Part Six

‘…So can I walk beside you…?’

‘FUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKK!’

Darren lost his balance and once more splashed into the shallow water. Spluttering he re-surfaced and wiped the water from his eyes.

‘This is complete madness. Are you trying to get me drowned Jones?’ he enquired peering with mock intensity at Daniel’s smirking face.

Daniel just smiled serenely and patted his board. ‘Again.’

Grumbling Darren climbed aboard again and crouched down in a squatting position as Dan had previously shown him.

Beside him Daniel stood only thigh deep in the water steadying the board with one hand and Darren with the other. ‘Feet a little wider apart.’ He instructed and Darren shuffled around to obey.

‘Ready?’

Darren nodded.

Releasing his hold on Darren but not the board, Daniel watched as Darren teetered precariously and then unceremoniously fell off again.

This time when he surfaced Daniel had hoisted himself up and was sat astride the board. ‘Come here.’

Darren pulled himself on and swung one leg over so that he was sat directly in front on Daniel, his back pressed tightly against his chest.

‘Okay let’s do this in tandem.’

Using his hands as paddles Daniel propelled them out into deeper water. When he figured that they were far enough out to at least be able to catch the end of a wave, he motioned for Darren to lay flat out on the board and positioned his body over him.

‘Just hold on.’

Darren’s hands gripped the board just a little tighter.

Daniel laughed, his laughter reverberating through Darren’s body and causing him to relax, just slightly.

When the next wave hit Daniel placed his hands just ahead of Darren’s and together they were carried along on the force of the water. The board undulating and lifting under them as it’s momentum gathered and then ebbed.

‘Shiiiiiiittt.’ Daniel yelled and the next thing Darren knew he was once more kissing the ocean.

Both men emerged grinning maniacally.

‘Whoa.’ Was Darren’s only comment.

‘Some rush eh?’ Daniel said as he grabbed hold on his board and waded the last few feet to the shore.

Sitting down at the water’s edge he waited for Darren to join him. ‘So?’

‘So that was fucking amazing.’ Darren’s face glowed with the exertion and excitement.

‘Told you you’d like it. We’ll have you surfing yet.’

‘It’s like…it’s like.’ Darren stumbled for the words to describe what he had just experienced.

‘Sex?’ Daniel offered helpfully.

‘Fuck no.’ Darren remembered back to a girl he knew in high-school and the messy failed attempt they had made in the back of his car one night. ‘ It’s a hundred times better than sex.’

Daniel’s face broke into a wide grin. ‘That good?’

Darren turned and faced him raising one hand to tentatively stroke his cheek. ‘Guess I never found the right person.’

Daniel returned the caress and leaning in placed a soft kiss on Darren’s lips, deepening it as he felt Darren’s hands come round and cradle the back of his head.

He sucked languidly on Darren’s tongue, tasting his exhilaration and the salty residue where he had inadvertently swallowed some of the sea water. One of his own hands found it’s way onto Darren’s thigh and crept up to rest hesitantly on the waistband of his swim shorts.

Belatedly realising what he was doing and where they were Daniel shot back as if Darren’s skin suddenly burned to touch.

‘I guess we should head back.’ He murmured as Darren also reluctantly drew back. ‘You hungry?’ he said standing up and running a hand through his half dry hair, ‘I do a mean beans on toast.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

A short while later they were back in the small two-roomed apartment that Daniel called home.

While Darren finished up in the bathroom Daniel opened a can of beans into a pan and carefully balanced four slices of bread under the grill element of his tiny stove.

‘So how come you live here and not…’

‘Not at home?’

Darren nodded. ‘I mean if you don’t mind me asking, tell me where to go if I’m being nosy.’

Daniel just shrugged and turned the toast. ‘What’s to stay at home for? A drunken father and a neurotic mother. No thanks. I’d rather take my chances on my own.’

‘Fair enough.’ Darren conceded not really wanting to pry too much deeper. He sensed that there was something Dan was holding back but figured he would tell him in his own good time if he wanted him to know.

‘Er Dan…’ an acrid smell of burning had caught Darren’s senses.

‘Shit!’ Daniel cursed and whipped the pan off of the stove, dumping it and it’s singed contents in the sink, turning on taps and waving his hands about frantically to dispel the smell of burnt beans. ‘Ermm toast on toast?’

‘How about we grab a burger instead?’ Darren suggested already reaching for his jacket.

Daniel sighed. ‘I think so.’

They retreated to a diner a few doors down and pigged out on burgers and fries all washed down with chocolate milkshakes.

‘Hmm that’s better.’ Darren pushed his plate away and sat back satisfied.

Daniel drained the last of his shake and garnered sullen looks from an elderly couple sat nearby as he sucked the last few dregs up rather too enthusiastically.

By unspoken agreement they returned to Daniel’s apartment where Dan opened two beers and, in the absence of chairs, they ended up sitting side by side on his bed.

‘So what are you hoping to do when you graduate?’ Daniel asked kicking off his shoes and making himself comfortable.

‘What if Uncle Sam doesn’t come knocking first?’ Darren replied trying, and failing, to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

‘Yeah.’ Daniel put his beer down and pulled Darren back to lay in his arms.

‘I want to be a teacher. All those young eager minds just waiting to be filled with knowledge.’

Darren’s voice softened as he spoke about his ambitions, his hopes, his dreams. ‘To know that you are influencing the next generation, shaping them as they start out on their paths.’

Daniel murmured his responses, closing his eyes and just enjoying the sound of Darren’s voice and the close proximity of his body. It felt so good, so right to be holding him like this. Despite what anyone said how could feeling this way be so wrong?

Eventually Darren stopped and simply snuggled in closer, entwining his hands in the ones that embraced him round his waist.

As they lay there in companionable silence the sun was beginning to set, streaking the sky with it’s characteristic orange and gold palette, bathing the room in a soft, warm glow.

‘You know,’ Daniel mused running his fingers lightly up and down Darren’s forearm, ‘there is only one thing better than surfing.’

Darren’s breathing hitched up a notch. Were they back on sex? ‘Oh yeah and just what would that be?’ His hand found it’s way down between them to the front of Daniel’s trousers.

To his surprise Daniel knocked it away and sat up.

‘Surfing at sunset.’