Attaining the Perfect Boy

boy meets boy

I thought sitting through this football game was gonna kill me.

It was about that time in mid-September when the weather has no idea what the fuck it wants to do. Some days it'll rain and rain and rain, others the sun fries you like it's still late August. It had rained that morning but by evening it was too cold to justify wearing heavy pants, so my ass was absolutely drenched, and I had to keep shifting around uncomfortably.

Also, it was a football game, and I didn't do sports. I could stand to run or swim, but anything involving a ball or strength was completely beyond my skill level. I didn't get sports either. I had no fucking clue what was going on that field, so I was just staring blankly. At least, in gym class, I can casually ogle a guy or two, but I can't see shit at night and the uniforms aren't the most flattering.

This was definitely not my ideal Friday night. If it were up to me, I would be hanging out with my friends and making fun of bad movies or something. But it was the first game of my freshman year, and my mom was whining about "missing out on the high school experience."

Normally, school events were made better by my friends, but none of my friends from middle school went to my school, and we had sort of went our separate ways. Sure, we could dm each other memes in our groupchat, but actually hanging out with them? Not likely to happen.

I'd only made two close friends so far, and that number wasn't likely to get much bigger. Rae Min was sitting next to me, but, unlike myself, they were sporty. They actually had a fucking clue what was going on in that game and was excited about it. If I were to try and have a conversation, they would want to talk about the game and I didn't want to make myself look like a fucking idiot. My other friend, Aaliyah Taumata, didn't give a fuck about football, but she was in band so she had to sit with them and play.

The only thing that was entertaining me was Aaliyah's huge tuba dwarfing her tiny frame. I had half a mind to just fucking walk somewhere else and then walk back when it was time for Aaliyah's mom to pick me up.

But then I saw him jogging over to the fence, headed my way.

It was clear, just by looking at him, that he was an older boy, maybe a junior but probably a senior. He had this sort of universal appeal about him - no matter your type, there was no fucking way you could think this dude was ugly. Everything about him was chiseled - his wide shoulders, muscles, and his jaw, which was covered in light scruff. As he jogged, he had pulled off his helmet, revealing a head full of charmingly disheveled wavy brown hair. And, fuck, he had this look on his face like he had never had a goddamn thought in his life. His hazel eyes looked kind, and his full lips had a blank smile on them.

This was the sort of guy who made you have a revelation about the kind of person you were at fourteen. Not that I didn't know I was gay by then, I did, but I had only theorized I was attracted to men - this dude was real, and he was coming up to me.

He leaned against the fence, running his hands through his hair. "Hi!" He grinned wide, and I felt faint. His teeth were so white and his lips looked so soft. "Are you guys freshmen? I haven't seen you around here before."

I was formulating a clever response but Rae beat me to it, and I felt like punching them right in their nose. "Yeah! Dude, you fucking dominated out there, that shit was crazy!"

He laughed and dapped Rae up and all I could think about was how much I wanted him to dominate me. "I'm Elliott Greene. It's nice to meet you guys."

I jumped in this time before Rae could get to him first. "I'm Aaron and that's Rae. You go around introducing yourself to everybody you see?"

"Only the cute ones with hotdogs." He pointed at the hotdog in my hand - I had only taken one bite out of it. He tilted his head, not unlike a puppy, and I could not get over how much of a classic heartthrob this guy ways. "I didn't bring any cash, and I'm really hungry. Can I please have it? The guys are being dicks about it."

"Do you really want this? It tastes like straight plastic."

"You'll get used it by your sophomore year." He said, winking at me and whispering to us conspiratorially, "You know, the ROTC kids grill all the food and it definitely is all, like, expired."

"Nice to know." I smiled stupidly at him and gave him the hot dog, my heart thumping when his fingers brushed against mine. I was only fourteen. I had never had a real relationship and had no fucking clue how to flirt. Now that I do, I look back at how I acted and cringe. I had no way to stop him from jogging back to his teammates, who were heading back to the locker room.

Apparently, it was halftime, because Aaliyah had plopped herself on the bleachers next to me, gulping down a bottle of water. She was leaned all the way back, man-spreading, her bleached-blonde curls sticking to her sweaty dark-brown forehead. When she was finished, her eyes were half lidded, looking at me, and she shifted so that our knees could knock together. "What was that?"

"One of the football players!" Rae said excitedly, their bouncing leg shaking the seat. "He was a fucking beast on the field, did you see?"

"You know I wasn't paying attention," Aaliyah said, rolling her eyes. She sat up properly and elbowed me in the stomach, hard. Though she was tiny, she was much stronger than me. "I'm talking about the eyes both of you were giving him."

Rae laughs it off, but I hopped to my feet and dramatically announced, "that was my future boyfriend."

Always the kinder one, Rae only made a face and muttered some joke at my expense about liking white boys, but Aaliyah snorted. "Gross. That's a whole-ass grown man. He was growing a mustache and shit."

I frowned at her. Back then I wasn't thinking of any of the obstacles between us, just that I had just met a handsome, muscly jock that actually seemed nice. "A couple of girls in our grade are fuckin' with seniors."

"Yeah, but we clown them and call their boyfriends disgusting."

She was right, of course, but when I set my mind to something, I got it. Elliott Greene was going to be mine. I deserved a boy that was kind and hot as shit. Elliott was god's gift to me for being a good person - and there was no fucking way I was going to let him slip out of my hand.

I thought it was going to be harder to be around him, but it wasn't. Though we had no classes together, he often popped in during my photography class to fuck around so he could get out of math. Once it got warmer, he and his buddies sat outside during lunch, and I made sure to integrate into one of the groups that sat in the table near them so we could often "accidentally" run into each other and chat. It was no small feat for a freshman to score a table outside, but I was determined. 

All through my freshman year, I worked to slowly get closer and closer to him without seeming like I was trying to. It didn't matter that I had to sit through all of his football games and cheer through all of the boring pep rallies. All of the careful planning meant nothing to me. If I were to be gay, I would be the best at being gay. I would have to have the best boyfriend, and Elliott Greene was that. He was worth all of the time and effort. He occupied almost all of my thoughts. 

And the next year, after my sixteenth birthday, I knew it was time to finally make my move.

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i'm really excited to be telling this story and would love to hear your thoughts on it so far! this is a flashback - the actually story starts when aaron is a sophomore (16) & elliott is a senior (18).