Sky's The Limit - 18. Chapter 18

That week with Sky was even more special than the week we spent in Gulf Shores. His dad was gone most of the time, leaving us to entertain ourselves. Yeah, there was some pretty damn incredible sex - but it was more. We were really getting to know each other. We talked about our likes and dislikes, our hopes, our dreams, our fears, everything. Some of our best talks were just before falling asleep and waking up again in each other's arms. And yes, he did remember to sing me to sleep at night. We would take long walks, usually bringing Schultzie along, play golf, go to the mall, a restaurant, or the movies. We would jam in the music room with Sky on the guitar and me on the piano - we actually sounded pretty good together. Whatever we were doing, we would just enjoy being with each other.

What was really wonderful was that the better we got to know each other, the sex became more relaxed, but even more intimate. We could each anticipate the other's needs or desires without discussion. The sex became just another part of our relationship, not the focus of it. Important yes, but there was so much more about Sky that was special to me. He could send shivers down my spine with just a smile or a touch. The sound of his voice was like beautiful music. I was so in love with this guy, and he returned that love tenfold.

New Year's eve, David was having a big party at the house. Sky really didn't want to be there, but he didn't want to stay at his mom's either and hear her preaching on the evils and debauchery going on at his Dad's party. Some of his friends from school were going to a New Years' Eve party and Sky decided to pick the lesser two evils and we would go to the party. He had taken me shopping a couple of times and helped me pick out some really cool party clothes. It also gave me a chance to spend some of my Christmas money and gift certificates.

My hair was now much longer that it had been this summer, and he took me to his stylist. Man, if there was ever a flamer, this guy was it. He was nice-looking though - in his late twenties maybe and nicely built. I have no doubt that he picked up on the fact that we were a couple pretty quick, the way Sky was telling him how he wanted my hair to look this way or that. I mean the way Sky was acting; it was pretty damn obvious we were closer friends than two ordinary teenage boys. I noticed the stylist giving us this funny grin. Of course, his name just had to be Bruce. I mean if you had to find a stereotype, well, you get the picture.

Finally he said, "Look, I'm sure you two feel like you have to stay in the closet in high school, and that's a real shame, but come on guys, if you two aren't a couple, then God needs to totally rewire my gaydar."

When he said that, we just looked at each other and laughed and Sky said "Don't worry Bruce, your gaydar is working fine."

He looked back at Sky and said, "I had no doubt of that. I just wanted to hear you say it. It's a small step out of the closet, but it's a step. Feels good doesn't it?"

I looked at Sky and he was looking at me. He looked over at Bruce and said, "Yeah, it really does."

Bruce just smiled at him, and said, "Now, you stop worryin', I'm going to take really good care of your extremely cute and sexy boyfriend here. I just love blonde boys. Now go sit out there and let me work."

While he was working, he wanted to know everything how we met, school, family, were we out to any of our friends - it was endless questions.

I have to admit it was the best hair style I ever had. I almost didn't recognize myself. Sky was crazy about it. "Thanks Bruce, he looks great." Sky told him.

"Well, actually, y'all look great together. You're wearin' my work too, ya know."

"You're so modest, Bruce." Sky said with a sarcastic tone.

"Well, I'm good, that's fer shur, but you two have a hell of a head start in the looks department. I just brought it out a little. You two are the cutest couple I have ever seen. Y'all ought to be on the cover of Out."

"Not quite ready for that yet, but maybe someday." Sky said.

"I know, I know, but promise me an invite to the comin' out party."

"We will" we both said together.

As we were driving back to David's house Sky seemed sort of distant and quiet. "What's wrong? What're ya thinking about so hard?" I asked.

"Back there, at Bruce's shop, it felt so good, so right to be around someone else that knew about us - like it was at Steve and Adam's and at that diner with Dex and Lori, and then with Sarah."

"Yah, I know. It's like you're not trying to keep up a lie all the time, a new freedom or somethin'."

"Yea, that's it exactly," Sky said smiling at me. "The freedom to be yourself."

"Well, I don't even think Bruce would have known for sure if you hadn't been acting so gay about my hair and all" I said, grinning at him.

"I wasn't acting gay about your hair." He said defensively.

"Come on Sky. You were waaay over the top. You coulda gotten a guest shot on Queer Eye. You were . . . I don't know . . . Bubbly." I said, chuckling now.

He started to seriously blush. "I don't know Jonah, that's kinda how I feel when I'm around ya. I guess I was relaxed around Bruce. I've known him for years and he even introduced me to his boyfriend a couple of times. I guess I just let down all my defenses or somethin', and ya know what? I enjoy letting other people see how much I love ya."

"Me too Sky, me too." I sighed.

All of a sudden I had this awesome idea, "Sky, turn around."

"What?" he said pulling over.

"I forgot somethin' back there at Bruce's. Go back."

We were back there in just a few minutes. I told Sky to wait, I would just be a few minutes.

Bruce was just about to start on another customer, but I asked if he had a sec and he said "sure".

"Bruce, uhh, I was wonderin', I mean I know you don't even know me, but you and your boyfriend doin' anything for New Year's? I mean Sky and I were going to this party, but it's all straight kids as far as I know, and I think we wanna let our hair down, if ya pardon the expression."

Bruce looked at me and smiled. "Honey, I understand. Y'all are more than welcome to join us. We're actually having a thing over at our place. The gay bars here are kinda crappy anyhow. It's just gonna be a few of our friends, mostly gay, but a few straight. Ya'll will probably be the youngest couple there, but I promise ya'll will be the cutest, and probly the hit of the party. I'd just love to have ya'll come."

"Thanks, thanks so much."

He wrote down the address and some general directions that meant nothing to me, but he did give me the home phone if we got lost. I got back in Sky's explorer and said "Sky, would you mind if we ditched the party at your friend's house?"

"Why, what did you do?" he asked accusingly.

"Don't get mad, Pleeeease? I asked Bruce if we could hang with him and his boyfriend, and he's having a party at their place. Can we go? Huh? Pretty please?"

He looked at me just started laughing, I mean rolling out laughing.

"What?"

"You're just so damn cute when you do that beggin' thing. Yeah, we'll go. Where is it?"

I handed him the paper with address and directions on it. "I remember him telling me about this place. It was his aunt's. He inherited it, furniture and all. This is over in Belhaven. I know the general area, but we better go scope it out. It'll be hard to find in the dark."

We rode over to the neighborhood and finally located the house. Sky explained that this was probably the oldest neighborhood in Jackson. There were a lot of professional people who worked downtown that fixed up the older homes, as well as a lot of college professors from the two private colleges that were in the neighborhood. The area had a reputation for being the home of the "artsy crowd" and a disproportionate share of gay people - a very eclectic area.

We went back to David's house and found it overrun with caterers and a couple of David's employees busily preparing for the bash. No chance for a quickie now, I thought to myself.

We went to our rooms and dressed. I put on the new party clothes we had bought earlier, a bit of the new cologne Sky gave me, and went over to his room. "Do ya think we oughta take something? Ya think your Dad would care if we sorta borrowed a bottle of wine or somethin'?" I asked.

"Care? He wouldn't even miss it. He probably bought five or six cases of champagne. We'll grab a bottle on the way out. Man, you look and smell good enough to eat." He said smiling at me. "I thought we would grab some real food before we went over to Bruce's."

"Sounds good, where we goin'?"

"You up for Japanese?"

"Sure, guess so. Don't think I can do Sushi though. I really don't know how. I mean I don't know enough about what to order." I said.

Sky took me to this very nice Japanese place. On one side of the restaurant was a Sushi bar and on the other about a half dozen or so of those tables where the guy cooks the food right there at the table. While we waited in the sushi bar for seats to open up, Sky helped me order some sushi appetizers and explained what each item was. We finally got some seats and ordered. We both got the steak and shrimp. The chef came out and put on his oriental cooking show with the flipping and spinning knives and stuff. It was really cool, and the food was great.

When we were done, we headed over to Bruce's house. We grabbed the liberated bottle of champagne and went to the door. Bruce greeted us and was genuinely happy we had come. He showed us into the living room where there were probably fifteen to twenty people standing or sitting around. It was a fairly large room that appeared to be a combination living and dining room. The dining table had been pushed against a wall and was serving as a buffet for the finger food and drinks, and the chairs scattered around the room. As he ushered us inside he clapped his hands loudly a few times "Everyone! Everyone!" He announced as the room got quieter. "I want to introduce the cutest couple y'all have ever seen. This is Sky and Jonah."

About that time a very nice looking guy, maybe in his thirties, tall, thin, with blonde hair came over. "Hi, I'm Sean, I'm Bruce's partner." He said extending a hand to me.

"Hi, I'm Jonah, and this is Sky."

"Oh, I've met Sky at the shop. I never forget a pretty face" he said, smiling.

"Ya'll come on in and make yourselves at home. Meet and mingle. I'll put that bottle on ice for y'all. We have plenty. You can save this for later." Sean said.

"I'm the designated driver tonight. I'll just be having soft drinks or coffee, but thanks." Sky told him.

"Absolutely! There's cokes and non-alcoholic fruit punch on the table, and some non-alcoholic beer in the cooler. Coffee's back there in the kitchen, just help yourselves."

We didn't have to worry about mingling. It seemed as though everyone wanted to introduce themselves to us. Most of the people there were other gay couples, and there were two lesbian couples. We were the youngest people there, but it really didn't seem to matter. We were treated as equals. I noticed that Sky kept me very close, and either had his arm around me or was holding my hand almost the whole time. We were both totally relaxed with this group. We could be ourselves and most importantly, we could be a couple without worrying about what anyone else thought. I could kiss him right here in front of all these people and no one would give a damn. Hell, most of ‘em would cheer us on. It felt good, and we were having fun.

At some point, someone put some dance music on the stereo and turned it up. I noticed quite a few people started dancing. The music got me to thinking, thinking of the things we could so rarely do. Dancing together was high on that list, and I'd never danced with Sky. A whispered request in Bruce's ear sealed the deal, and Bruce scampered off to put in a CD.

The rhythmic beat and deep bass filled the room, and I angled my head at Sky, nodding ever so slightly to the beat. I held out my hands to him, and he got the idea as he pulled me close, and started to move to the fast tempo of the music.

Sky was a much better dancer than me. I'm sure being with a show choir had a lot to do with that, but my dancing ability and experience was almost nil. We just couldn't slow dance to that music, so we eased apart, just a little, and started to really let go. Before I knew it, my arms were over my bead, my hips swinging as I felt the music, and followed Sky, it drew me in. Sky, my whole world at the moment, moved seductively in front of me, and on a whim slid up close, and wrong beat or not, I put my arms around him, feeling his muscles moving in time to the driving beat, and lost myself in his eyes. The song ended, but our dance really never did.

We danced a few more after that, some fast and some slow. I got the idea that everyone was kind of watching us, but maybe I was just being self-conscious.

Bruce had borrowed a karaoke machine, but apparently there was something wrong with the CD player. He could get the mike and PA to work but the special CD's or DVD's or whatever wouldn't play. "Anyone play piano?" he announced.

When everyone was just standing around looking at each other, Sky said, "Jonah plays."

I jabbed him in the ribs and whispered, "I don't perform in public. I never have."

"It's long overdue then," he whispered back.

Bruce came over and took me by the arm and led me to an older Shoninger upright piano.

"Bruce, I don't perform in public. I just play for me," I tried to explain.

"Honey, then just pretend we're not here, I need some music folks can sing to and that damn machine won't work. Now, what can you play?"

"Well, if you have the sheet music, I can play whatever you want. If you don't, then I know a lot of Elton, Billy Joel, and a few others. Give me some requests and I'll see what I can do."

"Oh, and he sings great too." Sky volunteered as he walked up behind us.

I turned and gave him the look of death, gritted my teeth and hissed "I am not singing in front of all these people."

He smiled that gorgeous damn smile and totally disarmed me. Damn,.he's learned what that does to me. He leaned down and kissed me. "Please?" He begged, looking at me with that damn puppy dog pouty look now.

"If I'm going to do this, get me a glass of wine or something," I said.

Bruce went and grabbed a glass off of a tray and I downed a glass of Champaign. "Let me start off with a couple that I like, then you guys make requests."

I started off with a couple of my favorite faster Elton pieces like Crocodile Rock and Honky Cat. A few folks sang along and a few others were dancing. Then I started getting some requests. A few guys wanted some more Elton, there were a couple of requests for Billy Joel pieces, and even for Jerry Lee Lewis tunes. At some point Bruce wanted to hear show tunes. I only knew a few from heart, mostly some I had played at recitals at one time or another, but Bruce had a couple of songbooks with a lot of popular show tunes in it.

I drank another glass or two of Champaign while everyone was deciding what they wanted. When I started playing I Could Have Danced All Night everyone started spontaneously singing along. After that, the party turned into a sing-along. That was obviously Bruce's plan from the beginning. I think I had at least a couple of more glasses of Champaign, and I was having a real blast. I kept looking over at Sky and he really seemed to be having fun too.

Someone started a countdown and finally shouted "Midnight!" and I started playing Auld Lang Syne. Sky came over and kissed me square on the lips just as I finished playing. I was exhausted, and all of sudden when I stood up it was as if someone hit me. I almost fell over onto the piano. Sky jumped over and caught me.

"Maybe one too many glasses of liquid happiness, huh?"

"Yah, I think so." He held me tightly and helped me to stand.

"You're s'posed to sip that stuff, not gulp it down like a beer." He scolded.

"Sorry, didn't know."

We walked over toward the middle of the room and everyone was thanking me and telling me how great I played and sang. Sky was holding on to me to keep me steady. Suddenly, he put on hand behind my head and pulled me into a kiss. "Happy New Year, Jonah. I love you."

"Me too, Sky. I love you. Thanks for bringing me here tonight. I had a great time."

"It was your idea, and I have to tell ya, I had great time too. It was really great being ‘out' even if it was just tonight."

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