As the boys settled into a Friday afternoon routine, they did a little experimenting, discovering sixty-nining as though nobody had ever tried it before. Although they did it a few times, they agreed that they liked taking turns better because then each one could concentrate fully on what he was doing or feeling.
Charlie was now in the honors section of Spanish 2. It was more work for him, but he was enjoying it and found he had an aptitude for it. He hoped to continue studying Spanish through high school.
When the family went to Hyannis for some shopping, Charlie explored a bookstore and found a Spanish to English dictionary as well as some short stories in Spanish.
At home he slowly worked his way through the stories, with his grammar book and his dictionary as guides. Each time he finished one of the stories, he went back and read it again. He could then read it directly in Spanish without having to translate, and he found he was occasionally beginning to dream in Spanish, which he described to his family as “really cool”.
For his birthday in January, Charlie was given a sum of money by his dads and encouraged to start investing for real. First he had to open a bank account, which he did on the following Saturday. His trading was sometimes successful and sometimes not, but even when he lost money he was learning, and slowly his investment began to grow.
After his birthday he had an unrestricted driver’s license. His dads suggested that he invite Ethan to Truro so they could meet him.
It was getting dark early then, and Charlie used that as an excuse to ask if Ethan could stay overnight. With his dads’ approval, he invited Ethan to his home for the following weekend.
Jared, meanwhile, had broken with Carter, who proved to be too rough for him. He was presently without a boyfriend, and he sometimes wished that he hadn’t dropped Charlie, but they continued to be good friends and he often visited the family.
Charlie brought Ethan to Truro after school on Friday. Over supper, Ben, Rodney, and Joey all got to know him. At first they asked him a lot of questions, but then Ben apologized both for the number of questions and for not giving Ethan time to eat.
Joey was quite smitten with Ethan. He understood almost immediately what Charlie saw in him. Ethan was kind and gentle. He was fun without trying to be funny. And he was certainly sexy.
As the evening progressed, Ethan learned more about Ben and Rodney. He was intrigued by the fact that they supported themselves by trading on the stock market. Charlie told him about his attempts with the market and Ethan was equally impressed.
When it was time for bed, Charlie and Ethan went upstairs. Joey had turned in a little earlier, so they had the bathroom to themselves. They decided to shower before sleeping. The shower in the bathtub was big enough for two, and they climbed in together. As the warm water played over them, they washed each other’s backs and rear ends. They grew hard but they wanted to save the sex until they were in bed.
Back in Charlie’s room they climbed into bed, facing each other. They gently moved their hands up and down each other’s backs. They hadn’t been together for a week, so their cocks quickly grew.
Soon they were kissing, first gently and then more passionately. At last, Ethan eased Charlie onto his back and began to work in his now familiar way, kissing and licking Charlie’s ears and neck before moving down to his chest, sucking his nipples, and then following the sacred trail to Charlie’s groin.
As Charlie lay enjoying the touching, he heard Ethan say quietly, “Put your feet up.” Charlie obeyed and felt Ethan’s finger exploring his crack and his butt hole while his mouth explored Charlie’s equipment. Then he felt the finger go into his hole and move around. He almost went through the roof when Ethan’s finger hit a wonderfully sensitive spot.
Ethan was trying to arouse Charlie without causing him to climax too soon. In time however, the combination of the finger in his ass and the tongue and mouth on his cock brought Charlie to a long, hard, ecstatic explosion.
Ethan swallowed Charlie’s juice and then withdrew his finger as his friend’s erection grew soft.
When Charlie had done the same for Ethan, they lay spooning, with Ethan snuggling up to Charlie’s back.
They slept for a time before Ethan awoke and began fondling Charlie’s ball sack. That woke Charlie, and soon they were repeating what they had done earlier. Then they lay back and slept through the night.
In the morning, when Ben gave the half-hour-to-breakfast warning, they went groggily into the bathroom, quickly showered, and dressed.
At breakfast, it was quite clear that Joey had heard them in the night and wanted to know all that had happened, but he knew he wasn’t going to.
Ethan had never been to Truro, so even though Charlie said there wasn’t a lot there, they went to explore. As they walked down the sidewalk, Ethan took Charlie’s hand and they strolled hand in hand in public for the first time. Charlie wondered if there would be stares or frowns from passersby, but he only saw an occasional smile or a head nod.
In the spring, Jared seemed to disappear from school. Charlie wondered why and tried to call him. He left messages until the phone told him that Jared’s message box was full. He thought about calling Jared’s parents or going over to his house, but if something was going wrong, he didn’t want to intrude.
Two days before school got out for the summer, Charlie’s phone rang as he was getting ready for bed. Seeing by his Caller ID that the call was from Jared, he answered, saying, “Where the hell have you been, Jared?”
“In the hospital,” came a subdued reply.
“Oh, God, what’s wrong?”
Charlie heard some sniffling, as though Jared was crying, before the boy answered, “I have colon cancer.”
Suddenly, fear swept over Charlie. “I thought that was something that old people got,” he said, trying to control himself.
“I guess I just got lucky,” said Jared quietly.
“Well, they can operate and fix it, can’t they?”
“Maybe yes; maybe no.” Jared replied. “Today I went by ambulance to the Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston. They’ve seen the X-rays and test results, but they want to perform more tests before they decide what to do.”
“You’re tough, Jared,” said Charlie, even as tears were flowing from his eyes. “I hear that’s a great place. They’ll take care of you,” he continued with more confidence in his voice than he felt.
“Charlie?”
“Yeah. I’m right here.”
“Charlie, I’m scared. I don’t want to die.”
“Did the doctors say you were going to?”
“No, but they were really serious, and they were talking so quietly to each other that I didn’t know what they were saying. I asked them if the cancer was caused by my having sex in my ass. One of them smiled and little and said ‘No’.
“Now I’m alone in my hospital room and I’m really freaking out.”
“Do you want me to keep talking to you, so you won’t feel so alone?”
“Yeah.”
Charlie fumbled around for things to say. How does one respond to the news he’d just heard? He tried to be reassuring, but he couldn’t be when he didn’t really know what was going on. They talked for some time and then Jared didn’t respond to something Charlie had said.
“Jared? Jared?” He could hear Jared breathing and finally decided that he’d gone to sleep. He waited a little longer, but when he continued to get no answer, he hung up. Then he went down to talk with his dads.
He told them what Jared had said, and, trying to be reassuring, they reminded him that the doctors said they didn’t really know much yet.
“But what if they can’t cure him and he dies?” asked Charlie between sniffles.
“Don’t think about the worst unless it happens,” said Ben. “Doctors are making great strides with cancer these days, and Dana Farber is the best there is.”
For all his dads’ efforts, Charlie wasn’t reassured. As he lay in bed he kept hearing Jared say, “Charlie, I’m scared.”
At the lunch table the next day, Charlie told Ethan the news. Ethan didn’t really know Jared and had only talked with him on the phone once when he was asking about Charlie.
“Charlie,” he said, “kids our age don’t die from colon cancer. I’m sure it can be treated.”
But nothing anybody said could reassure Charlie. He wanted to go to Boston to be with Jared, but he knew that wasn’t possible, at least until school ended, and probably even after that.
So he waited. Day after day. He tried to call Jared but didn’t get an answer. The waiting went on. School got out for the summer. Ethan was taking summer school classes in the hopes of catching up with Charlie. He still wanted to spend some time with his friend, preferably horizontally, but he understood when Charlie said he couldn’t right then.
Five days after school got out, Charlie’s phone rang. When he answered, he heard, “Charlie, I’m dying.”
“What happened? Where are you?”
“At home.”
“I’m coming over. Right now!”
“Thanks,” said Jared, and the phone went dead.
Before he left, he told Rodney where he was going. “Drive carefully,” Rodney said. “When you’re under stress, driving can be dangerous.”
“I will,” promised Charlie.
Charlie did drive carefully. He scrupulously held to the speed limit. He stopped for some pedestrians. He stopped at a light which had just turned yellow, not speeding up to get through before the light changed to red.
Pulling up in the Williams’ driveway, he went to the front door and rang the bell.
Jared’s mother answered the door and invited him in. He could see that her eyes were red, but she controlled herself long enough to take Charlie to Jared’s room and tell her son that he had a visitor.
Things had changed in Jared’s room. There was now a hospital bed and a recliner. Music was playing quietly in the background.
Jared was sitting and leaning back in the recliner with a blanket around him. He seemed to be asleep, but when he heard his mother’s voice, he opened his eyes and looked at Charlie. A little smile played on his lips as he said, “Thanks for coming.”
At first he was quiet, but Charlie got him talking. Jared told him that the tests at Dana Farber had shown that the cancer had spread and was, “in organs I didn’t even know I had.”
The doctors had been honest with him and his parents. They had said they could try chemo, but realistically, they thought it was too late. They had offered to keep him in the hospital and treat his pain as it got worse.
“I didn’t want to stay in the hospital. I’d heard about the effects of chemo, and I really didn’t want to try that unless they were pretty sure it would work.” Jared said. “I didn’t want to die there.”
Charlie just nodded. What could he say? By then they were both crying silent tears unashamedly.
After a pause, Charlie asked, “Did they tell you how long you have?”
“They said it was difficult to tell because of the spread of the damned cancer, but they seemed to think I didn’t have much time.”
He stopped and took a sip of water. “That’s why I wanted you to come.”
Charlie nodded.
“Do you remember when I told you I was scared?”
Again Charlie nodded.
“Well, it’s strange. I’m not scared anymore. I guess I was scared of what I was going to learn. Dying doesn’t scare me now. Is that weird?”
“No,” said Charlie,” I guess it makes some sense. It’s like the unknown is scary but the known you can deal with.”
“Exactly.”
At that point, Mrs. Williams returned, saying that Jared needed to rest, so Charlie kissed him, held his hands, and said, “I’ll be here every day for you.”
Once he was in his car, he sat for some time until he ran out of tears. Then he sighed, started the car, and drove home.