Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2011 12:34:58 -0400
From: Alan A. <eastcoastasulax@gmail.com>
Subject: Jake Grimke Chapter 12

NOTE:  Thanks for all the recent compliments and encouragement many of
you have shared about the tale of Jake Grimke. This continues to be
the fictional coming of age story of Jake as he matures through high
school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore,
Maryland region.  It contains and embraces accurate representations of
life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of
lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his
profession.  All of the characters in this story are fictional and
resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely
coincidental. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome
athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will
encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK
button on your browser forthwith.

Being an only child, Jake had no need to rush down the steps to get to
the presents under the Christmas tree before any other sibling.  As he
stirred in bed, he reached under his shorts and grabbed himself, and
gently stroked until he was somewhere past semi-hard and let the soft
nylon mesh fabric lay against his dick as he let the waist band of the
shorts conform to his waist.  His eyes closed and he tried to stitch
together the pieces of the dream he had earlier, the vision of Jose
Valdez that had entered his head a few hours before.

He continued stroking, evoking the image of Jose burned into his
memory from the Christmas concert at Children's Medical Center.  In
those few short minutes, he assessed the man's visible as well as not
so visible features and recalled them.  There was of course the
prominent Latino features; his bronze skin, defined high cheek bones,
smoldering dark brown eyes, full lips, perfect teeth and a perfectly
even haze of black stubble on his face.

Jake continued stroking, remembering the upturned cuffs of the
button-down shirt he wore, noting the trace of black hair on each
forearm as they appeared below the cuffs and the apparent strength in
the size of his hands.   He could easily envision Jose in a soccer
uniform, complete with cleats and shinguards, kicking a ball down the
field towards the goal, looking perfectly natural doing it.  Keeping
his eyes closed, Jake imagined himself the goalie and Jose driving
towards him, getting closer except Jake didn't want to defend the
goal, he just wanted Jose to score.

Laying in his bed, with his left hand stroking the contour of his
shaft outlined in the soft fabric of the shorts, Jake slid his right
hand up from his hairy right quad and across his mid-section until it
reconnected on the smooth skin of his abs until he found his right nip
atop his defined right pec.  He flexed and relaxed, flexed and relaxed
as he kept the vision of Jose front and center in his mind until he
felt the inevitable results of his labors beginning with a tiny tremor
in his left quad.

He sped up the stroking, picturing Jose between his legs, Jose's
strong hand on his pec and the big lips coming lower and lower until
they met Jake's and cemented together as he began to shoot under his
shorts repeatedly while clutching his right pec hard and tensing his
legs, thinking it helps propel every drop out of him.  Spent, he lay
in bed, for a few minutes, catching his breath in a blissful daze as
the once crystal clear vision of Jose began to fade and into the fact
that it was Christmas morning and there were presents to open became
first and foremost in his mind.

Jake glanced at his IPhone's display, 7:37 am it blinked, willing
himself out of bed and leaving Jose behind. He headed for a quick
shower, getting a nose full of the breakfast scents wafting upstairs
and an ear full of the friendly chatter between his parents and
grandparents.  After the shower, he dressed up nicely in a red
sweater, khakis and black shoes before grabbing the gel and fluffing
his mostly blonde hair into the new style Will had taught him.

"Happy Christmas," Jake announced to everybody gathered in the family
room by the tree, hugging his mom and dad and then grandparents and
leaving his present for Will under the tree.

"Merry Christmas Jake" each grandparent said.

"Merry Christmas son," each parent said.

It was a bit cold but not snowing and John Jr. had lit the fire in the
fireplace to take the chill off the room.  Jake doled out the presents
he bought for his parents and grandparents and waited for each of them
to open and like or dislike what he bought for them before he settled
down to open his own gifts.  It was kind of funny for John and Emma to
watch Jake's face when he realized there were only a handful of gifts
with Jake's name on the tag.

He shrugged it off, opening a shoe box sized gift from his
grandparents.  As the paper was ripped off, he saw it was just that
from the Nike trademark on the box.

He opened the box, and it was pair of Nike running shoes; a gift he
could definitely use but seemed somewhat disappointed.  He opened
another box, shirt sized and found a UVa hoodie which didn't seem to
jive with what Emma had said a few nights ago about that "sweat
thing."

By now, Emma and John were practically giddy with excitement, seeing
Jake trying to be genuinely excited about the presents he had already
opened and not knowing what was on the driveway between the house and
the garage.  "Hey Jake, before this goes any further," John said as
more of a parental directive than just a suggestion, "how about if you
go out to the garage and get a couple more pieces of wood for the
fire."

Jake looked at the fire in the fireplace, blazing away but no extra
logs in the wood holder sitting on the hearth.  At first Jake was kind
of non-plussed with the idea but remembering just a year or two ago
that his parents wheeled in a kick-ass mountain bike, he figured they
needed the diversion to bring something else in for him.  By the time
Jake was halfway into the kitchen, parents and grandparents were
trying to stealthly trail behind him as he exited the side kitchen
door and saw the Saab.

As Jake got stepped out, he just assumed the car had been returned
from the mechanic.  It wasn't until he got closer that he saw the red
paint was new, that the canvas on the roof was new.  He began to walk
around it, opening the driver's door and inspecting its interior.
Gone were the broken and worn leather seats, replaced with new ones
and a new digital stereo with a dock for his IPhone to charge and play
his music through the reworked sound system.  He sat himself in the
driver's seat, his left foot engaging the clutch and moving the
shifter through the gear box while his parents and grandparents walked
out and watched.

"How about that wood, Jake?" John hollered, beaming, holding his wife
around her hips.

Jake bounded of the car, smiling ear to ear, "forgot Dad, kind of got
distracted."

"You like it?" Emma asked.

"I think he does," Margaret said, "you did good John."

"Well done son," John Senior added, "he never had a clue, did he?

"Not a single one," John Junior said and then turned to his own son,
"did you Jake?"

Jake got out and walked around one more time, touching the new wheels
and tires before stopping at the rear bumper and noticing the vanity
Maryland license plate, 7RN LAX.  As his smile got even bigger, he
just pointed and asked, "really, it's mine?"

"Totally yours Jake," Emma said, "I know my faithful little Saab is in
good hands."

Then Jake looked a little dumbfounded and asked, "Mom, what are you
going to drive then?"

Jake's dad replied, "you can take your Mom to the Honda dealer in
another day or two, we ordered a new one since the first one has been
so reliable.  This is yours now Jake, you have to take care of it; pay
for the insurance, the fuel and of course the maintenance; which it
should need very little of for now.  We, your mother and I, expect
that this car will carry you through your college years.  You've
always been very responsible Jake and we expect that you will continue
to do so."

"I know Dad, Mom.  Thank you so much, this is such a surprise," Jake
said before he looked at his mom with a grin, "I thought you said iit
wasn't running right?"

"Well, we heard enough commentary about how obsolete cassettes are and
your father and I began planning this in the fall when we talked about
a new car for ourselves.  We weren't going to get much in trade and
decided to spruce the old girl up a bit and give it to you.  We took
it to Mr. Schabb's garage and ordered what it needed and when all the
parts came in, we took it down for the work."

"And the license plate," Jake asked?

"I took care of that one day at work," John said, "new tillerman had
to get the tractor trailer endorsement on his license and I ordered it
then and had it shipped to the firehouse."

John continued, the grandparents going back inside to warm up, "we
have to sign the title over to you and you have to get it insured
yourself by January 1st when you come off our policy.  With your good
grades and just that one moving violation right after you got your
license, you should be able get a decent rate with our agent; but it
won't be cheap.  You are just going to have to suck up that fact of
life until you're 25 or so, and, keep your driving record clean."

Emma concluded the inevitable parental warnings that come with such a
gift with "and, don't turn that thing into anything found on the "Fast
and Furious" or I'll take it back and give you the old Honda."

"No way Mom! I love it just the way it is, it's perfect," Jake replied.

"Good enough for me, now come inside and have Christmas breakfast with
your grandparents.  They want to get on the road to Philadelphia and
your father and I are going over to the Kauffman's for their
traditional Christmas barbecue, you're welcome to come along if you
want."

Ralph Kauffman could barbecue anything and did so twelve months out of
the year.  Jake pondered his options knowing Evan was at his mom's
with his older sisters young nieces and nephews and didn't want to
barge in their get together.  He took a picture of the Saab on his
IPhone and sent it to Evan and then to Will tagged with the caption
"look what I got!".

After breakfast and getting his grandparents on the road, Jake got a
call from Will.  "Hey bro, we need to talk," Will said, adding, "in
person."

"Yeah, I want to talk to you too, my place or yours?" Jake answered,
holding the phone in one hand to his ear while he helped clean up with
his parents.

"What's going on at your house?" Will asked.

"Not much, my grandparents just left and the `rents are heading to a
neighbor's house for a barbecue for an hour or two.  Dad's got to work
tonight so he will want to take a nap later this afternoon," Jake
said, filling in Will on some of the Grimke rituals before he offered,
"I got a present here for you."

"You do, really," Will inquired.

"Yep, c'mon over, I'll show you the car," Jake said trying to sweeten the offer.

Will agreed and arrived at the Grimke house in less than an hour just
as Jake's parents were leaving for their neighbors' party.  They
greeted Will as they left and Emma reminded Jake of "the rule" as they
walked down the driveway.  Jake showed Will the car and all the work
that had been before they went inside to warm up, Jake offering Will a
cup of coffee still warm from the earlier breakfast.

Will sat on the couch in the family room while Jake retrieved his gift
from under the tree there and handed it to his friend, "Here Will,
thanks for being my friend.  I hope you like it."

"You're going to hate me Jake, I didn't get you anything." Will said,
not ready to accept the present with nothing to share with Jake.

"No problem, this just sort of popped in my head yesterday, I hope you
like it," Jake said as he watched Will unwrap the box from Brooks
Brothers.

"Wow, Brooks Brothers, very nice Jake Grimke," Will said as he took
the lid off and unfolded the tissue paper inside and pulled out the
cashmere muffler, "oh my God, you picked this out?"

Jake just nodded, happy that Will was happy, then, turning to face
each other they looked at each other uneasily, not sure what was going
to happen next.  Will took the lead and pulled Jake into a hug but
only quick peck on the cheek before releasing the hug and letting Jake
relax back into a normal sitting position.

"Now you are really going to hate me," Will said.

"Why's that?" Jake asked, kind of confused.

"Jake," Will thought about what he practiced saying in the mirror,
"that whole date thing at Jackie's the other night.  I'm not very
comfortable with that, at all.  Granted, in my eyes and the eyes of
many, you are hottest dude that walks the halls of Severn High but it
just doesn't seem right to me."

Jake just listened in silence as Will continued.

"Maybe I, maybe we, made a mistake the other night in your garage.
I'm sorry if I led you on to believe that there was more but I am very
uncomfortable with all that happened.  Do you hate me?"

Jake shook his head no, put his hand on Will's knee, not unlike he
would do with Evan when they were having a serious talk, "I don't hate
you Will, in fact, I have kind of admired you from afar, admired that
you were strong enough to be who your are.  You gave me the courage I
needed to "ring the bell" even though it was a bit earlier than I
planned."

"You were planning to come out?" Will asked.

"Yeah, the fuse had been burning for while for me to do it and well,
watching Ernie and Chord start in on you again at Jackie's made me
realize you needed somebody to stand with you," Jake said before he
continued, "you are the only gay guy I know and, well, I need somebody
to teach me some things, and I don't mean the sex things, I mean, just
what you know that I need to know.  That can be your present to me,
Will.  Just be my gay friend."

They hugged again, longer and slightly more intimately before Will
whispered in Jake's ear, "I'll share what I know, won't be much, but
I'll share it with you.  Merry Christmas Jake Grimke."