Valentine's Day 2011 Challenge- Secret Crush
SECRET CRUSH
An entry for the February 2011 Challenge at Brokeback Drabbles, Shorts and Challenges
September
It wasn’t easy adjusting to a new school on top of a classroom full of excited kindergartners, not to mention a move across several state lines. It was Jack’s tenth year of teaching, and he was three weeks into the first month of the school year. The class of twenty-three five and six year olds wasn’t the easiest he’d ever had, but it wasn’t the hardest either. Teaching an all-day kindergarten class, rather than two half-days, was different for him, but he’d always liked a challenge.
He had a half hour break while the children went for gym class, and he picked up his lesson plans and headed for the teacher’s lounge. He loved teaching, but being around adults for a few minutes might help keep him sane on a day when there had been three meltdowns before eleven a.m.
He nodded at the handful of teachers sitting at the table in the lounge, and went to the refrigerator to get the can of V-8 he’d stashed there that morning. To his surprise, he saw a six pack of brown bottles sitting on the shelf, with a yellow Post- it note stuck to them. “Jack Twist” was printed neatly on the Post-it, and he pulled the cardboard container closer to examine it.
Damn! It was Sprecher’s root beer, best in the world, made in Glendale, Wisconsin and very hard to find on the East Coast. And apparently someone had made him a gift of it.
He looked at the other teachers and said, “Somebody brought me a six pack of my favorite root beer. Any of you know anything about it?”
He got shrugs in reply, and racked his brain trying to remember if he’d ever mentioned his love for Sprecher’s in the school. He vaguely remembered saying how much he liked it, in a passing conversation. But he hadn’t made a big deal about it.
Oh well. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, he thought, as he rummaged in the kitchenette drawer for a bottle opener. He popped off the top and took a long pull. Yup, just as good as I remembered.
He sat down with his precious bottle and started on the lesson plan, but as one of the teachers left she teased him. “Jack has a secret admirer.”
If only.
October
It had been one of those days, with one bathroom accident, one instance of vomiting, and one hair-pulling incident between two little girls who were ordinarily the best of friends.
He’d cleaned up Jason Diaz and put him in one of the sets of clean underwear and sweatpants he always kept around, and called the janitor to deal with the vomit while he’d comforted Caitlin Styberski and walked her to the office to wait until her mom could come and pick her up. Then he’d gotten to the root of the problem with Hannah Malkovich and Erin Malone, had them apologize to each other, and settled them in a corner for the very important task of counting out orange and black construction paper sheets for the Halloween pumpkins.
At 2 p.m., he’d decided that they’d spend the last hour of the day on a nature walk. The kids needed to let off some steam, and he needed to get some fresh air. They had a good walk, each child walking with two buddies, and crunching through the brightly colored autumn leaves lifted everyone’s mood.
When they got back, there was a flurry of activity, with Jack helping them into the correct jackets and making sure everyone took his book bag.
Once they were all out the door, Jack slumped into his desk chair, closing his eyes and sighing with weariness. His plans for the evening involved a frozen pizza and a Bruce Willis movie, the more gunfire in it the better. It had been a long day, and he just wanted to put his brain on hold and forget about little clinging hands until the next morning. He really needed to go to the grocery store; he was out of fruit and veggies. But he just wasn’t up to it tonight.
He opened his eyes and started to pack his messenger bag, when he noticed a large, shiny red apple sitting in the middle of his desk.
“An apple for the teacher” was a charming idea, but one that originated before the days of food tampering. He looked it over carefully, and decided it looked like it was free of razor blades. Hmmm, my secret admirer struck again. Just hope it isn’t a secret stalker.
Jack was gay, and proud. He hadn’t hidden his orientation from his school district or his principal, but saw no reason to publicize it either. There were a lot of ignorant people in the world who still thought that homosexuality and pedophilia were the same thing, and he loved teaching. So while he didn’t lie, he didn’t feel the need to share his private life with the world, either. All of the staff in the building knew, but it wasn’t a subject for discussion with parents.
He left the building with his messenger bag over his shoulder, tossing the apple from hand to hand. It would make a good dessert tonight. And he hoped like hell his secret admirer was a gay man. Preferably a good-looking one.
November
Jack was in the middle of a major rant, the other teachers in the lounge laughing as he held forth on the perils of making Thanksgiving turkeys by tracing an outline of each child’s hand for the turkey body and tail.
“And I have glue in my ears...” he was concluding, when a soft voice interrupted them. “Excuse me...”
The teacher’s lounge adjoined the school office, and the door between them was open. A guy about Jack’s age was standing in the doorway, dressed in gray slacks and a white buttondown shirt, with a nametag Jack couldn’t read. He was tall and thin, with sandy blonde hair in loose curls around his face, and friendly brown eyes. He continued, “I was told the principal was in here?”
The principal, Mrs. Newsome, gave him a half wave and said, “Right here, Ennis.”
“Your copy machine is fixed, ma’am. I just need you to sign that the work is completed.”
Jack looked over at him and gave him a nod. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Ennis said back.
“Are you new?” Jack asked.
Ennis chuckled. “I’ve been in here once a week since late August.”
“Sorry, guess I wasn’t paying attention,” Jack answered, feeling himself flush a little for no reason he could figure out.
“It’s okay,” Ennis answered. “No one ever really sees the photocopy repair guy.”
Ennis collected his clipboard and turned to leave.
Nice ass, Jack thought automatically.
December
The weather was abysmal that winter, with several snow days which would have to be made up in June.
Teachers of very young children hated winter, because each child had to be put into a coat, hat, mittens and boots each afternoon, and helped out of them each morning. And then there was the after- lunch recess.
Jack often wished he had six hands.
One cold day in mid-December, the snow started up an hour before school got out. He had parent-teacher conferences to prepare for, so he stayed until almost five. Looking out the window, he groaned when he saw that three or four inches had fallen, with apparently some freezing rain on top of it.
He trudged to his car, thinking that he should turn it on to warm it while he scraped off the windows. But when he got there, the car was totally cleaned off. All of the windows were free of snow and ice, and even the roof of the car and the taillights and headlights had been scraped off.
Since he knew it had been snowing steadily, the cleaning of his car must have happened within the last few minutes. Otherwise it would have been snow-covered again before he got to it.
As he gratefully slid into the driver’s seat, he thought, Someone is very sweet. Or very sweet on me.
January
Jack had spent more of his winter break thinking about his secret admirer than he would have cared to admit to anyone other than himself. And the small gifts continued- once a Starbucks Macchiato on his desk first thing in the morning, once a bar of bittersweet chocolate, once a homemade CD of classic headbanger rock songs.
He’d spent the first half of the school year just trying to keep his head above water, and to make a good impression on the parents and school administration. But in moments of reflection, he had to admit he was lonely. Maybe it was time to look around for someone to date.
He wished he had some way of finding the man (he assumed it was a man) who seemed to have a secret crush on him. But maybe he was making too much of the gestures? Maybe whoever had done the nice things was just a nice person who hadn’t meant anything by it?
But then he thought, Someone hung around after school for two hours to clean off my car. That’s more than casual interest.
The weather in January was even worse than in December, and Jack found his car cleaned off two more times. He was starting to get frustrated with not knowing who was behind the little kindnesses, and he decided it was time to take action.
He waited until a day when snow was predicted for late afternoon, and worked late again, trying to quell his nervousness at what he’s done.
As he walked to the car, he saw that it was cleaned off again, and the note that he’d left under the windshield wiper was gone. He hoped it would work.
The note had been simple. His cell number and one sentence.
Time to man up.
February
Jack woke up and stretched luxuriously, rubbing his toes along the golden fuzz on the calf of the man sleeping next to him.
He and Ennis had been together since the night in January when Ennis had called him and confessed to his secret crush. Jack had invited him over, and they hadn’t been separated for a single night since then. It felt right to Jack, and it was starting to feel like forever.
Ennis woke up, automatically smiling when he saw Jack’s face. “Morning,” he said, his voice husky from sleep.
“Morning,” Jack answered, rolling on his side. “It’s Valentine’s Day, you know.”
“Is it?” Ennis teased. “Well, in that case, I guess I’d better make your Hello Sunshine Blow Job particularly good.”
And he did, doing it just the way Jack liked it, deep and wet and fast, one hand fisted around the base of Jack’s cock and the other caressing his balls. Jack never lasted long first thing in the morning, and he was going to come embarrassingly fast at the rate Ennis was working him. He didn’t bother warning Ennis anymore, because Ennis loved swallowing, and he was barely aware of what happened when Ennis pulled off just as he was about to come.
He’d hardly choked out a “What?” when Ennis had gently pushed his pulsing cock toward his belly, so the warm spray coated his chest. Ennis licked his way up his lover’s chest, cleaning up the salty fluid, licking around Jack’s nipples, stopping to nip at his collarbone, and ending with a deep kiss so they could share the taste.
“Glad I found you,” Jack murmured when the kiss was over, stroking a hand through Ennis’s tangled hair.
Ennis answered him with another kiss.
Website for the world’s best root beer: Sprechers