“I think I have something of yours,” Rocco whispered to Mike from behind his desk. Mike’s hair was getting longer and darker. Rocco wanted to run his hands through Mike’s silky hair.

  “Yeah, you do,” Mike turned around laughing.

  It was Monday, the next day. Just as he imagined, Rocco was exhausted—in a good way. The past two days had been divine. Mike and Rocco had taken the first steps of intimacy. It all went so fast. What could possibly be next?

  “Hey, are you serious about camping?” Mike asked.

  “I am,” Rocco smiled.

  “I only have one tent and one sleeping bag,” Mike smirked.

  “That’s all we need,” Rocco whispered.

  “What are you two talking about?” Toya interjected unbeknownst to the two of them.

  “Um, nothing. We were talking about going camping,” Rocco replied.

  “OOOO, fun!” Toya perkily said.

  “Yeah, it’ll be a boy’s trip,” Mike immediately said. She gave him a shifty grin as if she knew what was going on.

  “Hey, Mike, we are playing Troy Brighton’s party this coming weekend,” Rocco said.

  “I heard,” Mike replied.

  “Would you be interested in helping us set up?” Rocco asked.

  “Like I’d be a part of the band?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah, you’d be our assistant,” Rocco said. Toya and Moni were watching the interaction between Mike and Rocco. They found it entertaining how much they were hiding their relationship. While they did not know for sure, they knew something was up between the two of them. Even to the untrained eye, it was obvious that Rocco and Mike were flirting with each other.

  “I’d love it. Does it pay?” Mike asked.

  “No…at least not with money,” Rocco gave a half smile which led Mike to blush. Rocco loved to make Mike blush. His pale freckled cheeks would turn bright red along with his ears and neck. As Rocco watched the blush rush down his neck, he remembered the salty sweet taste of his skin.

  “That reminds me. I’ve got some drawings for you,” Mike produced a couple of pages of drawing paper. There were drawings of potential designs for Fred.

  Rocco gave the drawings a look. He was impressed. He loved all of them. It was going to be a tough decision, but since Austin was the one sacrificing his drum, it was Austin’s decision. Toya and Moni eagerly looked over Rocco’s shoulder at the drawings.

  “Mikey! These are so cute!” Toya squealed.

  “Ah, thanks!” Mike blushed even more at people admiring his work.

  “What’s this for?” Moni asked.

  “One of these is going to be our band logo,” Rocco replied.

  “Really?” Moni asked.

  “Which one are you going to pick?” Toya asked Rocco pointing at the drawing of a chihuahua in a birthday hat. “I like that one.”

  “Well, Austin is the one choosing the design. It’s his drum that will have the design on it, so it’ll be up to him,” They all gave a look as if to say “that makes sense” in unison.

  “Do you think you’d be able to draw or paint one of these on his bass drum?” Rocco asked Mike.

  “I’d have to look at the drum. I don’t know what kind of material they are made of,” Mike replied expertly.

  “Okay, I’ll show these to Austin and let him pick. I’ll do that at lunch today. Then you can come by practice and give it a look,” Rocco said.

  “That sounds like a plan,” Mike said. That meant Rocco would have to take him home and maybe come up to his room for more “extracurricular” activities.

  Mr. Pendleton walked in just as the bell rang.

  “Okay, class, let’s get started.”

  “Well, guys, I’ve got some designs from Mike for Fred,” Rocco said as he produced the drawings. “There’s four of them. Austin, pick a good one.” He laid the sheets of paper in the middle of the table so the band members could look.

  They all inspected the drawings and noted how all of them were so well done. Raz and Pete secretly decided on the chihuahua with the birthday hat but would defer the decision to Austin. To their relief, Austin chose their selection as well—unanimously in favor of the dog with the hat. Rocco liked all of them mainly because Mike did them so he would have settled for any of them.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “I think this is the one I want on the drum, but I seriously like them all. I think we should use all of them somehow,” Austin said.

  “Mike has agreed to come by practice to look at the drum and get started painting it or whatever he needs to do to put Fred on the drum,” Rocco said collecting all the drawings and placing them in his jacket pocket.

  “You think he can do this by this weekend?” Pete asked.

  “I can persuade him to expedite the matter,” Rocco assured the group.

  “I’m sure you can,” Raz said in a non-sarcastic tone. Rocco smiled and raised his eyebrows a couple of time.

  “How’s all that going?” Austin asked.

  “It’s been going very well,” Rocco replied.

  “Details?” Pete eagerly asked.

  “Do you really want to know?” Rocco asked.

  “I gotta live vicariously right now,” Pete replied and laughed.

  “I asked him to be my boyfriend. He said yes. We went on our first date Saturday. We snuck into my room afterwards and you know. I snuck into his room last night and you know,” Rocco was stating all of this like a news cast not realizing that all three of his bandmates were staring at him wide eyed and open mouthed. “Oh, what?” Rocco asked picking up on their surprise.

  “I mean, you just sped through all the bases in one weekend,” Austin said.

  “It just seemed so natural,” Rocco replied.

  “I haven’t even gotten to cop a feel with Wendy,” Austin said.

  “It’s gotta be different with two guys,” Pete chimed in.

  “What do you mean?” Rocco asked with a confused look on his face.

  “Guys are horny. Get two of them together and it’s an instant you know,” Pete said making fun of how Rocco glossed over the spicy parts. “Girls are much more selective and cautious,” Pete stated flatly.

  “Well, I can understand that. I mean, they have to put up with us looking at them all the time,” Austin proposed.

  “I never really thought of that,” Rocco said.

  “How did it happen?” Austin inquired. He seemed very interested in Rocco’s exploits.

  Rocco looked around and then turned back to the group. “After dinner, we went back to my place. I snuck him into my room through the window when my mom was asleep. I put on some music and when I turn around, he was obviously ready.”

  “Whoa! He’s the one that started it?” Austin’s eyes were wide again.

  “Yeah. That time, we didn’t do a whole lot. Just touching and making out,” Rocco replied.

  “That’s still pretty far. What about Sunday?” Austin kept prodding for details.

  “Well, he called and asked if I would sneak over to his house. So, I did. We did a little more last night.” Rocco continued with a dreamy look across his face.

  “A little more?” Austin pressed. “Like what?”

  “You know…” Rocco said and made a gesture. All three sat there stunned.

  “I’ve never gotten that far so fast. Maybe I should become gay,” Pete quipped.

  “I thought it was going to be gross, but it wasn’t at all,” Rocco said.

  “Are you going all the way?” Austin asked.

  “You mean like…” Rocco made another gesture. Austin nodded.

  Rocco shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. That scares me a little. I mean, there’s a lot more involved with that. I’d be okay if I never did the other.”

  Austin nodded his head in understanding.

  “Oh, changing the subject abruptly! O’Malley asked if we would play at the park on Oct 12. We’ll get a hundred dollars for it,” Rocco said. Raz and Austin’s face lit up.

  “For real?” Pete exclaimed. “Fuck yeah!!!”

  “I figured you all would want to do it, so I said yes. He offered us $50 but I said $100. I figured if I didn’t say yes, it would drop down to $50,” Rocco explained.

  “Wait, he was going to just offer $50? That cheap bastard,” Pete sneered.

  “Yeah, I know!” Rocco agreed.

  “Still, we can actually play some good music instead of all this fucking hair band music,” Austin said.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Rocco said.

  “You are our official agent, Rocco,” Pete said and slapped him on the back.

  Joe dropped Mike off at Pete’s garage that evening so that he could get a feel for the size of the drum and the material. He figured he could get a measurement of the circumference and then create a rough stencil to use to lay down the foundations of the logo. He could then fill in the foundation with more details. He had simplified his drawing enough that it shouldn’t take him any longer than an hour or so to have it done. He would then come back the next day to see if he needed to put down a second coat.

  “Rocco is going to bring me home afterwards,” Mike said to Joe as he grabbed his measuring tape and got out of the car.

  “Is that right?” Joe said with a knowing tone.

  “Stop it!” Mike replied and smirked. “This is business.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Joe said. “Have fun.” He backed out of the driveway and sped off back to the house.

  Mike walked up into the garage. All the members were sitting around working out their lineup for Troy’s party.

  “Hey there!” Mike waved and walked up to the band. “I’m here for measurements.”

  Pete snickered at this statement thinking Mike meant it as an innuendo. Austin motioned Mike over to the drum. Mike bent down and eyeballed the drum making a guess as to the center. He measured the diameter of the drum three times to make sure it was the same.

  “How are you going to do this?” Austin asked.

  “Well, I’m going to first made a big circle the size of the drum. I’ve got a projector that I’ll use to blowup the sketch to the right size of the circle. I’ll trace out the design and then make a stencil so I can lay down the lines. Then, I’ll just paint inside the lines. Easy peasy.” Mike explained.

  “Easy peasy, huh?” Austin quipped. Mike nodded. It all sounded easy to Mike at least.

  Mike watched them practice with a sense of pride in the band. This was his boyfriend’s band playing and his boyfriend on the guitar. When they finished up, Mike wanted to hear more, but he could tell that Rocco was eager to get him in the car.

  “Great practice, guys. Same time tomorrow? We got to speed up our tempo a little,” Pete said with finality.

  Rocco unplugged his guitar and packed it in its case.

  “Mike, you think you will work on the drum tomorrow?” Pete asked.

  “I will see how far I get with the stencil,” Mike said looking at Rocco. Rocco smiled at Mike.

  “I know,” Pete said picking up Rocco’s intentions.

  Rocco and Mike loaded up in the car and made it a couple of miles down the road.

  “Pull over somewhere dark,” Mike said. Rocco looked over and saw Mike was looking at Rocco. Rocco was a little surprised but found a closed gas station to park. He parked the car in the darkest corner of the gas station being sure the front of the car was facing the road. He had an inkling of what was to come and wanted to be sure to be able spot anyone approaching them.

  “Okay, now what?” Rocco asked.

  “Pull your seat back,” Mike silently said. Rocco reached down and unlocked the seat so that it would slide back completely.

  They were back on the road in less than fifteen minutes. Rocco wanted to reciprocate but Mike insisted that it was all about Rocco tonight. Rocco pulled into Mike’s driveway. He stopped the car at the front door.

  “This is three nights in a row,” Rocco said facing Mike. Mike smiled and grabbed Rocco’s hand.

  “I don’t want to break the streak,” Mike said and leaned in to kiss Rocco. They continued to kiss until the front porch light came on. That was their cue to wrap things up. Mike got out of the car and went up to his room to work on his stencil. He wanted to please his boyfriend’s band.