This is an original homocentric love story. If you are offended by homosexual relationships, do not read. All characters and situations are fictional and of my own creation. Any resemblance to real situations or people, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

Even though we'd left the basement windows open while we'd been finishing the furniture, the fumes were still pretty thick, so we waited a couple of days before Jer and I started moving my stuff down there. The smell was still pretty strong, but it was at least bearable, now.

Jer and I had gotten a bit more shy with each other, too. I think we both realized that with my own - soundproofed! - room, there wasn't much reason for us to put 'it' off any more. I knew Jer wanted it, and I sure wanted to have that beautifully rounded posterior of his, but it would be our first time for that - and I was wondering if Jer'd want to do the same to me. I wasn't against the idea, but it sure felt strange to think about something going up that orifice, instead of out. On the other hand, I loved Jer enough that if he wanted to, I wasn't about to refuse him the pleasure he was wanting to give me.

That brought up another question: What did I want, in that regard? Even after thinking about it for several minutes I couldn't come up with an answer. Jer had noticed my silence of course, but I don't think he knew what I was thinking about, and he didn't intrude on my thoughts, for which I was thankful: and even more so later, when I thought about it. Jer was a rare treasure. Yes, he could be annoying, and a brat on occasion (I just haven't told you most of it. Take an annoying, bratty little brother, take out the 'little brother' part, and add a lot of love of the non-brotherly sort, and that was my Jer about half of the time. The other half, he was a lot more mature), but that just added a bit of spice to our relationship.

But I'm kinda getting off track.

We had to take several breaks when the smell got too strong for us, but finally we had everything down there. Now we just had to put it away. That took the rest of the day and most of the evening. But when we finished, it was a really killer room. Okay, it wasn't off the wall or anything, but you could tell teenaged boys lived there, and not adults. And it was mine! Man, that felt good!

If it weren't for Jer, I'd wish Mister and Mrs. G really were my parents. Well, except for my real mom. But while she still visited and took me out once in awhile, most of the time with Jer, too, she really wasn't there, and the Graves were. I thought about it. (Bad habit.) If Jer and I worked out, Mister and Mrs. G would kinda be like my parents anyway. I mean, Jer and I would probably never be able to get married (and would I want to?), but they'd kinda be like parents-in-law anyway, right? They almost were now, with the way things were going. I still couldn't believe that they'd actually planned for Jeremy to live with me in my room!

Okay, okay... I know my thoughts are jumping all over the place, here, but my mind really was in a turmoil.

The Graves' disabused me of one notion, though. Jeremy was not to move in with me. They just knew that he'd be there a lot. He was still going to have to sleep in his own bed on school nights. (That was a step backward, in my opinion, since we'd been sleeping together every night; and getting up on time, I might add. I just knew Mrs. G had a hand in this new development.) But the thought of sleeping together brought to mind sex, and finally getting around to doing 'it'. Yeah, Jer and I had fooled around with each other - quite a lot, actually - but that last step was a doozy.

The next Monday Mister G informed me that Friday evening, at seven, would be our first GSA meeting.

Yeah. Like that helped my state of mind, any.

I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs that whole week: trying to figure out what I should say, wondering who would show up, if there would be trouble... That last occupied more of my time than the rest of it.

Posters were put up only to be torn down, mutilated, or have vile graffiti written on them. They were replaced, with periodic covert patrols. This time several of the culprits were caught in the act and cited, with a threat of expulsion if the actions were repeated. Mister Graves even went so far as to make the caught culprits responsible for any further damage, regardless of whether or not they were caught at it. Needless to say, further vandalism slowed down drastically, and then almost stopped. It wasn't surprising that the jocks were behind a lot of the vandalism, and had the influence to put an end to most of the rest of it.

Friday rolled around: an event I had both hoped for, and feared. On the one hand it would be over with; on the other... Well, who knew what would happen?

Classrooms are kinda eerie at night. There's just something unnatural about being in school when nobody else is there. But Mister G, Jer and I showed up at six-thirty and set up, then sat there, waiting. The first other person showed up at a quarter after seven. By seven-thirty, three more had trickled in, and we decided we couldn't wait any more.

Since 'most everyone had sat quite distant from each other (the exception being two boys who tried their hardest to pretend they didn't know each other, despite the worried and reassuring glances they sent each other), the first thing I did was have everyone move to the front of the room.

"Hi!" I was trying to seem cheerful and confident, but my hands were sweating, I was so nervous. "I'm Ethan. Now, as you all know, this is the first meeting of the 'Gay/Straight Alliance', otherwise known as the GSA. Our purpose here is not to 'out' anybody. We're not interested in whether or not you're gay, straight, or bisexual." I had to pause after saying that. "Okay, that's kinda a lie. Personally, I'm curious as hell, but I'm not going to ask," I said with a grin.

That got a nervous snicker from the boys I was pretty sure were a couple, and nervous smiles from the other two; a girl who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, and an artsy-looking boy who was probably a senior. The couple were probably about sixteen. I'd seen most of them around, but wasn't personally familiar with any of them.

I grinned at them, glad to have broken the ice, at least a little, and the knot in my stomach loosened up a bit. "You all know our principal, Mister Graves. Why don't we all introduce ourselves?" I nodded at Jeremy, and he took the hint beautifully.

"Everybody knows me as 'the principal's kid', but my name's Jeremy," he announced, then looked at the couple.

"I'm Daniel," said one.

"And I'm another Jeremy," said the other, "but everybody calls me 'Jerry'."

Hmph! What were the odds?

"I'm Melissa," the girl announced. "I'm not gay, but I want to help in any way I can."

Just what we needed - a disclaimer. Hopefully she'd be useful, though.

"My name's Tom," the artsy guy said.

That put the ball back in my court. "I'm glad you could all be here tonight. The aim of the GSA is to educate the public about homosexuals and homosexuality, in the hopes that doing so will dispel the myths and fear of what so many people deem 'unnatural'. To that end... "

After the speech we had a question and answer session (which died an unnatural death), and then a short social interaction thing where Tom tried to flirt with me. I was polite, but otherwise pretended not to notice. It was flattering, but I had my guy and I wasn't going to risk it. I excused myself to talk to someone else when I noticed Jeremy looking a little jealous.

Only one more person arrived before the meeting ended: another girl who introduced herself as Janine. And this one was almost certainly a lesbian, although not obviously so. There was just an air about her that was slightly more 'masculine' than one would expect from most girls. She wasn't butch, and I knew better than to expect that more than a few lesbians were anything other than totally female, just as only a very few gay guys are 'nelly', but...

My throat had become really dry by the end of the meeting from talking so much, although Mister G and Jeremy helped out, but we had neglected to bring anything to drink. Note to self: bring drinks and snacks, next time. But finally it was over. We handed out a few informational leaflets, one with phone numbers and addresses of local help and health organizations that were gay friendly, and then I only had one more announcement. "This wasn't bad for a first meeting, but if you have open-minded friends, invite them to the next meeting; same time, same place, next week. And I hope to see you all there, too."

I got vague noises of agreement to that, and then they all wandered out.

"You did well, Ethan. Now let's get this room straightened out," Mister G said, "and then we can be going home, too."

"Hey, what about me?" Jer asked, fake-pouting.

I laughed at him and gave him a quick hug. "Yeah, you did great too, Jer."

He tried to kiss me, but I darted away. "Not here," I warned him, with a meaningful look at all the windows.

He grimaced, but nodded.

Fortunately, with so few people there, there wasn't much to do other than straighten up a couple of chairs and pick up the material that we'd brought. I was a little depressed at the small turnout, but I could understand how some people would prefer to wait and see how it went before venturing to attend themselves.

We were almost finished when Melissa burst back into the room. "Mister Graves! Come quick!" she said urgently.

"What is it, Mellisa?" Mister G asked worriedly.

"Trouble!" she replied.

She led us, running, out to the parking lot where we found Tom groaning on the ground, and Daniel and Jerry looking a bit worse for wear as they tried to soothe him.

"What happened?" Mister G demanded authoritatively.

Jerry looked up. "We caught some kids doing that," he said, pointing at Mister G's car, "and when Tom stopped them, they started beating on him. We tried to help," he said pleadingly, "but... " He looked at his boyfriend worriedly, but he didn't need to point out that they'd been outnumbered. "... there were five or six of them. Anyway, they ran after Melissa said she was going for you."

The car had 'FAGOT LOVEP' spray painted in bright pink on the side of it. Evidently the vandals hadn't had a chance to finish the 'R' - not that they could spell, anyway.

"Ethan, go call the police and an ambulance."

As I ran for the school, I heard Mister G saying, "Did you recognize any of them?"

I had to use the payphone in the hallway. All the other phones were in the offices, and those were locked up. Mister G had forgotten to give me a key. I called 911. It seemed to take forever before they answered, and then I had to answer a lot of stupid questions before they'd send anyone out. I wonder if they do that to adults, too?

After I got back out there, I found that someone had tried to make Tom more comfortable by putting a coat under his head, but Mister G had evidently asked all the questions he knew to ask, so all we could do was wait. Jeremy filled me in on what had been said and done. Daniel and Jerry wanted to go home, but Mister G told them that they were witnesses, and the police would need to ask questions. They could answer them there in the parking lot, or the police would come to their homes to take a statement. I guess they didn't want their parents to be asking questions about what they were doing at the school at that hour, so they stayed.

It took fifteen minutes or so for the police to show up after I called, and another ten for the ambulance. Shit! What if it had been more serious? The guy could've died!

The police asked a lot of questions, and yes, a couple of the vandals had been recognized; and Tom, Daniel, Jerry, Janine and Melissa all told essentially the same story. Tom's was a little different, of course, since he'd been too busy being beat on to notice a lot of details. They found the spray can the boys had been using to paint the graffiti on Mister Grave's car, dropped when they had been interrupted, and collected it for evidence and fingerprints. They also took a couple pictures of Tom, and Mister G's car.

The ambulance took Tom away to the hospital for treatment of his wounds, and presumably to check for internal injuries. They took Daniel and Jerry too, 'just in case'. Mister G insisted on it. We found out later that it had to do with the school insurance policy and 'playing it safe' where the legalities were concerned. After sending Melissa and Janine home, Mister G went back inside to call Tom's parents to apprise them of the situation, since he was the most badly hurt, and then the parents of the other boys. Jer and I followed quietly.

"Yes, Mrs. Norris, the two we know of will be suspended immediately, pending an investigation, as will the others as soon as we know who they are. ... Yes, Mrs. Norris. And I'm sure you're anxious to get to the hospital to check on your son. As soon as we know anything else, we'll be sure to notify you." Mister G hung up the phone and sighed. "Honestly! You'd think we were responsible for setting those boys on her son, the way she talked!" Then he remembered we were there.

"You will not repeat that to anyone, is that clear?" he said, fixing us with a stern glare.

Who would we tell? And why? "Yes sir," we said, almost in unison. Come to think of it, it would have been a good part of retelling the story, but...

Then he called the other parents, assured them that although their children had been a bit roughed up they looked to be fine otherwise, hung up, sat back, closed his eyes, and appeared to be trying to relax.

"Will your insurance cover the graffiti on your car?" I asked.

"No, but a coat of paint will," Mister G replied, looking serious.

He caught me by surprise and I laughed, joined by Jeremy.

"Seriously, though, I don't know," Mister G added. "I think so, but I'll have to get in touch with my agent tomorrow."

"Now, it's time we got home," he said decisively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're home late," Mrs. G said cheerily as we walked in the door. Then she caught sight of our faces.

We had all been thinking of what had happened at the school after the GSA meeting, and I'm sure Mister G had a lot of other worries to add on top of that.

"Oh, dear," she said. "What happened?"

We all migrated to the living room and sat down, then proceeded to tell her the whole thing. Poor Mister G could barely get a word in edgewise around Jeremy and me, but eventually he managed to get us fairly calmed down and quiet. Oh. Did I mention that Jer and I were steaming mad and pretty much ranting the whole time?

Mrs. G served us some apple pie and a glass of milk, then sent us off to bed.

It was a good thing tomorrow was Saturday, because I was too full of adrenaline to sleep, and I'm sure Jer was, too. We did get ready for bed, though, making use of my bathroom and shower before climbing into bed naked. But as unnatural as it might seem to some, neither Jer nor I were thinking of sex. Instead, we were still dwelling on what had happened to Tom, and to a lesser extent, to Daniel and Jerry, and planning revenge on the perpetrators.

Oh, we knew in all likelihood that we'd never get a chance at really wreaking revenge, but it sure felt good to think about it.

Eventually we fell quiet, and then Jer cuddled up to me. Minutes later, he was asleep. I watched him for a few minutes. The next thing I knew it was morning, and Jer was kinda thrusting against me, still asleep. Since I'd woken up hard too (what teenaged boy doesn't?), I just shifted to where his thrusting would do me the most good. Jer stopped for a moment when I'd moved, but soon started again, creating a delicious friction against my own hardness. It wasn't too long before Jer's thrusting started getting desperate, and then he started convulsing against me, and I felt the warm splashes of his come on my skin. I was close, so I kept thrusting back at him until I came too, just a few seconds later.

"Tan?" Jer was awake now, although I didn't know when he'd joined me in that state. His face was as red as anything, so he at least knew something had happened.

"Yes?" I was feeling a little apprehensive. I almost felt like I'd taken advantage of him, even though we'd done it quite a few times before. Difference being, he'd been asleep this time. He'd started it, but all the same...

Jer's fingers started tracing patterns on my chest, and he wasn't meeting my eyes. "Did we just... ?"

It was a stupid question, really. I mean, surely he could feel our come on us? "Yeah."

"Oh."

Before he could go all weird on me, I leaned in and kissed him. "Next time, you need to wake up for it. It was great," I teased him. My face was burning even as I tried to be cool about it.

He hit my shoulder and immediately buried his face in my chest. "Bastard," he mumbled.

I ignored the blow. I'd deserved it, really. And even if I didn't, it made me feel better.

I reached over him, rolling Jer onto his back in the process, and leaned down to the floor to pick up a pair of shorts. With the results of our morning's activity between us, it was kind of slippery. Once in hand, I used the shorts to wipe us off and clean what I could off the sheets, then tossed them on the floor again and captured my boyfriend's lips for a good morning kiss - morning breath notwithstanding.

"Love you," I told him once we'd separated.

"Then when are we going to... you know?" he asked, again doing the drawing on my skin and not meeting my eyes.

Damn it, I did want him, but I had kinda been avoiding it. I'd never done it before, and I didn't want to hurt him. But I knew he was going to start thinking I didn't want him if I didn't even try. So instead of answering him, I kissed him and crawled over on top of him, nudging his knees apart in the process. I lined up our cocks and ground into him. I was starting to inflate again. Aren't teenage hormones great? When I raised up to look at him, his eyes were wide.

"Now?" he asked.

"Don't you want to?"

Emotions were running over his face so fast I wasn't really sure what was going on, but there was at least some fear and apprehension there, as well as some wistfulness. I think there was more, but that's mostly what I saw.

"Aren't you hungry?"

Not really, but that told me that he was, anyway. "A little bit," I lied. "I guess that means we should shower before we go upstairs."

"You already wiped us off."

"Take a deep sniff, love. That isn't roses you're smelling," I told him, smirking.

He blushed. "That's us?"

"The smell of sex," I whispered darkly in his ear, grinning.

He hit me - again! Okay, so I really did deserve it that time, for teasing him. I rolled off him, laughing, then grabbed his hand. "Come on, Jer; move that lazy butt!"

He muttered something as he climbed out of bed, but I only caught one word - 'butt'.

"What?"

"I said," he said, looking at me defiantly, "that the only lazy butt around here is yours!"

He had me confused, and frowning. "I do loads of chores around here," I said, trying to figure out what he was talking about. "Are you still bitching about us not making love?"

Jer still looked angry and defiant, but he was avoiding looking me in the eyes.

"You are, aren't you?" I was starting to get pissed. Yeah, I was a bit nervous about it, but the fact that I hadn't tried was only because I wanted it to be perfect, and other things just kept getting in the way of that. Well, that's what I told myself at the time, anyway.

Now he met my eyes and yelled at me. "I don't know anybody else that works so hard to avoid sex, do you?"

That did it. I grabbed him, sat on the bed, yanked him over my lap, and started whaling on his butt, ignoring his yelling and screaming, his threats and pleas. It was only when my arm started getting tired and his ass was as red as a tomato that I quit, but I was still pissed and I wasn't done with him. I stood up, hauling him up with me, and tossed him on the bed, then got the lube out of the bed table drawer. Jer was watching me. What I didn't notice at the time was that he didn't look angry at all, although he did look a bit nervous - maybe even a bit scared. What I did notice was that we were both fully hard, and I wanted him - now. He wanted sex? Fine. The hell with it being perfect.

"Tan?"

"Shut up," I told him, holding the lube in one hand; a fact he could plainly see. "You only have two choices: do you want to be face down, or facing me?"

Wordlessly, Jer's eyes full of fear and lust, he drew his knees up, and apart.

It was the fear that brought me to my senses.

Jeremy relaxed a bit, slowly letting his legs descend until his feet were on the mattress, legs still bent. I later figured out that it was probably my change of posture and expression that had clued him in. But the episode really scared me. I had no idea that I could be so violent. I sat down beside Jer and gathered him into my arms.

"I'm so sorry, Jer," I whispered to him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded against my shoulder. "Yes," he whispered back. "But... "

"But?"

He clung tighter to me. "Don't make me do that again?" he said in a pleading tone.

I thought he meant my ordering him to choose a position for sex, but I was wrong, as his next words confirmed.

"Don't make me get you angry, so you'll touch me?"

To say I was surprised would have been a vast understatement. He'd provoked me on purpose? I was immediately furious. I tightened my grip on Jer as much as I could, to prevent myself from lashing out at him. "Jer," I said quietly, and even I could hear how tightly controlled and grating my voice was, "do you know how close I was to raping you?"

"I was willing," Jer said in a voice so low I almost didn't hear him.

"That would be a nice way to have our first time, wouldn't it!" I said angrily, pushing him back onto the bed, and getting up to pace around the room. I was so full of energy, and I had to do something so I wouldn't do something to Jer. I had to get out of there. Fuck! But I was all sweaty, and... I must have looked pretty silly, stalking around the room angrily with an erection.

"Tan, please," he pleaded quietly with me, although I wasn't really sure what he was wanting. Probably for me to calm down.

"I'm going to take a shower," I decided. A cold one.

"No!" Jer's voice was desperate.

I looked at him and saw a tear spill out of one eye. Damn! I'd scared him that much? But then why didn't he want me to leave him alone? I felt torn, but finally I went over and pulled him to me. I didn't have to do much pulling - he was trying to get so close I thought our skins would meld.

"Make love to me, Tan!" he demanded pitiously after a while.

I pushed him back a bit, but kept hold of him, so I could see his face. He meant it.

"After what I just did?" I was incredulous.

"I pushed you to it," he said defiantly.

I couldn't think of anything to say. I just stared at him, amazed. The next thing I knew I was half on top him, kissing him senseless.

Eventually I moved on to his neck, and worked my way lower, giving his neck a thorough going over; kissing, sucking, teasing the skin with my teeth, and then on to every erogenous zone I'd found on his body. Before I got to his crotch I stopped and got the lube. Our eyes were locked on each each other as I started loosening him up, then I dropped my gaze to his cock, and descended on it. Not only did I love worshipping his cock, but it kept him distracted from thinking about what I was doing with his 'back door'.

Finally I figured he was ready, and I reached for a condom. Jer's hand stopped me.

"No," he said quietly. "I want to feel you."

Again, I was undecided. I knew all the reasons to use a condom, but Jer and I had never had sex before, and Mister G had us both checked for AIDS and other STD's shortly after he'd learned which way the wind was blowing with us. We were both clean. Yes, there were still other reasons, but those were the two big ones, so I decided to go along with Jer's wishes. Partly, I wanted to feel him around me without anything in the way, too.

It was a bit awkward, looking to see where I was poking, then leaning into him. I felt Jer tensing. "Sh... It's okay, love. Just relax. Remember what we've learned," I whispered soothingly. He took a couple of deep breaths.

"Okay," he said lowly, indicating I should continue.

I worked the head of my cock against his opening, pressing in, then pulling back a bit, and then Jer relaxed and I slipped into him an inch or so. The feeling of it was incredible. I was all set to continue, but at the same time I heard Jer hiss in pain, and stopped. That was hard, but I didn't want Jer to be hurting. Not from this. Not from an act of love.

I stroked his temple, just repeating over and over to relax, and that I loved him. He leaned his head into my hand, and in a few seconds he nodded. I pushed in another little bit until he again stiffened, and I pulled back a little to ease the pressure; at the same time, again soothing him. We were both breathing hard, by this time.

"I wanted this," he murmured, sounding a little uncertain now as he clung to my shoulders.

I ignored it. I wasn't going to stop now. We'd gone too far for that. Instead, I focused on his words, rather than the tone. I know, it was selfish, but I blame the situation and my hormones.

Jer relaxed again, and I took over, again pushing into him, without waiting for his go-ahead. This time I got my whole length into him.

"Is that it?" Jer asked.

"I'm completely in you, love," I replied. I could almost feel his relief. "Let me know when you're comfortable again?"

Jer nodded. It wasn't that long, though, before he whispered 'okay' in my ear.

I was rather thankful for the delay. I had almost come a couple of times, there, just from the stimulation and excitement. The delay let my nerves calm down some, and let my impending ejaculation recede. But with Jer ready for me now, I pulled back a bit, and then pushed forward again: just small movements, to let him get used to the feel of me in him.

It wasn't my idea; I'd read it on the internet. But there must have been some validity to it, because Jer was tense and clutching at me at first, but he relaxed after only about a minute - maybe less. He still clung to me, but it wasn't so much because of fear, I think. I don't know; it just felt different - less desperate, or something.

As Jer grew more comfortable, I grew more confident too, and started lengthening my strokes. I had to reinsert myself in my lover a couple of times, though, when I misjudged the stroke and slipped out of him. Jer didn't say a word, although he was making little noises all the time, now. I hoped he was enjoying it too, in passing, although I was more involved in my own pleasure at that point. (That would change later, but it was all so new this time that the sensations overwhelmed me.)

Jer had dragged me down to him by now, and we were kissing. Well, mashing our lips together might be a better description, since it was all pretty rushed and needy, but the more contact I could get with him the better, and I guess he felt the same way. We broke away from each other pretty quickly, though, when we needed more air than we could get that way. I assume it was mutual, anyway. I know I couldn't breathe, and Jer was panting pretty hard, too. He tasted salty. We were both sweating freely. I felt myself getting close, and started pounding into Jer even harder and faster, and then I was coming, and straining to get as deep as I could into him.

When it was over I relaxed a little and cuddled Jer to me, still straining to catch my breath. "Are you okay?"

Jer took long enough to answer that I started getting worried.

"Yeah," he finally said.

I raised my head, and looked at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he said, in a contented sigh.

His expression, a rather dreamy smile as he gazed into my eyes, reassured me. And then I remembered I was still in him, and gently withdrew. It couldn't have been too uncomfortable for Jer anyway, as I was almost flaccid by that time, but Jeremy pouted a little when I did it, although he didn't say anything.

My stomach reminded me that we still hadn't eaten yet. "Hungry?"

Jer nodded, his expression again peaceful, but he didn't move.

"Want to take a shower?" I asked.

He started laughing quietly - more a silent heaving than anything else. "If we don't, Mom and Dad will know exactly what we've been doing," he said quietly.

I couldn't help but give a nervous grin at that. I'd just taken their baby's virginity. How were they going to react to that when they found out?