As with the hike story, this one is also told from Kyle's perspective. The reason for that is that both Wingnut and Mark were together most of the time, and there would be too much duplication of the story if it were to be told by them as separate individuals.
South Africa
Part 1
The swim team met at the school, where a bus was waiting to take us up the coast. Everybody's folks were there, too, even Mark's mom, which was pretty damn neat. But I was surprised to see him give her a huge hug. Normally, Mark wasn't the kinda dude to show that sort of affection in public, and I'd never seen him hug her before, not even at home. On the other hand, there was a lotta fucking shit that he'd had to contend with from her asshole boyfriend… shit that his mom didn't know about, so there was no doubt in my mind that he loved his mom a stack.
Wingnut wasn't so keen to be hugged, though, which made me chuckle. His mom practically choked the little grommet, and it was obvious by his wriggling that he was trying desperately to escape from her grip.
My mom gave me the usual bear-hug, but my dad knew better than to make too much of a fuss, so he just gave me a quick hug, then shook my hand. Actually, I thought some of the folks were more excited about the tour than the team was, 'cause they could go home and fuck without worrying about their kids walking in on them.
The bus ride began with the normal noise, and guys ribbing one another. But, after a while, as we travelled into the night, one by one the younger guys started to nodd off. Roy, one of the juniors with Wingnut, must've been having a wicked dream 'cause he had this massive boner, which attracted the attention of the rest of the team. From each end of the bus, they walked up and down the aisle to check it out, then pissed themselves laughing. Robbie, the guy sitting next to Roy, gave his bud's dick a smack, which woke the kid. It took him only a moment to realize what all the guffawing was about, then he let loose a long string of loud abuse, peppered with the kinda profanity that would make a sailor blush.
Our digs during the tour was a block of holiday apartments, with six apartments allocated to the team. I was billeted with Mark, Ross, Kevin, Jumbo, and Carlos. The rest of the seniors occupied two other apartments, while the juniors had the remaining three. In one room, there was a double bed, which two juniors had to share. The other two rooms had two single beds each, and I think Wingnut was pretty chuffed about being allocated one of the singles. He was sharing with Michael, Robbie, Brian, Marvin, and Dane. In the senior's apartments, though, each room had two single beds… no double. Luckily, I was sharing a room with Mark. Ross and Kev shared another, and the third was shared by Jumbo and Carlos.
The view from the apartment was totally kiff… straight over the beach and the surf, which made me feel right at home.
On the first night, just after we'd arrived, and were getting ready to bed down, Mark wanted to know if I'd seen Steve.
"Yeah, he came around last night. I wasn't expecting it, and I was kinda nervous when he phoned after dinner to ask if he could rock over to my house. He arrived in a pair of boardies and a t… he looked totally fucking fantastic. Anyway, my dad chirped him for being so damn scarce, but Steve just said that he'd been busy. So then we went to my room and sat on the bed. It was kinda awkward, and we started off with a bunch of small talk. He said that you'd told him we were going on a swim tour for a week, and that he needed to check me out first."
"To apologize?"
"Kinda. Anyway, I asked him how it was going, and he said it was up the shit. He said he'd fucked up badly, and that he wasn't sure if he could mend the damage he'd done to me. I thought he was talking about the stitches… not the Steph thing. So then he told me that you thought you were the one who'd given me the stitches, and that he hadn't told you about the fight between Steve and me… he said he figured it was between me and him. Then he said something pretty cool."
"Like?"
"That you like me a stack," I grinned. "So I told him that you'd been a pretty good friend… when you weren't beating me up. He laughed at that."
"Always the fucking comedian."
"So then he asked me if saying sorry would cut it, and I told him he'd said some mean shit… like fucking Steph 'cause she needed a real man. You've got no idea how that hurt."
"I think I have."
"So he told me that his original intention was to to make me mad, and I agreed… he did.. big time. Then he went on to explain that the thing with Steph was just him… that she gave in to him. But even while they were doing it, he knew that in her mind she was thinking about me. He said it made him mad and jealous that I had her, and he knew even then that he couldn't take her away from me. He said that Steph was hoping I'd never find out."
"You can blame me for that, boyo."
"Then he wanted to know about us… him and me. He was looking at his hands, and fidgeting like you wouldn't believe. "I've missed you, Kyle," he said. "You've got no idea how I went on a downer when you walked out my door that day after the fight." So I told him that I'd missed him, too, and that I'd be lying if I said anything else. I told him that I'd watched him at the mall in the pizza restaurant, and in the surf, and wondered if we'd ever be friends again."
"Sounds like you're talking about more than just being friends."
"I am. You know me pretty well, Mark… you know the kinda guy I am. Anyway, I told him that I needed to know something… I wanted to know about the guy who turned up at Steve's house after he'd flattened me. So I asked Steve if he'd planned to have that guy beat me up. "I was scared shitless, Kyle," he said. "I've seen you beat the crap outa guys before, and I also knew that you were as mad as hell, and planning the same for me.""
"You can blame me for that, too, bro," Mark admitted. "I phoned him and told him that you'd gone crazy."
"So then he told me he'd organized the other guy for back-up, and that he, Steve, didn't think he'd damage me. Said it was a scared punch. Anway, then he asked me if we could be friends again, and I said 'cool'. After that, we walked about half way to his house, not saying a lot, and stopped by a tree that we juiced one time."
"What?"
"We were acting kinda crazy about a year ago, walking home with our boners sticking outa our boardies, and goofing off. It was dark, so we stopped to juice the tree. I asked him if he remembered, and he said, "Hey, how could I ever forget?""
"You are one crazy dude, Kyle," Mark smiled, shaking his head. "And so is Steve."
"So we hugged, and I walked back home, feeling on top of the world. It was such a cool going away prezzie, and I was on a total trip."
Our first day of the tour was a relax day… to kinda settle in. We spent some of the morning at the beach, watching the locals surf. I was itching to borrow a board, but we weren't there for long enough. Meantime, Wingnut was hanging with the juniors, who I guessed were all shitting themselves wondering about the initiation. Mark, Kev, and Ross were on the initiation committee. I'd opted out 'cause of Wingnut. I would've ended up feeling sorry for him, and that would've been uncool for him in the end. All the seniors who'd been previously initiated were allowed to watch, though.
Later, we all went to the aquarium to watch the dolphin show, which was totally awesome. The dolphins were so damn beautiful, with their shiny, smooth, muscled bods jumping outa the water. The aquarium was a research station for dolphin behaviour, and lotta dolphins there were ones that had beached themselves, or gotten caught in boat propellors.
In the evening, we all rocked down to the local McDonalds for burgers and chips [fries]. There, we met up with one of the other schools that was competing on the tour. They were also from Cape Town, and our arch enemies.
One particular dude there, Brandon, thought that the sun shone outa his ass. For the last three years, he'd been winning everything in his age group. Anyway, he started to cause shit when he shoved one of the juniors outa the queue so that he could be first in line. Also in the queue was Wingnut, who took exception to Brandon's bully tactics. The grommet didn't know the dude, but, being typical Wingnut, told him to fuck off, anyway.
"Fuck off? I'll fuck you up, lighty. Go back to your fucking ghetto."
Ross, who was watching, stepped in, and moved Wingnut to one side. "Hi, Brandon."
"Hi, Ross. What's with the lip from your lighties? You need to keep them under control, dude."
"I will. Just watch your lip, though. They were first in line."
"Says who?"
"Says me. Now move, or should I move you?"
I could see that Ross was fucking amped for a fight. Brandon could see it, too, so he stepped aside and let the juniors resume their position in front of the line. But Brandon was the kinda dude who had to have the last word, even in defeat. "Kiss my ass, Ross, when you're behind me at the meet tomorrow," he snarled, then walked away.
The juniors thought Ross was totally tops 'cause of the way he handled the whole thing, and treated him like a hero… at least for a while. Meantime, Mark was sussing out the chicks, and talking about the cute ass on one of them, and the cute tits on another. Mind you, the chicks were giving the whole team the eye as well.
Back at the apartments, the juniors were called in to the coach's billet, where Ross gave them the initiation rundown. They all had to report to our apartment later that night, wearing their Speedos. "And bring a towel. But that's it. Nothing else."
Naturally, the coach didn't attend the initiation. There was no way that he could have officially condoned that kinda behaviour, even though he was aware of it. So he went out with a bunch of the other team coaches to a function. The thing I'd noticed about the coaches was that they all got along quite well… but only until the competition began. Then it was all-out war!
After dark, the juniors were summoned to our apartment. Beforehand, we'd moved all the furniture in the living room to one of the other rooms. All that remained in the living room was some chairs and a table, at which the initiation committee sat. The rest of the seniors stood behind the committee as spectators.
The atmosphere was one of high expectation. Fuck! If this initiation was gonna be anything like the ones we'd experienced as juniors, we all had a pretty good idea of what was about to unfold. Or did we?
Mark, Kev and Ross also had their Speedos on, and wore the most serious facial expressions as the bug-eyed and worried juniors marched into the room, wondering what the fuck was gonna happen to them.
The rest of us were trying our best not to piss ourselves laughing. And Wingnut? Hey, he was looking like it was the end of the world, and crapping himself big time.
When everybody had settled and was organized, Ross gave the juniors the usual speech. "Listen up, guys. This initiation is supposed to be fun for the guys who've been though it in the past. So you guys have gotta try to participate in this thing with the right spirit. It's not like the end of the world, even though you might think it is. There's absolutely nothing to worry about… provided, of course, you've all made out your last will and testament. Are you ready, guys?"Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved. mrbstories
