Rainbow Road (5 page)

“Then at least open your window,” Kyle suggested, trying to find a compromise.

But Nelson wouldn’t. “It’s too hot.”

Instead Jason roled down
his
window. In response, Nelson flicked the AC on ful blast. In back, Kyle felt the cold stream of air, but inside, his blood was boiling.

Jason watched the Virginia suburbs blur past the window as they drove out I-66. The tension between him and Nelson hung thick as smoke.

Stop the car!
he wanted to tel Nelson.
This won’t work Just drop me off at Dulles Airport. I’ll catch the next plane to L.A.—alone.

But instead he sat silent, wishing the road trip could’ve been just Kyle and him. As the stereo played none of the boys spoke, til the first sign for Shenandoah National Park came into view.

“Hey.” Kyle nudged Nelson’s shoulder. “Remember that fal we came to see the leaves turn color?”

“Oh my God!” Nelson snapped his fingers. “That was so amazing.”

“Have you ever been to Shenandoah?” Kyle turned to Jason.

“No,” Jason said somberly. He’d always wanted to, but his drunken dad never took their family anywhere on vacation, except to visit relatives.

“You haven’t been to Shenandoah?” Nelson gasped. “You’ve
got
to see it. Let’s go now!”

“No,” Jason replied, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. He would’ve liked to see the park, but it annoyed him that Nelson told him he
had
to see it, as if he felt sorry for him. He didn’t like anyone pitying him.

“We don’t have time,” he told Nelson. “Since we started late.”

“But it wouldn’t take long,” Kyle said cheerily. “Skyline Drive goes through the park in our direction.”

“Come on, Jason.” Nelson reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You’re too tense. Chilax. Smel the roses.” Jason shook Nelson’s hand off but decided not to protest further. “Whatever.”

Nelson took the next exit, driving south toward the park’s entrance gate, where a line of cars waited, edging slowly forward.

“Ten dolars,” Jason grumbled, pointing to the admission fee sign.

“Here.” Kyle handed Nelson a fifty. “It’s my dad’s treat.”

“Woof!” Nelson exclaimed as he gaped at the ranger in the booth. “Isn’t he adorable in his Smokey Bear hat?” Nelson grabbed his cel phone. “I want his picture.”

“Dude, don’t!” Jason tried to stop him, but too late.

As Nelson paid the ranger, he asked, “Mind a picture?”

Jason slunk down in the seat, hiding his face, while Nelson snapped the photo with the phone camera and drove away.

“Why do you pul crap like that?” Jason asked, sitting up again.

“’Cause I wanted his picture.” Nelson handed Kyle his change and the cel phone. “Look! Isn’t he totaly lickable?” Jason turned to Kyle, hoping for backup, but Kyle was looking at the photo image. “It came out great.” Jason groaned, crossing his arms, and turned to stare out the window, thinking there was no way he’d be able to endure this trip.

But as they wound up the mountain highway, he couldn’t help admiring the tal trees and lush meadows. Deep valeys stretched far into the distance. Roadside waterfals splashed suddenly into view. And deer were
everywhere
. He’d never seen so many.

“Isn’t this great?” Kyle exclaimed.

In spite of himself, Jason nodded. “It’s pretty cool.”

At the next bend a bus marked FIRST EVANGELICAL CHURCH had puled over onto the road shoulder. Alongside several parked cars, a crowd of people stood peering into a glade.

Out of curiosity, Nelson puled over and the boys climbed out of the car.

“What’s going on?” Kyle asked a group of middle-schoolers.

“Bears,” replied a short girl with braces.

Jason gazed over the kids’ shoulders. At a distance of about a hundred feet, mama bear stood beside two furry little cubs that roled and tussled in the grass.

“Man!” Jason grabbed Kyle excitedly. “I wish Melissa could see this.”

While watching the bears, he overheard the girl with braces tel Nelson, “I like your hair. That’s so wild.”

“I love your hat,” another said.

“Where’d you get those cool sunglasses?” a third asked.

Nelson had barely started chatting with the girls when a moonfaced woman clapped her hands sharply and said, “Girls, stop bothering strangers!”

“They’re not bothering me.” Nelson smiled.

The woman’s brow furrowed. “Then I’d appreciate if you’d stop bothering them. Come on, boys and girls, let’s get back onto the bus.”

“I wasn’t
bothering
them!” Nelson puled off his glasses and narrowed his eyes at the woman. “You got a problem with something?”

“Yes, with people like you.” She turned and herded the kids toward the bus.

“Girlfriend?” Nelson snapped his fingers toward her and bobbed his head. “You need to get laid!” Middle-schoolers spun around to stare at him, mouths agape with shock, then quickly covered to stifle giggles. As the woman rushed them onto the bus, Nelson turned to Kyle and Jason. “Can you believe her?”

“Maybe if you wouldn’t dress so weird …” Jason replied, feeling no sympathy for Nelson. “Why do you always try to be so different?” Nelson perched his dark glasses back onto his nose, his blue eyes peering across the top. “I don’t try to be different, Jason. I just am. Try it sometime.” Jason wasn’t sure what the heck Nelson meant by that, but he didn’t care. “You always have a comeback for everything, don’t you?”

“Guys?” Kyle stepped between them. “Why don’t we get something to eat?”

Jason stood glaring at Nelson, unwiling to back down as Nelson stared back.

“Guys, stop it!” Kyle insisted, and pushed them away from each other, toward the car.

As they left the mama bear and cubs, Jason considered sitting in back, but he didn’t want to appear intimidated by Nelson. The fact was Jason could beat the crap out of him anytime. Didn’t Nelson realize that? Then why didn’t he act like it?

When they reached Big Meadows they stopped for lunch at the cafeteria and then continued toward the southern end of Shenandoah.

“So was the park worth it?” Kyle asked Jason as they exited the gate.

“Yeah.” Jason nodded. In spite of his tiff with Nelson, he’d enjoyed it. “Those bears were the best part. My old man never took us anywhere.”

“Neither did mine,” Nelson said, turning toward I-81. That might’ve been the first time Jason could recal Nelson mentioning his dad, but Jason didn’t feel like asking more about it.

Instead he watched the apple orchards and fields of baled hay pass by, as the sky began clouding. Around five o’clock they approached the exit for Tech, the university that had awarded Jason’s scholarship. He watched the ramp lead off the highway and wondered,
What if they hadn’t retracted their invitation?

Kyle must’ve had the same thought, because he laid a hand gently on Jason’s shoulder. Jason turned to look at him, thinking how different his life would be if he hadn’t come out. He certainly wouldn’t be driving across the continent with his boyfriend.

And he wouldn’t be stuck in a car with Nelson.

As they drove past the exit for Tech, Nelson watched Kyle quietly rest his hand on Jason’s shoulder. That was just like Kyle: always knowing the right thing to do or say. Unlike himself, who seemed to constantly screw up.

“It sucked how they took your scholarship away,” Nelson now told Jason, trying to be consoling. He lifted Melissa’s Barbie off the seat beside him and imitated a little girl’s voice: “Bad Tech!”

Jason turned and gave him a dirty look. “I’m over it, okay?”

Nelson put the dol down and glanced in the rearview mirror. Kyle was glowering at him, shaking his head. Nelson let out a sigh. Once again he’d messed up.

The three of them were silent after that, listening to the stereo and watching the clouds darken overhead. As they approached Pulaski, Kyle suggested they set up camp, “before it starts raining.”

They checked into the High-N-Dry Campground, choosing a site near the basketbal court. Kyle and Jason began unpacking the tent and sleeping bags, while Nelson grabbed a pine branch, sweeping the ground, clearing away sticks and rocks. “Let’s put the tent down over here …” He pointed. “And the picnic table over there, so we’l a have prettier view of the mountains.”

Kyle laid the tent where Nelson suggested and began assembling the poles.

“This is supposed to fit three people?” Jason stared at the tiny dome.

“Wel …” Kyle shrugged. “I thought there’d only be two of us when I bought it. But the carton said ‘Two to three people.’”

“It’l be cozy.” Nelson winked at Jason, smiling.

Jason didn’t smile back. Without another word, he grabbed his basketbal from the car and headed toward the court.

“Why’s he always so cranky?” Nelson whispered to Kyle.

“He’s not,” Kyle replied. “Why do you keep antagonizing him?”

“I don’t! At least I don’t try to.”

“I think you do.” Kyle pounded the tent stakes into the ground. “Ever since this morning—suggesting the dol was his, blasting your music, smoking even though you know it bothers him—”

Nelson crossed his arms. “Kyle, I’ve always smoked, I always listen to music loud, and his sister said it was his dol. He’s the one who treats me like I’m a freak.”

“He does not. And that’s not the issue.”

“Then what’s”—Nelson raised his fingers into curved V-signs for quotation marks—“the Issue?”

“The issue is you keep teasing and provoking him. Don’t deny it! I know you. And as for your smoking and music, can’t you think about someone besides yourself and what they might like for a change?”

Nelson clamped down on his jaw, feeling a twinge of guilt.

When Jason tramped back from the court, Nelson offered his cel phone. “You want to cal your mom and sister and tel them about the bears?” Jason eyed Nelson a moment, then accepted the phone. “Thanks.”

“Sure. Talk as long as you want.” Nelson flashed Kyle an exaggerated grin. “I’m going to shower.” When he reached the bathhouse, he found it a little decrepit, but clean. The shower curtain didn’t close al the way, but Nelson didn’t care. He was alone anyway.

He’d dried off and was dressing when Jason walked in.

“I left your phone with Kyle. Thanks for letting me use it.”

“Sure. Anytime,” Nelson replied, watching in the mirror as Jason puled off his T-shirt, revealing his smooth olive-skinned chest.

Although Nelson had always considered Jason good-looking, he’d never been overly attracted to his straight-boy energy. But that was before seeing his tight pecs and ripped abs. Now he had to fight the urge to turn and gape

“Is there hot water?” Jason asked, stepping into the shower stal in his boxers and puling the curtain as closed as it would go.

“Yeah. It’s great.”

Nelson watched Jason’s undies alight on the curtain rod and continued to stare into the mirror, rubbing moisturizer on his face til he’d probably clogged every pore.

He felt like a total perv for hoping to snatch a glimpse of something, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“Hey!” Jason shouted.

Nelson jumped, his heart skipping a beat.

“I forgot my shampoo.” Jason puled back the top of the shower curtain. Streams of water trickled down his soap-foamy chest while the plastic curtain covered his lower half. “You got some I can borrow?”

“Sure!” Nelson grabbed his shampoo, dropping it not once but twice as he stumbled toward Jason.

“Thanks.” Jason grabbed the plastic bottle with his free hand and puled the curtain closed behind him, but not before Nelson caught a peek at his glistening butt.

Okay, now he
really
felt like a perv. “Anything else you need?” Nelson shouted.

“No, thanks,” Jason yeled back. “Kyle bought some food at the camp store. He can probably use your help with the fire.”
Kyle who?
Nelson wondered. Oh, yeah: Kyle, his best friend. Jason’s
boyfriend
. Nelson watched himself turn red in the mirror, flooding with guilt. “Okay. I guess I’l go help him.” Nelson hurried out of the bathhouse, although he did try to catch one last glimpse though the gap in the shower curtain.

You’re such a mess,
he told himself as he flip-flopped down the gravel path back to the campsite.
How could you try to check out your best friend’s boyfriend
like that?

Kyle stood over the charcoal gril, trying to get the fire going. “What took you so long?” He glanced up. “Something wrong? You okay?” Nelson stared back, his face burning with shame. “Kyle, I—Jason … I’m sorry…. It’s just—God, he’s beautiful…. I mean he’s
really beautiful!
” Kyle examined him a moment before proclaiming, “Wel, duh! Like you never noticed that? Hel-lo! Can you hand me the lighter fluid?” By the time Jason returned, Nelson had finaly calmed down enough to eat his hot dog without envisioning Jason in the shower. As the boys ate, a couple of raindrops sprinkled, but not enough to stop them from roasting marshmalows for dessert.

“Oh, crap!” Nelson leaped up from the picnic table. “I totaly forgot. You guys want some rum?” He ran to the trunk of the car and dug out a bottle.

“You never said you were bringing that,” Kyle complained as Nelson opened the fifth.

“Can I have some?” Jason’s eyes widened eagerly. “How’d you get it?”

“Paid some homeless dude.” Nelson poured a generous shot into Jason’s Coke can. “Want some?” he asked Kyle.

“No! I don’t think they alow alcohol in the campground. Why’d you bring that?”

“Just have some, Kyle. It’l help you chilax.” He tried to pour some into Kyle’s Coke, but Kyle puled his can away. “I told you, no! I wish you hadn’t brought that.”

But Nelson was glad he did. He loved the sense of acceptance drinking gave him. It helped him relax, made him feel like he belonged, and alowed him to say things he otherwise wouldn’t. By the time he’d finished his first drink, he was admitting to Jason, “I was so jealous when you and Kyle first started going out.” And by the end of his second drink Nelson told Jason, “Dude, you’ve got such an awesome body.” Beneath the picnic table his foot accidentaly bumped into Jason’s, and Nelson let it stay there.

“I think you’ve had enough to drink,” Kyle told him. “Come on, Jason. Let’s get ready for bed.” Kyle stood up and Nelson realized it hadn’t been Jason’s foot he was stroking. It was Kyle’s. Oops.