Partners

Partners
Viva la Viveca

Disclaimer : I disclaim disclaimy things…

Chapter IV :: Kiss

It was mind boggling how much my mindset on life changed after Lucia’s revelation. It made me feel less alone in the world. He was the first person I had ever known that wasn’t perfectly straight.

By Thursday morning I was actually anticipating his call. I wanted to get to know him better now, see what else I could uncover about him. It’s safe to say I couldn’t keep my mind out of the gutter for very long whenever I started to think about him. I didn’t have much luck sleeping on Tuesday or Wednesday night, and my right hand was officially my new best friend, if you know what I mean.

When my cell phone rang around 5:30, I had been pacing back and forth for a good hour. I was glad that Musica had left to go camping with his grandpa for the weekend. I hated the thought of how many questions he would have been asking, especially if I would have had to resort to asking him to leave. He didn’t like being told to leave when he didn’t want to leave.

I answered my phone almost as soon as my ringtone went off. Partially because I absolutely hate my ringtone; Catt had picked it out for me when teaching me how to use it. I never had had much interest in high-tech things. “Hello?” I already knew who it would be, but it would have been weird for him to know how long I had been waiting for him.

“Hey, I’m just leaving the restaurant now…. How do I get to your place from here?” I heard the purr of his engine as it started up. It didn’t take long before I saw his car cruising slowly down the street and stopping in front of my building. It was a quick affair, our greeting. It had been two days since out ‘Confession of Unheterosexuality’ as we later came to call it. I think that fact was on both of our minds.

I have him a quick tour of the apartment and then we sat down, each with a Coke, and got working. We were pretty far behind everyone else, mostly because of Monday’s near-accident. The first 30 questions were simple; favorite food, favorite band, miscellaneous things like that. Things that everyone knew but hardly cared about. After that the questions became more complicated and we had to actually think before we gave our answer.

“When was the first time you remember seeing your partner, aka, me?” Lucia looked at me, genuinely curious to learn the answer to the last question we were required to answer.

“It was at that wedding… We were, what, five, I believe?” I thought for a moment. “I absolutely hated you back then. You have this annoying smirk and you used really big words…”

He laughed. “Yeah, I remember that. I think I used big words just to watch the confused look on all the other kids’ faces. Especially yours. But you tried to tackle me and beat the shit out of me, if I remembered correctly,” he smiled at the ceiling. “Your dad pulled you off of me and our dads started freaking out at each other.”

I nodded. “After that I didn’t see you until Freshmen year… but I remembered you and I still wanted to kick the shit out of you,” I grinned, tilting my head a bit. “Of course then I started fantasizing about you and things just got weird then.”

I felt all of the heat flood to my face when I realized I had said that out loud. Lucia chuckled, looking down at me. I had chosen to sit on the floor. I hated the furniture, but it was the best I could do. “Yeah, I never really hated you, but I thought you’d make a good challenge. After, even to this day you’re the only one who’s ever really dared to challenge me in anything!” he grinned. “But the fantasizing did make things complicated…”

I looked up at him, suddenly realizing how close he was to me. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me. It was light and over before I could realize it. I looked deep into his golden eyes, wondering where that had suddenly come from. He was still leaning too close to me, but I used it to my advantage.

My lips met his without hesitation, and I lost all of my common sense. The kiss was greedy and demanding, yet his lips were so soft a moist. It was better than any kiss I had previously experienced, so much better. No kiss had ever made me forget to think like this one did.

My hands entwined in his blond hair as he lay me down on the carpet, hovering above me and deepening our kiss. I knew this was wrong on so many levels; we were both guys, our fathers hated each other, there were so many reasons for me to push him away. Instead I broke for a quick breath and then dived back in for more. It was better than all the fantasies I had ever had about him. His mouth tasted like some weird mint-flavored toothpaste and some berry-flavored gum he must had been chewing earlier.

I felt his hand slowly crawl up my stomach to my chest, and involuntarily I let out a soft moan of longing. His hands were calloused, and I had never noticed how large they were. I honestly had been expecting rougher treatment than what he was giving me. I obviously wasn’t complaining, though.

Something was tugging at the back of my mind, though it was unclear at first. Then I saw Elie’s face and remembered that I was someone’s boyfriend. I pushed at his chest, signaling for him to stop.

He looked at me, concern and caution clouding his eyes. “Did I-”

I shook my head before he could finish. “It’s not your fault, really… It’s just…”

“Elie?”

I sighed softly. As we both sat up. “She’s still my girlfriend, not matter how much I want someone else, especially you,” I replied, watching him stand up and walk over to his backpack.

“I-I should probably be going… Since we’re done and all,” he said, running a hand through his disheveled blond locks.

“Yeah… Um, I can go turn it in tomorrow after my creative writing class?” I offered, grabbing both packets of questions. He nodded, not really seeming to know what else to do.

“Just call me when you find out what the next part of the project is,” he stopped at the door. I looked up at him just as he looked back at me.

“What is it?”

“You,” he said quietly, though that one simple word echoed throughout the room with such clarity and intensity that he could have easily screamed it. “It was always you. I wanted you more than anything, but I figured you would flat-out refuse me and then go gossiping to all your friends.”

“I would never have-” but his look cut me off from expressing my bit of outrage. I wasn’t like that. I wouldn’t have told anyone about something like that.

“I know, Haru. I understand that now… Thank you for showing me that,” and without another word he turned and left. I couldn’t believe my ears, and my heart was fluttering at the speed of light.

I was the one he had been crushing on, but never confessed to until now. He wanted me just as badly as I now wanted him. I knew one thing: there was nothing else I had every yearned for with all my body, heart and soul more than another kiss from Lucia’s lips.