My Lost Time Is Your Gain (I Hope)

National Coming Out Day was yesterday and I got to thinking about a scene that won't make it into my work in progress, but I thought someone might like to see it. I'm thinking Joey and Aaron will give me a lot of deleted scenes for the director's cut. They've already insisted on the prologue. Guys? Not your book. Dylan's book, okay?


Aaron stared at the ceiling. The full-sized bed didn't give them much room, but Joey had rolled on his side, facing away. Annihilating the stress of the last couple hours in the heat and smell of his skin had been on Aaron's mind as he stripped for bed, but as soon as his head hit the pillow he realized he was too fucking tired to fuck. He hadn't been this exhausted since the kids were young.

So of course, Joey decided it was a great time for conversation. Hooking Aaron's leg with a foot, Joey dragged it between his legs. "How old were the twins when you came out to them?"

"I didn't."

Joey started to turn. Aaron wrapped both arms around Joey and pulled him in tight. Joey's hair slipped across Aaron's shoulder, balls resting heavy on Aaron's thigh, ass in tight against Aaron's belly. Sometimes cuddling Joey was an act of self-defense.

Since Aaron was too tired to fuck him, the fastest way to sleep was to answer his questions. "I asked their dad to do it."

"When did you tell him?"

"I think I kind of knew before he was in prison. We had a sort of talk about it one night, just before things got bad again."

"How old were they? How did they take it?"

"Fourteen. And about how you'd guess. Dylan made all kinds of jokes and started calling me a fag at least as often as he called me an asshole. Darryl was quiet. But I think it bothered him more."

With Joey's nod, his hair made a cool lick across Aaron's throat. He started to wonder how he could convince Joey to keep it chin length—and its usual warm blond.

"Yeah. I think that's probably why Dylan doesn't want Darryl to know he's gay."

"What?" Aaron couldn't remember moving, but he was out of the bed and staring down at Joey who rolled over to face him. "Dylan?"

"Shhh. You'll wake him up."

"No fucking way." Aaron whispered it.

"You caught that the other guy, Mike, the one who saved Darryl, was gay, right?"

"From the way he stared at my dick and your ass, yeah, I got that."

"Something's going on between him and Dylan." Joey pulled Aaron back down onto the bed and tucked himself around Aaron's back.

Aaron's head was back on the pillow, but sleep had gotten a hell of a lot farther away.