Two Boys in Love

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

It was deathly quiet in the hospital room except for the low humming of the machinery, the sound of the oxygen mask, the beeping of the electrocardiograph, and the breathing of the relatives, doctors, nurses, and a Catholic priest, all of whom were gathered around the small figure who lay unconscious in the bed. The window shades were up, and it was a bright sunny day. To me, though, the sunlight looked stark and hideous and insane, like a nightmare in a lunatic asylum. I put my hand over my eyes and wandered over to a couch in the room with my back to everyone, my mouth frozen open in a silent scream. A patient with advanced, late stage cystic fibrosis loses their ability to take oxygen into their lungs. An oxygen mask has to pump air directly into the lungs at a high velocity. The cold, dry oxygen makes frequent applications of lip balm necessary to keep the patients lips from chapping and cracking open. At this stage this continuous blast of oxygen is all that is keeping the patient alive. The lungs, however, are steadily filling up with fluid, and the patient eventually drowns.

Suddenly the electrocardiograph started beeping rapidly and a siren went off. A nurse came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulder. "Come on, it's time to say goodbye." She said as she led me back to the bed.

I was led right up next to the pillow, but my tears didn't allow me to open my eyes to gaze at the figure below. I felt two hands grab and squeeze my shoulders. Across the room two women, one I think was Mom, were sobbing. The priest began administering the Last Rites. The tiny figure made a brief choking noise, the electrocardiograph suddenly made a sustained beep, and then showed a flat line. The relatives around me all burst into tears. Right next to me I could hear my wife scream and start sobbing as she collapsed to the ground. I began to tremble as I opened my eyes. My mouth slowly opened up to full width, and at first a low moan, and then a long sob left my throat, and then a long, teary, anguished wail burst out from me as I looked down upon the dead boy lying in the bed...

...and I was suddenly awake. I lay in my bed panting and sweating from a half remembered nightmare. I tried to remember what was in the dream, but it was fading away fast, leaving behind abstract images of death, grief and despair, and then not even that. A bright flash of lightning and a crash of thunder then shook the house. I looked over at the clock and it said 6:30. I shook off the dream and remembered that I had school this morning. It was close to when I got up anyway, so I got out of bed and took my morning shower as the rain poured outside. I went into the kitchen and fixed myself the same breakfast that I had been having every school day since Kindergarten, two Pop Tarts and a bowl (or two) of cornflakes.

I ran to the bus stop and got there early. I eagerly awaited the arrival of the bus, and felt a wave of joy come over me once it appeared. Once I got to school I rushed right to my desk and sat down. I looked to my right at all the other kids streaming in, and after a few seconds I saw Adam come romping on into the room. I broke into a big grin involuntarily when he walked in. I felt my chest kind of tighten up a little and my stomach was tingling. He looked at me as he walked to his desk and broke into a big grin. After he sat I looked over at him and smiled. My heart was thudding in my chest just at the sight of him. He looked over and smiled at me and we gazed into each others eyes until the roll was called.

During class I tried concentrating on my work, but I kept going over and over in my head what Adam and I had done in my room the day before. I had a raging hard on while I thought about how we kissed and how we touched each other. I would look over at him, with his bowl cut and his blue eyes, and I would want to faint. I didn't see how I was going to be able to get through the year with Adam right there in class sitting next to me.

Shortly before lunch, Adam slipped me a note. "Can I sleep over at your house on Friday?" He wrote. "What about your dad?" I wrote back. "He doesn't have us this weekend." He wrote. "Sure. Call me after school, OK? Or I'll call you." I wrote. I had a boner, and nonstop butterflies the entire morning as I thought about having Adam over. Yesterday he was only over for a couple of hours, imagine what we can do if we have all night, I thought.