Hey everyone welcome to my fourth story on Nifty. "Counting Down" is going to be a great story. It is the long-awaited sequel to "Counting" and I would suggest reading it first.

If you do enjoy "Counting Down", please read some of my other works: Counting, Bear & Cub, Not Capable of Love, Go Bag (Look for this in "Boys of Grizzly Valley"), Fire (Look for this in "Boys of Grizzly Valley") and Jaded (on AO3). You can find my AO3 stories by clicking here: (TuxEdwards) Please take a few minutes to drop me an email to let me know if "Counting Down" is for you: Email Me

 

If you like my stories and want to tip or donate to me, consider buying me a coffee: Thank You

 

"The Universe is Made of Stories, Not of Atoms" -Muriel Rukeyser

 

Bar C Ranch

AJ

I grip handfuls of straw with all the preteen strength I can muster. His thrusts rock my small-framed body, and my moaning is rhythmic with every slap of his hips against my butt-cheeks. He's learned where my button is and has perfected how to crush it mercilessly, sending me into orgasmic lust.

"Your cock is hitting... that... hitting that spot... mmhmmm!" I whimper at him.

"AJ... Stop clamping down! You're going to make me pop!"

"Sorry. I get excited." I apologize with a little moan. "You've gotten so good at this."

His cock begins to swell, and I can feel it push on the walls of my insides. The pain of it becomes more than I can bear, and it makes it harder for me to stay quiet. His grip tightens on my legs as he holds them near my head. Deeper and deeper, he slams his cock inside my ass, and it hurts, but Beau is past the line. The line that every preteen and teenager knows. Your hormones take control, and the 'fuck' is the only thing that matters.

"AJ, try and keep your moaning down. You're making too much noise," my boyfriend Beau warns me. He moves his cowboy hat that was sitting next to me on the pile of hay behind the barn. He braces me with his other hand and thrusts his cock firmly into me. Then it slowly drags it out across my boy button, making my voice crack as I do a combination of a high-pitched grunt and a deep moan.

I quickly cover my mouth as he prepares to spear me with his thick cock once more. Again, he thrusts it into me, and a whimper escapes between my fingers as he holds my naked body tightly against his bare chest. We stay still as our bodies become one, and I can't tell where his warmth begins and my wanting ends. Then slowly he draws it out until his shaft begins pulsating and his hot, gooey boy juice shoots up inside me. He thrusts into me once more, and more of himself shoots into my body, making all the pain worth it.

His body jerks and jerks again as his orgasm sends his body into rhythmic pulses, which drive him deeper into me, making him jerk even more. When he stops enjoying the waves of pleasure, he opens his eyes, and I see that look. The look that I've come to hate. The look says, `Oh no, I've hurt my fragile boyfriend again with my preteen hormones and muscles."

Beau and I are both twelve, and he has become the pinnacle of what a preteen boy looks like. His body is what every preteen and teenager dreams of. My boyfriend's cock alone has grown two inches since he reached puberty. I love him for everything he is inside, and I marvel at how his body looks on the outside.

Me, on the other hand, I'm still your average blonde-haired, green-eyed, twelve-year-old trapped in a nine-year-old body. My dick is still four inches long but doesn't show any signs of growth or pubic hair like all my friends have. Here I am again; my boyfriend has outgrown me.

And there it is--the look. "AJ, your body is shaking," Beau tells me with concern in his voice. "Did I overdo it? Are you okay?"

"Don't look at me like that," I weakly scold him. I hold onto him with what's left of my strength. "You know I hate that look," I say with the little breath I have left after that experience.

Time goes by, and Beau holds me close to his body as the cool California wind blows over us. My shaking lessens, and I reassure him that I really am fine and that my body shaking will stop soon. He lets me go, and I sit up slowly. "See, I'm fine, really."

"You know, it's your turn, " Beau says as he crawls up to me and kisses me on the lips. The kiss is long, soft, and gentle. During the kiss, I feel his hand slip between us and begin to play with my balls. He caresses the two soft balls in my little sack. His finger slips into my perineum and pushes hard. His tongue rolls around in small circles in my mouth, just like his finger draws small circles just under my balls, driving me crazy.

I would normally be hollering in pleasure, but my butt really hurts, and the more I think about the pain, the more upset I am that my body can't take a big dick. Beau moves from my mouth to my neck as he really tries to get me off, but my heart just isn't in it.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," I say as I squirm out from under him. "I'm sorry, Beau..." 

"Wait! What did I do?" He asks me as I grab my jeans and run across the pasture towards the woods.

Beau

"Wait! What did I do?" I shout my question and pull my blue jeans up from my ankles as my boyfriend of three years runs across the ranch towards the skinny dippen lake hidden in the woods. "Is it something I didn't do?" I ask myself as I walk from behind the barn, holding my loose jeans up with one hand and my hat in the other. I watch his small, tanned body streak out of sight. I was so bothered by how I upset him that I didn't see Dad galloping up on his horse, Buddy.

"Was that AJ?" Asks dad, startling me.

"Yes, sir," I say as my cheeks instantly blush. I place my cowboy hat on my head and pull my jeans over my bare ass, fastening the belt and zipping them up.

Dad patiently waits for me to finish and then asks, "Was he naked?"

I take off my cowboy hat and nervously answer, "Yes, sir."

Thirty minutes later, I pull a branch out of my way to reveal the hidden lake sparkling in the morning sunlight. There is a path that follows the pond to the left, and it leads to the small fort that dad helped us build. It's a simple building of three rooms and a large deck that hangs over the lake.

And there he is. AJ always comes here when he's upset. I go through the fort and out the back door on the deck. AJ has put on his jeans, and I take a couple skipping stones from the skipping stone bucket and sit down next to him.

"You feel better?" I ask. I'm not sure what's going on and hope he opens up. He nods and skips a rock across the water's surface. "Are you going to tell me about what made you mad?"

He shrugs and lays his head on my shoulder, and I turn and lay mine on his head.

"Did dad see me?" He asks with regret in his voice.

"Oh yeah, he saw you," I chuckled.

"Are we grounded?"

"Nope," I answer, and he sits up to look at me with a confused look.

"Did he spank you? Is he going to spank me?" His little voice cracks when he asks.

I give him a big smile and say, "Nope."

"Did he ask if we were having sex? Come on, stop teasing me," he says with a little cute whine, and then starts to giggle.

"He did ask, and I did the only thing I could think of; I lied. I told him we were hot from stacking hay bales and decided to take a dip in the horse trough."

We both laughed at that, and AJ added, "Well, it's not like we haven't done that in the past." 

I comb my fingers through his hair and tell him, "Your hair is getting long. You need a haircut."

"It could be shorter. It could be worse; I could have a mullet," he laughs and gets up real fast. Clearly intending for me to tickle him, he dances a bit and takes a couple swings at me.

"Hey, I make this mullet look good. You love my mullet," I say, bolting from my chair and grabbing AJ by the waist. I spin him around, and his legs leave the ground and swing over the lake like I'm going to throw him in. He laughs hysterically and holds onto my arms with everything he has. "What's wrong? Nothing to say about the mullet?" I ask as I swing him around and act like I'm going to let go. "Praise the mullet! Praise it!"

AJ laughs and laughs in an angelic tone, and nothing makes me happier than when he laughs or giggles. His jeans begin to slip down revealing that perfect, soft little skin that's never been tanned by the sun. I can just see the base of his dick, and he fights to keep them on. His clothes never really fit him; he still shops in the kiddie section. I'm not paying attention, thinking about his jeans being held on by the stiffy I'm sure he has. During the third swing, AJ craftily hooks his leg around one of my legs and buckles my knee, sending us to the deck.

He spins around and grabs my arm, locking it in an arm bar. He's not very strong, and if he were my size, I'd have a problem with this, but as things are, I could easily pull my arm out and toss him, but I let him have it. He sinks the hold in and locks his knees around my head. We've been taking lessons downtown at Bruce's Dojo, next to the Tech Tribe and the Bear Claw Creamery. AJ is really good, but he just isn't as strong as the rest of us.

I frantically tap his leg, and he giggles, letting me go. He bolts from the fort, and I give chase.

AJ

I burst through the trees and run towards the house in my bare feet, darting in and out of the cows. Welcome to the `Bar C Ranch.' We used to live in Cut Bank, Montana. A little after my eleventh birthday, we moved here to be closer to my dad's foster parents. There was a lot of bad stuff that went down in the few years that we lived there, so when the opportunity came for Dad to take over the family business here in Grizzly Valley, my parents jumped at the chance.

The `Bar C' sits on 500 acres in Grizzly Valley, California. We can house up to 2,000 head of cattle at any given moment, but we only have one water source, the Skinny Dipping Lake (I named it, hehee), so Dad doesn't like going over 1,500 head. I live here with my parents, Jack and Alice Colter; my twin brothers, Zeke and Zack; and my adopted brothers, Beau and Colt. Beau has been my boyfriend for three years, and I love him dearly. I have two sisters, Lana and Missy. Lana is in college and should be finishing soon. Missy is my stepsister; we don't get along. She lives with her rock-and-roll father. I hear she's in his band now.

My grandparents are Randy and Martha Hossenger. We call them Pop and Gran. They used to run the Double H Dude Ranch since the beginning, before they sold it to dad so they could retire. They also fostered Beau and his little brother, Colt, when they needed a new family. They have really helped me with my rodeo riding. I've added to my belt buckle award collection over the past few years I've been doing it. I'm looking forward to being in the new age group. I'm old enough to bullride.

Dad and Mom are not willing to let me do it, so I've been doing extra chores to show them that my body can handle it. If I want to admit it or not, my health is not doing well. I have a rare disease that stops my brain from making the correct amount of spinal fluid. If not regulated by the medicine injector that's mounted on my back, I have seizures and blackouts, and I have been known to slip into short comas, oh and it's killed me... twice.

My injector worked great in the beginning, but these days it can barely keep up with my body. I have an appointment at the Dan Moretii Children's Hospital. It's supposed to be one of the best hospitals for children. I look behind me, and Beau is almost caught up to me. I duck under the west pasture fence and head to the hay barn to finish stacking bales. My boots and cowboy hat are waiting for me just inside the door on a hay bale. I take a puff on my inhaler and put my hat on.

By the time Beau gets inside, I'm pulling my second boot on. "Wow, it took you long enough," I tease him. He's not even breathing heavily; I wish I was as healthy as he is. I take another puff and add, "Let's get this done. Then we can go swimming."

Later That Night At Dinner 

AJ

Beau and I burst into the house like two wild horses, making all sorts of racket. "Did you see that snake?" Beau continues with our current conversation.

"Yeah, it was really pissed," I say, and then mom clears her throat over by the stove. I come to a screeching stop and regrettably say , "Sorry, it just slipped out."

"That's the problem, isn't it?" she tells me as she brings a stack of hot plates to the table. "That it's in there to slip out. AJ, I don't want you talking like that. Please put your five dollars in the jar."

Beau snickers at me as I open the curio cabinet and retrieve the glass jar that is labeled `AJ.' I open it, take five dollars, and put it in the swear jar. Once I have my allowance jar back in the cabinet, Beau and I rush to the table, only to be stopped by my mom again.

"Hands, wash your hands and faces, please."

In the bathroom, we hear the front door open, and the twins' voices fill the house, highlighted by Colt laughing his butt off. We dry our hands and rush back out to the table. Zack has Colt up in the air over his shoulder, patting his little bottom, making him squirm and giggle. I remember when Zack used to do that to me. Now that I think about it, he still does, just not as much anymore.

"Hello, boys."

"Hey mom," the twins say in unison. Zack puts Colt down, and he runs straight into mom's arms. "Did you have fun at the zoo with the rest of your friends?"

"Yeah, it was te best," Colt says with a little dance in his step.

"Thanks for picking him up, guys," Mom says to the twins as Zeke takes Colt from her, and the three of them head to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

The twins are eighteen now and are out of school. Currently, they are working for Dad at the Double H Dude Ranch. Dad jumps back and forth where he is needed, but mostly let's the twins run it. Both the twins are about the size of Dad body-wise. I don't think mom and dad have changed Zeke's mind yet, so I do believe he isn't going to college. He's made up his mind about staying and helping dad with the Double H. 

Zack, on the other hand, is going to USC next spring. He and Aiden are living together in an apartment just off campus. They've done multiple trips from here to Cut Bank, and Beau and I even got to go once. We stayed in our old house and pretty much partied with our old friends while Zack and Aiden played kissy-face. When Aiden comes here, they stay in the guest house, and we're not allowed to visit without texting first, hehee.

Next month, they are going on a senior trip to Europe. I'm not sure how I feel about Zack being so far away, but my input hasn't been asked as for yet in that discussion. Don't get me wrong, I love Beau with everything I have, but Zack is so special to me. He's my first love; he's my protector; he's more than just my brother. He's been a father figure to me.

Dad comes out of the mud room into the kitchen as Beau and I set up the glasses and silverware on the table. Zeke is just coming downstairs after his shower wearing gym shorts and a muscle shirt. "I think one of the young, grey mares we just got, is sick," Zeke tells Dad in passing at the foot of the stairs.

"Oh no, poor thing," mom says, bringing the plates over to the table for us to place.

"Did you separate it?" Asks dad. 

"Yeah, we put it in the rodeo stall barn. We won't need that for a few weeks."

"Good, we'll call doc Connor and decide what to do with it tomorrow morning. I'm going to take a shower. I'll be right back," dad says as he climbs the stairs.

Fifteen minutes later, we were all at the table, saying grace. Plates begin to pass, and all of us kids have to try at least a little of every dish. Stories of each of our days begin to fill the room. Sometimes we all talk at once, and sometimes someone's story captivates the whole table. But either way, the table is filled with laughter, love, and life.

"Mws. Janet told us not to tap on te glass, but Billy did anyway, and te polaw beaw pounded te glass. He scweamed so loud and wan to Mws. Janet cwying. We all jumped too. It was funny," laughs Colt, telling us about his trip to the zoo.

"He talked nonstop all the way home," teases Zeke.

Zack looks up from his plate and finishes Zeke's sentence: "...I can't tell you how many times we've heard about poor little Billy." 

We all laugh and take a break to eat some more roasted chicken, peas, and salad. After Zack swallows, he says to me, "I'm sorry I can't be with you tomorrow, AJ. If I stay here, then Dad and Mom can go with you to the hospital. Beau will be helping me out at the Double H. We're shoeing tomorrow."

"Awe, man!" Beau says a little upset.

Zeke messes up Beau's hair and whispers something in his ear, and Beau blushes. Zeke turns his attention to me and asks, "You excited, little man? Have you decided what you're going to do?" Zack immediately smacks Zeke in the back of the head like the twins always do to each other when they speak without thinking it through.

"Yeah, I mean, maybe, I'm just afraid of the outcome," I answer him then the table goes quiet, and there isn't even a tap of a fork. Beau and Colt look lost and totally out of the loop. Mom told me to keep it to myself and not worry the other boys. Mom or dad must have told the twins.

"Finish up, boys. You've got JiuJitsu tonight," mom breaks the silence with a welcomed subject change.

Forty-five minutes later. Beau, Colt, and I all pile out of the firetruck red Suburban with our black gees on and the white patch that reads, Bruce's Dojo. Colt hurries to the glass door and pulls it open with everything he has for the three of us. Through the front glass shop windows, I can see the kids from the class messing around in the back corner. Mom thanks Colt for holding the door for her and takes his hand when they get inside. I can see Master Bruce in the back office. Beau and I hurry to talk to our friends in the class who are over by the kicking practice dummies. Mom gets Colt's headset out of her bag and connects it to the iPad through Bluetooth so he can watch his cartoons. 

"Hey guys," Master Bruce says, getting all our attention as he comes out of his office. We all hurry to the black mat and sit cross-legged in our assigned spots. We do our exercises and run in place for ten minutes before we practice our kicks and punches. Mom's watchful eye, watches us closely, so we don't horseplay too much. My favorite part was next: holds and throws. I know it sounds crazy, but I love being thrown.

It's like having your world spin and come to a direct stop. Like doing a flip in the pool or off the rope swing above the lake. I'm so easily thrown, and everyone is so afraid to hurt me. Master Bruce adds a thicker mat for me to fall on to try and minimize my chances of getting hurt. It's a little embarrassing, but everyone seems to want me to use it. After an hour of practicing being badasses, as Beau puts it, we all head across the packed parking lot to the Bear Claw Creamery for ice cream.

The Bear Claw Creamery is the main hang out for people of Grizzly Vally after the high school football game, school events, and the occasional family night out. Its location is in the same mall as Bruce's Dojo, Mac's, the Tech Tribe, and a few others. The lines are long and so I look around. I recognize a few people that I see come to the Double H and a few from JiuJitsu. After we get our ice cream from the walk-up window, us three boys head over to the table with our friends, while mom joins their mothers at their table which are close enough to keep an eye on us and far enough away to not hear us talk.

"Hey guys," Colt cheerfully says as he prepares to devour his chocolate-dipped vanilla cone. 

"Hey, it's the Colter-Three," says Easten. He's been trying really hard to make that nickname stick, but no one is buying it. I wouldn't admit it, but I think it's kind of catchy. "How was JiuJitsu guys?"

"It was cool. We did throws today. You should have seen me toss Kye. I almost missed the mat," Beau says with a chuckle. 

Krew talks with his mouth full of an ice cream mixer, asking, "You excited to start lacrosse next week, Beau? All the guys can't wait to see you play again." Before Beau can answer, Krew grabs his head, mashes his teeth together, and growls, "Brain freeze!"

We all laugh, and I eat my ice cream while listening and watching my boyfriend talk about things he's excited for and some older boys he's not happy about seeing again. His friends don't pay me much attention, almost as if I'm not sitting here. They talk to Colt more than they talk to me. Beau tries his best to bring me into the conversation, but I don't have much to add, and I'm way too shy to start a subject of my own. 

I memorize faces, rumors, likes, dislikes, and stories. Colt and Cooper spent most of the time we had there talking and laughing about the zoo. From what I overheard, Cooper was there with his little brother, Boston, who is one of Colt's friends. I wonder what the Lunch Table Boys are doing tonight.

"You're shitting me!" Shouts Chance suddenly grabbing my attention from my daydream. All of us boys look for a mother to confirm they know it wasn't us that yelled that. Some uncomfortable silence goes by before the mothers go back to their talk-of-town gossip. Us boys return our attention to the table, and Chance continues, "He's twelve years old? I've always thought he was Colt's age."

"Tat's wight and he's pwobably te smawtest pewson in ouw school, no... in Grizzly Valley," Colt brags, slapping me on my back and making my teeth rattle. 

"I guess we never asked how old you are," admits Krew. "But how smart can you be?"

The uncomfortable silence returns, and it seems like everyone is waiting for me to say something smart. "Don't you guys want to talk about sports or the rodeo next weekend?" I ask, trying to get the subject changed. 

"Go on, tell them," urges Beau. 

I take a deep breath, expecting this to be the end of any chance I have to make new friends here at my age. "I don't like to talk about it, but it's not like you all won't find out. I test up to twelfth grade, but the principal would only skip me to eleventh." 

The looks on their faces were of shock, confusion, and some disbelief. Then Colt shouts, "Cool, huh!" And he crushes the ice cream cone in his hand out of excitement. 

The boys look back and forth amongst themselves as Beau and I help clean sticky ice cream from Colt's hands with the few napkins we collect from around the table. Once we're done, I hope they drop it, but they don't. Krew confirms what Beau told them when I wasn't paying attention: "But you're twelve."

"Yup," I say softly. 

"And you'll be in high school next week?" Cooper asks.

"Yup."

Chance reaches over the table and offers to bump fists with me, saying, "Dude, you'll be going to the Summit. That's cool. I've never known anyone to skip grades around here." 

I bump fists with him, and we spent the last thirty minutes talking about why I'm so smart. It's my worst nightmare. I'm always so uncomfortable talking to people about this kind of stuff. "So, to put it plain and simple, I remember anything I see and read. Then, with a little time to think, I find it and can repeat it." 

"How many times do you have to read or see it?"

"Once, I guess, but the more times I do, the faster I can remember it. It works the same with you guys. I mean, I still have to study or practice piano. It's just easier for me to recall things." 

Then came the proof. They had me recite: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, all fifty states and their capitals, birds, and mottos, and a handful of dates important in history. I'd be willing to bet my left nut that these boys wouldn't know if I was right or not. I am, of course, but that's not my point. 

Mom hears me and comes over to rescue me. "Come on, boys. Tell your friends good-bye." We bump fists and tell each other good night, throw our empty sundae bowls away, and head to the truck. 

The truck ride is quiet, like it is most of the days when we have JiuJitsu and ice cream. Colt is asleep in his booster seat, and Beau stares out his window, probably thinking about what just happened. I lean my head on his shoulder, and he moves his head to lean on mine. Once I generate enough courage, I ask softly, "Are you upset with me?"

"No."

"I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"You didn't; it's just that I didn't think it would have gone in that direction," Beau says and gives me a weak smile.

I didn't respond. I never know what to say when people begin to ask me about myself. 

I must have fallen asleep on Beau's shoulder, because next thing I know, Dad is carrying me up the stairs to my bedroom. One of the things mom and dad did for me was that when they designed this house, they made sure that our bedroom was an exact copy of the one in Cut Bank. Right down to my glass walls, the forty-eight baluster handrail on the wall and the fifty-three glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. 

I used to have a thing where I'd get so upset, nervous, or scared, that I suffer a kind of panic attack and would need something to focus on. My escape was counting stuff. I had a stuffed bear my first dad gave me. He recognized that counting stuff seemed to calm me so the bear had eighteen beads sown to the front of it. From age seven to age nine, I must have counted those black beads a million times. But it was anything really, the turns of a rubric cube, washers on a rope, leaves on a house plant, steps up to my room, or glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. Anything to get me to focus on something other than what was bothering me.

Dad sets me on the bed and takes my glasses and hearing aid from me as I rub my right eye and yawn. Across the bed, mom is undressing Colt, and Beau is already naked and putting his gee on the dresser. I'm stripped to my underwear, and as dad walks away, I lay on my back, lift my legs, and slip them off, tossing them in the corner of the room next to the hamper. The naked Colter-Three snuggle up to each other, and mom and dad kiss us on our foreheads. The lights are turned off, and I already feel Colt beginning to snore his cute little snore with my hand on his chest. I turn to Beau, who snuggles close to me, and when we're nose to nose, we kiss and then kiss again. 

`I am sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends,' I apologize in sign language.

Beau scoots back enough to say in sign language, `I'm never embarrassed of you, AJ. I love you. I was embarrassed by my friends for making you feel like you had to prove you were so smart. I'm sure you feel bad having them go on and on with all the stupid questions.'

`It didn't bother me too much,' I sign my lie to him. 

He gets lost in my eyes and signs, `You sure are amazing, though,' and then kisses me again. He closes his eyes and falls asleep with our fingers intertwined together. 

I watch him breathe and the rise and fall of his chest. Soon, the rhythmic breathing of my lover coaxes me to join my brothers in the land of dreams.