The Year I Stopped Being Invisible - 22. Chapter 22

I stood with Taine and Sly in the parking lot behind the Sizzler, where we had just had a wonderful dinner following a very important conversation about Sly's commitment to being a good father to Taine and his acknowledgement and support of our relationship. But none of the three of us were smiling.

The reason for our sudden change of mood was Sly's cherry-red Lamborghini Countach, which was sitting in front of us looking like it had been out in the worst urban slum imaginable on an all-night bender. All four tires were slashed flat, the mirrors were broken, the windshield had been shattered, and the glistening body had been covered with some of the filthiest words in the English language in crude black spray-paint.

I looked shocked, Taine looked stricken, and Sly...well, he looked like he could fight an army. He didn't say a word, just went over to the car and began inspecting it for damage. Neither I nor Taine was about to break the silence.

While Sly fumed, Taine came with me to the payphone to call Rex. We weren't going to be riding home in the Lambo that night, so we had to make other arrangements. I don't think any of us spoke until Rex's white Chevy Nova pulled into the parking lot. Rex didn't get out, but I saw his eyes narrow as he surveyed the damage. Sly shook Rex's hand as he got in the passenger seat, and I knew he was doing his best to stay calm for Taine, who sat behind me limply in the backseat, totally drained by the events of the last two hours.

"Welp," said Rex, "they hit us, now they hit you, and now it's our turn again. Whod, you should probably stay over at Sly's house tonight."

Sly nodded his agreement.

"Okay," I said.

We rode in silence until we reached the Maxwell house. Sly shook Rex's hand again before looking back at us.

"You guys go inside and get some rest. Don't forget the alarm codes. Rex and I are going to go back and...uh...get the car towed."

I didn't believe him. I had a pretty good idea what Sly and Rex were up to, and felt -- if I was reading Sly's tone correctly -- that Kevin Gorman was not going to be having a very pleasant evening.

"Be careful," I said, as I led Taine from the car.

"We'll be careful," Rex grinned, but there was no humor in his eyes.

I nodded gravely as the Nova rolled backwards out of the driveway and took off down the street.

* * * * *

Taine lay in my arms as I reclined on his soft, warm bed. His breathing was shallow, and growing more so as he rubbed his face sleepily into my chest and tightened his grip on my side with his right arm, which was curled around me like I was a pillow.

"Your shirt's really warm and soft," he mumbled. "It's nice."

I stroked his hair absently as I stared up at the patterns my mind imagined in the white stucco ceiling of his room.

His stereo was playing a typical Taine dirge.

White on white translucent black capes

Back on the rack

I angled my face down and kissed him on top of his head, the cap sitting jealously on the duvet next to me.

"You sleeping?" I asked softly.

"No," he whispered. "I was just thinking"

"'bout what?"

"About how things always seem like they're getting better," he sighed, digging the side of his face into my sweatshirt as if trying to crawl inside me. "And then they don't."

Bela Lugosi's dead

The bats have left the bell tower

I raised up a little on the pillows in concern, hugging him closer to me.

"What do you mean, Babes?"

He threw his right leg over both of mine and squeezed me tight, struggling with his words. We lay there for a few minutes in silence, feeling each other breathing, just being comforted by each other's presence and closeness.

Finally, he raised his head and rested his chin on my chest.

"I'm sorry," he said, his eyes closed and his smooth, beautiful cheeks slightly flushed.

The victims have been bled

Red velvet lines the black box

"Sorry? You've got nothing to be sorry for, my sweet, precious angel."

I took his face gently in my hands, as Sly had done in the car earlier. Then I brought him forward a bit and bent my head to kiss him lightly on each of his closed eyelids. He was, as someone once wrote, the kind of boy who was meant to be kissed upon the eyes.

Taine smiled wanly, then laid his head back on my chest and hugged me tight once again.

"I do," he said into my warm fleece sweatshirt, and then the words began to tumble out, hard and fast: "Ever since you met me, I've brought you nothing but trouble. You got mixed up in that mess with Coach, you got in a car accident, you got in a fight, you got suspended, your dog got murdered, and now people want to kill you, kill your family..."

He began to sob, and I could only hold him close, speechless in the face of his deep, dark well of guilt and self-loathing.

Bela Lugosi's dead

Bela Lugosi's dead

"It's just me, Ricky!" he cried suddenly. "And now Dad finally tells me he loves me and his beautiful car gets trashed, destroyed...It's just me! That's what I meant in that note. Don't love me, Rick. It will only hurt you...over and over again, it will only hurt you."

"What?" I breathed. "No, Taine. No...that's not true. None of that is true..."

"It is," he insisted, burying his face in me again. "Everything I touch dies."

Undead undead undead

Undead undead undead

I smirked, grasping both of his wrists and pulling him over me, then down on the other side of the mattress, rolling until I was on top of him, gazing down into his wide, startled eyes as I held his arms above his head.

"Is that what you think?" I asked in a fierce growl.

He nodded at me, tears still rolling from his eyes.

"Well, I'm going to prove that's not true," I said.

With that, I reached down and peeled off his t-shirt, sliding it up and over his head and outstretched arms in a single, deft motion.

He looked up at me, startled. We had never gone even this far before with each other, and I think my boldness may have slightly alarmed him, breaking his self-blaming reverie.

That was kind of the point, although certainly not the only point.

The virginal brides file past his tomb

Strewn with time's dead flowers

I tossed his t-shirt aside and renewed my grip on his wrists, holding his arms above his head and smiling hungrily at the sight of his pale armpits and their silken axillary hair. I let my eyes travel across the alabaster skin of his slender torso, Taine's large, pinkish-brown nipples starting to rise in the cool air-conditioned room. I was dizzied by his flat, beautiful belly, with its smattering of soft down leading to his still-hidden sex.

I laid down on him until our faces were less than an inch apart.

"So, kill me," I whispered, and kissed him, passionately, my left hand caressing his cheek, while my right still loosely gripped both of his wrists above his head. As I began to trail kisses and nibbles down his slender neck, I released his wrists and let my fingers glide, lightly and teasingly, down the soft skin of his inner left arm.

Bereft in deathly bloom

Alone in a darkened room

I felt him begin to shiver as my lips brushed down his chest, my tongue flicking down to his sensitive nipples, which I took in my mouth, sucking and licking them each in turn until Taine moaned with ecstasy, raising his hips and grinding our hardened cocks against each other as they strained at the clothing which bound them.

"Mmm, Rick," Taine sighed, biting his lower lip and closing his eyes in pleasure.

I raised myself briefly to remove my sweatshirt, dropping it on top of his t-shirt and cap in the growing pile of clothing next to our gyrating hips. I stood at the foot of Taine's bed, undoing the button and zipper of his loose cargo pants and slipping them easily from his slender young body, taking his boxers as well.

The sight before me was electrifying, causing me to exhale slowly in pure wonder as I gazed upon Taine's beautiful, naked body, exposed to me completely for the first time.

Everything about him was perfect, simultaneously angelic and erotic. I wished that I was an artist so that I could paint the ultimate, sensual vision which presented itself in front of me.

"You..." I whispered. "You are beautiful."

I quickly removed my jeans, pulling down my white briefs and allowing my throbbing cock to escape. I was so hard, so excited by the first sight of my lover, all of him, that I could barely breathe. I forced myself to slow down, placing a hand on each of Taine's slim, perfect ankles, then gently sliding my palms up his smooth, slender legs as I lowered myself back to the bed.

Showing remarkable restraint, I didn't go right for his erection, which -- like the rest of him -- was absolutely gorgeous and perfect. I did, of course, pause to admire it as it pulsed achingly against his abdomen, a thin, pearly drop of fluid glistening at its silken tip.

Instead, I let my fingers trace the delicate bones of his hips, and the curve of his slim, warm waist, lowering my lips to kiss his small, indented navel and inhaling his faint but intoxicating musk. I lingered, teasingly, kissing and nuzzling his belly until he was almost bruising my neck with his urgent, repeated upward thrusts. Smiling, I raised my head from his belly and stroked my hand slowly along his side as I turned my attention to the place to which Taine was so insistently attempting to direct me.

As I took him gently in my mouth, I thought that maybe I was tasting Heaven.