*****The following story is fiction and includes characters over the age of 18*****

Brief Encounters Anthology, Chapter 11: On A Stormy Night

Heavy rain pelted the house’s windows, lightning flashes illuminated the dark rooms, and rumbles of thunder shook the house. A heavy storm was passing over this Saturday evening. The plan this evening was for my two friends, Rudy and Neil, and me to come hang out and watch some movies, taking a mental break from the constant studying we have done recently for our college exams.

Before the storm started, I had gone shopping earlier in the day. I picked up snacks, chips, salsa, cookies, and a few packs of beer. It was our junior year in college, and the semester was coming to a close soon. The exams were strenuous, but we studied hard. We had been friends for over a year and met in the campus library last year.

I remembered the day like it was yesterday.

The three of us were studying for the same exam and decided to help each other. We had met at the campus library, but since we kept digressing and talking about ourselves. We grew too loud and had to leave. We ended up going to Chili’s to eat. That’s where we got to know each other. Every weekend until the exam, we would meet up and study. We all had passed the exam.

The following semester, we quickly found each other and began to hang out more frequently. We didn’t hang out during summer because Neil had returned to Nebraska to be with his family, and Rudy had gone down south to Orange County, where he is from. We had gotten so close that I decided to reveal my sexuality to them. Neither of them cared about my sexuality, even Rudy, who was from a Catholic background.

When the doorbell rang, I was standing in front of the mirror. I was dressed in jeans and a white shirt that had the cover of Whitney Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” on it. A roar of thunder rattled the house as I rushed to the door. Some of the lights in the house flickered.

“Hey guys, come on it!” I urged them.

Rudy and Neil came in with their jackets soaking wet. “Hey, Tim. Fucking shit, it’s really coming down out there,” Neil said.

The two boys removed their jackets, and I hung them in the kitchen. “Yeah, the storm blew out the power of my apartment, so I didn’t get to finish laundry,” Rudy said.

“That explains why you’re in your checkered pajamas and that old beat-up UCLA shirt,” I said; Rudy had told me he had that shirt since high school. He got it during the college fair. It was beat up with holes around it. But I couldn’t fault him; he was doing laundry.

Neil wore a blue sweatshirt with the school’s name and mascot and black jeans.

Rudy was the tallest of the group, standing at 6’2, while also being the oldest at 22. He had short black hair, emerald-colored eyes, and light skin. Rudy was on the soccer team at school, so he had an athletic build. Rock-hard six-pack abs that the ladies loved to see. Sometimes, during games, he would remove his shirt, and you would hear a wave of excitement from the ladies in the crowd. Even my mother was caught doing it. Rudy’s major was in medicine, to become a doctor one day.

Neil was the opposite of Rudy. He was tall and slim and wasn’t involved in sports. He would bring his guitar to school and play music in the lunchroom. He had long black hair that ended below his shoulder blades and tan skin. The closest thing Neil got to cardio was rocking out on stage with his band, “Exodus Stage Left.”

I was in between the two when it came to body build. I was shorter than both, 5’8 I was lean, but I also played basketball for the school. So I had the muscles to go with it, just not Rudy’s six-pack abs. An Anthlete’s body is what most would call it. My hair was black, my eyes were brown, and my skin was tanner than Neil’s. I didn’t get the girls excited about my abs, but I did get the gay men excited about my voluptuous ass. I worked hard every day at the gym to keep my bubble butt.

Rudy walked into the bathroom while Neil and I stumbled into the kitchen. I began telling him what I had bought as he perused the refrigerator. “Did you get any of those Hot Cheetos I like?”

I opened the cabinet and tossed him the family-sized bag.

“Yes!” Before tearing into the bag, Neil said, “You are truly the best.”

Neil sat at the table, eating his bag of chips, “So, how’s your sister?”

My sister, Teresa, had been involved in a car accident a few weeks ago. She suffered a fractured foot and broken leg, “She’s fine. When she calls, she complains about her boyfriend not hearing her when she called for him.”

“That sucks,” Neil said.

Rudy walked into the kitchen, “Alright, losers.” When he said that, a flash of lightning happened, causing us to go silent. Mentally, I counted. I only made it to two when thunder rocked the house. The lights flickered. “It’s been doing that all evening,” I said.

“Right, as I was about to say. Which movie do you guys want to watch first?” he opened his backpack and took a few Blu-rays.

“Why don’t we watch ‘Under the Floorboard 7,'” I suggested.

“What? Those movies have sucked since the 3rd movie,” Neil said.

“Yeah, but this one has a different director. Plus, the studios backed off after the awful 6th installment,” I retorted.

“Tim has a point; this one has the same director that did ‘The Farmer’s Daughter.”

“The porno?” Neil said.

Rudy smacked him on the shoulder, “No, you, nimrod. The horror film.”

Neil grinned, “I know, I’m just messing with you. I’m down to watch it, but if it starts to suck, I’m using my veto.”

“Fine,” Rudy and I said in unison.

Once we gathered our snacks, we went to the living room. Neil sat on the recliner while Rudy and I sat on the couch. Rudy had extended the couch on his side with his legs up and shoes off. I turned on the sound system and set it at a high volume. It wasn’t enough to cut out the thunderstorm, but it was enough to cut out the rain. I put the Blu-ray in, and the movie began.

The flashes of lightning added to the spookiness of the film-watching. A bowl of popcorn was between Rudy and me. Each of us grabbed popcorn while occasionally touching each other’s hands. Each time it happened, we’d laugh it off.

A roar of thunder shook the house. It sounded like it was right above the house. Even the car alarms in the neighborhood went off, including Rudy’s truck. We paused the movie when we heard the sounds of wood cracking. The three of us rushed to the front window.

The tree in front of my house tipped over and hit the powerline, causing the power to go out. “Shit,” I said.

Each of us turned on the light from our phones.

“Yeah, shit!” Neil said.

“Now what?” Rudy said.

My phone pinged.

It was a notification that we were under a severe thunderstorm watch for the next few hours and that everyone should stay inside. I told the guys.

“Anywhere else we could go?” Neil said.

“Did you not hear what Tim said? We should stay inside. I’m not driving through that,” Rudy said.

“Rudy is right,” I said, “I have some candles. Perhaps we can just do something else while the storm subsides.”

“Perhaps it was a sign that we shouldn’t have watched that movie,” Neil said.

“Wait, you weren’t liking it?” I said, nearly upset. I was enjoying the film, but Neil and I always had different opinions about movies. He didn’t like slow-burn films, like I did.

“Not really. I mean, the main chick was pretty hot, though. The sex scene was kind of mid, though.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So what do we do now?” Rudy said, “Got any board games or something?”

“Board games? Who even plays those anymore?” Neil said.

I ran through ideas for things we could do. I owned a few board games, but some were missing key pieces after I lent them to my nephews. I had no generator, so we had absolutely no power. Then, an idea hit me.

“I got something we could play, but it’s in the basement.”

The two men shrugged.

I lit the candle, and we walked down into the basement.

“This is something out of a horror movie,” Rudy said.

“I hope it’s an Ouiji board,” Neil said.

Rudy slapped his shoulder, “Shut up, man. You know I’m religious.”

We had reached the basement floor, “Come on, man. Don’t you want to talk to some hot ghost?” Neil said.

Both Rudy and I turned to him with confused looks.

“What? You haven’t seen Ghost? I’m sure a Ghost handjob feels great.”

Rudy smacked Neil lightly on the head, “You’re an idiot.”

We walked into the center of the room, where a sizeable rectangular-shaped piece of furniture was located. On top of it were some boxes and a large sheet covering it. I placed the candle on a table next to the wall and began moving some boxes. The boys then did the same.

I grabbed the end of the sheet and pulled it off to reveal a pool table.

“Is that a pool table? I haven’t played in years.” Neil said.

“I used to play this a lot when I used to go to Sunday School,” Rudy said.

“The last time, I played with some lovely ladies. But it was strip pool.”

“Right,” Rudy said.

The boys helped me clean up and set up the pool table. “So who’s first?” I said.

“Look, if this is what we’re going to do, I need more beer,” Neil said.

Neil took a candle and climbed the stairs to the kitchen. A few moments later, he turned with a few bottles of beer. We opened them up and drank.

The first match was between Rudy and Neil. I sat on the chair as I watched the men play. The wind kept blowing water against the small window in the basement. It didn’t seem like the storm was letting soon. I took out the weather app on my phone and checked the storm’s trajectory. The giant green blob was on the screen, slowly moving southward. Yellow and dark orange blobs on the screen indicated the thunderstorms, many of which were heading our way. It was going to be a long night.

The first game ended with Neil winning.

Four empty beer bottles stood next to each other on the small round wooden table in the corner of the basement. Rudy and I had finished one, while Neil had finished two and was working on his third.

Rudy and I had set up the pool table while Neil sat on a chair next to the wooden table, sipping on his beer. It had been a few years since I played pool. The last time was with my cousin, and we made the game a little explicit by working a little nudity into it. Each time we made a ball go into a hole, the other player would lose an article of clothing. My cousin and I had sex often; we both came out to each other and were each other’s first.

After a close match, Rudy ended up winning.

Neil stumbled to his feet to face Rudy. Three beers in, and the man was already getting drunk. Neil downed the rest of his beer and set it on the table, “That was good. Tim, why don’t you be a doll and fetch me another.”

“Slow down, man, we have all night,” I urged.

Neil shrugged, “It will make the night fun. We both know the fun stuff happens when alcohol is in our system.”

I rolled my eyes, “Fine, you want another one, Rudy?”

“Sure,”

I climbed the steps and entered the kitchen. We had plenty of beer, but Neil went through them quickly. I couldn’t believe Neil mentioned that fun happens when blood is in our system. A while back, Neil and I went to have some fun at a party. Both of us were drunk, but Neil was more. I remembered he asked me to suck his cock. At first, I thought it was a joke, but then he unzipped his pants. Neil and I had never talked about having sex with each other, but I guess alcohol had made him curious. I had sucked him off that night.

The next day, I asked him if he remembered what happened that night. He told me yes but that it was likely a one-time thing. His comment from earlier made me wonder if it would happen again tonight. Originally, Rudy and I planned just to have soda and juice, but Neil suggested beer. He was the one who funded the purchase. He had given me a substantial amount to buy a few packs of beer. If that were his goal, how would it play out with Rudy with us? Would he have Rudy join us? That was something I didn’t think Rudy would be down for.

I took three bottles of beer downstairs. The boys had made quick work of the match; only a few balls were left. Rudy was in the lead.

Rudy bent over the table, pointed the stick, and hit the ball. The ball rolled across the green surface and hit another ball into a hole.

“Not bad, Rudolpho!” Neil teased.

Rudy gripped his cue stick, “I told you, don’t call me that.”

“Oh, my bad. I forget that you hate your full name.”

“Don’t be a dick, Neil,” I said, trying to lower the tension in the room.

“You’d like that, huh?” Neil shot back.

I placed the beer on the table, “The fuck does that mean?”

Neil winked and grinned, “Nothing, just teasin’.”

I took a sip from my beer as I watched Neil pull back the cue stick and move it forward to strike the ball. The idea of having potential sex with Neil was causing me to get aroused. That moment with Neil stayed in my head for a while. It was a source of many late-night masturbation sessions. Although I was drunk, the memory of it was so vivid.

Rudy’s laugh broke me from my thoughts. I saw a tent in my pants, causing me to sit on the chair. Rudy wasn’t laughing at my boner but Neil’s failed attempt to score a point. Rudy was so religious that I never bothered to make any sexual advances with him. Plus, in my experience, sex amongst friends seemed to cause fractures in the relationship, which is why I rarely did it with friends.

The black eight ball rolled across the table and went into the hole in the corner, giving the victory to Rudy! “Heck yeah!” Rudy yelled.

“Nice,” I clapped my hands.

“You’re up,” Neil said. He held the cue stick before me.

Neil sat in the chair I was in while I went to set up the pool table. Rudy left to use the restroom. The storm outside wasn’t letting up. Strong winds and thunderclaps rocked the house. Thankfully, the candles we had set up were doing their job to illuminate the room.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Neil watching me. His legs were resting on the table. “What’s up, Neil?” I said, breaking the silence.

“Nothing, Just wondering.”

“Wondering about what?”

Neil took a long sip from his beer, “Just wondering if I should get another beer. I’m starting to get a little tipsy.”

“We have plenty of beer,” I said. I wasn’t sure what Neil was trying to do. If he wanted to have sex again, all he had to do was ask. But perhaps Rudy being here was giving him some sort of conflict, which I understood.

Rudy came down the steps, interrupting the conversation, “So I’m facing you?” Rudy said to me.

“Yup, it’s all set up. Who do you want to strike first?”

Neil jumped from his seat, “Actually. This is getting quite boring.”

“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Rudy said.

Neil smiled, “Why don’t we make this game a little more fun?” Neil turned to me, “Why don’t we raise the stakes of the match?”

Rudy shook his head, “Dude, I have no spare cash. I’m saving up to get my truck worked on.”

“Same,” I added.

“Nah, money is too boring. Why don’t we,” Neil pursed his lips and smiled, “Whenever someone strikes a ball into the hole, the other player has to remove a piece of clothing.”

“What?” Rudy spat out. I remained silent, wondering where this would lead. Neil was drunk already. It was the only explanation for this.

“Come on, we’ve done it before at Belair’s house. Remember Rudy?”

“That was different; girls were there with us to strip naked,” Rudy shot back.

“What’s the issue? You change in front of guys all the time. You scared to show us your small dick, Rudolpho?” Neil held up his pinky.

Rudy’s face flushed red, “Shut up, Neil! I know you’re being this stupid because you’re drunk.”

“Exactly, so why not make this more fun? It’s starting to get boring. Let’s spice things up!” Neil turned to me, “How about it, Tim? You down for some strip pool?”

I looked at Rudy and turned to Neil: “I mean, I don’t care. But if Rudy objects, I think we should honor it.”

“Honor. How cute of a word,” Neil teased. He took a sip of his beer and said, “Alright. We’ll up the ante; the winner with the most clothes will win $100 from me.”

“I’m down,” I quickly spat out.

Rudy didn’t answer. He pondered the wager in his head. Neil grinned as he knew Rudy would fold. The man brought money into it, and he knew Rudy needed money for his truck. “Come on, Rudy-boy, you need that extra $100 for your truck.”

Rudy glared at him, “Fine.”

Rudy positioned his cue stick and then struck the white ball. The balls scattered, bouncing off the green edges of the table. The red solid ball went into a corner hole, scoring him a point and claiming the solid balls while I took the striped balls. In total, there were 15 balls, eight solid balls, minus the 8-ball and seven striped balls.

“Wow! We’re already getting this show on the road. Come on, Tim, remove something,” Neil said.

Score: Me 0 Rudy 1.

I untied my left shoe and removed it, leaving me with only six pieces of clothing. I wondered what would happen with the inevitable 8-ball strike.

Rudy attempted another point but failed. It was now my turn. I made my shot and scored a stripped ball. Rudy sighed and removed his boot. Neil smiled before taking another sip of beer. He was enjoying this a little too much.

Score: Me 1 Rudy 1.

We each had two shoes, two socks, pants, underwear, and a shirt, for a total of seven items. I lined my cue stick and fired, missing. It was now Rudy’s turn.

Rudy limped around the table; the man was wearing a boot. He lined his shot and scored another point. I at least got to be even with the floor now as I lost another shoe. Rudy got into position and scored another point. I removed a sock.

Score: Me 1 Rudy 2.

Neil stared at us, nursing his beer. Another beer was next to him, ready to be drunk. Rudy finally missed a shot. I lined up my cue stick and hit the white ball. The white ball rolled quickly and struck a striped ball, which collided with another. Both of the balls went into the hole.

Score: Me 3 Rudy 2.

Rudy said nothing as he removed his other boot and sock.

“Yeah! Come on, boys!” Neil cheered.

I lined the cue stick and struck the white ball. It hit a striped ball, but none went into a hole. Rudy positioned himself and struck the white ball. He scored a point that time. I removed my sock.

Score: Me 3 Rudy 3. A tie.

Rudy struck the white ball with his cue stick and scored himself two points. I removed my sock and shirt.

Score: Me 3 Rudy 5.

Rudy looked at me with a straight face while Neil whistled the catcall.

Rudy missed his shot. It was my turn to make a comeback. The white ball struck one of the striped balls, and two went in. Rudy grunted as he removed his last sock and his shirt. The score was now even: Me 5, Rudy 5. The next score would result in the other stripping to their underwear.

I took a deep breath as I lined my shot. The striped ball I was aiming at was dead center on the table. The chances of it making it into a hole were slim, but it would allow me to get a better shot next time. Rudy stood at the opposite end of the table, applying chalk to the end of his cue stick. It was clear he didn’t want to lose.

I moved my arm forward and struck the white ball. It swiftly rolled across the green surface and collided with the striped ball. The striped ball hit the table’s edge and bounced backward, hitting another striped ball. The second striped ball slowly rolled towards the right side center hole.

It went inside.

“Crap!” Rudy said.

Rudy placed the cue stick on the table and said, “Alright. I give up. You win, Tim.”

Neil shot up from his chair, “That’s it? Come on, you gotta remove those pants.”

“No, I’m good. Tim wins. I’m going to get more beer. Does anyone want one?”

Neil rushed to the steps. “Why are you so hesitant to remove your pants? Suddenly, do you have the shyness to strip among your friends? You always do it in the locker room–unless you’re not wearing underwear.”