The Day The World Stood Still

Chapter 1: The Day It All Changed.

How was Ryan supposed to know, that this completely random day, July 10 to be exact, was going to change his life forever?

It started off completely normal, just like every other day. Waking up at the ass crack of dawn to go to the shit hole of an auto shop that he worked for. Getting to work only two minutes late, and having Tony, his boss, scream at him for what seemed like hours. Working at an extra fast pace to make up for the slackers he worked with. All this was the normal for him, and everything would have kept going like that, but at 4:45, fifteen minutes before the shop closed, he walked in.

Ryan was elbow deep in the engine of a '65 Mustang, when he heard the jingle of the bells, alerting him that someone had opened the customer entrance to the shop. He grabbed the well used rag hanging out of his back pocket and turned to greet who ever it was, and tell them in the most polite way he could, that if they needed work done, they would have to come back tomorrow, they stopped accepting new work an hour prior to closing. But before he could so much as open his mouth, he saw him.

You see the reason that Ryan got so much shit from Tony all the time, even though he was the best mechanic in the shop, was that Ryan was gay. Now Tony and the other employees didn't actually know it, but he and the other guys had always given him hell because he was quiet and he didn't ogle all the pictures of half naked girls that were always hanging on the walls in the garage, or constantly talk about how their girlfriends were in bed. Little did they know, that he actually was gay, and Ryan intended to keep it that way. Now he wasn't the sort of gay guy you saw in movies, the completely flaming guys that wore tight clothes all the time and flaunted their sexuality. No, Ryan wasn't so much a closet gay, but a guy who had just know since he was about 16 years old, after his first and only sexual encounter with a girl, that he didn't like girls. They were pretty, sure, smelled nice, but they just didn't do it for him. At night, when he was alone in his bed, it wasn't Pamela Anderson or Jenna Jameson that he thought about. It was guys. Not always the same one, but in his minds eye, he imagined a guy with a muscular chest and arms. No long hair, breasts, and some gaping hole between their legs.

He had only had one boyfriend, well he wasn't sure you could call him a boyfriend really, just more of a guy friend that just happened to be gay too. They had fucked, many times, but it was always the other guy that topped. Ryan sometimes lay awake at night and wondered if people could tell that he was the bottom all the time. If people knew that he liked getting fucked in the ass.

But I digress.

The man who had walked in was around the same height as Ryan with a head full of curly chocolate brown hair and the most amazing blue eyes that he had ever seen. He knew that his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn't help it. The shirt that he wore wasn't too tight, but it clung to the mans muscular chest, and toned arms, and the jeans rode low on his hips. Ryan could see tattoos covering his arms and through the small gap between the bottom of his shirt and the top of his jeans. This man was sex on legs.

"Hi. Uh I was wondering, is it too late to get my Hummer in here to get some work done on it? I kind of ran into a pole a couple days ago and the engine keeps making these rattling noises." The blue-eyed man said.

All Ryan could do for a moment was stare slack jawed at the man.

"Uh, hey dude. Are you alright?" he said, and somehow snapped Ryan out of his hotness induced silence.

"Oh yeah. Sorry I'm fine. Now what did you need?" Ryan finally said.

The man gave him a funny look, and then restated that he needed work done on his Hummer.

"Well, we stop accepting cars at 4, so you'll have to bring it back tomorrow if that's ok." He said, wiping the grease off of his hands.

"Yeah, sure that's fine. When do you open?" the man asked, as Ryan walked over closer to him.

"We open at 8am." Ryan said, and then almost as an afterthought, "You can leave your name and number with me now though if you want. Less paperwork for you to do in the morning."

"Yeah. You got a pen?" he asked, with a bit of a smirk.

What was that smirk for? Could he see something in Ryan's face?

"Yeah, here." Ryan said as he pulled a pen out of the back pocket of his jeans, and snatched a piece of paper off the top of one of the tool stands that lined the walls of the garage.

The man scribbled down his name and number then handed the paper and pen back.

"So I guess I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning?" the guy asked.

"Yeah. Bright and early." Ryan said with a completely dorky grin plastered on his face. "Have a nice night."

The man simply nodded his head, gave Ryan another smirk, then turned and walked out the door.

For a few minutes after he left, all Ryan could do was stand there. When he came back to his senses, he looked down at the piece of paper with the guys name and number.

"Bam." He said.

Wait. Bam? That was the guy's name? Probably short for something.

As he made his way around the shop to get all the tools put up, and all the paperwork filed away, all Ryan could think about was Bam. Thinking about the guy couldn't get him in trouble. Now if he got all slack jawed around him tomorrow when the guys and Tony were still there, that could get him in trouble. Not really trouble, but he knew what they would say already, and none of it was something he wanted to hear, or for Bam to hear. Because with Ryan's luck, he was straight as an arrow and already involved with some beautiful girl.

But he could always dream, couldn't he?

Ryan closed up shop at around 5:15 and headed back to his shitty apartment in one of the less than respectable parts of town. He had heard gunshots almost every week, and he knew that at least 5 people in his apartment complex had died well, been shot since he had moved in about 6 years ago, but it was the only place in town that he could afford. As he approached his door, he let out a groan, there was a piece of paper taped to it. He knew that meant his landlord Laurie, that old bitch, was letting him know that he was late on rent. Again. He barely earned enough at Tony's to make it by, but somehow he always managed. He ripped the paper off the door and pushed his way into his own personal hell.

His apartment wasn't the best place, but he kept it fairly clean, except for the empty beer cans everywhere and ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts. He had 4 rooms. His bedroom, which was barely big enough for his bed, the kitchen but that wasn't really used much except for keeping beer in the fridge. Then there was the bathroom, that no matter how much he cleaned, still looked like shit. And last but not least the tiny living room. One couch, a busted recliner that he found by the dumpsters, and a television that was older than he was. It wasn't much, but for Ryan, it was home.

He took a quick shower, glad to finally be rid of his nasty work clothes, then grabbed a beer out of the fridge and went to lay down. He was tired, but he knew that sleep wouldn't claim him for a long time. He drowned his beer in a few gulps than lit up a cigarette and stared at the ceiling. His mind kept drifting back to Bam. Sex on legs. For once, Ryan couldn't wait to go to work the next day. He finally fell asleep around midnight with a smile on his face.