eggwards | Roadsides and Dark, Scary Places

I stood at the side of the freeway. The X-Terra was behind me, as I had pulled over to the side of the road. I was about a mile away from my parent's house. I called Dad to tell him that I would be there in a couple of minutes to go out to dinner with them. I didn't explain why there was so much road noise behind me.

I wanted one more glimpse.

It started on Friday. I was still at work. I had asked my friend Hans via email for some good restaurant recommendations. I wanted Mexican. I had one in mind, but Hans asked around his office and gave me another one. I sent "What did you say? My best man and his boyfriend need a place to go out to eat?", just to try and get a rise out of him. He came back with, "No, I just asked for restaurant suggestions, stupid." Heh. Good friend that one.

I got a call around 6; expecting that he was close and would need directions on how to get to my apartment. Chris (

oakleycub) said that he had to work longer than expected (yeah work! It's temp, but I'm happy that he's working again) and that he was still a few miles from Ennis. Ennis? That's three hours away! Dinner plans were dashed, but still, I couldn't wait to see him.

Jeff, who was the only other person in the office, turned around and laughed. "You sound positively giddy!" Yeah, I guess I did.

To fill time, I did a load of laundry, cooked dinner, and watched some Buffy on tape. I took the load of clothes out of the dryer and hauled them back to the apartment and got the call, he was on the 610 loop and needed to be guided in. Carrying a cell phone and not being used to the fast world of Houston driving, he was cut off and ended up on I-10, so directions change, and eventually I get him in the vicinity and rush outside so I can open the gate here at Running Rats Acres Apartments. He gets out and looks around, and admonishes me for calling it Running Rats Acres.

"I thought you lived in a sty." "No," I replied, "It's an alright place, but there's some things that could be better."

We get inside and the kissing commences. Eventually we separate and I suggest that we go get some ice cream before the night ends. I finish folding laundry, and we begin the drive to Amy's. We held hands in line and ordered, he chocolate, me honey vanilla. We take the long way back home, listening to Liz Phair sing the praises of male ejaculate (but in much, much baser terms).

We get home and use our newly legal status. We would have done it anyway, legal or not. We're rebels like that.

Next ~~morning~~ afternoon, we head out to the original Barnaby's for lunch with Davo (

davomatic) and Jerry (

goofyfag). Good food and conversation, especially talking about Davo's impending marriage. condensation from the overburdened air conditioning unit keeps falling on Chris during the meal. We invite Davo and Jerry to go out to the movies or something, but they decline.

Chris and I return to my place, and watch some really old band footage of me. The footage, which was an old production of mine, looks terrible. I didn't realize how bad that stuff was. Chris pulls out his laptop and pulls up instant messaging. One of our friends is on line, so Chris contacts him. Chris and I had talked about how I'd like to get with this person...meaning sexually.

Chris goes and instant messages him with permission to do me! I was kinda serious, kinda kidding, and a little worried. I think we took our friend by surprise (yes, we really did have that talk), but we did get a “LOL” back from him. I asked for assurance from Chris that this was OK. He said yes, as long as you come back to me, I’m not jealous. I said yes, I’ll come back to you, you can count on it. Our friend had to promise to return me (which he has).

God, what a boyfriend.

Well, we were supposed to go to one of my co-worker’s place for a pre-parade party, but we ended up sticking around the house for a while, and I didn’t know how bad parking would be, so we drove down to the Montrose to meet up with Jerry and his friend Matthew.

It came and went quickly, no not the parade, but my very first trip to a Houston gay bar. It was JR’s, a pretty nondescript place, really. It was very crowded and we stuck around the front door for a few minutes before taking our place out on Westheimer Road for the parade, as it was to start at 8:45 p.m..

The parade itself needs it’s own post, and so it shall get one, later.

Jerry and Matthew had long gone since Chris and I stayed for the end of the parade, some three hours after it started. With all of the lulls in the parade, we tried calling Randy,(

lostncove) and couldn’t quite get through, and tried to call Randy’s brother, Mitch and leave a Positive Gay Message™ for him from the Parade, but I must have written his phone number down wrong.

Chris was already tired and a bit upset, while I was getting a little addled by the crowd. I can get easily agoraphobic and the thought of trying to find Jerry and Matthew in the Montrose Mining Club did not appeal to me. We were having to both give in to the other…Chris was upset, and I was just wishy-washy. I kept looking at the crowds and said lets go. Heck, it was already after midnight.

I lead on toward the car, but decide to take a detour to see what the crowd is like (and looks like) at the Ripcord. There wasn’t a line there, and I knew that Dave, the guy I had a date with a few weeks back was supposed to be there.

Still, the Ripcord has always been the scariest place for me. I’ve never been, but I always imagined the Levi/leather bar as a deep, dark hole. Scary, foreboding, and full of men with evil intentions.

Well, one out of three ain’t bad.

It was dark. I think there was some music playing, and the place had been there for quite a while. It wasn’t too terribly crowded, but I found myself following behind Chris navigating the crowd. I started feeling like a little lost puppy, wandering through the shirtless guys with their jeans and chaps and harnesses. Interesting eye candy. Too scared to say hi. I think I was the only person who was actually saying “sorry,” and “excuse me” as I went by.

I spotted Dave and introduced him to Chris. Although I had told Dave the other day that I was seeing Chris, I could see some disappointment on his face. He had been crushing on me a little bit. I gave Dave a big kiss and we talked a little bit. He suggested that if I wanted to see a real show, I should go out to the back patio. Uh-huh. Maybe later. Someone had spotted Chris. I think his name was Jeff, but I’m not sure. It was the second time someone Chris had chatted to on-line had popped up (the first being in front of MMC) both of them were fairly cute.

We were both pretty well tired of the scene, and left to go back to the car. Neither one of us had even picked up a drink. Chris, being tired was trying not to be cranky, especially as I was asking a lot of questions. I expressed that I was still trying to figure out drag queens. By figure out I mean understand why someone would want to do that. I hate to say it, and I’m sure I’ll be labeled a bastard, but they just freak me out. I just don’t get it. Chris just said I was over-reacting and I’d get more used to them.

We get back to my apartment, and I start getting frisky again, but Chris was far too sleepy, so I just ended up holding him for a long, long time. It still made me very, very, happy.

We woke up the next morning and then that afternoon we went out for some brunch, since we needed to restore some energy. We then dropped by the apartment of America’s Favorite Former Virginal Couple (AFFVC), Hans and Naima. We had a good time talking about Hans’ favorite subject, Movies. It was nice to be able to introduce Chris to them. Naima made us sit down in a loveseat, and where you might think that I would have tried to sit to one side, as was my first inclination, but I fought it.

Dang it, this was my boyfriend! I wasn’t going to hide my emotions or my feelings. My arm went around behind him, sometimes we held hand, and I don’t think out knees ever stopped touching. Still, we had to leave. Chris had to work on Monday. He has a job that means he needs to be on the phone at 8:00am.

Back to my apartment, he packs, and I’m trying to keep my emotions in check so I don’t start tearing up. We hugged, we kissed, we cuddled just a little, but the reality was, Chris had to go. We gathered all of his stuff up, and got it out to the car.

I was getting ready to go have dinner with my parents. So I had my keys in my hand. We shared a short kiss in front of his car as one of the neighbors passed by. Chris got in the car and started away. I stood next to my car, watching him drive off, going out of the gate of Running Rats Acres.

I knew the route he was going to take. I knew I didn’t want to take the same route to get up north as he had to pass the exit for my parent’s house. As I got going…I knew that by taking the toll road, and the fact that I drive faster than he does, I could be there, waiting to see him drive by.

One more time. One more look. Either I’d look like John Cusack holding up the gigantic boom-box in Say Anything, or I’d seem like a foolish stalker. I was willing to risk that.

So there I was, on the side of a highway, waiving goodbye as my boyfriend drove by.

I’m such a dork.