My father brought Molly home around eight o'clock that evening after spending the holiday at his sister's house. I had not seen him since the day he moved out a few weeks prior, and any day that I had to see that philandering asshole would have been too soon. Although Dad could have just dropped Molly off without coming into the house with her, he chose that evening to accompany her inside.

Mom and I were at our dining room table playing a game of Monopoly, which had been a tradition of ours on Thanksgiving evening for the past several years.  

"Hello, Craig," Mom said to my father when he walked into the room, not appearing any more happy to see him than I was.

"Jennifer," he said before looking at me. "What the hell happened to your face?"

I had to think for a moment about what he was referring to, as I had nearly forgotten about the Hobbs-induced black eye. It had started to fade from an angry bluish-purple to a sickly green at that point.

"Oh... I got in a fight on Monday at school," I said before picking up the dice to take my next turn in our game, rolling a five.

"A fight?" Dad repeated. "Why am I just now hearing about this?"

"Because you don't live here anymore, Craig," Mom gruffly explained.

"That doesn't mean I'm not still a part of my children's lives!" he yelled.

"You're not a part of my life anymore!" I yelled back.

"Why are you yelling at Daddy?" Molly asked from behind our father.

"Molly, go to your room," Mom ordered.

"Why?" she asked, her bottom lip quivering.

"Molly, now!" Dad barked at her.

My sister's cute little face crumbled in sadness before she turned away, the sound of her cries trailing through the house as she ran up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door closed.

"Way to go!" I said, gesturing in the direction of the stairs. "Now both of your kids hate you."

Dad put his hands on his hips and sighed. "Justin-"

"You know what? Whatever it is, how about you go and tell the slut you're currently fucking, because I don't want to hear it," I said before moving my battleship five places over to Tennessee Avenue, which I already owned.

After several seconds of silence, Mom said to Dad, "You heard him."

Dad left without another word.

"Your turn," I said as I picked up the dice and held them out to my mother.

She took the dice from me and smiled.

"I love you, Sweetheart."

I returned her smile. "I love you too, Mom."

********************

I was working at the diner the next morning when Michael called a little past ten o'clock to inform Debbie that Melanie had given birth to a healthy baby girl after nearly a full day of labor. Melanie and Lindsay chose the name "Jenny Rebecca" after a Barbra Streisand song that I had never heard.

After how Melanie had yelled at me and Brian the afternoon before, I couldn't help but hope that her labor had been very painful.

I was bussing a table around noon when Brian, Emmett, and a very tired-looking Michael and Ben walked in.

"Hey, busboy!" Brian yelled at me from across the room.

I responded by turning around and flipping him the bird.

Emmett laughed before Brian asked me, "Do you think we could get some water?"

I went behind the counter to retrieve four glasses of water, carrying them over to their table with my not-so-clean fingers in their glasses.

"Jesus," Michael griped as I sat the glasses down. "You work here now, where Brian eats nearly every single day? Why don't you just leave him alone before you get him in even more trouble?"

"If you'd like to complain, I suggest you speak to the manager," I said before flicking my wet fingers in his face and leaving to clean another table.

"Ma!" I heard Michael bellow.

I was standing at the urinal a bit later when Brian joined me in the otherwise empty men's room. I had barely finished pissing before he grabbed me by my shoulders and shoved me into a stall.

He pushed me against the stall panel and planted a tongue-filled kiss on me. I pushed him away a few seconds later.

"Okay, I'm confused," I said.

Brian reached down and wrapped his hand around my rock hard dick, which I had not gotten the chance to tuck back into my underwear.

"On the contrary, you feel pretty certain to me," he said as he started stroking.

"Wha... what are we doing, Brian?" I asked, trying to contain myself.

He tilted his head and kissed me right below my ear before saying, "I know for a fact that you are well aware of how the male orgasm is achieved, Mr. Taylor."

"No," I said, pausing for a moment to let out a strangled moan, "I mean, what are we doing with us?"

"The fuck if I know," Brian said before exchanging his hand for his mouth.

It took me about ten seconds to cum, the sounds of my pleasure echoing off the walls.

Brian stood back up and kissed me.

"Mmm... that's a much healthier dessert than chocolate cake," he said before walking out of the bathroom, again leaving me to put my disheveled self back together.

I walked back into the dining area and saw that Brian and the others had left. I then went over to their table to gather up their dirty dishes when Debbie stuck a twenty dollar bill in my face.

"I was instructed to give this to you from a gentleman at this table for your, as he called it, ‘excellent service.'"

I took the twenty from her and put it in my pocket. "I was given much more than I gave."

Debbie tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?"

I shook my head. "Never mind."

"Well, I'm about to drive my old jalopy over to the hospital to meet my new grandbaby," Debbie informed me. "Would you like to come with me?"

"I appreciate the invitation, Deb, but I don't think I'd be welcome. Melanie's not exactly a fan of mine."

She chuckled. "Yeah, that's true. Maybe someday she'll warm up to you."

"After I graduate and I'm no longer Brian's student, perhaps."

"Do you think that you and Brian will still be... what the fuck are you and Brian doing, anyway?"

"I don't think either of us really knows," I answered sadly as I stacked up the dirty plates.

"Sunshine, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, and I stopped trying to tell Brian how to live his long ago, but I have a bad feeling about this. You boys are playing with fire, and it's only a matter of time before one or both of you get burned."

Debbie squeezed me on my shoulder before leaving.

I worked a couple more hours before taking the bus home. It took nearly an hour and I could have called my mother, Daphne, or even Brian to pick me up, but I wanted to ride by myself.

I used that time to think about Brian and whatever the fuck was going on between us. The one thing that I was absolutely sure of was that I was completely in love with the son of a bitch. He was gorgeous, brilliant, and, when he allowed himself to be, very affectionate and caring. I was fairly certain that he at least liked me, that it was more than just physical attraction for him. I doubted that he would risk his teaching career just to get his rocks off.

The only thing I wanted more than anything was for us to be together with a real relationship. I wished that we didn't have to keep our involvement a secret, minus his friends, most of which did not approve of us. I also wished that he didn't feel the need to hold back from me sexually. Sure, we were having a lot of fun with each other, but I was ready and fully willing to give myself to him. We had already established that he was a top and I was a bottom, so we were a perfect match. I knew that my first time (or even the first few times) would be painful as hell, but if I was going to experience it with anyone, I wanted it to be with Brian. I hated that his conscience was preventing him from fucking me. A young, horny gay man could only live on hand jobs and blow jobs for so long.

I knew that Debbie was totally right - it really was only a matter of time before the shit hit the fan. The odds were stacked against me and Brian that we could make it for another six months unscathed. We had only been... fraternizing for less than a month and we had already seen a shitload of trouble. I had gotten into an argument with Daphne, practically been forced to come out to my mother, and gotten myself and Brian suspended after the fight with Hobbs. It was a real possibility that Brian could lose his job and even if he did absolve me of the blame, I knew that I would feel guilty for the rest of my life if he was fired. I assumed that if Brian would have ever been fired, it would be after the school found out about us, not because I needed Brian to rescue me from an asshole like Chris Hobbs.

Once I got home, I took a shower and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I knew that night was the "Big Dick Contest" at Babylon and that Brian and the boys were definitely going to be there. I gave Emmett a call and asked if he could have Ted pick me up around eight, and he was thrilled that I wanted to tag along.

My soul intention for going to Babylon that night was to see Brian and go home to his loft with him, so I wanted to look extra hot. I went through my old clothes and found a baby blue t-shirt that was a size too small and paired it with some black cargo pants that really showed off my ass. I mussed my hair up with some gel and sprayed on some Tommy cologne.

I walked downstairs around 7:55 and put on my coat, preparing to go outside to wait for Ted and Emmett at the curb as I had before. My mother unfortunately caught me before I made it out the door.

"Where're you going?" she asked. "And don't say Daphne's, because you're obviously dressed to go out and party, not have a sleep over."

I actually was dressed for a sleep over, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

"No, I'm not going to Daphne's," I admitted, figuring that the truth was the best way to go. "I'm going out with Emmett and his friends tonight and I might not be home before tomorrow morning."

"Emmett's picking you up here?" Mom asked, her face lighting up. "Could I meet him?"

Fuck me.

"Uh..."

"Oh, come on," she goaded. "I won't embarrass you or anything. I just want to meet the man who my son has been spending so much time with lately."

I watched out the front window for Ted's car, which pulled up in front of our house a few minutes later. I went outside, where Emmett was climbing out of the car to let me in the back seat.

"Hey, Sweetie!" Emmett called out, wrapping me in a big hug.

"Uh... Emmett, my mom wants to meet you before we go," I said uneasily.

"Oh, okay," Emmett said, slightly caught off guard.

Emmett told Ted to hold on for a minute and began to walk towards the house, but I stopped him.

"I have to warn you... I told my mom that we've been dating."

He snorted out a laugh. "You what?"

I hung my head in shame. "Yeah... I couldn't tell her who I'm actually seeing, you know, and she knows that I'm dating someone, so-"

Emmett held his hand up. "Of course. I'd be honored to be your fake boyfriend."

We walked up the driveway and inside the foyer arm-in-arm, where Mom was waiting for us.

"Mom, this is Emmett. Emmett, this is my mother Jennifer Taylor."

My mother took a few moments to give Emmett a thorough inspection. I did not think it were possible for him to look more flamboyant than he did at that moment. He was wearing a pink sequined newsboy cap, his lime green coat, and pink camouflage pants. His face was heavily made up and he was sporting long false hot pink eyelashes. His nails were even painted glittery pink.

Mom was understandably speechless.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Taylor," Emmett greeted, holding his hand out to her.

She stuttered for a bit before taking his hand, which he promptly kissed, leaving an imprint of pink lipgloss.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Emmett," Mom finally managed to choke out.

"Well, we need to get going," I said, shoving Emmett toward the door a little rougher than necessary.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Taylor, your son is in very safe hands," Emmett assured her.

All Mom could do was give him a forced smile and wave us goodbye as we made our way back to Ted's car.