Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:02:31 +0100 From: Matthew Barradell <matthewbarradell@hotmail.com> Subject: The Good Kind During lunch, it happened. It has been building for months now. Finally after sixteen months of hard work it had happened. Chris was a typical 25 year old. He worked hard at a thankless job in an office, had a boyfriend, Adam, his own flat and a healthy social life. He'd been working for Yvette And Smith for 3 years now and had managed to impress not only his workmates but his superiors. "Congratulations Mr Field." Chris felt a firm slap on the shoulder and turned to be greeted with the grinning bespectacled manager of the firm, Mr Harvard Yvette. Mr Yvette was a man of about 75 years, short and wiry he looked older than God but was very good natured and everyone loved him at the firm. "Thank you sir! I'm very proud." He grinned back shaking the frail hand firmly but gently. "We expect great things from you now your management though." Mr Yvette said attempting to make his face serious but looking a little ridiculous. "Yes... great things." Came a curt response from the other side of the room. "Ah Mr. Smith, have you come to congratulate our young Mr Field as well." Mr Yvette said with a little bit of a shake in his voice. Harvard Yvette and Julius Smith had started their printing firm 31 years previously. Whilst Harvard was a frail old man, Julius had started the firm with him at the age of 22 and was now still in his prime at 53. A tall man of about 6' 2" strode across the room to greet the new manager of sales. "Yes, great things." Smith said slowly and deliberately making Chris feel a little nervous and Mr Yvette shift to the side, almost cowering. "I won't let you down sir." Chris offered gently. "Hmmph" Smith offered as he marched past him, obviously with better things to do. "Slice of cake Chris? I mean sir!" Angela, his new secretary had made him a cake in celebration of the event. Offering him a paper plate and a napkin she sucked some of the icing from her manicured finger and giggled a little. 'Does she.? Fancy me?' Chris thought blushing as he took it from her. As she walked past him, brushing into his side gently she offered one more comment. "Let me know if you need me to take anything down sir?" --------------------------------------------------------- "Congratulations hon!" Adam bounded to him as he came into the door with a huge grin on his face. Kissing him Chris dropped his case and picked his younger lover up. "Oooh someone's had a good day." Adam whispered feeling something pressed against him. "Too right!" Chris kissed him again. "Well it'll have to wait I'm afraid. I've got to go pick up Jamie again. Dad says he's been beaten up again at school. Chris groaned but nodded as Adam headed past him to the door. "I expect I'll get mine later then?" "Only if I get mine as well!" Adam chirruped as he closed the door. Chris was left alone in the hall, finding the quiet oddly eerie. He was never one for being on his own for too long. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- After changing into his workout clothes he headed out to the garage and started to warm up on the treadmill. Chris was in great shape, he ate right, had a firm stomach with a little definition and a pretty good chest. He worked out at least 3 times a week, each time losing himself in the rhythm of his workout. "Oww! Fuck", looking down he saw his the bones in his knee shift a little as he put his weight on it. 'Fucking pulled my knee again!' Heading back inside limping he put a cold compress from the fridge on it, hoping to ease the pain a little. Taking a couple of aspirin he started to make his way towards the stairs. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- "So what happened this time?" Adam pressed again to his little brother. Jamie just kept staring out the window of the car ignoring the question. "OK fine don't talk to me then!" Adam cried making Jamie jump a little. Jamie loved his brother but was always embarrassed by him. Adam was short, two inches shorter than Jamie at 5'6", very slim with dark hair and a model like face. The only word Jamie could describe his as was a twink. Also growing up with an openly gay brother was hard. The kids at school teased him about brutally, especially as he regularly would pick him up after school and drop him off in the mornings. "Jamie, come on talk to me! That's what brothers are for!" "Fine!" Jamie turned on Adam with eyes that showed shame and a little disgust. "You want to know why they beat the living shit out of me again! Because of you! Because they were saying things about you!" Adam sat there staring at the road unable to speak, something he wasn't quite used to. "Well. I." "Just leave it OK! Leave it!" Jamie cut him off turning back to the side window staring at the scenery rushing by. The rest of the journey was in silence. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Hobbling upstairs Chris took himself to the bathroom and set about running a hot bath. Sitting on the edge of the toilet it tried to extend his leg slowly, grimacing at the pain. The bath full he lowered himself in, letting the hot water soothe his aching joint. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Pulling into the drive Adam turned in his seat to face his 14 year old brother. "So come on then? What have they said to you?" "Leave it Ad" Jamie snapped back reaching for the handle. Clicking the central locking Adam stopped him from escaping before he had the full story. A trick he learnt from an overdramatic ex. "No I won't leave it Jay, tell me." "Fine! They asked me if you gave good head! 'Gay guys give the best head, that right Jay?'" He impersonated the cat calls with a little more aggression than necessary, "'Did he blow you Jay?', 'They say it runs in families! Wanna give me a blow job Jamie?'" Adam sat there a moment taking in the abuse his brother had just been through. "OK. so you hit them?" Jamie just stared at him a moment, disbelief on his face. "Well yeah!, No one calls my brother! You might be a little. I don't know. swishy sometimes.." "Swishy?!" Adam blurted with a little smirk. Jamie smiled a little too. "You think I'm swishy?" Adam asked trying to sound serious. "Yeah. sometimes." A moment later they were laughing all seemed right again. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Chris lay in the bath, dozing a little. 'Best get out I suppose. I. suppose'. His thoughts seemed to be drifting away slightly. Becoming ghost like. "Ad." He whispered as the surface took him. --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Adam got back to the house a little after 8. He'd spent the evening talking and laughing with his brother. Sharing old stories and commenting on what Mom was up to in the kitchen with the chicken she'd bought for her and Jamie's dinner. "You in the gym hon?" Adam called as he put his coat on the hangers near the door. Adam waited a moment, looking around the adjacent living room and stair way. "Hon?" Adam called again frowning. He went through to the kitchen where you could see into the gym through it's bay window at the front. Looking down he spotted a small white tub on the counter. Picking it up it read 'Codeine'. 'Ah, he's gone to bed? Odd it's still early and he seemed in good spirits' he thought smiling to himself. "You still awake hon? Need some company?" He called as walked up the stairs. Walking past the bathroom he saw a glimmer of light bounce off the tiles, like the surface of a pond in summer. "Chris hon?" He asked quietly pushing the white panelled door to. "Oh my god Chris!" Adam shrieked, frozen for a moment, staring at his lover with his eyes closed under the water. Plunging his arms into the now cold water he pulled Chris to the surface, Chris' head banging against the porcelain baths side and lolling back like spaghetti. "Chris?! Chris?!" Adam began to paw at Chris' mouth, trying to open it, water flowed from the edges in tiny streams. "Come on baby!, Come on breathe sweetie, come on! COME ON!" Adam was crying now, frantically trying to shake life into his boyfriend's limp body. Pulling with all his might he pulled Chris out of the bath, his body hitting the tiled floor with a slapping sound that echoed through the suddenly silent house. "Don't you do this. don't you.. you dare." Reaching up he placed a folded towel under Chris' head gently, lovingly and then reached for his mobile. "Hello, yes. My partner has fallen asleep in the bath, help me." Adam spoke it all as if it was one word. "Sir, is he breathing?" "What? No, nothing. Should I cover him up he's cold?" Adam asked this genuinely and for a moment it made sense. Then the words came back to him, terrible, cruel and completely non returnable. "Oh god. oh god no, please no." "Sir someone is on the way, we've traced the." Adam turned the mobile off and clutched his partner to his chest, wet with bath water and tears. For the next ten minutes Adam laid there and gave out great wrenching sobs, rocking back and forth with his naked boyfriend's body. --------------------------------------------------------- The funeral was brief and loving. The weather stayed fresh and fair the whole day. Jamie thought God owed it to his brother at the very least. When Jamie had found out his brother in law had died he'd cried for three days. Finally pulling himself together he started to help his brother organise the funeral. Adam had starting giving a beautiful reading of a poem called 'You were there' by some obscure writer he'd never heard of and had then broken down on the podium. Jamie had got up and holding his older brother up finished the reading for him, choking back tears. Now on the ride home he stared out the window again, watching the scenery go by thinking he had to do something. Anything to save his brother from this pain. He had to do something! -------------------------------------------------------- If you enjoyed my story so far, please email me at matthewbarradell@hotmail.com I hope to continue this soon.