It was 11:37, according to the clock on Mat's tiny screen. He'd been texting Brian for a few hours, just complaining about going to school tomorrow and exchanging lovey-dovey remarks.
Brian: ur the cutest
Mat: nooo u r
Brian: love u <3
Mat: love u more <3<3<3
And all that sappy romantic jazz.
Mat and Brian both had the same shitty prepaid cell phones, and they'd both started to notice their minutes dwindling, but much more so in Mat's case.
Neither of them kept their attention directed towards that for long, though, as Mat - whether by accident or not, we may never know - had sent Brian a not-so-chaste ;) with his next i love u.
The two simple symbols had caught Brian's eye like a flashing light.
Now, Brian was a simple man. Junior year in high school, average grades, average body. He couldn't be blamed for being turned on way too easily by his dream of a boyfriend. Receiving and returning a few more winking emoticons was enough to make his mind wander, perhaps make his blood creep downwards.
Before long, he'd found himself semi-hard and leaking precum. Truth be told, Mat wasn't far behind on that path.
As semicolons increased, composure decreased. Brian wanted to do something, anything, to find some satisfaction. And he found immense satisfaction in some minor exhibitionism.
Nothing fancy, nothing too public, he just enjoyed being seen. Morals slightly thrown aside, he pulled it out and snapped a low-quality photo with the camera on the top half of his flip phone. Barely giving the photo a scrutiny or second thought, he sent it to his boyfriend.
Oh, god, Mat thought upon receiving the photo. His mind was a blur of Brian and below-the-waist.
Up until now, they'd never done anything less innocent than making out, especially not sending nudes. It was a first for both of them. A rather enjoyable first.
Mat was about to send one back; he'd spent at least 5 minutes trying to make the picture perfect. And it was pretty perfect for a dick pic taken on a flip phone. He smiled triumphantly to himself and hit the send button, and the unthinkable happened.
The dreaded Insufficient airtime message.
Mat's mind raced; he was convinced that Brian would think he was mad or that the picture wasn't good enough or... anything, besides running out of minutes. Knowing there wasn't anything he could do, Mat resigned himself to trying to sleep. He could barely stop thinking. It took what felt like forever to drop off into an anxious dream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mat raced down the street to Brian's house the next morning. He didn't waste any time with eating or making sure he had his homework, he just needed to see Brian before school.
"Bri!" Mat whisper-shouted as he knocked softly on Brian's bedroom window. He could see Brian through the crack in the curtain, still sleeping, naked under a threadbare sheet that Mat could practically see through.
Mat smiled softly. He saw Brian stirring, and starting to look for the source of the noise he wasn't sure he heard.
Mat knocked on the window again, and Brian heard it this time. He smiled and walked over to let Mat in.
Mat boosted himself onto the window sill and kicked his legs over so he could set them down on the floor.
Mat hugged Brian tightly and apologized profusely.
"Baby, hold up, what are you apologizing for?" Brian asked worriedly.
"I-I didn't text you back last night... after you sent me the picture..." Mat blubbered.
"Well... why didn't you?"
Mat buried his face in Brian's shoulder. "I ran out of minutes."
Brian laughed. "That's what I figured, Checkers. You don't need to apologize! That's not your fault." He planted a kiss on the top of Mat's head.
Mat looked up and kissed Brian's jaw.
"Love you, dummy," Brian giggled.
"Love you too, asshole."
