This first chapter is very long as I'm trying to set up a world for future events in the story. If you don't get too bored reading this story and actually finish this chapter I would love any feedback you have, especially on dialog, pacing and descriptions. Having read through it several times those are what I think is the most incomplete. As is often the case, other people have a much easier time to spot mistakes than you can yourself so don't be hesitant to point those out.
Oh, and the tittle doesn't make much sense for this first chapter, but it'll make sense when we get further along in the story. As will some of the more random things as right now I'm trying to leave small hints of what are to come, though not making it too obvious. Feel free to guess where I'm going with them so I know how effective my efforts have been.
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Hi, my name is Charles and I just wanted to introduce myself before I begin this hopefully tantalizing tale. I'm 5 feet tall, 7 inches and I weigh around 170 pounds, give or take 10 pounds. I like to be lazy during the winter so I gain a bit of weight there, and then when spring comes around I get back to keeping myself in shape. I have blue enough eyes that you can see they are blue, but I wish the blue were more present in them. My hair is dark, though more than once I have dyed it stupid colors like deep red, green and even pink once on a dare. I never back down from a dare as long as it's stupid enough which friends have taken advantage of plenty of times over the years. But it makes for great stories so I can warmly recommend you do the same.
As a child I was never good at reading others. And I didn't really care. The little I did socialize was more than enough, but it did mean that my parents thought I was lonely and maybe a little depressed. I never felt lonely often preferring to live in my head and coming out if there was something I needed or wanted to try.
When I started high school I decided it was time to turn over a new leaf and start making an effort. I met this strangely carefree boy named Mark, even more carefree than I had been as a kid. In the first year of high school he seemed to not have a care in the world, but he later confided in me that he just wanted to turn over a new leaf. We were very much alike in that regard, as I wanted to get better at reading body language and he wanted to be a more relaxed person without having to fake it. We both learned a lot from each other and I don't think I could ever have improved enough that it would make a difference on my own. We grew very close as friends, and to this day he is still the best friend I've ever had and the closest I've been to a person emotionally. Even the girlfriends I was together with over the years. It takes a lot for me to completely trust a person, but Mark made it easy for me. I've never had romantic feelings for him so I guess what we have is what could be conceived as a bromance.
Us spending so much time together and learning from each other, we became more and more similar and us also looking very much alike it gave people the impression we were brothers. Something we were eager to encourage as we both thought it was hilarious.
I'm guessing you are starting to suspect that neither of us has ever been, or ever will be completely normal, whatever normal means in this quickly changing world. To this day I still don't know why he one day started calling me Johnny boy which obviously left me no choice but to call start calling him Jimmy boy. To this day it's still how we introduce each other when meeting new people. We both think that it is hilarious seeing people's reactions to it. All the way through high school we managed to get pretty good grades. We both had talents in various subjects, so when one of us struggled with a subject the other could help out with it.
I'm not sure if it was luck or if we just unconsciously knew which college the other were going to apply to, but we indeed had applied to the same college and got in. We had hoped that would mean we could share a dorm room together, but the college in question had a policy of wanting students to live with a stranger for at least one semester. It was to broaden student's horizon or some other buzz word sentence. I can't remember.
I can't say we were happy with it as first, but after some time apart we both realized that it was actually a good thing. It is after all better to have more than one friend. It meant that we weren't hanging out as much as before, but it made it easier to keep a relationship going with the various lovely ladies you are bound to meet at a college. And isn't the college experience as much about having fun with women as it is about learning stuff? Most women aren't exactly happy if they have to compete for their boyfriend's attention every day, especially not against his friends.
We had dated a little in high school; we even ended up both losing our virginity on the same night by chance, but relationships never lasted that long. Maybe we weren't really boyfriend material.
We spent the next three semesters living with our separate roommates until we thought screw it, Bro's before other bro's as the old saying goes. Or am I remembering that wrong? Our time spent apart only talking with each other a few times a week we learnt a lot about ourselves. Living together after having not a whole of contact the last two years was great. But it also meant that we had changed in a lot of ways. It made for some awkward moments at first getting used to each other having changed a lot. But it also meant very late night talks about the last two years and the experiences we thought had been the most important.
Our interests had changed a fair bit, but our sense of humor hadn't changed at all. We were just as immature at twenty-one as we had been at sixteen. Our opinions about sex had matured a lot which made me both sad and happy at the same time. It felt like losing a part of your past self. In our younger years we had some great times making fun of each other for what we liked or didn't like. But now we had almost the exact same fantasies with slight differences and only a few we didn't share.
I'm not sure how much other friends really talk about that stuff, but trust and honesty is the foundation of any good relationship, romantic or not and we were always very open to each other.
We both preferred giving oral sex over receiving it.
We both really enjoyed flirting, but the thrill of it was really in the chase, not the catch. Not that we didn't enjoy it when we were on our game, we just had more fun flirting than getting lucky.
We had both been snowballed but after the initial shock it didn't really bother either of us. The taste wasn't as bad as we had expected, but it's not something I could see myself doing unless it was a turn on for the girl.
We both thought sex was rather bland if there wasn't an emotional connection.
We both had a thing for redheads.
