The Best Year - 56. Chapter 56 Epic-log Part Three

I felt Luke get out of the bed not too long after everything got quiet in the house. I heard him shuffling his feet across the hardwood floor. Opening my eyes, trying not to shift in the bed, I looked over at his dark figure bent over, looking for his flip flops. Not seeming to find them, I watched him reach for the lock. When it clicked, I noticed him jump and look behind him. It was just dark enough in the room that I didn’t think he could see that I was still awake. I had almost fallen asleep, and I knew if I had I would have been out until sometime in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day out on the beach, churning up the sand by passing around a football and trying to wrestle one another into the ocean. The girls had chosen to lay out in the sand, and we had our stretch of beach to ourselves, the only other people around us was an older couple that gave us a wide berth.

He was mostly quiet through most of it, only really talking when Derek and Toby’s persistent teasing got the better of him. When I thought he was coming up from leaving home I would catch him staring off into the distance, the furrowed eyebrows and frown coming back to him. I knew he was thinking, wanting to be back there. The voice he wanted to hear most from wasn’t any of ours, teasing, trying to break his walls. Toby and Derek were just trying to get him back here too, and I spent most of the evening shaking my head, covertly trying to get their attention. To get them to knock it off when I thought they went too far, all that got me was cheeky assed grins from both of them.

Luke wanted space, that much I knew. I just didn’t want to give him any knowing he would allow his mind to travel back north and a couple hours earlier. When the couples started to naturally drift together, Ally made an excuse to go back up and get drinks, but she never made it back down. Luke sat inches from me on the sand, both of us sweaty with patches of sand all over us. There was a patch of it on his chin that he must have picked up after a wrestling match with Toby, who took passing a football way too seriously. I wanted to reach over, every muscle in my body burned from the tension to brush it off him. To get his attention off the bright orange and pink sunset and darkening ocean, to me. Thinking that if I could keep his attention, I could keep his other intrusive thoughts at bay. The sun kept eclipsing me though, even after it completely disappeared from the sky and the stars came out.

There was a talk of a bonfire and if the beach allowed for that sort of thing. Heather ended up looking it up, we all groaned when she told us that they weren’t, aside from a designated area down by the pier about a mile on down the coast. We stayed until the girls wanted to get the gritty sand out of their swimsuits. They took a shower together and it was amusing how Toby and Derek hovered by the bathroom door upstairs like displaced puppies whining at the closed door..

After the door swung open and gently closed, I rolled out of bed. I neglected, but nearly tripped over the flip flops we had kicked off after coming inside. I could feel the grains of sand on the hardwood under my feet, still tender from not being used to the sand. I looked through the blinds, the security lights lighting up most of the back deck and the small swimming pool just away from the grill and picnic table closest to our room. We hadn’t talked after our separate showers and I had felt him so intense that goosebumps rushed across my skin after laying down. He had been quiet, even his breathing barely made a sound, it all fucking drove me insane.

I didn’t see him, so I cracked open the door and pulled it towards me. I felt the cooling off, but still humid air wash over me. I could smell the water and after I gently closed the door behind me, I heard the ocean and gentle footfalls down the wooden deck that had to be his.

Slowly, I started walking, blinking as my eyes adjusted after I cleared the back deck light. The darkness that came easy to him, even out here and away from his well known trails, still bothered me. There weren’t any tree roots tripping me up here though, no briers snagging on my clothing and the deck was mostly even and smooth to walk on. There was a hose that went along it, with a spout in the middle for people to wash sand off their shoes, but no one had used it. Feeling along the railing, my hand bumped into it, but Luke had already crossed the entire deck and I could just see him standing out on the beach. Sighing, I glanced up at the rising moon, it seemed larger in the sky out here where there wasn’t much else on the horizon to compete with it. It brightened the beach, but the ocean still looked black and depthless, ever moving. There were boat lights well out and away from the beach. Scanning on down, I saw people out walking around with flashlights, scanning the sand for something. Not knowing what, I picked up my pace and when my feet hit sand, I looked over at Luke. If he heard my approach he didn’t acknowledge me despite my whispered swearing.

“I knew you weren’t really asleep,” He said after I closed the distance and stood beside him. We were still yards away from the beach and the wet sand. Turning my head, I saw him glance in my direction.

“I fucking couldn’t,” I groaned balling my right hand into a first, planting it against my side so I wouldn’t reach out and touch him.

“I know,” he said and I felt sand hit my leg and I looked down to see Luke gently kick it in my direction. “I couldn’t either.”

“Do you want to be alone?” I asked, feeling a bead of sweat that had nothing to do with the humid air make its way down my temple. My hands were clammy, so I relaxed my fist and rubbed them along the sides of my shorts. After our separate showers, Luke dressed into a pair of shorts and a shirt, way too many clothes that I wanted to see on him. Annoyed, I decided to pull on a pair of shorts over my boxer briefs too. Luke had lost the shirt not long after we pulled the covers up over us, and I started the war with myself on whether or not I had wanted to roll over and pull him to me in the bed. I hadn’t, instead I watched Luke turn his back to me completely, so I did the same. In the king size bed, we might as well have been in our own beds back home. I felt the distance in every part of me.

“No,” he answered and I let out a breath, it came out as a louder sigh and I saw Luke glance in my direction. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I said, reaching for his arm. When my fingers slid against his skin, I felt the muscles in his arm tense.

“I know this isn’t the trip you had planned,” he said as he broke contact and started walking down towards the ocean.

“You being here with me is enough for me,” I countered as I fell in step beside him, the uneven sand making it cumbersome in an entirely different way. Luke seemed just as sure footed beside me as he always did though.

“Liar,” Luke argued and when he looked over he smirked, a fast half-hearted smirk that was followed up with a grimace. “I wish I hadn’t said anything before we left, I wish I had just told her that I was leaving, and left.”

“I’ll go out tomorrow, have Mom get us a rental,” I said, reaching up to grab his shoulder, to stop him. Our feet hit smoothed out, wet sand and I thought he would stop, but he hadn’t. I didn’t want to get wet all over again and the dark, black water looked more scary to me than inviting.

“I don’t want you to,” he countered, shaking his head. “I want to forget how I left things back home.”

“Then forget it,” I said, feeling my face warm, knowing it was stupid of me to say, but I never was any good at this.

“Just be Luke,” he whispered and I jumped when his hand found my wrist resting on his shoulder. “Do you remember telling me that?”

“Not really, no,” I answered and when he smiled the memory did come back to me. A lot of other things had happened that night that I remembered a lot more.

“You don’t know how much what you said changed my entire mind,” he said as he held my wrist on his shoulder. I watched him take a half step towards me and I swallowed, not blinking. “You made me want to try that night.”

“I was just trying to calm you down,” I said and his smile widened. My heart hammered in my chest and the more he talked about that night, the more I remembered it. How much I already wanted him, how much he had stubbornly placed himself firmly in my mind. How part of me still wanted to fight it, and hoping I would lose that fight and see where it led us. Luke had been scared, reeling against himself so hard. I hadn’t ever seen that sort of struggle in a person and if I still wasn’t mostly an ass, I probably would have been more torn up about it. Put more thought behind the fear I heard in his voice as he kept repeating that he couldn’t be gay over and over again. The words had shot out of my mouth before my mind formed them.

“It worked,” he said and I had enough and moved my hand from his shoulder to the back of his head. I pulled him closer as his hand left my wrist, the back of it sliding across my chest, catching between us as I crashed myself into him. When he freed it, I sighed when I felt him grab my side just as I kissed him.

When he kissed me back, I relaxed and let go of the back of his head. Moving my lips against his, I let my hand fall to his shoulder. I felt him shudder when I moved lower and grabbed his waist, pressing him against me. We weren’t the only ones out here though, and I was already anticipating him stopping me, but groaned when he broke the kiss after hearing a squeal of a young girl. Feeling him jump I held him, more than ready to kiss him again not really caring who saw us out here.

“No,” I hissed when he backed away from me. “Just fucking no.”

“Shut up,” he said as a wave finally made it up to our ankles. Not expecting it, I jumped and looked out across the ocean. Feeling Luke release me completely, I saw him in a blur out of the corner of my eye. I heard him meet the next wave and felt the splash from the violence of the collision.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled as he let another wave crash into him. He was already up to his waist, his paler skin glowing against the darkness of the water. The moon’s reflection never really able to take a nice shape with the constant movement of the waves down here on the beach.

“Come on in, we never really got too deep earlier,” he said and I watched him waving me towards him.

“Fucking no, I’m not doing that,” I said as I crossed my arms against my chest.

“Why not?” He asked as he continued backing into the water and I watched wave after wave hit his back. He allowed himself to be lifted with them, gentle as they were.

“I like to see the sharks about to bite my ass off me,” I argued and when he laughed I smiled and looked down at my toes, buried in the wet sand just as another wave washed over my feet.

“I’m the one that can’t swim,” he said and I looked up to see that he had drifted out and the water came up to his chest.

“Fuck me,” I groaned letting my arms fall back to my side as I looked down the coast, back towards the squeal of the little girl. In the distance all I could see was her running along the beach, her flashlight bouncing around with her swinging arm. Her parents had their own flashlight, some yards behind her. They were out late, but it was summer and they might have just arrived as we hadn’t seen many people earlier.

“Come on,” Luke urged and I turned back just as a wave knocked him off balance. Seeing him disappear under the water I launched forward, but he had already surfaced and was wiping his face before I got up to my knees. I kept walking though, holding my hands above the water, not really knowing why, as my heart hammered in my chest.

“You’re a crazy ass,” I said when he met me just as I got waist deep into the water. “I can’t see anything.”

“You’ll be alright,” he countered and I jumped and backed away from him when his hand grazed my outer thigh.

“That wasn’t fucking nice,” I started, but he crashed into me and took us both under the water. Feeling him glide against me, I felt my back hit sand. Pushing off, I surfaced as he moved around me. I turned to see him squaring up to do it again and I was just able to dodge him. I watched him disappear under the water, and I followed him, neither of us really brave enough to go further than waist deep.

The wrestling match was over quickly, the weight of the water and the day taking its toll on us. Panting I crawled out of the water, feeling the heaviness of muscles that hadn’t held my weight for a bit, coming back to life. Rolling over as he collapsed beside me, I looked over as he settled down and looked up at the sky.

“It’s getting late,” he said and I turned to see if he had glanced over at me, but he hadn’t.

“It was late when we went to bed,” I said as the breeze swept over us and I shivered from the wet sand. I wouldn’t be able to stand being out here much longer, but I knew I would wait for him to make that decision for me.

“I wonder how long before sunrise,” he asked and I rose up onto my elbows and looked around for any hint of a sunrise, but didn’t see anything.

“Probably not for a few more hours,” I answered, falling back against the sand.

“I’m cold,” he said and I jumped when his finger grazed my side. It sent goosebumps racing back along my skin, the wet sand had lost the warmth of the sand during the day.

“Ready to go back in then?” I asked, turning my head to look at him. When he nodded I sat up and rolled up onto my feet. Bending down, he offered me his hand and I pulled him up. Smiling he jerked his hand from mine and took off running up the beach back towards the deck. Without a word I took off after him, falling over my feet in the darkness that he had no issues with. I heard his heavy footfalls on the aged wooden deck. Watching him snake his way up the curving deck, I slowed to a jog accepting my defeat at catching him again.

He waited at the back door for me, and when my feet touched concrete he opened the door leading to our bedroom. Following him, I squinted when he turned on a lamp and stepped back outside. I watched him walk over to the rolled up hose at the corner of the beachhouse. Turning the faucet I watched him wince as he let the gentle water wash over his feet. Swallowing, I stepped up and offered my hand.

“No funny business,” he warned and I smiled when I knelt down in front of him and used my hand, rubbing it along his left leg. His leg hairs held the sand, but after my fingers started feeling less of it I moved over to his other leg, not looking up when he sucked in a breath when the cold water hit him.

After his legs were cleaned of sand from the knees down, I reached up and brushed my hand along the fabric of his shorts. Heavy and sagging from the ocean water, the waistband of his boxers peeking out from under them. He didn’t step away from me when my hand ran along his shorts to his inner right thigh. I felt my face warm and I lightly bit down on my bottom lip, when my hand felt his erection. Glancing up at him he was looking off into the distance, but his hands were balled into fists so I knew he noticed me lingering there before moving on.

“I’m behavin,” I grunted when he finally did look down at me when my hand dipped under the leg of his shorts.

“You know you’re not,” he countered when my fingers found his boxers. He shook my hand away when my middle finger found his cock and I sighed and stood, bringing the hose up with me.

“This is going to suck,” I warned when I held the hose to his stomach. I watched his muscles tense as he rose up to his tip toes, a hiss escaping his lips. He helped me wash his stomach and chest, our hands gliding together and he turned around far too quick for my liking. The muscles in his shoulders and back were already tense anticipating the cold water and when I held the hose up over his head, he contorted his body away from it. Laughing, I chased him until he eased into the water and started running his fingers through his hair. In the light I could just see the clumps of sand washing down his skin to the small stream we were making with the hose on the concrete. All of it would run off the edge after it went along the railing to the deck.

“Alright, I’m clean enough,” he said as he turned and grabbed the hose from me before I could put up a fight.

“Remember I wasn’t a fuck up,” I said as he knelt in front of me.

When the water hit my leg I tensed my toes against the concrete, feeling the instant shock of the cold water. The splashing from washing him hadn’t been enough to get me used to the temperature of it.

Luke took a more dutiful approach than I did, where I lingered feeling my fingertips along his legs, he didn’t. I didn’t have hair on my legs, opting to shave before we came down here, not liking the stubble. I still had State to look forward to, I had to keep up the habit.

“I can’t wait for you to grow out your hair,” he said as he moved up to my stomach, that was just as smooth as the rest of me. “I bet you’re hairy.”

“I’ve kept it all shaved down so much, I don’t really know,” I said, jumping away from the water when it hit my stomach. “Fuck, fuck.”

“Be still, you big baby,” he whispered smiling as he shook his head. Unlike before, I didn’t help him wash off my stomach. My hands were balled into fists on either side of me, my muscles tensed until I got used to the water.

“My junk has left the damn country,” I said as I turned around and let him wash my back. When he finished with that, he moved up to my hair and I helped him, breathing through the ice cold water as it ran over my face and dripped back onto my chest.

“There,” he said as the water stopped flowing over my head. I heard the squeak of the spout as he turned it off. He let go of the hose and used the handle to roll it back while I shook off my shorts until I stopped dripping.

“None of that down there was worth any of this shit,” I said as I ran my hands along my arms turning towards the open door. Hearing him snicker behind me and I knew without a doubt that I would follow him back down there stumbling over the sand back to the night darkened water all over again.

Making a direct turn towards the bathroom, he followed close behind me. When we were inside, I pulled my shorts down with my underwear. Stepping out of them as he stepped around me, I watched him strip down, taking time to remove his navy blue shorts that looked black, and had a sheen to them now that they were wet. Swallowing, I watched him pull down his gray cotton boxers, being wet and clinging to his ass, I finally found my appreciation for them.

“Want to take a bath?” He asked and my eyes shot to the large soaker tub in the corner of the massive bathroom. Nodding my head, he walked over and turned on the hot water and I grabbed two towels and put them on the counter. I watched him opening cabinets and when he found a lavender bubble bath solution, likely left from Heather’s parents, he unscrewed the bottle and poured it into the water. The bubbles were instant as he kept pouring until he was satisfied.

The soft floral smell was more intense than what I liked as I watched him tiptoe into the tub. When he got settled in, I walked to the opposite side, next to the water faucet, high and just out of the way of my head. Dipping my toe in, I winced, but slowly lowered my foot into the water that was already halfway between my ankle and knee. The bubbles were white, with a cooler tickle on my skin as I stepped my other foot in and knelt down, jumping when the bubbles hit my balls. Glancing over at him, he was smiling as I sat down, into the water, raising the level up past my belly button.

I let the water run until it was up to just below my nipples and we would have to be careful not to slosh any of it out when we moved. The bubbles though, had come all the way up to the rim of the tub and Luke had slid down into the water until his chin met them, his legs sliding against my crossed ones.

“We should have done this earlier,” I whispered, trying not to laugh when a small beard of bubbles rose up when he did.

“I thought about it,” he answered as he blew a burst of breath that sent bubbles splattering all over my face. Jerking my head back as he laughed I found his foot in the water and tickled it with my fingers, and laughed as he squirmed trying to get away from me, but we were too cramped in here for him to.

When he finally freed himself I let my hands fall to my lap as we fell into an easy staring contest. It had me wondering what he was thinking and hoping I didn’t suddenly see the walls start to build again.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked, not wanting to break the only easy silence we’ve had for the last few hours.

“Yeah,” he answered, reaching up with bubbles running down his hand to wipe the lingering ones still left on his chin.

“Does this change your plans for school?” I asked, my voice falling when I saw him frown and look down at the water.

“No,” he answered and I watched his eyes tick back up to look at me just as his foot slid against my leg. “If anything it makes me want to stay home more. I need her to see that I am still me.”

“You’re a braver man than me,” I said as I reached under the water and found his knee. Leaning forward, grazing my fingers up his legs I watched him yawn. When he realized that I wasn’t going to stop, I saw his eyes widen just before he jumped.

“I already knew that,” he grunted as his hand met mine just before I leaned far enough to reach his inner thigh.

“Thanks for that,” I countered and I saw him smirk and shake his head. “Don’t stop me.”

“Make it quick, I’m tired,” he said and I laughed when he raised his arms out of the water and cupped the back of his head with both his hands as he leaned back against the tub.

“Damn, don’t sound too excited,” I countered as I hesitated with his cock just out of reach.

When he settled down into the tub, though, I slowly reached between his legs, finding his cock already hard and waiting for me. Feeling my fingers, I watched his mouth fall slightly open, then he bit down gently on his bottom lip. Wrapping my hand around him, I started jacking him off as I brought my left hand up and slid it up his other leg. In the cramped space, I felt him spread his legs, moving one of them all the way up and past my waist, resting it on my knee.

Looking down at his dusting of chest hairs, curling from drying now that we were both settled into the water and it no longer reached that far up his chest. A shade darker than the hair on his head, which was sticking up all over his head. The bubbles had started to break apart as more of the solution dissolved in the water, losing its power. The strong lavender smell had faded, I had become too distracted to be bothered by it now. Instead I saw the waves coming from my arm hitting him on his stomach, leaving a wet shiny area against his lightly tanned skin. I wanted more of him. I wanted out of this tub, slipping our way on the bathroom tile, to the hardwood floor and the bed. When he closed his eyes though, I knew he was close and when I saw his stomach muscles tense I felt his cock spasm in my hand as he let out a breath. I continued to jack him off until he opened his eyes and let his hands fall back into the water.

Smiling, he moved his legs out of my way and I reached behind me and released the water. I watched him stand up, using my shoulder to keep his balance, my own hard cock coming down from the lack of attention, but I didn’t care until I saw his wet, soapy ass walking away from me to where I left the towels.

With the water quickly draining, I stood and got out of the tub and when I closed the distance he handed me my towel. I unfolded it and started drying myself off, as we stared at one another, me wanting to know what he was thinking, but too scared to really ask him. My heart picking up pace in my chest for no reason that I knew fuck all about, and I hated that he always had this effect on me, even before I knew I wanted him. It was an adrenaline rush, the closest thing to an addiction I had, Cheetos and swimming aside.

“Are you ready for bed?” He asked after he was dry enough.

“Yeah,” I answered and winced when my voice cracked, but recovered when he laughed and led the way to the bedroom.

We both knew better than to sleep naked, not with Derek and Tobylikely to come storming into the room whenever they woke up. So I unzipped my bag and rummaged through my things until I found a pair of boxer briefs. Luke, being a lot more organized than I ever will be, had already found his and I frowned when his ass disappeared underneath soft blue cotton boxers.

“The sun is rising,” he said and I looked away from him to the door and through the blinds I saw the orange rays already hitting the hardwood floor.
“Do you want to go out and see it?” I asked, glancing down at the box in my bag, hidden just under the first layer of clothes.

“No,” he answered, offering me a smile. “Promise me one morning though, before we leave.”

“I promise,” I said as I zipped up my bag and followed him to the bed as he slid back in. I walked around the foot of it, watching him settle in and fluff his pillow. I pulled the covers back and climbed in and smiled when his leg slid against mine right after I settled.

“I wonder how long they will let us sleep?” He asked as his hand slid across my chest just grazing my nipple and sending a shock of nerves through me.

“Not long, but I’ll kill them and we can go back to bed,” I answered, turning my head to look at him as he laughed then closed his eyes. I reached up and rubbed small circles on his arm with my fingertips until his breathing evened out and I knew he was asleep before I settled myself down and closed my eyes.