Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 22:07:48 EDT
From: ErastesTouch@aol.com
Subject: Throw Away Kid - chapter 3

Legal Notice:
The following story may contain descriptions of graphic sexual acts.  These
acts may be between boys or between a man and a boy.  The story is a work
of fiction and has no basis in reality.

The author, or his designee, retains copyright to this story.  There may be
no reproducing or distribution of this story without expressed written
consent.

             *    *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Throw Away Kid - by Erastes                       Copyright 2000 by Erastes
Chapter 3 - The eye of the storm.                 June 2001

The foster home that Bryce was taken to was really quite nice.  The couple
was probably in their early 30's and had decided to take in a foster child
because they, for some reason, couldn't have children of their own.  They
had tried for several years to conceive, but were unsuccessful, so they put
their name on a waiting list to adopt.  Unfortunately, they learned it
would take them a minimum of four years to get a child that way, so they
signed up as foster parents.  They thought if they got into the program
first, if they were assigned a child they liked and who was available,
maybe they would be allowed to adopt that way, speeding up the process.
They were hoping for a baby or toddler to begin with, but that was not to
be, as it was Bryce who was delivered to their doorstep and introduced as
their first foster child.  Although Bryce was only a first grader at this
point, it was still a disappointment to them that he was not an infant.
They did accept him, fearing they might not be assigned any more foster
children if they refused the first child brought to them, so they welcomed
him, hoping for a newborn on their next placement.

After the initial disappointment wore off, they did warm up to Bryce and
made him feel welcomed into their home, and they did treat him fairly well.
It was evident, however, that Brryce had sensed their lack of enthusiasm
and partial rejection of him when he arrived, so even though his foster
parents became more loving and affectionate after that, Bryce wasn't ready
to forgive them for that slight.  Over the next few months things improved
though, and they seemed to warm up to each other.  They did their best to
make him feel comfortable, and Bryce was beginning to put the past behind
him.  They were also beginning to take Bryce to local parks and on
occasional other outings, like to the zoo, and they even took him to visit
some of their relatives, which began to make him feel like part of the
family.  He was really starting to feel accepted now, but then something
unexpected happened, something that no one would have predicted.  His
foster mother became pregnant.

At first it was no big deal, as his foster parents were afraid to celebrate
too soon or announce the fact to others, as she had lost babies in the
first and second trimester before, but when she reached her seventh month,
they began to tell everyone they knew.  The biggest surprise was not that
she was pregnant, but that the ultra-sound had revealed that she was
carrying twins.  Suddenly Bryce lost his importance to the family and all
the talk was about the babies.  He was moved out of his bedroom and placed
in a smaller room, being told that the larger room would be needed for the
two cribs.  Slowly Bryce slipped back into his old habits, keeping to
himself and staying in his room, sure that he wasn't loved or wanted any
more.  As the days passed and the due-date grew nearer, Bryce received even
less attention, but it was only going to get worse.  After the babies were
born, identical twin boys who were three weeks premature, he felt totally
abandoned.

Suddenly Bryce was in the way again, no matter what he did.  He only wanted
to help and he wanted to hold the babies, but he was told not to go in
their room, not to get near them, and he was only allowed to see them from
arm's reach.  The babies were very demanding, and not even on the same
schedule, so one or the other was up almost continually throughout the
night.  This meant that the parents didn't get much sleep, as they tended
to their needs.  The wife took most of this nightly abuse, knowing her
husband had to be fresh and alert for his job, getting up three out of
every four times.  By morning, the last thing she wanted to do was get up
and feed another kid, and then get him dressed and ready for school,
especially if the twins happened to be sleeping during that time.  It
wasn't very much longer before it happened, the social worker showed up at
the home to take Bryce somewhere else.

Bryce's caseworker tried to explain to him that it wasn't his fault and
that he had done nothing wrong, but her words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
She tried to convince him that this move wasn't because they didn't want
him, but instead it was due to the fact that taking care of the babies
tired the parents out and they didn't have the energy or the time to take
care of another child.  This didn't mean very much to Bryce, and he just
accepted it as another example that he wasn't wanted or loved, but he
refused to let anyone see any emotion coming from him.  He hid his feelings
so well that it led everyone to wrongly evaluate his level of acceptance
and his ability to cope with this change.  They continued to define his
adjustment using adult standards, trying to explain his apparent
resignation by using logic and other psychological jargon, rather than
understanding the emotional response of a young boy.  This caused them to
misdiagnose his level of self-worth and his emotional stability, and they
sent him to live with his next foster family, without any counseling to
help him cope with the trauma of being ripped from another home.  Having
learned to internalize his feelings and fears, Bryce went to his next
family in stoic compliance, neither shedding a tear nor offering a smile.
This was just something he did, like going to school when it was in
session, so everyone overlooked the pain and the rejection that was welled
up inside of him.

His next home was not as nice, even though there were several other
children there, possible playmates and confidants.  This was a long
established foster family and Bryce was their fourth foster child, at least
currently.  Over the years this couple had taken care of more children than
they could count and, in fact, they couldn't even remember the names of all
the children who had lived there, and they wouldn't have recognized them
even if they ran into them on the street.  This was the warehouse type of
foster home, one where they took in any and everybody offered to them, be
it for a day, a week, or however long the child was scheduled to stay.
They fixed their meals, usually the cheapest items they could buy, and they
made the children help with all the other duties.  All the furniture in the
house was very old, though semi-clean, and the mattresses had seen more use
than a cheap hooker.  There was a pecking order among the foster children,
with the oldest or most aggressive being at the top and the youngest or
weakest on the lowest rung of this social ladder.  Bryce soon learned he
filled that bottom-most position, and now he had more bosses than ever
before.

Once again he retreated to the solitude and protection of his room, finding
it easier to entertain himself than fight for love or attention.  Oh, he
did try to make friends with the other children and he attempted to see if
his new foster parents might take an interest in him, but he was quick to
sense their rejection and he wasn't big enough or strong enough to stand up
against the older or bigger children.  He had limited social skills, due to
the fact that he'd hardly ever had anyone to interact with, so he had no
way to attract new friends and he was often considered dumb, boring, or
immature by the other kids.  It was an unending cycle of failure.  He
couldn't get friends because he didn't have any social skills, and he
couldn't build his social skills without any friends to practice them on.
It wasn't completely bad, however, as Bryce learned how to do the dishes,
do the laundry, sweep, mop the floors, and how to make his bed.  It's not
that he had to do all the chores, but the kids had to share these
responsibilities.  He did do more than his share, however, because of his
size and demeanor.  The others found it easy to take advantage of him and
they often forced him into doing some of their chores as well.  It may
sound as if I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek, that having to do all of this
wasn't all bad, but those were skills that would help him in later
placements or if he were to get a chance to be on his own.

He was at this particular foster home for more than a year, before the
husband was diagnosed with cancer.  The doctor told him that they would
operate and remove what they could, and then he'd go for radiation
treatments to try to eliminate the areas that couldn't be surgically
removed.  After discussing this over with his wife, he decided that they
wouldn't be able to handle having the kids around during his surgery and
treatments, as there would be times that both of them would be at the
hospital for extended periods and neither of them would be in the mood to
deal with a bunch of rambunctious children during these sessions.
Therefore, the wife called Social Services and told them about her
husband's medical condition, and she informed them that they had a little
over a week to find new homes for everyone.  It didn't bother Bryce very
much when he heard the news, as he didn't have any friends here and he
wasn't that fond of the place anyway, but he did wonder what his new home
would be like.

During this time Bryce also came up with a new way to distract himself from
his situation, imagining that his father was going to come back for him and
take him to a better life.  Even though he had never met the man and he
didn't even know his daddy's name, he began to build this image of him in
his mind.  He thought of his father as some kind of savior who was going to
love him, take care of him, and rescue him from his cold and lonely
existence.  At first this was just a harmless distraction, taking him away
from his everyday woes, but over time it began to become an obsession with
him, and he began to forget that this person was just someone he had
created in his mind.  When the day came that all the children were being
moved to their new foster homes, Bryce told the other kids that he wouldn't
be there long, because his father was going to come get him and take him
away from all this.  Of course the others didn't believe what he said, so
they gave him grief and teased him that he didn't even have a father.  He
stood his ground however, even though there was not a shred of truth in his
boast, telling them that his father loved him and he was going to come and
take him away from all of this, and care for him as a father should.  The
other kids just laughed at him and continued to tease him and call him
names, but it didn't faze Bryce in the slightest.  In his own mind, this
was the truth, he had convinced himself of that, and now he just had to
wait for it to happen.

His next foster family lived in a trailer park and they had a daughter, but
no other foster children.  She was about two years younger than Bryce, but
at least she was friendly.  He was told that this was only a temporary
location, as this couple was only certified for emergency placement, when
another qualified home was not available.  That fact didn't seem to bother
him anyway, because he was convinced that his knight in shining armor was
coming to take him away from all of this.  Not only had he changed homes,
but he also had to change schools when he moved here, but this was actually
a lucky break for him.  It wasn't that the kids here treated him any
differently or better than the other school, but there was another 'geek'
like him who was willing to be his friend, so now he had someone he could
hang around with.  The other boy was just as excited about having a friend
as Bryce, and they soon became inseparable.  In addition to playing with
his new friend and sitting next to him in class, the two of them would
watch the other children, learning how they interacted with each other and
watching what types of things they did together.  Slowly, their social
skills began to improve and they made another friend, another 'outcast' at
the fringe of the school social hierarchy.

Bryce began to like his new home for several reasons.  First, he had made
friends at school and the couple's daughter was nice to him too.  Second,
when he came home from school he didn't have to start doing chores and was
actually allowed to go outside and play with his foster-sister or one of
his two friends, if they could get permission to come to his place.  This
was actually Bryce's first taste of really being a kid and he was beginning
to enjoy this new experience.  There was only one problem, he forgot that
this was only a temporary placement, a fact that would come crashing in on
him one day.  The cold reality of the situation hit home one afternoon when
the phone rang.  His foster-mother took the call, it was from his
caseworker, and after she hung up, she broke the news to Bryce.  She walked
over to him and wrapped her arms around him, telling him that he was going
to be leaving.  Then she told him to go to his room and put his things
together, because his caseworker would be here to pick him up in about an
hour.

Bryce was crushed and he called his two friends to tell them what was
happening.  He didn't know if he'd still be going to the same school, but
he thought he should let them know, just in case, but it was one of the
most difficult things this young boy had ever had to do.  All of the boys
tried to remain hopeful, seeing no one knew for sure what was going to
happen, but secretly they all had their doubts and suspicions.  After he
got off the phone, Bryce also said a tearful farewell to his foster sister,
but she didn't understand why he had to go and didn't take it very well.
Finally he said good-bye to his foster mother.  He appreciated the fact
that she had been kind to him, though they never had a chance to get very
close, but he knew he would miss her gentle ways and caring touch.

When the caseworker arrived, she loaded his things into her car, and then
she drove him across town to his new home.  This place was pretty much like
his first foster home.  It was another older couple, who lived in an older
house randomly cluttered with older furnishings and assorted other items.
He was their third foster child, all boys, and he hit it off with the
younger boy, but he knew the older boy was going to be a problem.  It
didn't take him long to discover that he was right.  Almost immediately
this kid started bossing him around, acting like he was the foster father
and not just one of the kids.  He did this to the other boy too, but it
didn't seem to bug that boy as much as it did Bryce, maybe because he had
already become accustomed to it.  The older boy automatically made
decisions about what they were going to do or what they were going to watch
on the television, whenever the foster parents weren't around.  Bryce soon
discovered that he didn't mind this kid's choices, it was just that he
didn't like being told what to do by someone only a couple of years older
than himself.

He was also in a new school district again, and he had to attend another
elementary school in a different area.  It was there that he had troubles
right from the start, not with the kids, but with his work.  Having jumped
around between so many different schools, he hadn't had any continuity to
his instruction, and now he was struggling to keep up.  At his last school,
he had been taught reading by a whole-word method, and now he was required
to learn phonics, which was completely foreign to him.  That wasn't his
only problem, though, as this school used a more hands-on, concept oriented
approach, as opposed to the look, listen, and learn approach of the
previous school.  He did have one advantage however, a teacher who took an
interest in him.  She offered to work with him before school, during his
lunch hour, and also for a brief time after school, if he wanted to try to
catch up.  Of course, Bryce jumped at that idea, seeing he never spent much
time with his classmates anyway.  Bryce loved getting all of this personal
attention from an adult, so he showed up whenever he could and for as long
as possible.  He was actually with an adult who cared about him and was
trying to help him, and no one was screaming or telling him what an awful
person he was.  This was great!  This extra help allowed him to catch up to
the others, filling in all those academic gaps for him, and before long he
was doing above average work.  He wanted to get to know this teacher
better, to thank her for all her help, but she didn't seem to spend as much
time with him now that his grades had improved.  This confused Bryce.  He
thought that if she liked him that much when he was doing poorly, she'd
like him even more if he did well.  He just couldn't understand why she
changed toward him, but he continued to keep his grades up, hoping to win
back her admiration.

Bryce also managed to make a couple of new friends in his class too, and
the one boy wasn't even a 'geek' or a 'loser'.  Bryce didn't know why this
kid seemed to like him and was so friendly, but the boy always seemed to
pick Bryce to be on his team during P.E. or recess.  Bryce knew he wasn't a
very good athlete, so that couldn't be the reason the boy kept choosing
him, and the kid was always friendly and talked to him at other times too.
Soon Bryce quit his trying to figure out the 'why' and just started to
enjoy the friendship that this boy offered.  The boy's name was Greg, and
they began to talk a little and get to know each other better, but Bryce
was almost afraid, or maybe just ashamed, to tell the boy that he was a
foster child.  What he didn't realize was that it didn't matter.  Somehow
Greg already knew, probably because he knew where Bryce lived and he knew
that those people always took in foster kids.  Bryce was kind of relieved
when he found out that Greg knew, so he didn't have to try to keep this
secret, and he was thrilled that it didn't seem to matter to his friend at
all.

After they had shared this information, Greg had a surprise of his own and
told Bryce that he had been adopted.  At first Bryce didn't want to believe
him, thinking that he was making this up to make him feel better about
being a foster child, but Greg insisted that this was true and told Bryce
that he could even come over and ask his parents, if he wanted proof.
Bryce figured that if he was willing to let him do that, he must be telling
him the truth, so he never questioned that fact again.  The two boys
continued to grow closer, and they even included the third boy in many of
their activities, but these two just bonded together more than they did
with the other boy.  They vowed that they would never leave the other boy
out completely, as Bryce remembered what that had been like for him, but
they would also make sure they had time for just the two of them to do
things alone, in addition to the times when they were all together.

One day Greg asked Bryce if he wanted to come over to his house the next
afternoon to play.  Bryce told him he'd have to ask his foster parents
first, but he assumed they would, seeing they did allow him to do things
that his other foster parents hadn't.  When he got home he asked his foster
mother about the opportunity he had and she wanted to know where this kid
lived.  When he explained that he just lived a couple of blocks away, she
told him it would be fine, but he'd have to be home in time for dinner.
Bryce agreed and was all excited about the prospect.  He was so excited
that he could barely eat that evening and it took him forever to fall
asleep later that night, something he hardly ever had a problem with any
more.  All he could think about was how Greg would react when he found out
Bryce could come over and what they'd do when they got there.  It was like
a dream come true for him.

The next morning at school, he found Greg as quickly as he could and told
him the good news.  Greg was very happy about it, but he had also suspected
that he would be able to do so.  The two were very antsy all day, hardly
able to keep their minds on their work, and they spent their whole lunch
period talking excitedly about what they might do.  They made many plans,
but this only added to their distraction during the afternoon, and the boys
flew out of the school when they were finally dismissed.  They joked around
and had fun with each other the entire way there, punching, tripping, and
stealing each other's hats, just having harmless childish fun.  They were
almost there before Bryce began to look at the areas they passed, but he
wasn't ready for what he saw.  They may have only lived a few blocks apart,
but it was obvious that they lived in two different worlds.  The houses
here were nicer and better kept than the area he lived in, and their lawns
were freshly mowed and their shrubs nicely trimmed.  These people weren't
rich, but they were better off than the people around where he lived, and
they took more pride in their neighborhood as well.

Greg's mother greeted them almost as soon as they walked through the door,
leading them to the kitchen for a snack.  She worked part-time, while Greg
was in school, so she was home when he arrived in the afternoon.  She was a
good-looking woman, with a warm friendly smile, and she apparently doted on
her adopted son.  As Bryce saw how she treated Greg and how good she was to
him, he started to become jealous.  Why couldn't his mother have loved him
like this?  Why did she bother to keep him if she didn't love him?  Why
hadn't she let him be put up for adoption, so he could have been taken in
by someone as loving as this?  Why had Greg ended up in such a good home,
while he had been forced to endure years of neglect and abuse?  Why did God
hate him so much that he made his life as miserable as it was?  As he
continued to ask these questions of himself, Greg tried to get his
attention, wondering why he was so distracted.  Finally Greg shook Bryce's
shoulder, bringing him back to the present, and then he took him up to show
him his room.

He had a nice room and it had a lot of boy type things in it.  He had a
couple of trophies and some sports gear.  There was a Dallas Cowboys
pennant above his bed, a Notre Dame pennant on the opposite wall, and there
was a Motocross picture above his dresser.  On his closet door was an Aaron
Carter poster and there was a David Gallagher poster on the inside of the
door to his room.  Bryce was checking out the two posters, as he had never
seen pictures that large of either boy, and he thought they were both
really good-looking and pretty hot.  He didn't know why he thought that
way, he just did, but Greg caught him staring at those posters.

"Do you like my pictures of those two?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I do too.  I think they're both hot, but those pictures make them look
even hotter.  I wish I were as good-looking as them."

"You are," Bryce blurted out, wondering if he'd made a mistake doing so
almost as soon as the words escaped his lips.

"No way.  Those two guys are gorgeous.  I'm just average."  This comment
seemed to encourage him, seeing Greg didn't react negatively to his
comments, so he decided to keep going.

"No, you're not.  You're as handsome as either one of them."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah.  I wouldn't have said so if I didn't mean it."

"Well, you're not so bad yourself."

"Thanks, but you're just being nice."

"No, I'm not.well I am, but that's not why I said it.  It's true.  I
thought that the first day you came to our class."

"Is that why you were so nice to me?"

"That's one of the reasons, but I know it's hard being the new kid too.  I
heard the secretary giving your address to the teacher, so I knew you lived
close and that you were probably a foster kid.  That didn't matter to me,
especially after I saw you, and I knew that I wanted to be your friend."

"I'm glad.  I've never had many friends before."

"Well, you do now.  Hey, maybe you could spend the weekend here.  Do you
think your foster parents would allow that?"

"Maybe, but I'll have to ask.  They let me come over today, so maybe they
will.  I'll ask when I get back home and then I'll tell you tomorrow.
Okay?"

"Sure, that will be fine.  Come on, let's go outside and play."

The boys went racing out of the house and out into the yard.  Greg came up
with a rubber ball, which they began to throw back and forth between them,
and they talked about all kinds of different things while they did that.
The boys continued to do a variety of different things, until it was time
for Bryce to go back home.  When it came time for him to leave, Greg ran
inside and told his mother that he was going to walk Bryce home, which she
agreed to, but Bryce didn't understand why.  Greg made that clear to him as
they made their way there, telling him that he didn't want to wait until
tomorrow to learn if Bryce could spend the weekend.  When they got to the
foster home, Bryce introduced Greg to his foster mother and then asked her
if he could spend the weekend with him.  She thought about it for less than
a minute and then told him he could, sending both boys into a jumping
frenzy, with Bryce's foster mother trying to calm them both down.  They
went back outside, to savor their success, and then Greg said good-bye and
walked back to his own home.

The time between that moment and Friday night was almost too much for Bryce
to endure.  It seemed like it took forever for the time to pass, especially
after Greg told him that he had special plans for them.  He wouldn't tell
Bryce what they were, but he told him that he'd love it.  When Friday
finally came, the boys walked to Bryce's house after school, to pick up his
things, and then they walked over to Greg's house.  Once again Greg's
mother met them as they came in and she told them to take Bryce's things up
to Greg's room, and then they were to come down for a snack.  She had
cookies and milk for them when they returned, and she told them that she
had made a chocolate cake for desert, for after dinner.  The boys thought
that was fantastic, as they both loved chocolate cake, and they were
looking forward to having some later.

After their snack, the boys went out to walk around the neighborhood, to
see if anything exciting was going on.  They didn't find much, but they did
horse around for a while with a couple of boys from down the block, and
then they went back to Greg's house.  Greg's mom had them wash up for
dinner, and then they sat down to eat.  That's when Bryce got to meet
Greg's dad for the first time, as he just arrived home from work.  His dad
was nice, but not as nice as his mother, but it did seem like he loved Greg
and was interested in doing things with him.  He asked Greg about his day
and asked him if he had told Bryce about their plans, but Greg told him
that he was saving that as a surprise.  Watching the two of them interact
like that just made Bryce envious again, and reminded him of the imaginary
father he created to do the same things.  Greg's father noticed the change
in their visitor and thought he should include Bryce in their discussion,
so he started to ask him questions about himself.  This seemed to perk
Bryce back up, and soon his regrets were forgotten, having been distracted
by a man's interest in him.

After they had finished that great dinner and enjoyed the delicious
dessert, they went into the other room to decide what they would do next.
After discussing their options, they ended up playing the game of 'Life'
with Greg's parents, and everyone seemed to have a great deal of fun.  It
was the first time that Bryce had played this game, and he really liked it.
He got a college degree, married, had twin boys, and ended up winning the
game.  It was more fun than he'd had in ages, and he really liked his new
friend and his family.  After the game ended, the boys went up to Greg's
room and played video games for the rest of the night.  When Greg's mother
came up to check on them, she told them it was time for bed and that they
should get ready to go to sleep.  After brushing their teeth and going to
the toilet, they came back to Greg's room, stripped down to their
underwear, and eventually got into Greg's double bed.  Bryce was just going
to sleep on the floor, but Greg wouldn't allow that, telling him there was
enough room in the bed for both of them.  Bryce didn't mind, especially if
Greg didn't, so they both got in his bed, but they ended up talking a while
before they fell asleep.

The next morning they awoke before Greg's parents, so they just stayed in
his room and entertained themselves.  They started playing video games
again, but soon they began to complain that the other one was cheating,
which they actually were, and they both knew it.  Jokingly, they started
wrestling, trying to pin each other to the floor, so the loser would have
to admit that he was the one who was cheating.  They were having a good
time doing this, but they must have made a bit too much noise, and Greg's
mother showed up at their door, to see what they were up to.  When she saw
that the wrestling was just in fun, she made some comment about them being
typical boys.  Then she told them to get cleaned up and dressed, so they
should come down for breakfast, and she'd meet them down there as soon as
they were finished.  The boys did as they were told, just washing their
faces and hands with washcloths and taking a leak, before they headed to
meet Greg's mother in their kitchen.  She smiled at them as they walked in
and asked them what they wanted to eat.  Greg told her that he wanted
scrambled eggs and toast, but Bryce said he'd just have peanut butter and
jelly toast, like he normally had at his foster home.  Greg's mother made
that for him, but she made him some scrambled eggs too, and he ate
everything in a flash.  Greg's mother told him he should slow down and
she'd fix him more, if that's what he wanted, but he told her that he'd had
enough and it was all very good.  Of course, praising the cook and eating
like that endeared him to her, so Bryce didn't have to worry about being
invited back again.

After breakfast, all of them went out and loaded into their car, but Bryce
had no idea where they were going.  On the way, Greg finally told him that
they were going to visit his grandparents.  He told him they lived out in
the country, but not on a farm or anything like that.  They lived in a
small housing development in the middle of nowhere, and it was populated by
a bunch of old people.  Even though it didn't seem like it would be that
exciting, he told Bryce that there were some great places to explore around
there, and he'd show as much as he could to him.  His parents told them
that they had to spend some time with his grandparents first, but if they
promised to be careful, they could go exploring if they wished.  Greg did
that almost every time he went there anyway, so this time he'd just have
someone to go with him.  The boys were very excited now and they could
hardly wait to arrive, and they bolted from the car just as soon as the
engine was turned off.  They raced into the house, to say hello to Greg's
grandparents, and Greg began to tell them all about his new friend.  After
they talked to them a while, Greg's parents told them that they could go
out exploring now, so they told Greg's grandparents they'd be back and sped
out the door and raced behind the house.

When they stopped, Bryce decided to check out the area.  The place was
pretty interesting, as there was this small cluster of homes, but then
there were fields and trees behind them and on both sides.  Greg told him
he had something to show him, and he led him through one of the fields,
toward a line of trees, and toward whatever it was that lay beyond.  As
they made their way through the cluster of trees, they suddenly came upon a
small creek, but it turned out to be more than just that.  At some point,
someone had built a dam across the creek, making a small pond behind it.
It was probably no more the four feet deep at its deepest point, but it
looked so inviting and beckoned to them.  It was secluded here, open just
enough for the creek and the small pond, lined by trees on both sides, and
the water was fairly still and clear, almost as if this area had been
untouched for centuries.  That just brought out the inevitable reaction.

"Hey, Bryce, do you want to go swimming?"

Bryce looked at the water and then at his friend.  "Yeah, that sounds nice,
but we don't have our swimsuits or towels with us."

"No big deal.  We can go swimming without anything on.  You've seen other
guys naked before, haven't you?"

"Well, yeah.  Sometimes I've seen one of the other guys at the foster home,
when they were changing or something."

"You aren't bashful about me seeing you, are you?"

Bryce wasn't sure if he was or wasn't, but he wasn't going to let Greg know
that.  "No, of course not," he told him.  "We all got the same things,
right?"

"Yeah, we do.  They may be a little different, but basically they're the
same."

"Do you think it's safe here?" Bryce wanted to know, worrying that someone
else might catch them there without their clothes on.  "I mean, do you
think that someone else might come here and see us swimming without
anything on?"

"Nah, everyone around here is old and they don't come out here.  I come out
here almost every time I come here, and I've never seen anyone around.  I
don't think my parents would come out here either, and I don't think they
even know this is here."

For some reason, Bryce now wanted to see Greg naked and that thought
excited him.  He was mentally picturing what Greg would look like without
his clothes on, and he hoped that he'd be able to get a good look at what
he had between his legs.  "Well, okay.  I'll do it, if you will."

"Let's go then."  The boys began to quickly strip off their clothes,
throwing them on the ground beside where they were standing.  When they got
down to just their underpants, they looked at each other and grinned.
"We'll do it together," Greg announced, not giving Bryce a chance to back
out.  Bryce nodded and both boys pulled down their briefs.  They were each
checking the other one out, making sure to see what his friend looked like
down there, and they were both pleased to learn that they were pretty much
identical.  They were both circumcised and a couple of inches limp, which
made them relax even more about doing this. At this point they decided to
get closer, to have a better look and compare themselves even more.
Without saying a word, they stepped toward each other, until their penises
were almost touching, and then they just stood there.

"See, I told you we would be the same," Greg announced.  They both still
stood staring at each other, not wanting to take their eyes off of the
other's package.  "Have you ever touched anyone else's before?" Greg wanted
to know.

"No, have you?" Bryce countered.

"Just one other boy's.  We were friends last year, but he moved away.  We
touched each other's dicks a couple of times.  Would you like to touch
mine?"

Bryce felt his heart leap to his throat and it began to beat faster after
Greg asked that question, and Bryce knew what his answer was going to be.
He had always wondered what this would be like, to touch someone else
there, he just didn't have the courage to ask anyone else to do that, so he
could find out what it would be like.  Even though Maury had touched him
before, he had never touched Maury, and he wouldn't have wanted to anyway.
This was different, though.  Greg was his own age and he was cute, really
cute.  Even before he had a chance to answer or reach out, his own body
gave him away.  Suddenly his own dick started to stiffen and rise,
indicating his interest in his friend.  Greg noticed this immediately and
let him know about it.

"Wow, you're getting a boner," he blurted out.  "Go ahead, touch mine and
then I'll touch yours.  Wow, yours is getting bigger."

Greg was right, it had gotten bigger, and thicker too.  Bryce's skin was
all hot and his body was trembling with excitement.  Slowly he reached out
and touched Greg's penis, gently fingering the tip and then touching it all
over.  Slowly Greg's penis began to grow too, as the stimulation of Bryce's
touch was arousing him as well.  The two boys laughed about this, as they
were now both very erect, and Greg reached out and played with Bryce's
stiffy too.  The boys were not only touching each other, but they began to
stroke the penis in their hand too, using two or three fingers to do so.
This also caused the boys to giggle a bit, as they thought these new
activities tickled, but neither wanted to stop, because it just felt too
good.  Eventually they did stop, however, but they were both breathless and
still very excited.

"That was really neat," Bryce told him.

"Yeah, it was great!" Greg added, "but we'd better go swimming now, if you
still want to do that.  It won't be long before we'll have to head back, or
else they'll begin to worry about us."  Bryce agreed that they should go
swimming, so they ran to the waterline and jumped in.

The water was cool, but refreshing, and their little dicks wilted under the
sudden change in temperature.  It didn't seem to bother them however, and
they probably hadn't even noticed that fact, as now they were too busy just
being boys.  First they splashed each other and then they chased each other
around, playing their own version of tag in the water.  They did this for
thirty or forty minutes, before they began to tire, and then they got out
of the water and lay on the bank.  As they lay on their backs with their
bodies drying, they kept glancing over and checking out each other's body,
still intrigued, even though they had seen it 'all' before.  When their
bodies had dried, they decided they had better get dressed and head back to
Greg's grandparents' house.  They continued to goof around all the way
back, and they were still laughing and joking when they walked into the
house.

"I'm glad to see you boys get along so well," Greg's grandmother told them,
as they walked into her living room.  "It's good that you are such good
friends.  Good friends can be hard to find, but they can last a lifetime.
I hope that's how it works out for the two of you."  The boys sorrt of
understood what she was saying, and they said they hoped so too, but how
can anyone know what their future holds.

Now that they were in the house, Greg's grandparents had some really neat
old things for them to check out.  They had this thing that they called a
stereoscope, which was kind of like looking through a viewfinder or a pair
of binoculars.  A pair of pictures were placed in a holder at the far end
of the apparatus, but when you looked through it there was just one.  The
pictures were of the same scene, but they were taken at slightly different
angles.  When you looked through the lenses at the pictures, it combined
the two images into one and gave them depth, making it more real than just
looking at a picture.  Greg's grandfather said he had received this from
his grandfather, so it must have been really, really old, well, that's how
the boys perceived it.

In addition to that, they had a piano that played by itself.  Well, not
completely by itself, because somebody had to pump the pedals, but nobody
had to touch the keys.  They called it a player piano and it played music
by following a series of holes that had been punched into this roll of
heavy paper that was put inside of it.  The holes told the piano what keys
were to be played and the piano did just that, playing whatever song was on
that scroll.  Greg's grandfather played the first song, showing the boys
how it worked, and then he put in a new scroll in and let Greg do it, after
which he changed the roll again, giving Bryce a chance to 'play'.  It was
really neat and the boys had fun doing it.

They had dinner there too, a big pot roast, prepared with onions and
carrots, and they also had mashed potatoes with gravy and butternut squash.
Greg's grandmother was a really good cook and the food was fantastic.
Bryce didn't think he was going to like the squash, but she had put
brown-sugar or something on it, so it was really sweet After they'd
finished eating all of that, she brought out a home-made blueberry pie, and
she added a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, for anyone who wanted it.
After they finished their desserts, they sat around and talked for a while,
and they listened to Greg's grandparents tell them about what it was like
when they were younger.  They had some great stories to tell, about things
like Woodstock, Vietnam, and Watergate.  Some of the stories were
interesting, while others were not, but the boys sat quietly through them
anyway.  When they finished telling their stories, it was time to leave,
and the visitors got into the car and drove back to Greg's house.

Bryce was spending the night again, so the boys were sent to his room to
get ready for bed.  The boys weren't all that tired, as the day had wound
them up to a level from which it would take them a while to come down, but
they did as they were told and went to Greg's room.  After brushing and
flushing, they stripped down to their underclothes and got into Greg's bed,
that's when Bryce felt he should thank Greg for all he had done.

"Greg, I had a really good time today.  Thanks for inviting me over this
weekend."

"You're welcome, but I had fun too.  I like you a lot and I'm glad you're
my friend."

"I really like you too.  I've never had a friend like you before, so this
is very important to me.  I'm so glad you wanted to be my friend."

The boys talked for a while longer, until they talked themselves out, then
they went to sleep.  Bryce felt as happy and content this evening as he had
ever felt before, and he managed to scoot over against Greg and stay close
to him throughout the entire evening.  He wasn't exactly cuddling with him,
but close enough to make it special, and he was enjoying more peace and
happiness than he had ever known.  The next morning Greg noticed Bryce
snuggled tightly against him when he awoke, and he was kind of excited by
that too.  He liked Bryce more than he could ever let him know, maybe in a
way that wasn't quite 'normal'.  Though neither of them had reached puberty
yet or knew much about gay love, they shared an attraction that neither of
them dared to mention.  They thought if they spoke those words aloud, they
would scare the other away, not knowing that the affection was mutual.

They spent most of that day together too, playing games, going to the local
park, and just hanging around with Greg's family.  The closer it came to
the time for Bryce to go back home, the more he wished that he didn't have
to.  Not only did he have this attraction to Greg, but he liked Greg's
parents as well.  They were nice to him and they included him in everything
they did, even doing some other things just because they thought Bryce
might enjoy it.  Even though this was his first weekend with them, he was
beginning to feel that he was part of their family, and he was looking
forward to coming back again.  When it was time for him to go, Greg's
father drove him home and then Greg walked him to the front door to say
good-bye.  It was very emotional, and they even hugged before Greg left,
and Bryce waved as they drove away.  As their car drove out of sight, Bryce
went inside to face the reality of his life.

The boys got together nearly every chance they got, and Bryce was invited
over nearly every weekend.  About the only weekends he didn't go over were
the weekends they had other things planned, like a wedding, other family
gathering, or something with Greg's parents' friends.  On about his third
weekend visit, Bryce and Greg even took a shower together.  It happened
because his parents decided to take them someplace on short notice, so to
save time the boys decided to shower at the same time.  They didn't really
end up saving time, however, as they became interested in each other's
bodies again, both springing erections and then playing with their own and
then the other's.  They were beginning to learn that this little activity
gave them new and pleasurable sensations, and they were beginning to like
everything about it.  They did it for as long as they dared, and then they
got out of the shower, dried, and got dressed, hurrying down in time to
leave.

There were other weekends together and much more fun.  The boys were
beginning to learn about each other and about themselves, especially about
their bodies, and Bryce was beginning to think that life had finally dealt
him a decent hand.  Things weren't all that terrific at his foster home,
but they pretty much let him do want he wanted, so he spent as much time
with Greg as he could, and things were better for him than they had ever
been.  Just when he was ready to put his past behind him and move on to his
future, life dealt him another cruel blow.

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