Being True (13 page)

“So, we know that he doesn’t abandon his friends or judge them harshly,” she continued. “Hell, look at Rancid, for God’s sake! He’s been friends with that shit stain for longer than I care to remember. If anyone deserves to get bounced from his life, it’s Rance. But that’s not Javi. He sees the best in people. Don’t you think so?”

How could I argue with that? He’d befriended me within seconds of meeting me. “You’re right,” I said. “He’s a good guy.”

“A great guy,” Claudia added with a vigorous nod. “And a guy who’s as into you as you are into him.”

I groaned. Not this again. “How many times do I have to tell you? Javi’s not gay, and he’s not interested in me.”

“Oh, he’s gay,” Claudia said. She stood and walked over to inspect the picture of us I’d pinned to my wall. Javi’s luscious, dark chocolate eyes stared down at me with tender affection. I sometimes felt bad beating off to the photo every night. It was so sweet and innocent, and I violated it nightly, using the image and the memories it evoked to bring me to mind-blowing release. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Not everyone’s like you, Tru. No matter how screwed up you may think your life is, you actually have your head on pretty straight. You know who you are. That’s pretty big for kids our age. Most of us are trying to figure out where we stand in the world and where we want to go. But you have most of those answers already.”

Claudia oversimplified me a bit. We’d discussed life after graduation, and while Claudia didn’t know what she wanted to do when she grew up, I had always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps. I wanted to be a cop, to protect the city as he had. And give my life for it, if need be. But I’d come to grips with the fact I’d likely never pass the physical. So I’d decided to become a lawyer. I might not get to catch the bad guys, but I could put them away. And I’d defend the little guys from the big, bad wolves in the world. “What does any of that have to do with Javi?”

“He’s been searching for something for quite some time,” she said as she studied the picture of us. “Sure, he has tons of friends. But he’s never really gotten close with any of them. He embraces all of us, but he also keeps us all at arm’s length. I think that’s why so many people are drawn to him. They want to be the first to get past that invisible barrier, but most of us just smack against it. Over and over again.” She turned from the picture, her flesh made pale by her long black hair. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but that silly grin of his is the same no matter what he’s doing. Playing baseball, talking to a teacher, or just sitting with friends. It’s the same damn smile for every person and every occasion.”

Now
that
I had noticed.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen get a different reaction. Something greater than the grin he presents to the rest of the world. It’s like when he looks at you, he’s looking at what he’s been searching for. And, to be honest, I don’t think he’s realized he’s found it.”

She sat on my bed, waiting for me to respond. But what she’d just told me made me speechless. Could she be right?

It was a question I pondered long after Claudia left and well into the night before exhaustion took control, and I drifted off to sleep, where I dreamed of being in Javi’s arms.

Chapter 5

S
ATURDAY
,
THE
early-morning light reached into my room and embraced me. I tried to shake it off, to burrow within the warm comfort of my blankets. I’d been dreaming of Javi, and the two of us were lying on the bed in his room, watching TV. I rested my head on his smooth, muscular chest, listening to the even rhythm of his heartbeat, while his strong arms held me close.

The light aroma of musk and cedar that made up Javi’s scent filled the air, and I buried my nose in his shirt and inhaled deeply. I wanted nothing more than to have his scent on my body and in my lungs every moment of every day.

He hooked his thumb and forefingers under my chin and moved my gaze up to his. The full smile on his lips couldn’t outshine his big, radiant brown eyes. Whenever he looked at me that way, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was the most important person in the world.

He craned forward, inching his lips closer to mine as he pulled me closer, drawing me deeper into his embrace. I clutched his shirt, digging my fingers into the fabric.

The moment I’d waited for had finally arrived. Our first kiss.

As the distance between us grew shorter and shorter, his hot breath spread across my blistery cheeks. I reached up with my left hand, wrapping my arm around his neck to bring our lips to where they desperately longed to be.

But before we could kiss, the sun’s light intruded upon my fantasy, slipping through the cracks in the homemade curtains and shining on my face until it pulled me out of Javi’s embrace and left me alone on my empty bed.

Fuck!

I shut my eyes tight, fighting to return to where I belonged. But no matter how hard I tried to force my consciousness back to the haven it had just left, it refused to budge.

I was here, and I wasn’t going back.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do other things.

I kicked the blankets off and tugged the underwear from my body. My hard cock slapped against my smooth stomach. Beads of clear precum spilled from the slit and slid down the red swollen head. I collected the liquid on my fingertips and coated the head of my cock and shaft with the slick fluid.

I fluttered my fingers along the length of my dick, imagining it was Javi’s hands that were causing my cock to twitch. When I reached the base, I gripped it hard and slid all the way up to the head, where I teased more precum from the weeping slit before gliding down to the base once again.

I continued this motion and then switched my gaze from my hardness to the picture of Javi and me. I pumped my cock into my hand as I recalled the warmth of his touch, and the hint of soap and aftershave that radiated from his freshly bathed skin.

In my mind, I trailed my tongue across his lightly tanned cheeks, over the small freckle to the left of his strong chin, and up to the lips I longed to savor.

His tongue darted inside my mouth. Its warm wetness invading as he shoved me backward on my bed. He ravaged my lips while he tore the clothes from my body. Once I was naked, his fingers enclosed my cock, jacking me closer to the edge I wasn’t ready to fall from.

Sensing my release, he let my cock fall from his strong grasp, nibbling a fiery path to my full balls. He sucked one, then the other into his mouth before raising my legs up and over my head. I gasped as his tongue found my center, licking crazy circles around the rim. It pushed past the opening, parting my flesh and swirling inside me before withdrawing again.

For a few seconds he’d leave my twitching hole to suck my cock down his throat, bobbing on it while gazing up at me with those beautiful black-brown eyes. He wiggled those big, bushy eyebrows at me, knowing how crazy he was making me before releasing my cock and once again tonguing my ass.

I clutched the bed, thrashing onto his tongue. I wouldn’t be satisfied until every inch of him rested inside me. Javi knew what I wanted. He gripped my hips and forced me harder and faster onto his tongue, which swirled and twisted inside me.

“Oh, Javi,” I mumbled.

He suddenly stopped. He wiped the spit from his lips and positioned himself between my open legs. Sometime between sucking me off and eating me out, he’d taken off his clothes. I whimpered at the sight of his naked body over mine.

His smooth, flawless, light brown skin resembled creamy peanut butter, and I followed every curve of flesh and dip of muscle down to his hard cock. It rested amid a thatch of black hair that fanned down to his upper thighs and dusted a small trail to his belly button.

I’d never seen anything more beautiful.

He nodded at me, wanting to know if I was ready. I gripped my cock at the base and grinned in reply. When he slid effortless inside me, I held my breath. My body had never been filled so full before, and I cherished the sensation. His cock pushed in and out of my ass as I palmed my cock.

I was close to coming already. Javi was too.

His eyes turned glassy, and his mouth hung open in silent pleasure.

I ground my hips onto his cock and fisted my shaft furiously. Within moments, he screamed as his cock pulsed inside me. When I shot my load across my chest, I almost passed out.

“Tru, is everything okay in there?” my mother asked with a knock at my unlocked bedroom door. “I’m hearing some strange noises.”

Holy shit! I took my fingers out of my ass, grabbed my sheets with my cum-slick hands, and quickly ducked under the covers. “Yeah,” I answered, trying my best to hide the mortified tremor in my breathy voice. “Just a bad dream.”

“Okay,” she said. Her footsteps proceeded hesitantly down the hall. “I’ll make you breakfast when you’re ready.”

I didn’t answer. I was completely out of breath, not only from the terrifying prospect of my mother walking in while I was violating myself but also from the mind-blowing orgasm that had just racked me.

I’d jerked off to various fantasies about Javi before today, but this was the first time I’d ever entertained the idea of him fucking me. Or stuck my fingers up my ass.

It seemed the conversation with Claudia yesterday had had some rippling effects. Not only had I started to think she might be right, but now I was imagining not just giving my heart to Javi, but my body as well.

A
FTER
I
showered and got dressed, I walked into the kitchenette, where my mother had already prepared what she dubbed her Saturday Special: scrambled eggs and two slices of fried Spam sandwiched between two heavily buttered pieces of toast. On the plate next to the two breakfast sandwiches were four pieces of crispy bacon. A tall glass of orange juice stood off to the right.

I loved Saturday. It was the one day each week we were allowed to splurge on food. With money being so tight because of that turd Bart, we normally ate much smaller portions. Mom only bought groceries once a month, so we had to make them last.

“Smells great,” I told her as I sat down.

Mom smiled at me from the kitchen counter, where she was assembling her sandwich. Instead of already being suited up in her IHOP uniform, preparing to tackle the double shift she usually picked up each weekend, she wore gray slacks and a white button-down blouse. I’d never seen that outfit before. Where was she going? “Not working today?” I asked.

“Actually, I am,” she replied with a smug smile. Her eyes radiated with a hope I hadn’t seen in a long time. And it showed in more than just her clothes or her smile. It could be seen in the way she wore her hair.

I’d long believed my mother’s hair was her best physical trait, the symbol of her prettiness and femininity. But for as long as I could recall, she either had it gathered in a ponytail for her waitressing jobs or tucked underneath one of my dad’s baseball caps she liked to wear around the apartment. Both made her look far too masculine for a woman with her slim shape and delicate features.

But today, her long brown hair had been freed from its prison. It cascaded down her small shoulders in a gentle wave of golden brown. She was stunning.

“You look beautiful,” I told her as I crunched bacon.

She crossed over to me, plate in hand, and kissed the top of my head. “And you are a sweetheart.”

I nodded as she sat to my left. “Can’t help it. I was born that way. Now, would you mind telling me where you’re going?”

Her face lit up. She had big news. “I got a new job. I’m going to be working weekends at a doctor’s office downtown that’s also a twenty-four-hour minor emergency clinic,” she said. “It’s nothing fancy. Just part-time secretarial work. Filing. Answering phones.”

“That’s great,” I said after taking the first delicious bite of my sandwich. I was in salt and butter heaven. “Sure beats being on your feet for sixteen hours.”

“That’s for sure. And serving rude customers who don’t tip well or men who think it’s okay to get grabby.”

I looked up from my sandwich. This was the first I’d heard of such inappropriate behavior. I choked down the bite I had just taken before asking, “Who’s grabbing you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said with a shake of her head. She then took a big bite of her breakfast, clearly using the food in her mouth to avoid answering my question.

“I’m not pleased,” I admitted with a scowl. “No one should be touching you.”

She nodded as she swallowed. “But the good thing about this office job is that it has the potential to turn into full-time work. With benefits. Then I can say good-bye to waitressing for good. And I can work normal nine-to-five hours. We could actually spend time at home together, and the weekends would just be for us. No double shifts and no late hours.” She practically bubbled with excitement. “What do you think?”

“I think any job where my mother isn’t grabbed is a plus.”

She rolled her eyes and swatted at me. “There is a down side, though,” she admitted with a sigh. “Until this office job becomes full time, I have to prove myself on the weekends. That means no double shifts at the restaurants.”