The photo opportunity

Here's a fairly bizarre story about something that happened to me about four years ago when I was twenty.

It happened on the first night of a holiday at Benidorm which I went on with three mates from Uni. At the time we'd booked it, we were all single and the idea of a couple of weeks in Spain to get our legs over as many pissed girls as we could seemed quite appealing. When the holiday came around, though, a couple of us were in relationships and so going away with three other guys and leaving our girlfriends back in England was not so nice.

I remember some idea we had that Jono, one of the guys we were going with, would sell his ticket to Fiona, my girlfriend at the time, so that she could come with us. We'd booked two twin rooms in the hotel so that kind of seemed the logical thing to do. But then it turned out she got this summer job that wouldn't give her the time off, so it ended up being the four of us guys - me, Matt, Wreg (a nickname based on his surname, Wrigglesworth) and Jono - who got on the plane to Benidorm.

We got to the hotel quite late because of some cock-up at the airport, and we were all quite shattered when we checked in. Starting to get on each others nerves a bit, but nothing serious. The guy on the desk, who - as if to shatter all the clichŽs about Spanish hotels being staffed by moustached bullfighters - was clean-shaven and from Liverpool, told us that there was a "slight problem" with our booking and that, while we had something to eat in the restaurant, he'd try to sort it out.

So we went into the restaurant and, after the first priority of getting a couple of pints down us, ordered something to eat. Jono insisted on dragging his suitcase into the restaurant rather than leaving it behind the reception desk like the rest of us had. He was doing a photography degree and had brought his camera and loads of film along with him to get a few "human studies" as he put it. He didn't want to risk it getting nicked.

When the food came I found that I couldn't really eat much. The other three guys had no such trouble and gulped down their paella and chips hungrily, but for some reason travel pisses my guts off and I couldn't eat more than a couple of bites.

While I was staring at my uneaten food, listening to the other three devour theirs, the guy from the desk came over and told us that they'd messed things up a bit and that for the first night of our stay we would all have to pile into one room. They'd sort things out the next day, he insisted, and we'd get the twin rooms we'd booked. None of us were too happy about that and Wreg, a mouthy bastard at the best of times, started kicking up. "What are we going to get as compensation?" he kept asking. At first the Liverpudlian guy tried to get away with apologising over and over. But in the end, after Wreg hinted that we might make our frustrations clear on our last night in the hotel, the guy said we could spend the rest of the evening drinking for free in the bar.

Although we'd planned to go out and find out which night spots looked the most promising, we were all pretty knackered and a night of free drinks seemed ample compensation for the minor hassle of the four of us sharing one room. So we agreed to his offer and, after quickly heading up to the room to drop off our stuff, we almost ran to the bar to get our payoff.

The bar was very dull - sparsely scattered with middle-aged couples for whom the night life of Benidorm held no interest - but the beer was very cold and tasted so much better for being free. I don't remember how much we drank but the bartender must have been told what our limit was by the Liverpudlian guy, and, I think at about midnight, he said he needed to close up for the night. We were all feeling a lot more jovial about things by then, anyway, and I think we all felt we'd been allowed a pretty generous amount of alcohol.

We talked about going out - we'd never intended to be going to bed so early while we were on holiday - but Matt and Jono said they were tired and wanted to get up early next day to get a good spot on the beach. We'd had to get up at about six-thirty that morning to get to the airport on time for, as it turned out, an eight hour wait, and the idea of getting to bed seemed quite appealing. So at about half past twelve the four of us piled up to our room.

The bedroom was a fair size, with a double bed and a single bed, and it had a small bathroom attached to it. When we got in there, Matt immediately jumped on the single bed and said, "This one's mine. Now where are you guys going to sleep?" Wreg also got on the single bed and tried to push Matt off it. They kind of rolled around on it swearing and giggling, each trying to force the other one off.

Jono stared at them and then turned to me and said, "I don't really care where I sleep."

I said, "Daniella told me that Matt farts so much in bed that she wakes up with yellow legs. So I'm not sharing with him."

Matt, still wrestling with Wreg, grunted, "That's only after a curry, you wanker." Then Wreg pushed him off the bed and he collapsed onto the floor panting.

I said, "I reckon we should toss to see who gets the single bed."

Wreg said, also out of breath, "No. It's clearly mine. I'm the one sitting on it. That seems fair to me."

Jono said, "Honestly, I couldn't give a shit."

Matt said, "Well I could. Yeah we'll toss Seb." Then, getting back onto his feet, he said, "When did Daniella tell you that?"

I got out a coin and threw it. I caught it, slapped down onto the back of my left hand and held it there, under my palm. Matt said, "Heads."

I turned to Wreg. He said, in the voice of one of the characters from South Park, "I don't accept your authoritaah."

I turned to Jono. He said, "Okay. Tails."

It was tails.

I threw it and held it under my palm again. I said, "Wreg, your call."

Wreg said, "I'm not getting drawn into this. This bed is mine."

I said, "Heads then."

I looked at it. It was tails. Wreg cackled.

I said, "So it's between you and Jono, Wreg."

Wreg clenched his fists and made punches into the air. He said, smiling, "Okay Jono. Outside. You and me. Fair and square."

I tossed the coin and held it under my palm.

Jono said, "Heads I reckon."

Wreg said, "No way. I want heads. It has to be heads. I'm not getting into this unless I can choose heads."

Jono said, "Whatever."

It was tails again.

Wreg jumped off the bed to see the coin. When he saw that it was indeed showing tails, he shouted, "Best of three!" Then, "But I said I wasn't going to get drawn into this. I said that at the start." He was laughing, though. The bed was Jono's.

So it turned out that Jono got the single bed. He'd said he didn't want it, but I noticed that he didn't offer it to Wreg who had been so eager to claim it for his own. He moved his stuff over to the foot of the single bed and sat on it.

Matt said, "So who takes the floor?"

Wreg said, "There's no way I'm sleeping on the floor. I couldn't give a shit about how many guys are in this bed - after sitting around for eight fucking hours today, my arse needs a mattress."

I said, "I guess it's not like we're going to try it on with each other..."

Wreg said, in a theatrically camp voice, "Ooh I dunno Seb. Those buttocks of yours are very... supple."

So the three of us ended up in the double bed. We were all good mates, we were a bit pissed and we'd been thrown together by necessity. It didn't seem like a big deal. I know some straight guys who would back off from this situation pretending to wretch; who would rather sleep on the floor than to share a bed with a mate. But I think Matt, Wreg and I were happy enough with our own sexualities to treat this as a bit of a laugh. Nothing to get freaked out about.

We arsed around a bit more before we went to bed. Matt had bought some cans in the duty free shop and I remember drinking a couple of those. Jono seemed quiet. He undressed down to his underpants and got into his bed. He sat up in it with the thin sheet pulled over him, watching us. He made the odd comment but on the whole he just watched us, looking like he was deep in thought. He was a bit like that: a bit weird sometimes. I figured he was just tired and waiting for us to stop pissing around and get into bed.

We must have finally switched off the light at about two - so much for the early night. It was a hot night and we all stripped down to our underpants to sleep. We threw the sheets on the floor - it was far too hot to get underneath them. I ended up in the middle of the bed because Matt kept whining about Wreg elbowing him and then Wreg accused Matt of touching his arse. It was all getting a bit silly so I just said I'd go between them.

Being in a double bed like that with two other guys is not the most comfortable situation to be in. Well, not if you're all straight anyway. It was a bit of a squeeze because the three of us had fairly well-built athletic bodies. Wreg played a lot of football. He was about six foot two tall with short mousy blond hair. Matt was a bit shorter - about six foot tall like me. His hair was nearly black and, like, Wreg, he liked to keep it quite short. Matt was also nicely built, but not as muscular as Wreg since he didn't do so much exercise - he just went swimming a couple of times a week as I remember.

Wreg kept moving around and kept accidentally kneeing me or elbowing me. I tried to stretch out a bit and my hand accidentally rubbed against the front of Matt's underpants. It only took a second, but I definitely felt his limp cock through the material of his briefs. I felt really embarrassed - he didn't say anything and I hoped he was asleep. 

It took me a long time to get to sleep. I ended up on my side facing Matt. Wreg must have also ended up on his side facing away from me. His backside kept rubbing against mine. Although we both had our underpants on, I felt tense that my arse was touching another guy's arse. Especially since Wreg was a friend. I didn't get turned on by the feel of his backside against mine. I might have done, I guess in a different context, but like this, with the four of us in that room together, I really felt uncomfortable about it.

I dozed off for a while but gradually became aware of movement in the room. By now I was lying on my back. I lay there with my eyes closed trying to get back to sleep despite the soft noises I could here coming from somewhere in the room. My hand was resting against Matt's hip. He was also lying on his back. I could feel the waistband of his briefs against the back of my hand. I could here him breathing softly.