The next morning it was as if the experience at the old man's house had never happened, and neither Lee nor I mentioned it at all. For the next couple of weeks we spent the days loafing around at the coast, learning to surf, and spending our $500 on accommodation and drinks at various bars. I guess we just lost track of how much we were spending, until we paid for another week's accommodation at the hostel and realised we each only had a few dollars left.
"I guess we'd better start asking around for work at the employment agencies again?" I asked Lee.
"We haven't got any other option," he replied, the subtext clearly telling me that going back to the old man was not an option, not that I had considered it to be one either. And so the next day we didn't go to the beach as usual, but trawled round all the agencies in the city with copies of our CVs, asking for any work available. However, the story was the same at each one: not interested in backpackers as we were a risk, too many had done a few days work and then moved on to another city or town. No matter how much we tried to convince them that we were serious about staying for a few months to earn some much needed cash, no-one seemed willing to take that chance. But we didn't give up, and the next day we did the same thing, also asking in every hostel, bar, or shop we could find whether there was any work available. Unfortunately the response was always 'thanks, but no thanks'.
By the third day of job hunting we found ourselves once again down to a few remaining coins in our pockets and no way of paying for food or a bus ticket to the next destination on our itinerary. We'd both been refusing to talk about the only option which we knew would get us some more money, but things had once again become too desperate to bury our heads in the sand any longer, so I broke the silence:
"Lee, I think we have to consider going back to the old man. We'll hear him out first and then decide whether to go through with it again. What do you think?"
There was a long pause, and Lee wouldn't make eye contact with me. Eventually he spoke:
"Doesn't look like we have a choice, does it?" His tone was quite firm, as if I was responsible for the situation.
"Look, you've spent as much money as I have and if you can think of any other way of making some quick cash then speak up. Don't blame me about this for fuck's sake!" I replied; I wasn't proud of what we'd been reduced to having to consider to make money but I certainly wasn't going to be made to take the blame all on myself for it.
"Alright, let's go." Lee muttered, and we made our way back along the St. Kilda Road to the old man's flat.
We pressed the buzzer several times, but there was no response. "Perhaps this is a good sign," I said, and we turned to go. Just as we turned around the guy appeared from round the corner. I could tell that he didn't recognise us immediately, and I didn't want to have to explain who we were in order for him to remember us. I was also a bit pissed off that we hadn't been that memorable, did he do this a lot?
"Ah, boys! Good to see you again. What can I help you with?" Oh God, he was going to make us ask, how humiliating.
"Um...we were wondering whether you had any more work for us..." grudgingly, and after a pause in which he did not speak, I continued: "...please."
"Well, I'm not really looking for anyone at the moment. But, as you're obviously in need of help I'm sure I can find something for you to do. I'll pay $500 again, but that's between you rather than for each of you this time." His offer was half what he'd paid last time and I certainly wasn't going to degrade myself for the equivalent of about 100 quid.
"No way," I replied, and started to walk away, but Lee stopped me:
"Look mate, where else are we going to get any money from? At least this will give us enough to get a bus out of here and try to find work in Adelaide." I could see the logic of his argument; and I really wanted to say goodbye to Melbourne, and its memories.
"Okay, we'll do it." I told the old man, grudgingly.
"Good, excellent. But you'll both have to come back in a couple of hours I'm afraid. I'll see you here at 7 o'clock."
"Fine," I said, and Lee and I wandered off to try and kill a couple of hours.
The wait was awful; at least last time we hadn't been given time to think about it, we just went for it, did what we were told, and then forgot about it once we were done. Now, we had a couple of hours wandering around the city not talking to each-other and imagining all sorts of awful things he could make us do. Eventually we made our way back to his flat at 7 and were buzzed in to go straight up to his flat. He came out of the living room which sounded like he had the TV. blaring out, and led us through to his pokey little kitchen.
"Right boys, I'd like you to both strip off completely and leave your clothes here, then come into the lounge. You can have your money when you've finished." With that he left us alone and went back to the other room. There was an uncomfortable pause, and neither Lee nor I were making eye contact with each other as we stripped out of our t-shirts, board shorts, and flip-flops. I noticed that Lee's time at the beach had evened out his tan and, like me, he was just left with a white patch where our shorts had covered us at the beach. Thankfully his cock was still flaccid like mine, so I knew, like me, that he wasn't enjoying this. Being nervous about what was about to happen, my cock had started to shrink into my brown pubes, whereas Lee's was still dangling proudly down over his hairy balls. As he led the way out of the kitchen towards the lounge, I gave mine a quick tug trying to make it get back to its natural size, but it wasn't working.
We weren't sure whether to knock on the door or not, but the television was making so much noise that he probably wouldn't hear us anyway so I just said to Lee:
"Go on, let's get in and get it over with." We walked into the room and were instantly stopped in our tracks, finding that the noise was actually coming from the dozen or so fully clothed middle aged and elderly men all standing around chatting to each-other. I've never been so humiliated in my life, finding myself stark naked in front of a room full of people, it was like those nightmares everyone has about realising you're at school naked and everyone is laughing. I felt utterly exposed , violated, and embarrassed and could sense everyone's eyes looking me and Lee up and down like pieces of meat.
"Ah there you are boys. Everyone, these are my British lads who are here to entertain us for this evening. Come on lads, come and stand in the centre of the room so everyone can see you properly. don't be shy." I felt his sweaty palm on my back as he tried to guide Lee and I into the centre of the room. I tried to move my hands in front of my genitals in a natural instinct of modesty, and Lee did the same.
"Oh no you don't," said the old man when he saw us covering ourselves up. "I think we'll have you standing back to back and holding each other's hands, that should stop you trying to hide yourselves." He then manoeuvred us so that Lee and I were back to back, pushing us so close together that our butt cheeks, calf muscles and shoulders were pressed together; I could feel the thick dark hairs from Lee's legs brushing against mine and the heat from his body connecting with mine. We linked hands and I was relieved to find that we both had sweaty palms..
As we stood there, the guests took it in turns to inspect each of us , running their hands over my tanned chest and body, running their hands up my firm hairy legs, and then pulling on my little flaccid cock whilst making comments like 'that's the smallest one I've seen for a while...I hope it gets bigger than that...you'd expect a fit young lad like this to have one bigger than that...I see his friend's much more of a man'. This level of humiliation was surely worth more than what I was getting paid. I just looked at the ceiling as this inspection took place, trying to pretend that I was somewhere else, and clinging more tightly to Lee's strong hands as the guests prodded and probed us both.
"Well, before the bidding starts, I think it only fair that you all find out what they can do so line up please gents." The old man was clearly going to auction us off for something and this was not part of our deal so I spoke up:
"Hey, this isn't what we agreed, what exactly do you think you're doing? We don't need the money that much."
"Ah, but I know you do nee d the money," the old man replied., then continued: "But I tell you what, if you go through with it, you'll each get 10% of what the winner's pay me? Ok?"