I can't believe it happened and I can't believe it was all my fault. But I did happen and it WAS my fault, no matter how often I try to deny it. Jeff lost his balls because of me.

What happened was this. Jeff...he's my best friend, always has been, ever since we were kids...Jeff and I got fooling around in old man Jenkins barn. We knew better than to be there, we had been told often enough, but thirteen year old boys sometimes have a way of not always doing what they are told, you know? Anyway, we were there, looking at his old and rusted out stuff, out there in his barn. We had ridden our bikes over from my place, about three miles away, one day in July. Old Jenkins was away, which is why we were there. Anyway, the barn door was open and it was a hot day, so in we went. Jenkins had a lot of old stuff in his barn, like I said, and we looked around at a lot of it, opening drawers in old chests and stuff like that. He had pitchforks hanging on the walls, and shovels and all kinds of stuff. We knew or could figure out what most of his stuff was for, but Jeff found something in a chest that was a real mystery. It was made out of steel and looked kind of like a funny pair of pliers. Something like that, anyway. And there were rubber bands in a box beside it. Jeff took it out of the drawer and asked me what it was. I didn't know, but we opened the handles and the teeth-things at the other end opened up too. I had the very bright idea of putting one of the rubber bands over the teeth while they were closed and then opening the handles. The teeth spread the band open wide. "I guess it goes on something", Jeff said to me, "but what?" I didn't know but I looked around some more in the drawer and found a chart.

"You put it on cow's balls," I said. Jeff nearly doubled over with laughter. "Cows don't have balls," he giggled, "only bulls." "Well then, smartie", I said,"why would anyone do that?" "So they can't make babies, asshole," Jeff said, laughing again. "I am not an asshole," I said and made a pretend lunge at him. He jumped back and before we knew it, we were wrestling on the barn floor, kicking up dirt and dust. We we play fighting, the way boys do.

After a while we stopped and looked at the band instrument again. I picked it up and told Jeff to hold out his hand. I slipped the thing over a finger and shut the handles. The rubber band slipped off his finger and onto the floor. "We need something bigger," Jeff said.

"Why not your balls?" I asked, "just to see what it is like. I can take it off afterward."

Jeff looked at me and at the thing. "Are you sure?" he asked, "You will really take it off?"

"Of course," I said.

Jeff looked at the implement for another couple of moments and then slowly unbuckled his jeans. I had seen him naked before, so when I saw his cock, slowly gaining some hair around the edges, I was not surprised that he was growing up. So was I, for that matter. He walked over to me, jeans at his knees and stood there, holding out his ball sack. I slipped the ring over the sac and released the band.

He was on the floor and screaming in half a second, rolling around and holding his balls, shrieking at me to get it off, get it off! I sank down beside him, grabbing his hands away from his balls and trying to slip a finger under the band to loosen it. I couldn't do it. With Jeff rolling around and screaming and my panic, nothing would work. I thought of scissors but could not find any. I thought of hedge clippers but there weren't any of them, either. Jeff screamed and screamed and I broke into a sweat. I ran out of the barn to Jenkins house to use the phone, but the door was locked. I broke a window and got in and called 911 for help, then ran back to tell Jeff that help was coming.

He was lying on his side, still and silent. I could see he was breathing all right, that he had fainted, and I pulled his hands away from his ballsack to see. I moaned in horror. His sack was black and dead looking and his balls were cold, cold, cold. I started to cry.

The ambulance came a few minutes later and the attendants took one look at Jeff's balls and shook their heads, muttering about damn kids and what a shame it was. They took Jeff away.

I rode my bike home and waited for my folks to come back. I wondered what I would say to them. And would they be mad at me?