---

---

Here I lay on the gurney, with needles piercing the veins in my arms and tubes extending from them, leading to containers I couldn’t see.  To help me relax and keep my mind off what was happening around me, I tried to concentrate on other things, but that was not an easy task.  My mind raced over many different memories, but kept coming back to one thing, the ill-fated love that had eventually delivered me here.  I know you probably don’t understand what I mean by this, so let me explain.

I’ve heard many people say that when they went through a near death experience their life suddenly flashed before their eyes.  Well, I guess that’s what was happing now.  I was only twenty-five years old, yet I was confronting my own mortality, and my mind was hurriedly dredging up a continuous flow of scenes from my past.  After a time it settled on one specific moment in time, and I found myself reliving the first day that I met David.

It was the first day of school.  I was entering the seventh grade, scared to death about leaving the security of the elementary school that I had attended for the past several years, yet thrilled about the possibility of meeting new people from the other elementary schools that all merged into the Junior High.  It wasn’t that elementary school had been so great, I didn’t have any friends there, but I knew what to expect and from whom.  Now, here I was, not knowing what the future may hold.

I knew that my homeroom was in room 127 so I went straight there, found a seat in the far back corner of the room and sat down.  I figured from here I could disappear behind the others, as they filled the room, but still be able to look everyone over to assess whom I might have to avoid or whom, if I was very lucky, I might want to know. Eventually the teacher, a slightly built man with very unruly gray hair, entered the room and began to speak.

“Class!  I’m Mr. Carruthers and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the year.  If you’ll take your seats, I’ll call the roll.”

After everyone was in their seats, Mr. Carruthers began calling names.

“MacDonald, Judy?”

“Here.”

“Mack, Adam?”

“Present.”

“Major, Jason?”

“Yo.”

At that response Mr. Carruthers looked up and gave a disgusted looked toward Jason.  Then he droned on, calling the remainder of the names from the list.  Then I heard my name called.

“Maynard, William?”

“Here,” I responded meekly.

Now that my name had been called, I tuned out his reading of the remainder of the list and slowly began my timid perusal of the other students in the room.  I recognized a couple of boys who had attended my old school but, so far, no one to fear or nobody who looked like they might be willing to be my friend.  Then it happened!  The door to the classroom opened and into the room stepped the cutest boy I had ever seen.

He was about 5’4” tall, had a swimmer’s build, black hair combed straight back and parted down the middle, dark brown eyes that you could just fall into, and a wonderful tan.  He stopped and looked around the room, flashing that big, heart-melting grin he had and then he strode over to the teacher’s desk.  He said something to Mr. Carruthers, who then marked something in his book, and then waited until Mr. Carruthers signaled him to take a seat.  There were a handful of seats available but he strode to the back of the room and took the seat next to mine.  I nearly fainted.

I kept looking down at my desk, taking quick glances at him out of the corner of my eye, when he looked at me and introduced himself.

“Hi.  I’m David Michaels.”

I didn’t dare look directly at him but I turned toward him, my eyes looking downward and replied, “Hi, my name’s Billy... uh, Billy Maynard.”

“Glad to meet you, Billy.  I just moved here and I was hoping that maybe you could help me find my way around.  My first class is shop, in room B-15, and I have no idea where that is.”

My heart leapt to my throat.  I have shop next in the same room.  We were going to be in the same class together.

“Hello, Billy.  Are you still with me here?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I was just thinking about my schedule and what class I had next.  I think we’re in the same shop class.”

“Great!  Then I’ll just follow you.  What do you have after that?”

I looked at my schedule really quick and said, “Math. In room 220.”

“Same here.  Hey, let me see your schedule.”

Hesitantly, I handed it to him and he examined it next to his.

“Hey, dude.  We have exactly the same schedule, so I can just hang with you all day.  That isn’t a problem, is it?”

“Uh, problem?  Uh, no, not for me.”

“Awesome.  This isn’t as bad as I feared.  First day, new school, and I meet a new friend in homeroom and he just happens to have the same schedule as me.  I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

New friend?  Did he mean me?  I mean, we hardly knew each other and he calls me his new friend.  He must mean someone else but he said we had the same schedule, so he must mean me.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle this.  I can’t let him know that I like boys or he won’t want to be my friend.  I’ve got to play this cool so he won’t know, but my heart’s pounding so hard that I’m sure he must be able to hear it.  It’s going to give me away.  God!!!  What am I going to do?  He’s so cute that I won’t even dare to look at him or I’m going to pop a stiff one.  Be cool, Billy, you can do it.  Keep your cool.  Don’t blow it now.

Suddenly, the bell rang to end homeroom and signal us to go to our first period class.

“Hey, Bud, let’s get moving.  We don’t want to be late.”

I stood up, hoping he didn’t notice the start of my erection sticking up in my pants, and I moved toward the classroom door. 

The morning classes went by quickly and David took a seat next to mine in every class.  Then he would start asking me questions, probing me about what I liked, about school, about the kids in it, and about almost anything else he could think of.  Before I knew it, it was lunchtime.

“Hey, what do you do around here for lunch, Billy?”

“Well, we could, uh, eat in the, uh, cafeteria or we could, uh, go someplace downtown, I guess.”

“What were you planning to do?”

I couldn’t tell him that I brought a sandwich and a banana in a paper bag.   That I was just going to buy a container of milk from the cafeteria and then go outside to eat it.

“I guess I was just going to go and sit outside.  I don’t usually eat lunch,”

Oh, God, what a lie.  I was starving already and I knew that if I didn’t eat lunch my stomach would be growling through all my afternoon classes.

“Why don’t you come downtown with me then?  I want to see what I have to choose from there because I hate school food.”

“Yeah, O.K.,” and I followed him out of the main lobby.

On the way, David resumed his probing into my life.

“Where do you live, Billy?”

“Out in the country, on a small farm.”  I didn’t dare say too much because some of the kids in my elementary school used to make fun of me about this.  They called me ‘hick’, ‘manure boy’, or other degrading names just because of where I lived.

“Sounds nice.  I live on Camelot Drive.  Do you know where that is?”

“Uh, yeah.”  That was the nicest street in this whole rotten town.  All the doctors, lawyers, and even the principal of my elementary school lived on Camelot Drive.  We didn’t even drive in that part of town.  Now, I really had to be careful what I told him.  His dad must have a really important job.”

“What’s your dad do, Billy?”

Oh, no.  Now what?  “Uh, my dad left when I was real little and, uh, I haven’t seen him since.”

“Wow, that’s too bad.  How about your mom?”

“Uh, she just does a lot of different things.”  How could I tell him that she was a waitress in the diner at the truck stop?  “How ‘bout your parents?”

“My dad is the new plant manager at the factory and well, my mom, well, she’s dead.  She got killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.  That’s why Dad looked for a new job so we could move from our old town.  Dad said there were just too many memories there and he could not cope with Mom’s death as long we stayed there.  We moved here a couple of weeks ago and Dad started his new job last week.

Oh, shit.  Now I’ve gone and stepped in it.  How do I get out of this one gracefully?

“I’m real sorry about your mom, I, uh, just didn’t know.”

“That’s O.K.  I guess I’ve gotten over it better than my dad.”

David didn’t say anything more for a while so I just walked silently next to him.  So, his dad’s the new plant manager at the factory.  I knew he had some important job.  I heard my grandpa say something last week about a new plant manager but I guess I really didn’t pay much attention. You see, my mom and I live with my grandparents, and Gramps works in the shipping department at the factory.

“Hey, Billy, what do you say about getting some pizza?  Looks like a good place over there.”

“Uh, I told you that I didn’t eat lunch.”  I couldn’t tell him that I only had a quarter for milk.”

“Look, I’m not going to eat in front of you.  Wait here and I’ll get us both something.”

David soon returned with a slice of pizza and a Coke for both of us.  I thanked him and downed it in no time.  You don’t know how much I needed that.

“Well, for someone who doesn’t eat lunch, you sure devoured that.”

I looked down, trying to think of something to say.  “Yeah, I guess once I, uh, took a bite, uh, I realized that, uh, it tasted pretty good.”

“Great!  I’m glad you liked it.  Come on.  We better start heading back.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

On the way back we just talked about our afternoon schedule and we made it back in plenty of time for our next class.  Our first class of the afternoon was P.E.  Our instructor was also the J.V. Football coach. He told us that we had to come prepared for class each time we had it.  That meant that we had to have a gym suit and he told us where we could buy one.  He also told us that we also needed to have a jock strap, as our bodies were now starting to mature and develop, and towels.  We were all required to shower before we went to our next class.

I don’t remember much about the rest of the day.  I was too worried about having to take showers with a bunch of other boys.  All the showers are in one big room!  God, what if I get a hard-on in the shower?  Then everyone will know that I’m gay.  Especially with David in my class and his having the locker right next to mine.  One look at him naked and my rod will probably get hard enough to cut diamonds.  God, I’ll have to figure something out.  At least I’ll have two days before the next class.

“Hey, Billy.  Do you want come over to my place after this class ends?”

It was David questioning me just before our last period class ended.

“I’d like to but I’ve got chores to do at home and I’ll have to get my mom to take me shopping for some school supplies, my gym suit, and a jock.”

“Yeah, right.  How about tomorrow after school?”

“I don’t know.  You see, uh, I have chores every day and, uh, I live out pretty far and, uh, I can’t always get a ride home.”

“Don’t you have a bike, man?”

“Uh, no.  Guess I thought I had other things to spend my money on.”

“No problem.  You can have my old bike.  Dad bought me a new bike for my last birthday and I kept my old one.  I don’t have any use for it, really.  It’s only a five speed and not as good as my new ten speed, but I guess it’s better than not having one.  So when you come over I’ll give it to you and you can ride it home.  O.K.?”

“Uh, I don’t know.  I’ll have to, uh, talk it over with my, uh, mom but it was sure nice of you to offer.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

I was really kind of shocked and a little honored that he would even think of giving me his old bike.  I mean, it may not be much to him, but it would sure make a big difference in my life.  Damn, this kid just met me and already he’s done all of these wonderful things for me.  I think I’m falling in love with David.  No, it’s not just because of the material things but he’s so sweet, so thoughtful, and so easy to talk with.  I was brought out of my thoughts by the last bell of the day.  I gathered my things and sprang for the door, trying to get out of there before I got all gushy or said something to David that might let him know my true feelings.  I figured the best thing for me to do would be to head straight for my bus.  The last thing I remembered as I walked through the door was a voice shouting to me from behind.

“See you tomorrow, Billy.”

---