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Hey all! Hope you guys are liking the story so far. If you’ve read the previous chapters recently, you probably know that I started this book a few years ago and just started going back and editing/rewriting the old chapters (this is the last one) and plan to be continuing the story from here. I hope you stick around. Thanks!
GREYSON’S POV
I wake up around noon on Saturday (a week after Ethan had slept over). What can I say? I’m a teenage boy. I hang out at home and watch TV until around three, and then I want to do something. It’s a nice day out, so I go skateboarding along the beach for about an hour. I pick up a pizza on the way back and bring it home. I have to babysit Nate tonight and I don’t feel like cooking. I get home around 5:30 and change into red plaid PJ pants and a black tank top. I’m staying in all night, I don’t care about my appearance.
I sit down with Nate and eat dinner. My parents walk into the room at six. They walk over to my little brother, and each kiss him on the head. “Now Nathan, you listen to your brother and be good while we’re out, alright?” Nate looks up at my mom and smiles, “Yes, Mommy.” “And you’ll go to bed at bedtime, right buddy?” my other mom asks Nate. “Yes, Mama,” Nate replies with a mouthful of pizza. “And don’t talk with food in your mouth,” Mom adds. “Okay, Mommy,” Nate answers after swallowing. “That’s our good boy,” Mama smiles. “Take good care of your brother and call if you need anything,” Mom says as she hugs me. “I will, Mom. Love you.” “Love you too, baby,” she replies. “Have fun, you two,” Mama says and kisses my head. “Bye, Moms. Love you,” I say. “Bye boys, we love you, too,” Mama says. They leave and I put my dishes away and clean up after Nate.
“Alright, Kiddo,” I smile, “What’s first?” Nate looks up at me with a hopeful look on his face. “Can we play on the PlayStation?” He asks. I chuckle lightly. “Alright, little guy. After you brush your teeth and change into your pajamas, we can use the PlayStation,” I offer. “Yes!” He cheers and rushes up the stairs to his bedroom. I laugh and follow him.
I find him with his shirt strewn on the floor, pulling a new one over his head. I chuckle at how excited he is, and help him get his arms through the short sleeves. He strips out of his pants and begins pulling on the ones that match his shirt, they have frogs on them. When he’s finished, he starts to leave the room before I stop him with my voice. “Hey, hey, hey,” he turns and looks at me. “Put your dirty clothes in the hamper,” I instruct. He does as he’s told and looks to me for approval. “Alright,” I say. “Go brush your teeth.” He races down the hall and I follow him to the bathroom. He brushes his teeth with his Buzz Lightyear electronic toothbrush and rinses his mouth with his Hello Kitty drinking cup. He spits into the sink and smiles up at me. “Can we play now?” he begs. “Yeah, okay,” I laugh. “We can play now.”
After about ten minutes of playing Donkey Kong, I receive a text from Ethan. I let Nate play solo and open the text. “Hey Greys,” it reads. I smile at the text and reply quickly, “Hey, babe. How’re things?” “Things are cool,” he answers. “That’s good. Whatcha doing?” I ask. “Oh nothing, just hanging out at home and being completely bored,” he tells me. I look over at Nate intensely playing Donkey Kong and smile. “Want to come over?” I ask Ethan. “I’m babysitting my little brother, but my moms won’t mind,” I add. “Sure :)” he sends and I smile and look over to Nate. “Hey Kiddo,” I get his attention. “Is it okay if my friend Ethan comes over and hangs out with us?” I ask him. “Yeah,” he answers happily. “Okay, buddy. And just so you know, Ethan doesn’t talk, but you can talk to him, okay?” “Okay. But how does he tell people stuff?” He asks. “Well, he can type things on his phone and I can read them.” “Okay. He can come over.” Nate says. “Well, wait. Does he like video games?” He asks cutely. I smile at this and reply, “I’m not sure, little guy. I’ll ask him for you.” I text Ethan. “Hey E, important question,” I send. “Yeah, what’s up?” He asks. “Do you like to video games?” I laugh lightly as I send the message. “What, have I been living under a rock? Of course I do!” he replies. “Yeah,” I say to Nate, “He likes video games.” “Awesome!” Nate exclaims. “He can come over,” he says, as though that were the only deciding factor in befriending strangers. I smile and text Ethan. “In that case, you have Nate’s permission to come over :P” He replies immediately, “Oh, good. I was hoping he would approve of my visitation :)”
About twenty minutes later, Nate and I are in the middle of an intense game of New Super Mario Brothers when the doorbell rings. He pauses the game and screams “I’LL GET IT!” Even though I’m sitting less than five feet away from him. He rushes to the door and yells, “WHO IS IT?” just as he was taught to do. I hear a light chuckle through the door. No one replies, so I look out the window to see that it’s Ethan. “It’s my friend,” I tell Nate. “You can let him in.” I hear the lock click and Nate opens the door.
I walk to the living room doorway and watch the encounter. “Hello,” Nate greets Ethan politely. Ethan smiles down at him and waves. “May I take your coat?” He asks in his best grown-up voice and I laugh along with Ethan. Ethan laughs silently, nods, and hands Nate his sweatshirt to hang next to the door. “I’m Nathan. And you’re Ethan. My brother texts you all the time. I know because whenever he’s using his phone, I ask him who he’s talking to and he says he’s talking to Ethan and that’s you so that means he texts you a lot. You must think he’s really cool. I think he’s really cool,” Nate sputters like it’s all one word. This gets a chuckle from Ethan. Ethan shrugs as he looks to me with a smirk. I walk to the door and give Ethan a pat on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it,” I smile and turn to Nate. “Hey bud, how about you go set up Mario Kart for three players and we’ll be there in a minute,” I say. Nate nods aggressively and runs into the living room. “Kids,” I chuckle.
Ethan smiles and I walk toward him. “Hey, you,” I say, placing my hands on his waist. “Hey,” he smiles and wraps his arms around my neck. “I missed you,” he says quietly and kisses my nose. I chuckle and kiss his right back. “I saw you yesterday at school,” I remind him. He steps back and fakes a hurt look. “So you mean you didn’t miss me?” He touches his chest and pretends to be wounded. I laugh and walk over to him, placing my hands on his waist again and looking into his eyes. “I didn’t say that,” I smirk. “Of course I missed you,” I tell him. “Prove it,” he replies, smirking, and I lift him so that his legs wrap around my waist and I press his back to the door. “I will,” I smile and kiss his lips passionately. He tangles his fingers in my hair and kisses back. My hands are roaming his chest when we get interrupted by a high pitched voice yelling, “OKAY, IT’S SET UP. CAN WE PLAY NOW?” I pull away from the kiss and Ethan and I both laugh. I place him back on the ground and kiss his forehead. “We’ll continue this later?” I smirk. “We’ll see,” he teases, trailing a finger down my chest and kissing my lips one more time before walking into the living room and leaving me wanting him even more. I collect myself and follow him.
Nate is seated in the chair with a remote in hand, looking at me impatiently. “You’re so slow. Can we play?” He whines. I chuckle and take a seat next to Ethan on the couch. I connect my remote and we start the game. As much as I’d love to play competitively with my boyfriend, I can see that Ethan is going to win, so I let Nate cross the finish line before me. As I expected, Ethan wins the first game. “You beat me!” Nate says with shock in his voice. I guess he’s just used to me and our moms letting him win most of the time. “I’m gonna beat you this time, though,” Nate promises and I laugh and place an arm around Ethan’s shoulder. “You’ve got some competition now, baby,” I whisper and he chuckles quietly.
Nate wins the second game (although I can tell that Ethan let him and I find that to be very sweet). “YES! I WON!” He cheers. Ethan and I exchange smiles. “You sure did. Nice job, kiddo,” I congratulate him. For the rest of the games, Ethan and I make sure to let Nate come in first, but have a competition between each other for second place. It becomes a very intense competition, actually. We’re both getting close to the finish line and he is just slightly in front of me. I know I’m going to lose. I have to do something. I knock the controller out of his hand and pass the finish line before him. He looks at me in shock and starts typing aggressively on his phone before handing it to me. “Really, Greyson? You needed to cheat at Mario Kart?” it reads. He throws me a playful glare. “You’re just mad ’cause I beat you,” I tease him. “You only beat me because you cheated,” he types back. “Yeah? Are you gonna do something about it?” I turn my body towards his. He picks up his phone again and shows me the note. “Maybe I will,” he challenges, turning his body toward mine as well. We glare at each other and hold eye contact. I try to keep the threatening look on my face, but he just looks so damn cute that my mouth can’t help but twitch into a smile. He smiles back and his eyes flicker down to my lips. My smile widens as my eyes copy his action. I start to lean in and my eyes flutter closed. His hand on my shoulder causes me to open them just as quickly and he clears his throat. I raise an eyebrow at him and his eyes glance over to Nate. I completely forgot he was there and I cough and scoot slightly away from Ethan. “Um yeah. Well, um… Good game,” I mumble, trying to regain my composure. He shrugs and nods just as awkwardly.
“Okay, let’s play again,” Nate says excitedly, clearly missing what had happened. I glance at the clock below the TV. “Sorry, kiddo. It’s 8:12pm. That’s already passed your bedtime.” I tell him. He pouts and trudges over to the TV to shut it off along with the PlayStation. “Can you still read me a bedtime story?” He asks with an adorable puppy dog face. “Of course I can, buddy,” I smile. “Yay! You’re the best!” He exclaims and starts up the stairs. “I’ll only be a couple minutes,” I tell Ethan and begin to follow Nate. “Hey,” Nate says, stopping on the stairs. “Yeah?” I ask him. “Can you come, too?” Nate asks Ethan shyly. Ethan looks a little taken aback, but nods and stands up. “Yay!” Nate cheers and continues up the stairs.
Ethan and I follow Nate into his bedroom. He grabs a book from his shelf and gets under the covers. Ethan and I sit beside each other at the end of the bed. “Dr. Seuss’s The Foot Book,” I read the title. I read, and Ethan shows Nate the pictures. About halfway through the book, he’s showing Nate a page and I can’t help but smile at how sweet he is. He looks so happy and peaceful when he’s interacting with kids. I place a hand on his knee and he looks up for a second, and smiles as he continues to show Nate the pictures. We finish the story and I kiss my little brother on his forehead. “Goodnight, kiddo. I love you,” I tell him. “Goodnight, Greyson. I love you, too,” he answers happily. He gives Ethan a hug and says goodnight.
I shut off the light and close the door behind us as we exit the room. I take Ethan’s hand in mine and we head back downstairs. “That was nice of you,” I tell him as we sit on the couch, “to help put Nate to bed like that,” I clarify. “It’s no big deal,” he smiles. “I like that side of you,” he tells me, “the sweet, big brother side.” “Yeah well, it’s no big deal,” I mimic him and kiss his lips softly. He places a hand on the side of my neck and deepens the kiss. I push his back onto the couch and straddle him, continuing to kiss him without breaking it once. We lay on our sides so that we’re facing each other and I give him continuous little pecks on his lips, earning a giggle from him with each one. “I love you,” slips out of my mouth and I pull back, my eyes wide. “I… I mean… I… Just… Forget I said that,” I tell him. He almost looks disappointed, so I clarify. “I mean, it’s true. But I just… Oh man, I’m so dumb. Just ignore me,” I mumble, blushing profusely and looking down to avoid his gaze. He lifts my chin with his finger and looks me directly in the eyes. “It’s okay,” he tells me. “I love you too,” I smile an impossibly large smile and his face copies mine. I pull him into a kiss that’s so deep and passionate that I never want it to end. We break away for breath after a bit and I pull his head to my chest. “I love you”, I repeat confidently, happy to finally be able to say it freely. He giggles and wraps his arms around my waist. “I know.”
I feel like the previous chapters were a bit depressing, so I thought I’d throw in some straight up fluff. Hope it wasn’t too boring.
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Turn off lights when you aren’t using them to save electricity,
A.J.
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