The following is a coming of age story and it will hopefully include some romance before it ends. If you are under age, or live in an area where reading stories that include sex between males is illegal, or if you're not into this type of story, please leave. The author retains all rights. No reproductions or re-postings are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at NJMcMick@yahoo.com.
Chapter One
I stared out the window as the SEPTA train rose out of the underground darkness into the bright summer sunshine. I had to blink a few times until my eyes could adjust and take in the ugly industrial sights of North Philly. Not that I was paying any attention to my surroundings. I was lost in thought, scared and second-guessing myself, wondering if I was making the biggest mistake of my young life. This was what I'd been planning for over a year, but not when or how. I knew I wasn't ready, but Ralph had forced the issue last week, so I had no choice.
I'd actually started thinking about something like this three years earlier, back when I first realized that I was going to be stuck with the fat bastard. Stepfather was too affectionate a term for him. When my mother was alive I just referred to him as her husband. The past three years he was just Ralph. But fat bastard was the term that really fit him.
The two of us had hated each other since the day we met when I was six. Ralph wanted no part of raising a kid but was apparently nuts about my mother, so he tolerated me, barely. For my part, I didn't want to share my mother with anyone. It wasn't that I resented Ralph for taking my father's place, because I'd never known my father. My mother had grown up somewhere in Georgia, raised by very old-fashioned, very intolerant parents. When she turned up pregnant, once all of the screaming had died down, they shipped her up north to live with her Aunt Agatha in Chester, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Aunt Aggie was in the early stages of Alzheimer's when Mom arrived and had to be confined to a nursing home not long after I started school. So it was just Mom and me in Aunt Aggie's old apartment for a year or two. It didn't matter to me. As far as I was concerned, life was perfect. My mother adored me and took care of me. Occasionally she talked about my father but never said much other than how wonderful he was, how beautiful he was, how married he was. None of that mattered to me. My whole life was my mother. But then she married Ralph and it all began to fall apart.
Like a typical little kid, at first I threw fits and tantrums over Ralph's presence in our lives. But Mom sat me down and made it clear that she had strong feelings for Ralph and he was important to her, so I did my best to tolerate him and not cause trouble. It was bad enough to have to share her; I couldn't handle having her mad at me. And I did want her to be happy. Ralph put up with me as well, though not so much when Mom wasn't around. I had always been a shy child but I withdrew even more into myself. Mom was so blindly in love with both of us that it never occurred to her that we hated each other. Even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and we all knew she was going to die, she was oblivious to the tension between us. I'll never forget the last time I saw her in the hospital. Ralph had gone outside to have a cigarette so Mom and I were alone for a change.
"You know how much I love you, Miah. The hardest part of all of this is leaving you. But Ralph loves you, too, and I know he'll take good care of you. Do what he says and take care of him for me. You're my two men and I love you very much."
I had begun planning my escape the day of the funeral. All the way home from the cemetery, I couldn't stop crying. Back at the apartment, Ralph had backhanded me across the face, called me a sniveling brat and sent me to my room. I tried to make allowances for him, told myself that he was hurting from losing Mom, too, but I was too devastated to care much about how anyone else was handling it.
I made up my mind right then that I wasn't going to stay there a minute longer than I had to. I knew money was my passport to freedom so I began doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, mowing lawns, cleaning attics and garages, walking dogs, anything for a dollar. Unfortunately, Ralph didn't let me keep the money I made. He confiscated every dollar, claiming it was partial payment for my upkeep. I kept working because I found a way around Ralph. Every time someone paid me, I hid a dollar or two in my shoe. When I got home and had to turn over my earnings to Ralph, I kept the money in my shoe. At first I hid it in my sock and underwear drawer, but then I was afraid Ralph would find it there. So I pried up a floorboard in my closet and hid my savings there. I looked forward to my sixteenth birthday because then I'd be able to get a real part-time job, but I knew I'd have to plan better. In two years I'd saved less than a hundred dollars. Ralph had made it clear that I'd be turning my paycheck over to him once I started working, so I had to be creative. I managed to get a job after school as a waiter in a trendy downtown coffee shop. That way, a significant part of my income was tips and I was able to hide quite a bit of it from Ralph.
It worked out great. In less than ten months I'd managed to save over nine hundred dollars. With two more years left of high school, I figured by the time I graduated I'd have over three thousand. And the day after graduation I'd be gone, ready to start life on my own. Anyhow, that was the plan until last week. Since it was July I was able to work full-time and I was saving more money than ever. But on Friday I'd come home from work to find Ralph half-drunk, sitting in his recliner guzzling a beer.
"You've been holding out on me, you little shit!"
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"A buddy of mine from the plant stopped by that coffee shop of yours with his wife yesterday. He was telling me how lucky you were to be working there. He said the place is a gold mine, busy as hell, and all of the kids there were raking in the tips hand over fist, that you must be makin' a fortune. So where is all that money, Jer? You've only been givin' me ten dollars or so every day. Where's the rest?"
I was petrified. Ralph had caught on but I had no choice but to try to deny it. Maybe I could talk my way out of it.
"There is no rest. I give it all to you, I swear. Yeah, we do lots of business, but the tabs are small. It's a coffee shop, not a restaurant. There's lots of tips but most are under a dollar."
"Even at that I know you've got to be making more than ten bucks a day."
He hauled his fat ass out of the chair and grabbed my knapsack, unzipped it and dumped the contents on the floor -- CD player, half a dozen CDs, a couple of paperback books, pens, small notepad, assorted odds and ends, but no money. He pushed me against the wall, holding both of my wrists over my head in one hand and began digging through my pockets with the other. I struggled but I was no match for Ralph. I was small for my age, around 5'8" and skinny, about 125 pounds. Ralph, on the other hand, was well over six feet tall and nearly 250 pounds, most of it fat but with plenty of muscle buried underneath. He finished emptying the pockets and threw what he found on the table -- eleven dollars and change. He shoved me away from him and glared at me for a minute.
"Okay, strip!"
My eyes bugged out. "What?"
"You heard me. I know you've got more money than this. You're hiding it somewhere. So get your clothes off."
I was shaking by then. Since Mom died Ralph had been drinking a lot more and he didn't handle it well. He was usually surly, but when he was drunk he got nasty and frequently flew off the handle and hit me. Those were momentary outbursts and he quickly calmed down once he'd exploded, but he was in a total rage now and maintaining his anger, not erupting and not easing up either. I'd always been self-conscious about being naked in front of anyone, though over the course of living together for eight years Ralph had seen me more than a few times. I slowly pulled my shirt over my head and handed it to him. I then undid my belt and lowered my pants. I very carefully toed off my sneakers, hoping the ten dollar bill in the right one wouldn't come out with my foot. I handed the jeans over to the creep who felt them and tossed them aside.
"Keep goin'." He glared at me as I shivered.
I pulled off my socks and gave them to Ralph who ran them through his hands and dropped them on the floor.
"There'd better be something other than you in those shorts 'cause I'm not lookin' forward to a body cavity search, boy."
I gulped and slipped off my boxers, leaving me standing naked in the middle of the living room. Ralph dropped the shorts with the rest of the clothes, walked up to me and grabbed me by the balls.
"I always thought it was a waste for a skinny little shrimp like you to have such a big dick, but you'll never get to use it if I crush your balls. Now where's the money?"
I hesitated and Ralph squeezed hard, causing me to bend over in pain, letting out a loud groan. Without thinking I glanced over at my sneakers. Ralph caught the glance and followed it. He let go of my balls, pounced at the shoes and grabbed them, almost losing his balance as be bent over. He pulled the ten-dollar bill out of the right one and exploded.
"You fuckin' little bastard. I'll teach you to hold out on me." With that he swung and clipped the left side of my head with a sneaker, sending me reeling. I regained my balance just in time to be caught on the right side of the head with the other sneaker. For a few minutes Ralph pummeled me over and over with the two shoes. It was all I could do to stay on my feet but then Ralph lifted a foot and kicked me in the gut, sending me sprawling on my back into the doorway of my bedroom. My head was throbbing and I felt nauseous.
"Where's the rest, you little fuck?"
"That's all, I swear. Twenty-one bucks. That's all I made today," I gasped as I tried to raise myself up on my elbows and crawl back into my room.
"What about yesterday? And the day before? And the day before that? Where's all the fuckin' money you've been holdin' out?"
Ralph leaned down and grabbed my neck under my jaw with one hand and lifted me to my feet, then tossed me back into the room where I landed half on the bed before sliding down onto the floor again. He came into the room like a madman, brushing everything off the top of the dresser with one arm and began searching through the desk. I was in a panic as Ralph got closer to the closet. The loose floorboard wasn't obvious, but if you were looking for it, it was there. I couldn't lose all my money, I just couldn't. I crawled over to the dresser and pulled open the drawer containing my socks and underwear. I still hid some money in there during the week, transferring it to the closet when Ralph was out drinking on the weekend. I grabbed a fistful of bills and tossed them at Ralph.
"There! That's all of it, everything I've been able to save since school let out. Are you happy now?"
We both looked at the assortment of bills on the floor around Ralph's feet. I knew there was somewhere around a hundred dollars there and hoped Ralph would believe that was all I had. Ralph scooped it all up and shoved the money in his pockets without counting it. He seemed to have calmed down and I was hoping that was it was all over, but when I looked into the fat bastard's eyes, I saw his fury.
"I'll teach you to fuck with me!" He clenched his hands into fists and began pounding me. I collapsed onto the floor and drew my naked body into a ball, my arms wrapped around my head, my legs pulled up in the fetal position. Ralph gave up on trying to land blows on me and settled for a half-dozen hard kicks instead, then walked to the door. He turned and glared at me.
"You'd better hand it all over from now on. You don't want me to beat it out of you every day but I will if I have to." He walked out and slammed the door behind him, leaving me whimpering on the floor.
I dragged myself up onto the bed and just lay there for a while. After a bit, I heard the front door slam, meaning that Ralph was probably on his was down to O'Malley's to hang out with his buddies and spend his newfound pocket money. I got up and looked in the mirror over the dresser. My slightly longer than fashionable brown hair flopped over my forehead as usual; I brushed it back out of the way and looked at the area around my brown eyes. There was some bruising starting there and my right cheek and upper lip were somewhat swollen. My smallish, slightly turned up nose seemed to have made it through the ordeal without any damage. I went into the kitchen, filled a plastic bag with ice from the freezer, wrapped a dishcloth around it and went back to my room, holding the compress so that it covered most of my face.
I spent the rest of the evening and all morning Saturday in my room, trying to figure out a way to speed up my escape plans. I'd planned on going to New York all along. I knew it was expensive, but there were more opportunities there than anywhere else. Plus, there were tons of gay people in New York. I'd known I was gay for a few years though I'd never told anyone. I probably would have told Mom but I hadn't figured it out until the year after she died. I'd always assumed Ralph would beat the crap out of me if he found out so I kept it to myself. That wasn't hard to do since I was terminally shy and never talked to anyone about anything. I had friends at school and at work, but that's just where they were -- at school and at work. Once I left those places, I was alone. There was no one in Chester I'd miss very much when I left. Aunt Aggie was hanging on in the nursing home, but she was completely out of it these days. For the past year or so when I'd gone to visit her she didn't have any idea who I was.
The idea of New York both thrilled and terrified me. Thrilled because of the possibilities, the excitement, the vitality, the hope for a new life, a real life. Terrified because it was so huge, so unknown and I'd be all on my own. I knew how hard it was for me to meet people, but I was going to have to start sometime. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find a room and a job waiting tables somewhere to start. I would have used some of that three thousand dollar nest egg to tide me over if I needed it while I looked for a better job. But now I was going two years early. Only sixteen, no high school diploma, less than nine hundred bucks, and no time to make plans.
Ralph left for his afternoon of drinking at the corner tavern a little before one o'clock and as soon as he was out the door I raced to the bathroom for a shower. While toweling off, I looked myself over in the full-length mirror on the back of the door. I was a skinny little shrimp, as Ralph had put it. I kept telling myself that I was a late bloomer, but deep down I knew that this was probably it. I'd had a big growth spurt the year before and since then had only grown an inch. I'd probably fill out a bit but this was basically what I was going to be. I could live with that. I had a good shape and was well proportioned, just thin. Except for my dick, that is. Soft, it was over four inches and plump. Hard, it was between eight and nine inches, depending on where I measured from. And I had measured it a lot. It was the one part of my body I could be proud of, although the only ones who had seen it were the guys in the locker room at school. And even though they were all straight, they'd noticed and commented on it.
I wasn't thinking about my dick just then, though. I was concerned about how I looked, if I could show my face in public. The ice had done a pretty good job and I had to really look to see the swelling. There were light bruises around my eyes but that looked more like I'd slept badly than been beaten. On either side of my chest I had some nasty dark bruises where Ralph had kicked me, but nobody was going to see them. Satisfied that I was presentable, I got dressed, made myself a sandwich and left for the library, eating as I walked. Since we didn't have a computer at home, the library was my only Internet access. After waiting twenty minutes for my turn at the computer, I started surfing the New York gay sites I'd previously discovered. I concentrated mostly on the site for the Community Center on West Thirteenth Street. There were tons of organizations of all kinds that met there, including those that helped gay youth. There was even a high school for gay teens. I printed out as much of the information as I could at ten cents a page. I also printed out the train schedules for SEPTA and NJ Transit. The two lines met in Trenton and I'd have to change trains there.
On Monday, I was scheduled to start work at two in the afternoon. Ralph was working the second shift at the plant that week so he was still home while I was getting ready. With my bedroom door closed I tried several ways of packing my knapsack, hoping Ralph wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I rolled up two pairs of jeans and a pair of cargoes and stuffed them in the bottom with my usual stuff. Then I added two t-shirts and a polo shirt, some underwear and some socks. I stepped back and looked at the result. Too bulky. I pulled out one pair of jeans, a pair of boxers and the polo shirt. It still looked larger than usual, but not full. It would have to do. I couldn't get by with any less clothing, especially since I couldn't waste any of my money on more. I took the small, framed picture of my mother from the nightstand and carefully slipped it in the middle of the clothes. At the last minute, I listened at the door for a few seconds and then went into the closet, prying up the board and pulling the stash of bills out of the hiding place. I stuffed them deep down in the knapsack, slung it over one shoulder, took a deep breath and walked out of the room after taking one last long look around.
Ralph was in the kitchen eating a sandwich and I stopped in the doorway to say goodbye, making sure I kept my body between him and the knapsack.
"There better be at least twenty dollars on this counter when I get in tonight or I'll drag your sorry ass out of bed, shithead."
"Yeah, don't worry, you'll get every penny I make today."
I hurried out the door before we got into another fight. My first stop was the bank, where I exchanged the wad of ones, fives and tens for seven hundreds, two fifties and three twenties. I knew breaking big bills could be a problem, but fewer bills seemed easier, plus they fit comfortably in my wallet. Then I went to the coffee shop, lied about a family emergency that was going to take me out of town for a couple of weeks and had to listen to my boss bitch about quitting without giving notice. After a while I got tired of apologizing so I just walked out. I got to the train station only five minutes before the northbound train arrived. As the train approached Philadelphia I began to get nervous. When I first started to dream of escaping, Philly was my destination. The city was nearby; I was familiar with it, having gone there many times with my mother and on school trips, was cheaper to live in and had a large gay community. Even after I decided New York had better options, Philly was still plan B. But now that I was running away at sixteen, it was too close to home. Not that Ralph would look for me anyway, but I wanted to put as much distance between me and the fat bastard as possible.
I calmed down, thinking back on my life with Ralph, especially the last three years. I knew I was doing the right thing. There was no point in staying in Chester any longer. I'd never be able to save any more money and there was the risk that Ralph would find what I had already saved, so it was time to move on.
It was four o'clock when the train stopped at a station in lower Bucks County. Rush hour had begun and lots of people were getting on the train. My eyes were drawn to a tall black teenager a few years older than myself. He was about six feet tall with short black hair, light skin, gray eyes and a beautiful smile. He didn't seem to be smiling about anything in particular, but he kept beaming and looking around as he worked his way down the aisle. He had broad shoulders and well-defined pecs with nipples that were clearly visible under his tight gray t-shirt. He was wearing faded jeans that hung low on his narrow hips. The shirt ended an inch or two above the jeans, exposing a bit of his smooth mocha abs. He walked past several empty seats until he came to a stop in front of me.
"Is this seat taken?" he asked in a warm low voice.
He pointed at the seat facing me. At the same time he apparently absent-mindedly scratched his stomach with the other hand, exposing several more inches of chocolate flesh.
"N-no, I don't think so," I stuttered, unable to take my eyes off the guy.
He dropped into the seat and slouched down, his knees settling one between mine and one outside my left knee. He put his head back and closed his eyes as the train pulled out of the station. Since he wasn't watching, I felt free to stare, devouring the hot young body with my eyes. The new passenger continued to occasionally scratch himself, although to me it looked more like caressing than scratching. At one point he ran his hand so far up he lifted his shirt and exposed his right nipple, a dark brown circle the size of a quarter, with a nub resembling a pencil eraser. I gasped at the sight and thought maybe I'd been caught when I noticed that his eyes were open in a slit, but the guy didn't do or say anything, although the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
As the train moved along the car shifted from side to side, our legs moved with the swaying motion. I was trying to keep my legs still but the black kid's legs kept rubbing against mine. Between the vibration of the train, the rubbing knee on the inside of my thighs and the hot sight in front of me, I quickly became aroused. I tried to discreetly rearrange the growing hardon in my pants and noticed the full lips on the young stud opposite me curve into more of a smile. At first I was embarrassed, afraid someone would notice my excitement, but since the kid in front of me didn't seem to mind, I quickly relaxed and just enjoyed the feeling. I kept my erection all the way to Trenton.
I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing my woodie when it was time to get off the train. The car was pretty full by then and the aisle was mobbed. I didn't even have room to put my knapsack on so I just held the straps in my left hand and carried it like a suitcase. The black kid was in front of me and as the crowd inched down the aisle toward the exit, the person behind me occasionally bumped my butt, pushing me forward. The kid didn't seem to mind having me pressed against him. In fact, he occasionally pushed his firm round ass back at me, rubbing it into my crotch. Twice, he looked over his shoulder and grinned. I didn't usually like crowds and I especially didn't like strangers touching me, but if the price of being able to be close to the hot guy in front of me was putting up with some unknown person rubbing me from behind, I was willing to pay it.
The crowd spread out a bit once they were off the train, but I was still bumped and jostled a lot as I made my way into the station. I saw a long line at the ticket window and headed that way. I'd only taken two steps when a hand grabbed my wrist.
"Come with me," the black kid whispered.
I shook my head. The kid was hot and all, but I didn't know him or what he wanted. Besides, I had to get a ticket for the connecting train.
"C'mon, just for a second. Please?" He smiled and I felt warm inside.
"But I've got to get a ticket to New York." I nodded toward the line.
"The line will still be there. This will just take a minute. I'm in a hurry, too."
Against my better judgment, I slung my knapsack over my shoulder and let my hormones and the black kid lead me down the stairs and out to onto the sidewalk. We went around the side of the building to where there were a couple of dumpsters in a corner. We continued around behind a dumpster, and once we were mostly out of sight from passersby, the kid pulled me into an embrace. He pressed his thick, soft lips against mine, parted them slightly and slipped his tongue out. I had never been kissed before but I instinctively opened my mouth, allowing the other tongue in to probe and explore. When our two tongues touched it was as if explosions went off in my head. I'd never been so excited in my life and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. My erection had gone down somewhat when I got off the train, but now it was back with a vengeance. The other kid grabbed my butt with both hands and pulled me against him, crushing our hips together, grinding his crotch into mine. I could feel a hard bulge rubbing against my hardon as the other kid's hands each mauled one of my ass cheeks. I knew if this kept up I was going to cum in my pants and I didn't care. I was flying higher than I'd ever been and I wanted more.
All too soon, the other kid pulled away. "Damn, you are so hot," he gasped. He lightly stroked the side of my face with his soft fingertips. "I wish we had more time and some place to go, but I've got to meet my father and he'll kill me if I'm late. And you'd better go get your train."
I reluctantly let go and followed him back to the entrance to the station, where the guy smiled and lightly swatted me on the ass. "Take care, baby. Maybe our paths will cross again. I hope so." He turned and ran off down the street.
I went back inside and got on line for my ticket, still in a daze, not believing what had just happened. I roused myself from the trance when I got up to the ticket window.
"One way to New York." I announced that as if it were a life-affirming declaration, not just a ticket order. The clerk punched some keys and a ticket popped out of the slot.
"Eleven-fifty."
I reached for my wallet in my right rear pocket and felt nothing but my ass. Instinctively my left hand reached back for the other pocket. Nothing there either. I ran my hands around to the front, feeling my thighs through my empty pockets. I began to panic as my hands went back and forth checking out every pocket over and over.
"C'mon, kid, you're holding up the line. $11.50. Have you got it or not?"
"Um, I'm not sure, hang on." I continued to hopelessly fumble with my empty pockets.
"Tell you what, I'll set this aside and take care of the others while you think about it. Now get out of the way."
I took a few steps to the side and took off my knapsack, unzipped it and began searching through it. I knew that was stupid because I remembered putting my wallet back in my jeans pocket at the station in Chester. I even remembered sitting on it on the train. I'd gone through the bag twice when an idea occurred to me. The dumpster! It had to have fallen out while that kid was feeling up my ass. I ran down the stairs and outside again, my eyes searching the ground all the way just in case. I searched the area around the dumpster and came up empty. I even got down on my hands and knees and looked under the dumpster. It just didn't make sense. If I'd dropped it, it would be there. It had only been a few minutes and I hadn't seen anyone else around the area.
And the then realization hit me. The kid had picked my pocket. I'd thought the guy had liked me, been attracted to me, found me hot. I could still feel those hands on my ass, but now I knew they weren't feeling me, just looking for my valuables. Well, the thief had hit the jackpot. How could I have been such an idiot, how could I have been so careless? Every penny I'd made in my life, every penny I'd managed to hide from the fat bastard, gone less than three hours after leaving home. And now I was stranded in fucking Trenton, New Jersey with no money, no nothing.
I leaned back against the brick wall, slid down until I was sitting on the ground, my elbows on my knees. I buried my face in my hands and began to cry.
To be continued.