Another Lifetime - 1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Sometimes I just get the feeling that Ethan doesn’t really love me,” Leopold “Leo” Scott said to his long time friend and confidant Kyle Omara. They were sitting in the local coffee shop in their average town, Leo sipping on a strawberry ice cream drink, Kyle with his usual espresso.

Leo’s doubts about his boyfriend’s fidelity had been gnawing at him, so much so that he needed to get out and talk about them to someone. That someone had always been Kyle. Ever since they’d come out to each other two years ago, just before entering their eighth grade school year, they’d been nearly inseparable.

“Why would you say that? I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Kyle said. In reality, Kyle only said that because he was trying to make Leo feel better. He’d had doubt’s about Ethan as well, but always refrained from saying so. He hated to see Leo hurt, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be the one causing it.

“Sure, he looks at me like I’m a delicious steak and he’s been on an island starving to death,” Leo said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “But that’s when he’s horny. Any other time it’s like I’m an annoyance to him.”

Kyle gave Leo a look of sympathy, but what he wanted more than anything else in the world was to reach across the table and hug him. What Leo didn’t know, was that Kyle had been madly in love with him for years. Ever since they first met.

When Kyle had finally worked up the nerve to come out to Leo, he had a fairly good idea that he would take it well. He was still more nervous than he’d ever been in his entire life, but he was fairly confident that Leo would still be his friend. But when Leo said he was too, Kyle’s heart nearly stopped. He was just about to confess that he was in love with Leo, when Leo inadvertently crushed his dreams.

Leo told him that he had a huge crush on Ethan Hartman, a sophomore, and already a hugely muscular football jock. Something Kyle, most definitely was not. At five foot four inches, and a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet, Kyle was anything but the man of Leo’s dreams. Kyle’s brother was a full three years younger than he was, and he could take Kyle in a wrestling match.

Seeing the funny look in Kyle’s eye, Leo said, “What? Is there something you aren't telling me?”

Kyle swallowed hard involuntarily. Leo noticed it immediately, and intensified his stare.

“N-no,” Kyle stuttered in response. If anything was a dead give away that Kyle was lying, it would be his stuttering.

“Come on Kyle, you’re a horrible liar and you know it,” he said. “Out with it.”

Kyle was nearly in a panic now. What should he say? He couldn’t very well just come out and tell him he’d been thinking about how sexy Leo looked in the soft lighting of the little coffee shop.

“I…I just was thinking a lot of the same things,” Kyle said. It was true, but not the whole truth. “I’d noticed Ethan acting strange too, but didn’t want to hurt you. I know how much he means to you.”

Leo’s eyes misted over, the cool blue turning to a muted gray.

“Yeah, I love him a lot,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “He’s my first, and if I’m lucky, he’ll be my only love.”

Kyle doubted that. Leo was too much of a sweetheart to be used by a scumbag like Ethan for too long.

“I’ll ask him about it tonight,” Leo said with a new resolve in his voice. “I’m sure it’s just stress from the upcoming game.”

Kyle was doubtful. After all, Kyle had noticed these signs in Ethan from day one. Kyle knew Leo was fooling himself, but knew better than to say so. When Leo put his mind to something, everything caught in his path had better watch out. But sometimes, his naive nature got the best of him.

A sudden look of pain shot across Leo’s features. He wrapped his arms around his stomach.

“Are you alright?” Kyle asked, alarmed.

“I think so, my stomach just started hurting all of a sudden.”

“You need me to take you home?” Kyle asked.

“No, I think I’m gonna be okay,” Leo answered. “It’s passed.”

Kyle nodded his assent, but looked at Leo warily. “Maybe you need some real food, not just some crappy ice cream thing,” Kyle said with a smirk.

“But I’m working so hard to keep my girlish figure!” Leo exclaimed.

Leo was taller than Kyle, being nearly six foot. But he had the same slender build that Kyle did, at times making him look girlish. If he had long hair, he could easily have been mistaken for a girl. Even his facial features were soft, not at all masculine.

Leo grimaced again, but it passed quickly and he attempted to cover it up by questioning Kyle.

“So, got anyone on the radar, Mr Abstinence Virgin-pants?” he asked.

“Well…there’s a few guys I think are cute, but not much more than that,” Kyle said, surprising himself that he didn’t stutter his way through it.

“Come on, you’ve got to have a crush on someone!” Leo said melodramatically. “It’s not healthy not to!”

“W-well…there’s this one guy…” Kyle started, and Leo leaned forward eagerly, as if expecting to be let in on all the gory details. “But it wouldn’t work out.”

Leo looked like he was about to object, so Kyle said, “You know how it goes,” and gave him a wink.

“Oh,” Leo said, with a grin. “Doesn’t it suck when that happens? Straight boys definitely shouldn’t be allowed to be cute.”

Leo paused for a minute, and said, “He is straight, right?”

Kyle blushed, and muttered, “He’s something…”

“Aww, well he’s an idiot for not falling head over heals for you,” Leo said matter-of-factly.

Kyle gave a half hearted smile that Leo wrote off as him being depressed about being in love with a straight guy. He was half right.

Another look of pain crossed Leo’s face, and finally, he said, “I think I’m going to take you up on that offer.”

“You ready to go home?” Kyle asked, but knew the answer.

“Just drop me off at Ethan’s.”

* * * * *

Ethan Hartman wasn’t drunk, but he was well on his way. He crushed a beer can, and threw it toward the container in the corner. It didn’t make it, hitting the wall and clattering to the floor. A few drops of leftover beer had splashed out of it onto the wall. He reached over and turned up the volume on the football game.

Ethan lived in the guest house in back of his mother’s large house. His mother was a doctor, and wasn’t home very often. She trusted Ethan’s judgment, and he used that to the fullest extent.

Ethan wasn’t anything close to the good boy his mother thought he was. He was manipulative, arrogant, and heartless, and worst of all he knew it. He didn’t care. He lacked anything resembling a conscience.

You wouldn’t be able to tell any of this from looking at him. Ethan had mastered the art of disguising his true nature, and it would take a real expert to be able to see it.

Ethan had taken a psychiatric test when he was younger, after an incident that took place after a football game where he lost control. He had lashed out violently at another player in front of the school, and the principal had seen it.

Ethan’s test results were inconclusive, because he was so all over the map. The psychiatrist who’d administered the test had never seen results like it, and recommended that he take another. Ethan went to another psychiatrist for it. On the second test, Ethan answered it the way he thought would make him look good, and fooled the doctor, which allowed him to continue playing football. It probably also had a lot to do with the fact that he was one of the team’s star players, and they needed him in order to keep winning.

The sound of the front door opening was loud, even over the sound of the football game. He didn’t even look up as Leo walked in the room.

“Hey baby, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Leo said with a smile. It pissed Ethan off. He was getting sick of having to deal with Leo’s shit, and it seemed as if it was going to be a long night of it.

“Did you hear me babe?” Leo asked again.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, not taking his eyes off the game.

“I’ve been getting the feeling lately that there’s something bothering you,” He began. Leo thought he saw Ethan roll his eyes slightly, but couldn’t be sure. He decided he must have been imagining it.

“Sometimes I just get the feeling that you don’t feel as strongly for me, as I do for you,” Leo said. Ethan sighed, and muted the TV. Having to miss part of the game pissed him off royally, but he took great care not to let it show.

“Leo babe, you know I love you,” he said. Leo gave a shy smile, brightening his features. “We’ve been together for two years, you know me better than anyone.”

That wasn’t true. No one really knew Ethan. Not his boyfriend Leo, or his girlfriend Renée. Not his mother, who was never around anyway. No, no one really knew Ethan’s true nature.

“Let me show you how much I love you,” Ethan said, and kissed Leo as well as he knew how. It left Leo’s head spinning, even though he could taste the beer on Ethan’s breath.

They pulled apart, and Ethan looked deep into Leo’s eyes.

“Does that put you at ease?” he asked.

Leo smiled, and said, “Yeah. I knew I must have been imagining it all.”

Ethan reached down, and lovingly caressed Leo’s crotch. He cooed in response, and pushed his rigid hardness into Ethan’s hand.

Then another look of pain crossed Leo’s face, and he had to suppress the urge to throw up.

“Oh…ugh, babe, I don’t feel so well,” Leo told him. “I think I’m gonna go lay down.”

Figures, Ethan thought to himself. Now he doesn’t even wanna put out. What the fuck.

“Alright, sweetie, sleep well,” Ethan said with a convincing smile.

As Leo left the room, his hips swaying seductively as he went, Ethan slammed another beer and turned the volume on the game back on. The fucking tease.

The home team threw another interception, and Ethan’s angry mood darkened even more. He had a hundred dollars riding on this game, and now it looks as if the team he had chosen was going to lose.

Typical, he thought to himself.

* * * * *

After a while, Leo’s stomach had calmed down enough for him to lay in bed in a reasonable amount of comfort, naked in the soft sheets. He buried his face in the pillow, inhaling the scent of him and his lover, and something else, like the scent of lilac or jasmine. Something girly, which didn’t fit with Ethan at all. It should have clued Leo in, but he dismissed it, thinking it must have been the fabric softener Ethan’s mother used. Finally he drifted off to sleep.

Leo awakened when Ethan crawled into bed next to him. He smiled, still feeling sleepy. He closed his eyes and attempted to go back to sleep.

His eyes snapped open at the sudden pressure of Ethan’s hard cock on Leo’s asshole.

“Ah…not tonight babe, I still don’t feel well,” Leo said. The pressure increased, causing Leo to gasp in pain. Ethan’s cock wasn’t even lubed, so it was starting to hurt.

Leo pulled away, and said a little angrily, “Babe, I said not tonight! I really don’t feel well!”

“Damnit, you little bitch!” Ethan slurred, his voice cold with fury. “You come in here accusing me of shit, and now you won’t put out. What the fuck? Haven't I been good to you?”

Half of that was hard to understand, but Leo got the gist of it.

“You’re drunk, Ethan,” Leo said calmly. He pulled sat up and pulled the covers up to his chin.

“Let’s just go to bed.”

In the dark, Leo didn’t see, let alone have time to react to the fist that shot out toward his face. Or the three that followed it.

“Nnngh!” Leo made a strangled sound, and tried to scramble away from Ethan. He fell off the bet, skinning his knee. Blood poured down from his nose, and he stared at Ethan in wide-eyed shock.

“I’m sick of all your shit,” Ethan screamed at him. “You think I love you? You’re a good screw, that’s all!” in his drunken stupor, Ethan was admitting more than he would have liked. Normally he was calm and collected, but in this state his true nature was beginning to shine through.

Leo continued to stare at Ethan in shock. Tears poured out of his eyes in tiny streams, and joined the rushing river of blood from his nose. He couldn’t move. He was petrified.

Ethan got to his unsteady feet, and lumbered over to Leo. He grabbed Leo by the hair, and threw him screaming to the bed again. His fists rained down on every inch of Leo’s exposed skin as he could reach, and after a long while, Leo’s screams died down to the occasional sob, or a gurgling intake of breath.

Leo’s last thought was of his best friend Kyle’s face, smiling down on him. He felt the bed sag as Ethan climbed onto it, was vaguely aware of weight on his back, and then his vision faded into the sea of darkness.