North of Sure

By Lashley Mills

When Justin and Parker meet their sophomore year of college in Boston, they soon find out that they share a lot of the same interests – music, movies and especially football.

Parker has had some struggles in the past, but through funny wit and banter, he and Justin soon become friends by constantly joking around with each other, pulling pranks, and feeling good in each other’s company. And since they both love football so much, they start to attend every college game in order to root on their friend, Brandt.

But when a part of Parker begins to feel more than friendship for Justin, he shoves his feelings back down because there’s no way that Justin could ever feel more than friendship for him. Is there?

This is Book 1 in the North Shore Book Series.

38,469 Words

Content Warning: Although not strictly a work of erotica, this novella contains scenes of male/male sexuality

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lashley Mills
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301767281

Book preview

North of Sure

North Shore Series Book 1

By: Lashley Mills

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Lashley Mills

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author and thank you for your purchase.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent and permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America.

First Printing, April 2013

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads.com for inspiring this story during the 2013 Love Has No Boundaries event.

A very special thank you to Aria and Audrey for their guidance, help and support.

And to you, the reader, thank you for reading.

CHAPTER ONE

Justin couldn’t believe that the summer was over and that another year of school was about to start. His freshman year at college had gone all right, he had no real complaints, but now that he was twenty years old, his summer had passed by in a blink of an eye rather than in a blissful summer haze that it had when he was a kid. Now he was back at his college campus moving in, getting ready for his sophomore year. He was a sophomore in college now. When did that happen?

Well, this room looks a lot like the one you had last year, Justin. I thought you said that it’d be bigger this year. Justin’s mom said warily while holding up a cardboard box filled with nothing but sports gear – baseball gloves, baseballs, a football, soccer ball, hell even an old frisby that the Meyer family’s dog, Muncho, had tried to rip to shreds every summer for the past five years. That thing was indestructible.

At five feet, ten inches tall, even though Justin was standing awkwardly while balancing boxes in his own arms, he was still so much taller than his mother. She was petite in every sense of the word and if it weren’t for the dark hair, brown eyes and fair skin-tone that she passed down to Justin, people would probably never think that they could be related.

After placing down the boxes that his strong arms were holding, Justin went back in the hallway and brought in another box, an entire box full of baseball caps. He loved wearing baseball caps over his short, trimmed dark brown hair. Sometimes he wore them backwards and sometimes he wore them forwards, but whatever the occasion was, he never really felt right without one.

"Yeah, mom, it is bigger. Just look. This year I have a desk and a bureau and a closet. Last year we just had that tiny closet with the accordion doors. That thing couldn’t hold more than my old lacrosse stick and my crappy clothes."

Well, I don’t know where all this room and board money goes. They can’t even give you a descent-sized room. The whole thing’s the size of a closet. And Justin, don’t even start with me. If you feel like your clothes are crappy, that’s not my fault. How many times have I offered to bring you shopping? You never want to go.

Justin scratched his head for a few seconds before nodding. His mom was right. He hated shopping. But he didn’t mean that his clothes were crappy in order to insult her or make her feel like she was being neglectful in some way and not living up to her motherly duties in providing him with a fashionable wardrobe, it was just that Justin, to be frank, didn’t really care what he wore. Especially since most of the time his clothes ended up with grass stains or dirt anyways. Either that or some type of food or soda stain from the dining hall. He was always dropping something or other on himself.

And Mom, the size of the room is fine. For Boston, this room is probably actually considered big. Looking around his new room some more, Justin didn’t actually believe this. Going to one of the nicest colleges in Boston certainly had its perks – what with the many quads and green spaces to play catch or throw the football around on, but what it had in outdoor and academic space, it certainly lacked in housing space.

Well, as long as you boys don’t mind, I guess. But I mean… Well, maybe it’s different for boys. I would hate to be stuck in a room this small… Justin’s Mom’s words trailed off as she placed her right hand to her mouth and bit at her nails. She was always doing that when something was bothering her. She diverted her eyes away from Justin and glanced down at the floor, as if she needed to vacuum the old college dorm carpet again. Even though she just had. Twice. But Justin had a feeling he knew what was bothering her.

Mom, it’s fine, really. Brandt and I don’t mind. The room’s really not that small. Lie. Besides, if I ever feel cramped here, I can just come home. You know I’ll come home for some weekends, right? You’re only like an hour away. And I know Brandt will want to visit his family too some weekends, so we’ll carpool. It’ll be fine.

Justin’s Mom decided to look up from the floor just then and meet her son’s eyes. She knew that it was important for her son to go away to college and to get an education, but the move-in day was always hard for her and she knew that she would miss her son.

I know, sweetie. You’re welcome home, anytime. I know you’re in college, and that it’s your second year here, but our house will always be your home. Not this -- She waved her hand in the general direction of the small dorm room that they were standing in and couldn’t help but think that even as time passed, it felt more and more like a walk-in closet as opposed to a room large enough for two people to share for months at a time. And as such, she thought that she better get going now before the waterworks started.

Do you need money? Here. She handed Justin all of the bills that were in her purse. And don’t forget to call home, Justin. I mean it. Your father and I like to hear from you. He worries, you know. That was something that his mother was always saying, Call home, because your father worries. Justin knew that that wasn’t true. It wasn’t that his father wasn’t a good man, he was. But his father was far too oblivious and naïve at how the world really worked to actually worry about someone. It was his mom that always did the worrying in their family. Thinking about it now, Justin supposed that she did enough worrying for both of his parents put together.

I will, Mom, I promise. And like I said, I’ll come home some weekend. I just have to get settled here a bit and get back into the swing of things. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. And thanks for the money, too. I promise not to spend it all in one place. He pocketed the cash, without counting it. He didn’t expect that there was much money in the lump of cash that his mother gave him. But that didn’t matter. Even though his family never had much money, what they had, they always shared with him.

Okay, well I’ll get going and leave you to unpack the rest of your things. But not before we Lysol down this mattress and put clean sheets on your bed. If you are going to live in a closet we are going to make sure you have the nicest bed possible. And we’ll do the same for Brandt’s bed too.

At this Justin muffled out a little groan. He loved that his mom stayed to help him out and God knows he hated cleaning and organizing all his junk, but he knew that once his roommate, Brandt, got back to their room and saw his mother unfolding and fluffing his sheets, that Brandt would start up with the momma’s boy and princess jokes like he always did. Well, those jokes at least were better than the fag or queer jokes that Brandt always loved tossing around. Brandt was cool most of the time, but when he did this, it always bugged the crap out of Justin. Not that Justin should take personal offense, but come on, they weren’t twelve years old anymore and Brandt could at least be a little bit more creative in his humor. Throwing out the word fag at the end of every sentence doesn’t really make it funny, Justin thought with a scowl. Well, maybe his mom and he could finish before Brandt got back from the dining hall.

CHAPTER TWO

A little less than a month after the semester move in, Justin decided to keep his promise to his mom and go back home for the weekend. That and the fact that his liver desperately needed some down time after the kick-off-to-fall bobbing for apples game which was really a nice way of saying that he bobbed for nips full of apple schnapps and brandies. He thought he was playing it smart and only successfully bobbed for about four nips, but it turned out that the game had a twist, and he had to drink not what he successfully grabbed out of the big tub with his teeth, but rather he had to drink all the nips that were left behind in the tub when his turn was over. Ugg. His stomach hurt just thinking about it, almost a full week later.

So Justin was packing up just a few things to bring back with him for the weekend, a few clothes, his laptop, a few textbooks and asked Brandt if he needed a lift up to the North Shore of Boston, since that is where they both were from.

Naw, thanks, man. I’m gonna try to hook up with Sally. You know Sally, from last week… Man… Brandt said while tilting his head slightly to the side and looking like he was just remembering the best time that he had in his life.

Yeah maybe Justin would have remembered Sally if he didn’t spend most of his past weekend either ridiculously drunk or puking up everything in his body while promising God that he was never going to drink again. Not. Ever. Stupid bobbing game.

Okay, man, good luck with that. Justin told Brandt. He didn’t mind that he had to drive back home alone. It wouldn’t take him too long anyway. What sucked the