THE DOWNFALL OF NATE RAMSEY
This story is a gay fantasy; no part of it is based in fact, and none of the characters are intended to resemble real persons. This story chronicles the humiliating ordeals an 18- year-old high school senior is unwillingly subjected to. Some of these humiliations have a strong sexual component. If you are underage, or do not want to read about such matters, you should leave this webpage at once. Assuming you do not fall into either category (and you should not have come this far if you did), I bid you: onward!
CHAPTER TWO: "Nudity is the best policy"
Nate began his jog with both hands firmly clasped over his groin. It didn't take him long to discover that this slowed him down considerably. He cast a quick, nervous glance ahead and, finding the trail apparently deserted, heaved a sigh of relief. Now he could remove his hands from his crotch and complete the lap more quickly, before the darkness set in.
He was so engrossed in keeping an eye on the trail that he didn't realize he was being followed until Troy and Devlin were almost directly behind him. Nate's slow progress at the start of the lap had given them the opportunity to catch up to him.
"Nice ass, Nate," smirked Troy, by way of greeting.
Nate whirled around in shock, his hands immediately going back to his front. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"What does it look like, genius? Following you to make sure you keep up your end of the bargain."
Nate stared at him in disbelief. "Do you think I'm gonna run off in this state?"
Troy shrugged. "Just following the captain's orders. Now unless you want to freeze your, er-hem, manly bits off, I suggest you keep moving ... or do I mean jiggling?" He chuckled even more loudly as Nate glared at him.
Coming to the conclusion that there was nothing he could do about Troy's lewd comments, Nate decided the best thing to do was to ignore them and complete the lap as soon as possible.
Troy let him jog a short distance before turning to his freshman companion. "You might want to wipe the drool off your chin, kid."
Devlin turned bright red and stammered, "What? I wasn't - I'm not -" He lapsed into silence, pink to the tip of his ears.
Troy grinned. "Relax, Dev. Nate can be an ass, but he's certainly got a great one." He chuckled at his own joke. "Better get going before he gets too far ahead."
As it turned out, Nate hadn't gotten much further ahead. He had still been fuming over his humiliation and thinking about how he'd get back at the guys who'd put him through it, when a sudden shriek cut through the air.
"Oh my god!"
Nate froze, and his hands automatically went to his groin, but not before the female jogger he hadn't noticed coming from the other direction had gotten an eyeful.
Under normal circumstances, she was the type of woman he would have hit on. Not much older than he was, blonde and pretty. At the moment however, thoughts of flirtation couldn't have been further from his mind. He looked like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.
"I - it's just -" Words failed him and he stammered a quick sorry before darting past her. She was still staring after him in astonishment when Troy and Devlin came up to her.
"Did you see that naked guy? Is he a friend of yours?" she asked them.
"I guess you could say that," replied Troy with a wide grin. "I'm sorry he's a little shy."
"He certainly didn't seem it!" responded the woman archly. Then a glimmer of amusement came into her eyes. "Is this going to be a weekly tradition?"
Troy opened his mouth to reply, but was surprised when Devlin - normally the quiet one - beat him to the punch. "We can't say for sure, ma'am, but we hope so."
"I hope so too!" exclaimed the woman, before continuing on her jog. Troy and Devlin resumed their own until they reached Nate, standing out of breath with his hands on his knees. The grins on the two guys' faces only added fuel to his fury.
"That's it! I'm turning back," he declared angrily.
"Not a wise idea, man," said Troy, shaking his head.
"Yeah," piped up Devlin, "the guys will be pissed if you don't honor the bet."
"Besides, you're more than halfway through the lap. Seems like a shame to waste all that effort," added Troy.
Nate glared at them, but had to concede that they were right. Having already endured the humiliation of being stripped by his teammates and encountering a hot female jogger in his naked state, he didn't think anything worse could happen.
He was very wrong. No sooner had he taken a few paces forward, when a large black dog came bounding up the trail. Nate stopped in his tracks, wondering where the dog's owner was and whether he could affect a hasty retreat before that person also saw him in the nude.
Unfortunately for Nate, the dog had other ideas. It ran up to him and, to his absolute horror, started sniffing at him, or more particularly, at his exposed groin!
"Shoo! Get away!" he ordered the dog desperately as he shielded his genitals from the curious canine, but to no avail. He looked pleadingly at Troy and Devlin to extricate him from the awkward situation, but they were doubled up in silent laughter.
It was then that Nate made his mistake: he tried to kick the dog away from him. It wasn't a hard kick by any means, but it had the unfortunate effect of angering the dog. Instead of merely sniffing curiously at his exposed flesh, it now started to growl.
"Oy! What do you think you're doing to my dog?" The pet's owner, a man in his thirties, ran up to them. His eyes widened as he realized that Nate was naked, but then his gaze hardened. "Well?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips and not making any effort to call the dog off.
"Could you please call your dog off?" pleaded Nate. "He's getting aggressive."
"Well, what do you expect when you try to kick him?" retorted the owner angrily.
"I didn't mean to, it's just - he was sniffing at my ..." Nate blushed furiously, unable to bring himself to say the words.
"That's what you get if you jog around naked! I'm not calling Rex off till you apologize to him."
"Apologize to a DOG?" Nate was mortified; no way was he apologizing to a dog that had practically attacked him, especially not in front of two guys he considered his social inferiors. Then Rex let out another low growl and he quickly changed his mind.
"I'm sorry, Rex. I shouldn't have kicked you," he blabbered, blushing so much with embarrassment that even the pale skin of his shoulders was tinged with red.
"Hmph!" snorted the dog owner. "Down, boy, Rex! If you want to play with balls, I've got yours right here. Don't go sniffing those, you don't know where they've been."
Nate controlled the sharp retort that came to his lips with much difficulty; he didn't fancy getting his balls chewed by an overzealous canine whose master wasn't pleasantly disposed towards him either.
Rex gave one last regretful sniff before returning to his master. "I hope you've learnt to treat animals with some respect! And also, the virtue of wearing clothes when go out jogging," mocked the dog's owner.
Nate silently seethed with rage, even more so when the man had disappeared from sight with his pet, and Troy and Devlin finally gave into their burning desire to laugh out loud.
"It wasn't funny!" said Nate through gritted teeth.
"Oh no? It was to us!" Troy managed to get out between bursts of laughter.
"How could you let that happen to me?" whined Nate, his face burning with shame as he thought back to first the woman jogger, and then the man with the dog. "I can't show my face around this park again in case I run into either of them!"
"Nah," said Troy dismissively. "The woman certainly didn't mind. She wanted to know if Exhibitionist Friday was going to be on the schedule permanently."
"And Rex looked like he'd enjoy a game of fetch the stick," added Devlin, his wide grin leaving no doubts as to what `stick' he meant. Nate stared at the usually quiet freshman in astonishment; where had he gotten the balls to talk to him, a senior, like that? He decided that, once this ordeal was over, he'd make sure he put Devlin back in his proper place.
"Now let's get a move on," said Troy, smacking Nate on the butt.
He jumped at the unexpected contact. "Get your faggot hands off my ass!"
Devlin looked uncomfortable while Troy shot him an incredulous look. "It's not particularly smart to insult someone who has you by the balls. I thought you just learnt that, but I guess I was wrong. Lucky for you, I'm too civilized to be riled by cheap insults, or it wouldn't be my faggot hands that you'd need to worry about being close to your ass."
Nate felt a chill run down his spine. The casualness with which Troy had made the implied threat was somehow more menacing than had he threatened Nate outright. It hammered home the realization of just how vulnerable he was, naked in the middle of a hostile environment. Without a word, he turned around and resumed jogging without looking at Troy or Devlin.
His perturbation quickly died, however, when the trail led him out of the woods and back to the basketball court where the rest of the team was gathered. If he had not been so relieved, he might have noticed the change in the mood of the players, but as it was, what happened next came as a complete shock to him.
"Welcome back," said Owen sarcastically.
"I've done the lap, so I'd like my clothes back now." It occurred to Nate that he could have added a "please", but then he decided he wasn't going to degrade himself any further to this inferior gang.
Wes gave Nate a strange look. "We'll get back to that later, but first: what do you say to a party?"
Nate was thrown by the sudden change of topic. His discomfort was heightened by the fact that he was still naked, save for his shoes and socks, in the midst of his fully-clothed peers. "I ... don't know. Fine I guess."
"Your parents would be okay with us crashing at your place?" asked Drew.
"Huh?" Nate stared at him, too stunned to react.
"Your place, Nathaniel," repeated Owen with exaggerated patience. "That's where the party's going to be. We wanted to know if your parents would mind - assuming they're in?"
Nate felt vaguely uneasy as though he could sense the trap he was about to fall into, but he fell into it nonetheless. The lie came almost automatically; he wasn't going to let them extend his humiliation into his own home. "Of course they'd mind! You think they want a bunch of noisy teenagers in their house?"
Too late Nate realized he'd made a mistake. Owen's face split into a predatory grin. "Wrong answer, Nathaniel."
Wes silently passed him a cell phone he recognized as his own. The sinking feeling was immediate, even before he read the text message that was displayed on the screen - the message his mother had told him she would send:
"Just wanted to let you know Dad & I have reached Grandma's. Remember to lock up and arm the alarm every night. We'll see you on Sunday evening."
Nate looked up from the screen, his eyes wide with fearful anticipation.
"Guys, you don't underst-"
Owen cut him off. "You know what we hate almost as much as guys who don't honor their bets? Those who lie to our faces."
"I didn't - I had -" Nate saw the hard looks on his teammates' faces and realized the futility of explaining. "I did honor the bet!" he protested instead.
"I guess he really is a dimwit like you said, Owen," mocked Parker.
"Yeah, he needs someone to define `naked' for him. Without a stitch of clothing," stated Ethan. "And you ... well, you've still got your shoes and socks on."
Nate looked down at his feet and then back up at the guys surrounding him. "You have GOT to be kidding me."
Owen shook his head. "Nope, completely serious." Suddenly he barked, "Cuff him, boys!"
"What the-" yelled Nate as he felt his hands being roughly pulled and tied behind his back using the strap from his backpack. There were a few wolf-whistles from the crowd as he could no longer cover his crotch and everyone was able to take a good, hard look at his equipment. There were more than a few glances with barely concealed lust in them. Nate struggled against his bonds, but it was useless. He realized with escalating fear how much worse this day was about to get and decided it was time to swallow his pride.
"Please guys, let me go. I'm sorry for all the stuff I've said."
The guys looked at one another before shaking their heads in unison. "I guess it's too little, too late," said Troy, any sympathy he might have had for the unfortunate jock erased by the derogatory comment he'd made just moments earlier.
"Come on boys, it's party time!" yelled Owen. The guys all cheered and Nate found himself being frog marched to the parking lot. It was not a pleasant journey for Nate. He had not only to keep a nervous lookout for the joggers he'd bumped into earlier, but also to contend with his teammates who were in a particularly jovial mood due to the announcement of an unexpected party with a naked stud at their mercy. They took the opportunity to smack his butt and pinch his exposed skin, of which, obviously, there was quite a lot.
Nate's yelps and protests at the molestation he was helpless to prevent with his hands tied behind his back, were greeted with cruel laughter, and his case only worsened when one of the guys spotted the muddy pawprint on his thigh. To more general merriment, Troy narrated the tale of Rex and Nate's balls. By the time he reached the cars, Nate found himself desperately wishing he could just sink into the ground.
One of the guys was rifling through Nate's bag and found the keys to his car. "Hey Wes, you get the honors!" he said before tossing the keys to the team captain.
"Hey, wait a minute! Those are MY car keys," Nate objected. He was very proud and protective of the convertible his parents had gifted him for his eighteenth birthday two months before.
"Uh, Nate, I don't think you're in any condition to drive," commented Wes, gesturing towards Nate's bound hands.
"Besides, you don't want to jog the entire way home, do you?" asked Drew.
Nate's blue eyes widened in horror at the thought of having to make the journey home in the nude. He wisely shut his mouth and got into the backseat of his car, sandwiched between Troy and Devlin, who had both decided to extend their sentry duties. Wes's best friend, Jason, got into the front passenger seat.
No sooner had Wes started the car, when Jason pressed the button that lowered the roof. Nate, startled by the unexpected move, tried to bring his hands to cover his groin, only to remember that they were firmly tied behind his back.
"Guys?" he asked nervously. "Do you, ah, think you put the roof back up?"
Jason turned around in his seat to face Nate with a grin. "Now why would we want to do that?"
There was something in Jason's tone that caught Wes's attention. Jase was always the calm, cool-headed one - least likely to pick sides in a fight unless it involved people he truly cared about. Jase was fiercely loyal, and Wes was thankful to have him as a friend rather than as an enemy. But, try as he might, he could not recall any incident that could have provoked Jason's wrath against Nate. Even Nate knew to steer clear of Jason, whose solid build was more suited for football than basketball.
Yet here was Jase, clearly intent on punishing Nate - but for what? Wes decided not to press the question for now, but filed it away in his mind to be discussed at a better time. The present, he knew, was for thoughts of how he and the team could teach Nate a humiliating lesson - and how he could violate that sweet, virgin ass.
He turned his attention back to Nate's pleas. "Jase, anyone could see me! At least untie my hands -"
"Not happening," interrupted Jason. "Though you could ask the other guys if they might want to help you ... though I doubt it." He shrugged and faced forward again.
Nate tried seeking sympathy from the guys on either side of him. "Troy ..."
The gay blond didn't even give him a chance to make his plea. "I thought you didn't want my faggot hands anywhere near you?"
Nate, realizing that he was wasting his time, fixed his pleading eyes on Devlin instead. "Devlin, please man ..."
Devlin squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. Troy had made a good guess earlier that the cute, freckle-faced freshman had a thing for Nate. He did feel sorry for the handsome jock but, on the other hand, he had to admit that Nate had brought it on himself. And however sympathetic he might be towards the unfortunate Nate, his desire to see him in his full glory was overpowering.
"Sorry, Nate," he said finally, crushing any hope Nate might have had of salvation.
The car headed onto the main road and Nate's terror began to mount. He was out in the open now. Any passing vehicle with the right elevation would get a full frontal view of his nudity.
"Well, well, what have we here?"
Nate's heart almost stopped at the unexpected holler from an approaching vehicle. Then a truck drew parallel with his car and he saw that the occupants were four of his teammates. Owen was driving and gave a mock-cheerful wave.
His initial horror thinking that some strangers had seen him naked was instantly replaced with anger. "You bastards, I'll -"
Exactly what Nate hoped to do was lost in a squeal as Troy gave his exposed balls a sharp tug. "Mind the language, Nate. That's no way to speak to your superiors."
Nate just sat there, stunned into silence by a combination of the pain and this latest reminder of how swiftly he'd moved down the ranks.
Owen yelled out of his window, "I'll meet you back at his house. I need to get some provisions first."
Wes, having a good idea that the `provisions' would be tools to further humiliate Nate, nodded his understanding and slowed down to let Owen by. Wes continued driving at the reduced speed even after the truck had passed, ignoring Nate's pleas to hurry. He wanted to prolong Nate's agony and increase his risk of exposure. To that end he was certainly not disappointed.
Although obviously not all the passing vehicles' occupants were able to distinguish the naked jock in the backseat, a surprisingly large number did make the observation despite the rapidly descending darkness.
"Look Emma, that guy's naked! Buck naked!" shrieked an excited girl in a truck of young people headed for a night out. Her companion, presumably Emma, immediately came over to the window to peer with undisguised lust at Nate, who wriggled in his seat desperately seeking to minimize his exposure. Troy and Devlin, however, were having none of it and forced him to sit upright so that his genitals were on full display. The first girl snapped a shot with her cell phone, which would doubtless be a treasured image despite the blurriness of it having been taken from a moving vehicle.
The parents at the wheel of the next car to pass them were oblivious to what their kids found so fascinating in the adjacent lane. A trio of jocks from the nearby college jeered and catcalled at Nate while waiting for the traffic lights to change. An elderly driver almost drove off the road when his gaze happened to fall on the naked stud. And the driver of an oil tanker gave Nate a wink that clearly indicated his desire to have his way with the teenager.
So it was no surprise that, by the time Wes brought the car to a halt a couple of houses down the road from the Ramsey residence, Nate was a trembling mess. His face was tinged red with a permanent blush at the shame of having the audience to his nudity extended beyond the team to complete strangers.
"I can't believe you guys did that to me," he moaned.
"Well you'd better believe it `cause I suspect there's a lot more coming," said Jason unkindly. "Now get out."
Nate looked around the dark street. "Here? But this isn't my house. It's further -"
"I'm fully aware of which one your house is," interrupted Wes. "But this is where I'm parking." He raised the roof of the car in a gesture of finality.
"These are my neighbors! What if they see me?" squeaked Nate.
"You'll just have to hope they don't or, if they do, they think their eyes are playing tricks on them."
Nate gulped, knowing he had no choice in the matter. The moment Devlin got out of the car, he jumped out and made a mad dash for his front door. It was dark by now, but he felt horribly exposed every time he ran under a streetlight. If anyone had looked out of the window they would have been in for a treat. With his hands tied behind his back he had no way of covering up his genitals, and they flopped up and down lewdly in full view as he raced down the street.
The boys behind him took their time getting out of the car and walking down to the Ramsey house. They realized what Nate was yet to: the keys to his front door were in his backpack, which was still in their possession. Without it, Nate was still going to have to spend several miserable moments outside his house.
When they reached the Ramseys' front door, another carful of their basketball teammates had arrived, and they had pulled Nate out of the bushes where he had been trying to hide. He was pleading with them, to no avail of course.
Wes made a great display of finding the key that would unlock the front door. "Oops, not this one then," he said, after trying one that was obviously far too small to fit in the lock.
"It's that big brass one," said Nate urgently, looking around wildly as if expecting a neighbor to come up to him at any moment.
"This one?" said Wes, picking out a silver one. Nate groaned, and Drew added to his terror by teasing, "Look, there's a nice old lady coming out of the house opposite. Do you want to say hello, Nate?"
Fortunately Wes had managed to get the door open and Nate dashed in as though there was a pack of hounds baying for his blood hot on his heels. Perhaps that was not too inaccurate a description of his teammates ...
He didn't get very far though. Ethan stuck out his leg and poor Nate went flying, landing on his stomach. He yelped in pain as he slid a few feet down the hall, his dick mashed against the polished hardwood floor. But he was not given any respite; Troy and Devlin immediately pulled him to his feet to face Jason and Wes.
"Where did you think you were going?" hissed Jason, grabbing Nate's tender dick and giving it a squeeze that brought tears to his eyes.
"Nowhere," he gasped, "I was just trying to get out of the street!"
"You weren't trying to escape to your room?" queried Drew. "Cause that would be REALLY stupid."
"No, no! I swear."
Jason snorted, not sounding very convinced. "We'll wait for Owen to decide what punishment you deserve. Meanwhile, let's have a look around; you've got pretty nice digs here, Ramsey."
They marched him up the stairs and to his bedroom, which they then proceeded to rummage through while Nate stood by helplessly.
"Hey Nate, you don't have any more of those sexy undies?" asked Drew as he went through Nate's underwear drawer, which was full of boxer shorts.
Nate shook his head and Ethan sighed mockingly. "That's a pity, because your last pair ended up in the branches over at the park. And these boxers here ... they don't really show you off that well." With that remark, he scooped up as many of Nate's boxers as he could in both hands and casually tossed them out of the window!
Nate bit his lower lip to stop himself from saying anything. He knew it would be the worse for him if he did.
One of the other boys discovered Nate's porn stash under the bed - Wes noted they were all straight porn - while in a bedside drawer, Troy found a bottle of lotion and a rather crusty rag whose purposes were all too clear.
"Melanie not giving it up these days?" mocked Troy, tossing the rag at Nate. He had excellent aim; it landed neatly on the top of Nate's head.
"Get this fucking thing off me!" yelled Nate as he shook his head violently to dislodge the filthy rag.
"Dude, it's your own stuff," laughed Troy. The other guys observed this little exchange with interest. There was a lot of fun to be had with someone so averse to having a rag with his own dried cum touch his head.
Just then the doorbell rang.
"Who's that? Is Owen back already?" asked Devlin.
Wes looked at his watch. "Nope, that must be the pizza delivery guy. I took the liberty of ordering on the way here."
"Cool," said Cliff, one of the freshmen. "Someone had better get the door then."
Ethan smiled evilly at Nate. "Oh, we'll leave that to the `man' of the house."
Nate couldn't even protest the sarcastic way Ethan had said `man'; he had other, more pressing concerns. "I can't answer the door like this!"
"Oh, we'll untie you, of course. I trust you won't be running off. I mean, your only way out is, well, out - and I don't think you'll want to do that."
He didn't. "Can I at least put some shorts on?" he pleaded as Devlin untied his hands.
"No," said Jason firmly, joining in. "You'll answer the door as you are now, and don't even try to cover up anything. Act natural, and we'll stay out of view. Unless you want him to know you're being kept naked in your own house by us."
Nate gulped. He'd never even opened the front door with his shirt off before. Now it looked like he'd be doing it in the buff. He took the money Wes handed to him and walked down the stairs like a convict headed to his execution. The guys followed him downstairs but, true to their word, stayed just out of sight behind the door that led to the lounge. However, Drew quietly placed his camera phone on the hall table, making sure it was in the right position to record everything that happened at the front door. He was certain it would make a hilarious video to show at the team's next gathering.
"Don't keep the guy waiting!" was Ethan's parting shot as he disappeared into the lounge.
Nate faced the front door and resisted the urge to cover his groin. He wasn't sure the guys could see him even if he did, but he didn't want to risk further punishment if they did. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the doorknob and swung it open.
The short, dark-haired delivery guy on the doorstep wasn't much older than him, probably a college freshman trying to earn pocket money. His nametag read Zack. As soon as the door opened he started saying, "Finally! What took -" He didn't get any further. He gaped at Nate's full frontal nudity.
"Yes?" said Nate snappily, feeling uncomfortable at the guy's open gaze.
Zack managed to recover from his shock, although he was finding it hard to find things to look at other than Nate's naked body. "Um ... did I, er, catch you at a bad time?"
A flash of inspiration struck Nate. He replied, "Yeah, kind of. I was in the shower."
"Oh ... I'll wait while you put something on," stammered Zack.
Nate doubted his teammates would let him put on a towel, let alone some clothes. He vented his frustration on the unfortunate delivery guy, snapping at him. "Your job is to deliver the pizzas, right? Well, stick to it and don't tell people what to wear in their own houses!"
Zack was taken aback at Nate's vehemence. "Geez, mister, I was just saying. Keep your pants ... on ..." He trailed off, realizing the absurdity of his last sentence.
Nate blushed and decided he'd had enough. He didn't have to stand naked in his own front door, responding to the stupid statements of pizza delivery guys! Grabbing the pizza boxes from Zack with one hand, he thrust the money at him with the other and slammed the door in his face.
Zack stared at the closed door and then, shaking his head at Nate's rudeness, turned to leave. He couldn't help giving his hard-on a quick grope though, as he thought to himself that if rude customers were a downside to his job, then getting to see hot studs in their altogether was one of its perks.
Meanwhile, Nate leaned weakly against the door, thoroughly humiliated, as his chuckling teammates piled into the foyer.
"Keep your pants on, mister!" imitated Troy, provoking a new round of laughter.
Devlin, feeling a little sorry for the crushed jock, took the pizza boxes out of his hands.
Nate protested, "Guys, this is going too far. I've learnt my lesson, alright?"
"Oh Nate, don't you get it?" said Jason. "Your lesson's only just beginning." He nodded at Troy, who produced a tie from Nate's closet with which to bind his hands.
Troy had just finished tying his hands behind his back when the doorbell rang for the second occasion that evening. This time, it was Owen and their three remaining teammates.
He held up a bag triumphantly. "I come bearing provisions!" Rummaging through the bag, he tossed a can at Nate. "Here, catch!"
Of course, with his hands bound, Nate wasn't able to. Instead, the can hit him squarely in the groin, causing him to double up in pain. While the guys laughed at his misfortune, he caught sight of the label on the can as it lay on the floor.
"Shaving foam?" he wondered aloud.
"That's right," replied Owen. "It's for you."
Realization was dawning on some of his teammates' faces, but Nate didn't get it at once. He was clean-shaven, so what was the point ...
The wicked grin on Owen's face matched those on his teammates'. "Deforestation isn't usually good for the planet, but I think in this case we'd be doing the world a service, don't you?"
Nate's eyes widened in horror and he began to struggle futilely against his bonds. "No! No way! You're not going to shave me!"
"That's exactly what we're going to do. Lay him on the floor, boys - he's got an appointment to keep with a razor."
To be continued ...
If you liked the story and would like to read more, let me know at jax.cooper@yahoo.com. Suggestions are always welcome.
------------------------------- Copyright Jasper Cooper, 2008.