by Trina Solet
"He was having fun with it, talking about being a referee and rubbing his hands together," Seth said. "But we lost our little helper. Hauling junk just can't compare to playing soccer with dogs, I guess."
After they went to the house to change, Seth drove to the lady's house and she took them out back where the shed used to be. Working together, loading the debris into the back of the truck, they were done in good time and had a little extra money in their pockets.
Working next to Theo was quite a distraction though. Seth wanted to go over to him all the time to touch him and lick the sweat off his skin. He had to shake himself out of it and wonder at all these new feelings.
The scrap yard was on the outskirts of Ashbury, with train tracks running just east of it. Seeing all the piles of stuff, Theo looked kind of intimidated, but it was all pretty well organized. Seth didn't think they would have any trouble finding what they needed.
But first, the guy in charge of the scrap yard looked over what they had, picked out what was usable and paid a little bit of money for it. The rotten and rusted stuff would go to the dump, but before going to the dump, they looked for wood for the porch.
Seeing some pieces of wood that had been fitted together, Seth showed them to Theo. "A picnic table would be just the thing. This could be the top of it. Eating outside when the weather is nice, can't you just see it?"
"I can but I don't know if I can build one. I guess it's another thing I can look up online."
"I can help you put it together," Seth volunteered. "It's going to be a big one, but that's not a bad thing for when you have people over."
They ended up with a good amount of wood for the table and for the porch that didn't cost too much. "I just spent more than we made," Theo said.
"Easy come, easy go," Seth said with a shrug, but he wasn't happy that Theo didn't let him pitch in with some of his own money.
Loading the wood into the back of the old truck, Seth noticed two guys in a big, new truck who looked like they were making fun of them. He heard one of them call out, "nice ride" as he snickered. After those guys drove away, Seth told Theo, "I think those guys were laughing at this old truck."
"Who cares?"
"It doesn't bother you?"
"I'm not ashamed of it," Theo said. "It's not like I'm going to use it to pick up guys."
Seth felt a sharp stab of jealousy at that. "Are you gonna be...? I mean..." He couldn't get the words out. He didn't want to know that Theo might want to be with other guys.
"Are you worried I'm going to be bringing guys home to fuck?" Theo asked him, his eyes hard.
"No. I was just... I don't know." It hurt to think of Theo with anybody else, but he had no real claim on him.
What if he did? What if he could claim Theo for his own? They were sitting inside the truck when Seth reached for him, angled his face and kissed him. He meant to do it gently, like a question, but the turmoil inside him wouldn't let him. It made the kiss deeper, it made his hands restless, grabbing for Theo, needing the feel of his skin, his cock.
It didn't happen right away, but when Seth started rubbing Theo's cock through his jeans, Theo pushed him off. "Back it up. You think because I did it once, I'll service you all the time?" His voice was a hoarse whisper, the expression in his eyes sad and serious. "Is that what this is?" he was asking like someone who didn't really want to know the answer because he was dreading it.
"No, I..."
"I'm not your slut," Theo said.
"I don't think that. I just..." He got jealous. That was the truth. Jealous of some guy Theo might want instead of him. But how could he say that?
"Let's just go," Theo said.
As they got on the road, he glared ahead and didn't say a word, and Seth didn't know how to explain himself. It could be that what they did was just a one off, and Theo didn't want it to ever happen again. Seth hated to think that was true, that he would never be allowed to touch him again.
To get to the dump, they drove along the train tracks. Smoky, gray clouds were racing across the sky, and Seth wondered if bad weather was on the way.
When they got to the dump, Theo didn't get out of the truck. He just sat there, and Seth worried that he upset him real bad and now Theo didn't want to have anything to do with him.
"Theo, I'm..."
Theo cut him off. "I've already been through this once with someone I thought was my friend. As soon as he found out I was gay, he turned all grabby."
So that's why. But Theo had him all wrong. Or did he? Seth did pounce on him the very second he found out. Maybe there wasn't any difference.
"When you told me, I did think of you in a way that got me all stirred up," Seth told him truthfully. "And then with what happened last night, I got carried away. I won't get grabby again."
"Last night was my doing. I shouldn't blame you for getting the wrong idea." Theo opened the truck door, got out, and they got to work unloading the stuff that was too far gone to be of use.
Once that was done, Seth stopped to stare at a plastic Christmas tree on top of a garbage pile. The tree was decorated with all sorts of garbage and topped with a broken clock. Stopping next to him, Theo saw it too.
"I'm taking a picture of that for Ace." Theo stepped away to get a better angle on it.
That's when Seth noticed that someone had parked so that a van ended up trapped between them and the truck. Seth rushed off to move the truck, but as he got there, a lady climbed out from the side of the van and started yelling angrily.
"Is this yours? Is this your truck? You move this piece of junk. You move it right now."
That's exactly what Seth was about to do. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'll move it," he said but she wasn't satisfied.
"Damn right you will, blocking me in! You got brain damage or something, you feeble minded, good-for-nothing..."
She got no further than that as Theo appeared right behind her. He came in hot, growling at her, "What is going on here? Why the hell are you speaking to him like that?"
She tried to say something, but Theo didn't let her.
"No! You are done being rude and abusive. He didn't block you. That other car blocked you. But since we're going now, problem solved!" He pulled the passenger side door open but waited for Seth to get in first and shut his door. Getting in himself, Theo glared at the woman the whole time.
Seth got them on the road, and after a minute he heard Theo sigh. "Seth, why were you apologizing to her when you didn't do anything wrong?"
"Habit?" He had accepted that he was always in the wrong as far as the whole world was concerned.
Theo sighed again. "Sorry I snapped at you before."
"Was it because you were wishing you could take back what we did?" Seth asked.
"No. I don't want to take it back. I just don't want you getting the wrong idea about me."
"Like that you're a slut? I don't think that. I would never think anything bad about you. I just don't know how to act around you now," Seth admitted but that only made Theo's expression turn even more gloomy.
By the time they picked up Ace, a light sprinkle of rain started. Theo told them that he got a text that the chimney had been cleared and they could use the fireplace. Ace was happy about that and full of stories about his soccer game with the dogs.
"That Lenny is a funny little dog," Ace said then he turned more thoughtful. "I was playing with three dogs today. You think Butter is gonna be jealous?" He looked from Seth to Theo for the answer.
"You're toast," Theo told him with a straight face and Ace gasped.
"Just give her some extra attention to make it up to her, and she'll forgive you," Seth told him.
Ace nodded and huffed while shooting a frown at his big brother.
A light but steady rain was falling when they arrived at the house, so they had to rush to unload the wood they got at the scrap yard. Ace went inside to make sure Butter didn't get mad at him, and Seth and Theo stacked the wood on the porch to keep it out of the rain.
They w
ere a little wet and chilled when they went in. Seth was going to go to his room to change, but Theo stopped him.
"You can change into this." Theo handed him a big box that had the Stone Creek Inn logo on it. "As you can see, I got that from the inn gift shop."
Seth had seen him bring it in when they came to change before they went to haul away debris. He never imagined it was something for him. Opening it, he found a green, cable knit sweater folded under some tissue paper.
"Is this because mine's got a hole in it?"
"You won't need it much once the weather gets warm, but today proves you can still use it," Theo said.
"I bet it was expensive," Seth said feeling how soft it was.
"Employee discount," Theo told him.
"Thank you." Seth was touched that he got him something. "It's real nice. I'll save it for a special occasion."
He was folding it up again, but Theo didn't let him put it away. "No. I want to see you wear it. I mean I got it for you to wear."
It seemed to Seth that Theo would be disappointed if he put it away so he agreed. "All right. But I'm going to jump into the shower first."
"Ace and I will start dinner." Theo was already getting stuff out of the fridge, but Seth tried to stop him.
"I can do it. I'll be quick."
"It's been a while since I made quesadillas with Ace. We'll have them with a salad," Theo said and he went to change too.
Seth looked down at the sweater and felt kind of teary-eyed. It wasn't just because it had been so very long since anyone bought anything for him. He was feeling all choked up because this came from Theo.
If it was up to him, he had a feeling he would box it up, keep it as a treasure and never wear it. Good thing Theo said he wanted to see him wear it, and that gave him a warm feeling too.
Out of the shower and dressed in his new sweater, Seth joined the others in the kitchen. The kitchen was pretty warm with the stove going. Theo was working on dinner and Ace was keeping Butter away from the food.
"Theo doesn't want hair in his food," Ace said to Seth.
"I'm picky that way," Theo said then he looked at Seth in his new sweater and gave him a smile.
"Thanks again," Seth told him. "I'll get the plates."
"Butter likes your sweater," Ace said as the cat strained toward him.
"It's a nice one, and it's from Theo, so I'll let Butter admire it from a safe distance." Seth did pet her though.
"Hear that, Butter? You can't get hair on the sweater either," Ace told her.
"We should light a fire, right?" Seth asked Theo.
"I almost forgot. Ace, you want to help with that, right?" Theo said.
Seth knew how to work a fireplace so he showed them how it was done. Soon they had a good fire going to keep them warm while they ate.
As they ate dinner, the weather outside only got worse. What started out as a little rain turned into a howling storm. Clearing up the table, Seth noticed that Ace and Butter were sticking close together. Ace kept turning toward the sounds of the wind and the creaking noises the house made and reassuring Butter that it was nothing.
"Ace is not liking that storm," Seth said as he went into the kitchen to help wash dishes.
"He is a little jumpy. He has Butter to cuddle with. Sitting by the fire, watching some shows will distract him."
"We have those marshmallows. This might be the night to break them out," Seth suggested.
"Good idea."
All of them sitting on the floor by the fire with marshmallows on sticks had Ace feeling much braver about the howling of the storm. But at his bedtime, Theo went to sit with him. Ace claimed he didn't need to, but Theo did it anyway and stayed with him until he was asleep.
"He's curled around Butter and sleeping soundly," Theo reported when he came back.
Seth was still enjoying the fire. "Now I wish I got more firewood before all this rain hit."
"It's nice to have a fireplace. Thanks for showing us how to use it. Did you used to have one?"
"No, but our neighbor, Moira, did and I helped her with it," Seth said as he poked at the fire and made sparks fly.
"I picture our granddad sitting by this fire in an armchair with a book in his hand. It's too bad Ace never got to meet him. Granddad was always bad at taking care of his health, hated doctors, just ignored his bad heart," Theo said sadly. "And Ace doesn't remember our dad. He was so little when we lost him."
"That's why you play your dad's music for Ace," Seth said.
"This was Dad's too." Theo picked up the PSP 3000 that Ace used to play his video games. "This belonged to our dad. I saved it for Ace and hid it from our aunt so she wouldn't sell it."
"Your dad must have been cool," Seth decided.
"I don't know about cool, but he was into video games. I want to give Ace as much of our dad as I can, things that he loved, things that made him smile. Our dad played this, his hands held it like this, his fingers pressed the buttons. I can still see him a little hunched over, explaining the game to me then letting me play while he cheered me on. Then he called out to our mom, 'He's a natural.' She said, 'Of course he is. Woo hoo!'"
"She sounds cool too," Seth said.
"She liked to play too, but she stopped after our dad died. 'It just makes me cry too hard,' she would say." Theo's smile was so unbearably sad. To lose both of them.
Seth wanted to reach out and hug him or at least put an arm around him but he didn't dare. "I feel bad not hugging you," he admitted to Theo.
"That's my own fault for overreacting before," Theo said.
"Sorry I reminded you of that friend of yours."
"No. I wasn't being fair to you. You're not like him. I shouldn't judge you on what some other guy did. Sorry. And I'm the one who went into your room." Theo then asked him, "How come you keep your door open? You don't like being closed up?"
"Just a habit. I got used to doing that because of my grandpa. That way I could hear him if he needed me or if he just started wandering around for no reason," Seth explained. "He had Alzheimer's."
"That must have been hard."
"When he didn't recognize me any more, that was the worst part. That's when I felt like I didn't have anyone. I was all alone." Seth remembered his grandpa treating him like he was an intruder, telling him to get out of his house, bringing back his fear of being tossed out, abandoned.
"Sorry," Theo said and touched his knuckles to Seth's.
"I still have family out there, just don't know where they are. I know you and Ace have it worse," Seth told him.
"We're coping." Theo said. His fearless posture wasn't easy to crack.
"That's because you're strong and Ace can count on you," Seth told him.
Theo was tough as nails for his little brother's sake. Because of Theo, Ace didn't seem anxious most of the time. Tonight Seth had noticed how Ace looked to Theo during his fearful moments when the noises of the storm scared him. Every one of those times, Theo always looked like he had everything well in hand. But it had to be hard for him.
Seth inched a little closer to him and leaned his shoulder into him. "I'm not hitting on you. I'm just leaning on you and you can lean on me a little too."
Theo laughed. "You're crazy." But he did lean on him.
Chapter 13
Friday afternoon, back from work, Theo was making a list of projects for the weekend. Looking up from his list, he saw the mail truck driving away and heard as Ace started yelling.
"We have a package. A package!" Ace announced, running in then running back outside.
The box Theo was expecting was on the porch and Butter was out there checking it out.
"She's sniffing it a lot," Ace said crouching next to her.
"She's as curious about it as you are," Theo told him. He picked up the box and carried it into the house.
"Is it a present?" Ace asked as he and Butter followed.
"No, but there's some good stuff inside," Theo told him setting the box in the middle of the living room.
He let Ace open it but he wasn't sure if they had time to unpack it before going to get Seth from the café. Just as he was going to tell Ace they had to go, Seth texted to say that Hannah was giving him a ride.
Theo cursed at the phone screen silently then showed Ace what was in the box and tried not to think about what Seth and Hannah might be doing. Maybe Seth would make a move on her, though Hannah seemed more than capable of jumping him first.
Most of the stuff was out of the box, Butter was batting at the crumpled up newspapers that were used for the packing, and while helping clean up, Ace discovered the Sunday comics pages.
"I'm gonna read the comics to Butter," he said.
Theo wasn't doing much either. He was constantly looking out the window, wondering when Seth would be back and what he was up to with Hannah.
When he arrived and came in, Ace jumped up and started telling him all about the package.
"What's this now?" Seth asked since Ace was talking way too fast.
"It's just some of our stuff we left behind. We only brought what we could carry so a friend of mine was storing all this," Theo said pointing at the things he unpacked. "This is the main thing."
He went over to the table where their dad's old laptop was done booting up.
"Can we play the game?" Ace asked, coming over.
"The laptop belonged to our dad. There's a game on it that my dad was working on," Theo said. He started up the game but it would take a little while to load.
"You mean he made the game?" Seth asked.
"Just something he did in his spare time, like a hobby," Theo said.
"Wow, that's one cool hobby," Seth said, impressed.
"Dad was cool," Ace said to Seth then he leaned in to whisper. "But he was a nerd."
"He must have been one of those cool nerds," Seth said and Ace nodded and smiled.
Theo was eying the laptop screen waiting for the game to finish loading, and he felt Ace lean against him, watching for it too. It took a little while then they saw the welcome screen with the two crossed swords and the words Elemental Warriors.
