Just About Soccer

Hi everyone, thank you for staying with me! I know I'm slow with updating... Sorry for that!

Huge thanks to Lukanicus, you're doing great work! You actually are responsible for my better university grades...

Finally... Chapter 7!

Please read and review (it cheers me up while I'm supposed to be learning for final exams...)

Nediar

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Just About Soccer

Chapter 7

After a few minutes, Ray lay on top of Brian, supporting his weight with his arms. In his mind, he watched this scene from somewhere near the ceiling whilst he wondered how this could have gotten so far. He had never pictured himself happily kissing another boy, or he had refused to imagine it.
Ray appreciated the company of Brian, who apparently was totally enjoying this. The brunette deepened the kiss until both of them were out of breath.

They stopped for a second. Ray inhaled deeply and let out a surprised gasp when he felt Brian’s lips on his neck. He bent deeper to grant the other one better access and began stroking over Brian’s soft blond hair, eliciting a comfortable purr from him.

“You know”, the younger boy breathed, “I was totally serious saying I love you”

For a split second Ray was about to back away from Brian, but it seemed too much of a loss when that hot mouth on his skin left. His heartbeat went a little faster. Brian moved his lips back to Ray’s and they were kissing again. A soft moan from Brian was accompanied by the sound of a door slamming shut.

Startled, Ray jumped to his feet with a horrified glace toward the door.

“Who’s that?”

“My parents... They told me they wouldn’t be home until seven or so”

“It’s five to seven, Ray,” Brian answered and stared up at him, lying flat on the ground. Ray turned around and at once, his features went from pure shock to a delighted soft smile.

“You’re handsome”

“Thanks. You are, too, by the way” Ray held out his hand for Brian and pulled him to his feet again.
Brian stumbled into his embrace and added, “would I have let you kiss me, otherwise?”

“I didn’t know you were such a superficial prick” Ray acted the hurt one.

“It’s an undeniable truth that you look good. Your character only makes you best-looking”

“Thanks for the compliment”

They instantly changed the topic when they heard footsteps on the stairs. Brian brought his ruffled hair back into place.

“Ray? Who are you talking to?”

The door opened and a pretty blonde woman entered. She had curly hair and soft features, giving her the look of a way too old schoolgirl.

“Hi mom! This is Brian, a friend of Zach.”

"Good evening Misses Finnegan" Brian smiled.

“Hi Brian, nice to meet you. Umm… listen boys, it’s seven already. I think you better go home Brian, your parents will be worried.”

Brian nodded, grabbed his bag and then followed Ray and his mom out of the room. He had the impression that she was a very nice woman and could not imagine why Ray hated to be home longer than needed until he met his dad.

He had a weird, brown-haired appearance. When he talked, he did it in short pregnant sentences and his eyes stayed focused on his opposite’s face for as long as the conversation went. Brian was glad finally to be able to leave after their introduction, and said good-bye to Ray. In the doorframe, they stood a few seconds longer and talked. Brian watched Ray with pride. Why not? After all he had just a few minutes ago totally claimed that boy as his.

“Stop staring at me, Brian”, Ray whispered. It unnerved him.

“I’m not…“

“Okay, then tell me what I just told you”

“You-… umm…”

“You see? You didn’t concentrate!”

“I did! I concentrated on how you said it! Isn’t the tone more important than the contents?”

“I would have liked it better if you had focused on what I said!”

“Why?”

“Because I just told you I will come to the practice next time”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Under one condition.”

“What is it?”

“We won’t tell the others and we won’t do anything… obvious.”

“I already promised you to keep my mouth shut.”

Ray sighed and smiled sadly. “I thank you. And I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Brian gave Ray a quick kiss before the other one could protest and then turned to leave.

“That was risky, you idiot!”

“No risk, no fun!”

Ray pouted and shook his head. “Idiot”, he murmured again and then shut the door.

“What was that just now?” an angry voice asked from behind him.

Ray’s heart stopped beating for a second. His voice was shaking as he spoke. “W-what d’you mean, dad?”

“I mean that ‘I will come to training next time’-thing!”

Relief. He had not seen the kiss.

“Well, I intended on going there… as I said”

“You will NOT go to the soccer training!”

“But…WHY?” His heart was now beating twice as fast.

“Because, I’m fed up with that rubbish. I don’t feel like listening to the reproaches of you dear uncle any longer!”

What happened today when they had met their aunt and uncle?

“But…“

“Nothing ‘But’! You won’t go, that is easy to understand, right?”

“No! Certainly not! You want me to die from boredom here?”

“Do I need to remind you that it’s been your decision to stay home and not to go to town with us?”

“That would’ve been even more…”

“What do you want to say?”

Horrible… Awful… Dull… were the words that came to Ray’s mind but he did not audibly say them.

“Nothing…” It was no good fighting with his dad. He had lost that battle long ago and did not feel like thinking of it again. For a second, Ray was about to ask for permission at least to watch training for half an hour, but he did not dare. Instead, he went up to his room.

On the last step, he heard his dad’s question. “And what was that about doing anything obvious? You two haven’t done anything… illegal?”

“I don’t think so, dad”

As the door behind Ray shut, his mother appeared next to her husband.

“Let him go. You know how much he loves it”

Her voice was friendly and her lips wore a soft smile until she saw a strong hairy arm lift and a hand hit her hard right in the face.

“I know you support his weird obsessions and I know you think your brother is so very right when he tells me to let the boy play soccer, but I will tell you something now. I’ve grown to think that you only support him because you two love to make fun of my financial situation and me. But you should know that I am not the kind of man you can so easily fuck around with, you understand me? I won’t let the boy get near a football pitch ever again and you and your fucking brother won’t change a thing about that!”

“Why are you so…?“

Again, all she could see was a sun-tanned hand right in front of her eyes before she shut them. Only this time it was closely followed by a breathtaking pain in her stomach when her husband sent her flying through the room.

“Do not disobey me, Elena or you will suffer worse than this!”

Elena watched him leave through the entrance door and sighed in relief, as it slammed shut. Then her eyes wandered upstairs and she closed them thankfully, realising Ray had already been in his room.
He surely had not heard them.

~

Ray’s eyes went wide when he watched his mother fly halfway through the room, sinking to the ground next to the opposite wall. He stopped breathing and did not notice until the urge to vomit became irresistible. He tightly pressed his hand to his mouth. As soon as his mother had left he quickly made for the bathroom.

His dad did not come home for dinner and their mom told him and his sister that he was at their uncle’s house.

Ray noticed that he already knew this specific tone of her voice. Immediately he wondered whether that had been the first time for his dad to hurt her physically. The answer was easy and made Ray feel bad. It was because of him that they had many arguments but now, knowing about which way those arguments could actually take, he was almost killing himself with blame.

On Monday, he made up an excuse for not coming to training so he did not have to tell the others about his dad’s objections.

In the late afternoon, Ray got a phone call from Brian who had asked Zach for his mobile phone number. They spoke about Ray’s health for a while (“You’ve got the flu in summer?”) and then about the training.

Suddenly Ray realised they had been talking for over an hour. “Umm… Brian? You sure your parents won’t go mad when they see we’ve been talking for over an hour?”

Brian remained silent for some seconds and Ray wanted to repeat his question as a shy voice asked, “You don’t want to… talk to me? And meet me?”

“Huh? What makes you think that?” Ray was baffled.

“You didn’t come to training and…” Brian trailed off.

“I already told you I don’t feel well”

“Oh come on, no one gets the flu from one day to another, especially not in summer. You seemed pretty well two days ago!”

The boy sounded hurt and Ray noticed that this hurt him, too. He had been thinking about their kisses the entire day and he just could not get the feeling of Brian’s lips on his own out of his head any more. His mother had asked him if everything was alright since he appeared really distracted. He had blushed furiously. She got suspicious over that. Ray remembered the other thing crossing his mind every now and then.

“Brian, tell me… do your parents know?”

“What?”

“That you are… that you like…”

“That I’m gay?”

“Mmh.”

“No. They don’t care what I am anyways. Could be a monster from another planet, they wouldn't notice”

The indifference in his voice confused Ray. “You don’t care what they will say if they found out?”

“I once was kissing a boy right in front of my dad’s eyes. He didn’t even notice it was a boy. He just said ‘Hi there’ and left us alone”

“Does anyone know at all?”

“Sure, Tom does and few good friends at school. Dave and Jack know. But… I asked them not to tell anyone else, you see?”

Suddenly there was a sad and hurt tone to his voice.

“Is everything alright?”

“Sure…” Another big fat lie and Ray knew. Only he did not know how to get Brian to talk. Despite Ray's own less emotion-flooded surroundings, he usually was not that bad at talking about feelings. His girlfriends had taught him and he was a good student.

“Be honest, Brian!” But, that was certainly not tentative enough.

“Why? Because you re, too?”

“Wha-“

“I told you I don’t believe your flu story, okay?”

“That means you spill if I told you about my flu-thing?”

“Yes, but not now. My parents get mad when I’m too late for dinner. We’ll meet up tomorrow on the football pitch. Ten A.M.“

“That’s not…“

“Why? So you really don’t want to meet me?”

“I do! But…“

“But what?”

“I can’t… leave the house!”
There was a muffled shout from the other end and then Brian hastily said, “Gotta go. You’re coming or not?”

Ray thought about it for a split second and eventually decided there was only one way.

“Alright but we change the time. Football pitch tonight at midnight, okay?”

Brian appeared puzzled at first but then grinned and agreed.

Ray hung up the phone and tossed it onto his bed. Now he needed to prepare everything. He needed his mountain bike that was locked inside a small and dingy house-like hovel behind the house. The key to it was in the kitchen. Ray went downstairs into the kitchen and pretended to be searching for something to drink when his mother entered. He shot her a quick regretful look and wondered what would happen to her if his dad found out he left the house tonight.

When she exited the room, he quickly grabbed the key, went to the backdoor and made his way down the stairs and to the small building that was hidden behind some trees. Ray unlocked the door and was about to get back into the house when he decided to check his bike at first. He wanted to make absolutely sure everything was okay.

Unfortunately, as soon as he wanted to shut the door with a satisfied grin his dad appeared. Moreover, he appeared angry.

“What do you think you’re doing, boy?”

Ray felt his body heat rise and his heart beat sped up. He smiled and hoped it would reach his eyes before he answered.

“Umm… I was about to…” The truth is the best lie after all and so he just adjusted it a little to fit the situation.

“I want to ride my bike a little. You know, get out of the house sometime. Maybe around the lake”

Too many sentences, too short sentences. He will know.

“I see. You’re back here in an hour, boy! You got that?”

He did not know. Ray was dancing inside as he kept his calm face in place. “Got it”

He went back inside to get his bike and as he rode around the lake he congratulated himself that he did not actually have to lie.
When he got back, he stuffed his keys, a flashlight, his mobile phone and some clothes inside his bag and then went down to ask his mother which movie they were planning to watch tonight. She was confused at the question but did not appear to suspect anything funny. She told him they were probably not going to watch TV.

Lucky me, Ray thought, they‘d be going to bed early.

When his little sister went to bed he sneaked into the bathroom to hide his backpack there and then went to bed and pretended to sleep when his mother came in to see if everything was alright. Five minutes later, he looked at his watch and almost got a heart attack. It was eleven already! He needed at least forty minutes to get to the pitch with his bike and he still had to get dressed and his hair done!
Wait a sec. His hair? Why was his hair a thing to be worried about all of a sudden?

He wanted to look good. That was all. He wanted to look goddamn awesome.

Ray grinned. He had never felt obliged to excessively style when going out with girls. They always told him he still looked good after a night of drinking and sleeping on the floor.

He sneaked towards the bathroom and picked up the clothes he had chosen two hour earlier. It had taken him half an hour to decide. Black jeans along with a tight, very dark red shirt (which he had never dared to wear before, a friend of his once had said it looked queer) and a black leather strap around his wrist (he was so proud he had found this, back when his last girlfriend had dragged him out shopping). Then he carefully brought his long dark hair in place. Some strands covered his eyes and Ray decided that he would scratch the next date with his hairdresser. The length was just fine as it was. When he was sure to be done with everything, he eyed himself curiously in the mirror. Not bad, mate, he thought. You look good.

Then he told his reflection with an, as he hoped, sanguine grin, “You’re hot and bi and you have a midnight date”

That last part of the sentence made him flinch. This was a date, wasn’t it? A sudden simper crossed his lips. Without a warning, an old, long forgotten feeling had taken him over. He was nervous again. Like before his very first date. This feeling had a name, right?