Brian sat on his aunt and uncle's back porch steps, his long legs crossed at the ankles as he took a long drag from the weed he was smoking; apparently the back hills of Kentucky were good, fertile ground for growing pot as well as tobacco, because considering how much out in the hicks he was, the stash he had appropriated from Jared earlier had turned out to be surprisingly good stuff.  His entire body was definitely feeling more relaxed than before; so much so, in fact, he could almost forget what had happened earlier.  But despite his best efforts, he found his thoughts straying, not back to the contentious encounter he had had with Jared, but rather to a frustrating but electrifying episode he had shared with Jared's younger brother on the Taylors' back porch swing a few hours ago.

What was it about this boy that captivated him so?  He was much too young for him, much too inexperienced to ever be his equal... Wasn't he?  Oh, Justin hadn't come right out and told him as much - not about the inexperienced part, anyway - but it was written all over his face whenever he felt like he was getting too close to him.  He knew that was the reason why he had pulled back, not because of some Victorian-type, romantic, bullshit principles.  Wasn't it?  But still, there was no denying that the boy could kiss!  He could kiss so well, in fact, that those wondrous, dusty pink lips should be outlawed.  It was as if their lips were meant to be melded together, as if their bodies had been made to be formed together into one glorious work of art.  It was almost magical in a way, almost life-altering even.

But as much as he might crave another taste, he was Brian Kinney; he didn't go around begging someone to be with him.  If Justin felt that riding his horses was more important than riding him, well, then, so be it.  There had to be other boys around besides a timid little field mouse and a cocky, arrogant bull that could adequately fulfill his needs.  Something told him, though, that none of them would be quite as satisfying as a certain beautiful blond who was uppermost in his thoughts at the moment.  Sighing softly in pent-up frustration, the buzz from the weed wearing off as reality began to sink back in, he threw what remained of the homemade marijuana cigarette down on the dirt ground by his feet and, standing there for a few moments to cast his eyes over at the now-darkened Taylor farmhouse, he turned and quietly trudged up the steps to the backdoor and entered the residence, knowing his uncle would have him up once more at the crack of dawn for yet another round of unpleasant chores.

Same Time - Taylor Farmhouse

Justin lay on his back in bed, his much-needed sleep proving to be an elusive commodity.  No matter how hard he closed his eyes and tried to will himself to sleep, it simply served to conjure up images of the boy who had kissed him to within an inch of his life earlier on their porch swing.  He found that it was actually better for him to keep his eyes open; it didn't remove the pictures of Brian from his mind, but at least he found that he could lessen their intensity by concentrating instead on the glow-in-the-dark stars and moons plastered onto the ceiling of his room, or turning his head to observe five more minutes had gone by from his horse clock, minutes ticking off relentlessly that he should be using for sleeping instead of erotic daydreaming.

He touched two fingers of his right hand to his lips, almost able to still feel the way that Brian's kiss had made his mouth tingle, how his tongue had swept into his mouth like some sensual wave, how Brian's arms had felt around his back, almost like they were tendrils of fire scorching his skin where they caressed him.  Just thinking about this other boy made him groan out loud at the way his body was reacting even now.  Brian wasn't even there - he had been gone well over a couple of hours now - but his cock apparently wasn't aware of that yet.  He let out a long, plaintive breath between his partially-opened lips as he reached down with his right hand to start stroking himself, imagining it was Brian's hand manipulating him as the palm of his left hand made circular motions over first one nipple and then the other, quickly bringing his arousal to an even higher level; his moans got louder and louder in volume as he allowed his eyes to close and he thought about his encounter with Brian on that swing and how Brian's skilled hands would feel if they were touching him now.  It didn't take long for his body to clench in delicious anticipation and for him to release his pent-up desire for him; several seconds later, his body lay sweaty and panting, his mind still racing with thoughts of the other boy.

"Damn you, Brian Kinney," he breathlessly whispered in a ragged voice, knowing that his hope of being fully rested before his next workout with Headstrong tomorrow morning was now an impossible goal.  He would be lucky if he managed to drift off to sleep at all now, although at least he could say that his body had been released temporarily from its torment.   Sighing again more heavily this time, he finally sat upright in the bed and swung his legs around to the side.  Eying the still wadded-up bundle of clothing over in the corner of his dimly-lit room where he had haphazardly tossed it earlier, he placed his bare feet down on the cold, hardwood floor.  Quietly creeping to his bedroom door, he opened it to plod down the hall toward the bathroom to wet a hand cloth to clean himself up.

Next Morning - Taylor Farmhouse

As he arrived at the kitchen, Justin was relieved to notice Jared not sitting there at the table eating breakfast.  After the confrontation he had overheard last night between his brother and Brian, he had been somewhat nervous about what sort of reaction his brother would have to seeing him this morning, even though it was not his fault that Jared had been rejected.  He hadn't lied about the events; Jared had.  He had a feeling, though, that his brother would still be carrying a grudge over him revealing the lie he had been spreading about him and Brian.  Of course, at the time he didn't know it WAS a lie, but he had a feeling that little detail wouldn't matter to his brother.

"Hi, Honey," Jennifer greeted her youngest son with a tender smile from her place at the stove.  "Scrambled eggs and bacon?" she asked him as she stirred a pan of gravy that was going to accompany the homemade biscuits presently baking in the oven.

Justin, still damp from his shower and looking decidedly bleary-eyed and tousled from his restless night's sleep, nodded as he shuffled over to the empty chair next to his father and sat down.  Jennifer quickly retrieved a casual, white-with-green-trim dinnerware plate from the oak Hoosier cabinet next to the stove and brought it over to the table to place it down in front of her son.  "Everything should still be warm," she told him as Justin nodded again and reached to scoop out a large portion of the scrambled eggs from the bowl sitting in the center of the table.  He took a pair of metal tongs resting on the edge of the bacon platter to snag a couple of pieces as his mother returned to the stove and his father eyed him from the top of the newspaper section he was perusing.

"Ready for Headstrong's work out this morning, Justin?" he asked without any preamble as he studied him like some old-fashioned school marm would.  "What time did you go to bed last night?  You look like shit this morning."

"Craig!" Jennifer chided him over his choice of words as she held up the gravy pan and poured the thickened sauce into a medium-sized matching bowl.  "Please... Your language."

Craig shrugged.  "Well, he does," he insisted as Justin's face turned red in embarrassment as if his father could figure out the reason why.  "I thought you knew better than to fritter away your sleep time the week before a race.  You know that Headstrong will pick up on your lack of energy."

Justin couldn't help sighing.  "I went to bed early enough," he insisted, although it had been much later than he had initially intended; it wasn't his fault, though, that he was minding his own business and someone else decided to interrupt his plans.  "I can't help if it I just happen to not be able to get to sleep."

"Were you drinking too many Cokes again before you went to bed last night?"

Justin rolled his eyes and huffed softly.

"Don't get impertinent with me, Justin; it's a legitimate question," Craig countered as Jennifer walked over with the basket of hot biscuits and bowl of gravy to place them in the middle of the table.  "It wouldn't be the first time, you know."

Justin sighed as his mother sat down on the opposite end of the table from his father.  "Give me a little credit, Dad!  I never drink caffeine that late when I know I have to get up early to work with Headstrong before a race!  You know that; I just couldn't get to sleep, that's all."  He looked over at his mother who was peering back at him sympathetically.  Sometimes he felt like he was in this continual, old-time rerun on television.  Did things ever change around here?  Apparently not - not when it came to his father never giving him the benefit of the doubt or having much faith in him.  He wondered how his father would feel if he just up and decided not to race Headstrong at all - how would he like it if he took away a large chunk of the farm's income as a result?  But it wasn't just for his father's sake or his brother's sake that he did it - he did it mainly because of his mother, and because it helped him to hopefully achieve his own goal next year of going to college out of state.  Right now with the way he felt it couldn't come soon enough, but he wasn't about to leave his mother, especially, in the lurch.  He worried constantly about what would happen once he DID leave - how the farm would remain solvent without his ability to bring in so much prize money to help with their finances - but he couldn't stay tied to the farm forever.  It would be up to his father at that point to figure out an alternative.

Craig lowered his paper to place it, folded, beside his plate.  "Well, eat up, then; at least you can practice on a full stomach, although normally that's not a problem, is it?"

Jennifer sighed this time as Justin averted his eyes and silently picked up his fork to sullenly stab at his scrambled eggs, suddenly feeling no desire to keep verbally battling it out with his father.  She reached over to pick up the basket of biscuits and say, "Here, Sweetheart, have a biscuit while it's hot."  Justin nodded glumly as he grabbed one of them and, pulling it apart, placed the two halves down on his plate and reached for the bowl of thick, brown gravy to spoon a generous amount on top, placing the bowl to his side where his father could reach it along with the biscuits.

As Jennifer accepted the food last and placed a small portion of each on her plate, she looked over at Craig to ask, "Where's Jared?  Is he still in bed?"

"Apparently," Craig replied tersely.  "And I told that boy to be up early today to do Justin's chores.  I don't like it when one of you boys don't mind what I say," he added as he looked over at Justin.

Justin turned his head to avoid letting his father see another disgusted rolling of his eyes as his gaze locked onto his mother's, both silently expressing the same sentiment:  Why are you directing that at ME and not at Jared?

"Go see what's taking him so long, Jen," Craig told his wife.  "He needs to get down here now; time's a wasting and it's going to be hot today."

She nodded as she pushed back from the table with her chair and stood up, silently resentful of his ‘caveman' attitude, but not openly protesting it.  She had been brought up to be the obedient little wife when she got married, but there were times when it distinctly grated on her nerves.  Her husband took a lot for granted at times; he had two, perfectly good legs and a powerful set of lungs; why was it HER job, then, to take care of these sorts of things just because she was supposed to be the ‘good little wife?'  One of these days she just might surprise her husband and tell him to do it himself.

Justin hurriedly consumed as much of his breakfast as he could as she left, not particularly wanting to either spend any private time with his surly father or risk any possible confrontation with Jared over Brian.  That was the last thing he either needed or wanted right now, not before the big race this weekend.  He scooped up the last bit of scrambled egg from his plate with his fork and pushed it in his mouth to swallow it at the same time he was wiping his lips off with his rooster-motif napkin.  "I'd better get going," he murmured as he placed the napkin down.  "May I be excused?"

To his relief, he father merely waved his hand in confirmation as he continued to sip from his coffee mug and picked up the sports section; Justin took advantage of his father's temporary indifference to quickly push back from the table and stand up.  Grabbing a couple of apples from the fruit bowl lying on top of the sideboard against the back wall, he quickly placed one in each pants pocket before he walked to the door to make his escape.  As he opened the screen door and shut it behind him, he heard his father say, "Don't coddle him, Justin, you hear me?"

"Yes, Dad," Justin shouted back in exasperation and barely-disguised disgust as, finally freed from the tense atmosphere surrounding the kitchen table, he headed out in the early-morning sun toward the stables.

Standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to her older son's upstairs bedroom several seconds later, Jennifer placed her hand on the well-worn, wooden knob of the railing as she looked upward, not detecting any outward signs of movement.  "Jared!" she shouted out.  "Are you up?  It's getting late, young man!"

She stood there for several more seconds before she sighed in disgust.  Proceeding to walk up the steps now, she reached the top of the landing and observed her son's bedroom door closed.  Shaking her head over the difference in values and sense of responsibility between her two sons, she walked over and instead of knocking on the door proceeded to turn the knob to open it unannounced.

Just as she figured, her oldest child was sprawled diagonally across the bed face down, one leg poking out of the crumpled, dark blue comforter as he lightly snored away.  His hands were lying underneath his pillow and his tousled, dark head was turned to the side as he softly breathed in and out in slumber.  Obviously their son had made no attempt to set his alarm clock last night; it currently read 7:00 a.m. and Jared should have been dressed and downstairs at least thirty minutes ago.  She peered over at her rebellious son in thinly-veiled aggravation; she loved both her sons dearly, but it seems that in the past few years especially it was becoming harder and harder to generate much respect for her oldest one, especially when she witnessed his frequent and flagrant disregard of their wishes.   Not for the first time, she wondered why Craig was so hard on Justin and so lenient with Jared.  Well, she could help to balance that out right now.

"Jared Alan Taylor!" she boomed out as she watched her son's body jerk in reaction.  "Get yourself out of that bed NOW!"

Jared's heart raced as he heard his mother's voice from a few inches away.  Instead of raising his head to peer over at her, however, he merely took his cover and pulled it over his head in a futile, childish attempt to somehow drown out her command.

In response, Jennifer reached down and promptly pulled the cover completely off her son's body, making sure it landed on the floor out of his reach.  "I said, GET UP NOW, Jared!" she demanded.  "If I have to say it again, I will go get your father to repeat it for you."

She watched just a little smugly as the implied threat had its desired effect and her son raised his arms above his head as his eyes opened slowly to glare over at her.  "Where is the fire?" he groused as he turned over to flop down onto his back and he rubbed his hand over his eyes wearily.

Jennifer's blue eyes flashed in irritation; she could accept a teenager's laziness at times, especially when it was during summer break, but she could NOT approve nor condone outright disrespect or insolence.  She briefly thought of reaching down to smack the living shit out of her son on the top of his head for his attitude, but thought better of it as she merely stated coolly, "You were told by your father last night to be up early to do your brother's chores. Now you have fifteen minutes to get showered, changed, and get your lazy butt down to the breakfast table, or I WILL tell your father about your horrible attitude and he can come up and remind you of your responsibilities.  Which is it going to be?"

Jared groaned, a headache threatening to burst forward as he slowly propped his torso up on his elbows and sluggishly sat up in his bed.  He knew that voice, and he knew better than to disregard his mother's threat as an idle one.  He could occasionally ignore his mother's wishes, but his father was another matter, and he had been quite adamant in his demand for him to do his little brother's chores while he was practicing for the next race on Saturday.

He looked up at her serious-looking face to grumble, "Okay, okay. I'm up.  I'll be down in a little while."

"Not a ‘little while,' Jared, fifteen minutes," Jennifer reminded him curtly as she turned to go.  "Get cracking."  She could distinctly hear Jared muttering under his breath as he slowly rose to his feet, but she chose to ignore it as she quickly retreated back out into the hallway, not for the first time wondering what in the world they were going to do with their oldest son.  Except for his cars, the boy seemed to have no ambition anymore at all.  Well, she was going to have to discuss that with Craig; she was not going to let him idly while away his time this summer any longer and not do anything productive.  They were a lot better off than the Walkers were, but that was due in large part to Justin's success at winning.  Once he was gone - and she was determined not to let anything stand in the way of his dream to go away to school - that financial cushion would be promptly removed.  It was time, then, to talk to Craig about Jared either pulling his own weight around the farm or moving out and finding some way to be self-sufficient on his own.

She heard the bathroom door slamming upstairs as she reached the bottom landing, knowing Jared was angry at her but not caring.  He has brought all of it on himself, she said to herself silently as she arrived back in the kitchen, noticing Justin was now absent.  Craig was placing his dirty dishes in the sink as he turned around at the sound of her returning.

"Justin already outside?" she asked him as she gathered up the remainder of the soiled dishes from the kitchen table and brought them over to the sink to place them on top of the other ones.

Craig nodded.  "Yeah, he should be out at the stables by now.  I only hope he's able to focus properly on what he needs to do; you saw how he looked."  He glanced around, noticing that Jared hadn't followed his mother down.  "Where's our other son?" he asked with some degree of concern.

Jennifer sighed.  "Your son was still in bed when I went up there just now," she reported as she turned on the faucet to rinse off a couple of the plates.  "He just got into the shower as I was coming downstairs."

Craig's brows narrowed in consternation.  "I told him last night that I needed him up early to take care of Justin's chores.  He must not have set his alarm, or it's not working properly."

Jennifer looked at him incredulously as she turned around to wipe her hands on a dish towel before leaning her body against the sink behind her.  "No, his clock was working perfectly; it was seven o'clock on the nose.  Face it, Craig!  Jared does what he wants to do because you let him get away with it."

Craig brushed his hand through his head in nervous agitation, a trait that his youngest son had picked up from him whenever he was worried about something.  "We've already discussed this, Jen.  He's not even out of his teens yet.  He will have plenty of time for real world responsibility when he gets a little older.  I can control him; let him have a little fun in the meantime."

Jennifer pursed her lips tightly together in irritation.  "Craig, he's not a child anymore!  Justin is shouldering more of the responsibility around here right now than HE is!  Either he needs to own up to his part of the chores around here or..."

"Or what, Jen?  Say it."

"... Or we need to tell him that he either needs to go out and find a job that will help pay for the operation of this farm or he'll have to go find a place of his own, period!  You of all people know how expensive running a farm is, especially during the lean times.  If it hadn't been for Justin..."

"Yes, yes, I know," Craig interrupted her impatiently with a wave of his hand.  "I've heard this a thousand times before, Jen!  If it hadn't been for Justin and his winnings from all these races, we would be in dire straits right now; don't you think I'm aware of that?  Do you know how that makes me feel, by the way, to know that as the man of the house I'm not living up to my obligations to provide for my family?  That my own son is bringing in more money right now than I am?  Do you?  Have you ever thought about that?"

Jennifer sighed.  "Of course I have!  And I know it must be a blow to your ego to acknowledge that fact!  But it's the truth, Craig!  If it wasn't mainly for Justin we would be in as much trouble right now as the Walkers are!"

Craig bristled at the implied insult.  "I am well aware of that, Jennifer, believe me."

"Are you, Craig? Well, you should be more grateful to him, then, for his hard work and dedication.  In fact, he's much more focused and mature than Jared is, so why are you always so hard on him?  No, let me finish," Jennifer pressed, gesturing with her hands as Craig started to open his mouth to respond.  "All he wants from you is a little indication that you love him, that you care about him, and that you appreciate what he does around here.  But all he seems to get from you instead is ‘you'd better be in top form, Justin,' or ‘you'd better get busy, Justin.'  Craig, he's still a boy himself!  He needs some time to just relax and have a little fun, to go swimming, to take a ride out into the woods, to sketch.  Have you even seen him with a sketchpad lately?  No," she said, not allowing him to respond yet.  "You haven't, because he hasn't had time to use one.  And he loves it so, Craig!  That's his dream, to combine his art with equestrian therapy in college, so he can use his love of art and horses to help others.  But how can he improve upon his chances of being admitted to Vanderbilt if he's not allowed to practice both of his skills?"

Craig whispered "Shh" to her like she was some precocious little child when he heard Jared clopping down the stairs, no doubt wearing his favorite, worn, black leather boots.  The boy practically slept and bathed in them.  "We'll talk about this later," he murmured in dismissal, not wanting Jared to overhear.

Jennifer was not about to let it go so easily.  "You bet we will, Craig," she told him curtly.  "Plan on it."

Craig's eyes widened slightly at the contentious tone in his wife's voice - he was unaccustomed to her being so assertive - before he turned to observe their oldest son almost swaggering in from the hallway.  His jaw set in aggravation over his cavalier attitude, he watched as Jared walked in to casually ask, "What's for breakfast? I'm starving."

Craig reached over to snatch a banana from the wooden ripening hanger nearby.  "Here's your breakfast, Jared," he growled as he lobbed it at him.  Jared managed somehow to contain his initial, stunned surprise at his father's angry tone of voice as he caught it and dumbly said, "What's this?"

"You heard me!  It's your breakfast, since you're almost an hour late," he was informed. "You're lucky to get that!" Craig snapped, more embarrassed than angry that his son had so callously flaunted the extra attention and privileges he had bestowed upon him since he had been out of school.  "Now take your breakfast and get out there and start on your brother's chores unless you want to be assigned cleaning out the stalls, too!"

"But..."

"That's enough, Jared!  I thought I had made myself clear how important this was; obviously you weren't paying enough attention.  Now either get out there and get busy, or you can kiss working on your car goodbye until you finish for the week! Do you understand me?"

Jared glared over at his mother, who stared unflinchingly back at him.  "Thanks, Mom," he said sarcastically as he turned to go.

"Just a minute, young man," Craig called after him; his brusque tone of voice causing his son to slowly turn around.  "Let me get one more thing straight; you do not disrespect either me OR your mother.  And don't go trying to blame her for you getting into trouble.  If you had done what I asked in the first place, none of this would be necessary and you would already be out there working like your brother is.  Now go before I decide to take that damn car completely away from you and assign Justin's chores to you permanently!"

Jared sighed heavily in resignation; his bluster gone in the face of his father's surprising defense of both his mother and Justin.  "Yes, Sir," he gritted out as he jammed the banana into his jeans pocket and walked toward the back door.

"And one more thing, Jared," Craig warned him as his son placed his hand on the back door knob, preparing to leave as he sighed heavily in disgust.  "Don't be giving your brother a hard time about doing his chores; he needs to concentrate on the race.  Don't be interrupting his practice."

"Wouldn't hear of it," Jared muttered as he turned to leave.  As the back screen door banged shut, Jennifer turned to her husband in surprise.  "I didn't expect that from you," she admitted, still peeved over her husband's continual show of favoritism for Jared but at least grateful that he had stood up to their son and insisted he follow through on what he had been assigned.  Her expression sobered as she added, "But it's just a start, Craig."

Craig let out a tense breath.  He didn't like arguing with any of his family, and if he was honest with himself, Jen was right.  Maybe he wasn't giving Justin enough credit.  Unlike Jared, Justin had always been the responsible son, the caring son, and the one they depended upon, and maybe he had come to take that for granted.  Since he had been a child, Jared had always been the more troublesome and difficult one, the free spirit.  It was both a curse and blessing to their child and to them; while he admired his child's devil-may-care attitude, it also created a lot of bumps along the road for them, whether it was Jared acting out in school, in church, or in town.  Justin, on the other hand, had never been any problem to them and had always been the ‘good' child, the obedient child, so much so to the point that maybe he didn't pay as much attention to him because he didn't have to.

As much as he hated to admit it, without Justin's help the past few years they might very well be living in the trailer that Vic presently occupied, being the caretakers for someone else who had come along and bought their much-loved property out from under them instead of still enjoying their treasured family home.  He suddenly felt a little ashamed about that fact.  "I know," he found himself now softly admitting.  "I... I do appreciate what Justin has done around here.   He's a good boy, Jen."  He inhaled and then let out a deep breath before looking into his wife's eyes.  "I'll try to make a better attempt to let him know that.  You know I love him just as much as Jared."

Jennifer cocked one elegantly-shaped eyebrow, not quite convinced but willing to give her husband the benefit of the doubt.  "Well, then tell him that, Craig; show him that you love him instead of finding ways to criticize everything he does."

Craig looked into her fiery blue eyes for a moment before he nodded.  "I'd better get out there and make sure that Jared is doing what I told him to do," he told her.  As he turned to go, almost as an afterthought he turned and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.  As he pulled back, he whispered, "I love you, too, you know, even though I don't tell you that very often."

Jennifer quirked one side of her mouth up into a half-smile, a little surprised by the admission.  It was rare when Craig came out and said those three little words, so whenever he did it always caught her a little off guard.  She sighed softly.  "I love you, too; it's just that sometimes I like you better than at other times."

Craig had to smile softly at that.  "Fair enough," he told her as he turned to go.  "See you later."

She nodded as she watched him go out the door; she stood there lost in thought for a few moments longer before she turned around to finish rinsing off the breakfast dishes and began to fill the sink with some hot water.