Chapter 9 - The New "Normal"

As we dried off from the shower, Claire came up to me and said that her yard looked terrific and handed me a crisp fifty-dollar bill. I attempted to refuse it, but she told me that we deserved the money, and that a professional service would have cost more, would not have done nearly as good a job, and been nowhere near as fun. She kissed my cheek, gave Howie a hug, and went back to her friends.

The women and girls all watched hungrily as we sat in the shade to eat our lunch. It was something like being on the receiving end of the attentions of a pride of lionesses. They weren’t going to try to take any right now, but they were considering, and bookmarking for future opportunities.

As we were finishing and packing up to go one of the older group approached and asked us what we’d charge to work on her yard. I asked her where her property was, since none of us had driver’s licenses yet and our mobility was limited. It turned out that she was right next door. I looked the question at the others. It was still early, and they nodded their agreement. I asked her name and what she was willing to pay.

She said, “Sorry! My name is Julie Cavanaugh. My worthless husband left me for his secretary a couple of years ago, but he still pays for the house and for upkeep. I want to soak him some, so how about $100?”

We were all surprised but agreed immediately. She walked us next door and showed us what she wanted. It was a somewhat larger yard that had been neglected a bit, so it took us the better part of two hours hard work, but by mid-afternoon we were done. Ms Cavanaugh sat on her deck watching us the whole time, but we were kind of used to that by now. She approved and complimented our work, then she paid us and added a twenty-dollar tip! She asked if we could come back at the same time next week and do it again. This was good money for the time, so we all agreed.

She hinted that the tip would be bigger if we’d lose the shirts next time. We laughed but kept that in mind.

We all got back to my place, put the tools away, cleaned up in the outside shower again, (with appropriate levels of grab-ass, ) then went into the shed and made a friendly, naked pile on the bed.

I grabbed my shorts off the floor and pulled out the wad of the day’s earnings. It was over $200. I don’t think I’d ever seen that much money in one place before in my life!

“Okay,” I said, “How do we want to split this up?”

The others gave me an odd look. “That’s your money, Sir,” Howie told me. “You’re the Master. We serve.” He looked at me like I’d missed a basic principle.

Tony and Jeff nodded their agreement. Tony said, “The point was to spend the day together and have a good time. We did. I’m perfectly happy here!” With that, he snuggled into me. I kissed his forehead in response, and was met with a small, contented groan.

“‘Sides,” said Jeff, “if I took that kind of money home Mom and Lyle would just take it and spend it on beer.”

We all looked at him strangely.

“‘S true!” He said. “They go through my shit all the time! Anything they find, they take. Lyle has me work ‘gofer’ on his road crew sometimes. It’s long days, hard, dirty work, and he hands her the twenty bucks he says I made. He usually calls it her beer money!”

Personally, I felt somewhat guilty. I’d never even considered what kind of home environment he’d come from. Some of his displayed attitudes and behaviors made more sense to me now.

I thought for a bit. “You all worked hard,” I said, “you came together as a team, helped each other. I’m proud of all of you. Some of this money was supposed to go to send us to a movie. Now we have enough to do that, have dinner before and ice cream after. Let’s make that the plan.

“That said, you all worked hard. You deserve more than a pat on the head and a night out. How much do you think is fair?”

The three of them conferred for a few minutes. Howie spoke up. “Jeff said he was supposed to make twenty bucks a day for a lot harder work than this. Let’s call that fair.” Tony and Jeff nodded. I didn’t necessarily agree, but apparently wasn’t going to win this one.

I distributed the money as requested but made no effort to hide the fact that I was conflicted that it wasn’t more. When I got to Jeff, he surprised me by asking, “Would you hold that for me? Mom and Lyle would only take it if I brought it home. They always search my stuff and take any money they find.”

I hugged him to me and brought his face up for a gentle kiss. He returned it eagerly. “It means a lot to me that you’d trust me like that,” I said. I rummaged on my shelves and came up with a jar holding a few unused anonymous fasteners. (Every proper shed has a few of those lying around.) I threw the useless contents into the trash and put his $20 into the jar. “This is yours,” I told him. “If you need, or even just want it, come take it. You never even need to ask. I will always keep it safe for you.”

Jeff nodded his agreement into my chest, and then brought his face up to kiss me again. We happily made out for a couple of minutes.

With an effort of will, I broke away from Jeff’s lips. Howie and Tony looked on, bemused. “Yes,” I said, with a visible effort, “Dinner! It looks like I’m buying! What do we want?”

We wound up at the pizza joint next to the mall theater, then on to a horror movie with some nice make-out sessions in the back row. After that we went out for ice cream at the local ‘Farrel’s.’ Then back to my place where we wound up naked in the shed again. Howie and Tony enjoyed a nice lazy ‘69’ while Jeff rode my cock until I blew another load of semen up his ass.

While we were luxuriating in our afterglows, I tried to strategize for the coming week, and beyond.

“Okay guys,” I began, “We have some serious and very real issues coming for us, and they’ll be starting up on Monday. That doesn’t give us much time to prepare, but I think I have some ideas.”

Three pairs of eyes looked at me with both trepidation and trust.

“First,” I said, “Understand that when the accusation of ‘Faggot’ or ‘Gay’ comes up, the first defense is generally denial. That’s not going to work for us. We, okay, I have been way too open for that. Not to mention that it’s going to be all over the gossip networks by now. We’ve been far too open to put that genie back into the bottle.

“No, what we’re going to need to do is to lean into this. Not: ‘Of course I’m not gay!’ but more: ‘The only reason that would be of any interest to you would be if you were looking for an opportunity to join in. Well? Are you still interested in getting an answer to that question?’ They should back down, but if they answer ‘Yes!’ we might even end up with some interesting new friends.

“As far as that goes, I’m going to take you all through a fairly convoluted chain of thinking here. The ones who scream and shout and attack, why do they do it? What is their motivation? The answer is pretty obvious: they do it because they’re angry. But why are they angry? We haven’t done anything to them. In fact, we’ve gone out of our way not to. Well, they’re angry because they’re afraid. But what, then, are they afraid OF? Again, it’s not us. We make an effort to be non-threatening. No, they’re afraid of what we represent, and of something inside of themselves that wants that. Something that they can never even acknowledge to themselves. Right, Jeff?”

Jeff looked at me, eyes shining with unshed tears but a smile on his face. “You do understand!” he muttered. “OH! Thank you, Master!” he cried as he curled up by my side and I wrapped my arm around him. He snuggled his head into my chest, and I combed through his now clean hair with my fingers while he made contented noises. While we were both naked, this wasn’t sexual, just comfort. Full-contact comfort.

“So,” I continued, “what are our responses? We don’t deny what we are to each other. We spend as much time together as class schedules allow. We keep PDA to a minimum, though we can use it to make a point. Save the really mushy stuff,” I gave Jeff a squeeze, “for here, or somewhere else private.” Three nods indicated agreement and understanding.

After that, we need to be paragons. Examples. Physically we’re all pretty good, though improvements can be made in all of us. Tony, are you still interested in joining the football team?” He indicated he was. “Good. I’ll commit to helping you do that. Bitch, you’re also in the Athletics program. Are you hoping for football, or were you interested in something else?”

“They said I wanted to be on the football team,” he said into my chest, “but I don’t know, now. I think I want something different. Maybe competitive swimming?” he asked, unsure.

“Why not?” I asked with another squeeze. “You certainly have the long, lean build for it. I’m willing to support you in it, and I’m sure that Tony and Howie are as well.” I looked my question at them, and they both indicated their assent, and included strokes of support on Jeff’s back and sides.

I don’t think Jeff got a lot of support in his life as I felt his tears run down my chest and I heard him mumble “thank you ... thank you...”

I laid a gentling hand on his head and leant down to kiss his forehead. “It’s no more than you deserve,” I said, quietly.

“You’re so good to me, Master. I love you!” he said and kissed my chest.

I gave him another squeeze and continued: “I’m supposed to go out for football as well, but I really have no interest. I’m going to go for distance running instead. Howie, when do you have PE?”

“Third period,” he answered.

“Not good,” I said, “we won’t be around to support you. What do you have for sixth period?”

“Study hall,” he said.

“Cool,” I replied, “Monday morning go to the counselors’ office bright and early. Tell them that you want to go out for Track and Field, so you want to transfer to sixth period athletics. That’ll put us all together for a pretty critical time.”

“Oooookay...” Howie said, with some trepidation.

“Don’t worry, we’ll all be there to keep you safe!” What surprised me was that it was Jeff saying that.

Howie nodded uncertainly and crawled up to us, on Jeff’s other side. They hugged and cuddled together and shared a sweet kiss. “One more thing, though,” I told Howie, gently, “You have a beautiful body. From now on, when we see you, we want to enjoy watching that beautiful body. Lose the coat and dress sexy. Tight shirt, tight pants. Show off our cute little butt and don’t be afraid of someone noticing that monster in your pants.

“Speaking of that, I know that you know that your beautiful ass belongs to us, though if you want to branch out, that’s not a problem. If you get the opportunity to bend some other fucker over and destroy his asshole, you have my permission, as long as you tell us about it afterward. Sounds like it’ll make some hot stories! Your real problem is going to come from the girls. They’re going to be very interested, and probably quite forward. Maybe even aggressive. If that happens and you get uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to run up to any one of us and give us a hug and an obvious kiss. They’ll get the message.”

Howie looked confused. “But you said...”

“I said we could use it to make a point. That’s part of what I meant,” I said.

Howie looked unsure but gave a trusting nod. God, he was cute!

“You’re gorgeous,” I said, “and I want to see that when I look at you. I want everyone else to see what I see in you as well. Most importantly, I want you to see it, too!

“The important thing to remember is that while we aren’t hiding or denying our relationship, we aren’t trying to slap anybody in the face with it either. That said, if somebody slaps at us, we can and will slap back!

“That brings up the question of ‘image.’ How do we want to be perceived by our larger society? I’ve got some ideas and suggestions about that, but it’s going to need for you all to buy in, and I’m also open to suggestions.

“We want to be seen as ‘good guys.’ That includes being seen as good students. That’ll buy us a lot of slack with the school faculty. There are a bunch of moving parts to that, but they come down to not so many activities: Don’t be a dick in class. Jeff, I’m looking at you on that one!” He nodded in rueful acknowledgement. There had been issues in the past. “When the teacher asks for an answer, be quick to volunteer. Have the answers, both the one the teacher wants, and the true one, if they’re different. Include the reason why you think they’re different.

“We should study together, that way we can support each other and help each OTHER when one or some of us just don’t get something. We want to be what good teachers think of as good students and what bad teachers think of as ‘those damn hooligans!’”

It was Jeff’s turn to look unsure. “I don’t know if I can do that,” he said, “I’m not that smart.”

I gave him a curious look. “Why would you think that?” I asked.

“My grades are pretty bad,” he said, with a defeated shrug.

“Tell me about your study habits,” I asked. He just shook his head again.

“I think I’m starting to get the picture,” I said. “We’ve got the start of a plan, let’s get some sleep and start on things tomorrow.” With that we collapsed into our ‘naked puppy pile,’ and were soon all snoring quietly.

The next morning, we were awakened by my sister banging on the side of the shed. “Get up already!” she shouted. “You have phone calls!”

Phone ... calls? Multiple? Huh? I crawled out of the gently protesting pile, dressed minimally, and made my way into the house. My sister handed me the phone receiver.

“Hello?” I asked, groggily.

“Norm? Norm Daguerre?” A bright feminine voice I didn’t recognize asked, far too cheerfully for my current state.

“Yes. Can I help you?” I replied. I glanced at the clock, then stared at it. 7:00 am? On a Sunday? What the...

“I hope so! I have people coming and my lawn is a mess! Can you come help? Please?”

“I’ve got a few questions first. Who are you, and where do you live? Our operating area is unfortunately rather limited at present.”

“I’m sorry, I’m Terri Crawford, Julie Cavanaugh gave me your number when we had coffee this morning.” She gave me an address a couple of doors down from Julie, and not far from us. “I’ve got some people coming in after church in a few hours, and my lawn is just a mess. Please, can you help?”

“Possibly. Probably. Let me get my crew together. Leave me a number and I’ll call you back in just a little while.” She gave me the information, and I made my way back to the pile. I found them involved in a circle-suck. I came in and cleared my throat.

Howie popped up and said, “Master! Just in time! My ass feels so empty!” He Rolled over to his knees, kneeling up on the side of the bed and keeping his cock in Jeff’s mouth he also pulled Tony up and returned to sucking his dick, presenting that beautiful asshole of his for my plundering. Well, what would you do? My shorts dropped and I was plugged in to him in a matter of moments. As I fucked Howie, I leaned forward and pulled Tony to me so that we could make out over Howie. We enjoyed our cluster for a while until Tony shook and moaned into my mouth while he came in Howie’s mouth. That set Howie off and he came into Jeff’s mouth and the pulsing of his asshole set me off and I unloaded into Howie. Apparently, Jeff had sprayed his cum over Howie’s face as well.

After, as we were cooling down again, I broached the subject. “Guys, we seem to have another job, if we want it. She sounds like a nice lady, and she needs the help. My question to you guys is, do we want to make this thing a going concern? Regular schedules and all? Spending most weekends together? All that?” Given that we were all coming down from orgasm, we were all feeling pretty mellow and agreeable.

“That ... actually sounds like a great idea.” Tony said.

“Sounds nice,” said Jeff.

“Keep fucking me like that and I’ll follow you anywhere, Master!” Howie said.

“Well,” I said as I wiped my and Howie’s juices off my dick with a towel, “C’mon, then. She needs us this morning. It’s not far. Let’s get cleaned up and dressed and grab the tools.” I pulled my shorts and shoes back on and went back to the house to call Mrs. Crawford. She answered on the first ring, and I told her that we’d be there within a half hour. She thanked me profusely and we hung up.

Sis looked at me and said, “Okay, that’s one. What are you going to do about the rest?”

“The rest? What ‘rest?’” I asked.

She handed me a sheaf of about six phone messages. “I’m not your secretary!” she said.

I thought for a moment. “You could be,” I said. “Were you going anywhere this morning? Want to make ten bucks? Just stay here and take phone messages for us, and this afternoon I’ll pay you ten dollars.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill, letting her see it. She reached for the bill, but I pulled it back. “Ah! This afternoon, after we get back. This is just to show you that I am, in fact, good for it.”

By then the guys had come trooping in from the back yard, dressed, if minimally. We grabbed the tools and took the short walk to Mrs. Crawford’s place. We finished up in just over an hour and she paid us and made an arrangement for us to come back and do it again the following week. Yes, she had a hungry look in her eyes, but we didn’t mind that. It looked like we had a going business doing yardwork for bored, lonely housewives and divorcees.

When we got back to my place, I sent Tony and Howie home for a bit to get cleaned up and changed, with instructions to bring back their school books, and I had Tony talk to Phil about what we needed to get the business set up on a more official basis.

While they did that, Jeff and I cleaned up, (separately. Mom and Sis were home and awake, darn it.) and I called back on the sheaf of phone messages and the three new ones Sis had taken while we were out. Out of nine messages, we booked six jobs, pretty much filling as much time today as we could spare and filling a good part of next weekend as well.

Tony and Howie still weren’t back, so Jeff and I went over to his place to pick up his books and some clean clothes.

It turned out that Jeff lived in the dilapidated trailer park just down the road, behind the local convenience store parking lot. This was a place famous for Friday and Saturday evening police calls, and ambulance calls most other days of the week. He and his Mom, (and his Mom’s series of ever-less-reliable boyfriends, ) lived in a gently rotting single-wide trailer, on a lot paved entirely with crushed beer cans and decaying fast-food wrappers.

We entered that squalid, fetid space to find a kitchen completely filled with trash and dirty dishes. This surprised me. There was no actual food in that kitchen. How could every dish and pan be dirty?

We passed through into a trashy living room where a TV blared out an insipid game show. As we passed, a voice croaked out from under a pile of dirty blankets, “Move! Yer blockin’ the TV!”

“Hey, Momma,” Jeff said, nervously. “This is my ... friend, Norm. I’m gonna go grab my books’n we’re goin’ back to his place to ... study.”

“Whadda ya need to study for?” The voice asked. “You know that Lyle has a place for ya on the road crew!” With that the top blanket came off, and Claire Spicoli was revealed in all her corpulent glory. She was a shapeless woman in a shapeless housedress. I thanked my lucky stars that not only was she clothed, but that I was already gay. If the first of those hadn’t applied, it would have certainly driven me to the second.

While I know that she couldn’t be older than forty to forty five, and might have been younger, the creature revealed could have passed easily for sixty or older. My main impression was lank, dirty, thinning hair of indeterminate color above a bloated yet wrinkled unwashed face bearing food stains from at least her three previous meals. My first instinct was for a jump scare, but I’m pretty sure I held that back. Mostly.

I pasted a smile on my face and said, “A pleasure to meet you Mrs. Spicoli! Jeff’s told me so much about you!” Hey, you gotta make nice with your lovers’ parents, no matter how much they may squick you out.

She looked at me with suspicious, rheumy eyes and said, “That boy talks like a fag. Are you a fag, boy?”

I considered for a moment, then replied, “I’ve beaten the shit out of the last two guys that accused me of that,” carefully not answering her question. Nor did I add who those ‘guys’ were, or how our relationships had grown afterward. I simply regarded her, quite flatly. Not contemptuously, but we both clearly understood that I wasn’t taking her shit. She bristled a bit, but it was clear that escalating the situation would expose some stuff that she didn’t want to deal with, so she visibly backed down.