Next Stop Funnel Cake (7 page)

The park was closing and the last thing on earth I wanted to do was go home. Nick had let me crash a few times at his place when I was too chicken shit to face reality, but he was getting tired of me monopolizing his couch. I thought of going to a bar, but until payday on Friday, my money for the week had all been spent fixing the starter on my car.

I changed out of my uniform and headed to the parking lot, only to find Clayton leaning against my car.

"Hey, man, what's up?"

"So, are you coming home tonight or are you going to pussy out and stay at Uncle Nicky's again?"

I stopped myself from saying something I'd regret and unlocked my door instead.

"Yeah, I'm coming home."

"Good. Maybe you can finally clean up that mess you left in the kitchen the other day."

I couldn't take anymore and, after throwing my bag in the car, I slammed the door shut.

"Really, dude? Is this how you want to play this?"

"I'm still pissed at you."

"Well, I'm still pissed at you, too, Clay."

"Why? Because I told you the truth?"

"As you see it."

"No, as it is."

I put my hands up, unable to take any more, and said, "I don't want to fight with you, man."

Clayton sighed and folded his arms over his chest.

"I don't want to fight with you either."

"Well, at least we agree on that."

We stood in silence for a few seconds, before Clayton spoke again. "Can I get a ride, man? That guy Steve dropped me off, but he's already gone."

"Sure, get in."

We took off toward home, and I flicked on the radio.

"You know, Andrew keeps calling the house. His messages said your cell phone voicemail is full."

"By design."

"I can't believe you're still so stupid, Trav."

"Thanks, man."

"You know what I mean. You need to talk to the guy. Patch things up."

"Pretty sure it's too late for that."

"It's not."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've talked to him."

"What?"

I glanced at him, trying to see if he was kidding. He clearly wasn't.

"What was I supposed to do? He called so much, I felt sorry for the guy."

"I wish you hadn't done that, Clay."

I made the last turn and pulled into the parking lot of our building. Before we got out of the car, I had to ask, "So, what did he say?"

"He told me that all he wants to do is talk to you."

"Is that all he said?"

Clayton got out of the car, and I followed, waiting more information and dreading it at the same time.

"He still wants to be with you, despite the fact you're a total fuck-up."

"Your words, I presume."

"I'm paraphrasing."

"Paraphrasing the fuck-up part, or the Andrew wanting to be with me part?"

"Seriously, dude, come on. You know he still likes you."

I sat on the couch, and Clayton fetched us beers from the fridge.

"I don't know that I can, Clay. I really messed this all up. How is it possible you were right about everything?"

"I've watched you do this for a long time from a front row seat. I get you're scared and all that, but you can't really want to throw this all away. You aren't that self destructive."

"What if it doesn't work out?"

"What if it does?"

I sipped my beer and ran through the list of excuses I'd used my whole life for keeping people away. They all sounded so stupid to me now.

"Damn it, man. What do I do?"

"Talk to him. Make up and skip merrily down the pike."

"Just like that?"

"Yup."

I reached into my pocket and fished out my cell phone. As I was about to hit send, Clayton stopped me.

"Don't you think you should do this face to face, man?"

I put my phone away and stood up with purpose.

"Good point."

I handed Clayton my beer and grabbed my car keys from the bowl by the door.

* * * *

I sat in my car in front of Andrew's building, the courage I'd found back at my place nearly gone. I wanted to get out of the car, but fear kept me stuck in place. His lights were on. It was now or never. After a deep breath, and before I could think better of it, I stepped out into the night air and walked into the building. When I was in front of his door, once again I hesitated. My hand was poised to knock, but I couldn't do it. Part of me feared him slamming the door in my face; the other part of me feared him being the wonderful, understanding guy he was. My knuckles rapped on the door, and I held my breath as I heard his footsteps approach. When he pulled the door open, the look on his face was one of shock. Not exactly what I was hoping for.

"Travis, hey, I wasn't expecting to see you tonight."

There was an edge to his voice that made my stomach tighten.

"I guess I should've called first. Is this a bad time?"

He looked over his shoulder and that's when I heard voices behind him, one distinctly male. Andrew didn't say anything, and it became obvious he had company. I took a step back and cleared my throat.

"Oh, shit, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll go."

I turned quickly and got to the elevator, pressing the button as many times as I could, willing the car to come.

"Travis, wait."

His voice came down the hall as the ding of the elevator rang out to save me. I stepped inside and the doors started to close, but a hand came between them at the last moment and stopped them. Andrew stepped inside and pulled me out by the wrist.

"I'm not going to let you walk away again, Trav."

I followed him back down the hall, despite my instincts telling me to run. Once inside his apartment, I saw Shane at the table, along with a woman I'd seen in photos--Karen, Shane's wife. Their plates were empty, their wine glasses half full. All eyes were on me, and I felt my face go hot. Shane stood and dropped his napkin on the table.

"Hey, Travis, how are you?"

"Fine. I'm sorry to interrupt your dinner."

Karen smiled as she stood, already shoving Shane toward the door.

"No, it's fine. We were just leaving, right, honey? It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you."

Shane took a moment to react, and I couldn't help but smile at their performance.

"Right. We have to relieve the sitter. You know how teenagers can be. I'll talk to you tomorrow, bro."

Andrew walked them to the door, and I stood in the kitchen, staring out the window into the night. I heard the door close and shut my eyes when I felt Andrew's hand on my shoulder, urging me to turn around.

"They didn't have to leave, Andrew. I could've come back tomorrow."

"Don't worry about them. They understand. Besides, I didn't want to take the chance of you changing your mind."

"I almost did. A couple times."

"Why did you run when I answered the door?"

I looked down at my feet and didn't want to admit the truth. "I heard voices and thought you might be, uh, on a..."

"You thought I was with another guy."

"Yup."

"And, once again, it was Shane."

"Yup. I'm sensing a pattern with me."

He smiled and closed a bit of distance between us, but stopped short of touching me again.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure, Travis?"

"I came to apologize."

"Okay. What for?"

"Seriously? Well, let's see...I'm sorry for the way I treated you when you offered to help me. For reacting the way I did. For not calling you back, for--"

"Stop."

He silenced me with a kiss. I pulled back and met his eyes, waiting for him to keep going.

"You don't need to keep beating yourself up. From what Clayton told me, you've done enough of that lately."

"He told me he talked to you."

"I guess he got tired of me calling. Your cell phone stopped taking my calls." He smiled and crossed his arms, moving a step back from me.

"Andrew, I want to thank you for your offer. It was extremely generous, and I'm so thankful you think enough of me to want to help me out. I should've said all this before, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry, too, Travis."

"Why are you sorry?"

"For pushing you about school when you told me a bunch of times not to. I was convinced I could make you see things my way and we could make it work. I guess I didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late."

"I didn't have to run away."

"Another one of your defense mechanisms?"

"Yup. You could say that."

"Look, I know trust doesn't come easy to you, but I wish you'd give me a chance to show you that you can count on me."

"I want to...that's why I'm here. It's just hard for me."

"I know. Sometimes, though, you have to take the leap. You might actually like the way things turn out."

I pulled him into my arms and kissed him.

"Okay, I give up."

"You do? Wait, what does that mean?"

"It means, show me the catalog for this school. Let's see what's so great about it."

* * * *

"You got your schedule all taken care of?"

"Yeah. Nick was pretty cool about accommodating me. Lucky for me, once Labor Day is over, things really slow down at Downy's."

"So, when do you start?"

"My classes start next week. It's kind of nice being able to do everything online. No books to buy, no crappy cafeteria food."

"And no black lights for your dorm room."

"I'm saving you and Nick all kinds of money."

"I'm so glad you decided to let us help you, Travis. Even if you did get a bit twitchy while we were picking out your laptop."

"I didn't see why I needed the one that was so expensive."

"You'll understand when you see all the cool stuff it does."

I pulled the train into the last station, the park long since closed for the night. Andrew had wanted one last ride before Labor Day, and I was happy to oblige him, even though I wasn't supposed to be driving it after hours. Nick would never say anything, so I didn't worry too much about it.

"I'm really proud of you, you know that?"

"Please, all I did was stop the train at the right spot. No big deal...I've been doing it all summer."

He nudged me with his shoulder and frowned at me, but it didn't last long. His smile returned after a few moments.

"I knew you were going to make a joke about this."

"Sorry, I really am working on that."

"Doesn't seem like it."

"Okay, fine. Let me try this again. Thanks for believing in me, Andrew. It means a lot."

"Was that so hard?"

"It felt really weird."

"You better get used to it, mister. I'm planning on being ridiculously supportive the whole time you're taking classes."

"Great. Can't wait."

I moved to get out of the train, but he pulled me back in and kissed me, his hand holding firmly to the back of my neck.

"You're lucky you're so cute, Trav. Otherwise, you'd be in big trouble."

"Oh, yeah. What kind of trouble?" I lifted an eyebrow, running my hand along his leg.

He pulled me out of the train by my wrist and walked us to the caboose. Before we climbed inside, he pushed me against the car and unhooked the clasps that held up the top of my overalls. The pants caught at my hips, but Andrew simply tugged and dropped them to a pool at my ankles. I looked around, even though I knew there was no one left in the park, my mind suddenly frozen in irrational fear.

"This kind of trouble."

I was already half hard when he pulled my underwear down, the night air feeling cool on my skin. Andrew gave the head of my cock a soft lick and a kiss, but nothing more.

"Tease."

"Don't be so impatient, Travis."

"I'm not, but what if someone walks by?"

"Who would be here at this hour?"

He had a point, but there was still an element of danger about the situation I wasn't used to. Andrew found the perfect way to distract me, though, and enveloped the head of my dick.

"Oh, Jesus, Andrew."

He moved back and forth between teasing me with gentle licks and devouring me, deep-throating me as far as he could go. He was in shadow, the only light around us coming from the security spotlight on the corner of the maintenance shed. I put a hand to his head as he sucked me, my feet in danger of sliding out from underneath me. I urged him to his feet--much as I didn't want to stop him--and shoved him into the caboose. He fell into the seat, and I stumbled in after him, leaving my pants, shirt and shoes in a heap outside the car.

"Your turn." I undid his belt and zipper, then wrenched the denim down his hips until his jeans were past his knees. He took them the rest of the way off and threw his pants and flip-flops next to mine on the ground. Slouching back against the pleather seat, he watched as I knelt between his knees and grabbed his cock at the base. He squirmed, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Now who's impatient?"

"You think you're so funny, don't you?" he said with a grin.

"I do. Which you know."

He grabbed me behind the neck and pushed his cock into my mouth, his forceful approach making me hot. I let him fuck my face for a while, before taking over control and slowing things down, stroking his balls with my tongue before swallowing his cock again.

"Fuck, Travis."

His words came out in a hiss, and with one last stoke for good measure, I released his cock from my mouth.

"Should we get out of here?" I asked.

"Not a chance. I want you right here."

"On the train?"

"Why not? Give the thing a fitting send-off, since you never have to drive it again."

I opened my mouth to protest, but thought better of it. "Okay, why not?"

He leaned forward and kissed me, before turning me around so I was kneeling on the bench opposite him. I looked over my shoulder and watched him kneel behind me, his hands easing my cheeks apart. There was a moment of hesitation before I felt his tongue on my asshole. Andrew slipped the tip inside, gently wiggling as he teased my puckered opening. I couldn't resist pushing back against him, his fingers digging into my skin as he tongue-fucked my hole. Just as I got used to his pace, he stopped, leaving the car all together.