This story contains adult and sexual situations between males. If this is not to your liking....well you know the drill.
Here's Chapter 21, I apologize in advance for any typos or hard to understand sentences. I had zero time to proofread so don't hate me too much. I'm on vacation for the next couple of weeks so I will not be updating. Hope you guys enjoy this one and feel free to e mail me while I'm gone. Thanks guys.
Three Roads Chapter 21: Sing Your Own Special Song (Part 1)
Eric's long fingers tapped the keyboard, trying to will himself to think of something to type in. He glanced over at his alarm clock and saw, much to his dismay, that only two minutes had passed since he had last looked at it.
He had already been on all the sites he normally checked throughout the day several times. At this point in time, however, he didn't care about the witty away messages or what was going on in the world, he just needed something to occupy his time. He glanced at the clock and barely a minute had passed. He quickly got up from his desk chair and scanned his room for anything out of place. He was once again disappointed to find that his room was immaculate; he had already cleaned it two hours ago. Usually, this would have been a time when he went to Cooper's room to be entertained, but Cooper had not been his usual self for days now. Eric wasn't sure if he was still upset about what Kevin had done, as far as he knew they hadn't spoken or even seen each other since then, but he had expected Cooper to have bounced back by now; instead Cooper had just been in a very depressed and down mood. Eric's phone rang and he ran back to his desk, full of excitement. Once he saw it was his mother calling, he was tempted not to answer it, but guilt crept over him, "Hello?!"
"Hi," his mother's voice rang from the other end, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, what do you want?"
"That's not a very nice way to speak to your mother."
"Sorry, what's up?"
Carol still didn't appreciate the tone, but she decided it best to ignore it, "I'm just making sure you're still coming home for the weekend. I haven't seen you in forever, I feel like my own son is a stranger."
"Yeah, mom I'll be home this weekend." He heard a beep that told him someone was calling on the other line. He glanced at his phone as his mom droned on about something and he saw that Jon was the caller on the other line.
"Mom, I got to go. There's a ...fire drill right now, I have to get the residents out before they die. Bye!" He shamelessly disconnected the call with his mother and picked up Jon's call.
"Hey," Eric said, trying to sound calm and collected.
"I'm outside of the building."
"All right, I'll be down in a sec." Eric raced down the hallway and almost bumped into Cooper as he came to the staircase.
"No running in the halls!" Cooper barked.
"Cooper, it's me." Eric laughed.
"Then you should no better." Cooper walked past him without saying another word. Eric would stop by later to talk to Cooper, but right now he wasn't going to be affected by Cooper's sour mood. He confidently jogged down the last flight of stairs and was surprised to see Jon standing in the lobby.
"Did Cooper let you in?"
"Some girl opened the door for me." Jon said. He gave Eric a hug and Eric returned it and liked how warm Jon felt. They broke the hug and made small talk as they walked up the stairs to the third floor, "You want to watch a movie or something?" Eric said once they were in his room.
"Yeah, what you got, I'll let you pick."
"You seen I Heart Huckabees?"
"Never even heard of it."
"Oh, then we are so watching this. Mark Wahlberg's in it and Jude Law...."
"He's hot. All English guys are ya know."
"Right." Eric laughed.
"You don't believe me?"
"Jude Law is pretty hot, but what happened to you?" Eric said smiling. Jon tackled him and they landed on the bed. Eric was still holding the movie, but Jon ripped the DVD from his hands and held both of Eric's hands over his head.
"Take it back!" Jon said smiling.
"No, I must stand by my morals." Eric said squirming, trying to get free.
"You better take it back right now." Jon said, still firmly holding Eric's hands.
"No, I refuse!" Eric had stopped squirming now as he realized exactly what position he was in. A very good looking guy was over him and had him in a compromising position. Jon seemed to also sense the change in the air as his eyes made contact with Eric`s. Jon slowly grinded his crotch into Eric's and waited for any sign of reluctance from the boy who seemed to be helplessly beneath him. Jon carefully lowered the rest of his body and dropped his head low enough to where Eric could feel his warm breath over his face. Just when Jon's lips were about to touch Eric's, Eric found the strength to push Jon off of him.
"I--I have to go to the bathroom real quick, I'll be right back." Eric ran out of the room and was thankful that the bathroom was directly across from his room. He walked to the sink and took a deep breath before splashing some water all over his face.
"You got to go back in there." Eric said to himself. He walked out of the bathroom and his hand lingered over the doorknob before he entered the room.
Jon was sitting on the bed and had a worried expression on his face.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Eric said hurriedly, "You want to watch the movie now?"
"Yeah, put it in."
Over the next two hours they both watched the movie, talking in between, but mostly they concentrated on the movie. Eric hummed the score that played at the end of the movie, as he always did. He waited until the score ended before turning the DVD player off.
"I know it's the same music at the beginning and the end, but it always sounds happier at the end for some reason. Did you like it?"
"Ummm...it was interesting."
"Oh my God, you didn't like it. That's like my favorite movie right there. Why didn't you like it?"
"It's not that I didn't like it," Jon said, trying to backtrack, "More like I didn't get it."
"What's not to get, it's about the phases we go through when working out a problem."
"I don't know it was just a little weird."
"Well you're a little weird for not liking it." Eric smiled.
"Maybe," Jon looked down at his watch, "I got to run, but can we hang this weekend?"
"I don't know if I want to see you again after you dismissed I Heart Huckabees."
"Right, you can't stand to be away from me and my British charm."
"I thought the British were modest people?"
"Well, I've been living in the US for a while now, it's pretty much all gone."
Eric laughed, "I can't. I'm going to what I affectionately call hell this weekend." Jon looked confused, "I'm going home."
"Oh, got ya." Jon said disappointment obvious in his voice.
"I'll be back fairly early on Sunday though. It's probably all I'll be able to stand of my mother. We're doing some stuff with the QSA on campus though. You should come with us."
"Yeah, that'd be cool. Can I call you sometime during the weekend?"
"Uhh...yeah, that's fine."
"You want to walk me out?"
"Yeah." They walked out of the room and out of the building, mostly in silence. Jon was thinking about what he would do now that Eric would be out of town for the weekend and Eric was thinking about how much his life had changed in just a year. Last year this time, he hadn't told anyone that he was gay, he could barely admit it to himself, and now he was here, with a very attractive boy who was actually interested in him. They were near Jon's car when Eric suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Eric smiled. He watched as Jon drove across the parking lot to the traffic light. The car paused until the light turned green and then sped away, disappearing in the darkness. Eric was now free to think about the thought that had startled him just a few minutes before...were him and Jon dating?
"No, you're seeing each other." Tim said matter of factly the next day over lunch.
"There's a difference?"
"Yes, there are 4 stages. You go on the first date, then you're seeing each other, then you're dating, and then you're in a relationship."
"That makes absolutely no sense."
"Oh, it does. You meet a hot boy and you know a few things about him, but you go out with him to see if you have enough in common to even consider going out on more dates to maybe start a relationship."
"Right." Eric said not believing any of what Tim was saying.
"Then if he's still hot after the first date, you go on a few more dates and that means you're seeing each other. After that is when you move into dating someone, you're spending a lot of time together, you're both really into each other. And then comes a relationship. It's really quite simple."
"Oh yeah, because everyone knows the difference between seeing and dating."
"They should. It's ok to see multiple people to figure out which one you like the best, but you shouldn't date more than one person; dating implies a commitment."
Eric looked at Tim with a blank expression and Tim smiled, "Welcome, to the world of dating or in this case seeing someone."
"You and Toby didn't follow that pattern." Eric said smiling, happy that he had found a hole in his friend's ridiculous claims.
"True love doesn't follow a path sometimes, plus you're dating a frog."
"Hey, don't talk about my man like that!" Eric said exaggerating his head movement. They both laughed loudly and a couple of people that were also in the university coffee shop turned to stare in annoyance at the two friends.
"Are you going to help us do the QSA stuff Sunday night?"
"Probably," Tim said nonchalantly, "It's not like I have a life."
"Oh, whatever. Hey I got to get going, I still need to pack and get on the road before all the traffic. I'll see you on Sunday night then maybe."
"Yeah," Tim said, getting up to hug his friend, "Have fun."
Eric pulled into the parking space his mother paid an extra ten dollars a month for, especially when he came home so that he wouldn't have to walk from the street to the apartment building. He had already talked to his mother and knew that she would not be home for at least a few hours when he arrived. She was working the late shift at the grocery store tonight. Eric walked into the apartment and smiled. Even though he had been avoiding coming home lately because of his mother's obvious feelings towards gay people, he still couldn't help but feel comfortable here. They had never had a lot of money, but Eric still had enjoyed his childhood, a big portion of it, spent in this very apartment. He was walking to his bedroom when he heard a knock at the door. He opened the door and smiled when he saw Michael standing at the doorway.
"And I thought I would have forgotten what you looked like after not seeing you for so long, but you're still as adorable as ever." Michael said trying to pinch Eric's cheeks. Eric slapped his hand away and the two boys embraced.
"It's only been like two months."
"Yeah, you haven't come to see me since school started, asshole."
"I know, I know. I've been trying to come home as little as possible." Eric said walking into the kitchen.
"It really can't be that bad." Michael said, catching the soda that Eric had tossed to him.
"Oh yeah, your mother hating you is not a big deal at all."
"She doesn't hate you. She doesn't like something you do, and you yourself said she wouldn't disown you or anything."
"I don't think she would, but you never know."
"Oh!" Michael yelped, with a suspicious smile on his face, "I'll be right back." He ran out of the apartment and Eric looked through the window to watch Michael running, very effeminately, back to his car. He came back a few seconds later, running up the stairs with a package in his hand.
"This is for you."
Eric could tell by the way it was wrapped that it was a DVD, "Could it be any more obvious."
"Just open it, bitch." Eric smiled and ripped the wrappng paper off of the DVD. It took a few moments for it to sink in what he was looking at. He had watched a fair amount of porn, and Cooper had talked about I before, but he had never actually seen a guy receive a facial, but it was clearly displayed on the cover of the DVD. Across the picture, in big letters was written Cum On My Face 3.
"Why, did you buy me this?"
"It's my congratulations for you going out with that English guy, what was his name Winifred or something."
"Yeah, Jon sounds a lot like Winifred."
"It kinda does. Anyway, I decided to get you started in the world of gay porn."
"I've seen it before."
"Oh my dear friend, clips online don't count. I'm talking about the real stuff." He tapped the DVD and then smiled at Eric, "Want to watch it?"
"Um, no." Eric said laughing uncomfortably, "Remember I'm dating Winifred."
"You mean seeing him."
"Huh?"
"You're not dating him, you're seeing him. See the difference is...."
"I know the difference, thank you." Eric said rolling his eyes. The boys talked and chatted for a few more hours, but it was soon getting close to the time when Eric's mother would be arriving. The boys made plans to have breakfast on Sunday morning and Eric returned to the apartment after walking Michael to his car. He had never put his bags away, so he retrieved his belongings and took them to his room. He saw the porn that Michael had bought him and he slid it under his bed and made a mental note not to forget it when he left on Sunday.
He woke up startled the next morning and realized he had fallen asleep before his mother had come home. He looked at the clock and it read 8:30. He could hear bacon being fried and so he pulled himself out of bed, stretched his body, and walked to the kitchen.
"You're wasting away in front of my eyes." His mother said, as he walked into the kitchen, "Do you eat at school?"
"Yes, mother I eat."
"Ok," she said walking towards him. She planted a kiss on his forehead, "I'm glad you're home."
She finished making breakfast and they took it into the living room and turned on the tv. One of the numerous entertainment shows was on the television and Eric and his mother both recognized the guy as one who had participated in one of the reality shows that were overpopulating the networks. He was coming out as being gay. Eric kind of chuckled, because he was not a big star, Eric wouldn't have remembered his first name, if it hadn't been plastered over the screen several times during the interview, but he still thought it was a brave thing to do. The "star" recounted how horrible he felt about "lying to his family, friends, and to the public, but that now he hoped to help others by being honest about himself."
"That's unfortunate." Carol said once the interview was over.
"What?"
"He said he got picked on in high school because people thought he was a homosexual. Kids can be so mean."
"You're defending him?" Eric said in disbelief.
His mother gave him a stern look, "Eric, just because I have my own beliefs about homosexuals and the way they live doesn't mean I think they or any person should be bullied or beat up, and I'm offended you would even think suggest such a thing."
"I'm sorry."
"You should be."
The next afternoon, Eric had packed up his belongings and wanted to get home a few hours before he was going to help out the Alliance, because he had some homework to finish. His mother, was in the bathroom with the door open, applying makeup as she was scheduled to be at work soon.
"I'm leaving in a few minutes, Mom."
"Ok, just give me a few minutes so I can finish." He went in the living room and sat down, going over exactly what he needed to do when he got home.
His mother walked in and sat down beside him.
"I wish you would come home more often, but I am proud of you. You're off on your own, getting an education, and I'm glad you've realized the importance of such things."
Eric didn't know what to say, so instead he reached over and gave his mother a hug. Carol realized the significance of this; usually she was the one who always initiated any kind of hugging or intimacy between the two of them, but she smiled as she hugged her only child.
"I promise to come home more often," Eric said, "I'll see you in a week or two for Thanksgiving."
"Alright dear, I love you."
"I love you too." Eric smiled.
Eric walked down the hallway and was surprised to see Cooper's door open. He peaked his head in and saw Cooper sitting at his desk and Joey was sitting on the bed.
"Hey" Eric said, lightly knocking on the door."
"Hey man," Cooper said, "How was home?"
"Good, really good actually. Hey Joey."
"Hey there hot stuff."
"Glad to hear home was good, how's Jon?" Cooper said raising an eyebrow.
"You're back to normal, I see."
"He is," Joey said, "It just took a little of my magic."
"What does that mean?" Eric said looking from Joey to Cooper.
"Nothing, he's just being silly, is being back to my old self a bad thing?"
"No, and I know I'll regret saying this, but I missed the real Cooper. I'm glad you're in better spirits."
"Me too, I think the hardest thing in life is knowing the times it's best to stay put and wait for the things to change or to accept they won't and move on.
"Here here," Joey said, "but seriously how is it going with Jon?"
"It's...exciting. The other day, it just kind of hit me, I'm dating someone!"
"You're not dating him, you're seeing him." Cooper said seriously.
"Good job," Joey said looking at Cooper, "I didn't even pick up on that."
"Why does everyone keep saying that?! Did everyone get together and make this up? It's so dumb, it doesn't make any sense."
"It makes plenty of sense," Cooper started, "You'd be a skank to date more than one person at once, but it's totally acceptable to see more than one person."
"Yeah, you don't want people calling you a slutface do you?"
"Whatever. Are either of you coming to help QSA tonight?" Eric asked.
"I'm not," Joey said, "I've got other stuff to do."
"Jerking off doesn't count." Cooper laughed.
"Ok, then I just don't want to."
"Come by and get me when you're going to head over there." Cooper said chuckling.
"Ok, Jon's coming with us too, is that cool?"
"Awww, the two lovebirds are already attached at the hip."
"Ok, maybe I don't miss the real Cooper." Eric said while walking out of the room.
Eric, Cooper, and Jon walked into the Multi-Cultural Center, where all the QSA meetings were held, and saw that they appeared to be the last ones there. They took a seat in the last row to cause as little disruption as possible. Toby and Richard, who had taken seats at the very front, turned around to wave.
"Wow, I'm surprised Toby could make it." Eric said sarcastically.
"Huh?" Cooper whispered.
"He hasn't spent any time with us lately. It's always something."
"Uh huh."
"He didn't even save us a seat."
"Shhh!"
"Ok, so first can I just say I think it's awesome that we are going to be apart of Sunnydale University's very first Queer Day!" Bliss screamed as if she were leading a cheer at a football game.
"Yeah!" Richard yelled.
"Tonight, what we're going to do is chalk several areas of the campus."
"Chalk?" Jon said confused.
"I like your accent is it Canadian?" Bliss asked seriously.
"Um...English."
Bliss laughed, "Of course you speak English or I wouldn't be able to understand you, but where is your accent from?"
"Just keep going Bliss." Richard whispered.
"Right. By chalking I mean we're going to write a bunch of stuff with chalk on all the walkways across campus. Most of it will be facts or little fun tid bits, but we'll also have arrows pointing people to the booth we'll have set up in the quad."
"Right on!" Richard yelled.
"Could you shut up?" Toby said looking at his boyfriend.
"So we're going to split up into groups of two, so that we can make sure we get all the areas we want covered." Bliss started to pair people up. As she dismissed them to their assigned area of campus, she handed each group a few index cards with something written on them.
"Richard, why don't you work with me." Bliss said.
"Um...I don't think so." Toby said to Richard quietly.
"Is it ok if I work with Toby?"
"Ok," Bliss said disappointed, "I'll take...you!" She said staring at Jon, "Does everyone have a partner and index cards...Ok, let's meet back here in an hour."
Everyone dispersed and Richard and Toby made their way to the major walkway that was near the Health Center.
"What was that about?" Richard asked Toby, once they were out of ear shot of everyone else."
"Richard, you're attracted to her, I'm not leaving you two alone."
"Oh yeah, cause we're going to go have sex in the quad area while everyone else is chalking."
"That's not even remotely funny."
"Yeah, you don't trust me. I told you it's not an issue, I'm not going anywhere." "Still, why even play with temptation? You have me who else do you need?"
"That's not what it's about. We don't have a relationship if you don't trust me."
"Look! How would you feel if me and Tim were hanging out together?"
"You still like him?"
"It's an example! You wouldn't like it."
"No, I wouldn't. But I trust you not to cheat on me. I'd have to get over it."
"Bullshit!" Toby yelled, "I don't want to talk to you right now until I calm down, let's split up."
"There's only one piece of chalk, smart guy."
Toby dropped the chalk on the ground. One big piece was still intact, but some of it had splintered into small little pieces.
"There, take your pick." Toby said walking away, leaving behind a very angry and frustrated Richard.
An hour later, they gathered again for some last minute instructions from Bliss. "Ok, so for those of you helping tomorrow morning, that's myself, Richard, Eric, Cooper, Venus, Serena, Hermione, and Ron, we'll meet at the booth at 8 o clock tomorrow morning. Dr. Taylor will be joining us at some point."
"You're not helping out tomorrow." Richard said incredulously to Toby.
"No, tennis comes first for me."
"Since when?"
"Since you became all obsessed with this group."
"You know if you're not there tomorrow I might just get some alone time with Bliss. Do I have your permission?" Richard said mockingly.
"No, you don't."
"Too bad, then deal with it." Richard said walking away. He approached Jon, Eric, and Cooper who were standing in a corner chatting.
"Hey guys." Richard said awkwardly.
"Hey." Cooper said.
"I was wondering if you guys wanted to walk over here together tomorrow morning."
"Yeah that'd be cool." Eric said, "We'll come by your room."
"All right cool."
At 7:45 the following morning, Cooper, Eric, and Richard made their way to the quad area, each carrying their backpacks with them so that when their time was up they could go to class. They were making small talk as they walked through the campus, passing by the students, most of which were carrying a caffeinated beverage.
"Woah! Look." Richard stopped. It was the remnants of the areas they had chalked.
"A lot of people must have already walked by there this morning." Eric said.
"No, it looks like someone threw water over it to erase it," Richard said angrily, "Let's walk a little faster, maybe we'll have time to fix it before we start."
"Bliss!" Richard said as soon as they approached the booth, "Someone destroyed some of the chalk by the math building!"
"I know, they also totally wiped out the stuff by the Health Center and by the back entrance of school." Richard got even more angry because it looked as if Bliss were on the verge of crying.
"What should we do?" Richard asked her.
"Well, I sent the girls out to at least make sure the arrows are re done, so people know where we are."
"Ok." Richard said trying to clam down.
Bliss turned to Cooper and Eric, "Will you guys go and get the boxes that are sitting on the first table in the Center? They're not that heavy."
"Yeah." Cooper said. They hurriedly walked off.
"Can you believe that shit?" Richard started, "When could they have done this? We didn't finish until like ten last night."
"It's not like it's been a secret. We've had fliers up all last week, advertising. It was a given we were going to chalk." Bliss said.
"Still, aren't there cameras or something."
"Yeah, right. We go to Sunnydale. They don't pay for anything more than they have to."
Eric and Cooper came running back towards the booth without the boxes they had been sent to retrieve.
"Where are the boxes?"
"We didn't get that far," Eric said hurriedly, "We thought we'd come and warn you."
"About what?" Bliss said alarmed.
"Them." Eric pointed and Bliss slowly turned toward the direction in which Eric's finger was pointing. Setting up a booth directly across from them was the CCJ, the Campus Crusaders for Jesus. They were planting stakes into the grassy areas surrounding the quad, the biggest one read, "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
"Can they do that?" Eric said, frantically looking to Bliss.
"Yep, as long as they have permission from the school they can do whatever they want." Bliss said.
"That's not right." Richard seethed, "I'm not going to let them." He left the booth and began on a direct path to where the Campus Crusaders for Christ had set up their booth.
Carol had been awake for hours by now, she couldn't sleep, especially not now. She had tried to eat, but she was worried about keeping her food down.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, staring as impassively as she could in any other direction, than on what was on the table. She willed herself to look once more, hoping and praying, that it was a bad dream and that she just simply hadn't woken up yet. She let out a small yelp when she saw it was still there. The DVD, with two man depicted in a revolting sexual encounter, was still there, very real and staring at her from the table. She knocked it off the table and buried her face in her hands. She picked up the phone that was sitting on the kitchen counter and dialed her son's cell phone number. She was half relieved, half scared when his voice mail picked up. What was he doing? Was he really too busy this early in the morning to answer his phone. Carol didn't dare think that he might be out with another man. Michael, that kid Michael. She knew he would be a horrible influence. Sauntering around and parading his lifestyle the way he did. The beep of Eric's voicemail momentarily quieted her thoughts.
"Eric, this is your mother!"