In my early teens, my parents, siblings and I lived across the street from our extended family. The big house across the way belonged to my mother's elderly parents. Their youngest child, my uncle, lived with them while going to college part time and working in one of the stores in the tourist area by the shore. He was in his early twenties, a bit of a surfer bum, and had this beautifully sculpted, yet lithe and hairless body--picture the bodies of professional divers.
Since we lived in a beach community he was usually shirtless, whether he was headed to or coming back from the beach or just working on his car in the driveway. Still seared into my mind are his luscious nipples, the color of caramel and the size of tablespoons, moving in the sun as he sweated over a motor or hosed down the pavement.
When I was fourteen I started sneaking into his room to steal his dirty underwear and inhale it while jacking off. It was a thrilling, furtive game--I would watch from my window for when he'd drive away to work or school, then tell my parents I was going to visit Grandma and Grandpa and walk across the street. I'd push open the crack in his door, my heart racing as I contemplated the mound of dirty clothes piled on his floor. I'd search for the ripest-smelling pair of briefs I could find, stuff them into my pocket and lock myself in the bathroom while suffocating myself with his smell. It was heaven.
One day, my grandparents were gone for the day, visiting friends a few towns over. I decided that I didn't want to pleasure myself in the bathroom--the toilet was small and cold--and recklessly decided to carry out my ritual on the living room sofa. With my uncle's taint draped over my nostrils, I was just about to bust when the lock on the front door jiggled and he walked in. He stared at me in disbelief, demanded to know what I was doing, then, when I only produced stunned silence, picked up a folder from the dining table, slammed the door shut and drove off.
He told my parents. I don't know if he told them I'd been sniffing his underwear, because my stepdad only talked to me about masturbation and respecting other people's homes. Actually, my uncle never spoke of it again, and I never noticed him treating me any differently. Now I wonder what he thought at the time and if we could laugh about it now.