Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 10:06:53 -0400
From: Terrance MacDonald <t_macd@comcast.net>
Subject: Emo-Boi-Finds-Love-16

	This story is for my duckling and his boyfriend, who has been
making him very happy; please remember that I will always love you, both of
you.  And no, I will not forget - and I want to say thanks one more time to
my Duckling's boyfriend.  Babe, you're a great guy, and I'm really glad
that you found each other!  Take care of my Duckling babe.  And I am going
to hold you to that.  You did promise me.

	I would like to extend my grateful thanks to my friends Mike, Dave
and Johan for continuing to allow me to bounce ideas off them and providing
many helpful suggestions.  I would also like to thank all the readers who
have written with comments.  I really appreciate having heard from all of
you.  Please keep the comments coming.

	Thanks also to the Nifty Archive for hosting this and all the other
stories.  They do take donations to defray operating expenses, so please
help them out as much as you can.

	This story contains graphic depictions of sex between consenting
teen males and an occasional adult, so if you're some sort of puritan or
prude, you ought not to be at this site to begin with, and you certainly
shouldn't read any farther into this text.  Likewise, if you aren't old
enough to read this filth according to the laws, local ordinances,
etc. wherever you happen to be - Shoo, go away.

	I hope you're enjoying this story.  This story is set in a world
where there are no such things as STDs or deity-of-your-choice forbid HIV
or AIDS, so you won't be reading very much about condoms except in this
paragraph.  This should not in any way be construed as advocating unsafe
sex.  Quite the contrary - protect yourself as much as you can, no one else
is going to do it for you.

- - -

	And for you youngsters who we all know are studiously heeding the
various warnings and not reading this story, I hope you'll pay close
attention to what is happening to our hero.  What's being described here
has happened to lots of people, some of whom I've known.  There's a lot of
truth in this story.  So please, let this be a lesson to you.  Stay away
from drugs.

- - -

	Do not modify or redistribute this text, or show it to any
religious zealots or anyone else who will be horribly offended by it
without my express written consent.

	For a complete list of my other stories (including Nifty Archive
links), just e-mail and I will be happy to accommodate.

* * *

Emo Boi Finds Love
Chapter Sixteen

	This was going to be a big day.  Thomas was finally going to meet
Tyler - or at least he was supposed to.  The thing was, he had doubts that
the boy was going to get into the plane at Thunder Bay - and thus wouldn't
be meeting him at the airport in Atlanta as they had planned.  Why did he
feel this way?  That answer was actually fairly simple - he knew Tyler's
history - everything that had happened to him in the past.  Thomas knew the
whole story about Drake, and from what Thomas knew about that experience
alone, he would have thought that it would have kept most people from
traveling over 3000 miles to meet someone in person who they only knew from
online chat, e-mail and the occasional phone call; especially someone who
had only just turned 18 years of age as Tyler just had.

	Sure, they had become very close friends online, but that wasn't
nearly the same as actually knowing someone in real life, and that's what
made the situation so much more difficult.  Thomas hoped that Tyler
understood how he felt about him - the love that he felt for the young man.
Yes, Thomas loved Tyler, but he wasn't in love with him.  Thomas had come
to realize this a long time ago; his instincts were to protect Tyler, to
comfort him when he needed it, and to give him advice when he asked for it
(and sometimes even when he didn't).  It was a paternal love that he felt
for the boy, not a romantic one.  He had felt that way about Tyler since
shortly after they met online.  There were even times he had helped Tyler
with his homework during their online chat sessions.

	Deciding that he was worrying too much, Thomas finished packing his
suitcase and wheeled it into the garage.  He loaded the bag into the trunk
of the black Cadillac sedan that was parked there, and then returned to the
kitchen.  He checked the clock on the microwave; it was almost two in the
afternoon.  'Tyler should be at the airport by now,' he thought.  'I hope
he'll have a comfortable trip - he's got a really long flight.'  Thomas was
well acquainted with travel by air; he had held a job for a long time that
required him to travel extensively, not only around the United States and
Canada, but sometimes to parts of Europe as well.

	Thomas poured himself the last cup of coffee from the second pot he
had made that day and contemplated whether or not to brew one more before
he left for Atlanta.  Stirring in some sugar, he decided that this was
going to be his last cup.  The drive from Savannah to Atlanta would take
around four hours, and he didn't want to have to stop for restroom breaks
along the way.

	Walking into his computer room, he sat down at the desk and logged
in.  He printed out the itinerary for Tyler's flight, and then for the trip
that he had planned for them for the weekend.  This was a trip that he and
Tyler had talked about many times over the four years they had known each
other, and looking at the printed version of their plans brought a smile to
his face.  Thomas walked back to the garage and tossed the papers onto the
front passenger seat.  He'd need them to program the addresses they would
be visiting into his GPS system before he got on the road.  He didn't need
the GPS system to get to Atlanta; he had driven that route many times over.
He wouldn't really need it to where they would be going the next morning
either, but he didn't know exactly how to get to the hotel in Atlanta where
he had made reservations for that evening.  Thomas had always been bad with
directions, so he had been thankful when GPS had become available.

	When he returned to the kitchen and his coffee, it had cooled off,
so he gulped most of it down, and then poured the rest down the sink.  He
added the coffee cup and carafe from the coffee maker to the dishwasher and
set the wash cycle.  After packing his laptop into its carrying case and
depositing it into the trunk of the car, he finally got into the driver's
seat and pressed the button on the remote control to open the garage door.
Thomas tapped the starter button, bringing the engine to life and backed
out of the driveway.  Pressing the button on the remote once more, he
closed the garage door, and shifted the car into drive.  As he pulled away
from his house, Thomas waved to Kevin - the nineteen year old son of one of
his neighbors who was out in front of their house cutting the grass.

	Kevin had agreed to come over to Thomas' house and feed
Shakespeare, Thomas' six month old German Shepherd puppy that weekend while
he was out of town - for a small fee of course.  Thomas had to admit the
young man was cute, despite the 'snake bite' piercing that recently came to
adorn his lower lip - Thomas was a little too old fashioned for this sort
of thing, but he did understand that kids would do things like this
sometimes - and at nineteen years old, Thomas did consider Kevin to be a
'kid.'  If he'd been twenty years or so younger, Thomas might have even
thought about trying to seduce him, but that was out of the question
considering the difference in their ages.

	Kevin wore his brown hair swept over his forehead in the Emo sort
of style - a look he had adopted only about a year before.  This was the
same style as Tyler preferred for himself, and somehow Thomas thought that
when they met they would probably have quite a lot in common, and it was a
good guess that they would probably become friends.  Thomas didn't know for
sure if Kevin was gay or not - if he was, he wasn't generally 'out,' but
Thomas strongly suspected that he was.

	So now Thomas was finally on his way to a meeting that had been
planned over a period of years.  But how was it going to work out?  Was
Tyler going to take one of the biggest risks of his life and make the
journey to meet him?  Would they get along once they met in person?  They
were both taking risks, but Thomas recognized that the biggest by far was
the one Tyler would be taking.  After all, Tyler was the one who would be
crossing an international border and flying thousands of miles for their
meeting.

	He would find out for sure before the end of the day, but Thomas
hoped that Tyler was going to make this huge leap of faith.

- - -

	The 160 miles between Savannah and Macon went by fairly quickly,
but the interstate passed through mostly undeveloped areas, so it seemed
like much longer than the little less than two hours it actually took.
Thomas wasn't exactly paying attention to what the speed limit, or as he
preferred to refer to it, the 'speed suggestion' was, except when the
warbling tone of the RADAR detector announced the presence of a state
trooper, and for as devoid of any towns as this stretch of highway was, it
actually happened unusually often.  Thomas had driven this road many times
in the past, and knew that it was a favorite of the Georgia State Patrol as
a spot to boost the state's revenue by way of traffic citations.

	Just north of Macon on I-75, Thomas hit a traffic jam.  The GPS
unit identified it as a half hour delay, but didn't offer an alternate
route around it.  All that meant was that there wasn't one, and he was
stuck on the highway.  Forty five minutes later, the traffic finally
cleared, and Thomas was able to make good time again.

	Finally in Atlanta, Thomas let the GPS unit guide him to the Hilton
Tower hotel by the airport where he had made reservations for the night.
He and Tyler would be leaving for their actual destination in the morning
after breakfast.  For now, Thomas was going to catch a nap before he went
to the airport to meet Tyler.  He had a feeling that they were going to be
up late, finally getting acquainted in person, so he wanted to be well
rested.

* * *

	Tyler had been worried about Drake getting jealous and losing his
place to live as a result of his desire to dance with Oliver.  As it turned
out, this didn't bother Drake.  However, some of the attention other men
showed him when he and Ollie danced did.  He knew that Tyler wanted, or
rather needed to make some spending money, and Drake actually found the
dancing that Tyler and Oliver did together quite a turn-on.  Normally on
either Friday or Saturday night after they had finished dancing at The
Cavern, Oliver would come back to Drake's apartment with them.

	 Oliver's weekly visit was the main reason that Drake didn't get
jealous of Tyler's relationship with him.  On these occasions Drake would
start the night back at his apartment after they had left The Cavern by
having the two put on even more of a show for him than they had at the club
- and it was definitely a show that they couldn't have performed in public.
Drake had given consideration to videotaping them, something for his own
personal collection; a souvenir of sorts for the day that one or both of
the boys eventually decided to move on, and he knew that sooner or later
this was bound to happen.  This was one of the reasons that he was normally
very possessive and controlling of Tyler, because the more he kept Tyler
under control, the more dependent upon Drake Tyler became, and the less
likely it was that Tyler would be inclined to leave.  It wasn't a brilliant
plan, so much as crafty, but then that suited Drake's personality
perfectly.

	After he had watched Tyler and Oliver perform for him for a while,
Drake would usually join in himself.  On the rare occasions that he
preferred only to watch, he would sandwich himself between the boys when
they would finally go to bed in the wee hours of the morning.  Drake had
offered for the first several weeks to give Oliver a ride home the next
day, but he never accepted.  Oliver still didn't really like or trust
Drake, and didn't want him knowing exactly where he lived.  The only reason
Oliver went along to Drake's apartment was because of how he felt about
Tyler, his love for Tyler had taken on seemingly unknown proportions.  Had
it not been for that, he would have stayed as far from Drake as possible.

	It had been a little over four months since Tyler had run away from
home.  His mother still tried to contact him on his cell phone two or three
times a week, and he had finally answered her calls a couple times.  She
had told him how worried his father and she were about him, but somehow he
thought she was just mentioning his father when she told him that - he
didn't think that his father really cared.  His supposition was far from
the truth, but his mind was made up, and there wasn't going to be any
changing it.  She asked him to come home, but he refused, although he did
reassure her that he was doing okay, had plenty to eat, and was still in
school and getting reasonably good grades.  In truth however, this was not
quite the case.  His drug use had caused his grades to fall considerably.
Tyler had maintained an 'A' average all the way through school up until the
time he started smoking pot and taking pain killers.  So far his grade
point average had slipped into the 'C' range, and was currently in danger
of dropping even further in a couple of his classes.

	It was getting into the winter months, and the weather was quickly
turning cold.  Drake had started staying out late most nights, except when
Tyler and Oliver would be dancing at The Cavern, and then he would usually
show up an hour or so after he got off work.  Since the weather had been
nice when Tyler had run away from home, he hadn't had the foresight to take
a winter coat with him, and he was starting to regret that now.  The
windbreaker he had borrowed from Drake didn't fit him well - it was way too
large, and though it had served him well enough in the early weeks of fall,
it wasn't going to keep out the severe cold of a Thunder Bay winter.  It
was for this reason that Tyler decided to sneak back into his parents' home
the first time.

	Tyler climbed up to his bedroom window; exactly as he had done all
the times he had to sneak back into the house before he had run away.  He
was happy to find that he was still able to work the latch open from the
outside.  This was short-lived however, as when he tried to raise the
window he discovered that his father had indeed bolted it shut as he had
said he was going to do the day Tyler had run away.  'Shit!  How am I going
to get in now?' Tyler thought.

	Then he remembered the key.  His parents had kept an emergency key
hidden near the back door that led into the kitchen for emergencies.  And
this was definitely an emergency to Tyler.  He just hoped they hadn't moved
the key.  Moving aside a loose brick in a low wall extended from a corner
of the house, he retrieved the key and let himself into the house as
quietly as he could.  All the lights had been out when Tyler had arrived,
but both his parents' cars were in the driveway, so he was hoping that they
were both asleep.  They usually were at this time of night, so Tyler
thought he would be safe from them hearing as he eased the kitchen door
closed behind him and crept toward the stairs.  He made it to the second
floor landing without making any noise that would alert his parents to his
presence.  He had been careful to avoid that one creaky step in the middle
of the staircase.  The door to his bedroom was closed when he reached it,
and he opened it slowly and cautiously, not sure what to expect.  His eyes
had already adjusted to the darkness inside the house, and there was some
light coming in from the nearly full moon outside.  His room looked exactly
as he had left it, with the exception of the clothes, both clean and dirty
that had been scattered about the floor, and the fact that his bed was now
made.  Aside from those two details, it was as if he hadn't been absent for
four and a half months.

	He closed the door to his old bedroom, keeping the knob turned so
that the latch wouldn't make any noise as it caught in the door frame.
Once he was sure the door was secured behind him, Tyler eased his way to
the side of his bed and clicked on the switch for the lamp on his
nightstand.  With the room better lit now, he looked around, studying the
walls, the photos and posters that he had pinned up, his desk where he used
to sit and do his homework, his computer sitting atop the desk - he really
wished he could take that with him, but even if he did, it wouldn't matter
much - Drake didn't have Internet access at the apartment, and Tyler knew
that Drake wasn't going to get it, so it didn't really matter anyway.

	Tyler moved to his closet and slid the door open.  Most of his
clothes were hanging here, the rest that he had left behind were no doubt
folded in his dresser on the other side of the room.  His mother must have
put them away.  There was a backpack on the closet shelf - Tyler pulled it
down and began to put some of his most favorite clothes into it, both from
his closet and his dresser.  He thought about taking a chance and logging
onto the computer, just for a few minutes, but decided that would be taking
an unnecessary risk.  He pulled on his heavy winter coat, then put on the
backpack and made his way back out of the house as quietly as he had come
in.

	When Tyler got back to the apartment, Drake still wasn't home.  He
dropped his coat on one of the two sofas in the living room and took the
backpack to 'his' room and put the clothes he'd brought back with him away.
When he finished there, he went down to the kitchen and started fixing
something to eat.  Tyler had become a pretty good cook since he'd moved in
with Drake.  It was a simple choice - learn to cook, or eat a lot of
microwave food or sandwiches.  Most of the microwavable meals didn't
accommodate Tyler's diet of fish and vegetables - and you can't live off
peanut butter and jelly, not for very long anyway.

	The smell of the stir-fry vegetables Tyler had cooked permeated the
apartment when Drake walked in.  Tyler was still seated at the dining room
table eating.  He looked up as Drake walked into the room.  "I made
stir-fry," Tyler said, quite unnecessarily.  "I'm sure it's still hot if
you want some."

	Drake smiled at him.  "Thanks babe," he replied.  "It really smells
good."  Drake returned to the kitchen to fix himself a plate.  He really
wished Tyler didn't have this odd vegetarian and fish diet.  The boy was a
good cook, but Drake liked to have meat with his meals.  In addition to not
eating meat, Tyler didn't cook it either.

	When they finished eating, Tyler went into the kitchen to clean up
the mess that was left over from preparing the meal.  Drake went to the
living room and grabbed the remote control for the television.  When he
picked it up, he noticed the coat Tyler had left on the sofa.  "Where did
you get the coat?" he called out to Tyler.

	Tyler walked into the living room to answer.  "I went by the 'rents
house a little while ago.  They both have to be up early for work, so I
knew they would be asleep.  It's starting to get cold and I needed a
heavier jacket, so I thought I'd sneak in and grab a few things I left
behind."

	"I would have gotten you one," Drake responded.  And he would have
- it would have been just one more thing to strengthen his hold on the boy.

	"Yeah, thanks.  And I appreciate it, but I really like that coat
and some of the other stuff I picked up."  There was also a part of Tyler
that didn't like being dependent on Drake.  He wasn't going to voice that
thought, but it was still there, hovering in the back of his mind.

	Drake smiled at him and patted the seat on the sofa beside him.
"Come sit down with me and watch a little TV," he said.

	"No, not now," Tyler answered.  "I need to finish cleaning up in
the kitchen, and it's getting late, so I need to go to bed.  I do have
school in the morning."

	Drake just nodded and grunted.

	When Tyler finished in the kitchen, he did go straight upstairs to
the bedroom - Drake's bedroom - the one they had been sharing.  He stripped
off his clothes, and was about to get into the bed.  Then he stopped and
went to 'his' room for a moment.  He kept his stash of pills there.  Tyler
shook the last two from the bottle and swallowed them - he didn't even need
to wash them down with anything anymore.  Tyler returned to the other
bedroom, thinking that he would have to make a trip to see Bryan the next
day.  But he didn't have the cash he needed to get more of the pain killers
- or even just a few joints at the moment.  It was time to renew his bus
pass, and that was something else he wasn't going to be able to do without
- the municipal bus service wasn't willing to take the price of their
monthly pass in trade.  But Tyler knew all too well, and from experience,
that Bryan was.

	The next day after school, Tyler took the bus to his old
neighborhood.  He got off a few blocks from the arcade where Bryan worked
and walked the rest of the way.  He liked the feeling of being in his own
neighborhood.  The familiarity of being back in the area where he grew up
was a slight comfort to him, even if it was really only a few miles from
where he was staying now.  Tyler was surprised by how much he missed being
here, in the area where he grew up.  And he really wished that he could
come back, but somehow he just couldn't see how he was ever going to be
able to do that.  It was as if he'd crossed a bridge and burned it behind
him.

	Bryan was behind the counter in the arcade when Tyler walked in.
Tyler signaled with his eyes that he wanted Bryan to meet him at the door
to the back room.  Bryan nodded that he understood, and held up a finger to
indicate that it would be a moment before he would be there.

	Tyler was nervous.  He hadn't come to get drugs from Bryan for a
long time without having the money to pay up front, and Bryan had made it
clear then that the price was going to be higher if he didn't have the
money.  Just like Tyler, Bryan didn't forget that conversation from months
before, and the price did in fact go up.

	When Bryan joined him and let him into the back room, Tyler had a
resigned look on his face and was unable to keep his feet still - these
were undeniable signals that Bryan picked up on immediately.  He
instinctively knew that Tyler didn't have the money he was going to need
for his purchase today.  "So, what do you need today?" Bryan inquired as he
swiped the key-card in the lock that opened the door to the back room.

	"A few Percs and some pot..." Tyler started.

	"It's just that, um...  I, well..." Tyler was trying to get the
words out, but they didn't seem to want to come.

	"You don't have the cash," Bryan made the statement for him.

	Tyler nodded, acknowledging that Bryan had guessed correctly.

	Bryan ran his eyes up and down Tyler's body.  'This kid is
seriously cute, I am really going to enjoy this,' he thought.

	There was a look in Bryan's eyes that Tyler knew he had seen before
after they had traveled over his body.  It was a look of anticipation, lust
and probably even hunger.  Tyler wasn't looking forward to this, but he
needed the drugs he was going to get from Bryan - at least that's what his
brain was telling him.

	Bryan just said one word - "Strip."

	Suddenly Tyler felt very alone.  He did what Bryan told him though
- albeit very slowly, not realizing that this was actually a turn-on for
the older boy.  First he bent to untie his shoe laces, and then kicked his
shoes off.  Next, he shrugged out of his jacket and pulled his t-shirt over
his head and dropped in onto the floor on top of his coat.  He heard Bryan
gasp a bit as his smooth, slender chest was revealed.

	Tyler hesitated now.  He wasn't so sure about what he was doing as
he had been before.  But when Bryan motioned for him to continue, he did.
He dropped his jeans and stepped out of them, standing in just his boxers,
looked hesitantly at Bryan.  Bryan made another 'go ahead' motion with his
hand and Tyler removed his final piece of clothing.  Tyler just stood
there, as if waiting for instructions, but Bryan didn't say anything.
Instead, he circled Tyler, looking appreciatively at the boy's smooth,
slender body as he did.  Bryan let out a quiet whistle, and said under his
breath, "This is gonna be sweet."  Bryan's comment did nothing to reassure
Tyler - quite the opposite in fact.  But then it hadn't been meant to be
reassuring.

	Bryan stepped back in front of Tyler, "Now undress me," he
commanded.  While this was something that Bryan found very erotic - having
the girl, or boy that he was about to have sex with undress him - Tyler was
very unnerved by it.  He didn't want to, but he knew that he really had no
choice at the moment.  The only way Tyler would get through this was by
putting his brain on auto pilot.  He turned his emotions completely off.
Tyler slowly pushed Bryan's t-shirt up, and Bryan raised his arms so it
could be pulled over his head.  Bryan interpreted this as an attempt at
eroticism - not the reluctance that it actually was.  But that didn't
matter to him in the least.  This was all about pleasure for Bryan, in
exchange for the drugs Tyler wanted.  Bryan could care less if Tyler
enjoyed what was about to happen or not.

	Once Tyler had stripped Bryan completely naked, Bryan pushed him
forward so that he was standing in front of the desk.  "Sit up on the
desk," Bryan told him.

	Tyler turned around and slowly raised himself up so that he was
sitting on the cool surface.  He had scooted back so that his knees just
barely hung over the edge.  This wasn't exactly the position Bryan wanted
him in, but that didn't matter at all.  Bryan grabbed Tyler's legs and
lifted them, which had the effect of pushing him back onto his back on the
plastic that formed the top of the cheap furniture.  Then Bryan pulled him
back toward himself so that Tyler's butt extended slightly over the edge of
the desk.

	As Bryan moved in toward him, Tyler suddenly realized that the only
lubricant Bryan intended to use was going to what little was going to be
the little bit his pre-cum would supply.  Tyler remembered from his earlier
session with Bryan that he had tasted that substance, but he had no idea
whether or not Bryan produced a large enough amount so that this wouldn't
be a hellish experience as Bryan began to violate his rear entrance.

	Fortunately for Tyler, between the pre-cum Bryan had produced and
Drake's regular fucking, Bryan's entry wasn't too painful.  He didn't do it
gently at all - and the suddenness of his penetration caused Tyler to cry
out just a little.  He actually felt Bryan's thick cock catch and squeak on
his dry inner flesh.  "Keep quiet, bitch!" Bryan hissed out.  "Nobody
better hear what's going on back here!"

 	There wasn't much chance of that happening unless Tyler had
actually screamed out; the noise of the games in the arcade was plenty to
cover up the noise that was being made by the two boys in the back room.
At least that was the case up until Bryan's final thrusts.  As his orgasm
began, Bryan let loose an almost guttural scream, and then began pumping
his seed into Tyler's behind.

	A couple of the regular customers in the arcade recognized the
sound, and they knew exactly what was going on when they heard Bryan's
shriek.  They weren't going to say anything to anyone though; they were
also Bryan's customers.  Tyler dressed quickly once they were finished.  He
wanted to get out of this place as fast as he possibly could.

	Bryan actually gave Tyler more of the pain pills than he had
intended, and Tyler swallowed three down while he waited for the bus to
take him to the apartment he was sharing with Drake.  He felt more down
than he had in a long time, perhaps because of the pills, but perhaps
because of what he had been required to do to get them.  Tyler was very
near catatonic when he stepped off the bus, but not so much that he wasn't
very aware of the wetness in his underwear that was Bryan's seed, which had
oozed back out of him so shortly after having been deposited there.  He was
not in the neighborhood he intended when he stepped off the bus.  The place
where he had stumbled off the bus was familiar to him, but because of the
drugs he wasn't quite sure where he was.

- - -

	Tyler woke in the morning disoriented and confused.  'Where am I?'
he thought.  It was a familiar place, and he thought he recognized it, but
he wasn't sure in the dim light of the early dawn.  Suddenly Tyler became
aware of a body lying next to him and he bolted upright, now completely
awake.  He had become used to waking up with Drake, in his bed in the
apartment they were sharing.  But that wasn't where he was now - Tyler was
sure of that.  And whoever it was in the bed next to him was smaller in
stature than Drake - much more Tyler's own size.

	It was only when he clicked the lamp switch on the night stand next
to the bed that he became fully aware of where he was.  It was Oliver's
room, and it was Oliver in the bed with him.  Tyler surveyed the scene.
His clothes and Ollie's were in piles on the floor.  He was completely
naked.  Oliver was nude beside him, lying on his back.  His head fairly
clear now, Tyler admired his friend's body.  He thought briefly about
reaching over to touch it, but Ollie looked so peaceful, laying there
asleep that Tyler didn't want to risk disturbing him.

	Realizing finally that the reason he had awakened was that his
bladder was full and he needed to pee, Tyler made his way quietly into the
bathroom.  When he made his way back into Oliver's room, his friend was
sitting up in bed.  Oliver smiled at Tyler as he came back in and pushed
the door shut behind him.

	"How are you feeling this morning?" Ollie asked him.

	"Okay," Tyler shrugged.

	"You were pretty out of it when I found you last night," Oliver
informed him.

	Tyler was still fuzzy about what had happened the night before.
The last thing he really remembered was getting on the bus, with the
intention of going back to Drake's apartment.  He admitted this to Oliver.

	"You were slumped over on a bench at a bus stop outside The Cavern
when I found you," Oliver told him.  "So I brought you back here."

	Tyler considered that for a moment, realizing the situation he had
left himself in.  "Thanks," he said quietly as he slid back onto the bed
next to Oliver.

	Oliver slid back down so he and Tyler could enter into a
comfortable embrace.  "Anything for you babe," he whispered into Tyler's
ear as they hugged each other.  And that is how they went back to sleep.

	It was after ten when they woke again.  Oliver woke first, and now
he needed to pee.  As he disengaged himself from the hug he and Tyler were
still in, he woke his friend.  Oliver moved back toward him and kissed his
forehead.  "Be right back," he whispered.

	While Oliver was gone it finally hit Tyler that he was here in the
house where Oliver lived with Frank.  He wondered what Oliver had told
Frank about bringing him home.  When Oliver returned, Tyler asked.

	"I didn't tell him anything.  He was already asleep when we got
here and it's after ten now, so he's gone to work," Ollie explained.
Oliver thought that it was a good thing they hadn't woken Frank when he had
brought Tyler home with him.  It would have been difficult to explain.  It
would have been obvious to Frank that Tyler was wasted, and on something
far more potent than just liquor.

	"So what were you on anyway?" Oliver asked.

	"Just some pain pills," Tyler replied.

	"You need to be careful with those things," Oliver cautioned him.

	Tyler didn't reply to that, but the thought did get stuck somewhere
back in the canyons of his mind.

	They lay together on the bed in silence, just enjoying the
closeness of each other's bodies for a few minutes before Oliver asked
Tyler if he wanted some breakfast.  Tyler realized now that he hadn't eaten
since lunch yesterday, and he was famished.  "Yeah, breakfast would be
great," he replied.

	Oliver pulled on a pair of what Tyler was beginning to think of as
his 'trademark' tattered white briefs and tossed Tyler a similar pair to
put on before they went downstairs.  Tyler helped by setting the table
while Oliver cooked them breakfast - scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon and
toast.  Tyler passed on the bacon, as it didn't fit into his dietary
regimen.  He did have to admit that it smelled very good though.  It
reminded him of the breakfasts his mother would make for his father, he
thought sadly.  He finally started to realize that he really missed his
parents, the daily routine around their house, the familiar activities and
rituals that become part of any family, and even the smells he was used to
around the household.

	Oliver noticed the look on his face and asked what was bothering
him.  Tyler just shook his head and answered "Nothing."  Ollie knew this
wasn't true, but decided not to press the issue.  He correctly assumed it
had something to do with the soiled nature of Tyler's underwear when he had
removed them before he put Tyler into his bed the night before.

- - -

	Tyler had spent the day with Oliver, skipping school again.  Tyler
thought again about the promise he had made to Thomas about not doing that
anymore, and once again felt guilty about not living up to that promise.
After they had finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, Oliver and
Tyler showered together.  They spent the day lounging in front of the TV or
out back in Frank's garden smoking.  They managed to stay stoned from this
most of the day.  Tyler was feeling depressed, and it was apparent to
Oliver.  But when he asked Tyler what was wrong, Tyler still wouldn't tell
him.  It was a combination of the promise to Thomas that he was breaking
combined with homesickness and missing his parents and how he felt he had
lowered himself by having sex with Bryan in exchange for drugs.

	Tyler knew that his mood was a buzz kill for Oliver, so he decided
to leave in the mid afternoon and go back to Drake's apartment.  He didn't
want his mood to spoil the day too much for his friend.  They had hugged
and cuddled a good bit during the day, but there was no sex.

	Tyler was surprised that Drake was at home when he got back -
particularly since he had been staying out so late every night recently.
Drake questioned Tyler about where he had been the night before.  In fact,
it seemed almost like one of the interrogations he would have gotten from
his father, based mainly on Drake's tone of voice.  He didn't smart off to
Drake as he would have done to his father though - knowing that this man
could choose to throw him out onto the street at his slightest whim
whereas, at his parents' home, his mother would have played the role of
peacemaker, keeping both Tyler and his father from crossing a certain line.

	So Tyler answered Drake with what was mostly the truth - he'd
gotten wasted and passed out at a friend's house.  He wasn't specific about
who the friend was, and Drake didn't ask.  But Drake didn't really have to;
he knew that Oliver was really the only person other than himself who Tyler
hung around with.  Drake had thought it odd at first that Tyler never even
talked about friends at his school, but he accepted it, especially since it
worked to his advantage if Tyler had fewer friends.  With his desire to the
keep Tyler under his control as much as possible, and thus with him longer,
it was better that way.

- - -

	One weekend a couple months later, Oliver didn't show up for their
normal dancing session at The Cavern on Friday night.  Tyler didn't think
too much about it at first - Ollie had been late before.  But half an hour
past their normal meeting time, Tyler tried calling him on his cell phone.
It rang four times, and then went to voice mail.  'Maybe he's just running
late and is taking a shower,' Tyler thought.  'Yeah, that's it - that's why
he didn't answer his phone.'

	After another half hour, and two more calls, Tyler started to
worry.  It wasn't at all like Ollie to be this late - and not to answer his
cell phone.  Something had to be wrong.  Now Tyler started getting nervous.
'What if something has happened to him?'  That thought kept coursing
through Tyler's mind.

	Oliver was his best friend, his lover.  Yes, they had been in love
for quite a while now.  Neither was very happy about Tyler's living
arrangements with Drake, or the fact that Oliver had to prostitute himself
to make enough money to live, but they accepted these things as the facts
of their lives.  They both knew that if they weren't doing these things to
simply survive that they wouldn't be able to see each other at all.
Neither liked the shared sessions with Drake either, but again, they both
viewed this as a necessary evil for them to be together.

	Tyler thought about the day that Oliver admitted to him that he was
regularly selling his body to make enough money to live.  It wasn't long
after the boy they had seen dancing in the club with them that Friday night
had been found beaten to death.  And while this really made Tyler worry
more about him, Oliver had promised that he was always careful.  'What if
he finally wasn't careful enough?' Tyler thought as he hit the redial
button on his phone one more time.  Still there was no answer.  Tyler left
his shirt and shoes in the dressing room as he and Ollie always did and
went out into the main bar area, hoping that Ollie would show up soon.

	At nine o'clock when Drake showed up, Tyler was in a real funk.  He
had become so distressed that Oliver still hadn't arrived that he'd taken
two of the Percosets to calm himself down.  Still, the adrenaline coursing
through his body was counteracting the effects of the drug and had him
fairly well wired.  Tyler wasn't dancing tonight though.  Without Oliver
there with him he really didn't feel like it at all.  Tyler flinched when
Drake came up behind him and placed his hands on Tyler's shoulders.

	"Where is Oliver, and why aren't you dancing?" Drake asked after
Tyler had turned to see who it was that was touching him.

	When Tyler had first felt the hands on his shoulders he hoped
against all odds that it was Ollie, but knew almost immediately that the
feel of the fingers was all wrong.  These hands were not Ollie's.

	He didn't answer Drake's question immediately, but after a moment
Tyler finally told him that Oliver hadn't showed up yet, and that he had
not been able to get in touch with him on the phone all afternoon and
evening.  "I'm really worried about him," Tyler confessed.  "I just have
this horrible feeling that something awful has happened to him."

	"I'm sure he's fine," Drake said, trying to reassure Tyler, though
not very convincingly.  "Why don't you go ahead and dance a little anyway?
Maybe it will make you feel better," Drake suggested.

	"I really don't feel like it," Tyler replied.  And he didn't.  He
was too worried about Oliver to have a good time at all, and dancing
wouldn't be the same at all without a partner - his partner.  Still, he did
as Drake suggested.  He really wasn't into it though, and this was obvious.
Drake mentioned it when Tyler came back to the table during the next break.
Tyler just shrugged - with a pout on his face as he did.

	During the break, Drake told Tyler that he ought to go ahead and
strip down to his underwear, as most of the other regular dancers already
had.  "You don't want them getting an edge on you," Drake suggested,
seemingly encouragingly.

	Tyler nodded shyly, and walked slowly into the dressing room.  Once
there he tried again to call Ollie, but there still wasn't any answer.
Slowly, Tyler unfastened his belt and opened the button and zipper on his
pants.  He let them drop down his legs and stepped out of them.  His heart
really wasn't in this, but he'd gotten the encouragement from Drake
besides, he did need the money that he stood to make from tips that
evening, so he decided that he would try to make the best of it.

	As he was getting ready to leave the dressing room, Jesse and
Trevor came in, hand in hand - and very obviously high.  They were laughing
and giggling a lot, and bumping into each other a lot as they walked
through the narrow space leading into the room.  "Have you guys seen
Ollie?" Tyler asked them.

	"Not since last night," Trevor told him.  "He was making pretty
good time with a couple of decent tippers, but we left before he did."

	"Okay, thanks anyway," Tyler replied, the pouty expression
returning to his face.  He had really hoped to learn something about what
had become of Oliver from the other two teens.  But completely out of luck,
dejectedly he returned to the table where Drake was waiting for him.  Tyler
was wearing a pair of old, plain white boxers this evening.  The material
was fairly thin from age, so the little triangle of hair could be made out
on his pubic bone when the lights hit him properly.

	Tyler resumed his seat next to Drake, his arms folded over his
chest.  The expression on his face made it fairly clear that he was not in
a good mood this evening.  That didn't stop Drake from reaching over and
placing his hand into Tyler's lap - after all, it wasn't really like Drake
to notice or care anyone else's moods or desires.  Tyler's expression
didn't even change as the man's hand rested atop his genitals and then gave
them a gentle squeeze.  Drake mistook Tyler's lack of any reaction as a
signal for him to continue - but then that's what Drake intended to do
anyway.  'Besides,' Drake thought, 'if I help him get a little hard, he'll
get better tips when he's dancing.  That was all the justification Drake
needed to give himself for groping his fifteen year old boarder here in
this public place.

	Despite the way Tyler was feeling this evening, Drake's hand gently
massaging his penis was causing it to react exactly as Drake was hoping
that it would, and he felt the shaft begin to thicken in his hand.  The
waiter brought over drinks that Drake had ordered while Tyler was back in
the dressing room, and Drake pushed one over in front of him.  "Drink it,"
he told Tyler - more as an order than anything.

	Tyler looked over toward Drake, who made a 'go-ahead' motion with
one hand as he picked up his drink with the other.  Tyler took the shooter,
tapped his glass together with Drake's and then they both downed them.
Drake pushed another drink over to Tyler - this one a regular drink, not a
shooter, but it was the same concoction, just served over ice this time.
The drink was creamy and sweet, but not something that Tyler recognized.
On any other day he probably would have asked what it was, but today he
didn't even care.  He probably would have even consumed straight Wild
Turkey if anyone had pushed it in front of him.

	Drake's hand found its way down to Tyler's naked thigh, and then
started sliding north, toward the hem of his boxers.  Tyler wasn't even
paying attention as Drake's hand slowly crept up his leg, pausing every so
often, rubbing or squeezing a little bit when it did.  The first time Tyler
paid any attention at all to what Drake was doing was when the man's hand
finally pulled the leg of his boxers up, exposing and then finally grasping
hold of his 'twig and berries.'

	Suddenly Tyler's mind snapped back to reality, despite the drugs
and alcohol he had consumed that day.  He was sitting in a bar, dressed
only in his underwear and socks, while an older man had pulled his junk out
and started playing with it.  But what could he do?  He didn't want to piss
Drake off by telling him to stop.  That could potentially cost him his
place to stay.  So Tyler put up with it.  At least they were sitting at a
table so it wasn't obvious what was going on; even though Tyler thought he
caught a few of the guys in the place giving them knowing glances.

	Tyler had become fully hard as Drake rubbed, stroked and massaged
his privates under the table.  'This could really be embarrassing,' Tyler
thought.  His dick and balls were completely exposed at this point, and
being hard, if he were to have to get up...  Well, that was going to keep
sticking out, even if his balls fell back into the leg of his boxers.
'That's okay though,' Tyler thought some more.  'There's no way I'm getting
out of this chair.'

	Or so he thought.

	Drake was continuing his ministrations on Tyler subtly, under the
table with his hand, when Jesse and Trevor approached from behind Drake and
Tyler.  They had decided that Tyler had looked pretty unhappy after they
had talked in the dressing room earlier, and after having more than a
couple shooters at the bar, they had decided to try to cheer him up.  Not
having any better idea, and since Tyler always seemed happy when he was
dancing with Oliver, the thing that seemed right in order to cheer him up
was to pull him up on the dance floor with them.

	Oh, how wrong they were.

	Jesse grabbed one arm while Trevor grabbed the other, pulling Tyler
up from his chair and toward the stage to dance with them.  Neither of the
older teens realized when they pulled Tyler from his chair that Drake had
Tyler's equipment exposed and in hand.  Of course neither Drake nor Tyler
had any idea that Tyler was about to be grabbed by the other two teens and
dragged up onto the stage with the other boys who were dancing either.

	There were a few cat-calls and whistles as Jesse and Trevor pulled
Tyler onto the stage, but hardly anyone really noticed that Tyler's
ragingly hard penis was exposed as he was quite nearly dragged up the
stairs to the elevated portion of the dance floor.  Even Jesse and Trevor
weren't aware of it.  Not at first.  But when they spun him around between
them, the noise from the crowd erupted - now everyone saw Tyler, very much
more exposed than he had ever been in this place before.  Jesse and Trevor
were still each holding one of Tyler's arms, but now he was trying to
wrestle free, wanting to cover himself.  Tyler didn't like the idea of
having been put on display, in his full glory, in front of the Friday night
crowd at The Cavern.  This was probably the most embarrassed Tyler had ever
been in his entire life.  How was he ever going to live this new
humiliation down?

	Tyler jerked free from the grip Jesse and Trevor had on his arms.
As soon as he was loose from them, he turned and ran toward the dressing
room where his clothes were.  His intent was to get all his clothes back on
as quickly as he could, and then run away from this place as fast as he
could, but he wasn't able to do it.

	Everything seemed to hit Tyler all at once as he ran into the
dressing room.  Oliver, the only person he really loved, and the only one
who had ever really returned his love was missing.  And no one knew
anything about where he was.  Not anything useful anyway.  Drake was using
him...  He was nothing but a puppet, a mere sex toy for the man he was
staying with, yet afraid to leave.  There was more though, and it continued
to crash down upon his shoulders.  Tyler had sobered suddenly when he was
pulled onto the stage with all he had exposed for everyone to see.

	There was another realization during that sobering moment as well.
Oliver had been right when he had warned Tyler about taking too many of the
pain killers that he liked so much.  Tyler felt himself slipping away, as
if he were about to pass out.

	The next thing Tyler saw was the faces of Jesse and Trevor.  He was
looking up at them as they knelt above him.  Trevor had one of his hands
and Jesse was gently slapping his face as if to bring him around.  When his
eyes opened, Jesse asked, "Dude, are you okay?  What happened?"

	Tyler couldn't answer.  Not because of an inability to speak, but
simply because he wasn't sure.  "I don't know what happened," he finally
got out.  "I think I'm alright though..."

	Tyler tried to sit up, but Trevor put a hand on his chest, gently
pressing to keep Tyler lying on the floor.  "You better just lie down for a
while, dude," Trevor stated flatly.  "You might have hurt yourself."  Then,
looked to Jesse he added, "Think we should get Sister Mary to look at him?"

	Tyler didn't know who this 'Sister Mary' was, but whoever she was,
he certainly didn't want her to see him like he was now.  At least as he
last remembered himself...  Tyler lifted his head, and was able to see that
at least he was no longer exposed as he had been before he passed out.
'Did I stuff my junk back into my shorts, or did one of them do it?' he
thought.  He could tell that he was still hard, so he couldn't have been
out that long, but still - there were a few minutes missing from his memory
that he was unable to account for.

	Tyler didn't wait for Jesse to return with whoever this 'Sister
Mary' they were talking about was.  Trevor was protesting as Tyler got up
and pulled the rest of his clothes back on, but it was almost as if Tyler
wasn't listening at all.  Finally as he was pulling his shoes on, Tyler
looked over at Trevor and said "Look, I'm alright.  I just need to get out
of here, okay?"  Then he turned back to finish tying the laces on his
shoes.

	When Tyler came back out of the dressing room and rejoined Drake at
his table, Drake was watching the guys who were dancing and munching on an
order of nachos as if nothing at all had happened.  Drake didn't even
comment on Tyler now being dressed, but he did slide the plate of nachos
over, as if to offer Tyler some, even as he kept eating.  This got under
Tyler's skin, but he didn't say anything only because he didn't want to
risk losing his place to live.  Tyler sat; silently sulking for a few
minutes and was about to speak, when Drake finally said something.  "So
still no word from Oliver yet?"

	Tyler shook his head.  "Jesse and Trevor didn't know where he is
either.  All they could tell me is that he was here last night, but they
don't know anything else."

	There was silence at the table for a few minutes.  Finally, Tyler
spoke once more.  "Look, can we just get out of here, please?"

	"You sure you don't want to wait for Oliver a little longer?" Drake
asked.

	Tyler nodded, and quietly he told Drake, "Yeah.  I don't know how,
but I just know he's not going to show up.  There isn't any point staying
here any longer.  Let's just go home please."

	Drake slid his chair back, stood and extended his hand to Tyler.
"Okay, come on.  Let's get you out of here."  This seemed to Tyler as if it
were a kind gesture, so he smiled, stood and took Drake's hand.  Drake put
an arm around Tyler's shoulder as they left the club.  Drake wasn't exactly
pleased that he was going to miss his usual weekly entertainment, but that
was okay.  Seeing Tyler exposed as he had on the stage a short time before
had Drake very aroused, and he intended to make the most of it.  Despite
what Tyler may have thought, Drake's actions, and certainly his motives
were anything but altruistic.

	The public display Tyler had inadvertently become at The Cavern was
nearly as powerful a stimulant as Viagra might have been for Drake.  His
dick was hard and throbbing, and he wouldn't have been surprised had there
been a wet spot on the front of his pants from the pre-cum he knew was
leaking out of his thick rod.  Drake would have preferred a semi-public
place tonight - that would heighten his arousal he thought.  Unfortunately
for him, the weather wasn't going to permit it.  The temperature was too
cold for that.  Then the thought struck him - the hot tub on his patio.
They hadn't had sex there for quite a while, but Drake thought that tonight
was going to be the perfect time to use it once more.

	When they got back to Drake's apartment and entered the patio, he
stopped to turn the heat up to what would make it a more comfortable level
when they came back out a few minutes later.  He also opened up the cover
and turned on the underwater lights, illuminating the clear water as it
swirled about from the jets as they pushed water through the heating system
and back into the tub.  There was already steam coming off the top of the
water, as Drake kept the heat on enough to ensure the water wouldn't freeze
during the cold winter months, not to mention that it also meant that when
he wanted to use the Jacuzzi that it would be ready far more quickly.

	Tyler looked askance at Drake when he stopped to prepare the hot
tub.  Drake smiled at him.  "We're coming back out in a few minutes after
it has time to heat up properly," Drake informed him.  Drake's tone didn't
seem to leave any question that they would be, and Tyler knew full well
what the end result was expected to be.  He didn't want to have sex with
Drake tonight - especially tonight, but between the drugs, the alcohol and
his weakened emotional state he put up no argument at all - he was going to
do it and both he and Drake knew it.  Besides, he had become resigned to
believe that it was more or less expected of him now.

	 Tyler was sore when Drake finished with him in the Jacuzzi, and
not only that, he felt dirty as well.  He hadn't been into the sex at all,
but Drake either didn't notice or didn't care.  Regardless, when Tyler went
inside after Drake was finished, he didn't go to the room he had been
sharing with Drake, instead he went to the bed where he had slept when he
first moved into the apartment, but not before taking a shower.  That still
didn't help make him feel any cleaner, regardless of how much he scrubbed.

	Before he fell into bed, Tyler pulled on the pajamas he had brought
back with him when he had snuck into his parents' house.  That comforted
him more than anything else could have that night.  Still, he cried himself
to sleep.  He was certain that he had completely wrecked his life, and he
had no idea how to make it right.  'What would Thomas think of me now if he
knew what I was doing?' was the last thought that ran through his mind
before he lapsed into a fitful sleep.

- - -

	When Tyler woke in the morning, Drake was gone, and he thought he
was going to be late for school.  Then he realized that this was Saturday.
He had no cares or responsibilities to tend to today.  Well, other than
cleaning the apartment and taking care of his laundry.

	Tyler checked his cell phone, and found that Ollie still hadn't
called.  'Where the Hell is he?' Tyler thought.  'Why hasn't he answered or
returned any of my calls?  Something has GOT to be wrong!'

	Trying to take his mind away from his missing friend, Tyler busied
himself around the apartment.  He even went outside to the hot tub and
turned the heat down and replaced the cover, which Drake had neglected to
do the night before whenever he had come in.  Still, Oliver being missing
was the predominant thought in his mind, so he kept calling.

	Finally, this time there was an answer.  It was a voice Tyler
didn't recognize though...  Obviously an adult...  "Hello?  Who is calling
please?"

	Tyler took the phone away from his ear to look at it and verify
that he had called the right number - yes, it was Ollie's speed-dial
setting he had called.  'So who is this man that's answering Ollie's
phone?'  Tyler's mind was racing.  'What should I say?  Should I give my
real name?  Should I ask who it is that answered Ollie's phone?'

	In the end, it was Tyler's panic and concern for Oliver that
answered the question for him.  It was only a couple seconds, but it seemed
like an eternity to Tyler.  "My name is Tyler, who is this?" he answered.

	"This is Detective Constable Henderson," the man who had answered
Ollie's phone informed him.  "May I ask who it was that you were calling
please?" he continued.

	Tyler's concern overwhelmed him, "I was calling my friend Oliver,
why are you answering his phone?!" he blurted out after a moment.  "Has
something happened to him?  You have to tell me!"

	The policeman who had answered Ollie's cell phone tried to calm
him.  "Listen son, we need your help.  Can you tell me where you are
please?"

	Tyler told the policeman to meet him at the entrance to the
apartment complex where he was staying with Drake.  He was very nervous
about this, but he had to find out what had happened to Ollie.  There was
obviously something wrong, just as he had sensed.  Tyler dressed in a
hurry, and was waiting nervously at the apartment entrance when the
unmarked police car arrived to collect him.

	Tyler wasn't prepared for where the police car took him.  It was
the city morgue.  What they had wanted was for someone to identify Oliver's
body.  Somehow, just barely, Tyler was able to avoid breaking into tears as
he told the policeman that this was his friend.  He was ashamed to admit
that he didn't even know what Oliver's last name was, but if that was all
he could do to help, he was determined to do it.

	He stared at Oliver's face, exposed when the officer drew back the
sheet.  The skin was almost as white as the cloth, apart from blueness
around the lips.  Tyler was mesmerized by his first sight of death, other
than in a photograph.  This was not the sleep in which Oliver had rested
beside him, Ollie, so full of smiling life and movement, was
preternaturally still.  And he would never dance again.  Tyler was too
numbed by the finality of it all even to cry.  That would come later.

	When Tyler asked how Oliver had died, the policeman told him that
it had been a drug overdose - most likely ecstasy.  And that was something
that Tyler knew that Ollie would never take of his own volition.  Someone
had to have given it to him without his knowing, and Tyler told the
detective that.

	Naturally there were a lot of questions to follow, and Tyler did
his best to answer them all.  This required him to break the 'hustler's
code' that Ollie had told him about, but somehow Tyler didn't think Ollie
would mind, given the circumstances.  Tyler hoped that Jesse and Trevor
would understand.  If they didn't, that was okay with Tyler.  He just
wanted to find out who had caused Ollie's death.  He did hope they would
feel the same way, even if they didn't love him like Tyler did.

- - -

	When the police questioned Jesse and Trevor, it was away from The
Cavern, and the subject of who had given their names to the police didn't
come up.  There wasn't any doubt in either of their minds how the police
knew to ask them about the last few hours of Oliver's life, and although
they did resent the hassle of the police showing up at the apartment they
shared, they knew that Tyler and Oliver had been in love, so they did
understand.  They were as helpful as they could, they answered the
detective's questions, and included a description of the man they had last
seen Oliver with at the club.

	After the police left, Jesse turned to Trevor and asked "Do you
think we should say anything to Tyler about the police coming here?"

	"Nothing more than that they talked to us," Trevor answered after a
moment of consideration.

	Jesse nodded his agreement.  Nothing good would come of giving
Tyler any shit about him letting the police know that they had seen Oliver
the night he died.

	And somewhere deep inside, they both realized that something like
this could happen to them, so it was in their best interests to help the
police find whoever had given Oliver the drugs that had caused his death.
They wouldn't admit this, even to each other - but that thought was stuck
in the back of both of their minds.

- - -

	There was no insurance money to pay for Oliver's funeral, and no
one had any idea where to find his parents.  It seemed as though Oliver was
destined for a pauper's grave at the [county's?] government's expense - a
simple pine box, and an unknown grave with a simple stone marker showing
nothing more than that a body was buried there, but nothing to tell who
Oliver had been.

	Somehow it didn't seem fair.  'Why should Ollie, who was such a
beautiful, loving person, have to meet such a horrible end?  Why would
there be no real record of the fact that Oliver had ever even existed?'
Tyler thought.

	He tried to get some of the other boys that he knew from The
Cavern, even if only vaguely, to pitch in some money to at least be able to
buy Ollie a proper headstone.  Only Jesse and Trevor had been willing to
kick in more than just a couple dollars.  They had each given Tyler $20 for
Oliver's burial fund.  Drake gave him another fifty dollars, and Tyler had
put in a hundred, which was all he had at the time.  Still, this wasn't
nearly enough to buy Oliver a proper grave marker.  In the end, it was
Frank who came through.

	It was a bold move on Tyler's part to go see him, but he didn't
know what else to do.  Tyler went to Frank's house.  He wasn't quite sure
how to approach the man who Ollie had been living with, but when it came
right down to it, he had nothing to lose.  At the very least, he could find
out Oliver's last name, at least he hoped that he could.

	Frank had been questioned by the police about Oliver, just as Jesse
and Trevor had been.  He wasn't able to give them any useful information
though.  He did back up Tyler's statement that Oliver hadn't been a drug
user - at least not to his knowledge.  He allowed the police to go through
Oliver's room, hopeful that they would find something that would assist
them in finding out who had given him the drugs that had taken his life.
There wasn't anything there that provided them any new information, even
though they were very thorough in their search.  They didn't find any drugs
or paraphernalia in his room, which strengthened the statements that both
Tyler and Frank had made that someone must have slipped him the drugs that
killed him without his knowledge.

	When Tyler visited Frank's house, Frank told him about the visit
from the police.  Frank was visibly upset over Oliver's death.  Apparently
he had cared more for Ollie than Tyler had realized.  They sat and talked
for a while, sipping on tea as they did.  Tyler explained his predicament -
wanted to provide a proper marker for Ollie's grave, and not having been
able to raise enough money to be able to do it.  He was in tears by the
time he'd finished.  Frank stood and pulled Tyler into a hug.  "I'll cover
anything you can't get the money for," he promised.  And he had made good
on that.

* * *

	Comments and feedback are welcomed at t_macd@comcast.net.  Flames
will be ignored by me, but will meet with an untimely and horrible demise
as the result of the curse of the old gypsy woman who lives across the
lake, and has inexplicably taken a liking to me.  Anger her at your own
risk.

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