Surface Tension

Chapter 1-3

A couple of days after the trip to Manchester, Andy found himself at a loose end. The DVD had been constantly on his mind. Part of him didn’t want to watch it; another part was interested in seeing Luke in action. Finally curiosity won out over caution.

Putting the disc in his DVD machine, a present the previous year from Tom and Paddy, Andy sat in his armchair before realising he hadn’t locked the door. He got up, turned the key and for good measure drew the bolt across, too.

Back in the living room, Andy stared at the blank screen. Did he really want to watch this? Luke had seemed innocent, kind and beautiful. The latter was not a term Andy would usually apply to a man, but it suited Luke.

Shaking his head at his stupidity, Andy started up the DVD. After the obligatory warnings and opening titles, he was launched right into the action. Two naked men, neither of whom were Luke, were going at it hot and heavy. Andy tilted his head to the side, wondering how the guy on the bottom could twist himself into such a position. It couldn’t have been comfortable.

Once both parties had climaxed and a few words and kisses exchanged, the screen faded to black before lighting up again on a farmyard. Andy found himself looking at the Massy Ferguson tractor to the left of the shot. It didn’t look as though it had ever seen the inside of a muddy field. Then a big hairy bloke strode into centre screen and looked around. His overalls, like the tractor, seemed much too clean. The bloke shouted something, and then Luke appeared.

Andy caught his breath.

Luke was all dressed up in cowboy boots, wrangler jeans, chaps, a western shirt and of course the obligatory Stetson.

Andy tried to concentrate on what Luke and the other bloke were saying, rather than just drooling at Luke, but it wasn’t easy. The conversation seemed so banal, cheesy and stilted. It wasn’t anything like the easy-flowing exchange he and Luke had had outside the bar.

For some reason, though it wasn’t clear why from the dialogue, the other bloke, Andy didn’t catch his name, had got hold of Luke and was kissing him passionately. Luke’s hat fell off in the process, revealing his almost white-blond hair. The older man’s hands seemed to be everywhere on Luke’s body, squeezing, pawing and patting, before one hand slipped inside Luke’s jeans.

Up until Luke’s appearance, Andy’s d**k hadn’t taken much interest in the proceedings, but now it was hard and at an uncomfortable angle. Reaching to reposition himself, Andy watched transfixed as the older man slowly undressed Luke, kissing the bared tanned flesh as he went.

Punctuated by innumerable moans, Luke said, “Saddle me up, Jake. Ride me hard. Make me gallop.”

Andy groaned. Had Luke come up with those words himself, or was he reading from a script? His false American accent wasn’t terribly convincing, either. Though Andy put all this aside once Luke’s c**k came into view and the other guy swallowed it. Andy groaned again, but for very different reasons.

“Oh, yes, so good. So good, Jake.” This time Luke had dropped his American accent altogether.

Andy found his hand hadn’t moved from his p***s. Without really thinking about it he unzipped himself and pulled his aching member out.

On the screen, the two men were in a sixty nine. The music soundtrack was distracting, but Andy tried to tune it out and focus on the action on the screen. It wasn’t long before the scene changed to Luke lying on his back atop a couple of hay bales. Jake was ploughing into him. Unaccountably, Luke’s Stetson was back on his head.

Andy’s hand speeded up on his d**k each time the camera focussed in on Luke’s face, his bare chest or his arse and the other guy’s d**k ramming into it. Luke’s chest was smooth, but Andy could tell he worked out regularly.

“Oh, God, Oh, God. I’m gonna shoot,” the top said.

Luke continued to babble and make other inarticulate noises.

Then Jake pulled out, ripped off his condom, stroked himself a few times, before ejaculating over Luke’s now sweaty chest. A couple of moments later Luke screamed out his own release with Jake jerking him off. Andy couldn’t hold it in any longer. As the camera panned across Luke’s naked, c*m-coated torso, Andy shot a huge load all over his shirt.

The next scene started; Luke wasn’t involved and Andy had lost interest. Tucking himself away and reaching for the remote, Andy felt foolish and a little sad. Luke was beautiful, sexy, young and totally unattainable; especially to the likes of him. Andy tried to console himself with the knowledge that he’d actually spoken to Luke, accepted a cigarette from him. He was glad he didn’t know then what he knew now, otherwise he’d have been even more uncommunicative than he had been.

Wiping himself with a couple of tissues, Andy stood, retrieved the disc from the player and put it back in its box. He placed the box on the sideboard, ready to give back to Tom and Paddy.

* * * *

Winter hit hard that year. Snow normally didn’t fall until January, but peering out of his window on the morning of December 15, Andy saw the yard blanketed in white.

“The piggies will have to stay in.” Andy scratched between Lassie’s ears. The old Border Collie let out a contented sigh. “And you won’t want to be out in it for long, old girl.”

As always the first job was to feed and water the pigs. The cold didn’t agree with his leg, which ached steadily. If he didn’t know better, Andy would swear the pigs knew he wanted to get back inside, where Lassie would be laying in front of a blazing fire. But one of the sows got behind him—her bulk unbalancing him—and he ended up facedown in the pen covered in pig s**t. Before he could get back on his feet the sows piglets decided to climb over him. They thought the new game was fun, Andy didn’t.

He forked out and swept away the soiled straw before replacing it with clean stalks. Finally done, Andy leaned against the doorpost and surveyed his handiwork. The satisfaction of a job well done went some way to lifting his mood.

* * * *

Despite his resolve to return Tom and Paddy’s porn DVD, Andy never actually got round to doing so. Every so often, when his curiosity got the better of him, he’d watch a scene or two. The ones starring Luke were by far the best. But each time he turned off the TV, the old feelings of sadness, even guilt, would nag at him, making him wish he’d never seen the film at all.

* * * *

Christmas was fast approaching and Andy wasn’t looking forward to it. Normally he used the excuse that he couldn’t spend more than a few hours with his parents because of the pigs. But his dad had suffered a stroke a few months earlier and was unsteady on his feet. So when his mother issued the usual invitation to stay for a few days, Andy felt obligated to accept.

He knew the pigs and Lassie would be safe with Tom and Paddy, who would move in during his absence. His mother would have trotted out her ‘Families should be together at Christmas’ routine with his two sisters. So they, and their husbands and kids, would all be crammed into the old parental home. However, as there wasn’t enough room to sleep everyone, things would get somewhat quieter once the others went home. Often one or more of his nieces or nephews would talk their parents into being left behind at grandma and grandpa’s.

Andy didn’t know why, but kids seemed to be drawn to him. Though maybe he could do without them treating him like a climbing frame. In truth, if it weren’t for the kids, Andy knew he would hate Christmas with all its false bonhomie and pretence.

The major fly in the ointment would be Phil’s parents who still lived in the house opposite. Each time he saw them he would feel guilty. They’d had reservations about their only child joining up, but once Phil had convinced Andy that it was what he wanted to do, Andy had sat down with Mr and Mrs Thomas and done his best to reassure them. He had told them that the army would make a man out of their son, a man they could be proud of.

In reality, all the army did was make a corpse out of their son.

Andy found ordering gifts online confusing. Tom and Paddy seemed unable to cook anything that didn’t have directions printed on the back of the packet. So, pooling their resources, each year Andy would cook a huge roast dinner with plenty of leftovers to keep his friends fed for a few days. In exchange Tom and Paddy would use the computer to order all Andy’s gifts.

So, armed with a sack load of presents in the back of his van, and leaving behind a fridge crammed with easily re-heatable food, Andy drove off after giving Tom and Paddy some last minute instructions regarding his pigs. The two had merely rolled their eyes, told him not to fuss and then given him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. As he negotiated the narrow country lanes heading for the main road and ultimately the motorway, Andy promised himself that he’d make the best of the holiday, bury his unease and present a happy façade to all who saw him.