Pete's life is turned upside down when he is sent an unexpected email containing a video file, recorded by his best friend.
This story involves sexual orientation play, and a gay man cheating on his partner with a female. If you find themes of this nature offensive, you might want to skip this one.
All characters are over 18
THE TAPE
Pete sat down at the small desk in his bedroom, by his laptop, and proceeded to check through his recent social media posts, and emails. Once he had checked through his Twitter and Instagram notifications, he turned his attention to his email inbox.
Upon opening up his email app, Justin found three emails waiting for him to read. Two of them were work related. The other was an email from his best friend, Becky.
'Strange', he thought. 'Becky almost never emailed me.' In fact, he couldn't remember the last time she had. They kept in contact, online, via the various chat apps that they used like Messenger.
Pete clicked on her email, curious as to why she'd decided to contact him this way.
There was nothing in the subject line other than Pete's name. And there was nothing inside the email except a rather large file to download.
Pete paused for a moment before clicking to download it.
The file took about twenty seconds to download, and once it had completed, Pete saw that it was a video file. He clicked 'Play' on the file, and the video began to play on his media player.
The first thing Pete saw was the attractive face of his best friend, Becky.
She looked a little anxious, but also determined to do whatever it was she intended to do or say. Then Becky began to speak directly to the camera.
"Hi Pete," Becky smiled a little nervously. "I didn't really know how to begin this message, let alone how to say everything I had to say to you. I thought I'd just wing it after going over everything in my head for the last week, and being unable to find the right way to tell you what needed to be said." Becky paused for a moment before continuing.
"I want to start off by saying that you have been a really good friend to me over the years. You were there for me when I was at my worst. When my boyfriend left me. When my mother succumbed to her breast cancer. And you were there when I had financial difficulties, you didn't think twice about helping me out with funds, when I was short for cash. You were there for me, by my side, during all of the up times too, we've made a lot of good memories together. That's why it makes it all the more difficult to tell you what I have to say to you."
"I can't even tell you that I regret what I've done, because I don't, not really. But a part of me does feel really bad for betraying you, because you've been such a great friend."
"But the truth is, well, the truth is that you deserve to know what has been going on. None of us can really move with our lives while you're still in the dark about what has been happening behind your back.
I know that he feels trapped. He feels guilty for lying to you all the time. For being unfaithful to you. And I think he's a little scared too, to come right out and tell you what has been going on. He still worries about you despite everything."
"And yet, he wants to move on, and I know he wants to be with me, he's said so, but no matter how many times I've asked him to tell you the truth, he keeps making up excuses. Keeps on delaying the inevitable. So I decided to do it myself. I guess I have to be brave enough for the both of us."
"I thought long and hard about how to tell you about us. I could have just come right out and told you. And maybe that would have been enough. But perhaps he would have lied to you and denied it. Or maybe he would have been guilted by you, after he'd been forgiven, and coerced into staying with you and leave me instead.
I couldn't have that, Pete. God help me, but I can't let that happen. I'm selfish, I know it. I'm so fucking selfish. I want Justin all to myself. And I know he feels the same way, but he was just too scared to tell you."
"Eventually, I realized that the best way to tell you what has been going on between Justin and I, was just to show you. So that's what I've done. What you'll see next is a video clip that I recorded, between Justin and myself, a few days ago, without his knowledge."
"Will he be angry with me for doing this? Yes, I believe he will. But I also believe he'll be relieved, too. He'll never have to grow a spine and do what I'm doing now."
"I am so sorry that I have betrayed your trust and hurt you, Pete. But I don't regret it when the reward is so great."
Pete was left flabbergasted by what he had just heard Becky confess in the video. It was like he was stuck in some terrible nightmare. Of course he knew what Becky was suggesting here, that she and his boyfriend had been having an affair behind his back. But he just couldn't believe that his best friend was capable of such a thing
And even more so, that his boyfriend, his gay boyfriend, would betray him so viciously, and not only sleep with his best friend, but want to cheat on him with a woman. Pete almost laughed at the absurdity of the thought, before the next part of the part began to play, and he turned his attention back to the scene unfolding in front of him.
Becky was sat on her bed dressed in a short, blue silk slip dress, that showed off all her defining features. Becky was already a very attractive woman, however, being dressed this way, enhanced her best features even more so. Her hair was tied back, sleek, raven black, and her eyes were the color pale smoke, like cloudy skies, grey as quarry rock. Or, as Pete would come to think of them after today, grey like cold iron. Grey like hard, uncaring cement, the color of heartbreak and betrayal, that Pete would want to smash into a fine dust with his bare knuckles.
Her dress was short, showing off most of her long, lean legs, they looked so fit and toned from her daily morning runs. The dress was cut low below her neck, exposing most of her chest, except the most intimate stuff.
A voice could be heard coming from somewhere off-screen. It was a man's voice. Becky hastily turned to look at the camera, once again, as if to double check everything was set up as she wanted it, and then purposefully turned away to face the direction the man was approaching.
The man spoke again, and his voice was perfectly clear to Pete this time. "I'm sorry I'm a little late. It wasn't easy to get away."
He knew that voice. Pete's stomach sank and his heart rate quickened. It was his boyfriend's.
Justin's figure came into view as he walked inside Becky's bedroom. Becky stood up to greet him, and they kissed briefly on the lips, before Justin pulled Becky's body into his own and they hugged, intimately, like two well acquainted lovers.
"Did you say you had trouble slipping away?" Becky asked. "What happened? Was he making a fuss?"
"Oh you know him," Justin said, "Pete always kicks up a fuss when I have to leave. I told him some emergency at work had cropped up, and they'd called me in."
"Did he buy it?" Becky asked.
"Yeah, he has no reason not to," Justin replied, as he took off his jacket and propped it up on the arm of the chair beside the bedroom window.
"I really wish you'd just tell him about us," said Becky. "He should know. And then we can be together without us sneaking around behind his back."
Justin removed his shoes, one after the other, before pulling off his socks and sticking them inside. One of Justin's little quirks that Pete had become so familiar with, during their time together as a couple.
Justin said nothing for a long moment, in response to Becky's words. And then he told her, "I just don't think now's the right time. It would destroy him, Becky. And I feel really bad. We both know how long it took him to get over John cheating on him with Steve." John was Pete's ex-boyfriend. Like Justin, John had betrayed Pete's trust in the worst possible way.
Justin pulled his T shirt up over his head as he continued the conversation. "He never really moved on from John until he met me, and you were the rock he clung to during all that time. This time he'd have no one there to support him. You're his anchor, babe. His best friend, and I'm his boyfriend, he doesn't have anyone else that he can depend on for something like this. I might not be in love with Pete anymore, but I still care about his well being."
"I know that. But don't you think he deserves the truth, so he can move on and find someone else? Somebody who loves him back? And don't you think we deserve to be happy too? I want us to be together, like a real couple."
"We are a real couple, Becky."
"No, we're not. Not yet." She paused, "I'm just tired of having to share you with him all the time. It breaks my heart every time I see you and him together, whenever he's kissing you, whenever you're holding his hand. It should be you and me, all the time, Justin," she whined.
"You know it's just for his benefit, hon," it doesn't mean anything to me and you. You know my heart's with you. Always." Justin reassured Becky before pulling her into him, and Pete felt like he was going to throw up as the two began kissing again. It was a deep and passionate kiss this time.
The hunger on display in their kissing was just so intense, too intense for Pete to watch anymore. He stopped the video, and began to cry at what he was realizing was going on between his best friend and lover.
His mind ran through everything. All the possibilities. The opportunities, the lies, the times Justin was later home than he should have been. Times he was quiet or evasive. The times when he had changed his plans at the last minute, or he had been called into work. How many of those occasions were just to get away so he could be with HER?
Justin had been good at sneaking around. He had to be. Pete had been cheated on before, a small part of him would always been searching for signs of betrayal, for hints of his lover being unfaithful to him.
And yet, Justin had done exactly that. The same thing John had done before him. Why did this keep happening to Pete?