String - 1. Hot Tub

“And the final score, Pittsburgh Central Catholic 45, Mon Valley 0.”

The announcer’s voice echoed over the loud speaker as Central Catholic’s fans pelted those of us in the Mon Valley High School band with popcorn and empty drink cups. We quickly did our best to escape to the safety of the parking lot where our bus was waiting to carry us back to safety.

“We used to be kings of this conference, Jake,” my best friend Danny Rossi said to me as we fled from Central Catholic’s stadium. I shoved my trombone into its case and put it in the equipment truck, along with Danny’s trumpet. When we got to the bus, we all stripped out of our uniforms and put them into their garment bags. At least we didn’t have to put them up against the windows to protect ourselves from rowdy fans like we did at some of our bigger rival schools.

It was Danny’s turn to host our weekly sleep over after the Friday night game. I would miss them now that football season was over. Danny had been my best friend for as long as I could remember, but our weekly time together had made us closer than ever. As freshmen members of the band, we were relegated to the front seat of the bus behind the driver as the seniors took up the seats in the back of the bus. That was okay though, because Danny got motion sickness very easily and it was easier for him to sit in the front.

“Back in the late 90’s, early 2000’s… We were always section champions and district champions. We’d never lose to a school like Central Catholic, especially by shut out,” Danny continued as we sat in our seats to prepare for the long ride home.

“Yeah, but think of who we had back then,” I said. “Our guys nowadays are just… guys. Half of them are no bigger than us.”

“That’s because half of them are freshmen too,” Danny said. “Our school sucks so bad. It’s really been run into the ground over the years.”

Our band director, Mr. Butler boarded the bus and counted the kids to make sure we were all present and accounted for, and then we rolled out and headed for home. He could suck the energy even out of a bus full of rowdy teenaged kids. I felt sorry for the guy. His wife had left him years ago, along with his hair. He tried to do the comb over thing, but there was less material to work with than ever before.

“Used to need two buses for the band kids,” Mr. Butler sighed as he sat down in the seat across the aisle from us.

“Things have changed a lot since then,” the bus driver said as she swung the bus out of the parking lot and into traffic.

“Kids don’t want to sign up for anything anymore,” Mr. Butler sighed. “Football is lucky to have enough kids to field a team anymore.”

Danny and I stopped listening to the wistful adults and talked between ourselves. Who cared about what happened in the past? It was October 21, 2015, two days after Marty McFly had visited a future with flying cars and hoverboards. We didn’t have any of that crap. We had smart phones and we all communicated by text. That was the future we’d inherited.

When we got back to the school, Mr. Butler stood up and asked us to be quiet for a moment. It took a moment for the kids in the back of the bus to settle down enough for Mr. Butler’s worn out voice to be heard.

“Kids… I just want to say thank you for making my last season as Mon Valley’s band director so wonderful. Next year, you’ll have a new director, and I hope you’ll give him or her the same passion and dedication you gave me.”

“We love you Mr. Butler!” a senior girl shouted from the back of the bus.

“I love you too, kids,” Mr. Butler replied, holding back tears. He made sure to shake the hand of every kid as they got off the bus. Danny and I were the first ones into the band room. We opened draped our uniforms over our chairs so they could air out over the weekend and we put our instruments in the storage room.

Danny’s mom was waiting for us in the parking lot. He sat in the front seat next to his mom and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. I settled into the backseat behind Danny. Mrs. Rossi greeted me.

“Hey Jake. Well boys, I heard it didn’t go well,”

“We sucked,” Danny said.

“Did you at least play well?”

“Everybody sucked. The team sucked. The band sucked. Everything sucked. Mr. Butler’s retiring a year too late.”

“He’s okay,” I said. “He’s just been doing this for too long.”

“Hopefully they get somebody who’s not already fossilized for next year,” Danny replied. “Can we use the hot tub when we get home? It was so cold out there I can barely feel my toes.”

“Sure you can,” Mrs. Rossi replied. “Just don’t wake your father or your sister.”

Danny lived in one of the nicest neighborhoods in our area. All of the houses were nice, and Danny’s house was one of the nicest ones. Mr. Rossi was a big time lawyer up in Pittsburgh. His name was in the law firm’s name on the commercials I’d seen him in. I could recite their commercials by heart. “Goldberg, Feinstein, and Rossi… Corporate law, personal injury, legal documents, and family law… No case is too big, no case is too small.” Mr. Rossi also served the school district as the board’s solicitor for the last ten years, since the last guy left town.

It was almost eleven o’clock when we pulled into the driveway. Mrs. Rossi reminded us to be quiet since everyone else in the house was asleep. Danny had a little sister named Layla who was a couple of years younger than us. She’d be a freshman when Danny and I were seniors. I followed Danny up to his room and found the overnight bag my mom had dropped off at their house earlier in the day. I’d specifically asked her to pack my swim trunks, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Mom didn’t pack my trunks!” I said irritably.

“You can borrow a pair of mine if you want. They’ll probably fit you.”

“Probably?” I asked.

“Well, they’re last year’s trunks. I think we’ve both grown a couple inches since then. You could just go in your underwear if you…”

“No no… Let’s try the trunks,” I replied.

Danny’s room was probably the neatest fourteen year old’s room in America. My room had clothes all over the floor and stuff piled up on every surface. Danny’s room was immaculate. I guess it pays to be able to pay someone to come in and clean your house once a week. Danny slipped his pants off and his underwear too. I couldn’t believe he was willing to get half naked and he hadn’t even bothered to close his bedroom door.

“Dude!” I exclaimed.

“What?” he asked. He grabbed his trunks off the bed and slipped them on.

“Aren’t you afraid someone will walk in and see your butt?”

“Who cares? We’ve all got one.”

“You mean you wouldn’t care if your sister saw you naked?”

“My sister has seen me naked,” Danny replied. “Lots of times. Heck, we used to take baths together until last year when things started growing bigger. Who cares?”

“I just… I don’t even like to take my shirt off to change into gym clothes.”

“Yeah, and I notice you’re still not dressed to go get in the hot tub. I guess you’re afraid I’ll see your dick?”

“I’m not afraid, I’m just…”

“Jake, how long have we known each other?”

“As long as I can remember,” I replied.

“Exactly. And how many times have we seen each other naked?”

“Not that many,” I said.

“Yeah. But it has happened from time to time. So let me tell you, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re fine. You don’t have to hide anything.”

“Well thanks, but I’m still going to wait until you leave to take my pants off,” I replied.

Danny just shook his head. “Okay, I’ll go get things started while you change. And Jake, don’t try to wear a shirt in the hot tub. That’d just be stupid.”

Danny left me in his room. He also left the door open as he left, and I quickly closed it before I took off my pants. When I slipped off my underwear my dick sprung free, revealing the real reason I had been so hesitant to let Danny see me undressed. I had a raging hard on, and my dick had been absolutely throbbing ever since Danny had taken his pants off. It would have been one thing for Danny to see me if my dick had been limp like his had been. But that certainly was not the case! I pulled my shirt off and tried to squeeze into Danny’s spare trunks. They were very tight, and they did nothing to hide my predicament. I pulled my shirt back on and hoped that it would help obscure the big boner I was trying desperately to hide. You know, just in case I ran into Danny’s mom or something.

I joined Danny in the basement. I only call it a basement because of its location in the house. The Rossi family basement was nicer than most people’s house. There was a game room and a room for watching sports on television. Danny was waiting in the hot tub room for me. He had already taken the cover off the tub and had turned it on. The hot tub had lights which shined through the water, and the room lights were off. The room was illuminated with a soft blue glow that rippled with the churning water. It was dark, but we could still see.

“You must have grown since the last time you wore my trunks,” he said.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“You’re looking a little tight in there,” Danny laughed. “You don’t have to wear those if you don’t want to. It’s just us down here. No one would see you.”

“You mean get in naked?” I asked.

“Unless you want to keep wearing the shirt.”

“No, I just…”

“Still scared, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m scared. I’m just… I’m not comfortable being naked around other people.”

“Well I’m not other people. I’m your best friend. Would it make you feel better if I took my trunks off too?”

“No!” I replied, a little too quickly.

“Well, would it make you feel better if I told you I was hard too?” Danny asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m just saying if you’re embarrassed because you’ve got a hard on you don’t need to be. I’m hard too. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“You’re hard?” I asked.

“Yeah. Look, Jake… There a lot I know about you that you don’t think anybody knows, but I do.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“And that’s cool if that’s the way you want to handle it. Just know that when you decide to let people in on what’s going on, I’m going to support you, no matter what.”

“Do… Are you trying to say you think I’m gay?” I asked.

“I’m just saying that there’s nothing you could say that would make me not be friends with you. Now, you want to get into this thing or not? Mom won’t like it if we’re in here past midnight.”

“What about the trunks?” I asked.

“I’m only wearing them because you are. I get in naked all the time.”

“They are a little tight,” I admitted.

“Shuck ‘em then,” Danny laughed. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his trunks and dropped the trunks down to the floor. He stepped out of them naked, seemingly unembarrassed by his hard dick bouncing around in front of him. He slipped himself over the edge of the tub and into the water.

“You going to stand there or you going to get in? he asked.

Even though there was no one around, I still looked around to see if anyone was watching. I grabbed hold of the trunks and pulled them down. I did everything I could to keep my dick from springing out, trying to just let it slip out of the trunks casually. Once the trunks were off, I kind of kept myself hunched over to keep the true nature of my throbbing boner from being revealed. I waited for the very last second to slip my shirt off before plunging into the warm, bubbling water. We sat opposite each other.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Danny asked. He slid himself down into the water all the way to his neck. The water did feel good and the relaxing atmosphere was helping to ease my anxiety. I tried to allow my mind to relax, but my brain was still swirling with a thousand thoughts. Danny’s legs rubbing up against mine under the water was not helping!

“Danny… What you were saying earlier… You know, about me…”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not that I’m hiding anything… Or trying to… to lie to anybody. I just… I don’t even know myself what’s going on with me right now. You know what I mean?”

“Sure,” Danny said.

“I mean, what makes you think I’m… you know?”

“Gay?” Danny asked.

“Yeah. That.”

Danny sat up in the water, so that it was chest high. He leaned across the tub and looked me in the eyes.

“Does it make you uncomfortable that I’m this close to you?”

“No.” I said.

Danny shifted himself across the tub so that he was sitting right next to me.

“How about now?”

“A little, yeah.”

Danny reached down and put his hand on my thigh. “How about now?”

“Yes,” I said. Danny quickly pulled away. Then he grabbed hold of my hand and put it on his own thigh.

“Does this make you feel uncomfortable?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know.”

Danny pushed my hand further up his thigh.

“How about this?”

“A… A little.”

Danny slid my hand even further up his leg. Now my hand was brushing against his balls. I pulled away.

“That’s your limit,” Danny said. “None of what we just did made me uncomfortable.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“I guess I just want to test the limits of what I’m comfortable with. See how far I can go. You’re my best friend. If I can feel safe trying things with anyone, it’s you.”

“Are you trying to say you think you’re gay too?” I asked.

“See that’s the thing. I don’t think so, but with you, that stuff doesn’t matter. What’s the first thing you notice when you look at a girl?”

“I don’t know… I guess her hair? Maybe if she’s nice or not?”

“I look at her boobs,” Danny said. “I couldn’t care less if she’s nice or not. Then, if I can stop noticing her boobs, I notice her ass. I usually don’t make it much past that. Sure, I notice things like her hair or the color of her eyes. But all I think about is touching her breasts. I want to suck on her nipples, maybe rub my dick between them. It’s all I think about. You care about if she’s nice or not. What do you notice about guys?”

“First thing? The color of their eyes. Like, you have the most beautiful brown eyes. They’re so kind and… But then I notice their crotch. Like, if a guy’s got a nice bulge, I notice that right away. Or if he’s got a nice ass. Yeah, I guess that’s what I see right away.”

“I notice whether he’s a nice guy or not,” Danny replied. “But I also notice those things. I’m just… I don’t know what I’m supposed to be right now.”

“Maybe you’re just supposed to be you?” I said.

Danny laughed. “Okay, Mister Rogers.”

“Don’t be a smartass.” I replied.

“Hey, you said I should be myself. Well, my self is a smartass.”

“So who has the nicest tits in our class?” I asked.

“Oh are you kidding? Kayla Miller, by far. Those things are like… God, I just want to put my face in there and never come out. Who’s got the best ass in our class – among the guys I mean.”

“Besides you?” I asked.

“Yes, besides me.”

“Nick Jenkins. Same way you feel about Kayla’s breasts, I feel about Nick’s ass.”

“You’d want to stick your face in Nick’s ass crack and…”

“You wanted to know,” I laughed.

“Well now I’ve learned something new about you,” Danny laughed. “And you feel the same way about my ass?” he asked.

I turned red. There was so much more I wanted to do to Danny’s ass but that I could never say to him.

Danny slid back over to his side of the hot tub.

“You know what our school needs? We need a club for gay kids to support each other.”

“No can do,” I replied. “They tried that ten years ago and it got squashed.”

“But that was ten years ago. Things have changed since then.”

“It’s nice that you think about that, but it’s just not going to happen. There’s too much baggage. We had a principal who ruined the whole thing years ago. The school board banned groups like what you’re talking about, and most of the members are still there. It’s a dead issue. It’ll never happen.”

“Well now it’s a challenge,” Danny smiled. “I like a challenge.”

“No. It’ll just cause a lot of grief. Besides, you’re not even gay. Why do you care?”

“Why do I care that my best friend is being discriminated against?”

“No… I mean… It’s not your fight. It’s not your business.”

“It’s everybody’s business if people are discriminating against others just because of who they like.”

“Then why don’t you just ask your dad to fix it? He’s on the board.”

“He’s more of an advisor than a member. But I will ask him to do something. That’s a good idea. But there’s more to it than that. We can’t just ask other people to do it for us. We need to be willing to fight for ourselves.”

“I just think it’s screwing with people who don’t want to be screwed with about stuff they don’t want to be bothered with again. The whole town was in an uproar over all that stuff years ago. You’re playing with fire.”

“That was ten years ago! Things have changed.”

“How have they changed?”

“Didn’t they just make gay marriage legal?” Danny asked.

“Who cares about that in high school? I don’t want to get married. I don’t even know what I want right now.”

“We’ll see,” Danny said.

“Why do I have a feeling I’m the one who’s going to get screwed in the end of this?”

Danny just grinned. We didn’t talk for a while and just let the hot tub do its work of relaxing away our cares for a while. We both closed our eyes and settled into the water. Our legs tangled together and rubbed against each other. Danny allowed the water to lift his relaxed legs off the bottom of the tub and he let them drift loosely in the water. His foot ended up on my knee. He held his nose and dipped below the water, allowing his hair to get soaked. When he came up for air he coughed a bit.

“Lot of chlorine… Lot of chlorine.”

Danny’s foot slipped in between my legs and rested right on my dick. I expected him to move it right away, but he just let it rest there for a while. I don’t know how long his foot was there, but I do know that he started to gently press more firmly against me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’ll stop if you want me to,” Danny said.

“You don’t have to stop. I just want to know if you know what you’re doing to me.”

“I think I’m trying to turn you on with my foot. Is it working?” Danny smiled.

“You know it’s working,” I replied. “But why are you doing it?”

“I like playing with fire,” Danny replied. “You want me to stop?”

I thought about it. “No,” I said. I guess maybe I like playing with fire too.

I pushed my hips forward and spread my legs further apart. Danny smiled and his foot went from a gentle nudging to a firm pressing and massaging. I sighed. We both opened our eyes and looked across the tub at each other. Neither needed to say anything. Danny sprung across the tub and got up out of the water, sitting on the edge with his feet dangling in the water. I pulled myself out of the water and sat next to him. He reached down between my legs and grabbed hold of my dick.

“Danny…”

“Shhh…” Danny replied.

He grabbed hold of my hand and led it down to his dick. I wrapped my hand around it and did to him what he was doing to me. My head was spinning. I couldn’t believe what we were doing. Danny gripped me more firmly and I followed suit on him. He closed his eyes.

“Oh shit!” he exclaimed. I felt his dick pulse in my hand and then watched as a blast of his semen launched from his dick and splashed in the hot tub’s churning water. That was it for me. My own dick lurched in Danny’s hand and my cum splashed into the water below us. Danny dropped onto his back and rested on the deck surrounding the tub, his feet still dangling in the water. I did the same.

“Ahhh…” Danny sighed. He turned toward me and smiled. “That was awesome.”

“I can’t believe we just jerked each other off,” I replied.

“Yeah… I can’t believe we just jizzed in the hot tub,” Danny replied. We both laughed.

“Yeah. I guess we did,” I said, smiling.

“Don’t worry. There’s enough chlorine in there to kill everything. Still, that’s the first time I’ve done that. Thanks for letting me do that with you.”

“Yeah. What made you decide to do it?”

“I don’t know. You just… You looked at me that way… Like you knew what I wanted and you wanted it too. And you didn’t say to stop so I just kept going.”

“I did want it,” I replied. “You’re right about me. I am gay.”

“Oh, big shock!” Danny laughed.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’m still figuring it out,” he replied.

“Even after what we did?”

“Especially after what we just did,” Danny replied. “I’ll tell you wat though, it’s made me more determined than ever to stir things up at school. We need to get something started. I don’t know what it will end up being, or how it will go, but something has to change at school.”

“Cool… So… I’m not really interested in getting back in the hot tub,” I said.

“Are you kidding? After we just did to it? I’m kinda disgusted that our feet are still in there!” Danny laughed. “Come on, let’s get dried off and go to bed.”

Danny grabbed us a couple of towels and we dried off and wrapped them around ourselves to go back to Danny’s room. Once there, we shed the towels and pulled on our night clothes. Danny’s bed was big enough for both of us to fit comfortably. I laid down on my side facing away from Danny. He scooted over next to me and put his arm over me, resting his hand on my chest. He very quickly fell asleep, but I lay there for a while, just trying to process what had just happened between me and my best friend. I hadn’t intended to tell him I was gay, but I didn’t regret it. I was glad he knew. I was even more glad he didn’t care. I couldn’t believe what we’d done with each other in the hot tub! I would have never been as bold as Danny had been. I was glad it had happened though. I thought about our little sperms all mixed together in that water downstairs. It was then I realized we’d left our trunks down there.

I slipped out of Danny’s hold on me, and he grumbled a bit in his sleep. I quietly left his bedroom and crept downstairs and down to the basement. I kept myself absolutely quiet. I noticed the light from the hot tub was still on. I thought we’d turned it off. I could hear sounds coming from the room, kinda like voices, but not really. I reached the doorway of the room and saw what was causing the noises. Danny’s parents had taken over the hot tub, and the two of them were having sex in the very same spot where I’d just jerked off their son just an hour before! Thankfully, they were facing away from me. I glanced and saw Danny’s swim trunks on the floor and thought about trying to grab them, but thought better of it and slowly backed away from the scene in front of me. I reached Danny’s bedroom and crept back into bed. Danny resumed the position behind me and held me close.

“Where’d you go?” he asked.

“Bathroom,” I replied.

Danny quickly settled back into sleep. Try as I may to sleep, there was no erasing the sight of Mr. Rossi’s naked butt flexing and thrusting from my mind. Sure, Mrs. Rossi had been naked too, but I could barely see anything, nor did I care. I wondered if they noticed the swim trunks on the floor, or if they even cared. What if they’d gotten horny an hour earlier? Then it would have been them seeing something they couldn’t unsee instead of me!