4.1 The Doors

It was late afternoon, I listened to Shalin talking in the lawn with her family and the east wing occupants. Her brother brought a team of guys and they worked on the paint job. In the first house of introduction, you are never very candid, or slightly nervous. And sometimes all the wrong words are delivered. I did have that kind of a hint when I heard Sabo’s voice saying, “You do sleep with guys, don’t you!”

“No, no,” refrained Shalin, “I swear I don’t.”

“She gives boom-boom!”

“How dare! I don’t! I don’t!”

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I have a boyfriend.”

“Do you want to hear the rest of it from me?”

“Well,” she gave up, “it happens, sometimes.”

“Not just sometimes. You give boom-boom!”

“Yes,” Shalin admitted.

I was excited to hear that talk. And this Sabo is a very clever guy. He makes girls flirt. To my knowledge, he is always in trouble with girls for lying to them. See that! He put words into her mouth and made her confess to boom-boom.

I was excited to know, after all, Shalin wasn’t all that innocent. I removed one mask off her face. I don’t go out and join in conversations with them. I don’t pop my head out every time a girl screams. Besides, I did not even look at how they did the paint job on the walls and what colour scheme they chose.

I heard her say, “I’m the coordinator. You are not very grateful for me for ordering pizza for the work team and you guys.”

They were just a bunch of relatives occupying my quarters on rent and loud in the lawn. I thought that was nice.

I caught those words in my ears, ‘coordinator’, ‘boyfriend’, ‘pizza’, while in bed that night. Disturbed to learn about my father being a cheat. I do believe in Half Tone. He did not lie about it. It was rather a freaking act he pulled on. I regarded my father as a decorated officer, with admiration, until now.

I could not sleep that night. I took a shot and sat down to chat on the internet. I stole a list of emails from Simon that was in his pen drive, contacts of his big sister. I was able to chat with a lot of them on Messenger, some with fake IDs. I placed a depiction of my dick on display and used a fake ID as well. There was this midnight caller by the handle of ‘coquette’ who flirted a lot with me. It could be anyone perhaps a guy.

She said, “Your cock on display is holding a natural erection. I have never seen anything like that.”

“Do you want to see the real thing?” I typed.

“I want you to send me that picture,” she texted.

I uploaded the image and she accepted the file.

“What exactly have you got on your mind?”

“It is for self-pleasure.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“That means that.”

“Don’t advertise me on the World Wide Web.”

I forwarded a file of my portrait taken from a higher angle in high resolution. When viewed on monitor screen, it gave rich detail of my facial texture.

This anonymous chatter examined my figure, a tiny body caught in the long shot framing my face in the foreground. “Can you send me a photo in full pose?”

I did just that. Sent a photograph of me lying in bed stark naked.

“As a friend I want to tell you, don’t take a word from anybody on the chat for granted. Somebody might upload your nude pictures on the internet,” she said.

“I don’t pass them to people I cannot trust.”

“Take my word, trust no one.”

At dawn, I tried to catch some sleep. Asmr once told me to close my eyes and try to capture vivid colours in the back of the eyelid. If the images are in full colour, sleep is in my eye.

 

By the morning it turned hot inside my cubicle due to a power outage.

Shalin arrived at seven-thirty to start moving in. She had to bring furniture and belongings. She came with the paint bill and taking this opportunity at an early hour, entered the passage and stepped at my door. Within a footstep I lay totally naked in bed and the door left open.

A smirk touched her lips. Shalin knew from the half-naked folks in the east wing that I am a naturist but she wasn’t expecting me to lie naked in bed with the door wide open. She paused for a moment looking down at my thin form and smooth papaya skin.

I was dreaming in the rapid eye movement, half asleep. A woman, fully covered in a black dress and veil, entered through the gate. She carried a sombrero holding it like a tray. In its broad perimeter, it contained dozens of origami articles. All the colours vividly pasted on the back of my eyelid.

Shalin tapped lightly on the glass. I opened my eyes, blinking and still drowsy, I figured it was Shalin. I jumped up from bed, full of sweat.

“Are you sleeping?” she put her hand across her mouth to hide a sneer, looking at my cock. That look in her eyes told me she was registering all that in her mind.

“No,” I suddenly realised I was naked and tried to grab something to cover. I grabbed a frail pink underwear hung on the television arm left here by a girlfriend. I hung it on the cock and grasped with a palm.

“Paint bill,” she shoved into my free hand but I dropped it clumsily.

“Sorry!”

Shalin picked it from the floor keeping her eyes straight into mine not to drop her gaze again on my hold, no longer registering.

“Thanks.”

“Forgive me if I wake you.” She crossed her arms and legs and in a slight cling on her shoulders.

“Not really,” I murmured, “I was masturbating. I fell asleep in the middle.”

She smiled shyly, “It happens, sometimes.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No, no, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

“Oh, your money!” I turned to flash my buttocks.

“Take it easy!” she grew nervous someone might pop in from the gate, “I will come later.”

“Okay.”

“Oh!” she paused, “By the way, two of my cousin sisters will stay with me.”

“Fine,” I said bluntly, “I am fine with that. I don’t count who stays.”

“I thought you should know.”

“Not at all, I am fine. I understand this is Safa, it is a small place. Make yourself comfortable.” I still could not get what she was trying to say. She was trying to warn me because I happened to be a nudist.

“Okay then, see you!” she gave up.

When power returned, I went to the PC room and switched on. An unread message from coquette read, “I know you.”