Chapter 97: Afterthoughts Afterglow

Casey's Bedroom, The Peterson Residence, Fallon Creek, Michigan...

The blue eyes of Casey Peterson opened to find that dawn had been just on the horizon and that his lover Rick Channon had been sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed in a pair of blue basketball shorts and staring out into the vastness of the semi-darkened bedroom. Casey sighed as he crawled across the bed to get to Rick wondering what had been on the ever-brooding teen's mind as he stared out into the darkness as silent as the stars that could still be seen high above them in the sky when either of them looked out the window, but only for a short while.

Rick didn't make a move as he continued to stare for several minutes despite Casey resting his head against his shoulder from behind. The older lad took a deep breath for a moment and then opened his mouth to speak. What he said had not been quite what Casey had been expecting given his aversion to affection outside of sexual intimacy.

"This is all your fault." he had said in something of a gruff tone.

Casey arched a brow at this unsure if he'd been angry with him or simply speaking his mind.

"If you hadn't come into town if you didn't smell so fuckin' good," growled Rick still letting his annoyance be known. "I never would have to go through this....feeling stuff."

Casey was surprisingly caught off guard by Rick's admission.

"What?" he asked unable to say more due to shock.

"This is your fault, before I could deal, I'd head off to the woods and get drunk howling at the moon and no one cared," said Rick turning to face his younger lover. "No one except Aunt Dee, and she was hardly someone that I wanted to care, they had all died and I didn't see the point of it, of anything and you just happened to come along and force me to care, all because I can't stop shoving my big dick in your tight pussy and hearing you moan for it."

Casey had not known what to say despite realizing that he should have expected a bit of vulgarity from Rick due to his nature.

"Rick..." he began only for Rick to turn and glare at him through tear-stained eyes.

"I didn't want to remember," he said angrily through tear-stained eyes. "Seeing my Dad laid out on the floor of our cabin riddled with bullet holes, seeing my mother filled with the same in the kitchen where she always made our food...seeing my little brother and sister snuffed out before they'd even gotten the chance to live a life of their own...I didn't want to remember any of it and you made me."

Casey placed a hand on RIck's shoulder knowing all too well what he'd been talking about.

"Rick?" he said.

"I love you, Casey," said Rick all the rage and bravado melted away in a haze of tears and heartbreak. "I love you and I'm scared to death that this is gonna come back to haunt me in the worst way possible."

Casey had not known what to say then as he looked up at Rick who had gotten to his feet, one foot out the door and a bundle of nerves after finally admitting what the younger lad had sensed all along. He did the only thing he could at that moment as he grabbed his hand and pulled him back toward the bed. Rick came tumbling down onto the bed as Casey straddled his waist, still naked from the previous night as he captured the older brooding boy's lips in a heated series of kisses.

"I love you so much Rick," he admitted touching the gruff teen's face. All he could see was Rick lying on the ground amid the woods bleeding out slowly from the bullet holes that filled his chest. "You're the best thing that had ever happened to me."

Rick sighed as he met Casey's blue eyes and wiped away the tears that still lined his own cheeks.

"I feel the same about you," he admitted. "You, Aunt Dee, and Mrs. P are my only family."

Casey sighed as he kissed Rick once more before lying down on his chest with the older teen wrapping his arms around him. He felt the morning chill and the lingering quiet once their conversation had come to an end and he'd been all the more happy for it.

Rick had been capable of emotions, a good deal of them in the wake of their shared memories being processed and now he'd admitted to loving him when he wasn't half-conscious due to blood poisoning. They shared a few long slow kisses as Casey's body remained on top of Rick's and it wasn't long before they drifted off again, at peace with being in each other's company so much so that neither of them heard when Helen Peterson had awakened and so her way to getting ready for work.

She had peeked in on them for a bit before heading out and sighed. She'd never seen her son so happy despite her reservations about his relationship with the rather reckless and unruly older boy. She had wanted the best for him ever since she'd found out she'd been carrying him in her womb and following the death of her husband he was all that had kept her going in those dark days.

Helen had been so afraid for a time that Casey wouldn't get to have a normal life or know what it was like to love anyone outside of her, but now she'd been more or less concerned with what she'd do if he had his heart broken. She had felt the keen sting of heartbreak the morning she'd gotten the call from the patrolmen who had found her husband's body. It was a pain that she had never wanted anyone to experience let alone her only son.

Still, despite their experimenting with girls, she held out hope that Casey would find happiness even if it was with a scruffy brooding teen boy like Rick Channon.