Legal Disclaimer: This story contains homoerotic content. If this offends you, or if it is illegal for you to access such content, please press the 'Back' button on your browser now.
This story is fictional in every way. The characters in this story are not based on real people, alive or dead, and the events in this story are not based on real life events that the author has been a part of or seen. Any similarities in names or descriptions are purely coincidental.
The author grants the Nifty Archive a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, and non-cancelable license to display the work.
Author's Note: By now you're pretty used to my apologies for taking so long to post another chapter, so I'll get right to it. Sorry! There's a threesome in this story, and in the next chapter I hope to include a many-membered (pun intended) orgy. Hopefully this will in some small part make up for the delay.
Additional Note: Just because the characters in this story do not always use protection does not mean you should follow their example. Always protect yourself!
As usual, any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks to everyone who's emailed me, I really like hearing from you.
aleksandercaspian@gmail.com or aleksandercaspian@hotmail.com (msn)
Lunchroom Fun Chapter 7
His face was warm. That was the first thought that floated through Alex's semi-conscious mind as he swam slowly towards the surface of wakefulness. He opened his eyes a crack: as he had thought, there was a shaft of sunlight shining directly onto his face. He shifted his head slightly and felt his right cheek meet warm, soft skin. Not his own. For a moment he felt a rush of excitement and almost spoke aloud the name that filled his mind. But before he could form the words, his brain caught up. It's not Ben, he thought silently. So who is it? He took a deep breath and suddenly he could smell it: sex. So strong, the hot, musky aroma of dried cum. He could feel it plastered over his chest, his face, his cock. He could taste the residue in his mouth, and licking his lips, he found the sweet taste there too. As his final sense engaged, he realized he could hear breathing.
Suddenly the memories came rushing back, and his cock jumped at the mental picture of Jake and Sam naked before him flashed across his vision. Instantly he was awake and taking stock of his surroundings. He was lying on the mattress in Jake's house, the warm afternoon sunlight drifting in the window and two hot, naked guys sleeping beside him, their arms and legs entangled with his. Lying back, he felt a trickle of guilt. It was almost felt like he had cheated on Ben. But that was silly: if Ben had been there, he would have done exactly the same thing. Nevertheless, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd done something wrong.
There was the sound of someone stirring, and Alex heard a yawn from behind him.
"Hey, sexy," came Jake's sleepy voice. Alex rolled over to see the naked stud lying beside him.
"You talking to me or Alex?" asked Sam from behind Jake, as he slipped an arm around the other boy's torso and slid his hands over the smooth chest.
Jake laughed. "Do I have to pick one?" As Sam's hand began to make it's way down towards his abs, Jake reached out and grabbed Alex's half-hard dick and pulled on it playfully. Alex felt his cock stiffen as the hand closed around it and he grinned.
"You guys wanna go again?"
There was no need to hear their answer. Alex slid across the short distance that separated him from the other two boys and pressed his naked body up against Jake, locking lips with the boy and kissing him enthusiastically. Their cocks ground together, both rapidly reaching full erection, and Jake casually reached down and began slowly rubbing both shafts at the same time. Meanwhile, Sam shuffled closer to Jake and began rubbing his dick against his buddy's smooth, tight ass, all the while kissing Jake sensually on the back of his neck and shoulders.
Jake moaned as Sam sent a shower of kisses down his neck and upper back at the same time as Alex was licking his way down Jake's front. Sam's cock was slipping and sliding across his bare ass in a way that made him itch to be fucked, and the stimulation from Alex's dick against his own made him as hard as he had ever been before. The two bodies grinding against him was a fantastic feeling, and as their warmth cascaded over him, Jake began to sweat and moan.
"Fuck me," he groaned, the desperate itch in between his butt cheeks getting stronger by the minute. Pulling away from Sam slightly, Jake rolled onto his back and spread his legs wide. Getting the hint, Sam sat up and moved into a more accessible position, while Alex continued to slowly masturbate Jake while kissing and licking the boy's torso.
Sam ran his hands over his friend's bare legs, starting at his calves and sliding slowly down to his ass. Leaning down, and lifting Jake's butt slightly off the bed as he did so, Sam began to rim him. Jake moaned louder as the roving tongue spread his cheeks and tauntingly stimulated his asshole. Sam knew that Jake found this incredibly arousing, but he also knew that it would not sate the itch the boy felt to be fucked; in fact, it would onl y be increase to the point of near-torture, depending on how long Sam kept up his licking assault.
Driving his tongue deeper into Jake's crack, Sam was gratified by an intense gasp of pleasure from above, the motion of Jake bucking his hips slightly to push himself closer to Sam's hot mouth, and the feeling of his friend's arm wrapping around the back of his head and pulling him in closer. Knowing Jake was enjoying it immensely, Sam stepped up his pace, tounging more quickly, licking his way right up Jake's ass and all the way up to just underneath his balls, then back down again to focus his attention on the tight ring that was the boy's sensitive hole.
While this had been going on, Alex was only getting hornier. Swinging himself around, he settled into a classic 69 position, almost lying on top of Jake, bracing himself with his forearms beside the boy's body, his cock hovering over Jake's face. This put his head directly above Jake's stiff shaft, and he slowly slid the cock into his mouth. Moments later he felt Jake eagerly swallow his cock, and the two began sucking in unison. They matched up the timing of their strokes and for a few moments it felt to Alex like he was sucking on his own cock.
The feeling excited him, causing him to speed up his pace slightly and lose the effect. By an unspoken agreement, the two tried to synchronise again, but the stimulation Jake was receiving from Sam made it difficult for him to focus clearly on anything else. Alex could feel Jake trembling beneath him, the boy's cock jerking and pulsing in his mouth while his hips shook and arched in response to Sam's enthusiastic rimming.
Jake was ecstatic. It felt as though Sam's tongue was right inside him, a hot point of light slipping into him and ripples of pleasure through his body. He could also feel the boy's hands sliding around his ass and legs, providing additional, sensual pleasures to complement the viscious tounging he was receiving. At the same time, his cock was radiating energy like a nuclear reactor as Alex expertly deep throated it, letting the hard shaft pump in and out of his throat like a piston.
As if this wasn't enough, the feeling of Alex's dick filling up his mouth and throat and the taste of the boy's hot precum made Jake's exquisite pleasure complete. And yet, above it all, with screaming insistence, the itch that had settled right on the edge of his hole would not be ignored, and overlayed across the delicious pleasure of the triple stimulation he was receiving was the torturous desperation to be properly, violently fucked.
Letting Alex's cock slip out of his mouth, Jake called out raggedly: "Sam, fuck me." He saw the other boy lift his head up, wink, and dive back down. Seconds later he felt the hot tougne ram into his ass once more, and he cried out. Alex rolled off the top of Jake and sat watching with amusement.
"Sam, I'm begging you...fuck me!" Jake almost screamed, writhing with anticipation.
Sam lifted his head and smirked. He loved teasing Jake, getting him so worked up that he begged for a good hard fucking. If there was one thing better than fucking his buddy up his tight ass, it was making the boy beg for it. Still smirking, he rose to his knees and pressed his cock, now wet and slippery with his own precum, against Jake's hole.
Immediately, Jake began wiggling his hips frantically, trying to push himself onto Sam's hard cock, but he couldn't move far enough. Sam laughed at his friend's eagerness to be impaled on his dick. He slid a finger around Jake's tight hole, which was still wet with Sam's spit from the rimming. Teasingly, he tweaked Jake's opening with one finger, causing the boy to scream with sexual frustration. Pressing the head of his cock against the waiting, twitching hole, Sam held it there, letting Jake feel the fullness of the erection which was about to thrust into him.
Jake, however, was in no mood to wait. Wrapping his legs around Sam's waist, he pulled the surprised boy forward with all the strength he could muster, while at the same time driving his own hips forward. His hole, wet from spit and wide open, engulfed Sam's precum-drooling dick, and both boys cried out as Sam's cock went thrusting deep inside Jake's desperate ass. Now that he was close enough, Jake grabbed Sam's waist with this hands and pulled the boy even closer, sending his cock deeper and deeper inside until Sam was buried to the hilt inside his friends twitching, clenching ass.
Jake let out a moan of pure satisfaction as he felt the rock-hard cock fill him in the best way possible. Fully mated to his best friend, Sam held his cock inside Jake's ass, luxuriating in the feeling of the boy's muscles tingling and squeezing around the cock buried inside him. Leaning down, Sam kissed his friend deeply, their bodies locked together perfectly, heat radiating between them that had nothing to do with temperature. After a few moments of making out, Sam sat up and grinned at Jake. The other boy grinned back, knowing what was coming. Sam slid his cock back until it was almost out of Jake's tight ass. Then, after a moment's suspensful hesitation, he plunged back in and began fucking in earnest.
Alex almost fell over with surprise as Sam suddenly began fucking Jake like an animal, thrusting fully in and out, long-dicking the boy like a pro; no, better than a pro. Plenty of practice had taught Sam exactly where to thrust to give Jake the most pleasure possible, and it had paid off: from the first thrust, Jake screamed, a raw, throaty howl of intense pleasure that seemed to shake the foundations of the house. This only served to encourage Sam, who continued to jackhammer Jake's ass, grunting and moaning as he did.
Alex was transfixed at the site of the two hunks engaged in such furious fucking. As he watched, Sam leaned down and kissed Jake before whispering something in his ear. Alex didn't hear what Sam said, but heard Jake say "Oh, god, yes". Moments later, Alex was again amazed to see Sam inching backwards towards the end of the bed...while still managing to fuck Jake with nearly the same vigor. The boy would pull his fuck-buddy back onto his throbbing cock at the same time as he shimmied back himself, ensuring they always remained connected.
As he reached the end of the bed, his legs, which had been folded under him, extended and touched the floor, bringing him up into a standing position from which he could continue to fuck Jake, who now lay on the end of the bed. Jake's legs were now draped over Sam's shoulders, and Sam was running his hands up and down them while he continued to fuck the sweet, tight ass. Communicating in gestures and grunts, as the power of speech seemed to have abandoned him when he began fucking his friend, Sam pulled Alex over to the end of the bed and indicated Jake's still massively erect cock, which was leaking a steady amount of precum in response to the intense pleasure from Sam's fucking. Alex nodded and began to bend down to suck Jake off, but Sam grabbed an arm, shook his head slightly, and slapped Alex on the ass.
Realization dawned and Alex grinned at what Sam was suggesting. Spitting onto his hand, Alex rubbed some of his saliva up around the opening to his ass and started to move into position. He didn't need much, as he knew the copious precum on Jake's dick would take care of the need for lube. Positioning himself above the frantically fucking couple so that he was facing towards Jake's head, Alex lowered his ass carefully over Jake's cock and slipped it slowly inside.
Jake's whole body shook violently as the tight ring of Alex's ass slid over his raging erection. Sam was still fucking him mercilessly up the ass, and that pleasure combined with Alex's tightness encircling his cock was almost unbearable. Having not been warmed up by a rimming before hand, Alex settled slowly into the rhythm of being fucked, letting Jake's cock slide in and out of his ass slowly, diving a little deeper each time. As he felt Alex's ass sinking further onto his pulsating cock, and Sam's dick brutally pounding deep into his ass, Jake wondered if it was actually possible to die from sheer pleasure.
At last Alex felt Jake's dick slide all the way into his ass, and he was now sitting on the boy's lap. It felt so good to have a hard cock inside him once again, and he felt like it had been forever since his last good fucking. Even though he was not yet thrusting his hips, he could still feel a lot of movement from Sam's animalistic pounding and Jake's cock pulsing and jerking in response. He could feel Sam's warm, muscular body pressed up against his back as the other boy got in as close as he could to maximise the amount of cock he could bury in Jake's ass.
Without slowing his pace even slightly, Sam reached around with both arms; one began stroking Alex's dick, and the other rubbed his toned, sweaty torso. Looking down, Alex saw Jake below him, sweat and precum glistening on his chest, his head lolled back loosely as he surrendered entirely to the glory of the intense fucking he was receiving. Feeling the tremendous power of Sam's rough fucking, Alex wondered if Jake was even conscious that he was sitting on his dick, when suddenly Jake looked up, reached out his hands, lifted Alex's hips up and pulled the boy's ass down on his cock.
Taking the hint, Alex began to thrust his hips up and down, pumping Jake's cock in and out of his ass. After a few moments of this he was surprised to notice that Jake wasn't moaning, screaming or making any sound at all. He looked down and saw Jake lying on the bed with his head back, eyes fluttering, breathing in short, sharp bursts and moaning quietly but orgasmically.
Alex grinned as he realised that Jake wasn't having less fun, but in fact was so charged with sexual energy that he wasn't even able to scream with pleasure. In fact, he was probably doing everything he could do keep himself from cumming, so as to enjoy this state of bliss for as long as possible.
Jake was in heaven. With every thrust from Sam, a new bolt of sexual energy joined the others which were richocheting around his body, filling him up with heat and light. His cock was pulsing and radiating pleasure like a small sun, and his entire body felt like it was beautifully, deliciously on fire. The rest of the world dropped away into darkness until it seemed like the entire universe consisted of this pleasure, this bliss, this sex.
His breathing became ragged and his throat was sore from screaming his enjoyment to the world; he could no longer even summon the breath to moan at the sheer sensual wonder of the experience. His entire being was focused on prolonging the orgasm which he knew was just around the corner. He had to keep this intense pleasure lasting as long as possible.
Sam was like a beast. He was fucking with reckless abandon, his cock in danger of catching fire from the sheer friction of his thrusting in and out of Jake's ass. Sexual power flooded his being, but instead of bringing light and clarity as it did to Jake, it awakened Sam's deep, inner animal instinct. His thoughts became simple and blurred, and speech took a great effort. Soon there was only the surging, burning fire of his mating, and the beast inside his soul howled at the ever mounting pleasure that flooded him.
Somewhere up in the stratosphere of his consciousness, complex thoughts still lingered like kites, and up in the dizzying heights of his evolution he noted the sudden, shuddering contractions he felt around his dick which indicated that Jake was moments away from an earth-shattering orgasm. The sexual creature within him did not understand the reason, but somehow it knew that it's time was short. Bellowing in defiance, it entered the final throes of of what would become a colossal orgasm.
Alex was aware that something amazing was happening even as he sped up his thrusting onto Jake's cock. A quick glance behind told him that Sam was gone, and across his features was etched the face of a primal creature of lust. It was not at all frightening, in fact the hardness of the features and the wild look in his eyes were incredibly exciting.
By contrast, Jake looked as though he were entering a state of utter nirvana, the peaceful expression on his face betrayed only by his wide open mouth, short gasping breaths, and the pleasured shivering which raced through his super-stimulated body. Alex felt the orgasm building in his cock and knew that whatever near-magical experience they were sharing, it would soon reach it's ultimate climax.
Jake could see, in a sudden rush of perfect clarity, exactly when he was going loose control and shoot his load, although his concept of time seemed to have lost all meaning. He was soaring up through a world of light and pleasure, only dimly aware of his trembling, quaking body. The shining sky around him was rent with bolts of energy which represented Sam's thrusting into him, and with every stroke he buried inside Alex's ass the whole universe seemed to glow more brightly. He could feel himself rocketing towards orgasm, his entire body joining in with the snapping electrical jolts of pleasure which shook his entire world and made his soul scream with joy.
"NOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOW!"
Completely unaware, all three had sreamed the same word simultaneously. In the final intense seconds of their urgent, excited mating, the beast roared, the light flashed brilliantly, and Alex cried out in amazement.
They came.
A titanic explosion almost ripped them apart, but the force and fury of their fucking kept them locked rigidly together as one single, sexual entity as they came, and came, and came. The sexual current ran like a fire between them as they emptied their cocks of all the cum which had been pent up, waiting for this moment of release. They rode their simultaneous orgasm for what seemed like eternity, almost consumed by it. Cocks and asses clenched and spasmed and their bodies seized up and came undone all at the same time.
In the final moments, Alex had thrust his hips down as hard as he could to get as much of Jake's cock in his ass as possible. He felt Jake exploding inside him at the same time as his own cock fired an enormous shot of cum on Jake's chest. Sam's hand seemed to have remained on autopilot, continuing to masturbate Alex's cock furiously until every last drop of cum was gone. When he was finally done Jake's chest was covered in cum, and Alex felt like he was about to faint from exhaustion. He collapsed onto the bed, Jake's softening cock slipping out of him, a stream of cum pouring out of his ass and soaking the sheets.
Jake came back to his body with a jolt, the cascading wave of pleasure having dumped him back here from wherever he had been. He felt like he was pissing a river of cum up into Alex's ass, and arched his back to thrust as far in and shoot as much cum into Alex as he could. His cock was throbbing and pulsing, and never had he felt such release.
He felt Alex's tight ass milking his cock for it's final bursts of cum; saw the other boy's jizz coating his torso; smelt the scent of sex as it threatened to overpower him; tasted the sweat in his own mouth where it had dripped from off his face. He felt Alex's muscled body slide off his cock and lay down beside him, laxily rubbing his cum-soaked chest with a hand. He could feel Sam's energetic thrusting finally begin to slow, and could feel that his ass was slick with the boy's cum.
Sam snapped back to mental clarity with a jolt, to find that he had already shot at least three big loads inside Jake's ass. Looking down, he saw that cum had already filled, and was leaking out of, the tight hole. His cock had not lost any of it's hardness, though, and he continued to thrust in and out happily, although slower than he had been before. More spurts of cum joined the ones he had deposited inside and followed their lead in leaking out, coating his cock in it's own juices and making the fucking all the smoother.
Finally, when he was empty and his cock was in danger of snapping in two from sheer, brittle exhaustion, Sam pulled out and fell onto the bed on Jake's other side. The three boys lay together, panting heavily, no one willing or able to speak yet, as if it would make them forget the monumental pleasure and the intense experience they had just shared. Before any of them could make a move to speak, the sexual exhaustion overcame them, and they slept once more.
Suddenly there was a sound from overhead. Instantly Jake was awake and cursing.
"Shit! My parents are home! Get up, get up!"
He and Sam leaped out of bed and began throwing clothes on madly, with no regard for whose clothes actually made it onto their bodies. After a moment of confusion, Alex joined them, slipping his jeans on and stuffing the remains of the black speedo he had worn under them into his pocket. With a quickness that was obviously born from lots of practice, Jake and Sam stripped the cum-stained sheets off the bed and crammed them into a small cupboard. As they were doing this, Alex darted to the windows and flung them open, hoping the fresh air would blow away the smell of sex. From overhead, muffled voices could be heard, and then a one loud voice cut through them.
"Jake, are you downstairs? We left the reception a bit early, but we brought you some food. Is Sam here?"
Jake gestured wildly towards the back yard, the fence of which bordered on a park. At the sound of footsteps on the stairs, Sam hastily grabbed Alex and dragged him out of the door. They slid through a gap in the fence and jogged across the park. Stopping at the abandoned swing set, they looked back towards the house.
"Do you reckon he'll be OK?" Alex asked. Sam just smiled.
"Jake's gotten out of stickier situations with the parents before," he replied. "Pun intended."
Alex grinned, trying to imagine what sort of sordid rendezvous these two had enjoyed in the past. Sam checked his watch and groaned.
"I gotta go, Dad will be wondering where I am. But hey," he smirked, "We should totally do this again soon."
"Very soon." Alex agreed. "See you around, Sam."
The other boy waved goodbye and jogged off towards his own house. Alex looked around the park for a few moments, trying to decide what to do. Suddenly he laughed. He had completely forgotten to pick up Halo, the very reason he had gone to Jake's house in the first place. Well, I'll just have to go back again, and see if I remember it next time he thought to himself. Smiling slightly, he began to walk towards his house.
It was a cold room, and not just in temperature. There were no paintings on the walls, no ornaments on the shelves, not even pictures of family on the large metal desk. Everything was white, from the walls to the fixtures and the sparse furniture. Even Ben's pathetically pale blue uniform was a riot of color by comparison. He sat in a hard plastic chair before the desk, wincing as it forced his spine into unnatural positions, as though the person who designed the chair considered it his job to ensure maximum discomfort for all users. A middle-aged man sat at the desk before him, writing carefully in a notebook. His name was Doctor Manfred, and he was so bland and colorless he almost faded into the background that was his office. His hair was white, and looked as though it had probably lost its color at age 20. There were definite age lines on his face, forcing his features into a permanent frown, but apart from this he had absolutely no discernable features. His was the sort of face one could forget moments after seeing.
As he finished writing, Doctor Manfred looked up and noticed Ben sitting before him with something that might have been surprise.
"Name?"
The question took Ben by surprise. He had been sitting in silence for over ten minutes and it took him a moment to find his voice.
"Benjamin Steckman."
The doctor frowned almost imperceptibly. Ben tried again.
"Benjamin Steckman...Sir?"
The frown deepened by approximately one iota.
"You will address me as Doctor Manfred, or failing that, simply Doctor."
The voice was as flat as paper, and somehow managed to sound like it too. Ben swallowed nervously, but didn't say anything. Doctor Manfred slowly wrote a small note in his book and looked up again.
"Benjamin Steckman. You are unwell."
Ben opened his mouth to speak, but the doctor held up a pale hand, stopping him. He continued speaking.
"You have been sent here because your parents are worried for your health, and your spiritual wellbeing. We have assured them that we will help you." He leaned forward, his chair creaking under him as he tried to minimize the gap between him and his subject.
"It is not too late for you, Ben," he said, in a tone of voice he must have thought sounded sympathetic and fatherly. "You can still change. You can turn away from sin and accept Jesus into your heart."
Ben almost rolled his eyes. Almost. But something about the way Doctor Manfred's cold, still eyes had locked onto his kept him silent.
"Do you want that, Ben?"
Ben shook himself mentally, snapping out of the trance.
"No, Doctor Manfred," he said, with a slight sneer on the title. "I don't want Jesus. I want cock. I'm gay and I'm happy. You do your worst to me."
Whatever reaction he expected from his speech, he was disappointed. Doctor Manfred sat back; seeming quite unsurprised, and wrote again in his notebook. After a few moments, he looked up.
"You will find that bold statements are worth little here, Benjamin," he said, his voice edged with steel. "You sit here in my office and mock God with your defiance, but in the end it will be for naught. I know all about gay pride. The two words do not belong in the same sentence. You should feel only shame for your aberrant behavior."
Ben glared at the doctor, but kept his mouth shut. There would be nothing to gain from arguing with this man. When it became apparent that Ben wasn't going to say anything, Doctor Manfred made another small note in his book and stood up.
"The first stage of the treatment will begin now. Follow me."
He walked over to a white door set into the wall and pulled it open. Ben followed, stepping into another, smaller white room with a one chair standing in the middle and devoid of all other furniture. Doctor Manfred gestured to the chair and Ben sat in it suspiciously. Behind him, Ben heard the door click shut, and there was total darkness. After a few moments of black, an image appeared on the wall before him: a white cross. As he watched, the image changed, and to his shock he saw a picture of a well-muscled man standing naked before him. Ben drank in the sight: the man had a smooth chest and firm pecs, short brown hair and brown eyes, and a beautiful cock hanging between his legs. Ben couldn't believe it. This must be some mistake or something, he thought. His cock twitched in his pants and slowly began to stiffen.
Suddenly there was a deafening roar and a flash of red light, making Ben almost jump out of his skin. The colors of the image had been flipped to their negative and warped, creating a demented, twisted version of the previous picture. The accompanying screech that he filled the whole chamber died suddenly, as did the image, and Ben was left once again in blackness, his heart hammering. Before him, another image slowly faded into focus, this time a new man in a different pose. Knowing now what was coming, Ben tried to turn away, only to discover to his dismay that the same image had appeared on each of the four walls. The same screeching roared out of hidden speakers, and a flash of angry red transformed this picture too into a twisted negative before allowing it to fade into blackness. A chill passed over Ben as he wondered: How long can they keep this up? And more importantly, how long can I?
Alex walked slowly through the streets around his home. He couldn't believe what had just happened with Jake and Sam. What were the chances of finding not one but two other guys whole liked to fuck around with other guys? Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, though, he mused. After all, there were a lot of guys jacking off while me and Ben went at it in the lunchroom. Thinking back to that day brought a smile to his lips and a twitch to his cock as he remembered the exquisite feeling of getting fucked with so many guys watching him. Perhaps he would consider a career in porn.
Rounding the corner, he spotted a group of three guys and one girl from his old school loitering against an old brick wall. He hadn't been particularly close with any of them, but knew them by name and had been on the swim team with two of the guys. He smiled and waved in greeting, but they ignored him. Frowning, he walked towards them, thinking they had not seen him.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Alex said, waving again. The girl looked at him, turned abruptly and walked away, accompanied by one of the guys. The other two, who Alex knew from the team, just glared, as if to indicate that they didn't want to talk to him, but that they knew it would be rude to just walk away. As Alex drew closer to them, he noticed their open hostility.
"What do you want, Michaelson?" Trent, the taller of the two, said in clipped tones. Alex faltered slightly before recovering.
"I just wanted to say hi, and ask how things were going at school."
"Much better, since they got rid of you and Ben," said the other boy, Mike. "That was sick, man, what you did. Fucking sick."
Alex snorted. "You two didn't seem to object too much when you were jacking off while watching us."
Suddenly Trent grabbed Alex and slammed him against the wall. His face, inches from Alex's, was a mask of hatred.
"You don't ever say that again, understand?!" he shouted, shaking with anger. His arm was across Alex's throat, forcing him to take halting, shallow breaths as his windpipe was constricted. His arms, which had been crossed in front of his chest when Trent grabbed him, were pressed against his body with Trent's other arm, unable to move. With no other option, Alex stuck out his tongue and licked the boy's cheek in as sensuous a manner as he could manage. With a cry, Trent leapt away from him, dragging a sleeve across his cheek.
"Faggot!" he yelled, swinging a punch at Alex, who ducked. Trent's fist slammed into the brick wall and he let out a scream of pain. Before he could recover, Alex grabbed the boy's arm and twisted it painfully behind his back. Keeping Trent's body between him and Mike, he backed slowly away.
"I may be gay," he hissed menacingly, "But I can still kick your ass, Trent. Don't fuck with me." He twisted the boy's arm for emphasis, and Trent howled. Releasing him, Alex set off down the street, listening out for sounds of pursuit. There were none. Taking a few deep breaths to replenish the oxygen he lost while Trent was holding his throat, Alex considered what had happened.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he thought to himself bitterly. Should've expected it. It's not like everyone is going to be as cool as Jake and Sam.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. Checking the screen, he saw with surprise that it was his mother calling.
"Alex?" Mrs. Michaelson's voice was edged with uncertainty. "Can you come home right away? We need to talk."
Before he could respond, the call disconnected.
Ben stumbled out into the hallway, blinking in the sudden white light. The images and sounds had been played over and over for what seemed like hours, but was probably only around thirty minutes. Breathing deeply, he looked up and saw Jason leaning against the wall, a sympathetic smile on his face.
"They say it's always toughest the first time," he said, setting off down the hall and motioning for Ben to follow him.
"It'd be fine without the noises," Ben muttered, and Jason laughed. Suddenly a slightly younger boy Ben didn't recognize ran up from behind them and grabbed Jason by the arm. Leaning in close, he whispered urgently in Jason's ear. Ben watched with mounting curiosity as the older boy's eyes widened.
"You're certain?" Jason said. The boy nodded, and ran off down the corridor. Jason turned to Ben, a smile slowly forming on his face.
"Steckman, you are a lucky guy, arriving when you did. Come on." Jason began walking quickly down the hallway, turning down a small corridor that led away from the main hallway. The corridor ended in a single door with a padlock in it. Jason stopped in front of the door and motioned for Ben to stand next to him.
"Stand facing this door, and don't turn your head to face me. Keep staring straight ahead," he instructed.
"Why?" Ben asked, now thoroughly confused. Jason jerked his head back in the tiniest of movements, indicating where they had just walked.
"This area is only covered by a single camera," he said, without turning his head. "It faces directly down the corridor, giving it a full view of the pathway. Secure, right? But about a year ago, Timmy was admitted, and let me tell you, that kid is a tech whiz. He noticed right away that this particular camera didn't have a microphone."
Ben frowned. "So?"
"So," Jason said patiently, "this is one of the few places in the Institute that we can talk without them hearing."
"They can hear us everywhere else?!" Ben turned to look at the other boy in shock.
"Turn your head back!" Jason hissed. Quickly, Ben snapped his head back to face the door.
Jason exhaled. "That's better. Keep it there. Yes, they can hear us in most other places: the rooms, the treatment facilities. Almost all of those cameras have directional microphones."
"Even the one in our room?" Ben asked.
"Of course, or else we would be there now. Don't worry: even though they almost certainly heard you talking about jacking off yesterday, they will give you a brief grace period to learn the rules. From now on though, be careful what you say."
Ben pondered this in silence for a few moments. "What about the dining hall?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jason shake his head slightly.
"Too much chatter for mics to be any good in there," he said. "The staff walk around the room to make sure we don't say anything too 'sinful'" he snickered, "but we were watching out for them while you were telling the story about you and Alex in the lunchroom. Don't worry; no one heard who you didn't want to."
Ben nodded, relieved. "So why are we facing this door?"
"In case of lip reading." Ben started to laugh, but Jason shot him a serious look out of the corner of his eye, making him stop.
"I'm serious. We don't know for sure they do it, but what I'm about to tell you is too important to risk it."
Ben leaned in closer almost subconsciously. Without taking his gaze off the door in front of him, Jason began to speak in a low voice.
"As I said, Timmy's a genius. He found a broken old laptop one of the doctors had thrown out and fixed it over a few months. It took a while, but he actually managed to connect in to the Institute's network. We couldn't get internet on it, but after a bit of technical stuff he discovered it was possible to access the security cameras."
Ben's eyes widened in amazement. Jason spotted his expression and shook his head slightly.
"I said possible. He also found there was a password protecting those systems. Since then, in every spare moment he's had, he tries to crack that password. It's not easy: he figured out early that the password changes every month. Anyway, Liam, the kid you saw before, just told me that the password has been cracked."
"So what does that mean for us?" Ben asked, with mounting anticipation.
Turning his face ever so slightly towards Ben, Jason said excitedly: "What it means is that we can take their cameras offline. Thanks to Timmy, we have a way to make the doctors blind."