Take Me From This Pain, Kevin's story

The night of the dance came faster than Jason would have liked. He sighed as he sat at the kitchen table and waited for Kevin to finish getting ready. Jason just changed his shirt and pulled his hair up into a ponytail. That was all the \'styling\' he planned on doing for a dance he didn\'t even want to attend. He even kept his hightops on.

He hadn\'t been able to bring himself to speak to Kevin either. It was driving him crazy but he didn\'t want to ruin Kevin\'s first date with Marly. After all, it wasn\'t like the small blonde had a normal high school life back in California, so Jason didn\'t want to stand in the way of him having one now. But the thought of him dancing with Marly was already making Jason\'s inside boil like a pot of acid. He didn\'t even want to know what the sight would do to him.

Kevin had seemed a little more relaxed the last day or so, though. Jason wondered why until he noticed Kevin nodding in greeting at Trent, the senior start quarterback, in the hallways. Jason asked him what it was about and Kevin gave him a small smile, saying that he and Trent spoke in the locker room after gym, and that the jock wasn\'t a bad guy. That\'s all. Jason figured there was more to the story than that but he couldn\'t get Kevin to elaborate so he would just have to wait until it all came out.

Hearing Kevin trot down the stairs, Jason grabbed his keys and stood . . . and was almost knocked off his feet by what he saw. Kevin looked amazing in his tight black jeans and plain black tee over a blue shirt that really brought out his eyes. His blonde hair was brushed and gelled back from his face and hung loosely around his shoulders. Jason groaned inwardly knowing the evening was going to be just about impossible to get through now.

\"You ready?\" Kevin asked quirking an eyebrow in question.

\"Yeah.\"

\"Well, then we should go,\" said Kevin . . . about thirty seconds later. And Jason snapped himself out of his daze and lead the way to the car.

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Kevin hid his smile as he followed Jason out to the car. He couldn\'t mistake the reaction he just got. Ever since the kiss and the subsequent brush off from Jason, all Kevin could think about was how Jason wanted to distance himself from him. Every time he\'d tried to get the tall boy to talk to him, even casually, Jason avoided it. And Kevin was beginning to believe Jay didn\'t find him attractive after all, a thought he found most disturbing. But after Jason\'s reaction tonight, Kevin knew he was off base. The other boy did find him attractive, and maybe it was Jason\'s insecurities that were causing the problem.

He was mulling over how to handle things when they pulled into Cindy\'s driveway. Jason shut off the engine and shot Kevin an uncertain look. Kevin wholeheartedly agreed. He wasn\'t looking forward to tonight either. They hopped out of the car and went to the door to collect their \'dates\' for tonight. Before Jason\'s knuckle even connected with the wooden door, it flew open and Cindy and Marly came out giggling.

\"Have a good time,\" Cindy\'s mom called after them.

When the four reached the car, the boys both opened the back doors. The girls looked quizzically at them but got in without a protest. Kevin smiled at Jason as they got back in the car. The dance will probably be as painful as they both imagined. But he was determined to put their other problems to rest afterwards.

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\"There she goes again!\"

Jason was muttering to himself in the corner when he was supposed to be getting Cindy some soda. He needed a break. Cindy had velcroed herself to his side tonight and he was getting tired of it. He was also fuming from watching Marly drag Kevin around the dance floor. She currently had the small blonde boy locked in a slow dance, her face buried into Kevin\'s shoulder, who looked stiff as a board. Maybe he was deciding he didn\'t like Marly after all, Jason hoped.

\"You okay?\" a deep voice asked from behind him.

Jason turned and came face to face with Trent. Wonderful! Trent, Kevin\'s new friend and the brother of Jason\'s date\'s nemesis. Oh this should add some spice to the evening, he thought dourly.

\"Yeah.\"

Trent smiled at him for a minute. \"I don\'t bite.\"

\"So I heard.\"

\"Your brother told you about conversation then?\"

\"Some,\" Jason shrugged. \"So why were you chatting with him?\"

\"Ah, he didn\'t tell you everything, huh?\"

\"You can fix that.\"

\"I know I can.\"

The two eyed each other warily for a while but Jason held his ground. He had a funny feeling about this guy but he couldn\'t figure out why. Trent was as tall as Jason and was a little more muscular, being that this was the height of football season. He had shoulder length light brown hair and hazel eyes. All of the girls were dying to date him. In fact, he didn\'t have a date for the dance and yet this was the first one Jason saw him take a break. He had a different partner for each song.

\"Tanya.\" Trent stated the name simply, like it was all the explanation the other boy needed. And it was.

\"You tried to rough him up?\" Jason growled taking a step forward.

\"No,\" the other boy said flatly. \"She wanted me to scare him, but he doesn\'t scare easy and my buddy Joey would have knocked me on my ass if I touched him.\"

\"He wouldn\'t have been the only one.\"

\"Hey, I\'m not like her,\" Trent said holding up a placating hand. \"I was only going to warn him that she wanted to use him to send Carlyle a message.\"

\"I don\'t like it anyway.\"

\"I can see that,\" Trent smiled again. \"You\'re pretty protective of your brother.\"

\"Yeah, even if we aren\'t blood.\"

\"Huh?\" the other boy looked confused.

\"We share a sister. A half sister, anyway,\" Jason replied. \"She and I share the same mother and she and Kevin share the same father. But he and I? We\'re not blood related.\"

\"No blood relation then?\" Trent\'s eyes narrowed a bit and he looked at Jason carefully.

Jason shook his head.

\"Well, that\'s good,\" the football player said cryptically and walked away before Jason could ask why.

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Kevin\'s temper simmered as he lay in his bed that night. Marly had kissed his cheek when the boys dropped her and Cindy off at Cindy\'s house after the dance. But to his horror, Cindy grabbed Jason\'s head and pulled him down for a long kiss, complete with tongue. All Kevin could do was stand there in shock. Jason looked nonplussed, too. When the girls closed the door, he ran his shirtsleeve over his mouth and turned to stalk back to the car with Kevin trailing behind him.

Now all the blonde could do was seethe over the scene that replayed itself over and over in his mind. Like a car wreck. Damn it!

\"You up?\" Jason\'s sleepy voice queried from the darkened corner of the room.

\"How are YOU sleeping?\" Kevin demanded, sitting up.

\"What?\" the other boy sounded confused. \"What\'s the matter now?\"

\"Now?!\" Kevin growled. \"What\'s the matter now?\" He silently stalked over to Jason\'s bed.

\"Yeah,\" the dark haired boy replied. He apparently had no idea Kevin was standing over his bed. \"I don\'t get it!\"

Kevin pounced on top of him and locked his lips over Jason\'s in a fierce kiss that meant to be as brutal as it was.

\"Maybe NOW you\'ll get it,\" he grunted as he pulled away.

Jason was momentarily stunned but recovered quickly and instantly locked one arm around Kevin\'s waist, tangled the fingers of his other hand into Kevin\'s locks and rolled the small blonde underneath him on the bed.

\"Oh, I think I do,\" he whispered huskily pressing Kevin into the mattress. \"And now you\'re going to get it!\"

Jason then brushed his lips over Kevin\'s, coaxing them open. He slid his tongue into the smaller boy\'s mouth, and all of Kevin\'s thoughts were washed away in the sensation of finally kissing the boy he loved.