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New Story – “Sunburns and Sunsets”


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Summary:

Best friends Eric Carver and Kris Strider have always shared everything.  Except for Eric’s growing attraction to Kris.  On a camping trip to celebrate the end of the school year a sunburn leads to fooling around  and neither are sure what it means.  Kris is certain he likes girls but his sudden attraction to Eric can’t be denied.  He’s completely fine with his best friend being gay, but now that he knows Eric wants him, he isn’t sure what to do about it.   Eric thought all he wanted was to fool around with his friend, but when it starts to feel like something more, he isn’t sure what to do.   Are his feelings for Kris worth risking twelve years of friendship?

Excerpt:

“Oh my God, it hurts,” Kris whined, poking the red skin on his forearm.

“It’s your own damn fault,” Eric said with a laugh, taking a sip of his beer. “I warned you.”

“I know, I know,” Kris said with a sigh. “But it hurts.”

“Did you at least pack the aloe I suggested?”

Kris scratched his head. “Uh, yeah. I think so.”

“C’mon then, grab it, strip down, and I’ll put some on your shoulders.”

Kris raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Any excuse to get me naked, huh, Carver?”

Eric flipped him off, and Kris laughed. He loved giving Eric shit about being gay. Well, he gave Eric shit about everything, being gay was no different than the fact he was obsessed with peanut butter and banana sandwiches and was afraid of clowns. It was simply a part of who he was, and thus, up for ridicule.

Kris downed the rest of his beer and stood up, wobbling a little. Shit, too much beer, too much sun, and too little food hit him hard. He stripped out of his T-shirt and unzipped the tent flap, tossing the shirt inside before following. He nearly fell wiggling out of his cargo shorts, and threw himself on the pile of sleeping bags with a laugh.

“You sound like you’re having too much fun in there, Kris,” Eric said, crawling into the tent and zipping it shut.

“Fuck you, man,” Kris huffed, face buried in the pillow.

“Only if you ask nicely,” Eric teased.

Last fall, I wrote Sunburns and Sunsets for Jules.  It was short, about 4,000 words and although it was complete, I always thought it would be fun to flesh out Kris and Eric’s relationship more.  There was so much back story and so many little interactions that I skipped over.  Recently, I talked to Jules to make sure she didn’t mind if I expanded it, and when she gave me her enthusiastic permission I re-wrote the story.  It’s now over 10,000 words and because it covers the same period of time I was able to give it a depth that it lacked before.

I am thrilled with the way it turned out and I hope Jules, and you, will be too.  Keep an eye out in the next few days, I have a ton of fantastic pictures that tie in beautifully with the story.  I’ll post them soon.

Oh, and that gif above?  It started the whole thing.

Right now the story is available on in the following places:

I’ll update this with Google Play link once it is available.

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