Kickass Anthology (39 page)

“Sure, let’s just forget about it, and go get something to eat.” Justin suggested.

“No, I don’t want to go out. I’m afraid I’ll make a bigger spectacle of myself. How about we order in and see if there are any good movies on?” Ron suggested as he reached for the remote.

“I don't think you made a spectacle of yourself. Everyone has a bad day sometimes, but we can order in if you want.”

“It wasn’t just a bad day. That kind of stuff happens to me all the time. I’m just not fit to be seen with,” Rob groaned. “I’m such a klutz that even my last boyfriend couldn’t handle it, and he dumped me.”

Justin reached out and gently placed his hand on Rob’s cheek. “Hey, you’re not a klutz. That could have happened to anyone. If your ex used something like that as an excuse to dump you, then he wasn’t worth keeping in the first place. Now let’s get something to eat.” Justin looked around for the take out menus and said, “What do you want? Looks like there is pizza, Chinese, and Mexican delivery services near here.”

“I’m allergic to peppers so Mexican’s out. I could go for a Hawaiian pizza. Do you like that?”

“Yea that works for me.” Justin picked up the room phone with his back turned to Ron to hide his smile.
I can’t believe he likes the same kind of pizza as me.

Ron scrolled through the channels on the TV until he found the guide to what was playing. “Oh, look
Lord Of The Rings
is on! Do you want to watch that one?”

“Yeah, it’s one of my favorites.” Justin smiled. Little did Ron know that Justin was comparing him to one of the elves. “Which part?”

“
The Fellowship of the Rings
, but it looks like they’ve got
The
Two Towers
next.”

After the pizza arrived, they settled down on the bed, side-by-side, on their stomachs facing the TV with the box in front of them. Justin sighed when Legolas appeared on the screen arriving at Rivendell.

Ron turned to look at him questioningly.

“What? He’s hot, OK? So I might have a thing for tall blond elves,” Justin said, blushing a little at having been caught ogling the movie character. “Who’s your favorite?”

“Well, the men and elves of ‘The Ring’ are OK, but I’m more drawn to one of the dwarves of
The Hobbit
,” Ron said.

“Dwarves? Come on; we all know they aren’t that hot!” Justin said with a laugh.

“Well three of them are in my opinion,” Ron said a little coolly. “Kíli, Fíli, and Thorin.”

Justin realized he might have hurt Ron’s feelings, and he reached over and placed his hand on top of Ron’s. “Okay, I’ll give you that. They are pretty hot, but which one is your favorite?”

Ron looked down at their hands and said softly “Kíli. You kind of remind me of him. You don’t look like him and it’s not…um not because you’re short, either. It’s ’cause you’re so...so beautiful like he is. You know, nice and kind and...and good looking.”

Suddenly, there was a pounding on their door followed by “Hey Ron, you took the wrong set of keys. We have the room with the double beds,” Darcy yelled through the door.

Ron looked over at Justin. “I could tell you weren’t comfortable with this one bed deal, but do you really feel like swapping rooms right now? I’m really tired. I never knew that just sitting in a car for hours on end could make me feel so drained.”

While Justin thought about it, Ron continued. “I-I...um, I like you. We don’t have to do...um, anything if you don’t want to. But maybe it’d be nice to just...well just be...” Ron trailed off, and his faced dropped with sadness as he started to get off the bed.

Justin tightened his grip on Ron’s hand. “No, its okay. I’m okay with us here. Just tell her we’re both too tired to move.”

Ron opened the door a little, leaving the bolt lock on, and stuck his face through the crack. Justin couldn’t hear the conversation, but it wasn’t long before Ron shut the door and turned to face him with a brilliant smile.

“She’s gone, and she promised not to bug us again. Well, at least not until we leave in the morning,” Ron said as he bounced onto the bed. He looked so happy, Justin couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and giving him a quick peck on the lips. Ron’s eyes widened in shock for a second before he smiled brightly. He flopped back down on the bed beside Justin and bumped their shoulders together before turning back towards the TV to watch the movie.

Oh I shouldn't have done that.
Justin focused on the TV screen, but he wasn't paying attention to the movie. He was worried how Ron would react to that sudden kiss.

His mind kept so busy that he didn’t notice the movie was over until Ron looked over at him shyly and said “I’m exhausted. I’ll go get changed and then you can have the bathroom. Is that OK with you?”

“Y-yeah, that’s fine. Thanks”

When Ron came back, he crawled into bed and curled up on one side of the bed, Justin took his sleep pants and shirt into the bathroom to change. He lingered in the bathroom until he was sure Ron had fallen asleep. When he finally headed to bed, Ron was snoring slightly still curled up on his side of the bed. Justin carefully crawled in the other side with his back toward Ron.

Justin woke early the next morning looking at the clock, he knew they needed to get up and get dressed so he rolled over, put his hand on Ron’s shoulder and shook him. “Hey, sleepy head, it’s almost time to leave.”

Justin grinned as Ron just mumbled, and lazily swatted at his hand. He found the small coffee pot, and set it up to start brewing coffee before he stepped into the bathroom to get ready.

When he came back out, he found Ron sitting sleepily in the middle of the bed drinking a cup of the coffee. Justin smiled as he watched Ron trying to wake up.

After finishing his coffee, Ron finally went to get changed. Justin couldn’t believe how much he liked the taller man. Ron hadn’t once mentioned his height—ok except for the dwarf comment—and hadn’t tried to overpower him like other guys had in the past. With Ron, he hadn’t needed to use any of his martial arts training. 

IT WAS later then they’d planned when they finally reached the trailhead. They decided it was best to set up camp for the night and start the hike first thing in the morning. Ron watched Justin sit in the open doorway of the van looking over the trail maps. It looked like he’d have to set their tent up on his own. Ron sighed before he turned back to try to assemble the tent. He hadn’t been camping much. Hopefully he wouldn’t do anything else too embarrassing.

After carefully laying out all the parts and actually looking at the scrambled directions, Ron finally thought he had all the poles and stake ropes in the right spots. Now all he had do to was get the tent upright and see if it would actually stay up. He had three of the stakes in the ground and the tent was starting to stay upon its own when the first stake came loose, and the whole thing went crashing to the ground.

“Dammit!” Ron cried out in frustration.

He was still staring down at the tent when he felt someone come up behind him.

“Sorry, I got caught up double-checking the maps. You don’t need to do this alone. Let me help you.” Justin said as he pulled the stake hammer from Ron’s hand.

Ron shot him a grateful look “Thanks. It’s been a long time since I’ve been camping. I guess I don’t quite remember how to put up a tent.”

Justin chuckled, “Well that’s OK ’cause I’m not so sure about this one. My dad just bought it for me. I’ve never put it up, either, so let’s figure it out together okay?”

Somehow, the two of them managed to get the tent up. Ron was glad that Justin had taken the time to give him pointers and tricks. Hopefully tomorrow, he could have the tent set up before Justin and the rest of the hikers got to the next campsite. Ron would certainly get a lot of practice.

While most of their companions were setting up camp, Josie cooked dinner over the Coleman stove. They couldn’t have a campfire due to the hot, dry weather but after dinner, they all sat around a portable picnic table and discussed plans for the next day’s hike. After they finalized plans, Cameron shared that he had an identical twin brother. He asked everyone if they also had any brothers or sisters. Everyone already knew about Ron and Darcy, but through that, Ron learned that although Justin was an only child, he had a large extended family with tons of irritating cousins that always picked on him because of his small size. Luke had two sisters and Ron hoped they weren’t as nosy as his sister was. Josie had three brothers and two sisters.

It was still early and the sun was just setting as they walked back toward their own tents.

Ron was busy watching the sky light up in layers of red, orange, and purple. “Wow! That’s beautiful—” he started to say when he tripped over the back of Justin’s heels, and they both went down in a pile.

A laugh from behind startled them both, then they heard Darcy say, “See that’s my big brother. We used to call him ‘Goofy’ because he’s always tripping over his big feet,” she teased. Ron knew she wasn’t really being ruthless about it. She was just teasing him like always. But he was shocked when Justin stood up and laid into Darcy.

“You shouldn’t be like that. He’s your brother and you should be nice to him,” Justin growled.

Ron grabbed Justin’s hand. “Hey, it’s okay. She’s just joking. She’s always like this.”

“Well I don’t like it. She shouldn’t talk to you like that.” Justin helped Ron to his feet. “You deserve better,” he said softly so the others couldn’t hear.

Ron was stunned that this gorgeous little man was standing up for him. He might be embarrassed and self-conscious about his clumsiness, but he hadn't expected Justin to support him instead of laughing along with all the others.

When they settled in the tent, Ron said, “You didn’t have to stand up for me back there; she always teases me like that.”

“But it hurts you,” Justin replied. “I can see it in your eyes. Words can cause as much as pain as physical violence, sometimes. Last night at the motel, that really bothered you, and made me upset to see you hurting. I like you and don’t want to see that pain in your eyes.”

“I didn’t think of it like that. Mostly I was mortified that you saw me fall all over myself. I think it does bother me when she says stuff, but mostly because I’m afraid that others will see me as a goof also.”
 

“I don’t think you are a goof, I think you are great.”

Ron watched in wonder as Justin leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He pulled Justin into his arms and they fell asleep on top of the sleeping bags wrapped up together.

BECAUSE the trail paralleled the main road for most of the first seventy miles, they decided to join back up each night, and have an evening dinner conference to discuss the next day's plans. They scheduled their next meeting point over breakfast before Justin and the other began their hike. After they left, Ron and Josie packed up the campsite, moved to the new location, set up, and waited until the rest of the group caught up.

At their after dinner campfire session, almost everyone headed back to their tents to crash out for the night. As Ron stood to go, Darcy said, “Hey, Ron, stay and chat a minute.”

“What’s up, sis?”

“Do you like him?”

Ron glanced over his shoulder to the tent Justin was entering before turning back to Darcy with a shy smile on his face. “Yes. I like him. He’s really nice.”

“Good, I thought you two would get along. Now about yesterday, you do know I was just razzing ya, right? I didn’t mean it. I just wanted to see what he’d do. I’m happy that he stood up for you. That means he likes you.”

“You… you did that on purpose?”

“Yep. Just be nice to him. He’s had a rough go of it as a kid. Guess everyone he knows thinks he’s too little or too weak. Sometimes he even gets hit on for looking to young. He needs someone to like him just the way he is and I thought you two would be perfect together.”