I was hoping that once Brian and I were in his Jeep that we would continue on with our conversation. After he turned the engine over, "Panama" by Van Halen quietly poured out of the speakers. Instead of turning it down so we could hear each other better, Brian turned the volume way up before lighting a cigarette and pulling out of his parking space.

We listened to David Lee Roth screech for a minute before Brian made a right at a stop sign when he should have turned left to take me home.

"Where are we going?" I yelled over the music.

"Somewhere that we can talk," he yelled back. "Unless you needed to go straight home..."

"No... just as long as I'm home by six for dinner."

I soon realized that he was driving toward a park - the same park where Hobbs threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone about the blow job I gave him at that party. We eventually parked near the empty play area and Brian shut the car off.

"I figured with it being as chilly as it is, there wouldn't be anyone here," he said.

I nodded and looked around aimlessly. After several seconds of listening to nothing but the sound of both of us breathing, I finally said, "So..."

"So..." Brian repeated, at a loss for words.

"I have a question," I said to him.

He raised his eyebrows a bit, which I guessed was his permission to ask away.

"How long have you known that I'm gay?"

He snorted out a laugh. "Well... I've certainly never thought that you were straight."

"Why not? I mean, how could you tell that I wasn't?"

He gave me a give me a break look. "Have you heard of the concept of gaydar?"

I shook my head.

"Have you ever looked at a man before and thought, ‘He has got to be gay'?"

I smiled sheepishly. "Uh... yeah, like when I met your friend Emmett at the funeral home the other night."

Brian tossed his head back and laughed heartily. "There you go. Some guys are more obvious than others - proud queens like Emmett, for instance - but I had no doubt about you, either. Your flame's not as bright and you may be able to fool others who don't pick up the signs. Luckily I usually have no problem passing as straight. Someone would have to be in a fucking coma to not notice Emmett, though."

"Yeah," I said. "I guess Daphne has a decent gaydar, because when I came out to her over the summer, she went, and I quote, ‘Well, fucking finally, shit! When are we going to Babylon?'"

We both laughed.

"Have you ever tried to fuck her before?" Brian asked me.

"No... we gave each other our first kiss when we were like, twelve and we've kissed a few times since then, like this one time a couple of years ago when her parents went out of town for a night and she had gotten a bottle of peach schnapps from her cousin-"

"But never anything more than kissing, right? And I'm safely assuming that sheinitiated it."

"Right, and from what I remember, yes."

"I must admit that Daphne is a very pretty girl," Brian said. "Any straight teenage boy would have gotten in her pants a long time ago or at least tried. You didn't, even when you were drunk, so that was a big clue for her that you probably don't like pussy."

Just the word pussy made me cringe. "Yeah, you're probably right. Plus, I've only kissed two other girls before, besides Daphne, and nothing else ever happened. My last girlfriend broke up with me when I was fourteen because I always pulled away when she tried to French me."

Brian chuckled and then sighed a few moments later. "Justin?"

I looked over at him. "Yeah?"

"Like I said back at school, whether we like it or not, you're my student and I'm your teacher, which means that nothing can happen between us."

I let out a scoff. "Why did you bring me here to repeat that, instead of just taking me home?"

He sighed again and shook his head. "I really don't know."

I smiled and asked, "Is it because you wanted to be alone with me a little bit longer before having to say goodbye for the day?"

He was obviously trying to hold back a guilty grin. "Yeah, I guess so."

I unhooked my seat belt so I could lean towards him. "What if I wasn't your student, Brian?" I asked in a breathy voice. "Like, if I was just some guy you met at a club?"

Brian chuckled. "Even if you weren't my student, nothing serious would happen between us, because like I said at Babylon, I don't do boyfriends. If you were just some guy I came across and we fucked..."

I slowly licked my lips. "Uh-huh?"

He stared at my mouth and exhaled a shaky breath. "That would be that. We'd fuck once and then it would be over."

Since Brian was at least entertaining the possibility of us getting together and that very moment may have been my one and only chance with him, I decided to throw a Hail Mary pass. With my left elbow on the arm rest between us, I reached up with my right hand and lightly trailed my index finger along the left side of his jaw.

"At least I'd get to be with you once than never at all," I said as I looked into his eyes.

Brian let out a little growl before grabbing me behind my head and crushing his lips against mine. I soon felt his tongue push through my lips, and because I had little experience with French kissing, I just let him explore the inside of my mouth. Apparently he was enjoying himself, because he moaned before putting an arm around my back and pulling me closer, practically into his lap.

Just as quickly as the kiss began, Brian ended it by roughly shoving me back over to my side of the Jeep.

"No!" he yelled, breathing heavily. "No, Justin... we can't."

"But I want to!" I yelled back. "You won't be taking advantage of me or any authority you have over me. Besides, the age of consent in Pennsylvania is sixteen and I'll be eighteen in three weeks, anyway, so-"

"That doesn't matter! If we got caught, that would be it for me. I'd be fired in a heartbeat and would probably never be allowed to teach again."

"No one would ever find out!" I insisted. "It would just be our little secret."

"No!" he yelled again. "It's not worth the risk. My career is much more important to me than a piece of blonde boy ass."

It felt as if he had just slapped me across the face. I knew that he was right, but his words still hurt. I straightened up in my seat and put my seatbelt back on.

I then looked out through the windshield and confidently said, "Well, I graduate in May. I've wanted you since I was a freshman, so waiting for six more months isn't going to kill me."

I could see him still looking at me in my peripheral vision, but he turned away a few seconds later and started the car again.

Jon Bon Jovi serenaded us with "Livin' on a Prayer" as Brian drove a few blocks over to my house, neither of us saying a word. He turned the volume on the stereo down as he pulled up to the curb.

"Thanks for the ride," I mumbled as I unhooked the seatbelt and reached for the door handle.

Brian suddenly grabbed my left arm to stop me from climbing out of the Jeep. "Six months really isn't that long over the course of a lifetime," he said.

I had to think for a few seconds about what he could have been referring to and remembered that it was the length of time before he was no longer my teacher.

I gave him a smile, and he raised my left hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. I couldn't help but giggle like a little girl, knowing that he was practically making a date with me, even if it was just for one night after graduation.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Brian said as he released my hand.

All I could do was nod before getting out of the Jeep and practically skipping into the house.