Night Rides
Page 6
Griffin uncrossed his arms. This wasn’t at all like the presentation they’d worked on before. This wasn’t even about literary romance, really.
Charlie clicked again, and the slide slid away. The next one it revealed was new to Griffin too. It was a high-definition close-up of the illuminated moon, with the cover of Moonsword in the center. Again, it was otherwise blank.
Charlie spoke again, his voice more certain now. “I’ve learned that love is like the moon. It can be distant and mysterious. But it offers you gifts – in the form of a sword, or that of a community. It teaches you about yourself, even when you want to hide from learning.”
Griffin leaned forward so that he came up off of the edge of the car hood. He raised a hand meekly, unsurely. “I didn’t think we were including Moonsword. It’s not really a romance–”
Charlie clicked again, and a new slide appeared on the wall. It was the photo of Griffin from their first night of lessons together, here in the church parking lot. The one with the nervous smile and cheesy thumbs up. In the background, hidden behind the circular reflection of the flash flare in the driver’s window, was a hazy outline of Charlie smiling ear to ear.
Griffin’s hand fell to his side.
“I’ve learned,” Charlie said – his voice was steadfast now, “that sometimes love comes in the form of a random partner assignment in English class. When you’re thrown in with the kid that hasn’t yet learned to drive, and you offer him a simple thing: lessons, at night, in your dad’s sedan.”
Charlie took slow steps down from the sidewalk and towards Griffin as he spoke. Griffin’s heart was pounding in his ears.
“Not realizing you’d be getting more in return. Friendship, and great books, and life lessons, and love.”
He stopped a few inches away from Griffin, looking him straight in the eyes as he continued.
“Romantic love. Big, powerful, cheesy, mysterious love.” He smiled wide. “And you couldn’t be happier to face it.”
Charlie got down on one knee, and Griffin let out an anxious uhhh, but he didn’t have any words to follow. Charlie waved a hand dismissively, as if to say please don’t freak out.
“Griffin Gago, I like you – a lot. May I please take you on a date?”
Charlie looked up at Griffin, his hands clasped on his raised knee, waiting patiently for his response.
Griffin made another nonverbal uhhh sound. It reminded him of the low, distant chirping of the crickets from their night on the backroad.
Griffin couldn’t get any words out, but he nodded enthusiastically and Charlie leapt up to his feat. He pulled Griffin into a tight, warm hug. Their chests pressed together, and they could both feel the excited fluttering of each other’s hearts.
Charlie whispered, “Can I kiss you? I was going to wait but – I don’t want to.”
Griffin pulled back slightly from the hug so he could look at Charlie’s face, and see his goofy, wide grin, and look into his eyes – which were starting to mist. He still had no words, but offered another eager nod and leaned in to bring their lips together.
It was a slow kiss. The kind that lingers.
There was a scene in Paradise Highway where the protagonists are racing down an unfinished highway during a chase. They reach the end of the structure, but don’t slow down. Instead, they race up and off of a ramp into the air. And for the next several moments they’re soaring. The camera slows down, extending their hang time. You can see the elation on their faces. They feel like they’re never coming down.
The kiss felt like that. Like hang time, in slow motion.
When Griffin and Charlie finally pulled apart, they touched their foreheads together and laughed short, quiet laughter into the night air.
“Have you got time for a date right now?” Charlie asked.
Griffin, finally finding his voice again, replied. “Absolutely.”
Charlie broke from their embrace. “Then hold on a second,” he said and jogged over to the trunk of the car. He lifted it and started pulling things out onto the ground.
He peeked his head around the side of the trunk to look at Griffin. “Actually, mind closing your eyes for a minute?”
Griffin did as he was asked, and leaned back on the hood of the car again. He heard the flapping of a fabric and shuffle of what sounded like boxes. He heard Charlie’s feet race across the grass, and the creak of a panel opening in the distance.
Charlie raced back over, and Griffin could hear him approaching. “Don’t open yet,” Charlie said softly.
He took Griffin’s hands and led him a couple feet away to his left. Griffin felt a change in texture beneath his feet. He was standing on something soft now. Charlie kept one hand in Griffin’s palm and placed the other on his waist. “I’m going to help you sit down now – slowly.”
Griffin lowered himself and let Charlie correct his trajectory a smidge until he felt a puffy cushion beneath him. There was another behind his back, too.
Charlie squeezed his hand gently, like a reminder that he was happy to be holding it.
“Okay, you can open them now.”
Griffin gasped when he did. Charlie had laid out a comforter beneath them, a mountain of pillows, a crate of snacks, and a cooler of drinks. String lights were strewn all around them, connected to a long extension cord that ran across the grass and up to the wall. Charlie sat down next to him, and they both leaned back on the wall of pillows that sat between them and the side of the car. A black rectangle had replaced the presentation on the wall projection.
Charlie wrapped his arm around Griffin’s shoulder, and Griffin leaned into the crook of his neck.
“I’m sorry,” Griffin said quietly. “For pushing you when you weren’t ready. And… for avoiding you after.”
Griffin chuckled. “I forgive you. It helped, I think. We wouldn’t be here, like this, otherwise.”
They were both quiet for a time.
“I wanted to do it right this time,” Charlie whispered. “No subtext. A date-date.”
Griffin nuzzled into his neck. “You did it right,” Griffin whispered back.
They enjoyed the silence and the comfort of their bodies aligned for a few minutes.
Griffin spoke first. “You know we’re not presenting those slides in class, right?”
Charlie grinned. “We’ll go over the real one tomorrow.”
“Tonight is for this,” Charlie said, and hugged Griffin against his side warmly. He rubbed his thumb along Griffin’s shoulder, and used his other hand to tap his phone screen. The black rectangle projected on the wall exploded into color. Words formed in the prismatic haze: Paradise Highway II: Neon Glory.
When Griffin thought back on the film later, he found that he didn’t remember much of it. All he could recall was the weight and warmth of Charlie’s embrace, and the comfort of knowing with certainty that it was for him.
Epilogue
“Meu Deus!” Griffin’s mother cried out from the back seat.
She sat in the center of the back bench in Charlie’s black sedan so that she could watch the road ahead of them as Griffin raced up the spiral ramp to meet the highway. She had one hand on the shoulder of each front seat and was digging her nails into the fabric as the car whipped around the ramp’s arc.
“Don’t worry, Mom, I’m doing it just like in the movies!” Griffin said, a devilish grin flashing in the rear view mirror.
“He’s kidding!” Charlie twisted around from the passenger seat to face the back. He attempted a reassuring smile of sincerity. “I promise, Ms. Gago, he’s a natural. And we’ve logged many hours of practice.”
Griffin tapped the front console of the car, where his newly minted driver’s license was propped up above the cupholders. “See?”
“Both hands on the wheel!” Charlie and Ms. Gago both yelled in unison.
Griffin replaced his hand and laughed.
And after a few more moments, he met the highway – a racing field of lanes and meteoric vehicles – and carefully,
with his most precious cargo sitting behind and beside him, merged into the blur.
Fin – but read on to get the sequel, Night Rides II: The Movie, for free!
Night Rides is a work published by Big Gay Universe.
Find more queer stories – and sequels! – at BigGayUniverse.com
Night Rides II: The Movie
by Travis Brightfield
Six months ago, Griffin and Charlie were paired together for a group project on literary romance – neither of them expected that their own story of love would unfold between shared books, outdoor movies, and late-night drives.
But that was just the start.
Now they’re headed to college together, and they have no idea what’s in store. Can their young relationship maintain its luster? Or will new friends turn into flings? And when Charlie decides to film a re-telling of their meet-cute as a student project, how will Griffin feel in front of the camera… opposite a different leading man?
Night Rides II: The Movie promises queer college thrills, quiet romantic moments, and the heartwarming delight of forming a chosen family.
To read Night Rides II for free, head to BigGayUniverse.com!