The mentor opens his toolbox. The apprentice opens his slaves. Two men kneel and kiss shoes nobody asked them to kiss. A broken wrench teaches more than the manual ever could: warmth withdrawn is sharper than any fist. Over pool, the first debt is planted. In a truck, the mentor's locked door rattles.
The son finds his father's scent on the slave's body and follows it inside. A dark kitchen becomes communion — mouth tracing where hands have been, the opening already shaped. Mornings hold because clothing holds. Then an innocent correction is seen by the wrong eyes, and a plate of chicken through a half-open door is the only language left.
A broke kid steps off a bus into a city that runs on collars. He watches, learns, files everything. A starving slave mounts him before he can set the terms. A man is unmade through a wall. In a shower, a single phrase reorganizes a nervous system. By the time the mentor finds him, the weapon is already loaded.
Nate’s name lit up my phone again this morning, and I let the glow sit there in my hand until the screen went dark. I knew I'd see him again. That filled me with fear and longing.
They were just two straight guys blowing off steam after work. Now Andy’s waking up in bed with Scott, replaying every look, every touch, and realizing this wasn’t just drunk sex. Nothing feels simple anymore, and Scott is turning out to be a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.
It seemed like I loved Jordan more every single time I saw him. Even every single time I thought of him, which was pretty much non-stop now. But I couldn’t help but worry about the future. A coming game. Life beyond games. What to do. How to live. Especially since I was the older of us two.
That night proved to be one of the craziest nights in my life. I couldn’t help but think of Jordan and Eddie as I fell to sleep, and couldn’t really help comparing Jordan to Jamal, and myself to Eddie.
I was terrified more than Jordan was of where this might go, only beat by how terrified I might be if it somehow stopped going. I quietly knew I was cocky, proud and arrogant, even if there might be some good reasons for some of it. But Coach Woods really was saving me. From myself, more than anything.
It seemed Shep, Gary and Jeff were all happily exhausted, as they just layed there, with Shep’s and Gary’s cocks still buried in Jeff’s tightening hole. So peaceful, somehow. So satisfying. And yet again it was Jeff who broke the silence: “Sorry if I’ve taken up too much of your time today, Shep. Hope I haven’t upset either one of you.”
I felt so different as we walked off the field. I couldn’t even get into wondering about how much coach already suspected, or even knew.
I was horny in such a weird way. And horny just sounded stupid.
My mind was racing, as I made sure Jordan was resting, for real. I listened to his breathing. Even watched and felt his chest rising and falling. I thought about it. About everything. He looked so peaceful. I felt so peaceful. He was breathing so peacefully. My heart was as calm as I could remember. And my cock as hard as ever. And somehow ever bigger.
I closed my eyes and thought of everywhere Jordan had licked me. I even fingered my own ass, and brought the finger up to my nose. I knew that was his cum, as I licked it off.
So the increasingly odd thing was that I was somehow both a top and a bottom here. I knew I had actually anticipated this happening way longer than he had, although I generally knew he was smarter than me. Just not emotionally. I knew I was physically stronger than almost anyone I knew, so of course including Jordan. Just don’t tell my sore ass that.
I kept wondering if these somehow elevated feelings were going to keep me from going hard, but somehow they kept me from ever going soft. All sorts of things I had seen as almost depraved somehow now seemed elevated.
“You are so clueless it’s adorable. Everyone sees you as the one with the big ears and the big heart. But no one knows shit about you. I still wonder if that’s how you lured me.”
Fuck. I had bit him so hard, in so many places, this week. And more than feeling guilty, I found myself wondering why I had waited so long. Why I hadn’t bitten even more? Even harder.
I had also never met anyone so seemingly simple, and yet almost always so damn complicated. Nicest person around, with this quiet little dark side that always stayed hidden. Except that now I might even be seeing some of that. Always being confided in, but when I looked at it carefully seldom confiding in anyone. Except somehow me...
Damn. I wished I could be there, quietly crawling into bed with him. I even quietly cried in my truck at the thought of how wonderful it would be to be naked with him, all night long. Fuck. I never cried. Ever.
But I had already put months into just getting to know this guy, who had already proven to be so different from anyone I had ever met. So I didn’t really want my cock’s desires to ruin this somehow.
As Laurie and Chris fly out of a window, Lewis and Seth venture into the world of dreams. Meanwhile we meet a disaffected girl with fantastic hair just trying to get through her Saturday night.
As Lewis waits to learn more about Evangeline, questions lead to more questions, and we travel back in time to learn the origin of Chris Ashby and his first dealings with witches.
Lewis Dunharrow would rather stay home than go out to the club, but once dragged to a bar by the lake, he meets Chris Ashby, and so both of their lives are changed.
As we conclude the story of Efrem and Isaac, we also conclude the stories of Jay and Michael and all four move forward out of the old broken world into a new one.
Fenn pronounces Adele and Simon cute. Todd gets a crash course in Judaism. Paul fails to fit in and our young friends attend their first college party where Chad gains cool points (maybe?) and Claire gains a reputation.
In the beginning of PART FOUR Noah heads out of Rummelsville, Brendan and Kenny head to college and Dena and Milo receive quite an education of their own.