The Long Way - 6. Oh Boy

I practically jumped out of bed Saturday morning. Something about an impending road trip woke me right up. I dressed quickly and pulled the bag I had packed two days ago out from under my bed and made my way into the living room where everyone else already seemed to be up and moving.

Aiden had already been home, dressed and packed, and now he was back, helping Tony roll up some sleeping bags that we had left to air out the night before. Before I even reached the living room, Chris appeared in front of me and slapped something into my hand.

"Owen, go get food." He said shortly. He sounded so asleep that I had to look up to make sure his eyes were actually open.

I looked at the cash in my hand and my eyes about popped out.

"Two hundred bucks on food?" I asked incredulously, I mean, we were only going to be gone for two days.

"Yep, and why don’t you take Aiden with you." Chris suggested, "You can pick up Adam and Shane on your way back."

"Sure." I shrugged. Going grocery shopping wasn’t my favorite task, but I’d make the best of it.

Aiden had heard Chris and was waiting at the door. He picked up his bag and Tony’s and I grabbed mine and Chris’s and we made our way out. We packed all four bags into the bed of my truck with the tents and equipment that Tony and Chris had packed in that morning. We had decided a few days ago that we’d take two vehicles, my truck and Tony’s car to fit everyone and all of our gear.

As excited as I was about the trip, neither Aiden nor I said anything until we got to the grocery store. I think we were both still trying to wake up, but as we filled a shopping cart with random munchies we seemed to wake up and had a fun time with it. We grabbed snacks, soda and meat; hotdogs, hamburgers, and even steak, and then we picked up things we hadn't really thought about before like bug spray and sunscreen. We even walked away with things like handy-wipes and Listerine.

We ended up checking out with a new trainee so it seemed to take forever, and while we were waiting I heard Aiden call out to someone and looked up to see Ryan walking towards us with a grin on his face, dimples in tact. He was also wearing one of the store’s red aprons and a nametag.

"I didn’t know you were working today." Aiden said as they slapped hands and hugged briefly.

"Yeah, the guy you got to cover your shift today called in sick," Ryan told him with mock annoyance, "So guess who has to cover ‘your’ shift? You owe me, bro."

"I don’t owe you shit." Aiden laughed.

"You both work here?" I asked, surprised. I figured I would have known. Then again, grocery shopping wasn’t one of my favorite tasks, so it shouldn’t be a shock that I hadn't seen either one of them here before.

"Yep," Aiden smiled, "For the last year."

"How you doin’ Owen?" Ryan smiled as he moved past Aiden to greet me, "I hear you crashed out pretty quick the other night."

"And most of yesterday." Aiden added.

I blushed a little, but then looked inquisitively at Aiden over his last statement.

"I came by to see if you were up yesterday before I came over last night." He shrugged, "You were crashed out on the couch."

"Oh." I grinned, but I was disappointed that Aiden had come to see me and I’d been asleep, "I guess I haven't really partied like that in a while…or ever, depending on how you look at it."

"Don’t worry about it," Ryan chuckled, throwing an arm around my shoulder, "We’ll get you into the swing of things," and then he looked towards the stuff we were waiting for the cashier to ring up and whistled, "Damn! What, are you guys leaving for a month?"

"Just the weekend." I laughed, "Chris said to get food."

"Well, looks like you did that." Ryan smiled as he released me, and then he helped Aiden and I bag it and pile it into the cart. I paid and Ryan walked us out.

"So what are you doing this weekend, Ryan?" Aiden asked as we loaded up the truck.

"Well, Leo’s taking Ben somewhere for their anniversary, so I thought I’d hang out with Jake. He’s been sort of depressed lately, so I thought I’d cheer him up."

"Dude, we both know that there is only one person who can cheer him up, and it aint you." Aiden remarked.

They fell silent in thought for a second before I interrupted.

"Am I missing something?" I asked.

Aiden smiled at me and shook his head.

"You don’t know?"

"Know what?" I asked.

"Tony and Jake." Ryan said, and somehow the two names together didn’t surprise me, "They’ve got it bad for each other but the two of them are too stupid to do anything about it."

"That’s not entirely true." Aiden laughed, and then looked at me, "about a month ago, Tony finally got the nerve to ask Jake out, but the whole thing was a disaster and they’ve steered clear of each other since. The other night was the first time I’ve seen them talk in months. I was really surprised that Tony was even at the party."

"What happened?" I asked. This seemed interesting, especially since Tony was involved. He had never talked to me about guys he liked, or that he’d been involved with.

"Well," Ryan grinned, "The way we hear it, Jake was supposed to meet Tony at the club."

"Yeah, and Jake has been in love with Tony since Tony and Chris first moved to town. Before that night, they were always hanging out, but Jake was too afraid to tell Tony how he felt until the night Tony asked him out." Aiden added.

Ryan groaned and shook his head.

"See," Ryan said, "Jake is really defensive when it comes to his feelings, he doesn’t get very open with people, but when he does, he sort of puts it all out there. Well, that night, Jake decided to put it all out there, let Tony know exactly how he feels. So, when he got to the club, he sees Tony coming towards him, and what does he do? He plants the biggest kiss on him, I mean, I wasn’t there, but Leo was, and he swore it was so hot it could have fucking melted ice."

"Only, it wasn’t Tony." Aiden giggled.

My jaw dropped. I mean, I am the only one I know who could always tell my brothers apart. It was an easy mistake to make, but I had never heard of anything like this happening.

"Shit." I said, "What happened?"

"Well, I think Chris was pretty surprised when his bartender kissed him," Ryan laughed, "But he was cool about it. Only, Jake was so embarrassed, and to make things worse, Tony saw the whole thing. They still went out on their date, but everything was so awkward after that they ended the night early and spent the last month avoiding each other."

"That sucks." I shook my head.

"Yeah, well, until one of them gets over it and makes the next move or moves on, there’s not much to be done." Aiden shrugged. "I just hope seeing each other the other night helped."

I thought about that. The way Tony was looking at Jake made sense now. I genuinely hoped that it would work out for them. Jake was a nice guy, and Tony deserved to be happy.

"Hey guys, I gotta get back in." Ryan announced, "but hey, I’ve got something for you, a little extra from the party." He retrieved a rolled joint from his pocket and handed it off to Aiden with a wink.

"Cool," Aiden grinned, "Now, I owe you."

"Just don’t forget it." Ryan smiled. They hugged again, and then I got a hug from Ryan too before Aiden and I got going again.

I wasn’t really sure what to think of another joint. I mean, the other night was fun, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make a habit out of it. I wondered if it was something Aiden did a lot.

Aiden told me how to get to Adam’s house and he was already waiting for us with Shane. They loaded their stuff in the truck and crammed into the little wing seats behind Aiden and me. Shane seemed quiet, but I really didn’t know him well enough, and it didn’t seem that unusual. But the whole way back Adam chatted excitedly about the trip.

We got back the apartments, and the four of us managed to pack most of the food into two coolers on the bottom step and loaded everything into the truck and the trunk of Tony’s car. I noticed a tarp folded near the steps, and guessing what it was for, Adam and I covered the now loaded bed of my truck while Aiden took Shane upstairs to say hello to my brothers.

When Adam and I got upstairs I noticed that Aiden was happily holding onto a camera that looked exactly like the one that had been broken.

"Cool, you got another one." I smiled at him.

"Yeah," he said, hardly taking his eyes from the new camera as he checked it out. Honestly, I knew nothing about cameras, unless they were digital and easy to use, but I’m sure Aiden was taking in every single detail of his new equipment, "Chris picked it up at the school while we were gone. Man, I wasn’t sure what I’d do all weekend without this."

"So you’re really into that stuff, huh? Photography?"

He grinned and then caught me off guard as he lifted the camera and it flashed, taking my picture. I hated having my picture taken, but I wasn’t about to complain and ruin his moment.

"Yeah," Aiden nodded, "Since I was little. I’ve been using the school’s cameras since my freshman year, mostly because I don’t want anything of my own to get trashed like what happened the other day. But I think this summer I might just go shopping."

"Cool." I smiled. It was nice to see Aiden looking and sounding so excited about something. It was like he was animated in a way I hadn't noticed before.

"I’m gonna run home real quick and grab some more film." Aiden announced, "I think we’re leaving soon, can you tell the guys I’ll meet them at the car?" He took off before I could answer.

I helped Chris and Tony turn off all the lights, and when we got down to the parking lot, Tony told me to follow them, and gave me directions in case we lost each other, and then, as an extra precaution, Chris gave me his cell phone. I couldn’t blame them for the extra precautions; I really, really didn’t do well with directions.

I wasn’t sure who was riding with me, but that was settled quickly, before it was even discussed when Aiden reappeared and climbed into my truck. I guess I could have been okay with anyone, but I was glad that it was him. Adam and Shane went with Tony and Chris, with no complaints and we were on our way.

The drive seemed to fly by, but, although Tony had originally mentioned a campground twenty minutes away, we went a little further into the mountains to a more secluded location, and it looked promising.

The sun was out, and the temperature was sweater weather, but not too cold. We found a flat area, a campsite with a barbeque pit and set up camp, which took a lot longer than we expected because everyone seemed to be goofing around more than anything. We had three tents, and while Chris and Tony had theirs, and Shane and Adam had theirs, I ended up with Aiden again when he threw my bag in his tent, no questions asked.

Chris almost immediately fired up the grill, and the food we picked up that morning went to good use. After we ate lunch we all started to wander, checking out the area and somehow managed to separate from each other. I ended up with Shane and Chris, and we had some fun exploring. Shane wasn’t as quiet anymore and his personality reminded me of Adam in a lot of ways, although Shane wasn’t as chatty. He was a nice guy, but honestly, I think he hit it off with Chris more than he did with me.

I had the worst sense of direction, so whenever I wandered I made a point of staying close to someone else, which meant when we ran into some other campers, I couldn’t turn and go back on my own like I would have preferred to do.

Remember when I mentioned that I was glad it was a guy’s weekend? Well, the plans changed when we ran into a family with four daughters, ages thirteen, fifteen, sixteen and nineteen. Honestly, they were a nice enough family, the parents looked friendly, but I wasn’t very fond of parents anymore.

We sat and talked to them a good hour and found out they lived out of state, but I don’t think Chris and Shane cared where they were from after setting their eyes on the daughters of the family. And, I have to admit, for girls, they were pretty attractive. The whole family had blonde hair and the same big, blue eyes. And they were all over us.

I, of course, was not interested, but Shane was all over the situation. I had never really seen him flirt before and it was kind of funny, and Chris, who I remembered being the biggest flirt of all when I was younger, seriously proved that he hadn't changed much, and he seemed to like the eldest daughter enough to invite the whole family for dinner. It turns out all of that food might get used after all.

When we got back, Tony and Adam were already there, and it was just starting to get dark. Tony was neutral as I was when he found out we had guests coming for dinner, but Shane got Adam excited pretty quickly and they even offered to help with dinner.

I decided to find more wood for the fire without going too far, but I noticed that Aiden was nowhere to be found. I could have sworn that when we separated Aiden had ended up with Tony and Adam, but I could have been wrong.

"Hey, Tony?" I called, "Have you seen Aiden?"

"He went off on his own." Tony replied, "He should be back soon, though." Tony didn’t sound worried, so I decided not to be. Apparently Aiden didn’t have the same problem with getting lost as I did.

I brought back enough firewood to last us the night and then some, and after adding some to the fire I did what I could to help with dinner, and before I knew it our guests were walking into the camp. The Luis Family, as they called themselves. I got a kick out of the girls’ reaction when they found out that there were two of Chris. Even the parents seemed surprised when they saw Tony too.

The fifteen and sixteen year olds started following me around like puppies until I got tired of it and sat with Shane and Adam, long enough for them to strike up a conversation with the girls before I moved to the other side of the fire to finish eating.

My head was starting to hurt, and I was feeling the need to be alone again. I had made friends in the last few days, people I liked, but this seemed like too much, I sort of wanted to withdraw back into my shell, and half way through my meal there was still no sign of Aiden, and it was completely dark by then.

I was distracted when Mr. Luis struck up a conversation with me. He was a big man with a kindly face, but he made me nervous. And as he asked me about school and sports, I couldn’t help thinking of my own father. Mr. Luis was a lot nicer than my old man, but still, I didn’t like talking to him. I couldn’t help it. Parents freaked me out. But fortunately, I think Tony picked up on it and asked me to go find the marshmallows. I was able to excuse myself and I gave Tony a thankful look. He just winked at me.

I was digging the marshmallows out of one of the bags, enjoying my moment of quiet, but it ended when I turned around and one of the daughters was standing there. I couldn’t remember if she was the fifteen or sixteen year old, and I definitely couldn’t remember her name.

"Hi, Owen." She smiled.

Apparently she had been nice enough to remember my name, though.

"Hi." I replied, stepping past her to return to everyone else. She fell into step next to me, walking so close that our shoulders brushed together.

"It’s Melissa." She said.

"What?"

"I’m Melissa." She repeated.

"Oh, I knew that." I lied.

"It was really nice of you guys to invite us." She said.

"Yeah, um, no problem." Why the hell did I feel so nervous? Honestly, before I came here I had no problem with girls. Then again, it was all an act before to please my parents. Now, I was just me, and I almost felt naked just being myself without putting on a show.

"So how long will you guys be here for?" she asked me.

"Until tomorrow night, I think." I replied.

"Maybe we can all do something tomorrow." She suggested, "I mean, it could be fun."

"Sure, maybe." I shrugged. Why I agreed to that, I have no idea, but at least I did it noncommittally.

I tossed the marshmallows to Tony and sat down near him, if anything for protection, but when Melissa sat down right next to me - close to me. Tony only flashed me an amused smile. I ignored him and took a sip of my soda as I looked around the fire.

Chris was having a conversation with Mr. And Mrs. Luis and the eldest Luis daughter, while Tony was entertaining the youngest, making her laugh and asking her to help him with the marshmallows, and Shane and Adam seemed to be trying to outdo each other with the one closer to Melissa’s age, shutting each other down with embarrassing stories.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Owen?" Melissa asked.

I forced myself to swallow my soda before I choked on it, but I ended up coughing anyways and she giggled as I shook my head ‘no.’ And, if she wasn’t already making me nervous she certainly did when she started to rub my back, as if trying to help me with the coughing.

If I was ever happy to see Aiden, it was at that moment when he showed up. He walked into the camp with his camera around his neck, his jeans and brown jacket were dusty and his shoes muddy. His hair was pulled back, but had fallen loose in some places, and he’d never looked better.

I think he was a little surprised when he walked into camp and found our guests there with us, but introductions were made all around and there was a new guy for the girls to fawn over, practically begging Aiden to take their picture. But if Aiden was put off at all, he didn’t let it show.

He played the perfect gentleman, and when Melissa asked Aiden to take a picture of her and me together, if Aiden saw my discomfort he didn’t let on, even when Melissa put her arm around me and I nearly jumped a foot in the air.

After Aiden used almost an entire roll of film taking pictures all around, Mr. And Mrs. Luis excused themselves and took the youngest daughter with them. Melissa and the other middle sister begged to stay and they got another hour out of the deal, while Chris and the older daughter went for a walk by themselves.

Tony volunteered to clean up the camp, and when I offered to help he laughed at me and told me that I should ‘play nice’ with my new friends. I should have killed him.

But it wasn’t so bad. Aiden, Shane, Adam and me sat around talking to the two remaining girls for a while, and oddly enough, having Aiden there cured some of my nervousness. He didn’t flirt with the girls the way that Shane and Adam did, but he didn’t freak out when they came onto him either.

Aiden just ate his late dinner and involved himself in the conversation, but then Melissa brought up the subject of getting together again tomorrow. She had been hanging on me all night, and although I had grown used to it, I think my face fell a little at the suggestion, which Shane and Adam quickly agreed to. What the hell happened to a weekend with the guys?

"That sounds okay." Aiden added, "I’m sure we can find something to do." I felt a little annoyed when he agreed too, but then he continued, "But Owen and I were planning on going for a hike tomorrow, so why don’t you meet Adam and Shane, and we’ll catch up later."

I gaped at Aiden, because we had planned no such thing. Maybe he had picked up on my discomfort after all, and like a true friend he was bailing me out.

"Oh," Melissa pouted, looping her arm through mine and pulling me close, too close. I could smell her perfume. Who the hell wears perfume while their camping? "That’s too bad, maybe we should all go on a hike."

Shane groaned at that idea and I used it, dislodging myself from Melissa.

"We’ll see you guys later." I told her, "We’re going kind of far and you’d be bored anyways."

"And mom would never let us go." Melissa’s sister said. Bless her heart.

And it was settled, although Melissa pouted for the next thirty minutes before they left. Shane and Adam volunteered to walk them back to their camp and as soon as they were gone I turned to Aiden and smiled.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem." He laughed, "You looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a while there. I thought Melissa was about to permanently attach herself to you."

"Yeah, well," I rolled my eyes, "Look, if you want to hang out with them tomorrow it’s cool, I’ll find an excuse."

"No way," Aiden replied, "You aren't getting out of our hike that easily."

"As long as you know that I get lost fairly easy." I shrugged.

"Well, I don’t." Aiden replied, "And there’s a place I want to show you anyways, I found it today and it was pretty awesome."

"You were gone forever." I said, "Where did you get off to anyways?"

He held up his camera and grinned.

"Wherever my eye took me." he replied, "That’s what I love about coming up here, I’ll see one thing I want a picture of and it leads me to another. I probably would have stayed out longer but it started getting dark. We’ll have fun tomorrow though, you’ll love this spot."

I was sure that I would.

Tony joined us after a while, and we lounged around the campfire just talking for a while, before the unexpected happened. There was a sudden crack of thunder somewhere in the distance, but the sky still looked clear above us. Tony had checked the weather before we left, and we weren’t expecting rain, but we decided to play it safe anyways.

The thunder had brought everyone back to camp and we quickly made sure that the tents were secure, and after putting all the food away we loaded our supplies back into the vehicles, covering the bed of the truck with the tarp.

Our efforts preparing for rain however, seemed like a waist of time by the time we all went to bed. The temperature had dropped some, but there was no rain. I went into the tent with Aiden and flipped on one of the flashlights so I could find the sweats I brought to sleep in, but when Aiden stripped down to his boxers and climbed into his sleeping bag, I decided to do the same.

It was actually a little awkward, for me at least. The tent wasn’t really big and when we were both stripping down we bumped into each other a few times, and I found myself with a problem.

The night before I had masturbated for the first time in two months, and it was like opening a damn flood gate. The second Aiden started peeling off his cloths I sprouted a noticeable wood. I didn’t even have that sort of problem in gym class. He was just too hot for his own good, and now I was seeing him more clearly than I had before, strong, smooth chest, round, tight ass, narrow hips, long, strong legs. My eyes wandered to his crotch and even soft he had a noticeable bulge there. I had to turn my back to hide my problem from him. It wasn’t like the other night when I was too fucked up to care, and I felt a lot safer once I had climbed into my sleeping bag.

Until sometime in the middle of the night when everything changed.

I woke to the sound of thunder and rain pounding down on the tent. And I was shivering. At some point the temperature had dropped even more and I wished I had bothered to put on my sweats. I was going to huddle into my sleeping bag and try to get some sleep but then Aiden turned on a flashlight and I sat up to find him shining the light on the roof of the tent, where we could see the shadow of the rain pounding down and running off of the tent.

"Shit." He cursed, and I noticed that his teeth were chattering and he looked as cold as I felt. And then, as if he just realized I was sitting up, he flashed the light in my direction.

"Dude!" I objected, raising my arm to shield my eyes, but too late, I was already seeing those little red spots.

"Sorry," Aiden said, and I’m sure he was smiling, but he lowered the flashlight and when I could see again, I saw he had climbed out of his sleeping bag and he was unzipping it.

"What are you doing?" I asked sleepily, still rubbing my assaulted eyes. "It’s freezing in here."

I reached for my pack, wanting my sweats rather badly now.

"My sediments exactly." Aiden replied.

I had just found my sweat pants, but dropped them when I realized what was happening. Aiden was suddenly next to me, unzipping my sleeping bag and climbing in with me!

"What are you doing?" I demanded as he zipped us both into the cramped space and pulled his bag over us as a second blanket.

"Body heat."

I looked at him in disbelief, but when I saw the goofy grin on his face I cracked up laughing. Aiden joined me, but kept his laughter a lot quieter and shushed me as he clasped a hand over my mouth and pulled me down next to him.

"You’re going to wake everyone up." he warned.

"If the rain didn’t." I shot back as I tried to settle in.

I didn’t really have a problem with Aiden crawling into my sleeping bag. It was fantasy, even. Only, it made me nervous as hell.

"Relax," he half whispered, half laughed, "I’m not going to take advantage of you, lets just get warm."

I can’t believe he said that. I bit my tongue to keep from telling him that he could take advantage of me all he wanted. But, I already had too much of a problem at the moment to get cocky. (No pun intended.)

I had a large sleeping bag, but it wasn’t really large enough for two guys our size. Aiden had turned on his side and I did the same thing to make room. Our bare chests were pressed together and as we both wriggled around to get comfortable our legs intertwined. Let’s just say that I was cursing the return of my teenage libido and trying to keep my groin as far away from Aiden’s as possible.

But as frightening as my situation was, I couldn’t help giggling like an idiot. At least Aiden was doing that too as we waged war with the sleeping bag.

"Okay, okay, wait!" Aiden whispered, placing a hand on my shoulder. We both stopped moving and managed to look at each other for two seconds before we started laughing again.

"Dude, you’re fucking nuts." I shook my head.

"No, I’ve got cold nuts." He corrected me, wrapping an arm around me and placing his hand on my back. A very cold hand. I gasped and arched forward, trying to escape it.

"No, your hand is cold!" I accused.

"Sorry, sorry," he laughed, and then he started rubbing his hand over my back. It was still cold but the friction warmed it up. It also warmed me up. I was pushing my ass as far back against the sleeping bag as possible to keep my erection from brushing up against something of Aiden’s.

But this keeping each other warm idea of his was actually working pretty well, so against my better judgment I got braver, wrapping my arm under his. He jumped a little when my cold hand came in contact with his back, but I started to rub too, quickly warming it up. I guess Aiden thought that meant I was okay with this, because he pulled me even closer. He was only a few inches taller than me, but with the way we were positioned I was able to rest my forehead just below his neck.

I felt his chin on my head as we huddled together and I inhaled his scent. There was a hint of that clean smell that I had picked up before, and that uniquely sweet smell that was Aiden. But now there was a muskiness from being outdoors, from hiking, from sweating.

I tried desperately not to breath. That smell was about to make me shoot in my shorts, and then I’d really have something to be embarrassed about.

Aiden wasn’t helping either. He was now rubbing up and down the entire length of my back, from the bottom of my neck to where his fingers brushed the waistband of my boxers. And it felt really good. Too good. We had also settled down, and now we were just relaxing with each other, giving me time to think.

It came to mind that it would have been easier for both of us to just dress warmer. I know Aiden had warm clothes, so why did he climb into bed with me? Did he want to be in bed with me? That thought alone had my dick throbbing.

"Owen?" Aiden whispered.

"Yeah?" my voice came out much huskier than I had wanted it to.

"You’re shaking." He pointed out. "Are you still cold?"

No, I’m fucking horny and it’s your fault.

"A little." I replied.

That was a mistake. I felt his arm tighten around me and when I refused to budge as he urged me even closer, he began to move closer to me. Crap. Any closer and I was going to end up stabbing him in the leg. He’d know. This was not the way I wanted to come out to him. I had to do something. I quickly placed a hand on his chest.

"Dude, stop." I said, a little harsher than I meant to.

Aiden froze, and I immediately felt bad when I looked up and saw the bewilderment on his face.

"Sorry," I sighed, and then looked down again, trying to come up with something to say, "Look, this is really embarrassing…I mean, I should tell you…um…look, before you climbed in here, I was sort of um…having a good dream. A really good dream."

Silence.

I looked up to see if Aiden was buying this. He was staring at me kind of funny and I felt my cheeks heat. But then he burst out laughing. I know he was laughing at me, but the laughter still made me feel better and I laughed too.

"Shit," Aiden sighed, "I’m sorry man, I thought you were just pissed at me for getting in here. I know that it’s not something most people would do, but I’m kind of used to it. Every time I sleep over at Ryan’s, his room gets so fucking cold we end up in the same bed together.

"No, it’s cool." I insisted, trying to block the image of Ryan and Aiden in bed together from my mind before it made things worse. "I just thought I should warn you, is all. ‘Cause seriously, if you get any closer I’ll be drilling a hole in your leg."

Aiden laughed again and shook his head, and then he shifted closer and I jumped again. I swear he was trying to make me crazy.

"You’re still hard?" he asked.

I didn’t want to answer that. I did not want to be having this conversation.

"Yes." I said, somewhat bitterly, "and if you don’t stop moving around, it’s not going to go away."

There was definitely an edge to my voice, because honestly, I was getting annoyed. I was also feeling like I was in a vulnerable situation because Aiden had the power to either embarrass the hell out of me, or ruin me. I mean, yeah, he was cool with gay people, but would he be okay with one shooting all over him in a cramped sleeping bag? I had a fear of that, loosing him as a friend, and it was pissing me off.

But Aiden didn’t do either of those things. Instead, he shocked the hell out of me again. He moved so fast I hardly had time to think about it, and the next thing I knew my boxers were pulled down past my balls and his hand was wrapped around my erection.

"What the fuck?" I squeaked.

Oh god, I had no idea what he was doing, and I was feeling really confused right about then, and then he began to stroke up and down - expertly. My stomach tightened and I clenched my fists, terrified to shoot in his hand.

"Oh god, I’m gonna come." I was actually complaining.

"That’s the point." Aiden laughed.

I looked at him incredulously and he just smiled.

"Well, you weren’t going to do it." he shrugged, like this was no big deal. If he only knew. "I’m just helping out."

Oh my god! I guess hearing that was something I needed, because it didn’t take me long to decide to let him finish. The way he was touching me felt so good that attempting to think would be dangerous anyways.

I bit my lip to stifle a moan and Aiden seemed to move closer as our legs shifted, intertwining again. And then I felt it against my thigh. Yes, it. Aiden was hard. For some reason that was hard for me to believe, but there it was. I don’t know if he was trying to give me a hint or not, but I decided to take the chance.

I reached for his boxers, and when I started to push them down, over his erection, he moved to make it easier. That was all the encouragement I needed. I wrapped my hand around his stiff member and his breath hitched, but he didn’t skip a beat working me.

I moved my finaglers around his shaft and he started thrusting into my hand. I looked up and found him staring at me, and I got lost in those dark eyes as I got braver, moving my hand down to massage his balls. Aiden moaned, so I continued to touch him, and stroke him, resisting the urge to do so much more to him. I wanted to kiss those full, soft lips so bad just then.

But then Aiden suddenly brought his other hand to my balls, massaging them as he stroked my length and my stomach clenched again as my eyes rolled back.

"I’m gonna shoot." I announced in a ragged whisper.

"Hold on." He insisted. I wanted to laugh at him for even suggesting that.

Aiden reached around me, retrieving the sweat pants I had dropped, and not a moment too soon, he had them positioned to catch the ropes of come shooting from my body. I stifled a final moan, and held onto his erection through my orgasmic haze, and when I could see clearly again I realized his hand was over mine, urging me on. I wasn’t about to disappoint him. I continued stroking and massaging, and I knew he was coming when my sweats were used to catch his own ejaculation. I watched his eyes roll back and the tiny beads of sweat roll down his face. It wasn’t cold anymore.

We both lay there, breathing heavily, the cold and the rain temporarily forgotten but not gone. When Aiden finally tossed my soiled sweatpants aside we moved, pulling up our boxers. For a moment it seemed awkward, and I thought that Aiden was about to go back to sleeping in his own bed. I really didn’t want him to do that.

I needed the closeness, just for him to be next to me. I knew that what had just happened was the equivalent to a circle jerk. ‘Friends helping friends.’ But for me it meant so much more. I hadn't touched anyone like that since Dan, and I was suddenly very unsure of myself. It was guilt. I felt guilty because I just experienced a great orgasm, with a guy I was falling for by the second.

But Dan was dead. He could no longer feel the things that I was feeling. When Aiden’s hand wrapped around my dick I had pushed everything out of my mind, but I felt selfish for it. I hadn't even thought of Dan, or how he would never experience even a simple touch again. I just really felt like I needed Aiden close just then.

And he didn’t disappoint me. He settled right back down, pulled the extra sleeping bag over us and put his arm around me, and this time when he got too close I didn’t mind as much, now that I didn’t have to hide certain body parts, so we tangled together again, determined to remain warm through the storm.