Indigo Road (2 page)

Dad stood
next to me and dropped the keys in my hand. “Here you go, son.
Congratulations. You and Alex deserve it.” He clapped me on the
back and I found my voice.

“
You didn’t,”
I
whispered. “You so did
not
buy us
a van.”

Alex was busy
hugging his mom and dad, and my excitement bubbled to the surface.
“You bought us a van. You actually bought us a freaking
van!”

The buzz of
realizing we were really going on a road trip replaced my buzz from
the beer.
Tears burned my eyes and I
hugged Mom and Dad, whispering “Thank you, thank you” a million
times over.

“
Hey, Josh,
give me the keys.”

That
snapped
me out of my not-at-all-like-me
blubbering. “Like hell,” I yelled over to Alex. “I’ve got first-day
driving, remember?”

Alex and I
climbed into the van and soaked it all in. Our parents were
standing arm in arm outside watching us, big proud smiles on their
faces. Some of our party guests were mingling around, talking about
their own graduations and wishing they had done what Alex and I
were about to
do,
while others went back to their beers and food and watched
from a distance.

We closed the doors to shut out the noise and
suddenly it was just Alex and me.

“I can’t believe they did this,” came Alex’s
shocked whisper.

“I’m still trying to figure out if I’m
hallucinating. How many beers have you had?”

“Not nearly enough to hallucinate this.”

“Are you sober?” I asked.

“If I wasn’t before, I am now.”

“Good, pinch me.”

The bastard punched me in the arm.

“Ow, fucker. I told you to pinch me.”

“Still think you’re hallucinating?”

“
No.
Thanks.”

We spent the
rest of the night looking
at
the van, which was tricked out spectacularly,
only stopping to say goodbye to our guests. By the time the night
was over, I was sober and lying on my back in the rear, my best
friend next to me.

“Dad apologized for the color,” I told Alex
after staring at the ceiling for what felt like ages.

“What’s wrong with the color?” he asked.

“It’s purple.”

“Indigo.”

“What?”

“
It’s
indigo,” Alex said very matter-of-factly. “You know, the
second-to-last color of the rainbow, not blue but not purple
either.”

“What’s the last color?” I think I was still
drunk after all.

“Violet.”

“There’s two purples in the rainbow?”

Alex reached over and grabbed my hand,
squeezing it tight before releasing it.

“Yep.”

The wonder in
Alex’s voice had my chest tightening, and I turned to look at him,
only to see a large smile matching my own.

“
I
CAN’T
believe how cool Maude is,” Julie
said as she plonked herself on my bed, disrupting the piles of my
stuff ready for packing. Alex and I were due to leave first thing
in the morning. Well, Alex’s ‘first thing’ was very different to my
first thing, but because I’d won the coin toss, I was driving the
first day. Alex and his dad had been making some ‘minor
adjustments’ over the last few days and the van was currently at
his place. Oh God. That meant he’d be showing up ‘first
thing.’

“Maude?”

“Yeah, your van. Dad said the previous owner
named her Maude. I think it’s kinda fitting.”

“
Maude.” I
ran the name over my tongue. It sounded a little weird, but I guess
any name would do. “Well, Maude it is, then.”

Julie lay
back on my bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time as I
packed my stuff around her. “You’ll be home for my ceremony,
right?”

She was
graduating high school next year and I promised I’d be home in time
for it, but her question was laced with doubt.

“
Of course I
will. I’ve told you this,” I reassured her.

“
But… what if
you find somewhere you want to stay? You know, find a girl you want
to marry and stuff. You might not come home.” Julie wouldn’t look
at me, preferring to stare at the ceiling with glassy eyes. I knew
she was trying to keep the emotion of the moment from
showing.

“
Aww, you
gonna miss me, Buttface?” I smirked, punching her on the arm as I
lay down next to her, threading my hands behind my head.

“
No, stupid,”
Julie said, wiping the back of her hand across her eyes. “I want
you to bring Maude back in one piece so I can use her for my own
travels. Besides, the chance of you finding a girl who’ll want to
marry you is slim to none anyway.”

My sister was
probably right. So far no girl I’d met made me want to commit more
than a couple of weeks of my time, but I wasn’t opposed to the
thought of finding the “one” someday. It just wasn’t going to be in
the next twelve months.

My snappy comeback stopped on my tongue as
the doorbell rang.

“
That’ll be
Alex. He said he was stopping by this afternoon.” I looked to my
sister
, who was now beaming devilishly at
me, still lying on my bed.

“Don’t keep your boyfriend waiting,” she
replied, waggling her eyebrows as she stood and made for the
door.

I grabbed her
in a fierce hug, holding her tight. Despite the five-year
difference between us, we had always been close, and a part of me
would miss her a lot.

“I’ll miss you, Buttface,” I whispered
against her long hair.

“
I’ll miss
you too, Jerkoff. Just make sure you have a good time but be
careful
, okay? I want Maude back.” Her
voice cracked and she wriggled out of my arms, making her way
quickly to her room and closing the door behind her.

Sure enough, it was Alex.

“Hey,” I said, opening the door.

“
Horse.”
He always had the same
reply.
It’d
taken me a few days after we first met in junior high to
ask the meaning. He’d just shrugged and said, “Because horses eat
hay.” He’d been saying it ever since.

Alex
slipped past me, carrying a swivel stool and a
small black case with him.

“
C’mon, we
better do this outside,” he said, making his way through the
kitchen toward the backyard.

“
Um,
okay?”

Mom and Dad
looked at me, a question in their eyes as Alex waved to them and
kept walking. I shrugged and followed him through the sliding door
out into the backyard.

Alex set the
stool on the lawn, sat
down, and rummaged
through the case, bringing out a set of clippers. He took his shirt
off and threw it over the wooden railing of the deck behind
him.

“Here,” he said, passing me the clippers, a
nervous look on his face. “You better do me first before I lose my
nerve.”

“Um, what?”

“Shave my head. Do it quick.” Alex closed his
eyes and waited patiently, his shoulders tight with tension.

I turned the
clippers on, feeling the little black contraption vibrate rapidly
in my hand. Alex jumped a little at the noise, then rolled his
shoulders.

“
Are you
sure? You like your hair.” Alex had gorgeous hair. It was a
dirty-blond mess of waves that brushed his ears, and somehow—even
if he’d just woken up—it looked like he’d styled it that
way.

“Yes. I don’t want to worry about getting
regular cuts while we’re on the road. Plus, it’ll grow back,
right?” He sounded like he doubted his hair’s ability to grow.

“
Of course it
will. In a few
months
you won’t even notice.” I paused, waiting for him to give
me the go-ahead. He simply nodded and closed his eyes
again.

By the time
I’d shaved all his hair off and run my hands over his prickly
scalp, he was relaxed again, the tension in his shoulders
disappearing. I ran my hands over his head once more, feeling for
any unevenness, and Alex tilted his head, pressing into my fingers.
I’d heard head massages felt pretty good, but I’d never had one.
Little noises were coming from Alex as I moved the pressure to the
base of his skull and top of his neck. I glided my fingers over his
smooth skin, kneading the little knots of tension. His head fell
forward in ecstasy as I soothed his muscles.

I’d never
touched Alex like that before. Sure, we’d given each other hugs,
butt slaps, and hair ruffles. I kissed him once. We were at a party
and really drunk, and I used the excuse of not remembering anything
the next morning. He said he didn’t remember much of the party
either and we had never spoken about it. But that was as far as our
touching had gone. This felt… different. Not bad different, just
different. I liked that my fingers could elicit that kind of
reaction from him.

My cock twitched and started to fill as his
moans grew in intensity. I dropped my hands quickly, unsure what
was happening as something shifted inside my chest.

“Right… I’m just going to get a drink.” I
bolted inside and hid my face in the fridge, hoping the cold air
would reach my dick.

“Josh?” Alex’s voice came from the open patio
door a minute later, hesitant and unsure. I was glad Mom and Dad
had disappeared from the kitchen.

“Yeah?” I kept my face in the fridge as I
rummaged in search of nothing.

“
You don’t
have to shave your head if you don’t want to. I just thought it
would be easier on the road. We won’t be able to shower every day,
and it’ll be one less thing we’ll have to think about.”

Thank
fuck
he didn’t think… If he knew I got
wood from touching him, he’d think I was gay. Maybe I
was,
sort of. Or
bisexual. Maybe I just appreciated an attractive person, male or
female. I’d had a blowjob from a guy in college once and
boy
did it blow my
mind. He sure knew how to suck dick, but he called me a
cock-teasing asshole when I didn’t reciprocate. I’d had no idea
what I was doing or how I felt. I hadn’t told Alex, as I didn’t
know what it meant. Alex was a good-looking guy, gorgeous even—the
girls sure liked him—so I guess if I
were
gay, I’d probably be into
him too.

I grabbed a
couple of bottles of water as relief ran through me and handed one
to Alex. “It’s cool, you can shave my head. I was thirsty is all;
it’s a hot one today.”

Alex’s
widening grin said he believed me. I wasn’t lying, it was pretty
hot.

“
C’mon,” I
said, patting his bare shoulder on my way past, my palm tingling
from the contact. “My hair won’t take as much effort as yours, it’s
fairly short already.”

N
ot long after all my hair was
gone, Alex left with a happy smirk and a promise to get me first
thing in the morning. Excitement stirred in my stomach once more
and I went to my room to finish packing only to find Julie sitting
on my bed again.

“
Huh.” Julie
huffed as she took in my newly shaved head.

“What?”

“
I thought
you’d look stupid with no hair. I’m kinda disappointed you
don’t.”

I ran my hand
over my stubbly scalp. It felt weird not to have the long length on
top I usually had. “Um, thanks?” I moved to the mirror and took in
my new look. Who knew I could rock the buzz cut? Good to know for
when I’m old and losing it anyway.

Julie
’s voice came from behind.
“Mom’s doing a special dinner
tonight
since it’s your last
one.”

“You make it sound like I’m going to the
gallows.”

DINNER
THAT
night was a feast. That special pot
roast scent filling the house was enough to make my mouth water.
Mom really pulled out all the stops, but she was quiet as she ate.
I guess she didn’t want me to leave after returning from college
only last week. Dad seemed okay, asking about our planned stops and
which route we’d be taking. I couldn’t answer many of his questions
because we didn’t have a route. I knew we were heading west,
following the sun so to speak. We didn’t plan on having much of a
winter, so we were going to do the top half of the country before
fall hit too hard. Alex told me Christmas would be in San Diego;
that’s all I really knew. Fort Wayne, Indiana, to San Diego,
California, was a lot of ground to cover in the next six months. If
we drove in a straight line, it would be about two thousand miles,
but we were heading northwest through Iowa and South Dakota. The
knowledge I’d be on the road in a matter of hours had my stomach
churning with excitement once more.

After
dinner
was finished
, Dad handed me an envelope.

“
What’s
this?” I asked, opening the flap and peering inside. It looked to
be about a thousand dollars. I turned my attention back to my
parents with my mouth open in disbelief. I couldn’t believe they’d
given me so much money on top of what they’d already
done.

“
It’s just
something to help you boys get started on the road. We know you’ve
been saving for years and have all your money pooled for this trip,
but we wanted to give you a bit of a buffer if something unexpected
happens. We don’t expect any car trouble; Maude has a new engine in
her, after all, but you never know.”