Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2016 14:31:36 -0500
From: Nicky Smith <thestoryguy9783@gmail.com>
Subject: The Chronicles of Trey Chapter 30 (Book 1 Part 2)

Disclaimer: This story is 100% fictional and may contain references and
scenes of consensual sex between males. Any resemblance to real people or
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Written by: Nicky Smith
Edited by: JD Kaster

CHAPTER THIRTY: FINALE


TREY'S POV


****REACTION***

I was silent waiting for Bear to say something. The silence was
deafening. It was like the whole world has shut up to hear Bear's reaction,
but that was probably all in my head. I chanced a look at Bear and if it
were possible for every muscle in someone's body to be rigid, than that
described Bear at that moment. His hands were balled into fists so tight
that I thought he would break his fingers.

"I see," he said in a supposedly calm voice, but I could hear the... I
don't know what, but I heard it.

"Bear, are you okay?" I found myself asking. He wasn't saying anything, but
the very air around him was like it was heavy. I'd never experienced
anything like it before then.

"I don't know," he said before stepping back onto the ground a few seconds
later. He walked around to the side of his truck. I had stopped crying by
then as I was worried about Bear's lack of reaction so I hopped down and
tentatively followed behind him.

"Bear..." I said cautiously while keeping my distance from him.

"Dammit!" he yelled so loud that I worried that people in town could hear
him.

"Bear," I tried again but took a subconscious step backwards.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Bear yelled again as he punched
the passenger side of his truck over and over again. I was scared he'd
break his hands so I rushed to him to stop him.

"Bear, calm down. You're gonna hurt yourself," I tried to get through to
him.

"No!" he yelled as he pulled away from me and grabbed ahold of the side of
the bed of his truck. "I will kill him, I will fucking kill him! He is
dead! He is fucking dead!" Bear yelled again as he rocked his truck from
side to side. I started to worry that with how it was rocking that he'd
actually pull it over on us.

"Bear, please calm down," I told him as I again pulled his hands off his
truck and to my horror his hands were cut and scraped, his fingers and
knuckles were bleeding. I wasn't surprised though from how hard he'd been
hitting the truck. I glanced at the door and it looked like someone had
taken a bat to it.

"He is dead. I will kill him," Bear said in a hoarse voice laced with pain
and rage as he held my face in his bleeding hands.

"Bear, he's in prison," I told him.

"I will find a way," he said in a chillingly cold tone as he looked into my
eyes. Gone was the beautiful crystal blue and in it's place was that dark
color that scared me.

"Bear, he's in prison for life. Just let it be," I told him because really,
there was nothing that he could do.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked as he stepped away from me. That cold
tone was still present and I no longer had his crystal blues to comfort me.

"Bear, I..." I tried, but I couldn't answer, especially since the Bear that
I knew was gone at the moment.

"You remembered what happened the day that you woke up. That's what the
look in your eyes was... and that's what Sean has been hiding from me. He
knew," Bear said and I felt so guilty and stupid.

"Don't be mad with Sean. I told him not to tell anyone," I told him, but
I'm sure he didn't care.

"Bullshit. He knew what happened the day it happened and didn't tell
anybody. Those bastards that were there could have gotten more time because
I'm sure they were there for that part," Bear said which was true. I didn't
want to think about that though.

"Bear, I think..." I started but he interrupted me.

"No, you kept this from me all this time," he said, mostly to himself than
to me.

"Bear, I'm sorry," I tried again to get through to him.

"I don't want to hear that! You kept this from me! All this time you kept
this from me! What the hell were you thinking?" he shouted and I stopped
being sad and I became angry with him. Before I could stop myself I was
shoving him into the side of his truck and he looked back at me with a
shocked look. I was shocked too, but I pushed that aside.

"Do you have any idea how hard this was for me? I came to you, the one
person in the world who's supposed to love me and help me with the most
shameful thing that has ever happened to me and you yell at me? I've been
agonizing over this, feeling like dirt, like trash. Every time I look in
the mirror I hate the person looking back and it's just like it was all
those years when I had to hide who I was. I was right back there and now
you have the nerve to yell at me and ask me what I was thinking. I was
thinking that I couldn't stand the look of pity in everyone's eyes when
they found out," I shouted to him. As my rant went on, Bear started to look
more and more ashamed. I wasn't sure where it was coming from so I ignored
it.

"Trey, I didn't..." he tried to say but two could play that game and I
interrupted him.

"Then there's the inevitable person who'll wonder why I'm getting so bent
out of shape, what I'm so upset about because I've been getting fucked by
you so what's the difference if another guy does it? Well it does matter
because I can't stop thinking about how horrible I felt when he was doing
it. I can't stop thinking about how I can't erase what he did and that he
took something from me, that wasn't his to take," I said before finally
running out of steam.

"Trey, I..." he started again as he walked toward me. He stopped though and
a look I couldn't decipher crossed his face. He then backed away from me,
turned and walked away. I was stunned that he'd just walk away from me like
that.

As I watched him get further and further away from me, I realized then that
this had been my biggest fear. That Bear wouldn't be able to look at me the
same way after he found out. He wouldn't want to be with me anymore knowing
that someone had raped me.

I walked back to the tailgate and sat down and lamented on my decision to
tell Bear about what had happened and discovered that I didn't feel any
better, contrary to what Sean had said. In fact, I felt worse because I'd
received confirmation that my deepest fear wasn't unfounded as Bear had
walked away from me.

I knew deep down that he had to come back at some point because his truck
was here, but rejection was not kind to one's reasoning abilities. As if my
reasoning abilities needed any more messing with. I already had trouble
doing what was logical even thought I was supposed to be a logical thinker.

As I sat there, I wondered what it'd be like without Bear and I couldn't
even fathom it because he had become so much a part of my world that I
couldn't imagine anything else. This was understandable since Bear had been
a part of my life for almost all of it.

Then a strange though occurred to me. I replayed that line of thinking back
over in my head and started to wonder if maybe that was an unhealthy way to
be. To be so consumed with someone that what they think of you defines what
you think of yourself. I'd found myself thinking that way about a lot of
people, a lot of the time over the years, but no one more so than Bear.

I decided to stop thinking on that though as it was starting to make my
head hurt and I already had too much going on in there so I decided to wait
for Bear to come back. As I waited though, I found myself getting angry
with Bear.

I had come to him with something that I had agonized with telling anyone. I
know that he was supposed to be different because I was planning to spend
the rest of my life with him, but I'd still come to him and he'd walked off
and left me there. It was during this line of thought that I looked up and
saw him dragging back toward me

He was looking down, but as he neared me he looked up and there was so much
going on in his eyes, and there apparently must have been the same with me
as he came to a brief stop. He looked at me for a few seconds before
continuing on towards me.

"Hey," he said when he reached me and after standing awkwardly for about a
minute.

"That's all you have to say?" I asked in a surprisingly calm tone despite
how angry I was.

"I needed to get away from you for a bit and think. I know that you're
angry with me, but I needed some time," he said and I sat there and
digested what he'd said before responding.

"I see," I said in that same calm voice that as I replayed it back sounded
kind of eerie in it's calmness.

"Trey, you can't be mad at me for being mad that you kept this from
everyone, especially me. I mean, we're supposed to be sharing our lives
with each other and you keep something like this from me? Of course I was
mad, but then I did some thinking and I realized that my anger would have
to be pushed aside for the time being so that I could see about you," he
said and again I digested everything he said before responding because I
didn't want to have the wrong reaction.

"You're right. I can't be mad that you were mad with me, but I am. I'm mad
because I revealed something that was deeply personal and shameful for me
to admit to you, and you just walked away," I said trying to reign in my
erratic emotions.

"I know and that's why I walked away. I didn't want to say anything more
wrong than I already had. Sometimes, my temper gets going before my brain
and I say things that I may regret. I didn't want to say anymore than I
already had. I'm usually a level-headed guy but when it comes to you, I
love you so much that I just get really overprotective and it scares me
sometimes," he said honestly which cut though my anger like a sharp knife.

"Damn Bear," I said while shaking my head.

"What?" he asked looking worried.

"Why do you say things like that? I wanna be mad with you because you
walked away and left me here, but you're so dammed lovable that..." I said
again shaking my head at myself.

"Isn't that a good thing?" he asked with a small smile before sitting back
down on the tailgate.

"No it's not. How am I ever supposed to win a fight when you do that?" I
asked not really expecting an answer.

"I guess you can't," he said with a grin.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," I told him and he chuckled and so did I a
little bit. He grabbed my hand and I tensed up for a second. He started to
pull back, but I grabbed his hand and held it.

We sat there for a while just holding hands. His grip would tighten a bit
ever so often and mine would too. I started to feel a bit of that relief
that Sean said I would and I was grateful because it was like a weight was
lifted off of me some.

"I have to tell my parents," I said before I could stop it. I didn't plan
on saying that, especially out loud, but I guess my subconscious knew what
I needed to do.

"Okay, I'll be there with you," Bear said and while I didn't want him
there, I knew I needed him there.

"Bear, promise me you won't go and see Kent. It won't make you feel any
better, trust me," I told him.

"You mean, you went to see him?" Bear asked. He didn't sound angry so I
told him the truth.

"I had to go and see him, for me and Clyde. I had to see if he felt any
remorse, any guilt for what he'd done," I said as I looked off in the
distance.

"And," Bear asked.

"Nothing," I said in a cold tone and Bear sighed.

"Yeah, I was afraid of that," he said before getting back on the
ground. "Come on," he said as he pulled me down with him. I made him go by
the emergency room to check and see if he'd done any real damage to his
hands. They gave him x-rays and said he was fine, but they did wrap his
hands and gave him some pain pills. We then headed back to the truck and he
drove me home.


****DEALING****


Telling my parents went about as well as could be expected. Dad was angry,
Mom was sad and angry. Dad blamed himself because this was yet another one
of his sons that had been sexually assaulted.

I told him that there was nothing that he could have done and it wasn't his
fault that Kent had decided to teach me a lesson for being gay by raping
me. I probably shouldn't have phrased it that way because he actually
picked up a chair and threw it across the kitchen. It hit the wall and
shattered and I thought that the men in my life needed some counseling for
their anger, even me.

I wasn't prepared for Bear's suggestion though and I wondered if my
previous thought had contributed to it as he was so in-tuned to my
thinking. He suggested that I indeed get some counseling and I immediately
disagreed with this. I wasn't about to go to some shrink and let him all up
in my head, despite my earlier thoughts.

My parents looked at each other though and then said that they agreed with
him. They then told me that they had been thinking about that very thing,
even though they didn't know that I'd also have a rape to discuss with this
shrink.

I looked at them and I knew that the three of them were united in this so I
really had no choice if I wanted any peace from any of them so I decided to
reluctantly get myself some therapy. I agreed, on the condition that my
parents never tell anyone else about what had happened to me, especially
Zane.

All three of them looked at me like I was crazy and I know I was being
hypocritical to not tell Zane what had happened to me when he'd told me
what'd happened to him, but I had a motive for doing so. I didn't want him
to risk his job to try and exact revenge against Kent. Besides, in my
opinion, Zane owed me an explanation for why he'd attacked me where I
hadn't done anything to him so I didn't owe him anything.

They reluctantly agreed to not tell Zane if I promised that I'd tell him
someday. I told them I would when enough time passed and I wasn't worried
he would explode and probably do something that would get him fired just so
he could get to Kent. I realized the flaw in my thinking but I pushed that
aside and prepared myself for the inevitable meeting with my new shrink.

********

"What are you feeling right now?" Dr. Manning asked. I was in my third
counseling session with him but I wanted to be anywhere but there. I'd
barely said anything to him during my first two sessions, but that didn't
stop him from trying.

"That I don't want to be here," I answered truthfully. He looked slightly
amused, but covered it up quickly enough.

"Fine, let's try this another way," he said before adjusting the thin
glasses on his face. I wondered if he really needed them or if they were a
part of his shrink persona.

"Try away," I said a bit snarky. He again looked slightly amused.

"Are you angry?" he asked.

"Am I angry? Yeah I'm angry. Damn right I'm angry," I said and he smiled
briefly while writing something on his pad. He pissed me off every time he
did that because I had asked him during our first session if I could see
what he was writing and he said no.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"I'm angry because I'm here. That I have to be here, getting my head
shrunk. Black people don't go to shrinks," I said. As I listened to myself
I didn't like how grumpy I sounded, but he just chuckled briefly.

"Well just so you know, I've had quite a few black patients over the
years," he said which made me wonder how old he was. He didn't look older
than maybe his early 40s with just a touch of gray at his temples.

"How old are you?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. His eyes
widened a bit before he again let loose a soft chuckle.

"I'm 52," he said and it was my turn to looked shocked. He certainly didn't
look 52. He was in great shape and, well... he definitely didn't look over
50. I'm guessing my reaction pleased him as he sort of smiled shyly.

"Oh," I said.

"Do you have any specific anger that's not centered on me?" he asked again
looking slightly amused.

"I'm not angry with you. I barely know you," I told him while trying to
sound less bitchy.

"Okay, let's get to know each other," he said before taking off his glasses
and looking at me again with an intent gaze.

"Fine," I said hoping I sounded more sociable.

"Do you find me attractive?" he asked with a calculating gaze and a strange
smile.

"What? What kind of a question is that for you to be asking a patient,
especially since you're married to a woman?" I asked. I had noticed several
framed photos around his office of him with a dark haired woman and their 2
kids. I even saw one of him with what looked like his oldest kid, a son,
with the both of then hold identical babies so I'm sure he was a
grandfather which made more since with him being 52.

"I just want to know if you find me attractive," he said trying to hold
back most of his amusement.

"I don't think your wife would appreciate you asking your 18 year-old male
patient if he's attracted to you," I told him thinking that I'd chosen the
wrong therapist.

"Okay, we'll come back to that later," he said and I looked at this dude
thinking that I'd definitely chosen wrong.

"No we won't " I told him and he again chuckled before putting his glasses
back on. His glasses actually made him look more... whatever, but I wasn't
telling him that.

"Do you find Bear attractive?" he asked looking at me again. He'd met Bear
at our first session and he'd had the typical reaction to him that most
people did. I actually found it funny as that had been the only time he'd
been off guard since this whole thing began.

"Of course I do," I said sounding offended.

"Good. Now, do you want to be naked with Bear?" he asked and that was the
final straw.

"Okay, that's it. I think we're done here," I said as I stood up.

"Wait," he said as he held up his hand. "Please sit back down and listen,"
he said in a calm tone that was pissing me off but I begrudgingly sat back
down.

"What?" I asked with not a little animosity.

"How do you feel when you imagine Bear being naked?" he asked and again I
took offense to this type of question, but I took a more diplomatic
approach to respond.

"I don't want to talk about that," I told him as calmly as I could.

"Okay, that's fair. Let's try one last thing for today," he said looking at
me with that intent gaze that he'd obviously perfected.

"Fine," I said.

"What are you afraid of?" he asked.

"I'm not afraid of anything," I said feeling defensive.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he looked at me. He made me very uncomfortable,
especially since I was starting to notice how good looking he was. I was
silent for a couple of minutes before I mustered up the courage to say what
I didn't want to say.

"I'm afraid he ruined me for Bear. I'm afraid that I'll never be able to be
with him again," I said feeling truly horrible. I was meant for him and he
for me, so it killed me that it was possible that we'd never be able to be
with each other in that way again.

"And would that be such a terrible thing?" he asked and I looked
incredulously at him before my mind started thinking of a thousand things,
betrayal and stupidity being a couple.

"What..." I started to say before I decided to hold my tongue to keep from
saying some bad things to this man.

"Before you get the wrong idea, I meant that it's possible for you and Bear
to have a relationship without sex," he said and I thought on that for a
second before I wondered how long it would take Bear to go looking for sex
somewhere else.

"It's possible, I guess," I told him.

"But," he said urging me to continue.

"I don't think Bear could do it," I told him which was one of the secret
fears I had.

"Has Bear been unfaithful to you before?" he asked and I was again
offended, especially for Bear.

"What? No, he would never," I said with a scowl I could feel had formed on
my face.

"Then what are you worried about?" he asked.

"I'm not worried about Bear cheating on me. I'm worried about him breaking
up with me because he can't handle a sexless relationship," I said voicing
more of my fears.

"Mm-hmm. Let's put a pin in this for now. I want you to try and be intimate
with Bear. Nothing too involved, just something that you haven't been able
to do since your assault," he said and I wondered if I could do it. I
decided to mess with him though, just to be me.

"So, no hardcore gay fucking, right?" I asked with a smirk, but became
annoyed when it didn't seem to phase him in the least.

"No, unless you feel comfortable with that, then by all means, do whatever
feels good. I will say though that you could broach the subject of you
topping for him if that makes you feel more at ease," he said and I'm sure
I was blushing. I got over that though and decided to leave him with a
lasting comment as I stood.

"I won't have to do much convincing since Bear loves it when I'm inside
him," I said before throwing him a wink. I was delighted that I'd managed
to trip him up as his eyes went wide a bit at what I'd said. I then gave
him a mock salute before leaving.

********

I thought about what Dr. Manning had said, after trying to forget all the
inappropriate stuff, and I decided that I'd try to jump on this thing as
soon as possible so I shot Bear a text and headed for his house. When I
pulled into the driveway, he was outside waiting for me so I just stopped
and he hopped in.

"Hey baby," he said with the smile he had that I loved. I could tell that
he wanted to kiss me, but was hesitant to do so as he was unsure how I
would react.

"Hey big guy," I told him before I leaned over and kissed him. It was the
same feeling as always and I was happy that at least that had returned.

"So what's up with the spontaneous meeting?" he asked after our brief kiss
ended, but he was smiling so I guess he was happy.

"I just wanted to see you," I told him as I looked at him. He looked into
my eyes likely trying to see what else was going on, but I didn't want him
to know what was up so I looked away from him.

He wasn't having that though so he grasped my chin and brought me back to
look at him. I decided to just dive on in so I leaned forward and kissed
him more fully. He seemed startled at first but then joined in and we made
out. As we continued to kiss, he leaned further forward towards me which
pushed me back toward the driver's side door.

It was fine at first, but as he laid more of his weight on me, I started to
feel uncomfortable, before the feeling increased and I started to feel
trapped and held down, like I was that day. I tried my best to ignore it
and keep going but it was starting to make me panic, which I also tried to
hide.

Around this time Bear stopped kissing me and sat up. Looking up I saw worry
in his eyes. I knew that he'd felt my apprehension and tenseness. I
mentally slapped myself and reached up to pull him back down, but he pulled
back and grabbed my hands in his.

"Don't," he said in a tone that I couldn't decipher.

"Why did you stop?" I asked trying to play it off.

"Trey, you don't have to do this," he said and the pity in his voice was
what I didn't want to hear.

"But I want to," I said before freeing my hands from his and again trying
to pull him back down, but again he resisted and grabbed my hands again.

"I know you want to, but all of you isn't cooperating with that want," he
said and I hated Kent for what he'd done to me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked trying to ignore the beating of my
heart and the impulse to push Bear away from me.

"Trey, look at me. I'm hard from just kissing you like I always get, but
you aren't. Plus you were so tense that I was afraid to move you for fear
I'd snap a bone," he said and I knew it was true and I cursed Kent.

"Dammit!" I shouted as I lost that battle to resist pushing Bear away from
me as I did so and jumped out of my truck. I walked around to the back and
leaned against the closed tailgate and just looked off into the distance. I
vaguely heard the door on the passenger side open and close.

"Baby, you don't have to be so upset. I get that things aren't going right
inside your head right now. I'm patient and I can wait as long as it takes
before you are ready to do anything," he said and I hated that I was doing
this to him. He was such a sweet and loving guy, not to mention patient,
and I didn't deserve him.

"What if I'm never ready to do anything sexual again?" I asked him. He was
quiet for a couple of minutes and I took that as my answer.

"I'll admit that it would be a struggle, but I guess I'll just have to
develop a close personal relationship with my right hand," he said with a
small smile.

"Bear, you have an insatiable appetite. You can't expect me to believe that
you'd be happy with a sexless relationship," I told him which was true. In
the back of my mind I knew that since Bear had been with me that he'd
actually been having much less sex than he'd had before we got together and
he seemed to still be interested in me, but I just couldn't let this go.

"Trey, I want you to listen to me because apparently, you haven't been. You
are my destiny and I will never want to be with anyone else but you," he
said, pausing to place my hand over his heart before he had continued. I
was silent for a few more minutes before I spoke something that I'd never
allowed before.

"There is another way," I said making sure I wasn't looking at him because
I didn't want to see anything that would shatter my already fragile psyche.

"What?" he asked sounding especially curious and that was a hint for me
that he would be open to it. I hated that, but I had to do something.

"We can have an open relationship. You would be able to sleep with whoever
you want and we could still be together," I said still not looking at him.

"No," he said after a few seconds.

"What? Why not?" I asked not really sure why I was getting worked up
because the guy I loved and that I didn't want to share with anyone was
telling me he didn't want to be shared either.

"Because I know for a fact that I definitely don't want some other dude all
up on you and I'm sure you'd feel the same way and so I'd never subject you
to that," he said and I again thought that this incredible man was too good
to be true.

"I'm gonna get myself back on track Bear. I promise that I'll get myself
well so I can be everything to you," I told him and I meant it.

"You already are Trey. You have been all my life," he said before flashing
me that beautiful smile that I loved.


****THE GRANDPARENTS****


I was feeling really good. I couldn't really make out what was happening,
but I knew it was good. The one thing I could make out was that I was with
Bear. I was with Bear and we were having a good time and it felt great.

"Son, wake up," I heard as I felt myself being lightly shaken.

"Huh, what?" I said as I awoke with a start. I realized that I was
breathing heavily and I was sweating a bit.

"You were tossing and turning in your sleep and moaning," dad said and I
tried to remember what I'd been dreaming about. I was able to vividly
recall Bear and I naked on this very bed and we were... we were making out
and then I realized that I had a raging boner, something I hadn't had since
before I'd woken up in the hospital.

"Oh," I said and I felt my face get hot and I knew that I was blushing. I
was also unable to meet my dad's eyes.

"Oh," he dragged out after looking at me for a few seconds. "Sorry I woke
you. I'll leave you alone in case you wanna take care of... that," he said
and then gestured toward my crotch with his eyes. I looked down immediately
and saw that I was indeed noticeably hard since I only had a sheet covering
me and my pajama bottoms didn't really do anything to keep my dick under
wraps.

"Um, yeah," I said after I'd quickly reached behind me and grabbed a pillow
to cover my traitorous prick. This caused dad to laugh before he turned and
walked out of my room.

When he was gone I lifted the covers and lo and behold, I was still hard,
even after that embarrassing scene. I also noticed that my pajama bottoms
as well as my underwear were wet and sticky which meant that I'd had a wet
dream, something I hadn't done since I was 15.

I tried to push all that information out of my head and I got up. I decided
that a shower was in order so I headed for the bathroom and took care of
business and hopped in the shower. As I was washing myself, Bear's naked
body flashed into my head again and my dick sprang up to full mast within
seconds. It was like I was entering puberty again with the uncontrollable,
spontaneous erections.

I reasoned that it was probably because of the fact that I'd essentially
not had an erection in about 4 months so I was hopefully coming around a
bit. I tried to ignore it as I washed up, but he was insistent that I pay
him some attention, especially since Bear kept flashing into my head.

I decided to try and see if I could keep this up so I imagined Bear as I
gripped my hard dick and started some easy strokes. I picked up the pace
and I was delighted that I was able to keep Bear in my head. I reached the
climax and my last thought before I shot was Bear as he slipped that
monster inside me.

I recovered from a powerful orgasm and I was happy to find that Kent didn't
come to my mind once. I wanted to try and see if I could get something done
with Bear now that I seemed to be moving in the right direction.

I finished washing up and hopped out of the shower. When I went to the sink
to brush my teeth, I found a look in my eyes that had been gone for a
while. It was hope and I smiled that I was getting better. I then laughed
at myself for getting all giddy because I'd managed to jerk off, but that
was big in my opinion.

I finished up in the bathroom and headed for my room to get dressed. After
I'd gotten some clothes on, I headed downstairs to the kitchen to find my
mother cooking. I looked at the feast and saw something crucial was
missing.

"Morning sweetie," mom said as she waited for her kiss. I was distracted
though.

"Where's the bacon?" I asked. I was in the mood for some bacon and weekend
breakfast always contained bacon.

"Is that all you have to say?" she asked giving me the side eye as she
scrambled eggs.

"Yeah, so where is it?" I asked. She looked at me for a few seconds before
rolling her eyes at me, hard.

"There is none," she said and was she serious?

"What?" I asked after I gasped.

"Trey, stop being so dramatic. You really should consider theater for one
of your college courses," she said with a sarcastic tone.

"Hey mommy," Carly said as she and Cara walked into the kitchen.

"There's no bacon," I said quickly and they both stopped in their tracks.

"Are we poor?" Cara asked sounding entirely serious and I almost laughed
but there was a dire situation going on here.

"Girl, stop playing," mom said sound just a bit annoyed.

"Hello fam," Calvin said sounding chipper as he entered the kitchen.

"Hey sugar," mom said to Calvin, but I had to alert him to the crisis.

"There's no bacon," I told him and he frowned deeply.

"Ma, don't you think you should have started the bacon before scrambling
the eggs?" he asked sounding hopeful.

"For the last time, there's no bacon, and Trey, shut it," she said sounding
completely annoyed now.

"Fine," I pouted.

"Good morning," dad said as he entered the kitchen. Mom, the twins, and
Calvin greeted him, but I was silent as I was still a bit embarrassed about
our earlier `discussion'.

"Trey, aren't you gonna speak to your father? You've been running your
mouth so much this morning that you should have something to say to him,"
mom said before getting the last toast out of the toaster and bringing
breakfast to table

"Yeah son, did you get everything... taken care of?" he asked with a highly
amused look on his face. I decided to get his mind off of that though.

"There's no-" I started before mom cut in.

"Trey, boy you better not," mom warned with the finger point that meant
that she was serious.

"What's going on?' dad asked looking confused.

"I can't say," I pouted before I went to sit down in my chair.

"Sit down kids and let's eat," mom said before taking her own seat.

"Where's the bacon?' dad asked after he'd gotten situated and started
getting his plate fixed.

"Well, I decided that we'd be a little healthier so there will be no more
bacon," mom said. There was silence as we all looked at her.

"Wait, so this is a continuous thing and not just for today? Are you
serious?" Calvin asked.

"What the hell is wrong with you all today? I have gone a day without
cooking bacon before," she said which was true, but she didn't get it.

"Well Livvie, it's just that bacon on the weekend is a tradition and you
obviously don't know how important bacon is to a man," dad said and I would
have agreed if not for the fact that my sisters looked like they were being
forced to eat a breakfast of nothing but broccoli and Brussel Sprouts.

"Well forgive me for being concerned about the well being of my
family. I'll tell you what, you don't have to eat any of this crap that I
so selfishly slaved over a hot stove fixing for my dammed family," mom said
and I realized we had been overreacting.

"Wow mama, these eggs are great," I said after eating a bit of my eggs. I
wasn't lying though as there was rarely anything that my mother couldn't
turn into a delicious experience.

"Yeah, great eggs honey," dad said around a mouthful of eggs himself. She
looked pleased after that so we started to eat our bacon-less breakfast and
it was surprisingly still enjoyable.

After we'd all finished, mom started to gather the dishes up to put into
the dishwasher. Around this time the doorbell rang so I took it upon myself
to go and get it. I went to the door and I hoped it was Bear so I could try
to get something started with him to test out my comfort level with him
again. It was not to be though.

"Hey honey," the lady at the door said as she grabbed me and pulled me into
a tight hug.

"Grandma, it's great to be squeezed to death by you," I joked.

"Natalie, I think the boy needs some air," Grandpa said with humor in his
voice. Grandma finally let me go and held me at arms length and just looked
at me.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you again," she said with a huge smile. I
loved her so much and I was happy to see her.

"Yeah, it has been a while," I said back.

"Well it hasn't been that long for us," she said before she let me go while
she and Grandpa walked into the house. I was confused though.

"What do you mean?" I asked her after closing the door and following them
inside.

"Well we were here when you were in your coma," Grandpa said and I was
surprised as nobody had told me.

"Really," I said and I was happy that they'd come to see me, even though I
wasn't able to appreciate it as I was in a coma.

"Yeah, of course we did, but I had to leave or else I would have probably
found some way to kill that boy," Grandma said likely talking about Kent.

"Thanks grandma," I said happy that she was willing to kill for me.

"Yeah, now get over here and give your grandpa a bug hug," Grandpa said as
he held his arms open. I did what he'd said and he hugged me tight as
well. I was happy for that because I knew that he'd probably be my only
grandfather to want to touch me after finding out that I was gay.

"Mama, daddy, what are you two doing here?" mom asked as she came into the
living room followed by everyone else.

"Oh, Olivia. I forgot you even still lived here girl," Grandma joked before
looking at me and winking.

"Very funny mama," mom said with her arms folded. She then walked over and
hugged her parents.

"Grandpa," the girls said as they ran to him, completely bypassing Grandma.

"Well, I guess I don't even exist," Grandma said sarcastically.

"If only," mom mumbled.

"I heard that girl," Grandma responded with a stern look.

"You were supposed to," mom countered with a tight smile. They had this
weird passive-aggressive relationship but they were mostly joking when they
did this.

"Play nice ladies," dad said.

"Evan, how's my favorite son-in-law?" Grandma asked as she walked up and
hugged him.

"I'm doing good," he said before shaking Grandpa's hand.

"I think Douglas would have an objection to that statement, mama," mom said
and Grandma rolled her eyes.

"Your sister don't have anything to do with this," Grandma said.

"Speaking of Janice, when are you gonna go and bother her?" mom asked with
a smirk.

"Mama," I said because she had a tendency to go on and on with this stuff.

"Boy please, mama knows I'm only playing," mom said before walking over to
the couch and taking a seat.

"One of these days I'm gonna tan your hide," Grandma said giving her the
`mom finger point' that meant that she was serious.

"Uh huh," mom said dismissively.

"So Trey, tell us where that rather large guy of yours is," Grandpa said as
he sat down in dad's special chair.

"I don't know grandpa," I told him although I did wonder where he was. I
felt a brief moment of worry, but I pushed that aside.

"You don't know where he is? Boy, you better keep tabs on a man that fine,"
Grandma said and my mouth dropped.

"Mama!" mom said in shock also.

"Natalie," Grandpa said at the same time.

"What? You people are so boring," Grandma said before she took a seat as
well and the twins sat down on either side of her.

"So Cal, you have a boyfriend yet?" Grandpa asked and I snickered.

"What? Why would you ask that?" Calvin asked and I snickered again.

"Well I just didn't want to assume," Grandpa said, but I could see the
amusement in his eyes.

"No grandpa, I don't have a girlfriend yet, and I definitely don't have a
boyfriend," he said directing that last bit a me.

"Yeah grandpa, he doesn't have a boyfriend. I think he's gonna be one of
those guys that likes... girls," I joked before shivering to add to the
effect.

"Eew, girls are yucky," Grandpa joked right back.

"Tell me about it," I said before we laughed. I liked that Grandpa was
comfortable enough to joke along with me about the gay thing.

"You don't say, Anthony," Grandma said giving him the stink eye.

"Except for you dear," Grandpa said.

"Is that right, daddy?" mom asked strongly with her famous head tilt that
was a signal that she was about to say some things you didn't want to hear.

"And you too, honey," he corrected as he leaned over and patted mom on her
leg. About that time my cell phone rang. I looked and it was Bear which
made me smile.

"Ah, I bet I know who that is," Grandma teased.

"Hey big guy," I said answering the phone while shaking my head at my
grandmother. I heard the two of them snicker at my term of endearment for
Bear.

"Hey baby, how are you doing?" Bear asked sounding his usual happy self.

"I'm fine. I'm just here with these old people who descended on my house,"
I joked.

"What?" he asked while laughing at me.

"Bear, we will be taking your guy to the woodshed," Grandma said loud
enough for Bear to hear over the phone.

"Do you see now?' I asked him and he laughed again.

"Can you come over?" he asked and I really wanted to go, but...

"Well like I said, my grandparents are here," I told him.

"Oh please Trey. Go on and see your guy," Grandpa said and I wasn't one to
disagree with my gramps.

"Well, apparently they don't want me over here anymore so I guess I have no
choice but to come over there," I teased.

"Wow, as long as you don't have a choice," he said and I could hear the
humor in his voice.

"I'll be there soon," I told him before I ended the call.

They teased me for a few more minutes before I went to brush my teeth again
and headed out of the door. I headed for my truck but before I got in I
happened to look across the street and I saw Mr. Davis getting out of his
car. He looked toward me and a look of distaste crossed his face before he
turned and walked into his house. I pushed him out of my mind and hopped in
my truck and pulled out.

********

I arrived at Bear's place and I saw that Sean's car was there so that put a
hitch in my plans to try and get something started with Bear again. It was
probably best though as I should maybe try to get used to the idea of
thinking about Bear sexually before putting him through what I had done the
day after my therapy session.

I got out and headed for the front door. I rang the bell and Juanita, their
new housekeeper opened the door a minute later. She knew who I was and she
greeted me with a smile. She then let me in and lead me to the family room
where Bear, Sean, and Steph were.

"Hey baby. Look who's here, it's Sean. Isn't that great?" Bear said with a
truly fake smile on his handsome face.

"Yes, it's wonderful," I said deciding to play along.

"I get the feeling that you guys don't think it's that wonderful," Sean
remarked while grasping his chin as if he was thinking hard.

"Gee, what was your first clue, all the white teeth or the disingenuous
tone?" Steph asked from her seat next to Sean.

"So, how are ya doing, buddy?" Sean asked looking at me. I wondered what he
and Bear were talking about and if they'd had it out yet over the fact that
Sean knew what had happened to me and hadn't told anyone.

"I'm doing good. I hate therapy though," I told him. I realized that I was
saying this in front of Steph, but she was Bear's sister and unlike his
other sibling, I actually liked her and she seemed to like me. Besides, I
wasn't saying anything too telling.

"Is it that bad?" Sean asked.

"Yeah it is. You'd never believe what he asked me," I said before realizing
that maybe that wasn't the best thing to tell anyone other than Bear and I
hadn't even told him yet.

"What?" Bear asked appropriately curious.

"Nevermind, I'll tell you later," I told Bear.

"What about us?" Steph asked. I decided to mess with her.

"Don't you have some dolls to play with, sweetie?" I asked her.

"Don't you?" she asked back with that attitude I'd come to expect from
Steph. Their doorbell rang about that time as their mother was coming down
the stairs with a box. Juanita came in and said she'd answer the door while
Sean got up to help April.

"Thanks Sean. At least someone around here has manners," she said before
looking at Bear and then Steph.

"I have manners," Bear and Steph said together trying to defend themselves.

"Whatever. Hello Trey," April said to me after dismissing them.

"Hello April, how are-" I started but was interrupted by Juanita.

"Ma'am, you have company," Juanita said from the entrance to the family
room. She didn't exactly sound happy though which was weird because she
seemed like a typically happy person even though I didn't know her well. We
all looked and there stood Bear's grandparents, April's parents. I started
to wonder if it was like grandparents day or something.

Maude and Harry Forrester were assuming people. Harry was a big guy like
Bear and I found it surprising that he was still mostly in shape. Maude was
the typical 60-something southern woman on the surface, but she carried
herself like she knew she had money and she felt that that fact made her
better than whomever happened to be unfortunate enough to cross her path.

"Mother, it's... so nice to see you," April said as she walked over to them
but it didn't seem like it was nice.

"Well I wouldn't know it with the number of times you've invited me and
your father to come here," Maude said in a snooty southern accent that
immediately grated on my nerves for some reason.

"Oh mother, come on. You know that you two can come to see me any time you
want without being invited," April said with an obviously fake smile. Well,
it was obvious to me.

"Yeah, like they did this time," Steph muttered which made Bear snicker and
me smile a bit, even while being in the presence of these two people.

"Well we'll be sure to do that from now on," Harry said in the same
southern accent, although his didn't sound nearly as uppity as his wife's
accent.

"Oh joy," Steph muttered again and again Bear chuckled, although this time
he tried not to. While I was too trying to hide my amusement with Steph's
actions, I wondered at them too. I saw that Sean was also trying to hide a
smile at her antics.

"There are my grandchildren. Come give grandmother a hug and kiss," she
said. Bear started walking toward them but I noticed that Steph hadn't
moved, nor did she look like she was going to.

"Hey grandma, and grandpa," Bear said as he hugged Maude, then hugged Harry
after they briefly shook hands.

"My goodness son, you have certainly gotten big since the last time I saw
you. Taking after your old grandpa I see," Harry said proudly while looking
at Bear. I wondered if he would have that same pride when he found out that
Bear was gay.

"Steph, don't you want to give your grandparents a hug?" April asked, but
it was obvious she was telling her to do it.

"Sure," Steph said showing a lot of teeth which was a sign that she wasn't
happy. I was again curious about her attitude regarding her
grandparents. She walked over and was a bit stiff when hugging them.

"Well who is this handsome young man?" Maude asked looking at Sean. Neither
of them had looked in my direction which was a little weird.

"Hello ma'am and sir, my name is Sean," Sean said politely while showing
his brightest smile.

"Oh Stephy, don't you think he's a little too old for you?" Maude said
which caused a snort to escape me before I could stop it. I noticed that
Maude's nose crinkled a bit so I knew that she had noticed that I was
there.

"Mother, Sean is Bear's friend, not Stephanie's boyfriend," April
corrected.

"Well it's nice to meet you Sean," Maude said as Sean stepped forward and
shook first Harry's hand, then her hand. "I'm glad to see Barry's taste in
friends has improved," she added and I couldn't have heard her right.

"Mother," April said strongly and I noticed she glanced briefly at me.

"What?" Maude asked likely not realizing, or maybe not caring what she'd
said.

"Excuse me, but could you repeat that?" Sean asked and while he was trying
to sound cordial, you could hear the edge in his voice.

"No, she can't" April answered quickly. Maude looked at her with a curious
look before her gaze finally settled on me and everything about this woman
made sense.

"So, who is this?" she asked. It was obvious that she was trying extra hard
to keep her tone and expression as neutral as possible.

"It's the friend that Bear made before his taste improved," Steph answered
bitterly.

"Stephanie," April said in the same tone she'd used on her mother.

"What? She said it, not me," Steph said before she rolled her eyes.

"Oh now I remember you. You're Tay Tay, or something like that, right?" she
asked sounding incredibly condescending. I was about to open my mouth and
not nicely tell her where to get off but I heard someone clear their throat
and I looked and saw Sean subtly shake his head.

"Mother, his name is Trey," April said in a bit of an exasperated tone.

"Yes, I knew he had be named something like that," she said in that same
condescending tone which served to piss me off even more.

"You know grandmother, there are white people named Trey," Steph said in a
snippy tone which I struggled not to smirk at.

"I never said there wasn't dear," Maude said sounding like she hadn't just
insulted me. I looked around this room of white people and I suddenly felt
out of place in that house which I'd never felt before, except for when it
involved Brian.

I looked at all of them before I settled on Sean. He gestured for me to
look at Bear with his eyes. I wondered why until I looked and I saw him
glaring at his grandmother with that look that he got whenever he felt
there was a threat to my safety. Why he would feel that way about this
little old lady, possible racist she may be, was kind of funny.

"Why don't we all take a seat," Harry said and I noticed that he'd noticed
Bear's glaring at his wife. They took a seat along with April, while we
"kids" chose to stand.

"So Stephanie, tell me about your studies," Maude said. Stephanie went to
an all girl's private school that I'm sure that her dad thought kept her
away from boys, but I happened to know that she'd been dating since she was
13 and in those 3 years had dated about 10 boys. I didn't know if she still
had her virginity, but I wouldn't put it past her to not to with Bear as an
example.

"Everything's fine in the convent, grandmother," Steph said with a snippy
tone. I then remembered that Bear had told me that putting her in the all
girls school was their grandmother's idea.

"It's not a convent Stephy. It's good for you to be surrounded by positive
female role models," Maude said sounding incredibly condescending.

"Yeah, it's good for me to be spending so much time with girls. Maybe I'll
become a lesbian," Steph joked and Bear, Sean and I snickered a bit, but
Maude definitely didn't appreciate the joke by the look on her face.

"Stephanie," April said again in an admonishing tone.

"Stephy, jokes like that aren't funny," Maude said with a scowl. I saw her
then very subtly nudge Harry.

"So Bear, how's things going at school? Any young girls close to tying you
down?" Harry asked and I was suspicious about this question, especially
with his wife nudging him beforehand.

"No grandpa, I don't have any girls tying me down," he smiled and looked at
me and I knew he was about to tell them about us, at least he would have if
not for his mother jumping in.

"So mother, how is everything back home?" she asked. She said it like she
was trying to stop Bear from saying anything else which had me frowning at
her. I looked at Bear and he was scowling at her so I knew I hadn't just
imagined it.

"It's fine dear," she said to April before directing her attention back to
Bear. "You were saying, Barry?" she asked him. She was someone else who
refused to call him Bear, but he didn't get mad with her like he did when
his dad did it. I guess she had grandmother immunity.

"Well I was-" Bear started again before April jumped in again.

"Um mother, when's the last time you spoke to Dawn because I haven't heard
from her in a while," April said again sounding like she was trying to stop
Bear from telling his grandparents that he was gay.

"I spoke to her last week. Now would you please stop interrupting your
son. It's very rude and I raised you to have manners," Maude said talking
down to April. I didn't really have any sympathy for her in that moment
though as it seemed that she didn't want her parents to know about Bear and
I.

"Yes mother, it's very rude for you to keep interrupting Bear," Steph said
in her own condescending tone.

"Stephanie," April said in warning.

"Bear has something to tell grandmother and grandfather and I think you
should just let him," Steph said ignoring the warning.

"Well I think we need some refreshments and I think Bear should help me
with them," April said as she stood and started for the kitchen.

"Actually, I think I'll help you with the refreshments, in the kitchen,
while Bear stays out here with grandmother and grandfather," Steph said
being obviously passive-aggressive. I heard a snicker from Sean.

"On second thought, I can just have Juanita bring the refreshments," she
said before walking over to the intercom and telling Juanita to do just
that. When she turned around, she looked at me and a guilty look crossed
her face and that's when I realized that I'd been glaring at her.

"Okay now, what is it that you want to tell us Bear?" Harry asked. He had
no problem calling Bear by the name everyone else did.

"Well-" Bear started before April jumped in.

"Bear's gay," she said in a rush, shocking all of us.

"Excuse me?" Maude said with a frown, but there was something off about
both of their expressions but I couldn't figure out what.

"Grandma, Grandpa, I'm gay," Bear said after taking a deep breath.

"You can't be serious," Maude said with that judging southern accent
somehow getting thicker.

"I am serious. There will be no girl tying me down because a guy has
already done that... this guy," he said before taking my hand in his. Both
of them zeroed in on our joined hands and they both looked not pleased with
this development, although Maude looked even more so.

"I see," she said and I remembered Bear saying the same thing to me in the
same emotionless tone.

"Mother..." April said perhaps in warning to tell her mother not to say
whatever she was feeling.

"April, I need to speak to you for a minute, alone," she said putting
emphasis on alone.

"No, anything you say to her you can say in here," Bear said strongly and I
was impressed by his bravery.

"Bear, I think I need to speak to your grandmother alone," April said
looking at Bear.

"No. Anything she has to say about me she can say it right here," he said
in that same commanding voice that perhaps he shouldn't have been using
with his mother but I didn't blame him.

"Excuse me," she said in that tone that meant that he'd indeed gone too far
with her, but apparently Bear wasn't having it.

"I mean it," Bear said not backing down. They had a stare down that I guess
Bear won as April blinked first. I looked at Maude and Harry and it finally
occurred to me that they didn't look shocked by these events, at least not
as shocked as they should have been.

"They knew," I said before I could stop myself.

"What?" Bear asked as he looked at me. I decided that since I'd said it, I
might as well keep going.

"Look at them, they already knew," I told him. He did and I saw when he
realized it too.

"Mother, is that true?" April asked.

"Well what do you expect. Naturally we'd be shocked and wanting to check
for ourselves if what Brian had told us was true," she said and of course
that douchebag Brian had been behind this.

"Brian," Bear said in an angry whisper.

"What did Brian tell you?" April asked not looking particularly happy with
her eldest son.

"Well he told us that Barry was a... homosexual and that he called himself
engaged to another boy, and then when he told us it was him...," she said
referring to me, saying him with not a little distaste.

"What the hell do you mean by `and then he told us it was him'? What's
wrong with me being engaged to Trey?" he asked with much hostility in his
tone.

"You watch the way you talk to your grandmother, Bear. Now when Brian told
us about you being a... homosexual, we were naturally stunned," Harry said
doing that same annoying pause before he said homosexual that his wife did.

"I'll say," Maude added. About that time the doorbell rang and Juanita said
she'd get it as she had just arrived with the drinks.

"I don't know what all Brian told you, or why he felt the need to go
running and tell you in the first place but-" April was saying before she
was interrupted by the descent of our friends.

"Barry, you have company," Juanita said. She also called him by his real
name. I'd asked him why she did it and he said she told him that she'd feel
more comfortable calling him by his proper name until she had been working
there longer.

"Hello all," Jessica said as she entered the room followed by Liberty,
Justice, Veronica, and Carter. I thought to myself that this would be
interesting if what I thought was the case.

"Jess, have some manners," Liberty chastised her.

"Oops, sorry," she said when she noticed April's parents.

"Who are these... people?" Maude asked not even trying to hide her
bitchiness.

"Mother, daddy, these are Bear's other friends. That's Jessica, the two
look-a-likes are Liberty and Justice, that's Veronica and that's Carter,"
she said pointing to them as she introduced them. "Kids, these are my
parents," she finished. They all greeted them in their own way.

"Nice to meet you all," Harry said kind of sounding like he meant it.

"Same," Maude said definitely not sounding like she meant it.

"Grandmother, do you remember when you thought Sean was my boyfriend?"
Steph asked as she walked toward Justice with a calculating smile. Justice
raised her eyebrows in response.

"Yes," Maude said looking confused. I knew what Steph was up to then and I
smirked a little.

"Well, this is actually Sean's girlfriend, and Veronica here is Sean's
cousin," she said with a smug grin as she gestured toward each of them
before standing between them.

"You don't say," Maude responded with a noticeable frown. The tension in
the room was so thick you could cut it with a fork.

"Okay, why don't you kids go... somewhere and let me spend some time with
my parents," April said obviously trying to end this situation.

"C'mon Trey," Bear said after a few seconds of silence. He made sure to
glare at his grandmother before he dragged me out of the room.

********

We decided to leave the house and head for the park. There wasn't much
talking done before we left with us deciding to wait until we arrived at
the park before we did any real socializing. Bear was quiet all the way
there and that worried me because that meant he was stewing and that wasn't
good.

We finally arrived and as I walked into the park, of course my sight was
drawn to the distant woods where over 4 months earlier, I'd been raped,
then shot and Clyde had been killed. Bear and Steph were walking ahead but
I guess Bear noticed that I'd stopped because he came back to me.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I didn't think..." he said before tailing off.

"It's okay big guy. I didn't either," I told him as I continued to look in
that direction.

"We can leave and go somewhere else," he said as he took ahold of my hand.

"No, it's fine. It's just that... Clyde died over there. My life changed
over there and Kent doesn't even care," I said feeling down, but trying to
fight that feeling. I didn't wanna bum anybody out.

"I'm still here for you Trey. That'll never change," he said and I
appreciated him all the more. I gave him a quick kiss before heading off
toward the others while dragging him along with me.

"So you guys gonna tell us what that was about?" Liberty asked after we
arrived where they were.

"My grandmother's a bitch, that all," Steph said sounding a bit blasé
about it.

"Steph. Do not talk about your grandmother that way," Bear reprimanded her
being the good big brother he was.

"I stand by what I said. Besides, you don't know what I know," she said and
I was curious.

"What do you know?" Bear asked her and she started to pen her mouth, but
then closed it before frowning a bit.

"You don't want to know?" she finally said and that didn't help to satisfy
my curiosity.

"Yes I do," Bear told her in that tone he'd used on his mother.

"I do too," Jessica chimed in.

"Jessica, do you have any tact?" Veronica asked while looking exasperated.

"Yes I do Veronica, which is why I don't tell you how much of a bitch your
friend Alicia is," Jessica said.

"But you just said that," Carter stated and Jessica rolled her eyes.

"No I didn't, I was just explaining to her that I do in fact have tact,"
Jessica called herself correcting.

I listened to their talking back and forth some more before that place drew
my attention again. I looked in that direction and had a fleeting thought
that I wanted to see the place. I wanted to see the place where Kent had
taken my ability to feel secure in my own skin, before he'd taken Clyde's
life. It was unfair that he had to die saving me when all I was to him was
a tutor. We never got the chance to become friends if that even would have
happened.

I looked back toward everyone and I saw Bear and Sean looking at me with
almost equal worried looks. They were the only ones, aside from my parents
and Dr. Manning, that knew the full extent of what Kent had done to me.

I saw Justice and Steph walking back toward us with a bunch of drinks
they'd probably gotten from the food truck that was at the park. They
passed them around and Steph came up to me and handed me one which I saw
was a root beer, my favorite drink. I took it from her before she sat down
next to me and laid her head on my shoulder and somehow, I wondered if Bear
had told her what had happened to me. I decided to not care if he did since
this girl would be my little sister-in-law one day. At least I knew she
cared about me unlike Brian who hated me.

********

I woke up and I felt great. It had been a while since I'd had a great
night's sleep. I was happy that I wasn't dreaming about Kent anymore. I
looked at the clock and saw that it was after 11. I guess I'd been allowed
to sleep in since I was out late the night before.

I got up and straightened up my room as I had clothes that I had yet to put
away after they'd been washed. I then got some clothes and headed for the
bathroom and took care of things before hopping in the shower. After I was
clean and dressed I headed downstairs to find that I was at home alone.

I checked out front and indeed the SUV and my grandparents' car were
gone. I guess they were at the mall or something so I headed for the
kitchen and saw that there was a note that said everyone had indeed gone
shopping. I decided to grab the box of honey-nut cheerios, a bowl and
spoon, and the milk and headed for the family room.

As I sat and ate my favorite cereal while watching TV, my mind began to
wander. I thought about what my life would be like when college started. I
wondered where I was even going as none of us had gotten any responses from
colleges yet. I was interrupted from my aimless thoughts by the doorbell.

I got up and went to the door and I at first thought it was Bear, but then
thought better of it because he was probably still asleep as we had hung
out with the crew until very late. I opened the door and was utterly
shocked to see Maude Forrester standing there looking completely out of
place.

"Mrs. Forrester, what are you doing here?" I asked her totally confused as
to why she would come to see me.

"I came to speak to you," she said with that annoyingly snooty accent.

"How do you know where I live?" I asked realizing that I sounded slightly
paranoid before then realizing that maybe Bear had told her.

"I have my ways. Now like I said, I'm here to speak to you," she said
sounding put out from having to explain how she knew where I lived.

"About what?" I asked. I was unsure why I was so cautious when it came to
this woman.

"May I please come in?" she asked and I decided that I'd better exercise my
manners and invite her in. She walked in and followed me as I went to the
living room. She looked around the place like she was judging me and the
house. That pissed me off since my dad had built our house himself.

"Would you like to have a seat? I can have the couch sanitized for you?" I
said and I heard a slight edge to my voice.

"No that'll be fine," she said before she took a tentative seat.

"How can I help you Mrs. Forrester?" I asked her making sure I sounded more
cordial.

"I came to talk to you about my grandson," she said never losing that
superior tone.

"Okay," I said waiting for her to say what she'd come to say.

"I'm gonna need you to end this... relationship you have with my grandson,"
she said and I had to admire the nerve of this old bitch to come to my
house and tell me to break up with the guy I love.

"Say what now?" I asked because I wanted her to say it again as I didn't
think she would, but she proved me wrong.

"I said, I'm gonna need you to end your relationship with my grandson," she
said again. At least this time she didn't say the word relationship like it
was something bitter in her throat.

"Why would you think I'd do that?" I asked her this time with more of an
edge.

"I'm more than happy to pay you. I know you could use the money," she said
making sure to look around the living room with slight distaste in her
face. I felt my blood boiling that this woman was here telling me that
she'd pay me to break Bear's heart. She was gonna pay for that.

"Let me tell you something lady," I said as I stood so I could give her the
both barrels. "There isn't enough money in this world that would make me
leave Bear. The fact that you think that I'd take money and leave the guy I
love is insulting. You can't buy me with your money," I told her with
conviction.

"I don't believe that. Everyone has a price," she said sounding especially
stuck up which served to piss me off even more.

"Well I don't have one so that must not be true. I don't need nor want your
dammed money, so get the hell out of my house before I lose my temper," I
told her barely holding myself in check.

"I think I should tell you that I always get what I want and I what I want
is for my grandson not to be with someone like you," she said after she
stood up as well.

"What, someone black, you mean?" I asked her. She tried to pretend that I'd
insulted her, but I saw confirmation in her eyes.

"Well, I never," she said sounding really insulted and put out, but I
wasn't buying her bullshit.

"That's right. You'll never see me break up with Bear," I told her. Her
shocked act ended then as she fixed me with a cold glare.

"You listen to me you... person. You will end this travesty you call a
relationship with Barry because I will not have someone like you with my
grandson, in my family. You'd better do what I tell you to do because you
don't want to make me angry," she said and I narrowed my eyes at her
because, was she serious? I was about to tell this old bat where to get
off, but I was prevented from doing so.

"Who the hell do you think you are talking to my grandson like that?"
Grandma said as she walked into the room.

"Who are you?" Maude asked with that annoying accent of hers.

"I'm Natalie and as I just told you, I'm Trey's grandmother. Who the hell
are you?" Grandma asked as she walked over and stood before Maude.

"Grams, this is Bear's other grandmother, Maude Forrester," I said not
saying it nicely.

"Oh yeah, Andrea told me about you," Grandma said referring to Bear's other
grandmother, his dad's mother.

"Is that a fact?" Maude asked as she glared at Grandma.

"Yes that's a fact and I have to say that 1, she hit the nail right on the
head when it comes to you and 2, I don't appreciate the fact that you're
here in my daughter's home threatening her son when she's not here,"
Grandma said and all I could think was `go grandma'.

"It would be good if you'd tell your grandson to heed my warning," Maude
said not backing down, but neither was I.

"I'm not going to do it so take your dammed money and leave," I told her.

"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you," she said before turning and
walking toward the door. We heard the door close a few seconds later.

"Grams, what are you doing here?" I asked as I expected her to be with my
parents.

"What did that woman want?" Grandma asked in return.

"She wanted me to break up with Bear. She offered to pay me to do so," I
said still pissed at the gall of that woman.

"Why?" Grandma asked.

"Why do you think Grams?" I asked as I gestured to my face before heading
back into the family room to try and salvage my breakfast.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry," she said I guess getting what I'd been saying.

"I guess you just never know, do you?" I said. I never thought that Maude
was a racist, at least I never picked up on it the few times I'd seen her
in the past, but maybe I was just too young to do so and perhaps I was too
busy dealing with my new found feelings for Bear.

"Are you gonna tell Bear?" she asked and at first I wasn't going to, but
then I thought that this was gonna be one of those rare times when I went
to Bear right after something happened instead of waiting. Besides, I had
no idea if Maude's threat was a serious one and I wanted to put Bear on
notice in case it was indeed serious.

I called him and he was of course livid. He ranted and raved and I heard
Steph in the background trying to calm him down but he wasn't having it. He
finally told me he had to go, but he made sure to tell me he loved me and I
appreciated that even as furious as he was, that he was still able to feel
love for me.

I then talked to Grandma and she said she'd come back because she'd
forgotten her wallet in her luggage and she wanted to get something special
for each of us kids. I liked the sound of that and I hugged her before
ushering her to Zane's old room, which is where they were staying, so she
could get that wallet.

********

BEAR'S POV

I couldn't believe what Trey had told me. I'd seen the way she was the day
before, but I just attributed it to the fact that she was surprised that I
was gay and that my ass clown of a brother had told her who knows what
about me.

"I don't see what you're so surprised about," Steph said as she sat in the
over-sized chair in the living room with her phone in hand, probably
texting somebody.

"Of course I'm surprised. She doesn't want a gay grandson so bad that she'd
go and pay the guy I'm in love with to leave me? You're dammed right that
would surprise me," I said not liking the fact that I was essentially
yelling at my sister, but she seemed to take it in stride.

"Bear, wake up and smell the reality. She doesn't hate Trey because he's a
guy involved with her grandson, she hates him because he's a black guy
involved with her grandson," Steph said like she'd said was obvious.

"Steph, grandma isn't racist," I said not wanting that to be true.

"So you'd rather believe that she's homophobic, which she probably is,
instead of a racist, which she definitely is?" Steph asked and I had to
consider what she'd said. If I really looked at grandma's actions the day
before, I could see that she had a problem with Trey even before I came out
to them, but then again, they already knew that part. The doorbell rang
ripping me from my thoughts.

"Hey kids," my mother's mother said as she came into the living room after
having been let in by Juanita.

"Where have you been?" I asked her. I noted the aggressiveness of my tone,
but I didn't try to correct it.

"I was just out looking around, looking to see what's changed," she lied
and it was obvious too.

"Yeah right," Steph muttered.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" grandmother asked likely thinking that Steph
would backtrack as she'd obviously heard her.

"Why would you care about what's changed? You've never lived here," Steph
said and I agreed.

"Well that shouldn't stop me from wanting to explore the town," she said
and she was annoying me with her perceived cleverness.

"Did your `exploring' happen to take you over to Trey's house by any
chance?" I asked losing my patience with her. I saw in her eyes immediately
that she knew that Trey had called me.

"I don't know what you mean. I don't even know where that... boy lives,"
she said and I took note of the pause in her response and the well hidden,
but still noticeable dislike for Trey in her voice.

"Don't lie to me," I warned her in a tone that I'd never thought I'd have
to use with my grandmother. She seemed appropriately surprised before I saw
her act dissolve.

"I see he called you," she said coldly.

"Of course he did. Did you think he wouldn't, and how did you even kniw
where he lived?" I asked her. Despite all of this though, I was still not
willing to believe Steph.

"Well, Brian told me, and I was hoping to not be having this conversation,"
she said and it pissed me off how cavalier she was being. I added the Brian
part to all the other reason I had to kick his ass and sit that aside for
the moment.

"Yeah, I'll bet you didn't," Steph said bitterly.

"Steph, knock it off," I told her hoping she'd listen. I was trying to have
it out with our grandmother and I didn't need her words in my head adding
fuel to the fire.

"I'm sorry, but no. I've held my tongue long enough," she said as she stood
up.

"Look Stephy, I know that you're still angry about having to go to that
school but," grandmother said before she was cut off.

"This isn't even about that. This is about the fact that you tried to pay
Trey to break up with Bear because you don't want a black guy in your
family," Steph said and I watched grandmother very carefully to see her
reaction.

"You can't be serious? What would give you that idea?" grandmother asked
defending herself. I really wanted to believe that this wasn't true.

"The fact that I heard you talking to mom the last time you were here,"
Steph said.

"And what do you think you heard?" grandmother asked with her eyes
narrowed. It was all starting to fall into place, but I had to hear what
Steph said. Steph walked over to her, I guess to prove that she wasn't
intimidated by grandmother's glare.

"You said, and I quote: `Why do you have to let Barry play with those
children, especially that little colored boy? Aren't there any nice
respectable white children at that school he goes to?' By the way, that's
why mom didn't invite you back here after that. She didn't want your racist
ass in her house," Steph said and grandmother slapped her hard.

"You watch your mouth when you talk to me young lady. I don't know how your
mother raised you two, but it's obvious that judging by the way you two
have turned out, she didn't do it right," grandmother said and I was about
to tell this woman a few things but I was interrupted by mom and grandpa
talking to each other as they headed our way.

"Hey kids, mother," mom said as they entered the room. I noticed that she
didn't sound particularly warm when she'd said the word `mother'. I then
realized that she'd not been too friendly towards grandmother for the
longest time, which actually lined up to what Steph had said.

"I want them out of here," I said before I knew it, but I decided to go
with it.

"What? Who do you want out of here?" mom asked but I think she knew as she
glanced quickly at both of her parents.

"Your parents. I know about the conversation you and your mother had the
last time she was here," I told her. I realized that this was her house and
I had no right to demand such a thing but I was pissed off so my thinking
wasn't the best.

"You told them?" mom asked and I was shocked that she'd recalled it and
knew of what I'd been referring to so quickly.

"No I didn't. Your nosy big-mouthed daughter did," grandmother said and
that was the final straw. I started toward her, but Steph grabbed my arm
and pulled me back.

"What the heck is going on here?" grandfather asked. I looked at him and I
started to feel the same way about him that I did about his wife.

"I want you two out of here because your wife is a racist," I demanded.

"What do you mean-" he tried, but I jumped in.

"Don't even try it. There's no way you could be with her for so long and
not know. Hell, you're probably one too," I told him. I looked at my mother
and I saw that she was not very happy with me.

"Bear, I won't have you talking to my parents like that," she warned but I
wondered what she'd do after I informed her of her mother's morning
activities.

"You're gonna defend them, defend her? Will you still defend her when I
tell you that while you were out with your father, she went over to Trey's
place trying to pay him to leave me?" I asked and the look of shock that
appeared on her face was almost funny.

"Mother!" mom shouted.

"Maude!" grandfather said at the same time.

"What? I told you Harry that I didn't want that boy involved with Barry,
and I told you April that you needed to find him some different
friends. Look what happened because you didn't," grandmother said and I
noticed that same glare that grandmother had been giving Steph now aimed at
her by mom.

"What happened? Bear found himself someone who loves him and he loves him
right back. Oh no, we can't have that," mom said and I was smiling a bit at
mom going after her mother.

"Now wait a minute..." grandmother started but was cut off by mom.

"No you wait a minute. You don't get to come into my home and talk about
anybody, especially my children. Now, Bear loves Trey and Trey loves him
and I don't care if Trey is Black, White, Asian, Mexican, Jewish or
Muslim. It doesn't matter to me because when I look at people, I don't see
a color, or a religion, I see a person, and I couldn't think of anybody
better to marry my son," mom said and I'm happy to hear that. I had finally
gotten what she really felt about my relationship with Trey from her own
mouth.

"I told you Harry that we never should have let April marry
that... Lawrence. If she'd never met him then she'd have never met that
woman. This is all his fault," grandmother said and I felt Steph's grip
tighten on my arm. I guess she thought I'd try going after that woman
again.

"Get out of my house," mom said through gritted teeth.

"Now honey," grandpa tried, but mom wasn't having it.

"Get her out of my house, now!" she demanded before calling for Juanita.

"Yes ma'am?" Juanita asked when she came in.

"Get Mr. and Mrs. Forrester's things together. They're leaving, right now,"
mom said and I could have sworn that I saw a slight smirk appear on
Juanita's face.

"April, don't do anything you'll regret," grandmother said in a seemingly
normal way, but it was obvious that she'd meant it as a warning. Mom though
walked up to and got real close.

"Don't even think about doing any of that shit that you think I don't know
about to Trey, or you'll be the one with regrets," mom said in an obvious
warning, but I was really concerned about what she'd just said.

Juanita brought their bags down and grandfather tried to reason with mom,
but she wasn't hearing it. She told him that he was welcome to come back
anytime, but that her mother wasn't welcome to come again. Grandmother
picked up one of her suitcases and walked away after shooting a look of
distaste at me and Steph.

Grandfather looked at mom but ultimately decided to stick with his wife so
he picked up the two remaining suitcases and followed her. Mom then walked
over and hugged Steph and then me, but I was still preoccupied with what
she'd said.

"What will she do to Trey?" I asked not liking the anxiousness of my voice.

"Don't worry about it," she said but I was worried about it.

"Well I am worried. I've just been through hell with Trey being in a
coma. I don't think I can take anything else happening to him," I told
her. Her expression softened and she reached up and laid her had against my
cheek.

"She won't do anything to Trey. I promise you that," she said and her
strong gaze was able to convince me that she was serious.

I gave her a nod and she smiled a sad smile and walked away. Steph walked
up and hugged me and I appreciated her all the more. After all of this, her
attitude toward grandmother made sense. I had originally thought that she
was just bitter because she had to go to that all girls school, but
thinking back on it, her attitude toward our grandmother had changed before
then.

I silently thanked her and was happy that she too seemed to approve of Trey
in her own way as she was angry with her own grandmother because she knew
that grandmother didn't like Trey and she knew why. I was happy that she
liked Trey, but I was sad that Brian couldn't feel the same about him as he
was such a lovable guy that it just makes me so angry when people like
Brian and Drake and... Kent pop up.

********

TREY'S POV


"Trey, you've been sitting there with your arms folded and glaring at me
for the last 20 minutes. Are you gonna say anything?" Dr. Manning said. It
was true that I'd barely said anything since I arrived for my session, but
I was still secretly stewing about Bear's grandmother. I still couldn't
believe that old bag thought I'd accept her money and break up with
Bear. The fact that she didn't want me with Bear wasn't so much that I was
a guy, but that I was a black guy.

"Why do you hate me?" I blurted out. I was momentarily embarrassed but I
got over it quickly when I decided that my parents were paying for this so
I'd better get their money's worth.

"I don't hate you. Why would you think I hate you?" he asked looking
genuinely confused.

"Why do people like you hate people like me?" I elaborated in a bitter
tone. He looked even more confused before he decided to respond.

"Trey, I don't hate people like you. If I had a problem with you being gay,
I wouldn't have taken you on as a patient," he said and I realized where he
had gotten mixed up so I elaborated further.

"I wasn't talking about my being gay. I was talking about my being black,"
I said and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Again I say that I don't have a problem with you being black," he said but
I was in a shitty mood and wasn't about to believe him.

"Don't play that game with me. Let me ask you, if you got into an elevator
alone and just before the door closes a black guy got on with you and then
the door closes. He isn't in between shades like me, but a dark skinned
black guy with baggy jeans and a hoodie, and maybe a tattoo. Tell me what
would you do?" I asked him with maybe a bit of misplaced spite.

"Well, I'd ride the elevator like I always do," he said after about a
minute of silence.

"No you wouldn't. You'd subtly move away from him and hope that the
elevator hurried up to your floor or someone else got on the elevator
before that guy did something. That's a shame since my friend Christian
dresses similar to what I just described but he's a sweetheart of guy," I
said and I felt momentary guilt for thinking that way, but I pushed that
aside when Maude popped back into my head.

"Trey, don't you think that you're doing what you're accuse all white
people of doing?" he asked and I did think that, for a moment before I also
pushed that aside.

"No I don't," I answered bitterly.

"Yes you are. You're accusing me and every white person of being a racist
just because a few are. I happen to know-" he said before I finished for
him.

"You happen to know a lot of black people so you aren't racist. Well let me
try this on you. Do you see that picture over there with that good looking
guy with your daughter... Tell me what you would have done and how you
would have felt if when she brought that good looking guy home, he had been
black," I said and I knew that I'd struck a nerve when I saw a flash of
anger in his eyes. He managed to cover it up quickly though.

"Trey, I wouldn't normally do this, but since you seem so hell-bent on
declaring me an enemy, I'm going to," he said before pulling out his phone
and I was curious what he was gonna do and I felt real guilt finally that I
had been basically attacking him for Maude's actions.

"Look, you don't..." I said trailing off as he handed me his phone after
doing something on it. I saw a picture of him with a black dude and
Dr. Manning had his arm around the guys back and they had big smiles.

"That's my best friend and we've been friends for almost 20 years," he said
and I felt even more guilty. He reached for the phone and I gave it to
him. He swiped several times and handed the phone back to me. "That's my
best friend with my sister at their wedding 18 years ago. 20 years ago, he
was the guy who my sister brought home and he became my closest friend," he
said and that definitely didn't help my guilt any.

"Dr. Manning, I'm sorry. It's just that I haven't had a good hold on my
emotions since I was attacked," I told him and his hard expression softened
to the one he usually had.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," he said but it wasn't okay.

"It's not okay. I used to be able to hide my feelings so well but now it
seems that they have a mind of their own and I can't control them," I said
and I thought back to the past and was thankful that this wasn't going on
back then as I wouldn't have been able to hide anything from anyone,
especially Bear.

"Trey, that's a good thing. It's not good to hide everything you feel
inside. That is one of the major problems with you. Also, while it doesn't
directly have anything to do with this issue, you can't judge some people
by what others do," he said and I knew that he was right, but I just
couldn't stop yearning for that control again.

"Why do people hate other people?" I asked a question that had plagued me
ever since I'd heard that conversation between my dad, my uncle Eric, and
their friend Taylor when I was 10. Dr. Manning was silent for a minute
while he looked deep in thought.

"Some people hate what they don't understand. Whether it be someone of a
different ethnicity, or color, or sexual orientation, or religion. They
don't understand and even sometimes they may even fear it too, so they hate
it," he said and it sounded similar to what I'd heard somewhere before but
it didn't seem to be enough.

"I don't buy that. It seems too contrived," I said honestly. He chuckled a
bit which slightly angered me.

"I like you Trey. You think about things a lot, but that could be a
detriment at times," he said and I was in full agreement of that.

"You don't have to tell me that. I'm well aware," I said and he chuckled
again.

"Also, I said some people hate what they fear or don't understand. Others
just do so because they have hatred in their hearts and they pick this one
thing about someone, usually something they can't control or change. That
way they're ensured that their hatred can stick because, well the person
can't change that which makes them hated. I don't know everything though so
I may be wrong," he said, but what he said was way more than I'd come up
with.

"I don't know, I think you did a satisfactory job of answering my
question," I told him and he smiled.

"Good, now I want you to answer a question for me," he said and I decided
to try and answer it seeing as how he'd taken my anger and given me
something to think on.

"Okay, shoot," I said. He took off his glasses and put them in his shirt
pocket again before he spoke.

"Do you think I'm attractive?" he asked as he struck the same "the thinker"
inspired pose he'd done the last time he asked me that question. I looked
incredulously at him and he smirked at me and winked which only served to
pissed me off.


****RECOVERY****


"Are you sure about this?" Bear asked as we sat in his truck.

"No, but I need to do this. I know that it won't get rid of all of the
guilt I feel, but maybe it'll help," I told him.

"There's nothing for you to feel guilty about Trey," he said while looking
at me intently. I could see he really believed that. I smiled and kissed
him briefly before I hopped out of the truck.

I walked up a few feet to stand on the walkway of the large bricked
exterior colonial style two story house. It was a nice house and I filed
the design away for use in the future when Bear and I would hopefully be
looking for a house.

I walked up the walkway to the porch and stood at the cherry wood door. I
was a bit nervous, but I pushed that aside and rang the doorbell. After
hearing it chime I immediately had second thoughts and thought about just
bolting back to Bear's truck and telling him to gun it away from there but
that would be childish and cowardly. My plans to do that were foiled anyway
when the door opened and a young woman stood there with glasses and brown
hair in a pony tail.

"Hello, may I help you?" she asked and I had a fleeting thought that she
should have asked who I was before opening the door.

"Yes, I am looking for Mr. or Mrs. Harrow," I told the girl. She looked to
be maybe in her late teens or early 20's.

"You're Trey," she said after studying me for about 30 seconds.

"You know me?" I asked stupidly. Of course she would know the guy who got
her, I would guess brother, killed.

"Yeah I do. Come on in," she said as she stood back and let me in. I
hesitantly walked through the door and she closed it behind her before
turning to me.

"Is Mr. or Mrs. Harrow in?" I asked her wanting to get this over with
because just being in that house was making me sweat.

"Follow me," she said before walking away. I followed her into a
comfortably decorated living room with a bunch of books and papers
scattered around in the area near the big picture window. We both took a
seat on the comfortable sofa and I was able to look out of the window. I
saw Bear's truck and I figured that she'd seen us arrive because she'd
probably been sitting there in the midst of the school mess.

"Nice place," I said after an uncomfortable silence.

"Thanks. By the way, I'm Clyde's sister Becky," she said.

"Oh," I said back. This was going just great.

"My dad is at work and my mom is running some errands," she said and that
was my cue to leave.

"Oh, well I guess I'll come back," I said as I stood up. I wanted to leave
as this had been a bad idea.

"No wait, please," she said as she looked at me. I don't know why, but
after looking at her for a few seconds, I became a bit calmer so I sat back
down. The uncomfortable silence returned though.

"I see you're doing some studying," I said trying again to break the ice.

"Yeah, I am. Finals are right around the corner and I'm not looking forward
to that," she said and I really couldn't relate as I didn't anticipate any
problems with my finals, but I wasn't in college.

"Yeah tell me about it," I agreed with her though anyway.

"You're a senior right?" she asked and I noticed she seemed to be relaxing
just a bit as was I.

"Yeah I am," I answered.

"So am I," she said. She then stood up and went over to a thing that looked
like a book case but when she opened it, inside was a small fridge. She got
two sodas out and walked back and handed me one that was surprisingly a
root beer, my favorite.

"Thanks," I said after taking the drink. "So, where do you go to school?" I
asked her before opening my root beer and taking a sip.

"I go to Columbia. It's gonna be weird not being there in the fall," she
said and I was impressed. Columbia had been on my short list of
schools. After that we fell into another silence as we drank our drinks.

"I'm sorry," I finally said after the silence had dragged on too long. She
looked at me for a few seconds before she responded.

"You're sorry for what?" she asked even though it was obvious what I was
referring to.

"Clyde is dead because of me. It's my fault he's gone," I said again
regretting my decision to do this.

"You weren't the one who killed my brother. That Kent guy tried to kill you
and my brother tried to help you, and he did," she said in a reassuring
tone, but I wasn't receptive to it.

"He should have just let whatever happened to me happen," I said and she
frowned although I wasn't sure why.

"That wasn't my brother. He was... I guess I would say, a noble person. He
was the type to climb up a tree to rescue a stranded cat, to help an old
lady cross the street, to help someone who he saw struggling with heavy
bags of packages. He was the type of guy who would jump in front of a
bullet to save someone he didn't know very well but respected all the
same," she said and I felt even more guilty because such a great person was
taken from his family because of me.

"It's not fair," I said softly holding back my emotions.

"No it's not. I'm not surprised by what happened though, that he saved your
life," she said with a small smile.

"What do you mean?" I asked but then my answer came as I replayed her words
back over in my head and I remembered that she said that Clyde respected
me. How could he respect me though when he barely knew me?

"He told me about you. He talked about how he was conflicted because it
seemed like he should hate you, but after spending some time with you and
seeing what you went through from a closer vantage point, he just couldn't
justify hating you," she said I was again shocked by how he thought.

"How did he..." I trailed off because I didn't know how to phrase what I
wanted to ask without making it sound insulting, at least to me anyway. She
seemed to pick up on what I was trying to say and smiled.

"How did he come off as your typical `dumb jock' yet have such an
enlightened way of thinking? I was stumped too, but I guess people are
complicated and never really fit into one category," she said and I could
see that she was indeed Clyde's sister.

"I feel like I robbed him of his life. He'll never get to graduate high
school and possibly play football in college. He'll never meet that special
someone and get married to them and start a family of his own," I told her
and that thought truly hit me hard.

"Well, maybe you can do some of that for him in his memory," she said and
that got me to thinking. I could continue being consumed with guilt or I
could move forward with my life, the one that Clyde sacrificed his life to
protect, and live on in his memory and enjoy my life.

"Thank you. I won't forget Clyde or the sacrifice he made," I reassured
her. I'd make sure I kept him in my memory for a long as I lived.

"I'm sure you won't," she said after reaching over and patting my hand.

We talked for about 15 more minutes with her telling me that she was sorry
about what had happened with her uncle at Clyde's funeral. She said that
she was sure that at least Bear would have told me what had happened.

She said that she was disappointed that her parents hadn't done anything to
stop her uncle, and she too had questioned if they agreed with him and
she'd confronted her father about that fact and he said that he was just
unable to do anything as he was too grief-stricken. I understood that but I
could tell that she still had her doubts.

We finally decided to break it up and I decided to come back another time
and speak with her parents as I was drained at the moment. We stood and she
saw me to the door and told me to say hello to Bear for her. I told her I
would and walked out of the door which she closed behind me.

"Well, how was it?" Bear asked after I'd gotten back to the truck and
gotten inside.

"His parents weren't there but I did talk to his sister. It was... good. I
feel a bit better," I told him and he smiled and took my hand in his and
kissed the back of it before he started the truck and pulled away from the
Harrow residence.

********

I didn't know that my brother talked this much. Well that wasn't the truth
as he used to do it when he was younger, but he had cooled down after he
became a teenager. Now though, he and Alex were talking a mile a minute and
were currently giving me a headache.

We were in my truck heading for school and the best I could tell, some girl
was the focus of their lively conversation. I pulled into the parking space
that I usually used and I hopped out of my truck quickly to get away from
all the chatter.

"Hey Trey, where're you rushing off to?" Calvin asked after he and Alex got
out and followed me.

"Away from you two. You're giving me a headache with all that chatter," I
told him. A scowl appeared on his face and he looked like he was about to
comment before two girls walked by and that scowl was replaced with a dopey
grin.

"Hey Calvin," the two girls said as they walked by. I recognized them only
as being freshmen like Calvin and Alex were.

"Hey ladies," Calvin said trying to play it cool and dropping his voice
some. I almost laughed but I didn't want to embarrass him when he was
clearly trying to mack on these girls.

"They just completely ignored me," Alex pouted a little.

"Hey, what can I say, I just got it like that," Calvin boasted before he
walked away with Alex following behind him a few seconds later after
rolling his eyes hard at Calvin. I just shook my head and continued into
the building. I saw Mr. Renner talking to Alicia briefly before she left
and I was reminded that I missed my duties as student council president.

It had been 4 months since I'd done anything in that regard as even after I
came back to school I still didn't resume my duties. Mr. Renner had told me
after I came back that I could take as much time as I needed or even just
let Alicia finish out the year and I was considering it, but it was time to
resume my position.

I headed for the office and checked to see if Mr. Renner was busy. His
secretary told me to go on in and I went in. He saw me and stood and walked
over to me and extended his hand in greeting and asked how I was doing, I
told him I was doing pretty good because for the most part I was. He then
asked me to have a seat as I guess he knew I wanted something.

"Now what can I do for you Trey?" he asked as he perched on the edge of his
desk near me.

"Well I was wondering if I could resume my counsel duties," I told him and
he looked shocked briefly.

"Well I just assumed that you would let Alicia finish up the year since you
haven't come to me since you've been back at school," he said and I
wondered again if maybe I should.

"I need to be busy," I said simply deciding to not elaborate further. I
wanted to do something to keep myself sane when my mind started to drift
toward things it shouldn't, although it hadn't been doing that very much
since I started getting into my therapy.

"Well I have no problems with it. I'll have a talk with Alicia sometime
today so you can already be ready as there should be a meeting today," he
said and I stood and extended my hand to him.

"Thanks Mr. Renner," I said as he shook my hand.

"No problem Trey," he said.

"I'll see you later," I said as I headed for the door.

"Oh I know. I'm sure I'll be seeing you sometime this week," he said
sounding a bit cryptic.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I studied him trying to decipher what he'd
meant.

"You'll see," he said with a conspiratorial smirk. I wondered if it had
anything to do with Alicia but I didn't get the chance to ask as he was
buzzed by his secretary and told he was needed in the Media room.

I left his office and headed for my locker. As I walked I noticed that I
didn't command as much attention as I did when I first arrived back at
school, but there were still people looking at me like they were trying to
figure something out. I put them out of my head though and I even put Drake
and his stupid girlfriend out of my mind as I passed them and they glared
at me. When I arrived at my locker Christian and Liberty were at his.

"Hey boo boo," Liberty said in greeting. I smiled as she hadn't called me
that in a long time and I didn't realize that I missed it.

"Hey Lib," I said as I opened my locker and stowed my backpack.

"What's up mi amigo?" Christian asked after closing his own locker.

"Nothing much Christiano," I joked adding a so-called Spanish flair to his
name. "Did you become a Latino or something over the weekend?" I continued
to joke. They looked at each other and snickered a weird snicker.

"Well," Liberty started with a cheesy grin but I immediately stopped that
in it's tracks.

"I don't want to know," I said with my hand held up.

"What, you don't wanna hear about me and Christian fucking?" she asked with
a cocky grin while Christian's eyes flew wide open.

"Liberty, eww," I said completely grossed out for a number of reasons.

"Oh you can dish it out, but you can't take it. Consider that payback," she
said and I was confused by what she meant, but then I remembered several
months earlier when I had done something similar to her.

"Touché," I replied.

"So, have you heard from Jessica?" Liberty asked and I hadn't so I said so.

"Nope. Is there a reason I should be expecting to hear from her?" I asked
them.

"She wants to have a party and she wants you to approve it," Christian said
and of course.

"Why does she want to have a party? Prom and graduation are next month. She
can wait `til then," I said but I knew that wouldn't fly.

"You know Jessica. If there isn't a party every other week she starts to
get anxious. Plus she was held back from doing any partying when you
were..." Liberty said, before she seemed to catch herself because she
stopped cold. I felt a brief twinge of guilt that I had held them up from
living their lives while I was in the coma.

"It's fine Liberty," I said to relieve her of whatever she was feeling. She
smiled so I guess I was successful. Christian got a text on his phone just
then.

"Oh, Sed wants to know if he can stay with one of you guys since he's
coming down for the graduation," he said and I was confused.

"Why can't he stay with you?" I asked.

"Well, my parents put the word out that he wasn't to be allowed around so I
need to find somewhere else to stash him," Christian explained. I'd heard a
little bit of the circumstances of Christian coming to live with his aunt
and uncle and he sounded a bit bitter when talking about his parents.

"Well I know of someplace to stash him and I'm sure Carter will be all for
it," I said jokingly trying to keep the mood light.

"I don't know how Carter's dad would feel about another boy staying at
their house with his gay son," Liberty said.

"Yeah, especially since Sed ain't no boy," Christian added and I guess I
had been right when I thought that Sed looked to be older than us when we'd
met him.

"How old is he?" I asked ignoring a brief flash of my asking someone else a
similar question recently.

"All I'll say is that he's over 20," Christian said with a smirk. I was
about to respond but I saw those girls pass by again and they made me think
for a second.

"Lib, do you know who those girls are?" I asked her directing her attention
to the two girls.

"You mean you want the name of the girl who has your brother's nose wide
open," she said and I rolled my eyes.

"I didn't say all that," I played it off.

"Yeah whatever. All I know is that they're freshmen and that the shorter,
darker skinned one, the one that your brother is moony over is named
Anika. I think her friend's name is Mirage," she said.

"Mirage?" I said because, really?

"Hey, I said I think that's her name. That's what I've heard anyway so I
might be wrong. You could ask Jess though as she's tapped into the gossip
scene more than I am," she responded and I disagreed with that but I didn't
say it.

After that everyone else started to show up as it was almost time for
school to start. Bear walked up and gave me a quick peck on the lips and it
was strange to see that it still drew a few stares from people to see it. I
ignored them though and we all departed for homeroom as the warning bell
rang.

********

After first period I headed for my locker because I had to get a paper I
needed for second period. As I arrived at my locker I saw Jeremy leaning up
against it. When I got close he noticed me and looked up and moved away
from the locker and seemed to resolve himself to do something as he squared
his shoulders and looked at me.

"Hey Trey," he said as I came to a stop in front of him.

"Hey Jeremy," I said back.

"I see you're doing better," he said obviously stalling.

"Yeah I'm doing good," I told him. While my physical injuries were mostly
gone aside from the scars from the gunshot wounds, he didn't need to know
what all his brother had done to me that left mental scars.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out and I dreaded him doing this as I worried how I
would react to it, but I found that I wasn't angry with him.

"You didn't have anything to do with what happened to me Jeremy. Your
brother just couldn't deal with seeing a gay guy walking around so close to
him without doing something about it," I said and maybe I sounded a bit
snarky but I had to do something to stop myself from seeing Kent in Jeremy
and my old tried and true methods of dealing were gonna have to suffice.

"I feel guilty that I didn't stop Kent or Todd. If I had said something to
either of them..." he said and I knew that what he was thinking wasn't
gonna end well.

"Jeremy, they weren't gonna listen to you. Todd was too busy hating the
fact that he was gay and in some ways I can relate to that because I did
too, only not to the extent that he did. Your brother wasn't gonna listen
to you for the sole reason that he thought he was smarter than you being
your older brother so there was nothing you could do," I told him and he
seemed to be listening to me and digesting what I was saying.

"I just feel like I never really knew any of my family members," he said
and I wished I could take whatever bad feelings he was having away, but I
guess we all had our crosses to bear, even undeserved ones.

"I guess my family felt the same way about me at one time," I said and I
briefly wondered if they still felt that way.

"Well I just wanted to apologize to you for everything you've gone through
with my family this year. I know that I didn't have anything to do with it,
but I feel like I should apologize for them, you know," he said and I did
see where he was coming from.

"I get it, but I'm not going to accept your apology," I told him and he
deflated a little bit but tried to hide it. "I'm not going to accept your
apology because it's not your place to apologize for them as you're not in
the wrong here. Besides, they wouldn't want you doing so for them because
they don't think they did anything wrong," I elaborated and he seemed to
accept this.

"I guess I'll have to take that. Now, on to the second thing I wanted to
talk to you about," he said and I had to admire the nice segue.

"Okay," I said still recovering from the sudden change in topic.

"Well, I wanted to get your take on starting a Gay and Straight Alliance
here at school," he said and I was shocked for more than one reason. One
was that I was disappointed in myself for not thinking about that.

"That's actually a really good idea. I just can't believe that I never
thought about it," I told him.

"Yeah well, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea back when you first
became student council president because some people would have thought
that you were trying to further the so-called `gay agenda' with just you
and Bear. Now though, you have Carter, Todd, Tony, and Bruce and Natasha
Blade's sister Sarah so there's more gay students that will be a part of
it," he said and quite a few things he said stood out.

"Wait, Bruce is gay?" I asked because... huh?

"Yeah, I thought you knew. I thought you guys had that gaydar thing?" he
said looking confused.

"Yeah well mine is obviously malfunctioning otherwise I would have known
about Bear, which would have saved me years of inner turmoil. I also would
have known about Todd saving me months of dealing with him," I said and he
snickered a little.

"Yeah well," he said offhandedly. "You'd better get that calibrated since
you're gonna be in college in the fall and I hear that there's a lot of gay
guys there, especially in the frats," he said and I laughed a bit. I then
thought about Todd and if he'd want to be involved in it and if I'd want
him to be.

"Do you think Todd will want to be apart of it?" I asked Jeremy. I hadn't
seen Todd since his outing except for a few instances.

"I don't know. I've tried to talk to him, but he hasn't had much to say to
me. I'll get unc-, I mean coach to try and get him to at least consider
it," Jeremy said and I was still conflicted.

"Well it'll only be for a month hopefully if we can get this off the ground
as quickly as possible so that might get him to consider doing it," I said
and I guess that it wasn't up to me if this helped him any.

"Yeah. Well I'll hopefully carry the mantle next year after you guys are
off at college," he said and I knew he could do it.

"If I have anything to say about it, you'll be my successor," I said and I
meant it.

We broke up after a couple more minutes because it was about time for our
next period to begin. I wanted to get on this as soon as possible so I
decided to skip lunch and head to see Mr. Renner. Just before I got to the
office I recalled his cryptic parting. I knew now what he'd meant. Jeremy
had already gone to him about this.

I went in to see him and he had a smile as if saying `I told you so' which
I just rolled my eyes at. We sat down and ironed out all the pros and cons
but eventually we decided that it was a good idea.

Alicia didn't look all that happy about my return to duty, but I ignored
her and we all started planning everything although Alicia was less than
cooperative. I found myself looking at Bruce a few times and he'd catch me
doing so. One of the times he smiled and winked at me which I guess was his
acknowledgement that he knew that I knew about him.

It was weird that when I started my Junior year, I didn't think there were
any other gay students at my school which I admit was foolish. Now there
were several that I knew about with a few of them being football jocks,
including my own huge jock. Thinking about Bear made me smile and also made
me feel other things that also made me smile as that was more progress.

We announced the GSA formation on Wednesday with me choosing to let Jeremy
do it. I had ulterior motives though as one, I didn't want any backlash
from this which I felt there would be with it coming from me although I
knew realistically that people would know I had my hand in it and two, I
wanted the students who would still be at school in the fall to get a feel
for who their next council president should be.

The first GSA meeting was on Friday and I was nervous all day anticipating
something to go wrong. I mean, Drake was still lurking around and who knows
what other people thought of our little initiative. The meeting was to be
in the council room and we waited after school to see if anyone would show
up.

"I don't know why but I'm excited," Tina said sounding very chipper.

"Maybe it's because you're a big lesbo and you're just dying to tell the
world," Alicia said snidely.

"Excuse me?" I asked her with the appropriate amount of attitude.

"Nothing," she huffed.

"Do you think anyone will come?" Jeremy asked as he walked over to me.

"Well I already talked to Tony so I know he's coming and Bear and Carter
are a lock," I said. I again wondered about Todd.

"We should be more concerned with the straight students as this is a Gay
and Straight Alliance. It's supposed to be a joint venture between Gay and
Straight student to promote tolerance of LGBT students," Bruce said
eloquently. I was a bit sorry that he wouldn't be around to help Jeremy
next year as he was a senior like I was.

"Yeah I agree," I said. About that time Bear arrived along with Carter,
Sean, Dale and few other football jocks.

"Hey baby," Bear said before he kissed me.

"Hey yourself," I said back after I pulled away.

"Behold the bounty of jocks I have brought you," Bear said and I couldn't
stop myself from shaking my head at him. I heard Bruce snort and when I
looked at him he was eyeing Glen Neely. He was probably the smartest guy on
the football team and I regretted never truly trying to get to know him as
he seemed receptive of the whole gay thing, especially since he was at the
meeting.

"Well I thank you for the wonderful -and hot- bounty you've brought," I
joked which brought about some laughter.

"Can we get this started?" Alicia asked impatiently.

"Hush child," Tina said with a hand in Alicia's face. Alicia countered with
a sneer.

"We still have another 5 minutes before the meeting starts," I told her and
she rolled her eyes and I did the same.

Over the next 5 minutes, more students showed up including the rest of my
friends, my brother and Alex accompanied by those two freshmen girls, Tony
Mason, Brandy Carlson and her cousin Donnie who was another football
player, Natasha Blade and her sister Sarah. I hadn't really seen Natasha
since that junior dance where she'd been Sean's date. Seeing her oddly
brought me back to what I considered the beginning of the changes that have
occurred up to that point.

It was almost time for the meeting to start and I looked around the room
and saw so many people and that made me feel things were gonna change and
that I would indeed leave an impact, a legacy behind at school when I was
gone. I went to close the door so the meeting could start but as I was
closing the door, someone else stepped in and I'll admit that I was
surprised.

"Hey," Todd said softly.

"Hey, come on in," I told him. He looked into the room and mostly everyone
was looking back at him. He looked extremely nervous and a little panicked
and he looked like he regretted coming and was going to leave but I found
myself reaching out and grabbing his arm. He looked down at my hand on his
arm then looked up at me. I saw so much of my old self, so much of what I
was still plagued with in his eyes that I couldn't hate him anymore.

"C'mon dude," Jeremy said as he walked over to him. Jeremy placed a hand on
his shoulder and guided him into the room to sit next to him. I looked over
and saw that Bear was watching me very carefully. I winked at him and he
seemed to relax some and smile back at me. I walked to the front of the
room and stood at the little podium we rarely used.

"Thank you all for coming today. I first want to thank my co-president
Alicia Lake for taking over and handling things while I wasn't able to," I
said and she looked surprised for a few seconds before she played it off
with that usual Alicia attitude.

"It's about time," she said sounding annoyingly cocky. I briefly saw that
Bear was glaring at her. I had no idea why since that was just Alicia being
Alicia and it was a serious glare, but I pushed that aside for the time
being.

"Yes Alicia, we all want to thank you and we also appreciate how humble you
are," I said sarcastically which drew a few laughs.

"Whatever," she muttered.

"Now I want to say that I think that this Alliance will be good for the
school. I know that there are probably more gay student at this school and
more will be coming in the future. I feel a bit ashamed I dropped the ball
in that department by not doing this when I first became president, but
someone pointed out to me that it probably wouldn't have been the best
time. I still feel that with everything that's happening in the world to
gay people that we need somewhere that we feel safe and we also need a
place where we know that we have straight allies."

"I'm fortunate that I have a group of friends that are and have been with
me through thick and thin but there are a lot of gay, lesbian, and
transgender teenagers who don't have support from family or
friends. There's also some who don't even have any friends as they choose
to isolate themselves from people because they fear the reaction to their
sexual orientation or that they don't have friends because of what people
think about them from only their appearance."

"These students need somewhere, a place where they know that there are
others like them and know that there are other people who will accept them
for who they are and not judge them by just one aspect of their whole
person. That's the goal of the GSA. Now I know that most of us in this room
won't be here after next month but there will be someone here that I hope
will carry on our goal. Now for that person, we're gonna bring up Jeremy
Davis, the one with who this wouldn't be happening now. Come on up Jeremy,"
I finished and I actually got an applause. It was a small one as there
wasn't a huge crowd there but there were enough people there that it was
still loud enough.

As I headed for my seat I looked at Bear and he had such a look of pride in
his eyes that it briefly took my breath away. Jeremy went up and talked
about why he waned this to happen. He talked about his family and how they
made him feel. Several people looked at me as he described Kent's behavior
as they knew what it had led to. He closed by repeating the jist of what
I'd said in his own words.

I then went back up and told everyone that I wanted all of the gay students
to come and stand next me just to let everyone know who was who. I also had
a small ulterior motive though. Bear and Carter of course got up and came
up along with Tony. Then Sarah Blade came up. Bruce got up and came up and
that surprised Alicia, Tina and the rest of the council.

That was everybody except for one person. Todd looked around nervously
before looking at me. I don't know what he saw in me but I saw him drum up
the courage to stand up and walk to stand with us. I was just about to
speak when I was interrupted.

"Hold up," Veronica said with her hand held up before she too stood and
walked up to stand with us.

"Veronica, what are you doing?" Alicia asked and I think most everyone was
stunned.

"Veronica..." I said leaving an opening for her to continue.

"I think I may be bisexual," she said sounding confused but still resolved
to do this.

"You think you may be bisexual?" Alicia repeated as a question.

"Ronnie, are you sure?" Sean asked.

"At least you can tell your dad Marcus didn't get it from him," Veronica
joked nervously.

"That explains why you wouldn't go out with me," Bear said and I gave him a
shot with my elbow.

"Well there you have it. Gay, lesbian and bisexual students here and we're
all normal people. Aside from who we're attracted to there's nothing else
that's different about us. That's what I want this Alliance to show all the
other students at this school, for those of us that are only here for the
next month or so and for those that are here for the long haul," I said and
I got another applause.

After that I started by giving them a brief history of my journey to where
I was then, then I let Tony have the floor and he did the same. We decided
to wrap for the day after that and continue next time. In the end it was a
great experience and again I was disappointed in myself for not doing it
sooner, but at least I did get it done.

********

"What's your I.Q.," Dr. Manning asked. It was a completely random question,
but I was all for answering it.

"I don't know," I answered.

"You don't know your I.Q.? I would have thought someone as intelligent as
you would have gotten that tested long ago," he said and I agreed.

"I just never had it done," I said but I could tell that he noted that
something was up.

"Is there a reason that you didn't do it?" he asked confirming my
suspicion.

"I just, I didn't want to know. I've always been a bit concerned by how
smart I was and I didn't want people looking at me like a freak any more
than they already were without the test," I said speaking something I'd
never said out loud before.

"You're happy now, aren't you?" he asked and the way he said it made me
suspicious.

"Well, mostly yeah I am. Why do you ask like that though?" I asked.

"Because you're talking about something else, in this case your
intelligence, even though you just said you are concerned about it," he
said which sort of pissed me off.

"You asked me the question," I told him.

"Yeah I did because when I asked you what you feel when Bear tops for you,
you stared at me for 20 minutes without saying a word. I just wanted to
make sure my theory about you was right," he said which pissed me off even
more.

"And what theory would that be?" I asked snidely.

"That you like to use your intellect to avoid talking about things that
make you uncomfortable. You would even rather just talk about it
specifically instead of dealing with things that are more important," he
said and I had to remember this man was trying to help me. That reminder is
what kept me from throwing him out of his 8th floor window.

"Well, maybe I don't want to talk to you about what it feels like when Bear
fucks me," I told him bitterly.

"Is that what you call it?" he asked still with that annoyingly calm tone.

"Yeah sure, why not," I said.

"It just seems like such a crude and impersonal way to describe a sexual
act that happens between you and the man you claim that you love," he said
and I immediately felt bad that I'd said it like that. I'd just done it to
get at him but it didn't work.

"I don't think about it like that," I said in a deflated tone.

"Trey, I'm gonna say something here and I want you to listen and not
respond right away," he said and I knew this wasn't gonna be fun.

"Fine," I said begrudgingly.

"You are an expert at avoidance. You talk about anything to keep from
dealing with the issues that need to be dealt with. Even when you seemingly
talk openly about things, there's always a layer, a barrier that hides what
you're not saying underneath it. You hide things to keep from having to
deal with the emotions that come from confronting these things. Now those
feelings won't allow you to suppress them any longer and that frustrates
you to no end. I feel this stems from the fact that you felt you had to
keep your true self hidden from view for fear of rejection or worse. You
instead created a `false Trey' that you used as a shield to keep your
feelings at bay."

"You were afraid of your feelings for Bear and his reaction to them so you
hid them. You were afraid of your family's reaction to you being gay so you
hid that and your feelings for Bear. You were afraid of everyone,
especially Bear's reaction and how they would see you when they found out
about your rape so you hid that. Now I'm not saying that there wasn't
justification for those fears, but you can't avoid talking about difficult
things to avoid those messy things called emotions," he said summing me up
really well. That pissed me off royally and I was glad that he'd told me
not to respond immediately so I waited a good 5 minutes before I did.

"Fuck you," I said forcefully. I guess I didn't wait long enough.

"No thanks. I haven't done that since college," he said and I felt my eyes
open wide.

"What?" I asked while trying to close my bucked eyes as the air was hurting
them.

"You're not the only one who has shock ability," he said with a
self-satisfied smirk.

"I feel like I'm not normal sometimes," I said out of the blue. It startled
me as it just came out without my even thinking it.

"There's nothing wrong with that. I think Bear even loves the fact that
you're not normal. That's what you need to accept, that you may not be
normal, that you may not be able to deal with things like other people do,
and that's okay, as long as you do deal with them," he said and I let what
he'd said sink in.

"I like when he tops for me. It's been great every time we do it and I miss
it. I don't want to be ruined for him because I feel closer to him than any
other time when he's inside me," I told him feeling a great weight lift off
of me for some reason.

"I'm sure that you can feel that same feeling by topping for him if you're
never comfortable bottoming for him again. I also want you to tell yourself
over and over again until you listen and believe that what Kent did to you
isn't the same thing as when you and Bear are together," he said and I was
definitely gonna do that. I hoped that I could do it because I did miss
Bear. It had been over 4 months since we'd done anything and I know Bear
probably had blue balls after 4 months with no sex whatsoever.

"Thanks doc. I'll try it," I told him.

"Good, now for our last thing today," he said before taking off his glasses
and doing that same "the thinker" inspired pose before he spoke again. "Do
you think I'm attractive?" he asked and I just rolled my eyes at him.


****THE FINAL STRETCH****


It was the beginning of May and I was at my locker before school. Calvin
had just left with his new lady friends, Anika and Mirage, which actually
turned out to be her name. I was kind of in a daze thinking about
everything that had happened and wondering what was on the horizon. I
looked up and saw Jessica walking toward me, She looked too casual and I
knew something was up but I'd play it cool until she said something.

"Hey Trey," she said with an easy smile on her face. She was holding her
hands behind her back but that could mean anything.

"Hey Jess. You doing okay?" I asked her deciding to play her game, whatever
it was.

"Yeah, I'm good," she said although it was obvious that she was trying to
hold that smile down to a moderate level.

"Where are Liberty and Justice?" I asked her. They were usually together
since they lived next door to each other and they brought her to school
mostly every day.

"At home I guess, or maybe they're on the way here," she said and I guessed
what she was trying not to say.

"You got the charger," I said and her smile got a little bigger. She always
tried to get her dad's charger but he was stingy with that thing. She hated
her mom's car so she never wanted to drive it.

"Nope," she said before pulling out a set of keys and smiling a cheesy
grin.

"What is that?" I asked even though I kind of had an idea.

"My dad got me my own car," she said sounding entirely giddy.

"Well it's about time. I mean, you're about to graduate high school," I
said. I'd always wondered why they never got her a car. It couldn't be
because they couldn't afford it because her dad worked at a software
company and made good money.

"Yeah, that's why they gave it to me. They said that this way I can travel
back and forth from home to whatever school I go to without having to rely
on anyone else," she said which seemed logical.

"Well, welcome to the club of `automobile owner'," I said and she laughed.

"Hey people," Sean said as he arrived on the scene. He was joined a few
seconds later by Bear then Liberty and Justice, then Carter, Miriam, Dale,
Veronica, and finally Christian.

"Well now that we're all here, I've got letters," Justice said as she waved
5 envelopes around in front of us.

"I've got letters too," Liberty said in mocking to Justice, but she did
have three letters. I had gotten several myself over the previous week but
I was saving them so I could open them with everyone else as we had made
this plan last semester.

"I got one from Pittsburgh U which is the only school I applied to,"
Christian said.

"You only applied to one school? What if you don't get in" Liberty asked
and I wondered as well.

"I think I got this," he said with a confident smile before he opened the
letter and looked it over before handing it to Liberty.

"You got in, congrats honey," she said after reading it. She then gave him
a big hug and you could see that he just loved that.

"See that's how you handle that," he boasted.

"Now that we've gotten the `commoners' out of the way, it's my turn,"
Justice said.

"First of all, I'm not a `commoner' and second, I didn't open mine,"
Liberty said while scowling at her sister. The two of them were quite a
pair.

"You don't need to. I already know that you applied to the same school as
your man, which you got into, that you applied to Philadelphia University,
which you also got into, and to Pennsylvania State which you didn't get
into," Justice said which stumped me as how did she know.

"How the hell do you know that?" Liberty demanded to know.

"Easy. It's quite simple to learn something when you open a letter, read
it, then seal it back up again," Justice said so plainly even though she's
just admitted to illegally opening her sister's mail.

"You bitch," Liberty started but was stopped by Christian from saying
anything else.

"Justice, that wasn't nice," Sean said but he didn't sound very
disapproving.

"Who ever said I was nice," Justice said.

"You used to be. Besides, that was also illegal," I added.

"Who's gonna turn me in?" Justice asked acting really blasé about
the situation.

"I will you-" Liberty started again but Christian stopped her by kissing
her.

The others then opened their letters and Veronica got into Pennsylvania
State, Miriam got into Penn and Columbia, Dale was recruited to play for
Duke, Carter also got into Pittsburgh U and Philadelphia like Liberty, Sean
was recruited to play for Pittsburgh U, and Jessica got in the same schools
as Liberty and Carter but also surprisingly got into Vassar. She said she
only applied because her aunt wanted her to do so because that's where
she'd gone. Bear was of course going to Penn so there was no question
there. That left Justice and I.

"Well here goes," Justice said before she started opening her
letters. "Columbia yes... Princeton yes... Carnegie Mellon yes... Yale
yes!... Harvard no!" she said and I was surprised. I thought she'd have a
full sweep.

"Aww, miss smarty pants didn't get into Harvard," Jessica taunted.

"You didn't either you blonde bimbo. I did however get into Yale and
Columbia which you also didn't get into," Justice said and I rolled my eyes
at how females were with each other sometimes.

I didn't really care about where I got in other than Penn so I could be
with Bear. I did also apply to Harvard, Yale, M.I.T, Columbia, and the same
schools that Liberty and Carter had gotten into. My brother went to
Pittsburgh so I of course applied there since it was closer to home than
any of the others.

"Well baby, it's your turn," Bear said. I opened the 5 letters that I had
with me. I didn't bring Harvard and Yale because I'd secretly already
opened them as I suspected that I'd get in, but I didn't want anyone to
know. I had gotten into Harvard but not Yale, but I knew I didn't want to
go to those schools anyway. I just wanted to see if I'd get in.

"Well..." Justice said after I'd finished Penn, the last one I opened.

"I didn't get in at Penn," I said. I couldn't believe I didn't get into
Penn. I'd gotten into Columbia and M.I.T., not to mention Harvard.

"Wow, how could you not get in?" Miriam asked.

"Well I guess I'll just-" Bear started to say but I shut that down
immediately.

"No, don't go there. You'll be going to Penn like you've said for a while
now," I told him. It's one of the things I was worried about with this
whole college thing.

"I wanted us to go to the same school though," he said in a bit of a pout.

"I know, I did too," I said.

"Maybe this is a good thing, that you two will have some time apart from
each other. You can see how strong your relationship is with distance,"
Liberty said which had me suppressing the sudden urge to throat punch her.

"Look who's talking miss `going to school with her man'," Justice said so I
didn't have to.

"I never said I was going to Pittsburgh," Liberty replied which was an
obvious crock as she was definitely going there.

"Oh please," Justice said.

"It's almost time for school to start so let's table this for now," I said
before I closed my locker. I then kissed Bear before walking away.

********

It was a tense week after that between me and Bear with him trying to
convince me that he didn't have to go to Penn but I was adamant that he did
go. We all discussed the topic to death before we all came to a
decision. Liberty was of course going to Pittsburgh as well as Sean,
Jessica, Carter and Christian.

Miriam was going to Columbia, Justice was going to Carnegie Mellon,
Veronica was going to Pennsylvania State, Dale was going all the way to
Duke which meant that he and Miriam would be having a long distance
relationship if they stayed together. Bear was of course going to Penn
which I was not happy about.

We fought about the college thing, especially when he found my Harvard
acceptance letter and demanded that I go and called me out for not doing
what I wanted him to do, but it was different. Every one of us except
Miriam and Dale were going to schools in the state, and if I went to
Harvard or even M.I.T, I'd be going out of state as well so my decision was
to just go to school where most of our friends were going.

He argued that I was limiting myself just to be near him but I reminded him
that most of our friends were going there and that it was a really good
school. I also wanted to go there because it would put me closer to home so
I wouldn't have to travel far to see my family whenever I wanted.

I then had to have this same discussion with my parents, minus the Harvard
thing as they still didn't know and wouldn't if I had anything to do with
it. They wanted me to consider M.I.T or Columbia. I told them that I'd made
up my mind and that Pittsburgh was a good school and then I reminded them
that Zane and uncle Eric had both graduated from there. That put an end to
the opposition so we were all set for school.

********

"I'm just saying that if you share a room with me, you'll be free to do
whatever," Sean said. I was currently in my room talking to him on my cell
while I was putting the finishing touches on a sketch I wanted to show Bear
because I had a plan for it.

"You just want to share a room with me so you can see me naked," I joked

"No, I want us to share a room so you can see me naked," he said and I
could hear the mischievous grin on his face over the phone.

"Why would I want to see that when I can see a real man naked with Bear?" I
said and I had to hold myself back from laughing.

"Ouch. That hurt me, like really deep inside," Sean said not sounding at
all hurt. His words tough made me briefly think about Bear being deep
inside me and I found myself getting hard at the thought which made me
happy. I pushed it aside though for the time being because somehow, it felt
wrong to be on the phone with Sean while I had a raging boner.

"I don't think we have a choice of who our roommates are," I told him
getting back on subject and pushing everything else aside.

"You just don't want to room with me because you're scared of seeing
Mr. Happy and that it'll ruin things with Bear as things won't ever be the
same," he said and I rolled my eyes at his arrogance.

"I'm sure you're right, but not for the reason you think. I don't wanna see
you and be traumatized as I'm sure anyone would be. Just look at Justice,
she used to be such a nice sweet girl and now, she's been forever scarred
by seeing you naked and she takes that trauma out on poor unsuspecting
people," I said and again I had to hold myself back from laughing.

"You're mean," Sean said sounding pouty. The doorbell rang but I didn't get
up to get it as Calvin was downstairs with Alex and another one of their
friends.

"I'm sorry sweetie. I'll make it up to you by letting you kiss my ass," I
told him and I heard him try to hold back a snicker.

"Well as much as I'd love to, I think Bear already has that job covered,"
Sean said and we both laughed.

"What's so funny?" I heard from my open door. I knew who it was immediately
and I couldn't stop the smile that appeared on my face.

"Sean's face," I joked.

"Hey," Sean said back.

"Good, I'm glad someone is mentioning it. I thought we were gonna have to
have an intervention," Bear said joining in on the joking.

"Hey, tell your man that I'm gonna kick his ass when I see him," Sean said
but he wasn't serious.

"Yeah, like you could kick his ass. Besides, nothing will be happening to
that ass unless I'm directly involved," I said and I made sure I was
looking into his eyes when I said it and I got the reaction I wanted when
he raised his eyebrows as if asking me a question. I gave him a wink which
seemed to further confuse him.

"Stop flirting with Bear while talking to me," Sean said.

"What makes you think that's all we're doing?" I asked.

"What are you doing?" he asked sounding curious, but unsure if he should
be.

"Well, Bear was just about to put his mouth on-" I started before Bear
stopped me by jumping on my bed and grabbing my cell.

"Trey has to go now. He has a spanking coming," he said while looking
sternly at me, but I could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Oh yeah, I've been a bad boy," I said loud enough for Sean to hear before
Bear ended the call and handed me back my phone.

"You're crazy," Bear said but he was smiling so I knew he wasn't mad or
anything.

"Yeah I am," I said back with a huge creepy smile. I'm sure I looked crazy.

"I heard back from Penn," Bear said changing the subject.

"What did they say?" I asked. I hoped that my plans for the summer weren't
about to be ruined again.

"Well, they want me there for summer training," he said a bit hesitantly
which I understood as I knew that he didn't want to give me bad news.

"Oh, okay," I said trying to pretend like I was fine but I'm sure I didn't
sound like it.

"I didn't finish. I managed to get them to agree with me coming for only a
three week program just after graduation," he said.

"So that means that I have you for the rest of the summer?" I asked as I
didn't want to get my hopes completely up without confirmation.

"If you want me," he said. Taking the way he'd said it into account and the
fact that he was on my bed very close to me, I started to feel those old
feelings stir. I looked at him and he looked at me and those all consuming
feelings of love and lust started taking over and I wanted him. I could
tell he was feeling the same way because his breathing had become
shallow. I wanted him and it was clear he wanted me too, but I had to put
the brakes on temporarily because I had to talk to Bear about something.

"Bear, I have something to show you," I said through my heavy breathing.

"Yeah," he said looking very hopeful but reserved at the same time. It was
an odd mix.

"Not that," I said with a chuckle before handing him the sketch pad I'd
been working on. I still had to add a couple of touches to it, but it was
pretty much finished.

"This is amazing. Is there nothing you can't do?" he asked. He was looking
at the sketch with such admiration that I had to take a moment and memorize
the look for later.

"Nope," I said after committing that look to memory. "I have a reason for
showing that to you though aside from the compliment," I told him.

"What is it?" he asked. He had his eyebrow cocked and I'd never noticed
before how sexy he looked when doing that. I pushed those thoughts aside
for a bit so I could focus.

"I want us to get a tattoo, of that sketch," I told him. I watched him very
carefully to gauge his reaction. He look back and forth between me and the
sketch several times. A few times I noticed that he was looking at
different parts of my body.

"I want mine on my ass," he said with a cheeky grin.

"No," I said simply while trying to hide a smile at the thought.

"Why not?" he pouted.

"Because I want people to see it and nobody better be seeing your ass aside
from me," I told him and he rolled his eyes.

"The guys in the locker room will be seeing it," he said and I thought
about how much time I'd get for blinding an entire college football team.

"Good point," I said but he laughed a bit for some reason.

"You were totally thinking about blinding my future teammates weren't you?"
he asked with a teasing smile that said that he already knew the answer.

"No comment," I said before he laughed and pounced on me and started
tickling me.

After I was tickled out, he stopped and just hovered over me. I loved the
way he looked at me, like he was trying to know everything about me. It
scared me but it also thrilled me that he wanted to know all of me.

He then leaned in and kissed me and I returned the kiss and it felt so good
to be close like that to Bear again. It felt like it had been forever since
we'd been together and my body seemed to need Bear. I reached up and pulled
him down more on top of me and feeling his body on mine was just like it
had been before. It was then that I had the misfortune to get a flash of
that bastard Kent in my head and I felt my body tense and so did Bear as he
stopped kissing me and pushed himself up.

"Dammit, I was doing good too," I said in frustration.

"It's okay baby, I understand," he said and he was so understanding that I
wanted to do this for him. It was then that I noticed that unlike the last
time, I was hard and I hadn't gotten soft even after Kent popped his ass
into my head.

"Just give me a minute," I told him before I started doing some slow deep
breathing.

"Trey, it's fine. I don't want to do anything that makes you
uncomfortable," he said and that was all I needed to hear. I took his hand
and put it on my still hard dick which caused him to raise his eyebrows.

"I want to do this. I want to give you pleasure-" I said before Bear cut
in.

"You don't need to have sex with me to-" he started but I cut him off.

"And I want you to do the same to me," I told him but he still looked
unsure.

"Trey I don't want to hurt you," he said and I appreciated his concern and
consideration but I wanted him, I needed him.

"Bear, I need you. I need you to make love to me to rid me of the specter
of Kent. I belong to you and I want you to have me, all of me ," I said
hoping my words lit a fire in him and I was rewarded when I saw almost
uncontrollable want in his eyes.

"Oh Trey, I need you so bad," he said with a desperate sound in his voice.

"Well here I am. You have permission, take what's yours," I said with a
smile and a bit of a chellenge in my voice before I winked at him. He let
loose with that sexy growl of his before he attacked my neck and I wrapped
my arms around his back to pull him down to me again and I wrapped my legs
around him too.

"I love you. I love you so much," he said in a low growl before he kissed
me hard. We added our tongues to the kiss and our tongues wrestled with
each other as our hands roamed all over each others' bodies.

Bear pried himself loose from me and pulled his t-shirt over his head
before reaching down and pulling mine up and off as well with my help. He
took a few seconds to look me over and I did the same to him. I missed
seeing that heavily muscled hairy torso of his. I reached up and ran my
hands all over his chest and abs before he reached down and took ahold of
my hands. He brought them both up to his lips and kissed them which I found
to be such a tender act, especially considering how frantic we'd just been.

He then got up and went to my door and locked it. I was thankful that he'd
thought to do that as I'd forgotten and I didn't want any embarrassing
scene happening. He then came back to the bed but paused before he got in
the bed and pulled off the rest of his clothes except his socks. I thrilled
at seeing the whole package that was a naked Bear.

He got on the bed and finished undressing me and I let him. Once I was just
as naked as he was he again stopped to look me over with a hunger in his
eyes I hadn't seen before . He then dived in and started kissing and
licking me behind my ear which had become a great pleasure spot for me.

He then started his descent of kissing and licking my body. He stopped at
my left nipple and gave it some attention which had me moaning and holding
his head in place to continue this incredible pleasure. He moved to my
right nipple and I was grateful he didn't leave it out of the fun.

I had to kiss him again so I pulled him back up and pulled him down into a
crashing kiss, we had another tongue wrestling session. As we kissed he
maneuvered himself over me so that our hard dick were next to each other
then he reached down with his big hand and gripped both of us in a tight
grip and started a slow jerk.

After a few minutes of this, my body was a live-wire and I was on fire. I
was extremely close and I didn't want things to end so I pulled back from
the kiss and pushed at Bear a bit. He looked at me with worry in his eyes
until he looked to me, then the bastard had the nerve to smirk at me with
an annoyingly amused look on his face.

"A little short on the trigger, eh tiger," he said with a cheesy grin.

"Yeah well you try being this close to a naked guy as hot as you and you'll
see how long you last," I told him honestly and the smile that appeared on
his face was an incredible thing to see.

"I am with a naked guy that's as hot as me and you're right. I was close
too," he said before leaning down and kissing me again.

"I'm ready Bear. I need you," I said. A look of worry overtook his features
which I erased by reaching over to my nightstand and taking the tube of
lube that hadn't been used in months. I handed it to him and he looked at
me as if asking me if I was sure, although that worried look didn't really
leave his face. I pulled him back down and kissed him again.

When we parted he looked into my eyes for several seconds before kissing me
again but this time I heard the cap pop on the tube of lube. Then I felt
his fingers around my hole and I immediately tensed up. He stopped but
didn't stop kissing me and I managed to calm myself and give myself a
mental slap to knock it off because Bear would rather die than hurt me.

I guess he felt me relax because he went back to work spreading and working
the lube around my hole. I then felt him slowly pushing one finger in and I
didn't tense up which I was happy about. He took this as a cue to keep
going as he added two, then three fingers to the mix to open me up. Once he
got me loosened up he found my prostate and started to massaging it which
had me steadily moaning into his mouth and bucking under his body as I
tried to get more of his finger inside me.

He took his finger away and lined up his massive missile for launch before
slowly pushing in while never breaking contact with me or breaking our
lip-lock. It hurt after so long without anything up there but he stopped
and gave me time to adjust. He managed to work himself all the way in
before he bottomed out in about a minute.

"Oh baby, it feels so good to be at home again," he said and hearing that
made my already high temperature ratchet even higher.

"Give it to me," I told him in a near breathless snarl.

"Yes sir captain, preparing to give my all," he said and we both chuckled.

He then raised up in his knees and grabbed my ankles before pulling out and
pushing back in again slowly and the feeling was incredible. He did this
several times to get me used to his massive invader before he increased his
tempo and continued his steady strokes. I started to moan a bit too loud so
Bear reached up and put a couple of his fingers in my mouth and I took the
hint and started to suck on them. He let out an "oh fuck" and his eyes
rolled back in his head when I did this so I sucked his fingers like my
life depended on it.

It seemed to push him to a new level of hunger as he started to do that low
growl that I loved. He then stopped and actually flipped me over on my
stomach and started pounding my ass doggie-style. I bit my arm to contain
my moaning as the pleasure was almost unbearable. He continued to pound my
ass and I moaned and I worried that I'd bite a chunk out of my arm but I
didn't care if I did because I was in bliss.

Bear then stopped his rapid thrusting and started grinding his hips and I
had to admit that this man knew how to fuck. He then rested on his knees
and had me turn to face him before he started lifting me up and impaling me
on his incredible anaconda. We were both covered in sweat at this point but
the end didn't seem to be in sight and I was glad because I could do this
forever.

We started kissing again as I took over and started to ride him with him
helping to lift me and slam me back down. I became acutely aware that there
was no way that Calvin and co. weren't hearing this even with the muffled
moans and grunts and Bear's growling but I just pushed that out of my head
and decided to deal with Calvin later.

We then slowed down and Bear laid me back down on my back and continued to
kiss me as he thrust in and out slowly. This went on for quite a while
before I started to feel the inevitable coming upon me so I pulled back
from Bear's now swollen lips and looked at him before speaking.

"It's time to end this ride. Let's go out with a bang," I told him.

"You know Calvin, Alex, and their other friend are downstairs right?" he
asked as he very slowly ground his hips just to keep up the friction.

"There's no way they didn't hear anything so far so let's really give `em
something to hear. Drive it home big guy," I said and he growled that low
growl again and I knew I'd said the right thing.

He raised up on his knees again and pulled out before plunging back in with
a slapping sound. He gripped my ankles again in his hands and rammed home
repeatedly slamming my prostate on every thrust. There was very audible
grunting and snarling and growling coming from the both of us along with
the slap of skin on skin.

Bear rammed in one last time before letting go a loud "oh fuck" as did I as
the first shot of cum fired from my achingly hard sensitive dick and landed
on my forehead before 5 more landed on my cheek, chin and down my sweat
drenched torso. Bear then started to thrust some more and the feeling was
quite different. Everything was so sensitive but it still felt good. He
kept this up for a couple more minutes before he collapsed on top of me.

"Baby, you... I..." Bear tried to breathlessly get out and I understood the
feeling.

"Same here, big guy," I said with a chuckle which he joined me in.

"You know we need a shower. I'll bet we reek of sex and sweat," Bear said
and I was sure too.

"Yeah, let me just rest for a few years then we can go and hop in the
shower," I said before we laughed again.

********

After resting for a few minutes we made a mad dash for the bathroom across
the hall and hopped in the shower where we traded blowjobs. I then washed
him and he washed me over again and he took extra time as he traced my
bullet wounds with his finger.

We then dried each other off and got dressed again and I decided to bite
the bullet and go downstairs. So after grabbing my wallet, keys, cell phone
and the sketch we went downstairs to see Calvin playing Madden on his PS4
along with Alex and their other friend Max.

"Hey bro," I said carefully. They seemed to be into the game but I smelled
a rat.

"Hey Trey," he said sounding innocently enough.

"Well, we're gonna head out. I'll be back later," I told him while watching
him carefully.

"Okay," he said while still seeming engrossed in the game. We started to
walk away before he called out to Bear. "Hey Bear, what's up," he asked. I
thought this was weird as he had to be the one to let Bear in.

"Nothing..." Bear said suspiciously.

"Well it's just that your hair is damp but it wasn't when you got here,"
Calvin said with a too innocent look on his face.

"Well I..." Bear started before the three of them finally busted up.

"Damn Bear, you must have been giving it to Trey pretty good," Alex said
which had me restraining myself from taking the life of my best friend's
brother.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said adamantly.

"Yeah sure Trey. We heard the loud moaning and the thumping of your bed on
the floor," Calvin said before they started another round of laughter.

"How do you know I wasn't the one giving it to Bear?" I asked which ended
their laughing as they looked as us as if try to imagine what that'd look
like while trying not to at the same time.

"Uh, were you?" Calvin asked looking confused and my job was done.

"I don't kiss and tell lil' bro," I said and made sure to add a smile
before I dragged Bear out of the house behind me.

********

"Are you sure about this?" Bear asked as we stood outside the tattoo parlor
that I'd found. I was 18 so I wasn't restricted to the less than reputable
places so I did my homework and found a really good one that was pretty
well known for those into getting tattooed.

"Positive," I said before I walked through the door. I looked back and saw
him still standing outside and it suddenly occurred to me that he might be
nervous about this. I just had to laugh at that, although I didn't know I'd
been doing so out loud until he walked in and told me so.

"Can I help you two?" the guy behind the counter asked. He had a mohawk and
both nostrils and his lip were pierced as well as multiple tattoos on the
visible parts of his arms and his chest.

"Yes, we're here to get branded," I said with a cheeky grin.

"Trey," Bear said through gritted teeth but the guy behind the counter
smirked.

"Hey Bull, you've got some new victims, I mean customers," the guy said
before winking at me and I returned the wink. He must have picked up on
Bear's nervousness.

"Yeah?" said a guy who came from the back. He was correctly named as he was
a huge white guy with a bald head and he looked to be covered in tattoos
which I was able to see because he had on a muscle shirt. He looked to be
around 40 or something and I had to admit that he'd be kinda good looking
if not for all the tattoos. One was plenty for me.

"I said you have some customers," the guy behind the counter said again.

"Oh," Bull said before looking toward us. I'm sure we made an odd pair... A
really tall heavily muscled bear of a white guy and his much shorter much
smaller black companion.

"Hi, I called a couple days ago about you tattooing a sketch I'd made onto
me and my boyfriend," I said.

"Oh yeah, let me see the sketch," he said. I was surprised that he didn't
even blink when I said I wanted it for me and my boyfriend. I didn't
specify what Bear was when I'd talked to him on the phone, just that I had
a sketch that I had that I wanted tattooed onto two people.

"So can you do it?" I asked. I was worried I'd made it too intricate.

"Definitely," he said. He looked like he wanted to say something else but
chose not to. I had a feeling what it was though.

"I'm afraid I can't let you keep that, but I can make you anything else you
want," I told him. He looked shocked so I guess I'd guessed right.

"You got some real talent kid. Now let's get started. Who's first?" he said
while looking at the two of us.

"You're up Bear," I said and the guy behind the counter snickered.

"What you snickering bout'?" Bull asked the guy behind the counter.

"It's just that I guess I don't have the market cornered in big galoots
with weird names," the guy said and I laughed too.

"Shut up with your face before you have to explain to your old lady that
you got canned for your mouth again," Bull told him.

"Yeah, like you'd fire me again. You'd just have to explain to mom that you
fired me," the guy said and I tried to hold back my laughter. I'd thought
they were a couple but even without the huge clue I could see they were
brothers instead.

"Yeah, whatever. C'mon Bear, let's ink you up," Bull said before he walked
to the back. Bear though stood there until I pushed him on back.

"Go on big guy. If you get inked, I'll blow you so hard that your toes
won't uncurl for a week," I said low next to Bear's ear, though I guess it
wasn't low enough because I heard Bull snort and when I looked at him it
looked like he was trying too hard to keep a straight face. My message was
enough to get Bear moving as he went and got in the chair.

Bull asked where he wanted the tattoo and I told him to put it on his upper
right arm. He then prepped Bear's arm while his brother who's name was Gil
made a template of my sketch that Bull could use. When he was done, Bull
put the template on Bear's arm and then started tattooing him. I could tell
my big guy was definitely not having any fun so I pulled my chair up to his
left side so I could hold his hand.

It didn't take as long as I thought it would and when he finished he
applied some grease to it and then let me see it. It was a ferocious bear
cradling a heart as if protecting it. I thought the symbolism was great.

Bear seemed to love it as he couldn't take his eye off of it when Bull gave
him a mirror to check it out. It was then my turn and I told him I wanted
mine on my left arm but otherwise in the same place as Bear's. Gil placed a
bandage over Bears tattoo and gave him instructions for cleaning his arm
while the tattoo set as Bull got started with my tattoo.

I was surprised that it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but it
did hurt, especially as the process went on. As the process went on Bear
repaid the gesture by sitting down on my right and holding my hand. He took
it a step further though by softly running his fingers over the palm of my
hand which served to get things stirring downstairs.

After a while Bull was finished with my tattoo and I looked it over. I was
impressed with my work as well as Bull's. I was a bit mesmerized by the
tattoo just like Bear had been. I finally tore myself away from the great
work of art and thanked Bull and Gil. I told them that I had several
sketches and drawings that I'd come by later that week and show them to see
if they wanted to use them.

Gil handed me my sketch back and Bull made sure I saw him destroy the
template for our tattoo. I then paid for the great work and then Bear and I
left. I was happy that I had gotten the tattoo as for me it seemed like a
bonding thing for Bear and I which I appreciated. I'd have to thank him
later for agreeing to do it.


****PROM****


"Where the hell is she?" Tina griped. She was talking about Alicia who had
been late for a lot of stuff lately. I wondered at first if she was
sick. Then I wondered if she'd finally found her own man because she'd been
oddly docile as of late.

"I have no idea," I told her. We were currently decorating the auditorium
for prom whose theme was Film Noire, thought up by Bruce. Everyone would
come dressed in a style seen in old detective and noire films. I had no
idea where Justice had gotten the idea that it would be a 70's theme when
Sean told me.

"Hey Trey, do you think you could secure some jock muscle to help us out
with the heavy lifting?" Bruce asked. I was slightly suspicious about his
real motives though.

"We don't need no stinking jocks to do our lifting. We're men, we can do
our own lifting," I said in a bad Italian accent.

"Right," Jeremy agreed.

I then tried to lift a platform that we needed across the room and it
wasn't going anywhere. I needed to get back to my weight-lifting because
while my legs were bigger and stronger than ever, my upper body strength
was slightly lacking. Jeremy then tried followed by Bruce and it was a no
go.

"Okay, maybe we need some help," I said begrudgingly.

"You men are so simple. You could just join together to move it," Tina said
with an exasperated eye roll.

"No no no no, Trey is right. We're gonna need some jocks," Bruce said
before walking over to Tina and pulling her next to him. "You know, like
jocks who will dig heavy lifting, preferably with tank tops, or even no
shirts on at all," Bruce said obvious trying to appeal to Tina's inner
pervert.

"Oh yeah, we definitely need some jocks. Trey get on that," Tina said.

"Well what about me?" Jeremy asked as I pulled out my phone and pulled up
Bear's number.

"Oh sweetie, it's not our fault that you chose to be a straight male and
thus have no appreciation for jock muscle," Tina said and Bruce snickered.

"Well can we at least get some cheerleaders up in here?" he asked.

"What for, to lift a place mat? I don't think so," Tina replied and I shook
my head as I dialed Bear.

"Hey baby, what's shaking?" Bear asked when he answered the phone.

"Hey big guy. Listen, we're over here decorating for the Prom and we're in
need of some heavy muscle. Do you think you could scrounge some up?" I
asked as sweetly as I could.

"I'll see what I can do. By the way, I know you just want us there so you
and the girls can ogle us," he said sounding highly amused.

"That's not true. Bruce will be ogling too," I said and his eyes flew open
wide.

"Okay, well I'll see what I can do. I'm sure I can get Sean, Carter and
Dale. You know how much they love you," Bear said. I would at one time
disagree about Dale, but he was a really good guy that seemed to like
me. He was definitely no Drake.

"Yeah, all this jock love. I don't know what I'll do with it," I joked.

"Bitch," Tina and Bruce muttered but was loud enough for me to hear.

"I'll see you in a bit baby," Bear said before ending the call.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Alicia said running into the auditorium.

"Where the hell were you?" Tina asked.

"I had something to take care of. So what're we doing?" she said. I looked
at her and something seemed off, but I just couldn't tell what.

"You can go over there and help Lane and Carla since you're late," Tina
said pointing to two other council members.

"Oh, okay," Alicia said before walking over to the two and asking what they
were doing.

"Okay, what the hell is up with her?" Tina asked. I guess she'd noticed it
too.

"Yeah Alicia's become kind of..."Jeremy said before trailing off I guess
trying to find the right word.

"Docile," I said adding the right word.

"Yeah that's it," Jeremy said.

"Maybe she got a good lay," Bruce said and Tina and Jeremy laughed, but for
some I didn't feel like laughing.

We got to work doing what we were able to do. I considered calling my other
friends to come and help but I didn't want to bother them. I didn't need
every friend I had to do everything I attempted to do. Besides I wanted
them to be surprised by how the place looked.

Bear and the guys arrived about an hour later. Aside from Sean, Carter and
Dale, he'd brought all the football players that had joined the GSA minus
Todd. I wasted no time putting them to work. The guys of course pulled off
their shirts and most had on t-shirts or tank tops, but a few went
shirtless. Bear wore a black muscle shirt and I couldn't help but admire
those amazing arms and of course that new tattoo.

"Bear, that's a cool tattoo. Where'd you get it?" Jeremy asked as he walked
over to get a closer look. This of course drew attention to Bear and I just
stood back and watched.

"I got it a couple weeks ago," he said but didn't elaborate.

"I want a tattoo, but my dad said that if he even found out I had one, he'd
take me to have it removed and find a doctor to do in the most painful way
possible," Tina said.

"Ouch," Bruce said.

"It's a unique tattoo," Carla said.

"Yeah, it's a custom job," Bear said. I think he was intentionally being
vague as he kept glancing at me trying to hide his amusement. I decided to
join in on his fun so I pulled off my shirt and I had a tank top on
underneath. I then walked over to and made like I was really looking at
Bear's arm.

"Trey, you have it too," Sean said sounding surprised. I'd made a point to
not wear any shirts that would reveal my arms so I could spring my tattoo
on everyone.

Everyone looked at the tattoos and I told them that I'd designed it. This
then started a discussion on if I could make any more for anyone else and I
said I'd consider it in my free time. Bear objected to that though by
saying that my free time belonged to him which brought about some laughs.

I then cracked the whip for everyone to get back to work. I noticed that
Alicia was very subdued and didn't join in with everyone admiring our
tattoos. I wondered if something was up with her, but I decided that I'd
push it aside for now and we got the job done with only minor setbacks. I
was proud of the job we'd done and of completing my last major job as
student council president.

********

Prom night was here and I was nervous for some reason. It was the first
true event at school that Bear and I would go to together. We didn't get
the chance to go to the winter formal and the spring formal because I was
in a coma so I was looking forward to it, but still nervous at the same
time.

I was pleased that Mr. Renner had said that we didn't need to expect any of
the same trouble as we had for our junior prom which meant that I got to go
with Bear. Carter wanted to bring Sed since he had arrived a couple of days
ago and was staying with Sean, but there was a rule that he could only
bring a student from our school so he decided to just bring Jessica since
she'd be dateless too without Alvis.

I made a secret plan with Bear, Sean and Dale that we'd all dance at least
one dance with him so he'd at least get to dance some with a guy. I checked
myself in the mirror one last time before grabbing my keys, wallet, and
cell phone and heading downstairs.

"Oh sweetie, you look so handsome," mom said as she stood in the middle of
the living room along with dad. Calvin, Zane, and Ivy were sitting on the
couch looking like they were holding back their teasing with considerable
effort.

"Yeah son, you look like a chip off the old block if I do say so myself,"
dad said with a prideful smile which mom shook her head at.

"Thanks mama and pop,'" I told them before they both gave me a quick hug.

"Okay, picture time," mom said.

"Aw mama," I grumbled. I was saved though by the doorbell. I started for
the door but Ivy jumped up.

"No, you can't open the door. You have to go back upstairs and make an
entrance," she said with an innocent look on her face before she, Zane and
Calvin busted out laughed.

"Jackasses," I said. Ivy did go to the door though and I let her. She
walked back in with a very hot looking Bear in tow wearing a vintage
looking pinstripe suit and a hat. He'd make a incredibly good looking and
imposing detective.

"Hello Trey," Bear said and his voice along with the look he'd pulled
together had me unable to speak.

"Oh damn, Trey is silent. Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?"
Zane joked and Calvin and Ivy joined in.

"Oh Zane," I said as I walked over to him. Before he could react I reached
up and grabbed his head and pulled him to me and kissed him hard. I didn't
use tongue though as that would be gross with my brother. I just wanted to
shock him.

"Hey man," Zane said after I'd let him go since his struggling wasn't
helping him any.

"I guess that'll teach you to keep your mouth shut. Next time I'll use
tongue," I threatened even though I'd most definitely not be doing that. I
looked at Bear and he had a weird look on his face. It shocked me because
it wasn't anger or even jealousy but something else that I didn't even want
to think anymore on. I heard Ivy whisper to Zane asking him how was the
kiss and he said it wasn't terrible.

"Well after that weirdness, let me get some pictures with you boys," mom
said and I reluctantly agreed. After snapping about 10 pictures the
doorbell rang. It had to be the girls and Sean who were picking us up here
in the limo we'd all go in on since it was our senior prom. Ivy went to get
the door again and came back with the 4 of them.

"Oh you kids look great," she said. The girls definitely looked the part of
film noire leading lady.

They thanked mom and she decided that she wanted some more pictures with
all of us so she took about 20 more pictures with us in different
combinations. Me and the girls, the girls by themselves, the guys by
themselves, me and Bear and Sean and Justice together since we were the
only couples present, we even took some with my other family members before
we had to be off.

When we arrived at the prom after picking up Christian and Carter, we got
some attention when we stepped out of the limo. Veronica, Miriam, Dale,
Veronica's date who was some junior girl I'd seen only a few times came in
another limo that Sean had paid for since we all couldn't fit in just one.

We all walked into the prom and it looked great with everything all set
up. I got compliments from everyone who hadn't seen it already. I left
everyone to check on everything and to see if it was going smoothly before
rejoining my friends and Bear.

We found our tables and sat down for a few minutes. Before long, Jeremy and
Tina showed up with their dates and joined us. We all talked until Bruce
walked in with a proud strut and shockingly on the arm of Glen Neely. I
wasn't the only one shocked it seemed as everyone at our table and other
people in general were looking at them.

"Hello people," Bruce said as he arrived at our table.

"Hello Bruce," I said not sure what else to say.

"Hey Glen," Bear finished for me.

"Before you all start thinking things, Glen and I are just friends. He
agreed to bring me and here we are," Bruce said.

"Oh, okay," I said although I didn't think it was as innocent as Bruce had
said since Glen looked entirely comfortable with Bruce latched onto him
like he was.

"So Glen, are you gonna kiss him when you take him home?" Sean asked which
earned him a jab from Justice's elbow.

"I might," Glen said with a smile.

We all got up and danced. It was great to just have fun and be around
people who cared about me. Bear looked to be having a good old time himself
especially when he was dancing with me. I took the first turn to dance with
Carter and it was a slow song so slow dancing with someone who wasn't Bear
was weird, but I had to admit that he had a strong body like Bear and being
pressed up against him wasn't a terrible thing at all.

Sean went next and it was weird again seeing him dancing with a guy but
Sean played it like you'd expect, by joking around but Carter was all for
it. Dale did something similar but they could do it because it wasn't a
slow dance. Bear was last and of course another slow dance. I watched them
together and I had to beat down my libido which kicked up a couple of
notches at seeing those two hot studs slow dancing with each other,
especially since I was dancing with Jessica at the time.

We took a break after a while and I just looked around at all the people
having fun. I thought about what most of these people would be doing in a
year's time. I was surprised though that there hadn't been any remarks with
all of the same sex dancing going on, but of course that thought brought
out the jackass known as Drake.

"Hello people, are you all enjoying all that disgusting dancing?" Drake
said after walking up to us.

"Drake, please just leave. Nobody wants to deal with you tonight," Liberty
said.

"Let him stay so I can break his face," Bear snarled.

"I'll bet that this is your fantasy isn't it Trey. Dudes dancing with each
other all over the place," Drake said sounding like the douchebag we'd all
come to know and hate.

"Drake, if this was my fantasy, you'd be strung up naked over a vat of
boiling oil having your dick ripped off," I told him and I got a few
snickers.

"Yeah, I'm sure I'm naked in your fantasies but unlike these football
pussies, I don't get down like that," Drake said stupidly as he was alone
taunting a table full of big football players.

"You wanna take this outside fucker?" Carter asked as he stood up along
with Bear, Sean, Dale, and Glen. Ever Christian stood up.

"Guys, sit down. Drake's gonna get his," Liberty said and I wondered what
she meant as she said it in a definitive way and not as blanket statement.

"What does that mean?" Drake asked likely noticing it too.

"Drake, I was gonna give you a chance. If you came here and decided to act
like an actual human being with a heart, I was gonna let you off the hook,
but you couldn't even do that so now it's time you got yours," Liberty said
before taking out her cell and doing something. It looked like she was
sending someone a text.

"What does that mean?" Drake asked again sounding more insistent.

"Just wait," Liberty said with a very sinister smile on her face. About 10
seconds later we heard the feedback from the microphone on the stage.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, as some of you may know, my name is
Darcy Parker and I happen to be dating the very handsome and wonderful
Drake Franklin," Darcy said and Drake had the nerve to smile big. I got up
and I looked over across the room and saw Alicia do the same. We looked at
each other before we both headed toward the stage because I was not about
to listen to this bitch brag on her bastard boyfriend at our prom.

"What the hell is she doing" I heard Bear ask Justice sitting next to him
as I passed them.

"She can't be up there. We gotta get her down," Alicia said to me as we met
up.

"Yeah, let's go," I said as we headed for the stage.

"Now I'll bet you're all wondering why I'm up here so without further ado,
on to the main event," Darcy said before the lights went down and the big
screen above the stage came on. My cell rang as Alicia and I headed up the
stairs. It was Liberty so I answered.

"Don't stop her, you'll want to see this," she said simply before the call
ended.

"Tell me you love it," I heard in Darcy's voice. I looked on the screen and
I was shocked to see Darcy in a leather corset with a riding crop and Drake
on his knees naked, except in a pair of lacy women's panties and a pair of
stockings.

"I love it," Drake said in a shaky voice.

"Do you like it when I whip you?" Darcy asked Drake.

"Yes master," he said sounding so small.

"Then prove it," Darcy said and Drake then turned and raised his ass up for
her to strike with the riding crop a few times. The room erupted in
laughter. I looked back and saw that Drake was standing there frozen in
place with his eyes bugged out and his mouth slack.

"Ooh master, that feels so good," Drake said and I couldn't believe what I
was seeing.

"Yes I know it does. Now tell me, do you like wearing panties?" Darcy
asked.

"Yes master," Drake said.

"Tell me what you like about them," Darcy ordered.

"I like the way the feel on me," Drake said.

"You like being my bitch, don't you," Darcy asked as she whipped him a few
more times.

"Yes master," Drake said.

"Then say it," Darcy demanded in an authoritative tone.

"I'm your bitch," Drake said and the laughter grew louder.

"Say your name and tell me what you are, your whole name," Darcy ordered
him.

"I'm Drake Franklin and I'm your bitch," Drake said.

"Are you happy about that?" Darcy ordered as she whipped him some more. The
licks didn't look all that severe though.

"Yes," Drake said.

"Then turn around and tell me the whole thing again and tell me you like
it," Darcy said.

"I'm Drake Franklin and I like being your bitch, master," Drake
said. People were practically dying laughing but I didn't find it funny. I
found it sad that after all the things Drake had done to me and said to me
and about me, that this was finally his downfall. It was sad and pathetic
just like him, but he deserved it.

"Alright Darcy, that's enough. Shut it down," I told her. She looked at me
for a few seconds before signaling to the guy who was operating the video
to kill it and he did.

"Well I hope you all enjoyed that," she said before leaving the stage and
walking over to our table. I followed behind her and Alicia came along
too. As we got close to the table, I saw Drake looking around at all the
people pointing and laughing at him. He started backing up but Bear, Sean
and Carter went and stood around him to block him from leaving.

"Going somewhere Drakey?" Sean asked with a smirk.

"You bitch, how could you do that? How could you film that?" Drake asked
angrily as we arrived at the table. I was curious about why she'd done it
too since she was supposed to be his girlfriend.

"I can answer that question," Liberty said looking way too happy.

"What the hell do you know about it?" Drake asked. Christian started for
him but Liberty pulled him back.

"Well first let me introduce my old friend, Darcelle Parker," Liberty said
and Justice looked like a lightbulb went on in her head.

"I knew you looked familiar. You and Liberty were friends back when we
lived in Richmond," Justice said.

"You're friends?" Drake asked. He was turning red with anger but I again
thought he deserved this.

"Yes Drake, and Darcelle, or rather Darcy was more than happy to convince
her parents to let her move up here and stay with her sister to help me out
on a little project," Liberty said and I could pretty much figure out the
rest.

"What project?" Jessica asked.

"To put Drake in his place. I told you that if you kept messing with Trey
that I'd make you pay and I did. I brought Darcy in to hit you where it
hurts," Liberty said. I guess she knew Drake better than all of us to know
how best to hurt him.

"You stupid bitches," Drake seethed. Bear slammed his big hand down on
Drake's shoulder hard.

"Apologize before I break your neck," Bear ordering in a deep dangerous
tone.

"This is all your fault," Drake directed toward me with venom in his voice.

"No it's not Drake as I had nothing to do with this. Aside from the fact
that I met her the same time as you did, I was in a coma when you two got
together so I don't think I am to blame for your total humiliation."

"You deserved to be in a coma you disgusting little pansy," Drake snarled
and Bear grabbed Drake again but I stopped him from hurting him any
further.

"No I didn't, but you deserved this. You did everything you could to hurt
me, even hurting other people like Bear and Carter, even Todd. Did you
think you'd just get away with that without anything happening to you? If
you did, I'm sorry to say that you're wrong," I told him, but he didn't
seem to be taking my words to heart.

"This isn't over. I'll make you pay for this," he said as he tried to get
to me but was held back by Sean and Carter. I think they wanted to keep
Bear away from him as well as him away from me.

"No it is over Drake. You're here now blaming me and threatening me but in
case you didn't notice, I'm probably the only person who wasn't laughing at
how pathetic you are. Even though you deserved what just happened to you, I
didn't want it to happen because I think it's wrong to take something
that's supposed to be personal and private and use that to humiliate
somebody," I said and he still didn't look like he wanted to listen to what
I said so I just told the guys to release him. They did and he stormed
away.

Liberty looked sorry for what she'd done, probably because of what I'd said
but I just hugged her and told her it was fine. She then introduced us
properly to Darcy. She said that it'd been hard to be with Drake and listen
to all the stuff he said about gay people.

Jessica told her that she and Liberty were great actresses as they sold
being bitter enemies very well and I had to agree. The prom went on and I
got my answer for where the chaperones were when Mr. Renner showed up and
told me that someone had vandalized the inside of the school. I wondered if
that was apart of Liberty's plan but I didn't want to know so I didn't ask.

The Prom King and Queen was announced and Bear won king and Justice won
queen. I was just glad there wasn't any bullshit with trying to nominate me
queen so I didn't care about Justice dancing with Bear. It had been a weird
night and I was glad that it was over when it was but sad at the same time
as I strangely had to admit that high school was over and now I was about
to leave my little world and go out into a much bigger one.


****GRADUATION****


The big day was here. I was about to graduate from high school and I was
nervous. I was nervous because the safety net, as unsafe as it'd been, was
about to be removed and I'd have to go out there without the protection of
my family always around and start my life. This was still a few months away
but it still loomed. I was also nervous because I had to give the
valedictory speech.

Yeah Justice was not happy. She basically said that I laid on my ass for
two months and still beat her out for valedictorian. She didn't speak to me
for two days but she eventually came around and congratulated me.

I was in the hallway at school memorizing my speech as I wanted to sound as
natural as possible. I had privacy as everyone was outside. I'd told
everyone that I wanted to be alone so I could concentrate and they agreed
which I was thankful for.

"Hey Trey," I heard from behind me. I guess everyone wasn't outside.

"Hey Todd," I said as I turned around. He was wearing a cap and gown and it
looked slightly awkward on him.

"I hear you're valedictorian," he said looking really nervous.

"Yeah, I managed to get it," I said. I was surprised that I'd done it
myself as even though I'd worked really hard after coming back to school, I
didn't think I could do it.

"Look, I know you have to get out there in a few minutes but I just wanted
to apologize. I know it's late but I need to say this. I'm sorry for the
way I treated you and I'm sorry for whatever role I played in what Kent did
to you," he sort of blurted out. I was silent for a minute as I digested
his words. I'd already forgiven him but I think hearing him actually
apologize really helped me.

"Thanks for that. You don't have to apologize for Kent though. He made his
own choice to try and kill me. It's nobody's fault but his own," I told him
hoping it relieved some of his guilt.

"Yeah well," he said seeming to reluctantly agree.

"Well we gotta get out there. Come by later if you want," I told him but I
didn't think he would.

"I don't think I should. I'm sure I'll be unwanted," he said looking
conflicted.

"I promise I won't let Bear try and kill you in any way," I said and he
actually laughed just a little bit. I started to walk away, but something
told me not to. So I turned around and was shocked that I found myself
actually giving him a hug. Dammed Bear and his sunshine and rainbows.

He was shocked as well as he tensed up a lot, but then he loosed up and
wrapped his arms around me. I figured that was enough though because I was
still me so I pulled away. He didn't seem like he wanted to let me go but
did so anyway. I then gave him one last gift to grow on since I was sure
I'd never see him again. I reached up and pulled him down and kissed him on
his cheek. I wasn't a fool to actually kiss him on his lips. I wanted to
actually kiss Bear again and he'd definitely be pissed when I told him
that.

I stepped back and he looked stunned and actually touched the place I
kissed him like it was something special. Not gonna lie, that was a huge
ego boost that this guy was so happy that I'd just given him a peck on the
cheek. I turned this time and actually left with him still standing there.

********

"Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming out to witness this great
occasion. I have to say that I have witnessed quite a few graduation
ceremonies but this is the first that I've actually presided over. Here we
have today an amazing group of graduates and for myself and Principal
Hodgins, we welcome you all to witness their commencement," Mr. Renner said
before a large applause erupted.

"Now before we proceed with dishing out those much anticipated diplomas, we
have two very accomplished students up here who will be giving
speeches. First on deck is our Salutatorian, Justice St. John," he said and
Justice stood up and winked at me before walking up to the podium. That
wink had me a bit worried.

"Thank you Mr. Renner. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for
coming. Now before I start I have to congratulate my academic rival, Trey
Healey, for being valedictorian. I'm sure he's worried about what I'm going
to say up here, but he shouldn't be. I already blacked out his teeth in my
program so I got my revenge," Justice said and there was a bit of laughter

Justice then started her speech and I half listened not to be malicious or
anything, it was just that I had a lot on my mind. I looked out on the
graduates and I wondered if I'd ever see any of them again. I wondered how
many of them I'd have to go to school with in the fall and if I'd still
have to deal with any of their homophobia.

I looked at Justice's parents and they looked so proud of their
daughter. Mrs. St. John had tears streaming down her face and Mr. St. John
looked like he was trying hold back tears. Liberty even looked at her
sister with pride, but then I knew that she really loved her sister and
just tried to cover that up with her regular snarky self.

"So in closing, I'd like to say that although I haven't been at this school
4 years like most of the graduating class, I'd like to express my
appreciation to the reception I received and that this is a great school
that I'm privileged to have attended," Justice said ending her
speech. There was applause as she came back to her seat. Mr. Renner then
returned to the podium.

"That was a great speech wasn't it?" he asked to the answer of more
applause. "Now I'll bring up to the podium probably our most illustrious
student, certainly a student unlike any I've ever encountered. I give you
your class valedictorian, Trey Healey," Mr. Renner said and I had to admit
that his introduction might have given me a slightly big head.

"Thank you Mr. Renner for your completely unbiased introduction," I joked
which brought some laughs from the graduates and audience. "I'm happy that
I made valedictorian as I didn't expect it, although I did work very hard
for it. Standing here today, I think back on all that has happened to me
over the past 4 years both good and bad. I've had to endure a lot of things
but I think those things have and will continue to make me a stronger
person."

"As we all on this day prepare to receive our diplomas, we have a
responsibility to look at what we've learned over the last 4 years and see
if that's what we want to take out into the world. That means both academic
knowledge as well as our behaviors and treatment of other individuals."

"I challenge all of you who are graduating with me today to try and be
considerate of at least one person who you normally wouldn't. Your
treatment of that one person may end up changing their lives even if you
wouldn't think so. In closing, I just want to say to everyone out there to
live your life and don't be afraid of what others are going to think of
you. I speak from experience that you just never know when something will
come along to alter your life, so just try your hardest at whatever you
do. Thank you," I finished and there was a loud applause. I wouldn't have
expected it, but then again I guess it was time to stop thinking that the
whole world was against me.

Mr. Renner then went back up to the podium while Justice and I went to sit
with the rest of the graduating class. After another speech by Mr. Renner,
the handing out of the diplomas started. Just as I expected quite a few
students tried to show off including Sean who danced across the stage. When
Mr. Renner handed me my diploma, it was a truly amazing feeling, to know
that I'd made it. I was actually graduating high school. After the last
student received her diploma, Mr. Renner gave another very short speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Fairfield High School graduating
class of 2014," Mr. Renner said followed by us throwing our caps into the
air. I'd always wanted to do that since I first saw Zane's class do it at
their graduation. With that action, I was officially a high school
graduate.

********

"Oh sweet girl, I'm so proud of you," Mrs. St John said in a weepy voice as
she squeezed the life out of Justice.

"I have you know I just graduated too," Liberty grumbled.

"Oh we're proud of you too bud," Mr. St. John said as he gave Liberty a hug
similar to the one Justice had just gotten.

"You know, I don't think it's fair that you got to come here for a year and
half and steal my thunder when I've gone here for 4 years," Liberty said.

"Oh Libby, you never had any thunder. That was just delusions of grandeur,"
Justice said a bit condescendingly.

"This is all your fault mom. Everything was just fine when I was born all
perfect happy and healthy, but you just had to keep on pushing," Liberty
said. I knew she wasn't serious.

"Oh bud, I think it's time you knew the truth. You see, Justice was
actually born first," Mr. St. John said and Liberty's eyes bugged out of
her head while Justice had a huge gloating smile on her face.

"You gotta be kidding me," Liberty said with murder in her tone.

"That explains so much. I got all of the intelligence so there was noting
left over for you. It seems so obvious now," Justice said sounding a bit
more condescending.

"I'm going to kill you one of these days," Liberty threatened through
gritted teeth. Our group was just standing there watching not knowing what
to do. I was just enjoying the show though as I knew what was coming.

"I love you too sweetie," Justice said in a too sweet tone before her and
Liberty hugged each other proving me right. They fought and said snarky and
sometimes even downright mean things to each other but in the end they'd
just hug it out and be done with it. It's a shame they couldn't do that
during the whole saga of my outing.

"Okay, enough of that. Parents, gather around and get your pics because we
need to jet to our no-parents-allowed party," Sean said which earned him a
few hard looks.

"I'll have you know that If I want to come to your party, I will," Deanne
said.

"Not if you don't know where it'll be," Sean said with a cheesy grin on his
face. It was originally going to be held at Sean's place but there was a
last minute change.

"Trey sweetie..." mom said a sweet voice that I knew was fake.

"Look at the time, let's get on with the picture taking," I said putting
the kibosh on that line of manipulation.

There was plenty of picture taking with one final picture of our entire
group. I happened to look over after this and I saw Kenji with his family
and nobody else. I felt bad that Miriam had sort of chosen her side and
that was with me. I pushed that aside though and turned my attention back
to my family and friends.

Sean announced that it was time to go so we all headed for the parking lot
although I was told that since I wouldn't tell them where the party would
be that I had to take Calvin and Sean got the same speech about Alex. I'm
sure they probably though that us having our little brothers there would
keep us from cutting loose too much.

They probably also thought that they could call them later and get the
location but I had a plan to prevent that. There was also the fact that
Marcus and Wayne knew where the party was because they were supposed to set
it up and had already left to do so. We got in my truck and pulled away
from school.

"Okay, so where's the party? I know you know," Bear said and he was
right. Sean had chosen the place and had told me and his brother of course
and sworn us to secrecy.

"What makes you think I know?" I asked coyly.

"I know because Sean is supposed to be texting everyone the location, but
you haven't received a text," Bear deduced.

"He could be saving me for last," I said unbelievably.

"Fat chance," Calvin mumbled.

"It's okay baby. I know that Sean told you because he trusts you. You know
how much he loves you," Bear said and I was utterly shocked that he would
say that and so plainly too.

"Bear!" I almost shouted.

"I meant as a friend Trey. I know that he isn't into you and that his
little bi-curiosity involving you isn't gonna go anywhere," Bear said and I
was utterly impressed with his understanding of Sean's feelings for me.

"Sean's into you? I gotta tell Alex," Calvin said excitedly as he pulled
out his phone.

"You do and you'll be walking back home," I said as calmly as I could to
make my statement sound ominous. It seemed to work as he slowly put his
phone away.

"And Sean isn't into Trey. He's... well I guess he's wondering what it'd be
like to be with Trey but not enough to actually try even if Trey wasn't
with me," Bear said and I was again surprised that he was so understanding
about Sean and didn't sound even a little bit angry or bitter about it.

"Oh that's all. I thought it was more interesting than that," Calvin said
sounding disinterested already.

"When did you get so understanding?" I asked with what I'm sure was a proud
smile.

"I've always been this way," he lied and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah right, and as for where we're going... it's Holden Lake," I said and
his face fell.

"What the hell? Why are we going there?' Bear asked anxiously. I was
curious about this as it was outside the norm for Bear to be agitated over
something like this. Holden Lake was really just a small lake on the
outskirts of town.

"Well it's where Sean wanted this party to be. What's the big deal?" I
asked as he looked even more anxious while trying to hide it.

"It's no big deal. I'm fine," he said sounding not fine. Calvin and I
looked at each other and I wondered what was up with him.

********

The party was going strong and I was having a good time after Bear started
to relax, but that could have been the 3 beers I had forced on him. I
actually had to send him off for a few minutes because he was getting way
too freaky in front of other people.

"Why did you send Bear away? I thought you two were gonna start having sex
right here," Marcus said as he and Wayne walked up followed by Jessica and
Miriam.

"Yeah, that would have been interesting to see," Wayne said and they both
looked me over and I blushed.

"It was that obvious?" I asked as I felt my face heat even more.

"Oh yeah. Some of the former cheerleaders were disappointed and strangely a
couple of the football players," Jessica added.

"Well everyone knows that jocks and frat boys are all secretly gay," Wayne
said.

"Well the jocks around me certainly are," I joked and we both laughed with
the others joining in.

"Oh Trey, don't discount your power as the pied piper of gay jocks, and
muscle bears," Marcus said before winking at me. I swear it should be a
crime to be as hot as Marcus and Bear were.

"Would you stop winking at him before we wake up one night with him clawing
at our door begging us to let him in," Wayne joked although the thought
wasn't exactly bad, at all.

"Yeah and the next thing that'll happen will be a certain Bear huffing and
puffing and blowing your house down," Jessica said.

"That's the big bad wolf," Miriam corrected.

"Same thing," Jessica said dismissively.

I looked around looking for Bear but what I saw surprised me. It was Kenji
standing off by himself as if he were looking for somebody. I looked over
at Miriam and she was already looking at me and she smiled and took my hand
and started toward him. As we walked toward Kenji I looked over and saw
Bear looking at me with a concerned look but I smiled to try and ease his
mind.

"Hey Ken," Miriam said as we made it to Kenji.

"Hey Miriam," he said looking happy to see her as he turned toward us but
that happy look turned sour when he saw I was with her.

"Hey Kenji," I said tentatively.

"Hello Miriam," he said again trying his best to ignore me.

"How have you been?" Miriam asked ignoring the obvious dismissal aimed at
me.

"Do you really care?" Kenji said sounding bitter. I had told Miriam that I
didn't want her to abandon Kenji just for me, but I guess it had kind of
happened on it's own with me and Dale being in our group.

"Of course I care Ken," Miriam said sounding sad.

"Look Kenji, don't be mad with Miriam. It's my fault-" I said before he
stopped me.

"Oh I know it's your fault, but she still chose you so I hope you enjoy
being Bear's girlfriend," he said bitterly and I wisely chose to hold my
tongue.

"Ken, don't do that," Miriam said sounding a bit desperate

"Why not? That's what he is, Bear's prissy little girlfriend," Kenji said
and that one I wasn't gonna let go by unchallenged.

"No, what I am is Bear's male fiancé, and you can kiss my ass," I
said as I stepped closer to him.

"Oh, doesn't Bear do that enough for you?" Kenji said and I was very close
to snapping and driving my fist into his fucking face.

"Guys, please stop this," Miriam said as she stepped between us. I felt bad
that I was putting her in the middle of whatever this was between Kenji and
I.

"Why did you text me to meet you here?" Kenji asked and it suddenly
occurred to me that he wouldn't have come if someone hadn't invited him as
he definitely wasn't in Sean's circle.

"I wanted you and Trey to talk and try to work this thing out," Miriam said
and I silently thanked her even if it wasn't going good.

"Look Kenji, I know that you don't like that I'm gay but you need to get
over it because I am and I can't change it," I told him but that served to
only anger him more if the look on his face was any indication.

"You mean you don't want to change it after you've laid on your back and
let Bear fuck you," Kenji said so harshly that I was stunned silent.

"Kenji!" Miriam said likely surprised as well.

"Is there a problem over here?" Bear asked as he surprised me by stepping
up behind me and putting his big hands on my shoulders. The action really
served to calm me down a lot and I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I took
delight when Kenji flinched and took a subtle step backwards when Bear
showed up.

"N-no there's not," Kenji said trying to maintain that malice he had toward
me while trying unsuccessfully to hide his apprehension with Bear being
there. He likely wanted to say more mean stuff but was aware that Bear
would probably kick his ass or worse if he heard any of it.

"Bear, give us a few minutes," I told him. He looked at me deeply before
pulling me to him and giving me a deep kiss. I looked at Kenji after we
separated and predictably he has a look of distaste on his face like he had
bitten into something that was sour and bitter at the same time. Bear then
shot Kenji a hard glare before he left.

"Kenji, we were all friends and I want us to be that way again," Miriam
said and again I felt sad for the position I was putting her in.

"No we weren't. We weren't friends. We were just a distraction for Trey
when his real friends were off being more popular than him. You're just too
stupid to realize that," Kenji said and it was one thing to say mean shit
to me, but to do so to Miriam was going too far.

"Who the fuck do you think you are? You have no idea who you're talking to
and I suggest you check yourself before I stomp your ass," I said before I
could stop myself.

"Trey, just hold up," Miriam said pushing me back as I was advancing on
Kenji. I happened to look around and I saw that we had the attention of all
of my friends and several other people as well.

"But Miriam..." I tried but she stopped me.

"No," she said before turning to Kenji. "Now I'm not too stupid for
anything," Miriam said and Kenji looked like he regretted what he'd said.

"Miriam, I'm sorry-" he started but Miriam cut in.

"You know what I see Kenji...I see you all alone because your too butt hurt
over something that isn't even an issue. You're the one that wanted us to
be separate from Trey's other friends and you're the one that wanted Trey
to choose us over his friends that he had before he even met us. There was
no need to even choose because we could all have been friends as I'm
proving right now," Miriam said and while I think it was profound, Kenji
obviously didn't agree.

"You think you're really apart of Trey's "inner circle"? The only reason
that they even allow you to speak to them is because Bear's teammate, the
only one who isn't really a fag by the way, decided to go slumming with the
book nerd," Kenji said but that was all he got out before Miriam hauled off
and slapped him so hard that I was surprised that she didn't knock any
teeth loose.

"Fuck you. You know what, stay alone like the loser that you are. I tried
to be a friend to you but you're more concerned with trying to hurt us so
enjoy being all alone while I stay with my friends, including Trey," Miriam
said before she stormed off.

"I guess you're happy now that you've taken Miriam away from me," Kenji
said angrily being completely oblivious to his own actions in driving
Miriam away.

"I didn't take anything away from you. I told Miriam not to abandon you but
you didn't make it easier on you with all the shit you were saying about
me. You drove Miriam away because you couldn't stand that she wanted to be
friends with a fag like me, but that's it. She does want to be friends with
me because she knows that I'm still the same person that I was before. It's
just sad that you can't be as smart as I thought you were and get over
this. Well Kenji, this is it. I wish you well and I hope that someday you
can stop being so bitter," I said. All I got from him though was a glare so
I just shook my head and walked away.

I thought that the rest of the day would be ruined by Kenji's behavior but
Bear worked overtime to get me out of my funk and after a few hours I was
having fun again. I was hanging with my friends and my classmates that were
more or less accepting of me so I had nothing to be angry about.

There were always gonna be people like Kenji which made me think of
Drake. I hadn't seen him and I didn't know if that was because he was too
embarrassed to be seen, or if it was because Sean hadn't invited him. Which
ever it was it was nice that I didn't have to deal with him too and I hoped
that the prom would be the last time I'd ever have to lay eyes on Drake
again.

Todd showed up with Jeremy but they stayed mostly by themselves although
Tina, Bruce and Glen hung out with them. I looked over one time and I saw
Bear and Sean and Carter talking to him and I smiled that my big guys could
be so forgiving. It was strangely a sign to me that even though some things
never changed, some things did and it gave me hope for the future.


****THE WRAP UP****


"Hey Trey, how are you doing?" Dr. Manning asked after he let me into his
office. I wasn't scheduled for an appointment but I'd called and made sure
he was free so I could come and see him.

"I'm doing really well," I told him. I'm sure he was shocked by the smile
on my face.

"Well you look well. Have a seat," he said as he closed the door to his
office. I did what he said and he sat in his chair.

"I came to tell you that Bear got back and we're about to leave," I told
him.

"Well I should have guessed that Bear was back because you're looking
really good," he said.

"Yeah, but I'm still working on being happy without him as I'll have to be
without him for extended periods of time starting in the fall," I told him
and I'm sure he was happy to hear that as I'd given him some push-back on
that just after Bear had left.

"Well that's good. I hope to see you again after the summer. I want to
check in and see how you are doing," he said. I appreciated it as I could
tell that it wasn't just a thing he probably said to all his patients, or
maybe it was but I chose to believe he meant it.

"Yeah I will," I said before I stood up and he did as well. "Well I don't
want to keep you for long. I just wanted to stop by for a few minutes and
thank you for helping me so much," I said before I extended my hand to him
which he gripped and shook. He them walked me to the door.

"Take care of yourself Trey and if you need to, call me," he said.

"I'll do that," I told him. I then decided to get him one last time so I
stepped up to him and pulled his glasses off. I was surprised he'd let me
do so. I then stepped back and looked him over. "I think you're very
attractive. If I wasn't with Bear and you weren't married, I'd give you a
run for your money," I said before adding a wink and I was satisfied I'd
been successful in surprising him. It took him a few seconds to recover.

"I'm still straight though," he said but he still looked slightly shaken.

"I don't think that would matter," I told him before I slid his glasses
back on with him just standing there.

"Um," was all he said before I started laughing.

"Goodbye for now, good doctor," I said before leaving his office while
still laughing at having finally gotten him. I could be a real stinker
sometimes.

********

"So how's the doctor?" Bear asked after I'd gotten into the truck.

"He's good," I said not able to hide the smile I had.

"What did you do?" Bear asked and I was constantly surprised how well he
knew me. It was a wonder I was able to hide anything from him.

"Oh nothing," I simply said.

"Uh huh," Bear said before he started his truck and pulled away. He grabbed
my hand and pulled it to his thigh like always and he just rode in silence
until I realized where we were headed, but there was no way we could be
going there.

"Bear, where are we going?" I asked calmly even though I was far from calm.

"You need to take care of something before we leave," he said as he
continued on toward where I knew we were going now.

"I don't think..." I said before trailing off because I didn't know what I
was thinking.

"I think you're able to do this now. He can't touch you anymore. You have
me and I have you and together, nothing can touch us. You are mine and
you're gonna tell him that," he said with such strong conviction that I
found myself wanting to jump him.

"Yeah," I said as I stared at my guy, my unbelievably handsome, strong,
loving caring guy.

"I know I'm irresistible but don't you think you have more important things
to focus on?" Bear said but he had that grin that I think I fell in love
with the first time I saw it when we were just kids.

"Nope, nothing is more important than you," I said and his grip on my hand
tightened and I felt a shiver run through him and I felt his dick twitch as
it was very close to my hand but he kept his focus on the road.

We continued on with me mostly staring at Bear and him glancing at me every
so often. Once he had to adjust himself and I wondered if it was because I
was looking at him like I was. We finally arrived at the prison and I
looked at him again and silently asked him if he was sure and he silently
said yes before he leaned over and kissed me.

After our kiss I got out and headed into the prison again that I didn't
think I'd ever see again. I went through the procedure which included one
guard having to be told to let me in by a guard that had been there the
first time. I wondered if they'd been told to let me in if I ever came here
by Ivy. She and Zane seemed to have some pull to be so young in their
careers, or maybe it had nothing to do with them.

I arrived to a room similar to the one that I'd been in the first time
complete with the floor restraint. About 10 minutes later two guards
brought Kent into the room. He looked delighted when he saw it was me but I
was about to ruin whatever good mood he thought he was about to have.

"Hello Trey, how's things?" he asked and I could see he hadn't lost that
infuriating smugness but I wasn't gonna let him have his fun this time so I
put a smile on my face.

"They're good Kent," I said and he noticed my tone and the smile kind of
threw him but he managed to mostly hide how much.

"I'm surprised you came back. There's no seconds though, I'm sorry," he
said and I wondered if he'd been born with that smug look on his face.

"That's okay, I don't want any seconds of that. I actually prefer things
that are more... filling," I said with as much innuendo as I could and I
was rewarded with a frown from him.

"What do you want?" he asked finally sounding annoyed. I planned on making
him more than annoyed before I left.

"I'm here to tell you goodbye," I said which seemed to make him angry
before he brought out that smug look again.

"Goodbye..." he said trying to hold that same level of smugness but I could
see a crack.

"Yeah. I'm done with you," I said and that crack widened a bit.

"Yeah right Trey. I'm in your head. You'll never be rid of me," he said and
I finally saw him as pathetic.

"You're delusional because I haven't even thought of you in a long
time. The only reason I'm here is because Bear thought I should see you
before we left," I said and I saw that crack getting even bigger.

"Before you left? Where do you think you're going?" he asked trying to put
on the façade but I could see through it now.

"You tried your best to hurt me, but you only ended up hurting
yourself. I'm gonna spend the rest of the summer traveling with Bear, and
your gonna be in here. Then I'm gonna come back and get ready and leave for
college, and you'll still be in here. After I'm finished with college, Bear
and I are gonna get married and live our lives together, and you'll still
be in here. The operative theme of this is, you'll be in here. You will be
in here for the rest of your life because you decided to try and teach me a
lesson for having the nerve to be gay. Meanwhile I'll be out there living
my life," I said to him and he exploded once I was finished.

"You fucking sissy fag cocksucker, you'll never be done with me! You'll
never be rid of me because I'll be a part of you forever and there's
nothing you can do about that!" he shouted but I just grinned that I had
truly won against him. I then got up and walked over to stand next to him.

"You're wrong about all of that, except me being a cocksucker because I do
suck cock really good, but I guess you do too after your time in here," I
said adding a wink which riled him up even more.

"I've never-" he tried but I stopped him with a finger to his lips which
surprisingly stopped him.

"Don't lie. I know what goes on in here. Speaking of which, you seem
awfully determined that I never forget that you raped me. Maybe it's you
that can't get me out of your head," I said as I stood close to him. I had
a motive for doing so as I had a suspicion about him.

"You disgusting prick. I will-" he said before I silenced him by kissing
him. I'd need to disinfect my mouth later but I was proving a point and
that was worth it. As I suspected he didn't fight it after a couple of
seconds. I finally stopped after about 10 seconds.

"I thought so. It seems it was you and not me that was messed up by our
little encounter if that is any indication," I said gesturing toward his
crotch where I could see he was hard.

"That's not..." he tried but he was all out of bluster now.

"It's okay Kent. It's fun on this side," I said making sure to add a
sinister smirk. I then went and called the guard to let me out because I
was done. "Oh yeah Kent, welcome to the dark side," I said before I left
the room with him looking a bit dazed.

"What are you smiling about?" Bear asked after I'd gotten back in his
truck.

"You shouldn't let me go places by myself. I'm not as nice as I thought I
was," I responded still with the smile.

"What did you do this time?" he asked but this time he had a slight smile I
hoped he'd still have after I told him what all I'd done.

"I fucked with his head, that's what. Drive and I'll tell you all the
sinister details," I told him. He looked slightly wary but never lost that
smile as he started the truck and pulled away from the prison.

********

"Is this it?" Bear asked after I'd given him my 4th bag.

"Yeah that's it," I said. I was then surprised by a sneak attack by my
mother. Big stupid Bear just laughed and walked out of the house though.

"Oh, I don't want my baby to go," mom said as she gripped me in a crushing
hug from behind.

"Mama, you're crushing me," I said as I struggled to breathe.

"Livvie, I think you're killing the boy," dad said but he didn't sound all
that worried.

"I don't care. I just want to keep my baby here with me," she said still
not letting me go.

"Blacking out here," I said as I struggled to get free. Dad and Zane then
managed to pry her off of me. I took deep breaths after she let me go and I
feared what would happen in the fall.

"Call me everyday, no every hour, no every minute," she said and I rolled
my eyes.

"Why don't I just call you now and we'll leave the phone on the whole time
I'm gone," I joked.

"Okay," she said after looking like she was thinking about it for a few
seconds.

"Livvie, I can think of a number of reasons that would be a bad idea," dad
said with a smirk.

"Yeah ma, you might hear something that'll scar you for life like your son
on his-" Zane said before I stopped him by tackling him to the floor.

"That'll teach you to keep your mouth shut. Be thankful I didn't kiss you
again," I told him as I stood over him.

"Damn, when did you learn to tackle so hard?" Zane said in a hoarse tone.

"I learned from the master," I said with a smile.

"Hey Cal, why such a long face?" dad asked. He had been sulking for a few
days ever since Bear had come back. I had a theory but I wanted to wait for
him to say something before I did anything.

"Trey's leaving and I won't see him for the rest of the summer," Calvin
pouted.

"I'll be back dude," I told him.

"Yeah you will, only to leave for school," he said even more down. I looked
over at our parents and they nodded.

"Well, how about you going with Bear and me?" I asked him. It took a few
seconds before he realized what I said then he looked up with a hopeful
look at me, then at our parents.

"It's fine with us, but you really will have to call us everyday," dad said
and mom nodded in agreement.

"Really?" he asked with a big happy smile. They nodded again and he jumped
up and hugged the both of them then hugged me. He was taller than me now
and it pissed me off, but not really.

Bear walked over and picked up Calvin's bags that I'd slipped and packed
for him and stashed behind the couch. He called Alex and told him where he
was going. Alex wasn't too sad as he was supposed to be spending the summer
with his dad which is another reason why Calvin was bummed.

We all three headed out to Bear's truck and I tossed my keys to Zane as I
was lending him my truck for the summer. All three of us got hugged by dad
and crushed by mom. Zane even got a hug in. My sisters bypassed me and ran
to Bear and only hugged Calvin and I after Bear reminded them that we
actually existed. They really needed to step up off my man.

After all the hugs were out of the way we piled into Bear's truck and waved
as Bear pulled away. We went by and said a farewell for now to our friends
before we hit the road. As we left the city I breathed a sigh of relief not
because I was leaving home, but because I was finally getting out and
seeing the world. We had no plans other than going to Disneyworld which
Calvin immediately fell in love with.

I was just happy to be spending some extended time with my guy, even if my
not so little anymore brother was along for the ride. I knew that this was
just another step I was taking to shed that old Trey that had protected me
for a time, but that I didn't need anymore. I had all I needed in Bear and
I looked forward to what came next, even if it wouldn't all be good. As
long as I had him, I would be fine.


THE END

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Author's Notes:


Well here we are at the end of the long journey. There's a lot tackled in
this chapter and I'll admit that while I know this chapter was going to be
long, I had no idea going it it'd be this long. It's over 3 times as long
as a standard chapter of this story.

Anyway, we see Bear's volatile reaction to Trey's rape, but his eventual
understanding. He even comes up with the idea for Trey to go to see a
therapist. Trey makes a slow recovery because of this and now he seems
ready for what comes next, that is when he's not too busy being either
annoyed, pissed or flirty with his threapist.

We also meet Trey's and Bear's maternal grandparents and they're completely
different people. While Trey's grandparents love and accept him, Bear's
grandparents, more specifically his grandmother doesn't approve of the
relationship between the two guys, for more than one reason with the reveal
that she doesn't want Trey with Bear because he's a guy and because he's
Black. There's a threat lingering in the air and I wonder if anything will
come of it. Hm...

The group of friends won't be all together with most of them going to the
same college while Bear, Justice, and Veronica going to different colleges
and Miriam and Dale each going to different colleges out of state. Will the
group of friends be able to maintain their close friendship and will Bear
and Trey's relationship be able to survive them being apart from each other
for long periods of time?

Trey manages more healing by speaking to Clyde's sister and getting some
insight into Clyde and why he'd saved him. Jeremy finally breaks his
silence and he and Trey manage to get things settled and the student
council is able to start a Gay and Straight Alliance at the school thanks
to Jeremy and this leads to the reveal that fellow council member Bruce is
gay and the shocker that Veronica is bisexual. Trey is also able to finally
put things between he and Todd to rest and he ends up forgiving Todd as he
sees his old self in Todd.

Prom and graduation come and prom proves to be interesting as Drake finally
get's his comeuppance at the hands of Liberty and surprisingly Darcy so he
got owned by both ex and current girlfriends. It's about time although Trey
isn't all that happy about the way it happened which shows his strength of
character.

The long journey of Trey's junior and senior year in high school has come
to and end, but there's still a lot of story left in the life of Trey. Stay
tuned to the further Chronicles of Trey.

I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and forgive that I took so long. I
hope the super extra long chapter makes up for the long delay. Send any
comments to thestoryguy9783@gmail.com

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Editor's Notes:

Boy that was a long one, hope you really enjoyed it. Looks like Trey, Bear
and even Calvin are on a road trip off to Disneyworld. Now lets take a look
at some of the things that happened in this chapter.

After finally telling Bear about the rape he had to tell his parents and
also deal with counseling. But it all worked out in the end, Trey was about
to heal and he could still have his fun time with Bear. The grandparents
come to town and we learn that April's mother is a real racist and that she
had the nerve to try paying Trey to break up with Bear. Is April right and
she won't try doing anything to Trey like she threatened she would.

Jeremy has the idea to start a Gay & Straight Alliance at the school and
hopefully other student in the future.

Bear and Trey are going to different schools for college, Trey will be
closer to home, but what challenges await for the boys at there respective
schools. Will Trey and Sean be roomies.

The Boys get a custom tattoo done and it is just perfect. Drake finally
gets what he deserves, but is this really the end of seeing Drake. I really
don't know what to say about Kenji though, his whole thinking of the
situation is weird.

Lastly Trey is finally able to say goodbye to Kent for good and get
confirmation that Kent was the one that got really messed up by their
little encounter.

Once again hope you all enjoyed this extremely long chapter, but well worth
the wait, now for the boys to move on to the college life. Be sure to send
me and Nicky a email letting us know how you like it, you can reach him at
the email above and me at jd.kaster1987@gmail.com.

Until the next chapter,

JDK