Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:06:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: DJAkeeba@aol.com
Subject: Tragedy in the Blood, Chapters 30 & 31

This story is about male/male relationships and contains graphic
descriptions of sex.  You should not read this story if it is in any way
illegal due to your age or residence.

This is a work of pure fiction. This story is the sole property of its
author and may not be copied in whole or in part or posted on any website
without the permission of the author.

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------------------------------------
TRAGEDY IN THE BLOOD
by Steven H. Davis


Chapter 30

	*Tonight's the night we'll make history, honey, you and I/
	And I'll take any risk to tie back the hands of time/
	And stay with you here tonight*

"I was feeling pretty weird about this whole thing," Taine said as he
rolled back on his bed, looking up at the ceiling once more.  "This whole
you-me thing.  I mean, I'm not gay.  I don't think of boys that way, their
bodies.  I like girls with nice racks, nice asses...curves... boys don't do
anything for me.  But all of a sudden we're kissing, and cuddling and
having sex with each other, and I really like it with you, I do, but I was
confused.  So I talked to my dad about it."

"You talked to Sly?"  I was more than a little surprised.  Taine was the
last boy in the world to share his feelings easily, particularly about sex.
Hell, this was the first conversation we were really having about sex, and
I was astonished that he had spoken about his concerns with Sly, a man whom
he still obviously had very mixed emotions towards because of the way he
felt abandoned throughout his childhood.

"Yeah," said Taine.  "I mean, he already knows about us, and I wouldn't
feel comfortable talking to Linda, so my dad was pretty much the only one I
could talk to.  You're not mad, are you?"

"No, no, Babes, of course I'm not mad," I reassured him.  "You should talk
to Sly.  He's your dad, and he wants to be a part of your life, and that
means having these kinds of talks.  I wish I could talk like that to Rex,
you know?"

Taine seemed to take this in for a moment, processed it, and finally
appeared to accept it before continuing with his story. I wanted to cuddle
up next to him to listen, but considered the subject matter and decided to
move a few inches back from him to give him some physical -- and
psychological -- space.

"Come here," he said, pulling me close to his chest, a slight tone of
exasperation in his voice.  "This isn't like that."

Needing no further encouragement, I snuggled into his arms to listen,
feeling his heart beating beneath my ear as I rested my head gently on his
chest.

"So, anyway," Taine continued, "I went over to him the other night while
you were at home having your dream.  He was out by the pool, drinking a
margarita, like he usually does at night.  I sat next to him in the deck
chair to the side of his, and we just stared at the pool for a while,
looking at the patterns in the lighted water against the darkened yard.
Finally, my dad turns to me and says, 'something on your mind, Taine?' in
that low, deep growl of his, just like that, you know how he does
it... 'something on your mind, Taine?'"

I smiled against his shirt.  Taine certainly knew how to paint a picture
with words.  I felt like I was there with him as he continued his story...

----------------------------

TAINE'S STORY

So I said, "Yeah, Dad, there's something I'm kind of confused about."

And he kind of nods his head and sips his margarita, which had all these
little crystals of salt all over the rim, and they kind of fall off into
his lap a little bit while he's nodding his head, and I was feeling all
knotted up and I wanted to hand him something to wipe them off but... I
just kept talking while I had the nerve.

"It's about Ricky... Rick, I mean," I told him.  "All this, I
mean... what's been happening between us."

So my dad looks over at me and kind of smiles, and says, "You wanna know
what it all means."

"Yeah," I admitted.  "Being able to spend time with Rick and be around him
is making me feel better about things than I've felt for a long time.  I
can be myself around him, or as much as I can be myself aroundd anyone.
But... I'm also feeling things when I'm with him, even when I just think
about him, that I've never felt before.  I'm a little confused.  It's kind
of scary, and I'm not sure what it really means, I mean... what it says
about me."

So my dad, Sly... he pats me on the knee real dad-like and then he leans
back in his deck chair.  I kind of got the feeling that he was relieved to
have a father-son talk with me that was actually about *me.* You know, not
about him or my mom or any of that stuff that happened after my little
sister died.

"Tainey," he says, and I hate when he calls me that but I didn't say
anything, "you're fifteen.  You're going to have crushes.  You'll like a
boy, you'll like a girl... the next day it'll be somebody new.  While
you're crushing on them, they will seem like the most important person in
the world, and you'll think that you can't live without them.  And then
it's someone else.  That's what being fifteen is."

I sighed, afraid that -- as usual -- he just wasn't getting it.  But then
he surprised me.

He paused, thought for a second, then said, "I think what you're saying to
me is you have feelings for Rick, romantic feelings?"

I started to nod, then said softly, "Yes."

He nodded back.  "These feelings are probably a little scary to you, but
don't be scared.  Be Rick's friend.  Spend time with him, be good to each
other, and what happens will happen.  You'll either feel a spark, feel
something more and decide you want to be together, or you'll be friends.
Maybe you'll be best friends for the rest of your lives, maybe you won't.
Things will work themselves out, and sometimes what that becomes will
change over time."

He leaned forward in his deck chair then, looking at me intently.  His
voice was serious, and urgent.

"But experiencing them is something you need to do, Taine," he said.
"Don't be afraid of life!  It's got crazy highs and crazy lows, but if you
don't let yourself be there for them, you'll regret it.  Believe me."

I did believe him, and I knew what he was getting at, but I didn't want to
think about that right then.  I had something else I needed to ask him
before I lost my nerve.  Well, I thought, here it goes.

"But Dad, what if that means, well, might that mean I'm gay?  What if we
feel the same way about each other?  What then?"

"That might happen," he said casually.  "Sure, it could.  Or you might just
have a strong friendship.  Seems like you win either way.  Don't rob
yourself of experiences because you're afraid of what could happen.  If
you're gay, you're gay.  You can't change that if you are, but what you
*can* do is decide that you're going to experience what life has to offer.
Live your life, Taine.  I don't want to see you avoiding life because
you're afraid of how messy it might be... like I did... or for any other
stupid reason."

I leaned over and hugged my dad, hard, and just held onto him for a minute.
Then I pulled back and looked at him, finally seeing him for what seemed
like the first time.

"Dad, thank you," I almost whimpered.  "You have no idea what that means to
me.  You're there for me, and I really need that right now.  You're right,
I'm scared, scared of a lot of things.  The kids at school, my own
feelings, that Rick will get tired of me, how complicated this is going to
be, whether I'll even feel the same things I'm feeling now next week.  But
one fear I won't have now is that you'll be upset or disappointed.  Thanks.
You're just the best.  I love you, Dad."

"Me too, Taine.  Hey, I want you to tell Rick tomorrow that he can spend
the night, and when you do, you have the best time you can with him.  He
wants to be your friend, you can hear it in the way he talks to you.  Let
him be."

He smacked his knees with both hands and got up from his chair.

"Okay, that's enough advice for tonight.  The office is closed.  Now, how
about some ice cream?"

-----------------------

"And so we went and ate some ice cream," Taine shrugged.  "My Dad thinks
ice cream is like medicine.  But what he said was the real medicine."

He turned back on his side, and I adjusted my position to face him.  There
must have been some lingering concern in my eyes, because he got a similar
look, holding me close and kissing me.

"I know," he said.  "I know I didn't really tell him how strongly I feel
about you.  But I think he knew, and that was just his way of expressing
what he needed to tell me.  Listen, Ricky, the reason I'm telling you all
this is to explain something to you.  I was nervous, I was scared... I
pushed you away.  And I was even more scared after you made love to me on
Sunday.  With the kissing and the hugging, I could pretend we were just
good friends... I could pretend that you didn't feel what you feel for me,
or that I feel what I feel for you.  But once we did all that... I couldn't
pretend anymore."

He paused, looking deeply into my eyes, and all I saw there now was love.

"I can't pretend anymore," he said quietly.  "That's why I talked to my
Dad, and that's why I... uhm..."

"Fucked the hell out of me last night?"  I giggled.  "Babes, I have to hand
it to you... when you make a decision, you don't do it halfway.  You go all
out."

"Or all in," Taine grinned naughtily, chomping theatrically at my neck as
we laughed and rolled around on the bed, enjoying each other's closeness
and intimacy.

Suddenly, he raised his head and became serious again.

"Ricky," he said, "there's one more thing I want to tell you before you
go."

I sobered up and looked at him, a bit concerned by his tone.

"What is it, Babes?"

"Well," he said, "this isn't going to be easy.  It's going to get out
somehow, because I don't think we've been careful enough.  I know you don't
look around as much as I do to try to figure out what people are thinking,
but they're already starting to look at me, and I don't think it has
anything to do with what happened with Kevin.  This is Texas, Ricky.  I do
love you.  I really do, but I don't know if I can handle what might happen
if everybody finds out.  I don't know if I can do this at all if everybody
finds out.  Things are rough enough for me as they are."

His eyes suddenly looked very mature, very wise, and almost pleading with
me to understand.  I did, and took his hands in both of mine to assure him
how seriously I took his concern.

	*I know you feel these are the worst of times/
	I do believe it's true/
	When people lock their doors and hide inside*

"Taine," I said, my voice thick with emotion.  "I love you more than
anything or anyone in this entire world.  I would never do anything to hurt
you, or to cause you to be hurt.  Look, I don't want to tell everybody
either.  Just because I might have known first, or took the intiative with
you doesn't mean I'm Harvey Milk, running around and proclaiming our love
from the rooftops.  My mom doesn't even know, and that's the only reason
I'm even going home tonight.  Don't you think I would rather stay here with
you?"

"I do," he said, "and I would really love that.  But I just needed you to
know..."

	*Rumor has it it's the end of Paradise/
	But I know, if the world just passed us by/
	Baby I know, you wouldn't have to cry, no, no*

"I know," I said, and kissed him.  "I promise you, Taine.  The only people
who know are people who need to know.  That's Linda, our dads, and us.
Okay?"

"Carter knows," Taine replied.  "Do you think he'll get stoned and tell
somebody?  What if he tells Roger?  Roger's still mad at you about that
orgy you had with Kathy behind the elementary school."

"He won't say anything," I said emphatically.  "It's just you and me,
Babes.  But if anyone does find out, I swear to you that I will handle it,
and it will be okay."

Taine shook his head sadly.

"You can't promise that," he said.  "I know how my life works, Ricky.  This
isn't going to be 'happily ever after.'  I don't get those."

"You haven't gotten one yet," I corrected.  "What do you think about trying
to change that?"

	*The best of times are when I'm alone with you/
	Some rain some shine, we'll make this a world for two/
	Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime*

Taine just looked at me with a sad, faint smile.  I could tell he wanted to
believe me, wanted to believe in us, but with all of the bad breaks he'd
had, he was finding it very difficult to have faith in anything.

"Well," he said at last, "we've come this far.  I don't want to stop now."

He took me in his arms then, and I took him in mine, and together we made
everything okay.

	*We'll take the best, forget the rest/
	And someday we'll find/
	These are the best of times/
	These are the best of times*

---------------------------------

Chapter 31

The rest of Wednesday night passed fairly uneventfully.  I went home around
ten, did a little homework, and fell asleep after thinking over all of the
things which Taine had told me earlier in the evening.  I went over to
Linda's house on Thursday after school, and we rehearsed our Duet for the
next day's tournament until we felt like we had it completely down and had
regained the effortless spontaneity of our first run-throughs.

There's a certain rhythm to acting, where the first rehearsals are about
getting the characters to the right physical place, the right emotional
pitch, and so forth.  The middle ones are about hammering in all the nails
and cementing every gesture, expression and intonation, so those
run-throughs tend to be the least spontaneous.  Finally, right before it's
time to perform, the last rehearsals are about regaining the spontaneity
which was lost during the cementing process, so the piece feels fresh and
new again.

We felt that we had achieved that spontaneity at around nine o'clock on
Thursday night, so we decided to call it quits and work on our individual
events separately.  I hugged Linda goodbye, then jumped on my bike and rode
home, where I ran through *Titanic* and my oratory for the next ninety
minutes.  When I felt I was sufficiently well-rehearsed, I called Taine to
tell him goodnight, then went to sleep.

I awoke excited and ready for my first high-school tournament, donning my
tailored three-piece charcoal grey suit with blue pinstripes over a white
button-down shirt and my lucky dark red tie, which had seen me through
several impressive tournament showings in middle school.  Slipping on my
shiny black Italian loafers -- a gift from my grandmother in Maryland -- I
examined myself in the mirror and deemed myself ready for action as my
pre-tournament tape blasted from my stereo, another ritual carried over
from middle school.

	*Fame!/
	I'm gonna live forever/
	Baby, remember my name!/
	Fame!*

Grabbing my school books in one hand, I pumped my fist in the air with the
other as the cassette spooled to the end and began to rewind.  I was
psyched, confident, and ready.  Now all I needed to do was get through my
morning classes, as the school bus which was taking our team to Foxrun
wouldn't leave until 12:30.

The classes dragged for me, as I couldn't wait to get going.  I was
bursting with energy by the time I zoomed through the lunch line and made
my way to our usual table, where Taine was looking at me with an amused
smirk.

"What?" I grinned as I pulled out my chair and sat down.

"Look at Mr. Fancy Pants," Taine teased. "You look like you're ready to go
sue somebody."

I laughed, as I had completely forgotten that I was wearing a suit and tie.

"Well," I joked, "if those judges don't vote me through to the finals in
every event, I'm gonna sue them for extreme stupidity!"

Taine shook his head and returned his attention to that day's lunch, which
appeared to be a breaded shoe pretending to be a veal cutlet.  I forced
mine down and most of his as well, happy that I had bought an extra carton
of chocolate milk that day.  The cutlets were filling, but hideous.

"I don't know how you eat so much and stay so skinny," Taine commented.
"You should weigh 300 pounds."

"Would you still love me if I weighed 300 pounds?" I asked.

Taine grinned.

"More than anything," he said.  "What about if I weighed 300 pounds?  Would
you still want to be with me?"

I looked into his eyes, a loving smile playing on my lips.  Last night's
deep conversations had brought us closer than ever, and I was going to miss
him that weekend.

"More than everything," I replied.  "Hey, listen, if I make it to the
finals tomorrow, do you think you and Sly might want to come watch?  It's
open to family and friends, and I know Rex and Tynah won't come."

Taine nodded somewhat sadly, knowing that the day that Rex came to watch me
"dancing around the maypole" would be a cold one in Hell.

"Sure," he said.  "Foxrun's not that far away, and I know my Dad will want
to see you perform as much as I do."

"Great!  It'd really be awesome to have you both there.  It'll give me
extra inspiration!"

"You don't need any extra inspiration.  I haven't seen your Duet, but
*Titanic* and the speech are both damn good.  You'll do great."

"Thanks," I replied, genuinely moved by his support.  I hadn't had much
encouragement in my tournament activities outside of the actual forensics
team, and it was really good to finally get some, especially from Taine.

That's why what I said next was so wrong, so stupid, and so unforgivably
thoughtless.

What I said was, "Oh, yeah, and if you come, do you think you can maybe not
wear your hat in the auditorium?  It's kind of frowned upon."

Taine's eyes narrowed, and he looked as if I had hit him with a brick.  He
stared at me for a moment, and even then I didn't realize how much I had
hurt him, or even why he might have been hurt.

"Fine," he said quietly, returning his attention to his french fries.

"Great!" I blithely stumbled on, oblivious as a metal post.  "It'll be
really cool having you there... if I get to finals, that is.  Well, listen,
I gotta go, Babes.  Have a great day!"

There was no response.  The brim of the cap had come down, and I had been
dismissed, so I jauntily strolled out of the cafeteria to meet the rest of
the team outside by the bus, not a care in the world for the damage I had
just caused.

I wouldn't learn it until later, but I had just added another sharpened
barb to my sweet, wonderful boy's painful and wounding wires.

---------------------------------

Robert and Robin were practicing their debate arguments in the parking lot
when I arrived, while Carter and Linda were already seated on the bus,
cooing sweet nothings to each other.

I boarded the bus and moved quickly past Kathy, but she grabbed my arm,
stopping me next to the seat she was sharing with Mark.

"Ready to make a big bang, Little One?" she asked suggestively.

"Yeah," I said absently.  "I think I'm ready."

"Good," she cooed.  "Maybe if you get a trophy, Mark and I will give you a
prize of our own."

I looked over to see Mark licking his lips, an expression of lust in his
half-closed eyes as he rubbed the crotch of his jeans.  I knew he couldn't
afford a suit, and felt bad for him, knowing that he'd never advance at the
tournament dressed as he was, regardless of how well he might perform.

"Mmmm," he groaned, staring at my groin.  "I love virgin dick."

I laughed, rolling my eyes and shaking my head as I moved toward the back
of the bus.  There were a few people on the bus whom I had never met, as
the Speech and Drama teams didn't mingle very much with the exception of
Kathy and Robert, who were competitive in both areas.

I nodded to one intense-looking young debater who appeared to be my age,
and he smiled at me, pleased to be meeting a fellow freshman.  As he did
so, some of his index cards fell from his lap and landed at my feet.  I
bent over to help pick them up and was slapped on the ass by Cindy Romaine
as I did so.

"Whatcha doin', Rick?" she asked with a grin.  "Showing off your goods
already?"

Cindy was a gorgeous, petite blonde with a perfect figure and golden,
tanned skin.  She was also just as frisky and naughty as the boys in the
Drama department, a fact which tickled and delighted me.  If there was one
woman on the planet I would have wanted to fuck all night long, it was
Cindy Romaine.

"Only for you, Cindy," I replied with a leer.  "Only for you.  No, I was
just helping... uhm..."

I looked down at the freshman debater for help.  He grinned and extended
his hand for a shake.

"Pablo Silverstein," he said.

"Rick Spivey," I replied, shaking his hand.  "Are you only doing LD?"

Pablo was clearly a Lincoln-Douglas debater, and some of our LD kids only
entered tournaments in debate, mostly because they thought it would look
good on college applications.

"No," Pablo said, "I'm doing Extemp as well.  I was going to enter Oratory,
but my speech really wasn't ready and Mr. McRory thought it might be better
to wait.  What are you doing?"

"Humorous, Oratory and Duet," I answered.  "I was thinking about maybe
taking Debate class next semester.  LD looks really fun, not all complex
and crazy like team debate."

Cindy rolled her eyes and went back to practicing her Poetry Reading
selection.

"It is fun," Pablo said, "but not this topic.  You'll be glad you waited."

"What's the topic?"

"'Resolved: the economic health of a nation is more important than the
social programs for its citizens.'  What a pain in the ass.  If you have to
do the affirmative, you pretty much look like a heartless prick, and if you
get the negative, you look like a bleeding-heart liberal.  It's a really
bad topic."

"Doesn't it change at some point in the season?"

"Yeah," he said.  "Not till January though.  The next one is something
about victims' rights in felony cases.  We can research it together if you
want."

"That'd be cool," I said, and as I left Pablo and wandered to the back of
the bus, I decided that Debate would definitely be on my class list for the
spring.

"Hello, Mrs. Premise!" I trilled to Carter, who grinned back as Linda
looked to the heavens for guidance.

-------------------------------

The bus took off at 12:45 as planned, heading for Foxrun, where we would
gather in the cafeteria to receive our tournament sectioning guides --
known to us as "poop books" -- before heading to our first rounds of
competition, scheduled for 3:15.  Eventually, everyone stopped practicing
and just relaxed, Roger and Jim blasting heavy metal from Roger's giant
portable radio.

	*Well I've said it before, and I'll say it again/
	You get nothing for nothing: expect it when/
	You're backseat driving, and your hands ain't on the wheel*

Carter went up to join Roger and Jim, completing their air-guitar trio as
they rocked out and banged their heads, which looked pretty funny in their
awkwardly-fitting suits.

	*It's easy to go along with the crowd/
	And find later on that your say ain't allowed/
	Oh that's the way to find what you've been missing*

"Boys will be boys," Linda sighed, then turned to face me.  "How's *your*
boy?"

"He's good, thanks," I replied.  "He and Sly might come see us if we make
the finals, so let's be really good in prelims and semis!"

"Rick, my darling," said Linda, patting my knee reassuringly, "you have the
best Duet partner in the world, and I will never let you down.  Your boy
will see you shine like a flaming comet in the heavens."

"I do not flame," I said, pretending to pout.  "I am your he-man Duet
partner, and I will fill the auditorium with my massive, manly balls."

Linda threw an arm across her forehead, pretending to faint.

"Oh, Mister Spivey, not that!  My delicate feminine sensibilities will be
crushed by your enormous gonads!"

We Drama kids were an odd breed.

The bus rolled on to Foxrun, with me laughing hysterically in the back with
Linda, not realizing that I had left behind a very upset, frustrated and
hurt Taine Maxwell back at Polk High.

	*So I'm heading out to the highway/
	I got nothing to lose at all/
	I'm gonna do it my way/
	Take a chance before I fall/
	A chance before I fall!*

----------------------------------

Thank you for reading Chapters 30 & 31.  To be continued...

"Fame" written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford. Performed by Irene Cara.
c 1980 by RSO Records.  "Headin' Out to the Highway" written by Rob
Halford, Kenneth Downing and Glenn Raymond Tipton. Performed by Judas
Priest. c 1981 by Columbia Records.  "The Best of Times" written by Dennis
DeYoung. Performed by Styx. c 1981 by A&M Records.

Once again, I'm always happy to hear from readers at DJAkeeba@aol.com.  You
have all been so supportive and encouraging, and I thank you all for your
e-mails.

If you're enjoying this story and others on Nifty, please consider making a
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