The Wheel

57. Veronica

I look at Sam who's turning toward us. What are they going to do to him?

What's that sound?! It's a groan. It's my groan! Then it stops and I heard another one. Miguel? Sam? Mike? Those are the groans of everyone in the room.

"What the hell is that?" asked Sam.

"Do you know how many secrets are hidden in your phones? A lot! And how many of them your phones reveal? An innumerable amount!" said Ayama.

The groans change. It's the microphone recordings from our phones when someone was masturbating or having sex! Everyone gets embarrassed.

"Stop it!" Sam asked. "I told you everything! I like ordinary porn! Honestly!"

"Let him go already!" I yell. "He told you everything!"

"Mr. Virani, it's a good thing you sealed the camera on your laptop," Ayama told him, "but what about the camera on your smartphone?"

There was a demonstration of a video on the walls. Understanding what's going on, I put my palms on my mouth in shock. Sam starts trembling even harder!

On each of the walls the recordings divide into two parts: on the first one there is a recording from his front camera, and on the other there was what he saw on his screen at that moment. My poor boy turned on a private mode of the browser and clicked on PornHub.

"Usually you watch porn, using your laptop, preliminary sealing the camera," said Ayama, "but there was this one time when you had something to drink, relaxed and decided to have some fun, using your phone."

Sam squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

"Don't! Don't!" he shouted.

"Don't worry, Mr. Virani," Ayama 'reassured' him, "we will only show your face and what you were watching."

"Don't...I don't want to...why? Tell me why are you doing it?" he said quietly and began to breathe heavily.

"You agreed to this trial," Ayama said.

"I didn't agree to that, damn it!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "God, I wanna go home! I want it to stop!"
We could hear Sam's groans in the room: the session of masturbating had begun. Poor Sam clenched his hands into fists and started shaking.

"Don't look!" he asks. "Don't look at that! Close your eyes and your ears, please!"

"If someone does it," Ayama warned, "the video will be stopped until you open your eyes and ears."

"You bastards!" he screamed.

I hear the groans and look at the martyr: the sweat was raining down him, and his eyes were filled with fathomless fear.

"Sam, look at me!" I shout.

He does as I said. The groaning gets louder.

"It's going to be over soon, Sam!" I try to support him. "I'm here, honey! You're not alone! There is not much to see on the recording!"

Sam trembles a little less. Kate is looking at him.

"It's not a big deal!" she declared. "We all understand you."

My group mates look at my boyfriend, trying to support him somehow.

"I love you," I said.

Sam almost stopped trembling and even smiled a little.