Who Dares Wins

by N Fourbois

Part Two

Dear Readers. You asked for a continuation of Who Dares Wins. Spurred on by your request, here is my offering.

It was one of those great days of summer which consist of twenty hours of daylight and have the added beauty of school being finished until September and therefore hold a singular lack of responsibilities for adolescents. Gideon had finished his training at the local athletics club and was kicking his heels at home at a loss as to what he should do with himself for the rest of the evening. The weather was too warm and inviting for him to sit indoors and stare at the television or a computer screen and so he was idly booting a tennis ball around the lawn in the back garden while his father was trying to mow it, so continuing the eternal fight against nature to bring it up to putting green standard. His father looked up, switched off the electric mower and said
"Gideon, haven't you anything better to do?" in that annoying tone which implied that fathers always thought there was something better for their sons to do if they were getting in their way. "I thought you'd be out with your mates."
"Difficult," he replied in that adolescent manner of conveying the least information in the least possible words.
"Why's that?" He had unwittingly aroused his father's curiosity, but as he was not a contrary child and because there was nothing better to do he thought he would sit his father down for one of those father & son, or in this case son & father, chats, especially as his mother was safely tucked away at the Witches' Institute for another hour or so.

"Do you want a can from the fridge, Dad?"
"Yes, please. Bring me a beer. You can have one if you like."
"No, thanks. I've too much respect for my taste buds," and he selected an apple juice for himself. "There's no one about at the moment," Gideon gave as the answer to one of his father's previous questions.
"Why? Where's Jamie? You haven't fallen out, have you? Lover's tiff," his father laughed. He didn't realise the dangerous ground he was treading there for although almost lifelong friends, they had declared themselves boyfriends during the previous half term, but were the only ones supposed to know. Had he unwittingly let something slip? Gideon's body tensed and his ears pricked up, but he realised in time that his father was only joking. Only that didn't prevent him from blushing.
"Nooo! Grounded for a week," he said in a deliberate tone.
"What about Alex?"
"On holiday."
"And Will?" And here Gideon was unable to disguise the distaste either on his face or in his tone of voice.
"He's got a girlfriend!"
"I take it you don't approve, Gideon?" Unaware of his body language he innocently asked
"What makes you say that, Dad?"
"We said this before. You will never make a poker player or a con artist. We can read you like an open book."

Mr Farthing decided to change the subject.
"So why's Jamie been grounded?"
"You don't even want to know, Dad."
"I do. I just asked."
"Promise not to freak?"
"Would I ever?"
"What you? Never. Nor would Jamie's Dad, but he did on this occasion."
"Go on then. The suspense is killing me now."
"Sure?" His father nodded.

Gideon drifted off into a daydream. It was nothing for him and Jamie to moon. It was one of those laddish phases they were going through. They had only started doing it recently and then just amongst themselves or with Alex and Will, and never in public. That must have been where Charlie Dutton had got the idea from, unless Jamie had got it from him. All things were possible with those two little rascals. Gideon was now thinking back to the time when he and Jamie were alone and it had once led to a rather painful and unsatisfactory experience for them, for when they'd dropped their shorts on that particular occasion, Gideon immediately got a stiffy and claiming all the knowledge, but lacking any experience tried to ram his cock into Jamie as he was mooning at him. Despite the pain and failure, instead of being discouraged they realised there must be some technique they needed and did their separate research on the internet. The camping weekend was to be their first opportunity to put the research to the test.

"Gideon! Penny for your thoughts." Gideon came out of his daydream. "Are you going to tell me?"
"Tell you what, Dad?"
"What Jamie did to get grounded."
"Oh, that. Sorry. I was just thinking."

Mr Farthing took a deep draught of beer. Gideon took a deep breath.
"He and his brother Charlie mooned at the woman nextdoor." Gideon had to duck as a spray of Boddington's spurted across the garden table hurtling towards his face. Mr Farthing had to feign surprise rather than admit to the mirth he was experiencing.

After a rapid mopping up exercise he said
"What was that all about, Gideon?"
"You losing control after a quarter of a pint of beer, Dad."
"No, you twit. The mooning."
"Well, I've only heard about this by e-mail 'cause Jamie's not even allowed to telephone and they've confiscated the boys' mobiles, but they didn't think of e-mails. They were playing cricket in the garden and when Charlie hit a ball through nextdoor's greenhouse, their neighbour got a little excited, as you would, and shouted at them from an upstairs window. So they mooned at her. They're both grounded for a week, all visitors and phone calls banned, no pocket money - that's going to pay for the damage - and no camping trip this weekend."
"Oh, that's why it's off. It all comes out in the end."

Jamie and Gideon had arranged some time ago to take a two-man tent off to a schoolfriend's farm Friday to Monday and 'develop their relationship', although that bit remained unmentioned to their parents. Now it was off with little likelihood of another date being found.

"Just because in a moment of surprise I found the story mildly amusing, don't think you'd get away with anything less if I found out you'd been doing mooning – to anyone, including Jamie."
"Yes, Dad... I mean no Dad," replied Gideon as he sat there with his thumb in his mouth looking up at his father with those big, blue, doleful eyes. 'Good job I washed off that face Jamie drew on my backside with marker pen,' he thought and wondered if he still had the photos on his computer. 'I'll e-mail them to Jamie.'
"It's not like sticking a traffic cone on a statue's head," added his father casually. Jamie had always wondered if he had really known his role in that business, but chosen to keep his own counsel over it. "You never know who might just be passing by." Gideon immediately ceased his act of injured innocence.

"By the way, that reminds me. Mum asked me to mention something to you." Gideon was feeling comfortable in the evening sun up to that point. He suddenly sat up. "I don't want you to get upset at this. It's not a telling-off; it's just a request for you to show some consideration towards your mother. He was puzzled at this. We understand what boys your age do. I was your age once. But when you masturbate..." At this Gideon's face turned crimson. "... have a wank, jerk off, whatever you boys call it these days, could you be a bit more careful about cleaning up the aftermath. Mum's finding it rather unpleasant dealing with your bed linen." Gideon thought. Yes, he had been rather more active recently and his lusting after Jamie hadn't helped. Still deep crimson he muttered
"Sorry, Dad..."
"I'll pass that on. I think you might find it a bit difficult to say anything to your mother."
"... but I just..." He wanted to add '... feel so randy at the moment,' but couldn't bring himself to say it.

They sat in silence watching the sunset. Mr Farthing pulled his chair round so that he was sitting next to him and put his arm round his shoulder in a hug. All sorts of things were going through Gideon's head, such as 'was this a good time to...?' He felt comforted by his father's hug of him, but on the other hand if Gideon left it much longer he might burst and it was so obvious that his parents didn't miss much.

After five minutes of this churning through his mind, (It would have been thoroughly untrue to say that he was giving it his full consideration.) he said to his father "Can I tell you something?" Mr Farthing was at first expecting some sort of confession about the cone incident. "You won't get angry, will you?" Mr Farthing hugged Gideon even tighter in lieu of an answer. "It's got something to do with me making this mess of my bed." His father's concentration sharpened, but he knew better than to interrupt. "I think I'm in love." He only saw acceptance in his father's face and that emboldened him. "No, that not quite true. I know I'm in love..." Mr Farthing just held his boy and kissed him on the cheek.
"My, you're growing up so fast, Gideon."
"But you don't know who it is."
"You can tell me when you're ready." He heaved back a sob and took a deep breath.
"You see, it's Jamie andhe'sinlovewithmeandwe'rebothgay!" The last words came tumbling out and Gideon dissolved into violent tears. His father took him into the house, sat down with him on the couch in the living room and took him in a huge hug while he released all the pent up emotion.

It could have been two, five, ten, even thirty minutes. Neither was looking at the time. Finally Mr Farthing moved to put a light on as it had grown dark The two men smiled at one another and Gideon kissed his father on the cheek. All the turbulence had vanished. He said
"Thanks, Dad."
"Who's going to to tell your mother?"
"We both are, perhaps not tonight."
"It would be better to do it tonight. You know, how I hate keeping secrets from her."
"Okay."
"I'll tell you what. Mum will be in at half past ten and I'll see what we can do about some supper, while you have a nice warm Radox bath. Wash all those tears away and come downstairs with your happy face on. Don't forget. The word gay has got another meaning besides homosexual and if you're going to be gay we'll have the other half as well, please." Gideon gave an involuntary laugh which showed he was on the mend.

Gideon just sat luxuriating in the bath trying to think..., or at least trying to think of what he could say to his mother. He was in fact just thinking of everything, of anything but. 'I'm going to have to tell Jamie I've come out. Is he going to tell his parents? Is it the right time for him as he's in such big trouble? How's his brother going to take it. Does he already know? What do we do about school?' A thousand questions, not one answer. As soon as the word Jamie entered his head, the brain substitute between his legs was aroused. He was dying to jerk off, but wanted to keep that till later, another decision, another mental process that came between him and the matter in hand (bad choice of words!). He closed his eyes and idly ran his forefinger round the rim of his cock between his rolled back foreskin and the glans, over the top and slowly down the underside of the shaft until he reached his scrotum where he parted his balls, used all the fingers to lift and feeling satisfied with their weight and shape, well knowing from his physics lessons they would weigh less in water, pushed his hand farther round feeling his butt and came back to reality as he felt his middle finger surreptitiously working itself up into his hole, all the while fantasising that this was Jamie's hand and not his own, abruptly stopping for fear he was about to pop and therefore miss out later.

As he pulled the bath plug, Gideon felt that all his cares were being washed down the drain with the dirty water. After all, there was no going back now and perhaps he had been rather underwhelmed at the measured reaction from his father. He dried himself and returned to his room, standing in front of the mirror to admire his physique. He was under no illusions about it either from remarks he had overheard at school or from loosely disguised compliments he had received at the athletics club. In the past few months he had come to realise that they were tacitly sexual comments rather than about his physique, if only because he was beginning himself to think the same thoughts about other youths there and considered it a mentally healthy part of being gay. Admittedly since he and Jamie had come out to each other this held less importance for him. Jamie had become a positive focal point. Gideon interlaced his fingers, put his hands behind his head and studied the way his dick stiffened, the foreskin rolled back, his dick throbbed and then slowly resumed its flaccid state. From the wealth of knowledge gained from checking out his fellows at school, the club and the swimming baths he appreciated his own good fortune in having a fully rounded and filled scrotum on which his uncut cock rested at a slight protruding angle and, even its flaccid state it was never fully flaccid, so that with it affixed to a flat and muscled body he was guaranteed a good display of packet in whatever attire except the loosest of clothing. Apart from the light brown frizzle of pubic hair topping his bits and pieces, he had been in no hurry to acquire any more bodily hair.

The loud closing of the front door and a shout of "I'm home" alerted Gideon to the fact that his mother was back from the W I. He speedily slipped on the tee shirt and boxers which were his accustomed nightwear. He only ever wore boxers in bed, that being the only place he ever appreciated the roominess of the garment and the high gropability factor of the fly and the loose leg. Opening his bedroom door he ran down the stairs loving every sensation of his dick and bollocks bouncing up and down against his body. The long tee shirt outside his boxers prevented any appearance of immodesty.
"Hi, Mum! Have a good evening?"
"Thank you, Gideon. What's got into your father? Cocoa ready just as I arrive? Something strange there," she added as she unwrapped a homemade walnut cream sponge she had brought back from the W I.

Five minutes later all three were sat round the kitchen table tucking in to cake and cocoa, although being of a more coy nature in dietary matters, Mrs Farthing would not have regarded herself as 'tucking in'.
"Penny, we've got something to tell you."
"Something pleasant, I hope." Gideon invisibly shuddered at that statement from his mother.
"Do you want to say it, Gideon, or shall I?" said his father.
"Both together," he replied without anticipating the resulting cacophony. "One, two, three..."
"I've / he's come out!"
"If you both talk at once, I'll never be able to hear you. Gideon." He took a deep breath.
"Mum, I've come out. I'm gay."
"That's nice, dear." Both men opened their mouths, stunned into silence.
"What? You're not shocked? Surprised even?"
"Gideon, it takes a lot for a son to be able to hide something from his mother. I admit I've thought it for some time now, but it's not my business to probe and I wanted to hear it from you anyway. And if you're going to print those pictures of you and Jamie, lock them away unless you want other people to see them. Who'd like some more cake?"

Gideon had had the wind taken out of sails. He was at the opposite end of the emotional scale from where he had been with his father a couple of hours ago. He was giggling, even if it was with embarrassment. 'What pictures can she mean? We only printed those with us in a hug. Perhaps that was enough.' He looked at his father whose face told him that he was none the wiser. With a second slice of walnut cake served to each, Mrs Farthing said
"Do Jamie's parents know anything about this?"
"No!" answered Gideon "and for goodness' sake, don't say anything to his mum, will you? Please? He's in enough trouble already."
"I know. Mrs Dutton was telling me all about it this evening. I wondered why the camping weekend was off. I thought you two had fallen out, but it seems to be quite the opposite."
"Mum, you don't seem at all fazed by it."
"Why should I be? It happens. Any thinking parent has got to be prepared for it in the way that you have to be prepared for a disabled child, or a highly intelligent one, or a criminal one. This is one of the things we've discussed at the W I in the past." Gideon looked nonplussed. "If you want to talk about it we can do that over the weekend. You'll have plenty of time..."
"Ouch! That was below the belt and it hurt," interrupted Gideon.
"Sorry, dear. Just remain assured we love you, we still love you, you're our only son and the only one we're ever likely to have, this could be a phase you're going through or it could be for life and only time will tell. If you two would wash these few things up, I'll make a start on some notes for the minutes of this evening's meeting."

When Mrs Farthing had disappeared into the study and the two men of the family were getting on with clearing up, Mr Farthing said
"Gideon, your mother never ceases to amaze me, even after all these years."
"I still can't believe how cool she was."
"Tonight, son, was a minor celebration. You've reached a milestone in your life, but even after all the tears, smiles and hugs, you have got to realise that life will still have its difficulties, more than your fair share as a gay young man, but we'll make the path as smooth as possible for you."
"I'm going up to bed now. Thanks, Dad. Thanks for being there. You hear such awful things about parents rejecting their children when they find out they're gay." They fell into a hug and kissed each other good night.
"Don't forget to say good night to Mum."

Gideon went off into the study where his mother was writing her minutes.
"Mum, you are so cool. I can't get over the way you took that news."
"Gideon, think for a minute. You were created entirely by your father and me. Your father's part might appear less significant than mine, carrying you inside me for nine months, but I couldn't have done it without him. What I'm trying to say is this. Between us we made every part of you, the good bits, the bad bits, the middle bits. We accept all of them and in the way we are proud of what you have achieved at school and in sport and in being pleasant with people, we're going to be proud in the fact that you've fallen in love with someone. Do you understand?"
"I never thought of it like that before, Mum."
"It's getting late. We can talk tomorrow, or whenever you want to, or not. Sweet dreams, darling." Mother and son hugged and said good night.

Gideon climbed the stairs, easily a ton lighter than a couple of hours ago, despite the walnut cream sponge. He was tired, but not sleepy. He was going to send just one e-mail before going to bed. <Hi Jamie! I told them tonight. I came out to Mum and Dad and they're cool about it. Can't wait till Tuesday to see you again. I'm going to put your picture up on the screen before I go to sleep and then... *giggles* Love and hugs, G.> He hit 'send', closed down all his programs, chose <appearance> from the control panels submenu and posted one of his favourite pictures of Jamie as wallpaper. After pulling the front of his tee shirt over his head to expose his abs and his nipples, he put the light out, settled back on his bed, put a box of Kleenex by his side and with the help of some Nivea moisturising cream rubbed it into his chest, stomach and eventually into his dick and balls, all the time staring at the computer screen and fantasising about himself and Jamie. It is difficult to say whether Gideon or the computer went to sleep first.

When Gideon woke up the following morning he felt ready to face the day and got up immediately. As he squeezed past his desk to go to the bathroom his morning wood nudged the keyboard and his computer jumped to life showing a decent, let it be said, but rather hot picture of Jamie. 'Oh, my God. I forgot that,' he said half loud to himself. 'I'll remove that before Mum comes in and I'd better get rid of all these tissues too.' After he returned, he thought 'I'll just see if there are e-mails.' He opened Outlook Express and hit 'send and receive'. 'That's taking a long time to download.' When it had finally finished he saw that there was one from Jamie and it had an attachment. He opened the e-mail and read: <Yo Gids! After last night we've got to talk. Mum's taking Charlie to the dentist for a 10 o'clock appointment. If you come round at quarter to, that'll give us at least three-quarters of an hour, maybe longer. Don't come to the front door in case the neighbours spot you. They all seem to know about me and Charlie and they might drop us in it. Come round to the back gate and we can go into the garden shed. No one will see us and it's nice and dark in there *giggles* See ya soon. Hugs Jamie.> Then Gideon opened the attachment. 'Oh, my goodness! What is he wearing? I don't know, though. I quite like it and my dick certainly does,' he thought as he tucked his quickly stiffening cock back into his boxers. For what Jamie was wearing was a pair of overalls. He was bare topped and the flap was hanging down at an angle revealing one of his nipples. Gideon licked his lips as his eyes concentrated on the nipple.

Gideon didn't dare reply in case Jamie's parents intercepted the message. 'He'll have to trust me.' He popped downstairs to say good morning to his parents before they went to work, then showered and took a great deal of care over his clothes and hair. By the time he went down for breakfast mother and father had gone. He was wearing his favourite white, a polo shirt and a short, flared pair of shorts which left very little to the imagination.

Fortunately Gideon had been left a list of chores and so the time until he could go to Jamie's passed quickly. He decided to walk – no telltale bike chained up somewhere for the Neighbourhood Spywatch to report, no skateboard to leave behind in case of a rapid exit. He arrived spot on time, looked around before disappearing into the alleyway which gave access to Jamie's rear entrance. He opened the back gate carefully and peered around. The garden shed was right at the bottom of the garden screened from the house by a leylandii hedge. The coast was clear and Gideon approached the shed. Its door opened and Jamie appeared attired in the photographed overalls.
"Hey, Gids!"
"Hey, Jamie!" and they hugged. The closeness of their lower bodies did not fail to prove how glad they were to see one another. The hug developed into a kiss. Eventually they parted. "What on earth are these?" asked Gideon pointing at the overalls.
"The height of cool."
"The what?"
"These are a rarity. Look at the label," and Gideon saw his beloved Levi's tab. "And they're called dungarees. They don't make them anymore. I got them second-hand off eBay on the internet. They only cost a fiver each."
"A fiver each? You've got more?"
"I bought the two pairs. At that price they weren't to be missed and I was going to give you the other pair, but..." Jamie had noticed that Gideon wasn't as enthusiastic as he was.
"Give us a twirl," said Gideon, quick-witted enough to save the situation. When he saw Jamie's back he underwent a change of mind compared with which St Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus paled to a slight change of emphasis. The tee shirt Jamie was wearing was extremely short and in true builder fashion combined with the overalls to reveal his cleavage. "Come here, you gorgeous creature. I need to hug you." They fell into a hug and Gideon automatically kissed Jamie on the neck while his hands wandered, first of all touching the gap left by the tee shirt and then running down inside the dungarees and over the cheeks of his bum. "You little tart, you're not wearing any underpants," said Gideon in mock surprise.
"Nope. Here they are," said Jamie as he pulled them out of his pocket and twirled them round in the air on the end of his finger. "You don't need them with these. They'll disguise anything."

They continued their hug and grope. Eventually Gideon's wandering hands found out how to undo the shoulder straps and the dungarees slowly slid to the floor. As the hugging continued Jamie managed to slip his erect dick inside Gideon's shorts when they were suddenly startled. Beep-beep, beep-beep. They were both surprised by this interruption. The surprise overcame Jamie who then came over Gideon's shorts.
"Sorry about that, Gids. I set my watch as an alarm so we wouldn't forget the time Mum and Charlie were coming back." Jamie hastily pulled up his dungarees. If Gideon hadn't liked them before, he adored them now, especially as they were indelibly associated with their latest sex adventure, and perhaps indelible wasn't such a bad choice of words as he wondered how he was going to walk home on a sunny day with a large damp patch on the front of his otherwise immaculate white shorts. Although he hated doing it, he had to pull his polo shirt out although that hadn't escaped unscathed, either.

"I'm sorry, Gids, we didn't talked about last night."
"That's okay, Jamie," he replied. "Actions speak louder than words," he added with a knowing wink. "We'll catch up by hotmail. Half past seven tonight while Coronation Street's on. And by the way, I adore the dungarees and I'd love a pair." A final hug and Gideon disappeared out of the back gate, the way he'd arrived. The damp patch had become a cold patch and made him feel even more self-conscious and uncomfortable as he was walking home in the bright sunshine.

On arriving home he went upstairs to clean himself up and put his soiled clothes into the washing machine. With Jamie grounded he really was at a loss as to what do to do with himself, so while he was waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle he lay naked on his bed thinking, thinking of the changes he had undergone over the past few months. From simply being aware of his own body and comparing it with those of his peers at school, he had positively come to adore it. He kept up to date with the health magazines for boys, realising that although nature had given him more than a fair start he had the responsibility of keeping himself in tip top condition. His mother made sure he ate sensibly and well, but he didn't snack between meals and felt no need to. He detested smoking and simply had no taste for alcohol or coffee. He had so far avoided the curse of adolescent acne. His thoughts wandered on from his own body to the ones he compared himself with at school. Obesity was the topic they had most recently been dealing with in their PSE and Health Education lessons at school and there were fat kids in his year, some who tried to do something about their overweight, and he admired them for it, and many who didn't and he dismissed them as slobs. Finally, perhaps inevitably, his mind settled on Jamie and the way their relationship had developed. They had known each other for nine years and were typical 'best friends', doing everything together, getting into trouble together, falling out and fighting together and becoming immediate friends again if any one dared to come between them. And there was this physical thing now, closely followed by the emotional thing.

Gideon fell into that halfway state between waking and dreaming. It had been strange, he thought, going over the previous half term in his mind. That was the first time we did stuff together. 'We did play with each other's dicks and we came off, but the big discovery was the thrill and satisfaction we got from simply holding one another.' Okay, they would get hard and eventually shoot their load, but it was being there for one another physically. Kissing had been another strange development. If anybody had suggested kissing to them, it would have got the 'Yeuk! Boys don't do that' reaction. That's sloppy and girly.' But it was that fateful day in the park when they were playing 'Dares'. He could clearly remember it. But then something happened and he could not understand what or why.
"Jamie," he said, "if we're going to do this, for goodness' sake let's do it properly." Where had this idea of 'properly' come from? No one had taught him how to kiss; they'd never even talked about it among friends It just happened as if it were the most natural thing in the world and they'd invented it. Their lips met. Why they parted them and started putting their tongues in other's mouth, he hadn't a clue. It just felt natural and good, made their cocks even stiffer and on that first occasion forced Jamie to utter a loud, involuntary groan. After that they experimented kissing each other in different places until that finally led to their first fellatious orgasms. Now they were about to embark upon the ultimate union of their bodies, not that Gideon couched it in those terms, frustrated as he was by the delay Jamie's grounding had caused.

There was a sudden 'thwoup' and Gideon realised he had shot his spunk all over his chest and chin. He poked out his tongue and licked it off his chin. On his chest it quickly grew cold and more sticky. He reached for the tissues and cleaned himself up, gradually becoming aware that the washing machine was beeping its heart out. He pulled on his white Speedos and went and dealt with the machine.

While his clothes were in the dryer he went and sat on the sunlounger out in the garden. He had told his father he was in love with Jamie and he was, he was sure. But what did that mean and was Jamie in love with him? There had never been a proper verbal declaration of love between them. However, he knew how he felt about Jamie and although it had gone unspoken he believed he knew how Jamie felt about him. Hadn't their illicit reunion that morning confirmed that? After all it was more than a desire to get off, to work up a quick orgasm, then walk away. He had experienced a longing which today had been temporarily stilled. Was this what being in love meant? Wanting to be with him the whole time and hurting, or if not hurting feeling incomplete, when they were apart. When he got off the sun lounger to rescue his clothes from the dryer Gideon felt another damp patch on his Speedos. 'Hmm. White wasn't the most sensible choice of colour,' and he put his freshly laundered shorts over his bathers.

* * *

Half past seven. Gideon could hear the Coronation Street music coming up from the television set downstairs. He downloaded his e-mails. Only one and that was from Jamie. <Do tell me about coming out to your parents. How did they take it? Did you tell them about me?> Gideon described to Jamie as best he could the events of the previous evening, assuring him that he had made his parents promise that they wouldn't say anything to his. He finished the e-mail with <Jamie, I miss you so much. I get this funny feeling inside from being away from you. Is this what they call being in love?> He sent the e-mail and sat back waiting for a reply. He heard the music again – the ads – 'I'll wait till the programme starts again and then I'll see whether there's an answer.' The answer was there. <Gids, I feel just the same. The worst part of this week is not seeing you. You can see why I got overexcited yesterday when we hugged, but it was your fault. It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't groped me and if you hadn't been so good-looking. If missing each other like we do is being in love, then we're in love. Will you officially be my boyfriend?> He hit the 'reply' button. <Jamie, only if you'll be my boyfriend too.> He couldn't think of anything better to say. <I can't talk to you like this. We must meet as soon as your grounding is over. Anyway, Coronation Street is just ending. I don't want to get you into more trouble. It just means we wouldn't see each other for that much longer. Be patient. Love, G> He sent it off.

Dear Readers. Jamie still hasn't come out to his parents, neither have both of the boys at school. I know where and when Gideon and Jamie will come out to their friends, but I haven't completed the details of how, and I have already written an episode of how they radically and effectively dealt with a homophobic incident at school. I just haven't been able to work out the links yet. Please let me know what you think so far (I love your e-mails, especially the challenging and questioning ones) and whether you want me to continue.

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