Mixed Affections
Chapter 1
Soccer Practice was over. Everyone had gone home, but I stayed and sat under an old oak tree near a rusty fence that separated the soccer field from the sidewalk.
"Hey."
I looked behind me and there he was. His leather jacket reflected the sun like a mirror.
"Been waiting for me?"
His fire red hair twitched in the wind, his green eyes sparking like pools of water.
"Yeah." I said quietly and approached the fence.
"This fence is obnoxious. It keeps me away from you."
"What do you mean? I'm right here."
"I can't touch you though." Axel stuck his hand through the grates. It barely fit, but he managed to touch the side of my thigh. I backed away and a smile evolved on his face.
"Hey were are you going? C'mere!" I walked towards the fence again and Axel put his hand onto my thigh again.
"Come closer. I can't smell you sweet scent..." again I got closer to the fence and Axel grabbed my wrist and slipped his hand down my pants touching the side of my waist.
"Hey!" I yelled but Axel held firmly onto my wrist.
"You're not going anywhere." Axel let go of my wrist and put his hand through the fence so he could touch my chin.
"Roxas, kiss me." At first the words startled me but Axel was already putting his lips to mine. For a minute my lips parted and could feel our tongues entangle. I backed away from the fence and wiped the spit from my chin. Our eyes met and I melted. I turned around and ran. I guess I was running from Axel, but it felt like I was just running away from my problems. I ran across the soccer field and then realized that I had forgot my equipment bag. I did not feel like seeing Axel again so I sat on a bench close to the school and waited for about thirty minutes.
He had to be gone by now, so I walked across the soccer field again to the old oak tree. My bag was gone. Axel must have jumped the fence and taken it, that bastard! I sighed and headed towards the school to change in the locker room. After I changed I decided to walk home today instead of taking the train. It was a brisk fall day and the leaves were as colorful as ever.
I couldn't help thinking of Axel as I looked into the bright red leaves on the trees.
"Hey Roxas!" I turned around in surprise to see Pence and Hayner running towards me.
"We're going to go get some sea salt ice-cream, wanna come along?" Pence stood there with a great big smile, ear to ear. I looked over to Hayner who was looking up at the clouds.
"Yeah sure."
The sea-salt vender wasn't a friendly guy. He was round and had a large mustache on his lip. He always had a frown on his face even when serving the tiniest of children. He never talked either.
"Hey lets see if we can get Mr. grumpy-face to smile." Pence suggested that we tell him a funny joke and if that didn't work… well we hadn't gotten that far. It took us a while to come up with a funny joke, but finally we got it.
"Hey mister, want to hear a joke? Okay so, a completely inebriated man was stumbling down the street with one foot on the curb and one foot in the gutter. A cop pulled up and said, "I've got to take you in, pal. You're obviously drunk." Our wasted friend asked, "Officer, are you absolutely sure I'm drunk?" and the cop says, "Yeah, buddy, I'm sure. Let's go." Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, "Thank goodness, I thought I was crippled."" The sea salt man stood there staring at Pence.
"Pshh, he really has no sense of humor!" Hayner looked at Pence and then me. " Okay mister, can we have three sea- salt…" A loud booming laughter interrupted Hayner. It was the sea salt man.
"I haven't laughed that hard in years!" The man said in his thick Romanian accent. "I came over here on a ship many years ago for a new beginning. I planned to sell sea-salt, but then my wife died and I went into deep depression. Thank you boys for making me laugh after ten years. Here are three sea salts on the house!" He handed us the sea salt and we walked away.
"What a fag." Hayner said.
Olette soon joined us at the bell tower. We sat watching the sunset in the distance as we ate our sea salt ice cream.
"You know in those movies when there is that scene about the happy days with friends. Then something happens suddenly where everything changes and things will never be the same again for the characters. I fell like something is going to happen. Something is going to change everything." Olette said in a sad monotone voice while staring at her feet.
"Shut up fat ass."
"Hayner!" I said. I turned to Olette. She continued to look down at her feet. "He doesn't really mean it, Olette."
"Yes I do. I'm tired of your fucking whining all the fucking time Olette." Hayner kept his gaze towards the train station. Olette got up and walked away towards the stairs.
"Olette wait!" Pence ran after her.
"Why the fuck did you say that?" I said as I stood up looking over Hayner.
"I'm tired of that bitch. She always comes and tries to hang out with us when she's not invited." Hayner kept sucking on his sea- salt.
"She's our friend and she is invited wherever we go!" I was furious with Hayner. Why the hell was he acting like this? Hayner turned to me and moved closer so his thigh was touching mine. Hayner's hand somehow made its way to my face and was tracing along my jaw.
"Your cute when you angry." Hayner moved closer. I could feel his velvet soft breathe on my lips. I turned my head right before our lips met and he bumped against my cheek. I got up and walked towards the stairs. For a moment I stopped, gripping the railing.
"No, it's not right…" I said quietly to myself and walked away.
I lay on the bed staring at the sealing. A fine breeze came through my window. I felt it on my face and it reminded me of Hayner's soft breathe on my lips. But then I remembered Axel's playful grip on my waist and the butterflies in my stomach as our tongues intertwined. There were moments that Hayner reminded me of Axel and Axel reminded me of Hayner. They were a lot alike and also so different. They were both great friends of mine. Why did I have to choose? I sprawled out on my bed and put my pillow over my face.
The morning was like every morning. I woke up around 9:00am took a shower, brushed my teeth and went downstairs to go eat breakfast. I decided to go fetch my Soccer Equipment bag from Axel before he made a shrine of me. It was a Saturday and I didn't have a game until 5:00pm, so I had time to negotiate with Axel to give my bag back. I gobbled down my breakfast and headed out the door with my skateboard. Skateboarding was a hobby of mine and it got me places faster. With all the hills in Twilight Town it was easy not to push off the ground every five seconds.
I got to Axel's house. Even though he was now twenty-three and in college he still lived with his mother.
"Hello Roxas!" Axel's mom was as bubbly as ever. "Axel is in his room, you can go right up!"
"Thank you." I went up the stairs and entered his room. Axel's room was pretty empty except for a bed, dresser, and desk. The desk had stacks of books and paper. Axel was sitting on his bed facing away from me. He had his headphones on and I could hear the music blasting. He didn't notice me as I entered the room. There was my bag. It was right next to his desk. I would just have to take a couple steps, grab my bag, and then run out of the house. I didn't even have to talk to him.
I took a few steps and noticed my bag was open. He was looking through my stuff? That asshole! I quickly grabbed my bag and head for the door. I only stopped because a pair of arms wrapped around me and closed the door.
"Where ya going Roxas?" Axel said in his mischievous voice.
"Fuck." I said under my breath. I almost made it.
"What are you doing in my room?" His mouth was up against my ear and I could feel his breathe.
"Getting my bag, which you stole!"
"I was going to return it." Axel said as his lips traced along my ear. It tickled.
"S-stop!" I stuttered, but the tease continued as he slipped his hand up my shirt. A moan escaped from my mouth as I struggled to fight against the much stronger Axel.
"Are you telling me you don't like this?" Axel's hand traveled up and down my chest and stomach.
"No…"
"Don't lie to me Roxas." He threw me down on the bed and straddled on top of me as he started to undo my pants.
"N-no! I don't like it!"
"Again with the lying. I can tell when you're pleased." The bedroom door swung open.
"I'm going to the grocery… OH MY GOD!" There was Axel's mother in the doorway witnessing the horrible thing that was happening.
"Hi mom…" Axel said as she ran out the room. "Your first time and you get caught, tough luck." Axel kissed my forehead and got off of me.
"I'm leaving." I said.
"I'm pretty sure your mom will get a call from my mom later."
"Fuck you." And with that, I grabbed my bag and ran away from Axel and my dignity.