Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 07:50:29 -0500 From: Jeff Allen Subject: "Love of a Lifetime" Part 41 This is a fictional story dealing with love and consensual sexual activities between males. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now. The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author. Note: I owe a special thanks to Robb for doing the final proofreading and catching all those silly little errors that I missed. LOVE OF A LIFETIME PART 41 When we got back from the ski trip, Justin, Jason, Andy, and I started our last semester of classes at Adams State. So much had happened in our lives in the three and a half years since coming to the university, and in five months we would be closing that chapter in our lives and opening another. It was a little scary when I thought about it. David Barnes showed up at our door late that Sunday evening. "Hey, guys. Can I crash with you tonight. I'm really exhausted, and don't think I can make it all the way back to Raleigh. Besides, I kinda want to talk a little." I settled David in the living room and opened a beer for both of us while Andy finished the task of supervising pre-bedtime activities for Greg and Gary, who was staying over that night like he did most nights. "Okay, David, what's up? What are you doing here? You know we love you, and you're welcome to stay any time, but Justin and Megan are right next door and Brian's apartment is just upstairs. What gives?" He smiled and took a sip of his beer. "I just need some advice from you and Andy about gay relationships." "You drove all the way from Raleigh to ask our advice? What about the phone?" "Well, actually I'm on my way back to Raleigh from Asheville." Realization dawned. Sometimes I can be so damn dense. "You went to see Adam." The grin was even bigger. "Yeah. He said I needed to have a doctor check the stitches. Since he was the one who put them in, I thought he'd be the best one to check them out." I leaned back in the chair. "Okay, David. Out with it. What's going on?" "Well, Adam and I kind of made the arrangements before he left the cabin last weekend. I drove up to Raleigh on Friday night after work. Got there about eleven." "And?" "We stayed up most of the night talking. He's an amazing person. I've had all the advantages in my life. Wealthy parents. A good home. Great family. I've never really had to struggle for anything. Adam's life has been so different. First he's half Cherokee on his mother's side. His father was some young guy who was working a construction project on the reservation. He took off long before Adam was born. His mother died when he was only six years old, and he was in a series of foster homes after that. The only reason he was able to go to college was that he got a full-ride football scholarship. He's working as an emergency room physician right now to pay down some of the loans he had to take out for medical school. He's planning on starting his own practice in another year or so. "Like I said, we stayed up most of Friday night talking. We finally snuggled up in bed with our clothes on about three or four Saturday morning. On Saturday he showed me around Asheville then we went to dinner at a little restaurant near downtown." "How long has he been 'out'? Neither Matt nor Jamal knew Adam was gay." "We talked about that also. He said that he knew he was different back in high school, but he just thought he felt out of place because he was always in some foster home. He started seriously thinking about it in his senior year in college. Jamal and Matt were a year behind Adam. According to Adam, Jamal wasn't always discrete in his choice of partners, and apparently there were a lot of them before Mark. Because Jamal and Matt were such good friends, there were rumors about Matt as well although we all know now that Matt was already in love with Gary Griffith. "Anyway, Adam said he got to thinking that if guys like Jamal and Matt could be gay, then maybe it was okay if he felt that way too. He didn't have his first gay sexual experience until his second year of med school. That relationship didn't last long. There were a couple of others after that, but nothing that was serious. "There's really something special between us. C.Z., you told me that maybe I should find the right person first before deciding which side of the fence to sit on. Adam might just be that person. I've never felt this way about any of the people I've dated...male or female. I've had a lot more experience with women. Beside you, C.Z., I've only been with two other guys. "When Adam and I went to bed on Saturday night...well, I've just never felt anything like it. I can only say that it was magical. It wasn't just the physical part of it, which was great, but the emotional connection we shared was the most intense and satisfying I've ever experienced." Andy broke into the conversation. "You were safe, weren't you?" David blushed a little. "Well, yes and no. We did lots of oral stuff. Man, the things he can do with his tongue! Neither one of us has had another sexual partner in over a year, but we decided to both get blood tests before we have anal intercourse just to be on the safe side. That way when the tests come back negative we won't have to bother with condoms or worry about our health. We did a lot of kissing and other stuff. You know, what we did was so fantastic, that I don't really care if we never have anal intercourse." "Sounds like you two are looking at an exclusive relationship." "Yup. Both of us want that, and right now I just can't imagine wanting anyone else." I chuckled a little. "Somehow I think of both of you as tops." David grinned. "We covered that too. I think you know that I can be versatile when I want." I smiled back at him. "Yeah, bro, you can. So when are you going to see each other again?" "Next weekend. He has night duty in the emergency room on Friday, but then he's off Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I'm going to drive up early on Saturday and stay until Tuesday. I've got lots of vacation time coming so it won't be a problem." "You said that you wanted some advice about gay relationships. It sounds to me like you've got things figured out already." "I don't know. We're both kind of new at the whole relationship thing. I just know that I've got to give it a try. I've never felt this way about any one before. I just wanted to tell you guys about it." Andy and I moved on either side of David and gave him a hug. "Thanks, David. That means a lot to us." "Thanks for letting me crash here...and for listening. Right now, I think I'd better go upstairs and see how Brian's doing now that Sergei is in Raleigh and then go over and say 'hi' to Justin and Megan. I'll be back in a little bit." "We'll leave the door open if we go to bed. You know where everything is." "Thanks again, guys." He gave us both another hug before heading out the door to find his brothers. ********** It's amazing how fast the semester went! Justin got his acceptance letter from the dental school at UNC at the end of January. I got my acceptance to the medical school the very next day. Boy did we party that weekend! Adam's and David's relationship blossomed. They spent every weekend together, either in Asheville or in Raleigh and a few times at our place or out at Doc and Matt's. They also started getting together with Mark and Jamal who lived outside of Durham and close to Raleigh. I'd always thought of David as being more serious and introverted than either Justin or Brian. I had to revise my thinking. David was happier and more outgoing than I'd ever seen him. David and Adam worked out the "who's going to be the top" problem. Turned out that both of them were versatile. Brian and Sergei's relationship was strained with Sergei's long trips to Russia for his job. Andy and I knew what they were going through. Our own relationship had suffered when he was working in Chicago. I prayed they would make it through the rough spots like Andy and I had. In the meanwhile we tried to include Brian in a lot of our activities to help him keep his mind off Sergei's absence. Justin and Megan's wedding plans progressed and expanded and expanded some more. By late April, Justin was trying to talk Megan into eloping and forgetting about all the big wedding hoopla. Privately Megan told me she felt the same way as Justin, but she thought her mother would never forgive her if they eloped. Jason was interviewed by several firms both large and small, and he got several job offers. The one he ended up accepting was at a smaller investment company based in Atlanta. The thing that clinched the decision was the domestic partner benefits package of the investment firm which none of the other companies offered. He and Cory had already spent several weekends down in Atlanta looking for apartments. Cory was in the management training program at McDonald's. The owner of the local McDonald's franchise was making phone calls to some of the franchises in the Atlanta area to get Cory transferred into a management training program down there. Andy accepted Jamal's offer to become the full-time CFO of Jamal's growing retail business. Andy, Greg, Larsen, and I spent a couple of weekends staying with Mark and Jamal in Durham while we looked for housing in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Justin, or rather Justin's parents, solved our housing problem for us. As a wedding present to Justin and Megan, they put the down payment on a duplex just outside of Chapel Hill toward Durham. Both units had three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen and living room/dining room combination. Justin offered to split the mortgage payment 50/50 with us. We jumped at the chance. It would be a lot more room for a lot less money than any of the other places we'd looked at. When I tried to thank Justin for his generosity, he just laughed and said that he didn't want to break in a new study partner. By mid-April only three weeks and two obstacles stood between me and graduation. Those obstacles being Brad Miller's trial and final exams. I was a lot more nervous about the trial than I was about the exams. ********** Brad Miller had been moved back to the Adams County Jail from Central Prison in Raleigh in preparation for his trial the next week. The local newspaper carried a big article on the upcoming trial detailing Roger Hall's murder and my abduction by Brad. After a year of relative anonymity, I found myself in the public eye again, and I wasn't very comfortable with it. Track season was over, and Justin was playing in his last collegiate soccer match. I promised Greg and Gary that I'd meet them at the school bus stop and take them over to the soccer field to watch Justin, Brian, and Stephen play in the match. Andy had a late afternoon class and was planning on meeting us at the soccer field. I grabbed the keys to the 4Runner and headed out the door to meet the boys. Larsen looked up expectantly as I left, but I ignored him. There would be too many people at the soccer match, and Larsen's overly friendly nature would mean constant tugging and pulling on his leash. I just didn't want to have to deal with it. Larsen was pissed, but I knew he would get over it quickly after we got back home that evening. I drove down to the bus stop and waited with the windows down enjoying the warm April breezes. I heard a number of police sirens coming from the downtown area as the school bus pulled up and Gary and Greg got off. The two boys clamored into the back seat of the 4Runner. Greg was the first to speak, "C.Z., can Gary stay over tonight with me after Justin's soccer match?" "It's okay with me, but we have to ask Gary's mom first." "But she always says 'yes'." "I know she does, but we still need to ask her." "Okay. We'll ask as soon as we get home. Let's go see Justin play." Just then the passenger door of the 4Runner flew open and a figure in a dark suit climbed hurriedly into the seat. My heart leaped into my throat. It was Brad Miller! (To be continued)