Re-birth - 12. Chapter 12

As we walked to our cars, James mentioned that he and Donna had dinner plans and suggested that Scott and I enjoy dinner somewhere nice since we were already dressed for it. After debating where to go, we settled on an Italian place downtown. While driving there, we discussed how we would explain everything happening to our friends. While I wouldn’t say I liked keeping secrets from my closest friends, I was concerned about how things might change once they discovered the scope of what was involved.

“It’s simple, Greg. They don’t need all the details; just tell them we’re helping Dad with his business.”

“But that’s not true. He’s helping us; GSE is us, and they’ll see that the minute they see the name. Giving them half-truths will just make them resent me.”

“Not if you use the phrase ‘without going into details’. That lets you tell them what they need to know. If they want more, they can ask. Everyone has secrets, Greg, get used to that.”

As I was parking in front of Luigi’s, my phone rang. I sighed and showed the screen to Scott before I answered. I spent the next twenty minutes convincing Jake that I would tell him everything on Saturday. He kept throwing out theories about why I met with his dad; things like Scott and I were building a house, we wanted jobs, James wanted David to remodel the car dealership, and even James was buying out Don. I had to choose my words carefully, but I denied his theories and finally convinced him to wait until Saturday.

After hanging up the phone, we got out of the car to go inside. Scott started to grab the files, but I told him I'd had enough business for the day and asked him to leave them behind. Grinning, he placed the files back on the seat before we walked inside.

We were quickly seated, and after ordering, Scott asked, “I know you’re taking those two classes online this fall, but have you thought about taking more? I’m adding one more to my schedule, so that will give me 15 hours this semester.”

“More?” I exclaimed. “Don’t you think we’ll be busy enough with GSE, high school, and wrestling?” Then his words registered, and I asked, “You’re going to take fifteen hours of college classes along with your classes at school? Are you insane?”

Scott blushed as he explained, “I’ve been taking online classes through Harvard Business for a year. I already have my high school diploma, but Mom and Dad thought the socialization of a regular high school would be good for me. We agreed that I’d come in as a junior, putting me with others my age.”

I stared at him for a moment before asking, “You’re a student at Harvard? What other things are you keeping from me?”

Scott looked down at the table, thinking. When he looked up, he sighed and said, “Like I said when we were talking about telling the guys, sometimes, someone doesn’t need all the details, at least not all at once. I didn’t tell you about Dad’s money because I didn’t want it to be an issue between us. I’ve never dated, but I’ve read stories about how it can affect relationships. I didn’t want that.”

“Scott, I would want to be with you if we were homeless and begging. I don’t care about the money.”

“I know that Greg, I just… I’m sorry, I should have told you. And I’m really sorry that I’ve lied, telling you and your dad about a fake future.”

I glanced around to make sure no one could see us, then reached across the table and put my hand on top of his. “No, hon, I understand, and I’m not upset. I was actually joking when I asked about secrets.” I grinned and added, “So you’re a Harvard sophomore, huh? I like that I’m dating a college man. Does this mean you’ll help me with my homework?”

Scott laughed so loud it made me pull my hand away and look around to make sure we were still unobserved. Neither of us needed the grief that would come with the world knowing about us. His laughing slowed until, smirking, he said, “No, I’m not doing your homework, you silly high school boy.” We both laughed at that and were still laughing when the server brought our food.

The conversation paused because we were both teenage boys who had food in front of us. Our plates were half empty before Scott said, “Honestly, Greg, I think you could handle twelve hours. I’ll help you with anything you need.”

I shook my head, saying, “If you help me, I’m not learning it.”

“I didn’t say I would do it for you, I’ll just help you if there are things that you’re not quite getting. Like a study group or something.”

I thought for a few minutes as we continued to eat. “I’ll look into it. I’m already taking two classes online through WVU*, but I don’t know if they’ll let me take a full load before I graduate high school.”

“If they let you take two, you’re probably already considered a freshman. You should call your advisor tomorrow and find out.”

Pulling out my phone, I said, “I’ll do better than that. I’ll email her right now. Sometimes, she checks it in the evenings.” I quickly sent an email explaining that I wanted to take more classes to get the basic freshman requirements out of the way, asking for her assistance and input.

When I put my phone down, I smirked and asked, “Other than being rich, extremely smart, and a nudist, what other secrets are you keeping? Is your dad in the mob? Witness protection? Are you aliens?”

Scott stared at me, chewing on his lower lip as he considered me. After what felt like forever, he said, “There is one more major thing, well, two really, but they’re related.” He looked around, then said, “I can’t go into it here, but I think it’s time you know everything. Can you wait until tonight? When we’re alone? If Jake can wait until Saturday, surely you can wait a few hours,” he finished with a smirk.

I glanced around again, then took his hand and said, “I already know everything I need to know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Whatever this secret is, I don’t care. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. My biggest worry is that you think I’m rushing into things with you. I mean, we’ve only known each other a few weeks.”

“When we first met, I knew that you were the one destined to be mine, Greg. The fact that some might say we’re rushing things is their problem, not ours. I’m just happy that you feel the same; otherwise, I might have spent the next few years chasing you.”

We hadn’t noticed the server approaching, and when she asked if we wanted dessert, I quickly pulled my hand away from Scott’s. Her approving smile made me feel a bit better, but we still didn’t need to be so obvious in public. She returned with our cake, which we all but inhaled.

My phone pinged with an email as we were getting in my car. On checking, I found it was a reply from my advisor at West Virginia University, letting me know that she would support my taking more classes if I honestly thought I could handle the extra work. She mentioned the date for withdrawal, saying if the work was too much, I had the option to drop some of the classes before that date with no penalty to my record. After a short conversation with Scott, I sent a reply, asking her to register me for an American literature class and a sociology class in addition to the two I was already registered for: statistics and introduction to business.

While I was writing my reply, Scott was typing on his phone as well. On the drive home, I asked him what he had been doing, and he explained. “I emailed my advisor to see if I should change some classes. With my role at GSE, well, what I think my role will be, investing won’t be my focus. I think I’ll still have the same classes this semester; it’s all basically finance for the first two years anyway.”

“I don’t want you giving up what you enjoy just for me. You wanted to be a financial advisor,” I argued.

“I wanted, and still want, to spend my life with you, and I like working with numbers. When I imagined myself managing our finances, I thought it would be mostly stocks. What I’m going to do with you at GSE is basically the same, just more hands-on.” Scott smirked as he rubbed my leg and added, “And I really enjoy being hands-on with you.”

I grabbed his hand and moved it to the console. I held onto it as I said, “As much as I love being hands-on with you, I need to focus on driving. I really don’t want to have to explain to a cop why we ran off the road.”

Scott giggled as he said, “Sorry, officer, it suddenly got hard to pay attention.”

I rolled my eyes, but he quickly came up with another one. Then I thought of one, and the jokes continued and, sadly, got worse until we were pulling into my garage. After putting the car in park, I quickly reached over and grabbed his crotch. Leering at him, I asked, “Now, what was that you were saying about hands-on?”

Before I could react, he leaned across the console and gave me a quick kiss. As he was distracting me with the kiss, he opened his door and bolted from the car, calling over his shoulder as he ran through the door, “I’ll be in your room if you want to continue discussing hard topics.”

I took the stairs two at a time, and when I walked into my room, Scott was lying on his back on my bed, wearing a skimpy pair of pale blue briefs. The bulge in the front and the accompanying wet spot, told me that I wasn’t the only one who was excited. I tossed my jacket onto the dresser where his clothes were piled and started to loosen my tie when he shook his head.

“Nope. Go slow, I want to enjoy this,” he said as he licked his lips.

Grinning, I let my tie fall back to my chest and took my time untying it, folding it, and placing it on my jacket. Each time I undid a button on my shirt, I paused and ran a hand over my chest or abdomen, dipping my fingers into my pants slowly before undoing the last button. When I pulled my belt out of the loops, I looked at it, then at him.

“You’re being a bad boy; maybe I should keep this handy,” I said as I set it on the dresser.

The reaction on his face said he wasn’t sure about the idea, but I saw the bulge in his briefs pulse, and the wet spot grew, so I knew we might explore that another time. Kicking my shoes off, I undid my trousers and slowly brought them just below my hips, paused, then pulled them back up, looking at him like I wasn’t sure I was interested. I then turned around and slowly slid them down, exposing my butt, running one hand over a cheek while looking at him over my shoulder.

My pants slipped from my hand and fell to my ankles, and when I reached to catch them, I stumbled and fell to the floor, feeling like an idiot. Scott burst out laughing as he scrambled to the edge of the bed to ask if I was hurt.

“Just my pride,” I said as I sat on the floor, removing my pants and socks.

In just my boxer briefs, I stood, and Scott looked up at the bulge directly in front of his face. Looking up at me, he said, “Do we want to cross this line?”

As my eyes roamed over his almost naked body, my little brain said yes. It screamed at me that it wanted to cross all lines and share everything with Scott right now. To emphasize how it felt, it stretched and pulsed, creating my own wet spot. My big brain had other ideas, though.

“We have the rest of our lives to cross that line and others. With how fast things are moving, I want to wait. Not much longer for this line, but for the final one, I want that to be on our wedding night. If I’m totally honest, it won’t take much of an argument from you to convince me otherwise, though.”

Scott got to his knees on the bed and put his arms around my neck. “I think we better keep the underwear on then cause I agree with you, totally.” Leaning back and pulling me down with him, he began to kiss me deeply, and soon we were rubbing our bodies together. When we were finished, we pulled our wet, sticky underwear off, tossed them into my laundry basket, and headed off to shower. Washing each other led to our hands taking over, and by the time our breathing had recovered, the water was running cold.

As we walked back into my room, Scott realized he had no clean underwear and only his suit to wear. I teased him about streaking home, and he glared at me as he pulled up his trousers, commando. I pulled on a fresh pair of boxer briefs, shorts, and a T-shirt while he buttoned up his shirt. Throwing his tie and jacket over his shoulder, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door, where he stopped and turned to face me.

“I promised I would tell you my last secret tonight, and I will. Maybe later, you’ll think I was being silly, but I want it to be special, so meet me at the old barn in fifteen minutes, OK? And bring a flashlight; I want to watch the sunset with you after I tell you.” He paused, looking terrified, then said, “Just promise that you won’t hate me. If you can’t accept it, I can deal with that, but I will die if you hate me for it.”

I gently grabbed his head and held it so he couldn’t look away from me as I said, “I could never hate you. How could you imagine that anything you tell me would change how I feel about you?”

Tears welled up in his eyes as he softly said, “Just… just promise me, OK?”

I gently kissed his lips, then pulled back to look him in the eyes as I said, “I promise.”

I watched as he walked slowly to his house; looking back twice with such a look of defeat. I wanted to run to him and tell him everything would be fine. I wanted to tell him that no matter what this big secret was, it wouldn’t change things between us. Then a small voice in my head said, ‘What if’. What if I did feel differently? What if there was some unknown issue that prevented us from being together? If that were the case, he never would have gotten involved with me, would he? The more I argued against this negative voice in my head, the louder it got. By the time I got to the barn, I was convinced that whatever this was, it was an insurmountable barrier and that Scotty and I were coming to an end.

As I walked through the open door, I was surprised to hear Scott call down from the loft, “I’m up here, come on up.” When I got to the top of the ladder, I found a blanket, two wine glasses, and a bottle of wine, all neatly arranged, creating a nice romantic getaway. He really must have hurried to put this together and beat me here.

Scott was in the corner, so I sat down closer to the edge and leaned against the wall. As I did, he handed me a glass of wine, saying, “Just a glass or two while we talk. I really like this one, and I hope you do too. My cousins own the vineyard.”

I glanced at the bottle and saw a label similar to the one James had brought to dinner. When I tasted it, I had to agree that they made some very good wines. Setting the glass down between my leg and the edge, I turned to Scott. He must have seen the doubts and fears in my eyes because his face fell, and he inhaled slowly through his nose, then blew it out and spoke.

“I’m still scared that you’re going to hate me. I can’t help it, but you have a right to know; you need to know. My family, we’re—”

“I promised you I’m not going to hate you, and I meant it. I can’t imagine anything making me hate you, Scott. I plan on spending the rest of my life with you, so whatever it is, just tell me.”

I picked up my glass and took another drink, watching him intently as I waited for him to speak. I set the glass back down but misjudged the location, and as I released my grip, I felt the glass falling. I quickly turned and lunged to catch the glass, actually catching it but losing my balance. The next thing I knew, I was suspended about three feet from the floor, staring at the dirt floor of the barn. Confused as to why I hadn’t hit the floor, I looked at my chest and saw that I was lying over the stall fence with a large board sticking into my chest.

I heard Scotty scream from above me; then, he was suddenly standing at my side, begging me not to die, telling me not to leave him like this. It hurt to inhale, but I forced myself to take a breath so I could say, “I love you, always.”

I must have passed out, either from the pain or the shock, and the next few minutes were a blur of disjointed, bizarre images. In one, I could feel myself being carried. I looked around to see the sun starting to set behind the trees that were flying by in a blur. When I looked to see who was carrying me, I saw Scotty’s face, but it wasn’t his face. He was extremely pale, and his ears were long and pointed, like an elf. The last thing I noticed before the dream ended was that his skin was blistering and smoking.

“He’s lost a lot of blood, Scott. He won’t make it to the hospital.”

“You’ve gotta save him, Dad.”

“I shouldn’t even try without his consent. And you know there are no guarantees. He might not make it through the change.”

I was barely aware of what was happening around me, but I recognized James’ voice as he argued with Scott. When I looked at my body in the barn, I knew I was probably going to die. The board had gone through my chest and had to have gone through a lung. I had thought it had gone through my heart, but the fact that I was alive made me discount that idea. Still, I realized that I was facing death. Scotty thought James could save me somehow. Thinking about spending an eternity without Scott felt wrong; it felt empty. Regardless of what it meant, if James could save me somehow, I wanted him to try.

I forced air into my remaining lung and groaned, “Do it.”

“It might not work, Greg. You still might die. If you survive, you’ll be—”

“There’s no time to explain, James, the boy is on death’s door, save our son’s mate, now!” I heard Donna say in a voice so firm it scared me.

“Alright.” I heard James say.

I felt him grab my head and pull it to the side. Wondering why he’d do that, I opened my eyes to see James, as pale as Scott had been, lowering his face to my neck. Just before his mouth touched me, I heard, “Pull the board out.”

I don’t remember any details after that, but I had several more very weird dreams. I was drinking something, and when I looked to see what it was, I found my lips were on James’ wrist, sucking like I was sucking the juice out of an orange. In my next dream, Donna was holding a cup to my lips, telling me I had to empty the cup, regardless of how bad it tasted. Even in my dreams, I understood that medicine tasted nasty, so I took the cup and downed it as fast as I could, shivering at the vile taste.

I had several more dreams of me sucking on James’ wrist, and during one, I glanced over to see Scott sitting in his mother’s lap, sucking on her arm in the same way. He was still very pale, his skin an odd shade of white with just a hint of bluish-green, and he still had pointed ears. Whatever drugs the hospital was giving me were really strong. I hoped I didn’t get addicted.

Between the weird dreams, I felt a sense of peace. I imagined that Scott was lying beside me, and I could almost feel his hand as it stroked my face. I could hear him saying that it would be alright. As he was saying this, I realized that I wasn’t dreaming; I was waking up. When I opened my eyes, I saw the most beautiful sight I could imagine: Scott’s amazing green eyes staring down at me.

“Welcome back,” he said with a smile. “I knew you’d survive it.”

From the other room, I heard James say, “No details yet, Scott. He still needs another twelve hours of feeding and rest.”

Without raising his voice, Scott replied, “OK, Dad, you know best, but he seems totally aware and awake.”

Glancing around, I realized that we were in Scott’s bed. I looked down at my bare chest and saw no sign of the board. I glanced at my arms and saw no IVs. I took a closer look at my chest and saw no stitches and no scar. I realized what had happened. This was all a weird dream. I looked at Scott and said, “Sorry, I guess I got drunk, huh? I’ve never blacked out before, but man, did I have some wild dreams.”

Seconds later, James and Donna came in, and Donna pulled Scott to her side as James knelt to examine me. After a moment, James and Donna exchanged an odd glance, and then James said, “Let me explain—”

“No! I never got to tell him, and it’s my place as his mate to explain. Please, Dad?” Scott all but shouted.

His parents exchanged another longer look, and then Donna said, “We’ll be downstairs if you need us, Scott.”

When we were alone, Scott sat on the edge of the bed facing me. He rubbed my arm, then reached up and gently caressed my face. I could see the same fears in his eyes as when we were in the loft. I couldn’t let him worry.

“So that’s what happened, right? I got drunk, and you had to walk me back here to sober up?” when he didn’t reply, I added, “I had some really wild dreams while I was out.”

Caressing my face, Scott said, “They weren’t dreams, Greg.”

“But… if it wasn’t a dream, where’s the scar? Why am I here and not in a hospital? And how did I not die? Scott, in my dreams, I had a huge board sticking through my chest; I should have died.”

“You did die, Greg.”

I stared at Scott for an eternity, trying to understand what he meant. An idea hit me, “So, at some point, my heart stopped? But where’s the stitches? Where’s the scar? Why am I here and not in a hospital?”

“Just shut up and listen, OK? I’ll answer all your questions eventually, but right now, you need to calm down and listen. For me, the most important part of all of this is that you’re here, you’re alive, and you’re with me, for now.”

I scowled. “Don’t say that ‘for now’ stuff—”

Scott put his finger to my lips and commanded, “I said listen.” I nodded, and he went on, “My family is… different, Greg. We’re not like you. Mom and Dad came to the US before the war, and Grandad came here after World War Two. I have a cousin in London and a few still in our hometown in Germany.”

So his family wasn’t originally from here; how did this have anything to do with my weird dreams?

“I guess I’m wandering a little, huh?” I nodded. “It’s just that I’ve never told a soul what I have to tell you, and last night just… well, it really complicated things. I had imagined that I’d tell you, and you’d accept it, and we would have years before you had to decide. I would have been happy if you decided against it, I really would have. One lifetime with you would be enough.”

I narrowed my eyes, but his finger was still on my lips, and I didn’t want to interrupt his thoughts, so I stayed quiet and listened.

He moved his hand from my lips to my cheek as he said, “I can’t be sure what dreams you may have had, but I will say that several things that you remember are not dreams. You did fall at the barn, and that board did impale you through your right lung. You passed out. I knew you were going to die there if I didn’t do something, so I broke the board off and carried you home.

“Thank the gods no one saw me, but you’re worth the risk, at least to me, you are. Dad and I were arguing, but you must have been semi-conscious because you interrupted us and told him to do it, so he did.”

He was silent for a minute, so I asked, “He did what?”

“He changed you, Greg. It saved your life.”

All the images I had thought were dreams were swimming around in my mind with no organization. Just random scenes, really, but slowly, they began to fall into an order, a series that made sense. I knew what he was going to say, but my stunned mind needed confirmation.

“Changed me into what?”

Scott looked deep into my eyes as he said, “Into what I am, Greg.”

I should have been scared, but this was Scott. My Scotty, and we were together. A peace settled over me as I asked, “And what are you, Scotty?”

Scott took a deep breath and said, “A vampire.”