Diversasy

Trapped

Book One

• Tim Reese. Tim's mother rejected him and his father, eventually divorcing him.
• José Roberto 'Robbie' Almazan Maldonado: He is from a village in northern Honduras and fled to the United States illegally in the thousands of unaccompanied kids from Central America that immigrated to the U.S. a few years ago. He lives in an apartment not far from Tim's home with his grandmother, who is a U.S. citizen by marriage. Robbie made it to the U.S., but paid a terrible price for it.
• Keith was born in the U.S. after his Nigerian mother came to the U.S. and overstayed her visa specifically to give birth in the U.S.

Chapter One

For a change, I'm not dreading the start of school in the fall because I'm kissing the public schools goodbye. The drugs, gangs, lousy teachers, cops at the door and falling apart buildings won't be my problems any more. I'm headed to a new school that's private and for boys only. The 'boys only' part appeals to me because as an eleven-almost-twelve year old, I don't have any interest in girls. In fact, all summer, I'd been paying a lot of attention to cute guys, especially at the pool.

The tuition was high and Dad had a hard time coming up with the money. But I had a straight 'A' average all through grade school so the school gave me a scholarship. Then somehow, he talked Mom into giving me more child support money. Those were enough for tuition, but it didn't cover other expenses like books, uniforms, supplies and meals. Dad looked all summer and just in time found another source of money from someone he knew that was willing to sponsor me. She was willing to make up the difference this year and if I did well enough, she'd help me until I graduated, which I thought was great. When I asked Dad about her, he wouldn't tell me who she was, which I thought was strange because he and I talk about everything. He told me it was someone I didn't know and not to worry about it. So I didn't I was happy to be in a new school, but I was also a little concerned because I'd heard that it had a strict behavior code and gave lots of homework. After thinking about it though, I decided that getting away from the public schools would be worth it.

Yesterday, I went to a required orientation for seventh graders where I met my ninth grade mentor, Colton Williams. He was tall and curly blonde with the biggest mouthful of braces I'd ever seen. He warned me that he'd kick my butt if I called him 'tin-grin or metal mouth' anything like that. From the expression on his face and the sound of his voice, he wasn't kidding.

Colton went over my class schedule, showed me where the rooms were and skimmed through the student handbook with me, which seemed to consist of nothing but pages and pages of rules. Then he checked that I had my school uniforms, books and supplies. There were no acceptable excuses for not being prepared the first day of class. Every infraction of a rule would give me Black Points – which he called 'BLIPS' – that would accumulate until I had detentions and other punishments, which included calling Dad. While we walked around the school, he gave me all sorts of tips on how to follow the rules and told me funny things that had happened last year. By the time I went home, I thought he was pretty cool and hoped to get to know him better.

Last night, I sat on my bed and read the entire student handbook. Then I went over the seventh grade checklist to be sure I had everything. The next morning when I hiked up the steps to the front door where Colton was waiting for me, I was all set.

Colton held out his hand. "Hi, Tim. Ready to go?"

As we shook, I said, "Absolutely. Thanks for meeting me."

"Hey, no problem. Getting you started is my job. By the way, at the end of the second week, you'll get a mentor evaluation form where you can grade how well I did. When you fill it out, be nice, okay?" He laughed and said, "Otherwise I kick your butt."

I grinned and nodded. "Do all mentors threaten to kick seventh grade butt."

"Of course. Seventh graders have small, cute butts that are fun to kick although they're not a big target. Let's see your schedule again." When I handed it to him, he glanced at it and gave it back. "Okay, your first class is P.E. and Coach Alan's the teacher. It's not a blow off class so you'll have to work at it. Coach Alan grades on how much you improve learning sports skills and rules about games." He frowned and said, "And exercises."

"I got it. The P.E. we had in grade school was a joke."

He shook his head. "You won't do much laughing in Coach Alan's class. I can guarantee that. He has a lot of rules so pay attention and do exactly what he says. Come on, let's put your book bag in your locker and then go to the gym."

After putting my stuff away, we walked to the far end of the building and around the side of the gym to the lower level where the locker rooms were. We joined other mentors with new seventh graders standing in the hallway.

I got in line with the other boys and Colton said, "Wait here until Coach Alan comes out. And be quiet. Coach Alan doesn't like idle talk."

I nodded and heard other mentors giving their boys the same instructions. What I thought was peculiar was that every mentor used Coach Alan's name and never a pronoun. Some rolled their eyes when they said it. What sort of a teacher was this guy? So far, it didn't look good. We stood in silence looking at each other worrying about what to expect, wondering who'd be our friends and how well we'd do in school.

The locker room door slammed open, making me jump and a fat, balding man wearing sweat pants and a too-tight tee shirt that accented his potbelly and tits stomped out. Without greeting or introduction, he yelled, "Listen up! We have a forty-five minute period. So don't make me repeat anything. There are numbers on the floor inside. Go stand on a number. Any number '1' to '23'. Now!"

We made a dash for the door and I squeezed between two tall boys and got in before most of the other guys. The numbers were in a line right inside the door and I stomped both feet down on number '6' as other boys rushed by, pushing and shoving.

Coach Alan followed us in and yelled, "I want silence. Here are your locker assignments." He read our last names followed by a number. Your P.E uniform is in your locker. It's a tee shirt, shorts, athletic supporter and shoes. You'll get a clean uniform each day. Go to your locker. Take off your school uniform. All of your school uniform. Then come back to your number." He looked at his watch. "You have two minutes from – now!"

I turned and ran to my locker, which Colton had shown me the day before. I yanked the door open, pulled my shirt over my head and slipped off my shoes at the same time. Hanging up my shirt with one hand, I undid my belt and unsnapped my pants with the other. I sat down on the bench to pull them and my socks off together. Standing, I hooked my thumbs in my underwear, hesitated and looked around. A few other boys were also down to their underwear, but like me, they'd stopped before dropping their last bit of clothing.

Coach Alan yelled, "One minute. You get extra work if you're late."

With that as an incentive, I yanked my underwear down, stepped out of them and hung them in my locker. I slammed the door and pushed my way through the mostly naked boys. I was the third one back on a number and stood on '6' again with my hands cupped over my genitals.

This was a new experience for me. In primary school, we didn't take showers so I'd never been with a group of boys when we were all naked. Even when I went to the pool, I wore my swimsuit from home so I didn't have to change there. I felt my ears get hot so I knew my cheeks were flushed red.

Coach Alan started a countdown. "Ten, nine, eight, hurry up, five�" On three, the last boy lined up. "You have to do better. You practice one week. Then I reduce the time. Can't make it, you get penalties."

In spite of my embarrassment of being naked with a bunch of strange boys, I wondered if Coach Alan was capable of speaking a sentence of more than ten words. At first, I thought the way he talked was funny, but now I thought he sounded kind of stupid.

He called our names again as he walked up and down the row of blushing, shivering boys. "Next is development assessment. I'll weigh you and get your height. It's for your permanent record. Turn to your right. Hands on the shoulders of the boy in front of you. Leave them there."

I turned and put both hands on the bare shoulders of the next boy. His skin was warm and smooth on my palms and I smiled to myself. The boy behind me dropped his hands on my shoulders and rubbed them a little, which I enjoyed even more than touching the boy in front of me. As soon as we had our hands on each other's shoulders, we were exposed for everyone to see.

A few boys were reluctant to uncover themselves and Coach Alan went down the line grabbing wrists and slapping hands on shoulders. "Keep your hands there. Step on the scale. Then put them at your sides. Stand still until I've measured you. Afterward, line up the other way. Hands on shoulders again."

He walked to the front of the line and told the first boy to stand on the scale. After he took the measurements, he said, "You are five foot three [1.60 m] and weigh one hundred six pounds [48 kg]. Repeat."

The boy did and Coach Alan said, "Remember that. You'll need it. Line up."

I was near the front of the line so I could check out the other boys' bodies when I lined up going back – trying not to look like that's what I was doing. As the line got longer, it seemed like most boys were doing the same thing. After a quick survey, I saw that there were mostly skinny kids in class. Some had a little roll of baby fat on their bellies, but no one was overweight. A few had amazingly well developed bodies. One boy looked like he was a body builder and had thick sharp-edged muscles all over. About a quarter of the boys had pubic hair, but most didn't, which made me feel good because I had sprouted thin black hairs right at the base of my penis over the summer. I saw three or four guys who weren't circumcised and I wondered what that would be like.

After we were measured, Coach Alan said, "Line up according to height. Tallest boy will be number '1'. Shorter guys next. Sort yourselves. You have one minute. Go!"

Immediately, there was a churning mass of naked boys bumping into each other, pushing and shoving. It had gotten warm in the locker room so we were sweating a little and there was a lot of skin sliding across moist skin. I didn't have to push to the front because I knew where my number would be. As always, I was certain I was the shortest boy in class so I shuffled to the back, put my bare feet on '23' and waited for the taller guys to figure out where they stood.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, "How tall are you? I'm four ten [1.47 m]."

I turned to face the boy and said, "I'm four nine [1.45 m] so I go behind you."

He nodded and as he slid his bare feet onto '22', I looked him over. He was Hispanic and one of the boys who wasn't circumcised. He had black hair and eyes and very dark skin with no swimsuit tan lines. His body was lean, but not skinny with well-defined muscles over his chest and abdomen. When he turned to face away from me, I admired his squared-off butt cheeks covered with tight, clear skin.

About the time, it looked like everyone had found a place, a very small boy slowly shuffled down the line as close to the wall as he could and holding his hands over his crotch. I tapped the boy in front of me and pointed. He nodded and moved up to number '21'. I stepped ahead and gestured at the now vacant '23'. The boy stood on it, feet together, head down with his shoulders rolled forward, making him seem even smaller. Standing like that, his head didn't even come up to my shoulders. I was surprised there was someone in my class who was shorter than me. That was rare.

When I looked back at him, his face was pinched and he seemed ready to cry. He was African-American with skin so black it almost seemed purple. He was pudgy, but not fat and two small boy-breasts with pinched tiny nipples floated on his chest. Although I couldn't see his genitals because of his covering hands, I was willing to bet that they were tiny because he looked like he wasn't anywhere close to puberty yet.

Coach Alan said, "These are your roll call numbers. Remember them. Put your P.E. uniform on. Line up again. You have two minutes. Go!"

Again, the locker room was filled with a mass of sweaty, naked boys rushing to their lockers. As I pushed through the churning bodies, I felt a hand on my bare butt and I decided to take advantage of the confusion and pressed my palms against other boys' bodies. I'd never had a chance to touch another naked boy and sliding my hands over their bare skin was exciting. I hoped that Coach Alan would give us more opportunities to be naked together in spite of our embarrassment.

I got to my locker and yanked open the door. On the shelf, there was pile of clothing stacked on a pair of white gym shoes. The tee shirt was on top so I yanked it out, pulled it over my head and rammed my arms through the sleeves. Next, I pulled an athletic supporter off the shelf and a funny-shaped plastic cup fell to the floor. I picked it up and held the supporter and cup up trying to figure out how they worked. Looking around, I saw several other boys with confused expressions doing the same thing. The boy who stood in front of me on number '22' grinned, held his supporter up, opened a pouch on the front and slid the cup inside. When I did the same, he winked and nodded. A few lockers away, the Black kid stood holding the supporter and shaking his head. The Hispanic boy grabbed the supporter and cup, put them together and handed it back. The Black kid smiled with relief and nodded his thanks. Then he turned toward the lockers as if trying to hide and pulled his jock up in two quick motions.

Yanking up my shorts, I sat down, pulled my gym shoes on without untying the laces and then ran to my place. Now I knew why there weren't any socks in my locker. They'd take too long to get on.

After another countdown where we all made it to our numbers, Coach Alan led us into the gym and to no one's surprise, we had to stand on a line of numbers painted on the floor. We did stretching exercises, calisthenics and then stood in football formations while Coach Alan told us the names of the positions and what they did during a game. At four foot nine [1.45 m] and 81 pounds [37 kg], I wasn't remotely interested in football, but I tried to pay attention because Coach Alan said we'd have homework about it.

At the end, Coach Alan timed us as we ran wind sprints the length of the gym. Some out of shape kids were gasping and staggering after only a few sprints.

All period, Coach Alan had ranted at the slow boys and especially at the Black kid who was by far, the slowest. By the time we finished our sprints, the boy was exhausted, but Coach Alan was still on his case yelling and calling him names. When we lined up at the end of class, there were tears on his cheeks.

We marched back to the locker room and stood on our numbers again. Coach Alan said, "You will take showers. Number '1', walk past the laundry bins next to the showers. Everyone follow. Put your uniform in the marked bins. Take the cup out of your jock. Carry it with your shoes. Towels are on the table. Put your shoes and cup on the table. Take a shower. Dry off and put your towel in the bin. Your shoes and cup go in your locker. Dress in your school uniform and line up. You have five minutes. Go!

We leaped from our numbers, tore off our clothes, stuffed them in the laundry bins and hustled to the showers carrying our cups and shoes. Once more, the locker room was full of pushing and shoving naked boys and I pushed on bare butts and hips so I could duck under the arms of the taller boys. I got in the shower room, took my shower – or at least got wet – dried off and rushed to my locker to dress. When I did, I found a sheet of paper on the shelf. Large letters at the top said: 'Homework, due tomorrow'. Homework? I wondered what homework in P.E. class would be like, but I was concentrating on getting dressed and didn't take time to read it. I folded and stuffed the sheet into a pocket and ran to get in line.

We all made it in less than five minutes. Coach Alan said, "Do your homework. It's due before class. Be here five minutes early. I'll unlock the door then. I'll collect your homework when you go in. Change and be on your number at the bell."

The ringing bell was the period on the end his sentence and I wondered how much he practiced to get the timing exact. As soon as the bell quit, but while the sound was still echoing in the locker room, he dismissed us.

I walked out the door toward my locker to get books for my next class. Walking next to me was the Hispanic boy. He looked around to see if he'd be overheard and then said, "That guy creeps me out. All that lining up crap just looks like ways to get us naked so he can stare at us."

"Yeah. I think so too. I thought he was going to drool when he was weighing us." I held out my hand. "Tim Reese."

He shook, saying "José Roberto Almazan Maldonado. Just call me Robbie."

"Not José?"

"No way. Half the guys in my village back home are named José."

"Okay. Robbie it is."

Our lockers were side by side just like in P.E. because they'd been assigned alphabetically. The rest of the morning, Robbie and I went to classes together, which were pretty much the same as classes at any school. We took notes, got handouts and homework. Lots of homework! For lunch, we had to eat the school hot lunch, but unlike food at my other school, it looked and smelled great. If nothing else, I was going to like lunch period.

Robbie and I went through the line together and when we walked into the cafeteria, I saw the Black kid sitting alone at a table. I nudged Robbie, pointed with my head and we walked over and sat with him.

I parked my tray on the table and sat down. Before we left our last class, our teacher told us that we could talk during lunch, but we had to keep the noise down in the cafeteria. There were proctors circulating around the room who'd rap on our table if we got too loud. If we didn't quiet down, we'd get BLIPS.

In a low voice I said, "Hi, I'm Tim Reese. What's your name?"

While I waited for an answer, Robbie set his tray on the table and sat down beside me. He asked the same question, but the kid looked down at his tray, kept eating and didn't answer. Robbie looked at me raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

Before we could ask another question, Colton, who had finished his lunch, sat down beside him. "Hi, Keith. How's your first day been so far?"

He looked up and in a weak, unsteady voice said, "Well, I guess okay."

"You guess?"

Robbie snorted and said, "I'm surprised he can even say that much. P.E. class sucked because Coach Alan picked on him the whole time. What's with that guy anyway?"

Colton said. "Well, sometimes Coach Alan gets carried away on the first day."

I said, "And what's with making us stand around naked all the time."

"Well, new seventh graders generally have never taken showers in P.E. before and Coach Alan does that so you get used to the idea and don't take forever. He's like that in all the classes."

"So you have to do the same thing."

"Not anymore, but we did when we were in seventh grade. Anyway, it's no big deal."

Robbie scowled and said, "I don't think saving time has anything to do with it. He acts like some kind of pervert."

Colton looked around the room. "Keep your voice down. It's a good thing none of the proctors heard you. No matter what you think of teachers, you have to talk about them with respect. Otherwise, you get BLIPS. Understand?"

We all nodded and Colton looked at the clock. "I have to go. Watch what you say." He got up and walked away.

Once Colton left, I checked around to be sure there were no proctors nearby and said, "I think he's a pervert too. It's not being naked that bothers me, but it's the way he looks at us when we are. When he was weighing us, he was looking at us a lot more than he was looking at the scale." I didn't say anything aloud but I was thinking that it seemed like it took him a lot longer to measure the boys that I thought had good-looking bodies.

Robbie said, "Yeah, I think he likes checking us out a little too much, if you know what I mean."

I said, "Yeah, I do. He probably stares at us because his dick's only two inches [5 cm] long and he's jealous."

Keith looked up from his plate at Robbie and me. "I don't care how long his dick is. I don't want to see it. Can you imagine what that fat, hairy bastard looks like naked?"

We all cracked up and gave each other high fives. The lunchroom proctor came over, rapped on our table and gave us a major-league stink-eye.

I waited until the proctor went to another table, leaned toward Keith and said, "I definitely don't want to think about that, especially while we're trying to eat."

Keith grinned and made noises like he was going to puke. Robbie slapped a hand over his mouth and I bit my tongue to keep from breaking out laughing again. That was the first time we laughed together and it was enough to start us toward real friendships. By the time lunch was over, we had gotten to know each other a little and Robbie was calling us 'Los Tres Amigos.'

After lunch, we went to class but it was strange that everyone was so quiet and kept looking around hoping someone would make some noise just to break up the silence. When we changed classes, we walked single file down the right-hand side of the hall and then waited outside a classroom door until the teacher said we could come in.

After school, I saw Keith getting a ride from someone driving a black minivan with Personally Yours Spa and Salon painted in gold on the side. I wanted to talk to Robbie, but didn't see him anywhere. When the city bus stopped on the corner, I ran to get on. It wasn't a long trip and I got off three blocks from my house, walked home and let myself in.

On the kitchen table was a note from Dad saying he'd be home by 5:30 and there was fruit and other stuff I could eat if I was hungry. I smiled because he was always leaving me notes and doing unexpected things for me. Dad and I had been a team since Mom divorced him three years ago and I thought that the two of us living together had turned out great. He was 'Dad', but he was also my best friend. We did everything together and he was always there for me. He attended all my soccer games and school activities and we talked just about everything. There were only two subjects we didn't discuss. One was the divorce and the other was a secret of my own – probably the only thing I never told him about.

I dropped the note in the trash, went upstairs to my room where I closed and locked the door.

For some reason, the people who built the house put the folding staircase that led to the attic in the ceiling of my closet. It was hard to get to and I had to push clothes hangers and other things aside in order to reach the cord on the trap door that lowered the stairs. I opened the door, flipped down the stairs and climbed into the stuffy, hot attic. Since it was so hard to get to the trapdoor and the stairs were narrow and steep, we didn't store anything up there – until I started using it as a place to hide my secret.

In fifth grade, I saw some pictures in a school library book of an Indian boy captured and held prisoner by another tribe. They tied him up and since he was only wearing a loincloth, almost his whole body was exposed. I stared at the picture for a long time while my penis stiffened and got tangled in my underwear. Under my desk, I tried to free it, but the strange thing was that the more I moved it around in my clothes, the better it felt. When my teacher told me to stop squirming, I quit and my penis got soft and fell free of my underwear.

I checked the book out and photocopied the pictures so I could look at them whenever I wanted. There was a branch of the public library not far away from home and I began to spend a lot of time there looking through books to find more pictures. As I found them, I copied and saved them in a scrapbook. Later, when I'd look at them again, my penis would get stiff and give me wonderful sensations. I wanted to add to my collection, but I only found a few in books so I started doing internet searches. There were lots of pictures of men tied up, but I didn't find any of boys tied. The way the men were tied was interesting, but I didn't like their hairy bodies. I kept looking, but finding pictures of tied up boys was almost impossible. Occasionally, I'd find one or see one in a YouTube video, but the boy would be dressed or at best, shirtless. Since that was all I could find, I'd carefully save each picture or download the video and add them to my secret collection.

As I looked at the pictures, I wondered what it would be like to be tied up. Would it be better than the pictures? My curiosity was satisfied when I found some old clothesline in the garage and began to experiment. It took a lot of practice to learn how to tie knots that would hold, but with some internet help, I finally mastered them. The problem was that I couldn't tie myself up so I was completely helpless. I could tie my ankles and knees together, but I couldn't do anything about my hands and arms.

Since many of the men I saw on the web were naked, I decided to try tying myself that way. I peeled off my clothes and tied my ankles and knees together, pressing the skin on my bare legs tightly against each other. The feeling was amazing and I enthusiastically thrashed and rolled around on the floor with mounting pleasure. When I was facedown, I got great sensations from my penis and I kept rolling and sliding my hips around. The feelings got more and more intense so I kept going and had my first orgasm. At the time, I didn't know exactly what had happened, but I knew I loved it and was sure I wanted to do it again – and again.

Shortly after that, Dad decided it was time we had the man-to-man sex talk. I'd learned about it in health class, but Dad was a lot more explicit. As we talked, I told him about what I'd felt, leaving out the part where I'd tied myself up, of course. He confirmed that I had masturbated and had an orgasm. He told me that it was perfectly normal and all boys did it. When I told him that nothing came out, he said that it was dry because I wasn't old enough to produce sperm, but I would soon. After that, I tied myself and rubbed my penis on the carpet every chance I got. Then one day about six months ago, I had a huge, best-ever orgasm that left a small wet spot on the carpet.

Every day after that, I masturbated – sometimes several times a day – usually tying myself up and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Still, I wished I had someone I could tie-up or who would tie me up. I had no idea how I could find that person, although the men on the internet didn't seem to have any trouble.

In the attic, I reached behind a partial roll of insulation, picked up a box and carried it down the stairs, closing the trapdoor behind me. I took off my school uniform, pulled a length of rope from the box and sat on the edge of my bed. Looping the rope around my ankles, I pulled it up tight. I lay back on my bed, closed my eyes and drove my hips into the bedspread until I had a great orgasm. When my bare hip rolled into the cold, wet spot on the bedspread, I remembered I had forgotten to get a towel to clean up the mess.

I untied my ankles, went to the bathroom, got a damp towel and scrubbed the bedspread, hoping it would dry quickly. Sliding my box under the bed, I changed into shorts and a tee shirt and went downstairs to watch TV.

At dinner, I told Dad about meeting Robbie and Keith. Then I told him about Coach Alan. He thought for a few minutes and said, "I can see why you and the other boys would be uncomfortable with a teacher giving you that sort of scrutiny."

"Yeah, it was weird. It seemed like he was just making excuses for us to be naked so he could stare at us." I shrugged and said, "I don't feel like that when you and I are naked together."

"I understand and I think part of the problem is that you don't know the coach so you don't trust him yet, plus you were in a new situation with boys who were strangers. I think you'll be more comfortable after a while."

"I suppose. Colton told us that he always did that with the new seventh graders."

Dad rubbed his chin and put a serious expression on his face. "Hmmm. There's something about this that you need to know. Some adults are sexually attracted to children. They're called pedophiles."

"You mean Coach Alan may want to have sex with us? That's disgusting."

"Don't let your imagination carry you away. He probably doesn't, but it's important that you know there are people like that. Based on what you told me, there's a possibility he is. Just a possibility, remember. What I want you to do is let me know if his looking at you guys changes to something else."

"Something else? You mean like touching us."

Dad nodded and changed the subject. After dinner, Dad and I went through our usual evening routine except that I went to my room early to do homework – especially P.E. homework. Just before I turned in, I went to the web and looked for pictures of men having sex. Those were easy to find because there was a huge number of sites. As I looked at them, I became more and more repulsed about the idea of having sex with a man. Then I did a search for boys and men having sex and didn't get anything other than sites about 'twinks'. From the pictures, I figured out that twinks were guys in their late teens or early twenties having sex with other twinks or men. Unlike pictures of men, I found that these pictures more interesting and not disgusting. The guys were young, they weren't fat and most didn't have much, if any, body hair. Some even shaved off their pubic hair. I went to sleep wondering what masturbating with another boy would be like.

I woke up just as Dad was leaving the house, which meant I had forty-five minutes before I had to catch the bus to school. My morning erection brought back memories of being naked and touching other boys in P.E. class so I decided to have a quick tie-up session before I went to school. This time, I pulled the rope as tight as I could around my ankles and had a great orgasm. I decided that this might become my favorite way to start a school day.

I met Robbie and Keith outside the locker room door at school just as it slammed open. "Give me your homework. Then change. You have five minutes."

Standing behind Coach Alan, Keith mocked Coach Alan's facial expressions and mouthed the words, 'You have five minutes' along with him, making me and Robbie struggle to hold back our laugher as we hurtled through the door to our lockers.

I threw my shirt, jock and shorts on, picked up a shoe and tried to pull it on over my bare foot. There was a knot in the shoelaces and so it was too tight to get on. To get the knot out, I stood and put my foot on the bench right next to where Robbie was sitting.

Robbie pointed and said, "Wow. Where did you get the red mark around your ankle? You've got one on the other ankle too."

I felt my face flush because I'd forgotten how long the dents in my skin caused by the strands of rope lasted. Trying to keep the sound my voice casual, I said, "Oh, that's from a pair of sweatpants I was wearing. You know, the kind with the elastic around the bottoms of the legs. Looks like they're too small and I should probably throw 'em away."

"It's kinda warm for sweatpants, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but Dad turns the air conditioning down to Antarctic when he gets home. I usually wear soccer shorts around the house, but I get goose bumps when it gets too cool so I put on sweat pants."

I was never a good liar, especially for the spur-of-the-moment situations and Robbie gave me an odd look that clearly said he didn't believe me. Then, in a complete change of expression gave me a broad smile, nodded and said, "Yeah, I have a pair of sweatpants that does that to my ankles too." We finished dressing and ran to stand on our numbers.

All day I watched Robbie and Keith in class, in the halls and at lunch. Robbie had a lot of self-confidence and was usually the first to contribute in class, but there were times when it seemed as if his confidence turned off and he had to quick put it back on like a mask. Keith was something else. In all his classes, he slumped down in his seat trying to hide behind the boy in front of him so teachers wouldn't call on him even though he always knew the correct answer if one did. But between classes and at lunch, he was a riot. He had more funny, sarcastic and insulting comments about the teachers and the school than anyone I'd ever met. Keith was like a turtle and he seemed to climb into and out of his shell, depending where he was and who he was with.

He'd mastered the art of not being seen in all his classes except P.E. where Coach Alan made his life miserable. After P.E., he was really unhappy so Robbie and I tried to help by giving him encouragement, but I couldn't tell if we were making a difference.

The next day in P.E. when we were changing, Robbie pulled on his shorts and put a bare foot on the bench next to me. He pointed and said, "See, I have sweat pants just like yours."

I looked and sure enough, he had deep, dark red indentions around his ankles that looked just like mine did the day before. Was he telling me what I think he was? Could it be possible that I'd found someone who had the same interest in being tied up as I did?

Keeping the excitement out of my voice as much as I could, I smiled and said, "Yeah. It sure looks like it." Since Coach Alan was yelling and starting his countdown, we didn't say anything else and finished dressing at high speed.

After school, as I walked toward the bus stop, Robbie ran up beside me. I asked, "You riding the bus too?"

"Yeah. My grandma's a worrier and wanted to drive me to and from school every day, but I told her that other kids from the school rode the same bus and managed to talk her into letting me go by myself. After all, I turned thirteen over the summer."

"You're thirteen already? I'll be twelve in a week. Did you start school late?"

"Well, sort of."

I thought that was a strange answer, but the bus pulled up to the stop and we had to run the last half-block to catch it. We didn't say much on the bus and when it stopped at my corner and I got up to get off, Robbie did too.

"You get off here too?"

Robbie pointed and said, "Uh huh. I live four blocks that way. Over in that new high-rise apartment building."

"Cool. I live with my dad in the other direction. Want to come home with me and get something to eat. Dad always keeps lots of food around for after school snacks as long as it's not junk food."

He looked at his watch. "Sure. Can I call my grandma from your house?"

"No problem. I wish we could have cell phones at school. Going home in order to make a phone call is a pain."

At home, I let us in and got some bottles of juice and a container of mixed fresh fruit from the refrigerator while Robbie called his grandmother. She seemed upset that he was at my house instead of coming straight home and was reading him the riot act. She was talking in Spanish so loud and fast that I could hear her voice coming from the telephone receiver.

Robbie hung up, shook his head and sighed as he handed the phone back to me. Picking up a bottle of orange juice, he said, "I'm happy to be living with my grandmother and I know she means well, but there are times when she's way over-protective."

"Why? What's she worried about?" Robbie's face closed up completely and he started at me with a blank expression. After what seemed like a long time, I said, "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I don't want to be nosy or anything."

He shrugged and said, "No, it's all right. I haven't had a friend I could trust since I've been here and I'm not sure where to start."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Los tres amigos haven't been together long, but I know we can trust each other."

Nodding, he took a deep breath said, "I think so too. When you have to keep secrets from everyone including your friends, things get royally screwed up. The reason Grandma watches me so close is because I'm not here legally."

"No kidding? How did that happen?"

"Remember that big surge of kids coming from Central America to the U.S. without their parents?"

"Yeah. There were thousands."

"Actually, tens of thousands. I was one of them and came from Honduras through Guatemala and Mexico. My father was in the drug trade somehow. He never told me anything about what he did, but he had enough money so we could live much better than most people in Honduras could. My mother wanted him to quit, but there wasn't anything he could do where he could make that kind of money. When I was ten, something went wrong and a group of narcos tried to kill him. He was wounded, but survived and went into hiding in Guatemala. My mother paid a coyote a lot of money to smuggle me and several cousins into the U.S. Then she went to join my father. The coyote took us as far as northern Mexico and then dumped us in the desert."

"So how did you and your cousins get to the U.S. from there?"

"I did. They didn't. I was the oldest and I tried to figure out how to get across the desert, but we didn't have any water and really didn't know which way to go. I did the best I could, but the younger kids all died one by one." His voice shook with anger and his eyes were wide with the horror of the memory. "And there was nothing I could about it." He clenched his fists and thumped his thighs. "Nothing!

Tears were streaming down his face so I gave him a paper napkin and said, "I'm sorry. I can't imagine what that must have been like."

"I'll never forget it. I can't forget it. As far as I know, the bodies of my cousins were never found and I have no way of contacting their parents to tell them." His eyes went wild and he gave me an angry, anguished grimace. "But I know who the coyote is and someday… someday I'll find him. Then…"

I'd never seen anyone with so much anger and bitterness twisting his face. It was so intense that it actually scared me. I asked, "So how did you end up here?"

"I'd crossed into the U.S., but didn't know it and someone in a border patrol surveillance plane spotted me and sent agents to rescue me. I woke up in a hospital, not really knowing where I was or how I got there. I had my birth certificate and some telephone numbers on me that immigration people called. After I'd been in the hospital for a week or so, my grandma who lives here in California showed up with a lawyer and took me to her house. She's a nurse and spent weeks helping me recover physically, but that's not all that got hurt and all of her nursing won't change that."

He tapped his head with two fingers. "Every night, I have nightmares and I hear my cousins begging me to help them, but I can't and I watch them die again. And again. I was dying of thirst myself, but managed to keep going, hoping I'd find someone to help us. I feel like I'm trapped in a horror movie playing in my head over and over and over that I can't stop."

"Is your grandma here legally?"

"Yeah, she married an American, which made her a citizen, but he died five years ago. She's applied for refugee status for me, but there are so many kids that it'll be years before they go through all the paperwork and procedures and set a date for a hearing."

"So in the meantime, you're living with her."

"Right, but we never know when I might have to go to court and she's afraid that the narcos who are still trying to find and kill my father might be looking for me. She could be right and that's why she keeps such a close eye on me and why I go to a private school. Someone in a public school might be from Honduras and recognize my name."

"You've been here only a couple of years, but your English is great. I never would have guessed that you were from Honduras."

"My mother and father are both fluent in English and they sent me to a private bilingual school in Honduras starting in prekindergarten." He glanced at his watch. "Look, I have to go because I told Grandma I wouldn't stay long. I'll talk to her and see if you can come over tomorrow. I've never had a friend visit me."

'I'd like that." I took one of Dad's notes he left on the table and wrote my cell phone number and Dad's on the back of it. I gave it to him and asked, "What bus are you going to take tomorrow morning?" He gave me the information while I walked him to the door and told him that I'd meet him on the bus.

Robbie and I rode together on the city bus the next morning and met some other guys who were in eighth grade at our school. When we said we had P.E. first period, they had a lot to say about Coach Alan. Like us, they thought he was some sort of weirdo because in their P.E. classes he made them stand around naked and stared at them just like he did in our class. By the time we got to school, I decided I needed to talk to Colton because he said Coach Alan didn't act that way in his class. Something wasn't adding up.

I was dressing for P.E. when Robbie tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at Keith. He'd taken off his school uniform and was pulling his jock strap up over his legs. Generally, he faces toward the lockers and all we saw was his butt. I glanced at him, started to look away and then my eyes snapped back for a much longer second look. Keith had a pudgy, undeveloped body that made him look like he was about eight years old, but hanging between his legs was the largest penis I'd ever seen. He didn't have any pubic hair, but his penis must have been six inches [15 cm] long with testicles the size of golf balls dangling below in a black skin bag. He wasn't circumcised and his foreskin closed over the head of his penis and extended beyond the end like the trunk of an elephant, making it seem even longer. As he pulled his jock up, he had a hard time getting everything stuffed inside the small plastic cup. He definitely needed a larger size – several sizes larger. When everything was in, he grimaced in discomfort and pulled it the rest of the way up around his waist. I waited a second too long and he caught me staring. He jerked around and finished dressing with his back to us.

At the end of class when we had to take showers, Keith faced the wall and then sort of slid sideways so he faced away from everyone. He practically climbed into his locker, trying to hide until he had pulled his boxer shorts on.

At lunch, Robbie and I sat down with Keith and tried to talk to him, but he ignored us and concentrated on eating. Robbie and I looked at each other and shrugged.

Robbie put up with Keith's silent treatment for less than a minute then grabbed his wrist stopping his fork. "All right, Keith, enough! What's wrong with you?"

He didn't try to yank his wrist away from Robbie and I was surprised that when he looked up tears were about to overflow his eyelids. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and tease me. Everyone else does."

I said, "Tease you. About what? Why would we do that?"

"I saw you looking at me in the locker room. Now you know and you can go ahead and make fun of me."

Robbie said, "Are you kidding? I mean sure, we looked at you in the locker room, but who wouldn't? You have to be the best-equipped seventh grader in California. I'm jealous. I wish I was half as big as you are."

I nodded and smiled. "Yeah, when you start going with girls, they're going to go nuts."

Keith set his fork down when Robbie let go of his wrist and looked first at me and then at Robbie. "Are you guys putting me on?"

"No way. If I was that big, I'd march to the showers with a band playing in the background so I could show it off."

Robbie said, "Yeah, no kidding. Every boy in seventh grade – maybe the whole school – would want what you've got."

Keith kept looking back and forth between Robbie and me and finally said, "You really mean that?"

I said, "Absolutely. Everybody in our class is still small because we haven't started to grow much after puberty. Dad told me that it grows as you do so imagine what you'll look like in a few years." I shook my head in awe, imagining the size of Keith's equipment when he was a teenager.

"People will be jealous… of me?"

Robbie said, "Yeah. I'll bet Coach Alan about crapped his pants when you got on the scale the first day."

Keith gave me a weak smile. "Well, he did take a long time figuring out how much I weighed because he wasn't looking at the scale very much."

"No doubt. He probably turned green with envy because his dick's only two inches [5 cm] long. Nobody in our class is going to make fun of you when they see what you've got compared to them."

"I'm glad because it's a pain in P.E. class. Everything gets pinched and hurts a lot when I have to run those stupid wind sprints. That jockstrap is way too small. Why do we have to wear that plastic cup thing anyway?"

Robbie pretended to throw a baseball and said, "I wore one when I played baseball. It's to protect you in case you get hit there. I don't know why we have wear one in P.E. other than Coach Alan probably likes to see us in 'em."

I said, "The ones they put in our lockers are for guys our size. You know, average seventh graders. You sure need a bigger one." I looked around and saw Colton getting up from a table with his tray. I stood walked over and asked him to stop by our table before he left the cafeteria.

When Colton came over and sat down, Robbie jabbed his thumb at Keith and said, "Keith has a problem with his P.E. uniform. It doesn't fit and wants to get something bigger."

Colton nodded. "Sure. The ladies who take care of the P.E. uniforms and towels give you the sizes that you put on your registration cards and it may not be accurate. Did you grow over the summer?"

Keith's face turned darker than ever with a red hue appearing on his cheeks and he bumbled for an answer. "Well, no. Um, not really this summer. It's been like that for… uh a long time, I guess. You know… maybe."

Frowning, Colton said, "I'm missing something here. What exactly is wrong with the size of your P.E. uniform?"

I said, "It's not his whole uniform. It's just one part of it."

Robbie said, "Yeah, his jock strap cup is way, way too small."

Colton turned to Keith, whose black cheeks were glowing and asked, "Your jock is too small? It's the size that all seventh graders get."

Nudging Colton in the ribs with an elbow, Robbie said, "Well, you might say that Keith isn't your usual seventh grader. More like a seventh grade elephant."

He looked closely at Keith, trying to decide if what we were implying could be possible on a boy his size. "Are you guys putting me on?" We all shook our heads and then Colton said, "Okay, I got the picture. I know the ladies who take care of that stuff and I'll talk to them about getting you a bigger one. But this had better not be a joke. If it is, I'm going to do some serious seventh grade butt kicking."

As he got up, we were all nodding to assure him that we weren't joking. We sat silently eating our lunches until he left the cafeteria.

Keith said, "Do you think he'll really be able to get me a bigger one?"

I said, "I don't see why not. They must have bigger ones for the older guys like seniors."

Laughing, Keith said, "I hope so. If I do get a bigger one, maybe I can give mine to Coach Alan. It would probably fit him with room to spare"

Our laugher and high-fives got us another table rap from a proctor.

After school, Robbie and I rode the bus while someone in the minivan picked up Keith again. We got off at our stop and Robbie headed for home right away.

"Grandma said I had to come right home today and she'd talk to me about you coming over then. Maybe tomorrow."

I waved as we walked in opposite directions, hoping that we could start visiting each other whenever we wanted. Letting myself in, I found the usual note from Dad saying he'd be home early and we had something to talk about then.

Grabbing some fruit from the refrigerator, I hauled my book bag upstairs and dumped it on my desk. I took off my school uniform, sat down at my desk wearing only underwear and started my homework.

The front door opened and Dad called up the stairs, "Tim? You home?"

"In my room." And I heard him climbing the stairs.

Coming into my room he asked, "How was school today?"

He asks that same question every day, but this time I didn't get a chance to answer. He pulled my other chair up next to my desk and sat down. When he did, I turned to face him.

"I talked with the grandmother of a friend of yours from school, José Roberto."

"Yeah, he said his grandmother might call you about him coming over here after school. And he prefers to be called Robbie."

"I'll remember that. Anyway, she gave me a real grilling. She wanted to know about my job, family, about you, especially if you'd ever been in trouble before, how you do in school, sports and on and on."

"Oops. I didn't think she'd be like that. I hope you're not mad."

He smiled. "No, not at all. I think some parents might benefit from finding out more about the friends of their children. In this case, I think there may be something more to her concern. Robbie's not here legally, is he?"

"No. He came with all those kids from Central America a while back." I didn't give Dad any specifics about how Robbie got here other than to tell him that his parents were hiding from drug dealers and his grandma had applied to get refugee status for Robbie.

Dad rubbed chin and said, "That sounds like a tough situation for Robbie. I'm glad his grandmother is doing what she can for him by the book. Anyway, after we talked, she seems to think that you and I are okay and he can come over here after school as long as he calls to tell her where he is."

"That sounds great. You won't mind him helping me eat the snacks you leave out?"

"Nope. If he's like you, he can probably use some fattening up." He reached over and pinched the bare skin over my ribs, making me laugh. "I'd like to meet him sometime."

"Okay. I'll introduce him to you as soon as I get a chance."

"Dinner will be ready soon. I've got a casserole I'm going to bake and it won't take too long." He got up and left my room.

I worked on homework until Dad called me. Without dressing, I went downstairs and ate dinner with Dad. I often wore only my white y-front underwear around the house and he never says anything about me showing up at the table that way. I thought it was strange that I could run around the house almost naked with my dad and didn't feel embarrassed or uncomfortable the way I did in P.E. class with Coach Alan. Maybe Dad was right and I'd get used to it eventually.

I enjoyed the casserole because Dad's a good cook and it almost distracted me from thinking about what Robbie and I could do when he visited me or I visited him. Was he serious when he said he had sweatpants like mine? Did he mean that he tied himself up the way I did and wasn't talking about sweatpants at all? If he did, how would I ever find a way of talking to him about it? I was afraid that if I asked him and he really was talking about clothes, I'd look like a complete idiot and he'd think I was some kind of pervert. Then I'd lose his friendship and he'd spread my secret all over the school.

As soon as I got up the next morning and had gone to the bathroom, I got my ropes out and had a great masturbation session because I imagined that Robbie and I were both naked and he'd tied me up so I was helpless and rolling on the floor trying to get free. I had a great orgasm that seemed to go on and on. Then I imagined that I'd tied Robbie up and got to watch him squirm while he tried to escape and had another orgasm, but it wasn't as strong as the first one. I guess I shouldn't expect too much since it was the second one in about ten minutes. It still felt great, though.

In P.E. class, we turned in our homework and rushed to our lockers. I was pulling my shirt over my head when Robbie tapped me on the shoulder and pointed. Turning, I saw Keith standing in front of his locker with a big smile on his face and holding up a gigantic jockstrap. Colton had come through.

Keith stepped into it, pulled it up and his giant penis and testicles fit into the plastic cup exactly right. It was a little big in the waist, but when he pulled his shorts on over it, it looked like it wouldn't fall off. He raised his hands over his head making victory signs and then finished dressing. Robbie and I gave him high-fives as we ran by to get in line.

All during class, Keith was ignoring Coach Alan's sarcastic remarks and they didn't seem to bother him. For the first time, Keith wasn't the last one doing sprints and when finished ahead of four guys in the last sprint, he actually had a smile on his face.

When we took showers, Keith didn't hide by sliding against the wall. He didn't parade around showing off the way I think I would have done, but he took his P.E. uniform off and just joined the other guys going to the showers. There were some amazed expressions when they saw him, but no one made any comments. I was sure that I saw a lot of envious looks from the other guys as Keith walked by with his giant penis swinging from one thigh to the other on each step.

He stood in front of his locker, dressed with a satisfied look on his face and gave us a wide grin and a thumb-up. We laughed and returned it.

When we sat down at lunch, I said, "You look happy."

"Yeah. Today was the first time I ever took my clothes off and wasn't embarrassed. I didn't mind how big I was and as I went to the showers, I watched the other guys checking me out. You're right and they were jealous. Also, for the first time, that stupid cup didn't hurt when I ran those wind sprints. Thanks."

Robbie said, "No hay problema. That's what friends are for. Están los tres amigos."

We ate and talked about classes until almost the end of our lunch period when Robbie said, "Tim, my grandma said you could come over after school today. She talked to your dad and said it was okay as long as I called her when I got home."

"Great. I'm looking forward to it." To Keith, I said, "You want to come over to my place after school sometime?"

He shook his head and said, "Can't. I work for my mother at her spa then."

"Oh yeah. I saw the van. It's called Personally Yours Spa and Salon isn't it?"

"Uh huh. As soon as school is out I have to go to work."

"So what do you do there?"

"Nothing fancy. Mother gets most of her business from about three o'clock 'till eleven at night so I clean up and get things ready for clients when they come in. That's where I met Colton. His mother's a doctor and works for the health department. She goes around inspecting places like my mother's to be sure they meet health codes."

Robbie asked, "So what does your mother do in her spa and salon?"

Keith started to tell us, but the bell rang ending lunch period cutting off his explanation. We hustled to our lockers to get our books for English class. The English teacher is really strict and gives out BLIPS like tossing confetti on the class for even the tiniest infraction of the rules. Late for class was an automatic detention.

After school, Robbie and I waved at Keith as he went by in the minivan as we got on the city bus for the trip to our stop. We got off and I followed Robbie to the apartment complex where he lived.

We went into the lobby and Robbie stopped at a security station where the guard checked to see if I was on the list of expected guests. As we went up the elevator to the twelfth floor, I asked, "Does he check everyone coming in and out."

Robbie said, "No, only those of us who look like kids or who have parents who have asked him to check. I don't mind because that way we know who's coming up to our apartment."

Robbie let us in and when I went through the door, I looked around in awe. His grandmother had decorated the apartment in Mexican/Hispanic style. It was beautiful and way different from my home. Dad always described how he decorated – truthfully – as being 'early Salvation Army.'

"Wow, this is great, Robbie. Do you think your grandma could come over and help my Dad fix up our place?

"I doubt it. And anyway, I like the way your house looks. It's definitely American."

"Yeah, maybe too much. Dad likes it though."

"Grandma won't be home for at least two hours. Come on. My room's this way."

I followed him as he led me through the apartment and opened a door. He surprised me when he flicked on the lights. Compared to the other part of the apartment, his room was almost bare. He had a large four-poster bed, a desk with two chairs and a set of shelves. The room had a hardwood floor with several thick throw rugs on it that had Spanish-style designs. The effect was simple and clean and I liked it immediately.

"This is great. Dad complains about all my junk. When my room gets filled, we have to muck it out with a rake every so often. After seeing your room, I guess I have to agree with him."

"Well, I like to keep things picked up. I have a big closet where I keep my clothes, mostly school uniforms, and I have my own bathroom over there." He stopped and stood awkwardly in the middle of his room as if he didn't know what to say next.

To ease the tension, I went over and opened the door to the bathroom and then the closet. Then I said, "This is nice. I don't have my own bathroom, but I think my closet is bigger."

"Yeah, I put all my clothes in there except for a few I keep here."

Robbie walked over to the side of his bed, dropped to his knees and fumbled around under it. He pulled out a cardboard box and set it on his bed. Opening it he said, "Here are my sweatpants. Are they like yours?"

I looked at his collection of ropes partly filling the box for a moment and said, "Yeah, they look just like mine, except mine are from a clothesline."

Then we had another long awkward silence that became steadily more uncomfortable as we stared at his rope to avoid looking at each other's faces. Neither of us knew how to come right out and say what our most secret of secrets was even though it was looking up at us.

Finally, Robbie said, "I thought they might be, but I wasn't sure."

"Yeah, I thought yours might be too, but I didn't know how to ask. That took a lot of guts to show me. I thought about showing you mine, but I was afraid what might happen if I was wrong. I'd really be embarrassed and you'd think I was some sort of weirdo."

He nodded. "I know what you mean. I tried to talk myself into it for a couple of days. If you really did have sweat pants and I showed you my ropes, you wouldn't understand. Then you'd think I was nuts and we wouldn't be friends anymore."

"Well, if you're nuts, I guess I am too so we can keep being friends. I figured that I was the only one who liked doing it."

"You can't be the only one. Did you ever do an internet search?"

"Yeah, and there were zillions of sites. I guess I never really thought about it much. Those guys must have liked doing it when they were our age."

So far, Robbie and I had been talking about our tie-up games without ever saying the words. I felt foolish because even though we both knew what we meant – and what we wanted – we still couldn't muster up the courage to come right out and say it. And when we finally did, how could we take the next steps and actually tie each other up.

Robbie reached into the box and pulled out a notebook. "Look at this. I've been saving pictures I found in books and on the internet."

He handed me the notebook and when I opened it, I found pages and pages of pictures and YouTube video captures of Boys tied up who were mostly naked. "Cool. I have a collection like this too. Next time you come over, I'll show you mine. You should scan these and put them on a flash drive. Someone might find your notebook."

"I suppose, but I like looking at the pictures and not need a computer to do it."

Now he had me wondering again. Did he masturbate looking at the pictures the way I did? I hoped so.

"Well, you could do both. I have a scanner in my room and next time you come over, we can make electronic copies of yours and mine both."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to get a flash drive, though. I've only got one and that's for school stuff."

"No problem. I have extras and you can have one. Dad gives me the ones he uses for work and doesn't need any more." I picked up a length of rope and wrapped it around one hand. "So how do you do it?"

He pulled another length of rope from the box and said, "Well, I probably do it the same way you do it." After emphasizing the word 'it', he said, "This is silly. We've been talking around 'it' as if we were still trying to keep 'it' a secret. We know each other's secrets so either we're going to trust each other with them or we don't. What's going to be?"

I stuck out my hand and said, "Trust each other."

Robbie shook hands with me wearing a grin so wide it forced his eyes into slits. Then he said, "All right. I'll tie you up first. I've always wanted to do that to another boy."

I nodded, put my hands behind my back and crossed my wrists. He lashed them together and had me sit on the edge of his bed then tied my ankles. I pulled on the ropes with my arms and legs, enjoying the feel of the rope strands on my body. It was as good as I imagined. I slid off his bed to lie on the floor where I had more room to struggle. I turned face down so I could press my hard penis into the floor, but quit almost as soon as I had started. It didn't seem like a good idea to masturbate while Robbie watched so I flopped around and concentrated on getting the rope undone from around my wrists.

After a few minutes, I had the rope off my wrists and then untied my ankles. I stood up and looked down at the front of my school uniform pants checking to see if my erection showed. It created a small bulge against the fly, but it wasn't obvious. "Okay, your turn. See if you can get loose after I tie you up."

Robbie put his hands behind his back and I tied him the way he had done me. After I tied his wrists, he knelt down and then stretched out on the floor so I could tie his ankles. When I was done, I sat on his bed and watched him squirm as he struggled to get loose.

Watching him was almost as much fun as being tied up. What I thought was interesting was that several times, he rolled face-down and rocked his hips against the floor the way I did when I masturbated during my tie-up games. Was he doing the same thing? It was difficult enough to tell each other that we tied ourselves up. It would be near impossible to tell each other that we masturbated while tied up. But I was determined to find a way because that was the part that made tie-up games so satisfying.

I was disappointed when he freed himself faster than I had. He stood up holding the ropes and said, "This looks like it's going to take some practice before we can get good enough tying knots that we can't get loose."

"That's for sure. Turn around and I'll try again."

For the next hour, Robbie and I took turns tying each other up, but had no success keeping each other from escaping.

Robbie looked at his clock and started coiling up his ropes. "We have to quit. My grandma will be home soon."

I started to coil ropes and said, "When I get home, I'm going to do a web search on 'how to tie someone up' and see what I can find. There's web pages about everything so there must be one on that."

"Has to be. I'll look too."

I left before Robbie's grandma got home and walked home. Dad was mowing the lawn on our riding mower and he waved when he saw me.

I went in through the kitchen door and sprinted up to my room tearing clothes off as I went so that I was naked by the time I got there. Shutting and locking my door, I dived face down on my bed and frantically drove my hips into my bedspread rubbing my penis against the rough cloth. As I did, I imagined Robbie naked and tied up with his erection sticking up like a stubby flagpole attached to his hips. I had a great orgasm, but didn't stop with one. Without taking a break, I started again, only this time, I imagined that I was naked and tied up with an erection. I saw Robbie leaning over me reaching toward me and… And… And what? What do two boys do when they have sex? I had an idea from looking at guys having sex on the web, but we were only twelve and thirteen years old. Did that make it different?

I had my second orgasm and it wasn't as strong, but it felt better than the first. I got up, went into my bathroom and took a long shower until Dad yelled at me to quit to save water. Turning off the shower, I grabbed a towel, dried off and pulled on a pair of underwear that was way too small. I should have gotten rid of them, but I liked the feel of the material pressing on my scrotum and penis. The only bad thing was that they had cartoon animals on them and Dad teased me when he saw them.

At school the next day, I saw Colton just going through the door. "Hey, Colton! Wait up a minute." He stopped and I ran up beside him. "I wanted to tell you that you solved Keith's problem."

"Really? I asked the laundry women to give Keith the largest jock they had as a joke. So you guys weren't kidding."

"No, no way. You should see it. It's amazing."

"Hmm, I don't think it's a good idea for me to go around asking seventh graders if I can look at their dicks."

"Maybe you shouldn't, but Coach Alan doesn't mind looking. What is it with him? You said he was different in your P.E. class, but what was he like when you were in seventh grade?"

Colton gave me a look that said he thought I was being nosey, but he said, "All right, since you won't let it go, I can tell you he was pretty much the way you describe him. At the time, we all thought that he was some kind of a weirdo too because of the way he looked at us. But all he did was look. Now that we're in the ninth grade, he doesn't pay as much attention to us when we shower and change as long as we don't break his rules. It doesn't look like he cares one way or the other what we look like when we're naked." He made a fist and shook it at me. "Now drop the subject."

I pointed at his fist and asked, "I thought you only kicked seventh grade butt?"

"Normally, I do. But occasionally, I have to use something more forceful to get the point across. See you later."

I put my stuff in my locker, grabbed my P.E. homework and headed for the locker room. Keith was a different boy today. He eagerly got in line and did exercises and sprints with enthusiasm. Coach Alan quit picking on him too. I guess he figured there was no point in bullying Keith if he wasn't paying attention to it. After class in the locker room, Keith snapped his jock with a big grin on his face, making Robbie and I laugh so we gave him high-fives.

At lunch, I told Keith and Robbie what Colton told me about how Coach Alan behaved in his P.E. class. Robbie thought for a minute and asked, "So how are naked seventh graders different than naked ninth graders?"

I said, "Well, we're a lot smaller and we don't have so much muscle."

Keith said, "Yeah, and I suppose they have bigger dicks, although I haven't been able to compare."

Laughing I said, "Maybe in general, but I'll bet they're not bigger than yours."

Robbie said, "They probably have more hair. I've seen some ninth graders who are starting to shave and I suppose they all have pubic hair and some seventh graders don't."

We all sat silently for a minute and I said, "I can't think of anything else."

Robbie said, "So Coach Alan likes to look at small boys with no hair. By the time they get to ninth grade, he isn't much interested."

Keith said, "Sounds like it. He still gives me the creeps though."

I nodded and changed the subject. "Hey, my birthday is this weekend. You guys want to come over Friday and celebrate. Dad wants to go out for pizza, which is really rare for my Eat-Only-Healthy-Food-Dad and then to a movie. You could stay over if you want."

Robbie said, "I don't know. I'll have to talk to my grandma and she'll probably want to call your dad."

"Okay, talk to your grandma and let me know tomorrow. What about you, Keith?"

Keith jerked away from me like I'd just tried to hand him a big snake. His eyes were wide and he said, "No, no! I can't do that. I have to uh… work, you know." He gathered up the remains of his lunch, which he hadn't finished, grabbed his tray and headed for the dirty dish line without saying anything more.

I said, "Robbie, did you see the look on his face. I thought he was going to panic. What would be so bad about staying overnight at my house?"

Robbie looked down at his tray and said, "It's not your house. It's what might happen at your house."

"Huh? That doesn't make sense. Nothing can happen at my house."

"Yes, it can. I have my nightmare almost every night and if I stay over at your house and have it, I'll upset everyone. Sometimes I only get a mild one, but other times I wake up screaming and sometimes, I walk in my sleep. It can be bad sometimes."

"So you think Keith has some kind of a problem with sleeping that he doesn't want to tell us about."

"I'd bet anything on it. There are lots of kids with sleep problems. My grandma took me to a doctor that specializes in that."

"Really? I didn't know there were doctors that did that. Do you think we can get him to tell us what it is and maybe we can help him?"

"I doubt it. It'll be hard to do because from his reaction, it seems like it's something he's terribly ashamed of."

"But we're friends. You told me about your nightmares."

"Yeah, but you already knew why I have them and that's why I don't want to stay overnight with you. You're my friend and I don't want to upset you and your dad by having a nightmare."

"You won't. I can explain it to Dad and I'm sure it won't matter if you do."

"No, Tim. I can't."

The bell rang and we got up to go to afternoon classes. But the rest of the day, I thought about Robbie's problem and thought he was being considerate by not wanting to disturb us. I still wanted him to stay and felt I could deal with his problem with Dad's help. Robbie seemed enthusiastic about going for pizza and a movie so all now I had to do was talk him into it.

I didn't mention my invitation to Robbie on our trip home on the bus, but as soon as Dad came in after work, I put the problem to him. "Hmmm, you know that when you have a guest, you have to be sure he's comfortable."

"Yeah, you've told me that lots of times. But how can I make him comfortable when he has that nightmare?"

"Well, you could tell him about your own sleeping problems."

"Huh? When was that?"

"Before you started school, you had what are known as 'night terrors' where you would wake up crying and screaming. When you did, it took me a half-hour or more to get you settled down so you could go back to bed. In the morning you'd never remember them, which I always thought was strange considering how upset you were and how much noise you made."

"So I can tell him that you're used to someone having nightmares and know what to do."

"I'm not sure I know what to do, but I've had the experience with you. Robbie won't surprise me."

I told Robbie about my problem and then spent the day trying to talk him into staying, without any luck. When Dad got home that night, he told me he'd talked to Robbie's grandmother and she didn't mind. Robbie and I rode together on the bus, but I didn't talk to him about it until we got to school. Just as we went inside, I pulled him into a doorway and told him that Dad talked to his grandma.

"I know. She really wants me to go because I don't have any friends. She's always afraid that other kids my age I could be friends with might not be here legally. I guess she has a point because I know some who aren't and I could run into problems if immigration goes after their families."

"I understand. But we're friends and immigration isn't coming to our house. Please, Robbie, you're the best friend I have in school and I know that Dad and I can deal with your nightmare."

He sighed. "Okay, you talked me into it. But don't say I didn't warn you."

We bumped fists and I said, "Ask your grandma to call my dad again tonight and set it up. This is gonna be great." Robbie gave me a look that said he had a different idea about how great it would be.

After school, I had another masturbation session without my ropes by visualizing Robbie and I have having sex. I still wasn't exactly sure what we could do so I pulled on underwear, sat down at my computer and started searching. Sites with pictures and videos of guys having sex were there by the thousands and thousands, but I didn't find a single site with boys having sex. I found sites with 'twinks' having sex and saw pictures of guys putting their penises up another guy's butt or in their mouths. In my wildest fantasy, I couldn't believe Robbie or I would do that. Then I saw some videos that showed guys masturbating each other by stroking their penises. That I could see Robbie and I doing and wondered again how we could actually get to the point where we could do it to each other.

The next morning, Robbie climbed on the bus with his usual backpack of homework and a small duffle bag. I pointed and asked, "Change of clothes?"

"Yeah, grandma packed lots of clothes after she found your underwear in the wash. She wanted to be sure I didn't have to wear your clothes. I have your underwear in here to give back to you."

I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. Dad and I didn't clean out my dresser this year when school started like we usually do so I have lots of clothes. Some I don't even wear anymore."

Robbie lowered his voice and said, "I also brought my notebook. It's on the bottom of my bag."

"Better put that in your locker and not get it out until we're headed out the door after school."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

At lunch, Robbie and I talked about him staying overnight and thought Keith might say something, but he pretended he didn't hear us. The more he ignored us, the more I was determined to get him to stay over with Robbie and me some night.

When we got off at the bus stop, Robbie and I trotted to my house where I let us in. I ran up the stairs with Robbie right behind me and into my room. We put our book bags on the floor next to my computer desk and Robbie started digging toward the bottom of his duffle bag while I pulled down the attic stairs.

By the time I'd gotten down from the attic with my notebook, he'd spread his notebook over my desk. I slapped mine down next to his and flipped it open. We sat side by side and paged through our books, scanning pictures and saving them in one file. Then we copied one flash drive to another so we both had the same files.

As we scanned, I thought about undressing down to my underwear like I usually did after school, but a quick touch to the front of my zipper, convinced me that wouldn't be a good idea right now. And anyway, we'd just have to get dressed again to go out for pizza.

We'd just finished scanning when Dad called from the entryway. "Tim? Robbie? Are you guys here?"

I snapped my notebook closed and said, "Quick! Hide yours in your bag again. Dad usually comes up to my room when he gets home." Robbie put his under the clothes in his bag and I dropped mine into my bottom desk drawer, covering it with a layer of last year's homework.

Dad came into my room just after Robbie and I had sat down at my computer again and were surfing the web. He said, "Hi, guys. How was school?"

It was his usual question and I wondered what would happen if I gave him some crazy answer. Instead, I said, "About like always. When are we going for pizza? My stomach's growling. We didn't eat anything after school so we'd have more room for pizza."

We went to a pizza joint where Robbie and I made pigs of ourselves and then we took in a movie. Robbie and I had stuffed ourselves so full that we didn't even want popcorn. We got home about a quarter to ten and Dad went into living room to watch the ten o'clock news while Robbie and I hiked up to my room.

Leaving the door open, I went to my computer and turned it on. While I waited, I pulled my clothes off and threw them with my dirty laundry in my closet. Seeing me in only my underwear, Robbie undressed and sat down beside me at my computer.

I said, "I looked for sites that told how to tie someone up, but didn't get much." Which wasn't really true. There were zillions of sites, but in most of them people were having sex and sometimes they looked like they were hurting each other. I didn't want to go there with Robbie and I doubted that he did either.

"Me neither. I found lots of sites where someone had already been tied up, but none that showed exactly how to do it. I guess we'll have to experiment."

"Yeah, but not now. We'll have to wait until we know Dad's not home, but at least we added to our picture collections."

We surfed the web and at eleven o'clock after the news, Dad stuck his head in and said, "Don't stay up all night, you two."

"Okay, we won't."

"Tim, let me know if you need help. Goodnight, Robbie, Tim."

Robbie gave me a suspicious stare and asked, "What did he mean by that?"

"I told him about you nightmare problem. He was the one who said I should tell you about my night terrors."

With alarm on his face, Robbie said, "You didn't tell him we were going to sleep together, did you?"

"Well, sure. I talk to Dad about everything. He didn't care and said to go ahead as long as we were comfortable. Also, he said that we shouldn't tell anyone we were sleeping together because they might not understand why we were doing it and get the wrong idea."

He nodded and said, "Yeah. I can see that. Friends keep each other's secrets."

As I agreed with him, I wondered what secrets we would eventually have. We had two now, but how many more would we eventually have to keep? I smiled when I thought of what they might be.

"Okay, so where do you want me to sleep?"

"Right here." Bending over, I grabbed the handles of the bed tucked under my box springs and pulled it out. "This is called a 'trundle bed' and when I don't need it, I can push it under my bed so I have more space in my room."

Robbie grinned and said, "I've never seen anything like that before. I like it."

"Mom got it for me just before she left. She wanted me to have more friends and thought that asking them to stay overnight would help me get more. It hasn't worked until now. You're the first one who actually stayed. C'mon and I'll get you some pillows and blankets."

We went to my closet and I handed him two pillows and a blanket. Then we went to the bed and spread them over the sheets.

"There you go. All set." I went to the other side of my bed and pulled off my tee shirt and shorts so I was wearing only underwear. "Be right back; I have to go to the bathroom."

When I got back, Robbie was arranging the bed linens. He looked up at me and asked, "Is that what you're going to wear to bed?"

"Uh huh. I hate pajamas. Mom made me wear them, but Dad says wearing clothes in bed is silly. Now that mom's not here, he said I could wear whatever I wanted as long as I'm comfortable."

"Sounds reasonable. I'd better go to the bathroom too. After all that carbonated sugar water, I'll probably be up and running in there all night."

I was in bed when he came back. He turned back the covers, hesitated for a moment and then got into bed wearing soccer shorts and tee shirt. I asked, "Ready to turn out the light?"

"Go for it"

Flicking off my bedside lamp, I wriggled around to get comfortable. From the dark, Robbie said, "You don't seem to mind talking about your parents' divorce."

"No, I guess not. All the time I was growing up, Dad was my real parent. Mom was so busy becoming a big-time lawyer, she wasn't home much. I know she didn't love me and I'm not sure she even liked me much. That didn't matter because Dad gave me everything I needed, which more than made up for her. It seemed like she thought I was a bother and interfered with her with being a lawyer."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Dad loves me and he's always here for me. Mom never was so I don't miss her at all."

"I'm glad."

That was the last thing I heard until Robbie woke me up moaning and thrashing around on the trundle bed. I looked at the clock and saw it was twelve-thirty. I'd been sleeping for only an hour. When I moved to the edge of my bed and looked down at him, he was tossing his head and thrashing his arms and legs as if he was crawling and I figured he was having one of his nightmares.

I wanted to help him, but I had no idea what to do. In a low voice, I called, "Robbie, wake up. You're at my house and you're safe."

He didn't act like he heard me so I got up, walked around my bed and sat on the edge of his bed where I could reach him. He rolled toward me and I put one hand on his back to keep him from falling out of bed. When I did, he quit tossing and turned facedown under the blanket. Slowly, I started rubbing his back through his shirt first with one hand and then with both. The more I massaged his shoulders and back, the quieter he became. Finally, he looked like he was sleeping soundly so I quit rubbing his shoulders. As soon as I did, he started moaning and moving around again and I started massaging again.

I'd never be able to keep that up all night so I lifted the covers and got into bed with him. He rolled toward me and we ended up snuggled against each other. Sighing, he said, "Enrique… Por qué… No puedo…" along with other words in Spanish I couldn't understand. I didn't care because this time he really was asleep and I followed him a few minutes later.

Someone shaking my shoulder woke me up. Robbie said, "Tim, what are you doing?"

When I opened my eyes, Robbie's and my arms and legs were woven together and we were facing each other. Robbie's head was resting on my upper arm and my right arm was across his hips. I rubbed his back and said, "You were having a nightmare and this was the only way I could get you to settle down."

Aw, shit! "I was hoping I wouldn't have one tonight. Did I wake your father up?"

"Nope, you weren't very loud and you quit as soon as I rubbed your back."

"Thanks, but it's strange that I don't remember it. I usually do."

"Maybe that's just as well. I wouldn't want to wake up every day remembering that."

"My grandma says I'm just being childish and I should forget it." He slapped the mattress and said, "But she doesn't understand. I'll never forget that. I can't."

I leaned into Robbie and said, "I wish there was something I could do to help you with it."

Sighing, he said, "You know, I think you're the first person who ever said that to me and really meant it. Thank you again."

"You're welcome and I do mean it."

"Anyway, I have to get to the bathroom before I blow up and make a mess all over." With an effort, we untangled and Robbie hustled unsteadily out of my room.

I looked at my clock: one-fifteen. We had most of the night left so I got up, moved back to my bed and was getting comfortable when Robbie came back. He stood at the side of my bed hesitating as if trying to make a decision. I had a good idea what was on his mind and decided to help him. I lifted the blankets to show there was lots of room in my bed and at the same time, giving him an unspoken invitation to sleep with me. Smiling, he peeled his shirt off, dropped his shorts so he was wearing only underwear and got into bed next to me.

Rolling toward him, I pressed my bare chest against his and said, "This is nice."

Robbie sighed and said, "Yeah, it is."

We fell asleep and for the rest of the night, Robbie slept soundly next to me without his nightmare. He didn't even stir when I got up to go to the bathroom at daybreak.

Robbie woke me up when he yawned and stretched. I looked at my clock and discovered it was after ten. I asked, "Do you always sleep this late?"

"No. But after I went to the bathroom, I didn't have my nightmare and I was able to sleep until now. You have no idea how nice it is not being afraid to sleep. When I wake up all the time, I get so tired, but now I feel great. Better than I have for a long time. Thanks."

"Glad I could help. Want a shower?"

"Yeah, let's go."

"Okay." We climbed out of bed and when I was on my feet, I dropped my underwear and went to my closet to get towels.

I gave one to Robbie and he said, "You gonna go like that?"

"Well, sure. You don't wear clothes when you take a shower, do you?"

"No, but I generally undress in the bathroom just before I get in. I don't walk around Grandma's apartment naked."

"I suppose not, but it's just Dad and me and he doesn't care what I wear. I guess I wasn't thinking about it because Dad and I are naked together off and on all the time and it's no big deal. Most of the time, when I'm home, I just wear underwear."

"Grandma might not like that if I did. But…" He shrugged and dropped his underwear on the floor. "We've been naked in P.E. class so I guess it won't matter here."

"You don't take long showers, do you?" Robbie shook his head and I said, "Good. Dad complains that I use too much water and I need to cut back because of the drought."

Robbie laughed and said, "I'll keep it short."

I gave him a spare toothbrush and extra floss so he could do his teeth while I showered. When we were done, we walked back to my room and I put the towels in my dirty clothes hamper. Then I pulled clean underwear out of my drawer, Robbie dug a pair out of his bag and we pulled them on.

"Let's get something to eat."

Robbie said, "Sounds good. What do you have?"

While I led him downstairs to the kitchen I said, "Don't know. But Dad likes to cook and always leaves stuff around for me. Most of the time, I never know what I'll find, but it's always good. He bought more food yesterday because you were coming over."

In the kitchen, I found a note from Dad that said he'd be back by ten o'clock. It was almost eleven and he wasn't there, which on a Saturday, didn't surprise me. I looked in the 'fridge and found two large slices of quiche, a bowl of sliced fresh fruit and a pitcher of orange juice. Dad had been busy this morning. I spent a few minutes microwaving the quiche and setting two places at the table and Robbie and I were hungrily stuffing faces when Dad breezed in through the kitchen door.

Robbie was so startled that he dropped his fork on the floor. Dad picked it up and gave him a clean one. I could tell Robbie was embarrassed at being seen by Dad in just his underwear, but Dad took no notice and acted the way he always did. He gave Robbie a handshake when I introduced him and then asked if we'd found enough to eat.

We said we did and then finished eating as Dad went to the living room. While I put the dishes in the dishwasher, Robbie said, "He really doesn't care what you wear, does he? I thought you were kidding."

"Nope. Long as you're comfortable. He also tells me that I'm responsible for my guests and have to make sure they have what need while they're here. You could have been sitting there stark naked and he wouldn't have said anything except maybe to ask if you were warm enough."

Robbie laughed and we went upstairs to my room where we made the beds and got dressed. Then I helped Robbie gather his things and stuff them into his duffle bag. It didn't take long, but I thought it was strange he didn't say much of anything while we did it.

When he was ready to leave, he sat on my bed and said, "This was the first time I stayed over with someone since I got to the States. I liked it and the best part was that I didn't have my nightmare. Do you think I could stay tonight? I want to see if sleeping with you keeps me from having my nightmare."

"That'd be great. I'm sure Dad won't mind. Let's go ask." On the way to the kitchen, I thought having Robbie sleep with me again would be more than great. Having the weight of his body pressed against me and smoothing my hands over his warm, bare skin last night was wonderful. Maybe when he's asleep tonight, I could explore parts of him other than his back.

Dad was cleaning the kitchen when we came in to ask him. He answered, "That sounds good to me. We don't have anything planned for tonight. You'll have to talk to your grandmother, though, Robbie."

Robbie nodded. "She's working the weekend shift and I'll talk to her as soon as she gets home today. I'll call you this afternoon, Tim."

I rode along when Dad drove Robbie home. After Dad dropped him off and was driving back, he said, "I like Robbie and I'm glad you two are friends."

Nodding, I said, "Yeah, me too."

"But I think there's something you guys aren't telling me. You had a hard time talking him into staying with you last night. But now he's all gung-ho about staying again."

Dad always seemed to understand what I was doing and feeling without me telling him so I guess I should've expected him to notice Robbie's change of heart. I said, "You're right, Dad and there is." I told him how Robbie got here and why he has nightmares. "Telling him about my problems sleeping helped me talk him into staying." Then I told about us sleeping together.

Dad shook his head and said, "What a ghastly experience. And he was only ten years old? I understand why he'd have nightmares. Then last night when you two were sleeping together, he didn't have them?"

"That's right. He started to, but then he gradually quit when I got into bed with him. He wants to sleep with me again to see if he doesn't. You don't mind do you?"

"What, you two sleeping together? I don't mind at all; especially if keeps him from having that nightmare and he can sleep. As long as you're both comfortable with it, go ahead. You should be discreet, though."

I thought about that for a few minutes as Dad pulled into our driveway and said, "I understand what you're saying and this'll be just between us."

Trotting up to my room, I changed into soccer clothes and went to the park to see if there was a game. There was and I played for more than two hours before I headed home. I was just finishing a shower when dad stuck his head into the bathroom. "Don't rush. Robbie's grandmother called and told me he has to go to mass with her and we can't pick him up until sometime after six o'clock."

I dried my hair and from under the towel, I asked, "What's a mass?"

"That's a Catholic church service. I guess there's one at five o'clock on Saturdays as well as services on Sunday."

"Okay. That's no problem."

"Good, you can clean up your room while you wait. We'll eat after we pick up Robbie." As I walked by him toward my room, he smacked me on my bare butt.

Laughing, I said, "Hey, a sneak attack! That wasn't fair."

"Okay, how about this then." And he chased me down the hall to my room getting me one more time as I made the turn through my door.

I really did pick up my room, which I don't normally do unless I have to. I didn't get dressed while I did it because I wanted to see how it felt being naked while I did chores. As I made my bed, put things away and vacuumed, I liked the freedom of movement I had and wondered what it would be like at a nudist camp and being naked all the time with other people.

Right at six, I piled into the van and Dad drove to Robbie's apartment building. When I went into the lobby, Robbie was talking to the security guard at the desk. He introduced me so he would know who I was the next time I came, and then we went out and got in the van.

Dad said, "I've brats, potato salad, chips, beans and lots of carbonated sugar water for dinner."

Robbie leaned over to me and in a low voice asked, "Carbonated sugar water?"

Smiling, I said, "That's what Dad calls soda. He must be in a good mood because he almost never buys it for me at home."

When we got home, Dad pulled out the gas grill and made us a huge picnic dinner and Robbie and I drank lots of carbonated sugar water while Dad had cranberry juice. I teased him about the juice, pointing out that it probably had as much sugar in it as the Coke© we were drinking.

We cleaned up and then Robbie and I went to my room and surfed the web. Robbie said, "I went to YouTube and found videos on how to tie someone up. They look really good."

I said, "Great. Let's see some of them." I hoped that what he found weren't like the ones I saw with everyone having sex. But we were going to look at YouTube vids and I'd never seen sex vids there. I decided to take a chance and while Robbie searched, I pulled my clothes off down to my underwear.

He pointed at the screen and said, "Look at this one. It shows how to tie someone's wrists by making rope handcuffs."

I looked at the title of the vid and said, "That looks like something we can use." Robbie got up as I started the video. Partway through, he sat down beside me wearing only underwear.

"I think we can do this one. Bookmark it and let's look at some others."

We looked at several dozen more, skipping the ones that showed women tied up and bookmarked five more that we thought we could do. About that time, Dad stuck his head in and said, "Don't stay up all night. I'm making something special for you for breakfast."

Robbie and I said together. "We won't." As he left, I was glad the screen of my computer faced away from the door and Dad couldn't see it.

I said, "We need to try some of these sometime."

"Yeah, but when your dad is gone."

"For sure. Tomorrow morning will be good. He golfs Sunday mornings and doesn't come back until lunch."

"Don't you go to church on Sundays?"

"Nope. Dad doesn't believe in God. He said that it was my choice if I wanted to go to church or not and so I don't. He and Mom argued about me going to church all the time. She was a fundamentalist who thought the earth was 6,000 years old, Adam and Eve were real people who lived with dinosaurs, Noah's flood made the Grand Canyon and stupid stuff like that. After listening to her and what she believed, I thought religion didn't make much sense."

"I can see why you'd think that. Grandma makes me go every week whether I want to or not – and I don't. Priests give me the creeps."

"Well, I guess you're stuck with it for the time being then. I changed the subject and said, "Want to try some of these ties tomorrow morning after breakfast when Dad's gone? We'll have lots of time."

"Sure, I can hardly wait."

"Okay." I stretched both arms over my head and yawned. "I think it's time to turn in."

Then Robbie yawned. "Stop that. As soon as you start to yawn, I have to."

I started to get up, but realized I had a problem. I'd had an erection for the last half hour and it showed no sign of going down. As long as I stayed sitting down, it would be hidden between my thighs, but if I got up, it would poke out behind my underwear and I didn't know what Robbie would think. I glanced down and saw a bulge in the cloth of his underwear too.

Fortunately, Robbie said, "I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back." He got up by turning his chair away from me and standing so all I saw was his bare back.

When he left, I stood and slid the waistband of my underwear down so the cloth bunched in front, hiding my erection. By the time he came back, my penis was mostly soft and I got up and went to the bathroom without being embarrassed.

I came back, climbed into bed with Robbie and asked, "Ready to turn off the light?"

"Yeah."

I snapped the light off and Robbie turned on his side facing away from me. Sliding my hand over the sheet, I spanned the gap between us and was disappointed. I wanted to snuggle up against him right away and not wait until we happened to roll into each other while we were sleeping. I was sure that he wouldn't mind so I went after what I wanted.

Turning on my side, I scooted over and pressed my bare chest against his back. He sighed and said, "That's nice. I was hoping you'd do that. Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you don't mind. It's more comfortable this way." Then I draped my arm across the hollow between his ribs and hips and let my fingers rest on his bellybutton. Very gently I eased one finger into the cavity and felt the tingling that indicated I was about to get an erection – and then fell asleep.

Robbie woke me up talking in his sleep. "Enrique… Te amo… Puedo que…" And a lot of other mumbled Spanish.

Since I was awake, I slid out of bed as quietly as I could and went to the bathroom. When I got back, Robbie was moving restlessly under the blankets and I was afraid he was starting to have one of his dreams. I got in and moved next to him. He mumbled something and then rolled into my arms. He said, 'Enrique' again and then without warning, he kissed me!

I was shocked because I'd never really been kissed before and definitely not by a boy. Robbie mumbled again and settled against me with his head resting on my arm, which put his face only inches from mine. Without even thinking about it, I kissed him full on the lips. When I did, my penis jumped up to a full erection. I was confused about my feelings and what was happening to me, but I knew I liked it. Liked it a lot. Tipping my head forward, I rested my forehead against Robbie's and fell asleep.

The bed shaking woke me as Robbie got up and went to the bathroom. I turned over to look at my clock: five in the morning! As long as I was awake, I got up and joined the pee parade. I met him in the hall and asked, "You don't always get up this early, do you?"

"No, but it was that or wet the bed."

I laughed. "That's a good reason to get up." I took my turn in the bathroom and when I got back into bed, Robbie rolled right into my arms and we fell asleep instantly.

Dad's golf clubs rattling in his golf bag and footsteps clumping down the hall outside my door woke me up a couple of hours later. I lay awake listening to him get his equipment together and then heard the garage door open and then close.

Robbie sighed. "Is you dad always this noisy?"

"Only on Sundays. He likes to play golf even though he's not any good at it. He plays with other guys who are as bad as he is and the one with the high score buys lunch."

As Robbie laughed, I asked, "Want a shower?" And right away, I regretted the question. For the last few months, I'd been waking up with an erection, which I didn't mind because it was a good way to start a masturbation session – when I was alone. I sure couldn't do it with Robbie with me.

"How long does your dad golf?"

"Unless it rains, he won't be back until one o'clock or later. We won't starve because there are leftovers from last night in the 'fridge and Dad's probably made something for us for breakfast."

"Okay. I suppose we should get up then."

"I suppose." Neither of us moved making me wonder if Robbie had the same problem I did. Stalling, I asked, "Who's Enrique? You mentioned his name a couple of times in your sleep."

Robbie rolled away from me onto his back and put his hands behind his head. "I probably did. Enrique was my friend in my village in Honduras."

"He must have been a really good friend because after you said his name, you kissed me."

"Oh no! I'm sorry, Tim. I don't remember doing it so I must have still been asleep. I promise it won't happen again."

I laughed and said, "Don't worry about it. You just surprised me, but I got even by kissing you back."

"What? Why did you do that?"

"Because I liked it. You kissed me first and I wanted to see what it was like so I tried it. I figured you wouldn't mind. Tell me about Enrique."

"Well, you're right and he was a really good friend. My best friend, actually. He was three years older than I was and I could depend on him to help me. In primary school, I got bullied a lot because my family had more money than most. One day, there were four guys pushing me around and Enrique appeared out of nowhere and made them quit. They tried to fight him, but Enrique beat all four of them and that ended the bullying."

"Yeah, I know about that. I was bullied a lot in the public school because I'm so small."

"After that, Enrique and I spent a lot of time together. We had a lot in common because he liked to read as much as I did. Not many people in my village read at all. Sometimes we'd read the same book and then spend a week talking about it." He paused for thought. "Looking back on it now, I'm sure that I loved him although I didn't recognize it then."

"Have you heard from since you've been here?"

"No, and I never will. Enrique was gay and just before I left for the States, he found another friend – a gay friend. And that was the last I heard from him. He just cut me off."

"That must have been hard. If he was gay, did you guys… you know?"

"I was only nine. Enrique and I would often sit together talking and kissing. Sleeping with you is a lot like how felt when I was with him, comfortable and warm so I suppose that's why I kissed you." He rolled over to me and put one arm across my chest. "Sort of like right now."

Sighing, I said, "I know what you mean. I feel the same way and I'm glad I managed to talk you into staying overnight with me. You can stay anytime you want."

"Thanks and I'll take you up on that. We'd better get a shower if we're going to have time to practice knots."

When I did a quick discrete, check, my penis had lost any interest in a masturbation session and I figured Robbie's did too. I got up, dropped my underwear and got towels for us. We walked to the bathroom and I took a shower first. Part way through, I heard the toilet flush which made me acutely aware of the pressure in my bladder. I finished my shower and Robbie took my place while I got ready to brush my teeth. First, I checked to see if Robbie was well involved with his shower and then I peed by sitting down on the toilet seat so he wouldn't hear me splashing. We were comfortable together naked, but I wasn't ready to have him watch me on the toilet. When I finished, I flushed and then went back to brushing and flossing.

Back in my room, I took our towels and tossed them in with my dirty laundry. I said, "C'mon, let's go and see what Dad left us to eat."

Robbie said, "Like this?"

"Sure, why not? There's no one here and even if Dad was home, he wouldn't mind."

He followed me down to the kitchen where we found a plate of hard-boiled eggs and a huge bowl of fresh fruit in the refrigerator. I made some toast and we sat down for a big breakfast. After we cleaned up, we went back to my room and I got my ropes down from the attic.

Before I spread them out on the floor, I went to my dresser and pulled out a pair of soccer shorts and a tee shirt, both of which were way too big for me, and pulled them on. Robbie saw me getting dressed, opened his bag and got shorts and a tee shirt out for himself. I was happy he was following my lead in getting dressed because it confirmed what I had suspected: Robbie was getting erections from our tie-up games just like me and wanted to hide them. As I untangled my ropes, I wondered how I could make an opportunity to talk to him about it – and then do something after we talked.

"Okay, who goes first?"

Robbie picked up a length of rope and said, "You do. Put your hands behind your back."

We spent the rest of the morning looking at YouTube videos and trying to tie each other the way the video showed. Most of the time, we weren't very successful. The best one was when Robbie tied me spread-eagle on my bed with each wrist and ankle fastened to the corners. There was no way I could get out of that one and as I struggled, I got an erection that was mostly hidden by my baggy clothes. When I had my turn and tied Robbie the same way, I saw an unmistakable bulge in his shorts because his shorts fit him more closely than mine did.

I looked at the clock and said, "We better quit. Dad'll be home soon. He usually stays at the golf course for lunch, but since you're here, he said he'd be home to cook for us."

Robbie started coiling ropes and in a disappointed voice said, "Well, all right, but we were just getting good enough that we couldn't escape."

"I know, but if Dad came home and found one of us tied up, I'd have a hard time explaining what we were doing."

We finished packing my ropes into the box and pulled on shoes and socks. Our timing was good because Dad came through the kitchen door from the garage just as we were raiding the refrigerator.

After lunch, Dad drove Robbie home and I went along for the ride. We dropped him off and drove back in silence. I followed my usual Sunday routine other than starting my homework early. All day, I thought about Robbie and how I felt about him. I was pretty sure that I loved him, although I didn't have any experience with that emotion and wondered if what I had was really love. Also, I wondered if he felt the same about me. And then there was the sex thing. That was too complicated for me to sort out and after several hours of serious thinking, I decided to ask Dad about it.

We had dinner and other than Dad asking me if there was something wrong because I was so quiet, it went like always. I helped him clean up and then went upstairs and undressed. I sat at my computer, did the rest of my homework and then surfed the web. When I heard Dad turn on the ten o'clock news, I logged off my computer off and went downstairs. As usual, Dad was sitting tipped all the way back in his big leather recliner in front of the TV. Without saying anything, I climbed up into his lap and laid my head on his chest.

He put his arms around me and said, "You're up late. You have school tomorrow, you know."

I said, "I know." And slid my butt around to settle deeper into his lap.

"You haven't done this for a long time. You're a bigger now, but I guess there's still room for you."

"I hope so." And didn't say anything else.

We sat and watched the news, which I wasn't interested in at all, but that didn't matter. All I cared about was the warm clutch of Dad's arms around me. When I pressed my ear against his chest, I could hear his heartbeat. I'd forgotten I could do that and how hearing it made me feel comfortable and safe. With one hand, he rubbed my back from my neck to my underwear and traced the outline of my ear with one finger. A few years ago, I stopped sitting in his lap because I thought I was getting too old for it. Now I decided it was time to reconsider.

About half way through the news, Dad asked, "What's on your mind, Son?"

"It shows, huh?"

"It does. Let's talk about it."

I sighed and wriggled into a more comfortable position against him. "Well, I guess it's about Robbie staying over."

"How so? I thought you said things worked out and he didn't have his nightmare."

"He didn't."

"I'm glad. It must be awful to have that dream every night. Is there something else about Robbie you want to talk about?"

"Yeah, I guess. I never slept with another boy like that before and I liked it a lot. We were happy being with each other and slept well. I don't know what happened, but in the morning, our legs and arms were all tangled up."

"I know. I peeked in on you guys a couple of times last night to see how Robbie was doing. You probably got that way because you rolled around in your sleep."

"So you don't mind?"

"You asked me that before, Tim and no, I don't. Why should I?"

"Well, aren't you afraid that Robbie and I might, you know… have sex or something?"

Dad reached for the remote, turned the TV off, put both arms around my bare chest and pulled me tight against him. "Several things. First, there's nothing that two boys your age can do with each other sexually that will get you into trouble as long as you're careful and don't hurt each other. Second, it's quite common that when boys reach puberty and the hormones are rushing around for the first time, they'll experiment sexually with girls or boys. That's normal and there's nothing wrong with it."

Teasing Dad, I said, "So you don't mind if Robbie and I jump into bed and have sex all night when he stays over."

"Hmm, I don't think that's what I said. But here's what I do say: If that's what you're going to do, I'd prefer that you experiment here at home where you're safe and you're certain to have privacy rather than somewhere else. Also, you know that if you have questions, you can ask me and we can talk about it. I assume you haven't had sex yet, but whatever you do, be patient and take care of each other. Your first experiments should be gentle and done with love. Do that and I'll be satisfied that you won't get into trouble. And don't use the internet as a guide because most of what you see there is not how it's done. You know that Robbie can also talk to me about anything that concerns him. Understand?"

I nodded my head against his chest then he picked up the remote and turned the news back on. In a few minutes, I was drowsy and by eleven o'clock when Dad turned off the TV, I was more asleep than awake. He let the chair tilt forward and lifted me from his lap with one arm under my butt and the other around my chest. Standing, he carried me up to my room and put me to bed. I pretended to be asleep as he carried me because I was enjoying it so much that I didn't want him to set me down so I'd have to walk. I'd forgotten that he often carried me to bed when I was a lot younger and how much I liked it. Maybe I should sit in Dad's lap more often.

Dad pulled the blankets up to my chin, brushed the hair off my forehead and kissed me. I smiled, sighed and turned onto my side, falling asleep in seconds.

Monday morning as we waited outside the locker room for Coach Alan, I didn't see Keith. When I asked some of the other guys, they hadn't seen him either. All morning, we went to our usual classes without him. Finally, he came late into the class we had just before lunch.

When our teacher let us out, Robbie and I walked beside Keith. "Hi, Keith. Where were you this morning? Coach Alan sure missed you."

He laughed. "Yeah, right. I'm sure he spent the whole class period moping because I wasn't there for him to pick on. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and just got back."

Robbie said, "Hey, good timing. You missed P.E., but you made it back in time for lunch."

We went through the line, picked up our trays and found a table that was mostly empty. When we sat down, I said, "You should have been with us this weekend. It was great. You should have been with us."

Keith didn't react as much as the last time I told him about Robbie staying over and said, "I can't. I have to help my mother with her spa."

"You mentioned that before. What does she do? I don't know anything about a spa."

"She has a lot of people working for her and they provide 'personal services' to clients." He made air quotes with his fingers when he said 'personal services'.

Robbie made the same air quotes when he asked, "What are 'personal services'? I don't even know what that means."

"They're the sorts of things that people want done to make them look better that are private. For some things – real private if you know what I mean. She has tanning beds, does manicures and pedicures, Brazilian wax hair removal, hydrotherapy, sauna bath, steam room, massages, things to fix hair and people come to get fake fingernails. Stuff like that."

"So all her customers are women?"

"Actually, no. A lot of men come to use the tanning beds and for hair removal. Businessmen come in for manicures and hair coloring. This is California, you know."

"So what do you do?"

"Mostly clean up and sanitize the equipment to kill germs so people don't get sick. I put out towels, sweep and mop floors and get rid of things that have been used. Some stuff goes in the trash and other things are considered a biohazard and go in special containers."

"Wow, sounds like a lot of work."

"It is because the spa has to meet health department standards and Mom's rules are even stricter than the health department. I think that's why she gets so much business. There are other spas, but they aren't run as well as Mom's."

"How many people work for her?"

"I'm not sure because some are part-time, but probably 15 to 20. Mom's been showing me how to do manicures and when I get good enough at it, she'll let me do them on clients so I can make some money. If you guys come over sometime, I can give you a manicure. I need the practice and there'd be no charge."

Robbie and I looked at each other and gave each other shoulder shrugs to say, 'Why not.'

Looking at his fingernails, Robbie said, "Sure. I've never had a manicure before. It'll be interesting."

I said, "There's one thing, though. You have to spend the night with us."

The panicked look flashed on Keith's face again. "I can't! I told you I have to work." He started to get up, but Robbie gabbed one of his wrists and I grabbed the other making him sit down again. He raised his voice and demanded, "Why won't you guys leave me alone about that?"

A proctor rapped on our table and we lowered our voices. I said, "Because we're friends and we do things together. Robbie and I had a great time and we want you to join us. That way it'll even be better."

Tears started to fill his eyes and he whispered, "I can't. I just can't."

Robbie said, "All right, I'm going to tell you what we did last weekend that was so great. It's a secret and since we're friends, I know I can tell you and you won't tell anyone else."

Now it was my turn to panic. Was he going to tell Keith about us tying each other up? I couldn't think of another secret we had.

We let go of Keith's wrists and Robbie told him about how he got to the States and his nightmare. Then he said, "When I stayed at Tim's on Friday, I didn't have my nightmare. On Saturday, I stayed again and didn't have it then either. Best of all, last night at home, I didn't have it. Three nights in a row without my nightmare! I can't remember the last time I managed to sleep that much without waking up screaming."

Keith said, "I'm glad you didn't have your nightmare, but what's so secret about that?"

"The reason I didn't have it was because Tim and I slept together."

"In the same bed?"

"In the same bed. We only wore underwear and ended up lying on top of each other."

I said, "It felt really nice and it kept Robbie from having his nightmare. I can hardly wait until we can do it again."

"Are you guys are serious?"

"Absolutely. That's our secret and if you tell anyone, the whole school will think we're gay and give us a hard time. Now tell us yours."

"You won't tell anyone?"

"Are you going to tell anyone ours?" When he shook his head, I said, "Then we won't tell yours either. We're friends and we can trust each other with our secrets. Tres amigos, remember?"

Keith sighed and said, "Okay, we're friends. I'm having a hard time learning to trust friends because I've really never had any."

"Not having friends sucks. I don't know about before, but you've got some now."

"I'm glad. Here it is then. That doctor I went to this morning was a urologist. That's a doctor who specialized in kidneys and bladders and stuff like that. Mom took me there for a checkup because…" He looked around the cafeteria to see if he'd be overheard and then said in a voice just above a whisper, "…Mom wanted to be sure there was nothing wrong with me because I still wet the bed and… and I have to wear a diaper at night."

Robbie and I looked at each other, shrugged and then Robbie said, "That's your secret? I thought you were going to tell us you were an axe murderer or something like that. I understand how that would be really embarrassing, but I'd be happy to wear diapers every night if that would get rid of my nightmare."

I said, "We're friends and we won't make fun of you. We haven't yet and we've always tried to help. Anyway, what did the doctor say?"

"There's nothing wrong with me. And I have the problem because I'm such a heavy sleeper. The urge to pee isn't strong enough to wake me up and I end up going without knowing it. He also said I'd probably outgrow it in a few years. If that's true, I wish I'd hurry up."

"Keith, it doesn't matter. Come stay overnight and we'll work around it. We won't care and my dad won't care either."

"All right, I can see you aren't going to be satisfied until I do. What about Friday night? I can talk to Mom and if it's okay, she can pick us up Saturday morning and go to the Spa. There's almost never anyone there on a Saturday morning and I can give you manicures. Then you can help me clean up."

We all agreed on the plan and Robbie said he'd talk to his grandmother and I'd talk to Dad after school.

Robbie wasn't on the bus Tuesday morning so I figured that his grandma had given him a ride to school. But as soon as I saw him in the hall by the locker room, it was obvious something was wrong.

His eyes were red and instead of his usual neat appearance, his hair wasn't combed well and his clothes were rumpled with his shirttail hanging out in back. In a low voice, I asked, "No sleep last night?"

In a weak, hoarse voice, he said, "It was bad. I thought Grandma was going to call 9-11."

"I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"Not right now. Tonight should be better because I can usually sleep after I have a bad one. When I don't get enough sleep, I get so tired that I sleep heavy enough that I don't dream."

"Okay, but let me know if I can help. Want to come over after school?"

"Better not. After last night, Grandma will be expecting me to come right home."

Wednesday, Robbie was a mess. He had dark circles under dull eyes, his clothes looked like they were the ones he'd worn the day before and he shuffled down the hall with his shoulders rolled forward and head down.

I asked, "Another bad one?"

When he looked up, I saw a bruise on his forehead and his nose was swollen and red. He nodded. "Worst one yet. Grandma said I was sleep-running around my room and fell over furniture a couple of times. I feel like I beat myself up last night."

"Should you be at school?

"Don't have much choice. Grandma has to work and doesn't want me home alone. After last night I can understand that."

"I'll help if I can."

"Thanks."

Naturally, Coach Alan picked on him the whole class period because he wasn't able to pay attention and was so weak that he could only exercise half-heartedly. I had to help him change clothes when it looked like he wasn't going to make it on time. When he fell asleep in Algebra class and tumbled out of his desk to the floor, our teacher sent him to the office. As soon as class was over, I hustled to the office and asked to make an emergency call to Dad.

He answered and I said, "Dad, you have to come to school and get me and Robbie. He hasn't been able to sleep for two days and he's in bad shape."

"His nightmare again?"

"Yeah, but these were a lot worse. He looks terrible."

"Has he talked to his grandmother?"

"She doesn't want him to say at home alone."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, the worst. She has to work and can't pick him up until just before school lets out. He needs to go home right now."

"All right. His grandmother gave me her number at the hospital and I can call her and ask her to call the school. I'm sure they won't let him leave with me without her permission. Stay with him and I'll call you right back."

The secretary in the office said Robbie was in the nurse's office and when I walked in, he was pacing the room. His nervousness was obvious and he walked as if he had somewhere important to go. The nurse was trying to get him to lie or sit down, but he refused, shaking off her hand from his arm. When she got a call to go to a primary classroom, I convinced her that I'd watch Robbie until his grandmother called. She left saying she'd be back in ten or fifteen minutes.

We circled the room together and I asked, "Want to sit down with me?"

"I can't. That one last night was so bad I'm afraid to go to sleep. I can't even lie down. If I do, I feel like I'm going to throw up. I've never felt like this before and I can't seem to do anything about it. It was so bad that I scared Grandma and now she wants me to see a shrink she knows at the hospital. That's just what I need, everyone thinking I'm nuts."

"I called Dad and he's calling your grandma. As soon as he gets things worked out with the office, we can go home."

"We?"

"Yeah. We. Dad's going to take us home and then we'll go to bed. Maybe you can sleep that way."

Robbie looked at me with hope shining in his eyes and a brighter expression. He sat down on a bench breathing hard and when I sat beside him and leaned my shoulder against him, I felt his breathing slow and some of his tension left.

A few minutes later, the office secretary came in and said that Dad called the school. Robbie's grandma called the office and gave him permission for to go with me and Dad. He was on the way and he'd pick us up in twenty minutes or less depending on traffic. When he got to school, he signed us out after we went to our lockers and got our homework.

At home, Dad said, "I think the two of you can manage by yourselves, but call me right away if you need something. There's food in the 'fridge if you're hungry. Robbie, go upstairs, take a long, warm shower and then go to bed." He grabbed Robbie in a one-arm hug. "You're safe here, son. Don't let your dream control you."

I said, "Thanks, Dad. I'll call you if we need something."

Robbie mumbled, "Yeah, thanks, Dad."

Dad smiled, ruffled Robbie's already mussed hair and left.

As I led Robbie up to my room, he said, "I like your dad. He never acts like he feels sorry for me. I hate it when people pity me. They say they're sorry about me having nightmares, but they don't really mean it because they never do anything to make things better for me after they say it. You and your dad are the only ones who seem to want to actually help me."

In my room, we dropped our clothes on the floor and headed for the bathroom. I got into the shower and stood behind him because he seemed unsteady on his feet and I didn't want him to slip and fall. Because his hair was such a mess, I grabbed a bottle of shampoo poured a dollop on it and scrubbed his hair under the pouring water. It also gave me a reason to touch him, making me smile. Washing his hair and letting my hands slide around in the shampoo on the bare skin of neck and shoulders helped him relax and at the same time, I tried to make as much contact with him as possible. Every so often, he'd roll his shoulders under my hands and sigh. Each time he did, I smiled wider. When we were done, I took a towel and helped him dry off.

In my room, he lifted the blankets and flopped into bed without getting dressed. I was a little surprised he didn't pull on underwear, but I was happy that he didn't. Sleeping with him when we were naked would be great and as soon as he settled in bed, I joined him.

He lay on his back staring at the ceiling and said, "I know I slept better with you and I didn't have my dream, but that was only twice and they weren't this bad." He touched the bruise on his forehead. "I'm afraid of what I might do."

I rolled over, covering most of his body with mine. "I'm not worried. You'll be fine." Impulsively, I tipped my head up and kissed him.

Robbie said, "I like that. Do it again."

I did and before I finished my kiss, he was asleep, but I was wide-awake. There was no way I'd ever get to sleep at eleven o'clock in the morning so I got out of bed, went to my desk and picked up my laptop computer. On my way back to bed, I dug my English book out of my book bag and took it and my computer back to bed. Tucking a big pillow under my shoulders so I could sit up, I turned my computer on and started working on an essay that was due next week. At this rate, I'd have all my homework done long before it was due instead of doing it at the last minute the way I usually did.

While I worked, I kept one leg or foot pressed against some part of Robbie so he'd know I was there. About a half-hour later, Robbie started moaning and moving in bed. Setting my computer on my bedside table, I slid down under the blankets, snuggled next to him and began rubbing his back from his shoulders to his butt. He settled down, pressed his chest against mine and rested his head on my upper arm. When he did, his lips ended up against my left nipple, which felt strange, but I didn't mind. I kept rubbing his back and as I did, I let my hand slide further and further down until I was massaging him from shoulders and over his bare butt.

In a few minutes, he looked like he was sleeping soundly so I eased away, sat up and started my homework again. Every time he got restless, I'd stop working and rub his back and butt again. One time he rolled away from me right to the edge of the bed so I pushed my chest and hips against his back and butt, reached over and rubbed his chest and belly. He settled into dreamless sleep, but I kept running my hand from his neck to his hips, slowly getting closer to his penis. Just as I touched it for the first time, he turned facedown. I was disappointed, but I was sure I'd have other opportunities to explore his body.

I was doing homework again when Dad came home at four o'clock and peeked into my room. He walked to my bed and whispered in my ear that dinner would be ready in about an hour and he'd call me. He picked up Robbie's school uniform, socks and underwear, grabbed my dirty laundry and then went out.

As I worked, I heard Dad in the kitchen followed by the wonderful smell of cooking spare ribs, one of my favorites. The house was filling with the aroma of smoky barbeque sauce and I wondered how long Robbie would sleep with that in the air. At a quarter to five, Robbie woke up.

Turning onto his back, he took a deep sniff and said, "What's cooking? It smells great."

"Spare ribs. One of Dad's special recipes. You'll like 'em."

"Smells like it."

"How are you? You started moving around and moaning about every forty-five minutes or so, but when you did, I rubbed your back and you settled down again."

"Thanks. I feel better and I don't remember much about my dream. I know I had one, but that's all so it doesn't bother me. I'm still really tired, but I'm also really hungry."

"I'm glad. There's one thing I didn't do for you this afternoon, though." I leaned over and kissed him.

He laughed and said, "You can do that anytime you want and I don't have to be having a dream when you do."

"Okay. I will." And I kissed him again.

Robbie rolled over on top of me, put his elbows on my chest with both hands behind my head so he could look me right in the eyes and kissed me three or four times. I felt tingling from between my legs warning of an imminent erection, but then when Dad called us to dinner.

I sighed at the interruption and said, "We better get going."

"Yeah, I didn't have lunch and couldn't eat breakfast."

We got out of bed and when Robbie looked around, he asked, "Where's my uniform."

"Oh, Dad took it and some of my stuff to wash. I'll get you a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt."

I dug around in my dresser until I found clothes for us and we went down to dinner. Robbie finished off more ribs than Dad and I did together. And when he sat back and patted his stomach, Dad said, "Well, I won't have to worry about leftovers." Robbie tried to apologize for eating so much, but Dad said, "Don't worry about it. Eating a lot comes with being a teenager."

As we cleaned up the kitchen, I said, "Dad, there's another boy in my class that I'd like to invite to stay over on Friday along with Robbie. Is that okay?"

"Sure, I don't see any problem with that. I should talk to his parents before he does, though."

"Okay, I'll get a name and phone number from him tomorrow."

"I can call then. By the way, Robbie, your grandmother called and I told her that you were sleeping quietly and Tim was keeping an eye on you. I convinced her that you could stay over tonight and go to school from here tomorrow after I washed your clothes. That all right?"

"Yeah, that's great. Thanks."

"No problem. You guys better get after your homework. Robbie, when your uniform's out of the dryer, I'll bring it upstairs."

Robbie said, "Thanks, Dad." Making Dad laugh as we left the kitchen

Robbie and I worked on homework until about eight-thirty when he said he couldn't concentrate anymore and had to sleep.

"I'm going to stay up for a while, but you go ahead,"

"You'll be here?"

"Yeah, Dad too and I'll join you later."

When he stood, I did too and wrapped my arms around him. I kissed him and said, "Good night, Robbie."

He hugged me and kissed me back. "I like how you say goodnight."

I laughed and when I let go, he walked to my bed, dropped his shorts and tee shirt and then got under the covers. After a little more than an hour, I was just finishing my homework and I heard Robbie moan. I got up, took off my clothes and got into bed beside him. I rubbed his back and shoulders until he seemed to be asleep again and then I fell asleep.

A few hours later, my bladder was urgently reminding me that I hadn't taken a leak since dinner and I hustled out of bed and into the bathroom. When I came back, Robbie was gone! I dashed out into the hall and looked around, but he wasn't there. I started down the stairs and met Dad coming up carrying a naked Robbie in his arms.

Before I could say anything, he whispered, "He was sleepwalking."

When I got close, I saw that Robbie's eyes were open, but he wasn't looking around and had a blank stare. "Is he awake?"

"No, but he looks like he is. I'll take him back to your room and put him in bed."

I followed Dad and in my bedroom, I lifted the blankets so he could put Robbie on the bed. As he stretched out on his back, I was startled to see that he had an erection! It was about four inches [10 cm] long and stretched his foreskin so tight that the head of his penis peeked out a little. His black pubic hair formed a neat triangle with one apex pointing down at the base of his penis. Like Dad, I pretended I didn't see it and pulled the blankets up to his chin.

Dad motioned for me to follow him into the hall. He closed the door, smiled and said, "It was a good thing he didn't go outside. I think the neighbors would have complained. Didn't he wake you up when he got out of bed?"

I explained how Robbie left my bed without me noticing and then said, "I'll make sure I keep closer track of him."

"Okay. You'd better get back with him." Dad patted my bare butt and said, "Remember what I said about experimenting. Okay?"

"I will and thanks." Then I patted him on the butt, making him laugh and went into my room.

I tried to be quiet when I climbed into bed and slid across the sheets until Robbie and I were facing each other. I put one arm around his chest and my hand on his back. My other hand went under his head. Rubbing his back I said, "Robbie, I'm here."

Robbie smiled and mumbled in Spanish, then tried to kiss me. He was still asleep so I lifted his head to make our lips meet. After a few seconds, he sighed and put his arm around my waist and his hand on my back. We kissed a few more times and then Robbie slid his hand down to my butt and buried his fingers in the canyon between my cheeks. When the tips of his fingers touched my anus, my penis flipped up in an instant erection that was demanding attention.

I said, "Robbie, it's me, Tim. I'm not Enrique, but I want to be your best friend the way he was."

He mumbled again, kissed me and pulled his hand over my hips away from my butt then grasped my erection with his thumb and three fingers. Right there, I about lost it! No one had ever held my erect penis and the sensation was incredible. He gently worked his fingers up and down the shaft, forcing me to stifle a groan of intense pleasure.

I slowly moved my right hand from his back and down to his hips where I slid my fingers around one thigh until I made contact with his erection. When I wrapped my fingers around it, I was surprised at how hot it felt and it was a lot stiffer than I expected. When I moved my fingers, I could feel his foreskin slide up and down the shaft. At that point, he mumbled and rolled over onto his side.

I was frustrated that we weren't going to continue, but I could be patient since I knew we'd be in this situation again and I smiled thinking about possibilities. I turned on my side so my chest was against his back, pushed my hips forward and managed to get my erection nestled between his butt cheeks. Rolling my hips around, I dropped off to sleep.

My alarm going off woke both of us. Startled, Robbie bolted upright and looked around frantically. "What's going on? Where am I?"

I grabbed his elbow since that was all I could reach and shook it "Robbie! Wake up. You're at my house."

"Huh? What?"

Sitting up, I wrapped him in both arms and tipped him back onto my bed with me on top. "My house. My alarm." Then I kissed him.

"Oh, right. It sounds different so I got confused." And he kissed me back.

"Yeah, you definitely know where you are now. You were sleepwalking last night and Dad picked you up and put you back in bed."

"I didn't do anything did I? You know, break things or fall down. Stuff like that?"

"Nope. Don't you remember?"

"Not a thing. I do remember having a dream about Enrique. It was nice."

"That's good." I turned on my side, wrapped both arms around him and decided to tell him the truth about last night. "It must have been a really nice dream because when Dad put you back to bed, you had an erection." Robbie jerked in my arms and tried to push away. "Robbie, don't. Please. Dad says it's normal for that to happen with guys our age and it's no big deal."

He frowned and said, "If it's not a big deal, then why did you mention it."

"Because we're friends and I get them too. If we're going to sleep together naked, we have to accept each other as we are and not pretend we don't see them."

Sighing, he said, "Okay, but let's not push it."

"Fine with me. I need a shower."

"Me too."

We slid out of bed, one on each side, I got towels for us and we headed for the bathroom. I went in first and discovered Dad standing at one sink shaving. He was naked and had left a towel lying on the counter.

He said, "Morning, guys. How did you sleep Robbie?"

"Uh… good, I think. Tim says I was sleepwalking, though."

"You were, but you didn't create any problems and I put you back to bed."

I said, "Why don't you shower first, Robbie. I'll use the other sink."

He nodded, hung his towel up, got into the shower and pulled the curtain.

Dad finished in a few minutes and left. When he did, I said, "Robbie, Dad's gone."

Robbie turned the water off, reached out and grabbed his towel. He stepped out drying himself and said, "Your turn."

I hung my towel up where I could reach it and stepped into the shower. Before I turned on the water, Robbie said, "Your dad surprised me. I know you said that you were naked with him, but I didn't expect that I would be too."

"I'm sure he didn't plan it. But we're all guys so it's no big deal."

"I guess not, but it'll take some getting used to."

We finished in the bathroom, got dressed in clean school uniforms, grabbed our book bags and headed for the kitchen to see what Dad had made for us.

At school, Coach Alan ragged at Robbie and me for missing a half day of school even though we had a written excuse, didn't miss his class and had his stupid homework done. The guy was a bully and nothing we could do would get him off our backs.

When we ate lunch together, Keith, Robbie and I finalized plans for our Friday sleep over the next night. I told them that I'd talk to Dad tonight and ask him to help me stock up on enough food, movies and music.

Robbie and I waved at Keith as he left in the van after school and then hustled down the street to the bus stop. On the bus, I told Robbie that I wanted to talk to him before he went home.

I let us in at my house and said, "This'll only take a minute. C'mon up to my room." He followed me into my bedroom where I dug around in my closet and pulled out a plastic bag. I handed it to him saying, "Here, I want you to have this."

Robbie squeezed the bag and asked, "What is it?"

"A teddy bear." When he gave me a skeptical look, I said, "Yeah, I know. You probably think you're too old. But I want you to take him home and sleep with him."

"I don't understand." He opened the bag and pulled out a slightly worn stuffed bear.

"The day after Mom divorced Dad, he took me to a big toy store and said I should pick out any stuffed animal I liked. They had about a zillion different kinds so I dug around until I found that bear sitting all by himself on a shelf and I knew that was the one I wanted. Dad bought him and told me that since it was going to be just him and me from now on, this was a special bear. He wanted me to take the bear to bed with me because it would remind me that even though Mom was gone, he was still with me and always would be. I slept with him from then on and I even took him to summer camp one year. When I felt lonely or sad, I'd hold him at night and feel better because it was like having a little of Dad with me. I usually kept him on my bed and Dad says I'll never outgrow him."

Robbie tried to give the bear back to me. "I can't take this. It's too important to you."

I pushed it into his hands again. "But that's why I want you to have him. Whenever you have one of your nightmares, I want you to hold him and remember what it's like when we sleep together. Maybe that'll help."

"All right, I'll take him." Stepping forward, he hugged me and I could see tears forming in his eyes when he let go. "Enrique was my best friend back in my village, but he never would've done something like this for me. Is there something more than a best friend?"

"I don't know, but if there is, it's us." To lighten our mood, I smiled and said, "'Course, if it doesn't work, I want him back."

Robbie laughed. "I figured that would be part of it." Squeezing the bear, he said, "I'll try it tonight and let you know how it worked tomorrow."

"Great. By the way, his name is Theodore Edward Bear. You know – Ted E. Bear."

Smiling and nodding, he said, "I'll remember that."

He stuck the bear back into the bag and I picked up Robbie's book bag. Then we went to the front door where I handed him his book bag and waved as he walked toward his apartment.

At dinner, I asked Dad, "Do they make diapers my size?"

He set down his fork and said, "Hmmm. That's an interesting question. The answer is yes and now you have to tell me why you asked. You've piqued my curiosity."

"Well, Robbie and Keith are staying over tomorrow and Keith has a sleeping problem."

"I see. You're telling me Keith still wets the bed and has to wear a diaper at night."

"Right. You're always telling me to make my guests comfortable so what I thought Robbie and I would do is�" I explained what we were planning.

"He laughed and said, "That's a wonderful idea and I'll get what you need."

Friday morning, when I saw Robbie get on the bus, I didn't have to ask how he slept. He sat down beside me and said, "Know what? I think Theodore and I are going to be good friends." And then he laughed.

At lunch, I told Keith we'd meet him in front of the school a few minutes after last bell, but we might be a little late. As soon as we got out of our last class, Robbie and I grabbed our book bags and the bag with the diapers from our lockers then dashed into the bathroom. We got into a stall and dropped our pants while I yanked two diapers out of their wrappers. Hoping no one came in and saw us both in one stall, we fumbled around until we each managed to get a diaper on. Then we pulled our pants up and got out of the stall just as someone came in.

We rode the bus home and talked about what movie to watch and what kind of pizza Dad should order. Sitting on the hard bus seat with the diaper on my butt felt weird and I kept moving around trying to get comfortable. I saw Robbie squirming and figured he was having the same problem. At home, I led Robbie and Keith up to my room, went in and left the door partway open. Keith looked around and said, "This is a great room. I don't see how you can find anything with your stuff spread out all over, but you must manage."

"Yeah. Dad says I don't have a floor; I have a horizontal closet. He doesn't mind as long as it doesn't draw rats." I laughed and said, "We have to clean it out every couple of months to keep the health department away, though."

I went to my desk – the only neat spot in my room – and turned on my computer. To Keith, I said, "Generally, after I get home from school, I only wear underwear. It's comfortable and when I get tired, I just have to jump into bed."

"Doesn't your dad mind?"

"Nope. Robbie and I run around in our underwear all the time." I nodded at Robbie and we sat on my bed and slipped our shoes and socks off then peeled our shirts off. Together, we stood up, faced Keith and dropped our pants, showing off our diapers.

With a shocked look on his face, Keith said, "You talked me into coming over here to make fun of me, didn't you?"

Robbie said, "You know we wouldn't do that. We put these on so you wouldn't feel embarrassed."

"Yeah, but you don't need them."

I said, "Yes, we do. If you're going to stay here with us and you have to wear them, then we have to wear them. That way, you'll know that we understand. Dad knows too because he got the diapers for us and thinks what we're doing is a good idea."

Keith looked from me to Robbie and back again a few times. "You know, sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what people mean. I've been picked on for so long I think everyone is teasing me. This time, I know." He sat down on my bed, took his shoes and socks off then stood and took his shirt and pants off. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a disposable diaper and then let his underwear fall onto the top of his feet.

He said, "Sometimes I need help getting this thing on." He opened the diaper package, took out and unfolded the diaper. Pulling it up between his legs, he asked, "Tim, would you hold this side until I get the other side fastened."

I did and when he stuck the Velcro strips together, he put both arms in the air and pivoted to show off his diaper, making both Robbie and I laugh. Then he pointed and said, "You didn't get those on very well. They're loose and you don't wear one over your underwear."

Robbie shrugged and said, "Well, we're sort of new at this plus we didn't have much time to get them on. You're the expert so help us out."

"Okay. Take the Velcro tabs loose and take your underwear off."

With Keith's help, we got the diapers on correctly. I could feel the difference right away since mine didn't feel like it was about to fall off anymore. I said, "Let's take a picture of us in diapers." Keith and Robbie agreed to the pictures with the condition that we'd never, ever let anyone else see them.

I picked up my phone and pulled up the camera app. We took turns taking pictures of each other and then in pairs. I said, "We need a picture of all of us together. Let's wait until Dad comes home and he can take picture."

When we paraded down to the kitchen later that afternoon where Dad getting chips and other food ready, he didn't say anything about our diapers. He only laughed when we asked him to take our picture and took about a dozen while we made silly poses.

Then we all sat at the table and lots of pizza and junk food. Robbie and I had a lot of carbonated sugar water, but Keith only sipped one can through the whole meal. We helped Dad clean up the kitchen and watched movies the rest of the night. Dad chased us off to bed after he watched the ten o'clock news.

I pulled out the trundle bed and made it up for Keith, showed him where the bathroom was and then we all turned in. When Robbie and I got into bed together, Keith gave us a look that said he was curious and wanted to ask us about it, but he didn't say anything. We were asleep in a few minutes.

When I woke up, I looked at my clock. Two thirty in the morning and I had to pee so bad I didn't know if I could hold it. I got out of bed, went to the bathroom and when I came back, I woke Robbie. He made a trip and then we stood beside the trundle bed watching Keith sleep.

In a normal tone of voice, Robbie said, "All that getting in and out of bed, running around and talking didn't even make him stir. If we had to go, I'll bet he does too."

"You're probably right. Let's see if we can wake him up."

We called his name, shook him and rolled him to the edge of the bed. But the best we could do was to get him to open his eyes part way and mumble a little so we figured that he was sort of awake, but not by much.

Robbie said, "Man, talk about a heavy sleeper. Now I know what 'dead to the world' means."

"Let's see if we can get him on his feet and walk him to the bathroom. Maybe if we get him going, we can steer him in. He's not very big and there's two of us."

"Good idea." We hung his feet and legs over the side of the bed and sat him up. Then we each took a side, pulled one of his arms over our shoulders and hoisted him to his feet. He was enough awake that when we walked, he walked along. We staggered into the bathroom as a group and stood him in front of the toilet.

Robbie asked, "Now what?"

"I guess we have to pull down the plastic pants and get the diaper open." We each took a side and slid the pants down to his ankles. Then I pulled one of the Velcro strips closing the diaper and the front of the diaper flapped down so his penis swung free.

Robbie pointed and said, "He's not aiming at the bowl and he's gonna pee all over."

"Well, there's only one thing to do then." I said. Reaching down, I gently grasped his penis in the middle with my thumb and index fingers. "Keith. We're in the bathroom and you have to go. Understand? Go ahead and pee." He mumbled, but nothing happened. "I know. Robbie, turn the water on. I've hear that makes people want to pee. I'll hold him up."

I held on to Keith while Robbie turned the water on in both sinks. Still nothing. Then Robbie reached around me and flushed the toilet. That did it! Keith cut loose and his torrent of urine made his penis look like a fire hose. I reacted just in time to get his stream aimed at the toilet.

Robbie looked on in amazement saying, "You've got to be kidding! He must have a gallon-sized bladder."

I had all I could do to hang on to Keith and aim his penis at the same time. "I hope he quits soon. He might run the toilet over."

Eventually, Keith was empty and Robbie flushed again. I let go of Keith's penis and thought it would sag down between his thighs again. But it didn't. Instead, it slowly rose and got bigger as he got an erection. With our mouths open in awe, Robbie and I watched the transition.

Robbie said, "That's amazing. I knew it would big, but not like that."

I nodded. "Yeah." After a few moments, I said, "Now what?"

"Well, I guess we'd better put his diaper back on. Can you lift his penis up so it lays on his belly while I pull the diaper over it?"

Very carefully, I lifted it again. As I did, I compared it to the time I held Robbie's. Keith's was hot and more rigid than Robbie's had been and it wasn't easy to move it around. I pushed it up against his belly while Robbie slid the diaper up and over it and my hand. Then I helped fasten the Velcro strips to hold it on. I pulled my hand out and helped slide the plastic pants up over Keith's hips.

Robbie said, "Okay, let's walk him back to bed."

In my room, we eased him into bed and pulled the blankets up to his chin. Then Robbie and I climbed back into bed together and lay on our backs.

I asked, "What are we going to tell him in the morning?"

"I don't know. If we tell him about his erection, I'm sure he'll be really embarrassed. Shoot, even I was embarrassed."

"You're right, he would. We can probably tell him about walking him to the bathroom, though."

"Yeah. Let's do that."

I rolled toward him, he opened his arms and we pressed our bare chests together falling asleep in seconds.

Robbie woke me up when he started moaning and rolling around. I turned toward him and wrapped him in my arms, stroked his back and said, "It's me, Robbie. I'll help you. Go back to sleep, it's okay."

He groaned louder so I held him close and talked to him more. For a change, it didn't do any good. In desperation, I leaned over and kissed him firmly. Almost immediately, he settled down and stopped making any sounds. Since that worked, I kept kissing and talking to him for a long time, completely forgetting that he and I weren't alone. I looked up and Keith was sitting up in the trundle bed watching us!

When I gave him a weak, embarrassed smile, he nodded and put his finger on his lips, which I interpreted as him saying that he understood and wasn't going to tell anyone what he'd just seen. That was reassuring, but I knew that Los Tres Amigos needed to have a talk soon.

Chapter Nine

Dad calling up the stairs woke us. "Let's go you guys. Up and at 'em! Keith's mother said she'd be here right at eight o'clock."

Keith sat up and said, "We gotta get going. Mom's always on time and she gets ticked when I'm late."

Groaning and complaining because we weren't ready to be awake yet, Robbie and I struggled out of bed. I went to get towels while Robbie unfastened his diaper and let it drop. Keith glanced at him and then pulled down the plastic pants he wore and carefully undid his diaper.

A huge grin appeared on his face and he exclaimed, "I'm dry! Completely dry. That hasn't happened for months."

I handed them towels and dropped my diaper as I said, "Well, we helped a little." Then I explained how Robbie and I got him out of bed to take a leak at two-thirty in the morning.

Keith said, "That's cool. You guys didn't mind, did you? I mean, that's kind of gross."

"Yeah, it is, but we're Los tres amigos, and we did it because we thought it would help."

He bounced up and down on his toes making his penis flop from side to side. "It did. Thank you. I'm going to tell Mom what you guys did and maybe she can help me do something like that."

Now I was really glad that we didn't tell him about his erection. I sure didn't want him telling his mother that. When Dad yelled up the stairs again that he'd been slaving over a hot stove all morning and his breakfast casserole was getting cold, we all headed for the bathroom.

After breakfast and at eight o'clock on the dot, Keith's mother turned into our driveway in her black minivan. As we piled in and his mother drove away, Keith introduced us, telling us that her name was Jane Smith. She spoke with a light African accent and I wondered how she got such an American name.

Keith's mother parked behind a two story building in a strip mall and let us in the back door. She said, "Keith, why don't you show your friends around. I have to check the appointment book."

He said, "Okay. C'mon you guys. I'll give you the grand tour."

The spa was a lot bigger than I expected. There were all sorts of alcoves and sections for things like hair treatments, fake fingernails and there were private rooms for colon therapy-whatever that was-tanning and wax hair removal.

Keith led us into a section that had a counter and several low stools. He sat down on one side and then said to me, "Just pull a stool up and give me your hand."

When I did, he pressed it flat on the counter, pulled out tools from a drawer and started working on my fingernails. Robbie pulled a stool up next to me and watched what he was doing. In a surprisingly short time, Keith had done magic on my nails. They were smoothly trimmed, clean and shining.

I held my fingers up and said, "I don't believe it. If someone would have said my fingernails could look this good, I would have said they were nuts."

Keith smiled. "Yeah, it's kind of amazing. It's not hard to do, but it does take a lot of practice to do a good job. Slide over, Robbie and I'll do yours."

Robbie and I traded places and Keith went to work. I watched as he worked on Robbie's nails, occasionally holding my hand out to admire my manicure. He was finishing Robbie's last finger when I heard someone behind me. Pivoting on my stool, I looked toward the door and said, "Colton! What are you doing here?"

He grinned, making light flash off his braces. "Hey, you guys. Hi ya, Keith. I'm here for my therapy."

Keith looked up and said, "Hey, Colton. You ready?" Then he went back to work on Robbie's finger.

"All set. And I really need it today. My back is killing me." He pulled up another stool, sat down next to me and said, "I have scoliosis. My mother and the specialist I see for it worked with Keith's mom to develop a therapy plan to reduce the pain I get when I play soccer."

I said, "So that's how you knew Keith on the first day. What's scoliosis?"

"It's a curvature of the spine. Mom first saw it when I was eight and I had to wear a back brace 23 hours a day for almost 5 years as I grew. Now I only have to wear it at night since most of my skeleton is grown."

"Sounds uncomfortable. So that cured it?"

"There's no cure and I wore the back brace so it wouldn't get worse as I grew. I've met kids with scoliosis so bad they had to have surgery and had steel rods and screws put into their backs. Putting up with the back brace no matter how uncomfortable was better than that."

"I guess so. Do you come here regularly?"

"Yep, almost every Saturday. I come in the mornings when there's no one around except Keith. I don't like to talk about my problem nor have people make a fuss over it. I am what I am and with a little help I can deal with it."

Robbie said, "Yeah, I know what you mean. So what do you do?"

"I start in the sauna, take a really cold shower afterword and then sit in the Jacuzzi with water at about body temperature and finally get a massage."

Keith said, "There. All done."

Robbie admired his nails and said, "Wow, this is really nice. I didn't know you could make something like fingernails look good."

Colton held his hands up so we could see them. "They do look good. I let Keith do mine every couple of weeks. He needs the practice and like how they look when he's done. Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you all do my therapy with me? It feels really good."

Robbie said, "Well, maybe. Keith, will your mom care?"

"I'm sure she won't since there's no else one here, but I'll go ask." He got up and left.

I asked, "What's a sauna?"

Colton said, "I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. A sauna is a room with the temperature at 180 or 190 degrees [80-86°C]. You sit in there until the sweat is just pouring off and then you jump into a really cold shower."

"It sounds like we'd get baked like a Thanksgiving turkey."

He laughed. "We won't stay in that long. Trust me, you'll like it."

Robbie said, "Okay, we'll take your word for it. Sounds interesting."

Keith came back carrying a stack of white towels. "Mom says it's okay as long as we clean up after we're done, which I'd have to do anyway. C'mon we'll use the men's executive locker room. They have to pay extra to use it because it's so nice."

We followed Keith into the locker room and I couldn't believe what it looked like. I'd watched interviews of professional athletes in their locker rooms on TV and this was just like them. Huge lockers, carpeted floor, private shower stalls, no echoes when we talked and there was warm jazz music playing in the background.

Robbie said, "Wow! This is amazing. I wonder if we could get something like this at school."

I laughed. "Oh, right. Can you see Coach Alan doing his countdowns and making us run around naked in a place like this?"

"No, but it'd still be nice."

Keith said, "Hang your clothes in a locker and then take two towels. One to sit on and the other to wipe up sweat. Then we can go in the sauna."

When we were naked and I saw Colton's body, I was amazed. He was two years older than we were, but he looked like a fourteen-year-old body builder. He had no body hair and all of his muscles were sharply defined under a tight covering of clear smooth skin. He had a golden all-over tan without tan lines and no pubic hair around his circumcised penis, which was large, but not as big as Keith's. I thought everyone as old as Colton had pubic hair and made a note to myself to remember to ask him about it later.

Before Keith wrapped a towel around his waist, Colton saw him and said, "Oh man, I thought you guys were pulling my leg about Keith needing a bigger jock, but you weren't."

Keith whipped a towel around his waist and turned away from Colton. When he did, Colton said, "Sorry about that, Keith, I didn't mean to embarrass you. But you have to admit that someone seeing your equipment for the first time is quite a surprise, especially since I was expecting something more proportional to your size."

Robbie said, "Tim and have been telling him that he should be proud of it. At first he tried to hide it in P.E class, but he doesn't anymore."

Keith said, "Yeah, I kind of like showing it off in the locker room in front of the other seventh graders now. Coach Alan looks at me funny and the other guys look like they're jealous. I guess I'm still a little shy when people see it for the first time."

Colton nodded. "I can understand that, but trust me; there are a lot of guys who'd love to have what you've got."

Laughing, we all grabbed towels and headed for the men's sauna. I wasn't sure about the sauna, but once we went in and I got used to the heat, I enjoyed myself. It felt like the heat was soaking in making all my muscles relax.

Sweat was pouring off me in tiny rivers when Colton said, "That's enough for your first time. Now we take a cold shower. Turn the water on all cold. You're so hot, that you won't notice it. When you start to get chilly, we'll get in the Jacuzzi and then get a massage.

We sat in the churning water of the Jacuzzi talking about school and other unimportant stuff until I started to doze off. Colton said, "I think Tim's going to fall asleep and drown so we better get out."

That woke me up and we climbed out and dried off. Wrapping towels around our waists, we went to another room that had a long padded table and a cart with bottles of different kinds of lotions. Keith's mother was waiting for us and when we came in she said, "Colton, I'd like to teach Keith and the other boys how to give massages and I thought they might practice on you if you don't mind."

Colton nodded and said, "Sure, I don't mind. I have lots of time today and more hands will probably feel better than just two." He dropped his towel and naked, he stretched out face down on the table.

I was surprised that he was completely comfortable being naked in front of Keith's mother. But then if he'd been coming for therapy for years, he'd gotten used to it.

Keith's mother unrolled a chart showing the muscles of the body as if the skin had been removed and hung it on the wall. Pointed at the chart, she started naming muscle groups and how we'd massage each one. She put Robbie and Keith on one side of the table and I stood on the other. We poured lotion on our hands and started working on Colton's muscles as she gave us directions.

Colton exhaled a huge sigh as we started on his shoulders and worked our way down his back. The sensation of running my hands over his smooth skin was incredible and I was wondering what it would be like massaging his bare butt muscles.

After doing the small of his back, I ran my hands over the hills formed by his butt cheeks. As I did, Keith's mother said, "Those muscles are the largest in the body and help support the back. It's important that they're loose and relaxed. That will help alleviate the pain Colton gets from his scoliosis."

Well, massaging Colton's muscles may be relaxing them, but part of me was getting tense. I discreetly looked down at the front of my towel to be sure my growing excitement was hidden. Just to be sure, I pushed the front down to make the material bunch up more.

When we moved on to the top of Colton's thighs, I could see his scrotum resting between his legs and as I reached into where his thigh met his hips, I felt the soft wrinkled skin enclosing his testicles on the back of my fingers and got an immediate, full erection. I would have enjoyed the experience more if I'd been by myself.

We did his calves and then Colton turned over and lay face-up with his penis and scrotum falling down between his legs. Following Keith's mother's instructions, we started working on his chest and abdomen. As we got to his hips, the door opened and a woman came in.

She said, "Hello, Colton. I see you have more therapists than usual."

He turned his head and said, "Hi, Mom." He introduced Robbie and I to her then said, "Why are you here already? I wasn't expecting you for another half-hour or so."

"Well the� uh agency called you have a� modeling job that wasn't scheduled. It's for� an important client so I said you'd take it."

Colton was a model? After looking at his body, I could believe that. Still I thought his mother's conversation was odd because of the hesitations in it.

He sighed and sat up on the table. "Okay, but having three pairs of hands on me is really nice." Without wrapping a towel around himself, he got up and left the room with his mother.

Keith's mother said, "Keith, you and the other boys should clean up then get changed and I'll take you home. Keith, we have appointments starting in an hour and I'll need your help."

"Okay. Let's go." He led us out of the room to a storage closet to get cleaning equipment while Keith's mother went the other way. Cleanup took about ten minutes and then we put the cleaning stuff away and went to the locker room.

In the locker room, I yanked open a locker door but my clothes weren't in it. I said, "Hey, I just opened the wrong locker and Colton's clothes are still here. I thought he got dressed and went with his mother."

Robbie and Keith looked in the locker and Keith said, "Yeah, those are his clothes. I can't imagine why they're still here."

I shrugged and said, "We'll have to ask him about it later. Let's get changed so your mother can drive us home and be back in time for her customers."

As we rode home, I didn't try to keep up a conversation with either Keith's mother or Robbie. I was still trying to sort out my feelings about giving Colton a massage and how I felt touching his body, particularly his scrotum. Just thinking about it gave me an erection that was well hidden by folds in my pants.

Keith's mother dropped Robbie off first and as he got out, I invited him to stay over tonight. He agreed and I told him Dad and I would pick up at six o'clock again after he went to Mass. Then Keith's mother drove me home.

As I got out, Keith said, "Thanks for talking me in to staying with you guys last night. It was great and I'd like to do it again."

His mom said, "I don't see why not. We'll have to look at the appointment book and see where I can manage without you. Keith can tell you at school next week."

I thanked her, got out and went inside. The rest of the day, I couldn't find anything to do that interested me. All I could do was relive what holding Robbie at night was like and how I felt massaging Colton. I prowled restlessly around the house and finally got my bike out and went riding. Three hours later, I came back home sweaty and exhausted. At least when I was riding, I could take my mind off them as I concentrated riding hard up the hills, straining until I was gasping for breath when I got to the top. When I got home, I took a shower, pulled on shorts and a tee shirt and surfed the web until my stomach reminded me that I'd skipped lunch so I went to the kitchen to raid the refrigerator.

Dad and I picked up Robbie at six after he went to Mass, had dinner and then Robbie and I settled in to watch movies. Dad went to bed at eleven and told us not to stay up all night. Shortly after that, our movie ended and Robbie and I went to my room, got undressed and climbed into bed wearing our underwear.

Robbie lay on his back and asked, "Okay, what's bothering you?"

What a question! I didn't know where to start so I decided to approach the problem head-on. I asked, "Do you love me?"

He laughed and said, "Is that it? Honestly at first, I couldn't decide if I did or not. But when you gave me your teddy bear, I knew."

I sighed and said, "I'm glad. You know that I love you."

"Well, yeah. That's sort of obvious."

"Is it obvious to other people?"

"No, although I think Keith's figured it out."

"Are we wrong? Dad says it's not."

"I don't see how it could be wrong. Just because we're both boys shouldn't make any difference – at least not to us."

"Are we gay?"

"Is that what's really bothering you?" When I nodded, he said, "I don't know and I don't care. Being with you, sleeping with you and kissing is way too much fun to think about something like that. I'm going to enjoy it and think about stuff like that later. If we're gay, I think that we'll eventually figure it out and then worry about it then."

I rolled toward him pressed my chest against his and kissed him. Then I said, "Okay. I'll buy that."

"Me too." And he kissed me back. Then he rolled out of bed dropped his underwear on the floor and climbed back into bed. "I'm more comfortable this way."

I wriggled out of my underwear under the blankets and pushed them out onto the floor. "Me too."

Robbie fell asleep in a few minutes, but I was still trying to sort how I felt about giving Colton a massage. I gently stroked Robbie's back and as I did, I got an erection. I stroked my penis, wishing it were Robbie's hand and not mine. Eventually, I fell asleep and Robbie and I slept all night without being interrupted by one of his nightmares.

Dad woke us again as he clattered out to the garage with his golf equipment. I asked, "You ready to get up?"

"Not really, but I'm hungry, so let's go."

"All right. Dad probably left something good for us." I had an erection, but this time, instead of making excuses for not getting up so I'd have time for it to go down, I got out of bed and went to get towels.

Robbie saw my erection right away, smiled and got out of bed and I could see he had one too. Neither of us said anything about our condition as if we were silently accepting it as part of our normal morning routine and headed to the shower.

We ate then went to the park to find a soccer game and didn't come back until after one o'clock, arriving home just before Dad did. He made lunch for us and asked about our diaper scheme. He was pleased that my idea worked and told me to ask Keith to stay over again sometime.

Dad drove Robbie home and I rode along, but didn't have much to say to Dad on the way home. The rest of the afternoon, I followed my usual Sunday routine, still thinking about Robbie and Colton. I took another bike ride, but this time it didn't help. What was I going to do?

Chapter Ten

I finished my homework at about eight-thirty and decided that time to talk to Dad was now or never. I stood up, dropped my underwear and headed down to the living room. Dad was sitting in his recliner reading a magazine and I sidled up next to his chair, pushed my bare butt over the arm of the chair and settled into his lap. I leaned against him and put my head one his chest.

He rolled up his magazine and rapped me on the head with it. "So what's on your mind? I assume that's why you're here."

Now that I'd made the decision to open up to him, I didn't know how to begin so I started tiptoeing around the subject. "Well, you know Robbie and I have been sleeping together." He nodded at this obvious statement of fact so I decided to edge closer to my problem and blurted, "Sometimes we kiss." As soon as I did, my face got hot and I heard blood pounding in my ears.

Dad said, "That sounds nice. Do you guys like to kiss?"

I was surprised at his lack of reaction and said, "Yeah, and that's my problem."

"Why is it a problem?"

"Because boys don't kiss each other! We're only supposed to kiss girls." I couldn't see why Dad didn't understand what was wrong. Was he teasing me or trying to avoid talking about it?

"First of all, boys do kiss boys and there's nothing wrong with it if you both like it."

"But doesn't that make us gay or something?"

"It makes you 'or something'. I told you before that at your age, being attracted to another boy is perfectly normal. As long as you're both okay with what you're doing, you shouldn't worry about it." He held me tighter, rubbed my back and said, "Are you and Robbie having sex?"

Now we finally arrived at my problem. "No, but the other night, I wanted to." Then I told him about what happened when he put Robbie back to bed after he had been sleepwalking. "He didn't wake up, but we both held each other's penises. I liked it a lot and it felt great. But after that, I wasn't sure what to do or what I should do next."

He rubbed the top of my head with his chin. "Hmmm, you do have a problem, but it's not the one you think you have."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"If Robbie really was asleep – and I wonder if he was or not – when you both held each other's erections, then you've gone as far as you can without the two of you having a talk about sex and what you want to do with it. Robbie's a year older than you are and he had a best friend who was older than he was and gay. I'm betting that he knows a lot more about boys and sex than he's telling you."

"But how do I find out?"

"It won't be easy, but you have two things that you can use to start the conversation. Ask him to tell you more about Enrique and then you can tell him about what you guys did after he was sleepwalking. If you do, and you're both honest, you'll learn to trust each other enough to take the next step."

"Next step? You mean you don't mind if we have sex?"

"You mean, do I object if you do? No, I don't and if you take care of each other, I won't mind. You know you can ask me about anything."

"Thanks, Dad. But aren't you afraid that'll make me gay?"

"Not possible. You are what you are because of your DNA. You got half from me and half from your mother and it can't be changed now. If you're gay, which I doubt, your genes have already made that decision. It doesn't matter to me, if you are or not, nor do I care if Robbie's gay. I'll be here for you. And Robbie will always have a place here too.

"I understand. And thanks for helping Robbie too."

"No problem. I think you'd better get ready for bed. School tomorrow.

"I suppose I should turn in," I said, but I didn't get off his lap.

Dad rubbed my back and shoulders and asked, "Something else on your mind?"

Nodding, I said, "Tell me about Mom divorcing you. That's the only thing we've never talked about and please don't tell me I'm too young."

He sighed and said, "I knew I'd have to tell you sometime, but I was hoping you wouldn't ask for a few more years. You were only eight years old when she left and at the time, you really were too young to understand."

"Mom never seemed to like me. Was that part of it?"

"It was. Your mother and I met just before we graduated from college. We married and I started working fulltime to support her so she could go to law school for three more years. A week before she got her law degree, she found out she was pregnant."

"With me?"

"That's right. I was extremely happy, but she was devastated because it would interfere with getting her legal career started." Dad took a long breath and when he spoke again his voice was thick with sadness. "She was so upset that she wanted to have an abortion-end the pregnancy. Now I was devastated and we argued about it for hours and hours. Finally, her father who's a pastor at a fundamentalist church and I talked her out of it."

I sat in Dad's lap so stunned that I couldn't say anything. Mom wanted to get rid of me! Before I was born! I knew about abortions and we discussed the controversy about them at school in current affairs class. But this wasn't a class! And I wasn't reading about it in a book. It was about me.

"She went through with the pregnancy, but she hated all of it; how she felt, what it did to her body and mood. She had a cesarean delivery as soon as possible so she could be done with it. I hoped that she'd be better after that, but her hatred of me for causing her pregnancy grew and included you. She didn't want anything to do with you and I've taken care of you since you were only a few months old."

I tasted the salty tears that had run down my cheek to the corner of my mouth and rubbed my face against his shirt to wipe them away. "So why did she wait eight years before she divorced you?"

"It took her that long to get her law firm established and bringing in money. Also, she had a hard time finding someone else to marry because she scared off prospective husbands. You'll never meet the guy she finally married because one of the agreements in the divorce was that he'd never have contact with you. In some ways, he's worse than your mother and I think they deserve each other." He hugged me tight. "Are you sorry you asked?"

"Yes and no. I'm glad you told me, but I'm unhappy that I was part of it."

"You were only indirectly part of it and it was no fault of yours. Your mother leaving was the best thing that could have happened to us. I can't imagine living without you. Watching you grow and mature these last twelve years is one of the great joys in my life."

"I love you Dad."

"I know and I love you too. Now you definitely need to go to bed. If you want to talk more, we can tomorrow."

"Okay." I slid off his lap onto my feet. As I turned toward the door; Dad smacked me on my butt. "Hey, no fair. Sneak attack again."

"Sorry, I couldn't resist such an easy target."

Laughing, I put both hand on my bare cheeks and did a fake limp as I walked toward the stairs. For a little show, I moaned a little on each step. Dad had ever spanked me in my life. And come to think of it, he'd never hit me or even threatened to, although I remember Mom doing both. That must be part of why I trusted Dad so much.

I trotted up to my room, turned back the blankets and slid into bed. Putting my hands behind my head, I stared at the ceiling unable to sleep. My mother wanted to abort me! How could that be? How could anyone do something like that? What would it be like if she had? Would I just not exist? Would I know or care? I had no answers and the more I thought about it, the more I knew I'd never answer them.

After rolling around in bed for a long time, I made an effort to change the movie about abortion running in my head by imagining Robbie; how his body looked and felt and what it was like to hold his penis. Then I turned out the light, closed my eyes and fell asleep thinking about what we'd do next.

I went to school early and hung around near the main entrance of the school waiting for Colton. When I saw him coming up the sidewalk, I went down the steps to meet him. "Hi, Colton. You got a few minutes to talk?"

"Yeah, sure. By the way, thanks for doing my therapy with me Saturday. It gets boring if I'm by myself all the time and the massage you guys gave was great."

Blushing a little, I said, "You're welcome and that's what I want to talk to you about – if you don't mind."

"No, why would I mind?"

"Well, it's personal, I guess."

"How much more personal can you get than what we did Saturday. What do you want to know?"

I laughed awkwardly and said, "Well, I noticed that you don't have any pubic hair. Is that normal?"

He smiled and said, "For me it is. I have pubic hair, but not much and it's almost white and thin so I shave it off. Lots of guys do that."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"I suppose a lot of the seventh graders don't have pubic hair yet. I know we didn't in seventh grade."

"Yeah, that's true, especially the small guys. It doesn't look bad, but I've never seen anyone who shaved it and I was surprised."

"I keep all my body hair shaved because of the modeling I do. The photographers say it makes me look younger."

"I don't know anything about it, but it sounds like modeling would be fun. By the way, when we went to change, I opened your locker by mistake and your clothes were still there." Laughing, I said, "Did you go with your mom to your modeling job naked?"

Colton laughed too, but it sounded a little forced and then said, "No, we were running late, so Mom brought the clothes I had to wear with her and I changed there. But after I got to the photographer's studio, I got naked. Didn't you know that everyone who's a model in California works naked?"

I laughed at how silly our conversation was getting and said, "So that's why you weren't embarrassed when Keith's mom and your mom came in while we were massaging you."

"You got it." Then he slapped me on the back and went into the building.

At lunch the next day, Robbie said, "Are you all right, Tim. You haven't been yourself recently."

"Yeah, you're right and I haven't. Can you come over his afternoon? I need someone to talk to." Turning to Keith, I asked, "Can you come too?"

"I'd like to, but Mom is expecting me to work. I'll ask her if I can make it over sometime this week, though."

"Okay, thanks. Los tres amigos help each other."

At home, I led Robbie up to my room. I took off my school uniform and made a space on the floor next to my bed. Robbie watched my preparations silently and when I flopped down on the carpet and leaned back against the side of my bed, he sat down beside me.

After a long few minutes, he pressed his shoulder against mine and said, "You've been acting strange since Friday when we all stayed over."

I nodded. "Yeah. I need some help."

"I'm listening."

I leaned over and kissed him then said, "How does this sound."

"Loud and clear. D�game m�s. Talk to me more. Where do you want to start?"

"Tell me about Enrique."

"Okay. I suppose it's time." He took a long breath and said, "We spent most of our free time together and he was the one who wanted to play tie-up games. I didn't at first, but after a few times, I found out I liked it and the more we did it, the more I liked doing it. I wasn't any good at tying him up because I was only nine and couldn't make very good knots. He could though and I could never get loose once he was done.

"One hot day we were only wearing shorts and sandals when we started a tie-up game. After he had tied my hands behind my back, he pulled down my shorts and underwear and took them off my feet, sliding my sandals off at the same time. Then he tied my ankles together."

"Weren't you scared?"

"Some, but I trusted him and knew he'd never do anything to hurt me. Then he laid me on my side and started rubbing my penis. I didn't like it at first, but then it got stiff and the more he rubbed it, the better it felt. Eventually, he quit, untied my ankles and helped me to my feet. He dropped to his knees, turned me so I was facing him and sucked my penis into his mouth. That was even better than having him rub it. When he quit, he stood up, pushed me down on my knees and dropped his shorts so I could see his erection. I was amazed because I'd never seen an erection before and it looked gigantic compared to mine. Very slowly, he coaxed me into taking it into my mouth. When I did, he told me how to use my tongue and lips to bring him to an orgasm."

"Did he shoot in your mouth?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know that would happen when guys had orgasms. Anyway, it wasn't bad and I didn't mind because I could see and hear that Enrique liked it. From then on, we had sex whenever we were sure that no one would see us. One time, he tried to put it in my butt, but that hurt so much that he had to quit."

"But�" I couldn't form the question I wanted to ask, but Robbie answered it anyway.

"We did it because Enrique said that people used sex to make each other feel good and show how much they liked each other. He was my best friend and I wanted to show him how I felt so I went along with him although I never started it."

We sat silently for a few minutes while I thought about what he'd told me. Finally, I made a decision. I stood up, faced Robbie who was still sitting on the floor and dropped my underwear. My erection sprang free and stood away from my body at about a forty-five degree angle.

Robbie smiled, nodded and climbed to his knees. "Is this what you want?"

"Yeah, but I'm scared."

"I know. I remember my first time with Enrique and I'll go slow. You tell me if you want to stop."

"Okay. Go ahead."

Reaching out, he grabbed one bare butt cheek in each hand and pulled my hips toward him. Very gently, he let my penis slide over his lips, between the hard ridges of his teeth and into his mouth. The sensation of being inside that warm, moist cave was almost more than I could handle and I inhaled sharply.

He worked my penis over with his tongue and lips, bringing me closer and closer to a climax. When I had my orgasm, it was so intense that I actually screamed. I'd had orgasms before when I rubbed my penis on the carpet or bedspread, but they were nothing – nothing compared to this.

Robbie kept my penis in his mouth until it started to go soft and my breathing had returned to normal. When he let my soft penis drop out of his mouth, I grabbed his shirt at the shoulders, pulled him to his feet and kissed him. Pulling his shirt loose from his pants, I unbuckled his belt and as he undressed, we ran our hands over each other's body. When he was naked, I dropped to my knees in front of him.

He asked, "Do you still want to do this now that you know what it's like?

"I'm still scared, but yeah, I do. I want you to know how much I love you." I held his erect penis with the tips of my fingers and said, "What do I do?"

"What I did. I'll tell you what I like."

I opened my mouth way too wide at first, but after a little fumbling, I got it figured out and surrounded his penis tightly with my lips and started working on it with my tongue. I knew that at the end, he was going to shoot semen into my mouth and I wasn't looking forward to that, but that was part of it so I'd take it. Anyway, the sensation of having Robbie's penis in my mouth was so satisfying that I was willing to do almost anything to keep it there. He had the fingers of both hands knotted into my hair so he could control my head and how far his penis went into my mouth. As he described what he liked, I grabbed one butt cheek in each hand and buried my fingers between them, feeling for the outline of his anus.

Robbie had a huge orgasm and pulled on my hair so hard that he forced his penis deep into my mouth so that I gagged a little. But he let go as soon as he realized he'd done it. I let his penis fall from my mouth and got to my feet. Wrapping my arms around him, we toppled over on to the bed and kissed. I pushed my tongue between his lips so he could taste his orgasm.

After a few minutes of serious kissing, he moved his head away from me and asked, "How about getting your ropes out?"

Startled, I said, "I never thought of that! I've been getting erections when we play tie-up games and now I can do something about them."

He nodded. "I know and I've wanted to do that since we started."

I got up, went into the attic and got my box of ropes. We untangled four of them and Robbie said, "You're first. Lie on your bed and spread your arms and legs."

This was the tie that neither of us could escape from and I slid across my bedspread with happy anticipation and got into position. He tied a rope from each wrist and ankle to the corners of my bed frame, pulling them much tighter than usual. Then he lay beside me and began kissing me and stroking my body from my neck to my genitals, but being careful not to touch my penis, which had grown to a full erection again.

Starting at my nipples, he kissed my chest and belly, each kiss going farther down my body. Finally, he kissed my penis, licked my scrotum and sucked both testicles into his mouth. He wrapped his lips around the skin of my scrotum with my testicles in his mouth and pulled his head away, stretching the skin. It was uncomfortable, but somehow it added to the sensations growing in that part of my body. As they grew, my struggles against the ropes holding me to the bed grew so I let my emotions run free and began to beg and cry.

Robbie let my scrotum drop and then took my penis in his mouth again. Getting to an orgasm took longer than the last time, but when it hit, I thought it was better than the first. Since the buildup to it was so much longer, each surge from my penis was more intense and I screamed each time I shot into Robbie's mouth.

He stood up next to the bed looking down at me and smiled. "It's a good thing your dad isn't home. He'd probably think I was killing you. Now it's my turn."

Climbing back onto the bed, he straddled my chest by putting one knee on each side of my chest. Putting both hands behind my head, he lifted it from the pillow. I opened my mouth and as he guided his erection in, he said, "Now that you have some experience, you can make this one better than the last."

Eagerly, I wrapped my lips around his penis and began doing the things that he liked the first time.

NEXT PART