Life Through Lenses (Version 4b)

Life Through Lenses
V4, Part B

“Are you still not talking to me?” It had been three days since I’d asked Ben to leave. Since then, I had hidden the discs of our private project in the closet again, and not looked at them. My e-mail told me that I was getting a lot of comments on the videos I had posted, but I didn’t look at them. I had instead filled my time by finishing the editing for our main project. Ben’s calling me had come as a surprise.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been editing.” I was actually really glad to hear his voice. “Do you want to come over tonight?”
“I dunno…our first day of school is tomorrow. I just called to see if you still wanted a ride.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, Ben? I’m not mad at you!” I sighed. “Come over tonight, please?”
“Yeah, I will. If you’re sure that’s what you want.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I furrowed my eyebrows. I hadn’t been mad before, but now is tone was really starting to piss me off.
“I just mean, you haven’t talked to me in three days. You asked me to leave, and I told you to call me.”
“I just wanted some space, Ben! We’re practically fuckin’ attached at the hip, and I just wanted some alone time. Is that a crime?”
“Of course not,” He sighed. “You just, you had me worried, okay? Some day, hopefully, we’ll be together all of the time, and what are you going to do when you need space, and I have no where else to go?”
I sighed, “Baby…”
“No, don’t ‘Baby’ me. I think it’s a good question –I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“We’re seniors in high school, Ben! We don’t know what we want!”
He was quiet, and I was almost afraid he had hung up on me.
“If that’s how you feel, then maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore. Maybe we should just go back to being friends.”
“What are you talking about? Are you breaking up with me?”
“Maybe.”
“No, you either are or you’re being a jackass. Which one is it?”
I heard him sigh, “It’s nothing. You just frustrate me sometimes.”
“Look, just come over. We can talk.”
“I don’t know if I want to talk to you.”
“Well, you called me, so you obviously want to talk.”
“I don’t want to be ‘done’ with you, Riley. You may think I’m being immature, but I sincerely mean it when I say I want to be with you forever. No one makes me feel the way I do about you, except you.”
“You’re not immature, you’re corny. Come over!” I pleaded. “Like you said, it’s been three days. …I bought a new camera.”
“Oh really?” He sounded interested.
“Yeah. We make videos all of the time. I thought you might like to dabble in some photography.”
“Oh really?” He repeated.
“Really-really. So, what do you say? You done being a jackass, and going to come over?”
“You want me to come over right now?”
I glanced at the clock. It was a little after three.
“Umm, if you want to. Have you actually done any of your school shopping yet?”
He gave a little bark of laughter, “Ha, no. I don’t know what I thought I would do tomorrow. Probably just use what I had left over.”
“Then, why don’t you get some cash from your parents, and we can go get our school stuff.”
“Okay,” He agreed. “I’ll be there in a few minutes, okay?”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit then.” We said our obligatory goodbyes before hanging up, I went to unpack my new digital camera from it’s box to test it out a bit before Ben and I got down to business.
“Wow, you weren’t lying,” He whistled when he saw the camera. “Where’d you get money for that?”
“I finally spent my birthday money. I’ve just got enough left over after conning some out of my Dad to get my school stuff.” I put the camera down on the desk before I took his hand. “You ready to go?” I pressed a kiss to his lips –the first kiss we’d had in three days. He smiled, letting his tongue probe past my lips, and I groaned, pressing my hands against his chest.
“We have to shop first, then we can fool around.” I protested. “Let me grab my wallet…” I stepped back towards the desk to pick up my wallet. Ben’s arms wrapped around my waist.
“Why not? It’s not like Wal-Mart is gonna close…” He pressed his lips to my ear.
“Because if we start, we aren’t going to want to stop, Ben. I know how you work.” I shook my head before I pressed another kiss to his lips. “C’mon, let’s go.”
He sighed, taking his keys out of his pocket, jingling them between his fingers as we left my room and descended the stairs.
Ben’s semi-beat up old Mustang looked clean…well, cleaner then he usually kept it anyway.
“Did you wash your car?”
“I had to fill my time with something. I also rotated he tires, changed the oil, and waxed it. Oh, I changed the spark plugs and finally installed the new radio too.” He went around to the driver’s side, slipping into the driver’s seat.
“Spiffy,” I nodded. I sank into the seats and pulled the seatbelt over my shoulder to click it into place. I glanced at the new radio, which didn’t match the car itself at all. It looked to high-tech, but it was nice to see that we could finally listen to CDs and not have to scrounge up tapes to avoid the static-filled radio.
“So, where are we going?”
“I thought you said we were going to Wal-Mart?” I un-Velcro’d the grey CD case that had been installed on the visor above my head, and thumbed through the music there. “That’s fine.”
“You want to go anywhere else, or just to get our school stuff?”
“Ooooh,” I sighed. “I guess we should probably pick up a few other things.” I finally chose a CD as Ben pulled the car from the curb, and slid it into the player.
“Oh? Like what?”
“Oh, just some recreational things,” I shrugged.
“Ah. Didn’t we try to buy those together one other time, and you chickened out?”
“Yeah, the first time, but I totally did the last time we did. Besides, we actually need it this time. We’re kind of out.”
“How are we out? Have you been ‘recreating’ yourself?”
“Maybe,” I replied, coyly.
He sighed, shaking his head, “You should have called me.”
“It was late at night! I wasn’t going to call you at two in the morning when I got an itch!” He hummed, but didn’t reply. I slid my hand over his knee. “Look at it this way, we can try something new again.”
“We always try something new –maybe we should just decide what it is that we like already?” He suggested.
“But, I like them all.”
“That’s not true. You didn’t like that stuff we got on your birthday from the Porn-shop.”
“Oh yeah…but that’s because it was like…chunky and looked like lard or something. It was gross. I like gel-like stuff though.”
“But not the last stuff we bought –it smelled like plastic.” He protested.
“We’ll see what they have,” I nodded.
The rest of the drive was relatively quiet until Ben parked as close as possible to the entrance. The parking lot was packed. It was obvious we weren’t the only ones who had put off our school shopping.
Ben shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from holding my hand. I busied my own by grabbing a basket as we passed the elderly door greeter who said hello to us as we passed. We headed straight for the school supplies, which was a cramped disaster area. Ben managed to wedge between some arguing mothers and snatch a handful of single-subject notebooks, while I was lucky enough to nab some three and five-subjects. We loaded up with pencils, pens, some erasers, and other things we thought we might need. Then we moved together over the Health and Beauty section. I tried not to stand too close to him, trying to avoid a suspicion that might arise. We were small-town boys. Running into someone we knew, or someone who knew us, was always a possibility, and we weren’t really ready to tell people about “us” yet.
Ben shoved a couple of boxes underneath our notebooks, and we moved towards the check outs.
“Do we need anything else?” I asked.
“I don’t think so…” He shook his head. “You want to stop by the mall? I think I should get a new pair of jeans.”
“Why don’t you get jeans here?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I dunno…buying jeans here makes me feel kind of scummy.” He cringed. “Like, why am I buying clothes the same place I buy my groceries?”
“You are so strange.” I shook my head. “But yeah, we can.”
The lines were crazy, and I felt rather sorry for the cashiers who were unlucky enough to be working. Ben and I divided the our wares, and managed to get out with only a bag-a-piece. It felt relieving to be freed of the Last Minute crowd. The parking lot seemed like a cemetery compared to bustling that was going on inside of the store.
“Do we really want to go to the mall? I mean, isn’t it going to be crazy?” I asked.
“Hmm, no”, Ben shook his head. “All of these people are getting their last minute supplies. It’s a Tuesday night. Who’s shopping for clothes on a Tuesday night?”
I shrugged, “Okay, whatever.”
Ben sighed, turning over the ignition and starting to back the car out of the parking space, “If you don’t want to go, we don’t have to. It’s not like I’m forcing you or anything.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just, I think it might be really crowded.”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll protect you.” He made a quick glance before leaning over to kiss me rather chastly. He was leaning back into his seat before I had a chance to push him away.
“Idiot!” I resisted smacking him, “What if someone saw that?”
“Dude, whose gonna see us in my car at a traffic light? Relax.” He was grinning, and I wanted to pinch him. The light turned green though before I had a chance.
The mall wasn’t nearly as packed as I had worried it would be. Ben had gotten what he needed and now we were just store-hopping, looking for something to spend our last couple of bucks on. It wasn’t until we were in the candy store, filling candy-bags wih different flavored jelly beans that I noticed that someone had been following us.
“Do you know that guy?” I gave a small head nod to the sort of dirty looking guy who had been following us around almost since we had walked into the mall.
“Umm, no,” Ben took a few glances at him before shaking his head. “Why?”
“He’s been following us. I just noticed him.”
“Weird. Why would someone follow us? …I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before. He’s about our age, I think.”
“Maybe he does to St. Joan’s?” St. Joan’s was the local private catholic school. But this kid didn’t look like a catholic school-boy. Far from it, actually.
“Maybe he’s new in town?”
“Maybe… Let’s just get this stuff and go. He’s kind of creeping me out.” I took a step back from Ben when I realized how close I was standing to him. We finished filling our candy bags before paying for them. The back of Ben’s hand brushed mine as we walked.
I took a glance over my shoulder. The guy who was following us was trying to look nonchalant, window shopping in front of the Gap. But I didn’t buy it. My stomach sank when I realized how likely it was that he had probably seen the videos I had posted, and recognized Ben. He wouldn’t have recognized me, of course. My face was never shown. I made sure of that when I posted them.
We slipped out of the mall, finally loosing our stalker before we reached the parking lot. He was probably with someone, I assumed. Otherwise, he probably would have approached us…and if he approached us, Ben would discover what I had done… And while Ben would probably find it funny after awhile, I had still violated his privacy, violated him… He wouldn’t be happy with me all the same.
“What’s the matter?” Ben asked, unlocking the passenger side door of his car before moving around to unlock his own. “You look disturbed.”
“It’s nothing.” I shook my head. “Let’s just get back to my place, okay?”
I needed time alone to get the videos down…but was I already in too deep?

Ben was in the shower, and I was taking the time to look at some of the responses “we” had gotten on our videos. Mostly it was a lot of perverts of course. A lot of “hot bodies”, and comments like that. A few requests, which I had to admit sounded like they would be a lot of fun to do… If Ben knew about this, he would probably want to fulfill them. But, he didn’t. He couldn’t.
I wished I had the ability to look and see where the comments were coming from, see if our stalker had left any. However, the site I was using didn’t leave those kind of traces. I’m sure that who ever our stalker was, even if this was the reason he was following us, had never dreamed to actually see us.
“What are you looking at?” Ben asked, scrubbing his hair dry as he walked through the door. Instinctfully, I closed the browser and whipped my chair around to face him.
“You scared me!” I pressed my hand to my chest.
“Oh, were you doing something naughty?” He raised an eyebrow, leaning against the door as he closed it.
“Of course not,” I sighed, shaking my head. “I was making a folder to hide our pictures in –then I don’t have to worry about Becca finding them on my camera.”
“Honey, I hate it break it to you, but Becca left yesterday.”
“…Oh yeah.”
Becca had left the day before for college, three states away. I wasn’t quite used to the idea that she wouldn’t be around anymore. However, this did mean that aside from my Dad, Ben and I had the house to ourselves.
Ben pulled me out of my thoughts, tugging me up out of the chair. “It’s late, we should get some sleep before classes tomorrow.”
I nodded, “Let me just shut my computer off.” I pushed him towards the bed. “I’ll be there in a second.” I turned back to my desktop, leaning over the back of my chair shut the computer down for the night.
“I think I like you in this position.” Ben’s hands touched my hips, and I could feel him pressing against me.
“Ah, my chair isn’t strong enough for that.” I protested. “You can bend me over the foot of the bed if you want though.”
“Your bed isn’t high enough for that.”
“You want me to see if my Dad still has that saw-horse in the garage? I’ll bet if we duct-taped some pillows over it, we could get into some pretty good positions.”
“You’re so dirty,” He scoffed, shaking his head.
“You’re the one who suggested it in the first place!”
Ben laughed, and pulled me back against him again. His lips pressed against my neck, “I’m glad you’re not mad at me about the other day. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” I promised, pressing my palm to his hands. “Now c’mon, we have school in the morning. We should get some sleep.”
Before I crawled into bed with him, I flipped the switch on the alarm. Ben held up the covers for me to slide in next to him. I snuggled up against his chest and welcome sleep.


“Where’re you off to?” Ben was trying to keep from putting his hands on my hips and pulling me close, like so many of the other couples in our small high school were doing right then. “Who’ve you got homeroom with?”
“McIntyre,” I shrugged. “You?”
“Calhoun,” He rolled his eyes. “But I’ll see you first period?”
“Yep,” I nodded. “See you—” I stopped in midsentence.
“What’s wrong?” He glanced over my shoulder to where I was staring. “Oh…well, uh…” Our “stalker” from the mall was unloading a backpack into a nearby locker. From the looks of it, we had ourselves a new student. A member of the Student Council, Katarina Jones, was chatting over him, obviously standing about to show him around.
“Walk me to class?” I tugged on Ben’s sleeve.
“Sure,” He nodded. “You’re on my way anyway.”
“Oh, well, as long as it isn’t any trouble,” I rolled my eyes. I leaned in close to him, so only the two of us could hear. “Watch out for that guy –we don’t know who he is, or why he was following us around yesterday.”
“Maybe he wasn’t following us around at all?” Ben suggested. “Maybe it was just a coincidence.”
“We should at least be weary of it,” I shrugged. “So, watch out for him.”
“You’re such a worrier.” He took a glance around the hall to make sure that it was truly empty before he pressed a short kiss to my lips. “—Mm, first stolen kiss of the new school year.”
“Jackass,” I punched him lightly in the stomach, and he feigned a bit of a doubling over.
“That hurts my feelings!” He protested. We continued down the hallway, chatting. We weren’t paying much attention as we were walking, so we were pretty surprised when there was a flutter of notebooks and paper.
“Ben! Riley! Watch where you’re going!” Katarina’s voice was annoyed. “Jeez!”
“Sorry, Kat,” Ben turned on his charm, leaning down to pick up some of the notebooks. “How was your summer?” He pressed his share of the pick-up into her hands.
“Good, and these aren’t mine, they’re his you big doofus.” Katarina motioned to the stranger next to her. He flushed red, taking the notebooks from Katarina.
“Thank you,” His voice was quiet, and we barely heard it. He looked a lot better then he had the day before. He cleaned up fairly well. He was dressed in a new looking t-shirt, broken in blue jeans, a pair of old sneakers, and had a zip-up fleece jacket on over top of it. He averted his eyes, and I suddenly felt a little bad about being worried over him. He was probably just shy –saw some kids around his own age, and wanted to make friends with us.
“Sorry about that,” Ben apologized for the both of us. “You’re new here, huh?”
He gave a curt nod, but didn’t open his mouth again.
Katarina sighed, “Ben, Riley, this is Martin Davis. Martin, this is Ben Thompson and Riley Butters. Ben-N-Riley is pretty much one word here, they’re damn near inseparable.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, Kat.” Ben grinned. We had been friends with Kat since elementary school, though we had drifted apart over he last couple of years. She could still be counted on for a laugh every once in awhile though. “Besides, we were just separating for homeroom. –Who’ve you got?”
“Calhoun. You?”
“Calhoun! Yay!” Ben grinned and wrapped his arms around Katarina. I tried not to show my jealousy as he pressed a friendly kiss to her temple.
“Who do you have, Riley?” Katarina fended off Ben, shoving him away.
“McIntyre,” I shrugged. “And yes, it’s the only class we have apart.”
“You guys are sick,” Katarina shook her head. “You’re worse then Rick-N-Amy.”
“Hey, those two never let go of one another,” I shook my head. “We’re just friends.” It was important for me to remind her of that for some reason. That Ben and I were just friends… I had the sneaking suspicion that Kat, and a few others of our friends, were beginning to pick up on our “More then Friends” vibe.
“Hmm,” She shrugged. “Anyway, would you mind showing Martin to class? He’s got McIntyre too –I mean, if that’s OK with you, Martin?”
His face flushed redder, if that was even possible, “That would be fine.”
“Cool,” She linked arms with Ben. “I’ll catch you after homeroom then and show you where the rest of your classes are during the break, okay?”
Martin nodded, “Okay.” The two of us watched them walk away, chatting away like a bunch of girls.
“Uh, so, we’re going this way,” I motioned with a nod of my head down an opposite hallway. “McIntyre is a good guy –you’ll probably have him for your science course, if you still need one.” Martin was quiet as he followed me, and it was a little awkward. “So, uh…where are you from?”
“Morgan,” He stated. Morgan was a city about four hours away.
“Oh. Nice place. Why’d you move to a little hick-town like this?”
“Dad got a job at the factory in town, Mom wanted a new house. Markets here were good.” He shrugged.
“Kind of crap moving before you’re senior year though, huh?”
“It’s not a big deal, it’s not like I left much behind,” He shrugged. He wasn’t a big talker.
I wasn’t sure what else I should ask him about, so I stayed quiet as we continued to walk down the hall.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t really following you guys yesterday,” He spoke up just before we approached the classroom. “I thought I recognized you guys from somewhere, but…that would have been really silly. I apologize if it was weird.”
I gave a hesitant laugh, “Oh, not a big deal. –What do you mean it would have been silly?”
He flushed red again, even though he had just regained his normal color, “I thought I recognized Ben from some videos I can seen online –but that’s dumb of course.” He shook his head. “It’s not a big deal.”
Now my face was turning colors, “Oh, yeah. Kind of. Anyway, this is our homeroom.” I ushered him through the door, relieved to be rid of him. I took a seat towards the edge, and he sat behind me. He didn’t talk to me though, so I figured he was done with whatever it was he may have been trying to get out of me
Homeroom passed quickly, and I met up with Ben as quickly as possible. I knew I was probably ruining something great, but I had to get this off my chest. It had been weighing down on me for nearly a week, and I needed his permission.
“Can I talk to you?” I leaned down over the back of his chair where he was talking with some of his friends.
“Yeah, sure, what’s up?”
“No, I mean in private.”
“Oooh, Ben’s in trouble!” Nick, another of our friends, making a tsk-ing sound, wagging his finger. “Shame on you!”
“Shut up,” I rolled my eyes. I led Ben towards the bathrooms, where I was relieved to find that it was empty. I pushed him into the handicap stall, and pressed him up against the wall, whispering quietly.
“I have to tell you something.”
“I think we’ve established that part, babe. What’s wrong?”
“I did something really bad,” I looked down at where our chests were pressing together. “I want you to know that I was angry at you after I found out that you had done it with someone else, and I really just wanted to get back at you, but I realize now that…what I did was wrong, and I shouldn’t have done it. And I’ll fix it as soon as possible.”
“What did you do?” His voice was quiet, almost scared.
“Well, when I found out that you fooled around with that other guy… I stayed up all night, editing some of our private footage.” I bit my lip. His fingers pressed against my chin, and he tilted my head up. His eyes were hard, and he was giving me a rather severe look.
“And?”
“And…I posted a few of them on the internet –But I never said or names or where we were from.”
“Riley! How could you?! Those were just for us!”
“They were for you!” I scoffed. “I never wanted to do them, I just went a long with them!”
“Why would you do something like that! What if someone found them!”
“I think someone did,” I flushed red, and I sat down on the edge of the toilet seat, pressing my hands against my knees.
“What do you mean?”
“I think that Martin recognized you from one of the videos online and that’s why he was following us around the mall yesterday.”
“Fuck,” He sighed, shaking his head. He pressed his palms over his eyes, and heaved a louder sigh. “Fuck! Why, Riley? Did I make you that angry?!”
“Yes!” I stood back up. “You told me you fooled around with some other guy and I’m supposed to just shrug and say ‘That’s okay, Ben. I know you did it for ‘us’? Fuck that, Ben! Fuck that!”
“I did do it for us!”
“Well I made those videos for ‘us’. And I thought it was time to share them.”
“Jesus,” He turned away from me, pressing his forehead against the cool tile wall. “Fuckin’-A.” His fingers flexed against the wall, and I jerked in surprise as he beat his fist against it loudly a couple of times. “Christ, Riley!”
“I already said I would fix it!”
“Where did you post them?” He asked.
“I don’t know, some amateur website you had bookmarked on my computer.”
He sighed, shaking his head, “Goddamn, do you know how many perverts have probably seen us fucking now?”
“Well…the counter says a good couple thousand, but some of them could have been repeats. We’ve gotten a few hundred comments.”
“You enabled comments? Oh, fuck, I feel dirty.” He turned around, leaning against the wall. “What do they say?”
“Well…” I stepped closer. Hopefully this was my chance to reconcile. Get Riley to find this exciting, not life-threatening. “A lot of them just say how hot you are,” I pressed my lips to his. “Some of them say how hot I am… Some of them recommend some different positions they’d like to see us in… There are a lot of sick fucks out there who want to see me come in your open mouth, or on your chest.”
He cringed, shaking his head, “Ah, Riley.” He put his hands on my shoulders, holding me at arms length away. “No, I can’t do that with you right now.” He shook his head. “Not in the school bathroom.”
I sighed, “I’m really sorry, Ben. I didn’t think that someone we knew would find them.” I brushed his hair out of his face. “Do you forgive me?”
“I don’t know… I think I have to see them first.” There was a familiar glint in his eye, and I knew he couldn’t be to angry with me.
“I’ll take them down,” I promised.
“We’ll see,” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Who knows, maybe we’ve got a fan club?”

I caught Martin staring at the back of my and Ben’s heads during our Photography class. I wasn’t surprised to run into him anymore. He still irked me, but at least now Riley knew, and I didn’t have to worry about Martin spilling it to him. In fact, I think Ben was starting to find it a little exciting. I noticed his little touches, as though he were teasing Martin, of whom he knew was watching us, teasing him. He held his hand against my hip a litter longer then he might normally as he squeezed past me in the Dark Room. We were fourth-levelers in the Photography class, and knew what we were doing. We were supposed to be instructing the three new freshman, and Martin, on Dark Room procedure, but the small room with six people was a tight squeeze. Rather then instruct, Ben was using it as an opportunity to cop a cheap feel in a dark place.
“—But remember, “He was saying. “If the red light is on over the door, knock and wait for an answer. You open that door and ruin someone’s project, you’re in deep shit. We focus a lot more on Digital Photography now, but standard film photography is still pretty popular here. A lot of people like working with the chemicals, but if that’s not for you, just tell Mrs. Kealie. The photography class is pretty flexible.”
“But don’t let a fear of messing up keep you from using the dark room,” I shook my head. “It’s hard to do the first couple of times, and you’ll probably mess something up, but everyone does. At least try it before you decide that you don’t want to do it.”
“Should we do a demonstration?” Ben’s hand was hidden behind my back, tracing a line with his fingers up my spine.
“Hmm, I think there are too many of us to do a decent run,” I shook my head. “We’ll teach you how to actually use the Dark room after we get our first assignments.”
Ben nodded, “Okay, lets get out of this little hole then.” He pushed me forward as the freshies and Martin turned to escape from the room. He held me back for just a moment. “Can I come over tonight?”
“I figured we had already established that you were moving in?” I was half joking…but only half. Ben was pretty much moved in, except for the fact that all of his stuff was still at his house.
“Well, that would certaintly save me some time driving back and forth to get clothes every week.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” I stepped out of his arms and the dark little room, back into the bright classroom. My eyes took a second to adjust to the light shift, and I felt Ben’s hand on my wrist as he moved past me. Mrs. Kealie was going over the assignments for our first project with Levels two and three. I picked up the instruction sheet for levels one and four, and brought them back to our little courner. Mrs. Kealie had run out of major projects for Ben and I, as we were the only ones lame enough to take Photography four years in a row. Instead, she was having us work on an instructor-basis, moreso with the new people then with the old-hats.
Ben took the hand out from me, passing it out to the small group in front of us. I glanced over it, and remembered it from our freshman year. It was a pretty straightforward first assignment, experimentation without using a point-and-shoot camera, which a lot of people were under the misunderstanding that we were using.
“Now, remember, you’ll all need a 3.5 milimeter camera. You can get a decent one almost anywhere. They may be hard to find, ‘cause so many people are doing digital now, but if you ask someone in your family probably has an old one they use. Nikons are good. Ben and I both have one if anyone needs to use one. Kealie has an extra one too if cost is a problem. Old photography students are good to ask too, so if you have older siblings or are friends with older students, ask around. You shouldn’t have to go out and buy a hundred dollar camera, unless you’re really serious about Photography.” I explained, after we had finished going over some examples of the assignment. “The bell will ring soon, so are there any questions?”
Ben and I did some question or answers. The two girls in the room seemed rather interested in the two of us, and their questions failed to be about the class, but more about us. Ben and I gave them our best smiles and replied to their questions that we were kind of their teachers and their questions were kind of inappropriate.
“Freshies have gotten kind of fresh, eh?” Ben was walking with me to my locker. The halls were filled with the sounds of an ending day, goodbyes being thrown around, and quick last kisses before parting for part-time jobs or home.
“They just don’t know any better.”
“Hey Bitches!” Both of us twitched as we felt Nick’s hands clamp around our necks. “What’re you up to tonight?”
“We’ve got plans, but why do you ask?”
“A couple of the guys and I were wondering if you’d like to get together. Just hang out, play some videos games, maybe order in some pizza?”
“Sure, what time were you getting together?”
“Say…seven o’clock my place?” Nick’s hands slid off our necks as he took a step back, now that the hallway was starting t empty.
“Sure,” Ben confirmed. “We’ll be there.”
“See you guys later then,” Nick waved as he stepped off to catch up with more of our friends.
“Ready to go?” Ben asked, as I zipped up my backpack, throwing it over my shoulder.
“Yeah, lets get out of here.” I nodded.

It wasn’t long before we were back at my house with the door closed. Ben was reviewing our videos that I had posted on the internet, and I was sitting bashfully on the bed, clutching a pillow to my chest. He was quiet as he watched them –all five of them rather short at only about three minutes each. When he had finally viewed the last one, he took a moment before he turned to me.
“Did you really want to hurt me that badly?”
My face turned red, and I pressed it into the pillow, “I’ve said I was sorry!”
He sighed, getting up from the chair to kneel in front of me, “I’m not mad, Riley. I just don’t understand why you would do this without telling me.”
“I was mad at you! I wasn’t thinking.” I shook my head.
He tugged on the ends of my hair, pulling me forward for a kiss, “It’s OK.” He grinned against my lips, “We look hot together.” He stood up, forcing me back into the mattress. “I don’t have a problem with it –as long as you’re OK with it.” His mouth sucked softly against my neck, and I groaned.
“Ah, we don’t have time!” My hands went to his hips as his fingers traced under my shirt. “We have to go meet the guys, remember?”
“Not until seven. We have plenty of time,” Ben argued. My shirt came over my head and Ben shifted just enough to unleash both of us from our jeans. His shirt fell over my face as his hands went to pull my waistbands off, shoving them to my feet. I reached up, throwing his shirt to the side, as his hands slid up my chest.
“Ben!”
“Riley.” His voice was warm, and inviting. His arms wrapped around my waist as he pressed against me. “What’d you do with the stuff we just bought?” His lips were against my neck and chest. His hips were already thrusting softly against mine, coaxing our bodies together. I lifted a foot to the edge of the bed, allowing him closer.
“Uhh…” I bit my tongue, trying to remember if I had hid our bag of goodies in the closet with our footage, or whether I had put it in my side table. “Check the side table, I think.” He pulled away from me, taking the chance to pull step out of the rest of his clothes. He rummaged through the drawer, and sighed.
“I don’t see them,”
“Then it’s in the closet,” I started to get up, but he stopped me.
“Just say there, I’ll find it.” His hand pushed against my chest, and I scooted farther up into the middle of the bed while he went to get our stuff.
“Condoms?” He offered.
“If you want,” I shrugged. We both actually liked using condoms, but due to costs and other miscellaneous reasons, we only used them occasionally. They helped to keep our mess to a minimum, and they felt good when we were wearing them. Tight, and kind of restrictive. It helped us to go longer, really.
He tossed the box and opened up the bottle of lubrication. I gasped at the coolness, as he poured it liberally over me. He grinned, moving up onto the bed to push me back into the pillows. His lips pressed against my jaw, then my neck, and finally on to my own lips. One hand pressed into the mattress near my shoulder, the other worked over the both of us, massaging the gel into our members.
“What do you want?” He asked,
My arms moved up his bare sides, and I linked in my fingers behind his neck, “Anything you want to give me.”
He sucked in a breath through his teeth, pulling his hands away from us. He backed away enough to nudge my thighs apart, fitting himself between them. Then he took he time to spread over more lubrication, and lined up our members. He was careful and deliberate as he distributed his weight. He was as close to me as we could be, without actually penetrating one another.
One arm moved to my waist, the other held the rest of his weight. His hips thrust against me. He leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “Those videos…you look really sexy. I come off looking dirty, but you…” He shook his head slightly, biting softly on the edge of my ear. “You…” I turned my head, pulling my ear out of his mouth before turning back to catch his lips. His teeth bit out his body’s frustration, nipping at my lips. I felt his hand at my waist moving down, rubbing at a puddle of lube that had collected, and coaxing a finger, then two, inside of me. “Talk to me…” He urged.
“I don’t know what to say,” I breathed.”
“Tell me how you feel. Order me around. I don’t care. Cite fucking’ Pythagorean Theorem, I don’t care.”
I laughed, then grunted as he pulled away. He tore into the box of condoms, breaking off one of the foil packets and ripped it open with his teeth. I leaned up on my elbows to watch him slide it over his slickened member. He licked his lips as he tugged me further down on the mattress. His hands then slid up my thighs.
“Hold,” He pushed my legs up to my chest, giving himself better access. My arms wrapped around my thighs. He pushed inside slowly, and I rested one of my legs over his shoulder, to bite down on the back of my hand.
He pushed in a little deeper then I expected as he leaned forward to move my hand aside and kiss me. I squeezed my eyes shut. My teeth sank into my tongue.
“Hey, let it out.” He encouraged. “We’re alone…”
“I’m used to trying to be quiet,” I confessed. My arms wrapped around his shoulders, and he began to thrust into me. I flowed along with him, squeezing my eyes closed, and I couldn’t hold back my moan as I felt him empty into me.
He was breathing heavily as he finally pulled away. He stretched out next to me, his stomach rising and falling in deep intervals. He pressed his face between my neck and shoulder, and ran his hand down my chest before taking a hold of my cock. He stroked me, paying attention to the natural way my body jerked at his touch. He could always tell when I was close, and when I was, he leaned forward, and took me into his mouth. My hands instantly went to rake through his hair. I held his mouth over me, as I started to come. For the first time since we had started having sex, I didn’t even hold back the orgasmic moan.
“I think that was the sexiest noise I’ve ever heard out of your mouth.” He breathed, moving away after I had softened again. His mouth pressed to mine, and I could taste my come. I grunted, pulling him close again.
“I’m glad you liked it…” I reached down to stroke him, tugging off the condom.
He grunted, shaking his head against my neck, “Ah, not again.”
I sighed, “Okay, okay…” I pulled away to throw the condom into the trashcan. “We should go get cleaned up before we go to Nick’s place.”
“I can go along with that,” He nodded. We separated just long enough to pick up clean clothes and grab a towel. Then we made our way to the bathroom, closing the door securely behind us.

The door to Nick’s house was opened by his newest step-mother. She looked to be the youngest ever, probably only a couple of years older then us. Nick’s Dad’s mantra since Nick’s Mom had divorced him when we were in elementary school was “Get ‘em young, and leave ‘em before they’re too much older.” This was wife number four.
“Oh, more of Nicky’s friends.” She seemed pleasant enough, but we were sure she was dreaming of the day little Nicky left for college. She had probably seen enough of teenaged boys to last herself a lifetime –and now she was the mother one. “The others are down in the basement.”
Ben and I gave her a courteous nod before excusing ourselves to join the rest of the group in the basement.
Nick didn’t turn from the video game he was playing with Kevin.
“Hey guys, make yourselves at home.” He leaned a little too far into KEvein’s shoulder, throwing him off balance.
“Dude! Stop moving!” Kevin took his hand off his controller just long enough to shove Nick off. “Christ, you’re such a game-newb!”
Nick stuck out his tongue and Ben and I moved away to see what Lincoln and Jeb were talking about behind the bar.
“Are you two trying to break into Mr. Cornell’s liquor cabinet again? You know he thinks it’s funny to see you guys try to tamper it open,” Ben took a seat on one of the stools.
“Hey –we got it open last time. It was the little string maze that has us stumped. Does it actually follow a pattern, or can it just be put back any which-way?”
“It’s a color code,” Nick called. “It’s quad-colored string. It’s a very intricate little pattern. Good luck though.”
“Fuck…why you gotta have a puzzle-maker for a Dad?” Lincoln sighed. “Why couldn’t he be a normal little factory worker or somethin’ like Butters’ dad?”
“You don’t want my Dad,” I shook my head.
“Hey, at least your Dad is around more then mine,” Nick tossed away his controller as Kevin’ ran his car off the track, just before the finishing line of their race. “And doesn’t change wives every two years.”
“Oh yeah…how old is this one anyway?” Lincoln asked.
“Twenty-six. Her name is Christy. I haven’t really talked to her that much. My Dad is away working a deal with a company in Toronto this week though, so we’re kind of dancing around one another.” Nick stood up, stretching his arms behind his back as he walked over to the bar, while Kevin got up to turn off the TV. “I want to give her a bit of a scare while we’re alone…It would be pretty hilarious to test this one.”
“Like you tested all the others?”
So far, Nick had broken into the liquor cabinet twice, during the duration of Step-Mother number 1. Step-mother number two had had to live with Nick-the-Nudist, and Step-mother number 3 had been lead to believe that Nick was some kind of a sexual deviant. all of these, to his pleasure, had been deal-breakers between the wives and his Dad, who was too easy-going and knew that Nick was just “acting out”.
“What’s your plan this time?” I asked, almost afraid to hear. “Transgender?”
“Gay.”
Ben nearly spit out the soda he had just accepted from Jeb, “What?”
“That’s why we asked you guys over here actually.” Nick confessed.
“What do we have to do with this?” I asked.
“Kev has agreed to pretend to be my boyfriend –but we need some coaching to be believable.”
“And why would we be able to coach you?” I tried to stay calm, but my heart was beating faster by the second. Had someone told them? Had the just figured it out, like Becca had? Were they just making assumptions?
“Don’t freak out, dude. We’ve known for awhile. It’s a little hard to ignore sometimes,” Jeb shrugged. “It’s cool.”
Ben laughed, “That’s not possible.”
“What’s not possible?” I asked, unsure if he was going to try and deny their allegation.
“That us being gay is “cool” –Lincoln, you’re the biggest homophobe I know. You can’t actually be OK with this.”
“I’ve known both of you since grade school. I’m not going to suddenly stop being friends with you just ‘cause it weirds me out that you like to take it up the ass,” Lincoln cringed. “Besides, I’ve grown up a lot, okay?”
“And the rest of you?” Ben challenged.
“Why would we have brought it up into the open if we weren’t supportive?” Kevin leaned on Nick’s shoulder.
“Because you’re using us for your own sick purpose,” Ben crossed his arms. “Why don’t you leave this one alone, Nick?”
“Because, she’s only six years older then me, Ben. That’s sick!”
“What are you going to do when your Dad starts dating women yonger then you?” I asked. “You know what he says…”
“He’s promised to change his tune if I drive this one off too. He says he’ll date women his own age.”
“Ah, so she is going to be a challenge. Your dad is quite he puzzler.”
“My dad is a jackass. I don’t want to hurt Christy. I didn’t want to hurt the rest of them –I just want my Dad to have some fucking self-respect…which is why I need your help… So, will you?”
“What do you need our help with?” I asked. “I mean, you can’t just magically be coached into being gay. It just kind of happens. Same as being hetero.”
“Yeah, but we’ve got to be convincing.”
“Well, what do we do that makes you so sure that we’re gay?” Ben asked.
“Hmm…” Nick thought. “I guess the moment I realized was last year, when you were petting Riley on the head in the library after school… I don’t think you realized you weren’t the only ones in there.”
“Okay…so petting. What else?”
“It’s just something about your air. It screams “I like men!...well, not like in flashy neon or anything, but it’s out there.”
“We can’t transform aura,” Ben shook his head. “Why don’t we formulate a plan, then decide how we can help you…. Now, are you planning on being gay all of the time, or just around Christy?”
“Just Christy. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea.” Nick shook his head.
“Okay, then you and Kevin need to hang out here…a lot. In front of Christy, which means no hiding down here in the basement.” Ben’s hand set down on my waist. It felt weird not to have to push him away. It was odd that Nick’s basement was now a “safe zone”. “Don’t be afraid to touch one another.”
“He is touching me,” Nick pointed out.
“Leaning is a friend thing,” Ben shook his head. “Boyfriends touch.” He squeezed his hand on my hip and I put my hand down on his knee.
“You wouldn’t lean on your girlfriend like that, would you?” I asked.
“I dunno, I might.” Nick shrugged.
“No, you’d come up behind her and rest your head on her shoulder.” Ben stood up, demonstrating.
“And Kevin, what would you do?” I asked, after Nick had moved to mimic Ben.
“Why do I have to be the girl?” Kevin asked.
“That’s a dumb way of looking at it –you aren’t a girl. You’re shorter then Nick, it’s more natural looking. Just because he comes up behind you, doesn’t mean you’re a bottom.”
“Is that the nice way of saying ‘the girl’?” Lincoln asked.
“I just said, there is no girl!” I insisted. “If there was a girl involved, we would be straight!”
“But someone is taking it up, right –like the girl.”
“Men and women are both capable of anal sex. When two men are together, it doesn’t mean that one is magically a girl, just because he is being penetrated.” I rolled my eyes.
“Easy to tell which one is which, eh?” Lincoln elbowed Jeb in the ribs, and the two laughed.
“Hey,” Ben spoke up. “I can tell you first hand that Riley is no female.”
The laughter grew, and I shook my head. “Thanks hun, but I don’t think that made it any better. –We’re straying from the point.” I turned back to the group of heteros in front of us. “Anyway, Kevin, after Nick hugs you, what do you do?”
“Well…what are we doing?” He sounded confused. “I mean, hypothetically.”
“In a situation like right now,” I hinted to him by putting my hands on top of Ben’s. My back pressed against his chest and I could feel him getting excited behind me. We’d never been this close to one another in front of anyone besides Becca before. “—Just talking. Pretend you’re with your Dad and Christy. What are you doing to really irk them?”
Kevin mimicked my hand movement, but tugged Nick’s hands down lower on his crotch.
“You don’t have to molest one another,” Ben rolled his eyes. “Unless you want to in which case I don’t think you need our tutelage.”
“Right, sorry.” Kevin shoved Nick’s hands back up on his stomach.
“Wow, you have really nice abs.” Nick’s hands rubbed across Kevin’s stomach. “Very well defined, man.”
“Shut up,” Kevin blushed red.
“Good,” Ben laughed.
“What about, you know…kissing.” Nate pulled away from Kevin to grab a drink from the fridge. “It’s gotta look real, right?”
“Stay natural,” Ben suggested. “Kissing a guy isn’t that different from kissing a girl.”
“But, isn’t it weird?” Jeb asked.
Ben and I glanced at one another before we both shrugged.
“I guess it was a little strange the first time, but you get over it. Ben and I enjoy it, but we’re gay. We don’t know what you should expect.”
“Anyway, lets move on…” Lincoln suggested. “What were you two arguing about in the bathroom today?”
Ben let his fingers trail along my side as he resumed his seat. “Nothing, we just smoothed it over already.”
“Was it something about that new kid, Martin?” Nick asked.
“No,” I rolled my eyes. “Does he weird anyone else out though?”
The rest of them shrugged. Ben rubbed his palm against my bak.
“I think it’s just you, but it was just his first day. He’s still adjusting to a new place.”
“He doesn’t have to be so fucking creepy,” I shivered. “Besides, he was following us yesterday.”
“And I’m sure he had a good excuse.”
“No, he didn’t.” I crossed my arms bitterly.
“Well, whatever. So long as you two aren’t fighting or anything.” Nick shrugged. “Lets watch a movie or something. I’m sick of listening to you assholes talk.”
A half hour later, Ben and I had taken over the small loveseat to the left of the TV. The basement was dark with the exception of some safety lights near the stairs and the TV. Nick and Kevin were sharing a chair directly in front of the screen, and Jeb and Lincoln were sitting separately on the couch, angled similarly to the loveseat on the other side of the room.
Ben tugged the blanket from the back of the loveseat over us, letting his hands rest a little more secretly on my thighs. My hands were outside of the cover, pressed on top of his to keep them from straying. Our friends may know now, that wasn’t a reason to give them an eyeful.
Ben leaned forward a little to whisper quietly so just I could here, “You okay? You seem tense.”
I shrugged, focusing on the movie instead of the way his foot was wrapping around my ankle or the fact that could feel him growing harder, pressing against my back.
“You want to get out of here?” He suggested, his hands sliding dangerously south.
I leaned back to reply, “We can’t just leave –that would kind of an asshole thing to do.”
“They won’t mind,” He sighed. “Besides, I’m tired of sharing you. I had to do it all day. After school is the only time I get you to myself now.”
I nudged him in the ribs as he went to bite down on my ear.
“Not here,” I warned.
“They aren’t watching,” He coaxed. “They’re looking at Anime-Slut’s panties.”
“Hey, don’t know fan service!” Jeb warned. Evidentally we had been growing louder as we talked.
“I wasn’t knocking it,” Ben’s hands slid back to my waist. “I just don’t understand why all the girls in anime wear white cotton panties.”
“Because they are the sexiest kind of panty –duh,” Jeb rolled his eyes.
“Whatever,” Ben shook his head. He pushed on my back, and I sat up to let him up. “Do you guys mind if we get out of here?”
“No, it’s not like we’re holding you hostage.” Nick’s chin rested on top of Kevin’s head. It was a little bizarre to see the two of them so close together, but they seemed comfortable.
“Okay, we’re going to go then. We’ll see you at school tomorrow.” I tossed the blanket that had been covering us back into place.
“See ya,” Nick waved.
We showed ourselves out, not seeing a sign of Christy, as we went on our way.

Life Through Lenses (Version 4a)

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