Day 3/5,061 (words) :: Intense

>>IMPORTANT NOTE!<<

Keep in mind, I have not even taken the time to go back and reread what I have so far.  I am simply copy-and-pasting the entire file onto a new post page.  So, if the main character, Rain, comes off as a creeper/stalker/rapist or anything else negative, that was not my intention and will definitely be edited to give off a positive impression in December.  Of course, along with that I still know of some plot holes within my writing and plan to get to that later so I can boost my word count; only adding, no editing.   Thanks! 

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“Oh…My…Gosh…look at him sitting there like nothing happened.  Maybe he actually was asleep while all of that happened last night.  Maybe I am a horrible rapist and took advantage of a kind and innocent boy while he was fast asleep, oh gosh, I’m going to hell.  I am so going to HELL!!  How could I do that to him after all the things we talked about and got to know each other fairly well in all of 4 hours, and at 4 o’clock in the morning too?  I wake up and there he is, being all handsome and nice and beautiful.  I feel horrible.   Maybe I could make it up to him.  Maybe somehow I could make up for the horrible things I have done.  Okay, I’m just going to get up and go talk to him, maybe he didn’t feel anything last night, it will all be fine, it’s like nothing ever happened.  Okay…here I go…Oh God!  He’s looking this way!  No!  Just act natural! Act natural!  Just smile back….no, not too much!!  Okay, it’s all fine, he smiled back.  Now if someone violated me like I did him, I would not smile back like he just did.  Maybe he really was fast asleep while everything went down this morning.  Okay, I’m going to get up and…damn…he’s getting up to leave.”

One might assume this the psychotic ramblings of a hormonal teenage girl ogling a fine specimen she just made a pass at from across the room, however, you would only be half correct.  This, in fact, was the psychotic ramblings of a hormonal teenage boy ogling a fine specimen he just made a pass at from across the room; who is often mistaken for a teenage girl when unsuspecting strangers read his mind.  This boy is named Rain, no he is not some Indian tribal child who has an understandably strange name like Dances in the Rain, but it goes back to a long story about how his parents first met that is for another time, right now Rain, or Rain Dellmeriwz as he is formally known in the bureaucratic system, is sitting quite sorrowly as the fine specimen gets up and walks away, losing his current opportunity to interact with the specimen which was what he most longed for at this moment.  Instead, Rain decides to let his mind wander for the time being, melding his thoughts into the passing scenery as the train speeds on. 

“Hey, man.  You sleep well?”  Said a voice from behind Rain, who almost got whiplash from turning around startled, to find to his delightful surprise that it was the Specimen who had so elegantly inquired from behind.  “Umm, yeah actually I did,” replied Rain. 

However, what this Specimen of the Fine sort does not realize is that around 4:00am this morning when he boarded the train and decided to sit beside Rain, once he had fallen asleep the Specimen made himself very comfortable up against Rain, which by no means gave way to any form of complaint on Rain’s part but in retrospect, a level of intimacy was attained that if both parties were conscious at the time would very much suggest a very close relationship much greater than a chance encounter on a cross-country train ride on a Thursday morning.  To Rain’s great misfortune, one party member was fast asleep while, in Rain’s mind, the party went on into the night.  “No.” Rain thinks to himself, “Last night was merely the stirrings of a restless body while the mind ran away from the difficulties that arise from being conscious for too long.  Nevertheless, if we return to the current situation, it is utterly pointless for Rain to fight these feelings because it is all he can think of at the moment, especially that intense warmth feeling that grew exponentially inside of him throughout his body and which was only fueled further once the Specimen fell into his arms and fit perfectly; and did a few other noteworthy actions that Rain could not recount without setting off a couple of fire alarms in the process.  Then suddenly it hit rain, “I really need to stop calling him Specimen.” 

At this very moment, said Specimen was finishing up an exceptional tid-bit about how surprisingly well he slept this morning; of which included a nice notion of anticipating the need for a blanket to get through the night, which fortunately turned out to be for naught; at this Rain just slowly shakes his head in disbelief in himself and thinks, “I am so going to hell…”  In any case, Rain continued the conversation like this:  “Yeah, I am surprised that I didn’t need a blanket either.  But before I carry this any further, I really need to ask your name again.  I know I was probably responding in coherent sentences this morning when we spoke but some of the information was going straight through me.  And now I realize that is a very bull-shit way of saying I forgot your name, so please, won’t you end my suffering…”  As Rain spoke those words the (FINE, I cannot stress that fact enough) Specimen widened his smile and added a very slight and sexy tilting of the head to enunciate his attention to my words and for that, “I think I might be in love with him,” Rain thought.  “Nah, that’s alright, man, my name is Oren.  It was way early, I know.  I shouldn’t have kept you up with all of my questions, it’s just I like meeting new people on the train and you just happened to be awake.  Anyway, I shouldn’t have kept you up.”  With that, Oren placed an open hand in front of Rain who accepted it graciously, as well as borderline obsessively, finally sealing their acquaintance.  Once their arms withdrew, Oren took an awkward look about him and stared toward his feet almost as if he longed for a pebble on the ground to fidget with to make the time pass, until he spoke out once more, “So, how much of last night do you remember?”  Now this question, took Rain aback.  Had he been awake this morning as he played Johnny-touch-me with Oren without his consent…was he going to accuse him of rape? Or sue him? But no, he wouldn’t have asked like that if he meant ill-will toward me… “Well, I remember you getting on around 4:00am, almost killing the person behind us with your runaway luggage and then sitting beside me, getting exceptionally comfortable; nice black fuzzy slippers by the way, then we talked about so many things: where you are going, where I’m going, why we chose this forsaken train, why it is stupid to eat up at the dining car, and so much other stuff.  How long did we talk for?  3 hours or so?  It didn’t feel anything near that long, but I remember it all, it just takes some thinking to it.” 

“Oh, that’s a relief, I didn’t want to have to reenact all of last night to get you up to speed with all of the things I know about you.” 

“I believe I don’t know what you are talking about, I didn’t tell you anything black-mail worthy!”

“Oh really?  Well I believe your imaginary friend Seymour the Satanic Seal could contest to that.”

“How the…?!”

“Yup, are you sure you weren’t drinking last night, man? You really just let it all out.”  Oren’s smirk becomes a devilish gleam that mirrored Rain’s increasing embarrassment. 

“Well then, excuse me as I find the nearest exit and jump to my demise.” 

“But then who will keep me company on this endless, what did you call it earlier, forsaken train ride to hell.  Besides nothing you told me was worth killing yourself over; if you don’t count your experience in 9^th grade involving what I think you said was a bucket of water, a treadmill, and a pair of women’s pantyhose.  I believe you said something about a practical joke gone terribly wrong.” 

“That’s it, my life is over, I divulged one of my deepest and most emotionally repressed secrets to a guy I’ve only known for a couple of hours, what’s next, did I tell you about that time at summer camp where I found myself tied to the center-court tree trunk, 8 feet up and completely naked.”

“No you didn’t! You were starting to say something to that effect but we got interrupted by the attendant telling us to quiet down the laughing.” 

“Great!  Hey, you do know this means I need to get even, it’s only fair that you tell me some of your deepest secrets and horrid memories.” 

“That’s easy, this one time at band camp…”

“Wait, stop there!  You were in band?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Hahaha! That’s embarrassing enough, you only owe me one more now” 

“Wait a second, there is great esteem to be earned by joining band!” 

“Maybe a rock band, punk band, or any other actual band with the purpose of recording music, but not a high school marching band, that is the lame of the lame.  Maybe if you played a rock-worthy instrument, so what did you play?” 

“The trombone.” 

Rain breaks into further laughing, “That is too funny.  However, you do have the gorgeous factor going for you so perhaps that was enough to cancel out the band-geek-dom.  Suddenly, Rain has an aside:  “Things between us seem to actually be getting better, maybe I can escape persecution from what happened last night.  Let’s just put it all behind me.  And I wonder what he’ll say to that little flirt I added in there, other than this morning I would have guessed he was straight as an arrow.” 

“Nah not gorgeous, more God-like!  I mean the girls just go nuts around me, it gets a little old.  You know what I mean, right?  I mean, look at you, you’re not too bad yourself.” 

“Damn, that could be a straight answer, and it could be the type of answer I’m looking for.  Points off his Fine-ocity for being confusing…” Rain ranted within his mind.  Then he said to Oren, “No, none of that.  I mean in the beginning maybe, but I sort of attained a reputation at my old school that sort of made all of that stop.”  

“Oh I see, you like playing on the wild side of things.  Then you’re my kind of guy, we’ll get along just fine, especially if we were to go clubbing, whoa, we would be unstoppable.” 

“Damnit, it’s still confusing, is he straight or is he gay?!” Rain battered himself from inside. 

Rain said aloud, “It has been a while since I’ve shakin’ my groove thang in public!” 

“Well, if you call it your ‘groove thang’ I don’t think you should be shaking it in public, just saying.” 

“Screw you, Oren, I have great dance moves you have no idea!  I could show you right now!  Right here, let’s do this.” 

With a sudden blast of courage, Rain was up to standing in front of Oren in the middle of the sight-seer car and dance away like a fool just to shut him up about his moves.  “Grab my Ipod,” he demanded.  “Choose any song and I will blow your mind with my awesome moves of amazing awesomeness!” 

“Man, Rain, I don’t know about this, there are little children here, we don’t want to traumatize them.” 

“Whatever man, grab it and let’s do this!” 

“Okay, okay.”  Oren grabs the Ipod and looks through the playlist.  “I don’t know about this.” 

“Just hit shuffle!” Rain exclaimed. 

“Fine…there!” The music begins to play which turns out to be “Like a G6” by the Far East Movement and much to Oren’s surprise Rain breaks out into a seemingly choreographed routine that has him moving all around the seats they had been sitting on for the past hour.  Once Rain was finished Oren clapped heartily in applause. 

“Alright, alright, you can dance, but let’s get out of here before you start a riot.  Everyone is staring at you.” 

Rain and Oren exited the sight-seeing car laughing out loud all the way into the next car, in fact, they laughed all the way to their seats.  Once back at their seats, Rain couldn’t help but be reminded of the racy morning he had once Oren was nearly shoulder-length away again.  Oren had adjusted his seat so he could lean back into a comfortable lying down position which made to emphasize his lovely abs through his t-shirt that absolutely just made Rain’s morning all over again.  All Rain could do to not stare at his increasingly masculine body that lay sprawled out before him was to shuffle through his backpack in front of him searching for something and nothing at the same time.  Rain remembers his younger brother often hiding his toys in Rain’s bag when he wasn’t looking and was checking to make sure nothing that could be construed as embarrassing could be found within his stuff, there was enough embarrassing surprises today.  After a good 5 minutes searching through the same pocket over and over again he stumbles upon a rubber duck neatly tucked away at the bottom of the bag that is painted with a military fatigue design.  “That wasn’t there a moment ago…” Rain thought to himself. 

“Hey, what do you got there?” Of course Oren chose that exact moment to come out of his half-asleep state to look up at the rubber military ducky that was in Rain’s hand.  Of course! 

“Nothing.  My little brother just likes hiding his toys in my stuff sometimes.”

“A likely story, give it here.”  Rain hands the duck to Oren, “Well then, it is a pretty nice duck.  If I had to choose a duck I would definitely choose one like this, man.  Are you sure it isn’t yours? I mean I won’t judge or anything.  What toys a man brings with him into the bathroom is his business, you know?  It’s perfectly alright.” 

Just then, Rain leaned over toward Oren and began punching him repeatedly in a playful way while trying to grab at the duck.  “It…is…not…mine…I…said!”  Oren held the duck in the air away from Rain as he continued to reach for it and pummel Oren with debilitating (in a whimsical way) punches that sent both into a whirlwind of laughter and playful banter.  Rain was pushing further and further onto Oren and was coincidentally forcing him over the edge of his arm rest that separated Oren from the aisle walkway.  Oren held up a finger as if to stop everything, “Hold up!  First of all, it is okay, you don’t need to hide in the closet about your secret rubber ducky fetish anymore, just let it all out.  Second of all, I am about a soft nudge in the wrong area away from falling into the aisle right now and I would like to kindly ask you to withdraw yourself back slowly so I don’t go crashing to the ground. I will hand over the duck, man, if you don’t make any sudden movements.”  With that Oren gave a wide smile and slowly brought his arm holding the rubber duck down from the air to hand to Rain.  However, Rain was not about to pass up a chance like this.  Rain slowly raised his hand to retrieve the hostage rubber ducky; once he made contact with the duck, he held onto it firmly and waited for Oren to let go.  Oren was skeptical at first but Rain began to slowly move backward with the duck so Oren loosened his grip in trust; but that was Rain’s plan all along, to lure Oren into a false sense of security.  As Oren relinquished the rubber duck to Rain and both slowly leaned back toward the window, Rain mustered up his clever ninja-like skills and snatched the duck out of Oren’s hand and made to force Oren over the edge.  With a resounding “YAWP,” Oren went falling over the edge of his seat and ended up sprawled across the aisle, which seemed to have been perfectly timed to one of the train attendants’ hurried entrance through the forward car door.  In a mass of chaos and confusion the attendant, rushing to get through to the back of the car, did not notice Oren’s little old self struggling to get up on the cabin floor and gave him a nice little kick in the leg before forcibly realizing that he was tired of this lame walking upright deal and decided to join Oren on the ground where all the fun was.  As all of this played out, Rain took a front row seat to the spectacle before him and was half a giggle away from full on breaking out into a wailing river of tears of amusement.  Rain sat back and enjoyed the show as Oren tried to recover.  

“Excuse me sir, so sorry about that, but I cannot allow you to sleep in the aisle,” said the employee to Oren after he came to.  “Oh, I wasn’t sleeping here I just fell, it was…”  Oren took a quick look at Rain who was stifling with his words and trying to hold back his almost impossible to control laughter that was bubbling within him.  Oren look backed at the train employee, “It was my fault, I am sorry.”  With that Oren returned to his seat; well after a bit of negotiating with the tangled mess his legs made with the employees legs, and rejoined Rain in their usual position and glared back at Rain, who was covering his face with his palm and kept looking away to the window every now or then to imitate the look of innocence.  “Okay, fine.  Maybe I deserved some of that, but you are so in trouble once I figure out a way to get back at you.”  Scolded Oren to Rain.  Finally releasing his laughter, Rain spoke out loud, “That is what you get for messing with my du…I mean my brother’s duck.”  He was taken aback by his own outburst.  “I mean, yeah, he is very fond of that duck.”

“Wait a second, you were about to say ‘my duck’ weren’t you?!” Oren reprimanded, “We went through all of that and the bloody rubber ducky is your duck after all!  You so owe me for this one; that’s right, you have to buy me a candy bar at the shop downstairs.” 

“What? No!” Rain interjected.  “But you made me fall, oh whatever will I do about the pain?” Oren said. 

“Oh whatever you big cry baby, he just kicked you in the ribs, big deal!  At least he missed a more sensitive region of your body.” 

“Sure! By this much!” Oren motioned with his pointer and thumb to signify how little the train employee had been away from his crotch area.  In fact, as Oren had laid on the aisle floor trying to quickly get up from the crash that Rain had so quickly orchestrated, and the train employee came rushing in to head backward on the train, Oren had in fact helped the process along by raising up slightly and putting more force and less distance between the train employees face and his crotch.  Luckily, the train employee was just shy by “that much” and instead landed nose first into Oren’s belly button.  A location where at that very instant Rain would have been most delighted to have been if the circumstances had been swapped out between the train employee and himself.  “Fine, let’s go get it now then because I don’t want to be around if that employee comes back again, I think he was aiming for your crotch in the first place, that whole movement he made was a little bit suspicious, especially how your legs got tangled up at the end; I mean how did that even happen?  It was like the wires of a pair of headphones.” Rain stated.   Rain thought this as good a time as any to set another hint out into their conversation as to decipher Oren’s very confusing remarks to whether he was, in fact, interested in Rain beyond a train ride companion and into something more.  Oh how Rain longed for something more, but he had to be sure he wasn’t barking up the wrong tree.  Oren got up, adjusted himself a little bit because his clothes had somewhat become a tattered mess in all of the confusion that had just ensued and continued toward the back of the car to a staircase that lead downstairs to the shop that sold little goodies to snack on; meanwhile, he carried on like this, “It was strange how close he got to me, he fell at my feet and somehow ended up near my torso.  Anyway, I could tell he was that kind of guy but he really did just fall on me by accident; thanks to someone here who decided to turn evil on me and get back by pushing me into oncoming traffic.  At least I get candy out of this.”  Oren then went about looking at the shop’s selection with a grin on his face.  “Jeez, you are like a…well, like a kid in a candy store, really.”  Both Oren and Rain took a great laugh at this and smiled as Oren grabbed a bar and Rain grabbed one too. 

It was a strange sight indeed to see two grown young adults purchasing two very sugary chocolate bars and exiting the shop as giddy as a school girl on Christmas morning who just received wind that she was about the get what every little girl wants in their life…a pony.  But to the passengers’ surprise, there they were, Oren and Rain returning to their seats with the happiest of smiles, of which Rain’s was not singly due to the fact that he held chocolaty goodness in the palm of his hand but also due to the infectious happiness Oren had on him that was currently working it’s way throughout his soul and into every fiber of his being.  With the recent events before this train ride dampening the light of his day, he feels as if he was never as happy as he was right here, right now, on this train with a guy he only met less than 24 hours ago, tearing open two candy bars with the gusto of a starving homeless man would be with the very last potato chip in a lonely bag of Doritos, and enjoying every moment of it, in fact, reveling in the simple and childish beauty of it all.  For a while, in Rain’s mind, what was waiting for him in Seattle didn’t exist and never did exist, all that was or ever will be, is sitting here with Oren, laughing about the bit of chocolate stuck on his nose and him asking Rain to get it off for him.  “Wait, what?” Rain thought to himself, “Did he just ask me to get some chocolate off of his face?”  Rain stared for a moment at the family sitting across the aisle and one seat back from him and Oren and could make out what they were whispering to each other perfectly so it wasn’t his hearing that was an issue, but this is not normal behavior for just a friendship between two guys, he seems like it means more.  “But what am I supposed to do, lick it off of him?  No, that’s too straightforward; if Oren is anything, it is not straightforward (giggle) but what could he possibly mean, we have no napkins around here maybe he is trying to flirt with me; maybe he is finally going to give me an answer to what I have been wondering all this time,” Rain thought to himself. 

Oren saw the slight confusion that his comment caused Rain to fall subject to so he suddenly decided to act on his impulses.  Oren reached over toward Rain and grabbed him gently by his hand and raised it up to eye level, meanwhile Rain was simply mesmerized by Oren’s hypnotizing hazel eye that perfectly matched his dirty blonde hair that knew exactly where it wanted to go, went there, and just tempted anyone with it’s elusive “run your hand through me” charm.  Oren began to smile intently at Rain as he held Rain’s hand in front of his face, Rain began to get shivers coursing through every bone in his body as Oren’s breath tingled down Rain’s palm, at this point, Rain was one intimate touch away from completely going berserk and jumping Oren right then and there.  Contrarily to the present mood, Oren nonchalantly caressed Rain’s long-sleeve that rested on his wrist, tugged on it and wiped the chocolate that had settled on his nose.  Rain’s feeling of bemusement only came into new light as Oren did this, because that mesmerizing smile that had adorned Oren’s face just a moment ago was now replaced with a new more devilish and sly smirk.  Rain was appalled, the jig was up, he was had, and now Oren knew full well that Rain was within the palm of his hand and there was nothing Rain could do about it.  After returning Rain’s hand back to him, chocolate-stained-sleeve and all, Oren dawned that devilish smirk and faced forward; Rain turned away to face the window for he didn’t know of what else to do.  As it appeared to Rain, all evidence pointed toward Oren being just another rude straight boy with a sick and twisted mind bent on taking advantage of other people’s feelings; especially leading on gay guys with a kind heart and the promise of more but all the while only out to see how far he could go with the elaborate act.  Rain was mortified. 

Rain was previously known, long ago, for more than his fair share of complexes and confidence issues, but all of that simply came with the territory of a little gay boy growing up…anywhere actually.  Fortunately as he got older and escaped the horrid environment of high school he was given a new respect toward life and things just seemed to snap into place from there, especially his homosexuality; it just felt right.  However at this very moment, he felt almost as if all of that might come crashing back into him because of how he was played just a few moments ago.  Now, Oren has closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, as if nothing had happened to make Rain almost dread being seated next to him.  So many mixed feelings Rain was experiencing right now; the want (and partial need) to like Oren despite how he lead Rain on today, the piercing awkward feeling that he was going through at this moment wanting so badly to get up and be somewhere else on this forsaken train, and the growing urge to lean over to the drifting Oren and either slap him in the face or make out with him, possibly both.  Sadly, the shock from it all cemented Rain to his seat for the next fifteen minutes until Oren was awakened by the voice from above, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  We are about ten minutes out from the station in Spokane, Washington so if Spokane is your destination please take this time to gather your belongings and double-check your seats for any other possessions.  This will be a smoking stop, so if you want to take a few minutes to grab a quick smoke or just walk around and stretch your legs in the beautiful fresh air and bright sunlight, feel free to do so.  We ask that you do not enter the station terminal or venture very far from your car as we will only stay for a fifteen minute stop and continue our journey on to Seattle.”  The announcer continued on into ‘Thank You’s to passengers who will be disembarking but Rain was focused once more on Oren.  Oren had given attention to the announcer’s words and had a look about him of recognition; it turned out that Spokane was Oren’s stop.  Oren gave a deep sigh almost in exasperation and got up to retrieve his bag from the luggage rack above.  “Well, Rain, this is my stop, it has been a very interesting ride with you, hopefully we will meet again, man.  You going to see me off the train?” Oren asked Rain.  That was the moment it hit Rain, “This morning!” he thought to himself.  Something happened this morning that was irrefutable proof that Oren held some sort of emotional bond, no matter how small, toward Rain.  If he was going to give Oren one last chance, although he didn’t deserve it, it was going to be by revealing the truth about this morning.  Rain so desperately wanted Oren to be more than just someone on a train, despite of course the obvious distance issue, he was still hopeful. 

The train soon began to slow down as it pulled into the Spokane train station.  Oren had gathered his things and Rain got up to follow him out of the train.  Once off the train, they walked a few feet away from the landing for some privacy and to make way for the following crowd.  “Well, Rain, this is where we part, thanks so much for making that forsaken train ride less boring, I had fun.  I liked our long chat this morning, it was insightful and I’ve never gotten to know anyone like that before.  Oh and thanks for the chocolate, and the sleeve.”  Oren said while laughing. 

“Funny you should mention this morning,” Rain replied, “I was wanting to ask you about something that happened this morning after you fell asleep.” 

“Oh man, I didn’t snore loud, did I?  I’m sometimes known for that.”  Oren said. 

“Wow is he really clueless or just faking it?” Rain thought.  “No nothing like that, it was actually something dealing with the way you…” 

At that moment, a few sporadic tones could be heard coming from the vicinity of Oren’s crotch; it was his cell phone ringing. 

“Hold that thought,” Oren said as he answered his phone, “Hey, baby!  Yeah I just arrived.  No, no one.  Yes, baby, I miss you too. 

>>To Be Continued<<

Oh wait!  It’s continued right here!