PHOTO above - Ted Sands

Special thanks to @mephistoland for his magic touch on this chapter!

**

I didn't tell Johnny that I'd been having terrible anxiety dreams. There'd been three of them that I vividly remembered, each like an epic movie. One was filled with with big battles involving armies of soldier knights. In another we were trapped on an out-of-control spaceship from an exploratory star fleet as it ravaged through space. And in the third a devastating natural disaster was destroying the entire world around us. They were all vividly cinematic and three-dimensional, and delivered in ear-splitting stereophonic surround sound somewhere deep down in my fucked-up troubled mind.

It was always the same, me and Johnny. We were medieval knights in armor, or intergalactic astronauts, or just the everyday guys we really were, caught up in a bloody Holy Crusade, a mind-boggling space war, or an end-of-the-world apocalypse of blazing destruction.

And I'd die.

Whether on the battlefield, in the spaceship, or on the edge of an abyss in the inferno that Earth became, I'd die in Johnny's arms.

And then he'd be alone.

I'd see him there without me, wide-eyed and horrified, calling out my name, begging me to come back to him. And then ...

... I'd awaken, trembling and sweating in the hot humid night, holding onto Johnny so tight I'd be amazed he didn't wake up. And it'd take me forever to calm down, to stop the frantic banging of my heart. I'd bury my face in his neck and hold on till the anxiety ran its course, till the fear lessened, and till the trembling eased.

I knew they were just anxiety dreams. My mom often had them throughout the years. So many times I'd seen her walking the halls late at night until her meds kicked in. I knew I needed to go home and get some of her 'little helpers'. Maybe just a couple, or maybe a handful, would help and stop this insanity.

Those dreams scared the hell out of me. Not because I died in them, but because Johnny was alone after I died. Alone in a chaotic world intent on destroying him too.

Yes ... I fucking knew it ... something terrible was going to happen to me. But I really didn't give a flying fuck about that. I just didn't want Johnny to be alone after it happened ...

That's why I hooked him up with Channing. I knew in my heart that Channing was the one for him if I wasn't here anymore. I was sure of it. The way he'd sent his picture and his message to me the very morning after I'd had the worst of those dreams, the apocalypse one.

Ohmygod, it was worse than The Hunger Games and Divergent put together. Fiery and explosive, the whole world had turned into the crumbling pits of hell. Even Katniss, Tris, Gale, Peeta, and Four, all together striving to prevail, couldn't have survived it.

But Johnny did ...

... and without me.

**

It was later and we were driving out to the country club on the Athens Road. The club and golf course were located near the old drive-in movies just outside of Athens itself. Johnny's uncle had sent him a text to meet him there at seven. He'd had a late start getting on the road in Pittsburgh and he didn't want to bother going home first to Kenton then doubling back to the country club.

I was sending a tweet out to the Jacey masses that we were on our way out to dinner dressed like ice cream cones in our beige khaki shorts and popped collar polo shirts (we had to be cool now like Trenton), one vanilla and the other chocolate. And I added that Prince William and Prince Harry, no matter how royal they might be, could only wish they looked half as pretty as we did.

I know. I know. Stab me with the old pitchfork. I could be so ridiculously conceited. But it was so absofreakinglutely true.

I giggled and pressed the magic button to send the tweet flying.

Johnny glanced over at me from behind the wheel. "What's so funny?"

"Just sending a tweet to the Jacey fans letting them know how awesome we look."

Johnny looked back to the road. "You do look good enough to eat. Maybe we should forget about dinner and pull off the road into the woods and devour each other instead."

I looked him up and down. He had the white shirt on and it made his dark complexion look so yummy I wanted to grab him. I got a pang in my groin that told me yes, I'd really like to do that - stop for a little quickie or maybe a big longie in the woods.

But I shook my head, saying, "Nah, we can't stand up your Uncle Ted. That wouldn't be cool. And we'll be able to mess around all night in one of those caves up at Squaw's Leap anyway. With Trenton."

Johnny turned to frown at me. "Don't be so sure about that. When those guys see Trenton, all hell's gonna break loose. And Ernie's gonna be there stag. Shondo can't come down. And if I know Ernie, and if I know Trenton – which I sure as hell do – they're gonna want to hook up."

I grunted. "Puh. Then it's just gonna be me and you?"

"Yup dude. Boring ass me and you."

We looked at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing. I could barely stop long enough to speak.

"Jeez! ... damn Johnny, I'd love to have sex with just you. Man, that'd be a fuckin' treat. I sort of forgot what it's like."

"Aww c'mon, it hasn't been that long."

"Yes it has, dude. At least a whole day."

We hooted and guffawed a little more. The whole week past seemed like a blur of constant sex with a huge cast of multiple partners. Had we really done it much, just the two of us? Did we need to go a couple states away so we could really be alone and have each other to ourselves without some other hot hunk or hunks jumping in to join us?

Does anyone else actually have that problem? I wondered.

And, of course, the answer was, hell no. But they'd all sure love to have it.

I asked Johnny, "Did you text back your new boyfriend?"

After our nap I'd gone through all the notifications and messages and there'd been a couple texts for Johnny from Channing.

"You mean phonesexdude?" Johnny asked. "The Canton Quarterback? You know, he's just about high school football royalty. I checked it out online. Canton Garfield is even way more famous than we thought. They've had fantastic football teams going way back to the 1930s. They'd probably totally trounce us if we had to play them."

I laughed at him. "Me and you together, babe, we'd give 'em a run for their money. So did you text him? What'd he want?"

"Jeezus already! You want me to marry him too, before me and you even do it ourselves? Yes, I texted him. He's all hepped up about meeting us tomorrow night."

"Meeting you, you mean. You ready to fall in love with him?"

Johnny scowled at me and looked back at the road. "Maybe I already have. You're so damn anxious to get rid of me."

"I don't want to get rid of you. You just need to have Channing in your life too."

He made a fist and banged it lightly on the steering wheel. "You know how fucking crazy this is, Jason?"

I nodded and poked at my phone. "I know."

"We're planning to get married and you want to hook me up with some other dude?"

I had pulled up Channing's picture from my phone files. I looked at his handsome beautiful face. There was just something so awesome about him. Strong. Confident. Peaceful. I knew he was having some trouble with being queer, but almost everybody queer has that.

"Yes I do, Johnny. He's more like you than I am, and you need somebody like that. When you meet him you'll understand."

He growled, "Oh, now you're a fucking psychic too?"

He was pissed off. I knew I was pushing him too hard on this but I didn't care. I couldn't bear this fear I had of his having to be alone. I reached over and squeezed his sexy thigh.

"Please don't be mad at me, Johnny. I love you and I'm just looking out for you."

He shut up after that. He was like that, smart enough not to argue with me or smack me upside the head like I deserved. And smart enough to know that I was getting pretty fucked up and that he'd really have to help me. And, as a result, he'd need someone to help him too.

Johnny's Uncle Ted was waiting for us in the country club dining room. Heads turned as the hostess led us across the carpeted floor toward the tables by the windows overlooking the manicured hills of the golf course. Tongues wagged and a few fingers pointed at us.

Johnny and I weren't such hot shots here in Athens. The city had its own high school and Ohio University had its own athletic teams and heroes to entertain the population. But Kenton residents came here too, and there were many present who noticed us.

Ted Sands rose to his feet as we approached. He was tall, about six-two, lean, rangy, and muscular in his golf shirt and black slacks. He was dark like Johnny, and very handsome, his hair and short-trimmed beard and mustache beautifully streaked with silver. His warm smile was welcoming. It made me wish my dad would look at me like that one day again, but it seemed now that there was hardly any possibility of that ever happening.

"Boys! Look at you guys," he chuckled, wrapping his arms around us both. "You both look as big and handsome as you are famous."

The hostess left to notify our waiter and Uncle Ted shook hands with Johnny and then me.

"You look pretty hot yourself," Johnny told him as we sat down at the table, adding, "I bet you had a lot of action on the road this trip, huh?"

I knew Johnny said that for a reason. He expected his uncle to come out to him tonight. I'm sure he was on pins and needles wondering if it would happen.

Uncle Ted laughed at him. "Action? I'm almost fifty. You think I have a hot booty call in every town I travel through?"

Johnny shrugged. "Maybe not exactly that. But whatever kind of action guys your age still get into."

"Guys my age?" Uncle Ted furrowed his brows at Johnny. "You'll be my age before you know it, boy. Thirty years go by in the blink of an eye. At least that's how it seems when you're on this end of it."

"You only look twenty years older than us, Mr. Sands," I told him. "Not thirty."

He grinned at me. "Thank you, Jason. But now you have to call me Uncle Ted since you're part of the family."

"Sure thing, Uncle Ted," I returned. "And I'm really freakin' happy to be family too."

To prove my point, I placed my hand on top of Johnny's on the table top and squeezed it. Uncle Ted watched and gave an approving smile.

"Now tell me what's new that I haven't already read on your wild social media feeds," he requested.

So, after the waiter had come to take our order and then went back to the kitchen to place it, we told him about Mark Rydell and Andy Miller and the big scandal the incident was causing in Kenton.

"Wow." He looked from Johnny to me and back again when the dirty tale was told. "Your teammate Mark is pretty fucked up, huh? Jeez, how could he take such wild chances that could ruin his whole life? He'll surely have to go to jail unless his dad can work some kind of deal. He's pretty thick with the police and the judges at the local courts, too, so he may be able to."

"We sure hope not," Johnny said. "Mark's really a jerk. If he gets a break he'll just mess himself up even worse down the road, and probably leave a victim or two. The cops are looking for him now and he's on the run. Nobody knows where the hell he's gone."

I had called Ginny earlier and the girl was wildly upset. I'd never known her to be so shook up. She told me their side of the story, how her dad was furious about what Mark had done but determined to get him off as easy as possible, no matter what it cost him. But then Mark, who'd been back home just a couple days, disappeared again, complicating matters. When the police came to bring him in for questioning, he was gone. He'd stolen money from his dad's wallet and his mom's purse, and from both their private stashes of cash in their bedroom.

"Makes him look guilty as sin, running off like that," Uncle Ted muttered, after I'd filled him in on these latest developments.

"He's guilty all right," Johnny growled. "And it's all so sleazy and sordid, and I wish it'd fucking go away. We'll have to be witnesses in court. Ernie too. And that totally sucks. It's bad enough the scandal Jason and I are causing, but a second scandal for the football team might cause it to implode."

"Haha," I hooted, squeezing Johnny's hand again. As awful as it was, I couldn't help feeling vindicated. "Coach Bailey thought me and you were making waves, Johnny. I can't help but wonder what he's thinking now about Mark Rydell."

"He's got to be really angry," Uncle Ted mused thoughtfully. "Heartbroken too. Both his quarterbacks gay? That's a bit much for a man like him. But you can bet he'll be a lot nicer to you now, Jason. There's no way Mark can be on the team this year after what he's done."

I hadn't even thought about that. Not that Mark actually played much. He didn't. But Coach would be totally relying on me this season. There was a kid who'd be a junior this year who had a great arm and was doing well on the JV team, but he just didn't have enough experience to play varsity. And I always thought Ernie could be even better than me. He could throw the ball from here to Cleveland, but he needed to be more serious as quarterback and use a whole lot more concentration on connecting with a receiver.

Yah, I guess queer Jason Quarterback was still going to be pretty important this season!

If I decided to play.

Our meals were rolled over to us on a cart and placed before us on the table. Johnny and I had both ordered steak. We hadn't had anything to eat remotely that good all week and our mouths were watering at the sight of them. Uncle Ted had ordered some kind of salad with chicken in it and Johnny couldn't help joking that the man always ate dishes like that and it was probably why he was so trim and well-built for a man his age.

We talked about more pleasant things during the meal, the upcoming football season and the conference possibilities, how we'd become so friendly with Strike in the last few days, the rally held for us on the town square, and our plans to go to Columbus tomorrow for Pride weekend.

When we were finished with the meal and Johnny and I were stabbing at a couple really rich cheesecake desserts, Uncle Ted cleared his throat and said, "Listen up, boys. I have a couple things to tell you."

Johnny looked at me and grinned. Was this going to be the news he was waiting for?

He looked back to his uncle. "Go ahead, dude. Spill it out."

The man looked hesitant and, surprisingly, a little guilty. He grunted a little and then said, "I'm moving to Pittsburgh."

Johnny's eyes just about popped out, and I'm sure mine did too. We couldn't have been more surprised if he'd said he bought the cow that was supposed to have jumped over the moon.

Johnny placed his fork down. His face was all crunched up and he didn't look happy. "Whaddaya talkin' about? Whaddaya mean?"

Uncle Ted reached over and grabbed Johnny's hand and held it tight. "Hold on. Don't get all crazy. Just me and my clothes are going, and my car. I'm not selling the house. It'll be there and everything in it for you and Jason."

Then he looked over at my startled face. "You two can move into the house in the fall and it'll be all yours. It's too damn cold in that studio apartment to spend the winter in there anyway. And the Chevy will be there for you both to use."

"What the fuck are you moving there for?" Johnny blurted angrily. He was really upset. He really loved his uncle. Uncle Ted was the only family he had.

"Take it easy, kid," he said to Johnny, squeezing his hand again. "Pittsburgh's only a three hour drive. And I'll be back and forth a lot. I'll still be working for the auto parts company here in Athens and at the store in Kenton, and I'll have to come here pretty often."

He withdrew his hand and sat back, squaring his shoulders in a manly fashion, and then he went on, "I'm going to live with a friend, Johnny. A nice old Victorian house up in the hills, bigger than ours. Skyline views of Pittsburgh. It's really a beautiful setting. It's twenty years, Johnny, since I've ... since I've been with someone. You know, like you and Jason are. I think it's time I try doing it again ..."

His voice trailed off as Johnny and I sat there gaping at him.

"Who the fuck is this friend?" Johnny asked.

Uncle Ted took a deep breath and then blew it right back out. "His name is Jeffrey. He's a few years younger than me and we're lovers. He's got a great job in Pittsburgh so it's better for us to live there. Besides, I have a lot of work there myself and it's closer to all my other towns I visit regularly. And ..."

Johnny interrupted him. He didn't look so angry anymore. "You have a male lover?"

Uncle Ted looked totally flustered now. "Jeezus, kid! Gimme a break, huh? It's not like I'm eighteen like you are here now in the twenty-teens. Things were a lot different years ago. Yah, it's almost a year now we've been lovers, in case you ever wondered why I spend so much time in Pittsburgh. How the hell could I have told you? I thought you were straight. I figured you'd be disgusted and want to move away. I couldn't risk losing you, Johnny. I had no idea you ... and Jason ... were ... the same way. When Strike told me about it ... jeez, I couldn't believe it. And now, you boys can have the house and I'll stay with Jeffrey. We'll come to visit you, and you can come to visit us."

Johnny looked at me and shrugged. I think he was in a state of shock, but I could tell he wasn't angry any more. We had expected the gay part, but certainly not anything like his moving away. We didn't want that. We didn't want him to move away. We didn't want the house just for ourselves. We wanted Uncle Ted here with us in Kenton.

Johnny turned back to his uncle. "You thought I was a homophobe? Man, even if I was straight I wouldn't be one. You oughta know that. You oughta know how I am. How could you think I'd be disgusted with you? I love you. You could never do anything that would make me feel like that."

But it seemed to me that Uncle Ted didn't quite believe him. He now looked very nervous and I could see he was trembling. He picked up the glass of scotch and soda he'd been drinking and took a deep long swig.

"We'll see about that," he said, setting the glass back down. "I have something else to tell you."

Johnny eyed him cautiously. "Okay. Go on."

Uncle Ted looked at me. "Jason, hold him down if you need to, okay? We're in a really classy place and I think I've really fucked up talking about this here."

I nodded. "Sure. But he's usually the one who has to hold me down."

Then Uncle Ted just blurted it out. "I'm not your uncle, Johnny. Your father and I were not brothers."

"Whaaa ...?" Johnny sat back hard like he'd been punched. His lips were moving but it took a few seconds to get more words out. "Whaddaya ... whaddaya mean ..?"

Uncle Ted's face was now pale and drained of all emotion. He said, "We were lovers, Johnny. Lovers like you and Jason."

It was such a shock that I actually felt like there'd been a big bang. My heart did a painful flip-flop and I slid my chair next to Johnny's and grabbed him by the shoulders. I didn't know how he'd react. What he'd do. I didn't think he'd jump up and start ranting and raving. But I knew he'd need me next to him, right there and then, holding him, being there for him.

He couldn't even talk. He just stared, open-mouthed, at his uncle who he now knew wasn't really his uncle at all ... but instead ... the man his father had loved.

**

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