When Benny returns home after his first year of college, he hopes to spend time with David, his mom's friend and housemate, an older man who had been a father figure during his youth. But when he discovers David is involved with his own best friend, Brit, he's torn about his feelings of jealousy. And to complicate matters even further, Brit lets it slip that David is not only attracted to both sexes, but he's actually interested in Benny also. To learn that this older man has had a mutual crush on him, now that he's no longer a boy, but a college man, Benny doesn't know how to handle it.<br><br>Yet this exciting truth lights up Benny's life in a way he never experienced, and he soon discovers that an older man makes him feel more alive, especially when they explore a sexual relationship with room for romance.<br><br>But one major obstacle threatens their path to happiness -- Benny's mother, who has no problems with her son's sexuality, but does have a major aversion to age-gap relationships. Benny is wracked with guilt for sneaking around with David behind her back, and knows he should come clean with her. But how will she take the news? Will she throw David, her long-time friend and boarder, out of the house? Will her feelings for Benny forever change? Or should they risk not telling her at all?

Lines Undrawn

“Mom, I…I lovehim,” I whimpered. My heart beat rapidly at my confession, even though she’d already discovered that I’d been involved with David. I wished she could see the real truth, though. I didn’t expect her to, but it would’ve been great had she been able to see how I truly felt about him.


She gave me the gentlest shush and held me even tighter. “You’re too young to know what true love is.”


Why was age always such a factor? Well, it obviously was in certaincases, but definitely not in mycase. I knew what I wanted because I knew exactly how I felt. Would it have mattered had David been my age and we wanted to be together for a long time? We’d still be accused of being too young to know what true love was. When two people felt things, they could never help it. What about that was so hard to understand? “I’m not too young to feel these things. Stop saying that.”


Chapter 23