Free Screwups by Jamie Fessenden Page B

at him, he asked, “Do you mind? I’m really horny.”
    “Do I mind what?” Danny asked. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if Jake was asking him to do something.
    “If I jerk off. I mean… I can wait ’til the lights are off, if you don’t like me being this blatant about it.”
    Danny thought about it for a second. Not because he minded—it was really starting to make him horny too, which would be difficult to hide in a minute—but because he wasn’t sure where this was going. “If you don’t mind me watching,” he said finally.
    “I want you to watch,” Jake said. “I’m hoping you’ll do it too. We’ve never done it with the lights on.”
    “Jesus, guy. If I didn’t know there hadn’t been anything in that soda, I’d swear you were drunk right now.”
    Jake smiled. “Not drunk. Just… so horny my judgment’s kind of flown out the window.”
    “All right. Sure. Why not?”
     
     
    I F J AKE thought jerking off with Danny in the dark was hot, this was completely over the top. Danny had grown hard while they were talking about it, and then he’d moved to lie down on his bed and grab hold of himself. Then they went at it, occasionally closing their eyes when the pleasure was intense, but mostly watching each other.
    Jake had never watched another guy masturbate. Not even Tom, though he’d desperately wanted to. He’d heard classmates in high school joke about circle jerks—usually as something other kids did, but not them —and he knew his older brothers had done stuff like that with each other. But before tonight, Jake had never even seen another guy’s dick hard, except for glimpses in porn magazines.
    He still couldn’t see Danny’s that well. It was across the room and mostly covered by a hand. But that didn’t stop this from being the hottest sexual experience of Jake’s pathetic virgin life. He timed his orgasm to coincide with Danny’s, and they both watched each other splash come on their chests.
    Jake lay there for a long time, thoroughly sated and breathing heavily. Danny seemed content to do the same. Eventually, when the silence had dragged out longer than he could stand, Jake took a deep breath and asked, “You’ve figured out by now that I’m gay, right?”
    His heart was racing. He hadn’t intended to say that. Not yet. It had just kind of come out on its own.
    “I thought you might be.”
    Another long silence fell between them, until Jake took another breath and said, “I’ve never told anyone before.”
    “I figured that too. Thanks for telling me.”
    Jake’s heart was still pounding in his chest, but the relief he felt was amazing. He felt better than he could remember having felt in a very long time. He wanted to whoop and run across the room, maybe crawl into bed with Danny and say, “Fuck me!” But no, he wasn’t really ready to take things that far. Not even with Danny. Even though part of him wanted to.
    Baby steps.
    He didn’t even know if Danny would be interested.
    “I just…. Can we keep this to ourselves? I mean, I know everyone’s probably figured it out already, but….” He didn’t know what to add. He couldn’t think of anything that would make sense. If everyone already knew, why did he still want to keep it a secret?
    But Danny sat up and looked at him with a serious expression. “Jake, anything you tell me… anything that happens between us… is just between us. Okay? Just us. Until you say otherwise.”
    Anything that happens between us? The implications behind that statement turned Jake’s throat dry, and he was forced to swallow so he could talk again. “Cool. Thanks.”
    Danny found his discarded T-shirt from earlier in the evening and used it to wipe himself off. Then he tossed it down and got into bed, while Jake continued to lie there like an idiot, still covered in come. Danny reached up and snapped his light off. “Good night, buddy.”
    “Good night, Danny. You’re awesome.”
     
     
    F UCK ME , Danny thought. I