Growing Pains - 12. Chapter 12

"Jason? Are you awake?" Alex whispered as he leaned over the bed.

"No, silly. I'm fast asleep and can't hear a word you're saying," Jason answered as he rolled over onto his back.

"What time is it?"

"It's about 2:30. You still tired, or do you wanna get up?"

"What's to get up for?"

"Nothin'. You wanna strip and get under the covers?"

"Strip how far?" Jason responded with an evil grin. "Is the door shut?"

"Nope. Uncle Pop said to leave it open a crack. But he said he wouldn't bother us."

Jason got up and the two boys stripped down to their FOL's. Alex pulled back the covers and they slid into bed from opposite sides. Alex immediately scooted over next to Jason who was lying on his back. He moved against his boyfriend until his chest was snug against Jason's, his top leg lying across Jason's, and his head on Jason's shoulder. Jason's left arm was under Alex' shoulders and his right arm rested on the bed beside him.

They lay there quietly for a minute or two before Alex began stroking his hand softly up and down the length of his boyfriend's torso, from his neck to the waistband of his briefs. Once again, he spoke in whispers.

"I love you, Jason," he said with as much feeling as he could put into it.

The sincerity in his voice must have been obvious because Jason moved his head back a little and turned to look at his boyfriend. He didn't speak for a moment, just let his eyes roam over Alex's face. Then he rolled his head forward slightly and kissed his forehead.

"I love you too, Alex, so much it hurts sometimes."

"Like when I swore at your dad?"

"Yeah. Why'd you do that Alex? Why'd you run off like that?"

"Oh Jason. I was just so shocked that your dad would talk to us like that. I mean we haven't done any of the things he's afraid we're gonna do, and it just made me mad."

"How come?"

"Well for a couple of reasons, I guess. First because it was like he was making assumptions about what you and I do together."

Alex fell silent, and Jason waited for him to continue. After a minute or so, Jason couldn't wait any longer for the other shoe to drop.

"And. ?"

"And second, it just came at the wrong time. I mean it really threw a monkey wrench into my plans for this evening," he said and started giggling.

"What? What are you laughing at?"

"Well, when you were blowing raspberries through my underwear last night, I started getting ideas. You know how hard I was."

"Yeah," Jason said with a grin, remembering the previous evening's activities. The boys hadn't really done anything, but they had come awfully close. "About as hard as a rolling pin if I remember right."

The boys fell silent as each thought about the night before. Soon those thoughts and the motions of Alex's hand on his chest had Jason's member throbbing in his shorts. Rolling onto his side, he threw his right arm over Alex and pulled him into a tight embrace. And as their lips met in a lover's dance, they found that they were both hard as rolling pins. Again.

But the mood wasn't right. Their hormones were raging but their emotions were still languishing quietly as in a foggy mist at twilight. Their lip dance soon diminished to lite pecks as their ardor cooled.

"Where'd you go when you ran out of here?"

"I went home. I was so angry I went straight to Dad and complained about what Uncle Pop had said." "So what did your Dad say?"

"You don't wanna hear it."

In the silence that followed, Jason heard his boyfriend sniffling. Leaning back a little, he looked at Alex and saw tears dripping from his eyes.

"What's the matter, Alex? What'd he say?"

"He said... choke... he said... sniff... he said we were lucky that Uncle Pop lets me sleep over here... sniff... so much...choke... because he doesn't want ... sniff... my queer boyfriend... choke... sleeping at our house. Aw shit, Jason. Why'd he have to say that? I thought he was ok about us?"

By the time he had choked this out, Alex was bawling. Still lying on his side, Jason put his hand on the back of Alex's head and pulled it to his chest. Then as Alex pulled his arms into his sides, Jason hugged him fiercely to his breast. The two of them laid there rocking gently back and forth as Alex cried himself to sleep. Jason, too, fell asleep thinking that maybe the restrictions his dad had placed on them weren't so bad after all.

Mitchell got home in time to help me get dinner ready. Jason and Alex came down soon after Mitchell got home. They had dressed and washed the sleep from their eyes. I looked at Alex and thought he was doing OK, so I didn't say anything about what had happened earlier.

That night was another one of those men-only dinners that made all of us glad there weren't any women around. Mitchell was really full of himself and was cracking jokes and teasing the boys something fierce. I guess he was in a good mood because I had told him of our new house rules.

As we were eating desert, Mitchell started a new line.

"Say Alex, do you remember when the state legislature voted to change the name of North Texas State University to the University of North Texas?"

"Yeah. But that was several years ago, Mitchell. I was pretty young I think."

"Well, the big issue of the day was what they were going to do with the University radio station's call letters."

"Why? What was the big deal?"

By this time, I knew what was up and began to grin. But I was amazed Mitchell was going down this road. The younger boys just looked at him with expressions of expectation as he went on seriously.

"Well, when the school's name was North Texas State, the call letters were KNTS."

"Yeah?"

"So?"

"Well people wanted to know what they would be when the name changed to the University of North Texas."

The guys were slow today. I think they must have left their brains back on the pillows of Jason's bed. Both of them just looked at Mitchell, waiting for him to get to the punch line. Mitchell was eating it up. I'm sure he never expected to have this much fun with it.

"Well, you know how the guys on 99.5 are always saying '99.5 radio, The Wolf!'"

"Yeah?"

"Well, what were the announcers going to say on the University's station? 101.7, K.U.N.T radio! The ****!"

Mitchell and I about split a gut laughing at the younger boys. They obviously hadn't been thinking and were caught completely by surprise. When Mitchell yelled out The ****, Alex spewed a whole mouthful of milk across the table and Jason choked on his peaches.

"Mitchell!"

"I don't believe you said that?!"

We were all laughing now, as I added something to the conversation.

"Yeah, we figured with those call letters, the University would have to staff the station completely with students from the other school in town."

"Which one's that, Uncle Pop?"

"Texas Woman's University!"

And we all cracked up again. I don't know what it was with Mitchell, but he thought this was all unusually funny and was practically rolling on the floor with laughter. I think the expressions on the boys' faces when he made his announcement was what got to him. They were indeed priceless.

When we had finally gotten our breath back, Alex surprised us with one of his own.

"What's the difference between a band of pygmies and a girl's track team?"

"I don't know."

"One's a bunch of cunning little runts, the other's a bunch of running. "

He left the rest for us to fill in, then as we were laughing at that one Jason added one.

"What's the difference between a woman in church and a woman in a bathtub?"

"Dunno."

"One has hope in her soul, the other has soap. "

"Enough, enough, you guys." I hollered between gasps.

"Where'd you guys hear these jokes?" I asked, laughing.

"At church!" Jason hollered and we laughed even harder.

When we had calmed down, I asked them again, "Seriously, where did you hear these?"

Jason and Alex looked at each other and then Alex answered with a straight face, "Standing outside the girl's bathroom at school."

I guess my gullibility really showed in my slack-jawed expression, because all three of them burst out laughing again.

"I can't believe he fell for that one!" Ha

hahahaha! "He really thought you were serious!" Hahahahaha!

I might have gotten angry if I hadn't been laughing so hard myself.

Although the boys tried to be extremely careful when out in public, there was one incident just before Christmas break that made us all aware of the trouble that could be facing them.

The school's wrestling team had just finished practice at school. Since he was in a hurry to get home to get ready for a date with Tammy, Mitchell was a few minutes ahead of the rest of the team when he left. As he walked across the campus, another boy approached him and started making accusations about Jason.

"Hey, Mitchell. Is your brother a queer? Is he?" Mitchell just ignored him and continued walking.

"I'm talking to you Mitchell! I think your brother's a fucking faggot. I seen him with that Alex character on the school bus. They sure were acting funny towards each other. I think they're sucking each other's dick, huh!?"

Mitchell stopped and turned to face the kid.

"Robbie, you have a foul mouth and a dirty mind. I could care less WHAT you think." As Mitchell turned away, the kid grabbed his arm and spun him around.

"Well, we don't need no fucking faggots riding our school bus. Queers shouldn't be allowed on the buses. Cock sucking fags should be walking to school. I think I'm just gonna have beat their mother fucking butts!"

Mitchell looked at him as he saw the rest of the wrestling team leaving the field house and walking in his direction.

"Robbie, do you kiss your mother with the same mouth? You really do need to grow up and act your age. And I don't think you really want to mess with my brother or his friend."

"Well maybe I'll just start with YOU, pissant queer lover!"

Faster than the kid could react, Mitchell grabbed him by the collarbone and pressed his thumb against the pressure point he knew was there. The kid almost passed out as Mitchell whispered in his ear.

"Robbie, leave it alone. Don't make me embarrass you. Because if I do, you'll feel like you have to fight, and then I'll be tempted to really hurt you."

Robbie evidently hadn't heard the other boys walking up to them on the grass, and as Mitchell started to walk away, he tried to punch him in the back of the neck. But Mitchell had seen the boy's shadow on the ground. He whirled around and dropped under the kid's swing. Then grabbing the boy by the ankles, he pulled his feet out from under him. Using a wrestling move, he stood up while still holding onto the boy's legs. This left Robbie resting painfully on his shoulders and neck.

"Robbie? You have a choice, bud. Your bigotry is going to get you into a heap of trouble. And you know what bigotry is? It's the greatest example of stupidity. And you know something else? I have no tolerance for stupidity. And I have even less tolerance for anyone who threatens my brother. Make a move on him, and you'll be lucky if you can ever father children. Do I make myself clear?"

"You and what army, asshole?"

Mitchell stood up slowly so that the kid's shoulders were off the ground, only the back of his head and his flailing arms making contact.

"Do I look like I'm standing here all by myself? Now what's it going to be? You going to leave Jason and Alex alone? Or do I just bounce up and down a few times and break your neck? You could spend the rest of your life as a quadriplegic and everybody here'd just say they saw you fall down while running."

Of course, the wrestlers knew Mitchell wouldn't carry out his threat. He hadn't even hurt Robbie yet, and they knew he wouldn't. But Robbie didn't know that. His eyes showed real fear for the first time.

"You couldn't do that! You couldn't break my neck!" he yelled as he looked for confirmation on the faces of Mitchell's teammates staring down at him. But they just stared at him and nodded their heads.

"OK! OK! I give up. I quit."

But before Mitchell dropped Robbie's legs, the biggest member of the team, a huge heavy weight wrestler, knelt down and spoke softly in a low voice.

"We heard what you were saying Robbie. You know what? You better hope and pray that nothing bad happens to Mitchell, his brother or his brother's friends. Because we'd have to assume you were involved or responsible for anything that happens. And you know something else, little man? If anything bad happens to our friends, the same thing's gonna happen to you. Now you have a nice day."

When Mitchell told me about this incident, I was at first very upset. I had tried to teach the boys that violence was never the answer. But as I thought about it and considered Mitchell's temperament and that of the other wrestler, I realized that they were simply using language that Robbie would understand, bluffing him into submission. I hoped that the word would get around both schools so that there wouldn't be any further incidents of this nature.

There were no further incidents like that one, and I hoped this would be the case for the rest of Jason's and Alex's high school career.

There was a Saturday in early December on which Mitchell showed that he really was completely comfortable with Jason's sexual orientation and his relationship with Alex. Alex had spent Friday night at our house, after snuggling with Jason on the couch while watching TV. Mitchell seemed totally at ease with this and didn't even react when he saw them kiss each other on the cheek at one point.

The next morning Mitchell and I were sitting at the breakfast table eating bananas and cream when Jason and Alex walked in in their undershorts.

"Well, Dad, they're finally up, the Fruit of the Loom guys."

Jason responded with a grin, "That's Fruit of the Rooms to you mister."

To which Alex added, "Unless we're in the same room, then It's Fruits of the Room."

That started a string of underwear and fruit jokes that ended with Jason leaning against the counter, his package fairly obvious to all of us. Mitchell and I were finished eating and just sat watching the two boys.

"What do you want for breakfast, Alex?"

Alex happened to be looking right at Jason's crotch when he answered. "I'll have a banana."

Before any of us could react, and quite obviously without thinking about what he was about to say, Jason responded.

"You want cream with that?"

I don't know if Mitchell and I were laughing at what the boys had just said or the color of their faces, but laugh we did. Then I had to add my two-cents worth.

"Say Alex, do you want nuts with that?"

Amidst the resulting laughter, Mitchell asked, "Gee Dad. Do nuts belong in the fruit group?"

"Nope. I think in the case of these guys, they belong in the meat group."

Laughing, we all looked at Mitchell as though we expected him to say something. He didn't disappoint us.

"What?! Don't look at me! I'm a vegetarian!"