Chapter 4: Outdoor Shoot

It was a little after two when Damian arrived to collect Bryan. The thirteen-year-old was standing at the window, watching for Damian’s car, and he rushed out to meet it as soon as it appeared. In truth, he was looking forwards to getting out of the house for while. Sunday lunch had involved yet another row between his brother, Robert, and their father. It had focussed mainly on Robert’s claim that Bryan was the favourite and got all the attention, and there had been a good deal of shouting on both sides before Robert had gone up to his room, slamming the door behind him. Since then there had been a rather cool atmosphere in the house, with Bryan’s mum and dad talking in subdued voices, discussing ways in which they might try to get through to Robert and get him to modify his behaviour.

As Bryan approached the photographer’s car he saw Jon already sitting in the back seat and he gave his friend a wave. “Hi Damian. Do I need to bring anything?” he asked, through the open front window.

“Only yourself,” the man replied. “I think I’ve got everything we’re likely to need.”

Bryan waved back at his dad, who was watching from the window of the house, and then he climbed into the rear seat of the car, next to Jon.

“Where are we going?” Bryan asked.

“Not far,” Damian replied. “There’s a nice spot out in the country that we sometimes use for our outdoor shoots; it’s about thirty minutes away. There’s lots of grass and trees and even a stream.”

“OK,” said Bryan, blandly. As far as he was concerned, a few trees and some water were not something to get especially excited about. He settled back and began to chat with Jon, telling the boy about the problems at home and how horrible Robert was being.

Jon listened sympathetically, pointing out that his sister was equally as bad, but that his older brother, Jack, was really cool and that Bryan should come over sometime and meet him. “You could even stay the night,” Jon suggested, eagerly. “Jack sometimes has friends to stay and sometimes even Toby has someone stay over. It’s a bit cramped because the three of us share a room, and when we have someone stay somebody has to sleep on a mattress on the floor, but it will be fun.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Bryan, taken by surprise by Jon’s sudden, enthusiastic offer and not overly keen on the idea of sharing a cramped room with three boys, two of whom he had never even met.

“You’ll come then?” Jon pressed.

“Erm, yeah, maybe one day in the school holidays.” The summer holidays were still a couple of weeks away. At least this would give Bryan plenty of time to think about the idea and, if necessary, come up with a decent excuse.

“Great,” Jon grinned. “It will be so cool.”

“Almost there, guys,” Damian said, eventually, as the car turned off the road and onto a narrow dirt track. They travelled for another half-mile or so, and then Damian pulled the car to a stop.

Bryan and Jon climbed out and looked around. They stood in a grassy area, surrounded by bushes and trees. A short distance from the car was a small stream, about a yard across, its water sparkling coolly as it rippled along, reflecting the bright sunlight.

“While I get the camera sorted, you two can get changed into your shorts,” said Damian, opening the boot of the car. He held out two pairs of shorts, one red, the other dark blue. “You take the red pair, Jon, since they’ll work better with your shirt. You can use your own shirts for now; you’ll be taking them off soon anyway. Oh, and you’d be best taking your underwear off before you put the shorts on since you might end up getting wet before we’re done. Don’t worry,” he added, with a grin, “the shorts have a proper lining inside to stop your bits and pieces from falling out. Better take off your shoes and socks as well.” Both boys were wearing T-shirts; Jon’s was mostly yellow with a couple of vertical white stripes on one side, and Bryan’s was pale blue with a dark blue, horizontal stripe across the chest.

Jon accepted the shorts from Damian and passed the blue pair to Bryan, then promptly kicked off his shoes and began pulling off his socks.

After just a moment’s hesitation, Bryan followed his friend’s example. He wasn’t keen on the idea of taking off his under-shorts right here in full view of not only Jon and Damian, but of anyone else who might happen along, and he briefly considered going behind one of the bushes. But Jon seemed quite happy to get changed here in the open, which meant that Bryan had to do the same in order to avoid losing face. Jon didn’t even turn away, and this meant, of course, that Bryan couldn’t turn away either. The sandy-haired teen self-consciously stepped out of his underwear, unable to avoid casting a quick glance at Jon, who was also naked from the waist down and was making no effort to hide the fact that he was having a good look at Bryan’s body, and his exposed groin in particular.

Bryan tried to stop himself from blushing, acutely aware that though they were both the same age, Jon had far more in the way of pubes than he did and for some reason he found this fact extremely embarrassing. He hurried to step into the shorts, wishing that Jon would stop looking at him. Still, he could hardly complain, since hadn’t he himself had a good look at Jon just the day before? At least Damian appeared to be totally absorbed with his camera and wasn’t watching the boys change.

In complete contrast to the studio shoots, here it took only a few moments to get ready and most of the time was spent on the actual photography. Damian told the boys to “act naturally” and immediately began to take pictures of the two of them, getting them to sit together on the grass, as if talking, and then lie back on the grass, side by side. At first Bryan felt quite awkward; how on earth were you supposed to “act natural” when you didn’t really know what you were supposed to be doing? But after a few minutes he began to relax and become less conscious of the camera. He even started to enjoy himself, especially when Damian set the boys to climbing one of the trees and swinging from the branches. After a while, Damian got them to take off their shirts, and go through more or less the same poses that they’d previously done with their shirts on. It was a pleasantly warm day, not too hot, and Bryan found the cool breeze on his body surprisingly refreshing.

“Right, lets do some shots with the two of you closer together,” the photographer suggested. He had them stand side by side with their arms around each other’s shoulders and took a couple of photographs. He then asked Jon to stand behind Bryan and put his arms around his friend, with his hands resting on Bryan’s chest. Having the other boy touching him like this made Bryan feel a little uncomfortable, even though Jon’s warm hands resting gently on his skin felt rather nice. Next they had to change round and it was Bryan’s turn to stand at the back with his hands on the front of Jon’s bare torso. He heard the dark-haired boy giggle softly. This shot was followed by one in which they had to turn more towards each other and each place a hand onto the other’s chest and stare directly into each other’s eyes. This last one took several attempts, because as soon as their eyes met, both boys would immediately dissolve into laughter.

Damian shook his head good naturedly. “You two are hopeless,” he said. “But I think I’ve got what I need, so let’s do something a little different. You can laugh all you want in this next set, since the whole idea is to show you having a good time. I want you to wrestle on the grass.”

“Wrestle?” Jon looked a little worried and he glanced at Bryan.

“Here, let’s get you started,” Damian suggested. He showed them how to hold each other and told them to try to get each other down onto the ground.

Both youngsters soon got into the spirit of it, and in no time at all they were laughing, as each tried to topple the other. Jon was the first to go down, and Bryan followed through, landing atop the boy. However, Jon wasn’t going to give up quite so easily, and he somehow managed to loop his leg around Bryan’s chest. They fought for several minutes until they were both completely breathless and laughing helplessly.

“You were terrific,” Damian told them, grinning broadly. “Now just one more set. This is where it gets messy.” He led the boys over to the stream, indicating a short muddy stretch along the bank. “I want each of you to get a good handful of mud, and the objective is to make the other person as dirty as possible. There’s no throwing allowed; you have to actually rub the mud on with your hand. You can rub it anywhere you like, but try to avoid the hair and be careful around each other’s faces. The one who is still the cleanest at the end gets first billing when the pictures go on the website, so you’re battling to decide whether we end up with “Jon and Bryan” or “Bryan and Jon”.

As Damian stepped back out of the way, both of the thirteen-year-olds scooped up a large handful of the dark, gooey, slightly smelly mud and then stood looking at each other as if unsure about how to start. Without warning, Jon suddenly lunged forwards and smeared the gunk across Bryan’s chest and then leaped back out of range, giggling loudly. That was all it took; war was declared. Bryan retaliated by grabbing Jon’s arm and pulling him close, spreading mud across the boy’s back and shoulders as Jon struggled to free himself. Bryan wasn’t particularly bothered about whether his name appeared first or second on the website, but there was a principle at stake; the winning was far more important than any prize at the end of it. The whole exercise soon turned into a repeat of the earlier wrestling match, only this time in the mud rather on the grass. Soon they were both covered in the stuff from head to toe. At one point, Bryan managed to get Jon down onto his back and quickly sat astride him, but a moment later the dark-haired youngster had bucked him off and Bryan found himself face down on the muddy bank. Before he could find enough purchase to lever himself up, he felt a hand pull open the elastic waistband at the back of his shorts and he gave cry of dismay as Jon flicked a handful of mud down inside the garment.

“You’re going to be sorry for that,” Bryan laughed, struggling to get to his knees and lurch after Jon, who had tried to escape but had fallen as his feet had slid out beneath him. Bryan quickly scooped up a dollop of mud and leaped on top of Jon, who had managed to wriggle around onto his back. A desperate struggle followed as Bryan tried to turn Jon onto his stomach in order to return the indignity that the boy had performed on him, but Jon stubbornly resisted. In the end, Bryan grabbed the front of Jon’s shorts and pulled the waistband open.

“Nooo!” howled Jon, fighting to escape, as Bryan mercilessly flicked the mud down inside the front of the boy’s shorts.

Bryan turned away and managed to crawl up onto the grassy bank and a moment later Jon joined him there. They both lay laughing and panting.

Damian stood over them, ginning down. “That went way beyond what I’d expected,” he laughed. “I’m not sure how much of what I’ve got will be of any use, but it was worth the trip out here just to watch that, even without any of the pictures. I really don’t think I could choose a winner though.”

The young teens pulled themselves to their feet and stood looking at each other. They were both thoroughly coated in the almost black mud. The sight caused them to break into a renewed fit of giggling.

“You’d better get yourselves cleaned up, before it starts to dry on,” Damian suggested. “Get your shorts off and get into the water.”

“Take off our shorts?” Bryan stopped laughing.

“Well considering you have mud on the inside as well as the outside, it would seem to be the best idea,” Damian pointed out.

Bryan looked at the camera in Damian’s hand. “You’re not going to take pictures, are you?”

“I’m done taking pictures for today,” the photographer assured the boy. “Go ahead and get cleaned up. I’ve some towels for you when you’re done.”

Bryan still felt uncertain, but it really didn’t look like he had much choice; he could hardly go home like this.

“Come on, Bryan, it’ll be fun,” Jon laughed. He pushed down his own shorts and tossed them up onto the bank before stepping naked into the ankle deep water. “Urgh! It’s cold,” he gasped.

Reluctantly, Bryan removed his own shorts and followed his friend. The water was indeed cold, and this soon took his mind off his nudity. The bottom of the stream seemed to be stony rather than muddy, and Bryan stepped carefully, so as to avoid slipping. When he glanced up, he saw Jon, a few feet away, kneeling in the water, his legs open, unconcernedly washing the mud from his groin. Bryan quickly looked away, concentrating on his own washing.

Because the stream was so shallow, the only way to get properly clean was to lay down in it. Bryan forced himself to lie on his back, gasping from the cold, as he splashed the icy water over his body. As he sat up he found that Jon had finished cleaning himself and was kneeling close by, rinsing the worst of the mud out of both pairs of shorts.

“Wakes you up, doesn’t it?” Jon laughed, shivering with cold. “If you’re done, let’s go get dried.”

“Yeah, I think I’m done,” Bryan replied.

The distance back to the car seemed to have doubled; an obvious consequence of having to walk it naked. Jon didn’t seem particularly bothered, Bryan noticed, but he could feel himself cringing as Damian stood by the car watching them approach. It didn’t help that the water had made his already thin pubes practically invisible, and the cold had caused his dick to shrink and his balls to contract into a tight little mound; he felt like a little boy under the man’s watchful gaze.

However, Damian didn’t comment. He simply gave both boys a warm smile and wrapped them in huge, soft towels. “Give yourselves a good rub to get warmed up,” he suggested, then went on to rub each of their backs in turn through the thick towels.

As soon as he was dry, Bryan wasted no time in pulling on his under-shorts and getting dressed. It felt good to be dressed in his own clothes again.

“That was amazing,” said Jon, grinning. “I loved it.”

“You mean you actually enjoyed all of that?” Bryan asked.

“Yeah, didn’t you?”

Bryan thought about it, and then he too grinned and nodded. He had enjoyed it all, he realised; the wrestling, the mud, even the part where he’d been naked in the icy water. “Yeah,” he said. “It was pretty good.”

Jon waved off Damian and Bryan, watched the car disappear out of the end of the street, and then turned to go into his front gate. Today really had been amazing; he couldn’t recall a time when he’d enjoyed himself so much. When his mother had first suggested he try modelling, he had never dreamed it would be like this. At first he had gone along merely to make her happy; she was still disappointed with him for giving up the dancing and for not making more effort with the drama classes, and Jon knew that it would not be a good move to dig his heels in and refuse to at least try the modelling. However, right from the very first shoot he’d found that he loved it. One especially good point was that he didn’t have to worry about getting to know lots of other people. Getting to know people and making friends had always been a problem for Jon; he always became incredibly shy and nervous around strangers. He was always the outcast at school, the one the other kids liked to pick on. He tried to make friends, but his nervousness meant that he always said or did the wrong thing, and everyone would end up laughing at him. With the modelling, the only other person there was Damian, and Damian was nice. With his patient instructions, and his soft voice and kind laugh, Damian had a way of making Jon feel completely comfortable and at ease.

It also helped that Jon wasn’t especially inhibited about his body. He had Jack to thank for that. Since Jack, Jon, and their younger brother, Toby, all shared the same bedroom, there was little room for modesty when it came to undressing, and they saw each other naked on a daily basis. Jack in particular had no worries about wandering around their room naked, even sometimes with an erection, especially first thing on a morning, and to a certain extent Jack’s lack of inhibitions had rubbed off on his younger brothers. This meant that it was no big deal for Jon to pose with his shirt off, or in a pair of shorts, or even, as had happened just this last couple of days, to let Damian see him completely naked. Wearing those tight shorts yesterday had been a little bit embarrassing, since they tended to over emphasise certain areas, but Jon had still found the experience fun.

Jon had had mixed feelings when he had been told that he was going to meet Bryan. Making a friend his own age would be cool, but at the same time he was afraid that Bryan wouldn’t like him, or that he himself would mess things up by saying the wrong thing. His first look at Bryan hadn’t helped his confidence. The sandy-haired thirteen-year-old had been stripped down to just a pair of shorts while Damian oiled his chest. Jon’s first impression had been that here was a confident, incredibly good-looking boy who probably had loads of friends of his own and would want nothing at all to with him. Though as the session had progressed, Jon had quickly realised that Bryan wasn’t anything like as confident as he had first appeared and, once the ice had been broken, was actually a really nice person. Almost more than anything, Jon wanted Bryan to like him and to be his friend, but he was sure that he would end up doing something to spoil it. Like earlier when he’d invited Bryan to come and stay. He knew that he had sounded over eager and that he had pushed too hard, but he had been unable to help himself. Why did he always do that? Jon cringed inwardly as he remembered the excited way he had almost demanded that Bryan sleep over. Bryan must have thought he was a right dork. Then later, when he had pushed the mud down inside Bryan’s shorts; that could have ruined everything. Bryan hadn’t appeared too bothered about it, but what had he really been thinking?

Jon’s good mood was quickly evaporating as he continued work at convincing himself that he had just completely messed up his growing friendship. Starting to feel depressed, he let himself into the house. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, so he made his way up to his bedroom. There he found Jack. The older boy was laid on his bed reading.

“Had a good time?” Jack smiled, looking up.

“Yeah, kind of,” Jon replied, forcing a smile of his own, which quickly disappeared.

“What’s wrong now?” Jack sighed, sitting up and swinging his legs round to the floor. He patted the bed next to him, indicating that Jon should sit.

Miserably, Jon walked over and sat next to his brother. “I think I’ve messed up again,” he said. He told Jack about everything that had happened, including everything that he’d said and done that might have led to Bryan not wanting to be friends with him.

As Jon finished speaking, Jack gave a disbelieving shake of his head. “The only place you’ve messed up is in your head,” he said. “Sounds to me like you had a great time. Why have you always got try to convince yourself that you’ve done something wrong?” He put his arm around Jon and hugged him. “Just chill out and stop being so critical of yourself. Relax and let things happen instead of trying to make them happen. Bryan sounds like a nice guy, and if you’ve been getting on OK up to now, why should he suddenly start not liking you?”

“I don’t know. I can’t help thinking things.” Jon leaned into his brother, letting his head rest against Jack’s shoulder. The older boy wasn’t just his brother, he was his best friend as well; his only close friend. Even though there was only a two year age difference between them, Jack had always seemed so much stronger and wiser and had always been there to help with Jon’s problems and to comfort him when he was frightened or upset. Nothing ever seemed to bother Jack for long; he was one of those lucky people who seemed able to saunter through life without ever letting anything get them down.

“You want to know what I think?” Jack asked, seriously.

Jon turned his head so that he could see his brother’s face. “What?” he asked, eager for the words of wisdom that would make everything alright.

“I think that you stink,” Jack laughed, suddenly pushing his younger brother away from him. “Go and get yourself a shower. That will be far more useful than sitting here creating non-existent problems for yourself.”

Jon couldn’t keep the grin from his face as he got to his feet. A few minutes with his brother and suddenly life didn’t seem so bad after all. As Jack went back to his book, Jon stripped down to his shorts and went to get his shower.

The thirteen-year-old was surprised at just how much of the mud still clung to his body, and he realised that Jack had been right; he did stink. He quickly gave himself a thorough soaping and rinsed off, then soaped himself again just to be sure. Finally satisfied, he dried off, wrapped a towel around himself and returned to the bedroom.

Back in the bedroom, Jon dispensed with the towel, tossing it down on his bed. He was about to look for some clean shorts when he had a sudden thought. He looked down at his body, critically. “Jack?”

“Yeah?” The older boy glanced up.

“Do you think I’m too thin?”

“Too thin for what?”

“You know what I mean. I wish I had a better body, like you or Bryan.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your body,” Jack replied, in an almost bored tone, his gaze moving casually up and down the naked boy. “You could probably work out a bit if you wanted, but there’s nothing wrong with you as you are. You’ve just got a slimmer build, that’s all.”

“I guess,” said Jon, still looking down at himself. Though he did wish that he could look more like Bryan. Bryan had a perfect body; just enough muscle to give shape to his chest and arms and legs. Jon considered himself scrawny by comparison. Maybe when he got older he would start to fill out a bit and look more like Jack. “You should be the model, not me,” he told his brother, smiling at the sudden thought.

“Me?” Jack gave start of surprise. “Why should I be a model?”

“Because you look so good.”

“I look the same as you; in the face anyway. Everyone says so.”

That much was true, Jon knew. The boys in the family all had what could be called delicate, even feminine features, to the extent that they were almost pretty. This was OK for Toby, who was only eleven and could carry it off. Jon knew that Jack sometimes got teased about it, but nothing bothered Jack, and besides, the fifteen-year-old might have a pretty face, but his body was one hundred percent teenaged boy; like Bryan, but with the advantage of a couple more years. Jon himself, however, didn’t have either Jack’s personality or his development to help him through, and he found himself on the wrong end of a constant stream of “girly” comments and jokes. These, combined with the comments and digs about his dancing, helped to make most of his school life pretty miserable. “I’m not talking about just your face,” said Jon. “I mean other things as well.”

“You mean my bigger dinky,” Jack grinned, using the word that Toby had used to use for his dick and that the other boys had quickly adopted and still used between themselves, much to Toby’s embarrassment.

“Jack, I’m being serious,” Jon complained. “You could be a model.”

“I’m too old,” said Jack, shaking his head. “They want younger, cute looking boys like you and Bryan.”

“You’re not too old. You’ve seen the boys on the website. Some of them are older than you.”

“Not many. Almost all of the boys on the site are your age or younger. OK, there are one or two older boys, but they only ever seem to do one or two sets and that’s it.”

“That’s probably because they go on to do other things,” Jon persisted. “Things that pay even better.”

“I can’t be a model,” said Jack, shaking his head in a way that implied that he was stating the obvious.

“Jack, you’d be brilliant at it. I’m sure they would take you on if you wanted. Please say you’ll think about it.”

“OK, if it makes you happy, I’ll think about it. But it would never work. Why is it suddenly so important to you anyway? You want my help saving up to buy your computer?”

“Our computer,” Jon corrected. “It will be ours, not just mine.”  The very first thing he intended to buy with his money from the modelling was a computer for their bedroom. At the moment the family only had one computer and that was in Rachel’s room because it was claimed, for some totally illogical reason, that she needed it more than anyone else did. The boys were only allowed to use it when Rachel gave permission, and as they were only allowed into her room when she was present, it led to all sorts of squabbles. Their parents claimed they couldn’t afford another computer, and that if the boys wanted one of their own, they would have to buy it themselves. The money from the modelling had provided a possible way for Jon to realise this objective. The problem was that his parents insisted that most of his money go straight into the bank; if not for this, he would already have had nearly enough.

“Alright, ‘our’ computer,” Jack laughed.

“Well if we were both saving up for it, we would get it much quicker,” Jon pointed out. “But that’s not the main reason. I really do think you would make a good model.”

“I’ve said I’ll think about it,” said Jack, with an exaggerated sigh. “Now, can I get back to my book?”

“I suppose so,” Jon grinned. He absently scratched at his pubes and then turned to look for some shorts.

Comments about the above story can be made on the discussion board or you can email me at gym@softhome.net