Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:01:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Garrett S <redneck_boy90@yahoo.com>
Subject: Alive Again 2

Alive Again

Written by G. L. Stapleton (Redneck Boy)
Email address: redneck_boy90@yahoo.com

--------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: This story does contain very strong sexual content between
male minors (boys under 18 years), violence, language, and graphic
detail. If you are underage, if you offended, or if it's illegal in your
area, then please do not read any further or read at your own risk.
Otherwise, enjoy!
--------------------------------

Chapter Two

"Blond Mystery Boy"



Joanne Newman was the first one up on this beautiful Saturday morning and
she rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. She had opened the windows to let
the cool morning summer breeze come through and circulate around the
house as she fired up a load of laundry and started in on unpacking the
boxes in the living room. It was so quiet in such a small town as Black
Maple. She had gotten so used to the sound of morning hustle and bustle
in Memphis that she knew all of this peace and silence would take a while
of getting used to. She was so glad to finally be away from Memphis after
everything that happened. As Joanne began to reflect back on those times,
she sighed deeply and looked off into nowhere in particular. With that,
she got up and walked upstairs to Billy's bedroom.
Joanne slowly and carefully opened the door to her son's bedroom and
quietly sauntered in. Billy was still fast asleep in his bed breathing
deeply with his mouth partly open. He was sleeping on his side facing
towards the window where the vivid sunlight entered in through the clear
glass and his hair was disheveled and partially covering his face. Joanne
gently sat down on the side of Billy's bed trying not to wake him and
she just stared at him with a smile on her face. She tenderly moved his
blond hair to the side of his head away from his eyes and out of his face
where she could clearly see his boyish and flawless complexion. She
thought about the many times that Jake said Billy looked like him in the
face and wondered how in the world he saw himself in Billy. To Joanne,
Billy unmistakably had her facial features. As far as she was concerned,
Billy's outward dome looking chin was the only feature of his that
resembled that of his father's. Other than that, Billy looked a lot like
his mother.
She looked away from her son and caught sight of the picture of Billy,
Eric, Joe, and Bradley that Billy had set on his nightstand the night
before. She reached over and grabbed the picture and brought it closer to
her to get a better and closer look at it. As she gazed at the picture,
she quickly came to realize that no matter how far away they were from
Memphis, the memories of recent past would always be there with them in
some form or another. She always had Billy on her mind lately. Ever since
the incident in Memphis, Billy wasn't at all the same person he had been
before; that happy, bubbly, cute boy that was always smiling, always
laughing, and always showing a great attitude towards life. Now, he was
more or less just a shell of that boy she had once known. She felt a
stray tear freely descend down her left cheek and wiped it away as she
sat the picture back in its spot on the nightstand. With that, she turned
around and looked at her little boy again.

"Oh Billy, I wish there was something I could do to bring that little
boy in you back to life again," Joanne said to no one in particular as
she gently rubbed the sleeping boy's smooth face.

After that was said, Joanne got up from the bed and quietly headed out of
Billy's room shutting the door behind her. She ventured back downstairs
to the living room to pick back up on unpacking the boxes of knick knacks
and other personal items. About an hour later, Jake came downstairs
wearing a blue plaid house robe with a t-shirt and pajama pants on
underneath.

"Morning sweetie," Joanne said.

"Hey honey," Jake said. "How long you been up for?"

"Eh, about two hours now," Joanne replied. "Decided to get an early
start on unpacking these boxes. I'm hoping to have most of it done by
tonight."

"Ah. Well...I think I'm gonna do the yard work today," Jake said. "I
need to mow the front and back, set up the sprinkler systems and the
grill, and I need to get my tools and stuff put up in the shed."

"Sounds like a solid plan to me," Joanne said.

"You okay?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Joanne said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Jake gave her a weird look.

"Besides the obvious, of course," Joanne said.

"Ah, so you've been thinking about everything again, huh," Jake said.

"Again? Strangely, I can't recall a time that I wasn't thinking about
it," Joanne said smartly, which brought on an awkward silence for
several seconds.

"Joanne, we have to get passed this," Jake said. "It's already been
five months since then and we have to make sure we show positive
attitudes in front of the boys. Especially Billy."

"Yeah, because that'll fix everything, won't it Jake," Joanne said
angrily.

With that, Joanne stopped unpacking and then irritably ran upstairs to
their bedroom almost in tears. When she made it to the bedroom, she
grabbed the latest family picture of Jake, the boys, herself, and her
sixteen year old daughter Carol and sat down on the bed staring at it. As
she gazed at the image of Carol, tears began to fall down her face
uncontrollably. Just as that happened, Jake walked in looking apologetic
about what he had just said. He sat down on the bed beside her and
wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Joanne began to cry so hard that she
thought she would just die right there of heartache with her husband
right there beside her trying to comfort her as best as he could.

                              ____________________





Billy and Eric were sitting together side by side on the edge of an
enormous desert plateau in the middle of nowhere with Eric sitting up
against a huge boulder with Billy's head leaning up against his chest.
They were watching the sun come up from the east with nothing out ahead
of them but the dusty barren wasteland with various cacti and other
plateaus in sight off in the distance.

"I think it's strange," Billy said. "Eric, do you ever wonder why the
sun stays so hot? I mean, don't you think it would run out of energy
after a while?"

"Nah, that's what makes the sun so great; so untouchable," Eric said.
"That and the fact that the surface of the sun tops off at like ten
thousand degrees."

"I don't wanna leave you," Billy said.

Eric chuckled after that was said.

"You'll never leave me," Eric said. "I mean, that's the whole point,
right?"

"There's something I forgot to tell you," Billy said.

"Don't worry," Eric comforted him. "We have plenty of time."

"Plenty of time for what?" Billy asked.

"I thought you were supposed to tell me," Eric said.

Billy was confused when that was said. All of a sudden, a flashback came
to Billy's mind faster than he could blink. He was suddenly sitting in
the back of Carol's jeep with Eric sitting beside him smiling brightly.
Billy felt happier than ever as he gazed at Eric's ever-so-beautiful
smile. He moved his hand over to Eric's hand and clasped them together.

"I love you," Billy said.

If possible, it seemed as if the smile on Eric's face grew even more
radiant as a blinding bright light suddenly began to surround Eric's
entire body as if he was turning into an angel. Out of the blue, a
deafening noise that sounded like a horn rung out at full volume until
Eric was completely engulfed by the dazzling light.
Suddenly, Billy found himself laying peacefully in Eric's bed with Eric
laying there right beside him smiling brightly as always; the two boys
naked and partly covered under the thin, white sheets. Billy beamed
gleefully at Eric as they laid there together silently staring into each
other's eyes.

"It's not over, Billy," Eric said.

"What do you mean?" Billy asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Eric said. "I mean, the heart only
wants what it wants, right?"

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



With that, Billy woke up from his dream completely disoriented. He rolled
over onto his back and rubbed his forehead with his fingers as he stared
at the ceiling thinking about the dream he had just had. He was used to
having dreams like that by now, but it still got to him every time he had
one. Billy laid there for a few more minutes just thinking as usual and
then, finally, got up to get ready for the day he would be spending with
Andy.
Billy got dressed into a pair of short navy blue athletic shorts that
went up to his mid-upper legs, a yellow t-shirt with short red sleeves, a
pair of white tube socks with blue and yellow stripes at the top, and a
pair of blue Oceanside Sperry Topsiders deck shoes. After he was dressed,
he went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and brushed
through his disheveled hair until it was styled the way he liked it. He
always liked his long blond hair, because it was so soft and shiny thanks
to the professional styling shampoo that Billy's mom was insistent on
buying and it was easy to style because of how thin it was.
When Billy was ready to go, he went downstairs to the kitchen where his
mom was already preparing breakfast for everyone. As Billy walked into
the kitchen, he could see his dad through the window working in the
backyard and he noticed three year old Cody sitting on the kitchen floor
about ten feet away from Joanne playing with his toys quietly.

"Hey Mom," Billy said.

"Oh, good morning, baby," Joanne said softly.

"What's up, Cody?" Billy asked in a childish tone.

"I got a cown toy," Cody said cutely holding up a stuffed toy clown.

Billy sat down on the kitchen floor in front of his little brother and
began playing with him. He had been doing that a lot lately. As he was
playing with his brother, Joanne and him began talking.

"So, how'd you sleep?" Joanne asked.

"Alright, I guess," Billy said simply. "Hey Cody, Sesame Street's
probably on now. You wanna go watch it?"

"Yeah!!" Cody said excitedly.

With that, Cody ran to the living room followed by Billy who walked over
to the TV and turned it on the channel that Sesame Street was being shown
on. Cody began playing with some toys he had on the floor while Billy
walked back into the kitchen and sat down at the table where he could
talk to his mom.

"So, how'd you sleep last night?" Billy asked.
"I slept okay," Joanne said. "I got up about three hours ago to start
unpacking. With such a big house, it's gonna take days to get everything
settled."

"It's quiet around here," Billy noted.

"I noticed that too this morning," Joanne said. "We're so used to
hearing cars on the highway, horns honking, people talking all the time,
and stuff like that aren't we?"

"Yeah," Billy said. "There's no noise at all around here. You didn't
hear anything weird last night, right?"

"What do you mean?" Joanne asked.

"Like just footsteps or something like that," Billy said referring to
when he ran out the night before to chase Andy down.

"No, I didn't hear anything," Joanne said. "Did you hear anything
like that?"

"Umm, yeah, but I guess it was Dad getting up to go to bathroom or
something," Billy lied.

"So what're you doing today?" Joanne asked. "You gonna unpack
everything in your room today?"

"Uh, actually, a new friend of mine is showing me around town today,"
Billy said. "I met him last night. He stays next door at his grandma's
on weekends."

"Oh okay, that's good," Joanne said approvingly. "What's his name?"

"Andy...McKinney," Billy said. "He's pretty nice."

"Okay, well, if you want to, you can invite him and his grandma over for
supper," Joanne said. "Your dad and I would like to meet them."

"I'll ask him about it," Billy said. "I haven't met his grandmother
yet."

"Oh, I need to get you your medicine," Joanne said.

Joanne walked into the living room and grabbed the box that said
"medicine and first aid stuff" and brought it into the kitchen. She
opened it, took a prescription medicine bottle out of it, and shook two
little white pills out of it. She poured some cold water out of a gallon
jug in the refrigerator into a glass and gave it to Billy along with the
pills. Billy threw the pills in his mouth, took a gulp of water, and
swallowed all of it in one swig.

"Ugh, when can I stop taking these?" Billy asked.

"Not for another three months," Joanne said. "You want some toast with
your eggs and bacon?"

"Umm, sure," Billy said. "Mom, has Bradley's mom called yet?"

"No, not yet," Joanne said. "I'm sure she will though. Maybe she just
wants to give us time to settle in before calling."

That sounded very unconvincing to Billy, but he decided to let it pass
since he knew how short of patience his mom had on this subject. Instead,
he just sat there quietly as his mom sat a plate of fried eggs sunny side
up, a few pieces of thick applewood bacon, and two pieces of toast with
real butter already spread on it. Joanne brought a glass of orange juice
to the table for him and then he went to town on his breakfast.

                              ____________________





The summer day temperature was at its peak as of now. The sun was blazing
hot, but luckily there was a cool breeze that swept through to keep the
outdoor conditions bearable. By now, at about three o'clock in the
afternoon, Andy had already given Billy the grand tour through town. He
let him meet some of the nicest people living in Black Maple including
his grandmother and the old candy man who was actually completely
harmless but known to most of the town's children as nothing more than
an old grump except to Andy of course, he led Billy to town hall where he
met the mayor and other town leaders, he took Billy to the best and only
burger joint in town for lunch called "Robbie's" where they ate bacon
cheeseburgers, huge fried potato skins, and drank iced cold root beer out
of frozen mugs, and now Andy was leading Billy through the woods showing
him the Black Maple River, the bike trails, and now they were headed to
Andy's personal favorite spot in the forest that only he knew about and
wouldn't tell Billy what it was until they got there.

"So, uh, how long have you lived here?" Billy asked.

"Well, thirteen years this coming January," Andy said. "I was born in
the old hospital building I showed you earlier that was closed down like
ten years ago."

"Hmm, why'd it close down?" Billy asked curiously.

"Not enough money, I guess," Andy said. "It was only open for a few
years and Black Maple couldn't afford to keep it open anymore. Now they
just use it as a haunted house during October."

"Oh cool!" Billy exclaimed.

"So, what do you think so far?" Andy asked.

"About the town? It's nice," Billy said honestly. "I like
Robbie's."

"Oh yeah, that restaurant rocks," Andy said. "We've been going there
forever and a day now. Well, we're almost there."

"Almost where?" Billy asked.

"You'll see," Andy said.

The boys journeyed side by side along the bank of the fast-moving river
and they were walking the opposite direction of the river current. They
walked along the dry ground on the verge of the river for another ten
minutes when Andy stopped with his a grin on his face. He looked over at
Billy who noticed the scenery in front of him with shock and amazement.

"There it is," Andy said pointing towards natural setting in front of
them.

"Oh my god," Billy said amazed by the scenery in front of him.

Ahead of them was a huge waterfall that fell for about forty-five feet
into a large natural pool of clear blue water that attached to the river.
The waterfall wasn't too enormous, so the noise of the free-falling
water hitting the pool wasn't very loud, which was good, because
otherwise the boys wouldn't be able to hear each other. Around the edges
of the large fresh water pool were masses of lush green bushes and
plants, flowers of all colors spread all over the place, and a huge
moss-covered rock cliff directly next to the falling point of the
waterfall that stretched out about fifteen feet over the pool of water.
Billy was astounded at the sight before him. It reminded him of something
that he would've seen in a National Geographic magazine or something.

"So, what do you think?" Andy asked.

"It's beautiful," Billy said. "When did you find this place?"

"About two years ago," Andy said. "I've kept this place to myself
because I don't really trust Brett and the other guys to keep it a
secret."

"But you trust me to keep it a secret?" Billy asked with a grin.
"I can trust you, right?" Andy asked.
"Yeah, of course," Billy said. "I was just curious is all."

"Hey, you wanna go up to that cliff?" Andy asked. "That's where I
usually go. There's a really nice view of everything from up there."
"Sure," Billy said enthusiastically.

With that, the boys walked around the base of the high cliff to a spot
where it ramped up to the top kind of steeply allowing them to simply
walk all the way up. Andy started up first followed by Billy. It really
surprised Billy at how high forty-five feet was and how long it took to
reach the top when the hill was as steep as it was. As they made it about
two-thirds of the way up, Billy thought he was going to have a spasm
before getting the chance to make it to the top. When they finally
arrived at the top of the cliff, the two of them were having difficulty
breathing normally.

"Jeez," Billy said breathing deeply. "Who would've thought freakin'
flat Minnesota had hills like that?"

"Oh trust me, Minnesota's not that flat," Andy said. "Not that you
could tell or anything. Well, let's sit?"
The boys sat down next to each other about one foot away from the edge of
the cliff. Billy was impressed by the scenery out in front of him. From
where they sat, they could see over the forest where they had walked, and
off in the distance, they could see the roof of town hall in their town,
which was the tallest building there. They could also see that the river
went on just about forever.
"This is so gorgeous," Billy said. "How have you kept this hidden?"
"No one ever comes this far out into the woods," Andy said. "On top of
that, the TPF is way off in the other direction from here in the woods,
so the other guys have never come out this way."
"What's the TPF?" Billy asked curiously.
"The Twelve Pack Fort," Andy said simply. "It's our secret clubhouse
where we hold our meetings and stuff like that."

"Hmm, would you show me that?" Billy asked.
"Uh, I can't do that," Andy said. "It's secretive."

"But you showed me this," Billy said. "And it's your biggest secret
apparently."
"Yeah, but here's the thing," Andy said. "If Brett was to somehow
find out that I took someone to the TPF without permission from him,
there'd be no way to keep him from getting to you."
"Alright, I understand," Billy said. "I was just curious is all."

"God, it sure is a nice day out here," Andy said changing the subject.

"Yeah, I can't get over how quiet it is around here," Billy remarked.
"At this rate, I'll turn into a full-fledged country boy within a few
weeks."

Andy chuckled out loud at that comment.

"Billy, you ain't gonna be turning into no country boy any time soon,"
Andy said. "Not with the way you dress and just the way you are."
"What's wrong with the way I dress?" Billy asked.

"Nothing," Andy said. "It's just very...city boy like."

"Oh, well, you're not so much dressed like a country bumpkin
yourself," Billy said. "You could actually pass for a city boy if you
went to Memphis like that."

"You think so?" Andy asked.
"Sure," Billy said. "All you need to do is to get rid of the wranglers
and put on a pair of athletic shorts and tube socks and you're a
full-blown city slicker."

"What about the hair?" Andy asked referring to his longish,
unfashionable brown hair that just had a basic wind-blown look to it.

"Well, it's not really a city style, but I think it works for you,"
Billy said.

"Hmm, well, now that we've hung out for the whole day and got to know
each other a little bit, maybe we should discuss how to...uh...balance
everything after what happened last night," Andy said.

"You know what, Andy? Don't worry about it," Billy said. "I've
forgiven you and I understand why you did it, so there's no need to try
to fix something that ain't broke, you know?"

"Now, you can't let me off that easy," Andy said.
"Why not? There are worse things that could've happened," Billy said.

"Yeah, but that's just not our way out here in the maple sticks," Andy
said. "The fair thing to do after someone does something wrong to
another is to make them pay for it with a bloody vengeance."

Billy raised his eyebrows at that comment.

"Man...people take wrongdoings pretty seriously around these parts,
huh," Billy assumed. "I was always taught to forgive someone like four
hundred and something something times without getting even."

"Baptist churchgoer are you," Andy said. "There's something else we
have in common. Are your parents thinking about going to First Baptist of
Black Maple? That's where me, my mom, and my grandma go together."
Billy shrugged not knowing what his parents were wanting to do.

"Eh, anyway, off topic," Andy said. "So, about the revenge thing. What
do you think we should do to even things out?"

"I still really think we should just forget the whole thing," Billy
said. "I'm really not mad at you for it. I mean, a boy sees me -
another boy - in my underwear; it's really not a big deal considering
it's nothing you haven't seen before especially if those yearly
initiations are as vulgar as you said."

"Well, it's just...I would've preferred to meet you in a more subtle
way than spying on you and being chased and pinned to the ground in the
middle of the forest at night," Andy said.

"Me too, but what's done's done, you know?" Billy said.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Andy asked.

"Of course," Billy said. "You did what you had to do. And while what
you had to do was completely and utterly stupid, I won't hold it against
you."

"You know Billy, you're a good guy," Andy said.

"Thanks. I try," Billy said jokingly. "Hey, my mom wanted to invite
you and your grandmother to have supper with us tonight. Do you think
your grandma would be up to that?"

"Oh, she'd love that," Andy said. "She made a comment this morning
about going over to your house to introduce herself and stuff."

"Awesome," Billy said.

"Hey, you wanna go for a swim in the pool down there?" Andy asked.

Billy gave Andy a strange look.

"In what?" Billy asked. "We didn't bring swim suites."

"Swim suites," Andy repeated. "Who needs swim suites in the middle of
nowhere on a hot, beautiful day like this?"

Billy's eyes widened as Andy stripped his shirt off his body, scrunched
it into a ball, and threw it off the cliff to the dry ground at the base
of the hill. Billy stared at the boy's smooth, boyish chest with no sign
of hair anywhere and he automatically felt that vibe that he had gone a
long time without. Desire came over Billy like huge billowing
thunderstorm clouds over a small town as he stared at the boy in front of
him. Andy took his shoes and socks off, stuffed his socks into his shoes
and threw them down to his shirt on the ground below. Afterwards, Andy
undid his blue wrangler jeans and let them fall to the ground without any
hesitation leaving him in nothing but his white cotton briefs. Billy
thought he would start drooling if he kept staring, so he looked away as
if it was no deal as Andy crumpled up his jeans and threw them to the
ground below along with the rest of his clothes.

"What's wrong? You don't like swimming?" Andy asked knowing that
Billy had just been staring at him lustfully.

"No, it's not that," Billy said.

"Okay, then c'mon," Andy said. "After all, you ain't got nothing I
haven't seen before, right?"

Billy's eyes widened as he realized that Andy's case was just won. He
laughed out loud at that and then stood up to take off his own clothes.

"Alright, you win," Billy said. "I will take off my clothes and go
down there and swim with you. Just as long as you understand that you
don't get to win anymore after this."

"I'll remember that," Andy said.

Billy started off by removing his shoes and socks and throwing them down
to the ground where Andy's clothes were. After that, Billy stood up and
stripped off his shirt followed by his shorts leaving him naked except
for his white Fruit of the Loom briefs. He crumpled up his shirt and
shorts and threw them down with the rest of the stuff. With that, Billy
turned and faced Andy and jokingly struck a dashing sexy pose, which only
caused the bulge in his briefs to stand out even more than it already
was. Billy wasn't completely hard down there, but he knew a full-fledged
boner was definitely threatening to come into play. Andy enjoyed the
sight in front of him. He looked up and noticed the scar on Billy's
chest that he had seen the night before. Andy thought about asking him
how that happened, but decided to just let it go for now deciding to save
that for when they were both in more serious moods than they were now.

"Very nice," Andy said. "Alright, now that we're ready to swim,
let's go."

"Alright, I'm game," Billy said no longer feeling awfully timid.

Billy started to walk off towards the steep hill thinking that they were
going to walk down to the pool. When he realized that Andy wasn't
following him, he turned around and faced the boy again catching another
good look of his angelic half-naked body clad only in small white undies.

"What's the matter?" Billy asked.

"Aren't you gonna take the easier way in?" Andy asked nodding towards
the edge of the cliff with his head.

When Billy realized what Andy was referring to with that nod, he just
about had a spasm with the mere thought that Andy was wanting him to jump
off the cliff into the water below them.

"Ohhh no!" Billy said. "Nunh uh. Never gonna happen."

"Oh c'mon," Andy begged. "It'll be fun."

"There ain't no way you're getting me to jump off a damn fifty foot
cliff," Billy put his foot down.
"Give me a break," Andy said. "It's only forty-five feet, not
fifty."

"Oh well in that case..." Billy said sarcastically.

"C'mon Billy. You stripped down to your underwear, you agreed to go
swimming with me; why don't you go the extra step and just simply jump
off the forty-five foot cliff?" Andy asked.

"Suddenly, that `jump-off-a-bridge' speech my grandma always used to
give me is starting to make sense," Billy said.

"Well, if you don't wanna do it, then I'm not gonna force you," Andy
said. "Oh well. Dally up!!!!!!!!"

All of a sudden, Andy daringly jumped off the edge of the cliff without
any vacillation. Billy thought he was about to have a heart attack when
he saw Andy just leap from the cliff. He quickly moved to the edge of the
cliff and watched as Andy hit the water feet first and rapidly vanished
underneath the blue water. Appalled that Andy had actually made such an
audacious jump, Billy watched the surface of the water intently waiting
for Andy to come back up. He was just about to freak out with the fear
that he was hurt when all of a sudden, Andy came up to the surface and
yelped excitedly.

"Whoo!!!!!!!!" Andy yelled out enthusiastically causing an echo to
sound throughout the woods. "C'mon Andy, it was so much fun!"

"Uh, I don't know," Billy said nervously.

"Well, alright, if you're too much of a scaredy cat, then just walk
down." Andy said as he was waving his arms back and forth to stay
afloat.

"Don't use that reverse psychology crap on me," Billy said.

"Hey, if you wanna jump, then just do it," Andy said. "It feels
great!"

"Don't push me," Billy said. "I'm thinking about it."

"Well, by the way, your underwear's showing," Andy said jokingly.

"Oooohhh..." Billy said. "Alright, fine. Here I go."

With that, Billy braced himself for the high dive. He attempted to jump
several times and held back still too scared to go through with it. He
knew that Andy was able to do it without getting hurt, but it looked so
high and frightening. He rubbed his hand over his face and through his
hair with a deep breath feeling like he was about to burst with dread.
Deciding to stop thinking about it, he prepared himself for the jump and
without hesitating, he leaped off the side of the cliff. He felt as light
as a feather as he freely fell through the air towards the water. The
fall felt like it was taking forever to end. As Billy was falling, he
began to wonder how in the world people could jump out of planes.
Suddenly, he landed in the pool feet first with full force and
disappeared under the water. Andy was so proud of Billy for jumping. He
knew he was scared to do it, but he did it anyway and probably loved it.
Andy swam towards the spot where Billy landed just as Billy came up to
the surface completely ecstatic that he actually jumped from a forty-five
foot cliff.

"Oh my god!!!!!" Billy exclaimed just after he surfaced from underneath
the water. "Whoo, that was awesome!!!!"

With that, the boys began swimming around the pool together and splashing
each other. Billy hadn't had so much fun in a long time. Oddly, he was
glad that he met Andy even if it was by him spying on him through his
window and Billy having to chase him down in the middle of the night.
After swimming around for a few seconds, Andy started a grand splash
fight with Billy.

                              ____________________



The time had finally come. There was only one item to go before the
entire downstairs level was completely finished and Joanne was glad about
that. She pulled the tiny knick knack out of the box and placed it on her
shelf in the spot that she believed it would look best at.

"Okay, one floor down, one more to go," Joanne said. "Thank god."

Joanne walked into the den where Cody was playing around with his toy hot
wheels. She stopped dead in her tracks and watched as Cody was wrecking
cars together and flipping them around. Deciding she had had enough of
watching that, Joanne walked into the kitchen and looked out the window
at her husband who was in the shed putting up his tools and other
hardware and lawn equipment. She could tell that he was still mad about
what was said that morning. Deciding to go out and talk to him, she told
Cody to stay in the living room and not to go anywhere until she got back
and then she went out in the backyard to the shed. Jake was working to
arrange his tools where he wanted them when Joanne walked in.

"The yard looks nice," Joanne said.

"Yep," Jake said plainly. "I knew all it needed was a good mowing. The
soil around here's pretty good, so I was thinking about maybe planting a
tomato garden over there where the trees won't block the sun too much."

"That's a good idea," Joanne said. "Umm, listen, I just got off the
phone with a Sophia McKinney. She lives next door; she's the grandma of
Andy, you know, the boy that Billy went out with today?"

"Yeah, and..." Jake said.

"Anyway, I invited her to join us for supper tonight and to bring Andy
along with her," Joanne said. "I think it'd be good to get to know the
people around here. Umm, I'll thaw out some hamburger meat and you can
just throw them out on the grill in about an hour or so."

"Okay," Jake said unenthusiastically.

"Okay then," Joanne said. "In that case, would you mind setting up the
picnic table and umbrella? I think it'd be a nice night to eat
outside."

"Alright, Joanne," Jake said smartly.

"Jake...I never told you that I'd act all happy and positive for the
boys and actually be happy and positive," Joanne said. "You know it
doesn't work that way."

"My god, woman, you make it sound like I told you that you had to get
over it instantly or something," Jake said.

"Don't talk to me like that, Jake," Joanne said. "Look, all I wanted
to say is...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I took out my pain on you this morning.
I just thought maybe I'd be able to talk to you."

"Joanne, of course you can talk to me," Jake said. "You know that."

"No, I don't know that," Joanne said. "You make me feel like I can't
even express what I'm feeling or it'll mess up your new happy life
completely."

"So what, you think I've gone off and forgotten everything?" Jake
asked impatiently. "You really think I'd fucking forget that?"

"No, I don't think you'd fucking forget that," Joanne said angrily.
"But what I do think is that you'd go off and pretend that none of it
ever happened just so it suits your new lifestyle. Oh poor Jake, had to
pull his family together cause God knows that bitchy wife of his could
never do it herself, right?"

"Get out of my sight," Jake said quietly.

"Go to hell, you bastard," Joanne said.

With that, Joanne stormed off into the house so angry that she could
barely stand the sight of her husband. When she got in the house, she put
her frustrations away as Cody came up to show her a toy that he found in
one of the boxes in his room. She acted excited for him and told him to
go watch TV in the living room. It was hard for her to act like
everything was okay around Cody and Billy, but she knew she had to if the
family was going to remain intact. When Cody was out of sight into the
den, Joanne began to cry again as she grabbed the meat out of the
refrigerator to thaw it out. She threw the meat in the microwave and then
stood still in front of the sink staring out the window while still
crying.

                              ____________________



Billy couldn't believe how much fun he was having swimming in a natural
pool in the woods with a boy who spied on him the night before. They had
had splash fights, races in the water, and now they were sitting on the
shallow end of the small pond close to where they had dropped their
clothes off from the cliff. They were both exhausted after swimming for
the last hour, so they decided to take a rest together in the shallow
water.

"So, did you have fun swimming?" Andy asked.

"Oh yeah," Billy said. "To be honest, I haven't had this much fun in
such a long time. I don't think I've laughed as much in the
last...probably five months as much as I did today."

Sitting only about two feet away from Billy, Andy got a very good look at
the scar on Billy's chest. He tried to look at the scar without Billy
noticing. He noted how straight the scar looked. It was as if someone had
cut his chest open with a knife or something. All of a sudden it occurred
to Andy that maybe that was the case. Maybe Billy had gone through
something terrible and just wasn't talking about it to anyone. Or maybe
Billy went through surgery that left a scar on his chest like that. Or it
could've been something as simple as an extremely bad cat scratch or
something in that general idea.
Deciding to focus on something else so he wouldn't be caught looking at
the scar, Andy looked further down the boy's body to his crotch area
that was covered by his wet and somewhat transparent white briefs. When
he looked hard enough, he could slightly see the boy's penis. He could
make out the pinkish mushroom-like head underneath the thin, white
material, but other than that, he really couldn't see anything else. All
he knew is that the water had to have been very cold because he could
tell that there wasn't much to look at under those briefs considering
how cold it had gotten. He about chuckled when he looked up and saw Billy
staring at him dead on in the face.

"You enjoying the sight there?" Billy asked.

"What? No," Andy lied. "I was looking at...at...that...thing
underwater."

Billy sniggered at that.

"I can half believe that," Billy said. "Look, it's cool. I know what
it's like."

"You know what what's like?" Andy asked nervously.

"Seeing someone you think is attractive," Billy said. "I've been
there."

The boys blankly stared into each other's eyes; the only noise around
being that of the sounds of nature surrounding them. Without warning or
words, the two of them began to move closer to each other. Andy scooted
over to Billy slowly as Billy also moved in. They both closed their eyes
as they slowly prepared their lips to converge with one another.
Suddenly, there lips met ever so gently. Just as the kiss was about to
take off, Billy pulled back and looked down as he bit his bottom lip.
Andy opened his eyes and noticed that Billy didn't look very good now.
Without saying anything, Billy moved away from Andy and got out of the
water.

"What's wrong?" Andy asked.

"Look, Andy, I'm sorry," Billy said. "I just...I can't do this."

Billy walked over to where they had thrown their clothes down and began
to put his clothes back on. Andy climbed out of the pond and moved over
to where Billy was so he could put on his own clothes. After they were
both dressed, Billy stared at Andy with a slight smile. When Andy saw
this expression on his face, he realized that there had to have been way
more to Billy than what met the eye. Andy could tell that Billy had a
deep, dark secret that messed with him constantly, and he refused to tell
anyone about it.

"Andy...I hope you know I'm not mad," Billy said. "It's just
that...well, anyway, it's not your fault is what I mean."

"I don't understand," Andy said simply.

"You don't have to understand," Billy said. "Just respect my decision
to stop what we were doing before we got carried away."

Without another word, Billy took off down the dry edge of the river the
same way they had come from. Andy still didn't get why Billy was acting
the way he was, but he decided it would probably benefit him more to just
do what Billy told him and respect his decision to stop. That thought in
mind, Andy ran after him and walked beside him once he caught up. The two
of them walked the whole nine miles on foot back to town in dead silence.
Neither of them really knew what to say to one another and both boys
realized that words would probably only further the current complication.
When the boys made it back to town, they got on the sidewalk side by side
and headed towards their neighborhood. As they were walking, Billy looked
over at Andy with another strange and out of the blue smile. Andy caught
Billy's stare and thought about how cute that smile was. Billy had to
have been one of the most beautiful boys Andy had ever laid eyes on.

"Billy, I'm sorry about earlier," Andy said.

"It's okay, Andy," Billy said. "Like I said though, it wasn't your
fault. It wasn't you at all really. I'm just...screwed up."

"Not following you," Andy said.

"You mean you don't know what screwed up means?" Billy asked.

"Of course I know what screwed up means.," Andy said. "I'm not
retarded. I just meant that I don't follow the idea that a boy like you
could be screwed up."

Billy smiled that cute smile of his again when Andy said that. Billy
loved how sweet Andy was. He was incredibly kind, caring, and boyishly
gorgeous. He realized that there was no reason why he should not have
just let nature takes its course earlier and see where it took them.
Billy realized that boys didn't come in much better shape than Andy, so
there was no logic in not seeing where things would have gone. In that
very second, Billy decided that if a moment like before ever occurred
again between the two of them, he would let things happen the way they
were supposed to.

"You know, Andy, I'm really glad I met you," Billy said. "Even though
we haven't even known each other twenty-four hours, you've managed to
make me feel better about myself, about living here in Black Maple, about
many things."

"Well, I'm a very inspirational boy," Andy said with a chuckle.

The two of them laughed at Andy's self absorbedness and then all of
sudden, Andy's facial expression grew very cold as he noticed a group of
boys Billy wasn't familiar with standing about twenty yards away in a
huddle. Andy thought he would have a heart attack right then and there
when he saw Brett, Bootsie, Darrel, and Gus standing there talking to
each other. He thought about leading Billy back the direction from whence
they had just come, but then realized it was too late when Brett saw him
standing there almost completely motionless. As Brett and the other three
boys started walking towards them, Billy looked over at Andy for some
kind of instruction on what to do when he realized that one of those boys
walking towards them was Brett.

"Stay completely quiet, Billy," Andy said softly and shakily. "Don't
answer any questions until I'm finished giving him an explanation."

"Well, how do I know when you're done?" Billy asked under his breath
just loud enough that Andy could hear it.

"I'll bump your hand with mine," Andy said.

Andy thought as quickly as possible while watching Brett and the others
walking towards him and Billy. His heart was pounding so heart that he
could almost hear it. He could feel cold sweat falling from underneath
his longish brown hair. When Brett made it to them, he looked like he was
in a fairly good mood, which was not saying much even in the least.

"Well, well, well," Brett said when he got there. "Andy, buddy, you
don't call, you don't say anything; you just took off for the whole day
and missed a very important meeting."

"Brett, we didn't have a meeting today," Bootsie said stupidly.

With that, Brett punched Bootsie in the stomach without taking his gaze
off of Andy. Bootsie gasped when the air was nearly knocked out of him
and smartly decided to let Brett go on with his story without saying
anything else that could get him seriously beat up.

"You gotta forgive Bootsie here," Brett said. "He forgot to take his
fucking anti-stupid retard pills today, so he's a bit fucked up."

"Brett, you never said anything to me last night about a meeting today,
so please don`t start with me, okay?" Andy said boldly.

"So, who do we have here?" Brett asked referring to Billy.

"This is the new neighbor boy, Brett," Andy said nervously. "His
name's Billy. He's also my cousin from my Dad's side."

"Cousin? I thought your dad didn't have siblings," Brett said.

"He's my second cousin," Andy said smartly. "He's my grandma's
younger brother's son. They moved in next door to my grandma."

"Ah," Brett said looking unconvinced. "So Billy, where're you from?"

"Umm, Memphis...Tennessee," Billy said nervously.

"Hmm, sounds nice to me," Brett said. "I like Tennessee alright. Did
you live close to the Grand Ole Opry?"

"Uh, no, that's Nashville you're thinking of," Billy said.

"Uh huh," Brett said. "Well, I guess I'll see you girls later. Just
thought I'd say `hi' to the new kid here. Welcome to Black Maple,
Billy boy."

With that, Brett came up and stood about two inches away from Andy's
face to whisper something to him.

"You'll meet me at the TPF tonight at nine," Brett said. "We gotta
talk."
After that was said, Brett motioned for the others boys to follow him and
began walking off. Bootsie, Gus, and Darrel said their goodbyes to the
boys and walked off with Brett. When they were a good ways away from
them, Andy sighed a deep breath of relief. Billy looked behind him at
Brett and the others as they were walking down the street and then
glanced over at Andy who looked as if he had just seen a ghost or
something.

"You okay?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, sorry," Andy said. "Brett just makes me...well, anyway, I'm
good."

"Well, let's go," Billy said. "I'm sure my parents have supper ready
by now."

It surprised Andy how calm Billy was about the whole thing. He seemed to
be a bit nervous when Brett was talking to him, but now he was acting as
if it wasn't the devil who was just talking to him. Billy and Andy took
off together towards Billy's house; both of them starving after such a
long swim in the pond in their sacred spot.

                              ____________________



Supper was very fulfilling for Billy and Andy as they sat at the picnic
table with everyone else in the backyard of the Newman`s house. They
both scoffed down the food as if they hadn't eaten anything in years.
The adults discussed how swimming always had a tendency to make people
even hungrier and sleepier than normal as the boys just ate their food
without taking a break. When supper was over, the six of them remained in
the backyard where Cody played with his toys in the sandbox that Jake had
built for him that day, where Andy, Billy, and Jake kicked the soccer
ball around in the large open area of the one and a half acre backyard
that wasn`t covered with trees, and where Joanne and Andy's
grandmother, Sophia, sat on the porch talking.

"Well, it seems that you'll all make it nicely here," Sophia said.

"I hope so," Joanne said. "Thanks to Andy though, Billy seems to be
adapting pretty well...all things considered. Cody's fine with the whole
thing, of course. He'll agree to go anywhere as long as he has his toys
with him."

"But what about you and Jake?" Sophia asked. "How are you both
doing?"

"Ugh, I don't know," Joanne said. "I think we'll both be fine
though. Jake has a new job now making a whole lot more money than what he
usually makes, I'll be able to stay at home with the boys and just take
care of housework and stuff, and the boys will have a good, small school
to go to."

"But there's something missing," Sophia said intuitively.

Joanne looked over at her blankly and smiled slightly.

"I know what it's like," Sophia said. "When my husband and I moved
here back in 49, there were only sixty-four people living here in Black
Maple. Well, naturally, living in such a small town after living in
Chicago my entire life was something I didn't think I was ready for, but
after a few years, I came to see Black Maple as nothing but my home."

"Well, there's more to it than just the smallness of the town," Joanne
said. "We all have had sort of a hard time the last few months.
Especially Billy."

"Well, I know it's none of my business, but what happened?" Sophia
asked.

Joanne gave Sophia another slight smirk deciding that she was trustworthy
enough to know what all happened. With that, Joanne led Sophia inside the
house to privately explain to her about what happened in Memphis five
months before.

                              ____________________



About two hours later, the sun was setting and almost completely hidden
by the hills in the horizon. The loud and irritating noises of cricket
chirps were humming constantly from every which direction. The blue sky
was making its ritual transition from light blue to dark blue using many
pinks, purples, yellows, and oranges. Billy deemed this night as being
one of the most peaceful and beautiful nights he had seen in a long time
as he sat on the back porch steps right beside Andy who looked as if he
was used to the Black Maple beauty. Andy was thinking more about how
close nine o'clock was. There was only less than one hour left.

"Ahhhh, this is such a nice night," Billy said enthusiastically.

"It is, isn't it," Andy said looking around at the surrounding area.
"So, what're you doing tomorrow?"

"I don't know," Billy said. "I'm probably gonna ask if my parents
wanna try that church of yours and Sophia's like you were talking about
earlier."

"That'd be cool," Andy said. "Would you wanna hang out after that?"

"Don't you have like some big meeting to go to tomorrow?" Billy asked
referring to what Andy had told him the night before about the Twelve
Pack always meeting on Sunday afternoons to make plans for the week.

"Yeah, but that's not till like five," Andy said. "We'll have plenty
of time after church to hang out before then. Besides, Brett thinks
you're my cousin, so there's nothing he can do about us hanging out."

"Good point," Billy said. "You really think he bought that?"

"Eh, if he knows I'm lying, then I'll just...I'll just...well, I'm not
too sure what I'll do, but I'll think of something," Andy said. "I
always do after all."

"He's kinda scary," Billy said.

"Hmph, you don't know the half of it," Andy said. "Just be thankful
you weren't there to see what he did to one of our members yesterday.
That was a sight I won't forget very easily."

"Has he always been that way?" Billy asked curiously.

"Somewhat," Andy said. "He wasn't so bad in kindergarten, but he's
progressed into a hardcore bully over the last few years."

"Was there something that pushed him to that?" Billy asked.

"Well, he has a pretty hard life," Andy said honestly. "His
parents're useless drunks who've never cared what happened to their
kids. Brett has an older sister who's about twenty years old now; she
got pregnant at fourteen and took off with her boyfriend a few months
later. She hasn't come home since. Brett also has a seventeen year old
brother who's in jail for beating up a kid in school."

"He's in jail just for beating him up?" Billy asked.

"No, not just beating him up," Andy said. "I mean, he beat this kid up
so bad that he had to be taken off to the emergency room by ambulance.
From what I've heard, that kid's now partly paralyzed and won't ever
walk again."

Billy's eyes widened when he heard that.

"So I take it that Brett watched all of this and went overboard on the
bullying?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Andy said. "He's always had that violent side in
him, but it's really starting to get worse. The only reason the Twelve
Pack is still a group is because everyone's too afraid of Brett to just
walk away."

"How can he have such a strong hold on eleven people?" Billy asked.

"When you've been beaten up by him, you'll understand," Andy said.

"You've been beaten up by him?" Billy kept on.

"Not really," Andy said. "He looks at me as his `best friend', so he
doesn't mess with me nearly as much as he does the others. I've just
been pushed around a lot by him. And that's literally speaking."

"Why does he consider you his best friend?"

"We went to daycare together before preschool, so we've known each
other for pretty much our entire lives," Andy said. "Not that I'm
bragging about that."

Billy chuckled.

"Billy, I won't let him get to you," Andy promised.

"I know you won't," Billy said trustingly. "I have faith in you."

Andy smiled cutely when Billy said that. With that, the two boys stared
at each other again like they had earlier right before they almost
kissed. The difference was that they weren't moving in for a kiss this
time. Instead, Andy was trying to think of a subtle way of asking about
the scar on his chest. He figured that maybe Billy would be more open
about it since Andy had given Billy so much information about his private
life in the Twelve Pack. As he threw out more and more different ideas on
how to ask, he decided to just go ahead and ask directly.

"What?" Billy asked with a chuckle.

Andy remained silent for a few seconds as he got up the courage to ask
the long-awaited question. Then suddenly, the words came out of his mouth
like that of fuzzy cotton that had gotten stuck on his tongue.

"What...what happened to your chest?" Andy asked with a stuttering
voice.

Silence overtook the boys; the only sound being that of the crickets
surrounding them. Billy had a look on his face that was extremely hard to
read. It seemed as if the mere subject was a trigger for doom and despair
in the mind of Billy. Andy sat there and stared at Billy seriously in the
eyes. After a few more seconds passed without any words being said, Andy
gave up.

"Look Billy, I'm sorry," Andy said.

"Nah, it's just that...I just can't talk about this right now," Billy
said as if he was ready to cry. "It's just too hard to...look, I'm
gonna go ahead and go back inside. I'm tired."

"Okay," Andy said softly. "Good night."

Billy got up from the porch and took off inside without another word
spoken to Andy. Andy sat there on the porch and buried his face in his
hands while resting his elbows on his knees. He sighed deeply at the
thought that he had just screwed up a perfectly good friendship because
of curiosity. He couldn't believe that he just could not keep his mouth
shut until Billy was ready to talk about it. Angry with himself for not
leaving things alone, Andy took off out of the Newman's backyard and
headed down the street towards the woods.

                              ____________________



When Billy made it to his bedroom, he closed and locked the door. He
wasn't angry with Andy for what he asked him. Andy was just curious
about the scar on his chest just like Billy was curious about the Twelve
Pack. He walked over to his nightstand and grabbed the picture of him,
Eric, and his other two best friends. As he stared at the image of Eric
that he had looked at thousands of times over the passed few months,
tears began to descend down his cheek. He put the picture back down on
the nightstand and stood there still staring at it for several seconds.
He vigorously wiped away the existing tears on his cheek with his left
palm and headed into his bathroom to take a hot shower.


                              ____________________



Andy finally made it to the woods at about a quarter till nine. He could
tell that Brett was already there waiting for him because he could see
the Twelve Pack flag raised outside the treehouse window, which signaled
that someone was there. Andy thought about just taking off the opposite
direction and dealing with Brett later, but then thought better of it
knowing that Brett would get revenge using Billy if he did miss the
private meeting. Andy sighed deeply before climbing the ladder to the
treehouse and then made his way up to the entrance. When he reached the
huge fort that sat sturdily in the tree, he saw Brett sitting on a ratty,
old sofa that they had brought up there a few years before.

"Wow, you're more punctual than I gave you credit for," Brett said.
"So how'd your night with the blond mystery boy go?"

"Went fine," Andy said as he sat down on the sofa himself.

"Good to hear," Brett said. "Now, I had you come here so I could tell
you in person and in private a very important thing."

"And that is..." Andy moved it on.

"And that is...I'm not falling for it, Andy," Brett said as he began
pacing around the treehouse floor as Andy sat on the sofa.

"Falling for what?" Andy asked; his heart pounding ever so quickly.

"You know what I'm talking about," Brett said. "You think I'm stupid
or something, Andy? I saw the way you were looking at that gorgeous
little blond fucker. You wanna grope him, you wanna kiss him, you wanna
hold him in your arms and never let go, and I know your next secret too,
Andy. I know you wanna fuck that tight little ass of his and never
stop."

"You got it all wrong, Brett," Andy said. "He's my-"

"Cousin?" Brett interrupted. "Hmm, yeah you're right. He's your
second cousin from your dad's side of the family - the side of the
family you hardly ever have any kind of contact with whatsoever I might
add - and he and his parents just conveniently moved in the house right
next to your grandmother on your mom's side. What gets me is how you
didn't even know it was your family moving in there until after I gave
you the order to spy on the boy. How did that go by the way? Did you
learn any of his weaknesses, or did you find that you have a weakness
when it comes to him?"

"Brett, you leave him alone," Andy demanded.

"Is he you cousin, Andy?" Brett asked.

Andy didn't answer the question. He just looked down at the floor and
didn't dare look at Brett in the eyes. He knew he was screwed beyond the
telling of it now. He knew that if Brett had anything to say about it,
Billy would have to deal with the same amount - if not more - torture
that every new kid who ever came to town had to deal with.

"That's what I thought," Brett said. "Well, then if you don't mind,
I think I'm gonna go ahead and start making plans to give him the ritual
`Welcome to Black Maple' treatment, specifically handed out by the
legendary Twelve Pack boys."

"No you won't," Andy said.

"What was that?" Brett asked sarcastically.

"I said `no you won't`, Brett," Billy said authoritatively.
"You'll leave him alone because I said so."

"Oh c'mon, Andy," Brett said. "Now, we've known each other for how
many years? Are you really gonna throw an eternity of friendship away for
a little pussy boy that you haven't even known a full day?"

"If that's what it takes, then yeah," Andy said honestly.

"You fucking little asshole," Brett said softly and angrily. "You know
what, Andy? Shithole faggots like you make me sick."

"That's certainly not what you made it seem like when you tried to
twist off Davey's balls with your bare hand," Andy said smartly.

"The boy had to learn a lesson," Brett said. "Lil Davey was acting
like a pussy, so he got what he deserved."

"And I'm guessing that the little voices in your head tell you that you
have the right to decide things like that?" Andy asked. "Because
certainly no one else would give you that kind of power."

"No one had to give me that power, Andy," Brett said. "You know as
well as I do that I could beat every fucking last one of you up at the
same time if I had to, which automatically gives me that power."

"You're sick, Brett," Andy said forwardly.

Pushed over the line with that comment, Brett walked over to Andy and
slapped him across the face hard enough to knock him off the sofa onto
the floor. Andy shrieked in pain as he landed on the hard, wooden floor.
It felt as if the whole left side of his face had been ripped off; it
hurt so bad. Laying on the ground in pain, Andy sat up and rested his
elbows on the ground, which kept his body up.

"You fucking talk to me like that again, I'll really give you something
to scream about, you disgusting son of a bitch faggot," Brett said.
"And another thing you should keep in mind, Andy. You belong to the
Twelve Pack; always have, always will; so if you go and start trying to
protect that adorable little fucking blond new kid you're so fond of,
I'll see to it that your fucking little useless life is so miserable
that you won't even want to be alive anymore. Got it?"

Andy laid there without another word said as Brett took down the Twelve
Pack flag and prepared to leave. Brett put everything back in its place
as Andy laid there in pain after being slapped so hard. When Brett was
finished, he gave Andy a deeply malevolent smirk and then took off down
the ladder of the treehouse leaving Andy inside alone.
Feeling dizzy, Andy slowly stood up and then sat back down on the sofa
holding his left cheek under the palm of his hand. He thought about what
Brett had just told him and realized that protecting Billy was going to
be one of the most difficult things that he ever had to do. Andy
recognized the fact that this was no longer about `welcoming the new
kid'. It was about Brett trying to show Andy who's boss. But Andy made
a decision right then and there that would inevitably change everything.
He wasn't about to back down to Brett.


END OF CHAPTER TWO


Well, there's chapter two for you. I appreciate all the feedback that
the first chapter got. It really surprised me to be honest. Anyway, I
hope you enjoyed this chapter as much. The next chapter should be out
sometime next week. All comments and criticisms are welcome as always.
Later.