The following story is fiction. It involves sexually- explicit erotic events between males. If you are offended by such material, are too young, or live in an area where it is not allowed, don't read it. In the world of this story, the characters don't always use condoms. In the real world, everyone should practice safe sex.
The author retains all rights. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the author's consent.
I want to thank Evan, Patrick, Ash, and Tom W. for steadfast encouragement and lots of helpful ideas as I worked on this chapter. As always, special thanks to Tom for all the editorial help. A thank-you also goes to my new friend, Mickey, for a valuable suggestion about the story line, the first result of which appears in this chapter.
I also want to thank you guys who've written me about the story. I've gotten response from readers who think Trey and Chaz got off too lightly, that their payback wasn't tough enough. Other readers have told me they think what Tim came up with is appropriate. I hope you like what Tim and Ced have in store for Mark in this chapter.
As my brother Ash Bradley just said in his recent posting, may whatever holidays you celebrate bring you great joy, and may the new year see you and your loved ones happy and well. -Tim
timmead88@Yahoo.com Chapter 7: The Best Medicine
CEDRIC:
Tim and I were lying there on our backs with our hands around each others' limp tools. We had snuck off campus (he'd want me to say "sneaked," but I'm telling this) for some quick sex that afternoon.
"I've been thinking about Mark," he said, turning his head to look at me.
"Aww, Timmy, I just gave you my best blow job, and you've been thinking about Mark?" I stuck out my lower lip like I was pouting.
He laughed, kissed my ear, and said, "No way, studly. I meant to say that Mark has been on my mind for a day or so."
"Kiss me, and I'll believe you." So he did, and that took a while.
"OK," I said when we broke apart, "so what about Mark?"
"By now he must be thinking he's gotten away without any payback for his part in those two infamous nights."
"I'm not so sure, Tim. You know Mark has really felt bad about all of that. I've told you how seriously he's been thinking about the cruelty of forced sex. He's really ashamed of being involved in what went on."
"But, lover -"
"Oh, yeah, I'm a butt lover. I love your butt!"
He grabbed my left nipple and squeezed just hard enough to get my attention. "Listen, we'll get back to butts as soon as we can both find time. But right now," he said with a playful smile, "I've got Mark's punishment in mind."
"Yes, daddy. I'm listening," I said, trying to look contrite. He let go of my tit and propped his head up with one hand, looking at me.
"I've had this idea, see. Mark is surely less guilty than the others, and we've seen that they got what was coming to them, each in an appropriate way."
"Yes, well, I still think Chaz got off lightly," I replied.
"I've tried to explain that. We can talk about it some more later. Chaz needs our help, I think. For now, though, let's stay on the point."
I licked the tip of his nose and said, "Yes, professor, sir."
He laughed and kissed MY nose. Then:
"Dammit, Ced, pay attention for a minute. You are not making this easy."
"OK. What about Mark?"
"I think Mark's really struggling with his part in all of this. I honor his new awareness that any form of coerced sex is bad. But he did take all those pictures of me when they had me so fucked up with whatever it was that I didn't know what was going on. You never saw those pictures, did you?"
"No," I said, smiling despite myself, "but I have to admit I would love to see them."
"Well, smartass, you missed your chance. I've cleaned the disk. But let's just say there were several involving a carrot."
I laughed. "I said I hadn't seen them. I did make Mark tell me about them. Did the carrot really still have the top on it?"
Tim blushed all over his body. I'd never seen a full-body blush like that before. His usually pale, pale skin was a bright pink all over. "Shit!" he said. "Right now I like Mark a little less than I did a moment ago."
"Hey, lover, Mark is the brother I never had. We share everything. Well, ALMOST everything. Don't be pissed. I really had to coax to get him to tell me."
"Maybe I should be pissed with you for making him tell you."
"Tim, dammit, I love you. Surely you know that by now. But I needed to be totally in the picture. To do that I had to know what they did to you that second night. Just so I knew how angry I should be with the guys, for one thing."
"OK, lover, I get it. I'm sorry," he said, giving me the lightest of kisses on my forehead.
"So," he continued, "can we get on with Mark's punishment?"
"Sure."
"Here's what I want you to do. Can you arrange a time when you and Mark will be in your apartment, fairly late in the evening? You could be studying together or just bullshitting, or whatever. Then you could arrange for Chaz and Trey to drop in, so you need to clear it with all three of them. Don't let Mark know what's up. You can tell the others it's Mark's turn for payback. We'll need them there for `muscle,' and it's appropriate for them to witness everything."
Then he told me what he had in mind. I loved it! "Tim, that's so cool! And you've GOT to let me have a copy of that pic."
"Now," I continued, "I have to ask you a question."
"Yeah?"
"When you're about to come, you're pretty . . . vocal, aren't you?"
He blushed again. I swear, he's so sexy when he does that.
"Yes. I've had to watch that when Amy and I have been - "
"Who's Amy?" I asked, innocently.
"She's - was - my -" Then he realized I was putting him on and looked exasperated. "You know very well who Amy is, you goof."
"Have you been in touch with her since we --?"
"No, and I have to do that. I'm not looking forward to it, but I know I've got to break it off with her."
"You sure about that, Tim?"
"Never surer of anything, studly. I can't believe how you've changed what I want out of life!"
I pulled myself up over him and gave him a big kiss for that. When we separated, he took a deep breath and asked, "So what about my being vocal?"
"Oh, yeah," I said. "The other night when you were doing Trey?"
"Yes?"
"You were very quiet. Why?"
"For one thing, I didn't want Chaz to think of this as something that was giving me pleasure or that would give Trey pleasure. The point was to make Chaz sweat."
"Sexy, if he had looked at your faces, he would have known that both you and Trey were having a good time."
"Well, he may have caught on, but he did have the very kind of rough night and next day we thought he deserved, didn't he?"
"That's what he says. Now, you said `for one thing.' Was there something else?"
He looked up at me, put one hand on either side of my face and said, "I was very much aware that you were watching, sweetheart. I didn't want to seem to enjoy it too much because I didn't want you to be jealous or have your feelings hurt."
He got another big kiss for that. Then: "Tim, are you planning to leave me for Trey?"
"Of course not, dufus."
"Are you going to play around with him when I'm not looking?"
He smiled a wicked little smile and said, "Probably not."
"The RIGHT answer, professor, is `No sir! Never. Not ever!'"
"Yes sir! Never! Not ever!"
"You do mean that, don't you?"
"Yes, Cedric. I can't hide from you that doing Trey was exciting. It wouldn't have been if he hadn't gotten into it too. Trey and I have had two moments of connection, and they were both sweet. I'm really sorry he feels something for me I can't return. But that's because, you big lug, you're my man. Got it?"
"Got it, professor."
The next day I made the arrangements with Chaz and Trey about Mark's payback. They said they wouldn't miss it.
TIM:
Since he had a term paper to work on and I had my night class, Cedric didn't come back that day. When I got home from class, I put some Mozart on the stereo, using my earphones so I wouldn't disturb my neighbors. I stretched out on the sofa and tried to unwind from the day.
Under other circumstances, I might have fallen asleep. But so much had happened in my life recently, I had a lot that I hadn't processed. It was amazing to me that I had let Ced do to me what he did that Sunday. After all, look how he just came in here, grabbed me up, took me to my bedroom, and we had sex all day. Except for having been raped the night before, that was my first gay sex ever! I've heard a lot of guys jacked off with some buddy when they were going through puberty or in their early adolescence. Not me. I got called
a fag before I even knew what that word and all its synonyms meant.
I think my feeling I have to be in control, the trait that makes some of my students call me "the Iceman," is a kind of self protection. But I also have to keep proving to myself that I can cope, that I don't need anybody else. I think all that stems from something that happened to me in junior high school.
I've always been a skinny runt. When I found out I had to take showers with other guys after gym in seventh grade, I nearly died of embarrassment. By eighth grade it was worse. Some of my classmates were almost a head taller than me. Most of them had a developing bush of pubic hair. Not me. And, of course, my dick was small.
Some of the bigger guys started calling me "the little faggot" or "the class queer" in seventh grade. I didn't know what that meant, so I just tried to ignore them. I was sure it meant that they didn't like me, that I didn't fit in.
In the fall of eighth grade, however, something happened that changed my life. In the showers after phys. ed., Randy Blake was taunting me.
"Look guys, the little pansy's got a hair or two!" Several of them began to gather around me. "You think that's gonna make you a man, Timmy? Well, it ain't! `Cause you're always gonna be a faggot. I'll bet you suck dick, don't ya?"
I'd had it. I've never been a fighter. Me? That would be ridiculous. But I'd had it. So I made a fist and hit Randy as hard as I could in the stomach. He didn't have any ab development yet. I can still feel how soft he was there, and I remember how he deflated when I hit him. He looked at me with surprise as the air went out of him and he fell back onto a bench in front of the lockers.
Just at that moment, one of the coaches came in. It was six- foot-five Bill Warren, who had played basketball at WVU. "Blake," he said, "I want to see you after school in my office. Got that?"
"But coach -- " Randy began.
"Can it, Blake. Just be there."
"Yessir," Randy said, glaring at me.
"As for you, Mead, you get your shower, get dressed, and report to my office immediately."
I was scared shitless, but I did what he said.
When I got there, he had me sit in a chair facing his desk. He leaned toward me. `Here it comes,' I thought.
"Relax, Tim. I heard the whole thing. You know I can't condone fighting, but I can't say I blame you much for what you did."
I nearly passed out with relief. I had been imagining what my parents would say if the school called and said I had been fighting.
"Coach," I asked hesitantly, "why do they call me those names?"
"They're bullies, Tim. You're smarter than they are, and they know it. And you're smaller than they are. At your age, a lot of guys are discovering that they are becoming men and need to assert themselves. It's pretty normal. I don't like it, but it happens."
"OK, coach, I can see why they might want to pick on me. But why THOSE words?"
"Tim, have you ever sucked on a guy's dick?"
"No, sir!"
"Have you ever felt like you wanted to?"
I could honestly say that the thought had never crossed my mind. Until then.
"No sir."
"Then you aren't queer. So don't worry about it."
"Thanks, Mr. Warren. May I ask another question?"
"Sure, kid, go ahead."
"What can I do to make the guys like me?"
He thought about that for a while. "You can start by being patient. Don't let `em see they're getting to you. Oh, and I'm going to have a talk with Blake. He and his friends will know they are in trouble with me if I hear them call you those names again."
"Thanks, coach."
"It would also help, Tim, if you were better at sports, or at least some sport."
I'd played the usual baseball during the summers and wasn't particularly good at it. There wasn't a soccer program in Belpre back then. I was too little to be any help in a touch football game, so nobody wanted me on their team. And basketball? Me? Ridiculous! I told the coach all this.
He thought some more. "I've got an idea about something that might just work for you. You can do it alone or with other guys. It would toughen you up, build up your endurance. And it might get you some respect from the rest of the school. You game?
I'm sure my eyes must have lighted up. "Sure, coach."
It was that day Bill Warren became so important in my life. He got me started running. Because of my height, he knew I probably wouldn't be any good at sprints. So he started me on the longer distances. When I went on to high school, I didn't see much of Bill Warren anymore. But he talked with Fred Heinz, the man who coached track and cross country at the high school, and told him to push, pull, or prod me along. That's how I became a runner. I continued at Kenyon, where I had some success. And running is still an important part of my life.
Bill Warren's strategy worked, too. By high school, some of the guys had tried long-distance running and couldn't do it. They found out for themselves what stamina it takes. I grew a little taller. Not enough, dammit, but taller. So, the name-calling and the taunting stopped. I'll always be grateful to Bill. And I've made a point of telling him so. I always give him a call when I'm home.
An irony in this story is that during those junior high years, I was fascinated by other guys' bodies. But girls fascinated me, too. The difference was, I could, if I was very careful, check out the guys in the showers. Never had that chance, of course, with the girls.
The point is, I did find some guys hot. But in Washington County, Ohio, even today, homosexuality is considered a perversion, the work of the devil. I was smart enough and disciplined enough to know what to do. So I dated throughout high school. I lost my virginity in tenth grade with Mary Lou Coopersmith. By then I was attracted to a certain kind of girl, and I had sex with several of them before I had graduated from high school. I loved straight sex, but I have to admit, I did wonder what it would be like to have sex with a guy. I continued to check out guys when they were naked in the locker room, or anytime I could steal a look at their packages.
I particularly fantasized about Randy Blake, who turned into a real hunk. By senior year he was blonde, about six feet. Still dumb as a stump and mean-spirited, but he never bothered me after that time in eighth grade. I had this recurrent fantasy of me plowing his ass while he moaned how good it felt. I would remind myself that I might go to hell for even having such thoughts, so I stifled them. Then I'd go to bed and beat off, thinking them again.
In college I continued to date. I lost my fear of hellfire along with the religion I was brought up with. I'm not arrogant enough to deny that God exists, but I'm still looking for any credible evidence. I guess that makes me an agnostic, for now, anyway. Another important experience for me was that I knew some gay men and women at Kenyon and even more at Stanford. Some of them became pretty good friends. Nearly all of them were good, decent, caring people. And I came to learn what constant crap gays and lesbians have to take from the general populace. Last year, here at the University, Judy Croxall, one of my brightest students, was a lesbian who made no bones about it. She was simply out there, and I think most of the other people in the class respected her. She wrote an essay about some of the things that had happened to her when she came out in high school. She has courage and a sense of humor, which I'm sure helped.
I met Amy toward the end of my junior year at Kenyon. That fall we started going steady. Our relationship lasted despite our being apart a lot while I was at Stanford, and when I graduated, we spent most of that summer together. I proposed, and here we are.
Or, rather, there she is, in Indianapolis. And I'm here with a man I love to distraction and can't get enough of. I'm reveling in mansex. I don't know whether it's really better than straight sex. Maybe it's just the novelty. I can't help thinking, though, that it's because I honestly love Ced in a way that I've never loved anybody.
He just came in here and took over that Sunday morning, catching me when my defenses were zilch. As I've said, he literally swept me off my feet. Why else would a guy whose students call him "the Iceman" let anyone do those things to him? The Iceman is cool, rational, has never believed in love at first sight. Why then DID I submit to Ced? Because I was grateful? Because I was relieved after being desperately anxious?
I had, moreover, been surprised to learn that being fucked by Trey the previous night not only felt great, but it had a kind of "forbidden fruit" appeal about it as well. (Ced would have a field day with that expression!) Most important, though, Cedric has a beautiful soul in a fantastic body, and the things he did made me feel SO good. My sex with him now is simply more satisfying, more fulfilling than anything I've ever had before. It's not just physical, though I wouldn't deny for a second how incredibly hot our sex is, but it is also a magnificent connecting with a guy that, face it, I really love. And if that's love at first sight, or at least first fuck, so be it.
If I hadn't wanted Ced to do what he did, I suppose I could have fought him. Kneed him in the balls, bitten his earlobe off or something. (I probably would have if it had been Chaz at that moment!)
Anyway. What a delicious way to find out I'm gay. Or bi? Whatever. It was worth all the shit the guys put me through just to wind up with Cedric. After all these years of trying to prove to myself I don't need anyone else, I find I need him in my life and in my bed. I don't mind that at all.
But I've still got to figure out how to tell Amy.
MARK:
One evening about 11:00 Ced and I were just sitting in the living room having a Corona. We had come home after baseball practice, stopping to get Chinese take-out on the way. We ate when we got home and then hit the books for a while. Now it was time to kick back. He tuned the stereo to a soft rock station, and we were mellowing out. Ced and I had always been able to just be together and enjoy the companionship without having to talk. After the problems with Tim Mead, our relationship had been pretty strained for a few days. But he seemed to have forgiven me, and I was happy with what was developing between Ced and Tim. I love Ced like a brother, and he's like a kid in love now that he and Tim are together.
Anyway, we were just sitting there in an easy, companionable way, when there was a knock at the door.
"Why don't you get that, bro?" Ced asked.
When I opened the door, there stood Trey and Chaz. "Hey, guys," I said, "come on in."
I turned to go back into the living room, thinking they'd just follow me. Instead, I was grabbed. Chaz put a hammerlock on me. I laughed and struggled, but he wasn't letting go.
"What's up with you, Chaz, buddy?" I asked.
"Buddy's got nothing to do with it, dude. It's payback time for Markie!"
Uh oh. I thought they had all forgotten me. I'd already told Tim and Ced how sorry I was. I think I actually grew up some as I saw what a nasty thing we had all done to Tim. I had been thinking about how bad it is for anyone to force sex on anyone else. I guess I just assumed my confession had earned me some sort of exemption from the retribution I had helped Ced and Tim get on Trey and Chaz.
I had obviously assumed wrong, although Tim wasn't there. His absence puzzled me, but I didn't get to ask about it.
I could have tried to fight them, but Chaz is seven inches taller than my 5' 10", and he's a strong dude, too. Besides, Trey was there to help, and by now I knew that Ced must have been in on the whole thing too, for he was laughing at my predicament.
Chaz just marched me into my bedroom.
"Markie," my roommate said with a broad smile on his face, "I'm gonna love this. You can't stop us, bro, so you may as well go with the flow."
"If you bastards think you're going to fuck me, I'm sure as hell not going with the flow!"
Chaz, who still had me in the hammerlock, gave a little yank, just enough to get my attention and remind me that I was more or less helpless, and said "Mark, there's prob'ly more than one person here who'd love to fuck that bubble butt of yours, but if you cooperate, that ain't gonna happen. So relax, dude."
I did relax a little. "OK, sorry guys, I guess it is my turn. What happens now?"
Trey and Ced looked at each other, smiled, and came toward me. Ced undid the snap on my cargos and slid the zipper down. They fell to the floor. I lifted each socked foot in turn so he could get them out of the way.
Then Ced stepped back. "Your turn, Tiger," he said, motioning to Trey to continue. Trey pulled my briefs down and took them off.
"Man, Mark," Chaz said, "look at that big black bush! We need to take that off! Why should you be the only one around with pubes?"
"Hey, Chaz," Ced exclaimed, "I've still got mine. And NOBODY's gonna take them off. Now, forget about Markie's pubes. That's not part of Tim's plan."
"Tim's in on this?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah, bro," Ced told me with a wicked grin. He actually wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Dr. Timmy wrote the script for this little scenario, and he will be here for the denouement." I smiled despite myself. Ced really DOES sound like the English major he is sometimes, and it's good that he and Tim can talk that lit. talk with each other.
Back to reality.
"Now, Mark," Chaz said, still holding me tightly, "we know you like that Cremieux shirt you're wearing." (He pronounced it "creamy-oo.") "Either I can let you go and you can take it off yourself, or else we'll just have to rip it off you."
"OK, OK, I know when I'm outnumbered. I'll do it."
"Don't try anything else, Mark," Trey warned. "Just take off the shirt."
So I took off the shirt and threw it over the back of the desk chair, which left me standing there naked, except for my white socks, in front of my three more-or-less fully clothed best friends. I admit I was nervous about what might be coming.
Ced spoke: "Gentlemen," (gesturing toward me) "look at this hunk, this specimen of manhood. Do you see those shoulders, those chiseled abs, those big, suckable aureoles, that beautiful flat belly, the snake that's protruding from the aforementioned bush? This is what I've had to live with for almost two years now and couldn't touch. This is my gorgeous and oh-so-straight brother. You can see what temptations I've had."
My skin is fairly dark, and I don't blush easily, but I tingled with embarrassment all over. It's embarrassing to be appraised by your friends, especially if you are naked and they aren't. Ced's generous words about my bod also embarrassed me. But what really hit me was the realization that it might actually have been tough for Ced being my best friend and roommate. I had always been cool with his being gay. It never occurred to me that he was sexually attracted to me. He must have gone to some lengths not to show it. He certainly never let on, except to call me "stud" or "hunk" once in a while.
Maybe I had more to atone for than I thought.
"Ced, I'm sorry man. I didn't know."
"Chill, babe," he said. "It's OK. Besides, we're getting away from Tim's script."
Ced took the spread off my bed, folded it, and put it in the closet. He turned back the top sheet.
"Now, Markie," said Trey, "be a good boy and get on the bed face down."
Here it comes,' I thought, whatever IT is.' I lay down on the bed.
"You DO have a nice ass, Mark," Trey said, giving it a smack. "Stick it up in the air for us."
Even Chaz, in my mind the guiltiest of us all, hadn't been fucked. Surely my buddies wouldn't do that to me. Surely my brother Cedric wouldn't LET them do that to me. I wouldn't have thought that Tim, knowing what I have come to believe about forced sex, would have let Chaz off the hook and then let them fuck me.
I took a deep breath. These were my best friends. I had to go along with whatever they had in mind. So I stuck my butt up in the air, feeling ridiculous, ashamed, and oh, so vulnerable.
"Put your face in the pillow and relax a minute, bro," Ced advised.
Then I think he left the bedroom. I heard the front door open and then voices, Ced's and Tim's it sounded like, but I couldn't hear what they were saying.
"Keep your face in the pillow, Markie," Trey said.
"OK, Dr. Mead," Trey continued, "he's all yours."
Tim didn't say anything. Instead, I heard the click of a camera. Twice, once from behind me, then beside me.
"Cute, Mark," Chaz said.
Next I heard Ced's voice: "Tim, I see you've brought the necessary . . . equipment." He paused before he said "equipment" as if he were putting oral quotation marks around it. Then he snickered.
I was nervous and curious, not really believing that these guys would do anything too terrible to me. But who knew, Tim might be angrier with me than I thought. He certainly had every right to be. And, as we had been helping him exact justice on Chaz and Trey, he had tried, as he said, to "let the punishment fit the crime," though I'm still thinking maybe Chaz got off too easy.
"Now, Mark, whatever happens, don't move and don't look back. Keep your face in the pillow. Got it?" That was Tim's voice.
"Mmmppphh," I said. When your face is in a pillow, it's hard enough to breathe, much less talk.
The next thing I knew, my cheeks were being spread apart. It felt like two of the guys were involved with that, one pulling from each side. Now I've never been into assplay. I've never used a dildo. I've had a doctor's finger up there at the mandatory annual team physicals, but that's all.
My sphincter really clenched up when I felt someone smearing something cold all over and around my asshole. I realized it was Cedric when he said, "Markie babe, I've wanted to do this for SO long. This will be my only chance. I promise never to do it again, bro. But I AM going to enjoy it!"
With that, he began to rub my hole, around and around. Then he slowly inserted a finger a little way inside. After the cold lube, his finger felt HOT. He paused a moment and then wiggled it, making me jump.
"MMMMppph," I grunted.
"Yeah," he said, "I know what you mean." Chaz snorted and I think it was Trey who chuckled. Nothing from Tim.
Ced gradually pushed his finger all the way in. For the first time in my life, I knew what guys were talking about when they said someone massaged their nut. My God! I nearly went through the roof. I didn't feel connected to Ced at that moment. It was purely physical. But I've never had such a feeling before. I began to wiggle my butt, hoping to prolong the experience.
"Markie's got a boner," Chaz chanted.
I learned something then. Though I love Ced, I have never been physically attracted to him or any guy. But when someone's tickling your prostate, it doesn't matter who it is. Your dick is going to react, and you're going to get excited, even if you desperately don't want to.
"That's enough, Ced," Tim said. "You know how Mark feels about forced sex, and we don't want to violate his . . . scruples, do we?" The other three laughed at that, and Ced began to withdraw his finger, though pretty slowly, it seemed to me.
"OK, Maestro," my roomie said, "he's all yours." I think then he must have gone into the bathroom to wash his hands.
Someone, I assumed Tim, got onto the bed behind me where Ced had just been. A hand grabbed my ass, spreading the cheeks with thumb and forefinger, it seemed. Again, I felt something cold against my anus. Slowly, slowly, Tim was shoving something colder and bigger and more rigid than Ced's finger up my ass. It didn't hurt, though it didn't feel nearly as good as Ced's finger, but Tim kept pushing, and it went further than Ced's finger had. I wonder if part of the electric feeling I had just been experiencing could actually have come from the fact that it WAS Ced's finger? I didn't want to believe that.
Then I felt Tim get off the bed. My buddies had been chuckling while Tim was sticking whatever it was up my ass.
"Tim, that's priceless," Trey said, laughing.
"Oh, man," Chaz said, laughing so hard he could hardly talk, "if the baseball team could only see you now!"
Cedric, who was obviously back now and laughing as hard as the rest of them, said, "Markie, that ass is too pretty to need decorating, but you sure do look fetchin'!"
Tim, who had been pretty quiet through all of this, said "Now, Mark, you can look at what we've done."
I pushed up off the pillow, looked back over my right shoulder -- and howled with laughter. There, jutting a foot and a half from my ass, was a lily with three white, trumpet- shaped blossoms.
Click!
Tim had just taken a picture of my laughing face and lily- bedecked butt. He walked around to the side of the bed and took another shot. "That's a nice angle," he said. Click! My gaze followed him as he walked toward the head of the bed. He took another picture from that vantage point, so my face was in the foreground but my whole body, lily and all, would have shown. "Yes, everyone's going to like that one."
"What do you mean, `everyone'," I complained.
Instead of answering, he simply said, "OK, Mark, you can get up now."
Before I could get up, of course, I had to get the damned flower out of my ass. I reached back and grabbed it. It felt like it had been halfway to my lungs when it came out. I rolled into a seated position and then stood up.
Handling it carefully near the blossoms, I offered it to Tim. "This is yours, I believe, professor."
"Talk about getting the shitty end of the stick," Tim laughed. "I don't want that thing!"
Ced grabbed the flower by the blossoms and took it into the bathroom, where I heard water running.
Tim picked up my shirt and shorts and threw them at me and, with a big grin on his face, said, "Mr. Mason, you are indecent. Don't you think it's time to put some clothes on?"
About that time, Ced came back, put his arm around Tim's shoulders, and kissed him on his auburn hair. I bent over to pick up my shorts. Trey swatted my bare butt and said "It's a shame to cover it up, Markie."
I'm not exactly sure of the sequence of what happened next. After I got my briefs on, I grabbed Trey and pulled him into the bed. I was going to give him a noogie for those slaps on the butt. The next thing I knew, Ced and Tim were there too, tussling and giggling like kids. It was a regular free- for-all, arms and legs all over the place. As Trey remarked to me later, the Iceman seemed to have totally thawed.
Chaz, however, had remained apart, by the window, watching with a perplexed look on his face. From my vantage point on the bed, I couldn't help notice that there was a sizeable bulge in his jeans. As we had all seen recently, Chaz had a lot to bulge with.
It was Tim who first said something about Chaz holding himself apart from the rest of us. "Join us, Chaz?" he asked.
"I don't think so," the tall one answered.
"Come on, Chaz," Trey coaxed. "It's all over. It's cool. Everybody's square. We're ALL friends," he said, looking at Tim.
Tim got up and went over to Chaz, putting his arms out to hug him. "Chaz, we ARE all friends, aren't we?"
Chaz allowed himself to be hugged with obvious embarrassment. They made an odd pair, since Chaz is nearly a foot taller than Tim. Chaz looked down into Tim's face and said, "Dr. Mead, if you have really forgiven me, then I guess we're friends. I just don't know why I got let off so easy. But thanks. These are my buddies, and they're great guys. I'm really sorry for everything man, believe me! But all that wrestling around on the bed? I don't think I can go for that." He shook his head from side to side. "Mark, I'm surprised at you!"
That was the longest speech I'd ever heard Chaz make. "Shit, Chaz," I said. "We all have body contact with other guys every day when we're playing ball. You and I may be straight, man, but Trey's your best friend, Ced and I are your friends, and I think it's safe to say that we have a new friend in Tim." I looked at him for confirmation.
"Damn right," the little guy said, smiling.
Chaz came slowly towards us, who were all standing by this time. It looked more like a football huddle than anything else, but what we were trying for was a group hug. And it was pretty nice!
"Let's go have a beer," Ced suggested when we were finished hugging.
"Man, I'd like that," said Chaz.
"Sounds good," I agreed.
When we went into the living room, there, in a vase on the coffee table, was my lily.
As Ced stood there and smirked, the rest of us broke into gales of laughter.
When the mirth subsided, the others found seats while Ced and I went to the kitchen for beers. After the bottles were handed out, a few minutes of chit-chat followed.
Then Chaz cleared his throat and looked at Tim. "Can I ask a question?"
I could hear three of my high school English teachers saying "MAY I," and I wondered what the English prof would do. Icy obviously wasn't there that evening.
"Of course, Chaz," Tim said, putting his Corona on the end table beside him and leaning forward.
"Are we really square now? Have you really forgiven us for the crap we put you through?" Then, glancing at my best friend, "Always excepting Ced, that is."
Ced gave Chaz that great smile of his and nodded.
"Chaz," Tim replied, "what you four did to me was cruel. As I've told the others, I'm disappointed that you didn't feel you could just come to me and talk out the problem. I was operating out of ignorance about Ced's . . . uh, difficulties." He turned to his left and put his hand on Ced's face briefly, and they exchanged a tender look. "And in your case, Chaz, I'm pretty sure there must have been a hidden agenda."
"Could you explain that professor, er, Tim?"
"You were just a faceless stranger in my office that Thursday evening. You guys had me so blitzed the next night I didn't know what anyone was doing or saying after a while. Up to that point, however, you were the one from whom I sensed the most menace. And on Saturday night, you're the one who seemed to be getting the most enjoyment from my humiliation."
"Tim," Trey interrupted, "I was beginning to feel bad about the humiliation, but you know I really dug having my dick up your ass."
"I know all that Trey. You've apologized. You've had your moment of . . . atonement. And I think you also got that having you take my cherry was not altogether unpleasant for me."
Ced almost choked on his beer. "Listen to the man! `Not altogether unpleasant!' That's not the way I heard it."
Tim blushed. I think it must have to do with his dark red hair and pale skin, but when he blushes, he really blushes.
He turned to Ced, smiled at him, and said, "Shhhh! Cedric, you're telling tales out of school."
Ced put his arm around Tim, pulled him closer, and kissed him on his forehead. I noticed that Chaz still looked uncomfortable.
Tim took a moment to compose himself, then asked, "Where were we?"
"You were talking about what a son of a bitch I was," Chaz said.
"Yes, well, not in those terms exactly. But you did seem to be more . . . angry with me than Trey and Mark were. Am I right about that?"
Chaz frowned. "Tim, I didn't have any reason to be more pissed with you than these guys were. I don't know what happened to me those two nights. It scares me that something really mean inside me took over. I've still got a lot of thinking to do about all that. But, man, I want you to hear me say this again in front of my buds here. I really AM sorry."
Chaz held up his hand to stop Tim's response. "There's something else, too. They haven't said so to me, but I know the guys think I got off too easy. I mean, except for losing my body hair and taking the flack about that in the gym, nothing happened. Can I ask what's with that?"
Tim looked off into space for a moment. Trey looked at Ced, and they both laughed. Chaz and I must have looked puzzled until Ced explained, "He does that whenever he's about to come up with some long-winded explanation."
Then it was Tim's turn to laugh. "You'll pay for that, Cedric!"
"Whutchu gonna do ta me, little man" Ced asked, doing his menacing act.
"I'll just let you worry a while about that, stud. Now, getting back to Chaz's question. I hope you all see the appropriateness, even the symmetry, of what happened to Mark tonight."
Ced looked as if he wanted to say something, but Trey beat him to it. "That's so neat! Mark was there that Friday night, clicking away with his camera. Now you have pictures of him in equally embarrassing positions."
"It's even neater than that, Trey," I added. "Remember the carrot?"
Everybody, including Tim, laughed.
"So what does that have to do with me?" Chaz asked.
"How did you feel between the night when you watched Trey with a dick up his ass the night when you assumed we were going to do the same thing to you?"
"Scared. Really, that was probably the toughest twenty- four hours of my life."
Trey laughed and said, "Voila!"
Chaz looked puzzled and said, "So all that stewin' I did was my punishment?"
"Yep," Trey said, "you got it, my big buddy."
"Mark here figures into it importantly, too," Tim added.
Now it was my turn to look puzzled.
"After the evening when he took those really embarrassing pictures of me, Mark, as you know, had a change of heart. In fact, Mark has told me it was more than that. It was an epiphany, a sudden awareness, of just how cruel what you had done to me had been. And he knew what you had in mind for the next night." At this point Tim looked at me.
"Yeah," I said. "Suddenly it was clear to me that what we had done was bad enough, but forced sex was just something I was not going to go along with. Sex is supposed to be beautiful, something between people who love each other. Some sex with another person is just mechanical, something to get your rocks off, and that's bad enough. But to use sex to embarrass, hurt, or punish someone is much worse. When I saw that and realized what we had planned, I had to opt out."
"You're going to be such a great lawyer, Markie," my roomie said.
Tim nodded agreement, though I'm not sure whether he was agreeing with me or with Ced. "So, Chaz. I would not have sanctioned doing to you what you did to me. Nor would I have used Trey the way we did if he hadn't been willing."
Trey smiled. There was a kind of gleam in those hazel eyes of his. "Hey, I suppose I have nothing left to hide from this group. I agreed because I saw that to make things right, we all needed to have some form of payback. Besides," he said directly to Tim, "it gave me a one-time shot at something I've wanted all semester and never thought I'd get."
Tim and Ced got off the sofa and went over to the overstuffed chair where Trey was sitting. Each sat on one of the arms of the chair, and they put their arms around Trey.
"Chaz," Tim said, "we made you sweat. Maybe we've gotten you to do some serious thinking. You've atoned. You're forgiven. And you are very much a member of this rather extraordinary group. Got it?" he asked, smiling at Chaz.
"I guess so," Chaz said uncertainly.
"Now, guys," Tim said, "the old prof has to go get ready for tomorrow. You know, I think we might consider the last week or so as being a kind of initiation, for all five of us, into a remarkable brotherhood." Then he came to each of us for a hug, ending with Ced, who got a very passionate kiss instead. I noticed that Ced had both hands on Tim's butt.
After Tim had left, Trey said, "Well, guys, are we through?"
"There's something else we need to do," suggested Ced. "Tiger, how about letting Mark and Chaz read that thing you wrote for Tim?"
"I've already got a couple of copies printed out, so it will only take a sec."
While Trey was gone, I offered more beer. Only Chaz had another.
"What's this about, Ced?" I asked.
"Oh, I told you how Tim caught Trey with a boner and made him read a sexy poem in front of the class. I suggested to Trey that he should write about that experience and give Tim a copy. That was part of his payback."
"I didn't know about any of that," Chaz said.
"I know, bro," Ced responded. "That's why I asked Trey to show it to you guys now."
Right on cue, Trey came in with copies of his story. Chaz and I chuckled as we read it.
"Trey," I said, "I love the phrase a wolf in sheepskin.' That's priceless. And you know what else, guys? I think we really HAVE awakened a sleeping lion'."
(Well, folks, that's the end of the humiliation/revenge motif in the story. It moves on to explore the developing relationship between Tim and his new friends. Is Tim ever going to dump Amy? Will Trey's feelings for Tim remain unrequited? And what's with Chaz? "Stay tuned." I'll try to get one more chapter posted before I go away for the holidays. --Tim)