THE OLD ROOMMATE

It was July in New York—and hot. I’d received an invitation in the mail a few weeks before to a barbecue thrown by an old friend from college. At first I didn’t really want to go; I hadn’t kept up with anyone from college—it was over ten years ago—and I didn’t think Gary, my boyfriend of two years, would be too interested in going anyway. But Gary loved the idea. And it was fucking hot in the city. So, even though it meant spending over two hours on the train and bus to get to where the party was in the Hamptons, we went.

We hadn’t been at the barbecue two minutes when I heard someone yell, "Tommy!" I hated being called Tommy and, in fact, except for my mom, everyone who knew me now called me Tom.

"Tommy!" someone yelled again and I turned around to see Joe Guerero, who had been my roommate senior year. Except for his goatee and maybe being a little bit beefier (not fat, but not really muscular either—his arms were like those of a construction worker, rather than the gym-buffed body of a guy from Chelsea—like me), he looked almost exactly like the last time I’d seem him, over ten years before.

"Joe!" I said, "You look good man. I don’t think I’ve seen you since graduation. How the hell have you been?"

Joe smiled, he always had a killer smile, and said, "Not too shabby, man. Can’t complain, can’t complain." He continued smiling as he turned toward Gary, who was standing quietly by my side.

"Where’s my manners? Joe Guerero," I said motioning toward Joe, "This is my boyfriend, Gary Smith."

"Pleased to meet you Gary," Joe said, vigorously shaking Gary’s hand.

"Same here," Gary said softly.

"He’s a goddamn hottie," Joe said. "Where’d you meet such a cute guy, Tommy?"

I smiled and said, "You know, around." Gary was indeed cute and a major hottie: 5 foot 10, short sandy-colored hair, blue eyes, defined smimmers build, and the smoothest, tightest ass. We’d met through a dating service, actually. And though I wasn’t exactly embarrassed about that, neither Gary nor I were too forthcoming with people about that fact.

"Okay," Joe said. "Did you know Tommy and me were roommates our senior year in college?"

"Um," Gary said, "Yeah, I think I remember Tom mentioning you. Yeah. I think he said you two had a lot of wild times"

"Yeah, wild’s the word for it," Joe said. Did he mention I used to hypnotize him sometimes?"

"Hypnotize?" Gary said, smiling broadly, probably picturing me running around crowing like a rooster. "No, he never mentioned that."

"Yeah. I was a psychology major back then. Tommy was probably the best subject I ever had."

Surprisingly, I felt myself blush then. "Come on, Joe," I said, "you hypnotized a lot of people in college. I doubt I was your best subject."

"Don’t be modest Tommy boy," Joe said smiling, looking right at me—or rather right through me—with his big brown eyes. "I could put you under just by looking at you sometimes. Just by the tone of my voice or a certain touch. But you liked it. Yeah, you loved it, guy, or you wouldn’t have gone under so easily whenever I wanted."

"What kinds of things did you have him do when he was under?" Gary asked.

Joe turned toward Gary as he answered, but it almost still felt like Joe’s eyes were still boring into me as he spoke. "Lots of things," Joe said. I noticed his voice was lower now, I almost had to strain to hear him. "Simple stuff like making him forget his name. Or making him feel hot, very, very hot. And we fooled around sometimes, too. Didn’t we Tommy? Tommy here was a fucking stud in college. All the girls were hot for his jock body. But lucky for me Tommy liked boys better. Man, its warm out here, isn’t it? Yeah, once I had him under, I mean really deeply under, I could get him hard and keep him hard for a long time. Tommy was a great subject—he could, Gary, go into a light trance just listening to me speak about hypnosis. About sleep, Gary. A light but very relaxing sleep. It is warm out here, isn’t it Gary?"

I heard Gary say yes very softly, but I didn’t really take my eyes off of Joe.

"Yeah," Joe said in an ever quieter but deeper voice. "Why don’t you go get something to drink to cool yourself off. I’d bet you’d feel so much better, Gary, if you went and got something to drink."

Gary walked away then, mumbling something about getting a drink, and then Joe turned around and looked me deep in my eyes again. I was noticing again how handsome Joe was. He was part Dominican and he had such smooth, tan skin. Such deep brown eyes. He was wearing shorts and a sleeveless tee shirt. He had a couple of tattoos on his smooth brown shoulders. And one on his burly right bicep. "He seems like a really good boy, that Gary." Joe said. "A very good boy. I bet you’re the one in charge, aren’t you?"

"I guess," I said.

"Uh huh," Joe said, putting his right hand on my own bicep. With one finger he began to stroke the muscle gently but consistently. "I remember how much you liked to be in charge; to be on top, so to speak. But I also remember how sometimes you liked to give up control. How good that felt, just to be told what to do. That was very freeing, I know. Very relaxing. Deeply relaxing. You remember how good it felt when I hypnotized you, don’t you? Why don’t you just let your mind, Tommy, drift back to when I used to put you under. When I used to hypnotized you. Just the word hypnosis can bring back those memories, can’t it Tommy? At least when I say it. Isn’t that right, Tommy?"

"Yes," I could hear myself say, but it was almost an effort to speak. I was feeling heavy, and light at the same time. Hard to think. I was blinking a lot and all I could seem to see was Joe. All I could seem to feel was his finger gently stroking my arm, back and forth, back and forth.

"You remember that wonderful feeling that my hypnosis can bring on, don’t you? How you could very easily feel that very pleasant warmth spread across your arm, then move to your chest. Yes, it feels so good, so relaxing. The warmth then spreads down your stomach, past your hard cock, to your legs. It feels so good, doesn’t it. Yes. Just listening to my voice. Looking deeply into my eyes. Thinking about me. About my body, my muscles. You remember how much you liked to touch my skin, how much you liked to kiss me. I can see you remember how good it felt back then. To be very deeply hypnotized. Just easily, easily letting go and doing what I tell you to do. I know you remember how good that felt. How good my cock felt across your lips. How easily you could take my whole fat dick. How the deeper you sucked on my cock, the deeper into trance you went. Yes, its all coming back to you now, isn’t it? And the warmth has spread through your whole body, hasn’t it? Your eyes feel so heavy, they could close at any time now. But lets take a little walk, Tommy, before they do close and you go into a very deep sleep. Just come with me. To a private place where we can talk some more. And every step you take, you just feel so much better and better. And you go so much deeper. Yeah."

Joe was in front of me as I followed him. I saw Gary standing by the punch bowl drinking and drinking. There was a door. I entered it and then there was such wonderful darkness.

"Tom?" I heard someone say, and I opened my eyes to see Michael—the host of the party. "There you are, I’ve been looking for you for hours."

"Hours?" I said, confused. I’d only been at the party a few minutes.

"Yeah," Michael said, "It’s nearly six o’clock. We’ll be serving the coffee and cake soon."

"Uh, okay," I said. I got up from where I was sitting—which was at the very edge of Michael’s huge backyard. Gary was sitting a few feet away, fast asleep. Six o’clock? Where had the past three hours gone? I rubbed my jaw, which was feeling kind of sore. And there was a taste in my mouth, almost like—

"Tommy," Joe Guerero said, interrupting my thoughts. "I was hoping I’d get a chance to talk to you again before you and your cutie of a husband left."

"Yeah?" I said, still kind of confused. I remembered talking to Joe, but after that it was kind of hazy. Had I drank that much?

"I just wanted to invite you and Gary over to dinner, maybe next weekend, so we can really catch up on old times. You can meet my boyfriend Kyle, he reminds me a lot of you actually." Joe said smiling, and I couldn’t help but smile as well.