If someone wants to tell you how to get rich quick for free, you can't afford it.

Sometime during the night, after I went to sleep, Cody turned in my arms. The next time I woke up his face was buried against my chest and our arms were wrapped around each other. It was nothing like anything I'd ever done. Something about having him there gave me as much pleasure as I'd had.

We slept to noon. I missed my rugby match.

Cody wasn't like anyone I'd known. He was brash and funny, tough and tender, worldly as well as innocent, and liking a kid four years younger than I was wasn't in my game plan.

Holding him that night was heaven.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

"Hold up there, cowboy. Where you going?" Lloyd ask, stopping work on a guy that looked a bit like the pictures I'd seen of Mad Mountain Dean.

"Upstairs?" I said, looking back at a man covered in tattoos, as Lloyd stopped adding to the body art.

"What's in that bag you got there, son?"

"A bottle of wine. He's ordering pizza," I explained.

"Wine? You do know he's underage?"

"Oh, so am I. It's non-alcoholic. I can't buy booze," I said, trying to smile over this misunderstanding.

"What's your name again?" Lloyd asked.

"Clete," I said. "Cletus Thomas, sir. I'm from just out of town," I said, feeling like I was explaining my intentions to a girlfriend's father.

"I knew I liked you when Cody brought you home. He's usually with older guys. You go ahead. Just go on up any time. I won't bother you again."

"Thanks," I said, dashing up the stairs and running head on into the locked door.

"Wait, wait," Cody said, moving around inside, as I checked my nose.

He swung the door open and walked back into the room. He had a tan towel around him and a toothbrush in his mouth and a hairbrush in his hand.

"You're early," he said.

"I am not. You said eight o'clock. It's five after eight. Lloyd wanted to chat before he let me come up."

"Lloyd, you tell Lloyd to mind his own business. He don't own me."

"He didn't like the idea of me bringing up wine."

"Did you bring it?"

"Yeah, its on the table. Maybe do something to cool it off. It'll go good with pizza."

"He knows I got booze up here. What's wrong with him?"

"He doesn't want to be a part of breaking the law, Cody. He's trying to look after you," I explained.

"I've been looking after myself since I was a kid. I don't need Lloyd."

"Your are a kid. Maybe you ought to let Lloyd be concerned about you. You're not doing as good as you think," I said sourly.

"I can take care of myself. I don't need you telling me what to do either."

"Yeah, and last weekend, when you begged me to stay because you were scared?"

"You wouldn't have stayed if I said everything is peachy keen."

"So you were playing me to get your way?"

"No, not exactly. I do get scared. I was scared last weekend. I can't afford to be scared. I got to work. I was a lot less scared with you here."

"You're sixteen."

"I know my age, Clete."

"You're sixteen and you shouldn't be on the street selling your ass."

"That's not the part I sell. I don't have much choice. I like eating. I've got no where else to go. You going to take care of me?"

The words weren't his usual sarcasm or rudeness. It was like an offer and a plea. He watched me before he shoved the toothbrush back in his mouth and began brushing his hair.

"I've thought about it," I said.

"Takes you a long time. I haven't seen you all week," he said, tossing his toothbrush in the glass on the sink.

"I work," I said.

"Twenty-four hours a day you work? Busy boy and you look so fresh."

"I work. I rest. I save my running around for the weekend. That way I keep my job."

"I can't wait a week between visits and not need to work the street. It's what I do. I need to eat."

When the pizza came, Clete stood behind Cody with his wallet out, handing the guy a twenty dollar bill.

"Give that back to him," Cody snapped. "Here, keep the change," Cody said, giving him a ten and a five.

"Thanks," the pizza man said, jogging back down the stairs.

"What's wrong with you? You trying to embarrass me?" Cody asked.

"No, I thought…."

"I invited you up for dinner. You don't pay when someone invites you. Where were you raised?"

"Sorry," I said. "What I was thinking was, if I pay you get to hold onto your money and then you don't need to work."

"The price of a pizza. You must think I work cheap. Does it offend you that I sell myself? If that's the case you can trot back down stairs with your wine and I'll eat my own fucking pizza. I had a life before you showed up. I'll have one when you're gone."

"Why are you so angry? I'm here. The pizza is here. Let's eat."

"Okay, get some glasses out of that cupboard for the wine."

It was a pepperoni pizza and it wasn't bad. Cody ate politely and I felt like I had to do the same, although I usually had downed two pieces by this time. He kept drinking from the glass, looking at it, then looking at me, before taking another dainty bite of his slice of pizza.

"What kind of wine is this?" he asked, looking at the glass again.

"Grape. Do you like it?"

"It's a little flat but it has a nice taste. It grows on you."

"Yeah," I said, not daring to tell him it didn't have any alcohol in it.

"What' s wrong?" I asked, watching him polish off the first half of the first piece of pizza he'd taken five minutes ago.

"Nothing. It's nice to see you. I missed you. I thought about you all week."

"Me too," I said, liking the sound of his words.

"Oh, you did. Not enough to bother to waste your time coming to see if I might still be alive," Cody said in pithy words.

"Cody, I have a job. I can't go out on week nights. I need to be fresh when I show up at work. I wouldn't be fresh if I stayed here with you at night."

"What makes you say that? I didn't bother you. What you're saving yourself for your wife?"

"You turn me on like no one ever did before. Sleeping isn't easy, especially with you cuddling up in my arms the way you do."

"You don't like cuddling? You're weird."

"I didn't say I didn't like it. I said it turns me on and it is very hard to sleep with a bone and a half."

"Yeah, I noticed that. You got a regular baseball bat down there."

"Not quite," I objected, amused by the idea.

"Not length. You aren't all that long, I mean, when compared to your width. You're as thick as I've seen, not that I saw that much of it in the dark."

"Looking at it wasn't what you were doing," I said.

"No, when a guy runs into a piece of meat like that, he's got to see if he can swallow it. What kind of queer passes up a chance to swallow a record breaker?"

"Cut it out? I got a friend makes mine look little."

"One thing is for sure, that dude ain't getting no pussy. You're plenty big enough for me. Taking a shot at it is in my DNA."

"You're a kid," I objected. "You want me to go to jail?"

"I might be a kid but I know how to suck a dick. You didn't like it," Cody said sadly.

"I'm here aren't I. I loved it. I've never had anyone make me feel like that before. I don't know what I'm doing here. I know better. I know you're jailbait, but I'm here and quit complaining because I got a job and responsibilities. That's how it is."

"Yes, sir," Cody said, picking up his piece of pizza and nibbling one more almost non-existent bite, smirking as he chewed, looking like he might laugh. "You almost choked me when you came."

"What?" I objected again.

"You heard me. You had your hand on the back of my head and you shoved that puppy down my throat. Man oh man that fucker swelled up and it just poured out of you. You were horny."

"Cody, we're eating," I objected.

"Yeah, we are, but nothing like what you fed me last weekend."

"Cody, shut up."

"Yes, sir," he smirked, nibbling a piece of pepperoni. "I'm glad you came back."

"I'm glad I came back. I thought about you all week."

"The blowjob?"

"Cody, my mind doesn't begin and end with my dick. I thought about you. I worried about you."

"Not enough to come see me."

"Look, I can't make you do anything. You're out in the street selling it because it's what you want to do. It don't mean I don't worry that someone might murder your skinny little ass."

"Not so skinny a lot of guys wouldn't give their left nut for a shot at it."

"Cody!"

"But that's something I'm saving for the right guy. My dick? I've been getting my rocks off since I was ten. It requires a certain amount of use to keep it tuned up. I figure I might as well make a buck while I'm tuning it."

"It's dangerous."

"Keeps me fed."

"You don't eat enough to keep a bird alive," I said, watching the tiny nibbles without seeing the piece of pizza shrink at all.

"Well, I'm saving myself for dessert."

"Dessert? What's for dessert?"

Cody smiled large and his face radiated a kind of joy I'd never seen. Whatever was on his mind must have been pretty damn good.

"You," Cody said, blushing and looking down at his piece of pizza.

"You're too young. I'm too old. We can't do that. I didn't come down here to do that," I explained, not sure I knew what I was talking about.

"You don't know why you're here. That's why you came back, because I'm good. When I like someone as much as I like you, I'm way better. When you're ready for dessert, I'm ready to deliver. We'll say I seduced you. Works for me."

"You're something, you know. You're too sweat to be on the street," I said. "I don't know anyone has ever liked me before."

"I never said I liked you."

"You did so," I argued.

"I lied," he said.

"I did too. Two can play that game," I said.

"No you didn't. You like me. It's written all over your face, not to mention the bulge in your jeans. You aren't carrying your laundry there, are you?

"Is that's all that's ever on your mind?" I asked.

"No. I'm sorry. I'll try to be good. It's hard with you around. Very hard. Dessert?"

"Cody!"

"Clete! You want to make me something I'm not. For the right guy I'd give all this up, but I've got to earn my way for now. I like eating. Living here, with Lloyd keeping the dogs away, I can make it. I can stay alive until I'm old enough to be on my own legally. Then I can start thinking about setting up housekeeping with someone."

"I'll help you," I said. "I don't want you on the street."

"Fuck you. I'll suck your dick and I'll put up with the complaining about what I do to survive but I'm not depending on anyone, until I can have it my way. Once or twice a week don't cut it, stud. Weeks are 7 days long, every week. No matter how much I like you."

"We can work something out," I said.

"When we're talking love and romance, I'll follow you anywhere. I've got security here. Lloyd ain't tossing me out on my butt because I don't come up with rent one Friday. It isn't much but it's mine."

"You're not safe on the street," I reminded him. "Lloyd is fine. This place is okay, but one day you're going to get into the wrong car and that's going to be your last."

"I wasn't safe at home either. If I hadn't gotten out of there I'd be dead. Quit trying to tell me what my life is about. You don't have anything to back up what you want."

"Good pizza," I said, not liking the conversation.

"Yeah," he said. "This wine is funky."

"I don't know. It's okay."

"I got to meet a girl."

"A girl?" I said, surprised.

"Yeah, you think I only talk to guys?"

"No."

"I leant Liz ten bucks. She's meeting me in front of the Toy Box at ten. It's only a five minute walk. Well, ten minutes, we'll avoid the alley where we got our asses kicked."

"Sounds like a good idea. She can't pay you in the daylight?"

"She sleeps all day and she got paid tonight."

"Oh."

We finished eating pizza with half of it still in the box. Cody turned off the lights and I followed him downstairs at nine forty-five.

"Be right back, Lloyd," he said, passing the opening to the tattoo parlor. "Pizza on the table if you want to grab a piece before you go."

"Okay, kiddo. I might take you up on it. I got another guy said he'd come in about ten. I'm starved."

The street was dank and the sidewalk a dark gray under the lighting that shinned out of the shops. There was a chill in the air that was normal for that time of night. The streets were alive with activity and Cody led the way in long strides. There were three girls standing out in front of the Toy Box. I didn't look at their faces.

"Hey, Liz. Hi, Connie. Aren't you looking special tonight Audry Rose?"

"The lady's got her own solo tonight, Kid."

"Oh, let me touch you," Cody said, touching what seemed a rather masculine arm.

"And who do we have here? Mama's in love. Where'd you find this piece of granite?" Liz asked, looking me over.

"I'm with him," I said, feeling uneasy with the banter.

"Oh, darlin', you can be with me any time you want," Liz said with a sexual lilt in her voice.

"You keep your eyes off him. He's mine. I found him."

"Did your Daddy tell you that you could keep him?" Audry Rose said, letting losse with a silly giggle.

"Lloyd, I don't know what Lloyd thinks. He didn't say anything. He's got his own worries these days."

"Here's your ten and here's five to hold for me. Mama will spend it all if I have it in my evening bag. You know me?"

"Yes, I do," Cody said, tucking the bills in his tight white jeans.

"My word, you must be carrying your life's savings with you, little boy."

Liz squealed, reaching to feel the bulge down Cody's leg.

"If you weren't a child, Mama would let you every which way but loose."

"Sorry, I'm with him," Cody said, grabbing my arm. "See me later and I'll let you spend that five dollars on something worthwhile."

"Oh, kid, you need a little seasoning before Mama will teach you the rest of what you need to know. You definitely have a high dollar future in front of you," Liz complimented, laughing loudly.

"You ought to get a look at his," Cody bragged.

"Oh, my, you are trying to get me all worked up. He's a big one. Look at the size of those hands, those fingers. I'd say he's a handful," she said.

"Let's go. I need another piece of pizza," I said, being made nervous by the conversation.

"Well, I got to go. I'll hold the five. You be good, Liz. Night girls."

"Mama's always good, child."

The meeting broke up and people stared as the three girls headed for the entrance of the Toy Box and we walked away.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"Girl talk," Cody explained.

"You aren't a girl," I reminded him.

"Neither are they. They're drag queens."

"What?"

"Men dressing as women? Drag queens?"

"I knew that," I lied.

I looked over my shoulder wanting to take a look armed with the new information, but they'd all disappeared inside the club.

"The Toy Box is a drag bar. They've been doing a show in there as long as I've been in town."

"I thought they were weird for women," I said.

"You did not. You were too busy trying to keep your goods under wraps to take a good look. I have one word for you Adam's apple."

"That's two words," I reminded him.

"It's one way to tell if it's a boy in sheep's clothing or not."

"Adam's apple," I said, feeling mine.

"Men have them. Women don't. All three of them have an obvious Adam's apple. You don't know anything, do you?"

"I know plenty," I said, feeling stupid.

"Come on, I'll buy you a Coke and a burger. I need some meat."

"You bought the pizza," I complained.

"Yeah, and I'm buying us burgers and Cokes. Quit bitching. You're way too cute to bitch so much."

Send Rick an email at [email protected]

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