The Wounds Within My Heart By James
Disclaimer
This is a story which deals with sexual and romantic situations between teenaged boys. This story will at times deal with situations concerning rape, child abuse, Racism, Ableism, suicide and other dark subject matter. If you're not of the legal age to read such material, or if you're disturbed by this type of story, then please back out now. also, please remember to donate to Nifty, as it's your donations that keep this and other stories on the site free to the public.
Finally, if you like this story, and haven't done this already, please invite my E-mail address jamesheady1985@gmail.com to a cookout. After you serve it the grilled chicken tenders, only then let it know that it just ate grilled Rat Meat from a Brown Rat. I respond to the various E-mails readers send to me, and I always appreciate them. Flame E-mails however will be ignored.
I wanted to thank my editor K. for their continuing edits on this story. I really appreciate them like always. Thank You.
The Wounds Within My Heart
Chapter 13
Nohea
By the time Dad returned from the store, the weather had turned stormy again. Rain pounded down in sheets, and thunder crashed overhead. Pietro let me know that there were several flashes of lightning just a few minutes before Dad pulled up in the driveway. At that point, I was definitely glad to have him home!
Once he closed and locked the door, I rushed to help him unload the groceries on the kitchen counter. Pietro also helped, and Triston came into the room a moment later.
"I heard on the radio coming back up here that the weather will continue on this way for the rest of the evening," Dad said as we all shared hugs.
"It sounds like it definitely will be," I answered.
"As long as we're all safe here at home for the rest of the evening, I'm fine with it storming," Triston added.
"So am I," Pietro agreed.
Triston loved the storms. He did alright with the thunder, and the lightning didn't bother him too much as he wasn't near any windows while it would be flashing. He also loved the rain portion of the events, and I loved that as well. I was glad to hear Pietro say how much he loved stormy weather too.
Once the groceries were put away, Dad let us know that we would be having cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. I was really glad to hear that, and so were Triston and Pietro. As we helped with getting the food prepared, rain fell outside harder and harder, along with more thunder.
"I just hope the power doesn't go out," Pietro said.
"I feel the same way," Triston added.
"We all have flashlights, candles and the fireplace if that happens," Dad replied.
"I'm really happy about that," I said.
Soon I was seasoning the meat as Pietro stood by me getting the fries ready. Triston was getting the various toppings out for the burgers. Dad was in the living room and was selecting music to have on while we cooked.
"Alexa, play Various Artist Play List," he called out.
"Don't let him fool you," I called out smiling. "He actually wants you to play Pound Town by Sexyy Red."
"Who the hell's that?" Dad asked coming into the kitchen as the first song in the list played.
"Oh, you mean Sexyy Red?" I asked.
I told him about her and her song Pound Town, which I had the unfortunate luck of hearing while hanging out with Alex and Chelsey a couple of weeks ago.
"I'll give that a hard pass," Dad said.
"Me too," Pietro added.
"I figured Dad would say that," I said laughing. "Although, I think he's protesting against it as much as he is, because he secretly likes it."
"Like hell," Dad said laughing.
"In all seriousness, what we're listening to now is a better choice," I replied. The song that was playing at the moment was Alchemy of the Soul by the group Therion. I was glad to see that dad had added it to the play list.
Once the burgers and fries were cooking, we all sat down in the living room to rest for a bit. By this time, we were about four songs into the play list. At that point, Love's Not Made for My Kind by Tarot, was playing.
We all talked as the music played. Well, all except for Triston who was standing by the stereo dancing to the music like he usually did. I was glad to see that he was enjoying himself as much as he was.
"Do you guys know what you wanted to do tomorrow?" Dad asked.
"I think we're all set on going bowling in the afternoon," I said.
Triston and Pietro agreed. As for the morning, we were still deciding on what to do there. Dad had mentioned that if the weather was still bad in the morning, then we would probably be here at the cabin until the storms lightened up.
If I had it my way, I would be in bed with Pietro in the morning, hopefully with us taking our time making love.
Soon the burgers and fries were done. We all went into the kitchen, and once everyone had their food as they wanted it, we all sat down to eat.
"This is all really good!" Pietro said as he continued eating his fries. He was saving his burger for last, which was something he had done since I had known him.
After we finished our meal, we had ice cream for dessert. It was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough which was a favorite of ours! Once we finished that, we all went back into the living room and Dad turned on the TV. We waited while he flipped through the channel guide.
"Killer Rats?" he read out loud. "I don't know about that."
"Hard pass," Pietro said. "I hate rats. They're really scary and also totally gross."
"I didn't know that you didn't like rats," I said turning to Pietro.
"I don't," he said.
"I'm not really fond of them either," Dad said. "I had to deal with them in one of the apartments I lived in a few years ago. The damn things chewed through the outside walls and got into the apartment itself. You could see the holes in the bottom part of the outside walls of the building where they had torn through it with their teeth."
"You hear that, Pietro," I said leaning close to his ear and speaking slowly while making sure to over-annunciate every word. "You could see the holes that they chewed through the walls, the rats did that. I repeat that the rats did that. Right through the walls."
Pietro laughed then playfully hit me on the shoulder.
"What kind of rats were they?" I asked, trying to keep from laughing.
"Well, that's really kind of you to be tormenting Pietro like that," Dad answered laughing himself now. "They were brown rats unfortunately. They're the more aggressive."
"Yeah Pietro, he said they were brown rats, and that they're the more aggressive of their kind," I said in that same slow over-annunciating voice. "Oh, and I don't know what you're reading currently, but whenever you need a new book to check out, might I recommend the Rats Series by James Herbert. As its name implies, it's about rats. They're huge Mutant Rats that attack people."
"Hmm, so this is why you want to be around me so much," Pietro typed as he laughed. "That's really bad you using my fears for your own amusement."
"Well, I do have to keep myself entertained at your expense somehow," I said laughing along with him now. "Don't worry though, I'm laughing with you, not at you."
Triston was laughing hard at our antics.
"Well, I'll have to get you back for that," Pietro said. "I'm thinking that maybe we need to watch an all-day marathon of Keeping Up With the Kardashians or Sister Wives."
"No!" I said acting like I would burst into tears at any moment. "That would be torture. I don't deserve that!"
"Then you should behave yourself and maybe I won't put you through that," he said as we laughed.
"Okay, so if you're both done tormenting each other, maybe I can read what else I found on here," Dad said smiling. "Obviously Killer Rats is out."
"Absolutely," Pietro said.
"If that's how it has to be," I said assuming a mock sad tone to my voice.
We all laughed, and Dad read off a few of the programs he found. We settled on a back-to-back block of The New Outer Limits that was a reboot of the 1960 Series. This new version however was from the 1990s. Pietro and I sat back to watch when Dad selected the channel.
After we finished our TV watching for the evening, I felt my eyelids growing heavy. Triston was leaning against my left side half-asleep, and Pietro was stretching. We changed into our sleep clothes, and we all went into Triston's room. Triston got into bed, and after covering up Dad kissed him and stroked his hair for a moment.
Pietro and I took our turns with saying good night to him, then after exiting the room, we hugged Dad and went into our own room.
After our shower, which was a quick one, I got into bed. Pietro joined me and took me in his arms after shutting off the bedside lamp. It felt really good to be in his arms. We were both really tired, and when I told him that I just felt like laying in his arms all night, he understood.
"We have tomorrow to make love," I said pressing my lips to Pietro's.
He smiled, then I snuggled deeper into his arms while resting my head against his chest.
"I love you," I said as I felt myself drifting off to sleep.
Pietro replied back, and I felt truly safe and absolutely secure in his love as I slept. I never wanted to be away from him, not ever.
The next morning, the rain was still pounding down. I could hear it on the roof, and when I shifted onto my back, I could feel the pressure on my bladder. Moving carefully, I sat up, then checked the clock on my phone. It was after 8:00 A.M. Placing the phone back on the table, I got out of bed, then went into the restroom to take care of my bladder. Once that was completed, I got back into bed, at which point Pietro took me in his arms.
"Sorry I woke you," I said.
He kissed my cheek then eased my head down on his chest. I fell immediately back to sleep feeling totally loved and safe as the love of my life held me.
When I awoke again, it was after 9:00 A.M. Pietro was sitting up and on the edge of the bed. Sitting up myself now, I kissed him on the cheek.
"Good morning," he said as he put his phone down on the table and typed with the other hand. "I was just checking my phone for messages. Fortunately, there aren't any."
"Cool," I answered. "Good morning to you too."
We got up. Then after brushing our teeth, we showered. Once dressed, I checked the weather on my phone. Though there wasn't any rain, it was still dark and cloudy outside. This didn't appear that it would be changing anytime soon.
After putting on my shoes and socks, Pietro had me help him with his, then we went out where Dad and Triston were in the kitchen. They were preparing breakfast. We all said good morning, and I got coffee for Pietro and I.
"We've got bacon, sausage, eggs and toast," Dad said. "Triston is having his usual pop tart."
"It's his day for it," I replied. "I mean, this is the second day he gets to have one aside from Tuesday."
"That's right," Dad answered. "He'd eat them every day if I'd let him."
"I'm sure he would," I replied.
Triston laughed, then we all sat down to eat.
Everything was really good, and after Pietro and I had seconds on the bacon and sausage, we were both full. We helped clean up the dishes, then Dad went into the living room to check his messages for a few minutes. Triston went into his room to listen to music, and Pietro and I went into the living room. I wanted to see what Dad wanted to do for the rest of that morning.
After putting his phone away, Dad talked about us all going into town to get stuff for that evening's dinner. He had most of it from when he got groceries the night before, but there were a couple more things he wanted to get. Pietro and I agreed to go with him. Once he got Triston, we were all in the car and pulling out of the driveway.
While we were in the car, Dad talked to us about getting lunch out somewhere, once he got the stuff from the store. We all said that sounded good. With that in mind, Dad pulled into the store parking lot. He let us know that he would be back in a couple of minutes and that left Triston, Pietro and I in the car. I made sure all our doors were locked, and so we all hung out waiting for Dad to return.
As we sat there, I was telling Pietro about how much I was looking forward to Thanksgiving that upcoming week. He agreed, and as we talked, Triston was making a few vocal sounds as he sat on my left looking out the window. I had been getting ready to say something to him after addressing Pietro, but that's when Triston was focused completely on whatever he was looking at.
"What are you over there talking about Triston?" I asked smiling as he moved closer to the window.
Something clearly had his attention, and he had himself pressed up against the car door now completely absorbed on whatever he was looking at.
"He's looking at two boys walking to one of the cars parked a couple of feet away," Pietro said. "The boys look like they're about our age."
Triston made a couple more vocal sounds of interest and joy, and I waited to see what would happen next. I was mainly making sure that he wouldn't try to get out of the car and run over to them. Sometimes some Autistic people do what's called eloping. As the word implies, they can run away from care givers, parents and other people with whom they're walking or riding. This is usually for one of two reasons. They're running to get away from something that's over-stimulating them. The second is that they're intensely interested in something and so they run to get to whatever it is. In any case though, their safety is the number one concern. This was no different with Triston.
I continued to wait, then Triston moved away from the door and scooted back close to me. He took out his AAC device and wrote quickly. It only took a second before he let it speak what he typed.
"Hot boys!" it spoke.
I couldn't believe what I had heard! I wasn't shocked in a bad way, nor did I think that Triston didn't have crushes. I just knew that he was 11, and since he hadn't talked about any girls or guys he liked, I figured that it would be a while before he started wanting to look at anyone romantically. It appeared that he was interested now!
"You're talking about those two boys you just saw?" I asked.
"Yeah!" Triston replied on his device as he rocked back and forth while he flapped his hands rapidly.
He was also making lots of happy sounds vocally as he stimmed. He did that a few more seconds, then he stopped rocking. His hands went still then he sat back as he scooted so that he was pressed up against me. I put an arm around him and he rested his head on my shoulder.
"Do you like any girls in that way?" I asked. "I mean like romantically?"
"No, just as friends," he answered. "I've always known I like guys."
"Does Dad know?" I asked.
"Not yet," he said. "I'm sure he'll be fine with it. I just needed some time to really accept it myself."
"I completely understand," I said. "I'll keep what you said to myself. I won't pressure you to tell Dad or anyone else."
"I'll keep it just between us as well," Pietro added.
"Thanks to both of you," Triston answered.
"You're welcome," we both said.
Suddenly I heard the car unlock, and Dad was opening the trunk to put in the remainder of the groceries.
Once he got back in the car, we headed off. As we rode along, we all discussed what to do next. We all decided on the bowling alley, so we headed there as the rain started up once again.
Author's Notes
I hope all of you enjoy this chapter, and the chance everyone is getting to be able to relax and enjoy one another. I'm sure you're all surprised at Triston turning out to be gay. I had been thinking about that for a while, and decided to put it in at some point. I figured that here in this chapter would be a good place. I hope you like how I handled it.
In the next chapter, you'll all get to read about the rest of the day everyone spends together first at the bowling alley, then back at the cabin. I hope you guys enjoy how it turns out.
Having said all that, I hope you're all having a good evening. I'll see everyone in Chapter 14.