Storyville

by Caldon Mull

  I realized just a little while ago that life is a mess, and that the body is messy. Heck, everything is just… messy. I never realized that the quicker you learned to deal with that simple fact, the more practiced you become at dealing with that, the better it will be for you as an adult. I was too old to grow up and too young to act my age. Sighing, I realized I was being unnecessarily morbid. I played a good game, stiffed everyone in my dorm… or had been stiffed in turn. I had met someone interesting in Will and I was getting out and about some. I had travelled further this weekend than I had at any time in the last eighteen months, in any direction, all at once.

  I was pushing myself, and perhaps a bit too hard. Maybe, I thought, I could stop fretting about what was going to happen today and just let it happen the way it should. God alone knew what level of anticipation and precision my work demanded, why would I have to have it in my personal life? I was feeling more alive and better than I ever had before, and it was making me morbid and brooding. I grinned to myself. Idiot that I was, I would probably fuck this up too. Someone sighed in their sleep, sweet dreams, no doubt. I threw on some warm clothes and sneaked out of the room into the early light, perhaps a walk would take away the jitters.

  I strolled along the car park, and then saw a small well-kept pathway leading off into the forest. I branched away and strolled up, taking in the view of the high mountains and the tall trees. It was fairly spectacular in the greying light and low-hanging clouds. It kinda reminded me of home, not that these trees were anywhere close to the size of the redwoods around Seattle, but they suited the climate in their own way.

  I heard a quiet rustle in the undergrowth. I froze and looked around to see a Stag watching me nervously. He was a big beast, a full rack of eight points crested his head. I watched him watch me, before he snorted quietly and melted into the trees. I found myself grinning, my brooding mood lifted quickly, melting away with the mist. I walked and stretched for awhile longer, then headed back not wanting to get too far away from the motel. My cheeks were stiff from the cold, and clouds of my breath steamed into the air. I was enjoying myself. A sharp breeze whipped my unbound hair into a halo, a few stray ends stung my face as I walked briskly back the path. As I got to the motel, I noticed someone else stretching in the car park, away from the buildings. I knew the blond thatch and tall body before I got to see the face.

  “‘Lo Alex.” I called as I strode up to him. “Can’t sleep? Or just raring to go?”

  He looked around and stopped swinging his arms as I approached, grinning. “Both, I guess. You?”

  “Mostly can’t sleep.” I shrugged “Thought a walk would clear my head.”

  “Yeah.” Alex looked at the Mountains and the trees, his smooth face tense, jaw muscles clenched

  “Perhaps you’re right.”

  “I see smoke from the lounge fire, think they’ll have coffee yet?” Alex twitched his head to see the fresh white wood smoke rising from the stone stack.

  “If Mama’s up, there’ll be just about anything ready in the kitchen.” He sniffed, nose running “Let’s go take a look. I’m fucking freezing.”

  Turned out Mama was up and the smell of cooking was very close in the main building. I plopped down into an overstuffed settee in front of the low, steady fire and sighed. Heaven. Warm. Coffee. The day couldn’t get any better just yet. Alex joined me after a low conversation with the tightly coiled little grey lady, and stretched his hands out close to the smouldering logs. We sat in companionable silence until a large tray with biscuits and steaming mugs of mocha java were deposited on a little cane and glass table near us. Alex passed mine over, then heaped sugar and milk into his cup until he had something like a warm syrup swirling between his hands.

  “What you do last night?” I said conversationally.

  “Danced, drank, kept the Honey Sisters amused.” He shrugged “saw them off safe around eleven. Linda was fucked out of her tree, dunno what she was on.”

  “Jungle juice, or sumthin’” I shrugged.

  “Oh.” He blinked, surprised “You were with her?” His gold eyebrow arched.

  “Only for awhile.” I shrugged “Seems like Shane got the honour of her company for the most part.”

  “Good luck to him, I say.” Alex sniffed, sipped.

  “And that?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “I swear you were jealous.” I smiled, trying to bait him.

  “Nah.” He shook his head “Not like that.”

  “What then?” I prodded him in the ribs “C’mon… out with it.”

  “Yeah, Andy…” he sighed, settled back, stretched out his legs “Well, y’know I was Captain and coach for three years.”

  “Not really, but go on.” I turned, stretched out and watched him wrestle with his words. “See, this Captain thing…” he shrugged “When I was runnin’ the show, all we did was lose for those seasons. Finally, I gets the shits and ask Bobby to share the year with me, sorta like co- captain, but more in charge, so I could spend more time on my game and less running around like a dick.”

  “OK, so…” I prompted.

  “Then in his first game, he breaks my jinx an’ starts the season better than anyone since Dean’s Dad in ‘80. I figure I gotta look like some kinda dunce, is all.”

  “No,” I sighed “I think you finally got some time to work on your own game an’ you’re not so up close and personal with it. It sure looks to me like your boys are the same boys that’ve been along for awhile… me not counting… and your team game has always been pretty solid.”

  “You think so” Alex brightened.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

  “‘Sides, you are helping a lot, Kyle may have been fast, but he went down like a skittle if any of the forwards blocked him. Helps we got some fast beef.” Alex grinned slyly.

  “Yeah…” I mock punched his shoulder “Yeah, thanks a lot. ‘Sides Dekker said last night that no matter how many touches he scores, we’ve got four people all trying the same thing.”

  “No kidding, you spoke to Dekker?” Alex shifted, interested.

  “Yeah, met him in the head, bought him a beer.” I smiled “Dean was eating up everything he said. Was a real kick for him.”

  “Man, Dekker…” Alex enthused “The guy’s a legend. Great hands.”

  “Yeah, he has.” I sipped my coffee.

  “So, what’s he say…?” Alex prodded “C’mon…”

  “Well…” I tried to think of something Alex would appreciate “Says each of us got somethin’ he got, only slightly better. We can be in four places at once, he can only be in one. Also he says that if he don’t score the touch, ain’t no one from Dry County be able to, so he feels he’s under a lot of pressure this season.”

  “Did he mention me?” Alex was almost bobbing.

  “Yeah.” I frowned, remembering “he said ‘that blond stud got better tactics than me. Almost unnatural the way he can sniff a loose ball’ and then he mentioned you pretty quick with your hands, too.”

  “Wow!” Alex grinned. The logs in the grate settled in a shower of sparks. “Wow!” He said again “Dekker reckons I’m good.”

  “Yeah,” I shrugged, pouring another cup of coffee “I reckon he’s stayed behind to watch the game today, suss out the competition. Most Dry County boys intend doin’ that, if I recall.”

  “Man! If we could get the boys fired up, it would be like the ‘80 season. That year the scouts took five back with them for the major leagues. The way things are going for the last few seasons, I was counting on maybe one or two.” Alex’s green eyes flashed.

  “What was so special about that season?”

  “It was a honkey-tonk season between the three sides. They all had pretty good teams and finished first, second and third in the state for the year. We had Dean’s Dad, leading our team, Dekker’s Dad the Dry County and Cullin leading the Local Boys. Well, Barker and Dekker had this rivalry you could almost feel in the stands, when I watched my Dad play against them it was l
ike, like ballet… and all I wanted to be was a Football player like them when I grew up. Still do.”

  “What happened then?” I was curious.

  “Well, the scouts took the three captains and two others with them to the leagues. They all had two or three great seasons, then Cullin and Dekker came back home… Dean’s dad never did. Sent money regular like for about two years, then we heard nothing more and the money stopped coming. Dekker opened up a farm equipment store, then branched into real estate an’ after that who knows? He’s one of the richest men in the state, I reckon.”

  “And Cullin?” I started to figure out a lot more about Dean from the story. Things I would never have known.

  “He’s Mayor here. He went into some or other financial difficulty, but for the most part he’s good at what he does. Is there any more coffee?”

  “Nah.” I upended the pot.

  “You stinker.” Alex groaned “Distract me and suck up all the joe!”

  “Yeah, about right.” I grinned.

  “Well, we gotta get changed soon, everyone most probably up soon. You packed?”

  “Yeah, my kits out, is all.”

  “We all tidied our room, but the Captain’s gotta stay like that, y’know.”

  “How’s that?” I goggled.

  “Mama gets nervous when the boys are too tidy. Reckons they got somethin’ to hide or some such. We worked out long ago that if there isn’t at least one room that looks like a bomb hit it, she gets nervous. If it’s the Captains room, more the better.”

  “That’s seriously weird, man.” I laughed.

  “Yeah, but if we all good all the time, she sets up patrols… and if we always bad, she doubles the price for the next year. Anythin’ broken?”

  “No, should there be?” I shrugged.

  “No, as long as it’s just messy, we stay on her good side an’ we keep her happy.” Alex grinned.

  “Pity I wasn’t in that room, we could’ve had a lot of fun… y’know, you… and Bobby… and me.” His grin turned into a leer. His hand slipped down and cupped his groin, I swear he had a half-wood.

  “Why not?” I stood up and stretched, moved the coffee tray next to the fire “You an’ Bobby not getting’ on…?” The heat warmed my legs and ass. I rubbed my hamstrings.

  “Not that.” Alex looked at me suddenly serious “Just… I needed to break away from the… stuff… that would hold me back for this season. I just needed some space.” His thumb rubbed at his zip idly. “I reckon… no harm, no foul. We still good friends, we just got …other things to focus on this year.”

  “Oh.” I nodded. “I need a piss, then we should get started.” I shrugged.

  “Yeah.” Alex blinked, stood up. “Me too.”

  We walked around the smoke-stack and into the gents. The smell of breakfast was beginning to waft out of the Mess Hall, my stomach growled. At the spill, Alex hitched out his dick and started to pee, it started to point and he leaned forward. I unhitched myself and emptied out the coffee.

  “Trouble there, guy?” I smiled watching him struggle with his hard-on.

  “Nah.” Alex grinned, “Always get like this before a match. Reckon I like to save it up for the opposition. ‘Sides, it your hands are warm, you could shake it if ya want. Just don’t finish me.”

  “Yeah, well…” I shrugged, shaking and buttoning up. “What the hell.”

  I moved around behind him as he squirted and tried to finish his piss and slipped my hand around to grasp his root. He moved his hands onto the wall and let me squeeze gently, feeling the pressure of his urine course through his piss-tube. My hips ground against his, my length rubbed against his slowly clenching buttocks. In spite of the odd stances, this was quite… interesting. I could feel my cock pay attention to his ass’ rhythm.

  “Y’know Andy,” Alex groaned as he dribbled to a halt, then started up again. His pee foamed and steamed as it ran down the metal bulkhead “I figure why you so popular.”

  “Yeah?” I mumbled, gently running my hand along the bottom of his fuck-flesh.

  “It’s ‘cause you listen so good.” Alex shivered, farted, dribbled to a stop again, started up again. “You’re no sweat to do what people want from you. You don’t make a fuss, don’t yap an’ you don’t advertise anything. Anyone could tell you anythin’ and it would just stay between you an’ them. You’re a big guy, but it’s like you gotta strain to see you in the same room.”

  “Sure.” I listened, rolling my palm around the bottom of his naked head, I squeezed and stretched the soft skin back along his meaty thickness to his pubes, squeezed again.

  “Uhnn, I mean you …change stuff… by just being around. It’s not …like… uhnn… you actually doin’ anything different… hmm… different from anyone else… hah… Jus’ that things are special ‘cause you’re there…”

  “OK?” I whispered to him, his rock-hard ass clenched and arms spread wide on the tiles above the trough, shuddering, rubbing against my half-wood, bouncing my balls in my shorts.

  “Yeah… oh, hmmm… oh, yeah…” he panted softly. “Oh, my g…”

  I felt his cock jerk, heat up and thicken all at once, the metal sheet went ‘thunnnnggg” as his first spurt smacked into the bulkhead. I gripped his meat in the middle and twitched it down his shaft, tightening all the skin from his piss-slit into a single burning poker. Two more… five, six crack shots of his wad slammed against the metal, before thickly oozing towards the drain. My right hand clamped on his hip-bone to steady him while he gasped and trembled. The tension eased out of him with his cum and I milked his cock for five or six more strokes. I positioned his package back into his boxers, zipped him up. He pulled a hand back and put it on mine as I tidied him up, holding it.

  Leaning over his shoulder I pushed the ‘flush’ button and while his jism swirled away in the cold water, leaned back and licked my sticky fingers.

  He turned to face me, rosy-cheeked, grinning, apologetic “I shoulda known there’s no half measures with you.”

  “Don’t worry. Tastes good.” I sucked a pearly rope from the web of my thumb.

  “The other guys can tug for like, hours…” He sucked breath in, calmed his breathing “But Bobby an’ you…”

  “You gonna sleep now?” I grinned at him, before nodding to the door.

  “Heck no. I’m kinda fired up, just the edge isn’t as close.” He smiled beatifically.

  “Then you not gonna go off half-cocked, today. That’s good, right?”

  “You betcha, buddy” We walked out into the cold air and matched paces until we got to our rooms, grinned secretly at each other before he went into his room and I walked the last three doors to mine. Inside the warm room, naked bodies were pulling on their kit and steam was billowing from the bathroom.

  “Where you been?” Dean looked up from a damp towel as he rubbed his hair.

  “Walking. Nerves.” I shrugged, pulling off my clothes and scrabbling for my kit.

  “Yeah.” Mark grinned “Know what you mean.” He looked at Dean. They blushed, looked away. Inside the bathroom, Shane and Bobby were mumbling in low voices, laughing together.

  “Andy,” Shane grinned as he walked out the door minutes later, pink from the hot water, fat meat swaying “We missed you this morning, where you go?”

  “Out.” I grunted, heaving on my shoulder pads.

  “He walks when he’s jittery.” Bobby followed Shane, dabbing at his crotch with a towel. He smiled at me, winked. “Whose idea for the warm towels?”

  “Shane brought one through for me yesterday.” I tied my laces, stood and rocked from side to side, settling the shoes. I quickly packed my kit into the bag and zipped it up as Dean and Mark heaved theirs onto their shoulders, headed for the door. Shane grinned with surprise, said nothing.

  “I must tell the guys about that trick. Works a charm.” Bobby tossed the towel onto the floor deliberately, looked around the carnage of the room, nodded in satisfaction. He bounced on the bed next to Shane and started throwin
g his kit on.

  Five minutes flat and the trucks were packed, and us packing Mama’s breakfast in. Twenty minutes after that we were heading to the field for the most important game of the season.

  What can I tell you about the game? I don’t remember that much, everything had shrunk to a small point of heaving bodies, stretched arms, lung-cramping sprints and the smell of pig-skin, sweat and icy dirt and crushed grass. It was as if we were one creature, Bobby the right hand, me the left. Mark and Shane were the legs, Alex the head and Bobby the heart. Jase and the defensive side were all the bits in between and we meshed that cold morning, on the Local Boys field. It didn’t matter to us how many scores against us they tried, we simply, easily, scored more. Seven touches in all, Alex three, Bobby two, Dean and I each one.

  The Local Boys only managed three. We had beaten them, and well.

  By the time I came down from my high, the stands had emptied out and we had earned the right to shower in the Clubhouse. I’m sure I saw Dekker grin and wave at me, but when I got my thoughts working normally again, he was gone. I’m sure I waved back. There was more tugging and heaving in the Car Park, and we had all congregated in the change rooms near the hot water. The Club Bar had opened and it was expected of us to join the Locals afterwards and schmooze some.

  I plopped down and dozed a bit until I noticed a large shape looming over me. Shane, wrapped in a towel.