"Are you guys sure you're ok sharing the bed with me?" Davey asked surprisingly shyly as we all fidgeted and looked everywhere but at the bed or each other.
"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" Robin asked in confusion, finally looking at Davey.
"Well, I kind of get the idea this is the first time you two have, you know, shared a bed," Davey stammered a bit.
"Oh, yeah, I hadn't really thought about it, because I figured Grampa Olly would be like Dad and Daia, not wanting to give us too much opportunity to do stuff they think we aren't ready for yet," I said quietly. "But Robin and I have talked about it and we don't think we're ready for it yet either."
"Yeah, don't think that you being here is stopping us from doing something we want, Davey," Robin agreed. "If anything, you will be helping us stop ourselves from doing something we do want but don't want yet.
"Davey, you gotta remember that just a few days ago, I was planning to cut my throat and my wrists in the woods and die because I'm gay," I told him honestly. "I really think I need to move further away from that point before I go any further with anything or with anyone. I need to know who I am and accept myself before I drag Robin into the mess that is in my head."
"You know, I will be here for you through anything you need, Elijah," Robin said as he grabbed my hands with one of his and wiped the tears from my face with his other. "But I agree and understand completely. I've known I was gay a little while, but after the way my parents found out about it, I'm kind of not ready to completely trust anyone just yet, even though my heart and brain both want me to trust you, I just can't quite make that step yet. I also want to make sure that you are where you need to be to make the same commitment I want to make to you. I don't want to give everything I've got to you and then find out it was too much too fast for you and you do something bad to yourself because of it."
"You guys are so perfect for each other," Davey sniffled. "Do you think I'm a slut because I've done stuff already?"
"Absolutely not," I told him quickly and hugged him tight. "I think you are a super awesome, really cute guy who just happened to pick the wrong guy the first time around. He took advantage and used you, and that was NOT your fault."
"I could have told him no," Davey whispered as he cried a bit more.
"And why didn't you? What did you think was going to happen if you had?" I pushed gently.
"I thought he would dump me and I would never find another guy like me and I would be alone and miserable all my life."
"See there you go," Robin stated firmly. "He made you afraid of saying no to him. If he had loved you the way I love Elijah, and he loves me, saying no wouldn't have been a problem at all. But just to make sure you don't still feel bad about yourself, I don't mean this to come out wrong or something, but I'm kinda really glad that you did stuff. This means that when Frodo and me are ready for the next step, we have an experienced best friend that we won't be super embarrassed to ask questions and talk about it with so we don't do things wrong and hurt each other, physically or emotionally." He grinned and gave Davey a great big noisy kiss on the cheek. "You're our very own sex expert, oooh make that sexpert."
"Yeah, whatever," Davey laughed and shoved Robin away. He also blushed and grinned though. "Really, though, you got a good point. The only person I had to talk to was that asshole, and it's pretty obvious he wasn't telling me the truth about a lot of things. Anything you two need to know about that you want to hear from me, I'll tell you. No secrets from you two, I swear."
"Ok, I don't know about you two, but I'm so tired right now I don't even think I can talk about sex," Robin said with a yawn. He climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up over himself, but left them turned down on the other side of the huge mattress.
"After you," I grinned. "You're the one that said you hated this side of the bed."
"Yeah, I'm kind of weird about sleeping. If I sleep on my right side or even on the right side of the bed, I get really weird dreams. I have to be on my back or on my left side," Davey told us.
"If you really won't sleep well, you can have the right side and I'll take the middle," I offered.
"Not a chance," Davey protested and hopped into the bed. "You guys said I'm the chaperone, so I am the Great Wall of China between you two."
"You look more like just a flagpole to me," Robin teased.
"Not my fault the guys I'm going to bed with are both gorgeous," Davey laughed. "I'm in bed with two hot guys in their underwear. I'm sorry if it bothers either of you, but I am probably going to have a hard-on all night. I don't think I'm the only one though."
"No, you're not the only one," I admitted with a blush. "But I just want to sleep."
"Same here," Davey replied.
"Me three," Robin yawned. "Goodnight guys."
***********************************
The next morning Zeyde Izzy woke us up a lot earlier than any of us wanted to be functional, but he reminded us that we had agreed to help with cleaning up Grampa Olly's house. We got dressed in our clothes from the day before since we didn't have anything else with us. When we got downstairs, Grampa had us gather around the island in the kitchen to eat.
"This here's why I had us eat out on the dock yesterday," Grampa Olly said looking down sadly. "Those men busted up my dining room and all the furniture in it, and they used the wood from the dining table as kindling at the bottom of that cross they burnt in the front yard."
"I may be Jewish, but I tell you, it's a sign that a man is evil in his heart if he burns the emblem of his God in a show of hate against someone that never did a thing to him," Zeyde Izzy said as he ate the pancakes that Grampa Olly had made. "Oh, my brother, the maintenance crew should be here in about an hour. We should maybe go through each room so we know what you want done in each one."
"You was serious about that?" Grampa gasped. "You really called in a crew to come redo this place?"
"No I called them to redecorate Mount Everest," Zeyde scoffed. "Of course I was serious. David, tell your other grampa here, I never joke about taking care of my family."
"I think Marc learned that lesson pretty well yesterday, too," I snorted.
"Elijah, please, no discussing such disgusting things when people are eating," Zeyde Izzy scolded. "Please do not bring up that schmuck ever again. Oh, and never tell my wife that you heard that word from me, or I'll never hear the end of it from her."
"Bubbe knows I learned that one from Dad, Zeyde," David laughed. "But then she also knows that he learned it from you."
Zeyde Izzy looked like he was going to say something back to Davey, but his phone rang and I recognized the tune as something I heard played at a wedding once. It was Endless Love.
"That'll be your Bubbe, now," Zeyde Izzy smiled. "Wonder what she wants at this time of the morning when I just talked to her last night?" He answered the call with, "Good morning Bubelah.... What do you mean where am I? I told you last night where I am.... We've got to talk? What do you think we're doing right now? You're where? Give me a moment, I'll ask." He turned to Grampa Olly and asked for the address of the house. When he got it, he repeated it into the phone. "Yes, my love, I will see you in a few minutes then.... Yes, I'll tell David his Benjamin is with you. He heard. Bubelah, you should see his face. Such a look I haven't seen in years. Yes, we'll be waiting for you."
"Zeyde, is Benji really going to be here in a few minutes? Oy vey, I'm in yesterday's clothes. I have to fix my hair." Davey ran from the room headed for the bathroom as Robin and I laughed.
"Yes, your Benjamin is coming, you might notice that your grandmother is with him," Zeyde Izzy teased. "Ahh, who am I kidding? Young love; he'll not even notice his grandmother, at least not until she makes him notice by pinching his cheeks and kissing him in front of his friends."