Hey everybody. Yeah, it has been a while, I know. Been going through a few changes. Haven't been writing as much. I'm slowly working my way back to it. I've had a lot of emails about continuing this story. So, here it goes. There isn't as much sex in this one as there will be in the ones to follow. So, I apologize in advance for those who want to go straight to the sex.
As always, there is a lot of truth to this story and there is embellished truth. It's up to you to decide what's what.
And it'd be good to read "Fucking Away a Friendship" if you haven't or you might not get a couple of things in this story.
Until next time...peace. FL
Fucking Away a Friendship - Disclosure
Drew and I finally had the talk.
I mean, we'd been talking with each other for the past month, carrying on as if nothing was eating at our conscious. We always seemed to avoid that conversation. It was as if neither of us wanted to upset the other nor do anything to make the other uncomfortable. Our vibe was cool. And we're guys. Guys are like that, sometimes to a fault.
So one day Drew, Malia and I were running up to Coit Tower. On a clear San Francisco day, Coit tower offers one of the best views of the City. At night, it's a popular make out spot I've seen it all up there β sex, drugs, marriage proposals, fights and fights involving sex drugs and wedding proposals.
Our run started in Sausalito. We spanned the Golden Gate Bridge, coming down on Lombard Street. We stayed on Lombard the whole way β even ran on curves east of Hyde Street. Up and down we went until the final climb up Telegraph Hill to the circular parking lot.
Save for a couple of, "glass there! dog shit! pot hole!" yells it was mostly a silent run. We ran to the cement wall farthest from the tower and looked through the trees at the bay.
"OK, screw this," Malia said, breaking bit of silence. "You two need to talk! I'm tired of walking around on egg shells! I'm tired of not knowing what to say and when not to say it. This is driving me crazy. We need to deal with this, and we can't start dealing until you fuckers talk to each other about it! Mark, what's that stuff you always say, 'The ducking of communication rarely leads to resolution.' Well, both of you stop your damned ducking and talk! Drew. Drew! DREW! Don't you even think about coming home until you guys have talked."
Malia turned, ran across the parking lot and started down the hill. Drew and I stood the awkward stance, looking around, almost avoiding making eye contact.
"I got some more Giants tickets," he said. "You wanna go?"
Just like that.
Guys will be guys. Ask them to talk about solenoids and they won't have a damn clue what they are, yet they'll talk about them for two hours. Ask them to talk emotion, and they're like retracting turtles. They ease back in that shell, eyes on a swivel, trying to see if anybody notices their sprint to noncommittal.
Twenty minutes later we're at Pac Bell watching baseball.
Guys.
Middle of the fourth inning, Giants down 3-2 to the San Diego Padres, and Drew gets started.
"Dude, I'm sorry," he said. "I thought it would be different."
"Look man...," I started before he cut me off and proceeded to tell me 20 years worth of a history that I didn't know we had.
I never knew a one-sided conversation could be so strange, that it could evoke feelings of utter dismay. I wasn't angry. Wasn't happy either. It was disbelief wrapped in misunderstanding.
But it was Drew's story - rather stories. And from the middle of a major league baseball game and into the night at this little blues bar called Lou's, I listened.
Drew started his tale going back to our eighth grade formal dance. I'm sure you're looking at this screen and shaking your head now. Eighth grade? What the hell?
Imagine what I was doing. Anyway, Drew said that was the first time he noticed something different about his feelings toward me.
He put it out there, that it wasn't a gay thing, even though he said that he wondered for a bit if they were gay feelings. But they weren't, he didn't understand them at the time. All he knew is that there was something about the way girls reacted to me that he liked.
"You remember that 8th grade dance don't you?" he said. "Remember April, right? April ... what's her name? April? Short, big ol' titties on her? Madonna freak?"
"Yeah D, I remember April," I told him, shaking my head. "Why don't you remember her? April Marlowe. Ap-ril Maarrr-lowe. You took her to the damn thing."
"Oh. Yeah. Ok. Anyway, you danced with her the whole time. And I mean the whole damn time."
"Dude, I can't believe we're sitting here arguing about shit that happened in eighth fuckin' grade! Plus, Susan got the flu and couldn't go. And all your ass did was stand against the wall watching like a damn goof. April wanted to dance. So did I."
"C'mon now, can't you see that's what I'm getting to. I danced, what, two, maybe three songs. But it didn't matter. I had a better time watching you dance with April. Actually, it was watching April with you. Man, you were about as oblivious then as you are now. I don't know what kind of sexual shit April did or didn't do in eighth grade, but damn. I remember the look on her face as clear as if she were sitting right here. She was fuckin' floatin'. At first she just kind of watched you dance. I think she was amazed that you could dance as well as you do. You were in your own little world, like you are most of the time you dance. There was something about you that had her mesmerized. She smiled much of the time. When she wasn't smiling she had this odd look on her face that I didn't understand until a few years later β it was that look women give when their thinking lustful shit. And she was giving it then. I remember you spun around once and bumped into one of her boobs. You froze for an instant and apologized to her. And what did she do?