The Castaway Hotel - 1 - 30. Chapter 30 - The Transition Period

After Sally left, the boys came back inside with me, so they could give Dustin the complete tour of the house. Before they started, Danny informed him that soccer physicals were going to be on Wednesday, if he wanted to play.

“Yeah, I do,” Dustin told them, and then they were off.

By the time they finished, it was getting late, so I took all of the boys out to eat, one final time. It was not only a nice way to end our three weeks together, but it was also a great way to welcome Dustin into the family. I took them to one of my favorite places, which I had frequented regularly when I was alone, but hadn’t been to for a while.

“Josh, it’s nice to see you again,” the owner greeted me as we walked in. “Are you bringing some of your students on a pre-school outing?”

“No, Tony, I’m not,” I informed him, grinning. “These three are my sons and the other two are their good friends and also like sons to me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tony apologized. “I thought your children had all grown up and moved away.”

“No need to feel bad about it Tony,” I assured him, “all my biological children are living on their own quite a ways from here, but these are my foster sons.”

“That’s fantastic,” he offered, as a way of making amends. “I hope these young men realize how fortunate they are.”

“We do,” they all responded, with the exception of Dustin. I think he was still trying to see how things were going to go.

After we finished eating, we drove Brandon and Jay back home to their families. When we arrived at each one, that set of parents would rush out to greet their son, and there were plenty of hugs and kisses to go around. Both boys got a little misty eyed when it came time to part, acting more like one of us was moving across country. After having their parents thank me numerous times, we drove back home to settle in for the evening.

Danny and Ricky helped Dustin clean up his room, make his bed and get comfortable. Once they finished, I told them to take their showers and then they could come down to watch some television with me. I informed Dustin that he could use my shower tonight, but we’d have to work out a bathroom schedule once school started. Ricky quickly claimed the bathroom he and Danny shared, so Danny went down and showered in the bathroom on the ground floor. He didn’t want to arouse Dustin’s suspicion, if he and Ricky showered together.

When the boys came to join me, Ricky was the last one to arrive and he was immediately dismayed to discover Danny and Dustin sitting on either side of me. Not to be outdone, he came over and plopped down in my lap. Dustin stared at him for a minute and then started laughing.

“It’s sure is nice to see they feel comfortable enough to use you as a chair,” he teased. “I would have never dared to do that in any of my old foster homes.”

“You certainly don’t have to feel that way here,” I told him. “I won’t treat any of you any differently than I would have, had you been born into my family.”

“Thanks,” Dustin added, with a grin, “I like that.”

Impressed that he was finally starting to allow himself the opportunity to fit in, so I thought I’d speed up the process a bit. Without him noticing what I was up to, I put my arm around his shoulder, so I could pull him against me. I wanted him to know that he wasn’t too big or too old for me to show him a little affection, either. Once he felt the pressure from my arm, he took the hint and slid a little closer and we stayed that way until the final program ended.

As the other two were getting ready to head upstairs to bed, Dustin asked me if he could stay behind for a few minutes, so we could talk. I told Dustin that would be fine and then gave Danny and Ricky a kiss good night on their foreheads, before sending them off to bed. Dustin observed our behavior, but didn’t say anything about it, which I thought was a good sign.

“Did Mrs. Swartout tell you about why I got kicked out of my last foster home?” he asked, slightly nervous, as soon as he heard Danny and Ricky head up the steps.

“Not everything,” I replied, “but she did fill me in about a little of what she knew about your life in foster care.”

“So she told you why I got kicked out of my last place?” he pressed, trying to gauge my reaction.

“She did say you and your foster brother were caught in a somewhat compromising position,” I responded, without reacting or making it sound too bad.

“And it doesn’t bother you, I mean about what we were doing?” he followed, somewhat shocked and relieved.

“She never gave me details, but I assumed it was something sexual,” I lied, trying to make it appear that Sally tried to keep his secret as best she could.

“Yeah, it was something like that,” he concurred, without looking me in the eye. “We were kind of naked and, oh shit this is embarrassing,” he blurted out.

“You don’t have to give me the details, if you don’t want,” I told him. “I think I get the picture.”

“You probably do,” he agreed, “but I’m not gay,” he quickly added.

“No one said you were,” I informed him. “Just because you do things with another male doesn’t mean you’re gay. I think a majority of the guys who have ever lived have tried something with another male at one time or another, and the ones who didn’t were most likely extremely timid, overly paranoid, lacked a sense of adventure or any combination of those things.”

“Gee, I didn’t know that,” he admitted. “So it doesn’t bother you?”

“Nothing I heard would make me change my mind about having you live with us,” I quickly advised him. I made sure I answered him without hesitation, to show him I didn’t have to think about my answer first. “It won’t matter to the other boys either, although the only way they’ll ever know about any of that is if you tell them. The boys are very open and very understanding about almost everything. You’re not going to having any problem about things like that here.”

“Thanks,” he told me. “I feel better now.” With that, I also gave him a hug and kissed him on the forehead, to convince him he wouldn’t be treated any differently than the others. However, he did blush a bit when I did that.

“Now, off to bed with you,” I suggested. “Do you remember how to get to your room?”

“Yeah, I can find my way,” he assured me. “Good night.”

When he reached the top landing, Danny and Ricky were waiting for him. “Is everything okay?” Ricky asked, concerned that there might be a problem.

“Yeah, everything’s good. I think I’ve finally landed in a pretty cool place,” Dustin observed. “I guess this might be the best break I’ve have gotten yet!”

“You didn’t sound that happy earlier,” Ricky observed. “It sounded almost like you weren’t planning to stick around.”

“It wasn’t that,” Dustin informed him. “It was just that I wasn’t sure if Mr. Currie was going to want me around, if he heard about why I didn’t have a place to live any more.”

“I’m sure that whatever happened there wasn’t that bad,” Danny told him, “but even if it was, Dad will more than likely forgive you, if you talk it out with him.”

“That’s what happened,” Dustin admitted. “He was actually pretty cool about it. You know, I think I’m going to like it here.”

“You’ll probably believe that even more after you’ve been here for a while,” Danny emphasized. “Ricky got tossed around a bit like you, before he came here, but we wouldn’t trade Dad and this place for anything.” Dustin was starting to smile again.

“Thanks guys, you’ve all made me feel really good since I’ve been here, especially after everything that’s happened to me this past week.”

“Look, we’re all brothers now,” Danny added, “even Jay and Brandon. We take care of each other and help each other out. You’re part of our family now, so you’re just like the rest of us.”

“This is going to be better than I thought,” Dustin admitted. “I’ve never had any ‘real’ brothers before, just kids who were children of my foster parents or other foster kids. In fact, I can’t ever remember being part of a real family. I’ve been in foster homes since I can remember.”

“We’re sorry to hear that,” Ricky added, from his heart, “but you’re part of a family now.”

“Thanks. I felt really bad when I got kicked out of my old home” he admitted, “but I’m beginning to think my old foster-dad did me a huge favor – even if he didn’t mean to. This place is much better than there. Mrs. Swarthout kept telling me I’d really like this place, but I still wasn’t sure. Now I know she was telling the truth, just from seeing how well you get guys get along with Mr. Currie and how much you care about each other.”

“Why do you keep calling him Mr. Currie?” Ricky asked. “You don’t have to.”

“I know, but it is his name and I don’t feel right calling him anything else,” Dustin explained. “Maybe someday I can call him Dad, like you both do, but not just yet.”

“Don’t worry. Dad probably won’t say anything about it,” Danny informed him, “but it’s going to seem odd if he’s telling everyone you’re his son too and you keep calling him Mr. Currie.” Dustin was surprised by Danny’s comment and thought about it for a second. He might just have a point, but he still couldn’t think about doing anything else just yet – especially not after so many years of using the Mr. and Mrs. moniker engrained in him. He could probably call him Josh, because he’d called some of his other foster parents by their first names, but this place was different and he thought that would be too informal, maybe even disrespectful. He’d stick with Mr. Currie for now, until he found something everybody could live with.

Now that he felt assured he wasn’t going to get kicked out of here too, he went to his room and turned in for the night. He never told me, and I never heard about how well he slept that night, but he must have done all right. He looked plenty refreshed when he came down to have breakfast the following morning.

After he finished eating, I talked to Dustin about his ideas for fixing up his room. Before he decided, I had him take a look at both Danny and Ricky’s rooms first, to get some ideas. After moving back and forth between the two, and taking a few peeks into my room, he finally made up his mind.

“Mr. Currie, I think I’ve decided that I’d like to do my room kind of like Ricky’s, with wood on the lower half and wallpaper above it.”

“That will be fine,” I replied, “so we’ll drive to the home improvement store after lunch, so you can pick out the type of wood and determine how dark you want it, before you select which wallpaper pattern you’d like to go with it.”

“You’re going to let me pick all that stuff out?” he asked, amazed.

“Well, it’s going to be your room and you’re going to have to be happy with it, so why not?” I responded.

“But it’s your house,” he countered.

“Correction. It’s OUR house,” I informed him, getting a smile in return. Slowly, he was beginning to realize this was his home too.

For the rest of the morning, the boys went out to kick the soccer ball around again, trying to get ready for their season to start. Dustin asked them a whole bunch of questions about the school system, teachers and what the classes were like, and he seemed surprised to learn I was the middle school principal.

“No way!” he shot back. “He’s too nice to be a principal. They’re supposed to be mean, to keep everyone in line.”

“Dad keeps everyone in line,” Ricky added, “but he does it in a nice way. I was lucky he was my principal or I would have been in BIG trouble.” After that comment, the boys went on to fill Dustin in about what it was like for them to attend my school, especially as my sons. He listened to their every word and questioned them about certain things, but I think he came away with a better understanding about the relationship we’d established.

After they came in to eat, we made our little trip to the store, so Dustin could pick out everything he wanted. Once he made his final selections, we drove home and I called my contractor, to arrange for him to come over and measure. I told him this needed to be done as quickly as he could, so he could call the store and let them know the exact amounts of material that would be needed. He promised he’d come over the next afternoon to do the preliminaries and would start the work at the end of the week, if the store could get the supplies to him in time. It seems everyone was happy and the plans were officially set in motion.

We had a quiet dinner at home that evening and then I checked out Dustin’s clothing situation, so I could determine what and how much he would need by the time school started. His clothing wasn’t in that bad of condition, but you could tell it was inexpensive stuff, bought from a lower range retail store. I didn’t want him having to wear those things to school, because I suspected he would draw some ridicule from wearing them, especially being the new kid. With that in mind, I announced I was going to take him shopping that evening, with Ricky and Danny quickly volunteered to serve as his fashion consultants.

“This is really nice of you, Mr. Currie,” Dustin told me, “but I don’t need much.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that,” I assured him, “because I know what the other kids will be like too. You must know starting in a new school is never easy, and I don’t want to make it even harder on you, because you’re standing out in the crowd, due to what you’re wearing.” He thanked me again and then listened as Danny and Ricky explained that I’d done the same thing for them, and then we drove to my favorite department store again.

The boys helped Dustin select a variety of garments, some suitable for the fall and some for the winter months, and then they headed to the underwear section. “Me and Danny both wear this type,” Ricky informed him, while holding up a package of bikini briefs. “Do you want some too?”

Dustin raised his eyebrows and looked at both of them oddly, before replying. “You’re joking, right?” he asked. Both boys shook their heads in response.

“Sorry, but that’s not my style,” Dustin informed them. “I’m a boxer type.” After saying that, he selected several pairs of boxers and a package of boxer briefs, just to give them a try. After that, we picked out a pair of hiking boots for him, for our trips out in the woods, and then headed to the checkouts. After paying for everything, we drove home.

“Thanks, Mr. Currie,” Dustin told me in the car. “That was really nice of you to do that for me.”

“No problem, Dustin,” I replied. “If I think you need something, then I’ll get it for you. No big deal.” I could see him smiling, through my rearview mirror, as he took another look through his packages.

The following day, Wednesday, I took all of the boys for their soccer physicals. While they were doing that, I ran over to my school and got a little work done. I knew they were also going to be having meetings with their coaches, to get their tryout schedules and go over some other basic information, so it gave me time to get many of my things organized at work.

The boys were all excited when I picked them up. Not only because of what happened with soccer that morning, but because Dustin thought he might be able to make friends with some of the other guys trying out for soccer. It must have gone well. Not only that, but the boys had also given Dustin a brief tour of the entire school, so he’d get off to a better start on the first day of classes.

“So what do you think of it?” I asked him.

“It’s kind of old, but it’s in pretty good shape,” he began. “Actually, it’s cleaner and nicer than the school I went to last year. I think this will be okay.” I was glad he thought so.

Once we got home, we all started planning for school to begin the following Monday. So far, everything was going fairly well and the boys were getting along fine, which took away another of my previous concerns. I was glad about that, as I had enough on my plate, just with mentally and physically preparing myself to head back to work. That night, I also added Dustin to the computer and gave him his own sign-on and email address. He thanked me for that and informed me that he was never allowed to use the computer at his last foster home. That was just for the family. Now I understood just how left out he must have felt.

Nothing had been happening between the boys, sexually that is, as they were all sort of waiting to see what the other was up to. No one wanted to make the first move and they were all kind of feeling each other out. They’d make little comments here and there, to see how the others were going to react, but it all kind of passed without much ado.

All of that changed Thursday night. Based on what I had previously told him about the other two, Dustin decided to take a chance and tell Danny and Ricky about why he was kicked out of his old foster home.

“So anyway, my old foster dad came into the bedroom I shared with his son and caught his boy giving me a hummer.”

“I guess he didn’t appreciate that, huh?” Danny asked, rhetorically.

“Not much,” Dustin responded, unnecessarily.

“That won’t be a problem here,” Ricky told him. “Dad doesn’t care if we do things like that, as long as we don’t force anyone into it.”

“Really? Mr. Currie knows what you guys do?” he asked, totally blown away.

“Heck, he’s taught us about sex, whenever we’ve asked him questions, and we usually go around the house naked at night, after our showers,” Ricky informed him. “We just haven’t done it since you’ve been here, because we didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Really? You go naked in front of him?” Dustin still thought they might be pulling his leg.

“Yeah, we did it almost all vacation,” Danny concurred. “Even Jay and Brandon.”

“No way! They even went naked in front of Mr. Currie too?” Dustin was almost convinced this was all some sort of a joke.

“Yeah, they are just like his sons too and they don’t care,” Ricky added. “We’ll even prove it to you tonight. You’ll see, and he won’t even care.”

“If you say so,” Dustin responded, still not convinced.

“So you’re gay Danny?” Dustin asked him, changing the topic. Danny nodded. “How about you Ricky?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t mind fooling around for fun,” Ricky admitted, drawing a giggle from Dustin in response. “Actually, I think I might be bi,” Ricky continued. “That’s when you like both guys and girls.”

“I know what bi means,” Dustin assured him, while chuckling that Ricky thought he had to explain it to him.

“What about you?” Ricky asked him.

“I really think I’m straight,” Dustin informed them. “Even though I did some things with my old foster brother, and I think we both kind of enjoyed it, but I think if I found a girl I was serious about, I might not do that any more.” He studied the boys’ reactions to what he said, and when he saw they were fine with it, he added a little more. “You know, it sure feels good when you don’t have to keep secrets from the people you’re around the most,” he admitted.

“We know,” Danny agreed. “It’s been the same for us. That’s only one of the advantages about living here, though. It just keeps getting better all the time.”

“Are you and Ricky going to tell Brandon and Jay?” Dustin asked them.

“That’s not our decision. That’s up to you,” Danny responded. “If you want them to know, you’ll have to tell them yourself and, if they want you to know their preference, they’ll have to tell you. We don’t tell anything about the others unless they tell us to.”

“You sounded just like someone else when you said that,” Dustin teased.

“I guess you mean Dad,” Danny responded, getting a nod in return. “Then I thank you,” Danny quipped back, “and I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one,” Dustin confirmed, “and you can tell Brandon and Jay about me, if you want, or I’ll tell them next time they’re here.”

“Well, that will be this weekend,” Ricky informed him. “I think they’re both staying over Friday night and most of Saturday. They really had to beg their parents this time, since they’d been gone with us for three weeks. It took some work, but they finally got them to give in by telling them they’d spend Saturday night and all day Sunday at home. Now, you can tell them whenever we’re not playing ball, of one kind or another.” Dustin smiled and thanked his brothers, and then they went out to practice their soccer skills.

That evening, I sat keeping an eye on the boys, as they spent most of their time after dinner on the computer. Needless to say, I was fairly impressed with how this transition period had been going. As the hours passed, I sent the boys off to take their showers. Dustin came back first, clad only in his boxers, but then Danny and Ricky joined us, without a stitch of clothing on. I raised my eyebrows and just looked at them. They broke out in hysterics at my reaction.

“I guess you boys must have discussed this earlier?” I asked, getting nods from both boys.

“Damn, they were right!” Dustin agreed. “I didn’t believe them when they told me they went around naked after their showers and you didn’t care.”

“What’s to care about?” I asked him. “We’re alone, no one is forced to do it and the scenery ain’t bad either,” I added, giving him a little wink.

“Yeah, they are both kind of handsome… for guys,” he added, as an afterthought.

“And you’re no slouch either, in the looks department,” I informed him, “and it appears that you must work out, to keep in that kind of shape.” He smiled at my acknowledgment of that point.

“Yeah, I exercise whenever I can and try to lift some weights when they’re available,” he confessed.

“They have a weight room at the school, which all the teams get to use,” I informed him, “so I guess you’ll probably be spending some of your time there.”

“Probably,” he told me.

Even though he watched Danny and Ricky parade around naked the rest of the evening, Dustin kept his boxers on. I was even a little surprised that he felt comfortable enough to even do that, since he’d only been here a short time, but I wasn’t convinced he’d ever be ready to do more than that. I hope the other boys wouldn’t be too disappointed, if he didn’t follow their lead.