By Earth-boy
Quick disclaimers:
- This story contains descriptions of sex between teen and pre-teen males. Do not read if you’re under 18 or it is illegal where you’re living.
- Copyright by the author. Do not upload to pay-to-view sites.
- This story is fiction; references to individuals are coincidental.
- No children or teenagers were harmed in the creation of this story.
“What are you gonna do now?” asked Rhett. I was still standing on the basement stairs from where I’d been watching him for a couple of minutes.
“I can play with you if you want,” I answered, “or I can just sit down somewhere and let you carry on. It’s only a quarter after seven. Your mom says you should be getting a bath tonight, and then go to bed. So bath time’s at eight.”
“Do I have to be in bed by 8:30?” Wow, that was unexpected—not!
“Yes. Your mom says if you don’t want to go to bed I should hang you upside down by your feet from the rafters until you do.”
He grinned. “That sounds like fun!”
“But I forgot the mention the part where I also tickle you to death.”
“I’m not ticklish,” he said.
“I bet you are!”
“Am not!”
“Shall we find out?” With that I jumped off the step, lunged toward him, and began running my fingers up and down all over his shirt, front and back. He laughed and giggled, but certainly wasn’t squirming.
“Told you so!” he said.
“I guess you’re right.” But I suspected his heavy shirt had shielded him from the worst effects of my tickling assault. What I didn’t mention I was imagining hanging him upside down and naked, so he wouldn’t have nearly as much protection. But in the back of my mind I figured he’d love that!
“So I’ll have to figure out what else to do after I hang you upside down.” I thought for a moment, then said, “I know! I’ll cut your hair off with garden shears!”
That got a reaction. “Whaaa! You wouldn’t!”
I grinned. “Nah, of course I wouldn’t! I’ll let you go back to your truck. I can be your playmate if you want to, otherwise I’ll just laze out on the couch or something.”
Rhett went quiet for a moment. It looked like he might be planning something. Then unexpectedly he said, “Yeah, I’ll play with the truck a bit more.”
So I lay down on the couch. After a minute I realized I’d missed something pretty important. I’d expected I’d be spending most of my time finding things to keep Rhett occupied, running a bath for him, and herding him into bed. What I hadn’t counted on was Rhett doing things that didn’t require my constant attention or supervision, essentially leaving me nothing to do. That gave me an idea.
“Hey Rhett, do you or your mom have any DVDs I could watch, or we could watch together?”
“Oh, sure! We’ve got my DVDs down here and hers are upstairs.”
“Do you want to watch something, or carry on with the truck?”
“Yeah, let’s watch something!”
“Okay, kiddo. Find something you like. I can set up the player if you want, or let you do it if you know how.”
“Whaddya think I am, a baby? ’Course I know how to use the DVD!” He ran to the wall unit on the other side of the room and started rummaging through a disorganised cupboard in it. At length he pulled something out. He removed the disc, dropped the box on the floor, and turned on the DVD player. The TV lit up. A minute later the DVD’s main menu appeared. Rhett found the player’s remote and started the movie. Still holding the remote, he came over to where I was reclining on the couch.
“You gonna give me some room to sit down, or should I just sit on you?” he asked.
I smiled and sat down properly on the couch. Rhett sat down beside me and we settled in to the movie. It was clearly targeted at a younger audience, so it wasn’t interesting for me. My main goal was to wait out the forty-five minutes to eight o’clock so I could start running his bath.
Since the movie couldn’t hold my attention, I took to simply looking around the basement from my place on the couch. It was pretty much unfinished, without a real ceiling and nothing to separate the recreation part from the utilities. The washer, dryer, furnace, and water heater were all in plain sight and not in rooms of their own. A large rug (more likely a carpet roll end) on the painted concrete floor more or less set the boundaries of Rhett’s play area. Off to one side was the family’s computer. I idly wondered why it was in the basement and not in a spare bedroom, and concluded Sabrina probably had it downstairs so she could watch Rhett if she was using it, and know where Rhett was if he was on it.
Suddenly I heard a loud “RAWR!” A moment later I found myself pushed on to my back, with most of Rhett on my stomach and chest, his long hair dangling down and into my face. “I got you now!” he exclaimed.
“What about your movie?”
“Bo-ring! C’mon, let’s see if you can take me!”
That was a challenge I could answer. He was shorter than me and I outweighed him. He’d neglected to pin my arms, so I easily put my hands under his armpits and raised him off me. I stood up from the couch, jumped over his abandoned smash-up derby, and planted him on his back on the rug. Immediately I crouched over him and held both his wrists to the floor, and sat down on his legs to keep from being kicked.
“Consider yourself taken!” I said.
“Not fair! You’re not supposed to pick me up!”
“What?” Was this something Sabrina hadn’t told me?
Rhett clarified the rule. “We’re supposed to keep our feet on the floor. So it breaks the rules if you pick me up.”
“What about jumping?”
“That’s okay because you’re not picking me up to get my feet off the floor. I can’t do that to you because you’re bigger, so you shouldn’t be able to do it to me.”
“That makes sense.”
I jumped off him, stood up, and assumed a classic wrestler’s pose. Rhett got to his feet and dived toward one of my legs to throw me off balance. I countered by jumping to one side. He landed on his stomach, and instantly I was sitting on top of him, trapping him again.
“This is too easy,” I said. “Here, I’ll get down on my knees and stay that way.”
Suddenly things were a lot more even. Being on my knees really slowed me down. Rhett could run rings around me, attacking from one side one moment, then jumping behind me to get to my other side. He quickly figured out he couldn’t get me on to my back, and switched tactics to wrestle from behind and push me to my stomach. It was great fun for both of us.
While I was afraid I’d start to get excited wrestling with him like this, I was pleasantly surprised to find my penis actually behaving itself. It may have expanded just a little, but it was far away from a full scale erection and certainly not noticeable in my pants. I couldn’t feel anything from Rhett either. If he was getting hard, I expected between his small size, underwear, and heavy pants nothing would be obvious.
It took half an hour of play to start wearing us out, while the movie continued unpaused in the background. Finally I begged off any more rounds and lay down on the couch.
“I won!” he said.
“Yeah, I think you did.” Not that I was keeping score.
“Does this mean I get to stay up ’til nine?”
Sneaky kid! I made a show of thinking about it. “Maybe. You’ve been a good boy so far. Will you promise me you’ll go to bed at nine?”
“Okay! But I still take a bath at eight, right?”
“No problem. That’s not for a while yet.” I pulled out my cell phone to check the time. “Another fifteen minutes.” I felt it was necessary to keep some sort of schedule.
He sat down on the floor to continue watching the “bo-ring” movie. I started a fifteen minute countdown timer on thephone and opened a web browser to do some light surfing. Then I remembered their computer. I’d be better off using it instead of burning through my phone’s data plan.
I didn’t bother asking Rhett; I just got up from the couch, went to the computer, and turned it on. A login screen appeared with two users, “Mom” and “Rhett.” I clicked on “Mom,” then realized I hadn’t looked at the note on the fridge to get her password. A quick glance showed me Rhett was still watching the movie despite me turning on the computer. I decided I could trust him out of my sight for a minute while I went upstairs.
The password was “Rhett2005”. I grimaced a little when I saw it, realising just how insecure it was. I gave it only one to two years before Rhett figured it out just by watching his mom logging in and typing “R”, “h” and ending with some digits.
Downstairs again, I logged on to his mom’s account and opened a web browser. Since I’d promised to keep things clean, I just watched a few random cat videos until my phone started beeping.
“Bath time!” I announced “I’ll start filling the tub. Uh, how much water does your mom usually put in?”
“All the way to the top!”
I wasn’t sure if he was fibbing; running seven full baths a week would be a lot of water for a little boy. I started upstairs and Rhett followed. As I entered the bathroom I figured I’d let him decide where and when to get undressed. He went into his bedroom. I closed the bathroom door to keep the heat in and started running the water, adjusting it a little cooler than I was used to so I wouldn’t burn him.
Less than a minute later the door opened and in came Rhett, naked and smiling. He went over to the toilet to pee. Respecting his privacy, I kept my back to him and didn’t look.
“Mom said she thinks you’ll be more fun that the other boy sitters were,” he said as he flushed the toilet. “Does that mean you’ll take a bath with me?”
“If you want me to,” I replied. “Here, put your hand in the water and tell me if it’s too hot or cold.”
He plunged in a hand and swished it around for a few seconds. “It’s okay.” With that he got into the tub and sat down. “When are you gonna get in?”
That answered the question about him wanting me to join him in the bath. “In a couple of minutes. I’m waiting to turn off the taps.”
I let the water run until it was about a third of the way up the tub’s walls, then shut it off. Rhett looked disappointed.
“You didn’t put enough in.”
I thought quickly. “If I’m getting into the tub with you, the water will go higher than when only you’re in it.”
“Okay. Are you gonna get in now?”
If nothing else he was persistent. I didn’t know if he was gunning to get me naked or just wanted someone in the bath with him. Possibly a bit of both. A little self-consciously I started removing my clothes. I wondered if I should keep my underwear on, but remembered Sabrina saying she had no problems with us being naked together. Besides, it had the advantage of keeping my underwear dry. So I stripped all the way down and got into the tub, sitting down at the opposite end from him, my legs under me instead of stretched out like his. I covered my penis with a strategically placed arm.
Rhett wasn’t going for that. “Hey, I wanna see your dinky!”
I figured now was as good a time as any to start secondary sex education. “It’s not a ‘dinky.’ The proper term is ‘penis.’“
“I still wanna see it.”
“If you want to, you’ll have to use correct word.”
“What?”
“Like I said, the correct word is ‘penis.’ Use the correct word or I won’t show it to you.”
“Okay. Can I see your penis?”
“What else do you say?”
“What?”
“Remember your manners. What should you say when you’re asking someone to do something for you?”
“Oh—please! Can I see your penis, please?”
“Very good! Yes, you can.”
I raised myself up on my knees, bringing my private parts out of the water into view. My penis had swollen only a little. I told myself Rhett was probably just curious, and decided to play it the same way as if he had asked me to show him my collection of dragon pictures on my computer, downloaded from various web sites over the last couple of years.
“Oh, it’s big!” he said. “And you even have hair!”
“Yep. But not very much, though. I only started growing hair a few months ago.”
“I don’t have any hair yet.” And he got up on his knees as well to show me.
For the first time I was able to take a good look at him naked. Rhett looked like, well, a naked little boy. Young, small, and thin, he didn’t have much at all in the way of muscles and I could see most of his ribs. His belly button was an “innie.” His penis was thin as well, longer that I had thought it would be, with a generous foreskin hanging off the tip. I had one too, and my penis had been growing into it over the last year as I moved through adolescence. (Less than a third of boys in Canada are circumcised, although the rates are slightly higher across the western prairies.)
“Your balls are way bigger than mine,” he observed.
“Yes they are, because I’m a few years older. Do you remember the correct name for them?”
Rhett thought for a moment and put on a goofy face. “Tomatoes.”
I laughed at his joke. “Funny! Try again.”
“Nuts?” he said with a grin.
“Nope! One more try before I drown you.”
“Oh, sounds fun! Okay, balls!”
“Wrong! Now I’ll drown you!” I stood up, picked him up out of the water, then set him down again on his stomach while he squealed in delight. I didn’t push his face under the water in case I really did drown him, and then realized I was getting his long hair wet. Just as quickly I picked him up and stood him up in the tub.
“What about your hair?” I asked. “How often do you wash it?”
“Only on Saturday so it will dry before I go to bed.”
“Well, lucky for you you’re going to bed a bit later tonight!”
Rhett grinned as he realized I’d just confirmed he could stay up past his normal bed time.
“Let’s play!” he said, and sat down again. I did too, wondering what he meant by “play.” It was actually really innocent: he had a collection of bathtub toys and wanted to play with them. He grabbed a little boat and started moving it around in the water and making putt-putt noises. I watched him, a little confused. To me this looked like something a five or six year old would do, not a boy of nine. But I’d seen nothing else to indicate Rhett was developmentally delayed. It was possible he very much enjoyed being in the bath and playing with toys was an excuse not to get out as quickly.
I looked around and spied a rubber ducky. I got it, held it under the water and moved it where it looked like Rhett would be sending the boat. As the boat came overhead I let the ducky go.
I timed it perfectly. One moment Rhett had the boat in his hand, and the next a yellow blob burst out of the water and sent the boat flying. Rhett shrieked.
“That was neat!” he cried. “Let me try!”
He grabbed the ducky, put it under water, and let go. It popped up to the surface and jumped a little into the air.
“Wow!”
For the next five minutes Rhett amused himself with the ducky, trying it in various places in the tub. There weren’t that many to try, really, given that both of us were in it. The water started cooling down. Since I was at the end with the taps and spout, I got on my knees, turned around and opened the hot water tap to warm up the tub.
I felt a little smack on my bare bum, then heard Rhett giggling behind me. “Got ya!” he said.
I grinned, and suddenly realized I’d done a perfectly normal thing without really realizing I was sharing the bath with a little boy. After turning off the tap, I turned around and sat down again.
“Let’s get you clean,” I said. “Do you want me to wash you?”
“Yeah!” came the reply. “Can I wash you as well?”
“Sure. I’ll start with you.” There was a sponge in the bath and some liquid soap, so I got the sponge wet, put on soap and lathered it up. I started washing his chest and shoulders, moving his hair out of the way as best I could.
“All right, stand up and turn around. I’ll wash your back.”
He did so, and I stood up as well. Standing, the top of Rhett’s head was a bit below my chin. I ran the sponge all over his back, then his bum and legs.
“Turn around again, please.”
Now he was facing me. He was smiling happily; it appeared he was enjoying the attention. But it wasn’t in any a way sexual for him. His penis hadn’t grown in the least.
“Can you lift up your arms, please?”
He raised them to shoulder height, which was enough for me to wash his armpits and down his sides. I asked him to put his arms down again and I sponged them as well. Then his waist, for it had been in the water earlier, and finally his legs.
When I put the sponge down on the the tub’s edge, Rhett giggled. “You missed something!”
“What?”
“My dinky.”
“Your what?”
“Oh—my penis.”
“Good! Do you want me to wash it?”
“Of course! You washed everywhere else.”
“All right.” I picked up the sponge and quickly ran it over his penis and surrounding area. “Spread your legs apart a little so I can get in between them.” He did, and ran the sponge between his legs and over his little testicles.
“Now we have to get you rinsed off. I have an idea.” I stood up. “Sit back down with your feet at the front. I’ll hold your hair up so it doesn’t get wet, and you can go down on your back. Don’t get your head too close to the water.”
“Okay.” He did as I asked, sitting down and moving forward so his feet were at the front of the tub. I sat down behind him and carefully gathered up his hair at the back. It was long, but only down to the bottom of his neck and not between his shoulders as I had earlier thought. After making an impromptu pony-tail, I asked him to lay back slowly. As he did I put my other hand on his upper back to guide him. The water began covering him and soap swirled about as it came off is back and front. His head stopped when it my stomach.
Removing my hand from his back, I rubbed down his chest to get all the soap off, then without really thinking did his thighs and penis. It didn’t react.
“All right, sit up now so I can let go your hair.” Which he did.
“Can you rub my back off as well?” he asked.
“Sure!” I splashed some water up his back and ran my palms over it to wipe it down. “Okay, stand up but don’t turn around.” He did as I asked I did the same for all of his back, then his bum and both his legs.
I gave him a pat on the bum. “Got you!” I said. “All done.”
Rhett turned around, a big happy smile on his face. “That felt really nice!”
“Glad you liked it! Now, were you gonna wash me? I’ll stand up.”
“Okay!” I stood up; he grabbed the sponge and started rubbing my chest.
“Hold on,” I said. “Need soap. Hold out the sponge.”
I got the liquid soap and squirted a little more on to the sponge, then quickly worked up a lather. “All right, go ahead.”
Rhett did all of me—chest, stomach, penis, testicles, legs, then I turned around to let him do my back, bum, and the backs of my legs. This time I was seriously afraid I’d get an erection and worked hard to keep it under control. Thankfully my penis inflated only a little from the cleaning and Rhett didn’t seem to notice. To rinse off I first lay down on my back in the tub. I discreetly and quickly ran a hand lightly between my bum cheeks to make sure my rear was clean as well, rolled over to get the soap off my stomach, and finally stood up again and wiped as much water off my body as I could.
“I think the bath’s over,” I said. “The water’s all dirty and it’s starting to get cold. Get out and start drying off, and I’ll drain the tub.”
“Lift me out!” he said.
“Oh, come on, you can get out yourself.”
“Yeah, but I want you to do it. I like it when you touch me.”
“All right, I will.” I put both my hands under his arms and started to lift.
“No, not like that! Pick me up like you’re gonna carry me.”
It was pretty obvious he enjoyed physical contact with me. “All right!” I put one hand around his shoulders and the other under his knees, and took his naked body into my arms. He put one arm around my back right away. I stepped out of the tub and gently stood him up on the other side.
“Is that what you wanted?” I asked.
“Yeah! Can you dry me too?” I didn’t need to ask why; Rhett was obviously enjoying the attention. I found a towel and wrapped it around me, then got one for drying off Rhett.
“Why’d you do that?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Put on a towel. I’m not wearing anything right now, so why are you?”
I had a small inspiration. “Uh, if I had to guess, I’d say you like looking at me naked.”
He grinned his now trademark grin. “Yeah, I do. You’re nice and I like looking at your dinky.”
“My what?”
“Your dinky.”
“Remember, it’s called a ‘penis,’” I said gently. “You can say ‘dinky’ when you’re talking to your friends, but when you’re with me I’d like you to use the correct word, okay?”
The lecture over, I removed my towel and was once again naked. Rhett gave me an approving smile. I kept that towel in my hands and started drying him with it. He was unexpectedly cooperative, turning around as needed so I get all sides of him. Seeing he didn’t seem to have any problems his penis getting touched, I dried those parts as well, but quickly to avoid stimulating him. I didn’t think it was a good idea to get him horny before trying to put him to bed.
I pulled the stopper from the tub to start draining it. “Now, go to your bedroom and put on your PJs,” I told him. “I’ll get dried off and dressed, and I’ll be out in five minutes. Uh, you don’t have to stay in your room, but please stay upstairs. All right?”
“Yeah.” He scampered out of the bathroom, forgetting to close the door behind him. I was still naked and wet, and the colder air from the rest of the house hit me. I shut the door again, got the other towel and vigorously dried myself. Still a little damp, I pulled on my clothes, then used the detachable shower head to rinse down the tub. Finally I hung up both towels and left the bathroom.
I didn’t see Rhett. I’d expected to see him in his pyjamas and possibly doing something in the living room, but he wasn’t there.
“Rhett, where are you?”
“I’m here!” I heard him say from somewhere. The voice came from the main floor, so he hadn’t gone downstairs.
“Where’s here? I don’t see you.”
“I’m in my bedroom. Can you come in?”
I headed there. It was dark, and I stopped in the doorway. “Did you go to bed all on your own?” I asked, ready to give him a bunch of praise for doing so.
“Not really,” came the reply. “Turn on the light.”
“Where’s the switch?”
“Beside the door. Turn it on.”
I quickly found the switch and flipped it on. Rhett was in bed, the covers pulled all the way up to his chin. I wondered if he was up to something.
“Aww, you put your clothes back on,” he said.
“Yeah, of course did. I got dressed because we’d finished our bath. Did you put your pyjamas on?”
Rhett grinned. “No!” He threw back the covers—he was still naked! “I’m not wearing anything, so you have to take your clothes off too!” he exclaimed.
“Whoa!” I cried. “Uh, it doesn’t work like that.” I furiously thought about what to say next, then said simply, “I’d like you to put on your pyjamas. Please.”
“Uh, uh! I put on pyjamas when I go to bed, and you told me I didn’t have to go to bed until nine so I’m not putting them on!”
“Oh, all right. You can stay this way ’till nine o’clock. Promise me you’ll put your pyjamas on then?”
“Only if you take your clothes off.”
“No, Rhett, it doesn’t work like that. I don’t really know how to say this, but it’s probably not a good idea for me to get undressed right now ....”
“Why? You just were!”
“That’s because we were taking a bath, and you don’t wear clothes in the bath! But other than that we should wear our clothes.”
“I don’t understand why!” Rhett pouted. “Why do people say we have to wear them all the time? It’s just us right now. I really liked it in the bath and I want to do it some more.”
“You mean, take another bath?”
“No. Like when we were in the bath but not wearing anything. I liked feeling your hands on me and when our legs rubbed together. It …” he was actually struggling to find words. “It was like when were were playing downstairs, but nicer.”
I think I understood. It wasn’t so much he wanted to get me naked; he was really looking for closeness. Maybe even intimacy, although he didn’t know how to express it. And if he was gay, I could see how he wouldn’t want to do it with girl babysitters, and why the boys who had looked after him earlier suddenly got stressed out. His mother was right. Rhett needed more than a babysitter; he needed a boy he could cuddle with.
Not saying anything, I pulled off my shirt and sat down on the bed. “Come here; I’ll give you a hug.”
Rhett practically threw himself on me and wrapped his hands around my back. I did the same, rubbing his back slowly but firmly so he could feel it. He held on to me for more than a minute before he let go.
“Oh that felt soooo good!” he said. “Thanks, Chad. I really like you!”
“You’re welcome. Any time, little buddy.”
He looked at me with his mischievous green eyes. “So, you gonna take the rest of your clothes off now?”
I considered briefly. “Only if you say ‘please’.”
“Pleaaaasssseeee!”
How could I refuse? I yanked off my socks, then stood up and undid my belt. In one motion I pushed my pants and underwear down, then sat down on the bed again and pulled them off. Now I was nude, like he was.
“There,” I said. “What do you want to do now?”
“I just want to be here with you.”
“How about I read you a story? Your mom mentioned something about Elves and a forest?”
“Oh, that one! Yeah, I like it!” He scanned around his rather unkempt bedroom, looking for the book. “There it is! I’ll get it.”
He hopped off the bed, grabbed a paperback from the top of his dresser, then scrambled back into bed with me and handed me the book.
“Where should I start reading?” I asked.
“At the beginning. I haven’t read it in a while.”
I didn’t bother asking why he didn’t read it himself. The book was merely a prop; what he wanted was having me with him, and he’d probably be just as happy if we were wearing clothes. I set up a pillow at the head of the bed and rested back against it, my legs stretching in front of me.
“Sit here like this,” I said. Eagerly Rhett did the same, making sure as much of his body from his shoulders down to his feet was touching mine. I pulled the bed covers up to keep our legs warm. It also covered our privates, but Rhett didn’t mind. He had what he wanted.
I put an arm around his shoulders and held the book in my lap with the other. “Use one of your hands to hold the book open for me,” I told him. Which he did.
The book was a paperback, similar in size to “The Hobbit,” which meant if we were lucky we’d get only part way though the first chapter before nine o’clock.
“The Elves of Forest Green,” I began. “Chapter 1. Taomir. Taomir was an Elf, and he lived in a tree in Forest Green. And not a small tree, either, but a tall one, with many broad branches on which the Elves had built flets, which are platforms that go from one limb to another and can be used for building rooms ....”
I read on. I wasn’t used to reading aloud and stumbled a lot, but Rhett didn’t seem to mind. He started out sort of reading along with me, but stopped by the end of the first page and leaned his head on my shoulders. His long red hair tickled the side of my bare chest.
We made it through ten pages by nine o’clock. Apologetically I closed the book.
“Nine o’clock, little buddy,” I said. “You’ve been a really good boy tonight. Can you please be a good boy once again and put on your pyjamas and go to bed?”
“Just a little more?” he asked.
“Sorry, no. I’ve let you stay up later than normal already. I like being with you, but you need to go to sleep now. You can sleep like this if you want to, but I think you should put your pyjamas on, okay?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. Carefully I slipped out of the bed. I decided to put on a little show for Rhett. With my back to him, I dressed in reverse: socks first, then shirt, and finally my underwear and pants.
“Rhett, it’s bedtime. PJs, please?”
Rhett thought for a moment before deciding to give in. “Okay,” was all he said. I was relieved, knowing that for him putting on his pyjamas meant he really was going to bed. He retrieved them from underneath the bed and put them on. No underwear, just bottom and top. He got into bed and lay down.
“Can you tuck me in?” he asked. Still looking for attention.
“Sure.” I pulled the covers over him and patted them down on either side. Without really thinking, I gave him a light kiss on he cheek.
“Can I kiss you too?”
“Of course!” I put my face close to his so he could.
“Thanks, Chad. You’re the best sitter ever! I really like you and hope you come back.”
“I will, if your mom says I can.”
“Mom said she thought I’d like you. She was right. I had a lot of fun!”
“Yeah, I did too. Good-night, Rhett. Pleasant dreams.”
“Good-night, Chad.”
I turned off the light and left his room, closing the door almost all the way. I went to the living room and flopped down on the couch, my mind a stew of emotions. I liked Rhett. He obviously liked me. We’d played and taken a bath together. I recalled the fuzzy warm feelings I had reading to him while he was practically curled up beside me. Naked. How weird was that? And why did it feel so, well, natural? If that’s what having a boyfriend was like, I couldn’t wait until I found one.
It looked like Sabrina had read her son correctly. Between wanting me to share his bath, getting me into bed with him, his obvious delight at physical contact, and being so candid about being nude around me (and wanting me that way too) … if he wasn’t gay he was sure sending all the wrong signals.
Then I remembered the DVD we had started downstairs, and realized I hadn’t stopped it and thought Rhett may not have either. I went down to check. Sure enough the TV was still on and the DVD’s main menu was looping. I ejected the disc and returned it to the box, turned off the equipment and went upstairs again. I didn’t want to be downstairs in case Rhett decided to get naughty and not stay in bed. Having nothing else to do, I pulled out my cell phone and started browsing the web.
Sabrina returned at 9:45, just as she’d said she would. The first words out of her mouth after saying “Hi!” were, “So how did you and Rhett get along?”
“Great!” I said. “He was a pretty good boy, and like you said he wheedled me into letting him stay up until nine.”
“That’s not a surprise!” Then she asked slyly, “Did he ask you to take a bath with him?”
I saw no reason to lie. After all, she’d said more than once she had no problem with me being naked with him.
“Yeah. Practically the first thing he did after he got into the tub was ask me to get in with him.” I smiled a little in embarrassment. “So I did. He seemed to like it. After we got out and dried, I sat with him in bed and read him a book until nine, then asked him to go to sleep. He was amazing—he actually did.” I was deliberately vague about when we got dressed after finishing the bath, hoping Sabrina would assume it happened right after.
“That’s wonderful! For Rhett to do that for a first time minder … he must really like you! I think I was right—you and him are going to get along just fine! Can you look after him again?” She eyed me with great expectation and hope.
“If he’s as good all the time as he was tonight, I’d be happy to—”
Sabrina clapped her hands together. “Oh, this is so good! I’m so glad to find someone Rhett likes and can be back! This Wednesday thing happens once a week, so I’m going to need you every week this month! No—I won’t. Christmas is on a Wednesday this year so no art club that night, but there’s an office party on the 19th—that’s a Friday—can you come then? Early, because the party starts early too. And New Year’s. Wow, if you can come on the 31st I’ll actually be able to go out and celebrate! Do you think you can make those dates?”
“Let’s check a calendar,” I said.
There was one in the kitchen, the type with large date boxes for writing in appointments. Sabrina plucked it off wall and dropped it on the table. “Today’s the 3rd; I’ll need you the 10th and 17th at least. Can you do the 19th, my office party? And the 31st, too?”
I thought hard, wondering when I had Christmas events planned. “Right now I can do the 10th and 17th.” Sabrina circled the dates with a red pencil. “I need to check about the 19th in case Mom or Dad have something planned. The 31st? I think I can do that; most New Years we just stay at home, playing games and waiting for midnight, although maybe this year my sister might go out to a party. In fact, if I’m not home maybe Mom and Dad can visit some of their friends.”
“You’ll be okay with that?” Sabrina asked. “I mean, stuck celebrating New Year’s Eve here with Rhett instead of going out?”
It struck me that being with Rhett would actually be more fun than staying at home. And a minute ago it looked like she’d been overjoyed at the thought she could have a bang-up New Year’s Eve for a change. I decided to commit.
“Sure, I can do New Year’s. You can have a good time and spend Thursday doing something special with him.”
“Oh, Chad, thank you so much! It’s such a load off my mind not having to worry about finding a minder for him! Do find out about the 19th, it would be great to make the office party this year; I can’t take him along because we don’t go to a kid friendly venue—most of the staff either don’t have kids or they’re all grown up and don’t do the party with their parents. So that’s got December taken care of and we’ll work on January later. How are you getting home? I can’t drive you because that would mean leaving Rhett here all alone and I can’t do that.”
“No problem. I had a text to Dad ready to go and sent it as soon as you came in. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Clever! I need to pay you.” She pulled her string-closed bag open and fished out a wallet. From it she extracted two twenty dollar bills and a ten and put them on the table.
“You’re giving me all this?” I asked in surprise. “I thought you said it was thirty dollars.”
“For you, Chad, this is worth it! I now have a minder for all of December! Well, except for maybe the 19th, and I really hope you can make that one, too.”
“I can let you know next Wednesday.”
“That would be great! Oh I can’t wait to talk to Rhett and find out how much he liked you, but from what you’ve described it can’t be anything short of glowing! It’s been a stressful year finding minders for him, let me tell you—half a dozen different ones, most of whom Rhett didn’t like because they were girls and of course the two boys that got spooked and bailed out. I was getting afraid I’d have to give up my Wednesday evenings, and I so much look forward to them because I enjoy some time with friends instead of having to stay home to look after him! Not that I mind of course—he’s my son and I love him to pieces—but it was nice to have those two or three three hours a week I could book off all to myself!”
I had to interrupt. “I need to get ready for when Dad arrives. Maybe we should watch from the living room window so I can head out as soon as he drives up?”
“Oh, yes, go ahead. Bring your boots the front door and you can leave that way.”
I put on my jacket but didn’t zip it up, and carried my boots through the house and set them by the front door as Sabrina had suggested. In the living room we kept an eye out on the road in front of the house for Dad’s car. Sabrina was talking about something or other at her office when he showed up.
“Thank you Chad for everything! See you next week!”
She flung her arms around me in big hug and gave me kiss on the cheek. I blushed a little, then we said good-bye and I headed out for my ride home.
Comments are welcome at earth-boy-2755@protonmail.com, and constructive criticism as well. As I’ve mentioned before, this story is complete (12 chapters in all.) But as of the date I’ve posted this, I can entertain suggestions as long as they don’t break the established plot or have a serious impact on the remaining chapters.
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