Chapter 22 and Epilogue

Finally! This is the ending chapter and the epilogue in one since I didn't want you readers to have to wait for it until Thursday. And since this story is now officially over, I will be starting my second story soon. (Hint: It has to do with music)

I will, however, be taking a hiatus for a bit to collect my thoughts and try to figure out my witing style more, since even though I've written a novel (yeah, it's over 50,000 words, even without including the sex scenes), I still don't know my style yet, and I will always try to keep improving, no matter what anyone says. I don't know how long it will be...but I promise that I will return before the twentieth.

So for the last time, please enjoy Quiet Waters.

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Chapter 22: Kent's POV, Friday evening, at Kent's house

I was pretty excited about my date with Cole, and I was even more excited after we 'came out' to the rest of the school. Not only did it give us the freedom to walk around campus and hold hands, but more importantly it allowed a few other gay couples to come forward. Knowing that I had positively impacted someone like that made me feel really good about coming out with Cole.

Another great thing that came out from the whole cafeteria incident was the fact that all of Cole's football teammates supported us and have even gone to the defense of a new gay sophomore who transferred here recently when he was getting picked on by some insolent freshman.

I sighed as I buttoned up a simple white dress shirt as I got ready for Cole who was coming over shortly from a friend's house to pick me up for the date that he promised me not too long ago. So much had happened this week, and I was simply exhausted from it all.

I then threw on a pair of khakis, boat shoes, and a spots coat and went downstairs and sat on the couch to wait for Cole. I was also really nervous since Cole hadn't even given me a hint as to what our date would be tonight, so I was hoping that what I was wearing now would be alright....

The doorbell rang and I immediately bolted up from the couch and walked to the door and opened it to reveal Cole standing before me in an outfit similar to mine, which made me happy since I assumed that what I was wearing would be fine.

“You look great,” Cole said as he eyed me and I blushed from the attention from him.

“Thanks, you too,” I said timidly as he held out his arm for me.

“Do your parents and Paul know what you're doing tonight?” Cole asked as he led me to his truck; a bit less romantic than what I was so used to now, but it was part of Cole's charm. I actually liked the simplicity of his truck, it made me feel more normal when I was in it.

“Yeah,” I was now inside of the truck and Cole was getting in on the other side and had now started his truck. “Hey, Cole, are you still going to give me any hint of what you're doing with me tonight?”

“Nope,” Cole said as he popped the 'p'. “Oh, and that reminds me, here put this over your eyes.” Cole was smiling at me after he took out a bandana out from the glove box.

I simply rolled my eyes and let him tie it over my eyes as I giggled.

“Don't worry, I won't crash the car; you're too precious to me.” Cole said as I felt him move closer to me and then he placed his soft lips over mine and kissed me ever so gently. It was like kissing an angel. It warmed my heart that he was all mine, and I'd never have to share him with anyone else in

the world.

We sat in the car in silence and I felt Cole reach out his hand for mine, so I let him take my hand and move it back to the steering wheel while we sat there in utter silence, enjoying the time that we had together.

This was the way that I always thought that love was supposed to feel: peaceful and as if you just couldn't get enough of the person that you love. And this was the way that I felt about Cole.

After a bit of time and silence, Cole asked me something. “Are you okay, Kent, you seem awfully quiet now, do you want to tell me something?”

“No,” I said. “I'm just a bit tired still from this week, that's all. I'm fine since I'm here with you,”

“Well okay then,” Cole said. “Just let me know if you ever want to talk since I'll always listen to you and whatever you have to say, okay Kent?” Cole had the slightest hint of skepticism in his voice, but he disregarded the fact as I nodded.

Cole kept driving for a while longer until he said, “Okay, Kent we're here,”

“Can I take off this bandana?” I asked hastily, excited to see where Cole had taken me.

“Not yet,” Cole said with a chuckle as I heard him open my door and help me out, not only because he loved me and was a true gentleman, but I was blindfolded too.

Cole led me forward on some sort of pathway and I was able to make out the sound of small stones crunching underneath my feet. I also could feel something brushing my leg, although I couldn't tell what it was.

Cole then guided me to what seemed to be a chair since he then told me to sit down in it. I let my hands feel whatever was directly in front of them, and my hands felt a thin table.

“Okay, I'm going to take off your bandana now, Kent,” Cole whispered into my ear. I felt his hands stat to work at the knot that he had created and then let the rag fall into my lap.

“Wow, it's beautiful, Cole; I love it!” I gasped as I took in the entire scenery surrounding us as Cole made his way to the seat directly across from me with a large grin on his face.

The entire area around us was covered in plant life that seemed too colorful to be from nature, a small little lake and waterfall sat a distance behind Cole, and a large tree only a few feet to the right of me. The table in front of me was elaborately decorated on the surface with intertwining geometric designs and a candle placed in the middle that surrounded a red rose centerpiece that was just small enough for it to be noticed, but not overpower the atmosphere; it was simply marvelous, especially the moonlight that seemed to rain down from the sky.

“So you actually like it? It's a place where my mom took me when I was a little kid to 'become one with nature',” Cole said as he took out a simple picnic basket that was apparently sitting at his feet as I nodded my head genuinely. “Well, I'm glad that you like it, since this is all for you. Tonight, I am going t treat you like you've never been treated before in your entire life: as the prince that you truly are to me.”

I felt giddy at his suave words. “So what's in the picnic basket there? Are we having a picnic or something?”

Cole grinned at me and I noticed how bright his dark blue eyes really looked under the moonlight. “Well, sort of; I'd tell you directly, but I think that you deserve to hear the entire story.” Cole said as he took out some napkins and handed them to me along with some silverware. “You see, from the very second that you told me that I would get to take you out on a date, my mind started planning everything that it could think of to try to win your heart, and I wrote them all down on a page of paper so that I could compare all of the ideas and see which one was the best option. So, in the end, most of my choices consisted of me taking you out somewhere nice to eat or out to do some wild activity, but I was never sure if you'd like either of those choices since you have probably experienced so many high-class restaurants already from your parents, and I really didn't think that you'd truly enjoy something wild and thrilling like going to a haunted house just so that I would have the excuse to hold you all night. And as nice as that would be for me, I knew that you wouldn't enjoy it as much. So I settled on this: taking you out to eat mixed with a bit of a scenic location. If you're wondering about the picnic basket, I thought that it would be a good idea if I brought three specific dishes about he three most important people, in order, may I just say for the record, in my life so that you could get to know me just a bit better and see what kind of food I like, too.”

“Well, I'll have you know that I already love everything so far,” I said as I watched him pull out a bowl of salad with a small plastic container of dressing. He handed them to me and pursed his lips for just a second, but it was long enough for me to see that something was distressing him. “What's wrong, Cole?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking of how to phrase how this salad is symbolic to me, but I think that I've got it,” Cole said as he popped open the lid of the salad bowl. “When I was younger, just a year or so after Paul was born, my mom would love to plant lettuce in the backyard and then she would fix us all salads for dinner since she said that salads were good for us. I really liked salads until my mom died, because after my dad started drinking beer obsessively, he would always crunch the beer can against his forehead and it just reminded me of the crunch of lettuce, so I was always afraid to eat lettuce after that since it brought back the memories of him during his drunk rages where he would curse me out and threaten to kill me. Well, until you got him out of my life for me, which I'm eternally grateful to you for since you saved not only my own life, but my brother's life as well. But now, I'm fine with eating it, since it makes me feel closer to my mom, you know?” Cole said as he dug into his salad. “I'm really sorry if you don't want to hear all of these depressing stories, but I really feel the need to open up to you and show you why I'm the guy that is here in front of you today, because without these events, I'm really just a boring nothing. And if you ever want me to shut up during a story just say the word and I'll-”

“Shut up,” I said as I looked at him. Cole's face frowned a bit until I continued. “I want to hear all of these fascinating stories, Cole, do you know why?”

Cole just shook his head.

“Well, I really want to know you and what made you the guy that I'm in love with today. I don't care how bad something may seem to you, I want to know about so that I can help you through it, if I can. You're not alone in any fight of yours anymore, Cole, I'm always going to be there with you.”

“Thanks, Kent,” Cole said he rested one of his hands on top of one of my hands that I had moved to the middle of the table for him to hold.

“Now, any other salad-related anecdote that I should know about, Cole?” I said playfully in an attempt to keep the mood light.

“No, that's all that a salad means to me,” Cole said with a sincere smile as he bent down to pick up the basket and take out the next dish since we had both finished out salads rather quickly since they were mere appetizers.

The next thing that he took out was a plate of brown noodles with another small plastic container, but this time, it was filled with a brown colored liquid. He handed it to me and as soon as I had started to eat the noodles, I noticed that they didn't taste like the noodles that I was so used to eating. “What type of noodles are these, Cole?”

“Ah, and so you bring us into the second dish's explanation,” Cole said as if he was a detective in some Old Hollywood crime scene drama. “Well, to answer your question, these are somen noodles that are made from a buckwheat flower. They are generally found in Asian noodle houses served with a meat in some kind of thin broth. If you were wondering who this dish represents, then you need to look no further than the other person that is living with us.”

“Paul?” I guessed as I took another bite of the noodles; they were surprisingly good.

“Yeah,” Cole said sweetly at just mentioning his brother's name. I always thought that their brother bond was probably the strongest that anyone has ever seen. “Well Paul has always like Asian food a lot, but he loves nothing more so that these somen noodles served just like this: cold with a bit of this noodle base liquid which is really just a mixture of vinegar and sugar version of soy sauce. Paul also likes it because it's pretty inexpensive, and since he's so used to us struggling for money, he always created his diet around our limited budget. But the main reason that I picked this dish to represent Paul was the fact that he is so simple, yet he is such a good kid. The noodles always stay strong and present even through the sauce, just like Paul. Paul is so pure and innocent, so I also picked these noodles for him because of how pure any noodle tastes just by itself. I remember the first time that he had these noodles still; we, my brother and I, were in the store and they were giving away free samples, so I told him to try it since he kept looking at them. So when he did try them, his face lit up with pure bliss, but only for a second before it turned into a blank face. From that, I knew that he liked it, but he was too afraid of the price to say anything since he saw how little I ate in comparison to him and he was aware of how poor we were. After all, for a long time, I would give all of my food to Paul and lie to him and say that I had eaten earlier, and I would only eat at school where I got free lunch. I guess Paul has always kind of taken up after me and tried to always make it better for someone other than himself whether it be in school or in a random public mall; Paul only saw the good in everyone and refused to see anything other than good. Eventually, I showed him the price and then he asked me if we could buy it and, of course, I said yes. Now he just can't get enough of the stuff.” Cole chuckled a bit, and it made me feel good to see Cole look happy about remembering the past for once instead of remembering the bitter hardships that he's had.

“That's a sweet story, Cole,” I said as I finished my noodles and pushed the plate to the side so that I could focus on Cole. “Now you said that there were three courses, didn't you?”

Cole nodded with a small grin and began rummaging through the picnic basket once more and this time took out a small plate covered in with aluminum foil and set it out on the table. When he didn't move to uncover the plate, I looked at him skeptically and frowned a bit. “Am I supposed to open it this time?”

“Yeah; I think I'll let you see what I picked for the best course of them all,” Cole said.

“Okay then,” I said as I reached out a hand to move the foil back to reveal a simple cream puff in the middle of the plate with nothing else except for that cream puff. I looked at Cole curiously, trying to figure out what this dessert meant to him, but another thought appeared in my head: are we supposed to share this one cream puff?

“I guess I should start explaining,” Cole shyly said as he blushed just the lightest shade of red, which I thought was simply adorable. “Well, the first two dishes were extremely easy for me since it was also easy for me to explain how to describe everything that I needed to about them. But when I get to this next person, he's just amazing, Kent. He's flawless in my eyes and so many others as well.” I felt my eyes drift downward at his words of him talking about and describing such an amazing person. After a moment, though, Cole paused and asked me a question, “You do know who I'm talking about, right?”

I shook my head slowly, still trying to figure out this mystery person.

“It's you, Kent,” Cole said warmly as he chuckled lightly a bit. “You're the most important person to me in the entire world, and I couldn't love anyone even half the amount that I love you. Anyway, on with the explanation; as I was saying, the first two dishes were easy since they're my family and since I know them so well. However, Kent, you are a different matter; as true as it is that I know you well, I had a really hard time deciding what food would do you justice. And after an entire day of thinking, I got very frustrated. So I got up and left and went out on a walk. And surprisingly, I actually thought of something when I was just looking up at the clouds. I thought of how light and refreshing the clouds were in the plain blue sky. I also realized how well it fit you since to me, you seem like an angel that was sent above just for me and no one else.

“And since I can't make a cloud for your dessert, I picked this cream puff since it's nice and sweet, just like you. And if you were wondering why I only put one on the plate, it's merely because you are so unique and so special, that no one could even compare to how unique you are and the fact that you really are one in a kind and no one will ever be anything close to how great you are in my eyes. I really hope that you know that all of this is true, Kent, because I mean every word of it. I love you, Kent, I don't know any other way to say it. When you're near me, it's as if my world will stop and all that I can see you and your radiance. I love every second that I get to spend with you because it's one more second that I get to be with you. God, you don't even know how weak you make me, Kent,”

I looked up at Cole and watched as he gave me a weak smile. I sighed and got up from the table and made my way around to hug him from behind him and place a gentle kiss on the top of his dark gold locks of hair, inhaling his masculine scent and reveling in how it made me almost drunk off of his scent.

I reached over ole's head and took the single lone cream puff and ripped it in half and placed one half of it into my mouth and fed the other half to Cole.

After he finished swallowing th creamy dessert, Cole then turned his head to me with a sly smirk on his face and then in one quick movement, he pulled me down into his lap where he began to trail a line of kisses down my neck, sending a spark down my spine as his arms went around my waist.

“I love you, Kent,” Cole whispered huskily into my ear.

“I love you too, Cole,” I said back at him as I leaned up to kiss him on his lips and allowed my lips to part to allow Cole's tongue to enter my mouth. And as usual, he was able to become the dominating force during our kiss.

We kissed for a while and lost track of the time as the night progressed and the temperature dropped to the point to where we could both see our breath in the brisk air.

So we got up from the table and cleaned up our dinner

I had just started shivering when Cole said, “Hey, Kent, you look a bit cold, here,” Cole proceeded to take off his sports coat and place it over the one that I was already wearing. And since he is a much larger size than I am because of his massive shoulders and muscles, it fit perfectly over my sports coat.

I was about to protest and say that he needed something for himself too when Cole read my mind. “I really think that you should wear it; I don't need it since I'm not cold,” Cole then wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in closer to his warm, strong body. “And besides, I've always wanted to let someone wear my jacket like all of the teenagers do in movies and books.”

I giggled a bit at his playfulness as he held open the truck's door for me.

Cole drove me home, and we mostly talked about college and future dreams and goals during the ride home, although I could feel myself drifting closer and closer to sleep.

When we did get home, Cole immediately took me inside and led me up to my bed and after we both got ready for bed and changed into our pajamas, we crept into my bed together and I snuggled into Cole's warm body as he whispered, “Good night, Kent, I love you,”

“I love you too, Cole,” I mumbled as I fell into an amazingly deep sleep.

I fell asleep knowing that tonight's date had only confirmed my thoughts earlier that Cole would be the one that I would spend the rest of my life with, despite it being so early in our relationship. I mean, so far, we've been able to survive a psycho drunk father, crazy ex-boyfriend, and even made our high school a place that was tolerant and accepting of gays. A pretty good way to end this crazy week.

I moved my eyes to see Cole's eyes were closed as he breathed in deeply signifying his sleeping state. I smiled a small smile at seeing him with such peace in his expression and also at the fact that I knew no matter what, we'd be able to take on whatever was thrown our way in the future.

~EPILOGUE~

-Cole's POV: Ten years later-

I grunted upon the hard impact of my opponent tackling me in an attempt to stop me from scoring a touchdown with only thirty seconds left.

Dammit! I thought as I stumbled forward as I heard the whistle and the referee's voice boom over the intercom system.

“Touchdown! Bradley!” He called out, and as he did, the whole audience roared and applauded with vigor.

I smiled as I took off my helmet and felt the impact of my fellow teammates congratulating me on the touchdown, and as true as it was that I was listening to them, my eyes were scanning the vast crowd looking for one certain guy in particular.

“Cole!” I heard as I saw a running figure rapidly making his way across the field to where I stood.

I let the slender body embrace me as I let my lips crash onto his lips. Our mouths moving in sync flawlessly as we had done for so many years since high school. “Kent,” I growled as I slid my arms around his waist as he smiled at me.

One of my teammates patted me on the back and said, “Bradley, you're coming over for the celebration, right?”

“Yeah, I just got to put my kids down to sleep first, but I'll be there, don't worry,” I said as he waved goodbye ad went off to the locker room.

Kent stood in front of me smiling, still wearing his emergency room clothes minus the doctor's coat. He nudged me gently to the locker room and said, “Go on and change, Cole, I'll wait for you outside of the locker room until you're ready to go home,”

I nodded and went into the locker room and changed quickly while still reveling in our team's victory, eager to see my husband.

When I got outside, I saw Kent standing with a big bouquet of flowers in his hand and a smile that could easily light up the entire night sky.

I took the flowers from Kent and kissed him softly again as I heard him mutter say something against my mouth. I reluctantly pulled away and let Kent say what he wanted to tell me. “I kind of think that we should get home before the kids miss us,”

“Of course,” I said as I led Kent home to our kids who were waiting eagerly in the living room.

“Okay, kids, time for bed,” Kent said as he started walking up the stairs with our three kids following hot on his trail. I was the tail end of the line and as each one of them got to their rooms, we both said good night to them.

When all of the kids were in their rooms, I dragged Kent to our room and got into bed with him. I felt his soft cheeks with the back of my hand as he grinned lightly.

“I love you, Cole,” Kent said softly as snuggled his head into my shoulder and closed his eyes.

“I love you too, Kent, and I always will love you, no matter what,” I said as I kissed the top of his head and held him closer to me, and I hoped that we could just stay snuggled like this forever.

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This has been Quiet Waters, and i hope that you enjoyed it, despite my mediocre writing techniques. My main purpose of this story was just to see how I naturally write without trying and trying to break a cliched stereotype of the jock and the nerd. Did I succeed? I personally don't think so, but I had a lot of fun writing it, which is a lot more important to me. This story has been very fun, sweet, yet also with some sad moments as well, but I've grown to love Kent and Cole, both as people, but even more so as a couple. And since this is the first story that I've ever written, they will always hold a special place in my heart.

I also would like to finally thank you for reading this story. Many of you have somehow managed to actually follow them through their entire journey, so thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Also for the last time in Quiet Waters, please vote, comment, message if you liked this story. And PM me if you want to know anything else regarding it.

Cole and Kent forever! :)

Love,

Michael