Moving On - 10. Chapter 10

The soft light of dawn was slowly creeping up from the foot of the bed. I slowly woke up to feel the bare skin of my arms and the upper part of my chest all cold. I turned my head to the table next to the bed, looking at the clock. It was 7:15am and according to the temperature display next to the time, it was –15F outside. Ugh, that has to be the coldest day of the year so far. I pulled the white flannel sheets and dark blue feather-stuffed comforter up to cover all of my exposed skin, putting my arms under them also. We were still both naked, as I snuggled closer to Ben, putting my chest against his back, my crotch against his butt, and my legs up against his. Ben slowly stirred and, with his eyes still closed, whispered.

“Sucking out all of my body heat, eh?” he uttered out of his tired lips.

“Yes, I’m plotting to slowly let you freeze,” I said softly near his ear.

“I’ve got a solution to keep you heated yourself,” he replied, in the same tired voice.

“What?” I wondered to see what he was up to.

Before I ever concluded, Ben wiggled his butt against my dick. It only took several seconds to get it hard.

“Ah…” I quietly sighed as a slight tingle of ‘happy feeling’ spread around my manhood. Ben kept rubbing his butt against it for a few moments longer. “Ah Ben, ok ok ok…I’m warmed up now,” I kissed him on the back of his neck, “Plus we already came two or three times just a few hours ago. Lemme reload the gun barrel.” Ben snorted softly.

“Sure...” he whispered, seeing as he was still half-asleep, half-awake.

“Who taught you all of these stuffs?” I asked without thinking.

“My ex…heh…” he shrugged.

“Oh sorry,” I put my arm around him to put him closer to me, “We’ll learn new stuffs for us to do.” Ben only barely nodded in agreement.

“Lemme sleep longer…,” he told me.

“I see I wore you out last night,” I snickered. Ben elbowed me in return, and so I left him alone to have his peace. After a few minutes, I dozed off and joined him back in sleep.

After sleeping for a couple of hours, I woke up to see Ben sitting on the bed, his back and bare ass towards me.

“Hey, p’tit prince. On doit se réveiller,” (Hey, little prince. We gotta get up) Ben turned his head at me smiling.

“Oui…” I replied, feeling a little pride that I understood him and smacked his bare ass.

“Hey!” he seized my hand, pulled me hard to get me out of the sheets, and started to slap the hell out of my ass.

“You’ll get it!” I turned around to jump on him in order to keep him pinned on the bed. I stuck my hands out close to the sides of his belly. Ben’s eyes widened at my daring threat.

“You wouldn’t…” he began to say, but I shot to his sides and began to tickle the hell out of him. He suddenly burst out laughing.

“Crisse…” (Fuck…) he managed to say before busting out laughing once again, “Tabarnak Steph…m’a…te…pogner…” (Goddammit Steph…I’m…going…to get…you) he finished off before wiggling around, trying to shake himself loose from me.

“Not if you say mercy…” I told him, continuing my torture on him.

“Never…” he went to tickle me on the sides of my belly to throw me off track. I stopped tickling him to grab onto his hand. Ben was breathing hard, panting to get his breath back, and I still sat on him, letting his hands go. Ben grinned at me softly as his brown eyes pierced through my blue ones, reminding me of my obsession with his uniquely almost almond-shaped eyes that I came to adore just after I met him. I put my hand on his chest to feel his smooth cream-white skin. Ben slightly stiffened up and his slight muscular definitions all over his chest and belly came into view. Just sexy.

“No, I’m done tickling you… I just want to explore your body that nature has made for me,” I whispered, and he relaxed as he put out his hands to feel all over my chest and belly.

I slid down to lie on him, feeling more of his skin’s smoothness and warmth. Our dicks were already all hard and pulsing with every heartbeat between our bellies. I set my lips against his soft, tender ones, and started us into a make out session perfecting what we have been practicing for ages now, but still seeking the right way to perfection. For several minutes we rubbed our bodies against each other, kissing so our lips were moist and soft, and pressing our dicks against each other, I lifted up a little, wrapped my hand around our dicks together, and started stroking them against each other. My hand barely could hold both of them. We were already close to the edge after pressing against each other, so it wouldn’t take too long to get us shooting all over our belly and chest. Ben started to wince and whimpered softly, signaling he wasn’t too far off, but I wasn’t as close as he was.

“Hang on, I’m almost there,” I told him, nuzzling his ear, “Push like you’re going to pee, it should delay it enough.” Ben gasped, but a few seconds later, his breath slowed down a notch but was still heavy, and he nodded that he was holding it. I focused my eyes on his body, all sexually excited, making me go quicker so I could join him before he blew. Ben went to rub one of the most sensitive spots on my body, my right nipple. He rubbed and rubbed around, and that set off the timer to release the bomb. My breath was becoming heavier and more erratic, and I looked at Ben, signaling him to get ready.

“Ben, in five seconds…” I gasped, stroking our sticks slower to torture them into a more intense orgasm.

“Ah…ah…ah…” we both moaned and I pressed my lips against Ben’s to keep our noise as low as possible so no one could hear. My dick glowed, spreading around my crotch and hip, and to my stomach, and reached the point of no return. Orgasm jumped out of nowhere and a first shot of juice flew out far and landed near Ben’s nipples. Ben shot out a fraction of a second after me. We were all stiffened up and in ecstasy as juices spewed out of our dicks and covered our belly and chest in white goo. We moaned in pleasure through our kissing. The shooting subsided after several seconds and I collapsed on him, weakened by lust.

“Damn…just damn…” Ben sighed and took in a deep breath as he recovered back to a normal, calm state.

“You’re great,” I hugged him harder, squeezing and spreading our mess all over our chests and bellies.

“Jesus, Steph, stop…it’s all squishy there,” Ben giggled, “Wanna shower now?” My face brightened at that, but Ben quickly brushed aside the idea that he just read from my mind.

“Steph, no, we already exploded four times in a half-day. I loved them but give it a break,” he kissed on my cheek, “Now get off me.”

“What made you think I was thinking that?” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“I dunno, I just had to say it. Now get off.”

He pushed me off to the side, and got up to open the door on the other side of his room leading to the bathroom. He motioned for me to come in. He went to lock the other door in the bathroom that leads to the hallway so no one would come in and surprise us while we were in the shower. Ben turned on the water and the shower handle, waited for several seconds for the water to heat up, and went in. His hand stuck out of the curtain, waving me to come in. I pulled back the curtain and joined him. Ben was already all wet from the hot, steaming water. His hair was already slicked back wet and his body glistened with drops of water. He handled me a bar of soap and we cleaned ourselves up. We washed each other’s backs, working up a nice lather. We were smiling at each other, fighting to take our turns to get under the running water.

“Ok I’m done,” I said after rinsing off the last bit of conditioner in my hair.

“I’m not, I gotta let the conditioner set for two minutes, and then put lotion all over my skin to cleanse the pores, and finally a face cleanser to keep the acne blemishes at bay,” he said.

“God, all of this stuff?” I rolled my eyes.

“Be happy that the skin you’re enjoying now is the result of these products,” he stuck his tongue out. I got out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry myself off, and then someone knocked on the door.

“Qui est là?” (Who’s there?) Matt said through the door.

“C’est quoi que tu veux?” (What do you want?) Ben answered back.

“Faire les dents. M’man m’a dit ça après avoir mangé des jellybeans aux bleuets,” (To do my teeth. Mum told me that after eating some blueberry jellybeans) Matt continued.

“Y’sont-tu bleues, hein?” (They’re blue, eh?) Ben asked.

“Ouais, laisse-moi entrer!” (Yes, let me in!) Matt moaned.

“Unlock the door, Steph” Ben told me.

I put the towel around my waist and went to unlock it for him. Matt came in and looked a little surprised, but smiled evilly to show off his blue-stained teeth from the jellybeans. He went to brush his teeth, let out a couple of soft giggles for no apparent reason, and in a minute, he managed to get most of the stain off. He winked at me, pointed at the sink faucet that he still had on, and turned it to the hot water. Matt whispered in my ear.

“M’man…euh…has been using…the cuisine…no, kitchen sink for fifteen minutes now. I bet in fifteen seconds something will happen,” he smirked. Then Matt started raising his fingers…one…two… What the? …nine…ten… I asked him what will happen …fourteen…fifteen… Then Ben screamed as if he was going to be murdered.

“Crisse de tabarnak!!! Ciboire que m’man a tellement accouché tel un démon!!!” (Fucking goddammit!!! Jesus, hard to believe that Mum gave birth to such a demon!!!) Ben jumped right out of the shower to avoid the sudden cold water, dripping wet and still covered in some of the lotion. Matt was giggling so hard. As he and Ben looked at each other, Matt’s eyes widened at Ben’s package. Ben noticed what he was looking at and he immediately snatched a towel to cover his crotch and butt from his little brother. Matt pulled back his jammies and briefs to look at his own package. I couldn’t see what he was carrying down there, and before I knew it, he snapped the jimmies and briefs back in place.

“J’ai un longtemps pour grandir une belle queue comme mes frères,” he muttered and left the bathroom.

“M’a te pogner!” (I’m going to get you!) Ben hollered, “By the way, he just said that he has a long way to go to have a dick like mine and Adrien’s,” Ben grinned and I snorted out laughing a little at that remark.

“Eh, gotta wash this lotion off,” he said to me as I calmed down from laughing a little. He put his hand in the running water to make sure it wasn’t cold anymore, and jumped in.

I sat down on the toilet already dry, but I still wanted to wait for Ben to finish up. I just didn’t want to miss any chance to see his naked self before his clothes deprived me of looking at the goodies. Although looking at his face and almond-shaped eyes are usually good enough for me. Less than two minutes later, the water stopped running and Ben came out. He got a towel to dry his hair and then proceeded to dry the rest of his body before hanging it right back up. We went back to the bedroom to get dressed. After getting dressed, we went down to the kitchen, finding that Mrs. Lemoureaux already had prepared our breakfast.

“I figured you guys were almost ready to eat once I heard Benoît screaming like a banshee,” she explained, “Go eat your eggs and toast before they get cold.”

“Thanks! Merci!” I said as I dove into the meal and she smiled warmly, seeing that I enjoyed her cooking.

After eating, we went to the living room where Matt was playing a video game and Adrien was sleeping on the couch. Apparently, a night’s sleep did not do much for his recovering from a half-day of travel from Canada. Matt turned his head to us and asked us to play with him as he was tired playing solo with crappy computer players. In his opinion, human players are always more challenging. So we spent a few hours playing that James Bond video game on Nintendo.

Mrs. Lemoureaux told us that we would be back in school tomorrow since she heard on the news that the worst of the storm has passed and PennDOT, the state transportation department, was plowing many roads with much success, making the roads safe for travel. The good news was that it would be a two-hour delay, so that meant we wouldn’t have to be at school until 10:30am. The bad news, I have to figure out how to face Cecile after that unnecessary, embarrassing moment. Ben elbowed me, telling me that everything would be fine tomorrow.

“I want to go to Birna’s coffeeshop. After that cake I had, I just couldn’t stop thinking about her pies and more of those cakes there after she spoke to me about her place,” Mrs. Lemoureaux said, acting all hungry for those sweets, “Wanna come, boys?”

“Yes!” Matt answered and quickly found me and Ben hiding behind a rock in the game and didn’t even hesitate to shoot us to death, “Ok, you’re dead! Game over!” he stuck his tongue out at me.

“Hey…what the…how did he…” I gathered myself realizing what had just happened so fast.

“He’s good like that,” Ben added, “He’s just happy to get out of the house after being stuck inside for days because of the weather.”

“Good, wake up your brother. I’ll be in the car warming it up,” Mrs. Lemoureaux said as she put on her coat and gloves.

“Adrien, réveille-toi!” (Adrien, wake up!) Matt shook his brother, but he wasn’t waking up, “Ben voyons donc, réveille-toi!” (C’mon, wake up!) Suddenly, Adrien went out to grab him.

“Hey, lâche-moi!” (Hey, lemme go!) he laughed, but Adrien showed no intention of doing so. He got off the couch, still holding him in his arm. I saw a little water gun fall out of his hand and realized that he nearly was going to use that to wake Adrien.

“It’s better off keeping him in check. We all know he’s always up to something,” he grinned at Ben and me.

“C’est pas juste!” (No fair!) Matt said while trying to wiggle himself loose from Adrien’s grip. Adrien has to be strong to be able to carry a twelve year old like that.

“Erm, isn’t he heavy?” I asked.

“Him? No…he’s a stick like Ben there. He’s only ninety pounds,” Adrien laughed it off, and went out to the door.

“Hey, mon manteau et ma toque!” (Hey, my coat and hat!) Matt hollered. Adrien went back to the closet to throw them on his head, and Matt grabbed them off.

We took our coats and gloves and followed them. Adrien opened the back car door and threw Matt in, and then climbed in the front next to his mother. We got in the car, seeing Matt’s coat and hair a little ruffled up, but he shrugged it off by sticking his tongue out and smirking at us. He kicked the back of Adrien’s seat showing that he was still not satisfied that he hadn’t gotten him at anything since Adrien arrived here.

“Quoi?” (What?) Mrs. Lemoureaux wondered what was going on.

“Rien, m’man. Je dirais juste que je l’ai empêché de me faire des choses,” (Nothing mum. I’d just say I stopped him from doing things to me.) Adrien told his mother.

“Comme d’habitude, Mathieu,” (Typically, Mathieu) she rolled her eyes and drove out of the driveway on to the road.

The roads were definitely much better than they were a couple of days ago. In twenty minutes, we arrived at the coffeeshop and went in to be greeted warmly by Birna’s usual smile and cheer. I caught a glimpse of Krist before he disappeared into the backroom, thinking he didn’t notice our presence. Birna told us to pick any table to use.

“Oh Birna,” Mrs. Lemoureaux said in her usual sugary French accent, “It has been too difficile to go through a day not thinking about that wonderful cake you made last night.”

“Well, thanks Julie,” Birna said as her cheeks showed a tint of red, “I just made some raspberry sugar pie, fresh out of the oven now, want a slice?” she suggested.

“My goodness, are you trying to kill me?” Mrs. Lemoureaux looked at her with offense, “It’s scandalous to give me just a slice. Give me a whole pie. I’ll buy the whole thing.”

“No problem! Anything else for you boys?” She asked us, “Oh, let me guess, lítli björninn minn, the usual, huh?” (Icelandic: My little bear)

“Yep, the usual for me, Birna,” I told her.

“Remember the coffee I had the last time?” Ben told her.

“Indeed I do, café au lait, no?” She fired away and Ben nodded confirming the order.

“Tu bois pas de café, Mathieu,” Mrs. Lemoureaux cut off before Matt tried to order, “He can’t drink coffee, or otherwise he’ll be walking on the ceiling and bouncing off the walls,” she rolled her eyes.

“C’est pas juste…” Matt muttered and then looked at Birna to order his drink, “Got cold liqueur?”

Birna and I stared at him blankly for even asking that. Did he just say he wanted a cold liquor?! Apparently, Ben and Adrien didn’t appear to be taken back by this revelation, just smiled like everything was fine.

“He meant he wants some coke,” Mrs. Lemoureaux smiled at Birna, “In French…erm, more like Canadian French, sometimes we call soft drinks ‘liqueurs gazeuses’, and Mathieu sometimes mixes those words up sometimes.”

“Right… One coke coming up. And for this young man?” Birna looked at Adrien.

“Same as Ben, café au lait,” Adrien went on.

“Liquor?” I asked Ben, who sighed at me.

“In our special ‘dialect’ of French, we sometimes have a funny way of calling alcoholic drinks as ‘boissons’ or ‘boissons alcooliques’, soft drinks or sodas as ‘liqueurs’ or ‘liqueur gazeuses’,” Ben explained.

“Oh… Weird indeed,” I slowly said.

“Good boy, glad you learnt something new today,” Ben smirked. Adrien and Matt caught that remarked and giggled.

“Va chier,” (Fuck you) I smiled. Ben gasped as if I committed a sin. Matt and Adrien giggled even louder.

“Regarde ta langue, jeune homme,” (Watch your language, young man.) Mrs. Lemoureaux stared at me, looking more than a little amused that I already know such a word.

“Hey, Birna! Didn’t I see Krist going into the backroom?” I called to her at the counter as she was making some café au lait from the machine.

“Yeah, you did. Lemme get him,” she turned her head towards the backroom’s door, “Kristján! Steph og vínarnar sínir eru hér!” (Icelandic: Kristján! Steph and his friends are here!)

“Hvað?” (What?) Krist came out of the door. “Oh, hey guys!” he said as he wiped his hands with a towel. He had a green apron on that made him look a little silly, but I bet that was his mother’s intention. He came over to sit down with us. Birna came over with our drink orders, a box containing the pie plus a plate for Mrs. Lemoureaux to use so she could eat the pie. Krist settled down talking to us while Mrs. Lemoureaux gave off a couple of ‘hmmm’ sounds, meaning that she was enjoying the pie.

“Helping her today?” I asked.

“Yes, she said I have to earn a little if I want to drive,” he leaned back, smiling all proud, “Next week I’ll be taking my test to get my license.”

“Yes, Krist. Insurance and gas are hell to pay,” his mother told him from the counter, telling us the real reason for his duty in her coffeeshop.

“I want to go to NYC as soon as I get my license. Wanna come?” he asked me and Ben.

“Absolutely! I’ve been waiting for the moment I could go. I need to do some shopping!” I told him with a smile. Ben nodded in agreement.

“I never went to NYC actually. I always wanted to go there,” Ben said before taking a sip of his coffee.

After some talking and coffee drinking, we were all finished. Krist had to get back to work after his mother had to tell him for the third time to get moving with the cleaning in the backroom. Mrs. Lemoureaux went up to the cashier to pay the bill.

“Say, do you happen to have the recipe for that pie and cake?” she asked, “They were divine.”

“I don’t know, Julie,” Birna thought over, “If I give them to you now, I would be losing money and not have an excuse to make you come back again. Oh, that’ll be $16.54.” Mrs. Lemoureaux laughed.

“I understand your point. Never mind since afterall, they’re probably the best when you make them yourself. Take the $20 and keep the change,” Mrs. Lemoureaux tendered the cash, took the bag containing the pie box off the counter, and looked at us, “C’mon boys!”

“See ya tomorrow!” Krist waved to me and Ben, and then to Matt and Adrien.

“Bye, Birna!” I waved to her before leaving through the door.

We went back to Ben’s house where I had to pick up my stuff so I could get home before my Mom. Mrs. Lemoureaux offered me a ride since she didn’t want me crossing the ice all alone.

“Merci pour tout!” (Thanks for everything!) I told her.

“De rien, mon chéri…bye bye” (You’re welcome, my dear…) Mrs. Lemoureaux waved to me as I got out of the car.

I unlocked the door and went in to be greeted by Jake jumping all over my legs. I guess he was happy to see me after being alone for so long. I threw my stuff on the chair in the living room and put some food in his dish. Jake zoomed to the dish to munch up whatever was in it. I put some water in the pot and put it on the stove to boil, knowing that Mom would be too tired to cook for us. I sat down at the kitchen table watching Jake eating like a pig. I turned my arms to look at the last scar I made not too long ago. It’s healing up quite nicely and soon it will be just a line, a permanent mark on my skin to remind me of what I used to do to myself for the rest of my life. Maybe that’s why we get scars, to remind ourselves so we won’t make the same mistakes again. But again, sometimes scars aren’t good as they can bring back bad memories. Jake jumped on my leg, snapping me out of my thoughts. I leaned down to scratch behind his ears and he flipped over on his back to let me know he wanted his belly rubbed, which I happily did. The water started boiling, so I put in the pasta and turned down the heat, and went to the living room to watch some TV.

In fifteen minutes, the door opened and a blast of cold air hit my face. Mom came in and dropped dead on the chair, with her purse on her lap and a bag full of empty lunch containers on the floor next to her.

“I certainly hope you’ve got something cooking because I’m all worn out,” Mom said in a very tired voice.

“Damn, the pasta…it must be ready now!” I ran to turn the pot off and went to strain it. Mom came in the kitchen to put all of the empty dirty containers in the dishwasher and sat down at the kitchen table, petting Jake as he was jumping all over her leg.

“I’ve been dreaming of my bed for few days now. How I miss the comfort of it,” Mum smiled and chuckled.

“Eat first, it’ll give you energy,” I told her as I put the sauce on it and served it on the plate.

“Take out the red wine and pour each of us a glass, I have good news to tell you,” she pointed at the lower cupboard where she usually stores several good bottles of wine she has for special occasions. I am for sure well underage for alcohol, but Mom always lets me take a good glass of wine for some dinners with her since she thinks I’m responsible enough and she doesn’t like drinking alone.

“What’s the good news?” I asked.

“Never mind me for a minute, tell me what’s been going on lately,” she sipped her glass.

“Nothing much honestly. I slept over at friends to kill time from being off from school. Becoming better friends with Ben,” I told her about a few of the most fun parts of the week, which were about Matt’s mischievous tricks, Ben’s birthday bash, and the coffeeshop. Mom nodded as she ate her pasta.

“Wonderful. Now get your glass ready because it’s my turn. Let’s make a toast!” she raised her glass, “To a new head nurse!” I nearly dropped my glass at that toast.

“What?” I stared at her.

“Well, after I convinced my boss to let me have a few days off,” she rolled her eyes, “she told me she is going to retire next month, and then explained that she has to recommend someone to replace her from her own floor of the hospital. She was impressed at my commitment to the job and that I do it in the best interests of the patients, so she decided to recommend me. The hospital doesn’t always accept every recommendation, but the hospital has so much respect and trust for her, it’s almost for sure I’ll be accepted into the position,” Mom smiled in delight.

“Wow…I’m so happy for you! Years of hard work finally paid off!” I raised my glass to her and drank the wine.

“Yeah, imagine that, I’ll be calling the shots for whoever gets the day off and making sure no one really abuses it. Hell, I’ll be even calling the shots for my own days off,” she grinned, “Oh don’t get me wrong. I’ll be working hard to get that respect. It’s just they can’t count on keeping everything the same as it was.”

Mom and I finished our pasta, and then we took out the ice cream from the freezer as I told her more about Ben.

“Interesting boy. I want to meet him someday, keep that in mind,” she told me, “But sharing the bed? That sounds…unusual,” she looked at me, looking for an explanation. I was a little surprised at that question, hoping she wouldn’t suspect a thing.

“Erm…well, I didn’t bring my sleeping bag and they had none. Mrs. Lemoureaux couldn’t accept me sleeping on the bare floor, so she told me to sleep on his bed. It’s a queen-sized bed and they didn’t mind at all. I did feel weird sleeping in the same bed as him, but I got over it as nothing happened.”

“But what could happen?” she asked, again looking at me. My heart was pumping harder as the thought of Ben and me doing something sexual ran though my mind.

“Exactly, what could happen? Which was…nothing,” I tried to brush off.

“Oh…yes, that sounds reasonable enough. Nothing to worry about, I just found it a little weird for two guys to sleep in the same bed, but since you guys already are friends…I see no reason against it,” she sat down with her cookie dough ice cream covered with Hershey chocolate syrup.

After finishing our ice cream, Mom gave me a kiss on the cheek, told me that she was going to bed and that she was happy to see me and talk to me again. I knew she would be wearing her earplugs tonight since she can hear like a bat, and she wouldn’t want to be bothered during her long peaceful sleep in her own bed tonight. I went to my room and Jake followed me, so I put him on my bed where he found a spot to lay down and sleep. I turned on my music and went on the computer to surf the net a little bit. After a few hours, I went to bed, getting ready for tomorrow.

I woke up at the crack of dawn. Remembering that we weren’t too far off from the winter solstice a half-month ago, so the sun rises late and sets early. I showered, got dressed, and went to the kitchen to make some toast. I heard Mom snoring in her bedroom, which is down the hall from the kitchen. I guess she was planning to sleep as long as she can, so I went to the living room to watch TV while I ate my toast. Not too long after, I went out to catch my bus.

I waited for Ben at the school’s front doors, as he missed the bus and I was sure Mrs. Lemoureaux wouldn’t let him skip school after being off for so many days. He showed up fifteen minutes later.

“Shut up, I had enough from m’man,” Ben told me, already knowing that I was going to say something about being late, “Matt put some honey in my shampoo, so that’s why I was late because I spent another ten minutes trying to wash it out of my hair.” I snorted softly, but he heard me anyway and gave me the finger.

“That’s Matt for sure,” I grinned.

“I’m going with you when you get to your study period to help you deal with…Cecile, right?”

“Ah shit, her…yes… Thanks a lot,” I looked around, making sure no one was looking at us, and I quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek before we parted to go to our classes. Since today was a two-hour delay, the classes were compressed, so time should pass faster, and the day would end before we knew it.

Ben waited for me outside the library door so he could fill me in what to do when I saw Cecile. I approached him and before we could greet each other, some guy, a senior brushed against Ben, nearly making Ben lose his balance. The guy scowled at him and slowly walked away. Several students stopped and looked at Ben, who obviously appeared a little pissed off.

“Hey bud, I told you I will never suck you in the locker room, so accept it!” Ben shouted at him. Some of the students giggled and started to whisper with each other. The guy turned around and started towards him, ready to say something back.

“Not so fast, young man,” Mrs. Benton, from twenty feet away, said in a very firm voice, “In my office, now. It seems we have some talking to do.”

The guy grumbled and turned around heading in the direction where her office was located.

“Break it up guys, nothing to see here,” she told the students around us, “Mr. Lemoureaux, yes, I already know about you.”

“How?” Ben asked her.

“A couple of girls in my class were talking about you and I overheard them when I was about to shut them up,” she rolled her eyes, showing how much she hated students talking while she teaches, “Nothing to worry about. If anyone is giving you some trouble, let me know and I’ll get to it. That young man will get suffer through one of my lectures, mark my word.” Then she walked down the hall towards her office to see him. Ben appeared a little taken back, but snapped out of the trance.

“Erm, anyway, yeah, about Cecile. Just remain calm, apologize, and think before you say anything,” he told me and opened the door for me. I hesitated, but Ben pulled me in.

I walked in and saw her studying at the table. I slowly walked towards her, feeling a little nervous, my chest shaking very slightly so that no one would really notice. I set my bag on the table and she brought her eyes to me. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, looking at me as I sat down facing her. I just sat there, chest still unnoticeably shaking, and my heart was trying to execute a jailbreak out through my ribs. Too much time had passed with us just looking at each other, so Cecile decided to break the silence quietly, as it was the library.

“You don’t have to say anything, honestly,” she sighed, “As I said, I don’t mind if you’re a…well, you know…” she kept her voice down so no one else in the library would hear her.

“Yes, I do have to say something,” I felt relieved that I was spared from trying to make an awkward start, “I have to apologize for walking out on you like that. It’s just that I was beating myself up for not being careful.”

“There is nothing to be sorry for. Steph, you should be glad it was me. Someone that you know. Someone that has been helping you. If it were someone that you never knew, only god would know what could happen. You could have all kinds of rumors about you. You could get the jocks going after you.”

“I know…and I overreacted. I’m just not used to being…out. Shit, I only just started to accept it. My mind was being flooded,” I went on before she cut me off.

“No need to explain. My uncle is…well, you know,” she avoided using the ‘g’ word, “So I know a lot about it. I spent a week reading about this stuff, in case I have to help you. I wasn’t going to let you go, you know, as you were still an unfinished case.”

“Geez, like a…”

“Yes, like a friend,” she finished the sentence for me, smiling, “You and Ben are safe with me.”

“I was going to say, ‘like a psychologist’,” I stuck out my tongue. I got up and hugged her to express my thanks for her being there for me, for helping me, and especially for dealing with my crap for so long and having enough patience with me.

“You’ve been a wonderful shrink,” I smirked and she covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly in the usually quiet library.

“Gotta admit, it’s nice to know the source of the ‘problem’ now,” she looked over my shoulder, seeming to notice someone, “Hmmm, isn’t that Ben over there?” I turned my head to see Ben a hundred feet away between the bookshelves, giving me a thumb up. I waved at him to come over.

“Well, it’s time for you to meet him!” I told her as he walked over. I discovered he was carrying an art book about naked Greek statues.

“What the hell…?” I stared at his book.

“Just taking the time to enjoy the pleasure of looking at the male beauty, mon ami,” Ben grinned, “Though I wouldn’t do them since they’re often way too small in the private area.” Cecile caught the last sentence and giggled.

“Cecile, Ben. Ben, Cecile,” I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“Nice meeting you,” both of them said at the same time as they went to shake hands. Ben proceeded to sit down and looked at both of us; hoping one of us would say something.

“Tell me, where did you move from?” Cecile asked Ben.

“Montreal,” he responded. Cecile, like many others, was surprised since we rarely find Canadians here in the area, especially French-speaking ones.

“I went there last summer, it was awesome. I really loved the Old Port…especially that…euh…old seminary?” she said all confused, trying to get the name right.

“The Vieux Séminaire…the oldest building on the port,” Ben corrected her, and Cecile went on to tell about many other favorite locations. I took the art book to see if Ben was right about the male beauty. Yeah, I wouldn’t do those Greek statues either, but someone would have to be very desperate to screw a statue anyway. I watched Ben and Cecile as they kept on talking, and I smiled at them for no reason except that the issue between Cecile and me had been managed, and quickly too.