All it takes is one night of pleasure

Peter

I grew up on the countryside, with all of the good and the downsides of it.

When I was 22, we used to party a lot, drink a lot, and we shared a lot of moments with my friends crew of back then. It was around that time that our group expanded to include a group that was two years younger than we all were; who had merged with us after we all hung out at a party organised by someone known by both groups.

We were all still young and pretty much either living with our parents or renting out small studio apartments in the city, where we studied during the week. During that summer, we all returned home to the countryside. The summer was particularly hot and dry, which allowed us to party outdoors a lot, in some of the gardens, when parents' weren't home; or even in an empty field, where we would all bring a piece of lighting, camping chairs and tables, and some speakers to just get a party started.

I don't really know how come, and recurring drinking and a lot of parents having houses with pool probably played a big role in this, but our crews were really open with nudity. I couldn't count how many times I skinny dipped while being wasted in one my friends' parent's pool. It almost became usual that, at some point of the evening, one of us would end up naked. Interestingly enough, the same happened in the group of the newcomers.

I guess the way we grew also played a role in this, but nudity wasn't really a big issue for our group. It's not something we even discussed, it was just the way it was, it felt like normality, and to be totally honest, it was really so much fun, and we still laugh about things that happened when we all used to walk around drunk and naked to this day. Although it never happened when girls were around, it was just something so common for us; sometimes starting as skinny dipping, sometimes starting very simply with one of the guys saying « Guys, guys, guys ?! Shouldn't we be naked by now ?! » and taking off his shirt while one of the other bros just followed the lead, taking his pants off and mimicking helicopter with his penis while screaming « Damn right my man! ».

This was all crushed when I first brought up these situations to my classmates at the university and saw their surprise, their shock almost. Somehow they interpreted this as a very sexual act, while it was in fact simple brotherhood and pure acts of fun, with nothing else intended. As a matter of fact, all of the members of the group were defining themselves as straight - myself included, except for my friend Charles who had come out to us a few years ago.

But you know what they say: « no one acts more gay than a group of straight friends ». I was a soccer player back then, and I can only confirm the latter statement, just by standing in the locker rooms after a winning game.

I had first met Peter six months before that, on new year's eve. The newly formed group rented out a small space in a nearby village to share a meal, to binge drink and to dance out what we thought were adult problems back then. Peter was a member of the other crew, and I hadn't had the opportunity to discuss with him yet, although his reputation preceded him. He wasn't much of a soccer fan, he was more of a cyclist, which is probably one of the reasons I had never met the guy. He used to spend hours on the roads, riding at very high speeds wearing just a lycra combination and a helmet, and never hung out with our group before that party on new year's eve. I had heard of him from my friend Logan, a long time friend of his who would describe him as a stand up guy, extremely kind and very intelligent dude. They spent a lot of time together, and Logan would always have a story about how amazing their parties were or the latest crazy thing they did on week-ends. « Dude, TL and I got so drunk last Saturday. » was a common way for Logan to start a story. « TL » was Peter's nickname, although I first thought they were his initials.

Peter was about 6 feet tall and very lean - probably from all the cycling. He had the typical cyclist morphology, very defined muscles, especially his calves which were really standing out when you looked at his shaved legs. Dark and short haired, wearing big black glasses, he attempted to grow out a three day beard, not successfully; quite a common guy apart from the very toned physique. Had he not had this for him, he would've probably passed for a nerdy guy.

During NYE's diner and as we all started to be a little tipsy, we all started to dance between main and desert. All the dancing heated up the room and I decided to go outside for a cigarette. Peter was the only one outside, and was smoking, sitting alone on a bench just by the entrance. I exited the room, saw him and said « Wow, I really didn't picture you a smoker. ».

He asked why. « Well, I thought you were this big time sports guy who was only into healthy stuff and all. » I answered.

He laughed, looked at me, sipped a little beer from the bottle he was holding and said « Aren't you a soccer player? ». I paused for a second, realising he was right and answered « Yeah, but I'm an idiot for smoking ».

« Well, that makes two of us then ». He said while raising his beer to make it clink with mine.

And just like that, it was the beginning of our friendship. We kept taking outside for half and hour at least, sharing a few more cigarettes together. We didn't really introduce ourselves, it was just a natural, like we had been friends for years. We realised we had a lot in common, much more than some friends. Of course, we also shared some of our funniest stories involving friends we both knew, like that time Peter actually fell asleep drunk on his doorstep and was waken up by this mother the next day; which I thought was really funny.

After a few more minutes, Logan opened the door, releasing a cloud of condensation and a smell that was a mix of vodka and sweat, like someone had been drinking in a sauna. Logan glimpsed at us, look at Peter and said « Well I'm glad you two finally met! TL, dude, don't tell too much embarrassing stories man! », to which Peter replied not to worry.

At that moment, it hit me that his first name being Peter, his initials could't be « TL ». So I asked.

« Wait, why is Logan calling you TL? ». Peter laughed and sighed.

« Oh, that's, embarrassing... »

« Dude, you just told me you fell asleep on your doorstep, I'm sure I can handle it. »

« I'm actually not so sure you would », Peter said smiling.

« I really don't get it », I replied thinking I was maybe too drunk to understand.

« Ok ok, I'll tell you because you'll probably figure it out later anyway. »

I looked at him raising one of my eyebrows, to express my confusion.