Free Something Like Summer by Jay Bell

vision of God that didn’t mesh with the Old Testament’s
portrayal.
    Then there were those who
took every piece of Scripture literally. Such people
unquestioningly followed every rule and obeyed every command of
their spiritual leaders, no matter how nonsensical and outdated
these conventions might be. These mindless extremists tended to
make life difficult for everyone else. Ben certainly hoped that
Tim’s parents didn’t fit into this category.
    As for Ben, he tended not
to believe in any sort of god or devil. Except when he sang. That
was the only time the veil between reality and the impossible
melted for him. Singing revealed to him a million worlds made up of
colors the physical eye could never see, realms populated with
countless spirits and energies of all kinds. God was there too, a
benevolent being of as many faces as there were religions on the
earth. Oh, yes, when he sang such things were possible, but the
second he stopped it all faded away, forgotten until the next time
he took up his voice again.
    A snort followed by a grunt
called his attention back to the present. There was a shuffling
followed by the sound of a Coke can opening. Tim was finally
awake.
    “ Oh, man, I slept deep,”
he said as Ben entered the room. His hair was sticking up in all
directions and was so adorable that it took all of Ben’s willpower
not to reach out and muss it up further. “The house looks nice.
Thanks.”
    “ No problem. You can repay
me by staying awake. I was going out of my mind with
boredom.”
    “ Sorry.” Tim grinned. “I
took too many of those pills. You should try them. They make you
feel great.”
    “ I might take you up on
that,” Ben said, remembering the mellow buzz that had followed his
tonsils being removed.
    Tim yawned like a lion in
the Savanna heat. “I feel grody. Would you mind running a bath for
me?”
    “ Bored,” Ben reminded
him.
    “ Oh. Once I’m in the tub
you can come in and keep me company,” Tim offered.
    Surely Tim was aware of how
erotic such a situation would be for Ben. Was he offering more than
it sounded like or was he just being playfully flirtatious without
any real intentions? Regardless, Ben rose to run the bath without
revealing any enthusiasm. If Tim thought he could easily arouse
Ben’s appetite... Well, he could, but Ben wasn’t going to give him
the satisfaction of knowing it.
    Once the tub was full of
steaming water and bubbles, he waited outside the door while Tim
climbed in. It took much longer than it would for an uninjured
person, but once he was settled he called for Ben. The shower
curtain was half-closed, obscuring from view everything from the
waist down. It hardly mattered. Tim’s impressive upper body was
enough to evoke an unquenchable lust in Ben.
    Ben sat on the toilet, for
lack of a better place, directly across from the bathtub. Aside
from being the only seat available, it allowed him a more revealing
angle. There would have been nothing left to his imagination if not
for Tim’s injured leg. The cast was propped on the side of the tub
so that it wouldn’t get wet. The unfortunate side effect of this
was an obscured view.
    “ I’m guessing this isn’t
how you usually spend your weekends?” Tim asked.
    “ You mean watching
straight guys take baths?” Ben replied innocently enough. “Oh,
you’d be surprised. It’s a fairly common occurrence.”
    Tim’s laughter echoed in
the small tiled room. “Well, what do you do besides
that?”
    Ben shrugged. “Hang out
with Allison Cross. She’s my best friend.”
    “ And what do you usually
do together?”
    “ Shop, mostly. Hit the
movies sometimes or just drive around. What about you?”
    “ Me and my friends? Same
stuff you do, I guess. We don’t shop, but we drive around and try
to find somewhere to hang out. There’s been a couple of good
parties this year, too.”
    Ben didn’t know anything
about that. He was rarely invited to any parties. Such things were
the mysterious domain of the