CHAPTER 23
This is a fictional story dealing with love and consensual sexual activities between males. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now.
The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author.
Note: Thanks to Tim for feedback on the draft chapters. I owe a special thanks to Robb for doing the final proofreading and catching all those silly little errors I missed.
Finding Family
by Jeff Allen
CHAPTER 23
JONATHAN'S PERSPECTIVE:
The summer between high school graduation and starting college passed like a flash. It was the best summer of my life. I practically lived out at Coach Arnold's house and slept nearly every night with my boyfriend, Rashod. Along with the rest of Coach's Cubs and some other guys from the soccer team I worked for TJ's lawn care company spending the days in the sun mowing, trimming, and weeding. The physical labor felt good, and I got a great tan. In the evenings we all gathered naked around Coach's pool to swim and horse around. Usually Coach and one of the other guys would grill whatever meat we'd provided. Heck, most days we'd shuck off what little we'd worn during the day as soon as we got home and not put anything else on until it was time to leave for work the next morning.
All too soon that idyllic time came to an end.
Rashod's mother and sister had moved to Greensboro at the first of the summer. Rashod left us and joined them at the start of August. It was hard to say good-bye. We'd been boyfriends for eight months. We liked each other a lot, but we also knew our relationship would have to end when he moved and I went to college.
When it came time for all of us to pack up and head over to Adams State we made a real caravan. TJ drove his Jeep which didn't have room for a lot of extra stuff. Trey drove his old Volvo station wagon which we'd loaded to the gills. It held a lot of stuff. I drove the Toyota Celica I'd gotten for graduation. Great car, but it didn't hold a lot of stuff. Coach and Ryan came along in Coach's Explorer which, like Trey's old Volvo, held a lot of stuff.
My parents didn't come. They claimed they were too busy.
Trey, TJ, and I were going to be suitemates. We'd all been accepted into the honors program so we'd be sharing a two bedroom suite in the honors dorm instead of being housed in the jock dorm. There was going to be a fourth guy in the suite that we'd never met before. All we had was his name: Charles Myers. He was from Charlotte. Actually he was going to be my roommate since Trey and TJ were sharing the other room in the suite.
The jocks moved in earlier than the rest of the students. The football players had already been on campus for a week when the other teams arrived. We would have a full week before the rest of the students...including Charles Myers arrived.
We got everything moved and placed in the rooms. Then it was time for Coach and Ryan to head back to Carterville.
Coach hugged TJ and Trey and told them how proud he was of them and that he loved them. Then he surprised the heck out of me by doing the same thing to me. That really hit me. I was darn sure my own parents would never tell me they were proud of me, and I couldn't remember the last time they'd said they loved me. I almost broke down in tears.
TJ and Ryan did cry. They hugged each other for a long time and cried on the other's shoulder. They'd been separated the previous year when TJ's step mom sent Ryan off to a military school. Since then the step mom had taken all the money and disappeared. Coach was able to become Ryan's legal guardian, and Ryan had come home at Christmas time. Now the brothers would be separated again although TJ was promising to get back to Carterville as often as he could.
Our dorm suite was comfortable. It was set up like a small apartment. There was a living area/kitchenette with a couch, two chairs, end tables, and a table with four chairs. The bathroom was off to the left. It had two sinks, two toilets, and a large shower area. There was only one shower head, but the shower could handle at least three people if they didn't mind being a little friendly. I know because Trey, TJ, and I tried it out the first night. Trey and TJ's room was next to the bathroom. My room was on the opposite side of the living area. Each bedroom had a pair of twin beds, two dressers, two desks, two chairs, and two closets. I took possession of one of each.
We spent Sunday exploring the town and campus before having a team meeting late in the afternoon. Coach Springer had everyone introduce themselves. I didn't think there was any way I could ever remember all the names. However, there were some guys who really stood out because they were so darned hot and because I thought they might be gay.
In my opinion, the hottest of all was Justin Barnes, a senior, who was about 5' 10" and 160-165 pounds with curly, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a quick smile that brought out deep dimples in each cheek. From the deference given him by the team veterans it was clear that Justin was one of the team's leaders.
Another stand out in my mind was Brian Barnes. He was a junior. He introduced himself as Justin's better looking younger brother. That brought a round of laughter from everyone including Justin. Even if Brian hadn't said anything, it was obvious that Brian and Justin were brothers. Brian had the same curly, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and quick smile as his brother but Brian's dimples weren't as deep as Justin's when he smiled.
The third guy who really stood out for me was Stephen Nguyen. He was a junior and extremely good looking. He was only about 5' 7" but looked well built under his tee shirt, shorts and sandals. His hair was jet black. His features clearly Asian with a beautiful golden complexion and startlingly white perfectly straight teeth surrounded by naturally red, full lips. Woof!
After the team meeting Trey, TJ, and I compared our impressions about the other guys on the team. We agreed that Justin and Stephen were hot, hot, hot and probably gay. We also agreed that Justin was a major hottie, but couldn't agree on him being gay. TJ and I thought he was, but Trey thought he was straight. As he put it to TJ, "Justin Barnes is as straight as your brother. He's just very comfortable in his own skin."
They also told me they'd met Justin, Brian, and Stephen before on one of the ski slopes back in Carterville. They'd been up skiing with a guy named C.Z. Johnstone. I'd never met him before so Trey and TJ told me a little about him. He'd grown up in Carterville; his father had left the family; he'd lost his mother to heart disease when he was still a junior in high school; and a fella named Andy Hatcher who had been the bank manager before my father was C.Z.'s guardian. Both Trey and TJ were certain that C.Z. and Hatcher were lovers. I thought that C.Z. being gay argued in favor of Justin Barnes being gay since they were friends. TJ agreed with me, but Trey kept insisting that Justin was straight.
Soccer practice started the next day. Coach Springer put everyone through their paces. The level of competition had gone up another level from high school. I was darn glad for all the conditioning Coach Arnold had made us do and for all the physical labor I'd done over the summer. Lots of guys were really dragging by the end of practice. Trey, TJ, and I were tired, but still with it.
The three of us gave ourselves massages each night that week. Those really helped with the sore muscles from practice. They also helped release a little sexual tension too because the message sessions ended in mutual j.o. sessions. Just one more benefit of having other gay guys as roommates.
Of course those group messages had to come to a stop once our fourth roommate moved in the following Saturday. Charles "Chuck" Myers was a skinny dark headed kid with glasses and a bad case of acne. He arrived with his parents while the rest of us were out helping other students move into the dorms as a part of "Freshman Welcome." All the sports teams had been released from practice and were involved in helping the new students move their stuff into the dorms. It was a great chance for the sports program to win some brownie points with the parents, and it was a great chance for the jocks to check out the new crop of freshman. Most of the jocks were scoping out the new freshmen girls. I checked out the guys.
We didn't have a chance to talk much with our new suitemate that day because we went over to a soccer team party hosted by Brian and Justin Barnes and Stephen Nguyen. They lived a few blocks away from campus. The party was in the back yards of two Victorian style houses. Justin explained to me that he and his girlfriend (that settled the questions about whether or not Justin was gay or straight) lived in the apartment above the garage of the smaller of the two neighboring houses. Two English professors, Kathy and Kevin Williams lived in that house with their three kids. The larger house was three stories tall with an apartment on each floor. Brian and Stephen and their two roommates lived in the apartment on the second floor. The roommates weren't there that night. A guy on the football team and his roommate lived on the top floor. They weren't there either. The tenants in the ground floor apartment were C.Z. Johnstone, Andy Hatcher, and Andy's five-year-old son Greg. When I told Trey and TJ about that they were surprised to hear that Hatcher had a son. Apparently when he was living in Carterville, he'd lived alone or with C.Z.
Of course there was beer at the party. I'd never had it before. TJ and Trey confessed that Coach Arnold had let them have a beer now and then before Isaac had moved in. They had a couple. I had one before switching back to soft drinks. Beer must be an acquired taste.
Chuck was asleep when we got back to the dorm. He was curled up in the other bed lying on top of the covers wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and a tee shirt. I quietly stripped off my clothes so as not to awaken him. I hesitated when I got down to my boxer shorts. I'd gotten used to sleeping in the nude, and I really preferred the freedom and the feel of the sheets against my skin, but since Chuck was decked out in p.j.'s and a tee shirt he might object to a naked roomy in the morning. I left them on and climbed into bed.
TJ'S PERSPECTIVE:
I was excited about starting college, but when Ryan was getting ready to go back to Carterville after helping us move in I almost lost it. I didn't want to be separated from my brother again. Angela the Witch had tried it last year by sending Ryan off to some god forsaken military school in Missouri, but we got him back at Christmas after Angela skipped town. I hoped I'd never hear from her again.
I knew I had to stay at Adams State so I hugged my brother as hard as I could, told him that I loved him, and let him go. We kept in contact each day by phone, email, or IM.
Coach Springer kept us really busy all the next week with practices and I really enjoyed getting to know some of the other guys on the soccer team. I also enjoyed the group massages and j.o. sessions that Trey, Jonathan, and I had that week. Trey and I had been playing around with each other for three years, but we'd never played with Jonathan. He had a great body. Nice muscles, big nipples that were the same light brown color as his hair and eyes, and an uncut cock that was a lot of fun to jack. We thought we'd better get our jollies in before our fourth roommate showed up.
We had no idea whether or not he'd want to play.
Turns out he not only didn't want to play he didn't even want to live with us.
The morning after Chuck moved in, Trey went out and picked up sausage biscuits from the local McDonald's. We'd planned this out in advance. It was time to let Chuck know we were all gay. We waited until he was done with breakfast and then sprung the surprise on him.
I started. "Ah, Chuck, there's something we have to discuss with you. You know that Trey, Jonathan and I all come from the same town. We've been best friends for a long time. We don't want that to be a problem for you."
Chuck pushed his glasses back up on his nose and looked at me. "Thanks, TJ. I don't think it will be unless you guys push the whole buddy buddy jock thing. I'm not that much into sports."
"That's fine. That's a part of our lives, but we don't expect it to be a part of yours."
"Good."
Trey picked it up. "Chuck, there's something else about us that we need to discuss with you to make sure you're going to be okay with it."
"Yeah?"
"We're gay."
"Yeah, right. Good one, Trey."
It was Jonathan's turn. "Trey's not kidding, Chuck. All of us are gay."
"Come on, quit fooling around. This isn't funny."
I replied, "We're not trying to be funny. We're serious, Chuck."
He opened his mouth to speak again but closed it again without uttering a sound. He pushed his glasses back up on his nose and looked at us.
"You're serious?"
We all nodded.
"You're all homos?"
"We prefer to be called gay," Trey said softly.
"Swear that you're not joking about this. You guys are all jocks. You can't be queer."
Trey again: "Not all jocks are straight. We're proof of that."
Chuck shot out of his chair. "God, I just spent a night in the same room with a queer! I'm going to have to be checked for AIDS! Did you molest me?"
Jonathan's answer was soft but got an immediate reaction from Chuck. "I wouldn't touch you Chuck. Unless you want to be touched."
That did it. Chuck turned beet red and was out the door in a flash.
I turned to the other guys. "That went well."
We all broke into loud laughter.
Ten minutes later the Resident Advisor was in our suite. We had a problem.
Chuck was refusing to stay in the suite with us. By mid afternoon Chuck had been moved into another suite claiming that he preferred to sleep on the couch rather than spend another night in mortal peril of contracting some homo disease. The Dorm Resident tried to find someone to switch rooms with Chuck, but he didn't get any takers. He explained to us that he knew there had to be some other gay guys in the dorm, but he thought they weren't ready to come out of the closet yet. Moving in with us would surely blow that closet door wide open. None of the straight guys want to move in either for fear of being labeled as gay themselves. We were now in a three-person suite and definitely out to the entire dorm.
We weren't looking forward to the crap we thought we'd be taking from some of the other students.
Trey started laughing. When we asked him what was so funny he said, "They always say the best defense is a good offense." Then he told us his idea.
We liked it.
That afternoon we taped a big sign on our door that read:
The Queers' Quarters
Jonathan, TJ, and Trey
Gay and Proud
We never had a problem.
**********
Classes started the next day. We all had the same English Composition class at 8:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After that our class schedules diverged because Trey and I were bio majors, and Jonathan was in business.
Jonathan's schedule wasn't as packed as ours. He had a break after English and then had Business Calculus at 10:00, and History at 1:00. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he had Intro to Business from 9:30 to 10:45 and then Intro to Accounting from 11:00-12:15.
Trey and I went right from English to Biology from 9:00-10:00 followed by Chemistry I from 10:00-11:00. We had a break for lunch and then Calculus I from 1:00-2:00. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we had either Biology Lab or Chem Lab in the mornings. We'd tried but we couldn't get the same labs. I had chem lab on Tuesday and bio lab on Thursday. Trey's labs were the reverse.
Our English prof was Dr. Kevin Williams. Jonathan told us later that he owned the house where the soccer team party had been. He was around forty, but still very good-looking. He stood maybe 5'11" and weighed around 175 pounds with dark brown eyes and almost coal black hair that was turning gray at the temples and some white strands in other places. Shoot, Trey had about as much gray hair as Dr. Williams did.
After class Jonathan headed over to the Union for a cup of coffee while Trey and I hightailed it to the biology building for our next class. On the way over we commented about how good looking Dr. Williams was. When our biology prof walked in Trey and I turned and looked at each other. Dr. Williams in English had been good looking, but this guy was a certified hunk! He was probably in his early to mid-thirties, around 5'11" and 175 lbs. He had dark brown curly hair worn just a little on the long side with the most beautiful gray blue eyes I'd ever seen. Wow! Then I noticed he had a gold ring on the third finger of his left hand. I thought,'Married__. Damn.'
He introduced himself as Dr. Gary Griffith. He passed around the course syllabus and then started to call the roll. It took a long time because he would call a name, look up at the person who answered, and then repeat their name. After that he went over the syllabus with the class and asked if there were any questions. A girl in the front row raised her hand. Dr. Griffith called on her by name! I was impressed. A guy toward the back had the next question, and again our prof called on the student by name. In fact, he did that for every student who raised their hand for a question. By the end of the class I think everyone had caught on to the fact that Dr. Griffith had memorized our names because I heard several bits of conversation about it as we left the room at the end of class.
In contrast to the experience of our first two college classes, the chemistry lecture we had next was one of the most boring experiences of my whole life. You know the scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" where the teacher calls the roll in a slow and droning voice? Well, that level of enthusiasm would have been a step up from what we got from our chem prof. It was going to be a long semester in chem class.
We hit the Student Union for a sandwich and a break before going to our 1:00 calculus class. The prof seemed so-so for that one. Trey and I had agreed before that we'd study together for all our classes. He was better in chemistry and math and I was better in biology. We both pretty well sucked in English, but Jonathan would pull us out there `cause he really wanted to be an English major. He was just going the business route to keep his old man happy.
Soccer practice that afternoon didn't seem as strenuous as the week before. Maybe we were getting back in shape. When we were back in the room after catching some dinner we talked with Jonathan about his day. He said his favorite prof was Dr. Williams from English. We told him about Dr. Griffith's trick of memorizing names, and he was as impressed as we'd been.
Tuesday morning the three of us went our separate ways. Jonathan headed over to the business building for his two classes. Trey went to biology lab, and I went to chemistry lab. We all met back in the room after lunch and hit the books for a while before practice. Wednesday was a repeat of Monday; Thursday repeated Tuesday except that I had bio lab and Trey had chem lab. Friday mimicked Monday and Wednesday's schedules. All of us were making a lot of new friends.
Trey and I ran into C.Z. Johnstone every once in a while in the biology building because he was a bio major too. I never knew him that well in high school. He'd been in Karl Henson's class so he was a senior when I was a freshman. I was glad to have a chance to get to know him a little better. He was a cool guy.
The combination of practice, classes, and socializing with new friends kept us busy. We'd realized the first week of practice that the competition and level of competence expected on the field was jacked way up from what we'd been used to in high school. The same was true for our courses. Being in college was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of work attached to it also.
Jonathan said he'd spotted Karl around the business building a couple of times. I hadn't heard from him so on Friday night I got his phone number from directory assistance and gave him a call.
He answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Karl, it's TJ. Do you have plans for tomorrow evening?"
"Hi, TJ. No, I don't have any plans. I was just going to do some studying."
"Well, take a break. Trey and Jonathan and I are coming over to your place with some pizza. You supply the beer."
It was good to hear him laugh again. "What makes you think I'd do that? You guys are all underage."
"You'll do it because you love us. Now where's your place?"
The next night we invaded Karl's apartment with pizzas in hand. His apartment was just four houses up the street from Brian Barnes' apartment. It was in the basement of the house, but it didn't seem like a basement because the house was set on a hill so the apartment was actually on ground level at the back of the house. Karl had a big living area, separate kitchen, one bedroom, and one bath. It was comfortably furnished had a lot of light coming in from windows in both the living area and bedroom.
Karl still had the knee brace, but he'd traded in his crutches for a cane. He thought he'd be able to get rid of the cane in a couple of weeks. We ate pizza, and we drank beer. Jonathan hadn't been too impressed with beer at the soccer team party but thought it tasted better that night. We talked about classes. We talked about the soccer team. We talked about the weather. We talked about some politics. About the only thing we didn't talk about was what happened up at West Point. Anytime the conversation strayed in that direction, Karl changed the subject. He was better than he'd been in Carterville at the soccer team bar-b-que, but he was still not the Karl I'd grown up with. His eyes remained sad even when his mouth was smiling.
The days flew by. We had a couple of soccer matches. Rookies like us didn't get a lot of playing time, but Coach Springer was careful to make certain we all played at least a little in each match. Soon it was time for that dreaded first round of exams. Trey and I were leaving chem lecture to head over to grab some lunch when one of the fellas who was in both my bio and chem labs tapped me on the shoulder.
I'd noticed this guy in my labs. He was also in both our bio and chem lectures, but he sat closer to the back of the class than Trey and I did. He was big. Maybe 6'4" or 6'5" and although he wore loose-fitting clothes it looked like his body was ripped. He had a big chest that tapered to a thin waist and massive arms. I guessed his weight at 220-230. He was ruggedly good looking with almost black curly hair, dark olive complexion, and distinctive light hazel eyes with a greenish cast. I also thought he might be a kindred spirit. I'd noticed in lab that he didn't pay much attention to the girls, but his eyes closely followed the movements of the hotter guys. Big pings on the gaydar.
"Excuse me. You're in my bio and chem labs, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I'm TJ Ladd. This is my roommate, Trey Arnold."
His big hands engulfed mine and Trey's. "Nice to meet ya. I'm Josh Locklear. I...well, I'm a little nervous about these tests coming up in bio and chem, and I...uh...I was wondering if you'd like to get together and review notes."
The big guy was actually blushing. Cute.
"Sure. Trey and I have been doing that as we go along, but one more point of view wouldn't hurt. What're you doing this evening?"
"Studying."
"Good. Why don't you come on over to our room?"
I could see the look of relief wash over his face. He seemed to relax. "That'd be great. I don't get out of practice until around six. Give me time to get cleaned up and catch some dinner. How's eight?"
"That works for us too. We've got practice also. We're on the soccer team."
"Football."
"What position?"
"Middle linebacker."
"Cool."
I told him where our room was. We bumped fists and parted ways.
On the way over to the Union Trey said, "Is that the guy you were telling me about? The one you think might be gay?"
"Yup."
"He's kinda hot in a macho way. We'd better hope he is gay. If he's not then the `Queers' Quarters' sign on our door is going to be a problem for him."
"Trust me. He's one of us."
A little before eight that evening Jonathan headed out the door of the suite saying that he was going to meet some guys from his accounting class to study for their upcoming exam. We spread our chemistry and biology notes out on the table in the suite's living area, propped the door open for Josh, and started studying.
He arrived at the door a few minutes later and saw us at the table.
"Hey, guys."
"Hey, Josh. Come on in."
He was about halfway in the door when he caught the "Queers' Quarters" sign on our door. He stopped short, looked at the sign, looked back at us, and then used his thumb to point at the sign with a questioning look on his face.
I smiled my best shit-eating grin. "Yup that's us. Gay and proud. You can leave the door open while we study if it makes you nervous or you think we might attack you behind closed doors, but if you close the door we give you our perverts' promise that we'll be on our best behavior."
He smiled; closed the door; came over to the table; put his books down; pulled one of the chairs around and straddled it backwards so his hands were resting on the back of the chair. "Guys, I think we need to have a little talk before studying. Is that sign for real?"
"Yup."
"Three of you are gay?"
"Yup."
"What about your fourth roommate. Don't these suites usually house four?"
"Yup. We told him the second day after he moved in. He couldn't deal with it and changed rooms. Now that you know about us, do you want to change study mates?"
He blushed and smiled again. "No, I think it'll be more fun studying with other gay guys."
I poked Trey in the ribs. "See, I told you he was one of us." I reached over and offered my palm to Josh for a high five.
Trey laughed. "Okay, so your gaydar works better than mine." He turned to Josh. "We're all high school buddies from Carterville. Where are you from, Josh?"
"I'm from Maxton. It's a little dinky place just off US 74 in Robeson County between Laurinburg and Lumberton."
"That's about five hours from here, right?"
"Yeah, just about. Where's Carterville?"
"About two hours north and west of here in Carter County. The closest big town is Asheville."
"How'd you guys end up here?"
"I got a soccer scholarship. Dufus here," I nodded my head toward Trey, "came along to cause trouble and give me grief. Actually, we liked the school, and when we talked with Coach Springer, it was clear that he didn't have a problem with having gay guys on the team. It was an easy choice. What about you?"
"About the same thing. I was recruited by a couple of other schools. When I came here to visit, they made a point of telling me that they accepted alternate life styles. They didn't know then that I'm gay, so it wasn't said to impress me. It was done to tell me that if I couldn't handle being on the same team with guys who were openly gay, then I'd better look to another program. They told me there'd been some trouble a couple of years ago with a real head case on the team who turned out to be a closet queen. I hear he beat up some gay guys and raped and killed another. They caught him before he could kill another gay kid. His trial's supposed to be coming up sometime next spring. The coaches and team are real careful about that now, and it turns out that our defensive coordinator, Matt Stevenson, is gay. He told all the new guys at the first meeting. Robeson County is a pretty red-necked homophobic area so I wasn't out at all in high school. I'm not out to many guys on the team here yet, but it's nice to know it won't be a problem when word gets around."
"Amen to that."
We spent the next half hour or so talking about our homes and families. Josh was amazed to hear about Coach's Cubs. Josh told us that he lived with his mother who was a deputy sheriff in Robeson County. His mom knew he was gay. He didn't say anything about a father so I figured he wasn't in the picture at all. We also found out that Josh was a Lumbee, a group of Native Americans that have been trying to get federal recognition for tribal status for almost a century. Their efforts had been blocked in Washington by a strange alliance between a series of strongly conservative U.S. Senators who didn't want more money going to social programs and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee who didn't want potential competition in the gambling casino business. The tribe is centered in the area around Lumberton. The Lumbees have intermarried with blacks and whites so many Lumbees have light eyes like Josh. Some scholars think the Lumbees are descendants of the so-called Lost Colony, the original English settlement in North Carolina near present-day Manteo, who were taken in by the natives and moved from the Outer Banks region to the Lumber River.
When we finally settled down to studying, it went well. Trey and I took good notes, but Josh's helped fill in a few of the gaps. Ours did the same thing for him. We knocked off the studying around eleven after agreeing to get together the next night over in Josh's dorm for another study session.
Jonathan came back to the room a couple of minutes after Josh left. We made some snacks, shot the breeze for a while, and then called it a night.
**********
Trey and I did pretty well on the biology and chemistry tests. Josh did okay, but not quite as well. He seemed to have a lot of smarts, but his high school hadn't prepared him as well as ours had. There was some really basic stuff in both biology and chemistry that Trey and I ended up explaining to him `cause he'd never had it before. We kept up the study group, and soon Trey and I thought of Josh as another friend. Trey kind of thought of Josh as a potential sex playmate for a while, but Josh informed us that he preferred smaller guys. That was cool with us.
The week before our fall break in mid-October I placed one of my frequent phone calls back home to Ryan. We exchanged emails and did a lot of IM messaging everyday, but I still liked to hear my brother's voice frequently so there were lots of phone calls too.
As soon as he got on the phone he told me about the big news from Carterville.
(To be continued)