It's Not Easy Being a Tree - 20. Chapter 20

Lucas kissed me! As I followed him down the narrow hall to the kitchen, I put my hand to my lips. The lips that Lucas had just put his lips on.

It was so quick, I’m not even sure he meant to do it. Nevertheless, Lucas did kiss me. It must have meant something. It wasn’t just a kiss- was it? It couldn’t have been one of those your grandmother gives you at Christmas. He must have felt something- right?

After all, isn’t that what a kiss is? I mean, if you think about it, it is just someone putting a part of their body against yours. He could just have easily pressed his finger to mine to show me he liked me- right? But Lucas Sparks kissed me. And now as I trail behind him, looking at his blonde mane that touches the collar of his shirt, I can’t help but feel that something happened.

Something special.

It wasn’t sexual, either. If it had been Connor, I would probably have stripped him naked and taken his big cock all the way down to his pubic hairs. But with Lucas it was different. Even now as I let my eyes wander down his body, I don’t feel that usual tingle just before my dick starts to harden.

“Wait!” I had to know. I pulled him into the small bathroom on the right and closed the door. He gave me a curious look as I leaned in and kissed him. He tentatively put his arms around me and held me gently as we kissed more passionately. Then the tingle.

I pulled away and looked into his sparkling blue eyes. “Wow!” I said astonishingly.

“Yeah,” he smiled. “Wow!” We leaned our heads to the side and kissed again. Stronger. More passionately.

“Boys!” His mother hollered out from the kitchen. “Where are you?” Lucas kissed me again before opening the door and stepping out. He extended his hand to mine and we held hands as we entered the kitchen. His mother looked down, smiled, but said nothing.

“I opened a can of spaghetti.” She placed a bowl before us. She looked warmly at me and smiled. “I’m sorry it’s not homemade, but it is rather late.” I looked at the clock. It was after seven.

“Mom makes the best spaghetti,” remarked Lucas as he shoveled a forkful into his mouth.

“You’ll have to invite him to dinner sometime,” suggested his mother as she walked to the sink and dried some dishes.

After we ate, Lucas looked nervously at me. He then turned to his mother and said in a serious tone, “Mom, can we talk?” She put down her towel and sat at the table.

“Perhaps, I should go,” I remarked as I started to get up. I knew what he was going to tell her. It wasn’t like it was when he told his father. He had to tell him what was going on. Telling his mother, though, would be more personal- and heart-wrenching.

He reached down and took my hand. “Please, stay,” he said pleadingly. “I feel stronger when you’re with me.” I nodded and looked over at the worried look on his mother’s face.

He then related his story to her. Unlike his father who had remained quiet, she cried most of the time. She moved her chair next to him and held him as he tearfully told her how he had to silently endure Mr. Dewberry’s sexual advances. Not once did he release the tight grip he had on my hand.

When he finished, the three of us were emotionally drained. Lucas and his mother had cried often, and I had fought back tears several times. It was especially difficult to listen to him relate again how Mr. Dewberry had taken his virginity when he was fourteen. It had happened one night during summer camp when Mr. Dewberry had Lucas spend the night with him as he so often did. Lucas broke down when he told how he had left his cottage afterwards in search of rope. If he had found some that night, he said he would have hung himself from a tree.

“That horrible man!” exclaimed his mother. “I hope your father goes to the police. They should lock him in jail and throw away the key.” She got up and fixed us a cup of hot chocolate. It had been years since I had drunk some. It tasted even better when she dropped some small marshmallows in it.

After sitting down across from us, she looked at me and asked, “Has he done the same to you?”

“No, Ma’am,” I answered. “But he wants to.”

“I see,” she replied as she studied me. She kept looking back and forth between her son and me.

Just then, Pastor Sparks entered. He looked tired. His tie had been loosened and his hair was unkempt. He shook his head and sat down at the table with us.

He looked over at Lucas. “Did you talk with your mother?” Lucas nodded his head.

My voice began to quiver when I asked, “Did you talk to Dad and Mom?” He looked worriedly at Lucas, then over at me.

“Yes,” he replied. I waited for him to say more, but he got up from the table, went over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of gin. He turned to me as he poured some into a small glass and said, “I know you think I’m an alcoholic, but I’m not.” He attempted a grin as he sat down. “Today’s been particularly stressful.” He peered over at Lucas.

I had been waiting anxiously for him to tell me how my parents had reacted to the news. “So?” I finally asked. “What happened?”

He started to stand. “Perhaps we should discuss this alone in the living room.”

“No,” I insisted. He looked down when Lucas reached over and took my hand. “You can tell me here.”

“You sure?” I nodded my head. “Very well then.”

I held my breath as he took another swig from the glass. Finally, he sat back. “I don’t have to tell you that they didn’t take all this very well.” Tears welled up in my eyes.

“They don’t want me to come home?” Lucas gripped my hand tightly.

“No,” smiled Pastor Sparks. “I didn’t say that.” He cleared his throat and took another drink. “It’s just that something like this was quite a shock to them. It was hard enough to tell them that one of their sons is gay.” He took another sip. “But to try and explain to them what you’d been doing on the internet and the trouble it was causing was even more difficult for them.” Lucas’s mother glanced quickly at me but said nothing. I looked worriedly at Lucas. I was afraid once she found out, she might not let me see her son anymore.

“So, what’s going to happen?”

“They wanted you to come home tonight,” he explained, “but I convinced them to let you spend the night here.” I nodded my head. In a way I was glad I didn’t have to face my parents right away. Pastor Sparks still hadn’t really told me what they had actually said.

He leaned forward. “As I told you at the church, tomorrow is going to be very difficult. You will have to give a sworn statement to Detective Davis at nine in the morning. You’re going to have to tell her everything.” He then asked, “You haven’t called anyone, have you?”

“No, Dad,” replied Lucas. “We’ve been talking to Mom since we got home.”

“Good,” responded his father. He looked up at the clock on the wall. “I think you boys should get ready for bed. Lucas, go out into the garage and get that air mattress we bought last year when your cousin visited. Woody can sleep on it in your room.” Lucas nodded, got up and opened the door to the garage.

When he left, Pastor Sparks leaned toward me and said softly, “Woody, I want you to help Lucas get through this.” I nodded my head. “He’s led a rather sheltered life. His mother has home schooled him since he was little.

“I know, Sir,” I replied. “He told us.”

His mother reached over and grabbed my arm. “He’s not very strong. He’s going to need your help.”

I started to laugh but stopped. “I’m not the strongest person in the world.”

“Yes you are, Dear,” she smiled warmly. Just then, Lucas entered carrying a deflated mattress.

“Ready?” I nodded my head, and after saying goodnight to his parents, I followed him down the hall to his bedroom.

Both of us kept glancing at each other as we prepared my bed. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but I was still remembering our earlier kiss. A few times, we would bump into each other as we moved around the small room. Once when he bent over to put the sheet on the mattress, I ‘accidentally’ pressed my dick against him. When he stood, his face reddened as he smiled at me.

“We only have one bath,” he announced after we had finished. He was sitting on his bed, and I had thrown myself across the air mattress. “You can take your shower first, if you’d like.” He stood and opened a dresser. He held up a tee shirt and looked over at me. “This should fit you. You’re awfully small.”

His smile disappeared when I sadly replied, “Thanks a lot.”

“No,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. I think your body is cute.” His cheeks reddened when he realized what he had said. He turned and rummaged through his dresser again, this time pulling out a pair of athletic shorts. He held them up and then handed them to me.

“My body, cute?” I looked down at my skinny features. “You must need glasses,” I giggled.

He rolled his eyes and said, “Go take your shower.” I followed him out of the room and down the hall. When we entered the bathroom, he got a clean towel and washrag from under the bathroom sink.

When I pulled my shirt over my body, he stood and stared at my tiny, pink nipples. I laughed and covered my scrawny chest with my shirt. “Do you mind?” He raised his head and stared into my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized embarrassedly.

“It’s okay,” I replied as I removed my shirt, once again exposing my bare chest. A few weeks earlier I would never have considered showing my thin body to another boy. However, since I had now had sex with Jeff and Connor, I felt a little more comfortable doing so. Neither of them seemed to have had a problem looking at me naked.

I grinned mischievously. “You wanna watch me take my pants off too?” I laughed uproariously as he stammered out a nervous “No!” He then left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

When I finished, he was sitting on his bed in a blue bathrobe pulled tightly around him. “Aw, shucks,” I joked. “Did I miss the show?”

His face reddened as he stood, pulled the robe tighter around him and said, “It will cost you.”

As he left the room, I laughed and shouted, “How much?”

He returned about ten minutes later. I was hoping he would remove his robe and let me see his body, but he appeared really shy. He slipped his underwear and pajama bottoms on, and then he removed his robe and quickly slipped a tee shirt over his head. All I saw was his smooth back.

He climbed into his bed, rolling over to face me. “Are you scared about tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I replied as I lay down on the air mattress and pulled the cover over my body. “Scared shitless.”

He giggled, “I’m scared shitless, too.” We lay down on our beds and faced each other. We talked about what would happen in the next few days. Both of us agreed, however, that it wouldn’t be good.

“I’m afraid of what could happen at school,” I said worriedly. “What if someone decides they don’t like gays and wants to beat me up?”

“That wouldn’t happen, would it?” He had a scared look on his face.

“They will when I get the most popular teacher at school arrested.”

Lucas asked as he rose up on his elbow, “How will they know it was you?”

“It was my picture that Brandon sent out,” I explained. “People will know I had something to do with it.”

“What about me?”

“No one will know,” I said. “I won’t tell anyone about you.”

Lucas shook his head. “That doesn’t seem fair,” he replied.

I smiled as tears filled his eyes. “I don’t want to see you get hurt,” I said.

He rolled over on his other side, turning away from me. I heard him sniffling softly. I got up, turned out the light and crawled back into my makeshift bed. I tossed and turned for about a half hour. I could tell that Lucas was also having trouble falling asleep. Suddenly, I heard his covers rustle above me. Seconds later, he lifted my covers, lay down beside me and wrapped his arm around me.

“Is this okay with you?” he whispered softly.

“Yeah,” I replied as I grabbed his arm and held it tightly.

“I sometimes can fall asleep faster if I sing.” He then very quietly began singing, “Five thousand, six hundred, twenty-five minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?” I wrapped his arm tighter around me.

“In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee? In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife?” I fell asleep when he started humming the chorus.

When I awoke the next morning, Lucas was no longer beside me. I rolled over to see him smiling down at me from atop his bed. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” I replied as I stretched out. “I was a little boy the last time someone sang me to sleep.” I looked up as his face reddened. “Thanks.”

He pulled back his covers and stood. I immediately noticed the small bulge in his pajama bottoms. I was going to make a joke about popping ‘morning wood,’ but I knew him well enough to know it would embarrass him. He pressed it with his hand against his body as he let the room.

I was pulling on my pants when he came back in. He watched intently as I arranged my semi-hard cock into my pants. I had begun to harden when I had noticed his erection poking through his pajamas. He started to blush when he looked up into my face. He knew I had caught him staring at me.

“We’d better go get breakfast,” he stammered as he put on his robe. He reached inside and rearranged his hardening cock before we left the room.

His mother and father were already sitting at the table when we entered. Pastor Sparks was reading the sports section of the paper while Mrs. Sparks read the front page. She smiled as we sat down. “Sleep well?” We both nodded our heads. She then got up and prepared us a bowl of cereal.

Pastor sparks placed the paper on the table and looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost seven-thirty. “You have to be at the police station at nine.”

My heart beat rapidly when he said police station. After a good night’s sleep, I had almost forgotten that we were to be interviewed by Detective Davis soon.

“You sure we have to do this, Dad?” Lucas asked worriedly. I looked anxiously at Pastor Sparks. “Can’t you just talk to Mr. Dewberry and tell him to stop what he’s doing?”

His father smiled sympathetically. “It’s just not that easy, Son. If we let him get by with what he’s done to you,” he glanced quickly at me, “and Woody, then he’ll think it will be all right to prey on other boys.”

We ate quietly until Lucas finally broke the silence. “Mom?”

“Yes, Dear?” She put down the paper and waited for him to continue.

“Can you home school me and Woody?” He looked over at me for my approval. “I don’t think I want to go back.”

I looked over at his father when he issued a very stern, “No.”

“Why?” Lucas was looking pleadingly at his father. “Everyone is going to hate us when they find out what we’ve done.”

Pastor Lucas reached out and gently squeezed Lucas’s arm. “We’ve protected you far too long from the world.” He glanced over at his wife. “I guess we didn’t do such a good job.”

He looked back at Lucas. “You’re sixteen, almost a man now. You can’t continue to hide behind me and your mother when something goes wrong.”

“I’m not hiding behind you,” cried Lucas. “I’m scared.”

His father tightened his grip on his son’s arm. “Of course you are.” He looked over at me. “We all are.” I looked at Lucas and nodded my head.

His father sat back and took a sip of coffee. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll make a deal with you.” Lucas nodded his head.

“Let’s give school a try.”

“You said we’d make a deal,” replied Lucas excitedly. “That’s not a deal.”

His father continued undaunted. “You’ll go back to school for one month.” He then looked at me. “Woody will be there to help you.” I nodded my head. “If we decide after that time it’s too difficult, or dangerous, then your mother will home school you again.” He turned back to me. “Woody, that offer stands for you, too.” I nodded my head.

Pastor Sparks stared at Lucas for his approval. “Agreed?”

Lucas looked worriedly at me before replying. “Okay,” he finally said. “But only one month. No more.”

His father looked at the clock on the wall. It was now almost eight. “I think we better get downtown.” My stomach started doing somersaults as we followed his father out the door.

 

I had never been inside a police station before. Actually, it was a municipal building, according to the sign in front of the building. The police station, courthouse and several other government offices were combined into one building. I was surprised we had to go through a metal detector when we entered.

Lucas and I nervously trailed behind his father as he walked over and read the location of offices near the elevator. He then pressed the button for the third floor. “Relax,” he laughed as he looked at our frightened faces. “She’s a detective, not an ogre.”

“She might as well be,” replied Lucas with a slight squeak in his voice. “I’m so scared I could pee my pants.” I quickly glanced down at his crotch before laughing. Even though he probably meant it, his comment did alleviate some of the nervousness I was feeling.

We entered the elevator, and when we came to the third floor, Lucas stepped out and scanned the long hallway. He smiled when he saw a men’s restroom about ten feet away. “I’ll be back, Dad,” he announced as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me away.

Once inside the restroom, he locked the door and collapsed against it. “I can’t do this, Woody.” His chest was heaving, and he had a frightened look on his face. “It was one thing telling Dad and Mom what happened.” His eyes welled up with tears. “I can’t tell a complete stranger what Mr. Dewberry did to me.”

I walked over and embraced him. His body went limp against mine. “I’m not strong like you are.”

I gently pushed him away. “Why does everyone think I’m so strong? I’m more scared than you right now.”

“But you can do this,” he cried. “I can’t.” I held him again as he leaned down and wept softly into my shoulder. I gently rubbed his back until he finally regained his composure.

He looked down at me with tears still on his cheek. He smiled when I reached out and wiped them away. “We can do this, okay?” He nodded apprehensively. I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

“Okay?” I asked more assertively. When he didn’t respond, I kissed him again. He smiled and nodded his head.

I started to open the door, but he stopped me. “Wait!” he said urgently. “I really gotta pee.” I laughed when he walked over to the urinal, unzipped his pants and started to urinate. I wanted to walk around and watch, but I knew he was too timid. When he finished, he stepped over to the sink and began washing his hands.

“I gotta take a piss, too,” I announced as I stepped to the urinal. I could see Lucas out of the corner of my eye furtively trying to watch as I pulled out my cock. I took a step back and started to piss. I giggled to myself when I heard him let out a muted, “Wow!” I was afraid to look over because I knew it would embarrass him. Besides, I was enjoying letting him see my dick.

After washing my hands, I approached the door, turned and asked, “Ready?” He nodded his head. His father was still waiting for us by the elevator.

We trailed behind his father as we walked the long hall until we came to a door that had the words, Criminal Division- Investigation Unit. We entered, and Lucas’s father informed the secretary that we had an appointment with Detective Davis. We were told to have a seat and she would be out soon to get us.

Lucas appeared on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He kept fidgeting in his seat and wringing his hands. I wanted to reach out and hold his hand, but I was afraid his father might object. He didn’t seem to mind when we were in his home, but he might not like it if we did it in a public place.

I turned my head towards the door when someone entered. It was my mother! She was dressed in the smock that she usually wears to school. She stopped and looked down at me. I lowered my head, wishing that I could disappear.

"Woody?” I looked up. Her eyes were filled with tears as she attempted to smile.

“What are you doing here?” I think my tone startled her. I hadn’t expected her or my father to be present. Pastor Sparks hadn’t mentioned that they would meet us downtown. He gently reached over and grabbed my wrist.

“She has to be here,” he informed me. “You’re a minor and a parent must authorize that you can be interrogated.”

“Does she have to be present?” I asked worriedly. If she did, then I wasn’t going to go through with it. The last thing I wanted to do was tell a stranger what I had done with my mother listening.

“No,” he responded. “She only has to sign a form.” I was too embarrassed to look over when she sat down beside me. We sat for several more minutes in awkward silence before a small African American woman wearing a dark blue dress came out a door and stood before us.

“Reverend Sparks,” she smiled as he stood and shook her hand. “And you must be Mrs. Fields. I’m Detective Jeanette Davis,” she said as she extended her hand to my mother. “Would you two follow me, please?”

Lucas and I were left sitting alone in the waiting area. He continued to move around nervously in his seat. I looked at the secretary to see if she was watching us before I reached down and took his hand. He looked over and smiled worriedly.

“I’m scared,” he said as he squeezed my hand tightly. “You think we could just leave before they come back?”

“They’d probably send out a search party to find us,” I giggled. “I don’t know about you, but I’m scared of police dogs.”

“Yeah,” he attempted to smile as he once again gave my hand a tight squeeze.

We released our hands when the door opened, but not quickly enough for my mother not to have noticed. If it bothered her, she didn’t say anything. She walked over and gave me a hug as I kept my arms to my sides. “I’ll be going now,” she announced as she squeezed me gently.

She stepped back and looked over at Lucas’s father. “Pastor Sparks will bring you home when this awful ordeal is over.” He walked over and opened the door for her. She left without looking back.