Encounter on the # 3 Subway (New York) - 5. Chapter 5 Surprise at the LGBTQ+ Center

As Bruce walked to the subway, he felt like dancing in the street. He had never imagined such delight. He had just seen a real hard dick (not a porn dick) for the first time, touched another dick for the first time, had his fondled, jerked off with another guy and been sucked to orgasm. Incredible. As soon as he arrived home, he went to his room, found porn on his desktop and with the help of his fist happily relived the events of hours earlier. Again that afternoon, and as soon as he crawled into bed, his fist was wrapped around his dick. He laughed to himself as he debated if he had come off five or was it six times in the past twenty-four hours.

Mark had a totally different reaction. As soon as Bruce walked out the door, he wondered if it had been a bad decision to encourage the young man. Yes, it was erotically fun to play with the virgin, but should he have encouraged him? At forty-two, he had a very satisfying social life. His ‘friends with benefits’ did not carry emotional baggage. He had no desire to settle down. Was this kid that he just sucked off going to pester him. Over the next two days, he thought about their upcoming rendezvous on Monday. While he had enjoyed being with Bruce, he feared there could be emotional attachment. He was not ready, if ever, to become involved with anyone - younger, his age or older. If Bruce really was the virgin he claimed to be, Mark felt a responsibility: that was to guide the young man to find his way in the world he, as a gay man, needed to learn to navigate.

As agreed, Bruce was at Mark’s door at 10:00 Monday morning. Bruce had no morning classes on Mondays and since Mark often worked from home, no one would question his not being in the office. As soon as Mark saw the smile of anticipation on Bruce’s face, his concern about the twink becoming infatuated with him melted and lust took over. Since there was no hesitancy on the part of the young man, they were immediately naked and playing. A no longer bashful Bruce told Mark that he wanted to become an accomplished ‘cock sucker.’ He did not admit that he had been practicing at home with a banana. Not being aware of banana practice, Mark was surprised at how quickly Bruce had mastered the art of the blowjob, although he did not yet swallow.

Sitting at the kitchen table during a break from their bedroom activities, Mark initiated a discussion of how Bruce should handle his acceptance of being ‘gay.’ Mark had studied web pages related to gay activities and support at CUNY (City University of New York) and discovered The LGBTQ+ Student Center. When he asked Bruce about the Center, he was surprised that the young man had no idea that such support was available on campus. He told Bruce to visit the Center and find out what counseling and programs were offered. They also discussed how Bruce might meet like-minded men his age. He strongly discouraged the bar scene. Since the drinking age in New York was twenty-one, technically bars would be off-limits. Mark also suggested that Bruce hold off on on-line dating. They discussed the dangers of cruising. Mark sincerely felt that his protégé needed gay maturity before searching for Mr. Right or at least Mr. Fun-for-the-moment. He realized Bruce was not as shy as he originally appeared. He had put himself at risk by not discouraging the groping on the subway, then agreeing to visit Mark. They also discussed coming out to the parents. The fact that Bruce encouraged Mark’s counsel and seemed to accept his suggestions was gratifying to the older man. Mark laughed as he stated, “I feel like a big brother to you – actually, a big brother with benefits.”

Bruce replied, “That is exactly how I see our relationship. I like the counsel of the older brother and I especially appreciate the benefits.” As he said this, he stood, took Mark’s hand and pulled him to the bedroom.

Wednesday afternoon Bruce got the courage to visit the LGBTQ+ Center. As he entered the small office, the young man at a desk looked up and smiled. “Welcome to the Center.” As the two eyed each other, they both exclaimed, “I know you!” The man at the desk continued, “You’re Bruce from Middle School 322. We had a few classes together.”

Bruce replied, “You’re Alan. We were both in Mr. Morton’s science class.”

Alan continued, “Do you remember the sex education lecture we had in his class?”

Bruce, “Remember? That was the highlight of my seventh grade. I had these feelings but did not know why. What a relief to find out some of the stuff I was doing and thoughts I had were normal. I can finally share a secret thought I had back then. I was totally smitten with Mr. Morton. Would you believe three years later I had a brief encounter with him. I had been given a gym membership as a birthday present when I turned sixteen. One afternoon, as I was changing in the locker room, Mr. Morton walked in from the shower area wearing nothing but a smile and towel draped over his shoulder. Let’s just say, he was as well-equipped as I had fantasized.”

Alan laughed as he continued, “Remember Randy, the most mature guy in our seventh-grade class. I still remember him grabbing his dick in the gym shower the day after our sex ed lecture and announcing, “Can anyone match this magnificent piece of meat?”

Bruce replied, “I remember getting out of the shower area as fast as possible after Randy’s boasting. I did not want anyone seeing me getting hard.”

Their discussion continued as they reminisced and Alan explain the activities and opportunities at the LGBTQ+ Center.

As Bruce walked to the subway he thought about the encounter with Alan. They had never been close friends in middle school and had attended a different high school. Bruce had enjoyed their chat. It was the first time he had ever knowingly had a conversation with a gay guy his age. Then he reminded himself that Alan was just the second gay person he had ever talked to. He remembered Alan as a skinny shy boy. Although at the age of thirteen he had been checking out dicks in the shower, he didn’t remember giving that puny guy a second thought. Alan was no longer someone you would ignore. Even though he sat through their entire conversation, Bruce now visualized him as tall. The killer smile, curly dark hair and piercing brown eyes on a handsome face created a stunning sight. At home Bruce paid tribute to his old acquaintance as he sat at his computer with porn on the screen and his fist entertaining his dick.

That evening, Bruce called Mark to report his encounter with the acquaintance from the seventh grade. When Mark saw Bruce’s name appear on his phone’s screen, he was somewhat apprehensive. Was subway boy becoming needy with his frequent contact? He was both relieved and pleased that his young friend was calling to discuss his encounter, not just seeking sexual activity. Bruce happily told of his discussion with Alan.

During the following week, Bruce thought of his new acquaintance. More than once his fist gave tribute to Alan, the only gay person near his age that he knew. Alan had told Bruce he volunteered at the Center every Wednesday afternoon. A week later Bruce returned. As he entered, Alan stood up. He smiled and held out his hand to shake. “Welcome back. It’s good to see you again. Have a seat.” As Bruce sat he realized this runt from middle school was a little taller than himself at 6 feet (183 cm). For the next hour, their conversation was easy. They discussed many topics: their classes, plans for the future, summer plans and the Yankees. Both were true Yankee baseball fans. One topic they never discussed, possibly avoided, was anything to do with sex. Eventually, Alan stated that he had work to do and then suggested to Bruce, “When I leave here at 4:00, I am going to the opening of an art exhibit in the Student Center. A good friend of mine, Frank, has a show. Frank is a very talented and interesting person. You will be surprised at the quality of the art. If you have the time, we could meet in front of the Student Center soon after 4:00.”

Bruce accepted the offer. As he walked toward the library for some study time he suddenly realized he was disappointed that Alan had a friend, ‘Frank.’ As he sat in the library his mind wondered from the textbook to his jealous thoughts of Alan and Frank together.

As Bruce approached the smiling Alan near the entrance to the Student Center, he felt a combination of happiness about seeing his new friend and conflict that Alan already had a good friend. As they entered the exhibition room, Alan picked up leaflets and handed one to Bruce. The cover read, ‘The Art of Francesca Bergdof.’ Suddenly, someone was shouting, “ALAN MY LOVE, I thought you would never arrive.” Descending on them was a short girl. With one arm tattooed with flowers, a nose ring, blue hair and what appeared to be a thrift shop beige baggy dress, she was a total contrast to the conservatively dressed Alan.

“Did you see the fucking catalog? They listed me as ‘Francesca!’ Only my grandmother calls me that!” She then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Alan on the lips. “Who is this gorgeous ginger man?”

“Frank, I would like to introduce you to my friend and former colleague at Middle School 322, Bruce MacDonald.” Before Bruce could utter a sound, Frank again stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.

Surprised Bruce was extremely relieved that Frank was this funky girl, not Alan’s lover. He muttered, “Wow, I have only been kissed by my Mother and Grandmother and never on the lips.”

Alan commented, “You deserve more.” He leaned in and kissed Bruce on the cheek.

Frank laughed, “Nice meeting you, handsome. Hope you enjoy the exhibit.” She then greeted another guest. As he walked into the room she again stood on her tiptoes and planted a lip kiss on another tall good-looking guy.

Alan told Bruce, “She treats everyone as if they are special to her. See the conservatively dressed young woman in the corner? That is Frank’s partner / lover.” Bruce looked at the woman who was wearing a black dress. She looked more like a lawyer than the lover of flamboyant Frank.

Following the exhibit, the two young men walked toward the subway.

Bruce asked, “Would you like to see ‘The Batman’ movie. It is showing at AMC 84^th Street. We could go Saturday evening.”

Alan replied, “Sounds good. I work at my uncle’s furniture store until 6:00. We could meet at the theater.” They agreed to meet at 6:45 for the 7:00 showing.

At the concession stand, they each bought soft drinks and Alan bought a gargantuan tub of popcorn to share. Alan held the tub of popcorn snuggly between his knees. Once when Bruce reached into the tub, Alan also reached and their hands touched. While that may have been accidental, future popcorn grabbing seemed to almost always include hand touching. Bruce assumed this was not an accident and was disappointed when the tub was empty, not because of the lack of popcorn, but the stopping of the touching.

After the movie, as they walked up Broadway toward the 86^th Street subway entrance, Alan suggested they stop for a snack at a burger place. Over burgers, fries and cokes they discussed the movie, the recent Yankee loss to the Red Sox and other banal topics. When Alan mentioned he was having trouble completing an assigned paper because his home computer was running extremely slow and the printer interface didn’t always work, Bruce replied, “Sounds like you have a virus or some malware issues. Hopefully, I could diagnose the problem and fix it. Most of my work at my part-time job at PC Patch-Up deals with such issues. I could come to you home and check it out.”

“Are you free tomorrow? I really need to work on that paper.” Since the paper was not due for two weeks, and even if his printer did not work he could print it at the LGBTQ+ Center, having it fixed immediately was not necessary. However, Alan wanted the opportunity to have quality time with his new friend. Since his parents were going to Connecticut for the day with friends to go antiquing and have dinner, the boys would have an opportunity for private friendship.

“Bruce cheerfully replied, “I am free for you. What time?”

Alan happily answered the door when Bruce arrived promptly at the 10:00 a.m. agreed time. “Welcome to my home. It will be quiet. My parents just left for their visit to Connecticut and my sister is off with her boyfriend. When I told my mom a friend was coming over, she had a thousand questions about you. She also prepared lunch for us.”

Bruce followed Alan to his bedroom. He noticed that his friend had arranged his room in the same manner as he had: the desk with the computer was located so that the screen was not visible from the door. “This might take a while. You might want to find something to do.”

“I’ll make a fresh pot of coffee. Would you like a bagel or Danish?”

Bruce restarted the computer. His first project was to view his friend’s viewing history. Being computer savvy, he was able to dig deeper into the list of sites visited than a casual computer user could do. He was happy to discover that his friend was not a stranger to porn sites. He noted that the previous evening, after returning home from the movie, Alan had visited a male site for a little over an hour. A quick look in the trash can under the desk revealed crumpled tissues, evidence that both of them had taken care of themselves after the movie. Bruce determined that Alan had no malware protection and that his virus software was out of date. When Alan returned Bruce explained that he was loading up-to-date protection, and that he would then do various scans that would take an hour or more.

With Alan sitting on his bed, Bruce turned in his chair. As he took a bagel covered with a generous layer of cream cheese he spoke. “Alan my friend, I think most of your computer problems relate to your visiting porn sites that are unsafe. Shame on you.”

This statement of rebuke sent a stabbing pain through Alan. He thought to himself, ‘I thought Bruce and I were like-minded. I would have never let him close to my computer or, as a matter of fact, never had a friendship with him if he was such a goodie-goodie.’

Bruce continued, “Shame on you. Don’t you know that you should not have sex without protection? Your visits to porn sites without anti-virus or malware protection was like letting a syphilis infected whore suck you off. You have a very sick computer. The good news, I will make it so you and your computer can have safe sex.”

While Alan was embarrassed that his friend knew the extent of his porn searches, he was relieved that the admonition was for not protecting his computer. Actually, Bruce was making it safer to watch porn.

Bruce continued, “I see that you visit ‘chaturbate.’ That site is probably safe. I will admit that last night while you were on it, I was also there. Some of the other sites you visited might not be safe. With appropriate up-to-date software, you will be warned if you attempt to visit someplace that could cause problems. Want to check out porn on my tablet while the virus tests are running on your computer?”

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Readers – You will have to wait until the next chapter to discover what affect looking at porn together has on these two healthy males.