Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:14:55 -0600 From: Billy Wright Subject: Us, For You (Chapter 8) As always, please remember to donate to Nifty, it's a free service we've all enjoyed and it needs your help to keep being that way. Please, consider donating. Furthermore, this story was inspired in real events, yet it is still fiction. This story was was written by me, if you want to give suggestions, comments, constructive criticism or just want to chat, here is my e-mail: billy.alexander.wright@gmail.com or you can look for me in Wattpad (where this story will also be published) under the user @Billy_Alex_Wright Without further ado: Characters: Alexander - Me, a boy of 15 Christopher - My brother, two years older Minakami - Japanese boy of 15 Ekrem - Turkish boy of 17, the younger tour guide Baurk - Ekrem's boyfriend, a boy of 16 ----------------------------- Part 2 Moon over the Sea 4 (Turkey) My parents exited the elevator in a hurry, the empty lobby echoed every time my mother took a step with her heels. Behind her, my father was tying his tie. Their clothes were formal but discreet, perfect for a conference. "Don't go far from the tour, stay with the guides, always," my father was taking fast, my brother and I ran behind him. "If something happens, call me, not your mother, me. Okay? We've already told the guide we are leaving so they will be looking after you, they also have our numbers." Chris and I nodded. "Don't worry," Ekrem assured us. "Your sons will continue the tour as the guide marks it. If anything happens, we'll call you immediately." "Thank you." My mother went to the sidewalk, followed by us. In front, a black car was parked, waiting. Then, my parents stepped closer, saying their goodbyes. Chris waved from afar, still sick, while I hugged them. "Good luck in your conference," I told my mother. "Thank you, Alex, but my conference is tomorrow. Today's just the inauguration of the event," her voice trembled, she was nervous,she didn't had to say it for me to notice it. "Still, you are good at what you do, you know? It'll be great, you'll see." My mother hugged me again, a smile on her face. "Thank you, Alex," she said before looking at Ekrem again: And thank you too, for everything and for fixing a ride for us, I don't know what I would have done without you." "It's nothing," Ekrem made a little reverence while my parents entered the black car. "I'm here to help you. If you need anything else, please ask." I tilted my head to the side and saw Baruk sitting on the driving seat. Ekrem told him my parents needed transportation to their event and he offered to give them a ride. We said goodbye and saw the care disappear on the corner. The tour followed its course, moving through the city, discovering its hidden gems. That morning we visited the cisterns. "Who would've said that the drain could be this impressive?" "This is not a drain," Ekrem corrected me. When we finished eating, the guides gave us the rest of the day. Many opted to visit the Grand Bazar for a second time, surely to buy more tea and souvenirs for their families. Ekrem, instead, went with my brother to convince him that he should go back to the hotel and rest. I didn't know how he would do it but, after a short chat, the guide gave him a piece of black fabric and Chris left. "What was that?" I asked Ekrem. "That thing that you gave him." "To your brother? I just gave him a swimming cap," as soon as he noticed my confused face, he added: "here you have to use a cap to swim. I don't think there's a single hotel in the city were you are allowed to go in without one." "Oh, so that's how you convinced him." Ekrem gave me a smile and, then, we both walked through the streets of the city. It wasn't loud but it wasn't quiet, you could feel the life in every establishment. We walked for a while, I learned two things on that moment: the first one was that every ice-cream seller had ample sense of humor and, the second, was that no one in Turkey knew how to drive. We finally got to the stretch of water that divided the city, the Bosporus. Ekrem and I kept walking along the shore, feeling the fresh air of the afternoon against us. In the end, we stopped on one of the many benches that ornamented the way. "I like the city," I said without thinking, the words had escaped from my tongue, automatic, independent. I didn't regret saying them, they were true. "It's like being inside a legend. Like this wasn't real, like I had gone back in time, years into the past and I was living something that, in many years, people will tell their children about. All this city, this moment, this whole place is a legend." "The city, yes. Me, here with you, no. This is real." Ekrem moved closer to me, I let him. Feeling his leg against mine, his shoulder next to mine, I liked it. "When will Baruk arrive? I want to have that date you promised." Ekrem looked at his phone. "He told me he's on his wat but, who are you to say that the date hasn't started yet?" I looked at him, suspicious. "Oh, so we are already on a date? This, here and now, is a date?" Ekrem smiled softly, warm, confident. He didn't reply, I just felt his hand on mine, holding me, his fingers between mine. "Only if you kiss me." "You want me to kiss you?" "Everyone loves a guy who isn't afraid." Those words made me smile, I was about to answer but the answer he deserved could not be pronounced by words. I slide my hand on his cheek, feeling what would later become a beard, soft, short, my fingers carried on in his face until reaching his hair, until my lips landed on his. He stayed like that for a while, over the other. After a while we split. Ekrem put his arm around me, it was comfortable, I could feel the heat from his body. I let my head rest on his shoulder, it was natural, instinctive. There was no better place on the world. "What's that? Over there." I asked then, pointing to a piece of rock in the middle of the Bosporus. A stone in the middle of the sea with what seemed to be a tower in its center. Ekrem didn't even had to turn, so many years as a guide had taught him every secret, every story and every legend in the city. "Kiz Kulesi. That is the Tower of Leandro, the Maiden's Tower." "The Maiden's Tower?" "See, it's called like that for the legend of Hero and Leandro. There are many legends concerning that tower but that one is the one I like the most." Ekrem's voice was soft, warm like his body, relaxing like a cup of tea. "The legend goes like this: in that tower lived a maiden, a woman as beautiful as the sea, devout and wild. One day, a young man from the city fell in love with her. His love was such that, every night he threw himself to the sea and swam all the way to the island only to be with her." I looked at the tower, its walls, the rock where it stood. I could see the maid and the man, as clear as if they were there. "However, the sea was treacherous so, to guide him, the maid carried a lamp to the top of the tower, leading his way. After many days, the man was able to seduce the maiden too. They spent all that summer together, the man and the maiden, happy in the tower. Or it was so until, when winter came, one night after the man jumped into the sea, ready to swim towards his love, a storm came out of nowhere. The sea started rising, the waves roared and the wind, as wild as the water below, blew the lamp from the top of the tower." The sea in front of us, calm and serene, seemed like an entirely different being to that one in the legend. Ekrem continued. "Without a light to guide him, the middle of the darkness and the sea, trapped in a starless storm, the man lost his way and disappeared between the waves. For days and days the maid cried his disappearance, no one knew what had happened to him but her, every night waited for him with her lamp on the top of the tower. One day, finally, the man's body appeared, carried by the current, to the shore of the island. When the maid saw him she couldn't handle the pain and threw herself to the sea and to the love of her life." "I've always hated that story," a voice appeared behind us. It was Baruk. "Why are you telling him something that depressing? It's horrible." "Yeah?" Ekrem moved but his arm didn't let go of me. "I think it's beautiful. Tragic but pure, a story about true love." I thought Baruk would say something else, that he was going to argue, defend his point. That's not what happened. Baruk smiled to his boyfriend, gave him a kiss on the lips and stopped, standing in front of us. "I love how you see things," he said. "What took you so long," I said without thinking. Baruk looked at me. "Oh, did you miss me? That's sweet. I was also looking forward to this date, believe me, everything is more fun like this." "Like this?" "You'll see." It was a magical evening. The three of us walked through the streets, laughing, joking, and talking among us. Anyone could've confused us with a group of friends save for those brief instants where Ekrem and Baruk held hands or where one of them leaned towards me. Personal space had become a myth. We had dinner in a small café. They told me about how they met, their love story, in how Baruk wished to someday have his own radio station and how Ekrem, while only being two years older than me, had considered leaving school at my age. His job as a tourist guide left quite a lot of money, yet that wasn't his dream and it was Baruk who convinced him to carry on studying so he could one day make his dream come true. I told them about Minakami, about what had happened in Kapan, how he and I kept in touch and how he had told me to seize my time in Turkey. They both seemed exited by the prospect of maybe one day meeting him. It was weird being there, eating while two boys flirted with you and each other. It was like any other conversation save for the sudden comment of how they loved your looks, of how you seemed like a nice person and how, when I told them about the hot spring in Japan, they told me I was the luckiest boy in the world for getting to see my date naked. "Maybe we should all go to some hot springs," Ekrem joked. We laughed, it was a joke, of course, yet no one said no. When we finished eating we went to a little exhibit of Turkish art, then to have dessert and, in the end, we played game at an Arcadia. We went back to the hotel, walking. Both of them stopped a block before, each of them kissing my lips before saying goodbye. It was unusual but I liked it. "Did you have a good time?" Asked Ekrem, hours had passed but he couldn't seem to stop smiling. When I nodded, he sighed, relieved. "Good to know, I'm grad." "We also had a good time," Baruk added. He and Ekrem exchanged looks. "In fact, we wanted to know if you would like to go out with us tomorrow too." "Another date?" I asked. "Well, my parents still have the conference so sure." "Yes, a date but... not like the one today," I took me a second to understand what they were talking about. "More like, we wanted to know if you would be interested in doing more... like what you did with that Japanese boy. You know, the three of us. What do you say, would you like that?" I took a step back, looking at both, by turn. Ekrem and Baruk. Both were older than me though not by much, yet, from the beginning they had been nice, kind, not only with me but with my parents and brother too. Maybe too nice, too concerned about me being comfortable. Again, that was an answer that couldn't be pronounced with words. I leaned towards both of them, kissing each of them in the lips. "See you tomorrow," I said goodbye before turning back to the hotel. When I got to the room it was empty. Chris arrived half an hour later, wet after being in the pool. He didn't talk to me, still angry, blaming me for making him eat the kebab that made him sick. My parents arrived a little before midnight, they seemed tired but happy. We talked before going to bed. The next day everything happened so fast, every instant, every second, everything flew until, suddenly, the tour had ended for the day and the guides announced we had free time. I cautiously looked at the older guide, Ekrem's brother. I had never asked myself what he thought of this, if he was aware that Ekrem, his little brother, was going out with me. It didn't matter since, together, we walked to the hotel. "My mother is giving a tour," Ekrem explained. "But my father is home, the same happens with Baruk so, well, we decided that the best was to rent a room here at your hotel. How does that sound? That way, if anything happens or your parents get here, it will be easier to explain where you were." I nodded. Baruk checked in and, once he had the card to our room, the three of us went on the elevator. It was weird to walk knowing where I was heading. I thought that the story would repeat itself, that we would be in the same floor like Minakami, but instead of that we went to one of the top floors, far away from those in the tour. When we crossed the door, the nerves had taken over. I sat on the bed, Baruk on the desk and Ekrem sat beside me. There was an awkward silence, it stayed on the air, for a few instants, I could feel it on the tip of my nose, between my hair, entering my lungs. "Are you nervous?" Ekrem asked. "Because I am." "How do we start?" I asked, standing up. "How do we start making love?" Baruk stood up too, walking towards me. "Well, first you have to do this," I felt his lips invading mine, as hot as fire. Then, I felt his hand in the front of my jeans, caressing the beast I was holding. ----------------------------------------------------------- Naturally you know what's next, don't you? Are you ready?