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  I remembered Michel voicing his opinion one evening. “Hey, you broke up. You didn’t both die… Go out a bit.”

  “The hell I won’t!” I laughed into the wind.

  I locked the bike, changed out of my clothes and slung the key to my locker padlock on a leather strap around my neck. Most of the guys I knew wouldn’t be seen dead in briefs, but I had really narrow hips, big legs and a wide back and shoulder. I was made to wear them. My plan was to get some exercise, charm his friends, impress the girls and make Kyle feel important enough to get some respect from them.

  I didn’t see him on the way out, but the pool was fairly empty, not yet quite noon. I put on my cap, tucking the stray hair under it and took the plunge. By lap thirty, I was feeling pumped, and good. I saw a group by the far side of the pool, guys and girls both and recognized Kyle with them. Early twenties; about right. I waved at him as soon as I saw him looking around and he waved back. I swam over with long, slow strokes to his side of the pool. I ducked down at the side and checked that everything was arranged properly in the briefs before getting out, making sure his friends got a long, good look at me.

  “Hey, buddy how you doing.” I walked over to him, taking off my cap and letting my hair fall.

  “Umm, hey Andy.” His smile was genuine, but he wasn’t looking me in the face. Neither were his friends. I knew they were staring at my pole, stuck flat against my body in the briefs. I reached down without seeming obvious and snapped some air into them. This brought them out of the stare and everyone was all smiles again.

  He introduced me to all of them, two pretty girls and their plain friend, a great looking dark haired kid and a red haired kid. I worked out the dynamic fairly quickly. Mostly we made small talk, with Kyle bobbing between conversations, trying to make sure none of his friends felt left out. I played it cool, but friendly and the only deliberate steering I made was as to how long I had known Kyle. I was vague but consistent with dates, so they got the impression Kyle had known me for some time, but hadn’t told them too much about me. Without lying or pretending anything, Kyle’s shares climbed a few notches with his friends. “Anyway, guys I gotta go.”

  “Ok, Andy.”

  “I see you here Tuesday, usual time?”

  “Yeah! Sure!” Kyle beamed.

  Tuesday evening was not a busy evening at the pool. I was the only one there. I got in about six, and had done about ten laps when Kyle walked in wearing his greens. I waved and crawled over.

  “Hi.” I balanced my chin on my forearms. “Finished work?”

  “Hey. Just closed up. Usually I train mornings, but I thought I’d see how evenings go. Seems to work for you.” He grinned. He pulled off his boots, and stripped down to his briefs in moments, and had plunged in. “Speed or Endurance?” I asked casually.

  “Me, definitely Speed.”

  “I’m a bit of both. Let’s Race as fast as you can for as long as you can.”

  “Rules?”

  “How about every fourth lap is a different stroke to crawl?”

  “Surf my wake, buddy.” He laughed and sped off.

  By lap forty, I swam past him and stopped at the edge, winded. I pulled up and sat on the side. He stopped next to me panting. I reached down and hauled him out next to me and we lay on the tiles side by side panting and laughing. He had the sort of laugh that drags you along with it. It had been a long while since I laughed that hard.

  “Thanks, Andy.” He rolled over, still grinning. “The guys thought you were the coolest thing, and the girls couldn’t stop talking about you.”

  “I had a lot of fun, too. I’m glad we met up.”

  “Talking on that, how’s the cut?”

  “See for yourself. It’s good.”

  “Ok, I will.”

  I was still chuckling when he leaned forward over my hips and ran a finger over the scab. I could see his shoulders and lats bunch and move on his back and he prodded the area around it on the hip. I couldn’t see his face, but it must have been only inches away from my dick. I knew he wasn’t looking at the cut. I let him squeeze the area some more and stroke the skin with the poison oak rash. The pool was very quiet. I felt my dick move in my briefs, starting in the direction of his mouth.

  “Told you, it’s good.” I tried to keep my voice level. His back tensed, he leaned slowly back alongside me.

  “It looks fine.” He muttered, like I’d hit him.

  The front of his briefs bulged, I caught a glimpse of the top of his cock next to the drawstring. I arched my back and leaned forward, arms over my knees. My cock carried on throbbing, and soon it was really hard, all eight and a half inches, it swelled out of my briefs and lay against my hard abs. I struggled to think of something to say to him without ruining what we had a few moments ago. I decided on the truth.

  “I gotta be at work in fifteen, but there is still some swelling I need you to look at.”

  I stood up, mentally braced myself and stood over his legs, offering him a hand up. If I was wrong, I would never see him again. The butterflies raced in my gut, watching his reaction.

  His eyes flicked to my face, and as he reached forward to take my hand, he got a full view of my hard-on. I slowly took his hand and pulled him forward to stand. I didn’t let go of his hand and took a step closer. His hard-on nested between my balls, mine rubbed the finger of blond hair running though his navel.

  “I really need a friend like you.” I muttered huskily “But I didn’t know if I was going crazy, or if this was happening.” I licked my lips and squeezed his hand. “I’m good on endurance, what’s your stroke?”

  “Uh, endurance, definitely.” He whispered.

  I kissed him then, on the edge of the pool. The chlorine still dripping from my fringe, I put my mouth over his lips and slid the hand still holding his to my chest to rub my hard nipple. His mouth opened and his tongue slid into my mouth. I worked the underside of it with my lower lip, groaning softly into his mouth. Time stood still. I moved my tongue between his teeth and his upper lip and felt his cock twitch and a warm stickiness spread over my balls. I moaned again and took his upper lip between my teeth and slowly pulled away from him.

  He stood still, swaying slightly, his eyes still closed. I released his hand and slid my hands along his neck towards his face. His eyes opened when I cupped his jaw, my thumbs stroking his wet lips.

  “You’re not crazy, Andy.” He said huskily, “I wanted you before I even met you. I never thought you’d be real.”

  “Disappointed?”

  “After that? Never, no matter what.”

  “I got this crazy idea. Tell you about it?”

  “Yeah, crazy’s good.”

  “How about Saturday, you show me a pool where we can laze about in the Park, catch some sun.” I slid my hand down his smooth chest “Maybe skinny-dip. Then Sunday morning, you have breakfast at my place.”

  “You got a deal, Mr. Poster Man!” He grinned.

  “Gonna run now.” I tugged at my throbbing cock “This is gonna bug me all week.” I laughed. He waved. I stepped back into the change rooms, grabbed my togs out of the locker and threw a shirt, tracksuit pants and sneakers on. Jogging through the quiet streets I felt like I did on my first kiss, whooping and kicking over garbage cans. Older and wiser than then, I arrived at work with a stupid grin, dripping with sweat and a minute early. No one was around to notice.

  On the jog home at 4AM, I could still smell Kyle. I had a boner on and off the whole shift, and then I realized my briefs still had his juice all over them. At the top of the lane, far beyond anyone caring, or anyone hearing, I stopped at the top of my drive and whooped.

  “Well, tell me about it.” Michel grinned and pushed down on the barbell. I grunted like a walrus. It was my fourth rep, and there wasn’t much to push back. Considering, I was on my back with two hundred pounds a foot away from my face, this wasn’t a happy place for me. Make that two hundred pounds, and my partner’s hand.

  “I … can’t… there is no …it y
et.” I ground out between my teeth.

  “C’mon, one more…” Michel moved his hand off the top of the bar and placed both hands under the bar, ready to spot for me. “So… tell me, anyway.” I groaned, growled, roared and finally put the bar into the slot. Sat up. I felt light headed. Michel sat on the bench behind me, rubbed my aching shoulders. The gym was empty.

  “Ok… left one, ow! Ow!” I waited until he was finished, slung his arm around my neck and rested his chin on my shoulder. I leaned back against his chest.

  “You see, ummm there’s this…” I wondered how to begin.

  “Long version or short version?” Michel chuckled. “Let me start and finish this one for you.”

  “Ok, smartass…”

  “You move into town with a foxy lady. You spend the first six months living together, buy a big house on the hill. No one sees you for all this time. We think she’s just invented you to keep the local horn-dogs at bay. Then she leaves you, moves into the The Company Compound, single quarters.”

  “Hey, not fair.”

  “Then you magically re-appear and go and get your picture taken with a local boy for the gym.”

  “This is the short version, then.”

  “You bet.” Michel slung both arms around my chest and hugged me.

  “Then not a single townie gets to see you for another couple of months. Again, we not sure you’re really real.”

  “Guilty, your Honour…”

  “Then you appear at the public pool in all your glory, and spend a couple of hours chatting to some hot, pretty people.”

  “… as charged.”

  “Then you skip around the gym for two days, driving your partner grey, wondering which one it is.”

  “I don’t skip.” I muttered. “Well, I do, but it’s with a rope and…”

  “Tell me.” Michel laughed.

  “… only for cycle training…”

  “Tell me!” Michel grated his teeth, mock furious, tightened his hug into a bear hug.

  “Ok, Ok!” I laughed “One thing first.”

  “What! Anything!” Michel shook my ribs again, laughing “Just TELL ME!”

  “If the townies already know so much, why would you want to know?”

  Michel went quiet behind me, his arms squeezed my chest, gently. He pressed his cheek into the side of my neck. “You see, there’s this guy I know. He’s great to be with and he’s a good friend. If there is something that makes him happy, I want to know about it. You see this guy, is really painfully serious…”

  “Hey, no fair…” I whispered, moved my arms over his and squeezed them.

  “… no, serious… serious, serious pain in the butt.”

  “Thank you, very-fucking-much!” I whispered.

  “No, really, you are.” Michel laughed into my hair. “So tell me, is this going somewhere, this ‘…not it yet…’ thing?”

  “I think so. But… ummm OK, I’ll come clean. It’s a boy and I didn’t think I could do this.”

  “I’d say you’re fairly good at dealing with stuff like that.” Michel murmured in my ear.

  “Well, he also has this thing for that poster we did. It’s like some sort of hero worship, with possibilities.”

  “Heavy, but nothing weird yet.”

  “We sort of got something planned for the weekend. How about I bring him around on Friday to the gym and you could check him out? That way you would stop bugging me for details and I could see if he has any space for me aside from wearing a thong on a poster.”

  “If you think so, then that’s cool.” Michel gave me another hug, then leaned back and off the bench. “You better move your ass, you gonna be late soon.”

  It was going to be a long shift, but I got up around two, packed some work clothes into a knapsack and jogged down to the park. I crossed the ford without wetting my cross trainers, and managed to find the door easily enough, knowing it was there.

  I rapped twice then feeling stupid, opened it and walked in. The radio was making noise in the office, and walking over and listened to people talking to each other. Ranger stuff. The kitchenette was empty, so was the can. I walked past the rooms with the empty cot beds and stopped in at his. Kyle travelled light. The bed was neatly squared, tog bag under it. On the wall opposite the bed was the worn Gym poster. The room smelled of him. There were a couple of western books next to a lamp and some personal things that must have meant something to only him, a tattered journal of some kind.

  I walked up to the poster and looked at it, trying to see things the way he would. I really thought that the trim had been a good idea. My image looked great, the skin offset by the light dusting of hair as opposed to the thick tangled mass it had become before my weekly shear habit. I noticed that Michel’s picture was equally worn. He’d been touching us. I had this weird idea, and it was making me hot.

  I left the bunker and wandered up the path, but a couple of miles into the woods I headed back. Careful of my footing I jogged back to fetch my bike from home and went to work. A bit disappointed I had not been able to find him, but pleased with myself for trying.

  Friday I was heading for the gym locker. I saw Kyle in his work clothes, slinging a tog bag walking over the car park.

  “Hey.” I waved.

  “Hi, Andy.” He flashed back. “Thought I’d come over and see what you could do.”

  “Go get kitted up, I’ll gotta set the weights for Michel.”

  “Sure. Can’t wait.” He smiled again. He walked though in a pair of drawstring shorts as Michel was pulling up in his pick-up. He was kitted already.

  “Hey, Michel. Umm… this is Kyle, the one I told you about.”

  “Hey Kyle. He’s just kidding. Most of the noise he makes is just noise.” Michel grinned, shaking his hand.

  “It’s really cool meeting you.” Kyle grinned back. “I didn’t think you were really from around here.

  “Ah. The poster.” Michel shrugged. “They used a special lens.”

  “I didn’t think so.” Kyle looked sideways at me. “Everything looks life-sized to me.”

  “Come, let’s put you on a program.” Michel laughed.

  We took him around the circuit, put him on squat machine and showed him how to change the weights. Kyle did everything we asked him to do and only seemed to stop talking when he was short of breath.

  “Hey, kid.” Michel said after we had shown him the workout “Andy and I gotta start our own training, wanna help out?”

  “Sure, love to.” Kyle wiped sweat from his face, panting. “What do I gotta do?”

  “Heck, count for us, change weights…” Michel smiled mischievously “… listen to Andy grunt.”

  We finished the round fairly quickly. Kyle was everywhere, but never in the way. I liked having him around. The workout took me off the hot thoughts I was having watching him on the leg extensions. Michel was easy with him like he was with me, and the three of us seemed to complement each other well. I also saw in the mirror that Michel was equally impressed with Kyle and had trouble adjusting his basket when he thought no one was watching.

  “Hey Kyle, it’s getting late, and we gotta close up for the public, y’know.” I mopped my face on the towel he had been using. “Are we still on for Saturday?”

  “You bet, Andy!” Kyle grinned.

  “Saturday?” Michel was taking off his gloves, not paying attention “What’s Saturday?”

  “Kyle and I are going swimming in the Park. He knows places in there that no-one ever gets to see.” I tossed the towel into my bag.

  “Like an adventure trail?” Michel looked up, suddenly interested.

  “Something like that,” Kyle volunteered “Swimming Holes where no-one is supposed to go. Stuff.”

  “I suppose he’s spent enough time in there to learn all the places not even the townies know about.” I wondered how I could just ask them both without just saying it.

  “Damn, I’ve been trying to find a place like that near the Mill.” Michel muttered.

&n
bsp; “Nothing down there now, Michel.” Kyle was in his element “All the boulders got dumped down- stream in the last flood year, and the logging spoilt the river water. I had to do samples for some eggheads on that side of the valley last year. Sent them north for testing.”

  “Damn! Figures that I would be wasting my time…” Michel scowled.

  “Well, come along with us.” Kyle blurted. Reddening, looking at me. “If it’s Ok, Andy.” “Sure, Kyle.” I grinned, enjoying the way things were going. “Michel is usually busy Saturdays, are you busy tomorrow?”

  “Uh, no.” Michel was looking puzzled. I was enjoying that look. “Come swimming with us, tomorrow?” I spelt it out.

  “Yeah, sure, Andy. Anytime.” Michel looked at me strange.

  “Meet me at my house and we’ll walk down together. Ok, Kyle?” I smiled, thinking how smart I’d been.

  “Sure, guys.” Kyle grinned. “See you tomorrow. About ten?”

  “We’ll be there, buddy.” I grinned back. “Now, I must close up and I head for work.”

  After he had left, waved back and rode off, Michel turned and asked “What was that about? I’m sorry if it looked like I was crashing anything you guys got planned.”

  “Hey, you’re not crashing anything.” I grinned “See you tomorrow, about half past nine? I must change.”

  “Sure, buddy.” Michel said with that puzzled look. “Half-past nine?”

  I was sitting on the front porch when Michel’s pick-up pulled into the drive. It was one of those sunny days where the sun beats down, but there is always a breeze to take off the bite. I had a tog packed, ready but not in a hurry. Michel wore shorts and a light tea-shirt, shades and sandals. I hadn’t often seen him by daylight, and he cut a fine figure.