Tommy
Tommy looked down at his phone when he heard its telltale pulse notification. He’d made a change in his search parameters earlier while he was supposed to be taking a piss. He hadn’t been expecting any more results, so his heartbeat sped with excitement when he saw the TBC logo from The Boys Club app pop up.
It looked like his expanded search had netted him some results, and he was desperately in need of results. He had a month left to find his replacement, and so far, his search results had turned up a big fat goose egg. Sure, there had been names on the list, but once he’d looked at their profiles and chatted with several of them, he knew their temperaments and preferences wouldn’t align.
He glanced at Cash as he sat back down beside him on the couch, happy that he was distracted by the news on TV. He rubbed his hand up and down Cash’s thigh to get his attention. When Cash’s eyes met his, Tommy gave him a sweet, innocent smile.
Wiggling his phone in the air between them, he asked, “Daddy, can I go chat with a friend from school for a while on the computer?”
Cash shook his head. “I don’t know why you don’t just talk on the phone like regular people.”
Tommy snickered. “Says the man who created a very lucrative app for phones, tablets, and computers.”
Cash’s raised brow let him know he was skating on thin ice. “You may chat with your friend for thirty minutes, and then you need to pack.”
His shoulders slumped, and he couldn’t keep a smidgen of a whine from his voice when he replied, “But it’s Friday, and I still have over a month before I leave.”
Cash gave him a baleful stare. “Boy, you are the Emperor of Procrastination. If I left you to your own devices, you’d be packing the night before. Do you know how much stuff you have all over this house? One hour a day until it’s done will keep the task from feeling daunting, and you’ll be done early. No stress.”
Tommy moved towards Cash, straddled his waist and whispered, “But, Daddy,” he gave his hips a slow roll to emphasize his point. “I can think of better ways to fill up an— Hey! Wait one second! I thought I was the King of Procrastination.”
“You were. You’ve been promoted. Congratulations.” Cash smacked his ass playfully, and then continued, “Now, the longer you sit here and try to manipulate me with your body, the less time you have to chat with your friend. Because in. . .” He looked down at his watch and back up with a gleam in his eyes. “Well, now it’s twenty-five minutes, you’ll be packing.”
“Ugh. Fine!” Not mad in the least, he bit his lip and gave another roll of his hips and leaned down to whisper, “If I’m really good, will you play ‘Daddy teaches his virgin boy how to take his dick’ tonight?”
The hands on his ass tightened, deliciously painful. Daddy growled, turned into his neck and bit him there, before whispering back, “Twenty minutes.”
With a startled, “Eeep!” he hopped off Daddy’s lap and ran to his room to check the results of his search. Establishing rapport with newcomers took time, and now he had even less of it.
Liam
On the bus ride home, Liam signed onto The Boys Club app with little hope of finding anything new. He’d had an account for six months, and while he’d found several Daddies wanting a boy, his particular kink was a rare one, even in such a small kink subcommunity as the one he belonged to. He felt like a unicorn on a pegasus farm.
He’d turned off notifications from the get go. He didn’t want to get himself hooked. When he’d first signed up with the app, he’d checked every couple of hours to see if there were any hits. He’d go in the chatrooms at night and talk with other like-minded men, making a few friends, but nothing lasting. His schedule was too erratic for that. He’d met up with several men to relieve an itch, but they’d wanted more than he was willing to give them.
He knew he was lucky that something bad hadn’t happened. He wasn’t completely stupid. Predators were everywhere. But he’d put a stop to that after realizing it wasn’t worth the effort, nor the attitude from the men when they realized he wasn’t offering up his ass for their use, even though he’d explained himself before agreeing to meet them. Because he never disclosed his real hometown, he’d have to drive for hours for a couple minutes of fun. Hours he could be sleeping or working another shift. He couldn’t justify the time sink. And how pathetic was that?
He still occasionally chatted in the forums, but he kept himself to very short stints so he didn’t get sucked in. They were addictive, like Facebook on crack, and he’d sit for hours chatting with complete strangers if he let himself. And he couldn’t let himself. He had shit to do.
He was working three jobs to help with the bills, hell, to pay all the bills. They were all equally shitty positions at equally shitty companies for equally shitty pay in an equally shitty little Podunk town in western Pennsylvania. He’d be glad to see the last of it, if he could only save up enough money to move his little sister, Ciara, and himself. That was the goal anyway. It was a lofty one, but one he couldn’t stop trying to achieve. And he was proud to say, he’d saved up quite a bit. They wouldn’t make a move until Ciara was done with high school, but when she was, they’d be leaving.
He’d never wanted to carry the burden of taking care of his family, being what amounted to a parent at fifteen, but that responsibility had landed on his shoulders regardless. The more responsibility he had to carry, the more there was to control, and the more he had to control, the more out of control he felt. The last thing he wanted was to be setting rules for his sister. In truth, what he really wanted was to have someone setting—and enforcing—rules for him.
There was nothing in his life that didn’t stress him out. It all snowballed on him until he was trampled by it and caught up in it as it rolled down a never-ending hill. He was dizzy and sick, and he wanted out, but he knew it wasn’t likely anytime soon. Hopefully, one day, someone would set down rules for him again, and he’d begin to feel calm.
Realizing that he had a notification, he did his best not to get his hopes up. He’d been down that road before, and it was always a dead end. When he opened his messages and saw an automated email from TBC informing him of new potential Daddies, his knee started to bounce with nerves. He clicked the message open and scanned the list of possible matches, but he’d seen them all before. Curious as to why he’d gotten a hit, he. . . No, wait. There was one he hadn’t seen before.
Clicking on the profile of the match, he couldn’t help but sigh at the gorgeous man pictured. There were about six different shots, and try as he might to see flaws in all of them, there wasn’t one to be found. Then he had to be a dick, right? Had to be. What was the catch? Because really, men like this didn’t just fall in people’s laps.
He scoured the profile, and when he came to the man’s list of kink preferences, he sucked in a ragged breath. They aligned with his almost perfectly. Jesus. Well that was a first. For so long, he had felt like what he wanted didn’t exist. There was a “name” for his kink, sure, but finding others that wanted that type of play was nearly impossible, at least it had been for him. But he liked everything he saw under Daddy Cash’s profile. He was starting to get really excited, until he saw the man’s location.
Fuck.
Well, that was that. Boston. Pfft. Not even in the same state. Hadn’t he put a specific distance within his search parameters? Obviously, he hadn’t. Shaking his head, he glanced down once more at that gorgeously rugged face. His phone buzzed in his hand, signaling an incoming message. Thinking it might be a message from his sister, he expected the text bubble to appear, but his eyes popped wide when he realized it was a personal message in his TBC inbox from none other than Daddy Cash.
He glanced up—frustrated that the only Daddy he’d ever seen with kinks that aligned so closely to his was states away—and realized he’d missed his bus stop. Fucking fuck. Exactly what he needed. No umbrella, and he’d just given himself an extra fifteen-minute walk home for some unattainable Daddy hours away from him across several state lines.
He tucked his phone in his backpack, zipped up his winter coat, and pulled up the hood. As he exited the bus, he was immediately pelted with sleeting rain. Five minutes later, he was freezing and soaked from head to toe. By the time he walked in the front door of their apartment, his feet were squishing in his shoes and his lips were turning blue. Tossing his backpack on his narrow, unmade bed, he yanked off his sopping uniform and threw it in the hamper.
He took a quick, hot shower to warm himself up and got dressed in some ratty sweats and a T-shirt that had seen better days. Happy that he hadn’t run into anyone when he got home, he flopped down on his bed. He knew he needed to check on his sister, but his shit mood wouldn’t do either of them any good. He hoped her night went well. He put his buds in and listened to music, knowing that would settle his nerves.
He turned his head when he heard a knock on the door. “Come in.” Ciara walked in, and his grin fell away when he saw the angry look on her face, knowing only their mother could elicit such a reaction from his lighthearted sister. “What did she do?”
Ciara shook her head and whispered, “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“Tell me.”
Ciara slid her back down the door and sat, knees bent, against the door and sighed. “She quit her job.”
“Jesus Christ, she just got it! What the fuck?”
“Shhh. She was all sad and mopey, had one too many and is sleeping it off.”
He got up and started pacing. “When the hell isn’t she having one too many? We’re not staying here through the summer, CC. We’re leaving immediately after you graduate.”
“Will we have enough saved for a deposit on a place near campus? I’m doing my best to help. Mrs. Carruthers said I could stay late three nights a week going forward. She’s working on a project for the next six months, and she’ll need someone with the girls in the evenings while Mr. Carruthers works nights. I’d just cook them dinner, I’d be able to eat there, so a free meal three nights a week, and I’d help them with their homework and get my own done. The extra money will help.”
“Yeah, but you’re still in high school. I hate that you have to work so much. I’d take on more hours myself if I could.”
She grinned. “If there were more hours in a day or more days in a week?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, that.”
She shrugged. “Well, there aren’t. Plus, I’m doing fine. It’s not too much. I can do my homework there, so it won’t cut into my study time. And really, the less time I’m here with her, the better. I’ll be eating better food and will get my work done. Honestly, I’m pretty stoked about it. It’ll work out, Liam. I promise. Pretty soon, we’ll have enough to get our own place near campus, or at least within busing distance. You could apply for school there, too.”
Shaking his head, he replied, “I think that ship has sailed, kid.”
She scoffed. “Because twenty is just so old. You had great grades in high school and were able to get your computer science associate’s degree. You could get into a lot of good colleges.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see what happens. Once we get out of this damn town, maybe I can actually use my degree. But, I’m just so goddamned sick of her shit. She fucking gets fired or quits every job she gets.”
“She’s sick, Liam.”
He shook his head. “Don’t church it up, CC. She’s the town drunk. And you know as well as I do that she’s got this down to a fucking science.”
She looked at him warily and shook her head. “It’s not like that, Li. She’s not that calculated.”
He met her gaze head on until she had to look away, a disappointed look in her eyes when she saw the truth in his. “CC, she works part time to keep herself in booze, and when she fucks up at work the first time, she starts hoarding the bottles with her paycheck because she knows she’s gonna mess up again and again until she’s fired or feels safe enough to quit. It’s just a matter of time for her.”
The tears that came to her eyes did him in, and he went to her and pulled her up, hugging her. Fuck. She didn’t need this shit. “It’s a disease, Li. You know it is. She just needs to sober up, go to those AA meetings.”
“She’ll never commit to that. You know she won’t.”
She shrugged. “No harm in trying. I’ll talk to her.”
“Go right ahead. I’m done trying to fix what’s broken in her.”
“She’s still your mom, Li. She still loves us as much as she’s able. She’s still the same woman that used to make us popsicles in the summer, paint our faces and make our costumes from scratch for Halloween, and make our favorite meals on our birthdays.”
He wasn’t going to walk down memory lane. He was done trying to make excuses for a woman that had given up on life for the bottle. He was paying the bills for them. He didn’t know what would happen when Ciara turned eighteen and the food stamps dried up. He was struggling to pay for everything as it was. Let alone with no help to pay for food. They’d be sunk. He sat back down on the bed with a huff.
“I see it sometimes. I look at her, when she’s just woken up in the morning, before she gets started on another bottle, and she gives me these looks. I can’t even describe it, but she’s in there still, Liam.”
He hung his head, clasping his fingers behind his neck, elbows on his knees. They said nothing for several minutes. “I know you don’t want to give up on her, but she’s a mess we aren’t equipped to handle. When the time comes, you’re gonna need to be strong enough to walk away.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because it’s not gonna be easy. But she’s a grown woman, and we’re basically still kids ourselves. We can’t take that responsibility on anymore, it’s not right. It’ll only drag us down and keep us here, and that’s not an option.”
“I know.” She looked up at him and he gave her disbelieving look. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not a child. I do know, Liam. It’s going to suck, but one thing about mom is that she finds a way. Maybe our leaving will be the thing she needs to get her shit together. Hell, I’d be willing to place bets she finally says yes to dating old Harley Matthews. After we skip town, we’ll hear about their wedding six months later.”
He chuckled at that, knowing she was right. Their mom had been, and still was, pursued by the town’s insurance salesman. Liam was convinced his mom was rather fond of the guy as well but had denied his every advance out of a habit that had taken root years prior. Harley had backed off when she’d gotten married then had been a bit too aggressive too soon when their dad had left them. When he finally realized it and backed off for the second time, it was too late.
He wasn’t bad really. He’d given her six months, but she hadn’t bounced back from her husband’s abandonment. Harley got lumped in with her anger with his dad, and he lost his chance. Maybe enough time had passed that she’d give him another one, but Liam wasn’t holding his breath, she was too much of a fucked up mess.
Harley was a frumpy geek with thinning hair and coke bottle glasses, but he was also a pretty sweet guy. He’d crushed on her since high school, and there weren’t a lot of single women in town, so that crush had continued on into adulthood. If she was in her right mind, she’d scoop him up. He made a good living, and he actually seemed to really care for her. The smile fell from his face when he realized she wasn’t. She wasn’t in her right mind at all.
Sighing, he looked at his sister. “We can hope that’s what she’ll do. Maybe she’ll go on a date with him, fall in love, get sober, and live happily ever after. Then again, maybe we’ll win the lottery, all become rich, and never have to worry about a thing.” Ciara gave him a baleful stare and crossed her arms over her chest. He shrugged. “It’s just as likely and probably has the same probability, statistically speaking.” Ciara huffed and told him goodnight. He hated making her sad, but what he hated worse is her getting her hopes up, and then having her heart broken when what she really wanted never came to fruition.
Tommy
Only one new match had popped up on his query, and he’d messaged the kid the day before with no response. After too many dead-end searches to count, he’d changed the lower end of his age range from twenty-two to twenty. He knew he was pushing it, but he didn’t want to go older than twenty-eight because Cash needed someone to keep him young. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up an old fuddy-duddy at the ripe old age of forty-one. He was set in his ways and thought he always knew what was right. He needed someone that would challenge him, stand up to him, and keep him energetic.
He checked the app again, knowing he hadn’t gotten a response because he hadn’t gotten a notification, but he didn’t want to miss it, and this boy seemed perfect. He was getting more and more nervous as the days went by. The last thing he wanted was for Cash to find out he’d posted a profile for him. Daddy would be disappointed, and Cash would be pissed. Daddy was more lenient, if you knew how to play your cards right, but Cash had a firmer hand. He loved both facets of the man.
He’d never call Daddy a push over, because he wasn’t often persuaded to change his mind once it had been made up, but with a little maneuvering, the punishments wouldn’t be as harsh as they should be. It wasn’t that he had different personalities. Not really. It was more like Cash was the straight up business man, the man that created an app that made an obscene amount of money, and the man that could make deals and didn’t take shit from anyone. And Daddy, well, Daddy was Cash’s nurturing side. The side of himself he didn’t let many people see.
Only a select few were privy to that side of his personality, only those he trusted the most. Winning his trust was hard, but once it was earned, he possessed a loyalty like no other. Tommy was going to miss him so much. He loved Cash, and he loved Daddy even more. However, even though they’d been together for several years and it had been amazing, the truth was that, while they told each other “I love you,” they weren’t in love.
It had only been a few months since he shared his dream with Daddy, and Daddy helped it come true. In doing so, he ensured that they’d have to part ways. He’d been so conflicted when Cash told him the news. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would bring him closer to his dream. Though it was going to break his heart to leave, he knew right away that he was going to take it, and so had Cash.
Cash could see his decision immediately, but Tommy hadn’t been willing to voice it. He asked some questions first. When those questions were answered, they were both sad but certain that the decisions they made were the right ones. They were both hurting, and they were both avoiding talking about it.
He knew Cash would be fine, eventually. Cash would find another boy to replace him, but that could take a long time, and Tommy worried that he might give up on those things that truly fulfilled all the facets of himself. He worried that he might set aside what he yearned for in order to settle for something that would suffice. Tommy wasn’t going to let that happen. Not if he could help it.
So, he’d come up with the harebrained scheme of finding Daddy a new boy on the very app that Daddy created. The app that had drawn them together. If he was going to find someone to fit the bill, he was going to find him there. He’d started his search several weeks ago, and while there had been several good matches, none of them had really been what he knew Daddy needed.
This time, the result was different, so he sent a message to a boy named Liam. A twenty-year-old kid that lived in Pennsylvania of all places and didn’t list moving as something he’d be willing to do. But Tommy was willing to take a chance. A chance that this kid, who looked perfect “on paper,” might just be perfect for Daddy in real life.