Chapter 2: Counting Stars

DANNY DEVELOPED LATE. I mean, I had hair down there and under my arms and the beginnings of boobs before he’d sprouted anything anywhere. I’d discovered those feelings you get when you touch the right place, and me and my girlfriends traded tips. It’s true later on Danny seemed to get boners about every ten minutes, but between you and me and the gatepost I don’t think he’d figured out what to do with them. Or even if his friends had showed him what to do he didn’t have much interest.

That is, not until that spring and summer before eighth grade for me and ninth grade for Danny when we spent almost the whole summer at the lake.

We have a cabin up there and we go almost every year. One afternoon Danny and I were sunning on the raft a little distance from the shore not long after we’d arrived. We’re almost always the only people around this end of the lake, except for Ruth and David when their vacation matches up with ours. They’d be here in a couple of days, Dad told us.

It’d be pretty dumb to say nothing changed after our wrestling match. We both knew what had happened, and even though it didn’t happen again until later on, I took a new interest in Danny’s boners when we were dressing up and watching Mom dress.

“Congratulations, Danny!”

“For what, shrimp?”

Like I said earlier, Danny thinks he’s really funny when he calls me “shrimp.” He’s that much bigger than me? Not really. I pointed at the soft fur that had started to sprout around his little cock. Up here at the lake we didn’t wear swimsuits when we were alone, or even with Mom and Dad or good friends like Ruth and David and their folks. Our two cabins were pretty isolated and nobody around seemed to care, anyway.

“I wondered what you were waiting for, Danny.”

He pushed me but I know he didn’t really mean it.

“Shut up, shrimp.”

I pointed down where my little curls flourished.

“Bet you won’t catch up to me, Danny.”

He stuck his tongue out at me. Really, he stuck out his tongue? Me and my girlfriends pretty much gave that up by the time we were twelve years old, a couple of years ago.

“C’mon, Danny, race you to the beach.”

I pulled him up. He may have shoved me and stuck his tongue out at me a few minutes ago, but I noticed he had the beginnings of a boner again. I was starting to think it never went all the way down. We hit the water about the same time. Truth be told he beat me to the sand, if only by a teeny tiny bit. His boner was gone when he pushed himself to his feet in the shallows and walked up the little beach to where we’d left our towels.

That evening after dinner we sat at the end of little pier below our cabin like we always do. The lake’s in the mountains, but even if the water’s pretty cold all year in summer the air stays warm until late. Tonight it was so clear we could see a million and a half stars, at least.

Mom and Dad were staying in. They told us not to be out too late, like they always do.

“Danny, I wasn’t trying to be mean, promise.”

I put my arm around him and squeezed. He kind of shrugged but he didn’t pull away.

“Remember when we wrestled that time?”

He nodded and put his arm around me, above mine.

“I liked it, Danny.”

I turned and kissed his cheek.

“I wouldn’t mind if we wrestled again sometime.”

He nodded but still didn’t say anything, so I kissed his cheek once more. I lingered a little.

“Charlie...”

“Yeah, Danny?”

He seemed to shrink a little but only for a second until I felt him straighten up and turn to me. It was dark but I could feel his smile.

“I liked it, too. A lot.”

My heart started to beat faster and I knew I was going to go ahead no matter what.

“Did you ever do it again?”

He laughed but he knew what I meant.

“You’re kidding, right, shrimp?”

I pushed him.

“Don’t call me shrimp, Danny. And don’t tease me about the size of my boobs, either, OK?”

“OK. Don’t you tease me about how much hair I have down there. Or how big I am, OK?”

I stuck out my other hand.

“Deal, Danny.”

“Deal.”