Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2018 21:31:41 -0400 (EDT) From: HENRY BROOKS Subject: The Past is Never Behind You short story (Revised) Please donate to Nifty.org at http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html. Your donation will allow stories such as this to be published. The Past Is Never Behind You (An Old-Fashioned Love Story) The staff and administrative personnel of Ryan Colby University all considered themselves to be very urbane and citizens of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. They led very insular lives. They did all their socializing with themselves, and all they ever talked about was university gossip. Louis Merritt taught world history. As teachers went, he was one of the best. He always tried to show the results of some old historic event as it affected today's world. Frankly, socializing with the same old people all the time bored him to death. The opposite was true for his wife, Celia. As Chairman of The English Department, Celia loved to socialize with university personnel. Her status was above the rest of their group of friends, and she always had the final word on any and all topics. Louis felt that his wife was the most boring of all of them. If he had an alternate avocation he would have quit his job in a minute, but teaching was all he knew. Louis worked out regularly, and at forty-five, he could pass as thirty. He was handsome and muscular and more than one student had a crush on him. Celia was just the opposite. She had once been an attractive woman, but she had let herself go. She was a little overweight, and her clothes were not very stylish. Not only that, but she wore the same outfits over and over again. She believed they suited her, and they were comfortable. In fact, she dressed as one might expect the Chairman of the English Department to dress. One very hot dog-day in mid-August, Louis's doorbell rang. Celia was out shopping at several end-of-summer sales. She probably would never wear anything new she might buy, preferring her old, comfortable ensembles, but she went shopping anyhow. Louis opened the front door and had to blink his eyes. A young man stood before him. He was handsome enough, for sure, but he was a dead ringer for a very dear college friend of his. The young man was in his early twenties, the same age his friend was when they were bosom buddies. Louis had to grab the door handle to keep from falling. "Can I help you, young man?" Louis stuttered. "Are you Louis Merritt?" the handsome young man inquired. "I am. Do I know you?" "You don't know me, but you knew my father, Jaden Conway." "Oh, Good Lord," Louis blurted out. "Come in! Come in!" Louis led the young man into the living room. "What's your name?" he asked. "I'm Tyler. My dad told me what good friends you two were." "What brings you to this old town?" "I got my master's degree this past May, and I secured a position to teach biology and chemistry at Ryan Colby. When I got the good news, my dad told me that when I got here, I should look you up, and you would help me if I needed anything." "This is so incredible. Of course, I'll help you, but first I want to hear all about your dad." "Unfortunately, he died of cancer just a week after he told me to look you up." Louis's face clouded over. "I am so sorry to hear that," he said with a slight sob. "I miss him dearly," Tyler said. There was an uncomfortable silence and then Louis asked, "You said you needed help. What can I help you with?" "Well, I'm staying in a motel, and I was hoping you knew some rental places where other faculty members lived, and which wouldn't absorb my whole salary." "I know just the place. My daughter got married last year and she lives in Denver. I don't expect a visit from her and her husband any time soon, so why don't you shack up here. We'll find you an apartment quickly enough." "Won't Mrs. Merritt mind?" "Listen kid. You're my best friend's son, and I say you're staying here. Now let's go to that motel and get all your stuff." That night in their room, Celia gave Louis more than a little flak about her house guest. Louis did something then that he had never done before. He used polite academic syntax, but in essence, he told her to fuck off. ********** Louis and Jaden met a few days before their college years began. Each was moving into his dorm room at the state university. They were roomies and they hit it off right away. They became really good friends, and one day Jaden asked Louis if he would like to double date. Louis was surprised. He wasn't dating anyone, and he was unaware that Jaden was. "There's no one, I care to ask," Louis said. "I didn't make myself clear," Jaden said. "It's my date's best friend. She asked me to get a date for her so they could go out together." "Okay. In that case, you've got a date," Louis said, and he laughed at his bad joke. The men were handsome and the girls were pretty. The men did what was expected of them, and started to make out with the girls. That was all right for the girls, up to a point, but then they put a stop to it. Jaden and Louis returned to their room, each with a severe case of blue balls. They got ready for bed and Jaden asked, "Do you mind if I jerk off? I'm going to do it if you mind or not." "Of course not. I'll join you," Louis said, and he jumped into Jaden's bed. When Louis said that he would join Jaden, this is not what Jaden expected. No matter, he was all for it. "Would you like to do each other?" Louis asked. "I'd really like that." "Louis," Jaden said, "I'd love to do that. I've wanted to do that and a lot more ever since we met." They took hold of each other's cocks and they both told each other how nice it felt. All they did that night was to give each other hand jobs, but after a short period of time, they experimented with sucking and fucking. They rented a male porno flick to get ideas, and added additional positions, rimming, kissing and golden showers to their menu. Before they were sophomores, they were enjoying a full range of homosexual activity. They were the two happiest students at the university. Unlike their friends who were constantly on the prowl, they were getting laid regularly. As graduation approached, they had a long talk. They both agreed that it would be unwise to pursue a gay life-style, and both vowed to live as straight men. They stayed in touch for a few years, but little by little life got in the way, and they lost their connection. Before that happened, Jaden knew that Louis had gotten his doctorate in history and was teaching at Ryan Colby University. Louis knew that Jaden worked for General Motors in Austin, Texas in their marketing department. They knew when each got married, but neither attended the other's wedding. Before they lost touch, they knew that Louis had a daughter, and Jaden had a son. Their children were born two days apart. ********** As it turned out Celia needn't have worried. Two weeks later, Tyler found a nice one bedroom apartment not far from the university. When he went to buy furniture and accessories, Louis helped him decide on what he needed and what he could do without, to begin with. Tyler moved out of the Merritt's home on the first available Saturday morning, and Louis helped him move. When they were alone together in Tyler's apartment, Tyler said, "We've been working our asses off. Let's take a break. They sat down on the sofa, and Tyler said, "I need to tell you something." "Sure! Go ahead! I'm all ears." "Louis, I'm gay. I came out to my father before he died. He told me not ever to hide who I was and to live the life I wanted to live. He started to cry, and I thought he was crying because he was disappointed in me. I was wrong. Instead, he told me all about you, and the love you had once shared. At this point, he knew we would be in the same city and teaching at the same university. He urged me to look you up, and deliver a message to you." Amidst his tears, Louis said, "Yes, please tell me what he said." "He said that the biggest mistake he ever made in his life was to leave you, and not live his life with you. He also said that the only thing that made his life bearable was me. He begged me to let you know how he felt." Louis dabbed at his tears with some tissues. "How did you feel when he told you that he was gay?" "Not much of anything then. But when I first laid eyes on you, every bone in my body wanted to make love with you, especially since I knew you were gay." "Tyler," Louis confessed. "You're a dead ringer for your father. I've wanted the same thing since I met you, but we were never alone." "We're alone now," Tyler said, and he leaned over to kiss Louis. It was a short, closed-lip kiss, but Louis sighed, and mumbled something that sounded like, "Nice, very nice." "Take a shower with me, and we'll initiate my shower," Tyler said, "then let's christen my bed." In the shower, Louis tried to remember everything he and Jaden used to do. He convinced himself that Tyler was Jaden. Their uncut pricks were even the same size. They sucked and fucked each other, but refrained from cumming. Later, in bed, they played sixty-nine, but again, they stopped short of cumming. They finally gave in to nature by unloading far up their asses. Louis began to cry. "Thank you Jaden," he said. "What fools we were to go separate ways." Tyler didn't mind at all that Louis called him Jaden. "Please don't cry," Tyler requested. "If I made you happy, my dad would be happy also." "Yes, I'm crying because you just made all my dreams come true, but I'm also crying at what a sham my marriage is. We haven't had sex in years." Tyler didn't know what to say, so he just blurted out, "Wow, ouch." "I know now what I have to do. I need to leave her and try to put some happiness back in my life." "I love you," Tyler said. "My bed will always be available to you. I won't share it with anyone else." "Do you really mean that?" "Of course I do," Tyler said emphatically. "But, I'm twice your age." "What does that matter? If we're soul mates love is forever." They hugged each other tightly and brought each other to Paradise one more time. Tyler came in Louis's mouth, and Louis came in Tyler's ass. When Louis told Celia that he wanted a divorce, she wasn't upset at all. She knew it was coming. Louis moved in with Tyler in a few short days. They marked that happy event as their wedding day, and indeed, they lived happily ever after.