Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:40:52 EST
From: DomLuka@aol.com
Subject: The Log Way Chapter 03

If you are offended by male/male relationships, or male/male sexual
relationships, then you shouldn't be here in the first place. If this
conduct is illegal in your area, you must EXIT NOW.

This story is not to be copied or posted elsewhere without permission from
the author.

If you are interested in a story about gay teenage males, then please take
your time and enjoy. Feedback/comments/suggestions and even complaints are
welcome at DomLuka@aol.com


Chapter three: late night visitor

I don't know why I set my alarm for six. It wasn't like I had to be in
school. I decided to take a long shower, and afterwards I toweled off, looking at
my reflection in the foggy mirror. I had two black eyes and I looked like a
raccoon. Also, I seriously thought about getting a haircut. I really didn't like
the way it looked, and I sort of missed my short spiky look.

The baggy clothes I had been hiding behind were getting old too, but I put
them on anyways, instead of my other stuff, and I added a ball cap to shadow my
bruised face.

I made my way into the kitchen and reached for the pop tarts but stopped
myself. I had lost a lot of weight, and I wasn't eating as well as I used to. It
was my own fault; I just never seemed to clean my plate anymore.

This morning I decided to make scrambled eggs. I found a note from Tony
reminding me to wake up Chris to go get our schoolwork, but he was hung over and I
knew better. So after I finished my breakfast, I made another plate for Chris,
set the table, and after cleaning up the rest of the kitchen, I added a note
for Chris under what Tony had written saying that I'd go get my work myself.

I was just heading down the stairs when someone else was moving up them and
we collided. And we went down. Luckily there were only the three last steps to
fall down and I landed directly on top of Aiden with a grunt. I'm pretty sure
I knocked the wind out of him. I quickly scrambled off of him, offering my
hand to held him up.

"I'm sorry." I said, "I guess I wasn't paying attention."

"Neither was I." He admitted as I pulled him to his feet, and then he got a
better look at my face, "Oh man, you look like shit." That was easy for him
to say. He only had a small cut on his upper lip, and still looked like a wet
dream.

I gingerly touched one of my black eyes and shrugged.

"The other guy looks worse."

"You mean all three of them do." Aiden laughed, "At least the ones you got a
hold of."

"I wouldn't know." I admitted, "I don't even know how many were involved."

"Five." Aiden replied, "But I don't think that all of them planned on
jumping in before you got there."

"Yeah, look, about that...I didn't mean to..."

"Hey," he slapped my shoulder, "It's cool, man. I didn't mean to react like
that yesterday, I mean, I guess I should be grateful or something, I just wasn
't expecting any help and I didn't know you. And- I was pissed about my
camera. I guess I just got annoyed because I wanted to hit Dennis."

"You can have him next time." I shrugged.

"I'll hold you to that." he smiled, "So... I was just heading up to see if
Chris was up yet."

"He's hung over." I explained, "I was just on my way to school, thought I'd
pick up my shit and save him the trouble."

"You know he'll go there anyways, just to fuck with Johnson."

"Yeah." I agreed, "but I don't want to wait for my homework."

Aiden gave me a measuring look and then shook his head.

"You're kind of weird, you know that?" he laughed, "But hey, I'll tag along
if you don't mind."

"Sure." I shrugged, "I was going to head over to `Shadow' after that,
though."

"Cool, I was going to study there anyways today."

I led the way to my truck and then we were on our way to the school. A block
away from the apartments I noticed that Aiden was tightening his seatbelt and
looked a little nervous. I gave him a questioning look.

"You're definitely a Dovan." He remarked. "You drive like your brothers."

"Oh," I grinned. "Well, we all had the same teacher."

I guess you could say that both my brothers and myself were `swervy'
drivers. We didn't necessarily speed, but we didn't slow down for sharp turns
either. I never really thought of is at a family trait before, but to think about
it, my dad was the same way. I did however; try to take it easy for Aiden's
benefit. And, I really didn't want him getting sick in my truck.

We made it to school without incident, arriving just after the first bell, so
the halls were mostly empty. We passed the gym and then came to the
auditorium on our way to the offices, but Aiden stopped and peered into the auditorium
where drama class had started.

"Hey," he said, "I just want to say hi to someone."

I shrugged, figuring that I'd wait for him, but instead he grabbed my arm and
pulled me through the double doors with him. And then he shushed me. I couldn'
t remember the last time someone `shushed' me.

The lights in the auditorium seemed low but the stage was lit up. The class
seemed to be scattered everywhere, just talking amongst themselves, and I had
one of those eerie feelings you get when you end up somewhere your not supposed
to be.

Aiden waved to someone, but I couldn't tell who, until a tall, thin girl with
short brown hair ran towards us and wrapped her arms around Aiden.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, "I thought you were suspended."

"We are." Aiden replied, "Just stopping by for homework." He stopped
abruptly and turned to me, "Oh, Owen, this is Janie. Janie, Owen."

"Hi." She smiled sweetly and shook my hand, but for some reason I
immediately didn't like her. Maybe it was the way she was hanging on Aiden, I'm not
sure.

"Hi." I replied.

"So I guess you were in the fight too." she stated the obvious after taking
a good look at my face, and then she turned her attention back to Aiden, but
he was still looking at me.

"Janie, you know Chris and Tony, right, Owen's their brother." Aiden
explained. And boy, did that brighten her up.

"You live with the wonder boys? Wait, wait..." she stepped closer, really
looking at me under the ball cap, "I guess I can see the resemblance."

"Uh-oh, look out Owen." Aiden smirked.

"Huh?" yep, that was the cleverest thing I had to say.

"Janie's in love with your brother," Aiden laughed as Janie playfully
punched him.

"Which one?" I asked curiously.

"Both of them." Janie said, like it was supposed to be obvious, and then
gave me a measuring look, "We'll see how you add up once those raccoon eyes go
away." And then she winked at me! It wasn't like a girl had never hit on me
before, but something about Janie doing it was creepy. I felt like I was being
appraised, and I hated when people compared me to my brothers.

I was suddenly very uncomfortable, and I'm sure I was blushing.

"We've gotta go, Janie." Aiden announced, thank god. "I just wanted to say
hi."

"Fine, call me," she replied, and then kissed Aiden's cheek, and then,
despite the way she was appraising me a moment ago, it seemed I wasn't worth a
second glance when she walked away.

I gave a small wave anyways and then Aiden was grabbing my arm again, pulling
me towards the door. I really didn't mind him dragging me around, I guess I
just wasn't used to it. But I didn't say anything, and soon we were walking
side by side down the empty hall again.

"So that was Adam's sister?" I asked.

"Yeah." He replied, "Janie's a junior like us, Adam's only a freshman, you
know."

Two things in that sentence surprised me.

"Adam's a freshman? You're a junior?" I sounded surprised on both counts.

"Yeah." Aiden laughed, "What did you think we were?"

"Well, I really didn't know about Adam." I honestly admitted, "And I figu
red you were a senior."

"Why's that?"

"Aren't you in some senior classes?" Oops. I think I just admitted that I'd
noticed him. Luckily, if Aiden noticed he chose not to comment.

"I'm in a few advanced classes." He replied, "But yeah, Adam's a freshman.
He's a cool guy though...you know, when your brothers said you were moving in,
I offered to show you around but they said you'd want to get to know things on
your own." They were right. "I mean, I was cool with that and all but I was
totally curious about you. I guess I was always too nervous to come up and
knock when I figured you'd be home. And what's weird is I never even saw you at
all, except with Adam, so I actually figured that you might be a freshman too.
A large freshman." He smiled. "Honestly, I didn't make the connection
between you and Chris and Tony until yesterday...and how the hell can you tell them
apart like that?"

"It's a sixth sense." I laughed, "I've always been able to do it."

"Yeah, well that's cool. You know, they talked about you a lot."

"They did?"

"Since the first day I met them." Aiden nodded. "They're really cool guys,
both of them. Like yesterday, they just let you know you can count on them,
you know? I wish had a brother like that."

"Do you have a brother?"

Aiden shrugged and his expression suddenly darkened. I guess he didn't want
to talk about it, and I wasn't about to push the issue. I knew what it was like
to have things that you didn't want to talk about. And it didn't escape my
attention that Aiden had not once asked why I had moved in with my twenty one
year old brothers. I wondered if he already knew.

But even if he did know some of it, I doubted he knew all of it. If what Tony
had said about coming out to Aiden the night before told me anything, it was
that Aiden didn't know everything. I think I was just fine with that, and I
was willing to let the subject of brothers drop. Unfortunately, that left us
with an awkward silence.

Our silence didn't last long though; it was suddenly interrupted with a
familiar voice that made me wince.

"Dovan! Knightly!"

We looked ahead to see principal Johnson in front of his office, looking less
than friendly. He continued his tirade as we continued to approach him.

"You boys are suspended! Do you know what that means? I should have you
escorted off school grounds."

"Sorry principal Johnson." Aiden spoke up, "We're just here for our
assignments."

"If you'd like us to go I could ask one of my brothers to come back." I
added, "But I don't think either one of them would be too happy about it."

"Your assignments are in the front office." The older man replied gruffly, "
Get them and get out, I don't want to see either one of you until next
Wednesday. One week!"

He stormed off, and shaking our heads, we moved towards the office to pick up
our homework.

"I hate that guy." Aiden muttered, "He dated my mom last year and ever since
she dumped him he's been on my case."

"Seriously?" I asked.

He nodded glumly.

"Still, I'm glad she dumped him." Aiden concluded.

"I would be." I nodded, "I'm on his shit list too. Ever since I transferred
here."

"Let me guess, Chris made the type of impression he left yesterday?" Aiden
smiled.

"No," I laughed, "Tony kept him under control then. It was more because I
didn't want to join the football team."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." I shrugged, "I guess it didn't help that I took the captain of the
football team out of this weeks game either."

"I guess not. So, were you any good?"

"What?"

"Football, were you any good at it?"

"I guess." I shrugged, "But I was never really into it. I'm still not."

"Hey, works for me." Aiden grinned, "If things had worked out differently,
you might have been on the other side of that fight yesterday."

I thought about that. I didn't agree. I don't think I ever would have picked
a fight with Aiden.
..............

`Shadow' was a two-story brick building that didn't look like much until you
got inside. When the lights weren't flashing and the music wasn't blaring,
and when it wasn't packed full of people it could be a quiet enough place to
study.

It wasn't one of those days. Chris rented the building out to practicing
bands, and because the club occasionally featured live music and was equipped with
a stage, it was suitable for certain bands. One happened to be playing when
Aiden and I arrived.

There were a few people working, taking inventory behind the bar and making
all of the mirrors on the walls and the metallic purple tables shine, but we
didn't have any problem getting in. Everyone knew who I was and didn't ask
questions when I showed up on a school day to do my homework.

I was surprised when Aiden said that he had never been in the club before,
but he seemed as impressed as I was when I first saw it. We set up our homework
on one of the tables away from the stage. I had a particularly light load and
an advantage because most of the classes I was taking now were covering things
I had learned at my old school just before coming here. The problem was the
band.

I could study, listening to loud music. Actually, I often did, and I wasn't
really bothered. It was a metal band and they weren't half bad, but I'm pretty
sure Aiden disagreed. I had just breezed through my History assignments when
I noticed Aiden ripping a napkin in half and sticking the pieces in his ears.
He looked ridiculous.  I took that as my cue to stand up and shake his
shoulder, not bothering to scream over the music.

Aiden looked at me questioningly and I motioned for him to follow me as I
gathered up my assignments. He did the same and I led the way towards the back of
the club, through a door and up the stairs to the second floor.

Upstairs was a smaller stage and more tables, it was usually used for private
parties, and it was a lot quieter than the first level. I flicked on the
lights and Aiden looked around as he pulled the paper from his ears and dropped
his books on a table.

"Sorry I didn't think of this before." I said as I dropped my books across
from his, "I guess I wasn't thinking."

"How could you think with all that noise?" Aiden remarked.

"They weren't that bad." I laughed as I walked around the bar, "Do you want
something to drink?" when I didn't get a response I looked up to see Aiden
giving me a look, clearly saying: Are you out of your mind? I frowned at him. "
Pepsi? Coke? Chris likes coke and Tony likes Pepsi, so they have both here.
Or, there's lemonade, Sprite..."

"Coke please." Aiden smiled.

I grabbed two cokes from the cooler and moved back to the table, handing one
to him. He thanked me and we were able to continue our studying in a more
cooperative environment. I had figured one week's worth of homework would have
taken me at least a few days to deal with, but most of my teachers had just given
me one assignment for their class to make up for it. Some were larger
assignments, but I figured that if I got down to it, I could be finished by tomorrow,
have Friday free and go camping over the weekend.

We worked for another hour, and occasionally I would glance across at Aiden.
I know I spent the night before drinking with him and my brothers, but I
hadn't exactly given myself time to admire so closely. His dark hair was down
today, and it seemed a little shorter than I had thought, cut just above his
shoulders and tucked behind his ears, which I noticed for the first time, were both
pierced.

Before, he always seemed thinner than he was, probably because he usually
wore dark cloths, but today he was wearing a simple blue t-shirt and a pair of
jeans. His arms weren't overly muscled but they were defined and you could see
biceps twitching every time he moved, and I had learned just how strong those
arms were when he had pulled me off of Dennis. And Aiden's chest also seemed
more defined than I would have imagined, I could see that now with the t-shirt
clinging to him.

His face was just as perfect as ever. His skin was olive and flawless, and
when he studied, his forehead slightly wrinkled in concentration and his narrow
eyes would take on a determined look. And his pink tongue kept licking his
full, soft looking lips. It would flick out teasingly every time he wrote down an
answer.

I tore my eyes away before my mind had a chance to wander too far. Everything
about Aiden that morning screamed sexy, and it was sort of driving me crazy,
and confusing me to no end.

The truth was, ever since I ended up in the hospital, I had lost all my
teenage stamina. I rarely thought of sex, and a morning woody was rare these days.
Even when I woke up with one it went away as soon as I peed. I had attempted
jacking off once, just to make sure there was nothing wrong with the equipment
down there, and it worked fine, but once I got it up I lost interest and let
it go away.

I hadn't mentioned this to anyone. I figured that it was a mental thing.
Maybe because I was still torn up about Dan. But Dan was a thought I rarely
allowed myself to have anymore. I missed him, and he was never coming back. I think
I felt guilty about something too, like I had no right to mourn for Dan the
way I wanted to. I mean, he wasn't my boyfriend. We did things together, and his
friendship meant a lot to me, but other than a little sexual exploration, I
really had no romantic interest in him.

Maybe the worst part for me was that Dan knew that. And I knew that his
feelings for me were just the opposite. He made it clear that he had more interest
in me. But I could never return the feelings. I was too hung up on my straight
best friend. I guess I felt guilty because Dan died knowing that I could
never return those feelings, and somehow I felt like I didn't give him enough when
he was alive.

And then there was my father. That thought was enough to deflate any
erection, and every time I even began to fantasize about another guy, all of the cruel
things he had said would pop into my head, and I would feel dirty, like there
really was something wrong with my sexuality, even if in my heart, I knew
better.

I thought about bringing some of this up with Tony. I was sure that my father
must have said some hurtful things to him when he found out that Tony was
gay. I wondered how Tony got over it. Maybe there was nothing for Tony to get
over. Maybe he was just stronger than me.

"There you are."

Aiden and I both looked up to see Chris coming towards our table, bearing
gifts of Subway, which got appreciative smiles from both of us.

"How goes?" Chris smiled as he unloaded the sandwiches and took a seat at
our table. We both responded with unenthusiastic grunts and Chris laughed. "Thank
s for breakfast this morning Owe, you could have woken me up though."

"It's cool." I insisted, "We stopped by the school and got our homework."

"I can see that." Chris replied, "Did you have any trouble?"

"Johnson was a prick, but nothing unusual about that." Aiden muttered.

"Well, cheer up boys." Chris smiled. "I stopped by the school a while ago,
just to make sure things went okay. You'll be glad to know that Dennis and the
hooligans were also suspended, and this week's game was forfeited. Johnson wasn
't too happy about that, so if he gives you any trouble when you go back,
make sure to let me know about it."

"Thanks Chris." We chorused.

"Oh, and Aiden, I spoke to Mr. Lorks, from the yearbook, he said that he'd
have a working camera for you before you get back to school."

"Cool." Aiden grinned. "Thanks Chris."

"No problem." Chris said, "So how's the studying going? You think we'll
make our camping trip this weekend?"

"I should be finished by tomorrow." I said.

"Me too." Aiden added. "It shouldn't be a problem."

I smiled at that. I was growing more and more comfortable in Aiden's company,
and I actually looked forward to a camping trip with him around. Actually, I
was looking forward to the trip, just getting away sounded like a great idea
to me. Maybe that's what I needed, some time to get away.

Chris hung out for a while, and after we ate our sandwiches, Aiden and I went
back to studying, stopping at around three o'clock. By then Chris was getting
the club ready to open and he would be working tonight, but reminded me and
Aiden to dig out the tents, which is exactly what we did when we got back to
the apartments.

There were storage closets next to garages. I discovered that Chris and Tony
rented two of them, so their camping supplies were a little harder to find,
but we managed, and Aiden found his tent easily. We decided to leave them in
Aiden's garage, because he said that his mom rarely ever parked in it. Chris and
Tony had one garage, but one of their cars was always in it.

When we were done gathering supplies we went our separate ways. Tony was home
by then and asked Aiden if he wanted to come up for dinner, but he said he
couldn't. I was sort of disappointed; I had enjoyed spending the day with him.

Tony and I shared our usual brotherly banter during dinner and then after a
long shower and a little more studying, I was out like a light. It must have
been around once o'clock in the morning when I heard something from the living
room, followed by a muffled curse. I figured that Chris was home and he had run
into something, but then I saw a light come on from under the crack of my
door, followed by more voices and I got curious, plus I had to pee.

I climbed out of bed and went to the door, slowly easing it open and headed
for the bathroom, but instead of going in I looked down the hall, towards the
front door, and was surprised to find Aiden there with Tony. What was more
surprising was that Aiden looked like he was bleeding from a cut on his head. If I
hadn't noticed the blood I probably would have been more taken with the fact
that he was shirtless, barefoot and wearing a pair of gray sweats that hung
low on his narrow hips. He was also carrying a pillow.

I was suddenly concerned, but didn't give myself away as I watched Tony
gently speaking to him. Aiden just silently nodded, his head hung low, and then
what happened looked rather touching to me. Tony held out his arms and Aiden
moved into him, allowing Tony to hug and rock him as Aiden held on for dear life.
It reminded me of when I woke up in the hospital with Tony there, the way I
needed that hug, that comfort.

I watched for only another second before I forgot about my need to go to the
bathroom and I silently went back to bed, wondering what had happened to
Aiden. I wanted to go out there, but at the same time I didn't want to intrude.

Eventually the light went off, but I lay awake for a while, sleep not coming
easy, but eventually coming.
.........
Usually when I wake up in the morning, I tend to lie there for a while,
giving my body a chance to wake up. If anything, to avoid that lightheaded feeling
you get when you sit up too fast.

But the morning after Aiden's late night arrival I was up the moment my brain
reached a state of consciousness. I didn't even go out into the living room
until I had showered and dressed, noticing the bruises on my face were already
fading.

Tony had left for his morning classes and Chris was still asleep from his
late night. Aiden was also still crashed out on the sofa. I couldn't help peeking
over at him. The spare blanket had fallen onto the floor and his arm was
draped over his face, but I could see the thin cut on his hairline, where he had
been bleeding the night before.

Again I found myself wondering what had happened to him, but I had already
decided that I wouldn't ask. If I was going to find out, he would have to bring
it up. I lingered behind the sofa for a moment, watching him sleep. His long
body was stretched out and I could see the dark hair under his harms, but his
chest was smooth and clearly defined, from noticeably developed pecks to a
six-pack. His sweats were still low on his hips and I smiled to myself because his
pants were tented up with morning wood, and from the looks of things, he had
plenty to be proud of.

I decided to leave sleeping beauty on the couch and I went to the kitchen to
make breakfast for the second morning in a row, only this time I made more
than eggs. I didn't know what had happened to Aiden but I knew that he had had a
rough night, so I wanted to do something nice for him.

I spent the next hour making French toast, bacon, and sausage to go with the
eggs. I even made coffee and I hate coffee. I remembered just how much I hated
it when I poured myself a cup and tried to drink it.

I had cleared half my plate by the time Aiden padded into the kitchen. I
tried to appear uninterested, but he suddenly looked nervous, tightening the
drawstring on his sweat pants.

"Hungry?" I asked, nodding towards the stove where all the food was waiting.
I thought I'd leave it to him to get his own plate if he wanted it. But
honestly, I was resisting the urge to sit him down and wait on him hand and foot. I
wondered where all of these nurturing feelings came from. They were kind of
creeping me out.

"Yeah, thanks." Aiden replied after a moment of hesitation.

I decided to go back to eating my breakfast. I really didn't know what to
say, so there was silence as he filled a plate and took a seat at the table. More
silence. Aiden seemed nervous, like he kept expecting me to ask him the
obvious questions, like why was he there? He almost seemed scared even, that I
would ask. I could certainly understand how he felt. There were certain things
that I didn't want to talk about when it came to my life too, and I could respect
that.

But I had to say something, anything to lighten the mood. The silence was
definitely an awkward one, for both of us. It seemed even worse than asking the
questions that I was pretty sure he didn't want me to ask.

"You wanna study again today?" I asked, "Chris said there won't be any
bands at the club today, so it should be quiet."

There. That was a good place to start. And the relief was visible as it
washed over Aiden's handsome features.

"Sounds good." he agreed with a small smile.

We had been quiet with each other the day before, but that was fine with me.
I was really glad that he would be spending the day with me again. I even felt
relieved about it. I knew that I was starting to like him more than I wanted
to, but I didn't care. There was something about Aiden that I really liked, a
silent connection or something that I couldn't explain. I was attracted to
him, yes, but more than that, I craved his friendship, and I hadn't felt like
that about anyone since I had first left my previous home.

We both glanced up as Chris entered the kitchen, obviously only half awake.
He looked at us sitting together, but acted as if it were an every day
occurrence, even with Aiden obviously in his sleeping attire.

"Breakfast again, Owen?" Chris yawned, "You should make a habit out of it."

Maybe I would, I thought. But I just smiled at him before going back to my
food, and then watched a silent exchange between Chris and Aiden out of the
corner of my eye.

Chris stopped at the table on his way to all the food, looked at Aiden, and
then placed a hand on his head, pushing his long hair back firmly as he studied
the cut below Aiden's hairline. They looked at each other, exchanging silent
words. Aiden looked sad while Chris looked outraged. Then Chris's expression
softened and he gave Aiden's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he moved on,
ruffled my hair, and made his way towards the food.

Once Chris sat down everything seemed normal. Aiden and I exchanged amused
glances throughout breakfast when Chris kept yawning and downed six cups of
coffee before I told him it was decaf. We got a small laugh out of that, and then
after we told Chris that we were going to use the club to finish our homework,
he said he'd be in later. After breakfast Aiden ran home to shower and change
and then we were on our way.

It was a repeat of the day before; we sat across from each other and silently
did our homework. Chris brought us lunch again, but this time we stayed until
past five, until we were both finished.

No one mentioned anything about Aiden's late night visit, it was like it
never happened, but he was especially quiet. He didn't even make the small efforts
of small talk like he did the day before, and I didn't push him.

He hardly said anything until I was driving us back home that night. And what
he said amused me under the circumstances.

"You're kind of quiet, Owen."

I glanced over at him with an incredulous expression on my face, because I
had just been thinking the same thing about him, and I then I couldn't help but
smile.

"Sorry, I guess all that studying fried my brain." I remarked.

Aiden didn't smile back. Instead he turned and stared out the window. I was
getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, wondering if I had done
something wrong to upset him.

"I didn't mean just today." he replied, "All the time."

This was getting weird.

"We just met two days ago." I pointed out.

"Yeah, but you were quiet before that too." he said matter of factly, and
then looked my way again and saw the inquisitive look on my face. "Don't take
this the wrong way, alright?"

I gave him an uncertain nod, unsure of where this was going. He let out a
breath and turned back to look out the window again.

"I watched you." Aiden admitted, "Before I knew who you were." Okay, he had
my attention, "Anyways, I first noticed you with Adam and his friends when I
was taking pictures for the yearbook. You know, even when you were surrounded
by people, you still looked alone."

That's exactly how I feel, I thought. But it's my own fault. People try to
be my friend and I hold them at a distance. The only friendships I had now were
hollow ones, and I thought that was the way I wanted it, until Aiden came
along.

"I guess, what I'm trying to say is," he continued, "Is that I tend to
notice people. That's what I do. But sometimes I don't really see them until
after I take their picture...I don't know, it's hard to explain. But I took some
pictures of you under that tree, with all of those people, and that's when I
noticed."

"You took pictures of me?" I asked softly.

"Yearbook, remember?" he replied, "And yeah, I did. Maybe it's none of my
business, but sometimes it seems like you want to be alone. And there's nothing
wrong with being quiet. But I've seen you with Adam too, and you don't even
really know him." that was true. "Adam is one of the nicest people I've ever
met. I've never seen one person he's tried to befriend push him away like you
do."

"Look," I started, somewhat defensively, "Adam's a good guy, I just don't..."

"Hey, like I said, none of my business." he cut me off, "I guess what's
bugging me has to do with the last few days. I've spent some time with you Owen,
and yeah, you're quiet, and believe me, I have no problem with that. But...I don
't know, something's different, like, you don't seem so empty when we hang
out together, and you didn't have to ask me to go down to the club to study
together. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad you did. I like you, Owen. I guess I just
want to know why."

Uh-oh. I was getting nervous. I knew I was attracted to Aiden, but was I
being obvious about it? I wondered if I had been perving on him or something, and
maybe he was pissed about it. I know that Tony said that I could come out to
Aiden and he'd be okay with it, but you never know. Straight guys can be
tricky. Sure, there's tolerance, but even tolerance has its limits for some people.
Especially if you're straight and find out a gay guy has some feelings for you.

"So, are you being so nice to me because of your brothers?" he asked.

What??

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I've known them for a long time." Aiden sighed, "and I know that
they both tend to go out of their way for other people. If they said something...if
you feel like you have to be nice to me because of them..."

"No." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But it made me think. Were
Chris or Tony asking Aiden to hang around because I didn't have any friends? He
had been hostile towards me after I jumped into that fight. Actually, he didn't
seem to like me at all until he figured out who my brothers were. I ended up
pulling off onto the side of the road to look at him. I needed to stop for a
second and get my thoughts together. Unfortunately, whenever I `stopped' to do
something like that, it was both mentally and physically.

"What are you doing?" Aiden asked.

"Did my brothers say something to you about me?" I demanded.

"No." he insisted, "I swear. I mean, they talk about you, but they always
have, even before you got here."

I thought for a minute. I really didn't think that Chris or Tony would do
anything to try and push Aiden and I together as friends. Otherwise, they would
have asked him to show me around when I first got there. Aiden was asking why I
wanted to be his friend, and I realized that it had nothing to do with me. He
was insecure about something, which was hard for me to believe because he didn
't seem like the insecure type. I decided to respond honestly.

"No one is forcing me to be your friend, Aiden." I said, "I mean, I want to
be your friend." I sighed, "You're right about me though. I don't like when
people get close, that's the reason I am how I am with Adam. I've just got a
lot of things in my head that need sorting out, I guess. But I do like you. I
don't know what it is really; I guess I just feel comfortable when you're
around. And I'm not going out of my way to be nice to you. I think you're real
cool; I would even if you didn't know Chris or Tony. I'll be honest here, I
haven't really made an effort to make any friends since I got here, but I do
like you, and I hope we can be friends, and not for anyone but us."

Aiden was silent for a moment, and then he seemed to cheer up. I was really
beginning to like his little sly smile.

"Hey, the feeling's mutual."

We slapped hands really quick, and then shared a laugh over nothing before I
started to drive again. It suddenly seemed like someone had flipped a switch
in Aiden, his subdued mood disappeared and he was more upbeat.

"So, have you been to the mall here in town yet?" he suddenly asked.

"No way." I shook my head, "I hate shopping."

"Yeah, so do I." He replied, "But they have a decent theater there. I was
headed over tonight to meet some people, just to hang out, you know. You should
come, it'll be fun."

I glanced over uncertainly. I didn't much like malls, and I wasn't too sure
about getting together which a bunch of people I didn't know. But Aiden would
be there, so I shrugged and smiled at him.

"Sure, I guess."

"Cool." He grinned, "A friend of mine will pick us up in about an hour and a
half."

That seemed soon, but I wasn't going to back out now. When we reached the
apartments Aiden and I separated and he said that he'd come get me when it was
time to go, so we said our goodbyes and went to our respective apartments, only
to meet up an hour and a half later.


Comments/Questions? Send to DomLuka@aol.com