Hard Rock Mountain: M/M Straight to Gay First Time Romance

by Jerry Cole

  "Whoa there, cowboy," Asher laughed, patting Daniel on the shoulder. "I'm starting to sense maybe you don't like the guy very much."

  "Sorry," Daniel cleared his throat, realizing he'd let himself get carried away. "I guess I'm a little bitter. I really didn't want to come today."

  "Not a fan of camping?"

  Daniel gave Asher a sidelong glance that clearly read 'look at me, do I look like I camp?' Asher smiled, shaking his head.

  The trees, fir and pine with their dark bones and birch all stark whiteness, closed over the paved road into the park quickly as jaws, enclosing them in a green arboreal world. It was amazing how fast the sounds of the road were left behind. Even in this late season, the park was still full of life. Elk and fox and alpine birds, unbothered by the cold, made their subtle stirrings in the wood around them. Or at least Daniel imagined they did, until a moment later when he began to see tents and RVs—the roar of their generators obscene—and realized just how densely populated the shallows of this forest sea were. The campers here were like shoals of fish over the reef, only a degree removed from the civilization they were more comfortable with. Daniel hoped things would be quieter deeper in. A fat squirrel scurried across the road ahead of them, a fast food wrapper in its mouth.

  "So why'd he force you to come?" Asher asked, making small talk as they passed through the camping area and moved on uphill further into the park.

  "Who can tell what goes on in his head?" Daniel muttered, watching a gaggle of children chasing each other with water guns. "He claims it's because HR was getting on to him for my accumulated vacation days."

  "Not the type to take time off?" Asher asked, catching Daniel’s shoulder and pulling him out of the way of a stray blast of water. "Why's that?"

  Daniel shrugged Asher’s hand off and scowled at the children, a little embarrassed and unsure why he was confiding in this weird guy. Was he really that lonely that he'd open up to the first friendly person? His prickliness had usually chased people away by now. Daniel was inclined to give Asher more of a chance just for sticking around this long.

  "I don't have the most active social life," Daniel answered, pausing halfway through the sentence as he considered the best way to word it without it sounding as pathetic as it felt. "Not a lot of friends.”

  “More of a family guy?” Asher wagered, raising his eyebrows. Ahead of them the old truck sputtered and roared as it made its way up a steep hill. The gaggle of office workers trudged up after it with similar noises.

  “I don't talk to my family,” Daniel said, tone clipped, making it clear that was not a subject he wanted to discuss. “I would just rather be at work, getting something done. Sitting at home by myself feels pointless."

  "Makes sense," Asher nodded, and then looked at Daniel with a thoughtful frown. "Your family. Do you not talk because you're gay?"

  Daniel stiffened, instantly defensive. A crow was startled off a nearby branch by their passage, mirroring Daniel’s feelings with a loud, outraged caw.

  "I'm what?" he repeated, hoping the color on his face could be explained by the brisk wind tugging at his hair. "I'm not gay!"

  "What, you didn't know?" Asher asked, smiling conversationally as the breeze tossed his long golden hair around his face like something from a romance novel. "It's pretty obvious if you ask me."

  "Based on what?" Daniel squeaked, almost more offended by how casual Asher seemed to consider this conversation than he was by the assumption. They’d fallen a little behind the rest of the group, still puffing their way up the steep hill.

  "You're a well-dressed loner with better personal hygiene than most women I've met, and you were reading a romance novel on the way here," Asher replied, chuckling and shrugging like he was commenting on the weather and not such a deeply personal part of Daniel’s life "You're either gay or a serial killer."

  "I'm not gay!" Daniel repeated, adamant and bewildered by the turn this conversation had taken.

  "Serial killer it is then."

  "Fuck you!"

  The condemnation burst out of Daniel like the cap exploding off a shaken bottle of soda. The froth of hurt and anger threatened to continue spilling out, but Daniel shoved it back down quickly and bottled it away. He hurried forward instead, humiliated, eager to put some distance between himself and the other man, who still seemed smugly amused by the whole situation. Daniel couldn't believe he'd been fooled into conversation with that ass for even a minute and regretted his own desperate unpleasantness for making him lonely enough to not have rejected that guy at the start. Somehow he wasn’t surprised at all that the one person his social awkwardness didn’t drive away would be someone even worse than him. Declaring him gay just because he dressed nice—who did that? He'd just have to spend the rest of the trip avoiding the trail guide as much as possible.

  They soon arrived at the campsite, and Daniel began setting up his tent at once. Mr. Donahue was organizing the building of an absurdly large fire pit, already pontificating loudly on everything he wanted to do this week, most of which ranged from ill-advised to unquestionably illegal. Daniel made certain to set himself up a good distance from the others. The site where they were camping, Aspenglen, was nicely off the road and fairly open, but there was enough tree cover that Daniel found a sheltered spot near the back without much difficulty. His tent was easy to set up and, after reading the instructions, Daniel was finished quickly, arranging his belongings neatly inside just to eat up a little more time before he would have to go out and socialize. He sat inside his tent, dawdling to avoid having to go out there. At least the campsite was nice. When he closed his eyes, beyond the laughing noises of his coworkers, he could hear the rush of the mountain wind through the trees, the caw of a crow, and the distant eerie bugle of an elk somewhere higher up the mountain. And the rustle of nylon much too close. He frowned, opening his eyes, and peered out of his tent curiously.

  Asher was directly across from him under the same tree, setting up his own tent.

  "Is that you, Freddie Mercury?" Asher asked with a teasing grin as he staked down his tarp, "What a coincidence. I guess we're neighbors."

  Daniel pressed his lips together into a thin line and counted to ten until he could control his breathing again. Deciding it was better to say nothing, he zipped his tent closed again and hid until he heard Asher finish setting up and head over to the fire. He had known this trip was going to be a disaster.

  After a little while, he worked up the willpower to leave the tent, ambling out towards the fire reluctantly. The sun wasn't even down yet, but the fire was already huge, the campers clearly just having a good time burning things. They were going to end up in trouble with the park ranger, Daniel thought. Maybe he'd get lucky and they'd get kicked out, and this awful trip would be canceled early

  He put in an appearance near the fire long enough to earn himself a couple of hot dogs, then retreated to the edge of the festivities were he felt more comfortable. There was a log seat which looked out on the astounding view their camp site had afforded them. The mountains seemed to go on forever, blurring into the foggy distance. It was almost unsettling to think about how old they were. They'd been here long before his oldest ancestor was born. They would be here long after he was gone. It was a humbling thought, those lonely gray stones in the distance, standing silent sentinel over the earth forever, long after everything living today had turned to dust.

  "Should have guessed you'd go for the sausage."

  Asher, the glow of the fire on his bronze skin making him look even more impossibly attractive than earlier, plopped down on the log next to Daniel. Daniel felt his jaw clench in immediate outrage.

  "Is there a reason you're harassing me?" Daniel asked, words clipped and frigid. "Or do you just derive enjoyment from acting like a school yard bully?"

  "Maybe I just felt bad for you, seeing you sitting over here by yourself?" Asher suggested with a shrug, taking a bite of his burger.

  "So you decided to cure my loneliness with homophobia,"
Daniel's lip curled and he looked away, agitation palpable. "Good idea."

  "I find you interesting," Asher confessed with a shrug. "That's all. Not my fault you're easy to tease."

  "It's not teasing," Daniel snapped, standing up. "And I don't appreciate it. Go bother someone else."

  Daniel threw away his half-eaten hot dog and went to bed early, tossing and turning in his sleeping bag for hours before he dozed off, and not just because Donahue turned the bonfire into a drinking party as soon as the sun was down and kept the noisy celebration going long into the night. He couldn't stop thinking about the trail guide and his obnoxious insistence that Daniel was gay. He wasn't! There was simply no way. He would know by now. He'd been with women, after all. Even enjoyed it sometimes. So sex had never been as amazing as everyone seemed to think it was, and the thought of being with a woman like that had never really grabbed him the way it had other guys. That didn't mean he was gay. He just had a low sex drive. He was just a normal guy. He told himself this as many times as he needed to in order to relax and fall asleep. It took a while.

  Chapter Six

  Asher did not take the hint. The next day, they hiked up Deer Mountain and Asher stayed near Daniel the entire time, making 'teasing' comments between pointing out birds and local features to the rest of the group.

  "If you look on that branch there you'll see a blue tit. Guess you wouldn't be interested in that, eh Carter?"

  "The elk pass through here in the summer. When the males are in rut, they'll travel miles and climb mountains to find a partner. I'm sure you know what that feels like, Carter."

  And so on, the entire several mile hike. By the end, Daniel wanted to tear his hair out or cry or maybe just punch Asher right in his smug face.

  He restrained himself with great effort, doing his best to remember that this was only going to be for a few days. Once this trip was over, he'd never have to look at that obnoxiously roguish grin ever again.

  The second day out, they headed to one of the many lakes to swim and picnic. Donahue had some sort of temper tantrum about wanting to go rock climbing, but Susan managed to talk him into giving them all a rest day in between the long hike yesterday and the next activity. Daniel couldn't fathom how she managed to control him.

  Daniel brought a book and sat on the rocks with his feet in the water to read, enjoying the cool day and the beautiful view. The water was clear and shining in the distant white early autumn sun, the rocky shore warmed by its light. The mountains painted everything with a majestic backdrop, curving up around them like they were sheltered in the hands of a huge, stony giant. It felt strangely safe. The yellow leaves of birch trees drifted on the wind and the smell of snow from the mountain tops was fresh on the air.

  "So, did she go back to Earth?"

  Daniel groaned, hiding his face with his book, as Asher swam up to the rock Daniel was on.

  "Don't be like that," Asher laughed, "I'm going to control myself today, I promise. Seriously, I'm interested."

  "She didn't," Daniel answered tersely, pulling his legs up in the not entirely irrational fear that Asher would drag him into the water. "I'm not to the end yet, but she's told the alien commander she wants to stay with him."

  "Ah, man I'm glad," Asher pulled himself up onto the stone with almost no effort, the powerful muscles of his arms flexing. "I was worried she'd have some kind of reversal and decide Earth was her true home after all."

  Daniel stared as Asher climbed up beside him, watching the water run down his chest like something out of one of those risqué cologne commercials. A layer of glistening water highlighted every ridge and hollow of the man's incredibly well built body. He had far more tattoos than Daniel had expected from what he'd seen peeking out from under his shirt. He seemed to favor geometric black work, his chest below his collar and his arms halfway down his biceps covered in an interlocking pattern of hexagons and crisp dark lines with areas of complete black. It was beautiful in a very stark, modern way, totally at odds with the down-to-earth, nature-loving attitude Daniel had seen from him so far. At least until he looked closer and realized there were animals woven into the sharp designs. Ravens and deer picked out in dot work, hidden among a forest of abstract shapes.

  "Enjoying yourself?"

  Daniel realized he was staring and quickly averted his eyes. Asher laughed.

  "It’s fine," he said. "The tattoos, right? I wouldn't have put so much work into them if I didn't want people to stare. Don't worry about it."

  Daniel allowed himself to look back, trying to ignore how small the swimming trunks Asher was wearing looked. Daniel hadn't bothered to put on a swimsuit at all, relaxing in a t-shirt and shorts. Given tacit permission, Daniel went back to staring at the tattoos.

  "They're amazing, actually," he said, only a little grudgingly, part of him not wanting to give Asher the satisfaction. "I've never seen anything like it."

  "Been working on them since I was eighteen," Asher admitted. "Worked hard to afford 'em. They have a lot of meaning to me. You have any?"

  Daniel shook his head.

  "I considered it when I was younger," Daniel admitted. "But I couldn't think of anything I cared about enough to wear it the rest of my life. Plus, time and money..."

  He shrugged, not bothered by missing out on it. He was still mostly ambivalent to the idea, even if seeing Asher's tattoos made him wonder what it might be like. Asher let the subject trail off. Daniel finished staring and went back to his book.

  "Not swimming, I take it?" Asher asked.

  "Too cold," Daniel replied. "I don't feel like getting sick on the second day of a week-long trip."

  "You're missing out." Asher pointed to where his coworkers were clearly having a great time, their shouts and laughter carrying over the water as they drifted on floats and splashed water at each other. Lynda and Jacobs were dunking each other, clearly hitting it off. They'd probably be sharing a tent before the end of the trip. That could end awkwardly.

  "If I'm missing out, so are you," Daniel reminded the trail guide, who just smiled and stretched out on the rock, letting his skin dry in the sunlight.

  "Nah, I'm having a great time," he said, smiling and closing his eyes.

  Daniel shook his head. What an endlessly confusing person. He went back to reading and shared a peaceful hour or more in near silence, trading only a comment or two when Daniel got up to fetch them sodas. If he could be like this all the time, Daniel thought, Asher wouldn't be half bad.

  The next day, they prepared for a second hike, a longer one, up Lawn Lake trail. Donahue had decided they would not only hike up there today, but then raft back down Roaring River. Daniel was not positive that was safe or allowed, but Donahue had never really cared about either of those things. There was a river and he wanted to raft it.

  The walk was pleasant and the hike was not a difficult one. The land scaled fairly evenly up towards the Mummy Range. Lawn Lake was nestled right between Mummy Mountain and Fairchild Peak. Daniel couldn't help wondering who named these places. The first part of the hike was through forest, and Daniel enjoyed that the most. The path hugged close to the side of the Roaring River, clear water rolling noisily past them over mossy stone. Birch and cottonwood leaves in shades of scarlet and gold were carried on the river’s current, executing complicated dances as they circled each other, swirling towards oblivion. The air was sweet and full of the scent of cold water and growing things. Elk were calling somewhere not far away, and small, wary life shuffled in the leaves just out of sight.

  Daniel thought he would have enjoyed this hike and this whole park a lot more if he hadn't been there with so many other people. He just wanted to relish the peace and quiet of the gorgeous place. But his coworkers could never seem to stop talking. It was always something. Would it really be better to be alone though, he wondered? Neither option appealed. The most attractive concept was still just to go home.

  Soon enough, Asher was dropping into step beside Daniel. Daniel eyed him warily, wondering if it woul
d be the genial Asher of yesterday or the teasing bully of the day before.

  "You're looking good today, Elton John," Asher said immediately, answering Daniel's question. "Are those new boots?"

  "They are," Daniel replied with an irritated sigh. "I bought them for the trip."

  "You're going to regret that." Asher looked off towards the path ahead, smiling at the sight of a bird darting across. "If you don't have blisters already from the Deer Mountain hike, you will by the end of this one. New boots have to be broken in before you wear them on a hike like this."

  "I can handle a few blisters," Daniel walked faster, trying to put a little distance between them, but Asher just lengthened his strides to keep up. "After all, I can tolerate you."

  Asher snorted, shaking his head. "Hey, you're no prize yourself," Asher pointed out. "You could be a little friendlier."

  Daniel rolled his eyes. "You declared me gay five minutes after meeting me and have been using it as an excuse to throw homophobic insults at me ever since. Forgive me if I don't exactly respond to that kind of treatment with warmth and acceptance."

  Asher had the gall to look offended, recoiling with a frown that became anger a second later.

  "Hey, I was trying to be nice to you—"

  "Well, you failed. You might want to re-examine what exactly you think constitutes nice behavior."

  "I guess you'd rather just spend this entire trip by yourself?"

  "Yes, actually, I would," Daniel bared his teeth at Asher in a vicious smile. "Being alone for the rest of the week would be infinitely preferable to another minute with you."

  Asher looked taken aback, but he dropped it, turning and stomping away while muttering curses under his breath. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he had finally got the man off of his back.