Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:13:31 -0700
From: Bain Taylor <dozedaze@gmail.com>
Subject: Inconvenient Youth. Chapter 4. Curtain Call

Inconvenient Youth
Chapter 4
Curtain Call

If reading fictional stories about sexual relationships between under-aged
males offends you, or if you are under 18 and/or it is illegal for you to
read such a story, please hit the `back' button on your pc, and try
something else.  All rights to this story are reserved by the author.

* Sorry for the long gap between chapters.

As we hit the main trail, we kept up a pretty fast pace.  Eric was sure to
be furious beyond fury once the reality of our little `hit and run' prank
set in -- accidental encounter or not -- he'd been busted at a level no
dude would take lightly.  I just wanted to put as much distance as possible
between us and the group picnic area, just in case he got the idea he might
track us down and toss us over a cliff or something.

Once we got a good half mile up the trail, we stopped to catch our breath.
Carl was bent over, holding onto his knees and sucking in air, and I was
doing the same as I leaned up against a large boulder.

He looked up at me with this funny looking smile.

"Dude, did you see the looks on their faces?" he asked between breaths,
shaking his head at the image of it.

"Yep.  I don't think I'll forget that look as long as I live.  Dude,
multiply getting caught jacking off by about a hundred times, and that's
gotta be how they felt," I said, struggling for air right along with him.

"Easily," he replied, "told you it would be fun -- you know -- except for
the part where Eric `takes us out' at the end."

"No doubt, the fucker nailed me good," I said, looking down at my chest for
any traces of `burn marks'.

Not that I thought I'd see any of Eric's senior spunk left on me, but I
swear I could almost feel it radiating off my body.  Maybe it was just my
imagination.

Carl brought his hand up to his cheek and gave it an exaggerated swipe.

"You got off easy Jack, two inches to the left and I would have been
kissing his orphans," he said, with that stupid little grin he gets.

I tried not to laugh.

"Dude, it would have totally brought you down," I replied, laughing at the
exaggerated expression on his face.

"You got that right," he replied.

And just as we were about to get into reliving all that we'd witnessed down
at the group picnic area, our laughter was cut short.

 From the distance, a roaring voice echoed through the mountain range.

"AAANNNDDREEEEEWS!!!!  YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!!!!!"

Carl's face dropped.

"Fuck.  They are coming for us," he said over to me.

"Dude, this is not good," I said, "Reynolds is gonna want to kick our asses
all the way back to our freshman year.  Either he gets some revenge on us
up here on the side of this mountain, or he gets some revenge on us back at
school.  But he will get us back at some point, you can count on it."

"Yep, we could easily be dust if we don't play it right," he replied.

"Play what right?" I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"You know, we play it right," he said, "we let Eric confront us up here."

"Oh, that's just brilliant," I said, shaking my head.

"Jack, what's the worst that could happen?  We just let Eric make his
speech, and we promise that we won't blow his little gay cover, and that
will be that," he replied.

"So what, we just wait here for them to catch up to us?  That's suicide,
Carl."

"I'll do the talking," he said, flipping is backpack straps over his
shoulders and letting the pack down, "just play along with it and agree to
whatever shit I say.  I'll have him thinking we are his new best friends in
no time."

I sighed.

"Yeah, well you don't know Eric the way I do.  You can kiss your ass
goodnight, goodbye, and good day.  It's all over.  Did you just hear him
calling out for me?  He said I was a dead man.  He sounded like a fucking
crazed, pissed off mutant animal or something."

He flashed me a dimpled grin.

"Relax.  This should be a blast."

"You wanna give me a clue - you know - so I can at least get myself psyched
up for whatever you have in mind?"  I asked.

"Um, well... when in Rome, do as the Romans do," he said with a wink.

"I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means.  If it does, my suspicions
of you being insane are all true."

"Aw, come on Jack.  How many times in this life will you ever get the
chance to make like you're a queer boy?  Never -- that's how often."

I looked away from his perfect body, and studied my thoughts for a moment.

"OK, so I get it.  You're saying that if we make like we are gay, he'll
think we won't have a problem with what we saw him and James doing back
there at the park -- that we won't expose his secret to the entire school.
So how are we supposed to make him believe we are boyfriends?  Do we start
sucking face as soon as they turn the corner and spot us standing here?"  I
asked sarcastically.

"Cool, so you get the idea," he said, ignoring the real question, "but not
here.  We keep on hiking up to the swimming hole that you were telling me
about, and that's where we let them catch us in the act.  Just follow my
lead, and everything will be fine," he said.

Why does he do that shit to me?  My dick went ballistic, and my heart went
into a tailspin at the mere thought of making out with him.  I looked back,
letting my eyes move from his tight cut-offs, all the way up his perfect
body, and then to his excited gaze.

"I don't know.  I followed your lead two hours ago, and it was that
ingenious idea that got us into this mess.  You're on another one of your
rolls." I said.  And it was true.  It was a crazy idea.

He loved all of it of course.  I think he liked to see me squirm, and
nothing seemed to make him happier than shocking the hell out of me.  I let
my eyes drop over him again, and they hesitated at the evidence of Eric's
cum stain on his oversized bulge.  My face went hot, and I looked away for
a second time.  I don't think he noticed.

He looked up, and then out into the forest.

"Dude, you take shit way too seriously," he said, "no one is asking you to
like any of it.  So big fucking deal if we do a phony kiss - or even do
hand-jobs in front of them - it'd be totally worth it.  For one thing, our
asses would be saved from certain death.  It's not like we'd be sucking
each other off or some major head trip like that.  I'm just talking mild
stuff to get him to `buy it' that we are together.  We make it look
convincing, and we'd be off the hook."

That was easy enough for him to say.  If I actually kissed Carl, phony or
not, I wouldn't need a hand-job to go off -- I'd likely blow buckets the
second his lips touched mine.  The bad part of that is that he would know
how I felt about him two seconds into a kiss.  I wasn't exactly ready to
let that happen.

"Whatever," I managed to say back.

He looked back at me.

"I take it that means you don't want to practice the kiss ahead of time?"
He asked, making a smooching sound, and then laughing over at me and my
reaction.

I laughed along with him, but I don't think my laughing sounded very
convincing.  And I know my dick didn't think it was so funny either.

Sigh.

"I'll just use the back of my hand for practice, but thanks for the offer,"
I said back.

He sighed, looking like he was ready to give up on me, and then gave it one
more try.

"Dude -- some of the most fun things in life is the shit that ain't real,
like going to the movies and getting scared.  Or jumping off a super high
bridge, and imagining you're gonna die the whole way down before hitting
the water.  It's all fake, and it's totally fun."

Whatever.

"Ok, so maybe I do need to lighten up.  If it's not going to be a big deal
for you to go through with this, then I guess I'll do it," I managed to
reply.

He clenched his fist, and pumped it once, as if to say, `cool'.

We didn't stay around long after that.  Carl pulled out of couple of cokes,
and I got us each a piece of left over chicken that my mom had packed for
us.  He threw his pack on, and we drank and ate as we continued on deeper
into the forest.

After some major uphill hiking, and about an hour later, we came to an area
where the trees are so dense that there's no logical path.  And once you
hike a ways into it, it gets sort of creepy and dark.  That's about the
time you realize that you've left civilization - it's seriously cool.

Exhausted, we descended around 50 yards to a clearing that looks out over
the swimming hole -THE swimming hole - the one my dad and I had discovered
last year.  So it was only a matter of hiking down to it, and bingo, we'd
be at my very favorite place on Earth.  Too bad we had a pissed off senior
trailing us, or I might have been excited to be there.

Carl kept looking back and forth between me and the setting below us, as if
he were somehow trying to confirm with himself that we were finally there.
He was loving it.  I have to say, the place is pretty dramatic when you see
it for the first time.

The space opens up to a large rolling layer of granite rock that stretches
the full length of a rushing stream.  There are a few large boulders out in
the middle, and as the water breaks on them it throws up a fine mist, which
creates miniature rainbows that warp in and out when the sun is hitting
just right.  Further down stream the water pools into a crystal clear
reservoir, just before it cascades over on the other side in a waterfall
that drops a good 15 feet.

Off to one side of the swimming hole there's a huge rock that hangs out
high over the water.  I think God must have given that rock one sole
purpose the day he set it there.  It's shaped like a giant leaning
stalagmite with a flat top, which is perfect for diving or taking in some
rays.  The bad part is trying to get up to the top without shredding your
bare feet.

When you look back towards the forest on the down side of the mountain,
there's an old gold mine shaft that angles off through a nearly solid rock
cliff.  It's like something out of an old western.  Other than how cool it
looks, the best thing is that the mine shaft holds a secret - one that I'd
been hanging on to for nearly a year - and one that I never even told my
dad about the day I'd made the 'discovery'.

I led the way down the rocky slope, where we found a spot to lose our
backpacks, halfway between the stream and the mine.

We were both literally soaked in sweat from the long hike.  Carl was out of
his boots and cut-offs before I even had a chance to think.  He dove right
in, staying under for a good thirty seconds.  By the time he came up for
air, I was in right beside him.

As we splashed around and cooled off, it was only a matter of which of us
would slam the reality of our situation home.  I figured that I'd let Carl
be the one to bring it up, which he did around ten minutes later.

He had been leaning his head over the edge, where the water was breaking
over several large boulders before becoming the waterfall.  He shoved off a
large rock, and glided over to where I had been swimming.

"Dude, too bad our queer friends will be showing up soon, I'd love to jump
off that thing," he said, looking up at the perfectly situated diving rock.

"I hear that.  How long do you think they'll take to find us?"  I asked.

"It could be just about any time the way I figure it.  We need to be ready
as soon as we see them coming down the slope," he replied, looking back
over in the direction from which we came.

I sighed.  I had no idea what Carl was planning to say to the guys.  I was
putting all of my trust in him to pull off his ploy, and the thought of it
was tearing me up inside.  It was a good thing for me that he would be
doing all of the talking.  There is no way I'd be able to say much if he
was really going to go through with the kissing thing.  I'd be all bent,
trying to figure out how to keep from losing it.

"I trust you," I managed to say back to him.

"Just make it look real.  No busting up laughing or anything like that.
Think you can handle it?"  He asked.

"Um, I think so.  Just don't make me say too much when the talking part
starts.  I'm not very good at bluffing, and I can easily see myself blowing
it.  Eric would not be happy if he ever found out what we are doing."

He flipped his hair from his eyes casually, and then gave me a look.

"Dude, don't forget that even if we make it through this alive, we still
have to keep up the image of being `together' once we are back at school.
I mean, only when we are around Eric and James, but still, this isn't going
to be a one time bluff.  It will be ongoing," he said, studying my face for
a reaction.

"Good thing Eric graduates this year," was I all could think to say.

"True, that's not long enough for you to get hooked on me or anything," he
said, popping some water at me.

"Yeah, and it's not long enough for you to get all spoiled and shit," I
replied, shooting some water back at him.

And for some reason, he got this really serious look after I said that...

"Dude, you already do spoil me.  I've never had a... um... best friend and
shit before."

Fuck.  That was just about all I needed to finish off what was left of my
tangled emotions over the guy.  I'd never had anyone call me their best
friend before.  Maybe when I was younger a few of my friends might have
felt it, but they never actually said it to me like that.

"There you go trying to shock me with your words again.  Are you just
trying to get a reaction out of me?" I asked.

He leaned up, and walked over to me.  And I straightened up so that we were
face to face.

"Just shut up, and say it back," he said.

I looked down at the ground, and then back up to him.

"Dude, I've known you less than a week.  But yeah, you're the best fucking
friend I've ever had."

"Damn right I am," he said, smiling, as he gave a weak shove to my right
shoulder.

I smiled back.  It was a little awkward, but fuck... it's pretty cool when
you can say shit like that and mean it.  He doesn't get serious very often,
so it was a pretty big deal.

"Jack, let's just agree that this thing we are planning for Eric and James
won't fuck me and you up -- you know -- our friendship," he said.

"Agreed," I said back.

I held out my hand, and we shook on it.

"The secret is we just have fun with it.  If it ain't fun, or if it gets
old, we walk away and fess up to them," he added.

I didn't have time to respond.

When we heard the first snapping of twigs, our eyes flew in the direction
of the slope that leads down to the stream.  It was show time.  The blond
kid was leading, with Eric two steps behind.  They were a good fifty yards
away.  Carl and I looked back at each other.

"This is it man," Carl said, "I don't think they saw us notice them coming.
Don't look in that direction, whatever you do".

We were standing in fairly shallow water -- a little less than waist deep.
Carl took a step closer to me, so that we were no more than an inch or two
away from each other.

A minute or two later, you could hear their muffled voices as they
approached.  The only thing between us and them, were several large granite
formations around 20 feet way, jutting up five or six feet.

"It's now or never man," Carl said, as he put his arms around my waist.

"It's party time," he whispered.

More like disaster time, as I saw it.

Our semi-hard cocks, clashed, sandwiching themselves between us, and my
heart rocketed to my throat -- which is where it spends most of its time
when I'm around Carl.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer, and as our naked chests
touched, I could feel his racing heart.  His dark green eyes were peering
out from behind his dripping blond hair, and the smile had left his face.
His full red lips were quivering just slightly as he tilted his head a bit
and moved even closer.

"Don't worry, it's gonna be OK," he said softly, sensing how scared I was.

And then he moved closer still, and our lips touched.

"Let's make this look good," he whispered into my lips.

And as we fell into our phony kiss, all I could see was white.  Like what
people describe when they have a near-death experience.  If it wasn't for
the fact that we were holding each other up, I would have drowned on the
spot.

Our cocks grew rock-hard instantly, throbbing against one another in
defiance of our ploy.  His lips trembling against mine was no acting job.
The pounding of his heart against mine was telling me its secret, and my
racing heart was telling him mine.

I felt a smile try to take over his lips as his body defied his intentions.
His breathing grew heavy along with mine, and he let one hand slide down
slightly, so that it was lightly resting on the small of my back.

I couldn't breathe, but I didn't care.

A minute passed, and I was melting -- and panicking all at the same time.

By then, Eric and the kid should have spoken up.  Not only was it expected,
but it was part of the plan.  The kissing idea was supposed to only last a
few seconds before we were to get interrupted by their `unexpected'
appearance.  And that was to have been when Carl would have taken over and
given Eric some masterful speech about us being secret lovers.  Our plan
wasn't working.

If anyone ever tells you that you can't fall in love during a kiss, tell
them that they don't know what the fuck they're talking about.  Because
what I was feeling had to be something close to love - maybe even better
than love.  This was all wrong.  It couldn't be happening to me - not here
- not like this.

I was fucked.

Carl pulled back slightly, so that our lips were just barely touching.  We
were breathing in each other's air, as if we were one.

"Dang, this kissin' shit ain't what I expected," he whispered.

"Yep, I hear that," I whispered back.

I felt his smile on my lips, and I returned one.

"Piece of cake," He said softly, as if he were convincing himself he could
handle it.

I couldn't talk.

"They're hiding... and watching.  Let's give Eric what he wants," he said
quietly.  I nodded, as I fought against trembling in his arms.

He took a half a step back, and we looked down at our throbbing cocks,
which were half way out of the water.

Carl took a deep breath, reached out, and wrapped his fingers around my
near-bursting hard-on, and then moved his other hand to my shoulder.  I did
the same, and we became like mirror images of each other.  And together we
began to slowly stroke each other.

I instantly forgot about the kiss.

Our eyes moved up, and locked.  His half grin had never left his face; his
eyes were piercing into the window of my soul.  Every fiber in my body was
on fire, like an electrified orgasm that wouldn't stop.  That's the only
way to describe it.

"Dude, you are fucking awesome," Carl said, in a voice that was loud enough
for the others to hear.

I hoped he was saying it to me, and not for them.

"Yeah?" I asked, smiling.

I waited, and I continued to stroke him, hoping I'd hear more.  I didn't
care if he meant it.

"Jack, look at you man, you're perfect," he said, never taking his eyes
from mine, "look at your fucking awesome biceps.  Look at your ripped
stomach and fucking unbelievable blue eyes.  Look at your hot ass and
pumped up shoulders.  Look at this massive hard cock I got in my hand.
Dude -- you're fucking perfect."

Please God, tell me he meant that.

"Thanks man," was all I could manage.

And as we stood there stroking each other, we allowed ourselves to check
out every square inch of each other's bodies.  It was definitely a first
for us.

"Hey man, I told you this would be fun," he said, softly.

"Not like doing it to ourselves, that's for sure," I said.

"You think they're buying all of this?"

"Dude, I'm almost buying it myself," I said weakly.

"Weird.  It is sort of hot.  I never did this to another dude," he
whispered back.

"Me either."

"Hey, now I know why they call you Jack," he said, tightening his grip, and
moving his hand faster on me.

"Aw, man, that's not fair," I said, grinning, and keeping my voice down.

"Those two have got to be loving this," he said, holding my cock straight
up in the air to emphasize it's size, as he pumped his fist on it, "just
keep smiling, like you are totally in love with me and shit," he said
quietly.

"I'll try," I said.

Like there was any way I'd need to pretend.

I'm not sure if his words were meant to encourage me, but they did.  Don't
ask what got into me after that, but I just kind of `forgot' that he was
stroking my dick.  All I wanted to do was to make him feel good.  I didn't
care about anything else.  I didn't care about me.

I sank in the water to my knees.

His hand slipped off of my aching dick, and both of his hands went to my
shoulders.  And with his throbbing cock at eye-level, I tightened my grip
and began to pump him harder.  He let out something between a moan and a
sigh.

I reached my hand around and grabbed hold of his utterly flawless ass, and
let my other hand go into a flurry on his giant hard-on.

My lips were exactly two inches from his inflated cock head -- and the
smell of sex was overpowering -- I was breathing him in, like some drug I
couldn't get enough of.

"Fucking awesome," he grunted.

I looked up at him and smiled nervously.

He smiled back down at me, and shrugged one shoulder.

"You almost got me wanting more."  He said through heavy breaths.

He said it loud enough for James and Eric to hear, but this time I know he
was talking to me.  He was coming as close as he knew how... to ask
for... more.

So I did it.  I moved my lips smack up against his fired-up dick head, and
let them glide all around on his slippery pre-cum.

His body shuttered.  So did mine.

You'd think the guy would have at least one flaw, but when I tasted a
little of what I had on my lips, even his pre-cum tasted sweet.
Unbelievable.

"Dang, Jack," he half moaned.

He was starting to get into it pretty good.

So I started tonguing him all over his freaked out dick, like I was some
other person I didn't know existed.  I would never do something like that.
Never.  And all I heard was air escaping from his lungs -- like a teapot
going off.

I was hooked.

I moved my hand from behind him and took hold of his over-sized balls, and
the hissing noise he was making turned into one collective gasp.

"Un... fucking... real."  He stuttered.

I don't know how or why, but I forgot all about being nervous and scared
after that.  Without even giving it a second thought, I took his massive
cock into my mouth.  I just took as much of it in as I could, and let
myself feel his throbbing meat against my tongue.  Each of those throbs was
for me.  Every one of them.

He brought a hand over to my face, and felt his own cock bulging off to one
side through my cheek.  It was like he was proving to himself that it was
real -- that it was really happening.

Then I just went all-out on the dude, sliding my mouth and my hand up and
down on him, just like I'd want it if it were me.  He brought his hand from
my cheek up to my buzzed hair, and started moving it back and forth, like
he was helping me blow him.  It was seriously hot.

He started bucking into me, and was cussing under his breath quite a bit.
I would have done the same, I think.

"JESUS," he grunted, "you sure about this?"

His cock grew thicker, and his breathing went off the charts.

A minute later, he took his hands off of me, and for the first time, the
only part of his body touching me was his giant cock in my mouth.  I came
off it just long enough to look up at him, and he was looking directly up
in the sky with both hands raised up above his head -- like he was sharing
what he was feeling with the entire universe.

I freaked at how awesome he looked.  I was in the middle of sucking off a
god.  It couldn't have been happening.  His entire body was stretched out
in a slight backward arch, with his incredible stomach sunken in, all hard
and heaving beneath his perfect chest.  By then the water had dried from
him, and it was his own sweat glistening, making him all shiny.  He was sex
itself.  He was beautiful.  And I was dying.

"Jack, I can't be liking this." he stuttered, looking down at me.

"Don't worry, you don't," I whispered back, letting my hand move back and
forth on his slippery hard-on.

He watched as I took his cock back into my mouth, and he let out another
moan.

"Oh man, you have no idea how good that feels," he said down at me.

I wasn't the only one that was `hooked'.  I also knew from the Dairy Queen
that the dude could cum at the drop of a hat.  So unless we got interrupted
by Eric in the next two minutes, Carl was history.

Another minute passed, and he was losing his battle.

"Dude... you need to back off.  I'm seriously close." He said in a shaky
voice.

There was also no way I was going to let him shoot off into the fucking
stream, and it was my turn to let him squirm for a change.

I guess dude's like it when you ignore their `I'm gonna cum warning."

When it hit him that I wasn't backing away, he went crazy.

"JACK!!!  OH SHIT!! DUDE, NO!!!!!

At that point, he knew I was gonna go all the way with him for real.  All
of the acting shit for Eric and James was long gone. It had to be a
colossal head-trip for him... giving up his first blowjob to a dude.  He
could have pulled away if he wanted to.  But he didn't even try.

"Jack," he started, but he never finished the sentence.

I felt the trigger in his massive balls go off, letting his backed up sperm
detonate.

He let out a string of words that I couldn't make out.  I'm not even sure
they were words.  The dude was up on his toes, bucking into my mouth, all
squirming and hot.

And then he went off like fucking fireworks, shooting off uncontrollably.
Bolts of his cum plastered my throat so hard I barely needed to swallow.  I
just hung on for my life as he went into massive spasms, cussing and
slamming his throbbing cock down my throat as hard as he wanted.  I grabbed
back around to his flexing ass, and did my best to keep him standing.

"FUCK!  NO WAY... NO... FUCKING WAY...!!" he yelled out through a cracking
voice.

His hands were all over me again, searching for something to grab onto as
he thrusted in and out of my mouth as if it were the only thing in the
universe that mattered to him.  And I think it was.

He just kept yelling, "Oh FUCK!" at the top of his lungs, with each blast
to my throat.

It was amazing that I was able to hold on to him - he was all over the
place.  And I have no idea how I was able to take down all of that cum.  I
mean, there was a ridiculous amount of it.  And it was the most incredibly
awesome thing I've ever done in my life.  By far.

I have no idea how long he shot off.  I think it seemed longer than it was.
But he finally slowed down, and then eventually started getting all
sensitive and shit after that.

I came up off of him and stood up.  His cock was still pretty hard,
twitching with each of his heartbeats.  I brought one hand up to his
shoulder, since he seemed pretty wobbly.  He was breathing like crazy, all
spent and sexy and cute looking.  And he had this smile I'd never seen on
him before -- like he'd been born again or something.

"Dang... were you trying... to get me... to propose... or something?"  He
asked between breaths.

"Nah," I said smiling back, and in a voice the other two couldn't hear, "it
was mostly just a bunch of really good acting."

"Um... well... it was... really realistic," he panted.

I shrugged my shoulders.

He smiled a little bigger, and studied my face for a few seconds.

"You know what?.... Fuck you," he said, wiping some sweat from his face.

He stepped up closer, and for a minute I thought he was going to punch me
out -- like an after-sex quilt-trip or something.  But instead, he put his
arms around me again... and kissed me.

It wasn't a heavy kiss like the first one.  It was more gentle and soft.
He was still pretty shaky, and breathing really hard.  And his still
pulsing and slippery cock was sliding all around on mine, which was
jacked-up as hard as it's ever been.  I was about as close as a person can
get to cumming.  It was that awesome -- especially the part about him and
me sharing the taste of his... well, you know.

I honestly don't know how much of what we had been `doing' was an act on
his part.  Most of it was the real Carl.  I'm pretty sure about that.  But
some of it was his daredevil side, just putting on a show for Eric and
James.  And some of it was him messing with me.  It really didn't matter to
me one way or another.  I was kissing him again.  And I liked him just the
way he was - big time.  Besides, knowing everything about a person isn't so
good anyway.  I do know one thing -- he didn't consider any of what we were
doing to be gay.  If anything, he looked at it as plain old fun.  That's
just how he is.

Just as I was ready for about a magnitude 9 earthquake (yeah, that kind),
the second best kiss I'd ever had was interrupted.

"Hey guys," came a voice from over behind the rock formation.

It was a deep voice -- Eric's voice.

He and the kid emerged, walking up to the water's edge with these huge
grins.  Both were shirtless, and both had hard-ons shoved off sideways in
their cut-offs.

Carl and I broke away, exchanged quick glances, and then looked back over
at the two.

"Nice show boys," Eric said, figuring he'd caught us by complete surprise.

I knew that Carl was unable to say much at the moment, so I did the
talking.

"Dude, you almost gave me a heart attack.  Fuck, Eric," I said in my best
shocked voice.

He removed his oversized backpack, and set it down, revealing un-tanned
strap marks on his shoulders from a couple of hours of hiking in the sun.
It somehow made him look even more buff.  I'd never really given him much
notice before.  He had just enough hair on his chest to show off his
impressive pecs, and there was this thin line of dark hair that went from
there all the way down to his stomach, disappearing into his cutoffs.

Great, now I was starting to notice other guys.  I really am fucked.

Anyway, I'm sure he could crack a walnut between his huge biceps and
forearm with a simple flex of the muscles.  He was pretty intimidating, and
I had no idea what he'd do next.

He moved his hand up to his unshaven chin, and gave it a pondering rub as
he looked back and forth between Carl and me.  His big-ass bicep was flexed
to the max.

"I would have been happy to see y'all have heart attacks around two hours
ago," he said, picking up on my comment, `you do realize we followed you up
here so I could re- arrange both of your pretty faces, don't you?"

"Um, why?" I asked, all innocently.

"You fucking know why.  You don't just walk up on people like you did to me
and James here.  That's for starters."

"Dude, We're totally sorry.  You know we are..."  I pleaded.

"About the only thing that is saving your sorry asses is what me and James
just saw you two doin'.  It's your lucky day," he said, still grinning like
he owned the world and us along with it.

"I wanted to come in the water and get me a closer look at you two, but
Eric made me hide behind the rocks with him," the blond kid chirped,
attempting to change the subject.

"Good thing you didn't, or I would have kicked your freshman ass," Carl
said, still breathing heavily, and smiling over at the kid.

Eric laughed, which was a huge relief.  And the kid laughed right along
with him, like an obedient sidekick.

I think it put Carl at ease a bit.  I know it did for me.

This was the first time I gotten a really good look at James.  In contrast
to Eric, the kid didn't have a hair on his body.  He looked as though the
sun he'd gotten from the hike was all he sun he'd ever been exposed to in
his entire life.  He had a sort of pinkish glow, and he looked breakable -
like porcelain.

He was a good seven inches shorter than Eric, which must have made him
around 5'6" tall.  He had one of those outty belly-buttons that some guys
have.  He was a good looking kid, and I could see why Eric liked him.  But
he seemed more like an `indoor boy' to me.  He was out of place way up in
the wilderness.  The way I figured it, the kid went directly for senior
sausage the first day of his freshman year, and reeled Eric in for
breakfast.

"How long have you boys been together?" Eric asked me.

That was easy, I'd just tell the truth.

"Um, less than a week," I said, knowing he'd probably get a good laugh out
of it.

"Damn, judging by what me and James here just watched, I figured you'd been
together at least a year."

"That's what makes me so good at football, I learn all the plays pretty
fast," I replied.  He shook his head as he smiled.

"I've always liked that about you Andrews.  You have a fucking good sense
of humor.  Look, now that I'm not going to have to kill you two, I was
thinkin' we might-could have ourselves a swim with y'all.  We're burning
up."

Great, that's just what I needed.  A pumped up, half-pissed off, weight
lifting stud, and a horny pretty boy swimming around with us.

"It's cool by us.  I'm Carl, by the way," Carl said over to them, finally
able to speak normally.

"Me and Eric know who you are.  Everyone in school does.  Everyone knows
the jocks, even though the jocks don't know them," he kid explained.

"I've seen you around," Carl said, trying to make the guy feel better.

The kid grinned in approval.

"Is it OK if I go skinny-dippin' like them two are?" James asked over to
Eric, as if he had to ask permission.

"James, get a clue, we're in the fucking wilderness.  That's what dudes
do," Eric replied.

"Just leave your hands off my man," I said over to the kid.

Carl gave me surprised glance, and then broke into an even bigger smile.

"Damn right," he said, agreeing with me.  "And kid... Jack here's the only
one of us three who hasn't lost ourselves a load today.  So I don't want
you messing with him and shit."

James flashed a disappointed smile.

"Dudes, that's totally greedy," he said.

And we all broke into laughter.

Weird.



*Hope you liked chapter 4.  I tried.  Hope to hear from you, and thanks for
reading.

My email is: dozedaze@gmail.com

Bain