WARNING: Scenes of sexual activity between males of different age groups. If this offends you or if it is illegal to read this where you are, then DON’T READ IT!
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The Boys Who Knew Too Much
by Apollo Moriarty
Chapter Two
Joshua Hoffman strode proudly and happily up East Eighty-eighth Street toward Second Avenue, once again clad in black leather pants, a loose white shirt, and a maroon scarf. His partial erection was plain to see within the tight leather and gave him a delicious sense of exhibitionism. He liked it when people looked at him. He liked their looks of lust--and disgust. He might not want the world to know he was Christopher Westbrook, but he liked them knowing that Joshua Hoffman was a sex god.
He reached the corner at Second Avenue and turned in front of the Irish pub toward Elaine’s, the famous haunt of writers and celebrities next door, where he almost walked right into an elegantly dressed, pudgy, blond man with a slim Goth boy at his side.
“Joshy! Girlfriend! What a delightful surprise!” the man exclaimed as the Goth looked bored and shat-upon by a world that cared not for his pain and suffering.
“Julian!” Josh replied benevolently. “They still let you out on the streets?”
“Oh, dear,” the man replied with a mournful shake of the head. “The nephews are still fighting for power of attorney, but I shall resist with every fiber of my being until they spread my ashes across The Ramble!”
“That’s the spirit,” Josh replied with grin. “Never say die!”
“Absolutely!”
Josh looked at the over-mascaraed eyes of the skinny boy and asked, “Julian, is this your newest discovery?”
“He is!” the man exclaimed with orgasmic delight. “Joshua Hoffman, oops, I mean Christopher Westbrook, I would like you to meet Verity House’s newest poet, The Agony!”
Josh grinned and extended his hand, replying, “Of course, he is. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Agony.”
“It’s The Agony,” the Goth replied in a dead voice.
“We’re not supposed to know that Josh is actually the brilliant and erotic Christopher Westbrook,” Julian explained with a girlish giggle. “I keep forgetting.”
“I forgive you, dear” Josh respond with a grin as The Agony sighed. “It’s just another sign of your advancing dementia.”
“Oh, you sound like the nephews!” Julian cried with a slap to Josh’s arm.
The Agony shook his head and declared in a dead voice, “I read your book last year and I was inspired. However, now that I meet you, I am sadly disillusioned.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Josh replied curiously. “In what way have I let you down?”
The Agony’s eyes moved up and down Josh’s body and he replied, “You’re wearing Gordon Bentley. Tres bourgeois gay preppy punk.”
Josh raised an eyebrow and responded, “I am so grievously sorry that I have offended you in thought, word, and deed, but I shall be sure to tell Gordon this weekend when he is thrusting his tumescent member up my rectum at his weekend home in Southampton.”
The Agony sighed and looked away, muttering, “Life is so disappointing.”
“Isn’t it, though,” Josh replied before turning back to the delighted older man and asking, “Julian, I thought you gave up on disaffected adolescent existentialists.”
“I did,” Julian replied, “but his suffering is so precious!”
Josh chuckled and asked, “Julian, are you fucking him or publishing him?”
“Both dear,” Julian replied. “How do you think your first book saw the light of day?”
“Don’t say that too loudly,” Josh muttered as he looked around at the passing people. “I was only fifteen.”
“Yes, you were!”
Josh rolled his eyes and said, “Well, I need to get inside. I’m meeting Angelica to get drunk and discuss the meaning of life.”
“Yes! I know!” Julian exclaimed. “She’s agreed to represent Timothy!”
“Who?” The Agony said with a menacing tone.
“Oh, dear. I am so sorry. The Agony! She’s agreed to represent The Agony.”
Josh looked at him for a moment, saying nothing, before he inhaled deeply and kissed the man on the cheek.
“Julian, it was delightful as always.”
He turned to the Goth and said with a smile, “Agony, it was perfectly dreadful meeting you.”
“I’m sure it was.”
“Happy suffering. Gentlemen...”
Josh waved and walked past the two and into Elaine’s, where he was immediately escorted to Angelica’s table in a corner in the back. Josh looked at the haggard expression on the woman’s face as she held up her now empty cocktail glass. Josh asked, “Cape Cod?”
Angelica nodded and he told the waitress, “I’ll have what she’s having, though maybe I’ll actually be able to achieve an orgasm.”
He sat down and Angelica said, “That scene from When Harry Met Sally was not filmed at Elaine’s.”
“I know,” Josh replied as he grinned. “It was Katz’s Deli. So, why do you look like you’ve been fucked hard and left out wet?”
“I’ve just had the most dreadful experience. I need drugs to kill the pain.”
“Zanax?” Josh asked as he reached into a pocket.
“Give it to me now,” Angelica replied forcefully.
He handed her the pill and remarked, “I just ran into The Agony and The Ecstasy outside.”
“Dear God.”
“Please tell me, Angelica, you did not just agree to represent that pathetic poser?”
“I’m afraid I cannot tell you that.”
Josh shook his head and replied, “Well, Julian certainly seems happy,”
“He’s making a damn fool of himself,” Angelica replied. “It’s worse than when he discovered you.”
“So, just what did he do when he discovered me?”
Angelica shook her head and said, “He awoke me out of a sound sleep at three in the morning and declared that the hustler he was sodomizing was actually able to spell ‘sodomize.’”
Josh raised an eyebrow and said, “I was hardly a hustler. Thad was charging five hundred dollars for a moment of bliss with me.”
“That much?” Angelica asked with a curious tone.
Josh looked at her and cocked his head.
“Talk to me, Angelica,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on,” the woman replied as their drinks were delivered, “is that some women are born to motherhood and others have motherhood thrust upon them.”
Josh raised an eyebrow and said to the waitress, “Keep them coming.”
“You should know,” Josh said when the waitress left, “that I actually ran into Zack yesterday in the elevator.”
“Did you?” Angelica asked with suspicion. “Did he throw himself at you? Offer you his ass? Rip his clothes from his body?”
“No, he was a perfectly delightful boy. Now, tell me what this is all about.”
Angelica took a gulp of her vodka and cranberry juice and sighed heavily.
“Joshua, I am a terrible mother.”
“I know, dear.”
“Actually, you don’t. It seems that Zack was having a rather unnatural and highly illegal relationship with his father before the man’s death.”
“I gathered as much,” Josh replied. “Actually, I got the impression in the elevator that Zack has a rather unnatural sex drive for a ten year-old.”
“That’s putting it mildly. You see, Jonathan and I should never have gotten married, but he was trying to convince his oilman father in Dallas that he was at least partially heterosexual when we met at an AIDS fund-raiser back in 1986. I still had a conscience back then and lived on the Upper West Side. His law firm represented our agency and I was trying to prove that career women can have it all. I failed miserably. Anyway, we went back to Dallas and were married in the Episcopal cathedral there, much to my own Presbyterian family’s chagrin, and immediately began waging war against each other.”
“Sounds like the perfect eighties love story,” Josh replied. “Thank God I was just a child then.”
Angelica shuddered and finished her drink just as the waitress brought two more. Josh gulped the last of his and picked up his second as Angelica continued.
“Neither of us could actually stand each other, though we did have really great sex.”
Josh frowned and muttered, “I’m familiar with the syndrome.”
Angelica raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment as she continued.
“One night, as I explained last night, we had rather fierce make-up sex after a perfectly ghastly dinner with his parents in Dallas. Jonathan forgot his condom and I was too drunk and horny to care. Zack exploded from my vagina thirty-nine weeks later. A lesson to all. Always use a condom. It only takes once.”
“That’s my mantra,” Josh replied. ‘So, why didn’t you get an abortion, being the good career girl you were?”
“As I said, I was busy trying to prove that career girls can have it all. I was out to prove to New York that I was Superwoman. I was going to raise a child and rise to the top of my profession, all the while with perfectly coiffed hair and a smile on my face. Well, that fantasy ended in my screams of agony in the delivery room. I’m told I invented an entirely new genre of profanity.”
Josh smiled and said, “I’ve had cocks that have done that to me.”
“I hardly think what you’ve had up your rectum compares to the absolute bloody hell of childbirth. But, we’ll leave the comparisons for another day. Meanwhile, Jonathan and I finally decided when Zack was four that we should accept the inevitable and put an end to our marriage. I decided to devote every minute to my career and gave Jonathan full custody of Zack. He absolutely adored the boy...”
“Yes, it sounds like it.”
”...and I knew he’d be a far better parent than me.”
She paused and then took a deep breath.
“There was, however, one problem.”
“You’re husband’s passionate sex with his son?”
Angelica frowned. “I didn’t really know the extent of it. I had caught him masturbating the boy when Zack was three...”
“Wait. What? You knew before the divorce that he was molesting the kid? Before you gave the man full custody?”
Coldly, Angelica replied, “I think I made that abundantly clear.”
“Angelica!”
“Calm down, Joshua.”
“Angelica!”
“For God’s sake, Josh! Be quiet! I don’t want this shouted out across Elaine’s for Mia Farrow and George Plimpton to hear!”
Josh’s eyes shot daggers at the woman and she continued, “I know it looks bad...”
“Ya think?”
She glared at him and said, “If you can’t keep your voice down, we’ll just end this now and leave. Do you understand me?”
Josh took a deep breath and downed the rest of his drink before flagging down the waitress and pointing to their glasses. He took a deep breath and said, “All right. Say what you have to say. I promise to behave, though I don’t promise not to hold you in absolute contempt.”
“I understand,” Angelica replied softly. “Trust me. I understand.”
She took a deep breath and said, “I know I’m a terrible mother. I am so terrible that I thought it was better for my son to be raised by a child molester than me. And, to be perfectly honest, I’m still not sure I wasn’t right. Jonathan truly did adore Zack. He was utterly devoted to him. He left New York and moved back to Texas so the boy would be able to grow up in a better environment than New York. Say what you will about Texas, and I can say a lot, Austin is not a hellish place in which to raise a child.”
Josh shrugged sulkily.
“Jonathan took a position with a law firm specializing in lobbying the legislature, which is fairly easy in Texas. Just promise them money, liquor, and hookers and they’ll pass anything.”
“Sounds like Albany,” Josh replied.
“Except the Texas legislators are all troglodytes. Did you know there’s a gay bar next door, literally next door to the Texas State Capitol?”
“Yes, I did,” Josh replied. “It’s called Charlie’s. I was picked up by a hunky environmental activist who was trying to save something called Barton Creek when I went down there for my last book tour.”
“Spare me the details,” Angelica said. “By the way, that’s where Jonathan met his demise. Apparently, after a day of kissing ass, he decided to have an evening of sucking cock.”
The waitress brought their drinks and she continued.
“So, we’ve established that I was more concerned about my career than I was about my son’s well-being. I knew something was happening between the two, though I think I wanted to remain ignorant of the true dimensions of what was happening.”
She looked at Josh’s frown and asked, “Joshua, you’re the slut from hell. Why are you so upset by this?”
“Angelica, you’re my agent. Didn’t you read my book?”
“Yes. In fact, I had Zack read it last night.”
“Well, then, you know. Yes, I’m a slut. I love sex. I live for sex. I’m a sexual compulsive. But, I was molested for several years by my stepmother’s younger brother. Yes, I loved it, but I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t have a choice. He made me what I am.”
Angelica looked down at her drink and nodded.
“I didn’t know the true extent of what was happening until I flew down to Austin for the funeral. No one, absolutely no one in Jonathan’s family wanted Zack. And, I found out why. He’s been having serious problems at school. He’s a brilliant student, intelligent as hell. Makes perfect grades, but he’s also been making advances on other boys. Apparently rather forcefully in some cases. It’s caused quite a problem with the school’s administrators. Parents have complained and the school was about to call the authorities when Jonathan died. Zack is a sexual compulsive. A rather intense compulsive who, at ten, does not have the tools necessary to control his compulsive behavior.”
Josh sighed heavily.
“Great. So, when he enters school here, really no matter where you send him to school, that’s going to happen all over again.”
Angelica nodded.
“Treatment?” she asked. “Can psychiatric help work? Is there anything they can do?”
Josh sighed again and said, “I don’t know. I doubt it. Sexual issues are so hard to deal with. It’s really hard and the result may be that he just gets labeled for life. Institutional life here in New York may not be any better than being institutionalized in God-awful Texas. Jesus, Angelica. I just don’t don’t know what to do. Is he really that bad?”
“I haven’t spent enough time with him to judge for myself,” she replied. “Most of this is simply what I was told by Jonathan’s relatives. I’ve seen the letters the school sent home. I’ve seen the way he flirts with men. He practically ripped his clothes off for that Italian security guard at home.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean anything. Hell, I do that every evening when I walk past him.”
“Yes, but you’re not ten years-old.”
“Physically, I’m not,” Josh replied with a grin.
“What do you suggest I do, Josh?” Angelica asked. “Do you have any ideas?”
Josh shook his head as he sipped his drink.
“I have no idea.”
Angelica looked at him for several seconds and then softly asked, “Don’t you?”
Josh turned and looked into her eyes. His face went blank.
“Joshua,” she asked softly, “I’ve not asked this question before because I didn’t really think it was truly any of my business. Your private life is your private life, but I’ve been wondering why it was so important to you to write under a pseudonym. I know why you did when you were a teenager, but you said you quit the “service” when The Different was published. However, you continue to maintain your pseudonym. Plus, you live in a very expensive apartment building. Now, I know your two books sold well and we will sell your third for a very good figure, but they didn’t sell well enough to maintain the rather lavish lifestyle you enjoy.”
“I also model for Gordon Bentley,” Josh replied softly.
“Come now, Joshy. We all know male models make squat compared to female models.”
She looked him in the eyes and said softly, “You still work for Thad, don’t you?”
He said nothing. He turned his head and looked away.
“How much did Peter pay you for last night?”
Looking across the restaurant, Josh replied, “Two thousand, plus a five hundred dollar tip.”
Angelica waited a moment and said, “I don’t judge you, Josh. You’re obviously quite attractive and you are sexually compulsive, by your own admission. You have a very comfortable life.”
“I’m very expensive and I’m very good,” he replied softly.
“I have no doubt of that. You realize, of course, that there will come a time when Christopher Westbrook and Joshua Hoffman will cross paths. You’ve already gone out on book tours as Christopher. Someday, someone will figure it out.”
“I’m not worried about scandal.”
“But, Thad and the service need anonymity.”
Josh shrugged and said, “It’s done so it appears that I’m on my own. They don’t have to be dragged into it. There’s nothing to tie me to them.”
Angelica sipped her drink and said, “You were eleven when Thad recruited you into the service.”
“He was my stepmother’s younger brother. He...”
Josh turned and looked at the woman. His eyes grew wide.
“Oh, no. No. You’re not... No. Angelica. No.”
“Why not? He’s sexually compulsive. He’s going to get in trouble if we send him to school here and he doesn’t get treatment. If he does get treatment, there’s no guarantee it will do any good and it will just label him for life as a sexual compulsive. The service gave you a structured environment in which you could exercise your compulsive behavior and not get in trouble. I assume it’s not like the typical prostitution service where they enslave you with drugs and violence.”
“No. It’s not like that at all. They cared for us. They sent us to good schools. We had the best medical care. We had a comfortable home life. It was wonderful. It was nothing like what you read about or see on television. They never kidnapped anyone or held anyone against their will. Many of us were runaways with no one looking for us. My family knew I was in New York, but they just thought I was living with Thad. They had no idea I was his employee. It’s a great... life, but Angelica...”
“You’re a published writer, Josh. You’re a model for one of the great fashion designers. You live in one of the finest buildings in New York. You’ve done very well, Josh. You’re doing very well. Why can’t Zack have that?”
Josh looked at the table, said nothing, entwined his fingers, pressed his lips together. Angelica took a deep breath and asked, “How often would they... send him out on assignments?”
“Once a day, if that. We have a very exclusive client list. Only the best people. The wealthiest. People we trust. CEO’s. The top people in theater, the arts, broadcasting. Royalty. The men who would... be with Zack would often just spend time with him. They would take him to the zoo, to museums. Not always for sex. It will happen, but... He’ll go to exclusive resorts. Paris. Rome. Milan. I went to Monaco when I was thirteen. Grand Cayman. Cancun.”
Angelica studied him for several seconds.
“You’re frowning, Josh. You don’t like the idea?”
Josh shook his head and said, “It’s a great life. For a sexual compulsive, it’s heaven. I was in heaven. I just... He’s ten. I don’t know if they have anyone that young and I feel... I just...”
Angelica nodded and said, “Do you have another idea? Please. Tell me. I’m open to suggestions. I just don’t know what else to do.”
Josh took a deep breath and shook his head. Angelica nodded and said, “He’ll have an outlet for his energies. He’ll be a controlled environment. He won’t be judged.”
“The money he earns for himself will be put into an offshore account and he’ll get it when he’s eighteen. That’s another reason I can afford to live in the Pelican Tower. He’ll get lots of spending money, not enough to draw attention, but enough. He’ll be happy. I know I was. I was delirious.”
Angelica frowned and said, “But...”
He looked at her and said, “I had a dreamlike adolescence. I had sex whenever I wanted it, with hot men. Sexy men. But also with men who were physically repulsive, men I loathed, and I had to pretend they turned me on. Sometimes, it wasn’t all strawberries and cream. Sometimes, it was really gross.”
She nodded.
“Overall, it was wonderful, but Angelica, I would have gladly given it all up to just be a normal boy. I would have happily given it all up to play baseball and go to Boy Scouts and date girls and drive a Mustang when I turned sixteen and get married and have kids and...”
She studied him and then nodded.
“Yeah, I love sex. I live for sex. When I’m not on a date, I go to Central Park and cruise The Ramble. I spend hours dancing at Splash. I... I love being sexy. I love being beautiful. I love the attention. I love it when people look at me. I love my life. I just wonder if there might be something else for Zack, some other way, something...”
Angelica nodded and said, “I understand, Josh, but if you have another idea, I’m open to any suggestion. However, this just seems like the least worst option. I know it sounds horrible coming from his mother, but realistically, what else is there?”
Josh sighed, took a deep breath and then sat up. His face became suddenly determined and he said in a clear and strong voice, “All right. I’ll go to your place as soon as I leave here and get him. He’ll stay with me now. I will train him. I’ll get his wardrobe from Gordon. He’ll start training this afternoon. I’ll talk with him, see what he thinks, work with him. I’ll take responsibility for him. You will still be his mother. You will still be legally responsible, but I will take him. Does he have a passport?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need it. Call him and tell him I’m coming.”
Angelica nodded and opened her purse as Josh removed his Nokia his belt. He pushed a speed dial number and then said, “Hey, it’s Josh. Yes, fine. Listen. I’ve found a new wine you will like. Vintage 1988. Very nice. Black and blue. Very pale. A very... eager and spunky attitude. It needs to mature, but I think it will improve with age. Yes. I’m getting it this afternoon. Perhaps we can taste it together tomorrow. Oh, yes. I am sure you will go gaga over it. Yes. Cool. I’ll call you later with a status report. Great. All right. Bye.”
Angelica was just returning her phone to her purse and Josh returned his phone to his belt. She said, “He didn’t answer. We can stop by on my way back to the office. I’m sure he didn’t go anywhere. Security has strict orders not to let him leave the building.”
“Be sure to let them know he can leave with me,” Josh replied as he pulled out his wallet.
“Don’t worry about it,” Angelica replied as she waved at his wallet. “The agency will pick this up. I had lunch with three clients.”
0 0 0 0 0 0
Zack was naked and hard as he sat on the edge of the couch watching television. He was bored as he thoughtlessly surfed the channels and fondled his boner. He was bored beyond tears. He needed to do something. He had read Josh’s book and been stunned the previous night. He had finally found someone who understood. Remembering which apartment Josh had pointed to when the man had gotten off the elevator the previous day, Zack had considered going down to knock, but he remembered that his mother was having lunch with him. Perhaps afterward. He needed to talk with Josh. He needed to do more than talk. Josh knew what it was like. Josh understood. Josh understood.
The telephone rang. He knew not to answer it. It could have been one of his mother’s friends or clients, maybe a reporter from a newspaper calling about one of her writers. However, he jumped when he heard her voice.
“Zack, it’s your mother. Josh and I are coming by the apartment now. Josh wants to talk with you and I need to get back to the office. So, try not to destroy the apartment between now and then.”
Why couldn’t she just say they were coming by? Why did she always have to throw a nasty remark into the mix? Well, nonetheless, he was thrilled. Josh was coming to see him! To see him! Zack turned the television off and ran into his bedroom to get dressed. What should he wear? Something that would impress Josh. Something that would turn him on. He had to make a good impression on him. Not the baggy cargo shorts. Not khakis. Not jeans. Wait. He knew. It was perfect.
He pulled out the tight, short pair of cut-offs he had always worn when his father had invited his special friends over. Tight. Short. Sexy. Yeah, especially if Zack had a boner! And a tee-shirt. Yeah. He knew which one. The Pink Freud shirt. A pink picture of the father of modern psychoanalysis. A funny, clever pun that Josh would understand and appreciate. He was intelligent and hip. He’d get it. Plus the shirt was too small now. It was super tight! It would be perfect! And Zack would get his titties nice and hard, along with his dick, and they would stick out and he’d see that and get even more turned on! Yeah. Zack would be so cute and sexy that Josh wouldn’t know what hit him! And, if his mother didn’t like it she could just go fuck her nasty self. She didn’t love him anyway. Why should he care what she thought?
He slipped the tight shorts on without underwear and pulled the tee-shirt on. Shoes? Sandals. Yeah. He stood before the mirrored closet door and examined himself. He mussed up his black hair to make it look sexy. He placed his thumbs over his titties and rubbed them, moaning softly at the wonderful feelings as he made them nice and hard. God, he loved getting his nipples played with. It felt almost as good as getting his dick sucked, almost as good as getting his butt fucked! Damn. Everything about sex felt good. And, Josh understood. Finally. Someone understood! Not just his dad. Someone else. Someone cool and sexy and hot and nasty! Yeah. Josh was nasty. He popped a boner in the elevator when he was wearing those tight leather pants! Yeah. Josh could get nasty. Josh could get into it. He could get into it! Yeah, he understood.
Zack ran to the bathroom and brushed his teeth carefully and gargled with mouthwash. He didn’t have any cologne or aftershave, but his mother did. Should he wear women’s perfume? Maybe just a little. Wait. No. Josh was gay. He wouldn’t want to smell a boy who smelled like Angelica Cavendar! Yeah. He would like the natural boy smell. Yeah. That was better.
He hurried into the living room and turned on the stereo. So, what kind of music should he be listening to when Josh arrived? What would impress him? Classical to show him he was intelligent? Jazz to show him he was hip? Hip hop to show him he was really hip? Dance music to show him he knew about being gay? He was searching through the huge selection of New York City radio stations and came to one that was playing Savage Garden. Yeah! He loved Savage Garden! And they were gay! “I Want You” was one of his favorite songs! He had loved it when they played it on 96.7 back home. He had a sexy lip-sync he used to do for his dad to this song. He cranked the sound and started dancing, getting in to the beat, closing his eyes and imaging the two beautiful guys who performed it, feeling the fast beat, getting into it. He threw his arms into the air, spun around, worked his hips. He loved dancing. He loved Savage Garden. He loved...
He opened his eyes and found his mother and Josh standing in the door way. His mother looked outraged. Josh had a huge grin on his face.
“Dear God!” his mother cried. “This place sounds like Studio 54!”
“Watch it, Angelica,” Josh warned as she rushed to the stereo and turned it down. “You’re dating yourself.”
“I’m not that old!”
“Actually, you are, dear,” Josh said with a smile. “You met Julian Spenser there one night when he was with Liza.”
She glared at the young man and then turned to Zack, who stood blushing fiercely, his hands clenched nervously together. Josh chuckled.
“Dude, you were busting a move there. You’re not bad,” he said. “I wish I could take you to Splash.”
“What’s that?” Zack asked softly, his eyes darting back and forth between his mother and the sexy man who was back in leather pants again.
“You might say it’s New York’s version of Oilcan Harry’s,” Josh replied.
“Oh, yeah! Cool. Dad used to go there and bring really hot guys home to party,” Zack replied.
His mother glared and then sighed heavily.
“Well, now that the door is unlocked and we’ve turned the entire building in a disco, I think I’ll return to the office. I hope the two of you don’t get me evicted from the building.”
“Don’t worry, Mommy,” Josh replied with a grin to the woman and a wink to the boy. “I’ll take Travolta here to my place. It doesn’t matter if we raise a ruckus there.”
Zack giggled and Angelica nodded. She paused a moment and then looked at Josh. She took a deep breath and said, “Joshua... thank you.”
Josh smiled and nodded.
“It’ll be okay. I... think we’re doing the right thing.”
She nodded and turned to Zack. She looked at him for several seconds and then said, “I want you to know that despite everything, and I say this with complete honesty and sincerity, I love you, Zack. I want you to be happy. I truly do. Josh will explain what’s happening. Just remember, I love you. You’re my son and... I love you.”
Zack turned pale. He looked at her with confusion before she turned and walked out the door. The boy turned to Josh and raised an eyebrow. Josh smiled and held up a finger. When he heard the elevator door close, he said, “Your mom actually does love you very much.”
“I haven’t heard her say that to me since before the divorce. I was four,” the boy replied. “Why is she telling me that now?”
Josh took a deep breath and said, “Why don’t you pack an overnight bag with a pair of... shorts that you can actually go out in public in and a regular shirt, though I have to tell you those shorts work. They really do, man. You are totally fucking hot, And I love Pink Freud there.”
Zack grinned and said, “I got it a little shop on West Sixth in Austin.”
Josh nodded and said, “It’s the bomb. Now, get your shit and lets go to my place. We need to have a talk.”
Zack nodded, but then said, “I really don’t have an overnight bag. I have a suitcase.”
“Too much. Just get a grocery sack or something. We’ll be going to Gordon Bentley this evening or tomorrow to get you a whole new wardrobe.”
Zack looked at him as if he were insane.
“What? Why?”
Josh grinned and said, “Dude, you’re life is about to change again. This time, however, it’s changing in a way I think you might like.”
Zack nodded, still confused, but hurried to the kitchen, returned with a grocery sack, ran to his room, and returned a moment later.
“Toothbrush?” Josh asked. “No, never mind. I’ve got a dozen toothbrushes. Okay, let’s go down to my place and get this new life started.”
Please let me know what you think of my story. Send comments to: apollo (dot) moriarty (at) hushmail (dot) com.