By My Side

by Grant C. Holland

  Yale continued. “So then I wondered what the note might be. I held on to it and went back to the truck so I could look at in the light inside the cab.”

  “Yeah, what did it say?”

  Yale sniffed again. “It was an eviction notice. It said that if I didn’t get the rent back to current by Friday, I’m out.”

  Derek wasn’t sure that he wanted to ask the next obvious question, but it was important. He asked, “How much is that, Yale?”

  “I’m three months behind on rent.” Then his voice took on an angry tone. He said, “It’s so fucking embarrassing. I’ve never done anything like this, but I just can’t put enough work together. It’s not like I’m spending a lot of money. I hardly spend anything at the grocery store.” Then Derek could feel Yale’s body shiver. He said, in an almost matter-of-fact tone, “I’m gonna be homeless.”

  Derek hugged him tighter. “Now, wait, Yale, you aren’t going to be homeless. You never will be as long as I’m around. I’ll find somewhere for you to stay. You’ll stay right here with me in my house if necessary.”

  Yale said, “I’m just a fucking loser. I hate to even ask about it, but can I stay here at least for tonight?”

  Derek grabbed Yale’s chin in his right hand and looked down into the glassy tear-filled eyes. He said, “Of course you can. You can stay here as long as you need to. I mean that.”

  Yale whispered, “Thank you. I don’t have cash for a hotel room. If I did, I would have spent it on the electric bill or the rent. I don’t have anything, Derek. I think I have two dollars and a quarter in my pocket. I’m supposed to get a check from Jess tomorrow, but it’s not much.”

  As he listened, Derek thought about the many times that Yale could have used some help but refused to ask. He did his best to ask questions at those times and provide help without being asked. Unfortunately, Derek realized he had been so busy lately with his books and the shop that he ignored how serious Yale’s financial situation had become.

  Two years ago when the factory moved out of town and Yale lost his job, there was savings to carry him a long way, but two years is two years.

  Derek thought back to one time when they were juniors in high school. Yale flunked a class. Derek knew that it wasn’t for lack of trying. Yale’s ADHD was always a problem in school, but his parents blamed Yale for all of his academic failings.

  The night Yale’s parents found out about the flunked class, they berated him so badly that he just walked out the door. He walked halfway across Catlett’s Cove to Derek’s house and climbed behind bushes to knock on Derek’s downstairs bedroom window.

  Derek knew that his parents would have endless questions about Yale leaving his own house, so he just slipped out when his parents went upstairs to bed and walked up and down the neighborhood with Yale until he calmed down enough to come inside and sleep on the floor with cushions from the couch. Yale’s parents never asked where he went that night.

  Finally, after drinking a glass of water, Yale was starting to calm down about his rent money and his breathing was more steady. Derek asked, “Are you ready to go to bed?”

  Yale whispered, “Yeah, and I can sleep here on the couch. Just bring me a pillow if you have one.”

  Derek pushed on Yale’s shoulders so he would sit up. He said, “No, you’re sleeping in a bed. Let’s go upstairs.”

  Dutifully following Derek upstairs, Yale asked, “Did you clean off the guest room bed? The last time I saw it, you had a huge mess all over it. I don’t mean anything by that, but it’s late. I don’t want you feeling like you have to do something with that just for me.”

  Derek stopped three steps from the top of the staircase and turned back toward Yale. He asked, “Do you have any problem with sleeping in my bed? It’s queen-size, and we can both sleep in it just like brothers.”

  Something deep inside his gut told Derek that sleeping in the same bed with Yale could never feel exactly like brothers, but he knew that Yale needed comfort, and the couch or a pile of cushions on the floor wouldn’t be the same. Yale answered in a soft voice saying, “Yeah, and that’s really nice of you, Derek. I owe you something major.”

  Derek turned off the light in the room before climbing into bed. He kept his T-Shirt on but slipped out of his jeans and wore only his boxer briefs. He tried not to stare too much when he saw the silhouette of Yale following his lead. There was that outline of Yale’s underwear that drew his attention like a beacon in the night. Derek swallowed hard, and then Yale was lying on his side under the covers in bed.

  Derek wanted to reach out and wrap his arms around his best friend holding Yale close for comfort, but he thought that might be just a little more intimacy than the situation could bear. Instead, he put a hand on Yale’s shoulder and said, “It’s all going to be okay, buddy. It always looks a lot better in the morning.”

  Yale spoke softly saying, “I hope so.” He pulled his legs up higher partly curled into a fetal position.

  “Hey, Yale, I have an idea,” said Derek. “Why don’t you just move into that empty apartment above the bookstore? It doesn’t have a hole in the bathroom floor, and I’m not doing anything with it. You wouldn’t even have to worry about rent.”

  “I don’t think I should. You should get rent for that,” said Yale. “It’s worth more than my trailer.”

  Derek squeezed his shoulder. He said, “I don’t need any rent from that apartment, and I would need to do some fixing up to get it ready to rent anyway. Maybe you could move in, and you can help me with fixing it up, and then, when you’re back on your feet again with a new place, I can rent it out to someone else.”

  Yale sighed heavily. “I don’t know, Derek. It’s been a really long day. Thank you for everything, and let’s talk about it in the morning.”

  Derek smiled, and he was surprised by just how good it felt to be in bed with Yale. He closed his eyes and within minutes he was sound asleep. He woke once in the middle of the night to find Yale sleeping soundly on his back. Being careful to not wake his friend up, Derek scooted closer and rested his head close to Yale’s shoulder. He watched the broad chest rise and fall with slow, deep breathing. Soon, he fell back asleep himself.

  6

  Yale

  Yale blinked his eyes and stared at the ceiling at first. He couldn’t remember where he was. It was a comfortable bed, not one with sagging springs, like in the trailer, where he consistently found himself rolling to the middle even when he tried to park his body along the edge on his side.

  Next he saw an arm draped across his chest. That’s when it all came back to him. He was in bed with Derek. The thought of it was enough to make his natural morning erection even harder. Yale turned his head and looked at Derek’s face smashed up against his bicep. Derek was sleeping soundly. The low, slow, steady breathing was a relaxing sound.

  Yale tried to scoot slowly out from under Derek without waking him up. It was a very slow process, but he succeeded inch by inch. He hooked one hand underneath the mattress and very slowly pushed his body across the bed until he could plant a foot firmly on the floor. Yale had to admit that he enjoyed Derek’s arm and hand slowly being dragged across his chest. By the time Yale stood upright at the side of the bed, his briefs were fully tented with a serious morning hard-on.

  “Shit!” he whispered as he reached down and wrapped a hand around the morning wood.

  Yale tried to tell himself that he would be hard waking up with any man in bed. It wasn’t just Derek. Then he looked back and stared at Derek’s handsome face. Even lying on his side with half of his face smashed into a pillow, he looked good. Yale wanted to reach out and touch Derek’s perpetual two-day razor stubble. He knew that he also wanted to kiss his lips.

  Yale turned toward the door and tried to forget about sleeping with his best friend. Unfortunately, his cock had other ideas. Despite the rest of the house having books and papers and boxes piled everywhere, the bathroom was immaculately clean and organized. A single toothbrush in its holder and a contain
er of toothpaste stood to the right of the sink. On the left was a dispenser of liquid soap, shaving gel, and a razor. Yale stepped into the shower enclosure and turned on the warm water.

  He turned it up to steamy and hot letting the droplets pound against his tense shoulders and slowly work away the tension. Yale picked up a bottle of shampoo. He squeezed out a small pool, and, as he pulled his hand up toward his scalp, he recognized the smell. It smelled like Derek, and his cock was instantly hard again.

  After his hair was full of suds, Yale found the shower gel and began to rub his hands across his body. Without even thinking, he soon found himself rubbing at his hard cock and cupping his balls and tugging lightly with the opposite hand.

  Yale whispered to himself, “Fuck.” He gave in and let himself think about Derek naked. It was probably a couple of years since he last saw Derek fully naked, but he doubted much had changed.

  Two years ago, while he was home for the weekend from veterinary school, Thomas convinced Derek and Yale to head out to Planter’s Point on one end of the Cove and skinny dip at midnight. Thomas stripped down immediately, while both Yale and Derek were slower and more tentative. They looked around, wary of both wild animals and other people that could be lurking around.

  Thomas shouted to them, “C’mon, guys, don’t chicken out. Nobody is out here. I’ve done this a bunch of times. It feels so good and the sky is just gorgeous with all of the stars out. Just strip and get your asses out here in the water. It’s great!”

  Yale stripped down first. He could feel Derek’s eyes checking him out.

  Yale returned the favor peering intently when Derek finally tugged his own T-Shirt over his head and let his jeans fall to his ankles. Yale loved the hairy treasure trail that snaked down Derek’s abs, and he swallowed hard at the sight of Derek’s thick cock.

  Thomas shouted, “Stop ogling each other and get in the water!”

  Yale’s eyes met Derek’s and they laughed with a hint of nervousness before gingerly stepping over the rocks to join Thomas.

  The memory was clear as day as Yale wrapped his rough fingers, made slick with soap, around his cock. He bit his lip to keep from moaning. He didn’t want Derek to hear and know what was going on.

  It didn’t take long at all. Yale’s hips bucked as he came and shot huge wads of cum against the opposite wall of the shower enclosure. He gasped for breath and closed his eyes letting the hot water roll off his head and down over his broad chest and defined ab muscles. Yale reached out with a soapy hand and wiped the cum down from the wall so that it swirled down the drain with the shampoo and suds.

  After a quick job of drying himself, Yale wrapped a towel around his waist and scooped his clothes from the bathroom floor. He made a slight face thinking of putting the same clothes back on, but leaving home in the middle of the night left him unprepared.

  When he opened the door of the bathroom, Yale was startled to see Derek awake and waiting for his turn.

  Derek whispered, “Good morning,” holding his hand up over his mouth to prevent the spread of morning breath.

  With a shy smile on his face, Yale said, “Good morning.” He could feel Derek’s eyes as they swept quickly over his smooth chest. Yale said, “I was just going to get dressed. I didn’t want you to wake up any earlier than you needed to.”

  Derek said, “I’ll take a quick shower, and then I can join you downstairs.”

  After the door closed, Yale slipped into the clothes from the day before, and he gently made his way down the staircase. He remembered Derek warning him in the past to hang on to the banister because of a loose step that might move. He breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the bottom without any minor catastrophes.

  Derek was known among his friends for his foodie tendencies. However, Yale also knew his best friend had a soft spot for fast food and junk food. Either way, he was certain that he could find something good to eat in Derek’s kitchen.

  Yale was shocked when he pulled open the refrigerator and it was nearly empty. There was a nearly empty jug of milk, a bottle of ketchup, and two bottles of beer. Two more plastic containers held mysterious contents, but that was the total content of Derek’s refrigerator.

  Even with his lack of cash, Yale knew there was a lot more in his own refrigerator that could be eaten. He sighed heavily as the thought brought the eviction notice back to mind.

  While he continued to stare into the refrigerator, Yale realized that if Derek was too busy to even keep food in his house, he was overworked. He thought about Aaron’s suggestion that he offer to run the bookstore, and the idea was starting to grow on him. He worked cash registers in the past. He worked with the public in multiple jobs. He couldn’t imagine how running the bookstore could be that much more complicated.

  Yale sighed when he thought about how little he actually knew about books, but maybe that was a good reason to hire other people who did have the knowledge to fill in gaps.

  Living in the apartment would be a big step up from his slowly disintegrating trailer. He thought about how great it would be to live downtown compared with living out on a minor blacktop road a quarter of a mile away from any houses. The apartment was just a short walk from the Blue Goose bar and Thomas’ house. It really wasn’t much farther to walk to Derek’s.

  While he was considering the pluses and minuses of a move to the bookstore building, Yale heard the slap of Derek’s bare feet coming down the stairs. Derek entered the kitchen and asked, “How did you sleep, Yale? Are you feeling any better this morning?”

  Yale said, “We might both feel a little better with a cup of coffee.”

  Derek sighed. “We would have to hit the road to grab that. I’m afraid I’m completely out of coffee.”

  “You’re out of a lot of stuff according to the refrigerator. I think you’ve been working way too hard, Derek.”

  Derek nodded. “Well, yeah, that sort of is my life, but I’m hanging in there.”

  Yale said, “Have a seat here at the kitchen table. I have something that I want to talk about.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to just go out and grab a coffee first? We could stop by Jess’ diner. Then we could have a proper breakfast of eggs, sausage, and hash browns.”

  Yale shook his head. “No, I want to talk while I still have the guts to say what I have to say.”

  With a tilt of his head and a curious gaze in his eyes, Derek sat himself at the table, folded his hands in his lap, and waited for the words of wisdom from Yale.

  “I think you’ve been working way too hard,” said Yale. “We also know that, like always, I need a decent place to live and a regular job.”

  Derek nodded in agreement with both points.

  “Last night you said something about living in the apartment above the bookstore.”

  Derek said, “Yes, I did. That still stands, you know. It might even be a good security thing to have you up there. If somebody tried to break in, you would be there to know and call the police. Just seeing lights in the apartment upstairs would boost the security a lot. I really do hate thinking about you out in that broken-down trailer.”

  Yale held up a hand. “Stop trying to jump ahead. You’ll just get me confused. I have a plan that I think might work, and I want you to listen to it.”

  With a motion indicating that he was zipping his lip, Derek leaned forward ready to listen to Yale’s idea.

  Yale said, “I suggest that I manage the bookstore and, in exchange for that, I can live upstairs in the apartment at a reduced rent. I can pay the rest of the rent with money from my other odd jobs. You are exactly right that it is about time that I get out of the trailer park.”

  “Are you finished?” asked Derek.

  “Pretty much, yeah,” said Yale. “I do think it might be a good idea, and it would free you up to concentrate on your writing and…going to the grocery store.”

  “My first comment,” said Derek. “If you are going to manage the bookstore that work should cover ALL of the rent, and then I
still might owe you some cash. That apartment upstairs is small, and it’s not the most up-to-date place to live.”

  “That’s generous of you to not charge any rent,” said Yale. He thought about protesting and insisting that he chip in maybe one hundred dollars a month, but he also knew that he couldn’t really afford it. He decided to keep his mouth shut and stick with Derek’s plan.

  “Second,” said Derek. “The work really isn’t very glamorous. Most of the time you just show people where different things are, and, over half the time that means the bathroom.”

  “That’s why you shouldn’t be taking all of that time away from the brain work of your writing doing something that isn’t hard. Doing something that anybody can do. I’ll be your anybody, Derek. Do we have a deal?”

  Derek grinned from ear to ear. “I think we’ve got a deal.”

  7

  Yale

  Yale sang along to old 70s pop songs on the truck radio as he drove through town from Jess’ diner to the bookstore. Stopped at an intersection, Yale pounded the steering wheel as he joined Billy Joel to duet on “Big Shot.” The song seemed to be a perfect fit for one of the annoying customers at the diner.

  Her name was Blair Hendricks. She was a classmate in high school, and Yale was convinced she never wore the same clothes twice. Now she entered the diner once a week on Wednesdays dressed like she was going to Sunday church complete with a wide-brimmed hat. She actively nodded and smiled at every other customer who stared when she entered the diner.

  While sitting at her table, she gestured to other customers to come over and speak with her. The primary content of the conversation would always amount to bragging about a recent purchase by her husband, or the visit of some local dignitary for dinner or brunch. Yale tried to save his eye rolling for moments when he was out of sight. She was the biggest of big shots that Yale knew in town.

  He pulled the truck into a diagonal parking spot just two doors down from the bookstore. When he climbed out, he could already hear faint commotion that sounded like people yelling. It was coming from the direction of the store. Yale broke into a jog toward the entrance to the store. Derek had decided to take the morning and early afternoon shift. Yale was planning to run things for the rest of the day.