String - 15. Perfect

I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant Kyle told me about a little before the time he’d said to meet him there. I wasn’t surprised to see his car already there of course. I parked the car my dad had given to me as a gift. Sure, it was a “dad car” which meant it was from his used car business, but it was reliable and got me where I needed to go. I left my phone in the car like I’d promised. I saw from the sticker in the rear window of his car that Kyle had a parking permit at the Penn State campus. The restaurant was in a little plaza just off the interstate that passed through Belle Vernon. Kyle was waiting in the lobby area.

“You made it on time,” he said, sounding surprised. He was dressed like usual, nice pants, Penn State t-shirt and a he was wearing an unbuttoned flannel shirt that matched his t-shirt, like he was a grunge rocker from the 90’s. As always, he was wearing a set of dog tags on a necklace that dangled around his neck.

I held up my empty hands. “No cell phone – like I promised.”

Kyle smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without it. You look good. I’ll let the hostess know you’re here.”

Kyle talked to the woman at the counter and she led us back to our table in the corner of the restaurant. Kyle ordered a Diet Pepsi and I ordered a Dr. Pepper.

“So what do you suggest I order?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It’s an Italian restaurant, so you can’t go wrong with much. I’m getting the eggplant parmesan.”

“I’ve never had that before,” I said.

“I’ve heard good things about this place, so I doubt they’ll screw it up.”

I ended up getting lasagna.

“I saw the Penn State parking sticker in your window. You go to Penn State for classes or something?”

“I’m going in the fall. My brother went there. It’s his car.”

“Oh,” I said. “You have a brother, then?”

“Three of them,” Kyle replied. “I’m the youngest.”

“Oh… Cool.”

“Yep… Kevin, Keith, Kenny, and me.”

“So your family did the themed name thing?”

Kyle looked at his watch. “Yeah…” he said.

“So did they all play in the band too or…?”

“They all played football. I’m the misfit of the family.”

“I guess you’ve always just kind of done your own thing then?”

“Might as well be yourself, you know?”

Our food arrived. Kyle ate very quickly.

“Is the eggplant good?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s perfect,” he said. “You want to try a piece?”

“Nah, that’s okay.”

Kyle shrugged his shoulders and went back to his meal. I continued to enjoy my lasagna. It was also quite good.

“Can I ask about your dog tags?” I asked.

“Sure,”

We sat there for a minute.

“Well?” I asked.

“What? You said you were going to ask about them,” Kyle said.

“I just thought… So what’s with the dog tags?”

Kyle lifted the necklace off his neck and handed it to me. The dog tags turned out not to be for military but were memory tags, one with a picture engraved on it of a very young Kyle and his mom, the other a little memorial tag with a heart and “Kelly McHenry 1968-2010” carved on it.

“Your mom?” I asked.

Kyle nodded.

“God, you were so young,” I said. “I sort of remember back when she died. What happened?”

“It’s called a glioblastoma. Inoperable, aggressive brain cancer. Killed her in nine months when I was ten,” Kyle said.

“Damn. I kind of remember there being like fundraisers and stuff for her when she was sick. Sorry,” I said, handing him back his necklace. He slipped it back on. “That must’ve been terrible.”

“People die all the time,” Kyle said.

“Mothers of ten-year-old boys shouldn’t,” I replied.

“Well they do,” he said. “Terrible things happen all the time to good people. And good things happen to terrible people. That’s life.”

“Well it sucks that it happened to you,” I said.

Kyle looked at me. “So what’s your story, Jake?”

“I don’t know, I like Minecraft and Skype and stuff.”

“No no no… This is terrible tragic past time. You learned about my dead mom, what’s your tragedy?”

“Uh, my parents got divorced a few years ago and fought over me like a piece of property,” I said. “I guess that was pretty tragic.”

Kyle nodded. “They accept you being gay?” he asked.

“Sure, I guess. They’re pretty cool about it.”

“My dad calls me the ‘queer son.’” Kyle said. “That’s how he introduces me. “Have you met my queer son, Ky?” That’s actually him being accepting. He used to call me the ‘fag son’ but then he realized he sounded like a bigot.”

“Man…”

“You can’t blame the guy. He’s done the best he could with me. The other boys, at least he could relate to them. Take them for a fishing trip, throw a football at them, wrestle them and get the aggression out. That sort of thing. Then there’s me. I hate fishing, I couldn’t throw or catch a football to save my life and I don’t like to be touched. I would just write poetry day after day after day. So yeah, he did the best he could. Bought me my trumpet when I asked him for it. They’re not cheap, you know. He’s just let me be me and left me alone. That’s all I really want anyway.”

“So you’ve never… You know…”

“Never what? You should quit hinting around at things and just ask.”

“Okay, you ever done it?” I asked.

“I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I wasn’t trying to pry or anything.”

“Sounds like you were.” Kyle sighed. “That’s pretty personal. Okay, I was probably thirteen when I had sex the first time. Usual story. Drama camp counselor and the wounded kid with no mother. The kind of stuff you read about on the internet. I never told on him. He was nice. Cute too. I liked the attention I guess.”

“I… I never would have thought… You realize the guy took advantage of you, right?”

“I wasn’t exactly an innocent victim. I wanted it to happen. I wouldn’t change anything about it. What about you? What was your first time like? Was it with Rossi?”

“No, it was with Ryan Crawford,” I said.

“The band geek and the football hero? Another classic trope.”

“We did it before he was the big hero,” I replied.

“The rumor I heard was that you and Rossi did it at band camp,” Kyle said.

“Who told you that?”

“Just the rumor going around.”

“I told Danny not to say anything.”

“I wouldn’t blame him. Those beds squeak so loudly you can tell if someone farts three doors down. If you did it on the bed, everyone on that floor probably heard you. Sex makes an unmistakable sound on a squeaky bed.” Then he imitated the sound. “Squeak-ah squeak-ah squeak-ah…”

“Damn,” I said. “Well, I guess I don’t need to tell you the rumor was true then.”

“I’d figured that out, yeah. You want dessert or anything?”

“Sure.”

Our waitress came by to see how we were doing.

“You have a dessert we could share?” Kyle asked.

“We have the warm fudge brownie with ice cream on top.”

“Give us that with two spoons. And one check for the both of us, okay?”

The waitress went off to complete Kyle’s requests.

“I’ve never shared a dessert with someone before,” I said.

“You don’t mind, do you?”

“Hey, you’re paying,” I said.

“So, when was the first time you knew you liked boys?”

“I guess when I realized I wanted to spend more time with Danny than just a friend would. He was there for me when my parents got divorced.”

“As I was growing up, my house was a total sausage factory. Dicks everywhere. When I was little, I’d see my brothers naked and how they were getting bigger and hairier and I guess it turned me on. I knew I was gay even before mom died. Weird huh?”

“I don’t think that’s weird.”

“You don’t think it’s weird I liked to see my brothers naked?”

“If they looked anything like you, I’m sure they were nice to look at.”

Kyle blushed. Our dessert arrived. “That’s nice of you to say. I’m the only redhead in the family. I’ve never really thought of myself as attractive. My brothers would joke around all the time that I had no soul.”

“I would never say that!” I lied.

“I was surprised when you asked to go out. I figured with the way you and Danny are close… He really doesn’t like me.”

“I’ve always liked you, Kyle. At least respected you for the way you play. And I like red hair, especially the way you grew yours out.”

Kyle smiled for maybe the first time during our date. “Yeah, I used to always have a buzzcut, remember?”

“Yeah. It looks good now.”

“This is as long as I’d ever grow it. Any longer and my dad will start thinking I want to be a girl or something.”

“I think it’s perfect the way it is,” I said.

“Does Danny know we’re going out tonight?”

“He’s on a date,” I said. “I half expected him to show up with some bimbo here tonight.”

“So how does a guy who has sex with anything that moves end up with a guy like you?”

“I moved I guess,” I said, taking the last bite of our dessert. “Rolled over actually.”

“You’re a funny guy, Jake. I’ve always liked that about you. You have that ‘I don’t give a fuck’ kind of humor, like me. So, you want to come back to my place, catch the sunset?”

“I’d love to,” I said. “You live in Donora, right?”

“Yeah, but to catch the sunset in Donora you have to go to the park. You want to follow me there?”

“Sure,”

I got in my car and followed Kyle back across the river and through Donora to Palmer Park. He led me to the little pond they had there and we sat down on a little bench by the tree, looking across the pond at the setting sun.

“They used to have a real crime problem here back in the day,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to sit here much after dark before it would have gotten bad. Drugs, prostitution, you name it. But they cleaned it up pretty good since then.

As the sun drifted behind the hills I leaned over and rested my head on Kyle’s shoulder. He put his arm around me.

“I’m glad you said yes to going out with me,” I said.

“I’m glad you asked,” he replied.

I scooted even closer to him and put my hand on his cheek. I felt him smile. Then I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He returned the kiss. I rested my hand on his thigh, but he very gently took my hand and shifted it away from him. I pulled away from the kiss and smiled at him.

“Sorry about the hand,” I said.

“Yeah, not quite ready to go there with you yet,” Kyle replied. “This has been a perfect date, I don’t want it to get messy.”

“That’s cool.” I replied.

“Look.” Kyle pointed up at the brightest star in the sky. “That’s Venus,” he said.

“Looks like a star to me,” I said.

“That’s why it’s called the “Evening Star,” even though it’s a planet. We should probably get out of here before they kick us out.”

I grabbed Kyle’s hand as we walked back to our cars. “This has been great,” I said.

“Yeah it has,” Kyle smiled. “You surprise me, Jake.”

“Because I went a whole hour without looking at my phone?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d be so interesting,” he replied.

“You thought I was interesting? I thought you were bored,” I said.

“Sorry, that’s just the way my face always looks, like I’m not interested in anything you’re saying. People think that all the time. I really enjoyed this tonight.”

“Me too,” I said. “You want to do it again?” I asked.

Kyle smiled. “Yeah. Why not?”

I leaned into him and we kissed again. We were about the same height, which made kissing him feel very natural and effortless. As we each went to our car, a police car rode by to make sure we were leaving. I licked my bottom lip. I could still detect a hint of fudge brownie and vanilla ice cream.

At Monday’s play practice, Kyle’s Phantom mask arrived. When he put it on it was as if he became a different person, as if that was the last thing he needed to complete his transformation into the Phantom.

“He looks better with half his face covered up,” Danny suggested.

“Shhhh…” I replied as I watched him own the stage. I almost forgot my own part as I watched him. After practice was over, Danny found Kyle and me talking together.

“Hey, good job there, Kyle,” Danny said.

“Thanks,” he replied.

“You ready to go, Jake?” he asked.

“Actually, I was going to stay and go over some lines with Kyle. He’ll take me home, okay?”

Danny looked at the two of us suspiciously. “Okay…” he said. After he left Kyle wasn’t too happy.

“You didn’t tell him we’re going out?” he asked.

“I don’t need the aggravation in my life.”

“I don’t even know why he doesn’t like me.”

“Jealousy,” I replied.

“Why would he want my suck-ass life?” Kyle replied.

“We really did have some lines to go over,” I said.

“At the Mexican restaurant we’re going to,” Kyle said.

“I didn’t tell him where we’d be going over the lines,” I said.

That was how it was for about a week, I kept making excuses to spend more and more time with Kyle and Danny grew more and more suspicious. I would even sing to Kyle Christine’s line to Raoul, “Think of it, a secret engagement…”

“Yeah, but then your line is “What have we to hide?”” Kyle reminded me.

“Absolutely nothing,” I replied.

“So tell him we’ve been going out for a week. Don’t leave the poor guy hanging.”

I went to find Danny and sat down next to him after practice.

“You know I’m going out with Kyle, right?” I said.

“Yeah,” Danny said. “It’s kind of obvious the way you’re trying to sneak around with him.”

“You’re not mad are you?”

“Why would I be mad? I’m happy for you. It’s your life. You want to be bored listening to him drone on and on about how much better music was in the 90’s and stuff that’s your right. It’s not like he’s a bad guy, he’s just too much for me to deal with sometimes.”

“I find him fascinating,” I said.

“You always had weird tastes,” Danny replied. “Jake, don’t let me interfere with your happiness. If you like him, go for it.”

“’Go for it,’ huh?” I said.

“I mean, he’s going to graduate at the end of term, so you better enjoy it while it lasts. I’ll still be around to be your best friend. You know that.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry I doubted you.”

“Dude, I said I was going to run him over in the parking lot once, you were right to be a little worried about how I’d react,” Danny laughed.

I’d arranged for Kyle to come over to my place to meet my mom one evening before we went out, but as soon as he walked in the door she knew who he was.

“Kyle!” she said with a smile and greeted him with a hug.

“Hey, Karen,” he said.

“You two know each other?” I said.

“Kyle’s mom was PTO president before she passed. Kyle, how have you been? How’s your dad?”

“He’s fine. Just counting down the days until I go to Penn State,” he replied.

“You were so little when everything happened. Oh I can't believe how much you look like your mother! Look how big you’ve gotten!”

“We’re going to head out,” I told mom. “I just wanted you to meet him.”

“You got yourself a good one, Jacob,” mom said. Kyle blushed.

“Well, my mom likes you, so that’s a win,” I said as we had dinner together.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t expect that reaction from my dad,” Kyle relied. “He’ll be all like, ‘Ky, I don’t need you bringing more queer boys around here,’”

“You don’t know until you try,” I said. “I want to meet him.”

Kyle laughed. “You want to be subjected to a bunch of homophobic crap?”

“No, I want to be there for you,” I said.

He shook his head. “Okay, let’s go after dinner,” he said.

“You’re not going to warn him I’m coming over?” I said.

“Nope,” Kyle replied.

After dinner, Kyle drove us to his house in Donora. I’d never spent much time there. It was the kind of town you drove through to get to someplace else. I didn’t expect Kyle’s house to be so run down, like it hadn’t been cared for in ten years, and considering what had happened, it probably hadn’t been. I was also surprised by how small it was considering Kyle had three older brothers. Kyle told me he’d shared his bedroom with Kenny until the older brothers moved out and then Kenny claimed their room. We walked into the house, and I was surprised by how cluttered and messy everything was. Kyle’s dad was sitting in a recliner watching television.

“Hey dad, this is Jake. He’s Karen Finnegan’s kid,” Kyle said.

Mr. McHenry glanced up from the television to give me the once over.

“Finnegan?” he said.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

“Is your dad the used car dealer down in Charleroi?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“He sold me a clunker back in ’08. Might as well open up a lemonade stand with all those lemons he sells.”

“I think he sells the best cars he can find,” I said coldly.

“Jake’s in the play with me,” Kyle said.

“He another one of your queer friends?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been going out.”

Mr. McHenry gave me a more thorough look over. “You don’t look like a queer,” he said.

“And just how should a ‘queer’ look?” I asked feeling my temper start to rise.

Mr. McHenry thought about it for a minute. “I like him, Ky,” he said. “Got that good Irish blood in him. Tell your mom I said hi,” he said. Then he went back to his television show.

Kyle took me to his room. It was cleaner than the rest of the house, but not by much. I’d never seen so much flannel. His walls were decorated with some posters from 90’s bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Clothes were piled on top of his dresser. He had a laptop computer on his desk. There were stacks and stacks of paper with writings and drawings all over the desk. And there was also a picture of him and his mom. It was the same picture engraved on his memory tag.

“Sorry about the mess,” he said, pushing some of the clutter out of the way. “It was even worse when my brothers still lived here.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. I sat on the bed and Kyle sat on his desk chair.

“We didn’t always live like this. Once mom got sick the whole place went to hell. As each of my brothers moved out, dad just lost more and more energy. Nowadays, he works and comes home and sits there for hours. I think he kind of died a little bit too when mom died.”

“It must’ve been hard on him,” I said.

“I was kind of hoping he’d like flip out and try to throw us out or something,” Kyle said. He slipped off his flannel and threw it on a pile with several others. “Would have made the night more interesting.”

“I see you like 90’s bands,” I said.

“My brother, Kevin, liked them and I kinda learned to appreciate then too. Today’s music is all prepackaged autotuned crap. Back then it was real music. The 90’s were kind of that in between place from the 80’s hair bands until nu-metal came along and screwed everything up. Then everything got packaged up and everything sounds the same now.”

“I’ve never paid much attention,” I said. “I guess it does all kind of sound the same.”

“You know who’s fun to talk to about music?”

“Mr. Reilly?” I guessed.

“Mr. Reilly’s into more classical stuff. No, his husband, Billy. He’s into Metallica and Motorhead and harder stuff like that. I was almost late getting back to the stands before the fourth quarter once because we got to talking about music.”

“I’ll have to give it a listen,” I said. “I’ll check it out on YouTube.”

Kyle shook his head. “You and your technology. You ready to go home?”

“I don’t mind staying,” I said. “Why don’t we listen to music together, and you can tell me about it.”

That brought a smile to his face. He dug through the papers on his desk and pulled out an old Walkman CD player. He grabbed a pair of earbuds and offered me one. Then he sat on the bed next to me and listened on the other earbud. The two of us sat there until nearly midnight, listening to music with the cd player between us.

“Oh man, it’s late!” I said. “I need to get back home before my mom sends a search party.”

“You want to stay here tonight?” Kyle asked.

“Your dad won’t mind?” I asked. Kyle just laughed. I sent my mom a text to let her know I was staying with Kyle. And then used the bathroom.

“I don’t have any night clothes,” I said.

“You can sleep in your underwear if you want,” Kyle suggested. “That’s how I sleep.”

“You don’t mind?” I asked.

“Jake, remember? Sausage factory? I’ve seen it all before. I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Cool,” I said. I slipped off my shirt and tugged off my jeans.

“Just throw them anywhere,” he said.

Kyle pulled his t-shirt off and his pants as well. He took off his necklace with the memory tags and draped it over his bedpost. I enjoyed the sight of him without a shirt on before he turned out the light. He was built about the same as me which you normally couldn’t tell because of the way he dressed. He laid down on his bed and offered me some space to join him. We both lay there on our backs looking up at the ceiling for quite a while. Then Kyle’s hand very lightly brushed against mine. He didn’t pull away. Instead, he started gently stroking my hand. I looked down in the darkness and I could see a very obvious tent had formed in Kyle’s underwear. I very slowly reached over and slid my hand across his underwear to nudge his bulge.

Kyle grabbed hold of my hand. Great, I thought he was going to brush my hand away. He didn’t though. Instead, he guided my hand under the fabric of his underwear and down to his dick. I felt his hand slide into my underwear as well. He wrapped his hand around my dick and squeezed it. I could tell from the way it felt that Kyle wasn’t circumcised, like Ryan’s dick had been. We did that for a while until Kyle lifted up his hips and slid out of his underwear. I did the same so that we were both naked. We turned on our sides so we were facing each other. Kyle leaned in and kissed me. Things got more intense as we kissed. I rolled back onto my back and pulled Kyle on top of me. The kissing just got more and more passionate. Our hands explored each other’s body. I grabbed hold of his ass and squeezed it with both hands. I pulled my knees up toward my chest. Kyle sucked on my nipple and I ran my fingers through his hair. When he came up for air, I could see the desire in his eyes even in the darkness. He reached down under his bed and when he came up, I felt something wet on his fingers slide between my legs and into my asshole. I grabbed my knees and pulled them toward my chest, offering him more access to my secret places. Kyle rubbed the stuff on his dick and then I felt him push against my ass. Then he slid into me.

“Fuck yeah,” I said.

“Shhhhh…” Kyle put his finger to my lips. He began to rock his hips against me, slowly but intently. The pace never increased, just a slow steady rhythm. Kyle’s body felt warm as he lay upon me. I reached down to jerk myself off, but again, Kyle took my hand and brushed it away. Only after a few minutes of steady pounding did his intensity increase until he was firmly pounding me.

“Ah… Ahhh…” he cried. I mean literally cried. He released into me, and my own load splattered between us without me even having to touch myself. Kyle collapsed on top of me, overcome with emotion. I wrapped my arms around him and held him against me. We fell asleep holding each other all night long.