Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:40:00 -0600 From: Charles Hughes Subject: JUST ORDINARY GUYS - Chapters 17 & 18 This story is fiction, describing the developing friendship of two young boys, including their sexual experiences with other boys. If you are not 18 years of age, or if it illegal for any reason for you to read such material, you are to leave now. Copyright 2008, Charles Hughes All rights reserved I will try to answer all emails: the.empty.room@hotmail.com A note to readers: In these chapters, Danny and James continue to enjoy a second summer with the Springfield Summer League baseball team. This summer is described from the viewpoint of a younger member of the team in "The Springfield Jerkoffs" (Young Friends, June 6 2007). These few chapters describe that same summer from the viewpoint of Danny and James. JUST ORDINARY GUYS - Chapter 17 "Um...wait a minute, Phil," Neal whispered. Well into their sleepover for the four of them, Phil had just asked Danny and James to look at something they would find interesting -- his friend's five inch dick. "I don't know..." Neal's whisper died away, but his hand clenched on Phil's naked thigh. "It's okay, Neal," Phil said. "We're all friends. We'll let them see -- and you'll find out that what I told you about being proud of it was right." Danny and James scooted over onto the pile of sleeping bags, and, as they moved, they pulled the pants and briefs that had been around their ankles completely off. Phil did the same. Phil and Danny were wearing t-shirts, and James' shirt was unbuttoned and open. Neal was the only one completely dressed. Phil reached for Neal's crotch and rubbed it. Neal was hard, looking at three boys naked from the waist down. He didn't say anything; he consented to what Phil wanted by leaning back against the side of the bed and spreading his legs slightly. Phil noticed that he was blushing a little. "You guys will like this," Phil said to Danny and James. Phil unzipped Neal's jeans, and Neal raised his hips to let Phil pull them completely off. The large bulge in his briefs was more than a hint of what Danny and James could expect next. When Phil reached for the waistband of his briefs, Neal drew in a breath. But he raised his hips for Phil again. And when the waistband was down far enough, his five inch boner sprang up. "Oh my god!" James said. Phil pulled Neal's briefs off. He pulled Neal's t-shirt up and over his head. Neal was naked. He blushed deeply. "Wow." Danny breathed out a long, slow whistle between his teeth. "Neal...man!" "Isn't he beautiful?" Phil's comment burst from him before he thought, and he stopped, blushing a bit himself at his use of the word "beautiful." "Beautiful!" Danny agreed. "How long? How long, Neal?" "It's the biggest dick I've ever seen on a guy like us," James said. "Five inches," Neal said quietly. "No," Phil reminded him; "a little over five inches. We measured," he explained to the boys. "About five and a quarter!" "Five and a quarter! But I thought... How old are you?" James asked. "Eleven," Neal said. "Wow," Danny repeated. "Just turned eleven a couple of months ago. And that's not all," Phil grinned. "Tell them," he urged Neal. Neal remianed silent, so Phil let them know. "He can cum, too!" As if he were going to demonstrate for them, Phil reached for his best friend's cock and stroked it. All eyes were on the swollen red cockhead as the first drops of precum appeared. Phil wiped it with his finger, showed it to Danny and James, and licked it into his mouth. He grinned. "Damn, Neal -- that is so cool! That's a great cock!" James moved in a little closer. "Do you realize," Danny started, "that nobody -- nobody -- on the team has one that big. Not even Steve." "I told him, guys," Phil said. "He's got the biggest one on the team, and it's going to be the biggest one in the seventh grade, too, I bet." While the boys had been talking, they had arranged themselves in a semi-circle around Neal. James had let his shirt drop from around his shoulders, so Danny and Phil pulled their tees off. Now, all four boys were naked. Phil stroked Neal's thigh lightly. "You okay, buddy? Neal?" Neal smiled a little nervously at Phil. "Yeah... Sure, okay." "See, Neal? They think your cock is great. And they're your friends, too, like me. You're no freak -- they wouldn't lie to you." "Freak?" James sounded incredulous. "Freak? Hell, if having over five inches of meat when you're eleven is a freak, I wish I'd been a freak a couple of years ago!" Neal looked at the three hard cocks on his three friends and began to relax. "I just didn't know... you know..." And he didn't even jump when Phil reached for his cock and stroked it again. Neal sighed. It wasn't so bad. It was all right, in fact, being naked with friends. Phil scooted over to his side and put his arm around Neal's shoulder again. Only this time, Neal's shoulders were bare. His hand returned to Neal's dick and stroked slowly. "Guys," Danny said quietly. "Why don't we just... you know, play with each other a while...? "You guys stroke his cock, too," Phil said to Danny and James. "Okay, Neal?" "Um..yea...okay..." Neal said. As Danny reached for Neal's hard five inches, Phil reached for James' cock, keeping his eyes on James' face to make sure it was all right. James grinned at him, pinched one of Phil's nipples lightly, and reached for Phil's dick. There was silence for a moment as three hands explored dicks they had never touched before. Wow, Phil thought. James is so smooth and so hard at the same time. He let his finger brush into the little mound of brown pubes at the base of James' dick. As it throbbed in his hand, he felt his own cock throb in James' hand. He'd never been this close to James when he was naked before. His skin was smooth across his chest, and his nipples were a shade darker. They were hard now. Phil suddenly realized that Neal was the only one not touching someone. Then he realized exactly how it was that Neal liked to touch... "It's okay, Neal," Phil said to him. "You can do it. He'll like it." Neal slowly lowered his head until it was between Danny's legs. Without even touching the cock with his hands, Neal sucked Danny's cockhead into his mouth. Danny gasped. Danny's hand fell from Neal's dick as Neal pushed back against him; he lowered himself onto the sleeping bags until he was lying on his back. Neal was between his spread legs, sucking almost all of Danny's cock into his mouth. Phil and James crouched down so they could see Danny's dick disappear completely into Neal's mouth as the younger boy moved his head up and down on it. Neal was moaning at the pleasure filling his mouth as the hot dick swept past his lips and tongue. He sucked as he pulled his head up. "Oooo... fuck..." Danny closed his eyes. The other two watched as Danny's wet dick appeared, then disappeared. Neal slowed his movements until he was sucking lightly just on Danny's cockhead. Danny felt the tongue flick over and around his pisshole, the lips holding tightly to the crown of his dickhead. "More of the tongue... all over... that's it..." Danny's hand was on Neal's head as he whispered to him. James stroked the smoothness of Danny's thigh just inches from his cock. He could smell the sex in front of his face as Danny's hard cock throbbed against Neal's lips. It was a scent he knew well, a scent he loved. "Cum for him, Danny... Let him taste how sweet you are, Danny..." James was whispering his encouragements to both the boys. Phil felt so... proud. Proud? Yeah, turned on... hot... sexy... But, proud? Proud that his friend could please both Danny and James so much. Fuck, yeah, he though. Proud! Danny's quiet grunts had become a little louder. "He's going to cum for you, Neal. Suck him hard, now. He'll shoot for you..." James was still whispering to the two. Danny groaned louder once, then he thrust his hips up as his first shot of cum burst out of his little hole. Neal was surprised at the amount of it. He'd only sucked one other dick, Phil's, and Phil didn't cum that much yet. But he loved the taste that filled his mouth so full he had to swallow quickly. He sucked for more, and Danny shot another mouthful. Neal got three mouthfuls from the thirteen-year-old, and then he sucked what oozed from the cockhead. James was stroking his own hard dick when Danny opened his eyes. James leaned down and kissed Danny on the cheek and had only started to sit up again when Neal's head was shoved his hand from his dick. Neal sucked James' dick almost completely into his mouth. "AAAArrrr..." James fell back onto the sleeping bags under the attack on his cock. Neal sucked fast and hard, as though the load he'd just taken from Danny had merely whetted his appetite. As the suction on his cock strengthened, James felt fingers gently squeezing his balls. His cock was throbbing continuously now, and he felt the tightness in his gut as his orgasm closed in on him. "Uuuuu...Ahhhhh...ahhhhh..." James shot three hard bursts into Neal's mouth, then his dick pulsed twice with two smaller shots. James felt completely weakened as the eleven-year-old sucked and licked the last of his cum. Neal crawled over to Phil, and they kissed. Phil's dick lurched with the realization that he was tasting cum from both Danny and James in Neal's mouth. Finally, Neal pulled away and settled in close to Phil's side, and the two of them watched Danny and James recover. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that," Neal muttered, more to himself than to Phil. "What?" Phil asked. "Nothing. I need to piss." Neal got up and went into the bathroom. He closed the door. "Did he say he shouldn't have done that?" Danny raised up from the floor and rested on one elbow. "Yeah. I think that's what he said," Phil responded. "You mean, he thinks he shouldn't have sucked us?" James sat up. "Let me tell you, he's one hell of a cocksucker." Phil was feeling a little defensive of his best friend. "Look, he's not a cocksucker, okay? He's just... a guy. That's all." "Hey," James said. "I didn't mean anything by that." He paused. "You think maybe he's embarrassed about doing it?" Danny wondered. "Yeah, maybe," Phil said. "Just... just don't be so tough on him, okay?" "Hey, we like Neal," James said. "We don't want to make him feel bad or anything." "It's just that... well," Phil said, searching for words, "he really likes to suck my dick. I figured he would yours, too. I mean, he seems so shy about even being naked sometimes, then he just wants to suck all of a sudden..." Phil grinned. "He's great, huh?" The conversation stopped when they heard the toilet flush. The bathroom door opened, and Neal rejoined them on the floor. They were all silent for a minute. "I don't want you guys thinking I do that all the time or anything," Neal began. "I mean, it's not like..." He stopped. "I don't want to talk about it anymore." "Well, we don't do it all the time, either," Danny said. "Just every chance we get." James was the first to snicker, then burst out in laughter. Danny and Phil joined him, and in a moment Neal was grinning, too. James moved a little closer to Neal. "So, we're just horny sometimes, dude. It happens. A lot," he smiled." He stroked Neal's thigh and felt the muscle tense a moment, then relax. "Look," James continued, "I started jerking off the minute I knew my dick did more than pee. And it's just a hell of a lot more fun with somebody else, right?" Neal couldn't help but nod his agreement. It certainly was! He smiled to himself, remembering his first wet dream. It was almost scary. He hadn't been prepared for it and knew nothing about what it meant. He knew his dick felt good sometimes when it was hard, but his first cum had taken him by surprise. He was a smart guy, and a little reading educated him pretty quickly. He'd been jerking off ever since. And thinking, sometimes, of his best friend... James was still massaging his thigh was watching Neal's secret smile. I have secrets, too, James thought. Guess we all do. Almost unconsciously, Neal spread his legs wider, enjoying the sensation of the warm hand on his thigh. He looked down to see his more-than-five-inch dick lying against his other thigh, only inches from James' hand. He had known it was bigger than it was "supposed" to be and had never been sure how that would seem to others... Or if they would understand how much he thought about it... He looked over at the hand that began to stroke his other leg. Phil. God, Neal thought. How great that feels, to have Phil touching me... My best friend... Phil looked up at Neal as he slid closer. His eyes traveled down his best friend's slender body to that huge dick. And his lips slid over the cockhead, sucking it into his mouth. James moved away to watch the two friends, and Danny joined him, putting his arm around his shoulders. Phil's face was buried in Neal's lap, and Neal put both of his hands on his friend's head. Oh, he liked this guy so much, he thought. Could he ever tell Phil just how much that was? It felt so... just right... to know his cock was buried deeply in Phil's mouth, to feel it pulsing as Phil's tongue brushed against it. Somehow he managed to spread his legs ever farther apart, as though he were giving everything he had down there to the boy sucking him. But Neal tightened his muscles. Somehow, he had learned while jerking off so many times that he could tighten his muscles down there and hold off his cums. His eyes watered with the need to relieve his sexual tension, but he held it in. He looked over to the other boys and saw that Danny was sucking James' hard cock, licking the precum as it appeared at his hole. Neal's cock suddenly throbbed harder than ever, and he knew he could not hold back any longer. The knot in his belly tightened almost painfully for a moment, then it released. "Awwww...uhhhhhhhhh...aaaaaaaaa..." Neal's long, high groan filled the room as his cum shot from deep inside him, through his cock, and into Phil's waiting mouth. At eleven, he was too young to shoot a lot, but each time a drop surged through his dick Neal felt as much pleasure as any man could ever feel. "Oooooo....Jaaaaaames...ooooooo..." Danny fed his best friend from deep inside himself, shooting his teen cum with hard thrusts into James' waiting mouth. He pressed harder against James as he emptied himself, then he fell back onto the sleeping bag. For a long while, no one moved, and no one spoke. They were exhausted. Four naked boys, their arms and legs lying against each other, their dicks softened and red, their mouths still tasting the cum they had sucked from their friends. Soon the room was filled with the sound of their more regular breathing. Someone was snoring very lightly. Bellies were rising and falling gently. They'd fallen asleep together. Just ordinary guys. And they were exhausted. JUST ORDINARY GUYS - Chapter 18 Phil was tightening some spokes on his bike when Danny and James came around the corner of the house. They didn't even say hello; they just sat in a couple of the patio chairs.Finally, James asked, "You're coming to practice this afternoon, right?""Yeah, I guess." Phil couldn't even look them in the eye. The four boys, James and Danny, Phil and Neal, had scheduled a second sleepover, this one at Neal's house. They all felt more comfortable with each other, but this time it didn't go as planned. Neal had finally revealed the reason for his reluctance to get naked with boys and his embarrassment at his own enthusiasm for playing with dicks. He had told them was gay. .......................... Danny lay his arm around James' shoulder. They watched Phil scoot over closer to Neal. Something was wrong. After sucking them all and obviously enjoying it, Neal had pulled himself into his sleeping bag and almost disappeared. "Hey, buddy," Phill said to Neal; "you okay?""Fine." Neal's answer was sharp and final."No," Phil said quietly. "You're not okay, are you? Neal, it's me... It's us," he said, motioning to include Danny and James. "We're your buddies. We're okay with this... playing around. You should be, too.""I just don't want you thinking..." Neal started quickly but stopped abruptly. "I just don't want to be... queer," he finished in a whisper. His voice broke on the final word.The other three were quiet, watching."But I am." Neal's voice could barely be heard. "I'm... I can't help it. I'm queer." For the first time in their sleepovers, Neal sounded like a boy only recently turned eleven. A small boy in pain."No, you're not!" Phil's voice was loud enough it made them all jump. He sat up straighter, even pulling back from Neal a bit. "Look, Neal, we're just playing around here. I mean... so, we jerk off a lot. Guys do. Right?" Phil looked to Danny and James.Phil looked back at Neal. "So, you sucked a dick. Okay, you sucked all of us. So what? I sucked a dick! I did! Thatdoesn't make me a queer! It's just... messing around. Like we, you know, the other night at your place -- we jerked off. Like out in the woods... Everybody sucks..."Phil voice faded as he failed to find what he wanted to say. He looked over to Danny and James, but they didn't offer any help. They were both watching Neal carefully.Neal was clutching the edge of the sleeping bag around him as though he were afraid of falling off the face of the earth. "I can't help it," he repeated in a whisper. "I can't help it."Danny squeezed James' shoulder. He glanced at James as though he were asking a question, and James responded with a nod."Neal," Danny said. "It's okay to think about guys like that. It's okay to want to do that. Neal, James and I are gay, too."There was a long moment of silence. Danny moved closer to Neal's sleeping bag."You and..." Neal began."What are you talking about?" Phil interrupted loudly.Danny smiled. "Look at us, Neal. Phil, you've seen us. We like it this way. We like guys instead of girls. That's just the way we are. And it's okay that way."Neal's face was frozen into a look of disbelief. He knew that Danny and James were two of the greatest guys on the team, but... gay? Like... he was? His face wilted from the relief of having admitted his terrible secret, and a tear left his eye to slowly roll down his cheek.Danny moved closer and put his arm around Neal. "It's okay, Neal."Neal shuttered as a sob unexpectedly burst from him. He lay his head on Danny's shoulder and cried while the older boy hugged him.But Phil was having a hard time getting his breath. Too much had happened too quickly here!Yes, he and Neal had jerked off with each other... Yes, Neal had sucked his cock. Okay, sucked it more than once! Okay, so he'd sucked cock himself! That didn't mean... But, hell, his best friend...? And his own best friend is right there with somebody else's arms around him...!And Danny and James... queer? Gay? Well, they had jerked off with the other guys. Okay, they had kissed. But, I kissed, too, Phil thought. That doesn't make me...I. am. not. gay. His mind punctuated the words for him. ............. Danny and James watched Phil feign interest in his bike. They remembered Phil's assurance to Neal that they were still friends, but a chill had settled into the room last night. Phil had discovered something completely unsuspected about his best friend and two fellow teammates. He didn't know how to deal with it. And worse, he suspected himself of the same... the same... "And after practice?" Danny asked. "You'll come out to the woods with us?""I... I don't know about that..." Phil really didn't know what to do. He wanted to. But he couldn't. Not if that meant it was gay stuff they were doing. He turned his head. He didn't think he would get tears in his eyes -- he was too old for that -- but just in case, he didn't want Danny and James to see."We're not any different today that we were yesterday," James said quietly. "Or the day before that." He paused, but there wasn't any answer. "We're just... us.""I know, guys." But Phil didn't want to continue the conversation on the subject."We heard what you said to Neal last night," Danny said. "About his still being your best friend. Did you mean it?""Yeah, I meant it!" Phil answered."Being a best friend is a lot more than just saying you are," Danny said. "It means being one."After an awkward silence, they each said a few more things about practice and the team, and Danny and James finally got up to leave. James stopped next to Phil a minute."Your best friend needs you right now, goddammit!" he said fiercely. "Your best friend fucking needs you, you hear me?""Come on," Danny said, pulling James away. "That's not going to do any good." Phil went to practice that afternoon. But he went home without showering. Danny and James made up an excuse why they couldn't join the circle jerk and walked Neal home while everybody else went into the showers. They sat for a while in Neal's basement -- the same place where Neal had told all and Phil and become so cold. "We'll get together, all four of us," Danny said. "We'll talk to him." "What good will that do?" Neal asked, staring down at his shoes. "We talked about it, James and me," Danny said. "We've got an idea that Phil is gay, too. He's just too scared to admit it. We did sort of surprise him with it all last night." "You think he is...?" Neal looked at his new friends. James shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. But, like Danny said, we talked about it last night. Look, here's what we can do. You invite him over here -- he just lives across the street -- and don't tell him we'll be here, too. When he gets down here, it will be just the four of us." "And...?" Neal sounded skeptical. "We'll show him that he really likes it, really likes it, and just doesn't want to admit it," James finished. He sounded hopeful. They outnumbered him in the basement two afternoons later. They stripped with him and made him lay on the floor while all three of them stroked and licked and sucked every part of his body they could reach with their hands and lips. Phil was not allowed to touch himself, not allowed to cum, not allowed to touch the other boys. And he finally gave himself to the pleasure they teased from him, more fully aware of that pleasure than he had ever been before. And more fully honest with himself about it. ................. Neal sucked on his way up from Phil's pubes, then pushed himself down. There was hardly time to taste the warm cum he'd shot onto his friend's throbbing cock. He sucked on the way up again just in time to receive Phil's first shot onto his tongue."OOOOOOOOOOO GOD OGOD OGOD OOOOOOO..." Phil screamed again, but this time it was the hot, intense pleasure deep inside his gut. The pleasure suddenly became a hard pain, then it was a hotness and goodness and joy like he'd never felt. His young prostate clamped tight, forcing thehot cream into the small, dark tunnel of his impossibly hard dick. His balls clenched so tight against his body they almost entered it, emptying his boy sperm into the hot river.His cum erupted into the boy sucking him, then he shot a second time and a third. His body bucked into Neal's face, but Neal continued to suck rapidly.Phil's cry became almost a high whine as the last of his cum was milked from his wilting dick. It felt as though his heart would burst inside him. He hadn't even been breathing, and as he gasped a long, deep breath his head felt as though it were spinnning.And then, still gasping for breath, his eyes filled with tears. They ran down his face. Neal moved up to him and placed his lips against Phil's. Neal's tongue opened his friend's lips, and Phil felt and tasted his own cum as they slowly kissed.Danny and James gently stroked Phil's side and thigh.The basement was quiet then, except for the heavy breathing of the two best friends who finished their kiss and the two boyfriends who'd been with them.It remained quiet for a while."You guys knew..." Phil started to speak, but he had to stop and wait. He was simply too weak for a few moments."You knew... all the time... before I did...""No," Danny said quietly. "You knew, too. It just took you a little while to realize it, to adjust to it.""It's not a bad thing," James said, "for two guys to love each other. It's a good thing. It's a wonderful thing.""Love..." Phil stopped. They'd never used that word before. No, they had once. Neal had said those two boys in the movie loved each other..."James and I love each other, Phil," Danny said.Phil looked at Neal, sitting close to his head."Yeah, buddy." Neal smiled. "I love you. Haven't I always?"Neal lay beside Phil again. Phil was still too weak to move very much, but Neal put his arms around him and held him close.Danny and James sat against the couch several feet away, their arms around each other. They watched the two lovers exchange little kisses. They watched their hands move gently over one another. They heard little whispers as Neal and Phil held each other.Danny and James couldn't understand the whispers. But they didn't need to. They had said the same things to each other many times before.Finally, Neal and Phil fell away from each other. It was quiet again."Now," Phil finally said to Neal, "you have to join the Jerkoffs."Neal laughed. "I'll be there for the next practice," Neal grinned back at him."Right after we shower," Phil reminded him."Well," Neal said, "I wouldn't go the first time without being clean!" He grinned."Guys," Danny said. "Let's all meet up at the park, in the picnic area, like at 1:00. That'll give us an hour before practice to talk.""Yeah." Neal and Phil spoke together."Oh, shit!" Neal suddenly sat up. "My folks will be home pretty soon.Phil followed Neal's eyes to the clock on the wall. "I got to get home right away or my ass is grass. I can't be late for dinner."The four boys pulled their clothes on quickly. Before he could rush up the steps, Phil found himself grabbed by Danny. Danny kissed him on the cheek."We'll talk tomorrow, buddy," he said. "Things are going to be okay." Danny grinned at him. "We're with you. Everything's going to be okay. "They sure as hell are," Phil grinned back. "Gotta go, guys. See you tomorrow!"Neal and Phil arrived at the park on their bikes first."You okay today?" Neal asked."Never better," Phil responded with a grin. Then got a more serious look. "Neal... about all that stuff I said to you that night you told us... Aw, shit, man! I'm so sorry!""Forget it, Phil," Neal said, as he lay his hand on Phil's arm. "We've already talked about it. We're still best buds."Phil was quiet for a minute, looking down at the ground. Then he looked at Neal and said, "I love you, Neal. I was afraid to say it, you know?""I know." Neal squeezed his friends arm. "I was, too, remember? I love you, Phil."Danny and James cruised up on their bikes just then. James pulled his t-shirt off."Damn hot today!" he said. Everybody else agreed by taking their own shirts off. They all sat down around one of the picnic tables."We're going to work up a lot of sweat out there today; we'll need that shower for real," Danny grinned, looking at Neal.Neal grinned back. "Hey, I said I'm in. So I'm in."After a little banter there was some silence."You okay today, Phil?" Danny finally asked."Got a question, I guess," Phil muttered, looking down at the table."I just don't know... what to expect, I guess," Phil said, searching for words. He looked at Danny. "So, what's it like, being...gay?"Danny answered quietly. There wasn't anyone around, but this was still a private conversation. "Well," he started, "sometimes it's hard..."James' spit shot across the table onto Neal's chest as he burst out laughing. Neal joined him, then Phil and Danny when they realized what was so funny."Oh, fuck... it's hard... hard!" James could hardly get the words out."Oh yeah," Neal giggled. "It gets that way a lot!"When they had all settled down a little, Danny tried again."Sometimes it's difficult," and he paused to take in all the grins around the table. "See, absolutely nobody can know. If somebody finds out, who knows what would happen? You know how people talk about queers and fags and all that.""And don't forget," James said, "we're still kids. Especially to our parents. If they found out, all hell would break loose." Danny and Neal nodded. "I'd never be able to see Danny again," James continued, "and, damn, I just couldn't take that."Phil suddenly felt a chill over the thought of never being able to see Neal again. He looked over at his friend to find him looking back. He was thinking the same thing."So, how long have you guys, you know... been doing things?" Phil asked the other two."Little over a year," James said."We had our first anniversary just a couple of months ago," Danny nodded. He reached over and squeezed James' hand then let it drop so no one would see. There was starting to be a little traffic on the walking path around the park."You're really in love." Neal wasn't sure himself if his words were a statement or a question."I'll be honest," Danny said. "At first, for me, it was the excitement of having sex with somebody I really liked. But it didn't take very long...""Less than a minute," James intejected with a straight face.That broke everyone up again."Just can't hold it, huh?" Neal hooted over at Danny."Will you fuckers shut up and let me talk?" Danny said. Then he joined in the laughter."Okay, okay," he started again. "It was pretty soon..."All the laughter started again."I remember when 'pretty soon' happened to me all the time," Phil laughed."Oh, shut your faces, dickheads," Danny retorted. Then his choice of words broke him up again."Okay okay okay okay," Phil finally said. "I really want to hear this."They all settled down again."I wasn't even thinking of love when we started getting together," Danny continued. "Then, all of a sudden, boom! It hit me." He slapped his hand against his head. "I was already in love.""Guys can feel that way," and it was Phil's turn to be uncertain if he was making a statement or asking a question."This guy sure can," Danny said quietly. "I look at him, and he just... shines so bright... he shines..." Danny's voice broke."Me, too," Neal said."Yeah," Phil said, almost in a whisper. "Me, too." He looked a Neal and thought he could feel his heart beating in his chest. "It's real, isn't it, Neal?""It's real," Neal agreed."And you have to behave just like anybody else would," James continued. "It's hard -- shut up, assholes! -- but you have to watch what you say and how you act toward each other. Not just when other people are around, but even when nobody is around but somebody could walk in on you. You know when I touched Danny a minute ago? I probably shouldn't have done that. Somebody could have seen."He stopped, and they were all silent, realizing the immensity of their secret and the dangers in being found out."But you've got friends, you guys," Danny said, looking at Neal and Phil. "You've got us. Fuck, guys, we're only 13 James and me, not even in high school until fall. But around us you can say what you want to, ask what you want to, do what you want to. We understand.""I never had any idea about you guys," Neal said."It's called 'being in the closet.'" James looked around the table. "We're in the closet together."After a silence, Phil looked across the table at Danny and James. "How did it start... I mean, how did you two, you know, find out abut each other?"James said, "It was last spring. I mean last year, not this year. I was over at Danny's house; we were playing Playstation 2. And I was talking to Danny about what it was like living here and what we could do over the summer about hanging out.""See," Danny said, "I had just moved here the summer before, and I still didn't know a lot about this place. And I sure wanted to hang out with this dude here." He grinned at James."Well, see," James continued, "we had so much fun that first summer, and I really got to like this guy here. But I didn't know... you know. So I just popped the question, sort of. I said, 'Danny, what do you think of all the hot looking girls at school?'""And," Danny interrupted, "I said, 'I want to fuck every pussy inschool.'""Oh, shut up!" James grinned and hit Danny on the shoulder."No," Danny said, "I just said that I hadn't paid much attention to them. See, I was a little nervous about what we were talking about. You know, wasn't sure just what to say.""So I said to him, 'Danny, you're kidding! What, don't you like girls?' And he said, 'I have to tell you something, James.' So, I go, 'Um, all right, Danny, what do you have to tell me?'""And that's when I got scared," Danny said. "I didn't want to lie to him. He was my best friend, best friend I ever had. But I'd be lying to him if I didn't tell him the truth. See what I mean?"Neal and Phil nodded."So," Danny continued. "I start off by telling him that -- that he's the best friend I've ever had. That he's like the brother I always wanted.""And I say, 'Um, okay, Danny. But we've said all that to each other before. So, what do you want to tell me?'""But," Danny said, "I said to him that I hadn't told him that he was so good-looking and so much fun and everything about him was just perfect. Then I took a deep breath and just said it. 'James, I love you.'""See," James continued. "I really couldn't believe it. I mean, I didn't think it could really be true, not true the way I wanted it to be true. So, I said, 'Yea, Danny, I love you, too.' You know, saying it like a best friends says it to his best friend.""So I just plain out told him," Danny said. I told him I was gay, and I knew I was even last summer. That's when I really got afraid. I just had to get out of there. I just left the room and went into the bathroom.""And I came in, and he was crying," James continued in a softer voice. "I asked him please not to cry, and he said he'd probably lost his one and only friend in a new town. So, I said, 'No, you haven't. You've just made a boyfriend in this town.' He looked like he didn't even understand what I'd said," James chuckled. "So I said, 'I'm gay, too, Danny.""He put his arms around me," Danny said, "and we hugged each other and just held each other like forever. And then we kissed for the first time."Danny stopped. The memory of that wonderful moment overwhelmed him. He looked at James, and he knew they were both reliving their discovery of each other."That," James finished for him, "is how two boys found their true love in life, how they became boyfriends forever."They all remained silent for a little bit."And if I could do it all over again..." James started.Danny smiled at his boyfriend."...I'd pick a different girl and get laid each and every night," James finished with a grin."You dickhead!" Danny laughed and poked him on the shoulder."Hey," James said, "that hurt!" But he was grinning."That was a love tap," Danny explained to Neal and Phil."You suppose there are any other guys like... us?" Phil asked."Don't know." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "I can't tell who might be and who isn't. Even a really macho guy could be, you know?""But..." Phil just remembered the Jerkoffs. "But we've all being doing stuff... you know, sucking and all, hell, even kissing, with the Jerkoffs. Won't they know... I mean, won't they be able to tell..."James looked at Danny. "We've talked about that. We don't think so. We've really only been doing stuff guys probably do when they're first starting to... you know, puberty and all that stuff.""But, kissing..." Phil said."Wait, wait," Neal interrupted. "You guys kiss out there? The Jerkoffs kiss?""Yeah, but remember who started it," Danny said. "Steve, right? Practice for kissing girls, he said. And he's always got girls and pussy on the brain." He paused a minute. "I think the kissing was okay, except maybe we better not get too carried away with it.""Even Chap and Nick were kissing," Phil remembered. Neal looked shocked."You know what?" James looked around the group. "I'll lay odds those little dudes have been missing around for a while, even before the Jerkoffs started.""Huh? You're talking about Chap and Nick?" Neal asked. "They just turned eleven, they're not even in the fifth grade yet!""I guess you can be gay in the fifth grade," James said."I remember somebody telling me you can't get 'made' to be gay; you just are," Phil smiled."Yeah, I think I remember that conversation," Neal grinned."At first you guys scared me to death in that basement yesterday!" Phil said. His voice broke. "Then I found out I was... getting love made to me... by some really... greatguys." He finished in a whisper.After a little silence, Danny said, "Neal loves you, buddy. But me and James? Well, we love you some, too."The words were repeated in four minds in the silence."Oh! Guys, we've got to go," James said, with a glance at his watch. Phil and Neal rode off quickly, leaving Danny and James behind. Just before James climbed on his bike he turned to Danny. "I shine? You said that I shine?" He was grinning. Danny wasn't going to joke about it. "For me, you do," he said. "Not just shine... like, more... like a double shine..." Now at a loss for words, Danny smiled at James. "You're my shineshine." For some reason James felt as though he had been touched inside, as though someone had just caressed his heart. "Then, come on, sweetcakes," he said quietly. "We've got a practice to get to." The two boys smiled at each other, their smiles as intimate as any kiss they'd ever shared. And they were off, just ordinary guys on their way to practice.