It's a boys' life!

by Andrew van Ryan

copyright 2005

Part 9

           The rest of the afternoon, which by this time wasn't much, we spent talking, joking and dancing. Well, at least I danced while the others laughed at me. Most memorable was when 'Micky's Monkey' came on. I had everyone in near hysterics with my interpretation of the dance.

       "Good thing you wanna be a drummer, instead of a dancer!" Matt teased me. I shot him a disapproving look and continued my gyrations.

        "I wanna be a dancer!" Paul announced.
   
       "That's obvious!" Matt responded. Paul looked as if his feelings were hurt, but said nothing. The song had finished,so I fell to the floor alongside my new boyfriend.

       "I like the way you dance." Norman stated. I was going to thank him, but when I looked at his face I saw he was talking to Paul. Paul just nodded then looked away. I glanced back at Norm just as he spoke again.

     "I like the way you dance, too." he grinned. "I've never heard you play the drums, though I'd like to."
   
    I suppose I felt a twinge of jealousy when Norm said he liked the way Paul danced, but him saying he wanted to hear me play drums made the feeling quickly fade.

       "Yeah, I'll play for you sometime." I grinned back at him. Matt stood up and his arms stretched toward the ceiling.

       "Well, it's getting late. We'd better get going, Paul. I don't want your parents getting mad at me again." he announced, then turned to me and added "They think we spend too much time together."

       "You think they're figuring out what's going on between you two?" I asked, giving a frown.

       "Well, I think they're suspicious of everything Paul does." Then Matt turned to his boyfriend. "Come on, we'd better get going."

       "I'd better get going too, Andy." Norm said with a reluctant tone of voice. "Don't wanna be late or my mom will start asking questions."

    We all slowly gathered our clothes from the various piles we'd thrown them into and dressed. Paul noted how this was the longest time he'd ever spent naked, as far back as he could remember. I thought it impossible for anyone to never have been naked for longer than five hours, since I slept naked all the time. Paul admitted he still wore pajamas, as did Norm! Since Matts family were 'Beats', they often walked around the house naked, which I'd discovered in the most embarrassing manner. One morning after I'd spent a sleepover, I awoke to the sounds of singing coming from the kitchen. Matt was already up, so I slipped on my boxers and went to see who else was up. To my surprise, Matt and both his parents were in the kitchen totally naked! His mom was making pancakes at the stove, singing away while Matt and his dad were seated at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned beet red. Matts dad looked at me and asked the strangest question.

        "What's wrong? Never seen people drinking coffee before?"

    They all fell out laughing as I stuttered my reply.

       "Nnnonoo. I m-m-m mean, Uh shit!"

     They told me they're nudists and that I didn't need to wear clothes when I was at their house. I didn't have to take mine off if I didn't want to, either. They're pretty cool, really. Especially when you consider our town.

    Yorba Linda is a pretty conservative town and my family was one of the oldest pioneer families to have settled in it. Our ranch had been in the family for over a hundred years and my parents were deeply involved with local politics. Mom was on the school board and dad was the chairman of the Library. He'd served on town board too, but had given that up recently, saying he didn't agree with the plan to become a city. Dad thought our town would be better off to wait a few years, but it looked like Anaheim might try to annex, so the town board decided to vote for incorporation. Dad joked how Anaheim would just try to make us part of  Disneyland, but in reality, they would have swallowed up Yorba Linda and made it an industrial center.
    This didn't set well with the orange ranchers,us included, that owned most of the town. Dad had even enlisted the help of former vice president Richard Nixon, who was born in Yorba Linda, to help 'pull strings'. His family and ours had been friends, starting with my Grandparents, and as a boy my dad had known Richard, a teenager at the time.
    When Nixon was Vice President, my parents took me to see him and his wife Pat. Mom took a picture of me with them and would still get it out to show any new friends I might bring home from school, just to embarrass me.
   
       I thought of Richard Nixon as an Icon, until I lost my virginity to Matt, that is! When Matt and I did it the first time, it was during summer break and we were out at night. The old irrigation canal that ran though town crossed along the back edge of the Yorba Linda Elementary School playground. The elementary school had been built on the site of the Nixon familys' former lemon grove and the little house where Richard was born served as the school caretaker residence. It had become a national historic site when Nixon was elected vice president.
    This particular night was quite hot and as we walked along the canal, we noticed the lights were off in the little house. I remembered my mom saying the caretaker was away on vacation and I told Matt the school yard was unprotected that night.
     Matt and I headed for the playground right next to the house where three large pepper trees blocked the view from the street. We lay down on the grass and were soon making out. I had never done anything more than kiss Matt before that night, but he soon had my pants around my ankles. It felt so incredible as he touched, licked, sucked and stroked my body as we lay in the long summer grass. Soon we were both completely naked and breathing heavily with excitement.

         "Andy?" Matt cooed, his voice still at that girlish stage. "You wanna do it?"

    We'd been talking about 'doing it' for weeks now, and tonight felt so good it just had to be the right time. Lying beneath him, I wrapped both arms around his neck and nodded my agreement.  Matt slowly slipped down and pushed my legs up over my shoulders before going down on my tight little hole with his tongue. He hadn't lied to me about how it would feel, and I gasped at the sensation of his wet tongue poking into me. I writhed around beneath him as he worked deeper into me and gasped out loud when his first finger entered. I didn't notice when he worked his other two fingers up me, either I was too impassioned by the moment, or too nervous, but when he hit that spot that caused my cock to jump and pulse, I knew I wasn't going to chicken out and stop. Matt spit on my loosened opening, then spat on his hand. He ran his hand up and down his pole-like boyhood, then pressed it against my pucker as I waited for the sharp pain he'd told me would come. Because we were between sixth and seventh grade that summer, our cocks were still pretty small and I guess he'd opened me up pretty good with his fingers, because I felt only a slight stinging when he pushed into me. I opened right away and Matt slid all the way in. I resumed my grasp around his neck with both arms as he began making love to me.

       "Oh, Fuck me Matt!" I half cried, half whispered into his ear. "I LOVE YOU!"

       "I love you Andy!" Matt groaned hoarsely. "I gonna shoot it in you!"

       "Do it! Shoot your cum!" I cried out, only half aware of how loud I'd said it. "Do it!"

    With that, Matt suddenly stiffened and began to shake from head to toe. I felt him pulsing inside me and it sent me off like a rocket, spurting semi - white boy juice into the air to land on my hairless body. I'd never shot more than three or four squirts before, but this time it felt like every bit of fluid left my body. Matts cock pulsed five or six times before he collapsed atop me, panting and wheezing. We lay there staring into one another eyes and telling each other how much we loved the other for quite a long time afterwards. It was only when a dog began to bark in the neighborhood that we put our clothes back on and reluctantly continued on our way. After that night, whenever I hear the name Nixon, all I can think of is getting laid by Matt!

    Many times I've wished he'd become my steady after that night, instead of me having had that stupid crush on Phil, but everything happens for a reason I believe.

    'It might still happen. Matt could become my boyfriend someday.' I reasoned in my mind as I watched him and Paul riding away from my grandma's. I waved at them, then turned to face Norman.

       "Call me after dinner?" I asked.

       "You bet!" he grinned. I know he wanted to throw his arms around me and kiss, but we were in the front yard now and it was an unspoken rule amongst our group of queer youth; never show affection in public. You never knew who might see and report to your parents, or even worse, the cops!

       "I'll see you tomorrow!" I called after him as he rode away on his new Schwinn Varsity ten-speed. I watched until he disappeared around the corner, all the while comparing in my mind his new bike to my 1959 Schwinn Wasp. Sure, mine had the springer front end and a headlight, but it could in no way compete with Norms new ten-speed. At least I had got my bike new in '59, instead of getting my older brothers beat up Phantom handed down to me. I didn't really learn to ride my bike very well until 1962, and even then I didn't ride to school until the next year. However, the last time I rode it to Yorba Linda Elementary was November 22, 1963. I parked it in the rack with the other bikes and went to my class like I did every other day of fifth grade, but this wasn't going to be like every other day. In fact, it would be like no other day, ever.

       It was during Spanish lesson, which we watched on UHF educational television, that the world changed forever. We were all about to repeat the phrase the teacher on the tv had just spoken, when the picture suddenly changed to "Special Report". Then an  announcer advised "Turn to your local network affiliate for an important news bulletin". Our teacher realized something major was up and spoke to the class.

       "Students, pay very close attention, This may be something very important, something you'll remember for the rest of your lives".

    He then switched to a network channel just in time for us to hear Walter Cronkite announce "Three shots were fired at the Presidents Motorcade in Dallas, Texas just a few moments ago..."

    Within forty minutes, Cronkite announced John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, our President, my President was dead. Other kids were crying, as was our teacher.  When I looked at my newest friend, Phil, he stared back at me with a blank face. The announcement came from the principal for all students to take an early recess for lunch and we filed quietly out of the classroom. Phil and I sat on the grass away from the rest of the other kids. I sniffled as he spoke.

       "My moms going away for the weekend and she wanted to know if I could stay over at your house." he said in a near whisper. "I guess it's not gonna be OK, now that the presidents dead."

       "It'll be OK." I said looking up from the ground with tear rimmed eyes. "My parents are republicans."

    I didn't know what that really meant, but Phil smiled and said "So is my mom. Maybe I can stay after all!"
   
    Some things are beyond you when you're only a fifth grader, and the ridiculous comments we'd just made to each other bear that out. School was dismissed after lunch and my Mother was waiting for me in her station wagon. I loaded my bike in the back and took it home. I would be years before I got on it again. However, Mothers know when it's best to keep their little boys distracted from reality and ours did agree to have Phil over for the weekend. We watched the news about the President a few times but mostly played outside. His mom picked him up early on Sunday morning and so I sat in front of the tv after he left. My mom was in the kitchen making something to eat when the tv went to a live feed from the Dallas city jail. They were going to be transferring the man arrested for shooting JFK and I called out to my mother to come watch.
        
       "Mom! Oswald is on TV!" I shouted. The words had no more than left my mouth when a man stepped from the crowd and shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I sat in stunned silence, watching a man commit murder live on TV, right in front of me. When my mom entered the room, she saw the commotion on tv and asked what was going on. I didn't answer her, I didn't hear her. I didn't see her. I don't remember her picking my small limp body from the floor and I don't remember how long I stayed that way. The next recollection I have of 1963 is at Christmas.

    I got my first drum that year, a Ludwig Boy Scout model marching snare drum. I love that drum and the influence it has had on me. The major influence it held really didn't happen until February. February 2nd, 1963, at 8:42 PM, to be exact. It was at that moment Ed Sullivan shouted out above the screams of the teenage girls in his audience

"And Now, THE BEATLES!"

    That moment changed history, too and my life along with it. I knew what I wanted to be, and I would pursue it forever. I wanted to be a musician and nothing else. Within a year my once short hair grew to where it hung over my ears and nearly touched my collar at the back. I'd watched the Rolling Stones perform "Not Fade Away" on Sullivan later that same year and got my hair cut like their blond guitarist, Brian Jones. For my birthday, I talked my Dad into getting me a full set of drums, which I played for hours everyday. During the summer, my older sister started taking me out to buy clothes and when I entered sixth grade, none of my old friends even recognized me! I was definitely different from the farm boys I'd grown up with, and they started to shun me. I simply made friends with the new kids in town, who were now arriving by the dozen.
   
    Kennedy had started the space race and now the country was determined to meet his challenge as a way of showing respect for our slain leader. Families from all over flocked to Yorba Linda because lots of large corporations involved in the space program were close by.  About three months into sixth grade, Matt and his family arrived in town and he spotted me on his first day of school.
    I'd already begun having lustful thoughts about Phil and yet didn't understand what they meant. I'd learned to masturbate when a boy showed me how toward the end of fifth grade and I now did it every day when I got home from school. If someone was home, I'd just strip out of my school clothes and put on shorts to go "play" in the barranca. I'd hurry to my favorite hidden spot, remove my shorts and stand naked, frantically beating my meat while thinking of Phil.
   
    I was doing exactly that when I met Matt.

          Continued, but first.......