This story contains male-to-male consensual sexual relationships, so if this is illegal for you to read, please adhere to whatever laws you abide by.
This story follows a previous story of mine called Wade & Christian, which you can find in the 2004 high school section of this fine archive. I suggest you read it first. BUT, if teen angst and ultradrama romance is not your thing, this story does stand alone.
For my fans, this story is mighty different from Wade & Chris and The Prick, it is about a conflicting relationship and the power of true love. So, if you are looking for any of my previous stories regurgitated, you will be sorely disappointed. This story will run about 12 installments. It will also feature the characters of Wade & Christian quite prominently, so let's enjoy the ride, shall we?
Don't forget to e-mail and encourage me, I could use it!
virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com
Mannie leaned against the side of the Taco Fiesta building and took a long puff of his cigarette,waiting for Jon to come out of the busy fast food restaurant. He looked the calm, cool and collected part in a pair of khaki-colored cargo shorts and a black Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. His dark hair was scraped back into a ponytail at his nape and a pair of dark sunglasses completed the image of cool discontent.
No one could see the slightest of trembles that racked his fingers. He tossed the cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, blowing smoke out of his nostrils in a quick huff. It was only a week since Jon had pressed his lips to the pulse of Mannie's throat and Mannie could still feel their softness burnt into his skin.
They hadn't so much as touched since then, but Mannie lay awake nights, fighting the urge to crawl out of his bed and make his way down the hall to Jon's room. The night before, he had actually given in and crept down the hall silently, standing in front of Jon's door, trembling. What could he do? He couldn't actually open the closed door to Jon's room. That would be insane and as tempted as he was to kneel down and peer into the keyhole, he knew that if he caught a glimpse of Jon, half-dressed and tangled in the sheets, he would do something that he might regret.
So, he'd crept back to his own bed and held on to his pulsing cock, while his heart threatened to beat its way out his chest.
Mannie felt as if he was slowly creeping into a realm of insanity. His life had been a mess before without Jon there to complicate things even further. As hard as he tried, he couldn't think Jon out of his mind and back into the proper friendship role Jon was supposed to be in.
He felt like an imbecile, sitting around the house, hoping for a smile or little attention from Jon and Mannie had to admit it to himself, those smiles and that attention were coming less and less frequently from Jon. It was almost painfully obvious that Jon didn't share in his interest and Mannie hated the desperate, pitiful feeling that welled up inside of him at the thought.
"Hey," Jon's voice called and Mannie looked up to see him coming out of the glass exit door. Jon's brown hair was rumpled and his uniform had blotches of different kinds of sauces scattered throughout. Mannie smiled at him.
"What's up?" Mannie called, moving away from the wall and watching as Jon shuffled over to him.
"Thank God, I'm outta there," Jon said as the two began the now familiar journey back in the direction of the house. Jon made sure that there were at least two feet between them on the small sidewalk. Mannie held his arms stiffly as he noticed the distance between them.
"Yeah," Mannie said with a half-hearted laugh that he hoped only sounded hollow to his ears.
"Work sucked for me, too. I spent a whole week on this blueprint and they want to change everything about it."
Jon laughed.
"What you do sounds real complicated," Jon told him and Mannie shrugged.
"It's mostly basic math," Mannie told him. "And drawing lines and circles. It's even easier when I use the computer to help me."
Jon nodded and fell silent, seemingly engrossed in the people passing by and the cars on the road. Mannie bit his lip and stared at the sidewalk as they walked, counting cracks. After a moment, he looked over at Jon.
"You having any more trouble with Trina?" Mannie asked and Jon looked over at him. Their eyes caught and tangled for a moment before Jon looked away, swallowing hard.
"Nope," Jon said and kind of loped along, not saying anything else. Mannie got the hint. For some reason they weren't talking about personal stuff anymore. Fine. Mannie folded his arms over his chest, embracing himself as they got nearer to the house.
He could handle this, he told himself. Jon didn't have to open up to him all the time. Jon had been there for Mannie over the past few weeks the way that no one had ever been and Mannie would never forget that. Still, that didn't mean that they were going to be buddies or anything. It didn't mean that Jon was going to return his feelings. Jon was straight...and if he didn't want to be friends, that's just the way it was going to be.
Mannie could feel a clawing feeling in his throat, a harsh, heavy feeling that threatened to overtake him completely and he silently fought it, not daring to even look in Jon's direction. He knew that if he did he would lose it and it scared him. His feelings had never been so far out of his control before.
When they approached the house, he felt an immense sense of relief. Jon scurried up the stairs before him and Mannie turned his head away from the sight of Jon's ass bouncing up the stairs in front of him, he didn't even allow himself to think the thoughts that were cloying around in his head.
Jon used his key in the door and they went into the house.
"Lucy, I'm home," Jon called out and Wade waved at them from the couch where he was half-lying and half-sitting, a textbook open in front of him.
"Hey," Wade said and Jon made his way over to Wade. Mannie hung back.
"Hey," Mannie said in reply, watching as Jon sat down across from Wade. Jon knew how much Wade disliked him. Mannie was certain of that. In the past, Jon had gone out of his way to kind of smooth things out between them, but it was obvious that he wasn't even going to try this time.
"I've gotta do some stuff," Mannie mumbled lowly and went up the stairs to his own room. He closed the bedroom door behind him and leaned against it, breathing quick and hard, willing himself not to lose it. He looked at the bruises on his forearm and fought the urge to find something, anything to cut himself with.
Jon was silent as Mannie took the steps two at a time. He stared after him for a long moment before turning back to Wade, whose face was buried in his textbook.
"What's up, man?" Jon asked and Wade looked up from the book he had been engrossed in and stared blankly at Jon for a moment. Then, realizing that Jon was actually speaking to him, Wade kind of shook his head and focused on Jon.
"Nothing, what's up?" Wade asked, putting a pen in his book and flipping it shut.
"Nothing," Jon said.
"So, why you frowning?" Wade asked.
"Bad mood, I guess," Jon said, shrugging. Then, he caught Wade's eye. "So, why do you hate Mannie so much anyway?"
Wade straightened up. "Did he pull any shit with you?" Wade asked, tossing the book aside and ready to pounce.
"Nah, of course not," Jon said and leaned back aganst the cushions, trying to look nonchalant. Inside he was quivering. His fear had driven him to this point, to actually trying to leap over to Wade's point of view. He hoped fervently that Wade had some really good dirt on Mannie, a real, valid reason to hate the guy so that a little of that hatred could rub off onto him.
"Then, why you wanna know?" Wade asked suspiciously.
"I just do," Jon said emphatically, looking at Wade's immovable face. Jon shrugged. "Fuck it, man, you're such a dick sometimes."
Wade waved Jon back to his seat when he made to get up.
"Okay, okay," Wade said, relenting. "I came in one time and caught him kissing Chris. I hit the wall. I was so pissed, I beat the crap out of him. Then, Christian kicked me out and he ended up not talking to me for three days. After that, I just never liked the guy all that much."
"You're such an asshole," Jon said, throwing up his hands.
"Fuck you," Wade said and leaned back against the couch.
"Seriously, Christian told you like a billion times that the guy didn't know you were dating," Jon pointed out. "I would've kicked you out, too. You act like a fucking caveman half the time."
Wade laughed.
"When it comes to Christian, I go a little crazy sometimes," Wade admitted, staring off. "It was just that back then I was real scared that I would lose him. I mean, I was dating Tiffany and trying not to come out and I really thought that he would eventually dump me for some other guy that didn't have all of my baggage."
"Yeah, right, Wade," Jon said with a smirk. "There's no way that Christian would ever dump you. Fucking Brad Pitt could come in and try to steal him away and I know that Christian would be totally faithful to you. He loves your ass for some crazy reason."
"Yeah," Wade said with a goofy grin and Jon laughed at him.
"I don't know how he ever puts up with you," Jon said and Wade nodded.
"Remember when I was trying to stay away from him?" Wade asked, thinking back and Jon nodded.
"You did a real good job," Jon told him. "You even had me fooled for awhile, but there was always something about you and Tiffany that wasn't right to me."
"Probably the fact that I didn't love her," Wade pointed out.
"How could you do that?" Jon asked him. "How could you hide your feelings like that for all that time?"
Wade shrugged. "I was scared as hell," he explained.
"Scared of what?" Jon asked.
"I was scared of what my dad would say," Wade said. "And I was afraid of what he would do."
"What'd he do, yell for five minutes?" Jon laughed.
"It was very serious," Wade reminded him. "He basically kicked me out. He was the reason I bought this house, remember?"
"Yeah," Jon said. "But we were only here for like four months before he came knocking and begging for forgiveness."
Wade grinned.
"Yeah."
"And now you're interning at his firm," Jon pointed out. "You two are closer than ever before. And he loves Christian."
"Only because with Christian to help me study, I never get any B's," Wade pointed out. "To him that spells easy law school admission...and Governor McKinley told him that I would probably make history as a gay rights attorney. He wants the Harrison name in the history books now. That's all he talks about when Chris and I go to those stuffy political dinner parties at his place."
"You should have one of them here," Jon said, suddenly brilliant. "He'd really think that you'd made it then. Christian's real good at planning things. You could invite all of those lawyers and judges and stuff over here and do it up like they do. Shit, Mannie and I could go and do something."
Jon paused at the thought of Mannie. He hadn't accompished anything that he'd set out to do. He didn't hate Mannie any more than when he'd sat down. He'd actually gone a long way in defending Mannie and making Wade see how stubborn and illogical he had been.
It was a shame, too, because now he was more confused than ever. He had really been hoping that Wade could give him a reason to reign in the wild and crazy feelings he was having. He'd never, ever been attracted to another guy. Could Mannie be making him gay? It made absolutely no sense because Jon knew that you either were attracted to guys or you weren't and that was it.
Mannie didn't have any mind control over him. He wasn't forcing Jon to feel the way that he did. But staying awake half the night thinking about the way Mannie smiled was a definite sign that something was wrong, Jon could figure that much out. What killed him the most was that he could see it in Mannie's eyes that he kind of felt the same way and it didn't take a lot for Jon to see that Mannie had been through hell and back already. Mannie didn't need to mess around with someone like him, someone who had no clue what he was doing. Someone who could make no guarantees.
Wade had latched on to the idea of having a political dinner party and was spouting ideas out about it just as Wade and Kiesha came in the front foor. Christian's blond hair was blown haphazardly around his head and Wade stood up and went to straighten it out before putting his arms around Christian and giving him a long peck. Kiesha made her way around them and plopped down on the sofa across from Jon.
"School is killing me," she declared to Jon and Jon grinned.
"You look good, little mama," he told her and she beamed at him.
Wade told Christian about the dinner party and Christian did an excited jig over to them. "Break out Emily Post's book on manners, Kiesh, I'm having a dinner party," he exclaimed, sitting down next to her and then swinging his legs across her lap. She grinned at him.
"It was all Jon's idea," Wade said.
"Brilliant," Christian hailed him.
"He also said that if Brad Pitt came on to you, you'd be faithful to me," Wade said with a cocky smirk and Christian shrugged.
"Brad Pitt, yeah, but Justin Timberlake, I'm not so sure," Christian bluffed and Wade's jaw dropped. He lunged at Christian, who used his long legs to catapult over the sofa in a swift leap and Wade went after him, both of them yelling at the tops of their lungs.
Kiesha watched them disappear, laughing. She turned back to Jon.
"In a few minutes, they'll be fucking like rabbits," she mused and stood up. "Reggie's working late. You wanna go get a pizza?"
Sorry it took me so long, I've been a tad busy. I will be better, I promise. Lemme know how you feel.
xoxo virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com