FOREVER MY LOVE

by Jason Finigan

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This story may contain scenes which involve sexual situations between young males. If this type of material is offensive to you, or it is not legal for you to be reading this type of material, please do not read any further. This story is copyright © 2008 by Jason Finigan, all rights reserved. Please do not copy this story for distribution or post on any online server without the author's permission. Please send all your comments to: jasonfinigan@yahoo.com. You can also visit my website at: www.jasonfinigan.net.

Chapter 1

Growing up for me was no easy thing. For most of my life, I've had to put up with all sorts of nasty names which were hurled at me by obnoxious, know-it-all bullies. I was called virtually every name in the book; jackass, dummy, teacher's pet, chicken, coward, wimp, and many more that I couldn't even begin to remember. Ironically, the one name that I was never called however, was fag. I say ironically since I am in fact gay.

My name is Jason Finn. I am fourteen years old and as I said, I am gay. If you looked at me, you'd probably see me as a stereotypical Scandinavian. My hair is blond, and my eyes are blue. I think I could have done better in the height department though, as I only stand five foot six inches tall. Weight-wise, I'm roughly a hundred and twenty pounds. Probably the most striking feature about me are my eyes. I have always been commented to about them. Most of the time they are a brilliant dark blue. But, and this is the strangest thing, sometimes they actually shift more into the grey. Someone told me they thought that was because of my moods. I don't know if that is right or not, but for the most part I really didn't notice any change. That is until one day while looking in the mirror, I noticed that rather than the blue colour I was used to seeing, they had become less intense and had more of a greyish tone to them.

I grew up in a nice home with my parents in Burlington, Ontario. Even though my parents were not reserved when it came to showing me affection, affection which I returned equally, there were still those moments where I was uncomfortable going to them whenever I had a problem. Discussions amongst ourselves generally centered around things we each did during the day, or plans that were making for a trip someplace, or people who were coming over for a special dinner. There wasn't a single time that I felt comfortable enough to go to them, and I especially wasn't comfortable with telling them about my suspicions that I was gay or the feelings I was beginning to get about some of my friends.

I knew that I was gay and I was scared. And it wasn't just because of what my parents might think of me, but rather also because of the treatment that I knew I would receive at school. I had seen several other students, who were accused of being gay, harassed, bullied and even assaulted by some of the students. They didn't last long in my school, with their parents either pulling them out voluntarily, or the school was forced to transfer the students despite their parents' objections.

The day I graduated from elementary school was one of the better times of my life. Not because I was happy that school was over so that I could enjoy the summer, but rather because I was glad to get away from the bullying I had to endure. A couple of my friends told me that I should have gone to my parents about the bullying, but like I said before, I really didn't feel comfortable going to them with my problems. It just wasn't something that was discussed. There were a few times though that I had to, and that was largely due to the fact that I'd come home from school with a black eye or bruises and my parents made me tell them how I had received it.

Little did I know that High School was going to start out almost as bad as things had been back in Elementary School. Had I known, I'd probably have asked my parents to send me to a different school. But then, if I did that, I wouldn't have met the one person who was to change my life around in ways I never expected.

On a typical boring Tuesday, I had just finished with my first period math class. While the other students were busily talking amongst themselves, packing up their books and pens and getting ready to go to their next class, I was slowly doing the same; except for the talking bit. I pretty much kept to myself while I watched the other students file out of the room. By the time the last person had left, I'd finally finished packing up my rather large school bag. You see, I always make sure that I am the last person to leave a classroom. I do this because of the bullying. There was just no way that I could risk getting caught alone in any one place at any given time. That's usually when the bullies would somehow find me and do their worst.

The drawback with waiting till the last possible minute was running the risk of being late for the next class, especially if the next class just happened to be at the other end of the school. Thankfully, in this case, my next class wasn't all that far, so I didn't have to hurry to much, but I still needed to move quickly. The one thing common to all my teachers was that they did not appreciate their students coming in late. As fate would have it, I was going to be much later for my next class than I had ever been before.

As I was hurrying out of the classroom to my next class, I bumped into someone. Literally. Books and papers went flying, and while I was able to maintain my balance, the unlucky soul who I had run into ended up falling down on his butt. It took me a few seconds to recover from the collision, but when I did and looked down at him, all I could think of at that moment was how gorgeous he was. All thoughts of getting to my next class were gone, with all my attention now focused on the boy sitting on the floor in front of me. Don't ask me why, but I've always been attracted to guys with red hair, and this boy did this boy have red hair to spare. He wasn't skinny by any means, but at the same time neither was he fat. He had really captivating brown eyes and a face so beautiful that it made a bed of roses seem dull by comparison. Even though he was still sitting on the floor, I could tell he was quite a bit taller than me, Which was quite surprising to me as, me being obviously shorter, I was able to knock him down. I guess it might have had something to do with the extra 40 pounds of books and paper that I was carrying with me.

Shaking myself out of the trance I was in, and after picking my jaw up off the ground, I reached out with my hand to him. Gratefully, he reached out with his and allowed me to pull him up onto his feet. You would have thought that once he was once again standing on his own two feet we'd have let go of each other's hands. Instead, we ended up just standing there, looking at each other. Him looking down at me, and me looking up at him. God, he must have been at least six feet tall! Finally the both of us realized where we were and promptly released each other's hand. Not a word was spoken between us, and certainly my eyes never strayed far from his, even when I helped him to gather up the books that he had dropped during the collision.

"Wh..What's your name?" I stammered while handing him the last book that fell, bravely breaking the ice between us. Well someone had to!

"Jon," he replied.

"I haven't seen you around, you new?" I asked.

"Uh huh. I just moved here from New York last month with my Mom."

"Cool, my name's Jason." I could feel my confidence growing as we talked. I knew I was going to be late for my next class, but I didn't care. There was something about Jon that drew me to him. I don't know if it was his angelic face, or his beautiful eyes, or just how he carried himself, but I knew that I immediately felt a powerful attraction to him.

"What class do you have next?" I asked him as we started to walk down the hall.

"English, room 207," he replied.

"Cool," I said. "That's where I'm going too. But we'd better hurry, we're already late."

Together we rushed down the hall, slowing down only once we had reached the classroom. Thankfully, the teacher hadn't started talking yet, and was busily sorting out a few things on his desk. He did look up at us, which I tried to pretend I didn't notice, but he never said anything to us. Finding a couple of empty seats near the front of the class we both sat down. I thought it was so neat that Jon and I were able to sit next to each other, though I expected that neither of us were really going to be learning much in this class today.

Sometime after we had sat down, the teacher had begun his lesson, talking about some book that we were going to have to read for a group project. I wasn't particularly paying attention to the teacher all that much; being that the majority of my focus was on Jon. I was also a bit nervous. I mean, even though I was very much attracted to this kid, there was no way really that I could know whether or not he felt the same way towards me. I didn't even know if he was gay. The last thing I wanted was to do something that could jeopardize the beginnings of a good friendship. A couple times I caught him discretely looking over at me, and every time I looked over at him, he quickly turned his head to look back at the teacher who was still going on about this book project.

Finally, the class ended and I was actually quite happy as I gathered my books and papers again. Somehow, I was able to divert enough attention to the teacher to learn what the group project was going to be. What made me so happy, though, was that Jon was assigned to be my partner for this project. So happy was I, that this time I didn't even bother waiting for everyone to leave the room. Lost in though, I quickly finished putting everything in my bag and left the classroom with Jon. We both had the next period off for lunch so we made our way towards the stairs that would bring us to the lower floor and to the lunch room.

Neither of us were paying much attention to anything but each other and the conversation we were enjoying. So it came with complete surprise that I suddenly found myself falling face first onto the floor. One minute I was laughing at something that Jon had said to me, and the next I ended up with my face slamming hard onto the tiled floor, and hearing the sound of my nose breaking as it made contact. Turning over, I looked up to find myself staring into the laughing face of my worst nightmare, one of the bullies that had tormented me most of my life; a boy by the name of Paul. I could never figure out why Paul seemed to take such perverse pleasure in tormenting me as he did, but here he was again, doing something to hurt me, only this time he'd caused more damage than ever before.

Still, I was not going to give him the satisfaction of letting him see me cry. No matter how much pain I was in at the moment, or how much blood seemed to be pouring out of my nose. Not when Jon was with me.

"How did you like that, you little shit?" Paul laughed at me. "You should have seen your face. I guess little sissies like you always look like that when they fall. HAHAHA!"

Then something happened that had never happened before, something that I had always dreamed of doing, but never had the courage to do myself. Someone put Paul in his place. That someone was my new friend, Jon. Through the tears that were threatening to escape despite my resolve against crying, I saw Jon slam Paul face first into the wall, his strong forearm pressing against the back of Paul's neck, leaving very little that Paul could do to retaliate. Even if Paul had tried to do something, one look back at Jon was enough to make him realize the futility of such an attempt. There was now a look on Paul's face I had never seen before; a look of astonishment and fear.

"Look, asshole! Jay is my friend and I don't like it when scrawny little jerks like you do shit like that! You go near him again and I'll put you in the hospital, buddy. You hear me?" Jon yelled to Paul who was definitely very much afraid and definitely no longer laughing.

Jon released Paul and just stared at him for a bit. I couldn't believe the contrast in Jon's demeanor. This sweet, gentle boy just single handily took Paul down, instilling in him a fear I don't think Paul had ever felt before of another person. For a second there I thought Paul was going to lose control of his bladder and wet himself. Instead, we both watched as Paul turned and ran away from us as fast as he could, down the hall in the opposite direction.

Jon's face then became softer, as he looked at me with a worried expression. I must have looked a mess. By then I couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and while I was not openly crying, there was no way I could stop the tears from falling. The pain was just so unbearable and I couldn't even stop the blood flow since it hurt to even touch my nose. I think Jon knew that. Carefully, he lifted me up, back onto my feet. Wrapping his arm around my shoulders he helped me down the stairs. I was very glad for his help because I don't think I could have done it on my own. The whole stairway was spinning, and I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach.

"Come on, Jay. Lets get you to the nurse's office to have a look at your face. Who the hell was that kid?"

I really didn't want to talk about it and just shook my head. Jon didn't press me any further rather continued to help me down the hallway towards the nurse's office. Thankfully the nurse was in when we got there. It only took him one look at me to spur him into action. Grabbing some paper towels from behind him, he quickly held it under my chin and had me lay down on the couch that was in front of his desk, placing a small pillow behind my neck. By now the blood flow was slowing down, mostly, I think, due to the fact that I was now laying on my back with my head slightly bent back because of the pillow. He then took a wash cloth and ran it under some warm water and used it to start cleaning up some of the mess that was covering my face. Every time he came near my nose I winced in pain making him draw back slightly before continuing to clean my face up, this time being careful to avoid wiping too close to my nose.

Rarely have I ever needed to go to the nurse's office, but I have to tell you, despite the condition I was in, I still managed to get a good look at him, and what I saw was a very nice looking older man. He wasn't as large as Jon was, probably standing no more than five foot ten inches, but he was built. By this I mean that it was obvious that he worked out quite a bit at a gym or something. He had wavy brown hair, which was cut rather long, and also which had some hints of grey along the sides.

The whole time Jon was standing there right beside me. I definitely could not help but notice that. At no time did Jon leave my side. He didn't get in the way of what the nurse was doing, but at the same time he made sure that I could always see him. The concern that was on his face was evident, and despite the pain, I couldn't help but smile up at him, trying as best I could to reassure him. I guess it worked as he smiled back at me; albeit a small one.

"Alright young man, what happened?" asked the nurse. His name was Gary, which was on his name tag on the sweater he wore.

"I fell on the floor," I replied, not wanting to mention Paul's name or how I had ended up falling in the first place.

"He was tripped by some kid in the hall," Jon spoke up, causing me to look up at him in shock.

"And just who was this 'kid' who tripped you?" Gary asked me pointedly ignoring my reaction to Jon having said what he did.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," I said, hoping that he'd let the matter drop, even though I knew he wouldn't. I still wanted to do everything I could to try and avoid having to name Paul. It wasn't as if I cared if Paul got into trouble. Secretly, I had fantasies of what I would do to him if I ever had the chance. Usually they involved him on the receiving end of a lot of painful martial arts moves. Which was a shame since I hadn't ever taken any kind of martial arts training. I just knew that if I told on Paul, things would just get worse, not better.

Gary looked at me sternly. "Son, you need to tell me who did this, and I think you know who it was. This isn't just some simple practical joke. By the looks of it, your nose is broken so this is very serious and we need to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"His name's Paul Harris. He has been picking on me since we were both in grade five." There. I said it. Despite my fears, I said it. Gary was right, and I knew he was. But now I was certain that Jon probably hated me, and that because of this I'd lose his friendship forever. I couldn't look at him, though in my mind I could see the look he must have been giving me; a look of utter contempt and disgust.

"Don't worry Jay," Jon said, causing me to look up at him with shock once more. "he's not going to pick on you any more if I have anything to say about it."

"How can you say that? Look at me. He's right, I'm just this little sissy kid who won't defend himself. How can you want to be near me?" I asked him, sobbing openly as fresh tears began to fall from my eyes.

"Jay, he's wrong. You're a cool guy, you're fun to be with and I like you. Yes I think you should do something to stand up for yourself, but you're my friend, and I'm going to stick by you. I don't like people like that kid today. They make me sick," he said, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.

Words aren't enough to tell you what he said meant to me. Where I once was sobbing, now I was crying, reaching over with my hand to hold onto his. His hand squeezed my shoulder reassuringly and he smiled down at me, making me feel more at peace with myself than I had ever felt before in my life. It was at that moment that I knew for certain that I was beginning to fall in love with him, and would do anything to be with him.

While Jon was comforting me, Gary was, as gently as he could, placing a bandage on my nose to help stop any further bleeding. It hurt like hell, but there was nothing to be done about it I guess. At least it didn't feel like my nose was going to fall off now.

The nurse finished filling out some paperwork and told me that he had called my parents at home to come get me. The rest of the school day was over for me. Jon, unfortunately, still had lunch and two more classes to go. The only thing that really worried me at the moment was what my parents were going to say.

"Lucky duck," Jon said.

"Believe me, Jon. I'd prefer this to not be the way to get out of school early."

"Oh, I believe you. But I want to know how you're doing when I get home today."

"Guess I'll need to get your number then, that way I can call you," I said.

"Sure Jay. Give me your number too. You going to be okay?" he asked, the concern evident in his voice. I nodded my head to let him know that I was going to be fine.

We traded numbers after which he surprised me by giving me a hug, being careful not to come near my injured nose, then left Gary's office. That simple hug was enough to get me smiling from ear to ear. Forgotten was the pain in my nose, replaced instead by the euphoric feeling of contentment and happiness. Jon may have had to go to his next class without me, but by that simple hug, I knew that I was in his thoughts, and would be until he heard from me later on. It probably was a good thing that the rest of my day would be spent away from school. I doubt very much I'd be able to get much work done as my mind would be constantly focused on Jon.

"Alright Jason, your parents are on the way over and they will be taking you to the hospital so they can treat your nose. You hit the floor pretty hard and they need to make sure there isn't any other damage." He said that last part after he saw my smile turn into a frown. I was hoping that I would just go home and work on my computer like I always do when I get home from school. But I guess that wasn't going to be. I hate hospitals.

I sat in Gary's office for another five minutes before my father came rushing into the room. He looked at me and saw the bandage that Gary had put on my nose and the blood that was soaking into my shirt. Even though my father was a fire fighter who's used to seeing people in worse shape than I was in, I was his son. No parent ever wants to see their child hurt and in pain. My father was no different. He scooped me up from the couch and drew me into a tight hug. I thought I heard him choke back a sob or two when he was holding me but I didn't say anything. It has been a long time since my father hugged me like this and I really missed it.

"Jason, are you OK? What happened? The nurse told me you had an accident!" My dad said as he finally let me go, his hands holding onto mine the way he used to when he was trying to comfort me.

"It was Paul, Dad," I told him. "He tripped me in the hall and I fell on my face. I didn't even know he was there."

"I'm so sorry, Jason. It's going to stop now. That boy has been picking on you since grade five and I've had it with his bullying." His words made me want to hug him some more, but I didn't get the chance as just then Gary came into the room.

"Ah, Mr. Finn. I'm so glad you are here. I have made a copy of my report for you to take with you to the hospital. You will also be happy to know that the student who caused this has been called to the office and will be dealt with appropriately."

"Thank you. And thank you for taking care of my son. As for this other student, I have had several discussions with him and his father before, and it looks like I'm about to have one more," my father said.

"Oh? From the way you said that I take it you don't think too highly of his father then," Gary said.

"His father is an alcoholic. The three times that I've had to confront him about his son's behavior he was drunk. I don't understand how a person can be allowed to raise a son when he can't even take care of himself," my father told him.

"Well, I'm sure something can be done. Have you thought of contacting the police?"

"I dismissed that option in the past thinking that things would be getting better, but obviously I was wrong. It's definitely something I'm going to consider in this case," my father said.

"I understand. If you want, I could give you the name of an officer in the Halton Regional Police's hate crimes division. They deal with bullying at schools as well and this officer is a good friend of mine. She should be able to help." Gary then handed my father a business card from his desk. "I've also made a copy of my report for the school councilor as well. She's definitely someone who can help Jason work through this or any other issue he might be having at school."

"Thank you," my father said, tucking the business card in his wallet.

"I just have a few things for you to sign and then you can take Jason to the hospital," Gary said as he handed my father a pen and pointed to some papers that was on his desk. Once my father finished signing the papers, he and I left the school and made our way towards the parking lot.

This you won't believe one bit, but I swear it's true. When my father was called in by the school, he was actually on his lunch break from work. I'm guessing that they reached my mother, and she called my father. Instead of him arriving in his own car, he was with several of his co-workers at the time and they had taken out one of the station's pumper trucks. Which meant that I spent the entire trip to the hospital riding in the front seat of a fire truck. Now how cool was that? If it wasn't for me gaining a new friend, this would have been the single most exciting thing that happened to me all day.

The ride to the hospital wasn't long but I loved every minute of it. My father wouldn't let me start the siren though because that was only to be used when there was an emergency. That's okay, because one time when I was little, he took me to the station he works at and let me sit in the truck and let me turn on the siren then while the truck was still parked in the garage.

Once at the hospital, my father and I climbed out of the truck which parked just outside the Emergency entrance. I didn't leave empty handed though, one of the other fire fighters gave me one of his hats. It was a baseball type cap with the fire station's emblem on it. I thanked him and waved as they left the hospital leaving me and my father standing there. My father put his arm around me and we walked through the doors and into the hospital.

My father and I ended up waiting in the Emergency triage area for about two hours before a nurse called us in so that a doctor could finally take a look at my injury. My father handed him the report that was given to him by the school nurse, Gary, and the three of us headed to one of the examination rooms.

After looking at the report and shining a small light into both of my eyes, checking my ears and asking me to perform a couple of tests like standing on one foot, the doctor finally told me to go into the next room over, where he got me ready for them to take an X-ray of my head. It only took him a second to take the pictures he wanted and we sat in some pretty uncomfortable chairs, waiting for the X-rays to be processed.

I tell you that short time seemed like hours to me, and I think it was partly because of how uncomfortable those chairs were. Whoever thought that molded plastic chairs were actually made for comfort clearly didn't have enough coffee in the morning. While we were waiting my father asked me to tell him what happened in greater detail.

"Well, Dad, I had just finished English class and I was leaving the classroom with my new friend, Jon. We were heading for the stairs on our way to the lunchroom when I suddenly lost my footing and fell face first onto the floor. I knew I'd broken my nose then and it really hurt bad. When I looked up I saw Paul standing there over top of me, laughing. I'm just glad that Jon was there with me because he put Paul in his place good!" I said as I started to chuckle.

"What did Jon do, Jason?" my father asked me smiling over the fact that I'd laughed for the first time since leaving the nurse's office at school.

"Well I didn't see too clearly cause I was almost crying, but I saw Paul get pushed up against the wall by Jon. I saw Paul's face and I think it's the first time I ever saw him afraid of something. Jon let him go after telling Paul that he'd better not try anything with me again. Paul then took off running an then Jon helped me up off the floor and we went to the nurse's office," I told him.

My father didn't say anything for a couple minutes, thinking things over in his head a bit, but then he said simply, "Well it's a good thing Jon was there then, and I'm happy that you made a new friend today. I want to thank him for helping you out."

"We swapped phone numbers and I'm going to call him later after he gets home from school. Would it be okay if I invited him to come over for a little while?" I asked my father.

"We'll see, Jason. It is still a school night and it depends on where Jon lives and also whether or not his parents will let him," my father replied.

"I'm sure his mother will, and even if he's not too close maybe his mom can drop him off and pick him back up when they want him back home," I said, trying to come up with anything that would convince him to let me invite Jon over.

"We'll see," my father said.

After a few more minutes the doctor came back into the room carrying something. I guessed it was my X-rays. On the far wall, he flicked on a switch turning on a light in something that looked to me like a wide medicine cabinet without the mirror. From the package in his hands he removed the X-rays and attached them to the lighted medicine cabinet. I thought it was cool because it was the first time that I had ever seen an X-ray of my bones. I really couldn't tell what the picture was showing but I did notice something odd where my nose should be on the picture.

"As you can see, Mr. Finn, Jason has suffered a slight break in his nose. It's not a serious one and there are no loose fragments so we don't have to do any surgery, but I will have to re-set his nose otherwise it won't heal properly. I'm going to be honest with you, Jason, this is going to hurt. There's nothing I can do to change that, but I promise that I will be as gentle as possible," the doctor said, directing the last part to me. If his goal was to reassure me, it definitely didn't work. If there's something about me that I've always hated, it was my low threshold for pain.

"Dad?" I said to him, fear I was feeling obvious in my voice.

"It's okay, son, I'm here," my father said as he stood behind me and held onto my shoulders.

"Now, Jason, I need you to sit here on this table facing me. You're nose might start bleeding again, but I will take care of that for you. And remember, I will do this a quickly and as gently as I can, okay?" the doctor said to me in a calm voice. I know he was just trying to make me more comfortable, but I don't think he could have done or said anything that would have prepared me for the pain I was about to experience.

The doctor put his hand up to my nose, his thumb and fingers placed on opposite sides of my nose. Then with a quick movement he jerked on my nose and I heard a crack and felt the extreme pain in my nose as it was shifted back to where it was supposed to be. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried right then. I told you, pain is not something I handle too well. Thankfully that was it. My nose did start bleeding again, but the doctor was ready for it as he tilted my head back and gently stopped the blood from running out of my nose. I stayed like that for a few minutes until the doctor was satisfied that my nose had stopped bleeding.

"You did very well, Jason. I know that hurt and I'm sorry. But now at least when it heals you won't have to worry about having surgery to correct it," he said smiling at me. "I think you'd agree it'd look pretty silly to have a crooked nose," he finished which actually made me smile, though I was still crying a bit. He finished up by placing a large bandage on my nose, much like the one that Gary had put on back at school. He said it was to help my nose stay where it was supposed to while it healed. To me it just felt really weird, though at least the pain had already started going away.

My father finished filling out some paper that the doctor gave him and we left the hospital. On the way out I did turn to the doctor and thanked him for all he did for me. The doctor smiled at me and said, "You are welcome, Jason. That's what I'm here for."

Since my father and I came to the hospital in the fire truck, we didn't have a ride back home. But I guess my father had thought of that before coming to pick me up because a short time afterwords a small red car with the fire station's emblem on the doors stopped in front of us. We both got into the car and it pulled out of the parking lot to take us home.

It was a long day for me and I was really tired. I almost fell asleep in the car but just as I was about to doze off, the car stopped in our driveway. Slowly, and wearily I got out of the car. My father thanked the person who had driven us home and walked with me to the front door of our house. I heard the car pull out of the driveway, but I didn't look back. I was too tired.

"You okay, Jason? You're looking a little tired," my father asked me.

"I'm okay, Dad. I guess I'm a little tired," I said with a yawn.

"Uh huh, I think more than just a little tired," he answered back. I wasn't going to argue with him. The only thing that was keeping me awake however, was the thought of Jon and hoping that he would be able to come over to visit.

My mother, who was at home all this time, obviously heard the car pull into the driveway and came rushing out the front door, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. She doesn't drive and wasn't able to make it to the hospital, otherwise she would have been right there with me at the hospital with my father. She was hugging me so tightly that I had to push her away a bit or risk getting my nose hurt again.

"Oh, Jason, I was so worried! When your school called and told me that you had gotten hurt all I could do was call your father to pick you up. I wanted to be there too you know," she said to me.

"I know, Mom. Don't worry about it. I'm just really tired right now," I told her.

"Okay, Jason, you head on up to your room and lay down for a while," she told me.

This would probably be one of those rare occasions where going to bed early didn't get an argument out of me. Besides, I was looking forward to calling Jon when I woke up. I walked into the house, went up the stairs and walked down the hall to my bedroom. Once inside, I closed the door and took off my hat and clothes and set my alarm clock for four o'clock. That should give Jon plenty of time to get home from school and it gave me a couple of hours of sleep before then. I did make sure I took out the paper with Jon's phone number on it from my pants pocket, putting it on top of my dresser by the clock.

I don't even remember falling onto my bed, but I certainly do remember the annoying sound my alarm clock made as it buzzed to wake me up. It felt like I had only slept for a few seconds, if I'd actually slept at all. Looking at the clock however, confirmed that it was really four o'clock. At first I really didn't want to get up, hitting the alarm to shut if off and then collapsing back onto the bed. But then I thought of Jon, who was the reason that I had set the alarm in the first place and I was suddenly wide awake. Sitting up, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, stood up and ran to the bathroom to take a quick shower. It didn't even phase me that I'd walked out of my bedroom stark naked, something I never did before; except when I was little.

I was careful not to get my face wet as the doctor had told me that the bandage couldn't get wet or it would come off, and I'd have to go back to get another one. No way was I going back. As nice as the doctor was, I hated being at the hospital. Once I was finished in the shower I went back to my room, this time with a towel wrapped around my waist. From my dresser I picked out some good clothes and put them on. The other clothes, which I had just stripped off before I went to bed weren't to be found anywhere in my room so I guessed my mother must have come in and taken them to the wash. Did I even pull the covers over top of me I wondered, which made me blush as I didn't remember kicking them off me when I woke up. Oh well, nothing to do about it now.

Finally all clean and dressed, I grabbed the piece of paper from my dresser and left my room, making my way downstairs to the kitchen. By this time it was about four-thirty. My father was sitting at the table reading a newspaper, as he usually does, and my mother was just starting to make dinner.

"Dad, I'm going to call Jon now and see if he can come over, okay?" I asked my father.

"That's fine, Jason, but he can't come over before six o'clock and he has to leave by nine. Remember, it's a school night," my father answered, looking over his paper at me.

"I know, Dad," I said as I picked up the receiver. I looked at the piece of paper and dialed the number that was on it. Nervously I waited for someone to pick up on the other end, and after three rings, someone did. Jon.

"Hello?" I heard Jon's voice over the phone.

"Hey, Jon. It's Jason."

"Hey, Jay! How did it go at the hospital?" Jon asked me.

"Gary was right, I broke my nose when I fell on my face. It still hurts. The doctor had to put it back into place and I swear it hurt more then than when I broke it to begin with," I told him.

"Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that, Jay. I wish I could have been there with you but I had to finish school for the day," Jon said.

"I know, Jon. I was wondering though, are you able to come over to visit me for a little while today? I would really like you to come over," I asked him.

"I don't know, hold on a sec..."

I waited for about a minute before he came back on the phone, but to me it seemed like he was gone for at least an hour.

"Yeah, my mom says I can come over for a little while. We have to have dinner first so I wouldn't be able to get to your place until about six or so."

"Thats cool, that's when my father said you could come over. We're going to have dinner soon as well. I'm really hungry, I didn't get to eat lunch," I told him.

"Yeah, neither did I, by the time I left Gary's office, I only had about ten minutes left for lunch and I didn't even bother trying to eat. Oh, my mom needs to know where you live, and for that matter so do I if you want me to come over there," he said snickering a bit.

I gave him my address and he told me that it was close enough that he could ride his bike to my house. I was happy for that because I didn't want to have to deal with my parents or his just to give us a ride to each other's homes. After writing the address down he told me he had to go as his dinner was ready. We both said goodbye to each other and I hung up the phone.

"Well, dear. It looks like you have a new friend. I'm happy for you. You've been spending too much time up in your room lately," my mother said.

I rolled my eyes when she mentioned the amount of time that I spend in my room. Its an old argument we have with each other every now and then. "You know how I like the quiet, Mom. Besides, most everyone else only wants me to be around them when they want something from me. I'm getting really tired of being used like that," I said to her.

My mother didn't say a word after that. I guess she didn't want to get into another long drawn out argument, especially after I had just come back from the hospital. She always was one to have a soft spot for the sick and injured.

Dinner was ready just a bit after five, and ended up having two servings. I really wasn't kidding when I said I was hungry. While I normally usually eat quite a bit, and was one of the lucky few who didn't pack on the weight after eating as much as I do, the amount I had for dinner was definitely more than I usually ate during dinner. I think it helped that my mother had cooked lasagna, which has to be, by far, my favorite food.

I was done well before six rolled around which gave me some time to help my mother with the dishes. That task alone took all of five minutes since we don't wash dishes by hand, instead we put them in a dish washer. So all I had to do was rinse off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. My mother added the soap and turned it on.

With nothing else to do, I went back up to my room to make sure everything up there was in order. I generally like to keep my room fairly tidy, but with Jon coming over, I wanted to make sure it was especially clean. As it happened, it didn't take long at all. Probably due to the fact that my mother regularly comes in here to do the dusting and some tidying up.

Truth be told, really I was nervous about Jon coming over because I didn't know how he felt about me. I knew we were friends, but I wanted more than just a friendship and I didn't know how he would take it if I told him that I was falling in love with him. The fear of rejection was there big time. I don't generally handle rejection very well, and I think it would kill me if I lost Jon's friendship because of this. I decided I was going to have to take it slow and play it by ear, and maybe take a chance depending on how things go. As my father told me, you'll never truly know how someone will feel about you unless you ask them.

It was at that moment that the doorbell rang causing me to jump slightly, and then run out of my room.

Editor's Notes:

This is the first chapter of a revised version of Jason's first story to be posted on Nifty. Certain things in this version will be quite a bit different from the original version, yet the story will remain basically the same in its plot and sequence of events. Due to certain events and characters in this story crossing over into some of Jason's later works, and for the sake of continuity, certain things had to be changed. Also Jason's style of writing has changed over time, and this revision reflects more closely the way he currently writes. I enjoyed rereading the story, in this new version and I am sure it will be among my favourite stories. Thank you Jason for another fine story.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher