"THE WORLD BEYOND" - 'NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY'

PROLOGUE: ORDINARY AS DIRT...

Nothing unique or special here. Nothing to see that could even remotely be considered out of the ordinary. 

Jake liked the typical upper-teen foods, music, books, clothes, and so it goes as they say. All his friends in this smallish town high school were drearily the same. Doubtless few would ever ascend to anything else. Maybe one or two, but in a relatively large graduating class of 102, that was being generous.

Yup. Nothing beyond the occasional hiccup was to be found anywhere in Jake's personhood or lifestyle or being that denoted anything but a dismally extraordinary total semblance of mediocrity existence... save one thing and even that wasn't all THAT out of the ordinary .

Jake was in love. Yep. In love, head over heels and applecart and blindly following his heart in love...with...another...

GUY.

A guy who had absolutely NO clue as to Jake's true feelings and probably never would. They had been best buds from early childhood...and for as long as he could remember, Jake had just adored his pal. Worshipped him. Loved him to his core, but...

Of course as a teenager even Jake knew you just don't fall in love with another GUY, oh GOD no. Not in small town...small county, small everything, middle of PODUNK smallsville where he and his best bud and a few even more mediocres of the teen variety lived, loved, and ate the same food and saw the same movies and read the same books, and...you get the idea. This was beyond reason, the most dreary little burg anyone could imagine, but it was home. SOOOOOO, what was Jake to do?

Ahhh, therein lies the tale. What was he gonna do? What if his friend figured out how Jake felt? Would he flee? Would he beat the shit out of Jake? Would he laugh himself sick and tell all of their friends about his PATHETIC best friend Jake? OMG, would he be laughed out of town on the proverbial rail? Would he be forced to stand up in class and confess his 'SIN' and then be laughed at and scoffed at by everyone he knew from now 'til graduation? He lived in perpetual fear of that scenario and rarely spent one day not fearing the worst and it was reaping a horrid toll on Jake. But he didn't know what else to do.

Suddenly, one day at school (first day of senior year actually), he saw out of the corner of his eye someone he didn't know and that floored him. This was a small town school and everyone knew everyone else and that was that but this dude he didn't know, and furthermore he had never seen anyone quite like him.

This kid was beyond average height, beyond average in the looks department, definitely WAY beyond average in  the obviously rather enormously well-endowed 'package' department, and to top it all off he had a look and and a feel and an aesthetic about him that just REEKED AND SCREAMED...

"look at me, I am SOOO hot."

Jake stopped in mid-stride in front of his locker as this New-Kid-On-The-Block strode over to him and opened the door of the locker NEXT to Jake's. Jake almost fainted. Who WAS he? Where did he come from and so suddenly? Jake suddenly developed a LOT of questions and sadly few answers and definitely NO guts. He wanted so badly to engage this DEWDDDDDD in conversation but his tongue was by now so tied up in knots he could have loaned it out as a...

He was incredibly intrigued and even more incredibly not going to find out who this kid was at this rate. But suddenly fate intervened...

"Hey," the new kid said as he turned completely towards Jake and looking directly at him said...with a degree of self-confidence Jake was not used to. Nobody in this school talked like that.

"Hey," Jake managed to stammer out, hating himself for sounding like a dweeb he was sure.

Suddenly the kid leaned forward slightly toward him and put out a hand...a very nice hand to be sure...firm to the grip and yet soft and almost tender.

"My name's Dylan, Dylan Lassiter. Who are you?"

At this precise moment, Jake wasn't too sure, definitely WAS sure he was about to faint and make a COMPLETE fool of himself...even more sure he wasn't going to live to tell about this GAWJUS dude from the planet OH MAH GAWD, and...

"Jake," he finally got out sorta kinda...and at that point Dylan grabbed Jake's hand with his outstretched hand and just kinda sorta held it...almost tenderly. Jake almost died on the spot.

"Nice to meet you, Jake." and Dylan smiled one of the brightest most endearing and definitely 'THE HAWTEST" smile Jake had ever seen. Oh  yes.

"Thanks. Nice to meet you too," said as Jake began to feel limp in the knees and just about everywhere else on his now ragingly near-inferno-like body (with one exception of course). Then as anyone with a lick of sense could tell, he was just about beyond numb. Thus, Jake just stood there, his hand being held by this GOD of awesome, and not having a CLUE what to do or say or even think next.

"First days at school are always the worst," Dylan said...

"Yeh," Jake responded...'

Dylan continued, "and the first day in a brand new school even worse yet."

At that point, Jake FINALLY found his voice (mind) and said...

"You are new here." Well, duh.

"Yeh, Just came from Connecticut. Dad got transferred by Pfizer. SO, here we are. The 'rents just leased a house and have decided they want to build a house here too.

"Kewl."

"Yeh, well I didn't much think so. I mean, senior in high school, same schools for my entire life and now uprooted to somewhere between Nowhere and Somewhere other than anywhere lively, sorry no offense."

Dylan seemed to suddenly realize that this Jake person was probably from here, always lived here, never been anywhere else...and realized he better tone it down a tad. "Sorry, don't mean to offend. At least I did feel that way UNTIL about two minutes ago."

"None taken," and suddenly Jake laughed...a bit. That surprised him almost beyond words. I mean out of the blue here was this absolutely gorgeous and strange, uh, stranger and they were all of a sudden engaged...in conversation but one can always hope. Not even a smattering of thought went to his now perhaps 'former' best friend but time would tell he would have thought IF his brain was not on overload and in the process of shutting down to cool off. He also suddenly realized that this absolute HUNK was kinda or so it began to seem, coming on to him and that caused a shake-down inside Jake all the way down to his toesies which he suddenly decided needed to be trimmed if they were going to...ummm.

"So what you gonna do after school? Dylan asked.

"Dunno. Probably just go home I guess."

One would think they were old friends by now, but in truth Jake was one step away from EXPLODING and then spiraling up into a wisp of ethereal cartoon smoke and absolute invisible exist...tense as fuck.

"Can I tag along?"

At this point, Jake felt faint to say the least and was increasingly afraid he would which of course would put off his NEW BESTEST FRIEND...which he did NOT want to happen so he moved his legs slightly apart to keep himself upright, and managed to mutter...

"Uh, sure," real Shakespeare stuff. LOL.

AND so the tale begins...and in truth, the beginning of anything can be pretty hair-raising and awkward...but...

READ ON: Let's see where these two wind up, or even IF they wind up... OR...

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER ONE 

 The End of the beginning or...