First Kiss (Gene and Ace- Short Story)

So sorry for the abnormal posting times! Wanting to get this out ASAP



Every other Friday, after Gene had finished helping his mom with dinner, his father with the chickens, and had fed the dogs, he would drive his car across the street to Ace’s house to pick him up. Then, Gene would drive them down to Mr. Walker’s house which was out past the treeline in an open field. 

On Fridays Mr. Walker rolled his handmade movie screen from his garage out into the field beside his home. Four wooden beams formed a rectangle, and a thin sheet of fabric stretched across it. It was slightly transparent, and teens from their school used to go behind it and wave their arms, or dance, or pretend to hump the lead actress's leg. 

Now, after two years of operation, the crowd had lessened and tamed. Mr. Walker charged only a dollar per car, so most cars were filled with families.

Gene’s mustang rolled down off the main road into the field. The crackling from asphalt on tires went silent on the grass, and the car came to a stop behind the short line of cars waiting to gain entrance. When Gene was next, he cranked the window down.

“Evenin Gene,” Walker said.

“Evenin,” he said back as he flipped open his wallet with one hand.

“Evenin Aiden,” Walker said, and bent his knees to look at Ace.

“Hi,” Ace replied.

Gene slipped a dollar bill from his wallet and handed it off.

“Thank you kindly,” Walker said, and pocketed it.

Gene’s car rolled forward again.

“I can’t tell if he likes me,” Ace said and turned in his seat to look out the back window.

“Yea?” Gene replied.

“He always- I don’t know. I just think he says hi to me weird. Different from how he says hi to you.”

“Hmm,” Gene hummed. He looked back in the rear view mirror at Mr. Walker, then forward again. “How’s that?”

“I don't know,” Ace said, and leaned back to put his knees against the glove box. “I sound stupid.”

Gene replayed the scene in his head. Driving up to Walker, getting greeted, then driving off. 

After putting the car into park, Gene reached across and clamped his thumb and finger above Ace’s knee, making him yelp and pull his knees up to hug them.

“Gene!” He said, smiling.

“Huh,” he said, looking at Ace’s face.

Ace grinned at him, and Gene watched how his smile reached his eyes. In the dim car, his eyes looked brown rather than green. Gene placed his elbow on the backrest behind him and rested his head against his fist, still staring at Ace. It was then that Ace’s smile faded, and he looked away. Gene looked away too.

When the movie began, the giant screen beamed white as the projection kicked on and began to spin the tape. Then, the screen went black, and the MGM lion that roared before films appeared. Brass horns began to play through the delayed speaker behind them, and women in black and white danced on a stage. This had played twice before, “Kiss me, Stupid.”

Gene settled back into the cushioned bench seat and crossed his arms over his chest. Ace propped his knees on the glove box again and mindlessly picked his nails as he watched the screen.

For a while, neither of them moved. All of the cars had settled and turned off their engines, and the single speaker pressed the film audio through a rattly diaphragm. Crickets chirped in the field, a car drove down the road behind them, and Gene’s lighter flicked as he lit a cigarette.

He thought about Donna, and when he had taken her to see a movie here, and how that had been a date. He took her for ice cream afterwards though. That was different, he didn’t take Ace for ice cream.

He thought about himself and Ace, and how this was very much like a date. If Ace was a woman, they would be on a date. He glanced at Ace, and Ace didn’t look back at him, instead he stared forward at the screen then looked down at his nails.

Gene opened his crossed arms to splay his right one across the back of the seat.  Ace didn’t move. Gene’s hand rested just behind Ace’s head, and he could feel a curl tapping his skin. Ace had been growing out and layering his own curls for the past year and a half. They had grown to sit on his shoulders. Gene wanted to touch them.

“Aye,” Gene said, still looking at him.

“Hmm?” 

“Can I pet your hair?” he asked.

Ace’s brows furrowed and he turned his head to look at Gene. Gene stared back at him.

“I guess,” Ace said, looking forward but still eyeing Gene.

Gene reached his hand out to slide his thick fingers up the back of Ace’s neck, running them through the soft curls. They were warm under the surface.

“Why?” Ace asked. He was sitting very still.

“Hmm?”

“Why.”

“Wondered.”

“You know what my hair feels like,” Ace said.

Gene shrugged, but continued to slide his palm mindlessly on the back of Ace’s head. Ace’s hair was thick, and curly, and always soft. He used coconut conditioner and had a silk pillow case specifically to maintain his curls at night. He always brought that pillow if he was sleeping over, and it smelt like coconut.

Half way through the movie, Ace turned and propped his hips up on the backrest to reach into the backseat where Gene kept a plaid fleece blanket. He pulled it up with him and began to wave it open. He lapped the soft blanket over Gene’s lap and legs then around himself. He brought his knees up to his chest, and leaned his body against Gene. Gene leaned back, and let his resting arm slide down onto Ace’s shoulders.

The two men sat silently as the screen beamed a man and woman cooking in black and white. Gene watched, but he didn’t hear the dialogue as he became particularly focused on the weight of Ace’s body against his own. He was light and slim, his limbs were long and they sunk against Gene’s thicker padding. Gene pictured taking him home to lay down together, close. He held that picture in his head, and Ace suddenly sat up straight.

Gene adjusted, which made the leather seats squeak, and looked at Ace. Ace was looking at a distant car, then he turned to look out the back window. When he looked forward again, he stayed sitting straight.

Gene put his arm down and kept watching the movie.

Gene’s car rolled up onto the road again and began to drive back up the road to their neighborhood. They drove in silence nearly the entire way back home, until Gene reached out to give Ace’s knee a small push.

“Aye,” he said.

Ace didn’t say anything, but he looked up from the window.

“You got something in your head?” he asked.

“No,” Ace replied, and looked back out of the window.

Gene nodded, and kept driving.

Then, after another long while of the tires crackling under them and the air conditioning whirring, Gene’s car slowed in Ace’s flat driveway. Ace opened the door and stepped out. As always, Gene too stepped out to walk him to the front door.

He followed behind him, hands in his pockets, and stopped when Ace began to dig his keys out of his jean pocket. When he slipped them out, he unlocked the door and pressed it open. Then, he started closing it.

“Aye,” Gene said. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” Ace said, and closed the door.

Gene stood facing the closed door and leaned his weight onto one hip to think for a bit. The cogs in his head began to turn slowly as he replayed the night. Gene recalled that when Ace had come out from his house, he had been smiling. He had a lot to say.

Gene began to walk back to the car, thinking.

Some days later, Gene was brushing his teeth when his bedroom phone rang, as well as the phone upstairs in the kitchen. He didn’t move from the sink, leaning over to spit the foam into the round basin as the shrill ringing came to a sudden stop. His mom picked up the line upstairs.

He wiped his mouth and walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips. Cold tile went to soft carpet.

“Gene!” his mom called.

“Alright,” he said back and sat down on the edge of his plaid patterned bed before picking up the phone.

He raised the shell to his ear and scratched the corner of his eye.

“Aye,” he said.

“Hey,” Ace said back. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yea,” he said. “How bout you?”

“I’m fine- I’m doing good. I just wondered if you thought I was mad at you. I’m not, I just want you to know.”

“Oh,” Gene said.

“Did you think I was?”

Gene thought about it for a while.

“No,” he said.

“Okay,” Ace said.

No one said anything for a bit, and Gene began to scratch under his chin where prickled stubble was already growing despite having shaved in the morning. He pictured laying with Ace in bed.

“You wanna do somethin?” Gene asked.

“I don’t know,” Ace said. 

“Alright,”

“What were you thinking?” Ace asked.

Gene thought for a while. Ace waited.

“Night picnic,” he said.

Ace didn’t reply. The line went silent for a long while, and Gene wondered if he hung up.

“Uhm, maybe. I don’t know,” Ace said.

“You nervous?”

“No- I just feel like we haven’t done that in a while. We’re older so..”

That night, Gene and Ace walked out behind his house, past the chicken coop, into the tree line, and over the knee high wooden fence Ramsey had nailed to indicate the end of their property. Just a few yards from that fence was a round clearing that the trees encircled. When you looked up, the tall black pine trees framed the stars.

Gene held the flashlight and the basket as Ace laid out the blanket. At one point, he looked up and pointed the light to the sky.

“Gene,” Ace said shortly, and the light returned.

Gene had brought a battery powered lantern, cut strawberries, two slices of cake in tupperware, and one beer that Ramsey slipped to him in secret a few weeks ago. Ace brought nothing, because his mom would have noticed missing food.

They served themselves on the lid of the tupperware with plastic spoons, then Gene popped the beer by using his palm and his shirt as a gripper. He tipped the beer up for a drink, then brought it away to look at the bottle. He cleared his throat, then handed it off to Ace. Ace smiled.

“Really? Can I?” he said.

“Mhm,” Gene hummed.

Ace took the bottle and held it to his lips, tipping it just slightly. Gene watched his lips. Ace lowered the bottle, held his fingers to his lips, and sneered at the bottle as he swallowed. He handed it back to Gene.

“That’s awful,” He said, and Gene chuckled.

He took another sip, then set it aside on the grass.

Ace began to shift to lay down, and Gene began to clear the blanket to make room. When Ace lay, his thick hair splayed on the blanket like a framing for his face. Gene couldn’t see it very well in the dim lighting from the lantern behind them.

He set the tupperware aside and scooted in leg to leg with Ace, then laid back with his arm folded behind his head. Ace crossed one leg over the other.

Crickets were chirping in the treeline, and the trees overhead swayed peacefully from a soft wind. The black sky was speckled with white gleaming dots. 

Ace uncrossed his legs, and put his calf overtop of Gene’s lower leg. Gene suddenly focused on the weight of Ace’s calf atop his ankle. Then, Ace pulled his leg away and placed it straight.

“Aye,” Gene said, and raised his head to look down at their legs.

Ace said nothing.

Gene laid his head back again and looked at the stars. He wondered when it was that he and Ace had stopped tussling.

“I’m not trying to be a girl,” Ace said.

“Hmm?”

“I’m not trying to be a girl. That’s not why I’m growing out my hair.”

Gene turned his head to look at Ace.

“Alright,” he said.

He stared at Ace’s face. Ace stared back with a single curl falling across his forehead. 

Gene reached up and moved it out of his face. He thought they should kiss.

“I wanna kiss you,” he said.

Ace’s eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t reply.

Gene began to shift, propping his body up on his elbow so he could look down at Ace. His gold cross necklace dangled from his neck, and his hair- just as long as Ace’s- hung down. He waited, looking down at the half-lit side of Ace’s face which revealed one hazel green eye. Then, he leaned down and pressed a small peck against Ace’s soft lips.

When he leaned away, Ace’s slim fingers reached up for the side of his face. Gene leaned in again.

Both boys laid together in the empty clearing, sharing a very long, very tender kiss. Each press was slow and careful, and after a short pull away Gene adjusted himself to place his other elbow on the other side of Ace, then turned his head the other way for another kiss. 

The crickets chirped, the leaves rustled quietly above, and both boys kissed.

Then, Ace began to press his hands against Gene’s chest. Gene smiled mid kiss from the surprise, and pressed a quick peck against the corner of Ace’s mouth. Ace suddenly turned his head away and pressed much harder, pushing Gene off of him. Gene’s smile fell and he sat back.

No one said anything as Ace raised sat still, looking away from Gene. Gene leaned to the side to try and see his face, and Ace put his head in his hands.

Gene reached out and placed his hand on Ace’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me,” Ace said.

Gene’s hand slid off. The cogs in his head began to turn.

“Did I scare ya?” He asked.

Ace shook his head no. Gene thought for a while again.

“You’re not that way?”

Ace stood up and started to walk away into the dark forest where they came. Gene stood and followed behind.

“Aiden,” he said as they entered the trees.

Ace turned.

“You don’t get to just kiss me!” he said. “I’m not a- you don’t get to just kiss me because you don’t have a girlfriend now!”

Gene stared at him. He couldn’t make out his face in the dark.

“You’re destroying our entire friendship because you just want to get off. Youre not even a queer you just- you’ve been fucking teasing me.”

“Hey, I know what I am,” Gene said.

“You’re horny and you want someone to get you off. You’re sick- you’re just gonna get a new girl and fucking leave me,” Ace said, then turned to keep walking.

“Ace,” Gene said and put his arms up. 

Ace walked blindly out of sight.

“Ace,” Gene called again, but let his arms drop to his sides.

He turned back to the blanket where the lantern glowed warm, then back into the forest. He put his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and let out a slow sigh through his nose. His heart still beat heavy against his chest from kissing.