Ethan

 

 

 

 

 

I WAKE UP AND THE FIRST THING I REALIZE is that over the course of the night, I didn’t have a nightmare. I realize that I just had the best night of sleep in years.

“Good morning,” Cody says, raising his chest. I move over on to him as he wraps his arm around me.

“Morning.”

“You’re not on the couch.”

“I’m not,” I say. “I, actually, slept great last night.”

He purses his lips and I kiss him, slowly shoving my tongue into his mouth. He grabs my head on both sides and brings me in closer as I throw my body over him and sit on his chest. He rubs his hands over my stomach and smiles as I run my hands down his arms.

I rock my body back and forth as I graze his cock, still underneath his underwear. His eyes focus in on mine as I reach my hand back, shove it inside his underwear and grab his whole length in my hand.

“That feels good,” he says, arching his head back as I jerk him back and forth. I turn around and lay my chest down on his as I kiss my way from his stomach down to his hips. I slowly take off his underwear and they drop off the bed, as he kicks his feet back and forth. I force my ass back into his face and stick the tip of his cock in my mouth as he palms both ass cheeks.

He spits into the middle of them and I let out a soft moan as he rubs his thumb back and forth. I take him deeper into my mouth as he scoots back, sits up straighter and starts rimming me. He grabs my cock from underneath, jerks it back and forth and the combination of the two fills me with an intense surge of pleasure.

He tilts my cock back and sucks on the tip as I moan and jerk his up and down, punishing the tip of his cock with my tongue. He flips me onto my back and I smile as he takes my chin in his mouth and kisses me.

I swing my legs back and set them on his shoulders as he smacks his cock along my ass, teasing me with it.

“Drill me, sergeant,” I say.

He laughs and says, “Quiet, soldier.”

He spits on his cock and shoves his tip into me. I close my eyes as I feel him dive deeper and deeper into me. He grabs a hold of my cock and I play with my nipples as he speeds up, thrusting into me harder and faster.

I can feel myself getting closer to coming and I dig my hands into the sheets as he spits onto the tip of my cock and speeds up his hand motions.

“Ahhh,” I let out as I shoot all over my chest and a wave of energy leaves my body. He pulls out of me and positions himself onto me, shooting his load onto my chest and also onto the bed sheets.

“Shit,” he says, head arched back and a smile on his face.

I laugh and say, “You ruined my sheets, I think.”

He looks down, grins and says, “I’ll buy you new ones.”

He bends down and kisses me on the cheek, making his way towards the shower. I hop out of bed, check my phone and make my way into the shower after him.

“How about round two?” I say as I get behind him in the shower.

“Double or nothing, solider.”

 

***

 

 “How’d he react when you told him everything?” Hadley asks me.

“He didn’t say anything,” I say. “That’s fine, though.”

I didn’t want him to say he was sorry and that everything was OK now. I just wanted him to listen without feeling sorry for me and, hopefully, understand me a little better.

“He didn’t ask me why I stayed with him, either,” I say. “I couldn’t explain it to him if he had.”

“We all do things for reasons that no one can understand but us.”

I take a bite of my burger, smile and say, “I didn’t have any dreams last night.”

“That’s good, baby brother.”

“I think that telling him everything helped just a little. I don’t think they’ll stay away forever, but at least for right now, I’m not afraid to go to sleep. And this morning we celebrated and it was magical.”

“I don’t know how your guys’ dicks don’t fall off.”

“We know our limits,” I say, smiling.

“I didn’t think you had limits.”

“Well,” I say, “Cody has his limits. He might be in shape, but he can only go so many times. Trust me, I’ve tried. How did that dress work out for you the other night by the way?”

“It did the job,” she says. “It wasn’t as good as last time, though, so I don’t know.”

“Well,” I say, “you’re complicated, remember?”

“I kind of want to meet this Ian guy,” she says, smiling. “I still think he is probably a player, though. That or he is one of them gays like you. Either way, I keep thinking about him.”

“We’re having dinner with him soon,” I say. “I’ll show him your ugly ass face and give him your number if he’s interested.”

“Just make sure you make him aware of the fact that I’m not just looking to get fucked.”

“Marriage and kids,” I say. “I gotcha covered.”

“No,” she says, “but I don’t want to meet him and he expects a quickie in the backset of his car.”

“He doesn’t have a car,” I say. “He has a truck, though.”

She glares at me and I laugh.

“He is a cool guy,” I say. “Probably a little too fun for you, I imagine. He’d rather break a few rules than abide by them all.”

“So,” she says, “mom called me.”

“Nice.”

“She said that dad is sick.”

“Nice.”

“Ethan...”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I say. “Bad people tend to live longer in this world.”

“She said it really isn’t good. She said that he probably doesn’t have much longer and that we should come see him.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t want you to regret this later in life, Ethan.”

“He doesn’t want to see me,” I say. “He made that clear years ago.”

“Maybe he regrets it all,” she says.

“He hasn’t tired contacting me once since I left for college.”

“You do what you want,” she says. “You only have yourself to blame if you feel like shit once he’s gone.”

“I’ll be sure to take note of that, Had.”

My phone vibrates on the table and I flip it over, expecting to see a message from Cody.

Soon.

It’s from an unknown number and my stomach instantly turns sour as I wonder who in the fuck it could possibly be.

“What?” Hadley says as she notices the look on my face.

I push my phone over to her and she squints her eyes as she focuses in on the message.

“What the fuck?” she says.

“I don’t know,” I say.

“Is this the first time you’ve gotten something like this?”

“Yes.”

“Ethan…”

“I swear,” I say, throwing my hands up in front of my chest. “Maybe it’s just Elliot messing with me. They’ll be back in a few weeks.”

“Or maybe it’s some sick fucker who is planning to do something to you.”

“Or maybe it isn’t.”

“If it happens again,” she says, “make sure you tell me.”

“I will.”

She takes a picture of the screen with her own phone and shoves the phone back over to me. I realize that it probably isn’t Elliot and that she’s right; someone’s planning to do something to me and I can’t handle the idea of what that is or who is going to do it. Hopefully, though, it is Elliot because I can’t take any more stress.

 

***

 

I get home from work and immediately plop myself down onto the couch. I close my eyes and debate on whether to take a nap or wait for Cody to get off of work.

My phone starts ringing and it’s someone Skyping me. It’s Elliot and I instantly smile with glee because I haven’t talked to him in weeks.

“Well,” I say, “how’s my favorite Britt doing?”

“He’s good,” he says. “Should have the accent mastered by the time I’m home.”

“I can’t believe you’ll be home the weekend after next. I’ve missed you, buddy.”

“I’ve missed you, too. Sorry I haven’t got a hold of you for a few weeks. I’ve been working nonstop and trying to get things figured out with a publisher in Chicago for when I come back over seas.”

“Are they going to merge?”

“Yep,” he says. “Thank God. They had no problem with my going back home because I interviewed my replacement for over here yesterday, but they’re still sad I’m leaving.”

“So what, you’re going to run things over here?”

“They’re adding on, I guess you could say, and I’m going to lead all the new stuff and there will be two of everything.”

“Is Will excited?”

“He can’t wait to come back,” he says, laughing. “He’s practically creaming in his jeans when he looks at the calendar. He misses his sister and he hasn’t got to see his nephew since he was born.”

“Well,” I say, “that will be good.”

I look across the room and don’t say anything. He notices me dazing and says, “You OK? I know you weren’t feeling great the last time we talked.”

“I’m fine,” I say. “I finally told Cody everything.”

“Everything?”

“I mean, not every single thing that ever happened, but he gets the gist of it all. He officially hates him, I think. He didn’t say anything after I told him, but he was really red and I can tell when he’s pissed off. He doesn’t know what Rick looks like, though, so there really isn’t anything he can do.”

“Well, good,” he says. “Maybe he’ll beat the shit out of him.”

“By the way, did you text me today? Just one message that just had the word soon? It was a number I didn’t recognize.”

“No,” he says, laughing. “Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I didn’t figure that it was you, but I just wanted to make sure.”

“Who do you think it was?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t know if I even want to know.”

“That’s weird, Ethan. Maybe you should have it traced or something. It would be different if they were asking you out or even just saying hey, but the word soon?”

“I was with Hadley when I got it and she took a picture, so I figure she has that taken care of already.”

“Do you think it’s—“

“I don’t know.”

“I’m sure it isn’t,” he says. “Honestly, don’t worry about it. How’s Cody?”

“Good,” I say. “Relived, I think, because he knows what’s wrong with me now.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Ethan.”

“I know,” I say. ‘I meant the things I’ve been going through. He came home last night and told me that he loved me and that he would always be there for me. I broke down and just laid it all out for him.”

“Well, good,” he says. “Take it from me, not telling him things and not telling him how you’re feeling is worse than actually telling him. Not knowing makes you jump to conclusions that are stupid and, most of the time, completely different than what the truth actually is.”

“Any more news about the wedding?”

“No,” he says. “I’m letting Will handle all of that. I don’t care what we do - I just want to get married. He wants to have a little celebration, though, with you guys and his sister. Which is perfectly fine, I just hope he doesn’t have some big thing planned.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t want it all,” he says. “I just want Will and all that money that would go into a wedding can go towards other things like the house that we are planning to buy once we get back.”

“That’s exciting,” I say, smiling. “Please let me come with you and your hot fiancé to pick one out.”

“Of course, Ethan,” I hear Will say behind him.

I instantly get red and laugh. Will closes the front door and walks over to the couch.

“I was just telling your lover that I can’t wait to see you two get married,” I say.

“He’s being stubborn,” he says, kissing Elliot on the head and sitting down on the couch. “He just wants to go to the courthouse when we get back, but I want people to see it and celebrate it with us.”

“I agree,” I say. “I’d be pissed if I wasn’t there.”

“See,” Will says, looking over to Elliot. “We have to have a wedding - that’s all there is to it.”

“We’re going to have dinner with you and Cody once we get back, by the way,” Elliot says.

“Okay,” I say. “That sounds like a plan.”

“I’m gonna go, buddy,” he says, “but I’ll talk to you later. And if you need anything, make sure you call me.”

“I will.”

“Bye, Ethan,” Will says as he gets up off the couch.

“Bye, guys.”

 

***

 

 “Ian said that he’s free Saturday night,” Cody says. He sits down beside me on the couch and puts his feet up on the coffee table.

“That’s fine,” I say. I lay into his shoulder and he rubs my head as he flips through the channels on the TV.

“Did you have a good day?” he asks me.

“Yeah,” I say. “I went to lunch with Hadley and work was fine.”

“Good,” he says.

“I talked to Elliot today, too.”

“Oh?” he says. “Are they doing good?”

“Yeah,” I say. “They’re coming back next weekend. He wants us four to have dinner.”

“That’s fine,” he says. “I don’t work next weekend, either.”

I’m not going to tell him about the text. It will only worry him and after what I told him about Rick, I don’t want to add any reasons for him to worry about me more than he probably is right now.

“My brother called me today,” he says.

“Did you answer it?”

“No,” he says. “He left me a voicemail. It said that he needed to talk to me about something.”

“Maybe you should call him back,” I mumble.

“If he has something he needs to tell me that bad,” he says, “then he can leave it on the voicemail.”

“Hadley told me today that our dad is sick.”

“Like, dying sick?”

“Yeah,” I say. I lean off his shoulder and put my hands behind my head. “Mom told her that he probably doesn’t have much time left.”

“Are you gonna go see him?”

“No,” I say.

“Why not?”

“Why won’t you talk to your brother?”

“Never mind,” he says. “It’s your choice, obviously, but you might regret it if you don’t go is all I’m getting at.”

“I know,” I say, “but I just don’t care right now. Honestly, I don’t have any feeling about the fact. I haven’t talked to him since I left years ago.”

“We haven’t talked about your dad,” he says. “I mean, I know why you dislike him so much, but you’ve never really told me about him, in general.”

“We haven’t really talked about your brother, either,” I say back, raising my eyebrows.

“There isn’t much to him other than what he did to my mom.”

“There isn’t much more to my dad, either, besides the fact that he doesn’t support that I’m gay.”

“My brother isn’t dying, though,” he says.

“You don’t know that.”

“Fine,” he says.

He takes out his phone and holds it up to his ear. I realize that he’s calling his brother and I sit back and smile as he gets off the couch and leans against the wall.

“Hey,” he says. “I’m fine. What’d you need?”

I can hear a voice on the other end, but I can’t make out what he is saying.

“When?” he says. “Well, good for you.”

He pauses again, waiting, and says, “We’ll see.”

He hangs up the phone and sits it on the coffee table. I look up at him as she leans against the wall again and I say, “Well?”

“He’s fine,” he says

“What’d he need?”

He makes his way back towards the bedroom and says, “He’s moving to Chicago.”