CAUGHT OFF GAURD

CAUGHT OFF GUARD: CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

That seemed to really make him happy, so I went ahead and said, "I dunno if he has anything special planned for tonight, but if he just wants to hang out... You wanna come on over his place with us? His parents won't be back till the weekend."

"That's sounds nice!" He beamed again and put his hand on my shoulder till we started downstairs.

We walked to the parking lot and sat on the nose of my car to wait for Cole. We mostly just made small talk about mine and Cole's twin Mercedes and school. But he did say he was still a little nervous about how Cole would react to him now. I tried to reassure him, but honestly didn't know myself.

"Uh, Khalil... I wanna..." He started looking all around like he was worried someone might hear us, though the closest people in sight were at least a hundred or more yards away from us. "I wanna tell Cole... I mean..." He stammered as he tried to figure out how to say what he wanted to.

"What?"

He snickered and said, "Well I guess unloadin' all that on you kinda made me wanna do it more. The thing is... I feel like I gotta tell him myself... about me... about how I was... in love with him, you know. I want him to hear it from me, ok?"

"Well, sure, Dave, ok. I got no problem with that." I didn't really understand what he was getting at.

"It's kinda like... if I say it to him, I'll be able to show him I'm over it, y'know? Like, if I don't say anything, you'll probably talk to him later about it and he might think I still have, you know, those kinda feelings for him. That might make him, like, uncomfortable or something. I don't want that kinda shit in the way. I want him to know I just wanna be his friend now."

I nodded in understanding. I looked at him and tried to get past the beautiful eyes and good looks, to see the person he'd given me glimpses of in the short time we'd talked. It wasn't that I told myself I was objectifying him or anything, it just kind of occurred to me that I should feel, or sense, him somehow. Maybe I was trying to do something like what Celia did naturally.

I thought everyone should have at least a little of that in them, and I knew I had some of it with Cole already-- I got a lot from Cole's eyes. Anyway, I liked the feelings that came through Dave's eyes to me.

After a moment, we settled back on the car and got lost in our own thoughts. We were facing into the sun, toward the Administration Building, and I turned my head back to the Athletic Center on impulse.

A second after I did, Cole came sauntering out and headed toward us, looking all scrubbed and gorgeous with his hair still damp, moving in that confidently relaxed way that guys in peak physical condition do; a kind of lanky strutting that made me want more.

He had on a pair of black basketball short, Nike slides and a wifebeater on. My ass got hot and tingly against the sparkling black metal of the hood, and I unconsciously, ever-so-slightly, moved it back and forth as I drank in the mouth-watering sight of my man approaching.

I wanted so badly to jump up and down like a kid and yell, 'Just LOOK at that gorgeous, amazing, sweet, wonderful guy walking toward us! HE'S MINE AND HE LOVES ME!' Of course, I knew it would be downright cruel to say anything like that right then to Dave-- even without the jumping up and down part.

When he was about thirty yards away, Dave muttered, "Damn, he's got it bad for you," as we craned our necks around and watched Cole radiate that killer smile and keep my eyes locked in a tractor-beam the rest of the way to us.