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Corrections from the last chapter -
Okay, okay, okay... There's no V12 F-350 Diesel... It was supposed to read V10. That part is that. BUT there's also no V10 Diesel 350. The V10 is a 6.8L Triton V10 gas engine that produces 310 horsepower at 4,250 rpm. I could also use the 7.3L Power Stroke V8 Diesel that produces 235 horses at 2,600 rpm and 500 foot-pounds of torque. BUT I think for this one, I'm gonna go with the V10 just cause I wanna say V10! lol (Yup I did my homework / heard from the experts ;)  Thanks D.Z.

The next day I took up my spot on the beach. It was another warm day with a cool ocean breeze blowing in from the water. I had a hectic day at work and was looking forward to unwinding. Just laying on my towel on the sand, feeling the warmth of the sun on my body was great and I soon relaxed and was almost falling asleep. "Hey Mike," came a happy, young voice. I opened my eyes and there was Julian smiling down at me. "Can I hang out with you again today?" He asked sheepishly

"Of course you can Julian," I said and patted the sand next to me where he promptly tossed himself down. "So how was your day today?" I asked, and Julian went about telling me everything that had happened to him during the day. He told me about every funny conversation, what he'd done during math class when he was bored to keep himself interested (pretending he was the teacher figuring out the questions for someone else) and even filling me in on gym class.

"...then Bobby pulled out his wang and shook it around, and we all laughed," he said exuberantly. Then he leaned closer and began to whisper. "Can I ask you somethin'?" He asked.

"You can ask me anything you want to ask me," I said.

"You promise you won't laugh or think I'm gross or anything?"

"I promise," I said admiring his bright eyes.

"Well.. okay.." He paused before continuing. "When Bobby pulled out his.. you know.. I got hard. Is that bad?" His eyes searched my own now tanned face for any signs of what I was thinking.

I took a deep breath. "Well I can tell you that it's definitely not bad, so don't feel like you're doing anything wrong. Does that kinda thing happen a lot?" I asked.

Julian nodded looking at me seriously and whispered, "I always get like a funny feeling at the bottom of my stomach when stuff like that happens." Then he looked around to see if anyone was listening in on our conversation and motioned with his hand for me to lean closer. "Sometimes I jack off thinkin about other guys."

I jumped slightly at the images of Julian pounding his pecker while imagining sex, and felt the familiar stirring in my own nether regions. I looked at the boy's firm bare chest and imagine his nearly clear boy juice shooting out onto it. I didn't know what to say, and my mind was clouding with these thoughts. "Well, I did the same kinda stuff at your age," I said without much thought.

"What about now?" He asked before I could add any comments to my statement.

"I.. I still jerk off every now and then. All guys do it." It was the truth and since when does the truth hurt?

"So what do you think about when you do it?"

"Well tonight I'll be thinking about you," I thought in my head, but considered my actual words more carefully. On one hand I didn't want to say I thought about guys even though I did, and just didn't do anything physical with guys, but on the other hand, I didn't want to say I only thought about girls and make him feel negative about himself. In the end, the weather chose for me as it began to rain. While we had been having our in-depth conversation on masturbatory practices, some nasty storm clouds had crept up over us, and were now emptying themselves onto the beach. Well no not just the beach, but you get my meaning.. it was raining, and raining hard! "Guess I better give you a ride home huh?" I asked.

Julian smiled his answer.

*    *    *

A few minutes later we were on the road headed home again in my truck. I stared at the road while Julian played with the stereo. "Your truck's so cool Mike."

"Weren't we just having this same conversation yesterday?" I laughed. Then again I turned onto his street and pulled into his driveway. His mom came out of the door, this time with more of a smile on her face.

"Are you gonna come in?" Julian asked.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," I said as he grabbed my arm to pull me out of the truck through the passenger door. I barely had time to shut off the engine and grab my key from the ignition. he then proceeded to drag me up the front steps of his house and inside followed by his mother.

"You're not intruding, you're being kidnapped," she laughed.

"How was your day Debra?" I asked smiling at her apparent happiness, or at least tolerance, towards seeing me.

We exchanged pleasantries and talked, chatting back and forward while Julian and I sat watching the television. Then Julian got me talking and he and I were talking away when I realized Debra wasn't seated in the chair to our right anymore. I had no idea when she'd left since she had to walk in front of us to get past, but she was gone. She came back into the room a few minutes later and told Julian to go take his shower and we'd all eat dinner. Julian smiled broadly at this and jumped up and half sprinted up the stairs to shower.

Once the water was running Debra turned back to me looking at me seriously. "Look," she began, "if you're going to spend a lot of time with Julian, there's some things you should know," his mother said quietly.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well.." she began in a near whisper. "Julian's different from other boys." I gave her a blank look like I didn't understand. I wasn't sure what she was talking about so I decided it was better to play stupid, than say something stupid and end up looking the fool. "Well.." she began again, "most boys Julian's age are getting interested in the opposite sex.. Julian's not interested. He never has been." She looked into my eyes pleading for me to understand her meaning. She didn't want to come out with what she thought was the case.

"When I was his age I wasn't all that interested in girls either so I wouldn't worry about him too much," I said trying to ease her worries.

"Julian's gay.." she said in a tone that reflected the pain she was feeling.. the self doubt of wondering why, or how her only son could be gay. "I don't know why. Maybe he needed a strong male figure in the house, or maybe.."

"Maybe that's just the way he is Debra." I said calmly. "And for all you know, he could end up married with kids one day. Let him choose his path." Her eyes met mine. "He's your son. You obviously love him very much, and unless you want to hurt him psychologically, there's nothing much more you can do but love him and support him."

Debra broke down. Flinging her arms around me she buried her face in my chest and cried. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders gently and rested my own chin on the top of her head. "It'll be okay Debra, it really will."

"Do you love him Michael?"

"What?"

"Do you love him?" She repeated pulling away gently to look at me again. "Look I know you're not some sexual predator or anything else, but Julian's falling head over heals in love with you, and I don't know what you're feeling for him." My head was spinning as she continued. "He's talked about nothing other than you since you left yesterday, and.. well I sort of get the feeling that you're interested in him too."

"That's a little presumptuous don't you think?" I asked. She sat down on the couch and I joined her leaving the center cushion between us.

"No," she said flatly. "I don't. I work in a hospital where learning to 'read' people is very important. You're a good looking male, in his 20s, and you're successful. But you have interest in other males."

"And what are you basing this on?"

"You watching television with Julian. You were both glued to it every time some cute guy was on it." I thought back to the shows and commercials and smiled. "Now I don't know if you're interested in Julian, but I know he's interested in you. If you're not feeling anything special about him then you need to sit him down and set him straight. Do you love him?"

"Yes," my mouth answered before my brain had a chance to think. Damn mouth.. always getting me in trouble, although today I'm thankful that my mouth was running itself those days. "There's something about him.. I've never felt like this about someone before." I heard myself say. Mentally I was seeing myself being thrown behind bars to become 'Buckweed's Bitch in cell-block B'. My mouth was still talking. "I don't know why or how. I've never been attracted to a boy since I was a boy myself! I can't understand it, but it's just something about him. Everything about him.. I don't know."

Debra put her hand on mine, bringing me out of my rambling, and shut my mouth off. "I don't know why either," she said, "but something tells me I can trust you. Julian's my baby. If you hurt him I'll kill you."

"You see the truck out front?" I asked. She nodded. "Here's the spare key. If I ever hurt Julian, it's yours to do the job." Her mouth dropped for a moment at my words. I placed the key in her hand and closed her fingers around it. "But if I ever lose my other set, can I borrow that one to get a copy made?" This set her and myself laughing and broke the tension in the room. I wasn't sure then, and I'm still not sure today what she meant by the whole thing. Whether she was giving me license to make love with her son, or what the intended point was, but I decided I would let things take there course. I would take things slowly, and let Julian do what he wanted to do, and not ask him for any favors. Sitting there on the couch, I was still unsure of what the future would hold. Over 24 hours had gone by since I had met the boy who entered the room wearing his bath robe, and I still couldn't put my finger on what it was. His looks? No not just his looks. His personality? Well that was part of it, but it seemed deeper. There was just something about this boy Julian..

"Who's up for pizza?"