WARNING: This is a story of friendship, commitment, love and trust. It is not a sex story. However, this story deals with love between male teenagers. If you are offended by stories involving love between two teenage boys, please do not read this story. There may be some sex scenes in this story; however, sex is not the main theme. If you are under age 18 or 21 or it is illegal to read this story where you live, don't read it. Reproducing this story for distribution without the owner's permission is a violation of that copyright. Authors' Note: Let me know if you like the story - you'd be amazed how much that encourages me to continue writing. Sam Lakes |
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Queststar By Sam Lakes
Chapter 5 The next morning, after Zaron was dressed, he headed off to the mess hall to find Trender, but didn't see him anywhere. He did, however, see Morrison, with Jenic, Paulik, and an older boy. “Hey, Zaron, sit with us,” said Morrison. “Thanks, I will. I was looking for Trender Nucomb – he’s my roommate, but I don’t see him anywhere.” “Your Nucomb’s roommate? Whoa! All I can say is watch out,” said the older boy,.“By the way I’m Garthon Redellious.” “Oh, pleased to meet you, but why must I watch out?” “I was his roommate last year, and he was always trying to come on to me. He's okay to look at but not my type I'm not into pain,” replied Garthon. Zaron had no idea what Garthon meant, so, almost involuntarily, he reached out and placed his hand on Garthon’s hand for a split second. It was so fast Garthon didn’t even realize that Zaron had touched him. He now knew why Garthon didn’t like Trender. Garthon had cheated on the running of the gauntlet, and Trender knew. Trender had tried to get Garthon to be honest and own up, but Garthon had refused because he didn’t want to lose his popularity. Zaron surmised that Garthon's calumny of Trender was deliberated. If he could discredit another to his advantage, he would. Zaron had seen how Garthon had cheated. At that moment, Trender entered the mess hall and saw Zaron sitting with Garthon. It hurt. Garthon had a knack of persuading people what a loser Trender was. It looked like it was going to be another bad year, where Trender would be a loner with no friends. Trender turned and left the mess hall. As the day progressed, Trender felt more and more alone. His happiness from the previous night's discussion with Zaron faded as the day wore on and Zaron was nowhere to be found. He even checked with Cadet Messenger Simmons if Zaron was with the Commodore, and Simmons told him that Zaron had been to see the Commodore after breakfast. He said Zaron seemed a bit troubled when he went in to see the Commodore, but seemed really cheerful after his half hour meeting. Zaron didn’t return to their room until after lights-out. **** “Where were you last night? You know you are supposed to be in your bed before lights-out,” said Trender, as Zaron entered the room from his morning ablutions. “I was only five minutes late, and you were pretending to be asleep, so I let you pretend. Where was I? I was in engineering talking with Lieutenant Frazer. Did you know we are traveling at 12 parsecs an hour, and that’s not even half-speed. And yes, I was sitting at the table with Morrison, Jenic, Paulik and Garthon – your ex-roommate. I have something planned, but I won’t tell you what. I will tell you that I don’t like liars, cheats, people who pretend to be my friend, and people who try to hurt others to protect their own vanity.” “I realized some things about you,” Zaron paused and stared at Trender for a few moments, sighed lightly and then continued, “I hope you will watch me run the gauntlet today. Now I must run to class.” With that said, Zaron left the room, leaving Trender in a state of confusion. Had Garthon won over Zaron as he had half of the other cadets? Was Zaron going to embarrass him. What was he up to? He heard Zaron’s voice in his head saying, “Stop with the negatives, it makes your light diminish.” “What light?!” he voiced out to the empty room. “Trender, shh. Believe in yourself. I do. No more time to mind-talk. See you at the Gauntlet running.” Trender sat on his bed <Was what had just happened a dream or my imagination?> |