The Importance of Pancakes

Eddie pretended to lift weights as he vaguely listened to his friends banter about what guys they'd met the night before and what they'd done with them and how they'd gotten rid of them in the morning. They periodically chastised their resident romantic for turning down the various propositions he'd been offered. "…what was wrong with him?"

"He was boring and completely devoid of humor.

"But he was hot." A round of laughs was soon interrupted.

"You lied to me!"

They all turned to watch. Loud personal drama was not a usual entertainment at the gym.

"I didn't lie." This one was tall, pale, short blonde hair, and lean with a set of dumbbells in his hands

One of Eddie's friends commented under his breath, "Twink-is-cute-is of the early twenties variety. Not a rare species, but one worth appreciating."

Now the other half of "Days of Our Lives" made himself known, "Oh, but you did. Did you or did you not come to my house, wake my ass up, and offer pancakes?" This one was shorter, broader, slightly darker skin, and sitting on one of the benches. He didn't really look like he was there to work out. He wore a baggy t-shirt, black rimmed glasses, jeans, and a black knitted winter hat.

"Ah, the nerd variety. Mildly attractive, but terribly insecure and more trouble than he's worth." A few more smirks.

Eddie didn't agree with the classification. "I think he's kidding actually. And take a look at his arms." Peering under the baggy shirt one could see very impressive muscles.

They all watched a little closer now. "Yes I did, but—" The blonde was trying to smile and kept his voice low in the hope the other would do the same. He had no such luck.

"And we are not at this moment eating pancakes." He grinned from the bench.

"I don't think they're a couple." Eddie whispered mostly to himself and feeling himself smile simply because the advocate of pancakes did.

"No, but I thought you'd like to work out a little."

"I don't go to gyms. You know I don't go to gyms. I don't find the idea of the atmosphere of a club with bad music and no alcohol that appealing." The taller one pretended not to be paying attention. "I agreed to pancakes. I did not agree to be your chaperone while you cruise about for someone to give you a hand-job in the bathroom." He'd gotten a little louder, and seemed to enjoy it. He grabbed onto his friend's shirt and pulled him downwards so they were face to face. "So can you please, for the love of God, pick someone at random so I can have pancakes?"

"Are you done?"

"Probably." The blonde one shook his head smiling and continued lifting. The other reclined on the bench and closed his eyes.

"Ya ready to go Eddie?" His friends had given up the pretense of exercising and were headed towards the locker room.

"Not yet, go on though." His friends wandered off and he gathered courage. The tall blonde had wandered off, leaving his loud companion dozing on a bench. He took a deep breath and walked over to the individual taking up a bench to sleep. "I know where there's good pancakes." An eye opened. "Excellent in fact." The other eye opened. "Not far from here actually."

"Your name?" The hat-ed gentleman lazily sat up.

"Eddie Walsh."

"John Trass." John extended a hand and shook Eddie's solidly. "Let me go tell Miss America I'm leaving." He stood on the bench and surveyed the gym like a pioneer. "Simon!" The entire gym went quiet. Eddie followed the direction of John's eyes and gestures to the surprised blonde Simon. "I'm going. Enjoy your mutual masturbation!" Simon turned bright red and looked at the floor a great deal. John hopped off the bench. "You need to change?"

Eddie nodded, his hand still over his grin and being very glad he wasn't Simon.

"I'll meet ya at the front entrance. After 40 minutes I leave." He aimed a very broad grin at Eddie and headed for the front door.

Eddie ran for the locker room.

John was outside as promised. Eddie trotted up to him out of breath and barely getting out "Hi."

Without warning John maneuvered him to a near by wall and gently laid his hand on the center of Eddie's chest. "Breath slowly or you will choke on the pancakes."

Eddie smiled nervously and slowed his breath, painfully aware of John's hand. This did give him the opportunity to get a better look at John, but it only made his nervousness worse. The baggy clothes hid it well, but he was quite solidly built underneath, if one was looking close enough. There were very few if any parts of John's body Eddie didn't want to see up close. Eddie's breath slowed and he looked into John's eyes for a moment. Dark blue.

"You still want pancakes?"

"Absolutely!" John took a step away from Eddie to allow him the freedom of movement should he choose to use it. "Lead the way."

Eddie never had a meal quite like his one with John. John's overly dramatic vocal pattern like an old action adventure story remained a constant. His goal had been to learn more about John, and while he did learn some of how John's mind works he did not learn any facts, such as job or family. They talked about everything else, life, philosophy, literature, movies, but as he watched John walk away after making plans to meet up for an obscure indie film that would never make a dime in a quirky old theatre they some how both knew, Eddie realized something. If he really thought about it, he had no idea if John was gay. Despite the comfort he'd shown with the topic Eddie had to admit he had no clear indication of John's actual orientation. John had a way of steering the conversation to topics that made one forget what the original question was. At the same time Eddie realized that he didn't care. He'd want to get to know John even it was to only be friends.

"What is it with you and pancakes anyway?" Eddie drank his coffee. In the past month he and John hadn't gone more than a week without spending time together. John became a great friend, though Eddie would still wake up with messy sheets and the rements of rated X dreams still in his mind, with John in the staring role. "We end up in one place or other eating pancakes just about every other week."

"It's a nostalgia thing." John looked sheepishly at the table and shoved more pancakes in his mouth.

"Do tell." Eddie folded his arms and studied John. Quiet and demure were not usual John traits.

"It's nothing."

"You're turning red."

John whipped his mouth and drank down some juice.

"You can tell me now or I can ask you about it every day for the rest of your life."

John sighed and looked around the nearly vacant diner. "Fine, fine, I'll tell you. Only if you promise not to repeat it to anyone."

"Scouts honor."

"You were never a scout."

"No, but I am good at tying knots." Another blush from John and Eddie had found himself a new sport.

"My first sexual experience was at an IHOP."

Eddie's jaw dropped. "That's far too good an opening line I'm going to need more details than that."

John squirmed. "My first sexual experience, not by myself."

"Go on."

John avoided Eddie's eyes most of the time and tried to smile to cover his nervousness. "I'd been out late, like now and I was with friends and we were at an IHOP. It was the year after I graduated so I must have been 18. They were hitting on these girls and I was just sitting in a booth having my pancakes." John swallowed hard. "Diagonally across from me were 2 guys, 20s or so, sitting side by side whispering to one another, which is probably why I noticed them."

Eddie nodded, but was careful not to interrupt; this story was going to far too interesting a direction.

"My buddies decide to go off to some bar or something, but I tell them I'll done for the night & was just gonna finish my food and go home. After some chastising they go. The couple didn't notice any of this. I don't think I'd ever seen guys like that with one another, so I kept on glancing over. They got more and more …friendly with one another."

"They were making out?"

John smiled and nodded. He used innuendos and metaphor as a general rule when discussing anything sexual, he's still talk about it, but by the end it was so abstract it was hard to remember the original topic. "The angle I was at I could see right under their table and they were, well groping one another and were both visibly hard. A little more whispering and they go into the men's room together."

John had not looked Eddie in the face for 10 minutes now. Eddie bit his lip and wondered what he'd see if he looked under their table right now.

"I was so riveted by watching them, and a stupid teenager so after a few minutes of being confused at why I had an erection I followed them in. I opened the door as quietly as possible and crept in. I could hear them in the far most stall and slipped into the one next to them."

Eddie shifted in his seat. Having his friend and the object of his lust tell him a sex story was taking it's toll.

"One is groaning and the other is sort of humming, but that's probably because he was on his knees. The one standing starts talking dirty."

"What'd he say?"

John's head jerked up and he finally looked at Eddie again. They held each other's gaze for a few moments until John scanned the diner again and leaned in.

"He said, 'suck it baby, suck it. Just like that. Take it deep,' and he was sort of growling. I just sat on the toilet in the next stall trying to breathe quietly and too scared to touch myself, too scared I'd make a noise, too scared what it would mean. Then I heard him come."

Eddie squeezed the inside of his own thigh. He was getting turned on, in a diner, over pancakes, this was an odd evening.

John moved back a little, but not completely and his voice had gone quiet and raspy. "He wasn't really trying to be quiet about it either. Then they shifted and I watched their feet move till they were both facing the back wall. There was more moaning followed by a grunt. I could see their legs tensed and the one in back of the other moving his knees forward and back. Then the same voice started again and it was almost too much."

"What did he say?" Eddie started rubbing his crotch under the table, hoping the passing waitress wouldn't notice.

John swallowed and took a deep breath before leaning in again. "Something like, 'Slam it in, Baby. Fuck, you feel huge' and some other encouraging words. The other guy was growling and grunting away as he…" John couldn't make the word come out and had to take a few deep breaths before starting again. "At least one of them came after what felt like an eternity. I don't remember when I put my hand down my pants. I don't remember not locking the stall, but one of them kicked in the door. I was sure he was going to kill me. But he just sort of smiled at me and slid his hand down my stomach and I-"

"Anything else boys?" The waitress smiled down at them in that fake, please give me a nice tip, sort of way.

"No, no we're good, just the check." John leaned back in his seat.

"Here ya go sweetie." She put down the bill and walked off.

"You get this while I hit the can and I'll get the next one." John grabbed his coat, holding it in front of him, and scampered for the restroom.

Eddie sat there and sang the words over and over in his head; he's gay, he's gay, he likes the cock, he's gay, lalala lala. Then what John was probably doing hit him. He dropped some money on the table and ran for the bathroom.