5. Pepper Ketchup & Ice Cream #3
Bridger put his arms behind his head, revealing the small tufts of brown hair beneath them.
Gus could literally feel heat radiating off Bridger’s body.
He had the sudden urge to snuggle in closer.
Gus hated that he wanted to scan more of Bridger’s strong, tanned, shirtless body, but he did. He wanted to absorb it, explore it.
It’s all right there. Right next to me.
As Gus’s eyes slowly drifted toward Bridger’s lake-soaked briefs, he caught himself. He snapped his gaze back up and nodded along to Bridger’s story even though his attention stayed elsewhere. He couldn’t let Bridger catch him ogling.
Why am I such a freak?
Gus forced himself to focus on the purple clouds above and enjoy the sunset’s deep golden rays. After Bridger finished his story, the boys shared a few minutes of calm, comfortable silence on the dock. Bridger sighed peacefully. He turned to peer at Gus, eying him up for an extended period of time.
Gus felt Bridger’s unabashed gaze on him. What’s he doing now? He glanced back at Bridger, confused.
“…What?” Gus asked with a soft laugh.
Bridger looked Gus up and down again. “I still can’t believe Tara talked to you today,” he remarked.
Gus shrugged and stared back up into the tree branches above them.
“You gonna ask her out?” Bridger asked in a more serious tone.
“I don’t know. She’s not really my type,” Gus confessed.
“Not your type?!” Bridger scoffed with a growing smile. “Hot girls aren’t Gus’s type?”
“Well, yeah. They are.” Gus chuckled in nervous defense.
“I’m gonna try to ask out her friend Sophia,” Bridger shared, nodding with determination. “All the guys think she’s hot, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. If we got with Tara and Sophia, that’d be rad. Who’ve you hooked up with?” Bridger inquired with a curious glance.
Gus paused and cleared his throat. “This girl… Lauren… back in Minnesota,” he lied.
“Daaaaaamn. Okay, Gus! What’d you do?” Bridger pressed with excitement, sitting up.
Gus sat up, too. “Oh, you know. The usual stuff…” he replied evasively.
“Did she…?” Bridger raised his eyebrows suggestively and pushed his tongue into his right cheek to simulate a blow job. Gus nodded, going along with the lie.
“Mmmhmmm. Oh, totally,” Gus confirmed.
Bridger smirked slyly. “Did you, you know, finger her?” he whispered.
Gus’s eyes widened in shock, surprised by how forward Bridger was being about sex stuff. He didn’t know what to say, but he felt excited and intrigued.
“Yes. Yep,” Gus replied, continuing the lie.
“Niiiiiice,” Bridger affirmed.
Both boys leaned back on the dock. Gus pondered for a moment before looking back at Bridger.
“Okay. Maybe I will ask Tara out,” Gus said.
“Yeah you will!” Bridger encouraged, rapping on Gus’s chest.
Bridger then pushed Gus into the water and hooted as Gus yelped in fear.
After the two boys had gone home that night, Gus had a late dinner with his father and retired to his bedroom.
He finished coloring his drawings from the burger joint at his desk and eventually slunk under his covers.
As he dropped his shirt near the wooden trunk next to his bed, it fell on the copy of Thrasher he had bought at TJ’s.
Gus picked it up, realizing he hadn’t actually gotten a chance to read it through yet.
He flipped on his bedside lamp and thumbed through the magazine.
On the third page, Gus stopped on an over-sexualized gambling advertisement with a scantily clad woman in a casino. The girl was beautiful but clearly had on heavy makeup and lay almost naked with her back arched uncomfortably on a poker table. Big words above her head asked, WANNA PLAY?
Gus paused as he looked at the woman. He knew Bridger and his friends would be drooling over this girl.
He realized, after a moment, that he should want her as well.
But as Gus thought about what this woman must have been asked to do for this picture, he found his nose naturally scrunching up in annoyance and disgust. He turned the page.
The next spread opened on an image of a shirtless skater flipping in midair at a skatepark.
He wore a backward cap and cool sneakers, and a tank top hung from his back pocket.
His chest looked strong and sweaty, and finished in a little trail of hair that followed his abs down to under his belt…
Gus brought the image closer to his face to examine the guy’s happy trail.
He paused again, catching himself. This image, he knew he shouldn’t like, but he couldn’t help staring.
Gus flipped the pages back and forth between both the woman and the man a few times. He forced himself to stay on the picture of the girl. I can like her better, I know I can. But no. He couldn’t stop himself from flipping the page back to the photo of the man.
He’s just another guy. I just want to skate like him. That’s it. I don’t like him…
Yet Gus breathed in and stared at the skater even deeper. With all the guilt of secret shame, he let his gaze linger and soak up every ripple of the man’s body.
He kinda looks like Bridger…
A jolt of humiliation, embarrassment, and sadness overcame him. Gus didn’t know why. He laid his head back and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he had to squeeze his face tightly so as not to let tears fall out. Gus slammed the magazine shut and tossed it away.