Begin Anew

By Dabeagle

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Chapter 7
Breaking Down Barriers

I awoke the next day full of energy, which is completely unusual for me. Normally the morning is the time I feel most awkward, but today I had joined the tribe of horrible abominations known as: Morning People. I fairly bounced from bed and in to the shower, and was out, dressed and humming on my way down the hall to breakfast. I grabbed cereal and sat down to eat, oblivious to my own surroundings. I guess that tells you how bad it was! My thoughts rolled back to the events of the previous evening, Cris and Kyle with their re-affirmations of friendship as well as Chris’s steadfastness and felt a wave of warmth wash over me. Oh my god, Chris wasn’t up yet! He’d be late; I had best wake him.

I headed down the hall to the former guestroom and entered quickly. He was sleeping on his back with his morning wood showing proudly under the tented sheets. I laughed as I woke him.

"Dude, time to ‘get up’."

"Huh? What time is it?"

"Um, let’s see. It’s," I searched out the clock, "Four…Thirty."

"Dickhead, go back to sleep," he mumbled, rolling over.

Now do you see just how loopy I was today?

My dad took Chris into school a little later since he had to be registered and all that administrative stuff. I saw Grant in second period, and the guy actually said more than two words at one sitting! In fact, I thought he’d never stop talking about the upcoming weekend. I guess he just assumed I was going ‘cause he kept talking about all the things we would do together. It was a completely unheard of side to this guy!

I was content to listen to him talk about the camp the Fremont’s owned and that he hoped we’d all go into the woods and camp instead of staying in the cabins. I perked visibly at this as Grant continued to explain the sets of two-man pup tents that were used for just such ventures. This could be interesting!

Oh, who was I kidding? Like I would have the balls to try anything, firstly, and secondly, there was that whole thing with the cousin. Maybe they were dating, which is disgusting, but it happens - right? There was that place in New York called Allentown where the whole population was related due to inbreeding and intermarriage. I shuddered, not Casey!

As Grant and I parted after second period, I walked to my locker to trade in my books for the next class, math, which was my weak point. My neck hairs suddenly stood on end seconds before the voice sounded in my ears.

"Hey, Justin, How’s it going?" came the quiet, sexiest voice I have ever heard. I turned to face him.

"Case, what’s up man?" OK, my voice didn’t crack or sound like I was nervous. Did it?

"Not a whole hell of a lot. Ah…" He shifted his weight to his other foot and was now standing with his weight on his right side, hip pushed out slightly.

I swallowed. Hard.

Wait a second here, was he nervous?

"I was just wondering," he started again, "if, ah, you were coming up with everyone this weekend? I mean with us having Friday off and all, we usually get together at my place on the lake, in case no one said anything. But I’m sure Kyle must’ve, right?"

My formal invitation! I was so excited my head started spinning. But why? I knew I was going to be invited; Kyle had passed on that word already. Oh, shit! What about Chris?

"Um, dude I’d like that a lot." Casey’s face lit up. "But my friend Chris lives with me now, and I can't just leave him, you know?"

"No problem, bring him along! We have room! Plenty of space for another person, no big dealwe’lldigoutanothertentand-"

"Case, dude, slow down!" I laughed; he was so cute.

Casey blushed a deep red as if he’d just realized he’d been babbling.

"I’m sorry, I just get so excited when everyone comes up," he said quietly.

"Case, I can’t wait to go. There isn’t anything to be sorry about. In fact, I’m really flattered you’d ask me." I gave his shoulder a quick pat and squeeze. Ung, so firm yet soft and yielding. Pressure began to build, so to speak.

I didn’t think anyone could go so red! He looked at me and seemed to be weighing and measuring me with his eyes, and as his mouth opened, the buzzer sang out announcing the beginning of class. I was late!

We made hasty promises to talk that night and separated for our classes. My head was spinning as I raced for my class on the third floor. Casey had seemed as though he had something else to say, but what could that be? Surely if he had feelings for me, which he doesn’t I’m sure, he wouldn’t blurt them out in the hall between classes.

Would he?

Naturally I got in trouble for being late to Mr. Powell’s math class, but I managed to escape detention by telling him that since I had been out for a few days, I was a bit slow what with the extra assignments and instructions from each teacher, and that I had left the last class late from getting those instructions. Was I babbling now?

In any case math was lost on me, like that was a surprise, and I sat thinking of Casey and was soon sporting an uncomfortable erection. I stealthily took in the room to be sure I could adjust myself unnoticed. There was Sheila right next to me! I smiled weakly and she returned my look with an evil grin. I asked her what she was doing here - quietly, of course. She told me her schedule was shifted a bit to accommodate the art class she wanted to take, so this math class was hers now as well.

She ripped a sheet of paper from her notebook and scribbled furiously for a moment and then handed it to me.

I looked down at the message and felt my face doing its Rudolph act again and got the accompanying giggle from the next chair. The note read:

I looked over at her, and her evil grin was firmly in place. Well, at least I wasn’t hard anymore. I wrote back the word, "no" and passed it back to her. A moment later she passed the note again.

My eyes went large and I looked at her in panic. If it was that obvious…no, she was just guessing, she had to be.

Right?

No sooner had the bell rung than she was by my side.

"Did you two talk? You did right, oh, I knew it." Then she got quiet, "What did he say?"

I stared at her, open-mouthed; she was having fun with this! Well, two could do that.

I pulled her into the alcove of the auditorium where we would have some privacy.

"You want to know?" I breathed.

"Yes, of course I do!" she said anxiously.

"Well," I began. "He met me at my locker and told me he really need to talk to me about this camping trip this weekend. He took me into the auditorium here, we sat down and he told me how much he was looking forward to this trip, and then he confessed how much he lusted after me, and then he blew me, right there in the sixth row, and that’s why I was hard when I came to class ‘cause I was thinking about it so much I got hard again right away."

She goggled at me and then I couldn’t hold back the smile anymore. I laughed uproariously at her expression. She slugged me in the arm and told me what a shit I was while starting to laugh herself. Soon we were lying in the doorway in tears. As we were recovering, I heard a familiar, oh so sexy voice.

"What’s so funny?"

We looked up into Casey’s gently smiling face and burst out all over again. Is this normal?

~BA~

I ran into Cris at lunch and we sat down to eat together. We talked about nothing for the most part, sports and cars. Guy stuff. Then the conversation drifted into this coming weekend, and I instinctively sniffed danger in the air. It seemed as though everyone was having fun with this little non-existent love affair, and Cris was no different.

He leaned across the table and conspiratorially winked.

"I hear you and Casey want to be actors."

I must have been a sight. My mouth dropped as I realized where that story had come from, and then I am sure I went red again, and all that was confirmed by the laughing fit that seized Cris. At this juncture Kyle walked up with Chris. I leapt at a chance to change the subject.

"Hey, Chris! How’s the first day going? Kyle got the duty of showing you around?"

"Yeah, and I was fine until your horny ass woke me up at four thirty," he deadpanned. Laughter exploded around the table, and I was left with my lobster-like self. This was followed with whispers about Casey’s suction abilities and how long I’d been able to hold on without spewing. Great guys, huh? Grr, Sheila was so dead! And speak of the devil!

"Hi, what’s so funny?" came the evil temptress’ voice. This drew a new round of chortles and guffaws. She smirked at me and slid an arm around me. "Don’t worry, baby, I fixed everything with Casey when he caught us in that doorway earlier. I told him I was asking you to join in a three way with Kyle and myself."

The table erupted again and this time it was Kyle’s turn to change hue. Then that voice that sent me into orbit came again.

"Hey, what’s so funny now?" Casey asked.

"Nothing, sweetie, we were just talking about you again," Sheila smiled. It was really funny actually, because we had been in a roundabout way.

Casey smiled, then turned to Kyle, "So it’s OK with you that Sheila comes camping with us this weekend? I mean, she offered her services, so I figured you guys had that straight already."

Laughter rolled again as Sheila threw a french fry from my tray at him. Then she thought better and lifted another and held the limp form out to Case.

"Look, baby, you lost it again. Want it back?"

"That’s the wrong one. Mine’s hiding in between your D-cups, sweetheart."

That did it. My whole container of french fries was airborne and narrowly missed Case. Case readjusted himself and then continued.

"Speaking of surgically enhanced breasts, Chris, you have an admirer already."

Sheila shot daggers at Case, but was distracted as to the mystery of who was after this new addition to their group.

"Oh? Who would that be, as if knowing would make a difference," Chris asked warily, and rightly so with this group of pranksters.

"I think you’ll find out soon enough; here she comes now."

We turned en masse to see the approaching form of…Stacey Reamer! The chick whose tits hung so low and whose ass rode so high you often couldn’t tell if she were coming or going! Oh, this was great; I could get ammunition from this for months!

"Chris, right?" she said as she drew near.

"Um, no, that’s him," Chris said, pointing to Cris who returned a malevolent stare at him.

"Well, what’s your name?"

The bell rang ending lunch.

"Late," Chris replied, dragging Kyle with him as he sped from the cafeteria.

~Harry~

Harry tuned the radio and settled in for the long drive from Reno back to his hometown. He was a little lucky, there he reflected. His car was his pride and joy, and driving daily to Reno was a treat. He stretched lazily and thought some more about his dilemma. Should he or shouldn’t he? If he did there could be huge consequences to him, but it might save his brother from a bad time. He sighed heavily. At seventeen he had known he was gay for at least three years, but he hid it from all but one fellow, and he would be here soon enough! He could hardly wait to see him; it had been at least three weeks, roughly, since school started. What a trip the summer had been, though! Finding him and then sneaking like crazy all summer to be together, not letting his family find out or even suspect!

And the rewards were so wonderful, the caresses, the laughter, and the nights on the waterfront just staring out at the lake and the clear sky. The sheer togetherness was…indescribable. The warmth of someone lying against your every curve, skin on skin with no reservation or nerves to interfere. Absolute heaven.

But this wasn’t helping him to make a decision. His father was very old-fashioned, and his ideas of sex were, well, antiquated. Good old man-on-top, get it over with. Not only that, but as a prominent citizen, how would he handle the news of a gay son? Worse yet, how would he handle two? "Casey is too sensitive to live with the fear his dad could inspire, but if I came out first," Harry thought to himself, "then Casey would know what he was up against at least. He would know if mom and dad would be able to hold it together. Why does this have to be so hard? Homosexuality has been happening in the world for as long as humans have existed! It was part of ancient Roman and Greek culture; as a matter of fact, those manly warriors from Sparta often took very good care of the boys they trained to be warriors; it was a sign of being loved for Christ sake, like a status symbol!"

It was clear though, after overhearing that phone call to Julie that he was going to have to act, probably this weekend or just before, since the object of Casey’s passions was going to be here. Wait, duh! Maybe the smart thing to do would be to sit with Case first? "You know for being so intelligent I do some stupid things sometimes," Harry snorted to himself. "That would have been the granddaddy of them all! Outing myself when I didn’t have to is definitely not a smart move. I wonder how I should bring the subject up? Hey Case, so you have a boyfriend yet?"

Harry smiled at the thought. And then a new thought occurred to him. If he came out to Case, then he would have someone else to share with. That alone was worth the risk.

It would be tonight.

~Casey~

Casey walked on air the rest of the day. Unbeknownst to him he was getting looks of wonder from many different places. Wonder and envy. Mrs. Callahan watched his progress through the throng of humanity changing classes and wondered at the beauty of being young and in love. It produced an ambiance all its own, one of eternal hope and passion that knew no bounds. She found her own attitude lifted a few notches herself!

Pete Bernalillo saw in Casey’s eyes something he wanted to see directed at him, and the very proof of its existence was enough to put him in a good mood the rest of the day, even if he had just moved from New Mexico and left all his friends behind.

On the other hand, Jimmy Carlisle saw someone who was far too fucking happy for his liking and resolved to fix that. He still owed him for his cheap ass mouth at the basketball game, but he knew better than to fuck with him while Teague was around. Yup, end of the day pretty boy, your candy ass is mine.

Casey spent the rest of the day oblivious to the world, wrapped in a warm blanket of anticipation. He firmly put aside any doubts or qualifying statements that interfered with his fantasies. After all, every dog has his day, does he not? So where was it written that he couldn’t have a whole weekend?

After his last class he headed towards the front of the building to see if he could get a glimpse of Justin before heading to the rear parking lot where his car, his big present for his fifteenth birthday, was parked. One of the only good things about Nevada, he reflected, was that the legal driving age was fifteen. As he walked towards the front of the school he caught a sight that wasn’t fit for human consumption. Stacey Reamer pacing in front of the exit like some love-crazed heifer. Did he look like that? A hand suddenly shot from a doorway and pulled him in to the alcove.

He turned in surprise to see…Chris? Hiding in an alcove? Who would be silly enough to get into a fight with this obviously well-built football fellow?

"Chris, what is going on? Why are you hiding?"

"Didn’t you see the mad cow patrolling the front door? She’s waiting for me! I have been dodging her since lunch, but if she doesn’t move soon I’m going to miss my bus! I don’t want to be mean to her, but…"

Casey thought quickly and then formed a plan. "Chris, wait for me to walk over there, I think she’ll want to talk to me ‘cause she knows our little group. Um, then head for the back door. My car is out there, I’ll drop you at Kyle’s."

"Dude, thanks. Holy shit, I thought I’d have to talk to her!"

Casey headed for the front door, and as he walked he thought to himself, "Yeah, and while I have you alone maybe you could fill me in on your buddy, huh?" He walked nonchalantly towards Stacey, thinking along the way how amusing the "mad cow" description was. As he suspected she pounced on him as he neared the door.

"Casey Fremont, I have some questions for you!" she said, making a poor effort to be sexy and sweet at the same time. It was really…grotesque.

"Oh? Like what?"

"Like what is the name of that new addition to your little circle of friends? Where does he live? Just some basics," she said, attempting to be coy.

"Um, who?"

"The one Kyle was showing around today?" she said eagerly.

"Oh, him? You know I’m really not sure. I was about to be introduced at lunch but…well, you know, these things happen."

"Oh," she said, face dropping. It was really kind of sad. Quite suddenly her eyes narrowed. "You have a car, why are you up here?"

The question caught him off guard and a look that must have screamed guilt ran across his face.

"Ah, well, you see I was looking for a friend up here and I ran in to you and…ah-"

"You’re lying." She studied him and then her face lit up. "You’re running interference! Where is he, oh, just tell him I want to talk to him? Please?"

Casey felt really bad for her all of a sudden. "Stacey, his name is Chris and…he is having a rough time and doesn’t really want a relationship right now. Please don’t take it the wrong way, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings so he’s kinda hiding from everyone right now. Well, except our little circle of friends." He was quite proud of himself, and he just bought Chris some time. That should be worth some information in trade, right?

"Oh really?" She bit her lip, "Just tell him if he needs someone to talk to, to call me. Here, here is my number." She scribbled quickly on a notebook and tore the cover. "Thanks, Case. You’re a doll." And with that she bounded down the stairs attempting to catch her bus.

Case turned slowly and shook his head as he walked. Emotions were funny things, no logic or rationality to them. Stacey had flipped over Chris as surely as he had flipped for Justin; the only real difference was, it was acceptable for her to show it. He walked towards the back door deeply in thought and almost ran into Chris who was waiting by the rear entrance, which led to the parking lot.

"Whoops. Sorry, man."

"That’s OK. So what happened?"

"Not much," Casey grinned evilly, "I told her you really liked her and were just too embarrassed to say so. She was really flattered and gave me her number for you." At which point Casey handed Chris the scrap of notebook cover.

"You…you...said…WHAT?" Chris stammered.

Casey burst out laughing and filled Chris in on the actual conversation, much to Chris’s relief. Chris shook his head.

"Justin never mentioned you being such a joker, just said you could be funny when you weren’t busy being shy."

"Justin…talked about me?" Casey felt his heart skip a beat.

"Yeah, he filled me in on the whole group before I got here."

"What did he say?" Casey asked in his best non-committal tone. They began walking out and across the parking lot.

"Oh, check out that Bug!" Chris said and walked quickly over a few spaces to a tricked out VW Beetle.

~Jimmy~

Jimmy Carlisle thought he’d have to wait since candy ass was talking to that new guy, but now the kid had broken off for his own car. Time for fun. Jimmy burst through the doors and headed straight for Casey Fremont. "Rich boy going down, pin him up against his own rich boy car, and beat the stupid out of him," Carlisle thought as he bulled across the parking lot, closing the gap between himself and his intended prey.

Time seemed to slow as he approached Fremont. He watched him turn to face him and then saw the recognition in the kid’s face that he was in trouble. Fremont was too small to stand in Jimmy’s way, and they both knew it. Fremont skittered around the front of his car, using it to shield himself from Jimmy.

"Gonna fuck you up, pretty boy," Carlisle muttered and stepped up onto the hood of Fremont’s rich boy car and proceeded after him. Fremont turned and ran, and Jimmy jumped from the hood and hit the ground running.

~Chris~

Chris stepped over to look at the Bug, an oval window no less! He carefully examined the paint. He reached out to touch the rear bonnet, but when his hand touched metal he heard the unmistakable sound of metal flexing under weight. Confused he stood, and then looked back at Casey. There he spotted him as he turned to run from some unnamed assailant that jumped from the hood of what was presumably Casey’s car. The ox was in pursuit.

"Time to play," Chris thought to himself.

Chris was off like a bullet fired from a .44 and quickly closed the gap between himself and the large mass that was bearing down on the slowing Casey. He watched as Casey sidestepped and the ox slowed to follow. Yes!

Chris bellowed to empty his lungs and did a duck and lift motion hitting his target just under the buttocks and lifting his now off-balance load before dropping him flat on his back. Chris turned and kneeled quickly on the would-be attacker’s chest, pinning his arms with his knees.

"Who is this guy?" Chris demanded, looking at Casey.

"His name…is…Jimmy Carlisle," Casey managed around gasps for air.

"This guy? The one that tried to beat on Kyle and then Justin at the basketball game?" Chris asked, voice getting dangerously guttural.

Casey nodded his head in the affirmative.

Chris looked down on the trapped Carlisle, who seemed confused as to why he was on his back. Anger boiling over, Chris reached down to get a firm grip on good old Jimmy’s hair and then backhanded him. He then grabbed his nose, which was now flowing freely with blood, between his first and second fingers and stared Carlisle in the eye.

"You fuck with any of my friends, I’ll fuck you up so bad you’ll wish you were never born." And on the last word Chris gave a vicious twist to the sizable nose trapped between his fingers. The wounded nose began to swell and the satisfyingly wet crunch of cartilage tearing from its underpinnings was heard.

"One more thing, you listening to me?" Chris asked, to which he received a terrified nod. "Good. You go to the cops and it’ll get out how you tried to fuck up a kid four inches smaller than you, and stepped on his car. That qualifies as vandalism, doesn’t it? In fact, you had better start thinking about how you’ll pay for that hood you fucked up. Asshole," Chris muttered as he stood and walked to Casey.

"You OK, buddy?"

"Yeah," Case said breathlessly.

"Let’s go." Chris muttered and led Casey back in the direction of his car and leaving Jimmy Carlisle to stop the bleeding as best he could.

~Justin~

I ended up with detention later that day for my daydreaming, but could you really blame me? The anticipation of the weekend was a real killer today, and my imagination ran rampant, so sitting in detention wasn’t exactly much of a punishment since I could daydream quite effectively here as well. I thought of Casey sitting on the beach at the lake, just his swim trunks on. No, how about nothing at all? Never mind that I had never seen that sight, I had a wonderful imagination!

"Mr. Corcoran? MR. CORCORAN!"

"Huh?" I jumped.

"Detention is over, you may leave now. Unless you fancy coming back tomorrow?"

"Oh! No, thank you. Sorry. I’ll be just, ah, going."

I scurried out of the room and down to my locker. I don’t think I have ever scurried anywhere in my life before! I grabbed my books for homework and headed out the front door. The pisser about detention here is that they only keep you long enough to miss your bus. I started to trudge home and saw Casey speed by with…Chris in the passenger seat? What the hell? This would make for interesting conversation when I got home!

My mind swirled with thoughts as I walked and my imagination took hold, spinning tales of woe and wonder to me, its captive audience. That conversation occurring in Casey’s car could be, well, let’s just say I’d like to be a fly on the wall!

Sigh.

~Casey~

Casey caught his breath on the way back to the car and unlocked the door, then reached across to admit Chris. After attaching the seatbelt he reached between the seats.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked, shifting his leg away from Casey’s hand.

"Duh, starting the car?"

"From in between the seats? You’re trying for my knee! You’re not fooling me, hands off!" Chris grinned.

"Chris, it’s a Saab. The ignition," Casey twisted the wrist that was in between the seats and the car rumbled to life, "is in between the seats."

Chris looked down past Casey’s retreating hand and saw the keys jutting out from a slot in the floor.

"That is fuckin’ stupid. I have never seen that before. It’s quee…ah, odd. Fuckin’ odd."

Casey felt his hackles rise. That was weird, why did Chris stop from saying queer? Was there something going on here? Casey backed the car out from its slot deep in thought and continued thinking as the Swedish auto sped from the lot. Once in traffic he realized he hadn’t gotten any info from Chris yet and decided he was missing a golden opportunity.

"So, ah, how long have you known Justin?"

"Since we were small. We used to play together all the time."

"So, um, what kind of stuff is he into?"

"Dude, ask him!" Chris laughed. Oh, Man this kid had it bad; it was all over his face!

"Well, I just thought you might know, I mean, your friends always know you best, right?"

"Case, look. Justin and I haven’t been really in touch for over a year. All I know is that he’s always there for me no matter what, and if someone hurts him or those he cares about, I’ll hurt them back."

Casey digested this, turning it over.

"You really hammered Carlisle today. Was that ‘cause Justin…"

The car pulled up to Justin’s house.

"No, it was ‘cause you were my ride. Of course, it was ‘cause he cares!" Chris said climbing out of the car, and then bent to talk though the open window, "Besides, he said you were a good singer, wouldn’t want your voice box damaged, would we?" And that said, Chris left the open-mouthed Casey in his Saab with the funny ignition switch.

Tomorrow would be interesting, Chris thought to himself with a smile.

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