Pupuseria Mia - 7. Chapter 7

It was hard not to go to his family's restaurant. We texted a lot – and I mean a lot – and we did a couple of video calls, but all that really did was remind me we weren't together. It was a weird feeling, this growing idea that I wanted to be around him even when he was kind of accessible through my phone. I looked at his photo streams and his videos. I watched our dance video a ton of times and even thought I caught Claudio giving me a few smiles that were just for me, but then I was starting to think I wanted everything this boy had to offer.

“Bry,” I said.

He grunted.

“If I wanted to find a way to...extend my vibe with Claudio...how could I do it?”

I glanced over at him, and he didn't respond for a moment, but then turned his face toward me. “You mean, like, being here? Not just the phone?”

“Yeah. Being here.”

He sighed and shook his head. “You and me, bro. We are so the same.”

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“I'm into Marina. I hate the idea that I spent part of my vacation on Shana and I'm running out of time to see what Marina's all about. She totally makes me want to know more about her, and I've been thinking really hard on what to do about it besides give up and go home.”

I cleared my throat. “And have you...come up with any ideas?”

He sighed. “Just one. But it's kind of...only half an idea.” He looked at me. “This place needs workers, and if we could land summer jobs we would have a reason to stick around.”

I sat up. “That's brilliant.”

He shook his head. “Except for where we'd live.”

I shrugged. “The weather is nice. I have a car. We could sleep in the car.”

“Classy and desperate all in one,” he said with a laugh.

I pointed at him. “I'm going to figure that out. When I do – are you in?”

He looked at me and widened his eyes. “You're serious.”

“I'm as serious as the amount of a dick your dad is.”

He chuckled. “No one is that serious.”

I lay back and thought. There had to be a way.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

With just a few days left in our vacation, Claudio and I were wandering the streets on a breezy evening. We were planning on ending up at my room, but for now we just were talking and wandering. We had no destination, no real plan other than extending our time together, and I felt good that he and I were having the same feeling of just wanting to be together.

Eventually we climbed the fence to the town park – right over the spot where they'd attached the sign announcing the park was closed at dusk and violators would be charged with trespassing – and started walking across the field to the picnic area. Moving between the shadows of the pavilions and the grilling stands that stood like silent sentries, he pulled me to a tree and then pushed me against it.

“Now I gotcha,” he said with a grin, and he stepped in close.

So, kissing. It's kind of like one of the basic things in anyone's intimacy toolkit, right? My grandpa used to have a lot of tools, and he had some he'd keep locked up and others he'd leave lying around. You might be tempted to think he left his cheap tools unguarded, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong, but mostly he kept his good tools – the ones that worked well – away from places where they could sprout legs.

Generally the cheaper tools would wear easier, their coatings would flake away faster or discolor – sometimes they'd break. I'd once thrown a socket away because I was afraid he'd be angry I'd broken it, but he was mad I'd thrown it away, because it was guaranteed. That's when I learned about good tools and things that were merely usable. I wasn't allowed to touch the good tools for a while, so my screwdrivers would have rounded edges on them and screws were hard to turn because of that. The ratchets would skip teeth sometimes.

But one time my grandpa took me when he went to help a friend who was having car trouble, and he pulled out a canvas bag and unlocked his good tool chest and started putting things in to take with him. I remember asking him why he was taking his good tools away from the house where they could get lost.

“Rion, I'm going to be in a spot where I won't have my toolbox,” he'd explained. “If you have to take what you need with you, take things you can count on. If I took crappy tools, they might fail me when it's important.”

“But Grandpa,” I'd said. “Your good tools can break, too, like the socket I broke.”

“Sure,” he'd said. “But you take the things you know best and that you trust. Nothing is guaranteed.”

I'd thought about that a lot, and you always need a toolkit when you go to do things, even if it's not an actual bag of tools. If you're going to pull an all-nighter to get something done for school, then you get some energy drinks, make sure the battery is charged on your school laptop and that you have snacks – that's critical. Hooking up was different, and you had to learn what the tools were you needed. Shaving. Cleaning out. Not getting out of the ride share when the area looked skeevy.

Kissing has its own toolkit. Some people would say it's just a tool you bring along in your intimacy toolkit. Okay, other people may not say it, but I do. If it's a tool, it's a really important one. Nothing breaks a mood like slobbering, boogers or a chipped tooth. It's kind of like fooling around on the beach – sure, you're having fun, but what about all that sand in the crack of your ass?

Claudio understood the assignment when it came to kissing. It was fire, but not rushed. He seemed to match my speed and moved with me. His tongue...some guys feel like they're trying to tongue your hole via your mouth – or the very worst ones don't want to kiss. Somehow kissing is way more intimate than shoving their cock inside you. Claudio didn't do either one of those extremes, rather mixing in probing with his tongue between tasting my lips and putting a hand behind my head to give him some control.

The kiss isn't all about the lips and tongue, though. It's also about the body pressed to you, the way his hips shift and his knee presses between your own. It's about the hand on your hip that slides up enough to touch the skin under your shirt. It's about being nearly out of breath until you’re sure you can't survive a moment longer and you'll asphyxiate, and that's okay because of his lips, and then you get just a gasp in, just enough to let you keep going.

Claudio can fucking kiss.

Leaving me breathless and needing that tree for support, he broke the kiss and put his chin on my shoulder, his cheek to mine. We stood like that, molded together in the darkness beneath the shade tree, nothing in the world besides us and a mosquito that was trying to ruin the mood.

“I wish you could stay,” he said softly. “It's so hard to find anyone you can just...exist with, let alone someone you actually...just...want to be around.” He coughed lightly. “Sorry. That was supposed to be in my head.”

I tightened my grip on him. Don't say it. Don't say it. “What if...I got a job. Here. In town.”

He pulled his head back and looked at my face, which couldn't have been that easy. The darkness was definitely sinking its fingers into the park at this point.

“Have you applied somewhere?”

“Uh, well, no? But...seems like there are places I could.” I swallowed. “You know, get a job at.”

With a nod he said, “You can get a job at my family restaurant. We always need delivery people.”

“You think?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “We hire people every year, and more people want food delivered than ever. Plus, we've let people use the small room in our shed as a bedroom – it even has a washing machine and a little shower. You know, just for the summer.”

I felt dazed having pulled the trigger on a far-fetched idea. “Uh. Well. I mean...should we?”

He pushed against me and in the dark whispered in my ear, “I want you to stay with me.”

^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*

“Bro. Did you include me? You know your mom is going to lose her shit when you tell her you're going to do this, right? I mean most parents probably would, but your mom? She's going to get here, and she can track your phone.”

I put a hand to my forehead. “I wasn't thinking, Bry.”

“Yeah, obviously, which is why you need me,” he said. “So we go down and apply, Claudio gets us the bunk room thing, and we both get to see if we can extend our vibe while being there for each other. It's a done thing.”

I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. “Our vibe? This is about you and Marina.”

He tilted his head. “Are you seriously going to tell me she's not good enough for me? Bro?”

I shook my head. “Nope, but you can't pretend like this is all about backing me up, either.”

“Truth. It's better. We're backing each other. It's perfect balance, bro.” He held a hand up. “But honestly? I'd do it. Last summer with my bro in a beach town on our own with jobs that let us sleep in? I'm not seeing a downside.”

I chuckled. “You're right about my mom. I haven't even mentioned Claudio to her.” I thought for a second. “Maybe the better thing is if I just tell her the vacation got extended? You'll be here, we can send her the occasional beach selfie of us...that could work.”

He grunted and was silent for a moment. “You know, that might be the best option. Your mom is just the type to show up and make a huge deal, no offense. Total vibe killer.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied. “What about your parents?”

“Dad's not much of an obstacle. Mom...well, let's get the job first, then I can have some extra leverage.”

With a grin, we headed out to go apply for the delivery jobs. We caught the bus into town and made our way to Pupuseria Mia and were met as we entered by Marina.

“We're closed,” she said as she looked up. “Oh. What are you guys doing here?” She took a few steps closer to us and lowered her voice. “Claudio is in the kitchen working on prep.”

“We're here to apply for delivery jobs,” Bry said. “Claudio said you always need delivery people for the summer. He mentioned a bunk room?”

Her eyes went wide and then narrowed before she turned and shouted. “Claudio! Ven aquí ahora mismo!” Turning back to us she pointed at me. “You're trouble.” She pointed at Bry. “You're not helping.”

“I am, I am!” Bry insisted. “You don't want us to leave soon, do you?”

“Yes!” she hissed. “The sooner Claudio stops moping around about this one leaving, the sooner our parents will stop asking each other what's going on with him!”

“Marina,” I said, my tone expressing my hurt. “I thought you...I mean.”

She tilted her head and dropped her chin. “Wanting my brother to be happy comes second to his being safe. Do you have any idea how much it would hurt him if our family found out?”

“Rion,” Claudio said in a happy tone. I glanced up at him, and he checked over his shoulder before looking back to me and smiling widely. “Did you come to apply?”

Marina rounded on him and started speaking rapid-fire Spanish. Claudio frowned and started giving it right back to her.

“Uh, guys? Someone – guys? Someone might hear you,” I said, moving toward them and trying to get their attention.

“Qué es todo esto gritando? “

Like a really bad comedy, we all turned to look at their mom approaching us. She glanced at me and Bry, waved to show she saw us and returned her attention to her kids.

“Mama, these are my friends, you remember? They came to apply for delivery jobs. I told them how they could make deliveries and how we have the room in the back yard,” Claudio said, taking charge before his sister said...what? She was kind of stuck, now.

“Oh? You are going to stay for the summer?”

“It's our last summer before college,” Bry said. “When Claudio told us about the jobs, it sounded like the perfect way to go. We have to get jobs anyway, why not do that here?”

“It is a nice little town,” she said with a hint of dismissal in her tone. With a shrug she said, “Okay. Claudio, get back to the kitchen. Marina, get them shirts – you start tonight.”

Claudio smiled at us and then turned and headed back into the kitchen with his mother while Marina turned quickly back to us.

“You can just go home now and drop all these stupid ideas of yours,” she said.

I glanced at Bry and back to her. “I don't want to leave him. We need some time.”

With a sigh, she went to a small closet beside the host stand, got us each a tee shirt, and told us to be back in an hour – we would eat together before the restaurant opened. We didn't really wander anywhere. There was no point in eating, and we were kind of excited to start this little venture. We ended up helping to set a few places up for the before-shift meal, and it was a little like eating at the family cookout. We were introduced again, and the family was nice and welcoming. The meal wasn't leisurely, though, and once things were cleaned up, we were given a few small assignments, like putting some trash bins outside for people who would pick up food and eat outside or whatever.

About an hour after opening, the delivery orders started to come in. There were bikes with baskets on the back of them to load up and make deliveries – and we soon saw why, as there was no way cars would be able to move freely in the evening. We used our phone GPS to get us back and forth to deliveries and got decent tips for most of them. I actually felt like I was making progress when I could find my way back to the restaurant without needing the phone.

By the end of the night we were tired, yet kind of invigorated. I assumed that would wear off, but it was a new experience.

“You guys going to crash in back?” Claudio asked after work, referring to the 'bunk house' as Bry called it.

“I'm going to walk back. I need a shower and stuff,” Bry said.

“Oh, yeah, I probably should do that,” I said, looking back to Claudio.

He smiled. “I could try and dress you in my clothes after a shower but,” he leaned in close and lowered his voice, “not sure I wouldn't just make you dirty again.”

Okay. I was definitely thinking about making bad choices now. We hadn't hooked up, but there was some serious tension right now.

“Really you two?” Marina sighed as she exited the building. She hooked Claudio's arm. “Do it somewhere else! Right in front of the restaurant? Are you suicidal?”

I smiled at Claudio and he grinned back as his sister pulled him away, shifting into Spanish.

We headed back to our room, and Bry asked, “You think things will be really bad for him if his parents find out?”

“His sister seems to think so. I think Mauricio said something, too.”

He shook his head. “I don't get it. People have to deal every day with people being into them that they aren't into. Why is it such a fuckin' mess?”

I grunted. “Religion, this time. What's your dad's excuse?”

“Pretty sure he's just an asshole; no higher power required,” he said with a snicker.

After a moment I said, “Kind of sucks, though. He wasn't always like that. Right?”

He shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we just didn't see it for what it was when we were little? Not like we were dealing with stuff like this, so when it came up...there he was, being an asshole.”

“Must weigh on your mom.”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “So I'm thinking I'll tell mom about the job and stuff tomorrow. I think she'll be okay with it, but maybe she'll try and talk me out of it. Who knows.”

“I hope my mom doesn't talk to yours before we pull this off,” I joked. With a sigh I said, “I'm going to wait a few days – closer to when the vacation was supposed to end – before I tell my mom about the job.”

“Yeah, valid. Fifty-fifty that she still drives her ass down here.” He paused and then said, “I really don't get that. It's not like you're an idiot. You're not in trouble more than any other guy our age. It always annoyed me how she thinks your business is her business; no privacy at all.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I guess I can understand when you're little, but you have to let people grow up.”

“Not if your mom has anything to say about it!” Bry said with a laugh. “I'm surprised she was letting you go to college.”

“I'm surprised your dad would let you go,” I replied. “I mean, you're going to learn all these things and become a member of society. Scary!”

He laughed and shoved me. “So...think Marina's single?”

I shrugged. “Probably doesn't have time to date in the summer.”

“I was helping at the cookout, trying to get to know her a little, but she's preoccupied with what's going on with you and her brother. I know some girls are into some guy on guy action, but eww.”

I chuckled. “Yeah. She's actually worrying me a little bit. I mean...I don't want to be responsible for getting Claudio cut off from his family or something. Am I being selfish here?”

“I don't think so,” he said slowly. “I mean, yeah, you could decide it's too much of a risk and leave to protect him, but then you're making decisions for him like your mom does for you. Realistically, he'll come out at some point, or the issue will come up, and his family will have to deal with it – but it’s his family's choice on how douchey they want to be. Doesn't change facts.”

“Facts don't seem to matter to some people.”

He sighed. “Are we really going to talk about my dad again? I swear, sometimes when he talks he's so sure that it makes you wonder if he knows something no one else does.”

We walked a bit in silence, but as we approached the door to the room I stopped. “Hey. You know...thank you. For sticking with me with the whole gay thing and with this summer job and stuff.”

He frowned. “Fuck you.”

I widened my eyes. “What?”

“Seriously. Grow some fuckin' balls, Rion. Don't you think you have a right to expect people that call you their friend to actually act like one? What would it say about me if I drop you for being gay? Or for being into me? Sure, it can be a little awkward, but fuck, bro. You really have to expect more – and hold people to it. If I'd been a douche to you about all this, you should have dumped my ass.”

I frowned. “I don't think it's that easy. I mean, feelings get tangled up, and other people give you shit – you even said people online talk about us looking sus and fruity and zesty.”

“Big fuckin' deal,” he said in a bored tone. “These people don't affect me, even the ones at school that said shit. That's their problem, not mine. I mean, it's not like you're a racist or a Nazi or something. You're gay. What kind of bro am I to turn my back on you? It's not like this is some charity thing, either. We work because it's equal. I know you always want the best for me, even if I didn't like what you were saying about some girl I was into at the time.”

I smiled a little. “Are you admitting I was right about your dating life?”

“I am not,” he said. “But I'll admit your heart was in the right place. Who else would tell me about something like that? Sure, maybe I should have listened, but I was horny – and turns out so were you, so not exactly unbiased.”

We entered the room, and I protested. “I wasn't trying to stop you from dating so I could date you!”

“Maybe not,” he admitted while pulling off the work shirt. “But if I wasn't dating, then it was more time for us.”

“Wait. Rion was into you? Dad was right?” Jim asked from his perch on his bed.

“Oh my God! You guys would be adorable together!” Kim said.

Bry looked at me. “See what you started? You get to explain. I'm taking a shower.”

“Okay, okay,” Jim said with a hand in the air. “I know it's not like what my dad was saying, but...are you guys together?”

With a sigh and an eye roll I said, “No. He's my best bro, I'm his. No romance or sex.”

“But...sounded like...?” Kim held a hand out.

“I love him,” I said simply, feeling my face grow warm. “If he was gay I probably wouldn't even look at anyone else. But we talked it out. Little awkward, but...yeah. We're good.”

“You owe me five bucks. Pay up!” Jim said to his girlfriend.

“What?” I asked, shocked.

“What do you mean what? You guys are so close, was it really that much of a stretch?” Kim asked with a grin. “I was half right, anyway.” She looked at Jim. “I'll give you two-fifty.”

I sat on my bed. “Jim. You were betting on your little brother's love life? Seriously?”

“Whoa, whoa. Love life? He can't string together more than a month for a relationship. In fact, you're the longest relationship he's had, so...not that much of a stretch to think you guys are bumping uglies. Not that I actually think about that.”

I grinned. “You totally did.”

“It's his latent homosexuality,” Kim agreed. That set off a round of teasing, and I checked out of it when Claudio started texting me. He was settling in for the night, but when he sent me a goodnight selfie with the sheet pulled down low enough to see his v-line...I was suddenly thinking about how he'd promised I'd have gotten dirty all over again at his house.

Bry emerged from the bathroom, and I hopped off the bed. “My turn,” I told him as we swapped spots. Then...I sent a selfie of my own.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Sunday we had to tell the parents, because that was the end of their reservation. Due to whatever was going on between Bry's parents, we hadn't seen much of them – though I was glad to have missed out on time with his dad. Bry went over to talk to his mom about the job, and Jim and Kim went to back him up. With us intending to hang around, I made the call to my mom.

“Oh! I thought you'd forgotten all about your poor old mother,” she said. “Are you about to get on the road?”

“Uh, sorry for not calling. It's been really busy here – great! Great time, got to spend a ton of time in the water. So. No phones. In the water.”

“Well that's perfect. I know I'd probably sit out and read a book all day, except you know how easily I get overheated, and my skin really can't take the sun or the saltwater, so it's really wasted on me. It’s a nice idea though.”

I shifted the phone to my other ear. “Yeah, so, I wanted to call so you don't worry-”

“Now I'm worried. What's wrong?”

“No, nothing!” I said and tried to chuckle. “It's good news – Bry's mom got a deal for us to stay an extra week. So I wanted to let you know I was going to take advantage of that.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Doesn't she have to work?”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, I don't know how she handled that. Maybe they're...closed?”

“A hospital?”

“Maybe. For, like, renovations? I didn't really ask. I was more focused on another week at the beach.”

“What about her husband? You want to spend another week with him?”

“Actually, I haven't really seen him outside of dinner the first night. He's been...kind of doing his own thing. We saw Mrs. Bethune, but that's it.”

“Oh. Well, at least she was checking in with you guys,” she said, not really sounding pleased. “But things are okay?”

“Yeah. Things are great,” I replied.

“Well. Okay. I mean, it sounds weird to me, but if you say so,” she said in that leading tone of hers.

My mom has several tones to watch out for. Some people mistake it for other things like sarcasm. Mom's not really into sarcasm. What she likes to do with me is to go fishing to see what I might say that she can leverage into telling her more things than I wanted to. It's kind of exhausting, but I've grown to figure out when she's up to things enough to evade her once in a while.

“Okay, well, I'll call later,” I said, trying to sound sincere.

“Uh huh. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

As I hung up I let out a breath. Okay, bought myself a week, and I'll worry about next week...next week. That night we worked hard again, but more of it was doing things around the restaurant, because Sunday was something of a transition day. People were usually leaving from their week-long stay, and sometime people were arriving Monday or Tuesday, which is why they were usually closed on Mondays.

That evening we did a big cleanup, and we had dinner at the restaurant before things closed up for the night. We were kind of beat, but also kind of excited as we followed the Gutierrez family back to their home. They were talking quietly, maybe due to being tired, but also because it was late. Claudio walked a little slowly, and I matched him, giving us some space from everyone else.

“So Marina is going to try and pump your friend for information about you,” Claudio said with a smile curling the ends of his mouth.

“Again? She might get more than she thinks.”

He chuckled. “I told her if she likes him, just say so.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Does she like him?”

He tilted his head from side to side. “I think she likes that he likes her. Not that hard to tell, you know? But...I have to warn you. Don't be surprised if she wakes you up at dark o'clock to 'go for a run with her',” he said. Holding up a hand at my confused expression he said, “I'm warning you. I already told her not to, I threatened to tell mom some of her secrets, but...she knows I never would. She thinks we're going to make a scandal in the family.”

“Well...seems more like she's worried about your family's reaction.”

“It's true,” he said agreeably. “But I think they will still love me. Love's tough, you know? It doesn't just...shut off. I mean maybe for something like murder.”

“Some people seem to put being gay in that category,” I said quietly. “I don't want to make trouble for you.”

“Ah, you're trouble. So much trouble,” he said with a grin. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. We got back to his family home, and he led us behind Marina and Bry, along the side of the house again to the back yard. A small building – maybe a one car garage at one time, though I didn't immediately see a way to get into it with a car – lurked under the cover of tree branches.

“Marina,” Claudio called out softly. “We're going to take a walk, okay? See you later.”

“We're walking?”

“Only until we start kissing,” he whispered and took off for the street. I followed behind him, though a bit more slowly since he knew where he was going and I didn't. Out on the street he was several feet away, backing up slowly and with a grin on his face. I bolted after him and he took off, giggling in the moonlight. He slowed a block away and took my hand, pulling me along as he led us toward the center of town. Shortly I recognized the main street, and then he led me onto the pier.

The pier was long, though I'm not very good at describing measurements – maybe a city block? It had space for larger ships to pull in, and it's where the whale watch ships docked for tourists to board. We walked, hand in hand and fingers interlaced, to the end of the pier, where we sat down, feet dangling toward the water.

“I like to come here in the summer, especially at night,” Claudio said quietly. “The smell of the ocean and the breeze are always nice, but it's also quiet and somewhere I can think a little bit. I find it calming.”

“This is really cool,” I said just as quietly. “I love places like this. Quiet, breezy – and I love the salt air.”

He glanced at me and smiled before looking back out to the water. “I love my family. They are loud and fun and crazy, and they love and fight like nobody else exists. But sometimes,” he said with a sigh, “I need to be able to hear myself think, you know?” He looked at me. “I need a space to clear my head of all the...noise...from the restaurant, my sister and, you know, life.”

“Yeah. I get it,” I said softly.

“I want you to know I'm scared. Marina's right. No matter how it ends up, my family is going to go through some changes when they find out about me. It scares the shit out of me, but I also know it's inevitable, because I'm not going to hide in a corner all my life.” He smiled gently. “I just want it to be worth it. For the person I'm with to be worth it.”

“I....”

“I know,” he said, looking away. “It's a lot to lay on a guy I've only known a few weeks. I mean, at least you can go home.”

“No,” I said with a bit of amazement. “No, I can't. I can't just leave you. Look, I...I don't know how this plays out between you and me, but us together is...we have such a strong vibe. I can't just...go back to a lot of nothing. I want to know how our story goes, and I'm here for it.”

He scratched the back of his head and grimaced at me. “I was trying to give you a way out, you know.”

“Well...stop it.” I swallowed. “I mean, I get it. I don't have the same bond with a big family, so I'm not risking the same things you are. But I also think, for me, I have to follow this thing. I want someone I can be with – something special.”

He leaned in, and I met him for a kiss that started to escalate. Suddenly he broke the kiss and stood up, pulling on my arm. I scrambled to my feet and let him tug me into the darkness on the sea side of one of the buildings on the dock.

I've discovered that sex is like a lot of other things in life. It sounds pretty simple, but some parts are more complex than others. Sometimes sex is just about attraction and getting off. Sometimes it's about intimacy without commitment. Sometimes it's just about feeling the warmth of another person, even if it's for a moment. I think I've experienced all those in one way or another.

This wasn't the same thing. This was desire mixed with a commitment and a desire for intimacy and getting off, all rolled into one. I don't think anyone is being honest if they say some part of sex isn't about the end result, but more importantly, it's not the only reason for sex. There in the shadows by the sea Claudio and I had our first taste of what the future may hold for us. A sense of the possibility, one of the highs of us being together.

It might have been a romantic thing to talk about years later if we'd actually made love there, but let's be real – neither of us had shown up with lube or condoms. This was spur of the moment – a two guys falling for each other moment, where our passions got to a point where clothes simply had no chance. For me it was a feeling of bliss – all the tactile input, from the breeze across my skin, to his hands on me, to my hand in his hair, to the full body warmth of being pressed together.

Honestly, if it weren't for hormones, that would probably have been enough for me. But once I grabbed hold of him, he was quick to respond, and that – with the kissing – was enough to reach one of the goals of getting naked with someone. Our discarded clothes were our only protection from the boards of the pier, and working our way into position was awkward, because it felt so exposed despite the darkness of the shadow from the building. Finally, though, we were in such a state that it became a matter of urgency to get the other to finish, and with hand and mouth we set to our tasks with near-religious zeal.

The afterglow faded slowly, and we pulled our clothes back on. We walked the pier for a bit, just talking about anything and everything – families, friends, things we liked and didn't. Eventually we were back to the side of his house, though we didn't quite dare to kiss in the darkness with the family home looming above us.

I made my way to the small bunk house and let myself in. In the darkness I put on the flashlight from my phone and picked my way to a single bed, while in another Bry breathed gently in sleep. I lay back on the thin mattress and smiled in the dark.

I think I'm falling in love.