Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 21:36:55 -0700
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Diamond Dreams  Chapter 5

Greetings and thanks for coming back to read another chapter. All the
Chapter 1 disclaimers still apply. Please, be safe always. Also, please
give to Nifty to keep the archive running.

In this chapter, Scott and Eric have a difficult conversation. Hunter
becomes a little bit more comfortable with his sexuality. Eric and
Shelby do something together they never thought they would never
do. Enjoy.

Douglas at thehakaanen@hotmail.com


CHAPTER 5
JUST SAY YOU'RE NOT GAY

<Friday, June 13, Monte baseball field>

The Falcons came up against another experienced and older team,
but they held their own out in the field. Offensively, they were
overpowered by a big pitcher who would be turning fifteen just after
the cut-off date. He shut them out on four hits as they lost 4-0. Eric
started for the Falcons, giving up three runs over six innings. Rich
pitched the last inning, giving up a run on a solo homer.

One thing everybody noticed was how friendly Rich and Marty were
with each other. Marty had ridden to the game with Rich and they
were warm-up partners before the game. As the players were picking
up their own gear and helping with the team's equipment after the
game, Kevin, Eric, Noah, and Bobby approached Marty and Rich,
their curiosity aroused.

"Are you two friends again?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, we kissed and made up," Marty said.

"Do you mean that literally or figuratively?" Noah asked.

The blush on the faces of both of their teammates gave away the
answer to the question, but nobody pursued it, especially Kevin and
Bobby, who weren't entirely sure what Noah's question meant.

"Whatever, it's good to see you two together again," Kevin said.
"Watching you guys the last year has been a big pain."

"The next argument you two have, you might want to do the kiss and
make up just a wee bit quicker," Noah told them with a smile.

As the players headed for the parking lot, Eric stopped Marty. Marty
had come out to him earlier in the spring, so Eric knew how close
Noah's kidding was to the truth. He asked to speak to Marty alone for
a minute. Marty looked at Rich, who was his ride home, and Rich
nodded it was okay.

"Whazzup, bro?" Marty asked.

"I'm glad to see you guys are being friends again," Eric said.

"Thanks. I was afraid he'd never be my friend again. I deserved it if
he wasn't."

"Not now, you don't," Eric said. "You've been totally cool since you
quit drinking."

"I gotta do more than just quit drinking, or I will go right back again. I
have to learn to live a sober life is what I'm finding out, and that's
fucking hard."

"I wanna ask you a quick question, then I'll let you go."

"Go for it."

"I know you guys messed around back in seventh grade, and I know
you're gay, so I guess what I want to know is...um...are you guys
like..."

"Like boyfriends you mean?" Marty asked with a grin. It wasn't that
long ago that a question like Eric's would have set him off, both
internally and externally."

"Yeah, like that."

"I don't know, yet. I don't know if Rich is even gay. I mean, we just
made up yesterday." Marty looked seriously at Eric. Marty had
recently totally trusted Eric with almost all of his secrets. "But, I am
hoping he's as gay as you and me and he wants to be my boyfriend..
I just don't know. I mean we both kinda talked about it like we might
be boyfriends yesterday, but today he acted like we didn't decide
anything. I just don't know; it's all very confusing."

"I wish I could help you."

"One thing I am learning. Things will happen the way they are
supposed to happen when they are supposed to happen. So, I guess
I gotta work to help that happen. Just hoping won't do it." He looked
at Rich and Rich's dad waiting in the parking lot. Rich's mother had
already left. Mikey and Drew rode with her. Eric also knew his mom
and dad were waiting for him, making it time to end their chat.

"Good luck," Eric said.

"Thanks. You're a good friend," Marty said. He turned and walked to
the parking lot, wishing one of his parents had taken the time to make
the drive to watch him play.

The two boys walked away from their little chat with diverging
thoughts. Marty was looking at a relationship that was starting to
come back together, and whether he and Rich ended up being
boyfriends wasn't the most important part of it. What was important
was he had his best friend back, and he was determined not to lose
him...at least for today.

Eric felt a pang of envy as he walked to his parents' car. He saw
Marty and Rich getting back together at the same time he felt his
relationship with Scott slipping away. Scott had told him he didn't
think he was gay, that the two of them had been more bed buddies
than boyfriends. He wondered where it would all end up between him
and Scott. He didn't realize he was going to know the answer before
the weekend was over.

<Saturday, June 14, Eric's house>

Eric was an early riser, even when there wasn't any school. Most
twelve year olds waking up on a Saturday morning and seeing it was
seven-thirty would turn over and go back to sleep. Eric thought about
spending another half-hour in bed, but finally stretched and got up,
his naked body sporting morning wood.

For the past few months on a night of a game or on a night with no
school in the morning, Eric would have been sharing his bed with
Scott, or he would have been at Scott's house sharing his friend's
bed. Those nights had become less and less frequent the past couple
of months. He wished he was waking up with Scott's warm body next
to him, and he felt a moment of depression thinking about it.

He showered, dressed in a t-shirt and soccer shorts, and headed
downstairs. He had heard his parents talking and knew that breakfast
was close at hand.

He received a friendly good morning from his mom and dad as he
came into the kitchen, but his thoughts were more on the smells of
cooking bacon and eggs than on parental greetings.

"What kind of plans does Scott have going on?" his dad asked as Eric
started digging into his bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast.

"Why do you think he has plans?" Eric asked, even though he knew
exactly why his dad thought so. The question brought down the
improving mood his parents and eating breakfast had started up.

"Normally one of you would be overnight at one house or the other on
the night after a game."

"I guess he must have had plans, then, I don't know what they were."

Eric's father looked at his son with concern. He had seen the
changes in the friendship of the two boys. When they moved to
Mayfield a year and a half ago, it was Scott who had taken Eric under
his wing and helped him to fit into the school community. Eric's
outgoing personality and natural leadership skills would have led to
his acceptance in the small town school eventually, but having a
popular athlete like Scott accept him as a friend greatly speeded up
the process.

Eric's father suspected that more went on in their beds than simply
sleeping. While he dropped occasional hints about it to Eric, for the
most part he decided to stay out of that particular area, at least until
he thought somebody might be getting hurt. It appeared to him that
might be happening since some obvious tension had entered the
friendship.

After breakfast, Eric helped his mother with the cleaning up, then
went up to his bedroom to log on to his computer and catch up on
what was going on with his friends.

One of those friends was, of course, Scott. Unlike Eric, Scott was a
typical tween when it came to getting out of bed in the morning. The
later the better, was how he saw it, and he strived to sleep until the
"crack of noon".  Still, he was up and showered by ten that morning.
As he was eating he got a phone call from Tama, the girl he
considered to be his girlfriend, even if she hadn't totally accepted him
as a boyfriend yet.

"Have you talked to him?" Tama asked after some preliminary chit
chat.

"Not yet."

"You said you'd do it after school baseball was over."

"I know, but it's not that easy."

"Do you want to be my boyfriend or not?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, then, you gotta go talk to him."

Tama was referring to Scott and Eric. Tama knew that the two of
them had a relationship that was sexual. While part of her thought
what the two boys did in bed was sexy and hot, she didn't want any
kind of competition. She had told Scott that she would not be his
girlfriend until he told Eric he couldn't be his "boyfriend" any longer
and would quit having any kind of sex with him. When Scott asked if
that included just jerking off together, she had told him it included
everything.

Tama didn't think two boys having sex was a big deal. They were
boys just acting like boys, after all. For her this was about control, not
about sex. What she didn't know was that Eric was gay and had
actually considered Scott to be his true boyfriend, not just as a friend
he messed around with. After all, she and her best friend Mary Alice
had been kissing and doing sexual things together since the last part
of fifth grade. She would have no problem giving that up to have Scott
as her boyfriend, although she didn't intend on doing that. Her
relationship with Mary Alice was not the same as Scott's relationship
with Eric as far as she was concerned.

"I'll talk to him today," Scott said.

"Good."

"Does that mean you will do what we talked about?"

"I said I would. Don't you believe me?" Tama had promised Scott
she'd get naked with him if he stopped having sex with Eric. Scott,
being the boy he was, hoped things would go beyond mere making
out in the nude. Tama was still a virgin, but Scott had been shown the
sexual ropes by his older sister, Lindy.

"I believe you. I was just making sure." What Scott would never admit
to anyone, even though it was so obviously true, was that he was
being totally controlled and manipulated by the thirteen year old girl,
whom he was ready to take on as his girlfriend.

After some more small talk, Scott hung up and realized he was about
to have the most difficult conversation of his young life. He put his
breakfast dishes into the dishwasher, finished dressing, and walked
over to Eric's house, which was two doors away from his.

He knocked at the back door and then walked in. If the doors were
unlocked, the two boys usually entered each other's house on their
own. Eric's mother was in the living room and had heard Scott come
in.

"Hello, Scott. Eric is upstairs in his room."

"Hi, Mrs. Simmons, and thanks." Scott usually took the stairs two at a
time when he visited Eric, but this time he was in no hurry to get to
his friend's room, and he walked up them normally. Eric was busy at
his computer when Scott entered his room. They exchanged
greetings and Eric said he thought Scott had some kind of plans for
the day.

"No, I didn't have none. The reason I didn't want to spend the night
was because I was tired," Scott lied.

"Oh," Eric said, not entirely believing his friend. For a long time he
had believed every word Scott said to him, but now he wasn't sure
what to believe.

"We gotta talk," Scott said.

"I know."

Scott sat down on Eric's bed while Eric stayed seated in his desk
chair. The two tweens looked at each other, knowing they had to say
something, but not sure how to go about saying it. They were dealing
with the first relationship crisis of their young lives. What made it all
the harder was that they weren't mad or upset with each other. They
still liked each other a great deal, and loved each other as friends.
But the core of their relationship, the sexual part of it, had changed.

If Scott was older, more experienced, more mature, he might have
eased into the subject of the talk, led up to what he wanted to say,
found ways to help assuage the hurt. But he wasn't those things, he
was thirteen, and not sure how to handle the position he was in. It
was not a position the he liked, but he wanted to be the one to finally
become the boyfriend of the elusive Tama. As with many thirteen
year old males—in fact many males in general, he followed the path
laid out by his testosterone.

"I'm not gay and I've been going out with Tama and we have to stop
doing sex stuff," he blurted out all at once.

Two-thirds of what Eric heard he already knew. The stopping of sex
was what was new. The fact that Eric had anticipated this day, and
had already cried over it, plus the fact that in the overall scheme of
things, Eric was more mature mentally, emotionally, and socially than
his more physically mature friend, kept him from having a breakdown
right then in his bedroom.

"I got the whole you're not gay thing, you've been telling me that,"
Eric said. "And I figured out you and Tama, and I guess I knew you
were going to tell me we weren't going to be boyfriends. But we can't
even, like, jerk off together?"

"Tama says we can't be boyfriends any more and that I can't have
any more sex with you at all."

"So she's like your wife and your boss now?"

"No. But she just wants me all to herself. And if I do what she wants
she'll get naked and stuff with me."

"And she'll let you fuck her?" Eric asked.

"Maybe, I haven't asked her that yet."

"But you want to lose your cherry before you leave middle school,
right?"

"I kinda already lost it," Scott said quietly.

Eric had no problem putting one and one together after that
statement. "Let me see, you lost it to your sister."

Scott looked somewhat embarrassed as he nodded his head yes. "It
was just so I could learn how to do stuff with a girl."

"You can still fuck me you know, I don't get pregnant. Tell Tama that,
because I bet she really doesn't want to fuck you. She just wants to
lead you around on a leash like you're her pet or something."

"You can get a girlfriend, too. You know there are girls who drool all
over you, because they think you're the cutest thing going into eighth
grade."

"But I really am gay," Eric said.

"You can just say you're not gay and then go out with one of the girls.
That's what I did and it turns out I'm not gay."

"That's the thing, you really aren't gay and I am."

"You don't know that. It's like they say online about boys--making out
with other guys is a phase or something."

"It's no phase for me. I got no boyfriend and I don't want a girlfriend.
So I guess my hand becomes my best friend for awhile."

"Um...are you mad at me? I mean we can still be friends, right?"

"I'm not mad at you. I guess I knew this was coming just from how
you were acting. I wish we could do some sex together sometimes,
just to mess around. No kissing and that. Maybe Tama will let you
after awhile, who knows?" Eric looked at Scott for a moment and then
gave him a tight, closed lipped smile. "You're what they call pussy
whipped you know." Eric was about to say that Scott could find better
than Tama, but he caught himself in time. He realized saying
anything would gain him nothing and it would lead to an argument.

"No, I'm not. She just wants me to be loyal to her."

"And will she be loyal to you? You told me that she and Mary Alice
have messed around."

Scott said nothing. He did not want to admit that Tama had not
agreed to stopping her sex with Mary Alice. Saying that would
convince Eric that he was, indeed, pussy whipped.

Eric gave Scott the same smile and said simply, "I thought so."

The two boys talked some more and agreed they would remain
friends and even have sleepovers, but that the visitor would now
bring a sleeping bag and use an air mattress and sleep on the floor.
Whether that would actually happen or not, neither boy knew. But
both of them were thankful their breakup as boyfriends didn't become
a huge emotional scene. Not that they didn't feel any emotions, but
the fact that they felt they weren't breaking up as friends helped to
moderate those emotions.

After Scott left, Eric lay on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling,
as he tossed a rubber ball in the air and caught it coming down for
almost a half-hour. He knew his life had changed, but he wasn't sure
where it was going. What he did know is that even with all the things
he had going on, and all of the friends he had made in his year and a
half in Mayfield, he suddenly felt very lonely.

<Saturday, June 14, Hunter's house>

Hunter and Kraig had had a full Friday night. They knew that Kraig
would be spending the night at Hunter's house, so Kraig rode home
with Hunter and his parents. They stopped to pick up some burgers
and fries at Bob's Burger Barn. When they got to Hunter's house both
boys gobbled down two double burgers apiece and finished off two
orders of large fries.

"The only way you can eat that much is to have a pair of hollow legs,"
Hunter's dad said. "Otherwise there just isn't room inside of two
thirteen year old boys for that much food."

"I bet you ate that much when you were a kid," Hunter said.

"I would have stopped at three burgers," he chuckled. "You guys have
a ways to go yet."

The two young teens retired to Hunter's room and stripped down to
their underpants. Hunter was wearing a pair of light blue boxers,
while Kraig had on a pair of black bikini briefs. Kraig and his twin
brother Kevin were underwear lovers, and found ways to get as many
different colors and styles as they could. They were not averse to
showing what they were wearing to anyone at school who asked, boy
or girl.

Kraig and Kevin both considered themselves to be gay, and had
come out to their dad right around the time they turned thirteen. While
Kevin considered Lars to be his boyfriend, Kraig wasn't sure what the
relationship was between him and Hunter. They had started fooling
around sexually in sixth grade. Their sexual encounters were
infrequent, Hunter often being reluctant to become involved. When he
did play around sexually he would often end up going on a guilt trip.
And yet the sex between Kraig and him had become more and more
serious as they got to know each other better.

They had done almost everything except for Kraig going up Hunter's
ass. While Hunter had topped Kraig, he had a reluctance to take
Kraig up his own ass. Kraig knew Hunter well enough not to push the
matter, though he did hint at it. He hoped mentioning his desire to
explore Hunter's ass with his cock would eventually get Hunter to see
what that aspect of sex was like. One step towards that end was
Hunter finally being willing to take Kraig's finger up his ass,
something he seemed to really enjoy. As Kraig saw it, Hunter being
willing to take his cock wasn't that far off.

Hunter usually stayed out of any group sex his teammates had,
although watching the sexual goings on always turned him on. On a
different level he and Kraig had once gotten naked with Cindy
Cameron, a girl in their class. What stunned Hunter was that he and
Kraig ended up sucking each other off in front of Cindy, and he found
that was more of a turn-on than being naked with the girl had been.

But that Friday evening the two of them didn't have any sex as they
played video games until they talked about looking for toothpicks to
prop their eyelids open. They finally crashed into Hunter's bed, not
even thinking about having sex.

The next day they helped Hunter's dad with some chores. Hunter's
mom washed both of their uniforms and it became apparent that
Kraig was going to spend Saturday night as well.

Hunter's dad barbequed steaks that evening and Hunter and Kraig
played board games with Hunter's parents after they ate. Hunter and
his dad had had their problems getting along, mostly because of the
pressure Hunter's dad put on his son as a baseball player. Allen,
Hunter's dad, had played minor league baseball and thought his son
should be as good as he was, or better. While Hunter was a talented
athlete, he did not respond well to his dad's criticisms and even quit
baseball for a year because of the extreme pressure his dad put on
him. Ironically, his father did not place the same pressure on him in
football or basketball.

But the two ended up doing something that fathers and thirteen year
old sons did all too rarely—they started to communicate. As a result,
Hunter went back to playing baseball and his father eased off the
pressure.

A little after nine the boys once again retired to Hunter's room, only
this time their sights were not set on video games.

"I'm horny," Kraig said. "I haven't gotten off since the day before
yesterday."

"I jerked off yesterday morning," Hunter said. "But I'm really horny,
too."

When Kraig and Hunter started messing around, Kraig was always
reluctant to come on to Hunter for fear he would either reject his
advances, or go off on a guilt trip if he accepted them. That was no
longer the case. Hunter was becoming more and more comfortable
having sex with Kraig.

Kraig flopped on Hunter's bed and patted the spot beside him. Before
Hunter could make a move to occupy that spot, Kraig pulled off his
UW Husky boxers, revealing a 4.5 inch hard cock, topped by a small
patch of silky dark pubic hair. His smooth balls had started to drop
and hung invitingly under his rock hard boy tool.

Hunter took off his green and blue striped boxers and flopped on the
spot Kraig had patted. He had a nearly five inch boner that was
already leaking precum. His cock was topped by a nest of dark pubic
hair, arguably the thickest and most plentiful pubes of any boy on the
baseball team. He even had the beginnings of a treasure trail, with
very light fuzz growing between his naval and his pubic area. Both
boys were cut.

"What do you want to do?" Kraig whispered.

"I dunno...something."

"We gotta fuck sometime you know."

"Not tonight—first time has to be when we're alone in the house."

"Yeah, I guess I was just checking if you still wanted to try it." Kraig
wasn't a virgin; he'd fucked and been fucked by all three of his
brothers as well as Lars, Kevin's boyfriend, and Chandler, his little
brother's best friend.

"Butt fucking just seems so totally gay. It's like, if I do it then I can't
say I'm not gay, cuz it means I am," Hunter said.

"That's not true. All it means is that you got your butt fucked."

"But what if I am gay?"

"Hunter, we keep going over and over this. Maybe you are, maybe
you aren't. Maybe you're bi. Maybe you're straight. I don't give a shit,
you're my best friend and I want to kiss you and have sex with you."

"But kissing a boy is so g..." He never got the rest out as Kraig put
his lips against Hunter's and kissed him hard. He pushed his tongue
against Hunter's lips, and Hunter didn't resist, letting Kraig's tongue
slide into his mouth. It was like Hunter had to have Kraig justify who
he was before he could do anything with him. But once the kissing
actually started, he put himself totally into the act of sex.

Kraig rolled his body on top of the bigger boy's and kept kissing as he
started dry humping Hunter, his dick rubbing along Hunter's, their
combined clear, sweet precum creating a lubricated track for their
boners to slide on. Being thirteen and extra horny, they didn't have
any staying power, and Kraig's furious humping quickly pushed them
to the edge and over.

Kraig tried to push his tongue down to Hunter's tonsils as his mouth
got lost in the feeling of Hunter's mouth and his cock got lost in the
feeling of Hunter's cock, and two days of pent-up young teen cum
exploded out of his cock and coated Hunter's belly and covered his
friend's rock hard erection.

The feeling of Kraig's tongue impaled in his mouth and of Kraig's
warm cum coating his belly and cock sent Hunter over the edge and
he raised his hips, pushing Kraig up with them, as his cock spilled its
seed over Kraig's smooth belly and also over Hunter's belly, their boy
cums mixing as quickly on their torsos as did their saliva in their
mouths.

Kraig collapsed on top of Hunter as both boys fought to regain normal
breathing, their bodies stuck together by sweat and cum. Kraig gave
Hunter some light kisses on his lips and cheek and Hunter returned
them, which showed how much Hunter had changed. He now
accepted the sex he had with Kraig as natural, and the kisses and
licks exchanged after sex as normal. Not that long ago he would have
rolled over and refused any more advances from Kraig, but now it
was as if he expected and desired the advances.

"Before the summer is done," Hunter said.

"What before the summer is done?" Kraig asked. He thought he knew
what Hunter meant, but his friend sounded hesitant and unsure.

"I want to fuck."

"Top or bottom?" Kraig asked with a touch of excitement in his voice.

"Both."

"I love you, Hunter,"

Hunter loved Kraig, too, but he still had a problem saying it. He rolled
Kraig off of him and planted a kiss on Kraig's neck, right under his
jaw. The kiss said everything that he could not yet say verbally.

The two boys finally cleaned up and slept naked and tightly cuddled
in Hunter's big bed.

<Sunday, June 15, Tacoma, Vassault Playfield>

Eric had been looking forward to this doubleheader, as they were
scheduled to play against his old friends from Tacoma. Shelby,
Chase, and Adam, had all been friends of his in elementary school
and sixth grade. Shelby had been his best friend and they were just
becoming bed buddies when Eric moved in February of sixth grade.
While he had done a lot with Chase, it was Shelby he'd had a huge
crush on.

Shelby had been small for eleven, with dark hair that he wore in
unruly curls that covered his ears and almost covered his eyes. Eric
had visited Shelby last summer, where he met Liam, who was on
Shelby's team, and Mason, who was a good friend of Liam's and
lived in Seattle. During the visit, Eric had learned how sexy Shelby
had become. He was still small for his age, still a skinny little boy with
a skinny little hairless cock, but he enjoyed sex with abandon. Eric
fucked Shelby for the first time on that visit.

The real horn dog in the group, however, was Liam, a blond who lived
for sex with boys, including his own little brother, Wolf. Eric was eager
to see them again and to play against them. The only other person on
Eric's team who had met them was Scott, who had gone to Tacoma
with Eric on his visit.

The infield of the Vassault Park baseball diamond was dirt rather than
grass. Shelby's team still played on 80 foot bases with a 54 foot
pitching distance. For Eric and his team, it would be one of the few
times they'd be playing on the smaller size field. The boys on Eric's
team going into eighth grade would be playing on the shorter field the
next spring for school ball, but their summer team Falcons played
almost exclusively on regulation 90 foot bases.

Eric and Scott rode with Eric's parents and Scott's mother. Scott's
parents were divorced and his father lived in Minnesota. He rarely
communicated with Scott, and Scott hadn't visited him since the
summer between fifth and sixth grades, just after he turned eleven.

The games were non-league. Seth, Noah's father, and the business
manager of the Go to State Team, had scheduled the Tacoma team
as a favor to Eric, for which Eric had expressed his gratitude more
than once.

The Falcons had a hard time adjusting to the smaller sized field at
first. The pitches looked like they were coming in faster than they did
from 60 feet 6 inches. It wasn't quite as bad for them out on the field
as they made quick adjustments during infield practice. But behind
the pitching of Lars, they picked up an 8-4 win in the first game. Kraig
and Hunter pitched the second game, and weren't quite as effective
as the Falcons dropped an 8-7 decision to the Tacoma team.

Arrangements had been made a couple of weeks before the games
for some of the boys to meet for pizza after the doubleheader. They
went to Roundtable Pizza, which had been Eric's favorite when he
lived in Tacoma.

Scott joined him, of course. Noah and Bobby also came, along with
Eric's and Noah's parents and Scott's mother. Nicky was there, too,
in his role as little brother. Bobby's mother had to work and was
unable to attend the game. Eric had been so happy to see Marty and
Rich together, he asked his parents if they could be invited. He had
calculated that between the two Mayfield vehicles there would be
room for everybody on the ride home, if Scott was willing to go back
in the McCall SUV. Scott had no problem with that; riding back in a
separate vehicle from his mother suited him just fine, as it would any
red blooded thirteen year old boy.

From the Tacoma end, Shelby, Adam, Chase, Liam, and Mason were
there. Mason had no baseball that weekend, so he took the Sounder
commuter train to Tacoma on Friday along with his brother Garrett.
He and Garrett stayed at Liam's house. Mason and Liam had become
good friends on a cross-country train trip the summer before, as had
Garrett and Wolf. That trip had included a sexual awakening for
Mason and Garrett, which had been eagerly supplied by Liam and
Wolf.

Shelby's parents had reserved the party room at Roundtable, so
there was plenty of room for everybody. Pizzas were ordered,
glasses of soda were filled at the dispenser, salads were had by the
adults, as well as those kids who wanted them or had to have them.
The salad list was small with Eric, Noah, and Shelby the only kids to
hit up the salad bar.

Eric and Shelby sat next to each other and chattered eagerly. Eric
caught up on the Tacoma gossip about his old friends, and the two
twelve year olds recalled some of the fun they'd had as best friends.

"I was kinda sad when I got your text about you and Scott breaking
up," Shelby told Eric.

"We're still friends," Eric said.

"I know, but I know how it feels, too. That is sort of what happened
between me and Chase. We're friends, but we don't mess around
hardly at all any more. He's busy chasing fish."

"What does going fishing have to do with being bed buddies?" Eric
asked.

"Eric, I know you live in a small town, but I also know you go to places
online. You've never heard girls being called fish."

"Uh, uh. But it sounds kind of weird to call them that."

"I guess that sometimes if you like smell them down in their crotch it
can smell just like fish."

"Eww. Makes me glad I'm gay."

"Me, too."

"I wonder if I was still living on Tacoma, if we'd be boyfriends." Eric
said.

"I think we would be. We were always good friends and were starting
to mess around a lot together. We were learning a lot about, you
know, sex."

"Yeah. That was fun times."

Eric and Shelby had been good friends, even with their contrasting
looks and personalities. Both boys had been a little shorter than
average at the start of sixth grade, but Shelby was small and quite
skinny. Eric was slender, but he had much more muscle than the
skin-and-bones Shelby did. Eric had thick blond hair that always had
a cowlick or two somewhere on his head. He was learning how to
tame the cowlicks, but now, after playing a game, it was quite unruly.
Most of the unruliness was hidden by Eric's baseball cap.

Shelby's dark brown hair was a bit curly, hung over his ears,
sometimes down to his collar. It was often in his eyes, and saw a
comb only when Shelby's mother made him stick one in his hair and
comb out the snarls.

Eric was outgoing, a leader who had been sixth grade president when
he moved. But he was considered by his friends to sometimes be too
serious and too much of a goody-goody guy who eschewed trouble.
Shelby was also outgoing and loved to chatter and laugh and have
fun. He was a prankster who had a quick, almost ever-present smile.
He was still a skinny, diminutive boy, while Eric's body was filling out
as he approached his thirteenth birthday.

"Me and Adam are kinda getting close," Shelby said, "but we're not
boyfriends like you and Scott were. We just like messing around."

"Have you gone all the way?" Eric asked. He knew Shelby wasn't a
virgin as the two of them had had anal sex together when Eric visited
the summer before. In fact, Eric had taken his friend's cherry the first
night of the visit.

"He's done me a couple times, but we mostly just like BJ and JO
each other. We just don't think we need to be boyfriends. We can just
be good friends for now. Maybe when we get older, like in high school
or something, we can talk about being boyfriends."

"I feel like I gotta have a boyfriend," Eric said. "It feels weird not
having one."

"I'd be yours right now if you lived here," Shelby said earnestly.

"Hey, are you guys going to join the crowd?" Liam asked. Liam liked
being the center of attention, and wanted Eric and Shelby to focus
their interest where it should be—on him. It's not like Liam was an
obnoxious egoist, it was just that he loved being in the middle things.
He actually was a caring boy who was well-liked by his peers.

"As soon as we go to the bathroom," Shelby said.

"Oh, like a couple of girls," Liam told them. "You can't do it alone." He
got up and said quietly so the parents wouldn't hear, "Shelby wants
you to hold his little thing so he doesn't miss the urinal," Liam said.

"It's not that little. You sure have no problem with it," Shelby said.

"That's because you're so cute." Liam left no doubt with anybody that
his primary sexual interests were boys, from his eleven year old
brother to anybody else who was willing, including a fifteen year old
neighbor.

"We'll be right back," Eric said. Then he gave Liam a mischievous
smile. "Unless you care to join us."

"Nah. You two old friends need each other," Liam said, reading the
two boys perfectly.

Eric and Shelby left the party room and headed to the bathroom.
They were happy to see it empty. They both knew why they'd gone in
there. As soon as the door closed they wrapped their arms around
each other and kissed, their tongues knowing exactly what to do. The
kiss was as long and as passionate as two twelve year old boys could
make it.

"The stall," Eric whispered.

They went into the second of the two stalls, and kissed again, this
time groping each other through their baseball pants. They could feel
each other's hardness through the material, and started to frantically
pull down each other's pants, ignoring the fact that somebody could
walk into the bathroom at any time.

They quickly had their pants down below their knees, and now as
they kissed, their naked, hairless young boners were rubbing against
each other. They both started panting, fighting for breath as they
were unwilling or unable to separate their lips. Eric had Shelby
pushed against the wall of the stall, their two, almost four inch, cocks
pushed against the other, their hands reaching down trying to grope
their hairless balls, their tongues never separating.

Eric was humping Shelby's cock as Shelby set up a counter rhythm.
They tried unsuccessfully not to grunt and groan. Their open mouths
traded tongues and spit. It had been far too long since they'd last
touched each other sexually. Both of them knew this encounter would
be a brief one and were okay with it.

"Oh fuck, I'm gonna cum," Eric announced in a pained whisper as his
cock spit its almost clear preteen cum over Shelby's skinny cock and
smooth, white belly. That set Shelby off, and his watery issue landed
on Eric's cock and dripped down his leg to his pants. The boys held
on to each other as they caught their breath.

"Damn, that was amazing," Shelby said. "I can't believe I did sex in a
bathroom like this."

"I know, it seems almost gross. But I wanted you so bad. I mean I
totally wanted you. It wasn't like playing around to me. I had to do sex
with you."

"Me, too. It was weird. It was like we were made to do things
together. I wish you still lived here."

"Me, too, but I don't."

As the boys pulled up their pants, they agreed they needed another
visit like last summer, only this time Shelby could come to Mayfield.
Just as they got their clothes together, they heard the outer door
open. "Oh, shit," Shelby squeaked. "I hope it's not a parent."

They knew it wasn't as soon as they heard a teen voice say, "You
guys done yet? I've kept two peeps out saying somebody was
cleaning in here." Eric recognized the voice as Marty's.

Eric and Shelby came out of the stall. Marty, who even at 14 was
pushing six feet tall, looked down at the 5'3 Eric and the 4'eleven
Shelby.

"You guys are lucky you got me as your guardian angel."

"How did you know what we were going to do in here?"

"I've been reading about gaydar, and mine was on. You'd have to be
blind not to see it. Me and Rich and your buddy Liam knew what was
going to happen as soon as you walked out. So we went to work to
keep you from being bothered. That was not easy, though it was two
little kids around eight we had to chase away.

The door opened again and the two boys in question entered the
restroom. "Is everything clean?" a blond eight year old asked.

Marty looked at Shelby and Eric with a little leer. "Pretty much, it got
pretty sticky in here."

The three of them headed back to the party room, with Eric being
particularly thankful he'd decided to invite Marty to join them. Marty
was becoming more and more an asset as a friend.

The rest of the time together was spent talking, laughing, eating
pizza, and having fun. The worst that happened was Liam and Chase
being admonished by Shelby's mom after they started up a belching
competition between them.

Eric had enjoyed playing baseball and hanging with his friends, old
and new. Even Scott said he had fun, as he gravitated to the other
fish chaser among the boys, Chase, whom he'd met the previous
summer at Shelby's.

On the way out after eating, Noah sidled up to Eric. "You and Shelby
looked like you both really liked being together."

"Yeah we did. It was a great time," Eric said. Eric told Noah about
what had transpired between him and Scott the day before, and then
what had just happened between him and Shelby.

"Good, you needed what you did with Shelby. Too bad you two can't
be boyfriends."

"We both said the same thing."

"Somebody's gonna come into your life," Noah told Eric.

"I hope so. It would be nice if it was before I graduated from high
school."

"Somebody's going to come sooner, before middle school is over. I
feel it."

"That would be great," Eric said. He was trying to make Noah feel
good about his prediction. He hoped that Noah was right, but he had
no idea who it would be; nobody in little Mayfield who looked eligible.
Both would have been surprised if they knew that Noah's prediction
was right on the mark. They would have been even more surprised if
they had known who that boyfriend would be.

Next: Making Amends