Max
Late October evenings have a chill to them. Just an edge, a promise of relief for the daunting heat of summer on the horizon. I looked out at the bloody, dying sun that painted my fields in pink light with the peace I only found out there on the land I loved. The air carried the smell of leaves, damp forest, and the brittle remains of soybean plants, gone long brown and harvested ages ago.
Strong arms caught me from behind and pulled me back to a solid chest. A kiss landed in my windblown hair.
"Hope that's Mike," I chuckled and twisted around to slide my fingers into his hair. Mike tried not to moan as I subtly pulled his dark hair at the back of his head.
His honey colored eyes glowed in the dusky light, his tanned skin taking on an unearthly luminance. His tall, lean figure was strikingly highlighted in the rosy glow of sunset. He grinned at me and leaned into my touch. He was always putty in my hands.
But we had company. I couldn't put him on his knees and fuck his face there in the dirt no matter how much he would welcome it. I planted a kiss on his lips and let him go to look over the pile of firewood his friends - my friends now, too, I supposed - had gathered.
Teddy and Ira were goofing off, playfully criticizing each other as Teddy built an impressive pyre. I should have guessed Mike's friend who acted like a Boy Scout would build an efficient bonfire. Teddy was tall and broad, with dark curls and an athletic build that reflected his past as a highschool athlete and present blue collar work. He wore his sweet nature on his sleeve with his easy, disarming grin and cheerful blue eyes.
Ira, on the other hand, was notably short, though that was rich coming from my five seven self, with the palest countenance I'd ever seen in real life. He looked absolutely icy with his white blonde hair, worn a lot like Mike's own short sides and stylishly messy top, and his eerily pale gray eyes. His favorite hobby was the gym where he apparently overcompensated for his height by sculpting his muscles with obsessive care.
"L-looks good," I complimented Teddy. He didn't comment on my stutter. No one at the bonfire that night would. Besides being entirely too nice to do such a thing, Mike wouldn't tolerate anyone treating me anything less than perfectly.
"Don't encourage his wild man kick," Ira said. "He's already good at everything else. We don't need him to be perfect at another thing."
I was never entirely sure if the other guys were wildly jealous of Teddy or if he was just the object of their hero worship. He took it all in stride with the same unflappable cheerfulness he brought to everything.
"Whatever," Teddy scoffed. "Where did Ben and Kit go?"
"I think to get the cooler?" Ira said.
"Just the two of them?" Teddy looked towards the house where two familiar figures were struggling with a cooler between them.
"Hey, Mike!" Teddy shouted and pointed. Mike relieved the others of the cooler, hefting it down to our unlit fire by himself.
"We could have gotten it," Kit said dryly when she joined us. "Ben and I move heavy shit at the coffee shop by ourselves all the time."
Kit might have topped five feet in her boots if she stood up straight. Her long, auburn hair was in a thick braid down her back. The sunset made her dark eyes look black against her fair, freckled face. She could be quiet until she was comfortable, but she was sharp and funny once she got used to someone. She and I had that in common.
Teddy looked at her with that adoring puppy dog look he always had for her. They were a lot to take in together, one of those couples that wore their love for each other openly and proudly. He spoke to her in Spanish. Kit scoffed and answered in the same language. Teddy caught her wrist and pulled her down into his lap where he murmured something else closer to her ear. Kit's eyes widened for a moment before she chuckled and pushed him off. Teddy let her go, grinning like he had won a prize.
"Hey, newlyweds, chill," Mike admonished them.
"Yeah, we'll all pretend Max wasn't pulling your hair like ten feet away from us a second ago," Ira snickered.
"Don't talk shit about Max," Mike snapped.
"Like y-you aren't the biggest shit talker here," I broke in to diffuse the situation. Mike and Ira were on the track to being best friends again, but they often fell right back into the volatile versions of themselves that painted the town red in their younger days.
"Aren't we here to have fun?" Ben asked. "You two stop it."
Ira grinned guiltily up at Ben. Ben was as cool as Ira was hotheaded. He owned the local coffee shop and ran it with nonchalant, professional ease that perfectly matched his hipster aesthetic. Ben was as tall as Mike and Teddy, but soft and thin instead of strong. He wore his tightly coiled, dark hair in thin locs that he generally kept tied back loosely at the back of his head. He was only slowly warming to having Mike around again, but he made an admirable effort to be civil. He was also the only one who could really rein in Ira when the blond got going.
Teddy stopped the entire exchange by lighting the fire and handing out beers from the cooler.
"Come on, fire's lit. Time to drink and contemplate life," he said with a grin as we all settled in camp chairs around the fire.
Ira produced a bag of weed and rolled a joint as the night grew longer and the conversation devolved into tipsy laughter. He lit up, inhaled a few times, and offered it around. Teddy passed it to Kit on his turn without taking a hit.
"I get drug tested too much," he said with a shrug. "Factory shit."
Kit grinned across the circle at Ben.
"Hey, boss, you going to screen me?" she asked and puffed. I was not surprised at all when she showed off with a French inhale before passing it to me. "No pressure, Max. We don't care if you don't smoke."
They all knew I didn't drink, I had been drinking seltzer instead of beer that night, so that was a fair thing to say. I hadn't smoked in years, but I inhaled it anyway and coughed the smoke back out in burning puffs. Oof. Smooth.
Mike decided to show up Kit up by blowing a smoke ring at her. She laughed and waved her hand through it. Ira snatched the joint and puffed a ring at Mike with a grin.
"I think you taught me how to do that," Mike said. "Didn't you?"
"Probably," Ira said and shrugged. "I'm just glad I could still do it. How do I do that thing you did, Kit?"
"Like this," Mike took the joint back and demonstrated. Kit added a few pointers and repeated the trick before Ira tried again a few times without much success.
"I can't keep doing tricks," Kit said and backed out of the game. "I'll get fucked up before either of you."
Mike took over demonstrations as Ira attempted it again.
"You two are going to be high as hell before you know it if you keep doing that," Teddy pointed out dryly. "I'm not picking either of you up. You can sleep out here in the dirt if you crash."
"Aren't we camping?" Ben said. "You have a tent to set up, Ira."
"Teddy will do it," Ira said. He giggled and coughed. "Won't you Ted?"
"Kit and I are sleeping inside. You're the one who wanted to camp," Teddy said dismissively.
