Andrew and Adam and I had been friends forever.
We were an odd group, in that they were much more like each other than either of them were like me. Both of them were tall, blond, athletic and strapping, whereas I was average height, slender and dark-haired. Andrew was the star of every football team he belonged to, and Adam was a great swimmer, but I was bookish and my favourite exercise consisted of long walks.
But we hit it off, and I was able to make them laugh, which counted for a lot. We climbed trees together, we went to school together, we liked the same shows, we liked a lot of the same music, and when we got interested in girls, we had that in common too.
It was then, in our later teens, that I began to realise one way in which I wasn't like them.
Andrew and Adam were seriously interested in girls. And only girls. I was too, but the summer after we all turned 18, I soon began to realise that I also liked guys.
Funnily enough, I didn't particularly fancy Andrew or Adam. I regarded them as a bit out of my league, but also we'd known each other so long that it would have been weird. I knew that they were both objectively good-looking but the idea of imagining myself with either of them seemed unthinkable. Especially as they both had a crush on a girl in school named Lucy, a gorgeous brunette from a well-off family who had a superb figure and long tumbling curls.
Still, although I was embarrassed about coming out, I dropped a hint here and made a joke there, and then finally, one day, as we were hanging out at Adam's house one Saturday, kind of boredly watching some porn on his phone, I made some joke about mixing it up a bit, and Adam turned to me and said 'Seriously, man, are you bi?'
I looked at him for a long moment, feeling nervous, and he didn't look annoyed or anything, so I said shyly 'I think I am, yeah.'
I looked at them both. Adam thought about it for a moment, then looked at Andrew and shrugged.
'Cool,' he said. 'I was just wondering.'
'You're okay with it?'
'Why wouldn't I be?'
I looked at Andrew. He was looking at me, a bit more intently.
'You could have told us,' he said.
'Sorry,' I said.
'We could have been practising kissing,' he said, without cracking a smile. Andrew had a very deadpan sense of humour.
I hesitated, and then he smiled, and I laughed with relief.
'But you guys aren't,' I said, and I meant it as a question.
'Not as far as I know,' said Adam casually. 'But maybe in an emergency.'
We had a good laugh about that, then dropped the subject and went back to watching porn.
But after that, the summer began to take a different turn.
It took a while for my new status to sink in. But I was now The Bi One, and Andrew and Adam seemed intrigued to know what it meant for me.
Had I kissed a guy? (Not yet.) Did I have fantasies about guys? (Yes.) Would I have sex with a guy? (Yes.) Which way? (I don't think I'm fussy.) Did I think I was trans? (No, I'm definitely a guy.) Do I really like girls or was I pretending? (I really like girls as well.)
Then they persuaded me to paint my nails, using nail varnish that Adam nicked from his younger sister. I wasn't very good at it. I declined to try putting on any borrowed makeup, though.
Adam tried to persuade me to wear some lingerie he'd filched from a store. I declined to do that, too. They both seemed to have a rather skewed idea of what it meant to be bi. Then again, I was far from sure myself; I knew I liked girls and guys but I'd never so much as kissed either.
Then one day, Andrew proposed that we had one of those kissing practice sessions.
I said yes. I figured it would get them out of the way, and we could go back to being regular guy friends.
We all cleaned our teeth, then we sat on the bed and Adam looked at me, smiled, stroked my face, then leaned in and kissed me on the lips.
It didn't feel like much; just kissing anyone you didn't fancy.
When it was Andrew's turn, however, he licked his lips, grabbed my shoulders, planted his mouth on mine and pushed his tongue inside. I made a little gasp of shock.
He was so forceful and masculine that I actually felt myself responding and I closed my eyes and leaned into it and made a small sigh. Andrew continued to kiss me and he really explored the inside of my mouth. I felt myself melting, becoming more feminine by the second. When he finally let go, I was breathless and flushed and a little dizzy.
Adam tried that, too, encouraged by Andrew. Neither of them kissed each other, just me.
Looking back, I should have noticed that.
But after we'd practised kissing, we became more at ease with each other.
We took to lying around in t-shirts and boxers, reading and looking at porn and not doing much else.
I was lying next to Andrew on his bed, reading a book, and he was watching two lesbians having anal, or whatever, and I noticed that inside his trunks he had an enormous erection.
I didn't say anything. But then, he reached down and took my left hand and placed it on his cock.
I glanced at his face, startled. He wasn't looking at me, but I knew what he wanted me to do.
I massaged his cock and he squirmed a little and made a satisfied gasp. I glanced at Adam; he was watching, curious.
Boldly, I reached inside Andrew's shorts and took his cock in my hand and pulled it out.
I began to jerk him off. It didn't take long. He even closed his eyes, not watching the porn anymore, just enjoying having me masturbate him, and after only a couple of minutes, he came, gasping, and lay there.
I wiped my sticky hand on his leg. He made a brief chuckle and then got off the bed to go and clean up. On his way out of the bedroom he pulled his t-shirt off.
That was the line we crossed; when I went from being just their bi friend to being something else.
Soon it became a regular part of our Saturday afternoons, the three of us lazing about in our underwear, me casually jerking them off now and then.
Then one day, when I happened to be lying on my stomach next to Andrew and was stroking his cock, I looked up at him and he was looking down at me, his mouth slightly open, and I knew what he wanted me to do.