It was Friday at last. T was packed and ready waiting by the door. Thankfully Joe had already gone to work so we could skip school without much trouble. I'd done a perfect imitation of T's dad on the phone with the principal.
I grabbed his hand and we went out into the cold. The streets were slippery and quiet.
"Jesus, it's just getting colder and colder." I pulled T's hat further over his ears. "Come on."
T blasted emo shit the whole car ride but I didn't mind. He was smiling and singing along and it just made me happy.
Finally a song came on that I knew from much indoctrination from T.
"WHAT'S THE WORST THAT I CAN SAYYY!" I blared along.
T smiled at me and we sang together from the top of our lungs. "THINGS ARE BETTER IF I STAY!"
Twenty minutes later we made it to the swimming pool and luckily the parking lot was mostly empty. We rushed on inside and after paying we headed to the changing rooms.
T and I were about to step into a changing stall together when a woman from the pool stopped us.
"No! Ah, ah ah! I'm not doing this again!" She snared.
"What?" I laughed.
"There are separate cubicles for a reason. I don't want another teen pregnancy on my hands."
"We're both guys!" I laughed.
"So you say." She nodded, squinting her eyes at Timothy.
Timothy laughed. "Whatever, it's fine." He said before disappearing into a separate stall. I went into mine.
"That's what I thought." The woman said.
T and I laughed simultaneously.
Normally I would've picked a fight with this woman but now I could only laugh.
I changed into navy blue swim trunks.
"You have to tell me if it looks good, okay? I brought two other options." Timothy said.
"What?" I laughed. "Why wouldn't it look good? It's just swim trunks."
"You never know." T said dead serious.
I shook my head.
I was done before T so I waited by the lockers.
After another five minutes T came out in black swim trunks with hot pink details.
I shook my head.
"What? Does it look bad?"
No, as a matter of fact he looked great. As always.
But still. You gotta take what you can get.
I shrugged. "Turn around?"
T sighed but did it without complaint.
I couldn't speak for a moment.
"Is it that bad?" T turned around again.
I was ready to cry.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Timothy grabbed my arm.
"Does it hurt? Why didn't you tell me?"
I touched Timothy's bruised skin.
"What are you talking about?" T asked.
I dragged him toward the mirror.
His whole back was bruised. It looked extremely painful.
"Is that from.. Is that from people pushing you around?" I said through clenched teeth.
Timothy looked surprised. He ran his hand over his lower back.
"I.. I guess."
I was so disgusted. I couldn't believe my friends had done this to him.
"But.. It could also just be from me running into things. You know how clumsy I am." T said in an attempt to comfort me.
"Don't minimize this! They did this to you!"
"It doesn't even really hurt. I didn't even know it was there." Timothy shrugged.
I shook my head. This was terrible. I can't believe I let this happen to him. My eyes filled with tears.
"Josh, it's not your fault." Timothy grabbed my hand.
"I should've done something! I'm a fucking coward!"
"It's not your job to protect me."
"Yes it is!" I traced Timothy's back again. The bruises didn't look all that old.
"This isn't recent, right?" I growled.
"Josh,"
"They stopped, right?"
T shook his head slowly.
"FUCK!" I screamed. I punched a locker.
"Who?" I growled.
"Taylor and Nick."
I thought after that talk with Dave things would've changed. I was fucking stupid. Of course it wouldn't. There was only so much Dave could do. And something told me he wasn't as hell bent on keeping T safe as I was.
I had to do something.
But what was I going to say? How could I convince them to keep their hands off Timothy without saying how much he meant to me?
I was stuck again.
"Dammit!" I kicked the lockers.
"Josh, it doesn't hurt, I promise."
"That's not the point! They need to keep their fucking hands off you!"
Timothy crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Once again he was more worried about me than about himself.
I couldn't take this anymore. Something had to change. Maybe.. Maybe it was time for me to be honest. And tell people I cared about Timothy. I could say we were just friends.
But honestly who would believe that? At this point all it took was one glance at the two of us. I couldn't win. If I told people we were together things would get much worse for both of us. But if I didn't T would keep getting shoved around without me being able to do anything about it.
At least if we were public I'd be able to protect him. And I could take a bunch of low lives. Maybe things would even change so that I'd be the target and not Timothy.
But football would be over. I'd get bullied off the team. There's no way to be a good team without being at least respectful towards each other. And I'd definitely not get the scholarship I was working so hard for. It was useless.
"Dammit!" I banged my fist against the locker.
"Josh," T wrapped his arms around me and stroked my back.
I touched his bruised skin and felt a tear roll down my cheek.
"There's no way that doesn't hurt." I muttered.
"It hurts like after PE. You know I bruise easily. It looks a lot worse than it is." T scratched my back.
"I have to do something."
"Like what? Josh, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable because of me." Timothy pulled out of the hug. "We have like half of the school year left after winter break. And then we can do whatever we want." Timothy wiped my eyes. "No more bruises, no more hiding.. But until then I don't mind all this. I know you're not ready to tell people so please don't beat yourself up."
"Why are you so compassionate towards me? You should be mad at me."
"You know what? I'm only mad you keep ruining the moment." T smirked. "Can't we just have fun?"
I shook my head. I tried to fix my face. I took a deep breath. "Yeah. Sorry."
"Stop being so emo." Timothy teased.
I smirked and he took my hand. He led the way to the huge recreational pool.
There were only like five people there.
Three of which were kids swimming around. The other two were adults laying on the chairs near the pool.
Even when we were in the water I couldn't forget about what my friends had done to Timothy. It was hard not to with him having the evidence on his back.
I was breaking inside. I felt guilty and cowardly. And for the first time in a long time, I realized, I didn't like myself.
But what could I do?
Timothy said something to me and I smiled at him. I didn't even hear what he said. All I could think about was ways to make this stop.
"Josh!" Timothy splashed a big wave of water on me.
"Hey!"
"You were spacing out." Timothy complained. "You're not making this very fun for me." He said teasingly.
I remembered the whole reason I brought him here in the first place. And that if I didn't clean up my act soon I could lose him. To the guy I hated most.
Well, at least he could protect him. He had the balls to, unlike me. Maybe it would be better that way..
God, the thought alone of Timothy being back together with that Australian made me so damn angry!
I was not going down without a fucking fight!
Timothy splashed me again, this time a lot harder. He laughed at me.
"Oh really? You wanna play?!" I dunked T underwater with ease.
"No fair!" T said when he came back up.
"Fine, let's see if this is fair." I splashed Timothy but somehow he was way better at that than me and soon enough I could barely see from all the water.
It was stinging my eyes.
"Ow! Okay, okay! I give up!" I covered my eyes.
"Aw, does it hurt?" T wrapped his arms around my waist.
I opened my (probably red) eyes.
"Aw.." T said lovingly. He caressed the skin under my eye.
"I need a kiss." I pouted.
Timothy smiled and kissed my chin.
"Everywhere."
T chuckled. And placed kisses all over my jaw and cheeks. But sadly never my lips.
I grabbed his face and kissed his lips. He tasted like mint. I made a mental note to get us both some food soon. But definitely not now.
I looked over at the kids splashing around behind us. I grabbed T's hand and we swam to the heated part of the pool. There was no one around here.
I sat down and pulled Timothy on top of me. And we started kissing again. Slowly and tenderly.
"You know, I've never had sex at a public pool before-"
"No." T said firmly.
"I know you want it."
T shook his head but he had a little grin on his lips. We continued making out.
It was actually a bad idea cause when it came to Timothy making out wasn't exactly something I could do without getting.. excited.
I ran my hands through his hair. And I slid my hand down his pants but he pulled my hand back up.
"Tease."
"We're in public." T whispered, giving me chills.
"Fine, let's go to the sauna room then."
T sighed and lay his head on my shoulder.
"I'm just kidding."
Not really, but anyway.
"That thing in your pants says otherwise." T mused.
I scoffed.
T chuckled. And I felt like it wasn't fair I was being painted as some kind of horn dog when I could tell I wasn't the only one turned on here.
I touched Timothy's weak spot.
"Josh!" I gasped.
"What? What's the problem?" I smirked, continuing to play with T's nipple.
He got that glow he always gets when he's turned on and his ears turned red.
"Josh, stop!"
"What's that in your pants now? It's saying something else." I teased.
"So, what? This is payback? You're so immature." T muttered.
"Do you need some help?" I traced down his back.
Timothy glared at me. But honestly he was just too cute.
I pulled him in and we continued kissing. This time Timothy moaned ever so quietly.
I opened my eyes just for a moment and immediately pulled away.
T followed my eyes.
One of the kids was watching us, wide-eyed. She looked so shocked.
Shit.
"Sup?" I said to her. I smiled sheepishly.
She turned fully red and quickly swam away.
"Oh my God. We traumatized her." T covered his mouth.
When thinking about that look on her face I just began to laugh.
"It's not funny!" T complained laying his head on my shoulder.
His whole face was red. It just made it all funnier.
A/N
This actually happened to me once. I was the kid. I saw this couple make out at a pool and I couldn't stop staring. But I wasn't traumatized or anything. I thought they were so cool. So here's an ode to that memory I guess haha.
Time to dress up, guys. We're going to a dance ;3 See u soon!