Homefront

Dearest Readers!!!

Hey guys and gals! I'm sorry that it's been a while since y'all have read anything of mine, but I'm hoping that this makes up for it a little bit! It's a story that I started working on a WHILE ago that, last summer, finally came to life, and I am now proud to place it onto your virtual shelves next to Senator's Son, All Good Things..., The Prince, Paradise, and Fame.

For anyone who knows my other works, you will notice that my email address has changed AGAIN. It's dhthewriter@yahoo.com. Also, a while back, I deleted my yahoo! Group, but I've created another one. The address is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter. All my other stories will be there soon enough, as will all the chapters of Homefront as I publish them here, to Nifty.

I have never considered my stories erotic, but, in accordance with Nifty's request, I will say that if you're under the legal age in your area or are offended by homosexuals or homosexuality, please click the little "x" at the top (or the little red button in the upper left corner if you're on a mac.)

Happy Reading! David :)

Homefront Prologue

Part I - Matt

The family of Daniel Landry Sr., along with a few other people whose presence Dan had requested, had assembled at the Law Offices of Jim Bentley for the opening of his will. As he'd requested, they waited ten days before assembling to break the seal that he'd placed on the document himself and to divide up an estate that was valued at around 60 million dollars. His family was sitting around a long conference table, quietly waiting on everything to start, while friends and a couple of others were seated in chairs around the wall.

To the right side of the head of the table was Dan's son, Daniel Landry, Jr., or Junior as he was known to those close to the family. Next to him was his wife, Miranda, and their twin sons, Rhett and Steven. Dressed in very casual clothing, the adults looked more like they were ready to go on vacation than to be respectful of the man that had only days before, been fighting for every single breath he took. The kids sat there, playing with the Blackberrys that their father had purchased for them at some point between the funeral and that otherwise blissful Tuesday morning in June, 2007.

At the far end of the table was Dan's sister, Heloise, and husband number five, George. They were an odd couple of sorts, as Heloise was a good twenty years his senior. Her bright red hair stood out as she wore some hideous blouse that was a cream color with red-brown flowers all over it. His salt-and-pepper hair was almost seemed like a complement to the black suit that he'd worn that day. No one could figure out what he saw in her, but everyone knew what she saw in him. He had money, and money, in her opinion, was paramount to everything else.

On the left side of the table, close to the head, was Dan's daughter, Linda Harper. Two seats away from her was her husband, Ron, and between them was their only child, a son they'd named after their fathers, Matthew Daniel. Being that Ron had come from work and that he was planning to go back, he was dressed in a nice, button down shirt and some Carhartt pants. Linda had a couple of patients to see that afternoon, and, thusly, was dressed as a doctor should dress. Matthew was in jeans, like his cousins, but also wore a nice, button-down shirt and some respectable shoes. Unlike the two of them, though, Matthew had been fighting all morning with his emotions. At one point, he'd gotten angry, but then he'd gotten sad. In that moment, he was sort of just there, numb and pensive, sitting looking toward the palm of his hands.

Behind them were sitting a few other people that had always been very important to Dan. Linda's best friend, Becky, was sitting just behind her, there more to support the Harpers than anything else. She'd never been able to stand Junior or his people, and Heloise had always treated her as though she were beneath her. Linda and her parents, Dan and his wife Virginia, who'd passed away years before, made her feel like she was their other daughter. Her son, Seth, who was more like a brother than just Matt's best friend, was treated like a grandson by Dan, who'd known Becky's dad from their days as Marines fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Seth himself was sitting beside her, right behind Matt. His father, Jimmy, who was also Dan's attorney and had been for years, was out of the room getting things ready for the morning.

There were several representatives from Parsons University that were there as well. Parsons, the university around which the town of Eudora, Mississippi, itself was built, had always been important to Dan. It's where four generations of men had gone to college before he got home from the War and went through college and Law School. It was where both of his children had gone, as well as Ron. Matt was between his junior and senior years. Miranda had gone to East Mississippi University, Parsons' arch rival in all academic and athletic circles, which was the first thing that Dan had always held against her. Their kids had chosen to go to Auburn, for some reason that escaped the most loyal Patriots fans.

The current mayor of Eudora was also there, as were the Chief of Police and one of the judges with whom Dan had served in the 1980s. They were there more as witnesses to the goings on than anything else.

At 11:03, on the nose, Jimmy walked into the room carrying a huge stack of papers. One of his assistants came into the room and fired up a computer as Jimmy got things started. "Thank you all for coming. Mr. Landry requested this meeting prior to his death and that all of the people mentioned in his will be present at the proceedings. I knew a few of you have come a little ways to get here, and I appreciate your cooperation. Before we begin today, I would like to again express my condolences for your loss. Mr. Landry was always a powerful man, and I had immense respect for him both as a jurist and as a human being.

"Mr. Landry," Jimmy continued, "recorded a video for you all several months ago. He said that there were some things that he needed to say to each of you, but he didn't want to say them until after he... until after he passed." Jimmy, who'd joined the law firm of Landry and Smith after finishing law school, had inherited half the firm from in his father-in-law's will some time before. When Dan retired, he sold the remaining half to Jimmy, under the instructions that he would immediately change the name, a stipulation with which he complied. Dan and Bill, Becky's father, had taught him a lot of things about the law, lessons that he'd always carried with him.

"Ready," his assistant said after a moment. Jimmy then walked around the left side of the table to grab a remote for the projector as the assistant lowered the screen onto which the recording would be broadcast. At first it was a blue screen, and then showed the desktop of the computer to which it was connected. The media player was up and ready, but the recording hadn't yet started.

"Are there any questions?" Jimmy asked. When there was no response, Jimmy nodded his head and the assistant started the video.

"Well," Dan said through the recording. His voice was still deep and powerful, just as Matt had always remembered it. "I guess if y'all are watching this that it means that I have passed. I have recorded this video for two reasons. The first is so that I can say some things that you all need to hear right now, and the second is to give instructions on how the estate is to be divided among you.

"To start off, I would like to say that I have lived a long life. These eighty-four years have been filled with good times and bad, memories, some of which I will carry to my grave. For everything that I've done, I have but one regret, that I didn't listen to the innocent wisdom of a five-year-old boy who, years ago, told me that I needed to quit smoking. He said that it was a nasty habit that would one day kill me, and the mass that has fused into the wall of my left lung is proof that he was right," Dan said as Matt could remember the day that he came home from school, telling his grandfather about what he'd learned that day about the dangers of smoking. "Kid," Dan said a second later, making Matthew look up at the screen, "I should have listened to you, and I'm sorry for not doing better with it." "Kid" was the name that Dan had given him when he was born. Matt was the first of Dan's three grandchildren, preceding his cousins by two years. Rhett and Steven didn't have nicknames, though, but Seth was called "Boy".

"So let's get this started," Dan mentioned again on the screen before taking a sheet of paper from which he would be reading directly for a moment. "My name is Daniel Cornelius Landry, Sr., and I have created this video, with the assistance of Jimmy Bentley, as my Last Will and Testament. Being of sound mind, and relatively sound body, I am recording this on Monday, the twelfth day of March, 2007.

"To my sister, Heloise Landry-Bates-Morrison-Jenkins-Reynolds-Hoover and her husband, George Hoover. Sister," he said, putting the paper down and looking at the camera, "in these past few years since Virginia passed, you and I haven't spoken often. For that, I am sorry. I promised father, when he died, that I would take care of you, and from that point, I have been so angry with you that I couldn't bear to see you, to converse with you, or to have anything to do with you, and in that, I have not fulfilled my promise to him. With that, though, you never have really done anything to help yourself. For years, every time I turned around, you were there, wanting something, asking for something, and while I helped you out as much as I could, I find myself torn at this moment. I know that if I leave you money, that you blow through it, just as you've always done. So with that, I will comply with Dad's request, and I will continue to help you out, even though I honestly don't think you deserve it. In the will, I have instructed the trustee of my living trust, to pay off any mortgages that you currently have outstanding. You will provide him, within ten days, a statement from your mortgage holder showing a payoff balance. He will then secure a cashier's check for the balance and send it directly to the lender. This way, I can absolve myself of whatever guilt I have and keep you from having the cash in your hands directly.

"To my son, Daniel Landry, Jr. Son, I have tried my best in life to teach you things that will help you succeed, but you, like your aunt, have taken every opportunity afforded you in life and squandered it away. I am proud of how hard you worked toward your education, but there's little more than that. You chose a partner that only married you, and has only stayed with you, for this very day," Dan noted as everyone looked at Miranda and Junior, both of whom were fuming at the comment. "But you are my son, and I've decided to leave the two of you a cash sum totally one million dollars. Do with it what you want to, but keep in mind that it's the very last money that you will ever get from me. Miranda... It's common knowledge that I've never liked you, but I have tolerated you for my son's sake. I think it's horrible how you've treated him over the years, as it was painfully obvious from the first time we met that you were only after him for what you thought you could get out of him and out of our family. I always felt that he deserved better than you, to be completely honest, but you did give him two sons, and hopefully he'll do good by them.

"To my grandsons, Rhett and Steven Landry. Guys, I hate the fact that I didn't get to know you two better. I'm sure that there are things that I could have learned from you two, and I know that there are things that you could have learned from me. It was your parents' decision, though, to keep y'all away when you were younger, and there's not much I can do about that now. I leave to y'all, though, two trust accounts that were opened when you were born. Each was opened with $100,000 dollars, and they've not been touched, so the interest should be a nice little chunk of change for the two of you to get started in life once you finish college. Don't waste it, though, would be my final advice to you. Sure, spend some of it on yourself, but invest it in something worthwhile to help it grow a bit more." On the video, Dan took a deep breath.

"Several years ago, I created a scholarship at Parsons to help servicemen and women to help finance their education after getting out of whatever branch they were in. Against my wishes, the school called it the Daniel Landry Award for Service to America. I am honored by it, though, and I leave the school a total of $5,000,000 dollars to help expand the program that, to date, has helped nearly 1,000 young men and women finance their educations. I hope that it will be used to help more people, especially those who are coming home from fighting wars abroad with which I can honestly say I do not agree. This isn't the time to express my political views, though.

"To my goddaughter, Rebecca Bentley. Becky, I am assuming that, in the days since my passing, you have been there a lot for Linda and Ron. I would like to take this moment to thank you very much. I would also like to leave you a gift of $100,000 dollars, which is to be used however you see fit. I think, though, that you and your husband need to take a long, romantic vacation to someplace tropical, have a couple of drinks in my memory, and then do whatever it is the two of you do when Seth's not around to screw it up," he smiled as Becky looked at Seth, patting his leg for a moment as both of them understood Dan's joke.

"And speaking of my fourth grandson... Boy. I respect you more than you will ever know. You have a very kind soul and a loving, generous heart. While most people would have considered you the kind of guy that would be all about himself, it does me good to know that you have been willing, on more than one occasion, to go out into the world and help people for the sake of helping people." Dan smiled. "I know that people have told you this before, but you are exactly like your grandfather in so many ways. With all this being said, I would like to make a couple of gifts to you as well. First, there is a building on the Square that your grandfather owned for the longest time but lost to me in a poker bet. It's the building right next to the EudoraBank that's got the sports store in it. I am leaving you that building, to honor your grandfather more than anything else. I'm also leaving you $250,000, cash. The stipulation, though, is that you take Matt away from Eudora for a couple of weeks. And while you're gone, make sure he gets laid!" Dan joked as Seth reached up and patted Matt's shoulder. Matt was smiling a little bit at that point, for it was almost like his grandfather was right there, being as pervy as he'd always been.

"To my daughter, Linda Harper. To make things fair between you and your brother, I am leaving you, Princess, a million dollars. The thing about it is, though, that I want you to go out, as soon as the check clears, and buy yourself a new car. That Volvo you've been driving since Matt was in Pampers needs to be retired. Maybe sell it to somebody that can restore and get some more use out of it, but get rid of it. Ron, make sure she gets something that's befitting a doctor of her caliber and that's nothing practical. I'm thinking something like a huge SUV.

"And speaking of Ron... Unlike my other child-in-law, I have the most respect for you. I remember the day we met, you were a student at Parsons, struggling to make ends meet, and you didn't have the money to pay rent on time. Rather than coming in to ask for an extension, though, you came to me, explained the situation, and then asked for a job to help pay off your obligation to me. Never before that and then never after that have I experienced a tenant asking me for a job rather than an extension. That's why I hired you, and that's why I had no problem when you and Linda wanted to start dating. You're a hard worker and a great man, Ron, and I am honored that you came into my life. Princess," he said, speaking to Linda directly, "I was a little upset when you came to me and said that you didn't want to be a lawyer. I'd always assumed that, of my two children, you would be the one to follow in my footsteps. You became an amazing doctor, though, honey, and none of the old men at the VFW can hold a candle to me when it comes to the amazing things that our children had done. You worked to pay for your own education; you opened your own practice using a small building that you made me rent to you for market price; you, with Ron's help, have raised an amazing son who, to this day, makes me just as proud as you always have." He stopped for a second to catch his composure before continuing. Something about talking about Linda and Matt was making him more emotional than he normally was.

"That still leaves, though, the bulk of my estate. Included in it are my home on South Cossart, the location from which I'm recording this video today, my residential property management company, Landry Properties LLC, my construction company, Landry Construction LLC, and my commercial property company, Landry Commercial LLC." Dan smiled. "I got real original with the names, didn't I?" he laughed as everyone smiled. "The remainder of my estate, though, I leave to my grandson, Matthew Daniel Harper. All the money, the insurance policies that are in both my name and the name of my late wife Virginia, all the offices, apartments, rental homes, my home and all its contents, including the garage and all its contents, all the strip malls, and all the raw property that has yet to be developed or preserved.

"Kid," he continued, "I can think of no better person than you to leave all this to. You amaze me at every turn, and I know that you will know what to do with it all. I believe that you, your father, and your mother, will continue to make our family name bling with excellence and quality, as it always has. Like your mother, though, that car's got to go. I know you bought it yourself, with money that you saved working during high school, but it's 2007, and you've got money. Buy yourself something nice."

Dan stopped again as Matt looked around to see that all the eyes in the room were on him. Jimmy and Ron had been the only two people at that point who knew what the codicils of the trust contained, but neither of them had said anything about it. Junior was looking as though he could come right across and take him out, for he, along with his wife and kids, felt that the lion's share of the estate should go to them because they shared the man's name. They knew, though, that there was nothing they could do, as Dan was a brilliant attorney who knew what he was doing when he set up the living trust that the will simply dissolved. What they didn't know, though, was that Matt would have given it all up if there was any way in the world that it could bring that old man back for just one more day.

For Matt, Dan had been more than he was to anyone else. Not even his parents could understand the bond that existed between Matt and the man he called `Pa'. It was that superhero of a man who'd taught Matt how to fish and hunt, at the same time how to respect nature for its own sake. He'd taught Matt that everyone was equal, regardless of any difference they might have with Matt. He let Matt develop his own ideas, though, on every single topic. Dan openly respected his religious views, and defended his rights as a gay man in the South. It was Dan that told him never to let anyone bring him down, for usually those people who had a problem with his sexuality were those who weren't yet comfortable enough in theirs.

In the video, Dan spoke to Matt directly longer than he had anyone else. He thanked him for allowing him to be a part of his life; he thanked him for a time, just after Virginia passed away when Matt was six or so, when part of his nightly routine included showering, brushing his teeth, and calling Pa to make sure that he'd done the same. He fondly recalled when Matt told him, after spending a day at work when he was a judge in Welty County's criminal court, that the law was a "flaming pile of shit", a sentiment with which he agreed to that day. He was honored that Matt felt comfortable enough to come out to him when he was a freshman in high school and that Matt required all the people he dated to meet him and attain his approval.

As the video finished, the assistant stopped playback and raised the screen as Jimmy turned the projector off. With silence in the room, Jimmy walked back to the head of the table and distributed paperwork to all those that were present. Junior and his crew left immediately, as did Heloise and George. The people from the University left a moment later, after talking to those who remained for a moment.

Almost with reluctance, they had to go about their days. Becky had a class to teach on the campus of Parsons; Linda had to go into her office. Matt and Ron stayed behind for a moment, though, as there were questions that Ron had to ask in an effort to help Matt get through everything from a legal perspective. Seth stood with Matt as the latter of the two tried to concentrate on what was being said.

When all was done, Matt went out into the lobby with Seth while they waited on Ron and Jimmy, who were a couple of minutes behind them. They made plans that night before Matt and Ron went to lunch to talk about a lot of things that were on his mind. That night, as expected, Seth and Matt drank themselves into oblivion. Matt had a lot that he didn't want on his mind, and Seth was the kind of friend that went along with it so that Matt wouldn't be in the state of numbness by himself.

Matt spent the rest of the week doing paperwork, and the rest of the month was spent doing as little as humanly possible. After the Fourth of July, Matt went to work, learning the businesses that he'd inherited. He knew his father's side well enough, having worked with him off and on over the years. The construction company, though, was almost completely foreign to him. Derek, his father's counterpart, showed him how the business itself was run before Matt decided to go out onto a job site and really get a feel for the business. He'd decided to do that after asking himself what Dan would have done in the same situation.

For the rest of July, while Seth was in class, Matt spent his days in the sun, working his fingers to the bone. It felt good, though. The physical labor was doing wonders for both his body and his soul.

By the time school started back, though, in August, Matt decided that he wanted some time off. After a meeting with major professor in the Music Department and his minor professor, in Spanish, he withdrew from all his classes, under the assumption that, in a year, he would return to the grind of school. His parents were livid when they found out. Ron wasn't as much as Linda, but once they calmed down and gave him a chance to explain himself they understood that he was doing what he had to do for himself.

Rather than going back to work for one of his own companies, though, he made a connection with an organization that placed volunteer workers in underprivileged communities around the globe. Given that he spoke Spanish well enough, they agreed to place him in a small town in northern Peru, and one a sweltering hot day in the middle of August, he arrived in the town Aguilas and was greeted by one of the workers that he'd be replacing. Of the fifteen workers from around North America and Europe, he was the only one who spoke Spanish at his arrival, and while most of the people there came from money, he was the only one who didn't flaunt it by wearing clothes that people in the village couldn't even begin to afford.

He outlasted all of the others, though, to become a fixture as the whitest person in the village occupied mostly by people who could trace their lineage to the Incas rather than the Spanish. He learned a few words in Quechua, but it was only enough to survive and to know when someone was talking about him. He didn't go home from Christmas, but when his 22nd birthday rolled around the next March, he was surprised to find, on the bus that ran through the village once a week, his best friend. Seth explained that he could only stay a week, but that there was no way he was going to let Matt spend his birthday alone. The two had never been apart on either of their birthdays, and Seth was determined not to let their twenty-second ones be the first. Being that their birthdays fell within a week of each other's, it made things a lot easier for their mothers, who only had to plan one party for both of their kids growing up.

Before he left the next week, Seth had Matt promise that he would be home in time for graduation, and, on the first of May, 2008, he took the bus back to Lima and then took a plane back home. Before he left, though, he had his mother wire some money that he then gave, in total, to the elders of the town. It was as a `thank you' for allowing him to spend so much time in their village, for it gave him enough time and energy to get his head right, something that he needed in order to return home and face all that he'd left behind.

Seth picked him up from the airport in Memphis that evening, driving back down I-55 to Highway 6 and then east until they came into Eudora. Rather than going back to his condo, though, Seth drove them to Wellsgate, the neighborhood on the western side of town where they'd both grown up. Pulling into Matt's driveway, Seth assured him that there was nothing planned, and that the parents hadn't been informed of his return. Being that it was a Thursday night, though, both of their parents were no doubt gathered around the table in the kitchen, playing cards as they'd done since Seth and Matt were little.

Quietly they climbed up the stairs that led to the back deck. Seth opened the door and walked inside. "OTHERMOM!" he screamed, calling Linda, whom he could hear in the kitchen.

"WHAT?!?" she jokingly asked as she came into living room from the kitchen and saw Matt standing there. "My baby!" she exclaimed as Matt smiled and as she wrapped her arms around him. Becky followed, smiling as she wrapped her arms around Seth's waist and as he put his arms across her shoulders. Ron followed Linda with hugs before Becky got into the mix and hugged the man who called her `Othermom'.

The card game ended right then and there as they sat around for hours just talking. Becky and Jimmy just before one in the morning; Seth left at two. Linda and Matt stayed up until he could no longer hold his eyes open; Ron had gone to bed at around three, but they were up until five.

The following Saturday, Seth had made him promise to go out with him. It had been over a year since they'd done anything like that, since before Dan had informed Matt of his illness. Matt had put his social life on hold to help care for him, against Dan's wishes. It was worth it, though, as Matt grew to realize, for even though he was quickly deteriorating, Matt got to spend some time with the greatest man in the world.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Part II – Nick

Like so many people, like so many New Yorkers, Nick Russo's life was forever changed on 11 September 2001. A senior in high school, he woke that morning to find that his mother had already left for work as the executive secretary to the Regional Manager for HiTelCo's Northeastern region, based in the City that Never Sleeps. As usual, he fixed himself a bowl of cereal and then took a shower. Dressing in the blue pants and white dress shirt that he wore every day to St. Xavier Catholic High School in Brooklyn, he spoke to his mother on the phone for a moment before walking out the door. Everything seemed OK, as she was, as always, making sure that he was actually going to school rather than just skipping, as he'd done the previous year, almost to the point where he wasn't invited back for his final year of study.

Walking outside, into one of the most beautiful days he could remember in a while, his best friend, Henry Johnson was waiting for him.

"You talk to your mom?" Henry asked as they started walking toward the school.

"A few minutes ago," Nick answered.

"Why don't we go back up to your place?"

"I can't Henry. My mom said that if I get caught skipping again, she's gonna ship me off to Mississippi to live with my grandmother."

"She can't do that!" Henry insisted.

"You know my mom," Nick insisted as they continued walking.

"True."

"And you've never met my grandmother," he went on.

"True, true," he told him.

They arrived a few minutes later and walked into the high school. It was just after 8:30 in the morning and the two of them, along with thirty other students, sat in their homeroom class as the teacher struggled to call their names over the volume they were creating.

At 8:47, one of the nuns that worked at the school came into the room and silenced them with just a look. "Nicholas Russo. Come with me..." she explained as Nick stood and walked toward her. They walked out of the room and to the office, which, in his case, was right across the hall. She handed him the telephone.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Nick... Nicky..." his mom called, crying.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

"Nicky. I love you. I just wanted to call you and tell you that..." she said through her tears. "You are my world, and I never want you to forget that."

"What's going on, Mom?"

"Nick. I'm not going to make it home, and I just wanted to tell you that I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom," Nick said as he looked at the TV in the office, tuned to local news, as he saw flames billowing from the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

"Please. Please be a good boy, and don't give anyone any problems. OK?"

"OK, Mom," he told her as the line cut. "Mom? Mom!" he called into the phone. One of the nuns standing in the office took the phone from his hand as his eyes were transfixed on the TV screen, watching the smoke that appeared to be coming from just a few floors below where his mother worked.

"Is there someone we can call for you?" another of the nuns asked him.

"Ma...My aunt, Janelle..." Nick said, almost in a whisper.

"What's the number?" the lady who took the phone from him asked.

"601-555-2918," he said, somehow remembering the number that he had to look up every single time when he was at home.

As they only kid at the school with a parent that worked in the WTC, he was allowed to stand there in the office and watch the news as it came in. The nuns and the secretary, trying the number several times, couldn't reach her. As the North Tower fell, though, so did their hearts, for this young man that stood before them. They all knew his situation, that he was the only child of a single mother and that, other than this aunt they couldn't reach, they knew of no other family members to contact on his behalf.

"Are you alright?" they asked him after a moment of silence.

"I don't know," he responded. "I almost skipped today," he told them, knowing that if he had, he would have missed hearing his mothers for the last time.

"St. Xavier," the secretary answered after the phone rang. "Yes. He's right here," she said, inviting Nick to sit at her desk to talk to whomever was calling.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Sweetie," Janelle said to him, obviously crying. "Are you OK?"

"I... um... I don't know..." he said.

"OK. I'm coming up there, but they've cancelled flights, so I've got to drive. Promise me that you will go straight home after school. OK?"

"OK," Nick responded.

"I love you, Nick."

"Love you, too, J," Nick said as the both hung up their phones. "My aunt is on the way up..."

"Sister," the secretary asked. "Grab Henry Johnson from class and have him come up. I'm going to call Mrs. Johnson and have her come pick the boys up and take Nick home."

"Alright," the nun said as she looked up to see where Henry was.

"Mr. Malia... Spanish II," Nick told the nun. Looking at the secretary, "We have the same schedule." Nick stood only to realize that his legs were about to give out from under him. "Shit..." he said, defying the rule against swearing and not thinking twice about it. Sitting back down at the desk, he put his face in his hands and started to cry. "This isn't happening. This can't be happening. Why her? She was the nicest lady in the world, and I gave her hell as often as I could. God!" he started to cry. "Why?" he said as Henry came into the office. He took one look at the TV screen and knew what was going on.

"Nick?" he said as he walked past the nuns, to his friend's side.

"My mom... My mom was calling..." Nick cried. "She was calling to tell me that she loved me... Who would do this?" he asked, wondering the same thing as every single other New Yorker, American, and citizen of the world.

"It's gonna be OK, man," Henry told him. "Is it OK if I call my Mom and get her to come and get us?" he asked the secretary.

"She's on her way," the secretary told her.

"Um... his aunt..."

"She's coming," Nick said as he stopped crying for a second, to wipe his eyes. "She's driving up..."

"OK."

"My mom..." Nick cried as he sat there. "Why?" he asked as he cried for the hour that it took for Henry's mother to get to the school because of traffic.

Ms. Johnson ran in, almost frantically. She quickly signed papers that the office staff had prepared for her to check the boys out. As they walked out of the school, Nick stepped out with them on either side.

"We need to go to my house," Nick told them. "My aunt's on her way up. She's gonna call me I guess."

"Good..." Mrs. Johnson said. "We'll go over there and I'll start working on some food.

Mrs. Johnson, herself a professional chef, always used food as a means to satisfy a soul in need of comforting. More than half a day later, Janelle arrived at his apartment to find that it was full of people: neighbors, friends, even a guy he'd been known to hang out on occasion. Everyone cleared a path between them, though, as they grasped each other and allowed their mutual emotion to flow freely. It was the first time that day for either of them. People stayed that night at the apartment, standing vigil and hoping that Gina would be found among survivors. Even if she was hurt, she was still alive.

A week later, they found her body among the rubble. Nick cried and cried, throwing up until there was nothing left. At just three weeks shy of his 18th birthday, he was officially an orphan. A few days later, after his mother's cremation, he packed his things and, instead of returning to school, left New York in the passenger seat of his aunt's car. They drove through central and western Pennsylvania and then West Virginia before coming to Kentucky and Tennessee. At Knoxville, they took I-40 to Memphis and then I-55 to Jackson, where his aunt lived with her daughter, Jenny, who was a few years younger than Nick.

She'd always thought of him as a brother, especially when he would visit over the summers or when she would go up there. He was so cool just by the way he was. When he got there, there was no walking on eggshells around him, at least for her. She refused to believe that he was anyone other than the man she'd always known him to be. Even though, on the drive down, the two had discussed his schooling options and had decided that a GED would be the way to go, at least for him, Jenny was the one who made him sit and study, even if he didn't want to. She made him get out and go to football games with her on Friday nights and insisted that he chaperone parties that she hosted on Saturday nights when her mother was out of town. She had such influence over her friends that they eventually became his, too, even if they were all younger.

In December, when he got his GED scores, he was happy that, in the eyes of the State of Mississippi he was no longer required to attend school. He found a job working for a small, local construction company, but it was just temporary, until he got well enough in the head to decide what he wanted to do with his life. His grades, even before he got his GED, weren't the best, so he assumed that college, especially one like Parsons of East Mississippi, would laugh at him behind his back.

Then one day, out of the blue, he was driving home from work and got rearended by a guy that, as he looked in the mirror before climbing out. Dude was hot. He was tall and muscular, and wearing a uniform that almost clung to his body. From the way of things, he looked like a Marine.

"Are you OK?" the man asked as Nick climbed out of the car.

"Yea, dude. You?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I was reaching for my cell phone and didn't notice that you'd applied the breaks. I'll make sure that I pay to have your car fixed and all," he offered as he called 9-1-1 to report the accident. In just a moment, the police arrived. They wrote up their report and gave cards to each of the guys. After they left, after having determined that both of their cars were still OK to drive, the guy walked up to Nick. "If there's anything you need from me, please let me know," he said as he handed Nick a card. Nick looked at the card.

"Mario Daniels?"

"Yes sir," the man answered with a smile to Nick as they shook hands. Nick climbed back into his car a moment later and took off as soon as traffic was clear. When he got home, he looked at the card as he took it from his pocket. It wasn't just a casual glance, though. This guy wasn't just a Marine, he was a recruiter with a local office. After his shower, he walked back into the room that had become his since moving to Mississippi. As he pulled a pair of boxers onto his body, he noticed the logo on the card. The globe and anchor, with the eagle on top.

The next day, he called into work and went into the office to talk to Mario. He left a couple of hours later, firm in the decision that he was going to join up, that he was going to be one of the few and the proud. He passionately told his aunt about it that night. She forbade him; he explained that it was the first thing that felt right in a long time.

"Maybe," she said. "Maybe it's just me, but I'm not ready to lose your mother AND you to those people!" She looked at him. "Nick. I have always loved you more than life, but I can't bury both of you."

"I will be fine..."

"You don't know that!" she said. "What if they invade Afghanistan? What if you're sent?"

"Janelle. For months, I've been going around, wondering about my life, and this is the closest thing to right that I've experienced in a long time. I need to do this for me, and I promise you that I will do everything in my power to come home if I do go overseas."

She looked in his eyes. "I will support you, with whatever decision you make, but I want you to think...and I mean really, really think about it... for a week... before you do anything." She started to cry. "And I swear to you that if you do let yourself get hurt, I will channel all the energy I have in my body. I will get a ouija board, and I will summon your spirit and give you five hundred kinds of hell!"

"I love you, Janelle," he said as he wrapped his arms around her.

He complied with her request and waited a week, but his passion was just as strong, strong enough to call the recruiter and see what he had to do to sign up. Mario was eager to get him in, so he took papers to his house. Janelle didn't like it, one bit, but she recognized that it was something that he had to do for him, and he was more important, in that moment, than what she thought of the situation. By March of 2002, he was leaving Jackson for Parris Island. A few weeks later, he was graduating from basic training.

He was a different person, filled to the brim with confidence. His smile was wide and full, just like his uniform. The physical training he'd endured had made sure that his uniform fit him perfectly. After a couple of weeks at home, Nick went to Camp Pendleton for additional training and, as assumed, was sent to Afghanistan.

He got home in the early part of 2004, after having been in Afghanistan for nearly a year and a half. He was stationed in San Diego for a while, mostly doing the work of grunts until, in 2006, he was transferred to a different unit that was to be deployed in Iraq during the troop surge of 2007. It was while in that unit that he met Corey O'Neil, a man that, for whatever reason, could force him to lose all concentration on anything and everything else.

Corey was average height and average build, but he had this tongue and this confidence that oozed from every pore on his body. He was from Rhode Island, but he didn't sound like it. The whole `pahk the cah' mode of speech had, for some reason, passed write over him. There was no indication in Nick's mind that he was anything other than straight as a bored. Come to find out, though, there was a side of Corey that no one really knew. He could easily swing both ways, and on the night before they left for Iraq, Nick found out just what it was like to have another Marine in the Biblical sense.

When they got to Iraq, there were assigned to the same convertible housing unit, and, on many a night, they quietly, carnally enjoyed each other at the same time as they got to know each other as friends. On the night of the 11th of March, 2008, a Sunday night that, like so many others, was hot as fuck, the two got back to the base after patrols and took a quick shower. They returned to their unit, and Nick, feeling especially in a way, for the first time exerted control of this guy who had become more than just a fuck buddy but rather a friend, a man in whom he had the most respect as a person. It was, by far, the most passionate night between them, and after things were over, they both slept better than peacefully.

The next morning, they went to breakfast and then out on their regular patrol of a neighborhood in central Baghdad. As usual, there were some kids playing soccer in an empty lot and an old man sitting in a decrepit old chair in front of his house, reading from a worn Koran. A few women of varying ages averted their eyes as the men walked past them. It was just after they passed that Nick noticed something. It was just a sparkle, but it wasn't right. There was something in the air that confirmed his suspicion.

From a third story window, there was a sniper who'd lined Nick into his sights, but as the first sound of his shot came, Nick and Corey both jumped toward safety. The bullet hit Nick's thigh, and he screamed out in pain as Corey stood and figured out where the shot had come from. He fired repeatedly, and the sniper fired back at the two of them. Other Marines joined them in a second, most of them firing as two of them dragged Nick to safety. As they called for more support, including a corpsman, Nick watched as the sniper hit Corey. The man, who'd he'd determined could have otherwise existed in his dreams, fell to the ground.

Everything around him slowed to a snail's pace. In something similar to what one might see in the Matrix or something, all as he could see was Corey slowly falling to the ground. A second later, another Marine shot the sniper from the window, and all Nick could think about was getting to Corey. He pulled himself onto his good leg and, for lack of better phrasing, hobbled over to Corey.

"Come on, man," Nick said as he fell onto the dusty street beside him. "Be strong. Pull through." Corey looked at him, the sign of death in his eyes as he tried to smile. "Remember. When we get home, we're going to Giovanni's in Brooklyn for a slice. That way, you'll never brag about that shit y'all got in Provi," Nick told him.

Corey, fading faster and faster with each passing second, was unable to speak. His lips slowly moved, though, as Corey mouthed `I love you'.

"Corey!" Nick screamed as Corey's eyes slowly closed. "NO!!!" he shouted loudly, and Corey's pulse was gone a second later.

Nick was numb. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. There were two people that he'd felt such emotion for, the other was his mother. Medics arrived a moment later, moving Nick out of the way to get his patched up enough to transport. Corey's body was prepared for transport as well, all as Nick watched them zip the bag in which he'd be carried home.

Nick didn't remember much after that for a couple of days, though. The shock from being shot cause him to black out on the way back to the base hospital. Pain meds were administered on the scene, and stitches were used to fix the holes that two bullets had left in him. He came to once, but he was so out of it that he quickly fell asleep. He was transferred to a hospital in Kuwait for a day, where he came to just long enough to call Janelle, who was more than happy to hear his voice. Two more days passed, and he found himself arriving at Fort Baur Naval Station in Paradise, Alabama. He went through examination after examination, and at the end of the day, Janelle, who'd been driven down that morning, was waiting on him.

"I promised I'd come home!" he tried to smile through the pain medication-induced haze as she walked to the side of his bed, crying as she took his right hand and squeezed.

Several weeks passed as he got out of the hospital, went home, and started seeing a counselor at the VA hospital in Jackson. By the end of April, the stitches had come out, and he was able to move around a little bit on his own. Through his physical recovery, though, the emotional toll that that Monday morning had taken on him was put on the back burner, and despite her best efforts, it took her powers of persuasion, namely guilt, to convince him on the first Saturday in May to put on a pair of jeans and a nice shirt and go out with her for a night on the town. He didn't agree until the morning they were to go, though, and it was only because, as they walked around the mall, as had become their thing three or four times a week to help Nick get his strength up, she wouldn't let it go.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Chapter 1

Matt spent his first week at home getting reacquainted with the town where he'd grown up. There were a few new businesses and places around, but, for the most part, it was the same place he'd left. The Courthouse still majestically sat on the Square, surrounded by businesses, institutions that Matt could vividly remember vividly from his youth into his adulthood. All the ladies that worked for his dad and Derek were happy that he had made it home safely, just as his mother had been. All the men were as well, but few were as vocal as the ladies.

He spent one day on the campus of Parsons, visiting professors in both his major department, the Department of Music, as well as his minor department, Spanish. Dr. Phillips was happy that he'd returned, for it meant that he'd have another senior on the Choir in the fall. Seniors were always important for the group, as they helped acclimate the incoming Freshmen to the way things were done. Of course, to visit friends that he'd made over the years was also a good thing, for it allowed him to connect with those people who had insisted the choir perform at Dan's funeral and leave Matt's spot in the section of tenors open to pay homage to him and to the family. His meeting in the Spanish department didn't go as well, though, as his minor professor wasn't as convinced that spending a year in Latin America had improved his accent all that much. In fact, Dr. Martinez even commented that it sounded as though it had gotten a little worse, what with the mix of a few Quechua words that had come into his vocabulary. The two left in agreement, though, that the fall would have him realizing the completion of that part of his matriculation, leaving him the spring of '09 to explore nothing but music. Nothing regarding his schedule for the fall, though, was decided about his schedule, though. That would be saved for a summer meeting at some point after the department of music returned from their collective summer vacation.

On Friday of that week, after Seth finished the very last exam of his college career, he and Matt went to lunch at a nice little sandwich shop just off the Square that had opened in Matt's absence. Called Kev's, it was filled that afternoon, with all kinds of people, from students to faculty from the university alongside locals whose professions obviously ranged from day laborers to judges. A couple of people that Matt hadn't seen that knew Dan were there and greeted him, taking a moment to talk with him about how he was doing and how Peru had been. For the most part, though, it was just polite conversation among neighbors.

As Matt and Seth sat at a table, they quickly ordered two teas from a waitress that had brought them their menus after they'd assumed their positions. Seth quickly ordered a Patriot, a sandwich with slices from a prime rib roast cooked medium rare and a blue cheese sauce on a Kaiser roll. Matt looked over it only to end up ordering a turkey and cheese on a pumpernickel roll and a side of homemade potato chips.

"So I'm sorry I haven't been around a lot this week," Seth said.

"You've been studying for exams," Matt scoffed. "There's no need to apologize."

"Still, though," Seth said. "Since they're over, and all I've got to do is find out if I graduate next weekend or not, you wanna go out tonight?"

"Your usual place?" Matt inquired.

"I'm sure we'll end up there!" Seth said.

It had been a year since their last excursion. On Seth's 21st Birthday, the two had decided to go to this place called "Blind Jim's", a little bar right off the Square on the corner of South Cossart and Harrison. Because of Dan's infirmity, they'd only gone to the place, together, once, yet they still referred to it as "The Usual" because it had become a favorite haunt for Seth and a few of their mutual friends from both high school and college in the year and a couple of months since then.

After lunch, both guys had a few things to do before they could even consider starting to get ready for the evening. Seth had some work to do for his dad, and after he got his bi-weekly paycheck, he had to get it cashed and pay his mortgage payment before he could do anything else. Matt, on the other hand, was going to see his doctor for a checkup and then visit his mother in her office right next door. Afterwards, he was going to go by and mess with his dad and Derek for a little while, to joke with them by telling him he was there to check and see if they were running his businesses into the ground. They agreed, though, to meet back at Seth's place at seven to get ready for their night out on the town.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Meanwhile, Jenny was finishing up her very last final as well, in a senior-level political science class that had, for lack of better phrasing, kicked her ass all semester. She was happy that it was over, though, and hoped that she'd done well enough to earn a low `C' in the class. Walking out with a couple of people, they all discussed the exam for a moment as they walked from the Bishop Social Sciences Building.

"So what do y'all have going on tonight?" Jenny asked her classmates.

"I'm going to SLEEP!" one of them said, recalling that she was running on virtually adrenaline and Red Bull.

"I'm going to propose to my girlfriend, and then we're going to make love," the guy said, "for as long as she wants it!"

"Congratulations!" Jenny smiled.

"She really is a lucky girl!" the girl standing with them noted.

"Trust me," he said, a certain cocky edge in his voice, "she knows it." The girls laughed as he smiled widely in their directions.

"What about you?" the girl asked Jenny.

"My cousin is coming up from Jackson to spend a few days with me," she proudly announced.

"How's he doing?" the guy asked.

"He's alright. He's getting better and better with each day," she told them, referring not just to his physical health but also his mental state.

"That's good. Let him know that if there's anything I can do for him, that I'll do my best!" the guy said as the girl agreed.

"I will," Jenny smiled.

"So are y'all just gonna hang out and such?" they inquired.

"Probably so. I'm gonna leave that all up to him!" she said.

"Cool..." the girl said just before they said their goodbyes and parted the others' company.

As Jenny walked in the direction of her apartment, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed Nick's cell phone number. Just after his mother passed away, HiTelCo had given him a cell phone for which they comped all the charges, to that end, he'd kept the same New York number for years, just replacing the phone as necessary.

"Hello?" he asked.

"You on your way?" she smiled. It was a smile that he could both hear and feel, despite the miles and miles that separated them.

"I've got my bag packed for a week of fun in Eudora," he said, "and I just got out of the shower and pulled some boxers on."

"Are they sexy as hell?"

"I'm your cousin, why would you care?" Nick joked with her. It was good for her to hear as well, since it showed that, despite the things going on his mind, he was, in fact, learning to cope with things a little bitter than he'd previously been able to do.

"I'm just saying, you might find a hot college guy or something that wants to... you know..." she said, passing an older lady and forcing herself to use polite speech.

"Cause that's my whole reason for coming to Eudora," Nick smiled as he pulled on a pair of Carhartt shorts that his cousin had bought him a couple of weeks earlier that were, in his opinion, the single most comfortable article of clothing that he'd ever owned.

"Right!" Jenny noted.

"I was actually gonna call you as soon as I got on the road," Nick told her. "Which should be shortly."

"That works. That gives me a couple of hours to make sure that your room is clean and everything," she told him, referring to the two bedroom apartment that she'd be vacating as soon as her lease expired at the end of June. Her roommate, Maria, had already left, having closed on a house in Memphis with her girlfriend in the middle of April.

"Are you sure you don't mind me coming up?" he asked. "I mean, I just invited myself."

"Nick. I love you, and I love my Mom, but y'all both need a weekend away from each other," she said. "And besides, you know that my home is ALWAYS open to my cool, older cousin/big bro/favorite Marine on the planet."

"Cool..." Nick injected into the conversation as he took a moment to pull on a t-shirt that fit him nicely, loosely across the chest, and through the shoulders and arms.

The two, as Nick finished getting ready, discussed plans for the evening, and while he wasn't quite sure about going out that evening, he didn't immediately dismiss the idea. He'd have time to think about it, though, as he drove up I-55 from Ridgeland, one of Jackson's northern suburbs, to Eudora. Their conversation came to an end just after he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and walked from the kitchen of the three-bedroom house that had never quite been home for him, into the garage to his car.

It was an '08 Ford Mustang GT, black with rims and darkly tinted windows. It had a sunroof and a leather interior. What most couldn't see but that Nick could feel, though, was 4.6-liter, 3-valve, V-8 engine that produced a lot of power. It had a six-speed manual transmission and dual exhaust. In short, it was a car to envy, and it was his, despite how he'd come to own it. That was his aunt's doing. Over the years, he'd sent her money to help out with household expenses. In his mind, it was the thing to do since she'd driven to New York on 9/11 to be with him. She'd brought him back to her home and wouldn't let him lift a finger the entire time he was there. What she'd done, though, was put the money into a savings account for him. By the time he got home, there was enough money in the account to buy that car and still have some left over. There wasn't much, mind you, but there was just enough to pay to take a few classes at a local junior college once his discharge from the Corps was finalized.

He started the car to the sound and fury that it always produced and pushed a button that raised the garage door behind him. Carefully, he backed out of the garage and then onto the street. Pushing the button back and making sure the door closed immediately before, he sped down the street that Jenny had grown up on and headed away.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Matt got to Seth's house just after seven o'clock, pulling into a space beside Seth's car and grabbed his bag from the backseat. He pushed the little button on the remote control and locked the door to his grandfather's Cadillac CTS, a car that he'd purchased just a few months before his death that, while he was away, his father had kept up. It wasn't exactly what Dan had wanted him to do, but the car was better than the one he'd been driving for years. To be honest, Matt was in no hurry to spend the money on a car, as he'd not become completely comfortable with the fact that he had it to begin with.

Walking into Seth's place, he found it immaculate as always. There was a shine to the hardwood floors and not an single particle of dust on the granite countertops in the two-bedroom condo that Dan had helped him purchase in 2006. Much to Matt's surprise, though, Seth wasn't there yet, so he went into `his room' and started getting ready for the evening out. From the small suitcase in which he'd placed enough clothes for the weekend, he pulled out a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a blue polo shirt that he'd gotten early in the week from Old Navy. A pair of red boxers with little while moose on it that he'd had forever, was placed beside the shorts as he prepared for the evening.

From his head he pulled the same baseball cap that he'd been wearing for years. It was the same one that he'd received with his admissions packet to Parsons so many years before, The Freshman Cap. Almost respectfully, he laid it on the bed away from everything else. He had other caps, newer caps, including one that he'd purchased the day before, but this one was the one that he preferred, just because it fit him better than any of the others, probably because it was practically worn out.

The clothes he wore were another story, though. Slipping himself from the white and grey Pumas that he'd worn to hell and back, he lifted his legs just far enough to pull off the ankle socks that covered them. His shirt was next, followed by the shorts he'd been wearing all day and the boxers that separated them from direct contact with his skin. As naked as the day was long, he walked into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom and turned on the shower.

One of the things he'd missed when he was in Peru was the shower in Seth's spare bathroom. It was powerful and always seemed to have enough scalding hot water to make his skin feel clean. As he climbed beneath it, he audibly expressed all the relief that being there, in that place, had brought to him. "Ay dios," he said as he rinsed off his skin, still mostly tanned from the hours he'd spent in Northern Peru's equatorial sun. As he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, he thought for a fleeting moment about needing a haircut, but it was just a fleeting moment as he was enjoying the flow that much.

It took several moments for him to get started with the shower, but after he did, it wasn't long before his body was completely lathered. Starting by putting shampoo in his hair, he let it stay there for a moment as he washed from the bottom of his size 13 feet to his face. His body wasn't anything spectacular, but it fit him. He was average weight and height, with a body that was neither skinny nor fat. He was the proverbial final bowl of porridge, as far as men go. Just before he turned off the water, he rinsed the shampoo and conditioner from his hair. Without the water, for a few seconds, his body felt like something was missing. Dripping wet, though, he climbed out onto the rug and grabbed a towel to wick it all away from his body.

As always, he left the towel in the hamper in the bathroom, out of respect for Seth's needing everything to be neat and tidy, and walked back into his room to dress for the evening as he waited on Seth to get back from wherever the hell he was. When he was finished, he looked cute in his shorts and solid colored polo, topping it with his cap and a pair of flip-flops that he'd brought with him. Walking out of the room, he went into the living room and turned on the TV as he continued to wait on his best friend's arrival.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

After driving for a few hours up the interstate and then for an hour around Eudora as he struggled, seemingly in vain, to find Jenny's apartment, Nick finally arrived at her place at around five in the afternoon. The two sat around for a while as they, themselves, took a while to catch up. They fixed dinner for the two of them and enjoyed a couple of adult beverages before starting to get ready to go out at around eight o'clock. Jenny went into her bathroom on one end of the apartment while Nick went to `his' on the other.

The bathroom itself was decorated rather plainly, but it was adequate for Nick's purposes, as it had a nice shower, a toilet, a single sink, and a mirror. In a little cubby that served as the room's linen closet, Jenny had placed a couple of clean towels and some washcloths for him to use, but all the soaps and shampoos were his responsibility. Having stopped at Wal-Mart before leaving Jackson, he'd picked up those few things, though, and had them ready to go as soon as the water was hot enough to enjoy.

It was as that was happening that Nick disrobed. Quickly, he removed his clothes and set them neatly on the counter. Looking at himself in the mirror, he could inspected his nicely shaped, muscular body as he always seemed to do before climbing in. The one thing about that place, though, as opposed to his bathroom, was that the mirror was bigger and, somehow, didn't seem to fog over as the water heated. On his left arm, he looked for a second at the Marine Corps tattoo before brushing his hand along his chest and torso to make sure that manscaping wasn't necessary. He would have done that earlier in the day, but his shower before departure was more or less to rid his body of the sweat that had accumulated after his mid-day workout. It was that shower that evening that he knew would really count.

Climbing beneath the flow of water, he quickly started the process of cleaning. As he'd done for years, he started with the hair that topped his head. Even though he was no longer in the active service of his country, he still kept his hair cut to regulation length. To that end, it didn't take long to ensure that the black hairs that were just a little longer than stubble, were clean. His skin, which wasn't as tan as it had been at one point, was run over with a bar of Ivory that would leave his skin smelling clean and fresh.

As he climbed out, he quickly toweled the water from the defined ridges of his body and left the towel on the floor, as Jenny had instructed. Walking into the room, he quickly pulled on a pair of boxers that could have stood to be a size bigger, and donned a pair of jeans that nicely fit him from just below his waist all the way through his legs. The top of his body he covered with a polo that Jenny had bought for him and hung in the closet. It was nice, comfortable, black, and would leave little to the imagination of those who found themselves, over the course of the evening, gazing at his upper body. With an almost-new pair of Nikes on his feet a moment later, he was ready to go, walking into the living room to wait on Jenny as she put the finishing touches on what she'd be wearing out that evening.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

In Eudora, over the years, the concept of clubbing had become somewhat of an art. Even if one were planning to go to his regular joint for a pint with friends, if he said he was `going out' that meant that several other places would be patronized beforehand. Given the proximity of all the coolest places in the town, though, that wasn't a difficult task to do.

For Matt and Seth, it started with a bar called "The Bibliotheque". They had a single shot there and checked out the scene before heading to a bar right on the Square called roosters. After another round of tequila shots and a moment of checking out the animate scenery, they found no reason not to go on to Seth's usual haunt, Blind Jim's. Arriving just after ten o'clock, they found themselves in a line of people to get in. Waiting behind them was a group of girls that Seth had no problems talking to, as they were all beautiful, while Matt avoided talking to their gay friend. It wasn't that Matt felt he was better than him, for he knew that he wasn't, but the guy was that annoying kind of gay guy that was loud and relatively obnoxious, that was a fan of Madonna and held her as a god. He had a high voice and seemed to be high on something else. The guy was all about Matt, though, telling him several times that he was cute and had a great voice and a nice smile. He made a comment or two about his ass as Matt stood there, waiting on their chance to go inside the crowded bar so that Seth's attention would be drawn away from those girls so that he could gracefully exit the situation in which he found himself.

As they waited, though, Nick and Jenny were walking up to another place from her apartment. Rick's, a sports bar with a very high energy, was filled with frat boys and sorority girls with huge fake tits and designer clothes. They had a single beer each before heading onto the Biblioteque and then to Roosters. As they walked to Blind Jim's, which would probably be their final destination of the evening, Nick found himself enamored by the grace and beauty of the Square.

It was the kind of place in Eudora that served so many purposes. For one, the courthouse, while built shortly after the Civil War to replace the one that the Union soldiers marching through Eudora had burned to the ground, was still in use by the county government. During the day, one might find judges and day laborers rubbing elbows as they went about their personal business, while in the evenings, the aroma of several different world cuisines was often mixed with the smell of bourbon as it reminded all of the history and tradition of that small Southern town. At night, the place came alive as the center of the area's social universe, with its lively bars, amazingly high class restaurants, and a few bookstores and coffee shops just to spice things up a little differently.

In that moment, the place to him felt right. Maybe it was Jenny, and maybe it was just that the air was different, cleaner, friendlier than in Jackson. Either way, though, Nick felt better in that moment than he had in a long time, and it wasn't the alcohol that he'd already consumed talking.

From Nick's perspective, Blind Jim's was different from the other bars that they'd been to that night. Number one, there was a line to get in, which meant that it was a very popular place, and just in the line there were people of all different shades and persuasions. There were gays and straights, whites, blacks, Hispanics, men and women. There were some quiet, nerdy looking people standing in line next to jocks and frat type guys. It was as if, in his observation, this was one of the few places in America where people really could get along, despite their differences. Jackson certainly wasn't that way, where he found himself to be one of the few people that could associate with people of other races and cultures.

Jenny looked at him as he took stock of his surroundings. With a smile she knew that Eudora was in his future, she could didn't know when or in what circumstances. It was good to see, though, because she hadn't seen him excited about anything, really, in a while. When they got to the door, Jenny paid for both of their cover charges with a $20 bill and they walked inside. Nick grabbed his debit card from his wallet as the two waded through the massive crowd of people that had assembled at their final destination for the evening.

When they got to the bar, Nick, given his height, towered over Jenny, who stood barely five feet tall. Not to be confused, though, she was a firecracker of a person who really could hold her own in most any circumstance. With that being said, though, he was able to get the attention of Natalie, the bartender, to get their beers ordered. She took his card from him and got his tab started before handing the card back to him along with two open Bud Light bottles.

Meanwhile, Matt and Seth were sitting close by, having just ordered their second margarita of the evening. They'd decided to slow down a little bit and add some lime juice and ice to their tequila instead of consuming it straight. It was Matt that first noticed Nick standing close to the bar. He had to force himself not to stare at this guy with the military style hair and a pair of shoulders that were driving him insane.

"Matt!" Seth said in a second, grinning and shaking his head. "Instead of staring a hole through him, why don't you just go talk to him?"

"He's way out of my league," Matt told Seth as Natalie brought their margaritas to them.

"Matthew," Seth looked at him as if to say `what-the-fuck'. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. I'm a five, and he's got to be a twelve or so," Matt told his best friend. "Beside, from the looks of him, he's straight."

Seth turned and glanced, knowing Matt's type well enough to know which of the guys huddled at the bar Matt was checking out. "I've been a fag stag all my life, and I can tell the difference between straight, gay, and metrosexual. Dude ain't the first or last."

"You've been wrong before," Matt reminded him.

"Once... one time..." Seth reminded him of a guy that they'd met years before that gave every indication that he was a homosexual only for the two of them to find out that he was straighter and more sexual than Seth himself, which, honestly, was never a very small feat to accomplish. He looked again, only on his second glance, he noticed Jenny standing with him. "Holy shit!"

"What?" Matt asked.

"You remember that girl from Econ class in the fall that I was telling you about... the one with the huge knockers and the smoking body?"

"Yeah..."

"The girl with him is her... Jenny Sheffield," Seth said as he turned, motioning for Matt to go with him as he went over to talk to her.

"JEN-NAY!" he yelled as she turned and smiled.

"SETHY!" she exclaimed as the Seth bent down so that she could wrap her arms around him. "Oh my god! I was thinking about you the other day. How are you?"

"Good. Horny, but what's new?" he asked.

"With you, Seth Bentley, not a damn thing!" she said. "Nick," she turned to her cousin. "This is the guy that I was telling you about could... keep up with me."

"Damn," Nick smiled. "Nick Russo," he said as he shook Seth's hands.

"And this is my best friend, Matt..."

"MATT HARPER!" she said as she greeted him the same way that she greeted Seth, with a huge hug around the neck. "How was Peru?"

"It was good," Matt answered. "Glad to be home, though."

"We are glad to have you home," she said. "Eudora needs more sexy gay men," she said, telling Nick indirectly, that Matt was fair game. She knew, from just the first look at this guy that Matt was Nick's type. He wasn't a gym rat, but he took care of himself as best he could. He had a cute smile and a deep, masculine voice.

"Thank you," he blushed a little bit as he thanked her for the obvious comment.

"Nick just got home, too. He was in Iraq..."

"Oh yeah?" Matt asked, looking at him. "What branch?"

"Marines," Nick answered, plainly and simply.

"Magic words for Matt!" Seth smiled at Nick.

"And not in the way he implies," Matt told him.

"Why not? Marines need love, too," Nick joked, quite uncharacteristically. Jenny knew, though, that he made jokes when he was nervous, and Matt, for whatever reason, was making him nervous enough to crack at least one, but probably more.

"Not that I wouldn't give you love, man," Matt smiled at him, winning him over in that moment, instantly. "Hey Nat," Matt called the bartender, with whom he and Seth had gone to high school at St. Xavier's Episcopal School there in Eudora. "Will you set up a round of Semper Fis for us?"

"Sure," she smiled as she went right to work after delivering the beers to some frat boys waiting at one end of the bar. She brought them back four small drink glasses each filled with tequila.

"My grandfather," Matt explained, "was a Marine during World War II in the Pacific, and he always said that if I ever encounter a Marine in a bar, that I should by him a drink."

"What's his name?" Nick asked.

"Dan."

"Here's to Dan, then," he said, handing Matt a shot glass as Jenny handed one to Seth.

"Semper Fi!" Matt declared.

"Hoo rah!" Nick went on as they each turned up their glasses and took the whole damn thing. Little did Nick know, though, that by toasting the single most influential person that had ever graced Matt's life that he was winning him over as easily as he had unknowingly won Nick with just his smile and his voice.

"So Seth," Jenny started, "you wanna fuck tonight?" It was as if, for her, asking such a thing was nothing at all.

"Please..." he said. "Like you even have to ask that!" he declared, setting up his evening booty call right there in front of the two of them.

"So are you still active?" Matt asked Nick.

"Technically, I'm on the TDL," he said as Matt understood exactly what he said. "I'm hoping that my discharge comes through sooner rather than later, though."

"Cool. Well, thank you for your service, man."

"It's nothing," Nick said as Jenny looked at him, remembering what an ordeal it had been when he joined. She looked at Seth who, with his eyes, said that he was happy that Matt was actually talking.

"You're certainly a credit to the uniform," Matt noted.

"Oh yeah?" Nick smiled. "I do look good in fatigues, though."

"I can imagine..." Matt told him before the two of them started laughing at each other.

"Although," Nick started, "I'm glad you're not a Marine, cause I don't know if I could have kept my sexuality a secret if you had been."

"You're gay?"

"Yeah!" Nick smiled.

"Told you!" Seth added.

"Wow..." Matt said in a moment.

"What? A Marine can't be gay?" Nick asked in his Brooklyn accent, holding out his arms as best he could without hitting Seth of Jenny, who were standing beside him, as if to say something like `what's the big deal', or the like.

"I've just never met one," Matt explained as he hoped, with everything, that his growing `problem' wasn't all that obvious.

"Well now you have!" Nick winked at him.

"And I'm all the better for it," Matt pointed out as Jenny and Seth looked at each other and quietly shook their heads.

"So what did you end up getting in Dr. Brady's class?" Jenny asked him.

"B! And I was so fucking happy!" Seth told him.

"How the fuck? I got a D!"

"WHAT?!" Seth asked, genuinely surprised by her response as she nodded.

"I was so fucking pissed!" she said. "I went to him in January and told him to justify it. Apparently, his scantron machine said that I got an F on the final!"

"It was 25 questions that were obvious!"

"RIGHT!" she said. "I almost called you just to give me head."

"Why didn't you? I would have gladly buried my face..."

"So can we smoke inside?" Nick asked, looking at Matt, who was also not enjoying the level of hetero-energy around them.

"Nah man. We have to go to the patio."

"You wanna go to the patio?" Nick asked.

"Please!" Matt said as Jenny and Seth smiled.

"We're gonna stay in here and catch up," Jenny said, looking at Nick. With her eyes, as she had been doing with Seth, she asked if Nick was going to be OK. He responded affirmatively with his smile, knowing that this Marine's grandson wouldn't let anything happen to him.

A moment later, Nick excused himself from Seth as he and Matt walked through the crowd of people to a door on the side of the bar that led outside. As they walked through, it seemed as though there were as many people out there as were inside, but the pair found a quiet corner where the other conversations wouldn't spill over into theirs.

"So are you a student?" Nick asked after he lit the Marlboro light and stood a bit away from Matt so the smoke wouldn't bother him.

"Technically. I've been off for the last year, doing some volunteer work in South America."

"Oh cool," Nick said. "What's your major?"

"Please don't laugh, cause it's kinda gay."

"OK," Nick confidently said. "Do you enjoy it? Do you have a passion for it?"

"Yes," Matt answered.

"Then how could I laugh?" Nick asked.

"Vocal Performance," Matt answered.

"See. That's kinda hot. A guy that can sing is sexy as hell," Nick admitted.

"Shit. If you're trying to get laid, you don't have to work so hard," Matt told him.

"I'm not, though. Just being honest," Nick told him. "Besides, if I wanted to just get laid, I wouldn't have to do very much."

"How do you know?" Matt asked.

"I can just tell that you're into me," Nick told him.

"You give yourself too much credit," Matt smiled at him.

"Maybe so," Nick smiled. "Besides, you're out my league for real."

"Fuck! What?" Matt asked.

"You're fucking hot, dude. If I could find a guy as hot as you..."

"I'm not believing this!" Matt smiled. "When I first saw you, I told Seth that same thing. That you were way out of my league." Nick just smiled as he took a drag from his cigarette and a drink from his beer. On his face was a huge smile, similar to the one that Matt had on his. "So what do you think of Eudora?"

"This is a great town!" Nick answered. "It's small, but it's got so much life, if that makes sense."

"It does. I've been a lot of places, and Eudora is my favorite," Matt said.

"So are you from Mississippi?" Nick asked.

"Eudora, actually. Born and raised," Matt smiled.

"Sweet!"

"And what about you?"

"Brooklyn," Nick answered. "My mom was from here, though," Nick answered, realizing that, for one of the first times in his life, he'd been able to refer to her in the past tense. "Well... Jackson."

"Ahhh..." Matt said.

"I used to spend my summers in Mississippi when I was little," Nick said. "I love it here."

"Cool."

"I'm sorry," Nick smiled. "I'm just going off at the mouth."

"No. Please. Continue," Matt smiled. "It's giving me a chance to take in the whole picture."

"Well. If you're taking that in, then I should turn a little bit so you can look at my ass," Nick joked as he half turned around and as Matt laughed.

"Nice," he said.

"Oh yeah. It's kinda tight, too," Nick winked.

"Shit..." Matt said as he blushed. Nick smiled as he returned to his previous position and took the final drag from his cigarette.

"Man. I'm sorry. I'm a little buzzed, and I don't know what I'm saying," Nick told him.

"It's fine," Matt mentioned. "Like you..."

"Like you," Nick smiled.

The next moments between them were comfortably quiet. Nick continued taking stock of all the things going on around him as Matt relished the fact that he was standing with a guy that seemed to be really, really awesome.

"So now that you're on your way out," Matt started, "what are your plans?"

"Ya know. I haven't really thought about it," Nick answered. "Since I joined, the Marines have been my life. Would your grandfather have any advice for me?"

"I'm sure, that if he were with us still, he would tell you to do what's in your heart," Matt told him.

"And if my head and penis were the same organ?" Nick joked.

"Then he'd be like," Matt started as he put himself into `Pa voice'. "Matthew, bend over and let this man have his way with you. He's a Marine goddamnit." Nick laughed his ass off. "And you think I'm joking," Matt returned to his normal voice as Nick heartily laughed, "but the one and only pride celebration I've been to was with him and Seth, and he was trying to pimp my ass out the whole time!"

"Shit! That is priceless!" Nick continued laughing his infectious laugh.

"He told this one... super hot guy... `Matt's ass is grade A'."

"It's not bad," Nick grinned.

"It's exit only," Matt told him.

"Shame..." Nick made a tsk sound and shook his head.

"Top too?"

"Versitile," he told him. "Sometimes, it's good to be `taken care of', other times, it's good to take care..."

"Makes sense," Matt told him. "I just haven't met a guy that I trusted enough to let him..."

"That makes sense, too. I've only ever trusted one guy enough to top him," Nick explained.

"Still in your life?" Matt asked.

"No," Nick answered, honestly but shortly. "Not anymore," Nick said, a sad expression on his face that told Matt more than he needed to know.

"I'm sorry to hear that, man," Matt told him.

Nick smiled. "It's in the past," he tried to play things off, but Matt knew that the issue should be dropped. "So I wonder if my cousin and your friend are having a good time."

"If they're still here, probably so. If they're not, probably so!" Matt joked.

"Can I be honest with you?"

"It's expected," Matt answered, getting to another level of respect from Nick in the process.

"Jenny's acting oddly."

"How so?" Matt inquired.

"She's... It's almost like she likes him," Nick said. "Like beyond the sexual."

"OK. So I'm not just picking that up from Seth, then," Matt mentioned.

"They do make a cute couple," Nick mentioned.

"Yeah..." Matt smiled.

"Not as cute as you, though."

"Or as hot as you," Matt went on as they looked at each other. It was the first time that the two of them looked into each other's eyes. Matt saw a painful past in Nick's, while Nick found a sense of uncertainty in Matt's. "So how long are you in town for?"

"Just for the weekend, more than likely," Nick said. "Why? You wanna ask me out or something?"

"You want to?" Matt inquired.

"I would be nice to go out with a cool guy," Nick said. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket a moment later and smiled. "It says: `Tell Matt that we're going to Seth's for a little while and that he better keep you company'."

"Not a problem with me," Matt said.

"I'm not complaining either," Nick smiled at him as he responded quickly and put the phone back in his pocket.

For over an hour, the two talked about nothing important. As they continued to stand around talking, Jenny and Seth returned from their momentary rendezvous with wide smiles. "Y'all have fun?" Matt asked as Nick snickered a little bit.

"Twice," she winked at him as Nick shook his head. "So Nicky... you about ready?"

He took a deep breath, part of him wanted to say no, but another part wanted to climb into bed and drift off to sleep. "So can I call you tomorrow?" he asked Matt.

"You need my number, don't you?" Matt smiled.

"Yeah," Nick shook his head, almost punishing himself for not realizing it before. "What is it?"

"662-555-1991," Matt answered.

"Got it," Nick said as he sent Matt a number so that he could save his number into his phone. "So I'll call tomorrow."

"Alright," he said as the two men shook hands, wanting to do more but not giving themselves the chance.

Seth and Jenny said goodbye with a kick each on the cheek just before she hugged Matt goodbye. With that, the two of them were off. Walking back into the bar, Nick turned and smiled one last time. Before long, they were walking back toward Jenny's apartment. A moment after they left, Seth and Matt did as well, going back to Seth's to pass the evening.

"So did you have a good time?" Jenny asked Nick.

"Yeah. I did," Nick told her. She asked for no details, though, knowing that they would come out in time.

Seth, though, as they entered, wanted all the information he could get. Matt wasn't very forthcoming, thought, offering only that he'd had an amazing night and that he was glad that he'd had the chance to meet a guy that was as cool as Nick had been.