'Dan? That was some pretty fast swimming. I think you've got Tom here beaten, and he's good.'
'Hey Jamie. Where are my clothes Tom?'
Tom gestured and Jamie turned to him and said in a whisper, 'What the fuck happened to him? He's gorgeous. Can you get him to keep his clothes off? I reckon I'm officially over you.'
Jamie had come out to Tom the summer before and immediately asked him out on the grounds that it was worth a shot. Tom had told him that he loved him, but not like that, and Jamie had said that was cool, but he needed a couple of days.
A week later, he'd come back, shit-eating grin on his face. It took Tom a couple hours to get out of him that he'd gone to 'find someone better looking than you' for sex, but that it had taken a bit longer than he'd anticipated both to find someone that good-looking and to try to convince the guy to come out of the closet. He'd been boyfriend material, but in his normal way Jamie had decided that if he was going to be out, he was going to be out. And from that moment on, his friendship with Tom had continued as normal. But Jamie had never before indicated that he found muscular men attractive.
Dan turned back round and said, 'If you'd wanted me naked you only had to say so.' To Jamie's incredulous look, he replied, 'Turns out I have pretty good hearing. And I don't reckon you need to be over him, either.
'Nah, he's straight.'
'He, my friend, is checking you out. You're fully clothed, and I'm gorgeous, naked and a fantastic kisser, and he's checking you out.'
Tom, thoroughly busted, started checking Dan out too. 'Maybe I want both of you,' realising he did.
'Good joke, dude, but he's into the bitches. The bitch, anyway.'
Tom thought about using his new mental abilities to make this easier, but decided he couldn't do that to Jamie. 'Jamie,' he said, 'I was straight. But I'm not now.'
Tom could sense Jamie's confusion, brief anger, despair. And saw him put on a brave face. He wondered how often his friend had done this before, conceding so gracefully that nobody else realised he'd made a concession.
'Great kisser ,eh? Wow. You'll have good-looking kids.'
'We're not a couple. And I thought you found someone better looking than me?'
'I smoked a lot of dope to make him look good. Anyway, you've got hotter. Six pack.' Tom could feel the hurt in Jamie's mind - why couldn't he tell me?
'Jamie, there was nothing to tell. I was straight. Now I'm not. And there's more.'
'Look at me, Jamie. Things have changed. I got this six pack about half an hour ago. I realised I was gay when I realised that I fancied you.'
'What about him?' He meant Dan. A penny dropped. 'The good kisser.'
'I got these babies -' he rubbed his biceps and abs - 'about ten minutes ago. Dude, watch this,' shouted Dan, and he took off at a run along the side of the lake. The others watched him run.
'That's superhuman. He must be running at 50 miles per hour.'
'Yep.'
'So what do you do? Shoot lasers from your eyes? Fly?'
'Don't be ridiculous. I read minds.'
'You read minds? What am I thinking now?'
'About sex. Like always. Think of a number. Any number, no restrictions.' Tom concentrated hard but all he could see in Jamie's mind was the letter i. Good trick. 'Dude, that's a letter.'
'No it's not, it's a number. The square root of minus 1. How did you get into Harvard anyway?'
'Same way you did, but I'd never heard of complex numbers until I saw them in your mind just now.'
'So what else can you do? Can you control people's minds too?'
'I think so.'
'Go on then.'
'I can't. It's unethical. You're my best mate. I could make you drop to your knees and suck me off.'
'That's hardly mind control, I said I'd do that a year ago. I give you permission. Control me.'
'Really?'
'Yeah, you won't harm my hot bod. You like looking at it too much. Apparently.'
'You like me looking.'
'Yeah. I do.'
'Okay then.' Tom pushed his mind into Jamie's over-riding his will, but leaving him control of his thoughts and his speech. 'What's it feel like?'
'Strange I can't move anything except my mouth. If I didn't trust you it would be terrifying though.'
'You trust me?'
'Yeah.'
'Ok then.' Tom concentrated again, <'do you really want me?'>
'Yes. Wooh. That was weird. It's like you asked my subconscious a question and it answered.'
'Do you know what I asked?'
'Not a clue.'
<'what's your pin number?'>
'3892. Ok, I know what that was but I didn't know why I was saying it.'
<'do you want Dan too?'>
'Yes, both. Shit! What was that one about?'
'Mind your own business. <What about Sam?>'
'No way is he gay. Who's not gay?'
'Sam. He is, though. He made Dan come with to distract me so he could try to pull you. Ready to see if I can make you do things too?'
'Yep.'
<'strip, slowly.'>
Jamie stood up, a glazed look in his eyes. He moved his hands to his waistband and untucked his T. He rolled his shirt up his stomach exposing his light six pack and a line of hair heading in both directions. The hair widened across his chest, lightly-muscled with erect nipples. He lifted his arms above his chest exposing his pits as he removed his top completely.
'Like what you see?'
Tom, barely aware of his breathing, said, 'Yes,' and dropped the compulsion on Jamie.
'I noticed that! Now I'm doing it because I want to,' Jamie said, as he pulled down his shorts to reveal a 5" cock standing to attention amidst a deep, dark bush of pubic hair. He walked over to Tom, bent down and kissed him fully on the lips. He moved to embrace him, running his left hand through Tom's hair and drawing him up so that Tom was standing at his full 6' and Jamie was on tiptoes. Tom's body rippled into its water form in his excitement, and then changed back. Jamie broke off. 'What the fuck was that?'
'I have a thing with water, too.' They looked over to the other side of the lake. Dan had made good time - he'd run a couple of miles in just over four minutes. He disappeared - and stepped out of the ground just behind them.
'And I have a thing with earth. That looked hot. I wanted to get back quicker and I figured out how to do it. Can I.?
'We're both up for it,' said Tom. To Jamie's quizzical look, 'I asked you.' Dan kissed Jamie soundly, and the three boys lay down on the grass by the lake kissing whatever they could find, and when they were all very excited Jamie asked,
'How do you want to do this?'
'Repeatedly, and later,' said Dan. ' Sam'll get here in half an hour. I can hear him.'
'Sam.'said Jamie, lust clouding his eyes.
'He's crazy about you,' He thought for a moment before asking the question he'd been told to. 'Jamie, do you want to be like us?'
'What, like, melting through the earth and reading people's minds?'
'Not precisely that, but like that, able to do stuff, yes.' He patted Jamie's chest. 'And maybe buff up a bit.'
'I trust you if you say it's cool. What happened to you?'
'I stumbled into it, didn't have choice. But it's cool and I'd go back there again. Look out into the lake. There's a ship out there.'
'No there isn't.'
'I'll show him,' said Dan. He jumped into the lake and covered the distance very fast. Tom saw the door appearing and Dan disappearing through it. Jamie just saw him vanish.
'You just have to want to see it.'
'What, like, I want to see the ship?' And he did.
'I see. Telepathic cloaking device.'
'How did you know that?'
'I read sci-fi. I thought about something. Telepathic. And it became visible. Cloaking. Although it's more likely to be a telepathic effect meaning you don't notice it and you steer clear rather than actual invisibility. How did you find it?
'I was thinking about a shipwreck.'
'And you think I'm a geek. Swim?'
'We could get there more quickly. Let's try something. Get dressed and go stand in the edge of the lake.'
Jamie pulled on his shirt and shorts and stood up to his ankles in water and Tom stood next to him and embraced him. 'That feels good,' he said, and then he realised that Tom's body had turned into water, swirling around him preserving a small air bubble at his mouth. Let's go, he heard Tom's voice in his head, and almost immediately they had arrived at the ship. Jamie grabbed Tom's hand as he reformed his body, grasping the living water of his best friend.
'Cool. In here?' and they jumped down into the ship.