Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 19:47:35 EST
From: JuilianJ@aol.com
Subject: the story of us part 6

THE STORY OF US
BY: Julien

This story is 100% fictional and is by no means depictive of the life of
any person, place or thing.  It contains sexual activities between males
and should only be read if it is legal to do so in your area.  Read at your
own risk and enjoy.  Comments are welcomed and would be very much
appreciated.  ENJOY!

There will be many flashback sequences in this story so as not to confuse
anyone, when a flashback takes place, there will be an asterisk (*) before
the start of that flashback.

I would like to apologize for the numerous spelling errors in the previous
chapter as my spell check is not working.  I will try my best to keep them
to a minimum.  Thanks!!!

Nothing hurts worse than the betrayal of a lover except the betrayal of a
friend.  This thought kept repeating itself over and over in my head as I
flipped through a photo album that I had kept over the years.  Nothing
spectacular about its' exterior: suede with a leather binding and the
blocked words of PHOTO ALBUM stamped in the center in black but the
interior held a lot more than photos for me, it held memories and as I
looked from picture to picture, I could feel my chest get heavy.


*"You're a cool cat Richie.  I'm glad we're friends."

"Me too, though why you'd want to be my friend I don't know."

He stopped walking and turned to look at me, "Why would you even say
something like that?"

I put my hands into my pockets and allowed my eyes to stare at the paved
sidewalk trying to come up with a viable reason.

"I don't know.  I mean look at the way things are, the way the world is.
There are not a lot of friends like us."

"You mean the color thing, me being black, you being white?"

"Yeah.  I mean if my dad was to ever find out, he'd skin me alive."  And
the thought had me shuddering.

"Mine too but I don't care.  I'm almost a man and I can be friends with
whoever I want to be friends with and I want to be friends with you."

I had smiled at his words.  If I were to look at the facts, Bobby was my
only true friend.

"Good because I want to be friends with you too."

"Good.  Oh yeah, I have my new camera, come take a picture with me."  He
stopped walking and started rummaging through his backpack finally
retrieving an antique camera.

"Where did you get that?"

"My pops collection.  He collects things like this all the time.  When you
come over I'll show you."

"Cool.  So how are we going to take this picture?"  His face had lit up
like a Christmas tree.  He walked over to enclosed wall and placed the
camera on it.

"That's the beauty of it.  It flashes by itself.  Now SMILE!"

We had hugged each other and attempted to look all cute but instead came
out looking comical.  I still remembered every detail of every picture in
that book, something that seemed lost only on me.  According to my brother
I should have just 'burned the damn thing' but no matter how many times I
tried to light that match, I couldn't get myself to do it.  It would be
like destroying history, destroying my past, destroying a piece of my life
and that, I couldn't do.

The ringing of my telephone gave me the distraction that I so desperately
needed.

"Hello."

"Richie we got a problem."  On the other end of the line was Diane's'
manager Laurence.

"What's the matter, everything ok with Diane."

"Yes, this isn't about Diane, this is about you."

"Me?  What about me."

"Well I don't want to discuss this over the phone."

"Where then?"

"Come to my office in about an hour."  And long after I had hung up, I was
still in the dark about what was happening.


"So what's so urgent that you couldn't talk about it over the phone?"  I
asked highly annoyed that I had to make the long trek to Laurence's office
on a Saturday.

"It seems that your former employer is about to drop a law suit against us
for breach of contract."

"What!?!"  That particular piece of information had caught me off guard.

"Yes.  I got a call this morning from non other than Mr. Knight's manager."

"What the hell did he have to say?"

Laurence reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out two pieces of
paper, handing one copy to me and keeping the other to himself.

"That is your contract with them.  Look at the extremely fine print at the
bottom."

I had to practically strain my eyes to read what it said:

This contract will remain in effect until 2005 even if said employee is
otherwise terminated by the organization.  If such does occur employee must
have written permission from former employer to do other such said work.

"Is that even legal?"

"It is if you signed it."  I shook my head at my own stupidity.

"Well it was Greg's' company that drafted this.  Couldn't I just talk to
Greg about it."

"Technically yes but as the situation stands, Greg is as much knee deep in
this shit as you are.  According to their lawyer, Greg himself is under the
same legal obligation as you and the bottom line is that either you work
for Bobby or you don't work at all."

My only reaction to that was to curse, "Fucking piece of shit.  I can't
believe this!  You would think that after all these fucking years you could
at least trust...shit!"

"Calm down Richie.  We're going to fight this ok.  Diane specifically gave
me orders to fight this as far as we have to go and I will do just that.  I
gave a lawyer friend of mine a call and I faxed over the contract to him
this morning so I should be hearing back from him soon and as soon as I
know what's up, you will too."

"Thanks Laurence thanks a lot.  I know that this is probably more hassle
than it's worth but I promise you I'll do my fucking best, no less."

He walked around from his desk and pulled me from my chair, embracing me.

"You're good peoples Richie, good peoples and you're apart of this family
now."

And as I embraced him back, I felt my spirits lift, at least there was
something I could look forward to in these coming months.


Around this time of turmoil add to the mix the fact that I had met someone
that I thought I could relate to.  His name was Jack and I had met him
through none other than Michael.  We had had an unprecedented dinner date
for that Friday after my Saturday meeting with Laurence and all that week I
had kept him talking about my recent legal troubles, something that he
seemed to find hilarious.

"What's so damn funny?"

"You, this!  It's like you finally rid yourself of him but your not rid of
him, oh the irony."

"What the hell are you talking about Michael?"

"You still don't get it do you?"

"No!"

"Ok, no need to get hostile.  All I'm saying is that it seems no matter
what way you go, you still end up with you know who up in your head and in
your life."

"So."

"So, you need to either make up or break up.  You can't continue like this
Richie.  You need to get out more, get fucked more, get fucked up more.
You know Bobby is not ever going to be that for you so get over it and get
over him."

And it was as if my brain had betrayed me.  It was amazing that Michael
could all of a sudden get all philosophical on me when I least expected or
needed it.  Damn him!

"So what do you suggest I do?"

"Well since I know you're too chicken to call him, I've got something else
in mind."

And I didn't bother to ask what, when, or where.

"Come over Friday at about eight, eight thirty."  And that was just what I
did.


He had maneuvered his way through the crowd and towards me.

"What's the special occasion?"

"You!  I got all my single friends together to meet you."

"Funny Michael, really though, what's with the party?"

"Come."  He then took my hand and led me into his jam-packed living room.
Above the mantel hung a banner with my name on it and OH MY GOD, my
picture, my telephone number and my stats.

"You Jerk!  How could..."

"Because I'm your friends and if I have to hear about Bobby one more time,
I'm going to hurt somebody.  Now try to be sociable and meet my friends."

With that, he pulled me from cluster to cluster, group to group meeting his
comrades.  I neither found anybody vaguely interesting but as for them
being attractive, that was a whole other matter.  It seemed that what his
friends lacked in brain mass, they made up in body.

"Stop salivating Richie.  These dogs will pick up on the smell in no time."
And true to his word, one guy that I had been eyeing in particular walked
up to us and whispered something to Michael who then winked at me and
walked away.

"I'm Jack."

"Richie."

"I know.  So how are you?"

"Good, you?"

"Great.  I tell you though, I wish I had more friends like Michael."

"And why is that?"

"Cause I don't know of anybody but him that would through a party just to
find his friend a man."  I had blushed at that.

"Well that's Michael for you.  I can't believe he would do all this though,
I'm not desperate you know, just going through..."

"A rough time?"

"Yeah."

"Don't feel bad about it.  Same over here too."

"I'm sorry to hear about it."

"Well you know life does go on but anyway, would you like to get out of
here, maybe get some dinner or something."  The idea was the best offer
that I had had in a long time and I found myself very anxious to accept it.

"Sure, but what about the party."

He turned to look at the crowd behind us.  "They seem to be just doing fine
without us.  If we hurry back, we'll probably be back before it's over then
you can mingle with your public."  The idea left me with a bitter taste in
my mouth and I had smiled and accepted his invitation for dinner.

That had been two weeks ago and things had been steadily progressing for
us.  I didn't want to jump the gun and call it a relationship but that was
what it was beginning to feel like.  I felt secure with Jack, more secure
than I had felt with anyone in a long time.  We had talked about everything
under the sun and even though he had offered me his ear, I never felt the
need to talk about Bobby with him, strange as it may seem.  Michael was
more than happy at these new developments.

"So have you two fucked yet?"

"What?"  I asked almost choking on my coffee.

"HAVE YOU TWO FUCKED YET?"  He asked again in slow motion.

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS."  I responded in a similar fashion, something that
caused him to chuckle.

"Come on Richie!"

"What!?!"

"It's a yes or a no answer."  I looked at him squirming in his seat,
behaving like a little child anxious to get that ice cream cone and I just
couldn't hold it in anymore.

"No."  And right off the bat I knew that it was not the answer he expected
to hear."

"No?"

"No"

"No?"

"God dammit, NO!"

"Why the fuck not?"

"It's not all about the sex Michael?  I actually think I like him."

"I didn't send him your way to make nice Richie.  You were supposed to fuck
him and move on."

"Why would I do that?  Jack is kind, sweet, caring, understanding..."

"Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.  Just trust me on this one.  Jack is not the type of
guy that you want to get all up into."

"And why would that be?"  I asked getting highly annoyed with his attitude.

"You'll see."

"What?  First of all you set me up with this guy, then you expect me to
just dump him and move on."

"You won't be doing the dumping baby, trust me on that."

"Excuse Me!" my voice rose another notch.

"You may think you know Jack but you don't know Jack."

"Fuck you Michael, you're just jealous because he was your friend and"

"And what?"  He asked, challenging me.  "And what?  The only reason I did
this little favor for your ass was because I knew you wouldn't have the
fucking guts to do it for yourself."  And it was as if I were experiencing
deja vu for a second time.

"So what, you want me to get on my fucking knees and thank God for a
'friend' like you.  Please Michael!"  With that I got up and made my way
towards the door of the restaurant.  If I had stayed and finished, I knew I
would have said or worse done something I knew I would regret.

"How about thank you Michael!"  I turned around and saw that he was right
at my heels and thought it best to take this outside.

"What is this?"  I asked.  He took a deep breath then spoke,

"I don't want to argue with you Richie ok.  I wanted to cheer you up."

"And I'm cheered up.  I thought you would have been happy for me."

"Richie I am but this is not what you need."

"And how the hell would you know what I need Michael?  What the hell makes
you an expert on that?"

"Apparently not much."  He snorted, "I was just trying to help you out but
if you think you know more about this than me, go ahead."

"Michael I didn't mean..." he instead held up his hands to stop me.

"Forget it Richie.  Do what you want to do but just be careful ok?"

"Ok."

And even though I hadn't meant to, I ended up ruining what should have been
a good evening.

 That evening with Michael had weighed heavily on my mind.  So much in fact
that I was oblivious to my other problems.  Both Diane and Laurence sensed
that something other than Bobby was on my mind and both wisely kept silent
about it but Jack was a whole other matter and at every turn, he was trying
to figure out what was wrong.

"Nothing!"

"Shit Richie, you keep saying that but I know you and..."

"And you don't know shit!"  And that just came out wrong.

"Excuse me.  Is there something you have to say to me?"

I turned to look at him, "I'm sorry Jack, it's just that.  Something
Michael said to me the other day about..."

"Me."

"Yeah, you."  He sighed and walked up to me.

"You want to ask me something?"

"Yes, no, I don't know.  Damn Michael!  Jack, I, I feel like I don't know
anything about you.  I mean you know about me and Michael, me and Bobby, my
legal troubles and my childhood and I know absolutely nothing about you."

"I know and I've been meaning to talk to you about it.  I haven't been
upfront with you Richie and I know I should have been."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not available."  And as soon as those words left his mouth, I jumped
back.

"Not available?"  I mimicked sounding like a child.

"I know that I should have said something when we met but I was attracted
to you so much and for a while I thought I could just...I just thought that
for a while, I could just forget my problems and be with you."

"So in other words I was a welcomed distraction?"

"No! No.  I care about you Richie, very much.  It's just that I can't be
the man you need, not right now and I think you feel the same way."

"You're telling me how I feel?  Where the hell do you get off?"

"Come off it Richie.  You haven't even made a move on me yet?"

"So."

"So I've seen the way you've been looking at me, ogling me like I'm a piece
of meat."  I had to laugh at that one.

"Get over yourself, you are not all that ok."

"Says who?"

"Says me."  Ok, ok, I was lying a little.  Jack was definitely attractive
and damn sexy and I would have made a move by now but...

"Ok, ok.  But I think you are oh so sexy?"  I cocked an eyebrow up

"Really?"

"No."

"Fuck you."

"I wish you would."  And this bantering went on, back and forth for another
ten minutes before I forced the subject at hand back on the table.

"You're upset aren't you?  Believe me when I said I didn't mean to lead you
on Richie.  I really tried to make myself get to know you and to make
something happen but..."

"Is he special?"

A big smile appeared on his face and he nodded his head, "Yeah he is."

"Then what are you doing here with me?"

"I don't know.  We had an argument and I left our home, went to stay with
my brother for a while.  Came back and found him fucking someone else."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, life goes on.  Michael invited me to the party that night and when I
saw you...I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth before."

"It's ok, I guess I'm not ready for a relationship either."

"Still not over your 'friend'?"

"I was never into him?"

"Liar!"

"Whatever you say.  So are you gonna get back with your man?"

"I don't know, should I?"

"Yeah, if you love him and he loves you then why not.  You love him don't
you?"

"Yeah, with all my heart."

"Then forgive him and move on."

"Good advice, maybe you should take some."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that you and your 'friend' should patch things up.  It seems a
shame to just throw away so many years."

"Well I can't forgive the unwilling."

"You can do anything you put your mind to Richie.  I know that and I know
you can do this.  Even if to just set your mind at ease."

"I don't know.  I mean I'm in the middle of a fucking lawsuit with the guy.
Why should I even care?  He could care less about me so why should I fight
for this so much."

"Because from everything you've told me, it's not the Bobby you know.  If
it weren't for his manager, he wouldn't be doing that.  Wasn't that the
deal?"

"I'm beginning to wonder but it doesn't matter anymore Jack.  My life is
not going to collapse without him around.  I've been doing so well so far."

And truth be told I was doing ok.  I was being made use of and I was being
well appreciated.  My worth was being well paid and I got the respect that
I deserved and I would be damned if I would go crawling back to him on my
hands and knees for any goddamn reason.

CHAPTER 6 IS HERE AND FOLKS, THIS IS COMING TO A CLOSE.  LOOK OUT FOR
CHAPTER 7 AND THEN 8.  LET ME KNOW HOW YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS STORY SO FAR.

THANKS!!!