by RJ Jones
I’d never touched Alex like that before. Sure, we’d given each other hugs, butt slaps, and hair ruffles. I kissed him once. We were at a party and really drunk, and I used the excuse of not remembering anything the next morning. He said he didn’t remember much of the party either and we had never spoken about it. But that was as far as our touching had gone. This felt… different. Not bad different, just different. I liked that my fingers could elicit that kind of reaction from him.
My cock twitched and started to fill as his moans grew in intensity. I dropped my hands quickly, unsure what was happening as something shifted inside my chest.
“Right… I’m just going to get a drink.” I bolted inside and hid my face in the fridge, hoping the cold air would reach my dick.
“Josh?” Alex’s voice came from the open patio door a minute later, hesitant and unsure. I was glad Mom and Dad had disappeared from the kitchen.
“Yeah?” I kept my face in the fridge as I rummaged in search of nothing.
“You don’t have to shave your head if you don’t want to. I just thought it would be easier on the road. We won’t be able to shower every day, and it’ll be one less thing we’ll have to think about.”
Thank fuck he didn’t think… If he knew I got wood from touching him, he’d think I was gay. Maybe I was, sort of. Or bisexual. Maybe I just appreciated an attractive person, male or female. I’d had a blowjob from a guy in college once and boy did it blow my mind. He sure knew how to suck dick, but he called me a cock-teasing asshole when I didn’t reciprocate. I’d had no idea what I was doing or how I felt. I hadn’t told Alex, as I didn’t know what it meant. Alex was a good-looking guy, gorgeous even—the girls sure liked him—so I guess if I were gay, I’d probably be into him too.
I grabbed a couple of bottles of water as relief ran through me and handed one to Alex. “It’s cool, you can shave my head. I was thirsty is all; it’s a hot one today.”
Alex’s widening grin said he believed me. I wasn’t lying, it was pretty hot.
“C’mon,” I said, patting his bare shoulder on my way past, my palm tingling from the contact. “My hair won’t take as much effort as yours, it’s fairly short already.”
Not long after all my hair was gone, Alex left with a happy smirk and a promise to get me first thing in the morning. Excitement stirred in my stomach once more and I went to my room to finish packing only to find Julie sitting on my bed again.
“Huh.” Julie huffed as she took in my newly shaved head.
“What?”
“I thought you’d look stupid with no hair. I’m kinda disappointed you don’t.”
I ran my hand over my stubbly scalp. It felt weird not to have the long length on top I usually had. “Um, thanks?” I moved to the mirror and took in my new look. Who knew I could rock the buzz cut? Good to know for when I’m old and losing it anyway.
Julie’s voice came from behind. “Mom’s doing a special dinner tonight since it’s your last one.”
“You make it sound like I’m going to the gallows.”
DINNER THAT night was a feast. That special pot roast scent filling the house was enough to make my mouth water. Mom really pulled out all the stops, but she was quiet as she ate. I guess she didn’t want me to leave after returning from college only last week. Dad seemed okay, asking about our planned stops and which route we’d be taking. I couldn’t answer many of his questions because we didn’t have a route. I knew we were heading west, following the sun so to speak. We didn’t plan on having much of a winter, so we were going to do the top half of the country before fall hit too hard. Alex told me Christmas would be in San Diego; that’s all I really knew. Fort Wayne, Indiana, to San Diego, California, was a lot of ground to cover in the next six months. If we drove in a straight line, it would be about two thousand miles, but we were heading northwest through Iowa and South Dakota. The knowledge I’d be on the road in a matter of hours had my stomach churning with excitement once more.
After dinner was finished, Dad handed me an envelope.
“What’s this?” I asked, opening the flap and peering inside. It looked to be about a thousand dollars. I turned my attention back to my parents with my mouth open in disbelief. I couldn’t believe they’d given me so much money on top of what they’d already done.
“It’s just something to help you boys get started on the road. We know you’ve been saving for years and have all your money pooled for this trip, but we wanted to give you a bit of a buffer if something unexpected happens. We don’t expect any car trouble; Maude has a new engine in her, after all, but you never know.”
I threw my arms around both my parents at the same time, not wanting them to see the sheen in my eyes as I whispered my thanks. They’d done so much for me and Alex already, and I was grateful I’d won the parent lottery.
We watched TV before heading to bed, the mood a little mixed. Dad was excited for me, but Mom was sad I was leaving. I sensed Julie was too and I wasn’t looking forward to saying goodbye in the morning. We said our goodnights and Mom hugged me twice as hard and twice as long as normal before I headed for my room.
After a quick shower and packing the cash into my duffel, I laid on my bed for hours, staring at the ceiling. I was nervous, but my skin tingled with a sense of adventure and eagerness to be underway, the whole spectrum of emotions running through my veins making it impossible to sleep.
I was still staring at my ceiling when my phone beeped with a text. Alex.
Alex: You awake?
Me: Yeah, can’t sleep.
Alex: Wanna hit the road?
Me: You serious?
Alex: Yeah, goodbyes suck anyway.
Me: I’ll be ready in ten.
It was unlike Alex to leave without saying anything, but saying goodbye to his parents would be pretty tough on all of them. I quickly dressed in my traveling clothes—shorts and a T-shirt—and wrote a note to Mom and Dad. They’d understand. I asked them to check on the Mayburys, just to make sure they understood why we left early.
I dropped my bag by the front door, then went back down the hall and slipped into Julie’s room.
Crouching by her bed, I shook her shoulder gently. “Hey, Jules,” I whispered. “Jules.”
“Hmm… what?” she slurred.
“I’m leaving now.”
Julie opened her eyes and looked at the clock. Four a.m. “Now?” she asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.
“Alex says goodbyes suck so we’re making a break for it, but I wanted to see you before I left. Look after yourself, okay, and don’t give Mom and Dad too hard a time. They’re the best parents in the world.”
Julie threw her arms around me and sobbed softly into my shoulder. Her long hair smelled of her familiar strawberry shampoo. I hugged her hard and stroked her back. I’d miss the little Buttface.
Her voice was soft when she spoke against my shoulder. “While you’re finding yourself, can I have your room?”
CHAPTER TWO
June 1st
Rolling Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana
ALEX PICKED me up on the side of the road with a wide grin and a travel mug of coffee.
“Hey,” I said, climbing in the passenger side and throwing my duffel in the back of Maude. I couldn’t see Alex’s bag and I wondered briefly where he’d stashed it.
“Horse. Buckle up.”
Alex headed down my unlit street. The neighbors’ houses were shrouded in darkness, too early for anyone to be awake. In the dim light of the van, I could see Alex’s smile becoming wider as he drove.
“Hey, I won the coin toss. I thought I was supposed to be driving,” I said, my voice full of mock annoyance.
“You can drive after breakfast. That will still be a full day, considering it’s only four thirty a.m. Do you care where we stop?”
“Nope, as long as it’s on the way out of here.” I smiled, thinking of the possibilities the open road had in store for us.
We traveled in comfortable silence, the smile on my fa
ce refusing to go away, but Alex’s diminished over the next few miles and I could tell he was worrying about something. I glanced at him a few times, hoping he’d snap out of it, but all I got was a forced grin in return.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when it became clear he wasn’t going to tell me.
“Nothing really. Just thinking that maybe we did the wrong thing by not saying goodbye. Mom’s going to be upset.”
After clearing the city of Fort Wayne, we were driving along on US 30 West, heading toward the Illinois state line.
“Did you talk to them much? My folks said goodbye last night and I was worried this morning would be awkward waiting to say goodbye again. It was a good decision to leave without having to go through that… for everyone.”
Alex’s parents were a little “stifling,” Alex’s word, not mine. He was their only child, and while they wanted only the best for him, it was hard for them to let go. I suspected that they agreed to this road trip only because he was an adult and could legally do what he liked anyway. My parents’ influence would have played a big part in their decision too.
Alex and I had been best buds since junior high. It wasn’t an instant friendship. Alex was tall and geeky. He stood out for all the wrong reasons, and school could be a nasty place, especially for the new kid who towered above everyone else. I was the typical jock, playing sports and dating the cheerleaders. It wasn’t until one day after school when were put in detention together that we started talking and discovered a mutual dislike for our science teacher, Mr. Ellam. We also realized Alex lived around the corner from me and we walked home together that afternoon, chatting the whole time. Because of Alex’s six foot four height, he was encouraged to try out for the basketball team, but he kept putting it off because he’d never played and had the coordination of a doped-up lab rat. I had a hoop attached to the front of the garage and I invited him over to practice. I discovered the geeky new kid in school was actually pretty sarcastic and really funny. After a few weeks of hanging out with each other, we became inseparable.
“Did you see Julie this morning?” Alex’s question brought me out of my memories.
“Yeah, I woke her up; I had to say goodbye, otherwise she’d track me down and follow us across the country. The last thing I want is my little sister tagging along.” My words might have been said in jest, but Alex knew how much I would miss her.
Alex’s eyebrows drew together.
“If it helps,” I continued, “I wrote Mom and Dad a letter, asking them to check on your folks this morning. I’m sure your mom will be fine. Maybe after breakfast you can call her.”
The stress lines in his forehead smoothed out as he looked at me, appreciation shining in his light blue eyes. “Thanks. I’ll call them when we’ve stopped and make sure Mom’s okay.”
BREAKFAST TURNED out to be about three hours later in the resort town of Cedar Lake, Indiana, an hour’s drive southeast of Chicago. From here we’d head north, bypassing Illinois’s most popular city. Alex made a bakery run while I grabbed the coffees from Starbucks. Once we were stocked up with food, Alex drove to the lake the town was named after and parked Maude in the shade of the trees. He backed in so we could sit in the back of the van with the doors open and we looked over the flat stretch of glassy water as we ate. There were a few fishing boats about, and numerous houses could be seen on the other side of the massive expanse of natural lake. Almost silent on this side, the only sounds were the odd cry of a green heron or whooping crane as it dove into the water to catch a fish, and the wind rustling softly through the reeds on the bank. Any noises from the boat engines were too far away to be heard.
I was dozing in the back of Maude, my legs dangling over the rear bumper, my stomach full of croissant and coffee when Alex’s voice woke me. “Get up, I want to show you what Dad and I did over the last couple of days.”
I moaned, wanting to sleep a bit longer.
“C’mon, move your ass,” Alex ordered, slapping my thigh. After Alex had spoken to his folks, his enthusiastic mood had returned and I was glad his parents were okay with him leaving early. A little disappointed that they missed their goodbye maybe, but they reassured him they understood and wished him safe travels.
Placing my feet on the grassy ground, I stood and yawned, stretching my arms up high over my head. Alex’s eyes followed the lift of my T-shirt that exposed a line of my skin, and his lips parted, letting out a small breath.
Was he checking me out? No, I shook my head at the absurdity of the thought.
Alex rolled his shoulders and set about undoing some latches at the base of the mattress.
“Here, check this out. It’s super cool.” With a flick of his wrist, a long wooden box rolled out from underneath the bed. It ran the length of the mattress and was just as wide, with hinged compartments and finger holes for lifting the lids placed strategically and covering the entire platform. Once it reached its full length, extending out the back of the van, two metal legs folded down, hitting the dirt and keeping the drawer from toppling out.
Then, to my surprise, Alex reached under the storage box and pulled out two flat folding chairs. After unfolding them, he placed one on either side like a dining table.
I picked my jaw up. “That’s fucking awesome.”
“I know. Not only do we have a bedroom, but we have a dining room too.”
Aware of Alex’s eyes on me, I lifted various lids and I looked through the compartments. Some held food: cans, dry goods, nonperishables. There was a small compartment that held toilet paper and Alex’s shaving kit, and another with a couple of towels and spare linens. Still others held Alex’s clothes and shoes. That’s why I didn’t see his bag when I first climbed into the van: he’d already packed his stuff away. There were a few empty compartments, so I grabbed my bag and started to unpack.
“You made this with your dad?” I was still a little awestruck after storing my belongings. Everything worked so easily, even lifting the legs and rolling it back under the mattress. No one would suspect it was even there.
Alex smiled proudly. “Yeah. It took us a couple of days to get the measurements right and to make the box frame, but after that it was only a matter of screwing on some hinges. The chairs we had in the storage shed. Mom cleaned them up and Dad made sure there was a space to store them too. But that’s not all…”
Alex climbed into the back, to the wooden box that fit neatly behind the front seats and in front the mattress. I crawled in beside him, wondering what he was going to show me next. I’d seen the wide box before and thought it was for storage, not bothering to look inside. It was a storage chest, two-thirds of it anyway, but when Alex lifted the lid on the last part, a small puff of cold air hit me in the face.
“It’s a fridge?” I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I peered inside and saw a six-pack of beer, a block of cheese, bacon, a dozen eggs, a half-gallon of milk, and a small loaf of bread. It was insane. “It’s a fucking fridge!”
“Awesome, right?” Alex’s excited grin was firmly in place.
My heart hammered with just how awesome it was. This was going to be the best road trip ever. “You and your dad did this too?”
Alex shook his head. “It came with the van, same with the overhead cupboards. We only put the underbed storage in.”
“If it wasn’t eight o’clock in the morning, I’d suggest a beer to celebrate, but we can celebrate later when we stop for the night,” I told him, closing the lid of the fridge.
We lay on the mattress side by side, staring at Maude’s roof as we talked excitedly about the months to come. After a while a large yawn drowned my buzz; the early morning start and lack of sleep were definitely catching up with me.
“You want to stay for a while, get a couple hours’ sleep before hitting the road again?” Alex asked, turning on his side to face me. Our eyes locked and my breath caught in my throat.
I yawned once more. “Probably a good idea.” I paused and listened to the noises, or lack thereof,
coming from outside. “It’s quiet here, can we leave the door open for the breeze?”
Alex sat up and looked out the small curtained window. “There’s no one around, I can’t see why not.” He lay back down next to me.
I fluffed the pillow under my head and turned on my side, facing my best friend and the person who would be my yearlong travel partner. “We don’t need anything, do we? I mean, we could live here and want for nothing.”
Alex looked back at me, his sleepy blue eyes filled with warmth. “I have everything I want right here.”
I was thinking the exact same thing as sleep took me.
WE DIDN’T travel much farther after our midmorning nap, and although I couldn’t say exactly where we were, I knew we’d crossed the state line into Illinois. I knew this only because while I was driving, Alex ordered me to pull over so he could take a photo of the Welcome to Illinois sign. I asked why he wanted the photo. “So I can put it on the blog.” He said this like I knew what he was talking about. Apparently kitting out Maude wasn’t the only thing he’d been doing in the week before we left. We were now the proud owners of a travel blog, which Alex intended to update whenever we hit a spot with free WiFi. I saw an awful lot of Starbucks in my near future.
After lunch, we drove for about half an hour until we saw an exit sign for a campground, and because we were still shattered from the restless night before, we stopped. Our only deadline was to be in San Diego for Christmas, so it didn’t matter how many miles we drove. That was the best thing about being on the road like this—if we wanted to stop we could and if we didn’t, then we didn’t. If we wanted to head south and spend a month in the Texas summer, we could. But we weren’t stupid, Texas could wait for winter. The sense of freedom was liberating, and having Alex with me, I felt we could do anything.
The campground we stopped at wasn’t busy, just a few tents set up around a small lake. Alex made a fire, grabbed a small frying pan from the overhead cupboards, and made us grilled cheese for dinner. And it was the best grilled cheese ever. It tasted of freedom.