Seth and Theo sat assembling their clarinets. Theo had shown up at Seth's house first thing the previous morning to tell him of the events of Saturday night -- particularly the way EJ had flirted first with the redhead in the clothing store and later pretty seriously with a kid they had met at the theater. Seth had listened with interest, asking for specifics beyond Theo's ability to recount them.

"Are you worried?" Theo had asked.

"A little," Seth had allowed. "I'll have to think of a Plan."

A day later, Seth was a picture of calm as EJ walked into the band room, got his tenor out of the locker and walked over to the boys, greeting them with a roguish smile from underneath his blue sunglasses. They chatted lightly for a while, earning furtive glances from the row in front where Jen was still trying to decide if they actually were an item or not.

Seth waited until the director was ready to call a start to the rehearsal. "Hey," he said to EJ, "I have to talk to you at lunch. Meet me right in front of the auditorium."

"Sure," EJ answered. "What's up?" The baton tapped the music stand requiring their attention. Seth shrugged an apology as EJ left for his seat.

"You should be there too," Seth whispered after the warm up scales. "I'm taking him for the period. You can have Topher."

"You going to call him on it?" Theo whispered back.

"I have a Plan," Seth replied, confidently.

"Why does everything have to be a plan?"

"All those hours watching Max. Have you learned nothing? What kind of secret agent are you going to be?" Seth asked stunned. Theo pursed his lips. "Actually," he added in a barely audible whisper, "I have two plans."

Theo looked on with curiosity as Seth dropped a pencil and, while he was picking it up, retrieved the end of a string which was laying on the floor. Theo followed it with his eyes. It extended forward under Amy Neuman's chair, finally disappearing under the music stand in front of her. Theo's eyebrows raised. Seth grinned evilly.

He reached into his knapsack and produced an alligator clip which he affixed to the free end of the string. "Watch," he mouthed to Theo who was beginning to understand plan number two.

Seth rested the alligator clip unobtrusively in his lap as the band rehearsed. It stayed there through the first break as the director rehearsed the flutes. After the second play-through, when he turned his attention to the low reeds, Seth saw his chance.

Amy was talking with the girl on her left, which put the back of her head to Seth. With the lightness and precision of a surgeon, he clamped the clip onto the end of Amy's flute barrel. Surveying his handiwork, he decided there was too much slack in the string and gently removed the clip, returning it to his lap.

Theo took the pencil and wrote on his score in big block letters: you'll get bagged!! Seth read it, smiled and shrugged. "Worth it," he mouthed.

He untied the string from the clip, pulled up some slack, and refastened it. They suffered through another play through before the director started talking with the trumpets. Amy dropped her flute to her lap and turned left again.

Seth inched forward a hair too fast. The motion caught Jen's eye, who turned back to look. Seth mimed a shhh. She rolled her eyes, and to the boys' great relief, faced forward again without sounding the warning. Seth and Theo exchanged nods, and Seth affixed the clip to the lip of the barrel of the flute.

When the baton next tapped the music stand, one hundred instruments were brought up to one hundred pairs of lips. One of those instruments, though, was attached to an alligator clip attached to a string which ran down the back of, then underneath, a chair where it was tied to the leg of a music stand. As the instrument went up, the music stand came crashing down.

One hundred things happened at once. The surprise of seeing her music stand topple, of course, made Amy jump. The jerking motion both exacerbated the movement of the stand and made the alligator clip pop off the end of the flute. Music flew everywhere as the stand crashed to the floor, knocking over the one to its left in the process. The director was not amused. The rest of the band, however, was. Pandemonium broke out. In the commotion, under the guise of helping to pick up some sheet music that had fallen near him, Seth quietly collected the clip, broke the string free of it, and dropped it in his knapsack, pushing the end of the string forward under Amy's chair.

Amy began her braying protests, which were finally silenced by a stern I'll see you after class from the director. Seth and Theo silently grinned at each other. EJ had watched the whole thing from across the band. While he couldn't have seen the specifics, he knew who the perpetrator was. He was smiling broadly and winked at Seth when the boy looked over. Seth responded with the most innocent, angelic expression at his command. EJ chuckled.

*****

Seth and Theo were already waiting when EJ and Topher showed up. Seth watched Theo brighten. It wasn't that he stood taller when Topher was around. Everything lifted. The same was true for Topher, Seth noticed. His features softened. Seth had hardly seen them kiss or even hold hands. Still, it was clear what they did for each other.

"You want to take a walk?" Theo asked.

Topher checked EJ who nodded. "Sure." The two set off down the hall.

Topher seemed different since the mauling at the mall. Theo had difficulty putting his finger on what it was. At first he hardly noticed, as his attention was fixed on EJ when they got to the theater. EJ had spotted a good-looking jock that Theo didn't recognize. Compact but built, he had black hair, blue eyes, and a strikingly handsome face.

EJ watched him from across the lobby for ten seconds, turned to Topher and said, "He wants it."

"The one in the lacrosse jacket?" Topher asked. EJ nodded. Topher seemed surprised. "Really?"

"Yep," EJ answered.

"Wants what?" Theo asked.

"To get fucked," Topher explained.

"Really?" Theo asked. "The jock?" EJ nodded and headed over.

"It's a gift," Topher said after he had gone. "He can just tell."

Theo watched EJ brazenly approach the kid and strike up a conversation. The kid seemed aloof. "He seems like...I don't know...such a jock."

"Lots of jocks like to get it up the ass," Topher said with a shrug.

"What if he's wrong about him?"

"He never is."

The kid joined them in the theater, sitting to EJ's left. Theo did his best not to look over every time he noticed movement between them.

Topher seemed oblivious to the goings-on. He spent the movie periodically leaning over to animatedly whisper, "this is a great scene," or "you'll love this part." Theo would usually respond with a joke and, more times than not, Topher would punch him playfully on the arm or thigh. Theo began getting sore from the attention.

He was different on the ride home, too. More talkative than Theo had ever seen him, he went on easily about everything from the fucking defensive line to his fucking English class. He sat with his hand in Theo's lap, holding onto the top of his thigh. He'd squeeze or thump or punch it while making points. Theo realized it was the first time he had overtly touched him right in front of EJ.

The sex after they were dropped off at his house was qualitatively different. It began with the same care and deliberateness that had marked their previous encounters. He still checked frequently, in word and sign, to make sure Theo was okay. But once into the fuck, the reserve began to melt away. Topher became ferocious.

It wasn't the mock, joking ferocity of the playful growls or the leonine pounces. It was truly feral. Topher's strokes evolved into full-force, gut-wrenching thrusts that forced the very air from Theo's lungs. He'd piston in with a grunt and press it there, trying to squeeze an extra half inch of penetration out of the invasion. He'd draw it out only to piston it back in again.

Lying on his back, his legs propped over Topher's straining shoulders, the boy became fixated on the way his stomach muscles crunched each time he began a mighty drive.

Theo met the aggression with a newfound abandon of his own. He ground his ass upward, then from side to side, trying to get new and better angles of penetration. The motion of the fucking slid him up the bed. Finding his head banging rhythmically on the headboard, he reached up, took hold of it, and pushed himself down, halving the distance Topher had to thrust, thus doubling the force of it.

They didn't cum so much as they exploded in and on each other, thrashing in ecstasy, bound together by voltage. In the subsequent collapse, neither realized that Topher was still deeply embedded, or that they were holding on to each other with bruising might.

Theo smiled as he tried to recall the physical feeling. The sound of Topher's voice in the hall next to him pulled him back to the present.

"You want to come over tonight?" he as they meandered the hall.

"I can't sneak out every night," Theo said. "My mom's going to catch me eventually.

"So? Tell her you're coming over," Topher answered.

"On a school night? The only reason she lets me go over Seth's is because we kind of study."

"Come over my house. You can kind of study with me." His eyes twinkled under the blue glasses.

Theo laughed. "I mean homework kind of studying."

Coming to a door, they left the building and began walking down the driveway in front of the school. "I'm sorry about the other night," Topher said after a pause.

"What for?" Theo asked. "He was an asshole. You were getting food. I took care of it."

"No," Topher said, "I mean...later."

"What are you talking about?"

"I didn't mean to...when we were...Fuck, Theo, I get really confused around you."

Theo stopped walking, turned and looked into Topher's blue shaded eyes. He reached up and lifted the glasses off, putting them on himself. The world went azure before him.

"Why?"

Topher sighed. "It's like...I don't know...everything's so different with you."

"You mean because I'm a boy? Are you missing being with girls?"

"No, no." Topher turned and began walking again. Theo fell in beside him. It was easier to think when he wasn't being looked at. "I don't miss being with girls. I mean, I do, but I don't. Fuck. And it's not just because you're a boy. I mean, it is but it isn't. It's because..." the sentence trailed off. A half a minute later, it continued. "...like, with all these girls, they had these expectations of me, you know? And, like...I knew the rules."

"Okay," Theo said, trying to help him along.

"But it's like...with you it's like a totally different set of...I just don't know what the rules are, you know?"

"Like what rules?"

"Like..." Topher thought about it. "Like, all the girls I ever been with wanted me to call the plays all the time. Like all the time. And I just thought that was the way it was. But you -- sometimes you just come in and, like, I'm on the sidelines."

"You want me to...demure more?" Theo asked. Topher blinked at him. "You want me to only play defense?" he tried.

"Fuck no!" Topher answered quickly, once he got what Theo was suggesting. "No, I like it. I mean, it's fucking great. I mean, like, I never been with a girl who would just take over and...like...stick her finger up my ass, you know? Most of the time I'm asking her what she wants and all, and if I want her to do something, I have...you know...to ask her to do it and if it's okay and all that crap. And you...you just...come out swinging."

They had wandered onto the path that brought them down to the football field. They walked through the gate and slowly headed onto the turf.

"It's like..." Topher began when they reached the twenty yard line, "...I don't know how to treat you. Like the other night. You gotta know I never...I mean, I know I'm not supposed to..."

"Topher, what are you talking about?" Theo interrupted.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

"When?"

"When we fucked. I totally fucking lost it. I'm sorry."

"Are you serious?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, dude. I'm sorry. It'll never happen again. I don't know...just that when you decked that kid...I got so..." if the end of the sentence had ever existed, it didn't get past Topher's censor.

"Topher, look at me." They stopped and turned to face each other. Theo took off the sunglasses. "I loved the other night. I love it when you're tender and caring and attentive, I love when it when you're rough and hard and just want to get as deep as you can, I love it when you're so concerned about whether or not I'm enjoying it, and I love it when I can just take over and work as hard as I can to make you happy."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't hurt you?"

"My god, Topher," Theo said, "I was bucking just as hard as you were. Didn't you notice?"

Topher smiled shyly. "I wasn't noticing much."

Theo laughed. He put the glasses back on the blond's face, then touched his arm. "What does all this have to do with my decking the kid at the mall?"

Topher shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "But there was something about it."

"What?"

It was a full minute before Topher could answer. Twice he inhaled as if to start a sentence but each time he gave birth to a gust of wind rather than a thought.

"Should I not have done it?" Theo asked finally, trying to help.

"No!" Topher exclaimed. "I mean, yeah, you should've. I mean I would've, but you did and that's...fuck."

Theo thought to ask another question but decided against it. Instead, he sat down on the field. Topher joined him, lying back to look at the sky. Theo spread out perpendicular to him, resting his head on Topher's stomach. The clouds reminded him of marshmallow Peeps.

"I never had a boyfriend before," Topher started. "If you were a girl I would have...like, you know, one time some guy was giving Lise crap, right? And it was like, I was fucked no matter what I did. And then there's you. So I'm like, Do you want me to take him out? And you're like, No. So fine, I don't, even though I fucking wanted to deck him. But then you do."

"Is this because Lise got pissed at you for not hitting that guy when she told you not to? It's okay with me, Topher. I really didn't want you to. I wasn't lying to you."

"No, no," Topher said. "Fuck. Okay. It wasn't that you decked him. That was totally chill. I mean, I had no idea you were going to call that play, but man! It was great. It's, like...I think it's why you did it that I can't get over."

"He was being an asshole. You wanted to. You said it yourself. I could see you wanted to. I don't get it."

"I wanted to because he was disrespecting you," Topher said, having finally figured it out. "That's not why you hit him."

"It's not?" Theo asked, trying to remember the exact sequence of events.

"No, when he was disrespecting you, you just said we should go. You decked him when he started disrespecting me."

Theo thought about it. Topher was right. He hadn't considered kneeing the guy when he was hitting on him, even though he was being incredibly obnoxious about it. It wasn't until he started insulting Topher that he had thought to take action.

"And you gotta know, Theo, I'm not used to...well, I never had anyone come to my...I mean...I'm not talking about like a bud, you know? I never had anyone like a boyfriend coming to my rescue." They were quiet for a few seconds as a breeze picked up, then settled again. "You're not going to want to fuck me, are you? 'Cause I don't think I could take that dick."

Theo burst out laughing.

*****

"What's up?" EJ asked.

Seth brought his finger to his lips. "Shhhh," he said, taking EJ with his other hand and leading him down the hall, "no talking."

He turned the corner and walked into the bathroom. It was empty. Seth still had hold of EJ's shirt. He dragged him toward the handicap stall.

"What the fuck?" EJ asked.

Seth pushed him into the large stall and shut the door. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a red bandana. "I said no talking!" he said, taking the bandana by opposite corners and twisting it. He brought it up to EJ's mouth, spun the larger kid around and made a grand show of tying it behind his head. EJ let himself be manhandled, allowing the gag to slip between his teeth as Seth tightened it. He was clearly enjoying himself.

Seth spun him around again so they were facing each other. "You going to behave?" he asked sternly. EJ nodded his head, his eyes sparkling behind the sun glasses. "Good," Seth said popping EJ's top button and lowering the fly. "Don't make me take out the rope." EJ grunted a laugh through the gag. Seth pulled his pants down to his knees. "Now sit down," he ordered, shoving EJ back roughly. EJ sat, trying to make it look like the push off-balanced him.

Seth knelt in front of him, sucking up the dick that was inflating with each heartbeat. He swallowed it whole -- an easy feat given that it wasn't yet fully hard. It conformed to the shape of his mouth and pharynx. EJ moaned into the gag as Seth contracted his throat muscles, pulling the growing head past his esophagus, and then again as he swallowed twice more around the fully lodged shaft. His right hand gripped the root of EJ's dick while the other cupped, then tugged, heavily at his balls.

EJ sucked in breath though his nose. Seth pulled half way off and did something with his tongue that made EJ's knees vibrate. He took hold of Seth's ears, more for a sense of self-preservation than anything else.

Seth went deep again, bobbing a few times at the place where the ridge of EJ's head passed the narrowest part of his gullet, squeezing the base of his dick at the same time. When he released this time, it was to a series of tight jacking motions with his right hand. He could feel EJ's hamstrings twitch in response.

The cock was rock hard now and had lost its ability to bend. Seth used its tensile strength against it as he adjusted the angle of his head and neck. EJ emitted a low, guttural groan as the boy made him feel like he was about to snap in two.

Meanwhile, Seth's left hand was busy with its own devices. After pulling EJ's balls farther away from his body than they were comfortable being, he began to squeeze them -- lightly at first, but with growing pressure. Periodically, he'd twist them left or right, or drum on the stretched skin with his fingertips. Each time he'd tap, EJ would shift his weight, trying to lift himself off the toilet seat. Seth didn't allow it, making sure his full weight rested on EJ's thighs.

When the moaning became more or less continuous, he started a series of long strokes, sliding his mouth completely off the shaft while his right hand slid up it, then sinking back down in a fluid motion to bury his nose in EJ's bush. EJ still held on to his ears, but the strength had drained from his arms.

On one of the release moves, Seth looked up while his tongue swirled around the boy's large, rubbery piss-slit. EJ's head was leaning back against the tile, his jaw hanging slack about the gag, his eyes rolled back beneath fluttering lids.

It was while in this position that the two boys heard the door to the bathroom open. They froze, the tip of EJ's dick just past Seth's lips, his tongue resting on the head. EJ silently lowered his head and looked down at the boy. Both tried to breathe silently, though each had difficulty -- EJ because the bandana filled his mouth and Seth because his nose was running. They heard a pair of feet walk over to a urinal. There was the sound of a zipper.

They were looking into each others' eyes, now, each frozen save for their need for air. They heard whomever it was begin to pee. EJ's eyes went thin. Seth recognized it as a grin. Slowly, the older boy began to pull the blond's head farther down onto his dick. Seth fought it trying to resist, but there was nothing he could do without making noise.

EJ didn't push him all the way down. Instead, he waited until he felt the head of his dick bump the back of the kid's throat, then started lifting his ears back up. They were still making eye contact. On the third stroke, Seth's glinted with an evil light. With a quarter of the dick in his mouth, he fluttered his tongue along its sensitive bottom side and gave EJ's balls a good yank.

Every muscle in EJ's body tensed as he fought against the need to breathe in sharply. They were at an impasse. EJ could make him continue the blow job -- something Seth didn't want to do as it would be almost impossible for him not to slurp -- but Seth could make EJ's heart beat so fast he'd have to breathe audibly, perhaps even moan. They stared into each other's eyes, each grasping the situation completely, and called a temporary truce.

The cease-fire lasted about as long as most cease-fires do. As the seconds ticked by, one or the other would throw down the gauntlet, EJ by moving Seth's head a fraction of an inch, Seth by varying the suction on his dick or the pressure on his balls. Each eyed the other with nefarious glee, daring him to cross the line.

After what seemed like the longest pee in the History of the Universe, the intruder finished, zipped up, and left. As soon as the door closed, both boys snapped to action. EJ pushed down with a vigor that might have snapped Seth's neck had he not already been well under way on his own. Seth twisted EJ's balls all the way around, earning a satisfied, if muffled grunt.

He sucked for all he was worth, orchestrating tongue, lips, throat, and both hands in a symphony of contrapuntal pleasure. He could feel EJ getting hotter and hotter. When the senior's head bumped back against the wall again, Seth batted his hands off his ears and returned, unfettered, to his task. EJ's arms swung loosely at his sides.

Seth's sucking strokes and EJ's breath had become synchronized so that Seth's speeding up caused him to breathe faster. He was tensing up completely, his heels coming off the floor as if he were sitting on tip toe. Still holding onto his balls, Seth punched up, grinding his knuckles into the fleshy, blood-engorged perineum.

EJ's arms flew to the walls of the stall. He braced himself for the final plunge, ready to unload. Knowing he was on the verge, Seth's mouth went suddenly completely limp. The kid let go of all his various pressure points, hoisted off his knees and stood up. EJ's eyes went wide with surprise.

"So," Seth said calmly, "how much do you want it?" EJ's brows knit. "Tell me."

"'ou 'uck 'y 'ucking 'ick 'ight 'ow!" EJ demanded, momentarily forgetting he was wearing a gag. He pointed insistently at his groin.

"All right, all right," Seth said lightly, dropping to his knees. "Jesus. No sense of humor at all. Just remember," he added, taking EJ's dick back in his hands, "the Very Talented Mr. Mouth comes with me attached."

He attacked in earnest. Within a minute, he was drinking his reward.