Chapter 2: Moab

John was sitting at a table with a seat open next to him, he still had on the gray sweatpants from yesterday and a mint green Nike hoodie. Ben walked over to the breakfast counter and poured what he thought was Raisin Bran from a big cereal dispenser into a small Chinet bowl, added a splash of milk, and grabbed a blueberry yogurt. He felt a nudge from behind toward John when he turned around, it was Josh edging him on.

Ben felt he had no choice and sat in the open seat.

“Hey, uh John, how you liking Utah?” Ben tried for his opener after he took the seat by John.

John turned but didn’t look too surprised to see Ben. “Well it’s nothing like back home in Wisconsin, I slowly was getting used to Colorado and the mountains, and now out here there's a lot of rocks?” They both laughed, neither of them had been to Utah before and the morning had revealed the beauty of the barren landscape around them.

John pulled his phone out of his pocket and put it on the table tapping it, he forgot it was dead.

“Your phone broke? Ben asked.

“Nah,” John shook his head. “My girlfriend Allison broke up with me last night. I was back and forth with her all night until she finally said it was over, I kinda sat on my phone all night in bed hoping she would change her mind but the truth is she probably found someone new back in Madison. I didn’t bring a charger and Roy has a Crapsung.”

“Oh, I can help you there.” Ben dug around his backpack and took out his battery pack, he had no idea why he carried that heavy thing around campus until now. Ben plugged it in for him and finished his cereal while they waited for John’s phone to power on.

After 3 minutes as Ben was digging into his yogurt, the phone popped to life with lots of notifications, but as John scrolled through them he had a disappointed look on his face. “Nothing from Allison.'' He groaned.

Ben put his hand on his shoulder and gave it a bit of a rub, he hoped John would appreciate the sympathy and not push away what at most was an acquaintance to him. John thanked him and told him to hang onto the phone to charge it fully.

“Say maybe you might want to room together tonight too?” John asked. “Roy snored up a storm all night and that’s another reason I didn’t sleep well.” John rubbed his eyes while Roy gave John a sneer and threw an empty granola bar wrapper at him from across the table.

Ben paused, he couldn’t say yes fast enough, but if he came on too strong it would have been obvious. “Sure, I think we can arrange that.” Ben said in a confident tone. He looked back at Josh who was leaning against the breakfast counter eating a Nature Valley bar, flashing Ben a thumbs up.

Their professor entered the room and everyone quieted down. Ms. Grant was a shorter woman in her late 40s and took this meticulously planned trip every semester. “Alright guys gals and non-binary pals,” she shouted from the entrance of the room. “We have a long day ahead of us and our only full day out here in Utah. Remember to take lots of pictures for your field reports. Bus leaves in 15.”

Ben gathered up his stuff and followed John out to the bus they were on yesterday. Surprisingly as Roy sat down, John moved onto the next row and quickly sat down motioning Ben to sit down next to him. “Can’t let you walk off with my phone, hah, no, I’m kidding, I trust you.” John joked and Josh shuffled past them taking a seat by himself further back in the bus.

 As the bus rolled out of the parking lot John told Ben how this trip was much more mature and relaxing than his high school basketball trips in Wisconsin. Ben found it enthralling hearing about all the pranks the kids on John’s basketball team played on each other in the locker room, and how one room on an overnight trip was caught with a girl inside in the middle of the night. When they were talking Ben couldn’t help but not avert his gaze at John’s gray sweatpants, though he wished John had worn the shorts today so he could get an idea of what underwear he was wearing. Ben was so interested in John’s high school sports career, John didn’t get to learn much else about Ben other than he was from the Seattle area, had one older brother, and was hoping to major in Environmental Engineering.

When they reached their first stop Ben dug into his backpack and gave the almost fully charged iPhone back to John. “Don’t forget you’ll need this.” Ben smiled.

Ms. Grant was right, the day was filled with geysers, arches, rock formations, and lots of rocks. Ben’s eyes started to roll his eyes every time she said “Navajo Sandstone'' as it was getting repetitive. He was glad he opted for the comfortable track pants as the day wore on and as John stuck by his side it couldn’t have been any better. Since Josh grew up Mormon and they were in Utah he was starting to be the butt of some bad Mormon Jokes mostly at the hands of John’s friend Roy. Finally, Ben spoke up for Josh, saying Josh didn’t have a choice about what family he grew up in and he was no longer with the church. Josh smiled at him, and John was impressed by how Ben handled it, further exposing a rift between John and his former trip roommate.

Ben and John were starting to form a close bond as Ben opened up to him more and John was including Ben in his selfies for the trip. They even asked Josh to take one of them together, arms around each other’s backs in front of the Mesa Arch. After visiting both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in one day, everyone on the bus was completely wiped and eager to get some rest. Moab was a slightly bigger place than the stop on their first night and there would be more to see and do around town if you had the energy.

John was already dozing off and he fell asleep on Ben’s shoulder on the ride into town and Ben was immensely enjoying smelling his scent so close. As the bus pulled into their motel for the night Ben nudged him with his elbow. “I saw McDonald’s on the next block and Wendy’s is further away, what’s for dinner?” Ben said in an expectant tone, almost like they were already a couple.

“There’s a Subway right there too,” John pointed out. “I’m beat, let’s just grab something quickly, head back to the room, and eat.” This sounded even better to Ben, more alone time with John.

They both got off the bus together and Ben collected the keycards for their room on the 3rd floor. The Subway was just across the street so Ben and John ran across the highway. Ben stuck with his mainstay Subway order: 6-inch sweet onion teriyaki chicken toasted with Nacho Doritos and lemonade, while John was feeling a lot more hungry with a 12-inch spicy Italian melt, 2 bags of Lays, and a Coke. Luckily there was next to no traffic and they were able to walk back across the highway without losing their dinner.  

The moment had finally come, Ben was going to be alone with his college crush, he gave John his drink to hold while he unlocked the door, although he was as exhausted as John he was as horny as fuck, and his dick was poking at the top his AE microfiber briefs under his tight track pants. Ben made sure to slide lock the door behind him as John put his food down on the desk and kicked off his hiking boots, showing off a pair of sweaty royal blue Nike Elite socks. Ben took a sip of his lemonade and pretended not to watch John undress.

The next thing that came off was the hoodie, John’s t-shirt went up with it and Ben recognized the distinct waistband of his favorite royal blue UA Shorts under the sweatpants, could John have been wearing them under his pants all day? John sat down and laid back in the only chair in the room now just in a royal blue plain Nike Dri-Fit t-shirt, sweatpants, what Ben was sure were the shorts under them, and the Nike Elite socks. Ben hoped the pants would eventually come off before bed.

John started on his first sandwich while Ben sat on one of the beds and used the nightstand as his dinner table. John flipped through his phone again, looking for anything from Allison. “Bro, never ever do the whole long-distance relationship thing, it's never a happy ending.” He shook his head and Ben nodded in agreement with him as he finished his mini bag of chips.

“So how about you? You never said anything about a girlfriend, got one back in Washington?” John looked back over toward Ben.

“No, it’s sort of complicated.” Ben said, trying to avoid the question.

“What? A cute and smart guy like you doesn’t have the rizz? You’re pretty dreamy.” John laughed.

Ben blushed and his cock stirred. John had just called him both cute AND dreamy.

“Are you hitting on me now that you’re single?” Ben said with a hesitant chuckle.

“I might be, I couldn’t help but notice that cute ass in those slim adidas pants too. Though I saw the way you and Josh were looking at each other today, was last night what was ‘complicated’?” John asked.

Ben stuttered. “You're…You’re really into guys too? Or you’re just shitting me? Josh isn’t my boyfriend and never was.”

“Whoah,” John put up his hands. “No need to get defensive and explain yourself to me. The truth is I only told you half of what went on behind the scenes at basketball, the other half I wouldn’t tell within earshot of Roy, he’s a homophobic prick.”

“Yeah like what?” Ben quickly finished his sub and started to listen intently.

“Well, you know how sometimes you’re in that position to make that last shot that might win a game?” John asked.

“A buzzer beater?” Ben replied.

“Yes, exactly,” John nodded. “Well, think of what happens when you miss that shot and let the whole team down. About 3 or 4 guys and the dude who missed the shot stuck around in the locker room. They took the “beater” part seriously and made the guy hand over his uniform while they circle-jerked and blew their loads onto his uniform shorts. Someone kept them from him and told him they would bring them back and he would have to wear them in the next game like that and he went with it”.

“Wow, that’s fucking hot,” Ben exclaimed as he adjusted his bulge.

“Yeah it was,” John continued. “I wasn’t one of the ones who stuck around but part of me wishes I had known about this at that game after and seen the shorts. I didn’t notice anything, but we won that night so maybe it was a lucky charm?” John giggled.

“I didn’t hear that story until later into the season. Senior Night I thought I’d try something similar, put on my Under Armour basketball uniform the night before and jerked off in the shorts, blew my load right into the layered white mesh, and slept like that. In the morning it dried and wasn’t noticeable either. We won that game too.” John’s eyes beamed.

John was totally after Ben’s heart with these basketball team stories, and after hearing all this he knew it was a mistake for not trying to get close to him sooner.

“How about your other Under Armour shorts, do you do anything in those?” Ben asked directly.

“These?” John said, pulling back the waistband of his sweatpants “Oh yeah.” He quickly pulled off the sweats and put his Elite socked feet on the bed behind the desk to give Ben a full view of the blue shorts. “They’re pretty soft and silky and they’re my favorites.” John tugged at the bottom of the shorts to give Ben a good glimpse of his hard cock through the loose fabric, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t wearing anything under them. “Allison gave me a handjob thru ‘em once, but you’ll probably want to hear about when the team took a trip to see the Milwaukee Bucks.”

That was enough for Ben to make his move, he jumped over to the other bed John had his legs on and pulled him into that bed with him.

“Hey, I didn’t even get to finish my Coke!”  John exclaimed.

“Well tell me this Milwaukee story and I’ll have something to show you.” Ben teased as he too started undressing, stripping only to his boxer briefs, he reached over to his bag on the floor and pulled out the similar shorts.

John’s eyes went wide as Ben laid his own shorts on his own bare chest. “I guess you picked them as your favorites too because of me? That’s sweet.”

Ben rolled onto his side and his shorts fell between them, he started groping and petting at John’s dick through his shorts. He imagined John next to him in his high school basketball uniform, helping jerk him off before that last important game.

“Ok well, this really brings me back to that trip.” John started. “You better slow down or you’re gonna make me mess up these shorts way too soon!” Ben reluctantly agreed to stop but left his hand on John’s shorts.

“We were staying in a motel like this off I-94, Milwaukee isn’t that far from where I live but after the game, they planned for us to do other boring stuff in town the next day like the Harley Museum. Not my thing really, but they had us 4 to a room instead of 2 here. Folks from a small town like mine never figured anything would happen if you put two boys in one bed.”

“I opted to bed with Cam, well I didn’t tell you his name in the first story but can you guess who Cam was?”

“The dude who missed the shot?” Ben took an educated guess.

“Bingo!” John snapped. “Cameron was mighty fine, with dark chestnut long wavy hair, and hazel eyes, maybe a bit slimmer and taller than me. Anyway, you probably know about these types of sleeping arrangements when two dudes or even two chicks share a bed one sleeps under the sheet and the other sleeps on top of that sheet.”

“No, we didn't do that sort of trip in tennis. In scouts, we had our own separate sleeping bags of course.” Ben recalled.

“You were in boy scouts? Heck, I bet you have better stories than me!” John lamented.

“Maybe, but talking about your basketball buddies is making me super horny,” Ben urged him to continue as he felt a wet spot of pre-cum through John’s shorts.

John looked over at Ben’s fully erect 6-inch uncut cock that Ben had poking out of the fly of his underwear and was gripping with one hand. John had never seen an uncut dick before and it was intriguing for him, he wanted to reach over and help Ben too but he didn’t want to get in the way of what Ben was doing for him, and proceeded with his story. “So yeah we’re lying in the same bed chilling out. I'm freeballing these same shorts you have your hand on now, Cam is under the sheet in some fleece PJ pants while I’m on top of the sheet. Eventually, the other guys in the room want lights out. He didn’t tell me but I figured out that Cam moves around a lot in his sleep that he was keeping me awake. He had kicked at the sheet so much it was off him and we were both just under the blanket.”

“Anyway, I rolled over next to him and gave him a bear hug as a joke and whispered in his ear ‘Stop kicking me!’ He responded by reaching around behind himself and grabbed my dick through the shorts, just like you were.”

Ben was now stroking wildly at his own cock with his other hand and had pushed his boxer briefs to his knees, he took his shorts out from under his body and wrapped the material around his dick, and continued rubbing it.

“Well, l I didn’t complain,” John laid back into the pillow as Ben gripped him lightly through the nylon. “In fact, Cam pulled down the pajama pants and guided my cock through these shorts to his exposed crack. I humped him for a little bit just like that, anything noisier and we’d wake up the two other dudes.”

“Wow, Cam was one lucky guy, did you have a thing for him?” Ben commented as he stroked his cock with his own shorts.

“Maybe I kinda did,” John admitted. “But that’s not the end, Cam turned around and it was obvious he was awake. He went under the blanket and continued to whack me off through the fabric of the shorts. I couldn’t hold back and blasted one into my shorts from his handiwork. Cam fell asleep right next to me and was much less restless after that, maybe he was soothed by the cuddling. I made sure to wake up early and pushed him further across the bed before everyone else woke up.”

“So that was it with Cam, let me tell you, that felt much more erotic than anything I ever did with Allison. So, do you think you can help with what I wanted to do to Cam back then, right here?” John grasped at Ben’s hand over his crotch.

Ben thought John would never ask, he nodded yes, kicked off the briefs that were still around his ankles and put on his own blue shorts. John pulled off his Nike shirt but Ben stopped him from taking off the socks. “The Nike Elites turn me on as much as the shorts,” he pleaded.

“Good point, you know what they say when you’re with another dude and the socks stay on.” John couldn’t help but laugh at his own joke but it looked like this was at Ben’s expense from the expression on Ben's face and John tried to apologize. “I’m kidding Ben if I asked any guy out, you know it’s going to be you first.”

“So breaking up with Allison put you off girls for now?” Ben asked.

“I don’t know if I’d put it that way, but you’re a sweet boy. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen for someone this hard and fast, it’s been a wonderful day, been to amazing places that I didn’t know existed, and started to get close to an incredible guy like you that made me question my sexuality much more than ever before.” John sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye.

“That’s all I ever wanted to hear.” Ben put his finger on John’s lips and embraced him in a long french kiss, and once again squeezed John’s pulsating cock through the sexy shorts. John stared into Ben's pale blue eyes and his hands found their way to feeling Ben’s tight ass through the silky material of the same shorts.

Ben lifted away from the embrace, only to trace his hands all around John’s muscular athletic frame. His dream boy was all his now and he’d do anything John wanted. Ben hooked his fingers into the waistband of John’s blue shorts and pulled them down, inhaling the full musk of John’s crotch from a whole day in the October desert sun and revealing John’s fully erect 6-inch circumcised penis.

“Are you ready?” John asked.

“Of course, for you anything,” Ben said submissively as he got off John and laid down on his side with his back to John.

John admired Ben’s tight round ass in the soft fabric of Ben’s shorts, the material was pulled between his ass crack and Ben closed his eyes as John groped him through the soft material. He slipped his index finger between Ben’s crack and Ben trailed off in a pleasurable “Ahhhh…” as John slipped it ever so slightly inside his hole encased still in the shorts. John was fully aroused now and could tell Ben was as well and he pulled his own shorts to his knees and started to slip his erect cock along the ass crack of Ben’s nylon shorts, the feeling was super erotic to John, as the tip of his penis got the back of Ben’s shorts wet with precum.

“Ok it’s time,” John said as he pulled Ben’s shorts down, wet his cock with some spit and it found its way back against Ben’s now bare crack. John slowly inserted his tip, he gripped Ben as Ben whined in immediate pain and tried to relax his virgin hole.

“Uhhhh Benjamin,” John whined as he slipped his burgeoning cock deeper into Ben’s hole, the feeling was ecstatic, Ben couldn’t imagine his virginity was being taken by this hot basketball stud who he longed for months, and not only that, John was starting to fall for him too. Ben moaned softly as he quickly got used to the feeling of John inside him.

Freeballing in the shorts under his pants all day had made John incredibly horny, but Ben’s tight hole was an even more sensational feeling. John couldn’t believe this incredibly cute guy was into doing anything he wanted and he had only just met him. John was picking up the pace now, his athletic body continued to spoon Ben’s slim frame under him and it was starting to hurt, Ben clinched, making John moan even harder. Ben gritted his teeth and let out a  “Mhmmmm fuck” while John was all up inside him and just about to blow. Ben’s cock too couldn’t hold out much longer, he was jerking away furiously at his own cock as John humped him with Ben’s shorts still around his ankles.

Finally, John’s whole body tensed up and he couldn’t hold it back, “Buuuuuuuuuhben” John exclaimed as Ben felt John shoot his warm jism into Ben’s freshman hole. John fell back to earth and nuzzled his face into Ben’s neck. He too could see Ben needed release as well and John’s left hand took over from Ben’s exhausted wrist.

John now had a chance to examine Ben’s uncut cock. He gripped Ben’s dick tightly from behind and had Ben whimpering again. Jerking Ben off with his non-dominant hand was exhausting John more than fucking him so he got  back up and crawled to the foot of the bed below Ben as Ben rolled onto his back. John straddled over Ben’s left leg and slipped his right hand over Ben’s dick again. John admired Ben’s now slim naked body beneath him, Ben had his mouth agape, still recovering from losing his virginity to the boy of his dreams. Now going as fast as he could, John watched as Ben arch his back, lifting off the bed spasming and moaning “Fuccccck” as a steady stream of his cum blasted all over his naked chest, crotch, and John’s hand.

“Damn, that was hot.” John said, still in a daze, wiping Ben’s spunk onto his own chest.

Ben rolled out from under John, kicked off his shorts and got up. “Want to join me for a shower, stud?”

“Of course, we both stink, I bet, even worse after that” John followed him into the bathroom and they continued to make out under the water.

“Your breath smells like onions.” John laughed as he lathered up Ben’s hair in shampoo.

Ben chuckled  “Yours does too,”  Ben stuck out his tongue and admired John’s soapy athletic body that he now had all to himself tonight, he made sure John’s dick got a nice scrub and John did likewise. John didn’t know how to clean Ben’s foreskin so Ben pulled it back and let John rub his body wash all over it.

They dabbed each other’s hair in conditioner and rinsed each other off now satisfied they were clean. Stepping out of the shower they only needed one towel to dry each other off.

Returning to the bed Ben picked up John’s shorts from between the sheets, he finally got the closest look at them he could ask for, they were size large, still warm, semi-damp, and reeked of John’s body odor.

“Can I wear them tonight to sleep in? Ben asked.

John wasn’t disturbed by this request in the slightest. “Only if I get to wear yours too.” He bargained.

With that Ben slipped on John’s shorts and tied up the drawstrings so they wouldn’t fall down. They were about the same height so Ben didn’t look overly small in them. John grabbed Ben’s shorts and put them on as well. Ben’s weren’t as raunchy, Ben had only worn them in bed with Josh the night before and taken them off in the morning.

After that long day and session, the exhaustion finally took its toll, Ben crawled into the clean bed and John joined him.

The pair had already drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms when they heard a commotion outside their door.

“You can’t make me sleep in there, you can’t make me sleep with a faggot!” Roy yelled. It was now almost midnight. Both John and Ben scrambled out of bed and opened the door to see what was happening.

Josh was standing outside a room down the hall in his Nike neon yellow shorts barefoot, and a plain white t-shirt, while one the teaching assistants for the class, Alim, had Roy restrained.

“Get off me and find me another room!” Roy exclaimed in a panic.

Roy was intoxicated. He had probably avoided trying to find a roommate since John ditched him, spent the evening in another room on the trip where someone older had the means to purchase alcohol at the one government liquor store in town and finally got kicked out of that drinking room. Ben had heard before this was somewhat of a rite of passage for the jocks on this trip, underage students getting drunk in a “dry” state like Utah.

Roy saw Ben and John standing down the hall in matching shorts, Ben in John’s shorts loosely hugging his hips and John in Ben’s shorts that were slightly shorter and were showing off his muscular legs.

Roy worked his way out of Alim’s grip and confronted John, the smell of alcohol wafting off his breath. “I knew you always liked these cocksuckers too.” Roy exclaimed, pointing his finger at Ben.

John swatted away his finger, by now the whole top floor of the hotel was up peeking outside their doors to see what was going on and even Mrs. Grant had made her way up from her room on the 2nd floor. “Don’t you ever touch Benjamin or Joshua, or you’ll regret it.” John said in a threatening tone.

“This whole damn school is chock full of gay fucking fags and dykes!” Roy turned away and yelled down the hall.

Ms. Grant had had enough. “MISTER EMORY'' she boomed as Alim grabbed Roy by the arm again to prevent him from walking off. “Calm down before you get us all kicked out of this hotel in the middle of the night. Now as Alim told me this is the only room with a bed left for you.”

Roy slumped to the floor across from Josh and leaned against the wall. “Well, I ain’t sleeping in the same room as a butt-fucking fag, no ma’am….”

“If that’s the case you have 2 options, you can either try to find yourself another room on your own dime for under $400 in this town in the middle of the night or we’ll get the bus driver to see if you can sleep on the bus. As for your outburst tonight you can be guaranteed an emergency meeting with the Dean and the Diversity, Inclusion and Access Committee sometime this week to discuss your language and behavior. I’ve organized this trip for nearly 20 years and I’ve never had to witness such a juvenile homophobic outburst against my own students, staff, AND myself.” Ms. Grant folded her arms and peered down at Roy.

The whole floor erupted in applause and jeers. “Quiet, quiet!” She interrupted. “There are other people in the hotel. Now Mister Emory, what will it be?”

“Bus.” was all Roy could say.

“Alim go get him a pillow and some blankets then find our driver, the rest of you off to sleep, I don’t want to hear another peep from this floor!” Mrs. Grant stormed back down the stairwell, and Alim disappeared into Josh’s room to get the blankets from the spare bed.

Ben couldn’t help but feel pity for Roy even if he was a homophobe, in another life he might have found him attractive. He had a football player’s build, much more muscular and taller than John, dirty blonde crew-cut hair, and a rugged athletic attractiveness that a lot of girls (and gays) fell for. Now he sat all alone in the hall looking like he was about to piss himself.

John pulled Ben back inside their room, closed the door, and dragged him back to the bed with him.