“We’d set up a bed in the basement for you and me, and Eric could have my bed in Max’s room. Of course, if the idea of sleeping with me every night doesn’t work for you, just say so.”
“Are you fucking crazy? That would be a dream come true! Unless you snore, that is. You don’t, do you?” Kenny could hear the smile in Ethan’s tone.
“I guess you’ll just have to try me out and see. Max has never complained about that, and I’ve been rooming with him for several months now.”
“Oh, Kenny, I can’t believe this. Are you sure your folks won’t mind? What would we do about meals?”
“Listen, guy – you don’t know my mother. The term ‘Earth mother’ was invented for her. She likes nothing better than feeding her men, and she and Dad are totally on board with this idea. Of course, if you and Eric could help out a little with the groceries, that would grease the skids a little.”
“Oh man, oh man, I can’t wait to tell Eric about this. I’m gonna go shower with him right now and tell him.”
“I’m green with envy, babe. Be careful what you guys do in the shower together.”
“Don’t worry, Kenny. After that afternoon we spent together last Thursday, the only body I care about is yours. Eric’s looks too much like mine to be of any interest, and I’ve seen it all my life anyway.”
“I hope so, sweetie. I think I’m starting to love you already.”
More silence.
“Is that TMI, Ethan?”
“Not at all. I’m just…well, let’s talk later. I promise to call you after we talk to Mom and Dad. Thank you SO much for this offer, and tell your folks, too, that I said thanks. I hope I can talk Eric and my folks into agreeing to it.”
“You’d better, you sexy devil. I’m already imagining all the devious things I’m going to do with you in bed every night.”
It seemed like an eternity to Kenny before he heard back from Ethan, but in reality it was only a few hours. When he did, Ethan was crying.
“It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done, Kenny, but it’s all out in the open now. Thank God Eric was able to do most of the talking because I was a wreck.”
“Well, at least you guys got it out,” Kenny said. “So how do things stand now?”
“I don’t know for sure because Mom’s still crying in their bedroom, but at least they listened to us and didn’t disown us or anything. Dad took it a little better, I think, so I hope he can rally Mom to our side. He’s pretty upset and embarrassed over what his brother did to us by kicking us out.”
“Did you mention our offer of housing?” Kenny said anxiously.
“Yes, but I’m not sure it all sank in. They’re still trying to process the fact that we’re not straight. I know they’d like for us to continue in school, so we’ll be pressing them on returning tomorrow. At least they knew that Eric’s had a job for a few months caring for Max, so they knew a little about your family. But the idea of us moving in with you seemed to throw them for a loop initially. Maybe they’ll accept it after they have a chance to sleep on it tonight.”
“I sure hope so, Ethan. I…we…really want you guys here, and I know this is where you belong right now.”
“Okay – Eric and I think so, too. He said to tell you a big thanks for the offer and that he’d do it in a heartbeat if our parents will agree to provide some financial support. He just doesn’t feel right about moving in on you all and not being able to at least pay for our food and stuff.”
“Well, just remember that that’s not a requirement and that you’d be welcome here at least till summer, money or no money.”
“Thanks, Kenny. By the way, I’m sorry I hesitated this morning when you said you thought you were starting to love me. This is all moving so fast that my head is spinning. I mean I only met you less than two weeks ago, so I don’t want to say anything prematurely. But just know that I care a lot about you and hope that we’re on a path that we can both continue to want. I don’t know how else to state my feelings right now.”
“That’s fine, man. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. Call me again if you have any news. Just know that you guys can move in here tomorrow night if you want to.”
“Okay, thanks, Kenny. I’ll call you again soon.”
Over dinner that night, Kenny updated his family on the latest news from Vincennes and told them to be prepared in case the twins wanted to move in as early as the next evening.
“I don’t know how I’ll be able to tell those two apart,” Barbara said. “There isn’t an ounce of difference between them.”
Kenny looked over at Max and smiled slyly, almost choking on his food. They were the only ones in the family who knew there was an ounce of difference between Eric and Ethan – and precisely what that ounce consisted of!
“Well, maybe we can make them wear nametags,” Bobby quipped.
“Or tattoo one of them in a conspicuous place,” Grant suggested, with a smile.
“I know what I’m going to do,” Al added. “I’ll just call both of them ‘E’ and then I’ll never be wrong.”
Pretty soon the whole family was chuckling over how this possible new development might play out in their close-knit household.
“If they do move in,” Barbara said, “I want to invite their parents to come down and visit us as soon as possible. Then maybe they’ll be more comfortable with the idea.”
“Good plan, Mom,” Kenny said. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right, as usual.”
Saturday night crawled by for Kenny – and then Sunday morning. He exchanged frequent texts with Ethan, but the replies were always the same – “Nothing new to report. Will keep you updated.”
Finally a call came through at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“Kenny, it’s me,” Ethan said, sounding tired but happy. “If your offer is still good, Mom and Dad are willing for Eric and me to give it a trial run. But they want to pitch in $400 a month for food and utilities.”
“Yippee!” Kenny replied. “You guys won’t be sorry. This is the best place for you two right now. Are you coming back today?”
“We’re leaving in just a few minutes. We should be down there in an hour, but we’re going to have to stop at Roger’s house and gather up the rest of our stuff. We could be at your place around four, I guess. I don’t suppose we could mooch a dinner tonight from your mom, could we?”
“You bet! I’ll tell her right now so she can start planning on it. It’ll be no trouble whatsoever. I’ll start moving my stuff out of my room for Eric, and you and I can sleep in the living room on the sofa bed there until we can get a bed and some space heaters fixed up in the basement. It’s colder than a witch’s tit down there this time of year.”
“Oooh, Kenny, don’t say ‘tit.’ I plan to keep you nice and warm no matter where we’re sleeping. This is gonna be so awesome – I can’t wait!”
“Neither can I, you sexy thing! See you around four. Bye.”
Kenny raced to tell the rest of the family that the twins would be arriving around four. Everyone was quite excited to hear the news. Kenny started gathering up his few possessions to make room in Max’s room for Eric and put a fresh set of sheets on the bed for him.
Driving the used car that their parents had bought them when they first went away to college, Ethan and Eric arrived right on time and were smothered with hugs and handshakes. They looked like they’d been through the ringer, but they were obviously grateful for their new digs.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rushton, we just want you to know how much we appreciate your offer of a place to stay for now,” Eric said, his voice choking with emotion. “You just don’t know how much this means to Ethan and me, and we’re gonna pitch in and help in any way we can. Here’s a check from our parents for the first month’s expenses. We hope it’s enough.”
“First of all,” Al said, “you can call us Al and Barbara, like Grant does. You two are very welcome here, and we’re glad to have you. We just hope to make you feel right at home – right, Barbara?�
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“Absolutely, you two. It’ll be a little crowded, but we’ll make it work. I told the others that we want your parents to come down for a visit as soon as they can. We’d love to meet them.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Rushton, er, Barbara. They’ll certainly appreciate that,” Eric said.
“You boys get settled in, and we’ll have dinner at six. Bobby and Grant, would you put another leaf in the dining table and bring up two spare chairs from downstairs?”
Max sat in his wheelchair in his room and chatted with him while Eric unpacked his belongings and got settled in as his new roommate. This was going to be a major step for the two of them, who had previously only been in the care giver/care receiver roles once a week or so. Now they were going to be together seven days a week and sleeping only a few feet apart.
Max was excited but also wary of this new relationship, as was Eric. What were they really to each other? That needed to be explored over the course of the rest of the semester. Max had always considered himself either asexual or bi until Eric came along and turned his world upside down with his uninhibited weekly display of full – and often erect – nudity in their shared showers. Eric’s tender, gentle bathing ministrations often resulted in the best orgasms of Max’s life, and that couldn’t help but have an emotional effect on him when played out over time.
As for Eric, he had mixed feelings about this new arrangement. For the first time in his life he would no longer be sharing a room – and a bed – with his twin brother, who would now be sleeping with his new boyfriend, Kenny. Eric liked Max a lot, but he had never considered him more than a friend at best. What would it be like now, sharing a room with him while Ethan was getting it on with Kenny?
As for Ethan, he was over the moon about sleeping with Kenny seven nights a week. They arranged their stuff as best they could in the living room, pending the acquisition of a bed they could set up in the basement. With the early February lows dipping well below freezing every night, they would be in no hurry to move down there.
On the other hand, they had no real bathroom to themselves for now. They would either have to go downstairs and freeze their asses off in that shower or walk through one of the other bedrooms to use the shared shower that the other boys would be using.
In the short run, they chose the latter option – with the concurrence of Max, Eric, Bobby, and Grant – meaning that the large bathroom on the main floor would usually have a constant stream of young males showering (often two at a time), shaving, and all the rest that men need to care of every morning. Not so oddly, none of them objected, and they would soon get used to seeing each other in the altogether. Bobby and Grant quickly learned that they had no trouble telling the twins apart when they were naked – that crucial “ounce of difference” being the defining factor.
As for taking care of Max, they worked out a plan to rotate his bathing care among them as their differing schedules permitted, leaving Bobby and Grant to handle the weekend bathing and Kenny, Eric, and Ethan to handle that chore on the weekdays in between their class schedules.
They also all rotated through kitchen cleanup duty every evening so that Barbara could concentrate on meal planning and preparation, and everyone pitched in with the other chores, like laundry, snow shoveling, and keeping the house clean, while Kenny and the twins kept up with their classes and studies. Bobby loved his new job at the University, and Grant kept Al’s business operation humming and in the black.
The twins’ parents drove down for a day visit with everyone shortly after they moved in and left feeling enormously grateful and happy that their sons had such a nice family to live with while they were in school. Silently, they would have been even happier if Eric and Ethan were sharing a room of their own, but they weren’t about to make an issue of the sleeping arrangements.
The rest of the winter and spring was a welcome period of relative calm after the past year’s struggles with job layoffs, Grant’s broken ankle, Al’s heart attack, Bobby’s run-in with Nick, and Roger’s homophobic inhospitality. For four months it would all work like a charm, but then summer would come and turn everyone’s world on end once again.
CHAPTER 31
Part of the deal that Eric and Ethan had made with their parents when they agreed to let them live with the Rushtons was that they would spend their summer break in Vincennes. They wanted their own personal time with their sons for three months, and the boys had a shared summer job waiting for them as lifeguards at the city pool – something they had done for the past two summers. They didn’t object since they liked their summer job and looked forward to spending time with the large circle of friends they grew up with and went to high school with.
Kenny and Max knew this would be happening but tried to put it out of their minds until the time came. Kenny’s relationship with Ethan was soon as rock solid as the erections they shared with each other every night – first in the living room and then, when it got warmer, down in the basement. It was clear to both of them that their relationship was meant to be, despite the fact that it had started out as a case of mistaken identity.
Max and Eric grew closer, too, as they shared a room – if not a bed. They talked every night before going to sleep and learned much more about each other than they ever knew before. Occasionally Eric would be in a particularly thoughtful mood and offer to give Max a backrub in his bed before they turned the lights out. At first they wore boxers to bed, but as time went on the boxers went by the wayside and they were comfortable sleeping in the nude.
In early March their relationship took a dramatic turn. Even though all the boys washed Max’s genitals during his routine bed baths and showers, he didn’t usually get hard – except when Eric did it. For reasons he himself didn’t even understand at first, Max was most comfortable allowing himself to get hard in Eric’s presence, and he often climaxed when he did.
One evening Eric was taking his turn giving Max a shower, although later than normal. He had gotten home from school later than usual but let Max know by cell phone that he would still get his shower before bedtime. But this time was different. Eric was completely aroused from the moment he stripped off his clothes – and stayed that way. Max had seen him hard many times, but there was a look in Eric’s eyes that he hadn’t seen before that night. Once they were in the bathroom, Eric locked both doors to the adjoining bedrooms – an unusual step not lost on Max.
This time Eric’s washing of Max’s body was done with a tenderness and slow pace that thrilled every fiber in him – at least the ones he could feel. The handsome college boy was clearly turned on and wasn’t just washing Max – he was making love to him with his soapy hands. When Eric finally got around to washing Max’s cock and balls, Max too was as hard as he had ever remembered being. He was sitting on his perch in the shower stall as usual, and Eric was on his knees in front of him. Before that night Eric had always either stood or squatted when washing him.
When his usually dormant sexual equipment was squeaky clean, Eric did something to Max that he had never done – indeed that no one had ever done. He took the beautiful cut cock deep inside his mouth and took Max to levels of pleasure he had not known was possible for him to have.
“Oh, Eric, that’s amazing – are you sure you want to…” Eric cut him off by gently laying a finger over Max’s mouth, signaling that he was doing this not only to please Max but also to please himself. Max tried not to moan but couldn’t help himself. The pleasure he was feeling was beyond belief and he stopped caring who could hear him. Before long he let loose with a stream that filled Eric’s mouth to overflowing as he tried to swallow it. Life would never be the same again if Eric kept this up, but Max didn’t want to think beyond tonight.
As Eric stood up, his beautiful hard cock waved proudly in Max’s face and Max reached out to touch it for the very first time. He had never done anything remotely as exciting as this, and he knew he wanted to return the favor that his wonderful friend and roommate had just done for him. Eric didn’t force it,
but when Max looked up into his face he knew that Max wanted him as much as he had wanted Max that night. He took a step forward and allowed the older man to engulf his raging hard-on in his mouth.
Max’s unpracticed technique wasn’t perfect, but it was eager, and Eric lasted only a few seconds before he erupted into one of the most powerful orgasms of his young life. Max gagged a bit on the unfamiliar taste but swallowed as much of it as he could.
Dropping to his knees again, Eric laid his head against Max’s chest while Max stroked the younger man’s hair. Hardly a word had been spoken, but hardly a word had been necessary. They had crossed a line that night, and each was as thrilled as the other. Raising his head, Eric tentatively moved his mouth toward Max’s. Max leaned forward, closing the gap between them, and their lips met for the first time – gently at first but progressively more urgently as the seconds ticked by.
Max could remain silent no more.
“What does this mean, Eric? What’s come over you?”
“I don’t know, Max, but I just really needed you tonight. Let’s get dried off and be on our way before the others start knocking. I really, really want to sleep with you tonight. Would that be okay with you?”
“I’d love it, Eric, but it’ll be a little crowded.”
“I don’t mind if you don’t.”
“Okay, let’s do it,” Max said with a smile. His bed, specially designed for him, was a bit wider than a standard twin-size bed, so the two fit together reasonably well. Eric spooned Max from behind and held him tightly till morning, not caring who might walk in and find them.
Ethan had an early class the next morning, so he had to walk through one of the bedrooms to get to the shower. He usually walked through Eric’s and Max’s room so as not to intrude on Bobby and Grant. Opening the door as silently as he could, he was startled to see his twin brother snuggled up against Max in Max’s bed. The blanket didn’t quite cover Eric’s butt, revealing his nude state to his brother. Ethan almost didn’t continue in, but the shower stall in the basement would have been like an icebox at that time of year. So he and Kenny were taking their showers in the main bath.
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