The Least of These

The Least of These 3

Author's Introductory Notes:

If you haven't read chapter 2, please at least scan the chapter as it contains important plot and character development.

With this chapter, as with the first, I retain rights, but am willing for anyone to post or publish it who wishes to do so at no charge to the reader.

THE LEAST OF THESE

CHAPTER 3
More than Best Friends

Davey and I walked home from school Friday, shoulder to shoulder. Most people take a while to get over being hurt. I certainly wasn’t ready to forgive myself yet. But Davey was more than ready to forgive me.

Not only did he act as though nothing had happened, but things between us that day seemed almost better than they’d been before I left for Chicago. They were almost better than before we quit…rubbing.

We leaned close together as we walked. His blond hair bounced with each step, and he laughed as I suggested tricks we could play on Chase when we slept over at his house that night.

His eyes were so blue in the sunlight and he was so happy; the Davey smile was back. He really was remarkably beautiful. He grew quiet, and I suddenly realized that I had been staring at Davey. As turned away, he grinned at me.

My problem was, and had been for some time, that I couldn’t just love Davey without finding that I desired Davey. The more I loved him and fell in love with him, the more I longed for him. The two were all mixed up. And so was I.

Because I wondered…I mean, if Davey loved me like I loved him, which sure seemed to be the case, then did he want me in the same way I wanted him? I desperately wanted for the answer to that question to be yes, and I wondered how I could find it out if it was.

That afternoon was the first time I felt my longing for Davey as visceral, as a physical thing. I had an ache inside that tightened my gut every time I looked at him.

I fought it. I still fought it. At that age, I already had a strong mind. I don’t mean just smart. At school, they told me that my IQ was high and it was; but I also had a strong will. Davey was smiling and the world was perfect that afternoon. I wanted it to stay perfect. I was determined that it would stay perfect. Davey had forgiven me and that was enough for now. I could master the longings I had for Davey. I would master them.

There were no real computer games in 1981. But there were some great board games. Chase had several by a company by the name of Avalon Hill. We chose Axis and Allies to play that night. It can be a long game.

By two in the morning, Davey was sound asleep. I was on my stomach on my side of the game board while Chase sat cross-legged across from me, going through all the steps of his turn. Davey had used the back of my thighs and my butt to fall asleep on. He stirred, and rolled to his side, burrowing the side of his face into my ass, and sighed contentedly.

Chase looked up and smiled. “He sure is comfortable on you.”

“When it comes to me,” I replied, “Davey doesn’t exactly understand personal space. And he can sleep anywhere.”

“Looks like he picked a cushy spot...or should I say tushy spot,” Chase said with a chuckle.

I grunted. “You shouldn’t try humor after midnight, Chase. Doesn’t work for you. Come to think of it, you shouldn’t try it before midnight either.”

“Sorry. Didn’t know you were so sensitive about your flabby butt.”

I frowned up at him. “I’ll have you know I have a firm butt. Whole nations would be honored to sleep on my butt.”

Chase wrinkled his nose. “If that’s an invitation, I think I’ll pass,”

“Why? I’d save my best farts for you.”

“You have ‘best’ farts?”

“Eggs. I’m a fart virtuoso after eating eggs.”

“Jeez! Remind me to make sure you never have eggs at my house.” He began rearranging his pieces for his battle turn.

“You’re showing a distinct lack of appreciation for my talents,” I accused.

“Davey seems to appreciate them enough for both of us.” He looked up at me, and his tone turned serious. “I’m sorry again, Michael. I had no idea you guys were such good friends.”

I nodded. “The best.”

“So like, you guys grew up together or something?”

“Since first grade.”

Chase and I worked through each of the set piece battles on the board, and then it was my turn. I began tallying my resources.

Chase watched as I gathered my pieces, and then said, “I’m jealous of you guys.”

“Oh?” I looked up at him. “Why?”

He shrugged, “I’ve had best friends. I even have a little brother. But I’ve never had a friend like the way you and Davey are friends.” He smiled. “I mean, I’ve never had a friend fall asleep on my butt.”

“That’s easy enough,” I said, feigning a yawn. “I’m sleepy. Get your butt over here.”

Chase grinned at me, and then considered it. He got up, grabbed a pillow off the couch and came over to lie down in front of me. I tried to not disturb Davey as I raised my head and chest up to let Chase slide his butt under me. As he did, I grabbed his hips and pulled him over to the right spot.

Chase had on red nylon running shorts and a t-shirt. The shorts fell loosely over what was a beautiful bubble butt. I laid my head down. Nice and firm, I thought, but not for sleeping on. “Your butt’s too high; bends my neck. Slide down and let me try the small of your back.”

He slid down. The small of his back was hard with tight muscles.

“Nah, not the right angle,” I said. “Slide up.”

He slid up and I tried the back of his thighs. Yeah, that was better. I wrapped an arm up around his hips and laid the side of my head down where his legs met the crack of his butt. “Ah, just right.”

Chase groaned. “Jeez, Michael, I feel like the beds of the three bears.”

“Nah, I didn’t find one that’s ‘too hard’…yet. Want to roll over?”

Chase flexed his butt to bounce my head. “Hang on. Maybe I can work up a fart for you.”

“Hey, is that how you treat your only butt-sleeping friend?” I nuzzled into the back of his legs.

“Damn. That’s a bit close, Michael,” he said throatily.

“Yep; butt-sleeping buddies. Comfortable. I think I really can sleep this way…Nite,” I snuggled into his ass.” I could smell his scent from between his legs. Nice.

I woke much later when Chase crawled out from under me and moved over to the couch. “Hey man,” I said groggily. “You stole my pillow! What about our deep friendship?”

“We can be friends tomorrow. Right now I need sleep. Having a friend sleep on your butt isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Was that a sick pun?” I asked. I noticed that Davey had already taken the other couch.

“Huh?” Chase asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Cracked up to be? …Oh, never mind.” I got up and crawled onto the couch with Davey, pushed him over with my back, and crawled under the throw blanket with him. Davey rolled and spooned me. We were asleep in seconds.

In the morning, I woke when Chase’s little sister put on the TV to watch cartoons. Chase was on the other couch, sound asleep on his back, legs spread wide. His morning wood was almost as easy to see through the nylon running shorts as if he had been naked. Damn nice too. I got up, grabbed a throw and started to cover him. But I was so damn tired; I just lay down next to him and covered us both. While I was thinking about trying to get a feel of his boner, I fell back asleep.

When I woke the next time, Chase and Davey were playing checkers on the floor.

“Hey Michael,” Chase said when he saw I was awake. “Did you get lonely for me in the night? You came over to my couch.”

I looked around and it was just us in the living room, so I told him, “Your sister was in here and you were sprouting morning wood for everybody to see, so I grabbed a throw blanket to cover you and just moved over here.”

“Oh.” He looked sheepish. Then he raised an eyebrow and said, “Oh?”

I shrugged. “I was damn tired. I just collapsed there. Besides, it’s not like you had anything for anyone to get excited about.”

Chase grinned. “Oh, yeah? Well, maybe we’ll have to check out your cock some time when you have a morning boner.”

Davey looked up from the checker board and said, “Mickey’s got a…big cock. And balls…too.”

Chase gave Davey a speculative look, and I quickly changed the subject back to something we had begun to talk about the night before. “So you want to see if we can get some other guys over here next Friday night for a war game tournament?”

“Yeah. I need more victims.”

“Victims? Ha! If we had finished last night, I would have won. Next time, I’ll beat the pants off you!” I boasted.

“Before or after you fall asleep on my butt?” He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.

The next Friday night, there were six guys at Chase’s house. After midnight, when Davey fell asleep leaning back on my butt again, it was only a short time before Al laid back on the small of Richard’s back for a pillow and fell asleep.

We were playing Risk and as each guy wiped out, they found some place to crash until it was just Chase and I left, sitting again across the board from each other. He had all of Asia, but thinly, and I held both American continents and it was just a matter of time before I kicked his ass.

Everyone else was sleeping either on a couch or the floor.

“So,” Chase said as he counted out his new pieces, “neither you nor Davey have a dad?”

I shook my head. “No. Mine died in Nam when I was a baby and Davey hasn’t seen his since he was five. His dad’s somewhere out on the West Coast.”

Chase mulled that over, then leaned forward and nodded back toward Davey. He whispered, “So did you have to, like, explain the facts of life to Davey?”

I looked up suspiciously at Chase who looked back to the board. “Yeah,” I answered slowly, “I taught him stuff as I learned it.”

“Oh?” Chase said as he placed the new pieces out for his turn. Then he asked quietly “Did you teach him how to jack off?”

I stole a look at Chase’s crotch because I thought I saw a twitch there. “Well I sorta told him how,” I whispered back.

“Ever give him any hand’s-on training?” Chase chuckled.

My neck began to feel hot and I kept my eyes on the board. “No, Davey understood just fine.” I picked up the white dice.

He leaned closer again and whispered, “You mean you guys never jacked off together? C’mon! Even I did that with my best buddy back in junior high. You’re tellin’ me two friends like you guys never did anything like that together?”

My ears burned. I juggled the dice in my fingers. “No,” I shushed. “We never jerked off together.”

Chase cocked his head. “But you’ve done something together, haven’t you? I can tell.” Damn, that’s the problem with hanging out with brains; they observe things. He leaned almost across the board and whispered quietly, “So what’d you guys do?”

I waited a second, and then asked in a low voice, “So you jacked off with your buddy? What? Did you just watch each other?”

He grinned and whispered, “Yeah. It was cool. He had a big cock and always shot a lot of cum.” Chase tried to be subtle as he rearranged his crotch.

I could be observant, too. “Always shot? So you guys did it a lot?”

“Well yeah. We’re guys, you know.” He wriggled an eyebrow and asked, “Don’t you still jack off? Some?”

“Damn, Chase, you sure are nosy tonight. Are you going for New Guinea or what?” We battled for the Australian continent and he took it, which was fine. He wouldn’t hold it. Then he drew his end of turn card.

And immediately, he picked up where he’d left off, “You can’t tell me you don’t still jack off.”

“Yeah, I jack off. Who doesn’t?” I began counting out my pieces and tried to ignore my stiffening cock. “Are you trying to break my concentration?”

“Yeah,” he grinned, “So like, how do you do it? Do you use lotion?”

I lifted my butt (and Davey’s head with it) and adjusted my crotch. “Sometimes. What about you?”

“Sometimes.” He reached into his own pants and straightened. “Want to take a JO break?” He whispered hoarsely.

“Now?” I hissed.

“Why not? We can go to my room to do it. We’ll be alone.” He leaned close one last time, “C’mon, you were willing to be a butt-sleeping friend for me. I can be a JO buddy for you.”

I looked around. Everyone was sleeping soundly. And I hadn’t jacked off in a day. “Give me a pillow.”

Chase tossed me one off the closest couch. I carefully slid out from under Davey and shoved the pillow under his head. His eyes fluttered, he saw me, he smiled, and he went back to sleep.

I stood up and followed Chase to his room where he turned on the light and closed the door. He turned, rubbing the front of his pants, and smiled conspiratorially. “So you really never jacked off with another guy?”

“No.” Which technically was the truth, cause Davey and I had only held each other’s cocks for a stroke or two. We had always wound up rubbing, or as Knox called it, frotting.

Chase undid his belt and pulled down his zipper. “Well whip it out.” He dropped his pants and boxers. A long, thick, cut cock popped up. It curved to the right and narrowed abruptly to a smaller crown. His cock wasn’t as long as mine, but thicker. Chase’s belly was flat and his hips narrow. He had muscular legs with only a light sprinkling of hair on the calves. His big balls hung down between nicely muscled thighs. If I hadn’t have been already hard, looking at Chase naked from the waist down would have done it.

I pulled down my pants, and my own cock sprang up. My legs were thinner than his, but I was proud of my running muscles. Soft, dark hairs rose up my calves. My speedo tan was still dramatic. My cock stood out stiff and straight; the hood had slid back from the crown.

“Jeez Bentolli!” He grinned broadly. “You been stretchin’ your cock at night? How’d you grow that thing so big?”

“Hey, I’m Italian,” I shrugged. “Besides, yours is thicker than mine.”

He waddled up with his pants around his ankles and held his cock close to mine. “Yeah. But not nearly as long.” His eyes stayed glued to my crotch as he began to stroke.

So I stroked too. We watched each other, the only sounds being our soft stroking and heavy breathing. I didn’t think it was all that exciting. I mean he had a good looking cock, but I didn’t want to just stand and watch him jack it off. That’s one of the few things guys could do together that I hadn’t spent much imagination on.

Chase looked up at me, caught my eye, and asked, “Want to stroke each other?”

Well, that was a step in the right direction. “Sure.”

“Take your pants off first,” he said, stepping out of his shoes. “We don’t want to get cum on our clothes.” He kicked his pants and boxers off, and I kicked off mine. Then I took off my shirt and he gave me a surprised look.

“I don’t want you to get cum on my shirt.”

Chase nodded approvingly and pulled off his shirt, too. His chest was as muscular as the rest of him. He had real pecs and a little valley ran straight down between his abs to his navel. His strong trapezoids made a dramatic “V” of his torso. No kid should have brains and a body like that, I thought.

“Damn,” Chase said, “I’ve gotta take up swimming. Shit, you’re nothing but muscle. You must have like zero body fat.”

“I work out with weights, too.”

He stepped close to me, “Whatever you do to look like that, teach me how,” he nodded at my torso.

“I was just thinking you had a great body,” I said.

Chase looked up at me, and I wondered if he wondered about me the same things I wondered about him. Tentatively, I reached out and took hold of his cock. It felt hot and thick as I wrapped my hand around it, and hard; I was amazed at how stiff it was. It really was like a piece of wood. I stroked it.

Chase wrapped his hand around my cock, and I caught my breath. His hand was cool, but strong. He grabbed me firmly and eased the foreskin back off my crown. My cock pumped itself up harder in his hand. He stroked me a couple of times, and then cupped my ballsack. “I like to do this, too,” he said as he fondled my balls.

So I cupped his balls and he sighed. I stepped closer to him and cupped his balls with one hand while I stroked his cock with the other. He ran his arms through mine to do the same to me. Our foreheads were almost touching as we looked down at our cocks.

“Do you think about doing a girl when you jack off?” Chase whispered.

“Sometimes,” I lied.

“I can’t wait to get laid, or at least get a good blow job. How about you?”

“Well, I sorta did get laid.”

“Jeez!” he pushed my foreskin back down my shaft almost painfully. “What do you mean you sorta got laid?”

“Well, she was my fat cousin from Chicago. Hardly seems to count.”

“Your cousin?” he asked, incredulously. “How fat?”

I shrugged, “Not that fat, I guess.”

“Was she pretty?”

“Yeah, a little.” Which was truthful. Rachel had a nice face.

“What did you do?” he asked pumping me faster.

I told him, barely getting to the part where she laid down and spread her legs before he grunted, tensed, and shot cum all over my hip. I pumped him good and fast until he was done and his legs started to buckle.

“Shit,” he said, sitting back on his haunches to pull his cock from my hand. “That was great! Don’t tell me anymore. Save it for next time.”

“Next time?” I thought.

“Hold on,” he said and quickly walked over to get a bottle of lotion off his nightstand. He put some on his hand and retuned to stand close beside me. Steadying me with the palm of his free hand on the small of my back, he slowly spread the lotion over my cockhead with his other hand. And then he began stroking me again.

I moaned as my balls began to churn and Chase stroked faster. I grabbed his arm with my hands and pumped hard into his palm. It took less than a minute of that before I had to stifle a cry as I came heavily, shooting across his hardwood floor.

“Shit, Michael, that was hot,” he said, pumping me down. “Look at all the cum.” He looked at the floor and gauged, “At least five feet, maybe six!”

After my final shudder, Chase stepped away and retrieved a towel out of one of his drawers. He wiped me up, then the floor. I was feeling a little sheepish, but Chase seemed to be cool with it all. “Honest, Michael, that was like old times for me…like with my junior high buddy. Maybe we can do this again sometime, and you can tell me more about you and your cousin.”

He tossed the towel to the corner and yawned, “You can sleep in here with me if you want.”

I shrugged. “OK. Does that mean your giving up the game?”

Chase pulled on his boxers. “Not a chance, Bentolli. We’ll finish in the morning. And put your underwear on. We can’t sleep naked together.”

“Why not,” I wondered.

He turned off the light and as we each took a side of his double bed, he asked, “So now are you going to give Davey some hands-on training?”

I kicked at him and he fell off the bed.

“Watch it, Bentolli,” he said as he climbed back in. “You could wake up with your cock tied in your shorts.”

We all slept over at Chases a couple more Friday nights and our group grew. At school, we had lunch together every day. Heather, Janie, Amy, and Lacrice joined us. When we were at Chase’s house, Hunter, his ten year-old brother, sometimes joined our games. By the middle of October, our group had coalesced.

We tried to think of a name for ourselves. Davey had led the way in abolishing personal space and the way we were beginning to sleep all over each other on Friday nights, I suggested “The Pride,” thinking pride of lions; they lie all over each other. Well I guess that was a bit overreaching.

Even though Chase and I hadn’t had another chance to continue ‘telling him about my cousin,’ he privately suggested to me the name, “Handy Men.”

While those of us in the group tried to think of a really cool name, other students started calling us “The Nerds.” The name stuck. Hey, it could’ve been worse. At least I took satisfaction from the fact that we didn’t look all that ‘geeky’ as a group. Richard (tall) and Martin (short) were best friends and they were a little nerdish, complete with glasses. And Al was on the chunky side. But they were good guys, and smart.

And they were comfortable to be with. We were all comfortable to be with. Even the girls picked up on the ban on personal space. And surprisingly, I liked that; especially whenever Amy leaned back against me.

Amy was a tall brunet, sort of cute, with palm-sized breasts, a mind like a whip, and a hit-and-run wit.

When Grandpa made what was becoming his ‘monthly phone call’ in October, I told him about our new group.

“Teach ‘em chess, Michael. That’s a real thinking man’s game.”

“You haven’t seen Chase’s board games, Grandpa. They have these elaborate hexagonal grids and little card board pieces for different military units. The instruction booklets are at thick as novels…well, maybe not that thick, but you have to be a Patton to figure it all out.”

Grandpa snorted, “It’s not chess, Michael. You’re good at chess. Keep it up and you can take on the Russians.”

“Grandpa, beating you is a far cry from beating a Russian Chess Master.”

“So now you think your Grandpa doesn’t know how to play chess?”

When Chase began to date Janie the sleep-overs pretty much stopped, but our group continued to meet for lunch everyday. The Nerds were cool friends.

But it was still Davey who I walked to and from school with, Davey who stayed with me after school until Maggie got home, and Davey who mowed lawns with me on weekends.

Knox took me out for a malt after my second lesson in October; he wanted to talk. Or rather, he wanted me to talk.

“What’s been wrong with you lately, Michael?”

“What do you mean?”

He leaned back and frowned at me. “Come on. Where’s your spirit been lately? You drag yourself in to your lesson. Your playing sucks. You drag yourself out. What’s that matter with you?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I’ve just been a little tired.”

“Why? Having trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah, actually,” I hadn’t really thought about it, but I hadn’t been sleeping well. I had trouble falling asleep, sometimes I woke up in the night with such a hard erection that I couldn’t sleep until I jacked off, and then I often awoke earlier than I wanted. “Yeah, I have been having trouble sleeping.”

Knox threw an arm over the chair next to his. “Why do you think that is?”

I thought about it. “No idea.”

“Have you been feeling alright? Eating OK?”

“Yeah, I feel fine. Mom’s been fussing at me for not eating much, but I haven’t been real hungry.”

“Tell me about school.”

I told him about school. Everything was cool.

Knox scratched his chin thoughtfully. “So you and Davey are spending a lot of time together. How are you two getting along?”

I told Knox about everything that had happened with Davey that summer and fall. I told him how things were back to normal; better than back to normal.

Knox had long since finished his malt when he stopped me. “This is just my opinion, Michael,” he said, “and I’m not sure because I’ve only heard about it. I’ve never actually seen a live case. But I think you have a classic case of love-sickness…for Davey. I mean, I’ve heard of guys getting physically sick because they want someone so badly. Sounds like you. What do you think?”

I hung my head. “It’s driving me crazy, Knox. I can’t think about anything else. All I can think about is Davey.” I looked up at him. “It’s not that I want him, you know, sexually. But I want to hold him and love him without holding any of myself back…What can I do?”

“You’re such good friends, why not talk to him?”

“No,” I yelped. “Oh, I can’t, Knox. What if he’s not gay or doesn’t know whether he is?”

“Are you afraid he’d quite being your friend? That doesn’t sound like the boy you’ve described to me.”

I shook my head, “No…just the opposite. Even if he’s not gay, I really think he would try to be for me; I know it.”

Knox rocked back. “Do you really think so?”

I nodded.

“Remarkable. You really think he would try being gay for you even if he isn’t?”

“Yeah. He loves me.”

Knox shook his head. “That’s some love, Michael. I have to wonder. After all, would you be straight for him?”

Without meaning to, I raised my voice, “What the hell do you think I’m trying to do?”

Knox looked shocked.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

Knox leaned forward and patted my hand.

“Knox,” I said earnestly, “You just don’t know how it goes against everything in me to not touch Davey…you know, that way.”

“Are you sure,” Knox asked, “that you can’t find out if he’s straight?”

“And if he is straight, what then? What would I do different than I’m doing now? Except that it might be even harder because there’s no hope for us?”

Knox asked quietly, “What if he is gay?”

I shoved the malt away from me and tried to think. “I’m more afraid of that. What if I was making him gay? If we started up again, would I make turning back too hard for him? What if he’s gay, but only wants me as his friend and not as a boyfriend? He looks at other boys. I’ve seen him do it. Or worst yet, what if he’s gay and wants me as bad as I want him. Knox, what would that be like?”

“That scares you?”

‘Yeah. I’m not sure why. I just think it might…I don’t know how to say it…overwhelm me. It’d be like blowing up dynamite right in the middle of my life.”

Knox scratched his bald head. “I wonder how much of what you are feeling is love for Davey and how much might simply be that you want to have sex. After all, you had your first sexual experiences with Davey, you might be confusing wanting sex with love for him.” He smiled and winked, “Do you think it would help if we got you laid?”

I thought about it. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

He took a sip of my malt and then suggested, with a twinkle in his eye, “We could put up an audition call in Macmillan hall. I guarantee you, if we put your picture on a flyer, we’d have lot’s of candidates show up.”

“Oh, I’ve already had volunteers,” I told him. “Joel volunteers every time I see him.”

Knox nodded approvingly. “Joel’s cute.”

“Yeah.”

“So why haven’t you?”

I hung my head. “Because he’s not Davey.”

We were just finishing our usual Saturday night Family Dinner the weekend before Halloween when Maggie put down her fork and dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Honey,” she said to Davey, “You remember the book I said I wanted to show Gloria?”

Davey nodded.

“Well I left it on the table back at our house. Would you run home and get it for me?”

“I’ll go with you, Davey,” I offered.

“No, Davey can get it,” Maggie quickly said and gave me a “please stick around” look.

As soon as Davey was out the door, Mom turned to Maggie and asked, “Is something wrong, Meg?”

Maggie smiled sadly. “They’ve given me a new schedule.”

“Oh?” Mom asked. “But they promised you daytime. It’s still a daytime schedule, right?”

Maggie shook her head. “A couple of dispatchers with seniority wanted schedule changes. It’s all messed up now; I’m scheduled for noon to nine.”

We sat quietly, thinking. Mom said, “Of course Davey can stay here with us every day until you come home.”

Maggie reached over and patted Mom’s forearm. “I knew I could count on you for that, Gloria. But I’m worried about Davey’s schooling.” She looked from Mom to me and then back again. “He barely made it through eighth grade. And he had a bit of a rough start this year. The last couple of weeks have been better. He is trying harder again. But I’m worried about how I’m going to get him through high school. It was already going to be hard enough. Now with this new schedule…”

She slowly shook her head, and then continued. “I can’t keep him up late to study with me after I get home at nine. But without my help, I don’t think Davey can make it. I’m not even sure he can make it with my help.” She sighed and looked very tired. “There are special schools, but I can’t afford them. I think I may need to quit and find some other job so I can be there for Davey.”

“What about a tutor?” my mom suggested.

“Maggie shook her head, “No, I’ve already looked into that, Gloria. They cost a fortune; I just can’t afford it.”

“Maybe we could help with that,” Mom mused.

Maggie’s mouth dropped and Mom took her hand, “After all, Meg,” Mom said. “We are family.”

“You can’t know how much that means to me,” Maggie said, but frowned, “I don’t think you could help enough.”

We all sat, thinking. The answer seemed so clear to me that I wondered if Maggie and Mom only held back from asking me so that I wouldn’t feel pressured. Grandpa certainly wouldn’t be happy with my solution; it would be tangling my life with Davey’s even more. But to my mind, there was only one solution and it was blazingly clear. “I’ll do it.” I said, a little louder than I meant to. “I’ll work with Davey after school.”

Mom looked up with a surprised expression and it astonished me that she evidently hadn’t seen what to me was obvious. Maggie looked up at me gratefully, and I knew she had hoped for my response or one like it. And she had every right to expect it; after all, we were family. Both Mom and Maggie just looked at me, so I elaborated.

“It’s not a big deal,” I said. “Davey and I walk home together anyway. You don’t get home until seven or eight, Mom. Davey and I will have plenty of time to study between school and the time I have to fix supper. I can help him with his schooling and do some of my own homework, and then I can finish up whatever homework I have left after supper.”

Mom studied me, and then glanced at Maggie, “No offense Meg, but Mickey--do you have any idea what you’d be getting yourself into?”

I could guess, but all I had to do was think of Davey; to think of him not being around, not going through high school with me. Or think about Maggie having to give up the new job she loved. “Yes,” I said. “I know.”

Mom sighed and sat back, studying me. “What about your classes? You’re taking all the accelerated college prep courses, and you promised me all ‘A’s. You know we have to count on a scholarship to help with your college.”

“Mom,” I sighed. “I’ll be studying even more if I’m studying with Davey.”

Mom didn’t look convinced.

“I could pay you something, for tutoring Davey,” Maggie offered me.

I shook my head. She had just said she couldn’t afford to do that. “Davey is my best friend. You can’t pay me for being his. Besides, Mom, Maggie, if Davey and I were actual brothers you’d almost expect me to help him. Right? And we are family. And Davey is like my brother.”

It was obvious that Mom was less than happy, but as far as I was concerned, the deal was done. Maggie looked at her apologetically. “Gloria, if you say no, I’ll work something else out.”

Mom snorted. “Like what?” She leaned toward me and took my hand. “I’m just worried, Mickey, that you will short-change your own studies, or miss out on sports or clubs after school. You already have responsibilities as it is; you help with dishes and laundry, you have your mowing, and you fix us supper almost every week night.”

“Oh, and Davey too,” I pointed out. “Davey will need to eat supper with us.”

“You must at least let me help with that,” Maggie insisted. “I would need to pay for any food Davey eats.”

Mom continued to study my face thoughtfully.

“Don’t worry about me, Mom.” I said quickly. “I’ll still get in any sports and clubs I want. I might just drag Davey along with me. And don’t you worry, Maggie; we’ll get him through high school.”

Maggie looked at Mom. Mom shrugged and nodded. Maggie smiled and came around the table to give me a big hug. Her hair smelled rich, like Davey’s. Then she hugged Mom.

Davey came in the back door, carrying the book. We each looked up at him with a different expression, Mom thoughtful, Maggie relieved, me strangely happy.

“Is…every…thing okay?” he asked in a small voice.

“Better than that, Davey,” I said. “I have some great news.” The thing was, I really did think it was good news. It looked like Davey and I would be spending even more hours together. And that, to me, was clearly the way the world was supposed to be.

We began a week from the following Monday. Maggie tried to explain to me just what she did to help Davey with his studies and gave me details as to where he was in his classes. It sounded like she mainly read to Davey from his textbooks, trying to get Davey to learn through repetition.. I loved Maggie, but wondered if I couldn’t do better.

I hurried Davey home as soon as school was out, and then sat him down and spread his books out on the kitchen table. I got us each a glass of milk and some grahams. When I set them down, Davey looked happily up at me. This actually could be fun, I thought.

Sitting down, I pulled my chair next to his and we grinned at each other as our shoulders touched. His blue eyes were so happy, his lips so close. That’s when it occurred to me that this might take some massive self-control.

“OK, Davey.” I said, pointing toward the stack of books. “What first?”

He shrugged and just grinned at me.

“Alright. Your first class of the day is American History. So let’s start with that.”

His eyes stayed on me as I opened his history book and flipped through the pages. When I turned from the book to him, he just looked into my eyes. “Davey? Wake up.” I said, looking at him sternly. “Where are you in the book? What did you study today in class?”

“Amy says your…eyes are…gorgeous.”

“She does?” I asked surprised.

Davey nodded. “Uh, huh. She says…she wished she had…your…eyebrows and long lashes.” He leaned closer, as if to count my eyelashes. I really wanted to let him.

I cleared my throat. “Davey,” I admonished, “We need to concentrate. So what did you study today in history.”

“I like your eyes, too.”

I held the book up between our faces. “History, Davey! Please?” My cock had begun to stiffen and travel down my pants leg. At this rate, we were both going to flunk out of high school.

He giggled and took the history book from my hand. Spreading it on the table, he fanned through it to the right chapter. “Here.” He put his finger on a page.

I began to scan the chapter. Davey put his arm over the chair behind me and rested his chin atop my shoulder. Hell, I didn’t need that! I thought about shrugging him off, but…I couldn’t. It felt nice. That gnawing in my gut started up. I fought it back down. “Pay attention, Davey.”

“I am paying…a-tten-tion…Mickey,” he said with deep sincerity, his jaw tickling my shoulder as he talked. Then I felt the arm on the chair behind me move to drape itself over my other shoulder.

“Sit up, Davey! Pay attention.”

Davey sat up and put his hands in his lap. He made every appearance of trying to pay attention. But after several minutes he wrapped his near arm around my arm and laid his head down on my shoulder.

“Now cut that out, Davey. Sit up.”

“I’m sorry…Mickey. I was paying…a-tten-tion…I really was.” He sat up.

“Well it may work to distract your mom that way, but it won’t work with me. We’re going to study, even if we have to sit here all night, alright?” Jeez, that sounded something like my mom.

Davey giggled.

“OK, then. What British General surrendered at Yorktown?”

“Corn-wal-lis.”

Hmmm, I thought. Score one for Davey. “Good. And who did he surrender to?”

“George Wash-ing-ton.”

I fired several more questions at him and he got most right. “Damn, Davey. Not bad,” I finally pronounced.

He ran his arm around mine again and laid his head back on my shoulder. Again, there was a stir in my pants. “C’mon, Davey. Sit up! Let’s do something else. How about math? Get out your arithmetic book.”

Davey pulled it out and showed me the multiplication problems he had for homework. All the numbers were double digit. “Are you permitted to use a calculator?” I asked. He shook his head no. “OK, get started,” I told him and slid my chair away to start on my own homework.

Davey pulled out a sheet of paper and took forever putting his name at the top. Then he took another eternity numbering the lines down the side. Next, he chewed on his pencil and slid the book and paper beside each other. I was appalled when after all that, he simply began entering numbers on the lines, seemingly at random, writing answers one right after another.

“Davey. Do it right.”

He looked up at me and smiled. Then he went back to doing just what he had been doing, jotting down numbers on lines.

“Davey,” I said flustered and got up from my chair. By the time I stepped to look over his shoulder, he had entered answers beside every line number. “Davey,” I said, frustrated. “You need to take your time and do it right.”

“But I did do it right…Mickey,” he insisted.

“No, Davey,” I said. “Let’s just look at the first one.” I bent over the book, prepared to explain how it was wrong, but was surprised to see that it was correct. I looked at the second. It was correct as well. I dug out my calculator and worked down the list. They were all correct, every last one of them! Open-mouthed, I stared at him. “How did you do that so fast?”

Davey smiled up at me and shrugged.

“Here,” I said, turning the page to some harder problems. “Do these.”

Davey began to pull out another sheet of paper. “Don’t mess with paper, Davey. Just use your pencil and write the answers lightly on the page. We’ll erase them when you’re done.”

Davey simply beamed up at me.

“Come on Davey. Do the problems.”

He smiled and turned back to the book and then, almost as if he was just writing down random numbers, he moved from problem to problem back and forth over the page until, in what seemed like less than a minute he had answered every one. I tried following along with my calculator. He answered faster than I could keep up. And every one was correct.

I sat back into my chair, dumbfounded. “You’re a math whiz.”

Davey grinned and rolled his eyes.

“Who’s your math teacher?”

“Mrs. Rich-ard-son…I like her.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, she’s my algebra teacher. I like her too. What does she say about your math?”

Davey giggled. “She thinks I cheat.”

“She what?”

He giggled again. “She thinks I cheat. I heard her tell…Mr. Al-bert-son. But she said…it didn’t matter.”

“Why does she think you cheat?”

Davey shrugged.

The next morning, I dragged Davey early to Mrs. Richardson’s class where I got in her face. “What kind of teacher are you?” I asked.

I guess that’s not the best way to start a conversation. She frowned, looking up at me sternly from under her eyebrows and continued grading papers. “And what exactly is your problem, Mr. Bentolli?”

“I hear you think Davey cheats,” I said accusingly. “He doesn’t cheat. He’s a math genius.”

Mrs. Richardson smiled indulgently. “It’s nice he has such a good friend. And I know he works hard. He’s a good student, aren’t you Davey?”

Davey nodded.

In frustration I grabbed his math book from him and found a page with multiplication problems like those the night before. I spread it onto an open space on her desk, picked up a pencil, handed it to Davey and said, “Do these.”

Mrs. Richardson continued grading papers but watched. As Davey began his random answering, writing steadily, she smiled with a “what a sweet little child” look and then glanced up at me with a look that said, “Well?”

Davey finished and I grabbed up the book and shoved it in front of her. She frowned and looked down at the page, then back at me, “Yes?”

“Check his work,” I insisted.

She sighed and looked back at the page. I watched her eyes begin to move from problem to problem. They widened as she went. She pulled out a calculator to begin checking. She glanced up at me, and then at him. When she finally set down the calculator, she sat back in her chair and looked at Davey with something almost resembling awe.

Davey, was big news that day at school, at least among the math teachers. I was really disappointed when I told Maggie about it that night and she just shrugged, “Yes, he’s always done real well with arithmetic.”

“Done well! He’s a walking calculator!”

I had Davey do the same two digit multiplication exercises for her and she finally showed some surprise. Mom was watching too. She asked, “Is he putting down the right answers?” I nodded. “Oh my goodness,” Mom gasped.

“Is there anything he can do with ability like this?” Maggie asked. “Can he do other kinds of math?”

“Mrs. Richardson is going to work with him.” I told her. “We’ll find out soon enough. I think it’s terrific. Really terrific.”

Maggie didn’t say a word, but her eyes watered up. She gave me a backbreaking hug. “Maybe, Michael. You will get Davey through high school.”

It didn’t look like Davey was going to make that easy. When I resisted his attempts to side track me from studies by hanging all over me or talking about my eyes, he began to just ignore me.

“C’mon, Davey. It’s math. You’re the math genius. It’s easy for you. Just do these problems she gave you for home work.”

He looked up at me from where he sat at the kitchen table. “I’m tired.”

“You’re tired! I’m the one who’s tired, trying to get you to study when you want to be an asshole.” I stormed to the sink.

“That’s not nice.”

“No, what’s not nice is how you are treating your tutor.”

“Who’s my…tu-tor?”

“I’m your fucking tutor. I’m trying to tutor you. To help you pass your classes.”

He looked at me defiantly. “You are my…friend. You aren’t…supposed to…be mean like this.”

“I’m mean like this because I am your friend. I want you to pass.”

“You just want me…to pass…so…I don’t…em-bar-ras you.”

I was on him in a flash and had him down on the floor sitting on his gut, staring angrily down at his face. “You asshole. You fucking asshole. You can’t believe that. I told you I was sorry before. I told you it would never happen again, and it hasn’t.”

His jaw tensed and he continued to frown at me.

“You know what? I don’t care if you think that. I don’t care if you don’t want me as a friend any more. If I have to choose between being your friend and getting you through high school, I’m going to get you through high school.”

“Why?” then he looked away. “I’m too…dumb…anyway.”

I grabbed his face in both hands and turned him to face me. “You’re not too dumb. YOU’RE TOO LAZY!”

The anger faded from his face and he almost looked afraid when he quietly said, “It’s too hard for me…Mickey. I…can’t…do it.”

While still bent over him, I brushed the hair back from his forehead and put my face closer to his. “You can do it Davey. You really can. You’re a genius at math and you can remember things. That’s mainly what we have to do in school. We just have to remember things. I’m going to help you.”

I sat back up, my butt still on his stomach. “Sometimes it’s just gonna be a little hard work. But we’ll get it done. You may get mad at me. I sure as hell am going to get mad at you if you keep giving me a rough time. But we’re going to do it.”

Davey bit his lip and I could tell he was thinking. He finally asked, “Why do you want me…to finish…high school?”

That was sort of like asking a fourteen year-old the meaning of life. Hell, I wasn’t sure I knew. I got off him and lay on my side by him, thinking.

Davey rolled up on his side so that he faced me. “Don’t you know?”

I looked at him then the floor. “I’m not sure why you need to finish high school, Davey. I can think of a lot of good reasons. I only know why I want you to finish.” I looked him in the eye, “And that’s because you’re my best friend and I don’t want to do high school without you.”

A smile slowly spread across Davey’s face. “I’ll try…Mickey.”

I switched to my Yoda voice. “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Davey grinned.

“And Davey,” I poked his chest. “Don’t ever say that again. Don’t say that I’m afraid you’ll embarrass me. I said I was sorry.”

He put his hand on my shoulder, “I’m sorry.”

I smiled. “Maybe someday I’ll embarrass you.”

“No, Mickey…I won’t ever be…embarrassed…by you.”

“Oh? Bet I can embarrass you.”

“Can’t”

“Can”

He giggled. “Can’t”

“Ok, smart ass. What if I kiss you right on the lips in front of everybody at school?”

I didn’t get the reaction I thought I would. Davey’s smile faded and his eyes dilated as they looked into mine.

I cleared my throat. “Jeez, maybe I can’t embarrass you.”

Getting up off the floor, I walked out the back door, closed it, and knocked. Davey didn’t answer. I knocked again. He opened the door with an uncertain smile on his face.

I used a low voice, “Hello Mr. Carlson. I’m Mr. Bentolli, your tutor. I have sent Michael away for a couple of hours because you’re going to be busy studying. I’m sure you will behave properly for me since I am your professional tutor,” I said, stepping past Davey into the kitchen. “Well?” I turned a stern eye on him.

Davey’s grin got bigger.

“Have a seat, Mr. Carlson. Let’s begin.”

When Grandpa called at Thanksgiving, we talked snow in Chicago, sun in San Antonio and football. Then Grandpa said, “Your Mom says you’re spending your afternoons now helping Davey with school.”

“It’s not like I spend all my afternoons doing that, Grandpa.” I explained. “It’s just a couple hours a day. And I’m sorry. I guess some lives are just a little hard to untangle.”

“Hey. Michael. Don’t anticipate what I’m going to say.” Grandpa replied. “Don’t worry about that advice I gave you about Davey when you were up here. You have other friends now, The Nerds, right? I’m not worried about you. In fact, I’m proud of you. You’re doing what you know is right for your friend, Davey.”

And I thought, “If only you knew how hard it was to do what was right for Davey, Grandpa. If only you knew.”

At the beginning of December, Maggie had to go to Houston to be with her dad who needed emergency heart surgery. She asked if Davey could stay with us.

She brought Davey by on Sunday night with a bag, his bedroll, and pillow. Davey’s normal smile was gone.

Davey was even more clingy than normal, so Maggie took her time saying good bye. “I love you, honey. I’ll come home just as soon as I can. And I’ll call every night to let you know how Granddad is doing.”

He hugged Maggie so tightly that I wondered after a while if he would ever let her go. I walked over to stand by him. Giving him a final hug, she said, “It’ll be OK, Davey. Don’t you worry about Granddad. And you help Gloria and Michael, OK?”

He nodded, clutching her until she kissed him and pulled away his hands. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze. He looked so sad when she left, I wanted to get his mind off things, and so got out some cards to play while we watched TV.

We set up Davey’s bedroll on the floor beside my bed. It had been a long time since he slept over. By the time we stood side by side at the sink and brushed our teeth, he almost seemed happy. When he stepped up to the toilet for his good night piss, I stepped up beside him for “old times’ sake” and played sword fights with our piss streams.

We went to my room and I closed the door. Davey pulled a pair of pajamas from his bag and began to undress. I watched him as I took off my own clothes. I hadn’t seen Davey without his clothes in ages. When he pulled off his shirt, I was stunned to see a few muscles, even the beginning of abs showed under the skin of his belly. He still had a boy’s skin, but a young man’s body was marshalling itself underneath. He pulled off his pants and I admired his long legs and full briefs. As I watched, my cock started to stir and I knew I would need to jerk off in bed as soon as Davey was asleep on the floor.

As he began to put on his pajamas, he watched me finish undressing. When I stood before him in just my briefs, his look became downright hungry. Damn, I thought, as my cock stirred even more. I quickly pulled back my bedcovers and crawled in.

“What about your pa-ja-mas, Mickey?”

“Nah. I’ve started sleeping in just my underwear.”

Davey looked at me for a moment while he digested that bit of information. Then he grinned and quickly took off his pajamas. His briefs looked just a little bit fuller than they had before.

As he crawled into his sleeping bag, I asked, “Do you need a night light?”

“No,” he said in a small voice. “I’m…OK.”

I quickly climbed out of bed, shut off the light, and retreated back, hoping he didn’t notice that my cock was now hard and tenting out my briefs.

I lay back on my pillow, pushed down the waistband of my briefs, and quietly stroked as I remembered how Davey looked before I turned off the light. Damn he was beautiful.

“Mickey?” his voice came up tentatively.

I stopped in mid-stroke. “Yeah?”

“Can I sleep with you?”

Talk about an instant storm of emotions. I knew he was worried about his granddad and he probably missed Maggie. He probably needed to be in bed with me. But having him there was really asking for it. What could I say? “Sure.”

The word was hardly out of my mouth before his pillow was jammed next to mine and he climbed in. I backed up to make room for him, ending on my side facing him. He lay down on his side facing me. I could see a broad smile in the dim light.

“Good night, Davey,” I said quietly.

“Good night, Mickey.” He sighed contentedly.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax. I would have to jerk off later. But relaxing was not easy. I opened my eyes to find Davey staring at me with this really big smile. “Go to sleep Davey.” I admonished and rolled to my other side.

I woke during the night on my back. Davey’s head was on my shoulder and he was cuddled up next to me. I could feel his hard cock against my upper thigh. It felt longer than I remembered. I was hard as a rock myself and really, really wanted to go jack off. But it felt good having Davey’s head on my shoulder. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I tried to sleep.

But the longer I lay there, the more I became conscious of Davey’s body against mine; of his golden hair on my shoulder, his warm breath on my chest, the light touch of his hand resting on my stomach, his one leg so comfortably over mine--and of course, that hardness on my hip. My cock throbbed.

I reminded myself of my promise to never take advantage of Davey again and to honor the trust he and Maggie had in me. But I didn’t want to move away from him. I gently pulled my arm out from under him and tried to find a place for it, finally resting my hand on his back; it was so warm and smooth. I rested my fingertips on the back of the waistband of his underwear.

Davey moved in response to my movement, and snuggled closer to me. His lips brushed my chest. His hand and leg slid farther onto me. That was it. My free hand and my orgasm raced each other for the end of my cock. I slid the tip of my cock back under my briefs just as it exploded. I literally held my breath as what felt like gallons of semen pumped into my briefs. That’ll be a mess, I thought, but at least I might get to sleep now. With my hand behind Davey’s back, I pulled him even closer to me. He sighed in his sleep and I joined him there.

In the morning, I awoke before Davey and grabbing clean underwear, dashed to the john to clean myself up and to get rid of the morning wood before Davey got up. I could hear Mom in the kitchen when I came out. I slipped back into my room and put on my pants before trying to wake Davey.

As I stepped up beside the bed, I found myself transfixed, as one sometimes is by a beautiful sunset or a majestic mountain view, or by unspeakable beauty.

In the morning light, golden hair spread over his pillow, Davey was a human definition of youth and beauty. The cover was down around his hips, leaving bare his long torso. In repose, his face was boy and man in graceful transition; his tender lips pressed together in an almost irresistible invitation, and his nostrils flared slightly with each breath. For just a moment, I had a vision of what nature intended Davey to be before whatever foul disease attacked his young mind in the womb.

My heart pounded in my chest. I longed to bend down and kiss him; feel his skin, feel him in my arms. The ache hit my gut so hard I bent as my belly muscles tightened.

I hated to wake him. I hated to break the spell of the moment. I hated to wake this young god and return him to childhood.

I touched his shoulder, and then shook him gently. “Davey.”

He rolled to his back and opened his eyes. As their blueness focused on me, a grin spread across his face. I returned the smile as my heart welcomed back my Davey.

That night, Maggie called just before supper. She talked to Mom and then asked for Davey. I don’t know how much she told him, but while they talked, my Mom whispered in my ear that Davey’s granddad was not doing well. They weren’t sure about the surgery or that he would make it through if they tried it. Whatever his mom said, Davey’s smile faded.

Supper was quiet. We watched some TV and Davey and I sat quietly side by side in an armchair. That night, after we got ready for bed and had both stripped down to our underwear, I crawled into my bed and held the covers open for Davey. He started to crawl in, then backed away and got the light. In the dark I felt him crawl in beside me and his scent filled my bed.

My eyes adjusted to the faint light from the window, and I could see Davey lying on his back beside me. His eyes were open as he stared at the ceiling. At first I thought he was smiling. Then I saw a tear roll out of his eye and down the side of his face, and I realized that it was not a smile. “Oh, Davey,” I soothed. “I’m really sorry. You worried about your granddad?”

Davey turned his face toward me, his eyes full of tears. He said nothing, but his eyes spoke clearly. Davey needed to be held.

I slid next to him and ran my arm under the back of his head to cradle him. I pulled him close to me and held him, and to my credit, I did not get hard. Not right away. But after Davey rolled up on his side so that we were face to face and he put his arms around me and pulled himself close, I did. Damn the erection. I was going to hold and comfort Davey no matter what. And I did.

We held each other a long time. I felt his own erection rise beside mine and press into my belly. Our cheeks pressed together, his breath on my neck, and he let out a soft moan. I tenderly kissed under his ear, and along his cheek. All I meant was to kiss him. I was trying to be tender, comforting. I don’t know how it happened, but my lips found his and Davey kissed back.

I held him tight; I had over a year’s worth of desire behind that embrace. Davey held me as tightly to himself. The way he held me, the way he pressed himself to me, the way his lips demanded mine, it was settled; I knew he wanted me, too!

We pressed our cocks into each other and pulled each other even harder together. Our kiss deepened and we both whimpered with the desire to have more.

His hands began to roam my back and mine his. My heart was racing. I broke for a breath, placing my cheek back by his, “Oh, Davey,” I gasped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you do this.” He squeezed me and I felt his lips on my neck.

Davey’s body had changed from over a year before. No longer merely a boy, his was the body a youth, of a young man, a young man who held me in his arms and kissed my neck and melted me.

We had gone too far. I could not turn back, not for my very life. I kissed his neck, and the words would not stay unspoken, “Davey, I love you.”

I felt, almost more than heard his whisper in my ear, “I always…loved you…Mickey.”

We squeezed each other, trying to pull our very hearts together. I could hardly breathe. But holding Davey like this…I could do it forever. The smell of his hair filled my nose, my skin thrilled to the touch of his skin, his slim body entwined with mine. I felt the soft skin of his slender shoulders with my finger tips and the warm skin of his neck with my lips; his thick cock pressed against me. I had to touch it. I reached between us and slid my fingers under the waistband of his briefs. We both gasped as my hand found him, long, hot, and hard, and the skin; the skin was soft, so incredibly soft. I squeezed and he pulled my chest tighter to his.

Maybe it is like riding a bicycle; once you learn, you don’t forget. Our bodies remembered the kissing and rubbing we did back before eighth grade. We just picked up where we left off. He pressed his lips to mine and our mouths opened. I pushed in with my tongue; his mouth was hot and wet. We both groaned.

I stroked and he pumped into my hand. I reached in farther and cupped his balls. There was no doubt about it; Davey’s equipment had grown.

And so had my body’s longing for him. I was no experimenting boy now. My hunger had grown, and ripened, and bided its time and now my hand was all craving and desire. The feel of his fat cock and loose balls in my fingers and on my palm sucked up all my thought and mind like a whirlpool. I had no idea that holding something, someone, in my hand could be so exciting.

Davey rolled onto to his back. I knelt up and pulled off his underwear, then mine. He held out his arms and I laid myself down on him, my legs between his. I wrapped my arms around his neck and we kissed as his arms encircled me. And just as we had over a year before, we began to rub our cocks against each other, rhythmically, moving as one.

But our bodies weren’t the same now. Neither was our love making. I groaned into his neck and humped powerfully. His hands slid down my back and Davey grabbed two handfuls of my butt and pulled.

His hands were familiar and possessive; they felt so right on my butt my eyes almost teared up. Davey thrust up his cock and pulled me down by my butt so that our groins pressed tightly. Our naked cocks pressed and slid against our bellies as we moved. Davey wrapped his legs up over mine and I humped between them.

I would not allow thought; I would not allow guilt. Not in this room. Not on this night. Not in this moment. I had wanted this too long. Davey and I were joined. Our cocks and balls pressed together made as intimate a coupling as two humans can have. Our arms, legs, and lips only sealed it. And as we ground our privates together, something private, and special and binding happened; and I never wanted to stop.

Davey’s hands drifted up my back until they traced the long muscles on either side of my backbone. He moaned with each of our thrusts; the kind of moan a person gives when just the right spot is scratched, or rubbed. The light touch of his hands on my back gave erotic counterbalance to the hot body moving under mine. I never wanted his hands to leave me.

Davey whimpered and grabbed my butt again, pulling me hard against him. That stimulation was all I needed. I felt my balls tighten with a deep churning right before my cum exploded between us. Davey whimpered loudly and I tried to silence him with my mouth on his. His cum joined mine, mingling between our bellies, and still we ground on.

I had wanted him for so long, and now he was in my arms; and I loved him so much. Once was not going to be enough; not nearly enough.

We didn’t even get soft. I rolled us on to my back. I spread my legs like Davey had done for me, and he settled between them. Being on the bottom felt even better. His balls pressed down on mine, the weight of his body between my legs and on my torso felt so good.

Our cocks and bellies were slick with cum and sweat. I held his face and kissed his forehead, his eyes, his nose, and his cheeks. Davey pressed his lips to mine and held me by the shoulders as he pushed his tongue into my mouth. I felt up and down the silken skin of his back before grasping the firm mounds of his butt, and I held him there as we ground on. I wrapped my legs around his and gurgled with delight as his balls pressed more firmly on mine. His hands came up to either side of my face and he held my head still as his tongue plunged into every recess of my mouth. His hair fell like curtains around our faces.

Far from being spent by one orgasm, all those months of longing and desire, an eternity for fourteen year-olds, drove our passion even higher. My belly heaved and my breath caught. Tears filled my eyes as I kissed Davey back as hungrily as he kissed me.

Davey moved his mouth over my face and my neck. He sucked as much as kissed. I did the same. We devoured each other. We ground and ground until my belly began to ache. My tears inexplicably continued as Davey kissed my throat and humped faster. I cleared my throat enough to ask, “Can you cum again, Davey? Cause I think I’m going to.”

“Cum. Yes. Me too…Mickey.”

My hands still held his butt cheeks; I slid him back and forth on me as we humped. “Davey,” I moaned. “I’m going to cum soon…now.”

He buried his face in my neck and reached with his hands down under my butt and pulled me up to meet him as I pulled him down. He began to make small, whimpering cries, and I felt his teeth on the nape of my neck. He let out a louder cry and came. As he stiffened against me, I pumped my hips in a frenzy until I arched up in my own ecstasy and my cum again joined the mess between our bellies.

We slowly calmed. Our breathing returned to normal, and Davey relaxed on top of me. We needed to clean up, but I didn’t want to move. I wrapped my arms over Davey’s back. He sighed and snuggled into me. Damn we were a mess.

“I love you, Davey.” I whispered.

“I love you, Mickey.”

“I’m sorry,” I said…trying to be.

“Why?

“Because,” I began. How to explain? I took a deep breath, and with a hand on either side of Davey’s head, I lifted it so that I could look him in the eye. “Davey,” I said. “I’m… I’m gay.”

“I know.” He put his head back down and nuzzled my neck.

Somehow, I didn’t expect that response. “What do you mean, you know. I mean, just because we…”

“You look at guys,” he said, matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“I’ve seen you,” he said and kissed my neck. “You look at boys…I…watch you.”

“Jeez, am I that obvious? I thought I was mainly looking at you.”

“You look at guys.” He kissed my neck again, and up under my ear.

I stroked the fine body hairs on his back with my fingertips.

He said, “I look at you…too…And I look at guys.”

“But that doesn’t mean you have to be gay,” I protested. And then I giggled at the absurdity of it all. I mean we were almost awash in our own cum and naked in each other’s arms and I’m trying to tell him he doesn’t have to be gay. As if I ever gave him a chance.

“I’m gay, too.” he said and kissed my chin.

And then I was suddenly very sad. “Davey, I’m sorry if I made you gay. I swear, I wasn’t trying to. I wasn’t wanting to. It just…it just happened.”

Davey lifted his head and looked down into my eyes. “Maybe…I made you…gay, Mickey.” He kissed my lips softly. “Mickey, I…wanted you to be…gay…with me.” He buried his face back into my neck. “I wanted to…make you gay. I tried…real…hard.”

I was stunned. “When did you try to make me gay?”

“You know. Back…when…”

“Back when what?” I asked.

“Back when…after we ran…you know…” and then he humped on me a few times.

I lifted his head again so I could see his face. “Back when you started rubbing on me after our runs?”

He nodded in my hands. “Uh, huh.” Then he lowered his head and ran his tongue up the hollow below my ear and I had to suppress a giggle.

“You were trying to make me gay?”

“Uh, huh.” His tongue entered my ear. I held him tight in my arms and felt my cock begin to stiffen. Tongue in ear--I needed to remember that.

My mind raced. “Wait!” I pleaded. “Wait.”

He pulled his tongue from my ear and brushed his lips on my cheek.

I was trying to think. “You didn’t even know what gay was back then.”

“Uh, huh,” he corrected.

“Nah. How?”

“You told me from…scouts. Remember…Mickey?”

Yeah, I guess I had but... “You were trying to seduce me?” I asked, amazed. “You were trying to make me gay!”

He kissed my jaw. “Uh, huh.” Then he stopped and looked me earnestly in the eye. “I wanted you to be…gay…with me…so bad. Are you mad at me?”

Mad? I was suddenly wildly happy. I didn’t make Davey gay! Hell, I didn’t know whether he made me gay. Nah, I already was. Had to be.

But I didn’t make Davey gay! I was released from all those self-imposed promises to not take advantage of him. I was free of the fear that I somehow twisted him, spoiled him, made him gay. In fact, back then he must have wanted me just as much as I wanted him. He tried to seduce me! Correction—he did seduce me!

My cock shot back up hard between us. I laughed, I hoped not too loudly. I rocked him in my arms, “Damn, Davey,” I laughed. ‘I love you. I love you. I love you.” I twitched my cock under him. He lifted his head to smile down at me and moved his crotch over my cock.

I pulled his face down for a kiss and he reached down between us to stroke me as my mouth locked on to his. Davey’s cock was still soft, so I pulled his hand from my own. “I’m fine, Davey,” I said. “We should rest. Let’s just sleep for now.”

He rose up from my arms long enough to pull covers over us. Then he snuggled back onto me and sighed contentedly as he nuzzled under my chin. I held him close and enjoyed all the comfortable sensations of Davey lying naked on me.

I felt my chest lift him each time I breathed, and I felt his chest expand against mine as he breathed. There was something special about having your chests together and breathing.

I ran my fingertips down his graceful back and onto his hairless butt. I drew my forefinger up his crack and he giggled. His head in then crook of my neck was the most comfortable thing I thought I had ever felt.

Davey moved his mouth close to my ear. “Are you happy, Mickey?”

I laughed once more. “Yes, Davey. I ‘m very happy. Are you happy?”

He kissed my neck. “Yes.”

“And I didn’t make you gay!” I laughed and hugged him.

I woke early in the morning. Davey had slid off to the side and lay on me, one leg over my crotch, one arm over my chest. I liked that he seemed to enjoy sleeping that way. I turned my head to blow the hair on top of his head. He snuggled closer and I could feel his erection throb against me. That was OK. I was hard too.

We definitely needed to clean up before breakfast. My belly was a sticky mess. I could hear water running through the pipes and recognized the sound of Mom showering. Now was as good a time as any. I kissed the top of Davey’s head and rubbed his back. “Hey, Davey. Time to wake up.”

He groaned and pulled tightly against me.

“Come on, Davey. We need to clean up before breakfast.” I tried sitting up, but he held me strongly in his arms and I couldn’t move. I laughed. “Come on, Davey. We need to shower up.”

His head popped up and he looked up at me, “Shower? Together?”

I nodded. “Yes. Together…if you’ll let me get out of bed.”

He hopped up and I got a look at all of him in the daylight. Oh, damn. His cock stuck out straight and thick under a small patch of light colored pubic hair. The soft crown of his cock pointed in my direction and I reached out to touch it. Davey giggled, and his cock jumped. Both his dick and balls were flushed red. He turned to get clean underwear from his bag and I watched the muscles move in his butt as he bent over.

I roused myself and grabbed up a pair of underwear myself. I cracked the door and peeked down the hall. My mom’s door was still closed. “Come on,” I whispered over my shoulder, and waved for Davey to follow. He giggled as we both dashed naked, underwear in hand, the short distance to my bathroom.

I closed and locked the door behind me, then I put my briefs down on top of the hamper and told Davey to do the same. As soon as he did, I took him in my arms, and kissed him over his cheeks and forehead. Our lips met and we did our melt together thing—we were getting damned good at that. In fact, we melted so thoroughly that it was hard to pull ourselves apart to start the shower, and even harder to pull apart to step into it.

Mine is a tub shower, with a shower curtain. I maneuvered us back and forth, taking turns under the showerhead. As we scrubbed up, our hands found each other’s privates. We lathered and stroked and massaged, keeping as close together as possible under the warm spray.

While we were facing each other, hard cocks pointed at each other’s belly, Davey grabbed my waist and began slapping his cock against mine in a cock sword fight. I grabbed his waist too, and slapped back with my cock. We both giggled.

“No fair,” he said, “Yours is longer.”

“It’s all in the technique, my young apprentice,” I laughed.

As we sword fought, our crotches moved closer, until we pressed together and the swinging of our hips no longer waved cocks, but rubbed them. We leaned back from where our arms held our middles together, and I drank in Davey’s body.

I let my eyes travel slowly up the long “V” of his torso, admiring the glow of his skin, the abs just beginning to show, and the clear definition of his pecs. My gaze traveled his broad, slender shoulders, and the length of his arms. As we continued to gently sway our hips from side to side, I let my eyes travel up his neck to his finely chiseled chin, his lips, his long wet hair, and those blue eyes that were looking over my body as I had his.

“You are so beautiful,” I said.

He looked up at me, “You, too…Mickey. I…always liked…looking at you…but…this is better.”

“Looking at each other like this? While rubbing? Yes, it is.”

We pulled up to hug and kissed. For a fourteen year old, holding a lover in your arms is like everything it is for anyone else, and something a little more. Life seems so real, almost on a whole new plane. And holding a lover makes you feel like a man.

The water began to run cold. I quickly shut it off and grabbed towels. I handed one to Davey and then began to dry his back with the other. “Listen, Davey,” I said. “We can’t tell anybody about this shit.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I never told…anyone before…when we rubbed.” He laughed as he tried to reach my back to dry it while I was drying his.

I stopped him. “Just wait a sec,” I said. “I’ll let you dry my back in a second. Seriously, we can’t tell anybody about this. Especially our moms. They wouldn’t let us see each other any more.”

Davey rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t tell…our moms. That’s…stupid.”

I repeated, “Seriously, Davey. Nobody. You can’t tell anybody about what we’ve done.”

He nodded slowly, “I know…Mickey. I wasn’t gonna…tell anybody.”

“Just be sure you don’t. And Davey, you know I love you, right?”

He nodded happily and kissed my cheek.

“OK,” I said, drying his hair with the towel, “you know I love you. So don’t get hurt feelings but we can’t hug or hold hands at school or when we’re with other people. They might guess about us and not understand.”

He nodded again, and then asked, “When can we…do it…again, Mickey?”

I stepped from the tub. “This afternoon, I guess. But we still have to do homework…sometime.”

Davey let out a “Yippee” as he stepped from the shower after me and began toweling my back.

I stopped him again. “Nobody, Davey.” I cautioned. “Don’t tell anybody.”

“I won’t Mickey,” he assured me, just before he kissed my back.

We scooted back to the room in our briefs. Once we were in and had closed the door, Davey bent over to find his pants. He looked so good in his briefs; I grabbed him from behind and pressed my groin to his butt, bending to kiss the top of his back. Davey stood and turned in my arms. We kissed and held each other.

The kiss became warm, and we didn’t break it until we were both hard again. But then we had to break it up; it was getting late. I pulled on my pants. When I pulled my shirt over my head, Davey’s hands found my belly before I could pull the shirt down. And when I did pull it down, his face was waiting with puckered lips. He kissed me and wrapped his arms over my shoulders. I grabbed his butt and held us together. Mom called from the kitchen, “Michael! Davey! You boys better hurry.”

Reluctantly, we broke the embrace. “Jeez, Davey, look at us,” I said pointing to the bulge in his pants and then mine.

Davey giggled.

“Don’t let Mom see,” I cautioned. He nodded and followed me to the kitchen.

It was obvious to me that the sun was brighter that morning; the air was clearer. Gravity itself had no hold over me. I didn’t feel guilty anymore.

I looked for Davey between each class that day. We sat across from each other at lunch and couldn’t stop smiling at each other. When he winked at me, I slid my foot under the table in his direction. I knew my shoe hit his when he looked up at me in surprise. I rubbed my toe up his ankle and he laughed out loud. Everybody looked at him. Davey grinned, tossed his hair back, and smiled around at everybody. The conversation moved on. He smiled at me and kicked my foot away.

My last class period lasted about one year. At least it seemed like it. As soon as the final bell rang, I split for the lockers. Davey got there within seconds of me. He giggled and I shushed him.

We walked out of the school and across the street. He giggled again and picked up his pace. I picked up mine. He laughed and picked up his pace again, and I picked up mine. We went faster and faster until both of us broke into a run. It’s hard to laugh and run at the same time, but we managed.

We were still running, laughing, and gasping for breath when we stumbled up onto my front porch. I had the key ready and opened the door. We bolted inside and I tackled Davey to the floor. Backpacks went flying and Davey and I rolled into front of the couch.

I got on top of him and sat on his stomach while I tickled his ribs. Davey writhed under me; his blond hair fell over his eyes. Bending quickly, I kissed his neck. Davey pushed up, shoving me off onto my side. He grabbed my balls through my jeans and I gasped, “No fair!” and wriggled away.

We wrestled and rolled until Davey was sitting on my gut and suddenly his smiling face was right over mine. Our eyes met, and our laughter faded. Davey bent down, wrapped his arms under me, and placed his cheek beside mine. I put my arms over his back and we held each other.

Quietly, I pulled his shirt from his pants and up over his head. When it was off, I felt lovingly with my hands over the bare skin of his back and sides. When he sat up, I moved my hands to his stomach and chest. His hair fell over his face as he watched me massage his belly.

“Does that feel good?” I asked.

“Uh, huh.” He bent and pushed my shirt up off my stomach, pulled his hair back over his ears, and began massaging my belly as I massaged his. We watched each other’s eyes.

I smiled, “I like your tummy.”

“I like your tummy…too,” he said, seriously and moved his hands farther up under my shirt to rub my pecs.

I moved my hands to his forearms. “Let’s strip,” I suggested.

Davey smiled and stood up. I quickly got to my feet. He started to undo his pants, but I grabbed his hands and replaced them with my own. I undid the pants, and dropping to my knees, pulled them down. I took off Davey’s shoes and socks, and then pulled his pants off.

He stood over me, hair once again over his face. I reached up to the front of his briefs and caressed the outline of his cock and balls. I ran my fingers into his left leg hole and felt alongside his balls. I reached farther and felt the soft skin of his cock with my finger tips. Then I pulled his underwear off. His cock hung thick and stiffening in front of me. I reached up and held it in my hand to watch it finish rising. I took his balls in my other hand and fondled them. Davey sighed and I glanced up to see his eyes looking down at me through his fallen hair.

Standing up, I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my shirt. Davey unfastened my pants and we pushed them and my underwear down to the floor where I kicked them off. We stepped close together and took each other’s cock into our hands. As I held Davey’s cock in one hand, I used my other to stroke his cheek, and neck, and his shoulder and arm. Davey did the same to me, our hands tracing the lines and soft skin of each other’s bodies.

“I have a question for you,” I said as I felt the softness of his right nipple with my finger tip.

“Uh, huh?” he said as his hand slid along my hip.

“Back when we were rubbing. Why did you stop?”

He shook his hair back to look at me and said, “Because…you said to.”

“But you never said anything. Why didn’t you say you didn’t want to stop?”

“You said…it was wrong.”

I put my forehead to his, “I will never say that again.”

Davey giggled. “If you do…I’ll make you…gay again.”

I released his cock and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “Then I will say it again tomorrow. I like it when you ‘make me gay.’”

That night we got the news that Davey’s granddad was doing much better and would get his surgery. I wasn’t sure Davey had thought that much about his granddad that day.

The next afternoon, as we walked home from school, I told Davey all about Knox and me. Davey had only known that Knox was my guitar instructor. “It’s OK for us to tell Knox about stuff. He’s gay, too. And he won’t tell anyone.”

I told Davey about a couple of my conversations with Knox, including the one after the guitar concert when he told me about gay sex. Then I said, “I want you and me to try those other things Knox told me guys do together…but only if you want to.”

He grinned and bumped my shoulder with his. “I want to.”

“Well, I’ve got a lesson Tuesday after school. I think I’ll ask Knox to tell me again how to do some of those things so we can do them right.”

“Can I come…too?” Davey asked.

“Hello.”

“Knox?”

“Hi Michael. How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Well tell me why you are calling. I’ve got a lesson in about one minute.”

“OK. First I wanted to tell you that,” I lowered my voice, “Davey and I did it. He’s gay too!”

“Woo hoo,” Knox chuckled. “Good for you. So did you decide whether or not you made him gay?”

“No,” I laughed. “He made me gay.”

“He what?”

“Really. He told me that when it all started, he wanted to make me gay just like him.” I laughed. “He just didn’t know I already was.”

I could hear the smile in Knox’s voice. “That’s sweet…So what did you guys do exactly?”

“Well that’s the other reason I called. Can I bring Davey to my lesson with me so maybe you can tell us about more things to do?

“Holy shit, Michael. I’m a guitar instructor. I can’t be telling two teenagers about how to have gay sex. Talk to somebody else.”

“Who are we going to talk to, Knox?”

He was quiet a moment. “I’ll think about it…what have you done so far?”

“Well, we’ve done a lot of kissing and hugging and frotting. You called it frotting, right?”

“Yeah, it’s called frotting. So that’s all you’ve done so far?”

“That’s why we want to talk to you. Can I bring Davey?”

“Hell yes. Whether I talk to you about gay sex or not, I want to meet Davey after everything you’ve told me about him.”

I nodded and Davey let out a “Yaaaaaaay!”

“Jeez, Michael!”

“I’m sorry, Knox. That was Davey. He’s just happy you said he could come.”

“Hell, it sounded like he was right on the phone.”

“Well,” I chuckled, “He almost is. He’s got his arms around me and he’s frotting my butt…Is that how to say it; he’s frotting my butt?”

“Damn, what’s gotten into you Michael…no, don’t answer that. Yeah, ‘frotting my butt’ is one way to say it.”

“No, Knox, Davey hasn’t ‘gotten into’ me yet. Ha-ha. That’s what we want to talk to you about…So you can tell us how Davey can ‘get into’ me.”

“Are you drunk?”

“No. Course not. Wooooo!”

“What was that?”

“Well…you know I said Davey’s frotting my butt? He just goosed me with his cock.”

“Damn, Michael. Are you guys naked?”

“Ummmm”

“Michael, I think I better run now; my phone is melting.”

“OK, Knox. We’ll see you Tuesday.”

“Come sober, OK?”

I hung up the phone and burst out laughing. Davey asked over my shoulder, “What’s funny?”

I got my laughing under control and said, “Oh, I just got Knox all hot and bothered is all.” I ran my hands over Davey’s arms which were wrapped around my belly and squeezed his cock which lay between my butt cheeks. “Ask me if I’m happy, Davey.”

He kissed between my shoulder blades. “Are you happy, Mickey?”

“Yes. I’m very, very happy.”

As always, emails are greatly appreciated at btomandback@hotmail.com. Thanks.