The Pinball Machine

It was another summer day for Ricardo, and he had been enjoying every single one of them; He would wake up at almost noon, especially if his brother Mauricio did not wake him up, and spend most of his day playing videogames or watching youtube videos. Then, at night, when he actually felt the most energetic, he would usually sit down on the computer and listen to music, watch the movies Marco would recommend, practice Arabic, and play on his laptop. Finally, at around 1 in the morning he would go to his bedroom and with the light of the lamp, he would watch romantic films and dream he was the characters until his laptop desktop told him it was dawn.

This particular day's previous night, he had stayed up quite late simply thinking about how amazing it must feel to have someone who looks at you with love and desire after watching one of his romance films. Thinking about that would often bring back memories of Ricardo's ex, Arash. And how he would say Ricardo was a dramatic latino, Ricardo felt conflicted about that. He did feel like he was spending too much time thinking about Arash, in a mixture of resenting his sudden abandonment but also empathizing with his loss. He knew that the previous situation would not end anytime soon.

Waking up he decided the best thing to do would be get moving as to not sloth the whole day away in bed. He got up and walked out of his bedroom, he could see it was a sunny day in Bogota, somewhat odd for the city, he briefly had a melancholic thought of how he was wasting the day, this had become the norm that year. Next he saw Mauricio, he was sitting down on his table working.

Good morning- Said Ricardo with that funny voice one gets during mornings.

Hey, about time you woke up, breakfast is on the kitchen counter- In pretty indifferent tone.

Ever since the beginning of summer he and Mauricio would clash about Ricardo's schedules, Mauricio felt he was wasting away the days because he would stay up late, Ricardo was just annoyed at that need for control. Ricardo kind of understood it, Mauricio was 7 years older than him and Ricardo knew he felt responsible for him. However, the incessant nagging made him constantly roll his eyes and act exactly like one would expect a teen his age to.

Ricardo ate breakfast and thought about the movie Marco had asked him to watch, it was great as usual. Marco had an uncanny skill to recommend films that were relevant to whatever Ricardo was living through. Ricardo loved watching the movies, but discussing them with Marco was even better, he was so passionate about them, he would bombard him with messages about them, their meaning, and fun facts about them, sometimes they would even have little debates. Ricardo knew Marco was in his element, so that mixed with the fact that he liked talking to him meant that he would let him speak as much as he wanted. He had found himself in a specific sweet situation with Marco several times now, right after Marco told him he had to go to bed, he would go off passionately about a movie or a director and would completely throw the sleep idea out of the window.

Suddenly, Ricardo's mind veered off, not to the movies but to Marco, it was not strange for him to think about him, it just seemed like he did so more lately. He thought about his mustache, Marco sported what he had once read was called a verdi, a pretty lush mustache and a separated beard which connected to his hair through the sideburns. Ricardo wondered what colour exactly it was, he thought it was dark brown, but it could have been black.

He knew just how different that was from Arash, who was bald and had a salt and pepper full beard. Ricardo thought about how soft it would be to touch Marco's, maybe nibble on it, lick it, gosh this is nasty, he though as he could feel himself being enticed. Why stop there though, why not venture down? He pulled up his phone and stared at one of Marco's many pictures, this one was of him in some sort of beach, it was truly a shame that he was wearing a shirt. Ricardo wondered about his body, he knew Marco was not a big guy, not that he would care, but he did care more about Marco's body hair. He knew Marco was half Italian and half Iranian, and judging by Arash's Iranian hairiness, it would not be off to think that Marco probably had some chest hair. On moments like this Ricardo would ask himself how things would have gone had he decided to ask Marco to pull out his cock the night they met. Ricardo was hard, he could feel that in his shorts, he thought about letting go of his restraint and giving in to thinking about his friend, but he stopped, he just did not feel it was the right thing, not now.

The rest of the day went by pretty quietly, as the sun set, Ricardo felt more awake and decided to text Marco about the movie, as usual Marco talked about great elements of it and asked Ricardo about his analysis of it. This time however, Ricardo was quickly distracted when Marco told him it was cute that he had recorded himself talking about the movie. It was a mixture of embarrassment and endearment, he remembered how trashed he looked in that video, anyone would be at 3 in the morning, well anyone but Marco. Still, as they spoke Ricardo felt the urge to flirt, it had been a while since he had at all, he tried to do so in a light way by complimenting Marco's skill explaining and understanding movies, it was true that Marco had lightly rebuffed past attempts to flirt, but had been so long ago that their entire friendship would seem out of character by now.

It was weird to him, he and Marco had started to actually know each other, to speak about so many things. A pleasant surprise is what he thought. He wanted to know even more though now, however he knew that this was not always easy as Marco worked and he just did not want to be the annoying guy who double or god forbid, triple texts. Ricardo thought that he then should ask away what he wanted and he decided to ask Marco about Italy, he asked him why he was not there, it was interesting to learn that Marco felt exactly the way he did about Colombia, about Italy. It for sure was great to know that Marco knew enough about him enough to say that.

Marco and Ricardo then started talking about cities, it is true that Ricardo had somewhat of an ulterior motive to do so, he wanted to learn if Marco would move to Los Angeles, Ricardo's dream city, he had come to learn however that this was not the case. Instead, he found out that Marco really liked New York City, Ricardo had a wild thought about living in New York City with Marco. He though he would probably like it, yes it was colder than he would like, but he did remember feeling oddly at home when he went there as a child. Marco said that he liked living somewhere so full of history but that it still felt like it could be reinvented, he knew Marco did not like old cities like Rome which helped him build his image of Marco as well. Ricardo asked Marco if he would move, and he actually replied yes, as he sometimes felt that the United States was too hard. Again, that made Ricardo think, think of going somewhere else with Marco, maybe Europe, get a countryside house and spend the summers driving around in bikes.

He asked Marco about his future, what he wanted. Ricardo was a very ambitious man, ever since middle school he knew what he wanted to do, and even if life had thrown him a curve ball, he still was. He loved ambition, he felt very attracted to guys who were going places, which was kind of strange considering Arash was a 40 year old retiree. So he was very pleased to know that Marco wanted to do his own documentary one day, he just did not know what to do it on. Ricardo then decided to compliment Marco by telling him he would make an amazing one. Oh crap, he thought, I think I like him.

Later in the night Ricardo was in bed after having done his usual routine, usually at this time he would jerk off, it usually was more out of routine than actual horniness, that was not the case however this night. By the time he was hanging his robe in his closet hook he could already feel his manhood pressing up against his shorts, so the moment he laid down he just pulled them down. He heard a loud smack, he was ready for action already. For a moment he thought about Arash, his stare as they would stroke their cocks together at night or as he would when he would penetrate himself with a dildo, it was true that as much as he would like for it to be the case, he was not over Arash, he was still very much still in love with him. Ricardo remembered Arash's dirty talk, how he would call him his boy and how Arash was his daddy, that very much turned him on.

Ricardo had not even begun to rub his uncut penis, but it was already leaking precum, so he decided to reach it and slowly start tugging on it. Suddenly, he had another image cross his mind, this time it wasn't Arash's, but Marco's. Ricardo remembered the night they met, Marco's tugging, and how turned on he was, even if at the moment Ricardo did not pay much attention to it, now he did. He remembered how a couple of weeks after Marco sent him a picture of cum on his hand after he had finished pleasuring himself, Ricardo knew it was a joke, but it did not mean that he did not find it amusingly erotic.

Ricardo moved his hand over to his balls, although he had gotten used to it, he sometimes still found himself exploring detailedly his genital area. His pink head was mostly covered by his darker foreskin, which wrapped around it in a somewhat irregular fashion, he had a single spot that was slightly darker than even the rest of it, his cock was fairly straight so as one approached the base, the only noticeable features were the blood vessels which proudly marked his erections. Although he had played with the length of his bush in the past, ever since Arash had left he had left them at a pretty long length, even his soft dark ballsack had some hair growing out of it. Ricardo held each of his balls, and then lightly squeezed on them, he thought it was a little odd how he could be turned on by that painful stimulus, yet it was something he had learned a long time ago and he still did.

He thought about Marco again, about kissing him deeply, about taking the next step with him, for a long time Ricardo had wanted Arash to be his first, to be the first man to mark him, and also the last one, although it was clear now that that was just a fantasy that did not seem like it was coming true. So Ricardo thought about Marco, would it be a good idea for him to be the one to deflower him? Would he be kind and gentle like Arash had once promised to be? Would he hold onto his body and make him feel safe once they had finished? He did not know the answers to these questions, but it did not matter to him that much to him at the moment. He sped up the pace, now trying to conjure up images, this time not images that he had been sent through the phone, but creations of his imagination, the first one he was able to muster was Marco naked, Ricardo could imagine it, he probably had some but not a lot of chest hair as he was a young guy and probably wanted to keep himself fashionable, probably have some stomach hair, and as far as his golden zone, as much as Ricardo could not for sure guess, he thought of Marco as having a hairy bush around his dark uncut cock, an Italian god.

Ricardo was really enjoying thinking about him and it did not take long for him to feel he was on the edge, so he thought of another image, this time of Marco inside of him, Ricardo's legs on top of his shoulders, a look composed of a mix of animal desire and sweet tenderness in Marco's face, small sweat beads on his temple. That was enough, Ricardo felt a sudden electric jolt and his entire body shook, it was pretty powerful, the first short fired and landed on his cheek, at least it did not hit his eye, he though, subsequent shots would land on his neck, chest, navel, and iliac crest. Ricardo knew that there were different types of orgasms: Funny, sad, painful, and exhausting. He had just felt one of the latter type. He quickly scooped up his own seed and started licking it, as a cat would groom itself, the flavor was for sure an acquired taste, he did it as a way to avoid cleaning up every time he pleasured himself.

He turned off his lamp after he was done, he grabbed his tall glass of water and sipped down the cold water, he felt it go down his esophagus and into his stomach, cooling down every single part it flowed through. Then, he laid on his bed, even in the dark he recognized Arash Jr. the teddy bear Arash had gotten him along with some other things last Christmas, that did not feel good, but Ricardo was too tired to understand exactly why. Instead he chose to lay on his stomach, there was something so soothing to doing so, he would quickly fall asleep, it was the only way he was able to do so quickly. He had a theory though, he thought that it was because it mimicked laying on top of somebody, he had always wanted to do that, lay on his lover's chest, with their arms around him, being cradled by their heartbeat, synchronizing both breaths, and feeling safe and cared for.

He always pictured Arash and him, he knew Arash wanted to do that with him, but even in this state of exhaustion Ricardo thought he knew better, and for once he though about Marco, he pictured his smooth nude body laying on top of Marco's, no need to fight for the blankets. It was a powerful image, one that he did not want to drown out with thoughts or other images, instead he wanted it to be burnt into his mind. Before he knew it he was already falling asleep, but then in a moment of sudden clarity he turned his body around and lifted his torso, he then out loud exclaimed into the 4 AM darkness of his room:

Oh my god I like Marco.