Jack Edwards
jnuanced@gmail.com

The Activist , Pt 9

We could feel as well as hear the music, or rather, the percussions, as soon as we got out of my Mustang. Nathan had insisted we wait until ten so that we could ‘make an entrance’. Now, as I looked across the full parking lot at the guys milling around the door – guys obviously older than us – I wasn’t sure I wanted to go in.

We’d had fun that day; we’d had a lot of fun. It began with Nate and I taking a three-way shower with Pauly, and us bathing one another, hard-ons and all. I found myself with a growing appreciation of Pauly’s pixie face, slender little body, fleshy little bottom, and surprisingly thick cock. He seemed cuter, after having made love with him in the night, and I found myself more comfortable with his effeminate mannerisms and voice. He was having so much fun, that I felt good that we’d let him be with us.

We went to McDonalds for a birthday breakfast of Egg McMuffins. Afterward we went to the supermarket and purchased ingredients for Pauly’s birthday supper. Nate had to work in the afternoon, so I took Pauly by J.C. Penney’s. We waited for Nate to help us, and then selected three pair of birthday bikini briefs for Pauly, for which I paid.

Pauly and I went by our dorm rooms and got a few books we needed for study, along with clothes for the evening, and then we returned to Lambda House. We studied in the kitchen. I was afraid that if we studied in Nate’s room in our underwear, Pauly or I might get horny, and I wasn’t about to do anything with Pauly when Nate wasn’t around.

As other guys came and went, I told them about Pauly’s birthday, and they all wished him a happy one. Pauly loved the attention.

Nate got off work at six, and we spent the next couple of hours in the kitchen fixing, and then eating Pauly’s birthday supper. After cleaning the kitchen, we quickly showered and dressed together. It was like three girls getting ready for dates. We helped each other with clothes and hair; teasing and talking about the evening of dancing ahead. We made Pauly wear a black pair of his new bikini briefs, and laughed because he had to pull them on over a hard-on, and he couldn’t get his cock inside.

It had been a fun day, and honestly, I would have been just as happy to go back to Nate’s room and have our own, private party for Pauly’s birthday. I’d even be glad if we included Pauly for a second night of sex. It was fun the first night.

But now we were at The Pearl, and Pauly acted excited. Looking from Pauly to me, Nate smiled like an indulgent parent, and I decided I would be indulgent, too.

As we crossed the parking lot, I recognized the upbeat melody of Rock the Boat, and I could hear laughter and loud voices from inside. Overhead was a bright half-moon, and the scent of hill country oak and cedar was in the chill air. Nate took my hand. Pauly got ahead, and then waited for us, like a kid going to his own birthday party.

Near the entrance, Nate pulled me into an embrace and kissed me.

“Just remember,” he said over the music. “You belong to me.”

I smiled, and joining into the giddiness of the moment, I said, “Of course… I’m carrying your baby.”

Nathan paused, with a perplexed look.

I leaned close to him. “You’ve pumped so much sperm into me, I’m sure I’m carrying your baby.”

Nathan laughed then. He grabbed me by the hand and headed for the door. Nate had been there before, but I had no idea what to expect. I’d never been inside any kind of bar.

A group of guys hanging around outside the door smiled at us. A tall guy, and another beside him, looked me in the eye, and smiled. All of them looked us over, their eyes traveling up and down our bodies. I decided that I knew what a girl must feel like around a bunch of straight guys.

It was louder inside. As the guy at the door carded us, I looked past him into the bar. The place was crowded. Everyone looked older than us, and I had a ‘finally get to be with the big boys’ feeling. In truth, most weren’t that much older than us. Many looked like college students, and I wondered where the hell they all came from.

“First time?” the doorkeeper asked, looking me over. “No cover charge for you.” He smiled at me. The guy had to be over thirty.

Trying to look in past milling bodies, I thought I could see the dance floor, and across from it, a long bar. Everybody who wasn’t dancing or sitting at the bar seemed to be standing in twos, threes, and fours. Above was a balcony, or mezzanine. It was less packed with guys, most of whom were at the railing, watching the crowd below. Guys were everywhere; dozens of them, maybe a couple of hundred. And as we came in past the door, every damned one of them seemed to turn our way, and I felt like most took a long look at me.

I don't think the phrase was coined until later, but, ‘like a deer caught in headlights’ was how I felt. I may be overstating it, but it really did feel like every guy there looked at me. “You’re very good looking and you were ‘fresh meat’,” Andrew explained later.

Most of the guys in The Pearl were good looking, too; slender, well-groomed. I saw one or two who looked as young as Nate and me.

Nate took me by the hand, leading us forward through the crowd. Pauly took my other hand, following us. I felt like a kindergartener on a field trip, except that my butt was groped a couple of times as we passed through the crowd.

Nate stopped beyond the dance floor, toward the back, in front of three friends he obviously knew. They weren't the most masculine guys I'd ever met. One was Hispanic and had eye shadow on. One was tall, thin, and homely; but a nice homely, as guys go. One was as short as Pauly, but round; he reminded me, vaguely, of Paul Williams. They were like three odd birds in a flock of flamingos. I liked them. I didn't know why; maybe simply because they were different, or because they were Nate's friends. They were certainly unlike any guys I would have hung out with back home in Oklahoma. The three looked at me, all of me, while Nate introduced Pauly and me to them. One of them knew Pauly already.

Slipping his arm possessively behind the small of my back, Nate announced that I was his boyfriend.

“Oh, Natasha, baby!” the one with eye shadow wailed. He looked me up and down once more. “I heard you had a pretty boyfriend, but he’s gorgeous!”

I wrapped my arm behind Nate’s shoulders. The move wasn’t possessive as much as it was defensive. Pauly crowded up behind me, hugging my belly from behind and peering around my side. That seemed pretty defensive, too.

We were having to talk loudly over the music. I returned a few smiles.

While Nate and his friends caught up on who was doing what to whom, and several other topics which meant nothing to me, talking loudly over the music, I looked around. I noticed guys around us, eavesdropping. Several guys purposely met my gaze, smiling or looking interested. One blew me a kiss. I was definitely not at a high school dance.

Nate led us on. He was literally beaming with that happy smile of his. He introduced Pauly and me to more friends. As we moved through the crowd, I saw a face I recognized from campus; then another; then I saw a boy I shared a class with.

Finally, out of friends to introduce me to, Nate led me onto the dance floor. Pauly followed us, even there.

Pauly danced pretty well, but nobody can dance like Nate, who didn’t have a jerky movement in him. I wasn’t bad; not by a long shot. But Nate’s fluidly erotic movements were unmatchable.

“I’m going to have a meltdown,” I told him when the first song ended. “Damn, you’re hot!”

Nate smiled his happy smile.

“Loren?” I heard somebody call out behind me. I turned and recognized the smiling face as a grad assistant from my Life Sciences class; Brian. He had a thin face, thick hair, and a well-trimmed, full beard. He was Nate’s and my height, and slender. The girls in class loved him.

“I had no idea you were gay,” Brian said, smiling, shaking my hand warmly. People moved past us to dance, but he ignored them.

I shrugged. “I’m just coming out,” I said over the music, and felt immediately embarrassed to have admitted that so loudly.

“Good for you!” Brian said, giving my hand a squeeze.

I pulled my hand back and drew Nate close so Brian could meet him.

“This is my boyfriend, Nathan,” I said. “And this,” indicating Pauly, beside me, “is my friend, Pauly.”

Brian looked approvingly at Nate and Pauly.

“I’ve seen Nathan in here before,” he said, shaking Nate’s hand. “But I’ve never seen you,” he said, turning to Pauly and taking his hand. Brian looked Pauly up and down. “I’d know if I’d seen you before.”

Pauly blushed.

Brian let Pauly’s hand go and returned his attention to me. “You have no idea how many of us have had a crush on you from the first day!” he said. “Jeremy… you know Jeremy? Tall blond guy who hangs out with me a lot? Psyche grad assistant? He just about drooled over you.”

Someone behind us said, loudly, “Natasha, honey, you better keep an eye on your lover. The sharks are circling.”

Brian's eyes flashed at someone behind me, and I turned to see Nate's friend with the eye shadow, smiling smugly.

I took Nate’s hand, pulling him close beside me. Nate gave my hand a squeeze.

“I simply wanted to say ‘Hi’. It's... fun to see you here. However... " He turned to Pauly. “What about you?” Brian asked him, looking Pauly in the eye. “Are you taken? Because I really hope you aren't!”

Pauly shook his head, coming close against my side and acting like he was about to disappear behind my back. I stopped him.

“Pauly,” I whispered loudly in his ear, “quit being so damned shy. You wanted to come here, and Brian's a nice guy. Don't be so shy.”

He glanced at me, wide-eyed. “I just wanted to dance and have fun. I’ve never been here.”

“You haven’t?”

He shook his head.

“Dance with me,” Brian said, offering a hand to Pauly. “Please?”

Pauly glanced up at me, really looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“Well, there you go,” I told Pauly, leaning close. I gave him a shove toward Brian. “We're right here,” I said. “Dance!”

Brian took Pauly's hand, and led him a few feet away. The little guy kept looking back at Nate and me. I felt like a momma bird pushing a baby from the nest, which was ridiculous because it was my first time there, too, and Pauly was two years older than me. I turned my attention to Nate and we resumed dancing. Nate pulled me into his arms.

I don't remember what music was playing, other than it was disco. We danced with hands behind each other’s waist, as if it was a slow dance. We moved faster, of course; but kept our packages pressed between us. I led; Nathan followed better than any girl I'd ever danced with.

When the next song was The Way We Were, Nate and I held each other more closely, nuzzling necks. Guys were watching us, but they weren't watching us like... ‘oh what good dancers’, or even like... ‘oh, what an attractive couple’. They watched our bodies, and for many, the interest was obviously sexual. But then, Nate and I were being sexual. We were both hard.

Part of my attention, though, remained on those around us in the bar. Other guys were dancing like Nate and me, but I knew at least one couple had just met. I had seen one approach the other. Outside the dance floor, guys laughed and talked. They acted as casually as people at a party, but even a first timer like me recognized undertones – the flirting and cruising, and the sexual undercurrents of guys checking out guys; even checking out Nate and me.

On the one hand, the notice and attention was flattering. But it was also unsettling… because of how I felt myself responding. There were a few guys who were drop-dead gorgeous. They were slightly older, and more assured. When they looked at me, with ‘that’ look, I nuzzled closer to Nate.

We went to the bar for beer. Nate saw more friends on the way and introduced me. I knew he was showing me off, and I liked it. I liked it because he and I were a couple; and a hot couple at that. It felt good, standing beside him, and us being admired.

"I haven't seen you here before," a voice said to my right at the bar. I turned to find a tall blond standing beside me. He had a pleasant face, and he had a nice body; shown off by a tight t-shirt. He stood at least six-four or five.

"You're on the UT track team, right?" he asked.

I nodded. We hadn’t met; I knew that. I would have remembered him.

"I've watched you work out," he said, offering me a large hand to shake. "I'm on the swim team. Name's Seth."

I looked him up and down; I couldn’t help myself. “Sometime, I have to watch you work out,” I said. It was flirty, but it just came out so naturally.

Seth smiled, then nodded past me at Nate. "Is he your boyfriend?"

I nodded, inwardly relieved that Seth knew Nate and I were together, and that my remark hadn’t misled him. "Yeah," I told him.

Seth smiled. "He's very good looking. You're a good match."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"I heard you came out to the track team," Seth said.

I was surprised he knew so much about me.

"Not on purpose," I told him. "I told my roommate; he told the track team."

Seth nodded, knowingly. "I'm not out yet; at least not on campus. I'm a sophomore.” He glanced around the bar. “I came here a few times last year. Back home in New Braunfels, I had a couple of buddies I did stuff with in high school. I haven’t done anything at UT other than to pick up guys here. You're lucky to have a boyfriend."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Very, very lucky because my boyfriend is Nathan." I leaned against the bar. "You should come over to Lambda House. You could meet more gay guys from campus that way."

I told Seth about Lambda House. I'm not sure he followed all of it because of the noise, but he nodded, and said he'd remember the address. I gave him my phone number, just to be friends. I introduced Nate to him, and Nate and I had another beer.

"I know you guys are boyfriends," Seth said, "but I was wondering, Loren, if I could have a dance with you." He smiled a little nervously and quickly explained. "Just a dance. I think it would be fun to dance with you because you're a good dancer, and I like dancing."

I glanced at Nate. I didn’t know the rules. Was it like when you had a girlfriend and she only danced with you? I liked Seth, and didn’t want to offend him.

Nate frowned like he was trying decide as well, so I took Nate’s hand. "You'd have to dance with both of us," I told Seth.

Seth grinned. "Sure."

We returned to the dance floor, and Seth, Nate, and I had a three-way dance. Seth was a hot dancer. I watched his hips, his obvious package, his slender legs. I remembered that when I came to UT, I wanted to find an athlete for a lover. But then, Nate was athletic; more than athletic enough.

Pauly joined us, because Brian had gone to the bathroom. We had a four-way dance, though I danced facing Nate the most. When Brian returned, looking for Pauly, the five of us headed back to the bar for another beer. One beer became two, as we met more guys who seemed interested in meeting us. Though most were subtle about it, many came on to me or Nate, or both.

Pauly suggested a disco line. Since Seth was still with us, we took him along with us, back to the dance floor. As Pauly showed us the steps he was interested in, I felt an arm across the backs of my shoulders.

“Nathan,” a deep, masculine voice asked, “where did you find all these pretty boys?” That deep voice was so sexy and rich in timbre, I could swear my balls rattled.

I turned and looked into a pair of dazzling dark eyes and the strikingly handsome face of a black Adonis in his mid-twenties. He smiled at me with dazzling white, even teeth. He had dark skin and a moderate afro. He was very well-built with a narrow waist and wide shoulders. He wore a skin-tight tank top, a couple of gold chain necklaces and a gold bracelet. He was like a Nubian god taking me, a mortal, under his wing.

“Let me borrow this one to dance with, Nathan,” he said, his eyes on mine as he lead me a few feet apart. He laid his hands on my hips and pressed his crotch to mine, swaying, pressing my hips to move with his. I moved. And felt my cock stir.

“My name is Martin,” he said, smiling, holding my package tightly against his. “And you are a very pretty boy.”

For lack of a better place, I put my hands on his shoulders. “I’m Loren,” I said, then remembered to add, “I’m Nathan’s boyfriend.”

Martin cocked an eyebrow. “You and Nathan?”

“Yes,” I nodded. It felt like his cock was thickening, and that had a further affect on mine.

He wrapped an arm behind the backs of my shoulders and pulled my ear to his mouth. “Have you ever been with a man, Loren?” He asked in a deep murmur.

“I sleep with Nathan,” I told him.

He laughed, an amused, deep laugh. With a deft move, he turned me, facing me away from him, while wrapping an arm around my chest and one around my belly, pulling me back against him, rocking my hips with his. I felt his thick cock against my butt. My own boner showed in the front of my pants. I resisted looking down at it, and calling attention to it. Nate was off to the left. I didn’t look at him.

Martin’s mouth was behind my ear. “You have a good body,” he said, rubbing my belly and chest. “I bet you’re good in bed, Loren. You come with me tonight, and I will show you how men make love.”

I tried to pull from him, but he had strong arms. I persisted. I unwrapped his arms and stepped from him.

I took a breath. The guy was like a force of nature. I wasn’t angry. It would be as hard to be angry with him as with a wave hitting me on the beach and almost sweeping me away. In fact, I sort of liked him, instantly. The wave had been fun. But…

“I belong to Nathan,” I told him, and I was sure to smile. “I’m glad I met you, Martin, seriously. But I belong to Nate.” I almost bowed to him on some silly impulse. I almost kissed his cheek, and I didn’t know why, other than I liked him, and somehow his overt ‘come on’ was so much more fun and easy to handle than a bar full of subtle looks. I gave him a grin, and rejoined Nate.

Nate had been watching me. When I turned to him, it was Nate who looked like a deer caught in headlights. He looked uncharacteristically lost. As I came to him, smiling, he returned my smile, uncertainly. I stepped up to him and laid my hands on his shoulders. He had been dancing with the others, but stopped as I leaned close to his ear.

"Please don't tell me if you ever slept with that guy," I told him, "because there's no way I can compare with him."

Nate threw his arms around my neck and hugged me hard. Then he kissed me, on the lips; and this was Texas, back when guys didn't kiss guys in public, even in a gay bar.

I laid my hands on the back of his waist and pulled his belly to mine. Guys around us watched.

"Let's go home, Nate," I said, rubbing my cheek against his. "I'm ready to go home."

Nate gave my neck a final squeeze, then stepped back. His happy smile had returned, and he took my hand. Then I saw Pauly, dancing with Brian, and I remembered that Pauly had come with us. I stepped over to him, bringing Nate with me by the hand.

"Nate and I are ready to go," I told Pauly.

Pauly nodded.

"I've gotta go," he said to Brian. "I rode with them."

"I can give you a ride," Brian told him.

Pauly thought a moment, and then shook his head.

"Seriously," Brian said. "It doesn't mean we have to do anything. We can dance some more. I'll even take you for an early breakfast."

Paul frowned, hesitating. But then he leaned close to Nate and me, turning to us.

"I know it's after midnight,” he said, pleadingly, “but it's still like my birthday. I wanted to spend tonight... you know, with you guys."

"But Brian likes you, Pauly," Nathan said, nodding toward Brian. "You might have a new boyfriend for a birthday present. Isn't that better?"

Paul’s brow furrowed, and he looked from Nate to me and back to Nate. "Please guys? Just one more night… for my birthday?"

Nate glanced at me with a 'What else can we do?' look.

I shrugged. "Okay."

Pauly grinned happily. Turning back to Brian, he gave him a hug, and they talked for a moment, speaking into each other's ear; I couldn't hear what they were saying. And then Pauly rejoined us, and we headed for the door.

Martin was on the way there.

"Good meeting you!" I told him over the music.

He started to follow and we stopped.

"Are you leaving already?" Martin asked, stepping up to us with a frown. "It's early." He looked at Nate. "I wanted another dance or two with you and your new boyfriend."

"Some other time, Martin," Nathan said with a frown. "And only after I've sucked him dry first."

Martin's eyes went wide, and then he roared with a rich laugh, up from the belly, as Nate tugged me by the hand toward the door. I followed.

"You have fun with him, Nathan," Martin called after us. "He's a beauty."

"You're right," I told Nathan. "He didn't want to dance. He wanted stand-up sex with clothes on."

Seth was talking to a guy at the bar. I gave Seth a hug good-bye. I was becoming a hugger. I liked hugging friends... gay friends.

Outside, Nate and I walked with our arms behind each other's waist. Pauly took my free hand. The night was clear and crisp, and it was much quieter outside. I took a deep breath. It felt good to be out.

On the way home, we passed the Holiday Inn on Town Lake. If it had been just Nate and me, I would have pulled in. I would have pulled in and rented a room for us for the night, and we would have made love in a hotel room with soft sheets and thick pillows. Some day, I decided, I would do that.

I glanced at Nate. He was looking at the hotel, but then his eyes snapped to mine. I grinned, thinking that he must have had similar thoughts. He grinned back and took my hand across the seats.

We let Pauly come back to our room with us. It was, after all, his birthday night, and he was wearing new bikini briefs which somebody needed to appreciate.

Once inside the door to Nate’s room, Nate pulled me into his arms. Our mouths met. Nate's wet tongue entered my mouth, warm and searching.

Pauly turned on Nate's radio, and dialed to a rock station that had become half-disco.

"Let's do some more dancing!" Pauly said, dancing toward us.

Nate smiled at me sadly and we stepped apart; the boners in the front of our pants parting last. We danced with Pauly.

Pauly turned and backed his butt to my crotch. I grabbed his hips and we rocked hips together. Nate stepped in front of us and pressed his front to Pauly's, also grabbing Pauly by the hips. We swayed together, pressing Pauly between us. He grabbed Nate's shoulders and leaned his head back on my shoulder.

I pulled Pauly's shirt tails out of his pants. "Strip Disco!" I called out.

"Woo-hoo!" Nate called back, reaching for the top buttons of Pauly's shirt.

We stripped Pauly to his brand-new black briefs, and then danced beside him while stripping off our own clothes until we, too, were in only briefs. Nate's were white; mine were red. Nate danced up to me and we pressed the fully-packed fronts of our briefs together, dancing.

Pauly pressed me from behind. All three of us had boners straining inside our briefs.

Nate turned and backed his butt to the front of my briefs. I wrapped an arm around his belly and one around his chest, much like Martin had held me earlier that night when I danced with him. This was so much better. I hugged Nate to me and nuzzled the back of his hair.

We moved together, even with Pauly holding me from behind. I moved with Nate, holding him, grinding my cock against his butt through our briefs, while he ground back with his butt, covering my forearms with his forearms.

The radio played a commercial, but we kept moving. Seasons in the Sun began to play, and Nate pushed down his briefs. They fell to the floor. I pushed down mine, dropping them to the floor as well. I pressed my erection up against the smooth skin of Nate's firm bottom. Once again, I wrapped an arm around his chest and one around his belly. He wrapped his forearms over mine, and the length of my upward-pointing cock settled into the crack between Nate's buttocks.

We moved as before; my cock sliding up and down his butt crack. I turned us toward the wall.

Pauly left my backside, but returned in a moment with the tube of lubricant from the nightstand. He handed it to me.

Keeping my cock pressed between Nate's buns, I pulled my arms back from around him and squeezed lube onto my fingers. Giving Pauly back the lube, I laid a hand on Nate’s back and leaned him forward from the waist, and he steadied himself with his hands on the wall.

I rubbed lube between his butt cheeks. Nate was absolutely hairless there. The muscles of his buttocks made a tight valley of his buttcrack. I lubed my dick with what remained on my hand.

Bending my knees, I angled my dick up into Nate's bottom, found his opening, and pressed up inside him until his butt was snug in my lap and I could caress the outsides of his legs with the insides of my legs. I wrapped my arms around his belly and chest once again, and nuzzled in behind him. I drove my cock upward as far as it would go, flattening his buttocks and raising Nate onto his toes. I held my hips there, impaling him while Nate wiggled his bottom, working my erection inside him, and his tightness as far down my shaft as it would go.

Over the previous three months, Nate and I had tried every position we could think of. I even joked that we were becoming connoisseurs of positions the way my dad thought of himself as a connoisseur of wines. This standing up position was a favorite of ours for occasional variety... holding him in my arms, his legs between mine, his butt in my lap, his hard back muscles against my belly and chest, and me, nuzzling the back of his hair and taking deep breaths of his scent. I knew how to thrust forward, as well as up, impinging on his prostate. My cock hit all the right spots inside Nate. I knew, because when he was behind me, his hit all the right spots inside me.

This night, we had an added dimension. Pauly pulled off his briefs and knelt in front of Nate, stroking himself, and sucking Nate.

Nate moaned softly. I drove, holding each thrust forward and up for Nate to wiggle back on. Pauly worked with us.

It was a position in which, with Pauly working on Nate, too, I could last longer than Nate. He nevertheless, lasted a long time, partly because Pauly's mouth got tired and he stroked Nate for a while. But when he started sucking again, Pauly sucked Nate for all he was worth. When Nate started to come, I drove up and held him, up on his toes, my arms around him, while he had a hell of a climax.

When Nate collapsed, still hoisted on my erection, and Pauly had sucked him dry, I let Nate down. Then I pulled Pauly to his feet, and turned him to the wall. I adjusted for his lower height. My cock was still lubed from Nate's bottom, and I angled it up into Pauly. I drove forward and up, and watched Pauly’s fleshy butt flatten on my lap, even more then Nate's firm bottom did. I wrapped my arms around Pauly, the way I had around Nate. Pauly twisted his head back, and I tilted mine down to kiss him. Then I nuzzled the top of his head, and did for him what I did for Nate. And Nate, dropping to his knees, took Pauly into his mouth.

I managed to hold out, and come with Pauly. He was already worked up, and it wasn't difficult to come together; so close together in fact, that I wasn’t sure if his orgasm sparked mine or vice versa. Suddenly his butt was clenching, and I was coming, all at once. I drove up with my hips, hugging him tightly while his squirming milked me, and the two of us cried out softly in rhythmic unison.

We caught our breath slowly, my cum oozing out Pauly's bottom and around the base of my cock. Nate got up from the floor. He was hard again. He leaned against my side and kissed me. Then he took me to my knees, bent me over onto all-fours, and got behind me with the lube.

I got Pauly to kneel in front of me, and I sucked him up hard again, while Nate plowed my bottom. Nate knew all the right angles as well as I did, and Pauly had a nice dick. I actually liked taking it at both ends.

When Nate was done, Pauly took his turn at my bottom. Nate cleaned my dick with an old towel. Then, sitting on the floor in front of me, he slid his butt forward under me like a mechanic about to work under a car. He slid his butt toward my knees with his legs going outside mine and Pauly's, so that I could lay down onto him, belly to belly. And I did.

I kissed Nate, and rubbed my erection alongside his mostly flaccid cock. Pauly rode me.

"No more bars for a while," Nate murmured, rubbing his cheek against mine.

"No," I agreed.

“I don’t want you tempted.”

“I wasn’t tempted.”

Nate shook his head slightly beside mine. “Martin got you hard."

"He's hot, but I wasn’t really tempted, Nate. Not at all. I love you."

Nate hugged my neck and gave my hips and Pauly's a squeeze between his thighs.

"Guys," Pauly whispered. "Thanks... you know... " His hips paused. "Thanks for my birthday, and for being my friends and all."

"Happy Birthday!" Nate told him.

I squeezed Pauly's dick with my butt. "It was fun," I told him. "Besides,” I said, wiggling my butt, “you make a warm blanket."

Clutching the backs of my shoulders, Pauly nuzzled the back of my neck and ground his cock inside me. "You make a great bed." He pumped his hips, and then pumped them again, then paused. "You're like the brothers I never had," Pauly said softly.

For a moment, the three of us lay still.

Then Nate chuckled. "And you're like the son we never had," he said.

I laughed, though I tried not to in case Pauly was offended. But Pauly drove his cock hard up my bottom, squeezing my shoulders in his hands and laying the side of his face against my back.

"Daddy!" he cried.

"At least," I said, catching my breath after his thrust. "I'm not the momma."

"Really?" Nate asked, rubbing his cheek against mine. "I thought you said you were carrying my baby."

I tickled his ribs and the three of us wiggled together.

“Sounds like you guys were the belles of the ball,” Andrew said the next day.

Nate and I were eating sandwiches on one side of the kitchen table. Pauly was eating his sandwich at the end of the table. Across the table from me, Andrew was eating a hamburger and fries that he brought home from Burger King.

“So did you like it?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, honestly. “I mean, I liked the dancing, and it was great, in a way, to feel so popular. I liked a couple of the guys I met, and having Pauly with us. But I really liked being there with Nate… like we were a couple the other guys admired.” I glanced at Nate. “But Nate and I agreed that we aren’t going back for a while.”

Andrew nodded. “A lot of guys at bars like The Pearl… maybe most guys there, go mainly to pick up tricks; one night stands.” He shrugged. “That’s what a lot of gay sex is; finding and coming on to a guy; picking each other up for a one night stand… or worse – a few minute stand… like at tea rooms.”

“What’s a tea room?” I asked.

Andrew shrugged. “Public bathrooms where guys hang out for sex, like the one on the north end of Town Lake Park or the road side rest area south of town, or a couple of the mall bathrooms,” he explained.

I remembered warnings when I was a kid, about perverts in men’s johns and how to never go into a mens’ room alone. I shifted uncomfortably.

“But guys in those places aren’t like normal gay guys, right?” I asked.

Andrew frowned. “I haven’t done a survey,” he said, eating a fry. He looked up at me, looking me in the eye. “Guys get picked up in all sorts of places, Loren. I mean, once your gaydar kicks in, you’ll see. You can run into a gay guy at the supermarket and wind up in bed together.” He shrugged. “There were a few times, when I was in high school and didn’t know anywhere else to go, that I went to the restroom at Town Lake Park.”

I nodded. I could understand that. I might have done the same if I had a place like that back home when I was in high school. “What’s gaydar?” I asked.

“Gay guys get good at spotting other gay guys,” Nate explained. “They call it gaydar.”

“You don’t really need it, of course,” Andrew said, “in places where gays go… like gay bars, tea rooms, gay theaters like The Texan, adult bookstores, baths…”

“Baths?” I asked.

“Baths,” Andrew said. “We don’t have a good one here, but cities like LA or San Francisco or New York have famous baths. You pay to get in and they give you a towel and a locker, or you can rent a little room. The good baths have movie rooms, hot tubs, saunas, and workout equipment; like a sports club. Guys cruise around wearing only towels and have sex, sometimes a lot of it. Baths like that even have orgy rooms.”

“So you’ve been to one?” I asked.

Andrew frowned. “Yeah, when I was in California last summer. But you guys don’t ever want to go to one. For one thing, it’s an easy way to get VD.”

I frowned. None of this sounded… romantic.

Andrew was watching me. “Does it all sound sleazy to you?” he asked.

I glanced at him, then at Nate and Pauly, and I nodded. “Yeah, I guess. Shallow maybe. But… ” I shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not like, condemning guys or anything. I guess I understand, especially stuff like the sports club thing.”

Andrew nodded. “You’re honest,” he said. “Some gay guys act like they’d never go to a bath or a bar or a tea room; and yet, they’re just as much on the make as any of us. Truth is, most straight guys would fuck every good looking girl they could, and a few ugly ones. That’s the way all guys are made. Straight guys don’t get to fuck every girl they want because girls are different. Girls aren’t out to get fucked by every guy they can; at least most girls. But when you have gay guys going for gay guys, then you’ve got everybody going for all the sex partners they can… I don’t mean as an absolute rule, but as a tendency.”

Andrew paused and pointed at me. “You and Nate are an exception, you know. Even when gay guys fall in love, it isn’t in their nature to stay faithful, any more than it is for straight guys, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to be unfaithful. That’s why it’s so damned hard for gay lovers to stay together.” He glanced at Pauly. “You’re already doing three-ways.”

Pauly’s head dropped, as if he was the one condemned for it.

I glanced at Nate. He was watching me.

“I don’t want to be unfaithful,” I told Nate quietly. “I do want us to stay together… really stay together!”

Nate smiled and took my hand. “Yeah,” he said, smiling sadly. “Me, too.”

“Good luck,” Andrew said. “And I mean it.”

Pauly got up from the table without looking at any of us. “I need to get back to the dorm,” he said. “I need to study.”

Nate and I got up, too.

“You okay, Pauly?” I asked as Nate and I stepped close to give him hugs.

Pauly nodded.

Nate hugged him, and then I did.

“You’re our friend, Pauly,” Nate said.

“We’ll sort it all out,” I promised.

Pauly looked up, smiled sadly and nodded. We did a three-way hug, and he left the kitchen.

Nate and I sat back down.

“Pauly met someone who really liked him,” Nate told Andrew, “at The Pearl last night.”

“A grad assistant in my Life Sciences class,” I said.

“He’s cute,” Nate added.

Andrew raised his eyebrows, looking at me. “You met someone there you know from school?”

“Not just him,” I said. “I saw at least three other guys I’ve seen around on campus.”

“Well,” Andrew said with a sigh, “it’s good you’re coming out, because word is going to get around.”

“Travis, will be happy,” I said.

I studied that afternoon, lying on Nathan’s bed in my briefs while he sat beside me, looking through his cookbooks, sometimes laying across my back to read them. I finished most of what I needed to by late afternoon, and set my books aside.

Rolling up on my side, I laid Nathan back and cocked a leg across his legs, pressing the full pouch of his briefs with the inside of my thigh. I laid my hand on his chest. Nate set his book aside and smiled up at me.

“I’ve been thinking,” I told him.

“What?”

“I want to move out of the dorm and in here with you.”

Nate frowned. “You’re a freshman. Will they let you?”

I shrugged. “I’ll find out. It’s just… ” I pressed my forehead to the side of his head. “I want to live here with you. I really do want us to stay together, and I don’t want Pauly as a roommate and us hanging around in our underwear. It’d be too easy to fuck up.”

Nate nodded. “Yeah, I wondered.” He rolled up to face me, forehead to forehead, and we entwined legs. “What about your scholarship? Doesn’t that pay your room and meals?” he asked.

“I can see if they’ll give me money for rent and meals instead. I mean, I’m a special case, right.” I smiled. “I’m ostracized because I’m gay.”

Nate traced his finger down my cheek. “What will your dad say?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” I said. “I may have to tell him about us… about me.” My hand was on the side of his waist. I gave his side a rub. “I’m leaving a lot behind, Nate,” I told him. “I’m ready to do it, too. I want to do it. For us. Just promise me you won’t leave me; not for a long time.”

Nate hugged me, cheek to cheek. “I won’t leave you,” he promised in a whisper at my ear. “If you won’t leave me, I won’t leave you.”

We hugged, hard. We meant it. Lovers that age tell each other many things that they mean in the moment. I knew that, even then, but I was filled with a resolve. I truly was prepared to leave everything for Nate. I guess, in a way, it seemed noble at the time. But beyond that, it was something I wanted – to be with Nate – and it was something that seemed absolutely right. It seemed right the way some people always knew the profession they wanted, even when they were a kid, or the girl they wanted to marry, the moment they met her. I’d known Nate for only three months, but I knew we belonged together.

We kissed.

“I love you,” we said at almost the same instant, and then grinned at one another.

I rolled Nate to his back and knelt up beside him. I pulled off his briefs, then pulled off mine. Nate opened his legs to me, and I lay down on him, cocks between bellies, my balls on his.

I gazed down into his eyes, and it came home to me with a certainty as firm as any I’d ever known. “We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together,” I said, simply.

Nathan’s eyes searched mine. He swallowed hard and his eyes watered. Then he smiled that happy smile I fell in love with the first day I saw him.

I smiled back as he pulled my mouth down to his

In the quiet of my dorm room that night, I spent close to two hours composing a letter to my father, telling him that I was gay, that I had been gay all my life, and that I was moving in with Nate because I loved him and wanted to be with him. If my family didn’t want me to come home at Christmas, I told him that I understood. I told him I was sorry if he was disappointed, but that I was actually happy, really happy, for the first time in a long time.

In the morning, I mailed the letter before I could have second thoughts about it, and I went to find the office of my Social Sciences professor. He was in and motioned me into a chair in front of his desk.

“You remember saying that if a gay student spoke in your class about his experiences, you would give a lot of extra credit?” I asked.

He gazed back at me with a surprised look. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he mumbled.

“I don’t need extra credit,” I told him, “but I would like your help with something.”

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I like to hear from you guys. As I've said before, reader emails are the only pay we Nifty writers ask for or receive, and I do like to hear if a chapter was enjoyed or not. Only a couple more chapters to go. :) My email address is jnuanced@gmail.com.