Kindred Spirits

Chapter 2

Gabriel opened his lunchbox and couldn’t help but frown in disgust. As always, his mother had sent him off with a hastily slapped together and now soaked tuna fish sandwich, a bottle of milk, and an apple. None of it looked particularly appetizing, especially not after the treatment his backpack had been subjected to.

The school day had started miserably. Decker had caught him first thing in the morning, despite his attempts to steer clear of the football player, and together with a couple of friends, he had taken Gabriel’s backpack and emptied its contents in the schoolyard pond. His textbooks and stationery were all soaked through, and there were traces of the filthy pond water left everywhere, including his lunchbox. Gabriel was hungry, but eating the lunch now could probably cause some serious health issues. Not to mention that it probably tasted like sewer.

“Hey, is this seat taken?”

Gabriel gazed up and saw Peter expertly balancing a tray on his forearm. The dark-haired boy grinned from behind his bangs, obviously waiting for an obvious answer.

“No,” Gabriel said, sensing a smile come up despite the unpleasant start on the day. It was as though Peter’s mere presence could wipe out everything that had gone wrong so far. His new friend looked casual but gorgeous, wearing a black T-shirt with a Metallica motif and loose, baggy jeans torn at the knees.

“Jeez, what happened to your lunch?” Peter asked, staring at the mess in Gabriel’s lunchbox with horrified curiosity.

“It was just… a little accident,” Gabriel murmured, hoping Peter would not inquire further. He did not want to ruin the mood by discussing Decker and his Neanderthal friends.

“Well, that looks like something I wouldn’t even feed my dog… if I had one,” Peter said truthfully. “Don’t you have anything else to eat?”

“I’m afraid not…”

“You can have some of my pizza, if you want,” Peter generously offered, pushing his tray toward Gabriel. “There’s enough for you as well.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh no, I couldn’t…”

“Nonsense! You can’t go hungry all day. Gives you a headache.” He handed Gabriel a slice wrapped up in a napkin. “It’s a vegetarian pizza. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Thank you…”

They ate in silence for the following two or three minutes. After the second slice, Gabriel politely declined a third. The pizza was excellent, but it was Peter’s, and he already felt like a parasite for feasting one someone else’s lunch. He made a mental note to somehow pay Peter back when he got an opportunity.

Peter watched his friend intently as he waited for him to finish chewing up. He had noticed that the lunchbox was not the only thing that had been involved in the “accident”; dried mud-stains covered the sleeves of Gabriel’s knit cardigan and the same filth could be spotted on his pant-legs, too. Peter suspected that he’d had a run-in with the guy from yesterday – Decker was his name – but he did not want to be an insensitive jerk and point it out, since Gabriel had made it clear he preferred not to talk about it. Instead Peter hoped he could improve Gabriel’s mood by asking another question.

“What are you doing this evening? Busy?”

“No…”

“Okay, good. So, wanna hang out?”

Gabriel’s eyes lit up. “To work on the assignment?”

“Nah, just for fun, I thought,” Peter said in a smooth voice followed by the slightly crooked smile that Gabriel had already grown very fond of.

“Really? Your place…?”

“If you want. Or I could take you out on a little cruise, get away from the city, you know… Noise, traffic, crowds. Drives me nuts sometimes. What do you say?”

Gabriel’s heart sped up as his brain processed the full meaning of Peter’s proposal. Could it be that Peter was asking him out on a… date? Never having had one before, he was not entirely sure what a date was supposed to be like. This sounded close enough to get his hopes up, though.

“That’d be lovely,” he finally said, feeling hot and light-headed. Suddenly the thought of spending another three hours at school did not seem like such a grim ordeal.

*

“I love this place,” Peter said dreamily as he and Gabriel watched the sunset from the backseat of his car now parked on a secluded hill top, offering a great view over all of Manhattan. The weather was surprisingly mild for October, and they sat under open sky with the folding top down. “Sometimes I just wish I could stay here forever. Feels like you’re not even in New York anymore, if you get the point.”

Gabriel simply smiled in his usual meek, timid way. “I’m sure your girlfriends love it when you take them here, right?”

“Actually… I’ve only been up here with Nathan. You’re the first date I’ve ever brought with me.”

“Should I be flattered?” The evening had progressed so wonderfully that Gabriel had even gained the confidence to test his previously unexplored flirting skills. Because, socially handicapped though he was, he was positive that Peter was flirting with him. Either that or the upper class boy had a very odd sense of humour.

“I don’t know. Should you?” Peter grinned lopsidedly, brushing back his bangs from his eyes for the umpteenth time that day. It was a gesture that Gabriel never grew bored of watching.

“I told mom we’d be studying…” he murmured, averting his eyes from Peter’s. Gabriel loathed having to lie to his mother, but she really gave him no choice. He would never be able to explain to her how he really felt about Peter. Having a gay son simply did not exist in Virginia Gray’s religiously influenced view of the world.

“You’re cute when you blush,” Peter remarked, now flirting shamelessly with his new friend. He could tell that Gabriel was receptive to his charms, but he also knew that certain aspects of Gabriel’s upbringing plus the other boy’s seemingly compulsive need to keep his distance might make this a tough nut to crack.

The frivolous comment only made the colour rise another shade in Gabriel’s already flushed face. Staring down at his lap, he then discovered a hole the size of a quarter in the front of his knit cardigan.

//I’m on my first date ever, and what am I wearing? I look like a goddamned Salvation Army alert!//

“Hey, is something wrong?” Peter’s soft voice was sympathetic and now also concerned. He leaned closer to Gabriel and soon their shoulders were touching through the fabric of their clothes.

“No, nothing, I’m just… collecting my thoughts, I guess.” Gabriel desperately tried to come up with a suitable topic of conversation. “Are you and your brother close?” he finally asked, figuring that it would not hurt if he found out some more about Peter’s family.

Peter nodded but he did not pull back. “Oh yes. Or we used to be… I mean, Nathan’s much older than I. Thirteen years. We couldn’t really do stuff that normal brothers do, because of the age difference, but he was always looking after me when I was little. Still is, I suppose. Truth is…” Peter paused, as if what he had coming up was embarrassing or unpleasant, or perhaps both. “Nathan has been more of a father to me than my real dad ever could be. It’s not that I don’t love my dad, it’s just that… I’ve always been a disappointment to him. He never says it out loud, but he doesn’t have to. I may be a slacker, but I’m not stupid.”

“Peter…”

“Oh God, I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I’ve never told anyone about it,” Peter confessed. “You’re different, Gabriel. With you, I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not. I can just be me, and I like that.”

Gabriel drew in a sharp breath when Peter reached over, put his hand atop Gabriel’s and entwined their fingers.

“It must be nice not having to be like everyone else.”

“It’s… really not that great,” Gabriel said with a nervous chuckle. He prayed that Peter would never let go of his hand. “The other kids think I’m weird. D-do you think I’m weird, Peter?”

As a reply, Peter cupped Gabriel’s chin in his hand and locked their gazes. Peter’s large, frighteningly intense eyes, framed by perfect ebony lashes, looked deep into Gabriel’s core. There was no deceit in those eyes; Peter meant whatever he was going to say now.

“I think you’re beautiful.” He brought their lips together in a kiss. At first it was Peter who did all the kissing; Gabriel merely opened his lips and passively allowed Peter’s probing tongue access to the cavern of his mouth, still tasting of the tacos they had eaten earlier. He had never kissed anyone before, and his fear of ruining the moment by doing it wrong was overwhelming.

Peter’s hands passed from Gabriel’s face to his shoulders, down his arms and finally to his waist. The watchmaker’s son moaned between the heated kisses as he felt Peter untuck his shirt and slide his hands in underneath it to stroke his bare skin. A part of him refused to believe that this was really happening; for too long he had endured cruel, vicious voices saying that he was ugly and repulsive and that no one in their right mind would even look twice at him.

“Peter… wait…” Gabriel broke their kiss and made a half-hearted attempt to pull away from Peter’s tight embrace. He still wanted this; lord, he was so hard that his entire pelvic area was throbbing and aching, but there were some things that needed to be made clear before they went any further.

“Peter, there’s something… something I need to tell you.”

“What? Just tell me…” Smiling from behind his bangs, Peter brushed back the normally neatly combed hair that now covered Gabriel’s forehead.

“I… I really don’t know how to say this, and you’re probably gonna laugh at me, but… I’m a virgin. I mean, I’ve never…”

Peter smiled, but it was a gentle, understanding smile that made Gabriel feel a tiny bit better about himself. “That’s okay, Gabriel. I don’t mind that.”

“It’s just that… I sort of want my first time to be… special.”

“Yeah, of course. I totally understand,” Peter said.

Gabriel bit his lower lip, now pink and swollen from the recent kissing. Peter’s hand was resting on his thigh, gently rubbing his flesh through the fabric. His erection, only inches away, was still very prominent. He would have asked Peter to touch it if only he hadn’t been sure he would come in his pants the moment Peter’s hand brushed his privates.

“You must think I’m so ridiculous…”

“No, no. I promise I don’t. Just tell me what you’d consider special…?” Peter asked.

“Like… you taking me out to dinner, or a movie… Something romantic,” Gabriel tentatively explained. “You could come to my door with flowers…”

“I see… you wanna be courted?” It amused Peter that Gabriel was much more traditionally feminine than any of his previous girlfriends. The few guys he had been with had not been interested in any kind of cuddling or proofs of affection; as soon as the act itself was over, it was as though they had forgotten he existed. Gabriel really was different, and Peter found it oddly refreshing.

“If a dinner and movie with flowers are what you want, then it’s what you’re gonna get,” he said light-heartedly, stealing a quick kiss from the watchmaker’s son. “Trust me, I can be romantic.”

“You can be anything, Peter,” Gabriel said in a low and serious voice. “I just know.”

//And I know that you’ve certainly made me fall for you//

*

They exchanged another brief but intense kiss in the car outside Gabriel’s home. Just like yesterday, he had promised his mother to be home by eight, and this time he was actually going to make it.

Peter caressed his clean-shaven cheek and gazed at him with lust-clouded eyes. He leaned in for another kiss, but Gabriel held him at arm’s length. “Not here, Peter,” he whispered. “My mother could be watching us through the window.”

“I’m sorry, I… just wanna touch you all over.”

“All good things to those who wait…” Gabriel grinned back. He exited the car and watched Peter take off. His body and soul both ached for the other boy’s touch, but he was not quite desperate enough to let Peter grope him within sight of his parents. Should they find out…

Before using his key to unlock the front door, Gabriel made sure his hair and clothes were in perfect order. Nothing about his appearance or demeanour must appear suspicious in any way.

His mother was in the kitchen, stirring a pot of meat stew with a wooden ladle. She looked up when she saw him enter, and while she did not smile, she wasn’t looking particularly displeased, either.

“Hello, Gabriel,” Virginia said. “How nice of you to be home on time.”

Gabriel sighed. He had obviously been wrong. Even if her visage did not reveal anything, her voice certainly did. “I’m sorry about last night, mom. I really am. How many times do I have to say that?”

Virginia ceased stirring the pot and threw the ladle into the sink with an angry gesture. “Gabriel, I’m your mother! You really scared me yesterday. I almost called the police!”

“Mom, I really think you’re overreacting. Besides, I was only half an hour late”---

“Do not try to justify your behaviour!”

“All the other kids are out much later than me! Besides, I’m almost eighteen, I”---

“You’re not like the “other kids”, Gabriel,” Virginia prompted. “And whether you like it or not, you must abide by the rules of this household as long as you live under this roof.” Her hands were now twisting her apron in a manner that Gabriel recognized all too well. It usually meant that his mother was going to get a fit of migraine.

“Where’s dad?” he asked in an attempt to change the topic of discussion.

“In the living room. You might as well go get him. Tell him it’s dinner time.”

Gabriel was grateful for an opportunity to dodge out of the kitchen. He found his father slumped in his favourite armchair with a newspaper on his lap and a beer can balancing alarmingly close to the edge of the armrest. The TV was on, but the watchmaker’s audible snores told Gabriel that his father was no longer watching it.

“Dad…?” He gently shook the older man’s shoulder. “Dad, mom says that dinner’s ready.”

Mr. Gray opened his eyes, which were watery and bloodshot. Gabriel knew that it usually meant too little sleep and too much alcohol.

“Gabriel…” the watchmaker muttered. “I didn’t hear you come in…”

“Dad, dinner’s ready,” Gabriel said in a low and unobtrusive voice. “Mom asked me to bring you.”

“Yeah, yeah… coming…” The older man slowly stood up from the armchair, his clumsy movements belying his true age. Mr. Gray was tall and lean and had looked great in his youth, but despite the fact that he was now only fifty-four years old, he had the appearance and bearing of a man at least fifteen years older. Gabriel assumed that part of it was to blame on his father’s arthritis.

“Do you need help, dad?” he asked as he watched Mr. Gray’s painfully slow ascent.

“No, Gabriel, I don’t!” his father snapped. “I could’ve used some help at the store this afternoon, though. But you turned out to be… otherwise occupied.”

Gabriel had to swallow down a lump in his throat threatening to make him cry. “I’m sorry, dad, I…”

“Yeah, yeah… Go help your mother set the table.”

Not many words were spoken in the Gray residence that evening. The family had their meal in almost complete silence. Neither of Gabriel’s parents asked him about his new friend or what his evening had been like, and he was starting to dread telling them about going out again this Saturday.

//I’m going. It doesn’t matter what you say. Peter is coming to take me out, and you can’t stop me. Don’t even try//

“Gabriel. Aren’t you going to finish your dessert?” Virginia asked, nodding at the slice of strawberry pie that lay mostly untouched on a plate before him.

“No thanks, mom. It gives me pimples.”


TBC...