Elio walks off the back porch into the knee-high, wet, orange grass in his back yard. There are fireflies. He always thought fireflies were made up. He had somehow made it to fifteen having not seen one. But here they were.
Oliver walks up the back path. He's barefoot. And like twenty-six. Professorial vibes. He's got a light fabric shirt on and it's mostly unbuttoned and the hair on his chest is golden. He takes Elio's hand in his.
Elio steps back up onto the ledge, the stairs up to the back porch. Still, they're not quite the same height. He stands on his tip toes to meet Oliver's eyes.
"How are you?" Oliver says.
"How are you?" Elio smiles and leans in.
Oliver wraps his arms around Elio and lifts so Elio's weight lifts of his feet his toes trace the damp wood of the stair.
Elio presses his head into the blanket of Oliver's chest. There's sweat there but it feels like dew. "I didn't know they were real."
"What?"
"The lighting bugs."
"They're hard to believe."
"You're fishing for compliments."
Oliver smiles and swings Elio around and places him down. He's standing between Elio and the house now and the incandescents on the house's rear wall trace him in yellow light.
"You can't come in. Probably, my parents are home."
"That's okay. Are you afraid of bugs?"
"Why?"
"Follow me." Oliver slides past Elio and lets his hand trace down Elio's t-shirt. He soon disappears into he soft dark on the field's edge.
"Wait!" Elio follows. At the back of the field there is a decaying wood fence. Elio reaches it and jumps over and calls out softly to Oliver. No response. Suddenly he's flying again. He goes to yell but a thick hand covers his mouth.
"Shh." Oliver flops Elio down into the grass. It's less long here and less yellow, not quite soft, still itchy, but it will do. He straddles Elio and descends slowly so he's kneeling over his midsection. He presses his hands into Elio's shoulders.
"I don't know if we should do anything."
"That's okay, we don't have to... Do you want me to get up?"
"No, stay."
