Comedy of Errors 15**
Comedy of Errors
Final Chapter
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Written By: Justin Case
Edited By: Ed
Spanish Edit By: Julio
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January 24, 2002
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Disclaimer: This story contains sexually graphic language involving males. You must be of legal age to read this material, and by continuing with this site, you are doing so with that knowledge. The writer wrote this tale, it is fiction, and neither he, his editor, nor the publisher, accept responsibility for the actions of the viewer. ©JCPCo2002
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SoapBox®: Hey to you all. I hope you all like this chapter, it's the last one. I'd like to thank the many of you that have written me about this story, and assure you it's not the end of our boys. I plan on keeping the lives of James, Danny, Luke, Travis, and a few more of this saga's cast, going in other stories coming soon! You'll have to bookmark my website to keep up, http://Justinscorner.homestead.com, all my ongoing work is in the library, while finished stories retire to my bookshelf. If you'd like to send me a note, I love e-mail, the addy is Justin69SK@aol.com I answer all my mail.
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I'd like to thank all my special friends for their constant support.
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It took me a few minutes to let the words sink in. Stevie, my best friend, the guy I dreamt of for years, thought he might be gay. It was too late, for him and me now, I loved Danny. I watched Stevie as he walked towards my window seat, and shook my head to myself; it couldn't be so, he couldn't be gay.
"Excuse me," was all I could manage to say.
"You heard me," Stevie croaked out, as he stared out the window.
"Luke, Travis, what say we go check your room for towels," Danny quickly picked up on the need for Stevie and me to be alone.
I thought about it for a minute, how sensitive Danny was. I thought about everything he and I had been through in our short relationship together. In less than three months we had fallen in love with each other. Danny and I, like Luke and Travis, were infectiously in love with one another. I realized at that precise moment, that what I had seen in them last night when they were together, was exactly what I had with Danny.
I began to let Stevie's words churn around in my head as the others left us alone. I heard the door close softly as they departed, but my attention drew to my lifelong best friend. I walked across my bedroom floor and stood behind him, we both looked at the ocean outside my bedroom window. It was a place we had stood many times before. I thought about all the good times we had spent together, the summers and school breaks seemed endless. We had shared our every secret, every one of them. Now my best friend was sharing one more, and I had to support him. I knew this must be a difficult thing for him to come to grips with, it was for me.
I watched his shoulders as they heaved up and down, I knew he was crying. I reached my arms around him from behind. I held him lightly as he cried. I felt my own tears well up in my eyes. I held him close to me as I tried to comfort him, while I waited for him to tell me how he came to his discovery.
"I guess I've known for a while, James. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. I was afraid. Last night..." He slowly turned to face me and began crying harder.
I didn't say a word, I just held him in my arms.
"I finally admitted it to myself last night. It was seeing you and how happy you are. I have been thinking of other guys sexually forever, but I just kept telling myself it was because of you, and all your talking about it. I wouldn't allow myself to be me. God, James, I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me?" His blue eyes were filled with tears as he looked into mine.
"Forgive you for what? For being who you are? There is nothing to forgive," I assured him.
"For not being honest with you. All those times you told me about how you felt, I just shrugged you off. I should have told you how I felt, maybe you wouldn't have been so lonely," he continued to explain in between his occasional sobs.
`Lonely?' I thought to myself, I was never lonely. I wondered if he was telling me that's how he felt. I reasoned it out in my head as I continued to hold him close to me. All those years he had been the lonely one, not me. I ached for him and all his pain. How do we manage to allow our lives to be controlled about what others think? Why do we live in such agony, such fear? He had been lonely in his own mind, not even brave enough to tell his best friend his true feelings. It was his knowledge that I was gay, which didn't offer him any solitude, it seemed to scare him more into the depths of guilt.
"I've always had you, Stevie, you were always there for me. Christ, you're the best friend I could ever have. You're the one that connected me with Danny. You're the one that constantly stood by my side all these years. I haven't been lonely." I hugged him harder to further emphasize my feelings for him.
"Thank you, James. I'm a mess. I hope I find someone like you did," Stevie whispered.
"Well, I just may know of someone, he's a little younger, but he's mature."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really."
We held onto each other for a few more minutes, basking in the comfort of our friendship. I knew this was truly the beginning of a new direction in our lives. It was already September, we both had graduated from some of the better private schools in Massachusetts, and our whole lives were ahead of us. It wouldn't be long before our parents began nagging at us about college, most of the island clique had already begun. College wasn't something I was ready for, not yet anyway. We finally sat down on the window seat, side by side.
"So you really think you want to go with us to P-Town?"
"Yeah, I really do."
"Cool. Wait here while I go get the other guys. You got to get to know Travis and Luke, they're really cool. I'll be right back." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and headed to the guestroom.
I knocked on the door before I opened it. When I walked in, I could tell by the look on Danny's face that he was upset. I don't know, maybe it was the way he gave me that huge smile of his, the one I had seen before. The one that seemed to say, `thanks for being here'. I just knew he was upset, and happy to see me. I figured he was worried about Stevie, as well as our earlier experience with the police.
Then I looked over to Luke and Travis; they were both sitting on the bed, looking everywhere but at each other. Now, I hadn't known them long, but I didn't have to be a genius to figure out they had been arguing. I couldn't imagine them fighting; they seemed too much in love.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" I broke the silence.
"How's Stevie?" Danny asked, as he walked towards me.
"He'll be fine, just as soon as we can get him away for a few days." As soon as the words left my lips, Danny pulled me aside.
"Shh, they been fighting about Provincetown. Travis wants to move there, it seems he always did, but Luke wants to move here to Nantucket. Travis is more determined now, after what happened with the police and all. Luke is scared about what his mother will think. I think we should leave them alone to sort it out." Danny knowingly nudged me towards the door, as he whispered.
"We'll be in my room. I hope you find everything you need," I called over my shoulder to them, as I shut the door behind us and we walked back to my bedroom.
We walked back to my room hand in hand, and talked to Stevie for what seemed like an hour or so. Finally, Luke and Travis joined us. The five of us chattered away for quite a while in my bedroom. We made plans for our getaway. It was decided we'd leave the next day after breakfast.
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That was all a few months ago, it seems like an eternity. I did help Stevie find someone. Remember Eric, that wonderful kid at the coffee shop? Seems he was looking for someone too, they hit it off tremendously. Stevie's a couple years older, but that doesn't seem to bother either one of them.
Ellis was arrested for the purse snatching. He's been to court, but his case hasn't been disposed of. Seems he has to complete some program for addicted gamblers, or something like that. I guess we're OK with it, I mean it wasn't like he meant Danny any real harm.
Marcy left him, and last we heard was moving to Manhattan.
Luke and Travis opened an art gallery in Provincetown. Luke finally agreed; life for them would be better if they were near friends, and others like us. His mother didn't seem to mind. I've had the pleasure of meeting her and his grandmother, several times.
Danny and I, well, what can I say? We're living together. Actually, my father bought the building we all stay in. The art gallery is on the first floor, Luke and Travis live on the second floor in one apartment, and Stevie and Eric share the other. Danny and I, we have the whole third floor. It's great!
The End.
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Thanks for reading my tale. I hope to hear from you all soon.
Thanks, Ed and Julio, for your work on the story.
As Always,
But not forever,
Just,
Justin
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