Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 22:50:27 +0700
From: Robert Glass <robxglass@gmail.com>
Subject: The Virgin Joseph part 6

All right reserved. Any unauthorized use is prohibited. This is a
fiction. Any resemblance to people and/or events is coincidental. If
reading this deemed illegal to you, I implore you to stop. If it offends
you, please do not read on.

Of course, donate.

One more thing. I usually say my two cents after the story, but this one is
too important and too urgent to put it down there. I received devastating
news from my beloved editor, Arleen. Her husband, Steve, just had a
horrible accident. He fell off a roof, had a blunt force trauma on his
neck, and now in a medically induced coma. It is hard for me to reiterate
what it can cause him; it's just so heart breaking. I implore you to pray
for Steve and his whole family. If you would like to send her a message,
you can send it to me (robxglass@gmail.com or manlyneeds.tumblr.com) and
I'll forward it to her. If you want to help more, I can help you to contact
her directly. The very least we all can do is to pray for him so please, I
beg you, pray for his health and for his whole family's wellbeing. Please,
anything you guys can do to help, they will infinitely appreciate it.


PART 6


It took them three weeks to set it up but it was worth the wait. They were
finally able to play indoor soccer. There seemed to be obstacles appear out
of nowhere every week; working overtime, Amy's emergency weekend show,
Jake's illness, everything! However, they made it, eventually. As usual
with these people, every time an event occurred, everybody came. Including
Paul; he had a ligament injury on the last company outing where they went
hiking. He probably just wanted to relive the excitement this time. Lucy
filled in for Paul while he watched from the bleachers with Amy and Erin,
Jake's wife.

That odd group seemed to make a great team. They played against another odd
team that they just met there. Nick and Tom, the jocks that they were,
offered to have a match. The other team agreed and there they were. Tom did
well as a goal keeper. Lucy and Joe worked supremely in the offence line
together while Nick and Alice's chemistry translated into the defense line
perfectly. Jake was useless, even he admitted that. He wondered why he kept
agreeing to do these things with them. He was a pushover. He sometimes
wished that he was the one who got injured in that hike, not Paul.

The team was ahead by a substantial gap, they were leading 5 to 1. In the
last minute when the opponent was attacking, Nick managed to steal the
ball. He passed it to Alice whom then passed it to Lucy. They were building
up an attack. Both Lucy and Joe managed to run to the other side and
escaped from every tackle attempts. Lucy passed the ball to Joe who seemed
to be free but a very tall player appeared out of nowhere in front of
him. Joe passed it back to Lucy and she aimed for the goal. The goal keeper
blocked it and the ball bounced right into Joe's direction. The tall guy
didn't even notice, so Joe jumped and delivered a winning goal! It went
right into the net.

The six on the field and the three on the bench were jumping with joy,
celebrating like it was 1999.  Tom even ran halfway through the field and
hug Joe. He circled Joe's waist and held him up on his chest. Joe was
flailing about like a rag doll amid his struggle to suck oxygen in.

"Let go," Joe said between his heaving. "Tom... please... let me go..."

"Oh, sorry!"

Joe fell flat onto his back, heaving like an asthmatic boy that ran for his
inhaler. "I'm... gonna... die..."  He smiled, realizing that he made the
last goal in the nick of time.

"Come on, you're not going to die." Tom laughed, still in victorious mood.

"We... we're all gonna die... I'm just... gonna... die sooner." His breaths
started to become longer and more regular. "I'm gonna die now." Joe
stretched his arm towards Tom and the big guy effortlessly pulled
him. Suddenly the rest of the group surrounded and congratulated him. He
had to shoo everyone away, afraid of oxygen deprivation. "I'll never do
this again," he mumbled to himself.

Eventually he recovered and he and the rest of the team shook hands with
the opposing squad. Then they hit the shower.

Uh-oh. This could be a problem. Joe was the only openly gay man among
them. He had to take shower with three extremely hot and extremely straight
men, and other men too. This could be a problem. They could have problem
with him. Even if the shower hall had dividers it would still be a problem.

Oh, won't you look at that, no dividers!

"Hey, you lost weight." Nick commented on Tom's already shirtless body,
which snapped Joe back to reality.

"You think so? All the work in the gym was worth it, then," Tom
answered. Everyone but Joe was already topless. Joe rushed to remove his
just so that no one thought he was acting strange.

"Getting lonely huh?" Nick said to Tom. "What? The girls don't like fat
boys."

"Shut up, asshole," Tom sneered smiling. Not that Joe saw it. He was busy
looking the other way.

Out of nowhere Jake made a comment. "Look at you, Joe. You're so tan! You
make the rest of us look pale as hell." They were pale indeed. Pasty white,
like they hadn't had a proper introduction to the sun. Nick was the only
one who had a light tan although it still looked so pale next to Joe.

Joe looked up, trying to make that comparison. Oh, shit! Everybody was in
their underwear. It was hard for Joe to concentrate. He had to look at each
of them in the eyes and nowhere below their waist. Maybe it would be best
not to look below their chest, or maybe their necks. Okay, the nose.  Oh
God! Must. Not. Look. Down!

"Did you live naked all the time?" Jake said. Since Joe was in his
underwear now, Jake probably noticed that the skin color was consistent
throughout most of Joe's body.

"I used to live in Bali, near the beach. So, yeah..." He tried to emulate
his usual pissed off tone, hoping it sounded believable. Looking at Jake's
eyes was not the right move; those sleepy light brown gems were too
intoxicating. Nick was peeling his underwear behind Jake, Joe could see
that too. No towel covering. None. Zero. Fuck! The last time he got trapped
around these men naked was in his wet dream, about two weeks after he got
hired. God, now that dream filled his mind and it could give him a
boner. "Is this yours?" Joe inquired Tom about a bottle of shower gel
without looking up.

"Yeah. Just take it."

With that Joe dashed to the shower. He'd already removed his underwear so
he could just jump into the pouring water. That was close. He let the cold
water gush over him; that should help. Even though he was freezing he
didn't let up for a while. Warm water only came after he couldn't handle
the icy rain. Quickly Joe washed his hair and then lathered his body,
giving it as little attention to his crotch as he could.

"Where's the soap?" It was Tom; he seemingly materialized himself out of
the mist.

Joe was startled but he managed to localize his reaction to his eyes only,
which were popping out of his skull. "Here." He handed the bottle to
Tom. That guy was truly huge. Not only was he tall but also broad. Joe felt
like his personal bubble was being shoved aside. He hastily rinsed himself
and left the scene.

On his way back to his locker he glanced back to the shower area, despite
his willpower to do the opposite. He really didn't want to do it but he
just did, as though his gonads were taking control of his brain. He saw his
three friends were, thankfully, facing the wall. All the tight asses were
his to admire, including other men he didn't know. He thought that Tom's
back was the sexiest, while Nick's ass and legs were the ones that would
kill him. Oh god! Joe caught himself doing what he did.  He turned around
crimson faced and went out of the locker room. "I'll never do this again."


***


"So, Thanksgiving huh?" Joe said after a long pause in the car. Earlier,
right after lunch, Tom invited Joe to come to his family's Thanksgiving
dinner and weekend. Joe had learned that Tom always brought friends home
with him, usually Alice and Nick. They already made plans for the year, it
seemed.

"Yeah. You're not changing your mind, right?"

"No, of course not," Joe said. It met Tom's questioning face, knowing Joe
had more to say than just that. "Thanks."

"No problem. I figured since you have no plans or anything, so..." Tom
shrugged.

"My life is exciting, I know." Joe snorted, for no reason at all.

"You miss Justin, don't you?" Tom said.

Joe sighed. "Let's not go there."

"Sorry," Tom quickly apologized. He looked at Joe for a moment, trying to
understand more about Joe's reasoning against calling his brother at
all. Tom felt much closer to Joe much faster than he expected. There was a
certain chemistry or connection between the two. They were like brothers.
Perhaps people would simply call that chemistry or connection as bromance.

"Tom, would you please look at where you're driving." Joe's remark pulled
Tom from the brain-haze.

"Oh, sorry." They didn't go astray much but enough for Tom to have to
swerve back to his lane.  Thank God Nick was on a date with Alice, he would
berate Tom if he knew how Tom was treating his car. "I was just thinking
about something. I don't know if I should ask you. You might not like it."

"If it's about Justin then don't"

"No, not at all. It... it was about the, um... the locker room." Tom looked
at Joe again, waiting for a reaction. Apparently Joe just sighed and turned
his gaze from the road to Tom.

"Tom, eyes to the road," Joe said.

"Yeah, sorry." Tom chuckled. What was happening to him? Even he started to
babble his speech.  "It's just that you seemed... uncomfortable there. Or
so I thought. I don't know, it's probably nothing. You don't have to say
anything that you don't want to. I mean, I care about you, and you're like
my brother, so I would never judge or anything. But if you..."

"Shut up!" Joe said calmly, and Tom did as he was told. "It definitely was
uncomfortable."

"I... I see," Tom said. He knew Joe would not further elaborate without
some interrogation, but at the same time Tom knew that Joe was not the kind
that responded well under constant barge of questions. The more you push
Joe, the more he held back.

"I'm the faggot and you guys are the jocks, the popular kids. It was a
disaster waiting to happen. It doesn't help that I'm a virgin and naked men
easily turn me on. I could just envision me having a boner, and then you
guys saw it, then you all would pin me up against the locker and beat me up
senseless," Joe said, a lot more blatant that Tom had expected.

"W... what? Y-you... you had a... a b-b-boner?" Tom didn't expect he would
stutter his way through the question. He didn't expect Joe would be so
forward about it either. Now all he could see was Joe, naked in the locker
room, taking a shower and having a hard-on. There were a lot of responses
that Tom could have said, like 'don't say the f-word, especially not in
front of Nick; he'll flip out!' or 'nobody's going to beat you up, not as
long as I'm around'. Instead Tom focused on the thing Joe wanted to hear
the least.

"I said ENVISION, Tom. God! Keep your eyes on the road and drive faster!"
Joe practically shouted, Tom could tell Joe was embarrassed. "You're right;
I don't like this conversation at all."

Tom apologized profusely and started on doing a better job driving the
car. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset Joe in any way or form. He
really cared for this kid. "For all it's worth, we would never harm
you. Not at all. Nick is a counselor at a gay youth center, Nick is a stag,
and I have a gay sister. We wouldn't even start to think about it!" Tom
explained now that he had the chance to, hoping that Joe would feel
reassured. It was true; none of them would do such a horrendous thing.

"I know," Joe mumbled. "It's just... It would be embarrassing, humiliating
even, if you guys see me get an erection because of you guys. I'd rather
die."

The statement piqued Tom's interest. The part where Joe said 'me get an
erection' and 'because of you guys'. "D-do we... turn you on?" He asked
hesitantly, seemingly always focusing on the wrong thing.

Joe cursed his stupidity. He poured his face into the palm of his hands and
groan uncomfortably. He then just laughed. Tom could only grin, basking
himself in the awkward situation that he helped to create. "Yes, Tom, you
guys turn me on," he said.

"Oh." It was getting more awkward, so much so that the grin on Tom's face
was wiped away. "You don't have to..."

"Tell you anything I don't want to," Joe interrupted. "That's your go-to
line. Honestly, we both know how this is going to end. You'll bring it up
again someday expecting me to open up, I'll refuse to say anything, you'll
back down, until one day you'll bring it up again and so on and so on until
I cave. So, no, don't say that."

"Okay..." Tom was feeling the tension and he felt bad. Joe was upset to
him. By the way, since when did Joe start to see these things? Since when
did he able to see through people's intention?

"I'll just tell you everything now, and you will not tell anyone else,
okay?"

Joe's proposition shocked Tom. He just said, "Okay."

"First of all, I used to have a crush on Jake." Joe thought he was mentally
prepared to reveal this to Tom. He was wrong. He just couldn't stop
blushing.

"I see," Tom responded calmly, afraid that any excessive reaction would
further embarrass Joe.  "Jake huh? What about him?"

"He's just so cute I'm gonna die. If I ever see him naked, I'll literally
die." Joe's face was getting redder and redder. It was cute. Tom couldn't
help but smile, even when the sudden 180 in Joe's attitude surprised
him. "Oh my God, I'm such a girl!"

Tom laughed, not in a condescending way, just amused. "No, no. Go on, now!"
Tom encouraged.

"Okay," Joe cleared his throat before continuing, "Nick, I don't have a
crush on him, he's such an idiot." Joe giggled. "He's soooo hot, though! I
didn't know that his body is that... that!"

"He works out. That, I can tell you." Tom smiled.

"Yeah, whatever. I used to have a crush on you too," Joe said in rapid fire
succession.

Now both of them turned beet red. "What? Me?" Tom asked. He felt a certain
sense of joy surging from within his amygdala. He wasn't sure why he felt
overwhelmed by happiness; his brain was not capable enough to figure it out
yet. He just permanently plastered that stupid grin on his face.

"Yes. This is so embarrassing, but I did. Until I realize that you're
basically my brother. Besides, you're straight. There's no use in holding
on to that." Joe said, still in rapid fire succession. Then he smiled,
rather bashfully.

Tom smiled too, still in his highly good mood. His consolation act was only
a brotherly hair ruffling and that was enough to make things less
unpleasant. Tom knew that Joe was putting more trust on him. He always felt
like he needed Joe's trust more than a lot of things, and at that moment he
knew he got it. He just liked Joe so much; enough for Tom to seek Joe's
approval, or something. Tom didn't know how to put it; the closest thing he
could come up with was that Joe was already a part of his family. Was it
just that, though?


***


"Are you alright?" Sam asked. "You fell out of that car."

"Are you still spying on me, Sam?" Joe rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm fine, but
this isn't." Joe shoved what was left of his phone across the desk to Sam
before returning his attention to his laptop.  Joe was a geek, and he
looked the part, but he didn't master the world of mobile phones. However,
Sam did.  He was the better geek of the two. Sam didn't look geeky at
all. In fact, he looked like a heartbreaker, and sometimes a little like a
hobo.

"Whoa. You dropped this didn't you?"

"No, I threw it under the bus just for fun." Joe said sarcastically. Sam
just smiled. He liked Joe's sarcastic remarks. Who was he kidding? He liked
everything about that guy. "I dropped it when I fell.  I found it ten feet
from where I was falling."

Sam examined the scraps for a moment as though he knew what to do. "What do
you expect me to do? I do software, not hardware. Besides, there's no more
hope if it's smashed up like this."

Joe dropped his head. There was no salvation for his phone. "Great! I now
have to buy a new phone."

"About time. This thing is old." It was an old Motorola, the Milestone.

"What do you suggest?" Joe said, reluctantly accepting his fate.

"The new iPhone is out," Sam said.

"It's freaking expensive! Besides, I'm already tied to Google."

"Then I recommend the Nexus. The next one is coming but if you want you can
buy Nexus 4 now. It's extremely cheap now and it's unlocked." Sam was
always quick and enthusiastic if someone asked him for recommendations. For
either phones, laptops or cars.

"When will the next one come out?"

Sam shrugged. "I'm not sure. If you want to wait for it, you can borrow one
of mine for the time being." Sam took the laptop and Googled 'Nexus 5'. No
one had a clear idea of what it looked like. So then he Googled 'Nexus 4',
Joe hated it.

"God, this is ugly," Joe said.

"Don't be so pretentious."

"Don't be so tasteless," Joe shot back. "Alright, I'll borrow yours until I
find something I like."

"Alright, I'll give you my Sony then. I think you'll like it." Sam Googled
said phone. He could see that Joe was smiling and nodding. "Man, you always
tell me that I care too much about looks. Now look at yourself."

"It's a phone, not a man," Joe replied. He was met with Sam's soft jab.

They moved to the couch. As usual, Joe grabbed a beer for Sam and Joe pored
himself a glass of water. They started making small talk about life, the
universe and everything. Without even realizing it, Sam was back to his old
habit, breaking the pact he made with himself. He was definitely wrapped
around Joe's fingers and he enjoyed it.

"I have that phone since I was in Jakarta. Three years and no scratch
whatsoever, one single drop and it's a pile of crap." Joe somehow returned
to his woe. That phone had been his most loyal companion, apparently.

Sam had a lingering question about Joe, one of many things he hadn't figure
out about the guy.  Besides, it would be a good way to change the subject
and probably cheer Joe up. "How did you end up in Indonesia anyway?"

Joe slowly closed his eyes, clearly hating his life even more. Bad move,
Sam!

"Indonesia," Joe said almost too quietly. He sighed, of course he did. "My
mother had a business in Bali. All the silverwares and crafts and stuff
like that. I didn't really pay attention." He grinned sheepishly. "I was
actually born in Birmingham. I was eight when I moved to Bali. My parents
are not divorced or anything, it was just business. Long story short, four
years later my brother Justin took over the business and switched places
with my mother. We lived together for... six years, until I graduated high
school. Then I moved to Jakarta for college and he moved back home. Another
four years later I was back here, to the U.S. of A., where I, once again,
lived with Justin." Joe paused and smiled. "That's it. Your turn; tell me
about your... family or stuff." Joe said before Sam had the chance to dig
deeper.

Sam looked straight at Joe, slightly doubtful if he should. He never knew
what to expect when he told the whole story. Then again, it was Joe he was
talking with. Joe probably would just listen and give annoying remark at
the end.

"Actually, I was adopted," he confessed.

"Really?" Joe asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's kind of weird. My mom and dad were married young but they
couldn't have a baby. He was forty and she was in her mid-thirties when
they decided to finally adopt. So they met my biological mom, Lulu, who was
seventeen or eighteen, and pregnant with me at the time. The guy who
knocked her up left her and she couldn't afford to raise me. She decided to
hand me to better hands."

"This is surprising." Joe mused. He was clearly listening.

Sam nodded and continued. "Lulu isn't her actual name. It's Sarah. She
insisted that I call her something other than "mom" or her real name, so I
decided Lulu would be great. I was six and my mom was listening to a lot of
Lulu." He chuckled to that fond memory. "The weird thing is Lulu was always
there growing up. My parents insisted that I had to know my origins, so
they asked her to visit at least once a week. She ended up coming much more
often. She came to every game and event. I always knew that my parents were
the adoptive ones, not Lulu." Sam took a glance at Joe whose face showed
massive interest. "Yeah, so that's the thing that made it all weird."

"I can imagine." Joe said not knowing what to say. "Did you get confused
though? I mean, not confused, but... you know what I mean."

"Yeah. Not confused though, it was just... weird; especially when I got
into high school. I was in puberty and basically dumb, being rebellious and
stuff. Lulu was seeing this guy, Hank, for years by then. He's actually a
great guy, but I was an ass. Then they got married and she got
pregnant. Maybe I was afraid that she'd ditch me again, or something. I
demanded her to tell me why she didn't just keep me. I needed to know. She
always said because she loved me. I didn't get it. Then she gave birth to a
boy."

"Uh-huh." Joe was following the pace.

"She kept the baby. I hated him, at that time. I hated her too, and
Hank. It went on for weeks. That was when my dad knocked the sense out of
me. Then I understood what she meant before." Sam's head held high, he
gazed out to the void afar; acting like a cheesy leading man in a cheesy
movie.  However, he was being real. His emotion was true. "She did love
me. With me, she wasn't ready to be a parent. She barely knew anything. We
wouldn't have survived. So she gave me away to the better parents. The
second time she had a baby she also loved him. That time, however, she was
ready, having learned from my adoptive parents." Sam concluded. Joe's mind
was clouded.

"I see," Joe managed to say.

"You don't get it, do you?"

"No, I do. I think it's awesome. You have two sets of parents. That's
cool."

"It is, actually," Sam replied.

"And I have to say that your life is made for T.V.," Joe said, an annoying
remark at the end.

"Yeah, I get that. A lot."

___

I love you Arleen! I pray for only the best outcome. God bless!