Ok LOL Steve REALLY does not want me to answer this question. He’s having himself a good sulk about it even now, glaring at me across the room as I type. I don’t blame him. There are some very sensitive issues mixed in with this one little story that he is afraid are going to come out, but I am going to do my very best not to touch on them. I saw the question and just couldn’t help myself. It was too good. In fact this is a question I may have to answer more than once LOL

Let me begin by saying that I know you all are going to want to know how Steve broke his jaw, but unfortunately, for the reasons mentioned above, I can’t tell you that just yet. All I can tell you is that he did break it his freshman year. The poor guy endured several weeks of having his jaw wired shut and this incident took place near the end of that time. The wires had come out, but he was still supposed to be very careful what he was eating until the right side was stronger and more used to chewing again. Now, strictly speaking, perhaps the doctor had said “soft food,” but I allowed myself a fair amount of leeway in interpreting that. This was my partner we were talking about, after all, and I definitely did not want to take chances. Perhaps that was unfair to him; I’m sure he thinks it was LOL

You all know by now just how much Steve LOVES to be babied LOL So, I’m sure you can imagine his feelings the morning the wires were set to come out. In his mind, that appointment was his ticket to freedom and it meant an immediate end to the “sickening crap” LOL I’d been feeding him. I tried to head off this bit of wishful thinking on his part with a gentle reality check, but Steve has worked very hard for a long time at perfecting the art of selective hearing. He was, therefore, completely deflated to hear the doctor extend his special diet another week “just to be on the safe side.” My poor boy LOL He was in such shock. He had been busily planning that whole morning what kind of “real food” he was going to eat first, and instead of hitting the diner for burgers and fries as he had planned, we were off to the grocery to stock up on Ensure. He refused to talk to me the whole way LOL As if it was MY fault! I went through the drive through at Dairy Queen and got him a chocolate shake thinking that might lift his spirits a bit, but he dumped it out the window. It was at that point that I started to become a bit impatient. I mean I knew the guy was hurting, and I was trying to be understanding, but there was still a limit to the amount of surliness I would put up with. It really wasn’t my fault, after all. It was the doctor’s orders.

I left him to sulk in the car while I ran in to get the necessary contents. I did get him some Chips Ahoy cookies too, in my defense, to dunk in milk once the proper nutritional guidelines had been met. I wished I could let him eat milk shakes and milk sodden cookies all day everyday, but he needed some type of nutrients in him. The man was a football player after all. You can’t run and catch long passes with nothing but Chips Ahoy to keep you going. He glared at the bag all the way home; in much the same way that he is glaring at me now LOL.

The day that had started with bad news and a dumped milkshake didn’t get any better from there. Steve’s friend, Kurt, came looking for him, having heard that he had gotten the wires out. He was going to take him out for the steak dinner Steve had been talking about for the past six weeks. Instead he walked in on me feeding Steve Ensure through a straw. He stuttered an apology and backed out of the room. As Kurt closed the door, Steve slammed the Ensure out of my hand, sending the remaining contents flying over the floor and the walls. Now, normally that kind of behavior would have meant big time trouble, but I knew my partner was embarrassed, so though I swatted him a couple of times, made him clean up the mess, and opened a whole new can of Ensure, I let it go at that. I knew how disappointed he was, and I would have felt just the same way. It didn’t even help him to have sweet treats at this point because he was so sick of soft food in general. Later on that day, I tried my luck with some soft boiled eggs and oatmeal, but got the same results. That incident earned him a few more swats and a nap, but it was still not the culminating event of the day.

That came later on in the evening. Jason, Steve, and I were all in Colin’s room watching a movie. Colin was President that year and he had a big screen T.V., so we all preferred to watch movies in there. He was going out, but he had gladly let us into his room before he left. He and Steve got along great and, like the rest of us, he was feeling bad for him. Steve was still in a foul mood. We were watching Lethal Weapon which is his favorite movie and I was doing my best to coax and cajole him into a better humor, but it wasn’t working.

After a while, Steve said he needed a bathroom break, so we paused the movie and Jay and I stepped out onto the balcony for a breath of fresh air. We were leaning on the rail talking and looking out at the campus. We’d been there for several minutes and I was starting to wonder where my partner had gotten off to when out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement in the room. Steve had come back in, and in his hand he was carrying the big plastic bag that contained all of his Ensure. ‘Now what is he doing with that?’ I wondered, but even as the thought occurred, a sinking feeling began to develop in my stomach. Jay was still trying to talk to me, but I was no longer paying attention.

“What’s wrong?” he inquired as I flew to the door and tried it.

‘Fuck!’ I hit the glass in frustration. It was just as I had suspected. The little shit had locked us out there. “Steve!” I called, hitting the glass once more. “Open this door right now!” He just smirked at me and held up the bag of Ensure. “I mean it!” I half threatened half pleaded through the door, to no avail. The little twerp did the ‘bye bye’ gesture and then pointed to the bag as he made his way towards the Correction room. I knew just what he had in mind.

“What’s going on?” Jay asked again as I ran to the other end of the balcony and hunkered down by the tiny little window that led into the Recovery Room bathroom. It wasn’t big enough for a fat cat to get through but at least I could see what was happening. Sure enough, a moment later, just as expected, I saw Steve enter the room. He set his bag on the floor and then looked up and saw me.

“Don’t even think about it!” I cautioned him, wagging my finger at him through the window. I suppose coming from the other side of that tiny window neither the gesture nor the words carried quite the menacing tone I hoped they would. In any case, Steve just grinned at me, took an Ensure out of the bag, popped the top, held it up in a toast like gesture and then poured it with great ceremony into the toilet. “All right! Stop right there!” I commanded as he flushed with a flourish and then picked up another can. “Steve!” I hit the window again, but it was useless. He just lifted the can in my honor, popped the top, and with another grand gesture poured its contents into the bowl.

“You are digging yourself deep, Little Man!” I admonished. “If I were you I’d stop right now!” My words, though, fell on deaf ears. Steve just toasted me again and continued down his determined path of self destruction. I smacked the window again in frustration and then turned away only to meet the bewildered eyes of my big brother. I explained the situation to him (Jason knew everything anyway. No point in keeping it from him). It was hard to tell whether he was more amused at my predicament or annoyed to find that he was my fellow prisoner on the balcony.

We made our way back to the other side of our cell in the fervent hope that Colin would return early from his date and rescue us, but it was not to be. Steve returned first, his mission accomplished, and I thought that, as much trouble as he was in, he might prefer to get it over with rather than sit in anxious anticipation. But no LOL . He wasn’t quite done. I guess he figured he would take full advantage of having Jay and I where he wanted us.

It was starting to get dark by then, and cold (for all that it was South Carolina, March nights could still be cool, and Jay and I were both in t-shirts and shorts). Do you think that bothered our little brother though? Not in the least! While we stared mournfully at him from the other side of the glass, he turned the movie back on, poured himself a nice tall glass of milk from Colin’s refrigerator and settled himself on the bed with the Chips Ahoy. He wasn’t even dunking them! “Steve!” I banged on the glass and Jason did too at this point. We were starting to freeze and Jay was no longer in the least bit amused. “Steve! Get over here and open this damn door!” No luck. The light began to fade and it became harder and harder for us to see him. The cold hearted little prick didn’t even turn the balcony light on for us.

Finally, when the movie was almost over and the bag of Chips Ahoy almost empty, Colin came home. He turned on the lights and looked surprised to see Steve lounging on the bed by himself. “You’re not s’posed to be eating those are you?” he questioned, taking the bag of cookies. Steve shrugged and brushed the crumbs from his mouth. “Don’t brush those in my bed!” Colin’s protest was more laughing than scolding. He never could keep a straight face in the face of Steve’s antics. “Where are Matt and Jason?” he finally inquired, looking around in bewilderment. With the lights on in the room, he could not see us by now out there on the balcony and that little brat I call my partner shrugged his shoulders again, like he didn’t have the first clue in the world.

“Colin!” Jay and I both began to panic now. If Steve had his way, we’d be out there all night. “Colin!” We banged hard on the glass and finally he heard us.

“What are they doing out on the balcony?” Colin looked at Steve and smirked. “Did you lock them out there?” he inquired in a tone that in my opinion was just a little too delighted.

“Maybe,” Steve replied sourly.

“Well,” Colin actually laughed! The traitor. “I’m sorry, Bud. I’m gonna have to let them in. They can’t spend the night out there. I need my rest.”

It was then, as Colin made his way over to the door, that the petrified look crossed my little brother’s face, as if it had honestly never occurred to him before that moment that, somehow, some way, Jay and I would eventually get off the balcony. He made a run for it of course, as Colin slid the door back, but he didn’t get far.

I caught him just at the door, and hoisted him kicking and carrying on over my shoulder. “No, Matt! No! Fuck You!” He tried to hold onto the door frame, but Colin pried his hands off. “Put me down you controlling Bastard!” he screeched, but it was his cries that were futile now. Jay opened the Correction Room door for me, and he screamed at him too as I carried him past. “You cock sucking traitor! I hate you!” he yelled, but it did him no good. Jason just ignored him and closed the door behind us. I proceeded then to the back where the Recovery Room was. Colin and Jay were both very aware of our relationship, and really, even if they weren’t, this is the kind of thing Colin would expect that if I didn’t handle, he would. It was as much a big brother/little brother thing as it was a DP issue. Little brothers simply did not disrespect older members of the house the way Steve had done today.

Steve knew all this, knew what he had coming to him and being as familiar with Jay and Colin almost as he was with me, it would not make a difference that they were in the next room. Colin had zero tolerance for disrespect and as fond as he was of Steve, he would not put up with it even from him. Steve knew well, that he was going to get it good from one of us.

I had heard the T.V. being turned louder as Colin shut the door behind us. I knew my big brothers would do everything in their power to make the situation a bit less awkward for Steve and I intended to do my part as well. The Recovery Room was the most sound- proof part of the two rooms adjoining Colin’s. With the T.V. playing loud, Jay and Colin would most likely not hear anything. You might ask why they would even choose to stay in the room. Well, as I mentioned before, this was as much a violation of house rules as it was a DP infraction, and as such Steve would be expected to apologize, in front of the president, to the members of the house he had offended. It was an important tradition and one that was upheld in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Colin would of course be willing to let Steve’s apology to me slide, but he would certainly insist that Steve apologize to Jason.

I pulled the curtain closed behind us and set Steve on his feet. I didn’t feel the need for a long lecture in this instance. It was pretty clear, I was sure, what he had done to earn this punishment. He had willfully defied me by dumping the Ensure, he had placed himself in harms way by eating the cookies without dunking them, risking significant damage to his still fragile jaw, and he had disrespected both me and Jason in ways too numerous to count.

I kept hold of his arm as I sat down on the sofa and he tried to glower at me but instead just burst into tears. I knew, as I started to undo the button on his jeans that it was not so much the anticipation of the punishment that caused that reaction as it was the culmination of the whole frustrating day. Well, maybe it was a little bit the punishment. After all, he knew he was in for a pretty serious walloping. ‘I should have done this earlier,’ I chided myself, ‘the very first time he displayed his temper when he threw the milkshake out the window. Then perhaps we would not have ended up here, now. Oh well. It was too late for regrets.’ I pulled his jeans down past his ankles and his underwear after them. I then folded my crying partner over my lap, pinned his wrist to his back, and delivered one of the most serious spankings I had ever administered to him up to that point. He kicked and screamed and squirmed around. He fell off my lap twice and I pulled him back up, finally placing my legs over his to keep him in place. I didn’t stop until his butt was crimson and he was sobbing out his genuine remorse.

Finally, I let him up and he threw his arms around my neck and clung to me. “I’m sorry,” he wailed. “I’m so sorry about all those horrible things I said.”

“Oh Baby,” I soothed as he pressed his face into my shoulder, “I’m not worried about the things you said, really. As disrespectful as they were, I know you didn’t mean them, and I know they were a result of the frustration you were feeling. Come on now, it’ll be ok. It’s over now.” He nestled closer, and I rubbed his back softly as I went on. “You and I have talked many times now about how important it is for you to talk to me when you’re feeling this way instead of lashing out because lashing out always ends up in a tearful scene like this, right?” Steve nodded into my shoulder. “What I am more concerned about though is your continued obstinacy when it comes to doing what’s best for yourself and listening to people who genuinely care about you. I know it was disappointing to you to go to the doctor and hear something you didn’t want to hear,” Steve continued to sob into my shoulder, “but do you think that Dr. Coreman gave you those orders just to torment you?” I felt Steve shake his head. “Do you think that I enjoy seeing you miserable and that I, in helping you follow those orders, was trying to prolong that state of misery as long as possible?”

“No!” Steve sobbed. “I know you were just trying to help me. I just wanted so much to be done with this crappy liquid diet! I don’t even think I have taste buds anymore! Everything tastes the same to me now!” I bit hard on my tongue to keep myself from laughing. That was my cheeky little brother LOL The king of acerbic wit.

“Sweetheart, you have an absolute right to be disappointed. I don’t mind the surliness a bit! I would feel the exact same way. Just as long as you are not throwing things at me or anyone else, so long as you are not directing disrespectful language at me or anyone else and most especially so long as you are continuing to follow the doctor’s orders even if they are not orders you want to follow. You could have re-fractured your jaw today, my love, though I admit it does seem unlikely with something as innocuous as Chips Ahoy,” I allowed myself a little laugh there, and though he did not look up, Steve rewarded me with a tiny, nearly imperceptible smile. “The main thing is that we have to be careful just a little longer. I know it’s hard, Baby,” I soothed as he clung to me once more. “Just hang in there a little longer, ok?” He nodded and I closed my arms around him, holding him tight and rubbing his back as he continued to cry out his anger and frustration.

We stayed there quite a while. I stretched out on the sofa and pulled Steve down on top of me and we just lay there. I had removed his tangled jeans and underwear from his feet a while ago and now I pulled his t-shirt lower to cover his lobster red butt. I pulled the blanket off the couch and covered the backs of his legs which had become all goose pimply. I then slipped my hand under the t-shirt and continued to rub his back and his butt, allowing my hand to stray from one to the other in small soothing circles as he relaxed against me. I used my other hand to stroke his hair softly, and finally his breathing began to even out and grow calmer. I didn’t want to move. Those times after a punishment are some of the most intimate moments Steve and I share. I can’t explain them. I don’t even want to try. Suffice it to say that I am normally very jealous and possessive of that time. On this particular occasion, however, I knew that there was one more unpleasant bit of business that had to be taken care of. I knew Steve was dreading it and I also knew there was no point in putting it off.

“Come on, Bud,” I nudged him finally. “Let’s just get it over with.” Steve sighed rather heavily but he didn’t protest. He too just wanted the whole thing done with at this point. He opted not to put his jeans back on or even his underwear. His t-shirt was long enough to cover his embarrassment and I knew the grating fabric even of the soft boxers was a little more than he could bear at the moment. I picked up his clothes, folded them, and left them on the couch. We could come back and get them later. I then took my partner’s hand, and Steve followed me contritely as I made my way out of the Recovery Room.

I opened the door leading back into Colin’s room, and both Colin and Jay looked up. Colin was sprawled on his bed with the remote to the T.V. in his hand, and Jason was settled comfortably in the recliner in front of the windows. He sat forward as he saw us, bringing the recliner to its full upright position and placing his feet on the ground. “Hey Bud,” Colin greeted Steve gently but solemnly as he turned the sound on the T.V. down. There were no more traces of laughter on his face; obviously Jason had told him the whole story. My little brother was cowering, now, behind me. “Come here,” Colin directed soberly. Hesitantly Steve obeyed, coming to a stop just in front of our big brother. Colin looked searchingly at him, and Steve bravely met his eyes. “You understand why you’re in trouble?” Steve’s eyes welled again but he nodded. “You know that if I didn’t implicitly trust Matt’s ability to handle this, that you’d be in deep shit with me too?” Steve nodded again. “All right, turn around and let me see,” Colin instructed. Steve’s face flushed brightly, but the request was not completely unexpected, and he did as he was told, turning around and lifting his shirt, so the president could get a good look at the punishment that had been administered. Colin was extremely strict and serious about his position. He required a lot of everyone and especially of his brothers. Everyone had to tow the line under his watch. Anyone who slipped felt it and felt it keenly. Steve would be lucky to escape without a double punishment. “That looks about right,” Colin finally approved, taking hold of the back of Steve’s shirt and pulling it gently out of his hand and down over the reddened area once more. He then took Steve by the shoulders and turned him, looking him in the eye once more. “You going to promise me not to do anything like this again?” he asked seriously. Steve nodded. Colin gazed at him for another moment, probably to gage the sincerity of the promise. Apparently satisfied, he spoke again. “All right, little bro, you have something you want to say to Jason?” Once more, Steve nodded, though his eyes were full and his voice seemed to stick in his throat. “All right, go on then,” Colin coaxed.

“I’m sorry, Jay,” Steve choked out finally. It was hard to hear him even for me, but neither Colin nor Jay made a big deal of it.

“It’s no big thing, Bro,” Jay responded sympathetically. “I know why it happened. It’s all good.”

Tears were streaking Steve’s face now again and he brought his hand up to brush them quickly away. Colin and Jason pretended not to notice, and I stepped up and put my hands on his shoulders, drawing him against me.

“You guys want to watch another movie?” Colin asked, and Steve nodded. A dark room and a quiet activity that would keep everyone’s attention away from him was just what he needed right now. “How about Star Trek?” Colin suggested, and Steve nodded again while Jay and I rolled our eyes. It was another of Steve’s favorites, but we couldn’t believe that Colin would make us sit through it again. It was definitely NOT one of ours LOL

Colin got up to put the movie in and I sat down on the bed, stretching out my legs and opening my arms to my discomfited partner who happily crawled into them. I pulled the covers over him and he cuddled against me. Colin came back a moment later and stretched out on the bed beside us. He started the movie and that is the end of my story LOL

My partner is still glowering at me BTW. I’d really like someday to set up a glowering contest between Steve, Danny, James, Jesse, and Kevin LOL I’m really curious who can glower the longest LOL Talk to you all again soon, I’m sure.

All the Best,

Matt