Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:59:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Tchase Mcphee <survivalgame@rocketmail.com>
Subject: STReNGTH FRoM WeaKNesS 02

The story below is a work of fiction, set in the format of reality. Any
resemblances to real people, alive or in the hereafter, is entirely
coincidental in nature. It is not meant to accurately reflect upon persons,
of continents or islands, in countries, counties, cities, towns, villages,
neighborhoods, streets, cul-de-sacs, nor governmental or non-governmental
areas, which the story is staged. If a sexual scene involving male-to-male
relationships offends you, then why are you here? Seriously, if guy-to-guy
sex stuff makes you barf or is going to screw up your mind, you should not
read this story. Additionally, if you are under 18 years of age, in most
states and countries, you are not allowed to read this story, by law. Check
with your local laws regarding such.

% Sexual safety matters. Remember guys, this is fiction. In real life, use
protection.

%

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I freely publish to the Nifty Archives and `do not' receive a royalties
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%


STReNGTH FRoM WeaKNesS 02
WriTten by T. Chase McPhee

%

After living almost three years with his aunt and uncle, Scotty figured it
would be straight through high school. It wasn't meant to be.

Strange thing, right after he stopped seeing Dave around, his uncle and
aunt became stand offish. Before, his aunt was all concerned with how
school was going and suddenly, like turning off a faucet there wasn't
anything. He even offered a tidbit of good news, passing his finals in
every subject, her replying with less than joyful accolades, a simple,
`that's nice, dear.'

>From past experience, it wasn't anything new, pulling up stakes and move
on right after eighth grade graduation. The weird part of the whole deal
though, he was going to live with the aunt and uncle's son, in a small town
he didn't even know was on the map, "Roundtree Hallow?" he read the sign as
his bus pulled into the depot, which was in front of a building, the only
recognition of `bus', being a `bus stop' sign.

He was supposed to wait for their son, his cousin, to pick him up. While
doing so, Scotty sat on a bench, watching a minimal flow of traffic to pass
by. Out of twenty vehicles, only two were trucks. The rest cars, which
looked like you had to have a lot of money to own them!

More than startled out of his gourd, a shiny, silvery sports car pulls up
right in front of him, the electric window dropping down, a dude in shades
leaning across the vehicle, asking, "Hi! Are you Scott?"

"Yeah, I'm Scott," Scott says, slightly crouched over.

"Cool!" the dude says, clapping his hands as he gets out of the
car. "Luggage back here?"

Two suitcases and a backpack held everything which meant something to
Scott, it all going in the tiny trunk.

"Nice car. What kind is it?"

His cousin, whom he's only seen pictures of and when he was younger, went
for the driver's side, yelling, "Mercedes."

Scott pried open the passenger door, entering, saying, "Whoa, this is
nice," he ran his hand over the inside of the door like touching gold.

Before setting the car in motion, the dude says, "I'm Aksel Coen," a hand
goes out.

Taking it, Scott replies, "Nice ta meetya, but I thought you were Gerard?"

"Nah. Gerard couldn't make it, so he sent me. By the way, I don't know if
they said anything to you, but Gerard and me, we're partners."

"You work together?"

"Yeah," Aksel says cheerfully, "but not like in business," and offering a
bigger hint, "we live together."

He might be a unenlightened about what goes on behind closed doors, but in
general, Scott knew what Aksel implied, "You and Gerard... are gay?"

"Yeah. I hope you're okay with that?"

"Sure," Scott replies, indifferently. "No problem with me about it."

"Awesome!" Aksel exclaims, putting the Mercedes in gear and tearing out of
the bus stop.

Leaving the town of Roundtree Hallow, Scott summed it up with about a dozen
and a half buildings, enough to give variety for the basic needs of life,
including a few varieties of restaurants and pub.

Right after kissing the town goodbye, the route Aksel was taking him,
changed immediately over to residential. Not groups of boxes, one after the
other, all looking neatly the same.

"Is that a... `house'?" Scott asks, looking several hundreds of feet into
an estate, surrounded by wrought iron and stone fencing.

"From back here, that's what it's called. Up close? They call it a
mansion!"

Reason he mentions it, Aksel wants Scott to get an idea of where he will be
residing for the next four years, or more.

Switching his head back and forth, Scott was quite the tourist, eyeballing
up signs, which were not people's last names, but ones which would give the
impression, if they walked on the property, they would be stepping into a
whole new world, such as a neighbor having one or two horse stables, the
private road leading in called, `Horseman's Hallow.'

"You ever been to any of these other places, Aksel?"

"Sure. Lots of times. We all have parties. Some of us have nicer parties
than others!"

"Sounds cool," Scott replies.

Of course he didn't get the gist of Aksel's commenting on the type of
parties. Sure, some were your stuffed-shirt kind of parties, boring right
down to the finger foods, but the finger food Aksel was thinking about, is
the kind which comes from when a man becomes way too excited!

Nevertheless, "We're here!" Aksel lets his announcement trail off, hanging
a sharp right turn and speeding up a gravelly road.

"Fossil Road? Is there an old Indian burial ground around here somewhere?"
Scott asks.

"Nah. About ten years ago, when they were building the house... I mean
`mansion'," Aksel laughs, "they found almost the whole remains of an
ancient dinosaur. Was quite the story at the time."

"They dug it up?"

"You guessed it. Took a long time too. The owners were like pissed because
they couldn't continue building their love nest. What I think?
Fuck'em. What's more important than finding something as important as an
archeological find?"

"You're into that stuff?"

"Was. It used to be my profession," Aksel replies, speeding along a rustic
wooden fence at twenty-five miles an hour.

"You're not very old. You don't look like you should be retired?" Scott
questions. "You look like you just got out of college!"

Aksel jokes, "Did you think up all these questions while on the bus?"

"Not really, but I did wonder what adventure I was going to find next?"

Point blank, Aksel rattles off, "I'm twenty-seven. Your cousin Gerard is
twenty-five and to set the record straight, he has a very important job in
the fashion industry. Our paths crossed when his models were being
photographed down on the wharf. I happened to be stepping out of a
submarine and he apparently had some kind of apparition about me being a
gift, sent from the deep. There you have it."

Seeing different guys, from his own age to adulthood, thinking how awesome
they look, but keeping his thoughts to himself, Scott finally opens up, "I
think Gerard could be right!"

He turned away from his driver and stare at his hands, being fidgety at the
moment.

Slowly to almost a snail's pace, Aksel turns his head to and fro from the
windshield, seeing Scott blushing. "No need to feel bad about it. Like
Gerard and I, we are who we are."

Turning to Aksel, Scott says something which has never passed through his
lips before, "I think I'm gay too."

"Well don't mumble it boy! Shout it out! I'm gay! I'm gay! I'm gay!"

"You're crazy, Aksel!" Scott laughs.

"Thanks!" Aksel replies in a crazed, sarcastic manner, taking off at more
than twenty-five mph. "That's what I get for being nice!"

Pulling up to what Scott expected, more than a comfy New England saltbox,
he could see Aksel not at all perturbed about his comment, or else he
probably would have made him carry his own luggage. Then again, Aksel
wasn't making even an effort to open the trunk, Scott asking, "What about
my stuff?"

"That's why we have Dean," Aksel gave the butler, who happens to have the
surname `Butler', a tap of goodwill, on the shoulder as he exits the
mansion.

Now that it was out, that he was `out', Scott had no inhibitions about
checking out guys, making Dean his first, after Aksel!

"Are you sure he can handle my stuff?" Scott joked, because instead of the
usual butler uniform, Dean was decked out in gym shorts and a white tank
top, exhibiting his muscled bod.

Adding some glee, Aksel replies, "Mind your manners, young man!"

Scott didn't get it, but thinking of Aksel having a joke at every turn,
there must be something to it than what he meant.

Either they were taking their time or else Dean wasn't taking his sweet
time, catching up to Aksel and Scott.

Turning around, sensing Dean right behind them, the fourteen year old
smiled, after a quick scan. Catching his interest, Dean sported his
backpack in place, the reins pulling at his shirt, making his pecs very
noticeable by flaunting two hard nubs. Feeling he `had' to say something,
"I guess you go to the gym, huh?"

"Anytime you want to start packing on some muscle, let me know!" was Dean's
reply.

Aksel had plenty to say about that, "Dean, pick on a guy your own age to
flirt with?"

"But I wasn't..." he claims.

Aksel cuts him off, "Why isn't this door open?"

Feeling real sorry for Dean, after all, him only trying to be nice, Scott
figures, he'll help get even, reaching for the door knob, "Dah, it helps if
you turn the knob?"

Turning, Aksel's eyes were on Dean, Dean saying, "He's right you know?"

"That's `not' what I meant," Aksel says. "Where's Jerric?!"

Walking in, Scott had to blink, overwhelmed to say the least about the
decor, lush draperies attached to what looked to be sky-high windows.

Right away, Aksel says, "Take those to his room, Dean."

Something irked Scott. The whole time they were in the car, Aksel was as
happy as a lark. Suddenly he made a turn for the worst, where attitude was
concerned, like he had a grudge against Dean or something. He felt sorry
for Dean, mostly because he was a nice guy, secondly because he looked
steamy hot, calling up the stairwell, "See ya later, Dean!"

"You got it," Dean replies.

Turning his attention from the stairs, he looks around, Aksel seemingly
disappearing into thin air. "Aksel?"  he calls out, following what seemed a
path between furniture and furnishings, all of which amazed him.

Next room, beyond what looked like a living room, was a double-door
opening, one door opening inward. He chanced it.

Aksel was talking to a Jamaican guy, what Scott thought, because the dude
had cocoa brown skin and an accent.

As soon as the Jamaican dude sees Scott, he breaks away from Aksel, throws
his hands up in the air three different times, which each, exclaiming,
"Oh-mi-god! Oh mi-god! Oh mi-god! Is this him?"

Walking strangely over to Scott, it's all he could do to stop from bursting
out loud with laughter, at how `girly' he was acting.

"Oh mi-god chile, aren't you just adorable!"

It felt strange, the Jamaican dude hugging him like his aunt `used to', him
uttering a simple, "Hi."

Breaking off, he mistakes Scott's word for asking who he is, "Me? I am
Jerric Jago. I am the house manager. Anything you need, you tell Jerric and
you have it." A short study of the whole of Scott, from top to
bottom. "What they feed you? You skinny as a worm!"

Scott didn't think he was skinny. Matter of fact, he was all ready to take
Dean up on the gym idea. "I didn't think I was skinny."

Exclaiming in an over loud voice, like he had to talk over the audience at
a John Mayer concert, Jerric takes Scott's hand, like they were boyfriends
and tugs on his arm, saying, "I'm taking you right to the kitchen chile and
fatten you up!"

"Uh, Jerric, I wasn't through speaking with you?" Aksel says, as the whiz
by.

"Jerric have a priority right now. I will speak with you later, hunney!"

Except for the accent, all Scott could think of is Jerric, a replica of the
mammie from `Gone With The Wind'!

%

Upstairs, Dean set the luggage down on the floor, took off the backpack and
set it on the bed. From behind he is slowly grabbed by a pair of hands,
worked in between his arms.

"Name anything you want and it's yours?"

Smiling, Dean turns his head to his side to look over his
shoulder. Unsurprised, he gets a peck on the cheek, responding, "Your hands
on my bod is enough Kirk."

"Oh c'mon mate!" Kirk replies, breaking his hold and jumping on the bed
designated for Scott, "At least tell me you're horny and want to fuck with
me?"

Dean replies, "Will you get up off the bed? Aksel's on the rag if you
haven't noticed and if he gets wind of you messing up Scotty-boy's love
nest..."

"Scotty-boy? Getting personal are we, Dean?" Kirk gets up, wipes the spread
wrinkle free.

Knowing how Kirk means this, Dean replies, "I read the dossier. The kid's
fourteen years old?"

"Cuddling up to Dean's front, Kirk smiles, saying, "That's okay. I'm no
pedophile. I like my men big and strong," spying out the two little
indentations dotting Dean's tank top, makes use of them.

"Oh-h-h-h-h, come on, Kirk?" Dean recovers after the wondrous shock,
sweeping Kirk's hands away from his perky nips.

"How come you never wanna get it on with me, Dean?"

"Because right now," he pries Kirk's hands off him, "I'm not in the mood to
get it on with anyone right now?"

Kirk drops his arms to his sides and says like he's making an accusation,
"It's that `model', isn't it? Whats's-name?"

"Kyser Fawcett."

"Whatever. You know we're all not like that piece of trash?"

Evading the issue, Dean replies, "I know you're trying to act more
masculine, Kirk. It's not working?"

"Oh that hurt, Dean and after all I've done for ya?"

"Done for me, Kirk? As I recall it were you who was the one who got drunk
at the pub and me almost having to carry you out to the car?"

"Well sure, but if it wasn't me who seduced you when we got home?" meaning
back to the Hanson mansion.

A dominating attitude coming over Dean, because he hated repeating himself
over and over, "Like I've said over and over Kirk, you were fighting me to
take your clothes off. You reeked. You couldn't go to bed like that. I was
only trying to get you to take a shower, dammit!"

"With my clothes on?"

Perhaps everyone was getting a little ragged around the edges by Aksels'
attitude, Dean tearing into Kirk, "And I didn't get my clothes wet? For
your information, I had my leather harness on under my shirt and the damn
thing got ruined by `your' shower?"

Calmly, Kirk says, "You had your harness on and you didn't tell me? How
sexy!"

Exhaling, Dean says, "I've got to go. I have a class in the gym in ten
minutes."

"I know," Kirk replies. "I'm supposed to be in the class."

"If you aren't it's your business, but you know you shouldn't fuck with
Aksel when he's in a horrendous mood?"

"Fuck with Aksel. Hmm, now there's an idea!"

Realizing he might have been a little harsh with Kirk, holding the door,
"Look, I'm sorry. I've been on edge lately."

"That's okay," Kirk replies nonchalantly, "throw me away like a dirty
dishrag!"

Watching Kirk walk slowly down the hallway, all Dean could summon up is a
picture of exactly how Kirk could be, a `dirty dishrag'!

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He knew the voice. Turning around, Dean still had a smile on his face from
making the vocal connection.

"Hi Davide."

Leaning his shoulder up against the hallway wall, the six feet, two inch
model crossed his arms over his midsection and leaned, replying, "Got a few
minutes before class?"

"Not really," Dean replies, not meaning to put Davide off.

He walks right past Dean and enters Scott's room, grabbing the two straps
of his white tank top, using them for a leash.

Gravitating into the room, as Davide butts his chest up against Dean, his
other hand is slamming the door shut. In a full hug of affection, Davide
goes to work on Dean's lips.

He didn't have the time, but indulged, thinking he could always make a mad
dash for the gym.

After a minute, Dean says, "We should really go. They'll be waiting?"

"Yeah, we should, shouldn't we?" Davide agrees, but in the opposite notion,
begins to lift Dean's tank top.

"No," Dean says forcefully, returning his tank to where it lay snug to his
six-pack abs.

"You're not being very cooperative. I thought you liked me, Deano?"

Davide very well knew the score.

"I like you. You know that, but right now is not the right time."

Smirking, Davide replies, "I know!" Giving Dean a quick peck on the cheek
he says, "I'll race ya to the gym!"

However, Davide takes off in the doofiest race mode, exaggerating with his
arms.

"You're such an idiot!" Dean calls out, but is really thinking what a
`beautiful idiot'! Breaking from his reverie, he glances at his watch,
exclaims, "Good god!" and tries catching up to Davide!

%

"What was that all about?" Scott asks.

Aksel had entered the back of the residence, storms through the kitchen,
his face beat red, depicting rage and leaves through the swinging doors.

"When Jerric know, Jerric tell you," Jerric says to Scott, even though
Jerric pretty much knew the story, just not thinking this the place, nor
the ears which should be hearing the tale of two men.

They are torn away from where Aksel took his exit by a voice, "So, you must
be Scott?"

Finally, Scott senses, "Are you Gerard?" he gets up off the kitchen stool
where he was chowing down a turkey sandwich and glass of milk, a couple of
brownies on the side.

"Glad to see you at last!"

It was sort of a strange means of greeting, Gerard taking Scott in his arms
and hugging him, like a long-lost brother.

"Same here," Scott replies, even though he didn't know what to expect,
because he only saw an older picture of Scott in his aunt's photo album. It
became like a habit, walking into a new situation and not knowing what to
expect, like `Aksel', which made him curious to know something, asking,
"Aksel looked like he was mad at something?"

"Aksel, yes," Gerard looked over to Jerric.

"Don't look at me, hunney. Jerric ain't gonna fight your battles!" The
Jamaican stood there, arms folded across his middle, standing his ground.

It made Gerard smile, then pay attention to Scott, saying, "You won't be
seeing Aksel around anymore. Seems he was offered a position at a marine
center and has accepted it."

Jerric was thinking more, `coward'!

"Really?" Scott replies, a look of `really' on his face, considering,
according to Aksel, spoken in a haughty manner, it was like he and his
cousin were in this big relationship, like they were married.

Jerric and Gerard always got along good. One of many reasons Gerard liked
him around, Jerric was always getting him off the hook.

As now, Jerric decides it's his turn to butt in, "Hunney, you come eat
these brownies or Jerric going to gobble them down. And `cook'? He don't
make no more for a long time, hunney! What you see here is what you get!"

Gerard was very thankful, saying, "You better go eat your dessert."

Because Jerric wasn't at all following through on his threat, Scott lifts
one off the plate, "Want one?"

Weeks before, when Gerard knew Scott was going to come live with him,
because frankly he was tired of seeing the kid passed around. Too, when on
the verge of eighteen, he looked at the prospects of his own parents
finding out he was gay, even though he was so careful to keep his secret,
and the repercussions, he had a desire to spare Scott the life of hitching
to destinations unknown and finding his way through society, to where he
would eventually find his niche. Through his journey, Gerard found all
kinds of people, but a small portion who were compassionate enough to help
a guy in need. This foundation is where he drew his desire to have Scott
come live with him, help guide him towards the person he was meant to be.

After a short reflection on all this and with his biggest worry out of the
way, a mutual agreement between himself and Aksel, even though Aksel was
pissed at the monetary settlement, Gerard thought it was time for a
breather, "Are you sure you're not going to eat that other brownie?"

Jerric, seeing he could duck out, leaving Scott in good hands, "I'll get
milk!"

"How was your trip?"

"Good," Scott replies, saying, "I noticed, there's not much of a
town. Don't you like have a mall around here, not that I got any money to
spend at it?"

As Jerric delivers the milk, Gerard tells him, "Jerric, you know the way to
the nearest mall, don't you?"

"Mall? Hunney, you call me a cab and Jerric take you there!"

Gerard jokes, "The `mall' is Jerric's home away from home!"

"I like your home," Scott says of the lux living space.

Putting a hand on Scott's hand, Gerard says in a gentle manner, "Get used
to it being `your' home now."

"Thanks," Scott says, the fourteen year old staring at Gerard's smiling
face. "Tell me, why are you so... I don't know how to put it... um, why
were you so willing to take me in?"

"Why? Probably, and don't take this wrong, because what I've noticed so
far, you're a decent and nice kid, but when anyone in the family sniffs out
the word `gay', it's like automatic that none of the family wants to have
anything to do with you."

"Is that what happened to you?" Scott asks.

"More or less, but being the only child in the family, they weren't so
quick to throw me out. My mom and dad waited it out for awhile to see if it
would `wear off'."

"Wear off?" Scott asks, "How can being gay wear off. Boy are they..." he
remembers `being respectful'.

However, Gerard has not been so forgiving, "Go ahead. Say it. You're
right. If you hadn't realized it, my dad can be a real egotistical bastard
and mom, she's okay as long as you act the right way, say the right thing
and go to church.`Gay and church', they don't match. Did they tell you they
talked to their pastor about having me `exorcised'?"

"No. They didn't say anything about you, except you liked boys instead of
girls."

Gerard chuckled, saying, "See that, they can't even mention the word
`gay'!"

"No," Scott said reluctantly, "but your father used the word `homo'. Isn't
that the same?"

"I suppose so," Gerard replies. "Still, `homo', `gay', it's like they would
be damned in hell if they were caught saying it, outside the house."

Driving a point home, Scott says, "Or if they had in their house a son or
nephew who were gay and other people knew?"

Gerard had had enough of this and not wishing to have Scott dwell on it,
"Why don't we talk about something else? Hey! How do you like your room?"

"Haven't seen it yet! Dean brought my luggage in for me," Scott replies,
hopping off his seat, since Gerard did first.

"Dean, huh?"

Forgetting Aksel's rush through the kitchen, "Yeah. Aksel made him. I don't
think they get along too well."

Hiking the stairs, Gerard had been thinking, from the kitchen to the
landing, "You seem very mature for your age?" he looks behind him, at
Scott, using the railing with his steps.

"I guess it's because for a while there, I wasn't in one place long enough
to get a grip on things. Your mom and dad were really nice to me, that is
until they found out. I'm not mad at them though. I learned a lot about
growing up and as you probably know, when it comes to behaving, your dad
stand for any fooling around?"

"He's got a hard hand," Gerard jokes.

"You don't have to tell me!"

Forgetting spankings, the two come upon a door, Gerard opening it, Scott
amazed first at it's size, saying, "Holy smokes! This is like four times
the size of your room!"

"Oh, so they let you have my room, did they?"

"Well sure. The other room they pretty much said stay clear of. I never
could guess why, except maybe it was your dad's office and he didn't want
me messin' with his stuff."

Gerard replies, "Not exactly. It was all set up for my baby brother, except
he didn't come home from the hospital with my mom."

"Oh-h-h, he was a little baby and didn't make it into the world?"

Gerard loved it! Here was a fourteen year old kid, with the insight of an
adult. He was real worried about child-rearing, though he had `Jerric', the
mother hen, to help out, but was starting to feel good about their
relationship developing. "Barely," Gerard replies, "but if it means
anything I was young and didn't even get to see him."

"Maybe that's good."

"Could be. But about the extra room, they had it all set up for him and
then fate happened."

"The room didn't have any baby stuff in it."

"Right," Gerard explains, "because over time they were convinced by, I
think it was the pastor from the church, to having all those baby things
hanging around would harbor bad memories. I remember the day some people
from the church came to haul it all away."

Now it was time for Scott to change the subject, saying as he looked
around, "Pretty neat room," he flops on his back on the bed.

"Get outta here!" Gerard exclaims, walking over to one of those
floor-to-ceiling windows, taking a ruffle of curtain in his hand, "You
don't want any of this girly stuff hanging around."

Just as he says it, Jerric walks in, "And what's wrong with ruffles,
hunney?"

Scott couldn't help but laugh this time, Jerric standing there, a hand on
his hip, scolding Gerard!

"Uh, nothing," Gerard replies. "I was just about to say that. I mean, maybe
Scott likes ruffles. Do you like ruffles, Scott?"

If he was reading Jerric right, Jerric had ruffles in his room, him
replying, "Not really, but I bet Jerric has ruffles hanging in `his' room?"

"You got that right hunney. Jerric like ruffles and don't you forget it!"

He looked at Gerard, meant to nicely put him down.

"I guess I forgot," Gerard replies, changing the subject, "So, when are we
going to `your' mall?"

"You, hunney?" Jerric makes a forced laugh, "Hah! You ain't going."

Replying, not like a question, Gerard says, "I'm not?"

Turning to Scott, Jerric explains, "Last time I go shopping with him, I
have to take the bus home!"

To Scott, conversation between Jerric and Gerard was more comedy than
serious banter. He couldn't keep from giggling.

Speaking the truth, Gerard says, "Well I can't help it if the mall has such
damn good-looking workers!"

Gerard was in trouble for one stupid infraction, Jerric waving his finger,
"You watch your language or Jerric take you over his knee!"

He didn't say it, but thought it, pictured in his mind, Gerard over
Jerric's knee, his pants down, showing his ass, but it being all red
instead of white!

"Sorry," Gerard apologizes in a short syllable.

He probably should watch `his words', Scott saying, "That's okay. `Damn' is
not that bad a word."

Well! Jerric used it to have a field day with Gerard, telling him, at the
mention of his curse, it corrupted Scott already!

"Oh! I just remembered!"

It cut Jerric off, leaving a moment of silence, Jerric asking, "What?"

"I have to call the studio!" he walks across the room for the door.

"Aren't you forgettin' sumthin' hunney?"

"Oh yeah," Gerard turns back to face the room, "have a nice shopping trip,
Scott."

With a long drawn clearing of his throat, Jerric stutters,
"Ah-hum-um-hum-hum-hm-m-m-m!"

"What is it Jerric?"

"Hunney, we ain't gonna get much on my salary?"

"I've got about a hundred bucks?" Scott offers.

"Right," Gerard replies as he goes for his wallet, "that'll buy you a pair
of socks and maybe cover a pair of briefs. Here," he tosses a plastic
billfold to Jerric, after extracting it from his wallet.

It hits Jerric in the chest. He tries catching it five times before it hits
the floor, where upon Scott runs over and picks it up.

"Really, Jerric?" Gerard jokes.

"Hunney, what you think? I'm LeBron James?"

"Do you play basketball Jerric?"

"And break a nail?"

"I guess that means `no'," Scott gets his question answered. "How about
you, Gerard?"

"Not since high school. If you want to play sports you might take it up
with Dean."

It set off a lightbulb in Scott's head, him asking, "Dean. Can he go with
us?" Rounding up a big excuse for the gym trainer to go, "I think I might
need his help carrying my new socks and briefs?"

"Hunney," Jerric starts in on him, "is all your clothes in those two
packs?"

Gerard thought Jerric made a good point, sticking around for an answer.

"Um, no. My clothes are in one and the other is my stuff for school, which
I'm probably in trouble because I didn't turn in my text books."

Jerric jokes, "Hunney, they don't want no books touched by a homo!"

It made Gerard laugh out loudly. Scott wasn't sure what Jerric exactly was
saying, it taking a while to register, Gerard helping him to get into the
spirit!

Laughter dying down, Scott rekindles his effort, "Dean, can he go with us
or is he busy?"

Gerard replies, "Jerric, why don't you take Scott down to the gym and tell
Dean gym class is cancelled for the rest of the day?"

Leaving the two, Jerric and Scott head on their way to the gym.

Scott, still with the billfold, says, "What's in here Jerric," suspecting
credit cards.

Stealing it right out of Scott's hand, Jerric kisses it, saying, "Hunney,
this here is our ticket to every store in the mall!"

It was easy, after descending two flights of stairs to pick out the gym,
which seemed like it took up almost the whole half side of the basement.

"This sure is a gym!"

"It sure is hunney!"

Even though Jerric has seen the models who have off and on had been living
at the Hanson mansion, he never tires of seeing them workout.

Scott suddenly says, "There's Dean!"

However, Jerric's eyeballs aren't on the trainer, but one particular
trainee. As Scott hightails it over to Dean, Jerric makes a slow beeline
for the chest press machine, saying to the model lying on the bench, "Need
a spotter, hunney?"

He was ready to lift it on his own, releasing the bar, Davide saying, "I
was thinking about it. Why don't you go fetch Jean-Claude?"

Acting like he was appalled, Jerric replies, "Hunney, you get up off that
fat muscled ass and go fetch him you'self. What I look like, a dogcatcher?"

"Oh-h-h shit!" Davide calls out, hitting his head on the bar, a reaction to
Jerric tweaking his nip. He lies right back down, holding his head, like
he's got a concussion!

Walking over towards Dean and Scott, Jerric happens upon Jean-Claude,
working out with the cables, saying so he can only hear it, "Got a message
from Davide. He horny as hell and want you to do sumthin' about it!"

Allowing the cables to snap back to the machine, in his French accent,
Jean-Claude says, "Oh really?"

Leaving Jean-Claude, newcomer to the crowd of gym monkeys, he carries a big
grin. Jerric, knowing from the `grapevine', Davide is a total top. It was
part of Jerric's job, taking care of loose ends, so of course she had to
know everybody else's business, like Jean-Claude taking up the same
position behind a man's ass!

Approaching the two, Dean says, "I hear I'm going shopping with you and
Scott this afternoon?"

Jerric wanted to make sure, so no stone remained unturned, "We all are
going in the limo. We are all coming home in the limo. Any questions?" he
stood firm.

"None by me," Dean replies. Jerric walking away, towards the stairs, he
asks, "What was that all about?"

Scott fills him in as they slowly walk, "Something about the last time
Gerard and Jerric went to the mall, Gerard going home and leaving Jerric to
take the bus?"

"Yeah, right," Dean replies.

"What did Jerric mean?"

Dean gets around it, "I'll let you know when you turn eighteen."

"But that's so many years away, Dean?"

"Maybe I'll tell you sooner," Dean giggles, "but I'll let you know when."

Scott thought Dean was cool when he pulled the luggage from the car, but
that was in looks, the muscular physique and in his own estimation, very
handsome. Speaking to him just now, his opinion sway towards him being more
like an older brother, something he always wished could be the case.

"Okay boys, I'm leaving you on your best behavior!" Dean shouts loud and
clear over the clanging tones the gym equipment. Then, one-on-one with
Scott, "Maybe that's not such a good idea!" he snickers.

Already thinking of Dean as a big brother, he confides, "Because they might
start doing stuff together, like kissing?"

"Oh, I've got a bunch of stuff to tell you when you turn eighteen!"

%


Copyright 2012 T. Chase McPhee

`STReNGTH FRoM WeaKNesS', may not be sold, nor made part of any collection,
without prior consent from the author.

The more you stretch, the more you can fit in... 'spread' happiness!  TCMcP