The Apprentice

by and © N Fourbois

Chapter 35

"Hallo, Kieran," said Colleen as he eventually opened the front door and walked into the house. "We were beginning to worry about you."

"Hallo, son," added his father. "Have you been naughty and they've kept you in?"

"Sorry, I'm late. I got talking to William, my fag, and I didn't notice the time."

"Do you want anything to eat before gym?"

"No thanks, Mum."

"What's the homework situation?"

"Bad. I didn't get much done after school. In fact, I didn't get any done. I've got two free periods tomorrow. I'll manage."

"Go and get changed out of your school things and I'll give Eric a ring and tell him you might be a couple of minutes late."

"That'll please him," remarked Kieran. "You know how much of an bean counter he is. Time is money."

"You're talking too much. You could be changing."

"Sorry, Mum."

Kieran sped up to his room and got out of his school uniform. He sniffed his armpits.

"Pfwaw, they're bad news," and he gave them an emergency spray of deodorant without stopping to wash them. He checked his kit and went downstairs just as the doorbell rang.

"Hi, Kieran. Are you ready?" Eric didn't bother to come in. Kieran couldn't see his black eye in the darkness. They all shouted out their goodbyes and the two young men got into the car.

"So how did your weekend go?" Eric asked.

"Very well," answered Kieran. "I did everything by the book and it worked out. But what about yours?"

"I'll tell you about that over supper. We're having steak and kidney pie. We were supposed to be having it last night, but Dwayne had gone by then as you know."

"Ha! Was Dwayne his real name?" laughed Kieran.

"As far as I know."

"With your experience you must have known you had a bit of rough there."

"Well, yeah, but I like a bit of rough occasionally, and was he rough - closely cropped hair, quite a bit of ironmongery and covered in tattoos, too many to be interesting. He had a piercing wherever you could have a piercing and I mean wherever."

"What even through his d...?"

"Yes, even through his dick."

"I've seen pictures of that."

"And it felt funny when you sucked it or he put it in. Yeah, okay, I like a bit of rough occasionally, just not that rough."

They arrived at the gym and once inside Kieran could get a good look at Eric's eye. It looked a bit better than it had the previous evening. Olaf came and said hallo and got them going on their programmes. He was in azure lycra which showed off his bubble butt to perfection, and his package, but Kieran whispered to Eric that it had been artificially enhanced, a perfectly formed bulge, yet it gave no clue to its contents which could have been a couple of pairs of socks for all he knew. Kieran was not actually in a position to comment on packages as in his haste and despite checking he had forgotten to pack a support garment in his sportsbag and had to rely on the natural elasticity of the lycra to keep his equipment under control. As Mondays were gentlemen's evenings with all that implied, it didn't matter over much, although he was conscious of the extra amount of attention he was receiving. Just that Olaf wouldn't allow him on the heavy weight lifting machines. At the end of the session Olaf asked him to roll the top of the one piece down and pronounced that he was very pleased with the way Kieran's abs and pecs were developing. He noticed that a little bit of hair was starting to grow on his chest and advised him to keep it shaved if he wanted to cut an attractive figure.

Eric and Kieran got showered and changed, found their way back to the car and motored back to Eric's flat. He switched off the oven and boiled up some frozen vegetables.

"Sorry, no potatoes tonight. No time, unless you want Smash."

"No thanks. I'd rather go without."

"Can you knock up some gravy and warm the plates?"

Within twenty minutes they were sitting at the kitchen room table eating.

"Mmm, I like the puff pastry, Eric. You're a dab hand at that."

"I should be. I have had enough practice."

"Okay then, what happened between you and Dwayne?"

"Let this be a lesson to you, but somehow I don't think you'll come across this much. You're different from me. You'll choose your relationships more carefully and you'll mix with a different stratum of people. I think your needs will be different once you settle down. Dwayne as I said was rough and in this case rough almost means violent. We'd had a session Sunday morning and it hurt. I make no bones about that and he came on again. I pushed him off because I just couldn't take it and that's when he smacked me. I'm just grateful he went when I told him to or it could have been an ambulance or a police job. That's always the risk when you're not in a relationship. Mind you, it can sometimes happen when you are and it's probably worse then."

"How did you explain it away at work?"

"Oh, the usual. I walked into a kitchen cupboard door I left open."

"And which story did you tell Mum and Dad?"

"The first one - expurgated version. More for your father's sake than your mother's. Men can be more squeamish, believe me."

They finished their meal, had a cup of tea and chatted over it. Kieran told his uncle about his weekend at Jack's, the state of their relationship and the lust he felt for William.

"Do you know what? Jack's been circumcised. That was certainly a new experience." Eric listened without offering any advice. Finally he took Kieran home, had a chat with his sister and brother-in-law while Kieran made his excuses and took himself off to bed. He was tired out. He had expended a lot of emotional and nervous energy during the day and the best thing he could have done was to work it off physically. There was just one thing he had to do before going to sleep, but it was purely a mechanical process to get the excess water off his belly. He came very quickly and trapped the issue in a mansize paper handkerchief. The next thing he knew it was morning, but he felt fully refreshed, fit and ready to meet the dawning day.

Kieran was keen to talk to Jack. He wanted to apologise to him for being late leaving for home and missing him the night before. Jack graciously said that there was nothing to apologise for. In explanation Kieran said that William was talking about some personal things to him and Jack left it at that. When they got to school, William was waiting outside Kieran's study, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

"Are you all right, William?"

"Yes, thanks. I'm sorry I kept you so late. Toby's just been telling me how he and Jack missed us last night." Then he dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'm serious about waiting for you to seduce me. You can have me whenever you want." Kieran gave an embarrassed laugh.

"I can see there won't be much actual seduction going on. By the sounds of it you'll be seducing me more like it."

"So it's going to happen?"

"I didn't say that."

"Hey, I need to tell you something," said William, "something very private because I need your advice." Kieran closed his study door. William lowered his voice. "I woke up in the middle of the night and my pyjama trousers were wet. I thought I'd peed the bed, but it was odd. It was all sticky and didn't smell like pee." Kieran was listening patiently.

"You've had a wet dream."

"Wet dream?"

"Or nocturnal emission to give it its proper name."

"I'll stick to wet dream."

"There's a joke there somewhere," said Kieran. "What's happened is this. When you start puberty, your body changes and does so at different speeds. One of the things it needs to learn to control is semen - what you call spunk."

"Yes, I know what semen is."

"At the moment your balls are producing too much sperm and your prostate too much of the sticky liquid they float in. Your body can't absorb it all and so it comes out in your sleep when you're body's not in full control."

"Is there any cure for it?"

"Ultimately, when your body gets back in balance, but in the short term you need to wank more and you'll find it won't happen."

A bell sounded and the boys went off for registration, the juniors in their tutor groups, the sixth formers by zapping their IDs, and as they parted William said

"Today's the day for Mr Bridgeman. Tell you all about it after school."

The day proceeded as any schoolday proceeds. Jack and Kieran were keen to get into tea and when they were settled at their table with mugs of tea and sticky buns they looked across the dining hall to see a highly animated discussion with lots of laughter from Toby and William and their chums. As they dispersed, William gave a cheeky little wave across the room in Kieran's direction. To his own amazement Kieran waved back.

"We'll give them a few minutes to deflate first," said Jack.

Finally they placed their used crockery on the trolley and sauntered over to the Sixth Form Centre, not wanting to appear too keen or nosy. Kieran and Jack went off to their own studies. Kieran found William finishing his tidying and then to Kieran's astonishment he produced from his schoolbag a feather duster. He joined the sticks together and screwed on the head and carried on dusting, and, not forgetting that it doubled as tickling stick, occasionally with the greatest impertinence gave Kieran the benefit of his dexterity with it, or in William's case 'sinisterity' for he was left-handed.

"William, do you know what lèse-majesté is?"

"No."

"That's one of your fagging tasks then. Look it up and tell me first thing tomorrow morning." William gave him a look. "Now tell me about your PE lesson." William grinned.

"Where were we? We told you that Mr Bridgeman got a stiffie watching us all going into and coming out of the shower. Today Toby and I decided that if he did it again we would ask him some questions about the lesson before we got showered, which we did. He couldn't keep his eyes off us... and we didn't keep our eyes off him. We watched the bulge actually growing in his... what did you call them?... stirrup pants. Then we got our shower, but that's only half of it. While we were under the showers we made ourselves get stiffies. We nearly got rumbled because a great cheer went up from the others. Then on the way back to the changing area I kept Mr Bridgeman talking. His eyes were nearly popping out of his head. Then Toby shook the water from his hair all over his trousers which made them even more see-through. After that he got caught up in a crowd of us boys, all trying to see and all trying to make his trousers wetter, and he couldn't do a thing about it. And in the way it happens, his stiffie just wouldn't go down. Ours did very quickly, but his didn't. We were killing ourselves with laughter." Kieran couldn't help but laugh out loud, not only at the boys' sense of fun, but at their enterprise too.

"I wouldn't like to get across you two," he commented.

"I'll take that metaphorically," retorted William as quick as a flash. That boy is bright, thought Kieran. "I'll give Mr Bridgeman one thing. That's quite a mighty weapon he hides in those stirrup pants. I can't wait for summer when he'll be wearing shorts."

"Or even a speedo," said Kieran, but that was more for his own benefit than for William's. 'I wonder if he'd like to meet Uncle Eric,' he thought to himself.

On the bus home Kieran and Jack compared the tales of the day's PE lesson as retailed by their respective fags.

"Evidently," said Jack "according to Toby, Bridgeman wears his dick heading north, it's very thick compared with its length, his balls are quite large and show separately and they're packed in 'one of those things my sister wears to her dancing lessons'. Leotard or competition top I enlightened him."

"Those boys don't miss much, do they? I wonder how much they've been checking us two out."

"Thoroughly I should think," said Jack.

"Do you know what that cheeky little fag of mine did this afternoon? He produced a feather duster to clean my study and used it like Ken Dodd's tickling stick. It was quite fun actually."

In the meantime Kieran made an arrangement for Jack to 'come and hang at his' the following Saturday evening after his rugby match. This was encouraged by Mr and Mrs Williams who wanted to meet him.

It was about seven by the time Jack turned up on the Williams family's doorstep. He was invited in and taken into the kitchen where the family was sitting after finishing tea. After introductions Colleen asked if he would like a cup of tea, which he accepted.

"I'm sorry we can't ask you to stay over for Sunday this weekend, but we're off on our business trip tomorrow and won't be able to look after you in the way we'd like to."

"That's quite all right, Mrs Williams. I understand. I wouldn't have been able to anyway as my mother's organising us tomorrow to do family things. Perhaps another time." Tea drunk, Kieran asked if he would like to see his room and the two boys disappeared upstairs.

The first thing that struck Jack was the poster of the quasi-drawing of Kieran and Orlando which dominated the room. His eye then spotted the enlarged photo in the silver frame which had been the original.

"He's a good looking guy," said Jack. "I can see why you fell for him... and why he fell for you." That was not flattery; that was a genuine expression of the feelings of affection and lust that he held for Kieran. Jack continued to look around the room. "Wow! So you've got a desktop at well as a laptop," he said as he looked at the large screen iMac on Kieran's desk.

"They're not actually mine," Kieran said in a lowered tone. "I shouldn't really tell you this, but they're on unofficial loan from the family firm. I have to keep all my stuff on memory sticks in case they're needed and have to be recalled. It also makes me more security aware." Kieran sat in his executive swivel chair while Jack made himself comfortable in the armchair. They were just content to chat. Jack was feeling healthily tired after his match.

"We lost by the way. Not by much, but it will mean a hard time next games session. Something you'll learn, if you haven't already, College is a bad loser. We're taught to be gracious in victory and success, but there's no plan B for losing."

"So I gather. Jack, do you know what I'd really like to do?"

"No."

"Get you on that bed and snog you, but with Mum and Dad flitting round getting ready for tomorrow, no chance. But there is something we could do." Jack raised his eyebrows. "We could look at my photo album." Jack's eyes glazed over. "My private photo album." Jack's face brightened as he finally understood. Kieran booted up the computer and Jack didn't notice where from, but he produced a key, unlocked a desk drawer, opened a small Tupperware box and took a memory stick out. Its icon appeared on the screen within seconds and Kieran opened up Photoshop Elements^®. The folder appeared and that opened to show a selection. One in the middle called Orlando had the image of a large padlock on it.

"That's for my eyes only. Okay, choose whatever you like"

"Do I get a folder?"

"Just say the word and it will happen. We'd need to do a photoshoot. How about when you get back from Tenerife and you're all bronzed? With or without tanlines, I'll leave that to you."

"You're on. We get back early on the Saturday. That leaves the Sunday before school."

"And we'll have the house to ourselves."

The boys settled down to look at Kieran's collection. It contained some pictures of some very beautiful boys - all dressed, albeit some just in speedos, and legal. As Kieran scrolled down Jack saw another folder surmounted by a padlock.

"Perhaps another time," said Kieran. At that moment they heard Colleen calling up the stairs asking if they'd like cocoa and biscuits. Kieran immediately went out onto the landing and answered "Yes, please. We'll be right down." Again they gathered in the kitchen and it gave Jack time to chat with Kieran's parents. Finally he looked at his watch.

"Do you mind if I make a phone call?"

"No, it's out in the hall."

"It's okay, thanks," and he produced his mobile from his trouser pocket and called home to ask for a lift. A quarter of an hour later his father was on the doorstep. He came in briefly to introduce himself and then whisked Jack home to bed.

"He seems a nice boy," said Colleen after Jack had gone.

"He is," replied Kieran "and just in case your mind is jumping to conclusions our official status is 'best friends, buddies and mates'. I've given up boyfriends for the time being."