"Boring. When you're sitting in school, you think how cool it would be to be off school, outside just hanging out. Then it happens and you find all your mates are still in school and you've got nothing to do. Daytime television is crap, worse than evening telly knows how to be. I thought I'd go out and become a rentboy. At least I'd be getting some experience and earning a bit of pocket money."

"And the rest like STDs and getting beaten up. I'll pretend I didn't hear the rentboy remark, thank you. Are you serious about this apprentice idea?"

"To begin with it puts a hell of a lot of pressure on me. I don't know what your mum and dad will think and, in short, it's ruined my day thinking about it. That's why I'm home early."

"It's okay. It could be an interesting challenge to teach you all I know about being gay by the end of the month. It might make me revise my ideas. What worries me is this; we shouldn't be having sex together, but I fear it could happen, especially as I only realised this morning what a hunk you are. Add the fact that during the night you got into bed with me knowing. The fact I was naked shows your sexual interest in me." Kieran opened his mouth, about to say something. "No, don't say anything. Admitting or denying it won't help the situation. Only you know your true feelings and for the moment it's better for you to keep them to yourself. They'll remain true that way. You won't be saying what you think I want to hear."

Kieran suddenly looked thoughtful. He had gone through the euphoric stage of viewing everything through the eye in his prick. Now the cold reality of responsibility was dawning on him.

"Okay, Uncle Eric, I do want to go through with it." The submissive 'Uncle Eric' emphasised the boy's seriousness.

"All right, Kieran. Give me a hug." As their bodies met Eric could feel that Kieran was hard. He slipped his hands down onto the lad's buttocks, pulled him in and ground against him. Unintentionally that became lesson number one. He wanted to kiss the boy, but held back, controlling himself. "Before I forget, you're due in at school tomorrow afternoon at three to pick up some work. Go straight to Reception and leave the premises immediately after. Don't speak to any pupil while you're on school grounds. That would constitute gross misconduct and prejudice any appeal."

"I don't think I want to go back there, especially now Mum and Dad have said I can go to the College."

"That's a bit self-centred, Kieran," said Eric in a serious tone. "There's not only family honour at stake, but the College application hasn't been put in yet, let alone accepted, and your parents will want to try and get some fees back."

"Eugh." The adolescent grunt implied an unwilling acceptance of what Eric had said.

"So, what do you fancy for dinner tonight, Kieran?" said Eric as they were driving towards Sainsbury's.

"Not a lot. A casserole is meat you cook slowly, in a casserole, strangely enough, in the oven - braising steak, mince, lamb, chicken - and cook the vegetables separately, while stew is more or less the same except you add the veggies to the pot and they cook slowly with the meat. And if you're feeling particularly adventurous you can make dumplings and cook them in the stew."

"Oh, sorry, didn't I mention it? This is going to be lesson one of your apprenticeship. If you want to be properly gay, you are going to have to learn to cook."

"Probably, but where do you think the idea of gays and cooking came from to form the stereotype in the first place?"

"Right. You've got it in one," smiled Eric. "If you move in with a boyfriend, he won't want to do the cooking every night, and if you end up living on your own, you won't want to live on ready made TV meals all the time. Plus you may want to cook for a date who then might want to express his gratitude afterwards when you've already got him captive in your own home."

"I know. I'm just not keen on clichés. I try to avoid them like the plague." But it didn't click with Kieran that he was being taken for a ride metaphorically as well as literally. Eric stroked his thigh, not to re-assure him, but because he liked doing it.

Once in the supermarket Eric guided Kieran to select the ingredients he would need for a casserole, as well as piling up the trolley for the rest of the week. He took him past the cigarette counter where a young lad worked regularly, one of their full time workers.

"He's not much to look at," said Eric, "a bit chubby and baby-faced, but he has a voice to die for. It doesn't really fit his body, but it makes me go weak at the knees. I'd like to get him down to the gym for a few weeks. If he lost a bit of weight he might be okay for a one night stand. I must admit I wonder what he's doing in a job like that. He's done it for years. Usually the likes of Sainsbury and Tesco get their promising young people up the ladder pretty quickly."

"Perhaps he's got a manager that's gay and he's holding him back because he doesn't want to lose him."

"It wouldn't be unheard of - the unacceptable face of being gay, power games, but that can happen almost anywhere. They tell me it happens in the heterosexual world as well."

"Tell me, Uncle Eric, do you spend all your spare time going round looking at boys?"

"Yes, of course. Don't you?" Kieran didn't answer, but blushed instead. "I'll take that as a yes. Except that in my case it's young men rather than boys. Boy watching it's called. Don't your straight mates from school go round looking at girls?"

Finally they made their way through the check out, out to the car park and home.

"Would you like a cup of tea, Kieran?" Eric asked after they had carried the shopping up to the flat and stowed it in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. He set about making some tea. "Now when do you want to eat?"

"Should be, might be a bit later. I think we need two and a half hours of cooking time in the oven, but we've got to do the prep first. As this is your first attempt we'll keep it simple. We'll clear the table and put the oven on to heat up."

"No, it'll just get spoilt. The key to a casserole is slow, gentle cooking. Very important, as you're handling food, go into the bathroom and wash your hands and arms thoroughly. I'll wash mine in the sink here." When Kieran came back, his uncle added "Now put a pinafore on. There's a spare one hanging behind the door. I'll prepare the beef and you can get on with peeling the onions." Within minutes Kieran's eyes were streaming with tears. "Okay, a tip with onions. Fill a bowl of water in the sink. Now peel your onions under water and no tears." They fried the diced beef in oil, then the onions in flour and oil, and put them into a casserole. "Notice it's a Pyrex casserole dish. That's important because it won't break in the heat of the oven." Eric got Kieran to make some Oxo gravy. He put the mixture into the casserole, added some carrots, poured the Oxo over it all and added some salt, stirred it, put the lid on and put it into the oven. "That'll be ready in two and a half hours. Meanwhile we do the washing up which helps us later and gives us some space. Then our time's our own until we boil the potatoes and cook the rest of the veg. We could have put the spuds in with the casserole, but as I said, we want to keep it simple for the first time.

With that all done they could go and sit down in the sitting room and Eric could plan Kieran's apprenticeship with him.

"Okay, Kieran, if I am going to train you to be gay, I really need to know where we're starting from. It's not as if you have gained an A* in GCSE Gay Relationships and therefore reached a certain standard. The other problem that worries me is that by the term apprenticeship you must be expecting a large portion of practical experience." Kieran nodded. "I have no difficulties with that, but if you think you are having that experience with me, think again."

"The way you looked at me this morning when I had no clothes on." Eric was about to deny it when Kieran added "And you got a stiffie." QED. Eric was trapped and there was no way out.

"Okay, I might fancy you just a teeny weeny little bit. You are after all a well put together lad. Even a straight guy would have to admit that." Kieran blushed.

"I gathered that from the way you climbed into my bed during the night. But the answer is no. I'm not so sure it's not incest and I am supposed to be the responsible adult which would probably make it illegal as you're not yet eighteen. What would your parents say?"

"Officially gay, to be precise," Kieran corrected him." "I think Mum knew for some time. Dad's the one that didn't know."

"I had a friend round one afternoon in the holidays and he... what shall I say? ... made rather a lot of noise. Mum came upstairs with drinks, but didn't come into my room. She left them outside. She didn't say anything later either, but she did behave differently. I don't think she ever told Dad, though."

"From something your Dad said on the phone last night, he did have some inkling. Okay, we are starting to set the boundaries. Now tell me. It's no secret in the family that I am gay. I can't remember how many years ago it was that I came out. When you thought you were gay, why didn't you come and talk to me about it?" Kieran thought for a moment.

"When you were thirteen or fourteen, would you have gone to an older relation and talked about it? Especially if you're trying to keep it from your parents?"

"Hmm... I suppose you have a point there. I had no one in the family I could talk to, except perhaps your mother. So what's the background to all this? What made you discover you were gay?"

"Right, I'm going to rubbish that idea for a start. It might have provided you with eye candy and opportunities, but it didn't make you gay, otherwise ninety-nine percent of the school would be. It's generally agreed that homosexuality is not a disease. You can't catch it from anyone even if you join in a bit of illicit fun at school, camp, on holiday or whatever. It's not a mental disorder either. Nothing can make you homosexual, force or otherwise; you were born that way. You can fight it, you can pretend you aren't, but in the end it will catch up with you."

"From the internet, and I read and I listen to other people. There's a very good magazine published for young male homosexuals. It's called GY -short for Gay Youth. You might not find it on the top shelf of W H Smith's, there again you might, but you can write away to order it. I've probably got a copy somewhere about the flat. I'll have a look later. Anyway, I beg your pardon. You were going to answer my question and I interrupted."

"When we were in Year 9 or 10 we started going to parties and having sleepovers and I'd meet girls at these parties. Looking back, some of them must have quite fancied me, but I never fancied them. I used to dance with them and it never did anything for me. In fact I didn't even get hard during the slow dances, which I gathered was expected of you. After a bit I used to make excuses and go to the loo for a pee during the slow ones. Anyway, I was invited by one the girls to one of those disco birthday parties - all dark and flashing lights - and for some reason one of my classmates was not dancing and neither was I. So he asked me if I wanted to dance with him. When he saw me hesitate he said it's okay for girls to dance together and pointed a couple out. 'Yeah,' I told him, 'but boys don't do that.' 'Don't knock it until you've tried it. It can be fun.' Because it was dark in there and you couldn't see a lot anyway I said okay. At first we just did normal dancing, jigging around. He led and I tried to follow, which was okay. Finally the DJ played a slow one. Andy put his arms round my waist and his hands on my bottom and drew me in. I could feel he was hard and it made me harden up too. He told me to put my hands on his butt cheeks as well and we ground our hard dicks together and I remember it made me wet my undies, but it didn't matter. It just made me feel so good. When the beat went up tempo he asked me if I wanted to go outside. He took me by the hand and led me outside and there were other couples there in the dark. He got me up against the wall and kissed me putting his tongue in my mouth. No one had ever done that to me before. It made me feel really sexy and I went hard again. I could then feel him sucking my neck and at the same time he was trying to undo the belt on my trousers. I was so worked up I helped him and undid my zip. He grabbed my prick and rubbed it until I came and made a mess all over his trousers. After he cleaned himself up, he said he wanted me to do the same to him and so we found a quiet place and I did him without any snogging. And that was my first experience. In the morning I had to explain the bruising on my neck. I didn't even know it was there. As I'd been to a party the night before it was obvious, but I didn't say a boy had done it."

"I wouldn't say boyfriends, Eric, but we did stuff together, quite often in the school lunch hour, though we did hang round together out of school as well."

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The Apprentice

by and © N Fourbois

Chapter 5