Simply Sexual

by Tagsit

Chapter 1 - Images.

Justin was wondering what exactly he had done to anger the god Somnus. The Roman god of sleep must be really pissed at him since he hadn’t visited the young man much lately. It was either that or else, maybe, the River Lethe - the river of forgetfulness which, according to mythology, ran through the underground cave where Somnus lived - had somehow become dammed up and wasn’t getting to Justin’s bedroom these days.  

Justin had been lying in bed in the guest room at his friend Daphne’s house for more than fours hours now, trying to figure out how to shut off his brain so he could finally get some sleep. He’d had no luck so far. His crappy life just wouldn’t stop re-running through his brain and even though he knew there was nothing he could do about any of his troubles at 3:00 am, he couldn’t shut up his subconscious mind. Over and over: Where am I going to go. Where am I going to live. I need a job to pay for an apartment. I need some skills to get a job. I need to go to school to get some experience. I can’t afford to go to school without money. I need a job to get money. I can’t find a job if I have nowhere to live. When am I supposed to find a job or an apartment while I’m trying to study for my finals so I can graduate high school with a high enough GPA to get into a good school, which I won’t be able to attend anyway since I have no money. Arghhhhhhh!

Justin finally gave up altogether on Somnus and decided to instead pay service to Abundantia, the goddess of food. He plodded softly to the kitchen and raided the Chanders’ fridge, liberating some mint-chocolate-chip ice cream and a large glass of skim milk. Apparently, either he hadn’t been as quiet as he thought, or his best friend Daphne was also on the outs with Somnus, because he hadn’t even finished his first bowl of ice cream before she padded into the kitchen as well and grabbed a second spoon so she could help him with his ice cream.  

The two friends sat and ate for awhile in silence. When the first bowl of ice cream was gone, Daphne got out the carton and spooned them up a second serving. Finally, as they were nearing the bottom of that bowl, Daphne appeared awake enough for conversation.

“I was having the oddest dream. I dreamed that the god Morpheus was standing over my bed, hitting me in the head with a big stick and yelling that I needed to stop dreaming about eggs.” Daphne explained. “What the hell do you think that means.”

“Probably that we need to stop studying for our mythology class final right before bedtime,” Justin laughed. “I myself was having a long conversation with Somnus about why he’d forsaken me. He said he’d have to get back to me on that later.”

“Jus, it’s going to be okay. You still have a few weeks until school’s out,” Daphne tried to console her friend. “And I doubt my parents are just going to throw you out on the street the day after graduation if you don’t have a new place to live yet.”

“I know, Daph. It’s just that your parents have already been so good to me and I don’t want to be a burden to them.” Justin was playing with his spoon as he spoke, using it to draw pictures on the table top with a puddle of spilled ice cream. “I told them I would only stay through graduation and I don’t want to go back on that promise.”  

“Let’s just get through finals and then I’ll help you find a place.” Daphne promised.

“Okay. I just can’t help worrying about it all, you know.” Justin threw the spoon into the sink behind him and got up to find a towel to clean up his ice cream mess. “God, I hate my father. This is all his fucking fault - who knew the guy who was my little league coach, my biggest supporter, the parent who told me I shouldn’t worry about working while I was in school and that I should concentrate on my school work - fuck, he was practically my best friend after you, Daph - would turn out be such a bigot? I know it’s been, like, a month already, but I’m still in such fucking shock at how he reacted. Now I’m homeless, I have no job, no job skills and no fucking future. Remind me again why I’m bothering with finals at all - I’m never going to be able to pay for college anyway so what does it matter if I graduate?”

Daphne grabbed the kitchen towel away from Justin, who’d been wadding it up into a tight little ball in his fists, and pulled him back to the table where she forced him to sit down again.  

“We’ve already bitched about your father a hundred times, Jus. He’s an ass. He kicked you out of the house two months before graduation just because he found out you were gay. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But tomorrow’s your birthday, so can’t we forget about your dad and everything else for at least the next twenty-four hours and just celebrate you turning eighteen?”

“A fucking lot I have to celebrate.” Justin was now simply being stubborn, thought Daphne, but she had a plan to get him out of his funk for at least a little while.

“Come on, Jus. Tomorrow is Friday and your birthday. And whether you feel like celebrating or not, I’m taking you out tomorrow night. You ARE going to enjoy yourself for one night. I’m sick of you moping around here and complaining. Like it or not, you better get back to bed and get your beauty sleep so you won’t be too tired to party with your best friend tomorrow night.” Daphne got up and gave Justin a quick peck on his forehead then sauntered out of the kitchen, heading back upstairs to her room.  

Justin reluctantly got up to follow Daphne upstairs. He shut off the kitchen light and headed up the stairs. He didn’t think that getting his beauty sleep was very likely, though, under the circumstances. He decided he might as well pull out his books and finish studying for his mythology final.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((B/J))))))))))))))))))))))))

“I don’t care how busy you are, Brian. You haven’t been out with any of the gang for weeks, now. I’m dragging your ass out for at least one night,” the short, dark haired man said as he tugged at the sleeve of a taller, handsome, auburn haired executive, who was dragging his feet as the two walked along.  

“Mikey, I told you, I have a huge presentation tomorrow morning for a potential new client which I have to finalize. I don’t have time to tag along with you to the club tonight,” Brian responded, trying at the same time to pry the other man’s grip from the sleeve of his suit jacket.  

“Wrong. I already talked to Cynthia before I came to get you,” Michael replied. “She told me the presentation was complete and ready to go. She also agreed with me that you’ve been an ass lately and could probably use a night out to improve your mood.”

“Cynthia told you that? Remind me to fire her in the morning, the nosy bitch.”

“Actually, her exact words were, ‘Michael, get him the fuck out of here and get him laid so he leaves me alone for the rest of tonight. If he askes me to make one more unneeded change to the presentation I’m going to kill him.’" Michael quoted Brian’s Executive Assistant, trying his best for a Cynthia imitation, but sounding more like Carol Burnett. “So you can’t use work as an excuse tonight, my friend.”

“Fine, Mikey. You win. I’ll go and get laid, if I HAVE to,” Brian said with fake resignation. “But I really do need to revamp a couple of the boards, no matter what Cynthia said. So I don’t have time for Babylon.”

Michael put on his sad puppy-dog eyes and looked up at Brian as if his friend was intentionally trying to ruin all his fun for the evening.

“God, Mikey, has anyone ever told you how pathetic you are?” Brian sighed. “Okay. One drink. Will that satisfy you? But I don’t want to waste time going all the way to Woody’s or the club. There’s a little bar just a block over that we can go to instead - it’s closer and that way I can get back to work sooner once I’ve got you off my back.”  

“Cool.” Mikey sounded like he was fourteen again, Brian thought. “What bar are you talking about, though. I don’t remember any place this far down Liberty.”

“Images.” Brian answered.

“Isn’t that a creepy hustler bar? I didn’t know you ever went in there.”

“I usually don’t, but you are leaving me few options, here, Mikey. You are the one insisting we go out, so if you don’t like my choice, we can always . . .”

“No. No. That’ll be fine, I guess,” Michael capitulated. “All I care about is getting to finally spend some time with you, Brian.”

“After you, then, Mikey,” Brian said, holding open the door to the bar for his friend before following him into the seedy looking place.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((B/J))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Justin wasn’t sure about the bar his friend Daphne was leading him towards. It looked a little run down and it was one of those places where all the windows had been blacked out so you couldn't see inside. He really didn’t like that, it made it seem like all the people in the bar were hiding from something. Like he said, it was creepy.

“Daph, are you sure this is the place you wanted?” Justin asked.  

Daphne didn’t look sure herself but she responded as confidently as she could, “I think so. I looked it up on the internet - I haven’t actually been here before, you know - but I wanted you to have fun on your birthday, soooooo . . . I did some research on gay bars and this was one of the first ones that came up. Happy Birthday, sport!”

“Oh, shit, Daph. You didn’t! Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean you had to take me to a gay bar for my birthday. What do you think - I’m just going to waltz in there and get laid or something. Did you have to pick the seediest gay bar in the city, too?”

“Sorry, Jus, if I’m not exactly up on which gay bars in Pittsburgh are the trendiest. Give me a break.” Daphne seemed a little hurt that her friend wasn’t more enthusiastic about her little surprise. “Come on. Let’s just check it out. You might actually enjoy yourself, you know. And I don’t expect you to get laid, or anything. I just thought you might, you know, meet someone . . .”

“You mean meet someone that YOU like - at least someone you like better than Chris?” Justin said, poking his friend in the ribs as he spoke.  

Justin knew that Daphne didn’t really approve of his relationship with Chris Hobbs. Mostly because she thought it was the jock’s fault he’d been outed and subsequently kicked out of the house by his father. But Justin knew it wasn’t Chris’ fault. It had just been simple bad luck that Coach Bowman had caught the two of them making out virtually naked in the boys locker room after the game against Central. Before that, the two of them had managed to be a lot more careful - a quick kiss behind the football stadium stands, a grope or three in the boys toilet or locker room, a hand job in the athletic equipment shed one afternoon.  

In fact, Justin blamed himself for their predicament more than Chris. It was Justin who had kept pursuing the other boy - Chris Hobbs was definitely NOT the aggressor in the relationship. He was so deeply in the closet that he couldn’t even find the doorknob with a flashlight. Justin hadn’t exactly been out there before either, but he at least acknowledged to himself he was gay. He just hadn’t had much opportunity to do anything about it while at St. James Academy. Until Chris, that is. And if Chris hadn’t caught Justin drawing those naked sketches of him one afternoon, and been obviously turned on by it, Justin wouldn’t have ever known the star football jock was gay too.

But that didn’t make any difference to Daphne. She was still angry at Hobbs because he had managed to skate through the aftermath of their ‘indiscretion’ relatively unscathed while Justin had taken the brunt of the fallout. Hobbs’ parents had buckets of money - they weren’t just well off like Justin and Daphne’s families, but actually, filthy, stinking rich - and had used that money along with their influence to keep Chris’ name out of the affair. Of course, the parents of both teens knew the whole truth. But somehow only Justin had been outed to the rest of the school and Chris had managed to retreat back to the depths of his closet, unlikely to ever be heard from again, especially if his parents had anything to say about it. And in the meantime, Justin’s father had lost his mind completely, kicked his son out of the house and refused to ever have anything to do with him again.  

Justin still talked to Chris occasionally, and they were sorta friends still, but it wasn’t easy for them to see each other anymore since Chris’ folks were keeping a pretty close eye on him these days. So Justin had been on his own for most of the past month or so and he’d had to bear the shitstorm from the ‘incident’ alone. Daphne didn’t appreciate Chris’ apparent lack of loyalty to her best friend and wasn’t likely to forgive him any time soon. Which was likely why she had dragged him here to this dive gay bar in the first place.  

“Whatever,” Daphne wasn’t willing to admit anything. “Just come on and let’s see what it’s like inside. It might be a lot better than it looks from the outside. We can always go somewhere else later if it’s too horrid.” And with that, Daphne led the way inside.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((B/J)))))))))))))))))))))))))))

“Are you sure about this place, Bri?” Michael asked again as the two men sat with their drinks at a booth in the back of the dimly lit bar.  

Brian looked around at the clientele in Images tonight and was almost ready to agree with Michael that it was pretty much a bust. There were a lot of older guys - really older guys, that is - grey hair and beer bellies included. Then there were a lot of really young guys - so young that most were only questionably legal. But there weren’t a lot of the kind of hot twenty-something guys that were Brian’s usual prey.  

It WAS a complete dive, Brian was willing to admit it. He only ever came in here when he was practically desperate - when he just needed a quick lay and didn’t have time to look for it anywhere better. Not that Brian Kinney needed to pay for it, but sometimes it just saved time to get in, pick up a nice looking hustler and get out quickly. It was just sex, for fuck’s sake, what the hell did it matter if it was a willing trick or a willing working boy. He had plenty of money and didn’t have much time these days, so a rent boy now and then was a good option.  

But tonight it didn’t look like there were even any ‘professionals’ that were worth settling for. He and Mikey had already downed a couple of drinks each and had caught up on the usual gossip about the family. Brian’s mind was drifting back to the presentation for ‘New Seasonings’, a local chain of natural, organic and high-end grocery stores that he’d been trying to land for the last two months. Brian was only going to give this place about fifteen more minutes before he called it quits for the night and headed back to his office to finalize the boards for tomorrow’s pitch.  

“God, Bri. That kid over there looks like he couldn’t be more than fourteen.” Michael was commenting on an especially young looking rent boy who had just approached a grey-hair at the bar and was obviously angling for a ‘date’. “Are the hustlers getting younger these days or are we just getting older?”

“Speak for yourself, Mikey.” Brian was NOT ready to admit anything when it came to aging. “I’m still at the peak of my sexuality. They don’t call me the ‘Stud of Liberty Avenue’ for nothing.”

“Well, if you don’t start showing up at Babylon and a few of the other bars, they won’t be calling you that for much longer, Brian,” Michael started, then realized from the look on his friend’s face that he probably should have kept that particular piece of gossip quiet.  

“What the fuck are you talking about, Mikey?”

“Just that there’s this new guy who’s been talking shit about you a lot lately. He’s been saying that you must have lost your mojo since you hardly ever show up at the bars and clubs anymore. Not that anybody’s really listening to him.”

“Fuck him, Mikey.” Brian put on a show of nonchalance. “Let him talk. I couldn’t give a crap. I have a lot better things to do with my time right now, is all. I’ve built Kinnetik up from nothing to become one of the hottest Ad agencies in the city in less than six months. And, if I win this account tomorrow, it won’t just be one of the hottest, It’ll be THE hottest. Then I can worry about what all the rumor mongering queens think about me - and I’ll have the money to shut them all up, too. Until then, well, it’s just easier to use a rent-boy when I need one than to waste all my time trolling at Babylon.”  

Michael looked a bit shocked at Brian’s admission. He’d had no idea that his idol was stooping to actually paying for it these days. Michael would never say anything to Brian, but he’d met the guy who was spreading all the rumors and knew that Brian was going to have to fight to keep his title of ‘Stud’ - Brandon, the guy that was trying to topple Kinney, was hot and at least as promiscuous as Brian had been in his heyday, if not more so. But Mikey was nothing if not loyal and would never voice any such doubts to Brian.  

“Besides, Mikey,” Brian was continuing. “I like the professionalism and lack of attitude you get with most hustlers. It’s in and out with the minimum of mess and the maximum of pleasure - just like I always liked it. I like the business-like approach and the lack of all the emotional bullshit. It works for me right now.”

“Whatever you say, Bri.” Michael agreed.

Just then, Brian saw a possibility for the night come through the front door. He didn’t think he’d seen this kid before, but he definitely had possibilities. At first glance, the kid looked really young, but then Brian decided he was probably older than he looked - he did have that twinkie thing going for him though. The guy wasn’t tall - which was a bit of a turn off for Brian, who generally liked his men to be taller - but he didn’t really feel like being all that picky tonight so he figured he could probably overlook the height issue. Especially since this one was quite the looker otherwise - golden blond hair, cut in a short preppy style, slim build and a great smile with creamy, soft-looking pale skin. Brian took about ten seconds to think it over and then, smiling a goodbye to Michael, he finished off his drink and headed over to the newcomer to see what could be arranged for the evening.