Eclipse Of The Moon ~ Book 1 of Aaron
Chapter 4
American Pie

Friday 19 April 2002

"Here, Aaron. Here's a slice of lemon pie for you, darling," Sophia says softly as she puts a small plate with a generous and appetizing slice of pastry before me, pulling me out of my reverie.

"Thank you, Sophia," I sigh, ogling the other plate she places in front of Mark, which causes him to grunt and drop his pen with frustration on the table.

"Why the hell do I get such a small slice when Aaron gets a huge one? I'm your son, Mom!!"

"Sweetie," the woman tsks with a smile. "You're the one who decided to start a diet two years ago. As you know, I'll always love you however you are, but I'm just following your decision. Actually... I should even get this plate back to the kitchen, you shouldn't get any at all..." she playfully says, trying to reach out for the plate that Mark quickly snatches away from her.

"Don't you dare, Mom!!!" he exclaims.

"That's what I thought. Then a small slice it is, Sweetheart," she replies before returning her attention to me. "You look so depressed, Aaron," she then coos in a remorseful tone.

"No, I'm fine," I mumble, but not even my favorite pie or my friend's antics seem to be able to lift my spirits.

Mark and I are sitting at one of the tables in his parents' restaurant in the middle of this sunny Friday afternoon, working on a huge Math assignment we have to hand back in next week. Cam couldn't join us because he needed to pick up Sony from school and Joshua has a private teacher tutoring him on Friday afternoons now. So, this is just the two of us, Sophia preparing the dining room for tonight and Paul cooking in the kitchen.

"Aaron's parents informed him yesterday that they've enrolled him for a Catholic summer camp in August, Mom..." Mark interferes, and I just let him.

I am still astounded by the revelation my father made yesterday evening. I was joining everyone in the living room for the rosary prayer when he took me aside and announced I was going to go away on a three-week summer camp in Virginia in August with other boys from various parishes. As usual, he used his most authoritative voice, the one that leaves no place for argument. I still tried a bit, saying I would rather stay here and look for a job to make pocket money, but his answer was firm and final.

There is no arguing, Aaron. They have a very interesting program with plenty of activities and you will enjoy yourself. This is obviously very Christ-centered, you will also have classes with bible studying. Of course, this is only for boys, so don't expect to meet young ladies. I believe this is going to be a life-changing experience for you, Son. It will help you to personally grow while connecting with God, which should do you some good before you start your last year in high school.

Seriously, I thought I was going to throw up and needless to say I couldn't eat much at dinner. Meeting young ladies... As if I cared! If he only knew that the sole positive thing in this was the only-boy mention! But fuck the rest! How I am even going to survive these three weeks!?

"Summer camps can be fun, Aaron," Sophia tries to reason me.

"Mom, did you miss the part where I said it's a Catholic camp?" Mark deadpans, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, yes, I heard that, Mister Murray Junior," Sophia replies with playful derision. "But some of these camps are quite modern in thought and still fun!" she then encourages me kindly.

Mark's mother is really the best. Aside from the fact that she bakes the most delicious lemon pies and is someone you can easily confide in, she is always sweet and kind with everyone, even more so if they are Mark's friends. She also knows how much tension there is between my family and me, and how I don't share their zealous faith in religion.

"Unfortunately, it's not one of those YMCA camps that are a bit more fun," I grumble. "This one is bible-centered, it's... it's some sort of spiritual retreat to commune with God."

"Oh, I feel you, Darling... But keep hope. You might meet nice persons and enjoy yourself all the same?"

"Yeah, we'll see..." I sigh, but I already know that these three weeks are going to be worse than a pain in my ass.

Sophia then hugs me and drops a kiss on my head before she returns to her tasks. How can a mother be so sweet? I can't even say Mark doesn't know his luck because he truly does. He knows my parents all too well, as much as Joshua's and Camden's, to not know how blessed he was with such parents as his. Right now, I really hate mine.

For the past six months, I have been on my best behavior and what do I get in return? A freaking summer camp with young Catholics! Ever since my last punishment at the beginning of the schoolyear, I have made all possible efforts to please my parents, even after my two-month-and-a-half grounding. Yes, it lasted for two and a half months in the end because my father kept his promise to add another week each time I would be late, even if by only five minutes. And even if I wasn't at fault!

The first time, I got home late by a full hour, and it was because the teacher of my last class kept the whole of us in detention after a few guys had decided to do some mess during the lesson. I wasn't among them, but I still had to stay and despite the teacher's note explaining what happened, my father still added a week to my grounding. The second time was due to a heavy snow storm that delayed me by ten minutes as the roads were slippery. Not his problem, he said, and I got an additional week.

These ten weeks were among the worst of my life. All I got to do during this time was sleep, school, homework, chores, family time and church. It was pure hell. I hated every day with a passion and the weekends were the worst. School was quite bearable because I could enjoy my friends' presence between classes and lunchbreaks, but on Saturdays and Sundays, my life revolved around my family and the church, so it was truly painful.

Even more painful than my backside after the twenty-five strikes of my father's belt, and yet, that hurt a lot too! Much more than the fifty spanks of his hand from a few days before. I never appreciated breaks more than I did back then, and I lost count of how many times my eyes watered from sitting on a chair at school or in the afternoon at home while executing my homework.

Lying on my bed or kneeling at the low table of the living room would have been more comfortable, but it was against my father's recommendations, so my mother refused. Then, as if by chance, it turns out that Dad had early evenings every fucking day of that first week, and I sometimes wonder how much he enjoyed watching me squirm on my chair. Learning your lessons well, Son? he as asked a few times, and I swear it sounded like double entendre. The one time I tried to kneel on my seat, he ordered me to sit properly, reminding me that I had to learn.

Sadly, I must admit he won that battle against me.

As much as I hate to say it, I did learn my lesson. My backside remained uncomfortable for more than a week, so the pain had time to drill my father's teachings into my head. And then, I reached such a level of boredom over the ten-week grounding that I am not ready to experience this again any time soon. It doesn't mean any of my opinions have changed or that my personality has been tamed. It just means that I am working on my self-control the best I can to please my parents and make sure they still give me a bit of freedom to hang out with my friends.

Like I said, I was able to see them at school and we had time to talk over lunchbreaks, but it was so much less than usual. Being unable to hang out with Cam, Josh and Mark left me oppressed. I felt deprived. I felt like I was missing a part of me. I don't know if my father's purpose was to make me realize this, but after more than two months in withdrawal of my friends, I knew I didn't want to experience this again. And ever since I saw my grounding lifted on December 27th, I have done my utmost to rule myself in, even during church classes while I prepared my confirmation.

My renewed freedom was like a rebirth and that day, the guys and I celebrated with a long afternoon in our shack despite the snow and the cold.

After our group coming-out, Mark soon admitted his attraction to males, so most of our conversations have been revolving around sex since then. Josh is the only one who possesses a computer with an internet connection, so he can ogle a lot of sexy guys, but in his genuine generosity – and thanks to the huge monthly allowance he gets from his father – he has decided to become our official supplier for porn magazines. These are stored at the shack and on that December 27th, I spent the best of the afternoon lurking at hot males in Unzipped!, Manshots, In Touch and Jock with the guys.

Gosh was it hot!!! All these hunks fucking other guys was so arousing and I had so much to catch up on that my eyes couldn't stop shifting from one issue to another. The one thing I didn't tell my friends is that I came in my pants. The stimulation from one of my hands nonchalantly resting over my crotch was enough to bring me over the edge. I'm only grateful it wasn't anything powerful, so it remained unnoticed, but it was clearly more than precum and I was quite annoyed that I had to wash my briefs when I got home. Obviously, I couldn't let whoever was on laundry duty that week to find out.

"Ron, it's almost 5:45..." Mark suddenly says while we are finishing checking our respective answers to the Math test.

"Is it? Damn! I gotta go then!" I exclaim, already shoving all my stuff inside my backpack.

"Don't forget we're going to Joshua's on Sunday," he then whispers.

"How could I forget?" I deadpan. "American Pieeeeeeeeeee..." I squeal in a low tone.

"Shhhh!!! Shut up!!" he whisper-yells at me, turning back to check if his mother is not nearby, but I knew she wasn't. I can't help laughing at him before I hurry to the kitchen.

"Goodbye, Paul!!!" I cheer, waving at Mark's old man who is busy in front of the stoves.

"Bye Aaron! Stay safe!" he replies as I quickly go to hug his wife.

"Thanks again for the lemon pie, Sophia, it was delicious!" I tell her.

"You're welcome, Sweetie, I know it's your favorite. Hurry up before you get late now!"

"See you on Sunday, Mark!" I say as we share a high-five just outside the restaurant.

"See you then, jerk!"

With that, I hurry back home, trying to convince myself that time will fly by until Sunday afternoon.

About two years ago, when the movie American Pie came out, we all wanted to go and watch it in theatres, but there were a few issues. Not for Cam since his mother doesn't care about what he does outside, and Josh was going to pay for his seat. Joshua had no problem either for he always manages to manipulate his parents; he simply wouldn't have told them. Mark's parents, although so open-minded, were the first problem because they thought their baby was still too young to watch that sort of movie. Then on my side, there was just no point asking my superannuated family their permission to go, I might even have gotten spanked for just asking.

So, we forgot about it, until recently. Josh bought the DVD a few days ago and since his parents are away for the weekend, we have decided to meet at his place and watch it on Sunday. It's not so much about the sex because American Pie is no gay movie, but more our curiosity for a film that all our classmates talked about at that time.

Sex, for now, seems like a dreamland of which secret coordinates we still haven't found. Unfortunately, six months after we got out of the closet, we are still as virgin and nearly as inexperienced as we were in October, but I can tell our testosterone is kicking faster than it ever did. It's like our third leg is occupying most of our thoughts and that our brain has migrated to our balls. However, our exclusive friendship makes it hard for us to turn toward other guys we could date.

What about Isaiah then?

I had planned to ask the guys to try and find my boyfriend in Haddon Township to inform him of my grounding, but I didn't have to do so. On the Monday after I was caught red-handed sneaking back inside my bedroom, Isaiah visited me in my high school, and not because he was furious at me for having ditched him on Saturday. The sad expression on his face didn't stem from my profuse apology for being unable to see him for two months either, rather from the news he was coming to break.

It turns out that the day we got naughty at his place, his mother wasn't in Philly for errands, but because she had an appointment for an attractive professional opportunity. A wealthy family in the city was looking for a full-time housekeeper and she got the job. This meant they were going to move into these people's house and leave the one they had in Haddon Township nearby. It was an offer she couldn't refuse as that meant a better environment for her son, a much nicer place to live in, a better school too. But this also meant the end of our relationship and that day was the last time I saw him.

Well, I didn't have time to get attached to Isaiah so it was quite okay, but it still saddened me a lot and only added to my pain of being grounded as they left barely two weeks later. Maybe it was better this way in the end, I don't know, but I wish I had gotten to know him better and experienced more things with him.

That's life and since then, I haven't had another boyfriend. After the two months without seeing much of my best friends, we had a lot to catch up on, and anyway, I couldn't take risks being ratted on to my parents.

Anyway, our conversations have become so much fun that talking about sex with the guys has sort of been enough so far and I must admit that they are getting worse and worse. Or better and better... And our afternoons at the shack hotter and hotter. A couple of months ago, Josh literally slipped his hand inside his sweatpants while flipping through the pages of a magazine, bluntly stroking himself. That earned us a huge fit of laughter, but the following week, we were all doing the same inside our pants.

I wonder what the next step will be.

* * *

Sunday 21 April 2002

"What the heck is Cam doing?" I grouse after we have been waiting for him for half an hour already.

As if on cue, a knock echoes on the entrance door and as Joshua opens, there comes our friend, but he is not alone. He is carrying a little boy on his shoulders, one who is all laughs as the young man lunges forward, bending over and giving the kid more sensations. Sony bursts out laughing as his big brother runs through the huge living room until he eventually plops down in an armchair with Sony over his lap.

Cam is a different person around his baby brother. At 6, well almost 7, Sony is ten years younger than Camden and our friend is extra-protective of the cute little boy. These two are quite opposed physically speaking and if it weren't for their dark hair, they wouldn't have anything in common. Cam took a lot after his father: he's tall and thin, with the same cold, gray eyes and a rough temper. Sony inherited from their mother with angel-like features, malicious green eyes and a chubbier frame.

From what Camden told us back then, his mother had a difficult pregnancy, and Sony was born a month and a half in advance. I can't say if it has any correlation, but his early birth left him a weak baby with such a poor health, often sick and although he has gotten stronger, he doesn't grow very fast. I can't remember Cam ever being sick, despite all the ill-treatment he endured and lack of food, he has always been healthy, but his baby brother just catches every germ.

Cam's affection for Sony is amazing and nothing you would expect from that grumpy bear. When the little chap was born, it seems like their father's violent urges tamed a bit, however, as the toddler began to walk and become more of a pain in his neck, they came back full force. For a long period, Cam barely hung out with us after school, wanting to be home as much as possible to protect Sony from his father's wrath and to take the blows in his place.

It was sheer luck that Liz found out about the maltreatment on the day that this klutz of Cam spilled his hot chocolate all over his chest, but Gosh! What a slap in our faces! All these bruises on his back and arms, and I'm sure there were more on his legs. It was such a shock! After Hall Senior aggressed the cop and social services rep and was sent to jail, Joshua often asked Liz if she had anything to do with the impromptu visit, but she never confirmed.

Life has been a tad gentler for Cam and Sony since then, and I believe our friend truly loves his mother, but unfortunately, she's not much better than their father, if for the fact that she doesn't beat her kids. Her maternal instincts are nearly inexistent and if Sony is here, I can only guess she must have drowned herself into whisky or whatever strong liquor again.

"Hey, Sony-Buddy! Where's my hug?" I scold the little boy playfully with wide-opened arms from the couch.

Sony giggles childishly and wriggles out of his brother's arms to rush over to me and jump over my lap.

"It's here, Ron-Ron!!" he cheers as he straddles my thighs and snuggles against my chest.

"Shhhh you little creep, don't let them hear that nickname! Only you can call me that!!" I whisper with mock irritation as I begin to tickle his sides, making him writhe and laugh.

Kneeling up, Sony leans forward and brings his small hands to connect his mouth to my ear.

"Cammy calls you that too!"

"Does he?" I whisper-exclaim. "I'll have to tickle him, then!"

"You'd better keep your big paws off me," Cam grumps, rolling his eyes. "Sorry for being late, guys, I just couldn't leave him alone with her," he then sighs apologetically.

"Not your fault, Cam, is she relapsing?" Mark asks warily.

"Hopefully not. She'd been a bit better these past few months, but I'm afraid she got one too many glasses last night, and I didn't manage to wake her up, so I had to take Sony."

"It doesn't matter because..." Josh trails off as he rises to his feet and slowly walks to me, "Sony's a cutie!!!!" he then exclaims as he abruptly steals the kid from me and lifts him up in the air to make him fly.

For a few minutes, Mark, Josh and I play with the little boy, cautiously throwing him from arms to arms until he claims his big brother's lap again and returns to cuddle with Cam. I swear they are really adorable.

"I'm gonna leave, guys, if you want to watch the movie, I can't let Sony watch that..."

"Nuuuuuh! I don't wanna go home, Cammy!! I wanna watch TV!!!" Sony exclaims before he turns to Joshua. "Joss, I wanna watch cartoons!!" he then squeals eagerly.

It's not the first time that Sony has to follow his big brother and spends time with us, and he clearly has a preference for Joshua's house because it has several televisions. Since the Hall's don't even have one, he usually seizes the opportunity to enjoy cartoons when he's here.

"Ugh... Sony! It's not nice to say I want!" Cam scolds him.

"Cam, it's either that or we can watch the movie another day. Sony could use the guest room next to mine, though, it has a TV and he wouldn't be far from us!" Joshua offers.

"Sounds good. Do you want to watch cartoons, baby boy?"

"Hey! I'm not baby!!" Sony grouses, punching his little fist against his brother's chest.

"Yeah... Whatever..." Cam snorts as he gets up and drops Sony on the floor. "I guess we have a deal, then!"

Ten minutes later, Sony is comfortably lying in the middle of a king size bed watching some cartoon channel while we start American Pie in Joshua's bedroom. I have settled on the couch, with Mark to my left and Josh to my right, but Cam opted for the floor, his back leaning against the sofa between Mark and me.

American Pie is about four sexually-frustrated teenagers who make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate high school, so although they are straight, we sort of relate with their wild appetite for sex and adolescent concerns. In the end, the movie doesn't really meet our expectations, but there are still quite a few good jokes that make us burst out laughing, like that moment when Jim jacks off into one of his socks while watching porn and gets caught red-handed by his mother. The father is so funny trying to advise his son about sex, and Mark gets teased a lot because it would definitely resemble his own father.

"Holy crap!! Can't believe it!!" Mark suddenly blows out, catching my attention when there's finally a scene where Jim and Stifler get to kiss, and as I turn to him, I see that his eyes are locked on Camden. "The heck, Cam! That's a freaking monster!!!"

Joshua pauses the movie and as we both lean forward to get a better look, we just burst out laughing. Cam has pulled his junk out of his sweatpants and he's jacking off! And fuck! That jerk's pretty well endowed!

"Want a taste of it, Marky?" Cam replies in a smug tone that makes us laugh even harder.

"Fuck you, Cam!" Mark grumbles, gently smacking the back of his head.

"Uh uh... won't happen..." Cam replies in his most serious tone. "But you can impale yourself on my dick if you want..." he then adds ever so sternly.

"Thank you, but no thank you!"

"Too bad... I'm sure your virgin hole would feel great... Mmmm... So tight..." Cam continues while stroking himself and believe me or not, but that dumbass doesn't seem to fake his moans.

"It's not even exciting, Cam!" I laugh out.

"It's not, but that guy... Meyers... he's really cute... Ngh..."

We decide to ignore him as Josh restarts the movie, still chuckling though, and a few seconds later, just when the two guys start French-kissing, that idiot grunts and I think he really comes into his hand! Our friend just orgasmed next to us!

Okay, this is not the first time we masturbate in the same room, we have done that a lot at the shack in fact, but it's mostly about touching ourselves and I don't think any of us ever climaxed in the others' presence. Or perhaps it happened and I didn't notice.

"Hey!!! I hope you weren't thinking of me!!!" Mark yells as Cam stands up with his hand full of spunk and heads toward Joshua's private bathroom.

"I was, Baby..." he replies, giggling like an idiot while he washes his hands, causing Mark to flush all red.

Damn! It feels so good to hear Cam laugh so heartedly for once that Josh and I immediately try to calm Mark down.

"Just let him have his fun for once..." I whisper softly.

Mark rolls his eyes but needless to say that we don't really watch the end of the movie. Those frolics between straight people are not really our thing and we have more fun teasing each other, and mostly Camden.

"We need to find gay movies..." I sigh at some point. "It would be more fun. I didn't even get a boner!"

"I did..." Mark chuckles.

"Still not sure about your sexuality, Marky, or was it the sight of my cock? I could help you to find out..." Cam offers in a smug tone.

"Oh, shut the hell up, Cam! No way I'm letting you approach my ass! For crying out loud, no man's ever going to approach my ass! I can take care of yours, though..." Mark smirks back at him and Cam just raises his middle finger in answer.

"Hey, Ron! When you say gay movies, you mean... gay porn?" Joshua asks eagerly, coming back to the subject.

"I said gay movies, Josh, not gay porn..." I chuckle, though I wouldn't mind that either.

"I don't know of that many," Mark comments.

"What about Beautiful Thing?" Josh proposes.

"Or Philadelphia with the gorgeous Antonio Banderas?" I suggest.

"That sounds good!" they all agree.

"Then I'm going to find that movie for next time!" Joshua cheers. "And I know my mother will be out next Wednesday, so we can watch it then!"

We all agree to that and get ready to leave soon after. As we stop by the guest room where we had left Sony, we find the little boy asleep on the bed with the TV still on. Camden softly grabs him into his arms and Sony doesn't even wake up as he carries him downstairs. Just as we are all bidding our goodbyes, thunder strikes outside and we realize that the sky has gotten dark.

"Shit! It's going to rain, and I didn't bring his coat! I don't want him sick again," Camden grumbles before he cautiously and gently puts his brother on the couch.

"I can find something to cover him," Josh proposes.

"Nah, don't worry, I'll use my hoodie."

We all watch him take off his large sweatshirt before he slowly slips it on Sony. Cam is always sweet around his brother, but the gentleness he is capable of never fails to surprise me. When the little boy begins to mumble in his sleep, Cam brings his forefinger between the kid's eyes and rubs it very softly, hushing him to stay asleep. This is so adorable and it only proves that the roughest ones of us can also lavish sweet care to others.

Once Cam has taken Sony back into his arms, we all go out saying goodbye to Joshua and head back to our respective houses. I am right on time to help my mother cooking, which she honestly appreciates. Not that it pleases me, but that's among the goals I have fixed myself to keep tensions at bay and it has worked rather well so far.

"How was your afternoon with your friends?" she asks.

"Oh... it was nice. We reviewed some lessons and then just talked," I lie easily, which has become another habit of mine and I now excel at hiding emotions in my voice.

"I hope you are behaving. You know I never trust Camden too much," she says half-warily, half-threateningly.

Calm down, Ron, calm down... Don't start a fight now.

"I promise we are. Camden is nice, Mom, and this afternoon, he was also taking care of his little brother, so we also played with Sony," I reply, trying to avoid seething.

"I am certain you have a good influence on him, Aaron, you are so charitable."

"How about your afternoon?" I then ask to change the subject.

"The Millers were here for tea and we talked a lot," she replies softly. "Oh! By the way, on Wednesday afternoon, you will go to church with me, Aaron," she then adds as an afterthought.

"What?" I exclaim, almost cutting myself with the knife I am using to dice tomatoes.

"Have you already forgotten what Father Joseph said after the mass this morning? The Church will hold a charity event on Wednesday, so the Millers and we are going to help. Your father will also try to take the afternoon off to join us. There will be a sale of pastries and cakes, so you will be taking care of this while we organize the bingo game."

I can't say that the smile plastered on my face looks sincere, but this is the best I can manage.

"Of course... but is my help really necessary?" I still try.

"We could work this out without you, Aaron, but I would really appreciate your presence. Besides, Father Joseph would like to talk to you as well."

"Why?"

"He just wants to speak, Aaron. Out of the confessional for once, so don't be so haughty about it. Father Joseph has found you more... receptive at the mass recently and he is really happy you are going to attend this summer camp in Virginia," she continues. Thanks for reminding me about it, Mom... "He just wants to have an unofficial conversation with you, nothing to worry about, darling."

Great... Just my luck...

I'll have to ask the guys if we can postpone our viewing of Philadelphia to another Wednesday or Sunday because instead of watching gays kissing, I will be among bigots who hate homos.

You're mean, Aaron... Not all Catholics hate gays...

Yeah, I know that. But my family does.

The Millers do.

Father Joseph does.

This specific church does.

I'm going to hate next Wednesday.

Published on 13 March 2019

Here you go with another chapter, hope you enjoyed even though there wasn't much, but as you can guess, we're getting closer to this whole ordeal about popping cherries that was hinted many times in the previous books. Well, we all know that Cam did pop Mark's ;)

You've now officially met with Sony and Mark's parents, and in the next chapter, you'll also get to meet two secondary characters who are very dear to my heart. Little clue? Grandpa and his lovely wife ;)

See you soon!!