Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old boy, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 7.

I stumbled back to my feet eventually, and made my way to my locker somehow. Art class was a blur, I didn’t really remember anything. The week was over, and tomorrow was Saturday. At least I could veg and mope. It was hard to imagine that it had happened on Wednesday, it all seemed like a million years in the past. Of course, the fact it had happened then meant that next week, I’d start to show signs. But it wasn’t as if everyone knew, thanks to Paul.

I dragged myself home, and collapsed on the couch. I was content to lay there. Mom came in and saw me there, and headed back to the kitchen. She brought me some lemonade, and left me to my sulking.

Alas, solitary reflection was not to be. The doorbell rang, and I heard Mom get the door. “Casey, you have a visitor!”, she called from the foyer. Maybe Janie had come over.

I got up and walked to the foyer, where mom was standing at the door. I looked and saw him. DeShaun McAllister was on my doorstep. I sighed and motioned for him to come in. Mom retreated to the kitchen and brought the pitcher of lemonade, and some of her famous cookies. She discretely slipped off to her office to let us talk.

“Do I know you?”, I asked him with more than a bit of acid in my voice.

He sighed and looked down. “I suppose I deserve that”, he said while looking at the floor. “I came to apologize. I didn’t mean to brush you off like that at school, but I kind of panicked.”

I looked directly at him. “Yeah, I can imagine that getting a nobody like me for your rut must be disappointing. I won’t bother you at school.”, I said in a huff.

“That’s not what I meant. I..I.. it’s complicated”, he said.

I gave him an incredulous look. “I suppose, sorry I’m not going to be the blonde cheerleader type.”, I said sourly.

He sighed. “That would be even worse. It’s nothing about you, well it is, but it’s not your fault, it’s my family’s...”, he said softly.

I looked at him with a bewildered expression. He picked up on that and continued. “My family, well not me... but my family is very, adamant about me finding a nice black boy to be my girl. They are kind of resentful of white people. They think there is still a conspiracy to ‘keep the black man down’, and after what happened when my older br...sister met her now husband during their rut. He was a better athlete than I am, he was assured Division I scholarships, and maybe even the NBA. But they feel that he threw that all away. She got a scholarship at a small school and played there, but it wasn’t the same to them. They disowned her, and I have never even met my nephews.”

I hadn’t realized that I had scooted closer to him. Putting my arm around his shoulders, I tried to cheer him up. “I see, so they got mad when you told them that you met me?”, I asked carefully.

He looked up at me, and looked me square in the eyes. “I… I haven’t told them yet. I kinda snuck off and asked around about you, and where you live.”

I looked him in the face and frowned.

“Look, how do I tell them that I rutted, and that my one chance was was with a white boy?”, He sighed. “They’ll disown me too.”

I could see his point. Once you rut, you no longer produced the catalyst for the change. I was the one shot his family was banking on, but I wasn’t what they wanted. He was stuck with a racist family that had disowned one child already.

“S...so you would never have told them? How were you going to deal with that? They would have caught on eventually”, I asked.

He looked at me. “I hadn’t thought about it too much. I suppose I’m going to have to fake it until I’m older, and claim that I never met the right person, then pass it off that I aged out.”, he said in a dejected manner.

It was possible, I suppose. There have been cases where boys have never met their matches, When that happens they go through puberty at a slower rate than boys that have rutted, and finally around 21-24 years old they reach a point of full maturation. One where they no longer have to worry about rutting, and their DNA finally locks itself, preventing the change.

I looked at him. “That’s at least 8-9 years, you think you can keep it up that long? And what if you meet a girl during that time?”, I said.

He looked at me sadly. I shook my head. “I don’t know yet. I mean I’m still feeling the attraction to you, and there is a pull. You hurt me though. Maybe after I will know my feelings, but right now I’m too confused. I need time…. And space. If you want me to, I will go with you when you tell your patents. It may not be too bad. It’s true that like 60% of all rutted pairs go on to be in relationships, or even get married. But there will be plenty of girls out there for you if we don’t work out.”, I sighed and gave him a hug. My anger was still there, but I had some sympathy for him. Plus, damn it… he was still kind of hot.

I withdrew my arm from around him, and leaned my head on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?”, He asked while gently stroking my arm. “When I woke up I saw you were gone, and I saw all the blood. It took me a while to realize you didn’t want this.”

I sighed and responded. “What’s done is done, I’m still kind of not in the best place right now, but I’ll make it through somehow.”

I nuzzled against his shoulder. “If I had been able to say now, would you have stopped?”, I said softly.

He took my hand and held it. “I would have to the best of my ability. I heard all about Bettany. Asshole deserved everything that happened to him. And I’m kinda glad you got him to confess and break his arms. You are scary when angry!”

“Yeah, I turn green and big and everything!”, I said with a smile. “But seriously, If I hadn’t frozen up, and I had tried to rut you, would you have let me?”, I asked, the smile disappearing.

DeShaun squeezed my hand. “I’m not sure I could have. Not with all the expectations and hopes my family has on me.”

I sighed. “You could try to be yourself, don’t worry about all that. And If you had been the one to change, you could still be happy. There are other things you could have done. Track, Basketball, volleyball-”

Deshaun laughed. “Volleyball? … really? VOLLEYBALL? Who ever got anywhere playing volleyball?”, he laughed.

I bit my lip. “Well, we could ask the 3 time all Big Ten Conference first team, 2 time all NCCA First team, 2 time NCAA champion in the next room, she might even take out her Olympic silver medal and show us”, I said deadpanned.

“IT WAS A GOLD, AND YOU KNOW IT!”, Mom shouted from her office. After a few seconds of silence, I heard the radio turn on in her office.

DeShaun and I laughed and He turned and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I should get going, but you’ve given me a lot to think about. I’m going to go home and see if I can find my sister’s number. I need to talk to her. Then I might talk to my parents.”

DeShaun got up and left, after getting shown Mom’s awards and medal, of course.

I sat back down on the couch and thought for a while. I realized I wasn’t mad at him anymore. He had his own issues.

Dad came home and we played catch for a while before dinner. Afterwards, I went up to my room to veg out and do some thinking.

Before long, my phone rang. I looked at the ID, and it said ‘James’, I guess I need to change that.

I answered on the second ring. “Hello, Casey! Wanna come over Sunday? I don’t have any plans, and I have the place to myself. Want to come over and play some Mariokart and stuff, like we used to in the old days?”

“Old days, huh?”, I laughed, because those old days had been this spring. “I guess I could be persuaded to drop by and kick your butt. Especially now that it’s a lot cuter!”, I said, taunting her.

I heard a “Hmmph!” on the other end of the line, and then a “Ok, drop on by around Noon, ‘kay?”

We both said our goodbyes, and I laid back down, thoughts running rampant through my head. The confusion and uncertainty looming large in my mind. I wasn’t even a girl yet, and I was confused. I mean I liked Janie, she was pretty, and when I thought of her topless as I played with her breasts, I felt my dick getting hard. At the same time, my brain was flooded by memories of the woods. Laying naked in the bushes with DeShaun as I kissed those amazing pecs and sucked that huge dick of his.

I sighed and shook my head. Grabbing my robe, I headed down the hall and took a long, cold shower, dried myself off, and went to bed early.

Saturday morning came, and my brain was filled with the same conflicting thoughts as last night. I sat on the couch and moped. Dad was off playing golf with his buddies, so Mom and I were alone.

She came in and sat down next to me, plunking down a penny on the coffee table.

“For your thoughts”, she said.

I looked at her, and rolled my eyes. “I don’t know. I’m just… I guess I’m confused. Mom, am I a freak? I’m already thinking about DeShaun, and how hot he is, but at the same time, Janie is beautiful and she does something to me too. Am I going to turn into some sort of slutty girl?”

Mom hugged me. “Things will make sense eventually. The hormones and confusion will settle down. When I was a boy, I was kind super interested in girls. Your Father and I once got caught peeking into the girl’s locker room through a peep hole when we were in 8th grade. I had no interest in guys. I thought I would grow up to be big man on campus in High school. Then the rut happened and I decided to be with your father, and at first, I did still look at other girls, but as time went on, the interest went down. Eventually, I didn’t know what the big deal had been for me back then. Of course, having a pair of boobs myself kind of spoiled the novelty, I guess? I don’t know. All I know is that If you end up liking girls, or boys, or both, you will still be my little baby and I’ll love you no matter what.”

After our talk, I felt a little better. Mom grabbed her car keys off the counter, and after getting her purse, she motioned me to come with her. We went out and saw the latest action movie.We also stopped for ice cream, and a had a nice lunch. I felt fine for the first time in a long while.