Coda 02 -A to Z

able to see his face, instead of having all that hair in the way. “Have to be smart to read books.”
“You don’t think you’re smart?”
    He shook his head. “Never even finished high school.” Finally we were getting to the real issue. But it pained me to see that he actually believed what he said.
    For the first time ever, I didn’t have to brush his hair out of the way before looking into his eyes. “I don’t even know where to start on that one. First, you don’t have to be smart to read books. Lots of idiots read books. Trust me, the ability to read does not necessarily mean the ability to think. Second, whether or not you graduated from high school or ever went to college has nothing to do with how smart you are. Yes, you dropped out, but Ang, you’re not stupid. And something like this—it’s exactly the kind of thing that you’re good at.”
    “Reading?” he asked in confusion.

    “Not reading, specifically, but understanding things. Finding the deeper meaning.”

    He shook his head at me and said honestly, “Don’t know what you mean.”

    “Okay I’ll show you. What was that movie we watched the other night, with Mel Gibson?”

    “ Signs .”

    “Right. What was it about?” Because, truly, I didn’t get it. I just thought it was weird.

    “Faith.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    “ Really?”
    “Yeah, man.” I could tell that he didn’t understand why I was asking, but he went on anyway. “See, his wife died in that freak accident. But she lived just long enough to give him a message. And even though he lost his faith after that, that message ended up bein’ what saved him and his family. So maybe it wasn’t a freak accident after all, right? Maybe it was meant to be. And that little girl was all freaky ’bout her water, but that’s part of what saved them too. Little things that all ended up savin’ them. It’s like his brother said; you can look at it as coincidence, or you can trust that it has a meaning. So in the end, he gets his faith back.”
    “Ang, you know what I thought it was about?”
“What?”
“Aliens.”
He laughed at me. “Well, yeah, but not really .”
    “That’s what I’m talking about, Angelo. I was in honors English in high school and took literature classes in college, but all that shit about themes and symbolism—I never got any of it. I thought it was just bullshit. But you get it.” He actually looked thoughtful at that. I could see the wheels turning behind his dark eyes. “I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve read since college, so I won’t think any of less of you if you don’t want to read it. But I think you should try. I think you might like it. It might open up a whole new world for you.” I almost had him convinced. I could tell. He wanted to believe me. “Just read the first chapter and see what happens. If you don’t like it, then quit. What have you got to lose, Ang?”
    And suddenly he smiled at me, really smiled, with no more doubts in his eyes, and it was beautiful to see it. “Zach….” He put his arms around my neck, and looked into my eyes, and I knew what he was trying to say. He even opened his mouth, but it was like the words just couldn’t make it past his throat.
    I put my arms around him and kissed him. “I know.”
    He put his head on my chest, and for a minute we just stood there. Then suddenly he smiled up at me and started to unbutton my pants. That made me hard immediately. I tried to kiss him, but he pulled away and went down on his knees in front of me. He pulled my pants down just far enough to be out of the way, and then his mouth was on me.
    I was convinced that nobody in the world could give a blow job like Angelo. It was unbelievable. I’ve never been able to do the whole deep throat thing, but he could. He sucked me all the way in, and I had to grab on to the counter behind me to keep myself upright. He had this mysterious way of making it feel like his tongue was constantly teasing the sensitive spot right below my slit, even when I was so deep in his mouth that I could feel his nose against my pubic bone. I let go of the counter with one hand but then didn’t know what to do with it. I wanted to touch him, but I knew better than to touch his head. I settled for grabbing a handful of his shirt. His hands were moving, from my thighs, up my hips, over my stomach, and back down. It was amazing, his warm mouth, and whatever he was doing