AN:This is the first of a four part story about three brothers, spanning over about seven years. Except for some editing, the entire saga is complete, so it shouldn’t take years to update. Oh, and by the way, just to make sure no one missed it – this is Male x Male. Enjoy!!

Hat Trick

Part 1

Drew Mason – 1999

Graham Angelo

Graham Angelo.

Graham fucking Angelo.

If it hadn’t been for Graham Angelo, Drew’s life would’ve been perfect. Graham Angelo with skin like milky coffee and eyes like bog water. Graham Angelo with his crooked teeth and a dimple in his cheek on the right side of his face. Graham Angelo with his black hair always in need of a brush flowing down to the middle of his back. Graham Angelo, a bit too tall and a bit too thin, but with muscles rippling when he moved. Graham Angelo with his too tight, too old shirts and his fall-apart jeans and scuffed work boots. Graham Angelo with his tattoos peeking out everywhere. Graham Angelo with his deep voice and rumbling laugh. Graham Angelo who probably didn’t know that Drew even existed and wouldn’t give a shit about him even if he did.

Drew was still staring at the back of Graham’s head when the bell rang signalling the end of fourth period history, causing him to jerk upright in his seat. He took a quick, guilty look around, trying to see if anyone had noticed the way he’d been staring at the other boy.

“Fuck.” He mumbled under his breath as he gathered his books.

Lately, every history class had been a complete balls-up. He had to spend close to an hour every night going over the day’s work to make sure that he was up to date. He’d considered asking Mister Jameson to move him to a seat closer to the front, but wasn’t sure how to explain this sudden need. Telling him the truth; that he found the curve of Graham Angelo’s neck distracting, would probably not go over very well.

Drew had never even considered the thought that he might be gay. He played rugby and cricket. He had a girlfriend. He was just one of the guys. Sure, he noticed his teammates in the showers after practice, it was only natural to check out the competition. Sure, he occasionally had a wet-dream about some guy sucking him off, but he couldn’t be held responsible for what happened in his dreams. The fact was that he’d been happily heterosexual, or at the very least safely in denial until Graham Angelo had transferred to Summer Cove High in the beginning of the year. Something about the other senior just pushed every fucking queer button Drew had, and made it impossible for him to ignore the fact that he was gay; that he’d always been gay and had known it somewhere deep down even though he’d refused to acknowledge it.

“Hey buddy! Dreaming about Tiffany?”

Drew was startled when Dean Bryant, his best friend, suddenly spoke up behind him. He couldn’t help but wonder what Dean would say if he knew exactly who and what Drew had been thinking about.

Drew grinned up at his friend and ignored his question. “Hey man, how you doing?”

Drew wasn’t short by any means; at eighteen, he’d reached a very respectable height of a meter ninety-two, but at over two meters, Dean towered over him and most of the rest of SC High.

“What happened to that brother of yours?” Dean asked.

Drew shrugged. Claude constantly looked as though he’d been through the wars; the fifteen year old seemed to be a walking disaster area. If it wasn’t a fight, it was some dangerous stunt he and his best friend Dustin Winters came up with.

Dean laughed and shook his head at Drew’s lack of interest in his brother’s escapades. “I don’t get how you two can be so different. You sure he wasn’t adopted?”

“You should see Donovan sometimes,” Drew said. “He really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the family.”

Drew kept a wary eye out for Tiffany as he and Dean made their way outside. Tiffany usually had lunch with her friends in the cafeteria, while Drew spent the period outside with his own friends, but lately it seemed as though she was waiting for him around every corner. He knew he was being paranoid, but he couldn’t force himself to relax until they were outside under the bleachers with the rest of the guys.

For the most part, conversation centred around sports and Drew managed to keep his mind off of Graham Angelo, but he couldn’t help but study his friends and teammates with just a little more interest. It wasn’t so much that he was suddenly attracted to any of them, but he wondered how they would react if it ever came out that he was gay. He also tried to figure out if any of them might be in the same boat he was in, but if something like gaydar actually existed, his was definitely not in working order. He couldn’t sense as much as a ping from any of the twenty or so guys sitting under the bleachers.

As much as he hated the idea of being queer, he wasn’t stupid. You either were or you weren’t, and years of denial made no difference. Drew was the type of person who dealt with things as calmly and efficiently as possible. He wasn’t a natural procrastinator, and having finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to guys, (fucking Graham Angelo) he was going to deal with it. However, Drew wasn’t suicidal either. He knew that just jumping out of the closet, waving a rainbow flag and singing Lisa Minneli songs was a sure way to get himself killed, or at the very least ostracized and ridiculed. He had less than a year of high school left, and it would probably be best to carry on the way he had been, but the following year at university would be a totally different story. He knew that quite a few of his friends from Summer Cove would be going to SSU, but he’d be damned if his fear would keep him in hiding forever.

A kick to his shin brought Drew out of his thoughts and back to reality.

“Where the fuck do you keep going off to Mason?” One of the guys asked while the rest of the group laughed at Drew’s obvious embarrassment at being caught daydreaming.

“Tiffany keeping you up at night?” Someone else added their two cents causing a round of fresh laughter.

“Nah man, just thinking ‘bout going off to uni and getting out of this damn town.” Drew covered, knowing that any mention of escape from Summer Cove would lead to a lively discussion of everyone’s plans for the future and get the focus off of him. He had to pull himself together.

Somehow, he managed to get through the rest of the break without slipping into any more thoughts of Graham Angelo. Unfortunately, the rest of the day didn’t go as smoothly.

XXX

For the most part, Drew got along with everybody in his class, but if Brady Hunt had to be struck by lightning and burnt to a little splotch of crispy fried asshole, he wouldn’t shed a hell of a lot of tears. For some reason, Brady always seemed to get on his very last nerve. If pressed, Drew probably wouldn’t be able to come up with anything better as to why than ‘just because’. It had just always been that way, ever since Drew could remember somewhere back in primary school. The guy was just too good at everything he did; too smart, too popular, too everything. He was good-looking; actually, if he was being honest, the guy was fucking gorgeous and he didn’t need to be gay to be able to see it. Brady was about an inch or so shorter than him, but he was even bigger than Drew, with a beautifully defined body. His hair was thick and always in disarray due to his habit of running one hand through the light brown mass. He had light brown eyes framed by thick, long lashes and an almost constant half-smile on his face. Unfortunately, the guy just rubbed him up the wrong way.

“Hey sweetie.”

Maybe that was part of it.

For some reason Brady always had to use stupid endearments when he addressed Drew. If he did the same thing with everyone else, it wouldn’t have bugged Drew so much, but he was the only one lucky enough to be at the receiving end of Brady’s constant taunting.

“What the fuck do you want?” Drew almost growled at the grinning guy.

“Aw, don’t be like that love. I missed you this weekend and now you act as though you aren’t even the tiniest bit happy to see me.”

If looks could kill, Brady would’ve been croaking out his last on the scuffed linoleum of the classroom.

“Fuck you, Hunt.” Drew didn’t even try to think of anything smart to say in reply to Brady’s ridiculous teasing.

“Oh baby, you just say when!” Brady’s exclamation was followed by loud laughter and Drew had to struggle not to turn around and beat the shit out of the guy.

He looked up as he made his way to his seat and for the first time since the beginning of the year, Graham Angelo was looking straight at him. Drew felt his cheeks heat up when he noticed the grin on Graham’s face. As if it wasn’t enough that Brady had to try and embarrass him in front of everyone else, now Graham Angelo had to witness one of his stupid displays as well.