Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 13:07:47 -0500
From: Stori Writer <storiwriter@hotmail.com>
Subject: Justin & TJ Chapter:3 TJ Tells All

Chapter 3: TJ Tells All

...I grabbed some leftover pizza and a can of Coke from the fridge and sat
down in front of the television. I watched a movie on HBO but must have
fallen asleep because I awoke to the sound of the doorbell. It was TJ...

I adjusted myself from my afternoon case of "morning wood" and answered the
door. TJ was wearing a bright yellow mesh shirt and a black pair of tight
shorts. I told him to come on in and stepped to the side as he entered.

"So you still want to go to the mall with me today?" TJ asked. I loved the
sound of his voice. It was not to deep and oh so soft. I told him yes but I
needed to use the bathroom first. "Well that is kind of obvious." He said
with a smirk on his face. What was he talking about? How could it be
obvious? That is when I realized that I did not do to good of a job
adjusting. I turned red and started towards the bathroom. "Don't take to
long in there and don't do anything I wouldn't do." I raised my good arm in
the air and flipped him off without ever turning around to see his reaction.
I did not need to turn around because I heard him bust out laughing while he
took a seat on the couch. A few minutes later I came out of the bathroom and
TJ was nowhere to be found. I hollered for him. "I'm in the Kitchen." He
shouted. I went in there and he was making a pitcher of fresh squeeze
lemonade. "I hope you don't mind but I went to get some ice water and saw
the lemons in the fridge and could not help myself."

"I don't mind. Lemonade sounds great." I got each of us a glass and filled
it with ice. He poured the lemonade in each glass and we went onto the back
patio and sat down. I asked him how school had been that day and he told me
about all the teachers that I should look out for next year. We each had a
total of three glasses. It tasted great. "Well are you ready to go to the
mall?" I asked him and he said he was. We put what little bit of lemonade
that was left into the fridge and left. As soon as I sat down in his jeep he
told me to put my seatbelt on. Once we got onto the main road he turned on
the radio. I had never heard the song we were listening to but he was
singing right along with it. He had a great voice. It felt nice to be going
down the road with the wind in my hair, listening to music, and being with
my new friend. We passed by the mall and I just looked at him. "I thought we
were going there." I said. He explained that there was a better mall down
the road. Twenty minutes later we pulled into this huge parking lot. I had
never seen so many cars in my life. This mall was huge.

"This is where everybody hangs out. The other mall is somewhat trashy and is
really run down. Someone needs to demolish it. All it is good for is gangs
and drugs." We walked into the mall and it looked even bigger on the inside
than it did from the parking lot. There were people and stores as far as the
eyes could see.

"Well, well, well if it's not the fairy princess and his new little bitch."
I heard this and turned around to see two guys around the same age as TJ. TJ
looked angry and hurt at the same time. The bigger one of the two was the
one causing all the trouble and the other one tried to shut the big one up.

"Hey whatever beef you have with me is fine but DON'T go bringing Justin
into this. He's a good kid." Kid?!? He just called me a kid. I HATED being
called a kid.

"Ignore what he just said you bastard. If you have a problem with TJ you
have a problem with me." I went off on him. I did not know this guy and
already I didn't like him. Why would anyone treat such a nice guy as TJ this
badly. Surely he could not have done anything that would deserve this. After
saying that, the guy grabbed my hurt arm.

"Listen here you little shit. I don't know who you think you are or how bad
you THINK you are. I will snap you in half. As for your `friend' here, there
are a few things you should know."

"ENOUGH!" I heard a female shout. "I have told you boys to quit harassing
people in this mall. Well I am tired of warnings, lets go." It was a mall
security guard and she was not going to take any shit from the likes of
these two. "Are you okay?" she asked me. I told her I was and she told us to
have a nice day. As she was taking the other two away the one causing the
trouble turned around.

"You better watch who you make friends with around here. If you are not
careful you may just get your tight little ass invaded." The other guy
turned around but said nothing. He just looked at TJ with a distressing look
on his face. When I looked at TJ I could see he was upset. It was a sad look
though, not a mad one. We continued to walk through the mall but TJ said
nothing.

"Who were those idiots and why are they so mad at you?" TJ lowered his head
as he walked but said nothing. I could tell he was truly troubled by the
events that had just taken place. "I know something is bothering you but I
have a feeling it goes much deeper than what just happened. I want you to
know that talk to me and tell me anything. I would never think badly of you
no matter what you have done or what anyone has said you done." He stopped
in his tracks and looked at me, his eyes now red and filling with tears. He
gently grabbed my arm and told me to come with him. We exited the mall and
got in his jeep. We had driven for a few miles and no one had said as much
as a syllable. It was to quiet. Not even the radio was playing. The only
noise you could hear was that of the wind in our hair and the roar of the
engine.

"We need to go talk but you have to promise me one thing. If you don't like
what I have to tell you that you won't leave immediately and that you will
let me take you home. This place can get rough at times, especially if you
are new and you don't know the places to avoid." I agreed to it and we
pulled down a long narrow paved road. He pulled into a parking spot and got
out of the truck. I followed. We wound up, each of us, sitting on top of a
tree that had fallen. It was one of the few wooded spots in the area. The
view was extraordinary. I had not realized we had gone up so high. This was
by far the most beautiful spot my eyes had ever witnessed. We found
ourselves both staring over the cliff at the beach below us. It was several
minutes before either one of us said a word. I finally had to break the
silence.

"Whatever it is that you need to tell me I want you to know that it will not
affect how I feel about you. Like I said before, I don't care what you have
done or what someone may have said you done. I do, however, care about you.
You seem like a really nice guy and someone who I would like to remain being
friends with." TJ paused for a second and then took a deep breath and
started talking but would not look at me.

"I am going to tell you something that may very well end our short lived
friendship but I guess it would only be fair to you to be honest with you up
front. Those two guys and I used to be best friends. We hung out all the
time. They are cousins. Keith is the one who was acting like an ass. He is
the captain of the football team and he thinks he's hot stuff. Caleb is the
other guy. We used to be close, real close. We are not enemies but we don't
talk a lot any more."

"Friends sometimes drift apart. That is part of life. That is no reason why
Keith should treat you bad." I said

"It's not quite that simple Justin. You see when Caleb and I were your age,
just two years ago, we shared everything with one another. We were closer
than any real brothers ever thought about being. Well that was the same time
we started developing rather quickly. Our bodies were growing and our
hormones were going wild. We spent the night with each other one night and
we slept in the same bed like we had done since we were little. We got on
the subject of sex and that is when everything started happening." There was
a long pause between TJ's last statement and the one that followed. "Neither
one of us had ever been able to lie to the other so we never attempted to.
He asked if I jacked off and I admitted to him that I did. He said he did
too. We had seen each other naked many times over the years growing up
together so it never was not a big deal but he done something that shocked
me and felt great at the same time. He grabbed a hold of my dick and started
stroking it through my underwear. He then reached under them and done the
same. I could not believe someone else was doing that for me." His voice
started to get shaky. "It felt so great. Then he took my hand and placed it
on his. He must have removed his underwear when I was in the bathroom. I
then started rubbing his "tall friend". We looked at each other and started
laughing but continued doing what we were doing. It was not long until we
both were finished. It felt so great. We cleaned up and then fell asleep
with our bodies up against one another. That was the first of many nights
like that to come. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and we
continued to explore each others bodies more and more. We finally came to
the realization that we were falling in love with each other. We had been
such good friends and loved each other a long time before we loved each
other physically on the other hand we knew that although what we felt for
each other was true and there was nothing wrong with it others may not see
it that way. This included our parents. We decided to keep our relationship
a secret and we succeeded for quite some time. Then last summer came. I went
on a camping trip with Keith and Caleb's families. Their fathers are
brothers. Caleb and I shared a tent and thought we were alone. It was late
one night and we were in our tent. We knew we couldn't make love to each
other because that usually got loud but we did kiss and we kissed a lot.
What we didn't realize is that with our small lantern being lit you could
see our silhouettes from outside the tent. Keith went out to take a piss and
must have seen us. I don't think he meant to shout it out, I really don't,
but he yelled, "Hey you two fags quit kissing in there!" Well seeing as
their four parents heard this and came out side asking what was going on we
quit kissing and stayed in the tent. We heard Keith and his parents talking
and then our tent came unzipped. We were both laying there in our
"tighty-whities" with raging boners. They asked us nothing. They didn't have
to. Guilt was written on our faces. I was told to get some clothes on and to
be at the pickup truck in two minutes. He also told me to be sure that I had
all my stuff packed up. I done as I was told and gathered all my things.
Keith's dad drove me home. He told me not to say a word for the entire trip.
He said he would be sick at the very sound of my voice. He told me that
while I was being driven home that Caleb was getting `his ass beat' because
of me. It was almost like a dream. No, actually, it was more like a
nightmare. One that I very much wanted to wake up from. When we pulled up to
my house I expected to walk up to it alone. I had no clue how or if I was
going to tell my parents what had happened. Keith's dad made that easy for
me I guess you could say. He also got out of the truck. Before I could
unlock the front door with my key he had managed to ring the doorbell at
least ten times. My father answered. He thought someone had been hurt. I
said `not yet'. My father was the biggest homophobe I knew. I was sure when
Caleb's Uncle told him that I was caught kissing another boy that I would
never see the light of day again. I totally underestimated my father. He
read the right act to Keith's father and told him that if he ever talked to
me that way again he would have him to deal with. When he was walking back
to his truck madder now than he was before he said he had a message from his
brother. He said that Caleb and I were no longer aloud to be friends or even
see each other. He said it was `all my fault'. This really hurt me. My
father was not thrilled with the idea of having a son who was gay but he
said he still loved me and that we would talk the next morning. When morning
came and I went down to breakfast it was awkward to say the least. We did
finally manage to talk and once we started I did not think we ever were
going to quit. To make a long story short it took them some time but now it
is just a part of our lives. I sometimes think my dad thinks its just a
phase or something that I am going through but my mom has come to fully
accept it. I am out to all of my family now. It is really fun going out with
my cousin Becky. We look for cute guys together." This made him smile for a
second but it soon faded and he continued his story. "As for Caleb, we tried
sneaking and seeing each other from time to time but we got busted and his
dad beat him pretty bad the last time. We had not seen each other for
several months until today. Caleb's dad sent him to a military school up
state." I had no clue what to say to TJ. He had just come out of the closet
to me and I did not know how to react especially with the realization that I
was coming to in my mind that I too may be gay. I knew that I was at least
curious about it. He finally looked up with his face blank from any emotion.
I put my arms around him and gave him a hug. He returned the hug and then
started crying. I held him like that for another fifteen minutes. When he
finally let go of me he said thanks and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. I
gave him one back which not only surprised him but me as well. We hugged
once more and then went back to his jeep.

We both knew that our friendship had only just begun. We had only known each
other a short time but it was like we had always been connected by
something. I think it is the heart.

"So I take it you are not mad at me?" TJ asked with the first grin I had
seen on his face in over an hour. I told him I would never be mad at him. We
sat on the tree for a while longer until his pager went off. "We need to go
find a phone." We went back to the jeep and drove down the road for a while
until we found a pay phone. "How would you like to run to the beach with me?
I have to go pick up my new uniform." I told him I would love to go with him
so off we went. He let me go into the headquarters with him. It was a
fascinating place. While we were there a call came in of an over turned boat
two miles out. The US Coast Guard was on its way but requested assistance
from the local station. Alarms started going off which I later learned was
called a tone drop and the guy sitting at the dispatch was telling the units
where to go.

"If you want to stick around for a few minutes and help with dispatch it
would be appreciated. We are one man short tonight" One of the officers told
TJ.

"Yeah sure no problem." He told them and he then took a headset off the desk
and plugged it into the radio. He told me I could grab a chair and sit next
to him. I thought it would be easy sitting there talking to people on a
radio but I learned how hard it really was. He had to relay some things to
the on duty lifeguards that he was being told on another radio by the Coast
Guard. Although everything turned out to be okay and no one was hurt I
thought he done a great job. Hell he is only sixteen.

"Thanks for staying and helping with dispatch. I asked you to come and pick
up your new uniform tonight but what I didn't tell you is that your review
came in. You are now the lead junior life guard." He was thrilled. This was
a promotion for him and it also meant he got to do more stuff. He was on the
fast track to becoming a full fledged lifeguard the day he turns eighteen.
"You outdone thirty four other cadets in all categories. You should be proud
of yourself. You will also be getting a one dollar an hour raise for the
time you put in as a first responder." This really put a smile on his face.

"Glad to do it sir." He told the officer. He then was told to go and request
his new uniform from wardrobe. He told me I could go with him which I did.

"Hello there Thomas. How are you doing today?" a nice older lady said from
behind the counter. I looked at him and mouthed the word "Thomas". He looked
at me and shrugged his shoulders and made chit chat with the lady behind the
counter. He introduced me and I learned the lady had been a life guard many
years ago but had since retired. She had got bored staying home and said she
was not yet old enough to move to Florida to die so she decided to come back
to work. She was very spunky. She handed him his uniform which was in a bag
and told him that she put a new whistle in there too. He told me to have a
seat and he would be right back unless I cared to join him. If we had been
alone I would have gone with him but I felt it was better that I stay in the
area just outside the locker room. A few minutes later he appeared in the
doorway wearing nothing but a red Speedo. I thought I was going to loose my
load right then and there. He gave me a little grin and walked back into the
locker room and then came back out a few minutes later back in his shorts
and shirt.

"It fits perfect Margaret. Thanks." TJ told the lady who was behind the
counter. We then left and started walking towards his jeep. "I found a way
to make some extra cash this summer. It is teaching kids how to swim. The
`uniform' is what I have to wear. Did you like it?" It was obvious that I
had by the tent in my pants. It just would not go away. We got into the jeep
and started down the road.

"So what would you like to do now?" I asked him. We decided to go back to my
house and see if my parents had returned yet. On our way we saw thick black
smoke filling the sky in the area of my new house.