Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:10:00 -0500 From: Joey Weaver <69.avid.reader@gmail.com> Subject: Limitless - Chapter 1 Limitless Wrote by: Joseph Weaver Edited by: Lisa Tepper Hello, My name is Joseph Weaver but you can call me Joey. I've been a writer on Nifty for only a couple of months, with only one story on the Gay Male High School Section called "Joey's Tale". I was determined to write another chapter for that story but last week I had an intense dream. It was so vivid that kept thinking about it for days, so I decided to write it down to get it out of my system. That is how Limitless started, anyway I hope you enjoy it and that you send your comments or constructive criticism to 69.avid.reader@gmail.com. Enjoy and comment! Love, Joey ------- Limitless Chapter 1 "Five, six, seven, eight and turn." I ordered the group. "Use your hips more Cynthia, Matt remember it's step, step then twist, not the other way around." Finally the song came to an end. "Ok guys, great class! You're doing awesome, felicidades!" I said to the beaming faces of my Salsa students. They each said their goodbyes as they left the room still discussing this new routine. I liked this group, I had worked with them last semester and all of them came back with a really great attitude for another six months of classes. When I first entered Enrique's studio as a dance instructor, he asked me if I spoke any other language besides Spanish. I told him I was fluent in English and knew some French. He was ecstatic that finally one of the teachers there could communicate with the gringos. He gave me four groups, most of the people in them American and several European tourists that were taken by the beauty of Cancun's beaches and stayed here for a year, give or take a few months. I empathized with them; I was also seduced by the beautiful, turquoise colored ocean and white sanded beach. I wasn't born here but I've always considered it my hometown. I came here from the northern part of Mexico five years ago and have been giving dance lessons at Enrique's since then. That day, I had two new groups of semi-resident gringos. I sighed at the thought. As much fun as it was to give dance lessons, I hated to have to start over every year with a different group of people. I remember the first time my initial group left back to their hometowns across the world. I cried the last class and hugged each one of them as they promised to return and visit; some of them did, most did not. By then I knew better than to grow attached to my students, I still cared for them but was very careful not to build any sort of expectations that they might stay here for more than a year. It was the eternal curse of touristic hot spots: its residents change every year or so. I went into my little office and grabbed a cup of coffee; I had a fifteen minute break between classes. "Hola guapo!" said Enrique when he saw me walk in. I smiled at him, greeted him back and kissed him on the cheek. "How was your class?" he asked in Spanish. "It went by pretty well. One of my male students finally had the courage to ask this beautiful French girl to partner with him." I answered in the same language. He loved it when this happened; he was very proud to be the owner of a place where people could lose their inhibitions and develop self-confidence. I will be forever grateful with Enrique and his unconditional love towards mankind. I loved him as a son worships his father, and he had taken me under his wing since I first came here. Not only did he give me a job, but he offered me a family and I was very eager to find one that would embrace me the way I am. Enrique was sort of a town star. He had been a moderately famous dancer back in the day, winning national competitions in multiple Latin and European dance styles. Not to mention he was gorgeous. He had a tall, lean frame with strong muscles from all the exercise he did. His tanned skin and dark brown eyes gave him this aura of mystery and sensuality. He used to keep his black hair long and would always wear it in a ponytail when he was young, but since he opened his studio he keeps it short. I finished my cup of coffee and reminded Enrique to call someone to fix the sound system in my classroom. The sound system had given me trouble since day one, but had gotten worse the past week. I entered the room and saw that there were some people there already. They looked as most of them did: blond, white (or bright red with painful looking sun burns) and wearing brand new dancing attire. I smiled and went directly to start setting up the sound system. This was a beginner's course so I chose a calm, basic song to start off easy. Surprisingly, the sound system worked almost normally that day. I waited until the room was almost full to start talking. "Hello everyone!" I said loudly so that they would focus on me. "My name is Carlos de León and I will be your dance instructor for the next semester. I am twenty- three years old, I was born here in Mexico and have lived here in Cancun for five years now. I want each of you to introduce yourselves to the rest of the class by stating your name, age and country of residence. This seemed to be a very nice group as each of them introduced him or herself. Most of them were American as usual. I had a young couple on their extended honeymoon from Ohio, and the rest of them were on sort of sabbatical. They were taking years off college or something like that and wanted to practice their Spanish. The guys were very hot I must admit. I've always been a sucker for men with blond hair and green eyes, there's something about them that just draws me in. Some of the hotties were Brett; he was very muscular and had light brown hair. Tyler had gorgeous green eyes and dirty blond hair and Rob who looked like he could've been a bodybuilder. There was also a French couple celebrating their 30th anniversary, they were super cute together and I liked them instantly. Anyway, so after the introductions began I started to explain how my classes work. "Ok, so what I normally do is I will set up a choreography for a song every Monday and we will work on it during a week. Each dance routine will start to get a little more complicated and a lot more fun, but don't worry, we'll start off easy." I said. I started explaining the routine and answering their questions; all the while laughing a little inside as they made their first attempts at Salsa. I'm no geneticist, but I have a theory that there is something embedded directly into every Hispanic's DNA that makes us react to music and make up new dances. Whatever that gene is, it always seemed to be missing in all my American students. This first dance wouldn't be in partners because I wanted them to feel comfortable with their moves before having to work with someone else. During the class, I noticed that most of the girls weren't paying me that much attention and were mostly just looking me over. This was always a problem with these classes, I wanted the men, the men wanted the women, and the women wanted me. I knew I was attractive physically, though I never considered myself a model or anything like that. I'm of average height, lean complexion with defined muscles because of all the dancing. I have honey brown eyes and wavy light brown hair. I've always worn it a bit long but never beyond shoulder length. I'm very fair skinned and I hardly ever tan; that's something that really frustrated me, no matter how much time I spent tanning on the beach I wouldn't achieve more than the lightest of coloring. To my surprise, I noticed that some of the gringos were actually catching up pretty fast, I was delighted to see that they were getting along great with each other. This would make things so much easier when I paired them up for the more intense routines. Salsa dancing is very passionate, I adore the sensuality of it, how two bodies move together as one, coordinating each step but making it look as natural as breathing. As always, there were some students that were having a tougher time than others. I noticed that Brett and Tyler seemed to be friends and that Brett was the one eager to be here. Tyler was having a lot of trouble remembering the steps and keeping a rhythm. He looked incredibly cute as he blushed with the enormous effort of doing the simplest set of moves. He had a tight V-neck shirt that outlined his strong muscles: an athlete, football probably. He was very much in shape and had the most incredible bubble butt. His blond hair was a bit long and it kept getting in his beautiful green eyes. He had the cutest baby face ever, he was very manly but his features were very soft and relaxed. As the class ended, I congratulated the group and answered a couple of questions on where I was from and where I learned to speak English so fluently. I explained briefly that I had taken classes since I was very young and I would always read in English and watch American TV. As they finally started to leave, I noticed Brett was talking to a couple of pretty girls from Ireland and Tyler was standing next to him. He smiled at the girls, but looked a bit uncomfortable with them. All of a sudden he turned to look at me. I blushed slightly because I had been staring at him when he turned. I was about to drop my eyes, but he kept my gaze, also blushing a little and smiled; just a small, shy twitch of his gorgeous full lips. STOP! WALK AWAY! A loud emergency alarm went off inside my head. I had one golden rule: NEVER crush after a straight guy, much less one of my students. I had once committed the incredibly stupid mistake of falling for a straight guy and promised myself never to do it again. I still cringe at the thought of that one guy that broke my heart. His name was Ricardo; he was the son of my father's business associate, and my best friend throughout high school. My dad was a very important entrepreneur in one of Mexico's largest industrial cities. He was also somewhat involved in the state's politics and was very sought after by aspiring politicians who wanted his blessing. Both my mom and my dad's families were very well off and my dad made a small fortune by himself with his many businesses. I was an only child and went to the most prestigious schools in the city. The public education system in Mexico was horrible at the time, so I was raised in Catholic private schools with all the city's rich kids. I met Ricardo when we were both freshmen in high school. We clicked instantly, and by the end of the year we were inseparable. One night when he stayed over at my house, he said he wanted to show me something. He took a magazine out of his bag and showed it to me. It was gay porn. I was very confused at the time but I was too excited to care. That was the first time we had sex. We were lovers all through high school; we would often fantasize of how our lives would be when we left this homophobic country and got married. I always felt incredibly safe in his embrace. After graduation we were both going to take a sabbatical before starting college. My father had already paid for my ticket to France and my trips to Spain and Italy. We would do it together and secretly marry on a beach somewhere in Europe. The week before our flight was scheduled, he told me that he wasn't going to be able to come; he had to help out in his father's business. There was something about it that didn't sound right to me but I just assumed he was telling me the truth. I cried that week thinking he was going to be angry at me for deciding that I still wanted to go to Europe but when I told him he seemed pleased, like that's what he had wished for. The night before I left I went to his house to say goodbye. His mom opened the door for me and said that Ricardo had gone out but had left a note for me. I found that incredibly weird but rushed to read the letter; it was something like this: Dearest Carlos, I'm really sorry about doing it like this, but I just couldn't face you. I haven't been completely honest with you. I am staying because I do want to help my father, but also because I've met someone else. Her name is Erika. Please don't hate me, I couldn't stand it if you did, but I just can't continue with whatever this is between us. I'm asking Erika to be my girlfriend and I wish to marry her eventually. I want her to be the mother of my children and to start my own business like my father did. What you and I had was incredible to say the least, but I could never be able to face my family and admit that I am in love with another man... that I used to be. I love Erika, I truly do. I'm not gay; I think it was just a phase, but I don't want you to think it didn't mean anything to me. I love you and I always will, but I'm just not in love with you. I'm sorry. Ricardo I must've read that short note a million times. I could literally hear my heart shatter into tiny pieces. I cried during the whole plane ride to France "Goodbye Carlos." I heard someone say and snapped back to my dance classroom. It was Brett; he left the room while he told a joke to the girls he had just met, and had them laughing a lot. I smiled and said my goodbyes to them as well. As I gathered my things and locked the door on my way out, I saw Tyler with Brett and the girls. He had been staring at me now and he blushed a little. "GOLDEN RULE CARLOS, GOLDEN RULE" I said to myself. This was going to be a long semester. --------- I hope you liked the first chapter and have a lot of comments to send to me at 69.avid.reader@gmail.com I respond every e-mail I get prompty. Thank you for reading it =) I would also like to thank my gorgeous editor, Lisa Tepper! Thanks for helping out this illiterate writer. Te quiero! Love, Joey