Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2013 18:37:53 -0800
From: Kris Chrandes <krchr@hotmail.com>
Subject: Foot Friend 1

Skip it if you don't like it. This is mostly, but not entirely, fictional.

If you like the story, support the Nifty archive. All rights are hereby
donated to the archive. If you want to contact me drop a note to
<krchr@hotmail.com>. I may or may not be able to answer, but feedback is
always read and appreciated.  Other stories by me:

2012: gay/highschool/naked-neighbor (2 parts)
2011: gay/gift-repayed/encounters/gift-repayed (3 parts)
2011: gay/young-friends/his-brother-likes-feet
2011: gay/beginnings/our-own-island
2011: gay/young-friends/sock-wrestling
2010: gay/young-friends/the-cast
2009: gay/college/2am-at-the-pool
2009: gay/adult-friends/balcony
2008: gay/beginnings/naked-on-film
2007: gay/college/barefoot-in-the-stacks
2007: gay/encounters/airport-feet
2002: gay/young-friends/naked-boy (posted under a different name).

---

"Mr. Lewis? I don't have a pencil," Kyle said.

"Congratulations."

"Um, I mean, can I borrow a pencil?"

"Come up here," Mr. Lewis said.

I shook my head and kept stuffing books into my backpack. Mr. Lewis was pretty
cool for a 7th grade science teacher. He didn't put up with any crap but
kept his sense of humor. Kyle was one of the class fuck-ups. Never had
anything with him. Took pride in being unprepared and not giving a damn about
school. His father was a prominent lawyer in town. Kyle probably acted like
this because it pissed off his parents. Or maybe because he just had no
fucking clue about life.

Kyle was about my height but blond and tan. He was wearing his usual today:
t-shirt with a surf logo, ratty shorts, and topsiders with no socks. He always
wore the leather topsiders (boat shoes) with no socks, which is the main
reason I noticed him.

"What are you going to give me for collateral?" Mr. Lewis asked.

"Um, how about my watch?"

"You mean this watch?" Mr. Lewis said, holding it up. "You gave me this
yesterday for a pencil, which I didn't get back."

"Oh yeah."

Several people snickered. I heard a muttered 'dumbass' from somewhere behind
me.

"You need to give me something you'll actually need back."

"Um," Kyle said. Everyone else was ready for the test and watching the scene.
I was staring absently out the window at the sunshine.

"How about my shoe?" Kyle asked. I looked over sharply, then tried to play it
off and hoped no one saw me.

"Fine," Mr. Lewis said. "Though I'm not sure you'll remember even that."

Kyle pulled off his right shoe and tried to hand it to Mr. Lewis.

"You can just put it there," he said, wrinkling his nose and pointing to the
corner of his desk. "I'm sure I don't want to touch it."

Kyle grinned and set the shoe on the corner the desk and took the pencil Mr.
Lewis was holding out.

"Take your seats," Mr. Lewis said unnecessarily. Everyone was ready except
Kyle, who limped back to his desk in one shoe. His desk was three up and one
row to my right giving me a perfect view. I watched him sit down and plant his
bare foot flat on the floor. He sometimes played with his topsiders in class,
slipping them off and on and I loved watching him do it. I didn't know why but
I liked to see feet. Always had. I thought there was probably something wrong
with me, and at that point I was convinced I was the only weirdo around. I
instinctively knew I needed to keep it a secret and tried to never get caught
looking.

I wore the same kind of topsiders as Kyle -- it'd taken a lot of cajoling of
my parents -- but I never slipped them off in class. I really wanted to. I
left them tied loose in case I had a chance. But doing it where others could
see... The thought felt unbelievable exhibitionist and daring, but for me
showing my feet would have been no different than pulling down my pants. Even
at the beach or somewhere where everyone was barefoot -- and boy did I love
that kind of place -- having my own feet showing felt a little dirty.

Mr. Lewis walked around his desk and started counting out tests and handing
them to the first person in each row. I took a test and handed the rest to the
kid behind me without turning around. I was already looking over the
questions. The first 10 were multiple choice and I breezed through them in a
few minutes. I knew the material pretty well. As I flipped the test over I
looked up and saw that Kyle was fidgeting. He'd crossed his feet under his
chair so that his bare foot was in the air and I got a great view of his sole.
It was dusty from the floor but I could see the whole shape of his foot. I
liked the bottoms the best. His feet were tanned the same as his legs.

I tried to concentrate on the test. The first question was easy but it took
three sentences to answer. I looked up. Kyle had now crossed his legs so that
his bare foot was in the air and he was bouncing his leg. It was mesmerizing.
I went back to the test. Two questions later I looked up again to see that
Kyle had taken off his other shoe and was now sitting barefoot in class. His
legs were straight out in front of him when I'd looked up, but then he pulled
his legs back and crossed his feet under his chair again. I shifted
uncomfortably in my seat because I was getting a little hard. I don't know how
he could sit there barefoot and not care.

With difficulty I went back to the test. I knew the answers but I rushed
through and my writing was terrible. Oh well. When I was done I re-read my
answers and put my pencil down. Mr. Lewis was in the back of the room watching
us. He usually roamed around during exams. But since I was done I could now
look around. Most of the kids were still working on their tests. Some calmly,
some frantically. Kyle looked like he was close to full on panic. Maybe he did
give crap after all. Rachel to my left had put her head down and might have
been asleep.

Mr. Lewis came up the aisle and picked up my test and Jason's, the kid two
seats behind Kyle. As in the desk one ahead and one to the right of mine.
Jason was a cute kid but he always wore sneakers and tall socks laced tight.
Never saw him play with his shoes and I'd never seen his feet, though I'd have
liked to. He was kind of cute.

Right now I wanted to stare at Kyle's feet, but I didn't want to be too
obvious so I made of point of looking around and letting my gaze sweep across
his feet whenever I could. That's how I caught Jason. Kyle had continued
fidgeting and had propped his right foot up on his leg again, sticking his
foot slightly out into the aisle and he was flicking his big toe back and
forth. I saw Jason lean over to his left and get a good look. When he glanced
around to see if anyone else noticed I had time to be staring somewhere else
but from then on I was watching Jason. Holy shit, it was obvious that he was
staring at Kyle's feet. Was I that obvious too?

I tried to look relaxed and unconcerned and let my gaze sweep the room, but it
was Jason I was watching now. He shifted a little in his seat. Was he as
excited as I was?

Almost everyone was done now except Kyle and one other kid, Brian. Mr. Lewis
called out from the back of the room, "One minute!" Brian jumped. The rest of
the class started to fidget waiting for the bell and lunch. "Pencils down!"
Mr. Lewis said. Brian and Kyle reluctantly stopped and leaned back in their
chairs while their tests were collected.

"Thank you all for coming," Mr. Lewis said. "It's been a pleasure as always."
He was weird. "Tomorrow we start a new section. Make sure to have your books."

The bell rang and everyone got up and made for the door. I looked at Jason and
he was staring as Kyle's feet still as Kyle walked up to the front carrying
his one shoe. Jason turned around and saw me looking at him. He startled and
looked embarrassed. I smiled at him and gave a little shrug. Let him interpret
that however he wanted. Meanwhile Kyle had returned the pencil and retrieved
his shoe. He dropped both of them onto the floor with a loud slap and stuffed
his feet into them and walked for the door. I was the last one out.

Walking down the hallway we all merged with the stream of kids headed for the
cafeteria. I had a sandwich in a paper bag so I didn't need to stand in line.
I went in the side door and found a table in the corner to eat. My best friend
was out sick today and I usually ate with him so today I had nothing to do. I
started thinking about Jason. I'd never paid him much attention before. Kind
of a geek, didn't talk to anyone else much, didn't do any sports or anything
that I knew of. He didn't really even come to lunch much. He usually went
straight to the library.

I started thinking about my fascination with feet. I'd been like that as long
as I could remember, but as far as I knew I was the only one. I was the one
who in 3rd grade didn't want to take the karate class at school because I knew
that meant everyone would see me barefoot. In fact I had tried to do the
lesson in socks before the instructor told me to get rid of them. He didn't
ask with any rancor so I guess I was not the only one, but I thought everyone
else just forgot. Whenever there was a catalog sitting on the kitchen table
I'd flip through it hoping to see barefoot boys. Men were ok but I preferred
seeing kids my own age. I was always really self-conscious at the beach or
pool. I never sat on a beach chair because that would show the world my soles.
I'd never dream of going out in flip-flops. My mom had a no shoes in the
house rule, but she didn't mind if I always wore socks.

I finished eating with a half-hour to spare. Didn't take as long when you
weren't talking. I threw my stuff away and headed out across the hall to the
library. I'd rarely been in here at lunch. It was large space but mostly
unencumbered by books. There was a set of carrels along one wall, a set of
tables in the middle, and a set of tables behind the shelves toward the back.
I didn't see Jason so I headed for the other set of tables. He was sitting at
a four-person table alone with homework spread out in front of him. He saw me
come in but looked away. I sat down at the table next to his, on the end
nearest him. It was like we were sitting at a table across from each other but
at two different tables and with open space in the middle. Even so, we were no
more than 8 feet apart.

I took out my history book and flipped to about the right place and started
reading. I really had no plan. I didn't know why I was here. It's just that I
was intrigued to think that maybe I was not the only one into feet. And I had
never spoken to Jason much at all. I guess I wanted to find out more about
him. Jason was studiously ignoring me, or at least appearing to, though I
could see him glance up once in a while to see what I was doing. I noticed
that he looked down once in a while. Maybe wondering about my feet?

I glanced around. There were two girls sitting at the table behind me, both
with their backs to me and giggling. Otherwise this little group of tables was
empty. The librarian was behind the counter, which was positioned so that she
could see all of the tables and study carrels. The designers of the place
weren't stupid. But she had her face buried in a novel and wasn't paying
attention.

I knew what I wanted to do next. While staring at my history book and
pretending nonchalance, I slipped my left heel out of my shoe. I smelled the
faint odor of warm and sweaty leather. Hoped that didn't carry. Then I kept
pretending to read while I counted to 20 in my head. At 20 I glanced up and
saw Jason looking down at my feet, but I pretended not to notice and looked
back at my book.

I slipped my left foot back into my topsider and sat there trying to read my
history book. I actually hadn't read a word but maybe I should flip the page
for realism. Without looking up to see if Jason was paying attention I
crossed my feet at the ankles so that my right foot was entirely in the air.
I worked my toes back and forth so that the shoe loosened. My plan was to let
it slip off a little, but instead it dropped completely off leaving my foot
almost completely exposed. My toes were still touching just inside the shoe.
I tried not to look surprised, waited a second, and looked up. Jason was
looking at my foot. I smiled awkwardly and he looked away.

With my head down on the book I tried to peer upward and see what he was
doing. Couldn't really tell but I could see him shifting in his chair. I
slipped my foot back into my shoe and stretched my legs out while I thought
about what to do. Jason reached down under the table and he started untying
one shoe. Wow. Really? Then he untied the other one and kicked both off. He
was wearing white athletic socks. I stared. I didn't want to. I wanted to
be a little less obvious but I couldn't help myself.

Jason stretched his legs out and wiggled his toes. I just watched. I was
thinking that I should kick off my own shoes again when I heard the shrill
voice from behind me.

"What are you doing over there, you freak?" It was the harpies behind us.
I felt a cold chill in my stomach. Afraid I was about to be outed.

Jason looked at her for a second, his eyes searching her face. "You need to
wipe your chin off," Jason said. "You still have some guy's cum dried
there."

She reflexively started to touch her chin then stopped and glared at him.

"Fuck you," she said.

"No thanks," Jason said. "I don't need herpes."

"Listen you little..."

The librarian finally looked up from her book and took notice of us. "Hey!"
she yelled. "Quiet down or get out. In fact the bell's about to ring. You can
all go now."

With a last glare the girl turned and stomped out. Her friend gathered her
stuff for her and followed.

I looked back at Jason. He grinned and shrugged.

"That," I said, "was awesome."

"She wouldn't have been mad if it weren't true," he said.

He had stuffed one foot into his shoe, tied it, then began working on the
second. I packed up my bag and stood up, not sure what to do. "Guess I gotta
get to class," I said.

"Me too," he said.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Definitely."

At least I knew I wasn't the only weirdo any more.

###