Jason and Shaun 14

If you don't agree with guys being in love with guys, then you need to find someplace else to spend time.

Okay, these characters are not meant to resemble any living or dead person.

I make no apology to anyone who is offended by anything in this story.

Let me know what you think of the story by emailing me at

_Hnstskr4@aol.com_

I want to thank everyone for reading the story. I'm going to start another story as soon as I can get the characters designed and some chapters planned out.

Jason and Shaun

Chapter 14

A Visitor From Shaun's Past

It's six months since Josh left their apartment and Jason and Shaun are at home relaxing. The apartment is quiet except for Sasha's purring and the nature sound CD playing in the background. Both of them are glad to have the past six months over with and that they now have a chance to relax. Between family, relationship and school, the guys are glad that the last six months are in the past. For Jason, the next six months will take him into his sophomore year at college. For Shaun, it will mean that he'll be graduating. Today though, the boys are going to have a visitor from Shaun's past, a visitor that Shaun will most likely dread seeing again. At least this time someone will be around in case of trouble. A knock comes at the door and it ends the peace that the boys have been enjoying.

Jason gets up to answer the door. Shaun isn't paying any attention to the door at all. Sasha is distracting him. Shaun takes every opportunity he can to play with her. Jason looks through the peephole and sees a tall, muscular guy who appears to be older than Shaun. He opens the door slightly enough to ask who it is.

"Hello?"

"Hi, does Shaun still live here?"

"Yeah, are you in one of his classes?"

"I used to be a room-mate."

"Come on in!"

Jason allows the unknown room-mate into the apartment without even asking his name.

Jason comes up behind Shaun and taps him on the shoulder to get his attention. Shaun turns to see what Jason wanted and as he does he sees his old room-mate. He does not look all that happy. Jason can see the expression on his boyfriend's face and knows that he made a mistake by allowing this guest into the house.

"Hi Shaun do you remember me?"

How could Shaun forget him after what this guy did to him?

"Yeah... I remember you, Payton."

With the mention of the name, Jason realizes who the mystery guy is and now he's worried. Shaun can't help himself and becomes very tense.

"Shaun, you have every right to be nervous, but I'm not going to hurt you."

Shaun doesn't trust a thing this guy says. Shaun throws Jason a glance hoping that Jason will be able to read his face. Jason gets it and is ready to step in at any time. At this point, even Payton is nervous. What reason does Payton have to be nervous? Maybe he's afraid that Shaun and Jason will gang up on him. He knows full well that Shaun would have every right to do so, after all, the last time these two guys saw each other, Payton was beating the crap out of Shaun. It's a mistake that Payton wants to put behind me.

"Payton, why are you here?"

Payton doesn't know if he'll be able to accomplish his goal.

"I... I came to apologize."

"What??"

Shaun couldn't believe his ears. This guy wants to apologize for beating him up and putting him into the hospital? He's had plenty of time to apologize and he's waiting till now? Payton comes and sits down across from Shaun. Worried that Shaun or Payton might decide to fight Jason stands between them. Shaun wonders if Payton is for real or not about this whole apologizing thing. Payton begins to wonder if this is a good idea.

"Look, Shaun, after my first month in jail I realized that I needed help. I became aware of just how bad my anger had become. I never once told anyone about my dad abusing me, I was addicted to drugs, and well, when you approached me it made me crack. In jail, away from all distractions, I had to time to really reflect. Through the prison, I was able to get counseling for my abuse, my drug addiction, and my anger."

Payton watches as Shaun whispers into his Jason's ear, "Listen to these excuses!"

Jason then whispers back to Shaun, "You need to hear him out."

Payton can feel the tears welling up inside. Crying is something that Payton has learned to do along with letting his feelings come out.

Payton looks at Shaun and his tears begin to stream down his face. Jason knows that Payton is for real, but he is still very much on edge. He looks at Shaun.

"I... I never meant... to hurt anyone. I'm sorry, Shaun. Can you forgive me?"

Shaun is torn between accepting the apology and walking away. His partner can see the fight going on inside his partner. Shaun wants to forgive him, but he still isn't convinced that Payton is truly sincere.

Shaun is getting hungry but he doesn't want to be rude, so he's decides to take Jason and Payton out to eat.

"Payton, have you eaten yet?

"No, I haven't," Payton said, hoping that this was a good sign.

"Well, then I'm going to treat you and Jason."

Payton isn't sure what to think. He's hoping that Shaun can be trusted.

For the most part, the meal is pretty quiet other than small talk. Jason keeps looking at Shaun, hoping to see that there is some sign of acceptance in his boyfriend's eyes. There are no signs of him budging right now though. Jason knows that at some level he wants to forgive Payton. He needs to push Shaun a little bit to take Payton's apology to heart.

Jason stands up and motions for Shaun to join him. The restaurant was a little crowded so they made their way to the front. Payton suddenly becomes very, very nervous. Could they be leaving him to pay the check? He doesn't think Shaun would do that to him though. Jason looks into Shaun's eyes and purses his lips. He takes Shaun's hand and quietly places a discreet kiss on his boyfriend's lips.

He says, "Shaun, just forgive him already. You know that you want too, so just do it already."

"I just don't know if he's being sincere or not," Shaun says to Jason as they turn to head back to their table. As they pass by other patrons sitting down and eating, Shaun feels the burning need to express himself to Payton.

Shaun has to get this feeling out in the open. Jason and Shaun sit down at the table and go back to eating their all-you-can-eat shrimp. Shaun looks up at Payton, and after finishing the food in his mouth he starts to speak.

"Look Payton, I'm really torn between forgiving you and simply walking away from here."

Payton's heart is ready to sink. If Shaun walks away, Payton will be stuck; he won't be able to move on from where he's at right now. Shaun just has to accept his apology.

"Shaun, I wouldn't blame you for walking away right now."

Jason has faith in his boyfriend and knows that he'll do the right thing. Finally, Shaun has decided to forgive his former room-mate. Words begin to form in his mind and he prepares to share them. Just then a phone rings. Payton reaches into this pocket and pulls out his phone. He looks down at the phone's display screen and then stands up. His face is now slightly pale. The guys can see that something is wrong. Payton excuses himself and walks to the back of the restaurant near the restrooms. Curious, Jason looked at Shaun and also excuses himself.

Jason walks towards Payton, who is now talking on the phone. He walks into the restroom, but manages to keep the door slightly ajar. He hears Payton talking...

"Are you sure it's Cancer?"

Then there was quiet for almost a minute as Payton listened to whoever was talking.

"Only two or three months, guess I should finish my bucket list, huh?"

Jason is surprised at the fact that he can manage to joke at a time like this. He quietly closes the restroom door and moves towards the urinal. He gets close enough to set off the auto flush mechanism. He washes and dries his hands. Walking out the door, he heads back to the table. As he walks, he wonders if this is why Payton is seeking forgiveness from Shaun. Now, Shaun has no choice but to accept Payton's apology. He can't let this guy die knowing that Shaun refused to accept his apology. Jason sits down at his seat and looks towards Payton as he nears the table.

As Payton heads back to the table, he appears to be in total shock. Wouldn't you be in disbelief if you found out that you were dying of cancer and only had two or three months to live? I, for one, think he has a good reason to be upset.

Shaun looks at him and says to Jason, "I wonder what's wrong with him."

To which Jason replies, "He has cancer and only has 2 or 3 months to live."

Shaun is quiet. He's never been happier about a decision in his life. Now he has to tell him.

"Payton, what you did to me was crazy. I really had feelings for you, and yeah, it would be really easy for me to walk away from here and never look back. I just wasn't raised that way, my friend, so I accept your apology."

Tears started to roll down Payton's face. Despite the tears, you can tell that Payton's spirits were lifted.

"Shaun you have no idea how happy you just made me, thanks!"

Payton could no longer hold it back; he got up and hugged Shaun first and then Jason. With their meal over, Shaun paid for it and the trio left the restaurant.

'Funny, Payton made no mention of his cancer,' Shawn thinks to himself.

The ride home was quiet. Payton was thinking of how to tell his family, Shaun was thinking of what an amazing person Payton has become, and again Jason is thinking of how truly wonderful his boyfriend is and how he is lucky to have him. When they arrived at the apartment building, Payton said his goodbyes and Jason and Shaun went inside.

Inside their apartment, Jason and Shaun went back to cuddling on the couch.

"You know what, Jason? I'm glad that I apologized to that big lug."

Jason said nothing, just looked up at his guy and smiled. He knew Shaun would eventually do the right thing. Still, there was a point where Jason wasn't exactly sure that Shaun would reach this point. Sasha saw the guys and jumped up onto the couch to join them.

"Sasha, you should be proud of your daddy, he's a great guy."

She seemed to be proud of Shaun and even gave him a quiet meow. Shaun truly loves this cat. Still, none of the guys could have known what the next month would bring.

Exactly one month later, Jason is in the pet room feeding them when he suddenly gets a chill up and down his spine. Something is wrong, he can feel it. Grabbing his cell phone from off the top of Lucy's cage, he quickly called the most important man in his life, next to his dad.

"Shaun, come on answer your phone, big guy," Jason said, as he listened to his phone ring, not once, but three times, before Shaun picked up.

"Jason, what's up?"

Jason felt relieved. At least, he knew Shaun was okay.

"I just got the weirdest feeling... like something was wrong. Guess it was nothing."

Shaun had no idea what Jason was feeling, but he too was relieved. Jason said his goodbyes and went back to taking care of his animals. Still, he couldn't get over the feeling that something just wasn't right. Suddenly, the apartment phone rang. Jason wasn't sure that he wanted to answer it. He gave in and picked it up.

"Hello."

"Is Shaun there?" The voice belonged to a female, an older female. She sounded stressed and very, very upset.

"No he's not. Can I take a message?"

He got out a pen and grabbed some paper.

"This is Payton's mom; he used to be a room-mate of Shaun's. Can... can you tell him... that Payton was in a car crash and died this morning."

Jason was stunned.

"I'm so sorry! I will call Shaun right now."

Payton's mom said, "Thank you!" and then she hung up.

Jason kept his promise and immediately called his boyfriend.

"Shaun... are you sitting down?"

Now Shaun was worried. He had dismissed Jason's feelings, but now he knew something was up.

"Yeah... I'm sitting down. Now tell me what is going."

"Payton died... He was in a car accident this morning."

"Damn!"

Shaun couldn't believe it, but at least his former roommate is at peace.