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“I can’t believe we’re gonna spend another weekend on this fucking island. We’re fourteen. Way too old for Scouts.” Ephraim sat on Max’s windowsill and gestured wildly with the hand holding the cigarette.
Max watched the smoke weave back and forth and the line of ash grow longer. He hoped Eef didn’t light anything on fire or get ashes in his room. His parents would kill him if they thought Max was smoking. At least the window was open. “Yeah,” he agreed. They were getting too old for Scouts. It was dorky. “I won’t miss Shelley.”
With just the two of them, it was safe to actually talk about Shelley; one of the other boys in Scout Troop 52. Ephraim laughed but his laughter dissolved into a coughing fit. “No shit. He’s...” Eef paused, thinking. “Not right.”
Max nodded agreement.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Eef smoked his cigarette on the windowsill and Max watched him from the bed.
They were very best friends and have been since they were in diapers. According to their parents, they shared everything from blocks to sippy cups. Max didn’t remember that but he knew that his earliest memories were of Eef.
Ephraim fixed his antifreeze green eyes on Max. No one had eyes like Eef. They were almost neon an they glittered with an electric manic energy. “Let’s get outta here.”
Max’s heartbeat quickened. “And go where?”
“The bluffs.” Ephraim said it so simply, like it was normal. Maybe it was. The buffs were a series of cliffs by the seaside near Max’s house. It was fairly remote and the older teens like to go there to hook up.
Max’s first thought was that Eef had a girl he wanted to hook up with and he frowned. It wasn’t like he was jealous. Max just didn’t want some girl to come between them. Bros before hoes, right?
Ephraim’s face darkened and reddened with a blush. “I just meant to see the stars. You know it’s the best spot in town.” He wouldn’t look at Max.
Well, as long as they weren’t going to meet some girl. “Alright,” Max said. He got up and slipped his shoes on. Sneaking out happened a lot when Eef spent the night so Max always kept his shoes in his room on those nights.
Ephraim’s face lit up. He snuffed out his half-smoked cigarette underneath the windowsill and stuck it back in the pack he carried in his pocket. He shoved his feet into his shoes and bounced on his heels while Max got ready.
Max shoved his house key and his pocket knife into his pockets. He met Eef’s gaze.
Eef practically threw himself out of Max’s window. A second later was the sound of his body hitting the ground. “Come on, Max!” He whispered loudly.
Max followed more slowly. He wasn’t a daredevil like Ephraim. Unlike Eef, he knew that he only had one body and that he ought to take care of it. He climbed down the side of the house, using familiar handholds.
Once Max’s feet hit the ground, they took off through the night together. Everyone knew where the bluffs were, though Max hasn’t been to them before. Keeping to the shadows, they dodged the sheriff’s car and the houses with dogs. Overhead, the moon was waning, currently a third quarter full.
In fifteen minutes, they were at the bluffs.
Ephraim’s feet were sure as he climbed the bluffs. He laughed and egged Max on. “Come on, Max, come on. Faster.”
Max flipped him the bird but wasn’t sure that Eef saw. It took a few minutes to reach the top. He stood, heart racing as he caught his breath.
Eef panted beside him. He curled his fingers around Max’s wrist, not quite holding his hand. “C’mon. Let’s find a good spot.” He led them around the bluff until he found a spot with sand instead of rocks. Perfect for laying on your back and looking up at the stars.
Max wondered how many people had fucked here in the sand before them. He didn’t bring this up to Eef. They’d had a good rain recently so any gross body fluids should be washed away. He settled himself in the sand.
Ephraim lay next to him. He managed to be still for about three minutes, before that manic restlessness overtook him. He fished the pack of cigarettes from his pocket and relit the unfinished one.
Max didn’t like that Eef smoked but he knew that telling Eef to stop would only make him want to do it more. He sighed and gazed up at the stars through a veil of smoke.
“You want to try?” Ephraim asked. His voice sounded...different than usual.
“Try what?” Max asked dully. He kept his eyes on the stars. The smoke made them sting.
“Smoking,” Eef said with an eye roll. He rolled onto his side so that he was looking at Max.
Max closed his eyes. He gave it serious thought, though he didn’t have to. Instinct said no and soul searching didn’t change that answer. But he needed to think of how to present it to Eef so that he didn’t keep pushing. Finally, Max opened his eyes and asked, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want me to smoke?”
It was too dark to tell for sure, but Max thought that Ephraim was blushing again. “So that you can be as sexy as me.”
Max snorted. “Try again.”
A pause, followed by a sigh. “I dunno, Max. I just wanna smoke with you.”
“But why, Eef?” Max didn’t normally push quite like this. He didn’t even know what he was pushing for.
“Because I like you and want to do things with you? Don’t we share everything?” Ephraim managed to make it sound sarcastic.
Max bit his lip. He turned his face away. His heart pounded hard against his chest like a creature trying to break through.
“Don’t we?” Eef asked again.
“No,” Max said lowly.
Eef didn’t like being ignored. Not by anyone but especially not by Max. He pushed himself up a little more, hovering, trying to get Max to look at him. “What haven’t we shared?”
Max’s face warmed with a blush. “I saw you. On the bleachers.”
The only thing of significance that ever happened to Ephraim on the bleachers was kissing that girl. She’d put his hand up her shirt so that he was cupping her boob through her bra. Eef was silent for a while, his lips around the butt of the cigarette. He turned his face to the sky and exhaled.
Max burned with embarrassment. He didn’t want Eef thinking he was needy and clingy and couldn’t handle a girl coming between them.
“Did you want to kiss her too?” Ephraim asked after a while.
Max shook his head. He didn’t have much interest in the girl. Max curled his hands into fists and shoved them in his armpits so that Eef wouldn’t see them shaking.
Eef took another hit of the cigarette. He blew a smoke ring and watched Max from the corner of his eye. When he’d smoked it down to the filter, Eef snubbed it out on the stone at their heads. “I’m sorry, Maximilian.”
“What?” Max said, surprised. He snapped his gaze to Eef’s face, his eyes locking onto those bright green eyes.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have kissed her first,” Ephraim said.
“We’re supposed to share everything,” Max said quietly. It was an unwritten and unspoken rule of their friendship. They shared everything, always, without having to ask. Except for this. Eef gave away something that should have been Max’s.
“I’m sorry,” he said again and leaned forward. Eef smelled of pine sap and illicitly smoked cigarettes. His lips were rough, scabbed from being bitten, but soft in a way too.
Max sighed against Eef’s mouth. He glimpsed the stars haloing Eef before he closed his eyes. Tentatively, he snaked a hand to the back of Eef’s neck and ran his fingers through the soft black hair there.
Ephraim made a noise in the back of his throat.
It sent a wave of heat through Max, sensation that washed down between his hips. He ran the fingers of both hands through Eef’s thick hair, trying to draw that noise out of him again.
It worked. Ephraim’s moan vibrated against Max’s lips. His lips parted, tongue darting out to swipe at their lips.
Max gasped, surprised. Should he do the same? He’d liked it, right? Would Eef like it? Did that girl do this to him too?
Eef did it again, deliberate and slow this time.
Max rolled onto his side. He parted his lips and met Ephraim’s tongue with his, shy and inexperienced. It’s not like he planned this...but now that it was happening, Max realized he liked it.
Ephraim inched closer, though there was still five inches of space between their bodies. He kissed Max so hard that his teeth cut into Max’s lip. Then he licked Max’s lips again.
The biting sting of Eef’s teeth cutting his lip was exciting. His heart wouldn’t stop pounding like a fast drum and his body grew warmer and warmer like he had fever. Max opened his mouth, met Eef’s tongue with his and coaxed Eef’s tongue into his mouth.
The taste of cigarettes was strong but Max didn’t care because his best friend’s tongue was in his mouth and it felt good.
Eef made a wanting noise at the back of his throat. He licked eagerly into Max’s mouth. When he pulled back, it was with a gasp for air. Eef panted. A thin web of saliva connected their lips.
Max was panting too. He licked his lips again, breaking the thread that connected them. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the stars while he caught his breath and tried to think through the haze of lust. As an afterthought, Max flung out his arm, searched for Eef’s hand, and held it. The kiss had been the best thing that ever happened to Max, made his body light up like some of Eef’s electric mania had zapped his nerves. But now that it was over, he was afraid Eef would regret it.
“Max,” Ephraim said. He squeezed Max’s hand hard.
Max glanced at him with the corner of his eye. “Eef.” He squeezed Eef’s hand back.
Ephraim was always the daredevil, always the adrenaline junkie, the one to throw himself out a second story window. He was filled with a wild, burning sort of madness, a jittering in his limbs that he couldn’t help any more than he could help the anger that was quick to grow in him. Eef gripped Max’s chin and turned his face toward him. Then he kissed Max again.