[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Erik’s weekly visit to the Cranmore’s lawn came around again. He was wearing a green pair of Frank Shorter brand nylon running shorts over the black and gold swimsuit. It was a hot day, full sun. His shorts were soaked in sweat from the previous lawns. He was so looking forward to jumping in the pool. As he pulled in he saw Mrs. C’s Ford Pinto wagon in the driveway. He unloaded the lawnmower, toweled the sweat off his chest and grabbed the gas can. As he filled the mower with gas he heard Mrs. C open the front door.

“Erik, sweetie, it is way too hot to work,” she said as she walked out.

“I know Mrs. C.,” Erik replied. “I will sure need to jump in that pool today. How was Maine?”

“Way more pleasant than here,” she replied. “We were thinking we should take Dylan and you back up there this year…… that is if you want.”

“We’d love that.” Erik replied excitedly. “It is so cool up there.”

“Let me get you some lemonade before you start,” she replied as she rushed back to the house.

“I wish all my customers were as nice as her,” Erik thought.

Filled on lemonade and cookies, Erik spent the next couple hours mowing the grass and trimming. He finished up, saturated in fresh sweat. Mrs. C. was sitting on the back porch reading a book in the shade.

“Mind if I hose off and jump in,” Erik asked politely.

“Of course you can, sweetie.” Mrs. C. replied. “You don’t need to ask.”

Erik grabbed the hose and soaked himself with water. He stripped out of the shorts, leaving them poolside and jumped in. He swam a round for a bit, then came up to the wall. The cool water felt so awesome.

“I always save this as my last lawn of the day,” Erik said to Mrs. C.

“I see you wore a swimsuit, too.” She replied. “Good idea.”

Erik climbed out of the pool. While he was swimming she had put a towel on the chair next to the pool. Erik grabbed the towel and dried off. “Thanks,” he said. She smiled back at him

“Any time, Erik. I like your swimsuit. Is it new?” Mrs. C replied “You and your brother are such handsome young men.”

“Thanks, yeah I got this swimsuit last week.” Erik replied.

“You will catch the girls’ attention that is for sure.” She replied. “Sit, have some lemonade and let me get more cookies.”

Erik and she had a nice conversation about school, college coming up, and girls. Erik said he was not much into girls yet, which she assured him would change when the right one came along.

“Maybe,” Erik replied.

Once he was all dry and the lemonade gone, he grabbed his shorts. Mrs. C. gave him a big hug. “Come by anytime,” she offered. “Bring a friend or Dylan. I like it when you boys are over.” Erik never put the shorts back on. He tossed them over the passenger seat and got in. He headed over to see if Ben was home. He rubbed himself as he drove. The excitement of some time with Ben was already making Erik’s body respond.


“You got my suit on,” teased Ben when he saw Erik.

“Yeah, wore it just for you,” Erik replied with a coy smile.

“Seriously, we need to go swimsuit shopping,” Ben replied as he grabbed Erik and gave him a hug. Ben was in jeans with no shirt on. Ben pushed in close so the front of his jeans rubbed against Erik. “But first, I want to enjoy this.”

The two held themselves together for quite a while. They had not kissed yet, but it was certainly getting close. Ben felt himself starting to fill out the jeans, and he could feel Erik was doing the same in the swimsuit. Ben looked amazing in jeans, with his tight abs, thin waist and broad, muscular shoulders. His jeans fit him well, not overly tight, but enough to show a nice bump in front, which right now was more like he had a grapefruit stuck in them. Finally, they broke away from their grasp.

“We can do this later,” Ben said. “Right now we got shopping to do.”

“Hey, you got some shorts I can wear,” Erik asked. “I only have the ones I worked in, and they are all soaked with sweat.”

“Sure dude,” Ben replied. He tossed Erik a pair of Op shorts. They were aqua blue in color, wide corduroy, with about a two inch inseam, if that. They were the rage back in the day. Erik slipped them on over his suit. The short inseam showed off his legs and the color brought out the blue in Erik’s eyes.

“You got a shirt,” Erik asked.

“Man, do I need to dress you all up?” Ben replied as he tossed him a yellow pullover.

“You can if you want,” Erik stood there with a come get me look on his face. “Not sure we’d stay dressed, though.”

“Come on, sex machine,” Ben teased him, as they headed out the door. Ben patted Erik’s butt as they went down the steps. They were a contrast of fashion, Erik in the tight and short Op shorts and Ben in his Levi 501 button fly jeans and purple polo shirt.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The landed on a small sporting goods store that Ben had found in the yellow pages. It said it specialized in swimming and water polo and carried “competitive swimwear for men and ladies.” The ad also said “Swim Team Outfitter.” They were sure this was the right choice. They found street parking right out front as the store was on a busy downtown street. As quick as they jumped out, they knew they had made a perfect pick, as a display in the window showed a whole array of men’s swimsuits and a nice collection of ladies.

“High five, dude” Erik said as they walked to the door. They met each other’s palms high in the air. They stopped and looked in the window. They both eyed a red white and blue stars and stripes suit. It was part of the Mark Spitz collection. “Gotta have that one,” Erik affirmed as they exchanged another set of high fives.

A little buzzer rang as they entered, triggered by the door mat. An older guy, thin and fit as ever popped out of the back room. The shop was small, probably not bigger than a couple hundred square feet. Posters going back to the 60’s hung on the wall with pictures of every great swimmer of the day. Greg Louganis was prominently on display, the hottest diver to hit US diving in quite some time. He was all the rage at the recent Olympic Games. The mark Spitz legend was also alive and well, as was the famous poster of him in the very stars and stripes suit the guys had just seen.

“What are you men looking for?” asked the very polite shop owner.

“We want to look at swimsuits.” Ben replied affirmatively.

He led them to a whole wall of guys stuff. It was sorted first by size, then by brand and finally by style. A table of clearance swimsuits was also set up; those suits were just $6. The new styles were $9. Erik had $30 to burn. Ben had $35 in his jeans pocket.

“Dude, this one is really cool,” Ben showed a solid white lycra blend Speedo to Eric. It had a half in wide red and a half in wide yellow stripe that ran along the top, all the way around it.

“That has been really popular with the guys this year,” the owner offered. “Just beware that once it starts to wear that white can get pretty showing,” he added. Exactly what the guys needed to hear.

There were not fitting rooms, so they both relied on the sizes they had worn before. They ended up with a stars and stripes suit each, the white Speedo suits, and they grabbed matching Arena suits off the clearance table. Ben also grabbed a cool lycra print made by Speedo. In a flash, Erik’s collection had grown to six, Ben was at four. They wanted to buy more, but they ran out of money. The owner even gave them a swim team discount.

“I can’t wait to try these on,” Ben said excitedly as they left the store. He was already pulling them out of the bag. The suits were packed in little boxes. He pulled them each out of the boxes as they walked to the car. “I really like this one,” he said holding up the stars and stripes print.

“Me too,” Erik replied.

“Have you ever thought about trying swimming?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, but I really suck at it,” Erik replied.

“Yes, but you’d be cute trying,” Ben answered. “I’d save you”

They raced back to Ben’s house, intent on trying on the new goods and showing each other how they looked.


To be continued....