The Best

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Parrish Rutledge was so excited he didn’t know what to do with himself. Today was going to be the best Christmas!

* * * *

He’d always loved this season because of how his mom had made it for him. It had been just the two of them since his brother Darcy had married and moved out five years before. They had chocolates and candy canes, and Mom would bake cookies and cupcakes and frost them with red and green icing. They’d watch a TV marathon of Rudolph and Santa and even Mr. Magoo, and Parrish would snuggle his Beanie Baby bear with its little Santa hat, while Mom sat beside him and shared a plate of cookies.

When he was in middle school, the boys and girls would eagerly look forward to getting gifts from their Secret Santas. Parrish had given out his fair share of inexpensive yet always appropriate gifts, because his mom had insisted on it. At first she’d gone with him to help him select the perfect gift—she was class mom and knew all about his classmates—but he learned fast, and eventually he was able to do it himself. He always picked out a gift exactly right no matter if the recipient was a boy or a girl. Angelica always read books about horses, so she got a copy of Black Beauty. Michael S. talked about going camping with his dad every weekend, so Parrish found him a 5-piece nesting mess kit. And while Parrish would have liked to give a special gift to the redheaded boy who sat in front of him, he never drew the boy’s name.

He also knew—even at that age—if he just handed a present to Danny Devlin, it could result in a punch in his nose.

In high school, the donors of those gifts were no longer secret, because the boys and girls were dating, and the gift was accompanied with a face-eating kiss. Parrish watched with longing. He didn’t date because he was pretty sure he was the only gay boy in their school. He thought wistfully of Danny Devlin, but the redhead was dating a cheerleader. Besides, with his mom recently deceased, there was no one to nudge Parrish along. Darcy didn’t even want him staying with his family, not after he found out Parrish was gay, so Parrish didn’t even bother buying a present or dating.

Until there was Robbie. He met Robbie when he was sixteen and Robbie was seventeen. They lived with the same foster family, and he’d been scared when the older boy caught him staring. Robbie just grinned and crooked his finger, urging Parrish to join him in his bedroom. Once the door was closed, he gave Parrish his first ever kiss, to be followed by so many more. What they did was confined to kissing and touching, although sometimes rubbing against each other frantically was involved. The Pitneys were cool with their friendship, and they made sure to be discreet. They must have done a good job, because Mr. and Mrs. Pitney even let them babysit their two boys when the adults had date night.

Parrish had high hopes for Christmas that year. He worked part-time after school and on the weekend stocking shelves and bringing in carts at the neighborhood supermarket, and he’d saved what he could to buy Robbie something special. Since an art teacher had taught Robbie calligraphy, Parrish went to the only craft store in their mall and bought his boyfriend the most expensive set of pens he could afford. Unfortunately, two weeks before Christmas, Robbie turned eighteen and aged out of the system. Even though the Pitneys would have let him stay, Robbie felt he had no real prospects in their town, so he joined the army. Parrish gave him the calligraphy set the day Robbie left for basic training—as well as his cherry—and that was the last time Parrish saw him. Robbie wrote sporadically from Fort Benning, but once he deployed, even the letters petered out. It took almost two years for Parrish to get over him.

He’d always been good with figures, and his organizational skills were amazing—all his professors said so—and the Pitneys were burst-a-button proud when he got a full ride scholarship at Kirkland-Scales U. in North Carolina. He packed up his meager belongings, including his Christmas Beanie Baby, said goodbye to his foster family, took a Greyhound bus east, and settled into his dorm once he’d arrived. He only dated on and off—more off than on—and no one he liked enough to buy a Christmas present for, which was just as well, since he was alone that first Christmas at K-S.

But then in his sophomore year, he’d sat in front of Arnie Hakansson, who introduced himself by playing with Parrish’s hair.

Parrish turned in his seat to glare at him.

“Sorry, but your hair is so gorgeous. So thick, so dark…”

Parrish found himself enchanted by the blond’s winsome smile.

“Can I take you for coffee after class?”

“Sure.” And that was the start of it. Parrish liked Arnie a lot, so much so he planned to give Arnie the gift of himself. He went to the local pharmacy to buy condoms and lube and also a glass ornament that read Our first Christmas with the year 2017 on the bottom He had high hopes again for that holiday season.

Unfortunately—dammit, wasn’t there always an “unfortunately”? Parrish and Arnie broke up a couple of weeks before Christmas, when Parrish found Arnie making out with the assistant basketball coach in the showers. They were so wrapped up in each other, they didn’t even realize they had an audience. And why was it Arnie was never like that with him? Well, f**k Arnie. Parrish’s gut churned when it dawned on him the assistant coach was probably already doing that.

Parrish walked out without saying a word and went back to his dorm room. He tucked the condoms and lube away in his nightstand and buried the ornament at the back of his dresser.

A couple of hours later, Arnie tapped on his door. “Hey, babe. Ready to get busy?”

Parrish had been foolish enough to tell Arnie about two thirds of his purchases. “I have a headache,” he said, his voice stone cold.

“Oh…oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Why don’t you lay down on the bed? I’ll massage your temples.”

“Thanks, but no. I want to be alone.”

Arnie laughed. “Greta Garbo much?”

Parrish lost his cool. “I saw you kissing Coach Sandburg.”

“What? When?”

“Earlier.”

“I…uh…I had to. I can’t afford to fail PE.”

“I see. So Coach coerced you.”

Arnie turned pale. “I…er…”

“Suppose we go to see the dean about this?”

“No. That is to say…I don’t want to get him in trouble. It was no big deal.”

“It looked like a big deal from where I was standing.”

“You were spying on me?” Arnie sounded as if he were trying to work himself up to righteous anger.

“I have PE that period.”

Arnie’s mouth gaped like a hooked fish. “But…But—”

Parrish sighed and closed the door in his former boyfriend’s face.

The sad thing was Arnie couldn’t understand why Parrish refused to see him anymore—he kept insisting it was no biggie. Right. That was why a few weeks later, it went around campus Arnie and the assistant coach were a big item.

Although maybe Arnie had a point, because two months after that, he and the coach broke up.

Parrish should have felt a niggling sense of satisfaction, especially considering how heartbroken Arnie seemed, but Parrish liked to think he was too nice a guy for such a shallow reaction. He resigned himself to another Christmas spent alone and went back to dating casually, although he never let it go any further than a handjob or a blowjob.