I was standing in my apartment looking through a book shelf of mine when something fell over and hit the floor with a thud. I bent down to pick it up and I found that it was one of my photo albums. I looked at the picture it opened to, and instantly I was reminded of the face I saw in the photograph.
I put the album back on the shelf and went to my chair. Let me tell you that in my old age I have loved many men. The photo I saw was that of an angel. His name was Charlie and he was no older than 18 when I first met him. I was 21. I knew something was different about him when I ran in to him literally that day in the train station on my way to college. On that day I went to class just like any other but I remember feeling as though this day was different, but at that point I just couldn't figure it out. My very first love was on the horizon and I was blind.
It was the start of a new semester and I had just begun a new class. I believe it was advanced skills. It was my senior year at "le Cordon Bleu" in New York City. When I walked in to that class there he was again. I didn't know much about him, and I had never seen him before that morning in the train station. He was an out-of-state transfer. He was so cute. He had this porcelain skin, dark blond hair, emerald green eyes, and a bubble butt. He had an 'OK' body because he wasn't built, but he was slim with just a little bit of cushion. I like my men with just a little cushion. I guess it's because they're softer.
When I first met him, I didn't think he was gay but I soon had my suspicions. On the surface he wasn't, I mean not that my gaydar could detect, but I looked closer and I picked out little tiny tells which lead me to believe he wasn't out. I didn't think much about it. All I knew about him was that he was a cute class mate and we seemed to get along. We were paired up together to work on our class work. Nothing else was expected. As our relationship grew we started to see each other outside of class. He would invite me to go to a movie, or go clubbing at straight clubs no less, but it really didn't seem like it was going anywhere. It was nothing other than just being friends, but at the same time it was like he was sending me these mixed signals.
I tried not to think anything of it. Maybe it was me who was just reading too much into him. I just continued being his friend. I would see him in class and we would go out, usually with friends. We were never alone. Every time he had me thinking that it wasn't going anywhere, he would say something or do something that would make me second guess myself.
Then time came to take our final exam. The final in that class was basically this. Everyone was paired up and the pairs would have to cook something with very few ingredients. I was paired with him. We now spent more and more time together. We would spend hours over the week planning, just the two of us, at my apartment. He had a roommate and my place was quiet.
During one of our study sessions I was in the middle of reading something aloud to him that I had found in a cook book. I could feel him just staring at me. I knew when he first walked in the door that something was off, but I just left it alone. At that point I was just so focused that I really didn't care. I finally looked up and he was looking at me with his beautiful piercing eyes. He was trying to tell me something but he seemed too scared to move or breathe.
I told him just say whatever you need to say, but he wouldn't. Looking at him, it seemed like he wanted to, but it was like he couldn't. I then got fed up I yelled "what is it"?
He shook his head, I closed my book and said, "you know you can tell me anything, you know I'm not the kind of person who would do anything bad to you, what is it, just tell me."
He then said in this shaky voice, "I just don't know how people will react to it."