Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:19:18 -0500
From: nick a_writer <nicks_a_writer@hotmail.com>
Subject: Out There      Chapter Two: A Whole Bunch of Brady

There, I put it out there.  I had just invited him to hang out on a Friday
night with my friends and I.  Ok, so it wasn't much, just a trip to the
movies and then going to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Lil'
Mickey's.  I know it sounds sleazy and somewhat tacky, but our town really
isn't that big.  It also helps that it has the most killer cheeseburger I
have ever eaten.

That's not the focus right now anyway.  I had just asked some one that I
found extremely cute to hang out with my posse and I, on a FRIDAY.  Okay, so
it wasn't a big deal, but to a single, gay sixteen year old, it was.

"Uh... you're friends won't mind will they?"  He questioned as he turned his
gaze from his window to my eyes.  There they were those solid stone gray
eyes.  I liked it when he set those eyes upon me. I stopped at a stop sign
and locked the gaze between our eyes.

"I know they won't." I assured him, sounding as confident as I could,
although I was really weak in the knees at that particular moment. "They are
just as friendly as I am."  I broke the graze to start driving again. "But
if you really don't want to go, you don't have to." I offered him a way out,
because I wasn't too sure if he wanted to go.  He just continued to look at
me.

"Oh I want to go." He reassured me with his heart-melting smile.  "I just
need to make sure its okay with my dad first." He said as I turned down his
street.  "I just need to check and see if my curfew hasn't changed since we
moved.  Do you have any idea what time you guys are leaving?" He asked in
his smooth masculine voice.

"Not really sure." I replied while sneaking a peek at his groin.  He looked
amazing right at that moment.  The way he was positioned in the passengers
seat, his jeans were pulled to tight and they hugged him in all the right
places.  "But I know it will be some time around six, because we want to go
to the seven fifteen showing.  We are also going to go to Lil' Mickey's. We
are going to eat first, we will probably do something after the movie lets
out.  But everyone's curfew is at twelve any way." I said as I brought my
focus back to the road.

"That sounds good.  I'll give you a call after I talk to my dad about going
out with you and your friends tonight." He said as I turned onto Emerson
Boulevard. "It's that house right up there." I followed the direction of his
finger to the big brick house with my eyes.  This was one of the nicest
houses in on this street.  It looked as if it were designed for royalty.

I made a sharp right turn to go through the tall Iron Gate to pull in his
drive way.  I came to a stop right at the front of his door.  I noticed the
big black SUV from yesterday parked outside of the garage.  He turned back
to get his bag and I couldn't help but to notice the way his bicep flexed
underneath the long sleeved polo that he was wearing.  'God, he has nice
arms' I thought to my self as he turned to catch me looking at his muscled
arm.

"So, I'll call you then?" he asked as he lifted the door handle to get out.
He smiled at me and lifted his arm to look at it.  "Just making sure there
wasn't nothing on my sleeve." He said as he lowered his hand and began to
step out.

"Yeah call me, I'm sure that you'll have a good time if you come." I
reassured as I felt my cheeks burn from the blush that had just spread
across them. "I'll see you later." I said as he began to shut the door.

"Yeah, later." He smiled, shut the door, and turned.  He then proceeded to
walk to his large, white front door.  I watched his ass as he climbed the
front steps and began to drive after the show was over.

*****

When I got home I took my bag up stairs to my room to put away for the
weekend.  As I entered I looked around to take in the view of my tidy room,
every thing was where it should be and I liked it that way.  I dropped my
bag by my desk and went straight for the bathroom to get ready for our
Friday night on the town.  I made sure that I looked extra good, that way I
might have a chance of impressing Brady.

Wait, did I say impress Brady.  I could never do that, just because I was
gay didn't mean that everyone was gay.  I have a hard time grasping that
sometimes, especially when I see a cute guy, I can't help but to think that
I might possibly have a shot, until I see him with a girl.  I had a feeling
this was what was going to happed between Brady and I.  So I didn't put much
more thought into what I was going to wear.

As I buttoned the top button on my shirt I picked up the phone and dialed
the only girl's number I had ever asked for, Ally's.  As it began to ring I
started to slip on a fresh pair of jeans.

"Hello?" I heard the soft voice answer after the fifth ring.

"Shit." I cursed as I dropped the phone to my feet.  I had lost the grip
that my shoulder and ear had on it while I was trying to button those damn
button fly jeans.

"Sorry." I responded as I place the phone back to my ear.  "I dropped the
phone." I told her as I turned to put some cologne on.  "Is it cool if some
one else comes along with us?" I asked her as I placed the bottle back down
on my dresser.

"Yeah, did you meet a hot little chick in detention?" She teased as I heard
her slip a tee shirt on over her head.

"No." I said bluntly as I turned to set on my bed, and stared putting my
shoes on.  "My new friend, Brady Williams, didn't have nothing to do tonight
and so I invited him to come." I finished as I placed my right foot on the
floor.

"He's the hot new guy who came into our biology class late on Thursday,
wasn't he?" She questioned.

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes.  I didn't like that she was calling my future
husband hot.  Wait, did I just say my future husband.  God, I have to get a
grip on reality before I get too wrapped up in something that doesn't even
exist, and probably never will exist.

"I don't mind if he comes." She said I could hear her digging around in a
drawer for something. "Hey, I'm going to get off of here and fix my hair, so
I'll see you around six fifteen at Lil Mickey's.  Oh yeah I'm going to pick
up Brent.  So I'll see you later." She said.

"Okay, bye." I replied and turned the phone off.  I looked at the clock and
seen that it was five forty and decided to head down stair.  I went to the
kitchen to get a quick glass of water and found Tyler bent over in the
refrigerator trying to find something to eat.

"You know, there is not a damn thing in here that doesn't have to be
cooked." He stated as I looked over his shoulder to see what he found so
interesting.

"Here you go lazy ass, mom left this for you this morning and told me to
tell you to order a pizza tonight if you wanted to." I reached him a crisp
twenty from my wallet and proceeded to the sink for a quick drink.

As I turned the running water off and leaned up against the counter, I
looked at the clock on the stove, it read five fifty.  I thought that Brady
would have called by now, but I hadn't heard his voice since he closed my
car door.  I was beginning to worry if he really wanted to come with us at
all.  I mean this was his first week in a new town, maybe he didn't feel
like making new friends yet or maybe his dad wouldn't let him go with us,
because he really doesn't know us.  I was starting to get worried because I
would have to leave here in a few short minutes, if I were to be on time.  I
wouldn't normally worry about it, but I never did give him my cell phone
number to call if I had already left.

I started to make my way toward the door that lead into the garage when I
was caught off guard by the phone ringing.  I ran to the end table by the
sofa and picked it up.

"Hello?" I answered in a rushed voice.

"Sounds like I just caught you." The deep smooth voice said in a chuckle.

"You waited to the last minute to call didn't you." I scolded while placing
my hand on my hip.

"That's my style I guess you could say."  He said.  I could hear the smile
in his voice.

"I think I should just leave you at home alone tonight." I said in a serious
voice.  I heard him sign into the mouthpiece.  I could tell that was bad so
I added, "I'm just playing."

"Oh." I heard the smile come back across his face.  There was a silence that
followed that I enjoyed, all I could hear was his soothing breath as I was
standing next to the table.

"Well I have to go." I broke the silence. "I'll be there in a minute." I
assured him before I hung up the phone.

I was backed out of the garage and pulling into his drive way two minutes
latter.  As I sat there staring at the front door of his house, I couldn't
decide if I should honk the horn or go to his front door and ring the bell.
I faced to look out the front windshield and started drumming my fingers on
the steering wheel in time of the song that was blasting on the radio.  If I
went and rang his door bell that would seem more date-ish, you know like I
was picking him up to take him out to buy him dinner or something sweet like
that.  If I honked the horn that would be more of the friend way to do it,
it would seem a little ruder, but that was the two options I was stuck with.
  I really didn't know what to do.  I wish that I was a little smoother at
these things, but I become a damned nervous wreck and I hate that.

As I turned to look at his front door, I realized that I didn't have to
worry about that, because he was setting in the passengers seat already with
his seat belt buckled.

"I didn't know if you were going to come back to Earth and join us anytime
soon." He said as he released and small chuckle and just continued to stare
at me.

I couldn't help to smile at him as his gray eyes settled on my blue ones.

"You know you have the most vivid eyes I have ever seen on a person.  They
are very intriguing." He turned to look at the clock in the dash bored,
before I could even processed what he had just said.  "I thought we were
supposed to be there a six fifteen." He stated as I came back to reality.

"Yeah I'm running behind." I said in a sort distant tone.  I looked at the
clock and realized just how late we where.  "Shit." I cursed and began to
drive.

It was six twenty-seven by the time I finally stopped out side of Lil'
Mickey's.

"So this is the place we are eating at?" he asked as I got out of the car
and started to make my way to the door.  He followed suit.

"Hey, don't judge you haven't even eaten here before.  This place has
un-freaking-believable cheese burgers." I said as I pushed open the door and
held it open for him.  He stepped in and I could tell that the smell had hit
him.  I loved the way this placed smelled, like a fresh grilled cheeseburger
and vanilla cheesecake.  I forgot to mention that the cheesecake at this
place was the bomb.  It was to damn good.

As I looked over the heads setting in the booths and tables I finally
spotted Ally and Brent.

"Over there, they are." I told him as I began to maneuver my way through the
maze of table.  I'll say one thing, the feng shui of this place was not
great, but the food made up for it.  I looked over my shoulder to see that
Brady was still standing in the doorway, looking somewhat lost and confused.
  "Come on, we need to hurry, we're already late." I beckoned to him.

He slowly began to walk and finally caught up with me.  We made our way to
the table were Ally and Brent were placed at.  I slide into the empty booth
and made myself comfortable.  I looked up see that Brady was just standing
there at the end of the table with a sort of helpless look plastered on his
face.

"Umm... I think that it will be alright if you set down." I told him.

"Oh... yeah... um... right."  He babbled as he sat down beside of me.  I
didn't know what had him acting this way till I looked across from me and
saw the scowl on Brent's face.  Brent probably scared him shitless.

"Everyone this is Brady, he's new and didn't have anything to do tonight so
I invited him to come with us." I introduced him.

He blushed and gave everyone a small wave.  In the short time I have known
him I had never seen him this shy, well he wasn't with me any way.

"Hey there handsome." Ally said as she winked at him.  This caused his blush
to deepen even more.

We sat there, ate and laughed for close to an hour.  Well all of us except
for Brent, but he was just like this with new people.  It was sort of hard
for him to open up to new people, he was just kind of backwards like that,
and I didn't give it that much thought.

As we finished up our food and paid we made our way down the street to catch
the movie that we had planned on seeing.  We bought our tickets and went in
to set down.  I was the first one down the isle and sat in the center, Brady
took the seat to my left and Ally took the seat to my right, leaving Brent
to take the remaining seat beside of Ally.  I looked over at him and smiled
and the furrow in his brow just deepened.

I made a mental note to call him tonight after we got back home and ask him
what his deal was.  But I didn't focus on it much longer because the dancing
cell phones lit up the screen and started singing a jingle to remind the
audience to turn off their cell phone. It was incredibly tacky.  I turned to
look at Brady and seen his eyes bright with laughter.

I put my arms on the armrest, just as I normally do when I watch a movie,
but my left armrest seemed to already be occupied.  I looked down to see my
arm on top of a pair of large masculine hands that was gripping the edge of
the piece of plastic attached to the seats.

I looked up to see Brady staring at me.  I looked at him for what seemed to
be an eternity, before I returned my gaze to the movie and removed my arm
from his.

The movie was good and it was over around nine so we still had three hours
till curfew and nothing to do.

"What time do you have to be back?" I asked Brady as we exited the movie
theaters.

"Not until twelve." He replied with a big smile.

"That's our curfew too." Ally pointed out with an excited squeal.

"You're being over dramatic again." Brent scolded while rolling his eye.
Someone was in a bad mood tonight and I had no idea why.  At that moment I
wanted a cream filled pie that way I could have thrown it in his face.  He
had been an asshole all night, and I did not know the reasoning behind it.

"Well, we still have about three hours to kill before we have to been home,
how should we waste it?" I asked looking around at every one's faces in the
dark.

"Well, I for one feel like calling it a night." Brent interjected. "I think
that it has pretty much been ruined any way." He said giving a very pointed
look in Brady's direction.

I had no fucking idea what was eating at him but it was really starting to
piss me off.  I couldn't help but to think that he had a problem with Brady,
but I don't know why.  Am I the only one that has looked at him?  It is damn
near impossible to not notice this boy's beauty, which should make anyone
like him.  At least for vapid and shallow reasons anyway.

"Well, I do have to get up early in the morning." Ally stated. "I have to
take my little sister to something, I really don't know what the hell it is,
but my parents told me that I had to take her there." She said as she
started rummaging through her high fashion, sparkly purse.  She brought her
hand up a few seconds later holding her car keys. "So I think I will take
Brent home and call it a night too."  She said as she started walking toward
her vehicle.  Brent was quick to follow.

"Uh... Well we can all hang out at my place tomorrow if you want to." I
offered while Brent ducked his head into the car with out paying any
attention to me what so ever.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds awesome." Ally offered as she got in and shut the
door.

I was stunned.  They had left with out even giving leaving early a second
thought.  It wasn't Ally's fault she had to leave so early, but Brent was
being a major ass.  I was definitely calling him when I got home to give him
a piece of my mind.

"So what do you want to do?" Brady asked me in his easy to listen to voice.
  I looked over at him, his eyes were staring at me, and I liked it.

"I don't know.  I'm not the one that usually decides these things. What do
you want to do?" I responded and looked up into his beautiful gray eyes.  He
had a nice jaw line.  It was square, but not boxy.  His cheek bones where
high, and all I wanted to do at that moment was lean into him and let his
arms embrace me in his warmth.  That was my deepest desire at that precise
moment in time.

"Well how about you show me around?" he said as I was snapped back into
reality.

"Huh?" I asked dumfounded.  I had just been off in wet dream land and was oh
so brutally brought back.

"Uh... would you show me around, you know that way I don't get lost if I
decide to venture out on my own?"  He asked and looked at me with a pleading
look.

"Of course I will show you around."  I reassured him and we turned to get
into my car.

I took him to were everyone that I knew hung out.  We made our way to the
bowling ally, then to the mall where he bought a new tee shirt, then to the
park.

I always liked the park at night.  It was, in my opinion, romantic and I
knew that for the first date that I ever took a boy on I would take him to
the park that way we could lay on top of one of the grassy hills and just
look up at the stars and hold hands.  It sounds really corny, I know, but to
me that would be the sweetest thing that a guy could ever do for me, but I
always knew that I would have to share this with a guy and not vice verse.

I pulled into the park and shut off the engine and got out.  Brady soon
followed suit as I went over to the swings and took a seat.  I lost my self
in the sky and didn't realize that I had until the familiar voice that I had
grown fond of brought me back.

"I used to go to the park all the time in my old town." He said as I looked
over to see him occupying the empty swing next to me.  "I would go there at
night all by my self and just look up at the stars and think about life, and
what ever else popped into my mind." He revealed to me as he looked up at
the big dipper.

"I really hope that you like it here." I informed him in a quite voice.

"I think I will." He said as he took his gaze from the sky and focused it
upon me.  "I really think that I will."

I broke our gaze and looked back up at the sky to notice that it was a full
moon and if I wasn't imagining it, it looked bigger.

I don't know how late we stayed at the park but I had never had anyone to
star gazing with me. I decided that I liked having some one to share the
vast open sky with.  I would never bother me to share anything with Brady.
We finally decided that we should get back seeing how it was eleven thirty,
because we didn't want to be late for our curfews.

The drive back was filled of conversation about our childhoods and what it
would be like to be like to go skinny-dipping.  No, it's not what you
thinking, I did not have any dirty thoughts during this topic. Maybe.

I pulled into his driveway and looked over at him.  He was already looking
at me.

"I had a really good time tonight.  Especially at the park." He said, I
noticed that he had nice full lips.  I would have given anything to let
those lips be the first ones that I had ever kissed.

"Yeah me too." I told him. "It's usually a bit more fun but Brent was just
having an off night."  I reassured myself more than him.

"I-I better get in the house that way you can leave.  I wouldn't want to
make you late for your curfew." He said looking at me.  I met his eyes and
just gazed openly and longingly into them.  I don't know how long we just
sat there staring at each other before he turned a lifted the door handle
yet another time to leave me and go into his house.

"Bye." I said as he shut the door.

Realization hit me on the five-minute drive home.  I was falling for this
boy and I mean hopelessly falling for this him.  I was not in lust with him
any more, I was in, and I guess you could say, like.  I was attracted to
him, but my feelings ran deeper than physical attraction, I most defiantly
found that out tonight.  This was the first time that I had ever felt this
way about any one.  There were guys that I found myself attracted to, but I
never had anything more than pure physical attraction for them, and that was
it.  But this boy had some how in two days come in and conquered my mind and
my heart.

I pulled into the garage, shut off the engine and let the door down.  I just
sat in my car and thought about what all had happened tonight.  I had let
him in on one thing that no one knew about me, my star gazing addiction.  I
really liked this boy.

I finally got out of the car and went in the door that lead to the living
room, to find the TV still on but all the lights were off.  I went and
looked down at the couch to see my little brother fast asleep with a pizza
box open in front of him along with the empty DVD case of his favorite
movie.

I covered him with the blanket that I usually placed over my mother when she
crashed on the couch and I made my way up to my room to change into more
comfortable clothes.

I sat down on my bed, grabbed my cell phone and dialed Brent's number.

"Hello?" he answered in a groggy sounding voice, after the third ring had
finished.

"What the hell was your deal tonight asshole?" I wasted no time in showing
him how pissed I really was.

"Damn it, I didn't have a deal." He replied equally as hateful.

"Sure could have fooled me. You acted like you had a ten foot pole rammed up
your ass."  I scolded him. "Brady probably thought that you were an
asshole."

"Well sorry that I didn't behave myself in front of Brady the Great."  He
shot sarcastically.

"Oh my freaking god, you are jealous of him, aren't you." I said beginning
to give him the fifth degree.

"No I'm not." He said but I could tell by the tone in his voice that the
green-eyed monster wanted to rear it's ugly head.

"You know just because I made a new friend don't mean that I will drop you."
I reassured him.  "Plus he hasn't got any friends and I figured he could
hang with us."

"We don't need anyone else." He said flatly.

"Well I know that we don't need anyone else, but he is new and he don't have
any friends and I didn't want him to be home alone on a Friday night." I
gave him an explanation.

"He took my seat." He stated in a very immature voice.

"I'll set beside you the next time." I told him.  "There's not a reason for
you to worry, I'm not trying to replace you.  I could never do that, we were
friend before we were born."  I reminded him

Brent and I had been friends since we were born because our mothers had been
best friends since they were in high school.  So when we were little, we
were always around each other, and that is the way things had turned out. I
liked it that way too.

"I know." He said with an ashamed tone.  "We have been best friends since we
could walk.  I just get overly jealous sometimes and you know that.  I
promise I will give Brady a chance."  He informed me.

"That's good you little shit."  I told him.

"Chris can I tell you something?" he asked.

'Uh... yeah shoot." I gave him permission to say what he wanted to.

"Let me off phone so I can go to bed you dirty son of a bitch." He demanded.

"Good night then prince charming." With that I hung up.

I laid my phone on the nightstand beside my bed and turned on the TV. I
slowly feel asleep during my thoughts of Brady dripping wet in nothing but a
towel.

I was rudely awoken by the sound of my phone vibrating against the wood of
my nightstand.  I looked over at the digital clock that read one fifteen,
picked up that wretched phone and answered it.

"This better be good." I said somewhat hatefully into the mouthpiece.

"Was you asleep." I heard the voice that could lift my spirits at anytime.

"A little." I replied in somewhat sweeter tone.

"Oh..." He sighed. "I guess I'll let you get back to sleeping."

"No, no, don't do that." I said a little to hastily.

"Good, I was bored and couldn't sleep.  I am really sorry about waking you
up though." He apologized.

"Really, it's no problem."  I said sitting up.  "I like midnight phone
calls."

"I wanted to talk to someone and you're the only person whose number I
have."  He said quickly into the phone.   That made me sound like I was his
last resort, but I looked over it.

"Well what do you have on your mind to talk about?"  I asked him.

"Have you ever flown any were?" he asked.

"No, but that is on my to do list though, because I really want to travel
when I grow up."  I told him, this was a weird thing to call and ask someone
about at one thirty in the morning.  "What about you, have you ever flown
any where?"

"Yeah, but only here." He informed me.  "I used to live in Connecticut."

"Wow.  Were did you used to live at in Connecticut?" I questioned, trying to
get more information about the boy that I was infatuated with.

"In a small nameless town.  You would have never heard of it before."  He
informed me.

"Why did you move here?" I pushed further, so I could have all the questions
that I wanted answered, this way I could get to know him better.

"My dads job caused him to transfer here.  He works for a big law firm and
they have offices all over the nation.  They told him that they wanted him
out here in Kansas to head up the firm in this state."  He told me.

"What does your mom do?" I further asked.

"Uh... she's not with us any more.  She died when I was twelve."  He told
me.  I felt like the biggest asshole in the world for asking about his
mother.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, uh... I didn't know.  I really am
sorry." I apologized through my foot filled mouth.

"Its ok, seriously, you had no idea man.  It's alright."  He assured me.

His mom really missed out, and I felt sorry for him, because I know it must
be hard to lose a parent when you are young.  My dad leaving us never really
affected me that much because I didn't know him, but I could still imagine
that it would have had a great impact if he had waited till I was older.

"So... you play basketball?"  I asked.

"Yeah.  I do." He confirmed and went into detail about his old high school
basketball team and how they had made it to region finals but lost to a prep
school that probably gave the referees an extra "tip".

******

"So where do you see yourself twenty years from now?" he asked as I lay on
my bed.  I looked over at the clock and it now read five thirty.  I have
just spent the past four and a half hours talking to the boy that I was
obsessing about since I met him.  I found out a lot about him so far, and it
just didn't seem enough.  I knew that his favorite color was electric blue
and that his favorite topping on pizza was pineapple, which I would have
never guessed.  Also that when he was a little kid that he asked for an easy
bake oven for Christmas, but his dad had made his mom get him a toy machine
gun instead.

"I know that I will be settled in my business and I will probably still be
living here." I told him.

"Are you going to get married?" He asked.  Oh, no.  He had to stray to the
topic of marriage and the only way that I would ever be married is if they
legalized same sex unions, but I couldn't just tell him that.

'Uh... I don't know, I'll have to see when I get there." I told him,
deciding that was a good enough answer with out fully lying to him. "What
about you? Where do you see your self twenty years from now?" I shot back.

"Well... hmm... I will be a successful lawyer like my dad.  I will be a big
shot in my law firm and will probably live here unless my work moves me else
where."  He said through as stifled yawn.

"So you like it here that much do you?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I really think I do." He said and I could tell that sleep was about
to over take him.  "I have made a new best friend and two other friends that
I have a feeling that I will get close to."

"I'm sorry that Brent was being an ass tonight.  He never acts like that
besides for when he gets jealous." I informed him.

"So he was jealous of me?" he asked seeming somewhat shocked.

"Yeah, but I talked to him and straightened everything out, so every thing
should be cool tomorrow when you all come and hang out with me at my house."
I told him.

"So I left that good of an impression on you, a second hang out session in
two days.  That's good." He told me.  There was silence after that, not an
uncomfortable one, but a silence that said that he was happy to have made a
new friend.  I wonder if he would ever like me the way that I liked him, but
yet again, his voice brought me back down to earth.

"You do know that it is almost six in the morning don't you?" he asked as I
took another look at the clock.  My eyelids suddenly felt heavy and I knew
that I needed to get to sleep.

"Yeah." I managed to get out through a yawn.  I didn't realize how sleepy I
was until that very second.  But I was really tired.

"I think I am going to get off of here and go to sleep.  I think that I am
totally worn out." He said.

"Well have a good night." I told him

"I am really glad that you're my friend Chris, really I am." He told me and
hung up.
*****
Let me know what you think at nicks_a_writer@hotmail.com and thank you to
everyone that replied.