The following story is completely fictional, as are most places and every character.

I assume you know what kind of page you are in so I won't warn you about sexual contents.

If you want to contact me, write to `tatostories@hotmail.com'. Feedback is always appreciated and I'll try to answer everything.

I could be brown

I could be blue

I could be violet sky

I could be hurtful

I could be purple

I could be anything you like

-Mika

IX

         "I can't believe you forgot about me last night!"

         "Oh well, you have that effect on me..."

         "Fuck you."

         "If you will."

         "Hmm, not really. I think my ass is too sore. I can't even sit properly..."

         "...HAHAHAHAHAHA"

         "You ugly, ugly person. How come I love you that much?"

         "Exactly because of it. Come here already, I won't bite you."

         "Technically you can..."

         "And why would that be?"

         "Well, look at the mark in your neck."

         "You are right." A warm feeling reached me when my fingers met the very same spot where he had left his mark on my neck.

         "I do like it anyway. But if you insist..."

         "Nooooooo!"

         It was getting late in the day and we were still tossing around in bed. I was feeling rather guilty after three days of doing basically nothing in the exercise department. I told Alex we were going to go to the swimming pool. No way to refuse either as I had him dressed and in the car in only five minutes. Ten more minutes and I actually managed to turn the car on in between kisses.

         "You sure you want to go swimming?"

         "For the tenth time Alex, yes, and I'm dragging you with me too. Want it or not."

         "Alright, alright, but could we at least use the Ferrari?"

         "No, we are just going to Vista Alegre, I don't want to be today's talk of the town in school."

         "You have a point there."

         "If I had none I would not be Peter Gallagher."

         "Oh shut up!"

         I complied and drove all the way to school listening to the music, the way it flowed with the road and my car. Perhaps I could use the Ferrari more often, hard to get used to a VW when you have a red monster parked in your garage. How insufferable is that?

         It was strange arriving in school after having graduated, some of the younger kids still had classes to attend to, but most of the high school department was long gone. It was like an uneasy calm. We parked the car and got out of it, then got to the gym area near the pool and found there was a new door built on the way to the pool. Of course, like everything else in this country, it was locked and there was no one around, at least until one of the guards came by and asked us in spanish what we wanted. Alex was the one to deal with him because my Spanish had always been a bit... distinct. He could at least speak fluently. Apparently, I gathered, he didn't want to open the door since classes were officially over but Alex was trying to explain to him that we should be able to use the pool all year round, even if classes were officially over.

         In the end he let us in, not without checking the rules with the main office prior to giving in. We went straight for the changing rooms and started undressing. I must accept it, Alex took me by surprise when he wrapped his arms around my waist and started to lay whitesoft kisses all over my neck. Somehow we ended up in the pool, me in my white briefs. Oh that, yes Alex had dared me to go and swim in my underwear, after he went out of the changing room in his underwear himself. When we got out the guard was looking quite contradicted but kept it all for himself, and for good measure I should say.

         We even made it through a full workout session comprehending 3 miles worth of laps in the pool. 4.5km to be precise. As soon as we were over I was out of the pool and in the showers in a blink, Alex trailing right behind me. I turned the tabs on but no hot water came out. Suited me well I guess, I rather cold than hot mind you. Then Alex stepped in the little space allowed for the shower.

         "COOOLD!" I couldn't help but notice his hardening nipples. "Perv!"

         "Fucking right I am." I pinched him but he slapped my hands away. "Playing mr difficult again are we? Fine." I turned in an overacted way towards the wall.

         "Oh Peter, I swear by all the gods in the Olympus, I was only kidding. My love will be with you forever."

         "Mawkish to no end. Where would you be without me?"

         "Under a grey old bridge, begging for the loving spare change from the bywalkers."

         "Reduced to a common beggar you mean. Plain sorrowful."

         "Ok, I was trying to pull a scene here."

         "The only scene we will be making here is the two of us in the same shower naked when all the small kids come in for their midday training."

         "Hmmm, I might consider that."

         "Yes, just imagine their faces when we come out of the stall looking for fairer skin than our own."

         "Fairer skin as in `towels'?"

         "Yes, think I over did it..."

         "Indeed. Hey, perhaps you are not that much of a lost case in the end. Or is it I'm rubbing off on you?"

         "Well you definitely rubbed off my behind last night, my ass is still sore."

         "There you go, how glamorous of you to mention it."

         "My pleasure."

         "Well you said that all right. I do fancy the victorious exit from the shower too."

         "Then let's wait for them."

         "Exhibitionist. So what to do in the meantime?"

         "You got nothing planned?"

         "Welllll, not quite. We can always improvise though. I do have something on my mind, and it revolves around the lines of snogging your soul away."

         I only stopped the execution of such plan when the noise of tens of middleschoolers made their way into the changing rooms. Alex had a funny look on his face. We lowered our own voices down to whispers for good measure.

         "Having second thoughts my dear?"

         "...nah, just waiting for the right time."

         We were about to emerge from our shared stall when we heard some yelling from the other side of the curtain. It appeared as if some obnoxious school mom, you know the type, was chewing her son out in the middle of the changing room for he forgot to tell her he had swimming practice in the afternoon. I managed to sneak a look in and some kids were in various stages of undressing when she came in, apparently too ashamed to even move, some of them were trying their best to cover themselves with towels and whatnot. Great, who told her she could come in the men's changing room and yell at her son like that. I had to do something so I turned o Alex and instructed him to stay in the shower, after all two bare butted teenagers in the same shower would probably be too much for her. 

         And so I came out, bare butted and all. The bitch didn't even notice as I was partially behind her. I noticed a couple of boys notice me and then cover their mouths up to suppress laughter. "Excuse me madam. Can I help you?" I heard what cold be best described as a muffled cry coming from the shower area. She turned towards me and just as quickly as her yelling started she turned away and started walking out of the changing room mumbling something that sounded much like oh dear oh dear. All the room erupted in laughter some even whistling like I had scored a goal or something. Then the whole room applauded me, which I found flattering to no end. Then Alex came out and managed a fair amount of odd looks, even a snicker from one of the older boys around fourteen. Guess some of they knew about us then.

         The rest of the day went on uneventful or at least till I got to my house. I left Alex at his house, by now none of us was carrying any spare clothing as we had pretty much, and in unvoiced compliance, mixed both of our closets together. I went back to my house. Where I found my mother deeply immersed in a conversation with Leigh. I came in unannounced and greeted both of them rather happily.

         "Why my boy, we were just talking about you and your latest... course of action so to speak."

         "You lot having a good time at my expense again?"

         "Well yes Peter, we just were. How have you been my son?"

         "Fine, we pulled up quite the scene today in the changing room at school."

         "Nice, but tell me something my dear nephew, were you not finished with school since a couple of days?"

         "Yes, but we went swimming." I then proceeded to tell them all about the yelling woman in the bathroom episode. Leigh was having a hard time restraining himself and my mother had a fake scowl on her face which I easily dismissed as such. Then the conversation turned to the gallery opening, which Leigh had righteously missed. My mother stood up at some point claiming she needed to pay a visit to the bathroom. That's when Leigh told me the truth about him missing the vernissage.

         "Well Peter I must tell you the truth, I completely forgot about the bloody fucking thing." We both laughed.

It was nice having that level of complicity between us, I believe that, to this day, I'm the only living human to have witnessed and heard my uncle swearing. It had always been like that, since I was born. When his wife abandoned him, taking the kids with her, she did everything possible to separate them from him. So I naturally became his son in a way. He'd wink his eyes at me when I'd done something wrong, unless that time I messed up his former Aston Martin of course. And we would usually do our best to annoy my mother, like that time when we were so absolutely and utterly idle waiting for her to come out of the shower that we switched everything in the kitchen to the next cupboard or shelf. She didn't notice for a whole week. That was bloody hilarious. Then she went hysteric with the turn maid. The poor woman had to stand there while we did our best to maintain a straight face.

         I believe that, to this day, if she ever found out about the cuisine remodelling she never told us. Which gave me an idea of what to do the next couple of hours. My train of thought was however interrupted by the sound of Leigh's phone ringing. He took a look at the screen and his face twitched for an instant, he was having a mental dilemma, I could tell.

         "Peter, I need you to pick up the phone and tell this nice lady to sod off for me, see I've done everything humanly possible to let her know I don't like her and she still calls back."

         "You having stability issues again dear Leigh?"

         "As ever Peter now would you pick up the bloody thing before she gets to my answering machine?"

         "Alright alright give me that."

         (Yes?)

         ("á%&#&/@#is Leigh? I have to talk to him!) Well she sure sounded hysteric.

         (I'm afraid he's not available at the moment miss, you can leave him a message with me and I'll let him know as soon as possible.)

         (He's probably right there with you so why don't you go ahead and put him on now?)

         (Miss, as I told you, he's not available so if you want to leave a message you can either tell me or sod off.)

         (What did you say? I can't believe this!) Then she hung up. As I handed him the phone Leigh was chuckling to himself, and I think I quite knew why.

         "You messed phone numbers again didn't you Leigh?"

         "Well, yes and no. You see, the thing with these Motorola phones is that they allow you to save the same name more than once, and apparently there is more than one Catherine in my memory." He then resumed to a thoughtful state in which I thought about all the times that had happened to my uncle. Well how could it not when he was always dating at least three at the same time? Usually in different places `for good measure'.

         "Well, at least you have one left..." At that he looked really buggered.

         "Why Peter, you and your big mouth. I'm afraid I might have blasted the whole thing you know? Might as well have sent the other Catherine again the wrong message. And you know what's even more indignant? If I hadn't said I was in caracas I could have gotten away with it!"

         "Well, at least until then next phone call... still quite poor really. But I believe you are here to tell me about something completely out of the lines of messed up phone numbers."

         "Yes, but let us go out to the garden first." I followed him as he made his way to a niche I knew quite well myself, hidden between a wall and some bushes where the house `s outer walls met the uncovered earth beside them. Some more memories came to me as I walked towards the plants that sketched a tunnel-like shape with the wall. This was where I had managed to snog my first ever girl in Venezuela. Quite the accomplishment at the time, now seemingly far far away. Anyway, Leigh was gallant enough to break the spell and shove me back to sweet reality all over.

         "Now that we are undercover, would you care to tell me what made you send me a message to my phone at nearly three o'clock in the morning?"

         "Oh what were you doing anyway? Sticking your tongue in Alex's mouth by the looks of it. Have you seen your neck in the mirror lately, you have a most intriguing mark on it, wonder how did you manage to get such a mark."

         "Well I was determined to spare you the details of it but seeing as you are this eager to know I might as well give you a run for your money."

         "Now that I think of it, I'd rather be spared of it."

         "Fine then, let's get down to business then."

         "Right" he said, his tone much more serious now. "You have been challenged by a newcomer."

         "Hmm, and what do you expect me to do?" I could not believe Leigh had come to me with that, thought he understood I was out of it. The whole racing thing I mean, it was fun while it lasted but it had shifted from a cool pastime to a full time job that was everything but entertaining. And I really didn't want to go back to it when I knew I could drag Alex with me. My uncle was staring into my eyes now, trying to read my thoughts, but it was no good, I'd learned years ago how to shield myself while thinking. His impatience now clear in his stare, which he made no attempt to hide.

         "Well?"

         "If you are expecting me to race him, the answer's no, tell him he can have my place."

         "After two years building towards it, and finally succeeding now you are going to hand it over just like that?"

         "Yes, Leigh. You can take it up yourself if you want, tell them I chose you to cover me."

         "You know it doesn't work like that Peter. You know, most of all, that this is the reason why we race here. You know we never did it for the money, and you know, above all, that you like it, need it I daresay."

         "I might have felt that way before, but now everything has changed. Can't you see?"

         "Yes I can see it, you think you've fallen in love and now your face is full of red headed butterflies! Don't tell me you think it's going to last!"

         Well he really crossed the line this time and my tone must have carried it along to him, because he didn't utter any retort for a while "The fact that your own frustrated relationship left you soulless does not mean we all are." He was back on my case after a short while though.

         "Really? Soulless you say? But let's forget about that. Even if your relationship with Alex is more than a temporary array, why should it stop you from doing something you love, something you were born a natural for."

         Even as annoyed as I was he had a point, and it frustrated me that he would find one against me in such an unfortunate time.

         "It's not like that Leigh really, you should open your eyes."

         "No Peter, it's you who should open your eyes really"

         What annoyed me the most was that something in me kept holding onto what Leigh said, why should my relationship stop me from doing something I like? `Because is what's best for both of us' I tried to answer myself. But even then I could not see how it could this harm Alex, as long as he didn't know... That, right there, is what was going to harm him; I was not about to lie to him ever. On the other hand, how could I walk so easily away from what had been a big deal of my life up to now? Leigh was not right though. Going on with it was not a good choice, but then again, I've never liked good choices either. Up to now I'd led my life of my own accord. But now Alex was in the equation and it changed everything, and while I had nothing against it, it did shake me up a little bit.

         "Leigh, I know how you feel, and you should know how I feel too. The only way I can keep Alex out of this mess is by staying away from it, seeing as I won't be lying to him."

         "And why, you say, is Alex ever going to become a part of this?"

         "Well, because he told me that if I was ever going to race again he would come with me, as is his right."

         "He has no right to blackmail you like that!"

         "Actually he does, from the moment we kissed, I knew we were both fucked." Finally I added, "sorry, but I can't, I'll tell Juan to take my place."

         "I won't let you Peter, don't you realize? You are the best of us three, but I think you already knew that didn't you? Juan is fast but he's always to eager to win, and so he makes mistakes. I myself wasn't as gifted as you are for this, even though I started racing at fifteen, it was never easy for me to win, I did so with effort and practice, but you, you've sometimes been away from a car for more than a month bout you still won't loose your shape. You are a natural and you don't want to accept it."

         "I'm sorry but it is final."

         "Well, then you wouldn't be interested in hearing that there will be a Ferrari representative in the race. They are looking for new pilots for the V8 category and there is a rumour this new racer comes with them. Think about it." Then he left. Fuck him, so inopportune. Why did he have to know all those things? Probably being a retired F1 test pilot helped but nonetheless, the git wouldn't leave me alone.

         I got my cell phone and rote him a message. `Ok you win, fuck you' was all I could muster. He had me interested and going. So tonight it was then. Well I had better go call Alex to tell him. With that in mind I went back to the sitting room where my mother and Leigh were back to talkative mode. Both seemed not to notice me as I strode by, making my way into the corridor to my room. As I was passing by the front door the bell rang, and needles to say I got the call. Juan was there so I opened the door and let him in. I motioned towards my room and he followed me. Once inside I asked him if he knew anything about this new challenge.

         "So he decided to tell you after all."

         "After all?"

         "Yes, he wasn't sure, even asked me what I thought."

         "And what did you tell him?"

         He looked at me quizzically from here he was standing, then spoke, "I told him not to tell you."

         I was surprised; after all we both built our friendship around engines and cars, then evolving into much more. "Wasn't quite expecting that, was I?" I asked myself out loud. He smirked and shrugged it away, the subject having turned into something apparently embarrassing. Choosing to let that one go underneath the table, I asked him about Daniella. Another shrug.

         "Juan, you are being strange to say the least."

         "Well, about her... she's gone mad at me because I didn't call her yesterday."

         "Blimey. Is it that bad?"

         "Well, apparently it is... as if we didn't see each other every day."

         "And I bet you aren't missing much of her right now either."

         His face twitched a little as he spoke, a half grin half frown expression, "haven't missed her in a while anyway."

         "Thought so, don't beat yourself too much though, you've broken the record."

         That managed a sly smile from him; he still looked somewhat buggered so I changed the subject. "I'm racing this guy."

         He just looked back at me trying to read anything that escaped from my eyes but he was so empty himself he had to retreat. I moved in close and hugged him. He was tense. The moment was awkward, at least he felt like it. Well no one's perfect.

         I poured us a couple scotchs, Glenfidditch single of course. Just sitting there in companionable silence. Both knowing what the other was thinking and where we would go from there. Guess it had to do with having been friends for so long. However, my thoughts were diverted from their line of thinking by the sound of my mobile.

         (Hey You!)

         (Bugger, haven't seen you in like... three hours?)

         (Way too much time without you.)

         (Well, I agree)

         (Well, then let's meet somewhere)

         (Sure, I'm with Juan. Just tell me where)

         (Awh, and I thought I'd get some time with you alone.)

         (I know, but it will have to do.)

         (`kay, I'll text you when I figure out what we're going to do.) And with that he hung up.

         Naturally, his message arrived only a few minutes after. He had made a reservation for four in a restaurant quite known for its fantastic pastas and pizzas.

         I told Juan about the plan and he was about to refuse on behalf of not having enough money when I cut him short, "who told you you were paying anyway?" With that he didn't say another thing and we left after having told my mother what we were after.

         We were to meet Alex and his brother in the restaurant so we headed there. Juan was a bit on the silence thing yet so I put on the music and drove around, my head clearly outreving the engine. When we got there I saw Alex getting off a motorbike and Ronald standing right beside him. I think the bike belonged to their father if I remember well. After a bit of an argument with the valet I was able to park my car myself, in the space lying right next to the door which, for some obscure reason, the guy wanted empty. We all went in then and a rather nice-looking girl showed us to our seats. She was giving Alex the ogle, and Juan and me for that matter.

         We had a pretty uneventful evening, with Nico popping in the middle of it. It was comfortable to have things back to normal for a change. Although last two weeks had left a rather undesired aura for those two words. Comfortable. Normal. Now it seemed as if I just knew them, end of the story. That distinctive rush found only through the unknown. The need for it most of all. It all changed so quickly I could barely register it.

         Then there's Ronald, another matter altogether. I mean, he clearly had the hots for me, or any decent thing with a bit of a sex drive as he'd have it. Alex had literally given me permission to tap from that well too. I'd checked my priorities, which for the time being remained with Alex, I am pretty sure I loved him. It's just so fucking new to me.

         Just before closing my eyes to an empty bead, the thought struck me. Just be. Do not think all that much. Makes me... clumsy so to speak. Falling asleep with the anticipation of what was to come, whatever it was, wasn't the easiest of tasks. I managed fine in the end though.