Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 11:10:16 -0800 (PST) From: Jo Jo Subject: Wayward People Chap. 8 "There's Troy and Then There's Pete" Disclaimer: The usual rules apply here. If you aren't legal in your area to be reading material(non erotic, mind you) about homosexuals and the activities they may or may not participate in, then please don't read. This story has been copyrighted and is not to be used elsewhere in any way without the express permission of the author (that would be me). For everyone else, enjoy! Wayward People Chapter 8 "There's Troy and Then There's Pete" Troy was a complicated guy. He was a complicated guy with complicated secrets. I knew that because he was a secretive person. I knew there had to be a reason why. I didn't know what the reason was. Still didn't know what the reason was. But I would soon. There were new developments in the `Troy Saga." I was more than surprised to learn that Dylan had made the trek all the way from Canada to come see Troy. Especially since Troy hadn't told anyone that he was coming. Although, I doubt he knew. Unfortunately for me, Pete had decided to come find me just as I was about to learn all there was to know about Troy, and Dylan was gone by the time I turned around. He had, however, left me a note with a phone number on it. I guess that meant Dylan would be in town for a while. Why he wasn't trying to get into contact with Troy himself, was beyond me. But it had only been one night. Last night in fact. I couldn't really sleep the previous might. I couldn't stop thinking about what Dylan being here was going to mean for me. If Dylan was close enough to Troy, he'd be able to answer all the questions I had for Troy that he didn't seem to want to answer himself. Like where he was from. All I knew was Canada. Or why he didn't seem to want to talk to anyone from home. I had a lot more. I wrote them down on a sheet of paper so I wouldn't forget them all. And as long as Troy was going to keep being the way he was being, then he wasn't going to find out that Dylan was in town. Unless Dylan told Troy he was around himself, of course. I didn't plan on telling Troy anything. I didn't want to blow it. Besides, it wasn't like I owed him anything. At the end of the day, like every other day since he'd been with us, he was still `Troy', and everything that came along with that. Of course, I was in a good mood as I awoke and opened the door to my room. Just as I did, I noticed Troy standing right outside with his hand in the air as if he were about to knock. He lowered it and stood staring back at me staring at him. "What?" I asked. I was still bitter, and I figured as long as he knew it, maybe he'd do that thing he once did where he actually acted like a tolerable human being. He actually smiled a little at me. "How does your hair always look exactly the same whenever you wake up in the morning?" he asked, touching my hair lightly. I moved back and crossed my arms. His smile faded and he lowered his hands. "I...wanna apologize," he started. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. "What else is new?" I asked sarcastically as I turned and walked back into my room. At this point, I wasn't really buying it all. This made the third...or fourth time he was apologizing to me now? Didn't know as I'd pretty much lost count. I sat on the edge of my bed as Troy walked in slightly, standing in the doorframe. "I figured out what it was," he started. I guess not to be completely rude, I actually paid attention to him. If not actually for interest in what he had to say. "I didn't feel like I was apart of something...I think I just felt like I was just here," he started, walking into the room a little more. "So I guess I figured you'd keep trying until you wore me down. But then you got these friends...and Pete-" "So basically, you were being a jackass to me because you wanted me to play some innocent wide eyed dummy to your beck and call?" What kind of logic did these Canadian's have anyway? "No, Mike, that's not it-" "Because that's exactly what it sounds like!" Troy looked behind him quickly before shutting the door and sitting next to me on the bed. "You wanna know everything about me? Understandable," he started. "But you have to realize that I'm just not the type of person who divulges every little detail about my life to people as soon as I meet them." Except I'd only known him a month. A fricken month! And in that time, I'd learned less about him and more about the guy I'd only known half that amount of time. I started to say something a couple of times before I let out a confused chuckle and stood up, walking over to my closest like I was actually doing something. "I was projecting bad thoughts to Pete," Troy continued. "I guess maybe I have been spending a little too much time with Evan. But I guess I also just didn't want people to start talking..." I looked over at him. It was funny...he'd said it like he'd had some experience in that area. Like maybe he'd been through it before. It had me looking at him in a completely new light. "So...I know I've asked you this before, but do you think maybe we can just start over?" He was right. He'd asked me, I'd been stupid enough to say yes and now here we were. Again. "And then what, Troy?" I asked. "What are we supposed to do when we're right back here two weeks from now? A month?" Troy looked down and let out a sigh. "I don't know....I guess I'm just not used to things being this hard..." "If things are hard it's because you make it that way," I replied, turning around. "I know.....that's why I wanna start over...to show you that I can be a less complicated person once I'm comfortable enough. I actually wanna try." I thought about if for a moment. I realized that this was how it happened last time. Troy gave me his little spout about wanting to be a better person, yada yada...heard it all before. And who knows, maybe later I might actually feel like letting him change. But right now? Right now I had to see things for myself before I started to believe anything he had to say. "It's not enough," I replied, before opening my door and exiting my room. Besides, I had more important things on my mind that were beyond who Troy was right now. Like finding out who Troy was, before. I wasn't sure what I was going to do really. I wanted to call Dylan. I wanted to figure Troy out. I wanted to know what Pete saw in me. Yes, those things were on a list too. I didn't know how much time I had really to even think about these things. So I just kind of tried to push them to the back of my mind temporarily so I could at least somewhat function properly. "So last night was an absolute success," my mother spoke, as she poured my father a glass of orange juice. "The church raised more than enough money to renovate so the rest is being saved for future events." "Future being sometime within the next month," my dad spoke. "This town has more events per year than there are national holidays." "Oh stop it and eat your breakfast," my mother spoke taking a seat at the table. Even though I'd pretty much told Troy that I was putting him aside until I could figure out what his deal was, I also hadn't forgotten that my parents hadn't forgotten that I had kicked Troy out just a few weeks ago. I knew they were still watching my every move, and for both our sakes, I knew that I was just going to have to pretend like everything was okay between us. "So guys, have any plans today?" my dad asked, as he looked over his food. "I was thinking maybe we could go pick up that weight set you wanted, Troy." "Aw!" Max mumbled. "I have practice." "Yeah and I....have to meet a friend," I replied, realizing that it was probably the first time I'd ever said that in my entire life. It seemed like everyone had been thinking the same thing, as they were all now staring at me. "Well I can drop you off at his house later," my dad replied. "I think spending time with Troy and I today will be better for you." Oh how wrong those words were. Spending time with Troy right now when I knew so little about him wasn't going to be beneficial for me. I needed information and that meant I needed to see Dylan first. But just like whatever my mom said, went, did I also know that my father had the final word when it came to this. I wasn't going to get out of it. "So when are you going to invite Pete or Sienna over for dinner, Michael?" my mother asked. "You finally have become the social butterfly I always knew you could be and I'd love to have them over sometime." I guess I never really even considered that. There were a lot of things I hadn't considered about my life as of recently. Too much of my time was taken up thinking about Troy and who he was supposed to be. But soon, I'd be able to stop thinking about all that stuff and start thinking about my future. Or at least what would be my future, according to what I was thinking it was supposed to be. "Oh, um...I don't know," I replied, looking over my food. "I guess I've been....thinking about other stuff." I realized something. I'd spent so much time having negative feelings toward Troy that they were blocking any positive ones I could or might have felt. I didn't want to shut Troy out. He was doing that himself. But as long as he opened up a little, he might seem like a different person. Maybe I just wasn't listening to him. He had, after all, told me that this sort of thing was just hard for him. Even though it was new to me too, I was getting use to it. Granted, I wasn't sure what was up with him entirely. But I was sure to find out. "But soon, I guess," I replied. "I guess I could see about Sienna....I'm not so sure about Pete though." I noticed Troy looking over at me, a shocked look on his face. The statement was true somewhat. I wasn't sure what kind of message inviting Pete over for dinner would be sending him. But I also had to remember that Troy was still a part of this family, loosely enough, and if Pete made him so uncomfortable, I couldn't just invite him over for dinner. At least Troy hadn't invited Evan over. Yet. "Oh well...whenever you're ready," my mom replied. "I'm not going to push you." Nice to know, although, I also knew that she could be a very pushy person. "So...you wouldn't happen to know anything about what kind of weight set you might like, would you Troy?" my dad asked. Troy took his eyes off of me to respond to my father. "Oh...well, I'm not sure what they have here, really," he replied. "If you have time, I'm sure we could do some looking around. Right Mike?" Now I was looking over at him. Of course he was including me in stuff now that he thought he had his way. I guess he figured that I was starting to heed his advice about Pete. I was......considering it. But mostly, I just knew that things just had to be right with us. I didn't have room in my system to hate two people. Evan took up that position quite nicely. "Yeah we have time," my dad replied. "It's Guys Day today." "Oh please," my mother spoke, rolling her eyes. "It's times like these I wish that I wasn't on the swim team," Max pouted. "We practice more than everyone else and only get half the people to show up at the meets." "You play any sports back home, Troy?" my dad asked. I noticed Troy's look darken a little. Obviously he didn't like talking about his life back at home. But since my dad was the one asking the question, it wasn't like he could do to him what he'd usually do to me. "Oh well...I used to do wrestling," Troy replied. "Any good at it?" my dad asked. "Um...." "Yeah," I replied. "He told me he was great at it. But can the guy at least just eat his breakfast, dad?" I figured I'd help Troy out. All part of the process. Um...I'm sure there's a process. God, otherwise, I just sound stupid right now. "Alright," my dad replied, reaching for his glace of orange juice. "After breakfast, we'll get ready to head out." Even though I was having mixed feelings about all of it, the hope of finding out there was to know about Troy. "Sure," I replied, smiling over at Troy. Excluding the fact that I'd never really had a reason to go to a mall before, I still had a reason to hate it. Wayward hadn't even had a traditional mall up until a few months ago when somebody decided it would be a good idea to build one. I guess the fact that we never had a mall before was the main reason why everyone in town had decided to visit the place frequently. I assumed that anyway, what did I know about malls other than what I'd seen on television anyway? "Oh look, there's Mr. Montgomery," my dad spoke, pointing to an old family friend. I think the guy was my godfather. He was a family friend that I avoided mostly. "You two keep looking around. I'll catch up," my dad replied before heading over to go see the guy. We hadn't all been walking all that fast, as we weren't in any particular hurry, but once my dad left, Troy and I just kind of stopped walking altogether, standing in the middle of one side of the mall. I was trying not to let the awkwardness of the situation take over really. I'd already decided that I was at least going to try a different approach when it came to handling Troy. Wanting to try something and what that something actually was were two different things, apparently, and I was now starting to realize that I had a lot of ground to cover when it came to him. "Uh...." Troy had put his hands in his pockets and was looking at me with an expectant look. I didn't know what to say really, so I just started walking slowly. Troy was alongside me and we both walked down the left side of the mall together. I acted like I had some interest in some of the stores in the mall while we walked. While this hadn't been my first time in the mall, the few times I'd been in the mall everything always seemed to change. All the damn stores looked new to me. I guess it really was interesting. "I really did use to wrestle, you know," Troy started as we continued to walk. "For three years." I looked over at him as we continued to walk. "Really?" "Yeah well....it was something...to keep me busy, really," he continued. "To take my mind off some things." I wanted to ask him what things, but I had to take what little information he was actually telling me about him for what it was, pure gold. Asking him for more might be pushing things. "I got bored a lot," he replied. I could understand that. I got bored a lot too. Not lately though. I had a life lately. "What about you? You never wanted to do sports?" Troy asked. "Well, I'm not exactly the athletic type, you know?" I replied. "Besides, I decided to work on making writing a professional sport." Troy chuckled as we turned a corner. "You know, I've heard you write some pretty great stories," he said. "Maybe you could let me read one of them sometime." "Yeah...I could," I replied. "But what's in it for me?" Most of that statement was supposed to be a joke. But part of me really did want more from Troy. A trade, possibly. Troy looked over at me with a slight smile and for a second, it actually looked like he was going to tell me something, but we unfortunately happened to come upon the first store in the mall that carried gym equipment, among other things. "For Sports Only," Troy spoke, regarding the name of the store. "Interesting name." "Everything has to be creative in this town," I replied as we entered the store. "Except for the school. Plenty of stereotypes there." I don't know what was wrong with me, bringing up a touchy subject like school to him. But I was starting to regain some of those feelings I'd originally had for Troy. Some of the ones that had put me at such ease with him. Troy, thankfully, hadn't replied to my school comment as the two of us started looking around. We didn't have to look very hard or far as gym equipment was practically all over the place. If only we could have at least gotten some time to look to ourselves first, though. "Hey fellas, what's going on today?" I hated pushy salespeople. As if people didn't already hate them, they had to make it worse by pushing themselves on you as soon as you walk into a store. Troy and I both turned around only to be smiled to death by a heavyset middle-aged balding man. A fat sales guy in a gym equipment store...... This wasn't my department though, so what was I supposed to say? "Actually, were just kinda doing some comparison shopping. Looking around" Troy, thankfully, spoke up for us. "Well you came to the right place, first," the fat guy replied. "I can make you a great deal so you won't have to go anywhere else." Pushy pushy.....we weren't trying to buy a new car here. I thought that was those types of salespeople that did that? Troy propped one of his hands up to his while the other held his elbow. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing. "You have the new Bowflex here?" he asked. "We have the one that just came out AND the one that'll be coming out in a few months," the fat guy replied. And then he got close to Troy and I like he had to tell us some kind of a secret. "Don't tell anyone, but I can make you a good deal on that too," he spoke in a low tone. Troy and I exchanged glances before the fat guy, deciding who was going to be doing all the talking between Troy and I, put his arm around Troy's shoulders and started to lead him through the store. "Why don't we take a look over here," I could hear the fat guy saying as he pulled Troy along. I wasn't quite sure what I was gonna be doing while I waited, but fortunately I didn't have to wait at all because I could feel my cell phone vibrating. It certainly was finally getting the use it deserved. I didn't recognize the number on the front but I answered it anyway. "Hello?" "Is this...is this Mike?" "Dylan?" I didn't really know why but I hadn't expected to hear from him really. I figured he'd have come to see me again or waited for me to call him first. "I'm freaking out here," Dylan started. "I'm starting to think I made a bad decision coming here." What was I supposed to say to that really? I mean, I still didn't know why he was here exactly or who he even was. He could have been one of Troy's relatives for all I knew. "Dylan-" "Is Troy with you?" I glanced briefly over my shoulder to see the fat guy still talking his head off and him looking extremely bored. "Yeah. Why?" "You can't tell him anything," Dylan replied. "Not yet." This whole thing was beginning to baffle me, really. Maybe Dylan was related to Troy. It would explain the secretiveness well. "Dylan...what's going on?" I asked, trying to keep my cool. "Who are you?" There was a long pause on the other end of the line to the point where I thought he'd actually hung up. I looked back over to where Troy was briefly before I heard something on the other end of the phone. I didn't know what it was exactly, but it was indication that Dylan was still here. "You know, you think you know a person," I heard Dylan mumble. "Dylan-" "Got yourself a good one there, didn't you?" Dylan asked. I wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean but I was almost sure that I sensed some undertones in the statement. It could have meant quite a few things, actually. I turned my back and looked out the store window, still trying to keep my cool. "Dylan, I'm having trouble understanding what it is you're here for" I started. "Why don't you talk to Troy yourself? Does he know you were coming?" "Troy doesn't know a lot of things," Dylan replied. "Which is giving him more credit than what he deserves considering......" Considering......... "Considering what?" I asked. I heard Dylan sigh into the phone. "Can you meet me?" he asked. What....meet him somewhere? Then again...I had been expecting it. "Sure...where?" I asked. "At the Wyndam Hotel. Suite two-twenty," Dylan replied. The Wyndam was in downtown.....near Las Vegas. Why was he staying there and not in one of the motels in town? "Look-" "Just tell me you can meet me....whenever you get some time, I'll be here," Dylan replied. "I.....don't know..." Suddenly I was beginning to actually stop and take a look at the situation for what it was worth. What did I really know about this Dylan guy, really...if Dylan was even his real name? Certainly not much more than I knew about Troy. What kind of situation was I getting myself into? I had to really stop and think about this. It could be trouble. It could lead to trouble. I couldn't just jump right in. "Mike?" I quickly turned around to see Troy standing right behind me. That was about when I heard the click on the other end of the phone. Dylan had heard Troy's voice and hung up on me. "Who was on the phone?" Troy asked. He looked curious but concerned at the same time. "Oh just uh....just..." "Got something picked out yet?" came my saving grace, the voice of my father. I turned slightly to see my father coming towards the both of us. Troy, I noticed from the corner of my eyes, just crossed his arms staring at me. "Hey dad," I spoke. "I don't know....did you find something Troy?" I turned back to him. He stared at me for a few more seconds before replying. "Yeah," he replied. "I did." "Great, let's go check it out," my dad replied. Troy and I exchanged glances before he turned around and began leading us down one of the aisles. I'm not sure what it was but I was actually starting to like Troy again. The only problem was, I knew it was because he thought I was going to start staying away from Pete. I couldn't for two reasons, though. For one, my mother would think said abandonment would be rude. But more importantly, I didn't want to abandon him. I wanted to find out for myself if there was another reason why he was spending so much time with me. I knew that I had a lot of stuff to figure out and deal with, but I was just trying to take it all in stride. "So if you could refrain from telling your mother how much we spent on all this equipment, that'd be great," my dad spoke, as he turned the corner to our street. Some deal the fat guy had given us. We still wound up paying almost two grand for all the stuff. I knew we could obviously afford it, but my mom still liked to complain about how my father chose to spend his money. I was in the middle of a big truck my dad was driving while Troy was on my right side. We'd spoken off and on the entire ride home, but I could tell he was thinking about something. So was I but at least I was trying to keep that from showing too much. "So I was thinking," I started. Yeah, obviously....but this part I was making up off the top of my head. "Maybe you and I could work out together. You can show me the basics." "Good idea," my dad said. "I wasn't gonna say anything before, but honestly son...you could stand to put on a little muscle." "Uh!" Troy laughed and I looked over at him. "Not you too!" "Hey, I'm with him," he smiled. I couldn't help but to smile too. Without really doing much, Troy could easily manage to make you feel smitten with him, as indication by the way I was feeling right now. He wasn't such a bad guy once we got past all the bad stuff. I almost didn't even care about what all he was hiding from me at this point. Almost. "Okay...let's hope she's off somewhere playing hostess to some event," my dad joked as he pulled into the driveway. My dad had parked the car and got out to go open the garage and get a few things while Troy and I just stayed in the car. With my dad being gone, there was more than enough room for me to scoot over some, but for some reason I didn't want to. For some reason I felt safe being this close to Troy. When I started to think about what that meant, I actually did scoot over, and got out of the truck on the other side. I knew that Pete and I technically weren't a couple, but that hadn't stopped me from feeling like I was cheating on him without actually having really done anything to warrant that feeling. Troy got out slowly on the other side and the two of us met in the back of the truck. "Is your mom really gonna go postal when she sees all this stuff?" he asked, pulling the back open. "Probably. But we outnumber her four to one," I replied. "Besides, we'll actually be using this stuff right?" "Yeah," I replied. "Okay....so lets get some of this stuff onto the dolly here," my dad spoke, coming back out wheeling something I didn't even know we had. It took all three of us to get the first box out and onto the dolly but I happened to still be holding on to it when my dad made his suggestion. "Come on Mike, help me get this n the house," he spoke. "You can start getting the other stuff together if you like Troy." "Okay, sure," Troy replied, turning towards the truck bed. I let out a breath before heading towards the house with my dad, leaving Troy to himself. Troy leaned on the edge of the truck for a moment before he heard what he thought sounded like ringing. He looked both ways as if it could have just been his imagination before he actually realized it was coming from inside the truck. By the time he'd realized that though, it was too late, and the phone had stopped ringing. Troy picked the phone up, realizing that it was Mike's. He held for a few moments before it sounded, informing him that he had a new voicemail. Troy contemplated something momentarily. It could have been Pete. That would just ruin things, as he actually felt like he was starting to connect with Mike for the first time since he'd been here. What did Pete have to say that was so important, anyway? He didn't know, but he was about to find out. He flipped open the phone and went to the voicemail section, opting to listen to the message. "Mike....uh...it's Dylan..." Troy nearly dropped the phone. How was it possible that Mike and Dylan knew each other and why was he calling him? "I forgot to tell you that I'm leaving after tomorrow night.....I changed my mind but if you still wanna talk.....just thought you should know that." Troy held the phone to his ear for what seemed like a long time once he finally realized that was what he was doing, and quickly put it back down, after deleting the message first. So many things were going through his mind just then. He kept everything to himself though. It was easier that way. Easier for what he had to do. "Hey...did I hear my phone ring?" I asked once I got back outside. I wasn't completely sure but it almost looked kind of like Troy had just seen a ghost or something. He certainly looked a lot paler than before. "Huh...oh nothing," Troy spoke up, putting on a small smile. "Yeah it was a wrong number actually." I wasn't sure what to make of that statement but I decided to take his word for it. "Oh okay....dad wants us to help him set up the main unit before we do the rest," I spoke. "So come on." "Okay....let's go," Troy replied. It actually didn't take that long for us to get everything set up. Only a couple of hours actually. We had decided to turn the other room we never used into a gym that fit all of the equipment nicely. Looking at all the brand new equipment actually compelled me to want to work out with Troy. Compelled me until I remembered that he said he liked to get up early to work out. Considering the fact that I already had to get up at 6 in the morning to get ready for school, I didn't think I could see myself getting up any earlier than that. Max was still gone, so I wasn't expecting to see him anytime soon. And fortunately for us all, mom was still gone as well, wherever she was. I really didn't know what my plans were going to be for today. I had a lot of thoughts running through my head and they were all starting to get jumbled together. Things only got more complicated for me once Pete showed up. "Pete?" I spoke, surprised. I'd never been to Pete's house and he had never been to mine. I was surprised he even knew where I lived. "Hey," he replied, with a smile. Pete always seemed to be in such a good mood, and all him being here right now had done for my mood was to just make my thoughts rush at even higher speeds. "Uh..." I realized that I was being rude not inviting him and just gawking at him like I was, but I was totally taken off guard. "Who's at the.....oh hey....are you Pete?" my dad asked, upon coming to the door. "The one and only," Pete replied shaking my dad's hand. "Nice to meet you Mr. Carson." "You too," my dad replied. "Mike likes to be such a private guy, you know? I didn't ever think I'd meet the elusive Pete he kept going on about." Pete smiled at me while I just felt like dying right there. What was dad doing to me? "Well I'm sure the stories are all more interesting than the truth," Pete replied. "Oh come on inside," my dad replied, ushering Pete inside the house. "You have to excuse my knucklehead son." Pete had come inside, my dad had shut the door, and I was still standing in my same place as if none of this was happening. "I had practice today at school," Pete replied, turning to me. "I ran into Max and he told me how to get here." Okay...one question answered...but.... "Oh...." Uh oh. This was the part where Troy had come down the stairs only to see Pete sitting on the couch in the living room. Unexpected for both of us, but so not good for me. "Troy...you know Pete right?" my dad asked. "Yeah..." Troy replied cautiously as he slowly came down the stairs. I looked over at Pete and then at Troy before letting out a breath. "So I was thinking...maybe you and I could go out for a little bit?" Pete asked. "If you want, I mean." I was almost sure that Pete had asked ME the question. That hadn't stopped my dad from responding like he'd asked him and not me. "Of course he wants to," my dad replied. "You don't have anything else to do, right son?" No...but.... I looked over at Troy. "Wanna come, Troy?" I knew what he'd say even before he said it. I only asked because my dad was here and I know what it would have looked like had I not invited him. Troy looked over at Pete with a gleam in his eye that was just evident enough for me to pick up on before looking back at me. "I think I'm just gonna hang around here," he replied. "Oh....okay," I replied, heading towards the door. I knew that I needed to talk to Pete anyway. It was just that all of this was so unexpected. "Well...I guess it's just gonna be the two of us then," Pete stood up, joining me at the door. "Stay gone as long as you want," my dad replied. "Of course....I don't care but you might wanna at least come home and make your mother think you're here for a bit later on." My dad was being surprisingly cool now that I had friends. Had he been like this all along? I guess I hadn't really noticed before. I took one last look at Troy before exiting the house with Pete. I just hoped Troy at least had something to do while he was at home alone. "Wow....that's a lot," Pete replied, looking down at his cup of coffee. He'd taken me to the movies first and then the two of us went to the only Starbucks in town. If our little town had a Starbucks, I guess they really were trying to take over the world. But over the course of a long and drawn out half and hour, I'd told Pete mostly everything about Troy and what was going on with him and me. I hadn't told him about whatever feelings I might have had for him of course, but everything else he knew. It was surprisingly easy for me to tell Pete all of it. He really was a good listener. "Yeah...." I replied. There was a moment where Pete actually looked overwhelmed for a moment before he leaned forward and leaned over his cup. "Well....I guess you really are having problems with Troy," he replied. "Yeah..." Problems, we had a lot of those. But I still had so many other things to deal with. Things that concerned Pete. Things I also hadn't told him about. "Here's the thing, Mike," Pete started. "Me? I like you...you know that because I told you that." And we kinda kissed too..... "But this thing with Troy.....it just seems like he's dragging you down." Maybe. "Well what am I supposed to do about it?" I asked. "I can't just throw him out again." Pete sat up. "No...you can't do that," he replied. "But that doesn't mean he has to stay with you." I flashed him a confused stare. What was he talking about? "What?" Pete rubbed his chin before responding. "I'm talking about getting him to stay with someone else," Pete replied. "Like Evan or something. Obviously staying with you is too much." I had thought about that before....but now....after so long. I couldn't consider it. Could I? "Pete.....Troy's not some piece of furniture that I'm in control of where it stays and where it doesn't," I pointed out. "I can't just keep doing this to him." "And what's he doing to you? Huh?" Pete asked, raising his voice some. "God, Mike, I don't like seeing you hurt. I wanna protect you, don't you understand that?" "I do, but-" "No...because it you did there wouldn't be any `buts'," Pete replied, standing up. "Now I don't know what you're gonna do about Troy or his friend, but us.....you really should figure that out." And then he just shut up. I was smart enough to know what it meant and quietly stood up, exiting the shop with him. "I'll take you home," he said softly. I could tell he was really trying to hold his anger. That's the kind of person Pete was. He was probably the most patient person I knew next to Max. And I knew I couldn't keep doing this to him. And I couldn't keep doing what I was doing to myself either. If I was going to deal with Troy, I was gonna need answers. And if I was going to get the answers I wanted, I was gonna have to talk to Dylan. Soon. "Mike is that......how did you get in here?" Dylan froze once he saw who was sitting on his bed. Troy stood up and crossed his arms. "More like what are YOU doing HERE?" he asked. Dylan looked down before walking over towards the door. Troy pushed it closed once Dylan opened it. "Show up and run...that's the deal with you, huh?" he asked. "Oh like you're in any position to talk about that," Dylan replied. The two teens just stood at the closed door staring at each other before Dylan walked back over towards the television and turned it off. "So did Mike tell you I was here?" Dylan asked. "No," Troy replied, walking over to where Dylan was, making sure he stood a sizeable distance away. "How did you find him? Me?" "How do you think?" Dylan asked. Troy knew and lowered his head. "You just were gone one day," Dylan replied. "Took me a while to stop being mad at you." "And now?" "What do you mean?" "What the fuck are you doing here Dylan?" Troy replied, raising his voice. "You come looking for me like I ran off...like I'm the one who's been gone all this time-" "You know our situations are two completely different things so don't fucking throw that in my face!" Dylan exclaimed, standing up. Troy chuckled to himself and ran his fingers through his hair. "This is fucked up, you know. Were you even gonna tell me you were in town?" "Like you told me you were in a foreign exchange program?" Dylan asked. "What the hell is that about anyway?" "Nothing....it's.....and I didn't have to tell you anything!" "Well there you go then," Dylan replied. "I didn't have to tell you anything either. And apparently, you haven't been telling your host family much about you either." Troy studied Dylan's face before replying. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "That kid...Mike...he wanted answers....to know more about you..." Dylan replied, leaving the statement at that. Troy waited to see if Dylan was gonna say anything before he did. "And you were gonna tell him?" he asked. Dylan didn't respond. "And you were gonna tell him!" Troy exclaimed, grabbing Dylan and pinning him to the wall near the door. Dylan looked down at Troy's hands around his shirt. "You have a lot of stuff to hide," he spoke. "Funny thing about secrets......they always manage to get out into the open." Troy held Dylan to the wall for a few moments before he tightened his grip and got dangerously close to Dylan's face. "Yeah well with you gone, I don't have to worry about that, now do I?" "Troy-" "You're gonna leave. Right now. And not tell anyone anything. Don't call Mike, don't anything. Pack your shit and leave.....understand?" Dylan chuckled to himself before tossing Troy off of him and straightening himself out. "You're a story, you know that?" he replied, looking over at the bag he had yet to unpack. "But because I know what you have to lose.....I'll go." He walked over to the bag and picked it up, putting the strap on his shoulder. "You must really like these people...." he spoke, turning towards the door. Troy watched Dylan exit the room and just stood there not really knowing what to think. I didn't go last night. I was still trying to make up my mind as to what I was going to do really. I knew I had to talk to Dylan, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to really. I felt like doing something like that would be ruining things somehow. I was only just now starting to feel like things were changing between Troy and I. The dynamic was certainly more positive between us. But then there was the dynamic between Pete and I, which had been fine all along and was changing as well. For the worst. There was Troy and then there was Pete. Two separate people really. Maybe I was subconsciously beginning to ruin things with Pete because I had lingering feelings for Troy. This was certainly a problem I'd never had before. "God....was it just me or did he really seem to want to bore us to death today?" Max asked, as I stood outside the lobby of the church. The sermon had pretty much been non existent for me, as I hadn't really been paying attention. I had too much on my mind. "At least we weren't in the front this time," I replied. But Pete had been, I noticed. I was still feeling partially afraid to talk to him. We weren't a couple, I knew that, but it was kind of like we'd had our first argument last night. I'd never been through one of those at all, so I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do to make it up to Pete. Other than talk to Dylan so I could at least try to sort some of my feelings out. I saw Pete from the corner of my eye and I knew he'd seen me. He looked a little pissed, if that was even possible for somebody like him. "Hey...." Troy spoke, joining Max and I. "Five...I count five being the amount times I actually fell asleep for a few minutes," Max replied. "Top eight," Troy replied. I was there but I wasn't really `there'. I was looking between Troy and Pete. I had options....there were the both of them. God, this was so hard! "You alright man?" Troy asked me. "Huh? Oh yeah.....I'm fine," I replied. Lying in church....what had become of me. At least I wasn't picking fights in the church bathroom like Evan. "Mike actually stayed awake the entire time," Max replied. "He probably wants to go home and go to sleep." "Actually," I started, finally having the epiphany I'd been waiting for. I walked away from the both of them and headed outside. I didn't care about anything else anymore or what was going on behind me. I realized that I had to move forward. I had to talk to Dylan. I took out my cell phone once I was outside and dialed the number he'd given me. After trying twice, and not being able to reach him I called the operator and got the number of the hotel. "Nevada Wyndam, this is Lydia, how can I help you today?" "Uh hi...I was actually trying to get a hold of someone staying there," I replied. "Okay, do you have a room number for me?" "Uh yeah, suite two-twenty," I replied. I waited for a moment before Lydia replied. "I'm sorry sir....the person staying in that room checked out early last night-" I don't know why I just hung up in her face like I'd done, but I had. What was I supposed to be expecting exactly? I didn't know anything about Dylan...he'd been here an entire day for me to talk to him if I was going to. So if he was gone now, I couldn't really blame him. But.....he'd just left....just up and left...... "Hey...." Troy spoke, surprising me. I turned around. He had a smile on his face, which I returned. "You got everything under control?" he asked. Just then, Pete exited the church with his family. He shot me a glance before looking away. "I will eventually," I replied. With the way things were going, that seemed to be a little unlikely. For advanced chapters and more stories by me, visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/ Feedback?: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com Copyright 2005