A Hail Storm

Dozens of young boys flooded out of the Snow Wood Boarding School of Winters, all clad in the formal pine green uniform of the school. Everyone was excited for the short hour of recess and showed it clearly on a bright and smiling faces. Tony followed the crowd close behind, walking where the other kids had been running with only a timid smile grazing his features, slowly dragging a one man red sled behind him.

Tony looked to the large snow hill his fellow students headed to, it always appeared with the coldest day of the year, and this was the first time his roommate Jeff wasn't around for the fun it brought. Still, Tony was happy enough, his eleventh birthday brought cookies and a new sled to pass the months he believed this friend would be gone for. The boy heard the snow crunch underneath him as he made his way up the hill to the other students. The sound lifted his spirits just enough to try and forget his nights alone and gave him the drive to begin running in the Winters sunshine too.

"Hey Tony, let's see the new sled you got!"

Tony looked to one of the younger schoolboys that yelled the suggestion and smiled just a bit more. He silently obliged as he pulled the sled to the side of the hill facing away from the school where the others had gathered, his smile slowly spreading as he did. The boy blushed as he took his seat on the red sled, almost expecting Jeff right behind him ready to push and hop on as it slid. The schoolboy from before took Jeff's imagined place and made a quick push and a loud "Go!" to start Tony roaring down the snowy hill.

As Tony felt the rush of cool wind threaten to blow his black hat away and chill his face, he felt relieved. The boy heard the snow crackle under the sled as it sped over and left tracks and spread an ear to ear grin. A cloud passed in front of the sun and cast the whole school in shadow, and Tony felt the emotional rush just as he did the night Jeff left.

Then, he reached the bottom of the hill and slowed to a stop, just as the first bits of hail began to strike.

The boy quickly got up from the sled and shielded his hat and head from the oncoming ice. He looked back to the top of the hill to find everyone gone, leaving the icy mound barren and unforgiving as it towered over Tony. He pulled the sled behind him as hard as he could to get back up the hill, wondering how everyone could have gone in the few seconds he spent going down it. Tony felt pea-sized bits of ice hit him as he reached the hill's apex. As the hail began to fall harder, the boy started to cry out for anyone that could hear him and help. Looking to the school as he cried, Tony found the tall gate into the school grounds closed without anyone to open them again to let him in from the storm. The boy gripped his uniform as he began to shiver from the freezing wind that surrounded him. He whimpered as thunder began to boom above him. He latched all his hope of getting out of the hail on his friend as he let out just one more cry for help.

"JEFF! Please!"

Nothing changed.

Tony let a cold tear fall as he left the sled behind to find shelter from the growing masses of falling ice. He rushed into the evergreen forest by the school as the ice became heavy enough to bruise. The boy huddled under the closest together bunch of trees he could find and buried himself into his knees and legs, still shivering as he searched for a reason for this calamity. He quivered and thought of the only friend he let go. Then, he knew it was Jeff pounding away at him.

Tony clenched a freezing hand over his stomach once he made the sickening realization. Jeff was angry. Tony held back a sob of regret as golf bail-sized hail shot through the tree branches and scattered wood and ice around him. Tony cried out again as his knees and fear muffled his words.

"I didn't mean it Jeff!"

Tony screamed in shock and felt his heart painfully jolt when a stray bolt hit a tree not far from him. His tiny chest heaved in fear of his life as the deafening sound of the tree bursting into flames blasted around him. He yelled out again once the ringing in his ears stopped.

"I'm sorry Jeff! Just please stop!"

Instinctively, as the fire light began to dance along the boy's small, tensed body, his thoughts and imagination traveled back to his birthday.

Tony sat on his bed with his fingers dirtied by chocolate chips. He had cleaned his bedside plate of even the smallest cookie crumb and was more than ready for sleep with his birthday dinner done. The boy couldn't remember what happened in between then and the dream, but everything after was vivid.

He was with Jeff again, in another room that seemed far away from the school. Jeff held his arms out slowly without a word. Tony didn't need to say anything either as he rushed to the other boy to embrace him in a long hug.

"Jeff! I've missed you so much until now!"

"I know, Tony, and you don't want to wait."

Tony pulled back from his friend's arm with a blush of embarrassment.

"W-we, no, we shouldn't Jeff..."

"It's O.K. Tony, just relax."

Tony attempted to refocus his eyes as his vision began to blur of its own accord. Just as he tried to regain his sight, everything came back into focus. In the haze, Tony found his and Jeff's uniforms gone somewhere in the darkness of the room, leaving the boys in only bare skin.

Jeff moved to Tony this time as the boy in the black hat shut his eyes out of taught decency. Tony gasped when he felt Jeff's warm skin against his, belly against belly, nipple against nipple, and penis head to penis head. Tony tried to push away as he was told, but his legs and arms were too weak from the pleasure of finally being this close. The two boys shuddered in enjoyment, quickly becoming erect for the first time in their young lives. Jeff brushed his hand against the hair that partially covered his friend's eyes and Tony slowly opened them. Tony was scared, but in love all the same and slowly rocked his body against Jeff's, hoping to touch as much of his friend as he could for all the time he was given.

"You don't have to do this for me Jeff."

Tony bolted from his pillow, his hat flying off and landing on the wood grain. He panted loudly as he rubbed a hand over his sweat covered brow, trying to recall what just happened. A glance down at his badly stained and sticky pajama shorts gave him all the information he needed. Tony found it hard to breathe, his chest heaving hard as he tried to take in as much air as he could. The boy shifted his legs over the bed frame and let them dangle near the wood floor, his head hanging in disrespect and shame.

He shouldn't want to think about him that way.

Another crash of thunder, closer to Tony now, shook him from his thoughts. He pulled his head from out of his legs, freshly bloodshot eyes and old tears dominating his other facial features. Jeff wasn't letting up, and with his heart still racing, Tony wouldn't either.

Tony ran from the burning forest with all his strength, ignoring the erection in his uniform pants as it brushed against the fabric of his white briefs. He couldn't let his awful passion get in the way as he headed back to the hill with the hail at its strongest force.

The hail pounded at Tony's tiny body with nearly enough force to damage bone as he cried out in pain with each hit. Still, he moved as swiftly as he could to the top of the snow hill on hands and knees. Slowly, he reached the top and felt his strength return, despite the hail crashing down on his back. He rose up with grit teeth as he tried to find more strength to scream to Jeff. Another thunder bolt struck in the distance, the cracking sound creating a fear of mortality that was the last bit of incentive he needed.

Tony held his hands around his mouth and looked to the sky. He breathed in all the frozen air he could and began to yell back at the storm, shutting his eyes with the force he put into his voice.

"Jeff! I love you! I love you more than anything!"

Tony felt his strength leave him again, dropping to his knees as the legs failed to support his body any longer. Still more tears streamed across his face as he caught himself with his hands, plunging them into painfully cold snow. Knelling before the raging storm and its icy assault, he had only enough left in to finish the sentence.

"...and I'm sorry for it..."

Tony fainted, his body entering the deep snow with a soft thump.

The storm simply raged on.