Seth’s Perspective
Cay and I made our way back to BroMax to unload his things, the ride was silent at first but I had to speak, I needed him to know I understood. “You know, I grew up in a house like that” I said as I looked forward and drove us towards BroMax Farm. “My father was a religious, homophobe who was king of his castle and blamed his shitty treatment of his family on god. And my mother, she was an indifferent bystander who enabled him and did his bidding. The main difference between your situation and mine was that I had a bunch of siblings to help carry the load.” I continued to tell him my full, personal story. That was something I didn’t do a lot with our clients, but in this case, I thought he needed to hear it. Cay listened in disbelief as I told him my family history including Brad’s abduction, the court battle for guardianship, a decade of estrangement, and the unexpected twist of my father coming out to us and reconciling after my mother passed, a decade later.
Cay scoffed at the end of my story, “well, our stories may be kinda similar, but there’s no way the ending will be the same. Even if my father were gay, he’d jump in front of a train before he’d admit it.”
“I would’ve said the same of my dad, hell Cay, I could never have guessed things would turn like they did, reality throws you curveballs… I mean you can’t write this shit!” I said with a lighthearted scoff. “But you need to do what I did back then, take control and move on with your life without them.” The sad, rejected teen sitting in the passenger seat nodded and took a deep breath as he continued to stare straight ahead. “And you have my promise that you don’t have to do it alone.”
“Thanks” he said sounding defeated.
The rest of our trip was quiet until the phone rang through the Bluetooth in the truck. Of all the people in the universe it could’ve been… it was my dad. I answered it, “Hey Dad, I’m in the truck with a villager and you’re on speaker” I warned.
“Hello, Seth and unknown villager” my father joked in a happy tone. Cay stared at me while I caught up with my Dad on everything and nothing at the same time. When we hung up, I looked at Cay and said, “two years ago that man was a complete stranger to me. My enemy. I swear to you, he and I were in the exact same place you and your father are.”
Cay shook his head, “That’s total BS, Seth.”
“Ask Max, Brody, or even my husband Zach. They all lived through different parts of the story with me” I responded as I pulled into the BroMax Farm driveway. My Atlas was parked by the barn, I pulled the pickup next to it and Cay and I got out.
We went into the house, but no one was there so we headed up to Brody’s office. Brody had all the kids laying on the floor working on an art project (it was like he was the demon child whisperer). He had rolled out a long slab of paper on the floor and all the kids had crayons and were working on a different spot of the giant paper. Teddy was the first to notice us. “Caleb’s home” he yelled excitedly and then ran up to his houseguest and hugged his legs before he tugged on his arm and pulled him towards his artwork, “Look what I made.”
“HeLLo CaLeb” Izzy said, perfectly annunciating every “L” with a proud/smartass smile on her adorable little face. Freddy acknowledged him but was into his project and kept working, Ali dropped his crayons and waddled over to me and put his arms out… such a little cuddler that kid was.
Brody looked at Caleb knowing he probably had a rough day, “so, how’d it go?” he asked.
“Well, I got a bunch of boxes of my stuff and I lost my parents” Caleb said with the same defeated tone he used on the ride to BroMax Farm. The reality that they had abandoned him was settling in. I knew what that feeling all too well.
The kids went back to work and the three of us sat in a corner of the office and talked. “Brody, you were around before my dad reconciled with us. On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad was he?” I asked.
“On a scale of 1 to 10?” Brody scoffed, ”With all due respect to the man your father is now, and your relationship with him, I’d say about a 50” Brody said, then leaned in and lowered his voice to a whisper so the kids couldn’t hear, “That mother fuckin’ religious, homophobic nut bag is damn lucky that all Scotty did as punch him” then he went on to tell Caleb the now legendary story of Scotty punching my dad and some of the things he observed from afar. Caleb was wide eyed as he listened. Brody’s story lined-up with mine.
“But y’all get along now?” Caleb asked.
“Well, we have a relationship, but it took ten years of estrangement and my mother dying for us to get there” I answered honestly, but found it difficult to explain our relationship and how we got there… difficult from an emotional standpoint and difficult from a ‘it doesn’t make a shitload of sense’ standpoint.
“Let’s put it this way, y’all” Brody piped in. “Seth is a better human bein’ than his Daddy was and wanted his kids to have a granpaw, and it was clear his daddy was fightin’ his own demons. Ever-body got their shit.” A big grin appeared on my face when Brody said that… he got me.
“It’s weird, but no matter how bad my parents treated me, I always wanted a relationship with them… it’s like I craved their approval” I said.
Cay nodded his head rigorously, “Yeah! I mean it’s like they treat me like crap, reject me, kick me out, and I still want them to love me. I feel like I messed up and did something wrong… but all I did was be me.”
"And there’s nothing wrong about that at all” I reassured.
“Hail, I like ya’ just the way you are” Brody said sounding like Mr. Rogers. The kids overheard him.
“I like you too Cay” Teddy yelled from his spot on the floor.
“Yeah, me too” Freddy chimed in.
“I LLLLIke you too” Izzy said emphasizing the L and giggling (apparently this was her thing with Caleb now).
Ali just dropped his crayons and waddled over to us and sat on Cay’s lap. “It’s unanimous, Cay… your parents are just wrong” I said. We talked a little bit more before we all helped Cay unload his possessions into his room, and the attic above the BroMax garage. Before we left, I said, “I know this isn’t how you imagined your last semester of high school going… but it’s what you got. You’re gonna be okay, buddy.”
He gave a forced smile, “thanks, Seth” then he surprised me with the words, “I’m sorry your parents sucked too.” Shit, I couldn’t help but hug my kindred spirit before I loaded my kids into the Atlas and headed home. I left the keys in the pickup for Brody so he could come over and trade it back for his Gladiator later.
The rest of the week was typical, the strangest moment was a call from Trevor. He was still in Phoenix helping Ash move and he was ready to drop everything to move there with Ash. Honestly, our goal was to give all the villagers a good start so they could move on to achieve greater things, some would stick around Wilmington, some (like Ash) would move on, but I wasn’t convinced Trevor had thought this through. He tried to convince me that he had a plan and was following his dream to eventually move back to Southern California… well, he kinda convinced me. Trevor was wilder than Ash, compulsive, and prone to doing stupid shit. I hoped he wasn’t making the move just because he was falling for Ash, or saw him as a security blanket, or because he felt he needed to be his keeper. Ash didn’t need a keeper (and he sure as hell didn’t need his heart broken)! He was stronger than he gave himself credit for and would be fine on his own, besides he had a support network to catch him if he fell. But it wasn’t up to me to decide how these guys lived their lives, all I could do was guide them all, I couldn’t make their decisions for them. By the end of the call, it was clear to me that we were about to have two open apartments on the second floor of Harrington House… he had his mind made up. I DID, however, convince him to come back to Wilmington to give his two weeks’ notice at the candle factory and tie up loose ends. I also promised to help him find transportation. Every time a villager moved on it was bittersweet. We existed to help them move on, but I missed every last one of them… and in this case, I just felt Trevor was leaving too soon.
Friday night was pizza night at BroMax Farm. We didn’t usually invite the whole damn village, but this was kind of a welcome party for Cay. He needed to be surrounded by people who understood what he was going through, and more importantly, success stories, and he was. Everyone was there. Even Ella joined us, she usually just delivered the pizza and left, but Ricky’s Dad told her we could be her last delivery that night… she had been a great friend to Cay and made him feel more comfortable around us all. I watched as Ella introduced Caleb to all the guys at different points throughout the night. I noticed that he kept working his way back to my brother, he and Eli seemed to be bonding. That made total sense, Eli went through the same things as me, so therefore ultimately Caleb. I was his therapist and counselor, but Eli could be an objective, kindred spirit. I watched in awe as my brother empathized, and comforted the stranger. The last time I related so closely to a client, I ended up smoking cigarettes and drinking in the dark until Eli pulled me out of my funk, I hope he realized how grateful I was to him as my protector all those years. Caleb kept looking back at me as Eli spoke to him, I guessed that Eli was confirming my history.
The kids were all off playing, Sammy and his family joined for the first time since before the holidays and the three musketeers were at it again. “Dads!” Teddy yelled from across the room, “Can Freddy and Sammy come over tomorrow to ride bikes?!” Freddy and Sammy jumped in the campaign with puppy dog eyes and several elongated, ‘puleeeeeez’s.’
Rhonda (one of Sammy’s moms) suggested that the boys play at their house because they lived on a quiet culdasac where the kids could ride their bikes on actual cement. The boys went NUTS for that idea (Teddy and Freddy were tired of the gravel driveways) and the room filled with a million pleas of “puleeeeeez, can we dads, puleeeeeez, can we??!!!!” We gave in and Brody volunteered to pick up Freddy and take the boys and their bikes over to Sammy’s in the morning. Meanwhile, the girls were playing house and bossing each other around, and Ali was stacking blocks for DJ to knock down. It must’ve been hilarious, because the two of them were giggling and laughing to the point of crying. Seven kids happy as shit!
Max, Brody, me, and Zach were sitting at the dining room table, in the middle of the chaos talking to Harris and Terrance. It had been months since they had joined us for pizza night. “So, we got something to tell you guys” Harris announce.
Terrance followed up with “We’re moving back to Boston.” They caught us all off guard, I mean, we kind of suspected they were thinking about it, but… “With the boys in college out east, and my parents getting older, we want to be closer to the family.”
“We moved here to be close to the boys, they’re gone now, so, there’s really nothing keeping us here.” Harris continued. “Terrance accepted a job with a hospital there and starts in a few weeks. I’m going to finish out the school year here, then join him.” We were all kind of stunned. Max taught with Harris when he first graduated from college and moved to North Carolina, he was his first friend here.
“It won’t be the same without you guys here” Max said with a sad sincerity; we all agreed and started talking about all the good times we had had together. We weren’t that close to them, especially compared to Max and Brody, but we did home projects together, had Pizza nights together, strung Christmas lights together, and frankly, I just liked knowing our neighbors and having another gay couple on the road. They loaned their house to us for our relatives to use at Thanksgiving for the past couple of years… that was a great bonus of having them as neighbors.
“So, when y’all putting the house of the market?” Brody asked.
“Everything is happening kind of fast; we’re thinking about renting it for a year or so until we get our shit together and figure out our plan” Terrance said.
Colton and Craig were standing nearby eavesdropping, Craig cleared his throat with an “ahem” and said, “If only you knew a nice, reliable, young, couple looking for a place to rent.”
Terrance and Harris looked up at him and Colton, “Are you guys really interested?” Terrance asked.
“Depending on the rent” Craig responded. “I’m guessing it might be a little out of our league.”
“Well, we’re not looking to get rich off the place, but we need to cover the mortgage and expenses, AND we need someone who will take care of it for us.” Terrance responded.
“Well, both guys have lived with us and were awesome roommates, neat and clean… I can attest” Max said with a snicker.
“Colton rents at Harrington House, and Craig’s been livin’ in our guest house… I can confirm that they’re both damn good tenants too.” Brody chimed in. Colton and Craig both sat down at the table with us and the two couples discussed the possibility of the guys renting the house. After about a half hour, the four of them went next door to take a look. It wasn’t a done deal, but it looked as though Craig (the young man who got thrown off a Pride float by his father, came to live at BroMax and ultimately inspired The Village) and Colton (The kid who came home on his 18th birthday to find his belongings on the front long, lived in his car, and ultimately became one of the first official villagers) might become our neighbors. Pizza night broke up shortly after that, and we said goodnight and headed home.
That night as Zach and I talked in bed, I said, “Can you believe Colton and Craig might move in across the street?” That thought filled my heart and hit every emotion in me. Those two homeless teens building a life together, on our road! I really hoped things worked out.
“Yeah, that would be nice” he responded, “and we’d get to see Ella when she came home from college.”
“Nice?! Fucking Nice?!” I exclaimed back. “It would be fucking awesome! It would be proof that The Village fucking works. That we’re doing the right things and doing good in the universe!!”
Zach laughed at my revelation, “You needed more proof?” he asked. “Taylor was turning tricks, look at him now. Alejandro, Mason, and Maverick are all self-reliant and building great lives for themselves. Asher… oh my god, ASSO! If he alone isn’t proof enough that you’re making a difference in the world, what is?” Zach found my whole ‘need for proof’ amusing. I took that as a compliment. I was always so busy just trying to make sure we were helping everyone we could that I rarely stepped back and looked at the results. The thought filled me with... well, everything! Pride, love, joy, a feeling of accomplishment… purpose.
I turned and kissed Zach, then I threw back the covers, rolled on top of him and shoved my tongue down his throat. I devoured his lips and tongue before moving south. I kissed his neck, nibbled his nipples, and gave his taut abs a tongue bath as I made my way to my final destination… Zachadu. I lovingly licked his perfect manhood a few times, kissed the bulbous head, then I took that fucker deep down my throat until I choked myself on it until tears poured from my eyes. Fuck, it was so euphoric… it was just a tube of flesh, but I couldn’t get enough. I bobbed up and down using the phlegm from my throat to lube him up with my hand. I worked it up and down, twisting my hand on the upstroke and making him quietly moan in ecstasy. I inhaled deeply and took a hit of my favorite aphrodisiac… Zach’s scent. DAMN, I loved everything about him! The feel of his skin, his scent, his taste… flipping everything! Instinctively, I flipped myself around so I was on top of the man I loved in a sixty-nine position (I loved being on the bottom of this position too, but damn, I was just horny for him that top suited me just fine). I pushed my hardening member past his full, supple lips and into his warm mouth. He twisted and turned his silky tongue around my shaft quickly bringing me to full mast. I could feel the blood pulsing through my throbbing tool as it explored Zach’s mouth like a sickle probe. I swear it swelled so big that I filled every bit of his oral cavity. I took him in my mouth again, continuing my assault on his tonsils. With my mouth on his cock and my cock in his mouth I moved myself up and down, basically doing pushups on the hot, blonde, jock. Zach couldn’t resist using his hand so I did the same.
We went on like that for a while. Every time either of us got close, we’d stop and take a breather. During one of our “breaks” I could feel Zach’s hot breath on my heavy balls. DAMN! The sensation was amazing and it fueled me… enough of this edging bullshit, I was ready to fill his cavities with my spunk. I picked up the pace, and Zach did the same as we both tried to get the other to cum… as much as I tried, I couldn’t stand it and longer! Zach won and I shot my load down his throat first. He gulped and swallowed and he simultaneously shot his load down my throat. I did my damnedest to swallow it all, but some escaped out of the sides of my more-than-full mouth (trust me, Zach was more than a mouthful). After claiming our rewards, we licked each other clean, then I flipped around and we lay face-to-face and made out. We swapped cum as our loads mingled creating a taste that was uniquely me and Zach (I guess that would technically be considered Sach flavored, or maybe Zeth flavored… right?). I fell asleep with the taste of us in my mouth and the scent of us on my breath. Pure bliss.
Saturday mornings were a slower paced version of our weekday chaos. No one rushing to get dressed, feeding time is more leisurely, we all just kind of took our time… well at least usually. Freddy was hyped up for his play date with Teddy at Sammy’s house. He wolfed down his breakfast when he heard the BroMax truck crunch up the driveway. Brody and Teddy came into the kitchen (Teddy was running about a fifty feet ahead of his daddy). Izzy went nuts when Unko Bwody walked in, and invited him to breakfast “Daddy Zeff maked bacon” she said with a smile. Bacon and Unko Bwody on a lazy Saturday morning…. Izzy was in her happy place. Brody sat at the table and picked bacon off Izzy’s plate as we talked, he was taking his time.
The two boys were getting insanely impatient… they were ready to go. “C’mon, let’s load your bike into the pickup” Zach said to Freddy, and the three of them ran outside. Brody just shrugged and pilfered another strip of bacon, this time from my plate. I loved how comfortable all of us had become in each other’s homes. We were family.
Brody joked with Izzy and Ali, ate a little more bacon, then finally decided to put the boys out of their misery. “Well, I better get the boys to their playdate before they implode” he said before saying goodbye and heading out to the truck. I helped Izzy and Ali put their coats on so they could go out and say goodbye. All three kids had adjusted well to life with me and Zach, but Freddy was Izzy’s security blanket, she didn’t love when he went off without her. But, with Freddy gone it meant her and Ali had me and Daddy Zach all to themselves. We let Izzy pick what we did that morning. Tso, no shocker… the four of us played Barbies, and house, and eventually princess. She had Zach in a tierra and me in a pink Boa… poor Ali, he fit into the Cinderella dress, so he went full-on princess. The four of us had a fun morning just playing together.
We were sitting down to a lunch of chicken nuggets and yogurt (Ali’s favorite), when my phone rang, it was Ronda. “Hey Ronda, are the boys having fun?” I asked.
There was a pause, “shit” she said with a little panic in her voice, “I was hoping you could tell me. They’re missing.”
To be continued…
