Chapter Seven

Bell seven woke the two boys. They awakened with a start and then looked anxiously at each other, the events of the night before hitting them with renewed awareness. Sayer said nothing as he looked at the boy with whom he had shared a bed. Slowly he rose, wandered to the bathroom and came back sitting on his own bed looking toward Hunter.

Hunter repeated Sayer's trip and then sat on his bed, the two now facing each other.

"Did that really happen?" Sayer asked.

"I think so," Hunter said a bit confused. "Or we both had the same dream."

"Can you do it again?" Sayer asked.

Hunter went silent, closed his eyes and focused his mind. "Yes," he said, smiling, "and me too."

"What!?" Sayer exclaimed. "What? Tell me, tell me!"

"You were thinking that if last night was just a dream, you wanted it to keep going forever."

Sayer jumped up, eyes brimming. Hunter did the same and in the small space between the beds, the two boys were in an emotional embrace, just hugging and hanging on. And then, they looked into one another's eyes and kissed spontaneously. At last, each fell backwards onto his own bed.

"What are we going to do?" Hunter asked, his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

"Do about what?" Sayer said breathlessly.

"I can ride! What are we going to do?"

Sayer thought for a few seconds and then said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Hunter questioned.

Sayer took a deep breath. "Well first I'm going to say it out loud this morning to you. I am in love with you. I think I have been since I noticed your attraction to David."

Hunter just smiled and thought "I love you too" right back at Sayer. He knew he was riding him; they were both riding.

"Let's not tell anybody yet," Sayer said out loud fully aware that perhaps they never really needed to utter a spoken word between them again. "We don't know if you can just ride me or you can ride a few people or everybody. This whole place is forbidden to ride us but they didn't tell us we couldn't ride. Let's find out if we can communicate with each other as riders. And let's find out if you can ride anyone else."

Hunter smiled and simply said, "Okay."

"Asshole," Sayer laughed.

"What?" Hunter kidded.

"You just can't wait to get to breakfast and see if you can ride Talen!"

"Shit yeah," Hunter laughed. "He's fuckin' sexy and cute. I like him."

"Hmmm," Sayer said. "Me too."

Yet between the two of them, at that moment, they realized that an attraction to other boys might lead to friendship and maybe more but nothing would ever feel as strong as the bond they had formed in the last few hours. It was like there was an understanding that each would allow others to bond with them but none would ever come close to what they already had.

Porridge, sausages and fruit were the last thing on the boys' minds as they entered the chow hall. As usual, they joined the boys from Squeek and Hunter focused on the fourteen-year-old with the long soft brown hair. Effortlessly, he found himself inside Talen's world. Talen was bright, happy, proud and talented. He was also raging with normal teen hormones that caused his mind to flit from being hungry to being horny. Hunter tried to keep his composure when he realized that Talen was attracted to not only his best friend Rory, but to Sayer and Hunter as well. From the quick intrusion into the boy's mind, Hunter realized that Talen had a lot of friends but in his mind, his circle narrowed to just the four of them. That was good to know. Hunter let go of the ride.

"Yeps, I can," he thought at Sayer.

"I couldn't," Sayer thought back. "I knew you were riding him but I couldn't tell what you were finding out. I guess I should ask the Doyen if you can ride a rider while he's riding someone else -- I mean like sort of double up I guess."

"That could be a real mess," Hunter thought back. "How would you know who it was you were riding? Makes my head spin just trying to figure it out."

They finished breakfast quickly and Sayer stopped Hunter before they broke off into the direction of their classes. It was a quiet alcove of a corridor where they stopped. "I think it's best to keep this between us still," he said. "I'll start teaching you how to block tonight. It isn't hard, at first anyway. Since the guys here are forbidden to ride us, I should have time to teach you the basics within a night or two. Then we'll work on the stronger intrusions, attempts to penetrate your mind by diversion. So far, that's all I know but I have felt attempts a couple of times but they were easy to block."

"Who was trying to ride you," Hunter asked.

"That's just it, you don't know so you just throw up a block. Riders should ask permission between themselves. It's sort of a supreme command. When we ride non-riders, they never know or feel anything."

"Okay," Hunter agreed touching his friend's arm lightly. "But right now it's really getting confusing whether I should talk to you or just think to you. And if we don't talk it's going to seem strange to the rest of the school. How about we agree to not ride each other without permission or in case of an emergency?"

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. It's really distracting watching you think about seeing Talen naked!"

"Oh yeah, and of course, you don't find Rory's ass a bit sexy do you?" Hunter grinned.

"Ok, asshole, deal! No riding without permission," Sayer agreed.