Read Online Something Like Summer by Jay Bell - Free Book Online

you
unmercifully.”
    Tim’s grin was cocky. “When
you put it like that, I do have it good, but I still get crap from
other people. Miss a catch or don’t make it to base and your team
turns on you, especially if you lose the game.”
    Ben made sure he didn’t
look convinced.
    “ Well, all right, how
about this then?” The smile dropped from Tim’s face. “At my last
school my ex-girlfriend went around telling everyone that I raped
her, just because I dumped her. I had every girl in the school
coming up to me and saying the craziest shit. A few even tried to
knee me. It was insane.”
    “ What
happened?”
    “ What do you mean? Nothing
happened. It was her word against mine, but she didn’t take it to
the police or anything because she knew the truth. It blew over
after a while, but people never treated me the same afterwards. You
don’t know how glad I am to have a fresh start.”
    “ The idea sounds
appealing,” Ben admitted.
    “ Would you still come out?
If you moved to the other side of the country where no one knew,
would you come out again?”
    “ Yeah,” Ben answered
immediately. “Are you kidding me? What would I do otherwise?
Pretend I’m into girls and start sleeping with them?”
    Tim only shrugged in
response.
    “ I’d definitely come out
again. It’s the only chance I have at meeting someone else who is
gay. It pays to advertise. That’s the theory at least.”
    “ No luck in the romance
department?” Tim asked with an amused expression.
    “ Not really. Not love at
least.”
    A garish cuckoo clock came
to life, the little bird popping out and returning to its little
home seven times.
    “ Jesus, I should get
home.” Ben hurried to leave, pulling a shoe onto the wrong foot
before realizing it and reaching for the other. “Are you going to
be all right? There’s drinks and stuff in the fridge and leftover
pizza on the counter. Should I bring it in?”
    “ Naw, I can
manage.”
    “ I thought I’d come by in
the morning to make breakfast and check on you, and then again in
the afternoon?” Ben didn’t mean to phrase it as a question. He
wanted to say it like it was the obvious thing to do.
    “ Yeah?” Tim answered with
his own inquiry. “You’d do that for me?”
    “ That and a hell of a lot
more.” The words were out of his mouth before his brain could stop
them. The only damage control he could do was a nervously little
laugh, which probably made him sound twice as crazy. “Uh, so see
you tomorrow then,” he said before he made a mad dash for the
door.
    * * * * *
    The pancakes were the right
shape--round and flat. They were also spongy like they should be.
Only the color was off. The first few out of the pan were an albino
version of the normal brown variety. The next three were almost
black. Ben had no idea what he had done wrong.
    He had read and reread the
simple instructions in his mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook three or
four times and had even written down the basics, but these didn’t
look right at all. He shoveled the last pancake onto the plate with
the others and poured a generous amount of syrup over them to
conceal their inadequacies.
    If Tim noticed that they
weren’t quite right, he didn’t let on. It may have helped that he
had taken a painkiller when Ben had shown up half an hour ago. His
eyes had a certain glazed look about them when Ben presented his
creation. Within five minutes the entire plate had been cleared and
licked clean.
    “ A guy could get used to
this,” Tim said appreciatively as Ben carried the plate back to the
kitchen.
    Next up was Tim’s request
for a bath. This idea had already been the subject of more than one
of Ben’s fantasies the last few days. In them he had to assist his
poor, helpless invalid out of his clothing, place him in the
bathtub, and sponge clean every delicious nook and cranny of his
body. This, of course, would lead to an involuntary physical
reaction on Tim’s part, one so intense that he’d beg Ben