***Please Note:  This story contains scenes depicting sexual acts between men and boys.  It also contains scenes depicting incestual sex.   If you are under the age of 18, or if it is illegal for you to read such material in your state, please do not read further.  If you are offended by this type of material, again, please do not read further.

This story is completely a work of fiction.  The characters and situations in the story exist solely in the author's imagination.  If you have questions, comments or suggestions regarding this story, please email me.   Flames ignored.

Hello again.

Well, here we go.  This is the end of Christopher's Story.  Thank you all for the great emails you've been sending me.  If I haven't responded, I'm sorry, but there really are a lot of them.

I may take a little time off from writing after this.  I'm not sure yet.  I do need to finish Celebrity and Boys Of Summer.  Never fear, I will finish both of them.  I haven't abandoned them.  Honest.

I'd also like to get going on Evan's Story, but I don't really want to start a whole new project with two of them already needed completion.  We'll see.  I may just post something to one or both stories announcing a break or something.

Eric Draven

Christopher's Story

Copyright 2002-03 Eric Draven.

All Rights Reserved.

The Epilogue

     Evan woke me up as soon as the sun came up.  I didn't know why we needed to be up that early.  It wasn't as if we were four and six anymore.  Dad wasn't going to get up this early just because we were already up.  Then there was the fact that he could just bounce out of bed and be wide awake.  That was one of the few things I didn't like about my brother.

    Even in a half sleep, I could hear the shower running, so I knew that he was in the bathroom.  I tried very hard to keep my eyes open, but it was no use.  I fell blissfully back to sleep only to be shook out of sleep again at ten by Kendal.  She was dressed and ready, too.  Hours had passed, but I was still no more ready to wake up than I was when Evan tried to wake me.

    "Get up, silly," she laughed.  "Everyone is already up, and they're all waiting on you."

    "Unh," I moaned, kicking the cover off of my feet and trying once again to keep my eyes open.  She had already left the room, and I could hear her talking to Evan in the hall.  I knew that if he came in here and found me in bed, he would tickle me until I begged him to stop.  Believe me, that isn't the best way to wake up in the morning.

    So, I got out of the bed, and groggily made my way to the shower.  As soon as the water hit me, though, my eyes popped right open, and I finally started to wake up.  It's a good thing that water wakes me up quick, because I'm sure I would have drowned under the shower spray if it hadn't.

    As soon as I got downstairs, Dad started passing out presents.  I sat down on the couch between Evan and Jim and accepted gift after gift as Dad passed them to me.  Although I was technically awake, I was still not coherent enough to open the presents.  I sort of slid back down on the sofa until my head was resting against Jim's shoulder.

    "Come on, sleepy one," said Jim, rubbing my shoulder.  "It's Christmas."

    I sat back up and at least attempted to open one of the gifts that were now falling on the floor at me feet.  Once I started opening them, I perked right up.  Soon, I had only one more to open, and then I was surrounded by wrapping paper.  I felt like a four year old all over again.

    "He never changes," laughed my dad.  "Every Christmas since he was old enough to unwrap them on his own, this is what happens."

    I thanked everyone for the gifts that they gave me, and then I went back upstairs to bed.  I was so tired yet that I left all of my gifts on the couch and coffee table.  I didn't know why I was so tired, though.  I'd gone to sleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow the night before.

    Evan came in about two hours later to tell me that dinner was ready.  He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my back, trying to get me to finally wake up.  I opened my eyes and looked at him, but I still wasn't ready to get out of bed.

    "Come on, Chris," he said.  "Dad's waiting to cut the turkey."

    "I'm trying, Evan," I replied.  "I'm just so tired."

    "I don't understand how you can still be tired after all of this sleeping," he chuckled.

    "I'm getting up," I replied, turning over.

    I did get up, and I ate dinner with everyone, but the lethargic feeling never left me.  I didn't say anything much to anyone for the remainder of the day, and everyone noticed.  Dad kept asking me if I was ok, and I continued to tell him I was fine, but I don't think he believed me.

    After dinner, I did go back to the living room to collect my gifts.  Most of them were clothes, but there were some electronics in the heap.  Jim had gotten me almost the exact same watch that I'd gotten him, and I smiled when I thought about it.  Dad and Clint had bought me more paints and brushes as well as socks, underwear and a pair of shoes.

    Once I got upstairs with the presents, I looked longingly at the bed again, but I knew that if I went to bed, Dad would really think something was wrong with me.  So, I went back downstairs and joined them all in the living room.  I couldn't tell you a thing about what went on, though.  For some reason I was having a lot of trouble focusing on anything anyone was saying or doing.

    Dad continued to watch me closely for the rest of the day, but he stopped asking if I was alright.  It was Evan who finally decided that something was wrong when he caught me sleeping on the couch a little later.  I didn't even remember everyone leaving the room.

    "Something is wrong, Chris," he was saying.

    "I'm just tired," I told him again.

    Dad must have heard us, because the next thing I knew he was crouching down in front of me, taking my temperature with the ear thermometer.  He declared that I didn't have a temp, but he said that my eyes were a little glassy.  Instead of turning into a mother hen, he let me go back upstairs and go back to bed.

    The next thing I knew, Evan was waking me up again.  I was starting to get angry with him for persisting until I noticed that it was really bright in the room.  I looked out the window, and I saw that the sun was far too high for it to have only been a few hours that I had been sleeping.

    "You slept all day, and all night," he said, catching the confused look in my eyes.  "You haven't budged all night long."

    "I slept that long?" I asked, amazed.  I was still a little tired, but I was finally awake.

    "How's our sleeping artist?" asked my father from the bedroom doorway.

    "He's awake again, finally," said Evan.  "But his eyes don't look any clearer than yesterday."

    "I slept through Christmas?" I asked them.

    Again Dad produced the thermometer, but this time, I was running a low fever.  He told Evan to help me get dressed, and then he was out of the room again.  I didn't really think I needed any help, but when I tried to sit up, I got really dizzy.  Evan must have noticed, because he grabbed me as I started to lean forward.  If he hadn't, I would have probably tumbled right off the bed into the floor.

    "What's wrong, buddy?" he asked, sitting down beside me and putting an arm around me.

    "I don't know," I replied.  "I just feel so tired today."

    "You were tired yesterday," he said.

    "And I'm tired today, too," I laughed.  "And a little dizzy."

    "Get his clothes on," said my father as he came back into the room.  "I called the doctor, and we're taking him in as soon as you can get him dressed."

    "He says he's dizzy, Dad," said Evan, and then Jim was in the room.

    Before I could even protest, Jim and Evan had me completely dressed.  I must have been in a daze for at least a few minutes, because the last thing I could remember was Jim sitting down on the other side of me.  Now I was dressed, and my shoes were on.  Dad stood in the doorway with my coat.

    Then I was in the backseat of Dad's car with Evan on one side of me and Clint on the other side of me.  I had no idea how I'd gotten downstairs and in the car, but here I was.  And I wondered where Jim was.  I knew for a fact that he was the one who had been sitting on the bed beside me upstairs.

    "He's awake again, Dad," said Evan, and I wondered if I was passing out on them or something.

    "Chris, I need you to try to stay awake, buddy," said Dad from the front seat.

    I must not have succeeded, because the next thing I knew he was hauling me out of the car at Doctor Fischer's office.  He and Clint helped me walk into the building, and Evan let me lean against him in the elevator.  Three times in the waiting room, I started to nod off again.  I was starting to really worry.

    Finally, I was sitting on a chair in an examining room, talking to Doctor Fischer.  Evan sat in the chair beside me, and my dad was standing by the door.  I assumed that Clint was still in the waiting room, but when I turned my head to look at Evan again, I found him sitting on the window seat.

    Doctor Fischer asked me a million questions, took my temperature, tested my reflexes, blood pressure and pulse.  He kept talking to my dad, but I could only make out parts of what he was saying, and then I was sitting there with my head against Evan's shoulder, trying to stay awake.

    I didn't hear anything else that they said, but Dad helped Evan to get me up out of the chair, and then we were walking back to the car.  They were all talking to me, but I barely heard anything that they said.  I could hear myself talking back to them, but I couldn't even make out what I was saying.

    Then, we were parked in the parking lot of the emergency room.  I didn't think we really needed to be there, but when I tried to voice my opinion, I couldn't even get myself to make a sound.  Now, I was really starting to worry about what was wrong with me.  I was still groggy, though.

    They helped me out of the car and got me into the triage center where a nurse, again, took my temperature, blood pressure and pulse.  She wrote down all the information, and then I was being helped to an exam room again.  Evan and Dad had a great time undressing me and putting me in a gown.  Thankfully, I was too tired and weak to protest.  As soon as I was lying on the bed, I was asleep again.

    When I woke up, I was in a regular hospital room, and it was dark again outside the window.  I looked and saw Evan asleep in the chair next to the bed.  I wondered just how long I'd been in the hospital and what was wrong with me.  I was very worried now, but I was still too tired to think about it much.

    "You're awake," said Evan softly.

    "Yeah," I said.  My voice was even weak.  Something was definitely wrong with me.  I just didn't have a clue as to what it was.

    "Clint, Dad and Jim left a few hours ago," he said.  "Kendal is around here somewhere. She was trying to convince Cole and Tommy to go home and get some rest."

    "How long?" I asked.

    "You've been asleep all day again," he said.  "The doctor says that you are exhausted, Chris."

    "That much I already knew," I said, trying to laugh.  "But what's wrong with me?"

    "Nothing is wrong with you, really," he said, sitting up straighter in the chair.  "You really are just exhausted."

    "But I'm not sick?" I asked.

    "No, you don't have any kind of illness," he said, smiling at me.

    He looked so tired.  I wanted to tell him to go home, but truthfully, I was glad he was with me.  It was nice to know that Kendal was around, too.  I was even happy to know that Tommy had been here.  Cole's being here was kind of a shock, though.  I didn't have the strength to ask anymore questions, though.  I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

    When I opened my eyes again, Evan was gone.  Kendal was now asleep in his place, and there was daylight coming through the window.  I didn't feel nearly as tired now, and my stomach was letting me know that it wanted something in it.  I sat up in the bed, and reached for the call button.

    "Hey," said Kendal, stretching.  "Evan had to go in to work, but he'll be here as soon as he's off. Tommy has called six times, and Puck will be here in an hour."

    "I'm hungry," I said, smiling at her.

    "That's good," she said, returning the smile with one of her own.  "You scared us all pretty bad, Chris."

    "I'm fine," I replied.  "Sorry I worried you."

    "I'll go get you something to eat," she said, getting up and stretching again.

    "Ok," I replied.

    "Well, look who's among the land of wakeful bliss," said Puck, coming into the room.  He had a huge smile on his face.  "You don't look too bad."

    "Thanks," I replied.  "I don't feel too bad, either."

    "I'll be right back, guys," said Kendal as she left the room to get me something to eat.

    "Tommy's a nervous wreck," said Puck, sitting down on the bed with me.  "His mom won't let him come back out here until later, but he's called me seven times to find out if I'm here yet."

    "You guys don't have to worry about me so much," I said.  "I feel fine now."

    "Yeah, well, you sure know how to get some rest!" he chuckled.  "If you were tired, why didn't you just go to bed?"

    "Uh, apparently, that was the problem," I said, smiling at him.  "I was in bed too much."

    "I was worried, Chris," he said, looking serious.

    "I'm sorry," I said.  "I really didn't mean to make everyone worry about me."

    "Well, you seem to be doing ok now," he said.  "Just, please, don't do this to us again."

    He leaned over and hugged me, and I was surprised that I could hug him back.  The weakness was still with me, but it wasn't as bad as it was.  I couldn't wait to talk to Doctor Fischer and find out what the Hell happened, and why I was so tired.  I'd never heard of anyone going into a hospital because they were exhausted before.

    Kendal came back with food, and the two of them filled me in on what had been going on while I was sleeping.  Ted had called, and he would be here on Sunday, which was only two days away.  Dad had instructed everyone that when I came home, I was to get plenty of rest.  She said that he was going to tell me that my late night painting sessions were over for a while.

    After Puck left, my dad, Jim and Clint came to see how I was doing.  The doctor came while they were there, and he told me that I needed to drink plenty of water and get plenty of rest.  He told me that although exhaustion to this point wasn't all that uncommon, it was rare that it happened to someone as young as me.

    Dad took that as his cue to tell me what Kendal had already told me.  He said that I couldn't stay up late painting at all anymore.  He said that after Ted left, no one was spending the night at our house for a while, and I wasn't staying anywhere else, either.  I was basically supposed to just lay around for the next few days.  So, I would either be in my bed or on the couch.

    After the doctor left, Tommy came, but my dad made him promise to only stay for a little while.  My supper tray was supposed to be delivered soon, and I was already tired again.  Doctor Fischer said that I could go home in the morning if I ate everything and was able to stay awake in the morning.  He said that he wasn't going to send me home if I couldn't stay awake long enough to get there.

    After supper was over, Tommy and Jim played cards with me until my dad came in to tell Tommy that he was taking him home.  Jim stayed with me while Dad took Tommy home, and while they were gone, Cole and Evan came back.  Evan still looked very worried about me.

    "How're you feeling?" he asked, coming over to sit in the chair beside my bed.

    "A little tired," I replied, yawning.  "Nothing like before, though."

    "You scared the crap out of me, Chris," he said.

    "I scared myself," I admitted.  "I didn't know what was wrong with me."

    "You're cute when you sleep," chuckled Cole from behind Evan.

    "Thanks, I think," I replied, smiling.

    "Have you talked to the doctor?" asked Evan, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

    "He was here before supper," I said.  "I can go home in the morning if I can stay awake when they wake me up."

    "Dad's going to throw your butt in bed when you get there," said Evan.  "He'll probably never let you get up again."

    "We already talked about that," I replied.

    The three of us played cards until my dad got back.  He told them that they needed to leave, so I could rest.  I was already beginning to get a little annoyed by Dad running everyone off.  But I had to admit, I was tired.  It was almost eight, and I wondered when I could safely go to sleep without worrying anyone.

    Thankfully, Dad went home, and I was alone.  I didn't want to fall asleep in front of him or any other member of the family, because I knew that they would think I'd over done it throughout the day, and I didn't want to be turned into an invalid when I got home.  I could already tell by my father's attitude that I wasn't going to like what was coming when I got home.

    All through the night, I kept waking up.  It was annoying, but I guess I'd gotten too much rest already.  There was no way that my dad was going to buy that line of thought though.  I was afraid that I would be spending many restless hours in bed or on the couch.  I knew if I tried to push it and get up, my dad would flip out on me.

    Finally, it was morning, and breakfast arrived with my father and Cole.  They sat there with me and talked while I ate.  Dad went over all of the rules with me again, and I tried to tell him that I was getting plenty of rest already, but he shot me down really quickly.  He even enlisted Cole to help make sure that I stayed on the couch or in my bed.

    "And when I say in your bed, I mean your bed, Christopher," he said.  "Sleeping with Evan isn't going to give you any rest."

    Thankfully, Cole had gone for a soda when this was said.  I didn't know if he knew anything about mine and Evan's sleeping habits, and I didn't want to find out this way.  My dad must have noticed the worried look on my face, because he dropped another bomb on me.

    "Don't look so worried, Christopher," he said.  "I know all about what goes on between you and Evan. I haven't said anything, because neither of you seem to be too effected by it. I know that some parents would say it was wrong for you to do the things that the two of you have done, but I guess I'm a little more liberal than most."

    "I don't think I know what you mean," I said while my heart threatened to lurch out of my chest and flop on the floor.  I couldn't believe that he knew that Evan and I were having sex.  I wondered if Evan knew about this.

    "You know exactly what I mean, Christopher," he said.  "It's time that you and Evan stop trying to believe that I'm in the dark about what goes on with my own sons. I know far more about both of you than you think. If I was going to get upset over what I know, I would have already."

    "Yes, sir," I said, putting my head down.

    "You don't have to be ashamed, Chris," he said.  "As I said, if I thought there was something wrong with what you were doing, I would have put a stop to it long ago. You and your brother are very close, and aside from thinking that perhaps you are getting too close, I don't see any problems. I know that he didn't force you to have sex with him, so why should I get bent out of shape over something that the two of you seem to do willingly and happily?"

    "You're not mad?" I asked, trying to assure myself.

    "No," he said.  "In some ways, I think its good that you had your brother to show you what sex was all about. It could have been much worse, I guess. There could have been someone that you got involved with that would have used you just for his own satisfaction. I know Evan isn't like that."

    "When did you know?" I asked.

    "I had suspicions for a while," he said.  "But I really knew the day you came downstairs naked."

    My mind suddenly flashed on that memory.  Dad had been less than thrilled to see his naked son walking around the house.  Evan had said something to him that day that changed that.  I never walked around naked in front of him after that, but Evan did now and then.  I wondered if Evan had told him about us then.

    "Doctor is on his way," said Cole, coming back in the room.

    For a second, I was worried that he'd overheard us, but he smiled at me and said that I was about to be released, so I didn't think he had.  Dad and I shared a short look, and I could tell that he didn't care if Cole had heard us or not.  I wondered if Cole already knew all about me and Evan.

    "How's my patient?" asked Doctor Fischer, coming into the room.  "Well rested, I hope."

    "I believe so, but my father doesn't agree," I said.

    "I told him that for the next few days he's going to be in bed or on the couch," said Dad, standing up to shake the doctor's hand.

    "Well, that can be good and bad," said Doctor Fischer.  "I he gets too much rest, then we'll have a whole new set of problems. He's slept so much over the last three days that his body has probably mostly recovered from his current problem. Just make sure that he goes to bed at a decent hour, doesn't do anything overly stressful for the next several days, and he has got to eat three meals every day and drink plenty of water."

    The overly stressful thing stuck out for me.  The conversation I'd just had with my father was overly stressful.  It isn't every day that your father tells you he knows you've been having sex with your brother.  I wondered just how many other fathers had ever had that kind of conversations with their fifteen year old sons.

    Thankfully, Doctor Fischer released me, and I got to go home.  Once I got there, I was pleasantly surprised that my father didn't order me to change into sweats and get to the couch.  It was lunch time, and he made soup and sandwiches for the three of us, and we ate at the kitchen table.

    "We've almost got the garage cleaned up, Cole," said my dad.  "You'll be able to move in probably tomorrow."

    "That's great," he said.  "But why isn't Jim taking the apartment over the garage?"

    "Well, that was the original plan," said my dad.  "But Chris offered him the studio in the basement, and I thought he'd be more comfortable in the house. That way he and Chris could spend more time together."

    "Makes sense," shrugged Cole.  "Be kind of nice to have my own apartment. Are you sure I can't pay something for it?"

    "Just buy your food and things like that," said Dad.  "You are practically a member of the family. I wouldn't dream of charging you rent, Cole."

    "Thank you so much, Mr. Wallace," he said, and I about chocked on my soup.  It'd been a long time since I'd heard anyone call my dad Mr. Wallace.

    "You're going to have to stop calling me that, Cole," chuckled my dad, watching me try to swallow my mouth full of soup.  "Just call me Jeff."

    After lunch was finished, I went to the living room to watch television while Dad and Cole went out to the garage to inspect progress and talk about what he'd need while living up there.  He would only be living there until the end of Summer unless he enrolled in Springfield College.  Somehow, though, I didn't see Evan putting up with that.

    Evan had already applied to four different colleges.  He was gung ho about getting out of here.  I was sure he'd want Cole to go with him, but so far, nothing had been said about it.  I'd have been happy to have Evan just stay home, but after my talk with Dad, it might be a good thing to put some distance between us for a while.

    Ted called a little later to ask me how I was doing and make sure it was still alright that he come to visit.  I told him what my dad had said, and then I told him how the doctor had countered it.  He laughed, but he was still worried about me.  I assured him I was fine, and that his coming to visit would be just fine.

    Tommy came over after supper, and Dad allowed us to go up to my room for a while.  He gave me strict orders not to get into anything stressful, and Tommy and I looked at each other and shared a laugh.  I'm sure my dad had no suspicions about what we'd done the night that I'd stayed with Tommy, but the statement was funny anyway.

    "I thought your dad was putting you in bed," said Tommy when we got upstairs.

    "The doctor told him that wasn't such a good idea at this point, so I'm somewhat free," I replied.

    "Oh," he said quickly.  "Puck got a job."

    "What?" I asked stunned.

    "Yeah, he's working in one of the food stands in the food court at the Mall," he said, smiling.  "His mom said that if he wanted to keep his car, he had to get a job to pay its expenses."

    "Tommy, how are things with you and Puck?" I asked quietly.  I hadn't wanted to talk about this, but Tommy was my best friend, and if I couldn't talk to him about it, then who could I? And it was heavily on my mind.

    "We are very cool," he said, smiling at me.  "All he asked was if I had a good time, if I enjoyed it and if it was out of my system."

    "And?" I asked.

    "Well, I did enjoy it, and I had a great time," he said, smiling at me.  "But I don't think being a bottom is what I would want for myself, so I guess I got that part out of my system. Having sex with you, though, was great, and I'd missed it a lot."

    "I had a good time, too," I replied.  "It was nice to be so close to you again."

    "Puck said that he wished that he'd had a friend to be as close to as I am with you," he said.  "We talked about that for a long time before we even talked to you about doing it."

    "But you two are fine, right?" I asked.

    "Better than fine, Chris," he said, smiling again.  "We have had sex too many times to count since that night. Believe me, if anything, we're closer than ever."

    He had to leave shortly after that statement.  My dad was being true to his word and not letting anyone stay too long.  I was getting a little tired by then anyway, so I didn't protest.  Dad told me that Ted would be here for a week, so I shouldn't say anything much anyway.

    After supper, I did what he'd originally wanted me to do anyway.  I went up to my room, changed into sweats and climbed into my bed.  I didn't go to sleep, but I stayed in bed for the rest of the evening.  Dad, Evan, Cole, Kendal and Jim all came up at different times to see if I needed anything or just to talk to me.

    Cole's eighteenth birthday was the next day, and Dad and Clint were having a small party for him.  He didn't want too many people there, so Dad had declared it a family day.  James was coming, though, so they all wanted to warn me and make sure that I was ok with that.  I told them it would be fine.  I wasn't the one that would be uncomfortable.

    A little later, it was finally time to go to sleep.  Even that night I slept fitfully, waking up about every other hour.  Evan must have noticed, because the next morning, he talked to Dad about it.  If he wasn't doing it out of concern for me, I probably would have snapped at him.

    "I'll call Doctor Fischer a little later," said Dad.  "We'll see what he has to say about this."

    "Dad, I'll be ok," I said quickly.  "I think I just slept so much that I'll have to let my schedule realign itself."

    "I'm still calling the doctor," he said.  "We're not taking any chances with your health."

    "You're probably right, Chris, but let's just wait and see what the doctor says," said Evan.

    "Well," said Dad.  "I have some things to take care of if we're going to give your boyfriend a birthday party."

    Evan looked at him kind of strange and then glanced at me before smiling.  I wondered just what that look was all about, but I didn't want to say anything about it.  I was too worried about what Doctor Fischer would think of my sudden insomnia to make comments about Evan and Cole.

    Evan left to go hang out with Cole, and Dad and Cory left to get last minute things for the party, so that left me and Jim.  He was downstairs, probably working, but I decided to go down and bug him anyway.  I was bored stiff, and I didn't want to stay upstairs alone.

    "Hey," he said when I got to the bottom of the stairs, and I almost gasped.

    He had obviously just gotten out of the shower, and his towel was slung over his shoulder when I got to the bottom of the stairs.  He wrapped it around his waist, but not before I got a good look at his genitals.  I remembered the very first time I'd ever seen his uncut dick.  It had made me so jumpy and nervous around him for days.

    It was still as awesome to me as it was the first time, and my mouth actually watered as I looked at it.  I was thankful that he covered it up when he did.  I didn't need to be feeling that uncomfortable around him again.  Jim was straight, and I couldn't have him.  I just had to keep that in mind.

    "Hey," I replied.  "I was bored, so I thought I'd come down and see what you were doing."

    "Well," he chuckled.  "I guess you found out."

    "Yeah," I said, smiling.  "Not working on anything today?"

    "Well, I did that earlier for a while, but I thought I'd take a break and spend some time with my favorite person in the world," he said mussing my hair.  I was fifteen years old, and if anyone else had done that to me, I'd have felt like a little kid and probably said something, but when he did it, I just accepted it.  It sort of made me feel good.

    "So who's the lucky girl?" I asked, joking.

    "I was talking about you, squirt," he said, laughing at me.  He playfully flipped me with his wet towel.

    I followed into what used to be my studio, and I was proud to see that the paintings of mine that he'd bought as well as the ones I'd given him were all hung on the walls.  Every one of them was in order from the time he got each of them, too.  I smiled at his back while he rustled in his dresser drawer for a shirt.

    Then my eyes found "Self Portrait," and I stopped cold in my tracks.  He'd hung it above his bed, and all the tract lights illuminated it perfectly.  I marveled at the way the darkness in the painting tried to soak up the light until it was completely absorbed and gone.

    Looking at the painting made me remember the boy I'd been when I painted it, and a million different memories flooded through me so quickly that they nearly took my breath away.  I remembered the promise I'd made myself when that painting was first finished.  I'd sworn that no one was every going to be allowed to make me feel the way I felt then ever again.

    Jim must have noticed that I was kind of stuck on the painting, because before I knew it, his arms were around me, and his body pressed against my back.  He laid his head gently against mine, and we were quiet like that for a while.  I didn't know what to say, because my mind was still on the boy that I used to be.

    "That's my favorite of all of your work, Chris," he kind of whispered in my ear.

    "Why that one?" I asked.  "That one is all about sorrow and fear."

    "But its also the most personal painting you've ever done," he said.  "When I look at it, its like I have a part of you in here with me all the time."

    "It still takes my breath away a little when I look at it and remember everything that caused me to paint it," I whispered.

    "Those things are all gone now, Chris," he said, squeezing me tighter.  "You are safe and sound, back with your father where you belong."

    "I'm glad you're here," I said, twisting in his arms so that I could hug him back.

    "I'm glad to be here, Chris," he said, not letting me go.  "Being here with you is very special for me. I still feel like you are like my own son."

    I didn't know what to say to that, so I just let him hold me.  I knew we couldn't stay this way for long, because if we did, I was going to start sobbing.  Thankfully, he let go of me and finished putting his shirt on.  It wasn't until he rose his arms to put on the shirt that I noticed that he wasn't wearing the towel.  I should have noticed that when he flipped me with it, but my mind wasn't completely working.

    He had stood there and held me completely nude.  That was more than I could even hope for from him, but I still knew that it had nothing to do with sexuality at all.  He was like a second father to me, and that was as close as we were ever going to get.  I could accept that.  I'd take him any way I could have him.

    We went upstairs and sat on the couch to watch a movie.  The phone interrupted us a few times, but I quickly got rid of the callers, so I could just spend some time with Jim.  We watched the movie until Dad and Clint came home with their party supplies.  Jim went into the kitchen to help them put them away.

    That night, Evan came home just about the time that I was going to bed.  I had just changed into my flannel shorts and a t-shirt when he came into the bedroom.  He sat on his bed and took off his shoes while I crawled into my bed.  He looked at me for a minute like he was going to say something, but he didn't for a while.

    "Why aren't you sleeping with me, Chris?" he asked finally.

    "Dad said I couldn't for a while," I replied.  "Evan, he knows about us."  I didn't know if he knew that or not yet, but I thought he deserved to know if he didn't.

    "I know," he said.  "We had a talk about that a long time ago. He just wanted to make sure that I wasn't doing something to you that you didn't want."

    "Why didn't you tell me then?" I asked.

    "Because I thought he'd had the same talk with you," he said.  "I didn't know until just a few minutes ago that you had no idea that he knew about it. When did he talk to you about this?"

    "At the hospital," I replied.  "When he told me that I couldn't sleep with you for a few days."

    "Did you freak out as much as I did when he talked to you about it?" he asked, smiling at me.

    "I about had a heart attack," I admitted.

    "It isn't dirty, Chris," he said, suddenly serious.  His eyes darkened, and it was like a cloud passed over his face.

    "I know that, Evan," I replied.  "I told you that no one and nothing was going to make me think that anything we've done is dirty."

    "I just didn't want Dad making you feel ashamed of what we do," he said.

    "Can I ask you something?" I asked, remembering the look he'd given me when Dad had referred to Cole as his boyfriend.

    "Sure," he said, leaning back on his hands.

    "Why did you look at me so strange when Dad said that Cole was your boyfriend?" I asked.

    "I was wondering when you were going to get around to asking me about that," he said.  "Cole isn't really my boyfriend, though."

    "Why not?" I asked, thinking about all the sex the two of them have had.

    "Well, it's a bit complicated, Chris," he said.  "Cole doesn't want to be gay. He likes girls, too, and he doesn't want to commit to anything he can't stick with."

    "Does Cole know about you and me?" I asked.

    "Yes, he does," he replied.  "It doesn't matter to him, Chris. He and James are doing the exact same thing. They haven't been doing it as long as we have, but they are doing it."

    This was a shock for me.  I would never have imagined that Cole and James would be having sex together.  Cole had said that he didn't want to have sex with me, because he thought I was too young.  James was only a month older than me, so the thought of him having sex with James never would have occurred to me.

    "That's a little shocking," I replied.  "I would have never thought that one."

    "Well, I was shocked when he admitted it to me, too," he said.

    "When did you guys talk about this?" I asked.

    "Not too long ago, actually," he said.  "He just commented one day that we both seemed to have this strange affection for our brothers, and when I asked what he was talking about, he told me about him and James. Then he told me that he knew all about me and you."

    "Do you think Cole will ever change his mind about wanting to have a committed relationship with you?" I asked.

    "Well, he did apply to the same colleges I applied to, so we could stay together," he said.  "I don't know what that means, though. Cole Dash can be very hard to read."

    "If he's anywhere near as hard to read as his brother, I pity you," I replied.

    "You know James is going to be here tomorrow, right?" he asked, cocking his head to study my reaction.

    "Dad told me," I replied.  "I don't have any problem with it. James may have the problem."

    "True," he said.

    "When is Cole moving into the garage?" I asked.

    "Well, after we have cake and stuff, we're going to go over to his foster home and get his stuff," he replied.  "We spent most of the day today buying some pots, pans and dishes for his kitchen. We even got stuff for the bathroom and some groceries."

    "I guess he's really excited about moving into the garage," I said.

    "He is," he agreed.  "He can't wait. You have to understand that this will be like the ultimate freedom for Cole."

    "Are you guys going to spend the night up there tomorrow night?" I asked.

    "That's the plan, Chris," he said.  "That doesn't bother you, does it?"

    "No," I replied.  "Why would it?"

    "Well," he said, and then he stopped for a minute.  He kept looking at me like he had a load of things to say, but he didn't know exactly how to say them.

    "What?" I asked.

    "Chris, sometimes I get the feeling that you and I are getting a little closer than we should," he said.  "For instance, when you first started dating James, I was furious and jealous. For a while I felt a little betrayed or something. Then I took a step back and remembered that you are my brother, and I can't be your lover."

    "You don't feel like that now, do you?" I asked.

    "That I can't be your lover?" he asked.  "I know that I can't be your lover. Having sex with you is great, and I love you a lot more than I'm supposed to, but we can't do that, Chris."

    "Do you love Cole?" I asked.

    "Yeah," he said, smiling softly.  "I do."

    "Well, I want you to know that I don't see us as lovers, Evan," I replied.  "Sure, I love you probably as much as you love me, but I know just how the world works, too. I know that we can't be together that way, even if Dad understands it and condones it."

    "I don't want to stop having sex with you, though," he said quickly.

    "I don't want to stop having sex with you, either," I replied.

    We talked for a little while longer, and then we both went to bed.  I laid awake through most of the night thinking about what he said.  It was true, we did love each other more than we were supposed to, but there was nothing that either of us could do about that.  I hoped that Cole would change his mind, though.  If Evan loved him, then I didn't want to see him hurt.  Cole might hurt him if he didn't change his mind.

    The next day, Cole showed up early.  We had just finished having breakfast when he showed up.  Thankfully, James was not with him.  He and Evan went out to do a little more shopping, Dad and Clint went out to get a few more things, Jim left to go to a meeting, so that left me and Kendal at home.

    We talked about all kinds of things while the guys were all gone.  She told me about a boy that she'd been seeing while she'd been home.  His name was Marlon, and he was attending Springfield College and living at home with his mom and brother.  She said that she really liked him, and she hoped that their relationship remained as good as it was now after she returned to school.

    Then she asked if there was anyone I was wanting to be with.  I told her that there were no single gay boys that I knew, and she laughed.  She asked about Tommy, and I told her that I didn't want to have a committed relationship with a guy who lived so far away from me.  She said she thought she understood, since she was so worried about how things would go for her and Marlon with him here while she was in Chicago at school.

    The guys all came back, and Dad made dinner for us all.  We sat around the table together and ate.  Everyone talked about Cole, since it was his birthday.  Clint asked him all sorts of questions about what he wanted to do after high school.  He said that he and Evan were looking at colleges, and that both of them were planning to major in education.

    Jim told us all that his original major in college had been education, but that he'd been turned on to graphic arts by his college room mate.  He'd switched majors half way through his sophomore year.  I for one was glad that he'd went into advertising instead of teaching.  He may not even be here now if he were a teacher.

    After dinner, we had cake, and we all gave Cole gifts.  I hadn't had a chance to buy him anything, and I was surprised when he was handed one that said it was from me.  He opened it and inside there was a sweater much like the one Puck had gotten me for my birthday.  When I looked around the table, no one but Jim was looking at me.  He winked at me, and I knew that he'd gone and picked the sweater up so that I would have a gift for Cole's birthday.  I smiled at him.

    After all of the gifts were all opened, and all of us had been thanked, Cole and Evan took off in Clint's truck to get Cole's stuff.  They said it would only take one trip.  Dad told me that I needed to get to bed early, because we were going to the train station early in the morning to pick up Ted.

    I was excited that Ted was coming.  It would be nice to spend some time with him.  I just hoped that my dad didn't tell us we had to be quiet and stay home all the time.  That would ruin his visit for sure.  I was sure that if I didn't do too much, Dad would let me have a little room.

    I went upstairs and painted for a little while.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was painting for a while, and I was shocked when I started to make out the figure and how he was dressed.  I was painting Jim with his yellow towel wrapped around his waist, a lump indicated where his flaccid penis was behind the towel.  I had to mentally force myself not to think of his dick.

    I got really far on the painting before Dad came up and told me it was time for me to go to bed.  There wasn't much detail to it, but you could make out all of his facial features.  He was smiling slightly, and his hand was on his hip.  When it was done, I would give it to Jim.  I hoped he'd like it.

    "Now, Chris, I see exactly how far that painting is," said Dad.  "If it has any more detail in the morning, I'm going to take your paints away for a while. I want you to get some rest."

    "Yes, Dad," I said, smiling at him.  He knew me far too well.

    "I know that's kind of harsh, but I really don't want you over doing it," he said.  "Believe me, if anyone knows how hard it is for an artist to stay away from his work it's me, but please do this for me."

    "I will," I promised.

    "I didn't have a chance to call Doctor Fischer today," he said.  "But if you have trouble sleeping, I want you to tell me in the morning, and I'll make sure to put in a call to him tomorrow."

    "Dad, like I told Evan, I just think I slept too much already," I said, trying to talk him out of calling the doctor and making a big deal out of nothing.  "I'm sure everything will go back to normal soon."

    "Never mind that," he said, smiling at me.  "Just tell me if you have trouble sleeping."

    "Yes, Sir," I replied.

    I did have a little trouble getting to sleep that night, and it wasn't from nerves or excitement.  I just wasn't tired yet.  I was true to my word, though.  I stayed in bed and just stared at the ceiling.  Somewhere around the middle of the night, I finally fell asleep, but I was awake long before my father came to wake me up to go to the train station.

    "Any trouble?" he asked when he saw me sitting at my desk, surfing the internet.

    "It took me a long time to get to sleep," I admitted.  "And I was awake again around four this morning."

    I couldn't lie to him.  Truthfully, after last night, I was a little worried about it myself.  It couldn't hurt to talk to Doctor Fischer just to make sure that nothing was wrong.  If there was, it was better to find out now instead of waiting for another problem to present itself.

    "I'll call the doctor when we get back," he said.  "Go ahead and get dressed and come have breakfast."

    We ate a quick breakfast, and then we were off to the train station.  The train was late, so Dad and I just waited in the car.  He asked me a lot of questions about how I slept and what it was like when I woke back up.  I answered them all the best that I could.  He seemed to be very interested when I said that I wasn't groggy when I woke up.  I had always hated to wake up, and the fact that I went from sleep straight to wakefulness seemed to worry him.

    Our conversation ended with the arrival of Ted's train.  We got out of the car and walked over to greet him when he got off.  As luck would have it, he was one of the last to get off the train, and it was really cold outside.  I was shivering all over by the time he got off the train, and my dad was folding his hands in front of his mouth and breathing into them.

    When he got off the train, he looked so excited to see us.  He smiled really big and hugged me.  We all got back into the car and drove back to the house.  Ted talked the entire way there.  He told me about his job ending and what he wanted to do when he got back home.  He talked about school starting and how upset he was about the decreased Winter Break this year.

    When we got home again, true to his word, Dad called Doctor Fischer to tell him all about my insomnia.  Ted and I went straight upstairs to put his stuff away while my dad was on the phone.  I would have really liked to have been sitting there in the kitchen while he talked to him, but I figured I'd hear, soon enough, what was said.

    "God, its' good to see you," said Ted, grabbing me and hugging me again once we were inside my room.  He pulled back a little and kissed me, licking my lips to get me to open my mouth to receive his tongue.  His hands rubbed from my shoulders to my ass and back again before he let go of me.

    "I've been wanting to do that forever," he said, smiling at me.

    "We have to be extra careful about that kind of thing while you're here," I warned him.  "Dad's on edge about my sleeping habits."

    "What happened?" he asked.  "Your dad said that you were exhausted."

    "Yeah, that's what the doctor said, too," I replied.  "I don't know how it happened. I was staying up late painting sometimes but no more than usual. I wasn't under any stress that I knew of, and I certainly wasn't staying up on purpose."

    "So, if you're better now, why is your dad on edge?" he asked.

    "Well," I said.  "I'm sort of having the opposite problem now."

    "You can't sleep," he said.

    "Well, I do sleep," I said.  "It just takes forever for me to get to sleep, and once I get there, I don't stay there long."

    "That would suck," he said, grimacing.

    "Well, the other bad thing about it is that I'm not tired at all," I said.  "I have just as much energy now as I had before this all started to happen."

    "Is your dad on the phone with the doctor now?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at my closed bedroom door.

    "Yeah," I replied.  "He wanted to let the doctor know what was going on and see what he had to say about it."

    Shortly after that, Dad came upstairs to tell me that we were going to see Doctor Fischer in an hour.  I went ahead and took a shower and changed clothes again.  Ted put his stuff in the closet, and Dad made us a snack to eat before we left.  For some reason, I was always hungry lately.

    When we got to the doctor's office, I was led right into an examining room where a nurse I'd never seen before took my pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and asked about all of my symptoms.  She wrote notes in my chart and then left us to wait for Doctor Fischer to come in, which wasn't very long of a wait.

    "Hello again, Christopher," he said when he came in with my chart.  "Your dad tells me that now you are having trouble sleeping."

    "Yes, Sir," I replied.  "It takes me a while to get there, and then I can't stay there."

    "Quite a switch from the other day," he chuckled.

    Then he asked questions about my diet.  He wanted to know what kind of foods I ate, if I ate a lot of junk food, drank a lot of soda or tea with sugar.  Then he asked about my painting, and how my online business was going.  He asked my dad a few questions, and then it was time for him to tell me what he thought was wrong.

    "Well," he said.  "There doesn't seem to be a physical reason for this, so we're going to have to run a few tests to make sure that there are no internal problems."

    "What kind of tests?" asked my dad.

    "Well, for starters, I was a blood test," he said.  "I want to see if there are any indications that he may be fighting a virus. If not, then I want him to take what's called a fasting blood sugar test."

    "You think I might have diabetes?" I asked.

    "You're quick," he said, smiling.

    "We learned about it in school just before Winter Break," I replied.

    "Well, I don't think you have diabetes, but I need to rule it out. I need to see what your blood sugar will be with no sugar in your system," he said.  "Having the blood work up from today, I'll have something to go on."

    "Any other tests?" asked Dad.

    "Well, why don't we start with these," said Doctor Fischer.  "I'll have someone in here in a few minutes to draw the blood. Chris, nothing to eat after seven tonight. You may drink water or milk, but nothing with sugar. I'll see you again in the morning at seven-thirty."

    With that, he was out of the room.  What seemed like only seconds later, a nurse came in and took four vials of blood, and we were sent home.  Dad was in a weird mood for the rest of the day, and when Evan and Cole came in from the garage, Dad told them about our trip to the doctor.

    "Diabetes?" gasped Evan.  "Why do they think he has diabetes?"

    "They don't," said Dad.  "They're just ruling it out. He's running a full blood work up now."

    "To check for what exactly?" asked Cole, surprising me with his interest.

    "Well, to see if he's fighting an infection of virus," said Dad.  "He's to have nothing to eat after seven tonight, and he can only have water or milk to drink. We go back to the clinic at seven-thirty in the morning."

    So for lunch, I got to eat whatever I wanted.  I reminded Dad and Evan that I could eat supper, too.  I didn't want them getting any ideas about not feeding me later.  We usually ate supper around five, and that was two hours from my no food deadline.  I wasn't going to starve for two extra hours when there wasn't a good reason for it.

    Ted and Kendal hovered around me for the rest of the day.  I was starting to get annoyed with them, and then Kendal left to go meet Marlon.  For that I was thankful.  After that I just had Ted to contend with, but he was trying to make it seem like we were just hanging out.

    When he got in the shower, I looked up diabetes on the internet and read all about it.  I finally understood just why they were all so worried.  In school, we'd barely touched the subject.  The only reason it had even been brought up was because a girl in one of my classes had the disease.  What I read on the internet scared me.

    I didn't let anyone know that I was worried, though.  The last thing I needed was for my father to start worrying about stress again.  If that happened, I was sure I would be in bed before I knew what hit me.  I wasn't going to be treated like an invalid.  I tried to keep a smile on my face at all the right times and keep up with every conversation even though my mind was running through a myriad of possibilities.

    Tommy came over for about an hour.  He wanted to see Ted and ask me how I was doing.  I didn't say anything to him about what I was worried about, either.  Tommy was a cocky boy, but he was also one of the biggest worriers I knew.  If I told him, and he went home worried, then his mother would call my father, and then my secret would be out.

    He, Ted and I played video games in my room until my father announce that it was time for dinner.  Usually, he would just have invited Tommy to stay, but this time he had Cole run Tommy home with instructions to get back as soon as he could.  Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with all of this.

    Thankfully, when it was time for me to go to bed, I was really tired.  I guess all the worrying and trying so hard to make everyone believe that I was not worried at all had taken their toll on me.  I was almost fighting the urge to nod off all through the movie my father insisted that we watch together.  When it was over, Ted and I went straight upstairs.  I climbed in my bed and was out like a light.

    I must have slept through the entire night, because Ted woke me up at six to take my shower and get ready for the doctor.  I was a little tired, but nothing like I had been before.  I got right out of bed and took my shower.  The hot water helped a little bit, but the one thing I would have counted on I couldn't have.  I couldn't smell breakfast cooking, so I was hoping that everyone was being nice and not eating until I could have something.  If I had to sit and watch them eat, I would go crazy.

    It turned out that I had nothing to worry about.  Everyone was sitting at the table, but no one was eating anything.  I was a little surprised to find everyone up at six-thirty in the morning.  Dad, Clint, Jim, Evan, Kendal and Cole were all sitting around the table looking at me when I came into the kitchen.

    "Good morning," said my father.  "How did you sleep?"

    "I slept fine," I replied.  "Why is everyone up?"

    "They just want to be awake when you get back from the doctor," he said, looking at each of them one at a time.

    "Guys, its just a blood test," I said, putting on a fake smile to try and make them think that I wasn't as worried as they all looked.

    "We know that," said Kendal.  "But we feel bad for eating in front of you last night."

    "No one ate in front of me last night," I reminded her.  "I went upstairs before seven and stayed there until I had to come back down for the movie."

    "Well, we all just want to have breakfast with you when you get home," said Cole, and I was again shocked by his concern.

    "Whatever," I replied.  There was no way that they were all going to actually tell me how they felt, so I decided to just give up.

    And there it was.  I went with my father, Jim and Clint to the doctor, had my tests, and in the car on the way home, I broke.  All the worry, fear and hiding were just too much for me.  I sagged against Jim and began to sob like a baby.  He reached around me and held me tight, and I noticed, through tear filled eyes, that my father kept glancing worriedly at me through the rear view mirror.

    No one said anything, other than Jim quietly telling me everything would be alright.  The only other sound that could be heard on the way home was my occasional sob as I tried to stop crying.  Jim wiped the tears from my face as we pulled into the driveway at the house.

    "You'll feel a little better after we get some food in you," said my father as he came around and put his arm around my shoulders.  "I called ahead and had Evan and Cole start cooking."

    "Pancakes?" I asked, hoping for the best.

    "Of course," he said, looking at me like I was a bumbling idiot who couldn't remember what living in the Wallace house was like.  Pancakes had always been the traditional breakfast for an ailing family member.

    And great pancakes, they were! Evan had really outdone himself.  I found out later that it was Cole's idea to put chocolate chips in the pancakes.  Up until then, we'd only added cinnamon and sugar.  With our family's all time favorite, light maple syrup, they were easily the best pancakes I'd ever had.

    Over breakfast, everyone talked about the tests that I had been subjected to at the clinic, and it was revealed that we were going back to the clinic at three to talk to Doctor Fischer some more.  I'd had no idea that the results could be had that fast.  Sure, when you went to the hospital, they came and took your blood, and they knew the results before you were ever discharged from the emergency room, but that was a hospital with a full laboratory for running all sorts of tests right on the premises.  Doctor Fischer's office was in Springfield Clinic.  I'd had no idea that a lab was housed within its walls.

    The whole bunch of us were a nervous wreck all day long.  There were any number of things that could be wrong with me.  Diabetes was bad enough, but what I, and everyone else was worried about was the unknown.  Sure it would be inconvenient for me to have to prick my finger three times a day and take insulin all the time, but diabetes in itself wouldn't kill me.  It would open the door to many internal problems over the course of years, but many people live completely, if not slightly different, normal lives with diabetes.

    No, diabetes wasn't something that we were overly worried about.  However, I was paying attention to the doctor when he asked all of those questions.  Hepatitis was discussed, and I happen to know for a fact that that can be fatal.  It can even become HIV.  Ordinarily, we probably wouldn't have worried about it, but I am a homosexual, and I'm an active one.

    So, we were all worried for the rest of the morning and afternoon.  By the time that we were back, waiting in Doctor Fischer's office, I was almost a complete mess.  I'd already run through my head all of the negative things that could happen.  I'd already theorized a million problems.

    "Gentlemen," said Doctor Fischer when he came into the room and sat at the makeshift desk.  "I have really good news for you. His blood gasses are all normal, sugar was a bit low, and I think that is our culprit."

    "So, you think its diabetes?" asked my father quickly, grabbing on the word sugar, I'm sure.

    "No," replied Doctor Fischer.  "Actually, I think that Christopher may have just a touch of the opposite of diabetes."

    "Is that bad?" asked Jim.

    "So far, I don't see a cause for alarm," replied the doctor.  "He just needs to make sure that he drinks plenty of water every day, gets enough rest and eats a well balanced diet. Other than that, he'll be just fine."

    They all talked more about it, but I had already tuned them out.  The mental celebration had already begun.  I felt so relieved that there was nothing really wrong with me.  I mentally chastised myself for thinking all of the horrible thoughts that I'd entertained all day and the previous night.

    At home, everyone was very excited.  Evan, Ted and Cole acted as if they'd received the best news they would ever get in their lives.  Each of them hugged me and told me how happy they were that nothing was wrong.  I was too happy to even bother to wonder why Cole was so relieved.

    That night, Ted and I celebrated in another way.  We had sex well into the night, and I think he got me all the way to orgasm at least four times that night.  I privately marveled over the power of my prostate.  The sex between us was so good, we had it every night that he stayed with us.

    I was actually kind of sad to see him leave.  We had gotten a little closer while he was here, and I really enjoyed that.  His leaving just reminded me that I would be basically alone again.  Sure, I could have sex with Evan, but what I really craved was a guy of my very own.

    After he left, things got pretty much back to normal.  Evan started spending more and more time in the garage apartment with Cole.  Tommy and Puck were almost constant fixtures in the house.  We had two days until school started again, and both of them stayed at the house for both of those days and nights.

    When school started, I got the most pleasant shock of my life.  Puck and I made our way to homeroom rather early that morning.  Our seats were both in the back of the class, and as the class started to fill up, a boy that didn't belong in our homeroom walked into the room.  I didn't see him very well, because several people walked in at the same time.

    He sat in a desk at the front of the room with his back to me, but there was something very familiar about him.  His hair was dark, cut short but nicely styled.  I could see that he had broad shoulders, and his arms had to be at least slightly muscled.  They filled out the blue and grey striped shirt he was wearing.

    When Mrs. Lander came into the room, the class settled down.  The new boy promptly stood up and went to her desk.  I assumed that he was showing her his class schedule, but all I could do was look at his perfect ass! He was wearing a pair of blue jeans that were just tight enough to show off his best asset so far.  When he turned around to be announced to the class, my heart stopped.  It was Alex Porter!

    "Class," said Mrs. Lander, getting everyone's attention.  "We have a new student with us today. His name is Alex Porter. Make him welcome."

    My heart was beating a mile a minute.  If anything, Alex had gotten even more gorgeous since I'd seen him last.  His baby blue eyes were as piercing as ever, and it was clear that he'd continued to work out.  His upper body was very nicely muscular.  That chiseled face was just about more than I could stand to look at.  I just couldn't believe he was here!

    Our eyes met, and he smiled at me.  Oh my God, that smile! I tried to smile back at him, but I don't know if I accomplished a real smile or not.  I know my eyes had to be as big as saucers.  He went back to the seat he was sitting in, and Mrs. Lander commenced with the day's announcements.  I didn't hear a word she said.  All of my memories of Alex thundered through my head, and my dick lurched with every beat of my heart.

    After class, he waited by the door for me to come out.  We stood there for a minute and just looked at each other.  That dazzling smile was back on his face again, and my knees were weak.  Alex had always been a very attractive boy, but now, he was one of the most gorgeous people I'd ever seen.

    "Hello again, Chris," he said finally.

    "What are you doing here?" I gasped at him, aware that Puck was standing right beside me, looking confused.

    "We moved back right after Christmas," he said.  "I go to school here now."

    "We have to get to class, Chris," said Puck, breaking the spell that Alex's eyes had over me.

    He rushed me away so fast that I didn't even get to ask Alex what his first hour class was.  We didn't see him again until lunch.  We'd just sat down at our table when he walked into the cafeteria.  He scanned the room with a disappointed look on his face until he saw me, and then he smiled again.

    "Alright," said Puck, startling me.  "Who is that?"

    "That's Alex," I said.  "He and I were friends before I moved to Chicago. He moved away while I was still in Chicago."

    "Ah," he said as Alex walked up to the table.

    "Can I sit with you guys?" he asked.

    "You have to ask?" I replied.  "Sit down, and talk to me."

    "Yes, Sir," he chuckled.  "Its good to see you gain."

    "I about had a heart attack when I saw you," I replied.  "I can't believe you're here."

    "When did you move back to town?" he asked.  "I thought you were living with your mother in Chicago."

    "Oh, well there's a lot to tell you about that," I said.  "But none of it is really appropriate for where we are now. You've got to come over to the house."

    "I'd love to," he said.  "I really missed you."

    "God," I said.  "I think about you almost all the time lately. I just can't believe you're here."

    I was interrupted by Puck clearing his throat.  In all of my excitement, I'd completely forgotten to introduce him to Alex.  I smiled at him quickly.

    "Alex, this is my friend Puck," I said.  "We met in Chicago, and he and his mother moved here shortly after I got back home."

    "Nice to meet you, Puck," he said, shaking Puck's hand.

    We talked for the entire lunch period.  I didn't even touch my food, and that was a bad thing.  By the end of the day, I was dragging again.  Thankfully, Puck bought me a candy bar from the vending machines while I waited around, hoping to catch Alex before he left the school.  After a half an hour of waiting, though, it was clear that we'd missed him.

    I explained to Puck all about Alex on the way to my house.  He listened closely and commented in all the right places until I had told him almost every aspect of my relationship with Alex Porter.  He seemed very interested, and disappointed, to learn that Alex had been James's friend first.

    When Tommy got to the house, I told him about Alex being at school, and he wasn't as thrilled about it as I was.  Then I remembered all about his fights with James and Alex after the details of court had been leaked to the school.  I had to find a way to make the two of them friends again.  I just had to think about it for a while.  Unfortunately, time was not on my side.  Alex came to the door.

    When he and Tommy saw each other again for the first time, neither of them were exactly thrilled.  I took Alex into the kitchen and quickly explained about Donnie and what had really happened at the time.  He was instantly sorry for what he'd done to Tommy, and then the two of them talked about it for a little while.  After that, we had a great visit together.

    I was sad to see Alex leave when he did.  I wanted so much to talk to him about everything that had happened to me in Chicago and find out about his life since he'd moved.  What I really wanted to find out was if he was interested in picking up our friendship where it had left off.

    He ate lunch with us every day for the rest of the week, and he came to the house to do homework with me and Puck after school every day.  However, I never got the courage to talk to him about anything other than school work.  Puck seemed to always be around when Alex was, and Alex had never been an outgoing type of guy, so he wasn't volunteering any information, either.

    On Friday night, though, Alex came to spend the night.  Puck was a little put off when I didn't ask him or Tommy to stay, but I really wanted to talk to Alex.  I wasn't doing anything to screw up my chance to talk to him.  His mom called my dad, and everything was arranged on Thursday.  Friday, after school, Alex drove me home instead of Puck.  Of course, Puck and Tommy still came over that afternoon to do homework, but for the first time all week, Alex didn't leave.

    "We're finally alone together," he said, smiling at me when we were in my room after Puck and Tommy had left.

    "I know," I replied.  "I have so much to tell you."

    I told him all about what had gone on in Springfield.  I told him about meeting Ted, all of the bad things that happened between me and my mother, and of course about Zack and Ken.  He listened to everything I said, not reacting until I got to the part about me, James and Khayman.

    "James is a jerk, Chris," he said.  "You should have never gotten involved with him. I'm sorry that he hurt you, though."

    "Well, that leads me to a question I've been dying to ask you," I said.  "I was wondering if you had someone while you were gone."

    "Oh," he said, blushing and looking down.  "There was one boy that I was with for a long time. His name is Danny, and he and I were really good friends. But he decided one day that he liked girls, and that was the end of everything between us. We weren't even friends anymore."

    "I'm sorry, Alex," I said.

    "What about you and Puck?" he asked, and I couldn't believe that he hadn't figured out that Tommy and Puck were together.

    Sure, Tommy had been very reserved all week.  He didn't fully trust Alex, I guess.  He and Puck didn't so much as touch each other once in Alex's presence.  So, I guess it wasn't such a stretch for him to think that Puck and I might be together.  Puck, Tommy and I were very affectionate friends.

    "Puck is Tommy's boyfriend," I replied, smiling at him again.  "They've been together, practically since the day Puck arrived in Springfield."

    "Good," he said, putting his head down again.  "Because I have to admit that I was jealous of him when I thought he was with you."

    "Alex, I'm not with anyone," I said quickly.

    "I was kind of hoping that you might still like me," he said, his head still down.

    "I was king of hoping the same thing about you," I replied.

    "Really?" he asked, snapping his head up to look me in the eye.

    "Really," I assured him.

    "Chris, I liked you so much when we were together," he said.  "After James, you were like awesome to me."

    "You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that," I replied, smiling at him again.

    And then, he got off of Evan's bed, walked over and sat beside me, and his arms were around me.  I kissed him softly at first, but as we both got more comfortable, our kiss got deeper.  I couldn't believe that I was kissing him again after all this time.  I just had to get my hands on his body.  Even through his clothes I could feel his muscles.

    "I've wanted to do that since Monday in homeroom," he said when we pulled ourselves apart.

    "Me too," I said before kissing him again.

    Evan walked into the room then, and Alex about jumped out of his skin.  Evan chuckled a bit, and smiled really big at him, though.  I don't think Alex knew quite what to think about it yet, though.

    "Calm down, guys," Evan said smiling still.  "I wondered when this was going to happen. I'm happy for you guys."

    "Thanks, Evan," replied Alex.

    "Chris, I've got some great news," said Evan quickly.  "I got accepted!"

    He'd been really trying to get accepted at Quincy University.  Cole had already been accepted, so Evan had been working like a mad man to get the best grades he could.  Learning that he had been accepted both thrilled me and made me sad.  Quincy was 109 miles away from Springfield, which wasn't far, but I still didn't like the idea of him not living at home.

    He talked to us for a while, promising me that he'd be home as often as he could and that I could come to Quincy and visit him when he and Cole got their apartment.  I felt better about it after we'd finished our talk.  Even though I knew he was about to turn 18, I didn't want him to be out of the house completely.

    We ate supper downstairs with everyone, and Dad asked Alex all kinds of questions about life in Carolina.  In all of our excitement upstairs, we hadn't talked about that much other than him telling me about Danny.  I found out that his mother and father were now divorced, his mother was working as a manager of Victoria's Secret in the mall here, and they lived in the same house they'd lived in before they left, having never sold it.

    After supper, we went right back upstairs to be alone.  We sat on my bed, kissing and generally making out for a long time.  I let my hands explore his upper body, and he seemed to really like playing with my navel through my shirt.  By the time Dad reminded me to get some sleep, I was so worked up, I knew he had to know what had been going on in my room.

    "Do you want me to sleep in Evan's bed?" asked Alex when my father left the room.

    "Are you crazy?" I asked.  "I finally have you here with me, and you think I'm going to let you sleep in another bed?"

    I walked over to him and started kissing him as I undid the belt he was wearing.  My kisses trailed down the side of his neck as I pushed his pants over that marvelous ass of his.  As I made my way back to his mouth, he started to do the same thing to me, and then we were almost tangled in our shirts as we both tried to get them off each other at the same time.

    When we were both gloriously naked, I wrapped my hand around that awesome uncut dick of his, and we fell into my bed, kissing each other.  I had him on his back, and I got to trail kisses down his neck until I could kiss, lick and suck on his nipples.  I was really getting turned on by his muscles.  I let my tongue catch the rise and fall of each of his abdominal muscles until I reached his dick.

    He sighed when my mouth enveloped him.  I tried every trick I knew to make him feel good.  I even tried to deep throat that monster, but it was just too big for that.  I settled for bobbing up and down slowly on it while my tongue worked furiously on the sensitive underside of his dick.  I nibbled and sucked at his foreskin, making him moan.

    Soon, he was turning us in separate positions until he had my dick lodged in his throat.  We sucked each other for what seemed like hours before I felt his balls start to draw up to his body, and his dick stiffened in my mouth.  Ordinarily, I would have backed off and went after his nuts with my tongue for a while to let him cool down, but this time, I wanted him to cum.  I wanted to taste every drop that his monster dick and balls could throw at me.

    As soon as the first shot hit the back of my throat, I was thrown into orgasm, and I let go inside his mouth.  We each saved a little of each other's cum in our mouths and traveled back into the proper position to kiss each other and share our treasures.  Then his arms were around me again, pulling me closer to him until our naked chests were unable to get any closer.

    "I want you inside me, Chris," he breathed into my ear, making my spine tingle.

    "Are you sure?" I asked, looking him in the eye.

    "I've never been more sure of anything in my life," he replied.  "I want you to fill my ass with every inch of your dick, and make me feel it. I want you to claim my ass, and make me beg for it."

    Without a word, we switched positions until he was lying on his back again, and I trailed kisses down his body again until I had his newly re hardened dick in my mouth as I reached into the drawer of my bedside table to get the lube.  I sucked his dick with abandon now that I knew that he wasn't going to cum very soon.  By the time I got to licking his balls, he was moaning and writhing on the bed.

    As my tongue made its way under his balls and across his perineum, his legs found their way to my shoulders, and then my tongue grazed his ass hole.  He almost yelped, but what came out was more like a strangled gasp.  I traced the ring of his hole with my tongue while I put lube on my in the palm of my hand.  I squeezed my hand to make the lube move and get warmer as my tongue finally plunged into his musky ass hole, making him try unsuccessfully to climb the wall with his fingernails.

    I was rewarded for my efforts with several "Oh God's" and "That's great's."  I could feel the muscle of his ass loosening for me as I tongue fucked him into blissful oblivion.  Then I replaced my tongue with my index finger and slowly began to tease it in and out of his ass.  It didn't take me hardly any time at all to find his prostate, and then he was moaning, whimpering and moving his head slowly back and forth across the pillow underneath it.

    After manipulating his prostate and watching precum puddle on in the valley of his navel, I added a second finger to the assault, making sure to keep in contact with his love button.  I kept that up until he begged me to fuck him, and then I took my fingers out and replaced them at the rim of his ass with the head of my dick.

    "Don't go slow," he breathed.  "Just give it to me."

    That was all the encouragement I needed.  I pushed until all of my dick was buried in his hot tight ass, and my balls were against his ass.  As I slowly pulled my dick back out until only the head was trapped by his sphincter, he leaned up and tried to kiss me, but instead, he moaned into me.

    As his head fell back against the pillow, I got into a steady in and out rhythm, being careful to make sure that my dick practically never left his prostate.  He continued to moan and move his body in time with my fucking, and more and more precum oozed from the head of his dick.  When his cum shot up his chest, his ass grabbed my dick like a hand and literally milked the cum from my balls.  I let go of one of the biggest loads of cum I'd ever shot in my life, coating the walls of his silky ass.

    When the last spasm of orgasm let go of me, I pulled his head up and kissed him hard.  His cum was gluing us together, but at that moment I didn't care.  That had been the best sex I'd ever had in my life! I wanted to bask in its afterglow for a little while before dragging him off to the shower to clean up.

    Finally, after taking a shower and trying desperately to be quiet, we crawled back into bed and curled into each other.  Our arms were wrapped comfortably around each other, and his head was on my chest.  I used one hand to play with the hair on his head while the other one rubbed his back.

    "Can I keep you?" he asked, smiling up at me when he raised his head.

    "I'm yours," I replied, leaning foreword to kiss him again.

    After that we settled back against each other and drifted off to sleep, and I slept the better that night than I had in a long time.

    We settled into a routine after that night.  Every day, Puck, Alex and Tommy were at my house after school for homework, and every weekend, Alex and I spent the night at one or the other's house.  We had sex as often as we could get away with it, and after two months, he told me he loved me more than anything in the world.  I returned the sentiment, and we were inseparable after that.

   A lot of things had happened since Alex had come back.  With Evan and Cole both getting accepted to Quincy University, Evan and I had mutually decided that the two of us should stop having sex with each other.  He wanted to give his relationship with Cole a fair shot, and I wanted to be with Alex.

    Puck and Alex continued to come over to my house every day after school to do homework.  Puck and I were actually closer than ever.  Tommy wanted to talk about it a lot, but other than that our relationship hadn't changed much.  He was happy that Alex was back and that we were together, and I was happy to see that he and Puck seemed to be stronger than ever.  He was at the house every day, too.  He'd come as soon as he got out of school.

    Maybe the strangest thing of all was that Cole and I were getting to be really good friends.  He came in from the garage to talk to me from time to time while Evan was working, and we acted like idiots at the gallery.  James still kept his distance, and for that I was thankful.

    Kendal had transferred to Springfield College, and she was living at home again.  It was nice having her around, because our relationship had gotten closer once she moved home.  We talked about everything from my painting to her love life.  She'd really transferred to Springfield because of Marlon, but she liked to try and make us believe that it was because she missed her family.

    Graduation was fast approaching for Evan and Cole, and Dad and Clint were busy getting everything set for the party they were throwing for him and Cole.  Cory and Tom got in on the party planning rather quickly, and the four of them were going to dinner together and all sorts of things.  It was nice knowing that Dad and Clint had another couple to hang out with.  It seemed to be going really well.

    Jim and I continued to spend as much time together as we could.  It was harder now that he was dating Maria, but she liked spending time with us from time to time, too, so that wasn't a problem.  I'd asked him just how serious things were getting between him and Maria, and he told me that although he really liked her, he didn't think things were going to get much further between them.  I was sad to hear that.  Maria was a very nice woman, and she loved all of us.  That was plain to see.  I wished that Jim could find happiness and settle down again.

    Word finally got around at school that Alex, Puck and I were gay.  Surprisingly, though, no one had anything bad to say about it.  If anything, it made the three of us even more popular.  Alex was their star football player, and I was on the baseball team.  Both teams had made sure that anyone who had anything negative to say about us kept their mouths shut, so things went really smoothly at school.

    Things were actually going very well for all of us, and I was happier than I'd been in a long time.  The only problem that continually persisted was my mother calling all the time to talk to me and Evan.  She'd stopped calling to talk to Kendal for some reason, but Kendal didn't care.  I just wished she'd stop trying to contact me.

    The night before Evan's graduation, and Alex came to stay with me.  With Evan and Cole living above the garage, I had all the privacy I could want.  There were no performances of the night that we'd all had sex in the same room that I'd been fantasizing about.  Having my privacy with Alex was great, but I must admit that it would have been extremely hot knowing that Cole and Evan were in the next bed doing almost the same thing we were doing.

    "What are you thinking about?" asked Alex, snuggling closer to me.  We were sitting in the living room watching a movie.

    "Just stuff," I said, holding him a bit tighter.

    "Getting tired?" he asked, looking up at me.

    "A little," I replied.  "We do have to go to school in the morning."

    "I still don't see why they can't just mail our grades to us," he grumbled.

    The school had decided that we would come for one half day tomorrow to get our grades for each class.  We'd all taken finals last week, and none of us were unhappy with the way we thought the tests had gone.  Alex, for one, didn't see why we had to go to school at all.  It was supposed to be officially over.

    "Its just three hours," I said.  "It'll be over before we know it. Then we'll hang out with Tommy and Puck."

    "Let's go to bed," he said, running his finger around the outside of my navel.  He knew that always got me going.

The End

My other stories on Nifty:

Incest:
Nicholas And Mark

Adult Youth:
Detahz
Boys Of Summer
Midnight Encounter

Celebrity/Boy Bands:
Celebrity

For a complete list of all of my stories, go to my website.

Stories That I Really Like On Nifty:

High School:
Matthew Figures It Out
Carrots And Celery

Incest:
Family Album
My Step-Brother, Jacob

College:
Working It Out

Prolific Nifty Authors That I REALLY Recommend:

Pfantazm
Greg Bowden
Eric Case
Justin Case (In Loving Memory)