Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:32:00 +0100
From: Jonas Henley <jonas_henley@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Kids of Indian Spring, Chapter 18

Kids of Indian Spring
by Jonas Henley

Chapter 18
The Many Ways of Double Fudge, a prelude


Friday, 16 June 1995
1:26 pm

Mimi Prosper was more than 2/3 of the way through her small bowl of double
fudge ice cream, enjoying one of those moments that could be recalled later
as one of life's simple pleasures, and one that she was happy to share with
her son Ezekiel and his little friend, Nathan Carlin.

Oops, she corrected herself in her inner dialogue of capturing the scene.
She had to be careful about using the words 'little friend' nowadays.
Ezekiel was growing up, easily on his path through puberty and not exactly
thrilled to hear his friends referred to as his 'little friends,' as though
he were still in Kindergarten. Still, he was her baby - her only one.

And besides, Nathan was almost too cute for a boy in some respects that she
couldn't quite put her finger on, and definitely seemed younger than the 4
months that separated him from her relatively more virile son. Maybe Nathan
was just a little bit more immature in physical appearance. Or maybe her
son was just ahead of the curve? Or maybe both, Ezekiel a little ahead and
Nathan a little behind?

Or maybe neither, she thought as she took another delicious bite. She
didn't know; she only had the one son to go by, and no nephews or brothers.
They were probably both of them in the wide range of normal for their age.
Oh well, what did it matter? The boys were in the same grade and clearly
got along and she was greatly enjoying the quiet simple moment of sharing a
national pastime - ice cream.

She took a break from her rich dessert to ask Nathan a bit more about
himself, a risk with her son sitting there. He was sure to protest as
adolescents typically do. But before she could form a question, the door
bell rang.

"I'll get it," Zeke said and jumped to answer the front door. She watched
her almost 12 and 1/2 year old son run to the door. He was certainly more
cheerful and upbeat today than he had been in several weeks. She had been
getting worried with whatever was going on. At first, she thought it was
just the onset of typical adolescent male moodiness that she had heard
about and dreaded; but in the last week, she became much more worried that
it was something else. Though she didn't know what.

Something seemed to come to a head in the last couple of days and she was
debating on whether or not to bring it up, depending now on how long this
return to the old Zeke lasted. For the meanwhile, she just reflected on the
beautiful frame of his burgeining adolescent body - a body that was filling
out and giving some muscular definition to those clothes. He had the body
of a ball player, and she was looking forward to watching him out on the
field this summer. And it wasn't just the way he fit his clothes or the
strong but still young boy legs she could see from his shorts. His body was
just well built for developing eye candy. She was glad he was dressed for
the day, though she had to admit that when she had seen him in nothing but
his boxers earlier, he was no less than completely stunning - not that she
would ever embarrass him by letting him know she noticed.

She wasn't harboring desire for his form, though; it was just that she
could easily see why any girl, or even a woman, might look upon him that
way. Her son was incomparably handsome. She was, however, at the moment
just glad that he was happy and that he was satisfied sharing a moment like
this with a friend and his own mother. Her thoughts of relief were
interrupted when she heard:

"You! What do you want??"









"Hey, um, Zeke. I know you probably don't want to see me now, or probably
ever."

"Yeah, so why are you here." It wasn't a question that Zeke threw out.

"Look," 14 year old Todd West began, "I'll get probably even get my ass
tore up AGAIN by Uncle Jack . . . ."

"We can hope," came the flat reply as Zeke was unconcerned with what bad
things could or may befall Todd, his little brother Chad, or the evil one -
his former friend Randy.

"I know you don't want to see me, and I can understand why, and my Uncle
has told me I'm not allowed to talk to you, you know, because of what I did
. . ."

"So why are you here?"

"Ezekiel," he could hear his mom coming up behind him, "why don't you
invite your friend in? You're letting all the cool air out."

"Because he's not my friend, and I don't want him in my house!" Ezekiel
said over his shoulder.

Suddenly she was there in the doorway, with Nathan peaking around the side.

"Well, that's not very nice, Ezekiel. What is going on?"

"No, ma'am," said Todd very politely, "He's right. I am not a friend, and I
wasn't very nice to him a couple days ago. Look, Zeke, I just wanted to say
I'm sorry in person. Even though Uncle Jack may whip my butt again, uhhh,
sorry Mrs. Prosper, I mean, even though I might get spanked again, just for
bothering you."

"So why are you?"  Zeke asked flatly.

"What is going on here?" Mrs. Prosper asked again, but the boys were
ignoring her at this point.

"Because," Todd hurriedly tried to explain. " I wanted to apologize in
person. You deserve that at least."

"Apologize?? For that?"

"Dude, I had no idea, honest. I thought you wanted it. I promise. Randy
told me that. He totally lied to me. He swore it."

"He lied to you?"  Zeke asked.

"Whoa, wait, now just a minute." Mimi Prosper was trying to grasp a hold of
what exactly was going on. But it was no use; the boys were in their own
zone.

"What do you mean you didn't know?"

"Well," Todd started, eyed Mr's Prosper's presence a bit nervously and
said, "My little brother Chad, I think you met him . . ."

"Yeah, unfortunately."

"Well, he kinda feels bad about that."

"Kinda."

"He does, except that it was," again he glanced at Mrs. Prosper, "you know.
Anyways, he figured out what was going on, but he didn't let me in on it. I
swear I would have stopped it. I hope I would have. Anyway, no one ever
told me until Mark told his dad yesterday. And you know some of the stuff
that happened then."

Zeke felt a little bit better about Todd's participation in all this, and
even though the boy was seemingly innocent of the worst of the wrongdoing,
he was also pleased that Todd also had received a spanking, something he
would later describe as one of the most embarrassing things that had ever
happened to him, especially since he had to bend over and bare his naked
butt and receive all 16 licks in front of his little brother, Chad, and in
front of Mark, Randy's little brother. (Chad got it worse, though, since he
actually knew what had been going on.)

"All right, that's enough! Now you two tell me what's going on before I
start passing around my own spankings." Mrs. Prosper was quite insistent at
this point. Now the boys finally heard her, except they had no idea what
they should say to cover up what really happened and at the same time
satisfy her so she wouldn't pry further.

There was silence as the two boys just stared at each other.

"Randy was doing some drugs."  Todd blurted out.

Zeke's eyes went wide, and he tried to silently communicate, 'what the hell
are you doing?' to Todd.

"What? Ezekiel did you know about this?"  His mom demanded.

"Um, sorta. I thought he might be." He looked at Todd for help. Todd had
started this wild cover up; Zeke hoped the older boy had a back-up
statement.

Fortunately, Todd continued before Zeke's mom could follow through with her
shock. "He's been doing them pretty hard, uh, and he told me that Zeke was
the one doing it and that the stuff he had was all because Zeke wanted to
do it. My little brother tried to get some from Zeke, and that's when Mark
found out and told his dad. Randy was trying to make Zeke, um, get more
drugs for him, or he would, uh, make it look like Zeke was the one doing
the bad stuff."

"Ezekiel, did you do or take any drugs?"

Ezekiel looked his mom in the eye and with all honesty (except for the fact
he was trying to trick her into thinking this was about drugs) said, "Mom,
I have never smoked or taken anything except whenever I get sick and you
give me something."

"Honey, is this what has been bothering you for the last couple of months?"

"You could tell?"

"Of course we could tell, sweetie. Today was the first day in many weeks
I've seen you the old, happy Zekie we've had for the last 12 and a half
years."

"Zekie?" Todd and Nathan both said quietly.

"Hey!"  Zeke pointed a warning finger at both of them.

"Ezekiel, sweetie, why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I was scared." This also was true. "I already got a spanking from Mr. West
for not saying anything sooner."

"So that's why you were uncomfortable sitting down last night."

"Yes, ma'am. He found out cause Randy went a little crazy with everything
Wednesday Night. But it's over, now, mom. Right, Todd?"

"Oh, yeah, Uncle Jack is sending him off to a treatment facility for the
summer, you know for addiction. It kinda runs in our family." It was true,
Randy was going to an addiction facility. Todd trailed a bit on the last
part, but Mrs. Prosper didn't notice at first; there was still something
unresolved.

"How do you fit into all this, Todd. Why are you here to apologize?"

"Uhhhh . . . ." Todd looked to Zeke for some help, but Zeke could only give
the slightest shrug in response.

"Um. I hit him." This was what Todd came up with. Zeke rolled his eyes.
Just great, this wasn't going to get his mom to quit asking questions.

"Where?"  His mom asked the now fidgeting teen.

"At Randy's house, a couple nights ago."

"No, I mean, where did you hit him? Where on his body?" She didn't see any
bruises, but she was going to look for some now. She looked at Ezekiel. "I
want to see where he hit you."

"I hit him in his balls!" Todd blurted out quickly, realizing there
wouldn't be any marks otherwise to prove his story, unless something was
left over on his butt from the spanking. "I mean . . . on his, uh, in his,
um, you know . . . down there. Hard. Really hard."

Zeke grimaced again at his choice of words. Todd did indeed hit him hard,
but it was in reality a whole different kind of hard.

Mrs. Prosper had no desire to examine her son's testicles, so she pretended
she had forgotten about looking, much to Zeke's relief. But she now asked
Todd, "And how old are you, Todd?"

"14, ma'am."

"A little old to be punching 12 year olds, aren't you?"

"Mom-" Ezekiel began to whine out, but she held up one finger to silence
him.

"Well, Todd?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am. It's why I wanted to apologize. I really am sorry." He
said the last part looking directly at Zeke."

"You are bigger and stronger than Ezekiel, . . ."

"Mom!---"

". . . . what was going through your head to do that in the first place?
That's a very delicate area for a growing boy."

"Mom!! Please - - "

"Hush, Ezekiel. Well, Todd?"

Todd had been searching his imagination to come up with another lie to
appease this woman. Lying was hard work, and he wasn't very good at it.
"Uhm, it was, uh, because I thought he, uh Zeke, was, um, trying to . . .
uh . . . trying to give my little brother some drugs."

"Oh." Mrs Prosper felt her anger disarmed. That was certainly
understandable.

"But I wasn't." Ezekiel interjected, just to make sure it was clear that he
wasn't doing or selling drugs.

"No, he wasn't," Todd supported him. "It was all just a bunch of lies Randy
was spreading around to feed his habit." He again looked Zeke directly in
the eye and reiterated, "I had no idea, until the next day when Mark told
me."

"And a lot of this happened Wednesday night at the West's? Who was the
adult in charge while all of this was going on?"

Todd looked at the ground and his face colored.  "My dad."  He said softly.

"Oh. Andrew." Mrs. Prosper replied back, also softly, as though she knew
something about his dad, Andrew West.

Todd looked away off the porch and his eyes slightly watered as he
explained. "My dad . . . . my dad's a . . . . he's, um . . . . he's an
alcoholic."

Everyone was quiet for a moment and waited for Todd to continue. "So my
mom's asked him lots of times to get help, but he doesn't think he needs
any. This time Uncle Jack said he could go to a treatment center on his
own, like immediately, or go to the police and answer for contributing to
the corruption of a minor, or something like that. My mom took him to one
in Wisconsin, yesterday. So, me and Chad are staying with Uncle Jack and
Aunt Sheila for the rest of the summer. So, you see, addiction really does
run in my family. Hopefully not in me."

Everyone was quiet again, when Zeke surprised Todd by holding out his hand,
"Well I think your pretty cool. Don't worry about, um, hitting me. I'll
live. Just don't bring it up again."

"No! No, I wont. Thanks Zeke." He grasped the boy's hand. Part of him was
sad, though. He certainly wished he could bring it up again. That ass was a
fine something to be addicted to.

For his part, Zeke was amazed at how much you could feel in a person's
handshake once you had been fairly intimate with him. Todd's hands were a
bit larger, warm, strong, and bespoke of the virile developing teen that
had recently had a firm hold on his hips as he drew him back on that sure
and steady rock hard . . .

Zeke blushed at where his stray thoughts had gone and pulled his hand back
quickly. "Well, anyway, thanks for coming by."

"Todd, I'm proud of you for coming by. It shows you'll be a good man as you
grow up. Are you sure you don't want to come in?"

"Thanks Mrs. Prosper, but maybe some other time. I better get back." He was
thinking he had better get back to his Uncle, who had stayed home from work
today, fess up to having come by Zeke's house and relay the cover story he
had used in case Mrs. Prosper called.

(Which, being a good mother is exactly what she did do. Uncle Jack actually
was proud of Todd assuming some responsibility and did not punish him for
disobeying. As for the lie he told Mrs. Prosper, well that was actually a
pretty good cover story, Jackson West thought; and he continued using it
when Mimi Prosper called him.)

Fortunately for Zeke, the Prospers were satisfied with Jackson and Sheila
West's handling of the situation and decided to let it go, just keeping a
closer eye for any return of the problematic emotions and behaviors in
Zeke.

Eventually, Nate also felt he should go home and get some chores done so he
wouldn't have any problems coming back over that night for the sleepover.
Zeke walked him to the door and looked back behind to make sure his mother
wasn't around. He smiled cheekily, looked Nate straight in the eye and
reached his hand down, running it over Nathan's crotch and giving it a
squeeze.

"Later. Cool?"

"Oh yeah," Nathan breathed out and then blushed. Oh god, that sounded so
gay.

But Zeke just chuckled and opened the door.  "See ya tonight, Nate. Bye!"







~2:30 pm

Poor Nate, as he cycled home his dick was all stirred up, having received
no sustained attention over the morning's activities, and he was deep in
nebulous turmoil: he was infatuated with, no - in love with - Zeke's dick.
He was in love with Zeke's body, in love with Zeke's voice, with Zeke's
walk, the eyes, the hair, he wanted to taste that tongue. He shook himself
and nearly had a wreck from the shaking of his head and the coming shiver
of anguished anticipation both ran through him at the same time.

"Whoa, careful spaz!" he said to himself. He caught himself and his bike
before going into a tumble.

He heard some brief laughing and turned his head to see four boys sitting
on the curb. They were outside a smart ranch style house with a three car
garage that swooped around a semi-enclosed indoor/outdoor space and off to
the left into the house proper. It was a unique style, but a family house
that very quietly said wealth and stability. You could bike right passed it
without looking, but be impressed when you stopped to look. And with four
handsome middle school boys spanning the inner range of puberty sitting
outside, well it was enough to take your breath away.

"Hey, it's the boy from Chase's!" The most mischievous-looking of the four
boys said. He had an engaging smile, like a pixie tempter, and an unruly
short brown mop of hair. The last time Nathan saw this boy and at least two
of his friends at the curb was a few days ago. It was when he went swimming
at that friend of Tyler and Blaine's - Chase somebody. Nathan smiled and
felt the pulse rate of his dick pick up; this cute boy was the one that had
written his phone number on his ass. Nathan reflexively moved his hand back
to his pert left buttock. He wondered how much of that number remained on
his ass after several showers.

The four boys sitting on the curb were all friends who grew up together,
and were all in the same grade. The first boy on the end farthest from the
driveway was Paul Caswell, recently 12, having turned in late April. He was
the youngest of the four, and closer to the plump side of average. If Nate
could see Paul's dad, he would know that this plump would soon be height.
For now, Paul was the least ways into puberty as well, and seemed harmless
enough, with slowly darkening blond hair and a casual smile on his face as
he watched the proceedings unfold. His glass and his slightly less than
athletic physique and made him seem nerdish; and definitely the slightly
open mouth suggested some deeper thought process inside this boy. He was
analyzing, but not sharing.

The next boy over was Andrew Tyson, a slim boy, and tallest of the four,
his dark hair was thicker than most kids with jet black locks. Almost 12
1/2, he had the look of someone who could be a natural leader, but
preferred to be in the quiet counsel position. Andrew was leaning forward,
elbows on his knees with patient keenness, as always, and waiting to see
where Bobby was taking this.

Bobby Chambers was in between the other two in age and development; he had
a stocky build and a vivacious personality. Quite gregarious, he was often
a leader, though just by stepping out without fully thinking. But he was
cute in a pubescent boy way and found it easy to worm his way out of
anything. The boy never seemed to make an enemy and was currently the point
man for what was on the back of the minds for all three boys.

They had talked about this idea, an idea where Bobby was more willing to
go; but now, as they were at the pool at Chase's house, Paul and Andrew
were unsure as to whether or not they really could, should, or would go
down this route. But they decided to let Bobby play it out.

The fourth boy in the group was the oldest, but though he was as old a
friend, he wasn't as tight with the other three boys, and so was clueless
as to there being anything behind Bobby's sudden flare of interest in the
day, and Paul and Andrew's sudden shift to hesitant detachment. Kyle turned
12 at the beginning of the year and was already starting down the popular
kid path. One of the jocks of the school, the boy had a self-confident
swagger and looked forward to his future with the girls. It was of course
assured. Kyle would grow up to be one of the boys with the total physical
package. He would have the good lucks, the muscle, the strength, and a dick
to thrill, all of which he was already sporting, perfected by nature for
his age and then some - he could hold his own with any 13 year old.

The dick and balls on this football stud would make a passersby of any age
water at the mouth, if the boy ever hit a nudist streak. It was not
strictly for size, but for proportion, straightness, and beauty - and yes
development on par with half the kids a year above him. He was in the same
category as Kelley and Zeke, just a mild touch farther along. But Nathan
would not have the chance to know this. Kyle was a ladies man, and Nathan's
interests were somewhat evident to him.

Kyle laughed at the boy's fixation on the hot little 12 year old Bobby.
Bobby started making small talk, and poor Nathan had a hard time snapping
out of his reverie. If only he had gotten off at Zeke's, shot his own load,
except Zeke wasn't like that either. Then, he thought, he should have
jerked off this morning, or even last night, but for now he had sexual
cobwebs in his brain that he was trying to shake loose.

Kyle laughed again at Nate's stammered reply, and he joked around with
Bobby, reaching down the back of his shorts and underwear and trying to
grab what delicious unblemished flesh he could and said, "Oh I think the
new boy wants a piece of that nice ass of yours, Bobby!"

"Get off me, faggot," Bobby said, pulling Kyle's hand out, knocking it away
and punching him in the arm. It was all in good fun and Andrew and Paul
laughed along with it.

"All right, all right. Sort I got your panties all out of order. You know,
most girls have that problem after we're done."

A groan went through the audience like a big whopper had just been told.

"Oh, bugger off, Kyle,"  Bobby said in a voice at the edge of changing.

"Well, I do have to be going," Kyle responded as he pulled his jaguar body
up from the curb. "See you chaps, later."

"Yeah, whatever," Bobby said, only slightly grumpily.

Kyle ruffled Nate's hair as he walked past and told him, "Go easy on my
friend, Bobby, there. He's a virgin, you know."

Bobby actually blushed at this, and blushed hard. Paul died out laughing.
If you had asked exactly what the dynamics implied were, he may not have
been able to tell you, but he clearly thought it was funny.

"You'll have to excuse Kyle," Andrew said smiling and looking at Nate and
then raised his voice in a friendly manner to Kyle's back, as the boy
sauntered off to wherever it was he needed to be: "Cause he's kind of a
jerk!!"

Kyle didn't look back but threw his hand up and flipped off the other boys.
Bobby recovered from the last comment and fished around for some more small
talk, only to repeat the same question he had already asked.

"So, you're just out riding around?"

"Umm. Yeah." Didn't he answer this question already? Nate wondered what was
up with these three. They definitely seemed to have some silent language
going on between them. For the moment, Nate decided to keep his time at
Zeke's to himself for now.

The boys bantered a couple more innocuous question and answer rounds before
Bobby looked in the direction that Kyle went. Their other friend was
nowhere to be seen now, and Bobby turned back to Paul and Andrew and raised
his eyebrows. His non-vocal question seemed to get a response from both of
them, though the facial and hand movements were even more slight, and
briefly Nathan wondered if he was imagining things.

But they were definitely communicating, and Nathan could almost read the
answers on their faces. Paul seemed to say 'don't we want to talk about
this some more', and Andrew's face seemed to say, 'I'm not so sure about
this, but go ahead and we'll try it."

Must be the heat, Nathan thought. He was imagining things. Clearly, he now
thought from the lack of enthusiastic conversation, the boy was rethinking
having given Nathan his phone number, not that Nathan could read it where
it was at. He decided it was time to get back on his bike and head home.

"Well, nice seeing you guys, I better get going. I'll catch - "

"Whoa, wait," Bobby said, jerking a thumb back to the house behind him,
"why don't you come inside?"

"Hey, that's my house!"  Paul told his friend.

Bobby got up and dusted the back of his shorts off. He made a WTF gesture
with his arms and told Paul, "So, invite him in already!!"

Bobby walked off toward the house, and Andrew got up to follow him,
mimicking his dusting off of the shorts. Paul hesitated, looked at Nathan
in an analytical way and got up himself, though he made no effort to dust
the imagined pebbles, dirt and grass stems from his bottom. With a jerk of
his head, he indicated for Nathan to follow and walked off toward his
house.





3:15 pm

A world away, and just three blocks over, Ian Cormack was slowly
face-fucking the boy with the golden tooth. It was a second more before Ian
went up on his toes, squeezed a hold of that blond head, and pumped a
diminished load into Morgan's mouth. Once again, he knew his newly
developing seed (or so he thought, though at this point it was still just
the support fluid) was washing over that lucky gold tooth and down the
innocent throat. Lucky, because it got to live in such an amazing hot and
talented mouth.

Morgan had a natural affinity for cock, or at least his lips, tongue and
mouth did. Ian thought he was already four times better than the previous
holder of the title - and that holder was none other than Brianna, at least
before she got herself grounded.

It had taken Ian over an hour and a half to locate where the kid actually
lived, as well as other important information, like phone number, full
name, and who all lived in the house and when they would be home. A lot of
effort, but two mind-bending ejaculations into Morgan's mouth and throat,
and the work was totally worth it. Raggedy-headed Morgan, even though he
was older at almost 12, licked his lips and smiled up at the younger
dominant boy. He had finally decided that this wasn't humiliating since it
was all private - in fact he had enjoyed it.

Ian thought, once he got back with Brianna after her grounding was up, he
would continue on his previous attempt at self-reform and pare down his
'conquests' to just Brianna - and maybe Morgan for some amazing oral on the
side fun. While he was in this vein of thought, Ian again felt bad about
the way he treated his cousin Jack.

Maybe he could make amends by having Morgan drop by when the Lanhams came
to town the next week. Jack would SO love getting a blow-job, and this kid
was the best.

But then Ian thought, who knows, maybe the horniness will reassert itself
next week and Ian wont care so much about what he does to Jack. Ian pulled
his shorts and underwear up, wondering just how he would in reality treat
Jack. Unfortunately just the thought of his cousin's creamy up turned ass
was making him hard again.

Hmmm, he wondered, Could he actually get off again in Morgan's mouth?

Ian contemplated pulling down his zipper again and having a third go at
that amazing mouth; but Morgan had stood back up, licked his lips, wiped
his mouth with the back of his hand and gave him that goofy smile of a
young boy done with his task and waiting for the master to give his
compliment.

Still, Ian thought, I could just push him back to his knees and convince
him that he didn't feel finished. He shook his head to clear his thoughts;
that manipulation was the Ian he was trying to purge. He couldn't do that
to people.

"That was great, Morgan." He said with full sincerity.

Morgan blushed a little.  "Thanks."

"No, you know, it was so far beyond great it was . . . . . . it was . . . .
wow. Wow, Morgan, it was . . . . . wow!"

Morgan blushed even more and looked down at his feet, starting to fidget.

"In fact," Ian began, the earlier idle thought blossomed out in full array.
He knew this would go a long way in making amends with Jack for using him
the way he did. The new Ian was going to heal this transgression, and he
pitched his thought to Morgan. "I've got a cousin coming into town next
week, and he would go nuts on you hanging off his dick."

Morgan's face dropped as he heard this. Was he hearing right?

"Dude, you're like the Michael Jordan of blow jobs!" Ian said excitedly. He
laughed and added, "You could have your own shoe line. Instead of Air
Jordans, they would be Blow Morgans!"

Morgan blushed further, though not a good blush, and again looked down at
his shoes, disappointed where he previously had felt joy.

"Hey," Ian said softly and turned on the charm as he reached out and ran
the backs of his fingers up and down Morgan's chest. "Don't be like that.
Jack's a cool guy; you'll like him. And you'll love getting your mouth on
his dick."

There was a slight smile on Morgan's face and thoughts could be seen being
weighed or rearranged in his mind. He glanced upward slightly, "Is he, um .
. . "

"Good looking? He's hot! Come on, Morgan, he's MY cousin."

Morgan looked up fully as a smile broadened and cracked a wide closed grin.
He looked at Ian quietly for a moment.

"OK,"  he said.  "I'll do it."

"Peaches."

As if there even would have been another answer from Morgan. Signed,
sealed, and soon to be delivered. Ian had become so accustomed to using
people, he didn't even notice when he was still doing it.








4:55 pm

Nate wasn't looking forward to what Kelley would say when he found out
about what he had been doing in Sweetwater. And he knew Kelley would be
right. Now, the afternoon with Bobby and the others had just been for fun,
and he was pretty sure these boys were tight-lipped, at least he hoped so.
But Zeke - that was a different matter; that wasn't just for fun.

He wasn't looking forward to the reality of a broken heart when Zeke went
back to being Zeke. Even if he might want to continue fooling around here
and there (very doubtful beyond once or twice more), his heart and
attentions weren't for Nate, and that time was approaching quickly.

But for now, Nathan Carlin pushed truth and inevitability away from his
moment. He coasted down the hill toward Indian Spring, face in the wind,
and basked in the sun of his mid-June fantasized reality.