Gap Year - 16. Chapter 16

February 3, 2004

Sydney, Australia

Will

We were lying on our sides, with Connie spooned up behind me. The lights from the city wafted through the window, not enough to disturb me, but just enough that I could see his beautiful skin contrasted with mine. I felt so safe and so loved with his strong arms enveloping me, and the heat of his body enhanced that feeling of security. “Mmm,” he purred, his lips against my neck, the vibration of his voice pulsing through my brain. I felt his dick start to harden, pressing against my ass. I giggled, then reached down and guided him back into me, and we made love again.

“What are your plans for today?” I asked after I’d recovered from one spectacular fuck.

“Got workouts at 9,” he said sadly.

“Dude, that’s in five hours,” I replied. We’d spent our time here in bed, bonding physically as if that would make being separated easier. “You need to get some sleep.”

“I can sleep when you’re gone,” he said.

“When are you done today?”

“Should be around 2:00, I’d guess,” he said. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll probably hang out with Stef and Grand,” I said. “Want to meet me here when you’re done?”

“I can do that,” he said, smiling.

“We can ditch them if you want,” I said, not wanting him to feel he had to hang out with my relatives.

“No,” he said, and shook his head emphatically. “I like them. They make me feel like I’m part of the family.”

“You should tell them that,” I said. “For Grand, that would be one of the highest compliments you could give him.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because he prides himself on having good manners, and a big part of that is making sure the people you’re with feel welcome,” I said.

He shook his head. “Your world is so different than mine.”

“How so?” I asked curiously, since he never talked about his family.

“It just is,” he said, trying to avoid the topic.

I leaned up on my arm, while he was lying on his back, so I could look at him while we talked. “Every time the topic of your family comes up, you change the subject. What’s the deal?”

He sighed, probably hoping that would shut me down, but I locked my eyes on his and he got that it wasn’t going to work. He sighed again anyway. “I’m not very close to them.”

“None of them?”

“No,” he said. “They didn’t handle me being a poofter very well.”

“Oh,” I said, getting it now.

“I told two of my brothers first and ended up getting into a fight with one of them,” he said. “Kicked his ass, which was pretty funny since he was calling me a fag and making it seem like I was a big pussy.”

“I’m surprised,” I said. “I mean, in the states, usually younger people are much cooler about that. It’s the older people who seem to have issues.”

“It’s a cultural thing,” he said. “It’s not cool to be gay in the Aboriginal community.”

I nodded. “I know some black dudes who are gay, and it can be like that for them.” I thought about that some more. “Actually, I guess there’s parts of any culture in the US where they’re homophobic.”

“You’re right,” he said. “You’re basically saying my family are just assholes.”

“That’s not what I meant!” I objected, then he laughed, because he’d been teasing me. I smacked him playfully.

“So after I fought with my brother, my parents found out. My mother cried, and my father told me that if I ever told anyone about it, he would disown me,” he said.

“That’s pretty raw,” I said.

“It is,” he agreed. “So if I’m outed, I probably lose my career and I end up as an orphan.”

“That’s not true,” I said.

“The fuck it’s not,” he said bitterly.

“It’s not, because you can always be part of my family,” I said, and gave him a loving kiss.

“Yeah, well that works as long as we’re together,” he said.

“No, that’s not how it works,” I objected. “Dude, no matter what happens, we need to stay friends.”

“Isn’t that a bit odd?” he asked, suddenly sounding strangely British.

“Not really,” I said, my mind flashing to thoughts of Tony. Thinking of him was a little strange, but not nearly as freaky as it used to be. “I’ve been with guys and now we’re just friends, and they’re still part of our extended family.”

“You say that, but it’s still weird,” he said.

“Look, if things get rough, you call me, and I’ll book you a flight to the US,” I said. “You’ve always got a place to go.”

“Not sure I want to leave Oz,” he said. “It’s my home.”

“I can see that,” I said. “You may feel different if your worst-case scenario comes true.”

“Nah,” he said. “There’s assholes here, but there’s mostly good people. Can’t see myself leaving.”

“Not even for a really hot American?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He shook his head and grinned. “That may do the trick.”

“Regardless, whether you’re here or you come to the US, I got your back,” I said, and made him look at me so he would know I was sincere. “Seriously.”

He didn’t say anything for a while, then a tear rolled out of his eye. “I’m going to be fine, but you don’t know how much that means to me. It’s tough to be out here and be all alone.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah,” he said. “If I’m outed, I lose my team, and those are the best friends I have in Sydney. I can’t go home, not that I’d want to anyway, because they’d cut me off. So it’s like I’m constantly walking on a tightrope, and if I fall, no one catches me.”

“Until now,” I said. He grabbed me and gave me a big hug, and it felt like he was a drowning man grabbing onto a life preserver. At least it felt that way until our bodies reacted, and we ended up having sex again. After that, we drifted off to sleep, our bodies intertwined, and our lives seemingly intertwined as well.

February 4, 2004

Sydney, Australia

Will

“I’ll keep this with me,” I said to the bellman, referring to my backpack. He looked at me a bit oddly, then nodded.

“I’ll take these down to the car then,” he said.

“Thanks.” I gave him some cash for a tip, then watched him wheel my suitcases out of the room on his cart.

I stood in my room with my backpack in my hand, dreading the next few minutes: all that remained was to say goodbye to Connie, who was in the shower. I set the backpack down by the door and walked over to the window, gazing out at this beautiful harbor and city. Yesterday had been a huge emotional high. I’d gone out touring around with Grand and Stef, then Connie had met us for happy hour. We’d had dinner with them, then spent the evening alone. We’d had more sex than I could even remember, but more than that, we’d talked. Up until that point, our conversations were pretty shallow, just hanging out and enjoying each other casually. The last night, we’d gone deep. I’d told him about my life, about my fights with my father, and even 9-11. It always took real strength for me to do that. He’d talked more about growing up, and talked about his dreams. He was determined to help the LGBT community in Australia once he came out. I was surprised at how convicted he was about that. With Zach, he lived in the fantasy world where he’d be able to be in the closet forever, and never have to confront his gay side. Connie knew that it was inevitable, and he was basically just biding his time and focusing on his career until the time was right.

I was distracted by the sound of the door to the bedroom as Connie opened it and came out. I was fully dressed, while he was just wearing boxers. God he was sexy. His dark skin seemed strained to the breaking point just to contain his bulging muscles. “He gone?” he asked unnecessarily.

I nodded. “Took all my stuff except my backpack,” I said lamely, as I pointed to it by the door.

“Guess this is goodbye,” he said. I felt the tears pooling in my eyes as I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly. He returned my hug just was warmly, and we stood there embracing for a long time. He could feel the anguish in my body, which prompted him to speak, only he did it in an incredibly erotic way, by murmuring in my ear. “You OK?”

“It’s a lot harder this time,” I mumbled, even as I fought my emotions so I didn’t break down sobbing.

“Why?” he asked, which was a good thing, because his question made me think, and that made me less of a basket case.

“Because you really opened up to me last night, and I know you so much better now,” I said. “I really like the person that you are.” He separated us and gave me a meaningful kiss, then smiled at me.

“You didn’t like the person I was before?” he challenged. He was giving me shit now.

“Asshole,” I said, smiling and shaking my head at him.

“I will never forget you,” he pledged. “Never.”

“You will always be a part of my life,” I vowed in return. I was starting to get all fucked up again, and prolonging this was going to do neither one of us any good. “I have to go.”

He hugged me again, and I heard his silky voice say “Goodbye”, but his tone told me he was probably crying as hard as I was now.

I separated us this time. “It’s not goodbye, it’s so long,” I said. He leaned in and gave me a kiss, then I turned away, grabbed my backpack, and all but fled from the room. I stopped outside and clenched my eyes shut, forcing the tears out of them. I had just started to wipe the tears away with my arms when someone handed me a handkerchief.

“It’s going to be sad to see you leave,” I heard a voice say. When I opened my eyes, I saw it was the security guard who had fucked me.

“Thanks,” I said, and wiped my eyes with his handkerchief. “Maybe I’ll be back.”

“I’ll look forward to that,” he said with a smile.

“Will you tell them I already went down?” I asked, referring to Stef and Grand.

“They already left,” he said. I handed him back his handkerchief, but he stopped me. “Keep it.”

“I’m hoping I won’t need it anymore, but thanks,” I said, and kept it anyway. I went over to the elevator and while I was waiting for it to arrive, I got my headphones out and put them on, that way I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. I got in and largely zoned out, focusing on trying not to look like I’d been crying my eyes out a few minutes ago, even as the elevator seemed to stop at every fucking floor in the hotel.

I got to the lobby and headed straight for the door, where I saw Tom looking around for me anxiously. I pulled off my headphones to be polite. “Got all your stuff loaded, just waiting for you,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, and breezed past him into the limo where Stef and Grand were waiting for me. I sat down across from Stef while Tom followed me into the car and sat across from Grand. The driver shut the door behind Tom, and we were off, headed to the airport.

“Good morning,” Grand said, trying to inject some normalcy into the conversation. It was so awesome the way he did that, because he was so tuned into me, he knew that was just the kind of thing I needed. Stef wasn’t quite so good at reading me.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a somewhat dramatic way, even as he put his hand on my leg.

“I just need to get to the plane,” I said. He nodded but looked worried, so I avoided all of them by staring out the window and getting my last glimpses of Sydney. I dodged further conversation until we got to the plane. As soon as the car pulled up, Tom opened the door and hopped out, leaving it open for the rest of us to follow.

The captain was there to greet us, as was the flight attendant, a handsome young man named Craig. “Welcome aboard,” the captain said, gesturing toward the stairs.

“Thank you,” Stef said cheerfully, and led us up the steps. Grand followed him, while I brought up the tail end. Tom was busy making sure all our stuff got loaded into the cargo hold.

We got to the door of the plane and I stopped and turned, gazing at the airport and the city beyond it. I turned back to follow them in and found two co-pilots instead of the one I’d expected. The first co-pilot was the same guy who was always on the plane. His name was Keith, he was in his early 40s, and was not attractive. This other dude had dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and looked to be in his mid-30s. This guy was smoking hot and looked like a younger Crocodile Dundee. “I don’t think I’ve met you,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m Will.”

“I’m Aldon,” he said. His deep voice and strong Australian accent were incredibly sexy. He shook my hand and I let my fingers linger a bit on his, getting a raised eyebrow and a smile from him. “I’m on board so you have enough pilots to fly without an overnight.”

“I’m glad you’re with us,” I said, then went back to the flying room where Grand and Stef were relaxing. My arrival seemed to prompt them to fasten their seatbelts, so I conformed.

“If you are so inclined, I would be willing to come back here,” Grand said to me.

“That wouldn’t be a tough sell,” I said with a smile.

“This was a whirlwind trip, but enough to pique my interest,” Grand said.

“And perhaps Connie will be done with his season when you come back,” Stef offered.

“Maybe,” I said, but I remembered Scott Slater’s words on vacation relationships: Once the wheels of the plane lifted off, it was over. If I came back, I’d have to remember that things could still be good between us, but they’d be different.

“Everything is on schedule, Stef,” Tom said, as he came in and sat with us. He reached over and patted my back twice: such a simple, masculine gesture that helped me start to pull myself together.

I heard the engines accelerate, moving the plane forward, the beginning of our long flight home. “We have a brief stop in Hawaii,” Stef informed me.

“Maui?” I asked, hopefully.

“Maui,” Stef answered.

“How brief?” I asked. If it was a couple of hours, I might actually be able to surf for a bit. I ruminated on that, then decided it would be too big of a hassle.

“Let us see when we get there,” Stef said, probably just to humor me.

“As soon as we’re in the air, I’m crashing,” I said, then covered up my mouth to hide my yawn.

“You did not sleep much?” Stef asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I did not,” I said. “I was busy.”

“No doubt,” Tom said, chuckling. I sat there and chatted with them until we were on our way, then excused myself and escaped to the bedroom, the one that was almost as nice as Stef’s. I closed the door behind me and sighed, my sadness at leaving Connie behind partially offset by finally being here in my own space with no one to bug me.

I got the stuff I’d need for the flight organized, then took off my clothes and climbed into the bed. There were a bunch of pillows for decoration, but I was too lazy to do anything but push them away from me. I was almost asleep when I heard soft moaning from the other side of the wall, which was Stef’s room. I giggled to myself at that, then audibly chuckled when the moans turned to words. I pulled out my phone and put it on record just in time to pick up Tom’s voice, more of a growl. “Take that big cock, Stef!” he ordered.

“Oh yes!” Stef responded. “Yes!” I stopped the recording, laughed a bit, then let the exhaustion of the past few days overtake me.

I woke up when light hit my eyes, but I figured it must be the sun shining through the windows. I was too mazy to remember that it was daylight when I went to bed and there was nothing shining through the windows then. I began to drift back to sleep when the bed shifted as someone climbed in, then the covers moved as he adjusted them to cover himself up. I stayed completely still, even as I freaked out a little bit. It wasn’t every day that strange men climbed into bed with me. I thought about my recent sluttiness and almost giggled, thinking that such a thing shouldn’t really surprise me.

I lay there with my back to this person and tried to guess who it was. It wouldn’t be Stef or Grand, and it wouldn’t be Tom, because he was sleeping with them. That meant it was either Craig or one of the pilots. I rolled over slowly and looked over to try to figure out who was in the bed, but the decorative pillows interfered with my view. When whoever this was walked in, the pillows must have blocked his view so he couldn’t see me. I removed the first one slowly and saw that the other person in the bed was facing away from me, so I slowly removed and tossed the other pillows on the floor.

The other person rolled over and lay flat on his back, with an arm draped over his eyes. I could tell now that it was Aldon, our spare Australian pilot. I reached out and touched his chest gently, feeling his furry pecs, then let my fingers trace lower to his belly button, then lower still until I hit the thicker foliage of his pubes. He moaned and thrust his hips forward, as if trying to move my hand lower. I obliged and slid my hand down until it ran into something very hard. “Ah yes,” he moaned. I gently ran my fingers up his shaft, then used my thumb and forefinger to gently squeeze the head of his cock. He had a short but thick cock. Evidently my movements were too slow, so he began to undulate his hips, thrusting his cock back and forth into my waiting hand. His speed increased, as did his breathing, and I was pretty sure he was close, when all of a sudden he tensed up, and reached over to turn on the light, making me feel like I was hit with a spotlight. I positioned my mouth over his dick, even as I gently stroked it. He locked his eyes on mine for a few seconds, then grabbed the back of my head and pushed me down toward his crock, jamming his short cock into my throat.

After that, it was all about him, but the cool part was he totally took over, grabbing my hair and holding my head in place as he fucked my face. His cock was short enough that it didn’t choke me, and since he was doing all the work, that left my hand free to work on my own orgasm. He varied his pace, making this last, until he’d had enough. I actually started coming right after he began to shoot. He didn’t warn me, he just flooded me, forcing me to swallow as fast as I could. He made me drink every last drop, then he pulled my head off his dick. I took the sheet and wiped my cum off his leg where I’d shot, then collapsed onto my back, smiling.

I could sense that he wasn’t as happy as I was. “What the fuck?!” he demanded. “What were you doing in my bed?” I rolled my eyes at him, a typical straight dude who has to act all outraged afterward or it might mean he’s gay.

“Actually,” I said calmly, “you’re in my bed. I was sound asleep when you climbed in here with me.”

“So you decided to wank me off?” he demanded.

“Dude, you hopped in bed with me, so I just grabbed a golden opportunity,” I said. “You could have stopped me.”

“Well not after you got me all started up,” he objected.

“What made you decide to sleep in here in the first place?” I asked.

“Fucking douchebags,” he grumbled. “Those guys told me to crash in this room. Must have thought it was fucking hilarious.” So the pilots had pranked him, which was an asshole thing to do.

“Assholes,” I said, just to know I shared his annoyance.

He sat up and made to get dressed, but I put my hand on his back. “I’m getting dressed and sleeping out there, somewhere,” he spat at me.

“No you’re not,” I said forcefully, finally pissing me off a bit. “You’re going to stay right here. I’ve got a plan.”

“Right, your plan is probably to let me fall asleep and then fuck me with your monster dick,” he said.

“So you were looking at my cock?” I taunted.

“Fucking nightmare,” he grumbled.

“You know, just fuck you,” I said, letting him see how annoyed I was. “You climbed into my bed, I sucked your dick, you liked it, I liked it, and now you’re being a complete asshole. I was going to try and help you out, but you can kiss my ass.” I rolled over on my side, facing away from him, then turned back to utter one last sentence. “Turn off the fucking light.”

He turned off the light, which surprised me because he’d have to leave it on to get dressed. I lay there, wondering what he was going to do, worried that he’d come up behind me and strangle me or something. Instead, I heard soft snoring and shook my head. Normally I would have been too annoyed to sleep, but that encounter wore me out. Having sex then getting mad had offset the sadness of leaving Connie, so I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up with a warm body spooned up behind me and an arm wrapped around my chest. It was so comforting that I forgot I was annoyed with him I relaxed back in him and dozed in and out of sleep for what must have been twenty minutes, when a jarring alarm went off, scaring the crap out of me. Aldon shoved me away as he turned around to turn it off, and that damn near knocked me off the bed. He turned off the alarm, then lay flat on his back. “Sorry mate,” he said cheerfully, then got more serious. “Sorry about before too.”

“What’s with that?” I asked, even though I already knew the answers.

“I’m not sure,” he said, confused.

I moved over so I was lying on my side next to him, with a leg draped over his. “I think it’s because you’ve never done anything with a dude before, and that freaked you out. And since that was probably the best blow job you’ve ever gotten, you’re also beating yourself up for enjoying it.”

“How the fuck did you know that?” he demanded. I laughed.

“I’m pretty good at figuring out straight guys,” I said.

“If you knew I was straight, why’d you grab my dick?” he asked, but in a way that wasn’t accusatory, it was one of curiosity.

“You were hot, you were in my bed, and I thought you would be fun. You were,” I said. “Plus I was kind of with this dude in Sydney, and I was sad I left him, so that cleared my head.”

“So you thought I was fun?” he asked with a really cute grin.

“Now you want me to do it again,” I accused.

“Doesn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to figure that out,” he said, making me laugh. As soon as I was over that, I blew him again, and it was even more fun.

I was sitting on the bed, watching him get ready again. “Which one of those dudes set you up for this?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said dismissively.

“Dude, this is as much about me as it is about you,” I said, then my eyes narrowed. “It was Keith.” Keith was the co-pilot.

“How’d you know that?” he demanded, then realized he’d inadvertently given himself away.

“Because every dude I’ve known named Keith is a total douche,” I said, making him chuckle. I remembered this dude I knew in Malibu named Keith Craddock, who was like the ultimate middle school asshole. He hung around with Taylor Buck’s little brother Travis, who'd been my best friend in middle school. Thinking of Taylor pivoted my mind back to Zach, and that was a path I didn’t want to go down in my post-Sydney mourning state.

“Now that you mention it, that’s been my experience too.”

“So here’s the plan,” I said. “You’re going to go back to the cockpit and tell them that you slept great, and that the bedroom is comfortable. They’ll act surprised but tell them you ran into me and I told you I was crashing in the small bedroom. That’s the one where the pilots or staff sleep in if we don’t have a full flight.”

“Then what?” he asked.

“The rest is up to me,” I said cryptically. “Now help me change these sheets.”

“Alright,” he said. We stripped off the nasty sheets that I’d blown a couple of loads all over, then remade the bed with the spare set that was in one of the drawers. I walked up front to the galley with him, where there was a laundry bin, then went back to the bedroom.

I decided that Keith would probably use the bathroom before he went to bed, so I opted to hide in the closet. That made me think of Connie and Zach, appropriately enough. It was a big, walk-in closet, and I took that opportunity to go through my clothes to decide what I wanted to drag along to New York. When I heard the bedroom door open, I turned off the closet light, grabbed my headphones, and sat on the floor. It took Keith about 15 minutes to go to the bathroom and get in the bed. He was about 20 pounds overweight and tended to clomp around, so it was easy to follow his movements with my ears. I looked at my watch and decided to give him 10-15 minutes to get comfortable.

I was pretty surprised when instead of hearing snoring, I heard light moaning. I cracked open the closet door and peeked out and had to bite my lip to avoid laughing my ass off. He had his laptop out and was clearly sexting someone, because he was slowly stroking his cock in between typing. He had a pretty small dick; I wondered if that was part of the reason he was an asshole. I stood up, put my headphones on, and walked out of the closet, pausing to flick on the light. “What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled, at damn near the top of my lungs. “What the fuck are you doing in my room?”

“Shit!” he said, and grabbed the covers to pull them up, knocking his laptop onto the floor.

“Dude, you are in my room, in my bed, beating off!” I said loudly.

“I’m sorry, I thought it was OK to be in here,” he stammered, even as he pulled his boxers up while he was still under the covers.

There was a knock on the door, followed by it opening up with Tom, Stef, and Grand walking in. “I was getting my stuff together for New York, I walked out of the closet, and found this dude beating off in my bed.”

“I was just talking to a friend,” he mumbled, mortified.

“I am wondering what possessed you to do that in the first place,” Grand said in his steely, annoyed tone that was hella scary.

“I…I…” Keith stammered.

“Not much fun when it happens to you, is it?” I asked.

“I do not understand,” Stef said.

“Keith told Aldon, our guest pilot, that he should sleep in my room, and that it was alright,” I said. “Isn’t that right?” That was directed to Keith. He was trying to figure out a way to get around this. “I assume that’s the case, because otherwise you’re just perving on me.”

“It was just a little practical joke,” he said, as if it were no big deal. He got out of bed and started hurriedly throwing his clothes on.

“This isn’t a fucking fraternity, asshole,” I spat. “There’s no hazing on this plane.”

“Like I said, it was just a harmless joke,” he said.

“Well, when it happened to you, it wasn’t so fucking funny, now was it?” I demanded. “This plane is worth millions of dollars, and the people on board are priceless to me. This is not the environment to play dumb ass games.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m very sorry.” He’d rightly decided that the only way to save his ass was an abject apology.

I walked up to him so we were about a foot apart, and poked him in the chest. “Don’t you ever fuck with me again!”

“I won’t,” he said, looking down. “I’m really sorry. I’ll apologize to Aldon too.”

“Fine,” I said, and stood aside so he could flee from my room.

Stef and Grand looked at me, both with mild expressions of amusement. “You have interrupted my beauty sleep. I am going back to bed,” Stef said. He made to leave, but Grand hung back, so he did as well.

“I am wondering what happened with the other pilot who was mistakenly persuaded to enter your bedroom?” Grand asked.

“My understanding is that he slept quite well,” I said to him.

Stef giggled, while Grand shook his head, and with that they left me to go back to bed. All of the drama had conveniently enough distracted me from leaving Connie, and I slept soundly.