When Frankie visits his cousin Nico, a particular type of porn video on Frankie's phone leaves Nico disturbed...and intrigued. When Uncle Tony invites the boys to a family get-together at the local gym, Nico learns just how far Tony will go to keep the men of the family satisfied. But soon Nico will understand the true meaning of "taking one for the team."
Shared by My Uncles in the Steam Room is a 14,000-word short story.
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Excerpt
I drank more of the hard liquor in the plastic cup I’d brought with me from the card games. If I couldn’t get Frankie’s ass or that damn gay video out of my mind, then at least drinking didn’t make me feel so weird about it. When I was sober and those thoughts ran through my head, I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep, although I was often haunted by similar images in my nightmares. Worst of all, I was the one on that bed, surrounded by grunting, horny men. Drunk, the images remained, but weren’t so haunting.
“C’mon, Nico,” Mikey said, bouncing over to me with a wide smile on his naked body. “Don’t want to get left behind.”
He was right. Most of my cousins, uncles, and their guests, had taken off their clothes and moved into the wet area beyond the locker-room. I heard the familiar patter of laughter and splashing. Beers being cracked open. We were almost alone in the locker room.
“Hey Mikey,” I said, definitely keeping my boxer shorts on. “Do you find any of this—”
“Fucking weird?” Mikey grinned. He was his mid-twenties while I was barely nineteen, but I always felt we understood each other. He wasn’t dumb. I smiled back.
“I was gonna say. What the fuck is this being naked together?”
“Oh, that. It doesn’t bother me. Pretty normal in Europe and stuff.” I still looked confused. “You weren’t talking about being naked?”
“Well…” I thought for a moment. “All of it, really. I guess if it was just hanging out naked, it would be weird enough. But then all that other stuff…you know.”
Mikey shrugged. He also looked over his shoulder to make sure we were alone. “To be part of this family, sometimes you gotta take one for the team, you know. It sucks like hell, for sure, but we gotta make sacrifices. But the rewards, man, the rewards are out of this fucking world.”
Mikey slapped my shoulder, then turned and walked towards the wet area. I watched his ass saunter away, wondering what the fuck he was talking about.