Raspberries & Cream for Three (Boyxboy)

Chapter 25: Concerns.

Cameron's POV.

I was surprised at my Mum. She turned on the charm and made me feel like I was a liar. Like I had made her out to be an ogre and someone she wasn't. She was all sweetness and nice, professing that she really cared about me and that I was secretive and deceitful. I wasn't sure how anyone was taking that.

Kaiden was being really sweet with her, complimenting her on her dress and make up, saying how elegant she looked. I knew he was being insincere and dishonest, but it was an effective game he was playing on her as she seemed charmed by his platitudes and fake attentiveness.

Keegan said very little, but John and Margaret were excellent hosts, which I knew they would be. Out came biscuits and home made cake and Mum's face lit up when a bottle of Chardonnay was opened.

I chuckled to myself. A couple more large glasses of that tonight and she would certainly be in a good mood. She had already downed the best part of a bottle before we got here. Luckily we had arrived, and were leaving, by taxi as she was well over the limit already.

The conversation eventually made its way round to homosexuality. John and Margaret seemed to be experts on the subject. They knew all about teenage boy issues and spoke about the gay teenagers they had fostered before and how they dealt with the difficulties that each individual faced. They stressed that, although no two boys they had were the same, all had required love and understanding to help them through those times. It was Margaret that told Mum that the worst thing any parent could do was to tell her son he had to change. That he had to stop feeling like that. That he had to man up. She said that it was ludicrous and quite counterproductive to say anything like that.

Mum's face was a picture.

John's advice was simply to say that acceptance by the boy, and the parents, often led to a much more balanced person. Less stress and depression, and self loathing.

It then became like a game of tennis with questions being bandied back and forth between them. Margaret, in particular, easily parried the questions Mum asked and fired hard hitting questions back at her. Mum was often on her back foot and struggling to maintain her composure at times.

When Mum enquired as to their attitude regarding teenage boys having sex and their views regarding Keegan and Kaiden having boyfriends, Margaret threw the question back at her, pointedly asking her how she had dealt with it with my brothers and sister.

Mum answered saying that she didn't stop any of them but was watchful, regarding any sexual activity until they were over 16. After that she said she didn't care.

John's reply, 'then it should be the same for Cameron, although we would urge restraint to all of them, until they were older and sure of their feelings,' left Mum looking a little more than embarrassed.

It seemed like it was game over and Mum had been beaten fair and square.

The upshot was that Mum agreed I could see Keegan, but I was to keep it low key. I would be allowed to sleep over occasionally as long as I didn't sleep with him. She didn't ask me if I wanted to, or anything like that. She just assumed that's what we were wanting to do. I never bothered to put her wise as to my feelings about that. John and Margaret knew because they had asked both me and Keegan. As far as I was concerned, they were the only ones that mattered, as they at least cared.

Once we had returned home Mum wanted to talk to me about Brandon again. Wanting to know more about what had been going on. I just told her straight that I wasn't wanting to help him or Uncle Harry sell their drugs and stolen gear. It was then that I told her about Jack.

Jack was one of the nice boys from school who was more friends with Eric than he was with me. He was a real sporty person, always training, running, or doing gym work. He had a body to die for and was pretty handsome to boot. Straight, naturally, which is what attracted me to him in the first place, but, poor me, he already was taken by Lacy Owens. Sexy, blonde and very hot. Legs up to her armpits and a shed load of personality. Plenty of guys would have loved to be in his shoes and dating her. Many too were jealous of him.

Jack didn't smoke or drink, and most certainly didn't take recreational drugs. His passions were all linked to sports and healthy living. It was at Lacy's party that something was slipped in his can of coke and he ended up in hospital, almost losing his life.

I told Mum that was the clincher for me and no way would I want to be involved with helping Brandon again. If Dad didn't like it....? Tough!

As you can tell I was being rather brave that night.

My sister Zoe was now away at Uni, and Mum said from now on I would sleep only in her room. I was to leave all my clothes and things where they were and I was to continue to share the room during the day or evening with Brandon. I was also told to be careful about exactly what I said when the social workers visited or else I could cause myself more trouble. It wasn't a threat, but wise words from Mum that I had already thought about.

I couldn't really say I was being beaten up by Brandon because I wouldn't sell his drugs, could I? If I said it was because I wouldn't give him a blow job they wouldn't believe that either. I had to come up with something that was plausible, something they could accept.

I could only think of two reasons to say why Brandon would bully me...., and both of them were connected. In fact they were both true.

Because he was homophobic and a racist dick.

This was something that I knew I would be forced to talk to him about when he returned home later, as Mum had already intimated that we should all sit down and talk. I was sure he would like being labelled that way, not the dick part, admittedly. It would give him more kudos amongst his tiresome friends. I was positive he would go for it.

Keegan's POV.

The attitude towards the three of us, from other boys as we walked through the school playground and corridors, was so different to the previous day. Boys were acknowledging us now and not backing away. I heard one or two nasty remarks aimed at Kaiden, but nothing worth decking anyone over. The boy who commented, 'Anyone wanting to shag that has got to be desperate,' skedaddled away as fast as he could go when realised I had heard him. I wish looks could kill because he would have been burnt as toast on the spot.

Kaiden kept his head up and just smiled at everyone. I think he secretly liked the attention, but I worried that he would get deflated later on when only the outwardly gay guys would talk to him. He desperately wanted a boyfriend too. He had told me that last night. His type though was unlikely to chat him up at school. He liked older, muscular, and hirsute guys and they were in short supply in the years above us.

I was grateful to Rhys and Eric for spreading the stories that they did as it seemed to be working.

I heard that Kane was still being a little mouthy, but he kept his distance. So did Brandon. The day actually passed without incident. I wasn't to know, but it would be months later when everyone had forgotten about it all that Kane would put his ugly head above the parapet and take anti social behaviour and bullying to an unacceptable level of violence. One that would really shock both pupils and staff alike. It would inspire a movement that would see a permanent change in everyone's attitude towards bullying within the school.

I was still asked to play footie, so Kaiden and Cameron sat and talked like they usually did. Nothing had appeared to have changed and it unsettled me. It was all too easy and that was not usually the case with us. Trouble always followed us, but for the moment we had respite from it.

That was until Cameron said he wanted to talk with me privately, without Kaiden around. Just the two of us, by ourselves, to be able to talk freely without interruptions.

I suggested he stayed over on Friday night and we could use the hot tub once Kaiden had gone to bed.

He seemed to like that idea, but it didn't stop me from fretting about why he wanted to talk. Could he be wanting to split up? You know, dump me? It had sounded serious, whatever it was, and that made me start to ask myself the question. What had I done wrong?