Goon - 5. Chapter 5

Tropical Storm Shiela has lost steam after hitting Bermuda and is projected to dissipate before spinning back out to the Atlantic.

“Why are you watching the weather reports?” Billy had a great deal of disbelief in his voice as he waltzed into the living room. Karen had already gone home for the rest of the summer, but would be back for Thanksgiving according to Billy.

“Micah thinks Hurricane Robert is going to come in and smash into southern Georgia, just north of the Florida state line.” Corey said with a smug expression in his voice. “If there’s a storm named Sheila this early in the summer, well, it looks like Robert’s come and gone.”

“God you are such an idiot.” Billy smacked his brother in the back of the head as he leaned over and plucked the remote out of Micah’s hand.

“Hey! Watch it!” Corey protested. “It must be a busy season if they’ve already reached the ‘S’ names.”

“This is the first year they’re doing a new naming system, going backwards through the alphabet instead of forwards.” Billy told his brother with a snort. “I heard there’s a new storm forming and they’ve already called it Robert. Karen told me her family was trying to decide if they were going to take the cruise in their yacht or not depending on how it tracked through the Caribbean.”

“It’ll barely skim through the Caribbean before turning back into the Atlantic and then smashing into the coast.” Micah said with a frown. “I forgot that thing about the naming going backwards this year. Just watch what happens to Sheila. It’ll gain strength because of some weird current that’s going on this year in the Atlantic and it’ll hit North Carolina as a Category One. Robert hits at Category Five.”

“Aren’t you the amazing little psychic?” Billy teased him about the same as he teased Corey, which was quite a bit. He slapped Micah in the head with the remote as he changed the channel to the Braves game and jumped over the couch to sit between them. “Hey, I heard you guys did pretty good the other day.”

“We won.” Micah shrugged.

“Mom says you hit the winning run.” Billy said with a nod. “Way to go. Spaz over here managed to slip up on his relay and cost them the meet.”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Micah protested.

“God you guys are bad, always sticking up for each other.” Billy laughed as he elbowed both of them at the same time. He grunted when they leaned into him from each side, their elbows digging back into his side. Then he leaped out from between them, causing them to fall together with their heads hitting hardest. “God you guys are slow.”

“Get him!” Corey squealed and they began to chase Billy out of the room.

“Watch it!” Melissa barked as they nearly ran her down. She was supervising the weekly cleaning crew and Micah nearly smashed into Corey as both he and his brother stopped in their tracks. It still amazed him how the two of them immediately listened to Melissa or Bill when they’d often as not practically ignore their mother and father’s first admonition.

“You heard the lady, klutz.” Billy growled as Corey grunted from the impact of Micah against him.

“I was speaking to the two of you, for the most part.” Melissa growled. “Micah’s the sweet one of you bunch.”

“You hear that, boys?” Micah said with a teasing tone, standing a little taller. He winked at Melissa and strutted out of the room only to be tackled by both brothers. In the end he begged for mercy as Billy gave him a noogie and Corey tickled him.

“Take it outside.” Melissa chided them again as she came through the room and Micah trudged out with the other two, still trying to catch his breath.

Outside it was a typical hot, muggy Georgia day and Micah didn’t object as they made their way to the pool and took off their shoes to soak their feet in the water. Billy was sitting on the other side of Corey who was somehow leaning against both of them at the same time. It was a comfortable situation and Micah relaxed a little.

“Karen loves the fact that I am so comfortable in my sexuality that I’m not freaked out by my little brother parading his boyfriend around the house.” Billy said when they’d all been silent for a long while. Corey giggled between them, his head coming to rest on Micah’s shoulder.

“Anything to get my big brother laid.” Corey said around some more giggles.

“Anything to keep my little brother from trying to watch me have sex with someone.” Billy retorted and Micah felt a laugh well up from deep inside.

“You did not!” Micah teased Corey, jostling him with his elbow.

“Just the one time.” Corey admitted. “It was like two years ago. What was his name?”

“Mike.” Billy said and Micah felt his eyes go wide with that bit of information, but the two brothers were too much in their own little world to notice his reaction.

“Have you told her yet?” Corey asked in a suddenly serious tone.

“No.” Billy’s voice was neutral in its tone.

“I thought you said you were, just so it wouldn’t come back and bite you in the ass.” Corey said with a worried tone. Micah was just sitting there, stunned and not quite sure what to say.

“I can’t believe you’ve already told your boyfriend all my secrets.” Billy said in a rather sharp voice and Corey frowned.

“Oh, crap.” Corey said with a blush as he looked over at Micah. “Um, I haven’t exactly.”

“I’m not gay.” Billy said in a rapid response.

“No, you’re bi, right?” Micah said with a nod. That made sense.

“Yes.” Billy said. “Thing is, I like Karen a lot. I think she’s the one. Don’t think just because I’m bi I’d cheat on her. When I date someone, I just date them, regardless of the gender. Mike was this guy I saw for a while a few years ago and the little shit here kept on spying on us. Mom and Dad never knew we were anything more than friends.”

“You should tell her.” Micah chose to say that much. So many things made sense now, like his memory of how certain Corey had been that his brother’s death had been suspicious, and the way all the Howards had shut everyone out immediately after the event. Micah had assumed it was just because of the tragedy of losing Billy. Karen had been pregnant, and they had all been glad of the fact that she hadn’t been in the car at the time, but there had been a strange gulf between Karen and the rest of the family after the funeral.

“Woah, you think so, huh?” Billy asked. “Why is that? I know it’ll take her a bit to accept it, but I’m not going to leave her for some guy if we get married. Look at how accepting she is of you and Corey.”

“I remember hearing a story about some guy whose parents were fine with this guy’s friend being gay.” Micah said slowly, frowning along the way. “When the kid’s parents kicked him out, they even took him in and gave him a room in their house. Then they found out that he was more than their son’s friend, that the two of them were actually boyfriends and they kicked the kid out of their home too.”

“What happened to their son?” Corey asked with a frown.

“They sent him to a military boarding school so there could never be contact between them.” Micah answered with a deeper frown. “He killed himself halfway through the year and the whole story came out. It was in all the papers.”

“No one’s killed themselves at school.” Corey said with a frown.

“I…um…” Micah frowned, remembering suddenly that it had been next year that happened, or rather it’d been this summer that the blow up would happen, a few states away.

“Is this a Hurricane Robert type thing, Micah?” Billy asked. It wasn’t more than two weeks into the summer before he’d wormed the entire story out of both of them, and was even more skeptical of it than Corey. Still, it was just between them with no mention of even talking to the parental units about this one.

“Yeah, it is, I guess.” Micah sighed. “It’s Alan Small, the cadet who ends up at our school this next fall. He’ll be in our class and take the room just down the hall, only he ends up with McFontaine.”

“The homophobic bastard.” Corey snorted. “Whoever made that decision needs to have their head checked.”

“The parents were very particular about what kind of student their son was to be assigned as his bunk mate, and even more particular about what activities he will be allowed to participate in while there.” Micah said. “He wasn’t the brightest of guys either, and he tried to just spend most of his time as invisible as possible.

“He won’t have to worry about that this year.” Corey said. “Fullman was griping that he can’t stand to be bunked with Filner again, so move Filner in with McFontaine and this new guy gets Fullman who’ll have this guy so over his last boyfriend he won’t ever care about going home again.”

“What makes you think you can get away with arranging that?” Billy asked with a little jab of an elbow into his brother.

“Not me, Micah.” Corey said with a laugh. “He has to go back a week early because he’s been honored to be selected as the Master-At-Arms for the next school year.”

“Congratulations!” Billy said and reached around Corey to give Micah a high-five. “You must have just found out.”

“Yes, and he’s already explained to mother how a shopping trip would be needed to get the necessary supplies.” Corey laughed. “You should have seen the look on her face when he mentioned the Army-Navy store.”

“Oh, not classy enough, eh?” Billy snorted.

“No!” Corey exclaimed. “She was ecstatic about the whole damn thing! It’s going to be a whole big production with those two, and that reminds me we’re supposed to go to the tailor next week to have our uniforms measured.”

“You’re going to spoil our mother, Micah.” Billy groaned. “In a couple of years, she’s going to write us out of the will and give everything to you!”

“Good riddance!” Corey called out and Micah relaxed as he realized they were teasing him.

“I’m just the newest thing, and with the way things are going for me with my family, it’s her opportunity to spend money and believe she’s doing something helpful.” Micah said with a shrug.

“Well, is she being helpful?” Billy asked in a serious way. His head was tilted to the side and he wanted to know.

“I have a lot of clothes and other things that I never thought I’d have.” Micah said with a shrug. “So far this summer I’ve lived in a fine house, played on a great team of guys for sports, and spent half as much time in soup kitchens as either of you. I’m even starting to think of it like having two families. There’s the birthers, the people who I was born with and then there’s my family, the family I live with and love. Mrs. Howard has made all this possible and treated me as if I was one of her own, so yeah, I go shopping when she wants to go and try to think of fun things she might enjoy because she’s accepted me into her home and her family and it’s a lot nicer than being with the birthers. Somewhere in that rambling mess I think I answered your question about her being helpful.”

“I’ll just take that as a yes.” Billy laughed. “I thought you were the quiet one.”

“I am.” Micah said.

“You know those watch duties we have to do at school?” Corey asked his older brother who had also attended Huntsville.

“I hated that.” Billy shuddered. “Spending two hours standing beside a damn door, doing nothing unless an officer walks through. Those sucked.”

“He likes them.” Corey gave Micah another jab.

“He’s insane.” Billy whistled.

“They give me time to think.” Micah complained in his own defense. “I’m not as quick a thinker as other people, so when I’m standing there I do my thinking.”

“Like what?” Billy asked, showing real interest.

“Like whether giving in to my desires to claim Corey as mine forever is a good thing or a bad thing.” Micah answered honestly.

“You get a rich boyfriend, involved in powerful politics so just being a part of the family gives you connections and opportunities you will find very helpful no matter what you want to do in life.” Billy’s first one hit it right on the mark. “Then there’s Corey, who after he’s finished his slut phase should be better at giving blow jobs.”

“Why?” Corey interrupted into the discussion. “You interested bro?”

“Uh, make that a ’HELL NO!’ pipsqueak.” Billy said with a flat face. “He may be annoying at times, but he is easy on the eyes and he happens to be obviously head over heels in love with you. The first summer after you two had met, he would scream your name out every time he masturbated.”

“I did not!” Corey splashed his brother who just laughed. Micah just smiled and patted Corey’s arm until the guy leaned against him.

“So, seriously, are we going to address the elephant in our room here?” Billy asked and Micah sighed.

“You mean the whole ‘know the future’ thing.” Micah sighed.

“Yes, if you happened to remember lottery numbers you could make yourself a very, very rich man.” Billy said and Corey got a look on his face that made Micah very nervous.

“So I should go out and use this to make millions, right?” Micah asked and both brothers sighed.

“No, you shouldn’t.” Corey was the one who verbalized their answer. “I’m not sure if I believe you, but I’m scared that the things you’ve talked about are going to happen and then we’ll have to do something.”

“Well, the right thing would be to tell the government so they figure out the right way to use any information in that head of yours.” Billy said. “You’ve got a connection to a fairly well-liked U.S. Senator, so you won’t disappear off the face of the earth either. Who was the President when you came back?”

“Um, you really don’t want me to answer that question.” Micah said with a genuine grimace.

“Don’t tell me another damn Democrat gets it in 2016!” Corey groaned.

“Hey, Dad’s still a Democrat.” Billy countered.

“You guys know I’m not a political junkie like you both are, right?” Micah asked as he sighed. “I mean, most of my involvement was standing near a door and making sure no one came close enough to hurt you, sometimes a friend to do things with, other times to keep people from saying or doing things they shouldn’t have been doing. A lot of people called me your dad’s ‘Goon’ or his ‘Enforcer’ was another term I heard. In fact, I heard that one just before the lab went haywire. Still, hanging around your family, even as just a friend means that I picked up a lot of stuff. When Mr. Howard comes home for the 4^th of July, he’s going to have a big party and they’re going to form the American Moderates party.”

“He’s really going for it.” Billy sounded happy and eager.

“Lean liberal on the social issues, protect the interests of the common citizen, and guard the purse strings of the taxpayers.” Micah quoted their AM’s leading slogan.

“He’s going to do it.” Corey sounded excited at the prospect.

“Yeah, but the hurricane hitting Georgia, Florida and South Carolina at Category 5 kind of put it on the back burner for a bit. After the immediate work is over, they change their platform a bit to focus on how ‘strong, effective government’ is what saved so many lives and that a well-run, properly regulated government kept in careful check can be good for the country. I only paid attention to 2012 elections because Corey was so excited, but the AM party managed to seize a big enough block in Congress that they had to split the leadership of the House. Senate they picked up nine seat and that was enough to get them some big deal-making spots. By 2014 the AM had twenty-one seats in the senate. Most of them from the Republicans, but quite a bit from the Democrats too. Both parties really started losing their people in the middle.”

“Here I thought you were the typical dumb jock.” Billy laughed.

“I am.” Micah agreed. “It takes time for me to figure this all out and spit out what I think and figure out what may happen. This should be a dream, but I’m here too long and it’s not all about sex, as great as that is.”

“Dad wins in 2016 as the AM candidate.” Corey blurted out and they both looked to Micah for his reaction. He closed his eyes and nodded ever so slightly.

“Dude, we’ll be in the White House!” Corey laughed. “I wonder if we’ll be able to see Lincoln’s ghost for real!”

“They are not going to let the two of you cover that room in your spunk!” Billy shot back, getting a punch from Corey for his trouble.

“Mom is going to have so much fun changing all the furniture and décor!” Corey added and then he got a sly look. “At least she’ll have a shopping partner.”

“Oh no, I’ll be in the Army in Afghanistan.” Micah shook his head.

“Uh, hate to break it to you, but we’re pulling out.” Billy said.

“Biggest mistake of the century so far was pulling out of that country.” Micah said with a very, very heavy sigh. “The bad guys took it back over within a year, and then they managed to do stuff they said that Iraq was doing but didn’t, making bio-weapons. One of those gets released in San Diego where it kills about two hundred, but made a quarter-million people sick including sailors from all the ships there. Half the ships couldn’t leave port for a month because they had so many infected crews.”

“Oh man, if they hit bases with weapons like that, it doesn’t matter if it kills, it keeps us from being able to fight.” Billy said.

“We went back in to Afghanistan right away.” Micah said with a sigh. “It was real ugly at first, then calmed down a bit but started to get real ugly again. Getting the people to trust us was pretty much impossible. Mr. Howard said it was like the old saying of ‘fool me once, shame on you’. They don’t trust us and we don’t like them much either. Some people even talked about killing everyone in the country to make sure they couldn’t hurt us again.”

“Genocide.” Corey sounded sick. “The United States would never do that.”

“Yes we would.” Billy argued. “If we felt it was necessary. We are humans just like anyone else and there is no one in this universe more capable of evil than human beings.”

“Now that is pessimism.” Corey shook his head. “Isn’t it presumptuous to call us all evil?”

“Or it’s optimistic, if you want.” Micah countered.

“How’s that?” Billy asked with a grin.

“Well, if we’re the evilest creatures in the universe, then at least there won’t be some aliens out there who are even more evil than us to deal with.” Micah stated, and was touched by the howls of laughter his words got from the other two.

“Where the hell did you get that from?” Billy asked him after he’d calmed down from his laughing spree.

“There’s a lot of time to think when you’re standing guard in front of some door in a science lab.” Micah couldn’t help the defensive tone in his voice. “Watching all those movies of Corey’s doesn’t help much either.”

“Can’t you think of anything sooner than this hurricane?” Corey complained, only to be smacked in the arm by his brother. “Ow! What was that for?”

“You idiot.” Billy laughed. “He’s told us a bunch of things. What’s next week?”

“Oh, the Fourth.” Corey nodded. “That’s right, we’ll probably hear about Dad leaving the Dems then.”

“I bet he does it with those Maine Senators.” Billy said in a thoughtful tone. “They’ve been getting ragged on for years.”

“We’ll see.” Corey said. “What do you think Micah? You got a bunch more facts and stuff in that brain?”

“I don’t pay much attention to politics.” Micah said with a shrug, taking his feet out of the water and standing up. “I need to piss.”

“See ya.” Billy said as Micah turned and walked towards the nearby pool house. He tried not to look over at the couch where Corey had blown him last week because the need to piss was getting mixed up in the sexual excitement he got from the musty chlorine smell of the place. With all the humidity lately, the place didn’t air out properly unless the air was on, and none of them had been in there long enough to make it worth turning on. Thanks to his concentration he emptied his bladder, rinsed his hands and was out of there before his body reacted to the smells and memories.

“…yeah, but he’s not dangerous loony.” He could hear Corey still saying before his brother noticed him coming out of the pool house. Micah had plenty of experience keeping his face from reacting to the spike of hurt that lanced through him at those words. Corey turned around and looked a little worried, but relaxed at the casual smile on Micah’s face. “Hey, are you growing your hair out?”

“I wondered what it would be like to have it a little longer again.” Micah said with a shrug, totally ignoring what he’d overhead. The truth was he thought he was a little loony and those memories were in his head, not theirs. They seemed to take his words at their surface meaning and not to think he’d overheard any of what they were talking about. Certainly the way they looked at each other and said ‘Mom’ at the same was fairly normal. Despite the fact they were so many years apart in age, they were fairly close to each other.

“What do you think about getting swimming trunks on and getting in the pool?” Corey asked. “Or maybe shutting the doors on the pool house and turning the air on?”

“If you want to spend time in there you might want to let the air circulate for a while.” Micah advised with a wrinkled nose. “I never realized it could get too smelly.”

“Only when it starts getting real muggy.” Billy said with a shake of his head. “How about I see if Bill would mind me taking one of the cars? We can drive into town and see that new Schwarzenegger movie.”

“Isn’t he getting old?” Corey said with a laugh.

“Naw, Stallone was older and he did that last Rambo movie last year.” Micah said and then frowned. He used the word ‘last’ too many times in there.

“I’ll go see if they mind me using a car.” Billy said as he got up and slipped his sandals back on before heading inside.

“Doesn’t he have his own car?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, but he flew here.” Corey said as he also pulled his feet out of the pool and took Micah’s hand to help him stand up. For his trouble, Micah got a kiss on the cheek that quickly turned into something deeper.

“The pool house smells like dried cum.” Micah whispered as they let the kiss drift to a close and he maneuvered his body so his erection was pretty much flush with Corey’s. They ground slowly into each other, arms wrapped around each other.

“That’s all your fault.” Corey whispered back with a little giggle.

“No it’s not.” Micah protested. “I was a virgin until I met you.”

“You’re still a virgin.” Corey said with a grin. Micah looked into those green eyes and smiled.

“Not for long, right?” Micah said with an eyebrow waggle. “I get to fuck you soon?”

“Hey!” Corey protested as Micah used his hands on Corey’s ass to grind harder into him. A few days ago he’d finally learned the trick to slowing Corey down. “I told you I’m not quite ready for that.”

“We can try to get Billy to buy us a dildo to stretch you.” Micah offered and almost got worried at the thoughtful expression.

“No, he’d never stop giving me shit about it for the rest of my life.” Corey finally decided and Micah had to resist the urge to show his relief. Truth was he was fine with their activities so far and not ready to move forward with more intense activities.

“I guess I can wait.” Micah said with a sigh that wasn’t obviously exaggerated.

“I thought that guy on your team was waving his ass in your direction at your last practice.” Corey said with a frown. “You sure you’re not tempted?”

“Not by his scrawny ass.” Micah said as he squeezed Corey’s ass. Corey didn’t need to know Ian’s ass was a perfect bubble butt and would be tempting if he wasn’t already with Corey. Nor did Corey know he was starting to wonder if his relative virginity from that other reality, or whatever it was had been a total waste. Sure, he cared a lot about Corey, but now that he had a little experience he began to see why Corey had played around so much over the last year.

“You’ve got that look in your eyes.” Corey said in a tone just short of angry. “I’m going to your next game.”

“You can’t.” Micah said with a shrug and a kiss on the lips to Corey. “You’ve got a meet. Besides, I’m all yours, remember?”

“Hey, I went slutting around after my first time.” Corey said with narrowed eyes. “I know what the temptation is like.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have me letting you suck my dick then.” Micah said. “I warned you I’m a jealous asshole.”

“I know, and that’s one of the things I like about you.” Corey said with a blush forming on his cheeks.

“I’ve got the keys!” Billy called out and Micah let Corey kiss him and then turn towards his brother, maneuvering so that Corey’s body didn’t hid the tent in his shorts. “You lovebirds cut the snogging and let’s get going.”

“You need to work on your British accent, Billy!” Micah teased him, taking a deep breath and willing his erection to subside. It finally did and he moved out of Corey’s protection. With a wink at each other they followed the older Billy back into the house and towards the garage.

Despite what he thought he knew, Micah wasn’t quite sure what the future held, but it would be interesting. That was about all he knew for sure.