Naked Ambition. Dan Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ a warm glow that is inviting. Then, at the most intense part, the hand finally touches him. The touch is both pleasing and disturbing. It is a touch that eventually causes Nick to gasp with delight. That’s when he would awaken, feeling defiled and dirty. And confused. And that’s how he felt now.

      With his eyes wide open, Nick knew that sleep was not in the near future. So, using the light coming in from the street lamp, he got up, put on his boxer shorts and, trying hard not to make any noise, walked to the Baker’s kitchen. Once there, Nick turned on the light over the breakfast bar and made his way to the refrigerator. Within minutes, he had poured himself a glass of milk and was eating some chocolate chip cookies pulled from a nearby jar.

      “Hungry, huh?” That was the voice that came from across the darkened room, from a sleepy Zach Baker.

      Nick jumped at the sound. “Damn, boy” he said, “you frickin’ scared me!” Then, with a grin, he held up a cookie and said, “Want one?”

      “Just some O.J.,” said Nick’s tousled-haired friend as he opened the refrigerator door.

      Once the juice was poured, Zach walked to the breakfast bar and sat across from Nick who was now on his third cookie. After a long yawn, Zach said, “So, you couldn’t sleep either?”

      “Naw. Too much to think about.”

      “Clarkson?” asked Zach.

      “Yeah. Can’t get him out of my mind.”

      “Dude, if this thing is too much for you…”

      “It’s cool. No problem. Just thinking, that’s all.”

      “Thinking about what?”

      “Thinking how fucked up these guys are who do this kind of stuff. You know, screwing around with kids.”

      “Yeah,” said Zach, “shit like that can really mess a boy up.”

      Nick immediately looked off into the darkness of the room. Then, softly, he said, “Yeah. Believe me, I know.”

      Zach picked up on Nick’s last sentence. “What do you mean by that?”

      Nick dropped his head for a moment and then, looking back up at his best friend, said, “I’ve never told anyone this but…but I know what it is to be messed with.”

      Zach’s face reflected shock, as did his one word response. “Damn!”

      A momentary silence followed Nick’s revelation. For a few seconds there was no eye contact between the two young men. That changed when Nick began to speak.

      “I was twelve years old. It was in the summer. Mom was going to an artist workshop for the weekend, and my brother was on a camping trip, so I was supposed to stay with my grandmother. But she got sick. So my mom asked a neighbor if I could stay with them for a couple of days.”

      Over the next several minutes, Nick shared with Zach the story of a night that will stay in his memory for the rest of his life. He told of being excited about going to spend time with the DeBlasio family, especially their sixteen-year-old son, Tony, who Nick looked up to.

      “He was a cool dude. And a really good athlete. Played several sports, including volleyball. He was on my brother’s high school team. And he really took an interest in me. Treated me like a little brother.” As he remembered that part, Nick said, “In fact, he treated me better than my own brother did.”

      Nick then spoke of how Tony’s parents were out late at a party one night. That left Nick and Tony alone at the house. Unknown to Nick, Tony had asked a friend of his to stop by.

      “Tony had put on a movie for me and said he and this guy were going outside to talk. After awhile I smelled something strange.”

      There was a bit of a smile on Nick’s face when he said, “I remember going outside and seeing Tony and his friend smoking pot. By that time they were giggling and laughing a lot. Both were really fucked up. When they tried to send me back inside, but I told Tony I would tell his parents unless he let me take a few puffs. It was my first time. Damn, that was powerful stuff!”

      Nick went on to tell Zach of how he got so buzzed that he ended up lying on the lawn in the backyard. “I remember looking up at the sky and seeing the stars swirling around. And around. And around.” He chuckled at this point as he said, “I started getting like woozy. I thought I was going to get sick.”

      Nick, looking at Zach, saw that his friend was following the story with interest. “At that point, I closed my eyes and just laid back. It was a hot night so I just had some shorts on. Nothing else. I was feeling so nice, like, warm and mellowed out. You know? Just floatin’ along. And I remember this feeling. It was like I was feeling something wonderful, yet weird, happening to my body. It was like somebody was touching me and then… then it become more like, well, sorta like someone fooling around with me. You know, real personal like.”

      “You mean like foolin’ around with your…”

      As if lashing out at Zach, Nick broke into his sentence, almost yelling, “Yeah, some fucker was fooling around with my penis!”

      Nick, seeing that Zach looked a little scared by the sudden outburst, calmed down and said, “Sorry. I just get a little upset when I think about it.”

      Zach nodded as he said, “Yeah, I noticed.” Then he followed with, “Was it Tony?”

      “No. It was the other dude.”

      “So what happened?”

      “Well, the next thing I heard was Tony’s voice somewhere in the distance say something like, ‘Dude, what the fuck are you doing to him?’ That’s when everything changed. The mood went from mellow to one that got real intense. I mean, real intense. I heard Tony screaming, ‘Get the fuck away from him!’ The other dude was saying, ‘I’m not hurting him!’”

      “So, Tony came to your rescue?”

      “Yeah, he did.”

      “What did he do?”

      “Not real sure but I remember hearing a pop. Like someone got hit. And then another pop like the one before. It was like the two dudes were fighting it out.”

      Nick stopped the telling of his story and didn’t say anything for awhile. Zach, literally on the edge of his seat, said, “What happened after that?”

      Nick had a blank look on his face. “I don’t know. I mean I really don’t remember anything after that.”

      “Did you talk with Tony about it later?”

      “Yeah, I did. But he said nothing happened. He said it was just in my mind. Tried to tell me that it was all a dream. He said shit like that happens when you smoke pot.”

      “But you don’t think it was a dream?”

      “No,” said Nick emphatically. “I damn well know it wasn’t a dream.”

      “Why do you say that?”

      “Well, СКАЧАТЬ