Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 13:53:13 +0000
From: fellhere@hotmail.com
Subject: a story part 11

hey. i shld be churning more of this out in a faster pace. in the meantime,
enjoy. oh, and for josh, there are two different paths that i'll bring. heh.
enjoy.

if you are under 18, stop reading.


a story part 11
+this chapter has no sexual content.+

===

I finally understood what he bought when he and I were in the room together
by ourselves, and I had turned on his b&o speakers and enjoyed the sounds of
alanis in the background.
'Seth, could you come here for a while?'
I opened my eyes and looked at where he was. On his bed. Shrugging, I moved
out of my easy chair and onto the bed, where behind his hands he held his
record.
'Oh, so can you finally tell me what you bought?'
'See for yourself Seth.'
He smiled. I took it waryingly and opened it. And gasped. It was Bjork's
family tree 6 cd box set. I practically creamed there and then.
'Wow! That's amazing! THat's like really expensive man! But I didn't think
you'd like Bjork, with your weird tastes in music and all. But wow! This is
like wow! Cool buy James, heh I never knew-'
'It's for you Seth.'
'What?' I stopped my gushing immediately.
'Yeah, it's for you Seth. You liked it, so I bought it. DO you like it?'

Oh god. This was what I was dreading. James was trying every trick in the
book again to make me want him. This was bad.
'Well, it's nice and all but hello, it's not my birthday or anything-'
'But I can buy something for who I like, can't I?'
'James, I'm sorry. I can't accept this present. It comes with a price tag I
can't pay.'
He looked up at me. He seemed pained. I looked away.
'Why not? Why can't you like me Seth? What's it in me that you detest so
much that you go and love the fucking git instead?'
'He's not a fucking git James! He's my boyfriend. And he's just different I
guess.'
'But how much more? I could give you so much more Seth. A hell lot more. He
doesn't deserve you!'
'And you do? How? Look James, physical buying of affections don't rank high
in my book.'
'So it boils down to this isn't it Seth. I'm sorry, but search within our
friendship, tell me when did I ever stop loving you and caring for you.'
'I mean, I mea-'
Shit. He was right. He was always there when I needed him. Vice versa. He
always ensured that I got the best. Shit. This was not good.

'I'm sorry James. I really am. But I can't love you.'
'Fuck that Seth. I love you. He doesn't love you like I do.'
With that, he pinned me down on the bed and kissed me full on the lips. And
for a guy with a torn hamstring, he did have the power.
Scarily, I didn't relent until I realized that his tongue was attempting to
gain entry.
I pushed against him, but he was too strong for me. It was then I realized
that his hands were roaming all over my body.
This was not happening.
'Mmph.. let go of me. mmmphh. let go!'
He refused and pinned both of my hands down to the sides with his hands and
started kissing me wildly all over. I stifled a cry. His whole body weight
was against me. His mouth was everywhere and as much as I wanted to deny it,
beneath us were two hard objects.
I cried.
'Please-- let --- me go--- James.'

I think that stopped his hormones in overdrive. Suddenly, he stopped and
looked at me completely guiltily.
'I'm so sorry Seth. I was carried away. I'm so sorry!'
He cried too as he came down on me. I was so scared as I cried together,and
in the rhythm of the afternoon, we cried.

I didn't admonish James. He didn't deserve it. I knew that his self reproach
would tear him so hard that my ignorance would only serve to cause suicidal
tendencies. After saying goodbye to him and telling him countless times that
I didn't hate him or anything, though I declined the gift, I went over to
Mike's house, where he was standing there waiting for me grinning.

'Hey hon.'
'Hey yourself. Why the grin?'
'C'here.'
I scooted closer to him, breathing in his scent as we plonked onto a chair,
him sitting on my lap.
'Pick one hand.'
I chose the left hand. Smiling, he entwined my hand with his and I felt
something hard in the palm of his hand. I gasped.
'Oh my god. Is this-'
'Yeah. DO you like it?'
I opened it. It was a simple silver ring with the engravings me and half of
a &. He had the other one, with a you and the other half of &.
'Stupid huh?'
'Stupid? This is so amazing Mike! God. Thanks a lot!'
I was overwhelmed.
'Well, I just wanted to show you my love,' he suddenly looked down at my
lap, 'So, do you like it?'
'Like it? I love it Mike. I love you. Here, I'll wear it.'
'No. Let me wear it for you.'
With that, he took my left hand and put the ring on the secure index finger.
I think I almost died. This was cliche, but it was excellent. I tell you,
this could make the list on any soap opera.

I did the same with him. After that, we did what we had to do. Which was
eat, of course. What were you thinking?

It is funny, when what happens is that you receive two gifts exactly on the
same day. But obviously, Mike had the upperhand, and his gift was definitely
more meaningful to me then James. I thought that he had bought the rings
from you know, a surburban kinda place, but I was shocked when I saw that
this was a debeers design, as I saw the bag that he had with it.
Whoa. This had to be expensive.

'Babe, how much was the ring?'
I asked as he snuggled into me, with his left arm around my waist and his
head on my chest, listening to my heart. We were on the bed and merely
enjoying each other's company, something that we did quite often.
'Well, it was nothing...'
'But it's a debeers design babe! That had to cost!'
He turned and looked at me and smiled. Then he kissed me.
'You were worth every single cent of it, and ten times more.' Then kissed me
on the nose.
I think it was the day, but I broke down immediately. I could not take the
stress, the love, the everything. This was one of the cry-cuz-i-need-to-cry
kinda sob sessions. Obviously, Mike, without missing a beat, became the
'active' and scooped me up in his arms and let me cry on his shoulders like
a baby, constantly telling me that he loved me, which simply made me cry
even more.
'Don't worry hon. I love you... Come I love you. Stop crying hon...'
I think he knew what I really was suffering, and he just hugged me tighter.
'You know what Seth, I'll never let you go. You're mine forever man.'
I just cried.

I did find out how much the ring cost when I went out with Sarah the next
day. We were walking along when I saw a jewellery shop and peered in to take
a look.
'Whoa, when's the wedding?'
'Shut up.'
I walked in and saw the price.
'Fuck.' I muttered under my breath and walked out again, dragging a very
suspicious Sarah with me.
'Okay, spill it.'
'Fine. You see, Seth gave me this ring-'
'Ah... so romantic-'
'And I wanted to know the price, and well, it's around 350 dollars.'
She stopped walking.
'You have got to be kidding.'
'I'm not. Sigh. This is bad. I feel so guilty now.'
'He must really love you man. Lucky guy.'
'Well, if I am so lucky, why do I feel so guilty still?'

I walked along, oblivious to Sarah's chatters. I was kinda touched that he
spent so much money on it, but I just didn't think that it was very apt for
him to spend so much money on me. True, he was rich, but this was way
spending too much. Sarah seemed to have finally gotten on on my guilt
tripping as we started to eat our lunch, at subway.

'Seriously Seth, you don't need to feel guilty. He loves you Seth, and if
that's the way he wants to show it to you, then go ahead and let him do it.
It will only make him feel worse if you decline the gift.'
'I'm not gonna decline it Sarah. I just feel bad, that he does this to me,
and what with James-'
'What with James? Isn't he over you?'
'Oh he is so not. He found out about the relationship, and well, he's taking
a really positive stance on it.'
She brightened. 'Oh, then what's wrong?'
I grinned. 'He took it so positively in the fact that he thought that since
i was open to his ideas, he could take me away from Mike.'
'That is so evil!'
'Nah. He just wants me. What can I say? I am desirable.'
She stuck her tongue out.
'Yeah right. Don't make me give you my pickles. So, why?'
'He bought me a bjork family tree.'
Her eyes bulged out. She, too, was a bjork fan. 'Ok, in my opinion, dump
Mike and get the bloody family tree!'
I laughed. 'Bitch. All you care about is Bjork.'
'I was joking stud. Anyways, seriously, I think you should try not to give
James any signs that anything could be possible. Then, perhaps, he could
give up on you or something.'
I slouched. 'Yeah. Maybe you're right. But hey, let's start tucking in. The
mushroom soup's getting cold.'

After a while, when I was passing by the a&f store, an idea struck me, and I
went in and bought a shirt and pants. Sarah guessed who it was. And when I
passed the nike boutique, an overwhelming urge came across me to get a pair
of identical wristbands and a sunglasses for him, since he needed one for
training. The bill came up to around 200 dollars for everything, but
somehow, even though this was more of a payment, I felt extremely gratified
that I could buy something for someone I loved. So maybe that was how Mike
felt. I blushed at the thought of it, and Sarah, thankfully, was too busy
trying on the bikini that she forgot about me.

I went directly back to Mike's house, when I saw Mike sitting on the
balcony, reading a lit text. I went silently out there, and opened up the
sunglasses and as I went behind him, I slowly put the sunglasses on him.
'What the-'
'Hey. Try it on.'
He wore it and then I took him to the mirror to look at himself.
'Cool! This is damn cool! Thanks Seth!'
And he kissed me. And smiled the biggest smile.
'You shouldn't have...' He said as he carried me to the bed and hugged me
tightly.
'No. I just wanted to buy you something. By the way, I bought a pair of
wristbands for both of us and this, for you.'
He opened the parcel and gaped when he saw the a&f outfit.
'Wow. You shouldn't have. Wow.' The smile he had on his face was priceless,
and worth every single cent I spent.
'I love you. And, well, I just wanted to buy you all this. Hope you like
it.' I was looking down, not wanting to look at him. All I felt was his hand
slowly scraping on my chin, and forced me to look up at him.
'I love you Seth Sjorn. Don't doubt it.'
And then he hugged me tightly, and kissed me lightly on my lips. I looked at
him.

I just smiled and kissed him more.

The next morning, which was a monday, where we both had to go to school, he
met me at the gate with the obligatory drink, and we didn't see Sarah until
the first lesson, since she had overslept. It was the lit test that I was
kinda dreading, but you couldn't really, as it was an unseen appreciation
test. the poem given was plath's tulips, so it was quite endearing, since I
liked it. Which is why the entire 1.5 hours passed by rather quickly for me,
though Mike seemed to be poring through too much on the first stanza and the
reason for why she was stuck in the hospital bed in the first place. We came
out of the class relieved, and since the next period was two hours later, we
had time to spare. Sarah had suggested that we go to dome, and we did.

Arriving there just in time for some late breakfast. (I don't eat breakfast
by the way. My stomach is in perfect sync with the brain) Funnily, the cute
waiter served us again and he smiled when he saw us. I smiled back at him
and greeted him, and he showed us a seat besides the window itself, where I
could people watch. Some people stared at us, since we were students, and in
a restaurant in the late morning, where we should have been in school. But
as usual, we didn't care. The cute waiter, I found out he had a name, was
called Brad and when I finished ordering, I was facing a fierce looking Mike
and a terribly amused Sarah.

'What?'
'Loverboy can't stand your flirting with Brad.' Sarah said with a bemused
tone in her voice.
'I was not flirting! That's called manners!'
'Yeah. Right.'
'I heard that. Whatever, can't you just let it go?'
I was kinda pissed, and I showed it, by walking out of the restaurant with
my bag, obviously not amused by Mike. As predicted, he followed in close
pursuit but only caught up with me when I was just about to enter Borders to
appease my anger.
'I'm sorry Seth, but you-'
'Stop apologizing. Look Mike,' I lowered my voice, 'I love you, but what you
are doing is plain unwarranted jealousy. I did what I did to Brad as how I
would do to any other waiter/ress, and you had no right to feel anything.'
I turned away and proceeded to walk away. He followed.
'Ok, I'm sorry. Please. Don't do this. Please? I promise.' He looked at me
with those begging eyes which I knew I could not resist, and had to give in,
but obviously, I wanted him to embarrass himself even further. I hmmphed and
turned away.

Then he did something that I didn't believe he would do. He turned around
and kissed me on the cheek, right in the middle of the street, which
thankfully, was deserted. I was shocked.
'What the hell did you do that for?'
'To show that I love you, and please baby, forgive me?'
I smiled. Then turned away and started walking. He groaned.
'Must I kiss you fully before you stop being angry with me?'
'If you weren't looking mister, I happen to be walking towards dome now.'

When I went back, Brad was just serving up the meal, and I smiled as I sat
back down, while Mike simply gave him a deathstare, that seemed to me to be
saying that 'he's mine. Stay the fuck away.' It was quite cute to tell the
truth, but of course, I can't let him know that, can I?

So back on the conversation. We were about done when Mike suddenly asked if
I wanted to skip school for the day.
'Why?'
'Why? Because what we have in half and hour's time is geography, and he'd be
doing the postmortem for the test we did, and we all got a distinction for
that, please? And you'll get to spend the time with me?' He batted his
eyelashes.
'Ego bastard. Hmm. I won't mind. Sarah, can you?'
She laughed.
'As much as I would love to be in your menage a trois, I'd prefer to go back
to the library, skip the lesson and start research on my philosophy project.
Yeah, so I guess that's a no. But you and Mike should get out man. Enjoy
yourself.'
'So, what say you Seth?'
I pondered. After all, this was the fifth time I skipped school, but didn't
feel too guilty about it. 'Oh, all right.'

So as Sarah went back to school, me and Mike went over to surprise surprise,
my house, since my parents were not at home, and his mother wasn't exactly
too pleased in seeing him home too early and all that. We changed into more
comfortable clothing and snuggled into bed to watch a movie, and turned out
that Mike managed to borrow dancer in the dark, which was such a sad tale
that I think I flooded Mike's shoulder. Well, not that he minded though. He
seemed to have a hard heart, since he wasn't crying at all, leaving me to do
all that.

However, he did seem to enjoy comforting me a lot, always hugging me more
tightly and pulling me closer to his chest whenever I started to cry again.
And rather embarrassingly, sometimes he would also look down at me and kiss
my cheeks and tell me that it was alright. For god's sake, this was a movie
I was watching and he treated me as if I just committed something so
unforgivable yet he was there to atone for it. It was amusing, yet I enjoyed
it. So of course, I forgave the cheesiness and relished in full force the
atmosphere of it.

In the evening, to speed things up a bit, we went down to the park, since we
both craved a jog, and we did it together, only finishing after 30 minutes
and ending up at the tree which me and james had it marked as a territory. I
was breathless, since I hadn't been jogging for around 2 days, so I was
kinda speechless for a while. Being the jock that he was, Mike was looking
like he just walked the entire journey and simply laid down on the grass
staring at me. It was nice, but this was a public park, so there were other
people.

'Stop staring man. Or else people are gonna get weird ideas.'
He smiled.
'Whatever man. I love looking at you.'
I blushed.
'See. Anyways, let's go back, change, then go out for dinner or something.'
Agreeing, I stood back up and we slowly walked back to my house. Once there,
we bathed separately and to my surprise, he wore my a&f threads I gave him,
and we both wore the wristband on his whim, though I was kinda sceptical
about this rather public showing of affection. Then he simply hailed a cab,
him looking like an a&f model, me simply wearing a white button down shirt
and khaki baggy pants. He asked the driver to drive him down to this posh
italian restaurant, to which I simply raised an eyebrow.

In whispered tones, I asked him how the hell could he afford the place.
'It's owned by one of my dad's good friends. So he simply got a place for
us.'
The Maitre (is that what you call them?) sat us down in a private room, and
looked aloof, seeming as though we couldn't afford it, and the fact that we
got a private room simply looked weirder. After we decided what to eat,
however, the waiters were so much more pleasant, and I suddenly realized the
power of connections in this dog-eat-dog world. I simply smiled to myself
for it.

He ordered a salmon linguine, with tiramisu, and i ordered my usual fare,
which was simply an anchovies salad and a tiramisu, though this time, with
Mike's recommendation, I ventured on to an extra creme brulee. Which was
supposed to be good, and turned out to be, though I could feel the spare
tyres accumulating as I ate it.

It was a cosy dinner definitely, but the awkward moment came when we settled
the bill. I insisted that we paid separately, but then he told me that he
had already paid beforehand. I was kinda pissed at that, since I knew that
the dinner wasn't cheap, and I wasn't used to such pampering. He guessed it,
and he asked the waiter to leave the room for a moment. Then he sidled up to
me and hugged me tightly.

'What's wrong hon?'
'I dunno, it's just, I don't feel comfortable with you lavishing so much, so
much on me.'
He smiled.
'Don't be. I love doing this for you. Just continue loving me and showing
care for me, and that's more than enough for me.'
'But-'
'No buts. If you really are so uncomfortable, then the next time, you'll
treat. k? C'mon, cheer up. We have some after dinner entertainment up in my
BED, you know.'
He winked and I blushed.
'Fine.'

And I let the fine gentleman I called a boyfriend lead him to his house,
where I made love to him, which was a perfect ending to a day that wasn't as
perfect as it could have been.

But then again, almost perfect was equal in my books to perfect, and with
Mike besides me sleeping fitfully, what more could I ask for?

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling something warm besides me and I
simply snuggled further into it. I didn't have to open my eyes to know that
it was Mike, and he was on my left, and my left arm was comfortably cradling
his side. I could feel his heat emanating from his body, and feel his abs
against mine, his breath caressing my face. It was like a lullaby, softly
lulling me to sleep. I tucked my body in further, and he responded in kind
by adjusting his right hand and conveniently resting it on a cool piece of
skin near my hip, which was covered, like both our bodies were, in the
sheets. We were both naked and pressed against each other, and our members
were together too, comfortably.

But as I tried to sleep again, I could not help but realize that his
breathing wasn't steady. I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me. I
smiled and kissed his nose.
'What's that for?'
He whispered.
I shrugged. I don't speak during the midnight, unless i get water. But he
didn't seem to want me to speak.
'Heh. Go ahead and sleep. I like watching you sleep. Go ahead.'
I stubbornly refused and looked at him. He smiled.
'I love you you know. Don't speak or anything. I just love you the way you
are. How you are. God. Every single time. Anyways, you're so beautiful to
look at, it's just- whoa. I cannot believe you're mine everytime. I wish I
could bind you to me. Forever. I love you Seth.'
I blushed, though I was sure he couldn't see it in the darkness. I kissed
him on the lips this time and mouthed the three words to him. He hugged me
even tighter, willing me to mold into him. I tried to and we moved closer
and he pulled the comforter further up, so that it could enclose us
together.

I felt his left hand stroke my neck, and I sighed. He softly kissed my
cheek, and after 15 minutes, I felt his steady breath on my cheek. Then I
slept, and dreamt sweet dreams.