The Bear in the Lions Den

         

The 109 degree heatwave on thursday could have melted everything in my room – or so I thought – as the colors and furniture of the room, blurred out of focus aagainst the walls. Lying in bed, I wake up to the haziness of the late afternoon.

         The room was light green with a yellow hue. I looked below my chest, past my feet and towards the dark grey metal door; it was shut with the bolt in place. To my window I can feel a faint breeze whistling through the slit. The dying rays of sunshine through the white plastic roll-up blinds was slowly cooling. In the distance, I can hear the congested traffic picking up as the 9-to-5 commuters got off the freeway and made it home.I was sore. I looked down my chest I noticed scratches and a bite mark. What the fuck was I doing last night?

          I've been in this room before, though I can't remember much. It wasn't my room. The bed was torn apart. Thepillows with the annoying purple ruffles and tassels were flung to the furthest side of the room, leaving the cool jockey brand pillows for my heat-swollen head. The orange comforter had a tiger imprinted. It was positioned with its paw covering the other, displaying himself as if he were king of the Animal Kingdom; not the Lion. Several empty corona bottles littered the floor. Who drank all those? Wasn’t me. Or was it?

         I felt a whiff of air brush my forehead. I looked up to the headboard and to my surprise I realized I was no alone.

         I see two electric blue eyes gazing happily down at me with bold dark eyebrows and a thin-lip smile. It was Leumus. In a groggy, half-asleep voice, I uttered "Good Morning". Leumus, not a fan of speaking, stops his trance and smiles lightly, briskly running his hand through my hair and rubbing my ears. I looked to my sides and saw both his legs inches away from my face. Just then I remembered how desperately he used to shave when he was on the swim team.



         No one ever messed with Leumus "Junior," back in high school. He grew up with a chip on his shoulders, always wanting to proove a point or out-do everyone. Agressive, Assertive, Charming and Cunning. He was the guy with enough ganas to stand up and pick fights with my teammates on the football team, myself included. He’d instigate fights and then watch the head coach lash out at the team for fighting. I admire his impudent personality, despite the punishment I got on the fields during practice. He wasn’t Mr. Popular, but many knew him – either by rumors… or by other means.



         I looked back up into his eyes as his muscular arms crept along my shoulders and stopped at my chest. I could see enormous beads of sweat trickling down his neck from his short tapered black hair. His sleeveless undershirt was drenched. His tattoos glistened. Sweat shimmered across his exotic, Columbian, olive-skin from the light through the window. He leaned closer and the hairs of his chest were showing near the neckline of his tight undershirt.

         "Bro, what are you doing?” I asked.

         “Shhh!” He said in a hushed tone. “just relax for once."

         The overwhelming strange comfort I've recieved from Leumus – his electric blue eyes, his tattoos, his devious smile and magic fingers – it left me in a shocked state of erotic paralysis as I could do nothing but have him grope torso.

         “What are you doing?” I repeated.

         He sat upright darting through the blinds of the window to see if anyone was at the front porch as he hears police and ambulance sirens boarding the nearby freeway. His lips tighten. "It's Friday."

“So?”

         Looking back down at me in relief, his smile comes back. "Logan, you know what that means. Just like old times."

         "I don't remember, Jr. What does it mean?"

         Just then I felt a slight pressure at the back of my neck. It was slowly growing obvious to what it was by tone of Leumus’ response.

         "Didn’t you hear me?” he said as his hand smacked my chest. “everyone from the party left. that means its time for Leo and the Bear to play. Remember the fun times I put you guys through in high school?”

I didn't say anything. I was too busy trying to figure out what was really going on. Searching for the hidden cameras, if there were any. Trying to see if this was a setup, a prank, a scheme... or something else.

         I gave in, as I couldn''t see anything suspicious. I gazed at him with a slight smile. He saw the bite mark and scratches on my chest, around my nipple and stomach, and smacked his hand on it again and squeezed. “There’s more where that came from, Logie-bear.”

         His smile grew more twisted and the prodding at my neck made me realize I wasn't leaving the lion's den safe and sound… But maybe that was the point.