Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 05:57:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Garrison <mng1114@yahoo.com>
Subject: Two Lives - Two Loves:  Chapter 1

This story is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to actual
events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.  This story also deals with love and
consensual sexual activities between men.  If you are not of
legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is
illegal, or are offended by such themes, do not read further
and leave this site now.

The author retains all rights to this story.  Reproductions
or links to other sites are not allowed without the
permission of the author.


Two Lives - Two Loves

Chapter 1

My name is Brad Williams.  I'm a History major at a private
midwestern university.  I won't say which for now.  I'm also
a member of a fraternity, yeah...I'm a fratboy, at that
university.  Again, I won't say which for now because the
events I'm about to relate could bring ridicule to both by
those whose beliefs are challenged or offended.  Believe me,
it is not my style to knowingly offend people, so if some
part of my chronicle here offends, it is not meant to do so.

I wanted to take some time to write down the events of the
past couple of weeks because, maybe, if I see it in print I
might really start to believe it myself.  In those two
weeks, I bound myself to the greatest guy I could ever hope
to find, aiding him in self-realization.  In turn, I found
myself on my own voyage of self-realization, the likes of
which I could not have conceived, would not have believed,
were I not living through it.

The turning point onto this branch of Life's huge tree came
the day I ran into Jon.  Jonathan James Wellford Shepard, to
be precise.  Oh, excuse me...I'm being reminded that it's
Jonathan James Wellford Shepard IV.  I do beg your pardon; a
historian should always try to be as precise as possible,
but to me and to the world at large he's just plain, old
Jon.  I don't mean to downplay it; there's nothing at all
plain about Jon.

It's been almost two years since I first met Jon and I was
never so elated as the day he finally joined the fraternity.
This guy was a stone solid stud with a body that just would
not quit.  He was a freshman, a year behind me in school.
We had found him during Fall Rush and the moment I laid eyes
on him, I began conniving to get him in the Frat.  I made
sure that I was his best friend, which was not difficult
since he was a truly likable guy.  I made sure that he ended
up as my pledge son and I made sure that there was never a
doubt in his mind that joining the frat was the best thing
in his college life.

I fell for him instantly.  Jon wasn't tall, just average
height, maybe about five-nine, four or five inches shorter
than me.  Overall, however, he was classical, textbook
beauty:  a nicely proportioned, toned and chiseled body,
capped by a crop of naturally blond hair.  Staring out from
that gorgeous face was a pair of stunning, ice blue eyes
that were oddly penetrating and happy at the same time.
There was a fabulous energy about Jon that just drew people
to him like a magnet.  I wanted him, badly, but the best
that I could hope for was just to be close to him,
agonizingly tantalizing as that was.

I was really happy when he decided to move into the House at
the beginning of his sophomore year.  The only thing
separating us now was a plaster wall, but it may as well
have been solid steel.  We palled around a lot; we grew to
become best friends, finding that we had a lot of common
interests.  Being in the house together gave me the
opportunity to see how Jon lived on a prolonged basis, which
I did not have when he lived in the dorms.  He was a
fabulous looking guy, played football, ran track, and could
have any girl on campus that he wanted.  There were more
than a few who wanted to get with him.  He dated
occasionally but he never went steady with any of them.  I
never heard of him sleeping with any of the little sorority
queens who drooled at his door.  Guys with his looks could
be really arrogant bastards if they wanted to, but Jon was
just not that way; really a shy, kind of private person.  I
also figured he was just one of those old fashioned kind of
guys who was waiting for his true love.

One beautiful Spring Friday, I came back from swimming laps
at the Field House to find Jon waiting for me down in the
Dining Room.  He asked if I'd eaten yet.  After an hour's
worth of swimming, I told him I was starved, so we decided
to cut classes for the afternoon and treat ourselves to
lunch.  Our haunt of choice at that time was a place across
from the far end of campus called Serrano's.  It was a dimly
lit pizza joint that had great thin-crust and wasn't too
picky about carding as long as you looked halfway old enough
and behaved yourself.  We'd been in there before, almost
enough to qualify as regulars, so the waitress didn't hassle
us when we ordered the pitcher of Bud with the large
sausage, mushroom and onion that we favored.  One of Jon and
my common likes.

I poured the beer and Jon broke the silence by saying that
he'd heard I was staying in town over the summer to take
extra classes.  I nodded and asked him what he was planning
to do.  I was happy to hear that he was doing the same and
he asked if I was staying in the House.  I told him that I
was, it was cheap, but that I wasn't looking forward to
living without air-conditioning for three months.  Then he
asked how I'd feel about living in a huge house out in the
County for the summer, complete with swimming pool and air-
conditioning.

"Sure", I said, a little stunned, "What's the catch?"

"No catch," he said with a slightly mischievous look in his
eyes.

Jon went on to explain that he had an uncle on his father's
side who had made a small fortune on top of the family's
already healthy holdings and lived out in the country on a
nicely secluded piece of ground.  Jon's uncle, Jonathan-
etcetera-the Third, was an alum of our school who'd loved
the area and stayed after graduation nearly thirty years
before.  He'd seen to it that his namesake was immediately
admitted with no questions asked.  His uncle had made his
personal fortune dealing in very pricey art and antiques and
traveled quite a lot, particularly during the summer.  He
was going to be in Europe for nearly the entire season,
partly for pleasure, partly for buying, and he wanted Jon to
take care of the house for him while he was away.  Jon
explained that it was a huge, rambling house and he didn't
feel like being there alone if he could have me, his best
friend, for company.  Rent free.

Needless to say, I didn't have to be asked twice.  Staying
with Jon at his Uncle's would save me a ton of money and,
best of all; it would be just us.  I knew we both had a
light class schedule for the summer with most of our classes
on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We arranged it so we had our
Mondays and Fridays free to just hang out and do whatever we
wanted.

It was only a few more weeks until the spring semester ended
and we were both looking forward to moving out to our summer
digs.

                         *  *  *  *

Finals were over and the spring semester was finally ending.
All the brothers and friends said their goodbyes and had a
few going away parties.  We had a couple of weeks or so
before the summer semester started and Jon and I were
anxious to get settled into his uncle's house.

Jon had gone out ahead of time to get settled and see his
uncle off and get his final instructions on the upkeep of
the house.  He didn't want me coming out until after he'd
squared it with his uncle that it was okay for him to have
one of his fraternity brothers as a housemate for the
summer.  His uncle was cool about it, though.  He figured
that two guys watching after things were better than one,
but he did strongly caution about parties and breaking
things up.  We were set.

Jon gave me directions to his uncle's place and he was not
kidding when he said it was out in the country.  It took
about 45 minutes to drive there and I knew I wasn't going to
like the commute when I had classes, but what the hell, it
was only going to be three days a week.

I was surprised when I saw the place.  It was bigger than I
imagined, especially for one guy.  It was a big two-story,
Victorian affair that had that distinguished look of age
about it, totally in a league far above the suburban
wannabe's that infested the modern world.  It was set on a
big lot as well.  Actually, this was not the kind of house
that sat on a lot.  This was what I'd call a landed house,
and it had plenty of that.  The nearest neighbor looked to
be more than a few hundred yards away.  I pulled around back
in front of the carriage house, a carriage house, you had to
love it, where Jon met me and started to help me unload my
stuff.  He was a little surprised when I unloaded my scuba
gear.

"I didn't know you dived," he said.

"I haven't had much of a chance 'cuz of classes, but I
figured we could have some fun in that pool you mentioned."
I replied.

"Cool!  I'd love to learn," Jon said, smiling.

He helped me get everything in the house and showed me where
I'd be living for the summer.  Great room, big.  It was at
least as big as my parents' bedroom at home.  I knew right
away that it was going to be hard moving back into the house
after living here all summer.  I tossed my stuff onto the
bed and Jon gave me a tour of the house.

His uncle had an extensive art collection.  I had no idea
who all of these artists were but you just knew by looking
at the quality of the work that they were all extremely
valuable.  I shuddered to think what the entire collection
must be worth.  The antiques were incredible as well.  Every
one of the rooms downstairs seemed like a step back through
time.  Frankly, I was almost afraid to touch anything.

"I can't believe that your uncle has all this stuff just out
like this," I said in amazement.

"It's all insured," Jon replied.  "Plus, he's got a first-
class alarm system that I have to go over with you later."

"Okay," I said.  "How old is this house, anyway?"

"I think I remember my uncle saying that it dates from the
late 1890's or turn of the century.  The original builder
was an industrialist type who came out here in the summer to
get away from the city.  One of the rooms upstairs still has
old telegraph hookups he used to keep in touch with his
office before telephones became available."

"You're kidding," I said incredulously.

"No, really," Jon said.  "The guy was supposed to have been
into everything and had tons of money.  Then along came the
stock market crash and that was the end of that.  But can
you imagine having your own telegraph?  How cool is that?"
he continued animatedly.

"That's too much," I said.  "Looks like your uncle's done a
really nice job restoring the place."

"Oh, yeah; he really gets off on doing stuff like this when
he's not doing the art thing," Jon said.  "I came out for a
few weeks last summer to help him with the place.  It was
great.  Oh, while I'm thinking of it, there's something kind
of interesting about this place you should know," he began.

Oh good, here we go, I thought, "And that is?"

"Just so you don't get freaked, I wanted to tell you that my
uncle says this place is haunted," Jon said with only the
slightest hint of a grin.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said.

Jon shrugged, "That's what he says."

"Well, you stayed here for awhile; anything happen?" I
asked, my curiosity aroused.

"Well," he started, "It mostly makes those old house kind of
noises you'd expect..."

"Yeah?" I drawled, waiting for that other shoe to hit the
floor.

"...but one time, I was doing some painting out by the
carriage house while my uncle went to the hardware store.  I
came in to get something to drink and I could have sworn I
heard someone moving around down in the basement."

"So what'd you do?"

"I knew my uncle wasn't back yet, so I started down there as
quietly as I could and peeked around when I was halfway down
the steps.  There was enough light coming in through the
window wells that I didn't have to turn on the lights so I
kept going."

"And...?" I said, the hairs on the back of my neck starting
to rise.

"And I didn't see anything except the cleanest basement I've
ever seen; just a workbench and a pile of boxes.  I checked
out the other large room down there that I think used to be
a root cellar.  My uncle uses it for wines now.  Nothing.  I
figured it must have been rats or another one of those house
noises.  I told my uncle when he came back and that's when
he told me about it."

"Weird.  And you never heard anything after that?"

"Nope.  That was the first and only time I've ever heard
anything.  Never seen anything, either, but my uncle claims
he catches things out of the corner of his eye now and
then."

"Great," I said, "Summer in the haunted mansion."

We both laughed at my observation and then Jon showed me the
kitchen.  Huge.  Obviously built for entertaining.  I loved
it.  It had a huge commercial gas range, a big working
island, double refrigerators, a stand alone freezer and a
stand-alone entertainment system to name only a few of its
amenities.  The beautiful, airy, modern design pushed all
thoughts of ghosts right out of my mind.

"My uncle also left us some presents," Jon said as he opened
the left hand refrigerator.

My mouth fell open when I saw that it was completely packed
with beer, probably enough to last through a good part of
the summer.  Not cheap beer, either, all imports and
microbrews.  Jon smiled at seeing my obvious delighted
amazement.

"That's not all," he said as he turned and swung open the
freezer door.

It, too, was completely packed with an assortment of steaks,
poultry, vegetables, enough to last for quite awhile.

"Dude," I said in an awed whisper.  "Your uncle's too cool!"

"I set out a couple of strip steaks to thaw.  What do you
say we go for a swim and then start in on the beer fridge?"
Jon said with a smile and a lilt of his dark blond eyebrows.
"We've had a tough semester, don't you think?"

"Yeah, we owe it to ourselves," I replied.  "Let's get
changed and I'll meet you in the pool."

It didn't take me long to dig through my suitcase and find
my baggie trunks.  I pulled them on, grabbed a towel and
headed back to the pool.  The pool was great.  Jon's uncle
must've had tons of money to burn because this pool was
designed like a tropical getaway.  On one end it had a
waterfall coming from the top of a collection of boulders
that had been carefully built up at the far end of a
freeform, S shaped pool.  There were faux palms surrounding
the pool enclosure, planted in a random pattern but placed
strategically to provide nice shade during the hottest part
of the day.  This was all just too cool.

I dove in.  The water was temperate, thanks to the warm
spring we'd had, and I swam to the far end of the pool near
the waterfall.  As I came back up to the surface, I shook
the water from my hair and saw Jon coming out of the house.
My jaw almost fell to the bottom.  He was wearing a tight
pair of royal blue Speedo racers that nicely
accentuated his body.  When Speedo designed their trunks,
they must've had Jon in mind because they suited him
perfectly.  I quickly got a throbbing erection as I surveyed
his lean, sculpted body.  That's right; tease me, you son of
a bitch, I thought. I tried not to stare but it was terribly
difficult.  I couldn't think of anything to say except to
stupidly tell him that "The water's great.  C'mon in!" as I
tried to rearrange myself without him noticing.

Jon did just that, diving in and joining me at the far end
in several quick, powerful strokes.

"This is the way to spend a summer, huh?" he sputtered as he
flicked the water from his hair.

"Yeah it is," I said.  "This is just too great to believe."

There was an odd, long pause as we just kind of hovered at
the surface, neither of us quite knowing what to say next.
Jon broke the silence by splashing a spray of water in my
face accompanied by his trademark grin and laugh.  I laughed
and returned fire.  We did this for a few moments until Jon
decided to take the offensive and lunged at me.  Grabbing me
in a bear hug, I sucked in as much air as I could because I
knew he was dragging us under.  We wrestled underwater for
as long as our breath held out.  I have to tell you that
wrestling with him gave me another raging hard on as I felt
his hard muscles all over my own tight body.  He felt so
damn good, and I could swear that once, when he brushed
against me, I could feel an erection hiding behind that thin
nylon around his crotch.

Maybe there was another aspect to Jon that he didn't let
peek out, so to say.  I thought it was going to be
interesting seeing where this led to over the course of the
summer.

As it turned out, I wasn't going to have to wait all summer
to find out.


(To Be Continued)