Unremarkable - 5. Accustomization.

There were no interrogations, no screams of shock and no dramatic displays of surprise. Liz scooted over next to Matt, gave him a soft kiss on the forehead and wrapped him in a tight embrace. That was enough to show her support for him. Feeling left out, Dylan engulfed the two of them in a bear hug before they all fell apart on the sofa chuckling from the absurdity of the situation.

“Now, this doesn’t mean it’s cool for you to ask me along when you go shopping for cosmetics alright?” Matt announced, trying to maintain a serious look on his face but failing miserably the moment Dylan and Liz burst out into another round of laughter.

Frankly, all the joking and loving hugs aside, Matt never felt more relieved. Although he had read about the sense of relief people had after coming out on JUB the night before, the whole “a boulder has been lifted from my shoulder” experience sounded like bullshit to him – he was wrong. Matt did feel an instant sense of comfort not having to be constantly on guard around his best friends. Granted, he already knew that both of them would be accepting, they had said so numerous times. But there was still this little voice in him that kept asking “what if?”

It suddenly dawned on Matt that he had just admitted that he was gay. To someone else. Sure, it was Liz, whom he practically regarded as a sister. Still, he had never admitted it to Dylan or even himself. It felt so liberating to be able to tell someone else this secret he had been grappling with.

Over the whole of last night and the rest of the day in school thinking about the whole situation, he had gotten considerably receptive to the idea of being gay. The notion seemed a lot less repulsive when one of his best friends was in the same situation as him. He was not ready to tell anyone else, albeit finally mustering up enough courage to let Liz in on the secret. As much as he could see himself getting used to the idea of being gay, Matt did not plan on bathing himself in glitter while waving a rainbow flag.

Dylan, too, caught Matt’s admission. Just a few weeks ago, Matt had a panic attack just talking about the possibility of being gay and now here he was, practically outing himself voluntarily to comfort Liz. Though an unfortunate and traumatic experience this ordeal was for everyone, Liz’s incident proved integral in pushing Matt out of his shell.

This was the way they remained for the rest of the night; cuddling up together while watching television. Not much was said apart from the occasional laugh when something funny came up on the show. Everyone seemed content to sit in silence to enjoy the company of one another.

Liz’s parents had to practically chase the two teenagers out of the flat that night, and it was not only after promising that they could come and visit again the following day after school. They did not seem too angry with Liz, although they did caution the other two to do the right things at the right times.

Assured that Liz was in good company now that her folks were back from work, they left the flat and headed home. Matt tapped Dylan on the shoulder and whispered “thank you.” Dylan gave Matt’s shoulder a quick squeeze and shot him a small smile. This was the kind of understanding that only friends as close as brothers had – Dylan knew exactly what Matt meant, and Matt knew that the silence was not one of indifference, but one of acceptance and love. Despite the night being frigid from an earlier downpour, warmth spread through Matt’s body as he glanced at the teen walking beside him, eyes glued to the phone screen. Watching Dylan’s eyes squinting from the glare of the screen as he texted with his many friends, Matt had never felt more fortunate calling someone a friend and a brother.

--

Since the incident, Liz and Claire managed to stay together, despite violent objections from Claire’s parents who went to the extent of driving Claire out of the house in order to show their disapproval. Fortunately, because of their verbal abuse and eventual decision to kick Claire out of the house, Claire’s aunt, who had been trying to mediate the family through all the disagreements, saw that as the last straw. She intervened and took Claire into her own place, even going to lengths to adopt Claire when her parents wanted to disown her. Of course, no amount of making up could negate the pain of having one’s own parents reject one, but through the combined efforts of everyone else, Claire did manage to recover and almost go back to her old self. Some things would never be the same, but at least Claire knew that her friends and aunt had her back. In school, the culprit who took their picture was never found, but the girls were given a second chance to return to school after a week-long suspension.

Matt had been slowly but surely getting in touch with his sexuality over time. He still remained single and his total incompetence around guys he fancied probably had a huge part to play in that. Much progress has been made though, Matt spent more time on JUB, and “D-And” helped him work through all the emotional stress. Dylan even walked in on Matt masturbating to gay pornography once, just as Matt was about to blow his load. And so, the first guy to see Matt unload was his straight best friend Dylan – and god, did he tease Matt for the longest time after that. There was definitely no shame for Dylan but Matt felt like throwing knives in Dylan’s direction every time he brought the incident up for weeks following the unfortunate display. “Rimming” and “Daddy” became the most spoken words at their table for quite a while. Liz and Claire sat in utmost amusement while watching their boys bicker about whether gay porn and masturbation was an appropriate topic for discussion over lunch. For the record, Matt never won and the teasing lasted for weeks.

The occasional teasing from his friends aside, Matt felt more at ease with his thoughts and desires after leaving church. Even seeing the church compound reminded him of the ‘homosexuality is a sin’ sermon and he decided that leaving altogether would do his mental health some good. Matt even began to look at guys differently, he could now appreciate solid abs, bulging biceps and of course, bubble butts. Gone were the days when he instantly felt guilty whenever he sprouted a boner from being attracted to guys. Claire, who identified herself as bisexual, even started ‘man-watching’ with him whenever they were together. As a teenage boy with raging hormones which had been supressed for the longest time, Matt became a frequent victim of infatuations – it appeared to everyone that Darren would be his new eye candy for the next couple of weeks but at least the latest guy seemed genuinely nice.

--

After a few days, Matt’s painfully obvious obsession with Darren had not waned in the slightest. The eye raping never stopped and like clockwork, Matt would stare at Darren dreamily until the latter noticed the attention and returned the smile. This sent Matt into a downward spiral of embarrassment and made his already awkward social behaviour more peculiar. In spite of the constant embarrassment, Matt’s eyes had a life of their own and would drift towards Darren’s direction every so often. Dylan and Liz tried their best to help Matt along by becoming friends with Darren, but Matt could not get his act together enough to utter more than two sentences before taking off, looking like he wanted to hurl.

Darren, on the other hand, seemed thoroughly amused by Matt’s antics. He would often ask about Matt and his constant compliment of Matt’s awkward mannerisms as being “cute” did not go unnoticed by Dylan and Liz; both had their suspicions that Darren might like Matt as much as Matt liked him. Though it could be good news that Matt might have finally picked someone appropriate to crush on, Dylan felt like he needed to play the role of the protective big brother and make sure Darren was a good guy before allowing Matt in on their observations. Concerned about Matt’s well-being since he was practically a relationship virgin, Liz agreed that they should probably get to know Darren better before telling Matt anything. This would save Matt from a potential heartbreak if Darren turned out to be a douche.

From the moment Darren became friends with Dylan and Liz, he was a permanent fixture in the group, always sitting with them during lunch breaks and hung out with them after school. Spending more time did zilch to erase Matt’s nerves regarding Darren. If anything, watching Darren interact with the rest of his friends caused his heart to flutter harder whenever those emerald greens came into his view. He could not see any fault with Darren – the guy had a wicked sense of humour, a caring personality and he always had a wide smile on his face. Matt noticed that his eyes would always glisten under the sunlight into the deepest shade of green and he imagined that he could look into those eyes for hours on end and not ever be bored.

--

“Hey, what are you doing in the classroom alone at this hour?” The gentle voice that broke Matt’s concentration could only belong to one person. He looked up from his book and smiled shyly at Darren.

“I’m just waiting for Liz to be done with debates and I needed some quiet so I snuck back here since I know the passcode for the room,” Matt stammered; he could feel his body trembling under Darren’s strong gaze and he sat up straighter in his chair to calm his nerves.

“You know, you are really cute when you get all nervous around me,” there was something in Dylan’s sultry tone and strong gaze that caused a stir in Matt’s pants. He ducked his face, trying to put out the sudden, raging inferno within his body.

Darren placed a hand gingerly on Matt’s chin and raised it so they met face to face. Emerald green eyes met hazel brown ones. Sexual tension hung thick in the air as Darren inched his face towards Matt. His lips made contact with Matt’s own in a tender touch.

Matt gasped from the contact and pushed back with slightly more force, encouraged by Darren’s soft moans. Darren grabbed Matt by the waist and led him up, the two teenagers entwined in a passionate lip lock. Matt could feel the hard shaft confined within Darren’s pants twitch as they explored each other’s mouths. Matt’s own erection hardened by the second as Darren moved his hands up and down his back, sending tingling feelings up his spine. Emboldened by Darren’s forwardness, Matt put his own palms on Darren’s ass and gave the cheeks a hard squeeze. Darren let out a guttural moan that made Matt’s blood boil as he felt himself moving closer and closer to the edge with this sensory overload. Matt groaned back into his lover’s mouth as he started thrusting his hips forward.

--

“Ugh!” Matt groaned as a rope of thick, gooey liquid landed on his face. He opened his eyes slowly and looked down at his dick pumping out squirt after squirt of semen. He held on to that steel-hard dick as it pumped out copious amounts of cum, creating a trail from his face all the way to his stomach. He arched his back and his toes curled involuntarily as the euphoria of orgasm washed over him in huge waves. Face flushed and breathless, he gave his rapidly softening dick a few tugs to clear the leftover cum and started cleaning up.

Darren had become a regular in Matt’s masturbation routine ever since he started hanging out with the group. Imagining kissing and caressing Darren never failed to give him the most intense orgasms. With the post-orgasm high gone, Matt glanced at the mess he had created and sighed, wondering if someone as plain as himself, being together with someone as perfect as Darren was something that only existed in fairy-tales.

-- 

As usual, a shout out to LJH for going through my stuff!