The following weekend was all planned out by Tuesday, except nothing went according to plan, once Greg was home. He took his place in the television room and when I went to get him a Pabst out of the fridge, Doug was standing behind me before I closed the refrigerator door.
“Howdy stranger. You come here often?”
“Doug! Hi. How are you?”
“Funny you should ask. I thought we were friends,” Doug said with a bit of displeasure in his voice.
“We are,” I said. “Aren’t we?”
“Sure. Nice seeing you for the first time since I can’t remember when,” Doug answered.
“Doug, it hasn’t been that long.”
“It hasn’t. Could have fooled me. You were over here all the time for a while and then my brother gets his ass in the hospital and Doug is history,” he said firm in his stand.
“No one else came to see him. I didn’t want to leave him alone.”
“That’s nice of you, Martin. Didn’t you remember that we were friends too? I didn’t die when Greg got hurt.”
“You’re right. I should have come by. I really didn’t have a lot of time after the first of the year. I had track practice and then I went up to see Greg. Once I graduated, I went to work and had Greg right after work.”
“Poor Martin didn’t have any time. I live a five minute walk from your house. You could have come by to say hello.”
“You’re right. I should have made time for you. I’m sorry. I would have been beside your bed if you’d been in the hospital instead of Greg.”
“I think you would. Would you have ignored Greg to do it?”
Doug caught me flat footed. No, I wouldn’t have been able to stay away from Greg, even if I visited Doug every day. That was the difference in my feelings for the two of them. Doug was nice, nicer than Greg, but I wasn’t in love with Doug. I also didn’t spend all my time thinking about Doug.
“No, I couldn’t have stayed away from Greg under the same circumstances. You got me. All I can say is I’m sorry. I’m here now.”
“At least your honest. I wanted to make sure I knew where we stood. I wanted to make sure you knew where we stood. You hurt my feelings, Martin. I had fun when you were coming around and then you stopped coming around. I figured you were devoting you life to Greg.”
“Speaking of the king, is he around,” Herbie asked from behind me.
“Television room,” Doug said. “You weren’t asking for Greg last night.”
“Ouch! What’s got your panties in a wad, Douglas?”
“Me being thoughtless,” I answered.
“Union meeting?” Herbie asked.
He stood behind me, blocked from getting around us and making no attempt to do so.
“We’re just talking,” Doug said.
“I can do that,” Herbie said. “Got another one of those?” Herbie asked, looking at the beer.
“Sure,” I said, handing him the Pabst that was now getting warm in my hand.
“Thanks. I needed that. What’s up?” Herbie asked, losing all interest in going to see Greg.
“We were just talking. I haven’t seen Martin in a while and we were catching up on old times,” Doug said.
“You’re seventeen, Doug. How much old times have you seen? I’ve got time if you have a list,” Herbie said.
“Did I mention that Greg’s in the TV room, slim?” Doug said.
“Yeah, but you’re right here. Greg can wait.”
“Well at least someone remembers me,” Doug said with a smile.
“Couldn’t forget you, sweet meat. I’m like a cat and you’re my Tender Vittles,” Herbie said.
“Oh, shut up,” Doug said.
“Ouch!” Herbie said. “Hit me again. I love it.”
“What were we saying?” Doug asked me.
“I don’t remember. Nice seeing you,” I said.
“Same here,” Herbie said. “Who’s the dude leaning on your car out there, Martin. He’s looking at the house like he might be casing the joint. I was going to tell him a picture lasts longer.”
We moved into the dining room to look out the windows to see Lee leaning against my car.
“Lee,” I said.
“Oh, Martin,” Lee said. “Didn’t know where I went from here.”
“Screen door, come thru the kitchen,” Doug said. “Whose he?”
“Bobby-Lee,” I said. “He likes to be called Lee. He’s from Texas.”
“Really. That’s the accent. Lots of guys in the military with accents like that,” Doug said.
Lee came in and I introduced him to Doug and Herbie. They looked Lee over. He was much more appealing in a tight tee-shirt and jeans that left little to the imagination.
“They had too many guys for tonight’s shift. I got the night off. I hitched over. Got a ride a minute after I put out my thumb. Dropped me right by the street out front. Officer. Knew I was army as soon as he looked at me,” Lee said.
“Thought you were one of us,” Herbie said.
“You in the army?” Lee asked.
“Brat,” Herbie said.
“The base is crawling with military kids,” Lee said. “They clog up the pool on hot days.”
“That’s us. We’re good at clogging stuff,” Herbie said.
“Speak for yourself,” Doug said. “Where in Texas?”
“Denton. North of Dallas. South of Norman. That’s where the university is. Oklahoma.”
“Oh, north Texas,” Doug said displaying some knowledge of geography.
“Right,” Lee agreed.
“What’s in Texas?” Herbie asked.
“Steers and queers,” Lee said.
No one said anything as that caught us all off guard.
“Sorry. That’s what the guys in the barracks tell me. Sounded funny at the time. Guess you had to be there.”
“Where’s my beer,” Greg growled, moving down the hall without any difficulty.
He didn’t bring his crutches home this time as he could walk fairly well using the rubber bumper on the cast.
“I think I took it,” Herbie said, holding up the beer.
“That can’t be the only one,” Greg said. “May I have one too? Please!”
Herbie leaned into the kitchen to open the fridge. He handed Greg the cold beer he retrieved.
“Thanks. Hi, Bobby-Lee. You made it after all,” Greg said. “I wondered where the hell everyone went. I’m lonely. Where’d you go, Martin?”
“I was talking to Doug. Herbie came in and Lee was outside. I got distracted,” I said.
“I thought you were here to help me?” Greg said.
“No one can help you, Greg,” I said. “I do know other people and I’ve almost ignored Doug for the past how many ever months. We were catching up.”
“You’ve got all week to catch up with him. I’m only home until Sunday,” Greg advised me.
“Then your in the hospital and he goes up there to see you. We’re talking, Greg. Go back into the TV room,” Doug said.
Greg looked shocked.
“Don’t tell me what to do, squirt,” Greg said with less assertiveness than usual.
“I stayed home this weekend to see Martin. We’re talking,” Doug said. “He’ll be in there when we’re done.”
Something unexpected happened. Greg turned around with his beer and went back to the TV room. It was plain to see he wasn’t too happy about it.
“I just cashed my paycheck. Where do we get pizza? We can bring them back here?” Lee said.
“Not far,” I said.
“I’ll go,” Herbie said.
“Me too,” Doug said.
We were turning off the lane and onto Old Highway a minute later.
“What does Greg like? Anyone know?” Lee asked.
“Pepperoni,” Doug said.
“One pepperoni and what do we want on the other?”
“Sausage,” I said.
“Mushrooms,” Doug said.
“Green peppers,” Herbie said. “Got to have a vegetable.”
“Sausage, shrooms, onions, peppers. Do I hear objections?” Lee asked. “Done. Two large pizzas coming up. Point me at the pizza joint.”
Herbie and Lee sat in the backseat and Doug took shotgun. It was agreed there was plenty to drink at the house. In forty minutes we were pulling back into the driveway with two steaming pizzas in the backseat. Much to my surprise no one opened either box until the got to the television room.
“Where the hell have you all been?” Greg asked. “I’m here all alone. I’ve been all alone for months. I never get to go out. Thanks a lot.”
“Pizza,” Doug said. “We put you in the car and no one else can go. You got limitations big brother. The least of which is you got no pockets in your pajamas and no money.”
“What kind?” Greg asked.
Doug took the pepperoni pizza, sitting it on Greg’s lap.
“Pepperoni! Cool!” Greg said and his fussing stopped when pizza entered his mouth. “It’s hot too. Thanks.”
With four growing boys in the house the pizza didn’t last long enough to cool off. Little could be heard but chewing and an occasional chuckle as Andy explained to Barney the drawbacks in whatever hair brained scheme he had.
You could see Barney hanging on every word, all the time knowing he was going to do what he was going to do. It didn’t matter how many hazards might be involved or how foolish he would look in front of everyone in Mayberry.
Greg, Herbie, and I sat on the couch. Doug sat on the floor leaning back against the couch between where Herbie and I sat. Herbie had his hand in the front of Greg’s pajamas shortly after he sat down with a piece of pizza in the other hand. He took a slice of Greg’s pizza and then a slice of the sausage pizza.
Lee sat in the easy chair and looked at where Herbie’s hand was each time he took a bite of his pizza. He was the only one that seemed uncomfortable with Herbie’s hand. Greg seemed content with it. Doug paid no attention to it and I paid too much attention to it. I was both put off and turned on by Herbie’s need to hold onto Greg’s dick.
Doug got up and disappeared. I figured he went to piss after drinking a gallon and a half of root beer with his pizza. A little while later I went to see what was keeping Doug.
“What are you doing?” I asked, when I found him sitting in the living room in the shadows of the only light on out in the dining room.
“I don’t like getting hypnotized by the TV. I end up sitting in there for hours and I don’t have a clue why or what I watched.”
“You’re watching TV maybe?” I suggested.
“Nothing I can’t miss and be better off for the experience. It annoys me to think I waste so much time watching nothing I can remember ten minutes later.”
“What, you’re going to be a TV critic?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’d rather read a book.”
“You’re not reading,” I said.
“Not in the mood.”
“What are you in the mood for?” I asked.
“He does that to me when Greg isn’t around,” Doug revealed what Greg had speculated long ago.
“Who does what?” I asked, not wanting to let him know I knew what he was going to tell me.
“Greg must have something I don’t have. I’m always the guy who gets attention when Greg’s not available.”
“You’re mad because you aren’t getting the hand job or are you mad because you let him give you hand jobs?”
“Shut up, Martin.”
“I can do that. I did it a lot the last few months.”
“I don’t know. I like it when he’s doing it. Not so much when I think about letting him do it. Herbie’s a whore. He does everyone.”
Doug stared at me as I sat in the easy chair that was right in front of where he sat on the couch.
“Nice weather,” I said. “If we’re going to have weather, this is good, don’t you think?”
“I’m sorry, Martin. Greg, Greg, Greg, that’s all I ever hear. I’ve been taking his overflow since I was nine, you know.”
“You’re telling me about Herbie again. Do you like Herbie?”
“Herbie? Lord no. Yeah, I guess I do. It’s not what you think. He grows on you. Not a serious bone in the boys body. He pays attention to me. I don’t really like it all that much but then I see him fucking with my brother and I get mad. Do you think I’m crazy.”
“Probably, but no crazier than the rest of us. Probably not as crazy as most of us.”
“What does my brother have that I don’t have?”
“He’s bold as brass. He knows what he wants. He goes for it.”
“That explains it. I don’t know what I want.”
“You’re seventeen. You aren’t supposed to know what you want.”
“No, I mean I like this girl at school. Really like. I kissed her last week. She kissed me back. Really kissed me back.”
“The oldest story in the book. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy wants to do boy and girl things. You’re growing up, Doug.”
“Herbie was here Wednesday night and Thursday night. He wanted to get time with me before Greg was home. You know what I’m saying? He thinks I can’t do it myself.”
“I get the picture. Herbie’s unusual,” I said, being generous.
“That’s not the point. He does that all the time. I let him do it. I like it when he’s doing it. Saves me a lot of trouble. Takes me forever. When he does it, five minutes at most and he’s wiping off his hand,” he said, watching my face for any reaction.
“Doug, you know what you want and no one else can decide that for you. Guys are horny. Guys will go along with a lot of weird stuff to get someone take care of the problem for them. They like getting off. I’d say it’s like that for you.”
“What if Sharon knew that Herbie beats me off two or three times a week? She’d drop me like a rock. I like her.”
“Guys get each other off all the time, Doug. They meet girls, get married, have babies, and some of them are still letting guys get them off from time to time. There are always guys like Herbie that will give you a hand any time you need one. It’s not something you and Herbie discovered.”
“All the crap I here says I’m queer if I let a guy play with my Peter.”
“Guys who let other guys get them off yell the loudest about who’s queer. They think it gives them cover, since no one thinks a guy that would say that could possibly be doing it.
There are all kinds of people, Doug. You aren’t inventing anything new.”
“Makes me wonder even more.”
“About what?”
“The queer thing!”
“You know what you feel, Doug. Are your feelings for Herbie the same as your feeling for Sharon?”
“Hell no. Herbie’s just someone I’ve known forever. That’s exactly how long he’s been playing with my dick too.”
“You don’t like Herbie?”
“Yeah, I do,” Doug said with a small grin. “But I don’t want to swap spit with him.”
“That probably answers your question. If you’d rather swap spit with a girl, you’ll end up going in that direction. Maybe with Herbie giving you a hand on the side for those nights you can’t get any.”
“That’s gross. I don’t want Sharon to do that to me? She’s nice. I like her,” Doug complained. “I’d never let her touch my Peter.”
“It’s going to make having children difficult,” I said.
“Children! I am a children.”
“You’ll be surprised what you’ll want her to do before it’s all over,” I said.
“I’ve had some thoughts in that area but I try to control them,” he explained. “I don’t want to marry a girl that does stuff like that to guys.”
“Herbie does it to guys and you let him… do what you let him do.”
“I told you. He’s been doing it forever. I miss it if he takes a few nights off.”
“Like tonight?” I asked.
“He was here last night. Wouldn’t leave it alone. He does it with my parents in the next room. I tell him to stop.”
“You’re jealous when he’s doing it to Greg.”
“No. Probably! I don’t know. He says Greg never comes. He calls me a lightweight. I come in two minutes sometimes if I’m really horny. He says I’m a lightweight. He says I’m not as big as my brother.”
“Greg is bigger than most guys,” I said. “Size isn’t everything.”
“Not as big as Rolf. Rolf was even fatter. Not as long though.”
“Herbie did Rolf too?”
“No, Rolf didn’t like Herbie. Said he was goofy.”
“What did you have to do with Rolf?” I asked.
“Rolf was always coming around me. All the young guys thought he was the top dog. They bragged about him in front of me.”
“You told me about it at the party that night. You didn’t say you knew anything first hand.”
“We all did. All the young German guys especially. They wanted to be him. Dieter too. He was a year older than Rolf. He worked at the club and made sure no one interrupted the games. We had a special room Dieter reserved for us. He was never far away when the games were on.”
“Greg said you stopped going once he started going to the German club.”
“I did go when he was there. Herbie and I found it first. My friends took us there the first time. Greg knows what I let him know and Rolf and Dieter weren’t talking about the stuff they knew. They had a good thing going. They didn’t tell on me and no one told on them.”
“The more I hear about it the less I know,” I said.
“Greg was too overpowering. Rolf and Dieter were there because they liked the attention of the young guys. When they knew Greg was going to be there, they went elsewhere after a while, unless they went to see what Greg was up to. They could still beat him most of the time, but they saw Greg was getting pretty good.
“They’d do stuff to pay up when they lost to Greg, but they weren’t used to being the ones doing someone in front of the younger boys. It was a real change of pace for those two. Being the ones jerking Greg off and no one wanted to miss that action.”
“I thought you stopped going when Greg started going?” I said.
“I didn’t that much. Doesn’t pay to know too much about what my brother is up to,” he said.
“How’d you find this stuff out then?”
“From Rolf and Dieter of course. I wouldn’t go out with them unless they told me what my brother was up to. They liked the young American guys. Not Herbie so much but I wouldn’t go without Herbie. I felt safe with him around.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” I said. “Why wasn’t I born in Germany?”
“Being the American, most of the German kids like Greg. They’ve all got skin on their dicks. They were fascinated that Greg’s didn’t have skin. He didn’t mind showing them either. That’s where he developed his superiority complex. He swore his dick got so big because it got all that exercise in Germany.”
“Big dick. Big superiority complex,” I mused. “German boys didn’t do us any favors.”
“Greg?” Herbie said. “Superiority? Sounds like him. Is Greg all you two talk about.”
“Yeah,” Doug said.
Herbie sat right beside him on the very big couch. I could see Doug becoming uncomfortable. Herbie seemed very comfortable as they touched legs up to their arms.