chapter 1

Danny was going to be back in two days. I was so excited. It had been a whole three months since we had last seen one another. For the summer his parents made him go and stay with his maternal grandparents on their farm. They wouldn't let him take his cell phone or his computer.

I think they were pretty upset when he quit the football team, with him being the best quarterback our team had seen in quite a while. I sucked at football, but I was on the Cross Country team and my body showed that I was a runner.

I was 6'0" and only 112 pounds, but Danny, he was 6'3" and 200 pounds of muscle. He was gorgeous and I hated thinking about him that way. He knew how to work his looks to his advantage. He had thick, dark brown hair and grayish-blue eyes. My hair was black and I had brown eyes.

I had had a crush on Danny since I realized I liked guys. I had thought about telling him I was gay for quite a while, but if I lost him as a friend I'd always regret telling him. We had been friends since kindergarten, and I guess he never started to want to be friends with cooler people.

I mean, Danny was friends with everyone, but not friends with everyone. Did that even make sense? He could hang out with anyone, but he chose to be my friend.

I guess it was because he could truly be himself around me and didn't have to act all cool, because, well, I wasn't cool. I wasn't some crazy loser either, but I just kind of faded into the background.

Danny did write me a couple of letters. How romantic, I know, if it was only romantic to me. I wrote back too. In his last letter he let me know when he would be getting back, and that he'd stop at his house and then come over to my place.

My house was way smaller than his house. It was me, my mom, my stepfather, and my evil stepbrother. I wasn't kidding. He really was evil. He played on the football team and was in my grade.

When my mother married Bill she said that I should look at it like a perk: Robbie was a new friend who was my age and in my grade. How was it a perk when that person was a total jerk?

He acted so innocent around mom and Bill, but behind closed doors he picked on me, unless Danny was around. Robbie wanted to be friends with him so badly, but Danny knew how evil he was.

I was taller than Robbie, because he was only about 5'9", but what he had was his size. He weighed in at about 185 pounds and I couldn't fight worth anything. I'd never tell either, that Rob was ***ing with me.

I knew people would think that it was my own fault, but I didn't want to rock the boat of my mom's marriage. Bill made her so happy, and if I had to put up with Robbie for one more year, I was going to put up with Robbie for one more year.

The two days had come and gone and I was sure Danny was back by now. That's when the doorbell rang. It rang again. "I got it!" I shouted as I bolted to the door before anyone else could answer. I caught my breath. "Who is it?"

"You know who it is, now open the door." He was laughing. It was his laugh, his deep, calming chuckle.

"You sound like a crazy murderer, so you know what? I don't think I'm going to answer," I joked. I got to kid around with him again. That was all I ever needed.

"I will kill you if you don't open the door," he said, trying his best not to laugh.

"Well, I don't want to be killed." I opened the door. "Oh, it's you Daniel; you should have said so..." The 'o' lingered for a moment. I looked at Danny, and saw someone who was Danny, but not the Danny who left. He was a much larger Danny.

"Hey Scott!" he exclaimed. He walked in and gave me a hug. He looked more muscular too.

"Hey Dan," I said, trying to convince myself it was actually him. I was so dazed I must have sounded like a zombie...a zombie who was stifling an erection.

"That's all I get after being away all summer?"

"Oh, yeah...hey Dan!" I gave him a bit more pep. I had to remember Danny was back. My Danny was back.

"That's better." I liked this Danny more than the pre-summer Danny; this Danny was so attractive, more attractive than before, and I would have thought that to be impossible.

"Let's go to my room," I suggested, wanting us to have a little privacy.

"Okay," he said. "Can I have something to drink?" he asked.

"Of course, go on up."