Tap. Tap. Tap.
Riley clicked the touchpad on his laptop with a heavy finger as he sorted through his camera's SD card. He would archive ones to keep, flag any that needed edits first, and usually trashed more than half.
A telephoto closeup of a woman's face. Her nose and mouth is covered by a pink scarf fashioned into a homemade mask that makes her look like Bandito Barbie. Needs cropping and saturation adjustments. Flag and archive.
A dutch angle of a photocopied lockdown notice. The page had been shoved under their door in the flurry of activity when cases were reported in one of the other dorms. Riley's bare feet are in the frame. Trash.
The back of Van's head. Riley's roommate is a proud jock and regularly wears one of his many backwards caps with team logos on them. The one in the photo is some sort of fish or whale shaped like a `C'. Riley doesn't watch sports. Archive.
Another photo of the back of Van's head. This time the hat is red. Archive.
Another hat. It's the fish again. Trash.
End of photos.
Riley sat back from his desk and slumping down in his chair. He slowly looked around at the same four walls, vainly hoping to strike new inspiration. To the left of his desk was his bed and to the right, his dresser. Against the back wall, under their only window, sat a table filling the one meter gap between Riley's side and Van's.
He spun around in his chair and took in the rest of the room, which was exactly the same. Bed, desk, dresser. The only extra piece was Van, playing games on his PC. He was wearing a green hat this time, but Riley couldn't bring himself to grab his camera.
A heavy fist knocked twice on the door and a voice called in, "Showers are free."
Ah, their scheduled shower break. It was the second most prison-like part of lockdown after the food.
Van didn't look up from his game so Riley stepped up to tell him.
It was some kind of action-role-playing fantasy adventure thing that overloaded the screen with flashing numbers and dramatic swordplay. Riley watched for a few seconds as the buff, shirtless swordsman on the screen hacked his way through a series of slime creatures. He glanced down at Van's bare chest and noticed the similarities. Van had the thick shoulders and chest of someone who had lifted weights in high school instead of cameras, and Riley still wasn't sure if he should be thankful or cursing the fact that his roommate chose to walk around topless.
Riley tapped his bare shoulder and Van quickly paused the game and pushed aside his headphones, looking up at him with the pleasant smile. It didn't matter that they were in the middle of a generation-defining pandemic, Van still had a positive attitude.
In his head, Riley sometimes thought of Van as a golden retriever.
"It's our turn with the showers," Riley told him.
"Sweet!" Van tossed his headphones aside and left the game on pause as he grabbed a towel off his pile of dirty clothes and stood up, towering over Riley who found himself face-to-face with Van's thick shoulder.
They didn't speak much as they put on their masks and gathered their toiletries bags. After a week of lockdown it was all becoming routine, and they had run out of small talk.
The shower room had four stalls, four sinks, and an open doorway that led to four toilets. Floor to ceiling walls divided the showers and thick white plastic curtains covered the entrances. Facing the showers on the other wall was a wide mirror over four square sinks. It was empty and quiet.
Van took one of the middle showers and then Riley took the one furthest away.
The splash of water against tiles echoed off the hard walls as Van started his shower. Riley took an extra minute since he had more than just his shorts to take off. He folded his shirt and shorts and socks in a pile and placed his glasses and phone on top. Finally he slipped off his underwear and stepped into the back half of the stall with the taps, flattening himself against the wall so he could turn on the water and adjust the temperature before getting wet. Soon enough he was feeling a fraction of the stress in his muscles ease under the warm massage.
He faced the shower head and closed his eyes, letting the water fill his ears so everything became muffled behind the beating of the water on his skull and his pulse in his ears.
Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.
Showers were nice periods of meditation away from the swirling stressful chaos of his phone.
Thump thump. Thump thump.
Now that they were only showering two-by-two, and no one was running in the dorm hall or banging on their neighbours doors, the whole atmosphere of the building was quieter.
Thump thump. Thump thump.
Riley could be alone with his heartbeat and the hot water.
Thap thap thap.
Riley opened his eyes.
Thap thap thap.
Van was jacking off.
Riley edged his head out from the spray to listen and check he wasn't imagining things.
Thap thap thap.
His jock roommate was rapidly pleasuring himself just a few meters away. Riley's meditation was broken, but he could still hear his heartbeat. He felt frozen, captured by the sound of wet skin and self pleasure.
Riley's cock began to rise.
It had been longer than a week since he'd cum. They had only been roommates for a month since some administration fuck ups and maintenance issues caused the school to close a building and reshuffle the dorms. He'd had a private room for the first semester and did what most 19-year-olds did when they had privacy. Since Van had moved in there hadn't been a chance.
Clearly Van had found a solution.
Riley's cock was fully hard and he delicately wrapped his fingers around it as he listened to Van and tried to put images to the sounds.
Were his eyes open or closed? Did he bend his knees and flex as he stroked? Which hand was it? Was he touching his balls as well, or maybe reaching deeper? Did straight guys play with their assholes too?
Riley let the arousing thoughts flood over him and he took a squirt of body wash to lube himself as he stroked harder, but made sure to not make extra noise.
He stroked with his right hand while his left slipped beneath his balls and fingered his hole. There was a dildo hidden at the bottom of his dresser that he hadn't been able to use and the feeling of his slim finger sliding inside was reminding him of everything he was missing.
Thap thap thap thap.
Van was speeding up.
Riley tried to match his pace, but he was having trouble. Every stroke felt amazing but there was a block. Somewhere inside he could feel his orgasm pushing forward but standing up in the shower was making it difficult. He'd always done it lying down, wrapped in sheets. This alien environment was getting in his way.
Thap thap.
The sound from Van's side of the room suddenly stopped.
Riley strained to listen and stroked harder.
A grunt. Then a sigh.
Riley imagined Van's load splattering the wall, or dripping against his bare feet. He fixated on the image and let down his limitations.
Thap thap thap thap.
It didn't matter if Van heard, Riley just needed to cum.
He pressed his middle finger deeper in his ass, one knuckle, then two. He touched the nub of his prostate and stroked, and he felt his orgasm pressing against the block.
It wouldn't budge.
Then the water stopped.
The showers had a fifteen minute time limit and as the water splashes echoed off the walls and stopped, Riley dropped his hands in defeat. He reset the shower and started the spray briefly to rinse off, but then he turned off the taps and reached for his towel.
--
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