Beach
Blues
Kirby sighed as the sun beat down
on his skinny form. God, he hated the beach. It was hot. There were no video
games and the wi-fi sucked. Add that to the screaming children, yelling parents
and all of the other people crammed on this tiny swatch of land and it equaled
one of the worst days Kirby had spent in his eighteen years.
He questioned for the fiftieth time
that day why he had allowed himself to be dragged to off to this hell-hole.
Sure, he knew why: his grandmother had laid on a massive guilt trip. He was
going off to college in a few weeks and this would be one of the last days that
he would get to spend with his family before he left, since he had to work most
days. The guilt-laden comments of how little time he was spending with his
family got old fast. So he caved. He agreed that it was almost worth the misery
of being stuck on this God-forsaken beach if he could get his grandmother to
shut up. Almost.
Pushing blonde hair away from his
baby blue eyes, Kirby reached over to the huge floral-printed beach bag that his
grandmother brought. He could almost feel his skin baking in the hot sun. It
took a little digging, but he eventually found the huge bottle of sunscreen at
the bottom of the oversized bag. Kirby always burned easy, his pasty white skin
offering no protection from the elements. All the more reason to stay inside.
He was just about done slathering
the white goop on his skin when he felt something hard whack into the back of
his head. Kirby whipped his head around to see a tall man running towards where
he sat on an old Finding Nemo beach towel. Kirby had to work to keep his mouth
from falling open at the pure beauty that was currently running towards him.
The man was probably about six foot three, a good six inches taller than Kirby’s
own form. His skin was a little bit darker, as if he had some Hispanic blood in
him. Or maybe he just spent a lot of time outdoors. That would certainly
explain the perfectly formed muscles in his arms and abs. The guy was so fit he
practically had a six-pack. His legs looked strong too, but the green swim
trunks he was wearing fell to his knees, so he could not be sure. His brown
hair was a little messed up, but it was floppy and looked soft. In short, the
man was a walking wet dream.
“Hey, sorry about that. It kind of
got away from me.”
“What?” Kirby could have kicked
himself with how clueless he sounded. But how could someone blame him. There
was a fucking God in front of him.
“The Frisbee? I saw it hit you. Are
you okay?”
Kirby looked down and saw a red
disc lying on his towel. “Oh,” he said, picking up the Frisbee. He got up off
the towel and handed it back to him. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. Are you sure that you are
okay? I feel kinda bad for hitting you.”
“Yeah, I am fine.”
“Well, let me make it up to you.
How about I get you a soda from the snack bar?”
“Yes,” Kirby practically screamed.
He ducked his head soon after the word left his mouth. Damn, he was screwing
this up.
But the man did not seem bothered. “Cool.
Let me go tell my brother.”
“Wouldn’t he mind if you leave him?”
The man smiled at Kirby, showing him
a mouth full of perfectly straight white teeth. Did this guy have any physical
imperfections? “Nah. He will be more than happy to get rid of me. He is here
with his girlfriend.” The tone is his voice made Kirby think that he did not
approve of his brother’s date, but he did not want to pry.
“Okay, cool. Let me just go tell my
own family that I am leaving.”
“Okay. Meet you back here in five?”
Kirby nodded and headed off to the
water. His grandmother had taken his younger brother and sister in the ocean a
little while ago. Jake and Jamie loved the water, so he knew that she would
still be in there with the eight year-old twin terrors.
His grandmother was not too pleased
that he was leaving in the middle of ‘family time’ to spend time with a
stranger, but she eventually relented. Kirby could not understand how it was
family time, considering that he spent much of the time on the beach, but
whatever. (Who the hell would go in the ocean anyway? Who knows what kind of
dangers are in there? As bad as the hot sand was, at least there were no
sharks.)
When Kirby walked back to his
towel, the man was already there waiting there. The exchanged small smiles before
walking up the beach to the large snack bar on the boardwalk. The man, after
asking what Kirby wanted, ordered two Cokes at the snack bar before leading
Kirby to a vacant bench.
“Thanks for the soda,” Kirby said after
taking a sip of the cool liquid.
“No problem. So what is your name?”
“Kirby. Kirby Walker.”
“Cool. I am Dane Binneman.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The two sat in silence for a little
bit. Kirby was desperately trying to come up with something to say, but Dane
seemed content to sit in silence.
“So what brings you to the beach,”
Kirby asked, after an eternity of silence.
“Had the day off from work. My
brother and I have to go back to school in a few weeks so we will not see each
other for a few months. He goes to school in California and I go here. It was
supposed to be just us, but at the last moment he brought the blonde bitch.”
“I guess you don’t like her.”
“She is a slut. He is way too good
for her. But her boobs are huge and he says she is good in sack. Not I would
know. Or care. What about you?”
“My grandmother promised my younger
siblings that she would bring them to the beach before school started. I got
guilted into coming. I am leaving for college in a few weeks, so I am moving
out of her house and into the dorm. I know that she will miss me, so I agreed
to come. I only wish that she did not have to pick the beach for family time. I
hate the beach.”
Dane laughed. “Sorry. But that is
actually funny.”
“Says the guy who doesn’t hate the
beach.”
“True. So where are you going?”
“Rutgers.”
“No way. I go to Rutgers. I am
going to be a Junior.”
“Really?” Kirby could not help but
smile. Dane went to his school! Maybe they could stay in touch. Kirby knew that
freshman and juniors were not typically friends, but anything is possible. Right?
“Yeah. What a coincidence.”
Kirby and Dane talked for a long
time about Rutgers, how they got there, what they wanted to do with their
education and everything else. The next thing Kirby knew two hours had passed
and his grandmother had come up to the Boardwalk to look for him. Using some
clever language, Kirby managed to send her away, but he knew that it was only a
matter of time before she came back with the twins.
“I guess that I have to go,” Kirby
said with great reluctance.
“I understand. Here let me give you
my number before you do.” Exchanging cell phones, they both entered their
contact information into each other’s phones.
“I had a lot of fun today,” Dane
said as he handed the phone back.
“Yeah, I did too,” Kirby said,
blush rising on my cheeks.
“Hey, Kirby. I may be reading this
wrong, and feel free to tell me if I am, but are you…gay?”
Kirby’s head snapped up and met Dane’s
eyes. Dane had seen through him! That was not part of the plan. But looking
into his eyes, Kirby noticed that there was no hatred or loathing. Just a
gentle curiosity.
Taking a risk, Kirby slowly nodded
his head.
“Good. Are you single?”
Curious as to where this is going,
Kirby slowly nodded again.
“Good.” The next thing that Kirby
knew soft lips touched his own. Dane was kissing him! It was soft and gentle
and everything that Kirby could have dreamed of and more.
Much too soon, Dane pulled away, a
gentle smile on his lips. “I loved spending time with you. Call me sometime.
Maybe we can get together when we get back on campus.”
Then, with one last gentle look,
Dane stood up from the bench and walked down to the beach. Kirby remained
sitting, still in shock from what just happened.
Dane had kissed him. On the lips.
He was gay too! And he had told Kirby to call. Holy crap!
Slowly a huge grin broke out onto
Kirby’s face. Maybe he grandmother had been right. Maybe the beach wasn’t so
bad, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment