by Caldon Mull
I sighed heavily “Yah, it counts.” I assumed the position with much cheering while Shane marked my ass, holding onto my hips while he was doing it. I couldn’t help but grin as I saw from my upside down position Paul watching on with his fascinated-but-can’t-stop-looking expression.
“Now, defenders… If I gotta take it on the ass, we gotta get our own back on the fly-boys! Whaddya say?” Shane leaned back and admired his handiwork, smacking me gently on the other cheek. “I gotta tell you though, Andy’s got a reeeal sweet ass. Maybe I get one of you to take the next hickey-heinie.”
“Hah!” I jeered when I sat up and collected my lunch from Alex “You all gotta work harder for that one.” They tossed towels at me as I ducked onto a quiet bench behind a whole bank of lockers and wolfed down the burger and the apples. Alex joined me, eyes shining.
“They got a scout through.” He grinned, wet fringe flopping onto his forehead. “Fuck, Andy. They got a scout up there. Cappy dropped off the itinerary we gots to him an’ he said he’ll make all the games he can. There also, the press got wind of what we doin’ an’ they promised a story in this, no matter what. ‘Jukebox Hero’s’ is gonna play each time we on the field from the P.A. It’s like we almost professional, is what. We got a hairstyle, we gotta theme tune, an’ everything.”
“It’s gonna happen, sport. We got the game also,” I chewed on an apple “Is what.” I grinned and watched Alex vibrate with excitement. “I gotta tell Meat.” He stomped off buck naked, I grinned at him.
Paul and Shane joined me on the bench, nudging each other, cocking eyebrows at Alex’s excitement.
“Scouts.” I mumbled through a full mouth. “Lotsa attention, today.”
“Man, that’s great.” Paul grinned. “He’s always wanted to play pro.”
“If they did, who you think they’d pick?” Shane pulled off his jock, sat behind me. The bench creaked. He patted between his toes with a towel.
“Well, I wouldn’t.” I shrugged, thinking about it for the first time. “Cappy probably wouldn’t, but I’m not sure ‘bout him. Kid might well go. Alex is there like a bear.”
“You wouldn’t?” Paul looked shocked. “But you a natural.”
“Not what I want to do with my life, Flash.” I shrugged, leaned back against Shane, still chewing.”You?”
“Nah, I get where Andy’s coming from.” Shane’s voice rumbled against my back. “I wouldn’t go. Be tempted, tho…” He draped a huge arm over my shoulders “But wouldn’t.”
“I dunno if I would.” Paul looked serious again. “I dunno what I would do if I got a chance.”
“That’s ‘cause you untested.” Shane sniffed nonchalantly “The more choices you make, the easier those choices become. Even bad choices now are better than none at all, later.”
“Yeesh, who died and made you a philo-so-pher, Tank?” I rumbled.
“Nah, well he’s right.” Paul blushed “We been talking, some.”
“Oh? ‘Bout?” I quirked an eyebrow.
“Ahh… stuff.” Paul’s neck flushed again. “Just stuff.”
“Philosopher, ey?” Shane’s hand slipped down my pec and toggled on one of my nipples “Like cause and effect. That’s so cool.”
I groaned with dismay as my cock twitched into ram-rod hard and pointed straight at Paul, bursting through the elastic of my jock. “Ah, man… Tank, you scaring the kid. Why you do that?” Paul goggled at my throbbing dick.
“‘cause I can.” Shane sounded smug “‘cause I know you’d let me.”
“Sure.” I grumbled, lightly punching one of his huge thighs “But you make him so nervous, he’s gonna throw up, or somethin’…”
“Nah.” Shane got up and stretched, grabbed one of the towels “He’s ‘bin crushing on you the whole season, he ain’t gonna throw up.” Shane grinned at the furiously blushing younger man.
“Tank!” Paul spluttered, hanging his head. “You… you…”
“Well, it’s true. I seen it…” Shane flipped the towel over his shoulder and sauntered towards the plunge-pool. “…and it’s all good.”
“Awkward.” I sipped my juice and fought back my hard-on with a spare hand, curious as to where the conversation would go now. “Talk about it?”
“Yeah.” Paul took a deep sigh, swallowing furiously. “But it’s true. I can’t help watching you all the time. I can’t believe you even speak to me when you do. And… also… sometimes when I’m watching you play, I get a… my…” Paul gulped “… y’know.”
“Yeah. I think I do.” I reached over and knuckled his jaw. He grinned shyly. “We’ll pick this up later Flash, promise. And it’s Ok, really.” I snapped my elastic, adjusting my package now it was quieted “To be fair, I don’t think talking to me with a hard-on in a locker room would do your feelings any justice. Too many distractions, I think.”
“Yeah, well.” Paul’s adam’s apple bobbed “Now you know.”
“Good that I do.” I grinned “ ‘Cause I can act natural, and don’t gotta pussy-foot around you. You gonna join me an’ Tank in the plunge pool? We gonna be nekkid.”
“Yeah. I’m over bein’ shy. ‘Sides, you already seen what I got.”
“Tha’s right, I have.” I draped an arm over his shoulder and steered towards where Shane had slopped most of the steaming water out of the pool.
“Looks like it’s got a mind for a workout of its own.”
“Like training, and shit?” Paul grinned hugely “‘Cause I reckon my game needs some liftin’”
“You got it, sport.” I smacked his ass playfully “Jus’ like that.”
By the end of our lunch, the stadium had filled up real quick. Almost everyone in the town was there. The local team had changed into skivvies and had joined the crowd, while the other team had taken over their locker room. We warmed up while we were waiting and most of us reported we were tired, but good to go. From the study of their plays, Alex and Bobby had calculated we could get a good running start with them and lock them down in the second half and still stay ahead. In the huddle, they told us that if we were feeling shaky, we could always get Buck and Greg to sub us in the second half rather than risk injury.
We broke up and took our positions, so when the whistle blew on the game, we were ready. By now, I could see that I had been heavily marked in-game, and had three guys on my ass every time the Ball came my way. Luckily, though I was fast enough to avoid the slamming tackles it looked like I was scheduled to get every time I got some pigskin, but my pass to Cappy got him a touchdown, and another pass to Alex saw him also run the ball through. While I was getting frustrated, I could help but admire the way our defense boys broke apart and pushed together, like clockwork. I shrugged though, realizing I would have to fork out two more hickey indignities.
After the two touchdowns, the other team became more cautious, and the game turned into a territory battle. Late in the last quarter, I saw a chance from well within our back third when Meat passed me the ball from a line-up. I turned all of my frustrations into adrenaline and hoofed it past their loose forwards, and dodged their quarterback cutting across their line. Flash and Jase peeled away and sprinted straight up the far side where I was heading, Dean and Shane were dashing straight ahead, clearing the milling players in front of them. Lungs near bursting, I pulled in front of Flash and headed straight for the clot of burly forwards that were intent on intercepting me, and I knew then that I wouldn’t have the steam to push through them. I roared out Dean’s call sign and long-arm passed back to him on the other flank just as the troop slammed into me.
When the stars had finished winking behind my eyes and the last body had been rolled off of me, I gasped for breath, realizing that Dean had made the touchdown and the noise of the crowd wasn’t part of the buzzing in my head.
“Big guy, you good?” Flash’s grinning face bobbed into view of my visor.
“Winded… can move…” I gasped and tried to stand on wobbly knees. I clung on to him while Jase supported my other side. I
saw what had happened, Dean had leapt to catch the ball in the air and Shane had pushed both of them through and over the line of tired defenders that had managed to peel off from my line in time. There were a couple of limbs sticking out from under Tank, but Dean was well clear and behind the line. Touchdown!
“Cool!” I grinned stupidly, head spinning “But how come we got both Twins on the team?”
“Eh?” Paul frowned and looked in my eyes “Jase, check everythin’ quick, I reckon he’s punch-drunk. Make the call… He’s not focusing too good.”
“You took a pummeling, we gonna bench ya, pull in Buck I reckon.” Jase was prodding and tugging at my arms and legs, grunted when nothing seemed broken. “Flash, take him over, I’ll signal to Cappy.”
On the walk over I started to feel better, started seeing single again, but realized I couldn’t finish this quarter without a real risk of some or other injury. My ribs smarted, my ankle felt tender and my left fore-arm from when I had passed the ball felt like it could be sprained. “Go on, I’m fine now.” I patted Paul on the helmet and gingerly walked the last few feet to slap Bucks’ hand as he jogged past me.
“Fuckin’ A, Big Guy.” He grinned through his gum-guard.
“Give ‘em hell, Buck.” I encouraged him, sitting down and pulling off half my kit. I checked everything, the run had taken more out of me than the actual tackle, and the smarting on my left arm was from a boot print. I did some cautious stretches and when the final whistle blew was pretty much as good as I was going to be. I had scrounged an ice-pack from the drinks box and pressing it against my skull helped a lot. I checked my pupils for dilation and was grateful there did not appear to be a concussion.
“You Ok?” Bobby jogged over me while the boys were shaking and slapping, worry clearly evident in his eyes.
“Hard as nails.” I grinned at him reassuringly, “Run for hours, not too keen on those tackles, though.” I grabbed his hand, and he tugged me off the bench.
“C’mon, lets go thank them for the game.”
Chapter Eighteen
The locker room was quieter than this morning. We dragged our feet in, parched, sweaty and wrung out.
“Ok guys, “ Shane waved his arms. “Andy’s stuffed an’ I’m all tingly from that dive. How about we gets it all done at once. Meat, you take mine off Andy. Then we done with it.”
“Damn!” I sighed as Meat left the marks “I’m beginning to feel like a War Time Ace.” I grinned weakly as Meat patted my rump affectionately.
“You gonna have some fine bruises, they already started to yellow.” Mark muttered “Are those stud marks on yer arm?”
“Hmmm.” I flipped around and sat down, tugging my colors all the way off. “I’m not gonna plow through six guys like Tank, even if I did run all that way to get where they could tackle me hard.”
“Man! Wasn’t that some dash, though. You’re like... a stealth ninja.” Alex tugged off his padding. “Need some help with that?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Alex undid the laces and pulled mine off for me. “Ahhh, much better…” I moaned.
“An’ the press… were all camera’s an’ stuff…” Alex bounced up and down the bench, wiggled and slid off his jocks. “… an’ Greg said he swore he saw the scout-man takin’ notes…”
“Aw sport, I’m glad fer ya.” I stretched to the sounds of too many clicks and pops. “Tomorrow, I’m sure I’d be real excited.” I ruffled his hair on the way past. “Right now I’m gonna take a dump an’ hope there’s not too much blood in it, an’ have a looong soak in the plunger.”
“Yeesh…” I heard Meat mutter quietly while I was walking “You got your head up your ass. He’s fucking lucky to have nuthin’ broken and its youyouyou-fuckin’-you allatime… Jus’ give it a break, ‘kay?”
“Fuck, sorry…” Alex sighed as I clicked the bolt on the crapper cubicle.
I spent some time in the soak, just phasing out, then all of us packed up everything and loaded the bus. Bobby found us a good steakhouse and we wolfed down a good solid meal and chased it up with two draughts each. We sat next to each other and smiled and joked, but I could tell he was really missing me so far this weekend, but a deal was a deal and I made sure he knew I was feeling the same, no matter what.
In the quiet after the meal, we discussed what we were doing.
“See guys, we played a fixture an’ then got in one we missed, but ‘cause I didn’t know how we’d take it, I didn’t make any for tomorrow. You think we could play back-to-back like that tomorrow? Maybe jus’ one extra in the morning? Tank? Jase? Meat?”
“Ah, naw Cappy.” Mark cleared his throat. “Them were hard games, and the fact we still walkin’ and talkin’ says a lot for us. If we pushed harder I reckon we’d break what we got.”
“Yeah.” Jase nodded. “This is slower, but we still make up all the games in three weeks anyhow.”
“See I was thinkin’ that we’d want a break when we get the finals, before we play.” Bobby mused, munching on a toothpick.
“I reckon we keep it up. Finals are Saturday and Sunday, exceptin’ you only play one team a day. We getting’ a LOT of play in one day, and we handling it. I vote we keep this up. Less fat, more experience.” Tank muttered.
“Dean?” Bobby nodded.
“Hey Cappy, I reckon this works like a recipe. Don’t fix what ain’t broke.” Dean grinned as I yawned hugely “Also, we get a chance for the old-timers to mend a bit.”
“What!” I spluttered in the middle of my yawn. “Whipper-snapper, I’ll git ya!”
“Right, then.” Bobby grinned “The ‘ayes’ have it. We sleep in, have lunch on the way back, sight-see a bit and home by sunset.”
“Aye!” the steakhouse rumbled with our vote.
“Ahhhh, man this feels good!” I flopped down on the bed back at the Motel. Shane walked through with a bottle of baby oil and waved it around. I could see he’d taken his shirt off and the thick bands of muscle through his abs and under his ribs were darkening ominously.
“I’ll rub ya, if you do me.” He grinned hopefully. “Sure…” I sat up on the bed slowly.
“How about I do you both?” Paul’s voice echoed from the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth. Shane was actually speechless, and I quirked an eyebrow at him as Paul stuck his head around the doorjamb. “No really.” He grinned. “I’m good at that an’ there’s all sorts of other things you c’n help me with. You can lay out on the carpet, I don’t guess there’s too much room on the bed.”
“What sorta stuff can we help ya with, sport?” Shane shrugged and juggling the oil in one hand, unbuckled his belt in the other, kicking off his loafers at the same time.
“Trim my bush?” The glass in the bathroom clinked as he dropped his toothbrush into it. “We gonna swap?”
“Yeah sure.” Shane nodded, stepping out of his shorts and spreading a big towel on the floor.
“Of course.” I shrugged slowly and peeled off my shirt.
“Cool.” Paul bobbed through in a pair of ‘fruit of the looms’ and snatched the oil from Tank as he stretched out naked, clothes in a heap at the foot of the bed. He straddled the giants back and started to pour oil on the deeply defined muscles and rubbing it in with his spare hand. I could hear pops and clicks as Paul worked on the massive ‘V’ of Shane’s back, pressing up and down the spine, pushing things into shape and smoothing out the kinks. Shane groaned appreciatively during Paul’s ministrations.
“Ah, Andy, the kid’s got great hands.” Shane muttered as Paul inched forward into a crouch and started squeezing Shane’s deltoids. “Not just to catch pigskin.” He rumbled from under his folded arms.
“Turn over Tank.” Paul whispered hoarsely after about fifteen minutes of working his back. “Let’s get those ribs limber.”
“Ah, kid…” Shane murmured, sounding embarrassed “Mebbe you should wait a few more minutes…?”
“Nah.” Paul smacked Shane on his marked buttock. “I c’n take it. ‘Sides, I wanna see what ya pack
ing.”
“Bold l’il devil all of a sudden, ain’t he…?” Shane grumbled and rolled over “Win a coupla games an’ he’s barkin’ orders, ain’t he…” his half-wood bounced on his lower abs among the crew-cut gold pubes. “Well, I warned ya…”
“Well, I can’t work this unless I rub my ass all over ya.” Paul sighed and shucked his briefs
“I ‘xpect ya gonna be pushing a lot more’n that when I’m done.”
“Getting’ it up ain’t the problem.” Shane playfully thwacked Paul’s bunched thigh “It’s getting’ it down ag’in is th’ work, Flash.”
“Yeah, well…” Paul looked up at me lying on my folded arms and grinned “It’s kinda like training. I guess I just gotta keep at it until I get it right.”
“Well, ya callin’ it…” Shane smiled suddenly “I c’n rightly say I’m most appreciative. Andy…?”
“I’m game.” I grinned at Paul “… an’ I ain’t gonna put up much fuss either, bein’ so tired an’ all that…”
“Good.” Paul beamed at me. “I was hatin’ the idea of bein’ the only one on the team who wasn’t getting’ any this trip… whatever that any is…”
“Well Flash, carry on doin’ a good job an’ we’ll run ya through the hoops.” I grinned.
Another ten minutes with Shane, and both of them were well and truly boned when Paul smacked Shane on the chest and said “Andy’s turn.”
Shane stood up and stretched and swung his arms, looked surprised. “Damn kid, that’s worked a treat. How’d ya learn this?”
“Well, my girl and I might not… y’know… but we do this a lot.” He tugged at the head of his dick, it looked angry and pretty slimy, leaking pearls of pre-cum. I stretched out while Shane took my place on the bed. As he started pushing and clicking my back I realized I had started groaning in time to his pressing. I kinda phased out to the sensation while my cock started to press against the towel on the floor.