The Cockney Canuck - 44. Chapter 44 Date Night Part 1

On Friday, I was showered, dressed and ready to go by five. Nathan had texted me earlier and we agreed to dress down, as if we were meeting as friends, rather than going on a date. I chose dark-blue jeans, a grey polo shirt and my favourite light-blue denim jacket, but underneath I was groomed to perfection. Although I was sure that nothing physical would happen between us that night, it was reasonable to expect some kissing, after all, we had kissed before on a couple of occasions and he had even sneaked one in the previous afternoon at the bus stop, in broad daylight.

‘We’re going to the cinema, where it’s gonna be dark, bloody hell, he’s definitely gonna want to kiss me. I hope so anyway’.

When we had kissed before, it had always been unexpected, but now that it seemed likely to feature at some point in the evening, the anticipation was killing me. I had been thinking about it all day and at lunch, it was his full, moist lips that held me in a trance, as I struggled to find my appetite. We were both unusually quiet in the cafeteria, but had exchanged more than a few interesting glances across the table, which didn’t go un-noticed by Ginny.

I brushed my teeth for the umpteenth time, before going upstairs to say goodbye to the family, hoping to make it out of the door without having to answer too many questions. I had yet to mention to anyone at home that Fran and I were no longer a couple and as expected, Don and Sue had assumed that it was her who I was meeting. I wasn’t sure if the news had reached Nicola or even Daniel yet, but just in case, I made sure not to actually mention Fran’s name, I just didn’t bother to correct them. It was deception, which was probably just as bad as lying and I felt bad for doing it, but in this case the truth just wasn’t an option.

We had decided to avoid the popular ‘Jimmy’s Diner’, where couples—including Fran and I—usually met up before catching a movie and chose to meet instead at the food hall in the mall, which was at the opposite end to the cinema complex. The tickets that I had bought were for the early showing, which started at seven-thirty. Another ploy designed to steer us clear of most of the kids our age from school, who would usually take their dates to the later show.

When I arrived, it was still quite early and busy with shoppers. I exchanged greetings with a couple of kids from school who I knew and even though it looked as if they were out buying stuff with their parents, it still made me a little nervous. Being spotted on a date had never been a problem with Fran, but now the nerves had really kicked in and my stomach was in tied in knots as I walked the length of the mall. I wasn’t sure how much of this was down to being scared of being seen out on my own with him, or if I was just nervous about the date itself, but my legs were a little wobbly, as I turned the corner into the crowded food hall.

The moment that I saw Nathan though, sitting on his own, drinking a soft drink through a straw, I relaxed and any uncertainty that I had, seemed to vanish into thin air. He looked utterly gorgeous, even better than usual, if that was possible and I locked in on him and speeded up, dodging tables and people to try to catch him unawares.

He looked nervous as he scanned the crowds in front of him. The mere thought of this beautiful boy, anxiously looking out for me, made me almost giddy with excitement, as I closed in from behind. He hadn’t seen me approaching and I ducked behind a young family, in an attempt to surprise him and make him jump. It might have worked, if I hadn't of been mesmerized by the soft, peachy skin on the back of his neck and walked straight into a chair, falling ass over tit. He was startled but turned just in time to see me clattering to the floor in a heap.

I could hear people laughing at my clownish behaviour, as I tried to dis-entangle myself from the metal chair. When I looked up, red-faced and flustered, Nathan was standing over me with his hand outstretched and trying hard to contain a laugh. I allowed him to pull me up to my feet and he giggled at my embarrassing display.

“Are you okay?” he asked with only the slightest look of concern on his sweet face.

“Stupid chair!” I said, as I reluctantly let go of his palm and turned to give the offending item a quick kick in anger, which only made him laugh even more.

I looked up to see one of the food court workers; a young girl, whose job it was to clean the tables. She also looked as if she was trying not to laugh and doing a very poor job of it. She picked up the chair and smiled sweetly at me, as I rubbed my forearm.

“Did you hurt yourself?” she asked.

“Just my pride.”

“It’s okay,” said Nathan, “he’s English.” I was perplexed, but allowed him to steer me towards the seat opposite where he had been sitting.

“I know,” she said, which got my attention, “you’re Nicola’s brother from school. I wanted to deny it and tell her that she was wrong, but she was being so nice to me and even offered me a complimentary drink for my troubles.

“It’s just to keep you happy; they don’t want you to sue them, even if it was your fault,” said Nathan. “You’re such a dork, you know that?”

“Yeah, Nicola tells me all the time. I was trying to sneak up and surprise you.”

“Well you did that alright dude; it was quite an entrance.”

“Thanks.”

And I think you’re really cute when you get all stroppy.”

“I didn’t get stroppy,” I said firmly.

“Yes you did, you kicked the chair and called it stupid.” He laughed. I might have been even more embarrassed by my childish behaviour, if he hadn’t of called it cute and I wondered how that was.

After composing myself, I looked across the table and stared at him. He had obviously spent as much time in front of the mirror that afternoon as I had, but the results were far more impressive. His hair was perfect, not a single strand out of place and his spongy red lips couldn’t hide those big, bright and perfectly clean teeth. His big, baby-blue eyes sparkled, as if they had been polished and sat perfectly between his cute little nose, with slightly flared nostrils. His flawless beauty captivated me as always and it was enough to make me light headed. I loved that boy, I was sure of it and I still didn’t even really know him that well.

“I thought you said that you weren’t going to get dressed up." He was wearing a bright orange shirt, unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up, over a plain white t-shirt, with multi coloured wristbands. I also noticed, for the first time that his ears were pierced, with a simple black stud in each one. “You look really nice though.”

“Thank you, I toned down a bit,” he said, “I didn’t want to look too gay. I wasn’t sure if you would like that.” I was tempted to laugh, but managed to stop myself, not wanting to hurt his feelings. It was funny though, because he looked pretty gay from where I was sitting. Not that it bothered me; I actually think that I liked him that way, flamboyant suited him. Besides, there wasn’t much point in him trying to cover up his sexuality, as pretty much everyone in Cobourg seemed to know him, or know of him.

I knew that it was going to be something that I would have to cope with, if we were to see each other on a regular basis, and it would eventually out me. I pushed it to the back of my mind and concentrated on the present. After all, this was only our first date and I wasn’t even sure if he would want to see me again after all my shenanigans.

We locked eyes again for a few seconds. Those moments seemed to be getting more comfortable, but neither of us was finding it easy, and he looked every bit as apprehensive as I was. I watched him drinking; wondering how he was able to make it look so seductive and then he pushed his drink towards me.

“Do you want some?” he asked, “you look a little hot.” My cheeks were burning and were probably bright red, it was something that I hated but knew that I could never change. Had it been anyone else, I would have declined the offer, but I picked it up, thrilled at the opportunity to put something in my mouth, which he had just been sucking on. When I handed the drink back to him, he locked eyes with me and put the straw straight back into his mouth.

‘I think that we just had some kind of near sexual experience. We may have just exchanged the tiniest amount of saliva on the end of that straw’.

“Are you sure that you didn’t hurt yourself?” he asked, as he watched me rubbing my forearm, although I wasn’t even aware that I was doing it.

“What? Oh yeah…I think,” but I rolled up my sleeve anyway to have a quick check and there was a graze surrounded by a big red mark, but no blood.

“Here,” he said, “let me see,” and he reached across the table, grabbed my hand and pulled my arm around towards him. He held my wrist with one hand and then ran his slender fingers along the length of my forearm, pressing down gently on the red mark. My eyes rolled back and my mouth dropped open, as a reaction to his soft touch. Any irritation vanished immediately, masked by a new, much more pleasant sensation, which was emanating from him. He was only holding my arm and I wasn’t sure if it was just me, or whether he doing it on purpose, but the feeling was out of this world.

“It’s just a graze,” he said, “you’ll live.” He gave me a reassuring smile, as he lifted his head to look into my eyes. “Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore,” I said, “are you some kind of faith healer?”

“No,” he said, “but I’m a qualified first-aider.” He cocked his head to one side and gave me a teasing smile, as he reached up, placed his hand under my chin and gently pushed my mouth shut. “You’re dribbling.”

“Sorry, but that was so amazing, look, no more pain. I’m healed.” I waved my arm around helicopter fashion, to prove my point, making him laugh. I narrowed my eyes at him, hatching a plan.

“What?” he said.

“I think that I hurt my leg as well, when I fell over,” I said, holding my thigh.

“Really?” he said rolling his eyes, “do you want me to take a look at that too?”

“Would you?”

He shook his head and smiled. “Is there anything else that hurts, while I’m here?”

“Well, now that you mention it….”

“Nice try,” he said, “but I think I know where this is heading and I know exactly what you need.”

“What?”

“A hot bath!” he said and we both laughed as the girl came back over and handed me my complimentary coke.

“Thanks,” I said, “that’s really kind.”

“No problem,” she said and we waited for her to go, but she didn’t. “So are you guys shopping tonight or catching a movie?”

“Yes,” I said.

“No,” said Nathan, almost at the same time.

“We might be,” I said, trying not to look her in the eyes. “What are you doing?”

‘What kinda question is that’?

“I’m working,” she said, pointing to her uniform, which had a name badge pinned to it.

“Oh yeah, err of course…err Marissa,” I said and then glanced towards Nathan, who was smiling, but shaking his head disapprovingly at me. I was pretty sure that I could read his mind at that moment and one word sprang to mind, ‘dork’.

“Well, I’ll let you guys get back to whatever you’re doing,” she said, “say hello to Nicola for me, I’m in her class at school.”

'Great, now she’s gonna tell Nicola that she saw me at the mall with some gay-looking guy and that I fell over and made a real dick of myself. At least she didn’t recognize Nathan’.

I said goodbye as she turned to walk away. “Oh bye, Nathan,” she said and I cringed.

‘I’m so dead’!

I was hoping to fly under the radar but instead, had attracted more attention than a Rabbi in a Mosque. My entrance had been nothing short of theatrical and now I had visions of Nicola, poking her pointy little nose into my personal life and coming up with all the right answers.

Despite all of this; when I looked across the table towards Nathan, expecting to be reprimanded, he was smiling, broader than I think I had ever seen him smile before and he looked truly happy.

“Sorry,” I said and I bit my bottom lip.

“Dude, you have to stop saying sorry all the time. You’ve got no reason to be sorry okay?” I nodded and sucked on my drink. “I know you’re nervous about this and so am I.”

“You are?”

“Of course I am, I’ve never been on a date before and I’ve no idea what to do.”

“You’re doing better than me so far and I’ve been on loads,” I said, but regretted it immediately. “I didn’t mean it that way, I’ve only really ever dated Fran. You’re the first boy that I’ve been out with, honestly.”

“It’s okay, I know you have some history, but I’m not worried about that, as long as it stays in the past.”

I knew what he was getting at and I crossed my heart on my t-shirt. “You’re the only one that I’m interested in,” I said, “I wanted this to happen so badly and now I’m as nervous as hell, because I don’t wanna blow it.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that sweetie,” he said, “not on our first date anyway.” He smiled and winked at me, as he got up to go to the bathroom, leaving me wide-eyed and speechless. I would gladly have blown him, right there and then in the public toilets, if he had let me, but just hearing him joke about such a thing was enough to make me stiffer than Nelson’s Column.

‘Am I having the same effect on him’?

If that were true, then he was doing a much better job than I was of concealing it.

When he returned, he made me laugh. “Do you want to get something to eat?” The pictures don’t start for another half an hour.”

"No you got it wrong," I said. “The pictures are where we’re going, not the movie itself, that’s called the film. We go to the pictures to see the film.” I smiled, but he looked confused.

“You English are funny,” he said, “will you teach me some cockney slang? I’ve heard you say certain words and seen it on British comedies, but I’ve never really understood it.”

“Sure, it’s easy, I’ll give you some examples,” I said. “The rhyming slang for hair is ‘Barnet Fair’, but you always drop the word that rhymes, so if you said to me that you're going to get your barnet cut, then you're going for a haircut, get it?”

“No."

“Okay, another example, the slang for road, is frog and toad and the slang for stairs, is apples and pears. So if you were to say to me that you’re going down the frog, I would know that you were going down the road, or going for a walk. And if you say to me that you’re going up the apples….”

“I’d be going upstairs?” he finished.

“Correct,” I said, “it’s that easy.”

“Do people really talk like that in England?”

“No, of course not. They talk American street slang, just like everyone else dude.” He laughed and choked on his drink, spilling some of it down his white t-shirt.

“Oh man, my drink just went up my nose,” he was laughing, as he cleaned himself with a tissue and I leaned forward to whisper.

“You look really cute though, when you’re choking.” I was starting to relax a little and I think that he was too.

“You’re funny,” he said.

“So am I.”

“Stoppit.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s better. Anyway, I think Cockney slang is really cool,” he said, “we could have our own language that nobody else over here will understand.” I agreed, but there was something about the way that he said that, which gave me the impression that he was looking further ahead than I dared to think myself. ‘We could have our own language’, sounded long term to me and without knowing it, he may have given me a little insight into how he was thinking and I liked it.

Nathan had a quick glance at his watch, which was bright white and as wide as a golf ball, before standing up and dragging me with him. “I think we should go or we’ll miss it,” he said, “but you normally do that anyway, don’t you?” He was making a reference to the last time that I visited the cinema, with Fran. He thought that we had spent the duration of the movie making out and I didn’t want to correct him.

“Very funny,” I said as I followed his shapely ass through the busy food court.

“I forgot to ask,” he said, “did you enjoy the ballgame?”

“Yeah, we had a great time, Toronto is a cool place. Maybe we can go there one day, just the two of us.”

“That would be nice,” he said, “I’ll show you a good time.” I didn’t doubt that for one minute, as he led the way onto the escalator to the next floor. “We can go up to the CN Tower. I love it up there, the view is awesome.”

“The view’s not bad from here either,” I smirked, before almost walking into him as we reached the top.

“Robbie were you just perving on my ass?”

“Yes,” I said, “and this time, I’m not sorry.”

He turned and raised his eyebrows at me. “You can look, but you can’t touch…not yet anyway.”

Being with Nathan was fun and we joked and teased each other constantly with double entendres, derived mostly from our shared love of naughty British television comedy. In England it was often referred to ‘seaside humour’ after the saucy postcards that were sold at the seafront shops in the UK. Nathan called it ‘Benny Hill' comedy.

After a short walk to the cinema complex, we joined the line-up for ‘Date Night’. I wasn’t expecting to see so many people, but the line was moving quite quickly and it was a friendly atmosphere. Nathan, of course, forever the celebrity, was recognized by a few kids, most of them girls, who either called out to him and waved, or came over to say a quick hi. I kept my head down each time and thankfully, nobody said a word to me, until that is we were inside.

I recognized him straight away from school, he was leaving with a girl on his arm and I tried to turn away, but it was too late. His name was Jake; he was two years older than I was, heavily built and a bit of a jock. I had been told that he had briefly dated Nicola, before she came to her senses and dumped him. I didn’t like him when we had met at school and I cursed as he zoomed in on us and strolled over.

“Hey guys,” he said, “you two make a lovely couple.” He laughed louder than was necessary and I cringed.

“Hi Jake,” I said in a low voice that was barely audible in the crowded foyer.

“So are you guys dating?” he asked with a lopsided grin and a hard stare. “I never knew that.”

“We’re friends Jake,” I said, “it’s not funny.”

“Oh it is man,” he said, “believe me, it’s funny. You and the fag boy eh?”

I stared at him, deeply offended by his crass insult to the boy that I worshiped. “What’s your problem?” I said angrily as I felt Nathan gently tugging on my sleeve. Jake’s expression got a little more serious following my verbal challenge to his teasing and he moved in closer, with a threatening swagger.

“I don’t like fucking homos,” he said, staring down at me.

“Then maybe you should try it with a girl sometime.” It just came out; I didn’t even have time to think about it, or consider the consequences.

“Maybe you should shut your fucking mouth asshole, before I do it for you!” He had his fists balled and for a moment I thought that he was gonna swing at me right there in the cinema. I backed away, scared and intimidated by his imposing stance.

“Why don’t you just leave us alone?” said Nathan, “we’re not bothering you.”

Jake stood there for a few seconds, weighing up the situation, before probably deciding that we weren’t worth the aggravation. He knew I wasn’t going to fight him and I could see one of the security staff approaching us, no doubt alerted by the small crowd that had gathered. We had reached the front of the line to go in and Nathan grabbed my arm to lead me to the barrier, as Jake turned to leave with his miserable looking girlfriend.

‘I’d be pissed off too if I had to go out with that prick’.

“Hey, no kissing in there, you too,” he said loudly, grabbing even more attention from those around us. I was fuming as he walked away, but followed Nathan and handed over our tickets.

“Ignore him dude,” he said, “there are a lot of nasty people out there, but he doesn’t know anything okay?”

“He’s a fucking dick,” I said, angrily shaking my head. “He had no right to…?” I looked up to see Nathan standing in front of me and he reached out to rest his hands on my shoulders, stopping me in my tracks. He had a pained look on his face and it just didn’t suit him.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What? You don’t have to be sorry; it’s not your fault, the guy’s a jerk.”

“It is my fault,” he said, dropping his arms to his side, “if everyone didn’t know about me, then it wouldn’t be a problem.” He was right, but I wasn’t going to blame him and it was definitely not his fault.

“Nathan, please don’t blame yourself, it’s me he has a problem with anyway, not you.” I shook my head and tried to smile at him. “I’m not angry anymore okay. I won’t let him ruin our night. Let’s go in and have a good time. This is the only place that I want to be right now, and you’re the only person who matters to me.”

He looked at me, wide eyed and for a moment, I thought that he was going to lean in and kiss me. I took an instinctive step back to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation, and was relieved when he moved to one side and whispered in my ear.

“Thank you,” he said, “that was so sweet.” It made me blush and I had to look away, biting my lip. “Did I just make you blush again Robbie?”

“Yes,” I said coyly, “I like it when you do that.” It was true, the whispering in my ear thing, was something that he seemed to do quite a lot. I liked the intimacy and the feeling of his warm breath against my skin.

“You shouldn’t have told me that,” he said with wicked smile, “I’m gonna whisper in your ear through the whole movie now.” I stared at him and once again he had to reach over and close my mouth. “But first, I’m gonna buy us something to eat and drink.” He led me towards the confectionery counter. “Do you like popcorn, or would you prefer some candy? Maybe something to suck on?”

I laughed and turned to him. “How long is it?” I said.

“Does it matter?” he asked, giggling.

“Some people think it’s important.”

“I guess it’s about average length, not too long.”

“It can’t be too long,” I said and we both laughed, “but I do get a little bored after a couple of hours.”

“Wow,” he said bog-eyed, “that’s a bold statement cowboy. I’m sure you won’t be bored tonight.” Then he ordered the biggest of everything, including a giant drink, which he said we could share and then started to laugh.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he said, “I don’t believe what you said to that guy Jake, it was so funny.”

“He didn’t think so,” I said.

“He doesn’t matter,” he said and he reached over to give me a quick squeeze around the waist, as we walked into up the stairs into the darkened theatre.

There was no doubt at all that this kid was perfect for me and in just a few short weeks we had hit it off so well, that it felt as if we had known each other for years. We sat at the back, close to where Fran and I had sat and Just as I had done then, I ended up missing most of the movie, although for different reasons.

He fed me popcorn, which I thought was really sexy and then we munched our way through the candy and drank from the same straw, as we hunched together in the dark. He managed to watch some of the film, but I found it difficult to concentrate on anything other than the boy by my side. I moved my head slightly, so that I was able to look at him from the corner of my eye and watch his cute expressions, without him noticing. He made for a wonderful sight, as the soft lights from the screen danced across his flawless skin and was far more entertaining than any movie could ever be. To me he was a work of art and worthy of a place in the most prestigious of galleries and yet he was there, with me. There may have been two hundred people in that auditorium, but as far as I was concerned we were there alone and it was beautiful.

He caught me staring at him more than once and at first, he mouthed, ‘what’s up’? The next time, he just smiled, before slowly inching his hand across the armrest to meet mine. He had a huge grin plastered across his face as we laced our fingers and huddled together. It felt so good to be just holding hands with him and even though my dick was screaming for attention, it was more than enough.

It was super-sexy and every so often we would look at each other and he would give my hand a little squeeze, which drove me wild with excitement. Our hands were sweaty and my heart was pounding in my chest as he moved lower in his seat until he was able to rest his head on my shoulder. He didn’t say a word, but it felt so comfortable and natural that I didn’t want the movie to end, even though I didn’t have a clue what was happening on screen.

‘I’m gonna to have to watch one of these flicks one day’.

When I turned my head towards him, he looked up at me and smiled, before keeping to the promise he had made earlier in the lobby and whispering gently into my ear. This time however, he was even closer and I could feel his soft lips on my lobe as he spoke.

“You’re not watching the movie at all are you?” he said and I slowly shook my head and writhed in my chair from the contact. “So what do you wanna do instead?”

I didn’t answer straight away and I didn’t think that I had to. Instead I shifted in my seat and pulled my arm from between us to wrap it around his shoulder pulling us closer. I heard him sigh, as I gave him a little squeeze and felt his head against the nape of my head as he snuggled against me. I stroked the length of his arm; my hand riding up his rolled sleeve, to massage his soft warm skin. He responded by wedging his arm behind my back and grabbing the waistband of my pants, then whispered in my ear.

“Do you really like it when I whisper?” I nodded my approval. “How about if I do this?” he said and then he blew gently into my ear, making my whole body shiver.

I giggled. "That's nice."

“What about this?” He lowered his lips a few inches to kiss the side of my neck. “Or this,” he said, as he kissed my burning cheek. “Or this.” He brushed his lips gently against mine and then moved back to my ear.

"What was the question again?"

I could hear a few people grumbling nearby at our whispers, but I was sure they couldn't hear what we were saying.

“It’s okay,” said Nathan. “You can kiss me if you want to.”

He tilted his head and closed his eyes as we pressed our mouths awkwardly together and slid down further into the chairs. This time I wasn’t taken by surprise and I didn’t hold back any either, as I kissed him for all I was worth and tasted him properly for the first time. When we pulled apart, he looked a little startled, as he licked his lips, before smiling and moving in for more. There was a passion and a need that had not been there on the few occasions when we had kissed previously. I felt his tongue moving into my mouth and I allowed him full access sucking hard on it as he wriggled his body against mine and moved his hand under my t-shirt to gently caress my own bare flesh.

We had already gone further than I had dared to imagine beforehand and I very nearly had a full blown orgasm, right there as I squirmed hopelessly in my seat. I had to stop for a minute to prevent, what would have been an embarrassing incident and I chuckled to myself as I recalled the night with Fran, just a few weeks previous and a few seats away from where we were sitting. She had sucked me for a good hour and a half before I managed to finish and yet here I was with Nathan, ready to explode, after just a few minutes of kissing and groping.

“Are you okay?” he whispered again into my ear, but I had never felt better.

“Yes, are you?”

He nodded. “Do you wanna stop?”

“No, do you?”

“Not yet,” he said and we didn’t, not until the end of the movie, although we did come up for air on a few occasions. We tried to keep ourselves out of the view from the other patrons, but I doubted that we had been entirely successful. As the lights went on, I noticed a few unpleasant looks from some of the people nearby—mostly older couples—so we stayed in our seats and kept our heads down, blushing, giggling and holding hands, until it was safe to leave. It felt kind of naughty, but as far as I was concerned, we had done nothing wrong. Nathan was my boyfriend and anyone who didn’t like it, was probably just jealous.

“Thank you,” he whispered again into my ear as we walked out.

“You enjoyed it then?”

“Oh yeah, it was even better than I thought it would be,” he said and I didn’t think that he was talking about the movie either.

“So do you wanna do it again someday?” I said as we walked out into the foyer.

“No,” he said, teasing me, “I wanna do again every day.”

When we got outside, it was dark, but not cold and we started to walk in the direction of the bus stops. It was not yet ten o’clock and I didn’t have to be indoors until midnight at the weekend. I was sure that Don and Sue wasn’t going to allow me anymore slack, when it came down to my curfew and I wasn’t about to test their patience, on my first night out since I had been grounded. However, that still left us with an hour and a half to spare, before I would have to catch the bus and I mentioned this to Nathan.

“Do you wanna go to the beach then,” he asked excitedly.

“But it’s dark,” I said.

“Come on, it’ll be fun, trust me.”

It was about a twenty-minute walk from the mall on King Street to Victoria Park, which ran behind the beach and up to the harbour. This was the most popular place in Cobourg, where all kinds of people gathered, for all kinds of reasons and I was surprised to see a few people still hanging around. I had never been there at night but the park was well lit, with concrete footpaths and a lot of open space. We passed the obligatory war memorial and headed across the grass in the direction of a huge band shell that stood in front of the now empty beach.

“In the summer they have parties in the park and they put up a big tent over there,” said Nathan, pointing to a clearing. “And on the first of July, they have a big festival with a funfair, live bands, a parade and fireworks. Loads of people show up from all over and it’s really cool.”

“Wow,” I said, “sounds like fun.”

“It is,” he said, “you do know what July the first is, right?”

“Umm, the first day of July?”

“Yes,” he said laughing, “but it’s also Canada Day, a national holiday, like the fourth of July in America. You might wanna remember that for Canadian history.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“And you call yourself a Canadian.”

“I may have been born here, but I don’t really think of myself as a Canadian. I like it here and I couldn’t see myself ever going back now, but it’s been difficult for me to adjust, you know.”

“Yeah, I get it. It must have been a lot for you to handle, so soon after your mom passed away.”

“Definitely. When I got here, nobody really understood that and there were things that they didn’t know about that I couldn’t tell them. It hurt me a lot…sorry we should talk about something else. Let’s go see the lake.” I sped up and turned to smile at him, before he caught me and bumped shoulders, almost knocking me over.

“I told you to stop saying sorry…next time I’m gonna hurt you.”

I stopped and turned to face him in front of the band shell. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said with a devilish smile. “Do you wanna be hurt?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll enjoy it,” he said and laughed as I inched closer.

“I’m taller than you,” I said, looking down at him from all of two inches.

“So!”

“I’m just saying that’s all."

“I don’t care.”

“Good,” I said and I had a quick glance around to make sure that no one was close, before resting my hands on his slender hips.

The smile disappeared from his face, but he made no attempt to move away. “People can see us dude.”

“So!”

“I’m just saying that’s all,” he said.

“I don’t care.”

“Good,” he said and I could feel his breath on my lips.

“So is this the bit where you lean forward and shove you tongue down my throat?”

“Don’t be so gross.”

“Sorry…oops.”

“Right,” he said, “now you’re for it.” He put his hands against my shoulders and pushed me backwards with all his might, causing me to stumble. I could have easily stayed upright, if I had wanted to, but I chose to fall instead, grabbing his shirt and pulling him down on top of me. We wrestled playfully for a few seconds, but I had every intention of allowing him to get the better of me and with any luck, take advantage of the situation. It was all going to plan when we were startled from behind.

“Hey; you guys, no fighting.” We both turned our heads towards the same direction to see two uniformed police officers riding along the pathway next to us on what looked like two sideways scooters. Nathan quickly jumped up and I followed him more slowly, brushing myself down and staring at their unusual method of transport, which I had never seen before and found both fascinating and amusing.

“He started it,” I said, trying to play along with their misinterpretation of our antics. Nathan looked a little bemused at first, as I snarled at him and more than a little apprehensive.

“No I didn’t,” he said catching on, “it’s his fault.”

“No it’s not,” I snapped back, but I made sure to turn my head towards him and wink.

“I don’t wanna hear it,” said the nearest officer, “whatever your problem is, get over it and go home, okay. No more fighting, this is a public place.”

“Okay officer,” said Nathan, “we will,” and he reached out his hand for me to shake, which I begrudgingly took, while mumbling under my breath. I was enjoying being in character and the opportunity to show off a few of my own acting skills to my thespian boyfriend.

It probably would have been a good idea at that point to make the most of our good fortune and walk away as they had expected, but I was curious about their mode of transport and my inquisitive nature got the better of me. I walked up to the still stationary officers and pointed to the weird contraptions that they were using.

“Is there a problem?” one of them said.

“What is that?” I asked.

“It’s a PT,” he said, “a personal transporter.” I tilted my head to get a better look at them, amazed at how they managed to keep their balance on two wheels.

“Cool,” I said, “can I have a go?”

“No, you can’t,” he said, as I walked in front of him, the nearby lamp lighting up my face.

“Hey,” said his partner, who up until that point had been quiet, “you’re the English kid I picked up last week, in the middle of the night, Robert, isn’t it?”

“Robbie,” I said, as I recognized him, giving him an awkward wave and cursing my stupidity. He looked me over suspiciously and then at Nathan, moving his head to one side, instructing me to get out of the way, which I did, very quickly.

“You guys weren’t really fighting were you?” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

“No,” said Nathan.

‘We should really get our stories sorted out’.

“Whatever,” he said, “get outta here and go home.” We agreed and sheepishly walked away in the opposite direction from where the officers were headed.

“You were picked up by the police?” asked Nathan, once we were out of earshot and I suddenly realized that I obviously hadn’t told him that part.

“Oh…yeah, but it wasn’t like that,” I said, “he just gave me a ride home, that’s all. It was after I left Fran’s house.”

“Oh…it’s okay…I guess,” he said, but we walked in silence as we followed the pathway up to the edge of the beach. “In the middle of the night?”

“What?”

“The policeman said he picked you up in the middle of the night, what time did you get home?” he asked. That was something else that I had conveniently forgotten to mention to him, during the few conversations that we had had since that eventful night. I knew that anything other than the truth at this point, would be extremely unwise.

“Four o’clock,” I said and I watched as he mouthed it back to me.

“You were at Fran’s house till four in the morning?” he asked as we walked along the edge of the beach.

“No three,” I said, “I left her house at three.” I must have sounded a little agitated and he moved closer to me, until we were rubbing shoulders.

“I don’t mean to question you Robbie, I know that it’s none of my business, forget it, okay?”

“No,” I said, “it is your business and you’ve every right to wanna know. If we’re gonna be…you know…boyfriends that is.” I stopped, jumped down onto the beach and then motioned for him to sit next to me, on the small concrete step that separated the sand from the sidewalk. “It’s not like it sounds. I got drunk at Fran’s house, but not with her, I was with her brother Philippe. You would like him, he’s nice.”

“Okay,” he said, squeezing up close and making himself comfortable.

“Well, like I said, I was drunk; too drunk to get home, so Philippe took me upstairs to the spare room where I passed out.” Nathan gave me a confused sideways look and I knew what he was thinking. “It’s okay, Philippe’s as straight as they come,” I said, “and his girlfriend was there as well. I woke up about three o’clock, but I couldn’t find my clothes.”

“He had to undress you?” he said and he put his hand over his mouth as he giggled.

“No Fran did, I think, but then she passed out too, only she didn’t take her clothes off.”

“Of course not,” he said.

“I know it doesn’t sound good,” I said and I went on to explain the incident in the bathroom, when I fell into the bath and even how Fran had had to hold me steady while I took a leak. “And that’s all that happened, there’s nothing else to say, it was all very innocent really.”

Nathan looked at me and started laughing. “I really gotta get out more,” he said, “I don’t have that much fun in a year.”

“It wasn’t fun,” I assured him.

“And it wasn’t innocent either, was it,” he said and turned to look me in the eyes. I sighed and looked down at my feet, aware of his disappointment.

“I’m….” He reached over and put his index finger across my lips.

“Don’t say it,” he said, “You don’t have to be sorry and I’m not angry with you.”

“I was gonna say that I’m hungry,” I said and he slapped me playfully around the arm as I laughed.

“I like being with you Robbie,” he said, “you’re a lot of fun and I think it was really sweet of you to want to explain everything to me. I know that you’re telling me the truth and I think that you’re a good person underneath all that mayhem.”

“I am? I mean I am.” I said and he laughed again.

“I don’t wanna boyfriend who’s perfect,” he said, “and believe me, you’re a long way from perfect.”

“Thanks.”

“Think nothing of it,” he said, “you’re a little rough around the edges and a bit of a rogue, but it suits you and I like what I see, so don’t try and change.”

“I won’t change,” I said, “except my underwear maybe.”

“Oh yes, please do that,” he said and he shuffled a little closer. “You can hold my hand you know, if you want.” I waited until an elderly couple had walked past us on the sidewalk behind and then reached out my hand, which he grabbed and held on top of his thigh. “I know that you like that.”

“I just like touching you,” I said, “and that wasn’t meant as a joke, even just your hand, it makes me feel good. I know that sounds really creepy and you’ll probably think that I’m weird, but…I dunno, it’s just…well…pucker.”

“Pucker?”

“Yeah,” I said, “pucker, you know, good.” I laughed. “You haven’t got a Scooby have you?”

“I don’t get it?”

“You haven’t got a Scooby,” I said, “Scooby Do…clue.”

We laughed and he rubbed my hand. “That’s so cool,” he said, “and I don’t think that you’re weird at all. I like touching you too. It does all kinds of weird things to me and makes me go all, you know, funny inside.”

“Really, I do that to you?”

“Of course you do.”

“I make you go funny inside, how funny?”

“Very funny.”

“Explain.”

“No,” he said, “but let’s just say that I may need a hot bath when I get home.” He looked away, blushing and smiling as he flicked his eyes back to me and then away again.

“I think that’s really cool,” I said. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, and I’m definitely gonna need one too, when I get home…unless you wanna have one with me?”

He laughed. “You’re a real smoothie, you know that?”

“I am?”

“No,” he said, “and that’s definitely not the way to get into my pants. But, you are getting better at it. I mean, it’s definitely an improvement on last time.”

I shrugged my shoulders, but I wasn’t disappointed, I knew that it was a long shot, but worth the try. “It’s okay mate,” I said, “I can wait. I was just trying my luck that’s all.”

“Robbie, I want to be with you okay and I want to do everything with you. I’m horny too, believe me I am, but not on our first date okay?” He looked around us before moving in quickly to kiss me, but he caught me unawares and failed to connect properly, catching me more on the side of the mouth. He laughed and then wiped some of his spit from my face with his thumb.

“That’s okay,” I said, “I totally understand, so what are you doing tomorrow?” It earned me another playful slap on the arm followed by another warm and much longer kiss.