Suggestion Box

Chapter 1
Chapter One

“Lemme see it!”

“Quit it. You can see fine from right there.”

“You know what I mean. C’mon, lemme see! Can you get Angry Birds on that thing?”

“I’m not spending a dollar of my own money on some dumb game so you can rub your greasy fingers all over my nice clean screen.”

“What else are you gonna use it for, phone calls? That’s stupid. Lemme see!”

Colin held his new smartphone away from Brady’s reach while his friend continued to whine and lunge and grab at it, clearly frustrated that his small stature prevented him from simply plucking the device from the taller boy’s hands. Standing off to the side with his arms crossed and a bemused grin on his face was Chase, the third member of the trio, of the tight little cluster that had been inseparable since pre-school.

“Just let him see the stupid thing, Colin.”

“No way,” Colin grumbled as he fought off Brady’s latest lunge. “I didn’t save for this phone for six months to let Tom Thumb over here break it in two seconds.”

“Fuck you!”

A person bearing witness to this scene might be hard-pressed to believe that Colin and Brady and Chase were friends at all. Though their current conflict may have been partially brought on by the inherent impatience and selfishness present in all fifteen-year-old boys, there was no denying that relations amongst the three had become rather strained. The onset of adolescence had brought the boys’ latent personalities to the forefront and, for the first time, made points of conflict out of the differences between them.

Colin’s aptitude for organization and leading class projects had led him to successfully run for student council, making him not only the only freshman on the council but the only one in the entire school that had even had the courage to run for the position in the first place. He was wickedly smart and unendingly ambitious and never suffered fools gladly. With his hazel eyes sharp and shining behind the lenses of his sleek spectacles and his meticulously maintained chestnut hair never so much as a strand out of place, the boy that would be king looked every bit the politician he aspired to become.

Chase’s fun-loving nature and proficiency at every sport he had ever tried had made his transition to high school a rather smooth one, as his decision to focus all his time and effort on his favorite sport – baseball – had helped land him a coveted spot on the varsity squad. It also didn’t hurt that he was noticeably more developed than the other members of the trio and, in fact, more so than any other boy in his grade, possessing the sort of attributes – easy smile, sandy hair, emerald eyes – that had attracted the attention of more than one member of the school’s female population, whose advances he politely but consistently rejected in favor of concentrating as much as possible on his chosen craft.

Brady had always been a rambunctious and troublemaking child, the kind of kid that would make fart noises in the middle of his Kindergarten class just to get a laugh out of his classmates. Even now, deep into his first year of high school, he was still very much that incorrigible little boy, and despite the fact that his behavior invited such distinctions he still hated being called immature and hated more than anything in the world when people would poke fun at him for his short stature and small frame. His undeveloped body and boyish features – chief amongst them big blue eyes, tousled raven hair and a toothy grin that seemed to be perpetually splitting his freckled cheeks – brought on such teasing on a pretty regular basis and tended to cause fights whenever it came from anyone other than Chase or Colin.

Though burgeoning maturity (or a lack thereof) had started turning the three boys into very different people, not once did any of them seriously consider seeking out new best friends. You don’t just up and abandon someone you’ve been close with for over ten years, especially if that person helped you study for a particularly difficult math test, or carried you home piggyback after an ankle injury cut short a pickup soccer game, or stood up for you that day in Kindergarten when you wet yourself during naptime. They might have pissed each other off on a daily basis but they made each other laugh much, much more often.

“For fuck’s sake.” Chase rolled his eyes and effortlessly plucked the phone from Colin’s hands, tossing it to Brady while the bespectacled boy looked at Chase as though he’d slapped him clean across the face. “Oh, calm down. You should be thanking me – at least he’s quiet now.”

“Piss off, Chase,” Brady piped as he plopped himself on the couch, eyes glued to the screen of his new toy. “Oh, and thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“This is ridiculous,” Colin grumbled as he made to snatch his prized possession back. He hadn’t taken so much as a step in Brady’s direction before Chase slipped between them, crouching and raising his outstretched hands as though preparing for a penalty kick. Colin crossed his arms and slouched in irritation.

“Seriously?”

“Yep,” Chase grinned. “If you want your phone back you’re gonna have to get past me.”

“That’s not happening.”

“Damn right it isn’t.”

“You’ve got a new e-mail, Colin,” Brady called out. “I’ll just go ahead and open that for you.”

“Don’t you dare!” Colin cried as he made his first, profoundly unsuccessful effort at getting past Chase. “You’re gonna get a virus on my phone!”

“Hey, free app! Let’s just go ahead and download that right now…”

“Goddamn it, Brady!”

Chase found himself actually having to expend a little bit of effort to hold Colin back, such was the boy’s determination to not let Brady put God knows what onto his brand new phone. A sensible fear given that the puzzled expression that Brady took on once the transfer was complete seemed to indicate that even he didn’t have the faintest idea of what he had just downloaded.

“The hell is this?” The runt of the trio said as he squinted at the screen. “‘Thank you for taking part in the beta test for Suggestion Box, an exciting new application from NCT Software. By volunteering for this trial you are explicitly absolving the developers, the company and its shareholders of any wrongdoing blah blah blah blah blah…did they include any instructions with this or what?”

“You’re buying me a new phone, Brady!”

“Ah, here we go…‘to issue a command, simply hold down the button, speak the recipient’s name, and say what you would like them to do.’” Brady cocked his head at the device. “‘The recipient will return to consciousness a few moments after completing the command unless the commander specifies otherwise. Note that the Suggestion Box is designed mainly to induce alterations in one’s thinking but can also bring about physical changes if used correctly – ’”

Chase, puzzled, looked over his shoulder as the boy read from the screen, which gave Colin more than enough of an opportunity to slither by him and snatch his phone back, grumbling to himself as Brady hopped to his feet and pleaded his case.

“Aw, don’t delete it! I think that thing allows you to…” He paused for effect as he wiggled his fingers in Colin’s direction. “Control people’s miiiiiiiinds!”

“That is the dumbest thing you’ve ever said, and believe me, that’s not a statement I make lightly.”

“Oh, just give it a try,” Brady insisted. “I know the stupid thing doesn’t really work but maybe it makes your voice sound funny or something.”

“Like that one on Riley’s phone that makes you sound like a chipmunk,” Chase offered.

“Exactly! That was fucking hilarious. Maybe this one gives you, like, a Bela Lugosi voice.”

“You wanna see what it does? Fine,” Colin snapped in exasperation as he pointed the phone at Brady and put his finger on the button. “Here’s what I want you to do for me, Brady. I want you to kiss my ass. Think you can manage that?”

Had Colin been just a little less annoyed at his diminutive friend he might have noticed the way his phone took a split-second to process his voice before amplifying it and altering it ever so slightly, his bitterly sarcastic command emanating from the tiny earpiece with the sort of volume and reverberation normally reserved for megaphones used within deep underground caverns. But what he did notice was the way Brady stiffened the instant his name was uttered, the way his eyes widened while his body became entirely stoic before him. Chase chuckled and put his hands on his hips, sure that the act was the prelude to some elaborate joke Brady was conducting. Colin, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. He’d been the butt of more of Brady’s jokes than he could remember and none of them had ever employed the sort of patience and subtlety the teenager was now displaying. He opened his mouth to ask his friend if he was okay, but before he could even get a word out Brady lowered himself to his knees, brought his hands up to Colin’s waist, and started undoing his pants.

“What…what the fuck are you doing, Brady?” Colin shouted, cheeks flushing crimson as the boy undid the button on his jeans and pulled down his zipper, as Chase looked on and laughed – a little nervously – at how far his friend was willing to go for a joke. Brady, for his part, ignored the question as though he hadn’t even heard it, shuffling on his knees from Colin’s front to his back and taking the waistband of his jeans and underwear in his hands so he could pull them down far enough to expose a few inches of the mortified teenager’s pale rear end. Then – without a moment’s hesitation – he moved forward and kissed his ass.

Chase’s laughter stopped at once. Colin, who had been too taken aback to even put up any resistance, looked over his shoulder and stared mouth agape at Brady as he maintained his kneeling position directly in front of his friend’s still-exposed butt, body returning to the rigid state it had held before he fell to his knees while his eyes told of a revulsion that words could never do justice. The room stood in suffocating silence as Brady knelt stiff and unblinking at his friend’s posterior, and it wasn’t until the boy seemed to come back to himself – until his posture softened, his eyes focused and his lips curled into a chilling scowl – that the stillness was shattered.

“You son of a BITCH!”

Brady lunged at Colin as the startled boy leaped back and cursed in surprise, his phone dropping to the floor with a clatter as he grabbed the waistband of his jeans with both hands and dodged the teenager’s clumsy, furious swipes. Chase leapt between them before Brady could get his hands on the flustered teenager, holding back his incensed friend while Colin sputtered apologies and returned himself to a state of full dress.

“Christ, Brady, I’m sorry!” Colin cried. “How the fuck was I supposed know that it actually worked?”

“That’s not how you fucking try it out, asshole!” Brady shouted. Despite Chase’s best efforts he couldn’t calm his friend down and the raging teenager continued struggling against his resistance – until his eyes fell on Colin’s phone. All at once he became perfectly calm, a salamander’s smile creeping across his lips as he bent down and plucked the device off the floor, as he looked at its owner and snickered at the way his face went milk pale and his features twisted into an expression of pure dread.

“Brady…” Colin held his hands up and swallowed as he stared at the phone. “Please…I’m really sorry…I didn’t…I didn’t mean to - ”

“Save it,” Brady said as he strode over to the couch, keeping his eyes locked on Colin’s and the device pointed in his direction as though it were a razor-sharp switchblade. He reclined into the yielding leather and shrugged. “It’s my fault, right? I just wanted to know if it really worked or not. Well, I’m still not convinced. Better do one more test just to make sure.”

“Brady…dude…”

The boy grinned, held up the phone, and stuck his finger on the button.

“Colin!” He shouted, his voice booming throughout the room. The fastidious teenager went stiff as a board as Chase’s eyes widened and his teeth dug into his lower lip. He knew that he should stop Brady right now but he seemed to have as little control over his body as Colin possessed over his own statuesque form. “Don’t worry – I’m not gonna make you do anything nearly as gross. All I want you to do…

He hung one leg over the other, kicked off a sandal, and then stuck the newly-bared appendage in Colin’s direction.

“…is kiss my foot. And hey…just ‘cause this is our first date doesn’t mean you have to be shy. Use a little tongue, willya?”

Though Colin’s gaze screamed in defiance his actions spoke of nothing but complete and total obedience, hardly a moment passing between the second in which the command was spoken and the second in which the helpless teenager stepped in front of Brady, lowered himself to one knee, and took the smirking boy’s foot in both hands. Without so much as an instant of hesitation Colin turned the sole to his lips and kissed it with the same mechanical tenderness Brady had displayed while smooching his posterior, the seated boy giggling not only at the sight of his dapper friend executing such an embarrassing task but also from the tiny shivering tickles that resulted from the stimulation of such a beautifully sensitive stretch of skin.

The giggles came to an abrupt end when Colin began executing the second part of Brady’s command, when he lifted his foot a little higher so as to make it easier for himself to run his tongue from the boy’s pink, tender heel all the way up to his plump big toe. Brady found himself having to suppress a gasp at how drastically the sensation emanating from the sole of his foot had been amplified – he had, as a virile and modern fifteen-year-old boy, been exposed to his share of Internet pornography, and had on more than one occasion seen a toe be sucked or a foot be licked, and though he possessed a vague notion of those actions being pleasurable to the recipient, his focus at those times hadn’t exactly been on the mechanics of foreplay. So it came as quite the surprise when he found himself having to bite his lip and flex his jaw as though doing so would push back the blush that burned on his cheeks, forcing himself to not show even the slightest hint that another boy had given him so much as a drop of pleasure. Chase, for his part, absently pulled down the hem of his shirt as he watched the scene unfold before him, just cognizant enough to make sure that any evidence of his cock twitching insistently against his fly was hidden from his friends’ eyes.

When Colin completed his task – when he blinked himself out of his trance and felt the oppressive heat of humiliation flourish within him – he let Brady’s foot go and stared quietly at the ground for a moment, the younger boy looking down on him with a triumphant grin on his face as he did so. When he rose to his feet, cheeks flush and hands clenched into white-knuckled fists, he gave Brady a glare that could kill a man from a hundred paces, the death stare serving only to widen the boy’s grin, an infuriating expression that remained plastered on his face as Colin held out his palm and silently demanded his phone back.

“Give it to him, Brady,” Chase said when Brady hesitated. “The two of you are even now. Right, Colin?”

“…”

“Right?”

Colin flinched and shuffled his feet.

“Right,” he mumbled.

Chase looked back to Brady, who released a theatric sigh before handing the phone over. He tried and failed to hide the anxiety that roiled within him as Colin examined the device, allowing himself to exhale only when the boy slipped it into his shirt pocket and looked at his friends.

“You guys should probably go,” he said in a small voice. “I’ll…see you at school on Monday, I guess.”

“Wait a minute,” Brady said as he jumped to his feet, suddenly re-emboldened. “What are you going to do with the phone?”

“I’m going to wipe it clean. And you’re never going to touch it again.”

“So we stumble onto a way to make people do whatever we want and you’re just gonna pretend that it doesn’t even exist.” Brady shook his head in disgust. “For a smart guy you can be a real dumbass sometimes.”

“And what would you do with it, Brady?” He asked, his tone sharpening. “Pull pranks? Get free videogames? Make teachers give you grades you don’t deserve? This isn’t a toy. This is some scary fucking shit and I’m getting rid of it right now.”

“You can’t!” Brady insisted as his voice took on a childish, whiny tinge. “The phone may be yours but you wouldn’t even have the program if it weren’t for me.”

He turned and pointed to Chase in a desperate attempt to enlist an ally.

“And you wouldn’t have kept it if it weren’t for him! It’s just as much ours as it yours, and we say that you can’t delete it! Right, Chase?”

Chase flinched as both of his friends cast their gaze upon him. Though he had no trouble performing out on the field with a thousand eyes evaluating his every move, having the responsibility of what should be done with the power that had been trust upon them proved more excruciating than any situation baseball could ever offer. Colin and Brady’s stares bore into him as he cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck.

“I, um…I don’t think we should get rid of the program yet,” he muttered, casting his eyes at the ground. “There’s…something I wanna do with it.”

Colin’s glare sharpened. Brady beamed.

“Exactly! Just imagine what we could do with this thing, Colin! There’s gotta be something you’d wanna use it for!”

It was only then that Colin’s stony expression finally cracked, a frown creeping across his lips as his gazed drifted downward, contemplating the device as it became like a lead weight in his hand. He looked up and met his friends’ eyes.

“…one thing,” Colin said, his voice clear and firm. “We each get to do one thing with it. Then it’s gone.”

Brady scowled and opened his mouth to protest. Colin raised his palm.

“This isn’t a negotiation. We either do it this way or we don’t do it at all.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I’ll smash the fucking thing to bits right now. I swear to God I will.”

The younger boy met his stare for as long as he could, searching for any hint of a bluff…and backed down when he found none. Colin turned to Chase, who nodded in agreement, before turning back to Brady, who sighed and crossed his arms.

“Fine,” he muttered. “But I get to go first.”

 

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