The Naked Club
Date: 2015-07-01T04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Parenting & Relationships; Teenagers; Teen & Young Adult; Literature & Fiction; Social & Family Issues; LGBT Issues
Description: As if finding a hidden fort in the woods behind my house wasn’t cool enough, I discover my favorite friend Mitchell, who recently moved away, lives just on the other side of the woods. Things get interesting when my cousin Ryder convinces me to make this fort the Naked Club, inviting friends over to play in the buff. But when Kent, a boy a year older from my middle school, does the unspeakable, things will never be the same. Another installment to Russell James' Nakedseries, this story delves into the mind of a 12- almost-13-year-old who grapples with personal secrets and seeks direction for h

The

Naked

Club

Russell James

Copyright © 2015 Russell James

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1514383659

ISBN-13: 978-1514383650

DEDICATION

To those who dare to be honest and free.

1

SIX YEARS OLD AND NAKED

Six years old and naked, I sprang through the public fountain, my heart racing and mouth wide open. I tasted the dirty water shooting out of the slick, rubber-surfaced in random spurts, making every step wonder and frightening. Reaching the end of the wet area, I U-turned and went back for more. Water launched at me. I screamed, arms out, legs hopping.

I reached the fountain’s center. My four-year-old cousin Ryder stood there as naked as me, dancing in place above a small circle that burst water at fast intervals at his butt. He squealed with each blast of water. I laughed at him.

I raced past him and skipped through the ongoing spurts. Plopping down, I sat with my knees spread and bottoms of my feet touching. A round water spout on the ground spat globs of water at regular intervals straight up into the air. The water stopped. I inched my butt forward so my shriveled penis and testicles hovered directly over the spout. The globs returned, splashing against my privates. I screamed, excited at the onslaught.

I rolled onto my stomach, felt the pressure pushing up against my belly. I laughed uncontrollably and rolled onto my back.

Standing above me stood another boy. He was shirtless with a Bugs Bunny swim suit and messy, dirty blonde hair.

I sat up shielded the sun with a hand to my forehead. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he echoed. He looked close to my age, maybe a year older.

Ryder yelled and raced past, behind this boy. He looked at my cousin his shoulder. Then returned his focus to me. Or really, my privates.

I looked at them and felt the sudden urge to cover up. But I didn’t. I looked up at him.

He had an excited look in his wide eyes. He shot a look to the side, through the blasts of water. I couldn’t make out what or who he was looking at. He returned his eyes to me, took a deep breath, and yanked off his suit. He tossed them into the air and they seemed to disappear.

I looked at his naked body up and down. Slowly, I stood. We giggled at each other.

I ran off into the water and the boy followed.

We took turned chasing each other. I’d leap. He’d leap. He’d jump and slapped his butt. I’d copy him. Everything we did was fun. Everything made us laugh.

I raced around the parameter. My feet slid over the slick ground at the sight Mom and Aunt Dee’s stern faces. They looked upset, but they weren’t mad at me.

I tried to stop so quickly, my feet slipped forward and I fell, butt smacking the wet ground.

Mom said, “Oh. You okay, Drew?”

I squinted from the bright sun and nodded.

Next to them stood a police officer. He wore shorts, a hat, and belt with walkie-talkie and other dark, clipped items. He held the handlebars of his bicycle that leaned toward him. His face appeared just as stern and he turned to me the second I hit the ground. “You’ll need to put on some clothes, boy.” His voice sounded rough like my grandpa’s who smoked constantly.

I got to my feet and brushed off the stinging sensation from my butt. I looked to Mom and Aunt Dee.

Mom swung a hand toward me. “But they’re having fun.”

“Sorry,” the man said. “No nudity.”

I swept my hands over my privates.

Aunt Dee said, “They’re kids. What harm is it?”

The officer wiggled at finger at Aunt Dee. “It makes people uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable? Really?” Aunt Dee shook her head. She had the same reddened, frustrated look she had when talking on the phone with Uncle Billy, Ryder’s dad. “I don’t understand how anyone could be uncomfortable seeing a natural human body.”

“Madam.” The officer straightened himself and his bicycle. He looked like he was trying to make himself appear taller. He was about an inch shorter than Aunt Dee. “If you continue to escalate this, I’ll be forced to ticket both boys.”

“Ticket?” Aunt Dee huffed her chest. “You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re six and four.”

“Exactly,” the officer said. “That’s too old. If they were toddlers, maybe…”

“So you get to decide who’s too old to play in a fountain? What makes you the authority?”

Mom touched her sister’s arm. “Dee. Please calm–”

“Calm? Are you hearing this? Besides, there are other kids naked.” She swung her arm out toward the water.

On the other side of the fountain, the boy I had just made friends with appeared to be getting scolded by his parents. A fat woman struggled to work the Bugs Bunny swim suit onto his feet while an older man pointed and made deep-throaty sounds that I couldn’t hear over the water.

The officer next to us said, “I’ll speak to them later. As for you–”

“Us nothing!” Aunt Dee jabbed a finger into the officer’s chest.

The officer inched back, nearly dropping his bike. “Calm down, madam.”

I squeezed my penis, feeling a sudden discomfort.

Ryder yelled and slammed into my back.

I stumbled and straightened.

Ryder laughed and raced back into the water.

I returned my attention to the boy. He was staring at me with a sad look, his mother still struggling with his legs and his bathing short’s inner webbing.

Aunt Dee yelled something while the officer busily scribbled in what looked like a narrow notebook. His bike now rested against his hip. The officer yanked out the paper he was writing on and handed it to Aunt Dee.

She grabbed it with both hands and read it. “Two hundred dollars?” she screamed. “You’re insane!”

I approached Mom from behind. “Mommy?” I tapped her back.

“What is it, Drew?”

“Uh…” I looked at Aunt Dee and the officer. “Um. Are Ryder and me in trouble ‘cause we’re naked?”

She shook her head, combing a hand through my wet hair. “No. This isn’t your fault.”

“Do we need to put clothes on?”

She breathed, looking to her sister. “Not anymore.”

“How come Aunt Dee is mad?”

She looked at me. “Because we live in a world that doesn’t see nudity the way we do.”

Aunt Dee kept looking at the piece of paper, shaking her head and grumbling to herself.

Meanwhile, the officer rode off down the boardwalk, passing the boy and his parents. The boy now had both his shorts and a shirt on. A bunch of girls older than him and little boy Ryder’s age surrounded him, all holding ice cream cones. The boy kept looking over this shoulder toward me. They dragged him away, yanking on his arm.

I stared at him still wondering what we did wrong.

2

THE DISCOVERY

Six years later, I stood inside a tree house fort I didn’t know existed in the woods behind my neighborhood. The layered two-by-fours, plywood, nails, and screws told me this hidden fort was once sturdy and well-built. But the weathered boards and fallen branches crisscrossing the roof and supports showed time had weakened the structure. Not knowing this thing was even here, I had no idea how old it was, though it seemed older than me.

The fort was a good size, considering it rested a good fifteen feet above the ground. Two trees supported it, both oaks with wide, flaring branches. Good climbing branches that’d beacon any kid with the desire of tree climbing, me included. The fort had a single square room, about twenty feet on all sides. A hinged square door at the center of the floor opened to the rope ladder I had climbed to get inside.

From the outside the fort was barely visible, dark and completely covered in thick lattice of branches and leaves. Inside, holy cow. There were elaborate purple sheets draped over the walls, which themselves had a strange tan wallpaper. There was a desk and a small table and a book case and a mattress. Everything was layered in dust and dirt and some things like the bookcase were splintered and cracked. It looked as if the inside was a beautifully decorated room that was trashed with a fight or two and left alone for years.

I grabbed the frame of the only window. Though mostly obstructed with branches full of late summer leaves, I could make out the second story roofs of a couple houses in my neighborhood.

I heard a grunt and squeak of the floorboard. I looked to the square entrance at the room’s center and watched my ten-year-old cousin Ryder struggle his way up. He wriggled on his bare belly along the floor until he was fully inside. He stood and I felt the room wobble, but just slightly. The room still seemed safe enough to walk around. But I wouldn’t have wanted many more people other than him and me before we attached a few more planks here and there to steady its sway.

“Wow,” Ryder said, his eyes wide. He was shirtless, wearing only shorts and sandals. His elbows, knees, and belly were dark with dirt. Though he looked nothing like me, Ryder and I were as close as brothers. At twelve, I was pale and thin with stick-like arms and legs and freckled face. Ryder was thin as well, but there was something fuller about his appearance. Plus his hair was big, dirty blonde, and fluffy while my dark brown hair was boy-short and usually combed.

I approached him and wiped down his front with my hand, knocking off as much filth as I could. I smelled my hand. Ryder had a particular odor I found appealing. I breathed and said, “Yeah. I can’t believe it either.”

“How’d it get here?”

I shrugged and sat on the mattress that lay on the floor. The springs made a funny boing-boing-boing sound and the sides coughed out dust. “Obviously, someone built it.”

Ryder looked around and stuck a finger in his belly button. When deep in thought, his fingers often squirmed around his body like he didn’t know what to do with them. He stepped up to one of the purple sheets draping the wall and rubbed his hand against it. “Think it’s a hundred years old?”

I snuffed. “It’s not that old. I was thinking, like, fifteen.”

“How can you tell?”

I pointed to the wallpaper. “Looks like something our parents had before I was born. Same style.”

Ryder gave me a weird look.

“What?” I asked.

“I gotta pee.”

“Now? Well, climb back down the rope ladder.”

He looked at the door. “It’s too far.” He spun. “There a bathroom up here?”

“It’s not that big, dummy.” I stood from the mattress. I felt the floor sway. “Just pee out the window.”

I approached the opening with Ryder. The window itself was just a rectangular hole in the wall, no glass or actual framing other than wood.

Ryder dropped shorts down to his feet and stepped out of them.

“No underwear again?” I smiled though I wasn’t surprised.

He showed off his broad smile. Ryder often came up with various reasons to get naked. In fact, I bet he somehow planned this out. Probably downed a bunch of water and only put on shorts with the hope that he’d have to pee and be “forced” slip out of them somewhere in the woods.

He stood at the window and I pushed his butt so his penis extended as far as it could to prevent him from drizzling down the outside of the fort. I peered over his shoulder and watched his spray of pee launching out over the branches and splashing against leaves.

The back of Ryder’s wild hair extended just past his shoulders and a leaf stuck out the side. I plucked it out.

In the middle of the pee, Ryder said, “There’s a boy looking at me.”

“Uh?”

“A boy. Down there.”

I focused past the leaves and scanned the forest floor. I opened my mouth to ask Ryder where this boy was, then I saw him, dark blue shirt and shorts, buzzed hair. He stood next to a tree looking straight up at us. He looked tall, though it was hard to tell from our angle. Probably thirteen or fourteen years old.

Ryder stopped peeing but didn’t move.

I asked, “You done?”

Two more squirts of pee shot out. He flicked his penis to knock the last of the pee out. “Okay. Done.”

I stopped pushing at his butt and Ryder stepped aside, allowing me to stick my head out the window. I looked down to the boy, but he was gone. I called out, “Hey! Hey, down there!” I waited no response. No movement.

Ryder stuck his head out. “Who was he?”

“I don’t know.”

I stepped back into the room. Ryder followed. He picked up his shorts from the floor and played with his penis as he looked up to me. I pulled at my chin and gave my head a sweep of the room. “Let’s head home. Dinner’s soon and I don’t wanna be in the woods after dark.”

“What about the fort?”

“We can come back tomorrow. Clean it up. Reinforce the floors, the walls.”

“What about the boy? You think this might be his fort? What if he comes back and–”

I touched his shoulder. “Relax. It’s nobody else’s fort. Look at it. No one’s been up her in years.”

I looked to the window. “We found it first. If the boy comes back, we’ll have to defend it.”

Ryder gave me a weak smile.

I felt the same.

3

TRUST ME

Penny was waiting for me on the front step that led to my front door. She wore her typical garb, jeans, Converse shoes, and a yellow one-piece skirt and top. Her mismatched wardrobe seemed to fit her personality, a rough-and-tumble tomboy.

She stood as Ryder and I approached, her fists digging into her hips. “I’ve been waiting for a whole hour, Andrew Hillibrant.”

“Why?” I asked.

She crossed her arms and shifted her weight from her left to right, as if undecided how she should stand. “This is how you treat your girlfriend? Honestly. I have no idea why I put up with you, Andrew Hillibrant.”

Getting the first and last name treatment was never good coming from Penny, especially twice in a row. I stood in front of her, not knowing how to respond. She looked very boy-like when she got mad, her face all crunched up and her forehead creased.

She tapped her foot. “So?”

“So what?”

“So where were you?”

I looked at Ryder, hoping he knew well enough not to mention the fort to her. He stood next to me with a curious expression like he was interested how this little skirmish was going to unfold. I tossed my hands in the air. “I didn’t know we were planning to meet up.”

“You didn’t…” She tightened her crossed arms. “You don’t even remember, do you?”

“What?”

“It’s our anniversary today, dummy.”

“Uh?”

“Nine months. We started going out nine months ago. I told you I’d be at my grandma’s this morning. So this evening was the only time we could hang out to celebrate.”

“Celebrate?” I looked at Ryder. He was smiling now. I looked at Penny. “Doing what?”

“Well… uh… I…” She mounted her hands on her hips and looked back and forth as if looking for the answer. “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “You’re such a boy.”

“Well, duh.” I walked around her and into the house.

She followed me with Ryder behind her.

I stepped into the living room.

Mom leaned around the wall from the kitchen. “Oh, good. It is you. Dinner’s almost ready. Clean up. Oh, Penny. You joining us?”

As she always did, Penny instantly transformed from tomboy to girly girl in two strides, gently swaying her hips the way girls do. “Why, thank you Mrs. Hillibrant. I’d love to join you for dinner. After all, it’s Drew and my nine month anniversary today.”

“Really? Congratulations.”

“May I use your phone so I can ask my mother?”

Mom pulled her cell phone from her pocket and tossed it to Penny. The second Mom ducked back into the kitchen, Penny stuck her tongue out at me.

Ryder laughed.

I frowned.

This is going to be a long dinner.

#

That night, I stood in the bathroom naked my tooth brush dangling out of my mouth. My focus southward. I poked and prodded my penis and testicles, hunting for hairs. None. I knew they were coming any day how. They had to be. I’d already seen a couple boys in the locker room with fuzz building on or around their balls. The boys at my school were generally modest, shielding themselves within towels and anything they could wrap around themselves, but occasionally a slipup would happen and I’d steal a glimpse. One kid got his towel yanked off of him and the surrounding kids laughed at him for being hairless, calling him a “late bloomer”. I knew they’d call me this if ever they saw me naked with my narrow shoulders, my sunken chest, my boney arms and legs. And of course, no hair. I knew manhood was approaching, but it sure didn’t look like it.

Dinner was as painful as I guessed it would be, but only for me. Everyone loved Penny. Mom loved her. Aunt Dee loved her. Even Ryder loved her. To me she was annoying. I’m not entirely sure why or even how we started going out. One minute we were killing time in the back of homeroom talking about who was going out with whom. The next minute, she was telling everyone we were going out. Every time someone stopped me and asked, “You and Penny going out?” I’d respond with a, “I guess.”

Throughout dinner Penny and Aunt Dee did their typical male-bashing banter. With Aunt Dee’s lack of a success with husbands and men in general, she always enjoyed going on and on about how all guys were pigs. Penny seemed to enjoy this just as much. Mom kept quiet, probably still a little sensitive from Dad walking out recently. To Ryder, their rants seemed to be as amusing as cartoon characters getting their guts ripped out. He sat there and giggled. I didn’t like any of it. Aunt Dee was far better when she wasn’t verbally destroying anyone with a penis.

Steam poured out the top of the shower’s closed curtain and I heard the squeak of Ryder’s bare feet against the bath-shower floor. I looked to the shower and saw Ryder’s shadow against the curtain.

Ryder and Aunt Dee had lived with Mom and I off and on our entire lives. Aunt Dee would move into a boyfriend’s house until they’d fight and she’d move back. She and Ryder were living in their own apartment for a couple years until Dad moved out a week ago. His timing was perfect. My friend Mitchell and his brothers had just moved to a new house. When I lost my friends, I gained a brother, more or less.

I stared at my naked body in the mirror that slowly grew foggy, my toothbrush sticking out the side of my mouth like a cigarette. I thought about Mitchell. He was cute, very cute. I liked him more than I had ever liked a boy before. I got to spend some time with him at camp toward the beginning of summer vacation. But he practically ignored me, having made close friends with another boy there. Mitchell even admitted to me that he and this other boy “played doctor” alone in one of the cabins. I hated to admit that I was jealous, but I was. I tried to make similar friends with a tall Texan boy named Dakota. One evening as we sat around a big bonfire, I threw a blanket over my and Dakota’s laps and tried to get him to touch my penis. I grabbed his hand under the blanket, but he yanked it back. He eventually told me in so many words that I was nice but he wasn’t interested in any of my shenanigans. I knew I was lucky. Dakota could have made a big deal over me acting so gay. He could have told the other boys and made fun of me. But he didn’t.

I closed my eyes and remembered all the boys from camp showering together, water pouring over our slick bodies. I remembered Dakota and his huge penis, and Mitchell’s and his cute small one. I remembered Mitchell’s awkward smile and the way he twisted his arms in front of chest as we stood there, his shower next to mine, seeing each other naked for the first time.

In the bathroom, the shower’s water stopped and the curtain flew open. I opened my eyes to see Ryder standing dripping wet, his normally fluffy hair flattened by the water, some of it long enough to touch his shoulders. He grabbed a towel and wiped his face. His face lit up, eyes as big as quarters. “Feeling happy?” he asked me, giggling.

It took me a moment to decipher what he meant. I looked down and saw my penis fully erect, hovering over the counter. I pushed it down and tried to laugh, but it bounced back up.

I leaned forward and spit the foamy toothpaste into the sink. When I came back up, Aunt Dee’s smiling face in the mirror scared me to death. I slapped both hands over my stiff penis and hunched my shoulders forward. “Aunt Dee…” I whined.

She shook her head. “My, my, my. Someone’s growing. You’ll be bigger than your dad in no time.”

Ryder flung his towel over his shoulders, his penis bouncing back and forth.  “Did Uncle Blake have a big dickie?”

“Ah,” she shrugged and wiggled her hand as if to say, “Not really.”

I said, “Would you two stop? That’s my dad you’re talking about.” I didn’t bother asking how Aunt Dee even knew about the size of my dad. “And it’s called a penis, Ryder. Not a dickie.”

“I like calling it a dickie.”

“Anyhow,” Aunt Dee winked at me and tapped my nose. “You should be proud.” She stepped out of the bathroom.

I slammed the door shut and sighed. “Geesh.” This was the other side of Aunt Dee. During dinner, with Penny rooting her on she hated everything related to guys. Now with Penny gone, she was like this, making embarrassing compliments about my penis.

Ryder hopped out of the shower and hung up his towel. He sang a made-up song, swinging his butt back and forth with every beat. “I’m just swinging my derrière up in the air like I do not care.”

I laughed.

He grabbed his toothbrush. He dabbed some toothpaste on the bristles and jammed it into his mouth.

I turned on the faucet and leaned my head into it, drinking the water.

“Drew?”

I came up for air. “What?”

He popped out the toothbrush. “How we gonna get wood for the fort? You know. To fix it up like you said?”

I stepped over to the closed toilet lid where I had laid clean underwear and a shirt. “I figured we’d take some from Mr. Eddie’s backyard.”

“He won’t mind?”

I picked up my clothes, lifted the toilet lid, and started peeing. “We’ll leave him a few bucks under his welcome mat.”

Mr. Eddie Edwards lived a couple houses down from our house. He was a kind neighbor, but he was little nutty. He did odd jobs around the town like building sheds and repairing fences, and I knew he’d have a bunch of extra wood lying around in his backyard. Most people paid him by dropping off cash under his welcome mat. Hardly anyone talked to him other than asking him to do stuff. Once he got really sick and Mom and I dropped off a pie and bottle of medicine outside his door. We didn’t knock, just left it there and walked off. By the time we reached the sidewalk, I peered over my shoulder and the stuff we had left was already gone.

Ryder spit out the toothpaste. “How many pieces of wood do we need?”

“I don’t know. Maybe six or seven. We can stretch them over our bikes and walk them to woods so we don’t have to carry them all the way. We might have to carry them through the woods.” Still standing over the toilet, I shook out the rest of the pee and asked, “You have to go?”

Ryder turned to me and shook his head, hands fiddling with his penis.

I flushed.

He asked, “But what about that boy we saw?”

“I don’t know.”

“What if we see him again?”

“I don’t know.”

“What if the real owners of the fort–”

“Ryder. Stop.” I wiped toothpaste from the corner of Ryder’s mouth. “I don’t know everything. Let’s just fix it up and see what happens.”

He looked down. “Okay.”

I pushed up on his chin. “It’ll be okay.”

“I know. It’s just…”

“What?”

He shrugged. “I guess when I first saw it, I was hoping it could be a kinda place that we could, like, take our clothes off.”

I smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

He had a pitiful look, the kind a puppy gives you when he wants a treat.

I stood next to him and put my arm around his shoulders. I looked at the mirror, the two of us standing naked side by side. “We’ll figure something out. Trust me.”

He looked at the mirror and smiled.

I hoped I was right.

4

FACE OFF AT THE FORT

I dropped the heavy stack of two-by-fours and leather pouch of tools several feet from the trees that supported the fort. The late morning sun and August heat cut through the overheard foliage, making my body feel baked. I breathed heavily and my shoulders hurt from the strain. But neither concerned me as much as the boy standing opposite of me, the boy Ryder and I had spotted from the fort’s window the day before.

Neither of us spoke. He stared at me. I stared at him.

Ryder, so weighed down by the two-by-fours on his shoulder, didn’t see the boy until he dumped his wood on the ground next to mine. He said, “Man, those were…” His face went white.

The boy stood with his hands at his hips, wearing the same dark blue shirt and shorts he wore yesterday. Up close, he was as tall as me but not as scrawny. His hair was the same dirty blonde as Ryder’s, but buzzed short. The tops of his ears angled out from his head.

Aside from these details, there was something else about this kid, beyond the fact we had seen him yesterday. Something oddly familiar, like I had somehow known him in previous life.

A twig snapped and drew everyone’s attention to the tree just behind the boy. Another boy stepped out, this one younger and much shorter, probably ten like Ryder. His dark, sweaty hair stuck to his forehead like he’d be walking for a while. He wore all white, white shirt, white shorts, white socks, and white sneakers. He slowed the more he neared, looking just as surprised to see us.

The tall boy nodded toward the fort behind him. “You thinking about fixing up that place?”

I narrowed my eyes. He referred to the fort as “that place”. To me, this was a good sign. He wasn’t claiming it as his. It was just “that place” behind him. It had to be just a foreign to him as it was to Ryder and me.

I glanced at the wood at my feet, then at Ryder. I looked up. “Yeah. We were.”

The younger boy smiled. “So were we.” He had a cute smile that reminded me of Mitchell.

I asked, “What were you going to do?”

The taller boy stepped backwards and waved me to follow. He stepped to the opposite side of the tree. There on the ground were two extension ladders and a toolbox. He said, “We had some screws, nails, and stuff. But no wood. Looks like you have the wood.”

Ryder said, “Awesome. We don’t have ladders.” He looked to me. “Isn’t that cool, Drew?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”

“Drew,” the tall boy said with a strange airiness like he had been wondering what my name was.

I held out my hand to shake his, but he just looked at my hand as if he didn’t know what to do. I retracted and crossed my arms.

He said, “I guess we both can use the fort.”

“I guess.” I said. “It’s big enough.”

He gave me a slow nod.

“Well?” the younger boy said, impatience in his voice. “We going to work on it?”

“Yeah,” Ryder said.

The taller boy finally held out a hand. “I’m Kent. This is Parker.”

I shook his hand and looked at the two. “Brothers?”

Kent said, “Yeah. You?” He looked at Ryder.

I said, “No. Ryder’s my cousin. Neither of us have brothers or sisters.”

“Lucky,” Parker said. “We got four sisters.”

“Wow,” Ryder said. “That’s a lot of tampons.”

We all burst laughing, Kent and Parker nearly falling over each other. Ryder stood there smiling with a look of uncertainty like he wasn’t sure if we were laughing at something funny or laughing at him being stupid.

I caught my breath and asked Ryder, “How do you know about tampons?”

“Mom buys them. She said all girls had them. Don’t they?”

We laughed more.

Kent straightened and said, “Yeah. There’s a lot of tampons at our house. One of our sisters is too young for them, but the other three use them.”

I rubbed Ryder’s fluffy hair.

He smiled, looking a little embarrassed.

#

We used both extension ladders to lift the two-by-fours to the underside of the fort and brace what appeared to be the weakest supports. We then re-nailed several loose connections. When we climbed the rope ladder up to the room, the floor felt far more stable.

Kent and I sat on the floor and took turns commenting on the room’s odd decorations. We agreed that the fort had to be at least twenty years old.

Parker sneezed.

“Bless you,” Ryder said.

Parker rubbed his nose and said, “All this place is missing is a TV.”

I laughed. “How we going to get a TV in here? Besides, where we going to plug it in?”

“Yeah,” Kent agreed. “We’re about a quarter mile into the woods and–”

“Here’s a socket,” Parker said. He squatted next to one of the busted book shelves. There, near the floor, was a power socket built into the wall.

We crowded around the socket like it was the coolest thing we’d ever seen before.

“Holy cow,” I said.

Ryder asked, “Does it work?”

Kent pulled out two screw drivers from his back pocket. “Let’s find out.” He leaned toward the socket.

I touched Kent’s arm. “Uh… not sure if that’s a good idea.”

He narrowed his eyes and twisted his face as if to tell me, “I know what I’m doing.”

I stepped back, pulling Ryder back with me. Ryder looked at me concerned. I shared his look. We watched Kent.

Holding the ends of each screw driver, he stuck the flat, pointy, metal ends into each vertical slot of the plug. Slowly, he angled both screw drivers in toward each other. They got within an inch of each other.

ZAP.

A tiny lightning bolt flashed and Kent leaped backwards.

“Kent!” his brother yelped.

Kent sat on the floor with a screw driver in each hand, his eyes wide and mouth open. A trickle of smoke rose from both tools. He stared at the socket.

“Kent?” Parker spoke. He squatted next to him.

None of us attempted to touch Kent. We stood, watched, and waited.

Kent rotated his eyes to me, face still shocked. He said, “It works.”

5

PLANS

The four of us walked through the woods to my house. Ryder and Parker chatted constantly about nonsense while Kent and I remained mostly quiet. After Kent zapped himself, we spent a good hour or so playing in the fort until we decided we were hungry and thirsty. Before leaving the fort, Ryder came up with the brilliant idea of sleeping there overnight. It took Kent and me a little back and forth to figure out a plan that’d allow us to sleepover. We decided Ryder and I would introduce our new friends to our moms and then ask if we could spend the night at their house. Then, we’d do the same with Kent and Parker’s parents. But we needed supplies, like lights, water, snacks, and some games. We’d have to spend the next week stocking the fort with these items. Tomorrow was Monday, starting the third week of school. Our stocking efforts had to be carefully planned throughout the week to avoid parents and other friends finding out about it.

Kent said to me, “They’re getting along well.” Kent and I walked several feet behind the two ten-year-olds.

I looked at Ryder and Parker ahead of us and smiled. “Yeah.”

In the fort, Ryder and Parker somehow got into a wrestling match on the mattress. Kent and I sat on the floor and watched. The two had kicked off their socks and shoes and yanked off each other’s shirts.

At one point, Parker pulled Ryder over his body but Ryder resisted. In their struggle, Ryder was bent over backwards, his spread legs directly in front of Kent and me. In fleeting glimpses, I spotted Ryder’s pale, fleshy privates up the legs of his shorts. He once again opted not to wear underwear.

I looked to Kent, a little embarrassed on Ryder’s behalf that he was exposing himself to these brand new friends.

Kent’s expression hadn’t changed. He sat there with a lazy smile staring at the wrestling boys.

By the time I returned my focus to Ryder and Parker, they had changed positions. The glimpses were so brief, chances were Kent hadn’t seen, or at least noticed, anything.

A minute later, the opposite occurred. Ryder held Parker by his upper body and twisted him over himself. The bottom of Parker’s white shorts opened to Kent and me, and there it was, Parker’s pale, fleshy parts. This peek-a-boo was far more obvious and they held their position longer. His penis was pulled to one side and one testicle was bubbled and out there.

I glanced at Kent. This time, he gave me an embarrassed smile.

Ryder and Parker flipped and neither flashed us again.

On the sidewalk, I looked at the back of Parker’s little white shorts. I imagined his little thing flipping back and forth underneath.

“So,” Kent said. “I guess neither of them wear underwear.”

This comment hit me like a smack in the face. It felt like he had been reading my thoughts. I shot Kent a look, then looked away. “Yeah.” I don’t know why such a thing embarrassed me. Heck, it wasn’t even me he was talking about. “Ryder wears them sometimes.”

“So does Parker.” He looked at him. “Sometimes he just gets lazy.”

I smiled. “Too lazy for underwear?”

He nodded. “How about you?” he asked. “Do you wear underwear, I mean?”

“Um. Yes.” I looked at him. “Do you?”

“Yeah. Boxers. You wear briefs, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” I frowned. “How do you know?”

He smiled. “A guess. You seem like you’d wear briefs.” His eyes traveled down and I felt like he was staring through my shorts. He said, “How old are you?”

“I’m-a… I’m thirteen,” I lied, though I don’t know why.

He titled his head. “You really thirteen?” He spoke to me the way a mom speaks to a kid when she knows the kid is lying.

“I’m almost thirteen,” I said.

“So you’re twelve?”

I dropped my head. Twelve sounded so much younger. Even though Kent and I were about the same height, he looked older. I knew without asking that Kent had to be older than twelve. Yet, I asked anyhow. “Well…how old are you?”

“Thirteen. Almost fourteen.” He paused. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.” He paused again. “You just look young. It’s ‘cause it your skinny, that’s all. You act older.”

“I don’t feel bad.” Again, this was a lie.

We returned to quiet walking until we reached our house, Ryder and Parker continuing their banter. Occasionally, I’d eye Kent. I decided these two brothers weren’t too terrible. I was glad we didn’t have to kill each other over the fort. Still, having them showing up exactly when Ryder and I found the perfect secret place just for us was a little too unsettling.

#

A cold hand on my arm startled me awake. Ryder’s blurred image standing next to my bed slowly grew into focus. Our bedroom was dark. The clock shining its red numbers read 2:24. Ryder said nothing. He just stood there, one arm uncomfortably at his side and the other raised up to his mouth as he chewed on a nail. I knew why he woke me, and he knew I knew.

I threw my bed sheets open and stood, my head still swirling from the suddenness of being awake. Ryder stepped aside, allowing me to approach his bed which stood opposite of mine. His sheets were tussled. I touched the center of the bed, confirming he had wet the bed again. Ryder knew full well he was way too old to still be doing this.

I pulled at the top and fitted sheets, yanking both off the mattress. “C’mon,” I whispered to him.

I led him out the room and into the bathroom down the hall. Inside, I closed the door and clicked on the light. I squinted at the brightness.

Stepping to the bath, I turned on the water just enough for a low stream of water. I touched it out of habit before dipping the wet parts of the sheets into it. I scrubbed the sheets against itself. I’m not sure what good this did, but I had often seen Mom do this when trying to get mud stains out of shirts and socks.

I looked to Ryder. His long hair looked frizzled. The front of his blue pajama bottoms and a small part of his top looked dark like he had dumped water on himself. He stood slump-shouldered at the center of the small room with the look of shame in his face, drooping eyes and face.

“Your pajamas,” I said.

He slipped off his top and bottom, handing them to me.

I rinsed off his clothes and hung everything over different parts of the shower curtain rod. I stepped to the sink, pulled out a washcloth from underneath, and soaked it until the faucet. I handed it to Ryder. He wiped down the front of his body, cleaning off the pee’s stickiness.

I watched his penis flop around with every sweep of the washcloth. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen him with an erection for quite a while. I imagine by now it must be a decent size erect. Even limp, it had grown a lot in the past year, especially in thickness. I thought about asking him about it but I figured he was naked enough that I only needed to wait to see it in its full glory.

He held out the washcloth to me, but I pointed to the bathtub. He draped it over the rim.

He turned to me, arms crossed.

Although I already knew the answer, I asked, “You wanna put something on?”

He shook his head no.

I nodded for him to follow me as I clicked off the light and opened the door.

I fumbled my hands down the hall’s walls, blinded for several seconds until my eyes readjusted to the dark.

Back in my bedroom, I laid in bed. I readjusted the sheets and swept it open, looking up to Ryder.

He slid into my bed and I covered him with the sheet.

I tucked my body next to his, the curve of his butt against my front, my arm wrapping around in front of him. Though only two years younger, I was a full six inches taller, my feet and head extending beyond his.

I closed my eyes and breathed in his bubblegum-scented hair. The smell reminded me of when we were younger and we’d kick and splash each other in the bath, ticking off Aunt Dee when she came in and saw we had drenched the roll of toilet paper again. I remembered the nights we’d wrestle in the living room, Mom and Aunt Dee rooting us on like they were watching a professional match off. I remembered the outdoor fountain we ran through naked when the cop ticketed Mom and Aunt Dee for Ryder and me not having clothes. I thought about the boy who I had befriend and ran around naked with. I pictured his soft, triangular face and bright eyes.

I sprung awake, Ryder still tucked naked in front of me. The boy. The boy from the fountain. It hit me like a jolt of electricity. Kent. That’s why Kent looked so familiar the first time we’d met at the base of the fort. Kent was the boy from the fountain. He was the kid who stripped off his bathing suit and got in trouble afterwards.

I breathed deeply, trying to steady my excited heart. I wondered if he remembered that day. I wondered if he knew who Ryder and I were.

I closed my eyes and eventually fell back asleep. My mind swirled with thoughts of Kent.

6

THE LOCKERS

I stood at my locker, my backpack wedged between it and my chest. I fished out books from my bag and exchanged them with other books from my locker. This year, in seventh grade, my text books were incredibly heavier. Unfortunately, my locker was at the far end of campus, meaning I only had time to stop by a couple times a day. I had hoped this year I wouldn’t have to carry around a backpack. I could just stop by my locker between every class and pickup exactly what I needed. No such luck.

I closed my locker and Penny appeared out of nowhere. I jerked, startled. “Penny.”

“Hello, sweetie,” she spoke with an uncharacteristic sweetness. She attacked me, wrapping her arms around and giving me a quick peck on my cheek.

My mind buzzed, wondering what this was all about. Then I saw it. Penny’s eyes flashed to the side. I looked. Across the hall stood a line of three girls, pretty cheerleader-types. They watched Penny’s performance with interest and giggle amongst each other.

Penny stepped back and said, “I’m so happy we’re going out.”

“Uh, yeah.” I zipped up my bag.

“Save me a seat at lunch?”

“Sure.”

She hit my other cheek with another quick kiss. “See you.”

She walked off. The three cheerleaders giggled as they followed Penny down the hall, one giving me a quick wave.

“Geesh.” I shook my head.

#

Hollow echoing laughter beat at my ears as I sat on the moist bench in front of my gym locker. Sweat dripped down the sides of my reddened face. We had to run intervals around the soccer field today and the late summer sun was particularly hot today. Pattering feet raced across the tile floor behind me and grabbed my attention. I turned. Two sixth graders chased each other, both dripping wet with white school towels wrapped around their waists. Behind them was the hall of showers. Gym was divided by grade level, but showering was by gender, forcing sixth, seventh, and eighth grade boys together.

The locker room had been rebuilt the year before I started sixth grade though now, two years later, it had lost the freshness it once had. The pungent stenches of mold and boy sweat and deodorant and hair spray consumed everything. The showers were two lines of closet-sized cubbies, each with curtains. I was slightly relieved when I started sixth grade and saw the level of privacy we had. But after showering at summer camp a couple months ago, that opinion changed. There, the showers were a single, open line of shower heads. Eight boys showered at a time, naked hip to hip. It made showering exciting. I missed it.

The protocol at school made things even less fun. Boys stripped to their underwear and walked to their shower cubby carrying a towel and optionally a change of clothes. Half the kids emerged from their shower fully clothed, others returned to their locker wrapped in a towel, and carefully slipped on clothes without exposing themselves.

Since the beginning of the year, I’d thought about bucking the system and gallivant around the locker room completely naked. I did this at camp, but so did everyone else. Being the only one naked sounded frightening. It’d be far better if everyone was naked.

I stood from the bench and slid my gym shorts down my legs. I kicked it up to my hands. A pair of boys next to me both in their underwear chatted and laughed about the way another kid was running. I never cared for gossip. Besides, their clammy bodies captured my attention. I didn’t know either kid. I only ever saw them in gym. The boy closer to me had blue underwear and other one red. With my all-white undies, the three of us looked patriotic, red, white, and blue.

The blue underwear boy swung his arms while sharing his story and I noticed little buds of hair in his armpits. I ran my fingers in my pits. Nothing. I knew it was a matter of time before mine started coming in. But in seventh grade where now was far more important than soon, I felt ashamed not to have any. The red underwear boy folded his hands on top of his head and I felt better seeing his pits were as hairless as mine.

The blue underwear boy next to me laughed and scratched his nuts through his underwear. After he did, one of his balls popped out the bottom. My heart bounced in my chest. Neither he nor his friend seemed to notice.

Perry, a fat boy from my class, knocked into my back and I stumbled into blue underwear boy. I sprung back, eyes wide and frightened of his reaction.

“Watch it,” he said.

“Uh, sorry.”

“Hey, Jimmy,” the red underwear boy said. “He pulled your ball out.”

Blue underwear boy looked down and quickly adjusted his underwear. “The hell?” He frowned at me.

I swallowed, my mind cluttered with a traffic jam of thoughts to try to talk my way out of this mess. In the front of my mind was me trying to rationalize how I couldn’t have possibly pulled out his testicle with a single bump. The more I considered this, the more impossible it seemed for me explain this. Besides, he’d probably question how I even knew something like this was impossible. He’d probably ask me if I’d thought about his balls or if I’d tried on another boy and failed.

Before I could think further, blue underwear boy yanked on my underwear.

I jerked back. His move managed to lower the waistband, but nothing was exposed.

He moved toward me. Coach Wayne, our six foot-six black gym coach, stepped in front of him, his huge, dark hand slapping against the boy’s chest. Coach Wayne’s low voice boomed with a simple command. “Showers.”

The boy’s eyes glared at the coach, but he didn’t resist. He shot me a dirty look that made me swallow hard, then he stepped toward to showers. The red underwear boy smiled at me, but it was a scary smile, one that implied revenge was sure to come. He grabbed a towel and followed his friend to the showers.

Coach Wayne straightened and thumbed behind him. “You too. Showers.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I spoke like a sheepish little kid.

He stepped away.

I tossed the gym shorts still in my hands into my locker. I grabbed my towel and–

“Drew.”

My bare feet squeaked against the floor. I spun around.

Kent stood smiling in front of me. He was fully clothed with a backpack strap over one shoulder and a piece of paper in his hand. “Cool. This is your gym period?”

I nodded, feeling rather underdressed. I causally held my towel in front of me. “Yeah. Uh… I didn’t even know you went to this school. Are you in eighth grade?”

“Yeah, eighth.” He pulled up on his backpack. “I’d been going to Pinewood Prep.” He out the paper to me. “Now I’m here.”

I took the paper. It was his class schedule. “We also have woodworking together.”

He took his schedule and looked at it. “Oh. Is that the shop class?”

“Yeah. We make birdhouses and stuff like that.”

“Oh.” He looked up at me, his eyes scanning my body up and down. “You… going to shower?”

“No. I just like to stand around in my underwear all day.”

He gave me a crooked smile. “Ha. Ha.” He looked at my tighty-whities. “Nice underwear.”

I looked down and thought about the few pairs of superman and batman underwear I still hadn’t gotten rid of, hidden in my dresser. When I started showering for gym in sixth grade, I insisted on going all white to avoid the embarrassment. But now, hearing Kent’s subtle, “Nice underwear,” comment, I wondered if I should have gone with boxers instead. Not that I had any.

I swallowed and gave him a weak smile.

He smiled back, but it was far smoother, more confident.

I thought about the revelation I had last night. I wondered if he still had a clear memory of Ryder and me completely naked in the outdoor fountain. I wondered if he was picturing me naked now.

I peered down the hallway of showers, boys coming and going in underwear and towels. I looked to Kent. “I guess I’ll see you in shop.”

I walked to the showers. The whole time, I felt Kent’s eyes baring down on me.

7

THE NAKED CLUB

My fingers trembled, barely holding onto the red plastic Connect Four piece, as I considered the prospect of being naked in front of Kent. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. Ryder, Parker, Kent, and I huddled at the center of the fort, all focused on a series of Connect Four games, or more specifically Strip Connect Four. Our week-long plans worked perfectly. Mom and Aunt Dee warmed up to Kent and Parker while Ryder and I got to know Kent and Parker’s parents. Meanwhile, we smuggled a pair of lamps, extension cords, a CD player, snacks, drinks, and games to the fort. Now, Saturday night, we sat on sleeping bags spread out over the floor, our clothes tossed along one wall. The mattress stood up on its side covering open-air window and sheltering our little game from the rest of the world.

It was Ryder’s idea to play Strip Connect Four. After a couple hours of Uno, Battleship, and generally goofing off, the idea hit Kent and Parker like a rush of sugar. I laughed at Ryder’s suggestion until I noticed how excited the brothers were about it.

We teamed up, Ryder verses Parker and me verses Kent. Each pair took turns playing each other. Whoever lost a game had to remove a single article of clothing, one shoe or one sock. Surprisingly, we were pretty evenly matched, each of us losing about as many as we won.

Now, however, I sat in only my underwear. Kent sat opposite of me in his shorts and boxers. Ryder faired the same. He bounced around behind me in wearing his green Incredible Hulk underwear. Had I not talked him into wearing these before we headed to the fort this evening, he would have been naked by now. Parker crouched behind Kent, he still wearing shorts. But in his crouching position, I could see he wore no underwear. So he and Ryder were actually tied. One lose for either and one of them would be naked.

Just a second ago, I had realized something devastating. Kent had me in a two-way potential connect four. He had two places he could put his piece to win. It was my turn and no matter which one I chose to block, he’d get the other one and win. In other words, of the four of us, I was the first one who’d be naked. I bit my lower lip and cursed under my breath. I don’t know why being naked scared me so much, especially since I was regularly naked around Ryder, and the fact that I showered naked last summer with a bunch of other boys without issue. But now, in front of these two boys who I barely knew, it was different. Especially with Kent. As much as we got along, in and out of school, there was something intimidating about him. It wasn’t just the fact he was a year older. There was something more about him. He was cool, really cool. Cooler than I could ever be. Maybe that was it. Maybe being naked in front of him, me with nothing to hide, I was afraid he’d see what a dork I really was. This was in spite the fact I had realized he was likely the kid from the fountain years ago. But that was ages ago when I was six. Now, it felt different.

I flipped the red Connect Four piece in my hand.

Parker said, “Go already.” He shifted and I got glimpses of his fleshy privates up the legs of his shorts.

“Give him time,” Kent said, a cool smile crossing his face.

I had no doubt he knew he had me. He knew I was going to be forced to slip off my last bit of clothing. I tightened my other arm around my naked chest, my skinny, pale, nothing of a chest. I was already struggling to breathe. I couldn’t help but squeeze myself tighter. I needed to steady my shiver.

I coughed and rubbed my face. I tightened my grip on the red piece. Giving Kent one final look, I dropped my piece into the slot, blocking one of the two potential wins.

Kent nodded, as if approving the move. He picked up a black piece and twirled it in his hand.

I bit my lip again, knowing Kent was delaying on purpose.

He reached forward and held the piece over the winning slot.

My eyes widened.

He jerked the piece to the side and dropped it in a different slot.

The piece clicked against the other plastic frame and stopped, resting in a spot that neither gave him an advantage nor blocked me.

I breathed.

“Kent,” Parker said. “Why’d you go there? You had him.”

Kent smiled at me. “Oops.”

I picked up a red piece and dropped it into the slot Kent should have gone. He was blocked, and now I had three in a row.

Kent picked up his piece. It’d be easy for him to block me. But again, he dropped his piece off to a side slot.

My heart fluttered. I picked up my piece and quickly dropped it in the slot for the win. I stood, surprised at the outcome.

Kent smiled up at me. “Guess you won.” He stood, stuck his thumbs into the waistline of his shorts, and pushed. His shorts slid down and plopped on the floor, exposing his green and red plaid boxers. He kicked his shorts off to the side and I watched the loose fabric at the front of his boxers bob back and forth. By the looks of it, his penis must have been big. He pulled at his boxer’s elastic band, shifted it, and let it go, causing it to slap against his pelvis.

I looked to his face and he smiled at me.

Parker and Ryder, both seemingly oblivious to what had just transpired, asserted themselves and claimed Connect Four for themselves. They dumped the plastic pieces out and sorted the colors. Sitting opposite each other, they both wiggled back and forth like being still was impossible. Their continual motion the entire night was contagious, keeping the general mood fun and exciting.

Pieces flew back and forth, clicking plastic on plastic as they filled the vertical Connect Four board. Their games were always quicker, this one in particular. I suspected neither cared who won or lost. They were both anxious to get naked.

Parker dropped a piece in and got four in a row, but neither noticed. Ryder continued playing, dropping in his piece, and then Parker dropping in his.

Kent said, “Hey, dummy. You already won.”

“Uh, me?” Parker said. “Where?”

Kent pointed at one piece at a time. “One, two, three, four.”

Parker looked up to Ryder and they exchanged huge grins, both looking so happy you’d think they both had won.

Ryder and Parker hopped up. Ryder yanked off his green underwear and swung it above his long, fluffy hair. He called out, “Wooo-hoooo! Naked time!”

Parker laughed and unexpectedly yanked off his shorts. He giggled as he swung his shorts above his head, jumping on top of his sleeping bag, dancing.

Kent, next to me, crossed his arms and shook his head at the two. He looked at me. I shook my head.

Ryder and Parker and hopped around each other, singing some sort of made up song and clapping their hands. They occasionally jumped at each other, slapping their naked bodies against one another.

Seeing them together like this, it struck me how similar they were, and not just in personality. They were practically the same height, same tone of skin, same wild looks in their eyes. Even their privates looked similar, same size and shapes. Their balls had the same crinkled look like their scrotums were too big for their testicles. Their penises were both uncircumcised and had the same smooth, rounded tips. Parker’s hair was a shade darker and shorter in the back, but the front bounced and swept in front of his eyes as he moved the same way Ryder’s did.

I stood along the wall next to Kent and looked down my narrow body. I was by far the palest of the four of us. I gripped my chin. With my groomed hair and small face, I felt like the outsider, like I was intruding on three brothers.

Kent turned to me. “You wanna play another game?” He paused, nodded toward the dancing duo. “Or just join in.”

My eyes widened. “Uh.” I wasn’t sure what to say. As much fun as Ryder and Parker was having, I really didn’t feel like getting naked at all.

Kent, however, took my hesitation as an answer, and it wasn’t the answer I intended. He pinched the sides of his boxers and slipped them down.

His semi-erect penis emerged. It honestly wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be. Dakota from summer camp had probably the biggest one I had ever seen. Its thickness and length dwarfed all others, including Kent’s. Nevertheless, his was still bigger than mine. Plus, it was surrounded by the same dirty blond that covered his head. He didn’t have a lot of pubic hair, but it was there.

Kent kicked off his boxers and looked down at himself. He looked at me as if saying, “Your turn.”

I stood frozen. Despite the fact that I was now the only one not naked, I still resisted.

Ryder screamed.

We looked to the younger boys. Their bodies were entangled together on the floor wrestling each other. Their reddened faces and smiles looked just like last weekend when they wrestled each other on the mattress. The fact they were both completely naked made no difference to them.

I returned my focus to Kent the same time he looked to me. Again, he had that expected look.

Not saying a word, Kent reached down, grabbed then sides of my underwear, and slipped it down.

I didn’t resist, letting it fall to the floor. I looked up, my underwear around my ankles, watching Kent’s face. His eyes were trained on my privates. He had a slight smile, but it wasn’t any different than the one he had a minute ago.

He looked up to my face. He summed it up with, “No bad.”

I looked down my body and back up.

He added, “You’re too skinny, though. Need more meet on your bones. And sun.”

“Yeah.” My mind hopped around like a nervous mouse. Say something. Say something. I looked up and down his body. “You look… nice.” I immediately regretted my words. I wished I could suck them back into my mouth.

Kent let out a chuckled. The side of his face raised in a half-smile. “You’re a late bloomer. Just wait. You’ll be bigger than all of us.”

I didn’t like the way he said that, like I was some little kid he was talking down to. But I still felt too speechless to say anything about it.

I stepped out of my underwear and pushed it aside with my toes. I looked to Ryder and Parker. A thought struck me. I looked at Kent’s penis.

Kent said, “What?”

My eyes jumped to his face, surprised he caught me staring. “Uh, nothing. Well…”

“What?”

I asked, “How come you’re circumcised but Parker isn’t?”

He said, “Well, how come you’re circumcised and Ryder isn’t?”

I looked to the younger boys and shrugged. “I dunno. My aunt just never… you know. Got him done.” I paused. “It’s not like we’re brothers.” I looked to Kent. “What about you two?”

Kent gave me a weird look, a cross between embarrassment and uncertainty. “Uh, well. Let’s just say I wanted it.”

I frowned. “You wanted it?” I hesitated, still trying to figure out his response. “Don’t they do that when you’re a baby?”

He shrugged and looked down at himself. “Yeah. Most times. But, I was older.”

“Old enough to ask for it?”

He nodded, still looking at his penis, which had shriveled a lot. “Eight.”

His answer made no sense. Why would an eight-year-old choose to get circumcised? Mine was done right after I was born so I neither had any say in it nor did I remember it being done. But at eight, I’d imagine the memory was alive and vivid in his mind.

I looked at his penis and tried to envision it with a foreskin. I couldn’t picture it. I tried to remember the time in the fountain. Was the boy I was naked with circumcised? I couldn’t recall. Maybe Kent wasn’t that boy. Maybe they just looked similar.

I asked, “So, do you remember it being done?”

“Yeah.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Yeah. A lot.”

“Do you wish you hadn’t gotten it done?”

Unexpectedly, he smiled. He looked up at me. “No.”

Ryder screamed as he flipped Parker over his back. Parker slammed into one of the lamps, smashing its bulb. Sparks flew, then the room got much darker. Now, only one lamp lit the fort.

Ryder and Parker sat frozen for a moment. Then Ryder said, “Oops.”

His single word caused everyone to crack up laughing. Although in the back of my mind, I really hoped Aunt Dee would never notice we had taken her lamps from the garage.

8

NAKED AT NIGHT

I pushed the mattress on its side along the wall, exposing the open window to the midnight air. A near-full moon cut through the crisscross of leaves and branches just outside. The dim light cast an eerie glow against my pale, naked body. I held the top of the window frame with one hand, my penis with the other, and peed out the window. Droplets sparkled in the moonlight as it tapped against the leaves.

I shook off the rest, but stood there for moment, breathing in the night’s fragrance, the sweet mixture of oak sap, maple, and mold. Crickets’ chirps echoed. In the distance I heard a passing car, a reminder that my neighborhood wasn’t as far away as it seemed.

I pulled myself inside and leaned against the wall. On the floor near my feet lay the younger boys. Both were on their side, Ryder’s front pressed against Parker’s back. Ryder’s arm draped over Parker’s body, his fingers resting on his friend’s bare chest. Parker had an erection, angled up toward his belly button, and I wondered if he might have been dreaming of something. At camp I had many restless nights, waking to an erection and fresh memories of Mitchell naked in the shower. In the darkened cabin, I’d stare at Mitchell’s bunk and wished I could crawl in next to him.

I felt jealous of Ryder and Parker’s closeness and had a sudden urge to kick them in the gut, just to disturb their sleep. I crossed my arms and breathed. The feeling passed the longer I stared at them.

The two were quite beautiful sleeping together. I always considered Ryder a cute kid, certainly cuter than me. I never liked my nothing of a body. Even when I was younger, I looked like a starved, hairless cat. Now, I looked like a bigger starved, hairless cat.

I squatted in front of the two. Reaching, I brushed Parker’s dark hair from his forehead. He made a soft sound but remained deeply asleep. I focused on Parker’s penis and felt mine stir, dangling between my legs. I held mine and felt my heartbeat. I rubbed my fingers against it. Chills tingled up my body.

A creak of wood snapped my attention up.

A dark shadow behind Ryder and Parker stopped my heart. I sprung up.

Kent stepped into the moonlight, smile on his face. Hands on his hips, he looked as intimidating as ever naked in the dark light.

I stepped back. I expected the wall to my back, but I felt the cool air of nothing. I fell backwards. The back of my head hit the top window frame, and I continued falling. In an instant, I realized I was tumbling out the window.

Kent’s large hand grabbed my arm and jerked me forward.

I slipped inside, my butt hitting the floor.

Kent fell on top of me.

I sat on the floor for several seconds, my heart thumping and my head spinning with the reality of what just happened. Kent had just saved my life.

Kent’s large body felt heavy on me, making it hard to breathe.

“Damn, man,” Kent finally said. He stood.

I remained on the floor.

Parker and Ryder were still sound asleep, neither realizing what had almost happened.

I looked up to Kent, my mouth hung open.

Kent asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I stood. My legs wobbly. I instinctively stepped away from the window, part of me fearing I’d somehow get sucked out if I wasn’t careful.

Kent looked at me for a moment, then stepped toward the window. He peered out. “You could-a broke your neck.”

“Yeah.”

He looked at Parker and Ryder and smiled. Shaking his head, he turned to me.

I couldn’t stop shaking.

“You cold?” he asked.

“No.”

Kent gave me a funny look. He stepped over Ryder and Parker, disappeared into the darker end of the room, and then returned with a blanket. He tossed it over my shoulders.

I pulled it tighter against me. “Thanks.”

He shook his head with a crooked smirk. “You know I used to think about you all the time when we were younger.”

The comment took my breath away as much as the fall out the window. “Uh? What?”

He shook his head slowly. “I shouldn’t have expected you to remember.”

“Remember what?”

Kent smiled, nodding this time. He breathed deep before speaking. “We first met when I was seven.”

My mouth hung open. That was him in the fountain.

Kent began, “We–”

“The fountain,” I said.

Kent’s smile widened. “You remember.”

“Yeah.” My heart raced again, but it felt good this time. My face warmed. “You were that boy.”

“Who got in trouble for stripping off my bathing suit,” he finished. “Yeah. And you had that cop talk to you.”

“He did more than that. My mom and aunt got a ticket.”

“You got a ticket?”

“Yeah. For like a hundred bucks. Just for being naked.”

Kent rubbed his hand over his short hair. “I never knew that.”

I looked to Parker and Ryder. “So… you thought of me?” I looked to Kent.

He shrugged, looking partly embarrassed. “Yeah. A lot, actually. I mean, I wasn’t, like, obsessed. It’s just… it was just so fun, being naked and running around like… it was awesome.”

I had never heard Kent stumble over his words this much. For once, he wasn’t as intimidating as he’d been.

“Yeah,” I said at last.

He placed a hand on his chest and slowly moved it down his body. He looked at Ryder and Parker. Without looking up, he said, “I’m glad we’ve found this place.”

I looked down. “Yeah.”

9

NAKED AT CHURCH

I woke the next morning with the sounds of Ryder and Parker’s laughter and the crunch of apples we had brought. I sat up, the weird maroon blanket hanging on the wall to my back. Ryder was laughing so hard, bits of half-chewed apple dripped down his chin and chest. It took me a moment to realize Kent wasn’t in the fort.

I cleared my thought with a quick cough and asked, “Where’s Kent?”

Parker turned to me, still laughing. “He had to poop.”

I looked to the corner of the room and spotted Kent’s pile of clothes. I scratched my head, wondering if he ventured outside naked.

I crawled toward Ryder’s stuff and fished out his watch he had taken off before he and Parker started playing last night. I looked up to Ryder. “Uh, we gotta go.”

Ryder swallowed the apple he was chewing. “Why?”

“Church.”

Parker asked Ryder, “You go to church?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s Sunday. You wanna come?”

Parker looked to me. “Can we?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Why not? We need to get dressed.”

Parker and Ryder hopped to it.

I had my pants on when the door in the floor opened. Kent crawled is way in and stood. He was naked except for his shoes. “You leaving?” he asked me.

“Yeah. We got church. You want to come?”

Kent considered it for a moment. “We don’t have churchy clothes. Just shorts and shirts.”

“It’s not biggie. A lot of people don’t get dressed up. But you can borrow some of my clothes if you want.” I nodded my head toward the window. “We need to go home anyhow. Our home.”

Kent nodded, then got dressed.

#

Kent and I sat next to each other during the church service, with Aunt Dee and Mom separating me from Ryder and Parker. Mom had to keep shushing the younger boys and tried to distract them with pens and paper from her purse. Kent looked incredibly bored throughout the service. A couple times I caught him nodding off and he never sang any of the hymns. He wore the white, button-down shirt that was baggy on me and one of my khaki pants. The shirt was a nice fit but the pants were tight and highlighted the bulge of his privates. He squirmed side to side and I knew he must have been uncomfortable.

After service, Kent pepped up and looked ready to leave. Then I hit him with the fact we weren’t going home.

He asked me, “What’s Sunday School?”

“We go it after the service. It’s fun.” I looked away. “Sometimes.”

“School?”

I patted Kent’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be in the sixth to eighth grade class. It’ll be fun.”

We walked Ryder and Parker to the fourth and fifth grade class then headed off to ours. Kent seemed irritated being there. The kids there didn’t help. Mary Simmons and Chelsey Yang chatted incessantly about different shampoos that smelled like various kinds of flowers. Meanwhile, Jack Barkland, a fat kid whose face was so chubby he could barely open his eyes, kept shoving his round body into Kent and me asking a billion questions about our friendship. The other kids, about fifteen in all, talked or hung out near the corner of the large room where a couple boys played ping pong on a donated slab of sheet metal that made a horrible clanging sound with each bounce of the plastic ball.

Our teacher, Mrs. Hogstone, shuffled in and ushered everyone to the couches at the opposite corner of the ping pong table. Kent and I squeezed together on one half of a love seat while Jack Barkland used up the other half. Every time I glanced at Kent, I regretted inviting him to church. He seemed miserable.

Mrs. Hogstone rattled off today’s lesson and pulled out Bibles to read a section of 1 Samuel about David and his friend Jonathon. Mrs. Hogstone paced the floor between the couches and told us how the two were close friends and likely had a strong influence on each other. She looked to the kids in class and asked for examples of influences our friends may have in our lives.

No one spoke up.

She turned to Kent. “Um, Kevin was it?”

“Kent,” he corrected.

“Yes, Kent. Do you have a life example of being influenced by a friend?”

Kent shrugged. But then he eyed me.

I straightened in my seat and had horrible feeling Kent was going to say something about our naked time last night and the fort.

He looked at Mrs. Hogstone said, “Yeah.”

I gulped.

“Well?” she prompted him.

He smiled. “I once got the skin at the end of my penis sliced off so it’d look like Drew’s penis.”

I couldn’t breathe.

Every face in the room had a shocked look like the day of rapture had just come and gone they had all missed it. Even Jack Barkland next to me had eyes as the size of ping pong balls. Mrs. Hogstone clinched her chest and stumbled back a step as if Kent’s words were a two-by-four smacking her down.

“Uh… I… well…” The lady spun her head back and forth as if trying to find the words should couldn’t say.

Kent looked completely unaffected. He sat relaxed, the same bored look on his face he had a minute ago.

My face burned and I wanted to sink into the couch cushions. Every smile, every stare felt like everyone was undressing Kent and me, comparing our penises, verifying Kent’s shocking claim.

The first sound came from Mary Simmons. She giggled and covered her mouth.

Fortunately, the torture came to a halt when the classroom door flung open.

Everyone turned.

Aunt Dee stood there with fire in her eyes, the way she looked when she was ready to kill Ryder or me for doing something stupid.

Instinctively, I jumped up to my feet.

Kent rose next to me.

Aunt Dee announced, “Drew. Kent. Let’s go. We’re leaving.”

#

We didn’t get the whole story of what happened in Ryder and Parker’s class until we were at home. I was too mad about what Kent said to ask, anyhow. Fortunately, neither Aunt Dee nor Mom outright blamed Parker for what had happened, otherwise they might have forbid us from seeing them again.

I stood outside with Kent and Parker after they changed back into their own clothes, shorts and T-shirts. Ryder was sentenced to his bedroom.

Parker told us the story of how the fourth and fifth grade class was tracing their left and right hands on pieces of paper at an angle from each other in order to draw pretty butterflies. Ryder complained to the teacher, telling him how stupid this was and how this was something kindergarteners do – not fifth graders. But the elderly teacher snapped at him and told him to shut his mouth.

“So what’d you do?” Kent asked. He stood arms crossed with a smile that matched mine.

I too knew this had to be good, considering we were forced to leave early on their account.

Parker said, “It was both of our ideas.”

“What was?” I asked.

“I said, I hate butterflies. Let’s do caterpillars instead.” Parker smiled at me. “That’s when Ryder took it out.”

“Took it out?” I echoed.

He nodded. “His wiener. He stretched it against the paper and I traced it.”

Kent and I laughed.

“I took mine out and Ryder started tracing it when the teacher caught us. He yelled and I said we’re doing caterpillars and needed something to trace.”

Kent laughed so hard, he slapped my shoulder. I stopped laughing.

“He dragged us out in the hall, called us sinners, and got Ryder and your moms. Ryder’s mom gets scary when she’s mad.”

“Yeah,” I said.

Kent continued laughing, his eyes on his brother.

I wondered if I should ask Kent about the comment he made in our class. The ride home, I grew increasingly angry at him the more I thought about it. How could he say that? How could he say he’d gotten circumcised because of me? Regardless if it were true, didn’t he realize that you can’t say stuff like that in church? I couldn’t go back to church again, ever. I could only imagine what they talked about after I left. Churches like mine were like small towns. You can’t mention private stuff like that or they’ll be talking behind your back and looking at you with that weird look for the rest of your life because they know too much about you.

I stood there looking at Kent laugh and wanted to slug him, knock that stupid grin off his face. I tightened my fists.

“What?” Kent asked me, his laughter trickling away. “Are you mad?”

“What makes you think I’m mad?”

“Look at you.” He waved a hand toward me. “You look ready to kill.”

Parker said, “We were just fooling around. Didn’t mean to make everyone mad.”

Kent said, “It’s no big deal.”

“Drew.” Parker touched my arm. “Think Ryder will be in trouble long?”

I tossed my hands up, knocking Parker away. “How should I know?”

Parker looked ready to coward in a ball. “You live with him.”

Kent said, “I thought your mom and aunt were cool about being naked and stuff.”

I glared at him. “Why makes you think that?”

Kent paced next to me. “Uh, you know. Like when we were younger. At the fountain.”

“What fountain?” Parker asked.

I snapped, “That was a fountain. Not a church. What the hell were you all thinking? Now we can’t ever go back there. You two pulling your penises out. And you,” I pointed at Kent. “Talking about getting circumcised in the middle of Sunday School. Are you crazy? What’s wrong with you? And who gets that done just because you’d seen someone else? You’re–”

Kent’s hand throttled into my chest and I flew backwards, slamming my butt to the ground. The impact knocked the air out of me. I gasped.

He shook his finger at me. “That was a real moment I was sharing.”

I caught my breath. “Then why blabber it to the whole world? Why didn’t you tell me in secret?”

He flared his nostrils. I couldn’t tell if he was ready to cry or beat the poop out of me. “Bug off!” He spun and marched off.

Parker stood there for several seconds, his head spinning from me to his brother, his face full of questions.

“Go,” I said.

Parker shot off, chasing Kent.

I remained on the ground, watching the two disappear down the street. I never wanted to see them again and wondered if the four of us were ever going to return to the fort. I looked to Ryder’s bedroom window that faced the front of the house. The curtain inside was drawn shut. With Ryder and Parker being friends, I knew remaining apart forever would never happen.

Still, there was Kent.

10

NAKED AT SCHOOL

Steam rose from my reddened body like a sauna. I sat on the bench in front of my locker in the boys’ locker room. Kids jumped and laughed like usual. Today was especially hot and the multiple one hundred yard sprints out in the back field were horrible.

My head spun with dehydration as I peeled off my waterlogged T-shirt. I dropped it to the floor at my feet and it hit the tile with a ka-klump. I rubbed my pink, clammy chest. For the first time during gym, I wanted nothing more than to strip naked and spend the rest of the day in the buff, cooling off. I looked left and right. Kids skipped in their underwear and holding towels toward the showers. They too appeared hot and sweaty, but not one of them was fully naked. As burning hot as I felt, no way I was going to be the first to–

Bursting laughter around me pulled my attention away from myself.

I twisted around. My mouth dropped.

Kent walked straight down the center of the locker room completely naked, his towel hung loosely from his hand. His penis bounced side to side but it appeared smaller, probably shrunken from the running he too had to do. He stepped causally as he often did, like he had all the time in the world. Meanwhile, every boy in locker room stopped what they were doing, stared, pointed, and whistled, occasionally saying things like, “A-hubba-hubba.”

Kent eyed me.

I looked away. When I returned to him, he stopped right in front of me.

“It’s hot.” He rubbed his chest.

“Yeah.”

He looked me down. “You stripping?”

“Uh.” The boys on both sides of me were either staring at Kent’s penis or my face. In either case, they seemed deeply interested in our interaction. “I’ll shower,” I said, intentionally being vague.

He mounted his hands on his hips, gave me a crook smirk, and continued toward the showers, brushing his towel against my arm as he passed. He entered the shower hallway, selected a stall, and stepped in.

With the entertainment behind curtains, the boys returned to their normal chitchat and goofing off.

I looked down at my pink chest and again considered being naked. But I imagined the entire room again erupting in laughter, pointing at me this time. No way. I couldn’t do it.

I slid off only my shorts, threw my towel around me, and darted toward the showers.

In the small room, I slipped off my soaked underwear, set the water all to the cold side, and ducked my body under the stream. The shock of the cold caused me to suck in and clinch my teeth, but I quickly got used to it and my body relaxed. I closed my eyes. The soothing sssshhhhh of the water coated my mind and I remained standing there longer than I realized.

I snapped out of it with the ring of the bell, indicating gym was over and it was time to switch classes.

I slapped the faucet handle, shutting of the water, and reached for my towel. The metal hook on the wall where I had hung my towel was empty. I twisted around. The shower stall was empty other me and small puddles of water on tile. Even my underwear, gone. Someone must have reached in a grabbed it when I was in a daze. I had heard whispers of kids doing this to other boys as a joke. No one had ever done this to me.

Kent!

Somehow I knew he must have done it. After strutting naked through the locker room and not so casually brushing me with his towel as he passed, he must have planned on forcing me to do the same. Plus, the way we parted yesterday, I’m sure he thought a little payback was in order.

I stuck my head out the curtain. Fortunately, aside from a couple stragglers who rushed at their lockers, trying to dart out of the locker room as quickly as possible, the large room was empty. I took a breath, covered my penis with both hands, and scurried out to my locker.

I pulled the latch up and gasped at the contents. Empty.

“Dang it, Kent!” I swore under my breath. My head swung back and forth. “Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.” The benches were bare. No towels. No clothes.

I heard echoes from the entrance. Boys for the next period of gym were already approaching.

My heart bounced around inside me.

The line of lockers to the left and right all had locks securely fastened. Only mine was unlocked.

I looked to the opposite wall. There, toward the end of the line of lockers, one had a lock dangling open. I darted across, sliding my bare feet against the slippery floor. I jammed my big toe into the leg of a bench. Cursing, I jumped, but continued onto the locker.

I reached it and tossed it open. Clothes. Yes! I pulled out a damp shirt and shorts, both looked very small. It must have been belonged to one of the sixth graders.

The squeak of the locker room door and the chatter of boys reminded me I had no choice.

I slipped on the clothes.

#

I sat uncomfortably in the cafeteria, a sixth grader’s shirt and gym shorts pressed against my body, the smell of the boys’ locker room rising from my chest. I took a bite of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and looked down at the shorts. The tip of my penis was poking out one of the legs. I tucked it in, pulled at the shorts, and looked around, my face hot with embarrassment. I prayed no one saw it.

I took another bite of my sandwich and felt the jarring invasion of a body press against my side. I coughed, choking on the peanut butter.

“You okay?” Penny asked. She patted my back. “You wearing gym shorts? They look too small for you.”

I pulled at the shorts again, careful not to tug too much and expose my butt crack behind me.

She reached down and touched my shorts.

I jumped.

“What?” she asked as if she had no idea.

“Don’t touch me there.”

“What’s the big deal?” She inched away, but just slightly. She eyed my shorts again.

I tried to shield myself with one arm. I resumed eating.

“You wearing underwear?” she asked.

My mouth full, I said, “My-mu-mu-mare?”

“What?”

I forced a swallow. “Why do you care?”

Before she could continue questioning, we were invaded. Three more couples joined us, sitting boy-girl, boy-girl, boy-girl. The girls chatted. “Hey. How’s it going? Did you see why so-and-so was wearing? Bla-bla-bla…” The boys sat smiling, each like they were the girls’ voiceless dolls.

“What stinks?” a girl asked.

Penny made a not so subtle point toward me.

I rolled my eyes and turned away. Looking toward the far wall, I spotted Kent walking past. He had a lunch tray in hand and zigzagged through the crowds of middle schoolers. He seemed not to notice me.

Another girl at our table said, “Is that the boy?”

“Yeah,” Penny answered her. “That’s what I heard.” She turned to me. “You know him, don’t you?”

I looked to Kent, then to Penny. “You mean Kent?”

“You know his name?” Penny straightened as if she just realized something. “Oooo. Are you in gym together?”

“Yeah.”

She smiled, her hands covering her mouth and eyes widening. “Then you saw him.”

“Uh?”

The girl sitting opposite of me leaned in and whispered. “Naked.”

I couldn’t believe it. The news of Kent’s naked walk in the locker room had already spread to the girls. Granted, it was a bold move on Kent’s part, but it’s a locker room for crying out loud. That’s what it’s for. I looked down my tight-fitting sixth grader clothes and feared what they would possibly gossip about me had they known what I was really wearing and why.

Penny poked me. “What’d it look like?”

All girls perked up. Even the boy toys next them seemed interested.

“It?” I asked.

“You know.” Penny wiggled her head.

Another girl asked, “You saw it, right?”

“Yeah, but, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Why not?” Penny asked.

“You all are crazy. I’m not going to describe what Kent looks like naked.”

“How come?” Penny swept her eyes over her friends, then returned to me. “Because you’re friends?”

I jumped to my feet. “No. We’re not friends. For your information, these aren’t even my clothes. And yes, they stink. They smell like a locker room because I had to steal them from a sixth grader’s locker because that jerk Kent stole my clothes and my towel when I was naked in the shower. And now I’m not even wearing any underwear!”

The entire cafeteria silenced, hundreds of eyes glaring at me from every direction.

I tried to swallow but it wouldn’t go down. I couldn’t believe what I said.

Not waiting another moment, I grabbed my backpack from underneath my seat and shot out the door as fast as I could move. I didn’t breathe until I was outside. Even then, I couldn’t get a clean breath.

11

AFTERMATH

I stood alone in my kitchen that evening after dinner drinking a Coke from a can. I had just taken a shower and wore nothing but a shirt and underwear – my shirt and underwear. The tight clothes I had on earlier were rolled into a plastic bag and shoved to the bottom of the trash can.

Ryder stepped in wearing nothing but socks – three socks, one on each foot and a third dangling off his privates. He giggled as entered, thrusting his pelvis forward to emphasize the third sock.

I nodded. “Funny.”

He laughed harder and the third sock fell off. He completely forgot about this the second he noticed what I was drinking. His eyes brightened. “Coke?”

He and I knew the Coke was off limits to us, especially on school nights since it kept us awake. I shrugged. “I had a bad day.”

He twiddled with this penis as he rose up on his toes, giving me that weepy puppy-look of his.

“Here.” I handed him the can.

He grabbed it and took a swig, wincing as he did.

Neither of us drank much soda in general, so the fizziness was both very pleasurable and hard to get down.

I took the can and sipped at it. I asked, “What’s with the socks?”

He looked down. “My feet were cold.”

“Just your feet?”

He giggled, picking up the third sock from the floor. He slid his feet back and forth against the tile. “Besides. I like sliding. It’s like skating.” He slid his feet back forth yet remained stationary. “Zoom, zoom, zoom.” He looked up and laughed.

“You’re nuts.”

“You talk to Kent today?”

I frowned, wondering how much of me and Kent he might have heard. By the end of the day, everyone at my school knew about Kent’s naked walk and my lack underwear and stolen clothes. But rumors typically never made it to Ryder’s elementary school.

I took another sip and asked, “Kent? About what?”

He took the can from me and said, “This weekend.” He sipped and eyed the kitchen entrance. He whispered, “Naked Club.”

“Naked Club?” The sound of this nearly made me laugh.

“That’s what Parker and I decided to name it.”

I took back the can and downed the rest. I burped. When Kent started at my school, Parker started at Ryder’s. “Parker in your class?”

“No. But I see him at recess.” He added, “And Devon wants to come too.”

I opened the trash to toss in the can, but stopped. I glared at Ryder. “Devon? I told you to keep it a secret.”

“I told them it was a secret. They won’t tell.”

I shook the empty can at him. “They? How many kids did you tell?”

“Uh…” His eyes rolled back, thinking. “About three.”

“About three? You don’t even know how many?” I tossed the can into the trash. “Ryder. If they find out, we’ll never be able to–”

“Find out about what?” Aunt Dee said, stepping into the kitchen with Mom two steps behind.

My bit my bottom lip, realizing we were caught.

Ryder looked equally guilty.

Aunt Dee stopped, crossed her arms, and looked from Ryder to me. “Okay. What are you hiding?”

“Nothing.” I said.

“Don’t lie to me, Drew.” She looked at Ryder. “Ryder. Put some clothes on.”

“I don’t like clothes.”

“I don’t like you playing with your pecker in the kitchen.”

Ryder shuffled out.

“And you,” Aunt Dee redirected her attention toward me. “You’re hiding something.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Step aside.”

“Uh?”

She pushed me aside and opened the trash.

I stepped back and grabbed the counter behind me. I wanted to run. The clothes I had stolen were in that trash.

She pulled out the empty can of Coke, tilting it toward me. “Nothing?”

Mom gave me the first and middle name treatment. “Andrew Carter.”

I breathed, somewhat relieved the “Naked Club” and stolen clothes were no longer in the firing range. “I was thirsty.”

Mom shook her head. “You know it’s juice or water only during the week.”

“Sorry.”

Aunt Dee tossed the can back into the trash and turned to me. “Ryder had some, didn’t he?”

I nodded. “Just a sip.”

Aunt Dee shook her head. “I think as punishment he should sleep in your bed tonight.”

“He’ll piss all over it.”

“Exactly.”

I dropped my head. “Okay.” I stepped toward the kitchen entrance.

Mom stopped me, lifting my head. “What’s wrong? You’ve been grumpy all evening.”

“Nothing. Can I go to my room?”

She rubbed my shoulder and looked at me for few seconds. “If something’s bothering you, I’m always here to listen.”

“I know. Thanks, Mom. I just wanna read or something.”

She tapped my chin. “I love you.”

“Yeah.” I walked off.

#

I lay shirtless on the floor between my and Ryder’s beds, the room dark and quiet. Underneath me were my sleeping bag and pillow, a similar setup as when we spent the night in the fort, or “Naked Club” as Ryder called it. I gazed up at the ceiling. Ryder was in my bed. The Coke I had drunk kept me awake, although my mind leapt around enough that I probably wouldn’t have been asleep anyhow.

“Drew. You awake?” Ryder whispered above me.

“Yeah.”

He peaked over the side of my bed. In the room’s darkness I could only see the dark shadow of his fluffy hair outlining his head. “Sorry I told about Naked Club. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. Just don’t tell anyone else.”

Ryder didn’t say anything, but he remained peaking over the side.

I asked, “Who’d you say wanted to come?”

“Devon.”

“Is he that Chinese kid?”

“No. That’s Jin. I told him but he didn’t want to come.” He paused. “So. We going to go there this weekend?”

I sat up, my back to Ryder’s bed. “I don’t know.” I looked at our closed bedroom door. The thin line of flickering light and muffled sounds let me know Aunt Dee and Mom were still up watching TV.

Ryder sat up as well, his legs crossed.

I turned to Ryder. “Kent and I sort of had a fight.”

“You punched him?”

“No. Nothing like that. He walked around the locker room naked, tried to get me to join him, and when I didn’t he stole my clothes and towel.”

Ryder giggled.

“Wasn’t funny,” I said.

“Oh. That why you were wearing those tight clothes?”

“Yeah. I took them from a sixth grader.”

“Did you punch him?”

“The sixth grader?” I chuckled through my nose. “No. Actually, he probably doesn’t know I took them. At least, not yet.”

“So…” Ryder dropped his head. I couldn’t quite see in the darkness, but I guessed he was playing with his penis. He had tossed on shorts after Aunt Dee ordered him. But the second he hopped into bed, he kicked them off.

I answered what I knew he was thinking. “I don’t know what we’ll do. Just the two of us could go to the fort. Well, three, with Devon.”

“Without Parker?”

“I guess you’re pretty good friends now.”

He lifted his head. “Yeah. It’s like, we’re like, brothers. You know?”

“Yeah.” I thought about Mitchell and how close I was with him. In my mind, at least.

“Drew?”

“Yeah?”

“Um,” he looked down. “I think about Parker a lot. Last night, I dreamt about him.”

I stood and sat on my bed next to Ryder. “Makes sense. Like you said, you’re like brothers.”

He looked up. “But it’s more than that. I mean, like, when we were naked and we hugged each other and fell asleep. Well… I mean. When you like another boy that much, doesn’t that make you…?”

“Gay?”

He had a pained look. Even in the darkness I could see the stress in his face, the wrinkled forehead and strained eyes.

I rubbed his back. “It’s okay, Ryder. You two are close. Very close. Just take it for what it is. You like him. And likes you. Don’t worry about anything else.”

His wrinkled forehead softened.

I said, “Do you remember Mitchell?”

“Mitchell? That blond kid?” He twirled a finger in his hair.

“Yeah. We were like brothers too. We liked each other.” I looked at Ryder for a long moment. “I wouldn’t want you two to not be together because of Kent and me.”

He rubbed his face. I couldn’t tell if he was wiping away tears, but he might have been.

I said, “I’ll see if I can work things out with Kent.”

“Thanks, Drew.” He leaned and gave me a hug.

I patted his shoulders and said, “No prob.” I hesitated. “But promise me something.”

He leaned back. “What?”

“Don’t piss in my bed.”

He laughed. “Okay.”

I rubbed his fluffy head. “Good night, punk.”

I returned to the floor. My bed squeaked above me as Ryder laid down.

As I fell asleep, I thought about Kent. I wasn’t looking forward to facing him again.

12

CLOSING A DOOR,

OPENING A FENCE

As luck would have it, I barely saw Kent the next few days. On Tuesday it stormed during gym and each class played basketball or generally hung out doing very little at different parts of the four-court gymnasium. Kent’s eighth grade class was at the opposite corner from mine. The gym was freezing and we sweated so little that barely anyone showered afterward. On Wednesday, my class was in health class. Once a week, each of the five gym classes were stuck in a classroom and learned about stupid hygiene and personal fitness stuff out of text books while our coach lounged at the front of class reading sports magazines. On Thursday, Kent’s class was in health, so again I didn’t see him.

Then Friday came.

I sat on one of the cinderblocks that surrounding a basketball court and watched several boys from my class play. My knee was streaked with blood and dirt. In the first few minutes of gym, I jumped for the ball and was knocked to the pavement. I thought about limping to one of the coaches who leaned against the wire fence and chatted with each other. But I didn’t feel like doing much anyhow, so I decided to wait until later in the period.

I heard the crunch of sand and someone sitting on the cinder block next to me. Somehow, I knew it was Kent before I turned my head.

“Hey, Drew.”

“Hey.”

“What happened?” He nodded his head to my knee.

“I suck at basketball.”

“Me too.”

I watched him looking at the game in front of us, his typical arrogant smirk crossing his face. I bit my lip and wondered how I was going to clear the air with him. I knew I had to, for Ryder’s sake if nothing else.

“Uh…” I started.

Kent looked to me.

“Guess you’re not getting hot and sweaty today.”

He smiled and shook his head. He spoke in a low voice, “You talking about getting naked, are you?”

“Duh.”

He pursed his lips at me. “You don’t have to be a jerk.”

“Look who’s the jerk.”

“What?”

I took a breath, trying to choose my words wisely. “I might have, you know, joined you if you would have given me time.”

“Time?”

“Yeah. You didn’t have to take my clothes.”

He stared at me like I had just slipped into another language. “Your clothes?”

“Yes. My clothes. And my towel.”

“I didn’t take anything.”

“Bull. Then who did?”

He tossed his hands up. “How should I know? You tick someone off?”

“Yeah. You.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What do you think I’m talking about? You came strutting through the locker room all naked as if saying – hey look at me. And then you flat out asked me to get naked too.”

His eye brows frowned. “I didn’t say that. And I wasn’t showing off. I was hot.”

“Sure you were.”

He stood. “I don’t have to take this. You’re the one being the jerk, not me.” He mounted his hands on his hips, looking like he was searching for more to say.

“What?” I snapped.

“Why do you have to be this way?” He stomped off.

I looked around. A group of boys and girls at the far end of the court huddled and peered toward me. I knew they were talking about us, probably laughing about Kent’s nakedness and my lack of underwear from earlier in the week.

I crossed my arms against my chest and thought about my conversation with Ryder a few nights ago. He had been bugging me all week about me talking things out with Kent. I promised him I would. But now, things were worse.

#

I headed back out the second I got home. Mom and Aunt Dee hadn’t even gotten home yet. I left a quick note that I had to pick up a text book I lent to a friend – a lie, of course. Instead, I trekked through the woods to get to Kent’s neighborhood on the opposite end of the woods.

Cutting through a gap between a pair of houses, I walked down the sidewalk toward his house when I heard a kid’s scream from a backyard. I was about to dismiss the scream, when a voice called out, “Mitchell! Stop!”

I froze. Mitchell? And the voice. I swore it sounded just like Mitchell’s little brother – Opie, I think.

Then another voice responded, “I was just kidding, Opie!”

I spun toward the red-brick house I stood in front of. “No way,” I said aloud.

I jogged up to the tall, wooden fence that surrounded the house’s backyard and attempted to peer through the cracks. All I could see was the side of the house and more fence. Another scream and my heart leapt. I heard a splash.

I grabbed the tops of two wooden planks and heaved myself up. A strip of grass sandwiched by the house and wooden fence extended another twenty feet. Beyond that, I saw the edge of what looked like a pool deck, cement with a few grass runners growing over the side.

A red and white beach ball flew out from the pool deck, bounced in the grass, and then stopped. A few seconds later, a naked body ran into the grass to the retrieve the ball. I recognized Opie immediately, a short, wild-eye seven-year-old with dark, stringy hair matted wet against his head.

Opie picked up the ball and stopped. He stared at me, his face half-smiling, half-confused. “Hey!” he called out. “Hey, you.”

“Who is it?” I heard someone ask, a deeper voice. It couldn’t have been Mitchell.

Opie said, “I don’t know.”

A head peeked around the corner of the house. Mitchell’s older brother. I couldn’t remember his name. “Hey, get down from there.” He sounded mad.

I realized I needed to say something. “You’re Mitchell’s brothers.”

“Yeah?” the older brother said, still hiding his body behind the edge of the wall. “And you are?”

“Drew. Mitchell’s friend.”

Two more naked boys hopped out from the pool desk into the grass, Mitchell and a brown-haired boy I didn’t know.

Mitchell smiled. “Drew.” He ran to the fence, the other boy close behind. Opie trotted up to join them, still holding the beach ball. “What’re you doing here?”

I struggled to keep my grip of the top of the fence, my shoes slipped against the flat surface. “Uh. Seeing a friend. He lives a few houses down.” I peered down the boys’ bodies. Mitchell’s tiny penis looked as cute as ever. His friend didn’t look so bad himself. And Opie, the smallest of the three, had a full-on erection pointing skyward.

“Cool.” Mitchell said. “How’d you get here?”

“Walked. The woods separate our neighborhoods.”

“Wow. I didn’t know that.” He looked at his friend. “This is my friend Russell.”

“Hey,” Russell nodded, gripping his penis.

Mitchell asked, “Wanna come swimming?”

“Uh…” I slipped, then caught myself. I pulled up and heard the squeak of the fence. “I really gotta see my friend.”

“Oh.”

“Well, uh…” I licked my lips. “Can I come over later, like tomorrow?”

His face brightened, matching his bright, sunny hair. “Yeah.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow. Around lunchtime.”

“See you!” He gave Russell and pat and the two ran back toward the pool, Opie trotting several steps behind. I looked to the pool deck, but Mitchell’s older brother was no longer peeking around the corner.

I let myself fall and rubbed my sore hands, my heart still racing. I looked at the fence as I heard the sounds of splashing. I whispered, “Wow.”

#

Kent’s front door opened and there he stood, arms crossed and chin low. “What now?”

I wondered for a moment if this was even worth it, especially since I discovered Mitchell a few houses down. Mitchell and his friend were close to Ryder’s age. They could all play and have fun together in the fort. Did I really need to talk to Kent?

“Well?” he said, lowering his head even more. He had the look teachers gave when students screwed up.

But then I remembered what Ryder said to me a few nights ago, how he felt about Parker. I was the lucky one. I found Mitchell again. Heck, I just saw him naked again. Ryder had Parker. Why should I pull them apart? I swallowed.

“I’m…” I started. “I’m sorry.”

“For being a liar?”

I bit the inside of my lip. “I wasn’t lying about someone stealing my clothes. I’m sorry I accused you of taking them.”

“No duh. Why would I?” He uncrossed his arms and mounded his hands on his hips.

I spoke fast. “Look. I don’t want to fight. Ryder and Parker are, like, best friends. And if we don’t get along, I’m afraid that’d screw things up for them. So, can we just be cool about this?” I held my breath, wondering how much of my ramble sank in.

He said nothing at first, just stared at me, his eyes narrowing as if trying to see straight through me. “So you want to just forget about all this.”

“Not forget about it, just–”

“So I’m just a big, fat idiot for being honest at church, you call me a jerk, and I’m supposed to be okay with everything?” His nostrils flared in and out the more he spoke.

“Kent, c’mon. Let’s go out to the fort again. Remember how much fun it was? Ryder and I going tomorrow night. Please.”

“Please what?” He gripped the door. “I’m not going to just forget what you said. I tried to cool about this. But you didn’t want to. You accused me of attacking you instead.”

“Kent, I didn’t mean–”

“I hate you. I don’t want to see you for the rest of my life.” He slammed the door.

I gasped and jumped back a step.

I staggered back a few steps feeling like I’d been punched in the gut. I might have felt better if I did. I looked down the street and eye’s Mitchell’s red brick house. I knew he and his friends were splashing around naked at this very minute and I had an open invitation to join them. I wanted to brush off Kent and never see him again myself and run off to Mitchell’s house where I’d no doubt have fun.

Yet, I couldn’t shake the fact I was letting Ryder down. But as much as that hurt, I couldn’t turn away from Mitchell.

13

GUILT

I sat at the dining room table with a slice of Papa John’s cheese and peperoni sitting in front of me. Normally my favorite meal, I couldn’t eat. The opened box of pizza sat at the center of the table, Mom, Aunt Dee, and Ryder sitting around the table chomping on their slices.

Aunt Dee still had her pale green Publix cashier uniform, having picked up the pizza on her way home from work. She had just finished off a story about some drunk guy who knocked over an endcap of cereal boxes when her attention swept over me. “What’s the matter?” She spoke with her mouth full.

I shrugged. “Not hungry.” We were eating late partly because of me. I had just gotten home.

Mom leaned in toward me and sniffed. “Is that ammonia?”

“Ammonia?” Aunt Dee swallowed her pizza and held out a hand toward me. “Give me your arm. C’mon. Arm.”

I held out my arm toward her.

She grabbed it and lowered her hear head, smelling the surface. She sat up, frowning. “You’ve been swimming.”

“Swimming?” Mom said.

“That’s chlorine on him.”

Ryder said, “Ah, no fair.” He squirmed in his chair. His hair was wet having already showered and he wore a white tank top. I could see through the glass table he was naked from the waist down, his penis poking in and out between his wiggly legs.

Mom asked, “Where were you swimming?”

I sunk in my chair. It was no use lying about it now. “A friend’s house after school.”

“That’s why you were late?” Mom asked, though I knew she wasn’t expecting an answer. “You should’ve asked.” She looked behind her, as if checking something. “Your suit. I just saw it in the swim bag. What did you wear?”

“Uh, my friend had a spare. I wore his.”

“What friend?”

Aunt Dee leaned toward me. “Was it that Kyle boy?” Her eye was cocked.

“Kyle?” Mom said. “You mean the one who came to church with us and…”

Aunt Dee gave her a slow nod and a half-smile.

I looked at both. Though I wasn’t sure how they knew, I guessed they somehow found out what Kent said at church. I couldn’t tell by their actions if they were disgusted by Kent’s comment or thought it was funny.

“That was Kent at church,” I said. “I didn’t swim at his house.” I looked at Ryder. “I was at Mitchell’s.”

Ryder stopped chewing. He rolled his tongue inside in his mouth with a confused look in his eyes.

“Oh, Mitchell.” Mom’s face brightened. “Wait. I thought he moved.”

“He did. But I can get to his house through the woods.”

Aunt Dee slapped her hand on the table.

I jumped in my seat.

“You know you’re not supposed to go into the woods.”

Ryder asked, “How come?”

She looked at him. “There’s… there’s…” Aunt Dee stuttered, waving a hand in the air like trying to catch the next word. This lost for words was completely unlike her. She suddenly got very serious, very stern. “You don’t know what’s in there. Stay out. You too.” She pointed at me.

Mom added, “And ask next time you want to go swimming. Something bad could’ve happened and we’d have no idea.”

Mom and Aunt Dee exchanged looks, something strange and deep like they were communicating something beyond what either Ryder or I could hear or understand.

Mom looked to me again. “If you want to see Mitchell again, just ask and we can drive you.”

“And stay out of the woods,” Aunt Dee said.

“Yes.” Mom nodded. “Stay out of the woods.”

“Got it,” I said. “So, about Mitchell…”

“Yeah?” Mom’s eye brows went up.

“Can I spend the night on Saturday?” Again, I looked at Ryder. And again, he looked confused. Unfortunately, I hadn’t a chance to explain any of this to Ryder before dinner. I could see he was bubbling over with questions.

“Mitchell’s house?” Mom she looked to Aunt Dee and shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Mitchell’s a great kid.” She said the “great kid” comment more toward Aunt Dee than me. I always found it interesting that every time Aunt Dee was living with us, Mom often got her approval for decisions like this.

Aunt Dee nodded. “That should work out, since Ryder invited his friends over our house Saturday night.”

“Our house?” I asked. “What friends?”

Ryder said, “Devon and Jin. We’re going to camp in the backyard.” He thumbed toward the back of the house.

I smiled at Ryder, knowing exactly what he meant. Sounds like he already planned sneaking out to the fort with some friends, probably his backup plan if I couldn’t work things out with Kent. Or maybe his idea of expanding membership to the “Naked Club”.

For good measure, Ryder added, “And I promise we won’t come in during the night or wake you up early on Sunday.”

“You better not,” Aunt Dee said.

I asked, “So it’s okay?”

Mom nodded. “Sure. What time should I drop you off tomorrow?”

I shrugged. “After lunch?”

“After lunch is Penny’s dance recital. I’ll take you after–”

“Dance recital?” My mouth hung open. “I never told her I was going to go.”

Aunt Dee said, “How can you not go? She’s worked so hard. And you’re her boyfriend.” She shook her finger at me. “You’re going.”

I slammed my back into my chair and crossed my arms. This dance thing is going suck. I looked at Ryder across the table. He smiled at me, biting into his pizza.

“What are you smiling at?” I asked him. “You’re going too.”

His mouth was full. “What?”

#

I stood in the shower, warm water coursing down my body and the constant hiss relaxing every muscle. I closed my eyes and thought about Mitchell. He and his friend Russell jumped in and out of the pool, unafraid that I huddled at the corner steps staring. I was amazed how open they all were for me to join them. Opie, Mitchell’s seven-year-old little brother and as naked as everyone else, jumped on me and tried to pull me under. I tossed Opie off me, splashing him across the water. This excited him and made him come back for more punishment. Mitchell and Russell, meanwhile, tossed a ball back and forth, occasionally hopping out of the water to retrieve it. Every time either leapt out, my eyes were on their slick naked bodies, giving Opie another chance to attack me.

I reopened my eyes in the shower. I had an erection, something I was grateful didn’t happen in full while in the pool. I think Opie saved me with that. His constant attacks distracted me and forced me to exert enough effort muscle to reallocate the blood elsewhere. Now, in the privacy of a shower, I was happy to see it at full attention.

I pumped out some conditioner from a bottle into my hand. Although this stuff was made for hair, I knew it worked very well as a lubricant. Closing my eyes again, I envisioned Mitchell’s naked body, and rubbed.

I hung up my towel and walked naked from the bathroom to my bedroom, a little spring in my step. Ryder lay belly-down on his bed reading a book. His knees were bent and he slowly swung his ceiling-pointing feet like he was walking in the air. As at the dinner table, he wore only a white tank top. His pale, naked butt faced me as walked into the room.

I stepped close, smacked Ryder’s butt, and hopped to my dresser.

“Hey.” He smiled up at me from his book and rubbed his butt. He twisted his body to look at his rear. “I can see your hand print. See?” He pointed to the red hand-shaped mark on his butt.

I laughed.

“Not funny.” He returned to his book.

I opened a dresser drawer. “It was too tempting.”

He leaned on his side, propped up on one elbow, and watched me.

I slipped on a pair of underwear.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

I straightened the elastic band and asked, “What?”

“Did you swim naked at Mitchell’s?”

I stepped around my bed, shutting our bedroom door along the way. “What makes you say that?”

“You’d never wear someone else’s swim suit.”

I couldn’t hold back my smile. I sat on my bed facing him. “Why not? I wore some sixth grader’s clothes from gym.”

He fanned the pages of his book. “That’s different. You had to do that.”

“So you think I’d volunteer to skinny dip at some kid’s house? What about Mitchell? Don’t you think he’d mind that I was naked?”

He sat up, crossing his legs. “I think he was naked too.”

I shook my head. “You’ve got an active imagination.”

“So I’m right?”

I nodded.

His eyes widened and he giggled, covering his mouth with his book. “So he joining Naked Club?”

“What makes you think I asked him?”

“Why else would you spend the night?”

I shook my head again. “You’re smarter than you look.”

Ryder started to laugh, but stopped with a half-puzzled look on his face. “But what about Parker?”

I felt guilt smack me in my face. I made Ryder a promise. Not only did I not come through on it, I had fun at Mitchell’s for purely selfish reasons.

I threw my palms up. “I’m sorry. I tried.”

“By swimming at Mitchell’s?”

“I went to Kent and Parker’s house first.”

“And?”

I shook my head. “Kent’s a jerk.”

“So? Couldn’t you’ve invited Parker without Kent?”

“He wouldn’t let me. He slammed the door in my face.”

He looked down, noticeably upset.

“At least I got more people for… for the Naked Club.”

“I guess.”

“And Mitchell’s bringing a friend.”

He looked up and crunched his eyebrows. “Who?”

“He’s name’s Russell. He’s nice. Close to your age.”

“He’s not Parker.”

I nodded. “I know. I didn’t mean he’s a replacement. I just…” I paused. “I know.”

I shot a quick look at our closed bedroom door. “So when do you think you can head over to the fort tomorrow?”

He shrugged. “After we eat dinner, I guess.”

“You might want to wait until it’s starting to get dark.” I thought for a moment. “And make sure your mom has some wine with dinner.”

“Why?”

I gave a crooked smile. “You know how she gets. Enough alcohol and she won’t care that you three are in the tent out back. If she catches you not there, you’ll have some explaining to do.”

“Oh, yeah.” He bit his bottom lip and flipped his penis around with a couple fingers like he was thinking about something.

“What?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I don’t like lying to mom about Naked Club.”

“Well we can’t tell her. She’d flip.”

“I know.” He looked down. “It just feels bad.”

“We’re doing nothing wrong. We’re just having fun, that’s all. Not like we’re stealing stuff or doing drugs.”

“I know.” He sounded sad, his head still down.

I stood, reached out, and pushed up on his chin with my hand. “Look. Maybe I can spend more time naked around the house. You too. Get our moms used to it. Then maybe we invite our friends to do the same. Then when our moms are used to everyone being naked, it won’t be so bad for them to accept.”

His face brightened. “Then we can have Naked Club at home.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

I pulled off his top and tossed it to floor. He looked to me with an expectedly, like it was my turn.

I thumbed the sides of my underwear, slipped it off, and kicked it away. I extended both arms out. “Happy?”

He nodded.

I stepped to the door and clicked the lights off. A second later, Ryder’s reading light at the head of his bed clicked on, shining a harsh light on him. He laid on his back, book to his chest, and resumed reading.

I slipped in my bed and pulled the sheets over me, feeling the coolness against my exposed body. I felt my penis stir. I smelled the strong, sweetness of conditioner.

“Drew?”

I turned to Ryder, squinting at his reading light.

“I hope mom and I don’t move away again. I love living here.”

“Yeah.” I smiled at him. “I like when you’re here.”

He returned to his book.

I closed my eyes. “Goodnight, Ryder.”

“Goodnight, Drew.”

14

HORRORS OF THE DANCE RECITAL

Penny’s dance recital was as boring as I knew it would be. I sat in the dark next to Ryder. I felt his glaring eyes on me. He’d made it clear that he blamed me for him being there.

The dances cycled through slower than I could have imagined. And they were endless, thirty-five dances in the first set and twenty-nine in the second. Aunt Dee had to nudge me a few times throughout the first set to wake me. I came to once Penny’s group came on stage, but only for a minute. Her ballet routine set to classical music seemed designed to put boys asleep.

When intermission hit between the two sets, Ryder and I hopped up and trotted off to the restroom, if nothing else but to get our blood flowing.

I stood toward one end of a long line of urinals. Ryder stood at the last urinal on one side of me and a bunch of dads and brothers and grandfathers were on the other. I peered down the line of penises. I found it interesting how old men’s penises looked so much darker than boys’. Some looked like a weltered tree branch that had been out in the rain too long. And then there was the ferocity of little boy’s pee. Most shoot out so hard they can’t help but get splash back, dotting their shorts as they step away.

“Whatta lookin’ at?” the man next to me spoke up.

My eyes snapped up to his face. I felt my own penis shrink in my hand. “Uh, wha–”

“I saw you eying my boy.”

I wasn’t sure if “my boy” referred to his penis or the little boy standing next to him. In either case, I was certainly guilty looking at both. I turned to Ryder. He looked as shocked as I felt.

The angry man slapped the flusher on his urinal, pulled in his penis, and stepped back. “Keep your eyes on your own junk.” He grabbed the arm of the little boy. “C’mon.”

The boy stumbled backwards, the front of his pants still down. He struggled to pull up as the man dragged him to toward exit, bypassing the sinks.

I zipped up and stepped back. Everyone looked at me with curious stares. My face burned with embarrassment.

I quickly rinsed off my hands and shot out of the restroom. Ryder was two steps behind me. I looked at him as I stepped toward the auditorium.

Before I spoke, Ryder said, “I look too.”

His comment didn’t lessen the feeling, but appreciated the effort. I nodded.

A hand grabbed my shoulder. I snapped to the side. It was Aunt Dee. She looked frazzled. But next to her stood Penny in a gaudy light blue poodle with a face that looked seconds from crying.

“There you are,” Aunt Dee said.

“What?” I said.

“Penny needs help.”

I looked at Penny. Her hands shivered in front of her face. She probably would be touching her cheeks if they weren’t caked in makeup.

I said again, “What?”

Penny said, “Sharon… Sharon…”

Aunt Dee said, “Her dance partner took a fall and sprained her ankle pretty bad.”

“Okay.”

Then she hit me with the point of all this. “You’re going to replace her.”

“What!”

“Penny’s been working all season on this number. She needs your help. And you’re the only one available who’d fit in the dress.”

“A dress!” I couldn’t breathe.

“There’re wigs backstage. No one will realize you’re a boy.”

“B… but–”

“C’mon!” Aunt Dee grabbed my arm, not too differently than how the boy in the restroom was dragged off.

I looked behind me and Ryder was smiling full faced. I wanted to kill him. But not as much as I wanted to kill Penny.

#

Hands shoved me onto a blackened stage, the curtains closed. Girls surrounded me. Though quiet, I sensed their tension. So wrapped in themselves, I doubted they realized how terrified I felt.

I looked down my body. A light-blue shirt puffed up with a cutesy black poodle embroiled on the side. Strands of a curly hair wig dangled down the bridge of my nose, tickling the sides. I scratched my nose and felt a hunk of makeup jammed under my nail. All of this, Aunt Dee and a half-dozen other mothers dumped on me, transforming me from a boy to this monstrosity. A girl – uck! I couldn’t believe girls did this to themselves by choice.

Penny clasped my shaking hand. From the dim light, her face sparkled with a combination of excitement and glitter. I had never seen her happier in my life. Her smile looked genuine and joyful.

I wanted to kill her.

The curtain opened and harsh lights smacked us in the face.

I winced and instinctively shielded my face with my free hand.

Jazzy music started and Penny yanked my other hand. My girly hushpuppy shoes squeaked against the slick stage and I moved my legs, trying not to fall flat on my face.

Penny let go of my hand and twirled around. I mirrored her but overcompensated and nearly twirled myself to the ground. I stopped a second before slamming into the back of another girl. I looked to Penny. She was already into her next move, twisting her hips and waving her hands in the air. I followed.

Between the loud music and squeaking shoes, I heard snickers. I chanced looking out on the audience but could only see dark shadows.

I looked back to Penny, but she wasn’t there. Girls twirled their matching poodle skirts all around me. I faked a dance move, still searching for the girl I was supposed to follow.

A hand pulled at my shoulder. I spun. Penny smiled and grabbed my hands, pulling me in and pushing me out. I realized this was another dance move and I again attempted to mirror her moves.

One of her hands slipped away from my sweaty palms, and I twirled in an uncontrollable spin. I bumped into another girl. My skirt caught on something sharp on the other girl and when I spun away, my skirt ripped off.

I finally stopped at the edge of the stage. The wig had slipped down in front of my face. I pushed it up and it fell to the floor. I looked down to see my tighty-whities exposed for the entire world to see. The audience, who I still could barely see, erupted in laughter.

Spun away from the audience. The poodle skirt girls had stopped dancing, all of them laughing at me as well.

I ran off stage as fast as I could.

#

I sat in the backseat of Aunt Dee’s station wagon sandwiched between Ryder and Penny, my arms crossed. Ryder looked ready to pop. He stifled a laugh that I was sure he started the second my poodle skirt ripped off. At least now, I was fully clothed, in my own clothes. I scratched my face and felt some left over makeup.

Penny, on the other hand, looked like she was in heaven. She held the side of my stiffened arm and leaned into me.

“You sure you’re okay?” Aunt Dee asked from the front. She looked through the rearview mirror. But she wasn’t talking to me.

Penny answered, “I feel wonderful.” She smiled at, giving my arm a loving squeeze. “I’ve got the best boyfriend in the world.”

Ryder asked, “‘Cause he flashed everyone?”

She sat up. “No. Because he did such an awesome thing for his girl.” She hugged my arm. “And what’s better, he didn’t even look.”

“Look?” I turned to her.

“At the other girls behind stage.”

“How could I? I was attacked by like a hundred moms putting all that junk on me.”

She nodded. “You had a few chances. And there were plenty of girls changing clothes, half-dressed, and you didn’t get all googlie-eyed like most guys do. You like me so much, you kept your eyes on me.”

Mom sighed. “That was really sweet, Drew.”

“Yeah.” I said. Though as I remembered it, I kept looking at Penny because I was imagining myself stabbing her with something sharp.

Penny said to me, “When we get to my house, I’ll change and maybe we can snuggle on the couch and watch a cheesy movie.”

“I can’t,” I said.

She straightened. “Why not?”

“After we drop you off, I’m going to a friend’s house for a sleepover.”

“Another one? You just had one last weekend.”

“This is different friend.”

She raised an eyebrow. “All boys, I hope.”

I gave her a dumb look. “All boys.”

“I always wondered what you boys do at those sleepovers.”

Aunt Dee spoke up, “You don’t want to know.”

For once, I was very happy with Aunt Dee’s answer. I looked at Penny.

Penny looked at me with a suspicious glare, eyes narrow and lips tight.

I looked away, wishing she’d forget about it. But knowing Penny, that wasn’t going to happen.

15

LYING

Mitchell rolled on his living room floor grabbing his stomach and laughing. I had just shared what happened at Penny’s dance recital. Russell stood over him, not falling over but laughing just as hard.

“Are you done?” I asked.

Mitchell rolled himself up and sat upright, legs bent and arms resting on his knees. From this position, I could see one of his smooth balls down the leg of his shorts. I tensed and bit my lower lip. It didn’t matter how often I might have seen Mitchell naked, I felt this every time I caught a glimpse of him. When we swam yesterday, I noticed his entire body appeared a little darker than at camp, especially his privates, which used to be pale and fair like his blonde hair. Now he had no tan lines. Russell and Opie were the same way. Only Mitchell’s older brother, Liam, and I had the typical pale stripe of flesh around our pelvises.

Mitchell’s laughing settled and he looked down the leg of his shorts, probably wondering what I was staring at. He looked up at me and studied my shorts for a few seconds. “When you wore the skirt, did you have underwear on?”

I instinctively moved my hands in front of my crotch. “Thankfully.”

“What’s so funny?” a young voice said.

We all turned toward the hall.

Opie came walking out wearing nothing but a plastic bag. His legs stuck out holes punched through the bottom of the bag and the handles were stretched up and over his shoulders like suspenders.

Mitchell and Russell laughed again.

Mitchell asked, “What are you wearing?”

He smiled. “Walmart bag.”

“Why?” Russell asked.

He shrugged as if to say, “Why not?” The bag made a crunching sound when he walked. Pressed against the inside of the bag, his squished penis pointing upward and shriveled balls were clearly visible. He went into a dance, singing, “La, la-la-la, la, la-la-la.”

Mitchell, Russell, and I laughed.

“Opie!”

Opie stopped dancing, shocked to see his mom glaring at him, her fists digging into her pudgy sides.

“Don’t play with plastic bags. You know better.”

“It’s my costume,” he said.

“Off.”

He peeled away the plastic, leaving him naked next to me. He looked up to me and said, “So can I come?”

I said, “Uh? Where?”

“The fort in the woods.”

My head shot up to Mitchell’s mom, suddenly angry at Opie for spilling the beans.

“What fort?” his mom said, looking to Opie and then to me.

I tried to swallow, but my tongue wouldn’t let me.

Mitchell said, “I asked if we could camp in the woods.”

His mom narrowed her eyes at him. “I thought you meant put up your tent on the other side of the fence.”

The edge of the woods just happened to be behind Mitchell’s backyard, which made swimming naked feel a little more private. The “other side of the fence” probably meant directly behind their fence at the edge of the woods.

Mitchell’s mom asked, “What’s this fort?” She looked from boy to boy for an answer.

I spoke up. “It’s mine.”

“Yours?”

“Mine and my cousin’s, Ryder. Uh, we built it. With our moms’ help.”

She crossed her arms and I wondered if she was buying my story. “Where is it?”

I nodded toward the back of the house. “Through the woods toward my house. It’s safe.” I swallowed, regretting the “it’s safe” comment. One thing I’d learned about lying to parents, you don’t want to give them things to worry about. If I hadn’t mentioned its safety, she might not have questioned whether or not it was safe. But now…

“I’d like to see it.”

Mitchell and Russell had concerned looks. When I told them about the fort yesterday, I did it in secret, impressing on them this place was not just for anyone’s eyes.

“Okay,” I said, trying not to sound anxious. In my head, I tried to think what she could possibly would want to see in this fort. The fact it was up in a tree was not going to help our case. The fact it wasn’t actually near my house at all, that it was in the middle of the woods was another strike. Then, I remembered – the funny-looking blankets on the walls.

I said, “It’s decorated.”

“Decorated?”

“Yeah.” I tried to sound discouraging. “My mom decorated it with blankets and sheets and pillows. A little too girly-looking. But she said it needed to feel like home.”

“Um,” she said.

“And they installed a light socket so it’s not dark at night. We got a lamp in there and a radio.”

“Really?” She sounded impressed. “Sounds fancy.”

“But the worst part are the frogs.”

“Frogs?”

“Yeah. There are frogs all over the woods. Some sneak into the fort and we have to shoo them out. They don’t hurt anything, just gross and slimy with that swamp water all over them. You know how frogs are.”

“Yick.” She wiggled and shivered her fingers as if she was imagining the frogs crawling all over her.

I looked to Mitchell and Russell. They still had looks of uncertainty. But I knew I had her.

I turned to Mitchell’s mom and waited.

She said, “Well, it sounds like your parents really fixed it up nicely.” She touched her bottom lip. “It’s not far from here, is it?”

“No. Just behind my house, a little bit past the swamp in the woods.”

She shivered again. “Well, since the fort practically at your house, I don’t see why not. Besides, this fort sounds like it’s like a spare bedroom.”

I nodded. “Oh, it’s real nice.” I paused just long enough, then I went in for the kill. “So you want to walk through the woods with us?”

She stepped toward Mitchell and rubbed the back of his head. “No, I think I’ll pass this time. Maybe next time I stop by your house, you can show me this fort.”

“Sure.”

Opie, still as naked as ever, hopped up to his mom. “Can I go too?”

She looked down to him. “Get the Off spray, first. I want to coat all of you down before you leave.”

Opie hopped happily, then darted off down the hall.

She looked to Russell. “Your mom know about this fort?”

He nodded. “I told her you were okay with it.”

She shrugged. “I am now. Wish you’d told me more about this place earlier.”

“That was my fault,” I said. “I didn’t tell them much before now.”

She said, “We have a policy of open honesty around here.” She shook her finger at me the way Aunt Dee often does. “Remember that.”

“No problem,” I smiled.

Mitchell and Russell still looked a tad uncertain, like they were questioning my sincerity, or how much I was lying.

Then I had a brilliant idea. I asked Mitchell’s mom, “Do you have a camera?”

“A camera?”

“We can take some pictures so you can see what it looks like.”

She smiled, “That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll get it.” She walked off.

Mitchell and Russell bombarded me the second she was out of ear-shot. Mitchell spoke first. “I thought you said it was a secret place.”

“It is,” I said. “And I wasn’t lying about the decorations. We’ll take some pictures. Your mom will be happy.” He glanced at the hall where his mom had gone to fetch a camera. “And once that’s done, we’ll have some fun.”

They looked at each other. I could tell by their eyes that they had some sort of unspoken language between the two.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be great.”

Still, they said nothing.

I said, “Why are you two getting cold feet now? You were excited about it yesterday.”

Mitchell said, “You were lying to mom. I could tell.”

“You could tell, but your mom couldn’t?”

He didn’t respond.

I glanced over my shoulder toward the hall. I looked at the two. “There’s nothing to worry about. Trust me.”

They nodded, though this time I could tell they were lying.

I swallowed, hoping I wasn’t.

16

GETTING NAKED

After dinner, I led the charge through the woods with a backpack slung on one shoulder, packed with snacks, bug spray, and a camera. Mitchell and Russell followed on my right, Opie and Liam on my left. When Mitchell’s mom returned to the living with her camera and a can of bug spray, she had Mitchell’s older brother, Liam, with her. She commanded he will join us. By the look on Liam’s face, he didn’t look thrilled at the idea of spending all night with a bunch of younger kids. He was tall, wore glasses, and looked older than Kent. And though he swam naked with the rest of us yesterday, the paleness of his privates showed he wasn’t the nudist his younger brothers were. Although, I found it odd his testicles had a strange stubble like he shaved his pubic hair. Considering I barely knew him, I didn’t ask. Now that he was joining us this evening, I wondered if the topic may come up, either from me or one of the others.

“How far is this?” Liam asked.

“Are we lost?” Opie asked.

I looked over my shoulder. Dusk was approaching and everyone but me carried the flashlights Mitchell’s mom handed out. Opie’s was on but it really wasn’t dark enough for it yet. He whipped his back and forth.

I said, “We’re not lost. And it’s not much further. Just around this clump of trees.”

Liam looked past me. “I don’t see any houses.”

“No,” I said.

“Mom said the fort was, like, in your backyard.”

I didn’t reply to this, just waved him forward to follow me.

We rounded the trees I had pointed out and stopped. I turned to the gang behind me.

They looked left and right with confused looks.

Mitchell spoke first. “So…”

I pointed up.

Everyone’s eyes grew huge.

Russell summed it up the best. “Holy crap.”

Opie giggled, so excited he started hopping, crunching a patch of leaves.

Liam said, “How’d you build it up there?”

I breathed. “To be honest, I didn’t build it.” I paused to let the truth sink in. “We just found it and claimed it.”

Liam looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re crazy. How you know it won’t just fall down?”

“We’ve added extra supports.” He didn’t look convinced. “Look, I’ve been up in it several times. Several of us already spent the night there.” I stepped toward the rope ladder. “C’mon. Trust me. You’ll feel different once you see what it’s like inside.”

I didn’t wait for them. I walked up to the large oaks supporting the fort and started up the rope ladder. Half way up, the rope swung and I saw Mitchell and Russell following me up.

I pushed open the door and crawled inside. The rope ladder continued to squeak. I clicked on the lamp. Mitchell popped his head up through the door in the floor.

“Wow,” he muttered, then crawled the rest of the way in.

Russell followed. Opie heaved himself in after him. The three stepped around the room cautiously like they were touring a museum.

Mitchell touched the red patterned blanket hanging on the wall. “Weird.”

The rope squeaked again. Liam popped up. His eyes widened behind his glasses. He crawled in and stood, brushing off his shorts and bare legs. He pushed up on his glasses and studied the place. “Looks old,” he finally surmised. “Your parents build this place?”

“I told you, I don’t know. We just found it.”

He shook his head. “I still don’t know about…”

He stopped with the squeak of the rope ladder. Together, we stepped toward the door and looked down. Liam’s head blocked my view at first. But when he moved, I was shocked to see who was coming up.

Parker poked his head up, smiling. “Ryder?”

I said, “He isn’t here yet.”

He worked his way in. On his heals was Kent, crawling in behind him.

He stood, standing face-to-face with Liam. They stared at each other, as if expecting the other to say something.

I spoke up. “Liam, this is Kent. Kent, Liam.”

“Hey,” Kent said in his typical cool way.

“Hi,” Liam nodded.

Kent turned to me. “I’m here for Parker’s sake.”

“I know.” I nodded.

He pursed his lips. I knew he was still mad at me.

Liam looked from me to Kent, then back to me. He gave me a crooked smile, like he was amused at the friction between us.

“Hey, guys!”

I spun to see Ryder poking his head through the door.

“Ryder!” Parker said.

“Cool! Parker.” Ryder climbed in.

Behind came two other kids, I guessed his friends Devon and Jin. Devon was a pudgy kid with a shaved head and a shirt that rode up his round belly. Jin was a short Chinese kid with straight black hair that flopped around when he moved.

Now the room was crowded, a total of ten of us; Me, Ryder, Devon, Jin, Parker, Kent, Mitchell, Russell, Opie, and Liam. Ryder and Parker were the most animated. They bounced in place face-to-face while holding each other’s hands. I was never this giddy with Mitchell. I looked around at everyone else’s face, little embarrassed over the two’s actions. They all stared at them with strange fascination. Devon and Jin seemed the least interested, however, letting their attention wander around the strange room.

Mitchell spoke up. “So…”

Ryder and Parker quieted for moment, looking to Mitchell.

Mitchell shrugged and bounced from heel to toe, like he was waiting for someone to do or say something.

I twisted my tongue in my mouth, imaging what everyone was going to look like not too long from now.

Then Opie said what was likely on everyone’s mind. “When we getting naked?”

17

KENT’S MOVE

CD playing, music blaring, the small room was chaotic. Wall to wall naked boys hopped and bounced off each other, laughing, joking, wiggling their pelvises, acting bold, looking embarrassed, and rambling on like they were all filled with sugar. Even Liam, who was fairly dossal in the pool yesterday was going crazy, picking up random kids and tossing them against the mattress that leaned against one of the walls.

I had never seen so many penises in so close proximity in my life. They bounced, jiggled, and slapped around in the boys’ craziness, all various sizes, shapes, and states. Ryder’s friends, Devon and Jin, were both pee-wees. Devon’s bloating stomach practically covered his little nub completely. Russell, Ryder, and Parker were all similar shapes and sizes, though Russell’s was the only one of three circumcised. Liam and Opie appeared to have the same slick models, Liam’s obviously more matured than his little brother’s. Mitchell held my interest the most. He too was a pee-wee, but a cute one. Though I was one of the few wallflowers sitting on my butt, I had a permanent smile and half-erect penis, staring mostly at Mitchell.

So transfixed, I completely forgotten about Kent until he stepped directly in front of me.

He looked down, his penis wiggling close to my face. “I gotta pee.”

I frowned at him, unsure why he felt the need to get up from his corner and tell me this. I eventually said, “Okay.”

“You gotta pee too?” The question was odd, very odd. It sounded more like a command.

I didn’t have to go, yet I answered, “Okay.”

He nodded toward the door.

I stood and followed him.

Still naked, we slipped outside, worked our way down the rope ladder, and hopped to the leafy ground.

The air was cool and fresh, compared to the stuffy fort. Stars were out and the moon provided little light through the overhead trees. Most of the light shown through the fort’s door, which was still cracked open.

Kent stepped away from the fort into the darkness. He clicked on the flashlight I hadn’t realized he had grabbed. I felt stupid not grabbing one myself. The night’s darkness quickened my heart and I jogged a few steps to get closer to Kent’s light.

He stopped next to a tree and turned to me.

I stepped back and looked down at his penis, expecting he was going to start peeing.

He didn’t. He stared at me with his dark eyes and shadowy face, flashlight pointing to the ground.

“What?” I said.

He stepped closer to me. His light hit my chest and its muted reflection illuminated his face enough to expose his teary eyes. His teeth exposed, he labored breathing and his free hand flexed like he was in pain.

“Uh…” I found it hard to speak. “What’s wrong?”

“How can you not know?”

“What?”

He lunged at me, grabbing the back of my head and pulling me toward him.

We kissed.

Not the kind of kiss Mom sometime gave me at night or the quick peck Penny occasionally hit me with. It was hard, hot, and kind of hurt my lips. I couldn’t breathe.

He released me.

I stumbled back and gasped.

Kent remained in front of me, breathing hard and staring me down.

I wiped the back of my hand over my mouth. My teeth chattered and I felt cold.

Kent said, “I’m sorry.” He stopped talking to breathe.

I wanted to run. I couldn’t move.

“I don’t know why I…” He covered his mouth with one hand and cried. Lowering his hand, he said, “I’m sorry.”

I crossed my arms against my chest and shivered. “It-it’s okay. It’s okay, Kent.”

He shook his head, tears sparkling in the dim light. “I lied before. I don’t hate you.”

“It’s okay.”

“Do… do you hate me?”

I rubbed my mouth again. My lips still vibrated from the sting of his kiss. “No.”

His eyes brightened, slightly. He covered his mouth and spoke partly muffled. “Do you want…?”

I nodded toward the fort. “I just want to go back.”

He wiped his eyes, first with his hand, then his arm. He sucked in a wad of snot in his nose. “Okay. We’ll go back.”

He stepped toward me, and I moved backwards. He kept moving, stepping around and heading toward the fort.

I stood there for a moment, the surrounding darkness and sounds of chirping insects rolling over me. I swallowed and wondered if what happened really happened, or if I had been dreaming.

I rubbed my face hard with both hands, shook out my arms, and hopped to catch up with Kent. I had a sudden urge to pee, but my need to return to the fort trumped the feeling.

We reached the fort and Kent stopped, placing a palm on my chest. He shined his flashlight up and looked up with a look of worried surprise. I looked up as well. It only took me a second to realize what had captured Kent’s attention.

A couple of the two-by-four supports had already splintered and broke from the tree. The stomping feet in time with the blaring music were unscored with frightening sounds of creaking wood, straining and snapping.

“Holy, crap,” Kent said.

My heart thumped.

18

DISASTER

We raced up the rope ladder as quickly as possible and popped up the door.

I killed the music and Kent yelled, “Stop! Stop, everyone! We gotta get out.”

The room froze.

“Uh?” Liam was the first to speak. “What’s the matter?”

“Listen,” I said.

In the sudden quiet, a rustle of leaves against the outside of the fort made an eerie scratching sound. A second later, they all heard it. The wooden supports holding up the fort snapped and whined, sounding like pieces of wood ripping off piece by piece.

SNAP-SNAP.

The floor lurched. The kids screamed, then stopped the second the movement stopped. The entire room had tilted a couple degrees to one side.

Opie whimpered. Ryder and Parker held onto each other. Jin covered his mouth and muttered something in Mandarin.

“C’mon,” I said at last. “To the door.”

Everyone took a step. Russell leaned toward his clothes.

I said, “Forget your clothes, just –”

SNAP.

The floor lurched again. Screams. The floor stopped. Quiet, aside from Opie’s muffled cry.

Opie whispered, “I don’t wanna die.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Just move slowly. Uh, two at a time. Everyone else, don’t move. Ryder. Parker. You two first.”

The two held each other, shivering. Together, they inched toward me, the door directly behind me.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.

Ryder and Parker stopped.

I waved them to keep moving, held my breath, and prayed – Please hold. Please hold.

They took another step.

SNAP.

The next couple seconds passed in slow motion.

The entire room dropped. Twisting cries of popping, snapping wood. The lights went out. Sparks. Everyone including me flew toward the ceiling. Screams. I hit my head. Bodies smashed against each other.

SMASH.

The fort landed. I slammed to the floor. Something landed on my arm. A sharp, lightning pain shot through my body.

Silence.

In the complete darkness, tapping sounds like marbles being dropped against the roof echoed over the soft whimpering of kids all around me.

Several seconds passed without anyone saying a word. I blinked. Something large lay on my right arm. I moved and felt an extreme pain. I couldn’t move. I breathed and it came out in a little boy cry.

I looked around through glassy eyes and feared everyone was dead.

The first voice spoke. It was Mitchell. “Ouch.”

For some bizarre, sick reason, Mitchell’s understated single word brought a giggle out of a few boys, probably partly hysterical from what had just happened. The giggles bled into an all-out laughter. Even I couldn’t hold back a laugh, in spite of my pinned arm.

Another voice, Liam I think, spoke up. “Everyone okay? Mitchell? Opie? Russell?”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m okay.”

“Good.”

I strained to speak. “Ryder? Parker? Kent?”

We went through the entire roll call. Everyone was alive. People moved in the darkness. The ceiling was partly collapsed. I was the only one trapped.

All nine other boys surrounded me. A couple of them had found the flashlights and shined it on me. Part of the ceiling had fallen on my arm just below my shoulder.

Kent and Liam grabbed the wood and lifted. I fell back, freed. Ryder leaned in, shining a flashlight. My arm looked dark and bloody. It bulged at sickening angle above the elbow.

“It’s broke,” Liam surmised.

More lights shone through the open window. They came from outside the fort.

I winced, holding my uninjured hand open over my eyes. All other boys turned toward the window, many shielding their eyes as well.

A familiar voice called out, “Oh my Lord. You all okay?”

The light lowered and I gasped as the sight of three familiar faces: Mom, Aunt Dee, and Penny.

19

THE DEAL

I got a lime green cast for my arm. Ryder and I were imprisoned in our room for the next week. We pretty much did nothing but go to school, did our homework, and read. No visitors. No playing.

I saw Kent at school over the next week, but we regarded each other like strangers. He wouldn’t look at me and I ignored him. The cast helped. I sat out most of gym and avoided the showers completely.

Toward the end of the week, Aunt Dee stuck her head into our room and looked at Ryder and me, both of us sitting up in bed holding a book. “Ryder.” She tilted her head to the side. “You’ve got laundry to do. Go.”

He hopped out of bed. Along with being a prisoner with me, he had also lost his naked privileges and was forced to wear clothes full time. He tugged at his shirt and shorts as he stomped out of the room.

Aunt Dee remained at the door, staring at me.

“What?” I said.

She stepped into the room and sat on Ryder’s bed, facing me. “You should’ve told me about the tree house.”

I dropped the book I had been holding to my side and looked at her. “Mom said you knew about it?”

She nodded. “I knew it existed. I didn’t know you found it.”

“How’d you know about it?”

She straightened her back, her hands pressing down on the mattress at her sides. “Your Uncle Billie built it for us. For me, really.”

“For you?”

“You were a baby. He called it our little hide-away.” She looked past me. “Ryder was conceived there.”

I winced at the thought, now realizing why the fort had a mattress. “Yuck.”

She pursed her lips at me. “You’re lucky you came out with only a broken arm. And no one else was hurt. You all could been killed.”

“I’m sorry.” It came out almost in a whisper.

“Sometimes sorry just doesn’t cut it.”

“What do you want me to do?”

She shook head slowly, never loosing eye contact with me. “This is an important time in your life. You need to decide who you want to be. What kind of man you’ll become.” She breathed. “I’ve known a lot of wastes over the years. I don’t want you to be one of them. I know you’re better than that.”

I scratched my nose, feeling the weight of her words pressing down on me.

She stood and rubbed my head. “You’re a good kid, Drew. Make good decisions.”

I nodded, looking up at her.

“You have a visitor.”

I frowned, surprised at the news.

She said, “I’m only allowing this because it’s Penny. You two need to talk.”

She ducked out of the room and for a moment I wondered if I was supposed to follow her. A few seconds later, Penny swept in, pushing the door partly closed.

She sat at the edge of my bed and I pulled in my legs, crossing them like a little kid.

I waited for her to speak first.

She didn’t look at me. She played with her fingers and for once in her life she seemed lost for words, like she wanted to speak but couldn’t.

I opened my mouth, but I had nothing to say.

At last, she said, “I like that color. Your cast, I mean. Reminds me of green apples.”

I looked at it. “Yeah.” I hesitated. “It was this or purple. They didn’t have the other colors.”

She shook her, looked up, and took a deep breath like she was avoiding tears. “I feel like an idiot.”

“You feel like an idiot?”

She eyed me with a quick smile, but it went away. She looked to the door. “I can’t believe I never saw it. I guess I didn’t want to see it.”

I tried to decipher her code, but nothing made sense. “What?”

She looked at me, her eyes sharp and focused. “You don’t like girls.” She paused. “Do you?”

I looked away, my heart beating hard. I took quick breaths.

“Tell me the truth,” she said. “You don’t like girls.”

I sucked in a breath, and bit my bottom lip. I shook my head no.

“You like boys. Don’t you?”

I nodded.

She stood and walked to the door. I thought for a moment that she was going to stomp out like I had seen her done dozens of times when she was mad at me. But she didn’t. She just grabbed the door, holding onto the edge like it was her lifeline. She leaned in and placed her forehead on the side of the door. The door’s hinges squeaked.

She shut it completely with the door to her back. She stared at me, again regaining her sharp, focused look.

She returned to the bed, sitting closer this time.

I pulled my legs in tighter.

“You don’t want me to tell anyone about you, do you?”

I shook my head.

“Okay. Here’s the deal,” she began. “I won’t tell anyone on two conditions. One, don’t break up with me.”

My eyes widened. “Uh?”

“You don’t know what it’s like being a girl. You were my first boyfriend. Before you, the girls treated me like a loser. Like I couldn’t get a boy. They’d go off and chat, look at me, and laugh. But with you, I’m one of them. They talk to me. They accept me.”

In her eyes, I see her weakness, something she barely ever showed. She reminded me of Aunt Dee so much. I remembered Aunt Dee crying over Mom’s shoulder one when she was going through her divorce. She almost never showed this side of herself, even with family.

Now with Penny, it felt like we were having a divorce. Except Penny wasn’t having it. Not for her.

She touched her cheek. “Besides. If you want to keep this a secret, I’d be a good cover for you.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I spoke softly, barely audible.

“Second condition,” she said. “I want details.”

“Details?”

“When you’re in the locker room, the boy’s bathroom, anywhere you see other boys naked. I want to know what they look like. I know you’re looking anyhow.”

A half smile cracked on my face. “Details.” I nodded.

“With you, it’s like having a spy.” She shrugged. “And if I see a boy or two, maybe I’ll share with you.”

Nodded again, a full smile now. “Deal.”

She stood, her hands on her hips. “Good.” She looked at me for a long moment. Then she kissed her finger and tapped it against my nose. “You’ve always been cute.” She nodded. “I hope you meet a boy who sees that.”

She spun and left the room.

I felt a huge weight leaving my chest, as if I had been underwater for the longest time and I finally came up for air.

I breathed and smiled.

20

SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS

That weekend, Mom and Aunt Dee wanted to have one more beach fling. Autumn was approaching fast and keeping Ryder and me in our bedroom jails had kept them confined to the house as well.

We set up camp on a fairly empty section of beach, blankets spread over the sand and sun shining bright. Ryder bounced excitedly while Mom spread sunscreen on his upper body. In the middle of the application, he eased down his bathing suit, tempting to go naked.

Mom stopped rubbing. “Keep them on.”

He smiled and pulled them back up.

The second she finished, he raced into the surf.

I slipped off my shirt and stepped up to Mom. She squirted a line of lotion across my chest and stepped back, allowing me to rub the lotion on myself with my non-casted arm.

“Darn it,” Aunt Dee said.

Mom rubbed lotion on herself. “What is it?”

“I forgot my little umbrella. It wasn’t in the car, was it?”

“I didn’t see it.”

Aunt Dee looked to me, pursing her lips. I wondered for a moment if she was going blame me for the umbrella. Instead, she reached into her flowery beach bag, pulled out her wallet, and handed me a twenty.

I held the bill in the hand of my casted arm, awaiting her command.

She said, “Go to that little shop just up the boardwalk and buy me an umbrella. Not a big one. Just like the one I have at home.”

“Okay.” I stepped into the flip-flops I had kicked off, and headed up the beach to the boardwalk.

I knew what shop Aunt Dee had been talking about. She had picked up sunglasses, shirts, and beach toys from it over the years, though I had never actually been inside myself.

It took me several minutes to get there, all along the way my flip-flops kept catching on the boardwalk planks, making me feel clumsy and stupid every time I’d come close to falling.

I stepped into the shop and was hit with a familiar scent, though I couldn’t quiet place it. The smell was sweet like fresh cinnamon rolls.

“Drew.”

I spun.

Kent’s mom approached me, smiling. She leaned and gave me a quick hug, which felt weird with her scratchy top. She was a good ten or fifteen years older than my mom but was pretty and thin, her light, curly hair up in a large bun.

She asked, “How’s the arm?”

“Fine.”

She looked me over. “Your mom here? I’d love to meet her.”

“They’re on the beach.”

A tall, lanky man walked up from behind. Kent’s dad. He held a bunch of papers and wore glasses that barely hung onto the end of his nose. “Alice. These numbers aren’t coming… oh. I didn’t know you had a customer.”

“It’s Drew, dear. You remember? Kent’s friend.”

“Oh. Hello, son.” He shook my good hand. Then he froze, like he suddenly remembered something. “That was your tree house that fell, right?”

I nodded.

He shook his head. “You were lucky. You all were.” He stepped away, appearing a little angry.

Kent’s mom waved a hand in the air. “Never mind him.” As always, she seemed perpetually optimistic. “Kent’s working in the back. I’ll get him.”

She shuffled off and disappeared through an “employees only” door.

Alone, I walked down the aisle, looking at the assortment of beach toys and accessories, many resembled the stuff Ryder and I played with over the years. I found the section of folding chairs and umbrellas. I picked out a yellow one lined with drawings of tropical flowers.

I walked down the aisle to the counter at the back of the store. I stopped, surprised to see Kent at the register.

Kent gave me a quick smile, then went serious. “Hey.” He nodded, raising his chin.

“Hey.” I approached the counter, placing the umbrella and twenty dollar bill next to the register. “You work here?”

He nodded. “My parents own the place.”

“Since when?”

He frowned. “Since forever. Well, since before I was born.”

I smiled. For as long as I had seen this place and Aunt Dee had shopped here, I never knew Kent and his family had been here.

He looked at my cast, typing numbers into the register without looking at the keys. “How’s the arm?” He took the money, opened a drawer, and made change.

“Okay. It itches.” I paused. “My mom got me this plastic thing I stick down the cast to itch my skin.”

“I broke my leg once.” He handed me a few bills and some change. “The cast went all the way up my leg and I couldn’t wear underwear for a month.” He smiled. “I spent a lot of time naked.”

I smiled.

He rolled his tongue in his opened mouth and I could see he was thinking about something.

I waited.

He at last said, “You still dating that girl?”

I felt a coolness pass over me and thought about telling the truth about her. But considering Penny’s temperament, I said, “Yeah.”

“What’s her name?”

“Penny.”

He smirked, rattling the change from the sale in his hand. “Penny? Sounds like a cheap name.”

I laughed, only feeling a little bad for making fun of Penny’s name. I said, “Well, she’s not much of a girlfriend.”

“No?”

“No.”

He handed me the change and then picked up the umbrella. “You need a bag for this?”

“No.”

He looked at me. “You need me to help you carry this to the beach? You know. With your arm.”

I shrugged. I had no problem carrying the change and the umbrella. Still, I said, “Sure.”

He looked over his shoulder and called out, “Mom. I’m helping Drew with some stuff. I’m leaving the store.”

Her voice called back, muffled. “Any other customers?”

“No.”

“Okay. Don’t be long.”

He led me out the front door and we walked down the boardwalk. One store down, we came to a big fountain area, where water spit out seemingly random times from a large, round, rubberized section just off the boardwalk. A pair of kindergarten-aged kids jumped and squealed as they darted back and forth through the water. A mom and dad sat talking on bench nearby.

I recognized this fountain area immediately. This was where Kent and I first met. We were half as old as we were now. I looked at Kent and smiled. He eyed me and did the same. I could tell by the look in his face he too remembered that day running naked through the water, feeling free, not weighed down by things like embarrassment or fake girlfriends or a broken arm.

We passed the fountain, but Kent kept looking over his shoulder. He stopped and touched my bare shoulder. He gave mischievous smile.

I smiled back. “What?”

“You wanna do something crazy?”

I looked at the fountain, then at him. “You mean…?”

He nodded, his smile growing.

My heart pounded.

He dropped the umbrella to the ground. With one more nod to me, as if confirming I was playing along, he pulled off his shirt, kicked off his shoes, and slid off his pants and underwear. I kicked off my flip-flops, dropped the money on them, and pushed down my bathing suit with my good hand.

Kent waited for me to step out.

Both of us naked, we ran to and through the fountain, giggling like a pair of little kids. We hopped and danced around, naked for the entire world to see. But we didn’t care. The little kids who had been in the fountain stopped and stared at us. We laughed and made another circuit around the fountain.

The dad of the kids stood from the bench, wagging his finger at us. “Hey. Get out of there. Have some shame!”

I ran off to the side, avoiding the man. Kent jumped in front of me. He pointed his thumb down the boardwalk. A security guard-looking woman was making a beeline toward us. Kent smiled and skipped out of the fountain toward our stuff. I followed close behind, bare, wet feet slapping against the wood.

We grabbed our stuff and ran, still naked, down the boardwalk.

Kent made a hard turn down a narrow alley between a pair of shops. The alley curved around to a grimy sidewalk filled with large trash bins and sandwiched between the back of the shops and a tall, wooden fence.

Kent stopped, dropping his stuff to the ground. He laughed while trying to figure out his underwear.

I found the waistband of my bathing suit and worked it back on.

Clothed, we continued down the sidewalk and curved around a different alleyway. We peered out toward the boardwalk, making sure the security guard was nowhere. We scurried across the boardwalk and hopped down to on the beach.

“Let’s sit for minute,” Kent said, out of breath.

I nodded, breathing heavily myself.

We climbed a sandy hill and sat, looking out over beach. I spotted Aunt Dee and Mom about a hundred yards to my right. They appeared talking, neither looking our way.

I smiled at Kent and he smiled back, water still dripping down the sides of his face.

I looked at the lapping waves. My chest rattled and my head spun, still feeling the buzz of our spontaneous naked adventure. I wiped dripping water from my brow and placed my hand at my side.

A moment later, I felt a warm touch. I looked down to see Kent’s hand on top of mine. His eyes were on the ocean.

Looking over the water, I wondered where this was going to lead, what will happen between us. I thought about Mitchell, how many days and months he was on my mind. As lucky as I was to see him again, I knew nothing would ever happen between him and me. He had his friends, Russell and likely others his age. I had… I looked to Kent.

I bent my fingers, wrapping them around his. Without looking at me, he smiled.

I felt his heart through his hand, beating fast nearly in synch with mine. Although I still wasn’t too sure about Kent, his coolness, his strangeness, I guessed I was willing to give it a try.

‘Cause at very least for now, I was happy.

Check out the entire Naked series

A year before he met Russell, Mitchell was just as shy. This is, until he met Xander at Camp Freedom. There, Mitchell faces his naked fears head on while surrounded by dozens of older boys. The youngest two at camp, Xander and Mitchell have to stick together to survive. In the process, they form a friendship that they’ll never forget.

When Mitchell moves to a new house, he’s surprised to see that his next door neighbor Russell is a boy from his swim team. Mitchell finds, however, that Russell was once like him, way too embarrassed to get naked. Plus, Russell’s mom is so strict it’s scary. This all changes by the time they get to their big swim meet and Russell pulls an awesome prank to prevent a major fight.

As if finding a hidden fort in the woods behind my house wasn’t cool enough, I discover my favorite friend Mitchell, who recently moved away, lives just on the other side of the woods. Things get interesting when my cousin Ryder convinces me to make this fort the Naked Club, inviting friends over to play in the buff. But when Kent, a boy a year older from my middle school, does the unspeakable, things will never be the same.

Interview with the author

Russell James

Question 1: What inspired you to write the Naked series?

First off, I didn’t plan on writing a series. It started with a single story that I wrote about something that actually happened to me. When I was ten, I was forced to shower naked with a bunch of other kids after swim practice. I jotted this antidote down in short story, and later thought about expanding the story to full-length book. This turned into the book Naked. I had no idea how popular the book would become. Evidentially, the story strikes a chord with many others who’ve gone through embarrassing situations, and those simply struggling with self-image issues. I continued on the series with the same thought in mind, connecting with readers who’ve struggled through personal issues.

Question 2: Nudity is social taboo and makes many uncomfortable. Are you afraid the amount of nudity in your books may turn some people off?

I never expect everybody to like my stories. My goal when writing is to connect to some people very, very well. If this turns off some people, I accept that, but I certainly don’t strive to offend anyone. I write stories about people who overcome conflict, personal and interpersonal. Hopefully, there are enough readers who can accept that and connect in a meaningful way.

Question 3: Are you a nudist?

I don’t necessarily consider myself a nudist, but I will openly admit that I enjoy being naked, particularly in and around my house and with specific family and friends. I certainly respect people who live that lifestyle. It takes a lot of personal sacrifices to be a “full time” nudist since many are often live isolated in separate communities. Although, I’ve visited a few of these communities and there’s certainly a closeness and friendliness that is often absent in most places.

Question 4: Are you afraid some people will view the Naked series as pornographic?

No. Since these stories do involve adolescents who are learning about themselves, there is always going to be a certain level of sexual tension, but that doesn’t imply pornography. The characters in these stories are not dirty, they’re simply struggling with discovering themselves. This, by in large, is why I chose to tell the stories from kids’ points of view. These kids have yet to be corrupted by what the world considers pornographic. I think the only people who’d see these stories as pornography are those who don’t read them.

Question 5: Do you plan on writing anything other than the Naked series?

Absolutely. Granted, I’ve grown to love the characters in these books. They’re all close to my heart. But I love writing in general. I’m sure I’ll fall in love with other stories and characters in the future. For now, I’m enjoying writing these.

Question 6: How many Naked books do you plan on writing?

Um… I don’t know. I find my stories by speaking and interacting with others, seeing the personal issues others around me are going through. I trust I’ll just know when it’s time to move on. For now, I’ve got at least two more planned, but there may be more.

Question 7: Are there any parting words you’d like to leave for your readers?

Be honest with yourself. You’ll never be able to discover who you really are until you stop seeing yourself the way people want you to be and start seeing who you really are. This may require overcoming social boundaries and/or doing things that scare you. Give it a try. Take a step forward and be yourself. I guarantee doing this will be one of the best things you’ll ever do in your life.

Table of Contents

1 Six Years old and Naked

2 The Discovery

3 Trust Me

4 Face Off at the fort

5 Plans

6 The Lockers

7 The Naked Club

8 Naked At Night

9 Naked At Church

10 Naked At SChool

11 Aftermath

12 Closing a Door, Opening a Fence

13 Guilt

14 Horrors of the Dance Recital

15 Lying

16 Getting Naked

17 Kent’s Move

18 Disaster

19 The Deal

20 Searching for Happiness