Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:53:31 -0700
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Diamond Dreams  Chapter 14

All of the Chapter 1 disclaimers apply. Please be careful and safe.
Donating to the Nifty Archive would be a great thing to do in order to
keep this great site viable.

In this chapter, Noah has problems coping with life without Bobby.
Eric and many of his teammates sit in on a school board meeting that
will determine the fate of the Mayfield High School baseball program.

CHAPTER 14
AUGUST CRUNCH

<Sunday, August 10>

Summer was now in full force. Baseball was over, school was three
weeks away, and the weather was sunny and hot almost every day.
Many of the Mayfield boys were gone or would be gone on vacations
with their families. Others weren't going anywhere. The boys were
doing a lot of different things together, from riding bikes, to doing
outdoor activities, to playing games, to just plain hanging out
together, to sex.

But there was also a lot of interest in the upcoming school board
meeting. Eric, Noah, Danny, and Carl had worked the phones making
sure everybody was aware that the candidates for the head baseball
coach position would be discussed at the meeting. Everyone was
encouraged to meet at Eric's house on Wednesday afternoon to talk
about the Thursday evening meeting.

The week got off to a rough start for one of the Mayfield boys. Noah
woke up on Sunday in a deep funk. He'd been feeling better each day
for the last week, thanks to the practiced ear of Dr. Sabine and to the
loving care of his parents and siblings,  While Noah was convinced
that the psychologist was an idiot and had nothing to offer him, in
truth his sessions with her were helping him a great deal. Jerking off
with his friends on Thursday had seemed wrong at first, but then
ended up feeling so right. And having Eric spend the night with him
was very special. The fact that Eric was willing to sleep naked with
him, yet never make any kind of a sexual move or even talk sex,
showed Noah what a great friend he had in Eric.

Not that he ever doubted that. The night Eric spent with him after the
accident, plus the past Thursday night, was the kind of gesture of
friendship that touched Noah. On top of all of his intellect, was
extremely attuned to the people around him. He felt Eric's kindness
and friendship deep inside himself.

However, on this morning he felt disoriented. He knew why he felt
that way. It was the fact that he kept trying to forget, the fact that it
was his fault Bobby wasn't wearing his helmet. He wished he could
tell somebody, but he was afraid that if he did then everyone would
hate him. His prejudices against Dr. Sabine kept him from telling her
what his feelings were.

 Noah had always been so cool and calm and logical, but on this topic
he refused to listen to his rational mind. He would, in fact, end up
battling the demon within him for a very long time. The best he could
do was try to bury it as deeply into his psyche as he could. He soon
became successful at doing that, keeping the demon at bay for
weeks or months until something would happen to bring it to the
surface. Two days that would always bring the demon to life were
July 18, the day of the accident, and September 5, Bobby's birthday.

On this Sunday, however, he had not yet learned how to keep the
demon at bay. All he knew was he was being told what a bad
boyfriend he had been. All he had to do, the demon told him, was tell
Bobby to wear the helmet. All he had to do was pick up the phone
and call him back and not worry about being a nag. It was his fault for
sleeping with his sister, even if they didn't go all the way sexually. He
knew he wanted to have sex with her, and that was enough. These
thoughts and others flooded his brain.

He arose from bed, got dressed, walked to the garage and pulled out
his bicycle. As he closed the garage door his mother came into the
garage.

"Noah, sweetie, aren't you going to eat breakfast?"

"Later," was all he said as he went out the side door, hopped on his
bike and rode off, his mother watching him recede down the street.
She'd been told by Dr. Sabine that his progress would be up and
down. The down parts, when they came, saddened her a great deal.

Noah rode to the cemetery, which was just at the northeast corner of
the city limits. He peddled his bicycle through the grounds until he got
to the grave of his best friend. He set his bike down, sat on the grass
in front of the grave, and cried as he begged for the forgiveness of his
the boy he loved. He sat there for almost two hours. He wasn't
meditating. Perhaps if he'd understood meditation better he would
have tried it to help cleanse his mind. What he did was sit and brood
and feel sorry for himself as he listened to his demon tell him what a
wretched person he was.

When he finally got home he pecked at a lunch his had mother laid
out, then went up to his room. He knew what he wanted. When he'd
thrown out the weed and booze he'd purchased from Randy he had
left the impression with Marty that he was done with his silly idea. But
he wasn't. He had a new stash of both hidden in the back of his walk-
in closet. As he entered the room he decided that now was the time
to see if drugs and alcohol really numbed the pain.

He removed some old clothes off the top of a box and lifted the lid.
Everything was still there. He pulled out the weed and some paper to
roll a joint. Since his first try, Randy had shown him how to do it
properly. What he didn't know was how to light the joint. Randy had
told him, but he didn't try it for himself. He decided he just needed to
roll it and put it in his mouth and light it. He'd placed some matches in
the box so that wasn't a problem. He sat cross-legged in the closet
and started to roll the joint the way Randy had shown him. He was
interrupted by his phone ringing. He wanted to ignore it, but
something told him that Eric was the person making the phone call.

Noah pulled the phone out of his pocket and saw that it was Marty.
He decided to ignore it at the same time he tapped the receive icon.
"Hello," Noah said, dully, when he realized what he had done.

Marty could hear the dullness is Noah's voice.  "Hey, dude, I was just
calling to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine." The sound of Noah's voice sounded off kilter
and Marty decided to not mince words. The worst that Noah could do
was hang up. "What's the problem?"

"Problem? There's no problem."

"That's not how it sounds to uncle Marty. You sound like crap."

Noah was ready to push the red hang-up icon. He looked down at the
box as tears flowed down his cheeks. "Can you come over?" he said
in a shaky voice.

"Don't do anything stupid."

Noah pushed the red icon and didn't move. He sat there until he
heard his mother yell from downstairs that he had company. He didn't
move, but yelled for his mom to send him up. All his mother could
hear from the bottom of the stairs was his muffled voice.

"Go on upstairs," she told Marty. "He's been in a strange mood
today."

"I know. He asked me to come over," Marty said.

"He's lucky to have friends like you and Eric," she said.

Marty didn't know how to reply to that, so he took the stairs two at a
time and went into Noah's room without knocking. He was surprised
to find the room empty. "Noah?" he asked tentatively.

"I'm in here," came a disembodied voice from the closet.

Marty walked into the large closet and saw Noah in the back, sitting
cross-legged, his face wet with tears. He sat down next to him and
caught sight of what was in the box. He waited for Noah to talk.

"I didn't throw it all out."

Marty could see the partially rolled joint, but he couldn't detect any of
the sweet smell that marijuana gave off after being smoked. He also
saw the unopened bottle of vodka in the box. "Did you use any?"
Marty asked, meaning not only on that day, but since he had last
been at Noah's house.

Noah shook his head, no. The tears started flowing again. Marty
picked up one of the shirts Noah had taken out of the box and wiped
Noah's smooth, pale cheeks.

"It hurts," Noah said. He wasn't willing to tell Marty why it hurt like it
did. He wasn't about to admit how it was his fault Bobby hadn't worn
his helmet. But he could tell Marty how much it hurts.

"Remember what I said about pain and about misery?" Marty asked.

Noah nodded.

"It's going to hurt for a long time. That's all I know. I've got things that
hurt, too," (like living with my old man, he thought, and like being gay
hurts sometimes), "and I used to be miserable." He pointed at the
box. "That shit won't make it better."

"I know. I just want the pain to go away."

"It will for a little while. Then it all comes back, and you feel even
worse because of what you did to kill it. All I know is that the crap in
that box never did anything to help me, even when I thought it was
my best friend."

Noah nodded as if he understood. He would end up understanding
later, when he got his thoughts back in order. What he understood
right now was that even though he had never once had his mind
under the influence of alcohol or any mind altering drug, he had the
idea in his head that they were the way out of the pain and misery he
was feeling.

He closed the box, avoiding Marty's eyes. He pushed the box back
into its corner and picked up some of the clothes that had been
covering it up. For a moment his demon made him wonder why he
had invited Marty over. He didn't want what Marty had to offer. His
brain told him that the contents of the box had what he wanted, not
the big eighth grader who was sitting next to him in his closet.

It was then that another thought entered his head and pushed him to
his final decision. It would be years before he truly recognized the
significance of that decision, but when he looked back at it he came
to realize that his salvation began with what he did in that closet. As
he covered the box he remembered something he had said to Bobby
once a little over a year ago. He had told him that when life seemed
to be really shitty, when it looked like nothing was going right in life,
that was the time to take a look at what was right in life. He looked at
Marty and thought about Eric and comprehended the fact that while
his boyfriend, his best friend ever, was gone for good, he still had two
best friends like those two who were alive.  He knew that Marty and
Eric had his back when things were bad. He knew he had a great
family that loved him. He was part of a baseball team and his
teammates had been there for him as his world got dark.

Noah stood up and moved past Marty and out of the closet. Marty
wasn't sure what to do or what to say, so he stood up to follow the
bespectacled twelve year old out of the closet. "I can't throw it away,"
Noah said as he left the closet, "and I can't ever use it. Help me."

Marty stopped. He had a good idea of what Noah meant, but he
wasn't entirely sure. He decided to go with his own idea of what Noah
meant. He turned around, tossed the clothes off of the lid, picked up
the box, and carried it out of the closet. He saw Noah lying prone as
he took the box out of the room and into the bathroom. He hoped
nobody from the family came by, because he did not want to have to
explain what he was doing.

Opening the box he stared into it. What he saw were the things he
considered to be life's best treasures for years. His hands shook as
he picked up the weed and took a deep whiff. He opened the bottle of
vodka and smelled it as well. He began to doubt that he was strong
enough to resist what was in the bathroom. Marijuana and alcohol
had been a big part of his life since he was in elementary school and
right now it was begging him for forgiveness. It was asking to be
allowed back into his life. It was being what he had been told it was
time after time after time, "cunning, baffling, and powerful." Marty
could feel the power taking him over at the same time he could feel
his own powerlessness.

He stuffed a baggie of pot into his pocket, then put the bottle to his
lips. But before taking a sip he stopped and said the Serenity Prayer.
The pause was enough for him to then get his own thoughts together
and remember that he had come to help a friend, that the reason he
was in a room that was full of what he was desperately craving was
because he was working to be of service to somebody he knew and
loved.

He pulled the bottle away and poured the contents into the toilet. He
took the baggie out of the box and dumped them into the toilet.
Finally he pulled the baggie out of his pocket, tossing it out as well.
He flushed the toilet and watched its precious contents whirl around
and around and then flush away for good.

He picked up the empty box and carried it back to Noah's room. Noah
was still prone, but was now wearing only a t-shirt. He was naked
from the waist down.

"Did you dump it?" Noah asked.

"All gone."

"Did you keep any of it?"

The question stunned him with its acumen. He had forgotten how
perceptive the little boy was. "I thought about it," he answered
honestly.

"I'm glad you didn't. I would have felt bad if you did."

"What happened to your pants?" Marty asked, although he knew the
answer since he could see Noah's shorts, socks, and white briefs on
the floor.

"I want you to fuck me," Noah said. "I need to be fucked. You said
you would fuck me some day."

Noah's house was full of temptation today—drugs, alcohol, and sex
were there for the taking. He had promised Noah sex and the thought
of putting his dick in the smooth white ass that was staring at him had
him getting an instant hard-on.

"I said I would when the right time came," Marty said. He was hit by a
sense of déjà vu. This visit was so much like his last visit to Noah.

"What if I said the right time was now," Noah said. "I need to be
fucked because, well, because I need to be."

"Then I'd say you were full of shit. You got something bothering you
or you wouldn't have got out the weed and the booze. I want sex with
you when you don't feel like you gotta do it."

"Then I guess you better go," Noah said.

"Yeah, I guess I better." Right then Marty wished he hadn't thrown out
the contents of the box.  Then he shook that thought out of his head,
as he remembered the things from the program that were supposed
to keep him calm.  He had done the exact right thing for both Noah
and himself and he knew it.

He headed for the bedroom door and opened it. Before he could step
out, Noah stopped him. "Thank you Marty, you're a good friend. I'm
sorry I wasn't a good friend today."

"You're a good friend every day, Noah. I love you."

Noah smiled for the first time all day as Marty slipped away. "I love
you, too, Marty," he whispered. He then dropped to his bed and fell
into a troubled sleep until dinner time. With Marty's help he'd enjoyed
a minor victory against his demon, one of many victories he would
need over the years until he was to finally able to stare down the
demon face-to-face.

<Thursday, August 14>

Eric's Thursday was an eventful one. He woke up early like he
usually did. Last summer he would have had Scott next to him, either
in his bed or in Scott's bed. Instead he woke up alone with morning
wood. He took care of that issue with a quick wank, bringing his
young teen cock to a quick orgasm.

He peed, put on a t-shirt, gym shorts, and running shoes, checked his
clock, and went downstairs. He wasn't surprised when he heard a
knock at the front door. He opened it so see Marty standing in front of
him with a big smile. Eric and Marty had taken up jogging together in
the morning three to four days a week and today was one of those.

"You and your early morning runs," Marty said. "Mornings are for
sleeping."

"I can't stand wasting the day."

"Well, I've wasted so many days maybe I need days like this to make
up for some lost time."

They ran to the town park and then around the park a few times.
Marty could never help but feel a bit of emotion every time he ran
past the bench he used to sit on, drinking vodka from a bottle in a
paper bag, waiting for some man to pick him up and pay him for sex.
He was picked up by a man, but it was for reasons that had nothing
to do with sex.  Their run eventually got to Marty's house. "Want to
come in and shower with me?" Marty asked with a leer.

"You're a high school horn dog," Eric said.

"And proud of it."

"How about we pick a day when you bring some clothes to my house
and shower there? I don't have a big brother to bug us."

"John is cool. He won't bug us."

"If my mom is working we have my house to ourselves."

"Okay. I'm just happy you want to mess around with me."

"I'm cool with it as long as Rich is."

"Me and Rich are really tight, but we're not boyfriends."

Eric thought they were boyfriends and just wouldn't admit it, but he
didn't say anything. He and Marty fist-bumped and Eric ran home,
feeling a bit horny yet again.

He arrived home, got naked, and jerked off for the second time that
morning, thinking of Marty's big cock. He showered and got himself
some breakfast. He was just getting ready to brush his teeth when his
phone rang. It was Mark, Kevin's umpiring friend, and someone he
and Noah had gotten to know better.

"How would you like another locomotive ride?" Mark asked after the
two exchanged greetings.

"Serious?"

"Very serious. You and your buddy, Noah, obviously love trains and
I'd love to set up another ride for the two of you."

"Wow, that would be great."

"Your catcher, Kevin, just had one, so it's only fair that you two young
rail fans get another one as well."

"He did? He never said anything about having another train ride."

"I'm sure he was just waiting for the right opportunity," Mark said.
"You'll be riding with me and engineer Sherman." Mark gave Eric the
dates he and Sherman would be operating the run through Mayfield
over the next couple of weeks. Eric told Mark he'd contact Noah
about the dates. Then he'd talk to his parents and get back to him as
quickly as he could.

That phone call had Eric very excited. He had truly loved his first
locomotive ride the year before. He finally got to the sink to brush his
teeth when his phone rang again. When he saw who it was he got
excited yet one more time.  His old buddy Shelby was calling him
from Tacoma.

"Hey, Shelby. Whazzup?"

"Everything. Are we still good for our visit?"

"Yep. Next week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights." Only
Wednesday conflicted with the days Mark had given him for a
locomotive ride. August wasn't even half way done yet, and even
without any baseball going on it felt like there weren't enough days
left in it to do all of the things he wanted to do. It would only get worse
when soccer started the last week of the month. No wonder Noah
referred to it as the August crunch.

"You guys are coming by car, right?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, Liam's mom and dad are going to drive us down." Eric's
friends Shelby, Liam, Andy, Chase, and Mason would all be coming.

"That's a long way to drive. I mean they have to do it twice to bring
you and to pick you up."

"Liam's mom is pretty cool," Shelby said. "They're gonna take Liam
and Mason's little brothers to the beach for the three days. Those two
are pretty tight, even tighter than Liam and Mason are."

"Well, my mom says she'll be doing a lot of shopping to feed us and
I'll make lots of space in my bedroom to lay out sleeping bags and
stuff. I can't wait to see you guys." Eric hung up, excited about the
next week.

Shelby and Eric had done their first sexual experimentation together.
They started playing around towards the end of fifth grade, before
Eric moved to Mayfield. They still communicated a lot and had stayed
friends, even though they lived a long way from each other. Chase
had been the other boy they'd done a lot of sexual experimenting
with. He said he wasn't into messing around with boys any more, but
he didn't mind everybody else doing it. Eric and Shelby both figured
he could hang out with Scott, since the two of them were both into
girls now.

Shelby had met Liam last summer playing baseball. Mason was a
friend of Liam's and lived in Seattle. Eric had met both of them last
summer and liked them a lot. Mason was a lot like Shelby, a small,
skinny kid, who was fairly quiet. Andy was bigger and a bit louder.
Chase was like Eric, outgoing and confident, a kid who was a natural
leader. Liam was a wild boy in a lot of ways, especially when it came
to sex. He loved having sex, especially with other boys. He was not
yet into chasing girls and may never be. He all but said he was gay.

The other thing that made the day eventful was the upcoming school
board meeting. All the boys in the Go to State group had been
contacted about showing up at the meeting to support Coach
Sanders. Eric, Noah, and Rich agreed to speak in the coach's favor.

They asked Marty to speak, but he declined. He said he didn't like
talking in front of a group and wasn't good at it. That was less than
half true. While he said he didn't like it, and didn't crave the spotlight
like some, he did find a measure of enjoyment from speaking. The
part that really wasn't true was him saying that he wasn't good at it;
he had a great deal of presence for a fourteen year old high school
freshman.

The Donkey and the Dawg, along with their baseball playing friends
Cody and Zach, planned to attend the meeting, as did Bobby's
brother Tyler. None of the high school kids planned to speak. They
were worried about potential retaliation if Coach Gardner got the
head coaching job. While Rich was an incoming freshman, he felt
more connected to the middle school eighth graders. They were more
concerned with getting the coach they wanted than they were with
displeasing Coach Gardner.

The players arrived early. Because Avery Benson, the school board
president, knew there would be a larger crowd than normal for the
meeting, he decided to hold it in the high school auditorium instead of
in the board room. He remembered how crowded the school board
meeting room had become when the job status of Coach Collins had
been on the agenda.

The boys weren't the only ones there giving their support to one of
the candidates. A number of community members were interested as
well, many of them ready to speak for Coach Gardner. The coach
was a regular at the Mayfield café and didn't mind spending an
evening at the Roadside Inn or at one of the local taverns with some
of the Mayfield sports fans and boosters. He was as popular with that
group, who saw the coach as one of them, as he was unpopular with
the high school players.

But there were boosters who supported Coach Sanders as well,
including George Bednarzyck, Noah's father, Hunter's father, and
Eric's mother and father. The owner of Pooh Bear's Pizza and the
owner of the Burger Barn were also there. While they didn't say
publically who they supported, it was an open secret that they were
behind Coach Sanders. Coach Sanders and his partner, Coach
Miller, weren't at the meeting, but Coach Gardner was there, sitting
with a group of his buddies.

"If the outside candidate ends up getting the job everybody is going to
really wonder what all the fuss was about," George Bednarzyck told
Seth McCall, Noah's dad.

Avery Benson knew why the big crowd was there, and it wasn't to
listen to the school board discuss the budget and the purchase of
English textbooks. As a result he had placed the hiring of the new
baseball coach at the top of the agenda.

Benson started the meeting on time. He reminded everybody that the
hiring recommendation had been made by the school administration,
but that the final decision on the hiring of head coaches was up to the
board. What he didn't say is that the board usually rubber stamped
the administration's recommendation. He invited any input from
members of the audience and told them that they were limited to
three minutes each.

Eric checked to see what members of the Go to State Team had
shown up. Noah and Scott were sitting next to him. Marty and Rich
were sitting in the same row. He saw that Hunter, Lars, and the twins
were there, along with Rodney and Jerome. Danny and Carl rounded
out the members in attendance.

George Bednarzyck spoke first. The lawyer was a polished speaker
and knew how to say a lot using very few words. He quickly told the
board members how much work Coach Sanders put into the
program, related how much he cared about the kids of Mayfield, and
how the players both liked and respected him.

Eric spoke next. He was extremely nervous, but he comported
himself well. His voice still hadn't broken, and sounded strange
listening to just adults speak. Eric spoke to how Coach Sanders
helped him feel a part of the program when he moved to Mayfield. He
spoke to the support Coach Sanders showed for their Go to State
Team and how he coached them to the middle school JV
championship last year and won it again this year with another group
of players.

A couple of men spoke for Coach Gardner. Then Noah talked about
how knowledgeable Coach Sanders was when it came to baseball
and how much he respected him for letting a little nerdy kid with
glasses be a part of the team. That elicited a few chuckles from the
audience. Rich spoke next, talking about how much he had learned
and how fairly he'd been treated by Coach Sanders during his three
years at Mayfield Middle School.

Things got a little ugly when a big man with a thick beard and longish
hair walked up the microphone. A high school boy had been sitting
next to him. Eric learned later that he was the man's son and that he
played football and baseball. He was a senior and expected to be the
starting catcher for the varsity next spring.

"I just wanted to say that I've known Coach Gardner since he started
coaching here at Mayfield and I know him to be a good man. Both my
boys played for him and liked him. Ralph, my boy over there, is
excited about playing for Coach Gardner."

"Sure he is," the Donkey whispered to the Dawg, "because he can get
away with whatever he wants." Ralph was a party boy. Coach Collins
and Coach Gardner had a habit of looking the other way when they
found out their players were at a booze party. They threatened stuff,
but then never followed through. "His dad is scoring points hoping to
get his kid a starting spot." Ralph had yet to play varsity ball because
Mike's friend Zach was a much better catcher and had been with the
varsity since he was a sophomore.

"I want my boy to have the best, and that would be Coach Gardner.
And there is the matter of Coach Sanders and his lifestyle."

"Oh, oh, here it comes," Eric whispered to Noah.

"Everybody in this room knows the coach is a homosexual living in
sin with..." That was as far as he could get before Avery Benson
picked up his gavel and rapped it on the table. Benson sensed what
was coming up, but he rarely had to use the gavel and it took him a
moment to locate it.

"We are not going there, Paul," the board president said. "That has
nothing to do with this discussion."

"Fuck it doesn't," Paul Richardson said, "it has everything..." Bang!
The gavel came down again.

"I said that's enough."

Richardson glared at Avery Benson, but went back to his seat. A
murmur went through the audience as the next speaker walked up.
Marty went pale when he saw his dad walk up to the microphone.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" he whispered to Rich. Rich
shrugged.

Marty's dad introduced himself and said, "My boy played for Coach
Sanders at the middle school for two years. Had I known the
background of the man I would have yanked his ass off the team."

"That's bullshit," Marty said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Once again the gavel came down, but Marty's dad went on. "Ain't no
way my boy plays for a faggot. You make that man coach and my boy
won't play and I know others who feel...," but the gavel came down
again. "You can't keep us from speaking our minds," he continued.

"I will suspend this meeting if we don't get order now," Avery Benson
said. Benson didn't have to go that far, however, as another man
walked over to Marty's dad and guided him away. Marty recognized
the man as the town's police chief, Chief Mullen. He knew Chief
Mullen had a son who was a junior and who played in the baseball
program. Marty hadn't seen either his dad or the chief enter the
auditorium.

Marty felt totally embarrassed by what had just happened. He was
positive his father was drunk. He also was sure his dad would be in
trouble, because Coach Miller, their summer coach and Coach
Sanders's partner, was also his father's boss.

Avery Benson decided to end the discussion on the coaching opening
before things got out of hand. He happened to like Coach Sanders.
He liked his knowledge of the game and the high expectations he set
for the players. He particularly liked the extra effort he had put forth in
pairing up Danny with his son, Carl. The fact that Sanders was gay
did not bother him at all. He found himself upset with the two
speakers who had made it an issue. Benson diplomatically thanked
those who spoke and said the board would announce its decision to
the administration by Tuesday of next week.

The players who showed up for the meeting certainly did not want to
hang around for the rest of the board's business and quickly left the
auditorium. On the way out a number of them agreed to meet at
Bob's Burger Barn to talk about the meeting.

Eric walked to The Barn with Noah. Most of the boys had ridden their
bikes to the high school, but Eric and Noah had come with their
fathers. They were offered a ride by Noah's dad, but The Barn was
only a couple of blocks away and they said they'd walk. They each
had something they wanted to talk about one-on-one and this was
their chance.

Eric told Noah about Mark's invitation of another locomotive cab ride.
Noah was obviously excited and wanted to do it yesterday.

"Well, I got some company coming first," Eric said. He told Noah
about the upcoming visit of his Tacoma friends. "We can do it after
they leave."

"We're going away on vacation week after next," Noah said. "What if
we did it on the Thursday after your friends leave?"

"That's one of the dates Mark gave me, so it works," Eric told him.
Noah grinned again.

The next topic Eric wanted to bring up was a little bit more sensitive.
It had been less than a month since Bobby's accident and Eric knew
how Noah felt about his former boyfriend. He wanted Noah to get out
of himself and get involved in things again, and joining him with his
Tacoma friends seemed like a perfect way to do that. However, he
knew that the visit would involve sex, probably a lot of sex, and he
wasn't sure how Noah would feel about that. He wondered if Noah
would be ready to mess around with other boys so soon, even after
his willingness to jerk off with Carl and Danny the other day.
Nevertheless, he brought up the topic. The worst that could happen
would be Noah saying he wasn't interested in coming over.

"Yeah, I think I can do that," Noah said.

"We could end up messing around. They're all horn dogs," Eric said.

"I take it we're talking about more than jerking off?"

"We are."

"I have to do stuff some time. I mean it's not like I'm looking to do
stuff with a new boyfriend. I messed around with lots of other boys
even before the accident." Eric was always amazed at how
perceptive Noah could be about life. "If I just come over for maybe
one night, that would be okay, I think." Bit by bit Eric saw Noah
coming out of himself. At that time Eric wasn't aware of Noah's
demon, he didn't know about what had just happened with Noah and
Marty and the drugs and alcohol. From what he saw and knew, Eric
thought Noah was getting better.

"Well, whatever you want to do is cool with me."

"I'll let you get into it with your friends and come over on Tuesday,"
Noah said, not sure if that was what he really wanted.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Eric told them as they approached The
Barn.

Two boys who rode their bikes were Rich and Marty. They were the
first to reach the Burger Barn. After being embarrassed by his father,
Marty didn't want to hang around to talk with anybody. In fact, he
didn't want to hang with anybody at the Burger Barn.

"You can't help it that your dad is a dork," Rich said.

"You're too nice," Marty told him. "My dad is a fucking asshole. I wish
I didn't have to live with him. He was drunk on top of being an
asshole, which is the way he is `cause he's an alcoholic like me."

"You were that way, too," Rich said.

"Yep, and I could be again pretty easy if he keeps being like that."
Rich stared at Marty as they mounted their bikes and Marty knew
exactly why. "Sorry, that was a dumb thing to say."

"It was really dumb."

"Well, I said I was sorry. And I am. Sometimes I just say dumb
things."

"You don't plan on drinking do you?"

"Look, I said I was sorry, so get off my case already."

Nothing else was said as they peddled to Bob's Burger Barn. They
were the first ones there. Bob saw them come in. He knew where
they had been.

"Are you guys all alone?" He asked.

"Nope," Marty said, "lots more coming."

"Then take the back room, you guys can all meet there."

"Thanks."

Rich and Marty sat in the back room waiting for their teammates to
show. Marty had been a little worried about money, but he soon saw
that he had enough for a burger basket.

"Can I stay the night at your house tonight?" he asked. "I don't wanna
be home tonight. My dad knows I was at that meeting."

"I have to ask my mom, but I'm sure it will be okay. I don't blame you
for not wanting to be there."

Marty remembered about amends and said to Rich, "Sorry I got on
your ass."

"It's cool. Hell, you're cool. I'm glad we're friends again."

Marty wanted to say more, based on what he had told Eric. But he
didn't get the chance as the twins came in with Lars and Hunter. It
didn't take long for the back room to fill up. All of the Falcons who
were at the meeting were there, along with the Donkey, the Dawg,
and their buddies Zach and Cody. The boys noisily ate, joked, and
talked about what had happened at the meeting.

They were all in agreement about two things: They wanted Coach
Sanders to be the varsity high school coach, and they were certain
that it wasn't going to happen.

Next: Friends and More