"Might as well drop you off first," Mr. Walter explained to his son Todd as we headed toward the drug store where my friend worked part-time until school started again in the fall.
Todd nodded, accepting the reason his Dad was driving out to the mall instead of dropping me at my house first, but that was the first inkling I had that something was up. Mr. Walter had been acting a little weird all morning, but he was a bit odd sometimes anyway, like his son. Probably why Todd and me were such good friends, I supposed.
Now Todd was straightening out his dorky looking clip on tie and hopping out of the van on his way to work, and Todd's Dad was looking at me in the rear view mirror.
"Want to hop up here?" Mr. Walter asked, and although I liked it better in the back of the customized van I slipped up and climbed into the passenger seat.
"No work for you today?" Mr. Walter asked.
"Tonight," I replied. "5 to 11."
"Oh, well in that case we can take a little ride," Mr. Walter said.
I didn't really want to take any ride, but Mr. Walter hadn't asked, instead just heading out of town in his Chevy Van. He chatted about the weather and commented about the signs that we would pass, and before I knew it we were pulling into a rarely used area of a state park.
"Thatcher?" I asked as we drove down a side road that led to a deserted parking lot.
"Thought we could talk some, John," Mr. Walter said, his face so moist with perspiration that his horn-rimmed glasses kept sliding down his nose. "Why don't we - uh - go into the back?"
***
"I think it's wonderful the way you and Todd get along so well," Mr. Walter said after we went into the back of the van.
I sat on the bench seat in the back and was surprised when Mr. Walter sat right next to me, so close that our knees were almost touching.
"You've really helped Todd become more social," Mr. Walter said, his hand coming to rest on my bare knee. "He's come out of his shell quite a bit over the years, and you've been a big part of it."
"I don't know about that," I said with doubt in my tone, because while Todd might be the king of all geeks, I wasn't much different, and my already jittery feeling grew worse when Mr. Walter closed the curtains on the windows.
"Just so people don't get the wrong idea, in case someone should come by," Mr. Walter explained when he saw my expression change.
I'm not sure what impression someone would get if they saw a recreational van in a recreational area, but if they saw a couple of guys in a van and the curtains got drawn suddenly, that might get a lot more attention. Fortunately, the place was deserted, and we were so off the beaten path that I didn't even know where we were, and I knew the place pretty well.
"Want a drink?" Mr. Walter said, pulling a beer out of the little fridge and handing it to me before I could decline.
"Wanted to talk to you about something," Mr. Walter explained. "Away from Todd and everything. Although you're both 18, in many ways you're much older than he is. Do you know what I mean?"
"I guess," I mumbled, taking a sip of beer under Mr. Walter's watchful eye.
"Much more mature," Mr. Walter said, and seeing his hand move up on my leg made me jump.
It was just a fatherly touch, I guess, but the way Mr. Walter's hand was gently rubbing the hair on my thigh was strange.
"You see," Mr. Walter said. "Last night, I saw you and Todd. What you were doing together."
I dropped the can of beer at that point, apologizing as I ducked down to pick it up off the carpet before it went all over the place.
"It's okay. No harm done," Mr. Walter assured me, and as I got back up on the seat Todd's father was brushing the beer off of my leg. "I didn't mean to upset you, John."
The fact that Mr. Walter had seen us was devastating, because we had always tried to keep that part of us hidden. It was bad enough that we were the class nerds and poster boys for nerds, but being gay on top of that would seal our fate forever.
"We don't," I started to say, but wilted under the look Mr. Walter was giving me over his glasses.
"How long have you two been lovers?"
"I dunno," I answered. "A while."