Tampa, Florida
Part 11
Greg was fit and fast, but not quite fast enough ‘cause he was using most of his energy laughing. I’d been chasing him in circles on the lawn when I finally tackled him and brought him crashing to the grass. Then I turned him over, sat on his gut, and pinned his wrists to the ground with my hands. “So tell me… what have you been telling Mark?”
Mark was still in the pool, watching the goings on with a bemused grin.
“You tell him, Mark!” Greg yelled while still giggling, so I looked in Mark’s direction. But all I got from him was a shake of his head and a smile.
“Greg?” I demanded as I returned my attention to my bro. “I’ll ask you one more time before I beat the crap outa you. What have you been telling Mark about me?”
“Just stuff.”
“What kinda stuff?”
“Y’know… just the usual.”
“Usual? What kinda fucking usual?”
“The stuff you do.”
I used one knee to keep his wrist pinned, then drilled his chest with my knuckles. “Like?”
“Hey, man, that hurts! Ouch!” More drilling. “OK, OK! The pedestrian crossing.”
“You told him about that? Fucking hell. What else?” Greg went on to mention quite a few things, like the time Cody and Steve visited Tampa, and the trip in the Chrysler Voyager with Dick driving. I didn’t know how to react, so I rolled off my bro and laid on my back on the grass beside him, staring at the twinkling stars contrasting with the matt-black heavens, and wondering what Mark would think of me now.
I hadn’t noticed my bro getting to his feet and diving into the pool, although I heard the splash. A minute later, Mark was standing over me, dripping water onto my bod. What an awesome sight that was; seeing him towering above me like some golden god.
“You OK?”
“Not really.”
The hunk sat down beside me. “You’re embarrassed, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Now you know how I feel about everything Cody told you about me. So we’re even, buddy.”
“Yeah, but… well, I’m a whole lot crazier than you.”
“You can say that again,” he cracked. “You are one weird dude. Now I know where Cody got all his ideas from. Or was it the other way around?”
“We kinda swapped ideas… sorta like a competition to see who could be the most rad.”
“Sounds to me like you were the one who was more rad,” he cracked again.
It was cool to hear the sound of his laugh. It was... I dunno... a softer, friendlier side to him. “So you’re not mad at me?”
“Nah, not really. A few years ago I would’ve put you in hospital, but not now. Don’t get me wrong, though. You and I are way, way, way at opposite ends of the human spectrum, Daniel. But that’s OK. Takes all kinds. From what I know about you, you haven’t harmed anyone, so that’s cool with me.”
“And you’re not nervous about sharing my – sorry, our room?”
“If anyone needs to be nervous, Daniel, it should be you,” he grinned. “If you ever get tempted to do anything that might upset me, think about your health.”
“You are soooo awesome!”
“Cut the crap.”
Well, I guessed that put paid to the initiation idea. I’d been thinking about all kinds of totally rad stuff like smearing him with a truckload of thick, sticky Daniel juice or whatever at the stroke of midnight. Yeah, right. I’d never get to see one minute past twelve.
“Everything OK now?” Greg asked as he approached us, still dripping wet from the pool.
Before hitting the sack for the night, I was working out with my chest expander in my room. Mark was on the floor doing a zillion pushups and situps, when he asked me: “Do you mind if I use that thing for a few?”
“Sure.” So I sat on the side of my bed and watched him. Whoa! He was stretching those springs like they were made of elastic, and his tanned muscles were bulging and popping big time. I couldn’t help but get horny. My boner was as hard as a rock. I didn’t make any attempt to hide it, though. If getting a boner was good enough for Cody when those two guys were naked together, it was good enough for me. Besides, nature was in charge here, not me. Go blame nature.
Anyway, Mark’s semi was maybe half an inch away from being rock solid, so he wasn’t exactly being Miss Frigid either. Meantime, my eyes were all over the place, watching each of his muscles doing their thing, as well as getting several gawks at his semi bouncing around above his low hangers. Jeez! How could ANYBODY watch that dude going through his paces without getting the hots for his bod?
“OK, did you take note of the techniques?”
“The what?”
“The fucking techiques I was using. You were supposed to be watching and taking mental notes.”
“I was? Oh… uh… yeah… I was. Yep, no problem,” I lied. “It’s all locked away here in my head.”
“Jesus,” he sighed as he threw the chest expander on my bed, then sat on the side of the spare bed, “you’re as bad as … no, make that worse … than Cody. I’ll never understand you guys, and your obsession with … whatever.”
“Bods? Hey, I know you thought Cody had a cool bod. And you thought the same about Steve. Even Wingnut.”
“Admiring something is not the same as being fucking obsessed, Daniel. Sure, I admired Cody’s bod. And I admire Steve’s and Winger’s, but I don’t have the hots for those guys. You’ve still got a skin-splitter, by the way.”
“Can’t help it. Anyway, you used to get a boner when you were with Code sometimes.”
To my surprise, Mark suddenly burst out laughing. It was a real belly laugh; loud enough to wake everyone in the fucking house. “Yeah,” he said eventually, “I did.” Then he laughed again; actually it was more of a giggle the second time. “I guess there’s a funny side to all this… like my dick’s got a mind of its own. Hey, guys don’t turn me on. Period. But Cody? Well, you explain it to me, Daniel, ‘cause I still don’t have a fucking clue. Yeah, I loved the guy. Big time. And still do. I even got romantic with him. But I still don’t know what it was about the Codeman that… I dunno…" Mark paused a moment to collect his thoughts. "He pressed a button or whatever… a button I didn’t even know existed until he came along.”
“Is the button still there?”
“What are you driving at?”
“Nothing. Don’t take this the wrong way, Mark, your bod’s way better than mine … way better … but a lotta peeps think I look pretty cool, and I was kinda wondering… well…”
“If you turn me on? If you’re pushing the same button Cody pushed? Sorry, bud. Your tits aren’t big enough.”
“OK, that’s cool. No biggie. But do you think my bod’s OK?”
“It’s better than OK, Daniel, and you fucking know it. Stop fishing for fucking compliments. Listen up, buddy, all this muscle stuff is OK but it’s not the be all and end all. Cody wasn’t just a body. No way. And I wasn’t just a body to him. OK, he admired mine, and I admired his. But our relationship went much, much deeper than that. Did you read his notes on the Harley calendar? Did you see anything there about my pecs or abs or lats or dick or whatever? No. You saw notes about the times we shared; the simple times; the memorable times; the fun times, and maybe the not-so-fun times. Cody was physical; you know that already, and that’s the way he often chose to express himself. But that wasn’t the only way he expressed himself. Cody was a very sensitive person. A very caring and loving person. It wasn’t his bod that won my heart, it was his spirit; his soul; his persistence; his belief in me as a person. I’m not saying you shouldn’t look after your bod, Daniel. You should. And you have every right to be proud of it. But don’t rely on it to be the only thing that matters about who you are. I was there when his dad scattered The Codeman’s ashes at his local beach. I was sitting on Cody’s stick out there on the backline with his other buddies – Steve, Paul, Wingnut, Steph.... Those ashes weren’t Cody. They were what was left of his earthly physical presence. No furnace could ever destroy Cody. Never. And that thought was what held me together that day, and has every day since then. Paul? Your Paul? What he said about you still being in love with a corpse? That kid doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about." Then another pause. "Sorry, Daniel, I think I’ve lost the plot here.”
“It’s almost midnight.”
“You’re right. Time to hit the hay.”
“You’ve gotta be initiated first. This is your first night here in my room. It can’t be our room until you’ve been initiated.”
“Hey, Daniel this isn’t the time for fucking jokes, OK?” And with that he turned down the covers and was ready to climb into bed.
“It’s not a joke.”
“Daniel, your bro told me about you and all the kinda whacko stuff you get up to. That’s OK. It’s none of my business.” Then he gave me the Mark glare. “Just don’t make it my business. OK?”
In the Royal Court
Of the Realm of Daniel
In and for the District of Tampa, Florida
The People of the Realm of Daniel’s Room
Vs
Mark
Well, that cracked Mark up big time. “What the fuck are you on about?”
I looked at my watch. About 30 seconds to midnight. “It having been brought to the attention of My Royal Highness, DANIEL REX, Supreme Ruler of this room, that a buddy of Cody who has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the Ruler of This Room, has transgressed on my domain and thereby incurred the Royal Displeasure.”
“Quit the crap, Daniel.”
“It is therefore ordered and decreed that the said Mark shall give the said DANIEL REX, supreme ruler of this room, a huge hug.”
I stood, and waited for a response from Mark. He seemed a little confused as he sat on the side of the spare bed, looking at me with a puzzled expression. Maybe he was wondering if I’d totally lost my marbles. “And what if I don’t?”
“You can’t argue with the Supreme Ruler.”
The dude got to his feet, placed his strong hands on my shoulders, and looked into my brown eyes. “Your eyes remind me of Cody’s. His weren’t as brown as yours, more hazel, but there’s some kinda similarity, I guess. You guys were pretty close, huh?”
“Best buds.”
I felt Mark’s arms surround me. Suddenly I was wrapped in a world where nothing could harm me. A warm, friendly world. A safe world. A world that Cody would have known and loved. And then a surprise. Mark didn’t kiss me like he’d kissed Cody on the mountain, but it was a kiss nonetheless. A gentle kiss on the lips. Just a friendly peck. Then he kissed me again on the forehead as he drew me closer to his bod. After that, I nestled my face in the crook of his neck and enjoyed the euphoria of the moment.
“You’re sooooo awesome, Mark.”
“Cut the crap. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved. mrbstories
