Porcupines - 23. Chapter 23 - Third Course

Chapter 23 - Third Course

“Hun, they’re eating every single bit. There isn’t a speck of food left on any of the plates,” Dylan whispered to his boyfriend.

“Your brother didn’t finish the soup. Neither did Raleigh. I don’t think they liked it,” Chuck worried. “Can I get a hug? I’m so nervous.”

“Nonsense. They love your food. It’s amazing. You should have more confidence.” Dylan stopped putting cheese on the potatoes and gave Chuck a squeeze. He looked at Chuck’s concerned face and it hurt. Every day, the sallow faced man became more handsome and attractive but his fretting wasn’t pretty. “You’re the best cook I’ve ever met.”

Chuck leaned down and rubbed his hands on Dylan’s furry chest hair. His auburn beard was glistening in the bright lights of the kitchen. “You’re biased. I made you squeal this morning.”

“You may have rocked my world this morning but that doesn’t affect my taste buds. This meal is fantastic and our friends are loving it.”

Chuck couldn’t help but glow. Dylan’s characterization of the assembly in the dining room as “our friends” felt so good. Dylan was the best thing to ever happen to him. He didn’t know how he got so lucky. “I hope they’re enjoying themselves,” he finally said and went to wash his hands.

With the main course plated, Chuck and Dylan began to bring the plates into their guests. Dylan placed the steaming plates in front of his Kelly and Chuck’s Kelli. Both looked up and grinned. The smell was intoxicating. Chuck had followed and served Isaac and Raleigh. Both guys looked like wolves as the saw the food. Krill and Lynora looked expectantly. Dylan gave them their plates and looked over at his dark haired lover.

“This is roasted pork with a miso and mirin glaze and on the top there are sweet potato croquettes spiced with Chinese five spice. Please enjoy.” Chuck made a half bow and scurried into the kitchen. Dylan followed after once again mouthing ‘be nice’ to the diners.

“Kelly?” Lynora looked at the other end of the table.

“Yes,” both Chuck and Dylan’s Kellies answered. Then the whole table laughed at the gaffe.

“I was going to ask Chuck’s sister about what he was like growing up,” Lynora said. Krill put a protective arm around his date.

“You wanna know about Chuck?” his sister said still chortling. “I don’t know what to say. He was always such a nice brother. When people say their brother was a pest or picked on them, I really can’t say that. He was always so nice to me. I was probably the one who picked on him. He always had patience with his little sister.”

“Wish I could say the same about my brother,” Dylan’s Kelly chuckled. “He was a spitfire from the moment he escaped the womb.”

“Chuck has always been a sweetheart. In fact, that was how I knew he was gay. In fact, I think I knew before he did,” she said taking another bite.

“How did you know?” Raleigh asked and tasted the croquettes. His eyes rolled back in his head with pleasure. “What did he do?”

“Well, Chuck always liked hanging out with the men and boys. He’d follow my dad and uncles around when they puttered with cars and stuff. He wanted to help so much. I don’t think he was much of one, but he was always around. Then, when he was in elementary school, I could see he started noticing boys.”

“Kelli, what the hell are you telling them?” Chuck called from the kitchen. He appeared and was smiling but shaking his head.

“I wanna hear this. So my man was boy hungry at an early age?” Dylan teased and wrapped his arms around Chuck.

“No. He wasn’t chasing them. He was just always around them and watching them,” Kelli said and started her story.

“First time I noticed it, Chuck was playing with a couple of the neighbor boys. They were on the jungle gym and it struck me for the first time. When the boys would hang upside down, Chuck looked so intently at their exposed bellies. When the other boys squatted, he’d watch their back when their shirts would hike up. He never did anything about it. He just would be there and look at them with such intensity.”

“Oh my Gawd,” Isaac squawked. “Chuck was perving on boys in elementary school?”

“I wouldn’t be too judgmental Isaac,” his aunt warned. “I remember a couple of calls from your mother about your “curiosity” about other boys.” Raleigh snickered and Isaac punched him. Raleigh settled down.

“In particular, I remember one boy Chuck would do anything to be around,” Kelli said. “Remember Greg?”

“I do,” Chuck nodded. “I don’t think our guests need to hear about this at dinner sis.”

The rest of the group, including Dylan hushed Chuck. The dark haired guard just shook his head and conceded defeat.

“Greg was a cute little boy. Greg was also a bit of a shit. Chuck followed him around like a puppy. You could see he thought Greg was a god. He had to do whatever Greg was doing. Greg saw it too. Greg started telling Chuck what to do and Chuck couldn’t do it fast enough,” Kelli smiled. “I didn’t understand it at the time. I thought Chuck was just so nice he’d let Greg order him around but after a little while, I noticed Chuck only jumped when Greg told him to. Otherwise, if other boys or girls asked for him to do things, he would be nice but not like with Greg. He would cross the ocean to get Greg a candy bar if Greg wanted one.”

“I guess you haven’t changed much,” Dylan whispered to Chuck.

“I finally found someone who deserves to be treated like a king,” Chuck smiled.

“Chuck never really teased or picked on me except when that dreadful Greg was around. I think that boy loved to torment people. The only time I ever got really mad at Chuck was when he burst into my room after I’d showered with that creepy boy in tow.”

“Let’s get the next course ready,” Chuck said to Dylan. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

“What did you like so much about him?” Dylan asked sweetly.

“I liked his butt. I remember I wanted to bite it,” Chuck blushed.

“I guess you really haven’t changed.”

“No, I guess not,” Chuck growled and grabbed Dylan’s ass. “I’ve always been an ass man.”

‘Thank God,” Dylan thought.

Fourth Course

“So tell us about Dylan,” Chuck’s sister asked the other Kelly.

“Don’t you dare bro,” Dylan said removing the empty plates from the table. Kelly looked up at his brother and got a devilish smirk on his face.

“Really?” Kelly said. “You wanna tell me what to say?”

“Please Kelly. I don’t want to ruin Chuck’s dinner party,” Dylan urged.

“Dylan doesn’t want me to tell you about him as a child. Who wants to hear about this little shit?”

The ensemble, including Chuck all called for Kelly’s story. “You lose Dylan. I bow to the opinion of the masses.” Dylan snarled to no avail. Before Kelly could embarrass his brother, Chuck explained the next dish.

“Usually, this is the cheese course, but I’ve decided to give you a cheesy vegetarian course instead,” Chuck said placing the last bubbling casserole in front of Isaac. “This is an au gratin of potatoes with fennel and red pepper. Please enjoy.”

“Please continue,” Chuck’s Kelli said taking a steaming spoonful of stringy goodness.

“Dylan was a little instigator. He loved to torment me and my parents whenever he could.”

“It seems he hasn’t changed either,” Isaac said mischievously.

“Don’t get me wrong. My brother is a sweetheart but he loved to get my goat. He’d pick at me in the car by whispering little things to me until I’d get mad and yell at him. Then, mom and dad would make me apologize. All the while, Dylan would sit there all smug. I hated him sometimes but then he’d do something so nice, I couldn’t stay mad. Once, I had a really bad day at school. Some guys had been pushing me into lockers and calling me “Red Kelly” just to piss me off. Dylan brought me the last of his Halloween candy to make me feel better. I always ate mine right away but Dylan rationed his. It made me feel better and of course I couldn’t stay annoyed at him.

“When did you know Dylan was gay?” Isaac asked with a gleam in his eye.

“I guess I first knew when he had a sleepover in eighth grade.”

“Kelly!” Dylan called from the kitchen. “I’m ready to disown you. Don’t you dare.”

The rest of the group quickly assured Dylan’s Kelly they had his back. Chuck couldn’t contain himself. “I had to listen to my Kelli talk about embarrassing things. It’s only fair.”

“My story is worse,” Dylan grumbled.

“Worse than being a slave to an eleven year old boy whose butt I wanted to bite?” Chuck said.

“Well, it’s not much better,” Dylan conceded.

“Dylan had a sleepover with four other boys. It was for his birthday and they were playing video games and eating junk food until late. I had soccer practice in the morning and they wouldn’t shut up. I finally had enough. I got out of bed and went into the room to tell them to keep it down. You won’t believe what I saw.”

***********************

Ten years ago…

Kelly was pissed. His stupid brother’s sleepover was getting out of hand. It was almost one o’clock in the morning and those idiots were still laughing and cutting up in the next room. Kelly’s bedroom was right next to the basement family room and shutting the door hadn’t helped. He could hear every little hushed voice punctuated by cackles of laughter and then shushing. He had tossed and turned long enough. Time to tell those teenaged morons to go to sleep.

Kelly got out of bed and threw on a t-shirt. He padded to his bedroom door rubbing his eyes. He’d give them a scare.

Bang! Kelly threw open his door and shouted, “hey!” It took him a minute to realize what he saw. There were five thirteen and fourteen year old boys sitting on a blanket in the middle of the family room, three naked as jaybirds and two in just boxers, one of those being his brother.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” he shouted.

The five boys jumped and instinctively covered themselves. Cards were lying about the blanket but they also had some in their hands. A small pile of clothing was over behind Dylan. All four of the five boys were red with embarrassment and the fifth would have been if his dark skin didn’t hide the blush.

“Why are you idiots naked?” he’d asked truly shocked.

Dylan had covered himself as well even though he was one of the two who still had underwear on. Kelly could see his brother was trying to hide his arousal from sight.

“Nothing,” three of them said and two started crawling for the clothes pile. “We’re just playing strip poker,” Dylan answered with a squeak. He was seven shades of pink from his forehead to his belly. Even his back was flushed.

“What the hell are you playing strip poker for? You’re all guys.”

None of them had an answer for that. Kelly shook his head in wonder. “Get your underwear back on and get in the sleeping bags. It’s late and I have practice in the morning. Just shut the hell up.”

The boys scrambled quickly and redressed and slipped into the sleeping bags. Kelly went back to bed and scratched his head. He couldn’t believe his brother’s friends had been playing strip poker. It was weird and kinda creepy. As he lay in bed, he started thinking about what Dylan had been up to. This was his sleepover so presumably it was his idea. He’d have to ask him in the morning. As Kelly fell asleep he wondered about Dylan. His brother was always looking at his friends too. Gawd, was the little creep gay? Should he ask him? What would Dylan say?

The next morning after the other four boys left, Kelly took Dylan downstairs to talk. He had to know what was up with the night before.

“We were just practicing so when we have girl/boy parties, we’d know how to play,” Dylan had said. “Just don’t tell mom and dad. They wouldn’t understand.”

“I don’t understand. Just play regular poker and when you do it with girls, you substitute clothes for poker chips,” Kelly said still confused.

“It’s not the same,” Dylan pouted. He wouldn’t look at Kelly and that usually meant his brother was lying.

“Why would five boys want to look at each other’s dicks at a sleepover,” Kelly continued the questioning.

“Honest, Chad just said it would be good practice for when we have girls over,” Dylan whined. His brother wasn’t buying the cover story. That was becoming very apparent.

Kelly shook his head. He thought about how Dylan was always trying to go with him and his friends swimming, which seemed okay. But Dylan also was always watching Keith. He would stare at Curt. Hell, Dylan had offered to rub Jerry’s shoulders for him when he’d gotten a cramp. Guys didn’t do things like that. At least, straight guys didn’t do things like that.

“Dylan, are you gay?” he asked abruptly. Dylan didn’t answer right away. When he did it all came out in a rush. “No, of course not. Why would you think I’m gay,” Kelly had never seen his brother as nervous as he was right about then. Kelly got nervous when his parents questioned him about things. Dylan was the cool one. He was like a cucumber when answering parental inquiries. Now, Dylan looked like he wanted to run and hide.

“I just can’t think of why you guys would play strip poker,” Kelly said.

“It was just a dumb game. Chad suggested it and we thought it sounded funny,” Dylan said quickly.

“Chad huh?” Kelly asked. Once again Dylan wouldn’t look him in the eye. Chad wouldn’t have said a peep and certainly wouldn’t have suggested taking off their clothes. The boy was scared of his own shadow and Kelly couldn’t hear Chad say anything about having a sausage fest.

“Dyl,” Kelly said quietly. “If you ever want to talk to me about anything, you know I wouldn’t tell mom and dad, right?”

“Really?” Dylan said after a couple of moments. “Like if I wanted to talk about, well, um, girls or something you wouldn’t mind?”

“Course not. We gotta stick together but if you ever want to talk about feelings or sex or stuff like that, you can.”

“Okay.” Dylan thoughtfully bit his lip and Kelly gave him time for that to sink in. “I was just curious,” Dylan finally said. “I just wanted to see what they looked like, you know, naked.”

Kelly wondered. They had gym and showers and shit at school. He didn’t think Dylan was just curious about what other boys his age looked like. If so, he had a smorgasbord of adolescent males around him every day. It was something much deeper that drove Dylan to get his friends naked. Something else entirely but hopefully Dylan would feel he could talk to him.

“Promise you won’t tell mom and dad,” Dylan begged. Kelly shook his head. “I won’t.”

He never did.

********************************

“Yeah, but now you tell my friends,” Dylan looked pissed but Kelly and the others laughed it off.

“I always knew you were quite the slut Dylan,” Isaac teased as Raleigh grinned at their red-haired host.

“I don’t think a game of strip poker between teenagers is slutty behavior,” Dylan said wryly.

“I think Isaac may have some competition in the boy crazy department,” Lynora joked.

Dylan couldn’t resist and chuckled along with the rest of their guests. It was a cute story and when Kelly told it, he remembered how terrified he’d been. He was afraid Kelly would hate him. He was afraid his parents would find out. Mostly, he’d been afraid of what drove him to persuade the other boys to play that game. It was the first time he’d admitted to himself he was gay. After getting caught by Kelly, he’d had to think about his own motivations. Dylan wanted to see the other boys’ bodies because it made him hard and it felt so good. It was also very scary as he’d held those images in his head when he played with himself.

“I think your story was worse,” Chuck kidded and elbowed his boyfriend. “I just wish I’d been there.”

Dylan kissed Chuck and patted his arm. He made him feel so good. He also thought he and Chuck should play strip poker some time though he doubted either would try to win a hand.e