Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 21:31:14 +0200
From: Tristan Deveraux <zanatio@hotmail.com>
Subject: Nicholas Part 2

Author's note: This is the second part of the two-part story I wrote back
in 2005. It takes place 6 years after the events in the first story.

Disclaimer: This story contains graphic depictions of sexual acts between a
24 year old man and two 18 year old boys. Should you find such material
offensive, or if it is illegal for you to read such material, then what the
hell are you doing here at Nifty??? LEAVE NOW!!!

Copyright: This story is Copyright by me, Zanatio, in August 2005. If you
copy any piece of my work and attempt to pass it off as your own, I will
hunt you down and kill you... Ok, maybe not, but at least be nice enough to
give me credit for writing this!

Comments welcome! If you liked what you read, please let me know on
zanatio@hotmail.com.

And now, on to the story...

NICHOLAS - Part 2

Introduction - Recap of Part 1

I first met Nicholas when he was a carefree boy of 12 and I was young man
of 18. He was one of the boys in my care for two weeks at a summer camp in
eastern Pennsylvania. I soon realized I was developing feelings for him and
became aware that he was growing fond of me also, though I figured his
fondness of me was nothing more than simple boyish affection and attachment
directed towards an older man. Our true feelings for each other were
eventually revealed one afternoon when I unintentionally walked in on him
naked in the bathroom, an act that led to us briefly exploring the other's
body but which also created a misunderstanding that threatened to destroy
the relationship almost before it had even begun. Fortunately we were able
to resolve the misunderstanding before too much damage could be done, and
we made out for the first time in the showers that night.

The next day Nicholas had declared that he loved me, and though I'd found I
had strong feelings for him too and had said as much, I told him that he
was still just a boy, and that his feelings might change as he grew
older. Just because we'd messed around together, I'd told him, didn't mean
he had to feel obligated to me. After all, lots of boys experimented with
other guys as a once-off thing, and some of them still ended up straight as
a ruler. But he remained adamant, and had promised me that his feelings
wouldn't disappear, that he'd remain true to me forever. I had been deeply
touched by the depth of his maturity and resolve in the matter, but I had
privately doubted he'd keep his word, not because he didn't want to, but
because as he grew up he might find someone else to fall in love with, guy
or girl. So I'd told him that, for the time being at least, we'd have to
remain just friends, and if, by the time he became a man, he still had
feelings for me, then we'd pick things up from there.

And so we'd parted ways, him returning to Philadelphia, me going home to
Pittsburgh. I quickly got back into my routine, and finished off high
school as one of the top students in my class. Nic surprised me by staying
in contact, either via e-mail or IRC, and each time he mailed me or we
chatted over the net, he reminded me that he loved me and was staying true
to me, and he hoped I'd still be waiting for him when he became a man.


Part 2

Six years passed since I first met Nicholas. I entered my mid-twenties,
picking up a degree in financial accounting, an awesome job with a decent
salary, a nice car, and a little house of my own on the outskirts of
Pittsburgh along the way, while Nic passed through adolescence and the
always difficult teenage years to emerge a handsome, confident young man on
the verge of adulthood. Over the past six years - despite the fact that we
lived in different cities, communicated solely via e-mail, IRC or SMS and
had only seen each other face-to-face twice since the summer camp - our
relationship had grown and blossomed and strengthened. I'm still not sure
quite how it happened; maybe it was because of his own incredible resolve
to remain true to me and his promise that one day we would be together. But
whatever the reason, and as impossible, illogical and incredible as it all
seemed, I'd found that I'd fallen deeply in love with him. And not just
because he'd grown into quite an impressive specimen of a man, with broad
shoulders, nicely muscled arms and legs and a golden-brown tan from his
hours of playing volleyball in the sun; he's also got such an amazing
personality, has maturity and wisdom beyond his years, and possesses a
simple, honest, and open nature that is intertwined with just a hint of
mischief. There have been many times when we've had the most outrageous and
fun conversations on IRC that lasted late into the night. He would tell me
about his days at school and the mischief he and his new friend Robbie had
gotten up to, while I would tell him about the antics of the guys who were
at college and then, when I graduated and got a job, at work with me. I
felt so comfortable and relaxed talking to him, and I believed our
relationship could only get stronger.

However, despite the strength of our feelings for each other, we were
hesitant to reveal them to anyone else. We both knew people who were
'anti-gay' and who would not look too favorably on us, to put it mildly, if
they found out about our true sexual orientation. I'd heard horrible
stories about homophobes beating up, even killing, gays, and it was not
something I wanted to happen to me or Nic. And the fact that Nic was still
technically a boy made matters even worse, for I knew how severely society
frowned on any kind of intimate relationship between a man and a boy. It
was a frustrating situation for both of us, but we took some comfort in the
fact that we knew it could not last forever.

One afternoon I got an excited e-mail from Nic: he was turning 18 at
last. His birthday was three weeks away on a Sunday, and he was planning on
having a big party at his place on the Saturday night. He said that his
parents had decided to let him have the house to himself for the night and
were going to his grandparents in Allentown. As he was going to 'become a
man', it was the perfect time, he thought, for us to get together at
last. He'd love if I could come to his party and maybe spend the night with
him... As I read his words, my heart literally went the equivalent of a car
doing 0 to 100 in under 2 seconds! The time I'd dreamt about, fantasized
about, for so long was finally here. I was finally going to get together
with the man of my dreams. I replied to him immediately, my fingers dancing
over the keyboard so rapidly that I misspelled every second word. Of course
I'd be there, and of course I'd spend the night with him. I immediately
began making preparations in my head: I'd have to leave on the Saturday
morning, taking the I76 past Harrisburg which would no doubt take about 4
hours, maybe 3 and a half if I drove like a bat out of hell, which I
figured I probably would. I'd need to put extra gas in the car, ask the
neighbour to feed my cat and keep an eye on my house while I was away, get
some snacks for the trip... The rest of the afternoon was pretty much a
blur, and I left work that day with such a spring in my step that my
colleagues wondered aloud if I'd won the lottery. I just shook my head at
them and smiled as an ironic thought entered my head: I was going to do
what everyone was always telling me to do: get laid. But what they didn't
know was that it wouldn't be in the way they were expecting.

That night, Nic and I chatted on IRC and talked about an alias I could
assume when I met his friends; after all, seeing as we wanted to keep our
relationship as secret as possible, being introduced to them as his gay
lover was probably not the best idea! We wanted something that would allow
us to be reasonably intimate in public without anyone suspecting anything,
which he felt was important seeing as he figured he'd be all over me as
soon as he laid eyes on me! We finally came to an agreement: Nic would
introduce me to his friends as his older cousin from Pittsburgh who he
hasn't seen in six years. With my new identity assumed, he gave me a little
information about his family that I could use if anyone asked any
questions.

The Saturday of Nic's party finally rolled around. I'd had the most intense
jack-off session the night before in preparation for the real thing, and
was looking forward to seeing Nic with the same excitement that a kid has
who's about to open his Christmas presents. So at ten in the morning I tore
onto the Interstate, and soon my tires were gobbling up the miles as I
raced along towards Harrisburg, and beyond it, Philadelphia, and Nicholas.

I arrived in Philly twenty minutes earlier than I'd planned and with a
surprising lack of speeding fines. Destiny was really rooting for me, I
thought, as I followed the directions Nic had provided me. At last I came
into his neighborhood, then his road: Elm Street. I drove along slowly,
glancing intently at the numbers of the houses as I passed them. It was a
fairly quiet neighborhood with big houses, many of them double-storey, and
the road was lined with thick-trunked elms, hence its name. His house was
number 37; since I was passing 16 and then 18 on one side I figured I was
heading in the right direction, getting closer all the time to him. It
seemed to take an eternity to get into and then through the 30s. Finally I
hit 35; the next one was his. I slowed almost to a stop, and then I saw
him. He was lifting bags into the trunk of a Toyota that was standing in
the drive, and his back was to me. He was wearing a pair of baggy grey
shorts, black sneakers, and a NASCAR shirt with Tony Stewart's image and
car emblazoned on it, along with a matching #20 cap. I could see the sweat
marks on his shirt under his armpits as he reached up to close the trunk,
then he wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, sending drops of
sweat flying away. I gathered from the amount of perspiration on his body
that he'd been doing some heavy work prior to loading the bags into the car
- probably rearranging furniture for the party or something along those
lines - because from his most recent photos that he'd e-mailed me I didn't
doubt for a moment that he was strong and very much in good shape.

All these observations and thoughts sped through my mind in an instant but
were quickly blown away by one thought that blasted through my head: I was
going to see Nic again, and this time I was finally going to be able to
hold him and kiss him and... I stopped myself right there; it wouldn't look
good for me to arrive on his doorstep like some sex-crazed maniac. So I
took a deep, calming breath, composed myself and prepared to turn into his
drive. At that instant he turned around and looked directly at me. He
recognized me immediately; I knew this because his eyes almost popped right
out of his head. He looked like he was about to run into the road and throw
himself at me, but then he suddenly spun around and stared in horror at the
front door to his house. A woman had appeared in the doorway, and suddenly
I realized why he'd been packing bags into the car: I'd arrived early, and
his parents hadn't left yet! He'd made it abundantly clear to me that his
parents knew nothing of me, and they certainly would not be fooled by his
older cousin story. So at the same time as Nic spun around again and
frantically waved for me to drive on, I had the same thought and smashed my
foot on the gas pedal. I roared away down the road, glancing back over my
shoulder to see Nic turn towards his mom, who approached him and gave him a
hug goodbye. I came to a stop two houses down, pulled up the handbrake,
then turned around in my seat to watch Nic. He kept on glancing down the
road at me while his mom and dad gave him last minute instructions and, no
doubt, a quick lecture on the consequences on what would happen should they
come back to find the house a mess. Then his dad gave him a brief hug, and
got into the car. Neither his mom nor his dad noticed me. A few seconds
later the car pulled out the drive and sped away in the opposite direction.

Nic gave a final unconvincing wave goodbye to them, then he turned and
literally raced down the road as if the hounds of hell were chasing him. I
fumbled with my seatbelt, desperate to get it undone and wrap my arms
around him. I finally got the stupid thing unbuckled, and pushed open my
door so hard I thought I'd broken it. I got to my feet a split-second
before Nic barreled into me, driving me back against my car. He wrapped his
powerful arms around me, squeezing me tightly, his breath coming in short,
emotionally-wracked gasps. My head was spinning as I wrapped my own arms
around him, feeling the sweat beneath his shirt that made it cling to him
and the rapid beating of his heart. I couldn't believe this was actually
happening! But here he was, here we were, in each other's arms at last,
holding each other as if there'd be no tomorrow. It was real, so very real,
and I suddenly felt as if I was about to bawl like a baby.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, we broke the embrace and then
just looked at each other. No words were necessary; our eyes and the love
in our expressions said everything we needed to say. I couldn't believe how
handsome he'd grown, with his cute pug nose and sharply defined cheekbones,
his sandy-blonde hair that tickled his forehead, his glistening grey-green
eyes misting slightly with tears of joy, his luscious lips quavering with
emotion. Seeing him in front of me made me think of all the pictures he'd
sent me of himself as he was growing up, and I realized how very little a
picture actually shows. It does not, it cannot, convey feeling or emotion
or thought. Here, in front of me, he was so genuine and alive, and
infinitely more desirable than I could ever had imagined. I guess that
similar thoughts occurred to him, because he leaned his head towards mine
and made to kiss me. I closed my eyes and made to do the same - after all,
this was what I'd been waiting six long years for - but a warning bell
began ringing in the back of my mind: not yet. So I raised a hand between
our lips, stopping him short.

"Cousins," I reminded him in a whisper.

"No-one is watching," he whispered back, and I could hear a hint of
desperation in his voice.

But then there was a cough from behind him, and a male voice called, "This
your long lost brother or something, Nic?" Nic's eyes went wide, but he
quickly regained his composure, took a deep breath, then turned around.

A kid about his own age with a small gym bag strapped to his back was
sitting astride a mountain bike at the edge of the drive to his house,
watching us intently. Then Nic recognized him, for he broke into a broad
smile. It was his best friend, Robbie.

"Hey Rob," he greeted him. He started walking towards the guy, and I
followed behind him. The kid got off his bike and lay it down on the verge,
then pumped Nic's outstretched hand warmly.

"You making out with this guy?" he asked looking over at me, but I could
tell he was just kidding. Nic laughed.

"Nah, this is my cousin, Jason." He turned to me and introduced the
guy. "Jason, this is my best friend Robbie. He's offered to help me get set
up for tonight." I recalled what Nic had told me of the boy who was his
best friend: his proper name was Robert, but everyone called him Robbie,
and he lived a few blocks away from Nic. Like Nic, he was an avid
volleyball player; in fact, the two had become friends through playing the
sport at school. Robbie was as handsome as Nic was, with ice-blue eyes and
jet black hair smothered with gel and combed straight up at the fringe. He
was also a joker and a prankster, with a razor-sharp tongue and a
mischievous streak.

He walked over to me and offered his hand. I shook it; he had a pretty
strong grip.

"Nice to meet you," I told him.

"Likewise. So I take it you two haven't seen each other in a while?" he
asked.

"Six years, actually," I clarified, shooting a wink at Nic.

"That long, huh?" Robbie asked. "Wish I hadn't seen my cuz for that
long. The little prat."

"I take it you don't like him?" I asked.

"He's a little snot-nosed brat," he replied. "And that's his good side!"

Nic and I both laughed at the joke. We stood in silence for a while, then
Robbie dug his hands into his pockets, glanced at Nic, and asked, "So, we
gonna stand here all day or what?"

Both Nic and I then realized that we were standing there side by side, and
for my part I know it was because I was enjoying just standing next to
him. But then we both came to our senses.

"Um, no," Nic said, no doubt getting his thoughts back into order. "Robbie,
you can bring your bike inside the house. Jason, you wanna park your car in
the garage?" I nodded at him, then offered a smile to Robbie before turning
and heading back to my car.

As I was walking away from the two boys I heard Robbie ask Nic in a soft
voice, "So he's your cousin?"

"Yeah," was Nic's reply.

"How old is he?"

"He's 24."

There was a brief pause, then Robbie asked mockingly, "You sure you weren't
making out with him there?"

I turned my head to see Nic punch Robbie on the arm and growl
lightheartedly, "Shut up you moron." Robbie just laughed, then the two
disappeared inside the house.

As I reversed the car then drove up the drive and into the garage that Nic
opened for me, I was feeling giddy and light-headed and excited beyond
belief. This was going to be an awesome weekend.

After I'd lugged my bag inside the house and up the stairs into the spare
bedroom that was situated between Nic's parents' and his own, Nic and I sat
down together on the bed while Robbie grabbed a quick shower to clean up
before the party. We were finally alone together; our dreams were at last
coming true. For a while we just looked into each other's eyes, seeing what
had changed and what had remained the same. We were both older, obviously,
and more mature: he was almost 18 and on the society-imposed threshold of
adulthood, while I was now a world-weary man of 24. But I think we both
knew that the passion that had been ignited between us six years ago was
burning brighter now than it ever had before. And so we explored the depth
of that passion with the kiss we'd both been waiting so long for. It was
simple, nothing fancy, but through it we conveyed to each other the
strength and endurance of the love we shared, and would hopefully continue
to share far into the future.

We broke apart, and a sense of calm and deep contentment enveloped
us. Everything was good and right and proper, and I was happier than I'd
been in a long, long time. But then I felt something nagging at the back of
my mind, a soft whisper of a voice sowing doubt amongst my thoughts: what
about Robbie? He and Nic were best friends, and I'd sensed as soon as I met
him how close he was to Nic. And for some reason I suddenly had to know
just how close they actually were. Maybe it was jealousy, maybe it was
stupid paranoia, but I had to know. So I asked him point blank," Are you
attracted to Robbie?" The 12 year old Nic would probably have closed up
like a flower at night if I'd asked him such a question, retreating into
himself and offering no answer at all, but the 18 year old Nic immediately
understood why I asked it of him. Robbie, Nic explained to me softly,
taking my hands into his, had been his best friend since the eighth
grade. The two had got up to all kinds of mischief together: smuggling a
frog into their history teacher's handbag, stealing guys' socks, and other,
more intimate items of clothing, out of their gym bags while they were
showering after volleyball practice then putting the stolen items in other
guys' bags (the results of which were often highly entertaining, Nic
claimed), and other such amusing pranks. They'd slept over at each other's
house many times, played volleyball throughout highschool together, spent
many a detention together... Though Robbie was good looking and he'd seen
him naked many times (and was very impressed with what he saw!), he'd
honestly never felt any kind of sexual attraction towards him. Robbie was a
good and close friend, nothing more, and he couldn't ask for a better one.

Nic fell silent and looked into my eyes, his face showing nothing but
sincerity. I nodded my head, knowing now that my fears were unfounded and
had been convincingly put to flight. I hugged him, conveying through that
embrace my thanks and understanding. When we parted I thought about the
things he said he and Robbie had done in school, and lightheartedly
mentioned to him that it looked like some of Robbie's mischievous and
roguish nature had rubbed off on him, because I remembered him being fairly
shy and introverted at the camp six years ago. Nic agreed with me, then
said that Robbie used to be quite a wild card in school, but he thought
that his own quieter nature had rubbed off on Robbie a little, settling him
down somewhat over the past few years. I told Nic that it looked like their
friendship had brought out the best in each of them, and Nic agreed with
me. He said he wouldn't trade his friendship with Robbie for anything in
the world, and I believed him.

"I sometimes think about telling Robbie the truth about me," Nic said to me
as we walked down the stairs to the kitchen to start getting things set up
for the party. "About being gay and all."

"Why don't you?" I asked him. "You guys seem to be really good friends. I
don't think he'll abandon you or anything."

"No, I don't think so either," Nic said. "He's a great friend, and I'm
really grateful for our friendship. But he's still kinda wild, and he has a
big mouth. I'm not so much worried about him finding out than I am about
everyone else finding out."

"But you're finished with school now, aren't you?" I pointed out to him.

"Yeah, but I still know a lot of guys, and not all of them are hot on the
idea of gays." His face turned sour as he added, "Some of the guys say that
they'd "fuckin' kill every fuckin' fag" they came across. Their words."

I took a deep breath, sighed it out in frustration. It still amazed me that
in today's society people could be so closed-minded. "Yeah, things can
sometimes be rough for guys like us."

"Guys like what?" Both Nic and I turned at Robbie's voice. He was standing
in the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed, wrapped in a towel and
leaning against the doorframe. His torso, I noted, was as well-muscled and
defined as Nic's, and his wet black hair was combed straight down, reaching
almost to the tip of his nose. Below the towel, his long legs were covered
in dark hairs, and he'd crossed one shin over the other, toes pointed at
the floor.

I glanced at Nic, trying to think of a response, but he arrived at one
first. "Volleyball players," he said smoothly. "You, me and Jason all play
volleyball. Not everyone understands the intricacies of the game. They'd
prefer to use their feet to move a ball around."

"Well I imagine they'd still use their hands for the smaller ones," Robbie
quipped, cupping his hand at groin level and making lewd gestures. Damn
this kid was good, I thought, as I burst into laughter.

"Shower's free now, Nic," he said when the laugher had died down.

"Yeah, I gathered as much," Nic replied, taking a mock swing at this
friend. "Keep Jason entertained for me, ok?" he told Robbie as he stepped
past him. "I won't be long."

"You better not be," I said to his retreating back then gestured to all the
packets of food lying around on the counters. "No way I'm getting all this
set up myself!" He looked back at me and flicked his eyebrows up and down,
then grinned before heading up the stairs.

Robbie sauntered over to me, moved the packets of crisps on the counter
next to me to one side, then turned around and heaved himself up onto
it. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs and grasping his hands
together. I must admit that I was slightly turned on by him. After all, he
was as good-looking as Nicholas, and he was currently sitting a few inches
away from me wrapped only in a white towel. Steady, I told myself. Coming
on to my lover's best friend was probably not the brightest of ideas.

I cleared my mind, then focused it on the task at hand. "Any idea where I
can find bowls for these?" I asked him, gesturing to the bags of crisps
he'd moved aside. He pointed a finger lazily at a cupboard on the other
side of the kitchen. "Great." I crossed the kitchen, dropped to my
haunches, opened the cupboard he'd indicated and found a set of big brown
plastic bowls made to look like wooden dishes. I yanked them out and was
straightening up again when he suddenly asked, "So are you gay?"

I tried to remain as calm as I could, but suddenly my heart was in my
throat. I turned to face him with what I hoped was a neutral
expression. "What makes you ask that?" I replied casually, putting the
bowls to one side then facing him directly.

Through the wisps of wet hair hanging lazily over his brow, I saw his
ice-blue eyes bore into mine with a deadly seriousness, and I suddenly
realized that he already knew the answer to his question. And if he knew
the answer then that meant he might know about Nic as well. Oh, not good.

I started to say something further, stopped, started over again, but he
interrupted me before I got anywhere.

"Oh, you know, after I got out of the shower I overheard you and Nic
talking. He said something about being gay, and now I think about it I
figure from the way you two have been reacting to one another, you are
too."

My heart skipped a beat. He'd heard Nic say he was gay. His best friend...

I suddenly felt my legs turn to jelly. "Look, whatever you heard..." I
stammered as I steadied myself against the couter-top. But then he turned
from me with a faraway look in his eyes and said softly, almost to himself,
"I was right, wasn't I? You guys were making out there in the road." He
turned his head back to face me, his eyes once more boring, piercing, into
mine. "So are you guys a couple or something?"

There was no point denying it now, though I was furious with myself for
having our secret revealed, and especially to Nic's best friend.

"Yes," I said softly, keeping my voice as calm and steady as I could, "we
are a couple, but we weren't making out. We haven't seen each other in six
years..."

"Yeah, you mentioned that already," he interrupted me, matching my tone
with one just as calm. "Cousins, huh?" He paused as a new thought occurred
to him. "Six years...that would make you, what, 18? And him 12?" I braced
myself for the inevitable explosion. To my shock, it never came. Instead,
Robbie said softly," Wow, that's hectic. Did you guys get it on when he was
12?"

I nodded slowly, unable to do anything else as I was completely baffled by
what he was saying, trying desperately to figure out where exactly he was
going with this.

"The little bugger had sex when he was twelve. And he never even told me!
I'm going to kill him!" Then he suddenly sprang off the counter and raced
out of the room. If I was slightly puzzled before, I was a Rubix Cube now!

I sprinted after him, bounding up the stairs two at a time, suddenly
acutely afraid for Nic. I heard a shout from the bathroom, then there was a
loud crack as the shower door was flung open. I heard Nic shout, "No!" and
then there were sounds of a scuffle. I roared around the corner at the top
of the stairs, taking it too sharply and bashing my shoulder against it,
but the pain was dulled by the flashing of images through my mind of Nic in
a life-and-death struggle with his former best friend. I finally reached
the bathroom but could make out little through the steam. I squinted and
was able to see two shapes on the floor, struggling. I rushed in, crying,
"Nic!" He didn't reply.

Then I heard Robbie's voice. "...have sex and not tell me you schmuck!
We're best friends! We're supposed to tell each other everything!" Hearing
his words I suddenly got the distinct feeling that all was not as it
seemed. As the steam blew out the open door into the corridor I was able to
make out Robbie straddling Nic, who was lying flat on his stomach, naked
and sopping wet. It looked like Robbie had dragged Nic right out of the
shower then pinned him on the floor by holding Nic's right arm behind his
back, reminding me of some wrestling move I'd seen on the WWE.

"You like that, do you?" Robbie taunted Nic, but I could hear he was
joking. "Huh? Do ya? Gayboy?" Then I heard something that made me almost
collapse in relief: Nic was laughing. Very softly, and with great
difficulty, to be sure, but he was laughing. All was definitely not what it
seemed. This was no life-and death struggle; it was simply two friends
wrestling. Yes, one was totally nude and completely drenched while the
other had but a flimsy towel around his waist, but it was still nothing
more than playful wrestling.

I sighed heavily in relief, feeling every muscle in my body unclench
itself. "Ok, break it up," I said mock-seriously, and moved over to pull
Robbie off of Nic. He laughed, as did Nic as I helped him to his feet.

"You ok?" I asked him softly.

"Yeah, I'm ok," he told me, "but I think this joker has squashed my balls
into mush." He reached down and massaged his aching nuts, then slipped a
wet arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze, assuring me all was well.

Robbie gazed at the two of us with a crooked smile. "So the two of
you...argh, cover that up, please!" He suddenly shielded his eyes from the
sight of Nic's manhood as the steam parted around it. "Not everyone here is
into that kind of thing, y'know." Robbie's joking tone defused the
situation expertly. He made to remove his towel, saying, "Here, take my
towel," but then he stopped himself and said, "No, wait, bad idea. Who
knows what you'll do to me then." He turned and groped around in the steam
for a towel hanging on a rail close by.

"I have seen you in the buff before, Robbie," Nic pointed out.

"Yeah? And your point is? Don't want no gayboys looking at my privates!"
Again Robbie's tone made it clear he was just joking with us. "I can't
believe it," he muttered to himself, but loud enough so we could hear,
which was no doubt his intention. "I'm surrounded by gayboys." He finally
found a towel and tossed it to Nic, who quickly began drying himself off.

"You seem to be taking it pretty well," I quipped to Robbie.

"You think?" he shot back with a half-grin. "How would you feel if you
suddenly find out your best friend is gay? All those times we slept
together when we were kids, and in the same bed sometimes! I just can't
believe it."

"If it helps," Nic told him as he wrapped the towel around his waist, "I
don't actually find you attractive."

"You don't find me attractive?" Robbie sounded aghast. "Heavens above! He
doesn't find me attractive!" Then he became a little more serious when he
said, "Thank bloody God you don't find me attractive! I would've knocked
your lights out if you'd tried to come onto me." Nic laughed at that.

"Seriously, though, Robbie," I said, trying to bring some reality back to
the situation, "You're really ok with this?"

He looked at me as if I'd asked the stupidest question in the
world. "'Course I'm ok with it, dummy! I'm not like some other people who
are out to - how did you put it Nic? - 'fuckin' kill every fuckin' fag they
come across'." His voice then turned serious. "To be honest, Nic, I've had
my suspicions for a long time, but I figured if you wanted me to know then
you would've told me. I'm really cool with who you are; it doesn't bug me
at all. I just wish you had told me, though. You know I have no secrets
from you."

"I'm sorry, Robbie," Nic replied gravely, "really I am. I was just so
afraid of what someone might do to me if they found out."

"Because of my 'big mouth'?" Robbie asked.

"I didn't mean that..." Nic began, but Robbie stopped him.

"No, you did, and you're right. I do have a big mouth. Sometimes I just
can't help it. Thought comes into my head, it's gonna come out my mouth,
y'know? In, and out. Just like that." He fell silent, and we all stood
there, looking at one another. Finally, Robbie said seriously, "I won't
tell anyone about you guys if you don't want me to. I promise."

"Thanks Robbie," Nic said. "That really means a lot to me." He moved over
to his friend, hesitated a second, then enveloped him in a hug. For his
part, Robbie didn't hesitate at all to hug his best friend and pat him on
the back. They parted, and I looked questioningly at Robbie.

"You want a hug too?" he asked, his tone jovial again. I shrugged, but then
he crossed the distance between us in two strides and wrapped his arms
around me, his chest muscles bulging against me. I did the same, though it
felt a little weird. When he pulled away he said impishly," You hug one
gayboy, you've hugged 'em all."

Robbie stepped back and sighed, slowly absorbing the twin revelations Nic
had hit him with, then looked at the two of us critically. "So you guys
really got it on when Nic was 12, huh?"

"Yeah, we did," Nic replied, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

"I trust it was mutual?" Robbie asked, then he turned his face towards me,
his eyes focusing intently on mine. "Because if you forced yourself on my
best friend..."

"It was mutual," Nic said hurriedly, then a smile crept onto his face as he
remembered our time together six years ago. "And, it was the best, most
magical thing that's ever happened to me."

"Serious?" Robbie raised an eyebrow and looked unconvinced. "Can't quite
say I see the attraction myself. Still, so long as you're happy."

"We are," Nic said, turning around to face me, his face glowing. "I'm
happier than I've ever been." And with that declaration he pressed his lips
to mine and kissed me hard.

"Oh geez," I heard Robbie say from behind Nic, "Get a room, will you?" When
we broke the embrace I saw that Nic's eyes were sparkling more brightly
than they had ever done before.

The three of us spent the next few hours before sunset getting everything
ready for the party, and Robbie kept us all entertained with his rapid-fire
jokes and cutting but jovial sarcasm. Nic and Robbie had changed into
loose-fitting, smart-casual clothes: Nic wore a navy blue button-up top and
jeans with his blue sneakers, while Robbie had on a cream-coloured golf
shirt with thin black stripes down the sleeves and olive-green khaki
pants. They'd both put generous amounts of gel in their hair, and while
Robbie had returned his to the straight-down and fringe-up style from when
he'd arrived earlier, Nic had gone for the spike-everything look, so his
head now resembled a big pincushion with huge, unicorn horn-shaped pins
sticking out of it!

Nic had indeed been moving the furniture in his dining and living rooms
around before I'd seen him packing his parent's bags into their car, and we
finished up this job to open a nice big space in the living room to act as
a dance floor. Once that was done, we opened the bags of crisps and emptied
them into plastic bowls, and also dunked several bottles of Coke and
Mountain Dew into an ice water-filled tub. There was no booze, though; Nic
was not into alcohol, and neither was Robbie for that matter, and besides,
Nic told me, his folks had forbidden the stuff anyway.

As we put the finishing touches on everything I noticed that, despite Nic's
sudden and unanticipated 'coming out' to Robbie, the two of them actually
seemed closer than they had been before, and I was genuinely happy for
them, especially for Nic that he had such a great and understanding
friend. Robbie had said that he'd known Nic for far too long to let a
little thing like finding out he was gay mess up their friendship. Best
friends are there for each other through thick and thin, Robbie had
declared, and there was no way he was recanting on that. I found his
dedication really touching, and felt honored to know this truly awesome
guy.

The first of Nic's guests arrived just before 7, and from then on a steady
stream of them pulled up outside the house and came inside. They were all
decent-looking kids, I thought. The guys pumped Nic's hand enthusiastically
while the girls gave him a hug or a light peck on the cheek. They presented
him with presents of various size and shape, all neatly wrapped, some with
a little card attached, others with a small ribbon wrapped around them. He
introduced me to all of them as his older cousin from Pittsburgh, just as
we'd planned, though Robbie sniggered jokingly at this a couple of times
when the three of us were alone together. A lot of the girls seemed quite
charmed with me; in fact, after being introduced to two long-legged
brunettes in tight, revealing tops, I overheard one of them whisper to the
other, "He's a real hunk, huh?" Sorry ladies, I thought to myself, I'm
afraid you won't get very far with me.

And so it went on, until at 7:30 Nic stood on a chair, quieted everyone
down, thanked everyone for coming, asked them to please try not to break
anything, then told them that the party was about to go up a notch. And
with that cue, Robbie got the first serious tunes going. I'm not sure if
that sound system had ever played music so loudly, and I was blown away by
it. Five surround-sound speakers and a mother of a sub-woofer pounded the
music into the night so loudly that I could feel the sound waves blasting
right through me. Soon I was swept up in the party atmosphere and found
myself dancing alongside everyone else, grooving the night away.

After a long time of hectic dancing I dragged myself away from the dance
floor and outside the house to get some fresh air. I collapsed into one of
the plastic garden chairs we'd brought from the back yard. Near the garage
I spotted a group of 4 guys smoking cigarettes and talking in hushed
voices. I tilted my head back and stared into the night sky, looking at the
twinkling stars and watching wisps of cloud roll past the moon. A short
while later I heard footsteps crunching on the grass, and I turned my head
and saw Robbie coming towards me. "How's it going Jace?" he asked me as he
sat down in the chair next to me.

"I'm good Robbie," I replied. "Just hot. You?"

"Yeah, I'm also pretty hot. It's like a sauna in there!" Then he leaned
forward conspiratorially, gestured for me to do the same, and lowered his
voice. "Listen, I've noticed the way you and...your significant other are
acting together. I don't think anyone else suspects anything, but since I
know about you guys I have to tell you that I think you're standing out
like sore thumbs. 'Cousins' you may be, but even cousins don't do the stuff
you two are doing! If you seriously don't want anyone to know about you two
then I suggest you tone down the covert glances and nudges and winks to
each other and stuff."

I was slightly shaken by Robbie's words. It had never even occurred to me
that Nic and I had been more intimate than we'd planned. I resolved to be
more careful from now on, frustrating and unfair though I knew it'd be.

"Thanks for letting me know," I told Robbie gratefully, then added, "Are we
really that obvious?"

"Like I said, since I know about you it's obvious to me. It may not be
obvious to anyone else, but you never know."

"It really sucks to have to hide our feelings like this," I said.

"Well there'll be plenty of time for you two to get down and dirty after
the party," Robbie said with a wry smile.

"Hey you two, whatcha doin?" I turned as Nic caught sight of us and hurried
over, dropping to his haunches beside us. "The party's inside, you know."

"We're just getting some air," I told him. "And Robbie's offering some
invaluable advice on how not to have out little secret discovered."

"Yeah?" Nic looked at Robbie, a little confused.

"Just tone things down a bit," Robbie explained, and repeated to Nic what
he'd told me about the gestures and the winks and the like.

"Geez, I didn't even realize I was doing stuff like that," Nic said, as
shaken by Robbie's observations as I'd been. "Well then Robbie, I guess
we'll have to appoint you our official anti-intimacy man. You just punch
one of us if you see us doing stuff like that again, ok?"

"No problem bro," Robbie said with a grin. "You can count on me." Then he
caught sight of something, and his grin faded rapidly. "Uh oh, trouble."

Nic and I followed his gaze and saw a group of guys and girls wandering
erratically down the road, heading straight for Nic's house.

"Oh great," Nic said in a disgusted voice, "It's Jarred Bayden and his
cronies." Jarred, Nic explained to me, was the school's star quarterback
and a real jerk. He was one of those 'anti-gay' guys Nic had mentioned, and
had publicly announced that he'd kill any gay he came across. From his
imposing bulk and naturally sour nature, no-one doubted he was deadly
serious.

"I take it you didn't invite them," I observed.

"Of course not," Nic replied. "But it looks like they've decided to
gatecrash."

"And it looks like they bought some booze along too," Robbie noted
sourly. "Great, just what we need."

"My folks will freak out if they found out there was alcohol here," Nic
said. "I've got to get rid of them." He stood up as the new arrivals hooked
up with the guys smoking near the garage. I heard one of the smokers say
loudly, "Awesome, man, you brought the good stuff! We've had to put up with
Mountain Dew and shit till now."

Nic and Robbie strode over to Jarred and his group. I thought about going
with them, but then figured they could handle things themselves. I watched
Nic walk up to Jarred and talk to him, but Jarred just laughed at him. Then
Robbie said something with the words 'leave' and 'cops' in it, but Jarred
was either too drunk or too unphased about Robbie's threat to take him
seriously. He shoved Nic aside, much to the amusement of his gang, then
walked unsteadily up the front steps and into the house, his group of
friends trailing behind him in various states of intoxication. The smokers
tossed their still-smoldering cigarette butts to the ground and also
followed Jarred inside.

Nic and Robbie came back to me. Both were fuming.

"The stupid bastard," Nic growled. "Sauntering into my house like he owns
the place."

"We've got to find a way to make them leave," Robbie said.

"I take it he didn't believe your threat about calling the cops?" I asked
him.

"No, he didn't. I wasn't really serious anyway. The last thing Nic's folks
need to hear is that cops had to break up his party."

"You want me to try and talk to him?" I offered.

"I think he's so drunk he probably wouldn't even hear you," Nic said,
thoroughly disgusted.

Then we heard the sound of glass shattering inside. Nic cringed. "Oh shit,"
he said.

"We've got to do something," I told them, "before they destroy your house."
I got to my feet and walked determinedly back towards the front door. I
heard Robbie and Nic follow me, and Robbie said, "I have a bad feeling
about this."

Though I wore a grim and determined expression on my face, inside my heart
was pounding and my pulse was racing. I knew how dangerous and unreasonable
drunks could be, and on top of it I was neither an aggressive nor
confrontational guy by nature. I actually had no idea how I was going to
handle this situation. But I figured that since I was the oldest person
here I had to wield at least some authority. I prayed that would be enough.

As I stepped into the entrance hall, two girls hurried past me in the
opposite direction. They stopped when they ran into Nic.

"Great party, Nic," one of them told him, "but we gotta go."

"Yeah, Jarred is in one of his 'moods' again," the second girl added, "and
we don't want to be around when the fireworks really begin. Sorry Nic."
They each briefly embraced Nic then fled out the front door. This did not
bode well, I thought. Nic looked at me with a worried expression. I took a
deep breath to steady my nerves and my heart, then steeled myself for the
inevitable confrontation. "Let's do this," I told Nic and Robbie.

Together the three of us entered the living room. The party seemed to have
quickly degenerated into a drunken orgy thanks to the booze Jarred had
brought. A guy and a girl were kissing passionately on one of the couches,
oblivious to everything around them, while a bunch of kids danced drunkenly
on the 'dance floor', each toting expensive-looking crystal glasses full to
the brim with brandy. Nic paled when he saw this, and moaned, "My mom's
crystal wine glasses." We also saw that one of the picture frames that had
hung on the wall near the staircase lay shattered on the floor; this was
the broken glass we'd heard earlier. I noticed that the majority of those
who were drunk were of Jarred's group; most of Nic's invited guests were
still sober and were huddled together in groups to the side, grasping their
plastic cups of soda and whispering softly to one another. Some of them
looked as if they were trying to decide if they should give in and have
some of Jarred's booze or not. As for the instigator of all this, Jarred
Bayden, he was sitting on a couch with a giggling girl snuggled up on
either side of him and a glass of brandy in both hands. He was relating to
two of his buddies standing over him how he was going to slit the throat of
a guy he'd found out was gay. They were laughing and agreeing with him
about how 'all the faggots should burn in hell'. I seethed inside at their
hateful words.

Jarred caught sight of us and broke into a huge grin. "Nicky! Robbie! Other
dude! Come join the party!" His words were barely comprehensible thanks to
the alcohol; in fact he looked and sounded utterly trashed. This was not
going to be easy. I gestured for Robbie to turn off the music, and in the
ensuing silence, trying to look more confident than I felt, I stepped
forward, and said in what I hoped was a very commanding tone," Jarred, you
and your drunken friends were not invited to this party. Please
leave. Now."

The noise level in the room immediately dropped. Suddenly everyone was
focused on me. I heard several more people run out the front door behind
me. I ignored them.

It took Jarred a while to comprehend what I was saying to him. Then he
grinned again and slurred," Whosthis funny jackass?"

"My name is Jason," I said clearly and slowly. "I'm Nic's cousin." Then a
thought came rushing into my head, and I silently thanked Robbie for coming
up with it in the first place. "I'm also a police officer back in
Pittsburgh," I lied confidently and smoothly. This caused some shuffling of
feet all around the room. It was now completely quiet save for the pounding
of my heart in my ears. "I'm not going to ask you again." I said
coldly. "Please leave."

Jarred looked around at the various faces in the room, then he looked back
at me and tried to focus on my face. "Well gee officer," he said, "I don't
want any trouble." He paused, his face going blank. Then he tried to focus
on me again and said, "Say, yous don't havany handcuffs on you, do you?
Only me and mah baby here,' - he squeezed the waist of one of the girls
next to him - 'werez looking fur a nice pair of handcuffz for later
tonight." I blinked at him in confusion, then suddenly the whole room burst
into laughter. Jarred was smiling broadly, loving the attention his joke
had garnered him. He tossed one of the glasses of brandy down his throat,
then dropped it in the general direction of the coffee table next to the
couch. It shattered on the floor.

I stood stunned and angry. I couldn't believe the bastard had brushed me
off like that. I was also fast running out of ideas. Then I heard the girl
Jarred had called his baby say to him, "He's damn handsome baby. I bet he's
as good in bed as you are." She burst into a fit of hysterical giggles,
then added almost as an afterthought to herself, "But no-one's as good as
Nicky."

Suddenly the room turned deathly quiet. I turned to look uneasily at Nic,
and saw an expression of sheer horror etched on his face.

Then I heard something that sent chills up my spine: in a voice colder than
the coldest winter's day, colder than an iceberg, Jarred growled a single
word, "What?"

"Oops," the girl said jovially," did I say that out loud? Sorry Nic."

"What?" Jarred repeated, louder and more fiercely.

"Hey baby, it's no big deal..." the girl began, her voice starting to
quaver as she tried to calm him.

Suddenly Jarred exploded. "YOU WHORE!!!" he shouted at her in outrage,
slapping her so hard with the back of his hand that she literally went
careening across the room. Behind me, someone screamed, then suddenly
everyone was running past me, desperate to get out of the house in case
Jarred turned his wrath towards them. I heard tires screech as the kids
tore away from the house.

Jarred leapt to his feet, flinging the remaining crystal glass from his
hand, its contents spraying all over the room before it shattered against
the far wall. He spun around, pinning Nic with an expression of pure
rage. Nic had gone deathly white, his eyes had gone wide, and he stood
rooted to the spot in shock.

"Bang my woman, will you!?" Jarred yelled. He had murder in his eyes, and
two of his groupies, as trashed as he was, came to his side, swaying
unsteadily. I saw he was preparing to lunge at Nic, and cried out, "No!",
but Jarred was totally gone, engulfed in an alcohol-infused fury, and in a
split-second he'd torn across the room and smashed into Nic, sending him
flying backwards. Someone else screamed, possibly Nic, then everything
became a blur. I vaguely remember throwing myself at Jarred's back,
desperately trying to pull him off of Nic, who he was pummeling mercilessly
with his fists. Robbie was right beside me, smashing his own fists into
Jarred's side in at attempt to get him to let up his brutal assault.

Then I felt a fist slam into my right kidney, and I doubled over in pain
and shock, tears suddenly rimming my eyes. Jarred's two friends had joined
the brawl and were attacking Robbie and me, throwing powerful punches in
our direction, which, thanks to their intoxicated state, were not nearly as
accurate or effective as they could've been. I felt another fist graze the
side of my head, making me see stars, and I was grateful that whoever had
thrown that punch hadn't been aiming well, because if it had connected
fully I'm sure it would've knocked me unconscious.

I forced myself back up, spun around and brought my arms up into a boxer's
guard position. I'd never done this kind of thing before, had never fought
anyone at all like this. I was breathing hard and my heart was pounding
like a gong in my ears and my vision was edged with blackness. But the one
thing that drove me on, that ignited in me strength and courage coupled
with a raw anger that I never even knew I possessed, was the sound of Nic
sobbing as Jarred pounded him. I stole a quick glance at them, saw Nic
feebly trying to turn aside Jarred's powerful blows, winced as one of
Jarred's attacks penetrated Nic's defenses to land a solid strike against
the side of his head. I had to help him, wanted desperately to help him,
but I could only do that once I'd dealt with the swaying teen in front of
me.

I shook my head, clearing the blackness from my eyes, and focused my
thoughts. Ok, I thought, I might be inexperienced at street brawling, and
though my opponent was big and powerful with a strong athletic frame, he
was also completely drunk. There had to be some way to take advantage of
that. He swung wildly at me, disrupting my thoughts, and I quickly brought
up an arm to deflect the blow, the impact stinging my forearm. My adversary
wobbled a bit on his feet as he swung again with his other arm, and again I
deflected the blow. He swung a third time, and once again I blocked his
fist.

I noted that he was definitely not steady on his feet, and realized that
that fact could be my salvation: if I could make him stumble somehow, it'd
take him a long time to recover, and in that time I could grab my
opportunity to fight back. But how to get him to stumble?

There wasn't much time to formulate any kind of plan, for I could see he
was getting frustrated that he wasn't getting through my defenses, and I
felt before I saw that he was going to go for the big one. He drew his
right arm way back, and then everything happened as if in slow motion. I
realized instantly and instinctively that the power behind the coming blow
would be too much to deflect, that if I took it on my arm it'd probably
snap in half. Then in the next instant another thought suggested itself:
don't even try to deflect the blow. In fact, don't even be there at all. If
there's nothing to connect with, he'll overcompensate...and probably
stumble. So as I watched my opponent's fist zero in on me, I let my knees
buckle beneath me, and I collapsed to the floor as his fist whizzed by
inches above my head. The kid had put so much energy into that attack,
fully expecting it to connect, that when it didn't and instead his arm kept
going forward, the rest of his body was tugged along as well. As he
staggered into me, I seized my chance, driving my own fist into his
stomach, and as he doubled over I went for his most vulnerable spot: his
groin. I punched him there hard, and he immediately collapsed into a foetal
position, groaning in agony, his hands covering his private explosion of
pain. As I got to my feet, the elation of victory swept over me, but there
wasn't time to bask in it; Nic needed me.

I rushed towards Jarred and joined Robbie, who'd somehow managed to knock
his opponent completely senseless, in struggling to pull him off of
Nic. But Jarred was a big guy, and he refused to budge. He ignored our
attacks and continued to rain heavy blows down on Nic, angrily shouting
over and over how he was going to blast the living daylights out of Nic,
who he was calling a "fucking disgusting faggot". I realized that his
excuse for attacking Nic was no longer that Nic had slept with his girl;
instead, he was now using his hatred of gays as an excuse to fuel his
anger. I figured that he probably didn't even know that Nic was actually
gay, but that didn't seem to make any difference. As I realized the extent
of his homophobia, my own anger grew and my blood boiled at his horrifying
attitude. This guy had to be taught a lesson.

I increased the intensity of my attacks, letting my fury feed strength to
my blows. But it was still like attacking a brick wall: the kid was just
too well muscled, and his frame absorbed the majority of the
damage. Finally I changed my strategy, and was able to wrap my arms around
his neck in a 'sleeper hold', forcing him to abandon his attack on Nic and
try and free himself from my grip to get air into his lungs. I hung onto
his neck while he threw punches back at me in an effort to dislodge me. As
I felt his strength start to fail him, I saw Robbie draw his fist back and,
with a grimly intense look on his face, he let if fly. I released my hold
on Jarred just as Robbie's fist smashed into Jarred's jaw, snapping the big
quarterback's head to the side. A moment later he slowly rolled off of Nic
and collapsed, blood oozing from his mouth, and I could see that, at last,
the fight had gone out of him.

Robbie and I stood over him. "Get out," I commanded him, barely able to
control the anger in my voice. "And if I find out that you've attacked
someone else you think is gay, whether they are or not, then you better
watch your back, because I'll be coming for you."

He somehow managed to get back to his feet, swayed a bit, then he headed
unsteadily to the front door. His two partners in crime, having also
recovered sufficiently from their injuries to get to their feet, trailed
behind him, one of them limping slightly. Jarred looked back at us, gave us
a hateful glare, then turned to his girl, who was the only other person
still in the house, and who was whimpering to herself on the other side of
the room. "Bitch!" he yelled at her, "Let's go!" The poor girl, completely
terrified of him in his current state, didn't dare disobey. She quickly got
to her feet and hurried after him, pausing as she passed Nic to say
quietly: "I'm so sorry Nicky. I never meant to tell him."

"Jenna!" Jarred yelled from outside. She quickly turned and ran out the
door. A few moments later there was a loud squeal of tires as Jarred and
his gang roared away, leaving the three of us alone once more.

While Robbie cradled his fist and swore about how hard Jarred's jaw was, I
dropped to my haunches beside Nic and looked him up and down to survey the
extent of the damage. As I did so I remembered doing something similar six
years earlier, after Nic had fallen over in the bathroom when I'd walked in
on him as he was changing. But this time was far more serious. Tears
streaked his face, he had a nasty cut above his right eye and his left jaw
was badly bruised. His lower lip also had a gash in it and blood was
trickling from it down his chin. I looked further down his body, noticing
that there was also blood seeping through a tear in his shirt at his right
shoulder, turning the navy-blue garment crimson. That was probably courtesy
of the big ring Jarred was wearing.

Robbie joined me beside Nic, his face full of concern. I looked over at
him, saw that he'd also taken a bit of a beating: his left eye was swollen
and he was favouring the hand he's smacked Jarred's jaw with. I seemed to
have gotten away with the fewest injuries, as I'd been able to avoid any
hits to my face, but my right kidney still ached, as did the side of my
head where Jarred had pounded me while trying to get me release my sleeper
hold on him. But for the moment, Nic's injuries were of the most pressing
concern.

"Hey buddy, are you ok?" I asked him softly, soothingly.

"I've been better," he croaked, managing a small smile. "God my head
hurts."

"That cut looks pretty bad," I told him. "I think we'd better get you to a
hospital to have it looked at. Come on."

I offered him my hand and pulled him gently to his feet. He looked around
the room, and I saw his heart sink. "My parents are gonna kill me," he said
softly. Three of the eight crystal wine glasses that had once stood atop a
cabinet in one corner of the room had been smashed, two of them by
Jarred. The brandy from the glass he'd hurled across the room had turned a
spot on the cream-coloured wall it'd impacted a dirty brown, and remnants
of the stuff still oozed down towards the floor. There were various stains
on the carpeted floor, mostly alcoholic in nature from the smell of them,
along with dozens of discarded crisps and crumbs thereof. A bottle of
Mountain Dew had been knocked over, and most of it had already seeped out
into the carpet. All in all, it looked like a miniature tornado had ripped
through the room.

"Huh, it's our own nightmare on Elm street," Robbie said as he looked
around, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Yeah," Nic agreed, smiling grimly. "Pity this one's real."

It was just over an hour later when we left the hospital. Nic had had to
have the cut on his forehead stitched up, while the wound on his shoulder
had been cleaned and bandaged. The bruising on his face and head, though it
looked horrible, would eventually heal and fade, we had been told. Robbie,
meanwhile, held an icepack to his swollen eye, while the hand he'd hit
Jarred's jaw with and that had been heavily bruised as a result, was
tightly bandaged.

So much for this being an awesome weekend, I thought sourly to myself as I
drove along the streets back towards Nic's house. I was meant to be
relaxing in the arms of my young lover, but instead I'd been fighting
almost for my life, and the life of said lover, against a gang of
homophobic drunkards. Things were definitely not going according to plan.

We'd driven in melancholic silence for twenty minutes, each of us wrapped
up in our own thoughts. Then Robbie asked casually, "So Nic, about what
Jenna said..." He paused, letting his sentence hang, prompting a response
from his friend. I'd forgotten about Jenna's claim that she'd slept with
Nic; suddenly my curiosity was piqued, along with a feeling of nervous
apprehension.

"What about what Jenna said?" Nic asked softly.

"Is it true? Or was she just so completely plastered that she was talking
gibberish?"

I glanced over at Nic, saw that he was looking back at me with a pained
expression, and suddenly I knew the truth, and in that instant everything
changed.

"You did, didn't you?" I asked him, trying not to let the feeling of
betrayal that suddenly coursed through me like a poison creep into my
voice, trying not to let the sudden chill of dread I felt show on my
face. "You slept with her, didn't you?"

He suddenly turned away, unable to face me anymore.

"Yes." His voice was barely a whisper.

"Why?" I was suddenly struggling with my emotions, felt like I was drowning
in them, felt like I was being sucked into a raging whirlpool of anger and
fear and hate and despair. He'd lied to me; he'd told me he loved me and
would remain true to me but it'd all been a lie. The shock of it was like a
physical blow to my gut, and I found that my breathing was coming in short,
ragged gasps.

When Nic eventually replied, it was in a voice so soft that I could barely
hear what he said. He closed his eyes, as if doing so would help to ease
the pain of the memories that came flooding back, and said, "To try and
prove to them, and to myself, that I wasn't gay."

It is difficult to describe how I felt on hearing his words. Betrayed, yes,
lied to, cheated, cast aside. But I could also hear in the way Nic
whispered those words how much it had pained him to do what he had done. He
said he'd wanted to prove not only to everyone else, but to himself as
well, that he wasn't gay. Evidently his adolescence wasn't nearly as smooth
as he'd led me to believe, and I realized that what I'd predicted six years
earlier at the summer camp had been true: his feelings had changed as he'd
grown older, and he hadn't thought only about me; I suppose it was selfish
of me to have believed otherwise. The journey through adolescence is never
easy, and for a boy who thinks he might be gay it's even worse, especially
when every other guy around him, including his best friend, is talking
about how great sex with a girl is and wondering why he hasn't tried it
yet. I knew full well how difficult that path was, for I'd walked it
myself, so as Nic bared his soul to us the feeling of betrayal gradually
weakened and was replaced by sadness and deep sympathy.

It was horrible, he explained, trying to understand as he grew up and
puberty truly took hold, why he didn't feel the same way all the other boys
did. He'd really enjoyed what he and I had done at the summer camp, and
then suddenly everyone was saying it was a disgusting thing, that guys who
did that stuff should burn in hell for it. And guys like Jarred and his
gang made it crystal clear how they felt about gays, and what they'd do to
one should they find one, which made Nic's dilemma all the more worse. He'd
been so confused and felt so alone, for he couldn't tell Robbie about it
for fear of being shunned by him as well. So eventually he'd decided that
he didn't want to be gay, that he didn't want to burn in hell, that he'd
rather be straight and normal. But for starters that would mean breaking
off his relationship with me, and he was afraid how I'd react were he to do
that, especially considering how he'd made his feelings for me so plain and
clear and terribly concrete. So he'd decided that he would lie to me and
say he still loved me - which was one of the hardest things he'd ever done
- while in reality he'd try to find a girl he could sleep with, an act that
he hoped would not only ensure that no-one would think him gay, but would
also set him on the straight path.

Unfortunately, the only girl who'd been interested in him was Jenna, who
was Jarred's girlfriend. She'd been pressing him privately for many months
to sleep with her, as she was bored with Jarred. Nic was hesitant, fearing
Jarred's well-known wrath, but Jenna assured him that they'd keep it a
closely-guarded secret between the two of them only. So Nic had agreed to
sleep with her, but only if she vouched for him to Jarred that he'd slept
with a girl and thus prove that he wasn't gay. She'd agreed, and so she and
Nic got together one night, and did it. The next day Nic proclaimed to
Jarred that he'd made out with a girl, and Jenna backed him up by saying it
was one of her friends from another school, who'd of course told her all
about it. When Robbie had asked him about it, having heard the rumours, Nic
had lied and said he'd made up the story to get Jarred off his back. He'd
hated lying to Robbie, because best friends were supposed to tell each
other everything, but he couldn't take the risk that it would somehow get
back to Jarred. And Robbie had believed him, had believed his lie.

So despite the web of deceptions that Nic had enveloped himself in,
everything, it seemed, was working out ok.

Except for one small problem: Nic had found he was still attracted to guys,
and no matter how hard he tried, he still could not forget what had
happened at the summer camp and how good it had made him feel. Even sex
with Jenna paled in comparison to that experience. And though he did his
best to forget about me, his mind kept returning to images of me, until one
day he realized that he was gay, that there was nothing he could do about
it and he might as well accept it. And he did - at least to himself, for he
was too afraid to reveal the truth to anyone lest Jarred found out. For the
time being, his 'incident' with Jenna would at least have everyone thinking
he was straight, which was fine with him. But in his heart of hearts he
resolved once more to remain true to one person, and he knew that when he
was of the right age, that person, that man, would be waiting for him.

And that man was me.

Nic's story had crept into my heart and shook me to my core. If I hadn't
been driving I would've wrapped my arms around him tightly and never let
him go. As it was my eyes were misting over, and I furiously blinked back
the tears to keep them from disrupting my vision of the road.

"I'm so sorry I lied to you," Nic whispered, "to both of you."

"It's ok Nic," I said, my throat tight. "I understand, more than you know."

"Yeah, me too," Robbie added from the back seat. "Must've been hell for
you."

"It was," Nic said.

"You know I would've tried to help you through it if I could, if you'd only
told me," Robbie said.

"I know Robbie. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I really am."

We fell into silence for a while. Then I said," You know, Nic, technically
you didn't lie to me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, you said that you had decided to lie to me and tell me you loved me
when you actually didn't. But you never really did stop loving me, did
you?"

"No, I guess I didn't," he admitted, his cheeks turning red.

"So you don't have to feel too bad, then."

"Thanks."

Then Robbie asked, "Nic, since this is all now coming out into the open,
there, ah, isn't anything else you haven't told me, is there?"

"No, I think that's everything. I've bared my entire soul to you now."

"Oh. So then it wasn't you who put that itching powder in my jocks back in
the ninth grade, was it?"

I saw a smile form on Nic's face. "No, wasn't me, sorry."

"Damn!" Robbie said light-heartedly. "I still haven't figured out who did
that."

"Must've been quite an experience," I observed wryly.

"You have no idea," Robbie said.

As we all laughed, I felt the frost that had enveloped my heart on hearing
Nic's confession dissolve entirely, burnt away by the fierceness of the
growing love that I felt for him. He'd made a mistake, yes, but he'd
admitted it and rectified it, and no serious damage had come of it. In
fact, if anything, it had brought us closer together.

Then I felt his hand lightly touch my leg, palm up, and when I looked over
at him I saw that his eyes were sparkling and hopeful and a small smile
creased his still-boyish features. I took his hand in mine, holding it
tightly, and in that touch I could feel the depth of his love for me, and I
suddenly realized just how much I meant to him, and he to me. The bond
between us had been strengthened this night, our love made even more solid
and pure. I could hardly wait to take him in my arms and show him how much
I loved him. Soon, I told myself, very soon, I would.

When I finally pulled up the drive of Nic's house it was just after 2 in
the morning. As we walked through the front door, Robbie said it was way
too late to try and ride home now; up until about 1 was ok, he explained,
but after that there was a good chance you'd be taken out by a drunk driver
meandering home. So, despite my frantic glances at Nic indicating that I
wanted to be alone with him, it was agreed that Robbie would spend the
night with us. He sent off a quick SMS to his dad explaining as much, then
he helped Nic and I try to tidy up the house a little.

Just before 3am, the three of us collapsed into the couches, totally
exhausted. We'd done the best we could with the brandy stains on the wall
and floor, and we'd collected each and every crisp and crumb we could find
and tossed them into the garbage. I was so tired I didn't think I'd even
make it up the stairs to bed.

Nic had dropped into the couch beside me and was leaning against me with
his head resting on my shoulder. Robbie was sitting on the back of the
couch opposite us with his bare feet resting on the cushions, his back
resting against the wall behind the couch, downing the remains of a bottle
of Mountain Dew. We'd turned the radio on softly, and the station was
playing slow, romantic melodies.

"What a night," Robbie said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "A bit wilder than you guys had hoped, I suppose."

"Much wilder," Nic said. "Remind me never to have a party again."

I snorted a laugh.

"Hey, am I still your anti-intimacy guy?" Robbie asked a short while later.

"There's no-one else around, so I don't think so," Nic told him. "Why do
you ask?"

"Well, I see that you two are holding hands - and have been since you sat
down - but neither of you seems to have noticed it."

He was right: I hadn't even realized I'd taken Nic's hand in mine and was
holding it tightly.

"See what I mean?" Robbie continued, his tone light and jovial once
again. "You guys keep this up and the whole world will know you dig each
other before you can say 'homosexual'."

Nic and I both laughed.

"Right now," Nic said softly, "I don't think I care if the whole world does
know about us. I love Jason, and nothing they can do or say is going to
change that."

"Ditto," I added, leaning over to kiss Nic softly on the lips.

"Oh brother," I head Robbie say with a roll of his eyes.

Then I heard the song.

"Nic," I whispered to him, "listen, they're playing our song."

Nic sat up straighter. From the stereo came the distinctive, smooth voice
of Phil Collins. The song: Groovy Kind of Love. I'd fallen in love with
this song the first time I'd heard it, amazed at the awesome yet simple
tune and the passionate lyrics, and I'd been pleasantly surprised when Nic
told me one day on IRC that it was his favourite song too. We'd often
talked how we would dance to it together one day, and now, suddenly, here
was our opportunity, far sooner than I think either of us expected. I was
tired and didn't think I'd even be able to stand let alone dance, but I'd
learned long ago not to balk at the gifts destiny offered me. So I forced
myself to my feet and offered my hand to Nic. He smiled up at me, his whole
face glowing in spite of his injuries, and accepted my invitation. We
stepped to the little dance floor, wrapped our arms around each other, and
fell into the music.

I will never forget that moment, as I held Nic close to me and he held me
close to him, as his head rested on my shoulder and his sweet fragrance
filled my nostrils, as we danced slowly while Phil crooned: "When I'm in
your arms, nothing seems to matter, my whole world can shatter, I don't
care." He was right: at that moment I felt like my whole world could fall
apart, but it wouldn't matter as long as I had Nic in my arms. He had
become the most important thing in my life, and I never wanted to let him
go.

Finally the song came to an end, and we drifted back to the couch, our arms
around the other's waist. As we sat down Robbie said: "Man, you two are
really the happy couple. I'm getting the feeling that you were really
destined to be together."

"I got that feeling six years ago," Nic told him. "I tried to deny it, but
I think destiny had other plans."

"You can't fight destiny," I said.

"And it's a good thing, too!" Nic added, smiling and squeezing my waist.

"Nic, there's something I want to ask you." Robbie was looking and sounding
uncharacteristically more serious than usual.

"Yeah?"

"Now that you've found your, um, significant other, is there, I mean, will
there still be room in your life for me?"

Considering the look on Robbie's face, I could tell he'd been grappling
with this thought for some time now and was deathly afraid Nic would say
no. And he had a point: with me on the scene, his gay lover, was there
indeed a need for a male best friend? I'd never been in this kind of
situation; I didn't know what the solution should be.

But Nic did.

He got to his feet, walked over to Robbie, put an arm companionably around
his shoulder, and said: "You're my best friend Robbie. Nothing or no-one
will ever change that, not even Jason. Ok?"

Robbie visibly relaxed, and he grinned. "Great. I knew that'd be your
answer, but I just wanted to make sure."

Nic smile, then he gave his friend a tight hug, and through it he assured
him that they'd be friends for a long time to come.

When they parted, Robbie looked like he was thinking hard about something,
then he said, "Hey, you guys know it's Sunday now, right?"

I looked at quizzically Robbie, then realization suddenly dawned: Sunday,
Nic's birthday. With everything that had happened I'd completely forgotten
the reason I was even here, but now it all came rushing back to me.

"Of course!" I exclaimed, then I hurried over to Nic and gave him a big
hug, saying, "Happy birthday Nic." Then Robbie enveloped Nic in a hug,
slapping him on the back and also congratulating him.

"Thanks guys," Nic said, beaming brightly despite his injuries.

"Don't move," Robbie said, then he jumped off the chair and bounded up the
stairs. He came back half a minute later with a small, wrapped object in
his hands. He offered the present to Nic.

"Happy birthday, buddy."

"Thanks Rob," Nic said as he unwrapped the object. It was a little flash
drive/MP3 player combo.

"I know you've been talking about getting one," Robbie explained. "Now you
don't have to."

"Thanks Rob," Nic repeated, smiling gratefully at his friend.

"There's, um, some stuff already on there," Robbie added with an
embarrassed little smile. "But I guess now you won't find it interesting,
so you can just delete it."

"Robbie," Nic said, mock-aghast, "did you give me porn for a birthday
present?"

"Yeah," Robbie mumbled, laughing under his breath. Nic joined him, and I
couldn't help smiling myself.

After a while I glanced at Robbie, then at Nic, and said awkwardly, "Um, I
was going to give you your present tonight as well, but you don't mind if I
give it to you tomorrow instead, do you?"

Before Nic could reply, Robbie said, "It's ok, Jason, you can give Nic his
'present' tonight." He'd seen right through me, the clever bugger, though I
suppose that wasn't too hard to do. "Just try not to make too much of a
racket, ok?" he added with a wink and a sly smile.

"Ok," I agreed, smiling back.

Then Robbie yawned and stretched. "Well, dunno about you two, but I think
I'm about ready to hit the hay."

"That sounds like a good idea," I agreed, also yawning.

"Then I guess I'll turn in too," Nic added. "Robbie, since it looks like
I'll be sleeping in Jason's room, I guess you can have my room."

"Great," Robbie replied, getting to his feet. Nic and I did the same, then
we turned out the lights downstairs and headed up to our rooms.

"He's such an awesome guy," I said of Robbie as Nic and I sank side by side
onto my bed. "I wish I'd had a friend like him when I was growing up."

"Didn't you have a best friend at all?" Nic asked me as he pulled his shoes
and socks off.

"I did, up until the point I tried to kiss him when I thought he was
asleep." I smiled to myself as the memory came back to me.

"You tried to kiss your best friend?" Nic asked incredulously.

"Yeah. His name was Joshua. We were only 11, and he was pretty cute. I
didn't realise I was gay then, but I did know that every time I thought
about him or saw him my heart would give a flutter, and so would my dick! I
thought it would be pretty cool to kiss him, since the adults in the movies
I saw all seemed to enjoy it, but I didn't think he'd be too happy with me
if I tried it on him since we were both boys. So I invited him to sleep
over at my house one night, planning on kissing him once he'd fallen
asleep. But I was so excited about it that I didn't even wait to make sure
he was asleep! I remember leaning over him and thinking just how damn hot
he was, then I kissed him square on the lips."

"And he was still awake?"

"Yep. He screamed out, and my mom came running. Before he could tell her
what I'd done I assured her we'd just been playing. After she'd gone I
apologized to Joshua profusely, but he wanted none of it, and that was
basically the end of our friendship. He avoided me entirely after that, and
I haven't had any other friend as close as him since. Ah, the life of a
gay," I ended sadly.

"Well," Nic said, leaning in towards me with a mischievous smile on his
face, "now you've got me, and I think we can get pretty close." He gave me
a little peck on the cheek, making me smile, then I felt his fingers
tentatively touch my groin. My penis responded instantly, growing to its
full erect length in record time.

"I haven't jacked off in a week," Nic whispered seductively into my ear as
he continued to fondle me through my pants. "I wanted to hold back...for
tonight."

"I'll try not to disappoint you then," I murmured, reaching over to caress
Nic's cheek. Suddenly he jerked his head back.

"Sorry," I said. "I'd forgotten about your wounds."

"It's ok," he replied with a smile. "We'll just have to take it easy."

"Fine with me," I said, reaching over to caress his cheek again, this time
more carefully. As I stroked his skin with my fingertips, I found myself
thinking back to what I'd found so attractive about him as a boy. It hadn't
really been any one specific thing; instead, everything about him - his
arms, his long legs, his golden tan, his sandy-blonde hair that tickled his
eyebrows, his sparkling grey-green eyes, his cute little nose, the softness
of his skin, his warm personality, his charming smile - all of it came
together into something incredibly awesome and special to me. And I
realized that, though six years had passed and his body had developed as
he'd grown older and more mature, everything about him was as awesome and
special as it had been six years ago. And that, I think, made me fall in
love with him all over again.

So before I knew it, I'd leaned close to him and planted my lips against
his and kissed him passionately, communicating to him with my mouth and my
tongue and my touch how much I loved him. Then I felt his hands slide down
my sides, grab the bottom edge of my shirt, and pull it up and over my
head. He smiled at the sight of my naked chest, ran his fingers lovingly
over my nipples and down to my stomach, caressing my navel. "I've been
waiting six years to do this again," he said, before bringing his lips to
my chest and gently kissing my right nipple. I moaned softly with pleasure
as he rubbed my nipple with his coarse tongue, his saliva trickling down my
ribs.

I lay back on the bed, pulling him on top of me and kissing his warm sweet
lips again. As our tongues explored each other's mouth, I ran my hands
under his shirt and rubbed his back and sides, feeling every contour and
curve of his silky-smooth skin.

My body was now hot with sexual heat and the earlier exhaustion I'd felt
had vanished as my body prepared itself for love-making. My penis was
completely rock-hard, harder than I think it'd ever been before. I was
greatly excited and aroused by Nic's taste and his sweet, boyish aroma that
flowed from him like perfume.

I pushed him back so that he was straddling me, and I helped him get his
shirt off. I ran my hands up and down his chest, exploring every inch of
it, gently tweaking his nipples, reveling in the feel of his awesome young
body.

Then he moved off of me and got to his feet, making to undo his belt buckle
and get rid of his two remaining items of clothing. I sat up and moved to
the edge of the bed, saying: "Let me do that," and I gently pushed his
hands away before grabbing his belt buckle and unfastening it. As I fondled
him through his pants I also undid the single button and pulled down his
zipper, and then his pants simply slid down his legs to the floor. He was
wearing a pair of shiny black boxers, and his erection had made quite a
tent at the front. There was also a generous spot of precum where the tip
of his manhood strained against the cotton. I slipped my fingers inside the
waistband and pulled the shorts down. He stepped out of them, and I sat
back, looking hard at him.

The last time I'd seen him naked, had really looked at his incredible body,
he'd been a shy little boy; now he was a proud young man, and his body
reflected that. He was now probably a hint over 6 feet tall, with long,
well-muscled and darkly tanned legs, equally well-muscled and tanned arms,
and an impressive, golden-brown chest and stomach. He had a couple of
short, blonde-brown hairs around his nipples and a few around his navel as
well, with a thicker trail below his belly-button leading down to the bush
of pubic hairs in his groin. He also had two small scars on his stomach
where his appendix had been removed when he was a boy; I thought they made
him look rugged and dashing and even more sexy. His upper arms and
shoulders had a few freckles spread about, while a light smattering of
short blonde hairs covered his forearms and his legs.

Then I brought my gaze to his most interesting and intimate parts. His
penis had grown from the short and stubby thing I remembered into an
impressive, not-quite 6 inch rod. His nuts had grown bigger by roughly a
third of their size from when he was 12, and they hung low between his
legs. His scrotum was dark, and wrinkled where it connected with his shaft,
and it also had a fair amount of long black pubic hairs about it. He'd also
grown quite a thick forest of pubes at the base of his shaft, and each one
was long and dark and curly. The shaft itself was curved ever so slightly
towards him, and as a result the head of his tool pointed straight at his
chin. Precum oozed from his slit, and it glistened as it spread slowly
about his glans.

He looked so amazing standing naked in front of me, so incredibly
delicious. I looked him up and down slowly a couple of times, drinking in
his every detail. He was everything I remembered, and so much more, and I
suddenly wanted him, all of him, desperately and in every way possible.

I reached out a hand, intending to draw his shaft towards my lips, eager to
taste him and feel him pumping in and out of my mouth again, but he stopped
me. "Wait," he murmured softly, "let me free you first, then we can go down
on each other, ok?" That sounded like a good plan. I got to my feet, let
him unfasten my belt and pull down my pants. My heart pounded with
excitement as he slid my briefs down my legs and I stood naked before him,
my erection full and eager and pulsing with sexual tension. I felt him wrap
his hand around my penis as he brought his lips to mine, and as we kissed
again he slowly began pumping my shaft. I returned the favour, grabbing
hold of his manhood, enjoying the stiffness of it in my grip, and steadily
wanking him. As we sucked on each other's tongue and wanked and fondled
each other's shaft and nuts, I felt his left hand sliding up and down my
back, caressing my ass and exploring the crack between my cheeks. We did
this for about a minute, then I let go of his penis, stepped back to the
bed and lowered myself onto it, drawing him down with me, feeling his
strong chest press against my own as he lay on top of me. Our lips were
locked together the whole time and our eyes were shut as we enjoyed the
intense pleasure we were giving each other. He pressed his hands into the
mattress on either side of my head and moved his hips about, and I could
feel his rock-hard penis grinding against my belly, his precum leaking into
my navel as he humped me.

When our lips parted, I looked into his grey-green eyes and murmured
hungrily, "Enough with this boring kissing. I want to taste your dick."

He grinned, then he turned himself around into a 69 position. I grabbed
hold of his throbbing shaft, directed it towards my eager lips, felt him do
the same to my rod. I breathed in deeply, drawing the scent of his manhood
into my nostrils, savouring the hot, musky aroma. I ran my left hand
through his pubes, then moved it to his sack with its big nuts and started
playing with them. All the while I was pulling his penis closer and closer
to my mouth, excitement rising, until finally my lips kissed the tip of his
glans. Then I opened my mouth wide and engulfed him, taking his entire
length down my throat in one swift move. I heard him gasp, then felt him do
the same thing to me, burying his nose in my pubes. I ran my tongue and
mouth all over his shaft, licking every inch of it, feeling every groove
and bump, loving the taste and texture of his manhood and the clear precum
that oozed out.

As I sucked him I started comparing him to how he felt and tasted as a boy
six years ago. Back then his erection had been stiff but small, his shaft
no more than 4 inches long, and I had had no trouble taking his full length
in my mouth. His nuts had been held tightly together against his groin, and
he'd had only a few pubic hairs. His boyish aroma had been soft and subtle
and sweet, yet strong enough to arouse me. Now, his erection was nearly 6
inches, with an impressive girth, and I could only just get his entire
length in my mouth. His scent had also become far stronger and sharper, and
not only did it arouse me, it drove me wild with passion and lust!

As I thought about all this, my mind was brought back into sharp focus by
the wonders Nic was performing on my own manhood. His tonguing and licking
of my shaft had my entire body quivering. He'd lick all over my glans,
bringing me almost to orgasm, then he'd stop and stroke and lick my shaft
slowly and gently, while at the same time gently massaging my nuts. At one
point he locked his lips around the base of my penis, then he slowly, so
slowly, backed off of it, one inch at a time, sending the most intense
pleasure I'd ever felt coursing up and down my dick. I came to the brink of
orgasm as his lips reached my sensitive glans, but he felt my imminent
explosion and drew his mouth away, no doubt wanting me to experience a
truly memorable orgasm by making the build-up last longer. As the feeling
faded he went back to stroking and petting and lightly kissing my shaft.

I popped his shaft out my mouth for a bit and stroked it with my hand while
I licked every inch of his flared pink head. Then I engulfed him again,
tasting every inch of his rod, and with my left hand I started gently
massaging his balls. I wanted to taste his love-nectar, wanted to once
again feel his penis erupt and shoot wave after wave of hot semen down my
throat. I started moaning loudly, incoherent thanks to the dick stuffed in
my mouth, but they were moans of ecstasy at what Nic was doing to me, and
moans of desire to feel him cum in my mouth. Nic also started groaning in
pleasure, and I felt his nuts draw tightly together and his penis get even
harder as he approached his explosive climax.

"Hey you two. Having fun?" Robbie's voice broke suddenly into our
passionate sex-play, strangely loud in the silence of the night. I raised
my eyes up towards the doorway and saw Robbie standing there, his muscular
frame a shadowy silhouette in the soft moonlight. I quickly, but
reluctantly, tore my mouth away from Nic's throbbing dick.

"Shit Robbie," I exclaimed as Nic rolled off of me. "Don't you believe in
knocking?"

Robbie's voice was playful as he replied, "Yeah, sorry, but the door was
kinda open."

I noticed he was right. "Geez, sorry man," I said, my anger quickly turning
to embarrassment, "I didn't realize it was open. Were we making too much
noise?

"Yeah, you're making too much noise. I told you guys not to, but you didn't
listen..." - he came closer to the bed, and I suddenly saw that he was
naked and was nursing a proud erection of his own - "...and now I'm damn
horny!" He smiled sheepishly, and waved his bandaged hand at us as he said,
"I tried by myself, but I'm kinda having a little trouble here. Don't
suppose you guys could help me out, maybe suck me off or something?"

I propped myself up on one elbow and took a good look at him, sudden
excitement coursing through me. He was breathing heavily, and sweat
glistened on his body; no doubt he'd been awake and trying to jack off for
some time.

I heard Nic ask, "Wouldn't it bother you to be sucked by a gay?"

"Can't be that different from having a girl do it," Robbie
responded. "Which I've experienced a couple of times, as you well know, "
he added, glancing meaningfully over at Nic and rubbing in how he'd been
hurt by Nic not telling him about having had sex with either me or Jenna,
seeing as he figured that best friends shouldn't keep secrets from each
other.

"Come on guys," he continued as he eased himself down on the edge of the
bed, favouring his injured hand, "I'm dying here!" He looked at Nic, then
at me. "Please?"

I couldn't believe how open-mindedly and unconcernedly he was approaching
this; quite a difference from Jarred and his lackeys. And he did have a
point, kindof: it wouldn't be fair for Nic and I to pleasure each other but
for him to be left out. I admired his courage and trust in us by asking of
us what he did. He wanted to have fun with us despite the fact that he was
straight and we were gay, but he'd made it crystal clear that he was
straight and had set his boundaries accordingly. I think if our positions
were reversed, I would never have been able to ask what he'd asked.

Nic, though, looked a little uncomfortable about the idea. After all,
Robbie was his best friend, and he'd honestly never intended to explore
their relationship from a sexual side. So I leaned over to him and
whispered in his ear, "I'll do it." Nic nodded at me gratefully, and Robbie
said, "Great." I saw his shoulders relax slightly, and figured he'd
probably been hoping I'd be the one to offer to suck him off as he'd also
feel a little uncomfortable about having Nic do it.

Well, I thought to myself as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and
scooted over next to Robbie, who was eagerly fondling himself with his left
hand, this night has certainly become a hundred times more interesting.

"You sure you wanna do this?" I asked him one last time.

"Yep. Enjoy yourself. But," he added half-seriously, "don't get up to any
funny business. I draw the line at being done up the ass, thank you." And
with that he lay back onto the bed, propping himself up on his elbows to
watch the show, his long, thick, circumcised penis pointing straight into
the sky, throbbing with sexual excitement, precum oozing from his slit and
glistening in the moonlight.

I glanced at Nic one more time - he now looked slightly more comfortable
and seemed at ease with the idea of his lover going down on his best friend
- then I lowered my face to Robbie's groin.

I was hit by an almost dizzying wave of his strong, sensual aroma. I let
his sexual scent permeate my nostrils, breathing him in deeply before
reaching out my right hand to grab the base of his shaft and take a good
look at his proud manhood. In comparison to Nic, Robbie's penis was
probably about half an inch longer, and he had significantly more girth,
making it thicker and his erection stronger and fuller. I aimed his shaft
at my mouth, then pressed my lips to the sensitive mushroom head; he tasted
more exotic than Nic, wilder and more potent, just like his
personality. Then I opened my mouth and glided all the way down his shaft
until my nose was buried in his dark, curly pubes, the tip of his dick
tickling the back of my throat. "Oh yeah," I heard him moan in
pleasure. "Man that's good." I slid my mouth up and down his shaft several
more times before popping it out and tonguing the sweet spot at the back of
his glans. Then I reached out my left hand to play with his balls, which
hung low between his open legs. His nuts were big and firm, and his sack
was covered with a smattering of long black hairs.

His dick began to throb more urgently in my mouth now; no doubt he was
pretty close to his orgasm thanks to his private jack-off session prior to
joining us. In response, I increased the speed and intensity of my tonguing
and licking of him, and ran the fingers of my left hand all over his sack,
gently squeezing and massaging his balls, coaxing him to cum.

Around that time I heard Nic slip off the bed and come around to me. He
dropped to his haunches in front of me, then I felt him envelop my own
erection in his hungry mouth. That sent a feeling through me that's
difficult to put into words, for now I was sucking and being sucked at the
same time. It felt incredibly weird, but incredibly awesome.

Nic and I had brought each other really close to orgasm before Robbie had
joined us, so I knew he wouldn't have to do much to get me past the point
of no return. Robbie was also rapidly approaching that point, and his sack
had tightened up in preparation for his release. He'd lowered his head and
shoulders to the bed, and no doubt had his eyes closed, and his whole body
was squirming with excitement while he moaned loudly. Meanwhile Nic was
tonguing and licking and stroking my shaft and sack expertly, pulling me
closer and closer to the edge. I wanted to cry out in delight, but my mouth
was stuffed with Robbie's tool, so instead I let out a long moan of
satisfaction.

"Man I'm gonna explode!" I heard Robbie cry an instant before he did just
that, shooting wave after wave of his sweet man-juice down my throat. I
swallowed it all down, my lips milking him for more, then felt my own
explosion wrack my entire body. I could give Nic no warning, but he
responded quickly to my ejaculation, wrapping his lips around the base of
my shaft and sucking me hard as I came into his warm mouth, increasing the
ecstasy of my orgasm.

Finally it subsided, and Nic let my spent manhood slip from his mouth. I
lifted my own mouth off of Robbie's dick, saw a little more cum trickling
out onto his belly. I lay back onto the bed beside Robbie, doubly
exhausted, then I felt Nic clamber on top of me and press his lips to
mine. I kissed him back, the salty taste of my own cum mixing with that of
Robbie's.

When our lips parted I turned my head and looked over at Robbie. His chest
was heaving, and he was basking in the aftermath of his orgasm. Then I saw
that he was watching us with a sly grin on his face. "When you two are
quite finished," he said.

Nic smiled at him. "Heck, we're only just getting started."

Robbie laughed and sat up quickly. "Well I think that's my cue to leave,"
he joked.

"You don't have to go yet," I told him, eager now to try and explore him
further.

"Nah, I think I'll give you guys some time alone now." He took a deep
breath and got to his feet.

"So how was I?" I asked him.

He turned to regard me. "Oh, you score about a seven out of ten." I raised
my eyebrows at him. "Ok, maybe an eight," he added with a grin. Then he
turned and headed for the door. "You two have fun now," he said over his
shoulder. "But try to be a little quieter this time, ok?"

"We will be," Nic promised him.

Robbie sauntered out the room, idly fondling his softening penis, but then
popped his head around the corner and said seriously, "Thanks Jason, that
was really great."

"Anytime," I told him. He winked at me and grinned, then headed back to his
room, one happy, satisfied young man.

Nic rolled off of me to the warm spot of the bed where Robbie had been
lying.

"I'm sorry Nic," I said a short while later.

He turned his head to look at me. "What for?"

"For letting Robbie intrude on us, and giving in to his demands. I know how
weird that must have been for you."

"Hey, it's ok," he assured me. "It was a little weird, but I'm cool with
it. And besides, it was a little unfair of us to go and forget about
him. And he seems totally cool with it too." He fell silent for a bit. Then
he said with a mischievous glint in his eye, "You know, watching you go
down on him like that... I mean, when you go home tomorrow, maybe he and
I..."

"Don't even think about it!" Robbie yelled down the corridor, and Nic and I
burst into laughter.

"Just kidding," Nic shouted back, then he slid off the bed and padded over
to the door. "I think maybe we should close the door properly," he said
loudly.

"Good idea," came Robbie's reply. Nic silently pulled the door shut, then
returned to the bed and lay down beside me again. He snuggled in close to
me, and I felt his hard pecker poking my leg.

"I think I owe you a favour," I told him, stroking his hair with my right
hand while I ran my left along his side and back.

"You don't have to," he whispered back. "You've already sucked off one guy
tonight."

"Yeah, but it wasn't you," I told him. "Now get your dick in my face before
I have to force you."

He laughed, then I pushed myself up the bed and propped my head up against
the headboard with two pillows. Nic then got himself into position to fuck
my face, straddling my chest and resting his hands on the headboard behind
me. He inched closer, and I grasped his penis and guided it the last few
inches toward its target. As his head touched my lips I said, "Go wild,
Nic. Don't hold back."

"If you say so," he replied gleefully, then he thrust his hips forward,
penetrating my mouth and pushing his dick right to the back of my
throat. He pulled out to the very tip, then pushed forward again, quickly
establishing a rhythm. I moved my tongue around his shaft as he pumped in
and out and I helped his thrusts by grabbing his ass cheeks and pulling him
forward and back. Watching his penis disappear and reappear inches below my
nose, and seeing his gorgeous tanned stomach with its defined six-pack and
cute innie belly-button coming within a hair's breadth of my face drove me
wild, and I found I was fully erect again, oozing precum crazily. And the
harder I became, the more desperate I was to pleasure him and feel him
shoot down my throat.

His thrusts soon became faster and more forceful, and a groan would escape
his lips with every push forwards. His was really going wild, just as I'd
told him to, and his entire body seemed to be participating in his fucking
of my face. I felt his knees dig into my sides as he tried twisting his
hips this way and that as he pumped me, felt his ass cheeks clench and
unclench beneath my fingertips, felt his balls slap against my chin every
two seconds like clockwork. Then his moans became guttural and more
intense, and his humping became even faster and more frantic. I tightened
my lips around his shaft as he pumped my mouth like there was no tomorrow.

As his orgasm drew close he lifted his body right up so he was leaning
right over me, and he was now no longer pumping me horizontally, but
diagonally downwards, and as a result I'd had to tilt my head back and so
was now staring at his gold-bronze chest. I watched it heave as his
breathing became quicker and heavier, his muscles tightening deliciously as
he did so. Beads of sweat slowly formed around his pecs, and I watched them
trickle down his stomach.

As the speed of his thrusts increased, I gave up trying to tickle his dick
with my tongue as it slid in and out of my mouth, and instead just let him
pump away, enjoying his strong, exciting taste. I felt his shaft grow even
harder and knew he was approaching his climax, so I dug my fingers into his
ass, squeezing his cheeks tightly, and then with a primal scream of pure
ecstasy he exploded into my mouth, shooting hard and fast, wave after wave
of hot semen flying down my throat. I swallowed the cum from his initial
burst quickly, the action tightening my throat and making the tip of his
erupting mahood tickle the back of my mouth.

"Oh man," I heard him moan as he continued to shoot volleys of man-milk
down my throat, "Oh God yeah! Geez that's awesome." I continued to suck him
as he continued to pump, drawing every last drop of his cum out of his
dick. Even as his penis started to soften I kept my lips wrapped around it
and sucked, swirling my cum-soaked tongue all about it. I felt his lips
touch my hair and he started kissing my head, and still I continued to suck
his dick. If I could, I would've kept his manhood in my mouth forever, such
was my love of the feel of it in my mouth and the taste of it on my tongue.

Finally, I opened my mouth and let him pull out, and he slid back down my
body so he was lying fully on top of me. Without a sound he lowered his
face to mine and kissed me, and this time he got to taste his cum as I
pushed my tongue into his mouth. I ran my fingers through his long
blonde-brown hair as we kissed. Then we parted, and he lay his head on my
chest, his hair tickling my skin. I could feel his own chest rising and
falling steadily.

"That was incredible," he said softly after a while. "I'd forgotten how
good it felt."

"Glad to be of service," I told him.

At that point he must've felt my erection poking his butt, for he lifted
his head, looked right into my eyes, and asked, "Do you want to fuck me?"

I'd actually forgotten that I was hard again, and his question made me even
harder.

"I'd love to fuck you," I replied. "So long as you're ok with it."

"Yeah, I'm ok with it." Then he smiled, and added, "In fact, ever since
that night at the summer camp I've been thinking about it. And I want to do
it; I want you to make love to me."

My heart melted at his words. He was actually offering himself to me, truly
wanting me to consummate our relationship by fucking him. No thinking was
necessary; there could be only one response.

"I want to make love to you, Nic, more than anything else in the
world. I've also been wanting to do it since the summer camp."

"Then what are we waiting for?" he said with a grin, then he rolled off of
me and onto his back beside me. I clambered on top of him, straddling his
legs, my rock-hard erection throbbing once again. I spread his legs apart,
as far as they would go, then I grabbed my shaft and pointed it towards his
ass.

"Relax," I soothed him, stroking his ass with my left hand while my right
locked my dick into position. I slowly lowered myself onto him, felt the
tip of my penis touch his hole, then carefully pushed in. He resisted me at
first, but once he got used to the weird sensation of a dick at the
entrance to his ass, his muscles gradually unclenched, and I slipped the
head of my penis inside him. It was an incredible feeling, the tightness of
his hole around my dick, and I pushed in further. I heard him moan, felt
him clench up again, his ass squeezing my dick.

"You ok?" I asked him.

"Uh huh," he murmured. "Don't stop."

He loosened up a little again, and again I pushed further in until half my
dick was buried in his ass.

"Half-way in," I informed him.

"Feel's weird," he said.

"Good weird or bad weird?"

"Good weird. Really good weird." I could hear the pleasure in his voice, so
I pushed in further still. His ass was hot around my dick, intensifying my
enjoyment. Just sliding in him brought me really close to orgasm, and I had
to fight hard to keep from cumming before I'd even penetrated him fully.

Finally, probably close to two minutes after I'd started, I pushed the last
inch of my throbbing dick inside of him, felt my balls touch his own.

"I'm in," I announced breathlessly. I didn't move for a little while,
giving him time to get used to the feeling of my 6 inch shaft inside of him
and giving me time to process how absolutely sensational it felt to be
completely buried inside my lover's ass.

After a time he turned his head and whispered, "Don't hold back. Go wild."

And I did.

I started off slowly, fully aware that this was the first time he was being
fucked. I pumped him cautiously, pulling out almost to the tip then sliding
right back in again. I was leaking precum generously, and this helped me
slide in and out more easily. After a while I closed my eyes and let
everything else go, focusing on the incredible sensations flowing into my
body from my dick. I'd never done anything like this before, and it felt
truly amazing to the point that I found myself short of breath.

As I fucked him I ran my hands all over his back and sides and his cute
ass, tracing every curve of his delicious body. Then I told him to raise
his hips a little, and when he did I slipped my hands around his waist and
grabbed hold of his dick. He'd grown fully erect again as a result of being
ground into the mattress beneath him, and I wrapped my fingers tightly
around his penis and started wanking him hard.

Within a few minutes I found myself approaching my imminent release at full
steam, and from the gasps and moans coming from Nic I gathered he was
rapidly nearing another climax too. I was pumping him hard and fast,
thrusting and withdrawing at rapid speed, every glide into and out of his
body sending pulses of electricity through my body via my dick. As a result
of me jacking him off, his butt had clenched up, making his ass even
tighter around my dick and taking the already unbelievable pleasure soaring
to new heights.

"Shit Nic, I'm about to cum!" I managed between gasps, and prepared to pull
out of him completely and finish the job by hand.

He must've sensed my intentions, because he said, "I want you to cum inside
me! I want to feel you shoot in my ass!"

"If you insist," I managed to say, then felt myself hit - and pass - the
point of no return.

Nic came a few seconds before I did, his hot cum firing out of his dick
like shots from a gun, straight into the mattress below him. My hand was
covered with his semen in seconds. Then I exploded, ramming my dick as deep
inside him as I could and shooting the hottest, fiercest load I have ever
shot before. I think I came close to passing out, such was the incredible
feeling that enveloped me as I came inside him. It was as if every happy
memory and emotion I've ever experienced suddenly burst over me like a
flood. I moaned incoherently as I experienced the most intense orgasm I'd
ever had, coupled to the man I loved more than anything else in the
world. This...this was sheer, absolute, perfect bliss.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I felt my penis began to go
limp, and I pulled out of him. As I collapsed onto the bed next to him, I
also let his softening dick go, allowing him to lower himself to the
bed. We lay like that for a while, our bodies heaving, as the waves of
pleasure gradually subsided.

After I recovered somewhat from my orgasm, I grabbed some tissues from his
bedside table and offered a few to him, then we silently cleaned up a bit
before lying back down on the bed again, side by side, cuddling.

He turned to look at me, and murmured, "That was incredible. I mean, I've
used dildos before, but that was just...phenomenal. And feeling you shoot
inside me while I was cumming myself... This was something I will never,
ever forget."

"Ditto," I said softly, gazing into his eyes and stroking his hair. "Thank
you for letting me do that, for letting me make love to you. I am so, so
glad that you came into my life."

"Me too." Then a frown crept onto his face, and he said, "Such a bummer
that you gotta go back to Pittsburgh tomorrow."

I raised my head, propped it up on my elbow. "Well you know, you can come
and visit me sometime, now that you're a man and all."

His frown faded a little. "Yeah, you're right." Then something else
occurred to him. "And I haven't decided which college I want to go to next
year. I could always apply to Pittsburgh, and maybe I can get into a
residence on campus or something. Then we'll be practically next door to
each other!"

"Or you could always just move in with me."

The idea had actually been building in my mind ever since he'd invited me
to his party. It had sent my heart racing, and I'd been looking for the
right moment to present it to him. Him talking about going to college in my
home town suddenly seemed to be that right moment. Now that I'd spoken it,
it suddenly felt like I'd reached a turning point in my life. Offering Nic
the chance to live with me...it changed everything.

For the better.

He stared at me, shock and a little disbelief appearing on his face as he
processed what I'd said. "You...you really mean that?"

"Yeah, I do. Nicholas, I love you. I want to be with you, always. Whether
you applied to Pittsburgh or not, I would've asked you to come and live
with me." I took his hands in mine, and looked squarely into his
eyes. "You're a man now, Nic, you can make your own decisions. What do you
say? Will you come and live with me?"

I knew immediately, from the look in his eyes, from the set of his jaw,
what his answer would be.

In fact, no thinking was necessary; there could be only one response.

"Yes," he whispered. "Yes, of course I will live with you, and be with you
always." And then he sealed his pledge with a kiss, and as our lips met I
suddenly felt like crying. As the tears trickled down my cheeks I realized
he was crying a little too, so I held him tightly to me, and then we just
lay like that, together, in each other's arms, until we fell asleep.

I woke up around 4:30. I rubbed my eyes, and realized Nic and I had become
separated and were on opposite ends of his bed. So I rolled onto my side
and saw him lying facing me, his eyes closed, his chest gently rising and
falling, a small smile on his face. I gazed lovingly at him as he lay
peacefully beside me. The clouds that had earlier shrouded the moon had
disappeared, and beams of hazy white light were now shining through the
window down on him, illuminating his entire body and making him glow. He
was so awesome, and I felt so incredibly lucky to have cultivated a
relationship with him. Destiny certainly had played a helluva hand, and I
was eternally grateful that it had.

I gently stroked his cheek and his bruised jaw, feeling the light fuzz of
his beard starting to creep through. "I love you, Nic," I whispered to him,
"so much."

I felt him stir and wake. He opened his eyes and looked at me, smiled
broadly, and replied, "I love you too Jace." Then we wrapped our arms
around each other again and lay there together, our bodies pressed against
one another, deeply contented and at peace.

As I lay beside the man I loved, I considered everything that had happened
since I'd first laid eyes on him at that summer camp six years ago. So many
images, so many thoughts and feelings, swirled through my mind like some
kind of crazy kaleidoscope. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be
here, now, with him. So much had happened, most of it only within the past
few hours, and there was no doubt so much still to happen. But whatever is
to come, I know without a doubt that I will face it with Nic beside me.

Because we will be together.

Always.