Well Intentioned

It started off as a well intentioned joke...

Actually, I was only trying to help.

But as it often does when you mess with things you don't fully understand, things went absolutely sideways.

My roommate Brian was always a swell guy, but he was just another dude in his mid twenties caught up in hustle culture. I'd known him since our senior year in high school, kept in touch through our disparate college paths and then linked back around as we started our adulthood with careers in the city. I'd watched Brian go from your average, laid back kid with spotty skin and pudgy middle to a shredded business maven who routinely started his day at 4am, and swore off alcohol.

"I'll date when I'm 30," I remember him frequently telling friends. He sincerely wanted to be a millionaire by then, working every waking hour of the day trying to get as many "passive income" projects online. His aim was to retire by 40. I admired his drive and ambition, but was watching him kill himself with stress. At one point, after a year of misanthropic dating escapades I'd considered letting him coach me away from distractions and onto financial independence- but then I met Katy, who broadened my sexual horizons with her new age mentality and spiritual thighs.

"Rich Baby, your roommate has a bad aura about him, you should really consider moving out. I fear something terrible is going to happen with him," I'd just spent the night face first in Katy's lap, dazed by her natural tastes and was momentarily open to anything that fell from her lips.

"I'm not going to move out on Brian, he's a good dude. He's just driven."

"You know he's not in a good place though right? You see that?"

I buried my face between Katy's breasts, acting shameful in our post coital silliness.

"Yessss, I do. But the guy is unstoppable. I can't even convince him to let the dishes soak, how am I supposed to get him to slow down?" Katy lay silent for a few moments.

"Maybe he needs to get laid,"

I chuckled as I came up for air, looking into Katy's brown eyes.

"Know anyone who might help with that? Dude won't even see anyone beyond a business lunch," We kissed and I plopped back down, resting my head on Katy's shoulder and snuggling into her side. We lay still for awhile, lavishing in our naked bodies and matched breathing.

"How about hypnotic suggestion?"

That was it. There it was.

That was the moment everything was about to change, and I nor Katy could have seen it coming.

As I said before, when you mess with things you don't understand, you're just asking for trouble.

You see, as much as my lovely girlfriend talked the talk when it came to new age spiritual enlightenment, she wasn't exactly a studied professional at anything. Katy was a curvy white girl who did yoga, read books, bought crystals and worked as an administrative assistant at a bank. I had a measure of love blindness sure, compounded with being a dumb kid in my twenties- but that was no excuse for thinking we could delve into the world of hypnosis.

For the next month, Katy and I went from joking about dangling pocket watches, to researching online, and downloading every possible audio file we could get our hands on- all in effort to get my friend Brian to loosen up, maybe even fuck someone.

The plan we eventually built to was that we would create a motivational podcast, quickly edited soundbites from famous speeches with uplifting instrumental music in the back ground- all over a subliminal series of hypnotic suggestions and tones. Katy and I had ripped off a number of hypnosis audio files about relaxation and sexual desire, and while she edited together the speeches, I remixed all the subliminal stuff.

Again, this was likely the downfall of our plan.

In hindsight, hypnosis isn't a stew. You can't just take a bunch of audio files, mix and mingle them together and expect a specific result. It's about specificity and focus after all. But again, we were dumb kids killing time on a stupid project.

Katy figured out how to host an online podcast, and started uploading files. I tipped off Brian one day and waited for him to take the bait. Much to my disappointment he hand waved me and carried on his daily routines. It was only when I told him that Katy and I had made the podcast as a business venture that he became enthusiastic and vowed to listen. As hard ass as Brian was, he was indeed a good friend and truly wanted to support me in my efforts. I had a mixture of pathos and hope that the plan would work out for my buddy.

Katy figured we would drop a new episode twice a week, unsure of how often hypnotic suggestion needed to be heard before its effects could be seen. She had done a crazy amount of work on collecting inspirational speeches, crafting a number of episodes that would have us running the scheme for months. For my part, I'd mixed about ten subliminal tracks. Katy and I figured in the end that repeating them in our episode cycle would be more effective than making a unique one each release.

The whole effort became our obsession, getting us off binging TV shows online and onto more productive activities. We even began to jokingly pretend to be hypnotized during sex. One night, while over at her place, I faux-mesmerized Katy -with my pendulous cock- into licking my ass, becoming wholly embarrassed when the sensation had me uncontrollably writhing in pleasure. My erection became painfully unused, and I pounced on Katy, sticking her and power fucking that cunt into oblivion. Our panting and squeals culminated in a messy pair of orgasms, and I caught my breath before pulling out and falling onto my back. We lay there giggling for awhile before Katy began to whisper in a ghostly monotone voice.

"Richaaaard, are you hearing my voiiiice?" I laughed.

"Yes voice, I'm hearing yooooou,"

"Richard, you are feeling light, you are feeling good. You will crawl to my pussy,"

I slowly rose from the bed, turning from my back over to my stomach, inching my face closer between Katy's thighs. Red and raw, her puffy labia glistened in our combined juices. A single pearl of my cum dripped out from between her lips.

"You bow to the power of my voice, you will eaaaaaaat me out,"

I stared up at Katy over her belly and saw her big stupid grin, my eyes widened and I stuck out my tongue as she watched. My mouth drew closer to her dripping pussy. I could smell my own cum, mingling with her sweaty crotch and felt a rush of adrenalin as I neared the taste of...

"Bahhh! Nooooo!" I sat back abruptly, successfully completing my tease. "How about I get you a towel," Katy smacked the bed in mock frustration.

"I nearly had you this time!" I disentangled myself from the sheets, and bounded up to the bathroom across the hall.

"C'mon now, you sounded like a bad Dracula impression!" I shouted over to her. "Remember, I'm the hypnotist here,"

"You're right babe, I clearly don't have the power to turn you on or anything," I could hear Katy laughing from the bedroom. For my part, I stood in the bathroom torn from the task of grabbing her a towel, distracted by the miraculous erection I was now sporting. I'd just cum, I'd just fucked the shit out of my girlfriend. What the hell was I doing so hard again?

Two weeks had passed before I asked Katy to check the numbers on the podcast. I was shocked when she texted me to say the first couple episodes had been listened to over a hundred times. I rang her up immediately.

"Nobody knows about this right?!"

"No, no I swear. Its not listed anywhere. You can only listen if you have the link."

"Okay, I'll talk to Brian to see if he shared the link with anyone." My head spun from anxiety, as I pulled myself from bed and got dressed. I could hear kitchen noises from downstairs.

Calmly traipsing down the steps I could see our other roommate Pete sat at the island while Brain was busily working away at the stove.

"Gentlemen," I nodded at Pete, who lazily munched on some bacon. "I can see we've started Saturday morning off right," Brian turned and passed me a plate, his face covered with a friendly smile.

"French toast and a fried egg, bacon is on the counter," Saturday's were no time for Brian to stop, he'd clearly been up cleaning since dawn, and as was his tradition here he was making us breakfast. Brian was a sweet guy who I truly wanted to help.

"Thanks Bri, appreciate it." I settled in at the island beside Pete, watching as Brian set about cleaning up the kitchen before joining us for the meal. You could tell he was in weekend mode, because he wore basketball shorts, crocs and a tank top beneath his apron. Typically the guy would have already hit the gym and traded his training gear for khakis and a crisp button down by now.

"So Bri, was kinda wondering," I mopped up some egg with a chunk of French toast. "You get a chance to listen to the uh, podcast thing?" Brian's face perked up.

"Man, did I ever! That shit is solid!," Brian brought his plate to the counter and sat across from me. "I swear I've listened to it three times daily,"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah man, morning workout, afternoon meditation and evening jog. I've gotta say, I like the tracks more when its beats over instrumental stuff. Probably because I'm working out to it 2/3 times, right? Just makes sense right?"

"Yeah, sure- I get that. Um, maybe keep the instrumentals for meditation I suppose," At first I wasn't so sure he wasn't bullshitting me, but he truly did seem sincere about his praise. "But um, you haven't shared it with anyone have you? Katy and I are just trying to, uh- work out the kinks in stuff. We don't want it to be out there yet. Not until you're ready,"

"No, no- of course not man. Just call me your private test market group. But when you ARE ready, lemme help you get word out, okay?"

"Sure, sure- definitely." Relieved I went about my breakfast with the guys in relative silence. Pete finally spoke up.

"Can I listen to this podcast?"

"NO!" I nearly choked on my juice. "I mean, we're not ready yet man." Brian had begun to clear the dishes as Pete and I walked into the living room. We politely thanked him from the hallway as I sidled next to Pete and whispered to him.

"Katy and I made these hypnotic relaxation tracks, we're trying to get Bri to chill out before he burns out." We took our spaces on the couch, as Pete looked pensive and tucked his long hair behind his ear. My face felt hot at the admission, embarrassed at the game Katy and I were playing. I was worried that Pete would harshly judge us and spill to Brian. I momentarily wanted to text Katy and tell her to pull the whole thing.

"Fuck man, thats crazy. Do you think it'll work?"

Again, a wave of relief hit as I realized I'd been holding my breath.

"That dude needs to seriously chill the fuck out. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy- but when you were at Katy's last weekend, dude knocked on my door while I was balls deep on the waitress from Chester's, cuz we were being too loud." I buried my face in my hands from secondhand embarrassment. "Like bro, you wait until people are finished for fucks sake, right?"

I nodded. Pete turned on the TV, looking for a soccer game while I texted Katy.

-- We're good babe. He's the one listening --

It was two days after my birthday when everything happened.

As a little group, the bunch of us had gone out for dinner to belatedly celebrate the occasion on a Saturday. There was Katy and myself, Brian, Pete and two girlfriends of his- it was never clear whether Pete was sleeping with them both, or had the one he was fucking bring a friend for Brian. But the lot of us had headed downtown to a fancy establishment for an overpriced dinner.

"C'mon Bri, just one drink, It's Rich's birthday. You gotta!" Katy chided Brian while everyone was giving their drink order, partially as a social nag, but also to begin to test the effects of our podcast trickery. Brian had been listening for months now without any obvious signs of letting go, making Katy and I worry. As excited as Brian was getting about new episodes for his workouts, he'd begun to push us into releasing to a larger audience and getting sponsors. We were struggling to produce new material, and I'd even begun to record new hypnotic tracks with my own voice. Yet nothing appeared to be breaking Brian. Our experiment would have to start winding down soon.

"Alright, fine- vodka doesn't have any carbs. Lemme have a vodka soda with a lemon twist!" The waitress politely grinned and toddled off as the table came alive with conversation. Katy went on about pornographic needlepoint, and Pete's girls started talking about horrible bar customers over at Chester's where they worked. For my part, I sat back and enjoyed the company while quietly getting Brian's drink constantly refilled.

After a decent meal, Katy's suggestion of heading back to the house for cake was soundly rejected by Pete's bar gals, who suggested we drop in at a local club for a night cap. At this point, Brian was well lubed and incredibly animated- his support of the side quest earning some physical affection from the two girls. So the group of us headed out into the night, with Brian arm in arm with one of Pete's girls. Katy snuggled into my side as we walked to the club.

"Looks like we wasted all that time on hypnosis when we just could have gotten him drunk," We giggled at the back of the pack. Pete's girls knew the bouncers at the club and negotiated our group's entrance. Pete smoked a joint as we waited, and I was surprised to see Brian take a long drag off it before we went inside.

I whispered into Katy's ear "Hey, for all we know, WE helped get him this far!".

The music thumped along as the lights blinked between an array of colours, and I momentarily felt sad as I realized I had turned 26 and no longer enjoyed the club experience. It happens, right? I found a balcony and a bar at a distance from the dance floor and set myself at the railing. Drink in hand I looked down on the sweaty writhing mass and sighed. Here was the irony of me trying to get Brian to loosen up, while I was about to shut that part of my life down. Closer to thirty than twenty, I had a good thing going with Katy and could one day see us married. She had a respectable job, as did I- so I could see us buying a flat together. This was my life ahead. I spied Brian down in the crowd, doing shots with the brunette Pete had brought. I smiled. Brian had his shit together but still needed a night like this. On the other hand, I was ready to go. Katy found me on the balcony and hugged me from behind. We kissed and I pointed out our man on the dance floor. I was in a good mood. I was happy. Katy suggested we slip out so I gave her the coat check tickets and headed downstairs to say goodbye to our friends.

I fought the throngs of dancing idiots to find Brian in the thick of it- his tie loose, his arms in the air certainly not caring. His face was flush but he was happy. The brunette was nowhere to be seen. He saw me and danced over enthusiastically. I mimicked his gyrations as I shouted that we were leaving. He squinted and shook his head, he couldn't hear me. So I closed the gap between us and shoved my face in his ear.

"Katy and I are going home!"

I stood back, swaying with the crowd and watched his face for recognition. He seemed to nod, but then grabbed me by the arms and pulled me close to him. His cheek grazed mine as his lips found my ear.

"I'm coming,"

For some ridiculous reason, just off those words, I felt my pants tighten. I could feel my limp dick uncoil in my shorts and bone up with a single heartbeat. I was dizzy and my knees weakened. Brians grip on my arms held me up as the crowd danced around us. He moved his face so we were touching foreheads, and I could feel a glob of premium leak out. My body's betrayal was a full on physical threat, and I felt like I was melting down. Brian could sense something was wrong, and wedged himself under my arm, leading me off the dance floor. We met Pete and his girl at the door, Katy holding my jacket. I was starting to feel a bit better as soon as we got outside, exchanging Brian for Katy as my emotional support human.

"You okay babe?"

"Yeah yeah, I think the strobe lights just gave me vertigo or something," I tried to tell myself that didn't just happen, all the while just wanting to get home to check the contents of my briefs. My pants were dark in colour, so I couldn't see if I'd stained them. But I did brush my hand across the fly to feel for any wetness. I was in the clear.

Pete's girl from Chester's was still with us, but the brunette that had latched onto Brian had left the group for some reason. So the five of us grabbed a cab and headed back to the house. Katy walked me up the steps and let me unlock the door.

"Surprise!!" There, collected for my birthday were a handful of friends and a couple of work colleagues, all surrounding a sizeable sheet cake. I was gobsmacked. Katy grabbed my face with two hands and kissed me on the lips. Everyone was laughing and enjoying my shock, all talking at once.

"We had to stall because Beth was late with the cake!" Katy snuggled back under my arm as I surveyed the crowd and started acknowledging people. I saw Brian off to the side clapping and hollering. They'd really gotten me that's for sure.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Pete shouted out.

"Well fuck me!" Everyone roared with laughter. Unbeknownst to me, Brian had flinched at my words.

The party moved along, allowing me time to greet folks and have some chats. Some people had to leave, having waited through the delay. This thinned the crowd to a chill amount. We all sat in the living room as folks peppered me with gifts. Every time I unwrapped something I would take a moment to admire the gift and say "well fuck me" - it was a verbal tic, harmless, just something I'd say from time to time. But I suppose the nature of the phrase, the tone of my voice- likely even the familiarity was triggering.

To Brian.

While I was caught up in events, he was moving from the couches to the edge of the crowd and every time I uttered the phrase "well, fuck me" he was stealthily loosening and removing his clothes.

I had just opened a PS5 controller and said it again, when one of Katy's coworkers let out a shrill scream. Everyone stopped and turned to look at the cause of her commotion, it was Brian stepping out of his khakis and revealing a filled out set of white briefs. My eyes widened and I felt flush again. Pete was the first to move towards Brian, noting his catatonic state and asking if he was alright. Brian just stood there, naked but for his underwear and socks. His finely chiselled body made him look even more like a statue but for the dark streaks of hair across his nipples and down his stomach. His sizeable member strained at the front of his briefs, eliciting devilish howls of shock from the women in the crowd. Katy and I jumped over people and couches to get to him, both realizing we were at fault.

We had been feeding Brian with all sorts of hypnotic suggestions not understanding the brew we'd made or knowing what the triggers would be. Looking back, we had primed the pump for months by seeding his brain with thoughts about freedom and desire and loosening up, then created a trigger in my voice. This should have been apparent the moment I tried to skirt him away by saying.

"Hey man, cmon lets get you to bed,"

Brian's eyes darted up to mine as he subconsciously reached into his underwear and pulled out his dick.

Pete, his girl and I began to pull our friend down the hallway as Katy did damage control in the living room, muttering something about Brian doing 'shrooms. Brian let his shorts fall to his ankles as we pushed him down the hall. A flicker of electricity went off behind my eyes as I watched his furry ass cheeks bounce with every step. One last shove and we were behind closed doors with our naked roommate. Pete looked at me knowingly.