Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 16:47:14 -0400 From: Writer Boy Subject: jc's hitchhiker - part 98 Obligatory warnings and disclaimers: 1) If reading this is in any way illegal where you are or at your age, or you don't want to read about male/male relationships, go away. You shouldn't be here. 2) I don't know any of the celebrities in this story, and this story in no way is meant to imply anything about their sexualities, personalities, or anything else. This is a work of pure fiction. Questions and commentary can be sent to "writerboy69@hotmail.com". I enjoy constructive criticism, praise, and rational discussion. I do not enjoy flames, and will not tolerate them. Back to the story in progress. ***Jack*** Our dinner out with Andrew was great, especially after the nice, relaxing day Josh and I had enjoyed on the sailboat. The restaurant was right on the shore, with a back deck that extended out onto the water. Josh, Andrew, and I ate at a picnic table, covered in a bright gingham tablecloth with a few candles in a bucket in the middle. Party lights were strung around the outside edge of the deck, and a small jazz quartet played exuberantly well into the night. The waitress offered us beer, but none of us were in the mood. Josh and Andrew devoured a steady stream of crabs, building up a pile of shells on either side of them. I was vaguely disgusted by this, and ordered crab cakes instead, but the two of them had a great time. When we'd finally eaten our fill, stuffing in crab and greens and then cobbler, and had enough of listening to the band, cheering and clapping along with everyone else, the three of us decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. Andrew seemed a little more at ease with us, and had even gotten into a minor argument with Josh about paying for his own dinner before I told him that it would be a waste of time, and he might as well just take the crab dinner with a smile. Josh's version of hospitality included treating Andrew like a guest while he traveled with us, and I could see it was a little difficult for Andrew to get used to it. My respect for him went up greatly. It would have been a lot easier for him to just take Josh's money, and I knew that Josh would also value the friendship of someone who wasn't out to freeload off of him. As promised, Josh brought me home and ravaged me, although it was a lot slower and more gentle than he had been the previous night. I wasn't sure what had gotten into him the night before, but his rough, animal lust had been extremely hot for us both. Still, it was nice to have him back to his usual slow, tender ways, and he sucked me off before making love to me for what seemed like hours as we lay tangled in the sheets. I knew it couldn't really be that long, but I lay against him in the afterglow, my head on his chest, both of us glistening with sweat, and thought about how happy I was. "Josh?" I whispered, not sure if he was still up. His breathing was so level as his chest rose and fell beneath my face that I couldn't tell for sure. "Yeah?" he asked, running his fingers through my hair, softly caressing the top of my head. "Thank you for today," I said. "Thanks for the boat ride, and the dinner, and for loving me so much." "Thank you, Jack," Josh answered. "Thanks for being here for me to love, and for making me the happiest guy on earth." "You're welcome," I sighed, feeling his heart beat slowly thumping beneath my cheek. "And thanks for having such a tight ass, too," he said quietly, so smoothly that I almost thought I'd imagined it. "I knew it was just about the sex," I said, glancing up to stare into his bright blue eyes. They sparkled in the dark room, catching the little light there. "I love you, Josh." "I love you, too," he said, caressing my head and my bare shoulder. "Now go to sleep." I woke up before Josh the next morning and rolled over to see his eyes closed. His hair was a tousled mess on the pillow, the brown looking gold as the sun streaked through it, and his eyes danced behind his eyelids as his mouth hung open a little. He was laying on his side, facing me, and there was a little string of drool hanging onto his pillow. The sheet was down to just below his shoulders, the tanned round tops of them gleaming in the sunlight. The curves of his chest peeked above the sheet just a little, and as I rolled onto my side to watch him sleep he let out a little whimpering noise and reached for me a little. I slid my hand over and grasped his hand, twining my fingers through his, and his eyes blinked open. "Hey," he said, smiling. I reached over and slid my finger over his lip, scooping up the drool, and then brought it to my own mouth, smiling. "Oh, that's cute, Jack." "Thanks," I said, grinning. "I try." Josh's arm flexed as he tugged at my hand, pulling me across the bed. Willingly I slid over, feeling his other arm slide around me as I slid my free hand up his chest. Our linked hands were trapped in between us, pressed against our chests. Josh's chest was smooth and velvety, covered in tiny, almost invisible brown hairs, and I rubbed my knuckles against it, feeling his heartbeat and the gentle rhythm of his breathing. When I was close, right against him, he brushed his lips over mine, our mouths touching with a couple of soft kissing sounds. His eyes drifted closed, and mine did as well as I lost myself in him for a second, feeling his lips massage my own as his hand slid up and down my back, softly caressing my shoulders. As he shifted again, pulling me in closer, I felt his cock prodding at my hip, and giggled. "What?" he asked, smiling. "It's just good to see that all of you is wide awake," I said, nuzzling his cheek with my own as I glanced down. "Like it's just me," he laughed, yanking the sheet down to expose both of us, with our hard cocks trapped between our entwined bodies. "Come on. Let's hit the shower." "Wait a minute," I said, clutching him tightly as he tried to slide out of the bed. "I'm hard, you're hard, and we're in bed. Why, exactly, aren't we having sex?" "Because we have places to go today," he said, carefully extricating himself from my grip. "Besides, we can have sex in the shower." And we did, and, as always, it was good. When we were done Josh went to lay out our clothes as I shaved and combed my hair, and I walked into the bedroom to find shorts and t-shirts laid out with everything else. Again Josh had picked us out similar, variations on a theme sort of outfits, with matching khaki shorts and printed t-shirts. Mine was bright yellow, with a red dragon sort of design, and Josh's was bright red with the same design in yellow. I wondered if he was going to do this for the entire honeymoon. Josh and I got dressed and then met Andrew in the lobby. He was dressed a little more casually today, too, although the bulge of his pistol was still visible beneath his untucked shirt. "Morning, twins," he said, smirking, as Josh and I practically skipped hand in hand up to him. "What's on the agenda for today?" "Today we're going to Bowie!" Josh said, clapping his hands. "We're going to have breakfast together at the place where we used to go after church, and then I'm taking Jack on a tour of the city." "Cool," Andrew said. I leaned over and kissed Josh on the cheek, and we all piled into the car. We had a leisurely breakfast with Andrew, sitting in a corner booth, watching people go buy. They seemed kind of friendly, and mostly happy, all of them wandering around with smiles and telling each other good morning. The waitress, a nice older lady, remembered Josh, even though his family had moved away from there years ago, asking about Karen and Roy and the rest of them, and I realized why all of these people seemed so odd to me. They all acted like Josh did, like nothing bad could ever happen to any of them. Was this what living in the south did to you? That strange world where Josh grew up, where everyone was happy and nothing bad ever happened to anyone, the one I had wondered about? It was Bowie. The city was nice, but I was completely creeped out. Josh seemed so excited to bring me here that I didn't want to say anything that would hurt his feelings, but I just felt vaguely unsettled, as if I had wandered into a fifties sitcom town or something. I felt like the kids in "Pleasantville". "You ok?" I leaned over and asked Andrew when Josh went to the bathroom. Andrew's eyes had been darting furtively around the restaurant all through breakfast. "This place is fucking weird," Andrew whispered, looking spooked. "Thank God!" I said loudly, noticing the heads snapping around toward our booth and realizing I'd just taken the Lord's name in vain. "Sorry!" Andrew snickered as I made the sign of the cross on my shoulders, probably doing it backwards. I hadn't been to church in years. I leaned back toward him. "I thought it was just me," I whispered. "Trust me, it's not just you," Andrew said, jumping when the waitress appeared to top off my coffee. I thought for an absurd second that he was going to pull out his gun and cap her. "This town is a freakshow." "But it's really nice," I added quickly. I didn't want Josh to come back and hear us badmouthing his town. "The people are friendly, and everything is really pretty. It's a great town. It's just weird." When Josh came back he paid for breakfast, and then we went on a little driving tour, to see Josh's old house, and his school, and his church. I mentally compared it to the little tour I'd taken Josh on of my hometown, noticing the obvious differences. Josh didn't show us any places where he told a story of being scarred for life, or where people had been horribly unkind to him. Josh had grown up in this perfect city, having a perfect life, with his nearly perfect family, and I could understand again why Justin was jealous of it sometimes. Then again, if he'd grown up somewhere else, he wouldn't be my Josh, and I wouldn't have him any other way. We ended up at a park, one of the larger ones in the city. "The ice arena's over that way, and the amphitheater's that way," Josh said, pointing, as he walked around to the back of the car. He pulled open the back hatch, and pulled out two pairs of rollerblades, grinning. "Here, put these on. I want to do a loop around the pond first." "OK," I said, sitting down on the curb to pull my shoes off. Josh loved rollerblading, and I wasn't bad at not falling down. "What am I gonna do?" Andrew asked, looking in the back for another pair. "You can pace us in the car, or just hang out here," Josh said. "I'm taking Jack on tour of my town." We spent the rest of the morning blading up and down the paths in the park, and then the streets and sidewalks. Josh pointed out museums, and places where he used to hang out, and told me a lot of stories about his childhood and growing up here. He shared some amusing stories about Tyler and Heather, which I filed away for future reference, and mainly he just spent the day grinning, soaking in the sunshine, and holding my hand as we coasted along. Josh loved his city, and loved sharing it with me. We didn't see a lot of people he knew, but many people knew who we were. Andrew kept pace with us in the car, but we more or less ignored him. When we were hungry, we stopped and got hot dogs from a street vendor, slathering them with chili, and then we headed right back out onto the sidewalks. Eventually, a little sweaty but still enjoying ourselves, we met up with Andrew in the car and put our shoes back on. Josh insisted on driving, and we finally arrived at what looked like a large ranch house. Josh asked Andrew to stay in the car, and then he walked me inside, pressing something, doubtlessly a wad of cash, into the hand of the woman who opened the door. "Welcome," she said, smiling like everyone else here did. "Thanks for opening special for us," Josh said. "We'll just be a few minutes." "Take your time," she said, gesturing toward the back of the house. I followed Josh curiously into what looked to be a large private library. "Josh, where are we?" I asked finally, watching as he pulled down a binder with which he was obviously familiar. Josh led me over to a small couch, and sat down beside me, opening the book. "We're at the county genealogical library," Josh said, turning through the pages. "Here, I want you to look at this. It's called a family group sheet. This is my family, Jack. This is my history." We looked at it together, Josh walking me through it, tracing the lines with his finger as he passed along stories about this one or that one, family legends and things he'd heard as a child. We followed marriages, births, and deaths, and traced our way back through the generations together. "This is where I came from, Jack," Josh said, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek. "And now, this is where you come from, too." "Oh, Josh," I sighed, leaning into him. "Thank you." Josh's soft lips pressed to mine, and I pushed mine back against his with equal fervor. The only noise in the library for a few minutes were the soft sucking sounds of two people in love, kissing each other, lost in themselves and ignorant of the whole world. The binder slid off of my lap, breaking the spell as it clattered to the floor, and we both grinned. "Come on," Josh said, taking my hand and pulling me off of the couch as he replaced the book on the shelf. "If we hurry, we can spend a little time walking around the grounds out at the Belair Mansion!" We laughed our way back to the car, hand in hand, Josh thanking the woman again on the way out. We spent the rest of the afternoon out wandering around the mansion, which was also a museum. Josh and I were in full out mushy couple mode, holding hands and sighing a lot, and Andrew gave us a pretty liberal distance for a bodyguard, either wanting to give us our space or not wanting to be seen too close to our mooning around. After we got tired of that, the three of us went to dinner at Josh's favorite Chinese buffet, and then went to see a play in the Playhouse, put on by the community theater group. At the hotel afterward, Josh and I made love for a while before falling asleep. The next day, outfitted again in matching outfits that Andrew shook his head and sighed at, the three of us went to Baltimore, and spent most of the day running around the harbor. We went shopping, and toured the USS Constellation, the clipper ship docked in the harbor. Josh and I took a lot of pictures of each other, and had Andrew take a lot of pictures of us together, knowing that we would want to look back at these later to remember this. We had lunch at the Hard Rock, and Josh politely asked for a menu, offering to sign one for them in return, even though I knew he already had one from here on the wall of the music room at the house, where he kept his collection. After lunch we rode a shuttle boat out to Fort McHenry, to see where the Star Spangled Banner had been written and to tour the fort, and then we finished our day in Baltimore with a trip to the aquarium and dinner out at a seafood restaurant. When we got back to the hotel Josh immediately pushed me into the bathroom, turning on the shower and pawing my clothes off of me even as he flung his own aside. Our hands were all over each other as he started soaping me up, and I grabbed the shower gel and squirted it all over him, laughing. Our horseplay quickly and predictably degenerated into making out, and I turned around and pressed my ass to Josh's hard cock, feeling him slide soapily between my cheeks. "Fuck me, Josh," I panted, grinding against him. "Now, please." "Yeah," he groaned, pressing his wet cockhead against my hole. He grunted a little pushing his way inside, and I felt every inch of him sliding into me as he leaned forward, the water beating down on us. "Do it, Josh," I coaxed, tossing my head back to rest it on his shoulder. I felt his abs crunching against my back as he began to thrust into me, ripples of pleasure rolling over me. Josh's hands were clawing at my chest, fighting for traction as he began to drive into me, but he dropped one down to my cock, squeezing it. I squirted some gel down there, too, to give him a little lubricant, and he began to stroke my cock rapidly. Both of us were yelping and sighing as our feet slid through the shower, my arms braced against the back wall as I pushed myself against Josh, verbally urging him forward, begging him to go faster, and harder. He did his best, his thighs flexing, knees knocking into my own as he pushed himself forward, slamming into my back. Before I knew it I felt my balls drawing up, my stomach tightening, and then I was yelping as I shot all over Josh's fingers, splattering the wall of the shower with cum. As I shook and jerked to my climax Josh sighed behind me, slamming forward, and I felt his cock jerking inside of me each time he shot. He pulled off of me, leaning back against the side wall, as he caught his breath, and I grabbed the washcloth and began to clean him off. When I was done, kissing him over and over and telling him how much I loved him the entire time, he took the other washcloth and made sure I was cleaned off, too. He spent a long, lingering time on my chest, running the washcloth over and over my nipples and pecs, pressing his fingers up and down my abs, and I did the same to him, loving the feel of his soft tanned skin, a shade darker than my own. Eventually we washed each other's hair and climbed out of the shower. "What are we doing now?" I asked, taking the towel he handed to me. "Fix your hair," he answered, one blue eye peeking out from the folds of the towel as he dried his own hair. I let my eyes wander up and down his body, taking in the muscles, the tan, the spent tube of his cock hanging down over his balls, and thought again that it was a hell of a view. "I'll go lay you out some clothes." "Where are we going?" I asked, still drying myself, as he walked into the bedroom. "Gay bar," he answered. "I heard about one in DC that's supposed to be good." "Are we bringing Andrew?" I asked, wrapping the towel around my waste as I turned to survey Josh's massive collection of hair care products. Really all I wanted was a comb. "Because I think he's straight." "I think you're right," Josh laughed from the bedroom. "I think we're going to have to iron these shirts. He's a bodyguard, though. He goes where we go, and if we go to a gay bar, Andrew comes with us. We're not going to have sex in front of him." "Come do your hair, and whatever you think needs to be done to mine, and I'll iron those in a second," I said. Whenever we were going out clubbing with the guys Josh always took a few minutes to adjust me, and I more or less accepted it. "What brought on the trip to the gay bar?" Josh and I went out clubbing all the time, but we usually went with the guys, and always to straight bars. A few times we'd even ended up at strip clubs with them, which was always a funny experience, what with girls crawling all over Joey and Justin throwing hundred dollar bills up in the air while screaming, "God bless America!" Josh and I had never asked the guys to go to a gay bar with us because we didn't think they'd like it, and we wanted to divert attention from Lance, Howie, Justin, and Nick whenever possible, although that really wasn't going to be much of a concern any longer. Josh stepped up beside me in the large bathroom and smiled at me in the mirror as he reached for the first of several tubes of goop. "I want to go out dancing, and I want to do it somewhere that we can be ourselves," he said. "I mean, I know we usually are anyway, but sometimes I feel like people are looking at us and stuff. I just want to have a good time with people who think we're normal." "We are normal," I said ironically, watching him put something with gold sparkles in it on his hair. He turned and streaked some of it through mine, too. "You know what I mean," he answered. "I want to go somewhere that we can both be comfortable. Besides, I've only gone to a gay bar that one time, and I don't like to think about that. I want to see what's out there, but not without you." Back when Josh and I had first started dating we had a rather large fight, and he went out to get drunk because he thought I was leaving. He'd ended up at a gay bar down in the Valley somewhere, and had danced with some guys and let them kiss him. I didn't really care about it too much, since he'd been upset and drunk, and so sorry afterward that I knew he'd never even think about cheating on me, but he still felt guilty about it. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, startling him gently out of his frown. "Josh, I told you to forget about it," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. "I'm not mad about that, Josh, and you know it. So you kissed some guys. I kissed Justin after Peyton died, and I did it to hurt you. You forgave me for that, so how could I still hold what you did against you?" "Yeah, but I slept with Justin," Josh said quietly, looking away. I slid my hand over his face and turned his chin toward me carefully. Josh's eyes were watering, and he blinked as he looked at me. "Doesn't matter," I said firmly. "We already had this discussion. You thought I was gone, Josh. What's done is done, and it doesn't matter to me anyway. I love you, and I know you love me. That's all that's important. Now finish getting ready, and I'm going to go iron whatever horrors you've picked out for us." "OK," Josh said, grabbing me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly for a second, squeezing my bare chest against his before he let me go, smiling. "I do love you, more than anything." "I know," I said, walking out of the bathroom. "Because I feel the same way." The gay bar was a lot of fun, although I'm not sure how good a time Andrew had. He kept smiling, but mainly just parked himself at the bar, keeping us in sight. Josh and I hadn't done a lot of stuff in the gay community since he came out, at least not together. I had done some speaking appearances before I got kidnapped, invited to a few schools and colleges around LA to talk to various groups, and had done all those interviews when I got out of the hospital, but really the only things Josh and I had done together as a gay couple were the Barbara Walters interview, a few print interviews, and he'd been in a couple of those other interviews. We hadn't really gone out among any large crowds of gays, no parades or anything, so we were completely unprepared and pleasantly surprised by the reception we got at the club. Everyone, even the big brawny guys who probably thought boybands were nothing but crap, wanted to stop and say hi, and shake our hands. A couple of them wanted to give us hugs, but I drew the line when I saw someone try to grab Josh's ass. Josh diplomatically removed his hands as I fumed and Andrew advised us not to let anyone else grab us, or he'd drop them. When the novelty of our arrival had worn off we joined everyone on the dance floor, laughing and having fun. Neither one of us drank very much, and, from common sense, we didn't take any drinks anyone offered us. There were some drugs flying around, poppers and pills, mostly, and I could tell that Josh, being very anti-drugs, was a little uncomfortable, but we both agreed, whispering to each other, to ignore it and just have a good time. The outfits Josh had picked out for us were a little sparkly for my taste, me in white denim and a shiny gold top and Josh in gold leather pants and a sleeveless black t- shirt with a gold design on the front, but we were far from the most flamboyantly dressed, and I laughed as I saw Josh's eyes darting around the room all night, drinking everything in. I silently prayed that he wasn't getting any ideas, but wouldn't be at all surprised if he had all the guys dressed like the Village People on the next tour. When we finally went back to the hotel, long after midnight, we told Andrew to sleep in, and that we'd see him after lunch. Josh was running on adrenaline, practically bouncing off of the walls, but I knew that he'd be out like a light in about twenty minutes. "Say good night to the rest of the Solid Gold dancers for me," Andrew snickered. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." "Everyone's a comedian," I muttered, shaking my head as I pushed Josh inside. We brushed our teeth together and began to strip down by the bed. Josh smiled at me as I undid the buttons on my shirt, wondering when I'd ever wear this again. We'd stopped wearing underwear to bed a while ago, and we spooned up against each other in the darkness. Josh still smelled a little like sweat, unable to dance without giving it his all, but he also felt warm and relaxed against me. I felt his breath on my neck as he whispered quietly. "That was fun, Jack," he said. "We should do it again." "You're ok with it?" I asked. Josh had been very careful to still be identified as a musician first, not as a gay musician. "Yeah," he answered. "I didn't know what we did was so important to people. I mean, we get all the letters, but I didn't realize that it meant so much to so many people. I guess I understand better now what you were trying to tell me when you did all those interviews in New York. We're making a difference in people's lives, Jack, just by being who we are. That's so amazing to me." "Me too, babe," I whispered. "Me too." We slept in the next day, having a nice room service brunch after making love in the morning and taking a long, hot shower together. In the afternoon we collected Andrew and drove to Annapolis, to do some shopping, see the capitol, and tour the Naval Academy before another dinner out. It's a beautiful city, and Josh again took great pleasure in showing it off, taking me to all the places he knew and trying to keep Andrew amused as well. We were still tired from the clubbing, so we gave Andrew the night off and watched movies in our suite with popcorn, playing chess and then just laying against each other on the bed. For the next few days we tackled Washington. I hadn't been there in several years, and Andrew hadn't ever, so Josh wanted to show us both the city, although the tour was much more geared toward my wants than Andrew's. After all, it was my honeymoon, not his. We went through most of the Smithsonian museums, although Josh and I were both the kind of people who stopped to read plaques and displays, so we were really only hitting two or maybe three of them a day. We toured the monuments, Lincoln, Jefferson, and the rest, and spent most of a day going through Arlington. We drove out to Mount Vernon as well, and also spent the better part of a day riding at a stable that the hotel recommended for Josh. It left my butt sore, and my legs a little, but it was a lot of fun, and it was even more amusing listening to Andrew curse his horse, which was old, slow, and stubborn. We went through the Mint, the Library of Congress, and managed to spend a couple of days just shopping, too, since there was always something else Josh wanted to pick up. We sent presents home to the guys, Josh's family, and Carla, and we called them all, too, leaving them quick messages to let them know how much fun we were having. We tried to talk to Justin and Lance a little more in depth, but they didn't really open up, just telling us that they were seeing separate therapists, and that they were getting help. The two of them were staying at Justin's house, because Justin felt safe there and Lance saw too much of Howie inside his own home. They didn't really elaborate on that, either, but they did say that they hoped we were having a good time. "You think they're ok?" Josh asked me, holding my hand as we walked through the reptile house at the zoo. "Well, they are getting help, like they said they would," I said, shrugging. "On the other hand, they've only been going for like a week, and I don't know if that's every day or what. Honestly, Josh, I don't think they're going to be ok for a while, but at least they're taking care of each other." "What's up with that, do you think?" Josh asked. "I mean, I know that they feel safe with each other, but it sounds kind of like Lance is moved in, not just staying for a little while. I'm just worried. They have so much history between the two of them. Their relationship is so, you know, complicated." "That's true," I agreed. "But I don't think they're going to hurt each other. I really don't think either of them can, and from what we saw, it really looks like Lance is the stronger one right now." "I know, but it kind of hurts a little that Justin's turning to him," Josh said, shaking his head. "I mean, I'm not jealous, but he used to come to me." "Yeah, he did, but Josh, he's been honest with you about this," I said, hugging him to take some of the sting out of what I was going to say next. "Loving you and not having you hurts Justin, and I think right now he's trying to avoid pain. You wouldn't fault him for that, would you?" "No, of course not," Josh said, holding me tightly. "As long as Justin gets better, I want what's best for him, and if that means he pushes me away a little, I guess I have to let him, even if I don't like it." "It'll be ok, babe," I said, trying to soothe him a little. "Someday this will all be worked out. In the meantime, we'll just do what we can." "I know," Josh said. "I know." But what about that Lance and Justin kiss before the wedding? *** To be continued.