Don't Read in the Closet volume one (84 page)

As they walked the path to the back entrance where
their rooms were situated on the lower level, Marc stopped Laurie with a hand
on his arm. “Look, dude, I’m just gonna crash right now. We’ll talk more in the
morning, okay?”

Laurie gave Marc a hesitant smile. “Sure.”

Once they were in the house, Laurie watched Marc
wander down the hall toward his bedroom. He slumped onto one of the couches in
the area that had become their videogame haven over the last couple of weeks.
He was tempted to fire up the massive, wall-mounted LED television and
play
something mind-numbing just to distract himself, but
all he could do was think about Marc…and Jonah.

CHAPTER 3

The next morning, Laurie woke to the feel of a hand
shaking his shoulder. It was pitch black in the room and he could see from the
glaring red numbers on his alarm clock that it was just after five.

“Wha’?” he said groggily. “What is it?”

“Get up, Laur. Let’s go get some breakfast.”

It took Laurie a moment to recognize Marc’s voice and
another to process what he’d said. “Breakfast?” he repeated, incredulous. “It’s
five in the morning.”

“Can’t sleep.”

Laurie made a sound of protest as his blankets were
yanked away. He buried his face in his pillow and grumbled into the material,
“Dude, give me another hour at least.”

“Nope. Come on, Laurie. We need to talk.”

That brought Laurie’s head up. Marc’s tone was
serious, and there could only be one thing he wanted to discuss. “Okay,” he
said. “I’ll meet you at the car in ten.”

****

They were sitting in the same diner that Jonah and
Laurie had gone to for lunch a few days before. The sky had lightened
considerably since they’d left the lake house, but the diner was nearly empty.
As far as Laurie was concerned, it was a bit too early in the day for a
full-fledged breakfast. He’d settled on toast and coffee and Marc had ordered
orange juice and a bowl of cornflakes.

Laurie was in the middle of taking a sip of coffee
when Marc abruptly put his spoon down and met his eyes across the table.

“I want you to do it,” Marc said without any preamble.
“I want you to do what Jonah asked.”

Laurie choked and spluttered into his cup. There was a
minute or two of coughing and chest pounding before he’d collected himself
enough to speak. “You
what
?”

“Look, you and I both know how stubborn Jonah is. If
he said he’d find someone else, then you know he eventually will. I thought
about it a lot last night, and, frankly, if he’s determined to do it this way,
I’d rather it be with you than anyone else. I mean, can you imagine if he lets
that douchebag Travis…” Marc paused and drew in a deep breath through his
nostrils. “You said he wants someone he can trust. Well, he trusts you. I trust
you.”

“But…” Laurie trailed off somewhat helplessly, dropping
his gaze to his half-eaten toast. “But I thought that you wouldn’t want—”

“I’m not going to say that it won’t be weird,” Marc
interrupted. “And I definitely don’t want to see or hear about any of it. But
if Jonah wants you, and if you’re cool with it, then I’m willing to turn a
blind eye to the whole thing. I know you would never do wrong by my brother.”

“Of course I wouldn’t.” Laurie shook his head. “But I
can’t have this be something that wrecks our friendship, Marc. We’ve known each
other too damn long.”

“This is not going to affect us,” Marc said firmly.
“You and me, we’re solid.”

Laurie looked up. Both Marc’s face and eyes were
solemn, and they didn’t waver as Laurie met his gaze.

Marc nodded. “We’ll be fine.”

Laurie didn’t feel as certain as Marc appeared to be.
The whole conversation was almost too surreal to be believed. “You’re sure,
man?”

“Absolutely.” Marc hesitated for a moment then
continued, “And you want him, too, don’t you? Jonah.”

Laurie felt his eyes widen and his stomach drop. “I…”

Marc reached across the table and gave his hand a
gentle squeeze. “I could hear it in your voice yesterday. Don’t worry about it,
okay? I don’t mind.”

“You don’t?” Laurie said in surprise.

Marc shook his head. “It’s like I just said, I know
you wouldn’t do wrong by him. And, honestly, Laurie? If I had to pick someone
for him, I can’t think of anyone better than you.” He smiled and gave a slight
shrug. “It’ll be a little odd, yeah. But you’re my best friend. I’ve kept you
around for a reason, you know? You’re a good guy.”

Laurie returned the smile as the tension in his
stomach eased. “So this is why you’ve kept me around all these years?” he
teased. “And here I thought I was just your token gay friend so you could score
sensitivity points with the ladies.”

Marc’s smile evolved into a full-out grin. “That too.”

****

A soft knock interrupted Jonah while he was in the
middle of getting dressed. He dropped the towel he’d been using to dry his hair
and crossed the room to answer the door without bothering to ask who it was.
Only when it was halfway open did it occur to him that he probably should have
put a shirt on first, or in the very least finished buttoning his jeans in case
it was his grandmother standing out in the hallway.

But it wasn’t his grandmother. It was Laurie. And
Laurie’s eyes, a striking mix of green, brown, and gold, trailed a slow path
down Jonah’s bare chest right to the open fly of his jeans and the gray and
blue Batman briefs that could be seen underneath.

Jonah’s face went up in flames. He thought he might
die right there on the spot. As a kid he’d loved comics, and when he’d spotted
superhero undies available in adult sizes, he’d compiled quite a
stash—everything from Superman to The Hulk and, most embarrassingly, Captain
America. But he’d never expected anyone to actually
see
them. Especially not Laurie. He’d packed special underwear just
in case an opportunity to strip in front of Laurie ever arose, and those most
certainly didn’t have a picture of Batman’s face on the crotch.

Laurie didn’t comment, though. Just smirked and met
Jonah’s gaze. “Can I come in for a sec?”

“Sure,” Jonah said, moving aside so Laurie could enter
the room. “Let me just, uh, grab a shirt.” He snagged the one he’d laid out on
the bed earlier, tugged it over his head, and then quickly finished doing up
his fly while his back was turned. When he faced Laurie again, the heat in his
cheeks had faded a bit. “So, what’s up?” he asked, striving for a casual tone,
even though his ego was still suffering and he wanted nothing more than to
crawl under his bed and hide for a week.

Laurie walked over to Jonah’s desk and pulled out the
chair, spinning it around so he could straddle it. “Sit down, Jonah. We need to
talk, okay?”

Jonah nodded and perched nervously on the edge of the
bed. “What is it?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said over the
past few days, and…” Laurie paused, brushing his brown bangs off of his
forehead as he let out a long, slow breath. “I’ll do it,” he finally finished,
just when Jonah was starting to feel like he might jump out of his skin. “But I
have a couple conditions.”

Jonah swallowed, his hands fisting into the material
of the comforter at his sides. “Okay. Tell me.”

“If we’re going to do this, I want it to be exclusive.
I don’t play around.” Laurie’s eyes were completely serious. “If you want to
start having sex with other people, it’s done.”

Jonah nodded again. He didn’t have any problem with
that, and he didn’t like the idea of Laurie with someone else anyway.
Exclusivity was a perk, as far as he was concerned, not a stipulation that
might put him off. But he stayed silent and waited for Laurie to continue.

“The other thing is
,
we’re
going to have to find somewhere else to do it. Your grandparents are letting me
stay here all summer. I don’t want to disrespect them.”

“Okay. I understand that.” Jonah hesitated briefly,
giving Laurie a chance to speak again. When Laurie didn’t say anything, he
asked, “And that’s all?”

“Yeah.”

Jonah worried at his lower lip for a moment. “How soon
can we start?”

Laurie’s head tilted to the side as he considered.
After a few seconds, he shrugged. “I guess that’s your call.”

“Tonight?” Jonah knew his eagerness was coming through
loud and clear, but he was beyond caring at that point. Laurie had agreed, and
Jonah didn’t want to give him too much time to dwell on it and change his mind
again.

Laurie look surprised, but he nodded. “Sure, if that’s
what you want.”

Jonah grinned. “It is. And don’t worry. I know the
perfect place we can—”

“Laurie, you up there, darlin’?”

Jonah’s gaze jerked to the door at the sound of his
grandmother’s voice. It was coming from far away, possibly the bottom of the
staircase, but she might as well have been standing in the doorway for how
guilty he felt. Yeah, he could definitely see Laurie’s reasoning for not
wanting to have sex in the house with his grandparents around. He was already
feeling kind of embarrassed and all they were doing was talking about it.

“Coming, MawMaw!” Laurie called back. He stood and
added in an undertone, “Meet me in the gazebo at nine. We’ll go from there.”

He left the room before Jonah could respond. A moment
later, Jonah heard his grandmother speak again. “There you are, Laurie. I need
your muscles to help me put these boxes in the truck. I can’t lift them with
these scrawny old lady arms.”

“Old?” Laurie
replied,
his
voice fading as he moved farther away. “Lady, you don’t look a day over
thirty-five!”

“Boy, flattery will get you everywhere.” Jonah’s
grandmother laughed. “Keep going…”

Jonah smirked at their banter, but the expression
vanished as quickly as it had come. Laurie had said yes. He’d said
yes
.

Oh, my God.
This is really going to happen.
The
idea was all good and well in theory. But in practice it would be a whole
different story. Would Laurie be able to tell just how clueless Jonah really
was? He hoped not.
I’m going to have sex
tonight. With Laurie.
Sweat broke out on Jonah’s forehead.
Holy shit.

****

The walk to the gazebo never felt longer than it did
that night as Jonah followed the trail leading away from his grandparents’
house toward the lake. If he believed in things like destiny or kismet, he
would have thought the fates had conspired to give him the perfect night.
Everything from the grass to the trees was tinged silver by the light of the
full moon overhead. A cool breeze came off the water, a welcome contrast to the
muggy, oppressive feel that had lingered in the air all day. It was serene.
Beautiful. But with every step Jonah took, his nerves coiled tighter and
tighter so that when the shingled roof of the gazebo finally came into view, he
thought he might snap from the strain.

Yeah, maybe the setting was perfect. Jonah, however,
was not. Inside, he was totally petrified. It wasn’t that he was afraid of
Laurie. Or of the sex, really. It was more the idea of disappointing Laurie
that had him nervous. He knew Laurie would never tease him, not about something
like that, and it wasn’t as if Laurie didn’t know that Jonah was a virgin. But
when he thought of all of the possible ways he could mess up or make a fool of
himself
in front of Laurie during the next few hours…well,
that
was scary. Above all, he didn’t
want Laurie to think of him as some ridiculous kid who was too wet behind the
ears to make any kind of relationship worthwhile.
 

Jonah knew about the mechanics, of course. Insert tab
A into slot B and all that. But how to touch, how to stroke, how much pressure
to apply, when to back off or when to push, when to dominate and when to
surrender—that wasn’t something he could learn by online research alone. And he
wanted it to be great for Laurie. Beyond great. He wanted it to be
mind-blowingly, eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-your-head fucking
amazing
. Hell, square that. Multiple it
times infinity. He wanted it to be
that
good. There-are-no-words-to-describe-it kind of good.

Then when Laurie wanted him, craved him, couldn’t go
five minutes without thinking about him, maybe he’d finally have just a small,
infinitesimal clue how Jonah had been feeling for the last five years. Ever
since that moment a week before Jonah turned fourteen when Laurie stepped
through his parents’ front door after being away for the entire summer and
brought all of the sunshine and warmth in the world right along with him.