Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 20:06:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jason Calme <jasoncalme@yahoo.com>
Subject: Snow Day 2

This story is about male/male relationships and contains
graphic descriptions of sex.

You should not read this story if it is in any way illegal
due to your age or residence.

This is a work of pure fiction. It mixes fictional
characters and events with real people. However any real
person mentioned in this work is purely an actor playing a
part. This story in no way is meant to imply anything about
the sexuality, personality, or behavior of the actual
person.

Copyright 2005 Jason Calme. This story is the sole property
of its author and may not be copied in whole or in part or
posted on any website without the permission of the author.

Questions and commentary can be sent to:
"JasonCalme@yahoo.com".
My blog: http://jcalme.blogspot.com/

--------------


Snow Day - Chapter 2

"Sam?"

A voice woke me from my sleep and I opened my eyes. It was
darker than I expected; totally dark in fact. And then I
realized that my electric clock was off. The power must be
out.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" I mumbled.

"Are you cold?" Howie whispered.

"I think the power is off," I whispered back.

"I'm really cold."

I sat up and tried to see him, but it was so dark I
couldn't see anything. I climbed out of the sleeping bag,
and quickly realized how cold it was. I went over to the
bed and leaned down to him. I couldn't really see much,
but I could hear his teeth chattering. My eyes were
adjusting and I could see he'd kicked off the comforter.

"Dude," I said, grabbing it off the floor and putting it
on top of him. "You kicked off your covers."

"I'm so cold," he just repeated.

I stood there for a second trying to decide what to do,
and then I just climbed in beside him, and hugged him to
me.

I guess it was only after I got in that I realized exactly
what I was doing. I was more than a little shocked that
I'd done it, but thankfully Howie didn't object. Since I'd
already taken the biggest step, I figured I might as well
go the whole hog. I put my arms around him and rubbed my
hands up and down his back. Slowly the shaking subsided,
and the bed began to warm up.

"You okay?" I whispered.

"Yeah...uh thanks," he kind of laughed a little.

I grinned back. I guessed I wasn't the only one feeling a
little embarrassed.

"Okay...uh...I'm gonna get back in the sleeping bag," I
said, unwrapping myself from around him and starting to
pull away.

"Sam?" Howie softly whispered.

"What?" I asked, stopping half-way out of the bed.

"I know this is weird and all, but would you mind
staying?' he asked tentatively. "I'm all creeped out and
I don't want to wake up shaking again."

"Uh...you sure?" I asked, and immediately kicked myself.
"I mean, okay," I said, and climbed back into bed beside
him.

"Thanks Sam," he said, and in the poor light I could see
him smile. "I won't tell anybody if you don't."

"Uh, okay," I said.

Howie rolled over and I resisted the urge to cuddle up to
his back. Instead, I just lay there, concentrating on my
breathing and trying to calm myself. For a moment I
worried that I'd spend the whole night lying there
fretting, but after a couple of minutes I turned on my
side and fell asleep almost instantly.



When I awoke in the morning it was much warmer. The power
was back on and so was the heat. And then I realized
another reason why I was so warm; Howie was wrapped around
me. I was on my back and he was lying up against me on his
side, his face partly on my shoulder, an arm over my chest
and his leg thrown over mine.

After a moment of panic, I just relaxed and realized how
nice it felt.

And then he woke up.

It wasn't sudden. Rather, he slowly started to fidget and
move, and then his eyes opened, and he actually squeezed
me and nuzzled against me. After a second or two I saw him
startle and pull away.

"Morning," I whispered.

"Uh, morning," he replied uncertainly.

"How you feeling?"

"Okay," and he grinned sheepishly. "Nice and warm
thanks. You make a great hot water bottle" he smirked and
then he laughed.

I poked him and he laughed and yelled, "Hey!" as I kept
poking him and he writhed away from me.

Just as I was considering the possibility of jumping on
top of him, the door opened and in came my mother.

"What are you two up to?" she asked, and both froze. Her
voice had been casual, not accusing, but still I felt
nervous and embarrassed. I was in bed with a guy, and both
of us were in our underwear.

"Uh..." I stammered.

My mother surveyed the two of us with a wry smile and I
started to feel guilty.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Time to get up
boys."

"Okay Mom," I said. "You got back okay?" I asked,
trying to change the subject.

"Yes, the snow let up a bit during the night and they
plowed the road."

"So Howie can get his car?"

My Mom shook her head. "The roads aren't all clear, and
they still have a snow emergency. I already called the
garage. They say there's no way they can do anything until
tomorrow morning. Sorry Howie, you're going to have to put
up with us for another day."

I was secretly thrilled that I'd get to spend a day with
him. Howie grinned, so it seemed he wasn't too upset about
it, which made me feel even better.

My mother stood in the doorway for a moment, then she
noticed Howie's bags.

"You need anything washed Howie?" she asked.

Howie looked up from under the covers. "Uh, no,
everything's okay, thanks."

"You're going to be stuck here until at least tomorrow,"
my mother said skeptically.

Howie glanced at me and I didn't know what to do, so I
just stared back at him uneasily.

Mom went over and looked at his opened bags and the
clothes arrayed inside. She bent down, picked up a T-shirt
and sniffed it.

I glanced at Howie and saw a mixture of embarrassment and
annoyance flash over his face; just the way I felt
sometimes.

"This all needs to be washed," she announced, dropping
the shirt back into the bag. "After breakfast, you two
bring all of Howie's clothes down to the basement and wash
them."

Howie looked even more embarrassed.

"Mom!" I said, coming to Howie's defense.

"Okay, hurry up and get up," my mother said, and turned
and walked out.

I looked over at Howie. "Sorry," I said.

He raised his eyebrows.

"It's okay," he said.



We tumbled downstairs to the kitchen and found pancakes
and sausages waiting for us. I grabbed a couple of plates
and handed one to Howie, then we loaded up our plates and
sat down at the counter. It was fun just to sit there
beside him, eating breakfast, making small talk, and
nervously glancing at him now and again but being careful
he didn't notice.

It was a good breakfast.

My Mom came in with two clothesbaskets and put them down
where we could see them, but didn't say a word. I looked
over at Howie and rolled my eyes and he grinned at me.

After breakfast we went back up to my bedroom, taking the
clothesbaskets with us.

"You don't have to do this," Howie said.

"I don't mind," I shrugged, tossing a basket down and
going over and peering at the open bags. I looked up at
Howie and he shrugged.

"They're not that bad," he said, coming over to stand by
me.

I leaned down and poked through the clothes, pulling at a
pair of striped boxers.

Howie made a grab at them, but I pulled them away from
him.

"Eww, man! There's some really bad skid marks in these!"
I said.

Howie went bright red and lunged at me, and I shrieked and
sprang away from him. He chased me back and forth across
the room, finally cornering me by the closet.

I was laughing and holding the shorts tightly in my hand
and he was trying to get them and I was waving my hand
around as he used his body to push me against the wall.
I was loving every minute of it.

"Okay! Okay!" I finally conceded before he could crush
me.

He relaxed a bit and I went like I was going to hand them
to him and then tossed them at the bag. Howie glared at
me. I just smirked at him.

He seemed unsure quite what to do next, and then he
relaxed and stepped away from me and we stood there,
staring at each other, both breathing hard.

"I'll..I'll take my clothes down," he said, and I
shrugged at him.

He straightened up and walked over and picked up the
fallen boxers. I noticed him opening them up a little and
then he turned back to me and I couldn't help it, I
collapsed against the wall laughing.

"You shit!" he yelled, though he had a smile on his
face. He ran up to me and started shoving me against the
wall again, and I was laughing so hard I was helpless to
defend myself.

"I should make you eat these!" he growled, and he
started to shove them into my face, and then he stopped
and stepped back with this odd expression on his face.

"Uhh," he looked embarrassed.

"Dork," I said, and made a face at him.

"Doofus," he smiled, tossing the clean boxer shorts into
the basket.

Declaring a truce, I helped Howie fill up the baskets and
then led him down to the basement and helped him load the
washing machine. We made a half-hearted attempt at sorting
the clothes into coloreds and whites, but it was mostly
colored stuff anyway. There were two white t-shirts and it
seemed stupid to wash them separately, so we just tossed
them in and set it for a cold wash.

"Cool basement," Howie said, looking around.

The basement was mostly finished, with a pool table at one
end, a couple of old couches, a TV and some bookcases.
When we were kids we used to spend a lot of time down
here. Now I only came down to do laundry and sometimes to
shoot some pool.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Hey," Howie said, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "Get
your guitar and we can jam."

"Oh no, I'm no good," I said.

"Don't worry about that, I'll teach you how to fake it!"
he grinned, and since I couldn't think of anything else to
do, I agreed.

"Okay," I said. "After we get dressed."

Howie nodded agreement. We both ran up stairs to my room.

"You want to take a shower?" I asked Howie.

He stared at me. I don't know if he thought I was inviting
him to share the shower with me or not, but he looked a
little confused.

"I'll get you some towels if you do," I quickly added,
hoping that would make it clearer why I was asking him.

"Oh," Howie nodded. "Eh...I seem to remember a bath last
night," he said, grinning.

"Oh yeah," I said. "Well, I'm going to take a shower," I
said.

"I'm gonna get changed, then I'll take my stuff down to
the basement."

"Okay."

I grabbed some clothes out of my dresser and looked up to
see Howie looking a little confused.

"What's the matter?"

"Uh, I kept some jeans and a shirt to wear, but all my
underwear is in the wash."

"You'll have to go commando," I joked. Then I saw the
jeans he was holding. They had some rips and holes,
including what looked like a fairly large hole in the back
above the back pocket. It would be kind of obvious that he
wasn't wearing underwear.

"Well," I said. "You're already wearing my underwear and
sweat pants, so I suppose I can lend you another pair of
boxers till your laundry is done."

Howie stood there looking thoughtful. "Are they clean?" he
asked, a fake expression of suspicion on his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, you wanted clean ones?" I asked.

I gave him a pair and went to the bathroom to shower and
change.

It was a quick shower. I debated the pros and cons of
masturbating and I was oh, so tempted to do it. But for
some reason it just didn't seem right.

Or maybe it was because I was worried that if I took too
long Howie would figure out what I was doing.

Or maybe it was because I was in a hurry to get back to
Howie. Forget about jerking off, I could do that all I
wanted to once he was gone; I was going to spend every
minute I could with him until then.

When I came back to the bedroom Howie was still there,
still wearing the sweat pants, though he'd changed his
shirt.

I raised one eyebrow and he blushed.

"Eh...I thought your mother might not approve of the other
pants," he said.

I nodded. She wouldn't have said anything to him, but I
knew my Mom would not have liked them, underwear or no
underwear.

Howie went out the door and I finished tidying myself up
and threw my clothes in the hamper, then I grabbed my
guitar and headed downstairs. Going down I met Howie
coming back up the stairs from the basement.

"Gotta get a couple more things," he said by way of
explanation as he passed me.

He ended up bringing down most of his stuff to the
basement. He set up an amp, mic stand and two pedal
boards.

"I didn't realize you were going to put on a show," I
joked. He grinned.

"Nah, just setting up some stuff."

Finally he was finished.

"So what do you know?" he asked me.

"Uh...how about you just play something?" I said, not
even moving to take the guitar out of the case.

"Come on!" Howie laughed. "Take it out!"

"Umm..."

"Come on," he gently prompted.

I shrugged and reached down, unlatched the case and took
out the guitar. Then I sat down on the couch a little way
away from him. Howie came over to where I was sitting, and
stood in front of me.

"So, any song you'd like to play?" he asked.

"Uh...." I shrugged. "I like the second song on your CD
a lot," I said.

"'She Says'?" he asked.

"Umm...I'm not sure of the title."

Howie strummed a couple of chords and began to sing;
"Sweet as the sight of a room..."

"Yeah, that one," I said.

"Okay, you know the C chord?" he asked me.

"Uh, yeah," I said, putting my fingers on the fretboard.

"That's a G," Howie said gently.

"Oh, shit!"

"Don't worry; like this," he said, and showed me.

"Oh, yeah," I nodded, and strummed the chord.

"Okay," said Howie. "So a lot of it is variations on
the C chord. So start with C..." he continued, and for
the next hour or so Howie taught me bits of the song and I
sucked really bad. But it was a lot of fun, and he sounded
good even when I was messing things up.

Then Howie showed me how the pedals worked, which was
really fun. With one of them he could loop things and
record over and over and play it back. But he didn't tell
me that straight out. Instead he just turned to me and
said:

"Say something into the mic."

I looked at him blankly.

"Anything," he prompted.

"Uh...hello?"

"No, no, you gotta say it right away," he said.

"Say what?"

"Anything. When I poke you, you say something."

"Poke me?!"

Howie laughed.

"Just...I'll give you the signal," he said.

I stood waiting and then he pinched me right under the
ribs and I gasped "What the fuck!" and Howie burst into
laughter.

"Yeah, funny," I growled.

"What? You didn't like that? Well..." and he tapped the
box on the floor and my voice came out of the speaker
'what the fuck' and Howie laughed again.

"So Sam, what do you think of the weather?" Howie said.

'What the fuck' came my voice out of the speaker.

"You got any other comment for us?" 'What the fuck'

Howie then hit another button and it played at twice the
speed and sounded like the Chipmunks. 'what the fuck!'
'what the fuck!'

I gave him a withering look and Howie laughed so hard he
couldn't speak. He'd start to say something and then choke
on the words.

The upstairs door opened.

"Sam!" my Mother called.

'what the fuck!'

"Sam!"

Howie dissolved into giggles.

"Yeah Mom!" I yelled back.

"I'm going out to show a house.  Will you two be all
right?"

"Yeah Mom. We might go down to the sub shop."

"Okay."

The door closed and Howie hit the button one more time
'what the fuck!'

I gave him a strong glare and he tried to stop laughing
but was doing a poor job of it, and then I started
laughing too.

Eventually we calmed down and there was one of those
awkward moments of silence. You know the kind; where it
starts to feel unnatural and you have this desperate need
to fill it but you don't know what to fill it with.

Howie started softly strumming his guitar, his eyes closed
as though thinking of something, so I didn't like to
interrupt him, and then he opened them and our eyes met
and we just stared at each other for a second... ten
seconds...I don't know how long, and I just blurted out;
"So what's it like?"

"Like?"

"Traveling around, performing?"

"Oh, it's great," he smiled. "It's tiring sometimes;
I'm on the road a lot."

"A lot?"

"Yeah...just about as much as I can. If there's somewhere
that will let me play. I think I was on the road about
nine months of the year last year."

"And you're okay with that?"

He shrugged. "It's..." he screwed up his face for a
moment. "It's what I want to...what I like doing."

"Wow," I said. "I don't think I could do that."

Howie looked a little embarrassed.

"But it's cool," I added hastily. "You know what you
want to do and you're doing it," and he nodded and I felt
like such a fool because what did he care what I thought?
Was I giving him permission to do what he was doing? I
felt myself blush.

"Ah, so it must make relationships hard," I said
thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Howie nodded.

"Fuck, I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I don't mean to sound so negative I just...what you're
doing, it's not something I've ever imagined, you know?"

"It's okay," he smiled.

"You're so...like you've got a plan and you're doing all
this stuff and you're so driven and I'm...you make me feel
like I'm pissing my life away."

"Uh...sorry," he looked guilty.

"It's okay. Not your fault I'm a loser," I tried to
cover my embarrassment with a joke.

Howie grinned. "You're not a loser," he said, and bumped
his shoulder against mine. I grinned back at him.

"So play me a song," I said.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Come on," I said, stepping back to the couch and
sitting down and indicating with my hand that he should
start.

"I'm giving you a free show?" he asked.

"No way!" I said, and I reached into my pocket and
pulled out a dollar note. "What do I get for this?" I
asked, snapping the note between my hands and then holding
it out to him.

He rolled his eyes.

"You get about a verse for that," he said, and ignoring
the proffered dollar, started playing. He actually played
a couple of songs for me and it was spellbinding, but by
the end of it I think we were both getting hungry. I
thought I heard Howie's stomach rumble.

"You want to go get something to eat?" I asked him.

It didn't take him a moment to think about that. "Sure,"
he said. "Where?"

"We can walk down to...there's this sub place not far
away; we could walk."

"Sure."


We walked the half mile or so down to the local sub and
pizza place, called 'Pizza and More.' As we went I pointed
out the interesting parts of our neighborhood and told
Howie some of the stories of the place. I told him about
the house that had the couple that used to have big
screaming matches and the police came to them five times
in a row. I showed him the tree I fell out of and where I
slid off the road once.

It was fun to just talk about nothing, and thankfully
there were no more awkward silences.

'Pizza and More' is your typical pizza and sub store; I
think nearly every neighborhood has one, and there is
little to distinguish this one from any other. The only
noteworthy thing about the place is that I used to work
there during the summers and after school. It wasn't the
most exciting or well paying job, but I actually liked it.

Unfortunately, when we got there the only person I saw in
the place was Leonard. I sighed to myself. For some reason
Leonard and I had never gotten along. He was this nerdy
kid with glasses and bad acne who always seemed to get in
my face. No fights or anything, just asinine comments and
put-downs. Like me, he worked there after school, though I
had done my best to avoid working the days he did.

Seeing him there was enough to ruin my mood. I really
didn't want him making us any food; I was worried he'd
spit in it.

Fortunately, Paul, another guy who I'd become really
friendly with when I'd been working there, appeared from
the back of the store. We didn't pal around beyond that,
but Paul was always friendly whenever I saw him in the
shop or on the street. I was relieved. I'd have Paul make
us our sandwiches.

As we walked up to the counter Leonard stared at me
impassively, but then he noticed Howie and his expression
changed to a scowl. Talk about friendly.

I ordered from Paul, while Leonard glared at us.

We both ordered cheeseburgers and fries and coke's. "Do I
get the house discount?" I asked, half jokingly.

"You wish," Leonard said derisively. God I hated
Leonard. But Paul, not saying a thing, rang up just one
burger, fries and drink, and didn't say the price as I
handed him a $10 note and he gave me the change.

"Thanks," I said to Paul and gave him a big grin, and
then I went and sat down with Howie.

"So you used to work here?" Howie asked.

"Yeah, I stopped at the end of the summer as they didn't
need me full time and I wanted a full time job so now I'm
working down at the plant across town."

"Doing what?"

"Packing and shipping," I said.

"So you're not going to college?" Howie asked me,
sounding surprised.

"Gonna go next year," I said.

Howie still looked puzzled.

"Some stuff happened and I just wasn't ready...and I
guess I wanted to take some time and make sure I knew what
I wanted to do."

Actually, I was pretty sure I wanted to work in the movie
business, but I didn't really know doing what. But that
wasn't the reason I'd taken a year off. What really
happened was that last summer I was a complete wreck. In
the space of four weeks I came out, broke my leg, my
grandmother died and my brother was badly injured in a car
accident. Fortunately my brother was only in hospital for
three weeks and is okay now, but it freaked me out pretty
badly. I'd been put forward a year when I was young too,
so I was always younger than my peer-group, and being very
shy; well it just seemed to be a good idea to take a year
and 'find myself.'

The weird thing is that it was really my mothers idea. I
was blindly gearing up to go off to college because I
assumed that was what I was supposed to do. I probably
would have had a mental breakdown if one day mom hadn't
said 'I was thinking...'

And it really had been good for me. I've spent a lot of
time working this mindless job, but I've also traveled a
little, and spent more time thinking about what I want to
do.

And now I met Howie too.

But I wasn't going to bore him with all that. Instead I
just said; "I guess you could say that I'm kind of
finding myself; though mostly I find myself hanging out
here," and I made a funny face and Howie laughed.

Paul brought over the hamburgers, and we had just started
eating them when the door opened and in walked Louise, one
of my cousins.

Louise is my Uncle Jim's oldest daughter. She's one month
older than I am and she's always liked to rub my nose in
that fact. We never got along. I think it went back to
when we were about three or four, and there was this
cuddly bear that we were both arguing over. We each had an
end and were pulling and pulling and it broke in half. I
don't think we have ever forgiven each other for that.

On top of that, she's always been one of 'the cool' kids.
Since starting high school she has pretty much ignored me.
It never became mean or got so far as name-calling or
anything. It wasn't so much hatred as antipathy, though it
was antipathy that seemed to grow into hatred whenever we
spent any time together.

It was probably just as well we never did spend much time
together.

If this had been a typical day, Louise would have walked
past me, maybe nodded, maybe ignored me completely, and
that would have been that.

And it seemed to be going that way as she walked towards
me, catching my eye for just a second, and giving me a
slight nod of the head. I'm sure she thought I was with
one of my usual friends, since she could only see the back
of Howie's head. But as she drew up to the table I saw her
glance over at Howie and do a bit of a double take. To her
credit, she kept on walking, but I saw a look of curiosity
on her face. She continued up to the counter and I heard
her order several sandwiches, probably to take back home
for lunch. I just hoped she'd hang out up there and not
come talk to us.

"Hi Sam," I heard Louise's voice behind me. I turned
around reluctantly.

"Hi Louise," I said, not trying to sound too friendly or
too distant. Just move along Louise, nothing to see here.

"Who's your friend?"

Inwardly I sighed.

"Ah...this is Howie. Howie, this is my cousin Louise."

"Hey there," said Howie through a mouthful of hamburger.
He gave her his big grin, which would have made me feel
all warm and fuzzy, but when he gave it to her I didn't
feel happy at all.

"Hi," said Louise, and uninvited, she sat down beside
Howie.

"Are you from around here?" she asked.

"No, just passing through."

"Passing through?" she repeated.

"Kind of," Howie answered evasively. He didn't seem that
happy to have Louise sitting there either, and took
another bite of burger.

"So how do you know...Sam?" she asked, the pause between
'know' and 'Sam' just long enough to suggest she had
difficulty remembering my name. I hated her the more for
it.

"Oh," said Howie, chewing his food and looking at me and
smiling large. "He saved my life."

"He what?' Louise almost gasped.

"No I didn't," I objected.

Howie swallowed. "Yes you did," he said firmly.

"Wait," Louise interrupted. "You have to tell me what
happened."

"Well," Howie began. "My car broke down yesterday on
this miserable road that no one ever seems to travel on."

"Yes they do," I interrupted.

"Well only like every three hours or so."

I rolled my eyes.

"...and I'd be dead if Sam hadn't stopped and given me a
ride."

"Someone would have come along, you wouldn't have died,"
I protested. "Anyway, what were you doing up that road
anyway?"

"There's a guy that makes guitars up a few miles and I
thought I'd stop in and see him...but he wasn't there," he
paused. "That's what you get for not calling first as my
mother would say. And you don't know what might have
happened...I could be frozen solid under some snow bank
right now if you hadn't come along."

"Sure," I laughed. It actually felt good having him say
such nice things about me, even if they were an
exaggeration.

"So Howie, how long are you here? Where are you
staying?" Louise asked.

I sighed inside. Louise clearly had her sites on Howie,
and it depressed me. I had to admit that she wasn't all
that unattractive. She could be charming - in small doses
- and though she didn't sleep with everyone, I kind of had
the idea she was pretty active. Am I accusing my cousin of
being a slut? Maybe. Or maybe I was jealous she was
getting so much.

And Howie was a red blooded, male, musician. Of course he
had to be interested.

I stared off into space, not paying attention to their
conversation, wondering whether I'd be walking home alone.
I'd had a good time with Howie so far. About as much as I
could really hope for from any straight guy. I should be
grateful. Maybe I'd just make an excuse to leave and let
them both do whatever it was they were going to do
together.

For a moment I had a vision of the two of them naked -
Howie on top doing her doggy style - and the thought
revolted me.

I decided that I should excuse myself and let Howie do
what ever he wanted to do. That was the "good-friend"
thing to do. Leave him to it, so to speak. And better to
go on my own accord than have them have to come up with
some excuse for getting rid of me. How embarrassed I'd be
if that happened.

I was just coming out of that thought when I felt
something brush past my hair. I put my hand up by
instinct, but didn't feel anything. I looked around and
Howie and Louise were talking; well Louise was doing the
talking and Howie was nodding his head while fiddling with
a french fry in his fingers.

I turned away again and 'thud' a french fry hit me on the
top of my head, and fell down in front of me. I turned
back and Howie was looking extremely innocent; staring off
into space and pretending to whistle, trying to suppress a
smile on his face.

I thought about it for a moment, then I picked up a french
fry and tossed it at him.

"Hey!" said Howie.

"What?"

"Will you two grow up?" asked Louise, obviously
frustrated.

Howie and I both stopped and stared at Louise. "No!" we
said in unison, and burst into laughter.

"Oh! oh!" said Howie. "Open your mouth."

He broke a fry in half.

"Open my mouth?"

"Yeah, like..." and he opened his mouth wide and tilted
his head back just a little.

"Oh," I said, suddenly realizing what he meant. I opened
my mouth and tilted my head back as he'd done, not sure
whether I could keep my eyes open.

Howie took the fry and was bouncing his hand back and
forth, trying to aim, and readying for the wind up. Then
he tossed the fry at my head. It bounced off my chin and
fell on the table and we both laughed.

"Okay, my turn," I said, and I took a fry and tried to
get it into Howie's open mouth, missing and hitting his
cheek.

We both turned to look at Louise, who seemed completely
uninterested. I didn't care, I was playing with the cuddly
bear and I wasn't going to give him up.

And just then Paul came to my rescue - again - calling out
that Louise's order was ready. She got up, paused, as
though expecting us to stop out little game, and when we
didn't, she cleared her throat. "It was nice meeting you
Howie," she said.

Howie glanced up. "Yeah, you too," he said and then he
turned back to me and tossed another fry at my mouth and
it landed inside and we both hooted with glee.

I was so glad Louise was leaving. Leaving Howie to me. The
cuddly bear was mine.

Louise picked up her order then walked past us, casting a
backward glare at me as she went out the door. It didn't
even phase me, I was too happy.

"Hey," said Paul, and we stopped and turned towards him.
"You guys want some ice cream?" he called from behind
the counter, giving me a big, knowing smile.

"Uh...oh...sure..." I said, turning to Howie. "Want
some?"

"Uh..okay," he said, obviously wondering why we were so
excited about the idea of ice cream.

"Come on," I said, getting up and indicating that he
should follow me.

We went behind the counter, where there was a soft-serve
machine off to the side. There was no one in the store, so
we were pretty safe; particularly given that what we were
about to do was probably a health code violation.

I grinned at Howie, and walked over to the soft-serve
machine. "You like soft-serve?" I asked.

"Uh..sure," he said, hesitantly, obviously clued in that
something was going on, but not sure what.

I glanced around. Leonard was in the corner giving us an
angry look, but I didn't care. He'd done the soft-serve
game a few times, so he wasn't going to blab.

I turned around and, in a technique perfected one long
boring evening several years back, I leaned back so my
head was beside the machine and under the nozzle, then
reached up and pushed the bar and ice cream oozed out the
nozzle and into my mouth. I half filled my mouth - one of
the secrets is not to over fill - and then stopped and
stood up, trying to swallow the ice cream as I extended my
hands as though I'd performed a magic trick.

"Yeah!" Paul clapped, cheering the performance, and
Howie laughed.

"Gotta be careful of brain-freeze," I said. "Wanna try
it?"

Howie looked hesitant. He glanced between Paul and I, and
then shrugged and walked over. At the same time, I noticed
Paul had a paper cup in his hand and was nodding to me. I
nodded back.

"Okay," I said, turning Howie around and helping him get
in position. "Be careful now," I said. "When the ice
cream falls in your mouth it can be a bit of a shock.
Don't want you banging your head on the machine."

I had Howie's head in my hands now, one hand underneath,
and the other at the top of his head, partly because it
was true, I didn't want him to bang his head on the nozzle
of the machine, and partly because it was damn cool to be
holding him.

"Okay," I said, moving his head into position, while
nodding to Paul who was now beside us. I glanced down and
was reminded that Howie still had on sweatpants. This was
going to be more fun than I had thought.

"Here we go," I said, keeping my left hand firmly on
Howie's head, while reaching up to the lever of the
machine with my right. At the exact same time as I pushed
it, Paul reached out, grabbed hold of the front of Howie's
sweatpants, pulled them out and poured the cup of crushed
ice down.

Howie screamed and his head shot up; thankfully missing
the nozzle as I pulled him out from underneath it. His
face was smeared with ice cream, and he was dancing around
trying to get the ice out of his pants. Paul and I howled
as Howie literally shoved his hand down his pants and
pulled out the ice, and then shook himself.

We were laughing so hard we could barely stand up. But
then Howie stopped and glared at us; and he looked mad. We
both knew we were in trouble, and turned tail and ran.

Now normally, you might stand a chance because there's two
of you; and the person that got iced would be after both
of you. Unfortunately, since Howie didn't know Paul, he
focused just on me, and he caught me before I'd got half
way to the front door. He practically drove me into the
wall, and if I hadn't been still laughing, it might have
hurt. Howie was yelling something like "I'm gonna get
you," or "you'll pay for this," or something, and for a
moment I thought he was going to punch me, but then he
started tickling me, and I was laughing all over again,
and he was laughing as he did it. I was trying to get away
from him, or get him to stop, but he was all over me.

"What's going on?" asked a loud voice, and we both
froze.
I looked over Howie's shoulder to see Frank, the owner of
the store standing behind the counter.

Howie ceased the attack and stood up, looking very
nervous.

"I was just showing my friend Howie around," I said.

Frank was a nice guy, though he sometimes came across as
rather gruff and serious.

Frank stood there for a moment. "Okay, well just don't
damage the walls. I just had them painted," and he turned
around and went back into the storage area.

I looked at Howie, who looked back at me with shock on his
face. I poked him and his expression softened a little and
then he laughed and we both chuckled.

"Bastard," he hissed, though I knew he didn't mean it in
more than a friendly way.

I slapped his shoulder. "You've now been initiated into
the soft-serve club," I said.

"Uh...thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," I said. "After you join, you're soft
all afternoon," I joked.

We stood there for a moment and then I said, "We should
head back, have to shovel the driveway again,"

"Yeah," agreed Howie. "Just got to get the last of the
ice out of my pants."

I laughed as Howie groped around and pulled out a couple
of bits of ice.

"Ha, ha.." said Howie. "It's not your balls that are
fucking freezing."

I went over and got some paper towels and brought them
back to him. He took them and stuffed them down his pants,
which I thought was hilarious, then I went back and got
some more.

He was standing there, his hand in his pants, trying to
absorb some of the water, though the front of the
sweatpants were now showing a rather embarrassing water
mark. He stopped and looked up at me, and he actually
looked embarrassed and I felt sorry for him. It had been a
great joke, but now I felt a little guilty.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. Not really sounding it.

I gave him a couple of the towels. "You've got some..."I
pointed to some ice cream smeared on his face, "...on your
face." Howie swiped at it, but there were still bits left.

"Here..." I said, and I stepped up to him, and with a
paper towel, reached out and wiped the ice cream off his
chin. He stared back at me as I did it, not moving, just
letting me do it. We were staring into each others eyes
and I kept thinking I should look away, but I couldn't
help myself.

"There...you..." I paused. "That's better," I said. I
stepped back and looked down. "With your coat on, no one
will notice you had an accident," I joked.

Howie rolled his eyes.

"Come on," I said.

We said goodbye to Paul, and Leonard grunted at us, and we
headed back home.

The walk home was kind of tiring. It was cold, the snow
had started again, and we got into a snowball fight half
way there. Well, actually, Howie stuffed a snowball down
my back - I guess to try and get even with me - and then
we fired snowballs back and forth and ran at each other
trying to shove handfuls of snow into the others face or
down the others back. It was a pretty evenly matched game
until Howie slipped as I was chasing him and plowed into a
snow bank. I jumped on top of him and started grabbing
fistfuls of snow and tossing them at his face as he yelled
at me and struggled to roll me off him.

His struggling slowed and then he lay still and I stopped
trying to shove the snow in his face and I just lay there
on top of him.

"Can you get off me?" Howie's muffled voice came from
underneath me. "I'm fucking freezing."

I laughed.

"I'm serious!" he yelled.

"Oh, sorry." I relaxed and got up off him. Howie half
rolled over and looked up at me, his eyes squinted.

"You okay?" I asked.

"No," Howie whined.

He started to get up and I saw now that his jacket had
unsnapped and opened, and his front was entirely wet.

I put out my hand. "Come on," I said, grabbing his hand
and helping him up. "You're gonna freeze again." I said.

"Yeah." he agreed.

"You're hopeless," I said. "Why didn't you zip up your
coat?"

He shrugged.

"You okay?" I asked softly.

He nodded. "I'll be okay...dickhead." Though he said it
without menace.

"Dork," I responded.

"Doofus," he said, and then he stuck his tongue out and
made a face and I laughed and he stepped back quickly
before I could take a swipe at him.

We were only a few steps from our driveway, so Howie
didn't get any colder before we got home. I suggested that
Howie take a shower to warm up. He went and retrieved some
clothes from the dryer in the basement and went and took a
shower while I went and sat in the living room and
fretted. Fretted because I knew I was falling into serious
like with this guy and was loving the time I spent with
him. I was a little confused too, about how he felt about
me. If I didn't keep telling myself he didn't, I'd swear
he liked me. As in 'liked me,' liked me.

After a few minutes of fretting, I went to get a drink and
found my mom in the kitchen.

"How are you and Howie getting along?" my Mom asked.

"Okay," I said noncommittally.

"Looked like you were having a lot of fun out there," my
mother said.

I blushed. "Yeah," I agreed.

"Have you told him?" my Mom asked.

I stopped and stared at her.

"Told him?"

"About..."

"Mom," I whined.

She stood there staring at me.

"Don't you think it might be a good idea to tell him now,
so no one gets the wrong idea...especially you."

I rolled my eyes.

"I haven't got the wrong idea," I objected. "He's
straight. I'm not going to do anything. Anyway he's gonna
be gone in a day or two."

I stood staring at my Mom and she stared back at me
evenly.

"Alright," my Mom finally said, and turned back to what
she was doing. I stood there staring at her, but she
ignored me, so I took my drink and went into the living
room, and worked on a resolution in my head.

'Howie is just a friend. That's all I will think of him
as....'

And then Howie walked in, his hair damp and disheveled,
wearing a light blue t-shirt and a pair of long, dark blue
basketball shorts with white stripes that went to his
knees, still rubbing his hair a little with a towel, the
sexiest guy I had ever spent time with. I just sat there
and stared. My mouth was probably hanging open.

Howie stopped rubbing his hair and looked up and saw me
staring at him and he just stared back. Then he said:

"What?"

"What?" I asked him blankly, still staring.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

I shook myself out of the dream.

"Oh, yeah! Sorry, just kind of day dreaming."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm gonna get a snack. Want something?"

"Yeah," he said.

I went out and got us both snacks and a drink for Howie.
When I came back in Howie was sprawled on the couch,
watching the weather channel.

"Anything good on?" I asked, putting down the drink by
him and sitting in the chair next to the couch.

Howie sat up. "You can sit on the couch," he said.

"It's okay," I said.

We watched the weather channel for about ten minutes, and
then I got bored.

"Hey," I said. "Want to watch a movie?"

"Sure," he said.

"Do you like the Beatles? I have 'A Hard Days Night'" I
said, going over to the tapes to look for it.

"I love the Beatles man."

"Cool," I said. "Me too," and I looked back at him and
grinned.

So we watched 'A Hard Days Night' and had a blast, playing
along with the movie, 'He's very clean!' dancing and
singing. We acted out some of the scenes, did the 'running
around on the field' sequence, and at the concert we were
dancing and singing as loudly as we could. At the end we
collapsed on the couch laughing and smiling and I was
feeling so great.

I didn't think it could get any better.

-----------------
to be continued.