At the end of high school I had a buddy from school who also became a neighbour. We used to hang out after school all the time, and we'd talk about all kinds of stuff together without much of a filter... girls we liked at school, guy stuff like shaving and getting chest hair, and even how much we jerked off.

Back then we didn't have easy access to porn, so if you got a magazine or VHS, you of course did your mates a solid and shared it with them.

And that's how it started. I got my hands on a VHS tape, and we'd watch it together. It always led to him abruptly getting up and going home. Obviously I knew he was going home to beat off, and that's what I was doing immediately after he left too.

I don't know what came over me one time, but I put on the video and after 5 minutes I told him he should leave because I needed to beat off. He looked disappointed to be kicked out so soon, and so I said -- half joking voice -- "Or you could just stay and do it here with me." To my shock he just said ok.

I wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but he started rubbing his bulge, so I did the same. Then he started to unzip his shorts, and I knew that's when we were really doing this.

TBH, the first time we were silent, laser focused on the video, and just quickly busted and cleaned up. I think we were both a little awkward about it, but the desire to just be able to wank while watching the video was too strong.

Sometime in the next couple of days we were hanging out, and he suggested we watch the video again. And without discussing it, we just jerked off again together. And then the next day, and so on.

After a handful of times, we began to get more comfortable and confident with it. We'd chat about what we liked in the vid, talk about JO techniques, what felt good, what worked well as lube, etc. We got to the point that we could suggest having a wank as easily as suggesting sitting down to play video games together.

This experience was liberating for me. Unfortunately I had felt a sense of shame about how much I loved jerking off, but to do it socially with a buddy helped me see that it's normal, a universal male experience, and something we can embrace. I found it so cool to be able to normalise masturbation and do it together as a social thing with a strong sense of male bonding. It might sound wild to say this, but it really didn't feel sexual to me, it felt more like just trusting your buddy to really have no censor around each other. I wish this dynamic were easier to find. I think lots of guys experience jerking together when younger, but sadly, for some reason we don't carry it forward as adults.