Disorder

Disorder, part 2: Visitors

"OK," Shawn said immediately. No hesitation at all. I wasn't sure if I was frightened or elated that he was that ready to have sex with me. I stared at him with my mouth open. "What? You're hot," he told me.

"I'll have to go through some channels," Lassiter said. "After all, you are both minors, and I'll be not only allowing, but recommending sex. This could be tricky, legally."

This was all speeding by too fast. "Don't I get a say in this?" I asked.

Lassiter raised his eyebrow at me. "Alright," he said. "Would you like to have sex with the boy you're obviously attracted to, and have been making out with for the past eight hours, off and on...or would you rather die?" I had a feeling the man was made out of logic, without a shred of humanity, but he made a good point. Besides, sex with Shawn was definitely the best medicine I'd ever heard of.

"Sorry," I said meekly. "This just caught me way off guard. It's a lot to wrap my head around at once." I turned to Shawn. "I need to think for a little bit, ok? I probably want to have sex with you, but I want to be sure."

The doctor nodded to me in understanding. "I'm going to go page your mom, Shawn, and let her know the situation." Shawn's eyes flew wide, but Doctor Lassiter shook his head and held up a hand to forestall him. "She's been watching and following what's been happening in here, Shawn. She knows about you already. She seems to think the two of you are going to get married and adopt a houseful of kids for her to be grandmother to." Shawn turned beat red, but had a definite look of relief. "I have a feeling none of this was a shock to her." A small bit of mirth flashed across the man's face briefly, but was gone as soon as it arrived.

With that, Lassiter left. "Are you ok?" I asked Shawn.

He laughed for a second and shook his head. "You're the sick one whose life is on the line, but you keep asking me if I'm ok. How can you be this caring?"

I let go of his hand and touched his cheek. "First, I don't feel sick at all right now, thanks to you, so I can think about other things. Second, if this doesn't work, you're the one who has to face the world. Living is the hard part, so I want to make sure you're ready for it."

He took my hand and kissed it. "You are definitely something special, Rich." I looked down and smiled. He lifted my chin with his finger and kissed me. I melted into it with ease. He laid me back onto the bed and rolled on top of me as we kissed. The pressure of his body on mine was magical.

We hadn't realized the door was open. The knock that startled us was inside the room. I looked up to see a nurse standing there with a tub of water. Shawn turned around and froze. "Mom," he gasped. I guess it was one thing to know intellectually that your mother was ok with your sexuality, but it was a completely different matter to have her witness it.

She smiled at us - beamed, actually. "Hate to break up the party, boys," she said, "but you've been here five days without a shower." She set the small basin on a counter and reached out a hand to Shawn. I hadn't noticed, since we probably both reeked equally, and he hadn't left my side...wait, how had he been using the bathroom?

Behind Shawn's mom, another nurse walked in. His hair was dyed almost white blond and was shaved around the sides and back, yet it was still kind of long on top. It was a cute effect. He was really slim, but really sexy at the same time. His septum was pierced and his lips were full and sensual. "You probably don't remember me. You were asleep every time I came in to help," he said. "I'm Rhys." I nearly shot a load on the spot. He was British – the accent was hot as hell. He reached out his hand to shake mine and I felt an energy transfer. He was like me and Shawn.

"I wondered how Shawn had been going to the bathroom and stuff while I was out," I said. "You've been my substitute gay." He chuckled and lowered his head, shaking it.

"You're funny, too," Rhys said, piercing me with his sky blue eyes. "I can see why Shawn likes you so much." I saw Shawn blush as he left the bed and followed his mom out of the room.

"Where are they going?" I asked.

"She's opening the residents' shower room for him so he can get cleaned up, and so I can take care of you."

"And you've been taking care of me this whole time?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "We have other gay nurses. I'm just a trainee, but Dr. Lassiter thought that, now that you're awake, you might react better to me than to some of the older men." The doctor was probably right. Rhys was young and cute, and he didn't scare me like an older man would. "All the others had to do was sit at the foot of the bed and hold your ankle while Shawn went to the bathroom. Since I'm going to actually care for you instead of babysitting you, they thought it best to send...how do you Americans put it? A total hottie."

"So are you about to do what I think you're about to do?" I asked Rhys, looking over to what he brought in. He followed my gaze and came back with a wide grin.

"Sponge bath," he said provocatively. He took his time with it and was very thorough, but in the end, I was hard and unfulfilled. "Sorry about that," he said, noting my situation.

"I'm not," I managed to say while panting.

He chuckled at me. "You're in heat," he said in amusement. "No matter what I do to you, you'd love it." He helped me get my underwear and a pair of scrub pants on, then covered me up with the blanket. He was grinning the whole time.

"You're getting a kick out of my suffering, aren't you?" I huffed. At least, I tried to sound convincing. Even though the entire encounter amounted to nothing more than a tease, it was still arousingly hot. I guess it was almost like foreplay.

He placed his hand gently on my arm. "You know I can't really do anything with you, right?" he asked. Technically he was right, since I was a minor, but I wondered what the law would say to my particular condition. I nodded to him that I understood, even though I wasn't happy about it. "Good," he said. "I was amused because you're adorable when you squirm like that. The fact that you want me so bad is flattering. If I were still in high school, I'd have a crush on you."

Now that made me smile. He smiled along with me. "There is one thing I can do for you that is legal," he said with a deceptive softness in his voice. He leaned in and gave me a soft and lingering kiss. It was amazing, truly.

"That was really good," I told him. "The energy was just as strong as when Shawn kisses me, too."

He smiled – well, really, he never stopped smiling, but it got even brighter. "Good. Dr. Lassiter was hoping that would be the case."

I froze. "The doctor told you to do that?" I asked. The man who was supposed to be caring for me was sure taking a lot of liberties with me.

Rhys's smile became gentle, and somewhat sad. "No," he told me, "he said that I could if the situation called for it, so long as I gave him the information afterward.

I raised my eyebrow to the gorgeous Brit. "What else did he `allow' you to do with me?"

Rhys blushed, which was all the answer I needed. "If he had permission from the courts, he'd let us have sex." I shook my head to clear it. The doctor was willing to whore me out so he could study the rare disease more thoroughly. He was completely dispassionate about it, too, as if sex in general was altogether impersonal to him. Well it was damned personal to me! I couldn't believe the nerve of that man.

Rhys placed his free hand onto my cheek. "Rich, please calm down. The doctor is only trying to understand this condition so he can save your life, not for any other reason. I see you turning red and getting yourself worked up, but you don't need to." He moved his hand away and smiled at me with sadness in his eyes. "All I want to do is help you as well. You're a sweet and cute kid who deserves to have a full life."

I broke our eye contact and stared down at the sheets, embarrassed that I was getting so mad about things. Both of Rhys's hands were holding one of mine now, and I took a deep breath. "If you were a teenager, Rhys, I'd have you in this bed with me," I said with a sensual boldness I didn't know was in me.

"Trust me, I'd be in there willingly," he said in a purr. We sat there in a warm silence until Shawn and his mother came back. Half of a glare was directed at Rhys from Shawn's mom.

"I hope Mr. Lannen here was well behaved," she said with a smile that didn't mask the warning in her voice.

"Rhys was perfect," I said. "A little better-behaved than I would have liked, but I knew why he had to be."

Rhys chuckled and shook his head as he stood up and let Shawn retake his space next to me. Shawn's mom looked surprised at me, like she wasn't expecting me to actually like her trainee. She followed him out of the room, and I could tell that she was deep in thought.

"What was that all about?" I asked Shawn.

He turned red, but he didn't hide things from me this time. "She seems to have it in her head that you're my boyfriend," he explained. "She was about to go into mama-bear mode and stop Rhys from stealing you from me."

"But we're not..." I started, but Shawn held up a hand to stop me.

"I know," he said. He looked down at the covers and shook his head. "Trust me, I know."

He was getting weird on me again. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shawn gave a defeated chuckle. "I know we're not boyfriends because I've got it bad for someone else," he confessed, blushing. "But here's the big kicker: he's straight, so I can't have him either."

"Well, it's really nice of you to be helping me out when you don't actually have feelings for me," I said, possibly a little more stiffly and formally than I should have. Having a guy basically say he's thinking of someone else while he's with you tends to sting.

Shawn punched my arm. "Don't be a drama queen, Rich," he said with a laugh. "I'm not stupid. What's going on here is pretty nice for me, and is probably the best I'm going to get for quite a long time. Just because I'm not in love with you, doesn't mean I don't think you're sweet and hot, just that I'm hung up on someone I can't have. Got it?"

I nodded, but I didn't really get it. I thought Shawn was pretty messed up in the head for being in love with someone who would never love him back. Funny thing was, even though I thought Shawn was one of the cutest boys ever, and I definitely had a strong bond with him already, it didn't actually hurt that he didn't love me. I guessed that maybe I didn't love him like that either.

I hugged him. "We're cool," I told him, and that was all I really needed to say to him on that subject. He responded by kissing me, and it was still good – and I still got the same amount of energy from it.

"Dude! Bad timing!" said a voice from the door. We broke our kiss and I turned to see Kyle standing there. He grinned at Shawn, who was deep red. "What's up, buddy? Kyle's deliver service has arrived. Homework on demand." He gave me a small impersonal nod. "Sup Rich."

He went to Shawn's side of the bed and handed him a folder. Then the two of them got to talking. I didn't know most of the people they were discussing, and there were so many inside jokes and terms that I basically had to zone out or go crazy. I took a sip from an orange juice box and let the two of them have their best friend time. I wondered how my best friend was. I hadn't seen her since we started high school. After middle school, Magdalena's parents put her into a private high school, and so, the dynamic duo had been split up. I wondered if she was even told I was in the hospital.

Only upon hearing my name, accompanied by a small shake on my arm, did I realize that Shawn was trying to talk to me. "Sorry guys; spaced for a little. What did you say?"

"I said I was going to go ask for a coke for Kyle," he repeated. "I know where they hide them. Kyle's going to stay with you just in case." I was pretty well fed with energy, so I probably wouldn't need Kyle, but I wasn't going to argue the point.

After Shawn walked out, Kyle came over to my side of the bed and took my hand. "You don't have to do that," I told him. "It's how I get energy from Shawn, but..." I trailed off.

"What's up?" Kyle asked when I stared at him.

"I'm getting a little thread of energy from you," I said. "It's not much, barely anything, but it's there."

"Am I supposed to know what that means?" he asked.

"I get nothing at all from straight guys, and a lot from gay guys," I told him. "It means you have a little trickle of gay in you, but I'd guess you're still mostly straight."

Kyle's eyes narrowed at me. At first I thought he was pissed, but then I realized he was deep in thought. "I don't know if that's right or not," he said at last. "I don't feel anything like that." He finally just shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe it's in there, if you're feeling it, but I don't think I'm ever going to test it out. Mind keeping it to yourself?"

I shrugged and nodded, then I paused. "If I can tell Dr. Lassiter without letting anyone else know, he'd want that kind of data. I can leave your name out of it."

"Whatever, dude. Just so long as that doesn't get past the two of us here, we're cool."

"Fine with me," I told him. I wasn't really wanting to out someone, especially when they're only slightly interested in guys.

Shawn came back and gave Kyle a coke, then returned to his place. Kyle let go of my hand and walked around to the other side. Shawn chuckled. "You didn't have to hold his hand, you know. That's only for gay guys to feed him energy. Did you get any energy from him, Rich?" Shawn asked, raising an eyebrow to me.

"Nope, but when a cute redhead wants to hold my hand, I'm not going to argue," I joked. Kyle's mouth twitched. I'd kept his secret, and I'd earned some major respect points in the process.

"Did you two talk about anything special while I was out?" Shawn asked. Kyle shrugged.

"Nothing of substance," I told him. "Just getting to know each other a bit."

"And what do you think of each other now?"

"Digging much?" Kyle asked. "So far I like him fine. He's cool like you, but he thinks a lot more." Shawn punched him in the arm. Kyle laughed. "Not like that, bro. He analyzes things – uses big words a lot, too." I didn't realize I was like that, but maybe it's what set me apart – aside from having a gay disease that wants to kill me or get me laid.

Shawn looked at me a little differently, like he was sizing me up. "You know, now that you mention it, Rich has been a bit brainier than your average freshman. Not obnoxious though, just smarter." I think I was blushing, since the room was really warm. Shawn's smile turned wicked. "You're obnoxiously cute, though." I think it was that moment that he realized that he'd said something like that in front of Kyle. He turned quickly, a panicked look on his face. "Shit, Kyle, I mean..."

Kyle stopped him. "Relax, dude. Already knew. Neither one of you seems very upset about having to touch each other all the time. You two in love yet?" he asked.

Shawn seemed unable to speak, so I did. "As much fun as we're having, no. I don't know if it's just that we haven't known each other long enough, or if we're just not emotionally compatible, but we haven't fallen in love. Luckily, this disease doesn't seem to care about our emotions. The kissing is amazing though."

"I caught that when I came in," Kyle reminded me. "Is the kissing part of the treatment, or is it just for fun?"

"Yes," I said. We both laughed. Shawn chuckled a little, but I could tell he was still nervous about his best friend knowing his secret. "I've been thinking about the whole thing a lot. Think of me like a battery that's leaking power fast. If I touch someone straight, I get no recharge, but if I touch someone who's gay, it seems to cut the leaking in half. When I started thinking about it that way, it explained why I was still getting weaker, even though Shawn was touching me. If I'm being touched someplace more intimate, like my chest, the loss slows down even more. A kiss, though..." I cut off, since I couldn't help smiling at the kisses I'd gotten already. "A kiss from a gay guy seems to recharge the battery to about three quarters full. It's not enough to really do more than walk down the hall and back, but it'll keep me sitting and awake for hours. Plus, it can take me from even the brink of death to seventy-five percent."

Shawn was looking at me funny. "You haven't even been awake for a day and you've thought of all that? I think Kyle was definitely right about you." I felt myself blushing again.

"Don't take this the wrong way, dude," Kyle added, "but I think Shawn's right about you, too. You look good. You should have seen the number of freshman girls who were coming in here to see you while you were out of it. They've been talking about you like you're a movie star or something. They're already starting to fight over who gets to ask you out first when you get better."

This was beginning to be a bit much for me. I never really thought of myself as good looking before. I never really thought of myself at all. I was just me, Rich Talbaine. I'd seen myself so many times that my reflection was pretty mundane to me. The situation concerned me, though.

Shawn chuckled at me. "Poor thing. So many admirers, so little desire for them."

Kyle smirked. "Not so fast there, bro. The sophomore, junior, and freshman girls are talking about you like some gorgeous blond saint. When you get back from spending day and night trying to save the poor sick freshman boy from death, you're going to have a lot of problems. They talk about you and get spacey. You're going to be cornered by random girls every step you take."

"Shit," Shawn said. "How do we get out of this?"

"Well, everything happened on Monday, and it's now Saturday," Kyle said. "I don't see you two getting out of here for a while, so maybe it will just blow over. I don't think you two would want to do anything drastic like coming out of the closet if you didn't have to. Not everyone is as cool with things as I am."

I thought about being out in high school as a freshman. It was unappealing at best. "Let's only do that if we have to," I said.

"If you have to, I have your backs," Kyle said. Such a simple statement, but it spoke volumes.

Another nurse came to the door at that point, to tell me that my mother was there to see me. "How far away?" I asked. "Can you make it like two minutes before she gets in here?"

"Easily," she said, then ducked out?

"Why two minutes?" Shawn asked.

"I need to recharge in order to deal with her." I pulled Shawn in for a deep kiss. He didn't fight it, and was quickly getting into it. When it was done, I looked to Kyle, who looked like he was forcing himself to be comfortable. I understood. Watching other people make out tended to be like that. "Kyle, I'll need you to have my back a lot sooner than expected. You too, Shawn."

"She can't be that bad," Shawn said. I snorted in response.

The woman was pristinely groomed and manicured, and wearing the latest fashions, when she burst through the door of our room. The first thing mother did after making her grand entrance was sweep me up into an embrace. I screamed as it felt like every cell in my body was being crushed. Nurses rushed in and my mother let me go immediately.

"You people told me he was better," she said stiffly.

The nurse who had come to get her went to face her. "I told you he was awake now, not better."

"Well you should be more clear next time, or you can get your patients hurt," my mother scolded her. I was breathing normally again, and had Shawn's hand in a vice grip under the blanket. With my other hand, I gave a thumbs-up to the nurses and they filed out of the room.

Mother watched them as they left, as if her gaze were actually pushing them out of the room. When they were gone, she turned back to me. "I'm sorry, honey. I thought you were better." The hug was a genuine reaction from her. She showed so few true emotions that I couldn't fault her for a real one. She noticed Shawn and Kyle and she pursed her lips. "I guess you're still sick if he's still here." I felt the ire in her voice, but before Shawn or Kyle could react, she shook her head. "Never mind, the good news is that you're awake now."

Alright, not too much damage so far. "Mom, you've met Shawn already," I said to her. "Kyle is Shawn's best friend. He's been bringing Shawn his homework so Shawn won't fall behind. Isn't that nice of him?" I knew the socialite codes. That was a prompt to my mother not to drag Kyle into whatever problem she had with Shawn. Kyle was only here doing a good deed, not corrupting her precious little boy, like Shawn was.

She gave him a gracious nod from across the room. "Nice to meet you, Kyle," she said with a beaming smile that looked completely genuine. I knew her better than that. It meant that he was permitted to be in her good graces...for now.

My first step in this dance was to throw her a bone by engaging her in a subject she was happy about. "Mother, does Magdalena know I'm here?" Magdalena's family was well off, and I knew that my mother had secret plans for Magda and I to be married off someday.

She put her hand to her mouth in a well-trained display of embarrassed surprise. "You know, I had completely forgotten about her during all of this. I will definitely be telling her when we're finished visiting. I'm sure she would love to come and see you."

My mother smiled at me. It was a show for the other two boys to demonstrate how much she loved me. "Well, at least you're recovering and I can have you back home soon," she said. "Did the doctors say how long you'll be here still?"

"I haven't been told," I said. "It sounded to me like Dr. Lassiter is still trying to figure things out. I know he wanted to talk to you about a treatment."

"He got you to wake up, so I'm sure he knows what he's doing," my mother said. I used every ounce of my will to pray that the others kept their mouths shut about what really woke me up. Either God listened to me, or my two friends just knew there was no point in stirring up trouble.

"Mrs. Talbaine, could you do me a favor?" Kyle asked. My hackles went up immediately. My mother had a tendency to take everything the wrong way. If a person didn't know how to play her games, they could find themselves in serious trouble.

She turned her smile onto him. "What would you like?"

"Shawn is my best friend, and he's keeping your son alive. He's missed an entire week of school just to help out. It would mean a lot to me if you wouldn't look at him like that," Kyle said. He'd busted her. Part of me was jumping up and down with glee that someone called her on her behavior, but the rest of me wanted to take cover under the bed.

My mother's smile twitched for a moment, and then became a hint more strained. "Dear boy," she said, emphasizing the second word, "I'm afraid you have misunderstood the reason behind that look earlier. It's alright. You're too young to know any better. I was merely upset that my son still needed help, and my distaste with the entire situation bled through into my face. It is truly a testament of how worried I am that my concern was so visible in my face." Well played, mother. Well played.

She gathered herself together and pulled her cell out of her purse. "I think I will let your darling friend Magdalena know you're here, and then go have a chat with your doctor." She swept out of the room without saying goodbye to anyone.

I turned to my friends. Kyle's mouth was wide open in shock, and Shawn looked sick. "You have to live with that every day?" Kyle asked. I nodded.

Shawn grabbed me into a desperate hug. "I'm so sorry, Rich. I had no idea she was that bad."

End of Chapter 2

My process takes a bit longer than other peoples', but it's worth it for me. I write the chapter by hand in a notebook first, then edit as I transfer it to the computer. Writing by hand is a wonderfully relaxing process, and I recommend it to everyone. I'm already at work on chapter 3, and I hope to have it up faster, now that I'm getting into the flow of things.

This chapter had a cameo by a friend of mine who wanted to be in one of my stories. Rhys, this chapter was for you. Hope you enjoyed it, mon ami.

~Joe