I went into work the next morning at the diner. Being a Saturday with rather nice weather, we were extremely busy. I was able to get away after the lunch rush died down to take out the trash and have a cigarette.

Debbie came outside when I was nearly ready to go back in.

"I'll be back in a minute. I just needed to have a quick smoke," I said to her.

She waved her hand. "That's fine, baby. Betty just came in, so you can go ahead and take your lunch break. I can cash out your open tables for you."

I nodded before flicking my cigarette butt away. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?" Debbie asked me. "I know you've been really depressed since Brian left, but you look even more down in the dumps than usual."

I told her about what had happened between me and my parents the previous evening, including how I had come out to my father, revealed my relationship with Brian, and my father's threat of taking Molly away from my mother if I continued to live in the house.

"That's awful, Sunshine," Debbie said. "That father of yours sounds like a genuine son of a bitch. Any man who is low enough to slap his own child should be beheaded."

I chuckled. "Thanks."

"Besides, what the fuck gives him the right to say where you can live? You're eighteen."

"It's still technically his house, and he may try to convince a judge that I'm some kind of sexual deviant who shouldn't be around his precious daughter."

She stepped closer to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. "Go home and tell your mother that you've found a new place to live."

I looked at her in confusion. "Where the fuck am I supposed to go?"

"To my house, of course. Michael's old bedroom has been empty for almost a decade, minus his old furniture and a trunk with miscellaneous stuff in it that he refuses to haul over to his apartment."

"I couldn't put you out like that, Deb," I insisted. "Besides, I wouldn't have a way to school."

"You could borrow my car. It's not the nicest thing on four wheels, but it runs."

By the end of that weekend, I became a resident of the Grassi/Novotny house. My mother wasn't too happy about me moving out, but I agreed with Debbie that it was for the best. Along with Dad not being able to follow up on his threat of taking Molly, it would save Mom money on utilities and grocery bills.

Someone else who was not happy about my moving into Michael's old room was Michael. Debbie had called him on that Saturday evening to have him take his trunk and a few other personal items that he had left behind when he moved out. He whined and ranted about that little shit weaseling his way in here, but Debbie quickly shut him down and said that he had zero say in the matter.

I was sitting at Debbie's kitchen table during the exchange with a shit-eating grin on my face.

"Don't worry," I said to Michael. "I promise I'll take good care of it."

He snarled at me. "You better, because I'm going to do unscheduled checks. If anything's missing or damaged..."

"How about you go upstairs and clear out all of your stuff so Sunshine can move the rest of his stuff in," Debbie suggested. "He'll need the closet space. I also need to explain the rules of the house to the newest member of our family."

"Rules?" I asked before Michael got up and stomped up the stairs.

She nodded. "Starting with: no bringing tricks home after midnight."

I snorted. "You won't have to worry about that, Deb. I don't plan on bring tricks here ever, because I don't trick. Maybe my friend Daphne from time to time, but I can assure you that nothing will ever happen there."

"Well alright, suit yourself. Rule number two: I know you're probably saving up your tips from the diner for college, so I don't expect you to pay me a dime. In exchange, I'd like you to do some chores around the house."

"Are you sure? Because I could pay-"

"Nope," she said. "You can pay by doing the laundry, cleaning the bathroom, helping with dinner, and mowing the lawn."

Although I had never run a lawn mower in my life, due to my parents always having lawncare service, I agreed. I also wasn't much of a cook, but I knew I could learn under Debbie and Vic.

"And rule number three: lock the door when you're jerking off. As cute as your are, I don't want to walk in and see that. I went through that mess enough with Michael. I don't want Vic walking in on you and having a heart attack, either."

I burst out laughing. "I'll try to remember."

I was in my second period class on Monday morning when I was called to Dr. Perkins's office. When I got there, I found my father sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the dean's desk.

"Have a seat, Justin," Dr. Perkins instructed.

I didn't want to be in the same room with the son of a bitch, but I did what I was told and took the seat next to Dad.

"Your father told me a very interesting story," Dr. Perkins said.

I met Dad's eyes for a moment before looking back at Dr. Perkins.

"He did, did he?" I replied calmly.

Dr. Perkins gave me a single head nod. "Do you know what that story may have entailed?"

"Something about me and a former instructor at this school?"

Again, another single head nod. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

I inhaled and exhaled slowly before I began. "I had a relationship... of a sexual nature with Brian Kinney."

Dr. Perkins closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, that is what your father said."

"But we didn't have sex until after I turned eighteen, and Brian doesn't even live in this state anymore," I said quickly. "He's not even a teacher... in fact, I haven't even spoken to him since he moved away."

"Can't... isn't there something you can do?" my father chimed in. "I mean, this man, who was in your employ and you entrusted to teach the children at this school, not entice them to-"

"He didn't entice me to do anything," I said. "It's not like Brian is a sexual predator or something. I went after him."

Dr. Perkins flinched and looked at my father. "Whatever happened between Mr. Kinney and your son is very unfortunate, but what is also unfortunate is that I no longer have any authority over Mr. Kinney and therefore cannot do anything. Like your son said, he is out of the state and no longer teaches. What happened in the past is in the past."

"But he abused his authority!" my father said, standing up. "Certainly-"

"Sit down, Mr. Taylor," Dr. Perkins barked.

My father sat, and I had to hold back a laugh at what a bitch he was.

"Now, I'm not a police officer, so I don't know if there is anything that could be done at a criminal level."

Dad shook his head. "I called a friend of mine from the police department the other night. He said that because Justin is now an adult..."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Dr. Perkins clicked his tongue. "I do know that there was an incident like this at another private school in the state a few years back, between a male instructor and an eighteen year-old female senior. Her parents actually approved of their relationship for whatever reason, but another student reported it. The instructor was transferred to another school in the area and the student was expelled."

"Then I want him expelled," my father said quickly.

"You want me to expel your son?" Dr. Perkins asked in surprise.

"Yes!" Dad yelled. "He needs to be taught a lesson!"

Dr. Perkins tilted his head to the side, as if he were considering it.

I couldn't believe how quickly my next thought came to me. "If you expel me for this, I will contact the media and tell them that you expelled me after finding out that I'm gay."

His mouth dropped open at my audacity.

"There's a rumor going around that you're thinking about running for mayor next year," I continued. "Surely you wouldn't want bad publicity like that going around. I imagine protests by local gay rights groups in front of the school and your home. Hell, it may even make the national news."

While Dr. Perkins mulled that over, my father decided to try to one-up me.

"If you don't expel him, I will contact the media and tell them about Justin and this Brian Kinney's relationship; that you did nothing to punish either one of them. I could even claim that you knew about it while it was happening and did nothing to stop it. I imagine you'd be running on the Republican ticket, and that would look really bad to those conservative voters."

Dr. Perkins looked between the both of us with pure horror on his face. "Look... gentleman, nobody has to contact the media about anything. It will only hurt the reputation of this school, which is my main priority over any personal ventures I may enter into. Certainly we can come to some kind of compromise?"

Oh, he was good.

"Like what?" Dad asked him.

"Um..." Dr. Perkins thought for a few moments. "What if Justin were banned from going to the prom and walking in the graduation ceremony?"

That didn't sound like too harsh of a punishment, at least compared to being expelled just two months before I graduated. I wasn't even planning on going to prom, anyway. Graduation ceremonies were boring as hell and always went on for way too long.

I didn't want to have the "punishment" offered by Dr. Perkins to get any worse, however...

"Oh no," I said, injecting sadness into my voice. "Dr. Perkins..."

"Fine," my father said after seeing how much missing out on prom and graduation upset me. "That sounds fair."

Ha... suckers.

Being just a short walk from the diner allowed me to increase my hours and become a full-time employee, which then allowed me to earn more money to save up. Some of the money went into the gas tank of Debbie's 1976 Chevrolet Caprice and towards food, but my bank account was steadily growing.

I also started going to the gym on Liberty Avenue when I wasn't at school, doing homework, or working at the diner. Membership was really cheap, and Emmett had previously pouted about rarely getting to see me because I never went out to Woody's or Babylon anymore. I started taking spinning classes three days a week with Emmett along with doing some light lifting in the weight room two days a week. I was sadly out of shape and quit smoking cold turkey in order to improve my breathing during cardio. I found after a few days that I didn't even miss the cigarettes that much. Even though I had started to eat more, I dropped eight pounds in the first three weeks on top of the ten I had already lost after Brian left.

A few days before Spring Break, which was during the last full week of March, I had gotten the mail and found that Debbie had received a birthday card. In the top left corner of the envelope was an address label with Brian's name on it. I wrote down the address before going up to my room to look it up online, finding that the address was for a building in the TriBeCa neighborhood that had been recently converted into condos and lofts.

I did a little dance around the room, since I finally knew where Brian lived. No one would be threatened with disembowelment for telling me, either.

I knew exactly what I had to do during my week off from school. I bought a round-trip Greyhound bus ticket for forty dollars to New York City, leaving on the Friday evening of the last day of school before break began. I would come back the following Saturday. I told everyone minus Daphne that I was going to Miami with the Chanders family, and she was the only person who knew where I would actually be going. She was all for it, knowing how miserable I had been without Brian.

It was a twelve hour trip through the night, since we stopped four times to pick up and drop off passengers along the way. The bus also barely got over fifty on the interstate, even being passed by slow-ass semi trucks. I slept maybe a total of one hour because of the stops and because I was so excited that I would be seeing Brian soon.

We arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue shortly after eight AM. I then took a train to Brian's neighborhood and used a map I had printed off of the internet to find his building.

I stood outside of the nine-story building for a couple of minutes, suddenly very nervous about getting to see Brian again. I didn't know if he'd be home, and I was also afraid that he might not be alone. I finally got the guts to ring the bell outside for his loft, Unit 8C. I rang it again a minute later after there was no answer.

Finally, I heard Brian's voice come over the intercom. "What?" he croaked, clearly just having woken up.

I pushed the button and said, "Hey... it's Justin."

There were several seconds of silence, and I wondered for a moment if he had heard me.

"Justin?" he suddenly repeated.

"Yeah," I replied.

"How the fuck did you find where I lived?" he snapped.

"Aww, I've missed you, too, honey," I said back to him.

"Seriously, who told you where I lived?"

This was not going well. "Uh, actually you kind of did. I found the envelope to the birthday card you mailed to Deb."

I pictured that he was berating himself, swearing that he was never going to give anyone a birthday card ever again.

I hoped that he would let me in so we could talk face-to-face instead of having a full conversation over the intercom system. Plus, it looked like it was about to start raining and I didn't have an umbrella. After what felt like hours but was actually seconds, I heard a buzzing noise immediately followed by the click of the front door unlocking.

I pulled the door open and all but ran down the hallway to the elevator. The ride up to the eighth floor felt like it took forever. Once the elevator car finally made it, I stepped out and found that Brian was waiting for me in his open doorway down the hall.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants, which were hanging low on his hips. If it was possible, he looked even more gorgeous than he had the last time I saw him, despite the scowl on his face. He may have even put a little bit more muscle onto his lean frame.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked.

I approached him slowly and forced a smile. "You know me, I love New York. I figured with next week being Spring Break and all..."

He exhaled with a low groan in his throat. "Well, you came all this way, so you may as well come in."

I walked into his loft, which was absolutely breathtaking. His old loft in Pittsburgh had been amazing, but it was a dumpster compared to this new one. It had an open floor plan like his last one, but it was two levels. The living room had four floor-to-ceiling windows offering a great view of the neighborhood. His white furniture looked wonderful in it. There was a spiral staircase in the living room leading up to the second level, which was where I guessed the bedroom was located.

"How did you get here?" he asked me as he walked toward his massive kitchen that was fit for a chef. I knew that it was wasted on him, since he never cooked or bought any groceries.

"Bus," I said as I looked around and followed after him. "Wow, this place is really fucking nice."

"For what I paid for it, it sure as fuck better be."

"Did you buy it?"

He nodded. "I talked the owner down several thousand, but I still took a big hit to my bank account. I paid a good chunk of it down and have a mortgage for the rest. My old loft hasn't sold yet, but I currently have a potential buyer for Babylon."

I couldn't help but feel happy that his loft was still on the market, since it was very hard for me to imagine anyone but Brian living there.

"I haven't even been to Babylon since you've left," I told him. "It just doesn't feel right going there when I know you won't be there."

He rolled in his lips for a moment before he began to make a pot of coffee. "The clubs are awesome here... and the guys, woo."

I eyeballed the second level. "Did you bring anyone back here last night?"

"I made it an early evening."

I had to hold back a sigh of relief.

"How's your new job going?" I asked, not knowing what the fuck else to talk about.

He shrugged. "It's alright. Sometimes it doesn't feel much different from teaching, since I sit at my desk reading and editing stories all day, wielding my mighty red pen. A lot of them are pure shit, and I could swear some of them were written by actual high school students."

"Maybe some were. What about your book, how's that going?"

"It's going very well. I should have a finished first draft soon."

"Will it be published under your real name or Ace Morgan?"

"Mr. Morgan will make his grand return to the world of homoerotic fiction, like a phoenix rising from the ashes."

"What's the book about?"

Brian walked over to me and sighed. "You'll find out when you read it."

Before I could say or ask anything else, he grabbed me behind my neck and started kissing me. I dropped my duffel bag, which I had been carrying on my left shoulder, to the floor so I could wrap my arms around him. We started stumbling towards the living room, our lips never breaking before we dropped to the floor on his furry white area rug.

Brian stripped off my jacket, t-shirt, and jeans as he ravished me with his lips and tongue. I had kicked off my shoes to help expedite the process. His hands felt like fire as he ran them over my cool skin.

"Jesus, what happened to you?" he suddenly asked.

I lifted my head to look down at myself, not seeing anything wrong. "What?"

"You look... great. Have you been working out?"

I smiled, thrilled that he had noticed the subtle changes to my body. "I have been, in fact."

He let out a growl before attacking my nipples, bathing my chest with his saliva. I soon lost my boxer briefs and socks, and he started sucking me off right there on his living room floor.

Brian only had to deepthroat my cock for a few seconds before I shot my load, the sounds of my pleasure echoing off the walls.

"That... holy shit," I panted.

No one had touched me since he and I last had sex three months before, so any sexual contact other than my right hand would have been magnificent. That was, however, probably the best blowjob he had ever given me.

Brian stood up and scooped my boneless body off of the floor. He tossed me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing and carried me up the spiral staircase. I soon discovered that yes indeed, his bedroom was on the second level of the loft.

He carried me into the room and deposited me onto the bed that I had missed almost as much as I had missed him.

My eyes roved around the room as he dropped his pants and climbed on top of me.

"This looks nice," I said before he started kissing me again.