Obsidian

by Todd Young

  Yes, and they’d simply decided on the morning. James had hoped Ben might stay longer, but he couldn’t really expect it. He went out to the truck and said goodbye to Ben. Then he went and had a much needed cup of tea.

  [] [] []

  By Thursday, it was starting to get a little chilly in the mornings, or it was chilly this morning anyway. James put a sweater on and then took it off again. It wasn’t that cold. He’d slept in his white thong, and as he ate his breakfast he had to keep plucking it out of his ass. It really had got wedged up there.

  Ben came through the back door unexpectedly and James jumped. He was sitting at the table, but as Ben came through he whistled.

  “Dress like that often?”

  “I’m running low on underwear.”

  “I see.”

  “Don’t make a thing of it. I sleep in a clean pair every night, and what with school and everything, I’m behind on my washing.”

  “Right.” He paused, glancing sideways at James. “How do you get buns like that?”

  “Squats, mainly, but you can use the bench as well.”

  Ben nodded and took a seat at the table.

  “You want a cup of tea?”

  “A coffee would be great.”

  “Ah. I don’t have any. Don’t drink it.”

  Ben nodded and then frowned. “What? You never drink it?”

  “It hypes me up.”

  “We’re going to have to remember all this if you ever come down to live at my place. Or if I come up here.”

  “Come up here?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  James shook his head.

  Ben sighed and then stretched. “I know you’re not stupid, but there’s some problem, isn’t there?”

  He got up and walked out of the house.

  [] [] []

  James spent most of the morning turning over what Ben might have meant. Why would one of them go and live at the other’s house? He didn’t want Ben living here, and after the night he’d spent at Ben’s, well, he figured he never wanted to see the place again.

  No. That wouldn’t be happening. One of them wouldn’t be moving in with the other. Why would they when they each had a place to themselves? Even so, Ben had seemed angry about it, and it had brought James down. He really felt quite depressed now, and couldn’t quite concentrate on driving into Lincoln. He had to get his mind on school and what he was doing today. The deputy was coming in for a supervised lesson, and he was less sure about her than he was about Sandra.

  It went well, and he was pleased afterwards, but his mind turned back to this morning and what James had said. Maybe it was because he’d been in that thong. That might explain it, because it was an odd thing in itself, and maybe Ben had then gone and said something very odd as some sort of joke, or if not as a joke, as a payback.

  He frowned and the car slewed sideways. He was almost home and he hoped to see Ben this evening. Whatever happened had been some huge misunderstanding, but as usual with things like this, he had no idea how to fix it.

  [] [] []

  Ben didn’t come around, but he considered walking down to Ben’s place. The only problem there was that he didn’t own a torch. The best he could do was go by candlelight, and that obviously wouldn’t work. He wandered around the house with his hands behind his head dressed in the thong. He’d worn it to work today, which had shamed him. What if Jordan had seen him with his pants down? What then?

  He really was behind with his washing, and as this occurred to him, he walked into the laundry room and put on a load. Then he began pacing again. He decided he had plenty of energy and decided to do some weights to burn it off. Fifty minutes later he was exhausted. He took a shower and went to bed.

  [] [] []

  On Friday, Ben turned up at around seven p.m. James had been home for a couple of hours, and was sitting in the kitchen, mending a sock when Ben walked through the door.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Darning a sock.”

  “My mother would do that for you.”

  “I couldn’t ask her.”

  “How did you even learn how to do it?”

  “Oh, I had to learn all the female arts. I have three aunts and seven great aunts, and all of them had a hand in turning me into a little girl-boy.”

  “A girl-boy?”

  “A boy who knows all the female stuff — cooking and sewing and knitting and all the rest of it.”

  Ben laughed. “Sounds like you had a hard time of it.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Are you swimming tomorrow?”

  “If it’s fine.”

  “I might come down with you.”

  “Oh — okay,” James said. But wouldn’t he be in the tree?

  “When do you usually go down?”

  “Oh, around ten, ten thirty.”

  “How about I meet you by the stream at ten. It’s a while since I’ve had a swim.”

  “Is it a while since you’ve had a shower?”

  “Can you tell?”

  “No,” James said, and then laughed. “You really do smell.”

  “Is it bad?”

  “No. I like it.” He choked and put his hand on his throat. “I mean,” he said, trying to get some air. “It’s not a bad smell.”

  No, and even now it was making him hard.

  “I figure I’ll just swim in the stream, then.”

  “You could bring some soap.”

  “No. I have a thing about washing. I figure we’re animals and we’re not supposed to wash — not as often as we do. I only have a shower once a week, and even then I only do the important bits.”

  “The important bits?”

  “Behind your ears.”

  James began to wonder if he’d cleaned behind his own ears today, and then realized what Ben meant. He began to chuckle.

  “Have I amused you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’m glad I’m good for something. Anyway, I’ll have to go. I’m still having trouble with the truck and I’m going to have to walk back home again.” He paused. “I don’t suppose you want to come with me?”

  James shook his head.

  Ben paused for a moment. “Right. I’ll be going, then.”

  [] [] []

  As he was drifting off to sleep, James wondered what he’d wear tomorrow when he went swimming with Ben. He had a great pair of board shorts, a short pair with a red and white floral pattern on them, oversized. Where were they, he wondered. Probably still in a box. He had three to unpack, and he did this, getting out of bed though he was very tired. He found the board shorts in the third box along with a lot of other clothes he’d forgotten about. He tried them on — without underwear, as you were supposed to wear them — and then looked at himself in the mirror.

  Was he looking particularly good or something? He’d never quite seen himself like this, and he stood for more than five minutes turning one way and the other and stretching his hands over his head. He remembered what Ben had said about him being beautiful, and wondered if that was genuine. It was just this thing with his chest. He’d been teased so mercilessly at school. It hadn’t really popped out till he was thirteen or so.

  He got back into bed, dressed in the board shorts, and then shucked them off. Maybe he’d sleep naked.

  [] [] []

  In the morning he got a shock when he got out of bed. He was so used to wearing underwear that as he stood up, he folded forward and put his hands on his cock. As usual, he was hard, and he sat on his bed and jacked off before doing anything else. Then he put the board shorts on. He figured he could wear them all morning, until he went down to the stream and met Ben.

  It was a little overcast, which was a shame, but at least it wasn’t raining. It had rained overnight as it usually did, but it wasn’t raining now.

  He ate some cereal and mixed himself some fruit, put another load of washing on and then trained for an hour or so. It was past nine then, and for some reason he
felt jittery about meeting Ben at the pool. Wouldn’t he rather watch from the tree? Apparently not. Maybe he was sick of that.

  At five to ten he set off for the stream. The sun was shining now, and he didn’t worry about a shirt. He remembered how he’d looked in the mirror last night, and he wanted to look just like that when Ben saw him.

  As he neared the stream he saw Ben, and Ben waved his hand. The truck was parked on the grass, so he must have got it going again.

  “Well, and how are we this fine morning?”

  “Good. Great.”

  “You’re looking good.”

  James blushed.

  Then Ben did a surprising thing, he unbuttoned his shirt, took it off, and then took his shorts down. He wasn’t wearing any underwear and he was naked. He still had his boots on though, and he sat on the grass to take these off along with his socks. James couldn’t look at him. He felt so embarrassed.

  “Well,” Ben said, standing up and dusting off his hands. “Come on.” He nodded at James’s shorts.

  James understood that he was expected to take them off, and though he hesitated, he did this. He was wearing nothing else. And now his cock and balls were exposed, and his ass too, and he was standing right in front of Ben.

  Ben ran into the stream with a whoop and splashed forward, stroking out into the middle of the pool. Then he turned and said, “Come on.”

  James stepped in gingerly, conscious of the fact that Ben could see his cock if he looked, though he didn’t seem to be looking. Soon enough, he was beneath the water, and then he started to get hard.

  Ben got out and stood by what amounted to a small waterfall, and as he did, James got a look at his cock. It was enormous, and uncut too. Which was just perfect. It was swinging around his thighs. Ben dove into the pool, splashing James with water. As he came up, James pushed a wall of water at him, and then they had a water fight, Ben getting the best of James within a few minutes.

  Then Ben got out again. He sat on a rock with his legs splayed and James could see every inch of his cock and balls. He was still hard, and he decided he could most likely jack off without Ben noticing. He put one hand on his cock and started to pull. Within a minute or two he was coming, but Ben was looking at him now.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” he said, but he felt a bit breathless.

  Ben nodded. He seemed to consider for a moment, and then said, “You know, you can climb up into that tree and jump from up there.” He nodded at his tree, which James had climbed himself. He knew what Ben meant.

  “You want to do that?”

  “If you want,” James said.

  They had to climb out and make their way through some pretty thick foliage to get to the base of the tree. Ben climbed up first, climbing the bough as though it was something he could more or less walk up. Then James tried, but had to get down onto his ass and shimmy out along as far as Ben was standing.

  “You going to stand up?”

  James shook his head.

  “Afraid of heights?”

  He nodded.

  “Oh, well, I’ll be fine. He walked out a little farther, and then turned and walked back again.

  “I won’t jounce the bough,” James said.

  “Jounce the bough?”

  “You know, like in A Separate Peace.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A novel.”

  “I haven’t read it.”

  “Oh, well. I wouldn’t do it anyway, not even as a joke.”

  “What do you mean — push me off?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Ben made a face at him and then executed a perfect dive into the water. At the Olympics, it would have fetched a ten.

  James delicately twisted one leg over the bough and sat side-on. Then he slid forward and slipped into the water, narrowly missing Ben. He came up with the biggest smile on his face.

  “See. You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

  James nodded.

  “You want to go again?”

  “Okay.”

  This time James tried to crab-walk up the bough the way Ben did, but he just couldn’t manage it. He had to stop half way and straddle the bough, and then work his way forward. His balls kept getting caught, and he was scratching the underside of his ass. Even so, he reached the end, where Ben was standing confidently with one hand on an upper branch.

  “You ready to go again?”

  James nodded.

  Then Ben looked at his cock. James was staring right at his face as he did it, so there was no mistake. What the hell was he looking at it for, James wondered, and then noticed Ben’s cock lift into the air a little. Hell, he was a fag. He had to be.

  Ben turned his head away and coughed into his hand, and James began to wonder. Maybe he’d imagined that. It wasn’t like Ben’s cock was hard, but it was lifting into the air. He wondered what it would look like hard, got a sudden picture in his mind, and started to get hard himself. He’d have to get into the water pretty quickly, because it only took him a few moments to get a boner. He lifted his leg over the bough and prepared to slip into the stream.

  “I’ll go first,” he said, and pushed off. He went in feet first, and then stayed beneath the surface.

  “You’ll have to move out of the way,” Ben called once he’d come up again.

  James figured he needed to jack off once more if he was going to get his cock to go down, so he concentrated on that as Ben dove into the water. As Ben came up, he smoothed his hands over his head. Then he frowned at James. He most likely had a stupid expression on his face as he was trying to jack off without moving his shoulders. He thought of Ben’s cock again and came, the cum pumping into the water.

  “Are you jacking off?”

  “No!”

  “No?”

  “No!”

  “Okay. No need to get so antsy about it. It’s natural enough.”

  James nodded. He grinned. He felt ecstatic now.

  A few minutes later they were standing in the shallows, talking to one another naturally enough, talking about the day they’d walked up the mountain.

  “You shave everything?” Ben suddenly said, and nodded at James’s groin.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “You think I should?”

  James shook his head. “No, it looks …” perfect, he wanted to say.

  “What?”

  “Just fine the way it is.” Ben had some hair on his arms and legs as well.

  “Why don’t you do under your arms?”

  “Under my arms?”

  “You’ve got no hair anywhere else, why leave hair under your arms?”

  This had never occurred to James. “I guess,” he said, and shrugged.

  “I bet you don’t even need to shave your face.”

  “Not often.”

  “How often?”

  “Maybe once a week.”

  “Hell, I wish I was like that. I hate shaving.”

  “Yeah, but I like your stubble.”

  [] [] []

  Ben drove James back to the house in the truck. It felt good to be in the board shorts again, and he wondered what Ben thought of them. They’d cost him a fortune.

  “I really enjoyed that,” James said as they were approaching the house.

  “Yes, it was good.”

  “We could go again tomorrow.”

  “I was thinking of doing something else. I was thinking you might like a trip to the coast.”

  “To the coast?”

  Ben nodded.

  “That’s a long way.”

  “We could make a day of it. Swim at the beach. Get some junk food.”

  It sounded brilliant, and James began to nod.

  The truck pulled up at the house, rocking on its suspension. “Are you coming in?”

  “No,” Ben said, “I’ve got something I need to take care of. Badly.”

  [] [] []

  The following day was another early start. They left at five a.m. and reached the beach a
round eight thirty. It was too early to swim, so they had some breakfast in a cafe. James offered to pay. He supposed Ben didn’t have a lot of money, not working on a farm, not unless that did make a lot of money.

  He ate something on sough dough with bacon and banana and honey and ice cream. It was delicious, but he never knew what to order in these places. Ben hadn’t known either, and so had chosen the same thing.

  “This is good, isn’t it?” he said, pointing at it with his fork.

  James nodded, his mouth full.

  They spent some time walking around the stores, and then walked back to the truck. Ben said he had a couple of boards. James wondered what he meant, until he pulled out two old body boards, two disgusting pieces of foam, covered with dust and grime.

  “They’re not exactly clean,” James said, taking his under one arm. He had the board shorts on again, and was wearing them with a white tank top and a pair of white flip-flops. He noticed the eyes of a few girls staring at him. Ben got his fair share of looks too.

  Then they were on the sand.

  They laid their towels out and lay in the sun to get hot. Then Ben wanted to go in the water. They swam first, and then came out to retrieve the body boards. James wasn’t sure how to use them, but after watching Ben a few times, he got the hang of it. Soon they were surfing waves in side-by-side.

  “I see you shaved under your arms,” Ben called as they were coming into the shallows.

  “You think it looks okay?” James said, standing up and reaching his hands over his head.

  “A lot better.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hell, I’m like a child. I haven’t got a hair on my body.”

  “It looks good.”

  “You look good too. I mean, your hair. I like it.”

  Ben grinned.

  Half an hour or so later they got out.

  As they were walking up the beach, Ben put his hand between James’s shoulder blades. James flinched.

  “You really do have a problem with that, don’t you?”

  “What?”

  “Flinching.”

  James shrugged.

  “You didn’t get abused as a kid or something, did you?”

  “What?”

  “It isn’t because someone touched you?”

  “What? No. Nothing like that.”

  Ben nodded and then was silent.

  They lay on the beach and then ate KFC for lunch.