Intrepid Traveler - Part 16
Justin smiled at his lover and closed his eyes once again, enjoying the feel of Brian’s fingers drawing circles around his belly button. Having just finished the most mind-blowing session of love making and having every single inch of his body sucked and licked, Justin felt pleasantly spent and completely and utterly happy. His grin only got wider as his mind wandered back to a couple of hours earlier when he came back to the room after class, tired and stressed, only to be immediately wrapped in his boyfriend’s big strong arms and have his mouth attacked by the persistent, merciless tongue.
“What’s the occasion?” he was able to get out between kisses and Brian’s attempts at relieving them of their clothing.
“You were right,” was Brian’s answer as he dipped his head in order to kiss Justin once again.
“It’s nice to be right sometimes,” Justin replied, pulling away slightly from Brian. It wasn’t that he minded being worshiped all over by his willing lover, but he wanted to know what was going on. “What exactly was I right about?”
Since Brian lost his access to Justin’s mouth, he resumed the task of removing Justin’s pants. In one swift motion he pulled the khakis off Justin’s pale legs, flopping down on top of the blond once again. “Ryder,” he smiled. “I got a call for an interview today.”
Even though this piece of news did not come as a big surprise, Justin nevertheless acted like a perfect supportive boyfriend and broke out in the widest grin possible, pulling his lover down for a passionate kiss. “Congratulations,” he said when the two of them pulled away – only brief enough to remove Brian’s t-shirt and toss it on the floor.
“What are you grinning about?” Brian’s voice broke through his happy memories and Justin opened his eyes.
“Just thinking about how I could definitely get used to a greeting like that,” he replied, his hand finding Brian’s.
The brunet laughed softly. “You’ll get an even better one if I get through this interview.”
“When,” Justin corrected him. “WHEN you get through this interview.”
He expected another argument about how Justin didn’t know everything that was going to happen and all the other pessimistic shit that Brian had been known for, but instead he only got another smile.
“Ok, WHEN I get through this interview,” Brian relented, winding his fingers through Justin’s.
“Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to wait ‘till you get back,” Justin replied. The interview was obviously back in Pittsburgh. Not only that, it was on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Which meant that not only would Justin not see Brian right after his interview. He would not see the brunet until the following Sunday night when Brian would come back from his Thanksgiving dinner at home.
He saw a slight frown on his lover’s face, eyebrows creasing a little bit, just like they always did when Brian was thinking about something intently, trying to solve some imaginary problem.
“You could come with me,” Brian finally said.
Justin snorted at that. When his boyfriend frowned once more, Justin realized that Brian was in fact serious. “I can’t go back to Pittsburgh,” he said reasonably.
“Why not?”
“For one, I have nowhere to stay. I can’t stay at my parents’,” Justin explained.
“You don’t have to. My room is bigger than this dump,” Brian responded.
“Yeah, I’m sure your parents would love having me there.”
“Fuck ‘em,” Brian said quickly. “Besides, we wouldn’t be in the fucking hellhole all day long anyway.” He sat up and leaned against the wall. It was obvious to Justin that there was nothing that he could say that would change the young man’s mind. “We can leave Tuesday right after classes,” Brian said excitedly. “Get there early enough to go out. Then Wednesday I have my interview and after that we can do…whatever,” Brian shrugged his shoulders and Justin couldn’t help but smile at the meaning of ‘whatever’.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Instead of three hours, they spent close to five out on the road. Brian was in no hurry to get home, so the two of them stopped every chance they got – to get gas, food, and of course, most importantly to fuck.
Finally, around eight o’clock at night Brian pulled his black Grand Prix into the driveway of the house he grew up in, the house he hated most of his life. He knew that Taylor was nervous. Hell, he himself was a nervous wreck. He had no idea how his parents were going to react to him bringing his “roommate” to stay with them over the holidays. Never did he bring his friends for sleepovers. Mostly because he didn’t want his friends to witness Jack’s almost nightly drunken rages.
Unfortunately, there was no turning back now. So, casting one last glance at Taylor who just sat and waited for Brian’s next move, the brunet climbed out of the car and walked toward the front door, Taylor following closely behind.
Using his key, Brian unlocked the door and slowly made his way inside. “Mom?” he called out when he heard noise coming from the kitchen.
A brown-haired head popped out of the living room. “You didn’t tell us you were coming tonight,” Clair announced.
“Hi to you too,” Brian shot back. Even though his older sister was his only ally in this house while growing up, Brian and she were never really close. Their relationship went downhill from there when Brian went away to college. He guessed that on some level she resented him for leaving her alone with their parents.
“Who’s he?” Clair motioned for Taylor who still stood in the doorway.
Brian turned and gave his lover an encouraging smile. “Come in.” Taylor took a step forward and closed the door, but remained close to the exit. “He’s Taylor,” Brian answered his sister. “He’s my roommate.”
“Mom’s not gonna be happy, you know,” Clair informed him.
“She’ll get over it,” Brian replied.
With another suspicious glance cast in Taylor’s direction, Clair turned around and headed toward the kitchen. Brian took it as his cue to follow. Might as well get this over with. Taking a deep breath, he motioned for Taylor to follow and the two of them walked through the house and into the kitchen.
“Hi, mom,” Brian said when the woman’s eyes fell on him.
“It’s customary to call before you come over,” the woman told him, her stare cold and emotionless. “And bring guests,” she added, noticing Taylor behind Brian.
“Sorry. It was a last minute thing,” Brian replied. “I have an interview first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Interview?” Clair asked curiously.
“Yeah. For a summer internship at this ad agency.”
Joannie put down he pan in her hands and took a step closer to her son. “You know that your father expects you to help him this summer.”
“I know that,” Brian said quietly.
“Glad to hear you still remember that you have obligations to this family.”
Brian clenched his jaw, the feelings that he had worked so hard at forgetting during his months away from home came crashing down on him once again. He cleared his throat and turned to Taylor, hating that his boyfriend had to hear all of that. “Mom, this is Taylor,” Brian made the introduction.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Kinney,” Taylor stepped forward and held out his hand.
Brian held his breath, letting it out slowly when his mother accepted Taylor’s hand and shook it slightly. Even though the expression on her face hadn’t changed, it was the same ice-cold one, Brian took it as a good sign that she was ok with Taylor staying with them.
“Taylor had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving,” Brian explained.
Joannie looked over at Brian, then back at Taylor. “Well, good Christians always open their doors to poor lost souls,” she said.
A part of him wanted to tell his mother to shove the holier than thou act, but that was how he knew he would get her to agree to Taylor staying with them for the weekend. While she was an ice queen in every sense of the word, Joannie Kinney cared mostly about the image of her family to the outside world, even strangers – especially strangers. He could already hear her bragging to her church friends about how she let this orphaned boy spend Thanksgiving in the warm, loving environment of her home. Of course, what none of those old crones realized, was that Joannie’s home was far from warm or loving.
“Well, if that’s settled, we’re going out,” Brian said, already heading toward the exit and dragging Taylor with him.
Outside once again, Brian breathed out heavily.
“You ok?” he heard from behind him.
Turning around, he managed a smile. “Yeah.”
“Your mom is…tough.”
“Yeah,” Brian agreed. “I almost forgot how tough. It’s nice to be reminded.”
“Sorry.” Taylor moved closer and raised his hand, but it halted mid air. This wasn’t a good place for showing their affection. The farther they could get away from this house and this neighborhood, the better.
“Forget it,” Brian said, taking his keys out of his pocket. “Let’s get out of here.” He walked over to the car and opened the door.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Justin did as told and climbed into the passenger seat. It wasn’t the first time that he had witnessed Brian’s lovely family life. His mother in particular was a piece of work. Justin had never met anybody as cold as Joannie Kinney was. He might bitch and moan about his own mother driving him up the wall sometimes and treating him like a child, but he was lucky. He had the best mother in the world and Justin acknowledged that.
Brian, however, wasn’t that lucky.
They pulled out of the driveway and Brian slowly directed the car toward the intersection. Never having been in this neck of the woods, Justin had no idea where they were heading. Not sure if he should ask or just let Brian do whatever he needed to do, Justin remained silent through the entire drive.
When they got to the part of town that he was more familiar with, Justin smiled. “Liberty? We’re going to the Liberty Avenue?”
Brian looked over at him and smiled back. “Beats the hell out of spending a quiet evening at home.”
Even though he called Liberty Avenue home for quite some time, Justin found himself getting excited about seeing this place in 1990. He couldn’t even imagine how crazy it probably was – bright colors, bright clothes. On the other hand, it couldn’t have been any crazier than it was in 2003. Just the way he liked it.
He wasn’t disappointed. The minute the pulled onto the Avenue, Justin could see drag queens sporting their outfits; guys dry humping each other on every corner; leather-clad bears walking hand in hand.
They were home.
Brian pulled to the side and turned off the ignition. Getting out of the car, Justin instantly found himself grinning at the sign on the front of the building. “I can’t believe Woody’s is here,” he exclaimed.
“I thought you told me you’ve been to Liberty.” Brian walked around the car and stood next to him, obviously taking note of Justin’s excitement. Taking a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket, he offered one to Justin before taking one for himself.
“I just haven’t been here in a while,” Justin replied, looking around, amazed how everything looked almost identical to the future Liberty Avenue.
Brian nodded as he took a long drag out of his cigarette. “You need a tour?”
The blond shook his head, ignoring the obvious sarcasm in his boyfriend’s voice, as the two of them began making their way down the Avenue. It took Justin only moments to realize where exactly Brian was headed.
The Liberty Avenue Diner, just like everything else on the street, looked exactly like it did the first time Justin had walked through those doors – inside and out.
“Well, look what the cat’s dragged in!”
Justin froze in place at the sound of the familiar voice. Except the woman that rushed around the counter and toward Brian looked so completely different – thinner, long blond hair, and no wig in sight. Justin was mesmerized by the sight of his surrogate mother – so young and beautiful.
“Deb, I do need to breathe, you know,” Justin heard Brian utter from somewhere beneath the mother bear embrace the waitress had the teen in.
Debbie let Brian go and immediately her eyes were on Justin. “Who’s he?” she motioned to the blond.
“Uhm…” Brian turned to Justin, then looked back at Debbie. “Taylor. He’s my roommate.”
The blond-haired woman’s gaze shifted between Brian and Justin. “Uh huh.” She walked past the taller teen. “Let me take a look at you, kiddo.”
Before Justin realized what was happening, he found himself turning on his heels under the intense gaze of the waitress.
“Cute butt, gorgeous face,” Debbie concluded. “Where did you find this slugger?” she pointed at Brian.
Justin couldn’t help but smile at that. Some things never changed. Which he was totally grateful for.
“Bright smile too,” Debbie added. “You hungry, Sunshine?”
Justin’s lips spread into a wide grin at the sound of her nickname for him. “Uhm…”
“Starving,” Brian answered for him.
But before they were able to make their way over to the booth, there was a commotion in the back of the diner. And then they heard it.
“Brian!”
Go to Part 17