Midnight Driving - 1. Midnight Driving

By KenderCleric

There’s something about road trips that is special to me. I can remember clearly each road trip I’ve taken over the years, and those memories are all among the happiest of my life. It never mattered to me where I was going or even who I was going with; it was the actual journey that made it all worth it. That rule held especially true the summer after I graduated. It had been a long and grueling year, and nothing sounded better to my friends and me than a long and aimless road trip before starting college. Looking back, I should have known that would be a special trip, but hindsight is 20/20, you know.

The summers in Texas start in early May and don’t end until late October. It was only 11:45 in the morning and the temperature for this early June day was already in the triple digits. As T.J. tossed the last of his luggage into the back of my Ford Explorer, the rest of us were stripping off our shirts and thanking god for the invention of shorts. Maps had been marked, luggage loaded, parents kissed goodbye (well…mothers at any rate), and snack food purchased. We were set. As we all piled into the car, T.J. hugged his little brother goodbye and jogged back to join us. So it was that at 12pm, we pulled away from his house and made our way onto the Interstate. I had volunteered to drive the first leg of the trip, and Matt sat in the front passenger seat performing the duties of our Road Trip DJ. Sean sat behind me, looking over the maps as the designated navigator. T.J. had taken post behind Matt, and after joining the rest of us in stripping off his shirt, began to inventory our snacks and drinks. It didn’t take long before we were speeding along the highway at 80mph, Metallica’s “I Disappear” blaring over the stereo, and the final remnant thoughts of school and mundane concerns fading by the mile.

As the sun slowly began its descent, the others had taken the chance to catch some sleep, and I was enjoying the quiet drive. I glanced over at Matt and chuckled. His legs were propped up on the dashboard, and his head leaned back into the space between the seatback and the window. The sun gave his tanned skin a slight golden glow and his short, spiky, bleach-blond hair was naturally highlighted. Mouth open slightly, I could hear his steady, but slow, breathing. It was a stark contrast, I thought. When he was awake Matt was a distinctly intense person. His passion for life burned like a star, and it was very easy to be swept away into one of his hare-brained schemes before you knew what was happening. Yet, there was also sadness deeper than any abyss on earth within him. His father had died earlier that year of cancer, and it had struck him deeply. It had been a long and painful struggle for his father, and one he ultimately lost. The pain of his father’s passing had turned into a mighty rage in those early days, but thankfully Matt was coming slowly back to himself. More than all that, though, he was my boyfriend and I loved him.

Glancing into the rearview mirror, my eyes fell on T.J.’s still form. His back lay against the door while his legs were pulled up to his chest. Arms crossed atop his knees provided a pillow for him. Eye-length hair obscured most of his face, but I could tell by the movement of his bare chest that he was asleep. I have to confess T.J. was always something of an enigma to me. A quiet guy most of the time, he could never fail to amaze when his passion for something flared to life. I can remember times when this quiet and unassuming guy would give way to a raging monstrosity when any of his friends were in danger. Questions about what caused this type of personality never were answered though as T.J. simply would not speak of his past. No one ever pressed him though. We were just happy to have him as a friend, and Sean to have him as a boyfriend.

Next to T.J., lying on his back with his knees pulled up, was Sean. Short red hair over his pale white skin seemed to gently wave as the shadows of fading sunlight played through the backseat of the Explorer. His hands rested on his bare stomach, rising and falling with each breath. Silent laughter echoed within my mind as I thought of the difference between the sleeping form of Sean and the normal persona. We called him Energizer for a reason, after all. In some ways he was like Matt with a blazing passion for life, but Sean’s was more a child-like energy to go and do no matter what it was. To anyone outside our group of friends he seemed like an annoyingly energetic and dimwitted person, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Sean was smart – scary smart. He simply didn’t care. He wanted to enjoy life, and he felt that pranks, a constant stream of bad jokes, and never sitting still longer than required was the way to do it. I’m not sure I can recall ever seeing Sean in a bad mood: quiet, subdued, sure, but never in a bad mood.

Focusing on the road again, my mind began to wander as I thought over how I fit into this bizarre group. My name’s Hunter and I suppose you’d call me the “big brother” of the group. The common sense, the straight man to Sean’s jokes, the balance to Matt’s intensity; all these things and more. I was the oldest in our group of friends which meant I’d been the first to get a car, and when I’d turned 18 at the start of our senior year, I moved into my own apartment. In some ways I was the school “rogue”. My parents had died when I was twelve and I was left to live with my 20 year old brother. Jack was a good guy, but at 20 he was focused more on college and his girlfriend so I had pretty much raised myself from that point on. I picked up a few bad habits, and since I knew Jack wasn’t going to come down on me for anything I stopped worrying about certain things. Lord knows this pissed off a teacher or five over the years.

“Hey man, pull over at the next station. Need to pee.” Sean grunted from the backseat. This seemed to rouse the other two from their sleep and they each mumbled their agreement.

“You got it,” I replied as I started to look for signs that would indicate where out stop would be.

We ended up stopping at an IHOP instead of a gas station that evening. After eating we got back on the road, but Matt took the driver’s seat so I could get some rest. It was around 11pm when I woke up as I felt the car slowing down. We were pulling into a rest station for what I assumed was a rest stop. Sitting up in my seat, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and glanced over at Matt.

“Pit stop?” I asked through a horrible case of cotton mouth. I must have slept with my mouth open.

“Yeah, Bunny can’t hold his coke,” he responded with a smirk, getting a smack to the back of his head from Sean. We called him “Energizer”, but on occasion we just called him “Bunny” to annoy him. It never failed to result in an assault from Sean.

“I need to stretch my legs anyway,” yawned T.J. as he too woke up and caught the conversation.

When the engine turned off, we all piled out of the car with various grunts while stretching kinks out of our legs and backs. The temperature had settled into the mid-seventies by then and there was a slight breeze that made the evening perfect. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feel of the breeze over my skin. I walked around to the back of the Explorer and opened the hatch so I could get to my backpack. It had been hours since I’d smoked a cigarette and I was starting to feel the urge. Slipping my pack of Mavericks out of my bag, I grabbed my lighter and shut the hatch. I made my way over to a small picnic table and lit up. God, that feeling was good as the first drag entered my lungs.

“You know, seriously, I’ve always wanted to know why you smoke, man,” said Matt as he sat on the opposite side of the table from me. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I shrugged. This was a conversation we’d had a million times. “No, seriously Hunt, why?” he asked, blowing off my attempt to avoid a serious conversation.

“I don’t know…just rebelling, I suppose.” I offered in a noncommittal tone. I didn’t really want to think about it, and didn’t understand why Matt was pushing this all the sudden.

“Rebelling? Against what? I mean, Jack’s always let you do anything you wanted,” chimed Sean as he sat down next to me. I was seriously starting to get a little edgy. Sean and Matt tag-teaming me was not part of the plan for this road trip. I took a deep drag off the cigarette and stared off into the darkness behind the rest stop.

“I don’t know,” I started quietly, “maybe exactly that. Maybe I was pushing my boundaries to see what Jack would let me get away with.” I shrugged and took another drag. “Fuck, I don’t know, I just did. What’s with the sudden intervention?” I asked a little angrily as I stared at Matt.

“Whoa there, little doggies. What’s with the hostile vibes?” T.J. asked as he approached the table from the bathrooms. I shrugged at him and took another drag. Sean glanced between Matt and me with a weary look, and Matt just stared at me. We should have known better than to let things get this serious for more than a split second, but things were suddenly too tense for us to think clearly.

“Okay! That’s enough of that! I’m tired of being stuck in the car, so let’s do something here for a while!” proclaimed Sean in an all-too-familiar tone.

“What’d you have in mind?” T.J. quickly picked up on the attempt to change the mood. Sean got a gleam in his eyes that we all knew meant a lot of fun, but a lot of trouble too.

“Why an all-time classic of course! Out here, in the middle of nowhere…no one else at the quaint backwoods rest stop. I declare a game of Truth or Dare!” Sean intoned in a great officious tone. We all just groaned and grinned, but no one objected to the choice. Games of Truth or Dare with Sean were never dull.

Now, I should have known something was up at this point. The serious tone Sean and Matt had taken only moments before when grilling me about smoking should have tipped me off. Those two rarely tag-teamed on anything they didn’t plan to see through to a conclusion. Matt had backed down too quickly at Sean’s suggestion, but I failed to notice. Even T.J. readily agreed to the game, and that never happened. I must have still been half asleep or something to have missed these warning signs.

“I’ll start us off,” Sean said quickly, “Matt. Truth or Dare?”

“Eh, hmm. Screw it – Dare!”

Sean cackled, “I dare you to spend the rest of the night – that is until sunrise – naked.” Matt, T.J. and I blinked, and even in the dark I could tell that Matt was blushing.

With a great deal of muttered threats and curses, Matt stood and kicked off his trainers. Crisscrossing his arms in front of him he grabbed the bottom sides of his t-shirt and yanked it over his head. I noticed his nipples had gone hard in the cool breeze and grinned. He laid the shirt on the picnic table and reached to his shorts. They were black nylon soccer shorts, and he tucked his thumbs under the band of both them and the plaid boxers underneath. In one quick jerk both the shorts and boxers were around his ankles and he was stepping out of them. Try as I might to not stare, I couldn’t help it. The faint light of the street lamp nearby cast a shadowed glow on Matt’s perfectly tanned bubble butt. I blinked as it dawned on me he must tan naked by his pool. His limp cock slapped his inner thigh as he moved to pick up the remaining clothes and put them on the table. Once he’d pulled his socks off and added them to the pile, he resumed his seat and glared at Sean.

“My turn now, asshole.” Matt snapped at Sean who was grinning like an idiot. “Truth or Dare, Sean.”

Sean smirked and quickly responded with, “Truth.”

The game went on for another forty-five minutes, and we were all now sitting naked around the picnic table – payback is unimaginative, I’ve learned. We decided it was getting a bit chilly and time to get back on the road. As we gathered our clothes and moved back toward the car, Sean announced he’d take a turn driving, and T.J. asked if he could sit up front with Sean. Matt and I agreed and climbed into the backseat. Four naked guys in a car in the pitch dark of midnight is a recipe for interesting things to happen, and happen they did. As the sun began to creep above the horizon the four of us agreed it was time to get dressed. The temperature was already rising, and with the prospect of another scorcher day we all decided on wife-beaters and soccer shorts, sans underwear. After pulling on our clothes on the side of the road, T.J. took the wheel and Matt snuggled up against me on the backseat. All in all it had been a great start to our road trip.

Four days later, we found ourselves in a beach town in California for a night of bar hopping. The car had been left at the hotel and we enjoyed the walk down the beach from club to club. It was getting late and the four of us were pretty well sloshed. As we walked, or rather staggered, along the beach heading back to our hotel T.J. wrapped his arms around Sean’s waist and Matt leaned against me, his left arm over my shoulders and his head on my right shoulder. The stars shone brightly and the gentle sea spray kicked up by the breeze was great. Unfortunately, moments like that never seem to last. Caught up in our own alcohol muted thoughts we didn’t notice the group of people around a small campfire further down the beach, but they noticed us.

“Hey, Pete! Look at the fags!” yelled one of the guys standing by the fire. Instantly Matt stood up straight, and T.J. broke off from behind Sean. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew things were about to turn ugly. We turned to head back up toward the street and away from the group ahead of us, but several of them broke off to follow us.

“Hey Fags!” one of the group bellowed from behind us. My eyes narrowed and my pace slowed. Matt’s hand rested gently on the back of my shoulder, urging me to just keep walking. Another few steps carried us forward and then it happened. Sean dropped to one knee with a shout of pain as something large hit the back of his head. T.J. and I turned briefly to look at Sean. Matt turned and looked at the group following us. A quick glance between us was all the warning the group of punks got before the three of us rushed them.

I hurtled toward the largest of their group and dropped my right shoulder low impacting it right against his ribcage as my arms wrapped around his waist. My 220 lbs of muscle drove the kid into the sand and knocked the wind out of him. Behind me I could hear the impact of Matt’s fist against another of the kids and T.J.’s roar of rage indicated a third was suffering the price of their actions. As I came to my feet I snapped my knee across my victim’s chin as he sat up. His eyes instantly glazed and he fell back down onto the sand. As I looked to my left I felt the impact of a fist against my kidney and grunted out a curse. My elbow flew back as I spun low and was rewarded with a yelp of pain as it impacted. As I turned to face my attacker, I could see Matt lay out his target with one of his titanic left hooks to the kid’s right temple. I brought my hands together, interlocking my fingers and slammed the double-fist across the face of the one I had just elbowed. He dropped to the sand with an impressive half-twist.

Looking up, I quickly saw T.J. being overwhelmed by three of the remaining teens, but just as quickly I saw Sean charging at them. “Wow are they fucked.” I thought to myself. Sean was not only smart, he was one of the dirtiest street brawlers I’d ever seen; one of the few things he’d picked up from his father that none of us begrudged him. Knowing the two of them would be fine I looked to Matt as he picked up a scrawny attacker and tossed him like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. In a matter of moments the fight was over. We got lucky that night and we knew it. None of the kids who had decided to start shit with us really knew how to fight, and we’d walked away with only a few bruises and T.J.’s split lip. “Not bad for four drunk fags.” we joked the next day as we loaded up the Explorer.

Three days and a few hundred miles later saw us driving through the Smokey Mountains in the middle of the night. Matt was driving and stared out the passenger side window while T.J. and Sean were snuggled against each other in the backseat. A quiet background noise of music kept us company as we drove the winding paths of the highway through the mountains. I glanced over at Matt and couldn’t help but smile. He had his Texas A&M cap turned backwards and a small lock of hair stuck out the front. His right leg was pulled up against his chest and rested on the door. The pair of boxers had ridden up a bit and his cock was showing out the end of it.

“Hey, unless you’re trying to tease me or somethin’, put it away, babe,” I said quietly and poked him in the arm. He looked over at me a bit confused then down at his lap and blushed. He quickly pulled at the tight boxers and the peepshow was over.

Clearing his throat, he glanced at me. “So I hear that sunrise in these mountains is amazing. Tanner and Brian made this trip last summer – said we shouldn’t miss it if we had the chance to see it.” I grinned. His tone made it clear he really wanted to see this fabled sunrise.

“Sounds good. See if you can find some kind of rest stop or someplace like that to pull over. We can just sleep in the car tonight and watch the sunrise in the morning.” He nodded and I went back to staring out the window.

Not too long after the conversation I heard Matt take a sharp breath and the car quickly slowed down as he pulled over to the right shoulder. I gave him a curious glance and the others stirred out of sleep at the sudden braking of the car. “Here” was all he said, before turning off the engine and slipping on his sandals. Curious, the rest of us slid on our sandals too and followed him out of the car. I can only describe what we beheld as breathtaking. Here, on the side of a curve in the highway was a larger-than-normal shoulder that looked out over the rest of the Smokey Mountains. When the sun began to rise this spot would be amazing to see the sight. I smiled and wrapped my arms around Matt’s waist as I walked up behind him. “Ya done good,” I whispered into his ear and he leaned his head back onto my shoulder.

We spent the remainder of that night sitting by the car on the camping chairs I had brought. We talked about whatever came to mind for hours and enjoyed the freedom of being able to do so. Then, as we lounged there, our wait was rewarded with a sight I swore I would remember until my dying day. As the sun rose above the horizon its tones of orange and gold illuminated a scene of rolling mountaintops, fog, trees, and a clear blue sky. The combination was breathtaking. None of us spoke for nearly an hour, as we knew to do so would ruin the experience. Matt and I leaned into one another as did Sean and T.J. and together we just enjoyed one of the greatest gifts we’d known in our lives. As memorable as the rest of that trip was, we all knew that it had culminated to perfection in those moments.

I thought back on those days and couldn’t help but smile. It was all so perfect then. Those few hours on that mountain side with Matt. Then the pain returned and I yelled out. My leg felt like it was on fire, but it was only a phantom pain. The world came flooding back into sight, and I stared up at the unforgiving Iraqi summer sun half obscured with black smoke. My ears rung with residual noise from the explosion, the shouts of my unit, and gunfire. Memories of the patrol, of the I.E.D. (improvised explosive device), and of the pain came crashing back to me like a tsunami. Then as darkness began to creep into my peripheral vision, I knew I’d been right. I couldn’t help but smile as the sights and sounds of the world faded into that blackness. I had said I would remember that sunrise the day I died, and so I did.

© KenderCleric 2006