The author reserves all copyright privileges.  This work my not be reproduced except for personal use, without the permission of the author, and may not me linked to any pay sites.

Dedication:  To my friend Ry, who provided the inspiration, and to Don Hanratty, who encouraged me to post my story here. Thanks to my editor Bill, who gives of his own time to edit this story.

If you would like to say Hi, my E-mail address is JETjt@ aol.com.  John Tucker

RON AND BRYAN

Chapter Twenty Nine

It was nearing 10 P.M. when the boys converged on the game room. Rich and Brandt had arrived first after changing into more casual clothing. They were closely followed by Robert and Tim.  Of the group that had planned on gathering, only Hans, the cute son of the captain had not as yet arrived.  As the boys started picking out their pool cues Jeffery King came into the room smiling and asked if anyone would like anything to drink.  Rich ordered a diet coke and  Brandt and Tim ordered regular cokes. Robert just asked for water.  Jeffery left the room to fill the order.

He was just returning with the drinks and glasses on a tray when Hans was seen through the doorway descending down the main staircase  from the captain's quarters on the bridge deck. Jeffery was distributing the drinks as Hans entered the game room.

"Hi, Hans," Tim said approaching the new arrival.

Hans smiled and replied, "Hi, ....Tim, right? Hi, guys." he said to Brandt and Rich.

Tim grinned and the young couple from New York returned the greeting as they took their drinks from a tray on which Jeffery had carried their order.

"Hans," Jeffery asked, " What would you like?"

Hans broke out in a cute smile and answered with, "I'll just have a 7-up please."

Jeffery moved to Robert to serve the water that the young guest had ordered.

"You wouldn't be available to shoot some pool, would ya?" Robert asked as he took the glass containing his drink. "We're short one partner."

"Well, ...yeah. Thanks a lot for asking. I get off  work in about 5 minutes. I'll get Hans', order and then I'll go to my berth and change. Is that all right?"

"Sure, will you be my partner?"

"I'd love it."  Jeffery answered with a genuine smile. "Oh, and if you don't mind, call me Jeff.  That's what my friends in the crew call me."

"Cool," Robert said. "See ya in a few."

Robert left the game room to get Hans' drink and then to change out of his uniform.

Robert walked over to where Brandt, Rich, Tim and Hans were picking out pool cues.  

"Why don't you guys stand each other in the first game. Jeff is gonna come back in a few minutes. He'll be my partner."

"Lucky guy," said Brandt, with a wink.

Robert grinned and so did Tim, knowing that the choice would make him partners with Hans. It was obvious that Brandt and Rich wanted to play together.

"Hans ole buddy; I guess that makes you and me a team," Tim commented.

"Yep," replied the captain's son. It was obvious that he was also pleased with the pairings.

Brandt racked up the balls, and the guys tossed a coin to see which team would break.  Hans and Tim won the toss, and Hans invited  Tim to do the honors.  

Placing the white cue ball  behind the markers at the opposite end of the table from the triangular mass of balls, Tim took careful aim. With a slow withdrawal of the stick and a violent reverse shove, the cue stick came in contact with the white ball which shot down the table, crashing into the pointed tip of the mass with a mighty 'WHACK".  Balls careened around the table, richocheting off the banks and each other until coming to rest. No balls dropped into the pocket.

"Damn!" Tim muttered.  "OK. Who's up?"

Brandt got the nod from Rich who prepared to shoot. After sinking two solids, he missed the next shot.  In spite of their early lead, Rich and Brandt lost the first game when on his third turn Brandt's targeted ball  nicked the 8 ball and it dropped into a pocket.  

Jeff had still not returned from changing, so Robert suggested that the starting teams play  two-out- of-three, with Robert and Jeff taking on the winners.  The others agreed and set about re-racking the balls.

No sooner had the second game started than Jeff appeared.  Robert accompanied him to the salon where Jeff served himself a coke from the bar refrigerator. The two young men stepped out onto the rear deck to look at the ocean and the night sky.

"It sure is beautiful out here tonight", Robert commented as they watched the wake waves created by the large yacht.

"Yes,"  Jeff agreed. "I love the sea.  This has been the best job.  It saved my life."

"What do ya mean?" Robert asked.

"I'll tell you later, maybe.  For now lets go inside and kick some ass."

Robert grinned at the cute steward as they headed back to the game room.  

Tim and Hans had defeated Brandt and Rich  two games in a row. They were on a roll.  Then, they skinned Robert and  Jeff by running the table. The first game it was by Tim, and the second by Hans.  Tim said that they had enough for now turning the competition back over to  Brandt and Rich.

"Damn," Brandt said in amazement. "I think we just ran into some pool sharks. OK, buddy," he said to Rich, " Time to let some blood."

"They're's or our's? Rich asked, laughing. The play began.

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Climbing to the top deck after being defeated by Bryan and Rich, Robert, lead by Jeff, entered  the observation lounge.  Jeff took a seat on a small sofa, and Robert sat next to his new friend in a chair sitting at right angles to the sofa.. Robert wanted to be able to look at his new friend in the dim glow of the small night light that was burning. With the broad vista of the open sea surrounding them they began to talk.

"Please Jeff," Robert asked softly, "now will you tell me how your life got saved?"

Jeff began slowly after hesitating for a moment. "I don't know if I should tell you this because you are a guest and we hardly know each other. I'm not sure why, but  I like you and somehow sense that I can trust you."

"You have my word on that, Jeff. I would never betray the trust of a friend and somehow I feel that we will become the best of friends. I really like you."

Jeff was not certain whether they would remain friends after the story he was about to tell to his new friend. He smiled sadly and as he look down, began his story.

"Six months ago, when I had just turned 18, I left home. I had always loved and trusted my parents, although I admit, looking back, they were more like husband and wife with a kid, rather than mother and father with one. I hope you can understand the distinction.  They were definitely more interested in each other than me. I felt like an accident that they only . acknowledged .It was not really that bad though.  My dad was demanding and stern but he wasn't mean.  My mom did whatever he wanted and never argued with him. I loved them a lot even though I'm not sure it was returned in kind."

" When I was younger, I didn't have many friends, but I did have one special one.  His name was Joey. We had gone through grade school together. We learned about sex together too. We both discovered pretty early that we liked guys a lot more than girls. When we got a little older we came out to each other. We had that kind of closeness and trust.  We played it cool, though. We both knew that we could get the shit beat out of us by some of the guys at our school who hated gays.  We saw it happen to a couple of guys that were pretty prissy, and it scared us bad. I'm ashamed now that we didn't support those guys that got beat up, but we were scared out of our skin. We tried to appear as pretty macho, even taking weight training to build up our bodies so nobody would pick on us."

" We had the beginnings of sex together, but it was really just kissing, feeling each other up and hand jobs. Anyway, it was scary but pretty cool until we were half-way through our junior year of high school.  That's when Joey's dad got a job in another city and they moved.  I was heartbroken because Joey and I were so close. I moped around the rest of the year in a daze. My world caved in. My dad couldn't stand my droopy attitude and insisted that I find some work over the summer."  

"During that summer I got a job as a lifeguard because I was a good swimmer. It was at the City pool where I worked that I met Darren. He was 20 and so good looking.  I was a basket case. All he had to do was to say hi and I sprouted wood.  I had to keep a towel nearby just to hide the evidence. Sometimes when he was around I had a difficult time keeping my eyes on the pool. I wanted to stare at his cute body every minute. Darren seemed to take delight in teasing me. He would lie on the pool deck directly across from my chair and open his legs so that I could see his crotch. I can tell you, in a speedo his package looked pretty impressive." 

"One night before the pool closed Darren asked me if I wanted to go out for a coke after work.  I said 'yes' immediately. My heart melted when he looked at me with those big brown eyes and smiled. Darren had a car and after we picked up some cokes and put 'em in a cooler, we went for a ride. There was a large pond that he wanted to show me so we went there.  It was a warm night. We got out of the car and sat on a blanket on the bank of the pond. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I was in heaven, just being beside that gorgeous hunk."

"Darren got a bottle of vodka from his car and the cokes.  Pretty soon we were both pretty drunk. It was a warm night and he took off his shirt.  I could see his muscular chest in the moonlight. When he slipped off his shorts,  my poor dick was killing me. I kind of adjusted it around when I thought that he wasn't looking.  He caught me though and within minutes we were bare assed naked on that blanket.  Joey and I had only wanked each other off, but Darren wanted more. That night before I knew it, Darren had my virgin ass. I didn't know whether to scream with delight or terror. He had a really big dick, and it hurt like hell at first."

"Darren had me all summer. I was like his slave. All he had to do was say 'bend over' and my hands were on my ankles. I sucked him off, we screwed; anything he wanted, I would do. Once he even pissed on me. I hated it but I couldn't  resist him."

Robert took Jeff's hands into his own as his young new friend continued with tears in his eyes.

"At the end of the summer, he dumped me like a sack of garbage. I was devastated."

" Before he left for college, he told his little brother who was a jock where I went to school that I was a fag and and I had been giving him blow jobs all summer.  When school started his brother stopped me outside one day.  He told me what his brother had said and that if I didn't do him whenever he wanted, he was going to out me to the whole school.  As I said before, he was a big jock, and before football season ended I was having to give blow jobs to almost the whole team.  I felt trapped, but they threatened to beat me up if I didn't do what they wanted."

Robert didn't flinch. He held onto Jeff's hands knowing that the young man was hurting and was trying to rid himself of the grief that he had held inside.

"A lot of those guys played basketball too. When basket ball season came around I had more guys to do.  I didn't know if I was in heaven or in hell. I just knew that I had to finish school and get out of there.  There was this one guy, Eric, who was really tall. He must have been 6'-7" and weighed probably about 190. He also had the biggest dick I had ever seen. It must have been at least 9 inches, hard.  He took me out to the pond one night.  I thought he just wanted a blow job like everybody else. I was wrong. He wanted my ass. God, it hurt when he did me the first time.  He took my ass at least twice a week from then until the end of basketball season."

"Eric would often make me come to the gym after practice and  he would do me when everybody else had left.  He was a star of the team and the coach would let him stay late and even gave him a key so that he could practice on the weekends. One night after the end of the season,  Eric took me to the gym after dark. When I got there, most of the team were there waiting. They took turns screwing me. I was crying like a baby. It hurt so bad. They were all standing around watching as I was getting it from each of the guys. Some of the guys as they finished got limp. Those who had not had a turn yet were all hard and anxious to have a go at me. They ignored my tears and just kept laughing and screwing me one after another. The guys that were done were joking around working up new hardons, saying that they wanted 'seconds'. I wanted to die from shame right then and there."

"The lights in the locker room suddenly came on and in walked the coach.  He was really pissed. He gave those guys hell, and for me, it was even worse.  The guys told him about me and that I loved giving them head and all that.  Well, the coach couldn't get all those guys expelled or he would lose his whole team for next year, so he decided just to make an example out of me."

"The next day the principal called my folks in and told them about me inviting some of the team members to have sex with them and that I had been caught have oral sex with a guy. I was the guilty party. Then he told them that as a 'favor', that he was gonna give me my diploma two weeks early and that I was never to come back."

"When they got home, my dad had a shit fit and threw me out. I had nowhere to go and I had only the clothes on my back. I had no friends and  was in disgrace. I left town, deciding to hitch hike to Florida.  It took me over  two weeks to get here.  I only had on the clothes that I left home with and pretty soon, smelled like shit. I was hungry too. I had left with only 20 dollars, and that didn't last too long. I couldn't afford a room so I slept beside the road, hid in a park, or caught a nap anywhere I could find. I would have starved too, except that one time an old couple gave me a ride and took pity on me.  They paid me $20 for working in their yard. They fed me but made me leave because they were afraid to let me sleep in their house. Even so, I am still grateful to them. They were kind, but had little money to spare."

"When I got to Palm Beach, I was beat. So far I had avoided trying to sell my body, but I was thinking a lot about it.  I tried to find a job, but nobody would hire me. I looked terrible and my clothes were dirty. I tried to wash up when I could in a McDonald's or wherever I could. I was close to being totally broke, and I had no prospects of it getting better.  I was about to give up and start looking for somebody to pay me for sex, although in the condition I was in even for that I couldn't expect much."

"I was just leaving a 7/11 where I had spent my last dollar on a hot dog, some chips and a small coke. As I turned around the corner of the building and stepped into the driveway a limo clipped me.  I fell to the pavement and my hot dog and coke went flying. The driver and the man passenger got out quickly and ran over to where I was sprawled on the ground."

"The man was Ron.  He made sure that I was OK, then took me into the car.  I was scared and crying, but at that point I was ready to do anything to survive. He was so handsome and nice to me. I couldn't understand it. I thought that he would want something from me, but he only wanted to talk. I told him about my dad kicking me out and he asked if I was gay.  I was embarrassed as hell, but I told him the truth.  He just smiled and didn't touch me." 

" The next thing I knew we had stopped at a nice restaurant. Ron wanted me to go inside with him. I was so dirty that I was ashamed, thinking that they would kick me out. Ron said not to worry. When we went in, the guy inside started to say something, then looked at the limo outside and and at Ron and decided not to. He smiled in a leering way, though. It made me feel like a prostitute. After we were seated, Ron suggested that I use the rest room to wash my hands.  I washed a lot more than that.  I still looked bad, but at least every inch of skin that showed, and even some inches that didn't, were clean."

Jeff blushed, then went on.

"After we ate, Ron paid the bill and we left.  We got back into the limo and started driving.  Ron asked me if I wanted a job that included room and board.  I was so happy inside I could have kissed him on the spot. I asked him what the job was. I half expected the worst, believe me. Guys aren't always what he seem to be on the surface.  I knew that I would accept though. I really liked Ron and would have done anything he asked.  He said it was a job working on his boat. I said 'Sure, I'd like that.' I smiled really big to let him know that I appreciated the offer." 

"You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw the boat. It was the PT I, which was smaller than this yacht, but it was still huge! I about creamed my jeans. It was the biggest private boat I had ever seen! Anyway, I stayed in the limo while Ron left to talk to the captain. Pretty soon, he came back to the car with the captain.  Ron introduced us, and the Captain Larson asked if I wanted to work on the boat. I said 'yes' right away. He then said that he would show me my berth and take care of the paperwork stuff when Ron was through with me for the day."

"I really got worried then. Ron picked up his phone and reserved a room in a small motel near the maring. I thought that Ron was gonna take me there and have sex with me. I felt for sure that the time for the payback back had arrived. We arrived there and I gritted my teeth. I just knew that Ron's being nice was just a way to get into my ass, but I was determined that I wouldn't break down.  I would just do what I had to.  When we walked into the room and closed the door, Ron could see the worry on my face and laughed. He knew what I was thinking. He told me to take a shower and that he would be right back.  When I came out, Ron was gone and so were my clothes.  I couldn't go anywhere naked so I sat on the bed and watched television. I waiting for Ron to come back and take my body for his pleasure.

I about keeled over when Ron came back and tossed my clothes to me and told me to get dressed.  Ron had taken my clothes and had gone to a laundromat and washed 'em.  It had been an hour or so of my strange, fantasy before he came back with my clean clothes. We left again in the limo and  took me to a mall and bought me a bunch of new casual clothes and a bag to put my them in. When I asked him why he was buying me all that stuff, he said it was so that I wouldn't be embarrassed in front of the crew because I didn't have anything to wear that was decent. You could have knocked me over with a breath of wind."

Tears poured down Jeff's cheeks as the finished his story. He was trying bravely to smile.

"Anyway," he said with tears that had again surfaced in his eyes, " Here I am, 6 months later. Everyone on the ship has been great and has treated me with respect while I learned my job.  I haven't had sex with anyone since that night that the jocks were discovered by the coach. Most of the guys here are gay, but I was not ready for anything. Nobody pressured me. Nobody has even asked if I am gay.  They have just wanted to be my friends. I would die before I let any of them or Ron down. I still feel it is too good to be true."

"Well, now you know my story. I guess you won't want me around anymore."

As he said those words, tear poured from his eyes from shame.  

Robert rose from the chair where he had faced Jeff and moved to the sofa beside the boy who had opened his heart to a friend. Robert gathered the young man into his arms and held him tightly.

"Go ahead. Let it out, Jeff. It's OK.  I'm here for you."

Tears poured like a waterfall. Jeff sobbed quietly as he let go of his pent-up emotions.  Robert gently rubbed Jeff's back as he consoled his friend.  

"You're not going to throw me away? Or tell the others?"  Jeff asked pleadingly.

"Never, Jeff. I won't leave you. As for the other, there is nothing to tell. You are my friend, and I will never betray your trust. I don't think you are bad. I think you're wonderful and brave. We all have things we have suffered."

"You do too?" Jeff asked of his handsome friend.

"Yeah, me too." Robert answered. "Maybe my story is not as traumatic as yours, but pain is pain. We all feel it and have to cope with it. You know, in a way, Ron gave me a new life, too."

Jeff  told his story. He told about the death of his father and of his mother's determination that they stay together. He confessed that he had given up on ever having a good future in order to work and to help his mother raise his brothers and sisters as they  struggled proudly  to survive.  Jeff  smiled as he told of Jan's kindness and of how she and Ron had taken him into their corporate family and given him hope for a new life with a future.

Finally he said softly and with all sincerity, "You know, I'm gay, too."

He smiled as he took Jeff's head in his hands and kissed him gently on the mouth.

That night two hearts found love.

Elsewhere, in another part of the ship......

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter. HUGs. John Tucker