Laurie's martini tasted like his presence.

 

Small, sharp and strong it was ice cold. Then it burned, carrying the class-A cargo I'd just swallowed, as if a trail of gasoline had been lit down my throat.

 

`Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker,' I heard myself say before realising I had; the fiery stream igniting a store of adrenaline seemingly hidden away in my gut until that moment.

 

Or, perhaps, it was simply the two pills beginning to fizz and bubble in my booze-enriched stomach acid.

 

One to lift me to dazzling, sweaty heights of abandon. To carry me away from reality on surging psychedelic waves of amphetamine floodwater. Push, pull and drown me in a writhing, hedonistic mass of lust, lips and limbs.

 

Pain supressed. Pleasure tenfold. Inhibitions banished.

 

Not that I have many.

 

The other pill for its obvious use: to keep me rock hard. Useful for topping, of course, but even a blind man could see there would be only one bottom today.

 

I know my arse is on the cards.

 

However, the sad truth is fantasy rarely equals reality. It can get pretty close at times, sure. Take my first afternoon with Richard's mates. I'd lasted three whole hours before needing to grin and bear the final thirty minutes.

 

Even off my face each violent thrust between my shaking legs or down my retching throat would take its toll on my firing synapses.

 

And there's one more man this time. Well, half.

 

That little blue pill was going to keep me in the zone, no matter how far the other would throw me.

 

As long as I don't blow, of course.

 

I smiled to myself, pleased at our host's choice of digestives. A good combo.

 

Almost ... kind.

 

`Yum,' I said, a wave of adrenaline pushing out a breath; my teeth briefly chattering. `The Viagra's a very smart choice.'

 

`This isn't my first rodeo,' Laurie said, taking his drink back and popping two pills of his own with a rapid flick of a wrist and a deep slurp.

 

Two brown.

 

`No shit,' I said, watching a glistening trail of gin slowly creep from the corner of his. `You sure you won't need a blue one if you're double dropping?'

 

Two of the nearest guys in the group chuckled. Steve and Rob, their smiles knowing and stares hungrier. Features giving me the impression Laurie had double dropped more times than I'd hot dinners.

 

`Won't need it with you,' Laurie said, wiping away the spill from his face with the back of his wrist.

 

Arching a single eyebrow but failing miserably to hide my grin, I said, `I've seen bigger men go soft on less.'

 

`It's not the size of the man,' our host said, lifting his arms like a pint-sized Rocky and grinning a flash of pearly whites. `Isn't that right, boys?'

 

`Here, here,' the group chanted in almost perfect unison; glasses raised but faces tinted with indifference.

Obviously not their first time rubbing Laurie's ego. Good to know.

 

Knocking back a harsh gulp of my Old Fashioned and taking one last drag of my joint, I licked my lips and said, `It's just science, gents.'

 

`Pray tell, what is?' Laurie said, the room falling quiet as the rest of the men tuned in.

 

Richard eyeing me curiously.

 

`Doesn't matter how hot the boy sliding up and down your dick is,' I said, a second wave of adrenaline pulsating, forcing me to swallow the pooling saliva under my tongue, smack my lips and run my fingers through my hair.

 

Five tingling trails over my scalp. My balls already throbbing inside my tightening leather jock.

 

`You sure about that?' Laurie said.

 

I nodded modestly and shrugged. Pushed out a long, slow breath and walked around the group, keeping my stare locked on Laurie's whenever possible. Talked calmly and carefully to hide the compounding thump of my heart.

 

Tiny hairs dancing over my neck and down my back. My cock beginning to swell.

 

A small but familiar surge of nausea hit. No doubt as the outer casing of my MDMA capsule dissolved, unleashing its torrent of chemicals.

 

`Mandy is a vasoconstrictor,' I said, my mouth lulling; my lungs heavier; my head light like I'd stood up too fast.

 

No one spoke. Scanning the room, I saw faces in varying states of confusion. Everyone except Jason, the doctor.

 

Winking at him, I smiled to myself. But then seconds from explaining, I was cut short by Michael, the slightly taller of the skinhead couple.

 

After grunting a noise deserving of his gorilla-like frame, he said, `I've always wanted to try that. But fuck ending up like one of those poor twats. Hanging from a wardrobe with your cock out and trousers by your ankles. What a way to go.'

 

For two seconds, no one spoke: all noise sucked from the room like a vacuum of awkwardness. Then Laurie turned to Michael and pulled a face I couldn't see, stripping the muscled beast of his gormless grin.

 

`That's auto-erotic asphyxiation, sweetheart,' Jason said, stroking his friend's muscled arm. `What Oscar's talking about is the tightening of blood vessels, ergo why it's not uncommon for one's junk to shrivel up when one's-'

 

`Off one's tits,' I said.

 

`Indeed,' Jason said, returning the wink.

 

Laurie said nothing, staring at me with renewed vigour as a couple of the group chuckled, clearly relating. Then he gave me a look that will never get old.

 

`You're not just a pretty face, are you?' he said.

 

`Or the best hole in town,' Nelson said, high-fiving Michael.

 

Reaching out, Laurie took my free hand. Pulled it closer and down. Without taking his eyes off me, he parked my palm on his crotch.

 

He was solid. Thick and juicy, reaching across his left leg under soft, expensive material. Bigger than I expected. Thank fuck.

 

Then Laurie said, `Don't worry, young man. I took my blue pill before my guests arrived.'

 

`Like mother always said?'

 

My joke didn't land. Everyone fell silent and Laurie snarled, looking behind me into the vast room; his left-hand clenching into a tight, white fist. But then he suddenly relaxed and smiled.

 

Like I'd said nothing at all.

 

`That's a conversation for another time.'

 

Hates his mum. Also good to know.

 

`Sorry,' I said.

 

`Shall we?' he said, downing his Hendricks before placing the empty glass on a side table.

 

The muscled butler from the front door, who had been stood against the far wall, swooped in. As he picked up the empty, he looked directly at me. Maintained his steely stare through black leather as I kept mine; the edges of my focus blurring.

 

What does he want?

 

I didn't have a chance to find out. Laurie coughed, snapping me out of my stupor, with a what I assume he thought was a seductive grin pulling at his thin, wet lips.

 

`Shall we, what?' I said.

 

`Get you ready, of course. These gentlemen have waited long enough.'

 

Then they all looked at me in perfect unison. Stares of flickering embers. Lips parted, like mine. Wide, strong chests taking deep, electrified breaths as the bigger hairs and other parts of my body stood to attention.

 

`All good guys,' I said, pretending not to notice the blood creeping up to my reddening cheeks as fourteen eyes burned into me, nor the swirling storm of fucked-up butterflies flapping about my chest. `I came prepared.'

 

`There's more to it than that,' Richard said, his glass of champagne hissing in the heightened silence of bated breath.

 

`Not just any lad gets to come to these parties,' Nelson said throwing an arm over the host's shoulders and kissing his cheek.

 

`We want to take our time,' Michael said.

 

`Explore your body. Every curve and line. Taste every inch of flesh,' Rob, his boyfriend said as his tattooed fingers squeezed deep into Jason, perched on the end of the nearest settee.

 

`Oil you up and strap you in,' Steve said, walking over, cupping my cheek and kissing me on the lips.

 

Strap me in?

 

`Then,' I heard Richard say before his smiling, handsome face and soft but manly lips replaced Steve's, `ruin you.'

 

`If you insist,' I said, downing the rest of my cocktail in a gut-punching gulp before flicking my own fiery gaze from one to the other.

 

Taking them all in, one by one. First Nelson then Steve, Rob, Michael and Jason. Then, with a sly nod of approval under kind eyes from Daddy Dick, Laurie.

 

Not that I need his permission.

 

Laurie's eyes widened and his wry grin flashed wicked. My own lips curled but I kept my amusement at bay. Couldn't let Laurie know I could see how much he enjoyed his powerplay over Richard. Or how predictable he was.

 

This is going to be easier than I thought.

 

Holding out my hand, Laurie took it without looking at the others. Walked me away from the gathered group five steps before turning back to the muscled mass and saying:

 

`You fellows know what to do. See you downstairs in thirty.'

 

Thirty minutes? A lot can happen in thirty minutes.

 

Without a word, a few of the men nodded, but none of them made any show of leaving. They just continued to chat and sip from expensive glassware as I was slowly ushered from the room; Richard's stare burning into my neck.

 

`Where are you taking me?' I said.

 

`To the dungeon.'

 

Laughing and keeping Laurie's casual pace as he escorted me away from the living room, I said, `Of course you are.'

 

`I am.'

 

Stopping in my tracks, I said, `For real?'

 

`I'm deadly serious.'

 

Then he laughed, clearly pleased with the face I was pulling. Said, `You like the sound of that, don't you?'

 

`Fuck yeah,' I said, my cock now so hard it pulsed with my every heartbeat. `Also explains what Steve said about strapping me in.'

 

Slapping my arse with a strength I would never have expected from a man so small, Laurie said, `I think you'll find my collection of toys right up your alley.'

 

`Oi, oi. What have you got, then?'

 

Whoosh. The biggest surge of adrenaline yet.

 

`Do you really want to know?' he said, reaching out an arm to keep me steady. `Or do you want a surprise?'

 

Taking his arm, I said, `Good question. Surprise me.'

 

`Good answer.'

 

`Oh yeah?'

 

Laurie shrugged and sighed. Said, `There's no mystery in the world anymore. It's nice to meet a young person who understands that.'

 

`Guess you're not on Facebook then?'

 

`Face what?'

 

`Doesn't matter,' I said, trying not to laugh. `Just the hot new social media everyone's talking about.'

 

`Not everyone,' Laurie said, returning my sardonic wink, now through the corridor and into the main entrance hall. `This way.'

 

Following him directly across the hall with the front door on my right, I found myself in an almost identical corridor stretching off in the opposite direction. This time, however, every painting along the tall, grand walls were of people, not places.

 

`Oh, it's you,' I said, stopping to study a painting of a short man with a big white smile.

 

And a lot more hair.

 

`My grandfather. Rest his soul.'

 

`I never knew my grandparents. They died before I was born,' I said, perusing the next two portraits.

 

Another wave of nausea, this time even stronger. Swallowing it down with a fresh load of pooling spit, I let out a long breath.

 

`It's kicking in, isn't it?' Laurie said, his devilish smile back with a vengeance.

 

`Almost,' I said, touching my face; my fingertips seemingly still there after I'd moved my hand away. `Who are they?'

 

`My parents,' he said without looking up at the large oil painting I was pointing at.

 

A white man and woman in their late fifties. Dressed in evening wear and garnished with jewels that would have cost more than Richard's Aston Martin.

 

Then Laurie stopped in his tracks and scowled at the floor for three whole seconds. Three achingly awkward seconds as my high teetered on the brink of coming up, kept at bay by the sudden drop in atmosphere.

 

But then I realised. Realised why I'd had the feeling Laurie and I had more in common than any of his friends. Why the moment I'd laid eyes on him it had felt like we'd met before.

 

He's like me. He's broken too.

 

Placing my hand on his shoulder, I gently turned him. And in that moment before his cold façade refroze, I spoke.

 

`I hate my parents too.'

 

`What did yours do?' he said, his voice slower and lower; his pupils the size of dinner plates.

 

`Mum left. Dad beat me.'

 

Laurie scoffed and said, `Same, but the other way around. Mother was a mean drunk. Father was a coward.'

 

`I'm sorry,' I said.

 

`As am I.'

 

`Can I be honest with you?' I said, rubbing my left arm and relishing the wave of goose bumps up to my shoulders and down my back; my tongue dancing over my lips and teeth with a mind of its own.

 

His jaw momentarily sticking out in an uncontrolled gurn, Laurie hastily composed himself, swallowed a large load of spit and said, `Now's the time if you want me to remember.'

 

`I don't want Richard. I want you.'

 

To be continued ...

 

Want more?

 

The first in my novel-length series of tales, Oscar Down Under: Part One, is available now.

 

A lush sensory experience exploring themes of self-development and morality, find it on Amazon US here, Amazon UK here and Amazon Australia here.

 

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Copyright Jack Ladd 2019

 

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