Chapter 9. Confrontation’s of past problems.

We watched the rest of the game as Brad got comfortable on me. Neither of us fell asleep since it was a really good game. We heard a door open out in the hallway and then shut as I settled into my spot on the bed. It happened again about a good thirty minutes after that too. My guess was Dante and Max were done talking for the night. Everyone was in their proper place now in the house and on TV, there was one out left in the game, we were winning. The game had run long like most did and we were at the three hour mark making it almost 1am since it was a west coast game. I was tired now and I was thinking since I haven’t heard anything from Brad, who is lying on me but mostly next to me, in a bit, he might be asleep. I am gonna check now. I reached out, grabbed his cock, and gave it a soft squeeze. He didn’t react or say anything so he must be asleep. The pitcher walked the next batter and the winning run for the other team was now at bat. I had my toes, fingers, and Brad’s balls crossed for good luck. The count was 2-2 on the batter, the next pitch he lined out to shortstop ending the game. I cheered and Brad woke up from the commotion when I moved.

“Is the game over?” he said in a groggy voice.

“Yes, it just ended. Roll off me so I can get up, my butt is asleep.”

Brad rolled off me, then he got up and started to strip for bed. I followed doing the same but first I went over and shut my door the rest of the way until it latched closed. I turned and Brad was pulling the covers down and getting into bed, so all I saw was cute ass cheeks as he had his back to me. He got in on his side of the bed. I went over and sat on mine. A minute later, I was naked too. I got into bed and put out the light, which was next to my bed. It was a nasty humid April night outside so I left the door to outside shut. The central air was on anyway so it didn’t matter. Shortly after that, we were asleep, for some reason I was having trouble sleeping and I woke at 3:30. I got up, put shorts on, and then headed down to take a piss. After that, I decided to get a drink so I went down to the kitchen and grabbed some cold milk. That was a good choice and always seemed to work for me. I stood by the refrigerator and finished my milk, and then I headed back up to my room. Brad was out cold and sleeping well when I left. Rare but good. Hopefully he will stay that way. On the way up, I heard some noise and figured he was now having a nightmare but when I got to the room, he was still asleep. I turned and walked a few steps back out into the hall to listen and heard nothing. ‘Weird!’ I thought to myself. I walked back to my door and I heard it again so I followed it to Dante’s room. I cracked his door open but the room was too dark to see anything. It didn’t matter. He was moving enough to tell me something was wrong. Then he yelled out… “No… no… not my butt… please…” and he got quiet right after that. I watched from the doorway for a bit. He seemed still now so I went to shut his door. As I did, he sat up and yelled out something I couldn’t make out. I ran over and asked him if he was okay.

“Who is that?” he said in a frightened tone.

“It’s me Dylan. Dante are you okay?”

“No, I had another of my bad dreams,” he said with panic in his voice.

‘Oh great… as if dealing with Brad wasn’t enough now Dante too? What’s next Phil?’ I thought to myself.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” I said with great reserve.

“Not really Dylan. I am used to dealing with them by myself, but I won’t chase you away if you want to sit with me for a while.”

“Sure, I don’t mind at all. You want the light on or off?”

“Leave it off please. It’s too bright for my eyes right now.”

I used whatever light I had to guide myself to his bed and I sat as close as I could without sitting on him. He was now sitting up with his feet on the floor, so we were basically inches apart. It didn’t feel right so I moved away about a foot or so.

“You don’t have to do or say anything Dylan. Its just nice having someone close by when this happens.”

“So you don’t want Max?”

“No! Please… he has enough trouble right now. The last thing I want is to wake him up for this.”

“Okay, sorry.”

My eyes started to adjust to the lack of light and I was now able to get a better idea of how and where he was seated, and how close I was to him. I actually was within one or two feet when I looked over. I sat, waiting for a clue as to what I could do and it didn’t take long for him to give me one. He quickly moved closer to me until we touched and he put his head on my shoulder. I responded by putting my arm around him, across his back, my hand up onto his right shoulder.

“Thanks Dylan, that feels good.”

“It sure does,” I replied.

“Is there anything else I can do for you? You want water or something?”

“No thanks. I am very happy just like this.”

I gave him a little hug and he didn’t say anything. After a few minutes of doing nothing but this, he sat up and I dropped my arm down. Just for the hell of it, started rubbing his back a little.

“Wow, that feels great Dylan, thanks.”

“Welcome. Tell me if you want me to stop.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

I chuckled as I could tell he was kidding with me by his tone. I continued running my nails up and down his tee shirt, each time I went a little lower but not so low that I touched his butt or anything.

“You are amazing Dylan,” he finally said. “You have a boyfriend who is almost directly across the hall and yet you show me all this attention when you don’t have to do anything. You didn’t have to come here or do a thing. I would have been fine alone eventually but you did come and check on me. You came in and made me feel a lot better all over.”

“Thanks DJ… ummm, what do you mean all over?”

I thought I knew what he meant, but I wanted to play dumb just to see what his answer would be.

“Is it okay if I show you instead of telling you Dyl?”

“Sure, I guess.”

With that, he took hold of my hand and brought it straight down into his crotch. His cock was solid and pointing up trying to escape his boxers or whatever he was wearing. I immediately pulled away as instinct took over.

“I’m sorry Dylan… I just thought after we kissed before that you might be interested in more.”

“Don’t be sorry Dante, you just shocked me. I didn’t expect that at all.”

Of course, I was lying, but I had to do this my way or I would have sounded way too easy to get and that could have lead to anything as far as I was concerned in my mind.

“So, since I shocked you, would you like to try again? This time at least you will know what rubbing my back did.”

“You mean just me rubbing your back did that to you?”

“Yup,” He said.

He reached out, grabbed my arm again, and brought it over, putting it back in the same spot. This time I didn’t pull away. Instead, I made the most of it and started feeling him. He felt solid and without a doubt he was poking up from what I could now tell was his boxers. He seemed up as much as he could get, I just couldn’t see it to be totally sure. I felt around and cupped the head of his cock through his boxers, with my fingers and sure enough, he let out a low moan as I touched him that way.

“Wow… that feels so awesome,” he said gasping.

I didn’t say anything, I just continued to play some more. I rubbed my fingers over the head of his cock still from the outside of his boxers. I could hear him doing something but I wasn’t quite sure what. He was definitely enjoying this besides whatever he was doing. I rubbed for a little longer and I thought he felt wet now. Sure enough, he was leaking precum. His boxers were now wet at the point where tip of his penis was touching them. I was totally turning him and me on.

“Are you enjoying this?” I asked rather jokingly since I already knew the answer.

“Oh yeah, a whole lot. Please don’t stop.”

“I don’t really mind DJ, but there are so many other ways to do this that are a lot easier than you letting me play through your boxers. Why don’t you just take them off and lay back and we can really do this right.”

“Ummm, I don’t know Dyl… I’m a little worried and…”

“And what?” I said abruptly. “Its 3:30 in the morning, everyone is asleep but us and it’s dark in here,” I added in a gruff voice.

“Thanks but… I just don’t think I am ready for that yet.”

“Okay…” I said with some disgust in my voice. “I am gonna stop and let you go back to bed.”

“No… you don’t have to stop.”

“Yeah, I think I do. I really don’t think you are ready for more yet, not if you feel this way about going any farther and getting undressed.”

I got up off his bed.

“Thanks for sharing… good night Dante.”

I turned and headed out pulling his door closed behind me, as he said nothing to stop me or thank me. I was hurt. I went back into my room and dropped my shorts, exposing my own raging hard cock now. I lay down, gave it a few strokes, and tried to just fall back to sleep. Eventually, it got soft and slowly I fell back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was morning, the room was light and I was awake. Brad slept through the night without a peep for a change, I suddenly realized I had to pee. I put my feet on the floor and stretched out my arms to loosen my body from its tight sleepiness. The stretch felt great. I got up, threw on shorts, and headed to the door. As I was walking down the hall, the urge to go grew stronger. Thankfully the bathroom was empty, so I went in, did my thing, washing my face and hands after was done peeing and then I headed back to my room. On the way back, I noticed Phil’s door was already open so he was awake or out of the house by now. I got to my room and checked the time it was 8:30. I threw on a shirt and headed down to see if Phil was here. I was going to try my magic and see if he would bite. Surely enough when I got to the kitchen he was there making something to eat.

“Not going to the diner this morning Phil?”

He turned to look at me.

“Good morning young lad, you are up early.”

“Morning, I know,” I said. “With everything that’s going on in this house, I really couldn’t get back to sleep,” I said lying but also making my point.

“I suppose we could discuss that some then if you want Dylan, but let me get my toast first,” he said.

“Sure,” I said, going for a glass of OJ.

As I sat with my OJ, he joined me with his toast.

“No breakfast this morning Phil,” I once again asked.

“Maybe later, right now I just wanted something to settle my stomach.”

“Oh,” I said no longer wanting to pursue this line of questioning. “So it’s okay to talk before the others get up now?”

“Sure Dylan, be my guest,” he said.

“After last night and you telling me I should talk to Max, I did what you said. Phil something is seriously wrong, he won’t tell me what it is and I respect that but…” I paused hoping for some sign of sympathy or anything I could work with from him.

“But what Dylan?” he said.

“But… I think if you don’t mind me saying, with all due respect Phil, since you sent me to talk to him about his punishment, I feel a little need to comment on this.”

“By all means Dylan, speak your mind.”

“After talking to Max last night, he has a lot on his mind Phil. He is really worried about Lisa, his brother, his mom, and his dad right now. Even though he made a mistake last night by speeding, I think you need to cut him some slack right now and if you really feel he needs to be punished for speeding, I am sure he understands. But, would you wait until he can settle some of his problems first?”

“So you think I should cut him some slack, do you know what’s up with Lisa, Dylan?”

“No Phil, even as upset as he was, he wouldn’t tell me, but I think you need to know he was crying openly in front of me last night so, whatever it is seems to be serious.”

Phil’s facial expression changed when I said that. I had a feeling what I said might have gotten to him just then. Max rarely, if ever cried, since moving in here from what I knew. I at least hope I got somewhere after I said that to him in a very low voice.

“I see,” he said taking another bite from his toast. “You might be right then Dylan. I’ll have a talk with him when he gets up, but if you will excuse me right now something I ate last night isn’t agreeing with me and I need to use the bathroom quickly.” he said, looking at me as he got up from the table. “Thank you for telling me all that, I will work it out with him.”

He quickly walked away heading for the bathroom. I swallowed my last drop of OJ, put the glass in the sink, and headed back upstairs. As I approached the top step, I saw Dante. He was in his doorway and I wondered if he heard what I was talking to Phil about downstairs. I let it go because I was still a bit upset after he cock teased me this morning so I didn’t really do or say anything other then nod as I approached him. He looked at me but didn’t say anything as I turned to go into my room, shutting the door almost all the way behind me. I was hungry and felt like going to eat now but not alone, it was time to wake sleeping beauty anyway. I went over and sat on the bed. I looked at him for a little bit and then I leaned over and started giving him small kisses all over this face for a few seconds. He slowly began to stir and finally he opened his eyes and looked at me.

“Morning sleepyhead,” I said.

“Hi,” he replied.

“From the looks of it you had a good sleep last night. I don’t remember hearing you once.”

“Yeah, it was great. I slept without one bad dream. It was really great!”

“I’m happy for you Brad, that means that something good had to come from you seeing that doctor.”

“No JD that just means I finally slept good with you at my side, but I am happy either way,” he said.

He pulled the covers off and sat up on the other side of the bed as I watched. Then he stood and all I saw was cute boy ass.

“Damn that’s nice!” I said sarcastically.

He turned to me and I was now being treated to his front side, and his soft cock, which lay nicely over his sweet hanging balls at the moment.

“I love it when you treat me so early in the morning Brad.”

He grabbed his shorts and pulled them up ruining my view.

“Hey, why did you do that?” I asked jokingly.

“Because I have to pee and you aren’t going to get near that until I do.”

“Ewwww, I’m not going to put that in my mouth after you pee,” I said as I continued to tease him.

“Why not, you have before,” he said back to me smiling.

“That’s just wrong… or maybe not, I might like that,” I said.

“You are gross JD! Sometimes you just…” he stopped and headed out of the room.

I laughed as he left knowing once more I got the final word and it was a good one. I walked out to the hall to watch him go down and as he headed down the hall Max’s door opened and he came out just as Brad shut the door to the bathroom.

“Shit!”

I heard Max from the end of the hall. He stood there apparently having to get into the bathroom badly. Now he had to wait or go downstairs and hope Philip wasn’t in that one. He looked up the hall and saw me and then I guess he decided that he would come up to me while he waited or maybe he was just going downstairs. As he approached me, he wasn’t slowing down.

“Hey, I gotta go, I’ll talk to you later,” he said hurrying by.

“No problem,” I replied.

He flew by me and down the steps as I turned to head back into my room. I heard a door open as I entered my room and I assumed Dante must have heard his brother’s voice and popped out into the hall. I wasn’t going back out to see regardless. I was just waiting for Brad to come back so we could go up the block for some breakfast and then see where the day would take us. As I sat on the bed, I thought about Jon. I didn’t talk to him last night with so much going on here. I looked at the clock it was 8:45 and figured it was too early to call him. As I sat thinking, Brad finally came back into the room.

“Hey B, you really pissed Max off,” I said jokingly.

“Huh, what did I do?” he asked.

“Just as you went into the bathroom Max came out of his room and headed there and he looked like he had to go really bad,” I smiled as I said that.

“Great, now he will be mad at me,” Brad said.

“No I won’t,” a voice came from the hall. “I mean I had to go but I am not going to get mad at anyone because I was beat into the bathroom,” Max said coming into view outside our open door.

“Hey, you feeling better now?” I asked.

“A little, I was up most of the night thinking about Lisa and everything else. I think I finally fell asleep around 2,” Max said.

“Did you come up with any ideas or anything to make you feel better,” I asked.

Max walked into the room, a little closer to us.

“No, I didn’t, all I did do was lose sleep and hope things would have gotten better in the morning when I got up. I still have to face Phil and I really don’t want to Dyl.”

I got up off the bed as Brad walked by me.

“I’m going to get dressed,” Brad said, leaving the room and Max alone with me.

“Go talk to Phil, Max. I think you might be surprised.”

“What…?” he cracked a smile. “Did you do something else for me?”

“Go talk to him, that’s all I am going to say,” I smiled back.

He came over and hugged me knowing I did something. “Dylan, you are the BEST Man!” He messed my hair and turned to leave heading directly back downstairs probably going to see Phil I assumed. He hurried down the steps looking for Phil. He found him sitting in his chair reading the morning paper with some classical music on low in the background.

“Morning Phil, can we talk?” Max said.

“Yes young man we can, I suspect you have some things to tell me?”

“Well, I have a few, but I can’t really say a lot just yet. I am sorry about last night, the speeding and using your name Phil, but it’s just been crazy lately. My mom is going to call today with news about my dad. I am scared he might do something to her Phil. Just having Dante back in my life is wild, and then all this stuff with Lisa, I lost it last night in front of JD…” he got quiet.

“I know son, I know. You are quite lucky you have such a good friend in JD. He stood up for you last night and again this morning. As much as he can be a thorn sometimes Max, he made me proud too. I watched him defend you both times and I knew that no matter what I wanted, he wanted to win for you even more.”

“I don’t know what to say about Dylan. He is very special even though he has his moments when I want to kill him sometimes,” Max said with a straight face.

“You might want to, I might want to, but he seems to take it to the next level when he has to and just because of that I respect him very much at times Max. You might want to do that too young man.”

“I don’t follow Phil?” Max said with confusion in his voice.

“Let’s say that after he and I talked, he made me understand your point of view a little better.”

“So does that mean you aren’t going to punish me?” Max asked.

“For now I will give you a break, but you will pay for speeding eventually Max. I will think about your punishment after things settle down with your family and Lisa. I will make my point with you regardless of whether you like it or not.” He stood up and walked over to Max who was still standing about three feet from him as he got up. “I love you Max, regardless of whether you have family or not. You have been with me two years and if I lost you in an accident, or anything else bad happened because I wasn’t strict enough, I would be totally devastated.” He put his hands on Max’s shoulders. “You need to learn to slow down my lad. It might sting a little when I am done with you, but at least you will be alive to feel that sting. This time I will probably be a bit more lenient with you but I swear Maxwell… if one more police officer mentions your name and speeding in the same sentence you will learn that I am very serious about keeping my word. You will lose that car for a week if not longer. Do not let me down my boy, please?”

Phil’s voice begged some as he finished with a somewhat calm but stern demeanor in his tone, looking Max directly in the eyes as both hands gently squeezed his shoulders. He brought the boy to him in a hug. Max hugged him back as both held each other closely.

“I promise I will do my best not to let you down again Phil,” Max said as they broke their embrace.

“Good and… if you need some help with Lisa, remember I am here for that too,” he said smiling.

“I know, and I will remember,” Max added.

“Now get yourself together, I feel well enough that I am going down to the diner. We will have a family breakfast, go get your brother and we can walk down together with Brad and JD.”

“I will Phil,” he said turning to go.

“One more thing Max, in your own way you might want to make sure you let JD know. He was strongly in your corner for all this.”

“I will Phil, I will.”

Max was showing a little perplexed attitude at the moment but mostly it was worry from last night along with everything else with his family was going through so Phil just let him go without anything further. Max turned and headed out of the study and upstairs as Phil gradually followed the tormented boy, heading to his own room once he climbed the steps, to put on other clothes for his walk down to the diner. Brad was coming down the hall now as Phil approached his room. He passed Phil acknowledging him. Phil briefly told him that they were going to breakfast and asked him to let Dylan know and to wait so they could all walk down together. Brad said he would tell Dylan when he got back to his room. At the same time, Max was in talking to Dante as Brad then walked past and waved before going in to tell Dylan what was happening.

“Dyl, we are getting ready to go eat,” he said walking into his room and closing the door behind. “Phil told me we are leaving and walking down to the diner as a group directly.”

“That sounds good Brad. Are you ready to see the other doctor later?”

“No, but only because I don’t want any more bad news, I know I have to Dyl but I am scared.”

“I know Brad, I know,” he said taking Brad into a hug. “This will be good for you, I just know it and maybe if this guy knows his stuff he will be able to give you some meds for when you can’t sleep, instead of just giving you meds for the hell of it.”

“I hope so,” Brad said to Dylan with a somber look on his face.

“Okay everyone lets go,” Came from the hall as Phil yelled out to the four boys.

As Phil turned and walked towards the steps, two doors opened wide and then closed behind them as four boys came out following him down the steps. They made small talk as the group walked down the street to the diner for breakfast. Five hungry bellies were about to have a big breakfast and more small talk too, as they sat down to eat and planned their day.

“So Dylan what are you going to do later?” Phil asked.

“I think I am going to meet up with Jon and go bike riding or in the pool,” Dylan replied.

“Just remember, if you go in the pool what the rules are about horsing around,” Phil said.

“I will,” Dylan said looking up from the menu.

“That sounds great…” Dante piped in. “I feel like getting some rays, I think I will lay out at the pool for a bit,” he added.

That got Dylan’s attention. Even though he was still a little upset with Dante from their bedroom encounter last night, he wasn’t about to miss that opportunity. He looked at Brad who smiled as he thought about that too and then quickly frowned as he realized he would probably be at the doctor by then and miss it. Dylan, as if reading his mind gently gave his leg a squeeze under the table as both boys glanced at each other from behind their menus.

“Brad you will be with me for a while, we have to see the doctor at noon. Then the rest of the day is yours,” Phil said as he looked or tried to look at Brad through his menu.

Brad dropped his menu and looked at Phil shaking his head yes in agreement. Phil then looked at Max.

“You have any plans you want to talk about?” he asked.

“No, not right now,” Max vaguely replied with a bit of anguish in his voice.

Finally, Eileen freed herself up and walked over to them.

“Hi boys,” She said with a chipper, smiling face. “Are all of you ready to order?”

One by one, she took each order as the boys placed them. Then she looked at Phil.

“What will you have today?” she asked.

“A couple of pouched eggs and dry toast with tea,” he said to her.

“You feeling okay today?” she asked after the bland order.

“Not 100% Eileen.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that sugar,” she smiled at him as she reached for the menus before leaving the table to place their orders.

Eileen was genuine. What you saw was what you got. She might love to gossip and she couldn’t wait to pass on the latest news when she got it from someone, but she was truly concerned for all her customers when she asked about them. That was one of several reasons why Phil kept her there and put up with her gossipy attitude most of the time.

“You okay Phil?” asked a concerned Brad.

“I’ve had better mornings Bradley, but I will be fine eventually, thank you,” Phil said with half a smile on his face.

Eventually the food came and they ate over the next half hour, adding side orders until everyone was full. Finally, they were done eating and Eileen came over once more to ask if anyone else wanted something before they left. No one did and Phil dropped a five on the table for her tip as they got up to leave. It was close to 11 now as they walked back up the small hill as a group. Phil occasionally waved to people as they drove by and beeped their car horns at him.

“Boy Phil you sure know enough people,” Dante said.

“He only waved to three cars! How can you say that?” asked Max.

“I was just saying, we walked maybe a block and so far he has already waved three times,” Dante replied to his attitude laden brother.

“It’s okay Dante,” Phil said. “Your brother isn’t in the best of moods right now.”

“Yeah I can tell,” Dante replied

The rest of the short walk went quietly except for one more car, one more beep, and one more wave, which made Brad, Dylan, and then Dante giggle, with Max acting like his world was over with a cantankerous look on his face. They all entered the house and for now, each went their own way. Dylan went to the phone in his room and called Jon. Two rings and Jon picked up the phone.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hey Jon its JD, what’s up man? You alone?”

“JD! I’ve been hoping you would call all morning. Yeah, I’m alone, mom went to work, I got up and she left me a note with things I have to do, but I have all day to do that.”

“Okay cool, want me to come over?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah I really do and I hope you are in the mood… if you get me,” Jon said snickering.

“Okay Jon, I’ll be over as soon as Philip and Brad leave.”

“Great, how long JD?”

“Probably thirty minutes I guess.”

“Okay, I’ll be waiting, see ya then,” Jon said.

“Right, see ya then.”

Both boys hung up their phones. Dylan turned and standing in the doorway was Dante looking at him.

“Going somewhere?” he said.

“Yes I am, not that it’s any of your business,” Dylan replied coldly.

“Okay… I hear ya. Sorry I asked,” Dante said back with a tone of resentment in his voice.

He turned and walked away without saying anything else leaving Dylan to ponder if he should apologize or just leave it be.

“Wait!” Dylan yelled out running to the doorway.

As he got there Dante, who was already in his doorway and ready to go inside his room, turned around and looked at him but said nothing.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so rude just then,” Dylan said.

Dante stood there looking at Dylan but not saying anything.

“It’s just that last night… it was… well, I just thought something else was going on,” Dylan said with some shame in his voice.

“What happened last night?” a voice rang out from down the hall.

Dante turned around and Dylan looked the same way. It was Max walking towards them. He had a curious look on his face instead of the angry one that he has been carrying so far today.

“What happened last night, I said?” Max asked again, this time a bit louder.

“Nothing bro, I had a nightmare and Dylan heard me and came in to try and help,” Dante said obviously covering up what really happened.

“Oh,” Max said with surprise. “You had another nightmare?”

“It’s the first one in a while, and the first that was that strong. They have been mild until last night. Dylan heard it and came in to check on me. That’s all,” Dante replied sternly.

Max looked at his brother and then at Dylan.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” said Max.

“Sorry for what?” both boys almost asked in unison.

“I don’t really know…” Max said. “I am not in a very good mood today, I wasn’t thinking it just came out wrong, sorry guys.”

Max looked at Dylan as if he wanted to say more or maybe he was going to yell but nothing came out. He started to walk away without saying another word and he went downstairs. Both boys looked at each other not sure what to make of it.

“Was that my brother?” Dante asked oddly.

“Yeah, I think it was, but where is the real Max?” Dylan said with a worried look on his face. “I think last night really got to him or something serious is going on.”

“I know Dylan but what?” Dante asked.

“I wish I knew… I really do,” Dylan replied. “I gotta go, I am meeting a friend and I don’t want to be late. See ya later Dante,” he headed to the steps and then he stopped and turned around to look at Dante, “Are we okay?”

“Yeah, we are fine, have fun with your friend,” replied Dante.

“I plan to,” Dylan said back to him with an excited look on his face.

Dante was unsure of what Dylan meant by that since he didn’t know whom he was going to see. He didn’t really know Dylan well enough yet to jump to any major conclusion though a thought briefly crossed his mind about it possibly being something sexual the way Dylan just acted. But, as quickly as it came, it went. He went back into his room to think about what he was going to do. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to watch TV, jerk off, or to go out and tan by the pool or… go outside with a TV and jerk off by the pool…(kidding) Meanwhile Philip was getting ready to take Brad to the doctor as Max walked into the kitchen.

“Phil, I am going to see Lisa,” he said.

“Okay Max, I hope whatever the problem is works out for you.”

“Thanks Phil, I do too,” Max replied as he turned to leave.

Phil then turned his attention on Brad.

“Okay Bradley lets go,” Phil said looking at the boy.

Brad started to walk slowly towards the door as if he were purposely moping along not wanting to get this done for some reason. Phil quickly got his attention.

“Bradley I am doing this is for you, not me son. If you don’t want to go tell me now, you can stay here. I am not forcing you to go my young lad.”

He stopped at looked at Phil.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t know what I want after seeing that last guy. I’m…” he paused.

“Scared?” Phil said answering for him.

“Yeah… I guess I am.” Brad said in an ashamed tone.

“I know Bradley, just don’t get your hopes so high, and wait until after you talk to him. Maybe it will work out a lot better this time,” Phil said. “There isn’t anything to be scared of, you know you have a lot of people who care about you and that is what matters.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Brad picked up the pace as Phil followed him out of the house shutting the door behind him. This left Dante all alone in the house. At the moment, he didn’t even know it. Meanwhile, Dylan was on his bike peddling over to Jon’s house, thinking about what will probably happen when he gets there. He reached down and adjusted his hardening cock, as it seemed to get tangled up between the bike seat and his boxers. He looked up and thought he caught someone out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look but no one was there. He swore someone was moving or running along side of the corner house he just passed. He turned his bike around and headed over out of curiosity. He rode around the corner and passed the house on the other side to see if anyone was there. As he peered around the corner from the street, he thought he saw someone again. He rode onto the right side lawn of the home and got a glimpse of them. As he looked, it appeared to be Jake.

“Hey!” he yelled out.

The boy stopped, looked, and then ran in the other direction away from Dylan, deep into the backyard of the house he was at, trying to get away from the threat. Dylan didn’t want to cause any problem so he decided not to follow even though he really wanted to catch up with the boy. Right now though, he wanted Jon a little more so Jake will have to wait. He wasn’t about to go through peoples yards to catch or try to catch him. He turned his bike back around and started to peddle once again. Back out into the street towards Jon’s house. He wasn’t that far away to start with after his little episode with Jake and he quickly arrived at Jon’s front door. Jon was there waiting and immediately opened the door when he saw Dylan. He stood there looking up and down his block like he was about to do something bad and he didn’t want anyone seeing who was about to enter his house as he waiting patiently for Dylan to park his bike next to the front stoop. Dylan finally got off and headed up the front steps to meet Jon at the top landing. He quickly invited him inside shutting the door behind. Jon was wearing a tee shirt and shorts at the moment and a pair of sandals with no socks on.

“You got here pretty fast,” he said smiling.

“Would have been faster but I saw that Jake kid,” he said to Jon.

“Jake? Who’s Jake?” Jon said walking to the door.

“Oh, I thought you knew,” Dylan said.

“Know what, who is Jake?” he said once more with a very puzzled look on his face, as he turned to face Dylan.

“Let’s go inside and I’ll explain,” said Dylan.

Once Dylan went by Jon, he opened the door to look outside once more, as it was clear there was some level of paranoia in the boys head with this visit. He then shut the door after feeling secure about everything and followed Dylan inside.

“Jake is a runaway as far as we know. He has been roaming around town for about a week now, maybe longer. I saw someone over on Maple and Fifth, on my way here, out of the corner of my eye so I stopped to look. I was curious so I rounded the corner to the other side of the house and he was in the backyard. My guess is he saw me and ran to hide so when I went back, I saw him heading off deeper into the backyard. I yelled, he stopped, looked, and then ran. I wanted to get here so I didn’t bother chasing him in through people’s backyards.”

“Wow, I guess that was smart not to go into anyone’s backyard and chase him. You never know what could have happened,” Jon said with a concerned look on his face.

“I agree, besides… the right time will come, I just know it Jon. I’m worried for him being out there alone but… really, what can I do, what can any of us do as long as he doesn’t want help,” Dylan said.

“He must want something JD or he wouldn’t be hanging around, maybe he feels safe here since there aren’t a ton of people around all the time. It is a pretty quiet neighborhood.”

“Good point Jon, I never thought much about that till now,” added Dylan.

“Dyl, we can talk more about this if you want, but I would rather get upstairs and… ya know.”

“Ya, I know Jon, you’re horny,” Dylan said.

“Kinda,” Jon said shyly, turning a little red in the face.

“Don’t give it a second thought Jon. I had to adjust myself on the way over. I was thinking about it that much.”

Jon smiled. “Kewl! Let’s get to my room.”

He turned to go to the steps and Dylan followed quickly. Both boys climbed the steps on one another’s tail but neither made contact to the top. Jon stopped at the top and waited for Dylan to come even with him at the top. Then he reached out and grabbed him gently by the shoulder.

“I feel almost as scared as I did last time JD, does it go away?”

“I’m not really sure, it’s always exciting to see someone naked and even better when they are with you but I got used to it with Brad after a while.”

“Really?” he asked as they walked into his room. “What do you mean used to it, in what way?”

“There are only so many times you can see someone naked and be with that person before you get used to it or maybe comfortable with them.”

“And you and Brad are that way?”

“Yeah… it’s awesome how we are when we are together Jon. He doesn’t think or blink to get naked in front of me or in my room… for me to walk in on him when he is changing or the other way around.” Jon was staring at Dylan almost as if he were hanging on every word. “Ummm Jon… you there?” Dylan asked waving his hand in front of his face.

“Yeah, sorry Dyl, I was just thinking about you and Brad naked… or just how good you and he are together. Then I started to think why you wanted to be with me. Sorry, I am just not used to having anyone this interested in me, even more… as close to me as you are getting now Dyl.”

“Its okay Jon, really… if you are that concerned we don’t have to do anything but hang out.”

“I’m not that crazy JD. You are freaking hot! I didn’t get this far to back down, that’s for sure.”

“Thanks Jon,” Dylan said turning a bit red in the face.

“Sorry Dyl, it’s just been a real exciting spring vacation. I never dreamed this week would be this much fun. Usually vacation week is boring and lonely. I spend it in front of the TV or mom leaves me a bunch of chores to do. She knows we are hanging out together so she has been really cool so far.”

“I bet, thanks for changing the subject. Do you want to talk about school or sex?” Dylan asked.

“Duh, come on, lets have fun… oh and I did shower before too Dyl, I won’t let that happen again.”

Dylan smiled and looked at him.

“Good. You interested in trying something new this time?” Dylan asked.

“Like what?”

“I was thinking either a blow job or some nut play, whatever gets you in a hotter mood.”

“JD… that might not work, remember I am really sensitive.”

“I remember, but you also said that you didn’t know how it would be if you didn’t try it. So, if you don’t want to try something else, things are going to get old really fast Jon.”

“I’ll think about it okay. For now let’s get undressed.”

‘Yeah, let’s undress.’ Dylan thought to himself. ‘This is going to be real fun, NOT!’ With a little of his kinky side wanting to try for something new, he reached down and started to kick off his sneakers as Jon sat on his bed to take his off. ‘This could go really fast or… I guess I should wait and not get upset…’ he thought to himself as he looked at Jon briefly before focusing back on himself and lowering his pants. He was already wondering as he watched them drop to the floor, if this would be the last trip to Jon’s place in the back of his stubborn head. Then he looked up from undressing himself and saw Jon. He was standing there in just his boxers with half an erection poking from them. His skinny, but quite solid, fine looking naked chest above it just begging Dylan for it to be touched. A big proud smile on his once very shy face, all the other perfectly placed parts on his sleek and precious body immediately made any thought of leaving vanish from Dylan’s mind.

“Nice…,” Dylan said, blushing some himself for his negative thoughts as he took a step closer to the older boy. ‘What was I thinking!’ he thought to himself.

“Thanks Dyl, you are pretty hot looking too.”

“Let’s go to the bed,” Dylan said.

Both boys walked over and crawled onto Jon’s decent sized bed. Dylan reached out for Jon’s chest as they got settled in and started to rub it. He slowly worked his way down to Jon’s boxers. Let the fun begin!

“That feels great and at the same time weird Dyl…” Jon said as he watched and felt Dylan’s fingers roll down his chest and settle on the lump in his boxers.

“If that feels weird then this should help,” said Dylan as he smiled at Jon grabbing the prize in front of him.

He reached into the slit of his boxers and pulled out his hardening dick. Slowly he ran his fingers up and down it a few times before wrapping his hand around it and slowing stroking up and down a few more times. Jon immediately fell back onto his bed and closed his eyes as the feeling from Dylan’s hand started to control his every emotion. Jon let his body go all but limp as Dylan sped up his dry stroking of Jon’s erection. This caused Jon to take a deep breath and let out a full-length gasp easily showing the level of pleasure he was experiencing at the moment. Dylan then stopped for a moment and grabbed the waistband of Jon’s boxers. Jon watched Dylan as he began to lower them. He lifted his butt from the bed to make things easier. Jon’s cock disappeared inside the boxers for a brief moment as the boxers passed from his belly and slid slowly down past his groin. As quickly as it was gone, it popped back up as the top of the boxers set it free. Dylan then yanked them down the rest of the way leaving them at Jon’s ankles. Dylan reached up and grabbed his rock hard cock as Jon quickly kicked off his boxers. He was now totally naked not that Dylan noticed that fact. He was too busy stroking the nearly seven inches in front of him wondering what it would taste like in his mouth. Being as bold as could be and without asking Dylan grew closer and closer to the hard cock before his eyes. With Jon laying back and his eyes closed he had no idea what was about to happen. Suddenly Jon felt a warmth surround the head of his cock and he realized even though it had never been done to him before, he was getting a blow job. He opened his eyes, lifted his head, and looked down to see Dylan with the head and shaft of his cock in his mouth as he was wetting it and giving Jon a new sensation that he had never felt before. Jon let his head fall back onto the pillow, took a deep breath, and let it out smiling, not about to stop Dylan from what he was doing. The bliss and emotion was new and the feeling that suddenly flooded his mind from this made his toes curl and almost tickled every time Dylan run his tongue over the most sensitive underside of his cock. With each pass of Dylan’s tongue Jon grew closer and closer to climax not being able to control this strong, wild, feeling from this new sensation he was feeling in his loins.

“JD… I am gonna cum real soon if you keep that up!” he said between joyful breaths.

Dylan stopped for all of a moment to speak.

“Good Jon because I wasn’t sure how you were going to react when I started doing this so you do what you have to, I already know you are getting close, I can taste your precum as it oozes out and I lick if from the top of your cock.”

Jon was satisfied with his response from Dylan, not wanting to upset his new best friend without a warning about the sudden burst of cum that was soon about to blow from his hardness. As Dylan continued to slurp and lick at his hard tool, Jon could no longer control, nor wanted to hold back what was about to happen. He grabbed his covers into his tightly balled, white knuckled fists as his back lifted off his bed. He arched up as he took a deep breath and let out a sigh that quickly turned into a full-blown loud moan as the feeling exploded inside his head, which almost distracted Dylan. It was so loud that Dylan almost caught the first stream of cum in the face as he looked up briefly. Jon flopped back onto the bed letting go of any last control he had over holding back this feeling and began to fire jet after jet of his hot seed into Dylan’s mouth. Dylan took all of it swallowing frantically to keep up with the flowing load of cum that his friend was offering. Finally, the cum slowed to a dribble, Dylan backed off and took a deep breath before he licked what was left from the reddened tip of Jon’s cock head. Jon, who was all but spent, jumped at Dylan’s touch to his extremely sensitive piss slot. Nothing was said but the point was learned and made. Dylan didn’t go near the end of his dick again for the moment. He just stroked the bottom half of his cock as he felt it slowly go soft. He then let go and scooted up even with Jon waiting for him to come back from his orgasm.

“Holy Fuck JD!” was all a usually quiet and laid back Jon could say.

“I guess you liked it?” Dylan said jokingly.

“Liked? Shit, if I would have known you could do that to me and for me… I swear JD that was like nothing I ever got from jerking off… it was amazing. I thought my head was going to explode.”

Jon was smiling from ear to ear as he sang the praises of his friend’s blowjob for the next few minutes.

“I swear JD, if you can do that to me again, you can do anything you want.”

Dylan smiled evilly as the though came across his mind of how good his hard cock up Jon’s virgin ass might feel. He was dying to find out with Brad first, but so far he was getting nowhere for obvious reasons. Maybe Jon would be more open to trying this especially after he just blew Jon’s mind.

“So… you are saying if I could make you feel like that again I could have anything?” a curious Dylan asked.

“Yeah, sure… wait? What are you thinking?”

“Oh… just maybe a little back door action.” Dylan replied evilly.

“You mean you would want to do my butt?” said Jon in a cautious way.

“Well, you did say anything,” said Dylan sheepishly.

“I don’t know if I am ready for that JD, I really meant anything like sucking and playing around like that,” said Jon as he quickly back peddled with a small tone of fear in his voice.

Immediately Dylan sensed Jon’s fear.

“Its okay Jon, I was only curious to see what you would say. I wouldn’t make you do that if you weren’t ready. I just wanted to ask to see what you would say.

“If you meant to make me panic and show fear with that question, then I think you got what you asked for Dylan.”

“Sorry Jon I wasn’t looking for that, just an answer.”

“Well I think it’s too soon for me to consider allowing you to do my butt. Maybe some day after I get a little more used to this guy stuff, but I’m sorry Dylan I can’t now.”

“Jon,” he said looking him square in the eyes, “Its okay, you are my friend, I wouldn’t dream of risking that just for a piece of your butt.”

“Thanks Dyl, you actually had me worried if I said no to you that things between us would get hurt.”

Dylan reached out his hands, extending them as he placed them firmly on Jon’s shoulders. “I would never hurt you, I just got your friendship this way… trust me it would take a lot more then you saying no to ruin what we have already made together.” Then he got close and gave him a surprise peck on the lips making him smile big.

“I liked that, thanks,” said a suddenly blushing Jon.

“No Jon, thank you for being open enough to trust me with your secret of being gay.”

“Okay Dyl, enough of this, it’s my turn to make you happy.”

Just like magic, as Jon said those words the house phone rang. Jon got up from the bed to answer it. He came back a minute later with a sad look on his face.

“I’m sorry JD, that was my mom and she is on her way home for some reason. She was just calling to tell me to straighten up any mess I might have made. I hate to do this but we need to stop.”

‘DAMN!’ he thought to himself.

“It’s cool. We will have plenty of other times to play around, I guess I need to get dressed,” Dylan said hiding his misery well.

“I really am sorry Dyl, I wish there was a way to do something but mom said she would be home in about ten minutes.”

“Nah, we’re good for now.”

Dylan got off Jon’s bed and started to dress. So did Jon but it was obvious Jon had a strong look of disappointment on his face. A few minutes later both boys were dressed and heading downstairs.

“If anything changes I promise I will call you JD,” Jon said opening the front door for him.

Dylan stopped once he got out onto the front porch and turned to look at Jon.

“Sounds good Jon, I really want to see what you can do.”

“You will soon, I promise.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later Jon, thanks for the fun.”

“Thank you JD.”

The dejected boy walked slowly down the front steps as Jon closed the door behind him. He got on his bike and started to peddle home and his cell rang. He stopped the bike quickly and answered it.

“JD it’s me.”

“Max? What’s up man, I was getting worried I wouldn’t hear from you.”

“I know JD, sorry but I still can’t discuss it, I just wanted to tell you I was done at Lisa’s house and I was going to call my mom soon. Then I realized I couldn’t call her because he could answer.”

“You mean your dad?”

“Yeah, so can you ask my brother to call me when you get home?”

“Sure Max, I am on my way now. Why didn’t you just call the house?”

“I did but since it’s not his place he isn’t answering the house phone.”

“Okay, I got ya. As soon as I get back I will get him to call you on your cell.”

“Thanks JD. It’s getting late and if I have to drive over there I didn’t want it to be too late in the day, not to mention I am worried about my mom dealing with my ass hole father. I really don’t need this extra crap on top of my problems with Lisa now.”

“Just relax Max, I’ll be home in about ten minutes and I will have Dante call you right away.”

“Okay thanks JD. Sorry if I sound crazy, it’s just that all this stuff is really weighing heavy on me.”

“Well remember Max watch the road and your speed or Phil will have your nuts!”

“I know, thanks Dyl. I will talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye,” Dylan said with a lot of concern in his voice.

‘I sure wish he would tell me what’s up with Lisa.’ Dylan thought to himself as he peddled home as quickly as possible. At least this took his mind off Jon for a bit and he wasn’t so upset about losing his blowjob anymore, just worried about Max now.

Soon he was home. He parked his bike and ran into the house.

“Dante! Dante are you here?” Dylan yelled out into the empty house.

No reply. Then he thought, the pool! He jogged to the back door and looked outside. Sure enough, he opened the door and walked out onto the deck. There sunning himself in all his half-naked glory was Dante. Dylan looked him up and down wishing he could jump him right where he was lying. From head to bump in his swimsuit the boy gave him an instant hard on. What a killer body!

“Dante,” Dylan said causing the boy to jump some. “Sorry but your brother is looking for you and he needs to talk to you on his cell right away.”

“Shit,” said Dante sitting up in his chair. “Why didn’t… he… call…, oh wait the phone rang, that was him wasn’t it Dylan?”

“Probably, he needs you to call home and see how things are there, he can’t call because you father could answer.”

“Shit, that’s right. I’ll call him right now,” he said as he got up and jogged past Dylan into the house.

‘Damn!!!!’ was all Dylan could think and say to himself as the boy all but brushed by him in just his Speedo. Dylan followed him in watching his hot ass as Dante went to the house phone and immediately dialed his brother’s cell.

“Hey bro, yeah sorry I was outside getting some sun. Dylan said you want me to call mom… yeah, okay I got ya, tell here to call you immediately if the coast is clear so you can find out what is happening, and tell her you are on the way. Okay, right I got it. One of us will call you right back, okay, good bye.”

Dante hung up and dialed his house. The thought never crossed his mind about what he would say if his father answered and thankfully, his mom picked up on the second ring.

“Momma, hi, how are you,” he said. “Okay momma, yes, I understand. Max wants to talk to you but he couldn’t call. He was afraid pop would answer. Okay, yes… please call him right now, he wants to come over. Okay momma, I love you too and everything is okay here. Right, bye.”

Dante looked at Dylan after he hung up the phone.

“She is going to call him right now,” he said

“Is she okay?” asked Dylan.

“I don’t know, she said she was but she didn’t sound right. Like something happened. I hope my pop didn’t hit her! I swear if he did I’ll kill him myself!”

Dylan took a step towards the suddenly angry boy.

“Its gonna be okay Dante, you gotta keep things under control for everyone man,” he said trying to calm the visibly upset boy in front of him.

Dante looked at Dylan as tears started to form in his eyes. Dylan felt his pain as the beautiful boy’s face showed his emotion and a tear rolled down his cheek. Dylan took a step closer to Dante but wasn’t sure if he should comfort him. Their eyes met as another tear rolled down his face. He could read Dante wanted some level of reassurance that everything would be okay. He took another step closer and Dante came to him. They hugged as Dylan’s heart dropped in his chest. Dante wept briefly and then the front door slammed closed. Both boys heard the voices.

“Come on Dante, lets go out back it will give you a minute to get yourself together,” he said as they broke their hug.

They both quickly headed out to the pool and as far away from the back door as possible to let Dante deal with his pain and tears. Dylan stood close by as Dante wiped his tears from his face and onto his Speedo.

“I really don’t want anyone seeing me this way Dylan. I trust you and like you a lot so it doesn’t bother me but that sounded like Brad and Phil.”

“Go take a dive in the pool, they will never know. I’ll go in and see how things went and give you time to calm down okay?”

“Thanks Dylan, I really owe you big time, I swear.”

“Don’t worry about it Dante,” said Dylan as he gently rubbed the boys naked upper back. “This is going to all work out. Go take a quick swim and I’ll go inside and see how my Brad did at the doctor.”

Dante gave Dylan half a smile as he headed for the pool. Dylan watched the boy’s gluteus maximus as he took his walk to the pool. Dylan just shook his head at how well the boy filled out his suit and wished he could see how firm his butt really was. As soon as Dante splashed, he headed inside since the show was over, for now. Dylan walked into the kitchen and hearing the back door slam Brad yelled out.

“Dylan is that you?”

“Yup, in here,” he replied heading towards his boyfriends voice.

He walked through and into the front room and both Brad and Phil appeared to be happy.

“Well, this looks good, what happened?”

“The doctor really listened to me JD. I sat and talked to him for thirty minutes after Phil talked to him. He actually listened,” Brad said as he was beaming.

Dylan looked at Phil. “It really went well?”

“It appears so young lad. Your Bradley seems to be extremely happy which makes me happy too.”

“So… did he give you any pills Brad?”

“He gave me a prescription for sleeping but he told me to try and sleep tonight first and if I couldn’t then I should take one,” Brad said as he reached for the bottle to show Dylan.

“Look I’ll leave you two to discuss things, I have something I have to do,” said Phil.

“Okay Phil, ummm, just so you know Dante is out in the pool, he will probably be coming in shortly.”

“That’s fine JD. Thanks for telling me,” added Phil as he headed for his study.

Brad was so excited with what happened at the doctors, it took all of ten seconds for what Dylan said to Phil to hit him.

“Dante is in the pool?” He suddenly said, looking even more excited if that were possible. “I gotta see him in his suit,” Brad said as he quickly headed to the kitchen.

Dylan followed as he watched Brad speed up, almost running to the back door, and peer outside. He was quiet as Dylan approached and looked over Brad’s shoulder.

“Damn, that boy is freaking hot in that Speedo!” said a very keyed up Brad.

“No shit! I was out there with him a little while ago,” Dylan teased back at Brad.

“You suck!” Brad said turning to him.

“Why yes I do Bradley, yes I do!”

Both boys laughed as Dante headed towards the door inside. They backed away quickly as he came towards the kitchen door. He walked in and looked at them.

“Feel better now?” Dylan asked.

“A little, I will when I hear from Max.”

“I know Dante, I know, hang in there.”

“I will JD, thanks for everything,” he said as he waved to Brad and walked by heading upstairs.

Brad waited for him to head upstairs before speaking.

“What was that all about?” he said in a jealous tone.

“He called home to tell his mom about Max coming over and he didn’t like how she sounded on the phone. He is really upset.”

“That just sucks! I wish there was something we could do,” said a suddenly somber Brad.

“Nothing now except for you to tell me what happened with the doctor and us to wait for Max to call or get home.”

“Okay then lets go to your room and I’ll tell you everything,” said the smiling boy.

Dylan followed Brad upstairs gently patting his butt all the way. Brad didn’t say anything about it but as they entered Dylan’s room he turned to Dylan.

“See what you did!” he said showing off his growing erection. “You know what happens when you do that to me!” he said smiling.

“Well, I could always suck it, make you cum and then it will go soft,” said a suddenly horny Dylan as thoughts of what didn’t happen before when he was with Jon came back to him once again getting his juices flowing.

“Mmmmm,” said Brad in a very teasing way. “I could let you but then you wouldn’t find out about what happened with the doctor. Can it wait?” he asked all but begging to share his news with his boy.

“Sure Brad,” Dylan said smiling as he sat on his bed. “Come tell me,” he added patting the bed next to him.

Brad sat down and leaned on Dylan some as he told him all about the visit with the doctor and what they discussed.

Meanwhile over with Max…

Max was on his way to his mom’s house tooling along at the speed limit and hoping everything would be okay when he got there. He was about ten minutes from her house as his cell rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi baby, it’s me.”

“Mom is everything okay?”

“It will be. When you get here I will explain.”

“Okay momma, I will be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay sweetie, take your time and be careful, I will be waiting for you. Your father isn’t here so we will be fine.”

“Okay momma, see you shortly. Bye.”

“Bye,” she said.

Max hung up the phone and took a deep breath. A tear ran down his face as he wondered what she was going to tell him. He wiped it away and focused on the road. He thought about his father. How much he hated the man for not protecting him when he should have, instead of protecting his cousin. He was so emotionally mixed up inside he nearly ran a red light, stopping just in time. ‘Shit, he thought to himself, that’s all I need! Phil will have my balls if I get a ticket!’ soon he was pulling up at his mother’s house and parking the car. He got out and ran towards the house. She was waiting for him as he climbed the steps and went straight into her arms.

“Momma are you okay?” he asked.

“I will be fine baby. Come inside so we can talk.”

He followed her into the house. It was the first time he had been back in there in over two years. Nothing, including the smell of it had changed.

“Momma everything is like when I left,” he said.

“That’s right, even your room is the same. I didn’t touch it except to keep it clean. I always hoped you would come home one day and use it again. I never dreamed you left because of your father. I am so sorry honey,” she said as she hugged her oldest boy tightly and he hugged back. They broke their embrace. “Do you want to see your room?” she asked.

“Yeah momma, that would be nice.”

He headed up to his second floor bedroom as she followed slowly, giving him some time to readjust to it once again. He walked in and looked around. His bed was made and the room was neat with nothing out of place. Even his alarm clock was still set to the proper time next to his bed on his nightstand. He went to the closet where his everyday regular clothes that he left behind and his school clothes were still hung up. He was a sophomore when he ran away. He opened the door and looked inside, checking them briefly. He smiled and shook his head. ‘Two years, it’s been two years since I have been in here. Was it worth it? Was any of this worth it? I wish I knew.’ He said to himself before he backed up, closed the door and turned around. His mother was standing there watching him silently. He was flooded with emotions, good and bad. He missed his room, some of his old life… his friends, his stuff, and most of all his momma and brother. But, fear made him run. Fear of his father and cousin, fear of what they could or would have done to him or Dante if he stayed or squealed and caused more problems. He has grown up now and has some help so there really isn’t that fear anymore. It was the fear back then… fear! Someone he should have been able to trust, love, honor, respect… his father mostly made him leave. His eyes met his moms as the feelings and emotion of being in his room totally overwhelmed him.

“Momma!” he said as tears ran down his face and he began to cry.

The reality of being home again, his problems with Lisa and every other little setback and difficulty all hit him like a brick wall at just that moment. She held her oldest boy tightly as she too joined him in tears. Eventually, a good minute or so later he fought back the tears and broke the embrace with his mother. He wiped his face with his hands and timidly looked away for a moment before she reached out and touched his arm.

“Its okay sweet boy, I understand, you don’t have to feel bad or anything else right now. It’s been two years since you were in here and I know this is hard on you. Hell, it’s hard on me too Max. We’ll get through this together.”

“I know momma, I know we will but as much as I am happy to be back with you I have a life now back where I am living. I am scared of that man I used to call dad to a point, I am scared of what I might do to him now, besides, we both know I can’t live here anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you in my life. I wish you could leave and come live up by us. I know you can’t but momma… I can’t see you staying here with him. I know he is doing something to you, I just know it momma.”

“Well, I don’t want to make things worse for you but we do need to talk about this.”

“I know,” said Max as he sat on his bed and looked up at his mom with his wet, red eyes.

She came over and sat next to him.

“This isn’t going to be easy to say but I am going to tell you everything I know,” she said somberly.

“Okay mom.”

“Last night when your father got home I confronted him. I asked him about Keith, Dante and you.”

“What happened?” Max asked with a definite shocked look on his face.

“At first he said nothing so I repeated the question a little louder. He was sitting at the kitchen table and he turned to me. This is what happened.”

He said, ‘what do you mean what happened?’

I said, ‘what happened to Keith that put him in the hospital and why did Max leave?’

He looked at me with a surprised look on his face at first. Then he tried to bluff his way out of it but I took a hard stand and demanded the truth. He got up and walked right over to me and I thought he was going to do something but after trying to stare me down and make me back down for a second he turned and went back to the table. He sat down and looked at me.

He said, ‘I made a mistake, a big one.’

‘So, I asked him what he meant. His reply was,’

‘I really don’t want to talk about it.’

I played innocent and raised my voice, I said,

‘My son has been missing for two years and I want answers, you are hiding something from me, I can see it clearly now. Do you know where he is? Do you know if he is even alive?’ she said as she explained all of this to Max.

“But Mom you already knew by then I was alive.”

“Yes I did but he doesn’t know and I wanted to do anything I could to try to get to him Max.”

“So what did he say?”

“He said no he didn’t know anything about where you were Max. He told me with a straight face and didn’t seem to care one bit.”

“That figures. I don’t think my father cares about me at all.”

“I’m sorry honey, I wish I knew why.”

“Me too mom, me too. So, what else happened?”

“We argued back and forth for about ten minutes, him denying everything but thankfully he never hit me or threatened me. He wasn’t happy and he eventually got up and walked out which ended the talk. He didn’t even ask about Dante. He got home after I went to bed and was gone by the time I got up, off to work. I don’t know when he will be home tonight but it’s getting late and I wish I had more story to tell you but he wouldn’t fess up to or admit anything Max.”

“Are you going to stay here for now?”

“Yes honey, I think I should but I promise you if he gets violent or even raises a hand to me I will leave and call you.”

“Good, now that you have my cell number you can call me anytime.” He grabbed a pen off his dresser and after he got it to work, he wrote down the house number for her. “Here is the house phone number too momma. I will come get you anytime if you can’t leave with the car.”

“Thank you honey, I love you so much.” They hugged after that as they both stood up. “I am so glad to have you back in my life again and to know you are alive. Please tell your brother he is welcome to stay the rest of this week but I do need him home by Sunday so he can go back to school on Monday. It’s a good thing he was off this week, I don’t like him missing school Max, and he is doing so well.”

“I am glad to hear that but I want to know, have you any idea about him having nightmares?”

“Occasionally I hear him in the middle of the night but he is so secretive about it. He will never tell me why or what happened. Do you know anything?”

“I might mom but for now I don’t think its right for me to talk behind his back.”

“Fair enough but I would like to know something someday.”

“I’ll talk to him about it when I can. I had better go momma before he gets back. I am going to work on this on my own and figure out a way to teach him a lesson for all the stuff he did and let Keith do. Momma do you know where Keith is now?”

“Yes, in the armed forces. As far as I know, your dad made him or told him to get out of here after he got out of the hospital. I never got any story until you told me what happened but now I assume he sent him away or gave him a choice to get him away and try to keep him safer or out of trouble. I really wish I knew more and had more information for you Max but I don’t.”

“Its okay momma, I’ll keep in touch with you and have Dante back on Sunday. At least he can spend the next few days away from here and get a break.”

“Yes dear and if things get worse I will talk to you about maybe sending him to live there or maybe finding a way for both of us to get away. I might have a talk with that man and see if he can help.”

“Philip will help momma, all I have to do is ask or tell him and he has enough money and power to help, I just know it!”

“Okay, but for now lets try to keep this a little quiet and do things properly. I promise I will tell you everything I know and we will talk as often as we can.”

“Okay momma I better go before he gets home and then there will really be problems.”

“I know lets walk you out now,” she said to him.

Together they headed downstairs as she walked her oldest boy to the front door.

“I am so glad you are back in my life Max, you have no idea what the last two years have been like wondering about you.”

“I’m sorry mom but I just didn’t know what to do. It took that long for me to get up enough courage to get back to you.”

“I’m not blaming you Max but it sure would have been nice to know you were alive even if it was in another town.”

Without saying anymore about it he gave his mom a hug.

“I’ll call you soon Max,” she said as he opened the door.

“Okay mom. I’ll tell Dante to check in with you soon too and together we will figure something out to deal with ‘him’ I just don’t know what yet. I don’t trust him and I don’t think he is going to change.”

She gave him one last hug and a kiss on the cheek. She followed him down to the bottom of the steps and watched him walk to his car. Before he got in he waved once more and she stood watching as he backed up and pulled out onto the road and drove off. Five minutes later, no sooner then she got back upstairs and headed into the kitchen to get some dinner ready Max’s father came home. He shut the door to the house, walked into the kitchen and looked at her.

“I don’t want to be talking about anymore of that stuff tonight with the kids!” he said in a demanding tone. Then he went and grabbed a beer and headed in to sit in front of the TV until his dinner was ready.

To be continued…