WentzWang, vol. 1
While sitting about my apartment before the FOB show on the 15th, the collected crew (eleanor-lavish, clumsygyrl, callsigns, marigolde and myself) bunnied a porn studio AU that quickly got way out of hand. I am attempting to record the bunny for posterity. Here, then, is the first ten pages.
(The WentzWang picture primer.)
WentzWang is the world’s foremost producer of bisexual porn. (Pete believes that all p\orn is bisexual porn. It just depends on the audience.) It was a long road to get there, but Pete and Joe and Spencer have made it their life’s work. So it’s pretty lucky that they’re good at it.
Pete owns the company. That’s his wang. He had been working in reality porn for a while and wanted to be in charge, make it more fun. He was also settling into domestic bliss with Joe and just didn’t feel so inclined to bang strangers anymore. He convinced Ray (“El Bull”) Toro to come with him and WentzWang was born. Now, they’ve got a handful of really great directors (like Gabe and Nick), some excellent talent (like Andy, who’s straight-for-pay, Travis, Tyson, Greta, Gaylor, and Ryan), and one cranky sound engineer (Bob Bryar). In the beginning, it was just Ray’s videos and some Pete-directed amateur action. That’s how they met Spencer.
Spencer
Spencer was 19 and in college. He was having his rebellious period. He’d always been the perfect student, the perfect child, but now he was on his own and wanted to do things that were hedonistic and irresponsible. That’s why he was dating Bert. Bert was probably an addict, but he didn’t talk about it like that. He said that it helped him connect with things past seeing, hear things more important than sound. He wasn’t a junkie; he was just bohemian. He got high and called Spencer to come over for sex. Bert was unresponsive during sex, and Spencer had never slept with anyone else, but he figured he was okay at it. He managed to make Bert come more than half the time, anyway.
Bert heard about Pete’s fledgling production enterprise and his $50 amateur couple offer. He thought it would be hot. He suggested it to Spencer. (Bert didn’t actually suggest things, in the sense that Spencer could say yes or no. Bert just made announcements.) The night he shot Bert and Spencer always remained one of the most upsetting nights of Pete’s career. He could tell that Spencer didn’t really want to be there, wasn’t really comfortable with what was happening. He could see that Spencer got bullied into this, that he got bullied into a lot of things, and to add insult to injury, Bert didn’t quite notice that he couldn’t get hard. At the end of the night, Pete drew Spencer aside. “I’m gonna destroy the tapes, okay?” he said, and Spencer nodded, looking almost dead inside. “Call me, please? If you ever need to talk about anything at all.” Spencer didn’t look convinced, but he took the card.
A week later, Spencer found out that Bert was cheating on him. “You have to be connected, body, mind and soul, y’know?” he said. He didn’t even look guilty. “I’m just not sure we’re connected.”
Spencer couldn’t stop crying. He sat in his car and didn’t know what to do. Then he dug through his backpack and found Pete’s card. He didn’t know what he’d say if he called, so he drove over to the address, found Pete’s one-bedroom apartment, and rang the bell. Pete pulled him inside and made him tea. (“I don’t drink, so it’s kinda this or RedBull.”) He let Spencer sit and collect himself, gave him time to tell what had happened. Pete looked fucking enraged on Spencer’s behalf. He grabbed Spencer’s shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. “Listen to me,” he said, voice absolutely serious. “You are so much better than him. You don’t need him dragging you down. You’re fucking smart and you’re in school. You’re going to get your degree, and then you’re going to come work with me.” Pete was already certain he’d be huge someday. Spencer could only nod.
He felt done with Bert after that night. He put his nose to the grindstone and worked hard in school. He stopped dating. He talked to Pete on the phone a couple times a week, was happy when Pete started selling videos. He changed his major to media management. Pete called in the middle of Spencer’s senior year and asked him to work part-time for him, help Pete set up an office. Since then, he hasn’t worked anywhere else. He handles distribution, payroll and benefits. He feels like he owes everything to Pete.
Mike
Mike is WW’s director of marketing. He loves the company like crazy and his boundless enthusiasm is largely responsible for their huge profile. He never forgets a face or a title and he has appointed himself head of employee morale. He has morale boosting staff meetings in which he gives out candy and prizes! He has plaques and mugs and pencils printed for *every* personal milestone, which means that WW’s most successful stars have stacks of them in every corner. But Mike’s so sunny that no one can turn them down.
After a couple of years of Mike’s morale boosting, Pete asks Spencer what Mike’s budget is for that kind of budget. Spencer lifts an eyebrow. “Mike’s been paying out of pocket.” Pete’s eyes go wide. In the next round of budgeting, Mike gets an employee morale budget, $10,000 for tchotchkes and pizza. He almost comes right there.
Mike volunteers to be the HR contact for OSHA, so he also gives the fire safety talks and encourages them all to be mindful of their disability rights. When Mike (reluctantly) schedules the sexual harassment seminar, everyone clears their calendar to attend. Mike looks miserable, but manfully handles the question period. (Mike: “No means no.” Tyson: “What if no’s in the script?”) Afterwards, they all clap extra hard and take Mike out for a beer. He deserves it.
Misty
Nick Wheeler may have conceived of the Misty’s Adventures series, but Greta brought it to life. It may be softcore, but it’s still WW’s biggest seller (it’s especially popular in hotels). Pete signs his Christmas cards to Greta “Thanks for keeping the lights on.”
It was a really nice idea from a really nice guy. Nick wanted to create the ultimate in cheesecake-next-door. He stumbled upon Greta, a Midwestern girl with no previous porn experience, and it was magic. Misty’s Adventures are really tame, things like Misty Goes to the Beach and Misty’s Christmas, usually an hour of lingerie and bathing suits, pillow fights and kissing, and then one climactic sex scene in which nothing gets too hardcore. She’s a living Barbie doll (albeit one that is proportioned like a regular person), and she’s hugely popular.
The biggest shock to Greta is how popular Misty is with gay men. There are Misty fan clubs comprised entirely of gay men who watch it in bars. She gets fan mail from drag queens. She gets invited to emcee an event on Pink Saturday and takes a press photo with four other Mistys and frames it for her dressing room. She even gets a letter from a lesbian sociology professor who has published a paper on the way Misty reclaims the sexually feminine for women. She reads the paper and writes a thank you note to the professor.
One afternoon, Nick turns up in the doorway of Pete’s office. “I need your dog,” he says. Pete makes a face, but hands over Hemingway’s leash. He laughs when the dailies come back for Misty’s New Puppy. Nick demands to take Hemmy with them when they film Misty’s Ski Trip. “She wouldn’t leave her dog behind,” he says, and Nick is the ultimate authority on Misty. Spencer is so amused that he starts cutting day-rate checks made out to Hemingway Wentz-Trohman. When the Misty action figures debut, Skiing Fun Misty comes with her own little Hemmy in a tiny doggy parka.
Patrick
Patrick works at a video store in LA. He wants to focus on his music, but he can’t get serious about it. He goes to work, he goes home, he fiddles with his guitar. He and Mikey, who works with him, are teaching themselves web design. They’ve been talking about putting together a music fansite, but mostly Patrick just likes figuring out the code. Mikey likes making brightly colored things in Flash.
Patrick works the Monday afternoon shift, which means he’s responsible for cataloging the new acquisitions that arrive Monday morning. He really, really likes the WW releases. He’s afraid someone will notice if he checks them out on his employee account, so he always steals them home, watches them, then runs them through the shrinkwrapper again if they’re not for rent. It’s a system that works pretty well, until Brendon’s First Time.
Patrick doesn’t know anything about Brendon. He doesn’t know that Brendon was an office assistant at WW for a year and a half before Pete offered him an on-screen contract. He doesn’t know that Brendon is dorky and has a thing for He-Man action figures. He only knows that it’s the hottest thing he’s ever seen. He can’t bring himself to return it to the store. He marks it damaged on arrival and has the distributor send another.
The next time Mikey’s over, Patrick forgets to hide the case. Whatever, he thinks. It’s Mikey. Mikey knows about him. Mikey taps the case with his finger. “You like this stuff?” he asks. Patrick shrugs in a way that means fuck, yeah. “My brother directed this.” Patrick looks up, stunned. Art Yaw is Mikey’s weird brother? Mikey flips over the DVD and reads the copy. “He and his boyfriend usually do the couples stuff, but I’m pretty sure this is his too.”
The video store has two tape players in it. One plays on the four tvs in the store, the other plays in the adult video room. On Patrick’s first day working with Mikey, he’d dragged Patrick into the adult video room and pointed at a rack of videos. “Never, ever play those in here.”
“You got a thing against swinger porn?” Patrick asked, aiming at levity.
“Yes,” Mikey had said gravely. Now it makes sense.
Mikey talks about Brendon coming over to the house and geeking out over Gerard’s Atari. Patrick gets his keys and his shoes and tries not to think about the way Brendon looks when Ryan Ross, playing his college roommate, fucks him for the first time. Or when he and Travis McCoy, playing his lab partner, jerk each other off in the classroom. But Mikey sees the way Patrick blushes, pushing him out the door.
Patrick is closing up the store a week later when Mikey calls. “Me and G are going for pizza. Wanna come?” Patrick agrees without thinking about it. He’s decided that he really wants to meet Mikey’s porn auteur brother. But when he walks into the pizzeria half an hour later, Mikey and Gerard are sitting with Brendon Urie, who is managing to look like a total nerd while eating his slice and laughing. Mikey’s seen him and it’s too late to leave, so Patrick just grabs a slice and slides into the booth next to Brendon. Conversation is surprisingly okay. Just after Patrick grabs a second slice, Gerard and Mikey get up to leave. “We’ve got family stuff to take care of,” Mikey says.
“At a quarter to midnight??” Patrick asks. Mikey just shrugs and leaves, leaving Patrick with Brendon.
Brendon laughs. “Well, that was not smooth.” Patrick laughs too. They stay and chat and have a really nice time. Patrick gives Brendon a lift home, since Gerard abandoned him, and at the door, Brendon says, “This was fun. We should go out again.”
Which is why, a month later, Patrick has to come to terms with the fact that he’s actually dating Brendon Urie. This realization strikes while they’re making out on his couch, hands down each other’s pants. His life is pretty awesome.
The Website
WW has a website, but it sucks. It has upcoming releases and personal appearances, but that’s it. No additional video, no picture galleries, nothing that anyone wants to pay for. It would be a really good secondary revenue stream for them. “Get Patrick and Mikey to do it,” Brendon says when he’s playing Gameboy in Pete’s office one afternoon. “They teach themselves that shit for fun.” Pete actually really likes that idea. He calls Patrick and asks if he could put together a mock-up for a little extra cash. They’ll get a real design firm to do the actual implementation, but Pete wants to see what’s possible. Patrick agrees. He really likes the guys at WW and he’s been dying to put his skills to work. He and Mikey sit down with Pete, make an ungodly huge list of things that Pete would like to see, or Patrick thinks they can do, and then they start working.
Brendon’s sorry he recommended Patrick at all. Patrick’s working 35 hours a week at the store and upwards of 40 on the site. Pete gave him a cubicle and he’s there all the time. He’s up all night doing image maps and proofing code. He keeps telling Patrick that it only has to be a mockup; it doesn’t have to be completely finished, but Patrick won’t stop. He’s kind of a perfectionist. Brendon is relieved when Patrick and Mikey are ready to present the mock-up.
It’s ... it’s way more than Pete expected. The visuals are stunning, the bonus content is great. They can charge $20 a month, minimum. Plus, Patrick did mock-ups of minisites like Misty’s Corner and Mikey did some amazing flash video embedding and he’s absolutely floored.
But Patrick comes out of the meeting looking downcast. “What’s wrong?” Brendon asks, jumping off Spencer’s desk.
“Pete wants us to handle it. He says he won’t trust the site to anyone else.” Brendon’s confused. Patrick should be smiling. “That means keeping up my 75-hour weeks,” Patrick says. “I can’t give up my job for this? What if this falls apart?” Brendon takes Patrick into his dressing room and they snuggle a bit, then, after Patrick has fallen asleep on the couch, he goes to see Pete. “You’ve got to give him an actual job here,” Brendon says, looking angry. “You’re going to kill him!”
Patrick finally wakes to a note that he needs to see Spencer about some paperwork. When he gets to Spencer’s desk, he’s surprised at the neat little folder Spencer has prepared. “This is your offer letter. This is info about our profit-sharing plan. Fill out these two sheets to enroll in the health insurance program, and this so I can get you a parking pass.” Patrick just blinks at him. Pete’s offering him $10,000 more than he’s making at the store, plus benefits. “Seriously?” he asks Spencer. Spencer nods, humorless. “Seriously.”
And so Patrick and Mikey become full-time employees at WentzWang! Patrick keeps Mikey in line by threatening to make him design Gerard’s pages. They’re floored by the number of people that sign up for the site. He loves that site to death, though. He remembers when he was just a fan, how he would have loved this sort of thing. He sets them all up with passwords to post on the official WW blog. Greta talks Patrick into setting up the office for WiFi by pointing out that he could work from Brendon’s dressing room. While he crawls around under the desks, Greta and Brendon and Gabe stare at his ass.
Mistress Maja
Maja is probably the most recognizable dominatrix in the porn industry. Pete understands why, she’s commanding, she’s gorgeous, she’s probably great in bed. What he doesn’t get is why her films are so terrible.
Maja is under contract to Jared Leto, who refuses to be referred to in the industry by anything other than his nom-de-directoire, Bartholomew Cubbins. Bartholomew Cubbins styles himself as a creator of erotic cinema, not a mere porn peddler. This mostly means that his films are overthought, Maja spanking a man in a sailor suit while accordion music plays. Most things are in black and white. No one ever comes. Pete does not get the appeal. He starts hearing whispers that Maja is unhappy with Bartholomew, and everyone knows that her three-year contract is almost up. Pete goes to New York to see if he can woo her to LA.
Maja is unhappy with Bartholomew. She could have put up with most anything, but what she will not stand for is the way he takes control of her scenes. “You are a filmmaker,” she tells him over and over again. “But I am the mistress here. I am in charge of my own scenes and you merely record.”
Bartholomew shakes his head. “I am the director. This is my studio and you are my dominatrix.”
When Pete calls and asks if he can take her out to dinner, she says yes. “Your movies are really pretty,” Pete says. “But it doesn’t look like you’re having any fun.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not.”
“Then come to LA,” he says. “I promise we’ll do our best to show you a good time.”
She allows Bartholomew to make a counter-offer, but he declines. He refuses to cede to her requests, so Maja packs her things and goes. It’s a huge coup for WW.
One of the requests Maja made of Pete was that she wanted a pet, someone to train for her films. Bartholomew always hired actors who pretended that they wanted her ministrations, but acted on his orders and not her own. Pete puts it to the group at a staff meeting, asking for volunteers, and he’s shocked when Jon Walker is the one to pop into his office the next day and offer his services. Jon isn’t a porn star. He’s Spencer’s office PA. He gets bagels and makes copies and orders lube. But he’s cute, especially when he shrugs, and Pete thinks Maja will adore him.
Maja comes to the studio with her intimidating face on, but it doesn’t last very long. Everyone at Bartholomew’s was in it for themselves, attempting to climb the ladder, earn his praise. But everyone at WentzWang seems to be in it for the fun. They throw her a little party, give her hugs, and she genuinely likes them. She sees Jon, hanging in corners and talking to everybody, but she doesn’t know that he’s the one that volunteered until the next day when Pete brings him by her dressing room. She looks him up and down and he nervously adjusts his shirt. “Can you come by my house on Saturday? 3pm, maybe?” Jon just nods. Maja smiles and goes back to her makeup.
Jon drives the route on Friday, just in case he gets lost. He’s a little surprised by Maja’s house. When Maja arrived in New York, Bartholomew told her he’d found her an apartment. It was in the Meatpacking District, a loft with cold brick walls, everything black and leather or chrome. It was the sort of apartment that a dominatrix was supposed to live in, and it provided no chance for Maja to be anything else, even at home. When she went to LA to look at houses, she’d fallen in love with this one. It’s a little pink cottage on a quiet residential street. There are shutters and a white picket fence and windowboxes. She has a secret fetish for domesticity, for cooking and gardening, and she finally has a place for that.
Jon comes on Saturday, exactly on time, and Maja meets him at the front door. She points out the table where he can drop his sunglasses and his keys, tells him to take off his shoes and meet her in the front room. The first afternoon session is barely sexual. She gets him used to following her commands, teaches him to lower himself into headspace. He’s eager, which she appreciates. She spends much longer with him than she meant to. When they’re done, after the sun has set, Jon asks if he can buy her dinner. “It seems only fair.” She smiles and nods and they go. They don’t talk about work at all. They talk about ordinary stuff and it’s a lot of fun. Maja can’t remember having friends like this in New York, especially not with the boys she played with. Jon already feels like a friend.
He joins her for lunch twice during the week, and then goes to her house again on Saturday. This time, she has him follow her on his hands-and-knees while she gets things accomplished. She writes to her sister, she does some planting in the back garden (Jon is a little nervous about following her outside, but no one can see), and at the end, to reward him, she lets him watch while she showers. Jon just barely makes it home before he has to jack off.
The third Saturday, Maja instructs him to get naked and kneel in the middle of her bedroom. She kneels with him and strokes his cheek, promising that she’s going to look after him, luring him down into headspace. He goes willingly. He realized when he was on his knees in her bathroom that he likes this, he likes having her look after him and he likes letting go of himself, not feeling self-conscious or self-pitying. Maja notes how eagerly he falls for her, how deeply he entrusts himself to her. She realizes just then that he’s here because he wants to be, not for the paycheck. He’s her pet. She leans in and kisses him, hard. Jon’s not quite prepared, but the shock is erased by the wave of acceptance. He opens his mouth for her and she licks inside. That is the first time Maja and Jon have sex.
Afterwards, he takes her out to dinner again. On Monday morning, Maja tells Pete that Jon is ready. They schedule their first scene for the week after. Jon starts to get nervous. Maja calls him on Saturday. She needs to buy a new garbage can for her kitchen, but she’s not sure where. Jon says he’ll come by and drive her to Target. They shop, Jon pushing the cart while Maja looks at things, and Jon is distracted. When they’re back in the car, he just stares ahead for long minutes, forgetting to turn the car on until Maja touches his hand. “Jon?” she asks softly. “What’s wrong?”
He smiles ruefully. “Nerves.”
“Ah,” she says, smiling. Jon drives her back home, and she says he should park. “Come in for a little bit, yeah? I’ll make you dinner.” Jon smiles at that, he adores her domestic streak, and helps her carry her stuff inside. Maja tugs him down with her onto the couch and curls close, lying a hand on his cheek. “You’re going to be perfect tomorrow,” she says, “because you’re my pet. You’re gorgeous and you’re sexy and I wouldn’t have scheduled this scene if I didn’t think you were ready.” He smiles and closes his eyes, leaning into her touch. “I’ll look after you,” she whispers, and Jon knows she means it.
Maja makes chicken Caesar salad for dinner and they watch tv afterwards. Jon gets a kiss goodbye before he goes home. The next morning, Maja meets him in wardrobe (there’s a collar for him to match each of Maja’s outfits) and she takes him by the hand to her dressing room, sits him down and murmurs, stroking him until he’s in headspace, perfectly free of his nerves and ready for her.
The scene is hot. Gerard is directing it and Maja and Jon are amazing. When they’re done, Gerard rushes the dailies off to Pete and Maja orders the room cleared so she can curl up around Jon, bring him up slowly. “You were wonderful, pet,” she murmurs. “Absolutely amazing.”
Jon and Maja continue to see each other outside of work. They’re both willing to admit that they’re dating. He spends more and more time over at her place. They have sex and Maja makes him breakfast and he helps her plant things. It’s really very lovely. Jon knows that Maja misses home sometimes, so he gets the Berlitz Teach Yourself Swedish course from the internet. Maja comes into the kitchen sometimes to find him hunched over his workbook, trying to remember the word for sweater. It’s on one of these occasions that she realizes that he’s her pet, hers to take care of, and yet his neck is bare. She trails her fingertips down the back of his neck and wants to put her collar on him with a need that is dizzying.
She starts a project. She’s going to design the perfect collar for him. She does two weeks of research on every possible leather, all the clasps, what her favorite designers are up to. She shows up at Spencer’s desk with a carefully organized binder (her organization turns him on). She needs another set of eyes. Spencer helps her make flowcharts to talk herself through the process. Once she’s decided on what she wants, it takes her artist two months to make it. Then she calls Jon and invites him over.
She takes Jon’s hand and they kneel in the center of the living room. She tells him that she feels lucky to have him, and she wants him to be hers permanently. Her hands open and there’s the collar, black leather and silver buckle. Jon looks up at her, surprised, and then he takes it from her and kisses her, accepting.
Greta, Travis, and the Vase
Maja and Jon confess to each other that they have fantasies, ideas for other things they could do, but Jon’s too shy to talk about it. Instead, they grab a vase from Maja’s cupboard and write their desires on slips of paper, like a suggestion box. Periodically, they draw a slip and complete whatever’s on the slip.
Jon was horribly embarrassed when he put this one in, but Maja’s eyes just light up when she pulls it from the vase. Jon wants another boy and girl to join them. “Who do you want?” Maja asks, whispers over his ear. Jon’s response is just as soft, a little embarrassed. “Greta.” Maja smiles.
Jon gets to ask Greta if she wants to join them and she says yes. He lets her pick the boy, and she wants Travis. She may be sweet and innocent, but she got into this business because she likes sex, and softcore is not a way to get frequently laid. She doesn’t have a boyfriend and she dislikes casual sex (because the boys want to believe that she’s Misty and are too gentle), so she gets off by herself. Often while watching Travis’ indie porn. It’s all girls with tattoos and boys with piercings and Travis looking so damned gorgeous as he expertly fucks them. She wants him.
Travis hastily agrees to come to Maja’s that weekend. Mostly because Maja stops by his dressing room on the way back from a photoshoot and is wearing a leather bustier and stockings. He doesn’t think to ask who the other guest is. But then he gets to Maja’s, she opens the door, and there’s Greta. Maja’s pretty good at getting people comfortable and honest, and ten minutes later Greta is telling Travis about her habit of watching his films. Five minutes after that, Jon and Maja are watching while Travis struggles to get Greta naked. After Greta’s first orgasm, they decide that they’ll retire to Maja’s room for the evening and let Greta and Travis enjoy each other.
When Jon wakes up at 2 to get some water, they’re still fucking.
Travis and Greta spend a lot of time together after that. It’s the most awesome relationship either of them has ever been in. They have a lot of sex (none of the tattooed indie girls are sexier than Greta), and then sit around in their underwear and watch movies on TV. When Gabe calls to say he’s scored some intense and awesome weed, Greta doesn’t mind when Travis goes to get some. She’s never tried it before, so Travis bakes it into a plate of brownies. He learns that Greta-plus-pot is like tantra. She can go all night. He can’t get out of bed the next day.
When Nick plans Misty’s Ski Trip, there’s a part in it for a college student who Misty saves from an avalanche. Greta wants it to be Travis. “Okay,” Nick says. “But you have got to tone it down. Misty doesn’t have the sort of sex you two have.” She promises she’ll be good and Travis gets to come with them to Big Bear. Pete is highly doubtful that this is going to work, but Nick owes Greta some trust. The first day, they film all of the other scenes, Misty and Hemmy getting outfitted in their snow gear and tobogganing, Misty having cocoa with her friends, Misty saving Travis from the avalanche. The next day they’re supposed to do the bit where Misty tries to warm Travis by the fire, and sex happens. The whole house is awakened at 8AM by Greta’s shrieking. They’ve decided that the best way to tone it down is to get the actual fucking out of their systems. By the time they shoot the scene at 1pm, they’re both blissed out and slow, gentle. Nick crows to Pete on the phone that the scene was a total success, and fuck, does he need some sleep.
Spencer finds love
Ray decides to retire and focus on editing. Travis likes having a partner in crime and is not really one for going it alone, so Pete hires Jepha. He’s seen some of the indie stuff Jepha’s done on the ‘net and he likes it a lot. Jepha fits in really well with the WW crew, going out for beers on his second day and chatting in the kitchen. The one member of the staff who doesn’t warm up to him is Spencer. Spencer is very dry and disconnected, only talking to Jepha about business and just staring at him when he tries to shift the conversation. He asks Travis if he did something to make Spencer dislike him and Travis just shakes his head and smiles ruefully. “Spence is just like that. He doesn’t really let any of us in.”
Spencer has a routine. He goes to work, he comes home to his condo, he microwaves a Lean Cuisine and watches tv, then he goes to bed. He gets up, he goes to work, etc.
Jepha thinks that sucks. Spencer works with really awesome people! He should hang out with them! Or at least have a friend.
So Jepha starts dropping by Spencer’s desk every day. He always asks if Spencer wants to join him for lunch or get dinner after work or go to the movies, and Spencer always says no. So he’s really surprised when Spencer sighs and says yes.
Spencer is hoping that if he just goes out with Jepha once, Jepha will leave him alone. They go to the movies, because then Spencer won’t have to talk much, but Jepha makes conversation on the way over and while they’re waiting for the film to start and on the way back. He even held Spencer’s hand for a little while in the theater. It’s nice. At the end of the night, when Jepha asks if he wants to do it again, Spencer rolls his eyes and says yes.
The next time, they have dinner, and it’s fun. At the end, Spencer kisses Jepha’s cheek, then grudgingly says yes again.
He does that thing every time, the eye roll, when Jepha asks him out. They have a really nice time, and Spencer’s more cordial at work, but no forward progress is being made. Spencer thinks that what went wrong last time is he was trying to be independent, he was bucking all the rules. He’s seen a lot of movies and he knows that following the rules, having proper dates and playing hard-to-get, gets you long-term happiness.
Jepha, confused, turns to Pete and Joe. Joe sighs and sits him down to tell him about Bert. By the end, Jepha is horrified. It’s late and Spencer’s already gone home, but Jepha feels like he has to do something, so he goes over to Spencer’s complex. When Spencer answers the door, Jepha just starts talking. “Joe told me about your last boyfriend, about what he did, and I want you to know that I really like you, and I’d like to keep seeing you. I don’t want you to feel pressured, but when you’re ready to move forward, I’m ready too.”
Spencer is mortified. There’s a reason he’s never told anybody about Bert and that’s because it was awful and embarrassing. He can’t believe he let himself get involved with that and now he can’t believe that Joe told someone. “I think you should go,” Spencer says, and Jepha’s face falls.
“Oh. Okay.” Spencer closes the door, so Jepha turns and goes. Spencer turns off the tv and goes to bed. Jepha stays up, worrying. Spencer clearly doesn’t want to move forward with him, or he fucked up somehow, and now it’s over. He stays up until four, then calls in sick to work. Spencer’s really surprised to get the message. Jepha’s never missed a shoot before. When Joe asks him what happened with Jepha, smiling, Spencer tells him the truth. Joe just stares at him, then sighs and walks away. Spencer stares blankly at his monitor and tries to figure out why Jepha stayed home. The only thing he can think of is that Jepha is hurt, that he hurt Jepha, that Jepha likes him enough to be hurt by him, and Spencer wasn’t expecting that. He grabs his jacket and sticks his head into Pete’s office. “I’m going on my lunch break.”
“You don’t take lunch breaks,” Pete says.
“Then I’ve got some coming to me. I won’t be back.” Before Pete can question him, Spencer’s gone.
Jepha feels gross. He’s sitting on his couch in sweats when there’s a knock on the door. He doesn’t bother to look through the peephole, but he’s not expecting Spencer either. Spencer doesn’t say anything (he doesn’t know what to say), he just kisses Jepha hard, pushing him back into the apartment. It’s fucking hot. Jepha understands it for what it is, Spencerspeak for “forward, please” and he starts guiding them toward the bedroom.
The first time, Jepha’s on top, trying to make Spencer happy. The second time, for the first time ever, Spencer tops. He likes it a lot.
Tyson and Darren
Tyson Ritter is a pornstar. His stuff sells really well. On camera, he may fuck boys and girls, but in private, he’s really only into boys. He’s pretty sure, when they’re planning it, that he can film all of Tyson Ritter’s 40 Girls in 4 Nights at once, but by day three, he’s exhausted and his cock has given up. Ordinarily, Tyson doesn’t need all that much help to get it up, so Chris Faller’s ministrations are sufficient. Chris has plans for his life that do not include being a fluffer, and he doesn’t really enjoy his work. He has a tendency to check his watch during handjobs. Tyson needs a better solution fast.
His eyes land on Darren. Darren’s the boom operator for this shoot and really sweet. “Hey,” Tyson says to him, flirting, and Darren gives him a shy smile.
“Hey.”
“Could you do me a favor?” Tyson asks. “I’m just not quite ready to perform and I don’t think Chris is going to do it for me, so...”
Darren’s eyes go wide. “Oh!” He’s had a sort of crush on Tyson (or, at least, Tyson is really hot and really nice, so how can he not). “Right here?” Tyson shakes his head and leads Darren to the bathroom. Tyson’s expecting a hesitant handjob, but Darren locks the door and drops to his knees. Already Tyson’s cock is waking up. Darren is eager, if not technically skilled, and he’s so gorgeous that Tyson can’t complain. He has to stop Darren or he’ll fall off the other side. Darren just smiles up at him, mouth wet, and Tyson has to run to the set. He sticks his head back in for one more comment. “If you want to continue that, stick around after the shoot, okay?” Tyson smiles and Darren nods.
They go in a few weeks from having sex on a regular basis to dating. Darren spends a lot of time at Tyson’s really posh apartment because his own studio is a dump. Darren’s only 18 and his parents’ horrific divorce caused his grades to nosedive so badly that he has to repeat his senior year. He moved out, got his own place, and he works the night shoots because he’s at school during the day. He applied for a job with WW partly to piss his parents off, and partly to assert his independence. After Tyson tells the staff this, they all start to dote on him. Darren brings his books to study between scenes and they’re all pulling for him so hard. Most of them come to his high school graduation. An equal number of boys recognize Greta as do Travis. They all cheer hard when Darren walks and his whole class is pretty surprised. Darren’s quiet and sits in the back and never comes to parties. And apparently hangs with porn stars.
He and Ty have been dating just about a year when WW celebrates its tenth anniversary. They do a Best of WentzWang box set, including Brendon’s First Time, the first Misty’s Adventure, Tyson’s First Time, featuring Tyson and Ray. Everyone mingles at the little party and drinks, but Darren is glued to one of the tv screens. The DVD changer has stopped on Tyson’s and Darren’s never seen it before. Everyone always talks about how Ray was a legend, but he never quite believed them. Ray’s a really nice guy who works in editing! He brings his sandwich every day in Tupperware! He didn’t think that Ray would be in possession of the largest cock he had ever seen, and could fuck someone this hard, this long. Tyson makes note of the way Darren’s eyes widen and the fact that he’s hard as a rock when they slide into the car after the party.
Darren’s birthday is a month away, and now Tyson has the perfect gift. He wants Darren to get fucked by El Bull.
But Darren’s only slept with one other boy apart from Tyson, and you can’t just jump into this. So Tyson comes home with lots of sex toys. Darren’s up for anything Ty suggests (he figures that sex with Tyson has always been awesome in the past, so why wouldn’t it be awesome in the future). It only takes a week of increasing dildo size to discover that Darren is a size queen. Tyson has to slow him down, keep him from hurting himself, but everything he tries has Darren pushing back and begging.
A week before Darren’s birthday, Tyson actually asks Ray. He says it would mean a lot to the kid, and Ray agrees. What the hell, he figures. Tyson brings Darren home on his birthday, covers his eyes and walks him into the bedroom. When Darren opens his eyes, there’s Ray, stretched out on Tyson’s bed, hand wrapped lazily around his cock, and Tyson’s beaming.
It’s the best night of Darren’s life. Tyson fucks him, and then Ray fucks him, and then he gets to fuck Tyson. Ray and Tyson are a lot of fun in bed together, laughing and playful. Darren sleeps away most of the next day. Tyson and Ray get up and have breakfast, then go to work. Ty tells Ray, when they’re parting ways, that if he’d like to join them again, he’s always welcome. Ray thinks about it, it was fun, and ends up going back to Tyson’s on Wednesday. Darren is way overeager, which Tyson thinks is hilarious, and they have sex so early that they can sit around after and watch TV. Darren and Ray start hanging out, going to the movies sometimes, or just sitting around in Ty’s apartment while Darren does homework. When Ray sleeps over, Darren packs him two sandwiches, then turns up to the editing rooms and eats with him at lunch. Tyson and Ray start hanging out again too, drinking beer and watching tv, or talking late at night. It’s the happiest Ray’s been in a while.
Two months after Darren’s birthday, Tyson tells Ray to get dressed up. “I am taking you out to dinner.” Ray shrugs, because Tyson is weird, and goes home after work to change. He spends amazingly little time in his own apartment these days. He really should do laundry. When Darren and Tyson show up, Darren has a present for him: two new games for his PSP. “What are these for?” Ray asks, and Darren’s face falls.
“It’s our anniversary,” he says, and Ray’s eyes widen. He hadn’t realized they were dating.
Tyson makes a little exasperated sound. “Come on! The staying over? The sex? The movie dates? We’re dating!” Ray looks between them. Tyson’s one of the hottest porn stars in the game, Darren’s fresh faced and sweet, and he’s a washed-up video editor.
Ray looks at Darren. “Thanks for the gift.” He means that he’s saying yes to whatever that question was, that he’s going to go along with their version of events, that he wants things to continue this way. Darren leans in for a quick kiss. Ray returns with one a little harder, and Tyson locks the door. Fuck the reservations.
Tattoos
One night, when Tyson, Nick and Jon are getting really drunk, Tyson suggests (loudly) that they get tattoos. “Nothing says you love someone like getting their name on your ass, right?” Nick and Jon, who are extremely happy drunks, agree.
When they get to the tattoo parlor, the artist won’t do it until they sober up. While they’re sitting in the waiting room, Tyson remembers that he’s naked on film a lot and it might be a poor plan to get “Darren + Ray” tattooed on him. But Nick and Jon have made up their minds. While he’s on the table, Jon gets a text from Maja asking if he’s coming back to her place. He says yes, of course, and he smiles.
Jon lets himself into Maja’s house and she’s already asleep. She mumbles in his direction and he gets undressed and slides into bed to spoon up around her. She gets a kiss before they both drift off to sleep. In the morning, Maja wakes first and gets showered and dressed. It’s not until Jon swings his legs off the bed that she notices the bandage on his leg, bled through in spots. Her eyes go wide. “Jon! What happened?!”
“Oh,” he says, smiling sheepishly and peeling off the bandage. She kneels between his legs to inspect the wound and watches as he slowly reveals the new mark. “Me and Nick got tattoos.”
“What did Nick get?” she asks, resisting the temptation to just yank off the bandage.
Jon laughs softly. “He got a heart with an arrow through it, y’know, old school? And it says Misty on it.”
Maja laughs, and tilts forward to see as Jon pulls the bandage free. It’s a black daisy, and the center bears, in script, monogram M.I. Her eyes dart up to his and Jon is blushing. “What if I do something awful to you? What if we break up?”
Jon sighs. “Maja, I’m always going to want to remember this, no matter what.”
Maja rises to kiss him hard, pushing him onto his back. Jon laughs and wraps his arms around her waist. After they’ve kissed for a few lazy minutes, she asks, voice husky, “Why the daisy?”
It’s a quiz. Jon can pass it. “Prastkrage,” he says. “Flower of Scania.” Maja grins and kisses him again.
The AVNs
It’s a Saturday and Brendon and Patrick are up early, watching cartoons and making out, when Brendon’s phone rings. He picks up to hear Mike absolutely shrieking. Brendon’s been nominated for best newcomer in a gay feature. Mike wakes up the rest of the office with a series of more and more hysterical calls. They’ve been nominated for tons of awards. Tyson for Male Performer of the Year, Misty’s Adventures for Best Continuing Series, Travis and Jepha get nominated for Best Pro-Am (and they’re up against a truly boring Bartholomew Cubbins film involving college goth girls). Pete starts figuring out just who he has to take to Las Vegas. Patrick and Mikey have to go, because they were nominated for Best Website (and because Brendon refuses to go without someone to stand between him and the crazies). Nick and Greta have to go, as does Bob (nominated for Best Score) and Ray (nominated for Best Editing). Tyson and Ray make it clear that Darren’s coming with them. Pete is forcing Spencer to go, “This is our big night! Buy yourself a ticket.”
It’s not until Brendon actually reads Adult Video News on Monday that they realize that Mike was nominated too. For Best Marketing Campaign - Company Image. Now it’s a party.
But when Spencer is figuring out plane tickets and hotel rooms, he realizes that the only people left in the office are going to be Jon, Maja, and William. (Chris doesn’t count. He’s too surly to handle office work.) He asks William to answer the phones. Jon and Maja are in the honeymoon stage, too in love to be bothered with awards, so he predicts that mostly William will answer the phones and Maja and Jon will make out in her dressing room, and then open the mail.
Travis never went to the trouble of getting his password to post on the blog, but when he shows up two weeks before the awards to ask Patrick for it, he looks pissed. Bartholomew Cubbins gave an interview to the biggest magazine in the industry about the upcoming awards. They asked if he was upset about not being up for Best Feature or Best Continuing Series. In blowing off the question, he says that he only cares about awards that specific to his art, like Screenplay and Cinematography, and that Misty will probably win in the Continuing Series category, because the voters are idiots. “I don’t understand the appeal, to be honest with you. It’s some dingbat, some life sized misappropriation of the feminine mystique, laid bare for men without saying anything deeper about herself or the world around her. It’s frankly awful. I have no idea why anyone pays her for it.”
Two hours later, Travis posts a long, well-thought-out, but searingly angry missive to the website. He says in it that porn, like books or magazines or conversations, doesn’t always have to be deep. It can be fun. And just because you don’t like the same thing that other people like, doesn’t mean you have to trash it. He then proceeds to trash-talk Bartholomew’s nominated films. Greta slips into his dressing room and curls up around him when she reads it. She stumbled over the interview with Bartholomew, but refused to admit that it stung. “Do you feel better?” she asks him softly, and he puts his hand on her arm, holding her close, and nods.
Mike does not stop smiling between when the nominations are announced and when they go to Vegas. Patrick and Mikey lose, but they knew they would. They’re happy just to chat with the winners at the bar. It’s like learning from the masters. Brendon wins, and his speech is mostly him looking baffled and adorable. He remembers to thank his boyfriend. Greta and Nick win for Misty and accept it holding hands. Tyson does not remember to thank anyone when he wins, he just jumps up and down.
At the bar, glowing from his win, Mike gets a congratulations from a guy he’s met maybe once before, but Mike never forgets a face. “Hey, Shannon Leto. Thanks a lot, man.” Shannon’s pretty cool, but he always looks so beaten, like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his back. Mike sits with him at the bar and they chat. Shannon seems a little grateful for the respite.
“Are you worried about what Travis is gonna say if he wins?” Shannon asks.
Mike shrugs. “He’s Travis. He’ll say his peace. Can’t stop that.”
Shannon looks over his shoulder, like he’s scared. “I am fucking petrified of what will happen if Bartholomew wins.”
Luckily for Shannon, Travis and Jepha win. Jepha hangs back and lets Travis have the mic. He shouts out, “Hey Barty, how’s this for you? Talk about my girl again and I’ll end your career.” He then points to WW’s table and winks. “You know we love you.” And that’s it. Mike laughs.
At the end of the ceremony, when things are breaking up, Mike asks Shannon if he’d like to go get a drink. “Can’t,” he says. “I have to go attend to his lordship.”
Mike smiles. Shannon’s hot when he’s snarky. “Come on. One won’t hurt.”
Shannon looks at Mike’s smile for a long moment, then smiles back. “Okay. Meet me in the bar at the Luxor?”
When Shannon gets back to his suite, his brother is in a mood. “You can’t go,” he says. “I have to go out.” He dislikes being without Shannon to cater to his whims and end his fights.
Shannon just stares at him, sick of this and wanting to maybe talk with a guy who’s interested in him and not trying to get to his brother. “I’m going.”
Mike lights up when Shannon comes into the bar, like he thought he was going to get stood up. Mike doesn’t get to the WentzWang party that night, and Shannon doesn’t get back to his room until nearly six.
“Where were you last night?” Greta says when Mike meets up with her at noon for a personal appearance.
He gets a soppy grin on his face. “Out.” She nudges him, but doesn’t press. Mike deserves a little fun.
Mike and Shannon
No one knows that Mike and Shannon are emailing, and it doesn’t strike Maja as weird when Mike asks about him. She tells him that Shannon was the most wonderful person she knew in New York, and it was a shame that he let his brother control him.
Their daily emails turn into four-times-a-week phone calls, often lasting until very late. Mike has to admit that, even if it is unorthodox, his heart belongs to Shannon. Shannon calls him from sets and shoots and texts from lame parties. Mike presses him to visit, but they don’t see each other again until they’re both at a trade show in London. Mike shuts down the booth for the night, his skin tingling with excitement, and heads up to his room. He sent a runner with a spare card for Shannon earlier, but it’s still a surprise when he opens the door and Shannon pins him against the wall and kisses him hard, grinding against him. Mike groans, but tangles his fingers in Shannon’s hair to keep him there. When the kiss finally ends, Shannon’s panting. Mike says softly, “I thought we could go get some dinner or something.”
“Fuck you,” Shannon says. “We are not leaving this hotel room.”
After that, the calls are almost daily. It’s really nice for Shannon, having a boyfriend even with his weird job responsibilities and stupid hours, but it stings a bit too. He hears about how nice things are at WW, the dinner they have for Maja’s birthday and all the little prizes Mike gives out and how they all genuinely like each other so much that they hang out when they’re not on set. He wants that. And one afternoon, when Bartholomew has thrown a complete tantrum and fired an actor over the timing of his ejaculation (which is integral to the poetic themes of the piece), Shannon looks him right in the eye and says, “I quit.” It feels like the most powerful thing he’s ever done. He could lift a car.
“What?” Bartholomew says, clearly preparing to be hysterical. “I need you!”
“I don’t care,” Shannon says, grabbing his coat. “I quit.”
He goes home and packs, and then he calls Mike. “Can you pick me up from the airport in seven and a half hours?”
“What?” Mike says. He was watching General Hospital with Greta.
“I quit, and I don’t know what else to do, some I’m coming to LA. Will you come and get me?”
“Yeah,” Mike says. “Fuck yeah!” Mike proceeds to spend the next six hours running around the office and screaming.
He goes to the airport to get Shannon, drives him to the office, and Shannon’s completely startled. There’s a party for him. Everyone’s there, cheering and hugging. Pete thumps his back and says, “Welcome to the family.” Maja squeaks when she hugs him, and that’s when Shannon starts laughing. They both made it out of there! He stays until the room empties, meeting everyone and having actual fun. Mike rarely leaves touching distance. Shannon’s pretty sure they’re only being welcoming because he’s Mike’s boyfriend, but Pete’s talking about getting Shannon a cubicle and stuff. He feels wanted.
He realizes that Mike may not have wanted a live-in boyfriend, and Shannon didn’t really give him an option, so he spends the drive home trying to think of how to tell Mike that it’s okay if he gives Shannon the spare room. But once inside Mike’s condo, Mike takes his hand and drags him into the master bedroom, then throws him down on the bed. Shannon barely has time to smile before Mike’s stripping him naked.
There’s a time, a couple of weeks later, when Ryan discovers that his roommate is a psychopath. He’s looking for a new place, and Mike says that he’s welcome to the guest room while he looks, which is awesome of him. Ryan figured he would stay in the guest room, try not to make too much noise when he came in late at night. They all pretty much assume that Mike and Shannon are domestic in the old people way, baking and watching the evening news. Instead, Ryan spends a lot of time the first Saturday night hiding in his room while Mike and Shannon, assuming he’s out for the night, have extremely loud (what sounds like sorta rough) sex in every room. He texts this information to everyone he can think of. Who knew that Mike Kennerty was a tiger in the sack?
Brendon’s First Time
El keeps asking me to include it, so here is the scene breakdown of the WentzWang classic Brendon’s First Time
1. Brendon, fresh faced and innocent, moves into his college dorm and meets his roommate (played by Ryan Ross). Ryan suggests that they watch a movie to bond and puts on porn. Brendon is scandalized, but settles when Ryan slips his hand into Brendon’s pants, and he eventually lets Ryan fuck him.
2. Brendon goes to his biology class and meets his partner (played by Travis McCoy). They give each other handjobs under the table while the professor lectures.
3. Brendon gets lost in the fieldhouse and ends up in the wrong locker room. There he meets a helpful football player (played by Tyson Ritter) who lets Brendon blow him (equipment still on) and then returns the favor.
4. Brendon goes to talk to the cool lit professor (played by Andy Hurley, in a rare gay appearance) about getting into the advanced class. Andy says that Brendon has to prove that he really wants it. Brendon lets Andy fuck him over the desk.
5. Walking through the courtyard, Brendon looks at all the tables where student organizations are signing up new members. He gets stopped by a fratboy (played by Chris Gaylor) who wants to tell Brendon how awesome his frat is. Chris takes Brendon back to the house and fucks him on the couch while, above them, the initiation paddle bounces against the wall.
6. Brendon returns to his room, a new gleam in his eyes, to find Ryan watching tv. Brendon puts Ryan on all fours and fucks his first boy!
Bob Bryar, porn editor
Bob took the job with WentzWang when the company was in its infancy. He was looking to break into sound editing and he needed something on his resume. Now he stays because he’s good at it and the pay’s pretty excellent. The only caveat is that they have to leave him alone.
Being the sound editor, Bob sometimes calls the stars and demands that they come in to rerecord their vocals. Which means that a lot of days, Bob has someone in the booth making sex noises. It’s kind of whatever. But then Ryan, for no clear reason, comes in one day and stares directly at Bob as he makes his sex noises. It makes Bob uncomfortable, in the sense that he’s kind of getting hard at work. He stopped doing that three weeks in. Ryan is way more animated than he was on film, opening his pretty wet mouth and crying for it. “You can stop,” Bob says, and Ryan slides out of the booth, his eyes darting down to Bob’s crotch and licking the center of his lower lip before he leaves.
This starts to happen EVERY TIME Ryan has to loop vocals. Bob both dreads it and welcomes it. He doesn’t want to think about the fact that he jerks off to that sound in the shower. The third time, when Bob is really squirming, it takes him a moment to notice that Ryan has slipped out of the booth and into the editing room. He looks up, a little startled, and Ryan just whispers, “Let me,” and drops to his knees.
Ryan is really, really fucking good at this. Bob is sure that he’s never had an orgasm of that intensity. He also doesn’t notice that he left the recorder on. Brendon, snooping as always, because he’s seen the way Ryan’s been looking at Bob, finds the file and gets Patrick to not only remove the section so that Bob doesn’t know it’s been there, but also to rig the door so that as soon as Bob opens the door the next morning, he hears the sounds of himself coming. Brendon hides from Bob for a couple of days after that. Bob wants to be angrier about it, but Ryan’s now-daily blowjobs are really relaxing.
Russell
Spencer needs an assistant, again. Pete keeps turning his office PAs into porn stars (first Brendon, then Jon), so now all of the resumes Spencer gets are from wannabe porn stars with no office experience. He decides that, instead, he’s going to get an intern. He picks the one least likely to run off to be in porn. Russell Lissack. He stops freaking out after a week about opening the fan mail, he remembers what people like in their coffee, and he’s got this kicked puppy look to him that gets people to respond to requests better than when Spencer yells.
Pete wants to get him a sidekick, but Spencer says no. Sidekicks are distracting. So Russell gets a pager. A bright green pager with a WentzWang logo sticker on it. “You’re like a doctor!” Pete says. “Or a drug dealer!”
William, who handles makeup and wardrobe, thinks Russell’s adorable. He steals Russell for errands (“they can page you!”), out to buy new eyeliner and get the laundry. They drive around in Bill’s convertible Rabbit and Bill sings along to the radio and it’s fun. Russell doesn’t even freak out when he finds out that, once or twice a year, Bill does transvestite porn.
(The WentzWang picture primer.)
WentzWang is the world’s foremost producer of bisexual porn. (Pete believes that all p\orn is bisexual porn. It just depends on the audience.) It was a long road to get there, but Pete and Joe and Spencer have made it their life’s work. So it’s pretty lucky that they’re good at it.
Pete owns the company. That’s his wang. He had been working in reality porn for a while and wanted to be in charge, make it more fun. He was also settling into domestic bliss with Joe and just didn’t feel so inclined to bang strangers anymore. He convinced Ray (“El Bull”) Toro to come with him and WentzWang was born. Now, they’ve got a handful of really great directors (like Gabe and Nick), some excellent talent (like Andy, who’s straight-for-pay, Travis, Tyson, Greta, Gaylor, and Ryan), and one cranky sound engineer (Bob Bryar). In the beginning, it was just Ray’s videos and some Pete-directed amateur action. That’s how they met Spencer.
Spencer
Spencer was 19 and in college. He was having his rebellious period. He’d always been the perfect student, the perfect child, but now he was on his own and wanted to do things that were hedonistic and irresponsible. That’s why he was dating Bert. Bert was probably an addict, but he didn’t talk about it like that. He said that it helped him connect with things past seeing, hear things more important than sound. He wasn’t a junkie; he was just bohemian. He got high and called Spencer to come over for sex. Bert was unresponsive during sex, and Spencer had never slept with anyone else, but he figured he was okay at it. He managed to make Bert come more than half the time, anyway.
Bert heard about Pete’s fledgling production enterprise and his $50 amateur couple offer. He thought it would be hot. He suggested it to Spencer. (Bert didn’t actually suggest things, in the sense that Spencer could say yes or no. Bert just made announcements.) The night he shot Bert and Spencer always remained one of the most upsetting nights of Pete’s career. He could tell that Spencer didn’t really want to be there, wasn’t really comfortable with what was happening. He could see that Spencer got bullied into this, that he got bullied into a lot of things, and to add insult to injury, Bert didn’t quite notice that he couldn’t get hard. At the end of the night, Pete drew Spencer aside. “I’m gonna destroy the tapes, okay?” he said, and Spencer nodded, looking almost dead inside. “Call me, please? If you ever need to talk about anything at all.” Spencer didn’t look convinced, but he took the card.
A week later, Spencer found out that Bert was cheating on him. “You have to be connected, body, mind and soul, y’know?” he said. He didn’t even look guilty. “I’m just not sure we’re connected.”
Spencer couldn’t stop crying. He sat in his car and didn’t know what to do. Then he dug through his backpack and found Pete’s card. He didn’t know what he’d say if he called, so he drove over to the address, found Pete’s one-bedroom apartment, and rang the bell. Pete pulled him inside and made him tea. (“I don’t drink, so it’s kinda this or RedBull.”) He let Spencer sit and collect himself, gave him time to tell what had happened. Pete looked fucking enraged on Spencer’s behalf. He grabbed Spencer’s shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. “Listen to me,” he said, voice absolutely serious. “You are so much better than him. You don’t need him dragging you down. You’re fucking smart and you’re in school. You’re going to get your degree, and then you’re going to come work with me.” Pete was already certain he’d be huge someday. Spencer could only nod.
He felt done with Bert after that night. He put his nose to the grindstone and worked hard in school. He stopped dating. He talked to Pete on the phone a couple times a week, was happy when Pete started selling videos. He changed his major to media management. Pete called in the middle of Spencer’s senior year and asked him to work part-time for him, help Pete set up an office. Since then, he hasn’t worked anywhere else. He handles distribution, payroll and benefits. He feels like he owes everything to Pete.
Mike
Mike is WW’s director of marketing. He loves the company like crazy and his boundless enthusiasm is largely responsible for their huge profile. He never forgets a face or a title and he has appointed himself head of employee morale. He has morale boosting staff meetings in which he gives out candy and prizes! He has plaques and mugs and pencils printed for *every* personal milestone, which means that WW’s most successful stars have stacks of them in every corner. But Mike’s so sunny that no one can turn them down.
After a couple of years of Mike’s morale boosting, Pete asks Spencer what Mike’s budget is for that kind of budget. Spencer lifts an eyebrow. “Mike’s been paying out of pocket.” Pete’s eyes go wide. In the next round of budgeting, Mike gets an employee morale budget, $10,000 for tchotchkes and pizza. He almost comes right there.
Mike volunteers to be the HR contact for OSHA, so he also gives the fire safety talks and encourages them all to be mindful of their disability rights. When Mike (reluctantly) schedules the sexual harassment seminar, everyone clears their calendar to attend. Mike looks miserable, but manfully handles the question period. (Mike: “No means no.” Tyson: “What if no’s in the script?”) Afterwards, they all clap extra hard and take Mike out for a beer. He deserves it.
Misty
Nick Wheeler may have conceived of the Misty’s Adventures series, but Greta brought it to life. It may be softcore, but it’s still WW’s biggest seller (it’s especially popular in hotels). Pete signs his Christmas cards to Greta “Thanks for keeping the lights on.”
It was a really nice idea from a really nice guy. Nick wanted to create the ultimate in cheesecake-next-door. He stumbled upon Greta, a Midwestern girl with no previous porn experience, and it was magic. Misty’s Adventures are really tame, things like Misty Goes to the Beach and Misty’s Christmas, usually an hour of lingerie and bathing suits, pillow fights and kissing, and then one climactic sex scene in which nothing gets too hardcore. She’s a living Barbie doll (albeit one that is proportioned like a regular person), and she’s hugely popular.
The biggest shock to Greta is how popular Misty is with gay men. There are Misty fan clubs comprised entirely of gay men who watch it in bars. She gets fan mail from drag queens. She gets invited to emcee an event on Pink Saturday and takes a press photo with four other Mistys and frames it for her dressing room. She even gets a letter from a lesbian sociology professor who has published a paper on the way Misty reclaims the sexually feminine for women. She reads the paper and writes a thank you note to the professor.
One afternoon, Nick turns up in the doorway of Pete’s office. “I need your dog,” he says. Pete makes a face, but hands over Hemingway’s leash. He laughs when the dailies come back for Misty’s New Puppy. Nick demands to take Hemmy with them when they film Misty’s Ski Trip. “She wouldn’t leave her dog behind,” he says, and Nick is the ultimate authority on Misty. Spencer is so amused that he starts cutting day-rate checks made out to Hemingway Wentz-Trohman. When the Misty action figures debut, Skiing Fun Misty comes with her own little Hemmy in a tiny doggy parka.
Patrick
Patrick works at a video store in LA. He wants to focus on his music, but he can’t get serious about it. He goes to work, he goes home, he fiddles with his guitar. He and Mikey, who works with him, are teaching themselves web design. They’ve been talking about putting together a music fansite, but mostly Patrick just likes figuring out the code. Mikey likes making brightly colored things in Flash.
Patrick works the Monday afternoon shift, which means he’s responsible for cataloging the new acquisitions that arrive Monday morning. He really, really likes the WW releases. He’s afraid someone will notice if he checks them out on his employee account, so he always steals them home, watches them, then runs them through the shrinkwrapper again if they’re not for rent. It’s a system that works pretty well, until Brendon’s First Time.
Patrick doesn’t know anything about Brendon. He doesn’t know that Brendon was an office assistant at WW for a year and a half before Pete offered him an on-screen contract. He doesn’t know that Brendon is dorky and has a thing for He-Man action figures. He only knows that it’s the hottest thing he’s ever seen. He can’t bring himself to return it to the store. He marks it damaged on arrival and has the distributor send another.
The next time Mikey’s over, Patrick forgets to hide the case. Whatever, he thinks. It’s Mikey. Mikey knows about him. Mikey taps the case with his finger. “You like this stuff?” he asks. Patrick shrugs in a way that means fuck, yeah. “My brother directed this.” Patrick looks up, stunned. Art Yaw is Mikey’s weird brother? Mikey flips over the DVD and reads the copy. “He and his boyfriend usually do the couples stuff, but I’m pretty sure this is his too.”
The video store has two tape players in it. One plays on the four tvs in the store, the other plays in the adult video room. On Patrick’s first day working with Mikey, he’d dragged Patrick into the adult video room and pointed at a rack of videos. “Never, ever play those in here.”
“You got a thing against swinger porn?” Patrick asked, aiming at levity.
“Yes,” Mikey had said gravely. Now it makes sense.
Mikey talks about Brendon coming over to the house and geeking out over Gerard’s Atari. Patrick gets his keys and his shoes and tries not to think about the way Brendon looks when Ryan Ross, playing his college roommate, fucks him for the first time. Or when he and Travis McCoy, playing his lab partner, jerk each other off in the classroom. But Mikey sees the way Patrick blushes, pushing him out the door.
Patrick is closing up the store a week later when Mikey calls. “Me and G are going for pizza. Wanna come?” Patrick agrees without thinking about it. He’s decided that he really wants to meet Mikey’s porn auteur brother. But when he walks into the pizzeria half an hour later, Mikey and Gerard are sitting with Brendon Urie, who is managing to look like a total nerd while eating his slice and laughing. Mikey’s seen him and it’s too late to leave, so Patrick just grabs a slice and slides into the booth next to Brendon. Conversation is surprisingly okay. Just after Patrick grabs a second slice, Gerard and Mikey get up to leave. “We’ve got family stuff to take care of,” Mikey says.
“At a quarter to midnight??” Patrick asks. Mikey just shrugs and leaves, leaving Patrick with Brendon.
Brendon laughs. “Well, that was not smooth.” Patrick laughs too. They stay and chat and have a really nice time. Patrick gives Brendon a lift home, since Gerard abandoned him, and at the door, Brendon says, “This was fun. We should go out again.”
Which is why, a month later, Patrick has to come to terms with the fact that he’s actually dating Brendon Urie. This realization strikes while they’re making out on his couch, hands down each other’s pants. His life is pretty awesome.
The Website
WW has a website, but it sucks. It has upcoming releases and personal appearances, but that’s it. No additional video, no picture galleries, nothing that anyone wants to pay for. It would be a really good secondary revenue stream for them. “Get Patrick and Mikey to do it,” Brendon says when he’s playing Gameboy in Pete’s office one afternoon. “They teach themselves that shit for fun.” Pete actually really likes that idea. He calls Patrick and asks if he could put together a mock-up for a little extra cash. They’ll get a real design firm to do the actual implementation, but Pete wants to see what’s possible. Patrick agrees. He really likes the guys at WW and he’s been dying to put his skills to work. He and Mikey sit down with Pete, make an ungodly huge list of things that Pete would like to see, or Patrick thinks they can do, and then they start working.
Brendon’s sorry he recommended Patrick at all. Patrick’s working 35 hours a week at the store and upwards of 40 on the site. Pete gave him a cubicle and he’s there all the time. He’s up all night doing image maps and proofing code. He keeps telling Patrick that it only has to be a mockup; it doesn’t have to be completely finished, but Patrick won’t stop. He’s kind of a perfectionist. Brendon is relieved when Patrick and Mikey are ready to present the mock-up.
It’s ... it’s way more than Pete expected. The visuals are stunning, the bonus content is great. They can charge $20 a month, minimum. Plus, Patrick did mock-ups of minisites like Misty’s Corner and Mikey did some amazing flash video embedding and he’s absolutely floored.
But Patrick comes out of the meeting looking downcast. “What’s wrong?” Brendon asks, jumping off Spencer’s desk.
“Pete wants us to handle it. He says he won’t trust the site to anyone else.” Brendon’s confused. Patrick should be smiling. “That means keeping up my 75-hour weeks,” Patrick says. “I can’t give up my job for this? What if this falls apart?” Brendon takes Patrick into his dressing room and they snuggle a bit, then, after Patrick has fallen asleep on the couch, he goes to see Pete. “You’ve got to give him an actual job here,” Brendon says, looking angry. “You’re going to kill him!”
Patrick finally wakes to a note that he needs to see Spencer about some paperwork. When he gets to Spencer’s desk, he’s surprised at the neat little folder Spencer has prepared. “This is your offer letter. This is info about our profit-sharing plan. Fill out these two sheets to enroll in the health insurance program, and this so I can get you a parking pass.” Patrick just blinks at him. Pete’s offering him $10,000 more than he’s making at the store, plus benefits. “Seriously?” he asks Spencer. Spencer nods, humorless. “Seriously.”
And so Patrick and Mikey become full-time employees at WentzWang! Patrick keeps Mikey in line by threatening to make him design Gerard’s pages. They’re floored by the number of people that sign up for the site. He loves that site to death, though. He remembers when he was just a fan, how he would have loved this sort of thing. He sets them all up with passwords to post on the official WW blog. Greta talks Patrick into setting up the office for WiFi by pointing out that he could work from Brendon’s dressing room. While he crawls around under the desks, Greta and Brendon and Gabe stare at his ass.
Mistress Maja
Maja is probably the most recognizable dominatrix in the porn industry. Pete understands why, she’s commanding, she’s gorgeous, she’s probably great in bed. What he doesn’t get is why her films are so terrible.
Maja is under contract to Jared Leto, who refuses to be referred to in the industry by anything other than his nom-de-directoire, Bartholomew Cubbins. Bartholomew Cubbins styles himself as a creator of erotic cinema, not a mere porn peddler. This mostly means that his films are overthought, Maja spanking a man in a sailor suit while accordion music plays. Most things are in black and white. No one ever comes. Pete does not get the appeal. He starts hearing whispers that Maja is unhappy with Bartholomew, and everyone knows that her three-year contract is almost up. Pete goes to New York to see if he can woo her to LA.
Maja is unhappy with Bartholomew. She could have put up with most anything, but what she will not stand for is the way he takes control of her scenes. “You are a filmmaker,” she tells him over and over again. “But I am the mistress here. I am in charge of my own scenes and you merely record.”
Bartholomew shakes his head. “I am the director. This is my studio and you are my dominatrix.”
When Pete calls and asks if he can take her out to dinner, she says yes. “Your movies are really pretty,” Pete says. “But it doesn’t look like you’re having any fun.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not.”
“Then come to LA,” he says. “I promise we’ll do our best to show you a good time.”
She allows Bartholomew to make a counter-offer, but he declines. He refuses to cede to her requests, so Maja packs her things and goes. It’s a huge coup for WW.
One of the requests Maja made of Pete was that she wanted a pet, someone to train for her films. Bartholomew always hired actors who pretended that they wanted her ministrations, but acted on his orders and not her own. Pete puts it to the group at a staff meeting, asking for volunteers, and he’s shocked when Jon Walker is the one to pop into his office the next day and offer his services. Jon isn’t a porn star. He’s Spencer’s office PA. He gets bagels and makes copies and orders lube. But he’s cute, especially when he shrugs, and Pete thinks Maja will adore him.
Maja comes to the studio with her intimidating face on, but it doesn’t last very long. Everyone at Bartholomew’s was in it for themselves, attempting to climb the ladder, earn his praise. But everyone at WentzWang seems to be in it for the fun. They throw her a little party, give her hugs, and she genuinely likes them. She sees Jon, hanging in corners and talking to everybody, but she doesn’t know that he’s the one that volunteered until the next day when Pete brings him by her dressing room. She looks him up and down and he nervously adjusts his shirt. “Can you come by my house on Saturday? 3pm, maybe?” Jon just nods. Maja smiles and goes back to her makeup.
Jon drives the route on Friday, just in case he gets lost. He’s a little surprised by Maja’s house. When Maja arrived in New York, Bartholomew told her he’d found her an apartment. It was in the Meatpacking District, a loft with cold brick walls, everything black and leather or chrome. It was the sort of apartment that a dominatrix was supposed to live in, and it provided no chance for Maja to be anything else, even at home. When she went to LA to look at houses, she’d fallen in love with this one. It’s a little pink cottage on a quiet residential street. There are shutters and a white picket fence and windowboxes. She has a secret fetish for domesticity, for cooking and gardening, and she finally has a place for that.
Jon comes on Saturday, exactly on time, and Maja meets him at the front door. She points out the table where he can drop his sunglasses and his keys, tells him to take off his shoes and meet her in the front room. The first afternoon session is barely sexual. She gets him used to following her commands, teaches him to lower himself into headspace. He’s eager, which she appreciates. She spends much longer with him than she meant to. When they’re done, after the sun has set, Jon asks if he can buy her dinner. “It seems only fair.” She smiles and nods and they go. They don’t talk about work at all. They talk about ordinary stuff and it’s a lot of fun. Maja can’t remember having friends like this in New York, especially not with the boys she played with. Jon already feels like a friend.
He joins her for lunch twice during the week, and then goes to her house again on Saturday. This time, she has him follow her on his hands-and-knees while she gets things accomplished. She writes to her sister, she does some planting in the back garden (Jon is a little nervous about following her outside, but no one can see), and at the end, to reward him, she lets him watch while she showers. Jon just barely makes it home before he has to jack off.
The third Saturday, Maja instructs him to get naked and kneel in the middle of her bedroom. She kneels with him and strokes his cheek, promising that she’s going to look after him, luring him down into headspace. He goes willingly. He realized when he was on his knees in her bathroom that he likes this, he likes having her look after him and he likes letting go of himself, not feeling self-conscious or self-pitying. Maja notes how eagerly he falls for her, how deeply he entrusts himself to her. She realizes just then that he’s here because he wants to be, not for the paycheck. He’s her pet. She leans in and kisses him, hard. Jon’s not quite prepared, but the shock is erased by the wave of acceptance. He opens his mouth for her and she licks inside. That is the first time Maja and Jon have sex.
Afterwards, he takes her out to dinner again. On Monday morning, Maja tells Pete that Jon is ready. They schedule their first scene for the week after. Jon starts to get nervous. Maja calls him on Saturday. She needs to buy a new garbage can for her kitchen, but she’s not sure where. Jon says he’ll come by and drive her to Target. They shop, Jon pushing the cart while Maja looks at things, and Jon is distracted. When they’re back in the car, he just stares ahead for long minutes, forgetting to turn the car on until Maja touches his hand. “Jon?” she asks softly. “What’s wrong?”
He smiles ruefully. “Nerves.”
“Ah,” she says, smiling. Jon drives her back home, and she says he should park. “Come in for a little bit, yeah? I’ll make you dinner.” Jon smiles at that, he adores her domestic streak, and helps her carry her stuff inside. Maja tugs him down with her onto the couch and curls close, lying a hand on his cheek. “You’re going to be perfect tomorrow,” she says, “because you’re my pet. You’re gorgeous and you’re sexy and I wouldn’t have scheduled this scene if I didn’t think you were ready.” He smiles and closes his eyes, leaning into her touch. “I’ll look after you,” she whispers, and Jon knows she means it.
Maja makes chicken Caesar salad for dinner and they watch tv afterwards. Jon gets a kiss goodbye before he goes home. The next morning, Maja meets him in wardrobe (there’s a collar for him to match each of Maja’s outfits) and she takes him by the hand to her dressing room, sits him down and murmurs, stroking him until he’s in headspace, perfectly free of his nerves and ready for her.
The scene is hot. Gerard is directing it and Maja and Jon are amazing. When they’re done, Gerard rushes the dailies off to Pete and Maja orders the room cleared so she can curl up around Jon, bring him up slowly. “You were wonderful, pet,” she murmurs. “Absolutely amazing.”
Jon and Maja continue to see each other outside of work. They’re both willing to admit that they’re dating. He spends more and more time over at her place. They have sex and Maja makes him breakfast and he helps her plant things. It’s really very lovely. Jon knows that Maja misses home sometimes, so he gets the Berlitz Teach Yourself Swedish course from the internet. Maja comes into the kitchen sometimes to find him hunched over his workbook, trying to remember the word for sweater. It’s on one of these occasions that she realizes that he’s her pet, hers to take care of, and yet his neck is bare. She trails her fingertips down the back of his neck and wants to put her collar on him with a need that is dizzying.
She starts a project. She’s going to design the perfect collar for him. She does two weeks of research on every possible leather, all the clasps, what her favorite designers are up to. She shows up at Spencer’s desk with a carefully organized binder (her organization turns him on). She needs another set of eyes. Spencer helps her make flowcharts to talk herself through the process. Once she’s decided on what she wants, it takes her artist two months to make it. Then she calls Jon and invites him over.
She takes Jon’s hand and they kneel in the center of the living room. She tells him that she feels lucky to have him, and she wants him to be hers permanently. Her hands open and there’s the collar, black leather and silver buckle. Jon looks up at her, surprised, and then he takes it from her and kisses her, accepting.
Greta, Travis, and the Vase
Maja and Jon confess to each other that they have fantasies, ideas for other things they could do, but Jon’s too shy to talk about it. Instead, they grab a vase from Maja’s cupboard and write their desires on slips of paper, like a suggestion box. Periodically, they draw a slip and complete whatever’s on the slip.
Jon was horribly embarrassed when he put this one in, but Maja’s eyes just light up when she pulls it from the vase. Jon wants another boy and girl to join them. “Who do you want?” Maja asks, whispers over his ear. Jon’s response is just as soft, a little embarrassed. “Greta.” Maja smiles.
Jon gets to ask Greta if she wants to join them and she says yes. He lets her pick the boy, and she wants Travis. She may be sweet and innocent, but she got into this business because she likes sex, and softcore is not a way to get frequently laid. She doesn’t have a boyfriend and she dislikes casual sex (because the boys want to believe that she’s Misty and are too gentle), so she gets off by herself. Often while watching Travis’ indie porn. It’s all girls with tattoos and boys with piercings and Travis looking so damned gorgeous as he expertly fucks them. She wants him.
Travis hastily agrees to come to Maja’s that weekend. Mostly because Maja stops by his dressing room on the way back from a photoshoot and is wearing a leather bustier and stockings. He doesn’t think to ask who the other guest is. But then he gets to Maja’s, she opens the door, and there’s Greta. Maja’s pretty good at getting people comfortable and honest, and ten minutes later Greta is telling Travis about her habit of watching his films. Five minutes after that, Jon and Maja are watching while Travis struggles to get Greta naked. After Greta’s first orgasm, they decide that they’ll retire to Maja’s room for the evening and let Greta and Travis enjoy each other.
When Jon wakes up at 2 to get some water, they’re still fucking.
Travis and Greta spend a lot of time together after that. It’s the most awesome relationship either of them has ever been in. They have a lot of sex (none of the tattooed indie girls are sexier than Greta), and then sit around in their underwear and watch movies on TV. When Gabe calls to say he’s scored some intense and awesome weed, Greta doesn’t mind when Travis goes to get some. She’s never tried it before, so Travis bakes it into a plate of brownies. He learns that Greta-plus-pot is like tantra. She can go all night. He can’t get out of bed the next day.
When Nick plans Misty’s Ski Trip, there’s a part in it for a college student who Misty saves from an avalanche. Greta wants it to be Travis. “Okay,” Nick says. “But you have got to tone it down. Misty doesn’t have the sort of sex you two have.” She promises she’ll be good and Travis gets to come with them to Big Bear. Pete is highly doubtful that this is going to work, but Nick owes Greta some trust. The first day, they film all of the other scenes, Misty and Hemmy getting outfitted in their snow gear and tobogganing, Misty having cocoa with her friends, Misty saving Travis from the avalanche. The next day they’re supposed to do the bit where Misty tries to warm Travis by the fire, and sex happens. The whole house is awakened at 8AM by Greta’s shrieking. They’ve decided that the best way to tone it down is to get the actual fucking out of their systems. By the time they shoot the scene at 1pm, they’re both blissed out and slow, gentle. Nick crows to Pete on the phone that the scene was a total success, and fuck, does he need some sleep.
Spencer finds love
Ray decides to retire and focus on editing. Travis likes having a partner in crime and is not really one for going it alone, so Pete hires Jepha. He’s seen some of the indie stuff Jepha’s done on the ‘net and he likes it a lot. Jepha fits in really well with the WW crew, going out for beers on his second day and chatting in the kitchen. The one member of the staff who doesn’t warm up to him is Spencer. Spencer is very dry and disconnected, only talking to Jepha about business and just staring at him when he tries to shift the conversation. He asks Travis if he did something to make Spencer dislike him and Travis just shakes his head and smiles ruefully. “Spence is just like that. He doesn’t really let any of us in.”
Spencer has a routine. He goes to work, he comes home to his condo, he microwaves a Lean Cuisine and watches tv, then he goes to bed. He gets up, he goes to work, etc.
Jepha thinks that sucks. Spencer works with really awesome people! He should hang out with them! Or at least have a friend.
So Jepha starts dropping by Spencer’s desk every day. He always asks if Spencer wants to join him for lunch or get dinner after work or go to the movies, and Spencer always says no. So he’s really surprised when Spencer sighs and says yes.
Spencer is hoping that if he just goes out with Jepha once, Jepha will leave him alone. They go to the movies, because then Spencer won’t have to talk much, but Jepha makes conversation on the way over and while they’re waiting for the film to start and on the way back. He even held Spencer’s hand for a little while in the theater. It’s nice. At the end of the night, when Jepha asks if he wants to do it again, Spencer rolls his eyes and says yes.
The next time, they have dinner, and it’s fun. At the end, Spencer kisses Jepha’s cheek, then grudgingly says yes again.
He does that thing every time, the eye roll, when Jepha asks him out. They have a really nice time, and Spencer’s more cordial at work, but no forward progress is being made. Spencer thinks that what went wrong last time is he was trying to be independent, he was bucking all the rules. He’s seen a lot of movies and he knows that following the rules, having proper dates and playing hard-to-get, gets you long-term happiness.
Jepha, confused, turns to Pete and Joe. Joe sighs and sits him down to tell him about Bert. By the end, Jepha is horrified. It’s late and Spencer’s already gone home, but Jepha feels like he has to do something, so he goes over to Spencer’s complex. When Spencer answers the door, Jepha just starts talking. “Joe told me about your last boyfriend, about what he did, and I want you to know that I really like you, and I’d like to keep seeing you. I don’t want you to feel pressured, but when you’re ready to move forward, I’m ready too.”
Spencer is mortified. There’s a reason he’s never told anybody about Bert and that’s because it was awful and embarrassing. He can’t believe he let himself get involved with that and now he can’t believe that Joe told someone. “I think you should go,” Spencer says, and Jepha’s face falls.
“Oh. Okay.” Spencer closes the door, so Jepha turns and goes. Spencer turns off the tv and goes to bed. Jepha stays up, worrying. Spencer clearly doesn’t want to move forward with him, or he fucked up somehow, and now it’s over. He stays up until four, then calls in sick to work. Spencer’s really surprised to get the message. Jepha’s never missed a shoot before. When Joe asks him what happened with Jepha, smiling, Spencer tells him the truth. Joe just stares at him, then sighs and walks away. Spencer stares blankly at his monitor and tries to figure out why Jepha stayed home. The only thing he can think of is that Jepha is hurt, that he hurt Jepha, that Jepha likes him enough to be hurt by him, and Spencer wasn’t expecting that. He grabs his jacket and sticks his head into Pete’s office. “I’m going on my lunch break.”
“You don’t take lunch breaks,” Pete says.
“Then I’ve got some coming to me. I won’t be back.” Before Pete can question him, Spencer’s gone.
Jepha feels gross. He’s sitting on his couch in sweats when there’s a knock on the door. He doesn’t bother to look through the peephole, but he’s not expecting Spencer either. Spencer doesn’t say anything (he doesn’t know what to say), he just kisses Jepha hard, pushing him back into the apartment. It’s fucking hot. Jepha understands it for what it is, Spencerspeak for “forward, please” and he starts guiding them toward the bedroom.
The first time, Jepha’s on top, trying to make Spencer happy. The second time, for the first time ever, Spencer tops. He likes it a lot.
Tyson and Darren
Tyson Ritter is a pornstar. His stuff sells really well. On camera, he may fuck boys and girls, but in private, he’s really only into boys. He’s pretty sure, when they’re planning it, that he can film all of Tyson Ritter’s 40 Girls in 4 Nights at once, but by day three, he’s exhausted and his cock has given up. Ordinarily, Tyson doesn’t need all that much help to get it up, so Chris Faller’s ministrations are sufficient. Chris has plans for his life that do not include being a fluffer, and he doesn’t really enjoy his work. He has a tendency to check his watch during handjobs. Tyson needs a better solution fast.
His eyes land on Darren. Darren’s the boom operator for this shoot and really sweet. “Hey,” Tyson says to him, flirting, and Darren gives him a shy smile.
“Hey.”
“Could you do me a favor?” Tyson asks. “I’m just not quite ready to perform and I don’t think Chris is going to do it for me, so...”
Darren’s eyes go wide. “Oh!” He’s had a sort of crush on Tyson (or, at least, Tyson is really hot and really nice, so how can he not). “Right here?” Tyson shakes his head and leads Darren to the bathroom. Tyson’s expecting a hesitant handjob, but Darren locks the door and drops to his knees. Already Tyson’s cock is waking up. Darren is eager, if not technically skilled, and he’s so gorgeous that Tyson can’t complain. He has to stop Darren or he’ll fall off the other side. Darren just smiles up at him, mouth wet, and Tyson has to run to the set. He sticks his head back in for one more comment. “If you want to continue that, stick around after the shoot, okay?” Tyson smiles and Darren nods.
They go in a few weeks from having sex on a regular basis to dating. Darren spends a lot of time at Tyson’s really posh apartment because his own studio is a dump. Darren’s only 18 and his parents’ horrific divorce caused his grades to nosedive so badly that he has to repeat his senior year. He moved out, got his own place, and he works the night shoots because he’s at school during the day. He applied for a job with WW partly to piss his parents off, and partly to assert his independence. After Tyson tells the staff this, they all start to dote on him. Darren brings his books to study between scenes and they’re all pulling for him so hard. Most of them come to his high school graduation. An equal number of boys recognize Greta as do Travis. They all cheer hard when Darren walks and his whole class is pretty surprised. Darren’s quiet and sits in the back and never comes to parties. And apparently hangs with porn stars.
He and Ty have been dating just about a year when WW celebrates its tenth anniversary. They do a Best of WentzWang box set, including Brendon’s First Time, the first Misty’s Adventure, Tyson’s First Time, featuring Tyson and Ray. Everyone mingles at the little party and drinks, but Darren is glued to one of the tv screens. The DVD changer has stopped on Tyson’s and Darren’s never seen it before. Everyone always talks about how Ray was a legend, but he never quite believed them. Ray’s a really nice guy who works in editing! He brings his sandwich every day in Tupperware! He didn’t think that Ray would be in possession of the largest cock he had ever seen, and could fuck someone this hard, this long. Tyson makes note of the way Darren’s eyes widen and the fact that he’s hard as a rock when they slide into the car after the party.
Darren’s birthday is a month away, and now Tyson has the perfect gift. He wants Darren to get fucked by El Bull.
But Darren’s only slept with one other boy apart from Tyson, and you can’t just jump into this. So Tyson comes home with lots of sex toys. Darren’s up for anything Ty suggests (he figures that sex with Tyson has always been awesome in the past, so why wouldn’t it be awesome in the future). It only takes a week of increasing dildo size to discover that Darren is a size queen. Tyson has to slow him down, keep him from hurting himself, but everything he tries has Darren pushing back and begging.
A week before Darren’s birthday, Tyson actually asks Ray. He says it would mean a lot to the kid, and Ray agrees. What the hell, he figures. Tyson brings Darren home on his birthday, covers his eyes and walks him into the bedroom. When Darren opens his eyes, there’s Ray, stretched out on Tyson’s bed, hand wrapped lazily around his cock, and Tyson’s beaming.
It’s the best night of Darren’s life. Tyson fucks him, and then Ray fucks him, and then he gets to fuck Tyson. Ray and Tyson are a lot of fun in bed together, laughing and playful. Darren sleeps away most of the next day. Tyson and Ray get up and have breakfast, then go to work. Ty tells Ray, when they’re parting ways, that if he’d like to join them again, he’s always welcome. Ray thinks about it, it was fun, and ends up going back to Tyson’s on Wednesday. Darren is way overeager, which Tyson thinks is hilarious, and they have sex so early that they can sit around after and watch TV. Darren and Ray start hanging out, going to the movies sometimes, or just sitting around in Ty’s apartment while Darren does homework. When Ray sleeps over, Darren packs him two sandwiches, then turns up to the editing rooms and eats with him at lunch. Tyson and Ray start hanging out again too, drinking beer and watching tv, or talking late at night. It’s the happiest Ray’s been in a while.
Two months after Darren’s birthday, Tyson tells Ray to get dressed up. “I am taking you out to dinner.” Ray shrugs, because Tyson is weird, and goes home after work to change. He spends amazingly little time in his own apartment these days. He really should do laundry. When Darren and Tyson show up, Darren has a present for him: two new games for his PSP. “What are these for?” Ray asks, and Darren’s face falls.
“It’s our anniversary,” he says, and Ray’s eyes widen. He hadn’t realized they were dating.
Tyson makes a little exasperated sound. “Come on! The staying over? The sex? The movie dates? We’re dating!” Ray looks between them. Tyson’s one of the hottest porn stars in the game, Darren’s fresh faced and sweet, and he’s a washed-up video editor.
Ray looks at Darren. “Thanks for the gift.” He means that he’s saying yes to whatever that question was, that he’s going to go along with their version of events, that he wants things to continue this way. Darren leans in for a quick kiss. Ray returns with one a little harder, and Tyson locks the door. Fuck the reservations.
Tattoos
One night, when Tyson, Nick and Jon are getting really drunk, Tyson suggests (loudly) that they get tattoos. “Nothing says you love someone like getting their name on your ass, right?” Nick and Jon, who are extremely happy drunks, agree.
When they get to the tattoo parlor, the artist won’t do it until they sober up. While they’re sitting in the waiting room, Tyson remembers that he’s naked on film a lot and it might be a poor plan to get “Darren + Ray” tattooed on him. But Nick and Jon have made up their minds. While he’s on the table, Jon gets a text from Maja asking if he’s coming back to her place. He says yes, of course, and he smiles.
Jon lets himself into Maja’s house and she’s already asleep. She mumbles in his direction and he gets undressed and slides into bed to spoon up around her. She gets a kiss before they both drift off to sleep. In the morning, Maja wakes first and gets showered and dressed. It’s not until Jon swings his legs off the bed that she notices the bandage on his leg, bled through in spots. Her eyes go wide. “Jon! What happened?!”
“Oh,” he says, smiling sheepishly and peeling off the bandage. She kneels between his legs to inspect the wound and watches as he slowly reveals the new mark. “Me and Nick got tattoos.”
“What did Nick get?” she asks, resisting the temptation to just yank off the bandage.
Jon laughs softly. “He got a heart with an arrow through it, y’know, old school? And it says Misty on it.”
Maja laughs, and tilts forward to see as Jon pulls the bandage free. It’s a black daisy, and the center bears, in script, monogram M.I. Her eyes dart up to his and Jon is blushing. “What if I do something awful to you? What if we break up?”
Jon sighs. “Maja, I’m always going to want to remember this, no matter what.”
Maja rises to kiss him hard, pushing him onto his back. Jon laughs and wraps his arms around her waist. After they’ve kissed for a few lazy minutes, she asks, voice husky, “Why the daisy?”
It’s a quiz. Jon can pass it. “Prastkrage,” he says. “Flower of Scania.” Maja grins and kisses him again.
The AVNs
It’s a Saturday and Brendon and Patrick are up early, watching cartoons and making out, when Brendon’s phone rings. He picks up to hear Mike absolutely shrieking. Brendon’s been nominated for best newcomer in a gay feature. Mike wakes up the rest of the office with a series of more and more hysterical calls. They’ve been nominated for tons of awards. Tyson for Male Performer of the Year, Misty’s Adventures for Best Continuing Series, Travis and Jepha get nominated for Best Pro-Am (and they’re up against a truly boring Bartholomew Cubbins film involving college goth girls). Pete starts figuring out just who he has to take to Las Vegas. Patrick and Mikey have to go, because they were nominated for Best Website (and because Brendon refuses to go without someone to stand between him and the crazies). Nick and Greta have to go, as does Bob (nominated for Best Score) and Ray (nominated for Best Editing). Tyson and Ray make it clear that Darren’s coming with them. Pete is forcing Spencer to go, “This is our big night! Buy yourself a ticket.”
It’s not until Brendon actually reads Adult Video News on Monday that they realize that Mike was nominated too. For Best Marketing Campaign - Company Image. Now it’s a party.
But when Spencer is figuring out plane tickets and hotel rooms, he realizes that the only people left in the office are going to be Jon, Maja, and William. (Chris doesn’t count. He’s too surly to handle office work.) He asks William to answer the phones. Jon and Maja are in the honeymoon stage, too in love to be bothered with awards, so he predicts that mostly William will answer the phones and Maja and Jon will make out in her dressing room, and then open the mail.
Travis never went to the trouble of getting his password to post on the blog, but when he shows up two weeks before the awards to ask Patrick for it, he looks pissed. Bartholomew Cubbins gave an interview to the biggest magazine in the industry about the upcoming awards. They asked if he was upset about not being up for Best Feature or Best Continuing Series. In blowing off the question, he says that he only cares about awards that specific to his art, like Screenplay and Cinematography, and that Misty will probably win in the Continuing Series category, because the voters are idiots. “I don’t understand the appeal, to be honest with you. It’s some dingbat, some life sized misappropriation of the feminine mystique, laid bare for men without saying anything deeper about herself or the world around her. It’s frankly awful. I have no idea why anyone pays her for it.”
Two hours later, Travis posts a long, well-thought-out, but searingly angry missive to the website. He says in it that porn, like books or magazines or conversations, doesn’t always have to be deep. It can be fun. And just because you don’t like the same thing that other people like, doesn’t mean you have to trash it. He then proceeds to trash-talk Bartholomew’s nominated films. Greta slips into his dressing room and curls up around him when she reads it. She stumbled over the interview with Bartholomew, but refused to admit that it stung. “Do you feel better?” she asks him softly, and he puts his hand on her arm, holding her close, and nods.
Mike does not stop smiling between when the nominations are announced and when they go to Vegas. Patrick and Mikey lose, but they knew they would. They’re happy just to chat with the winners at the bar. It’s like learning from the masters. Brendon wins, and his speech is mostly him looking baffled and adorable. He remembers to thank his boyfriend. Greta and Nick win for Misty and accept it holding hands. Tyson does not remember to thank anyone when he wins, he just jumps up and down.
At the bar, glowing from his win, Mike gets a congratulations from a guy he’s met maybe once before, but Mike never forgets a face. “Hey, Shannon Leto. Thanks a lot, man.” Shannon’s pretty cool, but he always looks so beaten, like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his back. Mike sits with him at the bar and they chat. Shannon seems a little grateful for the respite.
“Are you worried about what Travis is gonna say if he wins?” Shannon asks.
Mike shrugs. “He’s Travis. He’ll say his peace. Can’t stop that.”
Shannon looks over his shoulder, like he’s scared. “I am fucking petrified of what will happen if Bartholomew wins.”
Luckily for Shannon, Travis and Jepha win. Jepha hangs back and lets Travis have the mic. He shouts out, “Hey Barty, how’s this for you? Talk about my girl again and I’ll end your career.” He then points to WW’s table and winks. “You know we love you.” And that’s it. Mike laughs.
At the end of the ceremony, when things are breaking up, Mike asks Shannon if he’d like to go get a drink. “Can’t,” he says. “I have to go attend to his lordship.”
Mike smiles. Shannon’s hot when he’s snarky. “Come on. One won’t hurt.”
Shannon looks at Mike’s smile for a long moment, then smiles back. “Okay. Meet me in the bar at the Luxor?”
When Shannon gets back to his suite, his brother is in a mood. “You can’t go,” he says. “I have to go out.” He dislikes being without Shannon to cater to his whims and end his fights.
Shannon just stares at him, sick of this and wanting to maybe talk with a guy who’s interested in him and not trying to get to his brother. “I’m going.”
Mike lights up when Shannon comes into the bar, like he thought he was going to get stood up. Mike doesn’t get to the WentzWang party that night, and Shannon doesn’t get back to his room until nearly six.
“Where were you last night?” Greta says when Mike meets up with her at noon for a personal appearance.
He gets a soppy grin on his face. “Out.” She nudges him, but doesn’t press. Mike deserves a little fun.
Mike and Shannon
No one knows that Mike and Shannon are emailing, and it doesn’t strike Maja as weird when Mike asks about him. She tells him that Shannon was the most wonderful person she knew in New York, and it was a shame that he let his brother control him.
Their daily emails turn into four-times-a-week phone calls, often lasting until very late. Mike has to admit that, even if it is unorthodox, his heart belongs to Shannon. Shannon calls him from sets and shoots and texts from lame parties. Mike presses him to visit, but they don’t see each other again until they’re both at a trade show in London. Mike shuts down the booth for the night, his skin tingling with excitement, and heads up to his room. He sent a runner with a spare card for Shannon earlier, but it’s still a surprise when he opens the door and Shannon pins him against the wall and kisses him hard, grinding against him. Mike groans, but tangles his fingers in Shannon’s hair to keep him there. When the kiss finally ends, Shannon’s panting. Mike says softly, “I thought we could go get some dinner or something.”
“Fuck you,” Shannon says. “We are not leaving this hotel room.”
After that, the calls are almost daily. It’s really nice for Shannon, having a boyfriend even with his weird job responsibilities and stupid hours, but it stings a bit too. He hears about how nice things are at WW, the dinner they have for Maja’s birthday and all the little prizes Mike gives out and how they all genuinely like each other so much that they hang out when they’re not on set. He wants that. And one afternoon, when Bartholomew has thrown a complete tantrum and fired an actor over the timing of his ejaculation (which is integral to the poetic themes of the piece), Shannon looks him right in the eye and says, “I quit.” It feels like the most powerful thing he’s ever done. He could lift a car.
“What?” Bartholomew says, clearly preparing to be hysterical. “I need you!”
“I don’t care,” Shannon says, grabbing his coat. “I quit.”
He goes home and packs, and then he calls Mike. “Can you pick me up from the airport in seven and a half hours?”
“What?” Mike says. He was watching General Hospital with Greta.
“I quit, and I don’t know what else to do, some I’m coming to LA. Will you come and get me?”
“Yeah,” Mike says. “Fuck yeah!” Mike proceeds to spend the next six hours running around the office and screaming.
He goes to the airport to get Shannon, drives him to the office, and Shannon’s completely startled. There’s a party for him. Everyone’s there, cheering and hugging. Pete thumps his back and says, “Welcome to the family.” Maja squeaks when she hugs him, and that’s when Shannon starts laughing. They both made it out of there! He stays until the room empties, meeting everyone and having actual fun. Mike rarely leaves touching distance. Shannon’s pretty sure they’re only being welcoming because he’s Mike’s boyfriend, but Pete’s talking about getting Shannon a cubicle and stuff. He feels wanted.
He realizes that Mike may not have wanted a live-in boyfriend, and Shannon didn’t really give him an option, so he spends the drive home trying to think of how to tell Mike that it’s okay if he gives Shannon the spare room. But once inside Mike’s condo, Mike takes his hand and drags him into the master bedroom, then throws him down on the bed. Shannon barely has time to smile before Mike’s stripping him naked.
There’s a time, a couple of weeks later, when Ryan discovers that his roommate is a psychopath. He’s looking for a new place, and Mike says that he’s welcome to the guest room while he looks, which is awesome of him. Ryan figured he would stay in the guest room, try not to make too much noise when he came in late at night. They all pretty much assume that Mike and Shannon are domestic in the old people way, baking and watching the evening news. Instead, Ryan spends a lot of time the first Saturday night hiding in his room while Mike and Shannon, assuming he’s out for the night, have extremely loud (what sounds like sorta rough) sex in every room. He texts this information to everyone he can think of. Who knew that Mike Kennerty was a tiger in the sack?
Brendon’s First Time
El keeps asking me to include it, so here is the scene breakdown of the WentzWang classic Brendon’s First Time
1. Brendon, fresh faced and innocent, moves into his college dorm and meets his roommate (played by Ryan Ross). Ryan suggests that they watch a movie to bond and puts on porn. Brendon is scandalized, but settles when Ryan slips his hand into Brendon’s pants, and he eventually lets Ryan fuck him.
2. Brendon goes to his biology class and meets his partner (played by Travis McCoy). They give each other handjobs under the table while the professor lectures.
3. Brendon gets lost in the fieldhouse and ends up in the wrong locker room. There he meets a helpful football player (played by Tyson Ritter) who lets Brendon blow him (equipment still on) and then returns the favor.
4. Brendon goes to talk to the cool lit professor (played by Andy Hurley, in a rare gay appearance) about getting into the advanced class. Andy says that Brendon has to prove that he really wants it. Brendon lets Andy fuck him over the desk.
5. Walking through the courtyard, Brendon looks at all the tables where student organizations are signing up new members. He gets stopped by a fratboy (played by Chris Gaylor) who wants to tell Brendon how awesome his frat is. Chris takes Brendon back to the house and fucks him on the couch while, above them, the initiation paddle bounces against the wall.
6. Brendon returns to his room, a new gleam in his eyes, to find Ryan watching tv. Brendon puts Ryan on all fours and fucks his first boy!
Bob Bryar, porn editor
Bob took the job with WentzWang when the company was in its infancy. He was looking to break into sound editing and he needed something on his resume. Now he stays because he’s good at it and the pay’s pretty excellent. The only caveat is that they have to leave him alone.
Being the sound editor, Bob sometimes calls the stars and demands that they come in to rerecord their vocals. Which means that a lot of days, Bob has someone in the booth making sex noises. It’s kind of whatever. But then Ryan, for no clear reason, comes in one day and stares directly at Bob as he makes his sex noises. It makes Bob uncomfortable, in the sense that he’s kind of getting hard at work. He stopped doing that three weeks in. Ryan is way more animated than he was on film, opening his pretty wet mouth and crying for it. “You can stop,” Bob says, and Ryan slides out of the booth, his eyes darting down to Bob’s crotch and licking the center of his lower lip before he leaves.
This starts to happen EVERY TIME Ryan has to loop vocals. Bob both dreads it and welcomes it. He doesn’t want to think about the fact that he jerks off to that sound in the shower. The third time, when Bob is really squirming, it takes him a moment to notice that Ryan has slipped out of the booth and into the editing room. He looks up, a little startled, and Ryan just whispers, “Let me,” and drops to his knees.
Ryan is really, really fucking good at this. Bob is sure that he’s never had an orgasm of that intensity. He also doesn’t notice that he left the recorder on. Brendon, snooping as always, because he’s seen the way Ryan’s been looking at Bob, finds the file and gets Patrick to not only remove the section so that Bob doesn’t know it’s been there, but also to rig the door so that as soon as Bob opens the door the next morning, he hears the sounds of himself coming. Brendon hides from Bob for a couple of days after that. Bob wants to be angrier about it, but Ryan’s now-daily blowjobs are really relaxing.
Russell
Spencer needs an assistant, again. Pete keeps turning his office PAs into porn stars (first Brendon, then Jon), so now all of the resumes Spencer gets are from wannabe porn stars with no office experience. He decides that, instead, he’s going to get an intern. He picks the one least likely to run off to be in porn. Russell Lissack. He stops freaking out after a week about opening the fan mail, he remembers what people like in their coffee, and he’s got this kicked puppy look to him that gets people to respond to requests better than when Spencer yells.
Pete wants to get him a sidekick, but Spencer says no. Sidekicks are distracting. So Russell gets a pager. A bright green pager with a WentzWang logo sticker on it. “You’re like a doctor!” Pete says. “Or a drug dealer!”
William, who handles makeup and wardrobe, thinks Russell’s adorable. He steals Russell for errands (“they can page you!”), out to buy new eyeliner and get the laundry. They drive around in Bill’s convertible Rabbit and Bill sings along to the radio and it’s fun. Russell doesn’t even freak out when he finds out that, once or twice a year, Bill does transvestite porn.