Tampa, Florida
Part 13

OK, next problem. How was I gonna get Mark and Paul together? Hmmm. Well, I figured if I could talk Mark into visiting my school the following afternoon to check out the swim team, maybe I could convince Paul to ride home with us. Paul was still mad at me, but he wasn’t mad at Mark. Actually, he thought Mark was cool. Anyway, it was worth a try. Meantime, I’d chat with the coach and tell him what my plan was.

When I’d finished my homework, I joined Mark and Greg in the pool as well as my dog-paddling mutt. Mark was beginning to feel more at ease with swimming naked, but I noticed his shorts and towel were close to the pool steps in case he needed to exit the water in a hurry and hide his furniture at short notice. Heh. Hmmm.

I planted my flat hands on the side of the pool, heaved myself outa the water, and called Kyle. “C’mon boy! Here boy!” As soon as my canine buddy emerged dripping wet, and had shaken off the excess water like dogs do, I pointed to Mark’s things. “Go fetch!” Kyle grabbed the shorts and towel between his teeth and took off. Playing catch-if-catch-can was one of his fav games, and it would take a pretty fleet-footed dude to catch the little fucker once he had something he thought you wanted.

“What the fuck’s going on?” I heard Mark yell.

“You’re gonna have to chase Kyle to get your stuff back,” I laughed. “Sorry about that.”

“You chase him!”

I ignored Mark’s order and dove into the water. By the time I’d surfaced, Kyle had jumped in beside me, probably pissed off that I hadn’t given chase. But he’d left Mark’s stuff on the other side of the lawn. Mark seized the opportunity and hauled himself outa the water with his powerful arms. Too late! Kyle figured out what Mark was up to, and beat him to the pile. Then he took off again, just in time to avoid Mark’s desperate lunge.

“Come back here!” Mark yelled as he chased the dog all over the yard. Greg and I were cracking up big time, and could hardly keep ourselves afloat. “Listen, you mutt! Gimme back my stuff!” Mark was probably too busy to notice that I was having the best gawk ever. As he ran, lunged, darted and dashed, trying desperately to catch Kyle, I was feasting my peepers on his rippling bod as well as his semi, which was flopping around like a fish on the end of a hook.

“What on earth…???” my mom said as she appeared at the back door. A nanosecond later, a red-faced Mark was back in the water, safely hiding his jewels from my mom's prying eyes.

I’d never laughed so much in my life. My stomach was hurting. I had to cling to the side of the pool to stop myself from sinking. Ditto my bro. But Mark was so rattled he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

As soon as my mom realized what was happening – and it took her only a moment or two – she placed her hand over her mouth in an attempt to hold back the giggling, and went back inside the house.

“You’re as bad as Cody,” Mark fumed. “No, make that worse. Much worse! Now go get my stuff before I tear you limb from fucking limb.”

“Sorry, buddy, I can’t. I don’t have the strength … it’s been drained by all the laughing. I’m too fucking exhausted!”

“I’m not gonna chase that dumb mutt of yours again.” Then Mark did an about-turn. It must’ve suddenly dawned on him that this had to be the funniest thing ever, and he began to giggle – just a little at first, but the giggles soon became guffaws. That kinda confused the hell outa Kyle ‘cause he couldn’t figure out why no one was playing the game anymore.

When things had settled down, I asked Mark if he wanted to rock over to my school at about 3pm the next day to check out the swim team. “Cody was always talking about what a great swimmer you are. Maybe you can rap with our coach and give him some tips.”

“Yeah, right. I’m not Ross. But, hey, if I’m not out sailing or whatever, it sounds like a pretty cool idea. I miss the old school swim team. We had the best time back then. The best.”

Over dinner [and Mark couldn't believe how good my mom's bolognaise was], the convo eventually got around to my mom busting our guest chasing Kyle around the yard. That got us all giggling again, but I could tell that Mark was still embarrassed. His face had gone red even though he was laughing with the rest of us. It was hard to figure that guy. He had to be one of the hottest looking dudes on the planet; a guy who put a lotta effort into keeping his bod totally honed, but at the same time he was kinda shy. I guessed my mom kinda thought that was an endearing quality. Heh. Yeah, I guessed I did too. Mr Macho Softie.

Mark had only been at our house for about 24 hours but already my mom and Andy were treating him like a son, just like Cody’s folks did. I couldn’t help hoping that with a bit of luck he would like us all enough to stay, but I knew that would be impossible ‘cause he didn’t have his own room. Dammit.

There was so much I wanted to tell Mark but couldn’t. Like how Cody had his own web site that was now being looked after by Steve. And how Cody’s life had been turned into stories about him and Mark and Wingnut. It seemed such a fucking shame that Mark was unaware of just how many people appreciated him, even admired him, but there was no way I was gonna risk having him bust a fucking boiler by telling him. I figured I was already skating on thin enough ice as it was.

But treating Mark like just another guy was impossible. You constantly felt compelled to tell him how fucking awesome he was, and the only reason you didn’t was ‘cause you’d make a fucking dork outa yourself. He wasn’t like me. I could soak up compliments like a fucking sponge. And when I wasn’t being told I was a walking god or whatever, I’d get all bent outa shape and start looking for zits. Heh. Yeah, I was vain. Totally fucking vain. On the other hand, if anyone wanted to crack my shell, I’d shatter into a million pieces in a second. So I guessed my vanity made me more vulnerable to criticism than most other people.

Mark? Mr Cool. Well, Mr Cool when my mom wasn’t gawking at him. Heh. Vain? No one could be that good looking and not be aware of it, so I guessed he had to be vain. But he didn’t make it obvious. Maybe that was ‘cause he was more mature than I was. He wasn’t the type to have half his ass crack showing at the beach, or a bunch of pubes spilling over the front of his boardies.

He was kinda scary in some ways. You always felt like he was the one in control, not you. He didn’t set out to make you feel inferior, just careful. You kinda knew how far you could go before he might get mad. At the same time he was very friendly; the kinda dude who would do almost anything for you if he respected you. When you made a friend of Mark, you had a friend for life. And his smile? Whoa! A major melter.

“I think you’d better double up on your situps and pushups,” I said to Mark after he’d finished working out in my room. We were both naked, but I was the only one sporting a skin-splitter. His was a reasonably weighty semi, though.

“Huh?”

“Well, if you wanna look as awesome as me, you gotta put in the extra effort, dude.”

“Yeah, right. Gimme that chest expander.” He took it, then stretched the damn thing like it was a string of paper dolls. “You’d better get a new set of springs for this thing, boyo.”

“You’re fucking infuriating. You know that? I know how Cody must’ve felt. He thought you were a god but he knew that if he told you that kinda stuff you’d freak. Every time I look at you I wanna tell you stuff ... like …”

“Like how awesome I am?” he laughed. “You don’t have to, Daniel. It shows already.”

“It does?”

“It’s written all over your face. And elsewhere.”

“So how come you’ve got this kinda protective shield around you? How come you don’t like compliments?”

“I grew up without them. I grew up not liking myself very much. I grew up thinking that any compliment or sideways glance from a guy had to mean he was a faggot, and that he was after my ass. Sorry, buddy. I’m not accusing you of anything. But that’s how it was before I met Cody. To some extent he changed my attitude about that kinda thing, but not entirely. I still get jumpy about getting compliments from guys. Old habits die hard, I guess. Anyway, I’m gonna take a shower.”

“Me, too! Hey, we can save time and water if…”

“No,” he said firmly as he grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his narrow waist.

“But…”

“NO!”

“I can wash your back. How are you gonna wash your back if…?” I didn’t finish my question ‘cause he was giving me such a strange look.

“Hey, listen up, Daniel. Cody was a one-off. Things happened with him that … well, that I don’t want to happen again. OK?”

“I just wanna wash your back not make you fucking pregnant.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” he laughed, “just like Cody. Actually, in some ways you remind me of him. You’re a very likeable guy, Daniel, despite being a total weirdo.”

“What are you saying? That you’re afraid to be my friend ‘cause you might like me too much?”

“Truth? Yeah. You hit the nail right on the head, buddy. Now I gotta go take that shower.”

“I’m coming with you.” I grabbed my towel and followed him to the bathroom.

He didn’t say a word ‘til we were both inside the room, and he’d closed the door behind us. “One wrong move, Daniel," he glared, "and you’ll be in deep shit. Is that fucking understood?”

“Aye, Captain.”

After we’d brushed our teeth, I turned on the shower taps, followed him into the stall, then closed the sliding glass door. And there we were, just inches apart, with warm water cascading down our tanned skins. I could never have imagined that being so close to Mark in a confined area could be so fucking scary, and yet so exciting. My stomach was churning with a zillion butterflies. The urge to run my hands all over his wet bod was almost irresistible, but I somehow managed to keep my cool.

I grabbed the soap and asked him to about face. Then I soaped his broad shiny muscular back and watched the slippery foam slide down to his firm dimpled butt, before it continued its journey down his strong legs.

As I was washing his back, I kinda combined the washing action with a massage action like Cody had told me about. I knew that Mark enjoyed Cody’s massages. But when I felt the tension dissipate from Mark’s muscles, and heard him say, “Yeah, that feels good”, I knew that he was relaxing, and I felt more at ease. Confident, even. Woohoo!

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