My First Time Cruising
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This story is based entirely on true events.
FAIR WARNING:
This story recounts my own experience, told for narrative purposes. It involves sexual activity in a public space. I want to be clear that this story is not meant to encourage anyone to engage in unsafe sex or illegal activities. I take preventive measures—I’m on PrEP and Doxy and am regularly tested for HIV and other STIs. Please make choices that keep you and others safe.
The park looked ordinary. Too ordinary, maybe. The kind of place where joggers cut their miles short and parents let kids throw stale bread to ducks that weren’t supposed to eat bread. There was a river running along one side, the sound of it constant—water on rock, fast enough to blur into white noise. A raised train track split the view at the far edge, steel beams cutting across sky, graffiti climbing the concrete piers like someone had tried to leave a record of their boredom.
I parked, sat there a beat longer than I needed to, watching the stillness. A handful of cars dotted the lot. Men in them. Alone. Eyes forward. No one moved, not enough to confirm anything. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you’d think they were just killing time before errands.
