Steve, Chapter 1

Steve

“Lorraine, I’m heading out!”
I had to yell over a country version of ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ for her to hear me. It was December 23 and I was more than ready to get out of work, swing by Safeway and get settled for the holidays.
“Greg, honey, you be careful with that blizzard out there!”
The entire town had been buzzing over the blizzard that was supposed to hit today, the worst in years. I had become a bit skeptical about the weather reports that seemed more concerned about getting people worried enough to watch the forecasts. Needless to say, much of what was predicted did not turn out so bad. Yet it was enough for my plans for tonight to get cancelled. My friends had gotten scared and would rather stay inside.
“I will, you too! Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas!”
I stepped out of South Central Hardware Store, where I had been working since I was 18, now for nearly half of my life. Lorraine had been lovely to work for, but I felt like it was time for something new, something bigger. It was time to leave Valdez, Alaska.

I stood under the overhang in front of the entrance. It snowed, but nothing majorly upsetting. As I looked around, I could still see the beautiful snowy mountain tops that surrounded the city. As lovely as it looked, Valdez tended to be quite a depressing place for a gay man. At 35 years of age, I was yet to have a relationship. Summer was the only time to meet other men, tourists, who then carried on to their gay cruises, never to come back. Those cruises were the only reason I was no longer a virgin. But otherwise it was pretty lonely up here. My husky figure didn’t help my self-esteem either. I was not aware of any other gay people in Valdez, but to be fair I wasn’t out to most people so even if there were, how would I find out? It had never been the most gay-friendly of environments. I sometimes dreamed of moving to Seattle, New York or San Francisco.

I buried the bottom part of my face in my coat as I walked to my car. I wanted nothing more than to drive straight home, but just in case I did get snowed in, I needed to pick up some stuff. Safeway was only a minute away from the hardware store. I quickly went in and stocked up on food for at least a few days. People in the store seemed rushed and a bit panicked. I felt completely calm. I was certain I would be able to visit my Mom on Christmas Day, the only relative I still had here. She worked as a stewardess and lived close to Valdez airport. But just in case, I grabbed some extra things.

When I left Safeway, the weather had gotten worse. It was now difficult to see much further than six feet ahead. The wind felt cold on my face. A grey, older gentleman said “you better wait for a bit till this clears up”. I assured him I would be fine. When I got in the car, the display said it was about 3 degrees (-16 Celsius), which was under average for this time of year, but nothing crazy. Though with the heavy snowfall and wind, I was starting to believe this might actually be a heavier storm. I knew I would have to be careful on the road. Still, no reason for panic.

I turned on the radio and heard warnings about the heavy snowfall. People were advised to get indoors as soon as possible and stay there. From memory I knew to locate the Safeway parking lot exit. I turned left and drove slower than usual as I couldn’t see too far ahead. Normally this was only a six minute drive home, but I knew to take my time. Thankfully I had lived in Valdez all my life, which helped me figure out whereabouts I was. The sign for the Alaska Halibut House was still recognizable. I knew I had to take a right before I would pass the hardware store again. I hoped Lorraine had locked up, left and gotten home safe.

I was pretty sure I was driving down Egan Avenue, because the building on the corner was surely the bank. I passed the old Three Bears building, which had collapsed under heavy snowfall only a few years ago. The building confirmed I was on the right street, which would take me all the way to my area of town. I barely saw any other cars on the road. The few cars I saw were going just as slowly as I was.

I recognized the Valdez Museum and the Bayside Community Church. As I kept going, I was heading outside of the center of town. Now I saw no other cars and couldn’t identify where exactly I was going. I could still make out the yellow line on the road and just followed it straight through. Thankfully, the wind didn’t blow the snow on my windshield, if it had I would not be able to see anything. For the first time, I felt slightly stressed.

There is a point when Egan Avenue turns into Egan Drive, and some lovely houses appear on the right-hand side of the road. Now I could not tell if I had yet reached that point. The yellow line on the road did make a slight right turn, which told me I must already have passed the houses. I hadn’t even started the turn yet and I was blinded. Out of nowhere I looked into headlights that came at me with a speed that was inappropriate for this weather. I felt powerless and just braked.

The driver of the car swayed away from me and I felt safe to continue. I couldn’t believe someone would drive at this speed right now. And then I heard the crash.

I immediately put my blinkers on, got out and tried to find the other car. There was no one else around and going back to the houses would be quite a challenge. I knew some basic CPR, but… For a second I thought the worst. But then I heard someone.
“Help!”
“I’m here!” I replied.
A male voice guided me to the vehicle, which was slammed against a tree on the side of the road.
A short man, I estimated him about 5’6’’ leaned back against it. His head was bloody and he seemed disoriented. But my, was he hot. Broad shoulders, short black hair and a scruffy beard.
“I need to go to the hospital!” was the first thing he said when he saw me as he tried walking toward me.
“We’ll never make it”, I said, but halfway through my sentence he collapsed and fell into the snow.

The hospital was on the other side of town. The man was breathing. I had to make a split decision. I looked if I saw any other cars, but I obviously didn’t see any. I dragged this man across the snow by his arms into my car. I hoisted him face first into the backseat and noticed his jeans had slipped down. He was going commando as I saw the top half of his beautifully curved ass. His butt was slightly hairy and had gotten all wet from the snow. He must be freezing. I closed the door and got back in the car. In the car I tried to shake his shoulder, but he was completely out of it. Still, I decided to take him home, which could not be that far away now.

I could now see up to 3 feet ahead. The road was covered in snow and I could not make out a yellow line. I felt pretty confident there were no other cars on the road, so I took the risk of going slightly faster than before. I realized we were passing Mineral Creek as I recognized the bridge and the sign. This meant I had to turn left soon. It was hard to judge where exactly, but I slowed down and found it. The trees on both sides helped me keep in the middle of this narrower road. At one point the trees on the left side of the road stopped, so I knew I was close to home. I slowed down again to count the driveways. I finally pulled up on the third driveway on the left.

I got out, and was up to my ankles in snow. I quickly shook my passenger, who softly moaned without moving, got him out of the car and again dragged him by the arms into my house. Once he was inside, I ran back for the groceries, locked the car and ran back inside. It seemed like we would be here a while.

Steve

I looked down at the man who was lying on the floor in my house. The blood on his forehead and around his left ear was still dripping down, now onto my floor. He was on his back, his arms were over his head, as that is how I dragged him in. This caused his stomach and his gorgeous hiplines to be exposed. His jeans managed to cover up his penis, still. His black stomach and pubic hair was exposed though, and it was wet as it stuck to him. His coat and jeans were soaking wet as well, because of the snow. I knew I had to get him out of his clothes as he had to be freezing. I realized I was still holding four bags of groceries, which I first took to the kitchen.

I slowly sat him up, which caused the man to moan for a bit again. He wasn’t fully out of it, which I thought was at least something. His eyes remained closed though. I carefully took his coat off. He wore a bulky dark blue sweater underneath, which was also a bit damp. Even if it hadn’t been, I felt compelled to also take that off. A built, beefy body was now exposed in front of me. Some gorgeous chest hair decorated his pumped up pecs. When I put his upper body back down, I saw what was unmistakably a six-pack with a slight smattering of black hair went down from his belly button that widened as it went further down. I didn’t wait long to unbutton his jeans. I had to touch his pubes to do so, as they stuck out over his top button. I could feel my own cock springing to life and thickening. As I unbuttoned, an uncircumcised, shriveled up penis appeared. I was still turned on, but I remembered that I better get this guy warmed up fast. The wet jeans stuck to his hairy, massive thighs, so I needed to do some maneuvering to get them off. This resulted in more moans and a pained expression. It didn’t wake him up though.

Eventually I got the jeans off and quickly dragged his fully nude body toward my bed. Thankfully I lived in a bungalow-type house. I tore away the sheets, fluffed up some pillows and set them up against the head of the bed. I put my arms around the man’s chest and clasped my hands in the middle, to lift him from under his arms. I managed to get his naked ass onto the bed. I turned him to keep him sitting up, leaning against the pillows. When that was done I lifted his left leg and laid it on the bed. I was almost done now. But once I grabbed his other leg by the ankle to put it onto the bed as well, he suddenly woke up, gasping, as if from a bad dream.

“Ooh, ouch! My leg!”, he said, in quite a subdued manner. “Fuck! That hurts!” came out less subdued. He leaned forward and reached for his leg with his arms.
“I… I’m sorry”, I mumbled. He must have hurt his right leg during the crash. I looked it over and saw a big gash on his outer thigh that I hadn’t noticed before. I saw that a trail of blood had formed from my front door all the way to the bed. And maybe his leg was in a weird angle from his knee down. I wasn’t really sure. It didn’t really seem broken to me, but I had to be cautious in case it was.
“Don’t move it”, I said, more sternly than I wanted.
He then held himself like he was cold, which he most likely was.
“Dude, just get me to a hospital”. This was the first time he looked me in the eyes and I felt butterflies, even in this inappropriate moment.
Before I could answer, he looked down on himself and started “Why am I…”
Then his body fell back into the pillows and he remained still. His arms laid in his lap, his head rested on his chest. Either the pain in his leg or the knock on the head had caused him to pass out.

From my medical knowledge, which was limited to one course I took after someone had a heart attack in the store, I was thinking this guy in the worst case scenario had both a concussion and a broken leg. I owned a first-aid kit that was still untouched. I carefully wrapped up his leg, which I managed to do without waking the guy up. I then covered him with blankets so he would be warm. I did not look at his crotch or upper body anymore, it’s like I had tuned it out. As much as I wanted to sleep with this guy, I did not want it this way. Instead, I looked for the wound on his head and found two. One on the side of his head, by his left ear, the other one right above his right eye. I saw some small bits of glass, most likely from his windshield, that I removed, before I put plasters on them. When I was done, he was still out cold.

I cleaned up the trail of blood. Then I decided to put my groceries away, finally. I noticed the light in the fridge was out. No electricity. I was glad I bought some canned stuff as well. I then started a fire in the fireplace, which was across from the bed. My house was like one big room, which is how I liked it. I was hoping he was comfortable. I tried to put the thought of a hot naked man in my bed out of my brain, as I felt it was inappropriate. Once I got a good fire running, I spotted a pile of his clothes by the door. I walked towards it and passed a window. It was starting to get dark, but a stream of white came down in front of the window, almost making it seem like daylight. I closed the curtains. I decided to wash his clothes, as they were covered in snow, dirt, and blood. I found a phone, a wallet and some keys to take out before I put the clothes in my machine. I put his stuff on the table, but couldn’t resist looking at them for a little bit.

Steve

In his wallet I found his ID. Stephanos Raptis was the name of the man in my bed. That sounded to me like a Greek name, but I had not heard an accent at all so most likely born here. It gave an address in Anchorage. It said he was 28 years old. A quick look at his phone was enough to see it was locked with a code. The background image was from what I could tell the echo of a fetus. Was he about to become a father?

I heard stirring in the bed and quickly put the phone down. I turned around.
“Hey, man. Who are you? Why are you keeping me here?” he asked me, softly. His eyes were only half open.
“I’m Greg Abbott. You crashed your car against a tree. I think you may have a concussion and possibly broken something in your right leg.”
“You don’t understand”, he said, “I’m going to be a Dad. I need to go to the hospital.”
“I’m sorry”, I said. I opened the curtain to see that the snow had now piled up to the height of the window. The snow was still coming down like crazy.
“Fuck”, he whispered. “Do you have my phone?”
“Uhh, yeah”, I pretended I had to think about it as I grabbed his phone off the table and gave it to him.
“No signal? How about yours?”
I checked mine, but there was no signal there either. I did have a missed call and a message from Mom. I showed him my phone so he could see I didn’t have signal either.
“Sorry. I promise to drive you there as soon as it’s safe”, I said.
He sighed. “I’m Steve”.
He held out his hand to shake mine.
“Thanks for taking care of me. My leg hurts like a motherfucker and I feel light-headed, so you could be right.”
I was surprised at his language, because that had always been a no-no in my family. Weirdly, now it was a turn-on, with his dark features, he seemed like a bad boy in the best way.
“Do you want something to eat, drink…?”, I asked.
“Some food would be great. And if you have a painkiller of some sort, that would be great.” He carefully sat up more, exposing his muscly chest. I tried not to look at it too obviously.

I made Steve some soup, which he eagerly ate, sitting up in my bed. The only pain-reliever I could find were sleeping pills I sometimes took.
“Bring it on”, he said.
I ate my soup sitting on top of the covers next to him and asked him whether he was going to be a father for the first time.
“Yup. I’m actually single. My friend John and his wife had trouble conceiving, and it turned out it was John’s swimmers. So he asked me to donate sperm. And I was happy to do it.”
“John who lives down the road?”
“Maybe? I honestly have no clue where I am”, he admitted and smiled.
“Homestead Road”.
“Fuck off! You brought me back here?” he laughed. “I love that you know each other. Small town, huh?”
“About 4,000 people, I surely don’t know everyone”
“I know, I’m sorry. I live in Anchorage myself. I have been staying with John and Olga so I could be there when my son is born. The due date was New Year’s Eve, so they were simply in town preparing for Christmas when I got the text.”
I noticed his speech was slowing down and slurring.
“Did I crash up the road? I honestly don’t remember much of it”, he looked at me and I saw his eyes blinking a bit more often than usual.
I started telling the story of the crash, but I could see his eyes close and his body relax more and more. The sleeping pill was kicking in. Before I knew it, a soft snore escaped his lips. Now it was OK to look at his chest rise and fall rhythmically with each breath. At least for a bit.

I took a shower and put on some clean boxers. I looked at my phone and saw it was about to die. I quickly checked my Mom’s message.

Stuck @ airport. Not sure I will make Xmas. Hope you’re safe.

I got sad knowing I would not be able to text her back. My router was without electricity, so there was no way of messaging her without signal. I tried, but it would not go through. I put some more wood on the fire, so it would last longer during the night. I would need the covers though, so decided to lay next to Steve. I was not going to try anything, but it did feel nice to have someone sleeping next to me.

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