Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:34:23 -0400
From: anyta sunday <anytasunday@googlemail.com>
Subject: Shane and Trey_Chapter Sixteen

Disclaimer: Story characters belong to the author, any resemblances to real
people are entirely coincidental.

Content Advisory: Adult situations, language, sexual references

Copyright, 2010, Anyta Sunday


I hope you enjoy it. Please comment to: anytasunday@gmail.com


This story will continue to be posted on Nifty. It is COMPLETED, however,
and can be found also at
http://www.gayauthors.org/story/anytasunday/shaneandtrey

Also, St-st-stuffed (following Karl and Paul from this story is just
completed and can be found at
http://www.gayauthors.org/story/anytasunday/st-st-stuffed )

___________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Sixteen


Thursday and Friday disappeared like a magic trick. And then--wham--I
woke up in Trey's arms, at his place (where we'd stayed after work). On
Saturday. I groaned, stuffed my head under a pillow. Couldn't this morning
also puff away in fairy dust? Please? Pretty please, even?


A cell alarm rang, and Trey nudged me. "Time to get up, Shane." Well, crap.


I refused to move. "Just another ten minutes."


Hands moved onto my back, and for a brief second I relaxed. Yeah, come
closer, cuddle, and then some... Stale room air rushed over my skin as Trey
stole the blankets from me. Then he was pushing me from the bed. No fair!


"Come on, June will be waiting."


Hmmpf, leave it to him to give me a good reason to get going.


On my feet and quickly throwing on clothes, I stared at my naked giant
twisted in sheets still half asleep. "Why'd you set an alarm anyway? I
usually always get up before you. I just love to see you drool in the
mornings."


Trey grabbed the pillow I'd used and threw it at me. "Don't drool." Oh, yes
he did. "Get going. Or June'll serve me for breakfast."


Ah-ha. So she'd been onto this. Well. Darn it, smart move.


It took all my effort to drag myself away from him and back to my place to
meet June.


A couple of hours, and then camping with Trey. I could do this. I unbuckled
my belt and made my way inside.


June sat on the sofa in the living room a remote in hand, flicking through
the channels. Without turning around she spoke, "Finally, mister." I
grinned and sided the sofa, coming into her view. Her gaze swept mine
briefly, cool, as it had been every time since I'd opened up. Just give her
time. "You missed Mom. She wanted to be here for support, but had to take a
shift at work."


I sat on the armchair opposite her. "Probably a good thing, don't you
think?" Flashes of Mom and Dad arguing leaked into mind. Mom always in her
soft reflective manner, and Dad getting riled up, words daggers from his
mouth. I'd once made the mistake of telling him to shut up. And he'd
congratulated Mom on bringing up such a disrespectful son.


Hypocrite.


"In the last year," June said, muting the tv, "things have been better
between them. I think--I think he's trying, Shane. Mom said he's been
seeing a councilor, and--"


"And nothing, June. Why didn't he try back then, when we were kids?" I
remembered how much enjoyment he got from waking me up out of deep sleep
and making me walk down the street so I got used to the night. Or the way
he forced me to ride a bike in circles until I'd learnt how to do it. Nine
was way too old not to be able to ride. The way he laughed when I got
angry. That my feelings didn't matter a damn bit, only entertained him.


My grip had tightened on the arm of the chair, knuckles white. Why the hell
did I let him get to me?


June switched off the tv and went into the kitchen. A sniffing had me
following her. "June?" Her back was to me, as she filled a glass with
water.


"Could you try, Shane, for me?"


I came to her side and leaned back against the counter. "Try what?"


"Don't play dumb. You ignore him when he's around, you give the shortest
answers possible, and you always look at your watch. Could you just try to
give him your attention? Maybe he surprises you."


I took a begrudging breath. It's only for an hour or so, and then
camping. And June needs you. I nodded. "I'll do my best. You seem to
believe in him, and I trust you, so...you know. I'll try."


She looked at me, her eyes the warmest I'd seen them all week and
shimmering slightly. "Thanks."


"So what time did he say he'd get here?"


June glanced at the microwave clock. "At ten," a half-hour ago "must be
caught in traffic."


But another half-hour went by with no word, and I knew he wasn't
coming. Still, I waited twenty minutes longer, because I didn't want to be
the one to tell June to stop hoping. It looked like I would have to
though. As much as I'd hated the idea of spending time with Dad, seeing him
let June down was worse.


I moved over to her and wrapped an arm around her. She fiddled with her
cell phone, waving it in the air as if perhaps it hadn't any reception.


The bastard. Yet another thing to add to his list of failures. And he had
no idea how lucky he was to have a daughter like June. Fuck--he didn't
deserve her. See, he's not worth it, I wanted to tell her, but her saddened
face stopped me.


I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and slipped out of the room. I
jabbed the buttons on my cell, moving to the far end of the house so she
wouldn't hear me.


He picked up on the fourth ring. "Hey--"


"That was the last fucking straw, Dad," I said, struggling to keep from
yelling. I shut the door to the bathroom adding to the buffer between June
and me. "Why the hell didn't you ring? You don't deserve her forgiveness
you know that? If you care at all, even a little, you'll ring her right now
and explain. Although, I hope you don't, because then maybe she'll accept
that you're a prick of a father, who has been nothing more to us than a
constant disappointment."


I hung up on him, throwing my cell into the laundry hamper. My
fingers--my whole body trembled. Finally, I told him exactly how I
felt. So why didn't I feel liberated? Why did my gut churn, and why the
hell was I crying? I clapped the toilet lid shut and sat down, propping my
elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I knew he'd do something to get
me upset, he always did. Damn him.


I wiped my cheeks, scrunching up the tissues and chucking them into the
bin. A soft knock had that same rush of anger coming over me again. How
could she keep so calm? I yanked the door open, for no good reason annoyed
with her too. If she hadn't been so hopeful, I'd never have got so
upset. Dad wasn't worth any of our tears.


"He rang," she said, her expression still miserable.


I grit my teeth on a nasty retort, falsely directed.


"He apologized for not ringing. Something came up for him at work and he
was called in. It was urgent. He said he'd meant to call and cancel, but
with the stress at work it'd slipped his mind."


I walked past her down the hall.


"He's definitely coming next Saturday."


Sure. Of course. "Whatever." I turned to her, and at her ashen face calmed
my tone. A bit. "Just don't get your hopes up again. It upsets me to see
you get hurt."


She shook her head. "I know that upsets you, Shane, but is that really the
only reason you're upset? Because I think a part of you wished you could
believe in him too."


"I don't."


June held my gaze, but was the first one to break it. "I'm going to head to
the library and have lunch with Mom."


I sighed internally, and felt for the keys in my pocket. "Give her a hug
from me, okay?"


She nodded, but we didn't hug like we would have only a week ago. I wanted
to kick something. Instead I aimed for the front door, and slammed it
behind me.




***



Most of my dark mood I shook off before I got back to Trey's house. But a
slither remained and when he opened the door for me, I didn't go to kiss
him, and barely responded when he brushed his lips against mine.


"What's up, babe?" Trey hooked an arm around mine and pulled me to the
living room where all our camping packs sat ready to be loaded into the
car.


Gripping both sides of my shoulders he pushed me into a chair, and kneeled
in front. "You don't have to tell me anything, right? Just, if you
do... I'll listen." He shrugged, and his voice grew an edge. Cheeky,
mostly. "But either way, you're going to enjoy this trip. Even if I have to
peg a smile onto your face. Got it?"


The tone of his voice, the deepness, that edge of darkness in his eyes that
warned me he might not be joking sent a rush through my body. Dad and June
took a quick backseat in my mind and they wouldn't be unbuckled any time
soon. Certainly not the rest of this weekend with Trey. Oh baby, I'm all
yours.


He moved to my ear and whispered, lightly running his hands down my
arms. "That's better."


The small grin on my face widened to a fully fledged smile. "Well then,
let's go!"


"Just got to say goodbye to Mom, Dad and Patricia."


He called out their names, and when there was no answer walked into the
adjoining room where they all sat eating brunch. I gave a small wave to
Patricia when she looked at me. Trey'd briefly mentioned that Patricia was
going to be living at his house for a while. Until she had her alcohol
problem more under control. She raised both her brows in a resigned way,
looking from me to Trey, and I imagined the inner sigh that went with
it. "Watch out!" she mouthed.


I moved my gaze over to Trey hugging his mom. I could tell by the way he
gripped her back, he held her tight. But her hands remained at her
side. She gave him the weakest of smiles before facing Patricia again.


Trey watched her a moment longer, and then turned to his Dad. Same build
although slightly smaller, he looked a lot like Trey, but where Trey was an
extrovert, this guy was held back, quiet. We'd met for the first time last
night. I liked him the best of the three. When Trey had introduced me as
his boyfriend, he'd nodded and given me a small smile.


Now, he spoke softly to Trey. From my position at the door, I heard
snippets on camping safely. Trey clapped a hand on his shoulder and then
came back to me.


"Right. Let's go then, shall we?"


"Let's."


It took us less than an hour to pile into the car and reach the beginning
of the round trip track. We hooked on our packs--Trey carrying the tent,
and me carrying the most of the food and water so we had equal weight. I'd
done a lot of hiking before, so despite Trey's offer to supply the sleeping
bag and camping equipment, I brought my own.


We started the track through a grove and over some fields leading to a
bigger wood. The trail, well worn by families and mountain bikers, lead us
surely through the trees, winding along a small stream to our left. Leaves
latticed above us locked out the sky, except for moments when it opened up,
allowing a lovely view of a distant lake surrounded by greenery.


At one such view point, a couple of hours into the walk--hours of
comparing hike and camping stories--we stopped for a drink. Despite the
cool air and low clouds, sweat ran down the sides of my temples and back
where the bag had stuck to me. I aired my polypro top, and smiled as Trey
did the same. The track was on the simpler side of others I'd--we'd, by
the sound of it--had done before, but somehow this one was more
intense. Meant more. It felt like a test or something. And it both unnerved
and excited me.


"Want anything to eat now?" Trey pulled out a couple of bars.


I grabbed one. "Cheers."


And then we continued walking some more, crunching over the leaves of the
deciduous trees.


Trey picked up a large red one. "As a kid when we came up here, I used to
collect as many leaves as I could." The path had narrowed so Trey slunk
behind me as we continued walking. "I used to take an empty pillow case,
and by the time I got to the camping spot, I had a pillow full of leaves."


I chuckled. "You sure love your pillows." A small breeze whirled my words
to the front, away from him.


"What was that?"


I thought about repeating, but held my hand back for him to squeeze
instead.


"I thought about bringing one and doing it again, but--" Trey stopped as
drops of rain splashed around and on us.


"--crap."


On the narrow path, we swung off our packs and got out our
raincoats. Trey's was a dark brown and mine a deep red. We continued
through the shower. Trey laughed behind me.


"What?" I said as loudly so that he'd hear me.


"Nothing... my little red riding hood."


I spun around, startling him into a larger, way more mischievous grin. Oh,
this was going to be fun. "And what does that make you?"


He dropped the smile, stepped closer, our chests almost touching. "Hungry."


I clasped the back of his neck and smashed a kiss to his lips. Sure I'm not
the wolf in disguise? I held myself back from saying it though. I was
pretty sure if I said it out loud it would sound lame. In fact, it was
embarrassing enough I thought such lines.


We kissed harder for a few moments, and my hands were trailing his body.


"Um," Trey said, "we'd better keep this pg. Kids use this track."


"Right."


We created a small space between us, but it seemed the both of us needed a
moment before we could comfortably continue.


For another hour we chatted as we walked. Laughing and joking away was
perfect. I didn't think anything would be able to break our good mood.


I rounded a narrow bend and our path began to decline. The contrast on the
legs from going uphill to downhill felt refreshing. Although, I preferred
going up, down was harder on the knees.


A set of stone stairs had been planted into a particularly steep drop. Trey
had began to hum Scarborough Fair behind me and the sound made me itch
inside and want to, want to--I jumped onto the first step and with a
noticeable bounce in my step continued.


"Shane, careful babe."


And he cared! I practically skipped the next few steps and--whoosh, fuck!
I slipped on some wet leaves, landing hard backward and sliding down the
last few steps. Thank God for my pack!


Trey swore and was at my side in no time. Embarrassed at falling, I avoided
his eye as I picked myself up. He wouldn't let me do it alone though, and
gripped my arms adding his support. When he was sure I wasn't injured he
threw my arms down. "What the fuck was that about, Shane? I told you to be
careful."


His fists were balls at his side, pumping. I dared a glance at his
face. Ah, not pretty--red and furious. "God, do you know how stupid--"


Why the hell was he getting so worked up about this?


"Shit. You could have... you might have..." Livid wasn't strong enough to
describe him right now. And his overreaction was...too much.


I met his eye. "It was a fucking slip, Trey. Don't get so worked up about
it."


He held my gaze only a few moments longer before turning away. With energy
and violence he kicked the nearest tree and stalked off, jumping over the
small stream, opposite the path.


Fuck it. I stormed ahead, keeping to the trail. This whole thing was
ridiculous in my mind, and I kept replaying the scene in my head trying to
get his anger.


Yeah, so I hadn't listened to him when he asked me to be careful. But that
didn't feel like where his reaction stemmed from. I looked at Trey slightly
ahead across the river, weaving through trees. We pretended to ignore each
other. When he glanced my way, I made sure to focus on the path ahead of
me. But I'd see him look away and hit a tree or something. I wished I could
understand--like a foul wind it hit me. Stupid. Shit, I was stupid! My
falling, perhaps it reminded him of his Aunt?


I sucked in a deep breath and studied him. His slumped posture, the hurt in
his walk. This time when he looked back at me, I met and held his gaze. We
both stopped walking, a silent conversation between us. A begging on my
behalf for him to get back over here.


Trey trudged down the small bank and leaped over the yard wide stream. When
he reached my side, his eyes looked saddened. "Oh fuck Shane," his voice
was gentle, breaking slightly at my name, "I'm so sorry."


"Talk to me about it?" I held my breath, letting it go in a sigh as he
shook his head.


"I can't. Not right now. But, I will. Trust me, yeah?" His lashes came
together as he closed his eyes, waiting for my response. Hoping I trusted
him?


"Of course, Trey." I gripped his chin angling his face to look at me. He
did. And in his eyes was that same something I'd seen so many times now,
but still couldn't place. Warm, caring, it was like looking into an
embrace.


He linked his fingers through mine and silently--and side by side--we
continued the last half an hour to the camping spot. The weather meant we
shared the grounds with few other people. I counted two tents at the far
end of the bank near the lake shore. We set up our tent at the opposite end
on slightly risen ground to avoid being flooded in the night, should the
drizzle turn into something more.


"It's so good to be far away from everything," I said, pushing in the last
peg of our tent fly, and then looking out to the murky lake waters.


"I agree. I like to come up here to chill. I make the trip maybe twice a
year. Sometimes more, depending." Trey grabbed a folded piece of paper from
his bag and opened it. Over his shoulder I glimpsed an
inelegant--child-like scrawl. But he closed it before I could inspect
properly.


"So what would you like to do?" I looked at the lake giving Trey a
suggestive raise of the brow.


He didn't need any more telling. We stripped out of our damp clothes and
raced into the water, swimming and splashing around until we were both
exhausted and evening had crawled in. We changed into dry clothing and Trey
whipped up a surprisingly good dinner, considering our location. He'd even
brought a small package of salt and herb mix to sprinkle on top. Yum.


I licked the fork and placed it in my bowl. We sat in a little cooking
area--basically there were picnic benches, a table for cooking and a roof
sheltering us. Oh, and a tap for rinsing dishes.


Trey kept glancing over my shoulder out towards the woods. "Something on
your mind?" I asked, starting to clean up.


"There's something I want to show you. After we're done here."


"Okay," I said taking his bowl and fork, "but this will go faster if you
sit down and let me do it."


He grinned. "I'm not that bad you know. I have cleaned dishes before."


"I've seen it." He'd filled up a sink of soapy water and dunked the pots in
first, and then proceeded to use the dirty water to wash the cups and
cutlery. Ah, just no.


He grinned. "Well, I guess I'll just have to make up for it some other
way."


As soon as I'd finished and we'd returned everything to the tent, Trey
slunk an arm around my waist and pulled me out into the rapidly darkening
evening. With a torch in one hand, Trey led me to the wood. At the fringe,
he started counting the trees as we passed them. At twenty, we made a right
and walked another ten trees into the darkness. I shivered just a bit, and
Trey flicked the switch, illuminating an oval of wood floor.


"We're close. Two trees up this way," he whispered, "on the northern side
of the trunk." I smiled--there was just something about the dark and the
need to whisper. I did the same thing, and it amused me.


Once we got there, I scanned the wood, confused. As far as I could tell, it
looked exactly the same here as it did twenty trees back. But I had to be
missing something. I stole the torch and searched the trees. Maybe he had a
tree house or something he wanted to show me?


Trey chuckled and took back the torch. "What I want to show you is under my
feet." He pointed the light downward. A pile of leaves? I frowned, but
crouched down with him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a
spoon. Setting the torch up like a lantern, he looked at me. "I..." He dug
the tip of the spoon into the dirt. "Ten years ago, I buried something
here. I wanted you--us both to see it."


I held my breath, as he shoveled away the earth. The shadows the light cast
over his face distorted his proportions; his nose looked longer, his cheeks
shallower. But the deepness of his eyes remained the same. Beautiful.


"It was a school project," he continued, his voice still in a husky
whisper. The hole, cookie tin wide was now as deep as the spoon. "We had to
put things in a box. Things that were important to us." He laughed. "I've
forgotten what I had in there." There was a clunk against something
metallic. Trey ditched the spoon and reached into the hole with his
hands. A bit of tugging and flying dirt later, out came a square tin with
faded pictures of robots on it.


Clutched to him, he studied it, a small smile curling one side of his
lips. "Babe? Let's go back to the tent to look at this."


I nodded and we both stood up, me grabbing the torch while he roughly
refilled the hole. Ten minutes later we were back inside the tent and once
we'd each hopped into our sleeping bags, Trey took the tin and placed it
between us.


"Are you sure you want me to look in there with you?" I said, searching his
gaze. "It's just...maybe you'd prefer to look over them by yourself first?"


He shook his head, holding my gaze. In here we had two touches, one set up
like a lantern, and the other I'd tied up using a ribbon dangling from the
roof of the tent. We could see each other clearly. And I liked it.


"No, I want to show you, share this with you." With a pocket knife, he cut
through the waxed seal around the lid and yanked it off. His breath came
out in shuddering puffs. The emotions that crossed his face conflicting
with each other. Happy and sad. He glanced at me and gently laid the tin on
the floor.


In it were some cards, photos, paper, coins, and some little toy figure. He
picked up the cards first, handing me half.


"My basketball trading cards 2002." Trey lightly shook his head as if in
memory. "I was such a Gilbert Arenas fan."


I shuffled through the cards, still in okay condition after so long buried
underground.


"And this," Trey said, placing the cards back and picking up the coins,
"huh, this was my pocket money. Funny, I remember now, thinking that it
might be really valuable one day." He laughed, and I felt privileged and
also in awe that he was letting me be a part of this. He exchanged the
coins for the stack of photos. That was when he held his breath and closed
his eyes briefly.


"Are you alright?" I crawled over to him so we sat side-by-side. He lowered
the pictures for me to see, though his hands shook.


"This was taken on my eighth birthday." The entire family stood huddled
together, all with smiles on their faces. Including Aunt Patricia standing
just as tall as Trey's mom. I wanted to know how long before her accident
this was taken, but swallowed the question.


Trey leafed through the rest of the pictures one-by-one. They were all of
family, some with just him and his brother, but most with the whole
clan. The one that stuck out the most, and the one Trey lingered on the
longest, was of his mom smacking a kiss to his cheek. I studied his
expression as he drifted off into a reverie. His eyes glazed over, and his
lashes lowered. I wasn't sure, but I suspected he was holding back his
tears just for my sake. Which he didn't have to do.


I climbed out of my sleeping bag and went behind him, linking my legs
around his middle and hugging his back. "You can cry if you want to,
Trey. I don't have to watch, if you don't like. But I want to hold you like
this, 'kay?" I squeezed him as tight as I could until I heard him sniff.


He put the photos back into the tin, shut it and pushed it to the
side. Then I continued to hold him and rub his back while he rocked
slightly and sobbed. "God, I'm sorry," he said, leaning over to turn off
the lights. "I didn't think I'd get so emotional."


When we were submerged in darkness, he twisted around and I cupped the side
of his face. "Don't be sorry." I wanted instead to thank him for allowing
me to be there for him. For not getting all macho on me and keeping it
in. It showed he trusted me too, and that felt, well, important. And
good. Yeah, real good.


I kissed his chin.


"Just hold me tonight, babe?" he asked.


I answered with another kiss, soft, on the tip of his nose. I searched the
dark for my sleeping bag and once I found it slipped in.


We lay down, and Trey thrashed about getting into a comfortable position.


"Bet you're wishing you'd stuffed a pillow slip full of leaves about now,"
I said, hearing the laughter in my voice.


"Well, I thought cuddling you would be enough." His arms gripped me
stronger mashing our lengths together. "But, ah, I guess no matter how much
I love you, my neck just isn't going to like sleeping on hard ground."


I froze. My breath was lost somewhere, and my heart pumped overtime
ringing, along with his words, in my ears. I didn't trust myself to speak,
in case I'd heard him wrong. Had imagined it. But Trey was quiet too. And
still. As if waiting for a response.


Swallowing, I found a thread of voice and clung to it. "What did you just
say?"