Who Dares Wins
by N Fourbois
Part One
Gideon made an early escape from his friends in the school dining hall. He did every Tuesday and Thursday. His only surprise was that they hadn't twigged this regular occurrence during the last few months and didn't wonder why he left the hall along with them on the other three days of the school week. The short answer was that Tuesdays and Thursdays were games afternoons; the full reasons will become apparent.He made his way off to the boys' toilets. He always had an uncomfortable feeling about doing this, not because of what he was going to do, but because he didn't want to be associated with the smokers who still tried their luck there by locking themselves in the cubicles. Gideon hated smoking, if only for the foul smell it generously lent to non-smokers.
He arrived at the toilets. 'Not too many people about,' he thought to himself. The end two cubicles were free. 'Good,' he thought as he occupied the last one. 'Only one possible neighbour.' Gideon leant against the locked door, put his hands in his pockets and through his underpants stroked his dick with the right one and his balls with the left. 'I hope Mum doesn't find these holes in my pockets. She'll just go and repair them.' He quickly got hard, put the lid of the lavatory pan down, dropped his trousers and pants and began to jerk himself off slowly, all the while fantasising about the afternoon games session.
This was the real reason behind his leaving lunch early each Tuesday and Thursday. Something had happened to him a few weeks ago, all of a sudden, without warning. He was getting showered and changed with his mates after some particularly gruelling rugby training. Although it had been a tough session, he felt invigorated, he felt the blood coursing through his body. For over two years now he had been seeing the naked bodies of his classmates, had checked them out regularly, but for the first time on that afternoon the blood was coursing through one particular set of arteries and refusing to course back through the corresponding set of veins. His dick was growing hard and since Gideon could only be described as a gift of nature, his well endowed organ took on a high profile against his slim, muscular and sinewy body.
He knew boys his age suffered from 'internet syndrome' - unwanted pop-ups -, but later as he thought about the day's events in bed that night he realised that this particular pop-up was not one hundred per cent unwanted. It had been caused by the sight of his fellow adolescents in various states of dress and undress, not helped by the fact that his best friend Jamie had gone into exhibitionist mode and decided to stand on the bench 'to avoid the puddles on the changing room floor, hem, hem' while getting changed in the most provocative and extrovert manner. Jamie had often been the object of Gideon's private fantasies as he stimulated himself to orgasm in bed at night, and in the morning, but on that particular day everything had combined to arouse him - bare buttocks, checking out cocks and bollocks, even the very smell of sweaty and cheesy boy and of changing room in general. All this was going through Gideon's mind when he suddenly had to apply the torn-off toilet tissue he had ready to the end of his dick in order to avoid fouling himself. As he sat back and relaxed he heard the door of the next cubicle slam shut. He needed five minutes to recover from his self-induced pleasure.
Gideon's cock soon relaxed and as he bent down to pull up his briefs and his trousers, he first saw and then smelt the tobacco smoke that was being deliberately blown through a hole in the partition between him and the next cubicle. He'd never noticed it before. He quickly grabbed some more toilet paper and stuffed it into the hole, finished adjusting his dress, pushed the flush and hurried out to wash his hands before fleeing the scene. 'Thank goodness I finished before he came in. A peeping tom - close shave there,' and he nonchalantly picked up his sports bag from his locker and made his way to the changing rooms.
As stated previously, Gideon was one of nature's gifts. For a thirteen turning fourteen year old he had won the lottery in the adolescence stakes for whereas puberty may render some young people inordinately ugly, it can and does often have the opposite effect and highlight their natural beauty. His hair was light brown, not curly, but not absolutely straight. As his mother had trained as a hairdresser earlier in life, it received the best of attention at home and in any case he took a pride in his appearance. His facial features could only be described as noble and that natural nobility made him stand out from the crowd along with his blue eyes and spotless complexion. His growth spurt had been kind to him for against the usual convention it had kept his lean body in proportion and now the muscles were beginning to develop naturally. Add to that a well co-ordinated and natural ability as a sportsman, a kind and generous nature, a lively mind backed up by a perceptive brain, you had the nearest one can come to that unattainable quality of perfection on earth. Unfortunately there were no more like him at home for he was an only child.
Luckily there were only a couple of lads in the changing room before him. 'I can get changed without any risk. That Fox is as ugly as sin and Irving is such a eunuch I often wonder if he's come to the right changing room.' As a breed adolescents are so charitable. By the time the mainstream of the year group turned up Gideon had his wayward member safely fixed under jockstrap and shorts, though the keen observer would have noticed his nipples standing proud as his nostrils were stimulated by the smell of boy. Indeed, he was rudely brought back to reality when he felt a hand suddenly reach from behind and tweak the right one.
"Gotcha, Gids." He spun round to confront his assailant and on seeing Jamie his resolve softened while his loins hardened.
He had known Jamie for nine years now. They had met in the first year of primary school and immediately become best friends. Over the years they stuck together through thick and thin as if they were brothers who just happened to live at two different addresses (occasionally), but in Year 9 something had happened to Gideon. Adolescence - yes, of course, but that had brought with it something else which he could neither explain to himself, nor could he bring himself to discuss it with other people, and even though he and Jamie talked about anything and everything and shared their innermost secrets, which usually consisted of undiscovered misbehaviour, he could not even express in words, either to himself or anybody, the way his feelings towards Jamie had changed, intensified even, in some mysterious way. He realised it was sexual. After all he was not that naïve and he knew what a stiffening cock meant.
As he turned round and realised who his attacker was, he wanted to take him in a hug, kiss him even - that was something else he fantasised about in idle moments. But he was in the middle of the changing room, surrounded by other boys, and all he managed was a sly, accidentally-on-purpose rub of his packet against Jamie's thigh.
"Jamie, that's only lent," he said with a grin. "You'd better watch you butt for the rest of the afternoon, dork." 'That wank in the loo has done absolutely nothing to sort me out,' he realised as he enjoyed this fleeting pleasure. 'And Jamie didn't even flinch or object either, but silently took it, and with a knowing look on his face.'
Anybody who didn't know Jamie might have classed him among those sullen faced blonds typified perhaps by Brigitte Bardot. Blond he was, sullen faced it could not be denied, but that was deceptive and no clue to his true nature which was bright, cheerful and mischievous, such sullenness being nothing other than an essential ingredient of his attractive appearance.
Gideon could not concentrate that afternoon. That's not quite true. As it was the summer term now, the games lesson would consist of one of his two favourite summer sports - athletics or swimming. He was good at both and uniform Speedos in School colours, gold and royal blue, were a compulsory part of the games kit. He loved games lessons, not only for the sports themselves, nor simply because he was surrounded by the adolescent hunks which he was finding such a turn-on over those past few months, but because games and PE were the only lessons where the girls and boys were segregated. He felt more comfortable in the company of his own sex, even if it was because he knew he was an object of admiration among the girls and wanted none of it. Gideon was indeed concentrating hard that afternoon, but not on the coaching. Another bonus of athletics was that there was a lot of waiting around before you took part in this race or that field event, time to check out classmates in their singlets and white shorts. He'd done it a thousand times before and his encyclopaedic brain had absorbed images of the ninety or so boys in his year group, but there were always things to be discovered, and one thing yet to be discovered was, according to statistics, the other eight boys in the group who should be gay. 'If only Jamie could be one of them!' he wished. 'Howlett has got a new pair of shorts which are too large for him and give nothing away. Moore needs a new pair of shorts because his old ones are too tight and give everything away. (Long may that last!) I don't like Lee's bubble butt. They do nothing for me except it does pull his shorts back and stretch them across his packet. Salmon's started wearing a jockstrap. Ritchie has pulled his singlet out of his shorts trying to hide a boner. Taylor's balls have dropped since last term (Must check him out in the showers!). I wish Wallace wouldn't wear those soccer shorts - they go all the way down to his knees and are far too baggy. Why can't they make Coq Sportif shorts like mine compulsory? They're brief, opaque and display your packet nicely. And poor old Warner, he ought to be in the girls' group if that's the best he can do; still he's got a nice tight little butt.'
"Gideon Farthing! Do wake up, boy!" shouted out Mr Page. "It's your turn for the shot putt." He was torn from his reveries.
Gideon had spent a thoroughly agreeable afternoon. He had no objection when he and Jamie were detailed off to carry the discuses back to the store. He suddenly saw his opportunity to get his own back. As Jamie was bending over picking up a discus, his shorts rode up, displaying the straps of his jockstrap stretched across his butt cheeks, when Gideon crept up behind him, grabbed one pulled it and let it snap back on Jamie's cheek. He had seen Gideon coming, but it was too late.
"You dickhead, I nearly dropped that on my foot." Gideon ran for his life across the school fields. Luckily everyone else had gone in to get changed. But Jamie had that much more adrenalin flowing, made up the distance and took Gideon in a textbook rugby tackle, landing on top of him. They both started to giggle.
"Quits, Gids?" asked Jamie and Gideon was about to say yes when he noticed something. He could feel Jamie's trapped cock growing against the crevice of his butt. He was in heaven, but how to deal with it? He didn't want to frighten Jamie off or embarrass him, but he wanted him to know he liked what he was feeling.
"No way. Not until we sort out that boner you've got stuck up my arse." 'Why did I say "we",' he thought. 'I meant "you".' Then to Gideon's utter astonishment Jamie replied
"Okay, you win. I submit on condition you don't tell anybody else."
"I won't tell anybody else, Jamie," he promised. 'I want that all to myself,' he thought. They got up, looked each other in the eye and shook hands. With a grin Jamie provocatively stuck his tongue out in defiance. They picked up the discuses and made their way across to the games store with them.
"Where on earth did you two get to?" enquired Mr Page.
"Sorry, sir. We just had to sort something out first," said Gideon. The two boys gave each other a knowing look.
"Well, sort it out in your own time, will you?"
"We'll certainly do that, sir," remarked Jamie in an ironical tone. "Sorry, sir."
"Thank you, lads, for your help. And Gideon, I don't know what your mother's going to say, but you've got grass stains all over the front of your shorts and vest." Gideon looked down, saw the green stains, but was much more interested in and prouder of the way his now flaccid packet was still bulging against the inside of his shorts.
"Yes, sir," he said weakly.
By the time they got back to the changing room most of their mates were dressed or had left.
"I don't think I need a shower after this afternoon," said Gideon.
"Nor do I," said Jamie, "but I'm going to have one anyway. Coming?"
"You bet," answered Gideon, never one to miss an opportunity.
* * *
It was half term. Gideon and Jamie were at Jamie's house with Alex and Will, two other friends from school. They wouldn't admit it, but they were bored to tears. It was too nice a day to stay indoors and anyway none of them were really into computer games. They'd played football in the garden and it was too hot to carry on. They did not have enough money on them to go swimming. Jamie went into the house and brought out four cans of drink from the fridge and they lounged around on the grass drinking them.
"This is boring!" said Alex finally.
"What can we do now? It's too hot to play football," whined Will. Silence descended. Then after a while Jamie piped up.
"I know. We'll play 'dares'"
"What's that?" said Gideon.
"Simple." replied Jamie. "We split into two teams and one team dares the other to do something. When they've done it, they can set a challenge and the first team that chickens out loses. Nothing dangerous, life-threatening or against the law. Are you up for it?"
"We're up for it," chorused the other three.
"Right, we'll toss up to see who goes first." Jamie took a 50p coin from his pocket. "You call, Alex," he shouted.
"Heads."
"It's tails. Gideon and me will give you the first challenge. All right, Gids?" Gideon nodded and they both got together in a huddle.
"This is what you've got to do. You've got to go into town, go into Debenham's and go up the escalators to the top floor."
"And then?" asked Alex with a puzzled look on his face.
"Well, you've won," said Jamie.
"But that's easy-peasy," said Will. "What's the point?"
"Sooorry," said Gideon in an exaggerated tone, "we forgot to mention. You can only use the down escalators." Alex and Will went into a huddle.
"There are three escalators. We'll do it together, but if we look like getting caught, we split and meet by the fountains in the main square. Okay?" said Will. They came out of their huddle.
"We accept," said Alex.
All four put their tee shirts back on, grabbed their skateboards and rolled into town. It was a normal afternoon for the school holidays, a few more people about, but not heaving like on Saturday.
"Right," said Jamie, "we'll meet you at the top of each escalator to make sure you're not cheating." and he was about to go off with Gideon when Will said
"Take our skateboards. You said nothing about a handicap race." They grabbed a board each. Alex kept his mini-backpack on.
"I'll take the first floor, Gids, you the second floor and we'll meet on the third. There's no way we can miss them then."
Meantime Alex and Will were hanging about at the foot of the first down escalator pretending to be looking at goods they wanted to buy.
"Look, Will," said Alex "there's only one person on the escalator. When she steps off, go for it." The lady duly stepped off and walked towards the cosmetics counter.
"Go!" shouted Will and without further ado they ran up the escalator and arrived at the top out of breath causing one mother to pull back her two children as they were about to step on.
"Well done," said Jamie. "One down, two to go," and he left them. They tried the same trick at the bottom of the second escalator. Of course the farther up the store they they went, the less people there were about. At the right moment Alex said
"Go," and they went. What they didn't realise was that they had been spotted by one of the security guards, but they made it to the top and met Gideon. On to the third escalator. Again they hung around pretending to look at the wares while sussing out the right moment until they were interrupted with a
"Can I help you at all?" They turned round to see one of the lady assistants.
"No, it's okay, thanks. We're just looking."
"And which particular shade of ladies' tights were you looking for, sir?" Alex and Will looked at one another and blushed, then as quick as flash Alex came out with
"It doesn't really matter. We only want them for robbing a bank," and they turned and mingled with the crowd.
"It's no good. They've got their eye on us now."
"Well, we can't give up on the first dare," replied Will. "We'll have to do it separately. I'll go first." Alex went over to the CD section and browsed. He could see the escalator from there. Over the display stand he watched as Will nonchalantly walked up to the foot of the escalator and broke into a run as he fought his way up the descending moving staircase. At the top he was greeted by Gideon and Jamie and they high-fived as they congratulated him.
"Where's Alex?" Gideon asked as they quickly disappeared into the crowd.
"He'll be up in a minute. We got caught together, so we decided to split up." They kept a respectful distance from the top of the escalator while they were waiting.
On the second floor Alex was looking for his chance. Suddenly he went for it as he saw the escalator was completely empty. What he didn't realise was that by now security had closed off the top. He ran for all he was worth up the staircase when suddenly there was a jolt and he stumbled. Someone had pushed the emergency button. He recovered and ran into the arms of a six foot red capped security guard. Gideon, Jamie and Will were nowhere to be seen.
The agreed plan in case of emergency was to go to the fountain in the main square to regroup. After half an hour's wait Alex came walking jauntily along from the direction of Debenham's.
"What happened, Alex?" they cried out in unison.
"Not a lot," he said cockily. "They took me to the office, asked for my name and address, threatened me with the police, gave me a bollocking, health and safety and all that, and banned me from the store."
"What are your Mum and Dad going to say when they find out?" asked Gideon.
"Very little, I should think."
"Why's that?"
"You know that shit Lacey in Year 10, the one that sells cigarettes to the Year 7 kids? I gave them his name and address." All four rolled about with laughter.
"We've done our dare," said Alex. "Now we've got one for you."
Will continued. "You see that statue over there on the other side of the square?"
"What? That new one that's supposed to be an aircraft engineer?"
"That's the one. You've got to put a traffic cone on its head."
"It'll be an improvement," said Gideon. "It's hideous." Gideon and Jamie went into a huddle.
"We accept."
After Mrs Beaton: 'first find your traffic cone'. Alex and Will sat on a bench and waited.
"Where are we going to get a cone from?" asked Jamie.
"I've got an idea," answered Gideon. "You know when we go boarding at the multi-storey carpark. Well, there are always odd ones lying around there. I'll tell you what we'll do. You wait outside in the street below and I'll go and look for one. You tell me when the coast is clear and I'll drop it down from the first storey into the street."
"Sounds good to me. Leave your skateboard with me because they'll kick you out if they see you with it." Meanwhile they had arrived outside. Jamie took up his post while Gideon went into the pedestrian entrance and up to the first floor. Great, his luck was in. He found a cone exactly where he expected to, by the privately rented spaces. He carried it across to the wall, peered over and shouted down to Jamie.
"Ready?"
"Wait a minute. There are two traffic wardens down the street.... It's okay. They've gone." Gideon let the cone drop down onto the street. Jamie immediately took his tee shirt off and slipped it over the cone. Within a minute Gideon had rejoined him. Momentarily he was distracted by his bare chested friend; the old feeling was coming back, but he remembered he was on a mission and pulled himself together. Using their boards the two boys sk8ed back to the main square to finalise their plan. This was the risky bit, but they decided that if they acted quickly it would all be over before anyone could say or do anything. They looked around to see that they had a clear run and that there no police about. They skated at full speed towards the plinth, stopped, Jamie gave Gideon a bunk-up, handed him the cone which he placed firmly on the statue's head and jumped down. The two boys jumped onto their sk8boards and left at top speed in opposite directions. It couldn't have taken much longer than fifteen seconds. Such was their concentration that they didn't hear the round of applause from the bench on the opposite side of the square. In a quarter of an hour they had returned to Alex and Will.
"Are you ready for your next dare?" asked Jamie. Will and Alex nodded.
"We're going to play Dead Ants," said Gideon.
"What's that?"
"It's really simple. When someone in the group shouts 'Dead Ants', you have to drop to the ground immediately, lie on you back and wave your arms and legs in the air. If you're in the game, and that includes the person that calls, whoever it may be, and you don't drop, it's a round of drinks, Cokes in our case." Alex and Will went into a huddle.
"Nothing dangerous, life-threatening or against the law?" they asked.
"Right," answered Jamie. "we accept."
"Where are we going?"
"The park by the scenic route." They took one last look across the square at the statue still crowned with its traffic cone. Because the air engineer was supposed to be blocking his ears from engine noise - it dated from before the time of proper ear defenders - it looked as if the man was trying to force the tight fitting cone off his head. People had even started taking snaps of it.
"Dead ants," shouted Jamie at the top of his voice. He and Gideon dropped immediately. Will and Alex were a bit slower. "Just testing," said Jamie.
"You'll have to be quicker than that," said Gideon.
"You don't have to stay down there the whole afternoon," said Jamie. Pedestrians passing meanwhile were trying to pretend nothing had happened. Gideon led the way through Woolworth's to the pedestrian precinct. Just as they got to a delicately balanced display of Roses chocolates Gideon called out
"Dead ants." The four lads dropped as one and were on their feet again in seconds. Unfortunately as Will was getting up again, his hand hit the display of chocolates. The boxes fell and went everywhere. All four made a rapid exit still carrying their skateboards amid shouts of 'juvenile delinquents', 'vandals', 'the youth of today' and the such like.
As they continued on their way to the park, Alex felt that it was not to be all one way. He spotted his opportunity as he was skating a yard or so in front of Jamie. Again the cry went up, this time from Alex. On hearing 'dead ants' the four leapt off their boards and dropped to the ground with a single cry of
"You bastard!" from Jamie. Alex had timed it so that he was rolling around in a puddle.
"We claim that dare," said Will "and we've got another one for you. We'll tell you when we get to the park."
"Okay," said Gideon, "but that'll have to be the last for this afternoon. I've got to get home." They arrived and all four sat down on a bench. It was the time when many of the office workers were leaving to go home. Those that used the train crossed the park on their way to the station.
"What's this dare, then?" asked Gideon.
"It's this," said Alex. "You've both got to walk out to the middle of the grass and kiss each other on the lips for fifteen seconds."
"Do you think we're gay or something?" retorted Gideon straightaway. Was this his conscience talking?.
"No, of course not," answered Will. "It wouldn't be a dare if you were."
"We accept," said Jamie peremptorily, giving no opportunity for a huddle this time. Gideon blushed deep purple as he felt a twitch in his loins.
The pair walked out casually onto the grass. Alex and Will stared alternately at their watches and the middle of the grass.
"Are you okay with this, Gids?" asked Jamie.
"I'm not going to let them win on the home straight," replied Gideon, masking his true feelings. They stood still in the middle of the grass area. Luckily there was no one else near. Obviously the usual throng of people had gone home for tea by that time. By now Gideon was completely hard in his underpants which was keeping his dick under some sort of control.
"Ready?" said Jamie.
"Ready," said Gideon and they waved towards the other two seated on the park bench.
"Go for it." They closed their eyes and leant in. Gideon so dearly wanted to put his arms round Jamie, but held them tightly behind his back. Their lips met. Gideon's cock was pulsating like mad. He wasn't expecting this and so hadn't sorted himself out in his customary manner at lunchtime. He felt afraid and yet was enjoying it at the same time. Damn, he'd forgotten to count the seconds. 'I hope Jamie is.' he thought. Then it happened. Gideon thought that Christmas, Easter and his birthday had all come at the same time. Jamie forced his lips apart and their tongues met. His eyes closed, he saw stars, he felt the earth move, orchestras playing, and as Jamie pressed against him he could feel that he was hard too.
Finally Jamie withdrew. They opened their eyes and smiled at one another as Jamie said
"We must try that again some time." They turned, waved at their fellow conspirators on the park bench, took hold of each other's hand and skipped towards them like Morecambe and Wise. The tents in their trousers collapsed. Gideon felt a damp patch in his briefs. As they arrived at the bench Will piped up with
"We said fifteen seconds, not eighty-three." Jamie and Gideon realised that time had stood still.
"Sooorry," said Jamie, "we'll take a stopwatch with us next time."
"And the way you were at it, there's probably going to be a next time," said Alex. Gideon and Jamie blushed.
"Anyway we're not going to be disqualified on a technicality. We did it for fifteen seconds even if that did turn out to be a bit longer," said Gideon.
"Okay, it's a draw for this afternoon, but wait till next time," said Will.
The four got onto their skateboards and made for home. They all lived within half a mile of each other. They dropped Jamie off first, then Will, followed by Alex and finally Gideon arrived home alone.
"Hi, Mum!"
"Hallo, Gideon. Had a good day?"
"All right, I suppose," answered Gideon trying to counteract the elation he was still feeling. "I've been playing with Jamie. How about you?"
"Oh, just a normal day at work," said his mother. Gideon bit his lip. 'Why couldn't I say I was playing football with Jamie, Will and Alex?' "Go and wash your hands. Dad's in the garden and dinner will be ready in a minute."
Gideon was still on a high and couldn't wait for the meal to finish. He did his chores, loading the washing-up machine, and went directly upstairs to his room and booted up his computer. As he saw the 'happy Mac' icon he reached for his mobile and switched it on. One text message waiting for him. He pressed a button and it appeared on the screen. 'G hope u didn't mind the X in the park. ~ ~ :-) J' He immediately texted back: 'J wonderful. I'm (*_*) :-(I) ^^^ G' He went on to check his e-mails, put the computer on sleep and went and lay on his bed, deep in thought. His thoughts immediately transferred to his dick, but he confined any activity there to a little re-arranging to make it more comfortable. His parents were not settled in front of the television yet and could come up any time. He must have dozed off for time had moved on half an hour or so when he opened his eyes again. On impulse he checked his e-mails again. One from Jamie. He clicked on it. 'So glad you liked it. Why didn't you tell me before? I've been longing to do that for months. Hugs J' Gideon clicked reply. 'I never realised you were up for it. Can you come over tomorrow morning? Parents will be at work. *giggles wink wink* Love G' He clicked 'send now', saved the e-mail and encrypted it. Gideon did not know quite what to expect, but he needed to talk to Jamie. He really was at a loose end that evening from anticipation. He wanted to go to bed early, but with sunset at gone nine that would cause questions to be asked. His mother would think he was ill. He finally went downstairs.
"Mum, will you style my hair for me tonight, please?" 'I want to look my best for Jamie,' but he didn't say that.
"I really need a bit more notice than that. We're nearly out of conditioner, but I'll see what I can do."
Gideon woke up early the next day. He resisted the usual morning temptation and got straight up and showered. He wanted to look his best for Jamie. He settled for white shorts and white polo shirt, then went down to breakfast. His father looked over his newspaper and after saying good morning and giving him a hug said
"New hairstyle, new girlfriend?"
"Something like that," answered Gideon laconically, trying to dismiss the remark, but his blush told all. Well, nearly all, but he didn't want his father to suspect that he'd got one syllable wrong.
"What are you going to do today?"
"Jamie's coming over to hang out."
"Always something new," replied his father with a hint of sarcasm.
"I hope so," said Gideon. 'Why did I have to go and say that?'
"Don't get up to any mischief, you two."
"As if we would," said Gideon thinking back to the mayhem they had caused in town yesterday. The newspaper screen went back up.
Jamie arrived on the dot at nine. As he let him in, Gideon didn't know what to say, but that was pre-empted by Jamie who said
"Have your parents gone?" and when Gideon nodded he took him in a hug and repeated the previous afternoon's action. After ten seconds Jamie was his.
"Why didn't you tell me before you felt like this, Jamie?" Gideon said as they came up for air.
"I tried to in various ways, but for an intelligent guy you can be extremely thick at times. I knew you could be up for it by the way you look at the other kids at school."
"Is it that obvious?"
"Only to a trained observer; so it always was to me. I don't know about the others. Hey, adore the hair. You know what they say - new hairstyle, new boyfriend."
"Piss off. Dad said something like that at breakfast."
"Providing I'm the new boyfriend, I don't mind."
"Jamie, do you want to, er... do stuff?"
"I thought you'd never ask." The two lads disappeared up to Gideon's room and immediately held each other in a tight clinch.
Gideon woke up. Despite the warm June day he was feeling cold without any clothes on. Jamie was sleeping equally naked beside him. Gideon got up, giving him a kiss on the cheek which woke him.
"Come on, it's nearly lunchtime. We'd better get ourselves cleaned up."
"What?" answered the dozy boy on the bed.
"Come on. We'll get a shower... together."
After they had towelled each other down and got dressed, Jamie said
"Do you want to come round to my place, Gids, for lunch? Mum said you can."
"Great idea. I've only got a few sandwiches in the fridge."
After lunch, an extended snack, Gideon said
"Thanks very much, Mrs Dutton. I enjoyed that."
"You're welcome. After all these years you two have been friends, we almost think of you as family." Gideon wondered if he ws walking around with a great big neon sign on his forehead - first Dad's remarks about the hairstyle, then one about not getting up to mischief and now one from Jamie's mum about being almost family! The boys cleared away while Mrs Dutton got ready to go out. Just as she was leaving, Alex and Will turned up on the doorstep.
"Hallo, boys. They're in the garden. I'll take you through. Jamie, Gideon, Will and Alex are here to see you. Must fly. Be good." At which she disappeared.
"Hi there, lads," said Gideon and Jamie together, then provocatively Jamie added
"Are you sure you want to hang out with two faggots like us?" and sat back for the response.
"Hey, hold on man," said Alex holding his hands up.
"We've been mates for nearly three years. What happened in the park yesterday ain't going to alter that. We haven't told anyone and if you haven't, then no one else knows about it. And we still like you. Just don't try and kiss us or you'll get a knee in the balls, okay?"
"Sorry," said Jamie. "It's just that a lot's happened over the last twenty-four hours and we're still trying to sort ourselves out."
"We're cool with it," joined in Will. "That's why we came round... to make sure nothing's altered between us."
"Okay, we might take the mickey," added Alex, "but it's not meant to be nasty and I'm sure you'll take it back." Taking the mick out of themselves Jamie and Gideon went into a huddle and then said
"We accept," and they all shook hands. "What are we going to do this afternoon? More dares?" The two pairs went into separate huddles and then said
"We refuse." In the end they decided to go swimming. Will and Alex wanted the exercise, Gideon and Jamie wanted to check out the talent, but that was left unsaid.
When Gideon arrived home that evening, his father was sitting in the garden reading the local evening paper.
"Hi, Gideon!"
"Hi, Dad!" and they hugged.
"Have you seen this in the paper?"
"What's that?"
"It's a picture of that ridiculous statue in the Square with a traffic cone on its head. An improvement I would say." Gideon looked at the picture. It looked better in black and white than the real thing. He read the accompanying article. '...Eyewitnesses said they saw two youths climb up and place the cone on the statue. They then made their escape on skateboards in different directions. Passers-by applauded the action and said that public money should never have been wasted on it in the first place, a standpoint taken by this newspaper at the time of erection. A police spokesperson said they would take no further action as no damage had been caused and it was not in the public interest. Photograph © Alexander Wilding'
"The little creep, I didn't know he even had a camera with him," Gideon said half loud to himself.
"What's that?"
"Nothing, Dad. Just chuntering to myself." He then realised 'I wonder in that case whether he's got any pictures of Jamie and me?'
He thought no more about it until after dinner when he went up to his room to check his e-mails. There was one from Alex. 'I should have known,' he thought as he opened it. 'Yo Gideon! Go to >www.selfpics.org/boys.htm<. See ya. Alex.' He noticed there was an attachment which he opened to find a full colour picture of the statue complete with cone. He then went to Internet Explorer, punched in the selfpics site, followed it through and to his horror saw a picture of Jamie and himself in the park. Once he had got over the shock, he realised that you could not recognise either of the faces. He read the accompanying screed: Name: G & J; Sex: yes, please; Location: The Park; Age: 18 Sign: Uranus; Sexual orientation: gay curious; E-mail: (He didn't recognise the e-mail address.) Homepage URL: none; Comments: two normal gay lads enjoying their first kiss. Gideon burst our giggling. He took a snapshot of the screen and attached it with the photo of the statue and the article to a new e-mail with the following message. 'Hi Jamie! Thought you might be interested in these. This of course means war. Who dares wins!!!! Hugs G'
Dear Readers, this is the end of Who Dares Wins. Or is it? The story is complete in itself, yet Gideon and Jamie have not come out yet, either to their parents or at school and they will need to deal with that. 'Friendly' revenge against Alex and Will is in the air and what tricks will the four friends get up to next? Did Lacey find out who landed him in it by giving his name and address? It all depends, as ever, on the Muse. However, your comments are always welcome and encouraging. Do let me know what you think.
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