Do What You Can

Do What You Can

This story is about male/male relationships and contains Graphic descriptions of sex.

You should not read this story if it is in any way illegal due to your age or residence.

This is a work of pure fiction.

Copyright 2003 Jason Calme. This story is the sole property of its author and may not be copied in whole or in part or posted on any website without the permission of the author.

Questions and commentary can be sent to "JasonCalme@yahoo.com".

Chapter 5

"What are you talking about? You didn't kill Danny," I said.

I didn't understand. Was he dreaming or something? I put my hand on his shoulder and gently rubbed it. He just lay there sobbing.

I leaned down close to his head.

"You didn't kill Danny. He was killed by a drunk driver."

"I couldn't pick him up!" he sobbed.

"What?"

He looked up at me sadly. "When I had the car I picked him up at the shelter. But when I lost the car I couldn't always do it. Don't you see? If I hadn't lost the car he'd be alive today!" and his head fell back against the pillow and he sobbed even louder now.

Shit! What was I to do? Maybe I should get his sister.

"No you didn't Man!" I said, stroking his shoulder. "It was the drunk driver that killed him. It's not your fault."

"But if I'd picked him up he'd be alive."

"You don't know that. You can't go back and play 'if only'. Life doesn't work that way! Maybe you'd have picked him up, or maybe you'd had to do something else that night. Maybe the car would have broken down. Maybe the drunk driver would have hit your car and you'd both be dead. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't."

I pulled him to me and he threw his arms around me and hugged me tight and he sobbed against me.

I held him, whispering that it wasn't his fault. He couldn't change the past. Danny wouldn't want him blaming himself. It was the drivers fault. Anything I could think of.

I think I held him for half an hour. Maybe it was less. I don't know. I couldn't tell. But after what seemed an eternity, he started to calm a little.

"You feeling a little better?" I asked.

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

I tried to get him to lie back on his pillow but he kept clutching to me. We were sitting there and he still held my arms with his hands.

"I want to get back into bed," I said, and went to straighten up, but he just held on to me, and when I looked into his eyes they seemed blank. He was just holding me. He wasn't going to let me go it seemed.

Maybe, I thought, if I stayed with him, he'd fall asleep and then I could go back to my own bed.

"Hey," I said, "I'll lie with you a bit, until you fall asleep? Okay?"

He nodded, but only let go of one arm, so I had to climb over him so I could lie beside him.

I had started to feel cold, so I climbed under the covers, and put my hand up onto his shoulder to stroke him gently. He slid back against me. We were spooning. I almost froze, but he put up his hand to the one on his shoulder and gently patted it, and then pulled it down so that it was over his chest. He wanted me to pull him to me. I felt his back pushing against my chest and felt warmth, excitement and panic all at once. I wasn't expecting this.

I tried to think of other things. Didn't want to spring a boner.

"Good night Jed," Zack said quietly.

"Good night Zack," I whispered back.

And then I lay there, feeling a little awkward. I just hoped Zack would fall asleep quickly so I could go back to my bed.

I woke up to the sound of the clock radio coming on. I was lying on my back. Zack was on his side, cuddled up beside me, his head only inches from my ear, his arm over my chest and a leg over mine.

I mentally did an inventory of what I was touching and where.

It took me a moment to I realize I was hard.

"You okay?" came Zack's voice.

I turned to him, a little embarrassed.

"Yeah. You?"

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry about last night."

"That's okay," I said, smiling at him to let him know I wasn't weirded out, even though I was. "You're not still blaming yourself?"

He looked thoughtful. "I'm still working on it."

"It's not your fault."

He lay there thinking. He didn't say anything for a while and I was almost about to open my mouth and say something just to fill the quiet. "I'm sorry you had to sleep with me," he said quietly.

"That's okay," I said, "It was fine."

Zacks eyes traveled down the sheet to the tent over my groin.

"Looks like someone's already up," he smirked.

I went red. "Asshole!" I said, cause I didn't know what else to say.

"It's okay," he smiled. "I've got one too."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Want to see it?" he said wickedly.

"Pervert!" I snickered, and he suddenly leaned over and licked my cheek and laughed and jumped out of bed, running into the bathroom.

I lay there transfixed. Or maybe just stunned. I could still feel the touch of his tongue on my face. It had been a silly stunt when he did it - I knew he meant nothing sexual by it - but now I was lying there thinking about it, playing it over in my head, my dick still hard. I wanted to take things into my own hand.

But I couldn't with Zack in the bathroom. I'd have to wait and have a go at it in the shower. Just try and will it down so that I didn't embarrass myself when he came out of the bathroom.

I turned on the TV and managed to distract myself.

Zack didn't say anything about the night before after that. We had breakfast with his sister and then continued on our way. We finished the trip back without incident, and I had dinner at Zack's place, with his family, and he then drove me home. As we pulled up at the house he turned to me and smiled.

"Thanks Man," he said, taking my hand in a shake but then pulling it back and forth towards him as though he wanted to do something more but couldn't decide what to do.

"No problem Dude. It was fun!" I said.

He stared at me, a question in his eyes.

"Thanks for last night," he whispered.

I smiled at him.

"I'm...I'm glad I could be there for you," I said.

"You always are," he said, and then he pulled me over to him and we hugged.

"I love you," he whispered, kissing the side of my head, and then he let go of me and I saw his eyes were watering.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. He gave me a small smile.

"You gonna pick me up tomorrow morning right? I'm expecting a ride to school dude!" I joked.

"Yeah!" he said, the smile getting larger. "I'll pick you up Man."

"Okay," I said. Then I lightly punched his shoulder. "Love ya, Man" I kind of choked out. He grinned and I climbed out. Walking to the house I stopped and turned and waved to him, still sitting in the car. He waved at me and then he was gone.

But I was worried.

"Mrs. Taylor?"

"Yes?" came the voice through the phone.

"This is Jed."

"Oh, hello dear," she said, immediately sounding warm and friendly now she knew who it was.

"Could you ask Zack to call me when he gets back please?" I asked.

"Yes dear, though you could call him on his cell phone."

"That's okay," I said, "He just left here, so he should be there shortly."

"Okay dear. Oh, I think I see his truck now."

"Oh good," I breathed out.

She was quiet for a moment. "Is everything okay?"

I stood there, holding the phone, trying to decide what to do. "I'm not sure, ah..." I finally said. "Last night Zack was...he was really upset. He was blaming himself for Danny's death."

"He was?"

"Yes...he...I guess he felt if he hadn't lost the car he would have been able to pick up Danny and it wouldn't have happened."

Mrs. Taylor said nothing for a moment.

"Jed," she said quietly, "Zack's been through that before. It was just getting the car brought it back. I think he'll be okay. But thank you for letting me know."

"That's okay."

"Why don't we..." she paused. "Let's stay in touch. You let me know if there's any changes in his behavior, and I'll do the same. Between the two of us we should be able to watch over him."

"Okay," I said, feeling better.

"Don't worry Jed, Zacks strong. He'll get through this."

"Yeah I was just..." and I didn't want to say what I was thinking.

"I know. You did the right thing. You've been a wonderful friend to Zack," and I could hear her smiling and I blushed. "I'll see you later this week? How's the swimming going?"

"Oh, okay. Not great."

"Zack tells me you're doing really well," she protested.

"He's lying," I laughed.

"Well just keep working on it. You'll get there. Do you still want to talk to Zack?"

"No. That's okay."

"Well he's here. I'm going to go talk to him so don't worry."

"Okay. Bye," I said.

"Bye dear."

It was only later in bed that I finally processed the fact that Zack had told me he loved me in the car. It wasn't a 'love you' kind of love you. It was more of a 'love you as a friend' kind of love you. But he'd still said he loved me.

The next morning Zack picked me up as he'd promised. As I opened the door he had this strange expression on his face, but then he smiled at me.

"What?" I said asking him why he was looking at me like that.

"Nothing! Come on or we'll be late," he said smiling and turning away from me.

"Kay."

We had been driving for a minute or two when Zack spoke again.

"So you called my Mom last night?" he said matter-of-factly.

I looked at him nervously. Would he be angry with me?

He glanced over at me.

"It's okay Man," he smiled. "I'm sorry if I worried you."

"You didn't worry me," I interrupted.

He glanced back at me with a curious expression on his face. He smirked.

"You weren't huh? Well I'm sorry if I worried you."

"It's okay," I said.

"So I did worry you?" he said triumphantly.

"Zack!"

"Hey, I'm not...it's cool...I kind of like it that you cared Man."

I looked at him and though he was watching the road ahead he smirked, so I punched him.

"Hey! What's that for?" he said, overplaying how hard I'd hit him.

"For being a jerk!" I laughed.

We both laughed. And we were okay. We didn't talk about it anymore, and though his Mom and I compared notes over the next couple of weeks we decided he was okay.

I don't know what I thought the pictures of Billy would do for Todd. I guess I didn't think they'd really do anything other than make his sex fantasies a little more vivid. But I couldn't, in some way, help from partly blaming myself for what happened next.

It was at another swim meet, and Todd was there. Watching Billy. I wanted to go over and tell him to forget Billy. But it wasn't really my business.

Afterwards, I was waiting for Zack in the entrance and Todd came out and stopped and chatted with me about some minor paper stuff. Just passing time really. I got the impression Todd was waiting for someone or something, but I wasn't sure what. Maybe he just liked chatting with me.

He'd asked me if I had taken any 'good' pictures of Billy and I said I didn't think so and we both smiled. I felt okay with what I'd done, but if I did any more it was, perhaps, going too far.

"Hey! Wein-bummer!" came a loud voice behind me. I glanced behind me to see Billy coming towards us. I decided not to say anything, just ignore him.

"What are you two queers doing?" he said to us as he came up, "shouldn't you be in the Men's room sodomizing each other?" and he stared at Todd and I had the feeling this was more than just a casual insult.

"Shut up Billy," Todd said.

"You gonna make me, asshole?" he sneered.

Just shut up Todd I was thinking. If you ignore him he'll go away. That's how this game is played. Say something and you'll just drag it out and he'll still get the last word. Or worse.

"Hey man!" came Zacks voice as he walked up behind us. He was smiling, though obviously watching what was happening.

Billy turned briefly, then just shoved his way past Todd and out the door. Todd watched Billy go, while I turned to Zack, grateful he'd arrived.

"You did great Dude," I said to Zack. He'd won one race, come in second in another, and anchored the team event to a win. He smiled and we high fived.

"You need a ride?" Zack said, turning to Todd.

"No," he said quietly. "It's fine. See ya," and he hurriedly turned and went out the door.

"What was that about?" Zack asked me.

"Don't know," I said, though I kind of did.

Zack shrugged, and we walked out to his 4Runner. As we were climbing into the car I could see Todd and Billy over in the other corner of the parking lot by Billy's car. It looked like they were arguing.

Zack was about to start the car, but I stopped him.

"What?" he asked.

"Just want to make sure Todd's okay," I said nodding towards them.

Zack looked over at Todd and Billy, and his eye's narrowed.

It didn't look good. The body language was not friendly. Billy looked like he was going to hit Todd. We watched, just sitting there. Suddenly Billy punched Todd and shoved him against his car. Both of us leapt in our seats and Zack went to open his door. But Billy was already shoving Todd into his car.

"Wait!" I said to Zack. I didn't think we would get over there in time anyway.

"What?" said Zack stopping to look at me.

I pointed at the car. Billy was already climbing in and only a second or two later the car started it up and they were driving off.

"Shit!" said Zack, pulling his door closed. "What the hell is he up to?" He started up the car and we followed them.

"Stay back," I said.

"Why?"

"If he sees us he'll try and get away. We don't want to chase him around town."

"Okay," said Zack.

We followed Billy's car for a couple of miles until it pulled into a new subdivision, turning down a street that seemed to consist of only a couple of buildings under construction. The car stopped in front of one of them and I told Zack to hang back, so he stopped at the end of the street. Just close enough to see what was going on.

Todd and Billy were out of the car, and it looked like they were still arguing with one another, but Billy was pushing Todd towards the house.

"I don't like this," said Zack.

"Should we call the police?" I asked him.

"Don't know," he said indecisively. We watched at they disappeared inside. "Come on," said Zack.

He drove up to the house and we jumped out of the car and ran towards the building. I was listening for sounds or voices. As we came in we could hear noises upstairs. The building was still mostly incomplete. Framed in with same plywood for some walls. The stairs had no railing. We climbed up the stairs slowly. I could hear Billy's voice.

"You want it, you faggot?" I could hear Billy screaming. Todd was saying something, but I couldn't tell what. It sounded like he was crying.

At the top of the stairs I could see into a large unfinished room. I couldn't believe what I saw.

Billy had Todd backed up against the wall. Todd's clothes were disheveled, this pants were undone and falling down. But what shocked me the most was that Billy had one hand around Todd's neck, the other raised in a fist, and his face was sneering at Todd.

"You shit!" Zack yelled, and he advanced towards Billy. Billy looked up surprised, but he couldn't do anything in time to protect himself from Zack. Zack hauled back and hit him hard. Billy fell to the floor.

I ran to Todd, grabbing him. Trying to get him out of this. He was shaking and crying. I tried to comfort him, had to get him out of there.

But his pants were falling down.

It felt really strange, but I figured I had to do it. I reached down and pulled up his pants. I got them up over his hips but I couldn't quite bring myself to try and zip or button up the fly, so I just held them up and tried to get Todd to the door. I looked back and saw Zack was still laying into Billy.

"Zack!" I yelled. "Stop it!"

Zack paused and turned towards me.

"Enough!" I said, "we've got to get Todd out of here."

Zack looked at me for a second, then turned back to Billy and let go of his shirt. Zack stood up slowly, but then pointed his finger at Billy.

"If you go near him again, I'll fucking kill you. Believe it!"

Billy just lay there.

"Zack, that's for the police," I shouted. Come on I was thinking, I just want to get out of here.

Billy looked up at Zack. He looked really panicked.

"No, no!" he started to cry.

"Should have thought about that before you did this. Now you'll be a convicted sex predator," said Zack and he kicked Billy.

"No!" Todd gasped.

"What?" I said.

"No police."

"He was trying to rape you!" I said.

"No police!" Todd repeated.

Zack looked at Todd, then back at Billy. Then he leaned down close to Billy.

"You ever do something like this again, you ever touch someone, I'll cut your balls off," he hissed. Then he kicked Billy hard in the ass. Billy just kind of gasped.

Zack came over and he helped me get Todd down and out to the car. We put him in the back and I rode with him while Zack drove and we went back to Zacks place.

When Zack pulled up at his house he stopped the car and we all just sat there. I think we were all in shock. Todd was leaning forward, his head in his hands while I slowly stroked his back. Zack was sitting in the front lightly thumping the steering wheel with his fist, and I was looking back and forth from Todd to Zack, trying to figure out whether what had just happened had really just happened.

It all seemed like a dream now. It was...it was so real for that moment. I remember it was. But now I'm not even sure what really happened. What was said. I don't even remember how we got back to the car.

"Are you okay?" I finally whispered to Todd.

He stopped rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hands and slowly looked up. He looked pretty bad. He'd been crying ever since we got out of the house.

Todd looked at me and opened his mouth as though about to say something, but unable to actually get any words out. He just nodded.

And I realized his pants were still undone. But I didn't say anything.

Finally, after about another five minutes, Todd quietly did himself up and started to get out of the car. Zack looked around quickly to see what was happening. He looked at me briefly and raised his eyebrows as though to say 'what now' and I shrugged, because I had no idea.

We into Zack's house, not really saying anything. Zack offered to make coffee and disappeared off to do that. I tried to get Todd to sit down, but he wouldn't do it. He just kind of ambled around looking at things. The pictures on the wall, the furniture. He'd stop and look at things and make little comments, as though we were on a tour of the place.

At least he seemed to have calmed down a lot. He wasn't hurt either. Billy had punched him a couple of times but he was pretty much unhurt.

Zack brought out the coffee but Todd wouldn't drink it. Wouldn't sit down either. Or talk. He just wanted to go home. Kept telling us he was fine, everything was fine. It was just a misunderstanding; things had just gotten a little out of control. We shouldn't worry so much.

It might have been funny if he wasn't so calm and unemotional about it. Almost disinterested in what we were saying.

We tried really hard to persuade him to go to the police. We'd be witnesses we told him, but he was adamant. He didn't want anyone to know he was gay. I said that no one would, but he couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

I kind of got the feeling that maybe there was more to it than that. But with Zack there I couldn't seem to get him to talk.

Alright, it was obvious that Todd was irrational. He just wanted to go home. Everything was fine he kept saying, he was fine, he just wanted to go home. I think it was the shock. But we couldn't persuade him otherwise.

And our arguing didn't seem to be helping him. So finally we just gave up. Maybe if he went home and thought about it, then maybe tomorrow he'd think about things differently.

So I ended up walking Todd home. Zack offered to drive us, but Todd wanted to walk and I thought the walk might do him good.

We said goodbye to Zack, and Zack told me to call him as soon as I got home. I said I would, and turned to hurry after Todd, who was on his way and not waiting for anybody.

We'd gone a couple of blocks, not saying anything to each other, when I finally asked him what happened.

"What do you mean?"

"You went after him," I said. "Why did you go after him?"

Todd was quiet.

"I won't tell anyone, not even Zack," I said.

He was quiet for a moment.

"I...Billy lives in the house next to mine...did you know that?"

"No," I said. "That must be a bit of torture," I added kind of cynically.

"More than you can guess."

I just nodded. Living next to one of the school bully's must really suck.

"I can see his bedroom from mine..." he went on.

"Ahh, you don't have to..." I began. I wasn't sure where this was going.

"Sometimes he undresses at the window. He knows I'm watching," Todd continued.

"Oh God," I whispered.

"We used to be best friends. I moved there when I was ten and somehow Billy and I...we became friends. Did everything together."

We were walking along and it was almost like he was just talking casually, but I could tell it was a struggle for him.

He glanced at me, I guess wondering what my reaction would be. I tried not to look too shocked, but then...

"When we were...about 15 we jerked off together," he whispered.

"Jesus," I exclaimed. This was getting worse. I guess I'd asked. I guess I had to listen.

"Billy suggested it. I'd been jerking off for a while and one day I was over there and...well it kind of happened. Have you ever done that?"

"What?" I asked suddenly flustered. Why was he asking about my sex life?

"Jerked off with someone else," Todd persisted.

"No," I said hastily, more than a little embarrassed.

"We did it a lot..." he went on.

"A lot?" I asked.

"Well, couple of times a week for a while. Sleep over's and stuff," he said.

"One day we did each other," he said.

I looked over. Tears were running down his cheeks.

"I told him I was in love with him," he went on, "he just...he just blew up. Screamed at me that he wasn't a fag and told me to get out." Todd laughed a little. "Wouldn't even let me wipe up. I had cum all over me and I just had to pull up my pants and run home like some dirty whore." He was crying now, "we've been enemies every since."

He stopped and I stopped too. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to hug him, but felt a little awkward doing it. Here, out on the street. I put my arm on his shoulder and patted it. He wiped his eyes and stopped crying.

"I haven't told anyone else about this," he said quietly.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," I said.

He nodded, and we walked on.

"So what happened today?" I said.

"It got out of hand," he said briskly. "I guess part of me wanted him to do it. Thought if he had sex with me that he'd...that he'd like it and want me."

"You wanted...him to...?"

"Not that," he said, "Not like rape. But as it was going, until we got to the room, I thought maybe he was just...that he was just covering and that he'd...if we actually did it that he'd...that'd change him." He held his head low, "Pretty dumb huh?"

Dumb? It was fucking idiotic! But I didn't want to tell him that. He already felt bad about himself.

"I can kind of understand it," I said, trying hard to imagine if I was in Todd's shoes whether I'd react the same way. I was damn sure I wouldn't, but I wanted to support him. "I mean, I don't think it was a good idea," I went on, "but I can see how you might have..."

"He was a pig though," Todd went on, "he punched me and was just...I saw there was no love there."

We walked on in silence for a while. No love. What a surprise I thought, but I didn't say anything.

"So he strips in front of his window?" I said.

"Sometimes." He paused. "I see him naked a lot. He likes to show off."

"He know's you can see him?"

"Yeah. He's careful to make sure no one else is looking," Todd said, and he laughed a small embarrassed laugh.

"Is that all he does?" I asked quietly.

Todd was silent. He looked up guiltily.

"There's more?" I whispered.

"He...he sometimes he jerks off while I watch."

I think my jaw hit the ground. I couldn't believe this.

"What do you...what do you do?" I asked him.

"I watch," he shrugged.

"That's all?"

He looked away and didn't say anything. I figured there was more. I figured if I saw Billy jerking off, even though I didn't like him, I'd be hard pretty quickly. For a moment I wondered if they kind of put on a show for each other, but I decided not to ask.

"Sounds like he's pretty sick," I said.

"And I'm not," he said bitterly.

I looked at him. "Nah. Maybe a little horny, but not sick."

He nodded and smiled. "Thanks," he said.

"We need to find you someone else," I said.

"Yeah," he said breathing out, "but it's not easy," he said.

We walked on in silence for a bit.

"There's other gays in school," I said, though I didn't know any. "Just have to figure out who they are."

"Probably half the swimming team," he said smiling.

"You think?"

"That's what they say isn't it? That and wrestlers!"

"Huh! Well I'd stick with swimmers. If you're wrong about a wrestler they can do you more harm!"

"Yeah!" Todd laughed. Then he turned serious. "I guess there's always Zack. He's damn cute!" he smiled at me and I felt...I didn't know how I felt. Todd was interested in Zack? Shit!

"Uh...uh..." I stumbled.

Todd's grin widened. He lightly poked me in the chest. "Kidding Man, I wouldn't take him away from you," and he smiled and laughed.

"Wh...what," I said. "I told you, we're not..."

"Oh yeah, I know. You and him are just friends," he said smiling and then he giggled.

"I'm straight!" I protested weakly.

"Yeah, so do you have as many pictures of your girlfriend as you do of Zack?" he asked innocently.

"I don't...I don't have a girl friend at the moment."

"That so?" he said, laughing to himself and walking on. I chased after him.

"Todd, wait!" I said. He stopped and turned to face me.

"You can't...ah...look...please don't tell him. You can't tell him, okay?"

He looked at me with a curious expression. "Hey, I wouldn't, don't worry. Though you should tell him sometime. You know, before everyone else figures it out," and he grinned at me and laughed and was off again.

So I was in love with Zack.

Todd knew. Had guessed it so quickly. I put it down to the fact he was gay. Hopefully no one 'straight' would figure it out.

I just couldn't tell Zack. Not yet.

I ran into Todd a few times over the next couple of weeks. He actually seemed pretty good. Normal even. He smiled at me. If I was with Zack he'd give me a huge grin and I'd look away embarrassed. We never talked about it, but I knew he didn't go to the police about Billy. I kind of wished he had as I had this naive hope it would get Billy out of everyone's hair. But if I was in Todd's shoes I wasn't sure I would have done it.

Billy on the other hand was anything but normal. The following Monday at school he had a nasty shiner and a fat lip. Everyone knew he'd been beaten up, but no one knew what had happened.

He wasn't as cocky as he used to be, which I thought was a good thing, and he practically ran away from me if he saw me in the corridors at school. I was down at a swim practice one day and the coach threw him out of the practice for backchat. Billy didn't seem to want to do anything he was told. He'd always been a troublemaker, but he was being belligerent now.

My favorite hobby now was taking pictures of Zack. He was my model. With the new camera I had the perfect excuse to drag Zack out and take hundreds of photographs of him to practice my portraiture. I think Zack believed it. He was very accommodating; unlike my family and other friends who always seemed to run away from me when I took out my camera.

One day we were out in the back yard of his place, taking pictures in the late afternoon light, the short period before dusk when the sun is low, the lighting is flat, and the sky a nice warm hue. In the film industry it's called the Magic Hour. It's one of the best times to take photographs. I hate flash pictures. I hate studio shots. I like natural scenes and natural lighting. And in the natural light, sitting on a large boulder in the backyard, Zack was positively glowing.

He was smiling at me through the lens and I really couldn't take my eyes off him. I was just snapping away, not paying attention to what I was doing, just drinking in his beauty.

"Are you about done?" Zack asked me, laughing a little. He was good natured about it all, but eventually he got sick of it so I had to play the game carefully.

I let the camera hang from the strap around my neck while I studied him for a moment.

"Why don't you unbutton your shirt?" I asked him boldy.

"My shirt?" he asked, a puzzled expression on his face. I figured he wasn't going to do it, but he shrugged and started to unbutton the shirt, slowly revealing his chiseled chest.

I took up the camera and started taking pictures as he continued to unbutton. He looked up, a little surprised, and then he laughed and continued unbuttoning.

"Oh man!" I said a little exaggeratedly. "You're looking really sexy!" I couldn't believe I was being this bold.

"You think," said Zack, looking up and smiling at me. He continued unbuttoning until he got the last button undone, and he pulled the shirt and opened it, letting it flap at the sides of his chest and I snapped a couple more pictures.

"You want me to take off my shirt?" Zack asked me. I was looking at him through the viewfinder of the camera, and he was staring back at me. Was this an invitation?

My confidence was starting to flee.

"If you want," I offered back, a little nervously. Zack stared at me for a moment, and then he shrugged and pulled off the shirt and tossed it to the side.

I took some more pictures. I had him pull up one leg and rest his arm and then his head on it.

I was getting really excited, and more than a little uncomfortable.

"Done?" Zack suddenly asked. This was it. Either I was done, or I could suggest something more. I could be bold. Even if it was in jest. I almost felt like he wanted me to suggest it. Just for fun. All I had to say was something like 'Why don't you take off your pants?' 'Or just undo the top button.' A couple of buttons. I could just throw that out.

"I think we're done," I said, "Thanks, you were great." I put down the camera and smiled at Zack and he smiled back.

"Good, cause I'm hungry," he said and I agreed with him.

Zack grabbed up his shirt and put it on and we walked slowly back up to the house.

A few days later Zack had just dropped me off after we'd swum and done homework together when I got a call from Teri, who worked on the school paper. She only called me on paper business so I wasn't that excited to hear from her.

"Have you heard?" she asked a little breathlessly.

"Heard what?" I asked.

"Todd was in a car accident!" she almost yelled.

"What? When?" I stammered.

"This afternoon!"

"Is he...is he?"

"I don't know," she said, "anyway, thought you'd want to know."

"Ahh, thanks Teri," I said.

------------------------------- To be continued...

My other stories:

Celebrity: Boy Bands: All The Ways I Love You

Celebrity: Boy Bands: Birthday