Boy Story: The Road Taken - 10. Off to See the Wizard

Off to See the Wizard

“Good morning,” she said as we entered the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I was able to squeeze out of my voice box hoping it was enough.

“As you can probably guess, I’m Parker’s mother and I’m making us all waffles for breakfast,” she said. “Please have a seat.”

“Pleased to meet you ma’am,” I said trying to be as polite as possible. “I’m Matthew Bancroft. Most people call me Matt, but I answer to either.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Virginia Campion. Most people call me Ginny, but I answer to either,“ she copied me jokingly.

Campion? Oh wow, I wondered how I had gotten this far without knowing Parker’s last name. Campion…sounds French…cool.

“So Matt, what is it you do?” she said continuing the conversation.

“Do?” I asked puzzled.

“Do you have a job, are you a student, are you a street person?”

“OH. I go to college…I’m a sophomore at state university. I currently live on campus,” I responded.

“Oh, a college boy! That’s very good.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Please call me Ginny.”

“OK, Ginny,” I said still unsure where this was going.

“Oh and in case you want to know, he’s straight,” Parker added.

“Straight? I guess times HAVE changed,” she said a bit sarcastically. “When I went to college, the straight boys only slept with girls.”

“Yeah, this whole thing is a bit new to me,” I confessed.

“I’ve been trying to convince Parker to go to that same college. Did he tell you he was already accepted? Maybe you can knock some sense into him,” she said and we both looked at him.

“What?” Parker responded. “I’m thinking of taking a year off to work. What’s wrong with that?”

“At that record store? For $5.00 an hour?“ she asked with a displeased look on her face.

“It’s $6.00 an hour,” he corrected her.

I could sense I was stepping into a minefield here, so I had to be diplomatic and sensible. “Well, some people do take a year off, but they say it’s harder to motivate yourself to go back once you’ve left school,” I began. “So you might leave for a year and then decide you’re not going back. Then you’re stuck in low-paying jobs for life. You could always go to college and work a part-time job at the record store, and when you graduate with a degree, you could be the manager at the record store,” I tried to think of an option that would please both sides.

“See honey? He makes a lot of sense. He’s there, he knows!” she explained in an animated tone.

His mom continued, “Look, Parker, you’re a smart boy…you even managed to sneak someone into the house without my knowing.”

I should have guessed that was coming. And we were just doing so well.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry about that…” I tried.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m sure you were invited in,” she said brushing off my guilt and staring at her son.

“Well, if I’m so smart, how come you caught me,” Parker asked.

“Because I went to college, so I’m just that much smarter,” she responded.

Damn, she was good.

Parker pushed back, “OK, so if I came to you last night and said: ‘There’s this hot guy I met at the mall, can he sleep over with me tonight?’ What would you have said?”

“Touché. Look honey, you’re going to be 18 in a couple of months and then you’re legally an adult. I can’t control who you see at that point, but I can control who comes and goes from this house. So I’ll make a deal with you: You play straight with me and once you’re 18, you’ll get more freedom. And no more sneaking around. Just as long as it doesn’t become a revolving door around here with a changing cast of characters.”

“Hmm, alright…that sounds reasonable,” Parker responded.

“Plus it’s a matter of safety too. What if your guest goes to use the bathroom? And I see a stranger in the house. I might grab my aluminum softball bat and start swinging first and asking questions later,” she added.

There was a long silence while we both thought how unpleasant that would be. At least, that’s what I was thinking.

Now I just needed confirmation about one thing. “So it’s OK with you, that Parker…you know…”

“You mean, about Parker being gay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“And sexually active?” she added.

“Uh, yeah that too, I guess,” I humored her hoping this wasn’t going to get any more uncomfortable than it already was.

“Oh, I’m way over the whole gay thing! [she paused] It’s not what I would have chosen for my son, but it also wouldn’t be fair to make him be someone he isn’t. I love my son, so I support who he is as best I can,” she stated.

“Wow, that’s really cool,” I said looking at her and then at Parker.

“Well, it wouldn’t be so cool with my ex husband, so I asked Parker not to mention it to him. With all of the custody issues involved, the last thing I need is him blaming me for Parker’s sexual orientation, like it’s my fault or something,” she explained.

On that note, we passed the OJ carton around the table, and the waffles were served up with microwave sausage links. I poured my syrup and started to dig in.

“So Matt, can I expect to see you in the future or was this a one-night-stand sort of thing?” she asked breaking the silence.

When she said that, I nearly choked on my waffle.

“Mo-o-om!” whined Parker with mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“Well, I’m just asking,” his mother stated.

I recovered quickly and attempted to break the tension, “Well, that’s actually a fair question. Um, well, we’ve sort of been…uh…playing things by ear and living in the moment. We haven’t had much discussion about…uh…the future.”

The room was silent, so I continued. “But…things have gone well so far. So Parker, as long as it’s OK with your mom and all, would you like to, you know, go out on an official date with me?”

“A date?” he asked making sure he heard right.

“Yeah, like can I see you again next weekend?”

“SEE me? Really?” he said questioning again making sure he heard right. He was sure that the current turn of events had killed any chance of my remaining interested.

Parker looked up wide-eyed at his mom. “Weeeeelllll?” she said stretching out the word and looking at him. There were a few seconds of silence.

“Aren’t you going to answer him?” she inquired.

“Oh yeah…of course, I’d love to go out with you next weekend. But what are we going to do today?” he asked.

Today? I didn’t have a today plan. I didn’t know we were even going to have a today. I figured I was going back to campus after breakfast. But if he wanted to hang out, I was game, so I thought quickly.

“Well, I’ve been saving a little outing for a special day, so maybe we can do that today. It’ll be a surprise,” I replied.

I had a trip to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum on the back burner for quite some time, but I didn’t want to go alone. So here we were—it fit. I was just hoping that he was OK with museums. Although this isn’t your usual museum, some people think museum equals boring. I was afraid if I told him beforehand, he might not be so eager with the idea, so I would let it be a surprise.

Parker was bad at surprises and tried to get it out of me. I simply said, “It’s not a big deal, just something to do on a rainy day. I think you’ll enjoy it.” Of course it wasn’t raining, but he knew what I meant.

“OK, fine. But first we need to shower, so come on,” he said grabbing me by the sleeve and pulling me down the hall. I heard his mom say, “Well, it was nice meeting you Matthew!”

“Same here!” I called out from down the hall.

So we were both in the bathroom. Parker locked the door and ran the shower over his hand until the temperature was just right.

“Um, are we…uh…taking a shower? Together?” I asked.

“Of course! You’re not getting all shy on me now, are you?” he asked.

“It’s just that things are moving so fast,” I replied. “I hardly knew you yesterday and now we’ve seen each other naked, we had sex, I slept over, I met your mother, I asked you out on a date, and we’re about to take a shower together.”

“I know. Welcome to my world,” he replied shrugging his shoulders like it was just another day in the life. “Well, do you not want to take a shower before we go on your mystery trip?”

Well, the fact of the matter was, I did need to take a shower before going anywhere. And I had enjoyed every inch of every minute with him…except when I thought I was going to be arrested...but that turned out okay too. I guess there were so many new experiences that entered my life in the last 12 or so hours that I was becoming a little overwhelmed. Suddenly my life had been interrupted by radio free Parker. But I was really happy. So, how bad was that? I guess all Parker all the time was better than no Parker all the time.

“Well…you coming in or are you just gonna stand there and watch?” Parker said breaking me from my thoughts.

“Your mom won’t mind?” I asked as I got undressed.

“No. I think you won her over…even though you threw me under the bus with all the college stuff,” he said jokingly.

“I did not. I was just thinking how it would be for you with all those hot guys in the dorm.” I got into the shower with him. “And imagine having to shower together with them every day.” I was trying incentives to entice him into making the right decision. His mom would have been proud of my tactic…but maybe not the incentive I presented. But I figured hot naked guys are always a great motivator for a gay boy.

“Really? When you put it that way, college doesn't seem so bad,” he said as he wrapped himself around me while running a bar of soap over my body.

I was trying so valiantly not to get hard, but it was impossible.

“Damn. You are my kryptonite,” I complained half-heartedly.

“Kryptonite? THIS is your kryptonite,” he said grabbing hold of my hardness. “But it’s my kryptonite too, see?”

I looked down and he was in similar form.

“Your secret is safe with me. If you want the antidote, just say the word and I’ll take care of you.”

I was hoping to get through the shower session without having sex, so we wouldn’t be delayed in our travel plans. This was clearly not going to happen. When I’m standing nude fully erect in a shower and the most beautiful boy in the world is offering to blow me, what the fuck am I supposed to do? He WAS my kryptonite, but he was also my salvation.

Stepping out of the shower, he towel-dried my body while I stood on the bathroom rug. As I felt the softness of the blue shag between my toes, he went down on his knees and cured me. That was the first time I had received two blow jobs in one day—or even the same week for that matter—and it wasn’t even noon yet.

I’ve never had sex be such an organic part of a relationship before. In the past, it was always “work for it, work for it, and here’s your reward.” It was like redeeming coupons. You do nice things for a girl, you take her out, you pretend to listen to all the inane things she says, and you get coupons. And at some point in the future you get to redeem the coupons for sex. Sometimes when alcohol is introduced into the equation, you get to redeem those coupons a little earlier. With Parker there were no coupons. He ran stride for stride with what I really wanted. Of course he did, after all, we were both boys. Boys all want the same thing...lots of sex. We can't help it. Blame it on hormones. With Parker, I could be myself: the good, the bad, and the horny. Yes, sex is so much better (and plentiful) when both participants are like minded.

After he finished me off, a pack of questions followed: “What should I wear, how much money should I bring, do I need shoes or sneakers, etc.” I answered them as best I could. Then we dressed and off we went.

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