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I woke with a start. I was warm--very warm--and in bed. But it wasn't my bed. I lay there for a few minutes, not moving, not doing much of anything but breathing. I was trying to figure out where I was. Why was I warm? I slowly opened my eyes, blinking them a few times trying to clear them. I finally was able to keep my eyes open enough to see. I moved my eyes to look around the room, trying to see what I could see without moving my head too much. The windows behind the bed let in some light, but not a lot. The room wasn't familiar to me at all. It wasn't my bedroom in the basement and it wasn't my dorm room. It wasn't even Aric's room. Where the hell was I? The last thing I could remember was being outside and being cold--very, very cold. But now I was hot. But I didn't feel sick. I knew I should be feeling sick, especially after being so cold, but I didn't feel it. What the hell happened to me? I shifted in the bed and realized that I didn't seem to be wearing a shirt. I moved my hand down my body and I ran into my pubic hair. I wasn't wearing any underwear either. I sat up in bed. This is starting to freak me out. First I awaken somewhere, but I don't know where, and now I'm in strange bed with no clothes on. I didn't have much time to think about it when I felt movement beside me. "Tristan?" a voice asked groggily. "Yeah," I answered. I turned toward the voice and saw a mop of hair protruding out from under the blankets. Who the hell was that? The body under the bed pulled the blankets back as they sat up. I blinked a couple of times in disbelief. "Charlie?" He turned away from me and leaned over the edge of the bed. I could see that he wasn't wearing a shirt either. As he turned away, the blankets moved, threatening to uncover my lack of underwear. The blankets didn't help Charlie out either as his leaning over exposed his bare ass. He clicked the light on and I had to shut my eyes as the brightness assaulted my vision. It took a couple of minutes before I could open my eyes again. "I'm glad to see you're finally awake," he said to me as I opened my eyes again. He'd moved back from leaning over the bed to turn the light on and the blankets were sitting on his lap, but still leaving his backside somewhat exposed. It was easy enough to tell that like me, he wasn't wearing any underwear. I pulled the blankets tighter around my waist, attempting to cover up my nakedness. It's one thing if I was alone in bed, but with someone else? Especially when that someone would be considered jailbait. "Um, why am I naked?" "You don't remember?" "No, I don't. The last thing I remember is being very cold." "Yeah you were. You knocked on our back door and when I answered it, you collapsed." "I did?" "Yup, that you did. I called out your name. Granny J heard me and came running into the kitchen. She and I managed to get you dragged inside. You were frozen. Your clothes were soaked. Your skin was cold and clammy." I looked at my hands and then moved them over my face. My skin felt normal. "You look a lot better than you did, believe me." I turned to face him again, not really wanting to ask the question that was on my mind. "When was that?" "Five days ago." "Five days?" "Yeah." I lay back down on the bed. Charlie lay back down as well, but on his side facing me. He propped his head up with his right arm. "So why am I naked? And why are you naked?" "I always sleep naked. As for you, we had to get you out of your wet clothes. Granny J helped me bring you up to the apartment. We got you undressed..." I shivered at the thought of Granny J undressing me. Charlie smiled at my obvious discontent with the thought of his great aunt seeing me naked. "Don't worry, she only helped me get you down to your skivvies. She took your other clothes and left and I finished undressing you and put you into bed. I would have put a pair of my underwear on you but you've got at least fifty pounds on me, bro. They wouldn't have fit." "And I've been here for five days?" "Yup. After I put you into bed, I took the last of your clothes down to the laundry room. Granny was already at work putting them into the washer. I dumped those in and came back up to check on you. You were curled up in a ball shivering. The whole bed was shaking. So I put my boy scout training to use..." "You are a boy scout?" I asked, interrupting him. Charlie smiled again at me. "Was. But that's another story for another time. Anyway, I did what I learned. I took off all my clothes and climbed into bed and curled up next to you. Literally. Damn man, you were cold! I still haven't found my balls yet. They've retreated so far into my body, I don't think I'll ever find them again." "You laid up against me? Naked?" Charlie looked at me incredulously. "You were never a Boy Scout?" He finally asked. I shook my head. "Nope, never. Never any time. I was always too busy with football, either practice for the team, or practice for my old man." Charlie didn't say anything to that and I didn't say anything more either. He spoke again a few minutes later. "Eventually I fell asleep against you. I woke up some time later and you were spooning me from behind. Either you had warmed up or I was used to the cold cause you weren't shivering any more and you didn't feel as cold either. I fell back to sleep and awoke the next morning. You must have been really sick though cause other than moving around on the bed, you didn't wake up at all." "And you slept with me all that time?" "Well, yeah. Where else was I supposed to sleep? I couldn't sleep on the couch cause Granny J likes to watch the late night news and then Leno. The only TV we have is in the living room. The booths in the restaurant are comfortable enough for sitting for a bit for dinner but not to sleep on, plus it gets cool down there at night." "And that didn't bother you?" "What? Sleeping naked with another guy? Nah, I've done it a lot." Now was my turn to look at him incredulously. "You have?" "Yeah. My cousin and I used to do it all the time. He was the one who got me into sleeping naked too. We used to spend a lot of time together, before I moved here. We each had a bed big enough for the both of us, plus we're cousins, and we were best friends, so why not?" I just nodded at him and didn't say anything. I started thinking about Justyn, wondering where he was, how he was. Was he still mad at me for what happened at the hospital? I also thought of Aric. What the hell happened between us? I only remember us talking and him getting angry. I remember that much. Why was I at Granny J's and not at his place? And then I thought of Charlie. I had to tell him. He deserved to know, but what if he rejected me like my folks did? Where would I go? I obviously couldn't go to Aric's; otherwise I would have been there, and not here. When I finally spoke again, it was as a whisper. I didn't want to do this, but I had to. I had to let him know. And if he rejected me too, then I don't know what I would do. "Um, Charlie?" "Yeah, Tristan?" I really need to do this. I have to do this, he's got to know, especially if we're sleeping like this. I know I'll put my underwear back on the next time I sleep but will he if I don't say anything? "I...ah...what I mean is..." "Yeah, Tristan?" He asked, watching me patiently. "Well, you see..." I paused. I'm not sure I can do this. I know I need to; I need to be honest with him, especially since he's done so much for me, but I can't. "...Is there anything to eat? I'm starved." Yeah, ok, so I chickened out. Bite me. Charlie looked at me as though he wanted to say something. He must have thought better of it cause he just shook his head. "Yeah, I'm sure Granny J's got something in the fridge." He threw the covers back, not caring that he was buck-naked and I was sitting on the bed, able to see everything, and I do mean everything he had. He climbed off the bed and reached under the pillow his head had been on moments before. He pulled out some clothes and proceeded to put them on. When he was done he had a tee shirt and a pair of sweat pants on. He started to walk around the bed and headed toward the door. As he got to the door he stopped when he must have realized I wasn't with him. "Well?" he asked turning to face me. "Are you coming? I like you, but I'm not going to serve you in bed!" I looked down at my lap, still covered in the blankets from the bed. "Clothes?" He looked at me perplexed for a second then his face registered what I had asked and he realized that I was still naked under the sheets. "Oh yeah, sorry." He pointed to the chair near the bed. "The clothes you arrived in are there. Granny J washed them and everything. It's a wonder you didn't freeze, wearing only those clothes." I continued to sit there, waiting for Charlie to leave so I could get dressed. He just stood there. Finally he asked "Are you going to get dressed or what?" "Would you mind giving me some privacy?" "Look who's being so modest? You're on the football team, you've gotten changed with guys in the room before." "But this is different." "Why?" "Cause it just is. I don't know how to explain it, but it's just different." Charlie looked at me, exasperated. "Ok, fine, I'll give you your privacy. But remember earlier when I told you that the first night you were here I woke up and you were spooned against me?" "Yeah," I answered him warily. He grabbed the door and opened it. "I woke up to your hard cock in the crack of my ass. So I really don't think you've got any reason to be modest, but I'll give you your space. I'll be in the kitchen making some coffee." He closed the door behind him and I was alone. I tossed the blankets aside, uncovering my hard-on. I got out of bed, willing it to go down before I had to go out and meet up with Charlie in the kitchen. My clothes were on the chair, just like he said, all clean and neatly folded. I pulled on my underwear and then my jeans. I adjusted my cock trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible. I grabbed my shirt and socks and sat down on the bed to put both of those on. A few minutes later I joined Charlie in the kitchen, my hard-on somewhat subsided. I'd passed the bathroom on the way to the kitchen and managed to empty my bladder. He'd started the coffee and it was beginning to smell really good. Charlie was rummaging around in the fridge looking for something. I looked around the room. It wasn't too big, a few cabinets up against the outside wall, a sink with some dishes in it, a fridge in the corner and a stove near by. A small table with four chairs was in another corner. A door into the living room, from the look of what I could see was near the other corner. The room was painted in a pale yellow. Nothing in the room was particularly new or fancy - not the furniture or any thing else. It was kind of like the parent's house. The items were well used and they looked it. But the kitchen was also well kept, and spick-and-span. There was a butcher block cutting board by the sink, scarred and showing years of use, but clean and lightly oiled and ready to use. I pulled out a chair at the table and sat down. Somewhere in the house I heard a grandfather clock bong out the hour-one, two, three, four, five - five o'clock. On instinct I looked down at my right wrist for my watch but didn't see. Fuck. What happened to it? It was a present from Aric for my sixteenth birthday. I looked around at the walls and saw a simple analog clock on the wall to my left. It said it was just after five o'clock. Five AM? I can't even remember the last time I was up at five AM. Must have been when I was like six or seven and attempting to play peewee hockey. We had some early morning practices. "You like omelets?" Charlie asked bringing me out of my thoughts of the past. "Yeah. You want some help?" He turned and smiled at me. "Nah, I've got it. I like cooking anyway. Besides, you still look like you're half asleep." I tried to stifle a yawn, unsuccessfully. "Yeah, I still feel a little tired, even after all that sleep. You sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure. Just sit back and relax. And read the paper." I looked down at the table and noticed that the morning paper was there. It was the Sunday edition. Cool! I opened up the paper to the middle and started to read the funnies while Charlie was doing his cooking. As I read I could hear Charlie chopping and stirring at the stove. I'd just finished the comics and was about to look through the department store flyers for cute guys when he appeared at the table with two plates. "Here you go," he said putting a plate with a steaming omelet in front of me. I put the paper down and grabbed it. He put his plate down across from me and turned on his heel and walked back to the kitchen. He grabbed two mugs off of a mug tree on the counter and the coffee pot. He came back to the table and put those down. "Do you want cream or milk for your coffee?" As he asked, he poured the coffee, first mine, then his. He put the coffee pot down on a trivet and stood looking at me. "Nah," I said grabbing the cup and taking a sip. Charlie sat down and grabbed his own cup. "I don't mind it black." I swallowed the coffee and I felt it warming my insides. It had a nice smooth flavor, almost cinnamony. It was really good. "Wow, this is good coffee. Where did you get it?" He put his cup down and looked at me. "I don't know where Granny J found it, but it's from a small coffee roaster from New England. New Hampshire I think. I never had tried coffee before she introduced me to this, and I've tried others since and I can't stand the taste of them." I took another sip. "Is this cinnamon in it?" "Yeah, it's their cinnamon flavored coffee called 'Cardinal Sin'." Charlie grabbed his fork and started eating his omelet. I picked up my fork and dug in as well. It tasted so good. Maybe it was 'cause I hadn't had food in five days, or maybe it was 'cause I felt safe there, even though I had chickened out in telling Charlie my big secret. "So how come you ended up here?" Charlie asked as he continued to work on him omelet. "I mean you showed up on our doorstep, no car, no explanation, no nothing. You were frozen through, and then you passed out before I could invite you in. What happened?" I put my fork down and grabbed my glass of orange juice. I took a big swallow of it as though it would give me courage. "I didn't have anywhere else to go." "No friends?" "Nah, not these days." "What about the guys you always came with? You know, last year, when you were in high school?" I didn't answer him right away. I wasn't sure how much detail I wanted to give. I didn't want to get thrown out of another house. I didn't have anywhere else to go. Oh Aric, what the hell happened? "Tristan?" I heard Charlie calling my name. I returned my focus to him. "Sorry, I was thinking." "So how come you ended up here?" "I had a big fight with my best friend, Aric. My truck wouldn't start so I had to walk here. I didn't have any where else to go." "Where do you live?" "Over in Yoder." Charlie's eyes opened real wide at that point. "That's like 15 miles from here!" "Yeah, I guess." I grabbed my fork and ate some more of my omelet. "Why didn't you just go home to your folks?" "I got kicked out of there the day before I had the fight with Aric. I left my parents house rather quickly." "How come you didn't call Justyn?" "I lost my cell phone, so I didn't have his number. Plus he's like three hours from here, and I had a big fight with him too, right after Thanksgiving." Charlie drained the last of his orange juice and put the glass down. "What happened between you two? Maybe you should just start from the beginning." I looked at Charlie. I wanted to tell him, I wanted him to know, but I was also afraid, afraid of being rejected again. Especially after what happened between Aric and me. I thought Aric and I were tight. I thought I could tell him anything. Of course, I never got the chance to tell him about me being gay. Some assholes at school told him that when they decided to spray paint it on my truck. If I had only seen it before I went home, I'd still be there. Yeah, I'd still be with the asshole old man, but at least my secret would have been safe from him and Aric. I could put up with the old man if I had to, just had to avoid him and all, but now I didn't even have that room in the basement. If I get kicked out of here then I'll really be screwed. No money, no truck, no place to go. "I can't Charlie. I can't risk it. I can't risk being kicked out of here too. I have no place else to go." A new voice said "You don't have to worry about that Tristan, I'd never kick you out for that." We both turned toward the hallway that the bedrooms were on. Granny J was standing there in this faded pink terry cloth robe, slippers and a nightgown that came down to her ankles. The hair she always wore in a bun hung loose down to her shoulders. It made her look younger. "You know?" I asked incredulously. "Yup. You have to get up pretty early to put one over on Granny J!" She laughed as she headed into the kitchen. "How long have you been there?" Charlie asked grabbing our now empty plates. He took them and dumped them in the sink. He grabbed the OJ from the fridge and put it on the table. "Long enough," Granny J replied pouring herself a cup of coffee. She came over to the table and sat down. "Do you want an omelet?" "Nah, just an English muffin and some juice." "Ok." Charlie grabbed some English muffins and threw them into the toaster oven. He grabbed a glass out of a cabinet and brought it to the table. He filled it with OJ and put it down in front of Granny J. He motioned to me with the carton. I nodded my head and he filled my glass as well. He then proceeded to fill his own glass. By the time he was done with that the muffins popped up and he put them on a plate and brought them to Granny J. "How long have you known?" I asked Granny J after Charlie sat back down. "I had my suspicions when you used to come in here with the two brothers, Aric and Jaden. My suspicions were confirmed when you and Justyn came in," she answered before biting into her English muffin. "How did you know?" "I'll tell you later. Right now I want to know how you came to be at my doorstep where Charlie found you, almost frozen to death." I took another swig of my orange juice and looked at both Granny J and Charlie. I didn't like the idea of spilling my guts, especially about this, but I didn't think that I had a choice. While I believed Granny J in her assertions that she wouldn't throw me out on the streets, I didn't feel comfortable in telling her about my life. Aric is the only one who knows everything about the hell I lived through growing up, at least everything but me being attracted to guys. "The simple answer is, I had nowhere else to go," I responded, hoping it would be a good enough answer. But one look from Granny J told me that it wasn't. "My father has always been very tough, very demanding. My whole life nothing I did was good enough, fast enough, smart enough, etc. I'm an only child. Whether my father blames me for this I don't know. I know he came from a large family and all of his brothers and sisters have large families. I don't know if it's that my mother couldn't have more kids or if it was his fault. Whatever the reason, I got the treatment for it. Most only children are spoiled by their parents. Not in my house. I got the bare minimum that I needed to survive, and to keep people from thinking I was abused or mistreated. I even tried out for football in junior high after playing in town hoping that would please him, but it didn't. He didn't go to any of my games, not in junior high nor later in high school, not even last year when we went all the way to the State Championships. "It was during junior high that I figured out that I was different, that nature decided that I would be attracted to men rather than women. The thought scared me, not because I was afraid of what it means to be gay. That I can handle, or at least I have so far, but because of what he would say, of how he might react. He's got a temper, and while he's never outright hit me, I've gotten my share of spankings. "The one place I thought I could always count on was my best friend Aric's. True, we were best friends, but I still kept my attraction to guys a secret. I'd never heard him say anything bad about gays, but I'd never heard him say anything good either. "Now, my high school was small, but even then I still only counted Aric as a friend. Yeah, I knew all the guys on the football team, etc, but I never really hung out with them otherwise. I never tried to date anyone or tell anyone about myself. "It wasn't until I went to college that I thought I might try to find someone, someone like me. I would have loved to have gone to school far away from home, away from the small town and my old man. But since I was paying my own way, I couldn't afford it. Luckily for me, the college here gave me a full scholarship. Of course, now that's gone." "What do you mean?" Charlie asked. "I left school before finals. I took one final, the others I blew off. So I probably failed them and the scholarship will be withdrawn." "You don't know that, Tristan," Granny J replied. "They might have given you an incomplete." "True, but after what happened, I'm not so sure I want to go back." "Is it because of Justyn?" she asked. "Yes and no. I'm sure Justyn never wants to see me again. I was pretty mean to him the last time I saw him." "What happened?" I grabbed the orange juice container from in front of Charlie and looked Granny J's way. She nodded so I filled her glass. I looked at Charlie but he shook his head no. I filled my glass and then slowly took a drink after putting the container down while I organized my thoughts a little more. "It started back in August when the football team arrived. It was then that I met Jayson, Justyn's twin, although at the time I didn't know he was one or about Justyn. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that the rest of the school arrived and with it, Justyn. I thought a couple of guys on the team were cute, and Jayson was one of them, but there was something different about Justyn. I couldn't place my finger on it; I just knew that I really liked him, more so than any of the others, more than Jayson. Maybe it's because he was Jayson but not on the team. Who knows? "It turns out that the college courses were a lot tougher than the ones I took in high school or maybe they let me coast in high school, I dunno, but I soon found myself falling behind. And I had to maintain a 3.0 in order to keep my scholarship. I'd mentioned my problem to Jayson one evening after practice and he suggested his brother tutor me. "I talked to Justyn finally and he agreed to help me pass my classes. I was so relieved and excited at the same time. I was going to be able to spend some private time with Justyn, even if it was just studying. I never dreamed he'd be like me. His brother hooked up with a girl soon after school started and I figured Justyn would be the same. They're twins, right? "It was great and it was torture at the same time. He really helped me study and learn and I found myself falling for him more and more. Finally one day I acted on my feelings. I didn't mean to, it just sort of happened. I'd gotten back an exam from one of my classes, one I was really struggling with and I'd passed. Not only did I pass, I did really well. Justyn had come over and wanted to know how I did, so I showed him. He was as excited as I was. It was in this excitement that I forgot myself and I kissed him." "Way to go Tristan!" Charlie exclaimed. "Charlie!" Granny J admonished. "It's ok, Granny J," I quickly put in before Charlie said anything more, or she said anything more. "I felt the same way. My mind was saying the same thing, until I saw his face. He told me later that he was surprised by my kiss. I, on the other hand, having just done something that is frowned upon by most of the world, read it as disgust." "So what did you do?" Charlie asked with anticipation. "What did I do? I did what any human would do. I ran. I took off so fast I forgot my keys to the dorm. I just thought I had to get away. I was both afraid and excited." "Afraid and excited?" "Yeah, afraid 'cause I'd just kissed a guy, a guy whose brother was on my football team-- a guy who could have me beaten to a pulp easily. But also excited 'cause I'd finally done something I'd been wanting to do for a long time. I'd finally kissed a guy, and it was great. So anyway, I took off. I ran and ran. I finally went to the one place I'd always felt safe, the football field. I wasn't there too long when he showed up." "He didn't hit you, did he?" Charlie asked. "No, he didn't. I tried to ask him not to say anything, do anything. He said he wouldn't. And then he told me that he felt the same way. That he was the same. I was so happy. The next couple of months were great." "Did anyone get suspicious?" Charlie asked, a note of concern in his voice. "No, not that we could tell. It was perfect. He was tutoring me, so we had the perfect excuse to be together. Everything was great until Thanksgiving weekend. That's when everything went to shit." I paused, my cheeks getting hot. "Sorry Granny J." "Sorry my ass! If shit's the word that describes it, then shit's the word to use. Mr. J used to be in the merchant marines so don't think I haven't heard it all!" Properly chastised, I continued my story. "Justyn went home for the holiday weekend. I stayed 'cause I had a game on Thanksgiving Day--the annual turkey day game between our school and State University. This year it was at State, so we traveled. It was also a late game, so we ended up staying there Thursday night and then the school did a Thanksgiving dinner for us on Friday since we were unable to have dinner with our families. "Justyn had said he was going to be returning on Saturday night so we'd have time together on Sunday. Soon after the team and I got back on campus, I was attacked." "Attacked?" Granny J asked. "Yeah. Four guys jumped me. I couldn't see their faces. They beat me up pretty good. I tried to fight them off but they had me at a disadvantage. They jumped me and got me down on the ground. Something must have scared them off cause I don't think they would have left me alive otherwise." "Why do you say that? Could this have been a mugging?" Charlie asked, the concern obvious in his voice. "It was no mugging, that's for sure." "How do you know?" "'Cause they knew I was gay." "How?" "I don't know how they knew, but they did. The only one who I had told at that point was Justyn and he wouldn't have told. He knew what could happened especially with me being on the team and all." "And you don't know who did it?" "No, but I have a feeling one or more of them were on the football team. They kept telling me that fags don't belong on the team." "Don't say that word!" Charlie nearly screamed. "Charlie!" Granny J admonished. "Tristan didn't know." Charlie got up from the table, grabbed his glass and put it in the sink. "I've got some homework to do." And with that he stormed back into his bedroom. "What did I say?" "You didn't know Tristan. He'll calm down by this evening, you'll see." "What happened to him?" "It wasn't so much him as someone he cared very much about. A word of advice though? Don't say the word fag around him again." "But why?" I didn't understand. "It's not my place to say sweetheart. He'll tell you when he's ready. He thinks the world of you. Now be a good kid and refill Granny J's coffee will you? I want to hear the rest of your story." I got up from the table and grabbed Granny J's cup. I refilled it and sat back down. I looked down the hall, hoping that Charlie would make an appearance but he didn't. "I don't know how long I laid there. Could have been ten minutes, could have been ten hours. I don't really know, I still don't know. Something inside me finally convinced me to get up, to get help. I was in a lot of pain. I knew I should have gone to health services, but that was on the other side of campus from where I was. I was coherent enough to realize that. I was closer to the dorm I lived in then I was to the health center. I stumbled over to the dorm and was able to somehow get my badge out and get into the building. Of course, where was Justyn's room? Where was my room? They were both all the way up on the third floor. It was painful, but I managed to get up the stairs to the third floor. I was really hurting by that point. I was also feeling really light headed. I ended up leaning up against the wall for a few minutes and then I used the wall to support me as I headed down the hall towards where our rooms were. "I was able to make it to Justyn's door before the light headedness returned with a vengeance. I'm pretty sure I knocked, but I can't remember. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a bed at the health center. Justyn was there too looking anxious and worried." Granny J just nodded, not saying anything. I drank some more of my orange juice before I continued. "Justyn told me how he heard me knock or fall against the door. He's not sure either. He opened the door and I pretty much fell into his arms, unconscious. He got the EMTs and got me to the health center." "You got angry with him for that?" "No, I didn't. He probably saved my life, or at least got me the help I needed. The problem was that he didn't stop there. He ended up calling my parents." "What's wrong with that? Most parents would be happy that he called." "Yeah, most, but not mine. My father's an asshole!" I felt my face go red again, swearing in front of Granny J like that. I looked at her and she had a small smile on her lips. "I knew I'd catch shit from my father for Justyn calling. They couldn't care less. Plus I figured that they'd figure out that I was gay, that that was the reason why I got attacked. I got angry at Justyn and pretty much told him to leave me alone. So he left, and that's the last time I saw him." "Did your father figure it out?" "If he did, he didn't say anything. They showed up that afternoon. You'd think that they'd show up as soon as they could after they got the call, but no, they didn't. They finally showed up in the afternoon. It was a typical conversation, cold and quick. I don't even know why they bothered to show up. Probably to put on some big show for the school, not that anyone was watching, or checking to see what time the parents showed up. They didn't stay there very long and left. The doctor came in and dismissed me a little while later. I gathered up my stuff and headed back to the dorm." "Did you go find Justyn?" "No. I was still mad at him for calling my folks." "He was just trying to be a good friend, he was concerned, Tristan." Granny J said quietly. "I know that," I replied "now. I spent the rest of the day studying for my final the next day. The next day I went off to my final and things seemed different." "Different how?" "Like everyone was starring at me. And I heard whispers. It sounded like they knew I was gay and they were making comments about it. I took my final and as I was leaving these guys started bugging me. I was able to just walk away from them. They weren't interested in fighting amazingly. I headed back to my dorm room and I saw it." "Saw what?" "My stuff. Everything, everything but the clothes on my back and the books in my backpack -- everything was destroyed. My clothes were ripped up, my CDs were broken, my books were shredded. They even went so far as to pile the stuff so it spelled out FAG on the bed. By that point I'd had enough. It was obvious that my secret was out. How it got out, who found out about me, I still don't know, but it didn't matter. I wasn't wanted. I went down to the RA's room and I vented. I told him what had happened. He was polite but wasn't that helpful. He told me I could call the campus police but that probably wouldn't do much. I did anyway and he was right. They were about as enthusiastic about finding the people who trashed my stuff as they were to have a root canal. After they left I deduced that I didn't want to hang around, I didn't want to be there any more. So I grabbed some trash bags and shoved in all my stuff and headed home. I stopped at Justyn's on my way out, to tell him, and to say goodbye, but he wasn't there. I left a message for him with Jayson and left. "I threw the stuff in my truck and headed home. Luckily for me only mom was home when I got there. Dad was out of town on some sort of business trip. Mom isn't as bad as dad, but it's still tough living in a house where you aren't loved. And I knew that I wasn't. Everything was fine at home until dad got home later in the week. Then all hell broke loose. He came in the house screaming. Somehow he'd discovered that his son was a cocksucker. I didn't know how he had at the time but he had, and he came after me. He'd not laid a hand on me, not even a spanking, since I had started lifting weights and training for football. I was bigger than him, stronger than him, and I think he feared that, even just a little. "Well, apparently any fear he had was overruled by the fact that his kid was gay. I managed to get away from him and took off in my truck. I ended up in the park in town. I was angry, I was scared, I was hurt. I wasn't surprised though. I knew that this would happen someday, I just didn't think it would happen so soon. I had wanted to be done with college, out on my own, and financially secure before the old man found out about his faggot son. Now that option was gone. I spent some time in the park before I decided that I needed to get out of there and get some place a little more warm. I figured I'd go to Aric's. I always used to go there when the folks got really bad, or I got tired of being ignored. Well, I wanted to go to Aric's but my truck had other ideas. It had been giving me troubles on and off about starting and this was one of those times it decided not to start. I was kinda glad it was then that it decided not to start and not when the old man came after me. Aric lives a couple of miles from the park, not too far, so I ended up leaving the truck and hoofing it over. "I finally got there a little while later. I was wet and cold. I was finally able to warm up there. I spent the night and we went back the next day to get the truck. Of course, it snowed over night so the truck was covered when we got there. I cleaned off the driver's side so I could get in and Aric went around to the passenger's side to clean that off. After cleaning it off for a couple of minutes he called me over to it. It was then that I discovered how my father knew, how he'd figured it out. It was bad enough they had destroyed all my belongings in my dorm room. But it wasn't enough for them. They had spray painted "faggot" in big letters across the side of my truck. "After everything that had gone on with school and my father, I had decided not to tell Aric the real reason I was home early, the real reason I wasn't staying at my folks. But I didn't have to. The side of my truck did. We had this big argument and he left me! He left me there, with a non-working truck and he took off! He was my best friend! The guy I could always go to when things got tough at home. The guy knew everything about me, except for this and he left me! "I couldn't figure out what to do, where to go. I tried the truck again, but no luck. It wouldn't turn over. I started walking again, but not toward town, out of town. I ended up heading this way. You were the only one I could think of, the only place I could think to go. And so I ended up here, on your doorstep where Charlie found me. I just don't know what I'm going to do now." "You're going to stay here," Granny J answered, as though it was the most obvious answer. "I wouldn't want to impose." "Impose my ass!" Granny J replied. "As it turns out I'm in need of a dishwasher in the restaurant. My last dishwasher quit a few weeks ago. Got tired of the snow, decided to move to Southern California. Wimp! I'd rather take snow than earthquakes, mud slides and wild fires!" I just sat there, my mouth open. Here I went from being homeless and now I was employed and had a place to stay. Now all I needed were some clothes. "So it's settled. You'll stay here and work for me." She got up out of her chair and stood there looking at me. As short as she is, had I not heard the chair scrape across the floor I would have guessed she was still sitting. She walked around the table and looked at me. "Stand up." I looked at her and then stood, wondering why she wanted me to stand. She looked me up and down and walked around me a couple of times. She kept nodding her head. "It'll be a little tight, but they'll probably do." She shuffled off back toward her bedroom, or at least that's the direction she headed. "What will do?" I called after her. "Don't interrupt me when I'm thinking!" I stared after her until she returned a couple of minutes later with some clothes. "Always meant to donate these," she said as she dropped a pile of clothes on the table. "But I could never bring myself to do it. Glad now that I didn't." Before I could ask her about the clothes Charlie came out of his room, dressed and a backpack over his shoulder. "I'm going to head into school. I'm meeting up with Cyrus and Steve to study for our biology test. I'll be home after school." He came over to Granny J and gave her a big hug. She returned it before sending him on his way. "Bye Charlie," I said as he finished with the hug. "And thanks." "No problem," he replied heading past me toward the door. "I'll see you guys tonight." He headed out the door and was gone. I turned back to the pile of clothes on the table. "I don't know what to say. You're being too kind to me. I really can't accept this. After all you've already done." "You going to argue with Granny J? You going to work naked? You're nice to look at Tristan, but I'm an old woman! You'd give me a heart attack!" I looked through the pile of clothes. There were some flannel shirts and some golf type shirts. "That's all I kept from Mr. J. That's what he wore most of the time, and that's what reminded me of him." I looked at the stuff again. "Wow, thanks Granny J." "It's not everything you'll need, so we'll go shopping for that later, after McGaffy's opens. They're just up the street." "I don't have any money." "Who said anything about money? Jack's an old friend of mine." She held up her hand to stop my protests. "Besides, I'll just take it out of your salary. You need underwear, socks and more pants." She grabbed the clothes off the table. "Now, I need to wash these and the dishes downstairs need to be washed. Wait here while I start the wash and I'll take you downstairs and show you what you need to do." I just nodded as she walked back toward the bedrooms. I sat back down while I waited, thinking how lucky I was to have headed off this way after my truck wouldn't start. I heard the metal clang of a washer door being opened and a couple of minutes later the sound of the cycle dial being spun and then I heard running water. She reappeared out of the bathroom and came through the kitchen. She headed off into the living room and I got up to follow her. We entered the living room and I got a quick glimpse as we headed to a door on the right of the doorway we were walking through. The living room was neat and looked like something out of the fifties. Old furniture that was obviously well cared for took up most of the floor space. Some plants hung from the ceiling in the front and more were on tables below those. She turned the lock on the door and pulled it open. She stepped down and I heard the click of a light switch and was suddenly greeted with a somewhat bright light. "Pull the door shut behind you," was all she said as she headed down the stairs. I did what she asked and followed her down. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she stopped at another door and unlocked that one as well. She pulled that one open and held it for me. I finished coming down the stairs and entered a dim room. It was the kitchen for the restaurant. She shut the door behind me and the room got somewhat darker with the loss of the light from the stairwell. I heard a click from behind me and the room was suddenly brightened by several overhead florescent lights. I noticed a flicker and looked up. There were three fixtures in the ceiling, each one holding four bulbs. The center one wasn't completely lit and was the source of the flicker. I looked around the kitchen. The room was bigger than the kitchen upstairs. And held a lot more equipment. A large stove was off on the opposite side of the wall, next to the door that must lead into the dining room. A bank of large refrigerators was on the wall behind me, on my right. The space between the stove and the refrigerators held several butcher-block work surfaces. The far right wall held a large sink that was piled with lots of dishes, pans, pots, glasses and silverware. The left side was a concrete wall that held some shelving units and a door to the alley out back. "Damn light. It's been acting up. Get the ladder next to the back door while I get another bulb out of the closet. That'll be first on your list of things to do." I walked a few feet toward the back door and grabbed the eight-foot ladder leaning up against the wall. By the time I'd gotten it back to the light, she'd returned with a replacement bulb and was moving the table underneath the light. I set up the ladder and climbed up and pulled out the flickering bulb. The rest of the bulbs in the light went out as I pulled it out. I climbed down the ladder a bit and handed the bulb to Granny J. She took that one and handed me the replacement. I went back up and inserted it and the four bulbs came back to life, temporarily blinding me. I climbed back down and brought the ladder back to where I found it. We walked over to the sink where Granny J spent the next several minutes showing me where everything went and what needed to be done. "I've never seen so many dirty dishes in my life," I commented as she finished showing me where everything went. "Damn Christmas parties. If they weren't so damn profitable I'd never do them again. But they bring in good money. The biggest pain in the ass is the cleanup. Get all these dishes clean and then we'll head out to the clothing store. I'll be in the office ordering supplies. You can turn on the radio if you want, just don't put it up too loud. You kids and your rap music." "Ok." And with that she shuffled off to the far side of the kitchen and disappeared through a door into the office. I found the radio on a shelf over the sink, next to the dish detergent. I turned it on to the local rock station and attacked the seemingly endless pile of dishes. I'd been washing dishes for about an hour, when I heard a song on the radio that I felt kinda fit my situation. I turned it up a bit and continued to wash the dishes. I also ended up singing along. You could never know what it's like After the song ended I turned the radio back down and concentrated better on the dishes. It wasn't until my arms were starting to ache and the skin on my fingers was beyond pruned before the pile of the dishes that needed to be washed was finally smaller than the pile that had been washed. Another hour and I was done. I cleaned up the sink area, turned off the radio and grabbed a dishtowel and headed over to the office. "I'm all done Granny J," I announced as I stood in the doorway drying my hands. She looked up from the desk she was sitting at. "I'm just about done too. Go grab a shower and I'll meet you back upstairs in a few minutes." "Ok." I left the office and headed back to the door we came through to get to the kitchen. I left the dishrag hanging over the back of a kitchen chair and headed back upstairs. I went back to Charlie's room, not sure where the towels were. I didn't see one in the bedroom. I opened the door to the bathroom. A toilet, sink and shower stall, and about enough room to turn around in, and that was it. A folded towel sat on the toilet. I walked back to the bedroom door and closed it. I pulled off my shirt as I headed toward the bed. My arms hurt just lifting them above my shoulders. It had only been a few weeks since I last played football and a couple of weeks since I last lifted weights. "Guess I'll get another type of work out doing dishes for Granny J!" ran through my head as I stretched out the ache a little bit. I stripped off the rest of my clothes and dumped them in a pile on the bed. I caught my reflection in the mirror on the wall near the bathroom and I stopped to check on my bruises. There were a few pale yellow spots but for the most part, they'd gone away. My hand brushed across my cock and it tingled at the touch. It started to get hard. When was the last time I'd jerked off? It must have been before the team went away for Thanksgiving weekend. That was like three weeks ago. I'd never gone that long before. Ever since I discovered masturbation at the age of twelve I've done it at least once a day, sometimes twice. I willed my cock to go down as I turned on the hot water but it refused. It demanded attention. I didn't feel comfortable playing with myself in Granny J's place, but if it didn't go down, I wasn't sure I wouldn't be able to resist jerking off. I stepped into the shower and just stood under the spray. The warm water on my body felt wonderful. Even though I'd been unconscious for a few days and just washed a bunch of dishes I still felt dirty and grimy. I got my hair nice and wet and grabbed Charlie's shampoo. After I rinsed that I took the soap and started to scrub my body. My cock still hadn't gone down and I found myself thinking back to the afternoon that Justyn gave me my first blowjob. My cock seemed to get even stiffer and my right hand moved to stroke it. I could tell that it wouldn't go down without some release and while I didn't feel comfortable doing this at Granny J's, I knew that I couldn't go out with her with this thing pushing at the front of my jeans. It only took a few strokes before I felt my balls pull up into my body and my knees threatened to give out from under me. Cum exploded from my cock and nailed the shower wall opposite me. After a few minutes my cock started to soften and go back to it's normal state. I finished soaping up and washed down the still dribbling cum. I stepped out the shower and ended up moving into the bedroom to dry off. The bathroom just wasn't big enough. About ten minutes later I met up with Granny J all freshly showered and dressed and we headed out. * * * The next couple of weeks, right through Christmas week were busy. I didn't have a lot of time to myself. Granny J's was a popular place anyway, but at Christmas time it seemed to get twice as busy. We had at least one company dinner each night, sometimes two. That made for a lot of dishes. I was usually cleaning up from dinner there later at night than Charlie and Granny J who both retired upstairs soon after the doors closed for the night. Besides doing dishes, I also helped clean the restaurant part and bring in the foodstuffs that came pretty much every other day. I'd continued to sleep in Charlie's bed, although I still wasn't really comfortable with the idea. Charlie was usually still up when I got done working at the end of the night and stayed up even after I showered and hit the sack. He was very busy in school. He was trying to graduate a year early so he could help Granny a year early. I had also discovered that he was actually seventeen, not the fourteen I had thought. He was just blessed, or cursed, with young looks. I still hadn't found out why he had gotten so upset at my use of the word faggot, nor did we discuss the events that brought me to be living there. It was as though I had always been there as far as he was concerned. I found my mind wandering a lot while I was washing dishes and found myself thinking of Justyn. I wondered what he was doing, where he was. I had tried searching the net on Charlie's computer for his number, but there were a lot of families with the last name of Davis in Kansas. Christmas Eve was quiet and subdued. The restaurant closed around ten, just like normal, but was closed on Christmas day. We had a quiet day around the house and a nice meal in the afternoon. We exchanged some small gifts. I still didn't have a lot of money but I got something small for each of them. After the first of the year the restaurant settled down to it's normal level of busy. We were open until ten Sunday nights through Thursday nights and then we were open until eleven on Friday and Saturday nights. As a result, I didn't often get done washing dishes until after twelve. I'd pretty much drag myself upstairs, strip off my clothes, and climb into bed with Charlie. I'd sleep through the night, not even hearing Charlie's alarm go off in the morning. He'd get up, do his morning stuff and head off to school and I'd be dead to the world. As the days went by, I found myself thinking more and more of Justyn and at night, I started dreaming about him as well. I'd never dated anyone before him and I definitely had never loved anyone either. Yeah, sure I had loved Aric, but that was definitely a different type of love. It was more of a platonic love, a love for a brother, a best friend. There wasn't anything sexual in my feelings for Aric. Of course, after he abandoned me there in the park when he found out I was gay; it had made me rethink my feelings towards him. I wasn't sure I could ever think of him the same way again or trust him. Due to my hectic schedule, I found myself with very little time to take care of personal business. I mean come on. I'm an eighteen-year-old guy. I've got needs! On top of dreaming about Justyn every night and thinking about him during the day, I was sleeping naked next to Charlie. My dead-to-the-world sleep filled nights began to slip away from me. Instead, there were plenty of times when a noise outside or my needing to relieve my bladder in the middle of the night would cause me to wake up. When I did, Charlie's arm would be around me, or I would be spooning him, my hard cock in the crack of his ass. There were a few times I woke up needing a trip to the bathroom to do more than just pee. I'd find myself in the middle of the night sitting on the toilet playing with myself just to relieve the pressure of both my dreams and my sleeping arrangements. I wasn't really losing sleep because of it, but I definitely was not resting as peacefully as I had during those first few weeks at Granny J's. I'd never been a fan of washing dishes, especially when I was at home, but now I wasn't minding it so much. Maybe it was because I was now somewhere where I felt more loved then I had ever been at home, or maybe it was because I felt better about myself now that someone other than Justyn knew what I was and accepted me. The little radio on the shelf over the sink was fast becoming my best friend. I'd have it on all day and at night while I was washing dishes. I'd listened to more radio since I ended up at Granny J's then I did in the previous eighteen years growing up. I got to know a lot of new groups and songs and found that I liked more stuff then I used to. It was getting closer to Valentine's Day and I found myself thinking even more and more of Justyn. I had tried to contact him through the school but they wouldn't give out his information. I tried to get hold of Jayson but his response was pretty much along the lines of my father's. He wanted nothing to do with a fag. He did tell me before he hung up that Justyn wasn't enrolled in the school anymore and he didn't know where he was and didn't really care. I got to thinking about that, wondering how a brother could just stop caring about a sibling, especially a twin. It didn't make any sense to me. Of course I really couldn't relate to having a brother, either identical or not cause I was an only child. The closer it got to Valentine's Day the hornier I seemed to get and the more I thought of Justyn. My sleep became even less peaceful and I found myself getting up every night to go into the bathroom to relieve my aching balls. Sometimes I'd get off and still be hard as a rock. I'd stroke my cock some more and a few minutes later I'd shoot again. The sexual pressure was relieved temporarily, but my heart still ached with longing for Justyn. Valentine's Day was on a Saturday and Granny J started taking reservations at the beginning of the week. She was cooking special meals for two for all the couples that came in. I also overheard her talking on the phone to the florist ordering carnations both for decorations and to be given out to all the ladies who came in with their husbands, boyfriends or whatever. I was cleaning the dishes from the lunchtime rush and had the radio going above me when a song came on that made me think of Justyn even more. I reached up and turned the radio up a bit to listen to it better over the running water. A hundred days have made me older, since the last time that I saw your pretty face I turned down the radio after the song was over. The song was one I'd heard a bunch of times before while I was washing the dishes but for some reason this time it just really hit me, it really registered. It had been almost a hundred days since I last saw Justyn but I was still thinking about him. The week seemed to fly by, probably cause we were getting to be almost as busy as Christmas time so I was back to washing a lot of dishes and crawling into bed and collapsing into sleep. Valentine's Day arrived and I awoke to discover Charlie just coming out of the shower to get dressed. He had his towel around his waist but it was obvious by the lump in the front of what he'd been doing in the shower. He hadn't noticed that I was awake and I didn't bother to let him know. I just felt like watching him. He got over to his dresser and opened the top drawer and pulled out his socks and a pair of red boxers. He dropped his towel and I was presented with his totally bare backside. And what a nice backside it was. He bent over to pull his socks on and I got an even better view of his ass. As he was pulling his boxers on I let out a whistle. He jumped a few feet and turned around to face me. "Damn it Tristan you scared me!" "Sorry kiddo, but you gave me a nice show, and I wanted to show my appreciation." "Ha ha, very funny. You gonna get up and get ready?" "What's the rush?" "We open in an hour, or did you forget that we're opening early for all those lovebirds who want to do lunch instead of dinner?" I rolled over to face Charlie's side of the bed to check out the clock. As I rolled over Charlie let out a whistle like I had for him. I guess my backside must be showing. "Like what you see?" I asked him as I threw the covers off of me and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I sat there on the bed, my full hard on facing him. He'd managed to pull on his jeans and a red tee shirt. He grabbed another red tee shirt off of his dresser and threw it to me. "Hurry up and get dressed." I took the shirt off of my crotch and got up and stretched. "What's the shirt for?" He gave me this look of "DUH". "It's Valentine's Day, remember? Granny J wants us all to wear red for the customers." "But I'm in the back all the time, they'll never see me." "Maybe, but that's what Granny J wants. Now point your pecker at the bathroom and get showered. I'll see you at the table for breakfast." And with that he headed out of the bedroom. I grabbed my towel off the back of the chair and headed into the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later I was pouring some Lucky Charms into a bowl and sitting down at the table to wolf down my breakfast. Charlie and I headed downstairs a few minutes later and helped Granny J get the restaurant ready for the day. We put the flowers on all the tables and got the flowers to be given to the guests ready and everything. It wasn't long after we opened that it started filling up and I got the sink running and started cleaning dirty dishes. Unlike the usual Saturday where we'd have a lull in the afternoon and the washing would slow down, it didn't for Valentine's Day. I'd just finished washing a lasagna dish for the third time of the day when Charlie came into the back all excited. "Tristan!" he exclaimed as he came over to the sink "What?" I replied flicking some soapsuds at him. He wiped the suds off of his shirt and said something that made my heart stop. "Justyn's here!" |