Jesse Hamill
This is a love story between two consenting males and contains sexual themes and graphic depictions of sexual acts. It is by no means a sex story, and focuses on the relationship and romance first. This is also work of fiction. All characters in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This is my first work for Nifty and any criticism, comments, improvements or thanks can be directed at jesse.hamill88@gmail.com. I appreciate all the comments and support that I've received so far, so thank you readers!
As always, a special thanks to Ash, my editor. Your hard work is much appreciated by me and the readers. Thank you!
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The Love of Rainn: Chapter 8
Compared to Jesse's neat little apartment, Rainn lived in a crazy, eclectic, and cluttered house. There was knick-knacks and collectables from every corner of the world. Shelves held small statuettes of Hindu deities, Chinese dragons, fairies, tikis, sea shells, geodes, and even gnomes. Vases and ceramics filled the spaces in between. There were cabinets, chairs and a large regal sofa. Books and photos scattered everywhere, hangings of wall art, tapestries, clocks, and paintings.
Jesse just stood in wonder at all of the stuff that Rainn had in just the living room. How did he miss all of this when he came in to get his forehead looked at?
"Sorry, this is all Gran's stuff. She's a bit eccentric," Rainn said. "Hey, I hope you don't mind, but could you take your shoes off? Gran likes to keep the floors really clean..." Rainn asked.
"Sure, no problem," Jesse said, slipping out of his shoes. They set them by the door on a wooden frame. There was already some others that must belong to Rainn's Gran.
"Sounds like someone's home from work," Gran said, coming out of her sewing room.
"Yeah! I just finished my shift, and brought over Jesse to hang out with!" Rainn said.
"I thought he came over to tutor you in math?" she said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, that too..." Rainn replied. Turning to Jesse, he said, "Come on, I'll show you to my room. Through here..."
Jesse followed Rainn through a hallway and past several rooms. There was a sewing room full of fabrics and blouses, a large bedroom decorated in a simple Victorian style, and a tidy pink bathroom.
They passed through a kitchen and dining room before heading to the left side of the house. Rainn led Jesse down another hall passing a small ceramic studio and finally to his bedroom.
"Here we are," Rainn said.
"Wow! Your house is huge!" Jesse said back.
"Not really, it's only a single story, and we use most of the rooms to create ceramics or paintings."
Jesse followed Rainn into a long rectangular room with several windows that outlooked a garden. The room was originally painted white, but there was splashes of colors in a full range of spectrums all over the walls. The floor was a simple concrete slab except underneath the desk and the bed, which had old thick Persian rugs. A majority of the room was Rainn's studio. He had a large tall desk that was angled for drawing. It was adjustable for different heights and projects. His shelves were full of supplies and materials. There was paints, watercolors, markers, pens, pencils, brushes, cups and containers, buckets, coffee cans, paper, canvas, unfinished and finished ceramics and other projects. It was cluttered, but not messy or unorganized. There was some order to where things were stored and where they were placed. The wall space held paintings and drawings that Rainn had done himself. Colors permeated and stained almost every surface, from floor to ceiling.
Jesse was taken aback how incredible Rainn's room was. With everything there was to see, it was like a mini art gallery. He could spend hours just looking at the artwork on the walls.
"Sorry about the mess... I don't get a lot of visitors..." Rainn said meekly.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about. This had got to be the coolest room I've ever seen!" Jesse replied. He was still taking in everything around him.
Rainn smiled and went over to his desk.
"Umm... let's see," Rainn said to himself, moving things off his desk and setting them in random piles. He adjusted the tilt on the desk till it was laying flat. "Here we go. I'll go get us some chairs from the kitchen," he said and left.
Jesse had a few moments to look around some more. Rainn had a simple wooden bed frame, and a dresser towards the far end of the room. The bed was covered in different blankets and made haphazardly. The dresser was a large old wooden one, rustically crafted and painted red. Even the furniture and the bedcovers had paint on them.
At the desk, there was a stool, but it didn't look like it got much use. When Rainn was painting, it seemed, he preferred to stand.
Rainn got back, dragging two kitchen chairs. Jesse helped him with one of them and they placed them next to each other at the desk.
"Well, I'd thought we'd start with math. Then we could watch a movie, or something later?" he asked Jesse.
"Sure, whatever you want to do. What are you working on in math?"
"Solving equations, or something... Um... let's see." Rainn was looking through his bag and brought out his math textbook and his last quiz. He reluctantly showed Jesse his score.
"Okay... Well let's get started. What do you know about solving equations?"
"Honestly? Not... very much." Actually, it was nothing.
"Okay, it doesn't matter. Let's start at the beginning. Can I borrow some paper?"
"Sure, let me get some," Rainn said, grabbing some clean drawing paper and setting it on the desk.
"Okay," Jesse said, drawing a box. "Suppose I have this box, and it has a certain amount of..."
"Kittens?" Rainn suggested. He chuckled a little.
"Sure. It has a certain amount of kittens in it," Jesse said, smiling.
"Why a `certain amount?' Why can't we count them and know?"
"Ah... patience, grasshopper. We don't know, but we can figure it out."
Jesse drew an equal sign next to the box and then proceeded to draw some kittens. He was terrible and ended up drawing ovals with legs and a tail.
"I'm regretting my decision on kittens..." Jesse said laughing.
"They're ok. We can add detail later," Rainn replied, also laughing a little.
"Well, anyway now we have two equal amounts. Here's a box of kittens we aren't sure of and here's kittens we can count. The box of kittens and the countable ones are the same, because of this," he said indicating the equal sign.
"Okay... So there's like... four kittens, in the box?"
"Yes! See the box and the loose kittens have to be the same. Now for another."
Jesse drew two boxes this time, another equal sign, and six oval blobs with legs. Rainn wasn't sure what he was doing, but he trusted Jesse. Mr. Sullivan had never taught like this... but... maybe Jesse was on to something?
"Okay. Now we have two boxes and six kittens. The boxes have the same amount of kittens as one another."
"Okay..." Rainn was listening carefully so he wouldn't get lost.
"And, both boxes together are the same amount as these six kittens over here."
"So each box has six kittens?" Rainn said, confused. He was just guessing.
"Well, let's see." He drew six tiny blobs inside each box, twelve altogether.
"If we think there's six kittens in each box, we have twelve on this side, and six on this side. Not the same amount, huh?"
"Nope... sorry... I'm not very good at this..." Rainn said, confidence fading.
"No, it's okay to experiment. We can try a solution and check to see if it's right." He said it as encouragingly as possible.
Rainn was now intrigued by this idea. He knew that math had only one correct answer and had never heard about trial and error in it. This was staring to sound a lot like science...
"So we can try again?" Rainn asked.
"Yes, of course! We can try as many times as we need until we get it right. We know that six kittens per box is too much. So, we'll try again."
"Okay... maybe four each?" Rainn suggested.
"Alright. Four each." He erased two kittens from each box, leaving four each.
"Now we have...?" he said, indicating that Rainn should answer.
"Uh... eight in the boxes, and six in the open. Wait... that's still not it," he said. "Oh!! I see it now!! Three each!" Rainn took the pencil from Jesse's hand and erased one more kitten from each box. Now there were six kittens on each side.
Oh my god! He touched my hand! Relax... just focus... and breathe, Jesse thought to himself.
Jesse took a slow deep breath and said, "Good! You're starting to see the pattern. Okay, next..."
He grabbed a new pencil from his bag and drew three boxes this time and fifteen little blobs.
"Same thing. Each box has to have the same amount as the other boxes. And, all the boxes have to have the same amount as the kittens over here."
"Okay... Hmm..." Rainn thought.
He put three kittens in each box mentally.
Nope that was only nine... Four?... nope only twelve kittens. Wait! Five! !t has to be five to make fifteen! Three times five was fifteen, thought Rainn.
"Five?" he asked cautiously.
"Yes! How did you figure that out?" Jesse asked.
"I tried three, and then four each, but that wasn't enough... so I tried five. I remembered that three times five will make fifteen."
"Yeah! You're making good progress!" he said.
Jesse went on to explain that the boxes were "unknown values" and that the kittens were "known values", like numbers.
"Okay... but what does this have to do with math?" Rainn asked skeptically. He's never seen Mr. Sullivan draw boxes or kittens...
"This is math! It just looks different. Here, I'll show you..."
He drew out another set of two boxes, this time with an "x" in each one. He then drew another equal sign and the number ten.
"This look a little more familiar?"
"Yeah... kinda..."
"Same thing as before, though. But, instead of kittens, we're talking about amounts. Just numbers now. What do you think?"
"Uh... 5? A five and a five will make ten..."
"Exactly! You're staring to see it. Now..." he said, as he started writing out a real equation.
"4x = 20. The boxes," he said, "are the x's, the variables. The numbers, are known, like the kittens from before." He drew four boxes and twenty blobs like he did earlier. "There. You can see the equation," he said indicating it, "and a diagram of what it might mean."
Rainn had never seen math taught like this before. They spent two hours drawing and representing equations. Rainn, at first, needed to draw boxes to figure out what each variable represented. But, towards the end, he was getting confident enough to figure the equations out on his own. After, Jesse showed him traditional methods to solving them. Rainn was finally beginning to understand.
"You boys doing okay?" Gran asked. She had peeked in to check on them.
"Yeah, we're doing fine. Check this out Gran!" Rainn said. He got up and started explaining to her everything that Jesse showed him in math. Jesse watched, smiling as he talked to her animatedly. Rainn was just about to finish when thunder overhead interrupted him.
"Oh!," she said. "That thunder sacred me! It's really coming down out there isn't it?" She walked to the windows and looked out. "Don't you just love the rain?"
"Yes, but I also love `the Gran,' too," Rainn said smiling.
"That one's always his favorite joke, Jesse. Make sure you never say that you hate the rain. You'll never live it down!"
"I'll try to watch out for that one, Mrs. Dawson," Jesse said, smiling.
"Do you boys want some hot chocolate? Nothing goes better with this weather than hot chocolate."
"Yeah!" they both said together. They looked at each other and smiled. She smiled back at them and went into the kitchen.
Jesse and Rainn continued working on math, but were anxious to take a break. The thunder over them was rolling pretty loudly, and the lights flickered a few times.
"I hope the power doesn't go out... That would suck," Rainn said.
"Yeah, we'd never get to watch a movie. But, on the plus side, you're getting good at solving equations!"
"Yeah, thanks Jesse... I'll make it up to you someday..."
"What're you talking about? You promised me a drawing. That's more than enough!" he said happily.
Rainn was glad he appreciated a drawing, but it still felt lacking somehow.
"I'll be able to frame it, and be a millionaire when you're stuff's in museums. I'll have a Rainn Dawson original sketch!"
They laughed a little and heard Elise coming with the hot chocolate. She brought in a tea tray with two oversized mugs of cocoa and a small plate of oatmeal cookies.
"Here we are! I brought you guys a snack, too," she said setting the tray on the desk. "Let me know if you boys need anything else, okay?"
"Okay Gran!" Rainn said
"Yeah, thanks Mrs. Dawson," Jesse said.
They stopped their math session and had some hot chocolate and cookies. They talked about school while they snacked. Jesse was impressed with the quality of the cocoa. He was used to people making instant cocoa from a packet of powder, but this was made with real milk and real chocolate.
"Rainn, this hot chocolate is really good! What kind is it?"
"I'm not sure... Gran gets it from Mexico. All I know is that it has natural sugar, cinnamon and a little bit of chili powder in it."
"Cool. I like it, and the cookies are good, too!"
"Those, I think she bakes and puts in the freezer for when company comes over. Then she just heats them in the oven or nukes them in the microwave."
"Ah, clever," he said, smiling. He got out a composition notebook and began jotting things down in it.
"What'cha writing there?" Rainn asked.
"Oh, I'm writing down the flavor combinations from the cocoa. I keep a journal with me wherever I go and write down the things I like... or don't like... mostly about food."
"Oh. That's cool," Rainn replied. "I do the same, I guess. Just with art."
"Yeah, but your stuff is probably way more interesting than mine..." he said, putting the notebook away.
"Well... maybe. We'll have to compare notes, won't we?" he asked slyly.
Jesse got a little red, but responded with, "Uh... yeah. Maybe one day..."
They finished snacking and drinking their cocoa. Rainn and Jesse were about to go to the living room when the lights went out.
"Oh crap," Jesse said.
"Um... let's see. I have some candles here somewhere," Rainn said.
He began rifling through his desk and his shelves and found some small candles.
"Crap... I don't have matches... Wait. I think there's some in the pottery room. Hold on, I'll be right back!"
Under the circumstances, Jesse thought that the setting was quite romantic. He was alone with a really cute guy, (in his room nonetheless!) and would have to see him in candlelight. The more he thought about it, the redder he got.
Good thing the lights are out, he thought. Well... until my face lights up the room like a Rudolph's nose...
Rainn returned with a couple of lit candles and carefully set them on the desk. Elise came in right behind him carrying a large oil lamp. Despite it's small flame, the lamp lit up the room nicely.
"Well, I'm not sure how long we'll be in the dark," Gran said, "but, hopefully not too long."
"Yeah, we were planning to watch a movie..." Rainn said, disappointed.
"You have your tablet, screen thingy... right? Doesn't it have a few movies on it?" she asked him.
"Oh yeah! Thanks Gran!" She smiled and left the room.
Rainn searched around his room with a candle till he found his tablet, stuffed under his pillows.
"Here we go. I have only a few of them on here... let's see..."
They looked on the screen together and picked through the few movies that he had downloaded. Jesse was surprised to see that Rainn loved horror movies, and they decided on "The Silence of the Lambs." It was older, but still told a good story. It was one of Jesse's favorites.
Rainn put the tablet on his desk and adjusted the brightness. They sat watching the movie, mostly in silence, and eating what was left of the oatmeal cookies. More than once, Jesse had to resist the urge to put his arm around Rainn or grab his hand. He was sitting right next to Jesse and he looked so darn cute, especially during some of the more horrific scenes. They got almost till the very end before the tablet died. It's battery was spent.
"Ahh man!" Rainn said. "It crapped out on us. I knew I should have charged it today!" Rainn said.
"It's all good... I know how the story ends," Jesse said.
"Me, too, but this... has been kinda lame. Stupid weather!"
"Hey, you can't hate the rain! That's you!" he said, smiling.
"...Alright, fine," Rainn, smiling. He sighed. "I just wish we had the power back on..."
"It's okay. We can go to a movie tomorrow. Assuming that the power is back on by then."
"Really?" Rainn asked.
"Yeah! You wanna?"
"Yeah, definitely. I wonder what's playing?"
"I'm not sure... Wish the internet was back on. Wait... I think I can check on my phone," Jesse said getting up to get the phone from his pocket.
He had some decent cell service, and got on the web to check what was showing. He read off titles, each one a little lamer than the next, till they got to something that sounded scary.
"Ooooh! That one!" Rainn said. He didn't mean to sound so excited, like a little kid, so he added, "...Well it might be good. Or we can laugh about how lame it is."
"Okay. Sounds good to me," he said. "It doesn't start till three, though... You wanna hang out tomorrow till then? I can tutor you some more. Well... you're improving so you might not need it..."
"Yeah, that sounds good. There's some other stuff I've been having trouble with..." Rainn wasn't sure what stuff exactly, but there was a whole math textbook full of ideas.
"Okay. I can come pick you up at like ten o'clock, tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah. Okay."
Jesse smiled and was putting away his phone, when he looked at it in shock.
"Holy crap! It's like 11:30!! I've got to get home before my mom kills me!" he said, gathering his stuff up.
Rainn helped him get everything he had from the desk, carefully using the lamplight. He checked to see if he had everything and Rainn led him back to the front door. Jesse quickly dashed through the rain and got in the jeep. He waved bye as he backed out and drove home.
Rainn couldn't wait till tomorrow.
Author's note: If you are bored and need something to do, may I invite you to a fun chat room with other Nifty readers and authors? One of my readers invited me and I chat almost everyday, now. Join us at:
http://www.sierranet.org/javairc/nifty.html
Copyright Jesse Hamill and nifty.org 2015. All rights reserved.
The Silence of the Lambs is property of Thomas Harris and Orion Pictures, Copyright 1991.