Robbie and Tommy

HOLA PEEPS! WHAT UP??

Haven't had much energy to put words on paper this year with COVID and everything so I hope you forgive me xx

Hope you enjoy this one. If I get good feedback I'll start writing the second chapter immediately LOL.

liciousryan@gmail.com Stay safe, you guys. Ryan

ROBBIE AND TOMMY CHAPTER ONE

"Oh come on, don't be such a wuss! Look, if you wanna be in with the big boys there are some stuff you're gonna have to do and that's just the fucking way it is!"

Robbie closed his eyes in sheer morbid exhaustion. What the hell was he thinking coming here today when he could have been home watching Pokémon or literally be doing anything else that was he was forced to be dealing with right at this moment and time.

All his own stupid fault, that he knew. But he was so damn desperate just to make any kind of friend in this god forsaken new town that he and his father were forced to move to, all because said father than gotten the one big promotion that had taken the big man years to achieve. Robbie sighed. His dad fully deserved that title he now had at this job, and it wasn't his fault that he struggled to make friends. Robbie, that is.

Another sigh escaped his lips. He dared to sneak a look over towards Jack and Nathan. Two of the biggest bullies he had ever met in his entire twelve-year-old life. More than, they were borderline cruel even for being so young. Jack Mason, the leader of the pack was already thirteen and it showed...he looked more like a Highschool senior than a kid that had not yet graduated from Junior High. Unfortunately, the bigger the bullies were, the more popular they seemed to be in school. Every boy in their grade wanted to be Jack's friend. The sheer honor of being recognized as one of his cronies was more than appetizing to a twelve-year-old that was typically a loner.

So, when Jack and Nathan and a bunch of the boys from school invited Robbie out with them, he couldn't really say no. His father, who was feeling the guilt of the move and with Robbie having to leave what little friends he had behind in their old neighborhood, was the main pusher at his son getting out and enjoying some much-needed sunshine. If only he knew who his son was dealing with...

"Robbie? Yo, peanut brain! I'm talking to you!"

Robbie snapped out of his trance and focused on Jack's handsome face, while they were waiting for their...sigh...their victim of the day to show his face.

"I'm listening, dude," Robbie answered, wiping the sweat out of his eyes on this particularly scorching hot afternoon.

"Okay, now this fucker has been wanting to have a piece of me for months. If my dad has to hear one more time how I'm a fucking "bully" and how I need to be treated, then I'm really gonna lose it. Now, he won't dare go anywhere alone with me, that I can promise you. Fucker is way too afraid, but he's not too afraid to rat out my ass to the principal! So, you tell him that you wanna invite him over to your house for whatever sorta reason, I don't even care what you tell him. Just make it fucking believable okay, Tommy Barker is not fucking stupid."

That has to be the most times that Robbie has ever heard the word "fuck" being spoken in the same sentence...nervously, he swallowed. He knew that their had to be a catch by Jack and Nathan wanted him with them today. He just KNEW it. Kids like them simply don't mix with kids like him. FUCK! Robbie looked down at his hands. They were sweating buckets and not just because of the sheer colossal heat they were feeling.

If he heard Jack correctly, he would have to lie to Tommy Barker, one of the more...shall we say...gentler boys in their class and get him to come along with him somewhere. And the way Jack and Nathan were smiling and rubbing their fists together, he knew they weren't just excited for the afternoon. They were planning something, as true as the sky was blue.

Robbie blinked as they approached what he assumed has to be Tommy's house. He could understand why Jack and Nathan was feeling so aggressive towards the kid, even in the short time Robbie had been at Normington Junior High, he had winced every time Tommy stood up and ran to the teachers when he was being bullied. That NEVER worked! Even Robbie knew that. That only egged on said bullies even more! The school had a strict no bullying policy and the principal was air tight when it came to tackling the matter.

He shuddered to think the amount of times Jack had gotten into trouble with his father over complaints of bullying and no wonder he had it in for Tommy. Which is exactly what was going on today and exactly why Jack was forcing him into coaxing Tommy out of his house. Jack was right, Tommy would never ever suspect Robbie of wanting to hurt him, and therefore was the perfect candidate to make their revenge happen. Man...

"There he is. The fucking faggot..." Jack whispered as the three boys saw Tommy and what had to be his dad enter the outside in their small front garden. They certainly didn't have a huge double story house like Robbie did, but everything was neat and tidy. It looked like they were perfectly made up with what they had. Even their car looked second hand. Tommy's father lovingly smiled at his son and leaned down to hug him before getting in the car and driving off, once more having to his son as he drove past the house and away into the distance of the street.

"There you go! Now's our chance! You get him out of his house and over here. Nathan and I will be waiting. And then...THEN, you are gonna help us teach that tattletale a lesson his faggot ass will never forget..." Jack snickered and Robbie could actually smell his breath as he did so. It was warm and rank, to say the very least.

Suddenly Robbie felt an emotion go through him that he didn't expect or understand. He felt sorry for Tommy and what was about to happen. Jack looked ready to kill. Well, probably not kill. But he did look pretty menacing and his fist was pulled tightly to his palms. Fear and fright dashed through Robbie like a hot knife through butter.

This was wrong. Oh my GOD, this was wrong. No...what the hell were they gonna do to Tommy? Was he so desperate to just have any sort of friends that he would willingly lead another person to be beaten up and hurt?

"Jesus Christ, Jack, he's fucking worrying me now. Just look at him. He doesn't wanna do it anymore," Nathan sneered as his buddy turned towards Robbie with a look of confusion on his face.

"Robbie? What the hell, man?" Jack thundered in a rough whisper and Robbie felt ice cold chills overpower him as he suddenly felt what had to be Nathan's hand on the back of his neck. It was clamped down shut and hard...forcing Robbie to stumble forward and almost lose his balance.

"I can't do it, guys. You're gonna do stuff to him and its all gonna be my fault! Just lemme go, please! I swear, I really swear I won't tell anyone about any of this, please! Just lemme go!" Robbie hissed in sheer urgency. All he wanted now was to get the hell outta there and back to his house. What he wouldn't give to be given chores by his dad right now, my god!

Jack's eyes narrowed as he heard what Robbie said and he could see Nathan still staring at him what a look that could only be described as total disgust.

"You're one of them? You're really telling me you're a sissy? A fucking faggot? You really too scared, too afraid to go and knock on somebody's fucking door and tell them a white lie? And here I was telling everyone at school to lay off on you because I thought, okay, the kid is new, lets give him a chance! You go, and you go over there now. Like, right now. You get him out here in the street and all the way to us, or I'm gonna really do something that I'm gonna get in the shit for. Believe me, I've had it with my dad using me as his fucking punching bag! Every single time that little punk snitched on me and I had to take the hits..."

Jack suddenly stopped talking and he was blood red in his cheeks. He looked over at a shocked Nathan and then back at Robbie. He knew he had said too much, that Robbie could immediately see reflected inside the older boy's eyes.

Jesus. No wonder he hated Tommy so damn much. If Jack was this horrible person Robbie could still feel sorry for him, but just as soon as the human decency inside Jack's eyes appeared for that brief moment, just as soon it was gone and replaced with a sheer determined exterior.

"You don't understand. He needs to pay!" Jack whispered once more and all too soon Nathan nodded in total agreement.

Maybe it was the fact that Robbie had never experienced threats of this kind ever in his young life before or was it that he still somewhere, deep inside his twelve-year-old heart yearned and ached to finally fit in SOMEWHERE, that he, as if in a trance, looked back at Jack and Nathan, and with a zombie like stare, nodded as if in hypnosis.

"I'll do it."

Jack fist bumped Nathan and then smilingly, held said fist out towards Robbie.

"That's my dude..." Jack whispered ominously.

**

Shivers ran down Robbie's spine. Safe to say that was not his only body part of his that felt like running at that moment and time.

Walking towards Tommy's house felt like hours, when in reality it was only about two minutes to the front door. He had to. God knows what Jack and Nathan was going to do to him if he chickened out.

And how...was it simply a name to call him or did Jack know the truth...calling Robbie a faggot was the final straw. He knew what he was. He knew how he felt when he noticed some of the boys in his class. And sadly...Jack in particular. Every time at school when they would have PE and seeing Jack remove his shirt...it was like Japanese torture. Not only was Robbie probably, in his naïve mind, gay...but if what he felt was real, then he was in love with the biggest bully that Normington Junior High had ever seen.

HE had to do this. He knew what happened to kids who were enemies of Jack Mason.

Geez.

Please...if there was anyone up there listening...please don't let Jack and Nathan hurt Tommy too badly...

**

He pressed the doorbell and he could hear it ringing inside of the small, economic home that Tommy and his dad lived in. He immediately heard footsteps coming ever closer to the door and then suddenly and abruptly, they seemed to stop. Seconds passed. There was nothing but a deadly silence.

WALK AWAY...a small voice at the back his was mind told him.

"Who is it?"

Robbie immediately recognized Tommy's voice on the other side of the door and his heart rate immediately increased. He dared look back at where he knew Jack and Nathan was waiting for him to lure Tommy to.

Jesus. Just DO it!

"Hey...uh...Tommy? Its Robbie. Robbie, from school?"

"Oh. Yeah, I know who you are. What do you want?"

Wow. The kid was obviously not used to getting friends to come over if this was the kind of treatment, he gave someone he saw at school every day.

Robbie took a deep breath. He can do this. Fuck yeah, he can. Its scary, just how much he sounded like Jack at that point.

"I was wondering if you would wanna come over to my house. We have a pool and everything and I have my Nintendo DS. If you want, we can hang out. I mean, I haven't made any friends yet and you're like my neighbor if you think about it..."

Neighbor? Where did that come from? This house was more like two streets away from where Robbie lived! The nerves were getting the best of him. Pull yourself together...he thought with a slow swallow.

The door opened quietly and Robbie's eyes quickly diverted forward. There he was. The boy he was supposed to basically pimp out to two bullies in a couple of minutes time. Tommy Barker. Sigh. In a way Robbie could understand why the kid was such a massive target for someone like Jack. He was skinny as hell, he wore braces in his teeth, his blond hair was neatly combed in an old fashioned style from the fucking 90's, he had glasses across his eyes that looked more like goggles and he was wearing a Back to the Future t-shirt. That movie was like so ancient and still...man, oh man...Robbie flinched knowing that he had to do, but he had to. He had to pull through. Jack was already thinking what he was so desperately trying to hide. No. No. He had to. There was simply no other choice.

"Wanna come over? Couldn't hurt," Robbie said.

Yeah. Right. What a way to play with words.

Tommy frowned and straightened his glasses, as if he was trying to actually see who was speaking to him. Robbie sighed. What was this guy even thinking? This was 2017 for gods' sake. Didn't he know that looking and dressing like this and running to a teacher for every damn little thing was going to backfire on him...Robbie didn't even realize that he was trying to rectify was he was about to do. He was trying to subconsciously tell himself that Tommy earned his beating. That he was entitled to it. Maybe...maybe if he could tell himself that over and over, then MAYBE he would not feel as guilty as he really did.

Tommy scratched his blond hair and frowned at his words, however.

"Why? We haven't even spoken once ever since you came into the school. And I saw you hang out with Nathan Johnson the other day. What's really going on here?"

Shit. That he didn't expect. The kid was smart as hell, clearly.

"Okay, dude. Whatever. I was trying to be a friend, but you clearly don't want some..."

"Okay! Okay...look, I'm sorry. I'm not...I don't have many...I'll just get my phone. Wait for me outside."

It seemed like ages to Robbie having to wait for Tommy to return when in reality it was merely a minute or so. Armed with his phone, Tommy gave Robbie a shy sort of smile and the two twelve-year-old boys, were on their way. For the first few minutes there was a sort of uncomfortable silence before Tommy turned towards Robbie.

"Sorry I was being such a dick. It's just...Jack and Nathan, they are literally the scum of the earth and they won't stop when it comes to me. I don't know what to do anymore. My dad simply doesn't have the money to take me out of school into somewhere else. Its not like Jack or Nathan actually listen to anyone either. Can you believe Nathan's dad actually told my dad that I was too much of a softy and that his son was just messing around? And that I should learn to act like a boy and not a girl? I'm sorry. I don't really know why I'm telling you all of this. I just had enough of bullies. They are just gonna have to do what they want to with me from now on, I'm not even gonna do anything anymore. I'm so done fighting. Its useless any way, they always get away with their crap...oh shit..."

Robbie turned his head to where Tommy was looking...as if he didn't know...as if inside a dream, he saw the smiling, nasty, evil grins on both Jack and Nathan's faces as they came ever closer from where they had been hiding. Jack was actually rubbing his fists together as he came face to face with Tommy, who at that moment lost all color his face still had.

"Life is good. So good..." jack whispered, menacingly.

"Robbie...?" Tommy whispered, and he made a desperate lunge to get away but Nathan was quicker onto him that a fish out of water.

"You're going nowhere, you fucking goody two shoes freak! Always making troubles for us, always being a little damn snitch! Always telling on us and always ruining our lives! You're NEVER...ever going to tell on anyone ever again, you got that? ANSWER ME!"

Saliva spat from Nathan's angry gob onto Tommy who stood there like a statue. He was literally too scared to move.

"Robbie..." he pleaded once more.

"Robbbeeeee" Jack taunted Tommy and pushed him violently to the ground.

Immediately he gasped for breath and gave a frightened shriek as his arm was now bleeding, a deep gash from where he had fallen on the hard black tar. His eyes were as white as snow as the red liquid started to pour from the wound and he tried frantically to get up only to be pushed back down again by Nathan.

By now he was like a scared little mouse, and holy mother of God...Robbie just stood there. He knew...he knew he was supposed to DO something...anything, at least TRY and stop what was happening. But he couldn't. if he did...he would be getting the exact same treatment by these two trolls. He caused this. He...he actually LED Tommy to this.

Jack laughed maniacally as he slapped Tommy's glasses off of him and from there on the beforementioned boy was as blind as a bat. He scurried around, bloodied arm and all, only for Nathan to pick up said glasses and he was swinging it around his finger.

That was it.

Robbie couldn't take it anymore.

He literally felt sick to his stomach knowing he had caused all of this; he couldn't bare watching. Like a coward, he ran away as fast as his legs could possibly carry him. Neither Jack nor Nathan tried to stop him, as their beef clearly wasn't with him. When he reached the end of the road, he suddenly stopped, and he slowly turned back.

Terrified of what he would see, there was no sign of Jack and Nathan. Robbie squinted, my god, he was so far away. He could faintly make out that there was someone on the ground, laying down in the fetal position. and that person wasn't moving as far as he could see.

"Jesus. What have I done?" Robbie cried out softly, a tear escaping his eye and dripping down on his sweaty and disheveled cheek. Another one followed, followed by one more, and then the flooding gates opened.

Robbie turned around and ran home. Anywhere, was better right now, than being around here. The last image he remembered that night before he went to sleep that very night, eventually that is, was that of a twelve year old boy, who HE helped beat up.

He did this. Tommy did nothing to him, ever. But he was too much of a coward to stand UP to Jack and Nathan and even TRY and stop what they did.

THAT, was what hurt more than anything they possibly could have done to him.

HE DIDN'T EVEN TRY.

**

Tommy Barker wasn't at school the following day.

And not the next day either.

Eventually, about three days after the attack happened, their sixth-grade teacher was forced to come clean to the class and tell them that Tommy was, in fact, missing.

Robbie froze immediately at his desk where he was sitting down.

MISSING?

He knew he had seen someone laying on the tarred road before he sped off home on the day of the attack...so where was Tommy now? Jesus, what the fuck did Jack and Nathan do to Tommy after he had ran away from the scene?

Two more days followed until it was Friday, and it was time for the weekly school assembly. The principal looked incredibly tired and very emotional as he told the entire school that twelve-year-old Tommy Barker had simply disappeared and no one, not even his own father, had any idea of where he is.

Tommy's father himself then rose to the podium and addressed the students. He pleaded with them all, that if Tommy contacted anyone or if anyone managed to hear from him or even more importantly, had any information on his whereabouts to please come forward.

It was like that little irritating voice inside Robbie's mind told him to look to his left and rightly so...Jack and Nathan were giving him daggers as Tommy's father spoke his peace. Jack slowly lifted his finger, so that no one would see anything unless they REALLY paid attention, and placed it on his lips, a sure-fire way of telling Robbie that he needed to stay quiet.

**

"What the hell did you guys do to him?" Robbie hissed to Nathan as he found the boy smoking outside of school that same Friday afternoon. Nathan looked around quickly, and they were alone for the most part, just a couple of kids still waiting for their parents to come and pick them up. He walked over to Robbie slowly and placed his arm around the latter's neck. Of anyone would have looked, it would have seemed like a friendly gesture by Nathan, but it was anything but. The grip on Robbie's neck hardened until the boy's eyes were actually watering.

"I don't know what you're talking about. And if you know what's good for you, neither do you..." Nathan whispered before finally releasing Robbie. The two boys glared at each other, both in sheer distain.

"I gotta tell Tommy's dad. I have to. You guys said you were gonna teach him a lesson, well congrats, now he's fucking missing!" Robbie lurched over to Nathan.

Where he was getting the guts to talk to Nathan this way, he'd never know.

Nathan spat out the bubblegum he was chewing.

"SHUT UP! When we left him there, he was still fucking there! And very much alive, if you're wondering about that. What do you think we did? Kill the fucker? Kidnap him? We just roughed him up a little and then we left him there! Got it? I don't know where the fuck he is!"

**

Days, eventually became a week.

A week became a month.

And unfortunately, months became years.

Tommy Barker was missing, and he stayed missing.

In the coming years, there was so many chances Robbie had to tell someone.

Tommy's father, the cops, his own dad...and he chickened out each and every time.

Over the years, Nathan had eventually dropped Jack as one of his friends as he grew out of his rebellious ways and became a serious student. Robbie and he still would talk sometimes but neither had the guts to bring up the one secret that would forever bind them. Tommy Barker.

As for Jack, well...he stayed on the wide and evil path well into his high school years. Arrested for arson when he was fifteen and sent to reformatory school for two years did nothing to even slow the evil and the sheer hate for people that boy carried inside of him.

And it was nearly to the day, five full years after that terrible afternoon that Tommy Barker was last seen alive, that Robbie entered the school bathrooms and heard somebody crying. It had to be a boy...of course, but...oh geez...

Robbie's heart sank as he saw who it was. The boy who was letting out such horrific, ghastly noises as he cried his heart out...it was Nathan.

Robbie's first notion was to get the heck out of there, but in his heart, he knew he couldn't do this a second time. He couldn't leave someone in obvious desperate need for help, like he did with Tommy five years ago. This time, he wasn't gonna me a coward and run away.

"Nathan?"

Nathan looked up and smiled gleefully, before wiping his eyes and sniffing a couple of times and ran his hand through his hair.

"Dude...oh my god...you're like the last person I wanted to see me like this. Oh man. Probably tell the whole world that Nathan Johnson was bawling his eyes out in the toilets, are you? Serves me right to think that I could forget what happened all those years ago..."

Robbie slowly walked forward and stood next to the boy who he was so afraid of back then...on that terrible day that his same boy and Jack Mason forced him against his will to trick Tommy Barker so that they could beat him up. The same guilty feelings that he had always seen in his own reflection now simply seem to sprout out of Nathan's wet blue eyes.

"You don't think that I don't remember as well? Every year, around his time, it gets even worse. I keep thinking, I should have said no, but knowing Jack, he probably would have just found someone else to do his dirty work," Robbie said quietly as Nathan once more wiped his eyes.

"I swear, Robbie. I swear I was telling you the truth. I swear we left him there, on the road, and yes, it was a dick thing to do but I swear to you, he was alive. He was there, actually there. We didn't do anything to him. I think the point where I actually asked Jack if he had Tommy kidnapped, is where me and him began to fall out and our friendship was fucked. I had to ask, Jesus, Jack hated Tommy so much. I really don't know what happened to him."

Together the two boys stood there in unison. Together in memory of what they had shared five years ago.

Robbie jumped as Nathan's hand found his.

Nathan sighed heavily the moment that there fingers touched in a curling embrace.

"What...what the hell are you doing?" Robbie whispered, perhaps even scared enough to actually do so. This was Nathan Johnson...and Nathan Johnson wasn't known for holding boy's hands...

"I...I wanted to do that ever since I ever saw you..."

Angrily, Robbie yanked his hand from Nathan's.

"Are you kidding me right now? Do you know many times did you call me a faggot? Do you know how many times I fell asleep crying because of it? And now this? Really, Nathan?"

"YES! YES!"

Nathan's voice echoed around the tiled bathroom area. His eyes flashed an angry red as he bawled his fists and slammed both against the wall in sheer exhaustion.

"YES! But because my best friend was the biggest fucking homophobe I had ever met, I had to stay quiet. I had to act like I was like him. Jack was so many things, he was a total jackass to people, but at least he had people's respect. They feared him. I wanted to be accepted, but I couldn't be, knowing what I was. How I fucking FELT! And then you came to the school, and dude...I swear I went home that afternoon and I jacked off about three times thinking about you. I couldn't say anything...I couldn't do anything."

Nathan stopped for a moment to take a breather. Robbie was stunned into sheer disbelief. Nathan. Nathan Fucking Johnson...had a crush on HIM? No damn way, this was surely some kind of weird dream that he was going to wake up from any minute now...but still, Nathan rambled on.

"And then...I saw you. You probably didn't think anyone saw, but I did. I was always checking you out as much as I could, so I knew what that look in your eyes was every time you saw Jack. Let's face it, he was a hell of a sexy guy even at thirteen, and probably still is, where ever he is. That hurt, you know? Knowing that you were the same as me, felt the same as me, but for Jack! And dude, I couldn't say anything! Jack would have treated me the same as all the nerds he terrorized! Its too late now anyway. Amd Tommy. I swear, I didn't wanna hurt him. I don't know why I did. But I swear. You gotta believe me. I swear, I didn't do anything to him."

For the first time in Robbie's seventeen years, he actually believed Nathan. He could see the desperation in his eyes. Nathan was telling the truth. He really had no idea where Tommy was. Or what had become of him. There was no way to know either. He was just...gone.

For the life of him, Robbie would never know why he did, what he did, next.

With a fierce, determined expression on his face, the likes it had never seen before, he took Nathan's still wet cheeks inside both of his hands. He never really noticed Nathan as a sexual being...even after all these years and after everything that happened...it was always Jack. But now...here was someone who knew EXACTLY how he felt. Who went through the SAME things that he has? Who can make all of this...simply go away.

Even if just for a moment.

Whose eyes widened enormously as he saw Robbie's lips etch ever so closer to his until it touched the very being of his soul.

Both seventeen-year-old boys eyes closed and they gasped for breath inside each other's mouths. The first time they had ever kissed another male...and it was perfection. Nathan reached upwards with one hesitant hand and gently placed it on Robbie's face and caressed the soft skin of the boy he used to torment as a child. Robbie's fingers were entangled inside Nathans's hair as the two made out fiercely, it was like a lion cub tasting red meat for the first time. It was like neither one of the boys was prepared to pull away first, it was so crazy ass insane, a happening which would never have happened five years before.

The moment that Robbie smiled within the kiss and slowly allowed their lips to separate, there was a smile on his face a genuine smile, that he didn't have to fake, for the first time since that horrible afternoon.

"Fuuuuck...dude...what just HAPPENED..." he heard Nathan sigh and he held the boy closer.

"Nothing. Just go with it," Robbie said and kissed Nathan one more time.

**

"Have you seen the new kid?"

Robbie sighed.

All he had been hearing was about the new kid in school the whole damn day and all he wanted to for the time to pass, for school to get lost so that he can focus on the true matter at hand.

He did in fact, take a look at the new guy that everyone had been raving about and yes, he was breathtaking, but come on...tall, lanky, muscled? Really cocky and arrogant? Straight as a fucking arrow all day, every day. He had better things to worry about.

He really wanted to get home and change before his date with Nathan.

Organizing this had been stressful enough, because neither one of them wanted to ruin this evening. They were simply going to a movie and then perhaps for a burger afterwards...this was not the first ever date Nathan has had by any means, but it WAS for Robbie. He was used to be a loner, had been all his life, and especially after what had happened to Tommy, he simply preferred to get down and just dodge life as it was.

Until now.

He was crazy about Nathan.

Like bat shit crazy, lock me up in a sanitarium, crazy.

He never knew that Nathan had a whole another side to him, a side that he didn't always show. Tommy's disappearance had brought them together like a Christmas miracle, and now...Robbie just didn't want anything to go wrong. And also...in their small town...and especially in their conservative school, no one...NO ONE could know.

Heaven fucking forbid. It was like "faggot" was the residents' favorite damn word.

The moment that Nathan's car stopped outside Robbie's house and he told his father that he was going to see a movie with FRIENDS...eye roll incoming...and then the moment that he saw Nathan himself...it was like a hot shower was blasted over him at full fucking velocity.

Jesus.

Nathan's brown hair was perfectly styled, it was just perfectly NATHAN. He was wearing a blue and white striped buttoned shirt as well as black skinny jeans. Around his neck was a silver chain in the shape of a cross...and as Robbie got closer...he could smell his date and oh my god, he smelled so good! Tingles appeared on his scalp as he watched this beautiful teenage specimen that was his...all his...

From what he could see, and hoped at the same time, it seemed as if Nathan was appreciating him too. He certainly saw a movement inside the boy's lower regions...and his mouth watered.

"You ready, man?" Nathan smiled as he asked the question that both boys were desperate to answer.

"You bet," came the shy reply.

**

They were walking hand in hand at the beach after the movie and the late dinner. Until now, things hadn't quite felt like proper date. It felt like seeing a bloody movie and a bloody burger with a buddy, rather than something romantic.

Robbie could see Nathan blush as they held hands. Neither boy could find anything to say until they were on the beach itself, and that's when Nathan sniffed the air and shook his head in utter disbelief.

"How weird is this? Dude..." Nathan snickered as the sat down on the soft, grainy sand and stared across the dark ocean sea in the distance.

Robbie laid down on his back next to Nathan so that he could see the stars in the cloudless night sky. He couldn't remember ever being as happy as he was now. And this after ONE date, come on! It must have looked like he had a tooth disease because he couldn't stop smiling.

"You tell me. You're the one who had the hots for me in Junior High," he whispered, laughing softly as he did.

"Fucker..." Nathan mumbled and lied down next to him. Robbie stopped breathing for a second as he felt Nathan once more take hold of his hand.

"You ever think about...you know..."

Nathan squeezed Robbie's hand tight and took a deep breath before he gave his answer.

"Some nights I wake up. And then I see him. Like, before me. Not grown up, like he was back then. And I hear him pleading me to stop. And I keep on...you know...kicking him and hitting him and taunting him. And then I wake up and scream my head off and I shake so badly I have to take some kind of pill to make it stop. I wonder where he is. I wonder what the fuck happened to the kid. How could he just...disappear? Its not possible, is it?"

Robbie turned on his side and that prompted Nathan to do the same. As if they were using one mind, they pressed their foreheads together in total unison.

"I really like you, Nathan. Really, really like you," Robbie whispered and stared back at Nathan's beautiful light brown eyes.

"I really, really, REALLY like you too, man," Nathan whispered back.

And both smiles were sealed with a kiss.

**

"Can we meet up later? Miss ya."

Robbie smiled and texted back as quick as possible.

"Hell yeah. Come and pick me up after school."

There were times that he really hated their relationship.

They couldn't make any contact at school, because no one would ever buy a "friendship" between Nathan Johnson and Robbie Turner. And the last thing they could afford was to come out, not in THIS town. Hell to the no.

Robbie's train of thought was interrupted when his phone was violently smashed out of his hand and it crashed on the dirty, wet school floor. Shocked, he looked up and saw...was that the new kid laughing and patting his newly found buddies on the back and pointing at him?

"What the fuck? That phone is not even four months old!" Robbie screamed and knelt down to pick up what was left of it.

"Cheer up, faggot! Word has it you like a bit of bending and smashing!"

"Nice one, Brendan!" his cronies yelled and fist bumped each other.

Jesus, what a fucking dick!

Robbie stood up and stretched out to his full length. He and new kid Brandon was almost the same length. The boy's blond hair had been shaved off into a very unfortunately, very sex buzz cut. He was a stunner, if only he wasn't such a show off prick.

"So...what ya gonna do about that phone of yours..." Brandon continued to taunt him.

Robbie smiled.

"Nothing. You're pathetic. You and all your bully little friends around you. You're a joke. Can't even do a proper job, this thing still works. I aint afraid of people like you no more. Do your best. Now PISS OFF!"

THUD!

Robbie knew that his comments would probably make Brandon angry but he didn't see the punch coming. Brandon grabbed him from the floor and started to punch the guts out of him. Robbie was a virtual puppet in his hands, getting hit after hit in his stomach, until he heard a voice shout...STOP THAT!...from somewhere...

It took THREE boys and a teacher to get Brandon to back off, my god, he was so strong, it was like he was possessed. His eyes were bloodshot and dark, his face was red and vicious...the next thing Robbie knew was that Nathan was next to him, helping him up and checking if he was okay.

"What the hell? He needs to be arrested!" he screamed on top of his voice, pointing to Brendan and the teacher, as well as the school boys had to pull Brandon away from continuing his Robbie assault onto Nathan.

Brandon spat down onto the floor in front of Nathan and finally was dragged away by the teacher, still kicking and screaming. The kids couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. Not in their lifetime had a school student gone THIS far on another of his classmates.

**

"You okay?"

"I'll live. That Brandon needs help. Mental fucking help."

Nathan smiled and took hold of Robbie's hand and leaned down to kiss it.

"I heard Brandon's dad was at the school after it all happened. He wasn't impressed. At all. Hopefully that is the very short end of Brandon Walker."

Robbie sat up and took a sip of Coke. He immediately felt better as he felt the sweet, gassy black liquid go down his gob, before he blinked his eyes and frowned.

"You know what...I could swear I have seen Brandon somewhere before. I dunno...he seemed so...familiar somehow. I can't put my finger on it."

Nathan placed his arm around his boyfriend and pulled him towards his body.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, so do I. He's so hot though. No offence."

Robbie playfully punched Nathan in his side as retaliation.

But seriously...if Brandon Walker was a mere stranger...

...why did he seem SO familiar?

THANKS FOR READING! Want more? Lemme know! XX liciousryan@gmail.com