The Play and its Players

[TheSanity]

This is a total Flash Fiction - it just sorta happened. Be gentle, mmmkay?

The Play and Its Players

Part One​

Harry surveyed at the window shops, the evening sun reflecting off them giving the boulevard a surreal light that looked too natural. It was already late evening and the sun was begining its descent downwards while the night crept slowly centerstage for its part.

Harry was waiting for his friend, Shelly, to arrive at the theater. They were scheduled to see a quaint little play that was opening tonight and apparently in dire need for an audience. That and Shelly's friend was one of the stars. Harry had only heard of this friend and knew nothing beyond memories recollected in snippets of conversations. Harry was beginning to get impatient although it was no where near time for the play to begin. Shelly said she'll be here at 7 o'clock and it's nearly 7:30. Harry thought to himself as he browsed the shop windows around him.

Stepping from the far right a wavy reflected image of a man walks towards Harry. Keeping his eyes on the merchandise in the store as opposed to focusing them on this image of a man reflected in the glass, Harry waited for him to pass by. However, the man stopped next to him and in a strong yet soft, confident voice said, "Harry?"

Harry looked up to the face. Brown wavy hair and hazel eyes framed by dark rimmed glasses that seemed to rest gently on a nose sculpted so that it would all seem natural, as if this was how he was supposed to look and not because he chose it. A friendly smile flashed on the face but it didn't seem to be practiced or fake. Instead, it was straight forward and purposeful as if to telegraph a message saying It's okay, I'm not going to mug you.

Which was a relief - its been a month since Harry stepped foot in a reputable gym and had a serious work out.

"Hi, sorry to be so random," the man began, "but I was told to find you. My name is Ethan. I'm Shelly's friend."

Shelly had many friends. Harry was unsure how to respond, but the silence was already a response.

Ethan continued, "Uh...Shelly's friend who's in the play."

"Oh, right." Harry said.

"Anyway, Shelly said that she is going to be late and it didn't make much sense to have you hanging outside here all night long."

"Why didn't she call my cell phone?" Harry asked, suspiciously.

"That's the reason why she's late. Apparently, her mantoy for the week accidentally dipped the phone in some water. She's there right now ripping him a new one."

Harry smiled, "Yeah, she does that sometimes."

"What, have mantoys or rip people new holes?"

"A little bit of each." Harry said and was surprised that Ethan also managed a little chuckle when he agreed.

"Well, I'm here to show you in." Ethan said, focusing his glaze at the theater, "You can go behind the scenes! Although, I doubt it's anything like a movie set, but you take what you can get, right?"

"But I haven't gotten tickets yet..." Harry said as they started walking towards the theater.

"Don't worry. Think of it as us paying you to see the show." Ethan reassured him and confidently lead him into the theater.

I believe this is a longer story, so I don't know whether you guys would like to keep reading. It gets good. In my head, at least.

 

[TheSanity]

The Second part.

The Play and Its Players

Part Two​

The inside of the theater glittered in the dull submersive light that seemed to be painted on rather than sprung from a source. Off to the sides were staircases that, Harry assumed, led to the balcony seats while straight ahead of them were almost half a wall of doors that lead straight to the stage. The doors themselves seemed to threaten failure and fall off at any moment and it was just because of sheer charity that they stayed on the frames, the faded and chipped door frames. "Homely." Harry whispered although he didn't know why he whispered exactly. It just seemed right to whisper inside this ancient and slightly dangerous looking place.

"Yeah, it's not the Kodak Theater, that's for sure. But when has a theater been used to represent the players? The drama is all on stage." Ethan said, his voice magnified by the theater. "Have you had something to eat? Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

Harry was about to decline the offer but he did feel a little hungry. He had planned on going to dinner with Shelly before hand and then going to the play but plans have changed. As he decided, he felt even hungrier. "I'm famished." Harry said.

"Me too. We can share half a sandwich. It's not a good idea to be too full on stage, huh?" Ethan said as he veered off to the left into a door that led directly to the dressing rooms. There were a few people about but mostly it was quiet, the rest of the cast haven't gotten arrived yet.

An unmarked door was Ethan's dressing room, Ethan turning the doorknob and politely gesturing Harry in. It was more spacious than Harry imagined. The dressing room was ample enough to not only fit the mirror and chair but also a sofa and a trunk full of clothes. The walls were painted red, the paint still vibrant as if painted yesterday.

"It is my home away from home." Ethan said, "Sit down, I'll get the tuna." As Harry sat Ethan turned back and said, "Tuna's okay, right?"

"It's my favorite, actually." Harry said, his stomach doing a slient grumble.

"Good, mine too." Ethan rummaged through his things in search for the tuna. Harry couldn't help but notice Ethan's great physique.

Although he may not show it, Harry is gay. Harry has been gay for as long as he can remember even if he would like to admit it or not. Unfortunately, Harry is extremely shy around other guys mainly because of his strict upbringing. For a majority of his life Harry was ashamed of being gay. It was something wrong and should be fixed. It was a deviation and any deviation to a person who is taught to blend into the crowd is a major problem. However, because of Shelly's friendship and his experiences in college, Harry has been able to break through his shell and emerge as a very happy and out gay man.

However, it goes without saying that coming out is not a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal. Instead, it's a constant pain in the ass, each coming out is as painful as the last. And most times Harry would leave that part out because there was really no need to come out.

Out or not Harry couldn't help but find Ethan incredibly attractive. From the nose to his perfectly moulded ears to his confident voice, stance, and incredible smile, Ethan was the epitomy of what Harry has been searching for in his rough love life. But it doesn't matter, Harry thought, He's not gay. He's too handsome to be gay.

But another voice inside of him screamed otherwise.

Ethan returned with the Tuna sandwich, perfectly cut into two identical triangles. Ethan handed one to Harry. It was absolutely deliscious. Creamy and full of that perfectly cooked tuna taste, it seemed like no time before Harry finished the entire half of a sandwich. "That was really good," Harry said, "you gotta tell me your secret someday."

"It's not hard," Ethan said, "Actually, its only because of the brand of tuna I use. It's been my favorite since childhood. A little taste of home."

"Where's home?" Harry asked, eager to learn more about this guy, straight or not.

"Home? West Coast. Lost Angeles."

"L.A.? Why'd you move? I thought actors made it big in L.A."

"Perhaps some do," Ethan said, "But I just didn't fit into the whole Californication mentality. It was just all too fake, too much fluff and not enough substance. So I moved all the way to the East Coast. Hopefully, there's some reality here."

"I've been here my whole life and let me tell you, sometimes it can get fluffy too." Harry said, as a joke.

"Tell me about yourself." Ethan prodded, "How'd you come to know Shelly? You seem so grounded."

"Haha, Shelly is a little bit...colorful. We met in college. We were interested in the same things." Harry said. Yeah, we were both interested in men. "I work as a tutor for high school children. I help them ace the SAT's."

"Impressive. I never could get a good score on the SAT's. I guess that's why I'm an actor." Ethan said with a laugh.

"How long have you been acting?"

"It's probably a better idea to say how long have I been hoping I'd get a decent part and how long have I had miscellaneous jobs. The answer is, ever since high school."

"Wow." Harry said, impressed. Although immediately, he regretted saying this. What if he thinks I'm mocking him?

"It's been an adventure. But, you know, the journey is the important part, not the destination." Ethan mused.

"How do you know Shelly? I thought she hated theater." Harry asked.

"Well, we used to work together at this restaurant. She and I used to be really good buddies at that place. We bonded over the oppressive regime that was the management and the idiocy of the customers. That and she took me to a hospital once when a group of mean spirited college boys began bashing me outback because I'm gay. The called me a bunch of names, 'faggot' and 'cumsucker' and everything. But she got there in time before any serious injuries were inflicted."

So, he is gay. Harry thought.

"Damn. I think I even love Shelly even more now." Harry said. "How bad were the injuries?"

"Cuts, my ribs were bruised but that's about it. It was still a pain though, for a few days. But I bounce."

"You're strong." Harry observed.

"No, just stubborn."

"I'm gay too." Harry blurted.

"I know. I know." Ethan smiled warmly.

 

[Craiger]

Very nice beginning. It will be interesting to hear the results of this "chance" meeting. Somehow, however, I think Shelly may have set this up. LOL Good for her if that's the case.

Write on!

Craiger

 

[willybob]

Really good so far man

 

[harry113]

Great story, please keep it going
Harry

 

[bianchi_andreas]

You have really gotten off to a good start here.

A lot of possibilities for future installments, and I can't wait to see where you take us!

 

[TheSanity]

Part Three

The Play and its Players

Part Three​

It doesn't happen to Harry often, when conversations just sort of spontaneously flow and ebb naturally. However, he found it quite easy to keep it going with Ethan. This seemingly rapid back and forth motion between these two men proceeded for quite some time.

Ethan grew up in Los Angeles, the only son of parents who were hardly there. His father worked during the day and when he got off of work, it was straight to the chair in front of the TV for him. His mother was too busy with her gossip and job to hardly pay attention to her little boy. But he seemed to turn out okay, if not a little starved for attention. I guess that's why he wants to become an actor, thought Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, grew up sandwiched between two overbearing parents and a community to match. Something short of a full on commune, Harry was constantly surrounded by influences. Influences that, naturally, taught him to hate his feelings and ultimately himself. Seeing a way of escape when college came, Harry took out a map and plotted the colleges he applied to as little points on it and choosing the one farthest away from his little commune, that little community where there were no "private", only "something untouched."

"Look at the time," Ethan said as he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "I'll be right back." he said as he rushed right out of the door. Indeed, it was almost time for the play. Harry checked his cellphone and, to his surprise, found he had one voicemail and several missed calls. All of them from Shelly's home phone.

"Harry, sorry to leave you hanging but there was a little emergency down here and I'm afraid I can't join you tonight. Could you accept a raincheck? How's Ethan? He'll take care of you." - Shelly's voicemail.

"He'll take care of you." Harry repeated in his head, What was that supposed to mean? However, before Harry could follow that line of thought, Ethan popped into the room again and hurriedly began to open his trunk full of clothes.

"Sorry, but you don't mind me changing?" Ethan asked, too busy to look at Harry.

"It is a changing room." Harry quiped. Well, it was. "I'll take my seat out in the audience."

"Oh no, you don't have to," Ethan replied, "We still have to do soundchecks and whatnot. Make yourself comfortable, you're the only one that can afford to."

Harry didn't need to be asked twice, any chance to see this Ethan in all of his glory was not to be missed. To be honest, Harry had a slight crush on Ethan. Or to even be more honest, Harry had a huge crush on Ethan. Not just physically, although Ethan is one nice specimen, but on a more profound level. Harry hadn't had such good luck with guys, most of them not worthy of the time invested in them.

Ethan quickly and effienciently shed his clothes to replace them with a detector's outfit. But between the transition, Harry spied a nice body that probably goes to the gym frequently and most definately takes his vitamin pills. Such a sight gives a little jolt to Harry's crotch but quickly crossing his legs hides this very big and important fact.

"What is this play about, exactly?" Harry asked, eager to make conversation with this half naked adonis.

"It's a detective story, based circa 23rd century involving lots of robots and prositution." Ethan managed to sum it up in a sentence.

"Are you the robot or the prositute?" Harry joked,

"A little bit of both." Ethan replied with a huge grin on his face.

And he wasn't kidding either as Harry was later to find out. The play was indeed about robots and prositutes in a detective story format. Ethan was the detective, fresh from the academy on his first case, the death of a well known 23rd century mob boss. The inhabitants of this futuristic city were, predictably, robots and prositutes, both sometimes are the same character. Robots weren't getting the rights they deserved since they're technically not 100% humans. But during the course of the play, the robots managed to display the outward appearance of human emotion and morality. Even so, change requires death. Death of an old idea, death of a person. The mob boss was the one who was "employing" the prositutes and robots in a quasi-slave labor workforce.

Yes, right, Harry thought as the ending of the play unraveled itself. With the bonding of the robots and prositutes, the outcasts themselves made their own society in which they were all equal.

Afterwards, Harry waited for Ethan outside his dressing room. Ethan poked his head outside and told Harry to pop in. Gladly, Harry obliged.

 

[TheSanity]

Part Four!

The Play and Its Players

Part Four​

"How did you like the play?" Ethan asked as Harry stepped into the dressing room. Although it seemed to Harry to be spacious earlier, with Ethan half dressed, the room seemed to be shrinking at a rapid pace. Not that Harry minded.

"It was interesting." Harry replied, careful not to hurt Ethan's feelings. In fact, Harry couldn't help but feel bored during the performance. It wasn't because of the actors but because of the far-fetchedness of the play. It was so absurd that Ethan couldn't really connect to it and enjoy it.

"I may not know you well but I know when a person is covering up." Ethan said as he was undoing his tie.

Harry decided to come clean, Ethan would understand. "Okay, to be honest, it was so absurd I didn't know how to react. So I got bored."

"Speak for yourself. How do you think I felt? I had to act it out? Man, I was about to drop dead up there." Ethan replied with a smile.

"Why'd you act in it then?"

"Hey, players can't be choosers, right? Besides, the director/writer is famous around these parts. I gotta suffer a little to enjoy a lot, huh?"

Harry laughed, "Seems like an unnecessary torture."

"Maybe," Ethan said, taking off his belt, "but it wasn't all bad."

"Oh?" Harry murmered, hardly aware of the syllables escaping his mouth.

"I got to meet you.", Ethan said as he removed his shirt.

"Uh-huh." Harry managed to reply, feeling the air around him escape into nothingness.

Ethan pulled off his shirt revealing a wife-beater underneath. "And I really enjoyed meeting you." Closing the space between the two men, Ethan reached out into space and made contact with Harry's cheek. This sent shockwaves into Harry's body, igniting various parts of his body. Harry's hand reached up to hold Ethan's hand on his cheek, hand over hand over cheek.

The two men stood in the dressing room like this for what felt like an eternity before either of them moving. Their eyes were locked together, each trying to transmit and read what the other was saying. All the noise outside seemed to fall dead outside the door making the dressing room seem like the last room on Earth, these two men the last inhabitants.

Harry reached over and placed his hand on Ethan's chest, feeling his heart. It was beating a little fast but strong. Ethan took a deep breath and Harry felt his strong chest rise upward and down again but the heart beat remained unchanged. Now, Ethan's hand moved to the back of Harry's neck, pulling him in for a long meaningful kiss. Harry could smell the pleasant mix of Ethan's sweat and cologne. Harry tried to inhale as deep as he could, recording the exact essence of that smell.

Now, the two men are pushed up against each other, exploring each other's mouths and bodies as if the other belong to them long ago and they had just reclaimed their missing half.

"I like you too." Harry managed to gasp as Ethan pushed up him against the wall of the dressing room. Ethan was grinding hard into Harry as the two men kissed and kissed and kissed each other against that dressing room wall.

Harry slid Ethan's wife-beater off in one efficient movement meanwhile Ethan worked on the buttons on Harry's shirt, fumbling over them in haste as they continued to try to mantain as much skin contact as possible. Stopping halfway, Ethan gave up temporarily on Harry's shirt, he reached down and took Harry's nipple in his mouth, sucking gently at first but soon going with a vengence, eliciting moans from Harry, moans so loud Ethan was worried someone would open the door to investigate.

Pulling back, Ethan guided Harry down to the couch in the dressing room, pushed him down roughly and said, "Stay here," as he went to the door and locked it so that no one would be able to walk in on their own little "play".

When Ethan returned to the couch he found Harry laying down naked, without a single article of clothing on him. "Wow," Ethan said.

And wow was correct. Harry was nicely built. From the broad shoulders to the narrow waist, the hairy cock and sexy feet, Ethan smiled broadly, eager to jump into Harry's goodness. "Stop it," Harry said, "You're making me blush. And it's goddamn cold here, come over here before I freeze."

And Ethan gladly obeyed, shedding his pants as he climbed on top of Harry, an horizontal continuation of their activity on the wall of the room. With one hand, Ethan placed it on Harry's chest, holding him down as he lowered himself level with Harry's red, rock hard cockhead. With one swift move, Ethan engulfed the entire head, his tongue working back and forth. Ethan issued a deep moan causing microvibrations in his mouth onto Harry's cock causing Harry to jump in pleasure. With Ethan's other hand, he played with Harry's balls, squeezing them and rolling them in his hands. Slowly, he moved his hand down towards Harry's eager hole, gently probing that muscular ring.

Now, Harry was grabbing Ethan's head and pushing his cock deeper and deeper. Ethan loved this so he wasn't protesting but he was surprised at Harry's aggressiveness. It wasn't something he had expected.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

And then everything in that room stopped. The thrusting stopped, the hands stood still and their breathing ceased. The only thing still going were their heart beats, beating furiously, beating for lust and for fear at the surprise on the other side of the door.

"It's Shelly, OPEN UP!"

"Shit" both of them whispered. Thinking fast, Harry whispered to Ethan, "Answer the door but tell her that you're dressing. I'll hide behind the door. Tell her that I'm outside somewhere waiting for you."

Very good plan, huh?

Quickly, the two naked and still hard men scurried into position. Ethan produced a quick smile as he saw Harry stand perfectly still, perfectly naked on the other side of the door, his cock still wet with saliva and hard.

Gingerly, Ethan opened the door and peeked his head out. Shelly was there with her purse and her hair undone. "There you are!"

"Shelly! Nice of you to drop by! Could you wait a second? I have to get dressed, it is a dressing room." Ethan said.

"Nonesense. Let me in. It's nothing I haven't seen before." Shelly said as she forced her way in. She was too quick for Ethan to jam the door with his bare feet. Luckily Harry was hiding behind the door, the doorknob barely missing Harry's now-softening cock.

"Why are you naked?" Shelly asked as she finally saw Ethan.

"That's why I told you to wait outside!" Ethan reacted.

"Who's clothes are these?" Shelly said, looking at the clothes of the two men on the floor.

"My costumes. Now, get out. I'll meet you outside.

"Where's Harry? Did you meet him like I told you?" Shelly asked, trying not to look at Ethan's crotch.

"HARRY IS WAITING FOR ME OUTSIDE, LIKE A GOOD FRIEND!" Ethan said loudly, trying to keep his composure.

"I'll go look for him." Shelly said as she disappeared through the doorway again. She closed the door only to reveal a silently laughing Harry, still naked and still very cute.

"Oh, am I a good friend now?" Harry said as he tried not to laugh too hard.

"I would say so." Ethan said, "Quick, let's get dressed. We have to meet Shelly outside. You go first and I'll meet you in a few minutes."

Before Harry left, the two men managed a long deep kiss. "We have to finish this."

"We do."

 

[Craiger]

I like the way the players are acting in this "second act". lol This is quite a fun, sexy and interesting story. I certainly want to hear about the next "scene".

Craiger

 

[G_guy126]

luv`n it....keep it cummin

 

[wyndhampaul]

Can we have the next chapter for a christmas present, please

 

[bcwang]

Engaging story....

 

[harry113]

Is there a next scene?? Seems to have ended right there ...... Shame!!
It was such a promising start .
Thanks Thesanity, if you are still with us is there any chance this will continue ??
PLEeease
Harry

 

[kcm17480]

Please keep this one coming. I like it.