Chapter 5

We won against the 49ers but I took a couple hard hits. Painful hits. For a while, I wasn't sure if I had popped my foot badly or not. I managed to play the whole game, but it hurt, seriously.

I didn't report it to the team doctor.

As we load up the bus to head back to the hotel, I grabbed Billy and hissed in his ear, "Let's find some place ta fuck t'night." He stared at me like I was crazy and I moved to another seat to spare him having to deal with me right then. Back at the hotel, one of the trainers noticed me limping and made me put ice on it.

I managed to hide the injury most of the week but in Dallas, it gave out on me when I got hit again. The doctors pulled me and put me on Questionable. I didn't play against Washington.

I sat on the bench truly conflicted. I had rooted for The Skins my whole life. I felt a little guilty rooting against them now. Of course, I felt worse when they won.

But after, it was all good. We had a bye week. I rented a car and Billy and I drove down to Reedville for three days of R&R with my family.

We didn't talk much in the car. I told him I wanted him to meet Peter before he judged what he did to me. That pretty much ended conversation.

I pulled up to Uncle Julius and Aunt Rachael's place and found more cars than I expected parked there. I got out of the car and stood for a moment, admiring the house and the history behind it. I had almost forgotten how much I missed the place.

"Where are we?" Billy asked. "Hotel?"

"Family homestead. My Uncle Julius' house. Dock down that way. Likely spend half mah life here."

I heard a screen door slam and a voice. "Tol' ya I heard uh car."

"Mamma! He here!"

"My aunt and uncle." I told Billy quickly before Caesar and Willow hit me with a flying tackle. Ordinarily the twin 10-year-olds were an easy hit, but with my foot injured I went down like a ton of bricks on the gravel drive. I was laughing and groaning and a little turned on. "Guys! Guys! You killin' me here!" In the near distance, I could hear the family coming out and — those that knew him — greeting Billy and laughing at my plight. "Hey — injured man here! Little help?" They ignored me.

"Did you really hurt yo' leg, Unc' Alex?" Caesar asked, sitting squarely on my chest.

"Yep."

"He got uh great big bandage, 'Zar." Willow touched it softly. "Do it hurt?"

"Oh fu ... uh ... yeah. Yeah, it hurt uh lot." I got them to scoot so I could sit up. "Wanna see it?"

"Can we? Cool!" They helped me unwrap the bandage sitting there, which probably would explain why my mother's first words to me were not gentle and soothing.

"Don't play with that!" She snapped, slapping my shoulder. "It'll scab over."

I had to laugh. "Ma, it's uh torn ligament, not uh scrape." I pulled myself up and Mom and Billy helped me up the stairs and into the house. For a couple hours, I got treated like royalty by Mom and my aunts. They feed me and Billy and we managed to save most of the football talk until the 'menfolk' arrived. Then the conversation was about nothing else.

Finally, around 11:30, Aunt Rachael threw everyone out, reminding us that the bulk of the family had to be on deck by 5:45am. Billy and I followed my parents back to their house.

I started to lead Bill down to my basement bedroom when Mom told me that the guest room was made up.

"It's cool, Ma. He can stay down here."

"Oh, well, I just thought he might want some..." she looked like she swallowed something sour, " ... oh ... Ok. Well. Ok."

"I can stay upstairs, ma'am." Billy said. "It's not a problem."

"It's cool." I waited for Mom to get herself together. She wasn't usually the type to freak over the gay thing. "Ma? You ok?"

"It's fine. I just thought, well I mean with Ame and all." She looked suddenly stricken. "Was it Ame? Did she turn you..." she stopped short before she said the obvious.

"Gay? Did Ame turn me gay, Ma? Is that what you want to ask?"

"Alex, now you know I don't care who you sleep with." She said looking away. "Just so long as you're happy and safe."

"Mom." I waited til she looked at me. "Mom. I'm bi. An' Billy an' me just friends. 'K?"

"That's not funny, Alex." She huffed. "If you're gay, that's fine. But I wish you wouldn't make fun of me. And anyway, I don't see how you'd know..." She stopped short again. "Oh my God you mean it."

"Huh?"

"I just remembered Brandon. You were sleeping with him, weren't you?"

"Oh," I glanced a Billy who was giving me an arched look. "uh, yeah. An' uh couple other guys at school."

"Oh my God, I knew he was gay, I just thought he was hanging out with Lisa and Beth. It didn't even occur to me that..." She seemed to catch herself. "You know, if I'd have known, he wouldn't have been allowed to stay the night any more than Leigh was. Well. Billy, I'll bring the clean towels down and let me know if you two need anything."

"I can stay in the guest room if you prefer, ma'am. I really don't mind."

"Nonsense. Alex's adult girlfriends have always stayed in his room — and I guess all his past boyfriends — I don't see why that should change now."

"You know now."

"Billy," She kissed his cheek. "It's fine. Really. He just caught me off-guard. I should really expect it from him. He was early by two weeks. We didn't even have a crib yet."

"Here we go." I said rolling my eyes.

"Believe me, Billy," she went on, "if sleeping around is the worst trouble he gets into these days, I'm getting off light. Oh! If it weren't for Peter keeping him in line as a child, I don't know what I'd have done with him." She took a step closer and kissed my cheek too. "Dropped him in the river."

"Ida come back."

"You'da better." She smiled at me. "Alright. Now, are you sure that you want to stay down there? With your foot, I mean..."

"Ma..."

"I can make up the couch and you to can stay in the living room."

"I'm fine. I can do a flight of stairs."

"I thought you were supposed to rest it."

"And as soon as I get downstairs, I will."

She huffed. "You argue with him." She told Billy and went to get the towels.

By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, the living room couch seemed like a good idea. I looked back at the staircase and figured I was better where I was now. I let myself drop on the bed. "Bathroom's in there." I fell backward. "Fuck, that hurts." I heard my Mom call down about the towels distantly.

Next think I knew, Billy was shaking me awake. "Go shower then come to bed." I staggered into the bathroom, managed not to drown falling asleep in the shower and staggered to the bed. Billy made sure my leg was propped up properly.

I woke again later, with Billy wrapped around me and morning wood pleasantly throbbing. I shifted back slightly to rub my ass against him and see if he was in the same state, when a bolt of agony shot up my leg from my foot. I shuddered and nearly lost it right then. I had almost forgotten how good pain and pleasure could feel when properly mixed.

For a minute, I missed Ame so much my chest hurt.

Then Billy shifted behind me and his rock hard cock rubbed against my balls and the crack of my ass. It ain't Ame, I thought, but Billy ain't bad for second fuckin' place.

I reached behind me and impaled myself on Billy's dick. I flexed my foot slightly and moaned as pain and pleasure mixed up and down my nerves. After a couple minutes of me doing the work, Billy woke up and joined in. It was slow, every stroke taking both too long and not long enough. I took his hand and we jointly beat me off as he boned me deeply. He kissed my shoulders. For a minute, I remembered making love to Peter — the only person other than Lisa I'd say I ever 'made love' with — and it was almost as perfect. Peter didn't go in as deep but then, Billy didn't actually love me. Not like Peter did.

But it was good. Billy liked me a lot. And he fucked me good. I flexed my foot and let another wave of pain wash over me. Billy groaned. "You ready?"

"Oh yeah." I moaned.

He pushed me forward, almost flat on my stomach and began speeding up. My foot got caught in the sheet and full fledge torture nearly blinded me. For a second it was overwhelming, and then I came hard, biting the pillow and growling. Billy rode me through it. I was trying to breathe while Billy hammered me hard and fast, damn near pushing me off the bed until he suddenly convulsed and molten lava filled my ass. I wanted to cum again but I didn't have the energy.

He kissed across my shoulder and nuzzled against my sweat-soaked neck. "I love you, Jimmy." He whispered softly.

My eyes opened but I wasn't actually looking at anything. I was just suddenly awake, heart racing, mad as shit. Billy's breathing leveled off like he actually fell asleep on top of me after calling me some other guy's name. I lay there torn between punching him and confronting him. My foot was still caught under us and began throbbing in time to my heartbeat.

Who the fuck was Jimmy. Why the fuck was Billy fuckin' me and thinking of him?

I heard my door open and my mother call my name softly. She and Dad fussed in the kitchen for a moment before she called again.

"See?" she said to him. "He's not awake. I'll just slip this down and come right back."

"You just wanna see if'n he actually sleepin' with that boy."

"I do not."

I closed my eyes and listened to Mom put what sounded like pills on my dresser. She cooed softly, pulled the blanket over Billy and my shoulders and kissed us both on the cheek. She cooed again on her way up the stairs.

"Oh fo' godsake, Stacie," Dad groused before the door latched, "they grown men not puppies."

I opened my eyes; Mom brought down my pain meds. I got out of bed, grabbed the bottle and hit the head. My foot hurt like no end of shit and even for me, enough is enough.

When I came back in, Billy was stretching. "Was I dreaming or did we... ?"

I started to answer by asking who the fuck Jimmy was when it occurred to me — how many women have I called 'Ame'? What right do I have to be pissed? I swallowed my first response and leaned over to kiss him. "If you don't remember, we kin do it uh-gain."

"Shouldn't we go be social?"

"Fuck first, social later." I felt him tense up and sat next to him. "You gonna have ta get used ta the idea of bangin' guys if you gay."

"Yeah." He sighed and got out of the bed. "So maybe I shouldn't be gay."

"How you gonna change that?"

"Millions of men sleep with women. You do. I'm sure I can manage."

"Billy..." I shrugged. "Nevermind. We get back ta Arizona, we'll find you uh chick."

"I don't need you to find me a date..."

"Sure."

" ... and I don't need you to comment." He stalked into the bathroom and I got dressed. We were both in pretty sour moods as I took him to tour the dock, the offices and Davidson's Sunrise when it came in from a half-day cruise. I topped the day off by taking him to the pool where Peter was working.

Peter greeting me with a hug and a handshake. Billy was a barely restrained civil. Peter caught it immediately. "Something up?" he asked.

"No." Billy said sharply.

Peter looked at me. When I didn't answer, the look changed. I knew the expression well — I had about ten seconds to confess or he was gonna pry it out of me. "I kinda told Bill 'bout us."

Peter paused then cleared his throat. "Kinda."

"I was a bit trashed at the time so he kinda got the wrong idea."