Chapter 5

Friday, August 26

I awoke to Jeff fondling my balls. He brushed my cheek with his other hand as he invited me to follow him into the shower.

"How about we stay here," I replied, "I already need to wash these sheets." Jeff smiled sweetly as I began stroking him. I cradled his shoulders with my free arm as we kissed passionately. My breathing quickened and I felt an oncoming orgasm. Jeff and I came in unison. After a few more minutes of cuddling, I proceeded downstairs for breakfast while Jeff showered. Reverend Neale was on TV again, it appeared that he'd called off the protestors in exchange for a promise that the state Board of Education would investigate St. Mary's Academy. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, and chatted with Mom.

"So what do you think will happen with this investigation?" I asked.

Mom sighed. "I'm afraid they'll use it as a pretext to shut down the school, which will just make the overcrowding in the public schools worse, and send more kids to Reverend Neale's so-called school." Before coming to St. Mary's, Mom had been a teacher and guidance counselor for public schools. I remember she always used to complain about how class sizes and a shortage of counselors made it difficult to work with individual kids.

"So what would we do?"

"Fortunately, your fathers doing well enough that we could afford to send you boys to boarding school, even without my salary, but I'm worried about the effect this will have on the kids I see in the guidance office. Many of them wouldn't do well at all in public schools, and a fundamentalist Christian environment could well be disastrous."

"How so?"

"Jeff isn't the only kid I've seen who has issues disclosing his sexuality."

Jeff came downstairs, and I went up to get my shower. We made out a little in the back of Mom's Volvo, and walked to English class holding hands.

Ms. Lease smiled at us. "Would you like to ask for relief, Hunter?"

"Already taken care of," I replied, and we sat down next to one another.

Second period was Club Day, this thing the school does on the first Friday of every year where they let all the clubs set up booths in the gym and have students circulate among them. I signed up to tutor underprivileged kids, and Jeff joined the debate team. After I took a few requests, we met Zach and Quint at the booth for the gay-straight alliance.

"What clubs did you guys join?" I asked.

"I've been manning the booth the whole time," Zach responded, "but I did have someone from the Interfaith Council try to recruit me, said they needed a Muslim."

"You're a Muslim?"

"Nope, cafeteria Catholic, she lost interest when I told her that."

"Oh, so you're overdone and taste like cardboard."

Quint laughed. "Actually, it is about time for lunch, want to head over a bit early?"

We did so, and I sat down across from Zach again. This time he was wearing flip-flops, which he slipped out of to begin playing footsie with me. I had other ideas. I ran my bare foot up Zach's leg until I reached his crotch. I could feel his hard-on under his shorts and I began massaging it with my big toe. Zach grinned, and Quint burst out laughing as he realized what was going on. I kept going until Zach cried out: "Stop! You're gonna make me cream my shorts." This of course required an explanation for Laura and Tammy's benefit, which led to me being teased mercilessly for the rest of the lunch period.