The Lockdown

7

Apparently, registering a second participant to an already established account was easier as Andy was approved by the time they woke up the next morning. They tried to pretend that this was like any other Monday. They had breakfast, did some yoga, Andy went to check on the bar, called his mother and they made lunch together.

After lunch, Cam went into his room while Andy stayed in the living room restless. He was too nervous to draw, so he just turned the TV on flipping channels trying to find something interesting but could not settle on anything. After a while Cam came out of his room, holding the laptop in one hand continuously talking into the camera. He went to the kitchen to get a soda and some snacks, he was returning to his room when someone apparently asked him about Andy. "That's just my roomie," Cam said cheerfully. He was silent for a second and laughed out loud. "No, jeremy21, he is not going to join us. He is just my roommate, 100% straight, and he cannot go to work at the moment with these restrictions so you may see him time to time." Andy's ears were burning hearing the youngster talking about him so casually. Cam went back to the topic they were discussing previously and Andy started relaxing gradually. 'If Cam can do this, so can I,' he thought. He didn't really have to do anything after all.

Cam returned to his bedroom shortly after and Andy opened his laptop to browse around just to have something to do. He pretended for a while that he was just looking at some YouTube videos but his mind was somewhere else and he quickly gave into temptation and opened up the website Cam was on for his broadcast. He registered with a throwaway email address he sometimes used when he did not want to get any more spam and found Cam's room in less than a minute. 'Candy4you' It was called and Cam was talking into camera about a song he just discovered. Andy stared at him fondly, he just loved his exuberance. He looked great on camera, he actually appeared younger than his 22 years. Andy felt a little bit pervy looking at the young boy through a camera but he could not take his eyes off of him. His eyes opened wide, amazed when he noticed that there were over three hundred people looking at Cam with him. Comments were rolling down the screen, Cam sometimes typed a short reply or answered directly into camera mostly teasing his viewers over their often totally inane questions. There was a ding, colbydaddy tipped for 'take your shirt off' appeared on the screen. Cam started to slowly, sensuously remove his shirt and Andy felt his heart suddenly hammering in his chest. He quickly closed the screen of his laptop and escaped into his room lying face down on his bed groaning, flustered by his own actions. He opened his laptop again and found the same video he used a couple of days before. He jacked off urgently, hard, without emotions, the need for release overtaking his common sense.

After dinner, they turned on the TV, there was a game on but neither of them was very involved. "How many people are watching you usually?" Andy asked.

Cam pondered this for a minute. "I have about fifteen hundred followers." Andy took a short breath shocked by the high number. "But that just means that fifteen hundred people liked me enough ever since I first started broadcasting" Cam continued. "On a good day I have five maybe six hundred viewers by the end, a lot of them anonymous so they are not all tippers, usually about thirty maybe forty of them tip, the rest are just freeloaders."

"Why do you let them watch then?" asked Andy.

"It is basic marketing," Cam shrugged, "you have to offer some free samples to entice your buyers," he explained this as if it were a simple transaction. "That's cold," Andy remarked. "No, that's just life. Whether you are selling chips or yourself, the basic rules are the same. Even if you are selling a lot of chips, you still advertise to maintain interest and find new customers. Fundamentally the same principles apply. If your packaging is shitty or you screw up your advertising, your customers will abandon you eventually even if your content is this delectable," he pointed at himself teasing the other man mercilessly. Andy felt his cheeks burning and tried to close the topic.

"You cannot compare sex with eating chips."

"Oh, sure you can!" Cam started to become enthusiastic about the argument. He took a packet of chips out of the cupboard. "Look at this brand. They are coming up with new seasonings every year, they switch up their packaging every once in a while, they do cross promotions with a soda brand, they pay Hollywood to place their product into their films. I have to do something fundamentally very similar. Do you think watching me do the same thing over and over without giving any other enticement would get people to come back and tip me again? I have to offer something different than the literally hundreds of other rooms out there who try to sell basically the same product. That's why it was important that you let me get out of my room and present a relatively normal life. I am the stereotypical boy next door who is actually living next door to another boy." Andy opened his mouth trying to articulate an objection but could not come up with a cogent counter argument.

"I have a marketing degree, I can talk circles around anyone about selling products," smirked the younger man.

"You win," Andy conceded. "Wait a minute, does this mean that I am part of your product now?"

"You bet you are," Cam winked at him, "but only as long as it does not bother you."

"No, it really doesn't," Andy acquiesced. "But aren't you afraid that you will get recognized and you won't be able to get a real job later? I mean I work in a bar, I have done a lot of stupid shit in my life, at this point I am almost expected to do something like this, but you had a very respectable job that you want to return to."

The youngster looked at Andy solemnly. "This is a real job, Andy," he proclaimed. "This is my choice, this is my life and I decide whom I allow to see it, the way I want them to see it. I would lie if I didn't admit that this thought crossed my mind when I first started doing this, but only a few hundred people are watching me from all around the world. Besides, I have always let others dictate what I do, where I go, who I am with. I'm not hurting anybody with this. Some might, but I do not think what I'm doing is wrong. My only worry was you. I could not stand lying to you and I was afraid you would hate me once you found out."

"What if I had asked you to stop doing it?" Andy asked him quietly.

"I would've stopped."