David's Second Year at College

When we arrived I said to Paolo: "This is my boyfriend David." They welcomed him with great friendliness and offered us a special veal dish, which was not on the menu. I noticed that Alberto the son was eyeing David very appraisingly, and I realized that Alberto must be gay. We had Prosecco before the meal and a superb bottle of Barolo with the veal. By now, I was a little under the influence of the wine, so I said to Alberto: "What do you think of my boyfriend then, Alberto?" David blushed, but Alberto grinned.

"Very nice," he said, "especially his hair."

"He looks sweet when he blushes" I said. By now David was the colour of beetroot.

"May we have a jug of water, please?" he asked Alberto. Alberto grinned again "He's not used to getting complimentary remarks, is he?" he said.

After he had gone, I said to David: "London restaurants have lots of gay customers. I wonder if they eye Alberto up."

"He's a nice-looking Italian boy," said David, "so I guess that they will."

At 9-30 we paid our bill and made our farewells, picked up our bags and travelled on the Underground the short distance to the station. On the train on the way back, I said to David: "Do you know, I don't know when your birthday is."

"It's in August," said David, and I was in Amersfoort last year. I knew you didn't know, so I didn't expect cards or presents. You are my best present anyway."

"What day?"

"August 20."

When we got to Camford, we took a taxi home.

Chapter 29 David

Our plans for the summer were changed soon after we got back from London by Jon's announcement that further progress in his research required him to go away for a few weeks during the summer to learn some essential new laboratory techniques. No funding was available from the lab for this so he decided to pay for it himself. "Where will you be going?" I asked.

"A university in some place I've never heard of," he said: "the University of Harderwijk"

"Not heard of it?" I said. "It's world famous. Linnaeus became a doctor of medicine there. It's quite near Amersfoort. So why don't I go to work for my uncle again while you're working in Harderwijk? We could probably find somewhere where we both can live and you can go on the train to Harderwijk daily or maybe even cycle there. It would be good for you to see the enlightened way that gays are treated in the Netherlands. I don't know whether my uncle would give me a pay-rise instead of free accommodation. I doubt it, so I might have to ask you to pay the rent!"

So early in July we left Camford for the Netherlands. I had contacted my uncle and although he was not able to give me a pay-rise, he knew a lady in the town who let rooms to students, and as it was university vacation she was looking for new tenants.

"Tell her that we would like a twin room and that we are a pair of gays," I said "even though one of them is your nephew!"

"Yes," he said "your aunt had guessed that from last year."

I agreed that we should take the room unseen, as it was ideally situated. We travelled on Eurostar and got to Amersfoort around 4 pm. We went to the bar and I introduced Jon to my uncle and aunt, who welcomed him with great cordiality. My aunt said to me in Dutch: "I like your friend very much and I can see how happy he makes you. Are you an item?"

"Yes," I replied. "Het is een vaste relatie." (It's a permanent relationship).

My uncle took us and our baggage in his car to our new lodgings. The landlady, being elderly, could only speak a few words of English, so she was delighted to find that I spoke Dutch. The room was excellent, the furnishings old-fashioned but comfortable and we did have our own bathroom. There were no other guests at the time as it was deep in the Dutch holiday season.

The next day we turned up for work in our new workplaces. My job was the same as the year before. I had always tried to conceal my nationality, in order to avoid conceited customers practising their English on me, although it was sometimes difficult, because I did not always react as a Dutchman would when things were said to me. Because of my shifts, it was clear that Jon and I were not going to spend much time together, not even in bed, as the room contained single beds.

I had been to the station and bought Jon a maandabonnement (monthly season ticket). I paid for it with my own money, as it would have been easier for Jon to have stayed in Harderwijk. Jon was welcomed in his new lab, where most people knew of his work. He had no difficulty in settling in, and everyone including the technicians spoke English. He even was welcomed into the lab's social life, and joined his colleagues every Friday evening after work at the local bar. In the weeks when I was working the day-shift, I used to take the train after work to Harderwijk and join them in the bar. Then about 8 pm (which is about the latest that you can eat in the Netherlands) we would eat in local restaurant, before it closed at 9 pm! They very happily accepted me as I was studying chemistry and they could talk shop sometimes in Dutch.

On the weeks when I was on the evening shift, I was able to work on my vacation assignments. I would sometimes go to my uncle's bar for a beer and an uitsmijter (toast with ham or cheese topped with a fried egg) at lunchtime. Sometimes in the afternoon our landlady would invite me for a cup of tea. She was an interesting old lady and took a motherly interest in us.

On Sunday mornings while I was at church, she gave Jon breakfast, and even though their knowledge of each other's language was slight, she had him well appraised. She knew damn well who was doing the fucking in our relationship, and she warned me not to take him for granted. She told me that one of her sons was gay and had destroyed his relationship with his partner by playing away, and was now permanently miserable.

Chapter 30 David

In mid-August the Dutch holiday period comes to an end and in the third week of August were the three fixtures for the St Boniface's College choir. We were singing in Apeldoorn, the Hague and Dordrecht. The choir were staying in nearby youth hostels or with local families. The pattern was the same at each place: rehearsal in the afternoon and concert in the evening. It was not exactly an ideal time, because my birthday fell during that week, so Jon and I agreed to postpone birthday celebrations to the week after the choir had left. My uncle gave me a week off for the concerts, and agreed to pay me even so, which surprised me as he was a very hard-headed Dutch businessman. He even gave me the use of a function room to practise my solo number in. The solo was part of Orlando Gibbons's anthem 'This is the Record of John'. I was only allowed to practise during the day, but I did not need a lot of time.

The concerts were all held in Dutch Protestant churches, except the one at the Hague, which was held in the English church. The programme was substantially the same in each concert, with just one variable item. I did not need accommodation, as all the concerts finished in time for me to return to Amersfoort in the train. Distances in the Dutch Randstad are not very great. The choral programme was to consist of English church music from the 17th to the 19th century, a field that is not particularly well known in continental circles. All the best British composers of those eras were represented from Orlando Gibbons through Purcell and Handel, Boyce and Maurice Greene to Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Jon said that he would come to the performance in Apeldoorn, and I was rather surprised when he turned up in company with half a dozen people from his laboratory.

The summer vacation seemed to have been good for the choir's voices and the performance that we turned out was extremely good and I just hoped that we would be able to keep up the same quality in our two subsequent performances. After the performance I had just time for a quick drink with the choir before returning home to Amersfoort.

The next two performances did turn out to be quite successful, at least from our point of view, and the choir went home at the end of week feeling that they had enhanced the cultural reputation of Camford University.

After the last concert in Dordrecht, I went up to Barbara and asked her how the summer had gone. "Very well," she said. "I don't need to ask how you are getting on. A faggot's life obviously suits you. But how did your boyfriend get here?"

"He's working on a project at Harderwijk University for the summer." I replied.

"So you're getting it regularly. No wonder you look happy!"

Unlike the rest of the choir, I was in a position to see press reviews of the performances and was amazed to discover how favourable and enthusiastic the two newspapers that covered one or other of the events had been. It seemed certain that we would get invitations to perform in later years.

Chapter 31 David

When the day that we had decided to celebrate as my birthday arrived, I arranged with my uncle to get the afternoon off. Jon had insisted on this because he said it was vitally important that I should meet him at 5 pm at Rotterdam Central Station. When I arrived there, he said:

"We've got to get to the quay," so I said

"OK we'll take the tram."

When we arrived at the riverside Jon said, "I've arranged to go on a Maas river cruise. Dinner and drinks will be served on the boat and the trip lasts about a couple of hours starting at six, so we should be back before it gets dark."

We boarded the boat, which was of average size with a nice little dining saloon. It was quite clearly not the sort of setup for fine dining and AC wines, so we found ourselves drinking draught Grolsch at the bar. The meal was extremely enjoyable as much for the company as the food, Jon was in a particularly demonstrative and affectionate mood. One of the nice points about the meal was that we were allowed to sit at the tables after eating and virtually continuously drink coffee, our cups being quite readily replenished with excellent Dutch coffee. When we reach that stage, Jon put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a case about 10 cm square.

"David" he said "I wish you a very happy birthday I hope you will wear this as a token of my affection." I opened the case to find a very attractive gold bracelet made with flexible links and it fitted nicely on my right wrist. "You won't of course be able to wear it in the lab," he said, "but I like my boy to wear attractive things, particularly as you have such a dislike of personal adornments like piercings and tattoos, which I don't like either." The room was not exactly empty, so we could not embrace, so I reached out and clasped his hand with both mine and said "Oh thank you, thank you, Jon." The inside of the bracelet was inscribed 'To my dear friend David with my deepest lifelong love'.

On the train on the way home, I sat beside Jon and cuddled up to him (there were few passengers at that time of night). I whispered to him: "Jon, I want another present from you tonight." I reached out and touched his crotch.

"Birthday randiness!" he whispered back.

It was only a short walk from the station to our lodgings, and it was only about 11 pm when we got in. I shut the door and started to remove his clothes...

In five minutes I was lying on my bed, legs wide apart and Jon was kneeling between my legs, bent forward and kissing my bellybutton. He pulled a condom on to his dick and began to coat it with lube. Then he started to lube up my perineum and hole...

He entered me smoothly and gently and I grasped him round the waist with my legs. He got to work vigorously, bending forward so that as much of his body as possible was in contact with mine. His sweet-smelling sweat began to drip on me and his excitement increased and his breathing accelerated until he came violently and pumped his sperm into the rubber in my gut. Without pulling out, he lowered himself on top of me and started to rub my slimy dick. It was only a matter of seconds before I came and shot my hot load over both our bodies. It had been difficult to keep quiet while this display of passion was taking place and we had to lie and recover carefully on our backs to avoid making a mess of the bed. When Jon recovered a little, he started to lick up my seed from my belly and swallow it. "My, it tastes good," he said. "I'm developing a taste for faggot-juice!" We then cleaned ourselves up with warm wet flannels before falling asleep in our separate beds.

Chapter 32 David

There was only about a month left before the two of us would leave for Camford and the beginning of the Martinmas term. However before we left there was a nasty occurrence. One night the group of gays who often visited the back bar brought a couple of friends with them. One of these individuals was extremely drunk. He came up to me and crudely felt my crotch before announcing to his friends that here was someone who would suck his cock for him.

"No chance," I said, "just bugger off."

"Nobody tells me to bugger off!" he said and hit me hard in the face.

Drenched with blood, I was carted off to hospital in an ambulance. No-one from the bar could come with me, so they phoned Jon, who turned up at the hospital Accident department in a state of panic. He was quite relieved to find that none of my bones or teeth had been broken; I just had severe abrasions and a black eye. I was cleaned up and the abrasions dressed, but the next morning I insisted on going with my uncle to the police and reporting the assault. Jon came with us. He was extremely upset and I knew that whatever happened he would never leave me.

The other customers of the bar welcomed me back with offers of far more drinks than I could ever consume, and were obviously really glad that I was back at work. My uncle lodged a claim for assault compensation from the Dutch State.

By the time that we left for Camford, the abrasions were more or less gone but the black eye took much longer to heal. Jon was very considerate when kissing me, and kissed my hair and the top of my head. The hospital had had to cut off some of my blood-matted hair to get at my wounds.

Eventually the time came to leave Amersfoort. Jon had learned all that was necessary to use the new machine in his lab, and I had actually saved much of my pay, as David paid our rent. We bade a regretful farewell to my aunt and our landlady. My uncle had kindly offered to drive us to Hoek van Holland to catch the ferry to England, and on 30 September we were back in Camford, ready for a new academic year.

To be continued in Book III.

THE END