Page:Jay Little - Maybe—Tomorrow.pdf/98

 hands. Like wax in a flame it lay there. It was good to know he was not alone. Time stood still … yet somehow it was time to go.

After the show Blake suggested a drink and on entering a drug store a group of boys greeted them happily. They were young, healthy, full of life. They were idling boys who exchanged school gossip with each other … then would follow a forced explosion of laughter and backslapping.

One of them called out boldly to the boy behind the soda fountain, "Give me a coke, Hoss, quick. I've got a hot date waiting."

"Who's the unfortunate girl?" the boy behind the counter asked with a laugh.

"Listen to him, will ya. And he's supposed to be my best friend." He lit a cigarette. "She's got a friend too. Wanta come along, Bob? I don't know if I can take care of both of them."

"Not tonight," Blake said.

"Got something lined up?"

"Sort of, haven't we, Gay?"

Quickly Gaylord raised his eyes. He had been watching with absorbed attention the reflection of Blake's face in the mirror behind the cluttered shelf. His companion had asked him a question but he didn't know what he had asked. He had been too busy imagining Blake pulling his pants over his legs, peeling off his shoes and socks, waiting till the last moment to slip off his shorts, then tossing them carelessly across the foot of a bed on which lay a naked girl. He was glad Blake had interrupted his thoughts. "What?" he asked.

"I just said we've got something planned."

"Have fun, you two," said the stranger to Gaylord. "Don't get caught."

"I won't," Gaylord grinned, happily realizing that Blake wasn't naked, wasn't with a girl and that he was ready to go.

"I'm ready, any time you are, Bob."

They passed the drive-in they had eaten at earlier, and the car-hop who had waited on them was seated on a bench close to the wall. The lot was practically vacant. Only one car was in the enclosure. Blake 88