table so that I could sit as close to him as possible. I put my hand around him trying to comfort him.

“I’m sorry Dan. I didn’t want you to see me like this. I feel so embarrassed,” he said, trying to pull himself together.

“You shouldn’t feel embarrassed. This is heavy shit Adam. I can’t believe how brave you are and how open you’ve been with me. I’m sorry I pushed you into this.”

“It’s not your fault. I should have spoken to people about this stuff, but each guy left me feeling so stupid that I was too humiliated to tell anyone how I really felt. In a way I’m kind of grateful to let it all out. I feel like it’s been inside me for so long. I guess I’ve really scared you off now huh?” he said, more composed, but still showing sadness.

“Do you see me running for the door?” I asked. “Well?”

“No,” he replied. “But I’ve not made a very good first impression have I, especially when this is supposed to be our first date?”

“Well, take solace in the fact that this is my first - first date and by that logic it makes it my best first date.”

“Stop trying to be clever. It hasn’t been fun for either of us,” he said matter of factly. “Whatever happens after this, I just want you to know that my weird behaviour today was because I like you, and I was just afraid that you’d be like all the others and find a reason to hate me or leave me or something. I was finding faults that were in my imagination and I basically just didn’t want to fuck things up. When you told me you weren’t “drunk enough” this morning I thought that it might mean you saw me as just a one night stand thing. If that’s the case I probably wouldn’t have got involved. I guess Joey just caught me on a bad day, but he shouldn’t have said what he said. I wish I hadn’t hit him though. Talking about all this today has made me realise just how much I love him and depend on him. I’m deeply sorry for turning on him like that.”

“Good. I hope that when we get back you patch things up with him.”

“And what about us?” he asked looking apprehensive.

“Well I’ll be honest with you, like you’ve been honest with me.”

I could see he took this to mean it was over.

“You know that this is all new to me. You’re the first guy I’ve ever been with and there are certain aspects, mainly sexual, of a gay, or in fact straight relationship that intimidate me. I said something to you last night and I know I was drunk, but I’m sober now and I honestly believe I’ve fallen for you. I guess only time will tell me if that’s true.”

“So what are you saying?” he asked staring at me hopefully, smiling slightly.

“To be honest Adam, I think we’ve done enough talking.”

I leant in and kissed him fully aware I was in a crowded restaurant where everyone was probably fixated on our little soap opera.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk. I think we’re putting people off their food,” said Adam now realising just how much attention we were both getting.

We got up to settle the bill, but again Adam insisted this was his treat and paid for everything. Then we left and took a walk, hand in hand down the river side.

“So, now it’s your turn. I’ve basically told you my entire life story, but I don’t know anything about your past. You sure you don’t have any previous boyfriends?”

“None.”

“Girlfriends?”

“Not really.”

“Not really?”

“I dated a girl for about a week back in high school, but we were just friends really, it never went anywhere and we never even kissed because I was too much of a pussy,” I laughed, thinking about what I had got up to the night before.

“So you’ve never been in love with anyone before?” he asked innocently.

My thoughts immediately darted to Steven, but I didn’t know what to say. Adam already has insecurities. How would he feel if he knew I was in love with both him and Steven? My best friend... my very good looking best friend. Would he feel threatened by Steven, or worse, would he be insulted that I had feelings for anyone other than him? It’s funny how I’ve hardly thought about Steven since meeting Adam.

I had obviously hesitated too long, because Adams suspicions had been raised.

“Oh my God, there is someone. Spill it,” he said enthusiastically, as though this was some delicious piece of gossip. Little did he know how much it might affect him.

“It’s nothing,” I offered, shrugging it off.

“Well that means it’s definitely something,” he quickly replied, looking at me as though I was stupid.

“Well I’m with you now, so it’s completely irrelevant.”

“All the more reason for you to tell me.”

“Adam,” I whined.

“Daniel,” he whined back.

I felt completely pressured by this point and had run out of pathetic excuses. There was no easy way out of this. I would have to tell him the truth.

I took a long sigh. “Right ok, but you need to know that it doesn’t matter, or change anything and that you’re who I want to be with.”

“You mean, you’re still in love with this guy?”

“Well…yeah…sort of.”

“What’s his name then?”

I let out another sigh, this time of complete exasperation before saying, “It’s Steven.”

Adam stopped dead in his tracks and I stopped with him.

“What… Steven Steven? The one I’ve met?”

I nodded. If you could have put a picture beside the word shocked in the dictionary it would have been of Adams face this very second.

“Right…wow….ok…wow.”

“Are you alright?”

“What?” he asked a little confused. He was obviously still processing the information. “Yeah, I’m fine…I think. I just wasn’t expecting…that. I mean I know him, I’ve met him, you’ve known him all your life… I just don’t know if I can compete with that.”

“I knew this would happen. Don’t be fucking stupid Adam! It’s not an issue, you need to know that. I want to be with you. I would never cheat, I don’t believe in it. After what you’ve told me, I could never hurt you like that. I couldn’t have hurt you anyway, I like you too much. And on top of that he’s straight! It doesn’t even matter how I feel. And to be honest I’ve barely thought about him since I met you.” I was beginning to ramble on a bit.

“Hey, hey it’s fine. I trust you.” Adam interrupted noticing how irate I was becoming. I’m just a bit shocked that’s all. You can’t help your feelings and I’m sure you felt this way before you met me. It’s good you’ve been honest with me. It’s no big deal.”

“Good, I was worried you might be angry with me or something.”

He took me by the hands, his demeanour softening and converting into full on seduce mode. He looked me straight in the eyes with that stupid heart melting grin.

“Hey, I could never be angry with you.”

He kissed me by the side of the river ever so tenderly. It felt so perfect. It wasn’t loaded with lust or any sexual desire like our previous kisses had been. It was full of honesty and sincerity. His lips were so soft and gentle. I let go of his hands and took him by the waist bringing him in closer. He put his arms around my neck as our kiss continued.

Even although we had this added physical closeness the kiss still remained outside the realms of sexual longing, or should I say surpassed? It was love. I don’t care what anyone thinks. It’s never too soon to be in love. I loved him from the moment he first smiled at me. From the moment our hands touched. From the moment he uttered his first word to me, I knew I loved this boy. I love Adam Keats.

Our kiss was interrupted by a loud squawk and then an aggressive hiss. The two swans I had spotted earlier had now left the river together and apparently wanted the patch of grass that Adam and I had begun canoodling on.

“Little buggers. I was enjoying that,” said Adam.

“Well I’m sure there will be more in the future.”

“Talking of the future, I need to get your number so we can keep in touch, you know, when we go back home”

“Good idea.”

He got out his phone and I recited my number to him. A few minutes later I received a text.

“LAST NIGHT WAS XXXAMAZINGXXX SO WAS THAT KISS. CNT WAIT TO GET U BK 2 MY TENT L8R. LOVE U. ADAM XXXXXXXXX.”

I quickly replied “LOVE U 2 U PERV. LOL XXX.”

We both saved each other’s numbers and then walked around for a while hand in hand before deciding we wanted to go for a swim and so we headed back to the car and back to camp.

Before we arrived I reminded Adam that he still had some patching up to do with his brother before we did anything. He agreed and began feeling guilty again for what he had done.

Karl and Joey were still at their site. Karl was playing his guitar and Joey was just sitting there looking sorry for himself. When we pulled up Karl greeted us with a wave, but Joey faced away from the car. He eventually looked over when he heard the car doors slamming shut, greeted me with a nod of the head, and then looked to his brother for some sort of clue as to how he might be feeling. There was a distinct awkwardness about the whole situation of which both Karl and I were very aware as we both shared gestures which screamed, “What do we do?”

“Perhaps Karl and I should give you two a minute,” I suggested, wanting to give them the privacy they needed. But really, I pretty much just wanted to get away from the tension.”

“No, I want you to hear this,” said Adam, moving closer to his brother. He put his hands on Joey’s shoulders. Adam was the taller of the two by several inches and he looked down at his brother from this proximity. “Joey, I’m sorry for hitting you like that, I was completely out of order. It doesn’t matter what you said, I still shouldn’t have hurt you. I’ve realised today just how much you mean to me and I’m sorry for treating you like that.”

The pair looked extremely emotional as they stared at each other. It was nice that Adam was making a point of saying this in front of people, but even so I really wished I didn’t have to watch. It was too personal.

“I’m sorry too,” Joey added. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I was just… I worry about you… I just want you to be happy.”

“Come here you little shit,” said Adam spreading his arms wide to embrace his brother.”

I could tell Adam was again on the verge of tears, probably reliving the memories he had disclosed to me today. He tightened his hold on Joey as he hugged out all the sadness. It reminded me of hugging my mum as a kid when I was upset. There’s something about a “real” hug that has healing powers. It just makes the world go away for a few seconds.

“I love you, you know,” said Adam.

“I love you too,” replied Joey.

“GAY!” yelled Karl with his much needed ice breaker and we all laughed. The irony of his comment was exactly what was needed, and it gave everyone the chance to collect themselves.

We all decided that we would go to the lake together for a swim and I went back to my own site to collect my dinghy.

We spent a good couple of hours messing about on and in the water and it was as though all the shit this morning had never happened, except Adam and I had definitely become closer now that we were more open with each other. I was sailing around in the dinghy with Adam when I spotted Steven and Lisa by the shore where we had left all our stuff. They were waving over to us and I waved back. I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by their arrival. It meant that I now had to be on my best behaviour in regards to Adam if I wanted to keep our relationship and my sexuality a secret from my friends.

I suddenly became conscious of the fact that Adam was sitting between my legs leaning against my chest, not at all aiding me in the concealment of our relationship. I hoped that this wasn’t so noticeable from Steven and Lisa's vantage point.

“We can’t be all lovey dovey now that they’re here,” I said in an immature disheartened tone, but secretly wishing he would react accordingly and make it less obvious that we were together.

“Well we could just tell them.”

The thought suddenly terrified me.

“I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet.”

“You’re not ashamed of me are you?” he asked mockingly.

“Don’t be stupid,” I said, splashing him with water.

“Oh no…You’ve got me all wet. You know there are other ways you could do that,” he said cheekily.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” I asked flirtatiously, starting to lighten up about the whole thing.

“Well there is this,” he replied jerking the dinghy sharply and completely capsizing us.

When I rose to the surface of the water spluttering, he was laughing.

“Bastard, I thought you were being nice to me?” I choked, taken back by the surprise of my watery engulfment.

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

We playfully fought each other in the lake, trying to force the other under the water. The whole thing got me a little hard down below, even though we weren’t really expressing any sexual longing. During one of our exchanges he felt my hardness against his leg.

“Oh, so now you want it?” he asked. “Well you’re going to have to wait now. Just think of all the fun we could have had in that shower.”

“You’re cruel. You know how rough I felt. I had the hangover from hell.”

“It’s not my fault if you can’t hold your drink; now you’re the one who’s going to have to wait.”

“Oh yeah?” I replied, looking over to Steven and Lisa to make sure they weren’t looking. Lisa was sunbathing and from what I could make out, it looked like Steven was doing something on his phone.

Feeling daring and horny I quickly stole a kiss from Adam which took him by surprise. His face said it all; he definitely wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t stop there either. I just got down to business and quickly slipped my hand in his shorts. He was hard too; the little liar was obviously wanting sex as much as I was. I began playing with him whilst trying to stay afloat and keep an eye on the lakeside to make sure no one was watching, although they wouldn’t have been able to see what we were up to underneath the surface of the water. Jacking him off like this was no easy task as the lake was ridiculously deep and we couldn’t even see the bottom let alone touch it, and it was a clumsy effort trying to stay afloat and pleasure my boyfriend, but this wasn’t about elegance, it was about sex.

Adam quickly got the message and joined in this impulsive, hormonal exchange, forcing his hand into my shorts and around my cock. We jerked each other off as efficiently as the environment would allow, but fortunately the exchange didn’t take too long due to the arousal and excitement of being so bold in public.

“I’m gonna cum,” I stammered as I ferociously yanked repeatedly on my boyfriend’s dick.

“Me too,” he agreed breathlessly.

We both did each other the courtesy of removing each other dicks from our shorts so as to not make a mess, and just in time too, as I shot my load soon after. Adam wasn’t far behind.

It was the most bizarre feeling of my life feeling my entire body began to spasm in ecstasy as I floated in the water. There is nothing for your toes to grip to as they curl in pleasure and nothing for you to hold on to but your special guy’s dick. Needless to say it was the most intense sexual moment of my short life…and I thought last night couldn’t be beaten.

We weren’t given much time to recuperate from our passionate exchange as Joey and Karl snuck up behind us. We had been so busy watching Lisa and Steven that we hadn’t seen them approaching.

We quickly “let each other go” and “put ourselves away” before our hands quickly darted up to the surface of the water simultaneously, which of course both Joey and Karl picked up on.

“Whoahhhh!” said Karl. “I believe we might have interrupted something here Joe.”

“Whoops! Eh… I think we’ll leave you to it,” said Joey with a grin, obviously not as prejudiced as his earlier comment would have suggested.

“It’s not what it looks…” Adam began to offer in our defense, but immediately saw the pointlessness in the denial. We couldn’t have looked guiltier if we tried. “You know what? Fuck it! It’s exactly what it looks like. Warn a guy next time you’re gonna pop up like that.”

“Ha ha, shouldn’t you be saying that to Dan?” said Joey, nodding towards my crotch, apparently completely comfortable with me and all forms of homosexual behaviour now. Comfortable enough to make light hearted remarks that were currently turning my face scarlet.

“Jeesh, can’t you two give us some privacy?” asked Adam, also embarrassed at being caught in the act.

“Yeah, if you’re not going to join in, fuck off,” I said turning the tables on them.

“EWWW, come on! Two guys? One of which is my brother? No thanks,” said Joey in mock disgust.

“Well leave us to it then,” said Adam.

“He’s got us there Joe. As handsome as these two bastards are, the idea doesn’t float my boat,” said Karl.

“Well as you can see, we didn’t even need a boat,” I said nodding towards the upside down dinghy.

Karl started singing, “Don’t rock the boat; don’t rock the boat baby, rock the boat don’t tip the boat over.”

“And on that note I’m off, see you guys later,” said Joey before swimming away from the ridiculous Karl.

“Hey don’t leave me here, who knows what they’ll do to me,” called Karl swimming after him.

We looked at each other, then split our sides laughing.

“Oh my God! How fucking embarrassing was that?” I asked Adam shaking my head in disbelief.

“Not really that embarrassing. I’m proud to be able to do that with you.”

“Yeah, but we got caught, I mean, oh my God Adam, we’re bad ass,” I laughed. “That’s basically sex in public.”

“Funny you should mention that,” he said in comedic fashion. “There’s a lovely little cruising site I know back home I’d love to…”

I playfully splashed him with water.

“Shut up you idiot. Come on, I better go and show my face and say hi to Steven and Lisa. I am supposed to be here with them after all.”

“Yeah, but now you’ve got a better offer.”

“That’s beside the point. I don’t like being rude. Come on.”

We towed the dinghy back to land and back to my friends.

I made an extremely convincing effort to look as innocent as possible when I met my friends, but the first thing I noticed when I approached them was the look on Steven’s face. He seemed completely confused for some reason, as though he was really troubled by something, but to add to this odd expression, he was staring right at me as if I was the one causing this dilemma.

I didn’t like the look of this, but I was sure that he couldn’t have seen anything. Kyle and Joey swam right up to us and didn’t notice what we were up to till they started speaking to us. He can’t have seen us, surely.

I considered trying to ignore him, but the look he was giving me was so unsettling that I felt I needed to confront the situation “’S’up?” I asked him, half afraid of what his reply might be. He was making me feel like I’d done something terribly wrong.

“Umm, nothing,” he said, literally shaking the expression off his face.

“Well why were you looking at me like that?” I asked, thinking I’d rather know what was going on than be ignorant of it.

“Oh, sorry, I think I just zoned out there for a minute. I didn’t realise I was looking at you, sorry bud. How’s your head?” he asked referring to my drinking session the night before.

He was putting on a good show to sound sincere, but I knew differently. I had a bad feeling about what Steven had been thinking about and I couldn’t help but fear the worse. Maybe I was paranoid, maybe I had walked into an argument between him and Lisa and that had been the reason for his strange behaviour, but they seemed to be getting on all right, I thought as I looked over at Lisa sunbathing. She didn’t seem to have a care in the world right now. Maybe he was telling the truth and had just zoned out for a minute. Too many maybe’s for my liking. Something wasn’t right here and I had a feeling I was going to find out soon enough what was on Steven’s mind and my gut instinct told me I wasn’t going to like it.