Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. It contains descriptions of sex between teenage boys and between adult men. If you are offended by this type of material, or if you are forbidden by law to read it, please exit the story now. E-mail comments are gratefully accepted at brew_drinker23@yahoo.com.

Tim

Chapter 12

(Tim's Perspective)

David and I had sex a couple of times, but Kyle said he didn't mind. He even tried to set up a three-way with him and us, but that fell through. But I thought about Kevin and Rick. I knew those guys loved each other so much they probably wouldn't care if the other one had sex with other guys. But I also knew they didn't do that. I liked Kyle more than I had ever liked anybody in my life, but I didn't know if we were in love like Rick and Kevin were in love. Regardless of that, though, I wanted to be like them in every way, and they were totally faithful to one another. That's what I wanted. So I told David we couldn't do it together anymore. He said he didn't think I would keep on with him, and he was fine with it.

I got some e-mail from my dad saying he wasn't going to be able to write to me anymore. I lost it big time that night.

"I'm sorry about your dad not being able to write to you," Kyle said. We were in bed in my room. We had been through a very tough scene in front of Kevin and Rick. I had thought Kyle had tried to turn me on by rubbing my thigh. I got hard and freaked out. He freaked out, too, but he promised me on his honor that he hadn't intended to get me hard, and I knew I could believe him.

"Me, too. I'm sorry I freaked out back there," I said.

"I freaked out as bad as you. No shame in that, Babe."

We didn't say anything for a few minutes. We had already made love a couple of times since we had come to bed, so feeling him snuggled up against me didn't really turn me on all that much. I broke the silence.

"Can you keep a secret," I asked.

"You know I can," he said.

"I know. I don't think I would be too sad if my dad didn't come home."

"What do you mean," he asked.

"I've never been happier in my life. I've got you; I've got Rick and Kevin. I feel really bad about it, you know what I mean? I was okay before, you know? But I wasn't really happy like I am now."

"Can you keep a secret," he asked.

"Of course. What?"

"I was miserable before I met you and them. I was totally ashamed of being gay, and I hated myself. Every night I prayed to God I would die in my sleep."

"I never thought of it that way, but I was kind of like that, too. I don't feel that way anymore, do you?"

"No. Not at all," Kyle said. "I've even started feeling sort of proud of being gay since I met you and Rick and Kevin. Do you know what Gay Pride is?"

"I've read that word, but I'm not sure I know what it means," I said.

"Well, I'm not sure I know what it means, either, but I'm damn proud of Rick and Kevin, and that they're my big brothers. And I'm very proud of you. I wish we could stand on the stage in that amphitheater at school and kiss and say to everyone, `We're boyfriends.'"

"Me, too. But we can't do that. Rick and Kevin have talked to me a lot about being careful, and I think we need to be," I said.

"No question," he said.

I got really busy working on my Eagle project. Rick and Kevin told me I should do it just because the scouts were anti-gay and that by making Eagle I could sort of rub it in their face. I didn't feel good about even being a scout and being gay. I talked to Rick about it.

"Rick, can I talk to you," I asked him one day.

"Of course you can, buddy. What's up?"

"I've been thinking about the scouts."

"And...?"

"Well, I think I might be telling a big lie just by staying in the scouts," I said.

"I don't follow what you mean, Tim," he said.

"When I take the oath, I say I will be morally straight, you know?"

"Yeah? So? You are. I can vouch for you."

"How can I be, Rick? I'm gay."

He got really tense when I said that, and I thought he was going to be mad at me. I was sorry I had brought it up, but Rick was the only guy I knew who would understand. He didn't say anything for a long time.

"Tim, what do you think being morally straight means," he asked. He said it really nice and wasn't mad at all.

"I think it means following the rules. All of the rules," I said.

"What rules do you think you break, Tim? What important rules, I mean."

"Well, the rule about being gay," I said.

"Whose rule is that, Tim?"

"It's a scout rule, I guess. I'm not morally straight."

"Do you ever hurt anybody on purpose, buddy? Huh?"

"No."

"Do you help other people at all times," he asked.

"I try to," I said.

"Are you loyal to your friends? Do you stand up for them when they need you to?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, Tim, if that's not being morally straight, I don't know what is, man," he said.

"But what about being gay," I asked. I was getting pretty confused.

"Tim, did you wake up one morning and say, `Hey, do I want to be straight or gay? Hell, yeah, I'll be gay. That way, some of the guys might beat the shit out of me or even kill me if they find out. And I'll have to hide who I really am. And I won't have some of the legal protections that everybody else has. Yeah, that's it. I'll be gay.'"

I was laughing by the time he finished that. Rick could make me laugh just about any time he wanted to.

"Of course I didn't decide that," I said. "It just happened, I guess."

"And who made it happen, Tim?"

I drew a total blank on that question. I had never thought about it before, and I had no idea who made it happen that I was gay.

"I don't know," I said.

"I know," he said.

"Who," I demanded. I'd like to talk to that son of a bitch, I thought.

"Son, God made you gay."

I was shocked. "How do you know that," I demanded again.

"Because He, or She if you listen to some priests, made me gay. He made Kevin gay. He made Kyle gay. He made..."

I cut him off. "Why would God do that?"

"Why would God make us special? Different? Maybe because He loves us a little bit more, Tim. Maybe because He knew that we could handle the challenge and we'd be more compassionate and more tolerant people because of it. I really don't know."

"You don't seem very religious at all, Dad," I said. I realized after I said it I had called him "Dad," but I didn't correct myself that time.

"I guess I'm really not. Kevin is more religious than I am, that's for sure. But I'm a Catholic, just like you, and I pretty much believe a lot of it. But you don't have to be religious to believe in God and to know that God loves you, do you?"

"No, I guess not," I said.

"Let me tell you a story. Kevin and I went on a trip to Rome. His grandmother had given him a trip for two for his college graduation, and he took me. We had been together about nine months then. One of his dad's best friends is a priest, and he teaches theology at a university in Rome. We spent a day with him. It was a Sunday, and we met him at a church where he said Mass. We went to Mass, but Kevin and I didn't go to communion. We had a great day, and we really liked that guy. That night he asked us why we hadn't gone to communion. Kevin told him we were gay and we lived together, in sin.

"He asked us if we cared for one another, and we both said `yes' right away. By then, we more than just cared for one another. We were in love, and we both pretty much thought it was probably going to be for life. Then he asked us if what we did in bed was an expression of the care we had for one another. Again, we both said `yes.'

"Then he said, `Caring for one another, or, obviously, love, in your case, is the opposite of evil. How can the expression of love ever be evil, or sin?'

"That's when I knew Kevin and I were morally straight in every way, Tim."

"But the scouts say being gay isn't being morally straight," I said.

"But, see, they don't know everything. Do you feel immoral just because you're gay?"

I honestly didn't, and I said as much.

"I don't either, Tim. In fact, I know I'm not. You're not lying when you take that oath, man. Please trust me on this. And you're not unclean. And you do your duty to God and your country, too, man."

I didn't say anything. I was letting it all sink in.

"Lord Baden-Powell. Do you know who he was," Rick asked.

"No, Rick. I've never heard of him. Who was he?" My voice was dripping with sarcasm. How could he think I didn't know who the founder of the Boy Scouts was?

He pinched my nipple hard, the way my friends and I did to one another. "You little shit," he said.

He laughed, and I laughed, too, even though my nipple was hurting pretty bad.

"Anyway, smartass, Baden-Powell wanted the scouts to be for every boy. He never said gay boys couldn't be scouts."

"Do you think he was gay," I asked.

"I know some biographers have said that, but so what if he was? So what if you are, and so what if I am? Huh? Huh?"

He moved in on a tickle attack. We wrestled around for a little while on the floor, tickling one another. We ended up knocking an ashtray off the coffee table, but it didn't break. That pretty much ended our talk.

After that talk with Rick, I felt just fine about being a gay scout. I loved Kevin, but Rick was sort of my idol. He was my second dad, and Kevin was my third dad. I felt sort of guilty about making a difference between them because I knew Kevin loved me, too. But I felt like I had a bond with Rick that I didn't have with Kevin.

I went ahead and did my Eagle project. It was to landscape a place in the yard of a nursing home, and I got Kyle, Kevin, and Rick to help out. Kyle got his friends Philip and Ryan to help, too, and I got two other boys who I had helped on their projects to help, also. Sam, an assistant scoutmaster, also helped.

The project went really good. I had worked for a couple of months planning it, getting all the stuff we needed, and everything, and the day went perfect. Kyle invited everybody to go swimming at his house, and on the way there, he told us that Philip had told him that day that he and Ryan were boyfriends.

I did my project in April so the plants could take advantage of the growing season to get established and all. The week after the project, we had Spring Break. Spring Break in a beach town like ours was always a big deal, only for us it lasted seven weeks, not just the one week we were off school. The Goodsons were real busy with their hotels and gift shops during Break, and they hired me and Kyle to work during our vacation week. Kyle worked the beach, renting chairs and umbrellas, selling sunscreen, and bottles of water and soft drinks.

I was the pool boy. I had a concession stand, too, but I also had to keep the pool and the area around it clean and neat. They had sets of tables and chairs around the pool, along with lounge chairs. Part of my job was to bus the tables when they needed it and to empty the ashtrays. I stayed pretty busy, and it was great being out in the sun. One of the things I enjoyed was looking at all the cute college guys in their bathing suits. One guy in particular wore a light blue Speedo, and he must have been really well built down there, judging from the bulge.

One day the guy in the Speedo fell asleep on his back in a lounge chair, and he got an erection in his sleep. That big pole he was toting turned that Speedo into a circus tent right there for everybody to see. I noticed some girls, and a few guys, too, pointing at it and giggling about it. I called Kyle on the cell phone I had been given and told him to come up to see it. He did, and he and I laughed our asses off at the poor guy.

We closed down the concessions around four o'clock every day, and that's when Kyle and I played. We started hanging out some with Philip and Ryan that week. On the day of the Big Erection, we all met up at Kyle's house after work. His brother was still in school because his Spring Break had been two weeks before ours, and his parents wouldn't get home until around nine o'clock that night, as usual. I was staying at Kyle's house that particular night, so it was just the four of us boys that afternoon.

Philip and Ryan were both sixteen, and they both had cars. Philip was the cuter of the two, and he had really nice muscles from surfing. Ryan was cute, too, but he wasn't built and cut like Philip was.

We got cokes and went up to Kyle's bedroom. We were sitting around talking about nothing in particular when I remembered the guy with the erection. I told them about it, and everybody was laughing and being silly.

"Goddamn, I wish I had seen that," Philip said.

"Why? You've seen mine," Ryan said.

"You got a big one, Ryan," Kyle asked.

"He don't call me footlong for nothing," Ryan said, meaning Philip.

"Bullshit," Kyle said. "You ain't got no foot long dick."

"I didn't say it was a foot long. I just said he calls me `footlong.'"

"So how big is it," I asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Ryan said.

"This boy's holding on to some major sausage, too," Kyle said, referring to me.

I'm sure I blushed, but I had had so much sun already that week that it probably didn't show too much.

"Only one way to settle this, dudes," Philip said. "Get a tape measure."

I got a little nervous when he said that.

"I don't know about that," I said.

"Aw, come on, Babe," Kyle said. "These guys are our friends, and we're all gay, for God's sake."

"Okay, I'll do it, but only if everybody does it," I said.

"Back in a minute," Kyle said.

Philip and Ryan were grinning. I smiled, too, but it was kind of a nervous smile, not a smile that said I was happy. They started taking off their clothes, and Kyle was back before they were fully undressed.

"Come on, Babe," Kyle said. "Let's get naked."

Kyle was just as enthusiastic about the idea as Philip and Ryan were. I wasn't at all embarrassed about the size of my dick, but I wasn't real comfortable getting hard in front of the other guys. I went along with it, though, to be a good sport, and pretty soon all four of us were naked.

Everybody was a little bit hard without even doing anything. We needed full hard-ons, though.

"Ryan, you get Tim hard," Philip said, "and I'll get Kyle hard."

This was a wrinkle I hadn't expected.

Ryan jumped over to me and got behind me. I felt his dick on my ass and then his hand on my dick. He started playing with the foreskin, not really knowing how to make me hard. He licked my ear a few times, and that, together with the feel of his hand on my dick and his dick getting hard against my ass, got me hard in no time.

When everybody was ready, Philip did the honors with the tape measure. It was one of those cloth tape measures, and he held it across the tops of our dicks.

"Somebody write this down," Philip said. "Ryan's dick is seven and three eights inches long." Then he did circumference. "And it's five and seven eights inches around.

"All right, Ry," Kyle said.

I was next. "Tim is...whoa! Seven and five eights inches long, annnnnnnnnnnnd an even six inches around. Holy shit, boy. How old are you, anyway?"

"I'll be fifteen next month," I answered.

"You let him stick that thing up your ass, Goodson," Philip asked Kyle.

"No way," Kyle said. "At least not yet."

Ryan and Philip both laughed.

Kyle measured in at six and three eights inches long and five and a half inches around. Kyle measured Philip, and he was the runt of the litter with five and three quarter inches of length and four and seven eights inches of circumference.

"Well, I guess you're the winner," Ryan said to me. "'Course, not by much."

"So what do we do with these things now," Kyle asked.

"Circle jerk," Ryan asked tentatively.

"Yeah. Let's do it," Philip said. "The guy who comes first has to suck off everybody else."

I really got nervous when he said that.

"Oh, come on, Babe. It's just a game," Kyle said.

"Okay," I said reluctantly.

We spread a towel out on the floor, and the four of us knelt down around it. Philip wanted to set the pace, and we were each supposed to stroke when he said to. That way, he said, nobody would have the advantage of going slower than the rest of the guys.

Kyle and I had jerked each other off while we were taking a shower before we left work that afternoon, but I knew that didn't necessarily mean we would have any advantage. I knew I wasn't interested in sucking off three guys, though, so I used my foreskin to keep from shooting too fast. Instead of jerking off the way I usually did, using two fingers to rub the skin back and forth over the head of my dick, I grabbed it in my fist the way the others did theirs.

Philip set the pace, saying, "Down, up, down, up" in a pretty regular rhythm. I watched the others, of course, and they watched me and each other, too. Ryan let out a loud moan after about a dozen strokes, and he shot his load. Kyle was maybe a second behind him, and he started pumping out his stuff before Ryan was finished. Philip declared it a tie.

"What do we do now," Kyle asked.

"You suck off Tim, and I'll suck off Philip," Ryan said.

"It's a deal," Kyle said.

I was relieved that I didn't have to suck anybody, and I was glad it would be Kyle working on me. We had been doing oral for about two months at that point, and I knew it would be good. He got me on my back on the floor and took my dick into his mouth. I had assumed Ryan would work on Philip at the same time, but he didn't. The two of them watched Kyle and me. Kyle knew how to do me good, and he did the finger, which only made it better. When I shot, it was long and hard.

"What was that shit with your finger up his ass, Kyle," Philip asked.

"Y'all don't do that," Kyle asked in reply.

"No. Don't it hurt," Philip asked.

"No, it don't hurt," Ryan said. "I'll show you."

"You've done that with a guy," Philip asked his boyfriend.

"Not with a guy. You know that," Ryan said. "But I do it to myself all the time. There's a spot you have to rub that feels really good. Lay down. I'll show you."

Philip's dick was maybe ten percent less hard than it had been a few minutes before, but Ryan got it back up to speed in about two seconds once he took it into his mouth. He wet his longest finger real good with spit, and he rubbed Philip's hole a few times before he stuck it in him. Philip shrieked, and I figured Ryan must have found the special place. It didn't take Philip long to lose it after that, and he let out a big moan when his muscles stiffened up.

"Whoooa! That was un-fucking-believable," Philip said when it was all over. "We're going to have to do that again real soon." He kissed Ryan right there in front of us, and they were pretty cute.

"Hey, guys. Since we're all naked, let's go for a swim," Kyle said. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.

That night in bed, after we had done the finger to each other a couple of time, Kyle said, "I guess Philip learned something this afternoon."

"Yeah," I said. "Do you think we would have figured that out on our own if Kevin and Rick hadn't told us about it?"

"I don't know. Maybe," he said. He kissed me and snuggled up to me, and we went to sleep.

Saturday was check-out day at the motel for people who had been there all week, and that's the day we got paid. We had both worked forty-eight hours over seven days, and we each got $480.00 in cash.

"Now this summer y'all are getting checks, and you're going to pay taxes," his dad said when he paid us. "But this is just a little gift for helping me out over your break."

"Thanks, Dad; thanks, Mr. Goodson," Kyle and I said at the same time.

"Did y'all make any tips," Mr. Goodson asked.

"Yes, sir, Daddy," Kyle said. "I made ninety bucks. How much did you make, Tim?"

"I made seventy-five," I said.

"Well, it looks like you boys done pretty good for yourselves. Kyle, you're spending tonight at Tim's house, right?"

"Right."

"Well, y'all be good, and y'all be careful. I don't want nobody turning up pregnant around here."

"Daaaaaaaaaddddddd," Kyle said. He blushed, and I'm sure I did, too.

Mr. Goodson used both hands to ruffle our hair. "Y'all are cute. Now, get out of here."

"What do you want to do," Kyle asked after we had showered and dressed.

"Kevin told me to get a haircut, so I guess I better do that," I said.

"I could use one, too," Kyle said. "Let's get haircuts."

On the way to the hair salon, Kyle said, "You know what I'm thinking?"

"What?"

"With this good tan I've got, I need blond hair."

"Blond hair," I asked in disbelief.

"Sure, why the hell not? You ought to do it, too," he said.

"My hair's already blond," I said.

"Yeah, but it's dark blond. Sort of dirty blond. I mean, I want mine real blond. Lighter than yours is now. Will you do it too?"

I thought for a few seconds and couldn't come up with a reason not to.

"Okay, if you do it."

It ended up costing us sixty bucks each for a haircut and bleach job. Two different people worked on us at the same time, and we didn't see one another until we were all finished. Kyle really looked hot with blond hair. His eyebrows and eye lashes were still dark brown, and the contrast looked great. He said I looked hot, too, but I thought I looked like I was eight years old, which had been the last time my hair was that light.

"Let's get tattoos," Kyle said.

"No way, dude," I said. "Kevin and Rick would kill me."

"Not real ones, asshole. Paste-on ones. There's a tattoo shop down the beach that does wicked fakes. They last about a month or six weeks. Longer if you don't take a shower."

"Ewwww," I said to the idea of not taking a shower.

He laughed and gave me a quick kiss.

"What do you say?"

"Okay," I said.

So we went to the tattoo shop and got fake tattoos. We got them on our left bicep, and we made the girl do them high enough so that the sleeve of a tee shirt would cover most of them, but not all. We each picked out what the shop called primitive designs, and they looked very real. That was another twenty bucks a piece. It's a good thing we got paid, I thought.

Driving back to my house, Kyle pulled off the main road onto a side street.

"Where are we going," I asked.

"To our warehouse," he said.

I knew about the place, but I had never been there before. We pulled into the parking lot of a big metal building. The sign out front said "Goodson Enterprises." Inside there were a couple of offices and one enormous room with rows and rows of shelves.

"Hi, Tim," a young guy in one of the offices said. "Here for some smokes?"

"Yeah," Tim said.

The guy came out of his office into the area we were standing in. We were both wearing tank tops, so our new tattoos were clearly visible. The guy sort of did a double take when he saw Kyle.

"Whoa, dude," he said. "What's with the hair, man?"

"You like it?"

"It's fucking cool, man. Especially with the tan. And what's up with the ink? Has your old man seen this?" He touched Kyle's tattoo.

"Not yet. We just got them," Kyle said.

"Who's your friend, man," the guy asked.

"Oh, sorry, Evan. This is Tim Murphy, my best friend. Tim, this is Evan Franklin, a cool guy."

Evan grinned. "Nice to meet you, Tim."

"Same here," I said, as we shook hands.

"Can we just look around," Kyle asked. "We want to do a little Easter shopping."

"Help yourself, dude," Evan said. "It's all your shit, anyway."

"Thanks."

After we had walked away from Evan, I said, "What are you talking about? Easter shopping?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow's Easter, remember? Do you have something for Kevin and Rick?"

"Shit, no. I didn't even think of gifts," I said.

"Do you want to get them something," he asked.

"Of course I do. And you, too," I said.

"Well, let's go shopping."

That warehouse was totally amazing. It had all the stuff they sold in their gift shops, only by the dozens. There were all the tacky things that tourists buy for their next door neighbors, but there were a lot of good things, too.

"This is what I'm giving them," Kyle said, holding up two swim sets that each had a bathing suit and a matching beach jacket sort of thing. They were really cool, but I noticed they didn't have a price tag on them.

"How much are they," I asked. I wanted to spend the same amount, or more, as Kyle.

"They're free," Kyle said.

"Free?!"

"Yeah, to us. We're not paying for anything here," he said.

"I have money, Kyle," I said.

"Yeah, but Evan can't take it. This isn't set up for retail. If you pay Evan, it's going right straight into his jeans, that's for sure," he said. "I ain't giving that fucker money for stuff our company bought."

"Have you done this before," I asked.

"Hell, yeah. This is where I do all my gift shopping. My dad's the one who told me to do this."

"I don't know what to get them," I said. "You got any suggestions?"

"Do they have ankle chains, do you know," he asked.

"They aren't into anything kinky. You know that."

Kyle laughed so loud the warehouse echoed.

"What the fuck's so funny," I said. Kyle had never made fun of me, and I knew he probably wasn't making fun of me then, but I didn't understand what was so funny.

"You've been reading too many stories in the Nifty Archive by that guy Danny Meyer and that other guy David Buffet."

"So? Their stories are awesome."

"I know they are, but they both write about domination and bondage and slavery and that kind of stuff. The kind of ankle chain I'm talking about is jewelry, not bondage stuff, you dork."

"Oh," I said, and I giggled at my own ignorance.

"Let's find them. I'll show you what I'm talking about."

We went back to the jewelry area, and they had just about everything you could imagine.

"Okay. Here they are," Kyle said, pulling a box from the shelf. We had had to get a ladder on wheels to get to them.

"They look kind of like bracelets," I said.

"Well, they could be. But a lot of people wear them around their ankles instead of their wrists. They could wear them in either place. Do you like `em?"

"Yeah. They're really cool."

"These are 14 karat ones. Let's see if we can find some better ones."

He went up on the ladder again and came back with a box of 24 karat gold ankle chains.

"Get them these. They're better quality," he said.

"Cool," I said. Then, "Would you like to have one?"

"Yeah. Would you?"

"Yeah."

We took four packages of them out of the box. The packages had directions for how to take out links if they were too big. I felt really good about them.

"Do you want anything else you see," he asked.

"Naw. I already sort of feel like I'm stealing," I said.

"Okay, you can pay for them."

"I thought you said Evan couldn't take any money."

"He can't. You can pay me for them."

"Good. How much?" I reached for my wallet to pay Kyle for the stuff I had bought.

"Not money, dude."

"What, then?"

"Blowjobs, with finger."

"But I'm going to do that anyway," I said.

He laughed. "You still don't get it, do you? You cannot pay for shit here. Period. Over and out!" He kissed me right then, and it wasn't just a peck on the lips, either.

"Kyle, it's time to close up, man. I need to get going." That was Evan's voice over a PA system.

"Come on. Let's go," Kyle said.

We passed a huge stack of cartons of cigarettes, and Kyle grabbed two of the kind he liked. We walked a couple of feet more, and he turned around and went back. He grabbed two more cartons.

"For Kevin," he said.

"Did you guys find what you needed," Evan asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Evan," Kyle said.

"No problem, little dudes. Come back anytime. We're open every fucking day."

"Bye, Evan," I said. "It was nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Jim," Evan said.

"It's Tim, not Jim. Don't forget that," Kyle said.

"Sorry, Tim. Okay, I won't forget it," Evan said.

Kyle had sounded like a boss, and Evan had sounded like a guy who wanted to keep his job. That stuff was all so new to me, I didn't know what to think of it.

We got home around six o'clock, and Kevin and Rick were sitting in the den, obviously dressed to go out.

"What the fuck," Rick shouted when we went in.

Kevin was reading. When he looked up and saw us, his mouth dropped open. Kyle and I were both grinning from ear to ear.

"You like," Kyle said.

They both stood up and walked over to us. Kevin put his hand on my head to ruffle my hair, and he pulled back a handful of gel. He wiped it on my tank top.

"Yuck," he said.

"I love it, guys. I absolutely love it," Rick said.

Kevin was grinning and nodding his head. "Yeah, me, too. It looks so good with your tans. Y'all look so, so, healthy."

Rick spotted the tattoo on Kyle's arm.

"Yo, what's this? Ink?"

"Him, too," Kyle said.

"Oh, shit. Oh, God," Kevin said. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something.

Rick winked. "If the place is open, I'm getting one tomorrow," Rick said.

"Jesus Christ! I'm not believing this," Kevin said in a very serious voice. Kevin couldn't see Rick where he was standing, but Rick was about to choke from laughing so hard without making any sound. "Boys, how could you do this? You're so young. You're going to have those the rest of your lives."

Rick couldn't hold it together any longer, and he started laughing out loud.

"What the fuck is so funny, Rick," Kevin asked. He was as pissed at Rick for laughing as he was at us for getting tattooed.

"Those are fakes, Babe. They're not real tattoos."

Kevin calmed down a little bit. "How do you know? They damn sure look real."

"Did they have them this morning when they went to work," Rick asked.

"No. They obviously got them today," Kevin said.

"Do you see any red needle marks? Any swelling?"

"No, but they look real."

"But they're fakes, Baby," Rick said.

"Tim, are those tattoos fake? On your honor," Kevin said.

"You ain't a scout," Rick said.

"Shut the fuck up!" Pause.  "Please."

Rick doubled over in laughter, and I guess I realized for the first time that Kevin could be really pretty cute, for a grown up.

"They're fakes, Dad," I said. "Scout's honor."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds. I could tell Kevin felt dumb, but it was in good fun. Of the two of them, Rick was the prank guy, the one who always wanted to have fun. Kevin was much more serious.

"It's ten after six, boys," Kevin said. "We're leaving for church at ten till seven. Go get ready."

"Why is Mass starting late tonight," I asked. It usually started at six o'clock on Saturday night.

"I don't know," Kevin said, "but the bulletin from last week said it starts at seven tonight. Now move your asses."

Kyle and I went back to my room to change. We had showered up before we left work, as usual, so we just had to change into church clothes. Through the door to my room, we heard Kevin scream "asshole," and then we heard them both laugh very loud and very hard.

"Our big brothers are really cute, you know," Kyle said.

"Yeah," I said. "Our" big brothers, he had said. Yeah. Yeah, I thought. Our big brothers.

When we got to church, there weren't nearly as many cars in the parking lot as there usually were. I didn't think anything about that. When we walked into the church, it was dark. They had the front doors propped open so light could come in from the lights in the parking lot. We found places. Every place had a candle at it.

"What's going on," Rick asked Kevin, but loud enough for us to hear it.

"I think we made a big mistake, Babe," Kevin said. This is going to be looooooong tonight. This is the Easter Vigil."

"Tell me it's not, Kevin. I've been to one of those before. At FSU. Oh, man. Is there going to be a bishop here?"

"I don't know," Kevin said. "What year did you go to it in Tallahassee?"

"Freshman year. A bishop was there, and it was very, very long," Rick said.

"That's cool, man. I went to it freshman year, too, and, yeah, there was a bishop, and it was very long."

Before Rick could respond, a guy announced that we all had to go outside for the blessing of the new fire.

The service was very long. One of the deacons sort of apologized, but he said that that service was the highlight of the church year. There were lots of readings and some baptisms of grown-ups and all kinds of stuff. Finally, it was over at 9:30.

"Jesus Christ," Kevin said as we were leaving the church.

"Exactly," Rick said. We all laughed.

Kevin and Kyle lit up smokes on the porch of the church, where the fire thing had been.

"Well, at least you guys got a snack," Kyle said. "I didn't get nothing."

It took us all a few seconds to figure out that he was talking about communion, and when we did, we all laughed our asses off.

When we were in Rick's car, Kyle said, "I'm so hungry I could eat Tim."

"Can't you wait till you get home and in bed," Kevin said.

Nothing happened for a few seconds; then we all busted out laughing. That was the kind of thing Rick would say to tease us about sex, and coming from Kevin it was all the funnier. Comments like that used to embarrass me when Kyle and I first started dating, but by then I just thought they were funny. It was like they took Kyle and me seriously enough to tease us about it, and that felt pretty damn good. They never judged us or had anything negative to say, and that was really cool.

We went to a bar and grill place, and we all ate a lot of food. We went home after that, and we all went to bed.

Kyle and I got up before them on Easter Sunday morning. We knew they wanted privacy on Sunday morning, and we totally respected that. We were pretty excited that morning, though, and we scurried around the kitchen getting the breakfast stuff ready. We had fallen into a habit of cooking a really nice breakfast for them on Sunday mornings, and that day was even more special because it was Easter and we had presents for them.

"How are we going to wrap their gifts," I asked.

"Shit, I forgot about that," Kyle said.

"Me, too."

"Is there any wrapping paper around here," he asked.

"I've never seen any," I said.

"I've got an idea. They don't read the funnies, do they?"

"I've never seen them read them," I said.

"We can use the funny pages to wrap the presents in," he said.

I ran out to the street in just my briefs to get the Sunday paper. I had done that before, so it was no big deal. We pulled the funny pages out and went out to Kyle's car to get the presents from the trunk. We wrapped them in the funny pages and set them at their places. Kyle wrapped his present to me, and I wrapped mine to him. We set those in place, too. And then we waited.

By nine o'clock, we had made all the breakfast stuff except for cooking it, wrapped the presents, and watched three cartoons on TV.

"Do you think they're even awake," I said.

"Oh, yeah. They're awake," he said.

"What are they doing?"

"I can't believe you, Tim. What the hell do you think they're doing? They're making love, that's what they're doing."

"You think that's what they're doing?"

"Jesus, Tim. Of course they are, man. They're in love with each other. Of course they're making love."

"Are we in love," I asked. I just blurted that out. I knew Kyle liked me a lot, but I was definitely in love with him, I thought.

"I am," he said.

"With me?"

"No. With Philip. Of course with you, you jerk. Who the hell do you think?"

"Are you really in love with me," I asked.

"Yes, Tim, I am. Didn't you know that?" His voice sounded like I should have already known he was in love with me, even though he had never said it.

"I'm in love with you too," I said in a quiet voice.

"I know. Everything you say and do lets me know that."

"Do you think Kevin and Rick know?"

"No question they know. Everybody who knows us knows."

"We spend a lot of time together, you know? But I think about you all the time when we're not together. Like at school and all."

"The same with me, man. This past week, when we were working, I thought about you constantly."

"Me, too," I said.

"Let's get on the couch," he said.

We got into the position that Kevin and Rick got into all the time. I was already half hard, and I got fully hard when he wrapped him arms and legs around me. We didn't talk, and we didn't have sex, exactly. But it was an awesome experience.

We both went to sleep, and the next thing I knew there was a camera flash going off. Kevin and Rick were standing there grinning their asses off, and Kevin was holding a camera.

"Good morning, boys," they both said at the same time.

"Morning," we both sort of mumbled.

"Did you take our picture," Kyle asked.

"Yup. Hard-on and everything," Rick said.

I suddenly realized my dick was hard, and Kyle's was, too. I felt myself blush.

"Why," I asked.

"Because y'all were too cute to resist," Kevin said. "That's why."

"But I'm hard," I said. I was embarrassed and a little pissed off that they would do that.

"Oh, please," Rick said. "Get over it."

"I think you guys are turning into us," Kevin said.

"I hope so," Kyle said, and Kevin and Rick smiled. "Get up, Tim."

"Like this," I asked, not believing what he had said to me.

"Why the hell not," Kyle replied. "They know about us, Babe." He said that last part is a pretend whisper.

"Getting hard is your job, Tim," Rick said. "It's no biggie, man."

As we were getting up, Kyle said, "It's bigger than Ryan's, Philip's, or mine."

"Kyle! Jesus, man," I said. I felt self-conscious enough standing there with a big tent in my underwear, and Kyle was making it worse by talking about it.

"Did y'all have a little measuring contest," Kevin asked.

"Yeah. His is seven and five eights inches long and six inches around," Kyle said.

"Wow" Kevin and Rick said at the same time.

I wanted to vanish, to disappear right into thin air. I turned around and went into the bathroom, and I had tears of humiliation in my eyes. Rick was right behind me.

"Hey, buddy," he said in his gentle voice, "don't be mad, man. That was all in fun." He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Why did he have to tell you guys," I asked.

"Did you ever think that maybe he's proud of you?"

His saying that settled me down a little.

"It's obvious you guys are in love with one another. Let him brag about you, man," Rick said.

"But what if he said that to our friends? Like tonight when all the guys will be here?"

"He'd never say that to anybody but us, Tim. You know that, don't you?"

"I guess so."

"Tim. Can I come in?" It was Kyle at the bathroom door.

"Let him in, Tim. He's afraid you're pissed off at him. He didn't mean anything by what he said."

"Okay. Thanks, Rick. I love you."

"I love you, too, Tim. Now don't be too long, okay?"

"Okay."

Rick left and Kyle came in.

"Are you mad at me," he asked. He had a look of real sorrow on his face, and he was so cute right then that it just about melted me.

"I'm sorry I told them," he said.

I broke out into a big grin. "It's okay. I was just being dumb about it."

"I was, too," he said. "I guess I'm just learning how to act blond."

He broke me up with that line, and he and I both laughed. He kissed me quick, and we went out to where the guys were. They smiled at us, glad we were happy again.

"So how big is his," Rick asked me.

"Three inches," I said. Kyle punched me on my arm, and everybody laughed.

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