Chapter 1

I don’t know how it started and I can’t even pinpoint when, but I hate my father. We’re a small family just my parents and me and from a distance we appear to be normal. My parents are your typical middle class couple, they both work and sometimes argue about money and household things but even I can tell that the two of them love each other. Most teenage kids like me wouldn’t have anything wrong with this sort of arrangement but seeing my dad’s face makes me boil in rage in sometimes.

Let me describe my parent’s to you; they’re both tall in fact my mother might even be taller in heels and despite heading into middle age they still look really good; my dad has a bit of a typical dad bod but he balances it out with his height really well, he works in a formal place so he’s always clean shaven and well taken care of; my mom follows the same script since she works in hospitality; she’s still really beautiful and looking at her old pictures I can see that she hasn’t changed much. I still wonder how my dad got her to marry him.

Maybe to differentiate myself from the two of them I started dressing like a bit of a rebel, if this were the early 2000s I would have dressed like a goth but that no longer works so I just started to grow my hair out and never wearing any suits or formal attire especially during important functions sticking mostly to baggy clothes. My dad did not like this and we started to really butt heads often getting into arguments that he’d back down from or my mom would intervene in. My dad’s not the confrontational type and he always back down from an argument unlike me and my mom, we don’t really know how to hold back.

The arguments have gotten a lot more frequent and fiery and I can tell that he’s avoiding me which works out fine for me. The downside of this is that my mom has definitely noticed and she’s putting the pressure on me to make up with him. “Your father only wants the best for you so could you try to talk to him,” is what she keeps telling me. Normally I’d do anything for her but my pride won’t let me admit that I may be at fault so I keep the status quo much to her disappointment.

It’s Wednesday and we get the news that we won’t be attending classes on Friday which means a three-day weekend. This is amazing news and I’m planning on spending the weekend at my friend’s place. Its going to be great, we’ll play games and head out to catch a movie on Friday night. Getting home, I call out to my mom that I’m home while taking off my boots at the door and I’m so preoccupied with my own thoughts that I don’t notice my dad standing in front of me.

“Hey Riley, your mom had to take a friend’s spot on a work trip last minute. She’ll be gone until Monday.” He says while looking at me with his usual expressionless look.

“Where’s she going?” I ask while struggling with my boots.

“A few states over, said she’d call once she got there.” He answers before continuing after watching me struggle, “do you need some help there?” he asks and before I can even act he squats down and begins undoing my boots for me, because of our height difference his face is at my waist and I instinctively hold onto his shoulders to steady myself. For a brief second I get a flashback to my first day of school when my dad helped me tie my laces.

“There you go,” he says and the flashback fades back into my head as I slip the boots off, “why’d you tie them so tight in the first place?” he asks while still crouched at my feet forcing me to look down at him when answering which is definitely a change of pace from having to constantly look up at him and my mom, I hate being short.

“James helped me put them on this morning,” I answer feeling an unusual heat in my cheeks remembering that he’d also been in this position when he found me struggling with them in the school parking lot.

“Oh. Is that the friend I keep hearing about but never seem to meet.” My dad says while holding his stare as if probing me for information.

“Yeah,” I say and then remember my pans for the weekend, “I was planning on spending the weekend at their place, is that okay?” I add just to be safe.

He gets a complicated look on his face before pulling himself to his feet and stretching to his full height, “if his parents are okay with it then its fine but you have to spend Sunday night here and no drinking whatsoever.”

“They’ve already agreed to it so it’s okay,” I answer in a more annoyed tone than I’d intended but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“So you’ll be going after school on Friday? Will you go straight there?”

“I’ll go tomorrow as soon as classes are over.”

“Hey, I can’t let you stay over on a school night. You’ll go after class on Friday.” He answers in a more forceful way than before.

“School’s gonna be out on Friday so its fine if I go over tomorrow.” I defend myself before he starts getting any more agitated.

“Why won’t there be any school on Friday?” he asks in a suspicious voice.

“They found some kind of mold in the basement and the stuff they wanna spray to get rid of it needs a lot of time to clear out so they gave us a three-day weekend.” I say as I pull out a copy of the memo we got in homeroom and hand it over to him. He scans through the paper and seemingly satisfied he gives it back.

“Try not to forget your assignments when you go over to his house,” he begins to say granting me permission before continuing, “I’m still gonna ask if his parents are okay with the two of you hanging out there.”

“That’s unnecessary but knock yourself out,” I let slip out and his eyes narrow slightly but he shrugs and starts walking away from me. I start to think that the conversation is over but he throws one final question.

“How close are you to this James character?”

I open my mouth to answer but the words I want to use no longer appear correct to me so I stumble on what I need to say. “He’s like my best friend I guess,” is what I’m able to squeak out finally. The look on my father’s face is unreadable, not that I’m good at reading him at all.

“Just your best friend huh?” is what he says after what appears to be a long silence.

“Yeah, just two guys who hang out,” I say trying to keep a poker face on and after a second under that intense stare my dad seems to accept it and walks away leaving me with my heart thumping in my chest for some unknown reason. ‘just friends huh?’ I mutter to myself as I head up to my room.

The night ends pretty uneventfully, dad makes us dinner and we both eat in relative silence and since he offers to do the dishes I leave him downstairs and spend the rest of the night playing a game and texting with James making our plans for the weekend.

School is mostly the same the following day but you can tell everyone’s excited about the unexpected holiday and as soon as the last period ends everyone makes for the doors shouting all the way. I meet up with James out in the bus yard since we don’t share the same classes only homeroom, downside of being in multiple AP classes.

“So what did your dad say about you hanging out at our place for the weekend?” James asks as we wait for our ride to his parent’s place.

“He was actually pretty chill with it, just the usual no underage drinking and driving talk,” I say as I play with the toy attached to my keychain.

“That doesn’t sound like the way you describe him.”

“Yeah well he did say he was gonna call your parents to make sure their okay with two teenagers running around their house,”

“That’s pretty tame. But don’t worry my mom’s cool with you staying over for the weekend.” James reassures just as his mom’s car pulls into the parking lot and we pile into it.

“Hey there boys how was school today?” James’ mom asks from the front seat.

“It was fine Mrs. Shepard.” I say while strapping myself in and she pulls out of the parking lot.

“So do you need me to drop you by your house to pick up something or are you all set?”

“No, I packed a change of clothes in my gym bag,” I answer and then continue, “also I gave my dad your phone number so he could check in. Is that alright?”

“It’s fine sweetheart in fact your dad called just before I came here and we chatted a bit.” She says looking at me through the rear view mirror.

“I’m sorry about him. He can be a little strict about things like that.” I answer in embarrassment; I can’t believe he just called her like that.

“Well he’s a parent so it’s only fair he’d be concerned. The other times you stayed over your dad was out of town and your mom handled things so he has to know who his son is going to be spending the night with.” She defends while pulling into their street.

We stay silent as she parks outside their house and help her with the groceries afterwards. Finally done with everything else we spend the next few hours playing games and chatting in James’s room before joining his family for dinner. His family is bigger since he has two smaller sisters that look so alike it makes it hard to believe that they aren’t twins. His dad looks like him a lot, fairly tall and narrow shouldered with the blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. Looking at his dad and him interact make me wish my dad and I were on better terms but I swallow that thought down along with the peas.

“I don’t know how you can eat those with a straight face, I just shove it to the side,” James comments earning him a smack from his mom that makes the girls laugh.

“Eat your vegetables so you’ll grow taller than your idiot brother,” Mr. Shepard tells the two girls.

The pleasant dinner ends and after helping him with the dishes we retire to his room and start up a new game. We play deep into the night and by the time on of us stands up to take a break the whole house is silent and the only lights on in the room are the ones from his screen.

“Hey man I think I’m gonna go to sleep now,” I say as I let out a yawn.

“Oh shit, I didn’t realize it was this late.” James says after peaking at the clock on his nightstand and turns off the console bathing the room in blue light from the screen. I start spreading out on the mat in his room when he kicks me in the shin.

“The hell are you doing down there, we’ll both take the bed.” He announces trying to pull me up by my arms and I let him do it.

“But there won’t be much space on the-” I start to talk but get interrupted when he pushes me onto the bed and rolls me to the side closest to the wall before climbing in himself and covering us with his sheet.

“We’ve shared a bed before remember?” he asks as he flicks the TV remote and plunges the room into darkness.

“That was back in middle school, we’re a little bigger now,” I try to reason but just being in the warm comfy bed makes it hard to get a reason to leave and I feel the exhaustion from the day catching up to me. The last thing I remember before passing out is James turning to face me and his smile.

Waking up the following morning I find myself in an entirely new situation. Somewhere during the night James has lost his shirt and his hand is wrapped around my waist. I’m sure it was just another accident but for some odd reason having his body that close to mine feels really good and I unconsciously lean into him. Maybe it being early in the morning and having a warm body next to him triggers something because I soon feel a bulge pressing against my ass. The bizarre nature of what is happening freezes me in place as I feel the heat from his organ and it doesn’t stop there as I feel his hips push against me and his member digs in even further.

I’m too shocked to act right now and I just let him continue with his shallow thrusting all the while his breath is quickening and the grip around my waist gets even stronger. I start to fear that he might actually cum with me there which would make any future interaction awkward as hell when I get a reprieve from an unexpected source.

“James! Riley! Are you two going to spend the whole day asleep?” Mrs. Shepard shouts from outside the bedroom door but doesn’t open it. James shoots up from the bed and sits upright, I have the wherewithal to wait a second and pretend to slowly wake up with a fake yawn. He turns his back to me as he swings his legs out of the bed before bolting out of the room. I heat the bathroom door slam shut from down the hall and sit up on the bed.

Did that really just happen? Did my best friend dry hump me almost to completion? These are the two questions that are in my mind as I sit there but the thought that frightens me the most happens just before he steps back in; I wish he’d finished.

The rest of the morning is slightly awkward with James barely able to maintain eye contact with me and me pretending to not know what almost happened. We do get over this awkwardness after having breakfast with his family thanks to his mom who acts as a sort of bridge for the two of us.

“So are the two of you going to do something other than sleep and play games today?” she asks as we finish up eating breakfast.

“We’re gonna hang out at the mall for a while later and then watch a movie but we’ll stick around for now,” James answers for the two of us.

“Well since the two of you are free for a while why don’t you help me out with the lawn,” she proposes almost as a way to keep us busy. Seeing no problem with that plan we head out to their overgrown lawn and James gets behind the lawn mower to do the first passes while I take care of the hedges.

“Did you sleep okay?” James suddenly asks as he walks past me turning the lawn mower off so we can hear each other. The question catches me off guard and I take a second to come up with an innocuous answer.

“Like a rock man, you?”

“Same here, shame my mom had to shout like that in the morning.”

“It’s fine, my dad just shakes me until I wake up or he just pounds the door.”

“That sounds annoying.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve tried to get him to stop but he says he’ll only stop if I wake up on time.” I answer while taking the lawn mower and passing him the garden shears and I swear that when our hands meet there’s a bit of a reaction but we both ignore it.

Whatever tension we’d built up from the events of the morning seems to have faded and we spend the rest of the midmorning talking and laughing just like we normally do. Soon the lawn is done and the two of us are covered in sweat and grass clippings so a shower is in order. Inside the hallway leading to his bathroom we both pause and with no words spoken dash towards the door. Our little race ends in a tie when both of us crash through the door into the tiled bathroom.

“Ladies first I guess,” James says while smirking as he points to the empty shower stall.

“No, beauty before brains so I insist,” I fire back matching his smirk. Our little stalemate continues until we hear a voice form behind.

“Why don’t the two of you just share the shower, its big enough.” Mrs. Shepard says from the hallway with a bundle of clothes heading downstairs. This new advice immediately sends my heart racing and I turn towards James who looks a little shaken too.

“How about you go first and I’ll go find you a spare towel,” he finally says after a few minutes of silence and I can only nod as he leaves and closes the door leaving me behind. I strip down and turn on the shower taking the moment to collect my thoughts while washing myself. Why did the thought of being with a naked James make me feel like that? I’m pretty sure I’m attracted to girls and no other man ever made me feel like that. And what was going through James’ mind right now, he had a girlfriend a year ago so I’m pretty sure he’s attracted to girls too. I’m still a virgin so I can’t be too sure of my orientation just yet but just thinking of his naked body and the bulge I felt this morning is enough to get me going and before I know what I’m doing my right hand wraps around my smaller shaft.