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Chapter 18: The Dells

About a week after he left Ben in Seattle, John was slowly trying to adjust to summer back home in Wisconsin alone. He was helping his brother Joel with his pressure washing business to keep himself busy, and after a hard Friday’s work his family sat together at the dinner table to discuss their week.

“So Johnny, is a week’s worth of a blue-collar job enough for the engineer yet?” John’s mom asked.

John’s brother Joel, laughed with some macaroni salad still in his mouth. Joel was a bit more heavy-set than John, just like their mom. He sported a full-face beard with darker hair than his younger brother and didn’t have John’s boyish good looks. Joel still worked out at the gym to keep in shape and John had been joining him at night after work. Unlike John, Joel had only gone to community college for a Facilities Maintenance diploma and started his one-man operation after that. John was still very much the favorite son, even after he had left for Mines and both brothers knew it.

“Nah,” Joel finished chewing. “John is the perfect business partner, he taught me how to give estimates properly, and all that Calculus or whatever turned out to be useful!“

John’s mom beamed, she was immensely proud of John but was disappointed John and Allison broke up and John never told them about anyone new. “How come you never asked anyone out at school after Allison yet Johnny? I thought the girls would be all over you when you were single!”

John rolled his eyes and facepalmed on the table. “Moommmm….” He moaned.

John’s dad interrupted them. “Don’t be so hard on him Joan, you knew when he went to an engineering school the boys would outnumber the girls 2:1.” John’s dad wiped off some dressing that had gotten onto his firefighter station t-shirt.

Joan scoffed. “That’s hardly an excuse Peter! He’s good-looking, he’s smart, he’s in shape, he’s got a car, what more could a girl want!”

John couldn’t hold it in any longer, he knew it was now or never. “Guys!” John shouted. “I want to talk about something more serious!”

Joel and Peter both put down their forks and looked at John. Joan as always couldn’t keep her mouth shut and asked him with an oblivious look on her face. “What is it, Johnny? You can tell us anything.”

John took a deep breath. “I don’t have a girlfriend at school because there’s something else. I’ve been going out with a boy at school since October. I’m bisexual, I like girls and guys.”

“WHAT!” Joan shouted, she stood up from her chair and continued to yell. “You think your father did all those overtime shifts just so you could fool around in Colorado with that faggot of a roommate of yours! I knew leaving you with him was a HUGE mistake!”

“It’s not Connor!” John fired back. “I’ve had these sorts of feelings way before I met him, that whole trip to Seattle was to see my boyfriend again, he has a family that supports him fully, I don’t understand why you won’t even try to!”

“I can’t believe it! My own son, lying to me about this for months, no, years!” Joan started sobbing and fell back into her chair.

“Fine, if you’re going to be like this I’m going to the gym.” John got up and started toward the front door, his dinner still sitting on the table barely touched. Both his brother and dad called out to him “John, John!” and Peter caught up with him as John was grabbing his keys.

“Johnathan!” Peter stood in front of the front door to stop John from leaving. “I’ll talk to your mother, but you shouldn’t have lied to us about Seattle, did you really go to the concert too?”

“Of course, I did, Dad! You saw the tickets, it was just me and Ben though.” John stood anxiously in the hall as his mom continued to sob in the kitchen.

“Okay, how old is this Ben, at least tell me about him!” Peter pleaded.

“He’s 19, going into Sophomore year just like me. You already know he’s from Seattle, an Eagle Scout. He’s intelligent, loyal, honest, and so much more! He’s also the person I signed up to room with this year at school in an apartment. Now can I go?” John gulped.

Peter sighed. “I just hope you know what you’re getting into, your mother and I didn’t move in together till at least 2 and half years after we met, and that was after I was done at the academy. At least this Ben sounds more interesting than when you had Allison around. Just don’t stay out too late, I don’t think your mother has kicked you out at least. We are going to talk about your whole Seattle trip in the morning though.”

“Thanks, Dad.” John hugged his dad, his keys still jingling from his hand and Peter moved out of the way to see his wife back in the kitchen. John opened the door and went outside, hopping into his blue Honda Accord for the short drive to the gym. As he was backing out of the driveway Joel had made it out of the front door and he threw up his hands when he saw John was already leaving.

John waited for a couple of minutes after he arrived at the YMCA to see if Joel had followed him there, but there was no sign of his black Silverado. John figured Joel didn’t want to bother backing out the truck with his trailer still attached to follow him. Now content he wasn’t going to be disturbed, John sent off one simple iMessage to Ben: I did it, I told them.

Ben didn’t immediately reply, it wasn’t out of character for him, however. They were in different time zones now, and when John would be already sitting down for dinner, Ben would still be on his way home or going about his day.

John was getting anxious now, he wanted Ben to know it was finally off his chest. He loaded up Snapchat to see that Ben was at the mall shopping, or maybe even seeing a movie. John gritted his teeth and pounded at his steering wheel, then decided to go inside the gym if Ben wasn’t able to get back to him. In his haste to get out of the house, he didn’t have clean clothes to work out in, so John had to grab the clothes in the backseat he wore yesterday: the navy blue UA nylon shorts and Ben’s Meadowdale Mavericks navy t-shirt.

After John got changed he looked at his phone again, Ben had read the message and was typing: You told your parents about you being bi? What about meee?

John smiled and sent back: Both!

Ben took a couple of seconds to type again: What happened, r u ok?

John wanted to reply quickly if Ben had to put his phone down again but tell him everything that happened as well: Well, I’m at the gym now, my mom took it as I told you she would, there was yelling and stuff and I left. I was surprised by my dad though, he took it a lot more maturely and he asked about you. At least I think I can sleep in my own bed tonight thanks to him.

Ben was still there and he sent back: So somewhat good news. You will still Facetime with me before bed tonight? ❤️

Ofc ❤️ John sent back.

John put his phone away and went into the gym, without Joel as spotter he couldn’t use the free weights like he wanted, so he got on the lat pulldown machine. He was well into his workout when a familiar face came up to him.

“Hey Schroder, long time no see!” an excited voice above him boomed.

John looked up, it was his high school basketball teammate Cameron. He was as tall and fine as John remembered him, still sporting wavy chestnut hair, perfect skin, and brown eyes. This evening he had on a Golden State Warriors jersey, royal blue Under Armour Basketball shorts with an embossed camo design, white Nike Elite socks, and white and gray Air Jordan 1s.

“Cam Boy!” John laughed jokingly referring to Cameron’s nickname because of a stunt he pulled on Omeagle in Junior year. “How’s Marquette?”

“Eh, it was ok, the party scene is bleh there compared to Madison. Speaking of Madison, I heard on the Gram you and Allison broke up, though that was a long time ago, you went to Colorado State right?” Cam asked.

“School of Mines actually,” John replied. “Yeah, I haven’t seen her since last summer, I’ve kinda avoided going to Aldi since then.

“Oh!” Cam exclaimed. “She doesn’t work there anymore, she started at Coldstone this summer. I didn’t realize you got into engineering school, just remembered you went out of state. Sorry, we haven’t kept in touch since high school.”

“That’s cool.” John smiled. “I didn’t really expect you to, but seems you’re still up to date on everything that goes on here back at home, did you just get here, or do you want to grab a bite to eat and catch up?”

“I’ve been here about half an hour, don’t think I want to leave yet, but we can do dinner.” Cam looked over at John as he accepted his invitation.

“Oh, if you’re sticking around can you spot me on the bench? John asked. “My brother usually comes with me here, but he didn’t make it today.”

“Definitely! Let’s do it!” Cam replied.

John got up and did his weights like usual with Cam as his spotter. John was oblivious to the fact that Cam had his eyes trained on his crotch in his navy blue shorts almost the whole time, more so than Ben during that first session at the gym. John was too busy trying to remember if it was Axe or Old Spice body spray Cam would drench himself in after basketball, John could distinctly smell it now.

After racking the bar for the last time John sat up. “So, what do you want? Culver’s, or Taco Bell?”

“Culver’s is fine, I bet you missed it out in Colorado.” Cam laughed.

“Actually, there was one in Lakewood too, but we had In-N-Out, and even Steak & Shake, I don’t see the difference.” John led Cam into the changing room.

Cam was aghast and shook his head. “What did they do to you out west? In-N-Out?” Cam had an appetite similar to John’s but he had good genes that he didn’t gain the weight.

John shrugged and sat down on a bench as Cam stood in front of him and started to take off the Golden State Jersey, revealing his, tight, twink six-pack abs on his tall frame. At the bottom John could see the gray waistband of some Under Armour boxer briefs just like his, John stayed silent and was enthralled staring up into Cam’s brown eyes.

Cam looked around, there was no one else in the changing room except for some old dude in a Speedo on the other side of some lockers they saw when they walked in. He picked up John’s sweaty hand and placed it on his chest. John looked down and let it slip down from Cam’s abdominals to a burgeoning cock beneath his microfiber UA shorts.

John snapped out of it and shook his head retracting his hand. “Cam…. I can’t do this, please don’t tell anyone yet, but I have a boyfriend now.”

Cam felt somewhat rejected, and he threw his jersey at John. “Well, you could have just told me that after you confirmed you and Allison broke up! Boy, you sure have changed, where the hell is Meadowdale anyway, sounds like a high school in a chick flick.

John held out his arms and looked down at the shirt he was wearing, he picked up the jersey from his lap and pushed it back at Cam. “If you really wanted to know it’s my boyfriend’s shirt. Now can I trust you? I literally just walked out of the house after telling my parents about Ben, and it went as well as you would expect my mom to react.”

“Whatever John, you know you could have just told me, just because I’m in the loop and you’re not, doesn’t mean we still aren’t buddies and things can’t just stay between us.” Cam took back his jersey and sat down on the bench a fair distance from John to take off his shorts.

John breathed a sigh of relief and started to undress, he was thankful Cam had sat further away. “So we’re still going to Culver’s right?” John asked, hoping Cameron wasn’t mad at him.

“If you say so, we can catch up and you’re gonna tell me more about this guy right? Maybe you want to hear all about my first year too?” Cam started putting his shoes back on, he had changed into a black Bobcats long-sleeve training top and brown cargo pants, like John he still wore his gear from high school.

“Of course man,” John reassured Cam as he put back on his blue UA golf shirt. “I can tell you all about Ben if you want, and I want to hear all about Marquette too!”

“Deal!” Cam got up and waited for John. “And none of it goes on the Gram or anywhere else.”

John looked on at Cam as Cam got in his Ford Escape in the parking lot. He had just resisted the temptation to cheat on Ben and would have to deal with 9 more weeks of this, but at least coming out was off his chest. John thought back to Ben’s What about meee with the erroneous ‘e’s at the end and smiled to himself thinking about Ben as he got in his seat.

At Culver’s John and Cam spent almost an hour and a half talking and catching up. The staff didn’t seem to mind as Cam had worked there before he left for college. Cam hadn’t changed, he was the party animal, knowing whose place the party was at every weekend, and had maintained these connections even away at Marquette. John couldn’t help but think but draw the comparison to Evan and his party life, but Cam was far from the golden boy and was in fact, somewhat of the black sheep in his family.

John’s mom might have been proud to hear John was one of a handful of people in his class who had left Wisconsin and the Midwest. Cam told him one person went to UPENN in the Ivy League, others at Texas A&M and UGA, but Mines was still up there in terms of the prestigious ouf of state schools his class got into. Cam’s life in Milwaukee sounded pretty hectic compared to John and Ben’s at Mines. Marquette was on the edge of downtown Milwaukee and Cam had no shortage of things to do on the weekends even if he was still 19.

Cam did sleep around too, but with exclusively guys. From his description of the more muscular ones he slept with, John assumed Cam was the bottom; the ironic twist to Evan being a top, as well as Ben’s workout buddy. By the end of their conversation, John felt somewhat more at ease coming out to Cam as bisexual, and that his secret would be safe with Cam until John wanted to communicate his relationship with Ben to a wider audience himself. As they left for their cars, John invited Cam to come back to the gym with him later that weekend and Cam agreed. John liked Cameron enough to see him again and be workout buddies with Joel, but not enough that he wanted to see Cam naked.

As John pulled back into the driveway of his house around 9:30 the porchlight was already on. John’s dad probably expected him to be out for much longer given what just happened so he was surprised to see John come back through the door with just his bag of dirty gym clothes and a smoothie.

Peter was doing the dishes while Joel seemed not to be home, but his truck was still there. “Your mother is in bed already.” Peter turned around slightly from the sink to look back at John. “But in the morning we’re going to be talking about your trip to Seattle. I think she’s over the sudden shock of you telling us, and to be honest you might want to work on a little build-up if you are going to drop something like that at the dinner table.

John lowered his head. “Yes sir, you don’t need to worry about me tonight, I already had dinner.”

“That I assumed.” Peter put back one of the dishes in the rack. “Joel went out with Wayne, I guess you’re home for the night now?”

“Yes, I’m gonna shower and talk to Ben, I’ll try to keep it down.” John moved to exit the kitchen but turned back when he heard Peter calling him back

“John?” Peter called out to him and turned around, drying his hands with a dish towel.

“You know I am proud of you and your mother can’t stop bragging about you as well to all her friends. This doesn’t change anything except that we might get some shunned looks at mass on Sundays when this comes out. Ultimately your mother and I want you  Joel, and Julie to be happy and I realize falling in love with another boy at school isn’t just some choice you made. Your mother regrets what she said when you left as well. You’re going to tell us more about Ben in the morning too right? If you’ve been together for a while now I gather it’s pretty serious if you’re willing to move in together.”

“Of course Dad!” John sounded elated his dad turned out to be so accepting. “I can tell you all about Ben! I wanna go shower first and see if I can talk to him ok?”

“Yup, we’ll talk in the morning.” Peter continued with the dishes as John walked into his room.

John threw his dirty gym clothes onto the bed and sunk back into his gaming chair at his desk. He figured Ben was probably still having dinner right now, and it might be too soon to catch him alone even after he took a shower. After placing his smoothie down he saw something on his desk. It was a simple white piece of paper folded in half with the black and white album cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ printed on it and a big heart next to ‘Joel’ scrawled in Sharpie with messy handwriting. John smiled to himself, maybe his brother wasn’t as dumb as he thought, and had taken that hint a couple of weeks before. His family was pretty close, and it was always his mother who was the stricter and deeply religious parent.

John finished his smoothie and looked at Cameron’s Instagram before he got in the shower. Cam seemed to be out by the flags in his profile and John felt a huge weight off his shoulders that it was finally off his chest too. He scrolled down to a spring break picture Cam had taken at the beach clad only in some swim trunks. He screenshotted it to show Ben what Cam was enticing him with, but accidentally ‘liked’ it as well. “FUCK” John said to himself almost too loudly and put down his phone. John grinned and picked up his phone back up to unlike it, hoping Cameron didn’t see the notification or preview of which photo it was.

It was too late. Cam sent him a ‘😬’ in his DMs in response to the only picture John liked being the shirtless one from March. John shook his head, threw his phone back on the desk, and made a dash for the bathroom to forget what just happened.

Under the warm water in the shower, detached from the rest of the world John looked at his now naked body. He had gotten considerably bigger since he met Ben, maybe bulked 15 pounds above the 150 he was back in the fall. Ben hadn’t made any comments to John about it, he was the type of person who still saw John as perfect even if he was noticeably gaining weight. John thought to himself that he was so lucky to have Ben and that they were both loyal to each other. He knew these 9 weeks were going to be difficult, but as long as he and Ben let each other know what was happening, they would get through it.

After he was out of the shower John looked at his phone, Cam didn’t send him anything else so John figured he would just deal with it in person at the gym when he saw him later that weekend. John grabbed the dirty bag of clothes and sat back down on his chair still in his towel. It was 10:30, so he figured Ben would probably be alone by now at 8:30 Pacific. John retrieved the navy blue UA shorts from his bag, they weren't that dirty, as he would always wear boxer briefs or compression shorts under them that absorbed most of his sweat. It wasn't uncommon for him to wear his gym shorts twice before he met Ben, after that he found a whole new use for them when they were together and they got washed more frequently. He slipped the shorts onto his body, but this time with no underwear. Ben’s school shirt was too far gone to be worn again, so John got back up and went into his closet for his Huskies shirt that he bought at UW.

Sitting back at his desk, John messaged Ben: are you alone? Can we ft?

Back in Lynnwood, Ben immediately shot off the couch when he heard his phone. He picked it up by his keys to see it was John and sent back: yah, I’ll call you upstairs on my Macbook, forgot to charge my phone when I got home. Ben marched up the stairs to his room and closed the door.

After he read that message John got out the ring light and phone holder he previously used to stream his basketball shots in the driveway. He put his phone in the mount and anxiously awaited for Ben to call.

When the call came through John immediately hit accept. He smiled as he saw Ben lying back shirtless in bed with his computer on his chest.

“Hey, Benji!” John waved at the phone for him.

“Hey babe! How was your day?” Ben asked.

“Worst day ever!” John shook his head. “I slipped off the ladder when I was cleaning moss off a roof, then I told you what happened with my parents, and finally after all that I ran into Cameron at the gym, you remember Cam right?”

“OUCH! Cam was the basketball guy right?” Ben replied scratching his exposed pecs.

“Yup!” John nodded. “He came onto me in the locker room, but I told him off! He was okay about it afterward though. I told him about you too, he said he’s bi but I’m thinking he might be just gay as he only told me about fooling around with guys. We’re gonna work out again together if that’s okay with you, he promised that won’t happen again. Are you and Evan making a good workout couple?”

“Yeah, that’s cool.” Ben smiled. “Evan is pretty focused when he works out, even more so than you, he slips his AirPods in and sometimes I only talk to him in the change room and car. We went to the mall together after our workout today to get my wedding gift for Nick and Kel. He insisted on paying for it even when he’s MY brother. He said I could leave his name off the card though and his parents would get Nick something else. Sometimes he’s too nice to people to the point of being annoying. Anyway, how are your parents?” Ben asked.

John sighed. “My dad has been awesome, it’s my mom that exploded at the dinner table, blaming it on Connor of all people. My dad said he would work on talking to my mom, but I have to own up to lying about my whole trip just to see you. I don’t know what punishment I’m in for, to be honest, my dad let me leave after it happened. My brother has been pretty good too, he wasn’t at home when I got back, but he left me a love note with Lady Gaga on it. I haven’t seen my sister yet, she’s moved out and married already, so I only see her on the weekends and at church.”

Ben beamed proudly at his boyfriend. “See it wasn’t as bad as you were making it out to be! Two out of three isn’t bad, and sounds like your dad is really helping with your mom.” Ben took the Macbook off his chest and put it at the side of his bed facing him. From this new vantage point, John could see Ben was only clad in the royal blue UA shorts, and John’s dick instantly went hard in his navy UA shorts.

“Are you able to do it with me?” John asked, he tilted the phone downwards to his pulsating cock in his navy nylon UA shorts. He was slowly rubbing his tip through the fabric.

Adjusting the computer more parallel to his body, Ben pushed the computer back on his roomy bed. John now had a full view of everything Ben was doing to his shorts, he was already hard and was stroking his cock outside through the soft fabric. Ben held his dick perpendicular to his body now as it throbbed into the nylon of his shorts.

John turned up his volume, he could hear Ben panting and the swish sound of the shorts being rubbed across his uncut sensitive cock. “Did you wear those to the gym today?” John asked.

“Yuupp, did you?” Ben sniffled as he started to stroke his cock faster through the shorts.

“Mhmm,” John replied as he increased his pace as well. “This is so hot, wish I was there next to you.” Both of them were getting close knowing they were feeling the same nylon sensation across their cocks at that very moment.

“Can you take it out?” Ben asked.

John rolled back in his chair to give Ben a better overall view, he took off his shirt and slipped his hard penis out of the bottom of his navy blue UA shorts. It peeked out next to the inseam on the left as John was right-handed. Ben started to wank more steadily with his view of John’s cock out from under the shorts.

Ben was now breathing heavily and John could hear him. John watched as Ben lifted off the bed while still in the shorts and fired his load into them. A huge wet spot and dribble appeared at the tip of Ben’s dick through the fabric, Ben’s hand just below it still grasping the shorts. Ben’s thumb glanced across the bead of white dribble when he let it go, he showed John this then wiped it on his chest. Ben also pulled back the top of his shorts for John to take a peek inside, his white pearly spunk was still dripping from the inside of his shorts onto his balls and crotch, as well as getting caught up in his pubic hair. Without saying anything, Ben scooped up more of his jism from his wet crotch between his fingers.

His heart pounding after watching this erotic show just for him, John was close too. Ben had picked the computer back up and put it on his chest as he watched John continue. Ben took his fingers that were covered in cum, stuck his tongue out, and licked them in a very seductive way. This was too much for John and it sent him over the edge. He grunted and blasted his load all over the front of his navy blue UA shorts, knowing he and Ben had both worn those shorts too. Several squirts of his white spunk were visible now against the dark fabric as John’s cock flopped away. John tucked his dick back into the messy shorts as Ben smiled back at him.

“Okay I better go,” Ben laughed. “I got some on my computer, I love you.”

“I love you too babe.” John replied just before they were disconnected.