Bird Came Down

“Well, I never thought to have a Duncan in my apartment,” Felix said when Wesley got up to use the restroom.

“Actually,” he added as his spatula prodded the shrimp in the skillet, “I never expected to have more than four adult people in this studio again.”

“Do you know what he said?” Joey neared the stove, and then interrupted himself. “That smells delicious.”

“Because it is delicious, now back away.” Felix tipped the skillet over a bowl and emptied it out with all the butter sauce, and then began to put the shrimp back in the skillet to sear them.

As the shrimp sizzled, Felix said, “Now what did he say?”

“When I asked if I should go to school he got really snotty and said, ‘Do you want to be a maintenance man for the rest of your life?’”

Felix, silent, looked at Scott, and Scott looked at him.

Felix turned the shrimp over and said, “Scott, check the rice.”

“You think he’s right?” Joey said while the toilet flushed.

“Of course I think he’s right,” Felix said.

“But you would never have said it… the way he said it.”

They shut up as Wesley entered, and he clasped his hands declaring, “Um hum hum. That smells great.”

“Of course it does,” Felix said, “I made it. Now Wesley, would you get the plates? They’re right over Joey’s head. And Joey, get glasses for the drinks. By the way, Scott, can you be free on Friday night?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“We’ve been invited to dinner. By my new friend Elias, who teaches with me. Our first couple’s dinner.”

Felix turned to Joey. “You can be there too.”

“I leave town tomorrow,” Wesley said.

“No matter,” said Felix, “This time around I believe three will not make a crowd.”

That night, when Joey and Wesley were gone, Felix said, “I suppose you have to leave too.”

“My boys are waiting for me.”

“And you have to go up to Fort Atkins tomorrow.”

Felix let it hang, and then Scott said, “Don’t ask me if you can go. I don’t want you there.”

“I couldn’t go if I wanted to,” Felix said. “I’m a working man.

“But I wish I could go.”

Felix studied the table top and then he said, “I wish it wasn’t happening at all.”

“Oh, I’m glad it is,” Scott said fervently. “I want to get that bitch out of my life.”

“Are you sure you want to take the kids with you, then? To see that bitch?”

Scott laughed here and said, as humorously as he could, “Ah, but Felix, that bitch is their mother.”

He caught Joey’s hairin his hands and pulled his face into his chest, wrapping his thighs around him and running his hands up and down his back.

“Almost,” Joey panted, thrusting again, his face in Wesley’s shoulder, “there.”

Wesley ran his hands down the boy’s sweating back, and pulled Joey in. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth feeling Joey fuck him, feeling Joey deep inside of him.

“I’m gonna come…” Joey warned him.

Wesley had already come against his belly a few minutes earlier and now, with the last few thrusts, Joey made a staggering noise and moaned, “Oh—fuck—” as, pulling back from Wesley, he came, body buckling, his damp head in Wesley’s arms.

The two of them lay side by side on the pallet, looking around the empty house his brother would move into in a few days.

When Joey had finally caught his breath, he turned on his side, reached up, and took the wet cloth from the kitchen island, wiping the semen from his stomach while Wesley got up and went into the bathroom. Joey waited for the water to finish running and said, “You make me feel kind of dumb.”

Panting, Wesley came out, raised a finger and then put it down.

“I don’t mean to. I never mean to. Maybe I’m the dumb one. I keep fucking things up.”

“No,” Joey decided. “I think I feel that way because I am that way, and I feel dumb around so many people. Maybe college is the way.”

“You could give it a try. See how you feel. I mean, I like it.”

Joey shrugged. “I just want to be happy.”

Joey ran a hand over Wesley’s chest.

“I love looking at you,” Wesley said.

“I don’t know why.”

“You’re amazing.”

“I’m not.”

“If you go to school you’ll meet all these hot guys, and I’ll get jealous cause they’ll all see how amazing you are, too.”

“I never feel like I’m enough,” Joey said.

“Neither do I,” Wesley admitted. “Isn’t that funny? Because if we weren’t good enough, neither one of us would be here.”

They both lay down on the pallet in the semi darkness.

Suddenly Joey turned around, threw Wesley down and straddled him.

“And now…” Wesley began, “What are you going to do?”

Joey reached under him and took Wesley in his hands, stroking him.

“Maybe ride the hell out of you?” Joey said, and Wesley immediately went hard. “If we’ve got time.”

“As long as I’m home before five a.m.” Wesley kissed him hard.

Joey laughed, and as he did they both gasped, for he had just began to pull Wesley into him. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

And then Joey’s mouth opened into a small O, and his eyes went round as he pulled Wesley inside of him. As he rode Wesley, the preacher’s son’s eyes rolled back in his head, and his mouth opened in a silent exclamation of exultation.