Secrets

Smile Like The Clouds

It was three days after they had arrived in California, and it was a dark, satiny blue night that was halfway covered in clouds. The silvery-gray puffs were illuminated by the moon, passing overhead and covering up the blinking stars every once in a while. Since the floor they were on was at the very top, there were no obstacles to obscure the view of the night or day, and they could see forever in whichever direction they looked. Jasper sat on the bed closest to the glass doors that led to the outside balcony that overlooked the rolling mountains, the green hills, and the twinkling city lights of San Diego. Calvin sat beside him, playing with the hair on the back of his head and watching the skies like Jasper did.

"Did you ever wonder why the stars change color when they twinkle like that?" Jasper asked him. His eyes reflected the starry night sky in the perfectly dark room. It was somewhere around eleven o' clock at night, and they were suppose to be sleeping. But the night spoke softly, and it wouldn't let them sleep until late.

"Literally or metaphorically?"

"Oh come on, you know what I mean," Jasper said, looking at him. Calvin rolled his eyes and looked again out the glass doorway.

"Well...just thinking out loud, I think it's all the rainbows that disappear, I guess. They've got to go somewhere, right?"

"That makes sense," Jasper replied. He took in a deep breath through his nose, closing his eyes. The air that drifted through the open crack in the door smelled fresh and misty, like the dew in the morning. "Smells like rain."

"Yeah," Calvin agreed. He glanced at the clock that sat on the dresser between the two beds in the room. One remained untouched, the one they were sitting on was the only one that had been undone at all. "It's getting late."

"Late," Jasper echoed, his eyes still closed. "Right. Let's go to bed, 'kay?"

"Good idea," he answered, unable to see Jasper in the pitch darkness. "I'll close the curtains."

Jasper nodded as he crawled over to his side of the bed and Calvin hopped off his to shut the curtains. "Not all the way, I like sunlight."

"Alright." He drew them shut just enough to block out most of the moonlight, but open enough to let in light in the morning. He stepped carefully in the dark so he wouldn't run into anything, found the bed, and slid underneath of the sheets next to Jasper. He looked at what he could see of Jasper's face and stared for a moment before kissing him. "Goodnight," he murmured, pulling him in close and wrapping an arm around Jasper's chest.

Jasper laced his fingers in with Calvin's, closed his eyes, and snuggled deep into the fluffy covers and soft mattress. He felt Calvin rest his chin between his head and shoulder, and he could feel his soft breath on his skin as he inhaled and exhaled. It calmed him to be like this, and soon Jasper fell asleep alongside Calvin.

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Jasper was sleeping softly in the deep mattress and the darkness, cuddled close to the blond who slept facing him. Both the sheets and Calvin's arm hugged him, and he could feel the heat radiating and shifting throughout the enclosed space. He was comfortable. He was also half-awake, slowly becoming aware of the very faint drumming above them and the damp smell that was seeping through invisible cracks in the seams of the glass doors. He opened his eyes slightly and could make out a blurred, hazy glow the color of a fresh bruise. It blushed through the rectangle that Calvin had left open in the curtains, and then he opened his eyes a little more to look at a clock. Five twenty-seven A.M. flashed at him in iridescent, green analog numbers. He looked back at Calvin, watching him breathe quietly. Eyes trailing back up to the glass panes and halfway-shut curtains, he heard the rain beckoning him over. It was rare that he ever felt rain, he'd never thought about it before. But something now told him to go feel it, because he'd never really done it. It made sense to him, so he didn't ask questions.