Nifty Disclaimer - This story is a work of fiction and contains scenes including sexual relations between people of the same gender. If this isn't your cup of tea, or is illegal where you live, please do not read. Any relation between fictional characters and real people is purely coincidental.

Do Over

Chapter 8

By DK Stories

"I can't believe we start high school in three months" Brandon said from where he sat across the hotel room that our parents had rented for the night. Trevor was in the other room, with his date from graduation night, and I lay on one of the two beds in our room, leaning against Brian's bare chest. We were both wearing sweat pants, but no shirts while Brandon was still wearing his t-shirt and sweat pants. All three of us were sipping from glasses containing jack and coke.

Yes, we were drinking alcohol.

It had been a year and a half since that dance where Brian had gotten drunk, and since then he hadn't even touched a drop of alcohol despite the many opportunities that had presented themselves. Now, we were celebrating our graduation from the eighth grade and I agreed that a little celebration was in order. We hadn't had a drink before graduation, nor at the dance afterwards, not even at the party we'd attended with our dates. The three of us had taken our dates home, while Trevor chose to bring his back to the hotel with him. While he spent time with her, the three of us had broken open the bottle Brandon's father had given him and served up some drinks for a celebratory toast, and we were still nursing those first drinks.

Both Brian and I were six feet tall now, and roughly the same build. The regular workouts in his garage and all the sports he had us playing had made us into two of the best-built guys in our class. It would be another few years before the sculpted 'gymrat' look became popular, but we were well on our way towards that. Brandon had shot up the last few months and was now as tall as we were, but a lot slimmer in build. I knew I had a few more inches to grow and hoped Brian would continue to match me since I enjoyed being able to share clothes like we did. His feet were even the same size as mine, effectively doubling our available wardrobe.

Junior high was over now, and it was the summer before our high school year began, and things were actually looking quite good for all of us. Christmas of 1981 hadn't been an easy time for Brian or for me. Both of our families were going through tough times, and I think those events caused him to grow up a lot more quickly than any of us had expected.

Uncle Rich had died on Christmas Eve, and was buried the day after Christmas. Brian had gone to spend the holiday with them, and called me with the sad but not unexpected news. I'd taken the bus up to San Francisco the day after, and gotten there in time for the short funeral and burial. Fortunately, he'd had a good insurance policy that covered his expenses and then some, as did Reggie who ended up passing away a few weeks later. The money left over after settling their estates had been left by both men to a trust fund for Brian, and since I'd visited Reggie regularly he'd changed his will at the last moment to include me.

Like so many gay men of that era, his own family never showed up at his bedside as he died from AIDS. Unlike many of them, his partner's family was there every day. Mrs. Breckenridge used up all of her vacation time to spend it with first Rich and then Reggie, and I'd spent a great deal of time there as well until school started.

San Francisco real estate was in a down-turn at the time, and Mr. Breckenridge had taken the advice to not sell the apartment the two had jointly owned. Right now it was worth half a million, but in four years it would be worth twice that. Brian and I would be eighteen then, and depending on what we wanted to do, we could either keep it or sell it for a sizeable sum since according to Reggie's will as survivor of Rich's estate, the property was to be split between Brian and me. Mr. Breckenridge had decided after a few months to rent it out, and since it was one block from the Castro District, it made a decent income despite operating costs. It was more than enough to pay the property taxes and even provide us both a decent allowance each month. Even more importantly, Mr. Breckenridge controlled everything and gave me my allowance directly. What I didn't need, I deposited into my credit union account that Nanny had started. Even after tuxedo rental, my share of the limousine, and the hotel room for graduation, there was still over $2,500 in that account now, more than I could ever remember having in savings and I was tighter than Papa about spending any of it.

Christmas in my family had gone little better. Jenny had been very skittish around me ever since that night, and kept on worrying that everyone blamed her for what happened. Nanny had finally consented to helping mom get us into some family counseling, without dad, to deal with the relationships between us. I didn't reveal my more unusual memories with the counselor, but what I had shared was more than enough to help us work a lot of stuff out.

The actual holiday was somber, and we did go over to Grandma's without mom. Dad had been skittish, and Grandma had started to try to blame mom, but my stern look at dad caused him to interrupt her. Jenny had stayed near me, or Aunt Bev the entire time we were there.

It had taken dad three months to realize that neither mom nor I were going to back down on things. He resigned the associate pastor position at the Livingston church after it became obvious his family was estranged from him and began to see a counselor. That had led to more family sessions, this time with all of us, and we began the long, slow process of healing. It wasn't easy for any of us, but in the end we did come together as a family.

Dad searched around for job after job, not really finding anything he was good at until I suggested driving trucks. In my original life, he'd taken to that career after mom's divorce, and enjoyed the work for nearly twelve years before his heart surgery. It was something he enjoyed this time around too, even though it meant many long days on the road. His absence for most of the week actually helped to improve things when he moved home.

Mom also got a new job, one that was less stressful on her back. The first time around, the long hours helping a dentist as he worked on patients had compounded her back problems from scoliosis. Her new job, as the office manager for a doctor was easier on her back and helped keep her from sliding into a dependency on pain pills that I remembered from my original life. She never knew the job had come through my on-going contact with Doctor Grayson, who'd been a friend of the doctor who moved to our town after completing his residency in San Francisco. It also meant a three-dollar per hour pay increase for her, and combined with dad's good income from driving trucks, we saw our financial position improve for the first time in my memory.

Dad had suggested moving once, and only once, but both Jenny and I protested vehemently. We liked where we lived, and the house he was looking at was in different school districts. Jenny would be starting my old Junior High next year, and had good friends with her current classes. We'd all moved too much in our lives, and even though we didn't own the townhouse we lived in, it was home and we had no desire to move.

The steady stream of 'girlfriends' that Brian and I dated over the eighth grade kept my parents from wondering about our close friendship as well. His parents weren't put off by them, and gave us stern lectures about leading poor girls on. Since we only dated each one a few times before moving on to the next girl, we had developed a reputation as 'playboys' at school, and that had only made the girls more determined they'd be the 'one' who'd settle us down.

Brandon and Trevor's relationship was much more complicated. They still engaged in sexual activity with each other, but each of them also dated and had sex with other people regularly. Trevor had gone through four girlfriends in that year, and had sex with all of them. As planned by the three before they met me, we had become the 'cream of the crop' at the school. Trevor won the eighth grade student body Presidency with Brian as the Vice-President. I had ended up the Treasurer while Brandon was the Sergeant-At-Arms. Stacy, the girl I'd taken to that first dance had been the Secretary.

Last summer, we'd all played on the same baseball team, and were becoming quite a team in any sport we played. This summer we weren't playing baseball though, instead we were going to attend a football camp. It was in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and I'd paid the $800 fee out of my own account, as had Brian. Dad and mom had protested the idea, but given up when I'd put up my own money.

Jenny would be spending most of the summer with Grandma since I wasn't going to be around to keep an eye on her, a solution she was happy with since it meant spending time with Aunt Bev and our cousin, Bryan.

"I can't believe you two are still together." Brandon said after there had been no response to his first comment. Brian snorted before pulling me a little more tightly into him.

"Some things are meant to last." Brian said with a shrug that I could feel.

"You know, it's a good thing no one else at school knows about you two." Brandon said after taking a big gulp of his drink. "They'd get sick from all the sweetness you two exude."

"Shut up." Brian snarled, reaching behind him and throwing the pillow he'd been leaning against at Brandon.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ha!" Brandon smirked as he took off his helmet and rushed to the sidelines. I was smiling just as broadly while the special team took the field for the extra point kick.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I said to him. Brian bumped my shoulder on my right side and I bumped him back. Back in the stands our parents were all shouting along with the rest of the families watching the freshman team stomp City High.

"We keep on changing your history." Brian said quietly to me as the ball went through the goal post and the scoreboard changed to 14-0 in our favor. Brian and I put our helmets back on and got ready for our defensive time on the field. We were smashing them and winning instead of losing by the same score, as I remembered happening from my first time around. Trevor and Brandon were so in-sync on offense that they were proving unstoppable. Likewise, their first-string quarterback had been pulled after being sacked for the fourth time by Brian or me, and this new guy was already scared after being sacked once.

In my original life, it had been three weeks after this game that my family moved to Nevada for dad to take the pastor position at a rural church in the middle of nowhere. In all honesty, I'd loved that town, and loved living there, but it had ended after Jenny had told mom that dad had been molesting her for years. Now dad was a truck driver, having given up on being a preacher, and we'd faced down the demons that had driven him to molest her, and I was confident that if he ever did try again, Jenny would not hesitate to scream at the top of her lungs.

Now, we were winning the only game our freshman team had originally lost that year, and instead of losing new friends, I didn't have to worry about losing old friends. It was different, it was better in many ways, and we were on top of the world. After the game was over, we went back to the locker room, showered and changed into jeans, polo shirts, and jean jackets.

Brian and I were currently 'dating' two cheerleaders who were waiting for us outside. We all went to the after-game party at Brandon's house, but neither of us drank anything alcoholic. That was something neither of us wanted to do when we weren't alone together. By eleven, we'd called a taxi, taken the girls home and then gone to Brian's house for our own victory celebration in the privacy of his bedroom.

Since they'd found out about our relationship, his parents had dealt with it with varying degrees of acceptance. Now, after all this time, they were beginning to accept that we were a long-term couple and this wasn't a phase Brian or I would grow out of anytime soon. They still hadn't pressed me for more details on how I'd known so much about AIDS before it became common knowledge, but they'd made some pretty educated guesses. I was still welcome in their home, though, and Mr. Breckenridge was a constant presence, always willing to throw a ball around or talk whenever we were having problems.

Not everything was rosy between us, either. At first we'd tried a couple of single dates, but whichever of us wasn't on the date got to feeling jealous and worried, so we'd always double-dated, at Brian's father's recommendation. The man had agreed that Brian and I being known as a couple wouldn't be the smartest thing we'd ever done.

During the weekend we had gone up to the foothills and gone dirt-biking, our latest passion. Brandon and Trevor had joined us, and Brandon's dad had driven the truck to take us up there. It was a fun time, and I couldn't wait for the one year and two and a half months to pass before we got our licenses and could drive ourselves around. That's one of the things I was saving for, a damn decent car when I turned sixteen.

Monday dawned bright and clear, and I jogged to Brian's house while the sun was just appearing over the horizon. This was part of our morning routine now, I'd jog over to the house after waking, take my shower there right after Brandon, and get dressed. Sometimes I'd bring my own clothes, and other times I'd just wear what was in his closet. Of course, several of my outfits were in there, just as some of his were in my own closet and they were all inter-changeable to us. Mom B, as I called her all the time now, would have breakfast ready for us, and we'd sit at the breakfast counter going over any homework we hadn't completed already. The only classes we had differently were math and our foreign language class. Every other class had been chosen so we'd have close to the same schedule. It hadn't been easy, and we'd had to pull some strings, and thanks to Mr. Breckenridge's sister, the head counselor at our Junior High School, we'd made sure we had the same teachers in all of our shared subjects.

We shared English, US History, chemistry, P.E. and Drama (my choice), while we didn't share math (I was in Geometry while he was Algebra 1, but Brandon was in the class with me.) or our foreign language (I was taking German while he was taking French). I'd taken French in high school my first time around, but only used it once when I went to Paris. Still, I had fun going over his French with him, and was picking up almost as much as he was. Together we spent about twelve hours each day in the company of one another, and it was definitely a good thing.

"Did you two purposely pick those shirts?" Mom B asked as we sat down for breakfast. I looked at her in surprise and looked at Brian who was wearing the same dark green shirt I was.

"Brian, you have to stop buying two of every shirt you like." I pouted at him, getting up to go change into a blue shirt while he and his mom laughed. We'd made the mistake one time already of wearing the same shirt on the same day and most of our friends had called us 'twins' from that. We were the same height, same build, and same color eyes and hair, but our faces were definitely different. I had a bigger nose and he had dark eyebrows instead of light eyebrows like mine. Still, Trevor had given us a bad time after hearing two cheerleaders talk dreamily about a three-way with Brian and me.

That was never going to happen.

Mom B dropped us off at the main entrance of the school a full twenty minutes early, again as usual. It seemed like a usual day as our 'current' girlfriends met us just inside the main entrance and slid under the arms that were opposite each other. Whether Brian walked on my right, or I on his right, the girlfriends were always on the outside, never between us. Even when we went on our double dates to the movies or to a dinner they never were allowed to come between us.

"Hi girls." Brian said as Heather, his current girlfriend slid up under his left arm and Julie, my current girlfriend slid under my right arm.

"We going to the cafeteria?" Heather asked as we stopped for a moment. That was our usual morning routine, head to the cafeteria and wait for Brandon, Trevor and some of our other friends to show up. Then we'd head to class, or on the days it was my job as Class President to make morning announcements I'd head to the office while Brian went to our English class.

"No, not today." I said quietly and felt Brian's hand brush mine between us in a reassuring gesture. When he'd shown up at my house last night I'd been furious, more furious than he'd seen me since that night with my dad, and we'd talked until well past what was supposed to be our bedtime, and he'd gotten a mild lecture for getting home after eleven.

"We'll talk to you both at lunch, okay?" Brian said to them and we moved away from them, lifting our arms over their heads. We had picked these girls for a few reasons, the most important being that they were regular attendees of the church my family currently went to, and were well known as being the most 'virtuous' of the girls there. They wouldn't even do more than kiss on the cheek most of the time, according to their last boyfriends, and that had suited both Brian and I very well. They were also sophomores, another point in their favor, and damn good looking, the final point. After today though, they'd be two more history points for those tracking Brian and mine's relationships with girls.

"So, you sure you want to go with me?" I asked him after taking a deep breath.

"Why wouldn't I?" Brian asked me with a raised eyebrow and slight cocking of his head. He paused only for a moment before smiling. "Listen Mr. Jones, you should know by now I'm not going to let you have all the fun. The only reason I've been going to that church of yours is that you're there."

"Fine, fine, sorry I asked." I said guiltily and he chuckled softly like he always did when I got this defensive. It told me I needed to chill out a bit, to take a deep breath and relax, and I did, feeling better almost instantly. "I seem to remember Nanny leaving that church about the time we moved to Nevada, but I'd never gone when she was going there and I never talked about it with her. I doubt it was because of this new pastor's ideas."

"Too bad your father likes those ideas." Brian said sourly and I had to agree with him. Dad was no longer preaching, but boy was he involved in the church when he was home, and I think he'd latched onto the idea that I would be a preacher when I got older, finishing his 'legacy'. That was the furthest thing from my mind on what my future would hold.

"He always did tend towards the more radical edges of whatever he was doing." I said with a shrug, finally putting one foot in front of the other and heading towards the school's office. Brian went there with me, and even held the door open as we walked inside. The school's new principal, the former vice-principal from our old Junior High School was just walking out of his office and smiled as he saw us.

"Brian, Davey, what are you guys doing here so early?" He asked cheerfully and I regretted we were about to ruin his Monday.

"We need to see you in private, if you don't mind." Brian said for me and Mr. Borsch stopped dead with an instant look of worry on his face.

"Come into my office, guys." He said quickly and extended his arm towards the door in a friendly gesture of welcome. We went through the little swinging partition at the edge of the counter, ignored the curious looks from the two girls that were serving as morning office aids, and entered the Principal's office. We set our backpacks down as we took our seats and I let out a deep breath as Mr. Borsch sat down. He'd shut the door behind him, and looked a little apprehensive. "So, what's up?"

"Well, first let me say thanks for not taking the petition against fencing the school too badly." I said with a slight smile. I had remembered that issue from the first time around and it sure enough sprung up. We'd managed to get ninety-three percent of the freshman class to sign the thing.

"Hey, it's the democratic process, and you guys are showing yourselves to be very organized and capable." He said with a smile. "Besides, it was better than having disruptions in the school's operations like a student walkout."

"Good point." I agreed and he took his own deep breath.

"So what is it that has you so nervous to bring up that you're stroking my ego?" Mr. Borsch asked and I had to laugh a little. It cut through the tension I was feeling, as did Brian's hand on my shoulder.

"Well, there are two things, sir." I said in a voice that began a little quiet, and became firmer as I continued. "The first thing has to do with the morning announcements."

"I think I know where this is heading." Mr. Borsch interrupted me. "Let me see, you attend Orangeburg Baptist, don't you?"

"Yes." I said with a relieved smile. At least I wasn't breaking the news to him.

"You probably had a meeting this weekend with your Pastor, um Dr. Darner, isn't it?" Mr. Borsch continued.

"Yes, sir." I answered. "He wanted me to go ahead and 'lead the school in prayer' during my announcement and indicated he was having Jay Connors do it again tomorrow when he does the announcements."

"Jay goes to First Baptist doesn't he?" Mr. Borsch asked and I nodded. Jay was a senior, and the varsity quarterback for this season.

"That's what Dr. Darner told me." I said with a shrug. I knew I'd always hated First Baptist, the biggest church in town, but I'd never thought Orangeburg Baptist would have gone along with some of the larger church's policies. Both were big churches in that they had congregations of over 2,500 each Sunday and church incomes capable of supporting not only a full-time pastor but also several associate pastors at full salaries and several office staff. In fact, both operated Christian primary schools for church members with staff teachers and a full support staff as well. "My father is one of the deacons at Orangeburg right now."

"Go on." Mr. Borsch said with a nod.

"Yesterday after church, my dad said we'd been invited to the Pastor's house for lunch so we went over there. After the lunch was over, I was invited to the Pastor's study where he and my dad had a long talk with me." I said firmly, trying to keep my anger from entering the conversation. I was pretty sure I'd hidden it well during that meeting, but every time I thought about it afterwards, it got too strong. "Dr. Darner was quite… enthused about some ideas he'd had after having lunch with Dr. Mills at First Baptist. It seems they've become quite upset at the… godless nature that's infiltrating our schools and want to join the bandwagon like those Texas schools and get god back into our schools. They want the students to lead the effort though, since the Supreme Court rulings keep them out, and the first thing they wanted was student-led prayer over the announcement system. Once you suspended us or took other action, they'd take up the argument with the school board."

"I've always been amazed at how some people will use students to further their agenda to change our society." Mr. Borsch said with a harrumph. "They approached me last week about allowing you students to say a prayer if you wanted to, and I told them I'd have to take action if such a thing were done. I'm pleased that you brought this to my attention before you actually did anything."

"I'm not going to be giving them what they want." I said firmly. "The only reason I go to church is because it's expected by my father and I'm rarely given a choice. Dr. Darner also wanted me to start distributing some pamphlets the next time we went to San Francisco. I took the liberty of tearing them up as soon as I got home."

"You still go up there to visit AIDS patients?" Mr. Borsch asked with a little surprise. Brian's aunt had told him about it during our seventh grade year, after Uncle Rich had died. He'd called us to his office then to hear what we knew about this new disease that was just starting to get broad coverage in the news for the first time. He wanted to know how it was spread and if we were in danger, and through us, the other kids at the school. It was from that conversation that I'd felt pretty sure this conversation would go okay.

"Once or twice a month we go up there." Brian said with a shrug. "It's not getting much better, but at least we're seeing more families visiting the sick now."

"That's good." Dr. Borsch said with a nod. "It sounds like you're under a lot of pressure at home, and at church."

"I am, but I can deal with that." I said with a shrug. "Jay is more of a believer though, I've talked to him a few times."

"I doubt he'll hesitate in doing what the pastors want." Brian added.

"Well, I'm not going to stop him from doing that, but I'll be ready for the backlash." Mr. Borsch said politely. "Davey, I want you to know that if there's anything I can do to help you, don't hesitate to let me know. Even if it's just someone to vent to when things are getting rough, I'm here. You and Brian have impressed me tremendously since I've known you both."

"Thanks, Mr. Borsch." I said with a smile. "There's one other thing I think you should be aware of, though."

"You know you're going to be late to classes?" He asked me and I nodded. "I take it this is worth you missing your morning announcements and some of your first class?"

"Yes." I said firmly and he nodded.

"Give me just a moment and I'll have one of the counselors make the morning announcements." He said quickly, picking up the phone to have a short conversation with someone at the other end. When he hung up we had his full attention.

"There was one other topic he wanted to talk about with me." I said with another deep breath. Even worse than the pamphlets about how gay people dying of AIDS would rot in hell unless they repented publicly, this one had gotten me so angry that I was willing to give up anything close to a 'normal' high school life.

"From your tone I take it I'm going to have a headache." Mr. Borsch said, probably trying to lighten the mood I'd set with my anger leaking out as I spoke.

"I hope you have plenty of Tylenol." Brian said from next to me and his tone was even angrier than mine had been.

"There's a student here by the name of Sean Rule." I said angrily. Mr. Borsch just nodded, but there was no recognition in his eyes. "He's a freshman like Brian and me, and recently his parents found out he might be gay. They're members of First Baptist, and the pastors have tried to force him into their counseling program there, but he's refused."

"While I might have some…sympathy for the young man, what business is this of mine?" Mr. Borsch asked tightly. He wasn't exactly gay-friendly, but then he wasn't a gay-basher either.

"It's your business when his pastor, and mine, are urging those of us who are…bigger than Sean to intimidate him into getting into their program." I said. "So far, his parents have refused to force him to attend, or to force him into one of their 'therapy' clinics, so the pastors, 'for the good of his immortal soul', want me to enlist Brian and few others to intimidate him into the program. Jay's already supposed to be getting some guys from the football team to do it as well."

"This school has a firm policy about bullying other students." Mr. Borsch said angrily.

"Well, Dr. Darner seems quite convinced that the good Christians among your staff won't mind it when it's being done for God's Work." I said, putting emphasis on the last two words. Mr. Borsch was practically seething now in anger, and that made me feel a little better.

"Davey and I want you to know that we won't stand by and watch him, or any other student being bullied like this." Brian said firmly. "I know we've pulled some pranks on other students, and some might think we're arrogant assholes, but we don't bully people and we won't watch Sean get knocked around."

"My staff will handle any problems that come up." Mr. Borsch said just as firmly. "I can't let you take matters into your hands, no matter how well intentioned you are."

"If your staff is handling the problem, we won't get involved." I said quickly. "But if we see him getting bullied and it isn't being stopped, we'll make sure it's stopped and we'll inform the nearest teacher or staff member at the same time. We won't be looking for trouble, but we won't let him get punched while we're running to a staff member who wants to take their time so that he can see the will of god or some crap like that."

"If you fight, I will treat it like any other case of fighting." Mr. Borsch emphasized and then he sat back in his chair and looked at us in silence for a minute. "I must say, I'm quite surprised at how…vehement you are about this. It's one thing for you to go visit sick people who are gay, but you have to know that if you stick up for a student who is thought to be gay, some people will wonder about you two."

"If they want to think we're gay just because we stick up for another student, let them." Brian said adamantly. "I really could care less, and if we lose some friends, they weren't worth having in the first place. Our real friends will stick by us whether we're gay or straight."

"You have to know not everyone will feel that way…" Mr. Borsch pressed on.

"No, but standing by while someone gets bullied just because we're afraid of what people will think of us is cowardly." I said. "Neither of us are cowards."

"Very well, remember what I said about starting a fight." Mr. Borsch said firmly, writing out a pass for us. "Here, get to class. Thanks for bringing these things to my attention, but remember to let the staff deal with any problems here on campus."

"Have a good day, Mr. Borsch." I said with a smile as Brian took the pass and we left the office. We made it to English only fifteen minutes late, and we handed over the pass from the principal along with our essays that were due. The rest of the morning passed very quickly for us both, and I left my German class feeling a little better. As usual, I met Brian and Brandon at the doorway that led to the grass area separating the main school building from the cafeteria. The girls met us half-way across the grass area and both of them were frowning slightly.

"We heard you two got called to the Principal's office." Heather started off.

"Is that why you didn't do the prayer thing this morning?" Julie added. "Did someone tell him and he stopped you?"

"I didn't do it because I'm not going to." I said firmly and she stopped walking in shock.

"Why not?" She asked in a voice that was half-whine. "The Pastor said it's the right thing to do, didn't he?"

"Sometimes just because a pastor says something is right, doesn't make it so." I said slowly, knowing that this was going to be a big scene. The lunch yard was already filling up with people, and several of them were watching. Poor Brandon, who hadn't been told anything of what was going on, was staring at us in confusion.

"That's blasphemy." Heather said firmly from Bryan's side. "He's god's anointed leader, you of all people should know that."

"He's human, and humans make mistakes sometimes." I said firmly. "Using students to push his agenda in school is something I don't agree with and I refuse to participate."

"Then why didn't you tell him that?" Julie demanded. "He called my mom last night and said you were going to do it. Are you too scared to tell him to his face?"

"I didn't feel like arguing and told him I'd think about it." I countered her argument as calmly as I could. "I did think about it, and decided that I was right the first time and wasn't going to do anything."

"So you went and told the Principal?" Heather demanded angrily.

"Yes, and I think he made the right decision." Brian said to her angrily. She stared at the two of us angrily, opening and closing her mouth several times before finding the words.

"I don't think I can be the girlfriend of someone who goes against the will of god." Heather said to Brian with a frown on her face.

"The will of god or the will of your pastor?" Brian countered her and she huffed angrily.

"The will of the pastor IS the will of god." She argued and I got ready to counter that argument, but Julie cut me off.

"I definitely won't be involved with someone who directly disobeys his pastor and lies to him!" Julie said angrily and stomped off. Heather left with her, and I noticed that several people were staring at us with surprise.

"Well, that's a first." Brian said with a chuckle. "Usually we're dumping them, not the other way around."

"We're better off without them, bud." I said to Brian and he smiled. We wrapped our arms around each other's shoulders and moved off, with Brandon still looking at us with confusion.

"Um, what the hell was that all about?" Brandon asked as we entered the cafeteria.

"We'll tell you about it after we can sit somewhere quiet." Brian said as we got in line. However a loud crash grabbed our attention and I turned to see that Sean Rule had been tripped by Jay. Sean was a small kid, barely five foot three, had strawberry blond hair and the most prolific amount of freckles I'd ever seen in both of my lives. The first time around, I'd been friends with him in the eighth grade, but this time I'd barely ever spoken to him. His tray had gone flying and Jay, along with some senior jocks were laughing like crazy.

"Be careful, FAG." Jay taunted him mercilessly. "If you keep looking at guy's butts, you're going to trip everywhere."

The lunch monitor was pointedly not paying attention, instead talking to Heather and Julie, and I realized that this had obviously been worked out to provide a good excuse for why nothing was done. That made me angry, and I started to move, but to my surprise, Trevor was already there, helping Sean to his feet. Like Brandon, we hadn't talked to Trevor yet about this stuff, so his presence there was somewhat surprising.

"Dude, pick on someone your own size." Trevor said very condescendingly to Jay. Jay stood up so that his six foot four frame towered over Trevor who was only five ten. He sneered down at the freshman quarterback.

"What's wrong with you, Trevor?" Jay sneered. "What the fuck are you doing sticking up for a short-ass fag?"

"He's a freshman, just like me, Jay." Trevor answered calmly as Brandon, Brian and I left the line and moved towards Trevor. Jason McCloud, one of the other linemen from the freshman team had already moved to stand behind Trevor.

"He's a faggot, Trevor, and no real man would stick up for a faggot." Jay countered.

"Who says he's a fag?" Trevor demanded.

"His parents caught him jacking off to a picture of a guy!" Jay shouted and you could hear the collective oxygen level in the cafeteria get drawn in by hundreds of people all sucking in deep breaths at the same time. Poor Sean was now beet red where he stood, spaghetti all over his cream-colored shirt, and Trevor was still holding his upper arm or he would likely have bolted. The lunch monitor, one of the wood shop teachers, I was pretty sure, was just watching along with everyone else.

"Now how the hell would you know something like that?" Trevor demanded in the silence that followed. Everyone was watching every word that was being spoken, and the three of us had finally reached Trevor's side. I was disappointed to see Jason backing away after Jay's shout.

"His parents told my pastor." Jay said smugly. "My pastor told me."

"It's nice to know your pastor likes to gossip, but that's not really important." Brian said just as loudly and Jay's head swung to him as if just now seeing him there. His gaze focused on me though.

"Davey, you tell your friends to settle down and stop sticking up for faggots." Jay said to me with an air of superiority.

"Why don't you shut your idiot mouth and stop picking on other kids?" I countered and Jay's mouth dropped open. "You really must be an idiot for picking on kids because someone tells you to do so!"

"It's for his own good!" Jay countered angrily and I turned my back on him, and turned to face Sean, looking him up and down.

"You're a mess, let's get you cleaned up, bud." I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulder, and Brian formed up on his other side, doing the same so that Sean walked between us. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Julie looking at us angrily. She'd been very persistent at first about trying to walk between Brian and I, and I had told her no one came between my best friend and I. Trevor and Brandon followed us out while the shorter Sean was all but carried out by Brian's and my longer strides. We headed to the PE building where I was pretty sure I had a clean shirt of Brian's in my locker.

"Why did you guys do that?" Sean asked, as we were halfway there. He had made a valiant effort to get control of his trembling body but his eyes were still very wide open. "You know what they're going to say now."

"This was all planned." I said softly, but loud enough for Trevor and Brandon to hear. I explained again about my Sunday lunch with Dr. Darnell, and our Trevor and Brandon were just as mad as Brian and I had been. In fact, Trevor was downright pissed at us.

"Why the fuck didn't you two call us and tell us?" Trevor demanded. "I've had last period with Sean and could have been sticking by him the entire time."

"We thought we'd tell you at lunch." Brian said with a shrug as we reached the locker rooms and made our way to the football team lockers. I did have a shirt, but poor little Sean was all but lost in it. It looked okay once he tucked it in, but I could tell he was slightly intimidated by being surrounded by four tall jocks while he changed into one of their shirts.

"You still should have called us." Brandon said. "That little scene on top of your girlfriends dumping you is going to mean you won't have to tell anyone you're lovers, everyone will guess that already."

"What?" Sean exclaimed in shock, staring at us.

"Oh shit." Brandon said, and his face went pale.

"That's right, Davey's been my boyfriend for two years, so don't think that he's single." Brian said to Sean in a joking tone.

"Oh, so you're not really a couple." Sean said as if with relief.

"No, we are." Brian said and I was surprised he wouldn't just let it pass as a joke. "I mean what I said, he's mine so don't look at him if you want a boyfriend. Brandon's available though."

"Um, yeah, we can do a movie some time." Brandon said with a slight blush and I raised my eyebrow.

"Hey, I'm the one who stuck up for him at the cafeteria!" Trevor protested while Sean looked like he might pass out.

"You're bi-sexual." Brandon said as if that disqualified him from taking Sean out. "He's smarter than to fall for the bi-sexual quarterback."

"No, he'll just take the gay tight-end." Brian quipped and we all laughed even though Brandon played halfback or fullback. Poor Sean just sat down on the bench shaking his head slowly. That made us laugh even harder.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As with all my stories, E provides immeasurable input, grammar checking, and all those other lovely editing thingies that make the story so much better!

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A/N - Several Readers have asked if I have a website or other stories on the net. Some of my early stories, including MIsts of Fate were posted here to Nifty and to www.dabeagle.com . Most of my later stories are now posted on www.gayauthors.com in the Hosted Authors section (just look for DK Stories). Enjoy!