Going Home

This is chapter 2 of the story of AJ and Ty, two young men who think that they have a plan for their lives. This chapter gives us Ty's plan.

Ty

I lived on a farm in the Midwest near the town of North Bluff for the first three years of my life, I was the first born. My dad farmed with my grandpa and Uncle Jack, and my mom was a stay-at-home farm wife. We lived in the house that my dad had grown up in, my grandparents had built a new house across the road when my parents were married. My Uncle Jack had just finished school and moved into a small house that was down the road from us and my grandpa was pleased to have both his boys nearby and working the family farm together. My Uncle Jack had been dating my mom’s sister, Karen for the past couple years and were engaged to married. So yes, my uncle was going to marry my aunt, most farmers don’t go far from home to find their mates. The family was together almost every day, and we were all very close, as the only grandchild I was becoming very spoiled. My parents announced that about month after my third birthday I was going to be a big brother. Of course, everyone was happy, and I was too young to really know what was going on.

About two weeks before my birthday the happiness turned to grief when my dad was killed when the steering on the tractor, he was driving malfunctioned and went into a steep ditch. The tractor rolled over pinning him underneath, he had died before EMTs were able to rescue him. I remember a lot of people coming to the house and at the funeral, and my mom and grandparents being very sad for a long time after. My mom was a strong woman and tried to help me adjust and understand what was going on. Her grieving was cut short as my sister, Ally decided it was time to enter the world. Her birth sort of helped the family move on and grandma and aunt Karen would be at our house to help mom care for me and Ally. Cooking meals, doing laundry and just giving mom a chance to rest. Grandpa and Uncle Jack would include me as they worked the farm, take me along when they would get parts or feed and I “helped” feed the cattle every day. We had all began to adjust to our new normal.

As the summer was winding down mom and my grandparents sat down to talk. She told them that she had been thinking that she should move out of the house we were in so that Jack and Karen, who would be married next month, could move there. She said that she had seen the local real estate office and there were a couple of houses available and was going to use the money she received from my dad’s life insurance. My grandpa told her that he wanted her to put that money into a savings account for me and my sister to go to college. He then said that he had also been to town and told her that he would buy which ever house my mom liked best. A month later we had moved to our new house, Jack and Karen were married and moved into our old house, and mom had started her new job as the school secretary. We would stay with Aunt Karen while mom was at work and we all still had Sunday dinner at grandma’s every week.

We settled into town life, and it was soon time for me to start school. Ally would still stay and Aunt Karen’s while mom and I were at school. This is when I met Chris, who would become my best friend for the rest of my school years. As we got a little older, we would do most everything together either at my house or at Chris’s. Our mom’s became friends as well, Chris and I even got to the point that we called each other’s mother, mom and they both treated us their own kids. I was still spending a lot of time out at the farm with grandpa and Uncle Jack, who now had three girls of his own. He joked that he was going to keep trying until he got it right and had a son, Aunt Karen said they were done. Jack may have joked about wanting a boy, but he was a great dad, and his girls meant the world to him. I always enjoyed my time on the farm, but my favorite was when grandpa would say, hell all this work will be here tomorrow, let's go fishing. Uncle Jack and I would grab the gear and get in the truck before grandpa could change his mind. We headed to the pond about a mile from the farm for the rest of the afternoon. These little fishing diversions continued through the years, and even after grandpa passed away when I was in the ninth grade, Uncle Jack and I still found time to go to the pond to fish, but mostly we talked about my dad and grandpa.

As I got high school, Chris and I joined the basketball team. We weren’t superstars, but we were good enough to get playing time and were starters by our senior year. By now Chris and my other friends had started dating girls, but I really wasn’t interested. I had actually noticed the guys in the locker room more and started to consider that I might be gay. I wasn’t ready to talk about this with Chris or any of my other friends, not even my mom.

At the end of my sophomore year, I went with my grandma to the local greenhouse to get plants for the garden that the family planted every year. The greenhouse was run by Frank Phillips, who was in his sixties and had just lost his wife last year. It was a warm spring day, and the greenhouse was very busy, so grandma and I started looking for the plants that we wanted. I always liked working the garden and grandma taught me all about what to plant and how to care for them. We selected all the items we wanted and headed for the counter to pay for our plants. There were about five or six people ahead of us in line, Mr. Phillips was busy helping customer select items, ringing up sales and helping people take their purchases to their car. Mrs. Phillips use to help, but since she had passed, he looked a little overwhelmed. I told grandma that I was going to help him by offering to carry customer’s plants to their cars. I went to the front of the line as he was finishing the current sale, I said I would be happy to carry those out for you mam so Mr. Phillips can help another customer. She said, that would be nice, thank you young man, as a relieved Mr. Phillips gave me a smile. This continued until grandma was next in line, Mr. Phillips said, you have a very helpful grandson, Betty. She beamed with pride and said, “thank you Frank, sorry I am going to have to take him away from you.”

I said, “grandma, we weren’t going to plant the garden until tomorrow morning, could I stay and help Mr. Phillips, he is only open for another hour, and I can walk home from here. She said, “well if it is ok with Frank, I can call your mom and let her know.”

Mr. Phillips said, “I would appreciate the help.” From that point on I worked there after school and weekends until I finished high school, and this started my interest in plants and botany.

Between time on the farm with Uncle Jack, working at the greenhouse and basketball practice, I was pretty busy, but somehow Chris and I still found time to hang out. It was toward the end of basketball season during our senior year, and I was going to spend the night at Chris’s house. We headed out after basketball practice to find Chris’s mom setting supper on the table. We ate our meal and went to Chris’s room to do our homework. After we finished, we stripped to our boxers to get ready for bed, Chris reached under his mattress and said, “look what I got;” as he waved a couple Playboys in the air.

I asked, “where did you get those?”

He said, “they are my brother’s, he brought them with him the last time he was home from college and forgot to take them back, so I borrowed them.”

He threw one at me as we crawled onto the bed. I sat next to Chris beginning to feel very nervous as he started to flip through the pages. I opened the magazine as well, with my eyes shifting between it and Chris. The pictures weren’t doing anything for me, but I noticed they were having an effect on Chris as his hand started to rub his crotch. I tried to concentrate on the Playboy, but my eyes kept finding their way back to Chris’s tented boxers. When Chris pushed his hand inside the waistband of his shorts, I nearly began to hyperventilate. He held the centerfold open and asked, “isn’t she hot?”

I gulped, “yes she is” while thinking not as hot as what you have your hand wrapped around right now.

He looked at me and said, “I hope you don’t mind, I have to lose these shorts,” as he pulled his boxers down to his knees.

The sight of his fully erect cock caused my own dick to stretch my underwear to the limit. I couldn’t help myself, I removed my shorts and said, “not as long as you don’t mind me doing the same,”

Each of our eyes locked on each other’s engorged members, Chris then quickly turned his head back his magazine. I was losing interest in the pictures of the naked women in front of me, but I knew I needed to look away from Chris. Then he let go of his cock to turn the page, without thinking I reached over and started to jack Chris’s dick. He just froze as I moved my hand up and down, Chris turned to look at me and I realized what I had just done. I quickly let go and said, “oh god, I am sorry I don’t know why I did that.” I then started to get out of the bed and pull up my boxers and panic on what to do or say next.

Chris pulled his underwear back on and said, “hey Ty, relax it’s ok. Sit back down. Do you want to talk about it?”

I just stammered, “I don’t know, I am not sure what is going on with me, but I just couldn't help myself.” As I sat back down on the bed.

Chris moved beside me on the edge of the bed and put his arm on my shoulder as I felt a tear start down my cheek. He asked, “have you ever down that with anyone else before?”

“No, never.”

“But you wanted to?”

“Well… I guess so. Oh god Chris, I think I am gay.” As I broke into a full sob.

Chris just hugged me and said, “hey it’s ok, you are my best friend, and you always will be.”

I felt so safe in his arms, once I regained my composure Chris and I moved back onto the bed and talked for over two hours. I couldn’t believe how supportive he was being, He told me that he wasn’t upset with me, but he couldn't go any further than we had tonight. I replied that I understood and would never try anything again and I appreciated his understanding. We finished our talk and I tossed and turned replaying the night’s events in my head.

The next morning, Chris’s mom called us to breakfast, we dressed, went out and ate. After we finished, I thanked his mom and said I needed to head home. As I was grabbing my bag to head to the door, Chris came over and gave me a hug and said I am always here if you need to talk.

I turned walked out the door once again wiping a tear away and thankful for having such a good friend. I made my way home, and as I walked in the door of my house, mom was folding laundry on the kitchen table.

She said, “hi honey, how was your night at Chris’s?” Noticing my red eyes she asked, “Is everything alright?”

Once again, I broke down sobbing and just spilled my guts to her about the events from the night before, it was coming out so fast I think I even told her about grabbing Chris’s dick. I told her how supportive Chris was and about the long talk we had. She just listened to me, and when I finished, I just looked at her to see her reaction. As a tear ran across her cheek, she just reached out to hug me and said I am so glad you told me, I don’t ever want you to feel like you can’t talk to me about anything. I gave her another hug and just felt the weight of the world was off my shoulders. I told mom that I didn’t get much sleep last night and I was going to go to my room to sleep awhile. She said, “just remember you are my son, and I will always love you.”

I began to tear up again and said, “thanks mom, I love you too.”

I was down to my last semester of high school, and I had to get a plan together for after graduation. My coming out had gone so much better than I expected, I had a newfound confidence. Chris was true to his word and remained the best friend anybody could have, mom as always supported my every decision offering her opinion when needed. I hadn’t come out to everyone yet and mom or Chris didn’t share the news either except to Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen. They took news ok, but Uncle Jack did seem a little distant after that. I was too busy getting ready for college, so I just sort of put it out of my mind for now.

After working in the greenhouse for the past couple years, I decided that I wanted to study botany and horticulture. I talked to Mr. Phillips at length and after his advice and encouragement, I chose to go to the University that was about two and a half hours away. I had always felt that I wanted to live in the city, although I enjoyed the farm, I never saw myself living there forever. I thought about my grandpa, dad and Uncle Jack never living any more than 20 miles from where they were born and thought that there was more to this world than North Bluff.

Chris had decided to go the community college to study diesel mechanics and wanted to work at the John Deere dealer that was in the neighboring town. He was happy that I was looking forward to city life and he said that once we were both settled into school he would come visit and I could show him around. After graduation I worked my last summer for Mr. Phillips, he wished me well and told to be sure to stop in anytime that I was home. I promised that I would.

I thought about him saying “when I was home”, I said to myself this was home, but not for long, I had a new home waiting for me.