Not Just Another Lonely Holiday - 1. Chapter 1

Not Just Another Lonely Holiday
by
Jim Carter
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It’s Thanksgiving and instead of being thankful for my health and the blessings I have been given, I am wallowing in self-pity and loneliness. I don’t want to be this way, but it seems to creep up on me most holidays. I am sitting here feeding the ducks at the small lake in the park. The park is usually a busy place but on holidays like today, it is almost deserted. People everywhere are spending the day with friends and family. Holidays are a time for family.

I can’t say that it has been all bad. I worked this morning and through noon at the shelter helping feed the homeless and people in need. I am ashamed of myself for my loneliness and self-pity, especially when I see people that have so little that are truly thankful for what they have. I can’t blame anyone but myself for my shitty state of mind.

It’s not that I don’t have any family at all, I do. They just don’t want to have anything to do with me. For the last three years, my family has not spoken to me at all except when my brother called to tell me my mother passed away. She only lasted a couple of years after my dad died; she just didn’t seem to care much about going on alone. Something I can almost relate to.

I suppose I should explain how I came to be the family outcast. I am forty-six years old. I have been married a couple of times, but they never lasted. I did my best to be a decent husband and I think I succeeded except in bed. Its not that I couldn’t get it up, but my sex drive was less than either of my wives could stand.
Both wives knew I masturbated a lot, but just didn’t have the drive to be that sexual with them. Yes, as you must have guessed by now, I was living a lie. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep my sexual desires suppressed.

After the second failed marriage, I knew it was hopeless to try for a third. I was at the point I had finally admitted to myself that I was gay and was ready to try my hand at man to man action. Unfortunately when you are over forty and have always lived in the closet with no gay friends; it is very hard to find like minded friends.

I think I went to every gay club in the city several times. The club where the young guys hung out had no use for the old fart. There were a couple of clubs that had a range of ages, but not many people around my age. I soon found out that I could have the company of cute young guys; I just had to pay for it. As depressing as that was, I found that I enjoyed the satisfaction these hustlers gave me. Even temporary satisfaction with a live man is better than my right hand.

The sexual enjoyment was great, but what I really wanted was a man to care for and have him care about me. I want someone to come home to each day after work; someone to share my life with. Of course, those rent-a-guys didn’t usually even want to kiss let alone anything else. It was nice, but the satisfaction was very temporary.

As far as my family was concerned they thought I was straight. When I would go home they would always have a woman or two lined up for me. Three years ago that all fell in the dumpster when my brother and his family came down for vacation. My nephews were nosey like any kids. At eight and four, they were into everything.
I thought I had my porn hidden and safe, but the boys found it. My brother called me every name in the book and they packed up everything and left. When my mother died, I was allowed to sit with the family, but none of them said a word to me. I sent the boys Christmas and birthday gifts, but they were marked with a marker REFUSED.

I am usually a pretty happy and upbeat guy, but holidays get me down. I keep telling myself that one of these days I will meet a wonderful man and we will be happy together. Then holidays won’t be something to dread. Actually helping at the shelter has made them some better already. At least, I don’t have all day to sit and feel sorry for myself.

It was almost time for me to head back to the shelter to help with the evening meal when someone came up behind me and scared me. The park was so empty I didn’t know anyone with anywhere close. I jumped and flinched.

“I’m sorry Jim; I didn’t mean to scare you.” It was Ethan. He and April live at the end of my street in an apartment complex.

“It’s okay. I didn’t know anyone was around and you startled me. Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Same to you. You and I must be the only two people around today. Holidays and not much fun when you’re alone.”

“Where is April?”

“She always spends holidays with her folks. I usually work on holidays, but Thanksgiving and Christmas the store is closed.”
Ethan goes to college and works at Burger Barn. “She doesn’t take you with her when she visits her folks?”

“No, I have met them a couple of times, but that is about it.”
Ethan looked a little down. He is not strikingly handsome or what you would call cute, but he is nice looking. I guess he is twenty-four or somewhere around that. We run into each other here and there in the neighborhood. He and I are both fond of the park.
“I had to get out of the apartment for awhile. With school break and the store closed, I was bored to death.” Neither of us seemed to want to talk about family. If fact I think it was evident we both wanted to change the subject.

“I know what you mean. If I didn’t volunteer at the shelter, I think I would go stir crazy. That reminds me, I guess I better head back to help with the evening meal.”

“I was wondering why Buck wasn’t with you.” Buck is my golden retriever. He is a year old and loves to come to the park with me. “Think they could use me? I need something to occupy my time.”

“I am sure we can find something for you to do.” We walked into the shelter and they had us both busy almost before we could get our jackets off.

Once everyone was fed, we fixed a plate for ourselves and sat down to eat. Many of the best chefs around the city helped prepare the food and it was delicious. Ethan and I ate at the end of the first row. A boy of nine or ten and his sister a year or so younger came up and hugged us both and thanked us for feeding them. It was all I could do to keep from crying. I knew immediately that I had found the family that I wanted to adopt for Christmas. I had participated in the adopt-a-family for Christmas for the last five or six years. I saved all my change during the year to have the money to help a family at Christmas. “What are your names?” I asked the pair.

“I’m Nathan and my sister is Mary.” The boy spoke up.

“Thanks for the hug Nathan and Mary. What are your mom and dad’s names?” I saw a man and woman watching from the side of the room.

“Bob and Catherine.” Said the boy and he pointed to the couple I had spotted.

I walked over to the couple and stuck out my hand. “Hi, I am Jim Carter. I just wanted to tell you how happy your children made me with their hugs.”

“Hi, I am Bob Davis and this is my wife Catherine.” Ethan and the kids came up to where we were talking.

“This is Ethan James. I think we were both moved by your children.” Ethan shook hands with them both.

We chatted for a bit. They had lived in a small town both had lost their jobs when the factory that basically supported the town closed. They had moved here to try to find work. The good news, they told us, was that they had both found jobs starting Monday.
From what we gathered this last four months or so had been very hard on the family, but with the promise of jobs the whole family was happy and very thankful. The family’s good mood rubbed off on Ethan and I.

When Ethan and I went back to finish our dinner, I told him my plan to adopt the Davis’ for Christmas. Ethan said. “I wish I could afford to do something like that. It would make me happy to help someone instead of it being just another lonely day.”

“I have an idea why don’t we adopt them together. The hard part of adopting a family is trying to find things the people will like. Being an old fart, makes it hard to know what younger people want and need. You being younger would help to make sure we don’t give them things they won’t want.”

“Thanks Jim, I would like that. I will give what I can and I would love to go shopping with you. I think for the first time in a long time, I will enjoy Christmas this year.” We went and found that the Davis’ were one of the families still available to be adopted and signed up for them and got the information sheet about the sizes and what the kids wanted. “Want to come back to my apartment for coffee and talk some more about what we can do for our family.” Ethan seemed so excited that it lifted my spirits and I jumped at the chance to spend more time with him.

We had a great time making our list of what we wanted to get for the Davis’. We both knew we had listed a lot more than we could afford, but decided to list everything and then we would cut it down later. We had had such a good time it was after eleven before I knew it. I knew Ethan had to work early tomorrow. “Wow, the time has flown by. I am sorry Ethan. I know you have to be at work early in the morning.”

“No problem, I have had a wonderful time. I will have something to look forward to tomorrow. I’ll come by as soon as I get off and changed. Thanks again for letting me be a part of this.” He hugged me as I left.

I couldn’t help myself. My masturbation fantasies all geared around Ethan. I know he is living with a girl and my fantasies will always be just that fantasies, but as hard as I tried to change the images in my head, a naked Ethan was the star of my fantasy. Of course, I had never seen Ethan naked, so in my fantasy he was perfect.

I guess it took longer than I thought or maybe it was because Ethan was still on my mind and it was wondering. Ethan came over while I was still raking leaves. He tried to help, but I wouldn’t let him. “You are nice and clean don’t get all dirty. I am almost finished. Go on in and make yourself at home. I won’t be but a few minutes.” Of course, Buck loved the extra attention having Ethan to play with.

“At least let me hold the bag. I won’t take no for an answer.”

We finished the last of the leaves and went in the house. “I’m sorry I lost track of time. Dinner is almost ready. What would you like to drink?”

“I’ll have a beer if you have one.” He followed me into the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and said. “Pick your poison.” I had several brands. The roast I had in the slow cooker filled the room with its rich aroma.

“What ever that is smells awesome.”

“It’s just a roast in the slow cooker. Make yourself at home. The remote for the TV is on the coffee table. I’m really sorry that I’m running late, but I need to take a quick shower. I won’t be such a lousy host the next time you come over.”

“You are not a lousy host.” He hugged me and made a sniffing sound. “You don’t stink or anything. Go take your shower; I know it will make you feel better. “I am sure Buck won’t let me get bored.” He laughed as the dog made him feel welcome.

I showered and dressed in nothing more than sweats. We ate and talked more about how to handle the Christmas for the Davis family. We decided that we needed to talk to them before we did any shopping. It was Thursday of the next week before we were able to talk with them. They suggested that since they both had found jobs that it would be better to help some family that might be more desperate. We finally convinced them that we had chosen them because their kids made such an impression on us that we wanted to help make this Christmas special for them.

What amazed us most were the kids. When we tried to get them to tell us what they wanted, all they wanted was some nice clothes for their parents so that they would look nice for church. We decided that this would be something we wanted to give them early so that they could go to Christmas services looking nice.

Bob and Catherine were overwhelmed by their children’s thoughtfulness. They cried when the kids gave them the early presents. We arranged to bring the gifts from Santa after the children were asleep on Christmas eve.

The thank you notes from the kids made Ethan and I feel on top of the world. We had agreed to not get each other anything for Christmas, but neither of us kept that agreement. I gave Ethan a watch and he gave me an engraved pen and pencil set. We just laughed about our inability to keep to our agreement.

Ethan and I spent as much time together as we could. He was the best friend I have ever had. I asked a few times about April and wasn’t she jealous of us spending so much time together. He always made some comment about her liking the fact that he wasn’t underfoot while she tried to study.

Once Ethan found out my passion for poker and blackjack, he wanted to learn the games. We played poker online almost every time he came over. He was becoming very good and he was a natural at blackjack.

We didn’t mention anything about it until about a week after our birthday; we found out that we shared March seventh as a birthday with me being nineteen years older. I was surprised that he was twenty-eight. My guess was twenty-four or so. I also found that he had his driver’s license, but hadn’t driven enough to feel confident driving. We remedied that by having him drive us when we went somewhere in my truck.

He and April would both be graduating the first week in May. I offered to take them both on a gambling weekend in Mississippi the Saturday before graduation. He was excited about it, but said that April wouldn’t be joining us. I told him I have reserved two rooms so that he and April would have one and I would have one.

“Just cancel one of them. We can share a room. We don’t need two.”

“Well, okay, I will. One is compt’d so I can use the money for the other one to gamble more.” I laughed.

“What about Buck? How does he manage with you gone overnight?”

“I have his food on a timer and he has his doggie door so he can go out when he needs too. If I am gone for more than a couple of days I take him to the kennel, but these short trips he is just fine.”

“That is a neat trick putting the doggie door with a dog house on the outside so people can’t see that it is a door.”

“It was the contractor’s idea. It also keeps the wind from opening the door and keeps from loosing as much energy. Buck seems to like it too. He played with it like a toy when we first got it.”

As we were getting ready to leave for our trip, I explained how he should manage his money. “I may loose a few of the increments I call sessions but I almost always win for the trip. Since this is your first time to go gambling, you will probably want to stay up pretty late tonight. I think six sessions (hours) tonight and four tomorrow will be best this weekend. The way I work it is to divide my money by ten (the number of sessions) and that is the most I will ever spend at a session. I always get up from the table when a session is over, cash out and start a new session usually at a different table. We will get you a player’s card and always give it to them when you start a session so that you will get comps like meals and rooms in the future. Not to be nosey but how much are you planning on taking with you to gamble?”

“I have three hundred dollars.” He said proudly. I had to be careful how I handled my next discussion.

“You remember me telling you that I kept a stash and was always ready to go when I wanted to go gambling?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I want you to build up a stash too. I want to stake you so that you can play a little higher stakes without worrying about losing.” I could see him start to protest, but I held up my hand to him. “We will split the winnings. I plan on us kicking their butts.”

“I couldn’t stand losing your money.” I could tell this was getting to him.

“Hey it is money that I have won from them before. I never risk any money that I need to live on. Besides I want you to build up a stash so that we can go more often. If you lose every cent, I won’t care, but I know that you won’t. You are a very good player.” I gave him fifty one-hundred dollar bills. “This will give you five hundred dollar sessions. I suggest that you only buy one or two hundred in chips when you first set at the table. Then buy more as you need them but never more than five hundred in any session. Once you loose five hundred the session is over. It happens once in a while. I have lost my session amount in the first twenty minutes before, and that forty minutes of just killing time was a pain in the butt.” I laughed. “I think that was one of my best trips though. My other sessions were fantastic.”

“I don’t feel right taking this money.”

“First of all, you are not taking this money; I am investing in your ability. Secondly, we are going to have a blast and if we both loose every cent, we will come home happy. I almost always win, but I never base my enjoyment on winning. If you are going to be uptight and nervous about losing, you won’t have fun win or Loose. Please, just take my word for it we are not going to worry about loosing. I am not in the habit of asking you to do anything for me, but I want to ask you to promise me that you won’t let the money we are gambling with bother you. I assure you that I never gamble with money I need. I always use my stash that is there to have fun. I won’t have fun if you are nervous.”

“Okay, I will promise to try.”

“Try won’t cut it. Promise me that you will laugh your ass off if you lose every cent.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, I promise.”

We got to the casino and checked in. I told him not to try to sit at the same table as I did every time, it would look odd if we both kept sitting at the same tables and getting up at the same time. He laughed and agreed that it would probably look weird.

After our first session he was in the cashier line when I got in line behind him. He was grinning from ear to ear, so I figured his first session was a win. Once I cashed out my chips he was waiting for me. “That was awesome fun. I won six hundred dollars. How was your first session?”

“My session was up and down. I ended up a hundred and twenty ahead though. So, did you have fun? Well, I guess that big grin says you did.”

“Yes, it was awesome. I got really lucky and won almost every double that I bet. I know they won’t all be that great, but it was great that my first session was such a good one.”

“That is true, but always remember to have fun. I am going to play one of the sucker games that I don’t normally play. It is blackjack with three card poker optional. Smart money says to not play the optional poker, but I love to play it. I normally only play one or two sessions with either three card poker with blackjack or a game called Let it Ride. If you get lucky these two game can pay some monster pay outs, but it is not smart to play it too often. Although they are fun, blackjack is where the house has the least odds, so that is where the smart money plays. Why don’t we both sit at this table and play blackjack with the three card poker option. See how you like it.”

“Cool, it looks interesting.” We both bought in with two hundred and started playing. He was very lucky, especially on the poker bet. I was not having near the success as he was. In fact, after about half an hour, I had to buy another hundred worth of chips and Ethan had several black chips (hundred dollar) in front of him. He had what looked like a permanent grin on his face. He was having a great time and everyone was enjoying his good fortune.

After a bit I started hitting and hit a straight flush which paid the highest odds for the three card poker. By the time our session was over, we were both a couple of thousand ahead. “That is why I love to play this game, but sometimes it eats my lunch too.”

“I can see that luck makes or breaks you on the poker. No skill involved at all. It was fun though. I can see that if you played that all the time it would be hard to win consistently.”

“Very smart observation. Let it Ride is another game that is fun, but you can win a lot if you get really lucky. It is not quite as bad as playing the slots, but is one of the few card games that you can win very big at. We will play that tomorrow if you want.

After our fifth session I was getting tired and planned to tell Ethan I was going to go to the room. I saw Ethan yawning in the cashier’s line too. When he got to me he said. “If it is okay with you, I think will go to the room. I don’t think I can hold my eyes open for another hour.”

“I was just going to tell you the same thing. My sinuses have had about all the smoke they can handle too.”

“Isn’t that the truth? The last table I was at had three smokers. I would have moved to another table, but the cards were good to me, so I stayed. One guy was way too drunk to be playing, but he was winning in spite of himself.”

“I usually don’t like being at the table with drunks because they usually make such fools of themselves that I feel uncomfortable being at the table with them.”

“This guy would probably have made me uncomfortable, except his friend was keeping him from being stupid or getting too loud. I know we don’t drink when we gamble, but I hope you will make sure I never make a fool out of myself.”

“I have never seen you drunk, but I will always be there for you if I can Ethan.”

“I know and I will be there for you too. You are the best friend I have ever had. I am glad we have become such good friends.”

“Its funny, we have known each other for such a short time and you are my best friend as well.” We had reached the room. Ethan had his key card out first and opened our door. “You can use the shower first, but if I fall asleep while you are in there wake me up. I don’t want to sleep with all this smoke on me.” We both laughed.

“You can go first. I am pretty sure I can stay awake, besides I want to count the money, I was thinking it might be a good idea to put all but what I had budgeted for tomorrow in my backpack so that it would be in the truck and wouldn’t have to worry about someone stealing my wallet with all that money in it.”

“That is a good idea. Here count mine too if you don’t mind. I handed him my wallet. I will hurry, but right now that shower is calling my name.”

I felt much better after the shower. I wrapped one of the bath towels around my waist and went back into the bedroom. “You won five hundred eighty dollars more than I did. After holding out two thousand for tomorrow, you have eight thousand eighty dollars and I have seventy four hundred. I think we did pretty well.”

“We did excellent, but you won four hundred twenty more than I did. I cheated and had an extra thousand, just in case.” He was beaming.

He handed me both stacks of money. “I put your two thousand in your wallet and my two thousand in my wallet.”

I counted out the five thousand from his stack then handed him back the money. “That is all yours to do with as you wish.”

“No you have to take half the winnings. That was our deal.”

“I know it was, but I would much rather you have a good stake so that we can come back soon. I have really enjoyed having a friend to share this activity with. Please keep all your winnings so that we can do this again.”

“I don’t feel right about not splitting the winnings since you risked the money, but I am too tired to argue right now. We will talk more about this later, but right now I need a shower.” I slid under the covers so that he couldn’t see me start to bone up when he started to undress. The glimpse of his beautiful ass was as perfect as my imagination had made it in my jack off fantasies.

I figured it would be hard for me to fall asleep with this man that I have fantasized so much over the past few months in the next bed, but I was asleep before he was out of the shower. The four hour drive must have taken its toll on me. I didn’t wake until the wakeup call we left brought me out of my sleep.

We got ready for the day and checked out of the hotel. We decided to eat breakfast at another casino and gamble there today. We had decided that today Ethan would do all the driving. I cheated. I knew it was always harder to drive home than it was to the casino.
I confessed my cheat before we decided to come, but Ethan was okay with it. Anyway he is younger and should be less tired than this old fart.

Ethan bought us breakfast and it was wonderful. We both more than doubled our money again today, so it was a very good trip and we were both about as happy as we could be coming back from the casinos. Once we were almost home Ethan asked. “Jim, do you mind if I keep my stash at your house? If I have it at the apartment, I am afraid that it will get used for bills or something. If it is at your house, I won’t worry about spending it.”

“I don’t mind at all bud. We will just put your envelope in the drawer with mine.”

“I still feel a little guilty about not splitting the winnings, but you have convinced me that you would rather have a gambling buddy more than the money from the winnings. You are the best friend anyone could ask for. Let’s not mention to April that we won. Some things are better left untold.”

“I don’t see any reason to say anything unless she asks me directly. If she asks directly, I will have to tell the truth. My ability to lie is slim and none. I have always given away when I am lying. I don’t see any reason she would ask me though. She has not talked to me much at all lately. She might not like how much time we are spending together.”

“I want to talk to you about that, but not until after graduation.”

“Are you sure you want to go to work at your new job so soon? I would think you would want to take a little time between the Burger Barn and the software company.”

“No, that is why I did as many interviews as I did, so that I could start immediately after graduation. I have worked virtually full time at Burger Barn since I was fifteen and ready to get away from there.”

“It will be nice having my best friend working basically the same hours as I do. I am glad you don’t have the weird hours anymore.”

“Me too, I hate the weird hours.”

I went to Ethan and April’s graduation on Saturday. It was a typical ceremony, but I wanted to be there for them. Before the ceremony, I happened to see April kissing another guy. I was torn if I should tell Ethan. I definitely didn’t want to tell him before the ceremony. This was a day Ethan had been looking forward to for a very long time and I was not about to ruin it by telling him what I saw. I managed to congratulate him before he went with a group of friends to celebrate.

I went by his apartment Sunday afternoon to give him the pen and pencil set I got him for his graduation. April wasn’t there and he was still hung over from his celebration that I didn’t stay long.
I asked where April was and he said he wanted to talk to me about April, but just didn’t feel like it with the hangover. I told him he knew where I was and I would listen when he wanted to talk.

Monday evening Ethan came over. “Jim, I need to get part of my stash. I have to pay the last two months rent or they are going to evict me.”

“Sure, its right here.” I went and got his envelope. “What happened?”

“I always gave April cash and she wrote the check for the rent. Seems she took last month’s rent and this month’s rent and left the state with her boyfriend. I had a notice on my door when I got home from work. She wrote a note and apologized, but said I shouldn’t be so trusting.”

“I saw her kissing a guy on Saturday, but I didn’t want to spoil your graduation, so I didn’t say anything. I wish now I had.”

“No, we were not boyfriend and girlfriend. We were just roommates. I know I let you think that we were, but we never were anything more than roommates. Now I have to find a new roommate quickly. I can’t afford this rent by myself even with the new job.”

“Why don’t you just move in here? You know I have two spare rooms and we already know that we get along.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? We are great friends and if being roommates start to mess up our friendship, then we can figure something else out then.”

“I just can’t live here.”

“I don’t understand why not. Please tell me why you can’t live here.”

“I just can’t. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” He took the money he needed and left quickly.

When he didn’t come over Tuesday after work, I went to his apartment looking for him. I was surprised when he opened the door and let me in to see he had several boxes of stuff packed. “It looks like you are moving? So are you going to come live with me?”
I asked as excited as I dared.

“No, I can’t but since April had the lease, they are raising my rent a hundred fifty dollars and I can’t afford that just yet, even with a roommate.”

“I still don’t see why you don’t come live with me. We get along so great, I can’t see us living together ruining that friendship.”

Ethan was crying and hanging his head. “You don’t get it. I’m gay.” He got up and was walking toward the bedroom.

“Ethan, why would the fact that you are gay keep you from being able to live with me? Do you think for one instant that I’d let something like that effect our friendship?” I couldn’t tell him I was gay or he would think I was just an old fag out for his hot body.

“Because I’m in love with you.” His crying intensified. “I can’t live there and keep my hands off you. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I wanted to tell you a thousand times, but I knew I would loose my best friend.”

I wrapped him in my arms. “Ethan, since Thanksgiving, all my fantasies have been about you. I think it was a week before Christmas that I finally admitted to myself that I was in love with you. Since I thought you were straight, I had to try to curb my feelings for you. I hate that we found out about our feelings this way, but I am sure glad that we finally did.”

“No shit?” He kissed me and then backed off to look in my eyes. “Damn, I never dreamed that you might be gay too. I knew you were married twice. I wanted to stay away, but I just couldn’t.”

“I never considered that you might be gay and even if you were, I couldn’t imagine you wanting to be with some old fart like me.”

“You might be older than I am, but I enjoy ever second we spend together. You are the only person I have felt totally at ease with. I fell in love with you that day at the park. You lifted my spirits when I was very down.”

“Let’s talk later. Right now I want to kiss and hold you. We have plenty of time for talking.” He didn’t answer; he just pulled me into the most passionate kiss I have ever felt. He was hard as a rock and I was too. We were struggling with each other’s clothes and kissing for all we were worth. We finally parted so that we could get out of our clothes quicker. He felt so perfect in my arms. I had dreamed of all sorts of ways to pleasure his body, but at this instant, I couldn’t wait. I just had to have his cock in my mouth. We were rolling on the carpet and I managed to get his hard cock into my mouth. It felt much better than all my fantasies combined.

I tried to hold him still, but he managed to move around so that he could take my cock in his mouth too. All I could do was moan around his beautiful cock. We were both nearing climax when I eased my spit slick finger into his hot hole. As soon as he felt me doing this, he was doing the same to me. We both exploded into gut wrenching orgasm when we stroked each other’s prostrate for the first time.

Once we managed to get a little strength back, I said. “That was even more powerful and better than my wildest and best fantasy.”

“You can say that again. I love you Jim Carter.”

“I love you too Ethan James. Now, let’s get dressed and go home. We can finish packing tomorrow. Just bring enough for work in the morning. I would call in sick tomorrow to spend all day naked with my new lover, but I know you can’t just yet.”

“That’s true, but we have finally found each other, we will have plenty of time to spend naked in bed.”

We gathered up what he needed for tomorrow and a few things that were already packed and loaded them into the truck. After we ate and got ready for bed he asked about my family and I told him my story. He comforted me and I asked about his.

“A couple of weeks after my fourteenth birthday, my best friend and I discovered the joys of mutual masturbation and oral sex. We didn’t get to enjoy this pleasure but for a week. We got caught by my mother and she went crazy. My father beat me with a belt and they threw me out of the house and told me never to return. I didn’t go to school the next day and got caught for truancy. When the officer called my father and he told him that as far as he was concerned I didn’t exist, he took me to children’s services. The social worker that got my case was really pissed. He filled charges against my parents and had them locked up for a day. They were given the option of providing clothes, food, shelter and paying for my schooling or three thousand dollars a month for the state to take care of me. They took me back into the house, but never talked to me. They would leave notes telling me what to eat and leaving money for my school stuff. The social worked came by at least once a month to make sure they were feeding me. He made them buy even more clothes than they used too before the learned I was a dirty faggot as they usually called me. When I turned fifteen and got a job at Burger Barn, Dan, the social worker set up an account that my check could be deposited into and me nor my parents could get to until I turned eighteen. He was making sure I could live once they no longer had to take care of me. I got a small stipend every month that I could use anyway I wanted. It was very lonely, but I did have a place to live and food even if I didn’t get to eat with anyone else. I had a couple of boyfriends in high school, but they were mostly just mutual sex.”

I kissed him tenderly. “I am sorry, you had to endure that much pain, but you have turned into a wonderful person in spite of such cruelty.”

“I guess we won’t have to worry about going to either of our relatives for holidays, but at least now we have each other.”

“And Buck, we have our own little family. The good news is we are a happy and loving family.”

“I am very happy. More so, than I can ever remember being. I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” We went to sleep knowing that we had fulfilled each other’s need for family and love. What more can anyone ask for?

THE END