My Summer of Firsts

Chapter 24 - The Significance of Mario Kart

"How come you didn't show up to the barbecue?" I asked when I entered Derek's bedroom the following afternoon. I didn't have the exact measurements on it, but I suspected our entire trailer could fit into his bedroom, if arranged properly. The Hills' house in the hills—I'd punned that to death years ago—was a modern behemoth. A stark white square structure against the curving russet mountains that stretched into the sky just beyond their backyard oasis—which probably required enough water weekly to supply some poor family in a third world country for a month. The back of the house was glass from top to bottom. Being on the back of the house, one entire wall of Derek's room was an enormous window. The blackout curtains were still drawn to block the view. I suspected he hadn't been awake for very long.

He picked up his remote and paused the movie he was watching on the fifty inch TV suspended above his desk. "I was there at the beginning, but I ran into Brittany Johansson from high school. Remember her?"

"Vaguely." I sat on the foot of the bed, facing him.

"She was a year ahead of us in school." Derek said. "She wouldn't give me the time of day back then. But one look at your boy today and she turned into a puddle. I just scooped her up and brought her back here. We had the wildest sex. It was awesome. She did this thing where she put her—"

"Stop! Stop talking. I don't want to hear about that."

"Well, let me just say, that girl's thigh muscles are impressive. I could barely breathe when she had her legs wrapped around—"

"Shut up!" I demanded. "What did I just say?"

"What's wrong?" Derek patted my shoulder. "Upset 'cause your man won't give up the D?"

I rolled my eyes. "Actually, we had sex before the barbecue. And then after the barbecue. Then again, this morning."

Derek barked out a loud, "Ha!" He clapped me on the chest. "Welcome to the other side of virginity, brother. It's a beautiful place. And we're happy to have you."

"You're such an idiot."

"So, how do you guys decide who's the pitcher and who's the catcher? Do you like toss a coin?"

"No." My cheeks were immediately engulfed by flames. "Some people only like doing one or the other. Some like both."

Derek brought his legs up and hung his arms over his knees. "So, which are you?"

"I'm not telling you that!"

"Why not? I told you every detail of my first time?"

"Yeah. Too much detail. I was traumatized. I didn't want to know any of that."

Derek laughed and nodded. He pulled a throw pillow into his lap, picking at the edges. "Remember that time in middle school I put that porn on and you almost threw up when the guy went down on the woman?"

I remembered it too well. It would not leave my memory, randomly cropping up to horrify me all over again. I shuddered. "There were too many closeups."

"That's kinda the point. It's porn. Not a Nicholas Sparks movie."

"Yeah, well, that's pretty much how I knew I was one hundred percent gay and that I could never sleep with a woman."

Derek laughed. "Your face was priceless." Derek opened his mouth and widened his eyes in abject horror, mocking my reaction. "That's pretty much how I knew that you'd never sleep with a woman."

Derek had always been very cool about my sexuality. He never made a big deal about it. When I came out, he just said, "Yeah, okay," and asked if I wanted to play Mario Kart. During the game, he joked that he understood now why I was so good at Rainbow Road. I punched him in the shoulder. He just laughed, and so did I.