"Seriously," Brad said "Are you crazy? I guess you’d have to be, to agree to share any type of space with Quinn. You do realize that he’s a wicked control freak with anile tendencies, right?"

"Hey!" I frowned, surprised for more than one reason.

"That’s okay," Taylor replied, looking up at me with a lecherous grin, "I love anal.... and Quinn’s locker is at a better location than mine."

He stole that from me?


Did you hear that, Quinn's mom?

“Jude?” I said softly. “Can you say it?”

I waited, wondering if he even knew what I was talking about, but it became obvious that he did the next time I heard his voice, and I was truly surprised by it.

“Quinn, there’s nothing wrong with you.”

I backed up until I hit the tire swing and then I sat down, closing my eyes as I let out the breath that I’d been holding. I felt oddly calm. There was no panic, like the last time. Maybe that was because Taylor wasn’t there standing by with a camera. I was alone with my thoughts, but suddenly my mind felt so blank that I wasn’t sure what to do with it, and all I could think was, that it would be so much easier to forget about Jude if he’d just stop kissing me. Damn him.

Hmm, there's lots that I like, but not having read the beginning chapters for a while, for now I guess this is one of my favourites:



The whole 'There's nothing wrong with you' ongoing line is a favourite of mine, but the fact that this time it sort of shows that Jude knows what's going on with Quinn, and that Quinn asked him for that reassurance that he's ok...yeah, just pretty touching imo.

“Chris, why don’t you guys go to church?” I asked offhandedly, “Mom and dad took us every week.”

Chris looked a little surprised.

“Do you want to go to church?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, “I guess that’s not what I’m asking. Do you remember what the pastor used to say about gays when we went?”

Chris noticeably winced.

“Yeah, I remember.” He said softly. “I used to hate watching Tony sit through those sermons. They’d have him on edge for hours.”

“So do you think that the pastor was right? Is it a sin?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Hell no.” Chris said, his voice raising slightly before he softened it again. “Look Owen, that church was full of bigots. And no, I don’t think it’s a sin…I don’t know if there’s a God, Owen. I don’t think anyone can know for sure. But I have faith that there is. And the way I see it, if I have faith in God, I have faith that he’s not a hateful God. That’s what the man in that churched preached, hate. Well, I think he has it wrong. What is it people keep saying? God loves. I have faith that God loves. God also gives us choices, when we make the wrong choices it’s called a sin most of the time. But there are also things that we have no choice about, like the way we look, or what families we’re born to, and being gay isn’t a choice. How can it be a sin if you have no choice about it? Why did God make you the way you are if it was a sin? If he’s supposed to love us all, why would he set you up to fail? It doesn’t make sense to me. I have faith that God makes us what we are for a reason, and he loves us for what we are. And well, if he doesn’t, if he’s a god who discriminates, who turns his own creation away because they are living as he made them to live, with no other choice, then I don’t want anything to do with him anyways.”

TLW: Owen to Phil in the bathroom with Dennis...

“Wanna come over to the dark side, Phil? Come on, give us a kiss.”

I shifted over him, resting my head on his shoulder as he took the moment he needed to figure out that he wasn’t going anywhere, and eventually relaxed.

From chapter 28 of TLW I really liked the 'I was trying to be subtle' line.

"I’m trying to be subtle." he explained.

"You call this subtle?" I retorted, and then jumped somewhat when his hand wrapped around my sheathed cock and squeezed.

"Well, I was going to bend over and tell you to f**k me like you mean it, but I was worried that it might have scared you away."

News Flash:
The real cause of homosexuality finally discovered: Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Yep, that's the ticket.

Kitty

and 4 an old dude ur 

I think at some point over the last hellish weeks of my life, I’d placed Jude Landon on a pedestal of sorts. In some ways, he was everything inside of me that I’d suppressed for most of my life. He had courage that seemed to be so completely out of my league, and for that... I envied him. But earlier that day, I’d managed to humanize him somehow. I did that. It was the most extraordinary thing I’d ever done, and it was to someone else.

It was Jude who decided in that moment, to look in my direction, and when he caught my eyes he paused, his smile fading into something that looked like uncertainty, or concern. For my part, I just stared right back, wondering what he was doing there. But, when my mom and my sister both followed Jude’s eyes, up to where I was standing I suddenly felt put on the spot, like I was supposed to say something, especially when my mother began to glance curiously back and forth between Jude and myself.

"I have to go to the bathroom." I announced, right before I retreated down the hall.

And my grandma! I bet Alice knew about this. Nasty old woman. That’s probably why she kept pushing me to tell Eddie that I was gay. But, why the hell couldn’t she have just told me the truth about it from the beginning? Shit. I needed to stop asking questions like that. It was obvious that every adult around me had a knack for lying to me... and even Luke. I think more than anything, I was disappointed that Luke didn’t tell me. But, I couldn’t fault him as much as Eddie. Luke was supposed to be my friend, yes, and he could have told me, yes... but I knew that I could have just as easily told him the truth about me. Eddie, I saw differently, though. He was the adult. He should have told me.

Damn. This was all so... so much. I was beginning to feel like my head would explode if I found out that one more thing had been kept from me. 

...so I turned on Tony, "
And what about you Tony? Maybe you should worry a little less about me having a
boyfriend and worry about finding your own, or at least do something about
someone you've already found. I've seen the way you look at Jake."

Tony looked shocked and now it was Chris's turn to laugh as he elbowed Tony
in the ribs.

"Little brother has a point." Chris chided, "You really should do something
about Jake."

"What makes you think I like Jake?" Tony asked me.

"It was pretty obvious at his party." I replied, "And I heard some stuff,
besides, he likes you too."

"How do you know he likes me?" Tony asked, the same time Chris, with a
mortified expression asked, "What did you hear?"

I laughed at them both.

"Tony, it's sort of obvious," I said, and then smirked at Chris, "And I
heard that Jake gave you a kiss that would make any sane man consider coming to
the other side. Must have been some kiss."

“It wasn’t my thing…you ask a lot of questions, Quinn.”

I ignored that last statement and asked my next question. I didn’t plan to stay long, but while I was there I wanted to learn as much as I could.

“How do you know Trina?”

“She’s my cousin.” Jude laughed. “Why are you so interested in me?”

“I’m not.” I said quickly, “I mean, I’ve never seen you before…I just…you’re kinda weird, you know?”

That made him laugh harder, and I found myself smiling back this time. I liked his laugh. It seemed deep and soft at the same time.

“I don’t think I’m weird.” He insisted, “I’m just as ordinary as the next person.” ...

Why? Why did he have to ask the hard questions? Actually, I guess it wasn’t really that hard to answer. I’d been in such a bad place back then that the reasons were extensive. Topping the list, was the fact that in some ways, I felt like I was the one who had something to be sorry for. I mean, there must have been something that I should have been sorry for, right? I must have been a pretty terrible person, for my own parents to reject me like that. And then, there was that other reason, the one that I was constantly reminded of. They were still my parents. Thinking about those reasons, and saying them out loud-putting them into words-seemed easier said than done.

"I don’t like green beans." I finally said.

"What?" Aiden half laughed.

"I can’t stand them," I explained. "They’re too slimy when they come out of a can, and I hate that fuzzy feeling they have when they’re fresh... I really don’t like the way they taste."

"Owen... you’re losing me."

"Sorry," I smiled as I slid my hand downwards, finding a comfortable place for it over the bulge rising in his jeans, I result from all of my light rubbing. "I guess what I’m trying to say is... my mom used to make this great casserole. When she made it, it was the only time I ever ate green beans. I never got tired of it, either, because she would only make it twice a year, on Thanksgiving... and my birthday... I think it was like, her grand gesture. I was never very close to my mom, but on my birthday, she’d make that casserole... and no one made it like my mom."

I turned my head to look at him finally, and became somewhat startled to find that Aiden was staring at me. He had that look again, the one I thought I had imagined earlier that night when he looked me over.

I seemed to keep placing myself in situations with him, where I would experience these moments of absolute attraction, and then I’d trick myself into thinking that there was something more than friendship between us. I had always pushed these thoughts aside before. That kind of thinking could ruin a friendship if I dwelled on it too much.

But never, any of those times before, had Aiden leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. It happened so fast I hardly realized that it was actually happening. His lips were so soft, and the kiss was not at all the earth shattering kind, it was just lips on lips, and my lips couldn’t even respond do to shock. But it lingered there for a moment, before Aiden slowly pulled back, his mouth curled into a small smile, and then he went back to looking at stars while I just gaped at him.

I didn’t feel as surprised as I thought I should be, but my mind was having so much difficulty wrapping around the idea of what had just happened that it immediately went on the defensive.

The kiss didn’t mean anything.

Relatives kissed each other like that; I’d even seen girls do it. Not really two guys, especially one who was straight, but it could happen, it was just a kiss of friendship, no different than a hug. When we had jacked each other off on the camping trip, or I had held him in my bed, it had been more intimate than that kiss.

And yet my mouth was suddenly dry.

"What was that for?" I managed to get out. I needed to ask, for my own piece of mind at least. If I just brushed it off and ignored it, I knew it would end up driving me crazy.

Aiden turned his head back towards me and shrugged.

"I thought I’d get it out of the way, is all." he smiled. I still didn’t get it, and it showed, "You know, that awkward first kiss at the end of a date. It usually happens at the door, I think."

Sadly, it took me another few moments to catch on.

This whole night, Aiden asking if I wanted to go out. The pizza place. Coming up here to look at stars on a picnic blanket. This wasn’t something I would have done with any of my buddies. Aiden had planned. Hell, he hadn't even told me where we were going. He had treated this like a date ever since we first left the dance.

And I still wasn’t getting it.

"This is a date?" I asked incredulously, only adding to his amusement.

"Well, what did you think it was?" he all but laughed, and then, with a sarcastic tone and a teasing grin, he threw some of my own words back in my face, the same words I had used the night before when he accused me of playing matchmaker between Jake and Tony. "God, I just hate it when people don’t take note of the obvious, don’t you, Owen?"

Dennis paused, narrowing his eyes. “Get out of my closet.”

“I guess that’s how he was feeling. And that doesn’t necessarily make him wrong, Owen. Why don’t you calm down and think about it for a minute. You had a reason to think that you and Aiden needed distance to eventually close the distance... Is there any reason why he might have thought you needed to see someone else?”

With his eyes going uncontrollably narrow, Owen scratched at his chin until it went red, his hair until he began to pull at the short strands of it, and all the while held his breath as if it would prevent him from continuing down a train of thought that wasn’t at all to be considered helpful thinking. Unfortunately, Owen lost his battle in the end when he blurted, “Yeah! Because he’s an idiot!”

In an exchange between Ben & Owen...
While the line 'Yeah! Because he's an idiot!" by itself is not unique, I thought it was hilarious within the context where it was spoken

Take Care®,

Vic

For that, Travis laughed out loud. "Are you kidding me? He's as off-limits as you are. I'd rather run through hell with an ass full of gasoline than get between the games you two are playing."

“Travis,” Dennis suddenly called, and he stopped at the door to look back to where Dennis was leaning on the closet doorframe. “Don’t kiss Aiden.”

Travis regarded him curiously, and then shrugged. “Sure. Okay.”

Dennis’s shoulders heaved as he released a breath. “Travis. While you’re not kissing Aiden, don’t kiss anyone else, either.”

“Okay,” Travis agreed, and he was smiling on his way out the door.

ITFB Chap 16
“It was in my fortune cookie,” Dennis explained. “If you don’t think you’ll succeed at something, you probably won’t. Cookies are supposed to make you happy. This isn’t doing it for me. I mean, it is kinda f**ked up, isn’t it? Negative. ”
Owen was silent for so long that Dennis looked at his phone to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped, but then he heard what suspiciously sounded like Owen laughing.
“Cookies aren’t supposed to be negative,” Dennis said defensively.
“I’m sorry,” Owen said, sobering. “It’s just... I’ve had the weirdest week. Not the good kind... and I wish I could be mad at the cookie with you, but it’s kinda hard since this is the nicest conversation I’ve had yet. You haven’t been drinking, have you?”
Dennis frowned. “No.”
“Sorry,” Owen said again, as if he’d offended. “You don’t really sound like you.”
“Because I’m pissed off at my dessert?”
“That could be part of it.”
Dennis let out a breath. “Look, just agree that the fortune-cookie elves, or whatever they are, are out to get me and I’ll let you go.”