Rich and Scott

Chapter 1

Rich

"Thats the last box," I told my friend Matt. "It goes in the kitchen"

"I know how to read you know," Matt said. "Although your handwriting is so bad that I don't honestly know how I can read it." He got into the truck and pushed the box to me with a sly grin on his face.

"What do you expect me to do with this? I can't lift more than ten pounds remember, Dr.'s orders" Matt's face took on a sad dejected look. I recently had a bad time with a vampire and he ripped through my deltoid muscle and damn near ate through my shoulder blade before he came to his senses and realized what he was doing. That was when I swore off of supernaturals with a bloodlust. My phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the screen, I wasn't surprised to see Derek's name in my notifications; he hasn't stopped texting me since the night I left the hospital.

'Who is that," Matt asked, looking over my shoulder. "Give me that," he said snatching my phone out of my hands, and started typing. I tried to get it back from him but he had longer arms than I did and with my back and my arm in the condition was in I couldn't extend it all the way. The doctors had been very reluctant to let me go. They wanted me to stay for a few more days just to make sure that my arm was ok. I had a Physical Therapist in Albuquerque already so they let me leave.

"Come on Matt give me my phone back, I don't want him to be pissed at me." As I said that I knew it wasn't true if that's what it took to get him to leave me alone then, I would gladly piss him off. "You know what on second thought I'll just let you text him for me."

He laughed and said, "ok, I was going to send the text before I gave you the phone back anyways." he put my phone in his back pocket and grabbed the box off the truck. When we got inside he walked to the kitchen and I looked at my other best friend Toby.

"Are you sure there is no way I could convince you to move here to tiny Oasis City New Mexico? I mean there is a bar here so it's not like you would have to mix your own drinks every night." I had been trying to get Toby to move in with Matt and I since I decided to move. It didn't take much convincing to get Matt to come with me. He was born and raised in a small town in New Mexico and was thinking about moving back, his reasoning being that Georgia was too far away from his home town. Toby on the other hand wanted to get back to Georgia saying that he didn't want to be in a small town. He might fade away if he wasn't surrounded by freeways, buildings and bars all around him.

"Don't worry I will come visit! I don't think my wardrobe is gonna be able to survive losing the one person who put it all together. So that'll be my reason for coming to see you."

"What's your reason for coming to see me?" Matt asked.

"Well I'm gonna be in town I might as well come see him," he said with a huge grin.

Toby and Matt had been best friends before I met them when I transferred into the University. We all had a class together and Matt invited me to sit with them and we have been pretty much inseparable ever since. Until now that is.

"Well at least stay the night and help us unpack a little bit I said hopefully"

He seemed to think about it for a few seconds and then smiled, "well, my calendar is clear so I guess I'll stay."

The rest of the night was spent unpacking and joking with each other while we listened to music.

* * *

The next morning I woke up to someone knocking on the door. I got up to go answer it when I smelled breakfast cooking. As I walked to the door I looked to see who was up. Of course it was Matt, He was an early bird Toby and I prefered to sleep in until about midday. I smiled to myself as I opened the door, thinking Toby would be pissed when Matt woke him up. As I reached for the door knob, I felt a huge burst of pain in my shoulder. I fell to the ground with a yelp of pain. A second later I heard someone running towards me.

"I brought you a couple of pain pills and some water if you want it" Matt said handing me the pills then the water. "Have you already set up that appointment with the doctor who is supposed to refer you to the physical therapist?" He asked, concern plain in his voice, as I got up and reached for the door with my other hand.

"Yeah, its on Tuesday morning," I answered him as I opened the door. "Besides, I can use my other arm f-" My words were caught in my throat because there was a man standing at the door. The first thing I noticed about him was his chest since that was about eye level for me. Even underneath the button down shirt and t-shirt underneath I could tell he had a very nice defined chest. I moved my eyes up to his face, and boy was he handsome.

"Hi there," he said extending his hand "I'm Scott from across the road. I saw that someone had moved into this house and wanted to come by and introduce myself."

"Hi," I said regaining some of my composure by looking back down away from his face. "I'm Richard, but everyone calls me Rich," I said as I shook his hand. I looked at his face again and his eyes struck me. They had two gold rings, one around the outside of his iris, while the other circled his pupil. In between those golden rings was the most brilliant sea green I had ever seen. When his eyes finally let mine go, I noticed he had some mexican features mixed with spaniard features perfectly. He reminded me of my great grandfather. He had full kissable lips and a perfect nose. His jaw was set and very strong, but not so strong that it took away from the rest of his features. His hair was the darkest shade of black that I had ever seen, that looked natural, when the sun hit it in the right place it looked like he had blue highlights. It was cut short on the sides and just a little bit longer on the top. It was styled perfectly to show off his facial features and his eyes. He was my height about 5'9" and to quote my friend Toby he had some meat on his bones. Needless to say I was instantly attracted to him, and I hoped he didn't notice the look in my eyes. For all I knew he could be a straight homophobe who went gay bashing on the weekends.

I found myself holding onto his hand for longer than I should have been. "Sorry," I said as I let his hand drop from mine. Tearing my gaze from his I asked him, "do you want some coffee? My roommate is in the kitchen, if you want to meet him."

"Yeah sure, that sounds like a good idea" he said as he came in. We walked back to the kitchen, stepping around Scott's sleeping form.

"Morning Matt," I said as he was turning around with a plate of bacon in his hand.

"Morning Rich, how did you sleep? And who is this guy?" He asked putting the bacon on the island.

I walked over to the coffee pot and pulled myself a mug down. "Matt this is the neighbor from across the street, Scott. Scott this is my best friend and roommate Matt." They shook hands with smiles and greetings. I pulled down another mug for Scott and asked him how he liked his coffee.

"Black is fine," he said. I poured his coffee feeling like I had broken an uncomfortable silence. "So what brought you to our small city of Oasis City?"

"Matt's parents live in Los Alamos, and he wanted to be closer to his family and I needed to move so he came with me," I said. I took a sip of my coffee and watched as Matt made eggs. We ran to the grocery store right before they closed last night so that we could get some stuff for breakfast, and maybe a light lunch.

"Yeah, Georgia was getting to be too much for me," Matt said.

"Who is the new guy," I heard Toby ask from behind Scott somewhere. Scott moved against the doorway and let Toby through.

"Toby this is Scott the neighbor from across the street. Scotty this is my other best friend Toby." They shook hands and Toby went straight for the coffee pot.

"Did you want to stay and eat Scott," Matt asked as he put a plate of eggs and toast on the island. It looked really good as always.

"Nah, I better get going I have a few fences I need to fix," he said putting his mug on the counter. "Thanks for the coffee though and it was nice meeting you Rich, Toby, Matt. Y'all have a good day."

With that he turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen. I followed him out and told him to come by anytime. I closed the door and went to eat breakfast with my two best friends.

Chapter 2

Scott

I walked around to the back of my house and tried to get started mending the fence, but I couldn't keep my mind off the guy across the street. He was a cute little guy, and there was a different smell to him that he hadn't smelled anywhere else. It was a smell that reminded him of the happy times he had in life. But he couldn't put his finger on it.

I smelled blood and looked down to see that I cut my finger on the barbed wire. "Shit," I said. The blood wasn't enough to really worry about but it was still there. I could feel it rising inside me but it wasn't coming so fast that he couldn't stop it. The full moon was a whole week away. I wondered why my self control was so bad this far from the full moon, it should have ok the lust shouldn't have risen up inside me like that. I pulled out my phone and swiped through my contacts until I found Erik's name. I tapped the screen and waited as my phone dialed his number. He answered on the third ring. "Whats going on with me," I asked him after I finished telling what just happened. "I feel like I can't control anything anymore. My own blood turned the blood lust on inside of me and I actually had to stop it from coming up on me before I ate my own hand off."

Hello to you too, and I'm not very sure what's going on with you. Did you smell something different today," he asked thoughtfully. "That could be what's wrong you know."

"No," I said deciding not to tell my step father about the man who had just moved in across the street just yet. "It might just be a cold or some kind of infection. Sorry for disturbing you Erik you should get back to whatever you were doing," I said quickly hanging up before he noticed the lie and confronted me about it.

As much as he would have loved to be able to date the little cutie across the street I knew it wasn't really an option seeing as how the kid was a human. I shook my head trying to clear it and got back to work on mending the fence.

* * *

I found myself back at Rich's door a few hours later. The moving truck wasn't there any more so he figured they had gone to the next town over to drop it off. He turned around to walk away when the door opened behind him.

"Scott, what's up?" he heard Rich say behind him.

Rich stood at the door, Scott tried not to notice his sexy little body earlier that day when he came by to introduce himself, but he found that to be impossible this time around. Standing at about 5'9" he had a nice lean body. He had dark blue eyes, the color was close to that of the night sky around the moon, where you can see that it is still blue but it's really dark. He found that he couldn't pull his gaze away from those beautiful eyes. After staring into them for a little while he finally pulled his gaze away. He looked at the perfect little nose that was so small but still lent a certain masculinity to his face which was needed when he got to those lips those perfect lips, full and pouty, they looked like they were ready to be kissed.

This was a bad idea but he was here already so he might as well ask the worst he could do was say no. "Do you... uh... maybe want to go to... uh, lunch with me? I know this great place in the next town over. I mean if you don't want to then you don't have to," I started babbling. I hated being so nervous I started babbling like this. I clamped my mouth shut and looked up at Rich. He was smiling, it didn't seem like he was making fun of me or anything so I smiled back.

"Uh, yeah just let me go get my coat," he said leaving the door open.

I followed him inside staring at his bubble butt as he walked. It looked so good in those almost-too-tight jeans he was wearing, my gaze drifted down his legs and I knew this was gonna be a bad idea. I pulled my gaze away from him and looked around the living room, it was looking a lot better. The walls weren't so bare anymore and the two leather recliners they had looked good with the suede and leather couch. I walked up to a picture on the wall, I saw Rich, Matt, Toby standing with someone else I didn't recognize he had his arm around Rich and was looking at him as if he was his entire world. I felt a pouring of jealousy running through me. I got rid of immediately and turned around just as Rich was walking back into the room with a light coat on. "Ready," he asked.

"I know it's none of my business, but who is this guy," I asked trying to hide the jealousy in my voice.

I regretted asking him that question when I saw the scowl on his face. I started to say never mind when he answered me.

"That's Derek, he is my ex, we dated from my sophomore year up until about four months ago. We decided to go our separate ways."

We stood in silence for a while, I tried not to let the joy I was feeling show in my eyes. I could tell that he was a little upset by the way his scent changed, and I was sorry I brought it up.

Changing the subject I asked "do your roommates want to come," and immediately regretted it. I wanted this to just be me and him, like a date, but the words were already out there.

"Matt went to Albuquerque with Toby to drop the moving truck off and take Toby to the airport, he is moving back to Georgia," Rich told me. "But I'm sure they will be happy to know that our neighbor is so kind as to think about my roommates," he had a huge smile on his face and I was sure I couldn't make this a date now. Not without seeming like the biggest asshole in the world.

"Oh ok, do you want to take my truck or..." I asked him letting my words trail off so that he knew he had more than one option but would know I wanted him to ride with me. I knew that if I opened my mouth again I would more than likely start babbling again.

"Well seeing as how my car is still in Georgia we can take your truck," he said with a shy smile. There might be hope for this to be a date yet.

"Ok, follow me" I said. We walked out of his house locking the door behind us. We walked across the street and I took a breath and savored the scent of him. Whatever that scent was it smelled so good. When we got to my house I led him around the side of the house up the driveway to the garage. I opened the garage door and led him around the passenger side, opening the door for him and helping him get in. I then walked around to the driver's side and got in myself.

"Do you have your seatbelt on" I asked him putting mine on. I looked up at him and he was staring at me with beautiful brown eyes. They looked like a cross between dark chocolate and milk chocolate. But where I expected to see innocence I saw a pain filled jadedness. It made me sad and angry at the same time. I wanted to really hurt whoever gave him the look that I had just seen. I looked away quickly and started the truck. We drove to the next town and made small talk along the way.

"So do you have a girlfriend lurking around somewhere in town," he asked me.

"No, do you have a girlfriend in Georgia waiting for you to get settled down before she comes down here," I asked him.

"No, but there is something you should probably know before we get too far out of town and start a friendship," he said nervously.

I looked over at him and wondered what he was going to say. There wasn't really very much that would keep me from wanting to date him. "What's that?"

"I'm gay" he said and he wouldn't look me in the eye while he said it.

I hated that he felt so uncomfortable but I knew how it felt to tell someone something like this when you had only met them that day. "So am I," I told him.

That got his attention. He looked at up at me "Seriously," he said. "You're not just pulling my leg, or trying to make me feel better, are you?"

"No I couldn't even imagine doing that to someone! That's just plain mean," I said. "Has someone done that to you before," I asked trying unsuccessfully to hide the anger in my voice. If someone had done that to him, and hurt him in any way they had better hope that I never found them. Ripping their throats out wouldn't even be enough.

"No, I just read about it in an article about a serial killer who was targeting gay men. I don't mean to say that you would do that. I mean you don't seem like the type of guy..." He trailed off his face turning a deep shade of red.

I smiled at him, "I know that you didn't mean it like that. It's hard to believe someone that you just met sometimes, especially when they say something like this," there I went with my rambling again. Why was he making me so nervous?

Changing the subject I asked him how old he was and he was two years older than me at twenty-eight to my 26. I also found out the he was a website designer. We were in town now so I drove us to the restaurant. Before we got out of the truck I took a huge breath of his scent and enjoyed it. He smelled so good. When we were seated in a booth, with our drinks ordered, we started looking at the menus I already knew what I wanted, so I stared at him over the top of my menu. He caught me looking a couple of times and I saw his cheeks and the bridge of his nose turn bright red each time.

I let out a small chuckle, knowing he would hear it. "What is so funny," he asked me.

"Nothing," I started "It's just that you are so cute when you blush, and knowing that it's probably because of me makes it even better." I was laying it on thick, making sure he had no room to think I wasn't interested. I licked my lips and he blushed again, this time a deep red. My flirting was starting to get to him.

The waitress decided that was a good time to come by and get our food orders. I ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon, and he got the chicken strips basket. She asked us if we wanted refills on our drinks, and we accepted. She came back two minutes later to retrieve our menus and give us our refills. I took my chance to flirt with him some more.

I set one of my hands palm up on the table in front of him as an invitation for him to put his hand in mine. He gave me that shy smile that was so sexy. I could feel myself starting to get a hard-on. He put his hand in mine and I held onto it. His skin was so warm and soft.

"Your hands are rough," he said. "What do you do for a living?"

"Um, I teach biology at the high school." I said. "The reason my hands r so calloused is because in my spare time and during the summer I build and repair fences, in my backyard for my horses or at friends houses."

"Oh, that is cool. I thought about teaching high school computer classes when I was in college," he said.

"Why didn't you," I asked him when it became obvious that he wasn't going to say more on the subject.

He looked a little surprised by my question but answered it, " because I realized I didn't have enough patience to teach teenagers." We both laughed.

I knew from experience how hard it could be to teach teens, so I totally understood where he was coming from. I wanted to flirt with him some more but when I looked up I saw that our food was coming.

Chapter 3

Rich

It was obvious that Scott was trying to hold back from flirting with me while we ate our lunch. But I liked it when he flirted with me, I was obviously just as interested in him as he was interested in me. We ate in silence, I kept trying to think of something witty and flirty to say but everything I thought of was either too dumb or something I didn't feel comfortable saying in this restaurant, where there were kids sitting around and the gum chomping waitress could walk by at any second to see how they were doing.