Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:04:49 -0400
From: Terrance MacDonald <t_macd@comcast.net>
Subject: Emo Boi Finds Love 18

	I would like to extend my 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 is for my Duckling.  I love you, babe, and I always
will.

	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 Eighteen

	Tyler told Melissa about the journey he was going on to see Thomas.
He told her a little bit about how he and Thomas had met, but not much.  He
was a little embarrassed to admit that he was going to meet this guy in
person for the first time.  He did admit that they had met online, and he
did say that they had seen each other before.  He was intentionally just a
little bit sketchy on the details, not admitting that it was only on their
web cameras when and where they had seen each other thus far.

	Melissa was very patient with Tyler, and held his hand in both of
hers as he told the story.  She suspected from the way he told her about
his relationship with Thomas that they hadn't yet met in person, but she
decided not to verbalize that thought.  Instead, she just continued to nod
her head as he continued the story and make whatever positive comments she
could whenever she was able.

	She did finally ask how long he had known Thomas, and he told her
that it had been three years - since he was fifteen.  It was then that he
finally admitted that while they had e-mailed, chatted on MSN Messenger,
talked on the phone, and sometimes talked using a web cam and microphone on
their computers, they were only now about to meet in person for the first
time.  "Are you nervous about that?" she asked, even though his demeanor
during this part of the conversation made the answer obvious.

	"Yeah, sort of," he confessed.  It was a little more than sort of,
but he was trying to convince himself that everything was going to be
alright when he got to Atlanta for the rendezvous.  "I'm just worried that
maybe he won't be there to meet me, or that maybe he won't like me once we
meet in person or something.  If that happens I'll really be screwed."

	"I don't think you have anything to worry about," she stated as she
smiled at Tyler and looked him straight in the eye.  "From everything
you've told me about him, I think everything is going to work out just
fine."

	Melissa heard the boarding for her flight being called, so she had
to excuse herself.  She was affected by the regrets Tyler expressed as she
left, and his gentle thanks for listening.  She did scribble her e-mail
address on a napkin for Tyler before she left, and asked him to let her
know how things worked out.  As she was getting ready to leave, Tyler stood
so they could hug.  She squeezed him in a tight embrace and whispered into
his ear, "Don't worry, everything will be fine."  Then she gave him a quick
kiss on the cheek and broke the embrace.

	A moment later, she was gone.  Tyler sat back down to finish his
coffee.  They would be calling his flight soon as well.  He stuffed the
napkin with her e-mail address into his backpack and hoped that her
confidence about his meeting with Thomas at the Atlanta airport would prove
correct.  The sound of a commotion of some sort came from bar next to the
Starbucks where Tyler was sitting.  There were loud shouts, a lot of
cursing and a crash.  A moment later, two uniformed officers came running
through the terminal headed toward the bar.  A couple minutes later Tyler
grinned as his saw the belligerent drunk from his first flight being
escorted away in handcuffs by the airport police.

	'Serves him right,' Tyler thought as he watched the man being taken
away.  'Hopefully I won't have an asshole like that next to me on the
flight to Atlanta.'

* * *

	Tyler's sheets were bloody when he woke in the morning.  If it
weren't obvious enough where the blood had come from, there were traces of
semen evident and mixed in with it.  When he crawled out of bed, Tyler
found that it was quite painful to walk, and he hobbled bowlegged into the
bathroom.  He turned the water on in the shower as hot as he thought he
would be able stand it, then he brushed his teeth and sat down on the
toilet.  Emptying his bowels was far more painful than he thought it would
be, and when he looked down into the bowl, he discovered that he had gushed
out enough blood to turn the water bright red.

	When he wiped himself, he noticed that the paper was also stained
with blood.  He pulled a lengthy strip of toilet paper from the roll,
folded it over several times and held it beneath him to try to stop the
renewed bleeding.  He hadn't even noticed it last night, but now he was
wondering if he would have to go to the hospital because of whatever damage
Drake may have caused him back there.  And if he did, what would he tell
them?  There was no way that he could possibly tell them the truth, but
what could he come up with that would sound convincing?

	Finally the bleeding stopped.  Tyler got up, flushed the toilet and
stepped into the steaming shower stall.  The mirror over the bathroom
counter was already clouded up.  Tyler felt a need to wash himself
thoroughly.  What Drake had done to him last night made him feel so dirty,
so violated...  He wanted to scrub himself raw, but then, back where it
really counted, he already was quite raw.  He was also afraid to start the
bleeding anew.  He didn't have any idea how much blood he might have lost,
but he did know he was feeling a bit dizzy and light headed.  He did not
know however, was that because of blood loss, the brutality of Drake's
attack or the fitful night which had afforded him little sleep?  He didn't
even consider that it could have had anything to do with Ollie's funeral or
his using more of the pain killers than he was used to the day before.

	Normally a long, hot shower left him feeling refreshed and
invigorated.  This wasn't the case today.  When Tyler stepped out of the
shower and dried off, he still felt drained.  He was dreading seeing Drake,
but he knew it was inevitable.  If it wasn't this morning, it would still
happen sometime later today.  That much was certain.  Tyler dressed in
loose fitting clothing this morning.  He thought that the tighter jeans he
normally wore might chafe and would probably make him feel even worse than
he already did, so after pulling on an old, soft pair of boxers, he dug out
a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt.

	Tyler noticed the briefs he had been wearing when he went to bed
the night before, the ones that had belonged to Ollie.  He picked them up
and looked them over.  They weren't in great shape to begin with, being old
and worn, but they had held special significance to Tyler, because they had
been Oliver's.  Tyler tucked them into the drawer of the nightstand beside
his bed.  Even though they were shredded and useless now, Tyler wasn't
quite ready to dispose of the ripped up cloth.

	He stripped the blood stained sheets from his bed and carried them
downstairs to put into the washer.  He hoped they would come clean, but he
didn't have enough experience doing laundry to have any idea if they would
or not.

	Tyler's gait still gave away the obvious soreness he was feeling
when he came downstairs and into the kitchen.  Tyler opened the accordion
doors to the little closet where the washer and dryer were located, stuffed
the sheets into the top of the washing machine, added detergent and started
the wash cycle.  Drake was putting his breakfast dishes into the dishwasher
as Tyler turned to pour himself a cup of coffee.  Drake didn't say anything
to him until he was picking his keys up from the counter.  "I'm running
late for work," he stated flatly.  "See you up at The Cavern when I get
off?"

	"I don't know, maybe," Tyler responded noncommittally.  He couldn't
believe that Drake was acting as if absolutely nothing had happened.  Drake
hadn't even acknowledged the obvious soreness with which Tyler was walking
this morning or the fact that he had to wash his sheets.

	"You really ought to wear a thong tonight when you dance," Drake
commented as he brushed past Tyler on his way out, giving Tyler's ass a
quick feel as he did.  "You'll look especially hot."

	'Jesus, can he really think nothing at all happened?' Tyler
thought.  'It's like he's completely oblivious to the way he attacked me
last night.'  Tyler was intentionally keeping the term 'rape' out of his
mind.  Tyler didn't want to add the stigma of being a rape victim to the
vulnerability he was already feeling, even if at this point it was only on
a subconscious level.  Tyler heard Drake close the door behind him, then
the gate to the patio squeak as it opened and closed.  Then there was the
sound of a car door slamming shut and an engine starting.  Drake was gone
for the day.

	Tyler slumped down onto one of the sofas in the living room and
grabbed the remote.  He turned on the TV and sipped his coffee as he
watched the moronic talking heads on the Saturday morning talk show on the
local station banter back and forth about nothing.

	Tyler felt wetness on his cheek, and wiped away a tear.  He hadn't
even realized that he was silently crying until just then.  He set the
coffee down on the table in front of him and picked up his cell phone.
Thomas had given him his cell number in case he ever needed to get in
touch, but he had refused so far to give Thomas his.  He knew Thomas was
worried about him, and he was afraid that Thomas might call at an
inopportune time, causing Tyler to have to explain things to Drake.  Tyler
started a text message...  'Thomas, I need some help,' he started to write.
But then he started thinking...

	'How can I tell him what happened?  What will he think of me if I
admit what I've been doing?'  Tyler knew how Thomas felt about drugs, so he
didn't want to tell Thomas about that, but he wasn't sure how he could
explain things without admitting to his drug use.  'If I tell Thomas about
the drugs, will he abandon me?' Tyler couldn't help but wonder.

	He cancelled the message.  There were far too many doubts in his
mind, and he wasn't sure he could deal with the potential consequences.  He
wished that Drake had a computer with internet access in the apartment.  At
least that way he could check his e-mail, or maybe even get Thomas in chat
on MSN.  'No,' he thought.  'Chat would be even worse than text...'  It
would surely come out what he had been doing and what all was going on in
his life then.

- - -

	A couple hours later, Tyler had given up on coffee.  He didn't have
any pills left, but he needed something, so he went to the cabinet where he
knew Drake kept his liquor.  He pulled out a bottle of vodka, poured a
large shot into a glass and topped it off with orange juice.  Tyler lifted
the glass and observed it for a moment.  The color was only faintly orange
- there was a lot of vodka in the glass - more than there was orange juice.
'Maybe this will help,' he thought as he raised the glass to his lips and
took a long gulp.

	Tyler downed that drink in only a few minutes, and then he poured
another in about the same proportions.  This drink he took with him into
the living room.  This time he dropped into the easy chair that Drake
normally reserved for himself and set the glass down on the coaster next to
him on the end table.  Tyler had brought the remote control with him, and
started flipping through the channels.  There wasn't anything on that he
found even remotely interesting, so he eventually dropped the remote in his
lap.  The TV had ended up on Sponge Bob.  'Mindless entertainment,' he
thought.  'It'll probably be better than the idiots on the morning show at
least.'  Tyler picked up the glass and gulped down the majority of its
contents in one swig.  He didn't even sit it back onto the coaster until he
had turned it up again; emptying it completely with just one more gulp.

	 Tyler didn't even realize he had fallen asleep when he woke up an
hour later.  It seemed like he had just closed his eyes for a moment.  The
Cartoon Network was still playing Sponge Bob.  He looked over at the empty
glass next to him and contemplated making another drink.  Then he
remembered where Drake kept a stash of pot in one of the kitchen cabinets.
He got up and made his way a little unsteadily into the kitchen.  He opened
the door to the cabinet where he thought he would find the marijuana, but
the little box he was used to seeing wasn't there.

	Tyler started going through all the other cabinets, above and below
the counter, looking for the little wooden box where Drake kept his stash.
He couldn't find it.  Then he started pulling the drawers open, rifling
through them.  He was starting to get desperate.  He wanted, no - he needed
to get high.  Finally he saw it.  It was lying on the countertop, hidden in
plain sight.  When he opened the box, Tyler couldn't believe what he saw.
Between the bag of pot and the pack of rolling papers, there were three
Percoset capsules.

	Tyler didn't think that Drake used any sort of pain killers - he
certainly didn't think he did, especially the ones that were his drug of
choice.  But at that moment it didn't matter to him, Tyler's mind was made
up.  He grabbed the three pills, the baggie of dope and the papers.  He
carried them with him as he climbed the stairs to his room.  "At least I'm
able to walk a little more normal now," Tyler said aloud to himself,
thankful that some of the pain had now dissipated.  He didn't realize that
it was only the alcohol he had consumed that was merely masking the pain
temporarily.

	When Tyler got to his room, he stripped off the sweat pants and
t-shirt.  Standing only in his boxers, Tyler regarded himself in the
mirror.  He seemed to have lost some weight, at least that's how it looked
to him.  He was right.  He hadn't been eating all that well, mainly because
of the drugs he had been using and those were taking their toll as well.
Often as not he had substituted pills and alcohol for food.  This had
caused him to become thinner, almost to the point of gaunt.

	Tyler pulled his dresser drawer open.  There were a few sets of
thong underwear there, one of them, a bright red one, had been Ollie's.
Drake liked to have him and Ollie wear them sometimes during their Friday
or Saturday night sessions, and this one had apparently been left behind
after one of those.  But now Ollie wouldn't be coming any more.  Once
again, tears began to roll down Tyler's cheeks.  Ollie was gone.  His
memorial service was yesterday.  Tyler would never, ever see him again.
Oliver, the cute boy who had taken him under his wing, so to speak, that
first night he came into The Cavern.  The boy who had ultimately become the
best friend he had when everyone else seemed to turn against him, and even
more importantly, his lover.

	'How am I ever going to live without him?' Tyler thought.  Oliver
had certainly been far more to him than just a partner on the dance floor.
Tyler hadn't even known Oliver's last name until the police investigation
into his death - the boy who had meant so much to him, and as Tyler thought
about him, how little he really knew about him, Tyler became increasingly
sad and depressed.  He was ashamed that he'd never learned any of the
personal details of Ollie's life until after he'd died.  In Tyler's mind it
was as if he had let Ollie down somehow.  Tyler took the bright red thong
and tossed it onto his bed.

	He wasn't sure if he was going to wear one to The Cavern tonight as
Drake had suggested - he wasn't even sure that he really wanted to go
tonight, but if it did, he was going to wear the one that had been his
boyfriend's.  It would be a sort of a tribute to Oliver, if nothing else.

- - -

	Tyler was walking through the park that afternoon.  He had two of
the pills and most of the pot that he'd taken from Drake's stash box in the
apartment that morning still in his pocket.  He passed a couple boys who
were sitting on a bench, talking.  They looked like the typical jock types
from his school, but he didn't recognize them.  There were other high
schools in the area, so these two probably went to one of them.

	Tyler ignored the two as he passed them by, aside from just a quick
glance as he approached.  The two observed him more closely though.  Their
eyes ran up from the black Converse tennis shoes, up the tight, straight
leg black denim jeans that rode low on his hips and hugged his ass, then
the black leather jacket he was wearing above the tight, sleeveless t-shirt
to his coal black hair that swept across his face.

	"Hey!" one of the jocks called after him.  "Nice pants!  My
girlfriend has a pair just like them!"

	Tyler turned to look back at the two boys.  They said something
back and forth to one another that Tyler wasn't able to hear, then it
seemed that they were laughing at him and gave each other a high-five.
Tyler thought seriously about flipping them off, of even with the effects
of the one pain pill he had taken, and the joint he had smoked, Tyler was
still in too much pain from Drake's assault the previous night to think
that he might be able to outrun them.  So he just kept walking, hoping they
would ignore him as he was doing to them.

	Tyler walked through a playground area where various pieces of
equipment had been set up for young kids to play on.  He sat for a minute
on one of several rocking horses that were mounted on large spring that
went down into the ground.  He rested his head on his arms, which were in
turn resting atop the head of the rocking horse.  Tyler closed his eyes,
quietly sobbing as he thought about Oliver once again.

- - -

	Tyler vision seemed slightly cloudy, as if a fog had suddenly
rolled in when he spotted two familiar figures cut furtively off the path
and into some bushes.  It was Jesse and Trevor.  Tyler got up from the
rocking horse and followed after the two blonde boys.  He was curious what
they were up to.

	There was a small embankment on the other side of the bushes that
led down to a small stream.  There was no sign of Jesse and Trevor once
Tyler had made his way through the bushes.  As Tyler looked around, he
realized that the only place they could possibly have gone was into the
large, circular concrete pipe that the water flowing in the little stream
was coming from.  Tyler approached the pipe and stepped up into it.  The
pipe's diameter was about four feet, so he had to bend over as he went into
it.  The water flowing along the bottom was about a foot wide, so walking
bent over like that, and with one foot on either side of the stream was
somewhat awkward.

	Not far inside, there was a curve, and Tyler heard low voices as he
approached.  He saw a flicker of light, as if from a lighter, then there
was the unmistakable odor of marijuana.  Tyler stepped slowly around the
curve in the pipe.  Jesse and Trevor were seated on one side of the
gurgling water, their feet resting on the other.  They were leaning back
against the round, concrete wall.  Jesse was passing a joint over to
Trevor.  "Hey guys," Tyler spoke up.

	Startled, they both looked over at him.  Trevor dropped the joint,
and it almost rolled into the water before he caught it.  "Dude!" Jesse
exclaimed.  "What the hell are you doing here?"

	"Yeah, dude, you scared the shit outta me!" Trevor added.

	"I uh, well, I was up in the park and I saw you come down here, so
um...  Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing.  I'm still a little
down...  Ollie's funeral was yesterday you know, and..."  Tyler just let
that trail off.  He didn't want it to seem like he was trying to make them
feel guilty about not being at the service, and was afraid that it was
going to come off that way.

	They both looked away for a moment, glancing at each other.  It was
Trevor that looked back to him first and answered.  "Sorry we weren't
there...  It was just, something...  Something sorta came up."

	"It's okay.  Don't worry about it," Tyler said, do the best he
could to keep from crying again, now that he was reminded of the turnout
for Ollie's funeral service.  Then he added, "His mother didn't even show
up, so it's no big deal."

	That statement did make the two other boys feel even worse about
missing the service.  They imagined then that Tyler had been standing by
the grave completely alone, which he nearly was.  "Come on, sit down with
us," Jesse said, patting the small space on the concrete between him and
Trevor.  "Tell us about the service."

	Tyler complied.  He wasn't able to keep the tears back as he did,
and a few moments later he was sobbing into his chest.  Jesse put an arm
around him, and pulled him into a comforting embrace.  Jesse stroked his
hair with his other hand, and tried to say something that would be
comforting to him.  Finally, Tyler managed to stop the tears and sat back
up between the other boys, brushing Jesse's arm away as he did.

	The joint Trevor and Jesse had been smoking had gone out, but now
Trevor relit it, took a deep drag and passed it to Tyler.  "Here ya go Ty;
looks like you could use some of this."

	"Yeah," Jesse chimed in.  "Lemme give ya a shotgun."  Jesse took
the joint from Tyler's fingers, hit it quickly himself, then reversed it
and put it back between his lips to blow smoke into Tyler's mouth.

	Tyler and Jesse put a hand behind each other's head as their faces
approached to draw each other in closer, almost as if they were about to
kiss.  Tyler sucked the sweet smelling smoke into his lungs and held it as
long as he could before letting it out.  His attention had been focused
elsewhere for the last few moments, but now he was aware of Trevor's hand
inside his pants.  While his concentration had been centered on inhaling
the smoke Jesse was blowing into his mouth, Trevor had unfastened his belt
and pants.  When he looked down, Tyler saw that his pants were now wide
open, and Trevor was staring intently at his package, just barely contained
in the pouch of the little red thong.

	Tyler was confused.  He thought that Jesse and Trevor were involved
with each other, but now Trevor had made a very blatant move on him, and
while Jesse was right here with them.  Tyler got another surprise when
Jesse's hand rested on his stomach for a moment.  First he passed the joint
to Trevor, then he slid his hand up Tyler's stomach, pushing his t-shirt up
as he did.  Tyler's mind reeled...  'What were these guys doing?' he
thought.

	Tyler's mind seemed to be caught in a whirlwind.  The pipe they
were sitting in even seemed to be spinning.  He heard laughing as he leaned
back against the concrete surface.  Jesse and Trevor were now both pushing
up at his shirt and jacket had vanished.  He didn't remember taking it off,
so what could have happened to it?  Tyler willed himself not to, but even
seemingly against his will, his arms rose and allowed his shirt to be
pulled up and over his head.  What was it these two had in mind to do to
him?

- - -

	Tyler was suddenly jolted awake as he landed on the ground.  As he
scanned his surroundings, he saw the rocking horse he had been sitting on
swaying back and forth above him.  His jacket was yanked up over his head,
so the world suddenly plunged into darkness.  Then he felt a hard kick in
his side.  The string of the thong underwear was now visible where it rode
up above the low cut jeans in the back.  "Little faggot!" he heard from
somewhere above him.  "Look, he's even wearing girl's panties!"  Then he
felt a hand pulling at the strings that were the back and crotch of the
underwear he was wearing, lifting them to pull them into view and put them
on display.

	Tyler had no idea at all what was going on.

	Then another kick landed on his leg.  Tyler winced and twisted,
turning over, trying to get away.  As he did, he briefly pulled his coat
down some and was able to see one of the two jock boys who had made
comments and cat calls after him earlier.  Another kick hit home on his
leg, and Tyler curled into a ball trying to keep as much harm as possible
from coming to him.  He pulled his head down as much as he could into the
coat, hoping the leather would help protect him.  He knew that he was
outmatched, and his only hope right now was to shield himself as much as he
could and hope that the attack would end quickly.

	Then he heard more voices - they were yelling from a short distance
away.  Another kick from one of the jocks had caught him in the side of the
head, causing Tyler's ears to ring, so he wasn't able to discern exactly
what was being said.  Whatever it was though, must have scared the two boys
who were attacking him as the assault stopped.

	A moment later, hands rolled him gently onto his back.  "Tyler, are
you okay?" he was just barely able to make out over the ringing in his
ears.  The voice was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it due to his
partial loss of hearing at the moment.  Tyler opened his eyes, and even
though his vision was blurred, he was able to see two faces, each framed by
blonde hair above him.  Tyler tried to speak, but all he could manage right
then was a groan.

	It took about ten minutes for Tyler's head to clear.  Now he was
able to tell that it was Trevor and Jesse who had come to his rescue.  Once
he was able to sit up, he looked at them.  "What happened?" he asked.
"Weren't we just smoking together in the drain pipe?  How did I get here?"

	Trevor and Jesse exchanged glances.  Neither had any idea what
Tyler was talking about - but they did know exactly what pipe he was
talking about.  It was a place they used fairly often to get high, and
wasn't very far away.  Tyler had never been there with them before, so they
couldn't understand how he would know about it.  "Dude," Trevor spoke up,
"we weren't smoking together.  We just saw you getting kicked by those two
assholes and came to help out."

	"But, I followed you into the pipe.  You were smoking a joint and
started sharing it with me when I got there, and then you both started..."
Tyler wasn't making any sense to them, and he did still seem dazed from the
beating he'd been taking from the two other boys a few minutes before.

	"Dude, none of that happened, you must have been dreaming," Jesse
told him.  "Are you sure you're okay?  Should we get you to a doctor or
something?"  There was concern evident in his voice.

	"No, just take me, um, can you take me home?" Tyler asked.

	Neither Trevor nor Jesse knew where Tyler lived, so that wasn't
going to happen.  But they did share a small apartment not far away, so
they took him there.  Tyler was still in a bit of a daze when they arrived
and deposited their guest on the small, tattered sofa that was the main
piece of furniture in the living room.  Across from it was a small
television that sat atop a couple empty fruit crates.

	Tyler lay down along the length of the sofa.  He was slowly coming
to grips with what had happened to him earlier, but he still didn't
understand why he thought he had been in the culvert with Jesse and Trevor
while they were so insistent that he hadn't.  'Had that part of the day
been only a dream, or some bizarre hallucination?' he wondered silently.

	Jesse and Trevor were just as confused.  Tyler had never been to
their private little smoking spot in the park before, so how did he know
about it?  They had taken Oliver there once, maybe he had told Tyler about
it.  That had to be the explanation.  There wasn't anything else they could
think of.

	Jesse and Trevor pulled Tyler's coat and shirt off him once they
had gotten him back to their apartment.  Jesse went to get a blanket from
the bedroom to cover Tyler while Trevor untied and removed Tyler's shoes.
Tyler was soon snoring lightly on the sofa.  The bruises on his abdomen
from the kicks he had taken in the park were already dark black and blue.
Tyler looked very peaceful, sleeping there, even though bruises were
beginning to appear around his stomach and back.  Had they pulled his pants
off, they would have seen bruises forming on his legs where he had been
kicked as well.

	Tyler slept for three hours on the sofa at Jesse and Trevor's
apartment.  When he finally woke, all he saw of them was the backs of their
heads as they sat on the floor and leaned back against the couch watching
TV.  Tyler struggled to sit up, attracting their attention.  "What time is
it?" he asked.

	Trevor had to get up to his knees and turn to face the kitchen to
see a clock.  "It's coming up on five," he answered.

	"Shit. I have to get out of here and get to The Cavern!"  Tyler was
panicked.  Too much had happened to him over the last few days and he was
having a difficult time dealing with it.  Jesse put a hand on his chest and
pressed him back down onto the sofa.  Tyler knew Drake was going to be
looking for him there, and he was terribly frightened about losing his
place to live.

	"You aren't going anywhere," Jesse told Tyler.  "After those two
guys were waling on you like that you ought to be resting, and you
definitely aren't in any shape to be going dancing tonight."  They both
knew the only reason Tyler went there.

	"Dude, you don't understand!" Tyler pleaded.  "If I'm not there I
might get kicked out.  I have to be there, I can't lose my place to live!"

	Trevor and Jesse had no idea that Tyler felt he was in so
precarious a situation when it came to his place to live.  It was a genuine
concern to him, but he simply didn't realize that Drake really wanted to
keep him there.  He was very manipulative and controlling in the way he did
it, and it did keep Tyler on edge.  Drake had never actually threatened to
kick him out, but Tyler was still afraid to piss him off, since that
happening was a real possibility in his mind.

	Jesse and Trevor finally convinced Tyler that he should go home and
rest instead of trying to dance that night if he wasn't going to stay at
their place.  There was another disagreement when Tyler told them he would
go home by himself.

	"No, we're gonna go with you to make sure you get there alright,"
Jesse replied.  He glanced over at Trevor, who nodded his support.  They
were not going to take no for an answer, and Tyler could tell.

	It wasn't actually a very long walk from where Jesse and Trevor
lived to Drake's apartment.  The walk was uncomfortable for Tyler, not only
because of last night's injuries which had been inflicted by Drake, but
even more so because of the attack by the two jocks in the park that
afternoon.  When they got to the apartment, Tyler apologized, but told
Jesse and Trevor that he would like to, but couldn't really ask them in.
"It's the guy I'm staying with," he explained.  "He really has this thing
about me bringing people over that he doesn't know."

	"That's okay dude," Trevor told him.

	"Yeah, we're cool with it," Jesse affirmed.  "Maybe if you're
feeling better we'll see you up at The Cavern tomorrow."

	"Yeah, I hope so," Tyler said, giving the boys who had saved him
from a beating that afternoon and seen him home a lopsided grin.

	Trevor and Jesse left Tyler there, and he let himself into the
apartment.  He rolled a joint and returned the rest of Drake's pot to the
stash box.  He popped another of the Percoset capsules and dropped the one
remaining into the box before closing it back up and returning the box to
where he had found it.  Tyler figured Drake wouldn't notice the little bit
of marijuana missing from his stash, but there was no way he wasn't going
to notice the two missing pills.

	Knowing that Drake would be going to The Cavern and expecting to
see him there, Tyler called Drake's cell to let him know that he wasn't
going to be there.  The phone went straight to voice mail, so Drake was
probably out in the store and unable to answer it.  Tyler left him a
message to let him know that he wasn't going to be dancing tonight, but
didn't explain why.  He ended the message with "See you when you get home."

	Tyler thought that it might help him to feel better if he got into
the hot tub to soak for a while, so he went out to the patio to turn up the
heating element to a proper temperature and start the jets.  He placed the
joint he had rolled into an ashtray beside the Jacuzzi.  He would smoke it
while he relaxed in the water.  While the water was warming up, Tyler went
upstairs and undressed.  He looked at himself in the mirror, observing the
bruises on his abdomen and legs.  It wasn't very likely that they would
fade by tomorrow, and they definitely wouldn't make a great impression for
the guys he would be hoping to get tips from.  'Maybe I'll get some
sympathy tips anyway,' he thought.

	Tyler grabbed a towel from the bathroom, wrapped it around his
waist and went back to the patio.  The water in the hot tub wasn't quite
ready, so Tyler went back inside for a few minutes.  He shivered from being
out in the cold, winter air wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.
Tyler looked down at his chest and saw that his nipples had become quite
erect from the cold air.  He ran his fingers over them, and they were very
sensitive to his touch.  He was sure that his genitals were shrunken and
drawn up from the cold, so he rubbed his crotch through the towel with his
other hand in an attempt to warm them back up.

	Tyler sank back into Drake's easy chair once again.  'A few more
minutes and the water should be warm enough to get into the tub,' he
thought.  He drifted off into a light nap, but jerked suddenly awake when
his dream took him back to the same drain pipe with Jesse and Trevor he had
dreamt of earlier in the day.  Something is his subconscious didn't want
the dream to go on.  At least that was the feeling Tyler had when he
snapped up in the chair, fully awake after the dream.

	Tyler's heart was racing now.  The dream had somehow released a lot
of adrenaline into his system, and he knew he needed to relax.  He looked
over at the grandfather clock Drake had in the living room.  He was sure
that the water in to hit tub would be perfect by now.

	He went back out to the patio, dropped the towel on the chair
adjacent to the tub and stepped quickly into the hot water.  It was a bit
of a shock getting into the hot, bubbling water, but it was also a relief.
The jets of water buffeting him were soothing and actually felt quite nice.

	Tyler reached over to the towel and dried his hands, then he picked
up the joint he had rolled earlier and left in the ashtray.  He lit it and
toked at it slowly, savoring the flavor of the sensamilla.  The pungent
aroma seemed to surround him as the fog it induced in his mind increased -
strengthened by, or perhaps strengthening the effects of the pill he had
taken earlier.

	Drake would be home soon; at least he would if he had checked his
voice mail.  So Tyler snuffed the joint out when he was about halfway done
with it.  He would save the rest for later.  Tyler was lying back in the
hot, bubbly water when Drake pushed the patio gate open.  Tyler glanced up
when he heard the gate's hinges squeal.

	Drake surveyed the scene before him.  "I got your message.  Why is
it that you aren't going up to The Cavern to dance tonight?  I thought you
said you needed the money, and Saturdays are normally the best night for
you there."

	Tyler stood up in the tub and then stepped up onto the seat so all
the bruises were visible to Drake.

	Drake let out a soft whistle, then asked, "Whoa, what happened to
you?"

	Tyler stepped back down into the tub and gently sat back down.  "I
got jumped by a couple assholes in the park today.  Apparently they thought
I was gay and didn't approve."

	"Why would they..." Drake started to ask, but Tyler cut him off.

	"Look, I didn't DO anything.  I just walked by and they started
saying shit to me.  I even ignored them.  Then a few minutes later they
surprised me, knocked me down and started kicking me!"  Tyler shot out
defensively.  He was sort of pissed that Drake had thought that he had done
something - either come on to them or to otherwise provoke the attack.
There was also what Drake had done to him last night, and was still acting
as if nothing had happened.  That probably had Tyler more upset than
anything else.  That and the fact that he was afraid to say anything to
Drake about it - afraid that Drake might put him out on the street into the
Canadian winter if he brought it up, and equally afraid that the same thing
could happen again if he didn't.

	Drake raised his hands, palms up in an apologetic manner.  "Hey,
sorry," he said.  "I didn't mean that I thought you did anything to provoke
them."

	Tyler shrugged.  "So you see why I didn't feel like it then I
guess," he stated coolly.  He really wanted to go on about what had
happened between them last night, but managed to stop.

	"I'll go in and fix something for dinner," Drake told him.  "Then
I'll give you a rub down with some liniment I have later.  That might make
you feel better."

	Tyler managed a slight smile.  "Thanks," he said quietly.  He
wondered what would happen when Drake discovered the missing pills.

* * *

	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
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