by David Connor
“Totally,” he said. “I love Kensuke, but we’re not exclusive or nothing. We’re all in agreement.”
“I hope so,” Tom Alan said once both were out of sight. “And I hope they do find their way back together exclusively.”
“Me, too, Skater Boy. They are kind of adorable.”
“What’s wrong with Peanut?” Billy asked. “What’s wrong with him being adorable with Jesse or Kensuke?”
“A redhead and a pretty Asian?” Milo shook his head. “I don’t see any future in that.”
“So, your brother is B-boy?” Tom Alan asked. “I was kind of kidding. That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“Not really,” Billy said. “Not at all, actually, especially in the tech age. They already knew each other from Peanut hanging out down at the rink. If Jesse saw him on Grindr,” Billy seemed to nearly choke on the word, “he would definitely hit him up. The sexuality issue might be stranger. I wonder what the odds are of having one gay son and one bi one in the same family.”
“I’m sure they increase when you have eight kids,” Milo said.
“Maybe. Of course, whenever I ask Peanut what he’s into…who he is…he tells me it’s none of my business. ‘Why I got to have a label?’ He asks that, too. To him, it’s more progressive to do away with them. I don’t know if that’s youth, avoidance, or what.”
“It’s not that uncommon. A lot of the kids at the college think that way,” Milo said. “They don’t want to be boxed in. Humans. Americans. That’s it. Someone like Rocky, who wants to use certain words still, someone a little older who fought for the terms to be worn with pride, they might see it as going backwards. They might actually get angry. Who’s right? What’s sad is two people on the same side might end up fighting while the bigger enemy goes unchecked.”
“That kind of argument still happens among women sometimes, with regards to feminism versus being a feminist,” Erika said.
“What’s the difference?” Billy wondered.
“Depends who you ask.”
“Human beings, human rights. Equal pay for equal work. Do unto others…Be nice. All people are created equal. I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe I sound like a simpleton…like a moron…but why can’t we do that starting now?”
“Or maybe anyone who tries to makes it more difficult than that is,” Milo countered.
The philosophical discussion was interrupted by Forbidden Fruit blaring from upstairs.
“Aww…it’s Kensuke and Jesse’s song,” Erika jested, wanting to plug her ears from the heavy metal as she felt the beat in the floor.
“No offense to Teen Red, but I’m pulling for Kenesse,” Milo said.
“What the hell is that?”
“A ship name, love. You prefer Jessuke?”
“What the hell’s a ship name?” Billy directed his second question at Tom Alan, as if he could no longer translate Milo’s gibberish without help.
“Ship name…like relationship. Mine and Skater Boy’s is MTA,” Milo clarified. “And you and Erika would be Birika or Erilly or…”
“Bee,” Tom Alan offered. “Billy, Erika, Etsuko…B, E, E…Bee.”
“So no one is rooting for Peanuke? Kenut?” Billy seemed genuinely sad.
“I don’t think our votes matter,” Erika said, offering a soothing peck. “Their story will work out however they want it to.”
* * * *
The next Saturday was Kensuke’s birthday. Erika had taken him and Jesse down to register to vote the day before. Kensuke could have done it a year ago, but never had. Jesse was quite excited to be able to cast his very first presidential ballot in 2016.
“People are saying the upcoming election is shaping up to be one of the most important in history,” he said. “My Social Studies teacher also said it’s going to be very divisive.”
“Could be,” Erika feared.
“No matter how it turns out, I’m going to stay involved,” Jesse told her. “I’ll march for men, women, gays, lesbians, transgender people, kids, animals, better schools, separation of church and state, immigrants…anyone who’s being treated wrong.” He had that new voter energy and a belief one person could change the world at a time when cable news had much of America swinging back and forth between hopeful and riled up. “We won’t go backwards.”
“No.” Erika wholeheartedly agreed on that.
Kensuke spoke with his parents, and though he reported at the end of the call that they didn’t much care about his new living situation, his bipolar diagnosis, his three-month probation, community service, and the loss of his license for the car wreck and subsequent train problem, he didn’t seem to be terribly hurt. Erika and Billy, Tom Alan and Milo, they all made sure to shower him with extra love and affection throughout the day, knowing he was likely putting up a front once again.
The homemade cake was a visual disaster. “Maybe frosting will help.” Milo practically licked Tom Alan clean when he pulled the hand mixer from the mixing bowl while the beaters still whirled. “I hope there’s enough left.”
“Get a room,” Kensuke commented, entering the kitchen in time to see it.
“Got one. And we gotta keep the curtains closed so you can’t see into it.”
The cake didn’t taste bad. After it was served, Billy dropped Etsuko off at his parents’, picked up Burgess, then dropped both him and Kensuke off at the indoor skate park. Jesse and a few other friends—from both Kensuke’s old school and the new one—would be meeting them there to continue the party.
“He seems happy,” Billy said upon his return, as the other three were still cleaning up the kitchen. “I hope…” He shrugged.
“The house is quiet.” Erika listened. “For the first time in weeks, no music and TV going at the same time, though a cloud of Axe Body Spray still lingers.”
“It’s going to be an interesting year. A few months ago…two years ago, who could have predicted this was our future?”
“I knew you were mine,” Milo told Tom Alan. “How about some more cake and ice cream?” he suggested, plopping into a chair as if beat. “Though I think I’m getting fat.”
“I don’t call you Downton Flabby for nothing.” Billy smirked.
Milo gasped. “You call me that?” He was on his feet, chasing Billy around the table, until Erika stepped between them.
“You caught him.” Actually, she had. “Now kiss and make up.” They stared at her. “Do it. We have the house to ourselves. Why waste it eating cake? Kiss him.” It was little more than a peck, but at least they listened. “Come on.” Erika took Billy’s hand, and then Milo’s, and led them to the kitchen door. “Grab your Skater Boy.”
“Our Skater Boy,” Milo said.
Erika continued to take charge once they were all in her bedroom. “Undress each other.” The three or four hours they had suddenly didn’t seem like enough.
“This wasn’t a one-time deal?” Milo asked. It was still hard to believe he was the most timid.
“Oh.” Erika took her bottom lip between her teeth. “Was it?” No one spoke up. No one left. “Undress each other,” she said again.
There they stood naked, in descending height—Tom Alan, Billy, Milo—the blond, the redhead, and the brunet, all three already hard. “Be right back. You can start without me, but don’t you dare finish.” She had an idea, and thought they might loosen up if she left them alone and aroused a few minutes. When she returned from the laundry room, just a few minutes later, Tom Alan was on his knees in front of Billy and Milo was behind.
“Babe.” The way Billy said it, in a whisper, she wasn’t sure if it was for how she looked or for the pleasure he was receiving. Tom Alan turned and took her in. She’d stripped as well, and had wrapped herself in a sheet again.
“God. You’re stunning.”
“Definitely, babe.”
“Once again, it’s unanimous, Flower.”
She’d worn couture on and off the ice, but this was what got the most reaction. Still, she let the sheet fall almost immed
iately, and just as quickly, the two men she’d been torn over for nearly two years were at her side, each taking a hand and guiding her to the bed. Tom Alan was the first to kiss her. He wasn’t shy now. There was no hesitation. Erika wondered if they had discussed things while she was gone. His hand beneath her head, it was so gentle. The top of his naked body against hers, his other hand, as it touched her near intimate places, it was just like on the ice, as comfortable and natural as that, but with a whole new sensation.
Milo was a noisy kisser. He and Billy were voracious with each other, and then Billy with her. Milo, though he did take a turn with Erika as well, was surprisingly tender, moving her hair from in front of her eyes, taking her cheeks in his hands, and then moving in, telling her she was beautiful afterwards.
She took him in her mouth first. Romance was going to take a back seat just for a moment as the three of them sat on the foot of the bed and she went down on each as the other two stroked one another. The squeal Milo made, his eyes closed, his face scrunched up, it was comical, and the only other time Erika had heard a similar sound it had come from one of the kittens. “You okay?” she asked, her hand on his furry gut.
“I guess.” He laughed. “I know I’m bloody immature.”
“You’re fun,” Erika told him, before taking him all the way down to his bushy hair, making him twitch against the roof of her mouth.
“I might come,” he warned.
Erika released his hard-on and stood. “Billy, you’re up,” she said, mussing Milo’s already wild hair. “I think he wants that.”
“Not after he called me ‘Downton Flabby,’” Milo said.
“Get over it.” Billy stood and shoved him back, flat against the mattress. “You’re sexy as fuck. Later, we wrap you in a sheet.”
“It’s been a long time,” Erika said, waiting for Tom Alan’s eyes to come to hers. “Make love to me?”
The taste of his hard flesh in her mouth, his mouth on her, the way it made her writhe, the erotic tickle as he took his time, the ecstasy she felt emotionally and sensually, was only outdone by the girth of him sliding into her. She wrapped herself around him from beneath, yearning for as much of him as possible, deep within and skin to skin as Milo and Billy provided the rhythm with grunts and pounding that rattled the lamp beside the bed. Erika knew she would come with Tom Alan inside her. She’d dreamed of it for years, since she had the first time. The guilt of the fantasy gone, now that Billy and Milo were aware—now that they were fucking hard right beside her—she gave into it fully, allowing the sounds that wanted out to escape and the feeling that started with a rising heat between her thighs to envelop her head to toe. Tom Alan’s breaths were loud and warm at her neck. The twitching of his dick was followed by a rush of his climax as she tightened her hips around him and also tugged at his hair. He collapsed atop her with much of his weight.
“Whoa.”
“He says that almost every time.” Milo brushed Tom Alan’s cheek, and then hers, all sweaty, no doubt red. He and Billy had stopped, apparently to watch and then bask in the afterglow.
“I think you two should switch things up,” Erika said. Some time had passed, though she was still a bit short of breath.
“Babe.”
“No pressure,” she said, “but you did always wonder if what Milo said was true…about…”
“Coming while being fucked.” Milo walked on his knees, positioning himself behind Billy. With a lick of his lips, he gave Billy’s ass a thwap that echoed off the wall. “It’s oh so very, very true. You’ll thank me profusely…if you’re game, Hockey Puck?”
After another moment of hesitation, he was. Erika had Billy’s face and his dick, stroking each with one hand while Tom Alan and Milo worked his ass.
“All good?” Milo asked.
By Billy’s expression, the grimacing with a hiss as he inhaled, Erika assumed Milo was easing his thick cock inside. Billy nodded.
“He said yes,” Erika relayed. “Right?”
Billy nodded again.
“Let me know if you want me to quit.”
“Uh-uh.” Billy verbalized his response—more or less—as his face contorted in ways Erika had never seen. Bending forward to lick at the small slit in Billy’s tip as Milo fell against him and grinded, she was getting aroused yet again. Taking Tom Alan’s hand in hers, she put it where she felt the urge. His finger hit the right spot, rubbing softly, then with pressure. She shuddered.
“I’m there, babe.” Billy erupted onto her tongue and coated the back of her throat, his warning barely spoken.
So was she—or close to it. A conscious decision about whether or not to hold back to prolong the pleasure wasn’t even possible, however. Billy’s cum and Tom Alan’s breath at her neck took her the rest of the way in a matter of moments.
Milo announced his orgasm with a hoot, slamming hard into Billy, and also laughing, if Erika wasn’t mistaken.
“Jesus, Fisher, we’re gonna have to repaint the wall.” Billy collapsed to one side of Erika, against the headboard. She stretched to kiss him, then grabbed for Milo, and finally Tom Alan, wanting to share some of Billy’s taste with all of them.
“Was he right?” she asked Billy.
“Oh yeah.”
“Told you. Wait until you experience it with the Yank’s.”
“Guess it’s you and me that night, Milo,” Erika said.
He didn’t answer, which made them all laugh.
The next time anyone spoke, everyone had been quiet quite a while—just lying contentedly, if they all felt like Erika. “A blast went off.” It was Billy, almost as if he were talking to himself, Erika thought, until her hand went to one of his scars and found Milo’s already there.
“It burned…the shrapnel, but then I heard the whining and a couple of yelps. The medic was at my side. ‘Find the dogs,’ I said. He tried to pull my shirt away. It was all torn, tattered and sticking to all the blood. It hurt like a motherfucker when he tried. He was pulling skin with the fabric and threads and I shouted, ‘Find the dogs!’” He didn’t shout it then. His voice was still barely loud enough to hear as he shared something else he’d been keeping inside a very long time. “We saved them.” Billy smiled and looked to Erika on one side and Tom Alan on the other, then past him to Milo. “Doctoring soldiers or puppies and a mama…Shawn…that’s the medic’s name. He saved all of them…but one. We did. They made it.”
“And you.” Milo kissed his shoulder. “Thank God.”
“We got them all over here and adopted. Well, we took them. Four dogs…eight siblings…it was a fight. I kept two myself.”
“Mama and Tuxedo,” Milo said.
“Yes.” Billy had nothing else to say right then. They were all quiet for the longest time, quite cramped, four to one bed, but no one mentioned wanting to leave. In fact, it seemed as if they got a little closer.
Erika awoke sometime later, surprised she had fallen asleep. Everyone was still there, all uncovered, but Billy, who was always cold. Erika flushed when Tom Alan ran the back of his fingers down her throat unexpectedly, organically, it seemed, but didn’t stop until much lower down. Then Billy kissed her—territorially perhaps. She was one lucky woman. The clock beside the bed went from 11:29 to 11:30. “Who’s going for the kids?” Billy asked.
Burgess had originally offered to drive, but the adults all figured—just in case someone snuck a beer or two—it was better if one of them picked them up.
“Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen…” Erika had said. “It’s different for every boy. Some go sixteen to thirty. Some go sixteen back to twelve.”
“Only the boys?” Billy had asked.
Erika had offered just a shrug. “We were lucky mother let us be kids,” she’d continued. “Father was stoic, showing love with encouragement and praise on the ice. Mother, though she doesn’t always like being hugged, never sent us away when we wanted to crawl up into her lap for one, even as tall as you were already when you came to us, towering over her from the start, Tom Alan.�
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“I’m not letting Kensuke crawl up on my lap.”
“No.” Erika hadn’t been able to hold back a giggle. “That’s probably not a good idea. If he wants to act childish a little while longer, though, I think we should all encourage it. He might have missed out on that.”
“His childish comes with an adult twist,” Milo had said.
“Like yours.”
He hadn’t argued Erika’s point.
“I’ll go.” Billy got up, rubbing his nakedness over Milo. He faltered a bit when he stood straight.
“He’s all weak from gay sex, and pretty to look at.”
“Bi sex,” Billy said. “And you’ve seen it before.”
Milo decided to ride along. It turned out they were out of ice cream, and he wanted to stop for some on the way back.
“Come on.” Tom Alan tapped Erika’s bare thigh. “Slip something on. Let’s go for a walk.”
She watched as he got out of bed and walked naked to the door and then turned around and smiled.
He took her down to the edge of the property, to the bench they had sat on after Tom Alan told Kyoko he was leaving his marriage to Erika for another chance with Milo. It was dark and chilly this time. Tom Alan patted the seat beside him and then snuggled into Erika when she sat. “I’ll never forget how sad you were when we did this two years ago.”
“It all worked out. Billy came back downstate when I told him I was pregnant. You and Milo got to be happy.”
“And you…you’re finally happy?”
“I don’t think I could be any happier.”
“I didn’t know all that about Billy…about the dogs…about the bomb.”
“I didn’t either, not the whole story. I’m still learning things about him. He keeps a lot to himself and then it all comes rushing out…just like someone else I know.” She touched Tom Alan’s face.
“Men,” he said. “Can’t live with ‘em…”
“Can’t live without you three.”
“He’s being good to you?”
“God, yes,” Erika said. “He thinks you and Milo just see him as the dumb jock type, but he’s complicated, like everyone else.”
“Sure. I admire him for serving our country and his devotion to animals…among other things. I should have told him that. I should,” Tom Alan said. “He’s a great dad. I look forward to learning more about him, too. Hey. I got ya something. And for Billy and Etsuko, too. Though she won’t be able to wear it for a while. Here.” He opened his palms. Three round disks sent off a shimmer from the streetlamp at the end of the street. “They’re like the ones me and Milo wear. Did you know they’re actually from California? The New York ones never had the letters MTA on them. Milo got ours on eBay. I got some more, and had the back modified. Look.”