Rich Boy: Growing Pains - 21. Chapter 21

"No, Kyle, you can't force yourself into balance," Worthington said tiredly as he sat in the workroom that was under Jamie's house in Scottsdale. It was nearly midnight, and they had been at this for three hours now, and Kyle was still having problems finding his internal balance with his magic.

The brown haired guy was nearly drenched in sweat, with his green t-shirt stuck to his body and already showing the white rings of salty sweat stains on it while his jeans clung tightly to his body. The overall effect was almost too much for Worthington to handle, so he was sitting on the cool stone floor without looking anywhere but at the guy's sweat-soaked face. Even that was almost too much to handle. He was trying to keep his attraction to the guy under control, below Kyle's ability to detect, and it was difficult.

"Damn it; this isn't easy!" Kyle spat in that slow Texas drawl of his.

"No, it's not." Worthington sighed. "The truth is that most male mages start these lessons at a very early age, and even some women before their gift fully manifest itself. You've had your gift awaken relatively late in life, and it awakened in a very stressful situation with tragic results. I can feel how much you hate it, and yourself."

"Stay out of my mind!" Kyle said angrily, his magic manifesting as an angry red aura around him.

"Calm down." Worthington snapped irritably. "I am not in your mind. You're still projecting everything. I can feel how much you hate your magic, and yourself for what happened."

"They didn't deserve to die," Kyle said softly, and there were sudden tears in his eyes as his magical aura faded. Worthington sighed, remembering the second price that the Light had demanded and wondered if this was part of that. He didn't want to take a chance that it was, and ignore it, so he bit back the response that came to his lips, took another breath and tried to approach this from a different angle.

"Sit down, Kyle," Worthington said softly and nodded as the untrained mage sat down cross-legged across from him. It was much easier to meet his gaze now without seeing how attractive he was. "Let's talk about what happened."

"You said we could talk about that when I was ready," Kyle said defensively. "I'm not ready, and I never will be."

"If you never will be, we might as well have it out now." Worthington sighed.

"Will you tell me what's got your twin all pissed off after he did his magic thing to my aunt and uncle?" Kyle asked with a tilt of his head. His accent was just too…nice.

"Do you really want to know?" Worthington asked and sighed again when Kyle nodded. He did have a right to know. "We have a deal then? I'll tell you my sordid past, and you'll tell me yours?"

"What do my Aunt and Uncle have to do with your past?" Kyle asked.

"That's what you'll find out." Worthington smiled as he answered and Kyle nodded before frowning.

"It's getting late, isn't it?" He asked. "Should I worry about getting home?"

"You can stay here tonight," Worthington answered. "In fact, next time you come over you might want to bring some clothes to leave here because there'll be more nights like tonight as you're learning where it'll be late and better for you to stay here."

"They won't get suspicious?" Kyle asked. "I mean, my own parents would never let me stay out on a school night, and they're stricter than my parents."

"They will be fine." Worthington sighed. "To be honest, if I could, I'd wipe their memories of you ever existing and have you move in here. We might just do that in a few months. You turn eighteen in late November, right?"

"Yes." Kyle frowned.

"Then you won't have any legal obligations and things will go easier, if you agree to do that," Worthington said.

"Won't you be able to turn this magic thing off by then?" Kyle frowned, and Worthington laughed softly.

"Maybe, but then you might not want it done by that time," Worthington said gently. Kyle needed careful handling. "Your only experience with magic at this point in time is negative, Kyle. When you see what is possible with it, you might change your mind."

"I doubt that," Kyle said firmly, with all his heart and Worthington felt sympathy rise up in him.

"Let me tell you about magic, to start with," Worthington said and launched into a brief overview of magic, the dwarven-told legend of how humans came to possess magic, the fall of the elven city of Landis, and eventually of the formation of the Light and Dark paths. Then he moved on to the story of his own family, and the rise to power of the Sinclairs during the middle ages, the first Demon Wars, and finally the feud between his father and his uncle.

"So what does all this have to do with me?" Kyle demanded with a yawn when Worthington was done. It was now nearly one in the morning.

"You have a great deal of power, Kyle, easily Adept potential, and nearly as much as I have, or Jamie possesses." Worthington's voice was full of patience. "For some reason you kept your power bottled up, instead of it progressing like it normally would."

"When I first started thinking I was hearing voices, I thought I was going crazy," Kyle admitted softly. "My folks, we belonged to this really Evangelical church, and the Pastor laid hands on me, casting out the demons inside of me. After that, I didn't have any problems with hearing voices."

"I see," Worthington said even though he didn't quite. Maybe the ‘preacher' merely proved to be a catalyst for allowing Kyle to suppress his abilities, or maybe the preacher was himself an untrained mage and did something. "How old were you when that happened?"

"It was three years ago," Kyle admitted with a slight blush and looked down at the stone beneath them. One of his hands was idly tracing the grains in the cut and smoothed rock.

"For the last three years, your power has been bottled up," Worthington said. "I saw what happened when your family died, but don't understand why it was happening."

"I told my dad I wanted to wrestle and he was mad." Kyle sighed with a sound of hurt in his voice. "I've always been good at baseball, and he wants me to go professional, so he was always pushing me, always at my games, in the coach's face if I wasn't pitching enough, but I liked wrestling too. Don't get me wrong, I like playing ball, but I don't like it as much as my dad does, or did. I wanted to wrestle too, and he was worried I'd break my arm or something and not be able to pitch. It's my last year, you know and to get on a good college team, it's the most important year for me. He just didn't want me to take any risks."

"His method of ‘safe-guarding' you by beating you wasn't exactly logical, then." Worthington was frowning and immediately regretted his words when Kyle's face clouded over.

"Just because he was trying to beat some sense into me doesn't justify me killing him, and what about my mom and sister?" Kyle's voice was angry, but there was no red aura this time. "They didn't deserve to die for that."

"No, they didn't." Worthington agreed as calmly as he could. "That's the danger in what happened to you. There you were under a great deal of stress, wanting it to stop, and your pent-up magic exploded. You are so strong that the magic, when released, destroyed the entire house."

"I got that part. I was there, remember?" Kyle's voice was full of bitter sarcasm as he took another deep breath. "But that's all stuff about me. What does that have to do with you and your family?"

"It has to do with my Uncle." Worthington sighed. "I guess I haven't been paying close enough attention to him with everything else I have going on right now. He's the founder of the Church of the Light."

"Your Uncle is Reverend David Sinclair?" Kyle's voice was full of surprise. "Wow, you're saying he's really an evil mage?"

"Yes," Worthington said. "I didn't know he had a branch of his church here in Phoenix. None of the members must be mages, but from what Jamie saw in the minds of your relatives, they can detect when a mage comes into their congregation. When that pastor welcomed you to their church last month, you remember seeing the pendant he was wearing glow, and the look of surprise on his face?"

"Yes." Kyle frowned again. "You mean that tells if you're a mage?"

"That's what Jamie and I believe," Worthington said with a shake of his head at his Uncle's inventiveness. "Another thing he's doing besides building more of his churches appears to be building a school as well. Dark mages mostly learn magic from one of three boarding schools in various places around the country. My Uncle appears to be trying to build a fourth, and really wants you to attend."

"You mean that school I got offered a scholarship to teaches magic?" Kyle's voice bordered on disbelief.

"It would explain why they didn't take your cousin, and why your Aunt and Uncle refused to let you attend without him," Worthington said. "They are very protective of him, aren't they?"

"They think the sun rises and sets around him." Kyle snorted softly. "They told me I couldn't go unless he got in too, but the school said they'd think about it and get back to them. That's why I came in late to school the other day because they were meeting with a representative of the Church of Light school. Now ain't that a nice contradiction? Your Uncle is a dark, evil mage and he calls his Church of the "Light." He sounds like he's got some brass balls on him."

"That he does." Worthington smiled.

"So why would they want me there?" Kyle asked, and Worthington gave him a long look while trying to decide the best way to answer. A little voice told him to use the truth. With this guy, he had a feeling that the truth would always, always be best.

"Kyle, you have as much power as I do or Jamie," Worthington stated. "In all the world, there are maybe twenty people at the most with this much or nearly this much power at their hands. Think about that for a moment. With a population of over six billion people, this planet has maybe twenty people with as much power as you, and I have. In this house, right now, there are four of us, including you, who are Adept potential."

"I may be just a hick from West Texas, but I'm no idiot," Kyle said slowly. "As badly as your Uncle must want me, you must want me as bad. You said there are four people here, so that's you, Jamie, and one other fella. Are you making some type of power play, trying to sway me to your side or something?"

"I would much prefer you, and I were friends, Kyle," Worthington said honestly. "The fact of the matter is, you have a great deal of power, and that means influence in the world of mages. You could be a powerful friend or a powerful enemy. What you choose to do, or not do with that power will influence the world far more than other people. I won't make you use it, and if after a time you decide you don't want it, I'll work with you on that too. The choice though will be yours. Others won't want to let you choose for yourself. They will want you to do what they want, and they will achieve that by means you can't imagine yet."

"If I'm so strong how could they make me do things I don't want to?" Kyle asked with disbelief on his face. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"It'll be quicker if I just show you," Worthington said gently and lowered his shields just enough to work some low magic, the magic of the mind. Kyle's eyes glazed over as Worthington's influence permeated him, and he groaned aloud while leaning forward. He crawled on his hands and knees towards Worthington, whimpering with the sudden desire that was flooding into him, and Worthington let him approach until just before their lips met. Then he dropped the magic, and Kyle pulled back sharply, a look of horror on his face.

"How did you do that?" He demanded in horror and anger.

"You see how easy that was, without you having any idea of what magic can and cannot do?" Worthington replied calmly as Kyle hastened to his feet and stepped backward, away from Worthington. The bulge in his pants was already going down. "Once I had you nude, and we were having sex, I could have used more magic to set controls in you that would let me control you for the rest of your life. Only another mage would be able to have broken them, and he would require a great deal of power, and a great deal of time in order to break them. There are other things I know, things my Uncle also knows, that would make you my slave for the rest of your life, and you wouldn't even know I had that power over you. That is what magic can do to you, Kyle. It doesn't matter whether you can trust me or not, or any mage for that matter. Until you're trained, and even then if you're not always careful, always vigilant, another mage can use their powers to take control of you."

"If I give up the magic though, no one will have any interest in me, right?" Kyle asked uncomfortably and in a very weak voice.

"Not necessarily." Worthington shrugged. "If nothing else, any children you might have one day will most likely be mages, and strong ones at that. A smart mage will see that, even if your powers are burnt out of you, and breed you to a mage woman so that he can control the children. My father tried to control me, and it was only my Uncle killing him that freed my mind so I could act on my own will instead of his. I don't like controlling people, to be blunt about it, and so you will have more time to learn with me and about me without fearing I'm taking over your life."

"You're taking it over one way or another, aren't you?" Kyle asked with a horrified tone as he looked away from Worthington. "I mean, what choice do I have? If I don't learn, then I'm vulnerable to anyone who comes along."

"I could find another teacher for you, one that you can trust if you wish." Worthington offered, and Kyle laughed bitterly.

"But I'd still have to trust you that I can trust them," Kyle said.

"True," Worthington admitted with a smile of his own.

"Fine, I might as well trust you," Kyle said with a shake of his head. "As long as you don't try to make me kiss you again."

"You haven't kissed me yet." Worthington teased, and Kyle looked confused for a moment until he realized the order of words he'd used could be taken in a way that he had not intended.

"Don't be expecting a kiss from me anytime soon," Kyle said with a sigh, and then he closed his eyes. "Okay, so I'm supposed to be finding the point where my magic meets the physical world and balancing it, right? It sounds kind of like when I'm winding up for a pitch, and have to balance…yes!"

"You got it." Worthington said as he closed his own eyes and felt the little ‘snap' as Kyle found his balance.

"Oh wow, I can feel the difference," Kyle said with wonder in his eyes as he opened them and looked at Worthington. "It's like pulsing there in my head, wanting to do something."

"Magic likes to be used," Worthington said calmly. "Even if it is nothing more than to shield. I like to imagine smooth, invisible walls around my mind. Some people like a brick wall or other things. This is low magic, so we're talking something covering your mind. We'll get into mage shields later, but for now, you want to be able to keep your thoughts to yourself and keep the thoughts of others out of your head. This way you won't necessarily hear voices unless someone's directly sending to you."

"You mean shields like on Star Trek?" Kyle laughed. "Oh my, I can feel it, oh man, what a difference. It's like, you're not even there anymore if I close my eyes, but if I thin them out, I can…yeah, you're there again."

"But I can also tighten up my own shields and…" Worthington said as he did that.

"Oh man, you're gone again," Kyle said, and he was smiling. "This is fun, feeling the power flow as I use it, and it's like it's happy. I can feel its happiness."

"Yes." Worthington smiled. "Now, you might lose the shields when you sleep. That's okay. Until you get used to them, they'll come and go at times if you're not paying attention to them. Eventually, they'll become second-nature, and even when you're asleep, they'll be there. For now, though, you can find your balance, and you can put up basic shields. I think that's more than enough for tonight."

"I am tired," Kyle admitted with a yawn. "Where y'all gonna put me?"

"There's a spare bedroom you can use for now," Worthington said as he got to his feet, and had to accept Kyle's help as a wave of dizziness nearly flattened him again. "Thanks."

"You okay?" Kyle asked with a worried tone.

"Yes, I'm just recovering still from a very tough experience," Worthington admitted. "I told you about the demons, well I fought a big battle with them a few weeks ago, and nearly lost. If Jamie hadn't shown up when he did, I'd have died."

"Tom said something about that at school." Kyle reminded him with a frown as they left the workroom and headed up to the bedroom level. "Is that what you do? Go around fighting demons?"

"I do a lot of things," Worthington said, leaning on Kyle much more than he wanted to because he really was feeling dizzy. "Fighting demons is only one of them. Most mages, well they just aren't strong enough individually to take on a demon, much less a Demon Lord, so someone has to step up and fight them. I have the power, and it'd be wrong not to do that."

"Is that what you want me to do?" Kyle asked with a little bit of fear in his voice as they reached the top of the stairs and Worthington pointed down the hall to the bedroom that was his. "Fight demons with you?"

"If you decide that's what you want to do, but it'll be years before you have enough training for that," Worthington said gently. "You shouldn't have to worry about that for now."

"Okay," Kyle said with a nod as he helped Worthington into his room. When he sat on the bed, Worthington leaned back, closing his eyes and was out before he even realized he hadn't taken his shoes off.

He woke with a yell again, covered in sweat as he normally was, and sat up in bed, feeling tired and disoriented. Movement in the bed warned him there was someone else there, and he looked over to see Kyle, wearing nothing but a pair of tight white briefs leaning up on his elbows and blinking at him. Worthington was breathing heavily and tried to get it back under control.

"What's the matter?" Kyle's voice was soft and filled with genuine concern.

"Sorry, just a nightmare," Worthington said as he looked down at his own body and the scars that gleamed in the moonlight filtering in from the windows. Kyle must have stripped him out of his clothes after he passed out.

"I hope you don't mind," Kyle said with his skin darkening in a blush, barely discernible in the dim light. "I didn't know which room was the one I could use, and you were out like a light, so I just got you ready for bed and climbed in too."

"It's no problem," Worthington said as he finally got his breathing controlled. "I'm sorry I woke you. It'll be a few hours before we have to head to school if you want to go back to sleep. You can stay here. I'll be getting up now."

"You can show me that bedroom if you want to go back to sleep." Kyle offered with a frown. "I imagine you're still tired. Lord knows I am."

"I can never go back to sleep after a nightmare," Worthington admitted sourly. This one had been a bit different, and he didn't want to dwell on it right now. With a sigh, he got up out of bed, stretched a bit and walked over to the dresser.

"What are you doing?" Kyle's voice was inquisitive and spoken in a hushed tone.

"I'm getting a swimsuit and going swimming," Worthington replied.

"Ain't it a bit cold for that?" Kyle asked with a shiver.

"It's cold in here because we keep the air conditioning turned low." Worthington chuckled as he pulled out a black Speedo. "Outside it's probably in the mid-eighties at least, so it's perfect swimming weather. It won't be cold for a few more months, and even then the pool will be heated."

"Oh," Kyle said gently. "Um, do you think I could join you? I mean, it doesn't feel right to go back to sleep if you're not."

"You sure?" Worthington asked.

"Yeah, I like swimming anyway," Kyle said with a shrug. "My buddy Ryan, back home, he had a pool, and we'd live in it all summer if we could."

"It's like that here a lot," Worthington said as he pulled out a green pair of Speedos, remembering the green t-shirt Kyle had been wearing the other day.

"Um, you have any trunks?" Kyle asked with another blush as Worthington threw them to him. "No offense, but this skimpy thing; it's almost indecent, you know?"

"We could skinny-dip if we wanted." Worthington laughed. "We're at the top of the hill here, so unless they're in a helicopter, people can't see us. No, I don't have any trunks though."

"All right," Kyle said as he got out of the bed and slipped out of his underwear with very little modesty. Worthington noted that Kyle had a pretty substantial package nestled in a thick mound of dark brown pubic hair, and was uncircumcised. Before Kyle noticed him staring, Worthington also changed and led the way out to the pool without saying much more.

"You sure it's okay to use this pool?" Kyle asked as they went down the trail between the two houses. "Whose house is that?"

"That is Stacy and Elizabeth's house," Worthington answered. "Elizabeth is Jamie's mom."

"I thought you two were brothers," Kyle asked with a frown.

"We are." Worthington chuckled softly. "It's a long and complicated story. The short version is that after Stacy and Elizabeth had their first child, they decided they wanted another. They intended to have the child with sperm from the same donor as Stacy's so they would be half-brothers, but my father paid the clinic to use his sperm so he could use the kid in case something happened to me. Thus, Jamie and I are cousins, because our mothers were sisters, and we're half-brothers because we have the same father."

"That's sick," Kyle said with a shake of his head, and then he stopped. "Wait, you mean, his mother's a lesbian? He was raised by two lesbians, and you live here in the house next to them?"

"You got a problem with that?" Worthington asked coldly.

"You folks out here really are liberal," Kyle said with a shake of his head. "Back home they'd run the lot of you out of town."

"They'd probably do that to you too." Worthington retorted, and Kyle's face darkened.

"What do you mean by that?" He demanded angrily, and Worthington felt the anger roil off of him in waves, along with a tinge of fear as the guy's shields fluctuated.

"Control your shield; damn it." Worthington snapped and breathed with relief as Kyle gulped before getting his shields under control. "That's better. You need to be careful, Kyle. Strong emotions like that will affect even the ungifted around you with as much strength as you have. What I meant about you being run out of town was because you're a mage, not anything else. Most people, if they knew about magic, they would be afraid of people like us. Think about what I did to you earlier, to prove my point. A mage can do that to anyone that catches his fancy. How do you think mundane people, those without magic would react to that."

"They'd be mighty scared," Kyle said with a shake of his head. "Sorry, I get your point. It's weird having to think of this stuff now."

"It takes time," Worthington told him and then resumed their journey to the pool. He sighed with pleasure as he slipped into the silky warm waters and began a slow, leisurely pace of swimming. Kyle fell in beside him, matching his strokes and pace easily. As they swam lap after lap, Worthington found that they were slipping into a gentle, light rapport. He carefully ordered his thoughts so as to not alarm Kyle, and let the rapport deepen a bit. It would do him good to see this side of magic, the voluntary sharing that could happen.

He learned a great deal from that rapport as they swam. Kyle being afraid wasn't too surprising. Nor was the loneliness in him. Worthington remembered when he'd first come to this place, and the loneliness he'd felt. Jamie, Richie, and all the others he'd met since coming here had replaced that, and he was far happier than he'd ever been with his family.

Worthington tried to share that happiness with Kyle as they swam. He wanted Kyle to know that Worthington was truly happy here and that despite all the difficult times, the careful maneuvering, the dangers from within and without, magic was a good thing in his life and had given him as much joy as it had pain and misery. Through him, Kyle could feel the Valley, it's harsh, but comforting cycle of life, the flow of energy changing in the city below them as dawn neared and people began to wake.

All life was magic, in its own way regardless of whether people could use the power of magic or not. There was truly something special about the beginning of each day when people would wake and start over once more with a new day. Magic was no different than any other part of life, with its own joys, its own endings, its beginnings, and for Kyle this truly was a new day, a day in which he was for the first time fully wakened to his potential, even as Worthington had fully woken after the integration of the geas created by his father.

They finished by unspoken accord as Worthington's body shook slightly with exhaustion. Kyle laid out on a chair next to him as he watched the valley below them change with the rising sun. He let the peace and calmness of the morning flow into him, replacing the anxiety and concerns of the previous day, giving him some hope that the new day would be better than the last.

Their rapport continued, and Worthington found he was getting to know Kyle better with each passing moment. No specifics passed between them, but he got the sensation that Kyle missed a lot of things about his old life. In his own way, he was still grieving not only for the dead family members but for the life he had lost that same night. His friends, his teammates, the people he went to school with were no longer a part of his life, and here he was, in some strange city, living with relatives he didn't like and faced with a situation he'd never imagined before.

From Worthington, Kyle got something just as important, a sensation of what magic was about, how it could be joyful, something to be treasured more than hated. As the warm air dried their skin, he began to understand from Worthington that it was more than something to be blithely thrown away because of his negative associations with the past. Magic, like so much in life, was in part what you made of it, what it wanted to be for you and for others. Kyle could understand that, even if he still wanted nothing to do with it at the moment.

Kyle actually enjoyed the little games teachers often played at the beginning of the school year, the game where kids would sit down with another student and ask silly questions that were supposed to help them learn about other students. He had a naturally curious nature and enjoyed learning something new. As they sat there, watching the changes in the valley below them, he began to play a mental version of the game with Worthington, learning to shape his thoughts into words, and at the same time learning through Worthington's answers that thoughts alone were not all that could be shared this way.

What's your favorite color? Kyle asked without words, and Worthington showed him images as an answer. The metallic gray metal color, and the various shades of grays the dwarves had made clothes in for him. Feelings were added to the answer so Kyle would know he loved those colors for what they symbolized: blending of Light and Dark, as well as a new path, something he was creating, defining, and a part of with his brother. He also liked the cool blues of Sapphires, the dark redness of Rubies, and other natural gemstone colors. Colors with depth, with meaning, were all things he liked.

What's your favorite memory of growing up? Kyle's next question was much more difficult, and many images flittered across their light rapport before Worthington could call them back. There was no blocking them from Kyle's sight, but he didn't pull out of the rapport while Worthington got back under control and finally answered.

Maybe it was having sat and talked with his father's friend Randall Smythe, or something deeper, but Worthington let himself remember that not all his interactions with his father had been negative. So rarely had he thought of anything positive that it was only Kyle's question that made him remember that vacation to Europe, and sitting on the back of a yacht with his father, staring at the pale buildings of some old Italian city with their bright red roofs.

He had sat on the back of that yacht with his father, talking about nothing in particular. No discussions of taking over the world, being a great leader for mages, or reclaiming the Sinclair heritage. Nor was it a deep, philosophical discussion about the history of magic, or business takeovers. Their conversation had been simple, about being able to enjoy calm moments in life, when the pressures of the everyday world were far away.

Why do you enjoy sports? Worthington asked after sharing that answer with Kyle and got a rush of images, as well as feelings in an uncontrolled burst before Kyle managed to form them into some semblance of order.

The first images were of Kyle trotting out onto the field as a little kid, playing on his little league team. This was something he was good at, and he knew it very well. What was better though was the way his father would sit in the stands, yelling out encouragement, praising him when he did something right. Then there were the hours in the large backyard, playing catch, or practicing throwing with his father.

Over the years that grew stale as his father became more obsessed with seeing him become great at the sport, but there were other enjoyments. He loved the camaraderie with his teammates, being part of a whole, and he enjoyed more things as well. Kyle didn't like to admit it, but he liked the feeling of being up there on the mound, looking good, and knowing he looked good as he threw batter after batter out. It wasn't enough to just do it; he had to look good while doing it, and be seen looking good. Deep shame ran through their rapport as Kyle admitted it for the first time to someone else, but he loved the attention, being the focus of everyone's eyes as he pitched. The competition, the contest between him and the batter was great, but it was the thrill of victory after he struck the guy out, and knowing everyone had seen him do it that really thrilled him.

That was why he also loved wrestling, and why he fought with his father that night. In wrestling, it was a contest between two people, evenly matched in strength and weight. All that mattered was their skill, and in a wrestling match, they were the focus of everyone's attention. He had the same contest as he enjoyed when pitching against batters, but it was more personal, more direct, and that was good.

"You've got company this morning, I see." Stacy's voice interrupted their rapport, and he could feel the slight revulsion, and again fear from Kyle as he noticed the woman who had approached while they were asking and answering questions. "Who is your newest… friend?"

"This is Kyle Norton," Worthington said with a slight blush at the connotation of her words, and then the feelings of disgust spiked sharply as Kyle sensed what he was thinking, and feeling.

"Jesus Christ, you really are a queer!" Kyle said in disgust as he got up from his lounge chair, his hands covering the front of his Speedos and the rapport between them shattered while Worthington and Stacy stared at the young man.

"Okay, that is an interesting reaction," Stacy said calmly, and Worthington felt dread at what might happen next. Next, he felt some sympathy though, at the look of utter fear on Kyle's face and he decided against the sharp retort that was on the tip of his tongue. Stacy must have seen it too because she softened slightly. "Worthington, I think you should take your friend back to your place and have a little talk with him."

"I think you're right." Worthington sighed as he stood up. When he started walking up the path, he was relieved that Kyle did follow, albeit at a distance.