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“Okay, who wants to go first?”
Link froze and looked down at his crossed legs. Trying to avoid eye contact, he lazily traced his finger around the lines of his tennis shoes.
“How about the birthday boy?” Jacob asked, smirking.
“Wha-what? I don’t want to play this game, whatever it’s called. Seven seconds in heaven?” Link stammered, clearly not knowing what to do. He didn’t know much about this game, but a book he had read had taught him all he needed to know.
Rhett laughed. “Brother, it's seven minutes in heaven,” he said, clapping Link on the back with an amused look in his eyes from watching the smaller boy’s eyes grow wide.
“Minutes?” Link said, almost a whimper. “A lot can happen in…”
“C’mon, Link. We’re not even spinning a bottle. And since it’s your sixteenth birthday, we’ll give you a nice present,” Jacob remarked. “We’ll pick someone for you,” he said, winking. He added in a whisper, “We’ll pick someone good, I promise.”
This is a dirty game, Link thought. His mind was screaming no at him, who knows who would come into that closet? But what if it was Madison? Madison with her dark hazelnut eyes and her strawberry blonde hair that fell right above her chest. Link glanced over at her, and she was staring straight at Link. When their eyes met, they both quickly looked away and Link could feel a blush creep up on his cheeks. He has had a little crush on her for years, but it never went anywhere because Link was too shy to make a move. Maybe this was the opportunity.
“Okay, fine,” he agreed. “How does this work?”
“So our version: you go blindfolded into that closet over there,” Jacob pointed to the little storage closet at the end of the room. “Then, the rest of the group sends someone in there with you. Y’all spend 7 minutes together. No rules. That’s it.”
Link looked at the group of ten or so classmates at his house. They were all smiling, eager to get the game going. “Okay, blindfold me up,” Link exclaimed, voice quivering. Rhett grabbed the bandana from Jacob’s hands and came up behind Link and wrapped it around his eyes, tying it in a little knot, careful not to pull the dark brown hair.
“Rhett,” Link whispered, making sure nobody else could hear him.
“Mmm?”
“You know what- sorry- who I’m thinking,” he suggested, raising his eyebrows at Rhett, pleading with his eyes even though they were covered with the cloth.
A stream of air blew from Rhett’s lips and ruffled the back of Link’s hair, and Rhett rolled his eyes. “You sure?”
Link sighed in frustration. “Of course I’m sure, God damn it. I’ve liked her for years, you know that.”
Rhett chewed on his lower lip. “Man, she doesn’t like you like that.” He leaned in closer and added, “You know, there is someone in this group who likes you and wanted to be sent in there with you. But you didn’t hear it from me.”
The thought of making out with Madison slipped from his mind. “Wait, what?” he said, a little bit too loudly, getting a few shouts of “hurry up” from the rest of his friends.
Rhett held up his index finger in the hair to ask for another second. “So you still want Madison? Or you wanna find out who likes you?”
Link really liked Madison, he really did. But curiosity took over him and he answered, “No, send that secret admirer in.” He looked up at Rhett and smiled nervously.
Rhett chuckled. “Secret admirer, funny. Don’t flatter yourself,” he said and gave Link an unexpected little shove on the shoulder.
Link stumbled back, cursing, and said, “Rhett, you’re taking advantage of my being blindfolded.” Rhett made a weird sound from the back of his throat as both boys realized the innuendo. After securing the knot on the back of Link’s head, Rhett led Link back to the group of boys, his hand on the small of his back. Then, the group of high schoolers all walked over to the closet, guiding Link inside.
Link couldn’t see anything, but he could touch both sides of the closet walls when he extended his arms out. The closet air was dry and a bit dusty.
“Sit down,” a girl’s voice said and Link slid his back down the wall, landing on his butt. He pulled his knees up to his chest as he heard the door shut in front of him and saw the faint light streaming through his blindfold disappear.
It was completely quiet now, all Link could hear was the thumping of his own heart. Possibilities ran through his mind. It has been almost a year since he kissed someone, what if he forgot how? What if the girl would stop having a crush on him because of this? What if Link didn’t like the girl like that? Would they be considered dating afterward?
Seven minutes isn’t very long, but it also is a hell of a lot longer than seven seconds. What could happen in seven minutes? His thoughts were interrupted by a muffled cheering from the group of friends outside. The door stayed closed and Link could swear his heart was close to bursting.
Then, after what felt like to be an eternity, the doorknob turned and cool breeze from outside rushed in. Link could hear the door being opened only a crack and a body sliding in. He stopped breathing to try to catch every little auditory clue he could. He heard the click of the lock and Jacob yelling, “Seven minutes starts now!”, followed by the high pitched cheers of the boys and girls.
Then, he couldn’t hear anything for a few seconds. “Hello?” he whispered. Still nothing.
A few seconds later, he felt a hot breath wash over his jawline and every single muscle in his body tensed up. He tried to pick up a scent, but all he got was the scent of cologne. It smelled vaguely like Rhett’s cologne, but he had to just be imagining things. Maybe he put on the wrong cologne in the morning and just realized now. Maybe the smell of Rhett lingered on him after being around him quite a lot that day.
A large, heavy hand gripped Link’s shoulders and Link gasped loudly, his hands immediately flying up to his blindfold and ripping it off his head. It was still pitch dark, and before his eyes adjusted enough to see who it was, lips pressed against lips.
His eyes still open, he grabbed the other face in two hands and pulled himself back, his own head hitting the wall behind him. Rhett. A hundred percent sure, it was Rhett. The scent was unmistakable now, the face shape familiar, the feeling just right.
“Rhett, what are you doing?” he whispered, starting to panic, but the feeling of Rhett’s legs interlocked with his surprisingly kept him grounded.
“Kissing you, you idiot.” His voice was low, like a mumbled growl.
“Who’s the girl who likes… oh.” Link said, realization hitting him and silence following.
A little bit of alarm rose in Rhett’s voice as his voice became higher in pitch. “You know, I think I made a mistake. I just had to, okay? But I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. So... I guess I should leave now,” Rhett muttered, getting up from his knees. “Do you want me to send in Madison or something?”
Link grabbed Rhett by the shirt sleeve and pulled him down to the ground. He couldn’t see Rhett, but he could sense where his face was. He looked straight at where he thought Rhett’s eyes were and whispered, “Don’t leave. I just never really thought about it too much. But it feels right and I don’t fucking care about anything else right now.” Link cupped Rhett’s face and pressed their lips together again in a light, chaste kiss. He pulled away and mouthed, “This is heaven after all, right?”, feeling a smile form on Rhett’s lips as Rhett pressed their mouths together, hard enough to slide Link’s back further down the wall.
“Five minutes left!” Jacob yelled through the door.
“Even though all we have is five minutes,” Link finished.
Each passing second with lips interlocked felt like five minutes, but five minutes were all they had. Five minutes. Five minutes were all they had to make up for what? Sixteen years of missed opportunities? Five minutes weren’t enough. They weren’t sure if any amount of time would be enough.
There were no spoken words, just the slightly obscene noises coming from their mouths and their throats. They weren’t embarrassed though. It wasn’t embarrassing to want something so badly, it wasn’t embarrassing to finally realize what you wanted. Caught in a cycle of quiet moans and passionate kisses, their bodies clicked and seemed to melt together. Where his body ended and Rhett’s began, he didn’t know.
Link was an anxious child, both of them had known this for years. He thought about why it didn’t happen sooner, he thought about what others would think of him, he thought about what this meant for their relationship. But as Rhett’s lips met his again, his mind just went blank. Blank except for a strong feeling of passion, of love for his not-so-platonic friend whose body weight was pressing heavily down on Link’s. Despite that, and despite the cramped closet with the locked door, he felt freer than he had in a long time. If there were windows in the closet, Link could swear they would be fogging up.
“3 minutes!”
Making out with Rhett was completely different. Sure, Link loved kissing his past girlfriends, but this was something entirely different. Rhett didn’t have much facial hair, but the sparse hairs chafed against the bare parts of his own face. The feeling should freak him out, should make him get up and run from himself, but it did just the opposite. Still laying on his back, he wrapped his legs around Rhett’s and grabbed the back of the blonde’s hair, pulling him closer. Their teeth clicked with the intensity and their tongues pressed firmly against each other’s that it was almost painful, but of course, they didn’t mind.
“Rhett,” Link breathed, almost panting. He felt rough fingers card through his hair and a soft kiss on his forehead.
“Yes?”
“I know we’ve said this plenty of times before, but in a different way, I-”
“I love you.” After a brief pause, Link grunted and Rhett said, “I wanted to say it first.”
“You’re cheesy,” Link laughed. “I love you too,” he added, trying to find those greenish-gray eyes in the darkness. “I love you as a friend, I love you as something more, I love you more than I have ever loved anything.”
Link could just imagine the corners of Rhett’s eyes crinkling. A breath of air escaped Rhett’s nose. “Now who’s cheesy?” Rhett chuckled. “You sure fall in love quickly.”
Jacob’s voice was heard through the door again. “1 minute!”
Rhett quickly stammered, “6 minutes, precisely.” Anxiety gripped both their hearts as the last minute of escaping reality started. Rhett dove in again, knowing to conserve and treasure those last few moments.
Link, however, put two fingers on Rhett’s lips, stopping him from taking what he wanted. “I don’t think sixteen years is quick.”
“What?” Rhett asked, hushed by the pressure of time.
“I don’t fall in love quickly. It took me sixteen long years to fall in love with you and I’m so, so sorry, Rhett.”
“Shhh, don’t be. Weren’t those sixteen years good years though? And now, we have all the time in the world. Right?”
Silence followed his words as the two boys realized. They only had a fraction of a minute left. However, they wondered why they were panicked since they definitely had more than a minute. They did, they now had all the time in the world.
“Right, Bo.”
They collapsed over each other again, lips sharing unhurried kisses in between mutters of sweet nothings. They planted little kisses all over each other’s faces and necks until they were smiling so wide their lips could not pucker up anymore.
“Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…”
The lock clicked.
The doorknob rattled.
The timer went off and light streamed into the closet. The room full of boys and girls erupted into shocked and excited screams, seeing the two friends lay unmoving on top of each other. Rhett and Link looked into each other’s eyes like nobody else was there, squinting to adjust to the brightness. They could have waited to open their eyes, but they didn’t. There would be no more wasted time, there would only be time for each other to make up for the lost. They finally could see each other’s red faces, swollen lips, and relieved expressions. With the closet door, their secrets were released and their future together was opened.
It was just a game: it was seven minutes long, but it felt like seven seconds.
It’s okay, though. Those seven minutes started a million more.