WHAM!

Agent Blackberry’s fist slammed into Dr. Grapes, sending him flying through the air and into the wall of the office building. His mangled body slid to the floor where he lay with juice spilling from his wounds, and tiny birds circling his head to show that he was indeed knocked out. Mr. Strawberry withdrew his pistol to blow away the smoke that poured from the barrel, while Agent Blackberry blew on his fist, which was also smoking.

“Nice one, Agent,” Mr. Strawberry Man said, “That’s the kind of fruit punch I can’t get enough of.”

“Now the citizens of Banana City are finally safe!” Agent Blackberry proclaimed, before looking around. “And speaking of ‘safes’…”

The pair approached a painting depicting Dr. Grapes sitting on a throne, drinking from a glass of wine. The man was a doctor; why would he have such a weird, glorious painting like such? Mr. Strawberry Man tapped his gun against the painting and smiled when he heard a metal clank. Agent Blackberry used his super berry strength to lift the painting and toss it aside, revealing a huge, metal safe with a keypad in the center. 

“Nice thinking, Agent, but what could the combination be?” Mr. Strawberry Man said, scratching his strawberry chin.

“What would an idiot like Dr. Grapes use for a combination?” Agent Blackberry pondered. “Come on Mr. Strawberry Man, you’re smart, I know you can think of something!”

“Maybe that’s the problem. He’s an idiot, but I’m super smart, so there’s no way I could never figure it out. Hmmm…” he said, looking around the room. “I know! Agent Blackberry, try thinking like a four-year-old!”

“Yes sir,” the blackberry replied, putting his fingers to his temple and humming for several moments. “Oh yes, that’s it!” he cried, holding a finger up.

“What is it?”

“I think I’d be happy if I could blow some bubbles,” he stated proudly.

Mr. Strawberry Man facepalmed. “That’s not helpful Agent Blackberry!” he complained and turned around to think on it some more. Surely bubbles had nothing to do with anything. He pictured a bathtub, with a child wearing a bunch of bubbles like a beard. “Or is it… hmmm…” The beard morphed into a grape bundle, and the grape bundle morphed into…

He ran over to the safe and inputted the code 0000. With a click, the door popped open, and the two secret agents high-fived. Mr. Strawberry Man reached inside and extracted some sort of strange handheld machine, with dozens of switches, dials, buttons, and colorful flashing lights.

“What is this thing?” Agent Blackberry asked, looking at the strange electronic device with awe.

“It’s a time machine,” Mr. Strawberry Man informed him, his sunglasses flashing. “I had to use one once when I forgot to water my plants.”

“Wow! A time machine!” he said, taking it from Mr. Strawberry Man. “Could we use this to go back in time and stop Dr. Grapes from blowing up that hospital? Oh boy Mr. Strawberry Man, we don’t have a second to lose,” Agent Blackberry said, and frenziedly began pushing random buttons.

“Agent, no!”

There was a bright flash of light, hovering orange text reading BZZZT!, and the two secret agents were blasted into a spiraling hallway of morphing, distorting streaks of color. Screaming and holding onto each other, they were thrown out into an open, empty field in the middle of a warm sunny day, landing unpleasantly on their butts.

Agent Blackberry stood up and dusted himself off. “Where are we?”

Mr. Strawberry Man groaned and got to his feet, the abrupt fall having injured his squishy fruit parts. His trusty sunglasses lay on the ground next to him, and he picked them up and blew off some dust. “More like when are we?” he fired back, grimacing. “Agent, what the heck were you thinking pushing all those buttons with little to no regard?”

“Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away,” he said distractedly, looking at something in the distance. “Hey Strawberry, what’s that building over there?” he asked, pointing towards a large structure made up of many extravagant white marble pillars.

Mr. Strawberry Man’s jaw dropped. “Agent,” he said, placing the damaged sunglasses on his face. “I think we’ve found ourselves in Ancient Greece. No cap.”

KNOCK KNOCK!

Ray looked up from his old comic at his bedroom door, feeling a half-nervous, half-excited rush run through his body. He cleared his throat, “Come in!”

The doorknob twisted and the door opened, letting some light flow into the dark room. Cameron, slim and fit as ever, walked inside, carrying a black laptop bag over his shoulder. His face carried a youthful essence, and his eyes glowed with childish intensity, much like Ray’s.

“Well, hey, buddy!” he said, his tone friendly and intensely Canadian. “It’s great to see you!”

“Cameron!” Ray cheered and jumped down from his bed. Cameron scooped him into a hug, where Ray could smell his earthy cologne. “Thank God you’re here, I need you,” he said, then fell into a whisper. “My parents have been sooo annoying.”

Cameron chuckled. “I just hope I can live up to the expectation!”

Ray hopped back onto his bed, bouncing animatedly. “You don’t have to knock, by the way,” he assured Cameron, who responded with a thumbs-up.

“Place is looking great! This room always had the best view in the house.”

They both looked out the window. It was beautifully sunny, and they saw two small blue birds lounging on the fence.

“I know! And guess what, it’s an epic way to sneak out,” Ray said with a grin.

Cameron laughed and pulled him into another hug, giving his head a proper noogie. Ash wandered into the room and meandered over to the bed, where Ray lifted him into his lap.

“Who’s this?” Cameron asked, exchanging glances with the black cat. “I don’t remember you,” he said, poking his nose.

“Oh, this is Ash. I got him yesterday.”

“Ash, eh?” Cameron squinted at the cat.

“Yeah. It’s like we’ve been friends forever, but it’s only been a day.”

“Knock-knock,” Ray’s mom said, skipping the knocking and walking right in. Ray rolled his eyes. “Hey you two. Dad’s ready to go, so we’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“Okay, bye,” Ray said, waving her out the door.

She ignored the gesture, coming over to kiss him on the forehead instead. “Thanks, Cam. I know there are other things you’d rather be doing.”

Cameron saluted her. “You know me, game for new adventures.”

She giggled. “Bye, guys.”

As soon as she was gone, Ray leaned over to Cameron and whispered, “See what I mean? A-nnoy-ing.”

Cameron chuckled and shoved him playfully. “She told me you’re still drawing a bunch. Still doing Mr. Strawberry?”

“Oh! Yeah, I am!” Ray answered enthusiastically, reaching for his sketchpad.

He opened it and gasped as the unfinished How To Get The Feeling page popped into view, and quickly turned to another random page. His eyes scanned Cameron for any sign of a reaction, but Cameron seemed to have none. He continued searching through the pages until he found some casual sketches to show off, mostly ones from his drive to camp. Ash was busy pushing himself into Cameron, who obliged with a few pets and chin-scritches.

“This is just a bunch of random stuff,” he told him, placing the sketchbook between them. “Here’s my dad.”

“Yeah, that’s him alright, with that stern look,” Cameron said, grinning at the crude drawing of his father’s face. He studied the page, commenting on some of the other drawings before pointing at something that was scribbled out. “Is that—'' he began, grinning amusedly.

Ray forgot all about Paris’s scribbled-out penis drawing and flushed red. His sketchbook was becoming more of a minefield than he remembered. “Some jerk at camp did that. Look, here’s Mr. Strawberry Man,” he said, pointing frantically to draw Cameron’s attention. “It’s his new design.”

“Ah yes, the man himself! Where’s Agent Blackberry?” he asked. As his eyes scanned the page, Ash hopped down and left the room.

“He has a new sidekick now. Raspberry Boy. Look,” he said, and turned to the page with the Omen Rose break-in.

Cameron looked at the drawing for a moment before growing a smirk. “Maple syrup reserve! Ha! I love it! So, who’s Raspberry Boy?”

“He’s based on my friend Jonah from camp. Also, you see how there’s pen drawings on this page?” Ray said, turning back to the previous page. “Well, someone broke my pencil got, but Jonah let me use his pen. We also made a comic that I wanted to show you, but I realized that I let Jonah keep it.

“Jonah sounds like a great friend.”

“Also, some other kid was drawing inappropriate stuff with the pen and it wasn’t me or Jonah.”

“I see. Well, why don’t you just tell me about your comic?”

Ray grimaced. “It’s sort of hard to explain, so never mind.”

“If you say so.” Cameron peeked again at the drawing. “Ever thought of adding some more color to these awesome drawings? I think I have something for that,” he teased and reached into the laptop bag. Ray stared at him confused, and Cameron pulled out a black Oxford case and held it above Ray before dropping it in his hands.

“Whoa!” Ray crowed, eyes wide as he looked up at Cameron in disbelief. Wordlessly, he unzipped it, and his eyes sparkled with wonder as he opened it up to find an abundance of sleeves all filled with various items including colored pencils, erasers, little notepads, sticker sheets, and tons of other drawing tools. “Do you draw too?”

“Nope, this is for you!” Cameron replied, smirking.

Ray’s mouth opened as wide as his eyes as he rifled through the case, picking up one of the sticker sheets containing vibrant watercolor fruits and shapes. “Holy cow, this is amazing!” He dropped the case on the bed and hugged Cameron’s side. “Thanks, Cameron!”

Cameron chuckled. “Well, I only missed a few birthdays. Hope this makes up for that.”

“It totally does! I wish you were my dad,” he said, then gasped as a realization dawned on him. “Now Mr. Strawberry Man can actually be red!” He pictured his sketches, fully rendered in brilliant color, and beamed as he rapidly swapped between hugging Cameron and hugging his new drawing case to his chest.

A football whizzed through the air and landed awkwardly between Ray’s open hands. It fumbled in the air for a moment, but he was able to catch it and tossed it back to Cameron, who caught it with effortless grace. Sport was never really his forte. Ash followed the motion of the ball with equal intense focus, watching them through the door to the backyard.

“Why doesn’t my dad like you?” Ray asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Cameron smirked and tossed the ball back. “He doesn’t like me?”

“I dunno. He said you’re like a devil, and I shouldn’t trust you.”

“Wow. When did he say that?”

“At dinner last night. He said I shouldn’t trust a lot of people because they could be the devil.”

Cameron thought about how best to phrase his response. “Well, I don’t think that’s the right outlook at all, even for a religious person. Jeremy and I have our… disagreements. He could be trying to protect you from my atheism, or maybe just trying to persuade you into keeping your faith.”

“But that’s stupid!” Ray said, throwing his hands up. “I don’t even go to church anymore and I’m probably an atheist too.”

Cameron raised an eyebrow at that. “You’re an atheist now? Why is that?”

“Because God and I don’t respect each other,” he said, digging his shoe into the grass.

Cameron laughed. “Fair enough. I could say the same!”

Ray gave a small smile, and they went back to throwing the ball around. After a few minutes, he caught it and held onto it as his lips braided with a new question. “Are you gonna keep coming over for the rest of the summer?”

“I’m not sure. I’d like to, but it’s not up to me, or you.”

Ray tried to imagine such a future. “But don’t you have to go to work?”

Cameron smiled peacefully. “I am at work,” he said.

“But I thought you sold houses or something,” Ray said, cocking his head.

“I used to. Not anymore. Do you know what passive income is?”

“No. But it sounds boring,” Ray said, twisting the football in his hands before adding, “No offense.”

Cameron laughed again. “None taken.”

“So you don’t sell houses anymore at all?”

“No sir, helping your parents get this house was one of the last things I did as a realtor.”

“Oh.”

“I’m glad you guys are out here now though, it’s a great place to live and it’s nice to be able to see you and your mom again.”

Distracted in thought, Ray threw the ball hard and low, directly into Cameron’s groin. Cameron grunted and cupped his crotch before toppling over onto the grass. “Oh, God! I’m so sorry!”

Ray rushed over to him. Cameron began to laugh between pained groans, which caused Ray to laugh with relief, at least until Cameron grabbed the ball and thumped it against Ray’s crotch.

“Ahhh!” Ray yelled, laughing as he dashed away and cupped his groin. “Dad was right! You are the devil!”

He collapsed on the grass beside Cameron, where they laughed, groaned, and rolled around together, at least until the doorbell rang—the delivery! Ray had forgotten all about it.

“Food!” he cried with a boyish growl.

They grinned at each other, then sprinted inside. Cameron brought in the big paper bag and removed the hot food, placing it on the counter in front of Ray, who was practically drooling over it all with his legs dangling from the stool.

“This looks way better than the crud my mom brought home last night,” Ray said, swiping a handful of hot crinkle-cut french fries. He removed the top bun of his cheeseburger and layered them over the beef patty.

“Best spot in town!” Cameron said, opening a tiny packet of ketchup to squirt on his hot dog. “Right by the water, too!” he added, then winced after he realized what he’d said. “Erm, sorry.”

Ray stared flatly into the distance. “It’s okay,” he said without much enthusiasm.

“Food good?” he asked, steering away from the topic.

“Amazing,” Ray replied, cracking a small smile.

As they ate, they began nodding at each other, first to convey how good the food was, but it eventually became a funny joke to them both. They continued nodding until the phone’s loud ringing startled them. Eyeing each other, Cameron reached for it and picked it up. “Hey?”

“Hi, Mr. Marlow!” came a chipper young voice. “This is Jonah, I’m Ray’s friend from camp.”

“Oh, Jonah!” Cameron exclaimed with a hint of recognition.

Ray gasped and dropped his burger, excitedly hopping down from his stool. With everything going on with Cameron, he’d forgotten all about Jonah and his quest to get the feeling again. The realization that the moment he’d been waiting for finally showed up came crashing down on him.

“I’m probably not the Mr. Marlow you’re thinking of,” Cameron continued, “but the title still works. Ray was just talking about you earlier.”

Ray shushed him, his eyes filled with urgency. “Are you crazy? Don’t say that!” he whispered loudly. Cameron chuckled. “Let me talk to him!” he said, reaching for the phone, and Cameron swirled around to avoid his reaching hands.

“I’ll bet he has!” Jonah said. “I think he’s been waiting for me to call him back. He left me a message yesterday, but I’ve been busy.”

“Cameron!” Ray shouted with true annoyance. His uncle had a playful smile plastered across his face, and it was driving him nuts. He reached for the phone again.

“Ah, here he comes now,” Cameron said and handed the phone off to him.

Ray hugged the phone to his ear and turned away. “Hi. Where were you last night? You said you’d call me again,” he said reproachfully.

“Sorry, Ray! I was at the hospital, visiting my mom.”

“Oh,” Ray said, regretful of his tone. “Sorry. Is she okay?”

“Actually yes! She’s doing better, and actually, she’s getting released tonight!”

“Cool!” Ray said. He didn’t know much about Jonah’s mom or her situation, but he still wanted to sound like he cared.

“I know! I told her all about you. She said you sound like a good friend.”

Ray beamed. “That’s what my uncle Cameron said about you!”

“Is that the guy who picked up the phone?”

“Yeah. He’s, um, staying over. We’re… hanging out, while my parents are at work,” Ray said, and he and Cameron exchanged grins.

“Nice! Okay, so hear me out on this. When my mom gets released tonight, we’re gonna go to Waffle House! Have you ever been?”

“Um, no. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen that.”

“Well, you like waffles, right?”

“Yeah, I like waffles!”

“Imagine the best waffles you’ve ever had, and multiply it by four! They’re nothing like those crappy ol’ toaster waffles. So anyway, I was thinking, if you can, you should totally come with us! And here’s the even cooler part, because if it’s the two of us, we could split two different kinds of waffles!” he exclaimed. Ray was awestruck—not only would he get to see Jonah again, but he would get waffles, too! “They have chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, oh! And they have pecan. Honestly, I take you as a pecan kind of guy.”

“That sounds great! Pecans are okay, but I would probably get chocolate chip.”

“Cameron’s an adult, right? Does he have a car?”

Ray nodded enthusiastically, then realized that Jonah couldn’t see him. “Uh-huh! One second.”

Ray cupped his hand over the receiver. “Cameron, can you drive me to Jonah’s house later? Or to Waffle House, wherever that is.”

Cameron smiled at him, amused. “Um, sure, I think? Where does he live?” he asked with a mouth full of hot dog.

“Where do you live?” he asked Jonah.

“Requiem Springs,” Jonah replied.

“He lives in Requiem Springs.”

Cameron paused to swallow his food. “Ray, that’s like three hours away.”

Ray’s big smile faded into a dull frown. “He doesn’t want to,” he said dejectedly into the phone.

“Dang,” Jonah said.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t,” Cameron asserted. “We don’t have time to do that. Maybe your parents can take you if you ask them.”

“Maybe,” Ray said doubtfully, then realized they’d already lost focus on the point of the call. “Um, I’ll be right back,” he said, and took the phone to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. “I’m alone now, so we can talk about stuff,” he said, jumping onto his bed.

Jonah giggled. “So, did you find lotion?”

“Yeah, but it didn’t work.”

Jonah giggled again. “What do you mean it didn’t work?!”

“I put it on… on my thing… but nothing happened.”

“Well, did you rub it or pull on it?”

“No,” he admitted.

“Okay, you goof, put some lotion in your hand, then tug on your ding-dong up and down.”

“Oh,” Ray said. That sounded simple enough. “Right now?”

“Well, you can do it whenever you want! That’s the fun of it. Plus, you can do it two, three times in a row, if you want!”

Ray tingled with excitement. He could do it more than once at a time? With the faint memory of how good it felt, what would stop him from doing it all day every day?

“Okay, one sec!” he breathed, and clutched the phone with his shoulder. He fetched the bottle from under the bed and shucked off his sweatpants in one quick motion. After pumping a single, generous blob onto his palm, he lathered it along his flaccid shaft, twisting his hand to spread it all over. To be safe, he scooped some of the excess cream, and coated his balls, too.

Gripping his shaft with two fingers, he slowly started sliding his hand up and down. As his foreskin rolled up and down with the motion, small tingles of pleasure began to proliferate from his cherry-red tip—the same ones he felt at the lake.

“Whoa Jonah, it does feel really good!”

“Yup, but that’s nothing. It gets really good after a while. Oh yeah, and when it feels like you have to go pee, keep going! Do. Not. Stop,” he stressed.

Ray closed his eyes as he continued to stroke his dick, careful to steady his breathing so the phone didn’t pick it up. The smooth lotion allowed his fingers to glide effortlessly along his shaft, each stroke seeming to become easier than the last.

“Next thing you could try is to rub the stringy part on the back of your dick,” Jonah said. “It’s called your frenulum, and it’s right on the back of the head.”

“Stringy part?” Ray let go of his penis so he could look for whatever Jonah was talking about, but the backside looked the same as the front—smooth and definitely not ‘stringy’. “I… don’t know if I have that,” he admitted, wondering if maybe his penis was messed up in some way.

“You don’t? Well, you definitely do. Everyone does.”

That didn’t help. “Well, I don’t have it!” Ray insisted with a hint of annoyance.

“Hmmm… oh!” Jonah shouted, having solved the puzzle. “Shoot, I forgot. You probably have an uncircumcised one! No problem.”

“What?!” Ray shrieked. So his was messed up in some way, whatever uncircumcised meant. Was there any way to get it back to normal?

“Give me a sec, I gotta Google it.”

The bedroom door swung open, and Cameron stepped inside. He gasped when he saw Ray, pantless and on the phone with his other hand on his crotch. Ray’s jaw dropped, and he tossed the phone away as he went to cover himself with a pillow, but Cameron was gone before it mattered, shutting the door behind him.

“Sorry, buddy! You said not to knock!” Cameron shouted from the other side of the wall.

“Ray!” Jonah called from the dropped phone. “You there?”

Ray, thumping his forehead in distress, grabbed it. “Sorry,” he said, mind racing. “I think I have to go…”

“Okay, no problem!” Jonah replied chipperly. “Oh, and make sure you have a spare sock, just in case! And if you—”

Ray hung up and tossed the phone on the bed before pacing around the room, his breathing shaky. This ruined everything! There was no way Cameron would want to be around him now that he knew how weird and gross Ray was. Would Cameron tell his parents? Would the police get involved? How long would he have to go to therapy? But more immediately, what was he going to do now? He couldn’t face Cameron again, not after that…

Cracking the door open, he quietly snuck across the hall into the bathroom. Turning on the sink, he washed away the lotion from his hand, now sickened at the sight of it. In the mirror, he could see that his eyes were red and wet; he hadn’t been crying, but he was definitely on the brink. After a few minutes, he still hadn’t figured out how to face Cameron but knew he couldn’t hide away for the rest of the day. He decided to tough it out and held his breath as he worked up the courage to open the bathroom door and creep down the hall, dampening his footsteps to minimize his presence.

Cameron stood by the backyard door with his back to Ray. As quietly as he could, he climbed onto his stool and began quietly eating the lukewarm food, keeping his eyes fixed on the clean granite counter, but watching Cameron through the corner of his eye. Cameron was typing away on his phone; could he be texting the police? His parents?

“Hey,” Ray said, but his voice was gravelly and he cleared his throat.

“Oh hey,” Cameron said casually, glued to the phone. “Just a second.”

Ray tried to sit still and eat, but the anxiety was chewing away at him to the point where he just had to know. “Are you texting my parents?”

Cameron was quiet for a few seconds before answering. “No, just a work-type thing. Do you need me to text them about something?”

“No,” Ray replied. A minute passed before he blurted out, “Are you going to tell them?”, and winced as he waited for a reply.

Cameron looked up at him with a wistful expression and clicked his phone off, slipping it into his pocket. “Buddy, no. I wouldn’t do that,” he said earnestly.

“Are you mad at me?”

Cameron walked over to him. “No! Why would I be mad?”

“Because it’s weird and gross.”

“Ray, what you were doing—that’s not weird or gross, buddy. It’s pretty normal.”

Ray looked up at him and blinked. Normal? Was Cameron lying to him? “It is?”

“Well, yeah. It is. Most people do it.”

That didn’t sound right. That couldn’t be right. “Wait, really? For real?”

“Around your age and further along, sure.”

“Oh,” Ray said, screwing up his face. Nothing about it seemed normal to him. God certainly wouldn’t approve of such a thing. “What about my dad?”

Cameron laughed and sat down next to Ray. “When we were around your age, we did it so much we had the codeword ‘tasting the rainbow’.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Well, once you’ve gone and hit the jackpot, it’s a bit like how a rainbow would taste, right?”

Ray went quiet to think things over. This wasn’t at all how he thought this would go! Cameron wasn’t mad, in fact, he was answering all of Ray’s questions! “I’ve never actually done it myself. I was just trying it out,” he admitted.

Cameron nodded. “Was it Jonah who convinced you to try it?”

Ray blushed and looked away. “Kind of, yeah. It’s a little complicated.”

Cameron thought this over. “Is he, maybe, more than a friend?”

“Like a best friend?” Ray hadn’t considered it before. Even in Canada, there wasn’t anyone he would consider a best friend, except maybe—

“Well, like a boyfriend.”

Ray recoiled with shock and outrage. “What?! No! He’s my friend from camp. I don’t have a boyfriend and I—that’s gay!” he blurted out, gesturing wildly with his hands.

Cameron sadly shook his head. “Is there something wrong with being gay?”

“Well, yeah,” he said, watching Cameron closely. “I mean, I don’t know,” he said, then blinked. “Is there?”

“Did your parents ever explain to you that I’m gay?”

Crud. “Um, no… you are?”

“Yep.”

“Oh,” Ray said simply.

“Do you think that makes me a bad guy?”

“I don’t know,” Ray admitted. His dad had always insinuated that gay people were bad, but he’d never put much thought into it himself.

“Look, I don’t want to tell you what to think and who to be.” He placed his hands on Ray’s wrists, giving them a reassuring rub. “But you should never blindly trust anyone. Even your parents. Especially about things like who is good, and who is bad. People are more complicated than that; everyone has a little good and a little bad. And the most important thing of all is to be happy with who you are,” he said, looking Ray sincerely in the eyes.

Ray recognized that his parents could be wrong about things, but he had never considered some of the more subtle opinions that may have already been pushed on him. “I guess that makes sense, but… I know I’m not gay. And Jonah isn’t either,” he added defensively.

“Alright, I believe you,” Cameron said, putting his hands up, “I just thought—well, never mind. Look, if you ever need anyone to talk to about this kind of stuff, well, just know you’ve always got me!”

Ray smiled as his residual worry evaporated. “Okay. Thanks, Cameron.”

Cameron let go of Ray’s wrists, sniffing the air as he did so. “Is that cherry blossom?”

“How do you know?”

“Gay, remember?” Cameron replied, pointing at himself.

Ray feigned a laugh, even though he didn’t understand the connection. There was still one more thing he was still curious about that Cameron might be able to help with.

“There were these two kids from our cabin at camp, and one of them said they loved the other one. I thought it was weird, but does that just mean they were gay?”

“Hm… a boy can love another boy without being gay. It just depends on the context, really.”

Ray scratched his chin and considered the context. “I think they were,” he finally said, and Cameron chuckled. “So, um, now that I know it’s normal to, um, taste the rainbow, or whatever, is it okay if I try it for real?”

“Of course!” Cameron said, then realized he was unsure what to do with himself. “Yes, I’ll, uh, be out here if you need me!” he said, and took out his phone and shook it. “Got some things to take care of.”

“Okay,” Ray said, hopping down from the stool. “Well, I guess I’ll go do it now.”

“Alright. Go nuts, and most importantly—have a blast!” Cameron said, pushing Ray into the hall.

Sitting on the edge of his bed and shuffling his sweatpants down his knees, Ray filled with a sense of déjà vu. He had been up to this part before several times, but this was the time; no more interruptions, no more missing puzzle pieces. This time, there would only be the good feeling: the rainbow.

Pants and shirt soared across the room like two seagulls in a nosedive, landing together in a clump by the door. His boner was freed, sticking straight up, and he leaned over to pluck off a few tiny, linty specks that were stuck to it. As he wrapped his lotion-coated fingers around it, he could feel its immense warmth that matched its redder tones.

Jonah’s words echoed in his head. Tug on it, up and down. Keep going after it feels like you have to go pee!

He inexpertly tried a few different grip styles before settling on his thumb, index, and middle finger. As he stroked, he watched as his fiery red tip popped in and out of his rubbery foreskin like a turtle head poking out from its shell. The familiar ticklish feelings surfaced like a burst of nostalgia, telling him that he was on the right path. There was no need to think about anything in particular, not even the lake; his head was already swimming in arousal from what he was doing to himself.

Small gasps and whimpers gave way to louder and longer whimpers and moans. Even with Cameron right down the hall, he knew what Ray was up to—he was an accomplice—so surely he didn’t care if Ray was being noisy. At the moment, it was hard for Ray to care about anything else; this felt way too good. Between the moans, Ray’s breathing picked up; something was building, every stroke yanking out a piece from the Jenga tower.

“Ohhh.”

The moan came from somewhere deep within him, slipping out without resistance. The feeling that he had to pee started coming over the horizon. He squinted and smiled a toothy smile. This was it! He was pumping so fast now that slowing down or stopping was an outright impossibility. The feeling was barrelling towards him, and he could see it coming, much like the tidal wave that smothered him at the lake, but this time, there was no fear of the unknown. He really had to pee now, but he wouldn’t actually… right? Doesn’t matter—too late, who cares.

His eyes popped open as his body tensed, his hips forced by some mysterious force as far into the air as he could get them. His toes curled, eyelids twitched, penis exploded. Wave after wave of pleasure erupted inside of him as a rainbow surged out from his shuddering tip. His balls wriggled in their sack, his anus quivered, and he cried out in utter euphoric bliss until finally, the feeling had passed, and he collapsed onto the bed, gasping for air. Okay, that was the rainbow, and it tasted better than anything in his entire life.

Feeling like he’d just run a marathon, he lay still in his bed, breathing and basking in the warm afterglow of such an incredibly epic feeling. It was even better than he’d remembered! His penis, still stiff as it had been throughout the ordeal, strained lazily against his contrastingly soft belly. He closed his eyes and took in the moment. Sunlight streamed through the partially closed blinds, casting stripes of light and warmth along the length of his body. The covers felt soft and comforting against his skin. A quiet rattle at the door was—wait, what? Was Cameron spying on him?

He sat up, suddenly self-conscious, and saw a shadow looming at the foot of the door. His thoughts felt much clearer now that he’d had the feeling, like a fog had been lifted, but now the embarrassment about how loud he had been started settling in. He watched as the shadow moved along the length of the door, then stopped. A hushed meow revealed the true perpetrator.

“Ash!” he grumbled, then hopped out of bed to crack the door. Ash sauntered inside, his tail waving in the air, oblivious to the awesomeness that had just taken place. “Pretty boring out there, huh? It’s way more fun in here,” he whispered to the cat. He looked down to find his dick staring up at him, and he twanged it with his hand. Ash watched it bounce back and forth. “Well, it was.”

Another echo of Jonah’s advice came to the rescue. You can do it two, three times in a row if you want!

He looked down at the cat who was nuzzling against his ankle. “You won’t care if I do it again, right?”

Ash meowed back encouragingly, which was all the endorsement he needed. Donning a mischievous grin, he threw himself back onto the bed and squirted some more lotion into his hand. His dick pulsed eagerly, ready for round two. A matter of minutes later, he fell onto his back, writhing and gasping with pleasure once again. This was probably the coolest thing he’d ever found out about in his life, even cooler than drawing!

Back in the kitchen, Ray plopped himself next to Cameron at the counter wearing a satisfied smile. Cameron was on his phone again but immediately shoved it into his pocket.

“Well, you’re looking quite pleased. Have fun in there?”

“I did it twice,” Ray said, grinning wickedly.

Cameron raised an eyebrow and smirked, folding his arms. “Impressive,” he chuckled. “A double taste of the rainbow. Double rainbow, eh?”

“Guess so,” Ray said, watching Ash climb onto the kitchen sink. “It was epic! I don’t even get why it’s so awesome.”

“Tell me, Ray, did your dad ever give you the talk?”

“About what?” Ray asked, looking up curiously at him.

Cameron smiled and cracked his knuckles.

“Hiya!”

“Oh my gosh, Jonah!” Ray squealed into the phone. “It was even better than I thought it was going to be!”

“Oh snap, you did it!”

“Crud yeah I did, I did it twice!” he said and Jonah laughed. “Nothing came out, though,” he admitted. Cameron had explained to him the ins and outs of sex, puberty, masturbation, and orgasms, so he was eager to impress Jonah with his new knowledge.

“Aw, nothin’ yet? I do,” Jonah said, his proud smile big enough to sneak through the telephone line.

Ray’s jaw dropped. Jonah could already make stuff come out? “No way! Seriously?”

“Yup!”

“Lucky!” Ray exclaimed, fidgeting with his shirt. Hopefully that didn’t mean he was a late bloomer. “What’s it like?”

“It’s kind of just like a little drop of water that comes out. Normally I don’t have to clean it up, but sometimes there’s a little more than usual, so I have to clean it up with my sock,” he explained, then paused. “And actually, I went to do it too after we talked, and a little more came out than usual.”

“Oh, cool,” Ray said, trying to disguise his burning jealousy. “When did you start, um, when did it start happening?”

“I remember I did it for the first time on National Chocolate Pudding Day, which was, like, two months ago.”

“Oh.”

Jonah could sense his disappointment and tried to reassure him. “But don’t worry, you’ll probably start making it soon, too, since I am a little older after all.”

Ray hoped so, but their conversation left him feeling a little deflated. Squirting semen into his sock like Jonah did seemed really cool and grown-up, but Cameron said some people don’t start ejaculating until even possibly fourteen; he didn’t want to wait that long!

Ray realized that the call had gone quiet and cleared his throat. There was one more thing he’d been meaning to ask Jonah. “So, um, I had a question. At camp, did Paris ever say anything to you about a ‘Island of the Omen Rose’?”

“Nope, but that sounds awesome! Is it a movie?”

Ray frowned. Jonah seemed to know everything, but apparently, this mysterious place was too elusive for even him. “No, I think it's real, but I’m not sure. Paris kept telling me about it.”

“Hmmm, well what exactly did he say about it?”

“He just said I could join the Omen Rose if I listened to him and stuff, but he never told me what it was.”

“Sounds to me like a secret club, or maybe even a cult,” Jonah said, lowering his voice. “Paris is totally dense enough to join a cult, but he’s also a liar. If it’s real, there’s definitely going to be something about it on the internet.”

“There was one other thing,” Ray said, lowering his voice. “They both had this, like, weird symbol, above their… privates…”

“What? Like, a tattoo?”

“I don’t know. It was a black circle, but the circle was broken at the bottom, and there was a dot in the middle. It might have been a tattoo, but it could’ve also just been Sharpie or something.”

“Okay, that’s super weird. Dang Ray, now you’ve got me hooked on this mystery, too! I’m gonna go search it up and see what I can figure out. Talk to ya later, Ray! I’ll tell you what I find out. And hey, don’t jerk it too hard, alright?” he said with a laugh.

Ray giggled. “No promises. I actually kinda wanna go do it again already,” he admitted, and they both broke into a fit of laughter.

Filling in the last few steps of his guide was easy; he’d already carried them out three times already that day, so he was basically an expert on the subject. The hard part, it turned out, was his boner. Even though it was meant to be instructional, Ray found the lewd drawings incredibly arousing to the point that his dick was acting as a partial kickstand for his sketchpad.

After writing the final piece of text, he was done! Get lotion, get a boner, put lotion on it, tug on it, keep going when you have to pee, and BOOM! Clear and simple instructions. There was no way anyone could mess it up—not that he planned on showing it to anyone. Well, possibly Cameron, although then Cameron would know what his dick looked like and that might be embarrassing. Jonah? Jonah was pretty much his age, so it might be a little less weird, although he didn’t know when he would be able to see him again anyway.

When he held the guide up to the remaining daylight that streamed through the blinds, he realized that How To Get The Feeling was no longer an appropriate title, so used his pencil and eraser to make some adjustments. How To Taste The Rainbow. Much better.

Speaking of rainbows, he fetched his new drawing kit from under the bed and used the colored pencils to add a major splash of color to his work. The drawings instantly came to life: the lotion was now a brilliant, creamy pink, the lightning bolts actually looked like lightning, and his penis looked epically realistic rendered in its natural tan and red tones. He even placed some of the fun, colorful stickers around where appropriate. Dusting off his hands, he grinned widely; it was unbelievable what a little color could do!

He was in the middle of admiring his work when his bedroom door opened. It was his dad, his hair slightly disheveled and his shirt partially unbuttoned. This time, he was prepared for the intrusion, and nonchalantly riffled to another page.

“Hey, bud!”

“Hi, dad,” Ray replied, keeping his eyes on his sketchbook.

“Whatcha up to?” his dad asked, coming over to the bed. Ray could smell the faint scent of wine on his breath, but decided not to comment on it.

“Nothing really, just drawing.”

“What’s this?” he asked, lifting the drawing case and inspecting it.

Ray hesitated before speaking; certain topics could be like walking on eggshells with his dad. “Um, Cameron gave it to me. He said it was for missing my birthdays.”

“Ah,” his dad said, placing the case face down on the bed. “Well, how was it with him?”

“It was cool. We played catch, and then he got lunch delivered from Mike’s, and holy crud was it good. And then he taught me about, um…” Oh yeah, he probably shouldn’t talk about that. “Passive income!” he concluded. “It’s, uh, really interesting, or something.”

His dad chuckled dismissively. “Passive income,” he whispered under his breath before looking away and chuckling condescendingly.

“Is he coming again tomorrow?”

His dad bit his lip before giving a half-smile and nodding.

“Epic!” Ray cheered, throwing his hands into the air.

His dad grabbed him into a hug and kissed him on the forehead. “Just tell him he needs our permission before getting you any more gifts.”

“Okay.”

“That’s m’boy,” he said, getting up. “G’night, bud.” He stopped by the door and looked back. “Jesus loves you, son.”

Ray turned away so he could discreetly roll his eyes. “Night, dad.”

As soon as the door closed, Ray hastily flipped back to his guide to add the last round of stickers. It was awesome that he had such an amazing friend like Jonah to tell him about this fun stuff, and a cool adult like Cameron to fill in the blanks; not to mention the awesome drawing tools he so generously gave Ray. With the two of them around and his addictive new activity to indulge in, the rest of the summer was shaping up to be the best one of his entire life. Much like at summer camp, his early apprehension of being in a new place was slowly being replaced with utter elation. And who knew, maybe waffles really were on the horizon.