The Perfect Memory
[Memory, Summer Break Before Senior Year, Late June]
“I challenge you to a duel, my good sir.” Brad pointed the curved branch he had uncovered in the sand at Alexander, who remained still, his hands in his pockets, examining his opponent with amused deference.
“Are you a pirate or a gentleman?”
“Can’t I be both?” Brad asked, seemingly curious about the answer, while examining his improvised weapon with a little frown.
“Not at the same time,” Alexander replied.
Lyn preferred to play the role of a simple witness, enjoying the way the waves broke along the shore, caressing his ankles. He had never told his friends, but it was the first time he was seeing the ocean like this; like someone who felt free of conventions and inhibitions and could enjoy a perfect day with his friends by the beach.
The place was well hidden behind a tall dune covered in sparse grass. According to Brad, it was one of his big discoveries; his friend bragged about this spot ending up on a list of hidden gems in the future. Lyn hoped that wouldn’t come to pass. Even the traces of his naked feet in the wet sand intruded upon the pristine place, but they would be washed away soon.
The sun was up in the sky, but none of them felt the heat. A gentle breeze made it bearable, and it filled Lyn’s heart with so much joy he just couldn’t hold it in.
But he could. Even this sensation of being full and wanting to laugh and shout from the top of his lungs was enough to make him happy.
A few feet away from him, Alexander picked up a piece of sun-bleached driftwood and held it, pointing at Brad with aristocratic elegance. He wore loose-fitting clothes for a change and was barefooted, yet he still managed to look like he belonged in rooms with high ceilings painted centuries ago.
Lyn couldn’t get enough at staring at him for some reason. Maybe because he felt so happy and free.
“Well?” Alexander asked, following Brad’s moves with his eyes, without moving an inch.
While Alexander stood erect and waited for his opponent to make his first move, Brad was the very definition of chaotic energy. He emitted guttural sounds, throwing his weapon from one hand to the other, lowering himself as if he was getting ready to pounce.
And pounce he did. Lyn laughed out loud as Brad tried his damnedest to land one hit on Alexander, who parried or dodged, gracefully moving out of the way at the last moment every time.
“Come on, Brad!” he hooted, cupping his hands around his mouth. “You can do it! I believe in you!”
“Lynton, don’t you think it’s an imbalanced duel if you’re only cheering Bradley on?” Alexander provoked him, without throwing him even one look, focused as he was in besting Brad at this duel-thing.
“True, true,” Lyn agreed. “Okay, Montgomery, show us what you got!” He clapped his hands, laughing. “Show us how many fencing lessons your old money family bought you!”
“Hmm, low-key insulting me, Lynton? You know I will get back at you later. The water is only a few feet away,” Alexander warned him, while a faint smile curled the corners of his lips.
That only made Lyn snicker harder. “Come on,” he drawled, already too caught up in his witty jokes to care. “Show us all that expensive wrist action--”
“Wrist action?” Brad stopped to give Lyn a grin and a wink. Shameless as he was, he made a suggestive gesture with his hand.
Lyn bit his bottom lip hard, while blood rushed to his cheeks. “Hey, you’re making it dirty! I’m talking about swordplay!”
Alexander took advantage of Brad’s temporary lack of focus to hit him over the shoulder with his piece of driftwood.
“Swordplay.” Brad guffawed and jumped to hit Alexander again only to miss him by an inch. “Your Majesty, are you truly willing to show Lyn your swordplay? What will your posh folks think of all that?”
“I’ll make sure to show it to him without any audience,” Alexander played along, much to Lyn’s horror.
He even stole a look at Lyn and winked.
Alexander freaking Montgomery III, winking!
Clearly, all that sun and water and freedom were going to their heads.
Lyn covered his face, moaning in despair. “Am I the only one around here who doesn’t think about touching his dick all the time?”
“Yeah,” came Brad’s obvious answer.
“Yes,” came Alexander’s surprising reply.
“You two,” Lyn protested some more. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“You did, and it’s like the dirtiest thing I’ve ever heard from your mouth,” Brad clamored with delight. “Look, Lyn, look! Don’t you want to see more of Montgomery’s famous wrist action?”
Lyn succumbed, falling to his knees, making an entire show of how he regretted ever opening his mouth. Still, he peeked at his friends’ duel, which was only getting more and more frantic. When Brad ended up on his back, breathing hard, with Alexander standing tall and pointing at his opponent with his piece of wood, he just kept on looking.
“Do you yield?” Alexander asked, politeness personified.
“Do I have a choice?” Brad moaned.
“You do, but I feel like swimming after all this physical exertion, and I believe you do, too.”
“Right on point, Your Majesty,” Brad said, accepting his friend’s hand and pulling himself up.
Still, he grabbed his ‘weapon’ and touched Alexander’s shoulder with it lightly before running away, laughing and undressing, heading toward the waves.
“I win!” Brad shouted.
“That so didn’t happen,” Alexander said, but his face was all a smile. He dropped his driftwood and began to unbutton his shirt. He stopped at Lyn’s side. “You’ll have to spell out for me later what sort of swordplay you had in mind, Lynton.”
Was self-combustion possible? Because Lyn believed that would be his only salvation at that point.
“Are you coming?”
Lyn hesitated. He looked at Brad, waving at him from the heart of the waves, shouting words stolen by the wind.
“I think I’m good here,” he said, grasping his elbow with his other hand.
“I’ll hold you,” Alexander said, letting his hand brush slowly along Lyn’s arm until he had no chance but to accept it.
Alexander’s hand was rough and safe around his. Lyn walked toward the waves, without looking back or wondering, as he usually did, what he was doing.
***
“It’s a miracle all our clothes are dry,” Lyn remarked out loud. “We almost look presentable.”
“You’d look presentable wearing a potato sack, Lyn. Although you might iron it first,” Brad teased him and pulled him close to throw one arm over his shoulders.
“I believe this calls for a memento,” Alexander intervened, pulling out his phone. “Let’s do it. Group photo.”
“Hell yeah,” Brad agreed right away, grabbing Lyn’s shoulders harder. “We need something to remember my win for all eternity.”
Alexander snorted. “What win?”
“Lyn, we’re two against one,” Brad insisted. “If you say I won, and I say I won, then His Majesty--”
“Would still be the winner,” Lyn continued. He nudged Brad in the ribs. “It’s noble to accept defeat graciously, you know?”
“Oh, okay, if that’s what you say,” Brad drawled, pouting for show but not for long. “I, Bradley Foster, hereby accept that His Majesty the third of his name or something like that, beat me into submission using nothing but a piece of driftwood and his amazing wrist action which Lynton Calloway is just dying to see without an audience.”
“I am not dying to see anything,” Lyn protested, only making Brad guffaw louder.
Lyn found himself crowded into the middle, while Alexander raised his arm to capture their little perfect moment together. He stared ahead, grinning not because he was getting his picture taken but because of all the happy feelings that had stayed with him all afternoon. He felt Brad’s lips on his cheek just as the camera shutter clicked.
“Hey,” he protested. “I bet you ruined it! Alexander, let me see.”
Lyn grabbed Alexander’s phone and stared at the picture. He saw himself. That was all his eyes noticed and his mind registered for a moment. How happy he looked. And then, of course, the proof of Brad’s sneakiness. His friend had his hair all in spikes from not being completely dry, and he kept his eyes closed as his lips pressed against Lyn’s cheek.
His eyes moved to Alexander, the other guy in the picture. He wasn’t looking at the camera, either. Instead, his eyes slid sideways to Lyn, a faint smile painted on his lips, the kind that told the world the one smiling had secrets no one knew, all of the tender kind.
Lyn scoffed to hide the new wave of emotions crashing over him. “You guys,” he complained, “you both ruined it. We need to take another one.”
Alexander took his phone back from Lyn with one swift move. “No, we don’t. It’s perfect as it is.”
Brad’s kiss lingered, warm and steady, on Lyn’s cheek. But his eyes met Alexander’s, capturing in that moment a truth that might soon be forgotten.
No, it wouldn’t be, Lyn decided. It might sink for a while, buried beneath lectures and textbooks and whatnot. But it would rise to the surface again and count the most when everything else would stop counting.
TBC
Author's note: Thank you guys for reading :) Confession time: I listened to Ed Sheeran's Photograph an unhealthy number of time while cooking this chapter...
@Derek - the ending is in sight now :) Next time, it will be all Lyn and Alexander! (And then the well-deserved epilogue)
@Buchanan - I hope you learned to live with onions close-by :D Thank you!
@FCW Reading - yep, Brad really came forward! He messed up in the past in his own way... and someone needed to pull Lyn and Alexander back together!
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