A Month in the Heart of the Country Ch. 02
After I'd had breakfast, I sat back and wiped my mouth and looked up.
The other guys were all at the table, either still sipping tea or coffee or nibbling things. None of us had left the breakfast area. I looked at them all, and one by one they all looked up and returned my gaze.
"So," I said softly, "I guess we're going to have to figure out how this is . . . you know. Going to work."
Pete nodded seriously. The other guys looked mostly a bit embarrassed, except for Chris, who was sitting on a reversed chair and grinning.
"I mean," I said, blushing, "last night, was . . . it was like nothing else that's ever happened to me. When I came down here I was a virgin, and now, well, basically all of you . . . "
Ray looked faintly irritated. I glanced at him.
"More or less," I added. I felt irritated too; jerking off all over your friend's face was hardly not intimacy. I looked at them all; they were waiting for me to go on, waiting for me to set the agenda.
"But every night can't be a total orgy," I said. "I'm not gonna have the stamina, guys."
"You seemed like you were into it," said Ray.
"I was," I said. "But I mean . . . this is all new for me. Totally new. I came down here expecting to cook meals and play the guitar and now I'm like your sex toy, or something."
Chris chuckled. Pete gazed at me thoughtfully. The others laughed a bit and looked more or less slightly uncomfortable.
"I'm not making a big protest," I said. "I already said, I liked it. It's just that I thought I was into girls and now it turns out that . . . apparently, I am one."
The guys grinned, except for Pete, who kept watching me thoughtfully; he smiled slightly.
"So how do you want to do this?" I said.
"Isn't it really about how you want to do it?" Pete said.
"No," I said. "I lost the game. I pay the forfeit, and the forfeit is that I have to do what you say. And what you want me to do is be your . . . whatever."
I shrugged.
"I think 'sex toy' isn't quite fair," said Pete.
"Booty call," said Chris.
"Whatever," I said, smiling. "Like I said, I'm willing to do it. I liked it. And you've been considerate about it."
"Meaning that we've made you get off on it," said Chris gleefully. I blushed again.
"Yeah," I admitted. "Apparently, I really like to be fucked." I flushed crimson as I said so and the others smied.
"Okay," I added. "That's obvious. I just want us to work out how that's going to work for everyone. I can't be running from bed to bed all night."
"With a bit of luck," Steve murmured, "we'll meet some girls at some point and then we won't need Alex for this."
"But in the meantime," said Chris, grinning evilly, "I really think we should make the most of the opportunity that we have."
"Perhaps," said Ray, "we should vote on what sort of role Alex should have."
"What do you mean?" said Pete.
"Like, is he our official girl? Do we dress him up like a girl and pretend that he is one? Or do we not pretend anything? I just don't really know what we're thinking."
"Hang on," I said, "what about me?"
They looked at me.
"You accepted the forfeit," said Chris matter-of-factly. "You don't get a vote. You have to go with whatever we want."
I felt myself going crimson again, not with humiliation but with anger. Pete caught my eye and he nodded at me and held up a hand.
"Hang on, though," he said. "Fair enough, Alex is meant to go along with what we want, but we have to set some limits, no?"
There was a pause, and only Chris and Steve looked vaguely miffed. Danny and Ray glanced at me and nodded.
"I mean," Pete added, "we can't in all decency ask him to do anything illegal or dangerous, right? Apart from anything else, there's nothing to stop him from walking out of here and getting the bus home."
I threw Pete a mute look of gratitude. Chris stared at the table for a moment.
"Okay," he said at last, and not for the first time, I wondered at the tendency of the others to yield to whatever Chris wanted to do. He just assumed that he had the highest status, probably because his parents had the most money, and so that's how it worked out. "We can't tell Alex to do anything illegal or dangerous. I still think that if he wants to do something illegal or dangerous, the only thing we have to do is remind him that we're not forcing him to do it."
"Like what that's illegal or dangerous?" I asked.
"There's a lot of dogs around here," Chris said, leering at me. It took me a moment to figure out what he meant by it. Then I blushed furiously.
"I'm not fucking doing that," I said, my mind filled with an image that made my skin crawl.
"So you've made clear," Chris said. "So what else?"
"Why do we all have to do things together?" said Steve. Of all of us, he seemed the one who was in the least good humour about last night. I remembered that he'd been the most brusque, the least excited. I glanced at him and he looked at me with a cool, slightly distant look.