Three Roads

This story contains adult and sexual situations between males. If this is not to your liking....well you know the drill.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three Roads: Chapter 26: The Calm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had just turned midnight, and another Christmas had arrived when Eric's cell phone began to ring. It was probably Jon, he thought. With the time difference between California and London, it was about eight o clock in the morning there. He lazily reached for his phone that was vibrating somewhat loudly on his night stand.

"Hello?" He said without even looking at the caller I.D.

"Hi." Cooper said, his voice sounded thick like he had been asleep.

"Oh, hey Cooper," Eric said surprised, "Have you been asleep?"

"No, I've just been in bed forever, I can't sleep. Did you think it was someone else?"

"Yeah, I thought it was Jon."

"He'd be calling you this late?"

"He is my boyfriend. And England is eight hours ahead."

"So you guys are like official now?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I've talked to him everyday since the break. It's weird to be in a relationship now. Like...I miss him so much even though we've talked every day."

"Wow, so I guess you guys really are an item now huh?"

Eric giggled, "I think so."

"I've been thinking." Cooper started.

"That's always scary." "No, seriously. I think we should tell our parents that we're gay."

Eric had been laying down, but he sat up quickly, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, don't you think it's time? You're in a relationship now and I'd like to tell my parents. It would be like I was there in spirit and you being there for me in spirit if we both told them over the break."

Eric didn't say anything for such a long time that Cooper yelled hello very impatiently into the phone.

"I'm thinking!"

After another long pause, "Ok, fine. By the time we get back to Sunnydale, our parents will know we're gay." Eric stated firmly.

"Homos."

"Queers."

"Cocksuckers."

Eric laughed, "I need to go bed, I'm tired. I'm glad we're doing this, you know telling our parents."

"Me too. Good night and Merry Christmas." Cooper said before hanging up the phone. Eric was able to fall asleep over the next few minutes, but Cooper had never been able to sleep very well the night before Christmas. It didn't help matters that he couldn't stop thinking about Eric. Had he really referred to Jon as his boyfriend?

Tim was startled awake by an insistent banging on his door. He tried to ignore it, particularly because he knew it was his little sister, Tathiana. She opened the door and Tim quickly reached for his covers. He normally only slept in his underwear and he certainly didn't want his little sister seeing him in his underwear; she had a knack for asking weird and uncomfortable questions.

"What?" Tim asked impatiently.

"Are you awake?"

"I am now." Toby looked over to his little sister standing in the doorway and he couldn't help but smile. She was wearing the Barbie pajamas he bought her last Christmas.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah." He sat patting the bed. She ran to the bed and sat down on the warm blue comforter, her legs dangling over the floor.

"Are you excited?" She asked him.

"About what?

"Christmas!! Duh!"

"It's a little different for adults. We don't get as many presents."

"Adult? You're not an adult!"

"Yes I am, I'll be nineteen soon."

"No," Tathiana shook her head wildly, her curly hair flying everywhere, "Mom and Dad are adults, you're still a kid."

"Ok." Tim said realizing he wasn't going to reason with her.

"I don't think I ever want to be an adult for Christmas time," she started after a few moments of silence, "I want to get lots of presents forever!"

Tim laughed, "When you become an adult though you concentrate on different things like family and friends and just having fun. You're just a bit more mature about it."

"Mom pulls this shit every Christmas morning!" Cooper said to his older sister Angela.

She looked up absentmindedly from a magazine she was reading, "What?"

"She knows we're excited about opening presents so naturally she's the last one to wake up and of course she has to make a cup of tea before we get started and baste the fuckin turkey! Ugh!"

"Awww, is the poor baby mad at his mommy?"

Cooper flicked his middle finger at his older sister and he yelped in surprise when she threw one of the numerous couch pillows at him. He hugged the pillow as he said, "I'm just so excited."

"Cooper," Angela began, as she had almost every Christmas since her younger brother had turned thirteen, "Christmas isn't for you anymore. You're too old."

"You're too old, I can see the wrinkles from here."

It was Angela's turn to stick up her middle finger. Their mom sauntered into the living room a few moments later as if she knew that everyone had been waiting on her; their father followed close behind. Cooper threw the couch pillow Angela had thrown at him across the room, almost hitting a very expensive vase.

"Give me the smallest one first, I want to save the biggest present for last!"

Toby and Richard had finally been able to inconspicuously pull themselves away from the party that was going on in Toby's living room and backyard. Toby loved being at home and almost immediately when he walked into his house and was greeted by his mom, he could feel his spirit slowly rejuvenating. Richard's mom had accepted the invitation and Richard was glad to see her out and about, though she had clung to him like white on rice and he was also glad to temporarily be free of her.

"Why did we come up here again?" Richard asked.

"For this." Toby said grabbing his boyfriend's crotch.

Richard laughed, but didn't push Toby's hand away, "We don't have time for that, I'm sure by now they've noticed we're gone."

"We've got a few more minutes," Toby said pushing Richard up against the wall, "I'm sure I can get you off with a blowjob before we're found."

"You're on." Toby needed no further invitation as he kissed his boyfriend hard and then quickly went down to his knees to not waste anytime. He noticed a small twinge in his left ankle, the ankle that had caused him to miss a few weeks of tennis last year. He cursed the entire game of tennis in his mind as the twinge seemed to dull then go away very quickly; the sport was tearing up his body for sure if he needed to stretch just to give a blowjob.

"Toby," Richard said patting his shoulder, "Toby!"

"What?" Toby said looking up at the boy standing over him. Richard motioned towards the door and Toby quickly jumped to his feet, feeling the twinge in his ankle once again, as he saw the wide eyed expression of his younger cousin.

"What are you doing?" The boy of no more than eleven asked.

"I was picking something off the floor." Toby said quickly.

"But there's nothing in your hand."

"Uhhh, that's cause it belongs to Richard, I gave it to him, I put it in his pocket."

"Were you guys doing gay stuff?"

Richard could take it no longer and exploded into laughter.

"What's so funny?" The boy asked.

"Nothing, he's just being an idiot." Toby said throwing Richard an annoyed look. "Am I gay?"

"Do you like girls?"

"Girls have coodies."

"You're eleven," Richard said from behind Toby, "Aren't we a little past coodies?

"You sounded a lot like Cooper there." Toby smiled.

"Thanks...I think."

"Anyway," Toby said turning back to his cousin, "Do you like boys?"

"I'm not sure if boys have coodies or not, I think I like girls better."

"Definitely not gay then." Toby said.

"Awww," his little cousin said, "I wanted to be cool like you."

Toby was touched, "You don't have to be gay to be like me."

"Right, just stay in school."

"And say your prayers!" A voice said appearing in the doorway.

"Hi, grandma" Both Toby and Richard said at the same time.

"Let's go downstairs," she said to her young grandson. She looked curiously at the two college boys and both stared back at her as emotionless as possible, "I know nothing is going on in here."

"Of course not grandma, we were just talking."

"I don't see or hear everything, but the Lord sure does."

She walked down the stairs and this time Toby joined Richard in the explosion of laughter. "Alright now!" They heard his grandma yell from downstairs.

Cooper heard the door open behind him and he turned to see Angela coming out of the house. He didn't say anything as she joined him on the front porch. She admired the lights that lit up the porch beautifully and the plastic snowmen sitting on the front lawn shined brightly in the moonlight.

"Christmas isn't even officially over yet and you're already sad?"

"I just hate to see it go, it's so wonderful. I would marry it if it was a person."

Angela laughed, "I guess a guy named Chris will have to do."

"I guess."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"When are you gonna tell mom and dad you're gay?"

"Why?"

"I'm just wondering. You go to school far away now, they don't really have much power over you. Why not just tell them?"

"Dad's only paying for school cause mom is making him, you know he never wanted me to go to California."

"That was two years ago."

"I'll tell them on my own time alright?"

"Alright, I was just asking. I just don't like when you mope, I like happy Cooper better."

"Me too. Angela, this year has been hard. I feel like I'm all over the place."

"Is it a boy?"

"Boys."

"We should just say fuck men, do we really need em?"

They exchanged glances and laughed, "Ok," she admitted, "We do."

"Yeah, I love you but I was going to say you're on your own on that one."

"Oh, I almost forgot, for New Years are you going to be here?"

"Yeah, aren't we going to have the Hwang party like we do every year?"

"Yeah, but there'll be a new addition." She waited for the news to sink in.

"You're pregnant?!"

"Yeah, and the baby's due on New Years. No, idiot, I'm bringing someone home, a guy."

"Already cheating with the enemy." Cooper smiled.

"You just be on your best behavior."

"Of course, what kind of person do you think I am?"

"I wanna freak in the morning, freak in the evening, just like me, I need a rough neck nigga that can satisfy me."

Joey looked over to his older brother David, who was either concentrating very intently on the road before him or he had completely tuned his younger brother out.

"In the morning I will take you around the hood on a gangsta lean, and we can pump pump anytime of day it's all good for me." Joey continued to sing the remainder of the song before he tried to get his brother's attention.

"You ok?"

"Yeah," David said absentmindedly. Joey sighed. It had seemed like a good idea to accompany his brother cross country to hopefully make it to New York to celebrate New Years, but he was starting to wonder if his decision had been a good idea. Saying that David wasn't the most talkative person was a sever understatement. He was a man of few words and so far most of their trip, which was over half completed, had been of very little conversation and mostly of Joey singing to songs from the eighties, nineties, and today.

"You wanna grab something to eat?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Joey said excitedly. He wasn't particularly hungry, but his brother was usually the most talkative during meals. They drove for another ten minutes before a freeway exit sign directed them to a gas station on one side of the fairly deserted street and a beat up shady looking restaurant on the other side. Both boys stretched as they vacated the car and seated themselves in the restaurant. Joey would swear that a cloud of dust flew into the air when he sat down at a booth. A waitress whose gums seemed to barely be holding onto her dentures took their drink order.

"You know this could be a current version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Joey said looking around. David smiled.

"Oh my God, a smile, haven't seen that in a while."

"What?"

"We've barely talked, I thought this was going to be a brother bonding trip."

"We're already bonded, we're brothers."

"Yes, but I'd like to talk too. You know have a conversation."

"Ok, what do you want to talk about?"

"Uhhh..."

"That's what I thought." David said with a smile. The waitress came back with their drink order and eventually served them their food. Joey had a chicken caesar salad and his brother had a steak, rare.

"Do you ever get lonely?" Joey asked his brother suddenly.

"No." Came the immediate response.

"That's it?"

"Yeah," David said expertly cutting a piece of steak off the bone, "Why would I be lonely? I have you and myself, what else do I need?"

"I don't know, don't you ever just want more out of life...like someone special."

"You are someone special."

"Not like that. I mean someone romantically."

David shrugged his shoulders, "I guess if it happened. But that stuff usually gets more complicated than it's worth." Joey nodded in agreement.

"You ready to head out?" David asked.

"Yeah, I need to take a leak before we go."

"Ok, I'll wait here."

As Joey stood up, a guy, who could only be described as looking like a stereotypical biker, walked by. He put two of his fingers in the shape of a v and then wiggled his tongue in between his two stretched out fingers.

"You're coming with me." Joey said looking at his brother.

"Where?"

"To the bathroom."

"Why?" "So I don't get murdered! Did you see that guy that just walked by?!"

They had driven another several hours before they decided to stop for the night. David had asked Joey to take care of getting a room for them for the night, while he made sure that the car was properly oiled. Joey walked in and was glad to not see a toothless wonder standing behind the counter. The motel seemed distant enough and they had free HBO.

"Hi, I wanted to get a room with two beds."

"Ok," the woman said without a smile, "For how many nights?"

"Just tonight, oh and can we have one that's close to a well lighted parking lot, we want to be able to keep an eye on the car."

"Sure."

"I'm worried about the car." Joey said twenty minutes later as David came out of the bathroom from his shower. As if it were an act of spite, the woman gave them a room that was in the very back corner of the motel and Joey could barely make out the car in the deep darkness that seemed to have engulfed the area surrounding the motel.

"Don't be, it'll be fine."

They had been asleep for what felt like a few hours when Joey was startled awake by a loud noise. He sat up, trying to gather himself. He looked to his right and saw that his brother looked to still be asleep. The loud noise came again and Joey realized that someone, or several someones, were banging on their motel room door.

"Open the fucking door!" A person yelled from outside the room.

"David! David!" Joey whispered as loudly as he could without screaming.

"Open the fucking door or we're coming in!" Joey leaped out of bed and scrambled to get to his brother.

"David!" Joey yelled shaking his brother, "Wake up!"

"We're giving you to the count of three before we kick this fuckin door in!"

Joey was now on top of his brother shaking him and slapping him to wake him, "David, there's someone out there!"

David finally came to and he was unusually alert for someone that had just been asleep, "What?"

"There's someone at the door, we got to get in the bathroom and lock the door before they get in here!"

David listened for a few moments and could here what sounded like a couple of guys counting, "Are you the police?!" David yelled from his bed.

"What are you doing?!" Joey said alarmed.

"Shhh."

"No, motherfucker, but you're going to wish we were if you don't open the fucking door."

"Fuck you asshole. If you're not the fuckin police then shut the fuck up cause I'm trying to sleep." David yelled.

Joey had now climbed under the covers; he knew gunshots were coming any second now.

"You don't know us like that bitch." The guy yelled.

"And you don't want to know me fuck face. Get away from the fucking door before I call the police."

Joey could hear footsteps shuffling, but after a few more moments all was quiet like it had been before. Joey emerged from under the covers to find his brother had already fallen back to sleep. Since his brother wasn't awake to voice any objections, not that he would anyway, Joey decided the best, and safest, bet was to sleep next to his brother for the night and hope the car was still there in the morning.

Cooper excused himself from the dinner table and made his way to the bathroom. He looked like the Cooper he had always thought he was, but he felt so different inside. Every previous new year had been filled with fun and laughter, and his parents always seemed to inexplicably become very different people and Cooper never loved being around them more, than he did during their New Years Eve parties. But there was someone new here who had thrown everything for a loop. Angela's boyfriend, ironically named Kevin, was perfect. He was good looking, dressed wonderfully, Cooper loved a man in black slacks, he was intelligent, had a great job, and was charming his parents left and right. It was obvious his parents liked him; they laughed at things that weren't even particularly funny, but Cooper was having a hard time laughing. He was insanely jealous of his sister. Not really because she had found a Kevin willing to be there for her, but because of how easily accepted he was into their family. Cooper knew it wouldn't be the same if he brought a boy home. His mom and dad wouldn't run away screaming, but the atmosphere wouldn't be as lighthearted and warm as it was for his sister.

"You ok?" His sister asked through the bathroom door.

He walked out of the bathroom door and smiled, "Yeah."

"I hope you're happy for me. I know it's hard, but you could have the same thing, you just have to have faith."

Cooper nodded, "I've got society against me, it's not that easy."

"I've never known you to feel sorry for yourself. Whoever this boy is that is causing you to be this way should be dropped immediately. I don't like this Cooper." She walked away from him and he could tell that she was annoyed, but that was Angela she always seemed to be annoyed about something.

Eric sat down in the living room with his mother. She was watching one of the numerous female/male cop shows, where the two leads were obviously attracted to one another but kept up the pretense of being no more than coworkers.

"I cut you a piece of cake." Carol said motioning to the coffee table as he sat down on the couch.

"Ooh, thanks." He said digging in.

"You don't have any plans tonight?"

"Not really."

"I thought you and Michael would have something planned."

Eric continued eating his cake, though he avoided eye contact with his mom, "No, I think he was already doing something."

"I see. Is the cake good."

"Really good. The icing is perfect."

"Thank you. You know I've been moved to the bakery at work now. I love it, maybe if I ever get myself settled I can open up my own bakery."

"That would be cool. You could call it Carol's Croissants."

They both laughed and neither could remember the last time they had shared a laugh.

"How was your semester, really?" Carol asked.

"It was good, I got an A or B in all my classes."

"I meant personally."

"I have friends, if that's what you mean. I still talk to Cooper, that's who I was just talking to on the phone."

"Did you meet anyone?" "Ummm...why?"

"I'm just trying to take an active interest in your life."

"If you're not really interested then don't pretend to be." Eric said getting up off the couch. He was running water over the dish he had just used. His mother appeared in the kitchen.

"I know, ok?"

"Know what?" Eric said staring into the garbage disposal of the sink. He knew where this was going and he felt that if he didn't stare at the garbage disposal he was going to pass out.

"I know that you are a homosexual."

Eric laughed despite the incredible tension between him and his mother. He found it incredibly funny that she had used the word homosexual.

"Stop laughing! I'm here trying to communicate with you because we haven't had much of a relationship in the last year and know that I know why I want to fix that."

" I was born this way, I can't be fixed so sorry to disappoint you." Eric was no longer laughing.

"I didn't mean that, I meant fix our relationship. But if you're too immature to handle a discussion about this then we will no longer talk about it." She walked back to where she was previously sitting in the living room.

"Immature? You used the term homosexual, it's gay mom, no one uses the term homosexual anymore."

"Fine," Carol said bursting into tears, "I guess I can't do anything right."

Eric watched his mom from the kitchen cry into her hands. His mother's crying seemed like an overreaction on her part, but he felt guilty enough to kneel down next to his mother, "Why are you crying?"

"Because, I feel I've failed you. You're my only child, how could this happen. I've never been able to give you all the things you deserved and should have had, and now you're a homosex...gay."

Eric wasn't angry this time, though he thought it was strange that she would blame herself for his being gay, "Mom, you had nothing to do with me being gay. It's just what happened."

"I already worry about you. There's enough craziness and destruction in this world without something like this. You need to be careful, Eric, very careful. There are dangerous dangerous people who would want to hurt you just because of who you are."

Eric swallowed heavily and tried not to cry, "Mom, I'm fine, I'll be ok, I'm always careful."

"Good," she nodded dramatically, " You're my son, first and foremost, and nothing changes that I love you more than anything else. I know that we don't agree on this, but you have to walk your own path in life and no one should stop you from doing that. Not even me."

"Ok. Thank you mom." Eric said wiping tears from his eyes. He hugged his mother for the first time in quite a while because he wanted to, not because he felt obligated.

"You want something to drink?" Toby asked Richard as the Ally McBeal marathon went to commercial.

"Yeah, thanks."

As Toby passed Richard stuck out his foot to trip his boyfriend, but Toby saw it and smiled.

"So not funny and anyway my ankle hurts, don't do that."

"The one you hurt last year?"

"Yeah, but I've just been practicing a lot, that's all." Toby said reading the expression on Richard's face.

"You should be wearing your brace whenever you play now."

"I can't run as fast with it on."

"It's better than not running at all," Richard said. He looked at the clock and realized they didn't have time to get drinks, "We can drink after, we've only got two minutes before midnight hits."

Toby grabbed the remote and quickly turned to one of the networks that always showcased the dropping off the ball.

"How exciting!" Joey said, looking up to the top of the tower where the ball would begin moving down any second now, "I can't believe we're here."

"Neither can I," David said smiling, "but I'm glad we are."

"Here!" Eric said shoving a plastic cup full of sparkling cider into his mother's hands, "It's almost time!"

Tim and Tathiana danced around the room, excited about the impending arrival of the New Year. His parents were sitting quietly on the sofa, watching their two kids dance and laugh in harmony for once. Normally, Tina would have asked them to be quiet, but they were getting along and nothing should interrupt such a rare and precious moment.

Cooper looked around to see his Mom and Dad holding hands in front of the tv and it made him smile. He also saw Angela sneak a small kiss to Kevin and she giggled as the crowd on TV began the ten second countdown. He stood in between the two couples, wondering where he would be next year during this time, would he still be alone. He felt his hand being pulled and he saw Angela smiling as she latched onto his hand. Even if he wasn't with someone, he wouldn't be alone, he had his family, problems and all, they would always be there for him.

This was a low key update, I know, but I promise things will start moving very quickly for the second half of the season. Hope you enjoyed it and don't be afraid to shoot me an e mail at tenniswiz12@msn.com. Would love to hear from you guys!