Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:28:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Clay Durdin Subject: Dylan and Joe Revised 1-2 Hi. My name is Dylan. Dylan Andrews. I'm 18 years old and I'm a senior in high school; a very small high school in the northwestern corner of Mississippi. And if you haven't guessed as much, I'm also gay. Around here, that's not the most popular choice. In the `Bible belt', homosexuality is frowned upon. In the south, fags or any other different persons are hated, well by most. In my school, I was fairly popular. Never the most popular but everyone knew me and I knew them. We talked. My worst enemies, though, were the jocks, if you want to label them that. They really weren't that great at sports, but to give them a label... any who. This is about one of my most memorable moments from my senior year in high school, well other than graduation of course. My physics class, the most boring class of my morning was right after my pre-calculus class. I hate math but love science, and physics is a mix of both so it's ok. My teacher is a nut. Seriously. He needs more grades this week to please the principal, so he gives us all weekend projects in groups. We were studying the principles of combustion, implosion, and explosion so we all did something with fire; which most of loved because it fire! Hello! The bad news was we had to film the project and the old fart picked our partners for us. He made the claim that the principal has told him to pick the groups so that they are diverse and fair. The old bastard also refuses to pair guys and girls, because it would be a bad image to the school, even if we were related, which sucks because my cousin, Cassie, and I work very well together. He pairs the class up and only two are left, the most popular pretty boy who plays several sports but isn't overly muscular, Joseph Benjamins and I. I was completely shocked! Joe was the best athlete in the county and also the only `jock' I could think of at our po-dunk school that didn't pick on me, well not to my face anyways. I walk over to him and he didn't look too pleased. Well to be honest, he looked scared. But his eyes, a pristine greenish-blue, they were captivating none the less. They looked surprised and had that glimmer of excitement in them. I sat down next to him and said, "Hey. My parents are out of town for the weekend and I've got a bonfire area set-up in my backyard, would you like to work at my house?" I was so nervous talking to him. He was hot to say the least. He had this soft shade of brown hair and he wore it in the surfer style, where his bangs swept across his forehead. He was wearing a taught, red Aeropostale shirt and a stylish, ruffed pair of jeans. "Umm... yeah sure," he replied shyly. It was rather cute. "How about we do a campout too? I mean we have to work with the fire outside, so why not sleep out there as well," he managed to say stammering. Damn it why didn't I think of that first! "Yeah that's a fantastic idea! I'll grill us something to eat while we wait for the sun to set. I've got a big tent and stuff. Yeah it'll be great." I was grateful that my parents had bought that tent so big, because I have problems sleeping on the ground so I've got to use a cot to sleep on. But with both of us sharing the tent, and me only having one cot, it was going to be a problem. I just wouldn't feel right sleeping on the cot and him having to sleep on the ground. But I'll just put that to the back of my mind and worry about it later when it actually mattered. After school, Joe had to go home and grab some clothes for the night and to tell his parents about the project and overnight stay. They had no problem what so ever because they were going out of town to see a play that night and wouldn't be home to cook dinner for him. When I got home, I pulled out the tent and some steaks for our supper. I put the tent out back so it would be out of my way. Then I began to make my homemade recipe marinade, which was just a homemade Italian dressing; my maternal grandparents are Italian. I also got out some asparagus and bacon and started wrapping them together; as well as preparing potatoes to be twice baked and stuffed with more bacon, chives, and cheese and whatever else the cutie jock wanted. I was outside starting the grill when Joe pulled up. He walked to the back as I was putting the steaks on. "Wow! Steaks! You really didn't have to do that. I would've been fine with burgers or hotdogs dude." He seemed flattered that I was cooking for him a decent meal. To me it was normal. My parents and I were definitely not hurting for money so we really had the steaks to spare, and could afford fresh asparagus and quality bacon. "Naw, it's only the best for me. If you would prefer me to cook some burgers, I'll go thaw some ground beef." I was serious. If he didn't want the steaks and wraps, I would save them and reheat them later. "No need to do that. I mean you've already got the stuff going." "Good! You'll love it!" While everything cooked, we just talked about different things. We talked about school mostly. I just got so lost in his words that I never even heard him ask me a question directly, "Hey, earth to Dylan." "Huh?" I asked breaking out of my trance. "I asked you a question dude," he told me exasperatingly. "Oh I am so sorry. I must have zoned off into space." I realized that that might not sound too good to say to him so to counter my fault I said, "you are not boring me though. I just do that a lot. Talking about school bores me." "Oh I completely understand." He just grinned at me. It made me wonder what he was thinking in that cute head of his. Oh GOD please control yourself Dylan I thought. You do NOT need to get a boner in front of him! He will never talk to you again! So playing off my on coming erection I jumped up quickly and ran to check on the grilling food. Once I was outside I was able to get my thoughts and hormones in check and forced my half-hard-on to go down by thinking of Cassie, my cousin. It worked. That is until he was there next to me saying, "Man that sure smells good! I can't wait to dig in!" "You must not eat this well often do you?" I asked "No. Not really. My parents can afford food just not the best of it. I help out by working at the Sub shop in town but it doesn't really do us much." "Oh well I really don't want to intrude on your life but do you wanna talk about it?" "Um... I guess. I really don't know where to start though." He said this all in one breath it seemed like and staring straight down at the ground. "Well, how about your parents." "There great! They both work really hard to support us. They are the reason I try to do my best in school and in my sports; to make them proud." "Oh I didn't mean to upset you about them. I wasn't trying to say they were bad parents. But I guess what you did say was what I was getting at," I laughed. "Oh. Yeah. I knew that, but what about your parents?" "Mine are busy bees. Mom is a Vet and dad is the new chaplain at the hospital. They are hardly here. Like this weekend, mom is out of town on some conference and dad went with her but only so that he could meet with another chaplain to golf. But when they are home we do everything together." "So then do they know about you?" "What do you mean?" I knew what he meant; I just wanted to hear him say it. "You know," he said stuttering, "about the whole, um, gay thing." "Oh that. Yeah they know. And boy what a shocker it was to them when they found out. Or maybe it was how they found out. They caught me kissing a boy from band camp in the summer between eight and ninth grade. But they eventually got over it. Well mom did. She is actually talking about taking me to meet some of her colleagues that are gay if I ever have any questions about anything." "And your dad?" "Well he chooses to ignore it but that's dad. He will never believe anything he does not like. Wait. Why are we talking about me? This was all supposed to be about you," I said while laughing. "Oh, well you seem like more of a talker. I like to listen." Wow. It was kind of cheesy but cute all at the same time. A jock, no, a straight BOY who wanted to listen. Well maybe not so straight jock after all. Ok. So tell me what you guys think. I have a few more plans for the cute jock and Mr. Dylan whom I haven't shared many details about, but not to worry. Those are to come!