Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 16:43:23 -0500
From: music teacher <musicteacher2002@hotmail.com>
Subject: "This is the Night" chapter 4

Disclaimer:  I have an overactive imagination, the result of which is this
story.  I do not know Clay Aiken or any other celebrities mentioned in this
story, and I do not intend to imply anything about their true sexualities.
Simply file this in the "Wouldn't it be nice..?" portion of your mind.  Also,
if you are under legal age to be reading this sort of stuff (18 in most
areas), then leave now.  All the rest of you who ARE of age, please enjoy my
little mind trip away from the land of reality.

***

CHAPTER 4

***

"So he DID plan the whole thing?" Clay asked, incredulously.  I was on the
phone with him later that same night, telling him what had happened.
Basically, I left it with Lee that he was lucky his little scheme had
worked, or else I might not be speaking to him.

"Yeah, he can be really sneaky sometimes," I laughed.  "But you know what?"

"What's that?"  Clay asked.

"I'm VERY glad he did what he did," I told him honestly.

"Me too," Clay replied softly.  I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Well, I need to get some sleep," I said.

"Yeah, I need my beauty rest, too,"

"Hardly!" I said, laughing.

"You're sweet.  I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Count on it," I told him.

"Goodnight."

"Night."

I hung up the phone and sighed.  I still couldn't believe this was actually
happening.  I got ready for bed and fell asleep immediately.

When I awoke the next morning, I went through my usual morning routine of
showering, shaving, checking my email, and making breakfast.  Clay called
soon after I was finished eating and we made plans to hang out later that
morning.

Oddly enough, I was probably more nervous now than I had ever been around
him.  Before the previous night, there was no pressure.  We were just two
friends, hanging out.  Sure, I had feelings for him, but I've done the whole
cover-up thing before, and was fully prepared to do it again.  Now, however,
things had changed.   We were...well, we were more than friends, anyway.
There were expectations.  The question was, would I live up to those
expectations?  Think about it - this is CLAY AIKEN.  American Idol
runner-up.  Fantasy man of millions of teenage girls...and adult women...and gay
men...  Clay could certainly do better.  Have I mentioned that I sometimes
have self-esteem issues?

There was a knock at the door, and I tried to put those nagging thoughts out
of my head.  Clay was standing in my doorway, looking gorgeous in a white
button down shirt and faded jeans.

"Hi," he said.  He sounded almost as nervous as I did.

"Hey," I said, giving him a quick hug and peck on the lips.  "Come on in."

"So..."  Clay *was* nervous!  He had taken a seat on my couch, and was picking
at the lint on a throw pillow.

"Would you, uh, like something to drink?" I lamely offered.

"Uh...sure, a glass of water would be great."  Yeah, this was going REALLY
well...

I brought him his glass of water and sat back down on the couch.

I bit the bullet.  "So I suppose we should talk..." I said.

"Yeah, probably," he said, finally looking at me.

"So...not to be all cliché or anything, but...where do we stand?"

"Well...I'm not sure," Clay said, studying my face.  "What do you think?"

"I think I like you a lot.  And if I'm not mistaken, you feel the same way."

"Yeah.  I really do," Clay said softly, looking away.

"Clay?  Is something the matter?" I asked with concern.

"I don't know," he said, his voice barely audible.  He still wasn't looking
at me.

"Don't know what?" I asked.  "Clay, you can talk to me."  He took a deep
breath.

"I know I can.  I just...this is all so new to me.  I've never been in a
relationship with a guy.  For that matter, I haven't been in a relationship
with *anyone* since I was sixteen, and that was only three weeks long.  I'm
just not sure how to handle it.  And I'm afraid that I'm going to screw it
up."

"Hey, come here," I said, pulling him into my arms.  I gently kissed the top
of his head as he laid it on my shoulder.  "You're not the only one here
who's afraid of screwing things up.  It's been a while for me, too.  But if
we just take it one day at a time, and work together at this, we can do it."
  He pulled away from me and looked me in the eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked me.  God, he was cute when he was vulnerable!

I put my forehead to his and smiled.  "No," I told him honestly.  "But I'm
more than willing to give it a shot.  It's worth it, don't you think?"

"Yes.  I do."  Clay said, smiling.

I leaned in and kissed him on the lips quickly.  We pulled back, foreheads
still touching, and smiled at each other.  I put my hands on the back of his
neck and kissed him a little harder.  He reciprocated, opening his mouth to
allow my tongue access.  We stayed like that for a while, my hands running
through his hair, his hands rubbing my back.  I pulled away from his lips
and kissed my way across his cheek and down to his neck.  Clay began to
moan.  I continued licking, sucking and nibbling his neck all over, and then
returned to his mouth.  His hands were still caressing my back, and I
allowed my hands to wander to his back as well.  Our tongues were invading
each other's mouths, fighting a fierce battle.  Slowly and gently I pushed
Clay back so he was laying on the couch and I was leaning over him.  My
hands came out from under him and began rubbing his chest.  This caused Clay
to moan even louder.  Through his thin shirt, I started playing with his
left nipple.  Suddenly, Clay pushed me off of him and stood up.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"No, no, no!  I'm the one who should be sorry!" I said, walking over to him.
  "I got a little carried away."

"Well, it takes two to tango...and do other things..." Clay said, smiling.

"Yes, but when one person is a more experienced...dancer...he sometimes takes
things a bit too far, too fast,"  I said, ashamed.

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself," said Clay, taking me in his arms.
"It's not like I don't want to do these things...eventually..."

"It's like we said last night.  Neither of us is going anywhere.  We should
just take it slowly."

"Sounds good to me.  I like the way things are going so far," he said with a
wink.

"God, do you *know* what that wink does to me?" I said, leaning into him a
bit more.

"Oh really?" he said, winking again.  "That wink?"

"YES!"

"Hmm..."  Wink.  "That's very..." Wink. "...interesting."  Wink.

I pulled away from him and turned my head.  "Fine," I said jokingly, "if
that's the way you're gonna be, I just won't look."  He walked over and
wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Well then it's not worth it," he said before kissing my neck.  I closed my
eyes, sighed, and leaned back into him.  He turned me around and we walked
over to the couch.  He sat down, and I sat right next to him.  We ended up
laying on the couch, Clay with one leg on the couch and one off, me sitting
in between his legs, with my back against his chest and my head just below
his chin.  We stayed on the couch for hours, just talking.   Occasionally,
Clay would run his fingers through my hair or kiss the top of my head.  It
was pure bliss.

Apparently we fell asleep, because the next thing I knew we were woken up by
the sounds of Clay's cell phone ringing.  I had turned over at some point,
and wrapped my arms around Clay's slender body.  I felt Clay stretch below
me before answering his phone.

"Hello?  Oh, hey...right...OK...5:00?  OK...uh huh...sure...see ya then.  Bye."

"What was that about?" I asked, yawning.

"That was my agent.  He was just telling me that the CD signing I'm doing
today was moved up to 5:00."

"High demand, I bet!"

"Please..." Clay said, blushing.  "Anyway, what time is it now?"

"3:30" I told him.

"Oh, then I should probably get going," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, equally disappointed.

"Hey, why don't you come with me?" said Clay, his face suddenly bright.

"Are you sure I won't be in the way?" I asked.

"Of course not.  I mean, it will be craziness, and we probably wont get to
talk at all, but it will be nice to have a calming face after all the
insanity," he said while placing his palm on my jaw and rubbing his thumb on
my cheek.

"Wow..." I said.  Clay smiled.  "After *that* cheesy line, how could I
refuse?"  Clay's mouth dropped open in shock and he playfully shoved me.

"I can't believe you just said that!" he said.

"Aww, I was just teasing you..." I said, giving him my best puppy dog face.

"I know." he said.  "Now are you coming or not?"

"Alright, alright, I'll go,"  I told him.  "I just need to brush my teeth
and change into some less wrinkled clothes."

Pretty soon we were on our way to the music store.  I was very surprised to
see that the record company sent a limo to pick us up.  However, that
surprise was nothing compared to my amazement at the sight that greeted us
when we got there.  The store had a huge banner draped from its awning that
said, "WELCOME, CLAY AIKEN!"  Below the banner stood literally hundreds of
fans, mostly teenage girls, who started screaming when they saw Clay's limo
pull up.  Clay got out of the limo and quickly walked into the store to take
his place behind the table.

Meanwhile, I waited for the limo to park before getting out and braving the
throngs of fans in the store.  When I finally pushed my way through the
crowds and got into the store, I looked around for a while at different CDs.
  Pretty soon I had picked out a few CDs to buy and had made my purchases.
After that, I stood toward the back of the (now smaller) crowd and just
watched Clay do his thing.  He really was in his element.  It was like a
whole different person was at that table, signing CDs and schmoozing with
fans.  Completely different, but equally lovable.  I realized that I could
very easily fall in love with Clay.

After the CD signing was over, Clay came over to me.  "Hey, ready to go?" he
asked.

"Sure."  we began to make our way back out to the limo.  When we got inside,
he kissed me quickly and then looked through my bag to check out my
purchases.

"You didn't buy a copy of my CD," Clay said with mock hurt.

"Why buy the CD when I have you to sing for me anytime I want?"  I said,
teasing him.

"Oh, so you think I'll just be at your beck and call?" he said, laughing.

"Well, that *is* why I keep you around," I said, and he stuck his tongue out
at me.  "Just kidding," I said.

"Well, it just so happens that I saved one for you," he said, and pulled out
a copy of his single from his jacket pocket.

"You did?" I said.  "That's so sweet!  Thank you so much!"  I gave him a
kiss on the cheek.

"I signed it, too," he said, half giddily, half embarrassed.

He had autographed it on the inside, on the blank white space underneath the
CD and the plastic cover.  I could tell he had taken special care to write
this, so I was touched as it was.  When I read what he wrote, however, tears
came to my eyes.  In small, careful script, he had written:  "Your boyfriend
must be the luckiest man alive."  I looked at him through watery eyes.

"Boyfriend?" I asked him.

"That is...if you'll have me," he said, looking at me.  "We never did get that
much discussed this morning."

I grinned widely, still crying.  "What does this tell you?"  I leaned in and
kissed him deeply.  Yes, I was definitely falling for him.  I just wondered
how long it would be before my insecurities got the better of me.

***

That's it for another chapter!  Thanks for reading!  I hope you're enjoying
reading the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it.  Thanks to everyone
who has written in!  As always, please send your comments and/or suggestions
to musicteacher2002@hotmail.com  Thanks yet again to Lee for being my editor
for this chapter!

Well, folks, the poll is officially closed.  Lee's future lover is now
decided.  Thanks to everyone who voted!  I can now announce with great joy
that the winner is...yeah, right, like I would spoil it here!  You'll have to
wait until chapter 7 to find out!  (Cue evil laugh here)  In the meantime,
stay tuned!  Lots more great stuff coming up!