Dear reader, ========= We have read a lot of love stories. I wanted this story to be a little different. I thought lets make a trip to India. We will get to read about the culture, people, cuisines, dressing styles, the history and the daily life of the people there. This is still a love story. Not world history and the romance will not be overshadowed. I could possibly take inputs from you guys and gals to see how much is tolerable :) Seriously I thought it would be a good idea. What do you guys think? If I may suggest: Increase the font size before reading. It is easier on the eyes. Disclaimer: ======== This is a fictional story with fictional characters. Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely a coincidence. This story involves love and physical intimacy between two consenting adult men. If you do not want to read this or are prohibited by law, house rules etc, please leave. The is a story about relations and not about sex. So there will be very limited sexual acts and even when it occurs, there will be no graphic details. The story does not intend to preach any religion or culture. It is only an effort to take the readers on a vacation without the hassle of passports, visas, flights, lost baggages etc =) The reader is at the liberty to stop reading if he or she does not wishe to continue. My Blonde Brad - Chapter 03 ====================== The leaves were starting to change colors. It was only a couple of trees here and there, but pretty nonetheless. Fall is a beautiful season. I like it more than any other season, may be because it is colorful, romantic, not too cold and not too warm or may be because we don't have this season in India. It's like you always want what you don't have. Like the leaves, my relationship with Brad also had changed colors. Although I wouldn't call it friendship, he had totally stopped taunting me. There were no smiles or handshakes or anything, but the encounters were very civil. For example, the other day I was alone in the recreation center locker room after a friendly game of shuttle badminton with Lei. Brad and his football buddies had returned from their practice. His teammates had ganged up against me teasing me for playing against a girl. "Leave him alone." Brad had interfered shielding me from them behind his massive shoulders. He was the quarterback and team captain. His friends had no choice but leave. This new persona made him look even more handsome. His body was in peak condition as always and the tan he had got during the summer made him look like Adonis. This was just about the time Lei introduced me to her gay lab-mate John. A bright chap with a good sense of humor. He started hanging around our place after school and the four of us had lots of fun. I wouldn't call it love, but there was certainly something beginning to form between us. Life once again was good. It was the 16th of September. It was a Saturday. It was my birthday. It was my 21st birthday. It was my brother's too. We're twins remember? Had we been home, mum would have made sure we were treated like royalty the whole day. The day would have started with a special bath, visiting the temple, paying obeisance to our grand parents and dad, receiving our birthday gifts, our favorite breakfast (usually two different items as my brother and I always had different likes) and our favorite lunch. Then in the evening, she would arrange for a party with a big cake and invite all our friends. The whole nine yards. Here I had to cook my own breakfast and had to work. I called home and spoke to my parents and grand parents for a short while. Mum wanted to know if I was eating well and was worried that the weather was too cold already. Dad wanted to know how I was doing in school. Grand parents wanted to know when I was returning to India. I satisfied them all with suitable answers and hung up. I chickened out this time too. Every single birthday since I was 13, I have wanted to come out to them and have always failed. How lucky my brother is to enjoy his birthday without any worries, when I had this sword hanging over my head all the time. I had become comfortable with my sexuality only after I moved to America. I had never met another gay guy before. I had assumed I was the only gay guy in the entire of India. "I will tell them when I visit India next year. I don't want to tell them over phone." I procrastinated as usual and started my day. All three of us had to work. We were all gathered in the little kitchen hastily fixing breakfast and packing lunches. There was not enough room for three people in the kitchen. For some reason we spent a lot of our time in the kitchen crammed up in that little space, squeezing past each other every time we turned to fetch something from the cabinets or the refrigerator. There have been lots of instances where we started our usual gossip session in the living room and toward the end found ourselves in the kitchen and we were neither cooking nor eating. During my break at work, I decided to call my brother. He lived on the west coast and so it was 8 am his time and he would have just gotten out of bed. "Hey Vijay, kaise ho?" I asked. (Kaise ho = How are you?) "Swell, you?" He had picked up the Californian vocabulary. "Theek hoon. Happy Birthday." (Theek hoon = I'm alright) "You too. Have you called home yet?" "I called them this morning." I switched to English `cos he was not responding in Hindi. "Let me call them before naana naani go to bed. I will call you later today." (Naana = maternal grandpa, Naani = maternal grandma) "Alright. I'll talk to you later. Bye." "Bye." I know he loves me. He loves his entire family. He just was not good at displaying it. I planned to treat Lei and Jason by taking them to dinner. I decided on a Chinese place as they both seemed to like Chinese food and we can eat all we can too. Hey at our age, you could eat a horse and still get hungry in an hour. Time crawled and finally it was 7 pm. Freedom. As I was getting out of work, Jason called me on the phone. "Hey what's up J?" "Where are you?" "I just got off work. I am walking home. Is everything alright?" I sensed some tension. "No, just wanted to find out if you could stop by the library so that we could walk home together." "Sure. I will give you a call once I get there." "No come up to the Third floor, pole A-12. I got to show you something." "OK." I did not think too much. I had planned the dinner for 8 pm so there was still one more hour to go. I found Jason couched up with a magazine. "Hey, you ready?" I asked him a hush tone. "Yea. Let's go." He put the magazine down and stood up. "You said you had something to show me." I reminded him. "T'was nothing. Let's go." He dismissed it. "You made me climb three floors for nothing?" I mock punched his arm. "There was a beautiful girl here I wanted you to see. She is gone now." He gave me a fake pout. "I smell something fishy here. What's going on?" I narrowed my eyebrows and gave him an angry look. "Nothing. C'mon. Lei is waiting for us." He dragged me towards the stairs and we walked home. We get home and open the door to a chorus of "Surprise" from all our friends. I sort of saw this coming, but it was always nice to act surprised. "Oh my God. What's all this?" I pretended. "It's your birthday, big boy." Lei was dressed in a stunning black dress. She gave me a tight hug. People had by now returned to their free food, beer and punch. I stood surrounded by Lei, Jason and John. Jason shook hands and slapped my back. John gave me a light hug with a peck on the cheek. "Thanks you guys." I was truly moved. This was really home away from home. "I will be back in a minute. I must change into something decent." I walked towards my room. "Hey put on something Indian." Jason suggested. "Sure." I gave them a smile and disappeared into the room. Fifteen minutes later I came out dressed in a sherwani, a traditional Indian suit. There were some oohs and aahs from those who cared to look at the birthday boy. "Wow, that's awesome. You look fabulous." John was stunned by its elegance and the artwork on it. "The Prince from India." Lei couldn't help herself and hugged me again. "I wish you weren't gay." she sighed. "I am glad he is." John winked. We all gathered around and I cut the cake, while our guests sang "Happy Birthday". I fed Jason, Lei and John. Jason turned on some party music and we all settled down to eat, drink and talk. John sat next to me holding my hand. We were laughing and giggling about something when Brad appeared at the door. He stood there nervously waiting for someone to invite him in. He was wearing a dark forest green long-sleeved shirt, untucked, with light blue jeans. No cap. The shirt fit him like the peel on a banana. He has the flattest stomach I have ever seen. "God...please no sport shoes. Let him be wearing...phew! Brown leather shoes." He looked gorgeous. I tensed up for no reason. "I invited him. Hope you don't mind." Lei looked at me with her puppy eyes. "No. Not at all." I stammered a little and stood up. "Brad. Please come in." He walked towards me. "Umm...Jason why don't you check on the guests and John, would you get Brad something to drink?" Lei delegated both the boys. When they had left, she excused herself saying she will be back in a minute. "Happy birthday." Brad handed me the gift he had bought. "Thanks. You didn't have to." I took it anyway. "You look...umm...you" It was his turn to stammer. "...your dress looks good."   "Thank you. You look great too. Won't you sit down? I will go check on your drink." For some reason I was nervous as hell. Before I could escape, John returned with a can of coke, handed it over to Brad and took my hands in his. "I gotto leave. I have...umm...stuff...to do. You guys have fun." "Oh...Thanks for coming." "Say good-bye to Lei for me." he turned and left without waiting for a response from me. "That's odd. Why did he come here in the first place if he had to leave so soon?" John criticized. I was still staring at the door. My stream of thoughts were lost when John shook me out of my trance. Lei and Jason reappeared and urged I open their gift. The three had bought the gift together (hey we are poor students). I carefully unwrapped the packaging and it was a "Shower CD Player." I looked expensive. "Oh thank you." I pulled them all into a hug. "Yea, to keep you from singing when you are in the shower." Jason joked poking my waist. "Hey! My voice is OK." I said bucking away from him. I am a little ticklish. That was enough to encourage all three of them to start tickling me to tears. "Suit...expensive...stop..." I tried to appeal, my laughter permitting. What started as the three of them trying to tickle me soon became an orgy of each one tickling the other, laughing and giggling until all four of us fell on the couch one over the other with a loud thump. We didn't care that our friends were looking at the silly school kids that we had turned into. "Hey, what's this?" Lei asked pointing to Brad's gift. "Brad's." I answered. I leaned to pick up the bag and pulled out the little cubical box that contained his gift. It was professionally wrapped and finished with a silk bow. I opened it to find a model of "The Taj Mahal" in a glass case. It was beautiful. Now I didn't know if he got this because this is the only thing he has heard about India or because it is popularly believed to be the symbol of eternal love. Wishful thinking. "Why did you invite him?" I asked her. "I ran into him in the lab the other day and decided to invite him. He looks smitten with you. " "Rubbish." I dismissed. "Did you see how he showed up? All dressed up." Jason added. "He asked me to say bye to you. I think he came because you invited him and he wanted to see you." I told Lei. "Rubbish." She didn't buy it. "Have you guys eaten anything yet? All I've had so far is cake." John interrupted. That was the end of discussing Brad. After what seemed like many hours, the party came to and end and the guests left. John gave me a long hug and kissed me almost on the lips before he left. The three of us decided to take care of the mess the next day and went to bed. We woke up to a lazy Sunday morning. After breakfast and coffee, we decided to go play tennis. Summer was fast disappearing and it was starting to get cold. It looks like we don't do much during the entire summer when it is warm and beautiful and try to catch up and get as much of the sun as possible only when we realize that it is not going to last too long. Unfortunately we do the same thing with relationships too, sometimes not until it is too late. As they say, it is always a good idea to express your love for someone when they around. There is no point in brooding when they are gone and all you're left with is a heavy heart with unspoken words. "I don't know where I am going with this and it's just too philosophical for a Sunday morning." I thought but still sat there dreaming. "Hello!" Jason was waving his hand in front of my eyes. "You are joining us for tennis right?" Lei questioned. "Oh yes. Let's go." I jumped up on my feet. "Where did YOU go?" Jason had a wicked smile on his face. "Thinking about Mr. Taj Mahal?" Lei teased a little more. "Stop or die." I threatened them. They only laughed at me. When we reached the recreation center, we found Brad and his friends playing baseball with a tennis racquet. We quietly took the one court that was empty. There were no confrontations or name-calling. I don't know if it was because the jocks were tired of playing the same old "harass the fag" game or they were kept under check by Brad. It was like they did not exist for us and we did not exist for them. John joined us after a few minutes and we started playing. The straight team beat the pulp out of us in the first set. John and I had got out of the slump and were battling it out in the second. We were being a little too animated, patting each others butts and hugging every time we won a point and almost kissing when we won the second set. We lost the match at the end but that's not important. Hey! They say, "He who treats victory and defeat alike is the true champion." The rest of the Sunday was uneventful. We cooked, cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, washed, pressed and just got ready for another full week of school and work. My brother called. I inquired about how his birthday went and all the usual stuff. I invited him to come spend Thanksgiving with me and he agreed. We decided to postpone discussing the details of the trip for later. It was Monday again. John was joining us for dinner. We were watching the television or reading and waiting for him to arrive so that we could start dinner. He arrived 20 minutes late. He didn't look very good. "Hey what's the matter? Are you alright?" I was concerned. "No I am not. And do you know who is the reason?" he questioned me a little angrily. I did not understand what he was asking. Jason, Lei and I exchanged looks. "Do you?" John asked again. "No. Who?" I asked slowly. "You." "What?" I was surprised. I expected him to say Brad or one of his friends. "Yea. Your lover beat me up." he was almost yelling now. "My lover? What are you talking about?" I know it has only been a month since I broke up with Ed, but why would he do this. We are done and he knows that. John was on the verge of tears. "Edwin did this to you?" I asked him. "No. Your secret lover Brad." "Brad?" What is happening here? "John, please sit down. Let's talk about it." Lei interfered and Jason went inside the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. I sat down. I was confused. I needed to understand what was going on. John was still standing. "He said he will break my bones if I continue seeing you. And if you love him so much, you should leave me and go after him and stop leading me on." "John, are you crazy? I don't love him. I don't even like him." "Don't give me that shit. I know how you look at him. He comes to your birthday party. The glances you two were sharing in the tennis courts yesterday." John was furious. "What?" I hadn't even realized I was looking at Brad yesterday. "I am sick of you using me. Thanks for nothing. Good bye." He stormed out of the apartment. His ego had been hurt. I sat there all confused. Lei came and sat next to me. "Are you OK?" she asked putting her arm around my shoulder. "No. I am not." my confusion was turning into frustration. Jason was unsure what to say so he sat just next to me as if to say, "I don't know what to do, but I am here for you." It appeared that the days when Brad was taunting me were much better than now. "Why did you invite him to the party?" I shot at Lei. "Hey! How'd I know he has the hots for you?" she shot back. Well, I knew it is not her fault, but I was just angry. "He has nothing for me. I am sure I have nothing for him." my frustration was turning into anger. "I'll see you guys later." I left the apartment. I didn't even know where Brad lived, except that he stayed on the same floor as Ed's. I got to the dorm and obtained Brad's room number from the front desk. I took the stairs. I banged on his door continuously until he opened it. He was dressed in nothing but boxer briefs. I was not here to admire his masculinity. "You asshole." I pushed him, as hard as I could, trying to topple him. He did not even budge. He did not say anything. He knew what this was about. "What business do you have beating up my friend?" I am not someone who gets angry quickly. I ignored him even when he was harassing me for being gay but he had gone too far this time. "What is it you if I am gay?" Tears welled in my eyes. "Why do you interfere with my life?" I turned away from him, not wanting him to see my tears. "I like you." Huh? Shock replaced all other feelings in me. I turned back to face him. "What?" "I like you." "You like me?" I wanted to make sure I heard it right. "Yea, but I am NOT gay." "Then what do you mean you like me?" "I don't know what I mean." I sat down on the edge of his bed. This was not exactly how I expected this to go. But ever since the "Ed incident" Brad had become too unpredictable. I waited for his reply. He took a seat in front of me in his chair. He covered his face with both his hands, with his elbows resting on his knees. He stayed like that for a whole minute before he started talking. I had a feeling this was going to take a long time. He began. "All my life I've been trying to be loved. My parents never cared about me. They were too busy with their businesses; too busy to even talk to their only son. I got good grades, I excelled in sports, I got into trouble and I did everything I could to get their attention. All in vain. They were never home. They hired maids and servants to take care of me. They tried to fill the void of love with money. I grew up all alone." I took a deep breath. Here I was coming from huge family, parents, brother, grand parents with most of my cousins, aunts and uncles living only a few of kilometers away. My brother and I grew up surrounded by people, totally loved and pampered to a large extent. I had taken it for granted. "I looked up to my friends for love and company. I took up football. I was good at it and my coach and team mates adored me. I was finally part of a group. It felt great. I spent all my time with them, never wanting to go home. Unfortunately they accepted me only as long as I behaved like them and did things that they liked to do. I might have done things, without knowing, trying to impress them." "The girls like me for my body and may be because I am the best fuck they'll ever get in their life." He said spreading his arm wide as if to show off his chest. For the first time I paid attention to his body. He didn't even have to flex. It was so well defined as if someone had molded THE perfect body out of clay. His huge chest, perfect six-pack and smooth skin were a sight to behold. It looked all natural and not like the one that you get out of taking steroids. I lowered my eyes to stop staring at him. "I am starting to see the vanity of all this. I am tired of having to live my life for others. I need someone who really cares for me and loves me for who I am." The pain was evident. "Then I see you and your friends. You guys are so happy. They love you even though you are gay and everything. I need REAL people. Like you." "Just last month, you told me that gay people are sick and are marked for hell and now you tell me you need my friendship?" He did not answer. "Brad, are you gay?" I wanted to know. "I am NOT." He stood quickly and turned his face to the wall. I knew he was getting emotional and was embarrassed about that. I felt there was more that he was not saying. I am all out and proud now, even though only to close friends, but I remember the tough time I had coming to terms with myself. I kept my quiet. "Even with all my friends I am lonely. I just hate being lonely, being rejected. And that's the reason I followed you the other day." He said referring to the day when I he helped me get back home. "I really would have done it for anyone." "Ok, now that was not necessary." I thought to myself. "Brad, I am really sorry about what you are going through. But that doesn't mean you can keep intruding in my life. John and I are not even dating and you beat him up. You can get into trouble with the university you know?" I had to stay calm if I wanted to resolve this mess. He was quiet. "So why did you beat up John?" All the explanation so far had still not answered this part of my question. "I don't know. I don't want to see you with someone." "Someone other than...?" I wanted him to complete the sentence. "I am not gay." He repeated. "So what in the world bothers you if I am seeing someone?" "I don't know." Either it was all too complex for me to understand or even he was not sure what he wanted or felt. "Where do we go from here?" I needed a logical end to the situation. "I don't know." He repeated. "Brad." I was starting to get annoyed now. He did not answer. He was still facing the wall. "I have to go now." I reached the door. I suddenly turned and found him not more than three inches from my face. He had not expected me to stop and turn so suddenly and I had not expected him to follow me to the door. He did not move away. We were so close to each other. I could feel the heat of his breath. I felt his hand on my waist. It slowly moved up over my back. I looked away. He pulled me closer to him. Our bodies touched. I felt the heat of his naked body pressed against me. My breath had become shallow. I looked at him and found him staring at me. "Brad..." I whispered uncomfortable with the closeness and the confusion that resulted from it. Didn't he just say he is not gay? I tried to push him away. He was too strong for me and I had no resistance. He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. He let go off me and took a step back. I turned around, opened the door and walked away as fast I could. =============================== Andy Some of you had asked me if it is an autobiography. The answer is 'NO'. It is 100% fiction. I wish Brad were true, but then I wouldn't want so much drama in my life. Hehe. I have provided a link to pictures whenever I am talking about unfamiliar things. Like the Sherwani for example. I plan to do the same in the future chapters. Please feel free to suggest any better ideas that you might have. Please send comments, suggestions, questions to gay_love_fiction (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please mention the name of the story on the subject line.