I Let Them

by Barry Graham

I was thirteen the first time I stood on the kitchen table and took my clothes off and rubbed baby oil all over my body in front of my brother’s video camera. I was flat-chested with bony hips and there were dark freckles all over my shoulders and chest where my tits should have been and a strawberry shaped mole on the left side of my belly button. Sometimes his friends came over and paid him to watch and I let them, he let them. My brother used to make sure they never touched me until one day they offered him more money and then I let them, he let them. Their breathes always smelled like Old Milwaukee and their hands felt rough and calloused when they rubbed the baby oil into my neck and shoulders or placed their hands around my waist while I rubbed it over my chest and down across my stomach, but they were all shy, virgin boys, so that’s where they stopped until they gave my brother even more money and then I let them, he let them. But that wasn’t the beginning.

6S

Barry Graham's writing has appeared in 50/50, Storyglossia, Weathervane, Prick of the Spindle, Nimble Few, Cellar Roots, Insolent Rudder, Dogzplot, and Tuesday Shorts. His short story collection "The National Virginity Pledge" will be released upon the world in 2008. Barry Graham is large, he contains multitudes. For 6S, he authored Dickey Dew.