The voice drifted out of the fog. It almost sounded as if it were singing. I slowly opened my eyes to see JP’s face hovering above me. At first, I thought I had died and was being greeted into heaven by an angel. The face was so ethereal, not a single flaw anywhere to be found. But then, it gradually dawned on me that this was the face of my boyfriend. But that didn’t make it any less angelic.

“Matt, are you alright?” he said, obviously extremely worried. One hand was in my hair, while the other was gently slapping my cheek. “Please say something!”

“Wow!” I breathed dazedly. Frankly, it was the only thing I could say. The events of that night were quickly coming back to me now. I began to feel the dull pain in my butt and smiled as I remembered how I had completely given myself up to the most perfect guy on the planet…and how good that sex was. It was so amazing, I must have passed out from the intensity; the experience of my first time was so overwhelming, my body actually went into some kind of overload. But I felt better than I ever had in my life, like some enormous weight was lifted off my shoulders. There was such a sense of serenity that filled me, I felt like there wasn’t a single thing in the whole world that could touch me. I couldn’t stop smiling.

“Thank God,” JP let out, relieved. “All of a sudden, you went limp.” He was speaking a mile a minute. “I thought I had hurt you or something, and then you weren’t waking up. I didn’t know what to do.” Apparently, I was only out for a minute or two, but my boyfriend had almost lost it when I wasn’t responding.

I reached up and placed a hand on the side of his face. He immediately stopped talking and looked back down at me. Then, he smiled and the two of us started laughing.

“Imagine that,” I finally said. “For once, I’m the cool and collected one and you’re the one who’s going crazy.”

“You scared me,” he commented, leaning in more closely. I could tell in my eyes how much he deeply cared for me.

“That’s because you were so good,” I responded calmly. “You were a knockout.” JP groaned at my lame play on words. “Yep, I’m back.” I said, grinning wildly.

Then, we kissed like we had so many times before, but this wasn’t just a kiss. Somehow, this kiss was different – more filling, more passionate. I knew why. After having finally experienced the most intimate act of love with my boyfriend, I felt like I was a part of him and he was a part of me. From that moment on, I knew nothing could ever pull us apart; we would always have each other.

We drifted of to sleep listening to the neighborhood firecrackers going off in the warm July night, the cool summer breeze blowing across our naked bodies. JP’s head was on my chest, my fingers lightly massaging his wide back, silently moving up and down as he breathed. I didn’t want the night to ever end; I wanted it to go on forever. I felt so safe and protected with my god-like boyfriend lying with me, holding me in his arms. It was all I ever dreamed. At the same time, I also felt stronger than ever in my life, as if JP’s strength was my strength too.

I awoke the next morning to birds chirping outside my window. Sunlight streamed into the room, bathing me in warmth. I squinted my eyes as I sat up in bed, quickly becoming aware of the void in the sheets next to me. Where was JP? I looked around, searching for my boyfriend, wondering with slight panic where he might have gone.

Then, I heard a sound and immediately recognized it as JP’s heavy breathing. He isn’t doing what I think he’s doing, I thought to myself. I crawled across to the other side of the bed and looked over the side. Sure enough, there was the superjock himself on the floor, performing a textbook set of push-ups. He just never seemed to stop working out, no matter what time of day it was. Well, he didn’t have an unbelievable body for nothing.

The display was beyond beautiful. I watched breathlessly, as his bulging arms and chiseled back moved silently up and down, the only sound being the efficient rhythm of his breathing. His huge triceps rocked back and forth effortlessly under his thin skin, while the dozens of individual muscles in his back smoothly popped and flexed with each rep.

I cautiously, so as not to disturb him, reached my hand down and gently glided my fingers along the middle of his back, almost as if to see whether his body was real or if I was still dreaming. The touch of his skin was warm and soft, but somehow an intense strength also radiated from its pores. JP turned his head toward me and smiled in recognition, but he didn’t stop the workout, not even slowing down. My hand reached his butt, that gorgeous, round bubble of shredded muscle that gently rose above the rest of his extravagant body. I cupped my fingers around one of its cheeks, taking in its solid hardness. My mouth was agape in awe – there was not a single ounce of fat anywhere on this boy.

Finally, JP pushed through the last rep and stretched out on the floor, his head on top of his hands. “Good morning, Matt,” he greeted me at last. I could only acknowledge him with a warm grin. “It’s about time you woke up,” he said, diverting his eyes to the clock on the bedside table, “it’s almost 10:30. We slept in.”

I laughed quietly. “That’s sleeping in for you.” I looked down at my boyfriend’s body one more time, remarking to myself how I could look at this view all day. “How many of those did you just do,” I asked, shaking my head.

JP blushed slightly. “About 50.” My mouth fell open again. He had done them like they were nothing, I thought. “And that was after the 200 sit-ups.” He wasn’t bragging; it was what he did every morning. Then, he grinned mischievously. “Why don’t you get on my back?”

I widened my eyes at him. “What?”

“Go ahead,” he smiled. “You’re not going to hurt me or anything.”

Hesitatingly, I obeyed, though sure I could indeed never hurt him, and carefully lowered my body onto his. He maneuvered himself into the push-up position again and I instinctively wrapped my arms around his chest, gently clutching his meaty pecs. Then, he began another set of push-ups – with me completely on top of him. I practically peed in my pants as I watched – and felt – JP force both his entire weight and mine above the floor for reps – all without seemingly breaking a sweat! Shit, he was strong! I could feel his shredded chest muscles rippling underneath his skin as he moved up and down. My cock started to get hard, growing between his ass-cheeks. Eventually, the weight began to get heavy for him and he started slowing down, but not before he eked out a ninth and then a tenth rep, until he finally collapsed onto the floor.

“My God, you’re amazing,” I whispered in his ear, rolling off of him. “I don’t think I could ever be that strong.”

JP blushed. “You will be by the time you get to college,” he assured me. Somehow, the look in his eyes and the power in his voice told that those weren’t just words. I modestly looked away as I felt my face turn red.

“Can you do one-arm push-ups, too?” I asked.

The kid smiled and nodded. I promptly moved over to give my boyfriend room as he once again re-positioned his body. Without missing a beat, he threw himself into a lightning-fast series of push-ups using only his left arm. No fewer than 20 times did he raise his body up and down, all the while looking at me with a sheepish grin. 200 sit-ups, 60 push-ups – 10 with me on his back – and now this? He was almost too good to be human.

The muscles in his arm shifted in perfect movement as he reached the twentieth rep, each time getting more and more pumped. Then, as he lowered himself to the floor for the last time, my mouth began to get dry – he immediately launched into another set of 20 push-ups, this time with only his right arm! He was a fucking god! As quickly as he had completed the first set, he powered through the second with remarkable speed.

Without pause, JP propped himself up and leaned against the side of the bed, facing me. I looked at him, my eyes wide and my mouth slightly open, speechless. All that exertion barely seemed to affect him; he was only breathing a little more heavily than normal. But his chest was huge and flushed. The skin was a rich shade of red and the fibers of muscle were pumped. I knew that they were not done growing yet. They were going to get even bigger and more powerful.

Finally, he waved his hand in front of my face. “Hello, Matty,” he joked. “You alive in there?” I blinked and immediately began blushing, embarrassed at my reaction to my boyfriend’s immense strength. Still smiling, he crawled over to me, his triceps practically exploding out of his arms as he did, and sat right next to me. Instantly, I felt the rays of warmth against my shoulders and sighed. I looked into his eyes, completely mesmerized by their power and beauty.

“God,” I purred, “last night was amazing.” I placed a wandering hand on JP’s steaming pec. The heat that came off of it felt good against my palm. He wrapped his right arm around my shoulders and I nudged my head I in between his arching trap and his wide neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Matt,” he said softly, gently guiding my face up to his with his left hand. “No, you were amazing.” With that, he reached down and kissed me tenderly on the lips, his tongue playing affectionately with mine. I can’t even begin to describe the feeling that went through me at that moment; I nearly collapsed, falling limply into him.

When we released each other, I opened my eyes to see him gazing at me fondly. I could tell right away that an enormous weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, too. I knew that for years, ever since he had figured out he was gay, he had been searching for his place, never sure exactly where he belonged. Now, he had found it. I was the one person to whom he could tell the truth, without fear of anything. I was everything to him. It almost made me want to cry.

JP slowly slid his hand down my body to my stomach, lovingly caressing my six-pack. He dotingly glided his fingers around and over each bump, seemingly adoring them.

“Your abs are perfect, Matt,” he said, still staring at them with his keen eyes.

I chuckled. “And like yours aren’t?”

He smiled modestly and looked back up at me. “Seriously, dude,” he answered, “I really think your abs are better than mine.” I gave him a look as if to say “yeah, right” but he truly was being serious. Imagine, this god of a boy, with the most perfect body in the world was telling me that I was perfect. Somehow, I found that impossible.

But that was the way JP was. In his eyes, no matter how perfect he became, how strong or how beautiful, he always made me feel like I deserved every bit of him. I loved him so much. I loved him more than anyone has ever loved a person in the whole history of the world. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. I wanted to tell people how much I loved JP Maloney, the most perfect boy on the planet. I wanted to…

“JP,” I started, suddenly looking up at him. My eyes were serious, but excited with unknown expectation. He immediately darted back at me, knowing what I was going to say next.

“I want to come out to my mom.”

JP’s fingers, which all the while had been playing on my stomach, suddenly froze. His mouth dropped open slightly, as if he was sucking in all the air around him. He looked down at the floor for a moment and then slowly rose his gorgeous, round eyes to mine once again. His lips moved to speak, but he stopped his words before they came out. Then, he cracked into a smile.

“What?” I said, curious of his reaction. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

JP shook his head. “Nothing,” he responded quietly. He swiftly licked his lips and thoughtfully skimmed his tongue along the front of his upper teeth, seemingly in deep concentration. “I’m proud of you,” he said finally.

“Proud of me for what?” I asked, lowering my eyebrows.

“You’re braver than I am,” he answered, moving around so that he kneeled in front of me. “I could never come out to mom. I don’t have your courage yet.”

I could tell by the way he gazed at me that he meant what he said. “Well, it’s because of you. I only have…”

“Oh, shut up,” he interrupted, smiling. “You know that’s not true.” He placed a warm hand on my face and I sighed at his touch. “You took one huge leap of faith last night,” he continued, more softly now, “and you did it all on your own. This is no different.”

“Well,” I went on, fighting back tears again, “I know I have you right next to me. That’s what gives me that courage.” I smiled a smile that I could tell melted his heart.

“You’re right,” he acquiesced, knowing that there was nothing he could say otherwise.

We paused for a long while, just looking at each other, not sure of what to say next. At last, JP abruptly stood up and sighed.

“We should get dressed,” he said, offering his hand to help me up – the muscles in his arms bulged powerfully as I took it. “Your mom might come up here soon to wake us up.” He smiled broadly. “And I don’t think that would be a happy situation if she saw the two of us naked.”

I laughed, cringing at how awkward that would be. This was part of the reason why I wanted to come out to her; the last thing I needed was for her to walk in on us. JP and I quickly threw on clothes, trying to act as if the previous conversation had never happened, as if this was the most normal, every-day morning. I couldn’t help glancing over at my boyfriend as he slipped a tank-top over his chiseled torso, a pair of boxers over his thickly muscled legs and dangling, juicy cock. Shit, he was beautiful.

“Damn, you’re gorgeous,” JP echoed. I blinked and looked up at him. I hadn’t noticed him glancing at me the same way as I was putting on a T-shirt and boxers. I blushed at the compliment. It was like we were reading each other’s minds.

After briefly washing up in the bathroom, we headed downstairs and into the kitchen. There, my mom greeted us like she always did when JP slept over – with a glowing smile and a huge serving of breakfast.

“Good morning, boys,” she gleamed, rubbing JP’s extremely short hair with her hand. “It’s nice to see your hair beginning to grow back in. I practically died when you shaved it.” JP bit his lip, avoiding my mom’s smile. He had become like a second son to her, which only subjected him to her torturous criticisms. “Promise me never to cut that beautiful head of hair God gave you.”

My boyfriend laughed. “I promise, Mrs. Andersson.”

“I hope scrambled eggs are fine with you,” she commented. We gestured that they were great, having already dove into our plates. I had never felt hungrier in my life. “I made a lot. I’m sure you two are starving from all that excitement last night.”

I almost choked on my food when she said that. JP looked over at me, grinning wildly. Luckily, my mom’s back was to us, so she didn’t pick up on it. I knew she was talking about the fireworks, but little did she know what else she could’ve been talking about.

Once we finished eating and cleared the table, JP and I sat back down. My mom, about to start washing the dishes, looked over at us.

“What’s up?” she asked, noticing that we didn’t run off like we usually did.

“There’s, uh, something I want to talk to you about, mom,” I started nervously.

My mom put down the dish towel and placidly – to my surprise – walked around the counter and slowly sat across from JP and me.

“What is it?” she questioned expectantly. She was being rather calm about all of this, which only made me more nervous. My heart was pounding in my chest, my head was spinning frantically. What was I doing? I thought to myself. Am I really ready for this? JP, seemingly sensing my insecurity, moved his leg so that his knee touched mine, letting me know that he was next to me.

“Mom,” I stuttered, “I, um, I’m, uh…”

I side-glanced over at JP. He was looking at me encouragingly. Finally, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and just let it out.

“We’re gay.” •