Seth’s Perspective
I was lying in bed on New Year’s Day morning, hungover after are hugely successful New Year’s Eve party. I opened my eyes to see Zach laying on his side next to me staring at me. When he saw my eyes open, he kissed me tenderly and said, “You ready for the best year of our life until next year?”
I smiled and just said “yup.” As I looked at him, I started thinking about how I thought he was this homophobic, straight jock when I first met him, but he turned out to be this sappy, sweet, gay romantic, and one of the kindest souls I had ever known… and he was mine for life. With that thought in mind I got up ready to start the new year. I jumped in the shower and then got dressed. By the time I came out of the bedroom the entire population of the duplex was in our living room waiting on me.
“It’s about time, princess” Eli chided. “Let’s go eat.” We piled into the cars and headed to Ma Fischer’s. We were all hungover during breakfast and being very quiet for our group. Eli and Brian were leaving for the airport right after breakfast to meet Scotty and Kev and head back to Phoenix.
Zach looked over at Brian and asked, “why were you sleeping on the couch this morning, was the bed too small for the two of you?”
Brian looked up from his breakfast, shot Eli a grin and with a fake scowl said, “Four’s a crowd.” I didn’t get it, but Cam and Eric snickered and Eli turned a deep shade of red. I just looked at Zach confused. We were obviously missing an inside joke, but these guys weren’t about to tell us. Apparently, my brothers had a good time.
“Hey Max, what happened to you last night? You disappeared after midnight” I asked switching the subject.
“I took Witchy and went up to Brody’s place to sleep” he said quietly. No one responded, he really missed Brody. It was clear he was falling in love with the guy and didn’t seem to want to talk about it. So, I looked over at Cam and Eric and switched the subject again.
“Your friend Travis and his boyfriend seem like nice guys.” Eric turned red, Cam just muttered “uh huh” and Eli snickered. I had no idea what the fuck was going on but everyone was quiet and no one was talking about the night before. One thing was for certain; I missed a whole lot last night. I had some idea of what was going on… I heard sex sounds coming from downstairs, and there were more than two voices. Then I heard a woman’s voice coming through the bedroom wall connected to the spare room. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what happened… but I’m sure I’d hear all the stories eventually.
Even in our hungover state we had fun joking and laughing together. I was so glad my brothers came to hang out with us for a couple of nights, I was gonna miss them when they left. But I had plenty of other stuff to occupy my mind. Classes were starting the next day, my internship was starting in another week, and I was hunting for a car. I only had about three thousand bucks saved up so my options were minimal. Kev offered me his Jeep, Brad offered me the TT, and Zach was fine with me using the GTI. The GTI was great but ever since my little ice incident on the freeway I was worried about wrecking it. That car was Zach’s pride and joy (I know, so was I), he earned it on his own and if I wrecked it, I’d feel awful. Plus, I really wanted my own car, something that was mine, something I earned… just like Zach had done. I didn’t need cool, or pretty, or new; I needed reliable and affordable. Something that would get me from the duplex to work without costing me a million dollars in repairs every week. Basic transportation. But like I said my options were minimal so far. Everything in my price range was over ten years old, had over 150,000 miles on it, and was falling apart. At least I had the GTI until I found something.
The first week of classes sucked! The only class I liked was my Advanced Psychology class with Professor Ayers. I was taking a bunch of general requirement courses to get them out of the way and to be blunt… they all sucked. In addition, I was working as many shifts as possible at Starbucks to try to boost my car fund since I would only be able to work on the weekends once my internship started. I did meet a knew friend, Emmet. I had seen Emmet around campus before and we had four classes together this semester. Emmet was cute with his swimmers build and curly brown locks. I couldn’t figure out if he was gay, straight, or what but he started sitting next to me in all our classes and struck up a conversation with me. We decided to be study buddies, I did good with study buddies and this semester none of my housemates were in any of my classes, so I was happy to hook up with Emmet. All in all, the week was all classes and work, plus January in Wisconsin just sucks in general. I was looking forward to the weekend, I was working the Saturday morning shift, then off for the rest of the weekend to rest up for the first day of my internship.
It was Friday night and we were all downstairs having a movie night, eating popcorn, and watching some stupid shit that Eric and Zach had picked out, when we heard a horn blasting. And blasting. And blasting. It was coming from the backyard and we all went outside to check it out. There was Brody’s old red Jeep in its parking spot with Brody standing next to it with the door open, leaning inside beeping the horn.
Brody’s Perspective
I pulled into my parking space and pulled the emergency break up; I was finally back home in Milwaukee. I left at four in the morning and drove straight through, it took me over seventeen hours and I only stopped to get gas and hit a drive thru a couple of times. I was wiped out, but damn I needed to see Max. We finally were connecting in North Carolina and I missed the bejesus out of that little redhead. I talked to him from the road less than an hour ago and told him I was going to leave North Carolina in the morning, I wanted to surprise him. I laid on the horn hoping he would come out, it was late and I’m sure I was pissing off a few neighbors, but I didn’t care, I only had one thing on my mind. It was cute and covered in red hair and freckles. They all finally came out of the house; Max was hidden behind the others.
“Brody’s back!” Zach yelled and they all cheered and started walking towards the Jeep to help me unload.
Max walked slowly towards me trailing behind the rest of them. When he got to me, he punched my arm and said, “You fucker! I just talked to you and you said you weren’t leaving until tomorrow.”
I just smiled at him and said “SUR-priiiise, Maxwell.” Max didn’t say a word, instead he wrapped his arms around me and we just stood there while Zach unzipped the back window of the Jeep and the others pulled all my stuff out. I was shy and wasn’t about to kiss Max in front of them, but gotdammit I wanted to… real bad. We let go of each other and the guys helped me carry all my stuff up to my place. “Hey, Where’s Witchy?” I asked the guys once we were in my studio.
“I think she’s hanging out at our place I’ll go find her” Seth said. He and Zach went down to get her and all her stuff, they came back up about fifteen minutes later and Seth handed Witchy over to me as Zach put all her crap on the kitchen floor. I was happy as hell to see her I missed her stuck up little ass. Witchy on the other hand couldn’t give two shits about that I was back. She completely ignored me, punishing me for leaving her. I hugged her anyway; she’d get over it.
Zach brought a sixpack with him when they came back up and handed everyone a beer. I wasn’t keen on the guys getting too comfortable. I drove straight through to be with Max and that’s all I wanted to do. Be with Max. I shot Seth a look of desperation, begging him to help. He was more intuitive than the others and I knew he would get my message.
He got it. “Welcome back, Brody. Hey guys let’s go finish the movie. You can join us after you get unpacked if you want.” He said and I thanked him for the offer. Cam got the hint, Eric got the hint, Max mouthed a ‘thank you’ across the room to him, but Zach… UGH! Zach was awesome, but dang he could be so dense.
“I wanna hear about Brody’s house” Zach said as he settled in on my small couch. He took a sip of his beer, then looked around and saw us all staring at him. “What?” he asked looking at Seth who raised his eyebrows and nodded his head towards me and Max. He finally got it! “Oh, yeah, um… let’s go finishing watching the movie” He said and they all headed out the door leaving me alone with Max. FINALLY.
I wrapped him tightly in my arms and whispered in his ear “gotdammit I missed you Maxwell,” he hugged me tighter.
“I missed you too you redneck” he whispered.
“I like the new do, and the beard” I said looking at his perfect, smiling face as I held his chin in my hand, then kissed him. He kissed me back; dear lord we made out for like twenty minutes. His lips felt so dang good, I just didn’t wanna stop kissing him, and hell why should I? I drove through seven states to do it.
“I can’t believe how much I missed you” Max said, “I mean, hell we only spent a few days together right?”
“Yup” I said. “Just a few days. That’s all it was.” Then we kissed some more. We both knew it was bigger than just a few days together. We were falling for each other. The thing about me is that I didn’t fall for people; it’s not my nature. I was a private guy, Dylan called me a loner. I just never felt the need to have another person around all the time. But Max is the kind of guy that was always in a relationship. He told me that he had a boyfriend in high school even though he was still questioning his sexuality. Then he met Eric, then Cam joined them, now there’s me. At first, I was worried that I would just be one guy in a long string of guys, and that scared me. But I had a lot of time to think while I was in North Carolina working on the house, and I was able to rationalize falling for him. Firstly, if I was just another guy in a long string of guys, then I was. Right? I mean I was a loner before Max, and if he moved on, I’d be a loner again. Secondly, his eyes told me all I needed to know. He wanted to be with ME (not just someone, but ME) as much as I wanted to be with him. And finally, this was bigger than both of us so I decided to ride the wave.
Our kiss ended and we just stood there looking into each other’s eyes and smiling. Smiling huge, like I aint never smiled before.
“Can I stay here with you tonight?” Max asked.
“I was hoping you would, I mean hell I drove all damn day just to see you.” He grinned and snickered as we made our way to the bed, stripping down to our underwear on the way. I wrapped my arms around him and spooned him. We continued to talk while we laid there. I told him about how the house was progressing. We had finished the master bathroom and had ripped the second bathroom out. Dylan and Dad were going to keep working on it for me, then during Spring break I was going back to finish it up and start working on the kitchen. Max listened to my update and asked a lot of questions like he had a vested interest.
“You made up your mind, didn’t you?” He asked me. “You’re moving back there, aren’t you?” I was quiet. I had thought a lot about it while I was home and I really did want to move back. I couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there six years ago, but now I was different. I was stronger than I used to be and I didn’t need the world’s approval anymore. I just needed to be me and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. But the truth is, I was hoping that by the time he graduated, Max would be ready to come with. After a long silence, I answered.
“Kinda” I said. “I surprisingly loved being home, but the best part of the trip was when you were there.” I squeezed him a little tighter and let out a heavy sigh, this kind of stuff wasn’t easy for me to talk about. I was a private guy… I think that’s what I liked about Max. He got me. I didn’t usually have to talk about this stuff with him because he just got it. “This is a hard discussion for me, Max.”
His whispering voice said, “I know, you don’t have to say anything.”
“Yeah, I do.” I said as I continued to whisper in his ear. “We just started to date, then all this shit with Grammaw and the house happened so fast and changed everything” I paused as I ran my fingers across his bare chest. “I feel like all of a sudden, I gotta make a bunch of life decisions. I thought I had a couple more years before I had to think about this stuff.”
“You do have a couple of years, Brode” Max said. He started calling me ‘Brode’ I always hated that shortening of my name, but coming from Max, I loved it. Oh hell, who am I kiddin’, he could call me late for dinner and I’d love it! “You don’t have to decide shit.” His hand was on top of mine as I ran it up and down his naked torso, almost like I was petting him. It felt good to be there with him like this, holding him, sharing with him, listening to him. “Your dad and Dylan will take care of the place until you figure it out. Right? So why rush a decision?” He said trying to solve my problem, but the house wasn’t my big concern, Max was. Hell, I was falling for him. “What about me? I know it’s early, but do you just want to date casually, or do you want something more?” It was the biggest question anyone had ever asked me… but the easiest to answer.
“I want to pursue something more with you.” There I said it. I told Max I wanted more. “I mean, you’re right, I got until I graduate to figure it all out. Right?” I paused, squeezing him again, “what about you? What do you want?”
“I think you.” He said. My heart started beating so hard and he felt it. He pulled out of my arms, turned to face me, and put his hand on my chest. “Your heart is racing” he said looking in my smiling eyes. “I didn’t plan on falling for you, and it’s way too soon to know what’s going to happen, but I want to see where this goes.”
“Could you see yourself living a simple life with me in North Carolina? No big city. Just us, Our house. A couple of dogs maybe…”
“And Witchy, don’t forget her” Max said caressing my face and smiling.
“Yep, and Witchy” I said. “Not to mention Dylan, Daddy, Betty Ann, and a whole bunch of other redneck relatives you aint even met yet.” We were looking into each other’s eyes and smiling this whole time as we laid there and spoke seriously about what the world might look like if we were together. “You’re a city boy, Red. Could you really live like that?”
“For you? Yes.” I loved that answer and hated at the same time. He wanted to be with me, but I didn’t want him to give up his dreams because of me.
“What about for you? Would you be happy?” I asked.
“I grew up in Minneapolis, I did the big city thing. Even before you came along, I figured I’d end up take a teaching job in a small town after graduation anyway. Now I’m thinking about that life amplified with you in it.” Max paused, caressed my cheek again, then said “You might fit in to my dream perfectly. Can we just date and figure out all this heavy shit later” then his cute little ginger face, covered in that starter red beard of his smiled at me and his stunning hazel eyes glistened in the dim light. Shit, I’d have given him anything he wanted at that moment.
“That sounds like a good plan. Let’s date and figure out the heavy shit later” I whispered into his lips as I kissed them. Our hands started roaming each other’s bodies as we lay there in just our underwear. It was cold in my studio, so we moved under the covers. The heat had been on low for a few weeks and the old furnace was just kicking in. Max pulled off his underwear, then he pulled mine down to my ankles and I kicked them off. He ground his warm body against mine and my cock started to harden. I pushed back against Max’s already rigid piece, damn his warm body felt amazing grinding against mine. I was so damn happy to be with him again. I just enjoyed the feeling of his body against mine, and… well just being there. Damn I missed him.
Max slid down under the covers and made his way to my swollen member kissing it gingerly, then he gave it a long lick from bottom to top, engulfing it and taking me down his throat when he got to the head. Gotdamn, it felt so good. He swirled his tongue around my shaft as moved up and down giving me amazing pleasure. I rested my hand lightly on the back of his head, his short red hair was so soft between my finger, I rubbed the shaved sides of his head with my free hand, damn the stubble made me even harder. There was something so innocent, yet so masculine about him at the same time and it drove me insane. Max expertly worked on my tool bringing me to the edge and then stopping several times. I decided to return the favor.
I put my hands on the side of Max’s face and pulled him back up, he lay next to me and we kissed some more. His lips were so soft and I loved it, which was a new feeling for me. Sex was fine, but kissing was so… so… so intimate. Because of my social anxiety it was hard for me to enjoy that kind of intimacy or someone else touching me, but when it came to Max, I had no issues or inhibitions. I moved from our kiss to his nipples and licked my way down to his pale white manhood with the bright red head. I took him all the way down my throat pulling playfully on his balls as I did. His moans were muffled by the sheet and comforter over my head but it was clear he was enjoying my efforts. He wriggled a bit pushing his hips up and my head down so that he was gently face fucking me. His response fueled me and I moved faster sucking him for all I was worth, then I moved down and sucked on his smooth, balls. Max was moaning and writhing, then he pulled the covers off us, exposing me to the cold air. Still on his back, he put his feet flat on the bed with his knees bent and pushed my head down even further, then he pulled his knees to his chest and I was face-to-face with his tight, pink pucker. Seriously, it was less than an inch from me and I examined it closely, closer than I had ever looked at anyone’s hole before. It was smooth and pink with tiny little red hairs around it, Max made it wink at me. I had never, I mean NEVER licked another guy’s hole, but it was right there, and it was Max. It was frigging MAX. So, I did it… I stuck out my tongue and licked it. He moaned loudly and then forced my head into him.
“Oh, my fucking god, Brody, Yes!” Max said in a breathy voice encouraging me… no begging me… to do more. “Eat my hole, that feels so amazing” he chanted, along with a bunch of other obscenities, commands, and encouragement. He was lost in pleasure... pleasure that I was giving him. I was surprised at how much I was getting into it; I mean eating a guy’s asshole? Really? But I loved it, the texture on my tongue, the scent of Max’s musk in my nostrils, the feel of his hole contracting about my tongue… it was so freaking hot, and it was MAX! I couldn’t get enough of him as he pushed on my head and bucked his ass against me wanting me deeper inside him. I stayed down there for a long time, then moved on top of him and started kissing him.
He eventually pulled away from our kiss and snaked himself under me until he was swallowing me whole. He covered my cock with his saliva from underneath me, slicking it up from top to bottom before maneuvering his way back up and putting his head on the pillow. He lifted his legs holding them straight up on either side of me and said, “Please fuck me.” I looked into his beautiful eyes, the moonlight from the window making the little red hairs on his beard shimmer. How could anyone be so cute and so damn hot all at once? I centered myself between his legs and lined my cock up with his tight, saliva slicked hole. When I pushed forward, Max bit his bottom lip. I moved slowly but steadily going deeper and deeper into him while he whimpered and moaned. He was so sexy! Once I was all the way him I just held my cock deep inside for a while, then pulled out slowly. When my cockhead popped out Max’s eyes popped wide open and his hands grabbed my little ass and he desperately pulled me back in all the way. I started pumping in and out with his hands guiding my ass. “Harder” Max said as he closed his eyes again “Harder Brody!” he said louder. ‘Well, I aint gonna disappoint him’ I thought to myself and started fucking him harder than I had ever fucked anyone in my life. The look of pleasure on his face made me pump even harder.
While I was pumping Max, he was pumping his own meat. “I’m cumming Brody” He said in a lusty voice that put me over the edge.
“Me too Maxwell” I said struggling with my words as I concentrated on giving him pleasure. Suddenly, I felt a stream on hot Max’s hot cum hit my chest and felt his channel contract around my straining cock… that was it, I shot and I shot hard. My slick cum filled his bowels and made moving my hard unit in and out effortless. We were both moaning and panting as we came together. I sat back on my knees, still deep within him as he pushed against me milking every last drop out of me. I finally pulled out and laid next to him. We turned our heads to face each other, both smiling ear-to-ear.
“God, I missed you” he said and gave me a peck on the lips.
“Well, I’m back” I said into his sensual kiss, adding “I came back for you.” After a couple of minutes we jumped in my tiny shower together and cleaned up before getting back under the warm covers where I spooned Max until we fell asleep.
When we woke up Saturday morning with Witchy on the bed with us, the duplex was quiet. Everyone but Zach was at work, and Zach must’ve been sleeping in. “Go down and get dressed, I wanna take you to my favorite place for breakfast” I said to Max. About fifteen minutes later we were in my Jeep headed to the West Side.
“I thought we were going to Ma Fischer’s” Max said with a confused look on his face as we drove in the opposite direction.
“That’s y’all’s favorite place, My favorite place is on the West Side.” Max just smiled and said “cool.” We drove through the icy streets of Milwaukee in the old Jeep talking some more. I swear I aint never talked more to anyone than I did to Max. We finally pulled up to my favorite breakfast place.
The place had been there for decades and just served breakfast, lunch, and ice cream. It was kept up perfectly and everything was immaculate. I had been going there since I first moved to the city. We walked in the door, there were just a few small tables in the place, most of the seating was at a big counter. I led Max to two swivel stools that were open next to each other.
“Brody, where you been?” Said Cheryl the waitress in an accent that reminded me of home. She’s one of the reasons I kept coming back, her accent made more comfortable in this big city.
“My Grammaw passed and I had to head home for a few weeks” I said.
Cheryl expressed her condolences and we talked a little bit about my Grammaw, then she asked, “Who’s yer new friend” and I introduced her to Max. She treated him like a regular. “I love your red hair, bless your heart” she said, then asked, “Two breakfast specials?” Max looked over at the chalkboard with the special spelled out and nodded “Brody, you’re scrambled with bacon and wholewheat… how ‘bout you, Red?”
I snickered at yet another southerner calling Max Red and blessing his pea-pickin’ heart. Max caught on to what she was asking and said, “Over easy, sausage, and an English muffin.” Cheryl nodded, smiled, and gave the order to the cook at the grill. Max looked around in awe, places like this were a rare find. The food came and it was amazing as always. All I had eaten for the last couple of days was fast food on the road as I sped north to see Max. We both devoured our breakfast, Cheryl came back and set the check between us and Max snapped it up. “You paid for the first date, it’s my turn.” Then he wrinkled his nose as he looked at the bill and said to me quietly “There’s a mistake, it’s only thirteen bucks” I pointed at the sign with the breakfast special listed and Max smiled. Damn, this place is awesome… and cheap.” He pulled out a twenty and a five and left them for Cheryl. Almost a hundred percent tip, that was the sign of a good guy. My Grammaw always used to say, ‘tip breakfast waitresses big, the work just as hard as the dinner shift and the tips are lousy.’
We left and got back into the Jeep and headed back to the duplex. I was anxious to get back to my easel. I had painted a lot on my iPad Pro while I was gone, but I missed the canvas. Max had some studying to do so he grabbed his books and sat on my couch with Witchy while I painted. I usually preferred being alone, but with Max it was different. I didn’t need to talk, or entertain him, or be on. I could just be me and do my thing while he was him and did his. It was perfect.
Later that evening Max and I ate with Seth and Zach. Eric and Cam were hanging out with some new couple they had met. This was the first time I had sat down and talked with Seth and Zach since I got back. They had a lot going on, they got engaged over the break, Seth was starting a new internship the next day, and he was looking for a car. He was telling me about all the junk he was looking at, everything had high miles and he was worried about repair costs.
“Hey Seth” I said “I’m planning on selling my Grammaw’s car and puttin’ the money towards an old pick-up to help with rehabbing the house. You interested?” He asked a bunch of questions and I showed him a picture “It’s ugly, but it’s got extremely low miles and it’s like brand new. My daddy gave it the once over. It could probably use a set of tires, but he can get those for you wholesale.”
Max laughed “It’s an old lady car, Seth”
Then Zach looked at it and laughed too, but Seth smiled wide. “How much?”
“Well, my daddy says he could probably get about three or four thousand, but he found me an old pickup from a buddy of his for fifteen hundred. I’ll sell it to you for the price of the pickup. You can have my daddy put some new tires on her, and then we just gotta figure out how to get it here.”
Seth was excited about it. It was old and ugly, but reliable as a mule, easy to fix, and in his price range. Grammaw would be happy that it went to a friend who needed it and not just some redneck trying to make a buck; besides, I got a truck outta the deal so I was happy. We talked about options for getting it here, maybe Seth could go back with me at Spring Break or he could investigate hiring a transport company. Then Max said “What about Dylan? He said he wanted to come visit. Throw him a couple of hundred bucks and pay for gas and his flight back.”
“Oh, hell fire” I said. “Just pay the gas and his airfare. It’s a free vacation for him to come up and check out the city girls.” They all laughed at that. I don’t know why, I was serious. “So, with gas, airfare, tires, and a night at the bars for Dylan, it’ll probably cost you about twenty five hundred is my guess. Worth it?”
Seth was still looking at the pics on my phone and said “27,000 miles, recently tuned up, and new tires. Hell yes! You got a deal.” I laughed at how excited he was to buy an old lady car, the other two guys were laughing at him, but he didn’t care. Seth was a sensible guy. He wanted a car he could rely on and he found one.
“It may take a few weeks before we can make it happen, are you cool with that?” I asked. He was. He was ready to write me a check on the spot, it made me feel good seeing how excited he was. Grammaw would be happy. I’d call Dylan and Daddy later and see if I could make it happen. I was pretty sure I could.
After dinner Max went down to his flat and I went up to my studio. We kissed goodnight at the back door. Being with Max felt right. I hoped he felt the same.
To be continued…
