The Back Porch
Saturday July 17th 12:45 AM - Ted's Party - The
back porch.
Todd and Bill sat on the back porch stairs. The party had been a
success by everybody's standards. Clyde was trying to wake Uncle Dave
who had fallen asleep on the lounge chair. It had turned into a
beautiful night. The only thing Todd missed were the stars that were
washed out by the glow of the city lights. Zack and Shelley had left
earlier and were at the campsite by now. CJ and Jim left a little
before, tossing Bill a set of keys, so he could let himself in later.
Will and Bart and Gary and Ted were still sitting around the kitchen
table talking amongst themselves. Will was actually holding Bart's hand
in public, his fingers mindlessly wandering over the back of it. Will
every now and then would stare at the rings that were on Ted's and
Gary's hands. Todd and Bill were there earlier when Ted reluctantly took
it off to show Will, and he finally noticed that they're was an
inscription, "I am only half a man without you."
Todd knew that it had been a long day. They had come
hundreds of
miles. The day was emotionally exhausting. But a good emotion. The
feeling of being family with people he just met. His mind kept coming
back to Bill. Through the evening, Bill had told him about his parents,
and his Aunt Jean. While his parents' kicking him out stilled gnawed at
him, Bill found that tonite he laughed and cried with his new friends.
And the laughter had felt so good. For awhile now the two of them sat
there silent, glancing at each other occasionally. Todd finally said,
"Great party." It was a statement of fact. Bill simply agreed, "Yeah.
You know this was a wonderful time, ... I'm sorta glad that you were ...
my blind date." Todd suddenly became aware that he could practically
feel the heat emanating from Bill.
"You know Bill, maybe we could get together tomorrow. Gary's
invited us to go to that movie tomorrow afternoon. .. do you think you
might wanna go?" He was again the shy teenager, who has never asked some
one on a date before. The power and majesty of the english language were
lost to him. He knew that he just wanted spend some time together with
Bill. Bill who was inexperienced in the world of romance also, mumbled,
"Sounds cool." But the afternoon sounded like a long time off, "TK,
maybe we could get together early tomorrow and going jogging?" Todd
replied that he would have to take it a little easy because of his
recent sprained ankle, but he would really enjoy that.
Todd stretched out a little and ended up a couple of inches
closer
to Bill. Then while making room for Clyde and Uncle Dave moving up the
stairs to say their good byes before they left, they squeezed together
to make room on the steps. It's just that after the two passed they
still sat there, side to side. TK quietly asked Bill, "You ever a kiss
another guy." "Not yet, what about you?" "None that counted, mostly
family." Bill says, "Everybody kisses everybody else here." TK can't
understand why his leg feels like it was on fire where it touched
Bill's. He finally said, "Bill, I always was wonderin what it would feel
like." "Me too." "You know ... we should try it out ...
sometime."
"Yeah, TK, if for nothing else, our personal education."
TK said "It would probably be best to get it out of the way
- sort
a practice, if you know what I mean." "You wanna ... kiss me ... just to
say we knew what it was like." "Okay, How we gonna do this?" After a
bit, they both stand up facing each other, when TK says, "I thought it
looked cool the way Ted kissed Gary at the beginning." So, he took his
hands and cupping Bill's face in them he started a kiss. It felt as if
there was a fire there, taking his breath away. But it also felt like
the coolness of a mouton creek. He felt the warm suppleness of Bill's
lips.
Bill was catching his breathe, then he said, " My turn, I
now know
what it's like to be kissed, I want to see what the difference when I
kiss someone, else." This time he wrapped his arms around Todd's neck,
and kissed him with a greater urgency, than before. They finally sat
down again, when, Bill said, "That was interesting. We might want to try
that again sometime." "Yeah."
They were again sitting there side by side as the warm breezes
washed over them.
It was some party.
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