by Max Walker
“Let’s get in the water,” I said.
“Oh, now someone wants to dive right in, huh?”
“Better that than get arrested for public indecency.”
“Okay, Beck, we’ve gotta work on your worst-case-scenario syndrome.”
I laughed at the diagnosis. “Let’s do that in the water.”
“I’ll race you. Let’s see who gets waist-deep first.”
Like kids, we laughed and turned to face our invisible finish line. A large part of me wondered if this was some kind of dream. Another part of me wondered if I had completely snapped and lost my bloody mind.
We counted down to three and the both of us shot off, water splashing in the air.
It was liberating. I had been nervous, won’t lie about that, but running with my cock flopping around, water up to my thighs, Oliver splashing in my direction to try and slow me down, it was all so… so damn freeing. The hotel up the beach from us was closed for renovations, so we felt extra secluded, but even then, in that moment, that little slice of time, I didn’t have a care in the entire world. There could be a stadium-sized audience and I wouldn’t have noticed. It was only about Oliver and me, the two of us coming together under a star-dotted sky, naked and baring all our truths while the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean surrounded us.
“I won! I did it,” Oliver shouted, falling back the last few feet he needed to cross. I wasn’t going to call him out on the cheating. I clapped and swam over to him and gave him a congratulatory kiss.
The ocean around us was calm, the waves barely even registering as we stood.
We kissed again, the heat still potent between us. The flames were fanned, and my body was rigid with need. I rocked my hips forward through the water, feeling a dose of ecstasy flood through me. He was as hard as I was.
“Fuck, Oliver.” I held his head in my hands. Water dripped down his cheeks, off his chin. He looked up into my eyes, and I swear I’d never seen a more beautiful sight. I kissed him again before I could say the words “you’re absolutely perfect” out loud.
Oliver’s hands traced down my hips, squeezed my thighs. His tongue swirled around mine the moment his grip tightened around the base of my cock. He tugged, the water adding a new element to the sensation of pure pleasure.
His hands traveled up and down my length, slowly. It was as though he were savoring every last inch.
He broke our kiss and let out a small gasp, one that made my full balls ache.
“Jesus, Mother, and Holy Katy Perry, you’ve got such a big dick.”
I looked at him for a brief moment before I cracked, laughing out loud. “You’ve got such a way with words, Olly.”
He cocked his head and offered me the most innocent of smiles, all while he slowly jerked me off under the calm water. “Don’t I?”
“Come here,” I growled, unable to keep my hands off him, my lips off his. He squealed in delight, letting go of my dick as I claimed him again, taking his mouth with mine, holding him up so that he wrapped his legs around my waist. Our hard cocks rubbed together, building up an undeniable pressure inside my core.
Oliver reached down through the water and grabbed me in his hand again, his lips still pressed against mine.
“Oh fuck,” I hissed, feeling a new kind of pressure consume me when Oliver pushed my cock down between his legs so that my head slipped between his ass. He started to grind on me, rubbing himself on my chest while the head of my cock parted his cheeks.
“That feels so damn good,” Oliver said into my ear as he worked his hips. My hands moved downward, grabbing his ass and opening him up further. He gasped in a way that made me wish I could sink into him right now. All I wanted was to become one with Oliver. Unite our bodies in an explosive display of pure passion and heat.
“So good,” he said again, breathy and low. He nipped at my earlobe, sucked on my neck. I started to thrust, rubbing myself against him. All thoughts of dangerous marine life slipped my mind. I could only focus on Oliver and the way his hard body felt against mine, the way my cock felt passing between his cheeks, rubbing on his ass.
“That’s it, Beck, oh God, I could almost feel you inside me.”
His words pushed me closer and closer to the edge. To what felt like the edge of the world, here in the dark ocean, only feeling his body on mine, the water lazily lapping on our skin. My fingers dug into him. Water started to splash as our movements became bigger, faster. Oliver dropped his head back, exposing his sensitive throat, his bobbing Adam’s apple. I licked him from neck to chin, tasting the salt water and skin, my entire body being driven crazy by desire.
“I want to be in you.” The words crashed out of me like a tidal wave. “I want you, so fuckin’ bad, Oliver.”
His grinding intensified, his eyes rolling back. I could feel his nails scratching at my shoulders as he lost himself.
“I’m gonna come,” he said, voice husky, eyes shut tight, lips formed into an O. He pushed forward, his hard length pressed against my belly. I could feel his orgasm hit. I could feel him trembling on me, his nails digging deeper into my back, his body twitching and convulsing as he came, spilling his seed into the ocean.
“Oh fuck, Oliver. Fuuuuck.” I let go. My balls erupted, my cock shooting into the water as the climax ripped me to shreds. If I weren’t standing in the ocean, I was sure I would have collapsed on the ground, that’s how weak my knees felt after it was all over.
We kissed as the full moon washed her light over us. The stretch of beach we were on was still empty (thankfully), our clothes neatly piled on the shore. I held him for a little longer, planting delicate kisses on him, a glowing smile on both our faces.
“Wow,” Oliver said after a few moments. “That was…”
“Jesus, Mother, and Kitty Perry hot?”
Oliver laughed at that. His eyes were glowing as he looked up at me. “Kitty Perry? I think I know a porn star by that name.”
“That’s not her… Oh, Katy. Right.”
“Eh, close enough. And yes, it was all kinds of hot. Like… I might actually be dead right now. I think you literally made me die with how hot that was.”
I leaned in, unable to stop myself from kissing Oliver, both of us smiling like goons.
“Okay, let’s get back on land,” Oliver said. The moon danced in his eyes. He sounded slightly nervous.
“Oh, now you’re scared?” I teased.
“Well yeah, I’m pretty sure semen is a strong shark attractant.” His smile grew even wider. “Semen… Seamen… get it?”
I couldn’t stop the laughter even if I wanted to.
“Besides, the world looks a whole lot different after you come.” Oliver looked out to the endless blanket of dark ocean. “And that’s lookin’ a little scarier to me right now.”
The warm waters lapped at my hips as the soft waves broke on us.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, agreeing the water looked a little too dark.
Before we turned to head back to shore, I pulled Oliver in for one more kiss. Our naked bodies pressed together in the water.
We made it back to shore without getting any of our dangling bits taken by sharks. There was no one else on the beach, so we sat down next to our clothes and waited to dry off. Even though the sun had set hours ago, the temperatures were still hot enough to dry up the salt water dripping down our bodies.
We sat silently for a while, letting the relaxing melody of the ocean take over. I felt a serenity wash over me then. Something I hadn’t felt in years. Like things were happening exactly as they were meant to. There was something about that feeling… something that allowed me to relinquish some control and, in its place, feel a profound happiness take root.
Oliver spoke, his words shaky at first.
“I’ve got a question, Beck… Does it bother you? How young I am?”
The question didn’t come from out of the deep blue. I had sensed he wanted to ask it when he initially brought it up. I was prepared for it, ready to answer with a
solid “Absolutely not.”
“I’m just scared…”
He drifted off, but I didn’t want to let this conversation die. Communication was truly key, and this wasn’t a topic we could brush under the sand. “Scared of what, Olly?”
“Scared you’re looking for someone more set in life. Someone with a solid career and some experience out in the world. I still feel like a kid sometimes, like I have my life together by a very thin string. Hell, I haven’t even been out of school yet. I’ve literally been in school for the past twenty-four years of my life. And then I’ll be in debt for another good ten years, and that’s a positive outlook.”
“So what?”
His eyebrows shot up. I don’t think he was expecting the bluntness. “I, well, I mean…”
“I just mean, none of those things matters to me. I like you. I like spending time with you, a lot. Also, the further you pull back, the clearer you can see that everyone has their life hanging together by the same thin thread. And the fact that you’re months away from being a veterinarian, that in itself is impressive. Your own vet hospital will come later, I’m sure of it. Just focus on the now, focus on being happy, because time really does go by in a flash. If you spend it all on worrying over things that’ll eventually sort themselves out, then, well, ya wasted your time worrying.”
Oliver rested his head on my shoulder. “You think so?”
“Know so.”
“I just overthink things sometimes…”
“The last thing you need to overthink is us.”
I didn’t even realize how there was already an “us.” This was only our first actual date, but with Oliver, time didn’t feel real. This felt like our fifteenth date, like I’d been talking to Oliver for years now. Maybe it was because we were covering such hard-hitting topics all on the first night? I don’t think I had ever spoken about my father with anyone I was dating. It just never came up, and I never cared enough to share.
Not with Oliver, though. I wanted to share everything with him.
“All right, let’s get dressed before the sun comes up and we scare everyone off the beach.” Oliver kissed my neck before standing. He looked so fuckin’ good. The moonlight played with the lines of his body, the small curve of his hips, the heavy cock hanging between his legs.
He was perfect.
And then I caught myself.
This was only one date. And it was with someone many years younger than me. It was a generational difference that had sunk plenty of previous relationships. Even with our talk, things could change quickly. I couldn’t get too carried away. My feet had to stay planted directly on the ground, and my head had to stay as far from the clouds as bloody possible.
Which, in reality, was an impossible feat.
My head was already far past the clouds. My vision was already flooded with stars. Constellations shining as bright as exploding suns, and they all seemed to spell out a singular name:
Oliver Brightly.
14 Oliver Brightly
Two Weeks Later
The sun was shining bright through all my open windows, filling my apartment with light. The tall glass vase holding the flowers Beckham had brought me was sitting on my coffee table, the arrangement of pastel roses and beautiful orchids always catching my eye whenever I walked by. The pink roses matched the pastel pink TV almost to the exact shade. I thought about making some room on my rainbow bookshelf for them but figured I wanted the flowers front and center on the coffee table.
The flowers were such a sweet gesture, they made me happy just looking at them. I gave them an appreciative whiff, taking in the delicate scent, feeling like a full Disney princess in that moment. I half expected a pigeon or something to fly in through my window, but then I realized it would have to break through the screen barrier and figured that would be startling for all parties involved.
So, actually, Ixnay on the Disney princess thing.
With my fill of flowers, I got back to cleaning my apartment, finishing up with a quick wipe down of all the dusty surfaces. My apartment was a blast of color and fun, which happened to be the same way I enjoyed to live. There was a bright red focus wall and my hand-painted bookshelf with a different color on every shelf that popped right off the wall. I had a life-size cutout of a smiling Steve Irwin holding up a baby crocodile, propped up by a small tower of veterinary medicine books. The rug underneath the coffee table was also an eye-catcher, having come from Africa and woven with navy, pinks, white, and tan fabric. It was given to me by a woman who had brought her puppy in as an emergency. I was in the clinic that night and saved the pup’s life, and she gifted me the rug a week later saying it carried good energy.
I don’t know about the good energy, but I sure as hell knew it was soft as heck and felt really great under my feet.
Mason and Jar both watched me from the top of their cat tree, the two of them cuddling as they observed their walking food dispenser. I gave them both quick kisses on the head, the Flonase I had pumped into my nose two hours ago making me immune to the effects of some cat hair finding its way into my system.
“All right, boys, I think that’s as clean as it’s going to get.”
I surveyed my living room, spotting a lone sock underneath the gray couch. After grabbing it and tossing it into my room, where the proper place for random one-sockers was, I heard a knock at my door.
“Just in time,” I said to myself, crossing my living room and opening the door.
“Hey, boo!” Kiley was standing in the hallway, still wearing her dark blue scrubs, a heavy backpack slung over her shoulder. Beside her was Milan, also wearing his scrubs and leaning a little because of how heavy his backpack was.
“Sup, guys! Come in, come in.” I stepped aside, my friends walking in and dropping their hundred-pound bags on the floor, the entire apartment shaking. “Were you guys at the hospital?”
“Been there since seven this morning.” Milan sounded tired. He went straight for the fridge and grabbed one of the Red Bulls he had left for himself. I was more of a tea kinda guy, but Milan liked the hard stuff.
“And now we get to spend the night brushing up on the endocrine system in large animals!” Kiley sounded as excited as someone lining up to get their mug shots taken.
We settled in around my kitchen table, each of us taking our usual study spots. I had laid out a tray of chips and pretzels only fifteen minutes earlier, and it was already down to the crumbs by the time I sat down and opened a text book. Thankfully, being in our fourth year, our daily work consisted of getting hands-on experience. We’d each taken different rotations, all lasting four weeks each, in the different specialties of animal medicine. I was working on my small-animal medicine clerkship this month, which I happened to genuinely love.
It didn’t take long until Kiley got bored and started humming a random song, her way of announcing that she was ready to talk about anything but the words that formed alphabet soup on her page.
I took the bait. “Soooo… I’m seeing Beck again.”
Kiley’s book slapped shut. Milan sat up a little straighter, looking as if he had been sleeping with his eyes open. “No freakin’ way, Olly. What are you guys gonna do?”
“He’s coming over tonight. I’m going to be cooking, and then we’ll probably just watch Netflix.”
“Mhmm, and ‘chill’?” Milan threw in.
“Oh yeah, plenty of chilling involved.”
Kiley oohed, a hand covering her mouth. “This is getting into ‘serious boyfriend’ territory, isn’t it?”
I shrugged, trying to play it as nonchalantly as possible. Meanwhile my insides were twisting around like they were dancing the Macarena. “We’ve been talking pretty much every day, and we’ve gone out on four dates now. Each one’s better than the last, you guys.”
A series of knocks interrupted my dreamy-eyed fawning. I got up, Mason jumping from his cat tree and bouncing over my way. He seemed a little disappointed when he realized I wasn’t heading for the cat food cabinet and
instead was walking toward the door.
“Hey, Tyra!” I gave my friend a hug, pulling her in and finding myself surprised by who was standing behind her.
“Look who I found,” Tyra said, stepping inside with her heavy book bag. She went past me to drop her stuff off in my room.
“Will, what are you doing here? Not that I care, obviously. Just thought you were with Janet?”
Will’s eyes looked a little puffy. If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I would have thought he was crying. Will never cried, though; not in the entire ten years of our friendship had I ever even seen a tear.
“About that.”
Oh shit, maybe he had been crying?
“We’re in a fight. I was going to text you when I was walking over here. Hope you don’t mind?”
“Of course not. Get in here.”
Will came in and greeted the group. He was looking a little down-and-out, in an oversized white T-shirt and paint-stained gym shorts, his old white Nikes covered in dirt, making them look black. He didn’t smell the greatest either, but I wasn’t gonna hold it against him. He was really feeling his relationship with Janet, so whatever happened must have shaken him.
Everyone in the group knew him and welcomed him in, Kiley pulling out the chair next to her and patting it, saying she’d saved the seat for him. I always wondered if Kiley had a thing for Will.
“Sorry to bother your studying,” Will said.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, man. We weren’t studying anyway.” Milan was quick to look Kiley’s way, smiling. “We got sidetracked with the Kiley June show over there anyway.”
“Sorry if I’m able to genuinely connect with someone and get them to open up like a delicate orchid just needing some tender love and care.”
Tyra looked to me, arching her brow. She was wearing a Wonder Woman T-shirt with her dark blue scrubs. “Is this about that sexy stud you showed me pics of?”
“Maybe…”