John Paul McQueen leant against the outside wall with tears streaming down his face. It was his girlfriend's birthday he should be enjoying himself. But, like all good parties, this one had ended in a brawl. But it wasn't the fight that had brought the tears to his eyes.
"John Paul. What's got into you?" Craig Dean had followed John Paul from the party and was watching his best friend with concern.
"You don't wanna be around me," John Paul sobbed stepping way from Craig.
"You can't say things like that and run off."
"Craig, just leave it," John Paul begged
"Why did you say Sarah wasn't good enough for me?" Craig asked. What was it John Paul was hiding from him? They had been best mates for months now, inseparable almost and he had never seen the younger blonde man acting like this before.
"Please don't make me say it," John Paul pleaded.
Craig reached for his friend, holding his neck as he looked into his tear filled pale blue eyes.
"Look at me. Look at me. What do you know? Is she cheating on me?" Craig had never had any luck with his girlfriends in the past, why should Sarah prove to be any different. In fact judging by what he had just witnessed at the party she was exactly the same as every other girl he had fallen for.
"No," John Paul replied in a quiet whisper, pushing Craig away from him. Please let it go, he prayed silently in his head. He had kept his secret for so long now and every day it got harder, everyday he wanted to scream it from the rooftops.
"It's Rhys, isn't it? She's cheating on me with Rhys," Craig continued, almost to himself. She'd been kissing Rhys so it made sense that something was going on, maybe something that John Paul had discovered.
"No. I don't know," John Paul stammered, almost finishing with "And I don't care."
Craig sighed in frustration. John Paul could be so hard to reach sometimes. "Then why are you like this? Tell me what's going on."
John Paul's face was drenched with tears and his heart ached with the need to tell Craig everything together with the fear of what would happen if he did. "I can't," he said quietly shaking his head, fear and pain fighting brightly in his eyes.
"Tell me, John Paul," Craig insisted as the panic inside him increased. Whatever John Paul was hiding couldn't be as bad as the things Craig was starting to imagine.
John Paul takes a deep breath, maybe he should tell Craig, maybe it IS time after all.
"You really wanna know?" John Paul asks wiping the tears from his face
"Yes," Craig replies.
"You really wanna know why I think you should split up with Sarah?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
"It's…. it's because I'm jealous, all right," John Paul says slowly. Craig feels a sickness rising in his stomach. John Paul had promised that there had been nothing between him and Sarah was he now admitting that was a lie. Craig was about to speak but John Paul hadn't finished.
"Whenever I watch you with her, it kills me, cos I want to be the one that you're laughing with, that you're going home with." Fresh tears fall from John Paul's eyes as he speaks.
"What?" Craig swallows hard as he looks at his best friend. His friend. His mate.
John Paul knows he has to say it all. He has to get the words out now while he can because he might never be able to manage it again.
"When I'm not with you, I think about you all the time. And then, when I AM with you, I feel like my heart's going to burst. I'm…. I'm in love with you. Craig…. I'm in love with you." John Paul's final declaration is shouted, almost in anger before he pushes past Craig and runs from the garden.
He had held his feeling inside for so long but John Paul knew that one day he would have to let them out. He also knew when that day came he risked losing the best friend he had ever known, and judging by the look in Craig's rich brown eyes that is exactly what he had done.
Craig stood motionless with John Paul's words echoing in his head. It wasn't possible. What John Paul had just said, it couldn't be true. John Paul had a girlfriend. He was in love with Hannah; he'd said so, hadn't he? Or was it more that Craig had said it and John Paul had simply agreed. But John Paul couldn't be in love with Craig. John Paul wasn't gay. He wasn't. Was he?
John Paul staggered through the village before stopping to rest against the octagon, an old wooden structure that was long overdue for demolition. Sinking to the ground John Paul pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his hands. His tears were coming in heavy sobs now as he felt his heart breaking. Nothing in his life had ever hurt as bad as the thought of losing Craig, just like nothing had ever felt as good as loving him.
There was a crunch of gravel and John Paul looked up to see Craig standing over him.
"Get up," Craig said, no hint of emotion in his voice. John Paul scrambled to his feet and roughly brushed the tears from his face, maybe Craig wanted to hit him and maybe he deserved it. Maybe the pain of that would take away the hurt in his chest.
"Say it again," Craig said staring levelly into John Paul brilliant blue eyes, challenging him, daring him.
John Paul took a deep steadying breath. "I'm in love with you."
"Say it again," Craig repeated as he took a step forward.
"I'm in love with you," John Paul said again.
"Say it again," Craig said in a soft whisper as another step brought him only inches from John Paul's face.
"I love you," John Paul breathed, his heart pounding hard in his chest at Craig's closeness, at the feeling of Craig's breath against his face and the smell of his aftershave.
"Say it again," Craig continued his mouth now only a hairsbreadth from John Paul's.
"I love…" John Paul's words were lost, swallowed in the sudden heat of Craig's lips pressing against his, kissing him in the way he had only ever dared dream of.
John Paul's hands slipped around Craig's neck as their kiss deepened. Craig's arms wrapped around John Paul's back, pulling the man tight against him until their bodies were held together in a firm embrace.
They were both panting and flushed as the kiss broke apart.
"Craig… what..?"
"I don't know… but it felt right…"
"Do you wanna...?"
"I think so…"
"Are you sure?"
"No."
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No…"
John Paul's hands roamed over Craig's body. Stroking down his back to the soft roundness of his buttocks, caressing his thighs and trailing slowly upwards until they passed over Craig's groin, making the man whimper softly at the touch.
Craig couldn't believe what was happening. That he was standing in the middle of the village holding John Paul, kissing John Paul and being touched by John Paul in a way that felt too right to possibly be wrong.
His eyes were wide as they looked into John Paul's and his breath was taken away by the look of uncompromising love he found there. A look he had never seen in anyone else's eyes, ever.
"Tell me again," Craig whispered, realising that the sound of those words coming from John Paul's mouth sounded so much better, so much more real, than they ever did from Sarah's.
"I love you Craig," John Paul said covering his best friends face with kisses, "I've always loved you…"
As he spoke John Paul slowly slipped open Craig's belt, eased down his zip and pushed undone the top button of his jeans. Craig was held mesmerised by John Paul's dazzling azure eyes, his gentle touch and his loving kisses. He moaned softly as a warm hand slipped inside his boxers and stroked the growing erection nestled there.
"John Paul…" Craig didn't know if he wanted to tell his friend to stop or carry on. His head was swimming and his heart racing and, as John Paul's fingers curled firmly around his cock, Craig gave in to the sensations of his body.
"I just want to love you Craig," John Paul breathed as the dark haired man rested his head on John Paul's shoulder. Moaning softly into John Paul's ear at the intense pleasure in his groin.
John Paul held Craig close, pressing his back against the octagon as the man's cock throbbed hotly in his hand. He had been dreaming about Craig for so long, about holding him and kissing him and touching him, but no dream had ever felt this good. John Paul was surprised at how natural touching Craig's cock had felt, how right and normal. What he had never expected was how amazing it would feel to hear Craig's moans of pleasure as his hand ran the length of Craig's firmness, and how desperately he wanted to pleasure Craig, to give him the release he could sense was close.
John Paul pressed his hand to Craig's cheek, lifting the man's face to look at him. Craig looked flushed and his lips were parted slightly as heavy pants escaped from him. John Paul leant forward to claim those lips again making Craig moan heavily into his mouth. Their tongues came together, swirling in the heat between them, exchanging the taste of each other as Craig held onto John Paul's back as if his life depended on it. His body was shaking with the exquisite ache of his cock as John Paul's fingers touched it with magic.
Craig broke away from the kiss, throwing his head back and letting out a cry he tried desperately to stifle as his cock pulsed out its desire, covering John Paul's hand with its heat.
Panting and breathless Craig shook his head in bewilderment. He couldn't quite grasp what had just happened. Half an hour ago he had been at a party with Sarah, his girlfriend, the girl he loved. And now he was standing in the centre of the darkened village with John Paul, his body trembling from on overpowering climax caused by the touch of his best friend.
"John Paul..?"
John Paul feared the worst. He held his breath, waiting for Craig to push him away, to tell him it should never have happened, to tell him he was disgusting.
"John Paul I…"
"What Craig? What is it?"
Craig raised his hands to John Paul's face, cupping it gently between them and touching a feather light kiss to his lips.
"I think I'm in love with you."
John Paul smiled a smile that no one else had ever seen as his world changed forever.
"Say it again."