My Bodyguard Chapter 14
A very special thanks to Ed for editing this chapter.
This story is not true.
This is a story of love, trust, hope, and commitment. It is not a sex story. However, this story deals with love between two teenagers. If you are offended by stories involving love between two teenage boys, please do not read this story. There will be some sex scenes in this story; however, sex is not the main theme. If you are under age 18 or 21 or it is illegal to read this story where you live, don't read it.
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I woke up the next morning in the arms of my love, Mark. I remembered our lovemaking from last night. I felt my life was perfect.
Today is Thanksgiving. Holidays are always special in our house. I lay in the bed, considering my life. My parents have always taught me the things that are most really important in life. Things like family, love, and friends are far more important than material things. Thanksgiving to me is the celebration of family, love, and friends. Dad always said there are two things you cannot buy. The first thing is happiness and the second thing is health.
I sure had happiness as Mark gently breathed with his strong arms around me. I also had health with Mark protecting me. I have a mother and father who love me dearly. And my sister seems to be coming around too. A little more than a month ago I thought my life was over. Now I am happier than I have ever been. I wished everyone in the world could feel the same way I feel now. I lay there, thinking about how wonderful my life is now, when Mark stirred. He opened his eyes and smiled at me. I gently kissed him on the lips. It was a soft and tender kiss, not one of passion.
"Good morning, Mark, Happy Thanksgiving."
"Good morning, Happy Thanksgiving, Mike."
"How you feel this morning?"
"Like I'm going to piss myself any minute."
"I suppose you better go then."
"I'll be back in a minute."
Mark slipped out of bed, put on his shorts, and out the door he went. About two minutes later I heard the toilet flush. And Mark came back in the room and jumped back into bed. He had a big silly grin on his face.
"You are sure smiling this morning."
"I can't help it, you have this silly grin on your face too, and it just makes me want to grin."
"Well, I can't help it. I was just lying here thinking about all the things I am thankful for. I have parents who love me. I have friends that love me. I have a sister who I think loves me. I have the greatest boyfriend in the wholee world that loves me dearly. Your mother loves me. I just feel very loved right now. And I think love is the thing I am most thankful for."
"Mike, in order to be loved, you have to love. It is your love that has brought you this happiness. I never thought I would have a friend like you, let alone be loved by somebody like you."
Mark pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly and tenderly.
"Mike, I love you so much. I now know what you meant when you said love means being able to feel how someone else feels. Because I can feel your love for me, which only makes me love you more. And you can feel my love for you which makes you love me even more. And our love for each other keeps growing and growing. I hope it never ends."
"I can feel the same thing happening, Mark. The only regret I have is that we will have no children to share our love with."
"Perhaps we will, Mike, someday. There are many kids out there who need a loving family. We can always adopt someone. It would not matter to me if it was a boy or a girl as long as we can share our love."
"That's funny, Mark. Before you woke up I was thinking about our future together. Although I have only known you six weeks I can't imagine my life without you. And now here we are talking about having kids."
"Your sister and Paul were only together four weeks before they got engaged. Granted, they are little older than we are. It is something I just feel, Mike. Like we are destined to be together. Never in my life have I felt so close to anyone."
"When I first found out that I was gay, I felt I was destined to be alone. Then I started reading on the Internet some real-life love stories between guys. I desperately wanted that but was not willing to risk my reputation in order to get it. And then when I was outted at school, I thought my life was over. Then I met you and I don't know, it was like love at first sight. I thank God every day for letting me find you, Mark. And I thank God every day for having parents who accept me."
"I don't know about you, Mike, but I'm getting hungry. I can smell bacon cooking downstairs. I'm going to go jump in a shower and get cleaned up. Want to join me?"
"You know you don't even need to ask. Let's go."
Mark and I went to the bathroom, jumped in the shower, and helped wash each other. It was a lot of fun but not too much fun. We got out of the shower, brushed our teeth, and opened the door to leave. Paul was just coming in the bathroom as we were leaving. He smiled and said good morning to us and we giggled and said good morning back.
We got dressed quickly and went down for breakfast.
"Good morning, Mom, how are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm doing great. I've got the turkey in the oven. I am cooking enough breakfast for everybody. And I'm going to have some fine ladies to chat with today. Grace Adams is bringing pumpkin pie, and Norma Brown is bringing salad and cranberry sauce. I should have an easy time of it today. Now sit down and eat, boys, so I can get you out of my kitchen. Are your sister and Paul up yet?"
"I saw Paul this morning but I haven't seen my sister yet. Where's Dad?"
"I decided I needed some fresh sage for my dressing. The sage I have is probably about a year old. So he went to the grocery store to get me some. That's one good thing about owning a grocery store."
We sat down and ate. About five minutes later Dad came in.
"Good morning, boys, how are you doing?"
"We're doing fine, Dad, how about you?"
"I'm great now that I have the sage for your mother. Now I can have breakfast too. It's a good thing I had some sage. I would probably have to drive 40 miles one-way to find the open grocery store with decent sage," my dad said with a big grin on his face.
"Boys, I have something to talk to you about while you are here."
"Okay, Dad, what you want to talk about?"
"Sam and his family will be here in about an hour. Sam says the twins are asking all kinds of questions about you two. Be careful you don't give them very much information. They are quite smart for their age. They have a natural curiosity to find out everything they can. They are a lot like Sam and his sister Grace except they have a very short attention span. If they ask you something you don't want to answer, ask them a question back. If that doesn't work, try to change the subject. If that fails too, suggest you go do something you think they might enjoy. Don't let them get you going. If they volunteer information about themselves or ask questions, just tell them they need to talk to their father about that. That should shut them up. Remember they have big mouths. You can expect anything you say to them to be spread all over town. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I think so, Dad. We will handle them about the same way that we handled Doug. Mark and I discussed our strategy with him and it seemed to work. I can't imagine Mark not in my life and I am concerned if he is outted that we won't be able to be together. We will do our best to keep the twins occupied and out of everybody's hair."
"That sounds like a good challenge to me, Mike. Good luck."
I went upstairs and worked on my computer. I checked my e-mails and surfed a couple of sites. I heard the door open downstairs and some voices. I went downstairs and I saw the twins. They had really grown since the last time I'd seen them. They were about as tall as me. One had Mark by one hand, pulling him, and the other had Mark's other hand, pulling.
"Come with me, Mark, come with me, Mark, I want you to arm wrestle me. I want to show you how strong I am."
"No, Mark, no, Mark don't go with him, come with me. I want to show you how fast I can run to the end of the driveway and back."
"Don't listen to him, Mark, I want show you how strong I am. I know I can beat you."
I walked into the living room and Mark looked at me. He gave me a look like 'help me'. The twins had really grown. They both have black hair and blue eyes. They are also both wearing the same clothes, as if it is not already hard enough to tell them apart. They were both also very cute. When they saw me, they both let go of Mark's hands and came running over to me.
"Hi, Mike."
"Hi, Mike."
"Now, who are you, John or James?"
"I am James, silly, he's John."
It is amazing to me that they expect us to tell them apart. I have not even seen them in a year.
"Okay, then, hi, James, hi John, how are you doing?"
"I was just trying to get Mark to arm wrestle me."
"No, I was getting Mark to see how fast I can run."
"Well, how about you arm wrestle Mark and I will see how fast you can run."
"No, now I want to arm wrestle you. I think I can beat you."
"No, I want Mark to see me run. I want him to see how fast I am."
I was getting to feeling it was going to be a long day. Luckily, Mark came to my rescue.
"Okay, guys, how about we go in the basement and you can both show me how strong you are and beat up my punching bag."
"Hooray, yippee."
They both started jumping up and down and Sam and Norma just smiled. We led them down in the basement and they were punching and karate kicking Mark's bag for about a half-hour. Then they wanted to watch the Thanksgiving Day's parade on TV for a while so we did that. About 20 minutes later they were tired of that. So we have a table tennis table in our basement. We played doubles and singles for about a half-hour. Then they started whining that they were hungry and 'when is the turkey going to be ready?' I told them to stay downstairs with Mark while I went upstairs and talked to my mom. I warned them to stay out of Mom's kitchen when she was cooking.
I went upstairs and Mrs. Adams had arrived.
"Hi, Mrs. Adams. Happy Thanksgiving," I said while giving her a big hug.
"Hi, Mike, and Happy Thanksgiving to you. Are you taking the care of my son?"
"You bet, he is down in the basement with the twins. Do you want to come say hi?"
"Sure, I will be right down."
"Mom, the twins say they are hungry. When will dinner be ready?"
"Dinner will be ready in a couple of hours, honey. I have some cookies here. Why don't you get them some milk. That should hold them off for a while."
I poured some milk and took the milk and cookies downstairs. The twins made quick work of the milk and cookies. After a few minutes, Mrs. Adams came downstairs.
"Hi, Aunt Grace."
"Hi, Aunt Grace."
"Hi, John, hi, James. Which are you?"
"I am John, he is James."
You would think these boys would wear nametags. They must really enjoy no one knowing who they are.
"I just came down to say hi, boys. I need to help in the kitchen. Don't you boys be driving Mike and Mark crazy now. Come say hello to your mother, Mark."
Mark went over and hugged and kissed his mom.
"I miss you, Mom."
"I missed you too. I won't be going home until Friday morning, so we can spend some time together."
"I would like that very much. I have missed you."
Mrs. Adams went upstairs and the twins started asking questions.
"Mark, why aren't you staying at our house like last summer? And staying here with Mike? And not staying at home with your mother?"
"Mike needed some help, so I am staying here, helping him."
"We need help too. What does Mike need help with?"
"Mike?"
"I had some problems at school with bullies. Mark came to help me with them."
"We heard at school that Mike got beat up because he likes other boys." They both started giggling.
"Do you boys like girls?"
"God no, we hate girls."
"Are you saying you only like boys?"
"Only each other," one of them said, giggling.
"Do you guys want to play some computer games?"
"Yes. Yes. Yes," they said, jumping up and down.
We went upstairs and said hi to everyone on our way to my room. The twins once again had to tell everybody who is who. I could have sworn that they introduced themselves backwards but who knows. We went to my room and showed them how to play Doom. Once they got into it, we knew they would be occupied for hours. We went back downstairs and watched football with the guys. All the girls were in the kitchen, fixing dinner. Dad asked how it was going and we told them about our day so far.
Soon dinner was ready. Mom asked us to go get the twins. We went upstairs and they were deep into a game.
"Dinner's ready, guys. Let's go eat."
"Do we have to? Just a few more minutes."
I pushed pause button on the computer and told them they could finish after dinner. At least we found a way to keep them busy.
Dinner was delightful. We started with salad and then we had turkey, dressing, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans with bacon, candied yams, and fresh cooked cranberry sauce. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It took about an hour to eat. As soon as we finished, the twins went back upstairs to play Doom. Dad asked Mark and me, along with mom, Sam and Norma Brown, and Grace Adams to step into his study. "Mark, I have some news for you. It also concerns your mother. And somewhat concerns Sam and Norma. I told you several weeks ago that I was going to try to contact your father. Grace, Mark is scheduled to get braces in about a week. If he didn't tell you, we had a little conversation when I made his first appointment. I had a private investigator locate Mark's father. I sent him a letter. I did not want him to know where Mark was without Mark's permission so I gave him the return address of my store. Tuesday a letter came in addressed to Mark. I have no idea what is in this letter, Mark. It is your own private business. We are here to support you, no matter what is in the letter. If you choose to share at with us, that is entirely up to you."
Mark looked at the letter for about two minutes before he opened it. He said that the return address was Chicago. He read the letter slowly to himself. Soon a tear leaked from his eye, followed by several more tears. In no time he was openly sobbing. I pulled him into my arms and he cried on my shoulder. After he calmed down, he handed the letter back to my father and asked him to read it.
Dear Son;
I was very surprised to receive a letter from Greg Stevens. He told me much about you. I don't know what he went through find me but I'm sure it was not easy.
I want you to know that you were in no way responsible for me leaving your mother. It was not your mother's fault either. It was entirely my fault. I think you are old enough now to understand. When I left your mother I had a girlfriend. I had not fallen out of love with your mother but I had also fallen in love with someone else. I was trying to support both her and you and your mother. It was very difficult for me. I decided to take my girlfriend and move out-of-state. I had a job offer in Chicago that your mother did not know about. I guess what comes around gets around, because about a year later my girlfriend left me for someone else.
Although I love you very much and I still love your mother, I was too proud to contact you. It haunts me. Every time I see a boy about your age, I can't help but think about you. I have not been there for you to talk to when you have problems. I have not seen you in the years. That is half a lifetime for you. I feel sick every time I think of all the precious memories I have lost because of my actions.
If you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my foolish pride and my stubbornness, then you are a better man than me. For I can't forgive myself. Say hi to your mother for me and tell her I still love her. I want you to know, Son, I love you very much. I never stopped loving you. I never will stop loving you.
I guess life is ironic. I went after more love than I deserve and now I only have loneliness. If you decide to give me a second chance to show you my love, I promise I will not let you down again. You have my address and you can call me anytime, collect - 123-456-7899.
With deep regret, and hope for tomorrow.
Your father,
Peter Adams
When Dad finished reading the letter, Mark was once again sobbing on my shoulder. There was not a dry eye in the room.
"I've got to call him. I miss him. I love him. I've got to call him," Mark sobbed.
Mark took about 10 minutes to calm down while he cried on my shoulder. Then he took my hand and went over to my father.
"I've got to call him. I love him."
Dad reached down and picked up the phone and dialed the number. He handed the phone to Mark.
"Dad, this is Mark."
"I love you too, and I miss you."
"I want to see you too. I can be there Saturday."
"I can't wait to see you too."
"I will call you when we get into town."
"I am going to bring Mike with me." He looked at me and I nodded my head yes.
"Yes, she is here."
"I love you too."
"He would like to talk to you," Mark said, looking at his mother.
"We will see."
"Yes, I am coming. You don't think I would let him drive to Chicago all by himself with only Mike with him."
"I will see you then."
"Goodbye."
Mark pulled me into his arms and started crying again.
"He loves me. He loves me. He loves me."
Everybody joined Mark and me in a group hug. It took a few minutes for all of us to calm down.
"It looks like we are going to Chicago, Mark," I said.
"And I'm going with you," Mrs. Adams said.
"What about work?" I asked.
"Thanksgiving weekend is always slow anyway. Everybody is full after Thanksgiving and has plenty of leftover turkey. Also most of my regular customers are up north, deer hunting. We can leave for Chicago tomorrow afternoon. We will drop my car off at home and continue on to Chicago."
Dad got on the phone and called a hotel in downtown Chicago called the Drake. He said he stayed there once and it was very nice and he insisted on picking up the bill. He explained after he got off the phone he already put it on his credit card.
Mark was on cloud 9. Sam gathered up the twins and left a few minutes later. We sat down with Paul and told him all about the problems at school. He was real happy to hear about Mark finding his father. He took a lot of notes and asked a lot of questions. My sister was still avoiding me.
We were all rather exhausted from the long day. We watched TV for a while and then Mark and I headed up to bed.
"Mark, are you going to tell your dad you are gay?"
"Of course I am. I need to know if he truly loves me or if he is just using me to satisfy his own guilt and loneliness. If he accepts me unconditionally, then I know he truly loves me."
"Oh, Mark, I love you so much. Not only are you big and strong and handsome, a great cook, but you are also very smart."
"I don't know about smart but I learned about love from you."
I drew Mark into my arms and we kissed passionately. We made out for about 20 minutes and then we went to bed. I fell asleep quickly in Mark's strong arms.