Class Acts Volume 2

Chapter 2-4

The first week of rehearsal went fairly well. Although his athletic buddies were still razzing him about it, Shay was becoming more comfortable with the idea of being in the play.

By the third rehearsal, Mr. Higgins began working on blocking in earnest. Shay had trouble remembering that his left was the audience’s right and so made several errors, often walking in the opposite direction from that which Mr. Higgins wanted. Lilly assured him he’d catch on, and Dwayne once again offered to tutor him.

“Why don’t you plan on coming in when you drop me off after rehearsal tonight?” Dwayne asked. “I’ll have you up to speed in no time.”

Dropping Dwayne off after Lilly had become the norm. Dwayne didn’t even ask for an invitation for a ride after practice. He just joined Shay and Lilly as they left the school on their way to the student parking lot.

When Shay walked Lilly to her door he apologized. “I’m sorry. I guess Dwayne assumes he’s gonna ride home with us every night.”

“It’s okay,” Lilly said, standing on tip-toe and giving Shay a peck on the cheek. “He’s a good guy and he did offer to work on stage directions with you.”

Shay laughed. “Yeah. And I need it. I nearly knocked you down when I turned the wrong way when Mr. Higgins told me to cross stage right.”

They talked for a few minutes more. Shay gave Lilly a proper goodnight kiss and walked back to the car.

Dwayne smiled as Shay got in. “So, are we on for some work on blocking directions at my house tonight?”

Shay nodded. A strange feeling swept through him. He couldn’t tell whether it was apprehension or excitement. When they arrived at Dwayne’s home, the feeling intensified. Shay almost backed out, but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. He followed Dwayne up the walk and into the house.

When they entered the living room, a small dog came running up to them, yapping loudly.

“Marty!” Dwayne admonished, “This is Shay. He’s a friend. Here—get to know him. Give him some love.” With those words Dwayne picked the little dog up and handed him to Shay.

Surprised, Shay took the pooch. Marty fanatically began to lick Shay’s face.

“He likes you,” Dwayne said with a grin. “But then doesn’t everyone like Shay Rogers, handsome, super stud, football player, and all-around good guy?”

Dwayne moved in closer and scratched Marty’s ears as the pup continued to shower Shay with doggie kisses. Dwayne looked up into Shay’s eyes, and the feelings Shay had been experiencing became stronger.

“So tell me, Shay, I’ve always wondered, in order to be a quarterback, is it required you have a sexy name? It seems they’re all named things like Connor, Trey, Colt, Tanner, or…Shay.”

Embarrassed, but glad for the distraction of Dwayne’s question, Shay laughed. “Not sure, but it does seem to be in the job description.”

Dwayne smiled, gave Marty’s ears a final scratch, and laid a hand on Shay’s shoulder. He gave it a light squeeze and said, “I’ll let Marty out, then we can go down to the basement where we’ll have more room.” He took Marty from Shay and walked through the house to the back door. Shay followed. Marty wasted no time doing his business. Once back inside, the three went downstairs.

The basement was a spacious, finished family room, carpeted, with a large couch and several comfortable- looking chairs spread around the room. A Foosball table stood at the far end, as well as a television. Marty jumped up on the couch and curled up.

“Come on. Help me move the chairs so we’ll have more room,” Dwayne requested. Shay complied and soon a large area in the center of the room was cleared.

“Voilà,” Dwayne said with a grand, sweeping gesture, “We have a stage! The couch, upon which the mongrel reclineth will be the audience, hence—downstage.”

Dwayne gracefully spun around and, with another exaggerated spreading of his arms, announced, “Therefore, behind you, the wall upon which the mural of horses grazing in pasture, painted by my mother, doth hang is upstage.”

Shay smiled and nodded. “She paints pretty well.”

“She’ll be happy to know thou thinks so. Shall we begin, good sir?” Dwayne asked with a sweeping bow.

Shay chuckled. “Sure, have at it, my man!”

For the next half hour Dwayne sent Shay back and forth across the makeshift stage. “Cross down left…Good. Now up stage right…Fantastic. Try center stage left…Great. You’re really catching on.”

Shay grinned. “I got a good teacher.”

Dwayne laughed. “How about we work on body positions?”

Shay raised an eyebrow.

Dwayne laughed again. “No, not those kind. Although that could be fun, too. I mean the actor’s body position relative to the audience.”

Shay was embarrassed, both by his hasty assumption of what Dwayne had meant by body positions, and that he had had a clear physical response to his misinterpretation as well as Dwayne’s recognizing it.

Dwayne was going on. “When you face audience…” Dwayne demonstrated by facing the couch. “That’s full front.” He looked at Shay and winked. “That’s full front, not full frontal, in case you were wondering.”

Shay forced a chuckle as his embarrassment deepened. Was Dwayne playing with him—trying to discern just where Shay stood?

Before Shay could decide, Dwayne continued. “This is full back.” Dwayne did an about face. “This is profile right…and this, profile left.”

Dwayne showed Shay all the various positions.

“So, if you do this…” Dwayne walked across the room, stopped, and turned. “I’m crossing down stage left, turning quarter profile right. Here, you try.”

Dwayne walked up to Shay, led him center stage, and stood facing him. “Now what position are you in?”

“Um…full front,” Shay answered.

“Good. Now follow my directions. “Turn full back…profile right…three quarters left.”

Dwayne rapidly gave Shay one direction after the other. Shay was pivoting back and forth so fast, he lost his balance and leaned into Dwayne, who caught him with his arms around Shay’s waist. “Steady there, big guy,” Dwayne said with a laugh.

For a long moment Shay stared into Dwayne’s smiling face. Then suddenly he grabbed Dwayne, placing a hand on either side of the smaller man’s face and kissed him.

Dwayne pressed his body against Shay’s and parted his lips. Shay’s tongue slipped inside. Dwayne moved his hands up Shay’s back, increasing the pressure of the embrace. Shay felt the thrill of arousal flow through his body as his tongue sought Dwayne’s.

Suddenly, Shay realized what was happening. He pulled back and looked at Dwayne. “I gotta go,” he blurted out.

Shay turned, took the basement stairs two at a time, grabbed his coat, and ran out of the house. He drove a couple of blocks, pulled over, and closed his eyes. He didn’t understand why he’d done what he just did. However, as much as his mind rejected the implication of what had just happened, his heart and body relished it.

“No!” he said aloud. He forced the thoughts and feelings aside and drove off.

The next afternoon, he was hesitant to go to rehearsal. He’d not slept well. His dreams were filled with visions that reflected his ambivalent feelings of what had happened the night before. Some were of him running away from some unidentified fear. He was running as hard as he could, yet he was impeded by mud that held him back and threatened to stop him altogether. Others were of him and Dwayne kissing, embracing, and exchanging tender caresses.

He stood outside the stage entrance. Dwayne would be in there. What would he say? Or worse, what would he do when he saw Shay? What would Shay do? Shay took a deep breath and walked through the door onto the stage.

Dwayne was standing with a group of his buds. They were the theater geeks, the weirdos that were always being silly and acting fruity. Dwayne turned when he saw Shay come in. He smiled and waved, but otherwise did nothing to indicate anything had transpired between them. Shay was semi-relieved.

The rehearsal went well. Dwayne’s tutorial on stage directions helped Shay a lot. He felt more confident in his ability to do what Mr. Higgins asked without being corrected or having the directives explained.

After practice, Dwayne walked out with Shay and Lilly as usual. On the ride to Lilly’s, she and Dwayne talked and laughed. When Shay walked her to her door, she asked, “You were really quiet on the way here. What’s wrong?”

Shay shrugged. “Nothing. Just tired. Didn’t sleep well.”

“Why?”

Shay sighed and shrugged again. “A lot on my mind, I guess—college applications and stuff.”

Lilly nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I shoulda had mine done, too. Where are you applying? “

“Alabama, Auburn. Maybe a couple others—one up north in the Boston area. You?”

She smiled sweetly. “The same, except for up north. Would be nice if we went to the same school.”

“Uh…yeah. That’d be great!”

They kissed good night. Shay couldn’t help but compare his response to Lilly’s kiss with Dwayne’s and was dismayed that he’d had a much stronger reaction to kissing Dwayne than Lilly. He pushed his disappointment down and walked back to his car. He’d hoped kissing her would have quieted the voice inside his head, which kept insistently suggesting things Shay didn’t want to hear.

As he and Dwayne drove off, Dwayne said, “About last night…”

Shay felt a surge of anxiety.

“You must be feeling pretty confused.”

Dwayne laid a hand gently on Shay’s thigh. “I just want you to know I won’t say anything. And what happens next between us is up to you. I won’t push you to do anything you’re not comfortable with or ready for.”

Shay didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned. What does he mean it’s up to me? Shay thought. Does he think I’m into guys? I’m not! What happened last night will never happen again.

“Uh…thanks,” was all Shay could think of saying.

“Mr. Higgins wants act one memorized by next week. How about if we run lines tonight and get a jump on it? We both have pretty big parts.”

Shay responded to Dwayne’s suggestion by thinking, Hell no! But what he said was, “Sure, that’d be great.”

They pulled up in front of Dwayne’s house. As Dwayne got out of the car, Shay tried to think of some excuse—that he’d changed his mind, but instead he put the car in park, switched off the ignition, and got out to follow Dwayne to the house.

Once inside, Marty, Dwayne’s little dog, enthusiastically greeted Shay.

“He sure seems to like you,” Dwayne said, smiling. “He’s usually more standoffish when he meets someone new.”

The two went downstairs, Marty following. The guys took off their coats and Shay pulled his script from his book bag. He turned and faced Dwayne. Then before he could stop himself he was moving forward, taking the smaller boy into his arms, and kissing him. Dwayne willingly returned the kiss. Suddenly Shay’s jeans were being unzipped, and Dwayne was kneeling before him.

Two hours later, Shay was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom. They had done no rehearsing of lines, but had had s*x the entire time, doing things Shay had never dreamed he’d do with another guy.

Shay didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand he was ashamed and guilt ridden. How could he have done the things he’d done? Was he really a queer? On the other hand, he had a sense of freedom and happiness. Thinking of Dwayne and the time they’d spent together made him feel good. He had feelings for Dwayne he’d never had for anyone. Trying to decide what to do with this new reality, he drifted off to sleep.