Now Am I In Arden
A story by Ivor Sukwell and Kyle McKenzie. A story about a boy and a man with all that such entails. The setting is modern and based around the theatre, Not your thing? Sorry about that, we're sure you'll find something that is. Whatever your choice, please remember Nifty needs your donations.
Now Am I In Arden
Chapter eight
Verona in mid-summer, hot and beautiful. Filming had to wait until almost the start of Brat's summer holidays because, as Signor Marteli explained to me on the phone, the boy who was going to play Juliet wasn't fourteen until early July. "We wait till he fourteen," Marteli said, "No problems with law. He legal then. Youa boy not legal where youa be, but we film in Italy, so noa problems, okay?"
Why did Marteli refer to Brat as 'my boy' I wondered. Probably because it was well known that I had taken Brat under my wing, so to speak, to help in his development as an actor.
The plot outline, he explained to me, was to transfer the hatred between the R & J families to the discrepancy between the age of consent in Italy and that in the UK. "Here, he said," A boy can be a boy when he fourteen. For you he must not be a boy till he sixteen, Such a waste!"
Something else he told me that gave me hope this was going to be a venture that my Brat would really learn from; "You knowa da Brooke, you knowa da Empty Space? Of coursa you do. I insulta you," he said. "I doa this thata way. Youra boy, he talk English, mya boy he talka Italian. Noa dubbing, thata how the fima show."
Oh wow, I thought, this is going to be interesting.
And even more interesting, I realised when I saw Marteli's boy! He wasn't stunning, he was beyond description! A slender, clearly Mediterranean boy with tight black curls, who, though he was just fourteen, could easily be mistaken for being just twelve. It was, for R & J, a perfect pairing. I had instant suspicions, no, expectations, that it would be a perfect pairing for more than R & J!
Suspicions and expectations, I felt were fully justified when I saw the way my Brat reacted when he first set eyes on his co-star. To say that sperm was evident in his eyes would have been an understatement, and the way the tip of his tongue licked around his lips seemed to me, at least, a clear demonstration that his mind was already savouring the boy's flavour.
Signor Marteli met us at the airport, along with his boy, Gino, and gushed all Italian about how happy he was that Brat had agreed to do the part, and how honoured he was that a famous director like myself should deign to accept a cameo part, as Director of the background R & J and how he hoped, knowing my reputation and hatred of film, he would be at least able to try to show me that film could be art and not always sewage, and that what mattered most of all was that the boys should get along together and be happy, because if they weren't then the film was doomed to failure.
Our hotel, he explained, full of Italian apology, was modest; a two star establishment because his budget allowed for no more. It turned out to be little more than a largish house that had been hired in its entirety by Marteli, right in the centre of the old city, run by a childless, middle aged couple, who seemed to think it the most natural thing in the world that a middle-aged man and an adolescent boy, clearly unrelated by blood from the evidence of their passports, would be content with a room that contained only a sofa, big enough for two, a wardrobe, television set and a double bed. It did have an en-suite bathroom though.
Gino was fucking hot and it had been hard to take my eyes off him during the ride from the airport.
The flight had been a nightmare. We had been delayed at the airport in London and then we had to cram into economy seats at the back of the plane. Mr Williams had told me this wouldn't be like the last film I did where money had been thrown at everything, but it was still a bit of a rude awakening after being spoilt on my last job.
Mr Williams was carefully unpacking his clothes from his suitcase but I couldn't be bothered with all that so just turned mine upside down and dumped them all out before chucking them in the wardrobe.
"Hey Jacob, you wanna hang out?" Gino was in the door and my cock instantly went semi at the sight of him. He was like an Italian statue, his dark curly hair was amazing and I almost jizzed in my shorts when he flicked it out of his eyes. Mr Williams seemed to be busy so I smiled and followed him downstairs into the gardens below the balcony which was attached to our room.
"You wanna chill out? Or you some stuck up English boy?" Gino gave me a grin and produced a spliff from his pocket and I gave him a smirk back as I lit it and took a puff.
I kept busy, taking no notice when Gino arrived, on cue, to 'hang out' with Brat. Gino had been instructed to do that, to 'get to know' Brat, before work started.
At least, that is what he'd been told. Marteli had told me something more.
In the garden, nicely hidden and concealed and using long-range lenses, were cameras.
This first meeting between the boys was to be filmed, used, so Marteli said, to show to the boys later so they could watch how they behaved and look to see what there was that could be used to develop their characters for the film. I had given Marteli a questioning look and he shrugged.
"So, perhapsa a frame or two may be wortha using," he said in that off hand way that meant he damn well hoped it would be.
"Fuck that's good," I took a long drag and handed the spliff back to Gino who took an equally long drag himself.
"Where'd you get it?" I only smoked weed around Mr Williams and didn't know how to get hold of any myself. Sometimes there was some at parties I went to, procured from older brothers or 'liberal' parents, but I didn't have that kind of pipeline.
"Marteli," I must have looked shocked as Gino laughed, "He cool with this as long as we good to work. He smoka some himself. Youra film about Troy, how you say, piece of shit yeah?" I must have looked annoyed as he sniggered to say he was joking.
"I like your little skirt though, you still have?" I giggled and said I did.
"You're a cunning bastard, Signor Marteli," my opinion of him rising more than a few notches as I cottoned on to what he was up to. "Don't get the boys to try to act a first meeting, get them to have a real first meeting. Interesting variation on a masked ball."
"Youa nota stupid, either," he grinned as he understood I both liked and approved of his methods.
Gino ground the smoked spliff under his foot and sadly told me he didn't have another so we played head tennis with a football we found in the undergrowth, getting ever more competitive as the sun got hotter
"Fuck your country is too hot," I told him, stripping off my sweat soaked t-shirt as we sat on the grass.
"My country beautiful, not like your shita country," we bantered good naturedly back and forwards for awhile, mocking each other until he playfully punched my arm and I got him in a headlock which ended the discussion.
I was beginning to like Gino as well as fancy him. He had an easy charm and we seemed to just bounce off each other, and even if nothing happened I knew we would be mates.
"You gotta girlfriend?" I shook my head and he told me didn't either, but that all the girls at his school fancied him.
"I hada my fingers in all their pussys," he stuck his fingers under my nose as if I would be able to smell them and see the proof and laughing I pushed them away.
"Only place those have been are up your arse!" That led to more good natured bantering, as we tried to outdo each other with stories of what we had done with the opposite sex. It was all bullshit, and we both knew it, but it was good fun to laugh and joke with him.
With Brat safely getting to know Gino, I went downstairs to where Marteli had arranged for the hotel owners to give him a room where he had a monitor set up. He wasn't outside, directing the boys or the cameras. He was trusting his camera men to do their job and he wasn't going to interfere with the utterly natural way the boys were behaving.
I couldn't help wondering, as I looked at the screen as it showed a close up of Gino, wearing almost impossibly short lemon coloured shorts, how long it would be before Brat found lust creeping up on him?
Gino's legs were nowhere near as wonderful as my Brat's legs, but they were still very desirable adolescent legs. Brat, I knew, hadn't come to fully appreciate the beauty of a boy's legs yet, but he was being subjected to a very visual lesson now in the desirability of those bits of boy, if he had the eyes to see with.
"You gotta boyfriend then?" I laughed and told Gino course not, I wasn't sure if he was mocking me.
"English boys don't have fun with their friends?" He looked surprised and I told him no, most English boys did not have 'fun' with their mates.
"You have fun with yours?" My cock was a bit hard as I imagined Gino and his mates getting frisky in the showers after football.
Those camera men knew what they were doing, I thought as the shots switched from close up of one boy's face to the other, showing so very clearly their minds trying to get to grips with alien concepts, and wondering just what it may be safe to say and what was best left unsaid.
"Ofa course," Gino's voice came out, clear and puzzled; to him, it was obvious, 'having fun' with another boy or boys was a natural part of life. "You musta , how you say, wank, yourself silly all the time."
"Yeah course" I didn't want to lose face in front of him.
"How many times you do it each day?" Gino said two so I had to go one better.
"Three mate, couldn't live with only two since I was like 12." Gino looked annoyed that I had outdone him and pressed what I guessed to be the nuclear option.
"So how big isa ya cock? All English boys have lil cocks." He wagged his little finger at me.
"Not crammed full of inhibitions, is he? Your boy," I raised an eyebrow at the clearly delighted Marteli, who smiled softly. "He still hava some," he said, "But soona, I think, they goa now."
"Show me your lil pecker and I'll show you what a proper cock looks like," I thought I had come up with a dare Gino would turn down but after looking around to make sure we weren't being watched he pulled down the front of his shorts and underwear so his cock sprung out.
He was semi as well but I wasn't surprised, I was semi most of the time so the fact that he was didn't seem unusual. He had a little bush of pubes, all black and curly, which I thought was shame but his cock was about the same size and thickness as mine. Carefully I also looked around to make sure we weren't being watched and did the same, freeing my own cock from my sweaty undies.
He giggled and said my cock was little and I did the same, trying to cover how much I wanted to reach over and touch his, with the joke. I desperately wanted to jerk him off, to get his hand on mine, but perhaps this was just what Italian boys did for a laugh. Eventually I just flicked a bit of the dampness from the end of my cock at him for a joke which broke the spell, and after a laughing play fight we made our way back to the house as it was getting on for 6PM.
He and Marteli had been staying in the house for a few days already and Gino took me into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of bright red drink out of the fridge. I took a swig and realised it was a vodka laced alco-pop and gave him a look, he was clearly trying to impress me but the cool liquid tasted good and I gulped it greedily trying to finish it before the adults found us drinking unsupervised.
"That bit," I said, "not shots you'll use." The camera men had focussed on the boys essentials when they showed them, and good as they were to look at, I didn't want my Brat's bits being shown to the whole world.
"Buta, nicea to looka at," he grinned, "And perhapsa da boys blusha a bit, when they see rushes, Yes?"
I bet they will! I thought.
The boys having gone from the garden, we left the monitor room and called for them to join us at the café across the road, where Marteli and I settled ourselves down with cappuccinos while we waited for them.
Gino and I had got changed before going so we were both wearing fresh t-shirts and shorts when we padded over. The vodka laced drinks, gulped down quickly at an early time in the day, had left us smirking and giggling and we tried to pretend to be sober as we sat down which somehow made us both just giggle more.
"Thisa also we a film," Marteli had told me before the boys joined us. "Ia think boys beautiful," he said without any emphasis, "Youa think that also I believa."
I knew what he meant and didn't try to deny it.
"The double bed was a thoughtful touch," I sipped cappuccino.
"Mya film show not only boys in love with boys," he said, "But boys in love with a men as well. Youra boy be happy with a this?"
"I think we'll have to ask him that," I sipped more cappuccino, "Not fair for me to make that decision for him."
"I aska Gino and he say it good for him."
"Does your room have a double bed as well?" I asked. He was, and I was most impressed by the fact that he was, staying in the same, cheap hotel as Brat and I were.
His answer was simply to raise his cup as though in a toast.
"I'm hungry, can we eat?" I pushed my sunglasses back up my nose and lent back in my chair sipping my coke. We hadn't eaten since getting off the plane and the smell of cooking pizza was making me hungry.
"Have me ana Jacob gotta room to hang out in?" Gino wanted to know.
Marteli said the only room other room they had hired to use was the 'set' room which was to be used for scenes set in a boy's bedroom, but we were welcome to use that. Apparently it was set up to be a typical teenage boy's bedroom, with a games console, footie posters and single bed and but we could chill out there when we weren't filming, maybe even crash out in the single bed if we were tired and the mood took us. Marteli and Mr Williams clicked their coffee cups together with a laugh when he said that and Gino and I looked at each other trying to get the joke. Crashing out on your mate's bed was something we were both used to so we didn't see what was amusing about it.
"Is a early to eat," Marteli answered Brat's question "But I thinka Enrico finda something for you.
Enrico did find something for the boys, plonking down in front of them a pizza big enough to feed a small army.
"Signor Williams I will show the city, say where I use for film," Marteli said, "Youa boys nota wanta that. You a boys relaxa together. The patron showa you the seta room, or usea the rooms a we have if youa need big rest." Marteli's grin said to me, if not to the boys, that if they used either of our rooms it would not be for rest!
We left them to themselves. And the cameras.
Gino and I scoffed down the pizza, which tasted amazing, before wandering round the town's main square for a bit. It was cool, Gino pointed out a few things, but neither of us was particularly interested in the beautiful architecture so after getting ice cream we wandered back to the house.
The set room was at the back of the house and about the size of my own small bedroom at home. The walls were covered in football posters of what I guessed were Verona and I sat with Gino on the small bed playing xbox.
"Fuck this place have no air conditioner," Gino had opened the small window as far as it would go but we still both stripped out of our t-shirts as it was so hot.
"Our roomsa have no camera," Marteli explained as we wandered though the old city, "Whata happen there between mana anda boy, private."
I was grateful for that, what happened between Brat and I was private, and, I guessed, what happened between Marteli and Gino was just as private.
"The a seta room not private," his grin betrayed that he had high hopes that certain things may happen in that room while the boys were 'relaxing'.
"Fuck youa cheat English fucker," I had just beaten Gino on Fifa playing as England against his Italy and he threw his controller down in disgust before throwing himself back on to the bed in a dramatic fashion.
I laughed and flopped down next to him. It was too hot in the room to do anything and I kicked off my trainers and socks and was surprised when he pulled off his shorts and chucked them on the floor so he was just laying in his tight white briefs. Not wanting to lose face I did the same, and then had a laughing wrestle with Gino as he tried to tackle me when I was midway through getting them off.
"Fucka, you needa wank?" I must have looked shocked and Gino gave me a smirk. "Or youa wanna do it when the men are here? We not gonna have much time alone!"
"What do you think the boys are up to now?" I asked as we sipped red wine at another roadside café.
"Theya, boys," Marteli said and he didn't need to say any more than that.
"No open and overt sex, please," I begged, "I don't want my Brat in anything like a porn film."
"And nota Gino either," Marteli stated with some vehemence. "Sexa we hinta at, never show."
"Thank goodness for that," I sighed. "I don't have any objections to the boys having some fun together, but I will NOT have that fun made public!"
"Havea no worries, Signor Williams, no worries at all. Tomorrow I showa you and the boys the rushes. Theya work alla the night to put together. Showa you what they doa now as well."
"Seriously?" I couldn't quite believe he was serious but he just gave a nonchalant shrug as if to say what's the big deal? You need to wank, I need to wank, let's wank!
Laying back on the bed Gino shimmied out of his underwear and not wanting to lose face I did the same. His cock was hard up against his navel like mine and I giggled at the sight.
"You need to lose the pubes," I was freshly shaven and he was giving me a few, what I hoped, were admiring glances.
"Youa shave them?"
"Nah cream, I'll lend you it. Got it in my case." We chatted about why pubes needed to go, why it was sexier and girls fancied you if you didn't have them, anything to distract us from the fact that we were both naked and hard. Then I could resist no longer and reached over and took his cock in my hand and started wanking him.
He gasped but didn't tell me to stop, instead his hand grabbed my cock and the room was soon full of grunts and moans as we enjoyed a mutual jerk off.
The boys both looked a little sheepish, but defiantly confident at the same time when they joined us for dinner at the café across the road from our hotel.
Brat seemed surprised that we should have wine and not exclude them from that, and Gino whispered to him that wine should always be drunk when eating because it was good for the digestion.
At around eleven, I got a very slightly tipsy Brat back to our room and asked him what he thought of Gino, and did he think it would be possible to be a Romeo to his Juliet.
"Oh yeah," I lay back on the bed my head swimming a bit from all the wine.
"He's cool isn't he," I was tired and more than a little drunk.
"You like Marteli?" I had stripped off my clothes and was just lying naked on the bed, my eyes already half closed.
"I think I'm going to learn something about film from him," I said admiring naked Brat with my eyes and, unable to control base desires, admiring by hand as well. "I like him."
"Sorry," Brat muttered when he failed to rise to temptation, "Gino," he blushingly offered by way of explanation, and shut his eyes, needing no cuddling to sleep.