[SwimTeamSpeedo]

“Good morning ladies,” Coach opened the practice with. “That sure was fun, the letters and all. Looks like a few of you liked them so much you still have them on your chests. Well, that’s cool. You do realize it about cost us the meet. “

“Sorry coach,” came the reply from one of the guys. “Guess we weren’t thinking.”

“Yeah, I think that sums it up.” Coach answered. He then just stared at the line up of swimsuit clad guys standing before him. He almost broke a smile at how intimidated they looked. In his heart he knew they were just having fun and secretly coach actually laughed at the whole thing. It was really a great team building.

“Well, gents, play as a team and now you pay, as a team. Better tie those drawstrings tight, because I am going to make you work so hard your swimsuits might fall off your skinny bodies when we are done. It’s coach’s pay day!” He paused. Jimmy gulped. Bryan about pee’d right there. “Get in the pool and let’s start with a 500, but I want the last 100 done fly! Go, go go!”

“This sucks,” one of the voices was heard. Coach smiled.

By the time the 90 minutes was done, three of the guys were so beat they couldn’t even hoist themselves from the pool. “At least the chlorine faded some of those letters,” coach called out. IN the locker room the guys all sat on the bench and talked. They were tired. They had 45 minutes until the start of school.

“Dude’s, what you say we get dressed and hit Mickey D’s for breakfast. I sure could use it,” Ryan, one of the seniors called out.

“Great idea,” Ben replied. The rest of the guys agreed. They all rushed to get dressed, tossing their wet swimsuits into their bags and quickly slipping into jeans, shorts or whatever they were wearing. The cackle of guys, a walking cloud of chlorine aroma, headed out the door. The McDonald’s was a short walk away. Life was coming back to the team. Hot cakes and egg McMuffins had that impact on adolescent males.

Nick and Jimmy walked together towards the back of the group. It was great day, warm and sunny. The last thing they both wanted to do was go to school, better day to hang at the beach or pool. “I am beat, coach kicked our butts,” Jimmy said almost whining.

“Yeah, that was really hard.,” Nick replied. “I think he was really mad, despite what Bryan said in the car.”

“Yeah, note to self to never mess with coach,” Jimmy answered.

“You got that right, Jimmy,” came back Nick. “your text was funny, the one with you in the Speedo. I laughed my butt off.”

“Cool, dude. After I sent it I kind of felt stupid.” Jimmy responded. “Like it was probably weird, me sending a pic to you like that,”

“Nah, it was cute.” Nick replied. Jimmy was relieved.

“So, you think coach is going to kill us again after class?” Jimmy changed the subject.

“I think so,” Nick replied.

“You can count on it,” chimed in Bryan, who joined the tail end of the conversation.

___________________


“So, what’s up?” Nick asked Jimmy as the two sat along at the far end of the lunch room. It was taco day, which was actually pretty good. “I know you said after practice, but maybe we can talk now?” Nick added. Nick was wearing jeans, skinny leg style that fit kind of tight. Jimmy noticed that, especially the way the jeans made clear that Nick was a guy, a well rounded bulge pushing out the button fly. Jimmy had on really handsome khaki shorts, almost to his knees per school regulations. Underneath he was wearing a team swimsuit, having failed to pack his usual underwear. Maybe he just conveniently forgot.

“I don’t know, Nick. I feel kind of weird.” Jimmy replied, not making direct eye contact.

“Bud, we can talk about anything. You know that. Is it about the guy at the swim meet?” Nick replied. He reached over and touched Jimmy’s hand, which was resting on the table.

“Well, yeah, kinda,” Jimmy replied. “But it is more than that, it is kind of hard,”

“Spill it, trust me I can handle it.” Nick replied.

“Well, I think I um, you know…,” Jimmy paused. He was shaking. His eyes started to water but he was not going to let himself cry. Nick kept his eyes on Jimmy’s face. “well, I um, kinda like guys, I think. I mean not just like, I mean really like, as in like to look at them and stuff.” Jimmy slumped back as if he had just let the weight of the world out.

The two guys sat silent, eye contact. Both were looking deep at each other. Jimmy waited for the reply, Nick tried to muster one. As much as Nick knew where this was going to go, once it happened, he still felt caught off guard.

“Wow, Jimmy, that took a lot of courage,” came Nick’s reply, finally. Jimmy rubbed his swimsuit through the hand in his pocket. He felt his stomach in a knot, a lump in his throat. Had he just screwed it all up? What was Nick going to say next? Jimmy waited was not ready for what came next....