GENERAL DISCLAIMER: This story contains sexual situations between adult males involving various aspects of the kink and fetish communities. If you find material of this nature offensive then you should not read any further. All characters in this story are over the age of 21. If you are under 18 years old in the US or under 16 in the UK you are not legally allowed to read this story. This is purely a work of fiction, any resemblance to persons living or dead, or to any events that may have occurred, are purely coincidental. The author claims all copyrights in this story and no duplication or publication of this story is allowed (except by the websites to which it has been posted) without the consent of the author. Nifty does not exist without donations. If you enjoy these stories, please donate here: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
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The Brownstone on Union Park
- Chapter One -
Michael honestly could not believe his eyes. He looked at the apartment listing headline once more and the pictures that followed. It was probably a scam. It had to be another fake apartment listing pretending to be a rental for something that looked nothing like the photos. There were so many of these phony housing listings on Craigslist this time of year in the late summer before all the colleges in the area started up around Labor Day.
Still, it looked engaging to warrant a second glance and read through. The price seemed exorbitant by college standards, but at only twelve hundred dollars a month for a room in a three-bedroom classic Boston brownstone, all utilities included, and close to a T-stop it was a steal. The apartment listing was arguably one of the most sought-after streets in the South End neighborhood, Union Park, replete with the yuppy coffee shops, parks, bars and restaurants nearby. The ad began:
"Two gay professional roommates seeking a third easy-going
roommate to occasionally share a dinner and help out with the
day-to-day tasks and cleaning. Not looking for undergraduate
students, but grad students a possibility. Professionals move
to the top of the line or anyone else that is mature and has a
nine to five schedule. All utilities included: heat, hot water,
electric, cable & internet. No pets, no smoking, no drama, no
bullshit."
Perfect sounds like just the right sort of low-stress situation he was seeking out. The pictures on the listing were what started his initial concerns about the overall legitimacy of the ad.
"It's just too good to be true for this price, in this neighborhood, with these finishes and amenities. There's got to be a catch, there always is," he thought.
He began to examine the five listing pictures in more detail. The living room showed a very modern but not uncomfortable space: a contemporary low-lying L-shaped couch that stretched along the corner of the room accented by a thick glass coffee table shaped in a soft triangular wedge with rounded corners and smoothed wooden geometrical supports. Across from the couch was a very modern entertainment system with what appeared to be the largest curved flat screen television he had ever seen. The unique architectural element was that the curvature of the wall had a small recess to accommodate the same bend of the television's own curve such that it was fully recessed into the wall. The two windows on the sides of the television indicated that this had to be the classic bowfront bay windows common to the South End Victorian style homes.
"How clever," he thought, "the window, television, window sequence gave the illusion that there was no wall, just one big viewable window."
The kitchen photo was equally impressive, modern stainless-steel appliances, granite counters and matching backsplash, tons of entertaining space with an island and barstools. Two wine fridges flanked the ends of the islands, each one opened like French doors.
"How many wine fridges does one need?" he questioned.
The two main bedrooms were done in a contemporary style with minimalistic mid-century design furniture. The first room was quite large and had three impressive bookshelves lined against one wall that looked to be custom built inlays. They were filled to the ceiling with books and what looked to be a whole series of slender magazines with white spines occupying the middle shelf. Modern black and white architectural photographs of skyscrapers and art deco style buildings hung tastefully on the walls with one long narrow shot of the Golden Gate bridge over the headboard of the bed. The bedscape was done entirely in various whites, cremes, and a grey throw. An elegant glass triangular shaped desk with an oversized iMac with large screen sat in the corner next to two huge windows. It honestly could have passed for a page out of a Banana catalog if they actually did home goods.
The other bedroom was a bit smaller yet more relaxed in nature with a slight amount more color to it. Tons of photos full of smiling faces in similarly designed chrome frames of various shapes and sizes scattered throughout the room. The bed seemed pretty basic compared with the previous one, a simple solid comforter in navy blue with an almost comical amount of fluffy white and red pillows. A very patriotic color theme indeed. In one corner of the room was a three-tier dumbbell weight rack filled with hand weights. This sat next to another rack for weighted plates and barbells. Clearly, someone liked the gym enough to bring it home with him.
The bedroom for rent, presumably, was the last picture that showed nothing more than a twin bed frame pushed against the back of the wall taking up the whole width of the room. Six smaller windows arranged adjacent to each other, and centered in the middle, looked out over the front of the street into the park below. The windows seemed much smaller than the ones in the rest of the home oddly making the ceiling height seem higher. A dresser and mirror were located on the opposite side of the room taking up most of the length of the other side wall. Another door adjacent to the bedroom entrance looked like a small closet door. It stood in contrast to the other bedrooms that were furnished with all sorts of softening touches like books, pictures, bedding, and blankets along with their large windows.
"So maybe that's why the price is so low for the city. It's a small and narrow room, unlike the other larger bedrooms. Well, that's not so bad if that's the only downside," Michael reasoned to himself.
He bookmarked the apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon trolling through more ads and listings. His mind kept coming back to that one apartment listing on Union Park. Being the pessimist, however, he unconsciously discounted that possibility from gaining to much traction to keep himself from experiencing the upset when it did not work out. Or so he thought.
Part of him was just exhausted. Burnt out from so much over such a short period of time. A breakup with his first true boyfriend, college graduation, a long drawn out job search, and now another search for a place to live. He was luckily able to extend his housing situation at college by staying on as a resident advisor throughout the summer. Thankfully the summer crowd was pretty tame, just a bunch of high school age prospective Cramden College students staying on their best behavior in hopes of garnering a recommendation letter from a professor. Oh, who was he to complain? Michael did the same bullshit summer enrichment program, at his parent's request, when he was going into his senior year of high school. And it worked; he even got in on early acceptance when he applied to Cramden.
It's funny how bright and optimistic Michael was when he started college four years ago. Of course, he'll be making six figures by the time he graduates. Of course, he'll come out of the closet, find out who he truly is, form a connection to someone, and have this amazing life. Of course, he will. Of course...
Then, the tuition hikes started his junior year putting an end to his study abroad plans in Europe eventually forcing him to take on more student loans and a part-time job at the campus bookstore to come up with the difference. He eventually got rid of his seven-year-old car and made a small amount of cash on the sale, which was actually a blessing in disguise. That winter Boston had record snowfall and Cramden College had limited parking as gigantic snow piles dominated the urban campus and the one student lot. With the exception of full-time professors and faculty that lived outside the city limits, no one else was issued a parking permit including students that season.
The one bright point in that whole winter was when he met Alex, his first serious relationship, at a nearby college. He knew he was obviously gay by the time he moved to the city for the start of school but was way too timid to come out. When he moved off campus after his sophomore year, he simply stopped caring about the repercussions if he was outed and started making profiles on a few of the gay hookup apps. He could control precisely how anonymous he wanted to be.
Michael was happy to simply be one more random photo of a headless torso if it meant he finally got to explore his sexuality. Besides, it was Boston, one of the most liberal cities in the whole country. The state was the first to legally pass gay marriage. What the hell did it matter if there was one more gay guy walking around on the streets, or trying to hook up online?
Alex was a little more out, proud, and naturally more comfortable with himself than he was. On occasion, Michael would brush off Alex's public displays of affection with the same level of emotion in which it was given. These slap-backs drove Alex insane, and he would call Michael out on it when he reached his tipping point.
"It's like there are two of you, the public and private Michael: the one that will go down on me in your dorm room and suck me off. Then there's the Michael on the street that if I even so much as try and hold your hand I get smacked away," Alex lamented.
"It's just that it feels like you're painting a target on my back when we're out. I don't want to get gay bashed when we're just getting a coffee," Michael contested.
Clearly, they both were at very different stages in their coming out process and had different levels of what they considered acceptable. Even the sex was awkward at times with Alex getting to climax readily and Michael always being impossible to get off. Something obviously just was not working.
To fight his initial resistance and hesitation towards someone that was openly gay was an exercise in futility. Michael felt like he wanted this all along, to have a relationship with another guy, to be seen together, and most importantly, to live as though it were not a big deal. He just wanted to live his life. And for most of his last year at college, he was happy, despite the mounting piles of student loans and debt he was taking on. But, for the first time, he felt like he could see a glimpse of that sought-after light at the end of the tunnel. He could actually see a future with him and Alex.
And then, in the late spring of both of their senior years', Alex got accepted into a graduate program back home on the West coast close to his family. He delayed telling Michael genuinely out of concern at first because he knew it would cause him so much anxiety and stress. And then Alex justified not telling him because he honestly did not want to deal with the aftermath. Sometimes it was just easier to not do something about an issue until you did.
Near the end of the spring semester, finals were approaching, and Alex did not want to throw Michael off his momentum when he was so close to finishing his course requirements. In the end, Alex knew that the two of them would ultimately never be compatible and after exams were over, Alex informed Michael of his plans to go back to California after graduation.
The two weeks between finals and graduation Michael was probably more depressed than he was at any other point in his young adult life. He kept replaying the breakup conversation in his head over and over again as if that were to help the matter any.
Alex began, "I just feel like you're holding back with something. Like you can't even tell me what it is that gets you off. I tell you everything when we're intimate together in bed. I don't understand why you can't do the same..."
"I guess I'm not sure what it is that I even want," Michael replied.
"Damn it! I don't know how to even respond to that, but I need to tell you something. I've decided, I'm going back to California at the end of May. I accepted the offer to enter that master's program I was telling you about."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"No, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner but you were so focused on passing your finals. I know you can't afford to take out another semester of loans if you don't pass your senior capstone classes. Look, you'll make someone really happy someday I'm sure. But until you can be honest with yourself you're never going to feel comfortable with me or anyone else."
At that harsh realization, Michael knew Alex hit a nerve, something deep, something painful and down to his core. He fought back the tears as his throat started to tense and knot up making any further protests all but impossible. Eventually, it gave way to a single stream of salty emotion-filled tears that left him speechless unable to even think straight.
Alex tried his best to put the situation into perspective, "Look, how many gay couples both in their early twenties make it to the point where they get married? Damn, we're not straight, it's so much more complicated in our world, we don't just meet our future husbands at the same school, get married, and start popping out kids. It takes years, fucking years if not decades! Name one gay guy you know that actually wants to settle down in his early twenties. Everyone is playing the field and if you don't know you're never going to have the chance later."
But Michael continued to weep ever so discreetly in a vain attempt to try and preserve what little masculinity remained of his predicament. He looked away trying to mask his emotion which bordered on downright embarrassment for thinking he was naive to believe his first relationship would be his last. All he knew was that things felt reasonable with Alex and he wanted to explore the next stage, whatever that was, but certainly not this.
Alex sensed the awkward tension and was feeling the pain he was causing but knew it was over between them. Trying to downplay the seriousness of the end of their relationship he added, "Oh come on now, don't be such a baby."