Ethan and Josh were slouched in the sofa outside Ethan's room, watching TV. It was late June, a cool and gray day, and their summer holiday had settled into routine, after the exuberant freedom of the first weeks.
The show they were watching ended. Josh stood up and stretched.
"Do you want to watch another episode?" he said.
"Nah," Ethan said. "It's not very good, is it."
"No," Josh said. "They ran out of ideas after the first three."
Ethan turned the TV off. "Meh," he said. "I'm bored. What do we do?"
"Well..." Josh flopped himself back onto to sofa. "I guess we just hang around and wait, until summer's gone and it's university time."
Ethan threw a pillow at him.
"Do you want to... play?" Josh said. They already had, today, like most days.
Ethan made a face. "Sorry, but - no."
"It's fine," Josh said. "Me neither. Actually..."
"What?"
"I... got a message from Emma. You know Emma? She wondered if I wanted to hang out with her, and her gang."
Ethan smiled and burrowed deeper into the sofa.
"I say go do it. You like her, don't you?"
"Yeah. She's real cute, and she's fun. And smart."
"And real decisive."
Josh stuck out his tongue at Ethan. It was a running joke, which was slowly losing it's edge, as it became increasingly obvious that Josh wasn't losing his will or anything, just because he liked being hypnotized.
"Impulsive," Josh said. "Like someone else I know."
They grinned at each other.
"So what are you going to do?" Josh said, looking at his friend with some concern. "You can't just sit here."
"I know."
"Don't you have any, ah, impulses to, eh, follow?"
"Do I look impulsive?"
Josh laughed. "You look like a couch potato. Come on Ethan, you need to get out more. You can't just sit around and daydream about hypnosis."
Ethan made a face again. Josh was right. He had spent too much time on that, after those amazing days when he'd hypnotized Josh.
"I think I know what you need. You need to hypnotize someone else."
Ethan looked away. Josh was right. That's what he wanted, but he was resisting it. He'd certainly thought of it, lots of times. Almost every time he'd met or thought about one of his friends, in fact. But it scared him, too.
"I know someone who might be suitable," Josh said, with a calculating look.
"Oh?" Ethan said, trying to keep his voice neutral.
"You know Mark? Dave's friend?"
"Yeah?"
"He was over at our house the other night, and they watched a movie. I don't know what it was called, but it was about some women who were hypnotized. He... was really into it. He was just staring at it, and kept moving, as if he was... sitting uncomfortably, you know."
"Huh. He probably thought about what he'd do with them."
"Mm. Maybe. But he was staring like that during the hypnosis scene. Then the hypnotist made them do things, and there were tight clothes and stuff. When that happened, he sneaked away. I followed him. He went to the bathroom, you know the one where we set up the cam?"
"Yeah." Ethan chuckled. That had been fun. Dave, Josh's big brother, had met a really stunning girl, and she'd been staying over. Ethan and Josh had wanted to see her naked, but there was no way, of course. Unless... Ethan didn't remember which of them had found it, but they'd gotten hold of a "spy cam", that you could mount in a wall or a closet. They'd managed to get it mounted inside a bathroom cabinet. Then they could connect with an app, and spy on people taking a shower. It hadn't been a big success, since the image quality was way too poor, but it had been a great project.
"It still works, and it worked fine to see what he was doing. He was jacking off."
"Thinking about hypnotized women," Ethan said. "How does that help me?"
"I don't think so," Josh said. "I think he was thinking about - being hypnotized." He grinned at Ethan. "You didn't see him watching that movie. He wasn't looking at the women."
"Okay," Ethan said slowly.
"I think," Josh said, "he was looking at the hypnotist. I think he got turned on by thinking about being hypnotized." Josh's phone buzzed. "Mom's calling. I probably gotta go."
"Go," Ethan said, not stirring. "See you later."
"See you," Josh said.
When he'd left, Ethan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He'd only met Mark a few times. Dave's friend, a couple of years older than them. Quiet guy. Ethan had never really noticed him. But... taller than Josh. About Ethan's size? Heavier. And maybe... he thought it sounded hot to be hypnotized?
Ethan groaned and put his hands over his face. He couldn't just go over and try to hypnotize Mark. But what if... it would work? Could work? His cock voted - yes, let's do it! His mind said - hell no, it's too dangerous.
Later that afternoon, Ethan stood outside Mark's house, his heart pounding. He didn't even know if Mark was home, or if he was alone. This was crazy. He pressed the doorbell button.
"Hi," Mark said as he opened the door. "Uh, Ethan, right? Dave's brother's friend?"
"Yeah," Ethan said, holding out his hand. They shook. "Can I come in?"
"Um, yeah. Sure." Mark looked nonplussed, but smiled and stepped back. Ethan took a deep breath and stepped in.
"Thanks. Okay, I know this is a bit weird, but... the thing is, I, uh, I did a school work on, uh, hypnosis last term, and I, I heard from Josh that you'd been there watching The Spiral Robbery the other day." He paused and tried to make his expression more cheerful, and less nervous. "So I thought... maybe you would like to discuss hypnosis?" Crap, Ethan thought. That was clumsy. Good work, fumbler.
"What?" Mark said, frowning, but smiling. And... he actually took a step backwards, and looked down, not meeting Ethan's gaze.
"Yeah," Ethan pressed on. "It's not often you meet someone who's interested - I asked Josh, and Dave, but they didn't want to talk, but they said you'd seemed interested, and had talked about it after." That was true; Josh had heard Dave and Mark discuss the movie, and Mark had said something about the hypnotist being the coolest guy in the movie.
"I, um, I don't... I actually don't know anything about... hypnosis."
Yes you do, Ethan thought. Mark was looking decidedly nervous now, rather as if someone had just stepped into his house and started to talk about his secret fantasy.
"I mean, it's cool, the way you can be hyp - hypnotize someone into doing... things," Mark said, looking more and more nervous. "But it's not, it's not real, I mean it doesn't work, it's just a movie thing."
"Oh it's real," Ethan said with a smile, feeling suddenly sure of himself.
Ethan got up his phone, while Mark took another step backwards.
"Yeah, it's real," Ethan said. He found the video he wanted on his phone, got it playing, and held up his phone. "It's real," he said, "and all that's needed for someone to be hypnotized is a spiral, like this one." He thrust his phone towards Mark, who stepped back again and held up his hands.
"Ethan," he croaked, looking really nervous now.
"Don't be scared," Ethan said, using the same voice he used on Josh. "It's fine. I won't hurt you. It's okay. It's just a spiral, spinning round and round, so fascinating. It's okay to just look at it, look into it. It's relaxing."
Mark shook his head, but he was looking at the phone.
"Yeah," Ethan said. "It's fine. Just look, looking is okay, it can't hurt you. It's just a nice smooth spiral, spinning around, and it looks so interesting, spinning around and around, it looks like you're being drawn into the spiral, isn't that fascinating?"
"Nngh," Mark whimpered. Yes, he whimpered. Ethan kept his smile friendly, rather than triumphant. Josh had been right. Ethan took a step closer, raising his hand, holding the phone higher. Mark shook his head, but he lifted his head, still looking at the phone.