One More Time Ch. 06

As she rolled the plush cat around in her hands, her eyes suddenly became bigger than saucers as the fading sunlight reflected off the diamond ring that was pinned to Garfield's left paw. She looked over at Derek and then at her parents and then back at Derek again. Her eyes welled up as she stammered, "Is...is...is this...is this really what it looks like?"

Derek slid off the bench and down to one knee before answering her with: "It is if you will have me." His face was full of hope as he took her left hand and looked up at her.

The quietness of the backyard was deafening as every person held their breath. Lacy fingered the ring and then closed her eyes tightly. When they opened again after a quick moment, she was smiling and tugging at the completely unexpected surprise in an attempt to free it from the safety pin. We all let out a collective sigh when her face erupted in a smile and answered with: "Well I can't say 'yes' with the damn thing stuck to the stupid animal." A tide of courteous laughter spread through the group while Derek helped her free the ring, and then an eruption of applause came as he slipped it her finger.

The grin on his face at that moment would forever live in my mind. There was a huge part of me sharing the happy moment with him; but there was also another huge part that was wanting to douse myself in lighter fluid and throw myself on the BBQ grill. The last couple of years had made such little sense to me, and now it all appeared to have been wasted. Every hope, dream, and fantasy had just been dashed by a lasagna-eating, stuffed, orange cat!

* * * * *

Even though I rarely drank to excess, I was well on my way to a mind-numbing beer buzz when Derek finally rolled back into his driveway shortly before midnight. I had left Lacy's house in the middle of the mass exodus that eventually started.

Derek had given me one of our patented buddy hugs and said he would see me later. I did my best to keep from crying and had to talk myself out of just grabbing my stuff at the apartment and heading back to Zanesville without seeing him again. Even though I wasn't sure at all at what I would say to him, I knew that I couldn't just run away either, so I opted for drinking myself half silly instead. Unfortunately, the booze didn't give me any more courage than I had ever had when it came to dealing with my best friend, and we ended up doing little more than talking generically about this new twist and him extracting my promise to be his best man.

My mind was screaming "I have ALWAYS been your best man, but you are dumping me for the straight life now!" Thankfully, my lips held that back though.

When he finally made the move towards the bedroom, I waited silently on the couch, trying to decide if I could sleep on the lumpy thing or if it would better to just curl up on the floor. After a few minutes, Derek's voice wafted from the bedroom. "You don't need another beer buddy...kill that light and come to bed so I can get a little sleep...OK?"

I shook the hops-induced fog from my brain and wondered if I should. My body gave in and I was soon standing in the bedroom stripping down to my boxers. As confused and mad as I was at that moment, my dick compounded both emotions by going fully erect as I looked down at Derek laying all but naked in a pair of bright red, low-rise bikinis. The lump that was apparent in them said that he was somewhere between definitely not soft and very hard. Against everything my brain was saying, I crawled in beside him as he reached over and flipped off the nightstand lamp.

The eerie silence between us for several minutes was mainly due to my wanting to talk, but at the same time being scared shitless at what all I might say. I was hugging the edge of the cramped bed, not wanting to chance my erection getting any harder by feeling Derek's body up against mine. My eyes were pinched shut trying to will down the raging boner and I assumed that Derek would simply drift asleep quickly. Slumber for me was going to be more difficult because my mind would not stop racing. My conflicting thoughts of running away and joining the circus or choosing suicide, were suddenly interrupted by the movement of the soft mattress and the unmistakable noise of pubes being scratched.

I opened one eye enough just in time to see Derek tuck the waistband of his briefs under his balls and take his cock in his hand. His furry leg brushed against mine as he took a few tentative strokes. The voices in my head were a thundering chorus of 'Oh hell no!' as he continued to work himself. My own hard on grew larger. I was frozen in time and just laying there on my back desperately searching for the answer of what...or what not...to do.

Derek must have sensed my apprehension and the slow rhythmic motions of his hand ceased. I exhaled a sigh of relief and was in the process of rolling up on my side when a hand dropped down on my full boxers and squeezed gently. It was like a flashback to our first time during the sleepover back in high school as he whispered, "You're hard too, aren't ya buddy?"

My brain was screaming, but nothing was escaping my lips. I wanted to pin him down and ask in no uncertain terms, "Didn't you just dump my ass to get engaged a few hours ago? And now you want to play? Just what the fuck do you want from me Derek?" I kept searching for the nerve to ask those and a hundred other questions, but couldn't as Derek's expert hand kept searching my full boxers.

The battle between my mind and body was over at that point. Between the love in my heart and the lust in my groin, I had no strength to do anything but surrender. I flattened back on the bed again as the familiar hand began to work me through the cotton. My only comment was a soft "Uh huh." My hips shifted up into his strong hand and I reached over to find his fleshly shaft standing at attention. It felt so wrong, but at the same time felt so right, as I grasped him tightly.

Derek responded to my willingness by leaning up on his elbow and tugging my boxers down over my hardness. I kept playing with him as I let him strip me down completely. I got a look that could only be described as saying 'One more time,' as he tossed my shorts to the floor before rapidly dropping his face to my crotch to take my cock in his full lips. I moaned loudly as he chewed his way down my bone and buried his chin in my pubic hair. I thought this has to be his way of saying 'I'm sorry,' as his mouth showered me with attention like never before.

After a few minutes of enjoying the ecstasy of being the one getting serviced for once, Derek spun in the bed and his beautiful tool was dangling in my face as his returned to my crotch and took me fully again. I was beyond the point of trying to think; slipped him into my mouth; and proceeded to give him the best head I ever had.

He countered my enthusiasm with his own, and soon had me writhing on the bed. Our hips humped each other's faces. Our hands were roaming up and down the other's backs. We both became far more vocal with our moans than we had ever been. When I whimpered to let him know how close I was, a set of hands latched to my bubble butt and I felt him pull me into his throat. Knowing that one more trick like that would take me over the edge, I duplicated the move and let the muscles below my tonsils bring him to the same precipice. We both gagged and sputtered, but neither seemed willing to release the lip locks we had on the other. With a few more deep throat swallows, we both went rigid together. Derek was in me so deep that I felt his juice splattering my Adam's apple from inside as he exploded. The seal his lips had on me, gave him no option but to take my full load when my balls emptied a second after his did. His knees pinned themselves to my ears and my ankles were crossed tightly behind his head as our bucking hips helped extract the final wads of fluid. When the spasms from both our cocks and bodies finally stopped, Derek spun 180 again and stretched back out beside me with just a single word: 'Thanks.' There was no more from him before I heard the gentle snore...just 'Thanks.'

My mind went over a thousand thoughts before finding sleep too, but the one overriding one had been: 'Once again...everything has changed, and yet nothing has changed. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?'