I ran into a cute, newly muscular guy I know recently and let my imagination do the rest. This is a lot of un-sexual build up, so I apologize, I had to figure out where the story was going first so I tried to drum up some tension.
- - - - - -
I couldn't hear most of the cars driving by over the sound of my music. Sixth avenue was busy, taxis and trucks flying past me every second. I was probably stomping down the sidewalk to my music, but I felt pumped. I'd just finished a good workout at the Y and I felt pretty unstoppable. Every day I stop by after my internship and workout, but today I'd changed it up and hit the rock wall. Now I'll admit I don't know if I did any of it right, but the small crowd I had checking me out made it feel pretty right. I was at their bouldering wall where you climb with no harness only about 12 feet up, and at the end of a difficult route after I'd swung my right hand backwards and to the edge of the overhang I decided to be a show off and do a pull of pull ups before bringing myself over the top of it and ending up on the balcony over looking the climbing area. I was a machine on that wall, putting everyone to shame.
I'd always been athletic, but this upcoming year I was gonna be the captain of my club hockey team and I'd decided it wasn't enough to be fast, I had to be big. So I'd taken my 6'3 frame from a respectable, normal 160 to a broad, muscled 180 in the last couple months and it showed. My t-shirt was soaked with sweat and clung across my newly broad shoulder, my sudden pectorals, and were strained by my currently pumped up biceps. I was barely thinking of anything specific as I sped down the block to my apartment for the summer. I nearly did another pull up on some scaffolding I walked under, but I stopped suddenly and stepped inside a diner when I saw two people I knew, one of them being someone special.
- - - - - -
"James?" I asked suddenly watching someone enter the diner.
"What?" Tori asked looking over her shoulder to see the tall guy walking in.
"Jack?" he said coming over to the table, hugging me as I stood up. Tori got up as well, and they shared a hug, though I wasn't sure how they knew each other.
"What's up man?" he asked panting. James had clearly come from the gym, his body reeked of sweat and his shirt clung to a large... new frame.
"I came into the city today to catch up with Tori, what are you doing here?"
"I have an internship and I'm living around the corner."
"Oh, that's funny," Tori said, "I live up the block. I haven't seen you around."
"Really?" James said, "that's weird. I was just up at the Y working out. I go there most days."
"Oh okay, cool," she said. "How do you two know each other?"
James and I shared a grin. "We lived in the same building freshman year," I said.
"Oh cool."
"Tori and I had to do a lot of bitch work on some Greek parties last fall," James added, explaining their own relationship.
"Yeah, we were in charge of a lot of drunk people and collecting money at the door."
He and Tori laughed. James added, "You should've seen it this spring. Even more fun. Where were you studying abroad again?"
"We were in Sweden," I said. "That's where we met."
"Oh cool," James said nodding. "Okay, well I'll let you guys get back to your meal, I'll see you up at school in a couple weeks I guess."
"Hold on, we'll pay and walk out with you," Tori said putting down money and grabbing her bag.
The three of us walked out together trying to sum up our summers and catch up on people. When we got to the corner outside Tori crossed the street and headed to her building. Under the streetlight I noticed James. We'd always been very close in height. He was always an inch taller, but we were similarly tall and thin. Now I was the only thin one though. James was thick. His back muscles were prominent through his red t-shirt, the heaving of his chest now noticeable. If I'd had my eye on James before it would be hard to take them off of him now.
- - - - - -
"You went to Sweden with her?" I asked as we walked down the street. I figured Jack would come back to my place now, since Tori left you.
"Yeah, she's nice," he answered.
"Really?" I asked, "I always thought she was kind of a bitch. She never liked being in her sorority."
"Honestly, she never talks about it, so that would make sense."
"She's alright though, had a boyfriend early last fall and then they broke up. A hockey guy."
"Oh yeah, you might've mentioned her," he said condescendingly. After they broke up last fall I'd taken up a lot of Jack's time asking whether or not it would be okay to hook up with her. I wasn't really friends with her ex Danny, but I thought that might not be a very gentleman like thing to do. Jack had tried to steer me away from her, but eventually we hooked up a few times.
"I was surprised she was so nice to me in there," I said laughing. "It didn't end well before she left."
"I remember the words 'big dick bag fuck face' being how she described her last boyfriend. I wasn't sure if that was you or Dan."
"Woah, woah," I defended. "We might've been together a few times, but she was never my girlfriend. She didn't even like me that much."
As we got to my building I stopped and turned to Jack. Jack was decidedly the oddest of all my friends. It wasn't that he was weird, but that in the sea of jocks, meat heads, and idiots I knew Jack was smart, funny, unathletic, and surprisingly thoughtful. We'd shared a lot of chemistry at the end of last semester, and I caught an odd feeling between us as I said, "Wanna come up?"
There was the briefest pause. He might've been thinking of train times out of the city, whether or not it was going to rain soon, if he had other plans later, but I got nervous very suddenly and wondered if he even wanted to hang out with me at all. I was the odd one among his friends, truth be told.
We took the elevator up together, my brain still whirring with unsourced anxiety. This was a friendship, but it'd been 6 months since we'd last seen each other, so maybe I was a dumb jock now. I certainly looked it.
- - - - -
James and I stepped into his small apartment. In reality it was his sister's, but she was living with her fiancé at his place until her lease was up, so she let James take it over for the summer. It was small, but nice. It was a kitchen/dining room/living room combo when you walked in and off to the right were doors to the bedroom and bathroom I assumed. I was impressed by the formal dining table next to the entryway, the granite countertop island that overlooked the back of the couch, the flatscreen TV on the wall.
"Your sister has nice taste," I said.
"She's a freak about her stuff though, and moved half of it out so I wouldn't ruin it," he said going over to the kitchen. I sat on the end of the dining room table, watching him.
"Throw any ragers?" I asked.
"No," he said pulling out a large jug of protein powder and milk. "I don't have a lot of friends this summer."
He mixed in some scoops and shook up the drink in one of those special, douchey bottles with a little spring at the bottom. Before I could ask about his lack of friends he opened the door to the bedroom, pulled his shirt off over his head, the large, rippling muscles of his back flaring as he did it.
"Is that why you've been hitting the gym so much Pop-Eye?" I asked meanly. James and I had a friendship based off of antagonism. I was the only person James knew who wasn't just into pussy and getting big. Though I was worried maybe he'd converted since last year. His body was swollen and managed with care. Big arms, shoulder, chest, everything. It was difficult to humor the idea of an unfriendly James when suddenly he was so visually appetizing. I was trying to will myself to not gawk at his new frame.
"Part of the reason," he said chugging back his protein shake. "Also I'm captain this year, and it doesn't look very good if the captain is a string bean."
"So me, essentially?" I joked. James and I may have both been tall and thin, but he was a normal weight, and I was pushing 145 on a good time. Not a lot of bones sticking out, rock climbing put a little meat on them, but I wouldn't do well in hockey.
James assessed my size. "Pretty much."
"I can tell you didn't gain any weight abroad," he added.
"Not that I can tell," I said. "I've been rock climbing though. Doesn't that make me look big?"
James smiled as he drank the end of the shake. "Maybe if you drank a couple of these afterwards. I was actually at my wall today trying some of that bouldering stuff."
"James? Bouldering? What?" I said remembering James's very belittling remarks about rock climbing. If girls could do it as well as guys James didn't see the point.
"It was okay," he said. "I showed off at the end. Did a punch of pull ups at the top of the wall for some guys."
"Very classy."
"I don't get these guys though," he started, leaning against the counter. His abs were coming in nicely too I noticed. He was blond, but had no chest hair as far as I could tell. "They're all like 5 inches shorter than me, and can tear up the wall twice as fast."
"I mean, if they're really legit they're probably ripped too," I said. "And they know that squats are key in rock climbing, not bench pressing."
"What?" James said putting away the jug of protein powder and washing out his bottle.
"When real rock climber climb they use their legs a lot more than their arms to push them up, and when you're at the angles these dudes are at it's not just calves it's hamstrings and glutes. Check 'em out next time, they'll have a lot of cake in the trunk."
James considered this a second. I could see he was imagining himself climbing, and all the stepping up you can do rather than pulling up. He opened his mouth for a second before saying anything, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense, but then I'm still set. I've always had plenty of cake."
James wiggled an eyebrow and looked down at the back of his shorts. James had always had nearly a comically large ass from hockey. Like he couldn't put anything in my back pockets because they were so strained. His ass nearly came out like a shelf in tight jeans. The few times I'd seen him in his boxers it'd been startling how prominent it was. All that hockey working wonders on his ass. My staring was momentarily appropriate, but I got a little lost in admiring it and when he walked into the room I realized it might've gotten weird.
- - - - -
Jack followed me into the bedroom and sat on my bed. There was a door to the bathroom from the bedroom and I stepped in, turning on the shower as he sat down amongst my clothes. The bed was completely unmade to begin with and I'd been tossing dirty work out clothes at the foot of it for a while.
"Nice pile," he said noticing it.
"There's laundry in the building, but I'm too lazy to get to it," I admitted. I leaned against the door frame, waiting for the hot water to make it up to the 6th floor.
"So," Jack asked, "why do you have no friends?"
"Oh, well, mostly because everyone I know is a jerk off living in Martha's vineyard this summer doing nothing."
"I mean, they're probably tanning at least."
I ignored him. "Only Brad is down in the city, but he's always tied up, and honestly-" I paused.
"Yeah?"
"Brad's just... boring. Like he's really only into playing FIFA or going to a bar, and there's only so many times I can do that before I wanna kill myself. Sometimes I go out with people from work, but it's weirdly been my sister's friends who've hung out with me the most."
"Poor James," I said pouting at him. "All awone in the big city, with no fwiends."
"Shut up," I said smiling. No one I knew was charming, and Jack was singularly charming. He was warm and open, knew how to be playfully a dick with me when I was being particularly fratty, and he was just a good dude. I felt that certain self consciousness wash over me again.
"So, had any lady friends stopping by? And regular slam pieces?" he asked.
I laughed. "Nada this summer, bro."
"None? Not one?" he asked a little surprised.
"Nope."
"What about um, uh, Casey, the girl after Tori?"
"She went abroad this summer."
"Oh - but what about last semester? I know you must've stumbled on top of someone."
"A couple girls in Tori' sorority actually, but none that live in the city."
"So you've been..." he trailed off quietly.
"Watching a lot of porn." I finished.
Jack laughed and said, "your poor parents VISA bill. I mean I know how voracious your sexual appetite is. You must have blisters on your hands by now."
"What? No, I'm not like obsessive over it, I was kidding."
"James, come on, it's me."
"I swear it's not-"
"You need a lot of sex! It's nothing to be ashamed of!" he pushed.
"I wouldn't say a lot, like, the regular amount of sex, like since when is that-"
"You are a monstrous, hungry beast Jamesy boy," Jack said coming up and grabbing me by the shoulders. I was so much bigger than him now, but we were still practically eye to eye. "Be at peace with that."
"I need a good lay every like 2 weeks. I'm not an addict or anything," I declared.
"And you've gone like 12 weeks, so you're practically ready to bend me over, right, tiger?"
I rolled me eyes. Jack had a very natural, easy ability to get hyped up and dramatic. It wasn't as unnerving as him easy charisma. I shrugged him off with with my broad shoulders and went into the bathroom, where I stripped down and admired my new body.
- - - - - -
I couldn't hear most of the cars driving by over the sound of my music. Sixth avenue was busy, taxis and trucks flying past me every second. I was probably stomping down the sidewalk to my music, but I felt pumped. I'd just finished a good workout at the Y and I felt pretty unstoppable. Every day I stop by after my internship and workout, but today I'd changed it up and hit the rock wall. Now I'll admit I don't know if I did any of it right, but the small crowd I had checking me out made it feel pretty right. I was at their bouldering wall where you climb with no harness only about 12 feet up, and at the end of a difficult route after I'd swung my right hand backwards and to the edge of the overhang I decided to be a show off and do a pull of pull ups before bringing myself over the top of it and ending up on the balcony over looking the climbing area. I was a machine on that wall, putting everyone to shame.
I'd always been athletic, but this upcoming year I was gonna be the captain of my club hockey team and I'd decided it wasn't enough to be fast, I had to be big. So I'd taken my 6'3 frame from a respectable, normal 160 to a broad, muscled 180 in the last couple months and it showed. My t-shirt was soaked with sweat and clung across my newly broad shoulder, my sudden pectorals, and were strained by my currently pumped up biceps. I was barely thinking of anything specific as I sped down the block to my apartment for the summer. I nearly did another pull up on some scaffolding I walked under, but I stopped suddenly and stepped inside a diner when I saw two people I knew, one of them being someone special.
- - - - - -
"James?" I asked suddenly watching someone enter the diner.
"What?" Tori asked looking over her shoulder to see the tall guy walking in.
"Jack?" he said coming over to the table, hugging me as I stood up. Tori got up as well, and they shared a hug, though I wasn't sure how they knew each other.
"What's up man?" he asked panting. James had clearly come from the gym, his body reeked of sweat and his shirt clung to a large... new frame.
"I came into the city today to catch up with Tori, what are you doing here?"
"I have an internship and I'm living around the corner."
"Oh, that's funny," Tori said, "I live up the block. I haven't seen you around."
"Really?" James said, "that's weird. I was just up at the Y working out. I go there most days."
"Oh okay, cool," she said. "How do you two know each other?"
James and I shared a grin. "We lived in the same building freshman year," I said.
"Oh cool."
"Tori and I had to do a lot of bitch work on some Greek parties last fall," James added, explaining their own relationship.
"Yeah, we were in charge of a lot of drunk people and collecting money at the door."
He and Tori laughed. James added, "You should've seen it this spring. Even more fun. Where were you studying abroad again?"
"We were in Sweden," I said. "That's where we met."
"Oh cool," James said nodding. "Okay, well I'll let you guys get back to your meal, I'll see you up at school in a couple weeks I guess."
"Hold on, we'll pay and walk out with you," Tori said putting down money and grabbing her bag.
The three of us walked out together trying to sum up our summers and catch up on people. When we got to the corner outside Tori crossed the street and headed to her building. Under the streetlight I noticed James. We'd always been very close in height. He was always an inch taller, but we were similarly tall and thin. Now I was the only thin one though. James was thick. His back muscles were prominent through his red t-shirt, the heaving of his chest now noticeable. If I'd had my eye on James before it would be hard to take them off of him now.
- - - - - -
"You went to Sweden with her?" I asked as we walked down the street. I figured Jack would come back to my place now, since Tori left you.
"Yeah, she's nice," he answered.
"Really?" I asked, "I always thought she was kind of a bitch. She never liked being in her sorority."
"Honestly, she never talks about it, so that would make sense."
"She's alright though, had a boyfriend early last fall and then they broke up. A hockey guy."
"Oh yeah, you might've mentioned her," he said condescendingly. After they broke up last fall I'd taken up a lot of Jack's time asking whether or not it would be okay to hook up with her. I wasn't really friends with her ex Danny, but I thought that might not be a very gentleman like thing to do. Jack had tried to steer me away from her, but eventually we hooked up a few times.
"I was surprised she was so nice to me in there," I said laughing. "It didn't end well before she left."
"I remember the words 'big dick bag fuck face' being how she described her last boyfriend. I wasn't sure if that was you or Dan."
"Woah, woah," I defended. "We might've been together a few times, but she was never my girlfriend. She didn't even like me that much."
As we got to my building I stopped and turned to Jack. Jack was decidedly the oddest of all my friends. It wasn't that he was weird, but that in the sea of jocks, meat heads, and idiots I knew Jack was smart, funny, unathletic, and surprisingly thoughtful. We'd shared a lot of chemistry at the end of last semester, and I caught an odd feeling between us as I said, "Wanna come up?"
There was the briefest pause. He might've been thinking of train times out of the city, whether or not it was going to rain soon, if he had other plans later, but I got nervous very suddenly and wondered if he even wanted to hang out with me at all. I was the odd one among his friends, truth be told.
We took the elevator up together, my brain still whirring with unsourced anxiety. This was a friendship, but it'd been 6 months since we'd last seen each other, so maybe I was a dumb jock now. I certainly looked it.
- - - - -
James and I stepped into his small apartment. In reality it was his sister's, but she was living with her fiancé at his place until her lease was up, so she let James take it over for the summer. It was small, but nice. It was a kitchen/dining room/living room combo when you walked in and off to the right were doors to the bedroom and bathroom I assumed. I was impressed by the formal dining table next to the entryway, the granite countertop island that overlooked the back of the couch, the flatscreen TV on the wall.
"Your sister has nice taste," I said.
"She's a freak about her stuff though, and moved half of it out so I wouldn't ruin it," he said going over to the kitchen. I sat on the end of the dining room table, watching him.
"Throw any ragers?" I asked.
"No," he said pulling out a large jug of protein powder and milk. "I don't have a lot of friends this summer."
He mixed in some scoops and shook up the drink in one of those special, douchey bottles with a little spring at the bottom. Before I could ask about his lack of friends he opened the door to the bedroom, pulled his shirt off over his head, the large, rippling muscles of his back flaring as he did it.
"Is that why you've been hitting the gym so much Pop-Eye?" I asked meanly. James and I had a friendship based off of antagonism. I was the only person James knew who wasn't just into pussy and getting big. Though I was worried maybe he'd converted since last year. His body was swollen and managed with care. Big arms, shoulder, chest, everything. It was difficult to humor the idea of an unfriendly James when suddenly he was so visually appetizing. I was trying to will myself to not gawk at his new frame.
"Part of the reason," he said chugging back his protein shake. "Also I'm captain this year, and it doesn't look very good if the captain is a string bean."
"So me, essentially?" I joked. James and I may have both been tall and thin, but he was a normal weight, and I was pushing 145 on a good time. Not a lot of bones sticking out, rock climbing put a little meat on them, but I wouldn't do well in hockey.
James assessed my size. "Pretty much."
"I can tell you didn't gain any weight abroad," he added.
"Not that I can tell," I said. "I've been rock climbing though. Doesn't that make me look big?"
James smiled as he drank the end of the shake. "Maybe if you drank a couple of these afterwards. I was actually at my wall today trying some of that bouldering stuff."
"James? Bouldering? What?" I said remembering James's very belittling remarks about rock climbing. If girls could do it as well as guys James didn't see the point.
"It was okay," he said. "I showed off at the end. Did a punch of pull ups at the top of the wall for some guys."
"Very classy."
"I don't get these guys though," he started, leaning against the counter. His abs were coming in nicely too I noticed. He was blond, but had no chest hair as far as I could tell. "They're all like 5 inches shorter than me, and can tear up the wall twice as fast."
"I mean, if they're really legit they're probably ripped too," I said. "And they know that squats are key in rock climbing, not bench pressing."
"What?" James said putting away the jug of protein powder and washing out his bottle.
"When real rock climber climb they use their legs a lot more than their arms to push them up, and when you're at the angles these dudes are at it's not just calves it's hamstrings and glutes. Check 'em out next time, they'll have a lot of cake in the trunk."
James considered this a second. I could see he was imagining himself climbing, and all the stepping up you can do rather than pulling up. He opened his mouth for a second before saying anything, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense, but then I'm still set. I've always had plenty of cake."
James wiggled an eyebrow and looked down at the back of his shorts. James had always had nearly a comically large ass from hockey. Like he couldn't put anything in my back pockets because they were so strained. His ass nearly came out like a shelf in tight jeans. The few times I'd seen him in his boxers it'd been startling how prominent it was. All that hockey working wonders on his ass. My staring was momentarily appropriate, but I got a little lost in admiring it and when he walked into the room I realized it might've gotten weird.
- - - - -
Jack followed me into the bedroom and sat on my bed. There was a door to the bathroom from the bedroom and I stepped in, turning on the shower as he sat down amongst my clothes. The bed was completely unmade to begin with and I'd been tossing dirty work out clothes at the foot of it for a while.
"Nice pile," he said noticing it.
"There's laundry in the building, but I'm too lazy to get to it," I admitted. I leaned against the door frame, waiting for the hot water to make it up to the 6th floor.
"So," Jack asked, "why do you have no friends?"
"Oh, well, mostly because everyone I know is a jerk off living in Martha's vineyard this summer doing nothing."
"I mean, they're probably tanning at least."
I ignored him. "Only Brad is down in the city, but he's always tied up, and honestly-" I paused.
"Yeah?"
"Brad's just... boring. Like he's really only into playing FIFA or going to a bar, and there's only so many times I can do that before I wanna kill myself. Sometimes I go out with people from work, but it's weirdly been my sister's friends who've hung out with me the most."
"Poor James," I said pouting at him. "All awone in the big city, with no fwiends."
"Shut up," I said smiling. No one I knew was charming, and Jack was singularly charming. He was warm and open, knew how to be playfully a dick with me when I was being particularly fratty, and he was just a good dude. I felt that certain self consciousness wash over me again.
"So, had any lady friends stopping by? And regular slam pieces?" he asked.
I laughed. "Nada this summer, bro."
"None? Not one?" he asked a little surprised.
"Nope."
"What about um, uh, Casey, the girl after Tori?"
"She went abroad this summer."
"Oh - but what about last semester? I know you must've stumbled on top of someone."
"A couple girls in Tori' sorority actually, but none that live in the city."
"So you've been..." he trailed off quietly.
"Watching a lot of porn." I finished.
Jack laughed and said, "your poor parents VISA bill. I mean I know how voracious your sexual appetite is. You must have blisters on your hands by now."
"What? No, I'm not like obsessive over it, I was kidding."
"James, come on, it's me."
"I swear it's not-"
"You need a lot of sex! It's nothing to be ashamed of!" he pushed.
"I wouldn't say a lot, like, the regular amount of sex, like since when is that-"
"You are a monstrous, hungry beast Jamesy boy," Jack said coming up and grabbing me by the shoulders. I was so much bigger than him now, but we were still practically eye to eye. "Be at peace with that."
"I need a good lay every like 2 weeks. I'm not an addict or anything," I declared.
"And you've gone like 12 weeks, so you're practically ready to bend me over, right, tiger?"
I rolled me eyes. Jack had a very natural, easy ability to get hyped up and dramatic. It wasn't as unnerving as him easy charisma. I shrugged him off with with my broad shoulders and went into the bathroom, where I stripped down and admired my new body.