The Boy Who Cried Blackmail (Patreon)

Late one warm autumn evening Rick sat in the basement of his parents' home as he drew in a large sketch pad. “Hey, Ricky?” Terra asked, pausing the movie neither one of them were paying much attention to.
“What?” he asked with a groan, still drawing in his sketch pad. She knew he hated being called Ricky but she had called him that since they met in third grade and she was not likely to change now so why fight it? Ricky
“You know next week is Halloween, right?”
“You don’t say?” He asked sarcastically and held up the unfinished monster sketch he had been working on for the last two hours.
“So cool!” Terra smiled brightly, rolling off of her bed and crashing on the blanket bed beside Rick. “I love the fangs!”
“Thanks.” Rick smiled proudly.
Terra snatched the sketchbook from Rick’s hands, “You really captured the drool!”
“Thanks again. I’m still not finished.” Rick took his sketchbook back from Terra.
“Ugh. Fuckin’ artists man.” She laid flat on her back before kicking her legs high into the air and landing on her feet.
“It sounded like you were about to ask me for another favor. But if you wanna go down this road that’s okay with me.”
“What other favor did I ask you for?”
“This week?”
“Yeah!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And the monster drawing doesn’t count, you said you were blocked for art ideas. So he doesn’t count. Other than that, name one.”
“This week you asked to borrow my homework so you could ‘copy it’. You asked me for money for lunch, snacks, and the pizza we had tonight. You also asked me for a ride a dozen times this week. And you texted me during class to bring you a tampon.”
“I asked for one. Besides, that last one wasn’t a favor. That was just helping out a friend.”
“I don’t carry tampons with me.”
“Maybe you should.” She chuckled. Seeing Rick’s unamused glare caused her to clear her throat, “You managed anyway.”
“I had to ask Ms. Schaffer.” Before Terra could respond Rick continued, “In front of class.” Again he cut her off before she could start, “She didn’t have one. So she asked the entire class if ‘anyone had a tampon ‘for Warrick.’”–he made quotation marks with his fingers– “She then excused me to the bathroom to put in my tampon!”
Terra twisted her earlobe, “Like I said, you managed.” She frowned.
“Yeah. I love you so…” He shrugged.

Terra turned away from Rick, his admission of love wasn't just something friends were known to do but rather an old wound left exposed for nearly five years. Rick had given her the best birthday present she could ask for at thirteen. And the worst. He told her he loved her. As much as a then twelve year old boy knew about love. He summoned up all his courage that fateful Saturday afternoon and asked Terra out on a date, not as friends but "boyfriend and girlfriend."
Tragically Terra had to turn her best friend down. But the best gift he gave her that day, besides the video game he got her, was one of self-knowledge. In the instant he asked,she knew what had been bothering her for years, why she didn't like any boy but Ricky. At first it was obvious to her, all the other boys were idiots. Even though she enjoyed roughhousing and mini games of war on the playground like the other boys while Ricky didn't. He enjoyed reading and drawing. Something about knowing her best friend was much more of a girl than she was made her…happy? She wasn't quite sure, when she asked her mother she would only say "I had a tomboy phase too." And dismiss her. Her father didn’t see the problem that his daughter didn’t like any of the boys in her grade. “Boys are idiots.” He’d say simply and dismiss her. It wasn’t until her thirteenth birthday when her best friend asked her out that she realized the truth, Terra was a lesbian. Rick was stunned at first, was his friend lying to him just to make his rejection easier? But the longer they talked the more he realized it was true. She was a lesbian, and there was nothing they could do about it. “I still love you.” He told her that night. “And I love you too.” They hugged, and she wished that was all there was to their relationship. She wished that she didn’t wish Rick was a girl.

“Right, you love me. Sooo…you want me to be happy, right?” She begged, finally looking at him.
“Of course.”
“Well, I thought it would be fun if we went to the gay club.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on! They’re having a costume contest and we can dress up and have fun!”
Rick sighed, even as a kid everyone made fun of him for being small and feminine. Unlike the other boys he didn’t care to get dirty playing war or climbing things. Instead he spent his time on the sidewalk with his rainbow box of chalks drawing flowers or playing house with the other neighbor kids. As he grew the bullying got worse, he developed much slower than the other boys, only finally growing beyond five feet a little over a year ago. But beyond his increase in height and vocal changes he remained rather feminine. “I keep telling you, Ter, I’m not gay.” Ricky pronouncing Terra’s name like “air” a stark contrast from the teen titan of rock and stone she was named after.
“I know, but they have a halloween contest every year and we’re finally old enough to go!”
“I’m not.”
“We don’t tell them that.” She whispers. “Besides three more months and you will be, but by then it’ll be too late!”
“So go next year!”
“But…it’s my birthday and Mississippi isn’t exactly the best place for lgbt people so my dating life has been in the toilet and I might meet a cute girl if we go tonight so pleeeeeease!”
“Get behind me Satan.” He shook his head as he continued to work on his sketch.
Terra sniffled as she begged and her lip quivered. “I’m just…so terribly lonely. I just wanna meet pretty girls.”
“Stop.”
“Am I doomed to live my life alone?!” She cried, “Ow.” she said undramatically, having thrown the back of her hand against her forehead, “No love?” She shouted once more as dramatic as any soap opera actor, “No friends?”
“Don’t do this.”
She continued, “No fun at all?”
“I swear to God-”
Terra threw herself into the floor and wailed, “If only there was someone who loved me!” She continued to wail, “I have such big…hearts! If only I could give them to somebody!” She pretended to cry for a minute before she opened one eye and saw Rick shaking his head. “Somebody to loooove!” She sang off key, knowing how much it annoyed Rick.
“Oh my god, fine!”
“Really?!”
“As long as you stop butchering a classic.”
“Deal!” She threw her arms around Rick happily, “Thank you.”
“Yeah…yeah.” He forced himself to ignore the feeling of her breasts pressing into his back. “You’re gonna be the one explaining it to my parents though.”
“Pfft no problem. They love me.”

As if on cue Rick’s mother descended the basement stairs and saw her son and Terra. “Terra. Warrick.” she called from the bottom stairs and even with his back to her and Terra on top of him she could tell he was rolling his eyes, “Dinner’s ready.”
“What are we having?” Terra spun around so fast her long black hair slapped Rick in the side of his head.
“Ow!” Rick grabbed his eye.
“Shh, your mom’s talking about food.” She turned back to face Rick’s mother with a smile, “I’m so sorry about him. I tried to raise him right.”
Ava couldn’t help but chuckle at Terra’s silly teasing. “We’re having meatloaf and mashed potatoes. There’s also corn if you want it.”
“Ooh, I do!”
“Then you better hurry before Annabelle takes it all.” Annabelle, or Belle as she insisted she be called, was Rick’s sister who was five years his younger.
“Yes ma’am!” Terra sprung to her feet, standing at her full height of 5’10, and shouted excitedly at Rick as she rushed out of the basement, “C’mon short round!” The sound of her feet hurried up the stairs, paused, and hurried back down and gave Ava a hug. “Thank you.” She whispered into the shorter woman’s ear.
Ava placed a gentle hand on Terra’s arm and whispered back, “Always, sugar.” With that Terra once again ran up the stairs. Rick slowly stood, having put his sketchbook away. “Hey,” his mom grasped his shoulder, “Can I see?”
“It’s not that bad, she’s just being annoying.” He said but let his mother examine his eye anyway.
“How so?”
“Just birthday stuff.” He shrugged.
“That’s right it is next week isn’t it.” She gasped, “We will have to do something special for her.”
Rick rolled his eyes, his mom acted as if they didn’t always do something special for everyone’s birthdays, including Terra’s. “I’m working on it.”

Not so surprisingly Rick’s parents both agreed to extend his curfew for this special occasion. “You remember our deal?”
“They won’t sell us alcohol, dad.” Rick rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Neither of us are old enough.”
“Still. Promise me. The both of you. You won’t be in any trouble.”
“Okay.” Rick rolled his eyes. Having therapists for parents meant a lot of conversations like this, and frequent emotional and mental check-ins. But, knowing what he did about Terra’s home life and others, he understood he was luckier than most and he did appreciate it, even if he did find it annoying at times.
“What deal?”
“A couple of years ago,” Ava started, “we made a deal with Warrick that when he goes to a party he could go as long as it wasn’t too late on a school night and if there was the possibility of there being alcohol, or drugs, at the party and he drank, then he would call us for a ride home no matter the time.”
“And he wouldn’t get in trouble?”
“Nope.” Peter shook his head, “So long as he called us. That goes for you too.” He added after a momentary pause, “Not just tonight. Drunk, high, or not. We got your back.”
Terra fought the corners of her lips as they attempted to spread into a smile, “I’ll remember that.”
“Good.” He smiled and gave her a wink before returning to his mashed potatoes. The rest of the dinner continued with the subject changing to Belle’s day at school.

Friday afternoon, his bag between his legs and his sketchbook in his lap Rick sat in the bleachers and worked on a drawing much more his personal preference as Terra ran drills with the rest of the girls on the wrestling team. One of the rare times Terra wasn’t seen wearing her usual jeans and a t-shirt.
Beside him sat Donny; the only other person in the entire school that he considered to be a friend, and even that was loosely applied to Donny. “Fuck man.” He swore as he stared at the girls, “I see why you like it here.” he licked his lips like a hungry dog, “Lotta potential wank material to be found.”
Rick rolled his eyes, “I like it here because it’s quiet. Not all of us are led around by our dicks.”
“Easier to do when you have one as big as mine, midget.” Donny teased, shoving the smaller boy. Donny was taller than Rick by a few inches and he was certain to remind him of that as often as he could. Rick had met Donny a couple of years ago at a skate park when Rick had attempted to “up” his image by learning how to skateboard. After several wipeouts Donny came to then much shorter Rick’s aid, actually thinking that he was a fifth grader and not a highschool freshman like him. Rick unfortunately never did get the hang of skating but he did keep the fashion sense, including having his ears pierced over winter break.
When Donny found out that Rick went to the same school he did he started hanging out with him more. And since Donny was the only other person in the school who didn’t feel the need to pick on him or call him a fag, he relented to being his friend. If for no other reason than to have someone to talk to about his problems. Most of which centered around getting girls to notice either of them.
“Terra still not givin’ ya any?”
“...no. She’s still a lesbian last I heard.”
“Such a waste. A pair of tig ol bitties like that just…all alone.” In addition to being Rick’s kinda sorta friend, Donny was the only other person that knew Terra was a lesbian. Terra was pissed at Rick for weeks when she found out he had told Donny. Thankfully he told no one else. His explanation, and what kept Rick coming back to Donny, being that “I’m no snitch.”
“You know what?” Donny offered as the coach blew her whistle, ending the practice, “You should come with me to this party tonight. There’ll be tons of non-lesbo chicks there for the both of us.”
“Who’s party?”
Donny blinked at his friend for a moment, “Who cares? Chicks, dude! We’ll get a little high, get a little drunk, and get a lot laid!”
“I don’t know…I’m supposed to take Terra out for her birthday.”
“Oh my god dude! How are you ever gonna get out of the friendzone if you act like her little bitch all the time?!”
“I’m not in the friendzone, I’m her friend. There’s a difference.”
“You two fuckin’?”
“No!”
“You wanna be?”
“I mean…” Rick glanced at Terra as she poured water from her bottle into her mouth, the water overflowing and pouring out of her mouth and drenching her warm chest in ice cold water causing her nipples to immediately stand at attention.
“Exactly. Friendzone.”
“Shut up.” Rick said, shaking his head and closing his sketchbook. “I already promised her I would and it’s too late to change now.”
“Fine. But don’t blame me when you wake up with blue balls again.”
“My balls are just fine.”
“Boy that’s a relief.” Terra said as she climbed the wood bleachers. “People were starting to worry.”
Seeing Terra in her skin-tight practice clothes. Rick had to remind himself he was her friend and he shouldn’t be leering at her the way he was. While the other girls on the team were all reasonably fit, or even more muscular, Terra still looked the best out of all of them. Her D cups were pulled tight against her chest in her ironman under armor, she still had a rather large chest compared to the other girls but they were now appeared to be Cs at best. The sweat drenched shirt clung to her waist, highlighting her well defined abs that gave Rick pause.
“What are you two talking about?” She asked, patting her neck down with her towel.
“I was inviting Rick to a party but apparently you two have plans.” Donny threw his arm around Rick’s shoulder, pulling him in closer and grabbing his chin with the other hand, “Now I thought we agreed to share custody of our little Ricky-poo!” Donny kissed Rick emphatically on the cheek and tousled the boy’s shaggy blonde hair..
Rick shoved Donny away, “Get off!”
“I’m tryin’ baby but you keep holdin’ out on me!”
Terra shook her head, “And I thought I was gay.” she wrapped the towel around her neck and looked at Rick who was angrily wiping the slobber off of his cheek, “Ricky’s taking me out to a club tonight for my birthday because he’s a good friend.”
“The gay club?” Donny chuckled.
“You told him?” Terra glared at Rick.
“No!”
“Oh shit, really?!” Donny burst into a fit of laughter.
“Whatever. C’mon, let’s go.”
“Yeah.” Rick stood, grabbing his bag and following Terra.
“Wha-You’re just gonna leave me for an older woman?!”
“You’re darn right I am!”
“You can’t leave me!” He shouted as they continued to leave. “Fine go, Rick! But you’re still the father of this baby you put in my belly!”
“Oh my god, shut up, Donny!” Rick shouted back, shoving the gym door open. As she left Terra finally let herself laugh at Donny. ‘Why am I friends with these people?’



Later, Terra had taken Rick to her house so she could shower and change while Rick waited on her bed. Terra’s room was a stark contrast to Terra herself. Terra’s bed, like all of her furniture, were antiques. Her white four post bed had a matching white canopy curtain which was always tied back with soft red ribbons. Her bedsheets were pink pastels to match the rest of her room. The lower half of her wall was a pink pastel while the top half was the same color white as the bed frame. Her dresser and vanity table were both white with pink flowering vines painted across them. Her parents had gifted her the entire set when she was ten after her grandmother had passed away. For the most part her walls were barren save for a few pictures of her and family. A picture of a much younger Terra and her grandmother sat on the nightstand by her bed. Terra had asked her parents to let her at least get new wallpaper but they had refused, saying anything else would clash with her grandmother’s furniture and while they weren’t poor they couldn’t afford to buy her an entirely new bedroom set.
On one occasion, a few years ago, Rick asked why she didn’t just start small, “Get rid of that desk mirror thing.”
“First off, that’s a vanity. Second…it belonged to my grandma. I don’t wanna just toss it away or give it to some stranger who might not appreciate it....” Rick nodded, putting his arm around his taller friend and pulling her into a sideways hug. He knew she hated it, the pink, the pastels, the flowers, but it was her grandmother. He only met her on a few occasions when she came to Mississippi for christmas or thanksgiving. She made the best cookies. “Unless…you want it?”
“No!” He said reflexively. “It’s a girl’s room!” He winked and shoved her away, quickly changing the subject.


After waiting for fifteen minutes Terra finally came into her room wearing a fresh pair of ripped jeans and a black t-shirt with a red S inside of a diamond. Superboy being her favorite character.
“Are you excited?!” She bounced in place eagerly. Exposing the fact she was not wearing a bra underneath her shirt with each bounce.
“Ecstatic.” Rick’s eye winked as he fought not to stare at his best friend’s bouncing breasts.
“You still do that huh?” She asked as she sat beside him on the bed.
“Do what?”
“Wink when you lie.”
“I don’t wink when I lie.”
“Yes you do! You totally do.”
“No I don’t.” he winked again.
“Hah! See?! You did it again!” She laughed.
His eye winked once more as he covered it with his hand, “I don’t do it because I’m lying. It’s a stress reflex. At least that’s what my therapist told me.” Rick shrugged, his parents were both therapists of course so they thought they could handle it when Ricky started acting out a couple of years ago.They realized they couldn’t when he and Donny got caught sneaking into the house after egging several houses in the neighborhood and trashing their yards with toilet paper. Instead of getting mad his mom and dad decided to get him some therapy in addition to him cleaning the houses he had vandalized.

“Okay.” She watched his eyes for a minute, her heart pounding in her ears as she briefly lost herself in his deep blue eyes before finally pulling away with a sigh and resting her head on his shoulder, “I guess you’re not lying. Unless of course you’re just holding it in!” She said quickly and snapped to look at his eyes. “Ooh, you’re good.”
“Yup. You caught me.” He said as he checked his phone,
“Oh fuck! Is that the time?!” She swore as she launched herself up and off of the bed at her closet.
“We got plenty of time.”
“I wanted to get there before we had to pay, plus we still have to change into our costumes.” She pulled an entire rack of clothes Rick had never seen her wear to the side, “I got the perfect costumes for us.”
“I’m already wearing my costume.”
She looked her friend over, Rick was wearing a flannel shirt and blue jeans. “You wore that to school.”
“Yeah. But look here.” He stood and pulled his shirt up showing off the red handkerchief in his back pocket, “I’m the boss.”
“The boss of what?”
“Are you kidding? Springstein?!”
“Are you kidding? That’s not a costume!”
“Technically-”
“I will pile drive you right now.
“Look, you gave me a week’s notice and I did what I could. I doubt yours is any better.”
“Actually.” She paused, and reached behind the small wall hiding her everyday wear and pulled out a red fez, tattered purple vest, off-white harem pants with a small yellow patch on one leg, a cumberbund to match his fez and slippers, “Tada!”
“...Really? You expect me to wear that? What am I supposed to be?”
“First off, it’s Aladdin, I made it myself. Second, this isn’t your costume. It’s mine!”
Rick paused for a moment, his brain fighting his body between confusion and the realization of just how much skin Terra was going to expose. “Oh okay.” He couldn't imagine how Terra would hide her hair but Terra for the most part has always taken great pains to expose as little of her body as possible. Even when they went to the lake she would refuse to swim and at best wore long board shorts and a loose t-shirt.
“This…” she paused as she dug into her closet again, “is your costume.” she pulled out a low-riding turquoise harem pants paired with a tiny off-the-shoulder top.
“You’re kidding me!”
She looked at the costume, “What?”
“...You want me to go as Jasmine?!”
“Well…yeah, I’m already going as Aladdin. This way we match.”
“If you wanted to match we coulda got some blue body paint and a goatee.”
“Do you mean Genie?”
“Yeah!”
“You can’t go as Genie.”
“Why not?”
“...He’s a guy.”
“So am I.”
“Yeah but it’s a drag contest.”
“What?! I thought you said it was a costume contest?” Rick’s eye winked anxiously.
“I mean…it’s both. The contest happens after the drag show and it’s …drag costume…I thought I told you this.”
“No! I never would’ve agreed if you told me that.”
“Ricky…you promised.”
“I promised I’d go. I didn’t promise I’d die of embarrassment!”
“I’m in the same boat as you here, worse even cause I gotta tie these stupid things down–” she gestured to her chest–“and try to make it not glaringly obvious!”
Rick frowned, not only was he going to have to wear that costume, but he wouldn’t even get the chance to see-he derailed that particular train of thought on his own. She was his friend and he wasn’t like Donny. Terra’s face didn’t betray her but her eyes did; she needed her friend, not just for her birthday, but because she was afraid. She could physically handle herself much better than Rick could…but emotionally she had already been through hell with her parents and the idiot girls at school who thought she couldn’t hear the mean things they said about her behind her back. As much as things had changed in the south there was still a long way to go for gay people. “Okay. Fine. But when it’s my birthday you owe me big time.”
“I’ll think of something.” She handed him his costume and he turned to leave.
“Oh wait!” She reached into her closet and pulled out a medium box.
“What’s this?” He asked, taking the box.
“Your chest for one. Some panties. And a-”
“Panties?!”
“It’s just underwear dude. Besides, you can’t wear your boxers with those pants it’ll ruin the costume. There’s also a kit for…uh a…thing for your…uh…business so you can hide it.” She cleared her throat, unsure how to explain to Rick what a tuck kit was.
“Fuck me.” He swore under his breath, taking the box and leaving her room.
Alone in her room, Terra removed her shirt, wrapping it around her chest and stared at herself in the mirror, “Maybe so.” she said wistfully.

Kneeling in her closet she picked up a small box and pulled out a 2b half binder she had purchased to match her sun-kissed skin and a couple of bottles of body paint to start. She took one of her sports bras and slipped it on over her chest, painfully cutting her D cups to Cs before she slipped on the binder. The binder itself looked like a regular tank top only slightly longer than the sports bra she now wore. When she slipped it on she examined herself in the mirror. Her, now, C cup breasts were completely flat. If it weren’t for a lack of nipples she would have sworn she was staring at a shirtless boy in an overly girly room. Briefly she considered painting nipples onto the binder but thought better of it, she didn’t have time for that, and with her vest no one would see those anyway. Dressing herself was simple compared to what Ricky was going to have to do so she reminded herself to dress quickly and using that to help her focus on something besides what could happen if her plan went tits up. Slipping a thick tube sock into her boxers she adjusted the new bugle before pulling up the pants. Tying her shoulder length hair into a tight bun and covering it with the fez she hurried to the bathroom to help Ricky become the beautiful princess she knew he was.