[Torchwatch]

Part 3
Roland's trainers were in the kitchen, he'd left them just inside the kitchen door the night before, on the way there he stuffed a hand full of biscuits into his mouth, crunched them up and seeing an open bottle of milk on the table he emptied it down his throat to wash down the biscuits. Breakfast!
Luckily there was a clean pair of his white socks on the kitchen airer, Roland was able to pull them on then squeeze into his trainers and get out of the back door before either of his parents could complain.
Roland crossed the road and headed for Mr Grubber's house, there were two mountain bikes on the front lawn, both had front suspension and hard tails (no rear suspension), one of the bikes was a lot shinier and newer than the other. Each bike had water bottle in a cage and a cycle helmet with a pair of fingerless mitts inside hanging from the handlebars, Mr Grubber wearing his usual cycling apparel was holding a small back pack in each hand, he handed one to Roland saying “You can carry the lunch.”
They both quickly put on the packs, helmets and mitts, then mounted the bikes and rode off down the road.
Roland hadn't used a bike with gears before but as they rode through the village Mr Grubber explained how they worked and let him run through them one click at a time. Reaching the edge of the village they took an old underused track that started to climb into the hills surrounding the village and the farms around it. As Roland pedalled his way up the hill he realised how important the gears were as he clicked his way down through them. The hard work and fresh air was beginning to wake him up and clear his mind as he looked down on the roofs of his community. He watched Mr Grubber riding ahead of him and put in a little extra power to catch up and stay right behind him. He realised he was actually enjoying himself.
They climbed a long way, Roland lost track of time, he began to sweat, his tight speedos began to cut into him painfully, his long football shorts kept snagging on the saddle, everything had just started to feel wrong, but he kept up right behind Mr Grubber. Ahead of him Mr Grubber just kept peddling away looking as cool as ever. The track brought them into a settlement, it had been abandoned a hundred years before, they'd once mined gold or diamonds or something up here. The tin roofs of the buildings had rusted away leaving roof beams open to the sky, the windows were just empty holes in the walls.
Mr Grubber stopped, dismounted and leant his bike against one of the buildings, he took a drink from his bottle and took off his back pack. Roland followed suit glad of the rest, “Thanks for bringing me up here today,” he said “I'm sorry how it all started this morning, it's just me, well, that village it just messes me up.”
“I know,” said Mr Grubber “I've lived there for six months now and no one will talk to me, you always smiled and waved to me whenever we passed, but everyone else acted as if I wasn't there.”
They're not bad people,” said Roland “It's just that anything anyone says or does gets round the whole village and gets remembered.”
Mr Grubber took another drink from his water bottle and shared a few squares of chocolate with Roland. He said that although they were on top of the hills now the riding would be hard and very hot and that it was time for him to strip down to shorts. He then kicked off his shoes and pulled his track bottoms down and off. Under the trackies he was wearing Lycra cycle shorts with a 3” gold stripe going down the sides of the hips and legs, The shorts stopped 2” above his knees, they were skin tight and Roland could see a calm bulge at the front, he also saw the padding under the seat of the shorts and was jealous feeling the ache in his own ass from his saddle. Roland had never seen anyone wearing shorts like it and just had a gasp a little. They looked so right for riding a bike.
Mr Grubber smiled when he saw Roland staring at him “Ah !” he said “You like my shorts ?”
Roland just nodded making an incoherent sound, “I've a spare pair if you'd like to borrow them, you'll probably find them more comfortable that what you're wearing. Pop inside the building and try them on, they're best worn without underwear.” said Mr Grubber as he handed Roland a bag of folded Lycra.
Roland stepped through the doorway of the old building and opened the bag, pulling out the cycle shorts. They were shiny black with a wide red stripe down the sides, the red was just the shade of red that he'd dreamed of having speedos made from. They felt cool to the touch and he almost didn't want to spoil them by pulling them onto his sweating body. He pulled off his trainers and stepped out of his shorts, his black speedos were damp with his sweat and he had to squeeze and jiggle a bit to get them off. He took one side of the cool clean red and black cycle shorts in each hand and put first his right foot and then his left into them and pulled them up to his waist, he immediately felt the seat padding sticking to his sweating ass holding itself in position, he loved how the front gave him support with out squeezing him and how the shorts felt like a second skin. Roland put his shoes back on and stepped out back into the sunshine, looking down he loved how the red stripes ran down his hips and down the sides of his legs, this was going to be a great bike ride after all.
Outside the building Mr Grubber had been waiting for Roland to get changed, in the corner of his eye he saw Roland making strange movements through the window opening, he looked again and saw Roland trying to pull off a really tight looking pair of black speedos, he couldn't quite understand why Roland should be wearing speedos that tight under his football shorts on a bike ride. He thought for a moment and decided they should head for Pelican Bay, it was further than the route he planned but it might suit a swimmer.