Candy & Kisses - 3. Chapter 3

Friday came and I packed up what I'd need for the weekend from my locker. My math and English teachers always seemed to think the weekend required extra homework. With my bag over my shoulder I headed over to the side exit of the school and met Cathy, who was talking to Ginnie. Ginnie was showing Cathy something on her phone and they were both intensely interested.

"What's up?" I asked as I joined them.

"Ginnie got a picture. Um. My God, Gin, show him!" Cathy urged. Ginnie turned her phone to me and I reached out to bring it closer.

"Whose dick?" I asked as I scoped out the short cock on her screen.

"Hunter Christiansen," Ginnie said smugly. "He sent it to Sarah Goldman last night and she sent it to me."

"Really?" I asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Yep," Ginnie said with a smile.

"Huh," I said and handed it back. I glanced at Cathy and she nodded at me. "Well, he's still pretty. Nice to know he's not packing, though. Why's he sending dick pics to Sarah?"

"He heard she's a lesbian," Ginnie said with a laugh.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Cathy who was giggling. "He thought that was going to change her mind?" I asked and they both burst out laughing. "Man. That's a disappointment."

"Not a...big one, though," Cathy said and burst out laughing.

"Come on. A guy is more than the size of his tool," I said, unable to keep a chuckle from my voice. "Why else is your sister dating him? And speaking of, has anyone told her he's sending out pics?"

"It's why Ginnie showed me. I can't wait to get home tonight and tell Julie," Cathy said with a wide grin.

"I'd say that's evil, but I know Julie. Couldn't happen to a nicer person," I said with laugh.

"The football team is heading for their bus. What are we supposed to look at today?" Ginnie asked.

"Jerry would do Zack Rowan, so I guess we'll be nice and watch the soccer practice for a while," Cathy said with a teasing smile. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Really? What's special about Zack?" Ginnie asked as we drifted toward the practice field.

"He's a nice guy. Like I said, there is more to a guy than the size of his tool," I told her. I didn't bother to correct any ideas they had about me being head-over-heels for Zack. It didn't really matter anyway, and it might be entertaining for an after-school chat.

We took seats on the benches near the field and checked out the team, who had spread out to warm up.

"Garrett French. My God, I would walk across broken glass for a shot at him," Ginnie said and moaned for emphasis.

"Which stick-man is he?" Cathy asked.

"Over there, with the black sleeveless shirt. I hope it's loose enough to see some nipple action," Ginnie replied and leaned into Cathy, laughing. I chuckled and glanced over at Garrett, who was decent looking in my estimation. He was a nice guy, as far as I knew, and I could have probably gotten into ogling him if it weren't for the fact he was standing next to Brandon McCall, who was lifting the bottom of his shirt up to wipe his forehead and exposing some seriously sexy abs.

"Who's that with the tight stomach?" Cathy asked.

"Brandon McCall," I replied automatically, his name bittersweet on my tongue.

"Huh. He could use a few pounds, but he's got some steel up front, right?" Cathy asked.

"I would lick every single inch of-"

"Fuck this, I'm going home," I said suddenly, cutting Ginnie off.

"What? Why? We're looking at the stick figures you like so much!" Cathy exclaimed.

I wasn't sure why, exactly. I just felt this twitch in my stomach when Ginnie started in and I didn't want to hear any more. If pressed I think it's just I don't want to hear positives about such a douche. I mean, yeah, he's the absolute sexiest guy at school, but that doesn't mean I want to hear others talk about...argh! I had to get a bit closer to the field to reach the parking lot, and as I did I was pulled from my weird state by someone calling my name. I turned toward the voice and Zack was jogging over to me.

"J," he said as he drew closer. "Busy later?"

I frowned lightly. No one calls me anything but Jerry. Except my mother - she calls me Jeremiah when I'm in shit. Or Cal, who keeps using the part of my name usually left out when he calls me 'Miah. I don't think anyone had called me...well, maybe this one time....

"Hello?"

"Huh?" I asked, looking into Zack's curious expression.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. What's up?" Well, no wonder I was off my game. Zack never talks to me - I mean, no one does outside of Ginnie and Cathy.

Zack smiled uncertainly. "I was asking if you're busy later. I mean it's Friday, so maybe you have plans. Are you free?"

I adjusted my bag. "Uh, I could be, maybe. What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you want to game at my house later. I have practice until six, but if you wanted to come over around seven-thirty? We can eat some junk and play some games."

I glanced past his shoulder where Ginnie and Cathy were staring at me and the weird interaction I was having with Zack. Looking at him all I could wonder was why - and so I voiced it.

His expression looked hurt for the briefest moment before smoothing out. "I appreciate what you did last weekend. It was a real stand up thing to do."

I nodded. "That's cool, but you don't owe me or anything."

"I do, actually," he said with a smile. "I owe you huge. But this isn't about that. I just figured you'd been cool and I'd like to know you better."

I blinked at him a few times. I think I was waiting for a punch line, even though that didn't seem like Zack's style. He was waiting and I smiled tentatively. "That...sounds cool."

He brightened up. "You know where Crestwood is?"

"The development? Yeah."

"Number eighteen on Pembroke in there. See ya!" he said and left me with a small wave and a smile. Huh. That was odd. Good. But odd. I glanced again at Ginnie and Cathy. They were off the bleachers and heading toward me. Oh, jeez. They're going to think there is something between Zack and me. Normally I wouldn't think that was anything to worry about, but now? The last thing I needed was them spreading it around that Zack and I were a thing.

"What was that?" Cathy asked as she approached and simultaneously turned to look at the soccer team. I turned and started walking toward my car as they fell in around me.

"So you know that party everyone's talking about? All the kids that got busted?" I asked them, cutting off whatever they might want to ask.

"Yeah. It's all anyone can talk about. Why?" Ginnie asked.

"Well, Zack was there and he came over to get away from the cops. Kind of threw up, was all a mess and stuff," I told her.

"Wait, you mean at your aunt and uncle's?" Cathy asked.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "He just figures if I was cool enough to help him out, maybe we could be friends. That's all."

Cathy looked at me with an expression of curiosity. "You said you'd do Zack, though. Is this part of some plan or something? Oh my God!" she said, stopping short. "Did you and Zack hook up?"

I turned on her sharply. "No! I'm fucking human, Cathy! I don't take advantage of drunk guys! Jesus!"

She stepped back a pace and looked a little miffed. "Well, okay! I guess I just figured if he showed up horny...I wouldn't have said no. I mean, it's still getting laid, I guess even if he is emaciated."

"He's not...argh! He's just a nice guy, okay?" I demanded of her. I turned and headed for my car, not caring if they followed me or not.

~C&K~

I pulled up to number eighteen on Pembroke about a quarter after seven. I had debated whether I should dress nicer than I might normally, but decided against it. I wasn't there to impress anyone, and I wasn't trying to get Zack to look at me. I had pulled on a soft hoodie over my tee shirt and put on clean jeans, but that was it.

He had a nice house. It wasn't quite like my aunt and uncle's kind of neighborhood, but it was in the same general style. I pressed the doorbell and waited, shifting a little on my feet. The door opened and Zack smiled out at me.

"Come on in," he said, standing aside. I nodded and stepped just past him. Where my aunt and uncle had earth tones and basically looked like a beige monster had been turned inside out and stretched against the walls, Zack's place had blues and greens that melted from the entryway down the hall that I could see. Family photos and splashes of color gave the walls life; something my aunt and uncle's place sorely lacked.

"Come on," Zack said, waving me to follow him. We passed an empty room with a piano and then he paused in an archway where his parents were sitting, watching TV.

"Mom, Dad, this is Jerry Mason from school," he said. They looked up and smiled in greeting and I waved a hello, smiling. At least I hoped it was a smile. Zack waved me to follow him and we headed deeper into the house, descending a set of stairs into a furnished basement. The space was totally built for a hangout and I relaxed a bit. I'm not really sure if I expected something bad to happen, but I had been a little tense.

"Have a seat," Zack invited before plopping down on a couch and crossing his legs under himself. He was wearing a tee shirt and soccer shorts, so he was sporting his well toned legs. I couldn't help but to notice; they were right there on display after all. I sat and put a folded leg on the couch so I could sit comfortably and look at him.

"Nice house," I said.

"Thanks. We've lived here since I was born. I've always liked it," he said with a nod. "So listen, I totally plan to play video games or hang out with you tonight, but I know you were kind of taken off guard this afternoon when I invited you."

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "I wasn't expecting it. I don't want invites out of some sense of obligation, either."

"I get it," he said, holding a hand up. "I promise, that's not what this is about. I did want a chance to say thank you, though." He took a deep breath and smiled widely. "Just by putting up with my drunk ass you saved a friendship, kept me from getting an appearance ticket that would have landed me in a world of shit...it wasn't a little thing, even though it was in some ways."

I nodded slowly. "Well, I think I told you, you have a good rep at school. You've never done anything to me or against me. Nothing for me, but you know...I'll take it."

As his smile dimmed, he nodded at me. "I fixed things with my friend. I owe that to you, completely. The rest, too. So you just have to ask, and I'll be there. But the more I thought about it, you actually treated me like a friend. I can appreciate being direct with someone, but also not being an asshole about it. It got me to wondering and...well, I just wanted to know you better. Maybe try and build a friendship out of that...experience."

I liked the way he was explaining his reasoning. I could respect that and I really liked that he was someone who thought about things instead of just doing, despite the impression I could have drawn from his drunken evening.

"So...your friend forgave you?" I asked, not wanting to voice any of my thoughts.

He nodded and smiled. "He did. We talked it all out. I don't know why I reacted the way I did - I honestly don't. I don't think of myself as a bigot, and like you were saying, if he had been interested in me then I could have politely said I didn't feel that way." He leaned forward a bit. "It kind of felt like, you know, he'd been being deceptive. It wasn't true, really, because we all had just assumed. But...that's what it felt like." He paused and said, "Like we'd been fooled."

I thought about that for a second. "I guess if I'd had the option of not telling the world, I might have." I glanced at him. "It didn't work out all that well for me so far for everyone to know." I paused and let my gaze flicker over his face. "I don't know if I'd have done it differently, honestly. If I'd had friends and was afraid of losing them, I might have lied."

He nodded and let out a little sigh. "That's essentially what it came down to. I couldn't see it, until we talked. I mean, you know it feels different with you because I knew the first time we talked who you were, that you were gay. That didn't bother me, which went through my head when I went back to have that talk." He fiddled with this hands restlessly and shrugged. "Like when we were in the kitchen, when you said you'd checked me out? It didn't surprise me or matter because I knew you were gay. I knew the score and it made sense to me. With him, it felt different. I didn't understand why I didn't know this about him." His brow wrinkled and he let out a little sigh. "I guess my reaction says why I didn't know, though. I still have my friend, though. So...I owe you, big time."

I shifted uncomfortably. I wasn't used to the idea of being owed. I mean, maybe from a sibling, but that was different. "Well, I'm glad it worked out."

"So were you and those girls checking us out today?" he asked, a small smile playing about his lips.

"Not really," I said, relaxing a bit into the armrest. "Cathy has a thing for the deformed members of the football team, but they were gone today. Ginnie was drooling over Garrett French. She was hoping his shirt would be loose enough to show some boob."

He threw his head back and burst out laughing. I smiled. It was sort of like talking with the girls. Or, maybe, I was just being myself. Either way, I liked feeling comfortable with a guy and there not being any lingering suspicion that I was after him or something. It felt...normal.

"Garrett is probably the biggest horndog on the team. She might have a chance if she's just looking to get laid," he said with a grin and some trailing giggles.

"I think I'll just let her suffer," I said with a snicker. Thinking of Cathy, and how she was pushing about why Zack had spoken to me today I pressed my lips together. "Uh, not to freak you out, but those two will probably assume there is something going on between us."

"What?" he asked, bubbling in laughter. "Why?"

"Well, we were checking out the team and you talked to me. You waved to me in front of her the other day," I said, ticking these items off on my fingers. "She knows me so she knows we haven't hung out so...." I thought of her 'top four' thing the other day and I blushed a little, but he didn't seem to catch it.

"Well, I don't think I'll worry about it too much." He got an interesting smile on his face, "So, who were you checking out?"

I frowned lightly. "Why?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Don't you and Cathy or Ginnie talk about people you're interested in? I do that with my friends." He tilted his head toward me. "Friend."

I blinked a couple of times and then chuckled. "Cathy is into football players. Like the linemen. The bigger and hairier the better. She calls you soccer guys stick-men." I knew I was dodging, but I don't think I was really wanting to tell him I was drooling over one of his teammates.

"Stick-men? Maybe compared to some of those guys! They're like the trolls in Harry Potter, right? Remember at the end of the first movie?"

I laughed and gave my voice a warble. "Troll! Troll in the dungeons." I paused and looked at him. "Thought you ought to know."

He rocked back and forth laughing. "That was perfect. I love Harry Potter."

I grinned back at him. "Me, too. I started reading some of it to my little sister."

"Oh, right, you have sibs. Cal seems cool."

"He is, just don't tell him I said so," I said with a smile.

"Okay, so, Cathy likes linemen. Ginnie is all wet for Garrett, but who were you looking at?"

I chuckled a little uncomfortably. "Why? I mean, it wasn't you. I told you I checked you out last weekend, but I'm not stalking you or anything."

He blushed, but smiled. "I wasn't trying to say you were. Besides," he said with a snicker, "I invited you so you kind of suck as a stalker if you wait for invitations. I was just trying to get a sense of what kind of guy interests you. Like, do you like Garrett?"

I shrugged, still feeling odd. "He's nice enough to look at. Seems like a nice guy. I could say that about most of the soccer team, though." He nodded but didn't reply. I felt a little weird with the silence, so I started talking again to fill the void. Sue me, I'm not used to being social. "Cathy doesn't have any real hopes of getting one of those football guys. She just rates them for sex, not relationships."

"Everyone has a list like that," Zack replied. "Like, Julie Miland is such a bitch, but I'd fuck her six ways from Sunday."

I blinked and then started to laugh. Cathy would find it hilarious that one of her so called stick men would bang her sister, given the opportunity. He smiled back at me, blushing, but not too embarrassed I guessed.

"Cathy and I are jealous of her. The only guy in the school we agree on is Hunter Christiansen." I laughed a little as I said it. It was fun telling Zack, a guy. It was cool having a normal, friend-type interaction without the back and forth of Cathy's banter. She was snarky. Zack was just...talking to me. Besides, everyone wanted to fuck Hunter. Right?

"Hunter is one strange dude," Zack said as he shifted and let one of his legs dangle off the couch. It was funny, the more I was around him, the more attractive he became. He wasn't going to stop me in the street and make me stare, but I could see why someone would fall for him. Totally cool guy. The doorbell rang and Zack jumped up. "The other guys are here. I'll be right back - do you want a drink?"

"Other guys?" I asked, but he waved as he headed up the stairs. I felt tense and stood up. I debated leaving, but I'd have to walk past everyone and that thought made me more uncomfortable. I thought about it and reasoned I probably didn't have anything to fear - his parents were right upstairs and he'd been super nice every time I talked to him. I won't quite say I trust him, but I did like him quite a lot. Enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. With an unsteady sigh I decided to wait and see.

A few minutes later Zack came thumping down the stairs with two boys in tow. Seth Kilgallon from work and...well, fuck me side-ways.

"Hey, Jer," Seth said with a little smile.

"Hi, Seth," I said and tried a smile out. I wasn't sure how well it worked because my attention was focused behind him.

"J. How are you?" Brandon McCall put a hand out, and I took it by reflex. So fucking warm and soft. I instantly threw wood and felt sick to my stomach at the sight of him. My chest felt tight, and only more so as I answered him.

"Good. You?"

"Another day in paradise," he said with that fucking smile of his. God, I hate him. I let go of his hand, wondering if that was the hand he jerked off with. Fuck. I need to focus on another guy or something.

Zack, unnoticed by me, had gone by with a soda can for each of us in hand. He pressed a Coke into my hand and I thanked him quietly.

"Okay, warm up with a little Mario Kart? Then I definitely want some Smash Bros.," Zack said with a grin.

"Set it up, loser," Seth said, challenging him.

"You came in last, if I remember right," Brandon said. He looked at me. "Are you any good?"

I shrugged. "I can beat my little sister."

"Little sisters can be fierce," Seth said and looked at me with mock solemnity, much as Cal might have at home.

I pointed at him, rising to the challenge. "You, I will wreck."

We all got controllers, and the night changed. I'd never spent an evening like that in the company of friends. I'd played with my family - hey, with four kids there is usually someone to play with. This was a different vibe, though. Maybe it was more precious because we didn't live together, and they definitely didn't know me or I them. Not with any real familiarity. Plus, I did kick Seth's ass. We moved on to Smash Bros. and that was fun, too. Zack's dad hollered down the stairs once to keep it down, but that was the only thing to break the fun. I actually sort of forgot Brandon was there. Almost.

When it hit eleven I said I had to go. Brandon was staying over, but Seth had to go home as he and his family was going somewhere in the morning so he had to be up.

I put my hand out to Zack. "Thanks for the invite."

He took my hand and pulled me into a bro hug, which shocked the fuck out of me. "Anytime. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Uh. Yeah, sure."

"I'm going to your room to get changed," Brandon said to Zack. He put a hand out to me and we did a sort of high five, but not. If he'd have bro-hugged me, I probably would have shoved my tongue so far down his throat he'd have thought he was getting a rim job."Your little sister trained you well. Next time, I will get even with you."

I snorted uncomfortably, my body warring between wanting to choke him and wanting to knock him onto the couch and make out with him. Instead I followed Seth out the front door and down the walk.

"Want a ride?" I asked.

"I live three doors down, thanks, though," he said. He turned toward me, coming to a stop and I mirrored him. "That was fun. I hope you come again."

I glanced back at the house and then at Seth. "Is there something going on? Why are you guys being so nice to me?"

He tilted his head and wrinkled his forehead. "I think we just discovered we liked you. If you like us, then I guess we'll hang out. Have some fun times. If you don't, then...well, that sucks."

I thought about that for a second. "I'm sorry. I did have fun. I just...this is new."

He smiled. "You fit in with us. Give it some time." He turned from me, wishing me a goodnight and headed for his home.

I lay awake in my bed, turning over the events of the evening. There were tons of details that swirled like snow in a storm, but one kept coming back to me. His hand. His smile. My stomach tightened, but my dick stood tall. This wouldn't be the first time I'd jacked off thinking about Brandon, not even close. This was different, though. This wasn't just my imagination, it was augmented by the knowledge of how his hand had felt, how he'd looked even better up close. Sure, I still had that weird dichotomy where I felt the urge to punch him as well as kiss him, but I was alone now. It was hotter than any personal time I can ever remember. I swore as I got close, thinking of touching him again, and it was some kind of record for how hard my balls emptied. I wonder if it's possible to pull a muscle from cumming too hard.