Tender Footing, Chapter I

Carefully he placed the wire into place. His hand shook as soon as he was away, his other hand flipped the switch.1

“Ok smart ass, you fixed my little brother’s knex set, now can we go back to my room?” He said while pulling him so close that their noses touched. His breath became rapid.2

“Yea” he choked out as he nibbled gently on his ear. Quietly and quickly the boys stumbled into Jack’s room, closing the door behind them. Jack knocked Aiden down into his black cloth beanbag chair. Jack dropped to his knees to join him and began gently kissing the other boy on the lips. Aiden began to reach his hand under Jack’s black t-shirt and caress his back. Jack stated to grind his throbbing, hard package against Aiden’s. 3

“Watching you concentrate on that knex set out there made me horny as hell” Jack said while fumbling his tongue with Aiden’s. Aiden’s mouth slowly moved down to suck on Jack’s neck. 4

“Aiden, oh god don’t stop, we need to work on your case” Jack said obviously not wanting to stop.5

“Fuck that case Jack, we can do it later, competition isn’t for another 2 weeks” Aiden said while pulling off Jack’s t-shirt. Aiden Froze. 6

“What are those?” he asked pointing towards the 2 inch long cuts on Jack’s left shoulder.7

“Nothing” Jack said while he quickly put his shirt back on to cover them up. 8

Bullshit, Jack, let me see them” he said almost as a command. Slowly Jack pulled his sleeve up to reveal the cuts. Blood began to trickle down one of them. Aiden grabbed Jack’s sleeve and pulled it down while looking away.9

“When did you start again?” Aiden asked while rolling onto the ground to get up. Hesitantly Jack reached for an old tennis ball and began fidgeting with it.10

“Never stopped” he said quietly.11

“Jack ... ” Aiden said fighting back tears. Aiden turned around to look for something to keep him from crying. On the wall he saw the framed piece of paper that they had written and signed about 6 months ago.12

“Do you remember that?” he said pointing to the framed paper. 13

“Yea I do. I read what it says everyday. Every time I even see a sharp object I remember us sitting in the tree in the woods behind school. I remember that my dad found out I was gay that night and I had cut up both of my arms so bad that I couldn’t even wear a shirt. I remember that my dad broke three of my ribs, my collar bone, and broke a beer bottle on my head that gave me 7 stitches above my eye that night. You saw me fly down the beaten dirt path behind your house on my bike. I got to the tree that we always sat in when we skipped or we wanted to be alone. By that time I was collapsed against the tree screaming, crying, and beating on the tree.” Jack’s face was now covered with tears. Aiden had now turned around and sprawled out on his stomach crying into a teddy bear while listening to Jack painfully relive that night.14

“You found me there and began holding me, you held me until I stopped crying. We climbed up into the tree and talked and eventually wrote that out and signed it. Then I began to cry again. I cried for what seemed like hours. Finally you took me to the hospital and that night was over. So I remember Aiden, I remember it” Jack wiped his face with his sleeve in an attempt to compose himself.15

“You missed the next day at school. When you got back you told everyone your arms had been badly scraped and that the stitches were from a car accident. Everyone believed you except for those who knew you.” Aiden said while watching the tennis ball that Jack was still nervously fidgeting with.16

“You signed it too,” he said to try and break the silence, “so have you stopped?” he glanced at Aiden.17

“I did, for now anyway” he said showing Jack his wrists. Jack reached up and held Aiden’s wrists in his hands, staring at the scars upon them. The scars that told a tale of so much pain. Aiden interrupted this moment of silence.18

“Let’s get your shoulder cleaned up”. The two boys stood up and walked to Jack’s bathroom. The boys entered the room silently. It was wallpapered with an ocean scene. The floor was tiled the color of sand. Jack opened a drawer under the sink and got out a bottle of rubbing alcohol, gauze, and a roll of surgical tape. Aiden grabbed a washcloth from a pile of clean towels folded neatly in a basket on the floor. While pulling his shirt up over his head, Jack sat down on the countertop of the sink.19

“Aiden, can I ask you something?” Jack asked him timidly while watching the other boy unscrew the lid to the bottle and carefully pour some of the liquid onto the clean washcloth. 20

“Sure Jack, you know you can ask me anything” Aiden told him reassuringly. Jack winced as Aiden put the cloth on him partially from the chill of the liquid and the sting of the liquid. 21

“How exactly did you find out you were ... umm ... bisexual? Not that I’m questioning my own or anything, I’m just curious about how similar or different it is for different people” he said. Aiden stood back and thought for a moment and then said, 22

“I met you ... that sounds wrong ... I mean I met you and stated developing these feelings for you and I started waking up with rock hard boners after dreaming of kissing you. So I guess it came out right the first time.” As he finished speaking he wiped up the dried blood that trickled down towards his sternum. Aiden stared at where the blood had been. 23

“What about you?” he asked looking up at Jack’s face. Jack slowly looked down and stared at his palms. 24

“I’m not sure…I guess I just started looking at guy boys like I was supposed to look at girls. I mean the same way as girls. In a …sensual way…” Jack said while rubbing his thumb in his palm. Aiden put gauze on Jack’s shoulder and then attached the surgical tape to hold it firmly in place. Jack slid off the countertop slowly. Aiden put everything back in it’s place, while walking back through the doorway to Jack’s room he asked, 25

“Is it always this hot in your house? I don’t remember it being this hot.” Aiden peeled of his sleeveless red shirt off.26

“It’s not always this hot,” Jack said, “little bro is sick and he thought it was cold so he turned up the heater.” Aiden nodded. Jack turned on the game console of a play station 2 that he bought off of ebay about three months ago. 27

“Matrix, Legend of the Falls, or Shrek 2?” Jack asked holding them up. Aiden thought for a moment and then spoke,28

“Keanu Reeves is hot but I kind of want something to laugh at so Shrek 2” with this information Jack put Shrek 2 into the tray and closed it. Grabbing the controller he set up the movie then grabbed the remote and put his arm around Aiden’s waist and kissed his shoulder and pulled the two of them onto the bed.29