by A. V. Zeppa
Walking this tightrope without a safety net excited Marco like nothing else, even though he knew he could lose his balance and fall.
A moment later Jordan looked up and locked Marco into his sights. He smiled and started walking towards him. Marco turned around and pretended to be listening to David and Marna’s conversation. Jordan’s hand caressed Marco’s ass as he squeezed past. “David, I’m happy that you finally decided to come to one of my parties,” he said, while giving him a hug. Then he turned around and hugged Marco, and discreetly caressed his ass again. “It’s good to see you. Thanks for coming again.” Marco felt sick to his stomach. David was all smiles. “I really like your apartment.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you on a personal tour in a few minutes.”
A few seconds later Joshua and Chandler squeezed through the crowd and joined them.
“It’s about time you showed up to one of our parties,” Chandler told David.
“I’m glad I could finally make it. This is my boyfriend Marco.”
Chandler extended his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
All eyes were on Marco as he exchanged pleasantries. A subtle game of chess was being played between everyone except David. This particular game had two winners, and all the players knew who they were.
Jordan excused himself a few minutes later. “I’ll be back. I need to get the rest of the appetizers prepared. Help yourselves to food and drinks.”
Marco finally relax a little knowing his secret was staying secret. He enjoyed watching David have a good time. The party really started poppin when someone put on The End, by Linkin Park. Drinks were being consumed and blunts were being toked by open windows. At one point Marco was able to slip away to toke with Cole. With a perfect buzz going, he asked Cole if he wanted to hook up sometime. Cole said yes instantly, so they made a play date for Tuesday.
Marco made his way back to David and asked if he wanted something to drink. “Yeah, thanks. I’d love some juice or vitamin water.”
“Don’t you want something stronger?”
“No, not tonight. You can though.”
He walked over to the bar and made himself a Black Russian, and then got a vitamin water out of one of the coolers. Just as he was about to head back, Jordan walked up with two gorgeous guys. Marco’s eyes darted to David for a quick second and then he relaxed when he saw him deep in conversation. Jordan leaned close. “This afternoon was fucking unbelievable. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.”
Marco grinned. “I didn’t want it to end.”
“Don’t worry, tomorrow is only a few hours away.”
“Hmm…”
“I’d like you to meet Adam and Dominic.” Marco liked what he saw. “Very nice.”
“You are definitely everything Jordan said you were,” Adam said, as he focused on Marco’s package.
Marco grinned. “Cool. Do you want to fuck me?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Dominic, do you want to fuck me too?”
“I’d love to fuck you right now.”
Marco smiled as he scanned their perfect bodies.
What time can you come over?” Jordan asked.
“Ten thirty. I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”
“I promise that you are going to have the best sex you’ve ever had.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Jordan grinned. “You better get back to your boyfriend before he starts to miss you.”
Those words brought Marco back to reality. “Hey, don’t forget, you have to take us on a tour of your apartment.”
“Oh yeah, Give me a couple of minutes to let my woody die down a little.”
David and Marco ended up staying a lot longer than planned. Marco didn’t want to spoil his evening by making him leave, so he sat next to him and engaged in whatever topics David and his friends were discussing. He enjoyed seeing his boyfriend in his element. How everyone listened to every word he said, knowing he was light years ahead of them. Himself included.
They ended up leaving the party around 2 am. Marco had his arm around David as they walked home. As soon as they were in his room, David collapsed on the bed and closed his eyes. “This feels so comfy.” Marco hung his jacket in the closet and then walked to the bed and kissed David on the forehead.
“I’ll be back in a minute. I have to pee.” He spent a few minutes freshening up, and then stripped down to his Calvin Klein’s. He came out of the bathroom walking seductively towards the bed only to find David fast asleep. Marco looked at his angel and smiled. He took the comforter and covered him, and then slid under it himself. He kissed the back of David’s head and whispered, “I love you more than you will ever know. I’m sorry for everything.”
Marco lay there as the tears fell, wondering how he could make it all work.
CHAPTER 41
Spending Saturday in the Bronx was one of the biggest reality checks David had ever experienced. There were hard edges of poverty encasing everything that he encountered.
The looks of despair in so many older eyes. The aggression of teenage girls towards other teenage girls, thinking it was a sign of power instead of ignorance.
Guys smoking blunts and yelling sex come-ons to every girl who walked by. It was a side of the city that left David feeling like he was an alien from another world. Hanging in the hood, as Miguel called it, was an eye-opening journey that made him realize just how fortunate he was.
It also made him aware of how brave Miguel and Gabriel had to be. Especially Miguel.
The constant violence that surrounded him. The emptiness he surely felt being hated by his father, and physically abused by his mother. And then there was the other side of this irrational equation. Miguel and Gabriel finding each other on those mean streets, and falling in love.
Being taken in by Gabriel’s mother and protecting him by becoming his legal guardian. That was the most powerful display of love David could think of. As the day continued to unfold, he knew his friendship with Miguel would be a lifelong one.
When the 2 train pulled into the 3rd Avenue subway station and stopped, Gabriel was standing on the platform directly in front of the train doors where David and Miguel were.
Miguel smiled. “This is perfect timing.”
David couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Gabriel. “We could be brothers.”
“Weird, isn’t it?”
The doors opened and Miguel flew into Gabriel’s arms. David got off and stood to the side trying not to watch. After they finished kissing, Miguel turned to him, “This is Gabriel.”
“Hi. It is nice to meet you.”
Gabriel looked as startled as David. “Wow, it’s almost like looking in the mirror. Miguel said we looked a little alike, but this is unreal. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” He gave David a hug. “Miguel talks about you all the time. He says you’re in the academic stratosphere.”
David smiled. “He has it all wrong. He’s the one in the stratosphere.” Gabriel shook his head. “I can see why you guys are friends.”
“I really like your accent,” David told Gabriel.
“Thanks. I was born in Manhattan, but lived in London for many years.”
“Wow. That sounds fascinating.”
As they headed up the steps, Miguel warned David, “This area is mad different from Manhattan, so be prepared.” The subway steps led them into the middle of a crazy intersection where five roads converged into utter chaos. People were walking into on-coming traffic, horns were honking, and curse word after curse word bombarded them from every direction. David was surprised by the aggressiveness of everything as they stood there deciding which way to go. “I’ll bet this is a little different than Harbor Springs,” Miguel said, after seeing the shock on David’s face.
“Yeah, it is. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it scares me a little.”
“This area is always like this. You have to careful when crossing the streets around here,” Miguel warned. “This corner is a lot lik
e Chaos Theory. Totally crazy, but it works.”
Miguel took Gabriel’s hand in his and began showing David around. Within minutes they were being verbally harassed by a group of older Hispanic men. They were yelling the word jotos at them while making dick sucking gestures. Miguel said joto was the Spanish word for faggot. Then, as soon as they got to the next block, four guys, probably fifteen or sixteen years old, started following them. Within seconds they started calling David, Miguel, and Gabriel their bitches and demanding that they suck their dicks.
David tried not to show any fear, but felt himself going into panic mode. All of a sudden Gabriel turned around and calmly asked, “Which one of you mother fuckers wants to die first?” He got into a martial arts stance and waited. One guy yelled, “fuck off faggot, and then they quickly walked away.
“I’m sorry about all of this. This kind of shit happens all the time around here,” Gabriel said.
“I thought being gay in New York was acceptable.”
Miguel shook his head. “Not really. There are still plenty of places in the city where we are hated. Especially around here. It’s sad, but Gabriel and I refuse to be intimidated by ignorant assholes.”
“I always thought people were more tolerant in the city.”
“The affluent areas are tolerant, and so are a few people here. But for the most part, poverty and ignorance breeds intolerance. They hate what they can’t understand,” Miguel said, hoping to calm David down. Fortunately, no one else harassed them for the rest of their walk. They eventually ended up at Miguel and Gabriel’s apartment a couple of hours later.
As David got to know Gabriel, he realized just how intelligent he was. At one point he even asked, “Why aren’t you going to Columbia with Miguel?”
“Here are the simple facts. I’m not a genius like Miguel and you.”
Miguel gave him that same exasperated look David gave whenever anyone said that to him.
Gabriel shook his head. “That fact is obviously true whether you guys want to admit it or not. I have to work really hard to get good grades. I do have some good news though. My counselor told me last week that I am on track to graduate in June. I’ve been receiving additional credits by testing out of classes I would normally have to take in my junior and senior years.”
“Congratulations! You have to apply to Columbia so we can all go to school together,” David said. Miguel grinned. “Gabriel is just like us, but won’t admit it.”
David smiled. “I figured as much.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon listening to music, playing video games, and talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Most of the conversations centered around math, physics, and philosophy. At one point Gabriel shared his thoughts about the math required in order to attain the coveted Unified Theory. He didn’t know where to start, but he had some interesting theories. Their conversation went into mathematical overdrive at that point.
An hour later Gabriel’s mom knocked on his bedroom door to let them know dinner was ready. They spent the rest of the evening around the dinner table eating a real home cooked meal, something David really missed, and talking on a variety of topics. By the time they were ready to leave, David realized how kind and loving Gabriel and his mother really were. It made him homesick.
While David was bonding with his friends in the Bronx, Marco was having sex with three guys. He was in heaven as they dominated his perfect naked body with the best sex he had ever had. His body came more alive with each intense orgasm. Marco loved to be used. He loved being a sexual object. He moaned and begged for more and more as they fucked him every way imaginable. The Molly he had taken, and the poppers he was sniffing, made it even more intense and satisfying. Having three hot guys do him at the same time made Marco feel special. Almost loved. Random sex always made him feel that way. He wanted it to last forever.
Eventually they were all spent, but Marco’s three on one ended the way he always fantasized; laying on the bed covered in sweat and baby oil, watching three hot guys on their knees shooting all over his body with total satisfaction on their faces. When the last drips had fallen, Jordan complimented Marco. “You were such a good little slut for us today.”
“I loved every second,” Marco said, in a dreamy voice.
“You are so fucking hot. We need to do this again real soon,” Adam said, with Dominic and Jordan agreeing. They eventually headed to the bathroom and took showers together.
9:30 SATURDAY EVENING
Marco was busy doing homework when David knocked on his door. He tried his best to conceal the guilt that had now crept all over his skin, hoping like hell it wouldn’t reveal the truth. Taking an added breath, he opened the door and hoped for the best. David jumped into his arms and kissed him. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too.” Marco shut the door and kissed David again, hoping it would bring him back to what was truly important in his life.
“Did you have a good time with your parents? How are they?”
“Yeah, I actually had great time,” Marco said, telling the truth and lying. He couldn’t believe how good he was at the game. “They want us to come over for dinner when we have some time.”
“That sounds nice. I really like your parents. Hopefully your mom will eventually like me at some point.”
“She does like you. We’ve talked and she thinks you are very sweet.”
“Awe, I’m glad.”
“We even talked about you today.” Then Marco changed the subject because he was tired of lying. He asked David about his day in the Bronx. As he listened, his mind drifted to some of the tragic plays he had read over the years, realizing he was living one of his own making.
CHAPTER 42
NOVEMBER
Two black holes merge together within the gravitational pull of spacetime, trying desperately to achieve loving singularity. The ultimate quest. A unified theory. They dance that mystical dance to binary rhythms that can be felt all across a lonely violent universe. Two beating hearts can love each other with a gravitational pull so powerful that their lifecycle only lasts a finite time.
Real love has always traveled faster than the speed of light.
Real love is more than just gravitational attraction, or the touch of skin on skin, or gentle words spoken between two beating hearts.
Real love is an emotional equation that requires patience, passion, and truth.
Real love resides on that omnipresent event horizon where truth and lies play out within entropy, eventually breaking down into degradation. It doesn’t have to be this way, but sadly, more often than not, one heart miscalculates what is truly important, and then breaks the other heart into infinite invisible strings where mathematical calculations no longer exist.
David was excited about his upcoming trip to Princeton University. His research team had been invited to attend a scientific conference on Supergravity, Strings, and Quantum Field Theory. It had always been a dream of his to attend conferences like this one, and now it was becoming a reality.
This particular conference was potentially groundbreaking because of the recent advances in M-Theory and Supergravity Mathematics. David realized how fortunate he was in terms of timing. Matriculating at Columbia, being part of a research team, and new forms of mathematics being discovered had become his perfect storm. In the back of his mind he thought destiny was playing a hand, even though he vacillated about its existence.
David felt a sense of pride in his own mathematical abilities, but looked forward to meeting other students and scientists who had far greater abilities. The United States, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, France, and Japan were the countries being represented by their math and physics communities. And on top of all that, Professor Eldridge decided to be the chairperson of David’s research team for this particular conference. Professor’s Godard and Logan had informed everyone the first week of November.
The reality of the situation finally hit David with just a week left to go before the co
nference. He worked vehemently all week helping to put the final touches on their presentation. And then Thursday evening, it happened. All those years David studied by himself, his passion for empirical knowledge that revealed real truths, being constantly belittled and taunted just for being intelligent, for being gay, had finally been recognized.
David was in his zone working away as the two whiteboards in front of him slowly came to life. He wanted to see where the integration of M-Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity mathematics would take him. Little did he know that a certain theoretical physicist was standing a few meters away, watching him with interest. David stood back after he was finished and scanned his calculations to see if they made sense.
“I’m impressed,” a voice behind him said. David turned around and almost fainted. He was standing face to face with Benjamin Eldridge. “P-Professor Eldridge, I-I..,” was all David could get out of his mouth as they shook hands.
“David, how are you?”
“I-I’m… It’s an honor to meet you sir,” David said, trying to stay calm.
“The honor is all mine. Are you enjoying my math class?”
“Yes, very much. Having you as a professor is a dream come true.”
“Thank you. It is a privilege to teach students of your caliber. Just think, we get to go on this journey together.”
“It’s been unbelievable so far.”
Eldridge turned back to the whiteboards to have another look. “This is very interesting.” He held out his hand, “Do you mind?”
“No, not at all.” David gave him the marker and watched greatness unfold before his eyes. For the next ten minutes they both stood at the whiteboards theorizing and calculating by letting logic and creativity guide the way. They finally stood back and looked at what they had just accomplished. David was so nervous his hands were trembling. Eldridge put his hand on David’s shoulder and said, “Only eighteen years old. I’m impressed.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Professor Godard and Professor Logan finally came over to see how David was holding up.