Ron’s Adventure
by Colin Kelly
colinkelly@xemaps.com

Chapter 9: New Friends

This is a work of fiction. However, it is based on things that my friend Ron told me that he did in the 8th grade. The names, locations, circumstances, and a few of the events have been changed to protect the privacy of those who participated in the actual happenings.

This story is Copyright © 2005-2006 by Colin Kelly. It cannot be reproduced without express written consent. The Nifty Archives has written permission to publish this story. No other rights are granted.

This story contains scenes of explicit consensual sex between minors. If reading this type of material is illegal where you live, or if you are too young to read this type of material based on the laws where you live, or if you find this type of material morally or otherwise objectionable, or if you don't want to be here, close your browser now. The author neither condones nor advocates the violation of any laws. If you want to be here, but aren't supposed to be here, be careful and don’t get caught!

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Doug looked over at me. “Oh, how I absolutely don’t want to get up!”

“Me, either. But I guess we gotta. Come on, Doug, let’s get our butts in gear and get cleaned up for breakfast. I’m actually kinda hungry. And I can smell bacon. I love bacon!” So that’s what we did, and 20 minutes later we joined Doug’s folks, Michelle, Darryl, and Rick at the breakfast table. We talked about what we’d do today, and decided to go to a movie.

Rick’s flight back to San Francisco wasn’t until 8:35 tonight, so we had plenty of time to see a movie, then for Rick and Darryl to hang out together before Doug’s folks had to take Rick to the airport for his flight back to San Francisco. And Doug and I were going to go to the airport too. We checked the movie listings, and the Mann had Rat Race, which sounded OK. It was a comedy, and that’s probably the best kind of movie for us to see today. The first show was at 11:00, a little too soon since it was almost 10:30. So we decided to go to the 1:30 show.

Darryl and Rick went upstairs to Darryl’s room. Doug and I decided to leave them alone. We went into the family room.

Jay’s folks had picked him up before breakfast, so Doug phoned him to see if he could go to the movie with us. I was listening to another of those one-sided conversations I hate.

“Hi, this is Doug Choi. May I talk to Jay?” Long pause. “Hi, Jay, it’s Doug. How you doing? Sorry we were still in bed when your folks picked you up this morning.” Pause. “No, it was great having you over. What’re you doing today?” Pause. “Well, we’re going to see Rat Race at 1:30. You wanta come?” Longer pause. “Oh. That’s too bad, maybe next time.” Pause. “Yeah. Us too.” Pause. “Well, have a fun time shopping for a new bed! See you and Norman tomorrow, and we’ll turn in our report. I’ll bet we’re first!” Pause. “OK, see ya.”

Doug hung up the phone. “Well, Jay said…” I interrupted him.

“I think I got it. He thanked you for having him sleep over, he’s going shopping for a new bed with his folks and can’t come to the movie with us, we’ll see him and Norman tomorrow morning and we’ll turn in our report. Right?” I grinned.

“Yup, you got it all!” Doug laughed.

We decided to watch some TV. There wasn’t anything we wanted to watch. We turned to the Raiders game, they were playing at Kansas City, but we got bored real fast.

“Hey, Ron, how about watching Galaxy Quest? We’ve got the DVD.”

“OK! That’s about my favorite movie of all time!”

So Doug loaded the DVD into the player, and we sat there watching and laughing our heads off. Man, what a funny movie! About half-way through Mrs. Choi asked if we wanted something to eat, so Doug hit the pause button and we made peanut butter and jam sandwiches, mine with apricot-pineapple preserves of course, and went back to watch the rest of the movie. It was over just before 1:00, and that was time to go. Everyone was going, including Doug’s folks and his sister Michelle.

When we got to the theater, there was a line, but it moved fast and we bought our tickets and went inside to get popcorn and drinks.

“Hey, Darryl!”

We all turned around to see who it was.

“Jon! Hey, what movie you gonna see? We’re going to Rat Race.”

“We are, too! I hope it’s as funny as the ads say it is.” Jon laughed. “These your folks?”

“Uhh, yeah, sorry! Mom, dad, this is Jon Underhill and Jamie Cairns. They go to Cathedral.” Darryl turned to Michelle and put his hand on the top of her head. “And this is my favorite little sister, Michelle.”

Michelle looked irritated, then smiled at Jon and Jamie. “I’m his ONLY little sister, so I HAVE to be his favorite! It’s too bad for him that he’s not my only big brother.” She turned and grabbed Doug’s hand, then stuck her tongue out at Darryl, and everyone laughed.

We got our popcorn and drinks. Jeez, why is popcorn so expensive at the movies? We went into the theatre and found seats in two rows about a third of the way back from the screen. Mrs. Choi made a comment about sitting so close, but she didn’t ask us to move back, and she didn’t move either.

The movie was just OK. I was kinda bored about half way through, but there were enough stupid funny parts that I didn’t fall asleep.

After the movie was over and we walked out of the theater, Mrs. Choi looked at Darryl and Rick. “What do you two boys want to do now?”

Darryl looked a little sad. “Maybe we could just go home, and Rick and I can just hang and talk. Is that OK?”

“Of course, honey!” She turned to Jon and Jamie, who stood a few feet away from us, sort of looking like they felt out of place, I guess they figured out that Darryl and Rick wanted time by themselves. “Can we give you boys a ride home?”

Jon smiled. “Thanks, but my mom and dad are coming to the Galleria to pick us up after Jamie and I have dinner. We’re going to wander around the stores until we eat. Hey, maybe Doug and Ron can have dinner with us, and wander around with us until then.” He turned and looked at me, then at Doug. “What are you guys doing? You want to hang with us then have dinner?”

I was real surprised. I mean, these guys were in high school, and we were in eighth grade, and they wanted us to hang with them? Cool! I looked at Doug, and he had a big smile and nodded to me.

I looked at Mrs. Choi. “That’d be great, if it’s OK with Doug’s mom.”

“I think that’s fine. Doug, here’s some money for you and Ron to pay for your dinners. She turned to Jon. “Can your mother take Doug and Ron home after you eat?”

“Sure!”

“Well, if there’s a problem, Doug can phone us and we’ll come pick up him and Ron. Remember, Doug, we have to leave for the airport by 7:30, so make sure you're home by then. Or call me if you need a ride so you can be home in time.”

I smiled at Doug, then at Mrs. Choi, then at Jon and Jamie, then at Darryl and Rick. Darryl was smiling, and I knew he was glad that Doug and I wouldn’t be around so he and Rick would have some private time together.

Doug handed me a ten dollar bill. "This is for your dinner."

"Thanks, Doug, and thanks, Mrs. Choi. My mom’ll pay you back."

“No need for that, Ron. But thank you anyway!” She smiled, and I smiled back at her.

After the others left, Jon turned to me and Doug. “Well, what do you guys want to do? We’d though we’d just wander around the Galleria for a while. Ya know, look in Brookstone and Sharper Image and the bookstores, perv the models at Abercrombie if any are there, perv over clothes we can’t afford, that sorta thing. And first maybe we could grab something to drink and just sit and talk for a while, if that’s OK with you?”

Doug and I both smiled. “Great, specially the grab something to drink. I’m thirsty!”

Doug looked at me. “Jeez, Ron, you drank a giant Coke in the movie, how can you still be thirsty?”

“I dunno. I just am. I drink a lot, Cokes and juice. I'm always thirsty!”

We walked across the street to the Galleria, and went to the food court level.

Jamie pointed to one of the food stalls. “Is the Juice Man OK with you two?”

“Uh, I guess. I’ve never gone there. Have you, Ron?”

“Nope. I think it’s new. I don’t remember it from the last time we were here.”

“Jamie told me about it. It’s only been open about a week.”

“Everything’s half off through today! That’s why I want to try it. It’s supposed to be like Jamba Juice. There’s other places here if you’d rather, but I’m gonna get an orange blossom, there was a story in the paper about it and it sounds good.”

I looked at Doug. “Hey, half off, I’m sold!”

We got in line, and all four of us ordered the orange blossom. It had fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapple juice, mango juice, lime juice, orange sorbet, and crushed pineapple, all blended together. I ordered a large, and tasted it. It was delicious!

Jon pointed to the stairs. “Let’s go to the upper level. Everything there is closed, I think they’re remodeling, but the tables and chairs are still there, and it’s usually deserted so we can sit and talk.”

We headed up the stairs. I wasn’t sure what Jon wanted to talk about, and it made me a little bit nervous for some reason. Jon was right, the top level was deserted. We found a table that was by itself, and sat down.

Jon smiled at us. “You guys took off so fast yesterday we didn’t have a chance to talk with you.”

“Yeah, Ron and I and two other guys from school are on a team and we’ve been working together on a history project about the Bill of Rights, and we get extra credit for turning it in early. We had to get home ‘cause one of the other guys was meeting us so we could print the copies of the report and have it ready to turn in tomorrow. We expect to each get at least an A on it, plus extra credit points!”

“Cool. Where do you go to school?”

“St. Barts, uh, St. Bartholomew’s. Doug and I are in the eighth grade. Where did you two go to school before Cathedral?”

“We went to St. Ann’s. That’s on the north side of town.”

“I know a couple of kids who go there. It’s a lot smaller than St. Barts, less kids.”

“How about you, Doug. Where’d you go to school?”

“I went to Mary Star of the Sea. It’s in San Francisco. I started there in kindergarten. Darryl went there too, but he was a year ahead of me, and he went to Silesian high when I started eighth grade.”

Jon looked at Doug and grinned. “Darryl’s a cool guy, Doug. You’re lucky to have him as your brother. And his bud Rick is great, too. It must be real sad for Darryl to have to move from Frisco and not be able to see Rick all the time.”

Jamie nodded. “It is so cool that Darryl and Rick have known each other since kindergarten, and are best friends, boyfriends. It’s super to have a really close friend, like Darryl and Rick, and me and Jon. And I think you two, as well.”

Shit! Did I hear right? Did Jamie say ‘boyfriends’? I glance over at Doug to see his reaction, and he was sitting there with his mouth kinda open and staring at Jamie.

“After you left the park yesterday, Darryl and Rick and me and Jamie talked a long time. Jamie and I are boyfriends. We’re gay. Darryl and Rick told us about themselves, that they’ve known each other since kindergarten and have been best friends like forever, and now they’re boyfriends. And I think you two are boyfriends, too. At least, I got that idea, Ron, when I saw you kiss Doug yesterday.”

I blushed. They had been a long way from us when I kissed Doug on the cheek when we were sitting at the picnic table and talking yesterday. “You saw me kiss Doug? You were all the way over by the basketball courts! How could you have seen us?”

Jon smiled. “I have extra-good eyesight. So even from the basketball courts I was able to see that you kissed Doug on the cheek. I thought it was very sweet.”

“Man, I’m so embarrassed!”

Doug nodded. “Yeah, me too. We’ve never done anything in public before. And we sure’ll be more careful and not do anything in public from now on!”

“Don’t be embarrassed! I said I thought it was sweet. And so did Jamie.” John looked at Jamie, who nodded his head. “I don’t think anyone else saw you.” Jon grinned at us.

Jamie looked at Doug. “I think it’s so special that two brothers are both gay. I’m not sure how often that happens.”

Doug looked surprised. “Wow. I never thought about that. I wonder what my folks would think if they learned about Darryl and about me? How about you, the two of you, do your folks know?”

Jon nodded. “My folks know, and they’re cool with it. They love Jamie, and treat him like he was my brother.”

Jamie shook his head. “My folks don’t know, and I don’t intend telling them. They’re heavy duty Catholic, and they’d throw me out, or put me in one of those places that tries to convert you, I think they call them anti-gay or something.”

“It’s called ex-gay therapy. I read about it in the newspaper. There was a study that shows that most of the teens who are forced to go through this treatment aren’t changed from being gay. Most of the few who say it was successful for them still have strong gay thoughts and some even end up having gay sex. Lots of kids who go through the treatment get real depressed, and some have even tried to commit suicide. It sounds horrible!” Doug looked real pissed. “They use fear and abuse and brainwashing. Almost 90% of the teens said they were devastated by the treatment, and that it didn’t work, and when they returned home their relationships with their families had been damaged. Their parents expected to get a straight kid back, but they got the same gay teen who came back shell-shocked and depressed from their experience.”

I think we were all stunned by what Doug told us. We sat for a few minutes, each lost in his own thoughts, not saying anything.

Finally, Jon broke the silence. “Jamie and I have to keep our relationship secret. You two and Darryl and Rick are the only ones who know about Jamie and me.” Suddenly he looked concerned. “You won’t tell anyone, will you? Doug? Ron?”

I glanced over at Doug. “We won’t tell anyone. We’ll absolutely keep it confidential. You can trust us. Right, Doug?”

Doug looked at me, then at Jon and Jamie. “I agree with what Ron said. And we trust that you two won’t tell anyone about Ron and me either.”

Jamie stared at us, then grinned. “We won’t tell anyone either. I swear on the Bible. Hmm, no Bible here.” He put his hand on Jon’s head. “OK, I swear on Jon. That OK?” We all laughed.

Jon nodded. “Me, too, neither of us will ever tell about you and Ron.”

“So, tell us about you two. When did you meet, how long have you been boyfriends, all the gory details!” I grinned my evil grin and wiggled by eyebrows.

Jamie giggled. “We met when we were at St. Ann’s. I moved here in the third grade, and Jon was the first kid to be really friendly with me. I think it was because he was so tall, even when he was that young, about 5-6. I think the other kids were afraid of him. But I thought he was cool. I’d never had a tall friend before.”

“This little kid,” Jon turned to Jamie and smiled, “maybe 4 feet tall, came right up to me and introduced himself. I really think that I fell in love with him at that very minute. But only being 8 years old I didn’t know what my feelings were, just that I liked him, liked him a lot. So we became best friends, and have been ever since.”

“Jon was the nicest boy I’d ever met. He was funny, and made me laugh. He’d do anything with me. He was smart, he liked to read, he liked to talk about all sorts of things. It was amazing to me, I’d never known a kid like him. I always wanted to be with him. He was the big brother, the real tall big brother, I always wanted but never had.”

“I had just turned 12, and Jamie was 11. I started puberty early. Mom says I was an early bloomer. I started feeling things going on with my body, in my dick and balls. I was confused, and scared, and thought there was something wrong with me and I was going to die! I was too embarrassed and scared to ask mom or dad about it. So I told Jamie about it. He said we should look it up in the encyclopedia. Since neither of us had encyclopedias at home, or computers to get on the Internet, we went to the library. It took a lot of searching. We’d look up one thing, and it would have a reference to something else, and that would have references to other things, and soon we’d read a lot and understood most of it. It was such a revelation!”

“Of course, Jon and I had to experiment! We didn’t know anything about being gay, somehow we’d not read anything about homosexuality. We just knew what we were reading about was really interesting, and we wanted to learn more. Lots more. Our experiments were even more interesting than what we’d read, and even more informative. Neither of us could cum yet, but we figured out how to have orgasms. That was the most fun!”

“I kept going back to the library, trying to find more information. I was especially curious about ejaculating. We’d read about it, but didn’t really understand what it was. I was determined to find out, mainly to find out why neither Jamie or I could ejaculate. Was there something wrong with us? I was always worried that there was something wrong with me! Or were we doing it wrong when we masturbated? Were we too young? Not only did I find the answers to those questions, I stumbled across references to homosexuality. I was shocked! What Jamie and I were doing meant that we were homosexuals! Remember, this was from the encyclopedia in the library, and it was pretty old. It didn’t have any references to words like queer and gay.”

“Jon told me about what he’d read. He was worried about being homosexual. The encyclopedia said it was a perversion, and was unnatural. It was a really old encyclopedia! We decided that we needed more information, so we went to BookPlace. It’s huge, and they don’t pay any attention to what books people are looking at. We found lots of books on teen sex, and looked up homosexuality. They said being homosexual, being gay, was not a choice, it was genetic. That made us feel a lot better about it. Most of the books also said teens do a lot of sexual experimenting, and might be gay, or might be bi, or might be heterosexual when they get older.”

“So after talking about it for a long time, Jamie and I decided we were OK. If we were gay, it was natural for us. And we’d find out later if we liked girls, and if so we’d probably be bi. That's because we don’t think that we’re just experimenting. We think we’re really in love with each other.” Jon and Jamie looked at each other, they got big smiles, and their eyes were sparkling. It sure looked like they were in love to me.

“Well, Jon and I’ve been boyfriends ever since then. We’re really in love. We think it’ll last. It’s lasted going on 4 years.” Jamie grinned. “We’re real careful at school, when we’re out together like at the mall or the movies. We don’t always go out together. We have lots of other friends. I’m especially careful at home, as I told you, my folks wouldn’t understand. We don’t do sleepovers very often. That makes getting together really difficult for, uh, ya know, being together. That’s the worst thing. It’s kind of like Darryl and Rick, but worse because we live near each other and see each other every day at school.”

I thought about what Jamie said. It would for sure make me crazy! “So, what do you do?”

“My folks work. So, about once, sometimes twice a week, we get together at my house. We can’t go to Jon’s, his mom is home. She knows about Jon being gay. She knows me, I don't think she knows we make love, have sex. Even if she did, we don't want to make her uncomfortable or feel strange by knowing that Jon is in his bedroom having sex with some boy.”

“We make up for quantity with quality.” Jon grinned, then laughed. We all laughed. It was sad, but what he said was funny.

“God, guys, you have it tough! I know what I’d do if Ron and I couldn’t get together. I’d cry myself to sleep every night!”

“Well, sometimes I do that. Except I have to make extra sure that my folks don’t hear me crying. I’d never be able to explain, to find some excuse for crying.” God, I felt so bad for Jamie!

We sat at the table, in the empty section, and finished our drinks, not saying anything. We were talked out.

“Let’s go to A&F! I love to look at the pix of hot guys and girls almost showing something I’d really like to see, and maybe they have live models today!” I stood up and so did the others. We dumped our cups in the trashcan, headed downstairs, then took the escalator down to the next level of the Galleria, and walked to Abercrombie. They did have two models inside their entrance. The guy didn’t have a shirt or T-shirt on, and he was wearing his jeans real low on his hips. You could see about 6” of his treasure trail from his belly button into his jeans. HOT! After perving the guy, we walked through the store looking at the clothes and the posters of hot guys (mostly!) and girls. None of us were into shopping, everything was so expensive, but I saw some T-shirts and a sweatshirt that I really liked, and decided I’d come back with mom and see if she’d buy them for me.

We went into the BookPlace bookstore, and wandered. We checked out the science fiction and computer books, then Jon whispered “Let’s go look at the gay books.” I was nervous, I’d never looked at gay books in a book store. Actually, I didn’t know there were gay books in bookstores, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want Jon and Jamie to think I was some dumb little kid.

Jon led us to a section where there were sociology and psychology books. There was a whole aisle filled with gay books! I was amazed that there were so many. There seemed to be at least two kinds, hardback non-fiction books about what it means to be gay, and fiction. The gay fiction was the biggest part of what was there. We walk up and down looking at the books on the shelves. Whenever someone came into the aisle I’d pretend that I was just waiting for my friends. It made me feel real stupid to do that, almost like I was chickening out. None of those people would know me, so why the hell was I acting this way? I decided to be brave, to be mature, and began looking at the books along with Doug, Jon, and Jamie. Screw whoever came by!

I saw that Doug was looking at the non-fiction, serious books. I decided I was more interested in the fiction, which is what Jon and Jamie were looking at. Most of the fiction was paperbacks. I found a section labeled “Teen” and started looking at the titles and covers. I’d pick up the books that had covers that I thought were interesting looking, and read the description on the back cover. One was “The Boys and the Bees” which sounded like it would be interesting. I turned it over and read the first sentence: “A gay 12 year old boy begins his first year of junior high with the vow that this will be the year that he kisses a boy.” Wow! This sounded fantastic! Here was a story about a kid who’s about my age, a gay kid. I checked the price, $13.95. I could do that, I had over thirty dollars, more than enough for the book and for dinner, too.

I walked over to where Doug was looking at a thick hardback book. “Doug, look at this.” I showed him the cover, then the back. I pointed to the description I’d just read. “Read this.”

Doug took the book from me, read for a few seconds, then looked up at me with a big grin on his face. “Wow, this sounds cool! I wish we could have someone buy it for us.”

“I’m going to buy it. I have over thirty dollars, and it’s only $13.95.”

“Ron, they won’t sell it to you!”

“Why not? I don’t think they care. They just want to sell books and make money, and I’m going to buy a book so they can make money off me. I’m gonna do it.”

Doug’s eyes got wide, and he stared at me grinning. “Shit, that’s so ballsy! I couldn’t do it. I’d be so totally embarrassed! What if someone we know sees you? What would you say to them?”

“Gimme a break! Who’s going to see me? And if they did, are they going to ask me what book I’m buying? Not! I’m gonna do it. I want to read this book!”

“Well, I’ll pay half if you let me read it too!”

“No, you don’t have to pay any of it. My treat. I've got the ten dollars from your mom that you gave me. And I will let you read it when I’m finished with it. Or, even better, let’s read it together! It’s not very thick.”  I opened the book and flipped through the pages from the back until I found the last numbered page. “A hundred and thirty-seven pages.” I smiled. “Yeah, let’s read it together.”

Jon and Jamie were standing in back of Doug, looking over his shoulder at the back cover of the book. I took it back from Doug and turned it over so they could see the cover and handed it to Jon. “I’m gonna buy it. I like what it says on the back about what the story is. What do you think?”

Jon read the description on the back, then opened the book to somewhere near the middle, and started reading. After a few seconds, he closed the book and handed it back to me. He was smiling. “Totally cool book! A little young for me, but perfect for you guys. My technique for figuring out if I want to buy a gay book is to open it to some random page and start reading. If there’s sex, I buy it. If not, I put it back.” I must have looked shocked, because Jon patted me on the top of my head and laughed. “Not really, if I like what the blurb on the back says I’ll buy it anyway, if what I read inside, the way it's written, sounds OK. It doesn’t have to be a sex scene.”

“You buy a lot of gay books?”

“Sure. It’s OK with my folks, since they know I’m gay they think that I’m better off reading a sexy gay book and getting off from it than to be running around looking for some guy to mess around with.” He looked at Jamie. “But I wouldn’t do that anyway, I have someone to mess around with right here, someone I love who loves me.”

I looked past Jon. There was a guy, maybe 18 looking, standing about halfway up the aisle. He was facing in our direction, looking at a book. He looked up and grinned, then winked at me and broke into a huge smile, then looked down at the book he was holding. I smiled. Man, that’s cool. And funny! I mean, here are four kids, four gay kids, in the gay section of BookPlace, and an older teen is here, sees us looking at a gay book, and winks at me. I started laughing. It was partly because of the guy looking at me and winking, and partly ‘cause I was sort of nervous about buying the book.

Doug gave me a weird look. “What?”

“What ‘what’?”

He looked exasperated. “What are you laughing about?”

“Don’t stare, but take a quick look in back of you, up the aisle, there’s a guy back there. I noticed him, and he looked at me and then he smiled and winked at me. Maybe he thinks I’m cute! That I’m HOT!” I burst into laughter.

Doug turned around and stared at the guy anyway, and he looked up and saw Doug, smiled at him, and winked. Then he looked at me and winked again! I was still laughing, and Doug started to laugh, and then the guy did, too, and shook his head as he looked down at his book.

“Jeez, Doug, I think he thinks you’re cute, too. Maybe not so hot, but cute!”

“Cut it out! I’m HOT!” We continued to laugh. “And I’m glad we’re not in the library, because we’d have gotten thrown out by now!”

I realized that Jon and Jamie were looking at Doug and me like we were some sort of spazzes. “Hey, let’s get outta here. I wanta buy my book, and I’ll tell you what’s so funny on the way to the checkout.”

As we walked past the guy he looked and me. “Enjoy!”

“Thanks!”

We continued to the checkout counter, and I told Jon and Jamie what Doug and I’d been laughing about. By the time we got downstairs and got in the line to checkout we were all laughing like idiots. At least, that’s what mom would have said if she’d been here! It took several minutes to get to the head of the line. I suddenly noticed that I was alone. Doug, Jon, and Jamie were standing over by the exit door, still laughing like idiots. Doug saw me scowling at them, and he grabbed Jan and Jamie by their arms and pulled them out of the store.

Finally one of the registers was open and I took my gay book to the cashier. I got nervous as I handed the book to the girl behind the counter. She took the book, rubbed the spine on that metal plate thing that demagnetizes the chip they hid inside the book that would cause the alarm at the exit to sound, then scanned the code on the back of the book.

“That’ll be $15.10 including tax, please.”

I handed her a twenty dollar bill. “I have the dime.” I dug in my pocket and pulled out a bunch of change, and counted out a nickel and five pennies and handed them to her.

She put my gay book into a small size BookPlace bag, and handed me the bag, a five dollar bill, and my receipt. “Thank you for shopping at BookPlace. Please come again!” Then she smiled at me. I walked out of the store and was immediately surrounded.

“What’d she say?”
“Did she ask how old you are?”
“Did she look at you funny for buying a gay book?”

I laughed at them. “The only things she said were ‘$15.10, please’ and ‘Thank you for shopping at BookPlace’. I told you they wouldn’t care that I’m just a kid and that I’m buying a gay book! All they want is people’s money. And that’s OK with me.”

Jamie looked at me like he didn’t really believe me. “You’re so young looking! I would have thought they’d have some sort of rule about little kids buying sex books!”

I pushed my index finger onto his chest. “First, I’m NOT so young looking! Second, I’m NOT a little kid.” Then I smiled to show him I was just kidding.

Jamie grabbed my index finger, and looked at the tip which was sticking out of his fist about a quarter inch. He looked at me. “I hope your dick’s longer than your finger!” He let go, and burst into laughter, along with Jon and Doug. My ears felt hot, so I knew I was blushing big time.

“Oh, Jon, look, Ron’s blushing! Maybe I was too close for comfort there!”

“Jeez, shut up with the jokes, will you? Let’s go back up to where we were sitting earlier, and I'll read some of the story to you guys. But only if you stop ragging on me!” I put my fists on my hips, and began tapping my right foot on the floor.

“OK, OK. Sorry, Ron. It’s just that it was all so funny!” Jamie put his hand on the top of my left shoulder. “Let’s go upstairs. I want to hear you read some of this book to us!”

When we got to the empty section there was still no one there, so we sat at the same table where we’d sat earlier. I pulled out the book, and started reading aloud. The first chapter didn’t have any sex in it, but it was still really good. The story’s about an 11 year old boy who's starting sixth grade in a Catholic school in Minneapolis. I couldn’t believe it! It was so close to Doug and me, young kids, going to a Catholic school, and being gay! When I got to the end of the first chapter I didn’t want to stop reading. But Doug’s stomach growled. We giggled about that, and then Jamie’s stomach growled too. We all burst out laughing.

I closed the book, to the groans of the other guys. “Sorry, guys, food time! We know Doug and Jamie are hungry from their stomachs telling us, and I’m hungry too. So let’s figure out where we’re going to eat. I’ve got like seventeen dollars. Where can I eat for no more than that?”

Jon looked like he was trying to figure out where to eat. “How about Chili’s?”

All three of us said “Yeah!” at the same time. So, we headed down to the first level of the Galleria, and across to the other section near Sears, where the Chili’s is. We were seated right away, and spent a lot of time deciding what to order. I got the quesadilla explosion with extra guacamole, Doug got the grilled chicken sandwich with a salad, Jon ordered a cheesesteak sandwich and fries, and Jamie ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries. We ordered the onion blossom to share, and Cokes all around. Probably not the healthiest meal in the universe, but it sounded real good! I realized that I was starved, and when the onion blossom arrived we pretty much demolished it before our dinners arrived. We each got lots of refills of our Cokes, refills are free at Chili’s. Everyone skipped dessert, we were all too full.

We spent about five minutes figuring out what each of us owed, and argued over whether we should give a tip on the tax part or not. We decided that we’d figure the tip on the total amount including tax because the water was real pleasant and treated us like adults, and because he was really cute! We figured out how much change each of us should get back, and put our money in that tray thing they bring the bill on.

After we got our change, and the waiter thanked us and said "Come back soon," I stood up, and realized I had to pee real bad. On our way out I said I was going to the bathroom, and all four of us went in, we all had to pee from all the Cokes we'd had. There were only two urinals and one toilet stall, so one of us was going to have to wait. Because he was the last one in the men’s room, Jon was it.

“Hey, I gotta go! Bad! One of you switch with me so I won’t piss in my pants!”

I had taken the stall, so I unlatched the door and told Jon he could come in and pee the same time as me. Doug was peeing at a urinal, and said, “Hey, no fair! I don’t want Jon perving you, Doug!”

Jon laughed. “Hey, we’ve all seen other guy’s cocks before! And I’m not a perv!” He came into the stall, where I was standing and had already started to pee. He pulled out his dick. I was amazed! It looked to be about seven inches long, and about the same thickness as mine, which is not too thick. He started to pee, and we played “pee warrior” until I was finished. I put my dick, which was now almost a semi from standing there looking at Jon and from the pee warrior game, back into my pants and zipped up. Jon was still peeing, so I left the stall, washed my hands, and went back into the restaurant to wait.

When we were all back we walked out into the mall. I was wondering what we should do. “OK, what next?”

“How ‘bout CompUSA?”

We all agreed, and joined the crowd in the CompUSA computer store. We looked at laptops and PCs and software, and MP3 players. None of us could afford to buy anything, but it’s always fun to look. I guess this is what mom calls ‘window shopping’ where you look but don’t buy.

Next was Brookstone, then Sharper Image, then The Gap, then Old Navy, then Borders, mainly to listen to CDs because we couldn’t do that at BookPlace, they don’t have a music and video section, just books and magazines.

Jon checked his watch. “Hey, it’s almost 6:30. My folks said they’ll be here at 7:00 to pick us up. I said we’d meet them just outside the entrance to Nordstrom. Let’s wander over that way so we won’t be late.”

We agreed. On the way we went in a few other stores, and we were at the Nordstrom entrance at ten before seven. Jon’s folks were already there, waiting for him and Jamie. Jon introduced Doug and me to his folks. They were surprised to learn that they were going to take me and Doug home, but they were OK with it. They kidded Jon about not letting them know.

We got to Doug’s house just in time to go with his folks, Michelle, and Darryl and Rick to take Rick to the airport. Both Darryl and Rick were real quiet, and seemed depressed. Doug and I didn’t talk on the way to the airport. Mrs. Choi kept chattering to try to keep everyone from being sad for Darryl and for Rick. It didn't work.

We got to Burbank airport by 7:45, and walked to the security entrance. Rick had his boarding pass, he’d gone online on Darryl’s computer and printed it. The rest of us stopped quite a way back from the security entrance, and Darryl and Rick went as far as they could go without getting in the line to go into security. We all watched Darryl and Rick hug each other for about a full minute. That’s really a long time! Then still in a hug, they pulled back to look at each other. What happened next really surprised me. They kissed each other, on the lips, for a long time, maybe 10 or 15 seconds. And that’s a long time for a kiss! Finally they pulled apart, and Rick got into the security line. He kept turning and looking at Darryl and waving goodbye until he went through the X-ray machine and disappeared as he went to his gate.

I saw Darryl wipe his eyes. When he got back to where we were, he broke down in tears, and Mrs. Choi gathered him into her arms and held him as he cried. I looked at Doug, and he had tears in his eyes too.

The drive home was completely quiet. No one said anything until we got to the Choi’s house, and Mr. Choi said “OK, we’re home, everyone out.”

Doug and I followed Darryl up the stairs. Darryl threw himself onto his bed, and lay on his stomach. I could hear him sobbing into his pillow. Doug and I went into Doug’s bedroom.

“Your folks must have an idea that Darryl and Rick are in love, Doug.”

“I guess so. Man, when they kissed I thought I’d start balling, too. It was so sad.” He turned to me, and we held each other in a big hug, cheek to cheek. I could feel Doug’s tears against my face. Suddenly, I saw that Mrs. Choi had come into Doug’s bedroom. I didn’t know how long she'd been there, I'd had my eyes closed because I felt like I was about to start crying too.

She tapped Doug on the shoulder. He pulled out of our hug and seemed to be real nervous. “Doug, can you and Ron come downstairs with me, just for a few minutes, to have a chat?”

Whoa! What did Mrs. Choi want to talk to us about? She’d seen Darryl and Rick kiss each other, on the lips, a long, long kiss, at the airport. Now she caught me and Doug hugging each other and crying. And we could hear Darryl in his bedroom sobbing. I was nervous, I was scared, I was freaking out!

To be continued…

I hope you like this story, and if you have comments, suggestions, or questions, email me!
Colin Kelly
colinkelly@xemaps.com