After their shifts at the body shop or at their families butcher shop, the boys all would naturally gravitate to Ricky's. It was a Friday night and they always showed up with packs of Marlboros and cases of beer and occasionally, some girls by their side.
Ricky and his father ran a mechanic from their garage and it was where most of the boys learned how to change oils and polish rims on their Bel Air's. The other boys came from families with small businesses or prestige restaurants like Nico's uncles Italian cuisine restaurant. The boys were well off and because of this, they always had the cleanest cars and dirtiest chicks to ride in them.
They were all handsome and the girls in their school would always cheese at their glances. They'd walk through the halls with a strut, hounding like wolves asserting dominance. Some would stay behind to flirt with girls at their locker and others would make their way onto the track and field to skip for the third time that day and dangle cigarettes from their mouth. The boys were popular, fantasized over their looks, envied for their money and hated by the jocks.
Popularity aside, they were amazing with women. The girls at school, older beautiful women at grocery stores and even waitresses always found themselves mesmerized by their charisma. They knew how to talk to women and tell them exactly what they wanted to hear. However, the fact that they attracted polished and pretty girls yet somehow would still choose to spend a night with a chick they met at the gas station was questionable. They were always cleaning their car for a reason. Even Johnny who has been with his girlfriend for 3 years would be the first to scout for the sexiest legs in public and the first one to leave the party with another woman. His girlfriend, nothing like the girls he'd run off with.
In the distance you can hear the boys approaching. Hollering down the street and neighbors turning on their front porch light to tell them to shut up. It was late already and some of the boys got a head start on their 12 pack. Tony carried his on his shoulder while Joey and Benny struted alongside. Towards the front they had Sonny smoking a cigarette and towards the back Marco and Nico, one carrying beer and the other, beer and a bottle of whiskey stolen from the back closet of his uncle's restaurant.
"There ya go boys - scored it without the clerk even blinkin'. Told ya I had the charm" said Tony as he set the beers down on a workbench.
"Charm? Man she just didn't care. You walkin' in lookin' like trouble and figured you ain't worth the hassle." said Nico as the other boys laughed and slightly turned down the radio.
Tony laughs "Yeah well trouble gets things done."
"Cheers to that" says Nico as all the boys raise their bottles.
The garage now filled with spilled beer, the smell of oil and tobacco. The neighborhood was silent and they were the only ones making noise. Air was a perfect balance of fresh and warm so their leather jackets were everywhere but on their broad shoulders.
"Let's liven this dump a bit" says Johnny.
"What, you want me to start singin'? That'll scare the whole block off." says Tony as he finishes his beer.
"Nah, he's talkin' about girls. I can hear it in his voice. Johnny only gets that tone when he's thinkin' with his hair instead of his head." says Nico.
"Tell 'em Rickys garage is open for business." says Johnny as he gets up and stretches.
They call up some girls they met at a diner one time after their school formal. A year younger but enough to get the job done. One of the boys rang them and 30 minutes later they pulled up to the garage. Everyone was laughing and the boys kept drinking, the girls smoked and exchanges glances with one another and soon enough, they left with someone at their hip. Some got walked home, others found themselves stuck in the backseat of the boys car and one still in the garage.
One lonely bulb buzzes overhead. The garage is quiet and still for the first time tonight. Ricky plays with the wrench.
"There's something i've been meaning to tell you, I just have a hard time even bringing it up." Ricky says as he rubs his neck. "It all happened at the diner and since then, I've been constantly thinkin' about it."
Ricky can feel their piercing blue eyes eyeing his movements, trying to read what his mouth couldn't say and their luscious blonde hair clung onto the smell of Ricky's hands. Both unable to forget what happened.
"Don't say anything. This is just between you and me." they say as they walk past Ricky avoiding eye contact.
That one night at the diner, for the first time in Ricky's life, he came face to face with one of his greatest fears, his masculinity. How soft Nicos hair felt through Ricky's fingers and how sparkly his blue eyes reflected into Ricky's brown. How a drunken kiss left both boys wondering about a life together and if that would ever be possible. How they would both rather die, than to have the world think of them any less of a man.
Nico walks off with his pockets in his hands trying to shake off the memory of that night. Ricky stayed in the garage with just a light that shined on his vulnerability. Like a deer in headlights, he takes out a cigarette and as he watches Nico leave without looking back, so does the memory of that night. It can never be spoken about again and both boys knew.
Nico and Ricky's kiss was just that of a kiss, doesn't matter how passionately both boys received each other, it was wrong. Between Ricky's lips will always be a cigarette because being who he was meant having the lips of the boy he loved between his.
