Lawn Boy, Chapter 9
Once Ted Bachmann's attorney stopped stonewalling, there was progress in the invasion of privacy suit Perrin's lawyer had filed for Liam and him. Bachmann suddenly wanted to get it settled out of court, so he could defend himself against other possible legal charges, including possession of child pornography and misappropriation of church funds. He offered to give Perrin and Liam $25,000 each to drop it. Charles Dudley countered, on their behalf asking for $100,000 each. (He had originally asked for $200,000 apiece.) The negotiating took several days.
The guys eventually settled for $50,000 each, plus any, and all photos and/or videos which contained their images that might still be in his possession. Bachmann must assure them there were no other copies in existence, other than what the police might have confiscated, or he would be subject to further litigation.
A few days later Perrin's lawyer handed them an envelope with their checks. Those were accompanied by a sworn statement that claimed there were no other images besides the ones they had, or would receive.
The wording in Bachmann's statement about the videos seemed strange, but the guys weren't about to quibble over it because they didn't want to jeopardize the settlement. It was best to deposit the checks immediately to make sure they cleared the bank. There were rumors that Bachmann might declare bankruptcy in light of how his business was falling off, and they wanted their money safe if that happened.
"Well, it wasn't as much as we asked for, but it's better than nothing," Perrin grinned. "it was certainly worth the effort."
"That's an understatement! I don't think many people get what they sue for, and it will pay for a lot of college incidentals. If we're careful, we should be able to get through without any loans to pay off, and still end up with a nest-egg. This amounts to decades of yard-work. Wow, I'm glad you hired me to mow."
"Me too. You have so many additional skills besides cutting grass."
The next day, an envelope with no markings on it was left in Perrin's mailbox at the dorm. It contained two thumb-drives which must have been back-up copies Bachmann had kept from the police.
Perrin checked one of them out, briefly, and it looked promising. He told Liam about the treasure trove.
"We could try to reenact some of our fun times when we get the chance to look in depth at the footage dear old Ted took of us." Liam suggested, "I wonder if he captured anything that's X-rated. If we want to do this at our leisure, I'm sure my parents would welcome a visit. Can you get away?"
"Dave on fourth floor owes me for taking his weekend duty last month, so I'm sure he'll cover for me. Besides, there won't be very many guys around since most of them will go away to celebrate the end of midterms.
"I can keep my cell on if there's something I'm needed for on short notice."
Clay looked elated when he got the news that Liam would be away most of the weekend. He tried not to beam, but couldn't. Liam had a pretty good idea of what might transpire in his absence, since Clay and Garth had been as close as Siamese twins the past couple of weeks. He didn't want to pry, but it was killing him not to being able to confirm his suspicions.
He was sitting on the floor, looking for his favorite running shoes which were somewhere in the bottom of the closet, when Garth swept through the open door. Not seeing Liam, Garth closed it with his foot, causing it to slam and lock behind him. Then he grabbed Clay in a tight embrace, and the two kissed deeply. As he caught sight of Liam getting up, he realized they weren't alone.
"Oops!" he giggled. "I guess I've blown our cover."
"Hopefully you're blowing more than that," Liam quipped, raising his eyebrows.
"We were going to tell you anyway," Clay blushed. "I can't thank you and Perrin enough for helping us get together. This guy is my dream come true."
"Wet dream, I hope." Liam continued his teasing.
"How do you put up with this joker all the time?" Garth asked with an exaggerated sigh.
"It's HARD; and no, Liam, don't go there! Do NOT go there, we can picture an erection all by ourselves."
"What? Are you saying I make naughty innuendos? I'm as pure and wholesome as the driven snow."
"If it's yellow snow, where the huskies pee, I'll agree to that," Garth countered.
"Look in the mirror," Liam told him. "What happened to that innocent, adorable redhead who lives down the hall?"
"He's been corrupted, and you've helped!" Garth grinned.
"Awesome!" Liam shouted, as they high-fived.
"Okay, what's going on in there? Open up!" Perrin laughed as he rapped on the locked door.
"My suspicions were correct," Liam answered, opening it. "Meet the latest campus couple!"
"Congratulations!" Perrin bowed. "I wish you a long and sexful relationship."
"You're as bad as Liam. I'm not sure `sexful' is even a word," Garth frowned.
"Get the dictionary and I'll pencil it in," Clay snickered.
"Considering your newly-announced romance, I think I'll sleep next door tonight and move our schedule up by a day," Liam said.
"My horn-dog roommate will be thrilled," Garth smiled. "I'll go tell Thad he can screw his dick off all weekend, and I'll bring my stuff back and bunk here tonight, um, if that's alright with you, Clay."
"Go get your stuff, Stud, and be quick about it!"
Liam stayed in Perrin's room on Friday night, but instead of getting naked right away, they spent time watching the images they'd received from Bachmann through his lawyer.
The footage began with them undressing and cannon-balling into the water. This had evidently been taken early in their relationship before they had progressed to mutual sex-play. Watching it, they couldn't deny that there was a lot of flirting going on back when they were trying not to be obvious about it.
The screen went black a few seconds, but lit up again with a more erotic scene. This had evidently been taken on the day of their photo-shoot when they started off with shots of their dicks peeking out of their running shorts, and ended up exploring oral sex for the first time.
"Wow!" Perrin exclaimed. "At least one of those cameras must have been installed before we knew anything about it. I'm really glad to have this record of our playtime. It's like quality porn with us as the stars! But it does make me wonder how much Bachmann told my father. It's not that I give a rat's ass anymore, but our privacy was violated to a much greater degree than I'd ever guessed."
"If it matters, I doubt that he shared this with anyone. Like we speculated before, he might have planned to coerce you into granting him, um, sexual favors to buy his silence. If he had told your father, he would have lost his trump-card."
"Seeing those few seconds of us relaxing after our orgasms, I realize that's the time my father called almost immediately after we'd finished. He was extolling the virtues of Naomi Bachmann right after her father's camera captured us making love. If Ted were planning to blackmail me for sex, how creepy is that? What kind of kinky triangle would that have been? Imagine dating the daughter of the guy who was blowing you."
"It's way too icky to comprehend!"
"Would you like to reenact our first oral experience?"
"Yeah, let's do it!"
Liam and Perrin made out for a few minutes, and had just freed each other of their shirts when there was a sharp knock on the door. Reluctantly, Perrin answered it.
"What's up, Austin?" he said, opening the door.
"Mike's girlfriend showed up, and they told me I had to leave. I said I pay as much rent for the room as he does, but they pushed me out and locked the door!"
"Okay, I'll come down to settle it. Was this a prearranged date or anything, or did they just spring this on you now?"
"I had no warning. I've been considerate and crashed elsewhere when I knew in advance. I've bent over backwards to keep the peace."
Perrin rapped on the door, but there was no answer. He tried again.
"Mike, this is Perrin, your RA. If you don't open this door, I'll use my pass card and come in. That's within my rights."
There were sounds of scrambling around before the boxer-clad freshman opened the door a crack. It was just enough that Perrin could see a figure in one of the beds, though a sheet made it impossible to identify the occupant.
"Austin, you're a rat! You know what happens to rats?"
"Michael Pierce, don't even think of threatening Austin. This is his room as much as yours. You've broken several rules already this fall. If you try to intimidate him in any way, I'll have you up before Dean Harwood for disciplinary action. Is that understood?"
Instead of answering, Mike stood there looking daggers.
"Okay, you don't want to answer me, but I'm giving you a choice. Either you take your date elsewhere, or I'll call campus security to have you removed."
"You can't do that; go fuck yourself!" Mike yelled as he slammed the door and locked it again. This time, he wedged a chair under the doorknob.
Perrin placed the call before the echo of the banging door completely died away.
When Mike and the girl came out of the room 15 minutes later, they were confronted by two university officers, Mark Truax and Sara Smith. She produced a breathalyzer from her messenger bag.
"I can smell the booze on your breath. Drinking in the dorms is strictly prohibited, so you're in trouble," Sara said.
"I refuse to take the test; my parents will sue!"
"That's okay. Because we detected the smell, we have reasonable cause to search your room for liquor anyway."
"I'll swear you planted it?" Mike sneered.
"Son, we have our body cameras on. It's futile, as well as stupid, to make such threats."
The campus officers were soon joined by a pair of city cops who had been on patrol nearby, and had responded to their request. They didn't coddle Mike, but put cuffs on him when he resisted, and took him to the station. The girl went with them without needing to be restrained.
"What's gonna happen when he comes back?" Austin asked, fearing for his property as well as his well-being.
"Even though he's 18, his parents will probably be meeting with the dean to review the list of his `indiscretions,' and he may well be expelled. Whatever happens, you can move to the room down the hall that just opened up Monday when Bart dropped out. It's currently a single, but I'm sure they'll cut you a deal for the rest of the semester, given the circumstances."
"Thanks! Can I take enough stuff to sleep there this weekend in case he comes back looking for revenge?"
"Sure, let me get the key-card. You can move in completely if you want."
By the time everything calmed down, it was late. Perrin and Liam went back to the RA quarters and contented themselves with cuddling in bed. Their romantic mood was spoiled enough that they decided to wait until Saturday to emulate the video of their first oral sex experience.
On Saturday, the pair went to Liam's house for dinner, where they would spend the night together. He knew his family wouldn't disturb them for anything short of an emergency, so they would have the privacy they needed.
Cindy and Loren made a special meal for the family that night, and Kellan greeted them warmly. He had considered teasing about his family favoring Liam over him, but decided against it. He knew his parents would treat his girlfriend or boyfriend with the same courtesy if he had one. Besides, he was benefiting from the delicious food as much as anyone else.
He spent awhile hanging around with Liam and Perrin after they helped put the kitchen back in order. The three of them always hit it off well.
While they were shooting the bull, Perrin received a text from his sister's phone, an unusual event, since he'd not had any contact with his family after his father's public rant that essentially outed him to the world.
The phone was hers, but the message was evidently from his brother. Max asked to be included in their Sunday afternoon run on the trail. After consulting with Liam, Perrin texted back that they were eager for him to join them, and they would bring Kellan along and make it a foursome.
Once they were alone at last, Liam and Perrin put on their split-side running shorts and nothing else. Then they watched the video of their photo-shoot again, and fooled around enough to make their trouser-snakes peek out below the hems. This was a short version of how their libidos had heated up on that Sunday they'd been caught on camera.
The progression to oral sex took place rapidly, and soon they were nursing one another toward an awesome climax. Someday, they would practice slowing down and keeping each other on edge for long periods of time, but tonight they couldn't wait. With moans and gasps, they produced gushers, none of which went to waste.
Back in the dorm, Clay and Garth were sharing their bodies, but in a less sophisticated manner. After showering, they lay nude on the futon which Garth had made up with the bedding Liam had provided.
Because of their inexperience, simply making out was a big adventure for them. They were too shy to hold hands in public, or come out to anyone who didn't know about them already. Being naked was a thrill shot with adrenalin!
Their foreplay ended in mutual masturbation which was as far as they had ever gone. It might not have satisfied a jaded thirty-something, but to them it was pure bliss. As they came down from their high, they spent a long time sharing their secrets, hopes, and dreams.
Garth told how his shyness had sometimes led to being picked on in middle school. Luckily, his father had intervened and sent him to a martial arts school which helped him learn to defend himself.
On entering high school, his life got better. Most of the kids there left him alone, although some of them suspected he might be gay. Toward the middle of his freshman year, a transfer student started to verbally harass him daily. Garth still tried not to let it get to him, and didn't retaliate.
Then one day, the bully tried to shut him inside a locker. Garth's training kicked in, and he sent the kid to the floor where his head hit with a resounding thud. The boy was taken to the emergency room with a concussion. Garth figured he was in serious trouble for fighting, but he also knew his father believed in him and would intervene if necessary. He was required to go to the office and tell his side of the encounter.
When the principal found that the surveillance camera backed his story 100%, he was in the clear. After that, the other boy left him alone, and he gained a good measure of street-cred as a result.
However, he had heard a bunch of false rumors about what happened to gay boys living in some of the residence halls at the university, and had lived in fear when it was time to move in. That accounted for his emotional upheaval his first night on campus. After meeting Perrin, Liam, and Clay, those fears had been allayed. He was beginning to feel safe enough to come out to everyone.
Clay, in turn, related some of the animosity between his step-father and him. The man had no children of his own, and he wasn't cut out to be a nurturing parent. He expected strict, no-questions-asked obedience from Clay. Clay wasn't used to that, because he'd been treated with respect, almost like a peer by his biological father.
His father had died while serving in the Middle East a few years ago, and left Clay's mother well-off financially. She was still attractive as well as being moderately wealthy. Clay was certain that his stepfather, Richard, was interested in her money even more than her looks. Richard resented the baggage (her son) that came with the deal. He did everything he could to alienate Clay, hoping he would run away and cease to be a rival for his wife's attention.
"I feel like I don't have any family anymore," he sniffed, at the end of his revelation.
"Hey, you have me," Garth insisted.
"Yeah, but we're not really related."
"We can be someday, if you still like me enough."
"Really? You'd consider spending your life with a loser?"
"Nope, but I'd like to spend my life with you, not some loser."
"So, I'm more than someone to get you off?"
"Well, duh, couldn't you tell? Don't you feel anything for me?"
"Of course, I do! You mean the world to me. I'm just so afraid that if I get attached to someone they'll die or something. I lost my father."
"Anything can happen, but I'm not in a war-zone like your dad was, and I'm likely to live to a ripe old age. You can't go around being afraid," Garth insisted, conveniently forgetting his own panic attack his first night on campus. "I learned that in high school. You gotta live your life to the fullest!"
"Okay, I'll try. If I'm gonna do that, I'd like to start by licking your dick, unless you find that gross," Clay confided.
"I found a site with a lot of pix of guys doing it, and it made me hot! I think I'd like to try it too," Garth grinned, impishly.
Before they went to sleep on Saturday night, they had explored the joys of oral sex, and found them to their liking. Cum would become a new favorite flavor.
Liam and Perrin woke up still glowing from the previous night's experience. They lovingly washed one another in the shower before dressing for church. Their smiles rarely left their faces for the entire day.
In the afternoon, they put on their usual running attire and took Kellan with them. They rode in Liam's pickup because Perrin was a bit leery about what lay ahead, and figured he'd be harder to spot in the truck than in his sporty convertible.
What if Max's text had been something cooked up by his father? Perrin still felt paranoid at times, though he had no proof that anything sinister was going on.
When the guys exited Liam's vehicle at the appointed place, Max ran over to embrace his brother. No one else was in sight.
"Thanks for letting me come," he said with emotion. "Our beloved father is at a board meeting all afternoon and Mom is in bed with a migraine, so I won't be missed. He's taken away my phone because he suspects you and I are going to communicate. So, Pennie let me use hers. She's beginning to see what he's like, and is resisting him too, but in a passive way so she won't lose her privileges. I think Mom may come around to our way of thinking eventually. Grandma Flo and she have been communicating a lot."
"So, what's up with the big board meeting?"
"The elders are questioning his unfaltering support of Ted Bachmann, in light of the growing charges against him. They feel it will tarnish the reputation of the church if its senior pastor backs a pervert.
"They're also checking into his financial dealings. There's a backlash against him over the money we spent on high-end lodgings in Europe without any saved-souls to justify the expenditures. I'll bet the Reverend Prichard will be looking for another job before long.
"He won't likely go to jail for misappropriating funds because an elder, besides Bachmann, signed off on the money he used, but the church can vote him out for over-spending regardless."
"I don't wish him any luck, but I'd hate to see you move away or end up poor."
"Not to worry; Grandma told me I can live with her if it comes to that. Pennie and Mom can come too, if they agree to separate from our father. I don't know that Grandma would let him starve on the street, but he'd be on a diet of crow if she did give him any aid. He'd be better off facing hunger than her wrath!"
The guys didn't waste any more breath discussing their parents until they took a break. Even then, the conversations were more between Perrin and Liam as a pair, and Max and Kellan as new acquaintances. The two high school boys took an immediate liking to each other, and found they had several things in common.
At the end of their run, they dropped Max a block from his home so he could work up a sweat and pretend he'd been running in the neighborhood. His father would have had a fit had he known his sons spent the afternoon together.
As it turned out, his father got home later than he did. Max had showered and dressed, and Peter was too agitated over the board meeting to inquire about his affairs. Max took that as a heaven-sent blessing.
When Liam and Perrin brought Kellan home, their family persuaded them to stay for hamburgers on the grill. It sounded a whole lot better than reheated leftovers in the cafeteria that was often the main fare on the weekend.
Eventually, the guys returned to Donley Hall.
Liam grinned as he entered his room. It wasn't locked, and the door had been left ajar. Garth and Clay were sitting on the futon watching something on Clay's laptop, but paying more attention to each other than whatever the entertainment was. They were holding hands, and made no attempt to disguise the fact.
"Well, did you have fun?" Liam asked.
"Yup!" they answered in chorus.
"We would ask you the same, but it shows," Clay teased.
"I'm sure it does," Liam admitted. "You'll have to excuse me because I need to put our RA to bed."
With those words, he left, and didn't come back until after Garth had gone, and Clay was about half asleep.
Author's notes: Thanks to everyone who emailed about chapter 8 despite the holidays. Here's the list: Tim T, Geoff S, Skip M, Max P, Jim W, Frank K, Ott H, Wayne, Paul R, Bill T, Jay S, Walt Sz, Randy, McC, Mendy D, Tony C, Dave F, Joe W, Charles G, Neville E, Steve C, Puppy W, Al B, Tyler, Tom A, Gordon, JLF, John W, Zack R, Eric F, Ryan H, Hotrod, Bill DeW, Paul F, and Jeff M.
I also got positive feedback about Christmas Tale 2 which was a continuation of a story from several years ago.
Thanks to David for editing. If you find errors, it's probably because I tend to make changes last-minute.
Thanks to Nifty for providing this venue.
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Happy New Year!
David