After School Activities (4 page)

gravel, looked like it was meant for a few cars to park on. Without even

bothering to turn off the car, Adam threw open his door, forcefully enough

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to make me jump slightly, got out, and immediately started pacing in front

of the car.

I sat there, not quite knowing what to do. Left and right he went.

Back and forth. I watched him through the windshield. He stepped

quickly, almost violently, hands shoved in his pockets. Even from where I

sat, I could see he was breathing heavily. He didn’t look like he was going

to slow down any time soon, or get back into the car. Maybe this was his

secret place where he went to be alone for a while, do his thinking.

That was an odd thought: an introspective Adam. But it made a

weird sort of sense. And where better to go when you needed to talk to

someone, especially when you didn’t want anyone to know that you were

even with that person?

So I got out of the car, walked around to the front, leaned against the

hood, and waited. Adam kept pacing furiously, but occasionally glanced

my way. Abruptly, he stopped and turned to me, looking like he didn’t

know how to begin. Finally, instead of speaking, he pulled off his shirt.

I think I gasped then. His ribs were covered in fading bruises. “Ima

go out on a limb and say those aren’t from football practice, are they?” I

asked quietly.

“I need you to know he’s a good dad,” Adam replied through

clenched teeth. He opened his mouth like he was about to say more, but

instead spun around, walked off to the center of the clearing, and stood,

staring out at the lake. A second later I followed, stood next to him. For a

minute we were both silent, watching the gentle waves.

“He left, Sunday night. After….” Adam trailed off, gesturing

vaguely at his ribs. I suddenly remembered how he’d sat in Mr. Hayes

office with his arms crossed. At the time I thought he looked sullen;

looking back it seemed like he was protecting himself, cradling his bruised

ribs. “He’s not usually like this,” Adam continued. “It’s been really hard

on him, Mom being in the hospital again. He’s just so angry.” He quivered

with nervous energy. Unshed tears stood in his eyes. He started pacing

again. “I don’t know what to do now. It’s just me and my brother. Pete

dropped out of school, said he’ll figure everything out, but I just don’t

know. I don’t know how we’re supposed to pay the bills.
I don’t know

what I’m supposed to do.
”

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Dirk Hunter

I stopped Adam with a hand on his arm and drew him into a hug. I

didn’t think about it—he just seemed in so much pain. He tensed up at

first. For a second I thought he’d push me away, start yelling at me. But

instead he relaxed and sank to his knees. I sat next to him and held him

while he cried, clinging to me like I was the only thing keeping him from

drowning.

Maybe I was.

“YOU’RE GOING to need to turn right up here,” I said, breaking the

silence of the drive back into Oak Lake. We hadn’t spoken since Adam

had pulled away, wiping his eyes and clearing his throat. Together we had

sat and watched the sun set past the trees.

“I remember,” he said, taking the turn.

“You remember? When have you ever been to my house?”

“Seventh grade, for your birthday party.”

“Oh right,” I laughed, remembering. “I invited you so I could dare

you to spend the night in that old house everyone thought was haunted.”

“And I double dared you to come with me. Then Tony dared Derek,

Derek dared Malachi….”

“And suddenly everyone was going. Yeah, how did I not see that

coming?”

He chuckled. “’Cause you’re an idiot.”

“In my defense, I was convinced you’d be too scared to follow

through.”

“Me? Scared? You were the one with the girly screams every time

the floor creaked, pussy boy.”

“And you, big, strong jock that you are, pissed yourself ’cause you

were having so much fun?” Adam began grumbling excuses under his

breath: someone spilled water on him, it was just a shadow, there wasn’t a

working bathroom in the house anyway. They were all the same ones he’d

given that night. “I planned that whole thing just to humiliate you in front

of everyone,” I continued, “but everyone was having too much fun to

notice. See, this is what I was saying before: our hatred has only ever led

to good things.”

“Except this.” Adam reached across the car and, gently, with the tips

of his fingers, touched my jaw where he had punched me. “I never

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After School Activities

actually said sorry for that.”

Well, this had gotten awkward really quickly. Was I getting my

cheek caressed? Was this seriously a thing that was happening? “Uhhhhh,

yeah. Don’t worry about it… I guess.” Adam suddenly seemed to realize

what he was doing and snatched his hand away. We returned to silence,

only this time, instead of being oddly comfortable, it had gained the level

of awkward I had been expecting this whole trip to have. Like it had taken

that weird, almost intimate, gesture to suddenly remind us both who we

were, and just how weird what we were doing really was. I think we had

forgotten for a moment.

Luckily, we were saved from any further awkwardness. After maybe

two minutes, Adam pulled into my driveway, and I was quick to hop out

of the car.

“Hey, Dylan?” Adam said.

I stopped, half in and half out of the car. “Yeah?”

“You’re not gonna…. I mean, what just happened….” He licked his

lips nervously. “You’re not gonna… tell anyone that I—”

“That you have a stupid face, and I hate it? Sure, I’ll keep mum, but

I think they already know.”

He smiled at me then, one of those rare, pure smiles. I’d never

actually seen him smile at
me
that way before. It made his face seem warm, which was weird, ’cause it was Adam, and made a weird ache

appear in my chest, which was gross,
’cause it was Adam
.

“Thanks,” he said, sounding really sincere. Which sucked, ’cause

that meant I’d be a superdouche if I made some sarcastic comment to hide

this weird feeling I was suddenly having. So instead I shrugged and shut

the door.

Worst of all, he kept smiling.

I found twenty-two texts from Kai on my phone, demanding to know

if I was dead. I decided to ignore them and let him stew a bit. I texted Mel, though. She was less funny when she worried. Like, “they’d find Adam’s

body in the morning” less funny.

I’m home. Not dead.

She responded almost immediately.
You okay?

Yeah. Weird night.

I’ll bet.

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Dirk Hunter

CHAPTER FOUR

KAI’S ROOM was filled with the sound of gunshots. His mom wasn’t

home, so we were there alone and felt no need to turn the volume down.

We lay side by side on his bed, PlayStation controllers in hand, doing our

very best to murder each other with a wide array of virtual guns and

explosives. You know, best friend stuff.

“When’s Mel getting here?” I asked, raising my voice over the

screams of the dying.

“Oh, she’s not coming. I figured it’s been so long since we’ve hung

out, just the two of us, so I didn’t invite her.”

It had been too long since Kai and I had spent much time together

without Mel. Months, in fact. Every time Kai and I made plans over the

summer—even when I dropped some not-so-subtle hints we should have a

bros’ night in—Mel always ended up being invited, and Kai would shoot

me those “I’m innocent, don’t hate me” eyes. I guess you can’t compete

with a girl, you know? Sometimes I wished it weren’t Mel, so I could hate

her for being that bitch who keeps getting between us. But she’s my best

friend too, so I can’t. Ironically, Mel and I have found plenty of time to

hang out without Kai, but then she’s not the one with the massive crush.

So I had a feeling I knew what this sudden desire for a Saturday alone was

all about.

“Sooooo,” Kai said after a moment. “What have you and Adam been

spending all that time talking about?”

I knew it.
It had been a week and a half since Adam picked me up

after school that Wednesday, and since then we’d hung out four more

times. Mel and Kai wanted to know what was going on, of course, and I

told them that Adam just needed to talk about some stuff, and they

couldn’t tell anyone even that much. Which was the truth. Adam had a
lot

he’d needed to talk about. At his clearing overlooking the lake, Adam

started spilling his heart to me, in little fits and starts at first, but it had gotten to the point where we’d have long conversations about family,

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After School Activities

school, life in general. His mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer the

year before—that’s what I’d caught him crying about in the bathroom—

and they thought she’d beaten it. But over the summer, they discovered it

had migrated to other parts of her body, which made it a lot harder to treat.

Right before school started, she had been admitted to the hospital, where

she’d been for almost a month now. That was also when his dad had

started drinking and getting really angry. But he’d never hit Adam, not

until that Sunday, when he beat his son and left.

It was a crazy experience, seeing a softer side of Adam. He talked

about wanting to go to college, which I had no idea he was even thinking

about. I guess I always assumed he was just some dumb jock and didn’t

care about education. Only he didn’t know if he’d be able to now. His

older brother Pete was basically supporting them both, though they had

gotten a check in the mail from their dad. But Adam was worried that

those would stop soon. And I knew he’d do whatever it took to make sure

his mom’s hospital bills got paid. He talked about football too, how he

didn’t want the team to think he was weak. How the coach expected so

much of him, but he was afraid he wasn’t gonna be able to deliver now.

He talked about feeling alone, having no one to talk to. At least before I

came along.

Basically a bunch of really personal stuff. “I can’t really tell you.” I

could
feel
the sulk vibrating off him. “Unless you want to invoke Best Friend Privilege and force me to break my bond of trust.”

“No,” Kai grumbled, “you can have your stupid secrets.” He sighed,

dropped his controller and stood up. “Let’s go swimming,” he said as he

pulled off his shirt and crossed to the other side of the room to his closet.

“Now? It’s kinda cold out.”

“Fine. We can go in the hot tub. Wuss.” He threw his pants at me,

hitting me in the back of the head.

I kept my eyes focused diligently on the TV screen. The last thing I

needed in life was to accidentally fall in lust with my best friend. We

already cared for each other more than a little bit. Kai had never been

sparing with his affection, and he’d been telling me he loved me since

middle school, but he was still straight, so it was important my feelings

didn’t stray too far from the platonic. And once you’d seen someone’s

dick, you could never quite look at them the same way. I learned that the

hard way—
Oh, James P. Hogan, the way that soapy water cascaded down

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Dirk Hunter

your every divine contour in that locker room of destiny. I know you

caught me staring, but you only smiled that perfect smile and….
Dammit, see what I mean? Unfortunately, Kai had always been really comfortable

around me, so I’d always had plenty of temptation. When I came out to

him, I had hoped that might curb his enthusiasm a bit. And it had. For

about a week. Then it was back to showering with the door open and

shedding clothes without a care in the world.

Or pausing to admire himself in the mirror, which I was pretty

certain he was doing now, if the occasional reflection in the TV was

anything to go by.

“Hey, Dylan, I need your opinion on something.”

“What’s that?” I swear to God, if he expects me to help him pick out

the right swimsuit, like our friendship were some episode of
Queer Eye for
the Straight Guy
….

“Look,” he said, so I turned around. Big mistake. “Do you think my

dick’s too small?”

Remember that hotness scale I was discussing before? Well, Kai fal s in

solidly at number three. He’s the textbook definition of tal , dark, and

handsome. And while lots of other guys rely on copious amounts of exercise

to maintain their spots on the scale, Kai’s abs were all genetics. And, it turns out, that wasn’t the only gift his parents had given him. For the first time in our long friendship, I got a pure, unadulterated look at Kai’s junk. It took a nanosecond for my eyes to hone in, and now they were trapped. I couldn’t

look away. His cock wasn’t huge, it was probably even a lit le shy of average, but what it lacked in bulk it made up for in beauty. His package dangled,

perfectly symmetrical, below his neatly trimmed bush. His balls hung

heavily, in ideal proportion to his circumcised shaft. His dick was art—da

Vinci could have used Kai to model the Vitruvian Man.