This story is a sequel to “Jason and Paul and Tommy.”
It was breakfast the next day. Thank heaven Jason and I had open channels of communication. The funny thing was, I never had any doubts about him. For all I know he could have had a one-night stand with half his hypnosis show subjects while he was out of town. He could have been contemplating leaving me and marrying a girl to please his parents and to have his own children.
None of that mattered. I had told him as much. He was the privilege, the blessing of my life and he had always just made every day better than the last for me. I worried a lot more about displeasing him, which was also unrealistic, because given the improbability of our relationship, I was pretty good to him, too. And now I was going to pay for the completion of his college education. Real weird. His parents, especially his mother, were always trying to entice him “back,” but they didn’t even know about his college plans. (Please understand, I would have had them over every single night for dinner if that would have sealed and healed relationships. It just wasn’t in the cards.)
Well, I’ve gone on too long, as I tend to in these stories. It was actually a pretty funny breakfast conversation. In the middle of a bagle, Jason giggled. “What?” “You really went for that geek with all the zits, didn’t you?” “Didn’t you want me to?” “Not particularly. I was feeling real hot for you last night. I think the threesome with Tommy might have worked after all.” As indeed it might. “Remember that I really learned for the first time how to do a 69.” I knew I would make him happy that way real soon. He said, “Do you have any lingering feelings for Max?” “Yes, but you know that part of being a grow-up human being is that you treat these things realistically. Don’t tell me you just turned around and forgot Jose.”
Now it was my turn to be more serious. “You know that at this point our real problem is the relationship with Tommy.” Jason put down his bagel and got the pensive look on his face. He said, “I really don’t know what to do.” “I can only suggest one possibility. We can find a way to be some kind of family. I know that’s a vague suggestion filled with potential problems, but I’m not going to tell Tommy to get out of our life because we have managed to complicate everything. Let’s think about the possibilities.” “We may have to think fast, because Tommy doesn’t—and shouldn’t—stay away for long.”
Jason’s turn. “I suppose you’ve already uploaded the story to that stupid mind control site.” “Sure, have a look.” “This may be the last time you can do that. I think this hypnosis thing is wearing pretty thin.” Except we had spread this to a bunch of other people like a—help! I don’t want to say disease—maybe a life lesson. So I didn’t think it was going to go away. Then Jason himself implicitly confirmed this. “You know, it’s really weird how you turned out to be one of the best subjects of all. You’re really hard to put under but once you’re under, you can picture things any way you want, which is really rare.”
For a moment, only in my mind’s eye, I pictured Jason as that black kid from years ago. Then we were back in the present, with my truly beautiful and irreplaceable friend sitting across from me.
So Jason started up at college and there was a bit of a period of depression there. He was still of a proper age (22, and I had given him some nice gold jewelry for that birthday), but psychologically he had been through so much more than people that age should be. It was a part-time, sometimes-day, sometimes-night, who knows when it will be done, local non-entity college which accommodates all needs type thing. It was just a hard adjustment for him. No problem for me. I owed him so much I would have seen him through a combination of cancer and multiple sclerosis if necessary. Besides—oh, I haven’t told you this—I have the privilege (I know I overuse that word) of a magnificent formal education. Two degrees from Ivy League universities without any interruption. This was something I could do for Jason that no one else could match.
Somehow or other we worked out the thing with Tommy. It was mainly a matter of long talks. We agreed that mutual affection and familial relations (that paraphrase was too sophisticated for Tommy but I have to cut this report short somehow) were the most important thing. We were a lot more affectionately tactile, a lot more hugging, than before. He stayed the night sometimes, which, strangely he had never done before. Just as I was trying to get Jason through to his degree, we were trying to get Tommy through his last year of high school. We seemed to be moving in the direction of the three of us living together. Tommy had character. He could play his part in sorting out the ambiguities in our three-way relationship. I don’t want to give the impression that there was never any tension in these relationships, but at least I had not hooked up with any chronic whiners who wouldn’t take responsibility for themselves.
I know you want to hear that Jason, Tommy, and I hypnotized each other into a magnificent orgy. The reality is somewhat more complicated.
At college, Jason did—guess what? Make new friends. I had forgotten that people did that at college. By insisitng that he complete his education, I had created a great problem for him, because most college students don’t tell their friends, “Come home with me, I want you to meet my live-in lover of two years who is twice my age.”
Of course, to inure himself with the crowd, one of the first things Jason did over one of those barfy college lunches was tell everyone he was a stage hypnotist. A matter of total fascination to almost everyone. So the first thing they had to do, of course, was organize a show. Jason, an absolute virtuoso at this point, must have yawned his way through the whole thing.
The first I heard about it was when Jason and I had another one of our breakfast conversations. “Paul, there’s this guy at school who’s an absolute super subject and I think maybe a perfect partner for Max.” “You know we can’t just ‘do’ Max; he’s under too close supervision. You also know—and I don’t have to remind you of this for the 87th time—you can’t just make an affair happen through hypnosis.” “And you know you’ve done it, basically.” Which was true. “I don’t know how you’ve got this figured out. I’m not even sure why you want to except to get us onto that mind-control site.” “It’ll be fun. I’ve been working too hard. You remember that Max was a pretty down guy and it’ll be fun for him, too.” “It’s going to take all your skill.”
So we did it. Tommy had gotten Max over to our place once and he got him over again. He got him over and under. Then he turned under Max over to Jason. Jason’s friend, whose name was also Paul so I’d better call him Peter, had been enticed because (a) he was pretty much in love with Jason, about which I was not worried, and (b) he was erotically fascinated by being under. So what else is new? The funny thing was, Peter was a sort of four-year-older geeky version of Max. Darker hair. Skinnier. But basically Jason had made this match on the basis of physical compatibility. Well, Jason wasn’t infallible, but his sense for these things was beyond belief, so I wasn’t worried.
I don’t think Tommy and I had ever watched Jason just direct a whole session like a porn producer. “Peter, take Max’s shirt off. Max, take Peter’s shirt off. Fondle each other. You love each other; act like it. Kiss. Harder. Mouth on the tits, Peter. Mouth on the tits, Max. Arms around each other with fingers in the ass. [Now we had cleaning to deal with.]” And so it went. We had a whole new potential here. I’ve always fantasized about being involved in a porn production, but I live on the wrong coast. Anyway, I know fantasies are just that. It’s probably more work that it’s worth. But Jason was way ahead of me. “That’s right, Peter, fuck him, fuck him real good. Real hard, man.”
“OK guys,” as they sat on the couch afterward. “You’re madly in love with each other. You know you were meant for each other.” What? How the hell would they even find each other after this? There were a few more post-hypnotic suggestions, and Max walked home, and Peter drove, I suppose, home.
“What was that all about?” I asked Jason, and Tommy was a little puzzled too. “Amusement.” Oh yeah, I had forgotten that aspect of things. “How do you think it’s going to be with them?” “They’re a good match, but if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, no one’s hurt.” Sigh, poor Jason so burnt out. Me so lusting still for every cute guy in the world. Tommy so conflicted about our complex three-way relationship.
So Tommy went home like a good son, and Jason and I went to bed. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Wish it were that simple. The next day we quickly figured out a way, temporarily at least, for me to deal with my lust and Jason to deal with his burn-out. In case I’m being too subtle, we made great love.