Max was pondering his boring lonely life one afternoon while relaxing in the comfort of his room, his quaint magazine picture home on the suburbs of Austin, Texas. It was a near the peak of a warm and bright day in April 2005, just before the weekend. He had a Social Studies in two days and then he dreamed about two weeks of free time for himself.

I should get away from here, he thought; even when classes were going on there were plenty of chances during the week for something like that. At the very least, he thought he could do something like spend hours in the library, brain and heart centered on his Dream Journal. There was no socialism but at least it would give him some sense of belonging beyond simply moving about the campus from class to class and back again to his house on the West Side of town.

His sole friend Marissa, a fellow student, was all Max wished he could be: a popular kid plus the lead anchor on the morning announcements. Her community service coincided nicely with her work on the announcements. She was a star and go-getter in the same class where the school news was filmed.

Marissa had raised enough money in the past five months to buy a new set of headphones, plus buy the latest designer boots. Max tried to grasp Marissa's seemingly instinctual perfect fortune. She never seemed bothered or sick of all she was doing in a busy week. Max often felt crushed and shy by merely attending the classes he needed in his dream for a way out of his town, a place away from home, assuming he would go to college, about eight years in the future. The Class of '12 would be his class but looked to his small nerdy self to be a long time away.

There was something else that Marissa had that Max coveted: a boyfriend. In fact, Marissa was on her first one. Her first was somebody she started with in her first few weeks at School. By the time Marissa had met him in their first weeks at school this boy was already gone. The gossip of the breakup seemed like the picture-book story of young love short-lived, something about him deciding to date somebody else and quickly dumping Marissa.

Marissa seemed to bounce back quickly from romantic fouls and found a new love affair with someone named Linus. Max strongly disliked him; he often went far beyond being gross into utter annoyance. His treatment of Max ran from teasing to prowling. He took to nicknaming him "Goldilocks" which referred to his blonde curly hair. At one Halloween party he said to him, "Hey Max, I bet your butt tastes like lemon bars. You know, all yellow sweet on the inside and, plus maybe - something on the outside."

He giggled and licked his lips, and Max retorted - he had a shot of booze on a dare - "Linus, not only are you a pig, you're not even a funny pig. Even your jokes are a load of dog poo."

He tried to defend himself by getting extra dirty nasty, "You little fag, why don't you suck me?" He began to unzip his pants, but Max just left the room turning on his heel. Later he wished he had stayed so he could laugh at whatever puny boyish limpness Linus probably was in. There was some funny gratification to be had the next day when he heard what had happened when he and Marissa were playing Spin the Bottle and went into the closet. Linus had puked suddenly in the confines of the closet, Marissa ran out racing to the restroom and the other half-dozen party guests had left in amusement and disgust.

Marissa had put up with him for about two months when Linus himself decided to burn the bridge. He gave no explanation for the breakup, but Marissa handled it with her usual boldness. He was seen with a couple of other girls at school during the remainder of 2005.

The summer of '05 was great because Max could get away from his parents and hang out at Marissa's summer place on the East side of town. It was on the ground floor of a big stone villa with a courtyard on one side and a pool on the other. Yet the interior was clean but homey and six roads provided fast access into Austin. On days when Marissa was thinking up a business "scam", Max could have the place to himself. And yet he sometimes felt like an Alien there, in many ways. He read most times and listened to Marissa's music playlist. Two times Marissa had left art supplies behind for him to use and he sat by the pool wearing headphones and tried to find more inspiration from his imagination than what was actually there.

The neighborhood for about a mile in any direction was calming to him. It was a vast open area for Austin, with good views, bridge overpasses, shoreline houses and other facilities keeping the flow of more than a hundred lives going across the city. Sometimes he would go to the doughnut shop just to have a spot and to be around other people, to look at and be inspired by.

The truth was that he was feeling very lonely. For one thing she believed it would be very nice to share this summer with a boyfriend, but he had never had one. From what he had seen of Marissa's experiences in the last year, going out with guys had some down sides. But, he knew deep down, there had to be decent ones around - say, among the thousands kids in Austin.

Max got some new information to consider when Marissa picked up her third boyfriend - actually picked him up in the local mall food court. Max thought to himself, how does she catch guys so quick? It was notable that this latest beau seemed to be cool and actually spoke to Max as if he was the most awesome kid ever. This was more galling than the Linus situation. Why can't I have somebody like that who loves me?

There was one somewhat anomalous fact about this Taylor, Marissa's new main squeeze. Marissa told him one day, "He's actually been seeing another girl - he met her only a week earlier."

Max asked her, "What do you mean, seeing her? How do you know that?" Max already knew the truth, but he wanted to hear his friend say it.

Marissa said, "Okay, he's going steady with her. But he admitted it within two minutes of talking to me. It was me who decided to go on, to see what he was about."

"And what do you think you're gonna get out of this? You think he's gonna dump her for you?"

"Maybe, but I wouldn't say that too soon. Right now I'm just going to have fun; this makes me feel like a movie star. Haven't you heard of open relationships Max?"

Max thought to say, I'd never do that, but he didn't. He assumed his virginity didn't give him the grounds to give his opinion about it. So during the fall of 2005 he watched what happened with the people around him. Marissa was invited to join one of the student unions by Taylor, who already had the other "girlfriend" on the council there. Max expected some kind of dramatic event to happen because of the love triangle, but it never did. Peace seemed to be the god there. Max had secretly dreamed of the the moment of seeing his friend learn a grown-up lesson for his recklessness. Instead Marissa's life seemed to be golden for the moment.

Max thought about being in his new year and her own lack of social progress. Or sometimes he didn't want to think about it because it was too sad. All right Jesus, he thought, hardly anybody actually gets laid in life (although he had little knowledge to know that). His school was a jungle scene, was sort of a survival of the fittest place honestly. But now he was past her tenth birthday, and he had never been kissed, felt up, or even been on an after school date. He was beginning to understand that he was going have to be more confident, that he had to rely on himself if he was going to make any change in this. What exactly the specifics were confused him.

He was aware of the physical side of his preteen frustration, the sexual need that was growing on his thoughts. If he was alone and had the chance, his fingers would often be between his legs, or he would be straddling a pillow, or he would have the end of a pencil inserted into his butt. He was able to finally feel the joy of male multiple orgasms by inducing them on himself almost at will. At least I'm not a wuss, he thought.

Max's masturbation fantasies could be quite wild. For a while she was fascinated with Spider-Man and Robin, but more with the real ones rather than the cartoon versions. He definitely couldn't identify with Bruce Wayne, that was for sure. The real Spider-Man he dreamed being tall and dark-haired, although he was also thin and strong which Max barely was.

Nevertheless he was excited by his own version of the story. Somehow a boy from the West Side of Austin could be a super hero. She would wear a costume, he would have a utility belt and packs holding all his gadgets and those amazing non-human powers. He would move fast all over Texas and California and New York (he'd have to learn to use be acrobatic) with a swift wind blowing in his face. Whenever he got the urge he would fuck his nerd-boy shy lover, screwing him every which way on a skyscraper rooftop.

*********

Marissa was the only person he could confide in. One day her family retreat, Max said to her, "I'm wondering, is this normal or freaky, I guess? I just can't keep myself away from my own pants. I feel like I'm on Queer Eye."

Marissa laughed at that, "I've watched that show too. Those poor gay guys, shame, they think they're the only ones who get all warm inside. They don't want to consider what they're capable of, probably because they can't accept it."

"But when you've had a boyfriend, you haven't had to, you know . . ."

"Max dude, you're smart but a lil' naive. It's not like that. I've had days when I've been turned on so long and hours later, when I'm alone . . ." She sipped from her glass of lemonade on the table and started humming, " 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?
Don't cha?
Don't cha?
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me?
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me?
Don't cha?

Don't cha?"

Marissa continued, "I could get you a dildo, have one you can use when you got Ants in you pants. Hmm, maybe we should each have one!"

Max thought but didn't say, I don't want a dildo, I want a boyfriend.

Marissa had opened up more on the topic, "Chloe was telling me about the one she has."

Max was a bit taken aback; Chole was Taylor's other girlfriend. He thought, I don't wanna know, but there's something about it that stinks SICK & WRONG. Marissa expressed her opinion, "You actually talk to her about stuff like that?"

"Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, in a crazy world we'd experiment with ourselves. I'd have my own harem - Aladdin-like, 'Linus, get me some sweets and feed me by hand, Taylor, massage my feet, and tonight I'll decide which one of you dweebs is allowed into the king's crib.' "

"You'd like to be a Sultan?"

"Why not, like in Aladdin , or from History class? I'd be King of the Wolrd and also the whole school." That would be cool! You'd be the prince of the Cul-de-Sac, plus the King of Kingss. Wouldn't that be something?."

Max thought all this was typical of his friend: make jokes about everything but offshoot the serious stuff. He would have liked to ask her for some helpful advice, some information about handling key dating Dos and Don'ts - or maybe just fucking - but a combination of shyness and pride kept him quiet.

That semester Max found himself having some very explicit feelings for his newest fictional character: Sharkboy. He thought, no big deal, it's just a boy-crush. But he suspected it went way beyond that. As an experiment he masturbated while imagining Sharkboy kissing him. Sharkboy would know exactly what to do with his lips and tongue on Max's crotch. The experiment was successful, and then Max lay in his bed judging the results.

I guess I'm not gay but maybe I'm a lil' bisexual. Didn't Marissa say that most people are somewhat? Maybe some male lovers could be worked into his life. Yet he knew that wouldn't be enough. There's no way around it, I'd like to be kissed and fucked by a guy.

The only boy he knew beyond his classroom peers was Marissa's old boyfriend Linus. He did seem like someone he could deal with. Almost inevitably he thought about how he could get Linus for himself. Would that destroy his friendship with Marissa? Probably, but then Linus had worked out a trail with two girls at once. Maybe it would be possible to secretly work himself in as the third squeeze. Maybe he could join the union and have some room for romantic flirts while there. It wasn't the scene that he wanted, really, but maybe it would be okay for a while. After all, this was only elementary school and he was still young. As Marissa had said, "Have a blast and worry about the future later."

Max knew, or perhaps dreaded, that this wasn't a real goal or even an aspiration but just a fantasy. The possibility of it seemed nuts. Then in July came the news that an old sweetheart of Chole's - an ex-boyfriend if anyone believed that - had won her back and she had abruptly dumped Taylor. Max wondered how this would change whatever his own plans were for the coming year.

******

This was the condition of Max's life as he lay on his guest bed on that April afternoon. He was bored and at loose ends but he didn't want to go home just yet. Marissa and Taylor were not in cthe house but he had received an invitation to go the park but declined. Those two are probably out there now having some weekend make out time in her car or in a nearby rest area. He tried to imagine the scene and felt a sense of jealousy and excitement at the same time. Maybe I should get off my geek ass and go live until I get a job and an place of my own. Some effort in that direction would give him some new hope in getting his life going where he wanted.

On an impulse he got up, got himself together and went across the way to the pool area, a resort-like scene that was very quiet right now. He went up to the guest room next to the Rec/Games one and stood in front of a mirror assessing himself. He thought of something he had blurted out to Marissa a few weeks earlier, "I wish I was as cool as you are."

Marissa had scoffed, "Ok, I don't put people on scales, but I'm just your All American Girl."

Marissa perhaps had been trying to play some false modesty, what she would like to think of being two-faced. She was cute, about a head shorter than Max. Her curly golden-brown hair was always cut neatly down toward her shoulders, and she had ocean-blue eyes. Max's blonde hair always seemed to be unruly and he never could figure out the best way to style what she had.

Still looking in the mirror, he removed his T-shirt and considered his own body as it looked under it and his blue boxers. Well, I'm not wimpy and a beanpole - light is a word that fit the bill. Did boys notice him as he went about on campus? Sometimes he tried to keep track of that, and he never noticed any heads turning in his direction.

Marissa's body looked perfect; she acted in the winter and danced in the summer. Max had the same aptitude for those activities, but he preferred to play video games or ride a skateboard and he was considering getting a new one for his birthday.

Marissa also had butterfly-shaped glasses, and in imitation of her Max had tried her old ones on a dare. Perhaps he looked more cute? Max crossed his arms round him and pondered that what he most envied about his friend was her confidence. There were guys in the cafeterias and recess every day; how did she manage to approach one and then snag him with a few minutes of talking? Getting admirers quick into position definitely worked.

Looking into the mirror was not Max's only purpose in coming to this room. He looked around to confirm that the room behind him was Haunted House empty. Then he went out to the pool and stood at the end furthest from the lawn chairs and dropped his T-shirt on the floor. Then he took off his sandals and his blue boxers- the floor out there was too hot for bare feet, he put his sandals back on while jumping on each leg. For a moment he admired her copper-colored leather, comfy footwear, a pair his Mom had bought for him just last summer.

Okay, so it's nice to get new stuff for this season, but I'm old enough that I should be picking out stuff for myself. Then he sighed and sat there considering his aim to masturbate in the pool. Doing this here? Well, why not? The right combination of horny thoughts and nimble fingers - and he had skill with both - and one of life's most awesome experiences could be had in this sweet swimming pool.

He pulled her boxers down over his hips and deliberated about his undies. He decided to just take them off and toss them aside. Off with my shirt, off with my sandals, I don't need underpants, I'm high on love. The steps leading into the water weren't the most comfortable place to sit but Max had been in such places before, including the school's Boy's Room. Then he got a zucchini he had stole out of Marissa's fridge and slid it out from the the white towel he picked up from inside, where it would be handy.

Now all he needed was a scenario to follow to a satisfying fantasy. Max decided on that quite readily. What would it be like to fuck Sharkboy/Taylor n Marissa's couch when she wasn't around? Stealing somebody else's boyfriend, not the best way to behave but it certainly seemed awesome.

The fantasy started far into a steady slow make-out session. His chest was bare and Sharkboy's hands were pinching his nipples. In the pool he decided to touch himself a bit more for his self-pleasuring. Max reached to his goods and rubbed his cock. Then he rubbed his nipples for two minuets. Sex with a real person would have the power of an extra pair of hands to touch his many private places. With masturbation, guys should wisely take care of these urges by oneself the best way possible with what he's got.

Max imagined what he would say, I've been thinking about you for so long now.

He'd reply, I've been thinking about you too, Max.

That was an erotic thought, that Sharkboy/Taylor was his secret lover. Was he still a virgin in the dream? Somehow that wouldn't do, he had been with other girls who had fallen for him before. It didn't mean a thing; it was his fantasy and he could direct it as he wished.

Now he imagined Sharkboy sucking on his nipples as his hand went down to his cock.

What would Marissa think of me now?

He'd say, well, what she doesn't know the better.

Max pictured himself wearing boxers but no socks, and fresh new Adidas sneakers. Max didn't actually own new ones but they would be easy enough to get if he wanted them. In a few moments he had lowered his undies and was rubbing his cock in a loving excited way.

His own hands followed the deep sexy mental images and he spread his legs to get better access. Max was amazed by his own ability to get hard quickly. It was great to be so eager and primed to take in a guy's meat. Max imagined undoing Sharkboy's pants and taking his erect dick out. Oh, it's such a big one. That wouldn't be the most original thing to say but it would make the scene hotter.

Max did know from Sex Ed and online sources what an hard penis looked like. The ever-naughty Linus had downloaded hard-core porno photos from somewhere and he would show them to the girls and boys in order to appear badass or whatever he imagined himself to be. One set depicted a Danish schoolboy getting seduced by his teacher. In true porno style it showed him getting touched from front, bottom and with his shirt on. Max wasn't sure if people changed positions that much in real life but it gave him a good look at the feelings and moves of the various sexual acts.