Semester at Seas 6

 Disclaimer: This is a FICTIONAL story describing the love

triangle of a teenage boy. If you are not over 18 years of age, or if you

find this type of story offensive, or viewing this material is illegal

where you are, then refrain from reading it. The story consists of lust,

passion, teenage romance, love and all the rest of the good

stuff in that order... Prepare for Chauncey

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Belief In Fate

I woke up to darkness and the smell of cinder. My mouth was gagged and my hands were tied. I was tied up to a chair in the center of a dimly lit room. All I could feel was immediate panic. I tried to move but there was no way that I could. I tried to push the gag out my mouth, but it wasn't going anywhere.

Where the hell was I?

I wasn't alone in the room. Tosha was sitting on the other side of the room. She wasn't on a chair like I was. She was laid on the floor and her eyes seemed excited when they caught mine. I wanted to comfort her in some kind of masculine way and give her assurance that everything was going to be ok.

She looked so afraid. Tears were coming down her eyes like water.

Fuck...what day was it...the ship would be leaving in just a few days. I had to make it back to the ship. I COULDN'T BE LEFT IN AFRICA! My passport, all my papers were on that ship. I knew I wasn't on the ship. I was in some kind of back hut in the country.

That was when the door opened with a loud boom.

Men walked in. They were masked men. There were about three of them. They all looked at me with this weird look.

A deep accent roared from one of their mouths. "Whose this?" He seemed angry and little bit confused as his dark African eyes set on me like the moonlight.

The other men seemed as confused as he was.

"He was with the girl...we just took him."

"She said only the girl! She said ONLY the girl!"

Who was she? I couldn't tell. They must have noticed I was listening because they began to shout at each other in a native tongue. They retreated out of the door together.

What had I gotten myself into now?
I always wanted to be a hero. I should have called for help. Amir would have

been there. I wondered if he even realized I was gone.

What if I died today? I wouldn't get to tell him everything that I felt about him. He'd never know. I couldn't help but thinking about him. It seemed to make me feel a whole lot better.

I fell asleep and woke back up several times. It was the only thing that I knew that I could do. Each time I woke up the first thing I could think about was Amir. I wondered if Tosha was thinking about him as well. She seemed like she was real taken by him when they were talking.

As usual...I wasn't the only one.

I tried to turn my wrist to look at my Father's watch and see what time it was. I

had managed to succeed. Time had been passing quickly. It was the next day. I wondered if anyone realized that I was missing.

I had fallen asleep again. This time when I woke up, I was being dragged out of the chair. I looked over at Tosha, they weren't moving her. They were just moving me.

They had taken me outside and I knew we were definitely in the interior now. There were bushes every where and the dirt road seemed to go on for miles. We must have been far away from the city.

Were they going to shoot me?

I started to whine a little scared, but then I saw a van. It was a huge yellow van that obviously had to be a cab. I watched as the African man came out from the driver's side and opened up the door.

It was her...Patience.

"Untie him," she ordered the masked men, "You idiots. You can't do anything right. Untie him! What you thought I wouldn't have found out about your little slip up. Did you plan on hiding it!"

They had untied me and helped me into the van. I could hear Patience screaming at them for a couple of minutes. I heard mention of money. I had mention of "sticking to the plan". How could I have not known? How could I have not known Patience was behind this bullshit?

She had come in the car and she ordered the man to take us back to the Monrovian docks. She was dressed all nice and clean. As though naturally, she took out perfume from her purse and sprayed it in my direction. I knew I smelled disgusting. I had been sweating up a paranoid storm. I was dirty as hell as well. I mean I had been dragged everywhere.

"What's going on?" I asked her, "How'd you find me?"

It was obvious that they hadn't told her that I was here. They had been trying to hide it from her. So how did she find me?

"I have my ways..."

"Whatever. You don't have to tell me how you found me. Just tell me what the hell is going on here!"

It was the only thing that I could say. I was confused. I was still scared. Even as we drove away, all I knew was that I was panicking.

"This had nothing to do with you," she explained, "You should have minded your own business. I don't need to hear you panicking. You are a man, Chauncey. You need to act like one, especially now. "

"I don't get this...did you...oh my god! Patience did you order that girl's kidnap!"

She didn't seem to be reacting well to my excitement. It was almost like she didn't expect me to get excited. I had just been kidnapped and spent God knows how long in a dusty old hut, tied and gagged.

"I had to," she explained with this cold, nonchalant tone, "She knew too much. I had to do what I had to do so that I could protect myself."

She had kidnapped her. I looked at Patience in this whole new light. I knew

Patience was capable of a lot. I had watched her all my life, but kidnapping...? Didn't she understand how long of a jail term that was? It was a crime! It was wrong.

"Turn this car around! Let's go get her! You are just going to leave her with those strange men! Patience!"

She lifted her hand to silence me, "I have a headache little brother. I don't need to deal with your ever constant whining at this time."

She didn't even seem to care about what I was saying. I was just that to her. I was her little brother who whined. She didn't respect my opinion. She didn't respect anything I said.

"That girl has family...friends. This isn't some light issue."

"I thought about everything, Chauncey," she informed me, with her same bluntness, "They will keep her for a while, they'll make her a little scared and then they'll send her back to her parents. I'll make it that no one even knows she is missing until she is back safely at home. Either way she will be back in the Grove...where she belongs."

It was all so simple to her.

"You have no idea how it feels," I explained to her, "I was afraid in there. I was afraid for my life. That girl doesn't know what is going to happen to her. This is going to be an experience that is going to scar her for lifetime."

"It happens..."

"It happens just because she knows we are from the Grove?" I asked her, "We could have talked to her. We could have begged her not to say anything!"

"Begging is below us. Some people get caught in crossfire...casualties of war," she told me.

She was like a brick wall. There was no getting through to Patience. I could see that she didn't care. I was having this conversation with myself and I was sick of it. I was sick of putting up with her bullying and her schemes.

"Like you did with those boys huh?"

"What boys?"

"Like you did to Jr. and Pony? You are setting them up and you are going to ruin their lives. Why? All because they don't are different from you."

She shook her head in annoyance, "Why are you worried about these boys?"

"I want you to stop what you're doing with them," I told her and gave her a strong look in her eyes, "I'm serious Patience. Let them go. Drug charges would mess up their lives. Let them go...or maybe I might get upset. I might be so upset that I end up slipping about Tosha."

She looked at me.

At first she started laughing. She was laughing hard and strong.

Then she noticed how serious I was. She could how I was challenging her with

my eyes. She was going to stop getting away with the things she was doing.

"You are serious?"

"As a heart attack."

"Fine...I'll stop playing with these boys," she explained with an amused look, "They really were just a side issue anyway. However...darling...be very careful who you start making threats to. You of all people know that I'm not the one."

She put on her glasses and turned around in silent, obviously trying to concentrate on the headache that she had.

I smiled silently to myself. Had I just actually won an argument with THE notorious Patience Crane? Maybe it was because I had just been kidnapped, either way I realized that I just got the best of her.

I just wish I could have done more. I wished I could have saved Tosha as well, gotten her out of that hut, but I knew that would be pushing my luck.

One step at a time though...one small step at a time.

I had gotten back to the ship and locked myself in my room. I'd actually locked myself in my room. I had thought about calling Vince, but I couldn't. I would have to explain why I had gotten kidnapped. That would be explaining why Tosha had gotten kidnapped. He would want to know why Patience would be interested in kidnapping Tosha. Then I would have to tell him that I was from the Grove.

I wasn't going to risk all that. I would let Tosha keep her secret as long as she dropped her scheme of getting Jr. and Pony in trouble. I had promised them that much and I was going to keep my secret.

I spent the entire next day in my room just sleeping. I had unplugged my phone.

I wasn't ready to face the world yet...I had been traumatized after that kidnapping and just needed some time to myself.

Yet even though sick and tired, I knew I had to talk to Amir.

I didn't get enough energy to talk to him till the next afternoon however. I called him up on the phone.

<Hey. Amir...can you come see me?>

I smiled at the thought he was leaving his little African experience to come back to this ship where he had been cramped on for the last couple of weeks straight. He was doing it to see me. I felt a warm sensation inside.

That was when I took out my stone. It was still in tact. The stone was still just as beautiful as ever. I went to my dresser and took out an old necklace that I used to have. It was attached to a locket. I sat down thinking about it how I would make this look nice. Luckily the metal on the locket was bendable. I removed the locket and wrapped the stone in the metal embroidery.

I didn't want toot my own horn of creativity, but damn...it was beautiful. It looked like I just bought it right out of Tiffany's.

There was a knock on the door. It was weird. It had damn near taken me a hour to the fix this damn necklace the exact way that I wanted. I looked in the mirror, making sure I looked presentable before I made my way to do the door expecting Amir to be on the other side.

It wasn't Amir...it was Mia.

She was standing there with her Gucci purse and her Gucci glasses, shoes and Gucci clutch. It looked like she just walked off an ad campaign.

"Where have you been?" she asked with this interested look all over her face.

I knew she wasn't interested. Mia was rarely interested in what the hell I had to say. I looked over at the time. Amir said he would be here by now.

"Just around..." I lied.

"Well, it seems like everyone is getting weird. Patience is no where to be found a lot. Vince is locked up in his room listening to recordings all day long. You are locked up in your room doing God knows what..."

I looked at her with this real serious look, "Mia lets be serious. Since when were we really friends. We are associates. This isn't real."

"What are you talking about Chauncey? We are all that we have."

"Maybe that is the problem..." I explained, " Mia...don't you ever want to get away from the average? Don't you ever want to find real friends...real love?"
She hadn't answered me.

She hadn't answered because there was another knock on the door and I opened the door to see Amir standing there. He had on his usual "Hot weather" wife beater that made him into such a sexy ass man. It wrapped around his stomach, showing how hard his abs were. Then it wrapped around his backside, his beautiful ass. God bless whoever invented wifebeaters. The tight shirt held onto his ass for dear life, making it seem so round and firm.

"Hey Chauncey," he said, giving me his usual hand shake and then noticed Mia. He gave her a slight smile, "Hey sexy lady..."

"Nice to see you again..." she said, offering his hand to shake.

She seemed nervous. It was obvious I wasn't the only one in this room with a crush on Amir. I could see her trying hard not to stare at him as his slanted beautiful brown eyes pierced her as well.

"The pleasure is all mine, pretty," he told her and took her hand but instead of shaking it he kissed it.

"I...I...oh god I got to go."

She turned and walked nervously shaking the whole time. I gave Amir this look. We had just talked about his whole effect on girls and he was just back at it again, playing the same old game.

He read my look right off my face. He seemed to be able to do that at times. It was weird. He started to laugh all of a sudden as he walked in my room.

"Now you know I'm just playing with that girl," he defended himself.

"Not everybody takes it as playing, Amir," I explained to him.

I tried to make it not annoy me that he was flirt, but it did. I wish he knew what I really felt for him. He kept smiling. His teeth shined like white pearls as he did it.

That was when he sucked on his bottom lip, taking it all in to make it real nice and moist. His lips were always most and looked like they naturally shined.

"She'll have to get over it," he explained and leaned in close to me, "I came here to see you."
I stopped for a minute feeling a little weird. What did he mean? I felt him lean into me hard and then he hugged me. He hugged me tightly and I felt his body so close to mine. It wasn't a hug between two dudes with our arms between us. It was a long, passionate hug that was full of warmth. It felt like he had seen me in the first time in forever. His body was rubbed up against mine in this perfect way.

I couldn't stand it when he finally pulled away. I fought every instinct not to pull his warm muscular frame back into my own.

"What was that for?" I asked, after he pulled back.

"You know what you did," he explained, "You got your sister off of Pony and Jr.'s back. We got the news yesterday that everything had been dropped."
I was glad to hear it. Patience had really backed down. She had finally backed down. I'd finally gotten my way after all these years. I smiled as well and immediately he hugged me again before I could even say anything.

"Damn...you sure know how to make someone feel special," I told him.

"You are special...you are like a damn angel. You helped these guys when you barely even knew them. You knew what was right. I remember you telling me how horrible your sister was and how fake her friends are. You risked her pulling some shit on you just to help some other people out."

"I mean they were you're friends and you are mine."

He stood there for a moment and out his lips came out some beautiful words, "You are one of the best friends I ever had. As matter of fact, wait right here," he told me, "I have to go run down to my room real quick. I got you something. Just wait right here ok?"

"Um...sure ok."

"Ok."

I laughed at his excitement. I'd never really seen him this excited about anything. He wasn't even this excited when we came to Africa.

I watched as he disappeared away. His shadow went with him. He was so damn beautiful. He had told me I was one of his best friends. We had just known each other for just about 6 weeks now. That was it and yet I knew that the connection we had was great.

Maybe it was friends though. Maybe it wasn't a romantic attraction.

I walked out into the hallway.

There was a grand piano in the hallway that we had used. I'd played the piano mostly all my life. It was one of my many talents that Patience and my mother drilled into me. I wasn't as good as Patience at playing the piano. I was fine at learning one song at a time, but horrible at reading music.

I figured since it was in the little lounge right outside the elevator that he would have to see me when he got off the elevator.

I sat down on the bench.

I tried to remember something to play, but nothing really came to mind. My hands started to play something. The tone was impressive and then I realized I had slowly begun to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

I learned the song when I was like 10. I had played it for a music competition. I didn't win. I had gotten up to my last bar and messed it all up. My mother was so pissed that I had been locked in my room for 2 weeks.

It was my first time playing the song since then.

I'd promised I'd never play it again.

However it was running through my fingers again, more beautifully then it had done 9 years ago.

As I played, I imagined what Beethoven could have been thinking about when he wrote this music. I closed my eyes and all of a sudden my imagination came to life. I was in a garden. It was a beautiful garden in the darkness. The only light in the garden came from the moon. The moon sparkled down onto the flowers and lit them up with life and beauty.

I was sitting in this moonlight garden playing this beautiful song when he had come up to me. He had appeared like a long lost forgotten prince from fairytales.

He sat by me in the garden.

The moonlight was so beautiful. It was our song. It was our moonlight sonata. Beethoven had written it just for him and me.

Amir sat there in the moonlight and he kissed me...in my fantasy.

It was a beautiful fantasy.

I opened my eyes and all of a sudden, I realized it wasn't a fantasy. It was real. I couldn't believe it...it was Amir...my Amir here really kissing me. I had gotten so lost in the song that I hadn't heard him get off the elevator.

It wasn't a tongue kiss...no it wasn't anything like that. It was a simple kiss. Our lips were pressed up against each other. I was still playing the song as though my hands were possessed.

Then we separated. What was going on?

"Amir?" I asked as I pulled back my lips.

"Shit...I'm sorry," he explained and jumped up, "I'm so sorry that I just did that...um...I made you this."

He had tried to hand it to me so fast that it slipped out of my hand and fell underneath the piano. I bent down underneath the piano to retrieve it. It was real deep under there and I grabbed onto it. It felt like a string.

As I pulled the string out, I realized it was a stone. My mouth dropped open with disbelief. The stone was so similar to the one I already had in my pocket. He had made a necklace out of it with rope. It looked like something out Abercrombie and Fitch. It was the stone though...

This stone was rare...it had to be rare! How did he have one...just like mine?

"Thanks..." I said...only I was talking to myself.

Amir had disappeared. He must have taken the elevator back down when I was

looking underneath the piano. I wasn't understanding what was going on, but my heart was racing. I had to go after him. I had to see what the kiss was about. It was a perfect kiss.

That was when I saw Vince. He was coming up the elevator. We looked at each other and exchanged these empty looks.

"Hey I have to tell you about something, its kind of important," Vince explained, "You might be a little mad..."

"Can we talk about it later?"

I could tell he seemed to want to talk about it now, but I couldn't. If I was going to talk to Vince, I would need to give him my attention. Amir was the only thing that seemed to matter to me right now. I needed to find Amir.

As I rode down to the elevator and made my way to the lower corridors where most of the other students stayed, I wore the necklace he had made for me. Damn...it was beautiful.

The lower corridors were crowded with people everywhere. It looked more like a frat house then a cruise ship. People were making all this rowdy noise. Some guy was beating an African drum and there were a whole group of kids trying their hardest to mimic some local African dance they no doubt saw in the city.

I didn't have time to even revel in the silliness of everyone.

I had to make it to see him.

As I walked over to his room, I saw Kim. She was sitting next to Pony. Across from them were Jr. and Desmond. They were all sitting in a circle in the hallway with cards between them. It looked like they were playing spades by the paper right next to them.

"Hey Chauncey, he's not here," Desmond said.

I gave him a suspicious look. How did he know so certainly that I had come down here to see Amir?

"Chauncey, why don't you come sit around with us?" Kim asked, "You introduced me to these guys and I hang out with them more then you."

"Oh...well maybe soon. I just have to speak to Amir for a second...you know where he could be?"

Jr. grabbed me by my arm, pulling me down, "He's probably out with Tarah Anderson. You know the cheerleader. She's real annoying but I think him and her have something going on...come sit down for a while."

I sat down on a stool beside them.

"He doesn't want to be seen with delinquents like you guys," Pony laughed.

"If I am a delinquent, so are you," Jr. joked back.

They probably just sat around cracking jokes on one another all day. It was such a carefree life. They didn't spend much time studying and perfecting everything they did like the Dollhouse.

"Hey isn't that the necklace that Amir made?" Jr. asked turning to look at my neck.

"Yeah it is," Pony asked and laughed, "He gave that to you? That's funny."

Desmond gave me a different look. He was so weird with how he looked at me. It was almost like he could see right through me. It was almost like I was glass to him.

"Is it funny or is it gay?" he asked.

"Are you trying to call me and Amir gay?"

I had gotten up. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do, but I felt like if I could stand up to Patience then I could damn near stand up to anyone.

"Chauncey, come sit back down," Kim said calming me down, "He doesn't mean it. He thinks everything is gay...it makes me wonder about him."

I thought for a minute I could have lost some good friends from trying to get all defensive, but I noticed the evil eye as coming my way. It was pointed at Desmond.

"Yea Desmond, you are out of line," Jr. stated, "Don't you see how down for us Chauncey has been? He fucking played out that bitch for us. He got me out of that bullshit. One, nothing...for the delinquents."

Pony got up and walked over to me. To my surprise he shook my hand.

"Yeah, you're cool with me for real," he added, "I never got a chance to thank you for what you did. That was real ass cool. Oh...and I think Amir mentioned something about going to be alone or something. He had to think about some things."

I sat there and talked to them for a little while longer before excusing myself. They were all really cool people. It was actually more fun to be around them than most friends that I had been around. Pony and Jr. seemed to be some of the most carefree people that I knew. Kim liked them too. She found an audience to sing for. Desmond kept giving me weird looks, but after a while, even that seemed to stop.

I knew Amir had to be on the private deck that he had showed me. It was the only place that made sense for him to go. I made my way up there.

It was breezy tonight. He didn't look at me when I walked in. His eyes were set on the moon that was bright in the blanket of stars.

"It's you...isn't it?" he had asked me.

"Yeah, Amir...it's me."

"I kind of wanted to be by myself up here," he explained to me, "I don't want to be rude. I just need some time to think."

"Oh...um...I guess I just came to give you this..."

I had pulled out the necklace that I made earlier. I walked it over to him and he turned around to receive it. When he did turn around our eyes caught and then he noticed the necklace in my hand.

He stared at the necklace and he looked like he was in a daze. He didn't seem to believe it. He kept glaring at the stone in amazement.

I turned around to leave and I felt him grab me. It was clockwork. Amir always stopped me before I walked away. As he did that I could feel his body close to mine. He was so attractive...he was so perfect. He was a romantic's wet dream.

"Wait..this is a joke isn't it?" he asked me.

I shook my head, "No...it's weird though. I'd found it swimming. I'd been wanting to give it to you but then you gave me yours."

"I...I found mine swimming today too. It floated right up to me. I showed it to Professor McDonald. She has her Masters in Geology. She said that it's a rare stone...part of a fallen meteorite."

It floated up to him like my stone had floated up to me through the water. It was fate. Damn this was weird for both of us to have found such rare stones and then had plans of giving it to one another.

"These are nice...but I want to talk about what happened," he told me.

It was the only thing that I cared about.

"I...I kissed you."

"I realize that Amir," I told him with this impatience. He didn't understand what the kiss had meant to me.

"Son. I'm sorry I didn't meant to. I mean I did but...I..."

I put my hand on his shoulder. He was nervous. I needed him to let me know how he really felt and stopped beating around the bush in the way he was doing.

"Amir it's it ok," I told him massaging his shoulder, "What is it?"

He took a deep breath and then looked me in my eyes, "Well remember how I told you were special to me?"

"Yeah I do."

Amir paused before continuing. What was so hard for him to say?

He put his hands on his chest.

"I meant more than you think. It was just a feeling at first...but then I heard the song. That song that you played me was the same song that played in my dream. The lover that I had dreamed about a long time ago and that I've been searching for all this time...that lover is you..."

TBC
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