Being True (19 page)

S
HORTLY
AFTER
Rose McGowan barely escaped her fight with the zombies, Javi and I headed to my room. I fell upon the pallet on the floor. It wasn’t the most comfortable place I’d ever rested my head for the night. My sleeping arrangements basically consisted of four bedspreads piled on top of each other, a sheet, and a pillow, but having Javi on the bed next to me more than made up for the sore neck and back I’d likely have in the morning.

Javi’s sleeping over meant the world to me. It told me he had no problem with my being gay or with the knowledge that I had a crush on him. It was no big deal.

“I’ll be glad to sleep on the floor,” Javi said as he sat on the edge of my bed.

I spread out along the pallet and stretched. “You’re the guest, so the bed’s yours,” I said as I stifled a yawn. Who knew watching zombie movies for six hours could be so exhausting?

“You sure?” he asked. “I don’t mind. My family goes camping all the time, so I’m used to roughing it.”

“Take the bed,” I insisted before ripping off my socks and wiggling my toes.

Javi nodded and pulled his T-shirt off. As the fabric slid slowly upward, I gazed upon his smooth, bare flesh for the first time. My breath caught in my throat. His creamy skin was just as I pictured it. Light mocha in color with a small trail of hair rising out of his shorts and up to the most perfectly shaped belly button I’d ever seen. The muscles of his long, lean torso stretched and flexed as he removed the shirt, and he used the fabric to wipe the beads of sweat that had sprung up across his broad chest and down his taut stomach.

“It’s hot in here,” he said. “And way too hot for winter. Mother Nature needs to make up her mind what she wants in south Texas. Mind if I switch on the ceiling fan?”

I could only nod. If I attempted to speak, I’d likely only manage gibberish.

He discarded his shirt at the foot of the bed before rising to pull the fan’s chain. A sudden rush of wind buffeted Javi, sending the loose strands of hair that fell across his forehead fluttering. He raised his arms to stretch, revealing the small tufts of hair nestled within his pits. I suddenly had the strange desire to run my tongue along the dips of the flesh and devour the scent and taste that his underarms produced.

That was a new longing for me, and if I could have gotten up, I’d have rushed off to the bathroom to jerk off. But there was no way standing was possible. My cock was about ten seconds away from boring through the fabric that kept it confined. I had to pull the sheets over me in order to conceal my boner. Javi had been up close and personal with it one time too often already.

“What’s this?” he asked, walking to the wall opposite the bed. His backside proved just as impressive as the front. His tight, perky butt flexed underneath his shorts as he walked away, and his broad, chiseled shoulders seemed to go on for miles.

If I died now, I’d go with a smile on my face.

“What’s what?” I asked.

We rarely came into my bedroom because we spent most of our time at his place. It was nicer and bigger than my closet-sized room with only my bed, a small desk, and a chest of drawers my grandmother had given us.

He was standing in front of the picture of us I’d taken, the one where Javi stared at me, not the camera. Holy shit! I’d completely forgotten about it in all the excitement. What the hell was he thinking right now?

“Um, it’s just one of the photos I took for the paper.” I tried my best not to sound nervous, but the tremor in my voice gave me away.

“I like it,” he said as he turned. “Think you can get me a copy?”

Was that it? That photo practically screamed how much I liked him and probably revealed that I’d spent most evenings since then beating off to it. “Uh, sure,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said as he headed for the bed. When he reached the foot of the pallet, he stopped and studied me with an arch of one bushy eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to get dressed for bed?” I must have looked quite foolish lying fully clothed under the covers.

“Oh yeah,” I said pretending to be so tired I didn’t know what I was doing. I yanked my shirt off and tossed it into the corner. I immediately drew the covers back over my naked chest. “All done.”

“You can sleep in shorts?” he asked. He unbuttoned his shorts and undid the zipper. Good God! Did he not realize how he was torturing me? “There’s no way I’d ever get to sleep,” he said as he shoved his shorts off his hips. They floated to the floor.

I gulped.

With his shirt off, Javi had been a dream come true. Now in only his underwear, he’d become a waking wet dream. A dusting of dark hair covered his legs and ran up his muscular thighs before disappearing along the edges of his blue briefs. Within the underwear rested a heavy bulge that made my mouth water and my breathing turn into ragged pants. If I had touched my throbbing dick, I would have shot my load.

“I prefer shorts.” I finally managed to force the words from my lips.

He padded over to the bed after switching off the ceiling fan light. “I’m just the opposite,” he said as he settled in above me in the darkness, but soft moonlight fell between the slats of the blinds. I sat up, and since he didn’t pull the sheets back to climb underneath, I glimpsed Javi’s mostly naked body on top of my bed. He lay on his stomach on top of the covers. “I usually don’t sleep with anything on.”

I opened my mouth to tell him not to let me stop him, but I remembered my mother’s warning. My lips immediately sealed shut.

His voice drifted to me in the semidarkness. “Tru?”

“Yeah,” I said, lying back down.

“I’m glad you came into my life.”

I smiled as my eyes grew heavy. “Me too.”

A few seconds later, Javi’s low, even breathing filled the room. The rhythmic tone made my drooping eyes even heavier, and as I drifted off to sleep, Javi’s arm suddenly fell from the bed, and his hand landed on my shoulder.

I fell into the most peaceful sleep of my life.

Chapter 8

T
HE
SHATTERING
of a glass caused my eyes to flutter open.

Soft moonlight no longer spilled into the room. The harsh morning sun now poured through the slats. The shadows of the night had been chased to the corners, and the golden rays revealed Javi’s hand still rested on my shoulder.

I sighed. Had I ever been this happy? That was an easy no.

One quick glance up revealed Javi still slept soundly, so I moved my cheek over to his hand and brushed my face against his fingers. They twitched in response, fanning across my flesh, and I imagined Javi willingly caressing me instead of simply involuntarily reacting to the sudden increase in pressure on his hand.

Glass crunched in the kitchen. “Shit!” my mother softly cursed.

Javi stirred in response to the new sound. He withdrew from me, and he turned over on his side and faced the wall.

Instead of getting up and crawling into bed next to him, which was what I most wanted to do, I stood and quietly left the bedroom. I closed the door softly behind me before heading to see what the ruckus was about.

“Good morning,” I said, when I saw my mother with broom in hand. Today, she wore black slacks and a gray blouse, and the only other pair of shoes she owned, black high heels with scuff marks across the front. She swept a pile of glass into a dustpan in quick jerky motions. “What’s the matter?”

“I’m not pleased, Tru,” she said. She emptied the broken glass into the trashcan. “Not pleased at all.”

“Why? What happened?”

She glanced sideways at me, as if I knew what had set her off.

“I’m clueless here,” I said. “I promise.”

Those two words released some of the bluster from her sails, but the wind of pissy still blew strongly enough to force us upon a rocky shore. “I saw you,” she said, as if that made her anger evident.

“You saw me what?” I asked. “I’ve been asleep this whole time. I swear. Whatever you think I’ve done, I haven’t.”

“You mean I was just seeing things when I poked my head in your room and saw Javi’s hand on your shoulder?”

Ah, now I understood. “Oh, that,” I said, hoping my casual tone might further abate the roaring storm.

Obviously, I was unsuccessful. She placed her hands on her hips and stared me down. “Yes,
that
.”

“Mom, nothing happened. When I heard the glass break, I opened my eyes, and I saw Javi’s hand on me.” Of course, I neglected to tell her it had been there when I went to sleep. It seemed I no longer had problems with misdirection at all. “Then I got up and came in here. That’s it.”

She studied me intently, searching my expression for the truth.

“It doesn’t matter if his hand fell on me while he slept. That means as much as Claudia falling asleep in my lap after watching a movie. Nothing would ever come of it. Claudia doesn’t see me that way. I sure as heck don’t see
her
that way, and Javi’s
not
gay.” Although after spending the night with Javi’s hand on my shoulder, the hopeful butterflies in my belly fluttered their tiny wings.

I was prepared for my mother to see the logic of my words. Her snort took me by surprise. “Honey, I don’t know if this will burst your bubble or just feed your hope, but boys who are
truly
into girls, don’t spend the night in their underwear with their hand on another boy.”

I couldn’t refute that logic. However, there was a point she refused to see, and one that kept my tummy butterflies from taking flight. “Unless his arm just happened to fall off the bed. You know, the way you sometimes dangle your leg off the edge while you sleep.”

“Right, but if I brushed up against something, I’d realize it. I would wake up, see what was touching me, and then move away.”

Before I could respond, Javi shuffled into the kitchen bare-chested. Thankfully, he’d pulled on his shorts. “Good morning,” he said as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair. He stifled a yawn and then sat at the small kitchen table, completely oblivious to the tension in the air. “I’ll be leaving in a bit. I just need to finish waking up first.”

“Take your time,” I said while my mother eyed me. She clearly preferred for Javi to leave before she did.

“Am I interrupting?” Javi asked, suddenly dawning to the situation. “Maybe I should leave now.”

“You don’t have to,” I replied. I loved my mother and defying her in this manner wasn’t something I typically did. But Javi was my friend. The first friend I’d made in years. Certainly she had to understand that.

“Are you sure?” he asked my mom.

I don’t know if it was the completely innocent expression that lit up his face or the desperate pleading she saw in my eyes, but she took a deep breath before saying, “It’s fine. No rush at all.”

Javi’s dazzling smile replaced the look of concern. “Great!” He turned to me and said, “I thought maybe we’d do something today. Like go see a movie or something.”

I scrunched up my face. “I’m all movied out.” Plus, I lacked the funds for the ticket. Seeing a movie these days required a small personal loan. But when a slight pout tugged downward on Javi’s gorgeous lips, I couldn’t say no to a day together. “How about we do something else? Like go to the zoo or something?” With my student ID, I could get in cheap, and I loved the zoo. I went there often, and it would be nice to share it with Javi. Plus, it looked to be another oddly warm December day.

He grinned. “I haven’t been to the zoo in years. That could be fun.”

“Is that okay with you, Mom?”

She nodded, clearly resigning herself to the fact that her son no longer simply obeyed. She’d grown accustomed to my complete compliance, but I wasn’t the same Tru anymore. Not since I’d met Javi. There were things I had to do for me. Besides, I had already promised her nothing inappropriate would happen, and chances of that were next to nil anyway. Why she didn’t accept that continued to confuse me.

“Great!” Javi said as he stood. “I’ll just go home, shower, and change. With any luck, I’ll get to borrow my dad’s car. Otherwise we have to take the bus.”

After Javi departed the room, my mother reached for her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “I know it’s not much,” she said as she handed it to me. “But you deserve to have some fun.”

I took the money as if I’d been handed a kingdom. “Thanks, Mom.”

She brushed her fingers through my tangled hair and gazed deeply into my eyes. “I’m truly grateful for Javi,” she said. “You’ve needed someone in your life for so long, and I’m glad you finally found that. I truly am. But I’m still your mother, and I worry. It’s my job to protect you and keep you safe.”

“Javi’s not going to hurt me, Mom. He’s my friend.”

She glanced over my shoulder to my bedroom where Javi whistled the same birdcall he’d sung in the park at most every visit. Worry crouched like a tiger at the edges of her eyes.

A
COUPLE
of hours later, we paid our discounted admission to the San Antonio Zoo and immediately headed over to the lemur exhibit, which started off the animal showcase. From there, we observed the American black bears wrestle, the gibbons play chase high in their enclosure, and the jaguar pace nervously around a tree.