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I don’t want to make it sound like Ravi and I spent hours upon hours with each other everyday. It was very much the opposite. But every second of time I spent with him was a second spent in ecstasy. He and I had two very different circles of friends. For starters, Christian hated Ravi with a passion. This, of course, fueled me to spend as much time with Ravi as I could.

One Saturday morning I was laying in my bed…avoiding getting up. Christian was across the room doing the same. There was a knock on the door. My bed was on the door side of the room, so I reached up and opened it. Ravi stood, leaning against the door frame looking gorgeous. Through my half-awake squinting eyes his coffee colored skin gleamed in the light streaming through the hallway window.

“Let’s go into town. I’ll meet you outside in 20.” And with that he leaned down and kissed me. Paying no attention to Christian, now sitting up on his bed, Ravi walked out.

Saying nothing to Christian, not even looking at Christian, I walked across the hall to take a quick shower. I dressed in silence. As I was walking out of the door Christian said under his breath, but intended for my ear,

“Have fun with your boyfriend, faggot.”

Shocked…I paused briefly…and walked outside to meet Rav.

Our trip into town took us to the usual places. First stop, the coffee shop across from the park.

Ravi sipped his coffee and asked, “Josh, what is bothering you. You aren’t acting yourself?”

“Christian. He is just being a jerk.”

“I have a feeling he doesn’t like me very much.”

“Yeah…well…you’re right. But I don’t like him myself right now.”

That is all that was said about Christian. We finished out the morning by going to Target, and the grocery store. Since I was driving, and I wanted to prolong my company as long as I could, I decided to take the long way back to campus. I avoided the interstate and took a very scenic road through the foothills.

Ravi reached to adjust the radio. His hand lingered. Instead of returning to his side of the car, Ravi reached over and placed his hand on my leg. Of course, I stopped breathing. He didn’t stop. He was removing my belt, and sliding his hand under my jeans.

Neither of us spoke. I continued to drive. He withdrew.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Just felt right.”

I pulled into the parking lot half way between his house and mine. We made plans to go to a dance that evening with some friends. (Give me some credit; this was a sanctioned USA Dance ballroom event. Ravi was an extremely gifted dancer, and I wasn’t about to miss it.)

We never spoke about what happened. It was like the event on the drive back to school never happened. But we both knew it did. I was discovering a trend with Ravi. Every moment of physical interaction between the two of us was always initiated by him. Always. I wasn’t complaining.