New Kid

Chapter Six

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“Grandma? This is my friend, Brian.”

“Aren’t you nice to drive all the way out here with Keith. You’re probably both hungry, right? I have a stew ready and there’s plenty for both of you. Just get cleaned up and come on down to the kitchen.”

“Gram? Is it alright if we sleep in the apartment? We don’t want to keep you up tonight or anything.”

“Playing music and talking all night? I guess that would be fine. Go get ready to eat first, though.”

Keith showed Brian the apartment over the garage. Larger than he had expected, comfortable and completely isolated from the rest of the house and with it’s own private entrance.

The main house itself sat on maybe a hundred acres of farmland, the stubble from last summer’s corn crop standing where it had been left.

Brian was shy with Keith’s grandmother, despite her kindness. He was unused to talking about himself and she asked him an endless stream of questions about himself and his family. She wanted to know how long he and Keith had known each other, how they had met, what his father did for a living, what his interests were, his plans for college (“He’s only a freshman, Gram, lighten up.”), his hopes for the future and likely wondered about his blood type, but somehow didn’t get around to asking.

The dinner was endless; as far as Brian was concerned and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Mrs. White knew exactly what was going on—or what might be going on in her garage later that evening. The thought inhibited him to where he was as close to tongue-tied as he got. Just her looking at him was enough to make him blush.

Finally, finally, the dinner ended, the boys going down to the cellar to get the old furniture she wanted moved up to the barn so it could be sold later that week. It took two hours to get it all relocated and left both boys hot, tired and sweaty.

She had been supervising the work, hands on hips and brooking neither dissent or slacking. By the time they had gotten it all placed where she wanted the sky had gone dark and the boys were sitting on a couple of hay bales, resting.

Their reward was a couple of cold beers. “Now I know you’re both underage, but a little bit never did anyone any harm. You two relax and take it easy for a bit. I’m turning in, myself, but you two stay up as long as you want. Just keep the noise down, alright?”

“We’ll see you in the morning, Gram.”

“Don’t stay up all night, I have some more things for you to do tomorrow before you leave and you’ll have that drive afterwards, too.”

Keith kissed her on the cheek before she headed back to the main house and she smiled a ‘goodnight’ at Brian as she went.

“She likes you, Bri.”

“I like her, too—you don’t know how much I’d…” He trailed off. He downed some of his beer. Growing up in the Kinney household, he was used to it.

“You’d what?”

“…Nothing. I just wish I had a family like yours.”

Keith took his hand, kissed it. “You’ve got me. That’s a start.” A silence fell over them as they sat there holding hands, both thinking of the apartment they’d be using that night, both secretly wishing that the awkwardness was over and they were already up there, sharing the bed and doing things to one another. It would be so much easier if they could just skip all the stuff in between and go straight to being together and loving each other and being able to say exactly what they meant and knowing that the other would understand.

Keith was the one to make the first move, standing, pulling Brian up, their hands still joined. He led them up the set of stairs leading over the garage, opened the door and let them inside.

He snapped on the light and Brian looked around. It was, not surprisingly for Keith’s family, beautiful.

It was a decent sized but not large room over the two car stalls below. There was one room with a closet and bathroom at one end and a tiny kitchen at the other. The main area was a combination living room/bedroom. It was like a small studio, self contained and well furnished.

Keith knew Brian was frightened—terrified—of what would happen. He was only fourteen. It would be his first time and though he thought he wanted to do it, he was scared to death.

It was natural, it was normal and Keith hoped like Hell that he wouldn’t do anything to screw this up.

The room was hot, stuffy from being closed up. He threw open a couple of windows and pulled his shirt off. It had to be almost ninety in the room.

He turned the TV on low, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid happened to be playing. Turning the lights off, then sat on the couch, looking an invitation to Brian to join him. There was a long second of hesitation before he did, placing himself at the far end, a throw pillow on his lap.

The room was cooling already with a slight night breeze. It would be bearable soon.

Keith lay full out on his side on the couch, his head on another throw pillow against Brian’s leg, close enough that Brian could feel his body heat through his jeans.

The younger boy was trying to relax, his long legs stretched awkwardly in front of him. He shifted so that he was slumped further down, more comfortable

After a few minutes, Keith snuggled up a little higher, close against the leg. It couldn’t have been an accident. Brian stiffened for a second and decided to ignore the fact that his pulse was going faster and that he kept looking at the skin on Keith’s shoulder and back, taut over the muscles. It looked like it would feel like a combination of satin and velvet.

After another fifteen minutes, Brian’s hand came to rest on Keith’s naked shoulder. At first he felt like a breeder on a date, trying to cop a feel in the balcony, but Keith rolled over partly on his back, smiled up at him and moved his head onto Brian’s lap, reaching for his other hand and holding it.

“Do you mind?”

“…No—do you?”

Keith looked up at him, still holding his hand. “I’ve only had one real boyfriend and we broke up a year ago. This is the first hand I’ve held since then”. He smiled that quiet smile that had started to melt Brian’s heart. Not that he would ever admitted that to anyone.

The final scenes of the movie were real barnburners. The final shoot out, the two main characters defending one another against impossible odds and then choosing to die together in a hail of bullets. Keith put his hand up on Brian’s knee, “I know we were just emotionally manipulated, but I love the ending of that thing.”

He looked down at Keith’s face again. “Those men loved each other. They were friends; they cared about each other as much as they had probably ever cared about anyone in their lives. They decided to die together—they’d be together forever, well they’d live on in legend, anyway.” He put his hand on Keith’s cheek. “It was a love story.”

“But it wasn’t sexual.” This was going somewhere Brian wasn’t sure he was ready for, at least not right now, anyway.

“No, probably not.” His hand came up to touch Brian’s face, languidly caressing his cheek and slowly drawing down his throat and chest, around the nipples and then back up again. Keith watched as Brian’s eyes closed, heard the intake of breath, felt the erection starting. Sitting up and facing the other young man, he put one hand around the back of Brian’s head and drew them together until their mouths were only inches apart. “May I kiss you?” It was whispered in his soft lilt.

Not speaking, Brian nodded slightly, once. In that moment he wanted to kiss Keith more than he wanted anything.

Their first kiss of the evening was just a gentle brushing of lips, shy and tentative. The next kiss was more, lips caressing lips, a tongue gently gliding between the slight parting to seek entrance. At the touch of tongue to tongue, they both felt the shock of the newness of each other and the surprise of the mutual desire.

“Keith…”

“Ummm.”

“Wait.” He pulled back, inches away.

Immediately contrite. “…I’m sorry. I thought that you wouldn’t mind.” Keith started to get up, to apologize. “I thought that after last week you wanted…”

“No, wait.” His hands tightened around the slender waist, the runner’s hips. “I just meant—why me? Why now, tonight?”

“Because I want you and you want me and we’re here and we’re alone and it’s not wrong.”

“But why me? You could have…God, you could have anyone you want.”

He leaned in, kissing Brian’s cheek, staying there for a moment, their faces gently touching. After a moment he moved so that he could see Brian’s eyes and the fear. “You’re intelligent and accomplished, you are beautiful and we have a—chemistry when we’re together. It’s not just my imagination. I know that you feel it, too.”

Brian hesitated, gathering his courage, “We do connect, don’t we?”

Keith’s fingers were tracing the outlines of Brian’s face and answered by leaning in for a deep series of kisses, tongues twining, against each other, lips caressing, hands stroking over muscles, skin, hair.

Breathless Keith pulled back, his eyes lidded. “No, not here.” He stood, putting out his hand and pulling Brian to his feet and into an embrace.

“Where?” Another series of kisses, the TV was snapped off and they moved over to the queen sized bed across the room.  The only light was from the window and the half moon outside.

Brian spoke into Keith’s mouth. “How did you know I would agree?” They were embracing in the middle of the room, close to the bed.

“I didn’t know, I—hoped that you would.” He kissed Brian tenderly, carefully. “We will become lovers tonight and we will last.” It was said with more certainty and confidence than he probably felt, more a statement of hope than of fact.

Keith’s hands were outlining and framing, caressing Brian’s face and neck, his mouth placing soft kisses on his cheeks and forehead, chin, neck, behind his ears.

“…Why will we last?”

“Because we are soul mates…” spoken into his mouth.

Keith’s hands moved around Brian’s waist, lifting the tee over his head, stroking the long planes of his chest and back, his sides and his arms. Brian’s hands were gently flat against Keith’s back, pulling him closer until the skin of their bare chests met, warmth against warmth. Both sets of arms embraced, feeling the heat between them until Keith’s hands slowly moved to the button and zip on Brian’s jeans. In a graceful movement, both pants and underwear were gone as Brian returned the favor with Keith’s own clothing.

They pressed the lengths of their bodies close together and lay on the bed next to them, Keith pressing Brian beneath him, face up. Carefully, slowly, he worked his way down the length of Brian’s chest, lingering on the sensitive nipples and smiling at the sounds he could cause by attention to them. He continued on to the stomach, the abdomen, feeling the skin jump with the stimulation, his hands stroking up an down the long legs, inside and out, stopping just short of the hardness at the center. After minutes of this, Brian, with some urgency, pulled Keith to lay full upon him again, feeling the weight and warmth covering him. Almost immediately, he came between them, his arms and hands clenching Keith’s back.

Gasping he managed, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait. I wanted to make it last, and I couldn’t…”

His weight transferred to his elbows, looking down at Brian’s flushed face feeling the pounding of his heart between them, their legs tangled. Keith resumed the series of gentle kisses he had begun earlier to Brian’s face and neck.

“But it felt good, didn’t it?”

“Yes…”

“That’s enough for tonight. That’s all we need right now.”

“But you…”

“It doesn’t matter, we’ve all night. It will last longer next time, if that’s what you want.”

“I want to make you feel as good as I do now…”

“You will. I told you, we have time.”

Keith rolled himself over to the side, still kissing Brian’s cheek and his hair. His arms still around him and holding him close and safe. They were warm and comfortable and quiet together. Brian began to relax into the embrace, he knew that he was close to sleep.

“Why do you think that this will last?”

When there was no answer after a couple of minutes Brian tried again. “Keith?”

There was another silence and Brian started to think that Keith was asleep when he heard the soft voice close to his ear. “Because I love you.” He raised his head, looking into his eyes, seeing that what he had just said was the truth.

After a few seconds that lasted a while he leaned forward and, as carefully as he could, kissed Keith’s mouth. Gently, tenderly, lovingly, he kissed him and then kissed him again. “I don’t know yet how I feel—this is still new to me. I mean, we’re new. I need time.”

Keith’s hands stroked his back. “I’ve already told you, Bri”, the nickname becoming an endearment on Keith’s lips, “We have time.”

He was tired, but he still had to know. “Does your grandmother know about you? Will she suspect about us tonight?”

“She thinks that Chris was my girlfriend. She thinks I’m straight. She thinks that you’re just a friend.”

There was something about the deception that made Brian uncomfortable, but he knew it was the only feasible way for now. “What would she do—what would your parents do if they found out?”

Keith was silent again for a few long minutes. “I’m not sure. What about yours?” He stroked Brian’s arm, holding him close.

“My father would beat the crap out of me and my mother would say novenas for my soul.” He spoke matter of factly.  “I’d probably be thrown out.”

“If it ever happens, you have a place to go. I promise, Bri.”

“Keith…”

“Hey, I said I’d take care of you, remember?”

Brian turned his face so Keith couldn’t see how moved he was by what had happen tonight. No one had ever wanted to take care of him, never.

God, it was amazing.

Keith felt the slight shudders, knowing that Brian was silently crying. Saying nothing, he kissed the boy’s neck, tightened his arms around him and let him cry himself out. He had meant what he had said.

He’d take care of him.

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