Hox and River

“Hox...”

River was lying on top of his covers naked with his door closed. This morning had been the last day of high school, ever, and he was celebrating alone by jerking off. Being a lefty, his left hand was pounding furiously on his 7 incher, while the nails of his right slid up and down the light brown dusting of hair connecting his happy trail to his chest. River climaxed pinching his nipple and imagining Hox leaning over him biting his neck with his dick inside River’s ass. Hot cum landed on his stomach, chest, and neck.

River jumped off the bed, and grabbed a dirty shirt out of the hamper to wipe himself down with. He didn’t know Hox that well, despite having been in a grade of seventy for four years together in a small town. Hox’d spent most of his time with swimmers when he actually went out, and River’d spent most of his time with fellow soccer players. He didn’t need to know him that well to know that he was ridiculously hot. Hox was six-two-ish to River’s five eleven, but they were probably similar weights, because River had short stocky muscle from his sport, and Hox had long lean muscle from his. Hox’s hair and eyes were both a shade darker than River’s, but for the most part, they were both brown-eyed brunets.

This summer, River thought, I’ll make a move on him this summer, and if it doesn’t work out, hey, no problem, I’ll be gone by September. Getting dressed again he called Tracy.

“Sup Slut?” Tracy’s standard greeting.

“Nooooooothin.”

“You jerk off to Hox yet?” Tracy was the only person that knew River was gay. It wasn’t a fact that would make him super popular in a community like this, and she constantly ribbed him about being so in increasingly overt ways. He loved her for it.

“Tracy. Listen. I’ve been home for 20 minutes. Of course. Twice. Now, if we don’t figure out what the deal is tonight, I’m gonna be forced to come over there and twist your nipples until your milk turns alcoholic.”

“Yum. There’s probably a clam joust down by the lake. Adam was asking around for peeps to snag some alchies.”

“Ugh, do you have any handles stored up inside of your vagina?”

“Hmm, let me check... Nope!” She giggled. “We need to start storing them in your ass. Gotta stretch you out if we’re ever gonna fit Hox’s purple headed yogurt slinger in there. I’m pretty sure he’s got an anaconda hidden downstairs.”

River knew that Hox was well endowed. Everyone knew that Hox was well endowed. The chance to see him in a Speedo filled the school pool with fawning high school girls at every home swim meet, and River wasn’t above ogling either.

“OK, I’ve got fifth of Cuervo I can contribute. I’ll grab some limes too. Make some calls; make sure this shit’s going down. If so, I’ll pick you up at nine-ish, and we can head down there. If not, we’ll do body shots off one another until we find each other attractive.”

“I’m wet already.”

* * *

River and Tracy pulled up to the Lake at a quarter to ten. It was a frequent party spot for their grade because it was a lake house that belonged to Adam’s parents, and he was one of the wealthier kids in their school, who had decided long ago that they didn’t really care what he did, as long as it didn’t fuck up the house. There were already six cars strewn about the sparse front yard, and they could hear splashes from around back. Walking around, they saw that several mosquito repelling Tiki torches had been stuck in the ground. Adam had gone all out for this.

Tracy slapped River’s ass, thrusting him towards the water. “Hox’s here.”

River smiled, he’d already spotted him with the other swimmers jumping off the dock with some girls, but he moved farther down the shore anyway, to where some fellow soccer kids were kicking a ball around. Tracy sighed and went to find cups.

An hour later, River was six shots in, and feeling it. Tracy had snuck off into the woods with Adam, and the soccer players had long since put away the ball, so he started wandering through the crowd of kids. He spotted Hox, sitting on a bench alone, nursing something out of a solo cup, and beelined towards him.

Hox looked up at River as the tipsy soccer player slumped down beside him holding half a fifth of Cuervo. “Yo.”

“Hey Hox, tequila?” River reached into his pocket, grabbed a lime wedge, and offered it with the other hand. Hox grinned and took the tequila bottle, ignoring the lime. He drained it for three seconds and then gave it back without making a face. “Damn, you downed that shit!”

Hox’s grin got wider. “Heh, you don’t know me that well.”

“True enough.” River took a swig and grimaced. “What kind of name is Hox anyway?”

“My moms’ have weird standards for names. Our dog is named shaquayquay.”

“That was a lot of information all at once. Seriously, Shaquayquay? Moms?”

“It’s on the dog tag and everything, though it looks like, Shaquay - Quay, because it didn’t fit on one line. And yes, I’m the progeny of lesbians.”

“I love lesbians.”

“Eh.”

“No, I don’t mean in the guy sense. I mean, I just have this thing about lesbians. It’s completely non-sexual.”

Hox took the tequila back and drained it for another three seconds. There wasn’t much left anymore. “That’s a little awkward. River?”

“Yeah?”

“No. River? As in, what kind of name is River?”

River grabbed the tequila and finished it, shoving the lime in his mouth immediately afterwards before answering, “My parents were hippies. They’re both pretty straight laced now, but they held on to a healthy disdain for the man and his normal names.”

“Nice. Now, I’m only asking this because it’s the question that’s always asked, but...”

“Um...” River’s heartbeat doubled.

Hox picked up his solo cup and started nursing it again. “What are you doing next year?”

Let down. He realized he’d way read too far into the half-second pause. “I wasn’t good enough to get recruited anywhere crazy, but I’m headin’ off to Vassar in September. You?”

“Got recruited at Duke, I’ll be swimming for them. Gotta head down super fuckin’ early for training. My summer’s nearly cut in half.”

“That’s lame, whatcha workin’ on there?” River asked, pointing to the cup.

“Alcohol,” He said, holding it out to River. “Wanna help out? I’m pretty drizunk.”

“Already there, but sure.” River took a large gulp and suddenly realized why Hox had been nursing it. The cup was full of whisky. No ice or anything. He started sputtering in surprise. Hox had a huge shitting eating grin on his face as he watched River cough.

“Oh, my bad, I didn’t realize you were a little girl.”

“Fuck you!” River jumped at Hox and pushed him backwards over the bench. Hox flung his arms around, trying to maintain his balance and stop the fall, but only managed to knock the half full cup out of River’s hand onto himself before falling onto his back with his legs up on the bench.

“Ah shit, now ma’s gonna give me grief about drinking! I smell like whiskey.” He started to lift himself up, but was drunk enough to be having difficulty. “Wanna give me a hand?”

River reached down and grabbed Hox’s wrist, pulling him upwards back onto the bench. The maneuver brought Hox’s face within inches on River’s, and there was a second of silence before they settled themselves back into their seats. “You should jump back in the lake, it’ll probably douse most of the smell.”

“That’s not a bad idea, you comin’?”

“You bet.”

And so a friendship began.

* * *

The following afternoon, River invited Hox to play ultimate with some of the soccer kids. After that, Hox invited River to go sailing with two of his friends. Over the next couple weeks they started hanging out with each other more than any of their other friends. Tracy started complaining to River that his boyfriend was cutting into their time together. To which he would always calmly explain that they were just friends, and that he was totally cool with it, because Hox was actually just a really cool guy. And she would then ask how often he thought about choking on Hox’s elephant penis. For which the only reply River could give was, whenever his cute ass didn’t distract him.

But River wasn’t lying. He actually did enjoy spending time with Hox, and was growing more and more comfortable with the idea that they could be just friends. Hox and he shared the same love of sushi, fuzzy animals, sports, and trashy science fiction novels. As the weeks approached Hox’s inevitable departure to Duke, River realized that he’d miss him a lot. What had once been simple lust had developed into something a lot stronger, and a lot scarier.

Two days before Hox had to leave they had gone out to the harbor on a sunfish for a quick and easy sail. The wind was perfect because an afternoon summer storm was coming in, and it wasn’t until they started putting everything away that the first drops began to fall. By the time they got back to River’s car, it had started pouring, and they were soaked. They threw a couple of towels over the front seats to keep the car dry and climbed in. Hox turned the defroster on full blast and they sat in silence for half a minute.

River turned towards Hox, “Sunday?”

“Sunday.” Hox never turned his head from staring out the windshield. The rain poured over it like a small river.

“You gotta pack a lot?”

“Yeah.”

River turned the key in the ignition and started the car. He turned on the windshield wipers to clear the view and looked over at Hox. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of anything, so he closed his mouth and looked over his shoulder instead and pulled the car into reverse.

Fifteen minutes later the car was sitting in Hox’s driveway. They sat in silence again. The only sound being the defroster still fighting the moisture coming off the heated seats and the drumming of heavy drops on the roof of the car.

Hox finally looked at River. “Thanks for coming out today. I guess I’ll see ya around then.” He pushed open the door to step out of the car.