[SwimTeamSpeedo]

“F--k man, I slept like crap” I said to Zach the next morning as we woke at 4:15 am for early swim practice.

“Dude, I am sorry I acted like a girl last night,” Zach replied. “That was f--ked up.” Zach looked apologetic standing there in just his boxer briefs, hair all rumpled up from sleep. I could tell he was really embarrassed about his episode of sadness.

“Seriously, Zach, it is really cool. I am glad you told me what you were feeling. I was really worried about you.” I replied as I wrestled myself from the warmth of bed. I stood up, wearing an old Speedo suit that had seen better days.

“Thanks man,” Zach replied and patted my shoulder. “Cute suit,” he added.

“I wore it just for you,” I said back. The material was well worn and stretched out, which was great for sleeping.

“I was thinking, we need a whole new look.” Zach said, changing the subject. “All of us seniors should wear out own distinct suits to practice. I think it would be really cool.”

“Awesome!” I replied. “Maybe even coach will let us buy our own competition suits, too. That would be hot!”

“Plus you get to buy more suits,” Zach smiled as he said it. “I know you will love that.”

“You know me…” I replied. “But really, these suits have got to be kick ass just like us.”

Zach grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist and went off to the bathroom to get ready. While he was there, I pulled out my tub of suits. I smiled at how big my collection had grown. I knew I had a couple of duplicates in there. Sometimes if I saw a really awesome suit, I would buy two or three of them. Since it was an Olympics year, I had been on a buying binge of the red white and blue stuff that showed up every four years. I pulled out two Tyr red, white and blue patriotic suits. Since Zach and I were the same size, it was cool that he could wear any of my suits.

“Dude, check these out,” I said to Zach excitedly when he returned, holding up one of the briefs. “I got two, we could start today.”

“That is awesome!” Zach said back. He took the extra suit off my bed and immediately slipped it on. He looked stunning, like a real Olympic swimmer. He checked himself out and tied the strings. “These suits are wicked!” he added, sounding like a Maine grown guy. Wicked in our world translates to anything really cool. It is a high compliment.

I almost went rock hard seeing Zach in the suit. I slipped mine on and modeled it for Zach. “That looks really sweet,” Zach offered. I could feel myself get sort of firm and the bulge was really showing itself. I think we both felt like real Olympic swimmers. “I’ll start calling you Aaron,” Zach added, referring to USA swimmer Aaron Perisol. Truthfully, I looked nothing like him, but Zach knew he was one of my favorite swimmers.

“So, are we going to do this?” I asked. “You in?”

“For sure,” Zach replied. “Get your stuff, we got to go.”

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“You remember our first Speedo?” Zach asked as we walked across campus. The air was crisp, and it was still dark. Other than a few students heading to the gym to work out, the campus was always real quiet at this time.

“For sure,” I replied. “It was solid Navy blue with some white stripes on the side. We thought we were so cool in those.”

“Yeah, we did” Zach laughed. “Remember the weekend you stayed over. We never took them off. All weekend.”

“Yeah, we even went to McDonalds wearing them. I remember that.”

“Remember my mom saying ‘If you boys are going to run around in swimsuits, you at least have to wear a shirt.’ ” Zach added.

“I also remember she made us take them off so she could wash them Saturday night and someone got all upset about it.” I added.

“Oh crap, that is so funny. I forgot that part,” Zach replied. We both laughed.

“We were some cool dudes,” I added.

“Remember coming out to my house the next weekend and we went with my dad on the tractor?” I asked as we continued our memory lane trip.

“Oh man, yeah. Same suits all weekend. Your dad was so funny,”

“Farm boys don’t wear swimsuits on tractors,” I replied mocking my father’s comments.

“Oh Robert, shut up. They’re just being boys,” Zach replied mimicking my mom. Zach then recalled how my mom gave us each a bar of soap and said you boys go wash off in the lake, and “take those suits off and really soap them up.”

I laughed at the thought of it.

“There we were, skinny dipping and washing out our suits. I think that was my first time skinny dipping.” Zach added.

_________________________________________

“Wow, cool suits,” Scott said in the locker room as we got ready. “And it is cute that you two match,” he added.

“Senior look,” I replied. I then explained our idea to Scott, who was two years behind us.

“But I want a suit like that,” Scott said.

“As long as you don’t wear it here,” I answered.

“Well,” Zach replied, “we got to see if the other seniors agree. And we should do this for both teams.” he added, referring to the women’s team.

“Don’t forget the dive team,” Scott chimed in. “I think it would be a cool new tradition. Seniors get special suits.”

As the other senior swimmer showed, we all got consensus about the idea, but agreed we should get suits that are more our team colors. We agreed to talk to coach after practice and check with the divers and women’s team. Even though he was not in the conversation, Scott smiled at our suit decision on school colors. He really liked the suits Zach and I had on and wanted one for himself. Truth is, the one Zach was wearing I actually had bought to give Scott.

“But I am keeping this one,” Zach said to me as we headed into the pool. “Maybe we can go ride the tractor this Summer in them,” He teased.

“I sure plan to…” I replied back with a sly grin. I was actually serious.

With that we jumped into our lane and began our warm up laps. We were early, so the lane was not full yet. Our early start meant a nice rest before we got into the heavy part of practice. It was speed drills today, which meant it was going to suck! I followed Zach, catching his push offs as he did each flip. He looked amazingly handsome under water in his Olympic suit.


To be continued....