CHAPTER TEN


In which Kevin eats a bacon sandwich and he and Danny try something new.


Jeremy

We went back to the chess club room and spent the next fifteen minutes analysing our game, although to be honest there wasn’t much to analyse: once I threw my bishop away it was all over. But at least by the time we’d finished I’d just about recovered

I thought it was really nice of the boy in glasses not to laugh at me: if anyone in my form had found me being beaten by Year Seven kids I would never have heard the end of it, but he seemed sympathetic, and the way he’d bailed me out with that two pounds was really unexpected. I decided I would definitely try to repay him, although I had no idea how, because I had no spare money at all at: everything I got went more or less straight to Kenton.

“I meant what I said back there,” I said. “I’ll repay you. I’m just a bit short at the moment.”

“You really don’t need to,” he said. “It was obvious you needed the money more than me…so… well, if you don’t mind me asking... has that happened before?”

“Once or twice,” I mumbled. More like a dozen times, although it had never happened at school before: usually it happened at home, or in the woods around the village. I really hoped it wasn’t going to happen at school again.

“And how come you owed him money? I mean, if you need money, couldn’t you find someone to borrow from who’s a bit less of a bastard?”

“It’s not really as simple as that…”

I really didn’t want to talk about it, no matter how sympathetic he seemed – after all, in an hour at the outside he’d have gone and I’d never see him again, so what was the point in humiliating myself by telling him my troubles? Although it was a pity, because he actually seemed to care – a lot more than anyone else would, anyway.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go and see how the others are getting on, then.”

He stood up and started to walk down the line of tables looking at the games that were still going on. The Board Six game was over – we’d won that – but we were getting beaten, as far as I could tell at a quick glance, in three of the other games, so I thought that probably we were going to lose the match. So at least I wouldn’t be the only loser…

“Would you like another quick game while we wait?” I asked.

“Okay,” he said. “Looks like some of these have got a way to go yet.”

He grabbed the clock we’d used for the official game and we went back over to the far side of the room.

“Maybe this time you should give me a piece or two to start with,” I said.

“I don’t think so. I doubt if you’ll play that badly again. You were worrying about that kid coming looking for you, weren’t you? Because you looked sort of jumpy. It’s not easy to play if you can’t concentrate.”

“That’s true, but you can still give me a piece if you like. Or you could try playing without your glasses.”

He laughed. “If I take my glasses off I can’t even see the board,” he said. “Try them and you’ll see what I mean.”

He passed them over and I put them on, and they were really powerful – if I’d tried walking wearing them I’d have bumped into everything, because they distorted everything I looked at.

“Crikey, those are strong,” I said, taking them off. “Your eyes must be really bad. It’s odd, though – they look perfectly normal.”

Actually with his glasses off he looked completely different – almost handsome. He had nice blue eyes, and a nice smile, too… and then I realised I was staring at him. I handed the glasses back in a hurry, because if he realised that I’d been looking at him in that way I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be nice and sympathetic any longer.

We played a couple of games, and by then the rest of the official games were over (as I’d expected, we lost by four and a half to one and a half, so nobody was going to blame me, at least) and then packed up to go home. As Specs and his team had come by train I found myself heading in the same direction as them, and that was just as well because Kenton was waiting for me at the station. If I’d been on my own he would probably have beaten me up again, but he couldn’t really do that with the other team there. So I stuck close to Specs until the train arrived and then sat in the same carriage as him. The bad news was that they were going a lot further than I was, and once we’d got off the train there’d be nothing to hold Kenton back, because he lives in the same road as me and so gets off the train in the same place.

“I don’t suppose…” I said to Specs as we approached my station. “I know it’s asking a lot, but…”

“What?”

“Well… could you possibly get off the train and walk home with me? It’s not very far, but Kenton – the boy who was beating me – is on the train too, and I know he’ll have another go at me otherwise. Please? You could come in and have something to eat if you like and then catch the next train…”

He looked unsure, and I couldn’t really blame him, because the trains only run once an hour, and so it really was a lot to ask. But I just couldn’t face another doing over, not twice in one evening.

“Well… I’ll have to ask if it’s okay,” he said, and he went and talked to his teacher, coming back just as the train drew into my station.

“He says I can,” he said, picking up his bag. “But I’m going to take you up on the offer of tea if I do.”

“Of course!” I said at once.

“Okay, then…”


Kevin

I’m not sure why I’d agreed to do this. It wouldn’t matter about me getting home late, although Chris might well think I’d bunked off somewhere to do what I’m not supposed to. Still, I felt sorry for the boy – and he really was quite nice-looking…

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said to Danny. “You can come home with me and Chris if you like – I’m sure we can stretch supper to fit one more… oh, unless… I mean, there’s stuff you can’t eat, isn’t there?”

“Yes, there is. Perhaps we can arrange it better next time – like you can come to me, because I don’t suppose you worry about what you eat. I’ll go home for supper tomorrow and come round to yours afterwards.”

“Okay. I’m looking forward to it,” I said, and I followed Millefin to the door and out onto the platform. And as soon as we turned to head for the exit I saw the other boy getting out of the next carriage along.

“What do you want here, Four-eyes?” he asked me aggressively.

“My money, obviously,” I replied. “I live miles away and I don’t want to have to come back for it, so Blondie’s going to take me home and give it to me now. Right?” I said, trying to glare at Millefin.

“”Well... I mean… sure, if I can find it…”

“You’d better,” I said.

“Oh. Fair enough, then,” said the other boy. “But if he doesn’t cough up, let me know, and maybe you can come and help me sort him out at the weekend.”

“I’d like to, but my dad’s at home this weekend so I won’t be able to get out. Saturday week, though – I should be free then, and if he hasn’t come up with the money by then I won’t mind helping you out.”

“Great! Okay, look for me on Facebook – my name’s Peter Kenton – or if you can’t find me, we’re in the phone book. We’re the only Kentons in the village.”

I didn’t think he’d need my help, or that of the other boys who had been with him earlier: he was only a couple of inches shorter than me, and looked strong and fit for a Year Seven boy. He was about the same height as Colin, but where Colin looked like a god – at least to me – Kenton just looked ordinary, with nondescript mid-brown hair and muddy green eyes.

He turned and jogged off, and Millefin led me out of the station and along the road that led away from it. After about three hundred metres he indicated a house on the right.

“That’s where Kenton lives,” he said.

We walked on another fifty metres or so and he indicated another house.

“And this is me,” he said. “As you can see, I have to walk past Kenton’s place on my way to the station every morning, and he’s usually waiting for me. He doesn’t usually hit me or anything, but he does make it a miserable journey. I could go the other way and catch the bus instead, but that takes ages, and in any case I’m sure that if I tried avoiding him like that he’d take it out on me at school.”

“And you have to put up with that every day?” I asked. “What about at school – are you in the same class as him?”

He glared at me.

“How old do you think I am?” he asked.

“Well… eleven or twelve, I suppose.”

“I’m in bloody Year Nine,” he replied, bitterly. “I’m fourteen. Yes, I know I don’t look it, or act it, either. But that’s why I can’t really complain about Kenton: if I started claiming that a Year Seven kid was bullying me… well, you can imagine how much sympathy I’d get.”

“You’d get some from me,” I said. “It’s not your fault you’re small for your age. I’ve got a friend – he’s in the same year as me – and you, of course. His name is Jason, but people call him the Microbe because he’s a lot smaller than you. I think he said he was about four feet nine. So really things could be worse for you.”

“Not much,” he said, unlocking the door and ushering me inside. “I bet he doesn’t get beaten up by eleven-year-olds. Anyway, you’d better come and meet my mother.”

He took me through to the kitchen and introduced me, and his mother seemed both surprised and pleased to see me, giving me the impressions that Millefin didn’t very often take friends home with him. He requisitioned some bacon sandwiches, and while the bacon was cooking he took me up to his room, dumped his bag and took off his blazer.

“I’m supposed to do my homework as soon as I get in,” he said, “but I suppose I’ll get away with it tonight with you here. And, look, thanks again for getting me past Kenton. I couldn’t have taken another session with him this evening.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do to stop it?” I asked.

“Like what? I don’t have a lot of big strong friends – I fact I don’t have a lot of friends at all, and the ones I have got don’t live anywhere round here. I’m stuck with him until I leave school, unless we move away before then. Like that’s ever going to happen.”

His mother called that the bacon was ready, and he went out and came back again a couple of minutes later carrying a plate of sandwiches, a bottle of Coke and two glasses. And those sandwiches were nice: the bacon was crisp and there was plenty of it. I sometimes make bacon sandwiches myself at home, and I like the bacon to be almost burnt, not limp and greasy.

“Thanks,” I said afterwards. “That was great. Look, I probably can’t do a lot to help you, since I don’t go to your school or live anywhere near you, but if it helps to talk about it, I really don’t mind listening….”


Jeremy

I still didn’t think that talking about it was going to serve any useful purpose, but on the other hand I wasn’t likely to see Specs again, and on that basis it couldn’t do any harm either. And maybe talking about it would make me feel better…

“We used to be friends,” I began. “I know he’s quite a lot younger than me, but he’s quite tall for his age and I’m small, and besides, there aren’t a lot of other kids round here of my age. I mean, there are some, but I don’t know any of them. He’s got other friends – kids like him always seem to be popular – but most of them live a little distance away, and so quite often at weekends he used to hang out with me instead.

“And then, about six months ago, we fell out. It doesn’t really matter why, but after that he changed completely…”

“What happened?” he interrupted. “I know friends fall out sometimes, but they usually make it up again eventually. Why couldn’t you do that?”

“We just couldn’t,” I said. “It doesn’t matter what happened, except that it was my fault and it completely ruined us being friends. Since then he’s… well, I was going to say he’s hated me, but I don’t think that’s quite it, because if he completely hated me he could treat me a lot worse than he does. For a start, he knows pretty much all my secrets, but as far as I know he’s never told them to anyone. That’s the main reason I give him my allowance, of course, to keep him quiet. As long as he gets the money he more or less leaves me alone, at least at school.

“But sometimes I have to buy stuff – like last week, when it was my dad’s birthday, for example – and then I can’t pay up when he asks. It’s happened before, except usually he deals with it himself: he takes me into the woods and beats me up there. Today’s the first time he’s done it at school, and with his mates, too…”

“You mean he’s blackmailing you?” asked Specs.

“Well, yes, I suppose so. If he’d settle for a bit less it’d definitely be worth it, but it’s really difficult when he takes almost all the money I get. I’m supposed to be saving up to go on holiday in the summer, only of course I’m not, because I don’t get a chance to save anything. I don’t know what I’m going to do when…”

I could feel myself starting to lose it, but there was nothing I could do to stop it, and I began to cry. I expected him to walk out in disgust at what a baby I was being, but instead he got out of the chair, came and sat next to me on the bed, put an arm around me and hugged me. And I turned to face him and sort of fell into his arms, and his other arm came round me too so that he was hugging me properly. I cried against his shoulder for a couple of minutes, and I thought how unfair it was that the only person who had shown me any sort of sympathy was someone I’d never see again. Of course, if he ever discovered the whole story that sympathy would evaporate pretty quickly…

“Sorry,” I said, wiping my eyes on my sleeve.

“No, it’s fine. I’m glad I was here… is there really nothing you can do?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well… I suppose I could help you. If I tell him you didn’t pay me back and I come back here on Saturday week to help him beat you up, like he suggested, we could get him out in the wood somewhere and then we could beat him up instead. Maybe if he finds out what it feels like…”

I shook my head. “No, that’s a really bad idea,” I said. “First, he’d be sure to take me to pieces once you’d gone, and second, he’d probably consider that I’d broken our deal, and then he’d tell everyone at school everything he knows about me.”

“Would that be so bad? I suppose everyone has secrets, but it can’t be worth all the shit you’re going through, surely?”

“I think it can. Things are bad now, but they could always be worse.”

He didn’t seem to know what to say to that, but he kept his arm round me, so obviously he was still sympathetic. And that felt really nice, and I would have been quite happy to stay sitting like for the rest of the evening… except he had a train to catch.

“I haven’t got a Facebook account,” I said. “I deleted it, because I thought maybe Kenton would… anyway, I don’t use it any more. But I’ve got Skype, so maybe… if you don’t mind… well, perhaps we could talk to each other sometimes… We could play chess, too, if you like…”

“Well, I haven’t got a Skype account, but there’s no reason I can’t get one,” he said. “That would probably be better than just texting – at least you can see each other with a video call.”

“Great!” I said. “I’ll give you my address.”

I went over to my desk and wrote my Skype address and my mobile number on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“'Sharkey1000F'?” he queried.

“I'm the Shark with a thousand fins. You know that 'mille' is French for a thousand? Well, I thought it was cool when I chose it, anyway.”

He chose not to comment on that.

“What was your first name again?” he asked, so I took it back and wrote ‘Jeremy Millefin’ above the address.

“Thanks,” he said, taking it back and putting it in his pocket. “I suppose I ought to go and catch my train. Maybe I’ll call you once I get Skype set up on my computer.”

“That’d be good,” I said.

I took him back downstairs. He nipped into the kitchen to thank my mother for the sandwiches and then came back to the door where I was waiting for him.

“Bye, then,” he said. “If I think of a really cunning plan I’ll let you know.”

He headed off down the path and I watched him go. I didn’t really expect him to contact me again, especially if he ran into Kenton on the way back, because I was sure that once the beans had been spilled, that would be the end of that. Why is life so bloody unfair?


Kevin

I headed back towards the station, and I’d got a short way up the road when a voice yelled, “Hey, Four-eyes!” and Kenton appeared leaning out of an upstairs window of the house I was passing.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you get your money back?”

“No.”

“There’s a surprise. Wait there.”

Thirty seconds later he emerged from the front door of the house and came to join me on the side of the road.

“I’ll walk back up to the station with you,” he said. “So what was his excuse?”

“He said he’d already given you everything he had. Actually he said he gives you all his money every week. Is that true?”

“Ah, he’s been giving you the sob-story, has he? What did he tell you exactly?”

“Basically, that you and he used to be friends but he messed up somehow, and now you’re blackmailing him.”

“It’s not blackmail… well, not really. I’m just protecting his reputation – and I can tell you that it needs protecting. Did he tell you how he messed up?”

“No.”

“Then I won’t, either. If he wants to tell you himself, that’s his business, but since I’m taking his money I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”

“I suppose that’s something, then. But he’s really messed up about it: the reason he couldn’t pay you on Saturday was that it was his dad’s birthday last week and he needed some money to buy him something. Is there any way you could ask for a bit less?”

“Bloody hell, he’s got you feeling sorry for him, hasn’t he?”

“Well, yes, a bit. What do you do with him when he can’t pay?”

“Oh, I take him out into the woods and have some fun with him. If you want to come and watch next time I won’t mind – after all, he still owes you money. Maybe when you see what a whiny little shit he is you’ll stop feeling sorry for him. Trust me, he deserves a lot worse than I give him.”

“I might, at that. Saturday morning, or afternoon?”

“Afternoon, usually. Call me on Friday evening and I’ll let you know.”

“Okay.”

I said goodbye, carried on to the station and caught the train home. Chris didn’t seem entirely willing to accept that I hadn’t stopped on the way home, but I think I just about convinced him.

After I’d done my homework I went up to my room and set up Skype on my computer, but it was a bit late by then and I wasn’t surprised when Millefin – Jeremy – failed to respond to my request to exchange details. I decided to try again the following evening.

Danny came round at about half-past six the following evening. We greeted each other as ‘Stratford’ and ‘Engel’ and did our best to suggest to Chris that chess was the only thing we had in common. We played a couple of games of blitz (and Danny refrained from playing the Grob – perhaps he was afraid I’d looked it up and discovered how to counter it. I hadn’t, but I was quite happy not to meet it again).

We were setting up the double board for a game of what Danny called ‘wide-screen chess’ when Chris stuck his head around the door.

“You’re not going for a bit, are you?” he asked Danny.

“No, I don’t have to be home until half-past nine”

“Okay, in that case I’m going round to Mark’s for a bit. You don’t mind keeping an eye on Kev for me, do you?”

“No. I’ll baby-sit any time you want me to.”

That got a laugh out of Chris, and I managed to manufacture a scowl, which changed into a smile as soon as we heard he front door close. Being cautious I stuck my head out into the hall to make sure that he’d really gone, but he had.

“Now we don’t have to pretend we don’t like each other,” I said. “And that’s good – I don’t really like calling you ‘Engel’. So, is there anything else you’d prefer to do instead of playing chess?”

“No, I’m happy to play chess for a bit longer, and I especially want to see if I can remember how to play this version. And at least we can talk to each other now… so what happened last night? Why did you get off the train?”

“The boy I was playing was in trouble: he needed me to save him from being beaten up.”

He laughed. “Come on, Kev, you can’t fight!” he said. ‘You’re like me – you haven’t got any muscles at all!”

“I don’t think he expected me to fight – I was more like a witness. He thought the other boy wouldn’t beat him up in front of an audience. And it worked, too.”

“Yes, but you must have got home really late. I don’t think the trains run that often.”

“No, they’re only once an hour. But it was worth it, because his mum really knows how to make a bacon sandwich. I’d offer to make you one, but I suppose you’re not supposed to eat bacon, are you?”

“No. I know some Jews don’t take a lot of notice of the dietary laws, but we always have, so I’ve no idea what bacon tastes like.”

“You’re missing out. It tastes beautiful. Anyway, he’s okay, and I ended up feeling a bit sorry for him. He wants to stay in touch, so maybe I’ll try talking to him online this evening. So – ready to get thrashed?”

“I don’t think so. Didn’t I win last time we played this?”

“Do you want to make a bet, then?”

“I don’t bet money – it’s a really bad idea.”

“Hah! You just know you’re going to lose.”

“No, I’m not. All right, then – whoever loses this game has to take all his clothes off and stay bare for the next half hour.”

I stared at him. “Are you sure, Danny? You’re going to look very silly if my brother comes home early.”

“It won’t be me looking silly. But, okay then, we won’t do it here. If we go upstairs to your parents’ room we’ll be able to keep an eye out of the window, so we’ll see your brother coming up the drive long before he gets here.”

“Well, if you absolutely insist on getting shown up, it’s fine by me!” I said.

He offered me his hand. “Shake on it, then.”

So we did, and then he grinned at me. “You’re going to feel such an idiot,” he commented.

“Let’s wait and see who the idiot is.”

Danny

I’d been looking forward to playing chess with Kevin, but I’d been expecting his brother to be around all evening, and that meant that I hadn’t expected us to be able to… well, do anything to do with getting undressed. But I really wanted a chance to find out more about what had happened during my previous visit, and so as soon as I saw an opportunity I grabbed it. I didn’t think Kevin would mind – it was obvious that he’d enjoyed us being undressed last time, and I knew I was right when he agreed to the penalty for losing as soon as I suggested it.

Of course I’d have been happy to see Kevin undressed again – it was interesting to see what an older boy looked like – but really I wanted him to touch me again. Maybe this time I could work out why it had felt so interesting. And so I more or less set out to lose. Actually it’s quite hard to lose at chess without making it obvious that you’re trying to, but with the wide screen version there was more of an excuse – it was easy to pretend to forget which of your extra knights was actually a zebra and which was a camel, for a start, and that made it possible to act as if you thought your piece was protected when actually it wasn’t.

Anyway, I managed to ‘blunder’ away a rook after about fifteen moves, and after that Kevin was able to beat me without too much trouble. He was obviously happy about it, too.

“Oh, dear, Danny,” he said, “you’re going to have to show me your complete lack of muscles again.”

“Best of three?” I asked, hoping he’d say no.

“Not a chance,” he replied. “We didn’t say anything about best of three before we started. Come on, we’re going upstairs.”

We went up to his parents’ room and had a quick look out of the window to make sure that Chris wasn’t on his way back, even though we didn’t expect him back for ages yet. The drive was empty.

“We’ll hear him close the front door even if we do miss seeing him on the drive,” Kevin pointed out. “That’ll give you plenty of time to get dressed again – after all, this is the last place he’ll look for us. So… I’m waiting…”

Trying to look reluctant I started to get undressed, but by the time I got down to my trousers there was a genuine reason for me to be reluctant, because my penis had gone hard. Of course Kev had seen it like that before, but it was still a bit embarrassing.

“Come on,” he encouraged me as I hesitated. “No chickening out now.”

I had no intention of chickening out. I removed my trousers, folded them up and put them on the chair with my other clothes, and then slipped my boxers off and turned to face him.

“You look nice,” he said. ‘”Come here.”

He was sitting on the end of his parents’ bed, and so I went and stood right in front of him.

“You really do look nice,” he repeated. “May I?”

“Go ahead,” I said, and he took hold of my erection and stroked it slowly, and once again it felt wonderful – possibly even better than the first time, because now I was prepared for it and it didn’t come as such a shock.

“Lie on the bed,” he told me, and so I did.

“No, lie on your stomach.”

I thought that might be a bit less interesting, but I did it anyway, and he started stroking my back.

“Your shoulder-blades really stand out,” he said. “It’s like they’re the start of wings. Are you an angel in disguise?”

“Only by name,” I said. “Angels are supposed to look perfect, and I don’t really think anyone would ever say I look even close to perfect.”

“Well, you look good to me.”

“Yes, but you’re almost blind!”

He slapped my bottom, but not too hard, and then started stroking it, and that felt good too.

“You like this, don’t you?” he said, after a minute or so.

“Well, yes, if I’m honest… but how can you tell?”

“You’re sort of purring.”

I hadn’t been aware of that at all.

“Turn over,” he said, and so I did that and he started to stroke my chest.

“I don’t know what your dietary laws say, but whatever it is, they’re not doing you any good,” he commented. “I think I ought to take you out to a decent restaurant somewhere and force you to eat everything on the menu.”

“I think that would just make me ill,” I said. “I think I eat normally, anyway. I’m just naturally skinny.”

“I’m sure it isn’t natural to look like a skeleton. Still, at least one part of you isn’t too skinny.”

He took hold of my penis again, squeezing it gently and then letting it slip through his fingers, and that really did feel good. He examined my balls, stroked the little hairs at the base of my penis and then played with it some more, running his finger round the scar left when I was circumcised and tickling underneath the head.

“Danny,” he said, hesitantly, “I know you think it’s wrong to play with your own penis…but how do you feel about letting someone else play with it?”

“Well, I’m sure that’s supposed to be wrong, too,” I said. “But that does feel nice, so I don’t mind if you go on doing it for a bit longer.”

He took hold of it a little more firmly and started to move his hand up and down.

“That feels nice,” I said. “You can keep doing that if you like.”

He kept doing it, and it felt really nice, and then I could feel something happening inside me. I wondered if I should ask him to stop, but it felt good rather than nasty, and it was getting better, and then I could feel everything tightening up, and I think my bottom came right off the bed…

Kevin squeezed gently a couple of times and then let go, and I when I looked down at myself I could see that the tip of my penis was wet, and there were a couple of little drops on moisture on my tummy, too.

“Was that okay?” asked Kevin. He looked a little anxious now, but I nodded and smiled at him.

“It was nice,” I told him. “Is that sperm?”

“Just about,” he said. “I’m not sure if you could actually make a girl pregnant yet, but if you can’t you soon will be able to.”

He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped me down.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Because sometimes people feel a bit strange afterwards.”

“No, I’m fine. I think I need a pee, though.”

I stood up and headed for the door, but he called me back.

“Use the en-suite,” he said, pointing to a door in the corner of the room. “Just in case Chris comes home while you’re in the loo.”

I glanced at my watch, which I was still wearing.

“I don’t think he’ll be back for a while,” I said, “but perhaps it’s best to be sure.”

I peed and washed my hands, thinking that if that was what it felt like when you did it to yourself I could understand why Kev does it so much – although I thought doing it yourself wouldn’t feel quite the same, somehow…


Kevin

As soon as he came back into the bedroom I threw his boxers to him, but he threw them straight back.

“We agreed half an hour,” he reminded me. “It hasn’t been that long yet.”

“I don’t mind letting you off the rest,” I said, but he shook his head.

“A deal’s a deal. And, anyway, I don’t mind letting you look at me undressed. I don’t really know why, but I can sort of tell that you think I look nice naked, and that makes me feel good, even if I think you must be even blinder with your glasses on than without them, if that’s what you think.

“Can we try something? Take your glasses off and then sit on the bed.”

I did that and he came and sat on my lap facing me, so that we were looking at each other. Well, he was looking at me, anyway. I was looking at a blur.

He put his arms around my shoulders, and I put mine around his waist.

“This feels nice,” he said. “It feels funny sitting here naked, but for some reason it feels good, too, sort of like you were my big brother and you were looking after me.”

“Have you actually got a brother?”

“No, but if I had one, I’d like him to be like you. I trust you, somehow.”

We stayed sitting like that for five minutes or so, and it did feel good – in fact I was disappointed when he stood up, glanced at his watch again and picked up his boxers. Once he was dressed again I took him along to my bedroom and turned on the computer. As I had hoped, Jeremy Millefin had swapped Skype details with me, so I checked that my webcam was working and then gave him a call.

“You okay?” I asked, when he answered.

“Yes, I’m fine. Kenton had a go at me for whining to you last night, but otherwise he left me alone. I hope you weren’t too late getting home last night.”

“No, it was fine. My parents are away at the moment anyway, so there was nobody here to moan at me. Fancy a game?”

“Yes, all right. Just give me a minute to set up the board.”

I ran downstairs to get my board and the clock, and once we were both ready we got started. Danny and I consulted before each move, but since we were playing blitz we didn’t have a lot of time for that. We won the first game and were halfway through the second when Chris came into the room – I hadn’t heard the front door close after all, so it was a good thing he hadn’t come back twenty minutes earlier.

“Who are you playing against?” he asked me, so I introduced him to Jeremy, and after that Chris left us to it. We won the second game too, and then Danny said that he had to go, so I said goodnight to Jeremy and cut the connection.

“Did you have a good evening?” I asked Chris, once Danny had gone.

“Not bad. If Engel is free on a Tuesday we could do that again. Of course, I could understand it if he didn’t want to waste an evening looking after you, but perhaps I’ll be able to talk him into it.”

Somehow I thought that might not be as difficult as Chris expected…

****************************


Danny has changed his mind about Kevin and they've both decided they like cuddling – which seems to me to be an altogether reasonable point of view.

May I recommend gothmog@nyms.net – it refreshes the parts other addresses cannot reach. Okay, no, it doesn't, but it will allow you to send me your comments.

Copyright 2013: all rights reserved. Please do not reprint, repost or otherwise reproduce this or any part of it anywhere without my written permission.

David Clarke