Blossoming Friendship
By: Frosty70
Chapter 1
Life had changed a lot for Justin Taylor in the past year. When he was sixteen, his Grandpa Taylor died. After the funeral, his folks decided to move the family to New Hampshire. Not wanting to move with them, he came out to his parents, telling them he was gay, instead of waiting until he was eighteen, like he originally planned to.
He called his Grandpa Alwin and thankfully, he arrived in time and intervened before his parents could make him go. By using his high-placed WASP status, his Grandpa took custody of Justin. “Pops”, as Justin called him, accepted him for who and what he was.
Pops knew that when Justin graduated, he wanted to take Business Courses at Carnegie Mellon and Art Courses at Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts. Justin’s folks had planned on sending him to Dartmouth, with plans to have him work at his Dad's Electronics store after graduation.
It turned out that when his parents left, they cleaned out Justin’s trust fund for college that his Grandpa Taylor had left him. So with the help of a good lawyer, Justin got emancipated from his folks. Grandpa Alwin had several local businesses, so Justin got a job in one of them. Since he earned his own money, he moved into a garage apartment on his Uncle Dan’s and his partner Mark’s place. His uncle and his partner had two children. Dan had given birth to Andrew who was five and Mark had Elizabeth who was three.
During the summer, Justin and Daphne, who was allowed to visit quite often, took online classes. In the fall, they attended St. James together. Justin graduated on his seventeenth birthday and Daphne followed soon after. The summer college classes, along with their online classes, allowed them to start CM at a time they should have been in their junior year of high school. Justin also started at PIFA as a sophomore, due to his artistic ability. Money wasn’t a problem, as they both received full scholarships, due to their high grades and high SAT scores.
That fall, Justin found the perfect house. It had three bedrooms, a big kitchen, and two luxury bathrooms. With the heated and closed-in back porch which had plenty of natural light, Justin also had an ideal studio. He had a patio put in and set it up with a top-of-the-line grill and a long picnic table. He also had a small playground on one side of the yard for his small cousins to play in when his uncles visited. Justin and Daph took self-defense classes. But to be safer he put a tall security fence around the place. Outside the fenced area, he put a bench overlooking the river.
The next thing on their list after moving in was visiting Liberty Avenue. Of course, Dan and Mark knew Justin and Daph would probably venture there, so they went to check it out first so that they could offer them some good advice on which places were the safest to visit. Then they set up some rules and guidelines to follow. The first rule was to only go there during the daytime, as it would be safer. Second, they were never to accept an offer of a drink or pill from anyone. They knew they had to follow their rules if they wanted to continue living on their own and being able to go to Liberty Avenue.
When his Uncle Dan was in college, he had a close friend and soccer teammate named Brian Kinney, who Dan and Mark discovered was living in Pittsburgh and was well-known as the legendary Stud of Liberty Avenue. Brian had started to gain his reputation during his college years. Uncle Dan filled Justin in about Brian and told him about Brian’s one-time-only fuck policy that he had. Though Dan said he didn’t think Brian was dangerous, with his good looks and the charm he could turn on, he knew Justin would be susceptible to him.
Justin had an account for paying his regular monthly bills plus he had already set up a site and was selling some art. Daph found a job at a small but nice cafe near CM. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday their classes at CM started at ten o’clock. On Thursday, classes were at one. Justin would go to his painting and drawing classes at PIFA in the afternoons after he finished his morning classes and also all day on Tuesday, which started at ten. He took his non-painting classes online.
One Monday they parked on the Avenue and walked to a Diner for breakfast. They teased each other about the stares they were getting when Daph pointed out that she was sure it was Justin’s bubble butt that was the cause of them.
A waitress who was wearing a red wig was chatting with a table of men. One of them was complaining rather loudly about his best friend not being in for a week. Suddenly Justin heard the name “Brriiiaaaan” called out by a whiny voiced man. Justin turned in his seat to see who had just walked in and gaped at the gorgeous god of a man who was wearing an Armani suit. He just knew this had to be the infamous stud.
Justin and Daphne continued to whisper about Brian when Kiki, another waitress, offered to take their orders. Noticing that she was really busy, Justin got up and grabbed the coffee pot by the counter. When he placed it on their table, Daph tipped her head with a raised eyebrow. Justin looked in that direction and noticed Brian staring at him. So he walked over to his table and asked, “Are you Brian Kinney?” And really did he have to stand so close to him??
“Brian!! Behave yourself!” the red-haired waitress said.
“I was just looking, Deb.“ Then he looked at Justin and said, “ Yes, I am.”
“I know it’s been a while since your college days, but do you remember Dan Alwin?” Justin asked.
Grabbing his coffee he asked if he could join them. To the guys at the other tables surprise, Brian and Justin talked for quite a while about Brian and Dan’s college days, with Brian also catching up on what Dan was doing.
“Briiiaaannn!!” the whiny voice yelled. “I need to talk to you!!”
“Mikey!“ Brian scolded.“I’m talking to Justin about his uncle. He was a close friend and teammate of mine in college.” Then he continued talking to Justin and Daphne, and half an hour later, the three walked out; Brian on his way to work and the two friends on their way to school.
Once in the car, Justin turned to Daphne and said, “Oh my God, Daph!! He was to die for, and he smelled so good!!”
“Hehe,” Daph replied. “He sure looked at your bubble butt when we were walking out of there.”
“Well, it didn’t hurt for him to look. But now I can tell Uncle Dan I actually met and talked to him and that he remembers who he is.”
After a couple of minutes, Justin looked over to Daph, saying, “Do you think Brian seemed lonely?”
“Why would he Jus? He’s gorgeous. He can have anyone he wants.”
“Yes,” Justin replied. “But just for one night.”
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The next day Justin walked to the diner alone. Since he had a couple of hours before classes started, he thought he would grab some breakfast and take Daph’s back to her. Sipping his coffee and looking at the menu he heard the bell.
“Well hello, Justin, all alone today?”
Justin, who looked up in surprise at hearing his name, was shocked to see Brian Kinney standing by his table.
“Yes, I am. Daphne had a lot of homework last night and was up late, so she’s sleeping in this morning. Would you like to join me?”
Seeing Brian hesitate he said, “Look, I may be young but I’m a good conversationalist.”
When Brian sat down, he hollered out, “Kiki? Could I have some coffee?”
When Kiki brought the coffee over, they each ordered breakfast. Justin felt slightly embarrassed by the amount of food he ordered when Brian only ordered one egg white omelet, dry wheat toast, and coffee.
They had been eating and visiting for about half an hour when a screeching whine interrupted them.
“Briiiaaann… what are you sitting with him again for? Come over to our table right now!”
Justin looked up at him, his mouth hanging open at the way he spoke to Brian. He shook his head, and said, “You go ahead, Brian. I can tell I’m not welcomed here.”
“That’s right. You’re not, so beat it, Boy Wonder.”
Justin got up and left the diner, wondering about what type of friend Brian had.
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Justin didn’t go back to the Diner until Thursday morning. He sat at a booth and ordered an iced coffee from Kiki.
About the time Kiki brought his coffee over, he saw Brian sitting in a booth with three other guys, and walked over and said hi. When Michael saw him, he started his whining, screeching, and complaining, and demanded Justin leave the diner, Justin looked at the iced coffee in his hand and thought God Almighty, I’ve had enough! and poured it over Michael’s head.
Debbie was standing by the table when it happened, and screamed, “Hey! You don’t do that to my kid!” and raised her hand like she was going to slap him.
Justin grabbed hold of her wrist before she could strike, and told her, “If you hit me, I will do the same to you!” He knew he really wouldn’t hit her, at least he didn’t think he would, but it did stop her. He turned and left the Diner and went to a Starbucks across from Ryder’s Advertising Agency.
He was enjoying his coffee in peace when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up he saw Brian standing there.
“Hey, do you wanna sit down?” Justin asked him.
Brian sat down and said, “Mikey can queen out at times.”
“Yeah, but Brian, all I did was say hi to you. What did he think was going to happen? That you were gonna strip off my pants, throw me on the table and have sex in front of him?”
Realizing what he said, he groaned, and buried his face in his hands, wondering how he could have said something like that.
“Justin, you have a beautiful smile and I really enjoy talking to you. In fact, I really like you. And I'm not blind. You do have a cute and tempting bubble butt, but I don’t think I’m going to throw you on the table and have sex with you in the Diner.”
Justin scrunched his eyes closed for a second, but when he finally looked at Brian and saw him blushing a pretty shade of pink, he smiled, thinking how adorable it was to see the Stud blushing.
When Brian recovered, he said, “Deb stood there with her mouth opened and in shock, then laughed at what happened.”
“Brian, I’m not blind either. But your friend needs to realize you can have other friends, even a young one like me. But for now, I have a painting to finish for class. I will see you later.”
He stood up to go, hesitated, and wanting to see Brian’s reaction, leaned down and kissed him on the cheek.
Brian handed Justin his Business Card, saying, “Message me when you want to meet here for coffee again.”
Justin grabbed the card and turned to leave Starbucks, thinking, Ahhh life is good.