The Abstinence Pledge

Tyler looked over at Cody who shrugged his shoulders then signed the document before him. Looking down, Tyler looked at the same document Cody just signed, the same every student in William D. Carter Christian High School had placed before them on this morning two weeks prior to their social. The social was in lieu of a prom, the latter considered a bad influence with dancing that would cross a line and music the principal, James G. Lawson, considered the devil’s music. Instead of a prom, they would have the social with food brought in for a sit-down dinner, then an evening of listening to music, classical and gospel. Music to calm young minds, and to make sure that was all that happened that night.  To reinforce expectations, each student would be asked to sign the abstinence pledge.

Tyler scoffed at the notion it was voluntary, for it was made known no student would attend the social that hadn’t signed it. He twirled the pen through his fingers as he stared at the line where he was to sign his name.

“Go on, sign it and stop messing around,” whispered Cody. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

Tyler looked over at his best friend, someone he had known since fifth grade when his parents transferred him from the public school to the one ran by the First Baptist Church of Greenwillow. They had recently joined the church and after a few weeks of demonizing his school and telling his parents how unsafe it was for Christians, with its liberal teachings and refusal to have god in the school, they relented despite his begging and protesting not to be transferred.

On that first day after being uprooted from his school and friends, he arrived at the fifth-grade class to stares and silence, except for Cody, who screeched his desk across the floor to get up and rush to greet him. He was amazed by Cody who struggled with some of the most studies, but excelled at math and later on at physics, often arguing with the teacher when wrong about some principle or aspect of the subject. Someone who went through school at his own pace, unhurried and unruffled by the sermons each morning designed to scare them, make them afraid and submissive. Cody would appear to go along, then go his own way, and Tyler envied him for it. He wished he could stop worrying about what others thought or the fear of his parents getting a report he was not cooperative or accepting his instruction.

Cody had signed the document, one even Tyler knew was wrong. He considered what it meant. How Cody obviously didn’t care about any pledge and signed it to just fool the teacher and administration.

“Tyler,” said Cody in a hushed breathless whisper, one from frustration with him.

“Yeah?”

“Sign the damn thing and hand it in.”

The profanity hung in the air between them, one of many Tyler heard Cody utter, mostly off campus. In one of their rooms playing video games, riding bicycle down to the state park, or riding to the old drive-in joint on the bypass for a burger, Cody had no problem uttering the worst profanities, at times catching Tyler off guard, making him laugh. But he rarely heard Cody use them at school, and never in a classroom until now. He stopped twirling the pen and signed it, wondering if Ava had signed her pledge already. Ava was his girlfriend, had been for almost two months, and the person he would take the school’s social.

 

Ava sat between Tyler and Cody, telling them about Rachel getting caught drinking last weekend and Ryan telling everyone he was going to the Christian college in Tennessee for his mama wanted him to be a preacher.

“Seriously? Does he do anything without his mother’s approval,” said Cody.

Ava laughed.

“Probably not,” said Tyler looking across the lunchroom at Ryan sitting with the group that were the most serious, the ones that led prayers and Bible study groups and ratted out anyone who wasn’t adhering to school policies. Tyler avoided them, feeling an unease every time he was near them.

“Tyler, have you rented a tux?” said Ava.

“A tux? What for?”  Tyler replied, and he saw Cody shaking his head in warning.

“Tyler, you can’t wear any ole suit to the social. You’ve seen my dress. You must dress up.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll get mom to go with me this weekend.”

“No, you need to go after school, or the best ones will be rented, if they haven’t already.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Cody. “Mom is pushing me to rent one.”

“Why didn’t you ask Dianne out?” said Ava, turning to Cody.

“I wasn’t feeling it, besides I think Jesus asked her out,” said Cody.

“Cody, I wish you would stop calling Franklin that.”

“Why, everyone knows he thinks he is the second coming of Jesus. Look at him,” said Cody nodding toward the door from the corridor. Franklin had come into the cafeteria and as usual was carrying a Bible with his other books.

“Yeah, he is a bit intense,” said Ava, stifling the urge to smile at her agreeing with Cody once again.

“A bit?” Tyler adds and the three of them laugh until drawing attention to themselves.

 

Tyler eases through traffic, a mix of afternoon rush hour traffic and those heading out for shopping or an early dinner. Cody is in the passenger seat fiddling with the radio until he has it on the college station out of Columbia.

“They play the devil’s music,” said Tyler jokingly.

“I KNOW,” Cody replies, dragging out his words with mock glee.

Tyler rowed through the gears, up and down, depending on the traffic. His car is five years old, yellow in color, and the Si model in the coupe body style, one no longer available. He loved his car despite it not being the sports car the Type R was.

Cody drove an old Jeep, an old CJ model that had a bikini top, no doors, and was miserable in the cold and rain. It took some convincing to get Cody to let him drive, for the day was perfect, but there would be no place to stash rented tuxes and they were going for dinner afterward.

“Hey, why didn’t you ask Dianne out?” said Tyler. It had nagged at him how Cody had never made an attempt to ask any of the girls out, not even to go for a burger or out to watch a movie.

“She’s not my type,” said Cody. Then came the laugh, one used to diffuse any situation or distract away from the topic at hand.

“Come on, she’s not a bad person, and she is attractive.”

“Yes, she is attractive, but…”

Cody trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, just hanging in the air between them.

“But what?”

“Nothing. Are you really going to look for a light blue tux?”

“Ava’s dress is white with this blue thing happening on the collar and around the waist and she wants me to match that trim.”

“It’ll be lovely,” said Cody, and Tyler could hear the sarcasm.

“What are you going to rent? A hot pink one?”

“Maybe.”

Tyler looked over and saw the grin showing Cody was joking.

“Seriously, I’m going traditional. Black with a white shirt. None of that prom color shit.”

A profanity, one Tyler had used a few times, but nothing like Cody.

“Where is this place again?” said Tyler. He had asked twice since getting on the bypass.

“It’s in that shopping center where you turn to go to the technical college.”

“Oh yeah, I remember now,” said Tyler, shifting down and accelerating past a slow van loaded with ladders on its roof.

 

The Oak Barrell Tavern was busy but crowded. There was no wait for a table and Tyler and Cody quickly found themselves seated, with food and drinks before them.  They ate in silence at first, making their way through half their meal before Tyler finally broke the silence.

“I wish Ava would let me rent a black tux.”

Cody looked up and smiled, then finished chewing the food in his mouth.

“That light blue looks dumb.”

“But you’ll look nice next to Ava, don’t you think?”

“Do you think so?”

Tyler really wanted to know what Cody thought. He was his best friend and the person he relied on the most, way more than Ava. He looked across the table at the boyish face, no sign of a beard even trying to come in, and the grey eyes that at times looked green, others a blue cast to them. Cody was attractive, all the girls thought so. In fact, many of them had tried to get Tyler to set them up with Cody.

Tyler never did it.

He listened to Cody talk about how aggravated he felt with the school’s prude policies. The lack of a real prom, despite not asking a girl out to their social. He wondered what kind of person it would take to capture Cody’s eye. What traits a girl had to have. Would it be a physical characteristic or something more to do with their personality. He considered Cody as a young man, picturing him in the showers back in P.E., or coming into his room after a shower, a towel around his narrow waist and one in hand toweling his black hair dry. Cody was attractive, even he could admit that. In ways that made him nervous, for there were times he went too far, imagining them being playful with each other. Touching inappropriately, then maybe even kissing. Kissing the thin lips that curved into the cutest smile or mischievous grin.

“Hey Tyler, what are you thinking about?” said Cody, waving a hand in Tyler’s face.

“Huh…oh, nothing. Nothing. What was you saying?”

“I was thinking about going camping the weekend of the social. You want to go?”

Cody grinned, one Tyler recognized as wanting to be serious, but wasn’t meant to be. He shook his head.

“You want Ava to kill us both? And why are you thinking about camping. The social will be fun with or without a date.”

“Says you.”

“There will be four weeks until final exams and graduation after the social. Why don’t we go camping, the weekend after the social. There are places nearby we can car camp.”

“Serious? You’ll go camping with me after the social?”

“Yes. We’ve not been camping since that trip to Linville Gorge. Where do you think we should go?”

“There are two campgrounds just across the Savannah River in Georgia. I think either one would work.”

“You still got that big tent?”

“Yep.”

Tyler looked at the smile, trying not to read too much into it, but it seemed like Cody expected him to say no. He looked into the eyes and like a few times of late, read a sadness in them that didn’t match the smile. He was being foolish, for no one was more cheerful and easy going than Cody. It was always Cody cheering him up not the other way around.

 

Tyler pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store and killed the engine. He sat in silence not sure how he should be reacting. It was nearly midnight and he had left the social half an hour before. Alone.

Ava and he had been heading toward the exit of the gym that served as the auditorium too, when the tension of the night exploded. He knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but he had hoped it wouldn’t during the social with so many around. For the last week he had tried to steer clear of their future together. When they would marry. When he would get a job, something close by so she could be close to her family. When he would give her a family, two, maybe three kids.

In the beginning, he had considered all those things, except living nearby, close to Ava’s mother, who manipulated Ava all the time. But over the last week, with graduation fast approaching, he felt unmoored, directionless. He didn’t want to settle down and have a family, especially not in his hometown. What job could he get here that would give him a decent living. He thought of his cousins that were working in town, at a mechanic’s shop or at the university doing grounds upkeep or working in one of the hotels with a night shift, and he wanted to go to college and get a degree. He didn’t feel like he was trying to be better than everyone else, just seeking to do something he loved.

He had himself all geared up for college at Clemson majoring in construction management. He was all set for the fall, something he had discussed with Ava numerous times, and each time she pushed back, tried to get him to change and go to the local community college and get some technical degree. She wanted him to stay in town and he knew it was because she feared if he left, they would break up.

He laughed, not from humor but the irony it was this fear of him leaving that was the final straw. He left her at the social, in tears and sitting with her friends. As he walked out, he saw Cody watching him with a concerned look.

Sitting in the dark, he looked at the traffic passing by, then across the empty parking lot where a stray cat was running toward the building. His mind was a jumble, unable to focus on any one thought. There was Ava, crying and angry telling him to just go. There were all the others watching, whispering amongst themselves. Then there was Cody, and he had wanted to go to him, ask him to leave with him, but he was too embarrassed after the fight with Ava. Instead, he walked out alone.

Lights cut across his car, and he looked in the mirror to see familiar headlights swinging around. The round headlights of an old Jeep. They shut off, then Cody was strolling toward his car. Looking straight ahead, he waited, not sure how to make sense of his pleasure at seeing him.

What was going on with him. Did he like Cody more than Ava, and in what way. He considered the mantra of ‘just friends’ and how it didn’t seem enough when describing his relationship with Cody. But what was greater than friendship, and it made him feel breathless. It made his heart pound in his chest until he thought it would burst out. It was a sin to think of such things, but he knew that was bullshit like so much the school taught. How could it be a sin to love someone, even if they were the same sex or a different race. The characters in the Biblical stories were not white Europeans with fair skin and honey blonde hair, but that is what the school made one think of in how they framed them, how they painted the image of good people, separating them from those considered the bad people.

A rap at the window and Tyler lowered the window.

“Hey, are you okay?” said Cody.

“Yes.”

“It’s getting late; you should get home before your mother starts freaking out.”

“Yeah…you’re right.”

“Tyler. Everything will be okay. There will be a summer of freedom then starting college in the fall and this will be a distant memory.”

“She actually wanted me to switch to the local community college.”

“I heard her. She shouldn’t have asked that of you. It was wrong.”

“You’ll be there this fall, right? You’re not backing out.”

“Hell no. Tyler, how can you ask that? I’ll be there with you.”

“Maybe we can get a dorm room together.”

“I’d like that. I can ask Aunt Ruth about it.”

“She still working in admissions?”

“Yes.”

Tyler wanted to change the subject. He wanted to ask Cody why he felt the way he did and if Cody ever felt that way.

“I should get home,” said Tyler.

“Call me tomorrow.”

Tyler looked in the rear-view mirror on the door watching Cody walk back to his Jeep. He heard the old Jeep crank, squinted his eyes when the headlights shined into his car, then rotated away as Cody steered around heading for the street. He started his car, put it in gear, and eased around following Cody out of the parking lot. 

 

Cody drove across the bridge spanning the Savannah River, the large tires making a roar over the concrete surface and a thump over each expansion joint. Tyler sat in the passenger seat looking over the concrete guard wall at the river below. The river was wide, nestled in the low wooded terrain with a nearly cloudless sky above. He looked at the natural beauty of it and exhaled slowly, feeling himself relax. It’d been nearly a week since the social and his breakup with Ava and he still felt hurt, like it wasn’t something that should happen to him. But during the nights, lying in bed staring up into darkness, he eventually admitted to himself it was for the best. He liked Ava, maybe even loved her in some way, but he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life with her, especially the marriage part with its ‘until death do us part.’

Cutting his eyes, he looked over at Cody. The face half in shadow from one of the kayaks strapped overhead. The black hair curling out around a ballcap, Cody wearing it backward to keep the wind from flipping it off his head. Then there was the face. Boyishly young, with clear skin and barely any beard, trying to grow in. Tyler let his eyes once again scan down the bare arm, revealed by the sleeveless T-shirt that fluttered against the lean torso. An arm with definition, more than his own, one that would flex muscularly when under a strain, none more so than when they wrestled around. He thought of the physical body, one slightly taller than his own, five foot nine. All the times he had seen Cody shirtless or with a towel wrapped around his waist, seeing the lean torso, the nickel size nipples, and the thin trail of black hair from the navel down to the crotch. It had been years since he had seen Cody naked, back when they daringly skinny dipped one night in the pool at a friend’s house. They had been young boys without a care in the world. It had meant nothing, but were it to happen now, Tyler wasn’t so sure it would be the same. It would mean something to see Cody naked this time. To see him on full display, nothing hidden from view, torso, arms, legs, and cock.  He shifted uncomfortably in the seat and looked out at the passing landscape.

“What is it?” said Cody.

“Huh?”

“What are you thinking? You have such a serious look on your face.”

“I…I was…nothing. It’s nothing.”

“If you say so,” said Cody.

Cody slowed, and Tyler could see their turn to the left, the first road after the bridge. Cody made the slow turn, then shifted through the gears until back to speed, as Cody steered to keep the Jeep in their lane.

“Do you think things will be different in college?” said Tyler.

“Are you kidding? After enduring our religious school and all its indoctrination, everything will be different.”

Everything will be different. Yes, it will, Tyler thought as he leaned back and held his hand out past the side of the Jeep feeling the wind blow against it.

“We’ll meet new people, go on proper dates, and…fuck, enjoy life,” said Cody.

“Proper dates?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I’m not sure that I do.”

“It’s just…the school had us under such control we…I don’t know. Couldn’t really go out with someone without feeling like everyone was watching.”

“Yeah, it was a bit intense, but did you ever try?”

Cody looked over with a grimace, then back at the road as he slowed for a hard curve, then accelerated back up to speed. After a mile, they passed the bait shop.

“Tyler, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to date, but…more like, I couldn’t…no, I mean, there wasn’t the right person, someone I felt really drawn to that was available.”

“What kind of girl was you looking for?”

“---”

Tyler looked at the passing scenery, almost afraid to look at Cody. He knew what he asked, and it was becoming clear to him Cody never mentioned girls. Didn’t refer to them while they talked about dating. He thought of all the times Cody had the opportunity to flirt with a girl, all the times they flirted with him, and how he never once responded to one. He considered what it meant and felt a rush of fear. Of the possibilities that lie ahead of them over the weekend. Sharing a tent, kayaking in the river, and just hanging out on their tent site. Just the two of them.

What if Cody was willing? Could he be reciprocating?

“The park is not far now,” said Cody as they passed a few houses.

 

Tyler looked at the tent meant for four and all he could think was how small it was going to be for the two of them. How close they would be inside it. He looked down the slope over the other sites all the way to the river. He was pleased they had a site at the edge of the camping area, one pushed back off the drive nestled into the trees. It afforded them a bit of privacy. No matter what happened, or didn’t happen, that little separation, some breathing room from the others seemed important. He dared not think about what it could mean. He couldn’t bring himself to form such an image, nothing that went too far. Not beyond a touch or a, dare he even think it, a kiss.

He wanted to kiss Cody.

The admission came to him so clearly, he suddenly pictured it.

“Hey, the bathhouse isn’t bad,” said Cody coming down the drive. “You want to paddle a little before lunch?”

“Sure.”

 

Tyler slipped into the tent to change into swimming trunks and was surprised Cody followed him into the tent. It was too low to stand upright, so he dropped down on his sleeping bag seeing Cody sit next to him on his own sleeping bag.

“The water looks perfect,” said Cody as he slipped off his T-shirt.

Tyler unbuttoned his shirt, slowly, one button after the next as he glanced over at the upper body. When Cody raised his ass to slip cargo shorts off, he turned his eyes down to his fingers unbuttoning the last two. Cody’s movements were in his periphery, a blur of flesh and bright yellow, and he glanced over at the naked body, flaccid cock flopping around as Cody worked to get yellow swim trunks pulled up his thighs and into place. A small fan of pubic hair that was thick and black, framed the top of the flaccid cock. A cock about three inches long with a flared head and a loose sac behind it. He took it in as he tugged arms out of his shirt and tossed it to the side.

“Come on, Tyler, hurry up and get changed.”

Tyler looked over, a response to Cody, an excuse to look again, and he saw the swim trunks pulled into place concealing the cock. Then he saw the grey eyes looking back.

“Where did you get those bright yellow trunks?”

“Online. You like them?”

“They look good against…your…skin.”

“Thanks. Now hurry up and get changed.”

Cody didn’t get up to leave but sat next to Tyler watching him tug his legs free of cargo shorts, then raise his ass again to slip boxers down. It was almost obscene how his hips were pushed up revealing his own cock as he got the boxers below his ass and down the thighs. He felt his arousal, how his cock was filled out some, no longer at its most flaccid state. It flopped around then lay heavy over his sac as he worked his own swim trunks on. They were black with shorter legs than most, and against his tanned skin tone he thought they looked good. He wondered if Cody would think so.

“Okay, I’m ready,” said Tyler as he leaned back to tie the drawstring.

“Let’s go.”

 

Tyler was following Cody back to the dock. They had paddled to the end of the peninsula then across the river working their way up one cove to the next until their arms were weary and it was nearly one o’clock. They were paddling down river along the shoreline circling around the pier heading toward the shore closest to where they put in. He was so hungry he felt weak and knew as soon as they got back to their site, they would make sandwiches. It would be quick and simple, and right now that was the most important thing. The hamburger in the cooler was for dinner that evening when they could relax and take their time grilling them.

Cody turned toward the shore, and Tyler followed. They were less than fifteen from the shore when Cody just rolled out of his kayak and into the water. It shocked Tyler and he paddled faster to get to him only to see Cody stand up, the water less than three feet in depth.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Cody pushing his hair back out of his eyes.

Tyler saw how the yellow trunks were nearly transparent and the position of the cock was plainly visible. He stared for a second then quickly looked up, seeing Cody staring back.

“Let’s get on shore, the kayaks loaded up, and go make those sandwiches,” said Cody.

“Yes, I’m starving.”

 

Back at the site, Tyler made the ham sandwiches while Cody dried off, then pulled drinks from the cooler and opened a bag of chips. He sat at the picnic table setting a sandwich for each of them on a paper plate, and when he started to push one to the other side for Cody, he was surprised Cody sat next to him. He didn’t shift over, letting Cody sit closer than normal, finding something about it pleasing. He looked down at his plate while dropping chips on it, then cut his eyes over to look at the damp trunks to see if the cock was still visible, disappointed that in the sitting position they were too loose.  But he let his eyes scan upward, over the flat stomach, then to the arm, and when Cody reached for the chips, he saw the dark hair in the armpit.

It was crazy, insane, how much Tyler wanted to touch Cody. He wanted to feel the smooth skin, to run his fingers through the black hair, to rub the chest, the stomach, and-

“Tyler, do you remember Henry?”

“Huh…Henry? Henry Matthews?”

“Yes.”

“He was a year ahead of us and was going to the Bible college. I remember how his family would tell anyone who would listen Henry was going to be a preacher.”

“But he had fooled his parents, applying at Vanderbilt for a scholarship and getting it.”

“I remember hearing about that. I bet his parents were furious.”

“Did you know he left right after graduation, starting in the summer?”

“That I didn’t know. Why?”

Cody took a bite of his sandwich and chewed unhurriedly, until he had it swallowed. He took a drink, then finally turned to Tyler.

“He came out as gay and evidently knew how his parents would respond and took off right after telling them.”

“No shit. I didn’t know that.”

“Rebecca told me last week after finding out from Henry’s sister, the one two years behind us.”

“I bet he hasn’t been back since.”

“Probably not,” said Cody.

Tyler wanted to ask Cody what he thought about it. If he had a problem with Henry being gay, if he considered it a sin like the school kept telling them every chance it got.

“Do you think it is wrong?” said Tyler.

Without turning to face him, Cody answered, “no,” then took a bite of his sandwich.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Biology, science…”

“And?”

“Do you think a guy would choose to be gay?”

The question was hard, Cody rounding on Tyler as he asked it.

“No, and I don’t think it is wrong.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“I don’t know what I think.”

Cody smirked then finished his sandwich. Tyler sipped at his drink while staring out into the woods wondering how far he could push the questions. Could he get Cody to admit to thinking of it. Or could he get him to say he would do it if given a chance. And would Cody try it with him if he were willing. Was he willing? That was the question he kept coming back to, over and over again.

Would he have sex with a guy? Would he have sex with Cody? The answer to the former was he didn’t know, but the latter…yes. Yes, he would have sex with Cody.

“Tyler let’s go for a hike,” said Cody, standing up and climbing over the bench. “You coming?”

“Yes, yes, let me just put the cooler away and get my shoes on and put on a shirt.”

“It’s too damn hot for a shirt. Just slip on your shoes and meet me at the suspension bridge. We’ll start there.”

“Okay,” said Tyler as he watched Cody walk out to the drive. He watched how the ass moved in the swim trunks, how the shoulder blades moved with Cody’s swinging of the arms and he looked at the bare upper torso, long and lean and…

“Fuck,” Tyler uttered under his breath as he carried the cooler to the tent, setting it beside it. He slipped on his shoes, picked up a T-shirt, thought better of it, and tossed it down. He checked the tent and took off to catch up with Cody.

 

Stepping out into the drive, the sun hit his shoulders, and Tyler felt the heat of it, how it quickly warmed his skin. He moved from sun to shade as he walked down the drive until coming up on the suspension bridge. It spanned a small cove, sixty feet or so to the other side and leaning on the railing about ten feet out was Cody, staring out toward the river.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Tyler as he came up to him.

Cody fell in beside him and they moved across the bridge feeling the slight bounce with every step. On the other side, they followed the trail that led to the end of the peninsula, around a site that once had a small fort for the colonists, Cody making note of it, repeating what he had read on a historical marker. On the south tip of the peninsula, Cody slowed, and Tyler did the same until they were at a slow stroll. Unhurried. All the time in the world.

But to Tyler, it didn’t like it. He felt rushed. Anxious. He wanted something to happen.

They brushed their arms against each other, pulled away, then less than fifty feet, did it again. They didn’t say anything, just continued walking close, arms and hands brushing against each other, until Cody slipped his fingers through Tyler’s holding his hand.

“Is this, okay?” said Cody in a hushed low whisper.

Tyler nodded, then looked away to smile.

When the trail looped back to the main road through the park, they separated, walked a couple of feet apart. They followed the road until past a group of houses for Park Rangers, taking the next hiking trail that led away from the campground. It wound through the trees until just above the water, then followed the shoreline heading up the peninsula.

No one was around. They hadn’t passed anyone since crossing the suspension bridge. The trail led them to a small cove, one narrow and heavily wooded. Cody took Tyler by the hand and pulled him off the trial. Up the grade away from the water and into an isolated area within the trees and undergrowth.

Tyler felt his heart racing in his chest, exhilarated at the possibility, and terrified by it. Suddenly he was pulled and turned, pushed backward, until against a tree. Cody was right in front of him, so close he could see the smooth skin of the face and the sparse beard trying to come in along the chin and upper lip and the grey eyes that had a bit of green in their reflection, and the lips, sensual in their slight curvature. Lips that moved closer and closer until he closed his eyes and felt them touch his own. Then Cody was against his chest, bare skin against bare skin, and he wondered if Cody could feel his beating heart. Tongue pushed at his lips, and he parted them to accept it. Cody pushed against him, then moved to the side slipping a leg between his own. The knee came up, until it was tight to his crotch. He gasped for breath as it pressed against him. His cock stirred and he grew bold, putting his hands of Cody’s waist and moving them up and down and around to the back, feeling the smooth warm skin.

It was happening so fast that nothing registered. Nothing mattered, but Cody’s caresses and touches and kisses. Tyler leaned against the tree and held his face up toward the sky with his eyes still closed as the kisses moved down his chest, his stomach, then his waist right along the edge of his swimming trunks. Fingers touched his waist and the trunks slid downward until Tyler could feel his cock free of its confinement and he looked down in time to see the mouth that had kissed him now take his cock. Inch after inch slid through the lips until over half was in the slick heat of the mouth. He dug his fingers into the bark of the tree as Cody moved on his cock.

Cody slipped his hands around Tyler’s hips and cupped each ass cheek pulling him away from the tree. They squeezed and pulled Tyler forward until he was moving his hips slowly, instinctually, the push and pull that worked his cock through the lips kept tight around it. One hand moved until fingers slipped between his ass cheeks, working down until touching his tight opening. A finger moved over it, rubbed up and down over it making Tyler work his hips faster and faster. Breathing hard and rock hard, Tyler kept working his cock through the lips feeling his growing need for release.

The finger penetrated Tyler and he pushed back on it, then shoved forward and came. Shuddering and jerking with every ejaculation, he pumped wad after wad into the suctioning mouth until spent and collapsed against the tree. His trunks were around his ankles and his cock was still hard, dripping, showing his arousal and he watched Cody stand up stroking a very hard cock.

“Will you do me?”

Tyler looked at Cody with his wet lips and pleading eyes. He leaned forward and kissed him until he could taste his own cum. Then he spun Cody around up against the tree. He kissed him again as he pushed the swim trunks further down the thigh until they fell around the ankles. He stooped before Cody, kissing the chest, stomach, and hard cock. He dragged his tongue over the head as he replayed a teacher’s insult of gays in his mind. They touch a filthy penis with their mouths.  Yes, with our mouths, he thought as he slipped his lips over the head and pushed forward.

Tyler moved on the cock as Cody had done to his cock. Lips kept tight around it, he worked them along the hard cock.  After a short time, the cock flexed, bumped the roof of his mouth, then a wad of cum hit the back of his throat. He swallowed, and swallowed again, as each eruption filled his mouth with more cum.

 

They stood only a couple of feet apart while tying the drawstrings of their swim trunks after getting them in place. Tyler thought of the pledge, one promising abstinence until marriage, and he chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” said Cody.

“That pledge we signed in school.”

“Oh, that thing,” Cody replied, laughing too.

“Come on, it’s getting late. We have a grill to fire up.”

 

The grill had burned down, barely giving off any heat or smoke but the smell of cooked hamburger hung in the air. There were sounds of kids playing somewhere below them and a boat moving upriver, and above it all, a clear star filled sky. Tyler sat next to Cody on the bench facing the river below so they could look down through the dark tree canopy to its reflective surface.

“You want to turn in?” said Cody.

Tyler knew what Cody really meant. It was early, only a little after nine, but it wasn’t about getting into the tent to sleep. It was about another violation of the pledge. He wondered if he could go that far. It seemed such a big deal, for the way everyone made such a fuss about it. To fuck someone, especially one guy doing another, was to fornicate. To sin. Or so said the school, the church, and every adult who made comment.

“Do you think it is wrong?” said Tyler.

“Do you?” Cody sounded defiant.

“I did, but…it doesn’t make sense to make every pleasure a sin. How much pleasure can a person experience in this life, and to, to…demonize it.”

“It’s about control. And kicking down.”

“Kicking down?”

“Get the faithful riled up with someone below them, and that way they don’t pay attention to those that cause real harm.”

“Oh.”

They sat silently, Tyler thinking about what Cody had said. Then he leaned forward, arms resting on each leg as he turned to look up at the dark silhouette.

“Cody?”

“Yes, Tyler.”

“Are you gay?”

“Yes.”

Tyler was surprised at how quickly Cody replied. He looked out over the river. “Do you like me?”

“Yes. I have for a long time.”

“But you never said anything.”

“I thought you were straight.”

“And now?”

“I think you’re somewhere in the middle…bisexual. What I’m not sure about is whether, or not you could like me enough to…”

The unfinished sentence hung in the darkness. An unspoken thing Tyler wanted to reply to but struggled to form the words.

“Let’s turn in,” said Tyler.

“Really?”

“Come on.”

 

A security light prevented the night from being totally dark, but in the tent, it was dark shadow and silhouette. Tyler and Cody were on their knees, naked, stroking each other while kissing. They moaned and whispered soft pleadings and touched each other. Fingers ran up flat stomachs, over chests until rubbing a hard nub of a nipple, then raking up a neck. Cody turned and went down on hands and knees.

“Go slow, okay?”

“Okay,” said Tyler as he moved to the ass. He felt each cheek, then slipped his fingers down between them. He wanted to touch Cody, to feel the tightness, then loosen it. He rubbed along the ass until rubbing over the tight opening. He rubbed it until Cody pushed back against his finger, then he pushed through the tightness. One finger, then two, Tyler worked Cody’s hole until it loosened around them.

“Tyler…put it in me.”

Tyler pushed his hard cock down and between the cheeks until pressed against Cody’s ass. He held tight to it as Cody pushed back, taking the head of his cock, then inch after inch until half his cock was buried inside him.

“Fuck,” said Cody in a breathless exhale.

Tyler held the narrow waist and tugged outward, slowly, painfully slow until the head of his cock nearly slipped free. He pushed inward, just as slow, working into Cody’s depths until a little more of his cock was inside him. He kept it up, building up his pace as he sunk deeper and deeper until pushing against the firm ass.

“Yeah…Tyler…fuck me. Fuck me.”

An uttered command, breathless, frantic; a pleading urgency. Tyler heard it, sensed it, the way Cody pushed back on his cock. He tightened his hold on the waist and increased the pace of his fuck. Faster and faster, until his cock slid through the opening easily. He fucked until his hips smacked against the firm ass making it a struggle to control himself, afraid someone would hear.

With sweat pouring down his face and torso, Tyler finally slowed, pushed and tugged his cock through Cody’s opening so slow he could feel every inch slide through it.

“Tyler, let me change positions,” said Cody.

Tyler stood on knees as the dark silhouette moved in front of him, flipping over and laying down on his back. The legs were held up and Tyler instinctually took each one and spread them wide apart as he shifted forward until his cock was touching the turned-up ass. A hand took it, guiding it to the loosened opening and Tyler shifted forward again, sinking halfway into Cody.

“Fuck,” Cody exclaimed.

Tyler felt the legs shiver with his penetration. He held still savoring the feel of his cock inside Cody. Then fingers touched his thigh, rubbed the skin then grabbed at the flesh, and Tyler began to fuck, to drive all the way inside Cody. He built up his pace until hammering the ass, then he slid his hands down the legs until holding each behind the knee. He pushed forward and down, pressing the thighs against the chest and he held himself over the folded body and resumed their fuck.

Long strokes, cock pushed all the way inside Cody, then tugging upward until nearly slipping free, Tyler fucked him until he could hold back no longer. He slammed his cock into Cody’s depths, hips pressed down on the upturned ass, and he kept jamming his hips against it until he exploded with his release. He shuddered with every ejaculation as he pumped wad after wad into Cody’s depths. When he was finally spent, he pushed inward all the way, holding still while catching his breath.

 

Slipped free of the wet ass, Tyler eased down next to Cody, shifting down until by the waist. He expected Cody to be rock hard, aroused to the point of near release, and he leaned over the waist as he reached for what he knew would be a hard cock. But it was flaccid, and slimy with cum.

“I came while you were fucking me,” whispered Cody.

Tyler ran a finger over the smooth stomach feeling the pools of cum, then he leaned over and dragged his tongue through each one, then took the flaccid cock into his mouth sucking it clean.

“Jesus. Stop. Stop,” exclaimed Cody, pushing Tyler’s head off his cock.

 

Tyler lay on top of his sleeping bag thinking about what had happened. How simply he had responded to Cody. To engage in sex that not only the school and church demonized, but how easily he had done it despite everything. It didn’t make sense that the school and church should care who he had sex with, or who he liked, the other L-word too scary to consider. But it floated out there, right at the periphery of what he would admit to himself, even if admitting it to Cody was impossible. He looked over at the silhouette wondering if Cody was asleep. He wanted to talk about it. The sex, the way they easily violated that abstinence pledge. And he wanted to know how Cody felt about him. Was it just the two of them were willing and available to each other or was there more to it. Was there an emotional element. He rolled to his side looking at the outline of Cody laying next to him, hoping it were so.

“You asleep?” said Tyler in a low whisper.

“No.”

“Are you okay? You don’t – “

“Yes, and I don’t regret it.”

Cody rolled to his side facing Tyler. A hand reached out and Tyler felt it touch his stomach. Just the fingertips, softly, slowly, making circular motions.

“You’re not thinking about that stupid pledge, are you?” said Cody.

“No.”

“Good.”

The hand moved down along the lower stomach until tracing the skin just above the boxers. Tyler shivered with the touch and his cock began to stir.

“You won’t stop me, will you?” said Cody.

“No. I won’t you to touch me.” I want you to make me aroused. To manipulate me until rock hard. I want you to initiate sex again. I want you to show me how you feel. To tell me you like me, maybe even love me.

“You can touch me…if you want to,” said Cody as his fingers moved over the front of Tyler’s boxers.

Tyler’s cock stirred and he gasped when the fingers slipped through the fly and touched his cock. Bare skin against bare skin, Cody touched him again, and his cock responded quickly to the manipulation. He reached out until touching bare skin. Warm, smooth, firm to the touch, and he moved his fingers over it with small circular motions. A hand grabbed him by the wrist and pushed his hand down until he was touching bare cock. Cody had his boxers pushed down.

“Cody?”

“Yes.”

“I want to try.”

Tyler wondered if he would have to be more specific. Would Cody know what he meant, even though he hadn’t the courage to ask. Cody tugged on his boxers, trying to get them down.

“Tyler, take them off.”

Tyler sat up and worked his boxers down kicking them off his feet as Cody did the same. Once again, they were naked. Cody touched him, ran a hand down his chest over his stomach until stroking his cock. He lay back and focused on the hand, how it moved on his cock. Up and down the shaft until he was pushing up through the hand.

Suddenly Cody was on top of him, grinding cock against cock, then pumping it down below his sac along the perineum. Up and down, the cock rubbed from nuts down to his ass until he is clutching at the sleeping bag and pushing up with his hips.

“You’ll let me fuck you?”

Cody’s voice was next to his ear. So close, he felt an exhale of hot air.

“Yes.”

Cody shifted down his body, hooked arms under each leg at the knees, then moved upward, bringing each leg up and over. He felt the way Cody maneuvered him, legs straight up, ass upturned and being rubbed by Cody’s cock.

Then the cock pressed against his opening. Pressed harder, pushed against his tightness until he stretched open. He threw his head back and moaned as Cody penetrated him. His first time. A man’s cock boring into his insides, and he shivered and shuddered with the feel of it.

Cody was a man. Eighteen might seem young to their parents and teachers but to him, it wasn’t so young, not anymore. Not as Cody pushed every inch into him until hips were pressed against his ass.

“You have all of me.”

“I know....” Tyler uttered, then he wrapped an arm around Cody’s neck and pulled him down until their lips were pressed together. As they kissed, Cody moved inside him. A tug outward and a push inward, over and over, until Cody had to rise up on hands and fuck with a frenzied pace. As Cody hammered his ass, he took his cock in hand and stroked as fast as he could. As Cody pummeled his depths, he grew more aroused until his cock drooled its slick and he smeared it along the shaft and over the head.

“I’m going to cum,” Tyler uttered breathlessly.

“Me too,” Cody exclaimed.

Cody slammed into Tyler’s depth, then hammered hips against the upturned ass as he came. Tyler shuddered and jerked, taking Cody’s load as he pumped his own over his chest and stomach.

 

Tyler relaxed in the seat of the Jeep as it bounced and rocked on its suspension while Code drove back over the Savannah River. The sun was high overhead, and he could feel its warmth on his arms and legs. He looked at the river, then the terrain roadside as they headed north, back home, wondering how things would be different. And things would be different; very different.

During breakfast at the picnic table, they talked about how they had to keep it secret. From their parents and everyone at their school. Not until they got to college would they be able to relax about their situation. Tyler smiled when he remembered what came next in their conversation.

Do you really like me?

Of course. I have for a long time. Do you like me?

Yes, more than I can describe.

Tyler felt like something had fallen in place, some void filled he hadn’t realized even existed. He looked over at Cody seeing the half-unbuttoned shirt billowing in the swirling wind, a cap pulled low over the eyes, and the grinning face that glanced back at him.

“I can’t wait until this fall,” said Cody.

“I just dread now until graduation.”

“Just act as before and let’s get through our classes.”

“So, we shouldn’t say anything about violating that pledge?”

 

Buddy pulled up to the stop sign in his old truck, the hounds in back barking at something on the side of road. He looked both ways, seeing traffic coming from both directions. To his right a truck pulling a trailer and to his left an old Jeep, no top but two kayaks tied down and the doors off. He watched the Jeep approach thinking about the one he had as a teenager, regretting ever selling it. There were two young guys in it, and he could see them talking to each other. As they passed, he saw them laughing hysterically. It made him smile, thinking they must be talking about girls.