Sam the Ham

Early Boyhood Discoveries

"Hey mom, I'm going to run to the bathroom. Will you hold on to my bag for me?"

"Oh sure, just put it in my teeth," his mom responded sarcastically as she held up her three bags before smiling and saying, "Just throw it in one of my bags."

"Thanks," Rick responded, slipping the DVD into her bag.

"I'll be in the Hallmark shop."

"Okay," the brunette called over his shoulder as he headed for the bathrooms.

The twelve-year-old didn't really like shopping with his mom, but the mall had been having a lot of trouble with kids, or really teenagers, recently. The mall had finally decided that anyone under eighteen had to be accompanied by an adult. Rick kind of found it offensive, but it wasn't like he actually went to the mall that often anyway. He wouldn't have even gone today if there wasn't a movie he wanted to buy coming out.

Turning down the hallway that led to the bathrooms he noticed an elderly woman standing at the end of the hallway where it split into a T, with the right leading to the men's room and the left to the woman's. It was strange, but he dismissed it without much thought.

As he turned to go into the bathroom, though, she spoke up. "Excuse me, but could you help me out?"

Rick was a bit startled as he tried to get a better look at the old woman. She didn't look crazy or anything and he relaxed a little and smiled, "Maybe – what's the problem?"

She smiled back at him and the wrinkles moved in such a way that made it seem like it was a familiar expression on her face. "My grandson's been in there for a long time and I'm getting worried. Could you see if he's okay?"

"What's his name?"

"Joshua," the woman responded.

"Sure, I can do that," Rick responded. He had a little brother and a little sister so he had a vague idea of what might be wrong.

"Thank you," the woman said, sounding relieved.

"No problem. I have a little brother so it's no big deal," he said as he pushed open the door.

Stepping into the bathroom he took it in at a glance. There were five urinals and four stalls, only one of which had a pair of little feet showing from beneath them. They hardly touched the ground and by simple process of elimination he determined this was Joshua.

Walking over to the stall he knocked on the door and said, "Are you Joshua?"

The kid must've been startled because he didn't answer at first, and when he did he sounded clearly nervous, "Yeah."

Rick smiled to himself at the sound of the voice. The kid sounded older than his brother, but really it was hard to tell. "Your grandmother asked me to see if you were all right. She said you've been in here while, so: are you all right?"

Again there was a long silence before he said, "Yeah, I'm all right."

"Okay," Rick said, suspecting that the kid wasn't all right. "I have a little sister and a little brother, so if you did have a problem, I probably helped out with it before." He made a face even as he said that. He wanted to put the kid at ease, but it was pretty sure he just sounded like an idiot instead.

Again there was a long silence, but voice from behind the stall eventually said, "Really?"

"Yeah, really," he said, trying to sound reassuring.

"If I told you, would you promise not to tell?"

"Of course, cross my heart." He didn't add that if there was something seriously wrong he would break that promise, but he didn't think that was the case.

There was a silence again and it was a bit longer than the other ones. Eventually, though, the boy on the other side of the door said, "It's hard."

Ricks mind was thinking of bodily functions and for a second he thought the boy was referring to his poop, for lack of a better word. However, that didn't seem right and he wondered if it was something else that could become that way. "What's hard?"

"My," the boy paused for half a second as if he was trying to decide what word to use, "penis?"

Rick smiled to himself, "Is it sticking out and hard almost like a bone?"

"Yeah," the younger boy said sounding astonished. "We-were-walking-and-it-started-to-get-hard-and-it-was-starting-to-hurt-so-I ran-to-the-bathroom-and-it-won't-go-down-like-it-normally-does-and-"

"Joshua, it's okay," Rick said, cutting the boy off before he started to cry. "What you have is called an erection and every boy gets them eventually. If you want, I can tell you a way to get rid of it." Even as he said that, he glanced over at the door, hoping that no one was about to walk in on them.

"Really, how?" the boy demanded.

"Okay, listen carefully and do as I say. Take your thumb and index finger and form a circle with them."

"Index, that's the one next to your thumb, right?"

"Yeah," Rick said as he leaned down to show the boy with his own hand. "You got it?"

"Yes, but now what?"

"All right, take your hand and put your penis through the circle you made with your fingers and then tighten it so your fingers are touching your penis all around."

"Got it," the boy said through the door.

"Now," Rick said closing his eyes and trying to visualize what he was explaining, "bring it forward almost to the tip, but not past it and back again. Keep doing it, but not too hard or you'll hurt yourself. If you feel like you're going to pee, that's good. It means you're almost done so keep doing it and you'll get this good feeling. Then your erection will go away."

"Will I?"

"Pee? No, you shouldn't."

He waited for another question, but it didn't come. After a minute he leaned a little closer to the door, trying to hear something. The idea that there was a boy on the other side jerking off for the very first time was kind of arousing and he had to adjust himself to prevent his own growing erection from showing.

Eventually, he heard a sharp intake of breath and he knew little Joshua had just had his first orgasm. He pressed his hand against his own erection, enjoying the sensation and wishing he could find his own release right now.

In the silence of the bathroom, though, he could hear Joshua stand up and pull up his pants. A second later the door unlocked and he got his first real look at the boy as he tried to appear as normal as possible. Joshua was probably nine or ten years old and had curly black hair. He also had quite a nice smile with very white teeth.

For a moment the two of them stared at each other, each taking the other in. It was Rick who looked away, embarrassed.

"Thanks," Josh said, "for your help. I didn't know what to do."

"It's all right," Rick said, trying to sound casual. "Just remember that what I told you to do is like going to the bathroom. Everyone does it, but you really shouldn't let anyone else see you doing it."

"Yeah, I thought it was something like that," Joshua said. "Um," he started.

"Is there something else?" Rick asked.

"Well, what if it happens when I can't get to a bathroom or something?"

"I just tuck it under my waistband when that happens."

"Oh, thanks," the boy said, heading towards the door.

"You should wash your hands," he said, before the boy could take three steps.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I should," the boy said, turning to him with a nervous smile.

"I'll tell your grandmother you're on your way."

"Wait! You said you wouldn't tell her what happened."

Rick smiled, "I won't. I'll just tell her you ran out of toilet paper, okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," Joshua said, heading towards the sink.

Crossing the room, Rick poked his head out the bathroom door to where Joshua's grandmother was still standing. "He'll be out in a minute."

The elderly woman turned and asked, with concern in her tone, "Is he all right?"

Rick smiled and said, "He's okay." Lowering his voice he added, "The bathroom stall he was in didn't have any toilet paper and he was really embarrassed to ask for me to get some."

She smiled in relief and said in a similar quiet tone, "I see."

"Excuse me," Joshua said from behind him.

Rick stepped of the other boy's way to let him pass and said, "Take care, Joshua."

Joshua paused and turned towards him. He smiled and said, "I like being called Josh."

Seconds later Rick was left alone in the bathroom and he retreated into a stall to fix his problem. As he jerked off he played a very different scenario in his mind. In his world of fantasy he had given Josh a blow job and the boy had been so grateful that he had returned the favor. It was a nice fantasy, but it would never have happened that way.

The End

Twelve-year-old Ethan pushed his way through the dry summer heat. It was about ninety degrees [32°C] outside with the humidity not far behind the temperature. He was starting to regret leaving his air-conditioned house to visit a friend who lived two miles [3 km] away. Actually, he really didn't consider Michael a friend. They only talked to each other in school because their names were fairly close alphabetically and they always ended up sitting close to each other. Why he had called him, Ethan wasn't sure, but Michael said he had found a way for them to make a few bucks and he figured he might as well hear him out. Of course, why he couldn't just tell him over the phone he didn't know, and Michael wouldn't explain.

He had never been to Michael's house before, but he had been given an address and a description. It was with some relief that the next house he came to fitted the description and a quick look at the mailbox confirmed the address. The driveway was covered in gravel which provided a bumpy ride, but he didn't want to ride on the grass even if it looked half dead in the heat. There was already a bike out front leaning against the porch and he put his next to it.

Stepping onto the porch he knocked on the front door, enjoying the slight relief the shade provided. The door was opened a moment later by a woman who had the same dark hair and brown eyes that Michael had. She smiled gently at him and said, "You must be Ethan, come in. Michael is in the basement."

"Um 3; thanks," he said, stepping inside and feeling a bit out of place. Ethan didn't like meeting people unexpectedly. He always had the impression they were judging him.

Before he could really look around the place, though, he heard a door open and Michael's head popped out from around a corner. "Ethan, you're here," Michael said before adding, "come on downstairs, it's cooler there." Without waiting for him to follow Michael headed back downstairs.

"Well, he's excited. I don't know what you boys are up to, but I don't want to hear about it on the news," Michael's mother said, closing the front door.

He turned to look at her, not sure if she was joking or not, but the slight smile suggested joking. Smiling back he said, "I'm sure it's nothing newsworthy."

She laughed at that and said, "Go. Have fun."

Ethan smiled and walked across the room to the door that led to the basement. Closing the door behind him he went downstairs. The basement was finished, but it was also like a guy's hangout. There was a big leather couch and chair facing a large screen TV with surround sound. The walls were covered in dark paneling with beer signs and Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia. Finally there was a little bar and a table that looked like it was designed for playing poker.

Ethan took all that in with a glance, but the first thing he said was, "Who are you?"

"Ethan, this is Taylor. He's my neighbor. Taylor, this is Ethan," Michael said, introducing them to each other.

"I'm eleven," Taylor said unprompted from where he sat on the couch.

"Okay," Ethan said, acknowledging the comment. If Ethan had been asked to guess Taylor's age, he would've put him at nine. The kid was small and pretty scrawny-looking. His head looked too large for his body and it was surprising that the kid didn't tip over from the weight.

He turned to Michael and said, "You didn't say anyone else would be here."

Michael shrugged, "I didn't think it was a big deal." He smiled with all the energy he had earlier and said, "Just let me explain my idea."

Ethan sat on the far end of the couch, as far as he could from Taylor. Michael clapped his hands together and started his presentation.

"All right, yesterday I was watching a show about Jesse James."

"A show?" Taylor spoke up. "You told me you had an idea for making a little money."

"Well, it was a documentary. Now please don't interrupt, shrimp."

Ethan noticed that Michael didn't seem too annoyed at being interrupted and Taylor didn't mind being called shrimp. So they were friends and not just neighbors, he thought, as Michael started again.

"I was watching this documentary," Michael said emphasizing the word documentary, "on Jesse James the other day. There is this theory that Jesse James wasn't just robbing to make himself rich, but was actually funding a secret organization. Apparently, during the Civil War he was a member of a group called Knights of the Golden Circle, which was like a civilian arm of the Confederacy. They kind of continued even after the Confederacy fell, hoping they could rebuild it. Apparently they were pretty big and had something like forty thousand members in this state alone."

"Fascinating," Taylor interrupted.

This time Michael did seem a little annoyed at the interruption. He glared at Taylor before continuing, "Well, I'm just saying there were a lot of members. Some of the members had the job of guarding the land where they would hide stuff. Those guys got paid, but not directly. You see, someone would bury a mason jar with silver dollars in it and the guy guarding the land would come along later and dig it up."

Michael paused for a minute and grinned, "Now, the interesting thing is, they would communicate by carving symbols into rocks so people would know where to dig. The really interesting thing is that some of the symbols they showed in this documentary are the same as ones that are on Taylor's land."

There was a moment of stunned silence that Taylor broke hesitantly, "I thought those carvings were old Indian stuff?"

"Nope, they're not," Michael said.

"Wait a minute," Ethan spoke up. "So, you're basically saying there is buried treasure on Taylor's property? Like how much?"

"Well, the mason jar they dug up had something like twenty silver dollars in it. I looked around online and those things sell for like $50 each: that's $1000. We could find more or we could find less," Michael finished with a shrug.

A thousand dollars split three ways is something like three hundred and thirty-three dollars each, Ethan calculated in his head. He could buy a PlayStation 3 with that.

"Okay, I get why you needed to bring me in on this, but why is he here?" Taylor said.

Not for the first time, Ethan felt uncomfortable being put on the spot, especially since he didn't know the answer to that question either.

"That is simple," Michael said rocking back and forth on his heels. "We know the general area where something might be buried, but if we just started digging randomly it would take us forever. Ethan's father has a metal detector and I'm hoping he'll be able to borrow it."

So they wanted to borrow his father's metal detector, he thought. His father was a plumber and, as a side business, he emptied septic tanks. Some people forgot where exactly their septic tank was as they only had to be emptied every few years. As a result his father had purchased a metal detector several years ago. He would find the pipes leading to the septic tank and then follow them. His father had taught him how to use it last year when his family had gone to a lake for a short vacation. The only thing he had found there, though, was part of an old faucet. He must've told Michael that story at some point.

He realized that all eyes were on him waiting for an answer. Shifting uncomfortably he said, "I'll ask, but I'm not sure if he'll allow me to. Even if he does, it probably won't be till Sunday."

"That's three days away," Taylor objected. "How do I know you won't sneak onto my land and look for it and cut us out?"

Ethan glared over at Taylor, angry that someone would think he would do something like that. "Yeah, well how do I know you won't say since it's on your land you own everything?"

"Guys, come on," Michael interrupted. "We need each other. Taylor, he's not going to sneak onto your land because he doesn't know where exactly the rocks are and Ethan, he's not going to say everything is his because he's not that type of guy. If anyone should be worried about being cut out it's me. After all, you two don't need me any more."

"Michael, I trust you because we've known each other since like forever, but I just met him today."

"Yeah," Ethan agreed.

For a moment the room was quiet the mood quickly souring, but then Michael spoke up. "Okay, I have an idea how we can all trust each other. How about if we all tell each other something you don't want anyone knowing? That way if one or two of us try to screw over the other one, there'll be something we can tell at school."

Ethan thought for a minute and while it sounded like it would work there was a problem. "I don't have any secrets."

"I don't either," Taylor said.

"Fine, then let's do something right now we wouldn't want anyone to know about," Michael said frustrated.

"Like what?" asked Taylor.

"I don't know. We could give each other blow jobs or something."The second after Michael had made that suggestion the room grew so quiet that you could hear a pin drop on the carpet. Then he seemed to brighten and said, "It's perfect. If one of us ever told that he saw the other two giving each other a blow job we wouldn't be able to live it down. It's the perfect blackmail."

"I guess it will work," Taylor said after a second. Then he looked over at Ethan and added, "If he's up for it?"

Again all attention landed on Ethan and he hated it. This time, though, his head was spinning. Had Michael and Taylor just agreed to give blow jobs? That was like gay and they wanted him to do it to. Why had they agreed so fast anyway? There was a part of his mind that was wondering if this was some sort of joke. He looked at Michael and then looked over at Taylor looking for some sort of clue that this might be a trick.

Taylor smiled, "What, are you scared?"

"No," Ethan's response was automatic. "I just 3;" he trailed off not really sure what to say.

"Well," Michael spoke up again. "It's not like anyone's ever going to find out if we stick together. I mean it will be just the three of us who will know and it's not like we would tell anyone unless we had to."

"Yeah, but who would do who and in what order?" Ethan said, agreeing to the act.

Again there was a silence, but Michael, who had somehow taken the leadership role, spoke up again. "Well, since you two are the ones who really don't trust each other I think I should do Taylor and then you should do me. Then Taylor can do you. So we will all have a little dirt on each other."

"Why don't we just say we saw each other doing it and don't actually do it?" he suggested.

"Because," Taylor said prolonging the word, "it's easy to deny a lie."

"Yeah," Michael seconded, "this will be more real for all of us."

Ethan almost got up and left, but then he thought of the money, or at least the potential money, and the PlayStation 3. He would never be able to afford one of those even if he saved his allowance for a year. Heck, he had only been able to buy an Xbox 360 because he had been able to buy one of the older ones used. Now it looked like all the good games were coming out for the PlayStation and he wanted one. "Fine, let's get this over with."

Michael took the lead again and suggested that they should all take off their clothes, so no one could chicken out at the last second and run away. None of them argued this point and Ethan was a little curious as to what the others looked like. Michael was only about a half-inch [1 cm] taller than he was and his penis didn't look any larger than his own. He thought Taylor's would be small like his body, but that wasn't exactly the case.

Taylor's testicles were big. Almost twice the size Ethan had thought they would be, and they were already descended like theirs had, only he was a year younger than they were. The penis itself was long enough to hang below his testicles, which was another thing that set Taylor apart from both his and Michael's privates. Taylor didn't say anything, but slowly swung his hips from side to side as if showing off.

"All right, go sit in one of the chairs and I'll get started."

"Yeah, sure," Taylor said turning and walking over to one of the chairs surrounding the table.

Ethan found himself watching Taylor as he walked over to the poker table. Maybe it was because he looked so strange. Without any clothes on, his head wasn't the only thing that looked awkward. His arms and legs were thin, but as Ethan's eyes drifted down to his feet they looked too big for his body. His torso looked so round and soft like he still had a little baby fat on him.

Taylor pulled the chair out and sat on the edge: his feet didn't touch the floor. Michael knelt in front of him and grabbed a hold of the other's penis, which only seemed half erect. Michael stroked it and it lengthened becoming fully erect and sticking straight out from Taylor's body.

Ethan felt a tingling between his legs and he realized he was developing an erection himself. Embarrassed, he tried to cover it with his one hand and took a few steps towards the table. He crouched like he was trying to get a better look at what was going on. In truth, he just wanted to hide his own growing erection.

Without any sign of hesitation Michael took Taylor's member into his mouth. It was kind of strange to see since there wasn't much to see. He had seen blow jobs before, but only in the porn magazines his brother had hidden between his mattresses. Actually, the big breasted women who had dicks so big in their mouths that they made their cheeks puff out hadn't really done much for him. In fact once he had satisfied his curiosity, he had kind of found those magazines disgusting. Here, though, it was different.

Taylor's erection may have looked big, but it wasn't thick and Michael didn't seem to have any trouble putting it in his mouth. After it was in Michael's mouth, he just sort of bobbed up and down on it. Still, the simple action had Ethan transfixed and he didn't notice the passing of time. At some point Taylor seemed to stiffen and then his back arched as he let out a little gasp.

Michael released Taylor's member and rocked back onto his back, his own penis now as hard as Taylor's had been. For a moment nobody said anything, but then Michael said to Taylor, "Out of the chair – it's my turn."

"Yeah, yeah," Taylor said with his face flushed before standing up and looking over at him. "Well, you're up."

Ethan felt like there was a million butterflies in his stomach as Michael took Taylor's spot on the chair. He crawled on all fours the few feet to the chair trying to hide his own arousal. It was almost becoming painful as he tried to surreptitiously tuck it in between his thighs as he knelt in front of Michael.

He looked at the penis in front of him with a little curiosity. This was the closest he ever been to another boy's penis. It was sticking up at an angle and he could see the two testicles in the sac clearly.

"Just watch your teeth," Taylor said helpfully.

Ethan glanced over at the smaller boy who was sitting on the carpeted floor with his legs spread. "What?"

The kid shrugged. "Michael showed me an article online once when I was over here."

"Shut up," Michael hissed.

Ethan glanced back at Taylor and asked, "Did you read anything else?"

"That's all I remember," Taylor answered.

He thought about it for a second deciding how he was going to do this and said almost to himself, "Okay."

Hesitantly he reached up and touched the hard member. His finger slowly wrapped around Michael's penis and it felt strange. In a way, it felt like when he touched his own, being both hard and at the same time a little spongy. If he closed his eyes he probably could've thought of it as his own, but he couldn't feel his fingers on it.

After a second or a moment – he really wasn't sure – he pulled his lips over his teeth and started to lean forward. The first thing he noticed was there was a slight smell. It was of sweat, he guessed. Then the tip touched his lips and he almost pulled back, but instead only paused before slipping it into his mouth.

It was weird to say the least. In a way it felt like a Popsicle, but warm instead of cool. As he slid more of the shaft into his mouth, though, his tongue was getting in the way. He thought for a second, but decided to stick with his Popsicle analogy and slid his tongue along the underside of Michael's hard penis. As he pulled back he allowed his tongue to simply slide along the member until just the head was in his mouth before pushing it back in.

Ethan could hear Michael's breathing change and he guessed he was doing something right. After bobbing up and down a few times he had to close his eyes and he tried to remember if Michael had closed his eyes, but he couldn't remember. He continued going up and down, not really sure if there was more to this or not.

He felt a hand land on the back of his head as Michael tried to take over control of the pace. When he applied more pressure Ethan sped up even as he had a horrifying thought. Was Michael making sperm yet? Was it going to end up in his mouth? A moment later both of those questions were answered in the negative. Michael exhaled sharply as he reached his orgasm and tried to push Ethan's head into his crotch. He was able to push back enough to prevent his nose from being smooshed into Michael stomach and when the other boy let go he ended up rocking backwards landing on his back his erection popping out from where he had been trying to hide it.

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice or care as Michael slipped out of the chair. Ethan stared at the vacant chair for a second, knowing he was supposed to sit there next. In a way, he felt more nervous about sitting there than when he had been sucking Michael.

"You going to get in the chair or not?" Taylor questioned.

"Um 3; yeah," Ethan said as he got up and sat in the chair. He sat like the other two had with his butt just on the edge of the chair.

Taylor didn't hesitate in kneeling in front of him and his hand almost immediately went to his penis. Ethan had thought touching another boy's penis was weird, but it was even weirder when someone touched your own. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation at all and in fact he kind of like it as the smaller hand stroked his erection.

Taylor leaned in and put his mouth around his erection without any hesitation. Ethan thought he had an idea of how it would feel and he couldn't have been more wrong. At first it felt warm, like he had suspected it would, but then Taylor started to use his tongue. He flicked on the shaft before pulling back so only the head was in his mouth and swirled his tongue around it. After that he kind of lost track of what Taylor was doing. All he knew was it felt incredible and Ethan found himself gripping the chair, pressing his butt down against the hard wood in a vain attempt to prolong the feeling.

When his orgasm finally washed over him it was toe-curling. For a second, it felt like as if every single muscle in his body tensed up and then released, flooding his body with a sense of euphoria. Ethan leaned back in the chair and absentmindedly noticed that his penis was still in Taylor's mouth. He looked down at the smaller boy, who seemed to be smiling around his flaccid member. At least, that's how it looked to him. Then Taylor let go and stood, showing he had an erection again. Without trying to hide it, though, he walked back to where they had left their clothes.

The three of them started to get dressed in silence. Once they were fully clothed Michael said, "Call me when your dad says you can use the metal detector."

"Yeah, sure," Ethan said glancing over at Taylor. He felt like he should say something to him, but the other boy had sat on the couch, clearly intending to stay. "All right, I'll see you guys later, then."

"Yeah," Michael said

"See you," Taylor said, waving from the couch.

It wasn't until Ethan was riding his bike back home that he started to realize how strange that had all been. He had never imagined anyone would suck on his penis, or that he would do it. Somehow he had imagined it would be a lot worse than it had turned out to be. Ethan didn't think you would want to do it again, but being sucked had been amazing. Well, it didn't matter. There was no way it was going to happen again.

Later that night Ethan asked to borrow the metal detector and after explaining why, to his surprise his father relented. In fact his father seemed to be amused by the whole idea of a treasure hunt. He called Michael almost as soon as he had received permission. They agreed to meet up early Sunday morning at Taylor's house, which was actually closer to him than Michael's was.

Over the next three days he didn't think too much about the silver dollars. It was summer, after all, and it wasn't as if he couldn't entertain himself. On occasion, though, he did think of it and when he did he always thought of the blackmail they had all agreed to. It seemed silly now, but when he thought of the blow job he had received from Taylor it was almost enough to make him hard.

Sunday rolled around and Ethan woke up early, or at least early for a summer day. He was supposed to meet up with the others at nine o'clock and after eating a quick breakfast of cereal he was out the door. Worried about damaging the metal detector, he decided to walk to Taylor's house with it swung over his shoulder.

The heat wasn't too bad yet and he thought he was making good time, but when he finally met up with the other two Michael greeted him with a shouted, "You're late!"

Michael and Taylor were waiting under a tree in front of Taylor's house. Michael had a shovel and Taylor had a large sports thermos. He felt an odd sense of unease around the smaller boy. The blow job the kid had given him had crossed his mind more than once during his masturbation session yesterday. Simply put he found stroking himself didn't compare to having it in that boy's mouth.

He tried to put it out of his mind as he said, "Sorry. I guess it takes longer to walk here than I thought."

"Well, it doesn't matter. Just follow me," Michael said, turning and walking off.

Ethan followed behind him and Taylor came up to his side as they walked around his house. The backyard was pretty big and it was surrounded by a flimsy fence. They were able to hop over it easily enough, but there was tall grass on the other side and he muttered a curse at himself for wearing shorts. He looked over at Taylor, who was similarly dressed, and said, "Shouldn't you be leading?"

Shrugging Taylor responded, "He knows where to go. We used to play out there all the time when we were little. So have you used that thing before?"

"You mean the metal detector? Yeah, once I found an old faucet head. You know, like the ones they used to have for wells. My dad went over it again with me last night anyways."

"It's cool that he let you borrow it."

"I guess. However, if I break it, I'll lose my allowance for a year."

"So I guess you won't let me try it out, then?"

"No, sorry."

After that the conversation died and they continued on in silence for a few more minutes. Eventually Ethan asked, "How much further is it?"

"Not much," Michael called back, pointing, "It's on that hill with the trees."

It took them another few minutes to reach the indicated area and Michael ran ahead as soon as the rock was in sight. He pointed and said, "Here, look."

When Ethan had been told about the carvings he had thought they would be faint, but they were carved deep and clear. Not that they made any sense to him. There were two initials KM, but all the others were just random as far as he could tell. "Where do they say to start looking?"

Michael shrugged. "In the documentary they said they didn't really know what any of the symbols meant. Still, you see these lines here?" He pointed to a series of twenty horizontal lines, one of which was crossed diagonally. "They think these might represent steps from the rock, but they really don't know."

"So basically you just want me to start looking in this area?"

"That's pretty much what they did in the documentary," Michael said with a smile.

Ethan called Michael an idiot under his breath as he turned on the metal detector. His father's metal detector was basic and not really designed for looking for particular items. Still, for the first hour everyone's enthusiasm was pretty high. After a few false positives, though, their enthusiasm waned. By the second hour the most interesting thing they had dug up was a short length of old chain. By the third hour everyone was pretty bored. Taylor had brought a DS with him and they took turns with it, but Ethan had to stick with the metal detector.

It was getting hot and even in the shade it had to be close to ninety degrees [32°C] and they were burning through the water quickly. When they ran out Michael was elected to go back to the house and get more. After he left Taylor came up to him and asked, "You sure you don't want me to do that for a while?"

"No, I'm okay," he answered tiredly.

"Really, you look tired."

He smiled and wiped some sweat off of his forehead, "I am more bored."

Taylor paused for a second and said a bit mischievously, "You want another blow job? They can be a real pick me up, you know?"

Ethan glanced over at him wondering if he was kidding or not. The kid almost seemed serious, but he couldn't imagine someone really offering to do such a thing. "I'm fine."

Taylor shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. He was silent for a moment before he asked, "Do you want to know something?"

"What?"

"You weren't the first guy I gave a blow job to."

Ethan looked at the other boy in disbelief. It wasn't that it wasn't believable. Hell, as good as it felt he wasn't surprised to learn that at all, but why would Taylor share such information with him, someone he barely knew? "Really?"

The other boy nodded his large head almost making him look like one of those bobble heads. "Yeah, Michael and I started doing it to each other around Christmas. It was kind of a joke at first, but then I said I'll do it, if he would do it for me."

"Oh," was all Ethan could say. After a second he added, "Are you two like gay or something?"

"No," Taylor said. "We just did it because it felt good."

"Did?" Ethan questioned.

Taylor hesitated and said quietly, "We don't really do it anymore. We used to do it like once or twice a week, but about a month ago Michael just sort of stopped. I thought when he suggested doing it with you he might be interested in doing it again, but I went over to his place yesterday and he told me he wasn't."

Ethan felt uncomfortable and tried to go back to work even as he felt sorry for Taylor. "Sorry," he said glancing back at the other kid.

The boy smiled and looked up at him. "Well, do you want to do it? Michael said I was really good at it."

Ethan didn't know how to respond to that. He had definitely enjoyed receiving one from Taylor and giving one to Michael wasn't as disgusting as he thought it would be. Still, it was weird. "I don't know – I mean, you are friends with Michael so it kind of made sense, but we don't really know each other."

"We could try to be friends," Taylor suggested.

He was saved from answering that question when the metal detector beeped. They both looked down as he moved it back over the spot again. He moved it a little forward and it still indicated that there was some metal down below. "Get the shovel. Whatever it is, it's big."

Taylor ran back to where Michael had left the shovel and started to dig. So far all the false positives had been found in the first few inches of dirt and once he passed that point Ethan took over. The whole became so deep they had to widen it so they could keep digging and when Michael came back he took over from Ethan.

In the end the hole was nearly a foot [30 cm] deep when Michael shoved the shovel back into the dirt and they heard a sound like breaking glass. It sent a wave of excitement through them and they all dropped to their knees looking through the dirt. Ethan found the first silver dollar and he held it up in the air like it was a trophy. It was the first of eleven silver dollars, but they also found one 1880's ten dollar gold coin which would turn out to be worth more than all the others combined.

Despite what Michael's mom had wished, they made the news. A local newspaper ran an article on them and even the local news channel interviewed them briefly. Michael did most of the talking for the three of them, but they all sort of enjoyed their brief celebrity status. The coins were eventually sold together for two thousand dollars, which they split three ways.

Unfortunately, none of the three of them ever saw a penny of that money as it disappeared into college funds for themselves. This was particularly surprising to Ethan as this was the first he heard about his parent's ambition to send him to college. So in the end he didn't get his PlayStation, which sucked, but he did become friends with Taylor, which was probably better than a PlayStation.

Their friendship started off slow. They found that they liked the same type of video games and progressed to other things. They eventually exchanged blow jobs again, and after a while it was a routine thing for them to do. After a year, though, Taylor kissed him, and they were no longer friends. Neither of them said it, but from that point on they were boyfriends.

The End

#3

Candy and boys

Brian heard a soft knock at his door and without looking away from his computer screen said, "Come in." The reflection of the screen allowed him to see the door open and the dark mop of hair that walked in could only be his younger brother.

The boy walked up behind his chair and put an arm around his shoulders in a half hug as he said, "Hey, how's the best big brother in the world doing?"

Brian mentally sighed. "Simon, what do you want?"

"A small favor." His brother raised a hand with two fingers slightly separated to emphasize how insignificant the favor was.

Of course, Brian knew if his little brother was putting on such a big show it would be anything but a small favor. He kept his brother waiting for a moment as he blew off the head of a Nazi and then paused his game and said, "Out with it."

His brother dropped the act and asked in a flat tone, "Will you go trick-or-treating with me and my friends?"

At fourteen Brian considered himself too old for that. Up until two days ago he had intended to go to a party, but he was trying to avoid his classmates now. They were getting annoying. Of course, that didn't mean he wanted to go trick-or-treating either. In fact going outside the house was not high on his priority list right now. "Why are you asking?"

His brother shifted nervously. "Todd's mom won't let him go trick-or-treating without someone she thinks is responsible to make sure we don't get in trouble. His cousin was going to do it but he's coming down with the flu or something. Todd's mom said you would be all right."

"She wants me to be in charge of you three?"

"Not in charge," Simon snapped. "She just wants you to make sure we don't get in trouble. She still doesn't believe the volcano incident was an accident," his brother trailed off.

Brian smiled at that memory, but was still tempted to say no. In fact he would've said no if it wasn't for three things. He knew his brother had actually saved up money to buy a costume, as had his friends. This would also probably be his brother's last year of trick-or-treating before his mom would say he was too old. The third and probably the most persuasive argument was if he said no now his brother would just go to his mom and she would make him go since he didn't have plans. "All right, I'll take you three around the neighborhood."

Simon smiled at his easy victory. "Really? Well there is one other thing. Um, Todd's cousin said he would go in costume too. We still have the costume and it might be a bit big, but it would be really cool if you would, um, you know." His brother put on the puppy eyes and added, "Please?"

He eyed his younger brother suspiciously. "What exactly are you planning?"

Simon's smile spread from ear to ear.

That evening found Brian looking in the mirror and deciding this wasn't so bad. The costume his brother wanted him to wear was pretty simple and almost plain compared to his brother's. Simon's costume apparently required him to tape up his calves like some sort of kick-boxer. Besides at least his had a mask. "Who am I again?"

"Kakashi," his brother said as he adjusted a flimsy piece of metal on his own forehead. "You are the teams leader. Just stare at that orange book and you'll look just like him."

"You mean he puts baby powder in his hair?" Brian had thought his comment would've gotten a laugh out of his brother, but instead he received a glare. "Sorry."

His brother's brown eyes continued to drill holes through him, but he was saved by the doorbell ringing and their mom shouting up the stairs, "Simon, your friends are here."

His brother was out of the bathroom before their mom had finished her sentence. Brian spared one last glance at himself in the mirror and decided he would never understand his nerdy brother. Really, going as characters from an Anime show? He doubted anyone would recognize them. Shrugging that off, he headed downstairs.

His brother wasn't particularly popular. Simon liked science and math and just about everything else that made you a nerd. His brother had found friends like him in his grade though and the three of them were currently looking over each other's costume and talking over each other.

Each of the costumes were very different from each other, but they did have some things in common. Each of them wore sandals even though in upstate New York they already had frost this year. They also each had a sort of pouch with several plastic knives in it. The only other thing was the piece of metal they all wore although not in the same place. That reminded him that his brother had asked him to pull his down over his left eye every time they were at a door.

Besides those three features the costumes were very different from each other. His brother wore white shorts and a dark blue shirt with some symbol on his back. Ashley, the girl of the group, had died her hair pink and was dressed in what he thought was bike shorts along with a dress that looked vaguely Chinese and was split on either side up to her thighs.

Todd, the shortest of the group, was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit that looked to have a couple of random symbols on it. His blond hair was a mess, but it looked intentional. He had also drawn three horizontal lines on either cheek. Brian's eyes lingered on him. His costume didn't really stand out, but it showed off his body a lot more than his usual baggy clothes did. It made Brian thinks some thoughts he probably shouldn't have about his brother's friend, let alone a kid he had pretty much known all his life.

When the boy's eyes landed on him he snapped out of his fantasy as Todd shouted, "Awesome!"

He was suddenly mobbed by the two newcomers. Ashley and Todd circled him in opposite directions and called out small details of his costumes. Their enthusiasm was contagious and he found himself smiling. His mom reappeared with a camera and took several pictures of the four of them. Brian even joined in posing with the others, glad he was wearing a mask, knowing his brother he would probably want a picture to put in his locker at school. The last thing Brian wanted right now was to catch flak for that.

After the photos were done they set out. It was already getting dark, but that wasn't unusual. The development they lived in had rules about trick-or-treating and it ended at nine o'clock. There were already a lot of ghosts, serial killers and superheroes walking the streets. His three charges bragged they would hit every house which would take about an hour and a half if he remembered correctly.

Trick-or-treating itself was uneventful. The costumes were recognized several times by other kids and a few teenagers who answered the door, but none of the adults had a clue. His brother and friends were having fun and although he didn't carry a pillow like the other three, he was offered candy quite a few times. He ate the small stuff and gave the other stuff to one of his charges.

Towards the end of the night, though, he started to notice something strange. Simon, Ashley and Todd had been friends since the first grade. Ashley was somewhat of a tomboy, but also a science geek like the other two. As he walked behind the trio he noticed a pattern. Whenever Simon and Ashley accidentally brushed against each other they pulled away. He wondered if their relationship might be changing and he wondered what Todd thought of that.

By the end of the night they had hit every house in the development. It had taken a little longer than he had thought, but it was still before nine o'clock. They walked along a small access road to get back home and Todd dropped back from the other two.

It was dark but the stars provided enough light to see his face as he gave him a smile. "Brian, thanks for coming out with us. I know you wanted to go to that party."

He shrugged, glad the rumor hadn't worked its way down to the lower grades. "Parties are actually pretty boring. Besides, it was kind of fun."

"Yeah, well, thanks anyways. My mom 3; well, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

They walked in silence for a moment before the boy piped up again. "I got an A on my last history test."

"So the tutoring paid off?" Brian said feeling a little prideful.

"Yeah, and cheating," Todd said jokingly.

He swatted at the boy who ducked and they threw a couple of fake punches at each other, both grinning before settling back down. Todd really wasn't bad for a geek Brian thought, and he was pretty cute.

"Are you going to watch the movie with us when we get to your house?" Todd asked suddenly.

Brian frowned, "Don't you guys have to go home? There is school tomorrow."

"Simon didn't tell you?" The boy gave him a surprised look. "We're sleeping over."

"Ashley too?"

"Yeah."

Brian snorted. He wondered how many twelve-year-olds could have a coed sleepover on Sunday night. He couldn't imagine his mom would have agreed to the same thing when he had been Simon's age. Being the oldest could suck sometimes.

"So are you?" Todd prompted.

He mentally shook his head. "No, I'm sure I wouldn't like the movie you picked out. It's an anime, right?"

"Yeah, Perfect Blue, it's about a serial killer, sort of."

"I think I'll just call it an early night," Brian said wanting to skirt a debate.

"All right," Todd said sounding almost disappointed.

When they arrived back home he did just that. As his brother and his friends headed into the family room to use the big screen TV he headed upstairs to shower. He messed around on the computer for a while, but went to bed early, trying not to think about school tomorrow. Brian slept through the night until about 2:30 when a dream he couldn't remember woke him up. Being way too awake to sleep anytime soon he went down to the kitchen for a drink.

As he stood at the top of the stairs in his boxers and a T-shirt, he noticed a glow from the TV screen. For a brief second he wondered if his brother was still awake, but thought it was more likely it had just been left on. He went down the stairs quietly not wanting to wake anyone, but couldn't resist and stuck his head into the room. To his surprise he did find someone awake. "Todd?" he said quietly.

The blonde turned his head towards him a 360 controller in his hand. "Hey."

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Can't," the boy answered.

Brian thought for a minute before looking over at Ashley who was sleeping on the love seat and then his brother who had claimed a spot on the floor. "I'm getting a drink, you want anything?"

The boy hesitated before looking back at the screen and said, "Yeah, I'll be with you in a second."

Brian nodded and went to the kitchen. He got two glasses down from the cabinet, filled them with water from a pitcher and waited for Todd. The boy walked in a moment later dressed in pajamas and took the offered glass. Brian thought he looked tired so something had to be bothering him and he doubted it was too much sugar. "What's up?"

The boy looked at him. "Can you keep a secret?"

He raised an eyebrow at that. "My parents still believe the last microwave broke because of old age."

Todd smiled weakly his thin lips in a tight line. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that," he trailed off, obviously remembering how cool it had been. "Anyway , last night Simon and Ashley kissed. They said they're dating, but I'm supposed to be the only one who knows."

Brian nodded, not really surprised. It wasn't just what he had seen tonight, his mom used to joke about it. Of course, he could see two reasons why Todd wasn't happy about this. "So, were you hoping to be the one to kiss her?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "No, she's just my friend."

"So you're afraid they won't hang out with you anymore?" Brian said, asking the next obvious question.

Todd seemed to consider his question this time, but shook his head. "No. I think we'll still be friends."

"So why can't you sleep?"

The boy bit his lip and looked down before looking back a bit nervously and answering his question with one of his own. "Is the rumor going around school true?"

A pit opened up in Brian's stomach. He opened his mouth to deny it or at least offer the counter rumor, but Todd was hoping for a different answer and he realized his first question had been close to the truth, he had just picked the wrong one of the trio. "Let's go to my room."

Todd quietly followed him upstairs and into his room. Brian sat on his bed and he gestured for the boy to sit in his computer chair. Todd sat in the chair and pulled his knees up to his chin protectively. The position made the boy look smaller than usual. It took Brian another moment to summon up his courage though.

Taking a deep breath, Brian said, "It's true. I sucked off Chad. I did it to him several times and he did it to me several times. The little bastard blabbed it to everyone because I didn't want to come out." He put the last word in air quotes.

"So you're gay, right?" Todd asked wanting to be sure.

Brian looked at the floor. He had thought those words, but never said them. "Yeah, I guess."

The room fell silent for a moment. Brian's ears burned to hear something and he never realized how quiet his house could be. The sound of the wind blowing against the windows and the distant ticking of the hallway clock was all he could hear.

"I'm gay too."

Todd had spoken the words softly, but Brian felt a little reassured by them, which was funny because he had wanted to comfort Todd. Remembering that, he tried to push his own feelings aside and looked back up at Todd. "So you were hoping to kiss my brother?"

The boy smiled showing his white teeth. "Yeah, I kind of knew it wouldn't happen, but you know, I like to think it would. I lost that hope today. Did you ever have a crush on a friend?"

Brian nodded. "It's no fun. I mean, I eventually got over it, but hearing that doesn't help."

"How did you get over it?"

He smiled at the question. "I fell for someone else."

That got a smile out of Todd, and then he asked a question Brian wished he hadn't. "So did you like Chad?"

"No."

"So why did you do that stuff with him, then?"

Todd's question was simple, but Brian wasn't really sure he could answer. "I don't know. It was stupid. I don't know if you know or not but Chad is really feminine. I mean he's almost just like a stereotype. A few weeks ago I probably hadn't said more than ten words to him, but we got assigned a project together and I don't know 3; it just sort of happened. I guess anyone could do it once – well, it's kind of what you want, you know?" He realized he was rambling, but he didn't really know why he had done it. Maybe he was just lonely, but he didn't want to say that.

"So, what, your pants just fell down?" Todd asked innocently.

Brian glared at the other boy. "It's hard to explain."

Todd hid his face from his glare, but popped back up almost right away. "So you think we should date, then?"

"What!"

The other boy just shrugged as if he just made a comment about a video game. "Why not?" He started to tick off points on his fingers. "We're both gay. We already know each other. We get along. We both like video games and were both not seeing anyone else." Todd shrugged. "It's worth a shot, don't you think?"

Brian choked back a laugh. "It's not that easy."

"Why not?" Todd asked. "Simon and Ashley were friends and now they're dating. We're not as close, but you like me, don't you?"

"I'm two years older than you."

"Sixteen months," Todd corrected.

Brian frowned at him. "Did you just figure that out?"

The boy shrugged before lowering his legs and crossing them. "Yeah, it's simple."

"Well, the kids at school will think it's a big deal."

"So?" Todd said dismissively. "It's not like I want to go to a dance or anything. I just want someone special. It could even be like practice dating if you want. Like you did with Chad, only you know, all of it," Todd looked away as he finished.

Brian opened his mouth to voice another objection, but one didn't come to him. If they were to keep it a secret, it wouldn't matter what others would think and he guessed he did consider Todd a friend. It wasn't like they talked every day, but they had played video games together and watched a couple of movies. Not to mention he had been roped into a couple of their experiments.

He looked at Todd who wasn't looking at him. He was cute even now in his baggy pajamas. Taking a breath he said, "I guess we can give it a shot."

The boy's head snapped around and he looked surprised as he started to smile. "Really? I mean we can kiss and everything?"

"Yeah, we can give it a try."He patted a spot next to him in and Todd crossed the room in an instant, popping down right next to him. From this close-up Brian could still see the remnants of the horizontal lines Todd had drawn on his face earlier. In an odd way they were kind of cute. "So you think we should kiss, then?"

Todd nodded and puckered his lips and that caused Brian to laugh. Todd looked at him with a hurt look on his face which shut him up. "Listen, just relax, okay. I haven't kissed much, either."

"Didn't you do it with Chad?"

Brian shook his head. "We just sucked each other. Honestly, I've only kissed two girls and those were only because of a party game. I'm not even sure if they were real kisses, but 3;"

Todd leaned in and kissed him cutting off whatever he was going to say. Suddenly Brian couldn't even remember what he had been talking about. It couldn't have been that important. The younger boy broke the kiss, but Brian quickly chased after him pressing their lips together a little harder, but it still felt nice. Nothing like when he kissed a girl. He even felt himself becoming hard and that had never happened before.

This time when they broke their kiss Brian could feel himself grinning stupidly, as was Todd, who was looking down. At first Brian thought the boy was too embarrassed, but then he started giggling and he looked down to see the head of his erection poking through his boxers. He quickly covered himself with his hand.

"Guess I'm good," Todd said covering his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. See if I ever do it again." Brian was embarrassed, but not as much as he tried to sound.

"Hay, I'm sorry." Todd said quickly as if he thought he was serious. "It happened to me, too."

"Oh, yeah? Show me." The words had escaped the older boy's mouth before he realized it and seeing Todd's reaction he wished he could suck them back in. "Sorry, I didn't mean that."

The boy was quiet for a few seconds then he said reluctantly. "It would be fair."

"Yeah, I guess." Todd hesitated for a second and climbed off the bed.

Standing in front of the older boy he started to pull down his pajamas before Brian's hand shot out and stopped him. "You don't have to," Brian said even as he realized he did want to see what Todd's dick looked like.

The other boy stopped and there was an awkward moment of silence before he said, "If I show you, will suck me?" Brian nodded, his blood-starved brain thinking that was a good compromise.

Releasing Todd's arm, the boy continued to pull down his pajamas. Once they got past his hips they just sort of fell, but his oversized top covered his privates. Falling to his knees, Brian lifted Todd's pajama top enough so he could see what the other boy had. It was not what he had been expecting. It was hard, but it was probably only an inch [2½ cm] long. Brian had been expecting it to look something like his brother's which he had caught glimpses of over the summer when they changed for the pool.

He didn't say anything about it, though. Instead he just leaned in and let the little nub brush up against his lips. Todd jerked back a little, but quickly settled down. Brian started to shake his head back and forth running his lips along the boy's little head. He slowly let it slip in until he opened his mouth and let his tongue touch the boy's tip.

The next several minutes he did every trick he had discovered. He licked and sucked Todd's shaft and even licked the boy's balls. Chad had shaved so that he would try that, although he was pretty sure his current partner just had not grown any hair yet. The boy seemed to like his attention, never pulling back, although he did jump a little when Brian's tongue worked the underside of his head.

Brian was so involved in what he was doing that it wasn't until he heard a quiet whimper from his partner and felt the boy started to soften in his mouth that he realized Todd had had a dry orgasm. He let the little erection go soft in his mouth before looking up into the boy's red face. "You like?"

Todd nodded and smiled. "It was weird, but I like it."

"Good," Brian said as he climbed back onto his bed, his own erection harder than ever.

The other boy noticed it and quietly asked, "Should I do you?"

There was something in Todd's tone that made Brian not answer with the obvious yes. After a second he asked, "Do you really want to?"

Todd hesitated and shook his head back and forth slowly before saying weakly, "I'm tired."

Brian forced a smile, "Then don't. You're probably ready for bed after that."

This time Todd nodded and yawned. "I should go downstairs."

"Yeah, that's probably best." There was another moment of silence and this time it was awkward. As Todd turned to leave Brian suddenly crossed the room in two large steps and spun the boy around to kiss him. It was a short kiss and as the boy was a head shorter than he was it was a little awkward, but it felt right. He threw his arms around the smaller boy even as he broke the kiss. He held him for a second looking at him and he started to smile. "Naruto, that's the name of the show, right? The characters we dressed up as?"

"Yeah," Todd said nodding.

"You really like it, don't you?" He waited for Todd to nod again and he continued, "You think I could come over and watch an episode or two tomorrow?"

"I would like that," Todd said, starting to smile.

"Tomorrow, then," Brian smiled and let the boy go.

Todd left after that and Brian went back to his bed, not believing what had happened. If he had fallen back asleep right away he would've written it off as a dream, but for an hour he lay in his bed replaying events. He couldn't help comparing this to when he had done things with Chad. With Chad it had been an arrangement, but with Todd it was different. He would have never have just done Chad and left himself to his own hand, but that's what he had done with Todd. He realized he already liked him. That thought was oddly comforting and was what he held onto as he drifted back to sleep.

The End