W.A.R. Part Two - Cold Winter - 6. Wrestling

When I woke up the next morning, I felt weird. I knew that there was something different about the day. Something… strange. From my bed, I could see the snow was still falling outside. I rolled over and collided with Brett. “Ow!” I yelped. Brett stirred, but didn’t wake up from me smashing into him. I rolled the other direction and slid out of bed. I stood there for a while and watched him sleep. It was the closest I’d been to him in a long while and I wanted to enjoy just being able to look at him for as long as I wanted. He wore shorts to sleep in, and nothing else. At his house, he wore boxers. Sometimes he’d spend most of the day in them and never get dressed.

He looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to wake him to face what I knew would be a difficult day. I marveled at his sleeping face. He looked so innocent and calm. It was like his body was getting all the rest it could before his brain started working. His face looked a little more pale than usual, framed by his dark brown hair. His hair was as long as I’d ever seen it. He always kept his hair cut really short because he despised having curly hair. But he hadn’t had a haircut in a few months and now his hair was a tangled mess. His Yankees ball cap lay on the floor next to the bed. I’m convinced if he could have he’d have slept in it. When I’d fallen asleep, he had been on his side next to me. Now, he was lying on his belly and he was almost hugging his pillow. His left arm had ended up under his head and would probably be numb when he woke up. He was stretched out over the length of the bed and his left foot was peeking out of the blankets at the end of the bed. I watched quietly and listened to the sound of his breathing. The slow steady rhythm caused his back to rise and fall. I stared at the soft skin of his bare back. I just wanted to feel it, to touch him. I wanted so much to follow the curves of his spine with my fingers and feel those delicate ribs beneath me.

He stirred a little bit and changed positions. Before long, he had claimed my half of the bed as well as his. I left it to him. I wouldn’t be needing it anymore that morning. I just enjoyed being able to look at him all I wanted without feeling weird. It just felt good. I just wanted to get right back in bed and feel him next to me.

But then I shook myself out of my daydream. He was a boy. You can’t be feeling that way about another boy. Besides, if he wakes up and sees you staring at him he’s going to think you’re a queer. Then what are you going to do? He’ll split and he’ll never let you get close to him again.

I walked to the window and looked outside. It was like looking into a different world! Everything was covered with snow! There were at least four inches of snow on the ground. It was good snow too. It was the kind of snow that sticks together to make the best snowballs and snowmen. I couldn’t wait to get out into it and play.

I picked up my former favorite shirt that I’d kicked across the floor last night. It was ruined by my blood and stuck to the floor when I pulled on it. I tossed it in the trashcan. It was starting to get to be too small for me anyway. I searched through my clothes that were tossed about on the floor, looking for a shirt that didn’t smell too bad to wear for the morning. I would usually wear a shirt about three times before my mom would yell at me to wash it. I found a Steelers t-shirt, sniffed it, and slipped it on.

Brett stirred and sat up in the bed. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and stretched. He shook his left arm a little to get the feeling back. His bare chest drew my attention as he lightly scratched it. It looked so soft and smooth. His little pink nipples stood out and begged to be touched. “What time is it?” He asked.

“There’s a clock like right there,” I pointed to my alarm clock.

Brett squinted at it. “Three… o’clock?” he guessed hopefully. “That can’t be right.”

“It’s a little after nine,” I replied.

“Oh… I knew that,” Brett lied. I’d forgotten my alarm clock had hands instead of digits or I wouldn’t have even told him it was there. I tried to bury my feelings for him but it was getting harder and harder to pretend I wasn’t falling for him harder than ever. It was his fault for being so adorably cute!

Brett laid back down and grumbled, “It’s too early to wake up!” He pulled the blankets over himself and snuggled into the bed.

“You don’t have to wake up if you don’t want to,” I said. “I’m going to make something to eat though.” I left him and went to the kitchen. The house was empty. Mom and dad had both gone to work. Mom left a little note telling us that there was a pizza in the freezer. I wondered what kind of conversations my parents had after they’d banished me to my room and Brett had followed. I assumed that since the note didn’t mention any punishment that I had served my time and would be free during my vacation. It was nice to now be old enough to be trusted to stay at home by myself without being sent somewhere to be watched. I guess my time watching grandma had proved that I could be responsible enough not to burn the house down if left on my own for a day.

I turned on the television and mindlessly watched cartoons while I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms. My lip didn’t hurt but it was a little bit swollen from when Brett had popped me last night. I felt the inside of my mouth with my tongue. It only hurt when I touched it so I tried not to. Brett stumbled into the living room and laid on the couch. He was still in just his night shorts with no shirt on and his hair was a mess. He sat up and stared at me for a while as I ate. His blue eyes were tired, but observant. With every bite I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Why was he staring at me?

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he grinned. “If you can stare at me for five minutes it’s only fair that I can stare at you eating.”

“I thought you were asleep,” I protested.

“You thought wrong,” Brett replied. “You woke me up when you rolled into me.”

I laughed nervously, “Oh… Sorry about that.”

“I don’t know what you found so fascinating that you had to stand there staring at me for five minutes. I’d have found staring at me kind of boring.”

“You find everything kind of boring,” I laughed.

“Yeah I guess so,” Brett sighed. He continued watching me eat. “I thought you were going to make something to eat?”

“I did, for me. If you’re hungry, there’s plenty more cereal to eat,” I offered.

“I don’t want cereal,” Brett replied. “I want something warm. But I don’t know how to cook. Will you make me something?”

“What am I, your chef?” I asked.

“Come on, Billy! I’m starving to death and I had a rough night!” Brett whined. “Please?”

“You’re such a pain in the ass!” I scolded. “Don’t you know how to fry an egg?”

“What’s an egg?” Brett asked.

“Oh stop!” I laughed. I put my bowl down and stood up. Brett stood up too. He smiled.

“What?” I asked.

“You wanna wrestle?” he asked.

“Oh I don’t know,” I said. “Mom doesn’t like us to wrestle in the house.”

“Oh sorry. I was under the impression that you had balls, not a pussy,” Brett scoffed. Of course it’s been a while since I saw your balls. Maybe you lost them.”

“Ha ha! Very funny,” I replied. “We’re already in enough trouble because of last night. We don’t need to get in trouble for breaking something too.”

“Okay, whatever you say, pussy,” Brett said.

“You’re impossible!” I protested. As I started to walk toward the kitchen, Brett walked up behind me and with a swift motion yanked my pajama pants down to my ankles. I quickly scurried to yank them back up. “Brett!!” I cried.

“Just trying to see if you have any balls!” Brett laughed.

“Oh, it’s on now, bitch!”

I lunged at him and he grappled with me. I tossed him onto the couch and jumped toward him. But he moved out of the way and I crashed. He used the confusion to grab my pants and yank them down a second time, exposing my nakedness. While I was trying to yank them back up again, he threw me down on the floor and I yelped in pain. I grabbed my arm and held it in pain.

He immediately stopped being silly and rushed to my side. “Oh crap! I’m sorry!” he cried. “Are you alright?”

“I think I broke my arm,” I cried. And when he knelt beside me full of concern and fear, I poked him right in his eye with my thumb.

“OWWWW!!!!!” he screamed. “What the fuck?!?!”

I was up off the floor in a flash. I maneuvered myself behind him and twisted his arm behind his back.

“You’re a dick, Billy!” Brett whined, rubbing his eye. “That fucking hurt!”

“That’s for punching me in the mouth last night!” I laughed. “Now we’re even.”

Brett managed to stand up and spin out of my devastating arm hold. He grabbed me in a headlock. My head was trapped in his clutches, but my arms were free. An idea of revenge came to me since he’d pantsed me twice already. I grabbed hold of his shorts on both sides of his hips and pulled them down. To my surprise, his hard dick sprung upward and slapped his belly with a loud smack. Then it bounced free and strong in front of him. It throbbed with each beat of his heart.

“You’ve got a boner!” I teased. I was impressed by how big he’d gotten in such a short time. He was a little bit shorter than me length-wise, but not by much. He looked a little bit thicker than me.

“Like I care if you see my dick,” Brett laughed. “At least I have balls and not a pussy like you,” he replied. He released me from the headlock, but rather than pull his shorts back up, he kicked them off and stood there completely naked in my living room. If he was embarrassed by the state of his dick, he wasn’t showing it. In fact, he seemed quite proud of it. “Come on, pussy!”

“I’m not going to wrestle you if you’re naked,” I laughed.

“Then you’re going to lose, pussy!” he shouted. He lunged toward me. I wasn’t quite sure how to wrestle a naked opponent, so he quickly seized the upper hand. He had me in the dreaded sleeper hold in no time, all the while laughing at his brilliant plan. My mind was in overload. In my dreams, I’d seen Brett’s body exposed like this hundreds of times since that day we’d watched the porno together. But this was the first time since that day that I’d seen him buck naked in real life and a lot had changed about him since that day. He was taller and stronger and had changed from a little boy into a handsome young teenager. He was pressed right against my body. I was trying desperately to record every second of this encounter into my memory. Every touch of his flesh sent electricity through my body. I never knew when a moment like this would ever happen again in my life and I wanted to always remember it.

Brett released me from the sleeper but quickly pulled my shirt up over my head. Now I was blinded and that wouldn’t do at all. But as I pulled my shirt off, I felt my legs sweep out from under me and I crashed onto the floor. I threw my shirt off in time to see Brett grab onto the ends of both of my pant legs and pull. Just like that, he’d stripped me! He threw my pants behind the couch. Now we were both naked, exposed, and hard!

“Well, well! Looks like you’ve got balls after all!” Brett laughed. “Looks like you’re ready to sword fight instead of wrestle.”

“Yeah, well, it must have got hard because of all the wrestling and stuff,” I replied, embarrassed for Brett to see my dick all hard like that. “So what do you want to do now?” I asked.

Brett smiled as sly a smile as I have ever seen, and if I could read minds I would swear he was thinking something very dirty. “How about a bet?” he asked.

“What do you want to bet?” I asked.

“The loser has to do whatever the winner wants,” Brett explained.

“Anything?” I asked.

Brett nodded and smiled again.

“Okay,” I said. We began slowly circling each other. I have to admit, I wasn’t much concerned with the wrestling. I was just trying to absorb every inch of Brett’s body. He was beautiful, if a boy can be described that way. He had really grown into his body nicely since the last time I’d seen him naked. His belly was smooth and creamy, his belly button a tantalizingly perfect mark against his white flesh. His chest had a hint of muscle, but was mostly ribs. He was a little thicker than I was. I was all skin and bones, but Brett had some meat to him. I guess it was all that eating he’d been doing since last summer. He had much darker hair on his dick than mine, and more, it seemed. It was a much more impressive sight than it had been. It looked like a young man’s dick now. It was bouncing with his every beat of his heart, and it was perfectly straight. I’d never seen a more perfect penis in my life. It looked about five or six inches long or so, and it was built perfectly. His balls were pulled up tightly in his nut sack, and they were bigger than mine. He was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen, and I haven’t even started on his butt! I never wanted to see him in clothes again, knowing that he was covering up such a fantastic body.

“Are you going to wrestle or stare at my dick all day?” he asked.

I realized that I was indeed staring and denied it, of course, and accused him of doing the same. I looked him in the face and smiled. I lunged at him and he grabbed hold of my shoulders. We wrestled around for a bit. Every touch, every slight brushing of a hand over flesh filled us with a thrill. We each managed to avoid getting too personal. I avoided any part of him that would normally be covered by underwear. But Brett got a handful of my butt at one point and didn’t pull away until I asked him if he liked it. That gave me a quick opening for attack. But Brett reversed it on me and the next thing I knew I was on my back. Brett sat on my chest to hold me down, and held my hands down above my head. I was stuck. All I could do was flail my legs in an attempt to flip him. But it was no use.

“Give up?” he asked. I struggled a little more, but not very hard. I really didn’t want him to let me up, because I was enjoying the feeling of our naked bodies being pressed together! He had his dick and balls pressed into my chest. I couldn’t believe it. I was actually touching his dick. Well, sort of… his dick was touching my skin after all. It was hot! It was like a hot lump smashed between our bodies. My own dick felt like it was about to blow a load right up his back. If he shifted his weight back, his butt would bump right into my flagpole. I was just loving every second of this moment. I never wanted it to end. But then the thought came to me that Brett was going to be able to ask me to do anything he wanted if I gave up. What would he ask of me? At that point, I was willing to do anything he wanted. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for him.

“Okay, you win!” I said. Brett relaxed, but he didn’t get off me. He let my arms go, but he sat there on my chest. He rested on his knees and straddled my chest. It was so unreal! I was touching Brett’s naked body with my own. Our sweat mixed together as our bodies pressed close. I stared up at him. I would do anything for him. I wanted to do anything he wanted! His eyes, those clear blue eyes sparkled with the satisfaction of his victory. His nipples begged to be touched, tugged, squeezed and licked. His belly button was adorably cute. I wanted to do whatever he wanted me to do to him right there on the floor. I’d never felt this way about another person before. I didn’t care if he was a boy. I didn’t care if it was wrong. In that moment, I wanted something I’d never really thought about before. For the first time, I wanted sex. I wanted it bad. And I wanted it from Brett. Jacking off was just never going to be enough, because it was always going to be compared to this moment. Brett’s warm body would forever be seared into my mind, his throbbing hot dick burning against my chest. I was ready and willing to do anything he wanted me to do. All he had to do was name it.

“Okay, you have to do whatever I want!” Brett said triumphantly.

“So what do you want me to do?” I asked, breathlessly.

Brett smiled. He shifted himself upward, so that his dick was merely an inch away from my lips. It brushed up against my chin. Oh my god, this was really happening! Brett was about to ask me to suck his dick, that beautiful, perfect dick! I didn’t just want, I needed it in my mouth! I started to open my mouth. I couldn’t believe this was real!

“I want you…”

“Yeah?” I asked. This was it. He was going to tell me to suck his amazing and perfect dick. And I was going to do it. I was so ready. In that moment I wanted it to happen.

“…to make me breakfast,” Brett finished.

“Huh?” I asked.

It was like he dumped a bucket of ice water on me. He jumped up off my chest and I immediately missed the heat of his body. “Come on!” he said as he pulled me up off the floor. He walked out to the kitchen. I watched his bare butt as he walked away. I stood there stunned. What had just happened? Ten seconds ago I was prepared to suck Brett’s dick, maybe even more. And Brett was in a totally different place. He didn’t want me, he wanted food! My horniness level dropped almost as fast as my boner did. I felt stupid and even a little hurt. I was actually disappointed, like a kid who gets excited for Christmas only to get a pair of socks.

I didn’t want to be naked anymore. I was embarrassed about what I had been thinking about. Who was I even kidding? Brett wouldn’t have asked me to do anything like that. He was not gay or anything like that, and neither was I. I was definitely not gay. What had I been thinking? I wasn’t supposed to be thinking him like that. It was just the heat of the moment and having his naked body so close to me that’s all. I was not gay. I was only turned on by the excitement of the moment, that’s all it was. Guys like Brett don’t become gay. I certainly wasn’t gay! No way, not me! Everything we’d done was perfectly normal. We’d never even so much as kissed before, we’d just watched a porno together and played around with our dicks a little bit in front of each other. It was perfectly normal and not at all gay. I was glad he didn’t ask me to do something I’d regret later. I was really glad I hadn’t won our contest! Who knows what would have happened if I’d have asked him to do something stupid like kiss me! What would that have done to our friendship? I was wrestling with my feelings for Brett, sure, but only because he was so awesome and my best friend in the universe, not because I was gay. I was not gay. I could not let my feelings get too out of control. I had to think. I had to get a hold of myself. I had to clear my head. Sure, I loved Brett. Was that wrong? It didn’t make me gay. Because I wasn’t gay. We were friends, that’s all… Really good friends… Like brothers. I wasn’t in love with him and I certainly wasn’t gay.

I found my pants and pulled them back on. Then I walked into the kitchen and was startled to see Brett bent over and his bare butt poking out of the refrigerator as he rummaged through our stuff. I’d shifted gears so fast after Brett had left that I’d almost forgot that he was still naked. Now, seeing him naked again my gears shifted again! My dick hardened so fast I think it set a record for fastest hard-on in history. I almost came right there. Seriously! My god his ass was so fucking hot! A little dark wet spot formed in front of my pants! Why was he doing this to me? Dammit I had just gotten myself under control but the sight of his awesome ass had sent my brain into outer space. God, I wanted to grab it with both hands and feel it. I moved closer to him. If I could simply reach out and grab that smooth white flesh... I wanted to slip my pants off and… Noooooooooo!! Goddammit I AM NOT GAY!! Get a hold of yourself, Billy!! I had to jack off or I was going to splooge in my pants.

“Don’t you guys have any soda?” he asked.

“I don’t even know what that is,” I replied. “We drink pop here.”

Brett bent down a little lower, rummaging. Now I could see his nuts between his legs, and his little pink hole in there between his cheeks, mocking me, showing me for the first time what I wanted and could never have. It was almost like he was trying to torture me. “You know what you want?” I gulped.

“I know what I want, alright,” Brett replied. A little drool escaped my mouth and ran down my chin. Brett’s butt was hypnotic. I’d never had the opportunity to really study it like I was doing in that moment. It was so smooth and soft. I wanted to grab it and squeeze it and feel it in my hands. I wanted to do things to it my young mind had never imagined before. My dick was ready to burst. The dark spot in front of my pants grew larger. He looked over his shoulder at me.

“Aww, you put your pants back on,” he frowned.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I… I just… Okay,” I blubbered. I couldn’t think. If I stood there any longer I was going to jizz in my pants. I had to get away from him. “I’m gonna just… I mean… I, uh, I gotta to go!” I was out of my pants again before I even made it to the bathroom. I didn’t even have time for lube. I needed to ejaculate. It wasn’t even fun at that point. It was something I had to do so urgently I felt I’d die if I didn’t do it. I rapidly pumped my dick for about five seconds and groaned more loudly than I’d planned. “Uuuuuugh!” I grunted as a blast of my cum launched over the sink and splattered against the mirror on the wall. “Ohhhhhhhhh god… Oh shit!!! Aaaaaaargh!!!!” Blast after blast of my splooge launched out of me uncontrollably and the landed with heavy splashes in the sink. I shuddered and moaned loudly as I felt the relief flowing through my body. I never came so much and so hard in my life. It kept blasting out of me six, seven, no, eight, nine times! And the tenth blast was almost as strong and the first! I collapsed over the sink as my body rewarded me with the most awesome orgasm in my young life. I was shaking! I collected a little bit of splooge on my fingers and licked them. It tasted salty, but sweet at the same time. All I knew was that it felt good to get it out of me. After it was over, I felt kind of ashamed. I’d been way too loud. Surely Brett knew what I’d done. I washed my spooge down the drain and rinsed my hands and pulled my pants back on after I cleaned the mirror.

When I opened the door, Brett was waiting in the hallway, still naked and still hard as a rock. “Feel better?” he smiled wryly at me. He knew exactly what I’d been doing. It wasn’t really a secret, but still, I was embarrassed. It just felt good to get it out. “You didn’t have to hide. I need to jerk off too. Wanna watch me?” He let himself into the bathroom. Of course I wanted to watch him! There was nothing I wanted more than to watch him blow a thick white load of spooge out of that beautiful perfect dick of his. But I just shook my head, ashamed that he knew what I’d done. I closed the door and from the hallway I could hear exactly what he was doing. The sound of Brett’s wrist smacking against his hip was loud and unmistakable. He was doing it on purpose! After a half minute or so I heard an exaggerated cry, “Oh my god! Oh god! Ohhhhh arrrrrrrrgh!!!” I knew he was making fun of me.

I knocked on the door to be a dick. “Hey, you coming?” I asked.

“You’re fucking right I’m coming!” Brett replied. “You better open the door! There’s splooge everywhere and I’m afraid I might drown! Or maybe you should keep the door closed, ‘cause now I’ve gotta take a dump.” I laughed and went to my bedroom to change. I wished I could be as uninhibited as he was about what he was doing. I always felt ashamed by how much I jacked off. Brett seemed proud of it. He openly talked about how much he did it and where he did it. He claimed he even did it in class once. A while later he emerged, still naked, from the bathroom and came into my room and collapsed on the bed. “Can’t a guy masturbate in peace around here?” he laughed. His dick had softened and it swung heavily in front of his balls. It was actually kind of cute instead of impressive now. The tip was just slightly wet from leftover ooze. “That was really good. We should have just done it together and saved time,” he sighed and began getting dressed. I tried to soak up the last moments of his nudity until he pulled his boxers up and covered his butt. After that, I was able to think about things besides Brett’s ass again.

“You have fun in there?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah! I haven’t shot it so hard in my life,” he replied with a sly smile. “What’s not to love about jerking off? It feels great. Fuck, ever since I started shooting I can’t leave it alone. You know what I mean?”

“I guess so,” I replied. I knew exactly what he meant.

“You guess so? Oh right, I forgot what a prude you are. It’s okay to enjoy your body you know. You’ve got a really nice body. I don’t know what you’re so ashamed of.”

“I know...” I replied. “I guess things got a little over heated, huh?”

“I thought it was fun,” Brett said. “I really missed being around you. You know, since the summer and all. I liked coming over here every day. Last summer was one of the best times of my life, even though your grandma died. I liked watching her with you.”

“We’ve still seen each other,” I said.

“Yeah, but not like we were. I feel like we kind of grew apart since school started. That’s my fault. I’ve been really stupid the last few months, ever since I found out about my dad. I’m really sorry for being such a douche.” He slipped on his shirt. “I want to make it up to you.”

Now that we were both dressed, I was able to concentrate again. We went to the kitchen and I made him an egg sandwich with cheese. I learned how to make them from my dad. Since he smokes he can’t really taste all that well, so he makes everything taste really good! While Brett ate, I absent-mindedly rubbed my tongue along the inside of my lip where he’d hit me.

“I’m really sorry I did that to you,” Brett said. It was only then that I realized what I was doing and that he was watching.

“Oh… It’s okay. I said I forgive you,” I replied.

“I don’t forgive myself. I feel really bad about it. I don’t know what came over me. I knew I was acting like a jerk, but I was just so out-of-control. I couldn’t stop myself. I was so mad at you. I’ve never been so mad at somebody. Maybe because it was you who was saying it and not someone who I don’t… Oh… Never mind,” Brett sighed. He couldn’t look at me and was staring at his sandwich. He looked kind of upset.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I guess I’m just trying to say that it really hurt me more when you said it than when everybody else says it because I really… I mean… No… What I mean is, I guess, that is, I care about you. I mean… About what you think. More than anybody else, I mean. You know?”

“No,” I said. It was really weird to see Brett acting so nervous. I really didn’t have any idea what he was babbling on about.

“Why is this so hard?” he asked, frustrated with himself. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, it really hurt me more because you were the one who said it because you mean a lot more to me than everybody else. I can see how easy it can be to hurt somebody you really care about and it’s scary. Other people have said worse stuff to me that didn’t hurt me as much as you being mad at me.”

“Because we’re best friends and I should know better,” I finished.

“Yeah!” Brett agreed. He looked me in the eyes. “Exactly!”

“So let’s just say we were both acting like jerks and put last night behind us,” I said.

“Okay!” Brett replied.

“Just don’t ever hit me again. Nobody’s ever hit me before.”

“I’d rather die than hurt you again, Billy,” Brett replied.

“Now that that’s over, we can start fixing things.”

“What should we do first?” Brett asked.

“Well, it seems to me that all this trouble started when you found out about your dad. Whether he raped your mom or not, you deserve to have some answers. So I think the first thing we should do is go talk to your mom and find out what exactly happened. At least you’ll know the truth, even if it hurts.”

“Okay, just one problem,” Brett explained. “You see, I haven’t talked to my mother in like a month.”

“Good grief, Brett! Why not?”

“Eh, she pissed me off at Thanksgiving and I’ve been hoping to work that into getting a cell phone for Christmas.”

I stared at Brett dumbfounded, “Are you serious?”

“I didn’t say it was a good reason!” Brett insisted. “I just said I wasn’t talking to her.”

“You know, maybe if you just treated her like a human being instead of a cash machine you might get some answers!”

“What am I supposed to say, Billy? ‘Hey mom, did you only conceive me because my father raped you?’ How is that for starters?”

“You can do it a little more tactfully than that. If you can you be serious for more than five minutes you might actually learn something about yourself and your mom.”

“You don’t understand. You have a normal family. You have a good father. I have some jerk who fucked my mom. What if that’s the reason I’m so fucked up in the head? What if it’s my DNA? What if I grow up and turn into him?”

“That’s not gonna happen,” I replied.

“How do you know? What do you really know about me? What if I end up a jerk like him? My mom already can’t look at me without seeing him! Every day I look more like him. She said that. Well maybe every day I’ll end up acting more like him too. Then I’ll end up just like him. I’ll end up as some asshole rapist.”

“Or maybe you’ll have people around you who love you and who want to help you!”

“No one can help me!” Brett whined.

“You keep saying that, but you won’t let me try!” I yelled. “Quit being so damn stubborn and let me try to help you!”

Brett looked at me like a wounded puppy. “Please don’t yell at me. Everybody yells at me. I hate it. I don’t need you doing it too.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re just frustrating the crap out of me,” I replied. “You’re even more stubborn than me, and that’s saying something ‘cause I’m pretty stubborn! You keep saying that no one can help you. Can’t you see that I want to? That my dad wants to?”

“You want to help me?” Brett asked.

“Absolutely,” I replied.

“Okay, then why don’t you come with me and we’ll talk with my mom?”

Holy cow he actually asked me for help! I smiled at him. He smiled weakly in return. I knew he was scared. I just wanted to hug him or something like he’d held me the night of my grandma’s funeral. He looked like he needed it just as badly as I had. I offered him my hand across the table, and he held it tightly. I didn’t know how the situation was going to turn out, but at least he wasn’t going to have to be alone. I didn’t even answer his question with words. He just knew that I was going to help him however I could. That was what he needed.