Love Unknown

It was dark. It was cold. The night felt like any other spring one should. The days warmed the earth with the light of the sun, but by the time the moon shone in the black sky, the heat was gone. Except in that tiny little clubhouse.

The clubhouse had not been used in years. They had grown too old, matured too greatly for that. What was once a refuge for their boyhood dreams and shenanigans was now just a useless pile of wood somewhere in the trees of that large estate the Martins owned. Except for tonight.

Tonight it was being occupied by the boys, now seventeen years of age, as they prepared themselves. There was a lot less room than either had remembered, but they were still able to fit inside with a relatively large amount of space left empty.

Chris sat in the far right corner. His one knee was brought up to his chest, his arms reaching around the leg to grab a hold of his shoelaces. Unlike most other days, Chris was not sporting his dirty trainers, but instead he wore sophisticated black dress shoes. When the laces were tied, he sprung up and walked to the middle of the space.

“All right, Jonny,” he said, rubbing his hands together nervously. “Teach me how to dance.”

“What is it exactly that you want to learn?” Jonny asked, stepping forward as well and scratching the back of his neck with uncertainty. Chris had called on him for help, but he was not much more schooled in the area than Chris was.

“Any dance, please,” Chris begged, his big, blue eyes wide and hopeless. In all the years that Jonny had known Chris, the color and passion in Chris's eyes had never been so intense as they were at that particular moment. Jonny nodded calmly.

“I could teach you to... slow dance.” Jonny shrugged, feeling less worthy of the task placed upon him than he had before. “That's about all I know.”

“That's good enough.” Chris held his arms out as if to tell Jonny to just do what he had to. Jonny hesitated, then took yet another step forward, and another, until the tips of their shoes touched. He reached out his hands, and placed one on either of Chris's hips.

“Right, so...” Jonny fumbled in his search for words; his confidence was almost entirely diminished. It was not that he did not want to look like an idiot in front of Chris, rather he did not want to teach Chris to look like an idiot and then be responsible for any and all possible repercussions.

“Wait,” Chris interrupted, pulling his arms back a little, “aren't you being the girl? Shouldn't I have my hands on your waist?”

Jonny wanted to smack himself in the forehead right about them. How could he be so senseless? “Oh, yeah. I forgot,” he said, trying not to let on that he just wanted to go home.

“Whatever, it doesn't matter,” Chris quickly said. He thrust his arms forward again, this time resting them on Jonny's shoulders. “Is this right?”

“Yeah, it's fine,” Jonny told him. At least he was teaching Chris what might have been the simplest dance of all. But Jonny still did not think himself apt to tutor Chris. “OK, so then we just start...”

Chris moved his feet a little in a clumsy, haphazard way. But at least he was moving. Jonny shifted, too, and soon it seemed like they were rocking to some sort of rhythm. Then Chris took a step and made the space between himself and Jonny impossibly smaller.

One of his feet was to the left of Jonny's right foot, and the other was in between both of Jonny's feet. Chris repositioned his arms so they encircled Jonny's neck, and soon their chests were pressed together.

And then something happened that had never happened before to either of them. There was some sort of spark, a jolt, and they both felt it. The electricity coursed through Chris's veins and into Jonny's; they both breathed shakily into each other's ears.

“Jonny, do you feel that?” Chris asked.

Jonny bit his lip and mumbled, “Mm-hmm.”

“What do you think it means?” Jonny made another noise to indicate that he did not know. Chris closed his eyes and brushed his cheek against Jonny's. “Whatever it is, I don't think I want it to stop.”

“Me neither,” Jonny whispered. His fingers curled tightly around Chris's waist. Chris breathed deeply, and, pressing his lips together, he lightly kissed the edge of Jonny's ear.

They were not moving anymore; both boys stood perfectly still, only allowing their chests to rise and fall as the heavy oxygen flowed through their systems.

“This is much better than dancing,” Chris muttered, finally allowing the tiniest bit of motion as he gently smoothed down the hair laying against the back of Jonny's neck. Jonny moved his hands, too, so that they were on Chris's back. He even pulled Chris closer, trying to eliminate fully the space between their bodies.

“Chris, I think...” Jonny did not finish his sentence, but he did not have to. Chris pulled back enough to pierce through Jonny with his intensely blue eyes, and to find the passion in Jonny's green ones as well. It was there, plain for him to see, and he said the rest of Jonny's words by locking their lips together.

It was a thousand times what they already felt. Chris was surprised at how easily it all came to him, from letting his fingers brush through Jonny's hair to slipping his tongue into Jonny's mouth. He had barely ever done any of this stuff with girls, but his inexperience did not seem to matter and his instinct just kicked in. Jonny met him with an equal force, an equal intuition, and for several minutes they just stood there, kissing, until there was a knock somewhere in the distant background.

“Chris!” a woman's voice called. “Mum says you've got to come in now, it's awfully late!”

Chris rested his forehead against Jonny's. With his thumb he traced Jonny's bottom lip, trying to catch his breath but finding it incredibly difficult to do so in the presence of the boy he had only known prior as his best friend, but who would now and forever mean so much more to him.