Josh’s Heart: Part 1 - The Exam
[This is a short story that I’ve had on the go for a while now, working on it on and off when I felt inspired and I figured I should finally share it here. I purposely left it open-ended as I’ve got some ideas for where to take it next. Let me know what you think! (please be gentle - it’s my first story and my ego is fragile!)]
Josh sat nervously in the waiting room of the cardiologist’s office. His father had recently been diagnosed with a heart condition and the family doctor decided to send Josh for a series of tests on his heart.
As he sat there and looked around and saw another young man about his age - 18 years old or so. Pretty cute, Josh thought to himself, wondering what he was here for. Just as Josh looked over, the young man returned his glance, held it for a second, then looked back down at his magazine.
“Matthew Johnson?” the nurse called.
“Yes?” the young man replied.
“The doctor is ready for you now. Please follow me.”
He put down the magazine he had been reading, stood up, and walked toward the hallway off to the side of the reception desk where the nurse stood waiting. Following the nurse down the corridor to an exam room, he glanced back at Josh, still seated in the waiting room, with a slight smile.
Josh felt a stirring in his stomach but caught himself.
Probably just being friendly, he thought.
As the minutes passed, he became even more anxious and just wanted to get it over with. Not just because he was worried there was something wrong with his heart, but also because, ever since he was young, he’d always felt strange at doctor’s visits. As he got older, the vague sense of nervousness became a mix between embarrassment, anticipation, and arousal. At his last couple of yearly physicals, he’d tried so hard not to get an erection while the doctor examined him. Last time, despite his best efforts, it happened while the doctor listened to his chest. If the doctor couldn’t tell he was aroused from his quickening heartbeat, he could certainly tell from the visible wet spot forming on his white boxer briefs. “Why the fuck did I have to wear white boxers that day?” he thought to himself.
As if on cue, the same nurse as before appeared at the reception desk, clipboard in hand.
“Josh Richards?” she called.
Josh sat upright from slouching in his chair. “Yes, that’s me.”
“Could you please follow me? The doctor is ready to see you now.”
He got up from his chair and shuffled down the tiled hallway behind the nurse. She opened the door to a small room with a chair and a curtain – one door down from the one he’d seen the young man go into earlier.
“Good, now if you’ll please remove your clothes except your underwear and socks and put this on with the opening in the front,” she said, handing him a folded blue paper gown. “You can leave your clothes on the chair in the corner.”
Fuck, he thought. He was hoping he would just have to lift up his shirt and take a few deep breaths - not get fully undressed. A fresh wave of nervousness washed over him.
The nurse left the room and shut the door behind her.
Once she was gone, Josh sat down and slowly untied his shoes, took them off, and set them under the chair. Crossing his arms and grabbing the hem of his t-shirt, he pulled it off and tossed it onto the chair. He stood up, unbuckled his belt, and unbuttoned his jeans. With a sigh, he pulled down his jeans and stepped out of them – now covered only by his white Calvin Klein boxer briefs and grey athletic socks.
Damn, it’s chilly in here, he thought. He unfolded the paper gown, struggling for a few seconds to figure out the right way to put it on. Eventually, he got it, put his arms through the holes, and pulled it over his shoulders. The gown hung open in front and went down just past the hem of his boxer briefs. Josh saw there were a couple of ties to keep it somewhat closed and quickly knotted them together.
There was a knock on the door. “How are you doing in there, Josh?”
Feeling more than a little silly in his flimsy paper gown, Josh opened the door to find the nurse standing there.
“Okay, please follow me across the hall.”
He stepped out into the cold hallway, following a couple of steps behind the nurse. Just as they reached the door of an exam room, Josh looked down the hall where a door had been left ajar.
Through the narrow opening, he caught a glimpse of the young man from before. He was reclined on an exercise bike of some kind, a dozen electrodes attached to his smooth chest with grey wires connecting to a monitor. He was peddling hard and his chest was shiny with perspiration. Beside him, a technician stood holding an ultrasound probe and pressed it into the left side of his chest as sweat dripped down the young man’s face and neck. His eyes met Josh’s through the crack in the door.
Josh stood transfixed for a moment. Then the door shut abruptly from the inside, cutting off the view.
“Josh?” the nurse called after him.
He realized he didn’t know how long he’d been staring, or what the nurse had said to him.
“It’s okay. I was just saying you can take a seat on the exam table and the doctor will be with you in a few minutes.”
Great, more waiting, he thought.
The paper of the exam table crinkled underneath his butt as he shifted his weight. He glanced around the exam room. On the counter, there was laid out a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope with a shiny metal chest piece. He gulped again nervously, as he knew these instruments would be used on him shortly. Over in the corner, a metal cart holding an EKG machine could be seen, its wires all coiled up. A box containing packages of electrodes sat on the bottom shelf. He’d seen machines like that on TV of course and wondered if it was a test he’d be subjected to today.
But before Josh could think about it too much, the doorknob turned, and in walked the doctor.
“Hiya Josh, I’m Dr. Smith. How are you doing today?” he asked
The doctor was much younger than Josh was expecting. He looked like he was maybe in his late 20s. He had dark hair, green eyes, and a small amount of stubble covering his jaw. Beneath his white doctor’s coat he wore a light blue collared shirt, the top button undone. A few dark chest hairs were visible in the V of his shirt, hinting at a more substantial patch of chest hair underneath.
“I’m good,” Josh replied nervously.
“That’s great to hear.” Dr. Smith flipped open a folder he’d been holding. “I see in your file that there’s a family history of heart conditions and you’re here to get checked out, is that right?”
“Yeah, my dad has a heart condition...I forget what it’s called...and he had surgery a while ago. The doctor said our family should all get checked to make sure we don’t have the same condition.”
“Hmm, well you can’t be too careful,” Dr. Smith replied. “Have you experienced any chest pain? Any symptoms I should know about before we get started?”
The doctor turned to the desk behind him and picked up the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. He draped the stethoscope around his neck and turned back to Josh. “All right, I’m going to take your blood pressure now, Josh. Please relax your arm as much as possible.”
He ripped the velcro open and slid the cuff onto Josh’s right arm above the elbow. After cinching it snugly around his arm, the doctor refastened the velcro. Taking the stethoscope from around his neck, he placed the earpieces in his ears and slid the chest piece just underneath the cuff on the inside of the young man’s elbow. Squeezing the bulb several times, he inflated the cuff tighter until the brachial pulse was no longer audible, and noted the reading on the gauge. After a couple of seconds, he slowly released the air to deflate the cuff until he could once more hear Josh’s pulse.
“Okay Josh, you can lie back on the table now.”
The doctor raised an extension at the end of the table and locked it in place. “There, that’s better for a tall guy like you,” he said. He switched on an overhead light.
“I’m also going to have you open up your gown so I can take a look at your chest if that’s all right.”
The moment he’d been dreading. “Okay,” Josh replied. He sat up, and fumbled with the strings on the front of the gown, pulling the end of the knot to untie it. The doctor reached over and pulled both sides of the gown open, exposing Josh’s chest.
Josh inhaled nervously. He had always felt weird taking his shirt off in front of others. This made him more nervous because he knew his bare chest would be the focal point for the next couple of hours.
His chest was mostly smooth, milky white skin - hadn’t seen much sun in a while. He had some muscle tone, but not much. On top of his slightly defined pecs, a few hairs sprouted around his nickel-sized pinkish-brown nipples which had become semi-erect from the cool air in the room.
“It’s okay,” Dr. Smith said reassuringly, sensing Josh’s trepidation. “I’m just going to take a look at your chest, and later on listen to a few spots.”
The doctor began palpating near Josh’s collarbone, pressing his fingers lightly into the young man’s pale skin, which had begun to show goosebumps.
The doctor took the stethoscope from around his neck and placed the earpieces in his ears. “Sorry, this may be a bit cold.”
Josh shuddered as the metal chest piece made contact with the skin, near the top of his left pec. Fucking right it’s cold, he thought. The doctor held it there momentarily, listening intently. He slid the chest piece down an inch or so and repeated. He then moved the stethoscope to listen to the mitral valve - his thumb grazing Josh’s left nipple as he positioned the stethoscope. Josh shivered from the sensation, but he would’ve been lying if he said it hadn’t excited him just a little bit. He wondered if the doctor had noticed his reaction.
“He’s sure taking his time, '' Josh thought to himself as the doctor slowly inched the diaphragm of the stethoscope between different points on Josh’s chest, before listening to each spot again, this time with the stethoscope’s bell. This part of the exam lasted nearly ten minutes.
“All right Josh, can you please roll onto your left side, arm behind your head?”
Josh did as he was told, shifting onto his left side. The gown fell open as he turned over, revealing his armpit as slightly damp with sweat. The doctor’s arm came around from behind Josh to place the stethoscope over his mitral valve.
Okay good, you can lie on your back again. Dr. Smith’s hand moved toward the waistband of Josh’s boxer shorts. “Just going to pull these down slightly so I can listen to your femoral pulse.” Josh breathed in sharply and the doctor’s fingers hooked the elastic waistband and pulled them partway down, exposing his pubic region which was covered in dark curly hair. Josh was now incredibly aware of his semi-hard cock throbbing slightly underneath a thin layer of material.
“All right, Josh. We’re going to do an EKG now.”
Josh watched as Dr. Smith walked over to the corner of the room where the machine sat on its cart and wheeled it over beside the exam table. The doctor plugged the power cord into a nearby outlet and then pressed a green power button. He uncoiled the bundle of grey wires and laid them over the machine. From a box underneath the machine, he took an alcohol wipe.
“I’m just going to clean off a few spots on your chest so the electrodes make good contact,” he explained as he opened the gown completely and touched the moistened wipe to the young man’s chest. Josh shivered from the cool sensation of the alcohol as it evaporated.
Reaching into another box, the doctor pulled out a sheet of round electrodes. Standing beside the exam table, he began pressing his fingers into Josh’s rib cage to locate where to position the electrodes. He peeled the electrodes – made of foam, with a wet gel in the center – from their paper backing and placed them on Josh’s chest: one on his right pec, one on his left pec, several in a row below his left pec around to his left side almost under his arm. Hope they don’t hurt too much when they get taken off, thought Josh.
The doctor untangled the grey wires and attached the leads to the electrodes. “Okay Josh, now if you can just lie still for a minute while I take a reading.”
Josh did as he was told, breathing in and out slowly, trying not to let his quickened heart rate betray how aroused he was by how much attention was being paid to his heart. The doctor pressed the start button on the machine, which caused it to begin spitting out a print-out tracing of Josh’s heart rhythms.
“All right Josh, there’s one more test I’d like to do today and that’s an echocardiogram - an ultrasound of your heart. If you will just follow me down the hall, we’ll get that done, and then you’ll be all done for today.”
Josh sat up on the table, tied his gown, and stepped down onto the floor.
Dr. Smith opened the door and walked out into the hallway. Josh followed behind him, holding his gown closed with one hand.
As they stepped out of the exam room, the other young man from before walked past them toward the reception desk. His face still had a hint of redness, and Josh could smell the fresh sweat scent coming off him as he passed. As they made eye contact, Josh felt a twinge in his young cock beneath his boxer shorts.
The doctor opened a door to another exam room and motioned Josh inside. The lights were dimmed but an adjustable exam table could be seen, with an ultrasound machine next to it, its monitor emitting a blue glow. The handsome technician from before entered the room.
“Lie down on the table on your side facing towards the machine please,” the technician said.
Josh did this. The technician pulled the ties of Josh’s gown and opened it, exposing his chest once more.
He took a squeeze bottle of ultrasound gel. “This is going to be cold.”
He popped the lid open and squeezed out a stream of transparent blue gel. Josh took a sharp breath in as the freezing cold gel made contact with his chest.
The technician pushed the transducer against Josh’s chest wall, moving it back and forth while he watched the monitor to get the best image.
The doctor put the earpieces of his stethoscope in and pressed the chest piece against Josh’s chest below his left nipple. Josh could feel his heartbeat quicken. His semi-erect cock pulsated in his underwear, barely covered by the gown. Pre-cum soaked through the fabric and betrayed his arousal.
Dr. Smith gave the technician a knowing glance. This young man was going to be a perfect candidate for their research study.
Once the exam was over, the tech handed Josh a small towel to clean himself off with and began removing the electrodes from his chest.
“Well Josh, your heart appears to be in relatively good shape, however, we did observe an interesting anomaly that I’d like to look into further.”
“Fuck,” Josh thought, “I knew it. I’m gonna end up having the same heart condition as Dad.”
The doctor detected Josh’s worried expression and quickly added, “Oh it’s nothing to be overly concerned about. In fact, it’s more of a scientific curiosity than anything.”
“Right,” Josh thought to himself, “like that makes me feel any better…”
He sat up from the exam table as Dr. Smith pulled a chair over and sat down facing him.
“Josh, I’m currently running a research study with the university that focuses on measuring cardiovascular and other physiological responses to various sexual stimuli. Judging by your rather noticeable bodily ‘response’ during the echocardiogram test, I think you’re a perfect candidate to participate as a research subject. What do you think? Interested in participating?”
Josh stared blankly at the doctor for a second. It was the weirdest-sounding research study he’d ever heard of, and his gut reaction was to tell him “absolutely not!”
“Oh, I should also mention that research subjects will be compensated for their participation. $500 per session, each of which lasts about 4 hours. How does that sound?”
“I’m gonna regret this,” Josh thought. But the money was too tempting to pass up. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Dr. Smith did his best to disguise his excitement at the prospect of being able to study this handsome young man and subject him to all the experimental procedures he had planned.
“Excellent. Well, you can go and get dressed now. I’ll meet you out by reception and have you sign some forms and send you home with some more information about the study and instructions for the first session so you know what to expect.”
Josh went back to the changing room, took his clothes from a bin, and got dressed. He walked back down the hall toward the reception desk where Dr. Smith was already waiting, smiling warmly. He explained that Josh just needed to sign a standard consent form and then he’d be officially enrolled in the study. Josh skimmed the form quickly and signed his name in the bottom right corner.
“Perfect,” Dr. Smith said. “Welcome aboard our research study. Your first session is scheduled for this Saturday at 11 am. Make sure you read and follow the instructions in the information package thoroughly before your session. Specifically, you are not to engage in any sexual activity, including masturbation in the 48 hours before the test. Do you think you can manage that?”
“Goddamnit,” Josh thought, “it’s gonna be torture not jerking off for two days…”
“Yes, I can do that,” he said quietly, his face slightly red from embarrassment at talking about this stuff. He hoped none of the other handful of people in the waiting room overheard their conversation.
“Okay, well I’ll let you be on your way then,” Dr. Smith said. “See you this Saturday.”
As Josh walked out the door and left the clinic, his feeling of embarrassment was slowly replaced with growing anticipation and titillation as he began to imagine what lay in store for him when he returned that weekend.
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