Piano Forte

 

 

 

 “You really like playing that Granados, don’t you?” William asked Austin while he washed his roommate’s back and ass as they took their morning shower.

 

“I think I play it the best of anything I’ve done at camp,” Austin responded. “It’s going to be…EEEK! What was that?”

 

“What was what?” William answered, his voice dripping with innocence.

 

“You stuck something in my butt!”

 

“Oh, that? It was only this.” William waved his right index finger in front of Austin’s face.

 

“Why did you stick it in me?”

 

“You said you wanted me to stick my pecker in your ass, so I thought maybe you’d enjoy a preview.” William rinsed off Austin’s ass and turned around so Austin could wash his back.

 

“You could have warned me,” Austin snapped. 

 

William, thinking he may have gone too far by not thinking, had a sudden jolt of fear that he had suddenly messed up his budding relationship with Austin. Over the last couple of days, he had found himself practicing behaviors that had usually been foreign to him. Now would be one more of those times when he decided to apologize.

 

“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking and I’m sorry. I was trying to have fun and wasn’t thinking of you.”

 

William’s apology made it difficult for Austin to stay angry. He was generally a mild-mannered boy who didn’t let anger govern him and William had learned how to soothe him.

 

“It’s cool,” Austin said. “Only from now on just ask me things first. I mean we’re boyfriends and all, but my body is my body, like James tells me.”

 

“Gotcha. I’ll work to make sure it won’t happen again,” William stated sincerely. He was a bit perturbed, however, over hearing Austin’s brother’s name being mentioned as if he was some kind of guru.

 

When Austin started washing William’s ass, he curled all the fingers of his right hand except his index finger. “Good, because if it does happen again, I want to tell you it’s okay first so it won’t feel like this.”

 

“HEY! YIKES! AUSTIN!” William yelped as Austin’s index finger went into his butt to the second knuckle.  Austin knew that while William had fucked a boy’s ass before he had a virgin butt. 

 

He withdrew his finger. “Now we’re even, and I’m sorry I did that, and from now on we’ll, like, respect each other, right?”

 

“Right.” William turned around, looked into Austin’s eyes, and moved his face close to his young boyfriend’s. Austin’s pursed lips told him that this pending kiss was something he wanted. William bent down so their faces were at the same level. Their lips met and William’s tongue invaded Austin’s mouth. After breaking off the kiss, William grinned and said, “You know, your finger felt kind of good.”

 

“Yours didn’t because I was so surprised.”

 

“Want to try it a second time?”

 

Before William could do anything, Gary’s voice called out, “Hey, are you guys ever going to come out of that shower?”

 

“Shit, sorry, Gary,” William said. “Give us another minute.”

 

The boys made sure they were rinsed off and then Austin turned off the shower. “What was all that yelling about?” Gary asked as Austin and William stepped out of the shower.

 

“Do you want us to tell you or show you?” William asked.

 

“Hmm, or I can guess. It has to do with a finger in a hole.”

 

“Wow, how did you figure it out?” Austin asked.

 

“I just took a wild ass guess, and Austin just told me it was a good guess.”

 

“What do you mean it has to do with a finger and a hole?” Titus asked.

 

“You’re too young to tell,” Gary smirked.

 

“I wasn’t too young to suck your dick last night, so you can tell me.”

 

“I’ll tell you in the shower.”

 

“You guys have fun,” William said as he and Austin disappeared into their room.

 

 

 

“Okay, so now tell me,” Titus pleaded as he and Gary stepped under the warm shower, jockeying for their share of the water.

 

“Tell you what?” Gary asked with mock innocence.

 

“What this business about a finger and a hole are about?”

 

“Do you want me to tell you, or show you?”

 

“Show me,” Titus responded, wondering what he was getting into.

 

“Then turn your back to me so I can wash your butt.”

 

Titus may have been sexually inexperienced, but, like almost all the music campers, he was very bright. It only took him a couple of seconds to connect finger and hole in his mind. “Will it hurt?”

 

“It didn’t when Steve did it to me.” Steve was Gary’s fourteen-year-old brother.

 

“Okay, then show me.”

 

Gary got his hand and Titus’s butt soapy and slick and slowly slid his middle finger into Titus’s tight ass. “Ohhh,” Titus yelped.

 

“Did it hurt?” Gary asked with concern.

 

“No, I was just kind of surprised. It felt nice and it felt weird and it felt---EEEEK!” Unlike William, Gary had discovered the existence of his prostrate through self-exploration, followed by confirmation by his older brother. “What was that?”

 

“Steve says it’s called the prostate gland and it and your balls make your cum. He says getting that tickled is why guys finger their butts and their friends’ butts and like to get their butt fucked.”

 

Titus was now rock hard, his two and three quarter cocklet feeling bigger.

 

“Are you guy’s okay?” came Austin’s voice from the other side of the door.

 

“Gary made me feel really and totally and awesomely good,” Titus reported. “Getting a finger up your butt is wicked.”

 

“How?”

 

“I’ll tell you later.” Titus was stroking his little dick fast and hard.

 

From the way Austin was reacting to the whole finger up the butt thing, Gary wondered if William had tickled his sweet spot, as Steve called it.

 

“Okay, but you better tell me,” Austin told him. “I’d stay and find out but I gotta get to breakfast.”

 

Gary and Titus heard Austin leave the bathroom. Gary’s finger had never left his friend’s ass and it went back to rubbing his anus, hitting his prostate twice. That sent Titus over the top and he enjoyed a body shaking dry cum. In his brief sexual experience, he had never gone from flaccid to orgasm that quickly.

 

When Gary pulled his finger out of Titus’s ass, Titus experienced an empty feeling. He didn’t have time to give it much thought, however, as Gary leaned him against the wall and humped his right ass cheek, quickly shooting his thin cum over Titus’s ass. His emission was quickly washed away by the shower water. The boys washed their hair and Titus turned off the shower. What started as a simple morning shower with his friend had turned into a new sexual experience for the little eleven-year-old.

 

“Wow, that was amazing,” Titus cooed as he and Gary dried themselves. “Have you ever had somebody put their dick in your ass?”

 

“Nope—at least not yet. And I’ve never done anybody else’s either.”

 

“Do you want to?”

 

“Yeah, I think I do—but I don’t know which way I want to do it.”

 

“Why not each way?”

 

Gary shrugged, “Maybe, but not at the same time.”

 

“You’re being silly.”

 

“Would you want to do it?”

 

“I thought it sounded gross, but after what happened in the shower—I’m thinking, yeah, I might try it.”

 

“Let’s talk with the whole Quartet about it,” Gary suggested.

 

Titus said he thought that would be a great idea.

 

 

 

After his music composition workshop, Austin went to Practice Room 4 where he had an appointment with Ms Zimmer. This would be his last run-through of the Granados “Oriental” before he played it at the evening recital.

 

He sat at the Steinway baby grand and did his warmups. He wanted to play everything through while sitting in the nude but was positive Ms Z wouldn’t approve. When the teacher entered the practice room, Austin was ready to play.

 

And play he did. He was more ready to play the Spanish Dance No. 2, the “Oriental”, than anything he had worked on in camp. He loved the piece of music and it seemed to fit his fingers and hence his hand. While Austin didn’t need it, he had the score open so Ms Z could follow the music.

 

Ms Z listened intently, completely taken in by the beautiful playing. She had heard Dr. Boardman’s glowing report of Austin’s performance on the Benaroya Hall field trip; he had not been exaggerating. Since Austin had unquestionably practiced it since that day, what she was listening to was without doubt better. Yes, he hit a couple of wrong notes, but he didn’t allow that to faze him. She could see that the young boy was entering that mental zone where there would be only him and the music.

 

After finishing, Austin took a deep breath and looked over to the teacher. “Did I do okay?” he asked. She had heard many students ask similar questions when playing for her, but it was with an underlying meaning that said, “Wasn’t I great?” With Austin, what she heard was a genuine humility. Since camp started, she had found herself growing to love the boy. Yes, he was an incredible talent, but he also was proving to be an incredible person.

 

“You were wonderful, Austin. I can only make one suggestion.” She pointed to a line on the score. “You may want to emphasize the left hand a little more here,” and she went on to demonstrate. Austin then played those bars through a few times and agreed that worked better.

 

Austin then played the five-minute work through again. “I think you’re ready for tonight, Austin,” Ms Z told him. “I will be looking forward to your performance.”

 

“I kinda got into my zone the first time through. I gotta do that again tonight,” Austin said.

 

“I have a feeling that is exactly where you’re going to be from the first to last note—in your zone, just like any top performer.”

 

Austin beamed at being called a top performer and hoped he wouldn’t let his teacher down.

 

 

 

William was waiting outside of the practice room when Austin exited. “Is it here?” Austin asked.

 

Before answering, William gave his young boyfriend a quick kiss on the lips. “I got a text five minutes ago that it arrived, so let’s go to the office and get it.”

 

The boys headed for the Administrative Office. Both wanted to hold hands on the way, but they weren’t yet ready to do that in public, at least not before talking it over. William’s kiss of Austin was daring enough.

 

Mrs. Grant, the camp secretary greeted them as they entered the office.   “Hello, boys. You’ve come for your music, I assume.”

 

“You are so right, Mrs. Grant,” William beamed.

 

The secretary handed him the sealed manila envelope that had arrived fifteen minutes before. “You boys were quick—I think you’re pretty eager to learn this.”

 

“Yes, ma’am,” Austin said. “We don’t have much time to learn it and it looks like it’s pretty hard.”

 

“I’m sure you two will do just splendidly.”

 

William handed the envelope to Austin, who slid it into his satchel, where it would stay until two o’clock when they would be in Practice Room 3 to start learning their duet. Right now, though, it was time for lunch.

 

When they arrived at the dining hall, Gary, Ned, and John were waiting for them.  “It’s about time you got here,” John teased.

 

“We thought we’d give you a lesson in patience,” William retorted. “Being patient is very important when performing music, especially with somebody else.”

 

“Did we pass?” Ned asked.

 

“With flying colors.”

 

“Where’s Titus?” Austin asked.

 

“He’ll be here soon. He texted and said we can start eating without him if we have someplace to be at one.”

 

“I do.” Austin checked his phone. “Which gives me a half-hour to eat. You can wait, but I gotta go eat.” He started into the dining hall with William following him. The other three took their cue and followed them.

 

As they went through the buffet line, Titus caught up to them. “Sorry guys, I had to win my ping pong match.”

 

“I guess that means you did win it,” Ned said.

 

“Yep. 11-8 and 13-11. That last one was hard. And I was playing a girl, so I HAD to win, you know what I mean.”

 

“Oh, we know,” John grinned. “Good job, Titus—put those fish in their place.”

 

“Fish?” Titus asked.

 

“Um, it’s like a description of…oh, never mind, I’ll tell you guys later.”

 

They found an open six-person table and sat to eat. Austin was the only one on a tight schedule and he dug right into the first of his two slices of pizza.

 

“What’s the overnight schedule look like?” John asked. “I need to know so I can put the prickters on the wrong track.”

 

“For real?” Ned asked.

 

“Would I joke about something like that?”

 

Ned thought for a moment and said, “Well….”

 

“The answer is, yes he would,” William informed him.

 

“Well, I thought….”

 

“Ned, you’re just too trusting,” Austin said.

 

Gary got them back on topic. “Here’s who’s doing what. Ned and Titus are sleeping together in Ned’s bed so Carlos can perv over them.”

 

“Wrong,” John said. “Carlos is going to perv with ME in my room.”

“I tried to talk my brother into sleeping with me tonight, but he thinks people might get the wrong idea about what we’re going to do.”

 

“I think it would be more like everybody getting the right idea,” William grinned. He looked at Austin and made a nod toward Gary. Austin grinned and nodded. “Why don’t you spend the night with Austin and me then.”

 

“Serious?”

 

“Sure, why not? Or we can come over to your room because we can’t mess up a bed that doesn’t have any sheets and blankets on it.”

 

“We can talk about that tonight,” Gary grinned. “Steve’s gonna be sorry he missed this.”

 

“And tomorrow night the Master Quartet sleeps over in Gary’s room,” Austin reminded them.

 

“And I will be in John’s room with him and probably Carlos,” William informed them.

 

“Wow, that means Carlos gets to perv with both of us. Which is cool since I think he’s super sexy,” John said.

 

Austin wolfed down an oatmeal raisin cookie, stood up, and grabbed his tray. “I’ll see you guys at dinner—which will be just the quartet so we can plan tomorrow night.”

 

“You guys have to have a plan so you can have sex?” John asked. “Fuck, whatever became of just being horn dogs and letting it happen?”

 

Austin left the retort to somebody else and left to bus his tray and get to his fingering workshop with Dr. Boardman.  One good thing about camp was that while you were expected to be on time for class, nobody freaked out if you weren’t, if you showed up with an excuse—even a lame one would do.

 

 

 

“Should I hang my sign out?” Austin asked William after they entered Practice Room 3.

 

“What do you think?” William smirked.

 

Austin nodded and opened his satchel, taking out the sign that said, “NUDIST AT WORK”. “It works, even if there are two of us,” Aiden giggled. He hung the sign on the door and then closed it.

 

Aiden pulled off his t-shirt and William followed suit. It didn’t take long for them to be naked. Aiden then took out the manila envelope from his satchel, handing it over to William so he could have the honor of opening it.

 

“I texted gramps that the score arrived and thanked him from both of us,” William said as he pulled the two scorebooks from the envelope. He placed one on the music rack and the other on one of the music stands set up next to one of the walls. He then sat next to Austin on the piano bench and he and Austin proceeded to read the music.

 

He was fascinated by Austin ghosting his notes, his fingers moving over the tops of the keys without touching them. He had never done that but discovered that Austin started learning every piece that way. His fingers would ghost the notes even if he wasn’t sitting at a keyboard.

 

Even though they were naked, neither boy was sexually excited. Their nudity was for comfort, which wasn’t to say it couldn’t become for something else the longer they sat together.

 

“This is harder than I thought,” Austin said as he moved through the score.

 

“Do you think it’s doable?”

 

“Oh hell, no.”

 

“Really?” William asked, a bit shocked to learn that the piece they wanted to play so badly might not work.

 

“Really, because you see, I KNOW it’s doable. So there.”

 

William gave Austin’s balls a squeeze. “You scared the shit out of me you little devil.”

 

Austin looked at where William was sitting on his bare ass. “Damn, and you didn’t even have underpants on to catch it when it came out.”  

 

“You really are a little devil; you know that don’t you?”

 

“Yep, and proud of it. Now, let’s get back to work.”

 

As Austin continued his ghosting, William rose from the bench, took his guitar out of its case, pulled a chair next to the bench, and sat down on it. Austin had flipped the page they were on, forcing William to start work on the next page. He emulated Austin by ghosting the notes on the guitar. They ended doing the same routine three times through the book, saying virtually nothing as they worked to start getting the music into their heads and into their muscle memory.

 

After the third time through, William asked Austin to play what he could, and he would just sit back and listen. What Austin played was rough in many ways, but not so rough that William wasn’t aware of Austin’s magic touch on the keyboard. How does he do that? William thought as he listened to his boyfriend play in starts and stops. I’m good, really good, but he’s magic.

 

“Now I seriously know I can play this,” Austin grinned. “It’s really going to be hard, but I seriously can play this. What about you?”

 

“I’m thinking the same thing. This is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever tried playing on the guitar, but I can do it. I’m going to start working on my part in the room while you’re busy winning another badminton match.”

 

“I wish I could hear you.”

“You will tomorrow. When shall we ask for one of the teachers to start working with us?”

 

“Let’s see who can sit with us tomorrow,” Austin replied. “That will give us a week to seriously play together. We’ll need to get a practice room as much as we can, because I want this to be awesome.”

 

“Do we want piano help or guitar help first?”

 

“Both, so let’s each sign up for a practice room, like right now!”

 

“How about we get dressed first?” William chuckled.

 

“You always spoil our fun. But can you believe it? We sat in here naked for almost an hour and didn’t get boners or get sexy, except when you grabbed my nuts, but that wasn’t really sexy.”

 

“I think what it means is, we’re really serious about this.”

 

“I bet we jerk off together at least once while we practice.”

 

“I agree, but it won’t be until we have a pretty good idea of what we’re doing.”

 

Austin and William signed up for two practice rooms over the next three days. Their schedule combined with the practice room schedule gave them the same room back-to-back on Thursday, which pleased them greatly.

 

 

 

Before William could do anything musical, he needed to take care of a bit of teenage boy business. While his focus had been ninety percent on music, sitting naked next to the gorgeous little redhead who was also naked, was having a delayed effect on him. He removed his clothes, sat on his bed, dropped down on his back and gave his hard cock all his attention. While he liked to stretch his teenage boy business out as long as he could, he had important musical business to take care of. He conjured up an image of his naked boyfriend giving him a blow job on this bed, changed it so that he was fucking his boyfriend in the dormitory courtyard at night, and came in just less than five minutes. He felt satisfied and ready to start playing his guitar.

 

After unpacking his guitar, he set the room’s music stand in front of his desk chair, and sat down. He set his copy of the score on the stand and started to work. His plan was to play his entire part, and then go back and work on the first page or two. He could tell right away that he was going to need help on his fingering from Colin, who had become his prime guitar teacher.

 

Waiting until Wednesday was one day too long—he needed the help now. He wondered if he could get Colin to come up to the room after dinner. That would give him an hour to work with him before he had to leave for the nightly recital. Colin had given him his phone number. William sent him a text before going back to the beginning of the score. He received a reply fifteen minutes later; Colin said he had the time and the willingness to give him the instruction he wanted.

 

William thought about the task ahead of him. He and Austin would be playing the Fandango a week from Tuesday. He slumped in his chair wondering if it was doable and cursed himself for agreeing to such a difficult piece of music. Then he remembered Austin saying, “Hell yeah, I can do this.” He grinned and said out loud to his desk, “I can do this. Austin can do this. And hell yeah, we both can do this.”

 

 

 

Austin and Ned decided to shower in Austin’s suite after they won their match against Hans Mertz and Jim Zachary. Hans was thirteen and Jim was fourteen, so once again they had defeated a pair of older boys. It had been a difficult match, especially since they had lost the first game 11-6. But they rallied for 11-9 and 11-8 wins.

 

Their next match would be on Thursday against the winners of the match just starting up. Austin and Ned saw that one of the pairs was Jill Swayze and Cameron Streit. They hoped they wouldn’t have to play that pair, remembering how they argued with each other during a pickup match earlier in the camp. They had no desire to hang around and watch the match. They discussed donning their swimsuits and going into the pool and finally decided to go to Austin’s room and shower.

 

When they entered the dorm room, they found William sitting naked on his desk chair doing guitar work. Neither boy was fazed by seeing the naked teen. Ned roomed with a teen who shed his clothes the instant he entered their room and Ned now did the same.

 

William stopped his playing and greeted the pair. “How did you guys do?” Austin told him and William grinned. “If John and I win tomorrow we’re still on track to meet in the semis in the Battle of the Roommates. That should get top billing in the camp bulletin.”

 

“How’s the guitar work going?” Austin asked.

 

“This is some really hard shit. But when we watched the video, we knew this wouldn’t be easy. Colin’s gonna work with me after dinner and he promised to be honest with me about whether I can do this in a week.”

 

“James has been learning guitar pretty fast, so I know you can do it. Besides, it’s not like you just started learning how to play last week. You’ve been playing a long time at home.” Austin was stripping off his t-shirt and gym shorts as he talked.

 

“Yep, plus I have a confession to make.”

 

“What?”

 

“I have had lessons before. Gramps paid for some when he gave me the guitar, which I sneaked in when Dad was away on tour. And he paid for some lessons here at school, including a guitar class which wasn’t put on my report card, but counted overall.”

 

“I bet you aced it.” Austin was now naked; he liked the lustful way William was looking at him.

 

“Yeah, I did.”

 

“So, why do you think you can’t play it? It’s not like you’re a beginner.”

 

“Because I’ve only performed in front of an audience once and that was here at camp. And I picked something easy so I wouldn’t flub up.”

 

Austin thought for a moment and then said, “William, do you think it’s doable?”

 

“Oh, hell no!” Austin stood directly in front of his roommate. He knew what was coming next and was ready to give his response.

 

“Really?” Austin asked into William’s face.

 

“Yep, really. Because I KNOW it’s doable. So there!”

 

Austin’s response was to drop on his roommate’s lap, wrap his arms around him and plant a long, loving kiss on his lips, his tongue wandering into the teen’s mouth, their touching cocks becoming tumescent.

 

When Austin finally came up for air, William whooshed out a long, “Wooooooow. I am so happy you are my boyfriend. I love you, Austin.”

 

“I love you, William. You’re going to be great on stage—I know it.” He stood up, proudly displaying a now hard tween cock. “Time to shower—the Quartet is meeting for dinner to make our plans for tomorrow.”

 

Ned, who was also naked, had been waiting patiently, enjoying the byplay between Austin and William, wishing he had a boyfriend like Austin did. He wondered how his sister, Shannon, would react to something like that.

 

“I know your plans already,” William said as Austin and Ned trotted out to the bathroom. “It’s sex, sex, and more sex.”

 

“You’re so lucky, Austin,” Ned said as his friend washed his back and ass.

 

“How?”

 

“For having a cool boyfriend like William.”

 

“I thought you and Titus were kind of like boyfriends.”

 

“Not really. We just like each other a lot is all.”

 

“Having a best friend is pretty important, though. And what about John?”

 

“He’s been teaching me more about sex and I like it when he gets his cum all over me, but he’s not a boyfriend. He doesn’t say ‘I love you” or kiss me like you and William kissed.”

 

“But he’s made camp more fun for you, right?”

 

“Yep, he sure has,” Ned nodded. “Are you ever going to stop washing my butt?”

 

“I’m kind of stuck there,” Austin giggled. He hadn’t realized he had been mindlessly washing his friend’s butt cheeks over and over. The thought of pushing his finger into Ned’s ass kept running through his head. He moved his hand to Ned’s crack and started washing the inside, rubbing up and down against his friend’s pucker.

 

“Well, it feels good, and it gave me a boner, but we gotta finish and get ready to eat.”

 

“I guess that means you’re not horny,” Austin chuckled.

 

“Like I said, I got a boner, but we gotta meet Titus and Gary.”

 

“Admit it, you want to meet Titus because you’re horny.”

 

“I admit I’m horny because you’re playing with my ass and I never thought it could feel that good.”

 

Austin wanted to push a finger into Ned’s butt so badly, but he knew Ned was right. It was time to stop, which was turning out to be a not very easy thing to do.

 

“How come you dudes are still boned up?” William asked when the boys came back into the room. William had dressed while they were showering.

 

“We have to meet the rest of the Quartet,” Austin explained.

 

“You mean you young studs couldn’t get off a quickie first?”

 

“Now we’ll be even more ready for tonight,” Austin said.

 

“What you need is a hormone infusion.”

 

“What does that mean?” Ned asked.

 

“Austin will reveal the secret when he can.”

 

“When do you meet Colin?” Austin asked.

 

“At six. That gives me plenty of time to get a good seat to watch you play.”

 

“You’ll miss Luke playing the pipe organ.”

 

“It’s not required that we go. And he’ll be playing the same thing at the main recital on the electric organ. I know, it’s not the same thing, but at least I’ll hear him.”

 

Titus and Gary were waiting in the foyer when Austin and Ned came down the stairs. “Did you and Neddy have fun in the shower?” Gary smirked.

 

“We got clean, if that’s what you mean,” Austin responded.

 

“Oh, well, your loss.”

 

They hustled to the dining hall where they went through the buffet and then found a four-person table. Their table was in a far corner. Since the dining room was never full during camps, they were certain nobody would be sitting near them and they could talk freely.

 

“You really didn’t get off in the shower?” Gary asked.

 

“It’s not like we didn’t want to,” Austin answered. “We both had boners and I came close to doing what we were doing this morning.”

 

“Why didn’t you?”

 

“I wanted more time to do it right and to make sure Ned really wanted me to do it?”

 

“What were you going to do?” Ned asked.

 

“Put a finger up your asshole,” Gary told him when Austin hesitated a moment.

 

“Why would you want to do that?”

 

“Because it feels good.” Gary looked at Austin. “I hope he at least washed your cheeks and crack.”

 

“Yep, I got the cleanest butt in camp right now. Have you guys had a finger up your butts?” He was surprised when all three said they had. “Well, that’s one thing I need to do tomorrow—make it so it’s happened to all four of us.”

 

With the topic being butts, the conversation naturally turned to butt fucking. All four were virgins, which meant they talked about whether they wanted to lose their virginity.

 

“None of us are even teens yet,” Titus pointed out. “I was ten when we started camp. I don’t know if I’ll ever do it, but if I do it won’t be for a long time. But I did like having Gary’s finger up my butt and I’d do that again.”

 

That was when Gary explained the prostate to Ned and Austin. “You want a way to make somebody feel wickedly good, just hit that button a few times.

 

As they ended their conversation, they concluded that Gary and Austin, the twelve-year-olds, were willing to lose their virginity while Titus and Ned, the eleven-year-olds, weren’t as eager. Titus was a definite no and Ned wasn’t sure; he still wanted to try the finger thing.

 

“That means me and Austin can do it tomorrow while Titus and Ned can watch us and jerk off. Or give each other blow jobs, or whatever they want to do.”

 

“I want William to do me first,” Austin said.

 

“He’s got a big boner,” Ned reminded Austin. “Will it even fit in your ass?”

 

“Maybe I should do it first and loosen it up,” Gary leered.

 

Austin shook his head. “William first and maybe only.”

 

“Your loss. I’d love to do my first with one of the Quartet and Austin is the only one who wants to try it, so I guess it’s my loss, too.”

 

They ended up agreeing that while Ned and Titus would pair up at times along with Gary and Austin, they would try to do things that involved all four at once. “Like what?” Titus asked.

 

“Like whatever happens when we’re all naked and horny and messing around on the beds,” Gary replied.

 

“Is that what an orgy is?” Ned asked.

 

“If it’s not, that’s what it should be,” Austin grinned.

 

As the boys finished dessert, they agreed that whatever they did that night would be their warmup for tomorrow night.

 

 

 

Austin went to the organ recital in the old auditorium. The rest of the Quartet accompanied him. He loved the sound of the stately instrument and Luke played it quite well. He focused on nothing but the music as a start to getting himself ready for his own music.

 

After Luke’s recital, Austin met with his family group in the lobby of the auditorium. His mother and brother were there, along with Mr. Fielder, his piano teacher, and his best friend Oliver. Austin was happy to see Oliver for the first time since he left for camp and traded a heartfelt hug with his long-time friend. Eugene Delacroix and his friends, pianist Leonard Swanson and violinist Virginia Albers, were also with the group. Leonard was a music professor and artist in residence at the University of Washington and Virginia was a first chair violinist with the Seattle Symphony.

 

“Thanks for being here, everybody,” Austin said. “I’m ready to play my best.”

 

“Where’s your b…I mean William?” his brother James asked. James hoped he had caught his faux pas in time. What he didn’t know was that Austin really didn’t care if James had asked where his boyfriend was. He was proud to have a boyfriend like William.

 

“He’s doing some guitar lessons with his tutor. He’ll be done in plenty of time for the recital.”

 

“Then I’ll save a seat for him,” James said.

 

“Thanks. I’ll text that to him.”

 

“Tell him we’re sitting on the left side of the auditorium so we can see your magic hands on the keyboard.”

 

Austin blushed, texted his message, said his goodbyes, and headed for the backstage area.

 

He drew the fourth performance. Once all the preliminaries were settled, he found a seat, sat back, closed his eyes and worked to move everything he could out of his brain except the music. He loved all the music he played, and he loved the Granados as much as anything he had ever played. He moved the ambient sounds out of his head until all that was left were the notes of Spanish Dance 2, “Oriental”. 

 

He didn’t come out of his trance until the second performance, which was Luke on the organ. The organ was a top of the line electric concert organ and sounded good, but it didn’t have the mind throbbing power and sound of the pipe organ. Luke received a long and loud ovation. Well over half the audience had heard his performance on the pipe organ and they wondered why he even bothered doing it again in the auditorium.

 

The third performance was the third movement from a Haydn piano sonata, performed by Cindy. Her playing was competent, but not inspiring. It received polite, but not enthusiastic applause upon its conclusion.

 

Now it was Austin’s turn. He stepped out on the stage to the usual applause a performer received on his or her entrance. After adjusting the bench, he took a deep breath. The MC had announced Austin and the work; all he had to do now was play. The audience noted that, while Ms Zimmer served as page turner for Cindy, Austin sat at the piano without a scorebook.

 

As soon as he played the first notes of the delicate work, he had the audience in his pocket. The “Oriental” was melodic work that acted on the emotions. It had no showy sounds and yet it was a showy piece of music that demanded the constant attention of the performer.

 

The audience was keyed into every second of the five-minute performance. Austin’s touch on the keyboard was masterful, his tempo was perfect, and he never had to deal with an erroneous note. It was the best performance of his brief musical life. He filled up the auditorium with sound, playing a composition that had no loud moments.

 

When he played the last note and dropped his hands the auditorium was silent. Austin had totally won over an audience consisting mostly of tweens and teens, with faculty and family thrown into the mix.

 

The message the silence gave Eugene Delacroix confirmed his belief that he had just sat through the presentation of a young musical prodigy. He knew, without any doubt, that he needed to help the young boy work towards the greatness that awaited him.

 

While the silence gave the impression of lasting forever, it was just a few seconds, whereupon the audience rose as one and gave Austin Richards a thunderous standing ovation that went on for over three minutes. Austin bowed and bowed and bowed some more, left the stage, and then had to be pushed back onto the stage by Dr. Boardman, where he added to the bowing. He remembered seeing performers touch their hearts to show their love for the audience, and he did the same, leading to another roar of approval.

 

He finally left the stage where Dr. Boardman signaled him not to return and the applause soon died down. Dr. Boardman couldn’t remember ever seeing such a response in his career at the Bainbridge School and its music camps. He knew Austin Richards was a special musician, and the tears in the boy’s eyes told him that he was a special person as well.

 

 

 

The next burst of applause came after the program finished and Austin was named one of the participants in Saturday’s program. Many of the adults made a mental note to see if that evening was open so they could hear the little redhead play again. Luke was the other performer chosen.

 

Austin had to move around fist bumps, shoulder pats, handshakes, hugs, and general congratulations before he could get to his own group waiting for him. He accepted their congratulations, which included three kisses on a cheek. The embarrassing one was from his mom, the special one from James, and the emotional one from William. He loved that his Quartet friends, along with John and Carlos, had sat together and were waiting for him. He reveled in the praise from the professional musicians, especially the one from “Grandpa” Gene.

 

After the hubbub died down, Austin thanked everyone for coming and told them he would be going with his friends for an evening snack. Austin invited James and Oliver to join them. Both boys happily accepted the invite. The adults went to the faculty lounge, where coffee and evening snacks were made available to the faculty, parents, and friends in attendance.

 

After everyone in the party entered the room, they were pleased to find a table that could seat five. Faculty and camp staff gave first priority to the visitors before coming in for their own snacks. “Thank you, everyone, for coming to listen to a remarkable performance,” Gene Delacroix told his tablemates.

 

“Austin did play pretty well,” Valerie Richards beamed.

 

“I would say he played remarkably well,” Josh Fielding, Austin’s piano teacher added. “I’ve known him since he was a tyke and knew he had some remarkable talent, but what I heard tonight surpassed anything I’ve heard from him before. Or from any other pianist that age.”

 

“You have done an outstanding job with the boy,” Gene said.

 

“Thank you. He’s been wonderful to work with. However, I think I have taken him as far as I can take him.”

 

“Josh, you’ve hardly begun with him,” Valerie said.

 

“True, but a big reason for my thinking is he has so far yet to go. He’s talented beyond any child I have ever worked with. I know he’s only twelve, but I believe it’s time he worked with a master teacher. And by that, I mean one whose level of playing and teaching is far beyond mine.” He looked directly at Gene.

 

“Which brings me to the reason I wanted us all to meet tonight. Lenny and Ginny heard him for the first time tonight,” Gene said, referring to the two friends he brought with him to the recital. “They are both superb musicians who have taken master classes. I’d like to ask them what they think.”

 

Pianist Leonard Swanson replied first. ““I want to say that Austin gave a masterful performance, not only for a twelve-year-old but for a musician of any age. He played with a great deal of poise and maturity.

 

“Austin has obviously been well-schooled. I don’t care what kind of talent a musician has, he needs to learn the fundamentals in order to excel. Austin has the basics down and then some. Josh is obviously a master teacher and Austin is fortunate to have had him as his mentor.”

 

“I don’t know about being a master teacher,” Josh responded modestly, “but I do teach at the college level, so I think I have the expertise to teach Austin and I can continue to teach him well. But, as I said, he’s moving beyond my level of expertise and needs some fresh input.

 

“I want to say something about Austin and how I feel about him. I have taught talented students, most at the college level. What I have often discovered is that while they enjoy music, which is a necessity to be a successful musician, they are also ego driven. Some want the spotlight, some want the thrill of performing, and some simply have a genuine love for musicianship.

 

“I put Austin in the latter category. Austin excels at what he does because of his love of music and because of what he feels for it. I’ve seen him a couple of times sitting in my parlor waiting for us to start a lesson with KING-FM playing on the radio (KING-FM being the Seattle classical music station). A solo piano piece is on the air, and he is sitting on his chair with his fingers moving along an imaginary keyboard while he listens. He is playing the notes he HEARS, and that is incredible. The boy is more than just very talented, he is a prodigy. He not only has a love for music, but that music lives inside of him.”

 

“Anything to add, Ginny?” Gene asked.

 

The violinist shook her head. “I agree with all of you. I feel honored to have been a part of that miraculous five minutes.”

 

“And now back to the future. I have hinted at this before, but now I want to make a formal proposal. I think for at least the next two to three years Austin should enroll here at the Bainbridge School. He will get as good a music education as any school on the West Coast and will also be close to home, plus its academic excellence is second to none.”

 

“There is no way we can afford something like that,” Valerie said.

 

“He will be attending on a full scholarship. There is no question about that.”

 

“But he’s only twelve. He belongs at home. It’s not like he has a chance at a music career.”

 

“Let me say this, Mrs. Richards. Yes, he’s only twelve, but he will be under the guidance of a first-rate staff of teachers, from the musical to the academic end. Since retiring, I have moved to the west coast and I also plan to be added to the faculty as a tutor to be available for the kind of master teaching Josh was referring to. He will make lifelong friends here, and one of them, my grandson William, will be returning as a student. And he will only be two hours from home.”

 

“I need to think about this,” Valerie said.

 

“Fair enough. But, in order for him to get that scholarship he does need to be enrolled by the tenth of the month. I have the paperwork filled out awaiting your signature. I am not trying to pressure you because, as his parent, you have the right to withdraw him at any time, but for him to be awarded a scholarship we need to enroll him.”

 

“I can withdraw him any time?”

 

“Yes Ma’am. You can withdraw him tomorrow, a week from his acceptance, the day school starts, winter break, whenever you feel you need to. But I don’t believe you’re going to want to do that.”

 

“You know, as I was listening to you, Gene, I thought about Austin’s father. Michael loved music and had thoughts about being a professional musician when he was young. I think if he were alive today, he would love Austin taking his talent and his love for music as far as he can. Hand me those papers and a pen and I will sign what I need to sign.”

 

After the paperwork was signed and placed in Gene’s briefcase, Gene brought up one more idea. “William will be participating in the Seattle Youth Music Festival in August. It runs from Wednesday, the thirteenth, through Sunday, the seventeenth. I would love to see Austin become a participant. It attracts young musicians, those under the age of twenty, from all over the West Coast and a few from farther away.”

 

“But…,” Valerie started up.

 

“I will cover Austin’s costs. And he can stay with me, which will give us a chance to get used to each other. We may even do a lesson or two.”

 

“That is very generous of you, Gene, but…”

 

“It is open to all levels of musicianship, and if you think it would benefit James, my offer is open to him as well.”

 

“You know what I’m going to ask almost before I do,” Valerie laughed.

 

“It’s all about age and wisdom,” Gene grinned.

 

“I accept your offer, but…,”

 

“Yes, before anything becomes official as far as school and the festival are concerned, Austin will have to approve.  And James would need to approve attending the festival.”

 

“Have you ever considered becoming a fortune teller, Gene?” Leonard asked.

 

“Maybe it’s something I can look into in the future,” Gene chuckled.

 

“When should we ask them?” Valerie asked.

 

“What are your thoughts on that? They are your children and I believe you would know best how to handle this. I know as a parent I didn’t like others trying to tell me how to deal with my children.”

 

“Thank you, I appreciate that. Austin will perform this Saturday for sure, correct?”

 

“Yes, and when he gets voted in for the final recitals, which will be the last three days of camp.”

 

“I like that. Austin will be performing twice this Saturday, correct?”

 

“That is correct. His solo and with the trio.”

 

“Since James and I will be coming on Saturday, why don’t we have dinner together beforehand and discuss it then. That will give him and his friend William a chance to talk things over, since it indirectly affects them both.”

 

“Spoken like a wise mother,” Gene said.” I will call you in the next couple of days and we can make the arrangements. And by dinner out, I am thinking a restaurant instead of the dining hall. Dinner will be on me.”

 

“You are much too generous.”

 

“I think, since he is involved in this, as you say, William should join us.”

 

“Spoken like a wise grandfather.  I still have a ferry ride and a drive home, so I had better round up James and Oliver so we can get on the road.” 

 

 

 

“I take it from my brother that you two are still getting along,” James said to William, who was sitting to his right at their table in the dining hall.

 

“I think it is more than just getting along,” William retorted. He was certain James was underplaying what Austin had said in order to needle him.

 

“Okay, what he said was you’re still going strong as boyfriends.”

 

“That’s closer to the truth.” William waited for an apology that didn’t come. The only thing that kept William from giving James a piece of his mind was that he knew Austin loved and worshipped his big brother.

 

“Have you done the deed yet?”

 

“Ask him,” William replied coldly.

 

“Whatever, I was just wondering and reminding you what I said about you hurting him in any way.”

 

“That was understood.”

 

James pulled his phone out of his pocket. “That’s my mom. Time to go, Ollie.”

 

Ollie, who was sitting next to Austin, stood up. Austin stood up next to him, and they exchanged a quick hug. Ollie was happy to see Austin, he totally loved listening to him, but, as much as he missed his friend, he had already gotten closer to Gunther, a friend at school who also played the violin. He had already learned that Gunther was a habitual masturbator and was happy to have a jerk off partner. Although he shared this with Austin, Austin said little about him and William other than they had managed to become friends.

 

“I’m ready,” Ollie said.

 

Austin had a couple of thoughts running through his head as he watched them go. First, he wished he could find a way to help William and James to get along better. Second, he was glad Ollie didn’t miss him terribly. He had been worried about hurting his best friend’s feelings by telling him he had a boyfriend, but the fact that Ollie had strengthened his friendship with Gunther, who Austin thought was cute, made that less of a problem.

 

“Do we have tonight all figured out?” William asked as he finished his piece of banana cake.

 

“Yes, we do,” John answered. “Me and Carlos are going to mess up the sheets in Ned’s and my room to get us in shape for tomorrow night. Titus and Ned are going to show each other what they’ve learned about sex in Titus’s room.  And William, Gary, and Austin are going to do who knows what kinds of perverted stuff as Gary tries to show the boyfriends what kind of nasty minded horn dog he is.”

 

“Sound like fun,” Gary said. “We’ll see you guys in the morning.” And that ended snack time.”

 

Next: Sex Ed.