UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
By
Rev. Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters and situations are purely imaginary. Any resemblence to any living persion is coincidental. This story is primarily a romance but does contain some scenes of explicit sex, primarily homosexual but not exclusively.
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CHAPTER 24
I stirred in the bed, a strange bed in a feminine bedroom, and tried to settle into a new comfortable position. The sun was out, it was clearly morning but the night before had gone to well into the early morning hours. Half asleep, I realized that the body next to me was unfamiliar and then remembered. Carter, completely unused to sharing his bed, stirred awake as I moved. I had almost drifted back off to sleep when he moved again.
"You awake?" he asked
"Not really" I answered. I can be grumpy in the morning.
"Okay" he said.
I didn't want to leave it like that. "How do you feel?"
"Good, I think. Good." Carter said. "Where's Xander?"
"Who knows" I said, burrowing down. I want just a bit more.
"It's strange being naked in bed with you. I don't know the ettiquette. Can I touch you?"
"Sure. You mean cuddle or you want...?"
"I meant cuddle" Carter said. "But ..."
I laughed and leaned up on my arm. "Cuddle all you want. I like cuddling. You can touch me anywhere you want. I just woke up so it's hard but, you know, I'm gay and you're gay and we had sex last night and I don't guess we have to be shy."
"No" he said, looking down and away from me and being shy despite the word. I lifted his chin up and leaned over and kissed him. He smiled. "I guess today is the first day of a new life. Last night was great."
I nod. It was really. I had made somebody I care about happy. Made him feel loved and accepted and I was glad. In that moment, lying next to him, I was happy. We didn't speak and just wrapped up in each other's arms and again I almost nodded off. But Xander coming in woke me up. Actually it was the smell of coffee that did it.
"So, you two are smart. What's the plan?" Xander asked. I looked at Carter and really had no idea. He just shrugged. "I guess you're not going back to straight camp are you?"
He shook his head and the sadness that always seemed to be surrounding him, that had temporarily fled, returned, enveloping him. "If I don't, I'm cut off from my family forever. I'm going out into the world alone with nothing. Is sex really worth it? Is it really that big a deal?"
"Love is" I said
"Were you happy beofe, being celibate and all, playing straight?" xander asked
"No" Carter said. "I did try to kill myself"
"And you were a virgin until last night. Miserable and suicidal and now you're not a virgin. So, whatta you think? Worth it?"
"Yeah" Carter said. "Yeah it is. I'm never going to be happy being what they want to be"
It was a bit of self-revelation that I half thought he wasn't capable of, being so locked into one way of thinking. "Well, then, I guess we need a plan. What we ought to do is talk to Joe"
It made sense to me that a lawyer would be able to help. Carter moved closer up to me and put his hand on my thigh. When I didn't object, it went on my crotch. "Come to bed, Xander" I said.
It was slower in the daylight in a way. We needed to leave but we weren't rushed. Carter, who was horny and had just found a great new thing to do, wanted it but was shy about his body. I thought he was being silly -- he had been chubby once but not anymore and while he wasn't as sexy as Xander, he was cute enough -- but years of being beaten down aren't just magically waved away because somebody has sex with you. Xander has nothing to be ashamed of and wouldn't be anyway and I still think I am skinny but I have long since gotten over being embarassed about being naked. He will too.
He watched intenly as I blew Xander. I loved just playing with his dick. Licking and stroking and nibbling on the foreskin. I am not even trying to get him off but I know it feels good. Carter is hard as he watches me do it. He is trying to be coy about stroking himself. Xander flings back the sheet and kids him about him hard on. Carter blushes but doesn't pull the sheet back over it. I go from one to the other.
One thing is that Carter isn't a selfish lover. He wants to pleasure me and Xander almost more than he wants to be pleasured by us. I don't know if it's gratitude but he is trying hard. Xander gets behind me and enters me in the spoon position. He reaches over and strokes me as I position Carter in front of me so that I can suck him as I get it.
I am in the doggy position when Carter enters me. For some reason, I haven't insisted on condoms -- Xander and I rarely use them anymore -- and I don't want there to be a barrier between any of us. But skin on skin, the sensation is a lot and he doesn't have experience. He lasted longer the second time than the first but it was quick. I eventually came as Xander sucked me off.
We made our way back to Macon. We had to wait for Joe to get off work but we were there to lay out the facts to him when he got home. He took out a legal pad and asked questions as we, and mostly it was Carter, told him the story. Joe was very interested in his cell phone. As it happened, we had tossed it last night. Then Joe asked about his relationship with his father. That was painful to hear. His dad had suspected for a long time and was very abusive toward him. Physically abusive to be sure but far worse was the emotional and even spiritual abuse that had been shoveled out. I was convinced that for his father, Carter dead was better than Carter gay.
"None of you have done anything illegal. You're 18 so legally you have a right to come and go, Carter. Alex and Dylan, there's no law against helping out a friend. Probably would have been better to keep the phone but I get it why you tossed it."
"His dad is going to shit" Xander said.
"There's almost certainly a missing persons out on you. In the morning, I will track down who has the case in the Atlanta PD and let them know where you are. They may or may not send down someone to talk to you. just to make sure that you left voluntarily and that."
They did. She met with Carter at Joe's office, interviewed him and told Joe the case was closed. Legally, he didn't have any cloud over him. Except, at this point, his future was up in the air. As we sat around that night at xander's, Carter, now a free man, surprised me when he joined in as Xander and I got baked on the white widow pot from Danny. He sucked it into his lungs, choked and gagged but took a second and a third toke later. He was a bit paranoid but then got really giggly and funny, which was good to see. Of course, pot makes me horny and air makes Xander horny so for a third time, we all ended up in bed together again.
I liked being in the middle and being kissed and touched by both of them. I liked that we were sharing together and giving and taking and it seemed that no one was jealous or greedy or left out. I knew I was probably going to bottom. Xander is more of a top and I am, I guess, a versatile bottom in that I like to top but prefer bottoming. But I didn't want to be the exclusive bottom boy for the two of them. Plus I wasn't sure where Carter would land sexually. I did grease my hand and as I sucked him, I reached under Carters low hanging balls and slid my finger along the crack to where the sphincter is. He didn't stop me. I played with it some, not sticking the finger in, but just played with it. And he still didn't stop me. So I slid it in. He gasped a bit, seemed suprised but still didn't stop me. I slid it back in and out and took my finger and found his button of a prostate and masasged that. He did seem to like it.
I still took it in the end and I didn't really mind. I do like it and I don't begrudge either of them any pleasure at all. They both did me. Later, me and Carter cuddled a bit after I had to pee and Xander, restless, had gone downstairs to work on some project or other.
"Are you happy?" Carter asked.
"Yeah. Sure. Why? Are you?"
He smiled. "For the first time in a long time, yeah. I used to be really jealous of you because I wanted to be like you. I wanted to be out there do things, falling in love with boys but I was scared. It was really stupid."
I thought about that for a while. You never know how other people view things, how they judged the situation. I had just been living my life and was lost a lot in my own head. Not for a single second had I even thought about how he might have viewed things between me and Xander. I thought about that a bit as I headed off to the class the next day. I was between labs when I realized that I needed an old lab manual that I had written down some equations in a long time ago. So I headed back to my dorm room because it was with my old stuff. I wasn't even thinking about anything when a knock came on the door. Figuring it was Chip or somebody for Robbie, I stopped and went to answer it.
It was Reverend Glassman.
"Where is Carter? I want to see him."
"He doesn't want to see you" I said, trying to be calm and non-confrontational. I knew him from Carter to be violent, despite being a minister, and I was surprised to see him.
"What do you mean by that? I'm his father" His tone was barely controlled rage.
"He just doesn't want to see you right now, sir. I don't know maybe later it'll be different. He needs some time"
"Listen, you little sodomite," he said, punching a finger in my chest. "I knoow all about you. He wasn't a faggot when he got here but you and the other one, the drug dealer, you recruited him to your perversion, your satanic lifestyle. I'm going to save him from that if it is the last thing I ever do"
I was angry now. "Too late."
"That's what you think. You will tell me what I want to know." He was still jabbing me in the chest so I grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard until he pulled it away. "Scholarship. You think I can't get your scholarship pulled? Guess again. I can and I will. I will ruin you. Your parents know you're a fag? They will. You do not want to get on my wrong side, queer."
"And you found the one faggot that isn't going to be bullied. Not by you for damn sure. I have lab." I said, pushing past him and closing the door.
"Don't you dare walk away from me" he screamed, pulling at my arm, half way spinning me around. Tommy came out of his room to see what was up. Then Chip's door opened and he stepped out. Rev Glassman could see that we weren't alone and he shrinked back a bit.
"Go fuck yourself" I said, turning and walking away.
"This isn't over"
"Bring it on, asshole" I said.
Once I was through being angry, the truth was that I was being braver than I actually was. He was right. He is a big deal in the Georgia Baptist Convention and even though the Dub, still affiliated with the Baptist church, was having all kinds of issues, that still meant something. He probably could carry through his threats. I was useless in lab, worried and playing it over in my mind. I figured, like with Carter, that I needed to talk to Joe. After lab, I went over there. Carter was at Xander's and I told him about the confrontation.
"I'm sorry" he said with a defeated air about him
'Why are you sorry? It was him, not you. You didn't do anything wrong."
"It's because of me"
"No, Carter" I said. "It's because of him. I choose to do what I did. I choose to be your friend. xander too. We choose to drive to Atlanta and bring you back. Nobody forced us to do anything. We choose to make love together. It's his fault"
Carter almost seemed like he wanted to cry. I think it was gratitude.
Joe told me that he couldn't represent both me and Carter but he knew someone who could. Charlie. His dad. Charlie at Danny's. Charlie would love to go to war with a right wing Baptist preacher. A little bit later, I was talking with him on the phone, Xander there with me as I did.
"He actually physically touched you?"
"Yeah"
"Oh, sweet. And there were witnesses?"
"Yeah"
"I'll need there names." Charlie said. "Listen, I can either go talk to the good Reverend and make him see that going around breaking the law isn't a good thing or I can rip his balls off. Your choice. One thing, are you out to your parents?"
"No, not yet"
"Well, it's none of my business, but you need to get that taken care of. They deserve to know for one thing but then, secondly, he has nothing to hold over you. The university isn't going to pull academic scholarships because you are gay. They don't want the publicity. Listen, no matter what, this is a non-problem. Don't worry about the Reverend. I will put the fear of God in him."
"Can I tell Carter that his dad is screwed?'
"Nine different ways" Charlie said.
That sounded good to me.
The three of us discussed it and I had to agree with Xander that, for the time being, it was probably best that Carter go the farm even though I worried that he would be jumping in at the deep end sexually and, really, in every other way. It might be too much for him but they weren't going to change their life and lifestyle to ease him along. But despite Charlie and his insistence, I wasn't entirely convinced that Rev Glassman was done with this. He might be scared off of me but Carter? I doubted it. Carter made him look bad. Made him look like a failure to his congregation, maybe even an object of pity. For right now, I thought that having him away from everything and everybody would be safer, at least until he figured out what he was going to do. Xander agreed, of course, since that was what he wanted to do from the start. Carter eventually decided to go.
I 16 runs between Vidalia and Swainsboro. We sped down it to get to Savannah. Carter was in the back of Xander's jeep, the wind roaring past us, making conversation impossible. I can only imagine what went through his mind as he went past home, past his life, at high speed enroute to something else entirely. A new life, I guess. There had to be sadness and regret but I hoped that wasn't all there was. I 16 is not a busy highway. There isn't much at each exit and, unless you are going to a place specifically, little reason to stop anywhere. We left it when it crossed I 95. a far more packed road. We had more distance to go from there and finally found ourselves out in the woods again.
"I guess nobody would be looking here" Carter said after we were cleared to get out the jeep, looking around the farm.
Danny was inside, shirtless and in work pants, lean and tanned. Introductions were made. Danny just nodded when he was told the highlights of the story. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like. And I have a posting for a lab assistant"
I smiled. "I still got finals. Besides, I'm just now doing general chem. You're way too advanced for me. Maybe next year."
"Does everybody hate you for busting the curve?" Danny asked.
"Yeah" Carter answered for me. I looked at him and he just shrugged. I laughed.
Xander was relaxed here. It was home for him. I talked chemistry (primarily tryptamines and phenethylamines) with Danny and Carter seemed lost initially. Surprisingly, though, he bonded with Betty Jean. I suppose it was because she was a mother figure and she put him to work. He didn't have time to brood and she just seemed to like him. We went to town Saturday and Xander had a bit more time to show me around downtown and we even went to the Telfair Museum. It was just the two of us and I was glad to see him in his element again. By the time we left on Sunday, I felt better about the whole thing. Of course, when we left, we were transporting drugs. Xander, Cass and Dex still had a business to run and people were going to need stuff for dead week coming up and then graduation parties and all of it.
We were back on I-16, the top up this time, when Xander said, "I think you and Carter are going to end up as an old people together."
"What?"
"You two are made for each other. You've got a lot in common. I think it'll be a good relationship for you."
"Okay, what is this?" I asked.
"Nothing" he said. "Look, Dylan, you and I don't have a lot in common. You and Carter are made for each other. I think that eventually you two will go off on your own without me. You'll grow old together"
"This is perfectly stupid" I said
"Why? It's true."
"Is this that you're being jealous, because I don't get that. Or feeling sorry for yourself? What's going on?"
"I'm just saying" I looked at him. I really did not understand it. "It's not like I'm asking you to pick or anything. Or even to say how much you love me because I think you think you do right now. That's just the way it is."
"Okay, David Alexander Crowe" I said. "Here's the thing: I do love you. I don't think I do. I know I do. I got overwhelmed at first and I thought you and me were over that but apparently not. You are the person in my life that would come get me if I were in trouble. The person I would call because I know you would come. What we have is going to stick. It's going to last. But I don't think love is zero sum. Because I have feelings for Carter doesn't mean that I don't love you. And I think that what we have can fit more love in. I think so."
"Okay. But people sometimes get hurt in threeways. Get left out"
"Not gonna happen" I said.