Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:25:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Ryan West Subject: Diving In: Floating Away 2 Chapter Two: In Other Words... James Winters woke up on Tuesday morning earlier then he usually did. He woke up the previous morning the same time- 6:45. That's because he now had to pick up Devon Sanders for school. Their relationship had started in July, months after Cameron had left. Things had been going very well between them. Devon was going into his sophomore year of high school, but as relatively mature for his age. Well, sometimes he would do something juvenile, like talking during movies and not sharing popcorn, but mostly mature. And he was in a similar situation as James- he too was on the lacrosse team in the spring, and had a similar group of friends. He got up and took a quick shower. He washed himself in vanilla body soap- he wanted to smell good for Devon. After showering, James quickly dried off and put on a white polo-shirt with plaid shorts. He fluffed his curly hair, grabbed his book bag, and headed downstairs. Mrs. Winters was cooking pancakes and French Toast in the kitchen. She did this every morning, which was nice for James, but completely unnecessary. However, Mrs. Winters didn't work so she did not have much to do. "Morning honey, your father is looking for you," She smiled as she continued cooking. "Mom, I'm already late," James rolled his eyes. "I have to pick Devon up." "It's only seven o'clock..." She argued. "He wants to talk to your lacrosse coach, he wants to set up some sort of meeting to talk about colleges with him..." "I'll talk to him later, Mom, I gotta run" James said as he grabbed a paper plate and a piece of French Toast and headed out towards his car. He jumped in the drivers seat and placed to toast in the passengers seat then backed out of his driveway. James arrived at Devon's house at 7:15. No cars were in the driveway so James just pulled right in. He knocked on the front door, and Devon's older brother Tyler answered. "What do you want?" Tyler mumbled. James had heard some rumors about Tyler but nothing from Devon. Tyler had been a star athlete all of high school, but once senior year came around he just stopped playing sports. He didn't apply to college or anything- just stopped. "Is Devon home?" James smiled. Tyler was fucked up most of the time that James had come to visit. He also had gained a few pounds since high school. "Devon!!!" Tyler shouted to no response. "He's in his room probably..." Tyler walked over and collapsed on the couch. James walked passed him to Devon's room. He knocked on the door and opened it. Devon was standing shirtless with a pair of khakis shorts on. He was fumbling through his shirt drawer when he finally acknowledged James. "Hey," Devon smirked. He walked over to James and placed his hands on his back and kissed him. "Your early." "Yeah," James nodded. "My parents were annoying me." Devon pulled James over to the bed and pushed him onto it. He climbed on top of James. He pecked him on the lips. "Well, that means that we have some time," Devon smiled. James laughed then kissed Devon. He placed his hands on Devon's thigh and pulled him closer. He moved his hand to the base of Devon's hairless ass. Devon removed James' shirt. "I missed you after school yesterday," James said as he kissed Devon's neck. He took his left hand and placed it on Devon's back. "Yeah," Devon said. He began to move his hands across James' chest. "I ran into your little friend too." He said it so nonchalantly. James had no idea who he was talking about. "Who?" James asked. "Cameron," Devon stated. He stopped kissing James to tell him the funny story. "He's trying out for the swim team. It was so funny I pretended to hit on him, like really overtly and he was getting so uncomfortable. I literally grabbed his dick through his bathing suit and he was freaking out. I was about to die laughing." "What? Why did you do that" James pushed Devon off of him. "What do you mean? It was a joke." Devon said defensively. "Yeah, but..." James was mad at Devon but he didn't know why. "Look, Cameron's a good friend of mine. And he's a good guy... I...I don't want you doing stuff like that anymore." "What? Are you serious?" Devon asked. "It was a joke, James. Calm down." "I know it was a joke. Just don't do it again," James said. "Please. Devon looked at him skeptically, then got up and started fumbling through his drawers. He finally grabbed a shirt then turned to James. "Let's just go," Devon rolled his eyes. ... Cameron Wright woke up around 7:15. He couldn't get himself to get out of bed for about twenty minutes, until he was forced to. James was the only thing he could think about. He couldn't believe that James had a boyfriend. But then again, had he expected James to wait all summer? Cameron had clearly made his choice, picking Matt over James. Now he had to deal with the consequences of that decision. After seeing that it was 7:35, he finally got up, threw a t-shirt and a pair of jeans on (he had showered the night before), and headed downstairs for breakfast. His mother had picked up bagels, and had put them on a plate. She sat at the kitchen table reading a newspaper across from Mr. Wright who was eating a toasted bagel. "Hey sweetheart!" Laura Wright smiled as her son came down the stairs. "You're up late..." "I know," Cameron scratched his head, "I was really tired after practice." "That's great, son." Steve Wright, Cameron's father, smiled as he took a sip of his coffee. "I love to see you on a team again." "Thanks Dad," Cameron said as he grabbed a bagel and began applying cream cheese to it. No one spoke for a while, until Laura spoke about an article in the paper. "This is awful," Laura covered her mouth. "A boy only a year older then you was found dead on the side of a road in Colorado. They say it was a hate crime. He was with his boyfriend at a bar and these two hicks kidnapped and killed him." Cameron felt his face heating up. If his parents ever found out that he was gay, they would be freaking out because of articles like this. "That's awful," Steve shook his head. "Did they catch the guys?" "Nope," she groaned. "So sad." "All right," Cameron finished his bagel then grabbed his bookbag. "On that cheerful note, I'm going to go to school." "Drive carefully!" Laura warned. "Thanks mom, I was planning on getting in an accident..." Cameron joked. ... Alexis arrived at school early that morning to finish some last minute homework. She was surprised that her teacher had already given an assignment on the first day. The first week was usually bull shit review, but not anymore. So she had to do that, and she also wanted to do some review for the SAT's which she had been studying all summer to retake. Unfortunately, none of those things were done. On her way to her locker she bumped into Kevin Trainer. Literally. They collided in the hallway and both dropped all of their books. Alexis sat up and came face to face with Kevin. She laughed for a moment about how cliché this meeting was. "Hey," Alexis laughed. "Sorry about that," He smiled back. "I'm an idiot." "No, it's fine." Alexis and Kevin both struggled to decipher whose book was whose. Finally they both stood up and collected themselves. "I'll see you later." "Yeah," Kevin scratched his shoulder. They both started walking in different directions. "Oh, Lexi, wait!" "Yeah?" She turned around. "I, uh..." Kevin started. "I talked to Ricky, and he told me that uh...nothing...you know, you guys didn't have sex. So, I'm sorry if I was kind of weird at lunch yesterday, or whatever." "It's cool," Alex forced a smile as she felt a lightening bolt of guilt go through her gut. But, she was surprised that Ricky had lied to Kevin after his behavior the day before. She waved and walked down the hallway towards the library. As she was walking there though, she tripped on someones foot making all of her books fall onto the floor. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me..." Alexis groaned. She looked up and saw the owner of the foot. It was Ricky Buchanan. She rolled her eyes and groaned once again as she began collecting her books. "Hey, chill out Lexi," Ricky knelt down and helped her. "Look, I know you're all pissed about yesterday, but I want you to know that I talked to Kevin and cleared everything up." "I...I know, I just saw him." Alexis stood up. "I appreciate it...but that still doesn't excuse you for being such a dick yesterday." "Aww c'mon," Ricky pleaded. "I'm sorry, I was in a bad mood." "A bad mood?" She rolled her eyes. That was not a legitimate excuse. "Yeah, a bad mood..." Ricky laughed as he placed his hand on her hip and leaned in close to her. "Not here," Alexis pushed his hand off. "When?" Ricky asked. "I want to continue where we left off last weekend at Kevin's party..." "Look, I..." Alex started to protest. "Okay, don't tell anyone, but I'm having a big rager on Friday." Ricky smirked. "My parents are going to Mexico for the weekend. We can sneak upstairs and..." "We'll see..." Alex laughed then walked away. "If I'm not in a `bad mood'..." ... Cameron had a horrible morning filled with more work than any of the previous years. He had heard that senior year was supposed to be easier, but these past two days had not shown it. Not only did he have college applications to worry about, but SAT's and now school work. It sucked. Mr. Nichols his geography teacher had taken an especially stern attitude in the classroom. After being late the first day, Cameron had tried to answer a lot of questions in class the second day, but Mr. Nichols would smile and say some condescending comment. If that wasn't bad enough, he had given the students a pop quiz on European nations. After that fun morning, Cameron found his way to the cafeteria. He grabbed a slice of pizza and a coke. He decided to eat outside, mostly because he had no one to sit with. Travis and Marissa were most likely outside doing something dangerous. He saw Alexis but decided not to go over and sit with her because she seemed to be enjoying Kevin Trainers company. On his way out the doors, he felt a hand grab him. He swung around to see James. Honestly, he didn't want to see James. He was embarrassed. After their conversation yesterday, Cameron had been so forward saying that he and Matt had broken up, and saying that they should hang out sometime. It was just a bad situation. "Cameron," James smiled. "I was looking for you this morning." "Oh yeah?" Cameron blushed. "Yeah, actually I wanted to talk to you..." James gently grabbed Cameron's arm. "Outside." Cameron followed James into the hallway. James looked around and made sure no one was around before talking. "Look, I wanted to apologize about yesterday," James said. Cameron looked confused. "Devon...I didn't tell him to...you know, fake-hit on you or whatever..." "Oh, no. It's fine." Cameron fake laughed. "Just a joke." "Yeah, but...I'm sorry." James smiled. "So...how long have you guys..." Cameron inquired. "Uh, about a month now...yeah, a month Friday actually," James thought aloud. "Wow, it's been that long? Weird." "That's great though," Cameron smiled. "That you found someone." "Yeah absolutely," James nodded. They stood in awkward silence for a moment. "All right, well I'm gonna go, I'll see you around" Cameron said and then walked away with his tray. ... Marissa Tampa and Travis McCarthy sat in Travis' car outside Marissa's house. They both stared out the house, then back at the clock which red 11:46. "Just go in," Travis initiated. "C'mon, I really don't want to," Marissa moaned. Travis had given her weed a while back as a present, and now that they were dry, Travis wanted to smoke that weed during lunch. "It'll take like two seconds, just run in." Travis pushed her. "My mom's going to be there and she's going to make some bitchy passive aggressive remark, and be all weird because I'm supposed to be at school," Marissa sighed. "Just tell her you left a book at home," Travis said. "Fine," She opened the car door, then leaned her head back in. "You owe me, babe." She slammed it and headed over to the house. She could see her mom talking on the phone in the kitchen through the front window. Hopefully Marissa would be able to avoid her, if she was lucky. Unfortunately, Marissa had no such luck. As soon as she closed the door, her mom called her name. However, the way she said it was weird. It was as if she was...drunk. "Marissssaa!" Her mother called. "Yes mom," Marissa strolled into the kitchen to see her mother sitting at the counter in tears. Her mascara was running. "Marissssaaa!" She yelled again. "Are you drunk?" Marissa asked skeptically. "No!" She lied. "I need to...talk ta you!" "Mom, I just have to get...a book from my room, we can talk when I get home later," Marissa smiled and started to leave. "Your father and I are splitting up...finally," She burped at the end of her sentence. "What? Really?" Marissa was bitter/sweet about it. She was happy that she wouldn't have to hear the obnoxious fighting any more, but sad for her father. She loved her Dad. He definitely wasn't the perfect person, but he was better then her mother. "You have to pick..." She burped again. "You have to pick! Who you want to live with...I'm staying...your fathers moving to...your FATHER is moving to California..." "What?! Why is he moving?" Marissa's heart started to race faster. If her father was moving, then she would have to live with her mother if she wanted to stay. "I dunno," She started laughing, but the laughter turned into a fit of crying. "I can't deal with this right now," Marissa stormed out. She rushed up to her room, grabbed the weed, then left without saying anything to her mother. She ran out to Travis' car and hopped in. "What took so long?" Travis asked. "Nothing," Marissa lied. "Drive." ... The bell signaling the end of school meant very little to Cameron this day, because it just signaled the start of swim team try outs. He still had hours left before his day would really end. He rushed down to the locker room, hoping to get their early to show the coach some determination. However, most of the other kids had the same idea and were already in their suits by the time he got down there. Devon was one of those kids. He was just tying the strings on his suit when Cameron approached him. Devon looked up and smiled and nodded. Things were very awkward. Cameron nodded back, and set his back pack down. He reached in and pulled out the bathing suit that Devon had lent him the day before. "Oh, I forgot my suit again, would you mind if I borrowed yours?" Cameron felt like an idiot. "Yeah, sure." Devon nodded. Cameron took off his shit and slid his jeans off. Devon was fooling around with things in his locker, and Cameron awkwardly slid his boxers off. He made sure that he was facing away from Devon. He slipped on his bathing suit, and turned around just in time to catch Devon checking him out. Devon quickly looked away then slammed his locker and left. Cameron threw the rest of his stuff into an empty locker and then headed out to the pool. When he got there, people were still filing in to sit on the benches. Cameron didn't know anyone else, but made sure not to sit next to Devon. He'd rather not talk to anyone then have an awkward exchange with him. He sat alone for a few moments before Coach Z waddled out. "All right, today is the first day of try outs boys," Coach Z started. "We're going to split up into teams. We'll be doing time trials on three of the strokes: breast stroke, butterfly, and back stroke. We'll do time trials until Friday when I'll post the final list. All right, now just split up with the same partner you were with yesterday." Cameron's heart sank as soon as he said that. He looked at Devon and their eyes met. This was going to be awkward. Cameron stood up and headed to the opposite side of the pool. He jumped into his designated lane, and Devon followed right behind him. They were both submerged and treading water, waiting for instructions. Unfortunately, Coach Z was filling out some paper work so that was taking longer than usual. "I'm, uh, sorry about yesterday..." Devon finally blurted. "What?" Cameron asked. "Oh, no. It's fine, it was just a joke." "That's what I said!" Devon exclaimed. "But James was all `blah blah Cameron's a good guy'. I never said you weren't, I was just playing a joke! Jesus, sometimes he can be so frustrating!" Cameron nervously laughed and they went back to awkward silence for a moment. "So, uh, does anyone know about...you know...you?" Devon asked. "Nope, well...besides James, and my friend Alexis, and my ex, and well, now you" Cameron laughed. "So I guess a couple people. What about you?" "No one," Devon shook his head. "I mean, I used to go hook up a few guys randomly online who lived close by but that's it." "Yeah," Cameron nodded. "It's so hard to meet normal gay guys, especially in this town," Devon remarked. "That's why I was so happy when I met James. I mean, I never really thought I'd want a boyfriend, but we hit it off so well." "That's great," Cameron said. Before they could talk anymore the whistle blew. For the rest of the practice they barely had time to speak. Coach was either timing one of them or having the other do an exercise. Cameron was panting by the end of practice. "I can't move," Cameron groaned as he collapsed on the bench of the locker room. "I know," Devon laughed. "Swimming isn't easy, my friend." "You're telling me!" Cameron coughed. "I don't know how I'm going to have enough energy for tomorrow." "You get used to it after a while," Devon assured him. "I hope so," Cameron laughed as he opened his locker. He pulled out a towel and placed it on the bench. He turned around just in time to see Devon's small hairless ass before Devon placed a towel around it. Cameron watched as Devon headed off towards the showers. He pulled down his bathing suit and slipped on a towel and followed Devon. As Cameron walked into the showers, he realized that it was weird that he was about to see James' boyfriend naked. I mean it wasn't that weird, like it wasn't sexual or anything, but still. Cameron slipped off his towel and placed it on one of the hangers. He waded past the other naked swimmers. It was weird, he could somehow control his erection factor in the showers. He found an open showerhead right next to Devon. He slid in and turned on the heat. He obviously wanted to see what Devon was packing, but didn't want to be obvious about it. So, he pretended to be reaching for the soap dispenser and took a quick glance. What he saw was more than enough. Devon was HUGE. He had to be at least ten inches hard. Cameron felt himself blushing in embarrassment. Cameron wasn't small or anything, but Devon was very large. Especially for someone his age. Cameron stole another glance. Yes, it was still as large. Devon had very little pubic hair, but there was definitely some at the base of his penis. Cameron couldn't help by stare at it. James was definitely satisfied with his sex life, Cameron thought to himself. As he quickly looked up at Devon to make sure he hadn't been caught he was surprised to see that Devon was staring at Cameron's dick. ... Hey, I know this chapter was kind of short and kind of uneventful, but I have some good stuff coming up. Anyway, e-mail me with suggestions or comments or whatever at ryanwest25@yahoo.com