Dream Boy Read Online Free PDF Page B

got.”
    “What's
her name?” “Hannah something.” “Do you like her?”
“She's all right.”
    Roy's
voice trembles a little. “Do you like her the way you like me?”
    The
question echoes into silence. “No.”
    Roy
sits still. Nathan's heart pounds and calm is hard to find. Roy stands. He
stares at the rubber mat as he walks down the aisle. He is shaking as he kneels
beside Nathan's seat. “I don't know if I believe you or not.”
    Dream
Boy “I'm telling the truth.”
    “Touch
me,” Roy says, and Nathan embraces him. He leans against Nathan, who
caresses the thick hair at the nape of his neck. He opens his shirt slowly and
Nathan feels the strong upsurge of breath and desire, same as the night before;
only in the daylight the rich color of his flesh glows, blinding, and when
Nathan touches the curves and planes, the sudden rush of heat engulfs them
both.
    For
Nathan it is a moment of poise, in which he must balance between what he knows
and what he should not know. The fact of Roy makes a difference. Here it is
easy to be held. Nathan's body has never felt so safe. They are touching each
other in intimate places with a feeling of perfection. Their breaths, as they
fumble and mingle, come faster; they cling and press until they finish. Nathan
holds his eyes closed, aware of Roy against him and glad of the clean curved
lines of Roy's body. Glad to lay his hands on Roy's firm shoulders and flat
waist. The trembling of a vein in Roy's neck draws Nathan's fingers. The clean
lines of Roy are a relief and Nathan focuses on that. Without reason, in
Nathan's inner seeing, the vision of Preacher John Roberts arises, telling
again how at the Last Supper John lay his head tenderly on Jesus' breast.
Nathan ends that way, with Roy's fingers in his hair. Roy asks, “Did you ever
do this before with anybody?”
    Nathan
shakes his head, unable to speak. He has never liked it before. That much is
true.
    “Do
you promise?” Roy asks, and the fear is plain on his face when Nathan
looks at him.
     “I
promise. I never did it with anybody.” Hoarse, almost inaudible. Feeling
hollow inside.
    “Because
it's okay as long as it's just you and me.” Roy's face is suddenly very
sad. Nathan reaches for the face, pulls Roy close. Roy settles, sighing,
against Nathan's smaller shoulder. “I never did this much before. Not even
with a girl.”
    Nathan
holds him as if he has diminished. Nathan becomes the shelter, the protection.
He touches Roy's chest with the tip of his tongue and Roy shudders; inside, his
heart is regularly bursting. Stillness settles over the bus. Roy sighs and
loops an arm around Nathan, keeping close to him through the aftermath, as the
sinking sun caresses them through the windows.
    When
they can move again, Roy leads Nathan to the front of the bus, drives home down
the twisting road with the shadows of the trees passing across his shoulders.
He parks the bus in the usual spot in the yard and turns in the seat.
“Don't go in yet.”
    “All
right. I won't.”
    Roy
studies his own hands, gripping the steel frame of his seat, smooth nail
against smooth rivet. “I can't come to see you tonight. We have prayer
meeting.”
    “At
church?”
    He
nods. “Every Wednesday” He will not look up.
    “Do
you like to go?”
    “Yes.”
    “I
have a lot of homework to do anyway I have a test. I told you.”
    But Roy
has heard only his own thoughts. Lips parted, as if words are close, Roy
glances toward his house. He leans to Nathan, kisses him quickly. Pulling on
his shirt, he says he will see Nathan later and hurries away without a backward
glance.
    The
night is long and Roy moves restlessly in Nathan's thoughts. Nathan studies
mathematics slowly, solving his tedious, non-algebraic problems with an
indolent air. Later he walks to the pond, though not as far as the abandoned
cemetery. He can see the distant outline of the tombstones against the black
backdrop of trees.
    He has
gone to bed when Roy finally arrives at home