My Feminine Nephew - Part 1

Part 2 | ALL STORY LIST

Summary - When Tom hesitantly becomes the guardian of his younger brother's teenage son he has no premonition of the relationship that will develop between the two of them and the changes in his lifestyle that it will bring.

Back when I was in high school, I was one of the nerdy kids - not good at sports - okay looking, but nothing special - grades okay but nothing that would get me a scholarship at a good college. So in an attempt to do something that would get some of the better-looking girls to give me at least a second look, I joined a band. And promptly found out that I didn't have any aptitude for music. But what I did find was that I had an aptitude for working with the guys who could read and play the music, but didn't know squat about all those electronic "things" that made their music sound good. So I hung out with a couple of the local bands and whenever they needed help getting set up for a gig, a problem with a soundboard fixed, an RCA-to-XLR adapter, or some monitor speakers scrounged up - I was the go-to guy. Never did get any of the better-looking girls to give me a second look, but at least I was having fun.

And by the time I graduated from high school, the word had gotten around to the traveling bands that whenever they came to town, I was one of the best locals to hire to set up and run their soundboard for them.

When I graduated from high school and was thinking about going on to college, or maybe just the local community college, I was having so much fun setting up and running sound systems for bands that I just put off any further education for a year, and then a second year, and then for a third year. And finally, after another six or seven years, I was now operating a small business with several vans full of sound and stage equipment that I rented out, and 5-10 part-time employees depending on the season and was having a ball.

If my life was working out pretty well, my younger brother was another story. Marshall was seven years younger than I was and when you're a teenager a seven-year difference is, like, forever, so Marshall did his thing and I did my thing - and the two of us really had very little to do with each other. Other than the age difference, another reason for that was that Marshall's "thing" involved drugs. He'd started occasionally smoking a little pot, graduated to the harder stuff in high school, and I'd heard rumors that he'd moved up to deal.

Along the way, he'd managed to get his girlfriend pregnant and when he finally gave up on ever graduating high school and dropped out when he was eighteen, he had a pretty good drug habit and a 3-year-old kid. I never tried to keep in touch with him but every so often my mother would pass on some news about him - his latest arrest, his latest try at rehab, six months in the county jail for dealing, whatever. So I was kind of like, "Marshall, I'm sorry that you fucked up your life but there's not much that I can do to help you."

On a happier note, by then I'd met Keri. Keri was several years younger than I was and was a pretty good singer with one of the traveling bands. I'd gotten to know her when the band she performed with passed through town and we had started, like, "Hi Keri, glad to see you back in town," and, "Thanks Tom, and can you give me a mic that doesn't make it sound like I'm gargling this time?" But we progressed from friendly banter to going out for an occasional beer, and I found myself looking forward to her visits. Eventually, we started having sex and then when she'd be in town for more than a day or so she'd stay at my apartment instead of at a motel with the rest of the band.

Now Keri wasn't, like, you know, knock-out beautiful or anything, but she had this bubbly, cheerful personality. I'm 5' 9" and Keri was about 6" shorter than me. But where I'm sort of lean she's got this lush body with all the right curves in the right places - not, like, fat or even chubby but just soft and very female and great to be in bed with. One of my friends, after a pitcher or two of beer, described her as "built for comfort," and I guess that described her pretty well.

When her band broke up and she needed a place to stay for a couple of days, it just seemed natural that she'd move in with me. A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks, and then a couple of months, and then a couple of years. My business was doing pretty well and I had bought a small building to hold all the sound and stage equipment that I rented out and had two full-time employees to manage the work crews that set up and ran the equipment, and Keri was the office manager that kept everything running smoothly. We had even branched out and set up a small recording studio down the block that was getting so busy that we had to expand it several times and hire a full-time manager just for that. So life was good.

At least life was good for me. I was having a ball with my music businesses and was making a few bucks, actually more than a few to be accurate, and Keri was running the office and socking most of the

profits away in various investments - most of which I didn't understand.

But in the last year or so it seemed like something had changed in our relationship. Keri didn't seem as happy as before and was less inclined to go along with me when I'd go out with one of the bands to party after their performance. It all came to a head one evening when we decided to get off by ourselves for a weekend and checked into a suite in a nice hotel up in the mountains. The second night we were there we decided to hit a fancy restaurant and splurge on a nice dinner and that's when we each had a bottle of wine. Later that evening when we were back in our suite she brought up the subject of us getting married and starting a family.

If it hadn't been for the wine I would probably have handled it better but I guess I said a bunch of things about marriage and kids that I shouldn't have and Keri suddenly got very quiet. In bed that night she just rolled up in a blanket on her side of the bed and ignored me. The drive back to town wasn't much better with her just sitting there in the car, not saying anything, and staring out the window at the passing scenery. Back in our apartment, she began to silently unpack my things for me and I ran down to the office to check on a couple of upcoming jobs. There were a few problems and by the time I got back to the apartment, it was early evening.

The apartment felt different when I walked in, quiet and sort of empty. Keri wasn't there and neither were some of her clothes. I found an envelope addressed to me on the bed and it contained what I was afraid it would contain - a note saying that Keri had moved out. Oh, she was nice about it, and wished me the best, but ".... we're very different people, Tom, and I need to find someone who wants the same things out of life that I do." No address where I could reach her, and no answer when I called her cell phone - she was gone.

The next couple of months were tough. I drank too much and slept with too many of the groupies following the bands - but none of that made me miss Keri less. So I threw myself into my businesses, getting way more involved in the day-to-day management that Keri had previously taken care of - and was really surprised at how profitable the businesses were and the value of the investments that Keri had poured the profits into. Now, I wasn't rich or anything but I realized that I had enough money to move out of the apartment that I had shared with Keri - and away from the memories of her that filled the apartment. So I decided to move some of my money from one type of investment to another, I bought a house!

Ever watch those house-hunting shows on TV where the couple starts out with a budget that they can't exceed? And the nice agent that they're working with just keeps showing them houses that are, " just a little above your budget but I just want you to get an idea of what a few more dollars will get you." And of course, the nice young couple, like, totally blows their budget and gets a place that's bigger, fancier, and way more expensive than they ever planned on. The same thing happened to me.

So now I own a place up in one of the canyons outside of town with a great view of the city spread out below, a big swimming pool, three bedrooms, a huge kitchen, a big stone fireplace with a pair of

antlers hung over it in the living area, lots of privacy from my neighbors and a huge mortgage. Packing up and moving was kind of tough because Keri had left behind a lot of clothes and personal items when

she moved out and I just didn't have the heart to dispose of them so I had them packed up and stored in one of the bedrooms in the new house.

Now, I hadn't really had any contact with my younger brother Marshall for many years, almost thirteen in fact, the last time being around the time when Marshall was eighteen and had just dropped out of high school.

Occasionally Mom would let me know what was happening with my younger brother - never anything good, of course. So I wasn't too surprised when she told me several weeks ago that Marshall had finally used up his last "get out of jail" ticket and had been sentenced to 27 years in state prison for a drug deal gone bad where he'd shot and killed another dealer. Near the end of the conversation, she mentioned that she and Dad were going to ask the court to let Erik come and live with them. "Erik?" I asked, "Who's Erik?"

"Oh you know," she replied, "Marshall's son Erik. He's nineteen now and with Marshall in jail, Social Services needs to put him in a foster home till he's twenty. So we're going to take him in with us."

"Uh, yeah, whatever," I replied, just glad that Marshall's problems didn't have anything to do with me.

At least till I got another call from Mom a month after that. It turned out that the court had denied Mom and Dad's petition to become Erik's guardians. Something about the fact that my parents were in their seventies, Dad was beginning to show signs of dementia, and Erik was considered a "troubled youth" - whatever that meant. "But Social Services told the court that they wouldn't have any objection to you becoming Erik's guardian, you being a stable adult and all that," she said.

I was, like, "What the fuck? You want me to be responsible for some screwed-up nineteen-year-old kid?" (Well, I didn't say that to Mom, but I thought it.) So we had a long conversation with me refusing to have anything to do with Erik and her crying, and me refusing again, and her crying some more, and me finally agreeing that Erik could come to live with me - just for a year till he was twenty. After we hung up I thought, "Oh great! I'm going to have some teenage problem kid around the house!" Little did I know!

Guess I should have expected it, but I was still a bit surprised when I received a call from a lady at Social Services - they needed to come out and inspect my house! After a short discussion with her on the phone ("Oh, but you can understand how we must protect our little kiddies by making sure they're placed in a safe environment") I agreed. (I restrained from asking, "Little kiddies? You're asking me to care for some baby goats?

I thought we were talking about my nephew?") So anyway, about 30 minutes late for her appointment, my doorbell rang and I opened it to find a short and grossly obese young woman wearing a strange-looking dress that bulged amazingly in places, a white pasty face with a spray of pimples across her forehead, lank tangled greasy hair that really needed shampoo, and breath that hinted that she was on a garlic diet. But I let her in and followed her as she waddled from room to room, amazed that one so short could have an ass so wide.

She asked a lot of questions and took lots of pictures of the bathroom (but no other room), and among other things, measured the height above the floor of all the light switches ("Mustn't let the little kiddies hurt their backs by stretching?" I thought to myself). Finally, she said that of course she'd have to write up her report and have it reviewed but she thought that I'd be approved to act as my nephew's guardian (all the while scowling, grimacing, and licking her fat lips as if it pained her to give my good news), and waddled off to wedge herself into her tiny car, leaving behind greasy fingerprints on everything she touched and the lasting aroma of garlic hanging in the air.

I did get approved, and so several weeks later the doorbell rang mid-morning and I opened the front door of my house to find the fat lady from Social Services standing on my doorstep with a slight teenage boy standing sort of hunched over behind her. Other than that my brother had fathered a kid and named it Erik I really know nothing about my nephew - never met him before, no photographs, nothing - so I wasn't sure what to expect when I met him except that when he followed the fat lady into my house and I could get a better look at him, he was nothing like I'd imagined he might be. With a name like Erik, I'd assumed maybe a big muscular teen with red curly hair or something like that. What followed the fat lady as she waddled into my house was actually a slim youth, maybe 5' 7" or so.

Actually, "slim" wasn't right; he was downright skinny with a narrow waist and a rather pinched underweight face. I immediately realized that his mother must have been oriental as Erik had vivid deep black almond-shaped eyes, a triangular face, a small nose, full lips, high cheekbones, and a shaggy mop of long black hair that looked like it hadn't been washed for a long time. As he drew closer, I noticed that he also smelled - kind of a funny musty smell, like when you toss a damp towel in a corner and then pick it up several days later.

He didn't say anything but shyly extended his hand, to shake mine and I noticed his long slender fingers as I took his limp hand in mine, not quite knowing whether to shake it, hug him, or whatever. The embarrassing moment was broken by a cloud of garlic breath from the Social Services lady as she announced, "Well, I'll leave the two of you to get acquainted. Didn't have a chance to eat breakfast this morning and I'm dying to tackle a big plate of pancakes. I'll check back with you two every so often" and she turned and waddled out the door, leaving Erik and myself to "get acquainted."

An embarrassed silence followed for several moments as Erik and I just stood there - I was examining him and he was turning his head to look at as much of my house as you could see from the entrance. In addition to his slight build, I now noticed the several-sizes-too-large stained T- shirt (advertising a popular boy band) that he was wearing, a pair of baggy, ragged, and torn jeans, and a pair of sneakers that were in the process of falling apart. I broke the silence with, "Okay, why don't I show you around the place and which bedroom will be yours."

"I get my own bedroom?"

His question surprised me a little so I just responded, "Uh, yeah, sure" as I led him through the living area and toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms. As we passed through the living area and he saw the pool outside and the view of the city below I could see his eyes grow wide with surprise although he didn't say anything. Finally, we reached his bedroom and I opened the door saying, "This'll be your bedroom. The sliding door opens onto the patio and the pool area. The bathroom is off to the right there. You can get your things unpacked and I'll go see what's in the refrigerator that we can warm up for lunch. Sound okay to you?" He just nodded.

So I'm in the kitchen, trying to remember what I liked to eat back when I was a teenager, finding that most of those things I didn't have, and wishing that I'd given more thought to getting ready before the fat lady and Erik showed up this morning. I finally settled on potato chips, microwave pizza, and some ice cream sundae cups I remembered that I had in the freezer. Lunch, such as it was, prepared, I went to Erick's bedroom, tapped on the door, and receiving no response opened the door and entered the room to find him sprawled on the bed sound asleep. Relaxed in sleep he appeared even more slight and thin and I was beginning to wonder what sort of life he had led with my younger brother. I approached the bed, gently shook his shoulder to wake him, and was surprised when he snapped awake and jerked away from me with a look of fear on his face. He saw the look on my face and said, "Uh, sorry, you just  sort of, surprised me."

"No problem. There's some food ready if you're hungry."

Man, hungry didn't describe him as he gulped down everything in front of he and I had to drag out some leftover potato salad and half of an apple pie from the refrigerator before he was satisfied. As he sat at the countertop I noticed that he leaned forward, sort of hunched over as he had been when he entered my house and I was wondering if he just had bad posture.

"Best meal I've had in a long time," he said as he polished off the last of the apple pie.

"Just leftovers."

"My Dad wasn't big on keeping food in the apartment - just drugs."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I paused for a moment and then asked, "You need any help unpacking? The bedroom's yours so you can rearrange things if you want. And you've got the run of the house although it is about a 5-mile hike to get down into the city from here and I'm usually working six days a week."

"I'm good. Looking forward to relaxing and not worrying about the fights and guns."

Man, I knew that my younger brother had been into dealing drugs, but what kind of a life had this kid been living? So I dodged that comment as well. "Kind of hot this afternoon. Pool's there if you want to try it out."

"Never learned to swim. It got a shallow end?"

I assured him that it did and he seemed like he might give it a try, so I went off to the small office in my bedroom to work on getting out some invoices to my customers while Erik used the pool.

I was a little nervous about Erik being alone in the pool, him not being able to swim and all that, but my office had a window looking out into the pool area so I could keep an eye on him if he did decide to use the pool. I'd been working my way through a pile of paperwork when I noticed movement outside and looked up to see Erik come out onto the patio from his bedroom. Talk about ratty clothes! His "bathing suit" looked like it was made from pair of men's work pants, worn almost to the point of falling apart, cut off at the knees, and held up by a cord through the belt loops that bunched the worn material in folds around his slim waist. He was also wearing what looked like an old sweatshirt, arms torn off, the fabric worn thin, and, again several sizes too large for him.

Erik looked around as if to see whether anyone might be observing him. The heat-reflecting film on the windows in my house gave them a mirror-like appearance from the outside so he didn't see me watching him as he gingerly slid down into the shallow end of the pool. After a minute or so he got used to the water and began playing like a little kid, splashing, swimming underwater, floating on his back, hanging onto the wall of the pool, and kicking with his feet to send sprays of water up into the air. Once it was wet I noticed that his shaggy hair was longer than I had thought as it formed thick wet bangs on either side of his face and hung down at least six or seven inches below his shoulders.

There was also something else that I wasn't quite sure about the fabric of his sweatshirt seemed bunched up on his chest in an odd way.

Once I was sure that Erik would stay safely in the shallow end of the pool I turned back to my paperwork and ignored him for what must have been an hour or so, turning my attention back to him only when I noticed that he seemed about to dry off and go back into his bedroom. He looked around briefly to again see whether he was being observed, pulled off the wet sweatshirt that he had been wearing, and began to dry off his hair with one of the pool towels. With Erik's back to me and without his sweatshirt I was surprised to see how really skinny he was I could easily make out his individual ribs under his skin. After several minutes of drying his long hair, he turned and began to walk toward the sliding door that led to his bedroom, allowing me a view of his side profile and then the front of his chest, and I was shocked to see that Erik had breasts!

While not large, I'd guess they were no larger than about an A-cup size, he had two soft rounded areas on his chest, topped with large puffy dark brown nipples. As he walked toward the door to his bedroom I could see his small breasts jiggling up and down just a little and realized that I was developing an erection as I saw this slim youth walking past my bedroom window. "Oh come on," I thought, "He's your brother's son," and that brought me back to my senses.

Remembering how hungry Erik was at lunch, I decided to grill some burgers for an early supper and was glad that I cooked eight large patties, for Erik seemed as hungry as ever - loading up and wolfing down six of them garnished with cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles and whatever other condiments could be found in the refrigerator. He polished off most of a half gallon of Cookie Dough ice cream for dessert.

While he was still wearing the ratty clothes that he'd arrived in at least his face was clean and glowing from his exposure to the sun. And he had pulled his long hair back into a

ponytail and secured it with a rubber band - it was still on the messy side but much better than the tangled mess he had arrived with. As he was walking and sitting I noticed that he was still hunched over, to hide the shape of his chest I now realized, but I didn't bring the subject up. After supper, he volunteered to clean up and wash the dishes and did a pretty respectable job of it. I noticed that he was yawning and after he finished cleaning up, he said that he was pretty tired and asked if it would be okay with me if he went to bed early. "Sure. No, the problem," I responded and he flashed me a big smile and headed off to his bedroom.

To tell the truth I was kind of tired myself but decided that I'd at least browse through the packet of information that the fat lady from Social Services had left with me. Reading through it actually took me

several hours that evening but by the time I finished I felt that I had a better appreciation for some of the things that Erik had to deal with while living with my younger brother as shown by some of the comments from Social Services personnel:

"subject's father keeps a tight rein on his son, allowing him to attend school but engage in no other activities. Requiring him to come home immediately following school and perform housekeeping duties in the apartment such as washing clothes, cleaning, and cooking meals. He is allowed no contact with other youth his age outside of school."

"was not allowed to learn how to drive a car or obtain a driver's license as his father felt that would give his son too much freedom and possibly loosen his father's control over all facets of his son's life."

"developed a severe case of Gynecomastia at an early age, possibly enhanced by a hormonal imbalance of unknown origin. Father refused medical treatment for this condition and the resulting growth of breast tissue resulted in the subject being taunted and picked upon at school and further isolated from other youths his age. The subject had to be removed from Physical Education classes after several instances of abuse by other male youth."

"father has taken the absolute minimum required number of treatments for his drug addiction that will allow him to remain out of jail. Although hard evidence has not been found, it is suspected that the father has progressed from using drugs to dealing with them to obtain funds to support his addiction. There is some anecdotal evidence that the father forces his son to participate in some aspects of his drug dealing but no evidence exists that the son has taken drugs himself."

"It is understandable that in an environment such as this, the youth is unaware of what a normal home environment and father son relationship should be and feels that it is normal that he be abused and threatened by the adults he comes into contact with outside of school"

And the most disturbing observation, "while it is obvious that the home environment for this youth is less than ideal and actually harmful too many aspects of his development, the management of Social Services feels that documentation of these issues does not yet rise to the level of the detail that would justify removing the youth from his father's household. To the extent that other heavy caseloads allow, the situation

will continue to be monitored and action may be able to be taken at some

point in the future ....."

Wow, what a life Erik had led! And Social Services had been aware of the problems but had done nothing until forced to by my brother's incarceration. If I had only known what was happening I might have been able to get involved and help out years earlier. And am I really qualified to care for him now, given his background? I didn't sleep well that night as I tossed and turned as thoughts such as those kept me awake.

The next morning the door to Erik's bedroom was still closed when I left for work at 8 am. Not wanting to wake him, I left a note explaining that I was at work, and a phone number where he could reach me if necessary, that I would return home around 5 pm, and he should feel free to use any of the facilities at the house in my absence. I wasn't sure how to sign the note, "Love, Uncle Tom" sounded too, uh, friendly, and "Uncle Tom" sounded too cold, so I finally just ended up with "Tom" and drew a small smiley face after my name.

I was a little late getting home from work and it was close to 6 pm by the time I arrived home. I was surprised to see that Erik had a light summer supper of tossed greens, pasta salad, and hot dogs to grill,

waiting by the pool for me. "Wow, looks like you've been busy," I said.

"I did all the cooking for my father, as well as the laundry, cleaning the apartment, and stuff like that. As long as I'm going to be living here I thought I should help out somehow."

I was about to reply when I noticed that there was something different about Erik. His clothes were still the ratty old ones but at least now they looked freshly laundered. And other than the clothes his appearance was a little different. Finally, I realized that his hair looked much nicer than it had been yesterday. Now it was fuller and a glossy black parted over his right eye and swept down on either side of his face, partially covering the left side of his face. As I drew closer I noticed that it had a pleasant fragrance to it as well - a strong fruity-floral blend with a note of musk. "Hmmm, smells nice," I said.

Erik drew back with a look on his face that might almost have been fear.

"I, uh, I found a box of bath stuff and cosmetics in one of the closets in my bedroom and used some on my hair. I hope I didn't do anything I shouldn't have."

No of course not," I reassured him, "Anything you find in those closets you should feel free to use. Now, I'm hungry, can we get the grill going and eat?" Erik smiled at me as I prepared to grill the hot dogs.

As the grill was warming up, I went back into the house, got a six-pack out of the refrigerator, brought it out to the patio, popped open a can of my favorite dark ale, and took a big gulp - nothing like the first

swig of cold beer on a warm evening. I saw Erik looking at me and offered him one. "Uh. No thanks," he said, "beer was my dad's favorite drink, whenever he wasn't stoned, that is."

"So, uh, you want something else?"

"You got any wine? A white wine maybe?"

That brought back memories as a chilled dry white Riesling had been Keri's drink of choice and there were still several bottles in the refrigerator. So I brought one out, uncorked it, and poured a glass for Erik. As we were sitting there the aroma of the wine brought back memories so I went back into the house, brought out a second wine glass, and poured some of the Riesling for myself. It was pleasant to sit there by the pool with him, smelling the aroma of the hot dogs on the grill as we sipped our wine. As we ate I refilled our wine glasses and I realized that Erik wasn't sitting hunched over as he had in the past but was much more relaxed, leaning back in his chair as we ate and talked. I also noticed that in this posture, two small "tents" were visible in the front of the pullover hoodie that he was wearing. Either Erik was unaware of what he was "exposing," or he didn't care, and I wasn't about to say anything as I enjoyed the view, knowing what was causing the "tents." After we'd finished eating Erik asked if he could take care of the cleanup and do the dishes, and I agreed.

As Erik cleaned up the kitchen I found a reality show on one of the cable channels, "Teenage Vampire Lesbians in Las Vegas" or something like that. When the kitchen work was finished Erik came in and sat next to me as we watched a horde of teenage vampire lesbians destroy the largest casino in Las Vegas - the plot never made it clear why they wanted to destroy it, but you don't watch shows like this for the plot.

As the casino was burning and exploding the teenage vampire lesbians danced around with their exposed breasts bouncing up and down, and all the casino employees were themselves being turned into vampires (even though they were neither teenage nor lesbian), I asked Erik if he didn't feel kind of lonesome up here in the canyon while I was at work during the day, being five miles out of town and without a driver's license and all that? His answer surprised me.

"Oh, it's just kind of nice to be able to just stay up here and relax and get away from things."

"Things?"

"Oh, just stuff, with my Dad, and some guys."

"Uh, maybe I shouldn't ask but what kind of stuff?"

There was a pause and then, "Okay. Well, you knew that he was using and dealing drugs, right?"

"I'd heard that."

Erik was silent for a minute or so and I thought the conversation was over with, but then he continued, "Well, sometimes he didn't have enough money to pay for the drugs, and uh I'd have to help him."

"Help him?"

"Well, sometimes the guys he owed money to would use me and that would make up for them not being paid."

This conversation was getting pretty weird and I almost wished I hadn't started it, but after another minute or so of silence I figured that it had gone this far and might as well continue so I asked, "Use?"

"Use. You know. Sex stuff. For how a guy uses a girl,  and other stuff some of it uh, some of it I got to like but some of it, I didn't."

And Erik's voice sort of tapered off and I realized that he was silently crying at first and then sobbing more loudly, so I pulled him over against me and wrapped my arms around him to try to comfort him, and we just sat there till his sobs finally subsided. I was shocked by what Erik had just told me, but after he stopped crying I just enjoyed sitting there, his slim body pressed up against mine, his head resting against my chest, and smelling the floral scent of his long hair as I gently stroked it with my free hand.

I was surprised when I looked at my watch to see how fast time had passed and it was now past midnight so I gently leaned away from Erik and told him that I had to be at the office early in the morning and needed to head off to bed to get at least a couple of hours of sleep. As I was standing to leave he asked, "Tom if I make up a list of things that we need could you pick them up on your way home?" I assured him that I could and went off to bed, feeling a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to sit there with Erik snuggled up against me, with my arms around him any longer.

The alarm going off at 5:00 am was an unwelcome surprise but I remembered that I had to leave the house by 6 so I rapidly showered, shaved, dressed, and grabbed a container of yogurt from the refrigerator for breakfast. As I was standing at the counter eating the yogurt I noticed the list of items that Erik wanted me to buy, noting that it was written in a flowing, pretty, almost dainty script. I read through the long list of items - from food and drink to cleaning supplies, and even a few items I questioned such as the candles, but I needed to get on my way to the office, pausing momentarily on my way out the door to quietly open the door to Erik's bedroom and gaze for a moment at his sleeping form on the bed before I silently closed the door and left the house.

It took me almost an hour after work to purchase all the items that Erik had requested and it was a bit after 6:30 pm by the time I reached the house. Upon entering I immediately noticed that the air had a slight floral scent and as I walked into the living area I saw several vases around the room filled with freshly cut flowers. Erik came into theroom, saw me looking at the flowers, and said, "I found them growing outside and I thought that they might brighten up the room a bit. I hope that you don't mind?"

"No, of course not," I answered, but what really surprised me was not the flowers but Erik's clothing - he was wearing a pair of white linen shorts, a yellow blouse tucked into the shorts, and a pair of white sandals on his feet.

Noticing me staring at him he got a wary look on his face and hesitantly said, "Oh I, uh I hope that you don't mind me putting on some clothes I found in the closet in my bedroom. Mine were so old and ragged, and these are much newer and in better shape. And you did say I could use anything I found in my bedroom?"

Well, I did remember saying that, although I really wasn't thinking about Keri's clothes when I said it, if he wanted to wear some of her clothes I guess there was nothing wrong with it - except that they were a little large and baggy on him so I said, "No problem. What's for supper?" And was rewarded by a beaming smile on Erik's face when he heard my response.

Turns out that Erik had a pretty good Italian dinner waiting for us, and as the weather was very warm and sunny we took everything outside and ate by the pool on the patio. I was surprised that he had been able to make a decent antipasto, linguine with carbonara sauce, and a kind of almond pastry for dessert. When I complimented him on the meal his comment was, "Oh, I just found a cookbook in one of the closets in my bedroom and the pages for this dinner had been folded over and marked up so I thought maybe it was one of your favorites." That brought back memories of Keri cooking this same meal for me on special occasions.

Erik had also found a bottle of Valpolicella amidst several bottles of wine I kept in a cooler in the kitchen and had that opened and breathing so we both started our dinner with a glass of wine. At first, I thought that Erik had prepared way too much food but as I watched him go back for seconds, and then thirds, I realized that there would be few leftovers. "You sure have an appetite tonight," I said at one point.

He looked over at me as he slowly licked some sauce off his full lips before he smiled at me and responded, "Habit I guess. There were some days when the kitchen at the apartment was pretty bare. So when there was food I got used to eating as much as I could. Old habits are hard to break, I guess."

"Oh no, I'm happy to see you enjoying yourself. But at that rate, you may need some larger clothes eventually," and in fact, his face did look just a little bit less pinched and malnourished than when he had arrived.

"Oh, not much chance of that. There are so many nice clothes in my bedroom that I haven't even tried on yet," and he giggled a little as he poured himself another glass of wine.

By the time we'd finished the main course the sun was beginning to set so Erik cleared the table and brought out dessert, and a second bottle of Valpolicella as I lit some candles around the pool to provide a little light. We sat there for a while, sipping our wine and watching the lights come on in the city spread out below before Erik exclaimed, "Oh damn, I must have splashed some of the sauce from the pasta on my clothes, I'd better go in and rinse them off before the stain sets," and he got up and went into the house. I was slowly sipping my wine and enjoying the view of the city below when he returned several minutes later, moved his chair over next to mine by the table, and sat down. I glanced over at him and SHIT! He didn't have any clothes on! Well, he wasn't completely naked as he did have a pair of Keri's panties on. He saw me staring at him and said, "Uh, it seemed so nice and warm out here that I didn't think that I needed to put on a change of clothes. Is that okay?"

I wasn't sure what to say as I looked over at Erik, sitting there next to me with his chest fully exposed and his small perky breasts with their puffy nipples shimmering in the flickering light from the candles.

After a moment I realized that something else was exposed, or almost so, as I glanced down and saw that his panties were just barely covering a large, thick penis. The other thing I noticed is that from what I could see, other than the hair on his head, he had little or no body hair (I later found out that he did have a small patch of curly black hair just above his penis, but how I found that out is another story.). Erik turned and saw me staring at his breasts and said, "I can go put some clothes on if it bothers you." He was silent for a moment and then continued, "Some of Dad's suppliers liked to touch them," and he reached over, picked up my hand, and placed it gently on his right breast. OH SHIT! Here I was, sitting by the pool at my house and with a near-naked youth exposing himself to me and as much as asking me to play with his breasts. I could feel myself getting hard and then as Erik shifted

slightly in his chair and I felt his warm and soft breast moving gently under my hand I couldn't control myself, gasped, groaned, and ejaculated into my underwear. Erik looked over at me, was silent for a second, and then gasped out, "Oh Tom, I'm so sorry," burst into tears, ran into the house and I heard the door to his bedroom slam.

Things were happening way too fast and I sat there for some time, trying

to sort out my feelings and what to do next. Eventually, I decided just to go to bed and see what developed tomorrow so I picked up the dishes still on the patio table, took them into the kitchen, went to my bedroom, stripped, and crawled into bed. With the thoughts rushing through my mind, sleep did not come quickly and I was still half awake when the door to my room opened and Erik entered, walking slowly and hesitantly. He knelt by my side of the bed and whispered, "Tom, I'm so messed up. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I made you mad, or something, and I'm afraid that you won't let me stay here any longer. I just can't stay in my room. Alone. Can I get in your bed just for a few minutes? I promise I won't try anything funny. Please?" Half asleep I mumbled something that Erik took as a "yes" so he moved over to the other side of my bed, crawled under the covers, and lay there, as far away from me as possible.

The next thing I remember was when I awoke in the middle of the night to find that Erik had shifted position and was now lying next to me, or rather, partially on top of me. He lay oddly positioned, his upper torso diagonally across my chest, face in a pillow, cheek against my right shoulder, his slack right arm hooked around my neck. His long slim legs were sprawled down there, off to my left. My right arm was pinned, but my left arm was free, my hand resting on the small of his back under his long black hair. At first, I tried to figure out how I could work myself out from under him without awakening him. And then, realizing that wasn't possible, I decided to just let well enough alone and enjoy the feeling of his slight body on top of mine, his small breasts pressing against my chest. The next thing I remember was the glow of the sun beginning to show around the edges of the window shades, noticed that the clock by the bed was displaying 6:13 AM, and Erik was still positioned across my chest. I was going to have to get up soon to go to work anyway so I just lay there for several minutes, feeling Erik's

chest slowly rising and falling as he breathed, and felt myself developing this huge erection. Turns out I wasn't the only one with an erection as I could feel Erik's hard-on pressing against my left thigh.

"Well," I thought, "Hate to waste a hard-on, either his or mine, but I've got to go to work shortly," and I slowly extricated myself from under Erik who gave a sleepy mumble, rolled back over onto his side of

the bed, and promptly went to sleep again.