Jacob Finding His Way

Jacob Finding His Way 67

Written by J.P.G.

{Jacob Finding His Way is partly fictional. As I am writing this story, I am above the age of 21. If you want a story with lots of sex, look elsewhere. This is a love story. Seeing as it is a love story, sex is in there, but it's in realistic balance in the characters' lives.

Any similarity to any real events, names, or life events is purely accidental. If you are underage, (according to your state laws, a minor), if this literature is offensive to you or to anyone around your viewing area, or it is illegal for you to view such content where you are reading it,  stop reading the story.

This story can't be distributed in any way, shape or form without the author's expressed written consent.}

Story Written by: J.P.G.

Love Scenes Written By: Daddy Rick

Edited By: Daddy Rick

Chapter 67

The guys didn't give Ethan and Derrick a chance to sit down before asking them question after question. To make matters worse, they threw out their questions all at once. Neither Ethan nor Derrick was able to make heads or tails of the questions that were being asked.

Finally Ethan calmed everyone down. "Listen guys give us a chance to answer the first set of questions first. I know you have a lot of questions, I would as well. So let's take a breath and I will try to answer."

Everyone settled down and stopped asking questions. Jacob wanted to hear what Ethan had to say, but he had to leave already to go to the ROTC building. As he got up to leave, he made Ethan promise to get with him later. He didn't want to be the only one in the group that doesn't know what is going on. Ethan agreed with Jacob as he departed.

Jacob slowly made his way to the trash bins, tossed his trash and then put his tray and plate up on the counter for the kitchen staff to get. He looked back at the table and saw his friends sitting there talking with each other. As he went around the table, Jacob realized how lucky he is having such a good group of friends. After all, his high school years didn't start on a good note, but yet here he is.

The crashing of plates on the floor pulled Jacob out of his thoughts. He looked over to the kitchen and saw a young staffer kneeling down picking up the plates he had dropped on the floor. Jacob smiled as he turned and walked out of the cafeteria. His mind started to wander again as he walked up the narrow hallway to exit out the side door that leads to Schuster Street. Once he made it outside, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He stood there looking across the street at the ROTC building, his body pulling him one direction, his mind trying to stop his body. The mind knows that he needs to get to ROTC, but for some reason every other part of Jacob's body wants nothing to do with the ROTC program, at least for this lunch period.

Before Jacob knew it, he was walking up the side of the hill that leads to the monument. When Josh reached the top, he walked over to the edge that looked down at his high school. He threw his legs over the wall, and sat down. Ignoring the other students around him, Jacob starred straight down at his school.

His mind completely blocked out all the noise to the point Jacob didn't hear anything going on around him. He started to think about his past as he sat there on the rock wall. Not just thinking back a week ago, or month ago or even a year ago, Jacob went further back. He started thinking about when he lived in Wyoming, something he hasn't done in a very long time.

Something about meeting Derrick opened up a memory that he locked away. It was so weird because Derrick doesn't look, act or even talk like the person in the memory that came out of the depths. That is why Jacob is so confused that Derrick has caused him to remember one of his memories from elementary school.

When his mother decided to move to El Paso with Jacob's step father, Jacob was only eleven years old. He told this story to Joey and a few others showing how clearly he could remember his youth, but he forgot one thing. For some reason meeting Derrick unlocked this memory that Jacob thought he had locked up and thrown away the key.

Then, like now, Jacob had a group of friends he hung around with in elementary school. The group wasn't as large, but it was always him and the same other guys that stuck together. They had the same classes, lunch and hung out after school together. Pretty much they were never seen apart from when they started elementary school.

Just like today's Chase, Jacob had a best friend back in Wyoming, Ralph. The kid was small  blonde, with freckles and green eyes that looked like he would break if he got pushed too hard. Jacob and Ralph always were together, even when their other friends were off doing something with their families or homework, the little they got.

Whenever they were not at each other's house, you could find them across the street at their school playing in the playground. Sometimes they would go behind the school where there was small mound of dirt, or perhaps mud would be a better description. Jacob and his friends loved playing on that small mound because they always wound up in mud fights.

Jacob started to laugh to himself as he remembered his best friend and all the stuff they did when their parents were not around. Jacob hasn't thought of Ralph since that fateful night those many years ago. When it happened, Jacob thought he would never forget his best friend, but he moved and his mind just blocked it all out.

It was a Friday and both Jacob and Ralph were excited because they got Ralph's mom to finally give permission for a sleep over. They figured that she gave in because of guilt. She was going out on a date for the first time since Ralph's father left. Until now, Ralph's mom really kept a short leash on him and his sisters.

As they walked home, Jacob promised to be over at his house by no later than six. Ralph walked down Lincoln Blvd. happier than Jacob has ever seen him. After Jacob couldn't see Ralph anymore, he went down the little dirt road to his house. When he opened the door, Andy came running out with a paper bag in his hand.

Throwing his books on the couch, Jacob went running after his older brother to see what he is up to. When he caught up to Andy, he had already placed the paper bag on the grass, by the fence and pulled out a match book. Jacob stopped and watched his brother light a match and then throw it on the paper bag.

He walked up and took the other match book from his brother. They lit match, after match, blew them out and threw the burnt out matches on the paper bag, so they thought. One of the matches was not out and when it hit the paper bag, it started the bag on fire. Jacob and Andy stepped away from the bag, looked at each other, and then ran up to the bag. At the same time they picked it up and threw it over the fence and ran into the house.

Al was living with Gloria at the time, going through his second divorce. He ended  up running out to see that the neighbor's back yard is burning. Quickly he ran and got water to put the fire out. Once he had the fire out and knew it wasn't going to start up again, he went in looking for his two grandsons.

He laid down the law with Jacob and Andy. Not only did they get a whipping for doing what they did, they got punished. Jacob tried to talk his grandfather out it, but Al was not budging. Feeling really bad not only for what he had done, Jacob was feeling even worse on the phone call he is about to make to Ralph.

After getting off the phone with Ralph, Jacob went to his room that he shared with Andy. They were both punished to their room for the weekend. They also couldn't watch TV, go outside or talk on the phone until Al lifted the restrictions. Neither of them has ever seen their grandfather as angry as they saw him earlier.

Jacob had no idea at that moment that his grandfather saved his life. By getting punished, Jacob didn't go over to Ralph's house to spend the night. The next day when he and his family found out what had happened the night before, Jacob was not only in shock with what he was hearing but grateful at the same time that he wasn't there.

Throughout Saturday, neighbor after neighbor spoke with Jacob's mom about what happened. Each of them had a slight different version of what happened the night before, but basically they were all the same. As they talked to his mother, Jacob stayed in the hallway to hear the story on what happened to his best friend and family.

As planned Ralph's mother went out on her date. She hired a babysitter from a babysitting company to take care of Ralph, his older sister and twelve month old baby sister. When she walked out the door, Ralph's mother had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but put it off as jitters. After all she hasn't gone out with any guy except the kids' father, and that was a many years ago.

She had fun on her date, but couldn't stop thinking about her kids. Finally at midnight, she asked her date to take her home. When she arrived at her house, Ralph's mother thanked the young guy for a great night and got out of the car. Her date didn't leave until he saw her walk into her house and close the front door.

Ralph's mother thought it was weird to find all the lights off in the house when she arrived. The kids' rooms okay, but every single light in the house was off. She felt that was strange. As she flipped on the light switch in the living room, she looked for the babysitter. When she didn't find him there, she called out for him, but no answer.

When she called out for him the third time, she started to really worry when he didn't answer. Throwing her purse down, she went running to her daughter's room, but didn't find her in bed. Quickly she walked down the hall and went into Ralph's room, but didn't find him in his room either. Now she is started to really get worried. No longer calling out for the babysitter's name, she started calling out her kids' names.

Getting no answer, Ralph's mother checked the bathroom, but didn't find anyone. She then went over to her room and when she opened the door, nothing couldn't have prepared her for what she was about to see. Her older daughter stretched out on her bed, lying in a pool of her own blood.

Ralph's mother went over to her daughter screaming out her name, but didn't get any answer from her. When she got to the bed, she knew her daughter was dead. Her eyes were still open, looking right into her mother's eyes. The look in her daughter's face, threw Ralph's mother off balance. It was a look she knew all too well, a look of `help me"!

At this point, she had no idea where her other two kids were and what had happened in her house while she was gone. All she knew was that she needs to call the police because her daughter is dead, Not thinking about it, Ralph's mother's body went into auto pilot and headed to the kitchen, picked up the phone and dialed 911.

When the operator answered, she broke down in tears, yelling that her daughter is dead and she can't find her two other children. No matter what the operator tried to do to calm Ralph's mother down, she had completely lost control. Although the operator was not getting through to Ralph's mother, she stayed on the line with her.

As Jacob listened to the neighbors recount what they heard happened, he couldn't stop thinking about his best friend. Where is he? Is he even alive? The babysitter killed his sister and took off with Ralph and his baby sister. For now the police are working on the assumption, according to what the neighbors heard from them, that the man in question only killed one of the kids. He kidnapped the other two, and hopefully they are still alive.

When Jacob finally got the nerve to talk with Ralph's mother, she had already moved away. Leaving the house the way it was the day she lost her kids. She didn't take one thing out of the house, including her own clothing. No one knew where she had moved to, except the police and they won't give that information out.

The house was boarded up soon after and no one has set foot back in the house since. The bank never tried to sell the house. They knew they wouldn't be able to due to what happened in there. The city of Cheyenne is small, and no matter how much time passes, the story never dies. The house has turned into the haunted house that no neighborhood kid, or adult for that matter, would step even into yard, let alone in the house.

As the years went by, the story got worse and worse. By the time Al moved to El Paso, the story on what happened that fateful night was almost completely different than what exactly happened. The way it was being told is that all the kids died that night, not just the daughter. The baby was drowned in the kitchen sink and the young boy was hung from a tree out in the back yard. The only thing that stayed close to the truth is how the daughter died, and how the mother found her when she got home from her date.

Jacob got jolted out of his thoughts when he felt a pair of hands on his shoulder. He turned to see another student he has never seen before hand on his shoulder. "You were so spaced out; you didn't hear the bell ring." The student smiled, let go of Jacob's shoulder and walked away.

Wiping away the tears that started to form in his eyes, Jacob swung his legs back over the wall and slid down the hill. On his way to the main building, Jacob couldn't believe he blocked out that memory. It's a memory of things that did change his life in some ways and showed him early on the ugliness in this world; ugliness he's tried to forget.

Now the memory he tried to forget and lock down deep in his mind has come back, Jacob wants to know if the police ever found out anything. If his friend was found alive, he wants to get back in touch with him, if for nothing more than just to say hi and make sure he is okay. Jacob knows if he doesn't do that, this memory will haunt him. That is probably the main reason his mind locked the memory away, so he'd not be haunted by it.

The group didn't leave the cafeteria at lunch. They stayed glued to the story about how Ethan met Derrick. The only ones that caught on to the fact that Ethan and Derrick wanted more than just a friendship were Chase and Patricia. They could see that Derrick looked at Ethan differently than he would if they were just becoming friends.

"I don't know if I told you guys or not, but when my counselor finally got around to me and my transcript, he saw that I was ahead in credits; not enough to graduate early or anything. He pulled me into his office last Tuesday and told me what he thought I should do. One of his suggestions was to take a few courses at the community college. Get some college credits in the bag before I even graduate.

At first I didn't want to do anything differently than what I was already doing. One of the main reasons is that I am new here. I am already having a hard time getting around the high school, I don't want to try and find my way around another campus. But my counselor was dead set on me at least looking into it, so I agreed to go and check out the community college the next day."

Ethan took a drink of his milk as he looked around the table. "There was a field trip already set up for Wednesday and my counselor put me on the list. After lunch instead of going to class, I got on a school bus with other students and we headed off to the community college campus near here. I didn't know that there were several campus spread out around El Paso, did you guys?" Everyone shook their heads no.

"Anyways I just went along for the ride because my counselor wouldn't let me leave his office until I agreed to go on this field trip. When we got off the bus, we were met by several students and staff. Their job was to show us around the campus and make it sound like this is the best thing to happen to us.

Since I didn't want to be there, I just followed the group, not really listening to what the staff member was saying. In fact I don't even know what position that staff member holds at that campus. All I knew at that time is that I wanted to get back to school and back to my normal routine.

In the middle of the tour, new students joined the tour. Some were already attending classes and some were about to start attending classes. Derrick here was part of the group that was about to start attending classes at that community college. Just like me, he really didn't want to be there that day, but different reasons. So he fell behind the group with me and just took the tour.

We got to talking and we pretty much hit off. Who knows if it was because we both were not born here or that we both had a hard time when we first got here. Unlike me, Derrick didn't run into a good group of people in his high school like you guys. So he had a hard time through his last years and couldn't wait to graduate."

"Wow isn't this a small world?" Chase spoke the second Ethan was done. "So Derrick where are you from? According to what Ethan here just said, you aren't from here."

"No I am not from here! I was born and raised in North Dakota. Almost the same as Ethan, my family had a farm, but we sold ours. My dad couldn't handle the farm by himself, and it wasn't producing enough to hire a staff. My brothers and I volunteered to drop out of school to help my father with the farm, but he refused. He wanted more for us than the farm life his father left him.

The evening when the bank told my dad that the farm was sold, and we had thirty days to hand over it, we got together in the kitchen to decide where to move. I found it funny that my dad didn't think that far ahead. Anyways we all threw out places where we wanted to move to. Let me tell you, no one chose the same city or even close to the same city.

Being the comic my father is, he decided where we were going by a dart. He told my mom to write down all the places we suggested on a paper and then tape each paper on the wall. Once she did that, my dad put on a blindfold and threw a dart at the wall. Before doing so he told us where ever the dart lands is where we are going to move. He didn't want to hear any arguing. With me sitting here, you know where the dart landed."

The group started to laugh when Derrick said the last part. "If you already graduated from high school, what are you doing here? What I mean is..." Chase tried to reword his question in order not to sound mean, but it was too late.

"I know what you mean Chase and I have no problem answering your question. I graduated from this school and I needed to get a copy of my transcripts again. I gave the community college my copy and they lost it. I had to come down and get another copy and as I was walking into the hallway, I ran right into my friend Ethan here. He invited me to meet you guys and I wanted to. You guys sound like a good group to be around."

Everyone looked over Chase with dirty looks in their faces. David turned to Derrick and apologized for how their friend Chase is reacting. He went on to make excuses for Chase and then changed the subject. They talked all the way to the lunch bell. One by one shook Derrick's hand as they left.

Ethan apologized to Derrick for the way Chase was acting. He explained to Derrick that Chase is the one that helped him out the day he became friends with this group. The Chase that Derrick met today isn't the real Chase. Derrick understood and promised Ethan that he won't think any different of Chase than Ethan does.

After school, Jacob went straight to the office. All he could think about on his way to the office is Ralph. During the afternoon classes, he didn't think about him because he drowned himself into his school work. Now that he has nothing to distract himself with, the thoughts of his old friend came crashing down on him. So Jacob made a mental note to call his attorney after he got to the office and have them to hire an investigator to find out what ever happed to his childhood friend. He would like to reach out to Ralph and see if he is ok now.

The minute Jacob got off the elevator and walked into his and grandfather's lobby, Jacob could tell it was going to be a non stop busy evening. Every seat in the lobby was taken by those that are waiting to speak with Al, but had no other choice but to speak with Jacob. Not liking the idea, but accepting it they waited for the other owner.

On his way to his office, the secretary gave him his schedule for the day. "Shirley they do understand that they are going to be here for while?" Shirley nodded her head. "Maybe what you should do while my grandfather is gone is come in later so that you don't work long days. After all you won't get paid for these extra hours since you are salary."

"I have no problem coming in the same time and working late with you Jacob. Your grandfather and I discussed that very topic before he left. He told me the same thing you just said, but I told him no. I am the office manager and since your grandfather isn't here, I need to be. The staff will work no matter if we are here or not, but I don't want to let anyone else have keys and alarm code to the building."

"Thank you for giving me your time, Shirley. Neither my grandfather nor I will forget this. Why don't you send in the first meeting and let's see if we can get these people out of our lobby as fast as we can." Jacob hung up his jacket and walked behind his desk.

The first couple of meetings were the normal briefings that Al got every morning on how the company is doing as far as growth. Jacob sat in a few of these meetings in the past, but most of the time they were held when he was in school. Nothing out of the ordinary came out in the meetings, and Jacob was thankful.

The next meeting was about the land that Al bought and rented to businesses that are going to build their stores on the land. Their main concern is that they are running out of land to rent off. Jacob informed them that he and his grandfather are working on that issue as they speak. Soon they should have that problem resolved.

After he finished the meetings with the rental of the land part of the company, it was already after six. Ana and Gloria walked in for their meeting. This will be the first meeting Jacob will have with his mom present and him as her boss. When he saw her walk in, he felt a little out of place, the roles having switched.

"Ana thank you for being so patient. In future what we should do while my grandfather is gone is have our daily meeting at the end of your day, at this time."

"I agree with you on that Jacob. You have your hands full taking on all the meetings that Al normally does first thing in the morning. When I walked in here this afternoon, I thought it was morning. All the faces I saw sitting in the lobby were faces I'm used to seeing in the morning for Al, not for you."

Both Jacob and Ana laughed before moving on. They went over the sales for each store last week. The item Jacob was concerned about was the waste at the end of the day. He understands they are going to throw away food, but in his opinion they are throwing away way too much food. He believes there has to be a way to get this under control.

Before letting Ana and his mom go, he assigned them another job to do; get control of the food waste. Then with the food they do end up throwing away, see how much of that food they can donate to the shelters around town. Once she comes up with the solution to both of the items he is asking her to work on, brief him on it.

Thinking that Ana was his last meeting, Jacob got a surprise. Shirley put through one more meeting for the evening, Joe. When Major Moore walked into the office, Jacob was surprised to see him. He walked around his desk and shook Joe's hand as he closed the office door and sat back down in the chair next to him.

"Jacob I really feel bad about why I am here, but I need to do my job." Jacob looked at Joe with a concerned look in his face. "Adam, Ethan's father, we hired to run a Seven-Eleven for us, but there is a problem. He needed to get licensed by the state to sell alcohol and tobacco products before selling it. We didn't send him to classes to get his licenses and we got a pop inspection by the City.

They asked to see his license, and he had no idea what they were talking about. The store and Adam got a fine. That is the least of our worries because we can pay the fines, but there is bigger problem now. We can't send him to take the class for five years, which means he can't work in the Seven-Elevens since they sell a lot of those products."

Jacob got up from his seat and walked over to the file cabinet against the wall. "I know you, Dewayne and Tony have a, lot on your plate, but you had to know that Adam needed these licenses before starting to work. I know that that, and since I know that, you guys should have known because it's the company you are running."

"There is no excuse for what happened, no excuse at all Jacob. We removed the store manager that was in place there and wanted to replace him as fast as we could. Due to us being in a hurry to do that, we didn't send Adam through training. If we only stopped, took a couple breaths, we would have caught that and fixed it."

"Well there is no use to beating a dead horse. We all are going to make mistakes as we learn our new jobs. Trust me Joe I have made a lot and I know I will still make lot as I learn everything about the company I and my grandfather own. So don't beat yourself up for this one mistake.

You, Dewayne and Tony need to pull Adam out of that store though. Keep him on payroll since it wasn't his mistake. Hire another manger, but this time send him or her to training before putting that person in the store. I don't care if that person is the only one in training. You need to get it done. The cost of the fines is a lot higher than the cost of paying for a one person class."

"I agree with you on that Jacob, thank you. What should I tell Adam when I speak with him tomorrow morning? The poor guy thinks he is going to lose his job."

"When you see him I the morning, tell him that he has nothing to worry about. You will keep him on payroll and he will still have his insurance. Then have him see me tomorrow evening. By then I should have a job for him. I am thinking about something, but I need to talk it over with a couple of people before I say anything."

Joe thanked Jacob as he left the office. Jacob closed his office door as he walked over to his desk with the file he was looking for. He opened it up and looked over what the print shop is bringing in. Not wanting to cut into Alex's and Matt's money, he looked at what he and his grandfather are getting for their cut of the profits. Then he looked to see what his grandfather ear marked the money for. When he saw nothing, Jacob knew he could do what he wanted to do.

Now Jacob needs to talk with Alex and Matt and see if they would be willing to go with his plan. If so, Jacob would have found a place for Adam to go. If Alex and Matt don't agree with what Jacob wants to do, he will move Adam into his office for the mean time. There is plenty of work here to keep ten more people busy for years.

On the way out of work, Dewayne waited for Jacob on the first the floor. When Jacob walked out of the elevator and saw Dewayne, it was like the sun came back out. He walked up to him and pulled him into a kiss. Jacob didn't care who saw him kiss the cutest guy in the world. He just loves Dewayne to death and can't make it through the day without him.

They walked each other to their cars, Jacob making sure he parked next to Dewayne and Dewayne making sure when he got back he took the same spot. Not wanting to go in separate cars, they stood there holding each other tight. Jacob back was against the truck, his arms wrapped around Dewayne's waist, pulling Dewayne into him as much as he could. They stood there talking for a few minutes before leaving.

All the way home, Jacob could only think of Dewayne. How his sun tan seemed to last year around, not having to go out in the sun to get it. Not a flaw anywhere, at least in Jacob's eyes. He started to think of the two things he loves about Dewayne as he drove home alone in his truck.

First, Dewayne either doesn't care or doesn't know how handsome he is from head to toe, and that is a big plus in Jacob's eye. Most guys that look like Dewayne know they are hot and act like they are hot. In fact they are worse than women in that regard.

The second thing Jacob really loves about Dewayne is his lips. They are just perfect. Perfectly plump and Dewayne knows how to use them to give kisses to die for. Now these are the two top things Jacob likes about Dewayne. Everything else about his boyfriend, he loves from head to toe. It is hard for Jacob to say one thing is better than the other on his boyfriend, because they all are just great.

Just like the night before, Jacob stayed up in the study until after midnight. It took Dewayne to come down and drag him out and up to bed. When Dewayne closed the door to their room, he made it clear to Jacob that he can't be doing these late nights. They fussed about it for a few minutes, but afterwards, they cuddled up with each other in the bed and went to sleep in each others arm, with Dewayne winning the fight.

The next morning at school, Jacob caught up with Ethan and asked him for the dirt on the new guy he brought around the day before. "Jacob, man I am telling you my heart starts to beat so hard when I am around him, it feels like is going to jump out of my chest. He is just awesome is all I can say about him, AWESOME!"

Ethan told Jacob the story he told the guys yesterday, as they stood at the entrance of the school. "Man   that is one cool way to meet someone. There is always a reason why a person is forced to do something they don't want to do. Normally there is a silver lining on that cloud, remember the key word there, normally. So do you know if Derrick plays ball for our team. You already went through the mess with Chase."

"That's the problem Jacob, I don't know. He hasn't said anything, and I haven't asked. Plus I think I don't have that thing that every gay person has gay-dar." Not meaning to, Jacob cracked up laughing. "Come on I am not kidding Jacob!" Ethan hit Jacob on the shoulder to get him to stop laughing. "If I have that gay-dar thing, it must be broken."

That made Jacob laugh even harder. "Maybe I have been hiding in the closet for so long, my gay-dar is turned off. I didn't even know you were gay when I met you. Then I met Dewayne, and once again I thought he was straight too. Now when I met David and Tom, David you can tell a little if you are looking for it, but not Tom."

Jacob finally stopped laughing and was able to catch his breath. "Ethan trust me you have that gay-dar in you and it works. It's just some of us hide the fact that we are gay a lot better than others. Just like you, I stayed in the closet for a long time. When I came out, it was hard for me to adjust, but even when I did, I couldn't tell if a person was gay or not. I think the only way we can know for sure is by the person telling us."

"Then what do I do Jacob? I don't want to come right out and ask him if he is gay. If I do that and he isn't, he may take it the wrong way. There is no doubt about that. You think you have it bad here in Texas, it is worse in cowboy territory where men are supposed to be men who go out and shoot their dinner, skin and then cook it."

"I thought you had the woman cook it, because it is believed up north, women are supposed to be the only one's cooking." Jacob slapped Ethan on the leg. "Listen we all grew up where gay people were not accepted, but we are gay. There is nothing we can do about that fact, but live with it. It seems only the huge cities like San Francisco is where it is okay to be who we are. Maybe it's because it is big enough city to get lost in!

You are great guy and any guy that plays ball on our team would kill to be your boyfriend, which includes Derrick. Now this is what you are going to do when you see him again. Don't ask him if he is gay or tell him you are. Just like I did with you, I let you find the right time to tell me that you're gay. If he likes you, which I know he does, he will come out and tell you.

Until then my friend, be patient. Show him who you truly are, without letting him completely in on your secret. At no time push him against the wall to come out to you. If you do that, he might not be ready to come out, and by you doing that, you might just push him further in. Being who you are will show Derrick he can trust you. Then he will come out to you if he is like us."

Jacob messed up Ethan's blond hair and then went running into the building. Ethan gave chase, but didn't catch up to Jacob before they reached the cafeteria. When they joined the guys at the table, they started asking where they were. Jacob made up a lie, and Ethan went along with it. Their friends were none the wiser.

Chase kept looking over at Ethan, trying to get a read on him, but couldn't. While the others talked, Patricia told Chase that they should talk with Ethan by himself and find out what his true intent is going to be with the guy Ethan introduced to them yesterday. Chase agreed with Patricia before joining back into the conversation.

After Jacob left, Chase leaned over to Ethan and asked to speak with him alone for a few minutes. Ethan looked at Chase, confused as to why Chase wanted to talk with him. In his mind, they have said their peace to each other about any subject that the group was not apart of. But still, Ethan agreed, excused himself and left the cafeteria.

They went over to the staircase where he and Jacob were talking before they went to breakfast. Ethan leaned against the rails, waiting for Chase or Patricia to say something since they are the ones that wanted to talk. At first they looked at each other, but didn't say a word. Just when Ethan was about to say something, Patricia spoke up.

"Ethan Chase and I were hoping that you rethought the decision you made about not doing the thing we discussed. You don't want to come out, Chase is trying to figure out where he is, so this set up will be great for both of you. The only reason I am going along with it is because I love Chase, and I think you are hot as well. Chase really does have good taste when it comes to choosing a man to be with."

At first Ethan couldn't figure out what to say, he was dumbfounded by Patricia's forwardness! He knew Patricia spoke her mind, but not to this degree. Chase must have his hands full with this woman. There is no way he could go out with a girl like this, if he was straight that is. Hopefully Derrick isn't like this if he is gay.

"I don't even what to respond to what you just said Patricia. As far as the relationship between us three, I said my peace on that already. There is no way I am going to get into a love triangle, which leaves me the odd man out. I won't be the dirty secret kept in the closet for anyone, and that is what Chase wants. So no, I haven't given it anymore thought because I already have made up my mind on the topic."

"What about the guy we met yesterday. It seems that you met him almost at the time when you made up your mind about this idea of a relationship. What, is Derrick gay and you two are going out? Is that the reason you are turning me down as far as going out as couple. We both will be each others dirty little secret since neither of us wants to come out of the closet. So you don't own that and stop throwing that in my face."

"Look what I do in my private is just that, private. I don't need to explain what I do to anyone, especially to you two! Derrick is just a friend I met last week, and that is it." Ethan turned to walk back into the building when Patricia grabbed a hold of his shoulders.

"What would you do if somehow your little secret got out to your family, the others at the table and around school?" Chase looked at Patricia, once again stunned with what she is saying. "You think your life was hell as the new kid in overalls, you haven't seen anything yet. The guys at the table would turn their back on you, not because you are gay, but because you lied to them. Without the guys backing you up, you will be living in hell that you made for yourself. The students here would make you life a living nightmare, trust me."

Ethan kept his back turned to Patricia and Chase, not understanding why Chase had turned on him like that. By the sounds of it, if Chase can't get what he wants, no one will. It seems that it won't matter what he does to a person to get that done. That is something Ethan knows he would never do, turn on a friend like Chase is doing right now.

"You do what you think you feel you need to do. I am not afraid of gossip from anyone. From this point on, you two are no longer friends of mine. I don't want anything to do with back stabbing, snotty, little brats that can't take no for an answer. I never believed in the saying, `with friends like you, who needs enemies?', but now I do."

Ethan didn't even look back at Chase and Patricia. He walked back into the building leaving them standing out on the staircase. So many thoughts started going through his mind, Ethan tried to control them. There is no way Jacob would ever choose him over Chase if it came down to that, and he wouldn't want to put Jacob in that position. One thing is for sure though, he can't hang out with the group anymore with Patricia and Chase threatening to tell everyone his secret.

The morning went fast for Jacob. Between second and third period, the guys that are running his campaign for student body president stopped him in the hall and gave him a schedule of events. As he skimmed through the schedule, Jacob called out for the kids to come back.  There are a few things on the schedule Jacob had no idea he had to do.

"You guys wait a minute and explain this to me. Don't do this fly by and hand me a schedule in hopes that I won't read it." Jacob looked at the guys, but they just looked back at him. "It says here I have to give two speeches in front of the student body. I didn't know that I had to give speeches."

"Jacob you had to know that was part of the package in order to run. There are only two speeches this year, but trust me when I say this. No one really shows up for these speeches. It is voluntary and because of that no shows up. Sometimes not all the candidates that are running for positions show up. So don't worry, we will prep you a small speech and all you have to do is read it."

Reluctantly Jacob agreed and let the others guys go to class. He put the paper in his bag and ran to class, trying to beat the bell. When he sat down, he handed the paper to Chase to read. Chase wrote Jacob a small note on what he thought about it, which made Jacob laugh. In cartable letters Chase wrote, `WELCOME TO NERD TOWN'.

At first no one noticed Ethan wasn't there at the table with them. Jacob thought that Ethan might be running late and will join them at any time, but when he saw Ethan sitting alone across the cafeteria, he knew something was up. To make matters worse, Patricia and Chase saw Ethan the minute he sat down, and worried that someone at the table would notice him as well. Then when Jacob got up and walked towards Ethan, Chase knew that shit is about to hit the fan.

Chase watched as Jacob sat down with Ethan. A few minutes later, he saw Jacob looking back at the table. He knew by the look in Jacob's face, he wasn't happy. He knows Ethan told Jacob what had happened, and knowing Jacob the way he does, Jacob isn't going to let this one go. At that point Chase turned and started to whisper to Patricia.

"Patricia, Jacob looks pissed as hell over there. Why in the world did you even think what you told Ethan, more so tell him? You know that was wrong and we didn't plan it. Now because of that, it is going to cause a lot of problems here with my friends."

"We have already been through this morning Chase. You already gave me a piece of your mind after Ethan left. There is no point for us to have another fight over the same thing that I can't take back. I apologized and that is all I can do. Plus I don't think Jacob is going to do anything about it, he is too much of a wimp."

Before Chase could respond, Jacob made his way to the table and slammed his fist on it. Not only did he grab everyone at the table's attention, he grabbed the attention of the students sitting at the table next to them. Jacob demanded for Chase and Patricia to follow him out of the cafeteria. They got up and did as Jacob asked. They followed him to the end of the hall, away from everyone.

Jacob didn't give either Chase or Patricia a chance to say a word. "What the hell is wrong with you Chase? Damn, I couldn't believe my ears when Ethan told me what you two threatened to do to him this morning. I didn't want to believe him, but when I looked back to the table and saw you and Patricia turn away, I knew it was the truth."

"You only heard one side of the story Jacob. Why don't you let us..."

"Tell me that Ethan is lying about you guys threatening to out him because he didn't do your little sick love triangle thing." Patricia answered for her and Chase, and the answer was yes they did, but again Jacob stopped her in mid sentence.

"Where are your balls Chase? I have never seen you pushed around by any woman like Patricia is pushing you around now. When your ex tried it, you broke up with her. But here you are letting this one answer for you." Patricia tried to interrupt Jacob, but Jacob didn't let her. "You two listen to me and listen to me good. We don't do what you guys did to Ethan in this group. No matter what is going on, we don't threaten to destroy someone's life like you two did this morning."

Jacob looked straight into Patricia's eyes. "It is taking every bit of my strength not to call you the names that are on my tongue Patricia. You and Chase are barely starting to go out, but I don't allow bitches in my life. I can't and won't tell Chase who to date, but you aren't welcome in my home or at my table. No one comes over to my friends and does what you did to Ethan this morning; NO ONE! I have enough bitches in my life right now, I don't need anymore."

Not letting Patricia get in a word, Jacob turned to Chase. "You aren't the guy I knew before you started going out with this woman. By me kicking her out of our group means that you are no longer going to sit with us, so be it. You will be the one choosing a woman over your friends. She isn't allowed in my house anymore Chase, do you understand me?" Chase meekly nodded his head in agreement.

Jacob started to walk away, but turned and walked back to Chase. "You are my best friend Chase and nothing is going to change that. Don't think that by me not allowing your girlfriend in my house means you have to move out, because you don't. You just need to grab your balls back from her purse and put them back on. This is not you and you know that. Don't ever let anyone run your life, I mean no one."

This time when Jacob started to walk away, he didn't turn back. Chase just looked as his best friend walked away from him. Neither he nor Patricia said a word for a few minutes, but when Chase finally found his tongue, he laid into her again.

"I don't care how you do it, but you need to fix this with my friends. They are going to follow Jacob and will back Ethan if Jacob decides to tell them what happened to cause this rift. You spoke your mind without thinking about what you were saying, so it is up to you to fix this mess. What you did was wrong and I know you know that."

Chase grabbed Patricia hands and led her outside. They sat on the other side of the stadium from the group. As Chase looked at his friends walking out, taking their usual spot and talking as if nothing had happened, got him thinking. He does love Patricia and knows that he will never find another one like her. She is willing to let him figure out his feelings, but now he is worried. If she was willing to do what she did to Ethan, what will keep her from doing the same to him when she wants something he isn't willing to give?

He knows that is one question that will never leave his mind or even be answered. At the same time Chase couldn't help but think by staying with Patricia, he could be doing a lot of harm to the friendships he's built with the guys. They will forgive him in time, but Chase knows that they won't trust him with their darkest secrets anymore.

Even after speaking with Jacob, Ethan didn't rejoin the group. He felt bad that he is causing friction between Jacob and Chase. That is not what he wanted to do to two best friends. He was okay to stay away from the group and allow them to go back to the norm, but Jacob wouldn't hear anything of the kind.

After throwing his stuff in the trash can, Ethan walked out through the doors that Jacob goes through to get to the ROTC building. He is aware that he goes through this door because this is where the guys ganged up on him when he met Chase for the first time. But today he knew it was best to stay away from the group and Chase, at least until things cool down with what had happened this morning.

"Hey Ethan, Ethan, earth to Ethan..." Ethan ignored the person calling out for him, trying to get to the staircase and back into the building. Fearing that it is the same group of kids that corned him the last time he was on the side of the building during lunch. He was regretting the decision he made to come out here instead of going to the library.

Just as Ethan got to the bottom stair of the staircase, he felt someone grabbing his shoulder. "Ethan didn't you hear me calling you. I came down in hopes to hang out with you during lunch, but the guys had no idea where you were at." Ethan turned to see Derrick standing with a worried look on his face.

"Sorry man I thought you were someone else." Ethan extended his hand for Derrick to shake. "This side of the building brings me nightmares. This is where a couple guys surrounded me and pretty much gave me hell. I thought you were one of them. I am so, so sorry, I wasn't ignoring you at all."

"Don't worry Ethan I know where you are coming from. You know what I find so funny about us. We are pretty built guys, but yet don't believe in violence. Heck if we really had to, we could take on those guys all by ourselves without breaking a sweat. The reason I think neither of us did it is because we have never been put in the situation before in our lives." Derrick smiled at Ethan, showing off his pearl white teeth.

Derrick kept pressing on Ethan to tell him what is bothering him as they walked towards the portables. Reluctantly Ethan opened up and told Derrick what happened this morning with Chase and his girlfriend. In the process he was honest and told Derrick about him being gay, something he really didn't want to do since he really doesn't know him.

"Now that you know my very dark secret, I will understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore. People like us are told since we could understand that being gay is a sin and if you are, you are to be disowned. So I won't hold..."

"Will you please shut up for just a minute? Didn't you think it was weird I was willing to meet your friends when we barely knew each other? Or how I opened up to you and told you things that I shouldn't have when we met for the first time? Or that I am here today to see you during your lunch break?"

Ethan looked at Derrick, trying to put one and one together, but before he could. Derrick softly placed his hands on the sides of Ethan's face. He pulled Ethan into him and didn't stop until their lips met. The moment Ethan let himself go and let himself get into the kiss, he felt feelings that he has never felt before! He has kissed women before, but never has he felt these feelings that he is feeling right now with Derrick.

Going into autopilot at this point, Ethan opened his mouth and let Derrick put his tongue in. He wrapped his arms around Derrick's waist and pulled him into him as much as he could. Neither of them wanted to break the kiss, but they knew they had to come up for breath very soon. Finally it was Derrick that gave in and broke the kiss.

"The day I saw you taking the tour of the campus, I had to meet you. I had already taken the tour and was thankful you didn't want to be up front with the others, because if you did, the lady that was giving the tour would have recognized me. Then the jig would be up and you would think I was some weird gay stalker guy." Derrick pushed his finger tips through Ethan's hair.

"I didn't know you were gay. In fact I thought you were straight, but wanted to get close to the most handsome guy I have ever seen. Now I see that you are and that you aren't going out with anyone right now." Derrick looked into Ethan's eyes. "Am I right that you aren't going out with anyone right now?" Ethan smiled up at Derrick and nodded his head.

"Let's take it slow and see where we go. I don't want to rush something that I know is going to be something beautiful. As far as your friend Chase and his girlfriend, ignore them. Don't let them run you off from your other friends .They seem to be a very good group of guys. Be the bigger person that you are and let it go. Talk with Chase and his girlfriend. That will hurt them more than what they did to you. You having a bigger heart and forgiving them, well you will see what I mean when you do it."

"Thanks Derrick, um, the other thing; I have never felt what I felt kissing you with anyone else that I have kissed. You are the first guy I have kissed, and man, I wish I did it a lot sooner. But I am not out Derrick, and probably won't be until I know I am not going to lose everything. So if you are looking for that, I am not the person for you then."

"I am not out either Ethan, to anyone. I am not dating any girls either, but I am not out. I know if I would to come out, I would lose my friends. My family would be stunned, but they would accept me for who I am. So I am right there with you and I will never ask you to do something that you don't want or aren't ready to do."

They stood there behind the portables, away from the view of other students and teachers talking the rest of the lunch period. When the bell rang, Ethan or Derrick didn't want their time to end. Derrick pulled Ethan in for one last kiss and promised to see him for lunch tomorrow in the cafeteria.

All through his afternoon classes, Ethan couldn't get the goofy grin off his face. It's a grin that he has never had before, because he has never felt the way he is feeling right now about anyone. Then it dawned on him during last period, he is in love. He is actually head over heels in love with Derrick and he has no idea where to go from here!

When the bell rang, Ethan didn't hear it. It took his teacher calling out his name to take him out of thought. He apologized to his teacher as he walked out the room and headed to his locker. After grabbing the books he needs to do his homework, he closed the locker door. He turned around to find Jacob standing there.

"I hear you didn't join the others during lunch after we talked. You are as much part of our group now as Chase is. It is Patricia that isn't really part of the group because the guys really don't know her. We know you, work with you and have partied with you. Fuck, you've stayed the night at my home already, which Patricia hasn't! "

"I know Jacob and I promise to hang with the guys tomorrow." Ethan stopped and pulled Jacob to the wall. "Do you think the guys would mind that Derrick joins us for lunch tomorrow and probably whenever he has a chance to join us?" Jacob smiled at Ethan, pulled him into him as they started walking out to the parking lot.

"Of course Derrick is welcome to the group whenever he comes down to hang with you. Heck the guy is so handsome. It will make our table more popular, although with the females, but still more popular. By the grin on your face, you got your answer to the question from this morning. I am happy to see that you are so happy."

They reached Jacob's truck and climbed in. "I told the guys that I will be giving you a ride to work today, is that okay with you?" Ethan nodded his head. "I have something to offer you, but before you answer me, listen to everything I have to say first. Do I have your promise Ethan?"

"Yes Jacob you do, I will listen to what you have to say before answering you."

"Good, thank you Ethan. Shirley, our secretary, is my grandfather's assistant, not mine. Yet she is doing the job of two assistants since I don't have one. I am wondering, if you aren't too much in love with working in the print shop, if you would consider coming to work for me as my assistant. Shirley would train you and stay with you until you get the hang of everything. But once she feels you've got it down, she will only work with my grandfather's stuff and leave all my stuff for you to do."

Ethan really didn't know what to say to what Jacob just offered. He isn't in love with the job in the print shop, but figured that was the best he was going to get since he has no real skills yet to offer. Now here is Jacob offering him a better job, that won't make him sweat all through his shift. Also he has to think about Alex and Matt. They gave him the job without a second thought.

"Jacob, what you are offering me is awesome, but what about Alex and Matt? I don't want to let them down since they went on a limb to give me and my brothers a job when they heard we needed one. I feel if I take this job with you, I will be stabbing Alex and Matt in the back. That is something I don't want to do."

"Ethan, what you just said tells me I really did make the right choice in this. You are loyal. I have already talked with Alex and Matt before coming to you on this. If they would have said no or if I read in their face that they mean the opposite of what they were saying, I wouldn't have offered. It is up to you if you want to change over to the job I am offering you. You will also be making a little more than you are working in the print shop."

"If Alex and Matt are fine with it, I would be honored to be your assistant. Not for the more money, but for the experience. I don't want to be stuck doing physical work all my life so any experience I can get working in an office job, I will take it."

"Good, you start working as my assistant today. Do me favor there gorgeous, keep the women of the office working. They are going to be all over you, so beware!" Jacob started to laugh at the facial expressions Ethan made. "Don't worry, Derrick has nothing to worry about from me. I am deeply in love with my Dewayne and nothing will change that."

When they got to the office, Jacob introduced Ethan to Shirley. "Good I will teach him everything I know Jacob, I promise. What's up with the uniform? Everyone you are going to meet with today is going to think you are some big guy in the army as well here." Shirley reached over and tapped on Jacob's metals.

"It was inspection day today at school, and I didn't bring a change of clothing. Don't worry, when I take the jacket off, it won't freak people out that much. All they will see is a Hispanic looking like a pickle for the day."

Both Shirley and Ethan started to laugh. "I am sorry Jacob, I didn't mean to laugh, but that was funny, a pickle, coming from you." Ethan looked at Jacob realizing only he and Jacob understood what the look meant. "Talking about clothes, what is my dress code here? Shirley here is dressed so nice, do I need to have a suit or something?"

"Oh this old thing!!!!" Shirley brushed her dress off a couple times, turning bright red out of embarrassment. "What you have on isn't too bad to look at from where I am standing." This time Ethan turned all shades of red.

"If you guys are done flirting, let me answer your question Ethan. What you have on is just fine. If a day comes that you do need to be in a tie and dress sacks, I will let you know a couple of days in advance. I don't see that happening any time soon." Jacob turned to Shirley. "Let's get going with the meetings so we can get out of here at a decent hour, what do you say?"

Shirley agreed and walked back to the front, with Ethan right behind her. The first five meetings were with the same people from yesterday's first five meetings. The difference today is that Jacob is flying through the meetings. He understood them a lot better, which meant that he didn't spend a lot of time asking questions.

As Jacob was finishing up with his fifth meeting, Adam, Ethan's father walked in. Ethan looked up to see his father standing there. He knew why he was here because it was the subject discussed during their evening meal last night. After signing in, Adam talked a little with his son before taking a seat in the lobby.

Not even five minutes passed when Ethan saw Alex and Matt walk off the elevator. He started to freak out. So many different thoughts started to fly through his head, he couldn't think straight. When they reached the desk, they talked with Ethan as if nothing was different, which calmed Ethan down.

"It is good to see that you accepted the job from Jacob." Alex leaned over the counter of the front desk. "You are more cut out to work in the office than in a physical job. If I was you, I wouldn't want to blemish that perfect body of yours by working down in the print shop."

Ethan thanked both Alex and Matt for letting him take this job. Alex came back at Ethan that it wasn't a hard choice to make. They made it clear to Ethan that they won't hold anyone back from getting ahead. By taking the job with Jacob, he will have more chances to get ahead in life than working in the print shop. When Alex said that, it made Ethan feel really good. Still he thanked Alex once more before they walked back to Jacob's office.

Soon after Alex and Matt walked back to Jacob's office, Jacob called up and asked them to send Adam to his office. Shirley walked over to Ethan's father and escorted him back to Jacob's office. While she was gone, Ethan took care of answering the phones and signing anyone else in that arrived.

"Mr. Critchfield welcome, I am so sorry on what happened to you at the store, which is on us." Jacob got up and shook Adam's hand. "I would like you to meet Alex and Matt. They own the print shop company down on the bottom floor." Adam shook both Alex's and Matt's hand before sitting down. "We are waiting for a couple more people."

Just as Jacob said it, Dewayne, Tony and Joe walked into the office. "Okay now we have everyone present for the meeting. I would like to thank everyone for dropping what they were doing and coming in to meet with me this evening. All of us in this room know basically why this meeting has been called, since I talked with each of you.

Now I am not going to go into detail about what happened, since it involves different parts of the company. You all know the details of each of your branches, but the others don't. Nothing is discussed about each of your sections with another since the other section has no business knowing what is going in the other parts of the company. Of course there are exceptions to that, of course, and again you all know those exceptions.

With that said, I believe I have stated the obvious, which wasn't needed. Adam Critchfield here works for your Dewayne, Tony and Joe. He manages one of your Seven-Elevens. In the small amount of time he has been working for you, I understand he has shown that he could run the store without a problem."

"That is correct, and Tony, Joe and I never looked back after hiring him. He quickly learned the business and made the store profitable. What I am trying to say is that there was no loss of revenue when he took over. Normally when there is a shift in management employees walk out and sales go down, not in this case."

"Good to hear that and I am sure Alex and Matt feel the same. What I would like to do is transfer Adam from the Seven-Eleven to the print shop. Alex and Matt are the owners of the company and are running the evening shift. Owners rarely are on the ground floor management positions. For example my grandfather and I own the McDonald's, but neither of us is running a store. We run the over all picture and let the store managers, supervisors and others under us deal with the everyday, small detail stuff.

Alex and Matt came to me to see if I had anyone in the company that can be in charge of the evening shift of their print shop. At the time I didn't, but then Joe came to me and told me what had happened. So we got lucky, I know that sounds mean or odd, but it's the truth about what happened at the Seven-Eleven.

The mess up is on us and we would like to extend this position to you Mr. Critchfield. You will keep the same pay you are getting now, with the same benefits. But you won't be running a Seven-Eleven store anymore. Instead you will be in charge of the evening shift of the print shop that Alex and Matt own. What do you say Mr. Critchfield, is the job up your alley?"

Adam looked at Dewayne, Joe and Tony and then over to Alex and Matt. "I would like to take the job you two are offering to run the evening shift at your print shop. Not only you are willing to keep me at the same pay, but I get one more bonus and that is that I will be able to work once again alongside my sons. I thought I lost that opportunity when I lost the family farm, but now you are giving me a second chance at it."

"Good, I like it when things are fixed so easily. Mr. Critchfield you are now an employee of Alex and Matt, I know you are going to enjoy working for them. Thank you guys for all your help getting this done! And thank you for coming down for this meeting. I hope I didn't take up too much of your time. Go home, enjoy your evening everyone."

One by one, everyone shook each others hands and then walked out. Alex and Matt took Adam down to the print shop with them to show him around. The mean time Jacob stayed up in his office to finish the remaining scheduled meetings for the day.

As he waited for his next clients, Jacob thought how smoothly that went. All through the meeting, he was waiting for something to go wrong. Mainly for Ethan's father to jump up and say `hell no' to the changes he was putting out there, but he didn't. In fact Adam loved the changes and couldn't thank them enough.

Then the change Jacob did with Ethan popped in his head. He didn't think about how this might affect his friendship with others. They might get angry that he offered the position to Ethan, a person they barely know, over one of them. Then Jacob thought, they wouldn't, but if they do, he won't be bothered by it. In his heart and mind he knows he did the right thing. The others are only working for the spending money, so they wouldn't take the job seriously enough, whereas Ethan is working to help support his family.

TO BE CONTINUED...

I have a home page for you to see what the characters look like or what the places look like. If you want to walk in their shoes, please go to: http://jacobmillertex.wordpress.com/

WRITER'S CORNER:

{Welcome back one and all to another exciting chapter of "Jacob Finding His Way". It was another filled chapter with a lot of things going on in it. It only covered two days, but man, they were two very full days in the lives of Jacob, his friends and family.

The beginning picked up with Ethan and Derrick as it ended in the last chapter with the guys getting to know Ethan's new friend. But before Ethan went into detail on how he and Derrick met, Jacob left and ended up not going to the ROTC building. Instead he went up to the monument because of a memory he had locked away came back to him.

Let me start off first by saying what I wrote with Jacob's flash back happened, but not exactly like it was written. I wrote more into the details than Jacob, meaning me, actually ever found out. I would like to tell you that as you read that plot, remember this is a fiction story. So when I put in the true events on what happened in my life, I will write it with fictional enhancement to make it more exciting and interesting.

Back to the plots now; what did you guys think? To begin with that was something no one could imagine happening to you are to anyone close to you. This happened to my friend and I am telling you, he and his family didn't deserve that. Really no family or person deserves to go through anything like that in their lives.

This is going to be one of many new plots that I will be opening for the future plots. For sure one new character will be created off of this plot, but I won't tell you who the character is going to be. I will leave you guessing on that. Just keep reading and soon the new character will be written in.

Now we have Ethan introducing Derrick to Jacob and the guys. It looks like everyone, except Chase and Patricia, seem to have taken a liking to Derrick. You all found out a little about Derrick in this chapter, but in the future chapters you will learn a lot more about Derrick's private life, his family and how he is able to live without being able to be himself. Many of you know that is very hard to do.

Chase and Patricia didn't like Derrick. That's not because of Derrick himself, but because they see what the others don't see. The only reason the others don't see what is in front of them is that they don't know Ethan is gay. But the way Chase and Patricia handled the whole thing really messed up everything.

I like how Jacob took charge and pretty much told it how it is. We have seen in "Shadow of My Father" how a conniving girl could throw everything into a tailspin. Chase needs to wake up and fast before he loses everything and everyone. Jacob is not asking him to choose between him, the group and Patricia, but if Patricia isn't willing to do this right at the beginning, there will come a time that he will have to decide. I hope when that happens, Chase chooses his friends over a girl.

What in the world happened with the training of Adam, Ethan's father? They dropped the ball there and in return it is costing Dewayne and Tony a pretty penny in fines. To make matters worse, Adam can't take the class to get his licenses to sell tobacco and alcohol for five years. Once again they turned to Jacob, like they were instructed to do by Al, and Jacob came up with a solution to the problem.

I loved it when Adam accepted the position, but not only because he keeps his pay and benefits, but he will, once again, be working with his sons. That is very rare to find a family like that, a family that close, able to work with each other, without fighting. Remember that Ethan's family owned a family farm, so they are used to working side by side.

The election season for student council president has started. Jacob should have known that he had to make speeches to get an elected! I can't wait to see what happens there with the election campaign. How will Jacob juggle the campaign, ROTC, school work and his job all at the same time? This is going to be fun to watch.

Finally we learned that Derrick is not only gay, but has the hots for Ethan. He took the tour for the second time to be around Ethan, even when he didn't know that Ethan was gay. That is telling you something. This guy is going to be good for Ethan. Not only because he is mature, but he has already shown he is solid and is going to be there for Ethan.

There are so many running plots I didn't even touch in this chapter. Jeremy hasn't appeared I a while, but he will. Andy Jr. or Sr. haven't appeared in the last couple of chapters, but again, they will. There is a plot open there with Andy Jr. on the poor kid getting arrested. I really want to see what happens there, if anything. Plus so much more, so keep coming back for more Jacob, you won't regret it.

As always I can go on and on about the open plots in the story! If I do that, I can actually write several more chapters. There are so many plots that can take a turn at anytime. You might think it is going to go one way, but is lands up going another. Don't miss out on anything, or you will be kicking yourself for it.

There is a so much to answer in the chapters to come. Stick around and keep reading the future chapters, and enjoy! Please email me and let me know how I am doing at jacobmillertex@aol.com, Thanks!}

EDITOR'S CORNER:

I am so happy for Ethan and Derrick!  Ethan nearly got sucked in to Patricia and Chase's love triangle and he had enough forethought to realize that was nothing but trouble. Derrick found an interest in Ethan and took the time and patience to express his interest in a subtle way. Now, with Ethan's frustrations being dumped out, things moved pretty fast; jerked forward much faster than would have been expected, but it's worked out well so far.  The big questions each had have been answered and there is mutual attraction. I hope that those two find the chemistry clicks and they both find love and happiness.

Speaking of Patricia and Chase; I can't imagine how Patricia's mind is operating. It's even more incredible that Chase has allowed her to influence his life to the degree she has. I can understand Chase's ambivalence with his identity questions, but not to the point, as Jacob put it, where he's lost his balls.  Patricia really screwed up by threatening Ethan. Jacob is pissed and she's lost any and all respect in Jacob's eyes. She is now an outsider with seemingly no chance for redemption. So, she thought Jacob is a wimp.  No sooner than the statement was spoken she was proven wrong. Jacob did, in fact, react and rake both Patricia and Chase over the coals.

Once again, I'm glad that Ethan was wise enough to make a logical decision and not get into a situation where there would be nothing but pain and heartache.

Jacob's deeply buried memory from his earlier years hit him like a ton of bricks. That is so often the case when there's emotional turmoil that gets buried rather than dealt with at or near the time of the traumatic event.  I can well imagine that Jacob is going to put a concerted effort into finding out what he can about his childhood friend's fate.

Jacob is showing, once again, what a leader and problem solver he is, even as young as he is.  The debacle of Adam not being licensed to sell adult beverages and becoming unemployable at the Seven-Eleven went from being a potential setback to a fortuitous change in profession. It seemed that Adam was going to be unemployed through no fault of his own and Jacob's creative thinking has made it a winning situation. I suspect Adam will do very well as the evening manager for Alex and Matt's print shop.

Jacob is also learning and applying the art of delegation. He's tended to be very hands-on in the management of business matters. He is now seeing challenges, identifying them and then assigning the issue to those that are in the best position to take ownership of the issue and find and implement a resolution.

As JPG mentioned, there's several characters we've not heard from in awhile who each have interesting events in play. I'm anxious to catch up with them and see what those open plots will offer in the way of exciting reading!

Until next time,

"Daddy" Rick