Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 17:28:02 -0500
From: Bill Porter <wep363@netzero.net>
Subject: RE: My Bodyguard Chapter 14

My Bodyguard Chapter 14

A very special thanks to Ed for editing this chapter.

This story is not true.

This is a story of love, trust, hope, and commitment. It is not a sex
story.  However, this story deals with love between two teenagers. If you
are offended by stories involving love between two teenage boys, please do
not read this story. There will be some sex scenes in this story; however,
sex is not the main theme. If you are under age 18 or 21 or it is illegal
to read this story where you live, don't read it.

New Web Page:
http://wpstories.tripod.com/

Thank you for all your e-mails. If I have missed answering you, I am truly
sorry. I have tried to answer all of them. Please continue to send me your
comments.

*************

I woke up the next morning in the arms of my love, Mark.  I remembered our
lovemaking from last night.  I felt my life was perfect.

Today is Thanksgiving.  Holidays are always special in our house.  I lay in
the bed, considering my life.  My parents have always taught me the things
that are most really important in life.  Things like family, love, and
friends are far more important than material things. Thanksgiving to me is
the celebration of family, love, and friends.  Dad always said there are
two things you cannot buy. The first thing is happiness and the second
thing is health.

I sure had happiness as Mark gently breathed with his strong arms around
me.  I also had health with Mark protecting me.  I have a mother and father
who love me dearly.  And my sister seems to be coming around too.  A little
more than a month ago I thought my life was over.  Now I am happier than I
have ever been.  I wished everyone in the world could feel the same way I
feel now.  I lay there, thinking about how wonderful my life is now, when
Mark stirred.  He opened his eyes and smiled at me.  I gently kissed him on
the lips.  It was a soft and tender kiss, not one of passion.

"Good morning, Mark, Happy Thanksgiving."

"Good morning, Happy Thanksgiving, Mike."

"How you feel this morning?"

"Like I'm going to piss myself any minute."

"I suppose you better go then."

"I'll be back in a minute."

Mark slipped out of bed, put on his shorts, and out the door he went.
About two minutes later I heard the toilet flush.  And Mark came back in
the room and jumped back into bed.  He had a big silly grin on his face.

"You are sure smiling this morning."

"I can't help it, you have this silly grin on your face too, and it just
makes me want to grin."

"Well, I can't help it.  I was just lying here thinking about all the
things I am thankful for.  I have parents who love me.  I have friends that
love me.  I have a sister who I think loves me.  I have the greatest
boyfriend in the wholee world that loves me dearly.  Your mother loves me.
I just feel very loved right now.  And I think love is the thing I am most
thankful for."

"Mike, in order to be loved, you have to love.  It is your love that has
brought you this happiness.  I never thought I would have a friend like
you, let alone be loved by somebody like you."

Mark pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly and tenderly.

"Mike, I love you so much.  I now know what you meant when you said love
means being able to feel how someone else feels. Because I can feel your
love for me, which only makes me love you more.  And you can feel my love
for you which makes you love me even more.  And our love for each other
keeps growing and growing.  I hope it never ends."

"I can feel the same thing happening, Mark.  The only regret I have is that
we will have no children to share our love with."

"Perhaps we will, Mike, someday.  There are many kids out there who need a
loving family.  We can always adopt someone.  It would not matter to me if
it was a boy or a girl as long as we can share our love."

"That's funny, Mark.  Before you woke up I was thinking about our future
together.  Although I have only known you six weeks I can't imagine my life
without you.  And now here we are talking about having kids."

"Your sister and Paul were only together four weeks before they got
engaged.  Granted, they are little older than we are.  It is something I
just feel, Mike.  Like we are destined to be together.  Never in my life
have I felt so close to anyone."

"When I first found out that I was gay, I felt I was destined to be alone.
Then I started reading on the Internet some real-life love stories between
guys.  I desperately wanted that but was not willing to risk my reputation
in order to get it.  And then when I was outted at school, I thought my
life was over.  Then I met you and I don't know, it was like love at first
sight.  I thank God every day for letting me find you, Mark.  And I thank
God every day for having parents who accept me."

"I don't know about you, Mike, but I'm getting hungry.  I can smell bacon
cooking downstairs.  I'm going to go jump in a shower and get cleaned up.
Want to join me?"

"You know you don't even need to ask.  Let's go."

Mark and I went to the bathroom, jumped in the shower, and helped wash each
other.  It was a lot of fun but not too much fun. We got out of the shower,
brushed our teeth, and opened the door to leave.  Paul was just coming in
the bathroom as we were leaving.  He smiled and said good morning to us and
we giggled and said good morning back.

We got dressed quickly and went down for breakfast.

"Good morning, Mom, how are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm doing great.  I've got the turkey in the oven.  I am cooking enough
breakfast for everybody.  And I'm going to have some fine ladies to chat
with today.  Grace Adams is bringing pumpkin pie, and Norma Brown is
bringing salad and cranberry sauce.  I should have an easy time of it
today.  Now sit down and eat, boys, so I can get you out of my kitchen.
Are your sister and Paul up yet?"

"I saw Paul this morning but I haven't seen my sister yet.  Where's Dad?"

"I decided I needed some fresh sage for my dressing.  The sage I have is
probably about a year old.  So he went to the grocery store to get me some.
That's one good thing about owning a grocery store."

We sat down and ate.  About five minutes later Dad came in.

"Good morning, boys, how are you doing?"

"We're doing fine, Dad, how about you?"

"I'm great now that I have the sage for your mother.  Now I can have
breakfast too.  It's a good thing I had some sage.  I would probably have
to drive 40 miles one-way to find the open grocery store with decent sage,"
my dad said with a big grin on his face.

"Boys, I have something to talk to you about while you are here."

"Okay, Dad, what you want to talk about?"

"Sam and his family will be here in about an hour.  Sam says the twins are
asking all kinds of questions about you two.  Be careful you don't give
them very much information.  They are quite smart for their age.  They have
a natural curiosity to find out everything they can.  They are a lot like
Sam and his sister Grace except they have a very short attention span.  If
they ask you something you don't want to answer, ask them a question back.
If that doesn't work, try to change the subject.  If that fails too,
suggest you go do something you think they might enjoy.  Don't let them get
you going.  If they volunteer information about themselves or ask
questions, just tell them they need to talk to their father about that.
That should shut them up.  Remember they have big mouths.  You can expect
anything you say to them to be spread all over town.  Do you understand?"

"Yes, I think so, Dad.  We will handle them about the same way that we
handled Doug.  Mark and I discussed our strategy with him and it seemed to
work.  I can't imagine Mark not in my life and I am concerned if he is
outted that we won't be able to be together.  We will do our best to keep
the twins occupied and out of everybody's hair."

"That sounds like a good challenge to me, Mike.  Good luck."

I went upstairs and worked on my computer.  I checked my e-mails and surfed
a couple of sites.  I heard the door open downstairs and some voices.  I
went downstairs and I saw the twins.  They had really grown since the last
time I'd seen them. They were about as tall as me.  One had Mark by one
hand, pulling him, and the other had Mark's other hand, pulling.

"Come with me, Mark, come with me, Mark, I want you to arm wrestle me.  I
want to show you how strong I am."

"No, Mark, no, Mark don't go with him, come with me.  I want to show you
how fast I can run to the end of the driveway and back."

"Don't listen to him, Mark, I want show you how strong I am.  I know I can
beat you."

I walked into the living room and Mark looked at me.  He gave me a look
like 'help me'.  The twins had really grown.  They both have black hair and
blue eyes.  They are also both wearing the same clothes, as if it is not
already hard enough to tell them apart.  They were both also very cute.
When they saw me, they both let go of Mark's hands and came running over to
me.

"Hi, Mike."

"Hi, Mike."

"Now, who are you, John or James?"

"I am James, silly, he's John."

It is amazing to me that they expect us to tell them apart.  I have not
even seen them in a year.

"Okay, then, hi, James, hi John, how are you doing?"

"I was just trying to get Mark to arm wrestle me."

"No, I was getting Mark to see how fast I can run."

"Well, how about you arm wrestle Mark and I will see how fast you can run."

"No, now I want to arm wrestle you.  I think I can beat you."

"No, I want Mark to see me run.  I want him to see how fast I am."

I was getting to feeling it was going to be a long day.  Luckily, Mark came
to my rescue.

"Okay, guys, how about we go in the basement and you can both show me how
strong you are and beat up my punching bag."

"Hooray, yippee."

They both started jumping up and down and Sam and Norma just smiled.  We
led them down in the basement and they were punching and karate kicking
Mark's bag for about a half-hour.  Then they wanted to watch the
Thanksgiving Day's parade on TV for a while so we did that.  About 20
minutes later they were tired of that.  So we have a table tennis table in
our basement.  We played doubles and singles for about a half-hour.  Then
they started whining that they were hungry and 'when is the turkey going to
be ready?'  I told them to stay downstairs with Mark while I went upstairs
and talked to my mom.  I warned them to stay out of Mom's kitchen when she
was cooking.

I went upstairs and Mrs. Adams had arrived.

"Hi, Mrs. Adams.  Happy Thanksgiving," I said while giving her a big hug.

"Hi, Mike, and Happy Thanksgiving to you.  Are you taking the care of my
son?"

"You bet, he is down in the basement with the twins.  Do you want to come
say hi?"

"Sure, I will be right down."

"Mom, the twins say they are hungry.  When will dinner be ready?"

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of hours, honey.  I have some cookies
here.  Why don't you get them some milk.  That should hold them off for a
while."

I poured some milk and took the milk and cookies downstairs.  The twins
made quick work of the milk and cookies.  After a few minutes, Mrs. Adams
came downstairs.

"Hi, Aunt Grace."

"Hi, Aunt Grace."

"Hi, John, hi, James.  Which are you?"

"I am John, he is James."

You would think these boys would wear nametags.  They must really enjoy no
one knowing who they are.

"I just came down to say hi, boys.  I need to help in the kitchen.  Don't
you boys be driving Mike and Mark crazy now.  Come say hello to your
mother, Mark."

Mark went over and hugged and kissed his mom.

"I miss you, Mom."

"I missed you too.  I won't be going home until Friday morning, so we can
spend some time together."

"I would like that very much. I have missed you."

Mrs. Adams went upstairs and the twins started asking questions.

"Mark, why aren't you staying at our house like last summer?  And staying
here with Mike?  And not staying at home with your mother?"

"Mike needed some help, so I am staying here, helping him."

"We need help too.  What does Mike need help with?"

"Mike?"

"I had some problems at school with bullies.  Mark came to help me with
them."

"We heard at school that Mike got beat up because he likes other boys."
They both started giggling.

"Do you boys like girls?"

"God no, we hate girls."

"Are you saying you only like boys?"

"Only each other," one of them said, giggling.

"Do you guys want to play some computer games?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes," they said, jumping up and down.

We went upstairs and said hi to everyone on our way to my room.  The twins
once again had to tell everybody who is who.  I could have sworn that they
introduced themselves backwards but who knows.  We went to my room and
showed them how to play Doom.  Once they got into it, we knew they would be
occupied for hours.  We went back downstairs and watched football with the
guys. All the girls were in the kitchen, fixing dinner.  Dad asked how it
was going and we told them about our day so far.

Soon dinner was ready.  Mom asked us to go get the twins.  We went upstairs
and they were deep into a game.

"Dinner's ready, guys.  Let's go eat."

"Do we have to?  Just a few more minutes."

I pushed pause button on the computer and told them they could finish after
dinner.  At least we found a way to keep them busy.

Dinner was delightful.  We started with salad and then we had turkey,
dressing, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans with bacon,
candied yams, and fresh cooked cranberry sauce.  For dessert we had
homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  It took about an hour to eat.  As
soon as we finished, the twins went back upstairs to play Doom.  Dad asked
Mark and me, along with mom, Sam and Norma Brown, and Grace Adams to step
into his study.  "Mark, I have some news for you.  It also concerns your
mother.  And somewhat concerns Sam and Norma.  I told you several weeks ago
that I was going to try to contact your father.  Grace, Mark is scheduled
to get braces in about a week.  If he didn't tell you, we had a little
conversation when I made his first appointment.  I had a private
investigator locate Mark's father.  I sent him a letter.  I did not want
him to know where Mark was without Mark's permission so I gave him the
return address of my store.  Tuesday a letter came in addressed to Mark.  I
have no idea what is in this letter, Mark.  It is your own private
business.  We are here to support you, no matter what is in the letter.  If
you choose to share at with us, that is entirely up to you."

Mark looked at the letter for about two minutes before he opened it.  He
said that the return address was Chicago.  He read the letter slowly to
himself.  Soon a tear leaked from his eye, followed by several more tears.
In no time he was openly sobbing.  I pulled him into my arms and he cried
on my shoulder.  After he calmed down, he handed the letter back to my
father and asked him to read it.

Dear Son;

I was very surprised to receive a letter from Greg Stevens.  He told me
much about you.  I don't know what he went through find me but I'm sure it
was not easy.

I want you to know that you were in no way responsible for me leaving your
mother.  It was not your mother's fault either.  It was entirely my fault.
I think you are old enough now to understand.  When I left your mother I
had a girlfriend.  I had not fallen out of love with your mother but I had
also fallen in love with someone else.  I was trying to support both her
and you and your mother.  It was very difficult for me.  I decided to take
my girlfriend and move out-of-state.  I had a job offer in Chicago that
your mother did not know about.  I guess what comes around gets around,
because about a year later my girlfriend left me for someone else.

Although I love you very much and I still love your mother, I was too proud
to contact you.  It haunts me.  Every time I see a boy about your age, I
can't help but think about you.  I have not been there for you to talk to
when you have problems.  I have not seen you in the years.  That is half a
lifetime for you.  I feel sick every time I think of all the precious
memories I have lost because of my actions.

If you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my foolish pride and my
stubbornness, then you are a better man than me.  For I can't forgive
myself. Say hi to your mother for me and tell her I still love her.  I want
you to know, Son, I love you very much.  I never stopped loving you.  I
never will stop loving you.

I guess life is ironic.  I went after more love than I deserve and now I
only have loneliness.  If you decide to give me a second chance to show you
my love, I promise I will not let you down again.  You have my address and
you can call me anytime, collect - 123-456-7899.

With deep regret, and hope for tomorrow.

Your father,

Peter Adams


When Dad finished reading the letter, Mark was once again sobbing on my
shoulder.  There was not a dry eye in the room.

"I've got to call him.  I miss him.  I love him.  I've got to call him,"
Mark sobbed.

Mark took about 10 minutes to calm down while he cried on my shoulder.
Then he took my hand and went over to my father.

"I've got to call him.  I love him."

Dad reached down and picked up the phone and dialed the number.  He handed
the phone to Mark.

"Dad, this is Mark."

"I love you too, and I miss you."

"I want to see you too.  I can be there Saturday."

"I can't wait to see you too."

"I will call you when we get into town."

"I am going to bring Mike with me."  He looked at me and I nodded my head
yes.

"Yes, she is here."

"I love you too."

"He would like to talk to you," Mark said, looking at his mother.

"We will see."

"Yes, I am coming.  You don't think I would let him drive to Chicago all by
himself with only Mike with him."

"I will see you then."

"Goodbye."

Mark pulled me into his arms and started crying again.

"He loves me.  He loves me.  He loves me."

Everybody joined Mark and me in a group hug.  It took a few minutes for all
of us to calm down.

"It looks like we are going to Chicago, Mark," I said.

"And I'm going with you," Mrs. Adams said.

"What about work?" I asked.

"Thanksgiving weekend is always slow anyway.  Everybody is full after
Thanksgiving and has plenty of leftover turkey.  Also most of my regular
customers are up north, deer hunting.  We can leave for Chicago tomorrow
afternoon.  We will drop my car off at home and continue on to Chicago."

Dad got on the phone and called a hotel in downtown Chicago called the
Drake.  He said he stayed there once and it was very nice and he insisted
on picking up the bill.  He explained after he got off the phone he already
put it on his credit card.

Mark was on cloud 9.  Sam gathered up the twins and left a few minutes
later.  We sat down with Paul and told him all about the problems at
school.  He was real happy to hear about Mark finding his father.  He took
a lot of notes and asked a lot of questions.  My sister was still avoiding
me.

We were all rather exhausted from the long day.  We watched TV for a while
and then Mark and I headed up to bed.

"Mark, are you going to tell your dad you are gay?"

"Of course I am.  I need to know if he truly loves me or if he is just
using me to satisfy his own guilt and loneliness.  If he accepts me
unconditionally, then I know he truly loves me."

"Oh, Mark, I love you so much.  Not only are you big and strong and
handsome, a great cook, but you are also very smart."

"I don't know about smart but I learned about love from you."

I drew Mark into my arms and we kissed passionately.  We made out for about
20 minutes and then we went to bed.  I fell asleep quickly in Mark's strong
arms.