Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:14:42 +0000
From: writersblock404 <writersblock404@protonmail.com>
Subject: (G)rowing pains - 3

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(G)ROWING PAINS - Part 3

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This is a work of fiction; any resemblance to any real people or places
is purely coincidental. Though I must admit, some inspiration has been
gathered from my own experiences.

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_______________________________________

A few days had gone by, Jeremy and Jasper had not seen each other since
the weekend and their very turbulent day at the rowing club. They went to
different schools and therefore didn't usually see each other much
outside of practice. Except for some random afternoons when they decided
to do some homework together, or play some video games. It had been a
busy couple of days for both though, with school, homework and parents
nagging them about chores and getting things done.

But Tuesday evening was their evening for training. They had started real
early so that they still had some light to go on the water. Rowing in
fragile boats in the dark was not the best idea, the club did not allow
it. So, they had half a practice in the boat and another half just doing
weights and other indoor exercises.

The weekend's experiences in the shower, the talks they had after, had
not gone down easy for either of them. But each had their own troubles
with it.

You could say Jasper had had it easiest. His main issue was that this was
all very new to him. Jasper was almost a year junior to Jeremy, twelve
years old. He looked up to his older friend and sometimes wondered about
how much difference a year could really make. His main concerns in a day
were about school, his trouble with maths. Or about where to go with the
latest story he was writing, or finding new challenges for taking photos.
And rowing of course, but he was afraid that that was something that was
more important to Jeremy as well.

He wondered most if it was `normal' that he had simple not taken very
much interest in girls. Or whatever kind of relationship. Some of his
schoolfriends were going on how this was hot, or she was hot. The stories
they told could hardly all be true. And Jeremy was also usually the one
to start talking about which actresses or actors he found `hot'. Or he
was telling about the girlfriend he had had just right up until he had
started rowing. Whatever.

However, holy cows! What had happened this weekend had rocked his world.
He had never before felt himself get lost in feelings this intense. After
he had fallen into the water while trying to get out of his boat, he had
been so terribly cold. Even after sitting for a while under the hot
shower, he just could not shake the cold.
And then Jeremy had come in. He had started with just touching his arm,
rubbing it warm. Which had felt so good. And when Jeremy had hesitated in
rubbing warm his other arm, he had stepped closer. Inviting Jeremy to go
on. And after that, something had come over him and taken control.
Thinking about it now felt like remembering a film. Had he really been
the one to keep stepping closer, until they were finally in a tight
embrace?

He must have been, but as Jeremy's arms had fully enveloped him, rubbing
up and down his back, his body had decided to bring on all hormonal
reserves that it had been saving up and serve up a raging erection. Of
course, he had had erections before, he was a normal healthy boy. But
they were usually random occurrences. If it didn't happen at a very bad
moment, he had even spent some time playing with it, discovering how his
body was changing and reacting. This time however, it was definitely not
a random occurrence. He knew full well what, or rather, who, was causing
his boner to try and poke a hole through his underwear. But he had felt
safe in Jeremy's embrace. It was like coming home after a long holiday.
And he had not been the only one giving a standing ovation, which he had
found rather funny. Perhaps, even a bit of a compliment? Was that a
thing?

Now Jeremy, he had gone a whole different route. He had had `the talk'
when he had turned thirteen. He knew he was already deep into puberty,
and that hormones had taken over his life. At least, for the time being.
While they could be a huge source of fun, they could also really mess
everything up.

Jeremy had been given the talk by his parents with them fully expecting
the need to warn him about teenage pregnancy, STD's, what might happen
when he and his girlfriend decided to take the plunge and really go for
it. It had been awkward, it had been graphic, and it had been confusing.
His parents had believed in ripping the band-aid off of his innocence.

He had still been with Abby, his girlfriend, at that time. But while
getting all the details about the birds and the bees, he had become less
and less enthusiastic about his current relationship. He had experimented
with some kissing, and perhaps a bit of feeling, but, well... it was more
because Abby had been pushing for it. The kissing had been nice though.
Lips were mesmerizing, whoever's they were. He had heard of their being
guys who liked boobs, or butts... but if he was anything, he was a
lips-guy.

Not long after, Jeremy had been getting an increasingly strong feeling
that he was pretending to be in a relationship. He was acting out a role.
And Abby was willing to go much further in the whole relationship-act
than he had been. Breaking up with her was probably one of the most
difficult things he had ever done. He had tried the whole `let's just
be friends' thing. But that did not work while one of them still wanted
more. Starting rowing had been a life-line. It took up his time, and it
felt like he had a reason to be doing something else, to not hang out
with Abby any more, and that meant that even just being friends ended at
some point.

Now, back to the hormones. A lot of the things his parents had told him
did not make any real sense. Except for the physical changes he was
seeing in himself. And in his schoolmates in gym class, or when showering
after rowing practice. And he had discovered a certain fascination in
comparing his friends, looking, thinking about him. One thing had led to
another. While in bed at night, trying to rub away the most annoying
boner ever, his thoughts had run a wild course with guys soaping up after
gym, everyone getting a boner. Some small, some like what he had seen on
the internet. And they had all started to rub those boners just like he
was rubbing his own at that very moment. Well, that only took like ten
seconds before he had the strongest climax he had had until then. WTF!

It had been like finally finding the missing puzzle piece. He had never
felt like this about Abby. He had never felt like this about any girl.
But he realized how much more he had been thinking about guys, and now he
knew it was not just curiosity. It had been pure lust. And thinking back,
it was not a new thing. At his previous school he had been bullied by
people calling him a sissy, a nancy-boy. Gay-boy.

But, was that perhaps what he was? Gay? He did not think of himself as a
sissy. Nah, he could run laps around anyone. He could bench press more
weight than most of his class. He knew, they had tried in gym. Not only
that, but he had left them eating his proverbial dust!

And thus it came to be that Jeremy came to a life-altering conclusion,
just three weeks after learning how not to get a girl pregnant. He had
nothing to worry about in that regard, he was gay. Not even just a
little, he was not bi, or flex. Jeremy liked guys.

That was when a whole new can of worms to make life just that little bit
more difficult. He was not ready to be bullied again. Changing schools
had been necessary, he would not have been able to stand another day at
his old school, but it had been so very difficult to start all over on a
new school. And he finally had a class that was not ruled by bullies. He
wanted to keep things like they were. And thus, he found he could not
share his feelings with anyone, and he was left playing yet another role.
Gosh, perhaps he should consider becoming an actor. Wait, was that why so
many actors appeared to be gay? They had too much life experience in
playing roles?

All this had made the experience he had shared with Jasper to be one of
the best but also the scariest things he had ever done. He did not
believe he actually told Jasper that he was into guys. Well, not in so
many words, but he guessed Jasper understood the idea behind him asking
if Jasper was into guys... too. I mean, pretty obvious, right?

But that meant his secret was out. He was out. Would everyone know now?
What if people at school found out? Would he be bullied again? Would he
be `the sissy guy' again? He did not think he could deal with that.

Both boys had had a tumultuous couple of days before they met again, and
there was a lot of tension in the air. Their coach, a
twenty-five-year-old guy with heaps of rowing experience could not help
but notice. As coaches go, they had been pretty lucky. Rick was a tough
coach, but had an easy-going personality. He was also big. Not like
heavy, but he was tall! Easily six feet four inches. Dark brown hair,
lean and a huge chest. Secretly, both Jasper and Jeremy were hoping that
all the effort they put into rowing would result in a similar physique.

Rick had started their training that day with some time in the boats. One
boat each, so he could set them up to compete against each other for a
few runs. He had timed them, and they were way off from what they would
usually manage to do. Rick had them dock their boats, and after they had
cleared them away, he took them aside for a talk.

"So, guys, what's up?", he asked, "Your times are way off, and
Jeremy, you know better than to dip so deep."

Jeremy looked down, he knew he had not been on his a-game today. "I'm
sorry Rick," he said, "I don't know what's wrong today."

They were all still in the boathouse next to the rack of weights and the
ergs.

"And what about you, Jasper?" Rick asked, absolutely towering over the
both of them.

Jasper felt intimidated. He was not exactly very tall, who was at twelve.
And it felt like Rick was twice his length. To make matters worse, both
Jeremy and Jasper were now sitting in a chair, making Rick seem even
taller.

"I... ehm... I don't know," Jasper stammered. He was feeling very sorry.
Not for himself, but mainly towards Rick. He always wanted to make his
coach proud. That was kind of the inspiration he gave, he made you like
him and that made you want to do your absolute best. His compliments were
rare, but because of that hugely satisfying.

Both Jasper and Jeremy were now staring at their feet. Still in their
tight rowing attire, short pants, slip on shoes, Jasper noticed how much
hairier Jeremy's legs were. What a difference a year in age made, his
own legs were smooth! Wait, he should stop thinking about Jeremy's legs.
Stop... Looking...!

Jasper snapped out of his trance and looked up at Rick.

"We could do some weights perhaps? And practice some more on the ergs...
to make up?", he tried to placate Rick.

Rick put on his best serious face. He was not mad at all, but he did
demand to be taken serious, as a coach. So, some acting was sometimes
involved in getting through. Especially to the younger kids. And even
though Jeremy was thirteen and Jasper twelve, they were pretty much still
kids to him.

Now Rick made a show of relenting. "You know what? I think I have
deserved a good cup of coffee... and I think you have deserved doing
weights while I am drinking that cup of coffee. Agreed?", he made
pretence of glaring at them.

"Yes sir!" both Jeremy and Jasper said immediately, standing up.

Rick took his jacket and went inside to brew up some coffee and have the
guys sort themselves out. He would have been happy to have left the
training at that, but if they felt like they owed him putting in a bit
more effort, who was he to contradict them?

Jeremy watched Rick leaving the boathouse and going inside. You have to
know, boathouses are long, like, really long. They house huge boats, for
up to eight people in a row. And their boat house could fit three of them
in a row, lengthwise. As boathouses go, their club had a pretty huge one.
So, it took Rick a while to leave their sight.

"So, where do you want to start?" Jeremy asked Jasper, looking around.

"Let's use the bench, I'll spot you," he replied.

Jeremy walked over to the bench that had a big bar installed above it. He
slid on some weights, nothing too heavy, and laid himself down. Jasper
walked over and stood at his head's end, handing the bar to the waiting
Jasper.

As Jeremy looked up, he could not help but notice that he was looking
right at Jasper's crotch area. The tight rowing pants did not leave much
to the imagination. He dropped the bar and pushed it back up.

He could actually see the lines of Jasper's underwear under the pants.
Again, he dropped the bar and started pushing it back up.

Funny, it almost looked as if something twitched in Jasper's pants. The
bar dropped, and he found pushing it back up getting harder, he started
breathing heavily.

Meanwhile, Jasper was focused on keeping his hands ready on the bar.
Ready to grab hold of it the moment Jeremy might get too tired and drop
the weights, or slip. He noticed Jeremy looked very focused. And as he
watched the muscles in his arms grow taut, he let his gaze glide over the
rest of his body.

It was strange, almost like Jeremy was a totally different person. Or, he
was watching Jeremy with very different eyes. Just like he had noticed
the hairs on his legs a moment ago, he now noticed the abs that crunched
together on each lift. And how his shirt had lifted slightly to expose
just a bit of flat stomach. And, when he dared going further south, he
was surprised to see something long and elongated in Jeremy's equally
tight pants. No, seriously? Was he sporting a boner? Just the thought
made his own body react though, and he nearly missed that Jeremy had
almost not managed to lift the weights that last time.

"Once more... with feeling!" He joked as he helped Jeremy ever so
lightly to push the weights back up. Slowly the bar rose, and he made it
lock safely in the stand.

Jeremy was breathing heavily now and needed a moment to catch his breath.
As he came back down from the effort he tried sitting up and noticed how
hugely uncomfortably his erection was pushing against the elastic fabric.
"Oh, sorry about that," he remarked to Jasper, pointing at his own
crotch.

Jasper shrugged, "No worries dude." But secretly, he found he could not
get his eyes off of Jasper's package. The fascination was baffling. He
tried to cover for himself by getting busy, "My turn!"

As Jasper laid himself down on the bench, Jeremy quickly changed the
weights to something slightly lighter. He could see Jasper rolling his
eyes. "Seriously, not trying to get you hurt here! Just see if you can
match my fifteen with these," he told Jasper.

Jasper took a hold of the bar and looked first left, then right and
finally straight up. Jeremy's dick was now obscenely tenting the front
of his Lycra pants, and it felt like it stuck out over Jasper's head. He
dropped the bar and pushed up. The bar almost caught Jeremy on the dick,
which was somehow hilarious to Jasper.

Again, he dropped the bar and lifted it, now almost aiming for Jeremy's
protruding dick. "Hey, knock it off!" he heard Jeremy complain.

Again the bar dropped and this time he managed to make contact. He had
expected the dick to be soft and squishy and absorb the impact, but it
was apparently much more rigid than he had thought. Jeremy pretended like
nothing had happened.

So, Jasper lowered the bar and kept aiming for Jeremy's crotch, he
managed to gently press against it at least eight more times before he
felt he did not have much left energy left to lift the bar.

He made a weird, primordial, "Ungh" sound as he pushed up one last
time, and he clicked the bar into its stand. He let his hands slide
across the bar to the centre and felt them ending up together against
Jeremy's stomach. Did he dare? He did dare! He let his hands drop in
such away that both hands glided down fully against Jeremy's erection.
It felt very warm and very smooth and the moment passed way too soon for
Jasper's liking.

Jeremy did not fully register what happened, other than that he felt a
very satisfying touch on his groin after he had got quite excited as the
bar had kept pressing into his raging erection. He was sure he was not
doing this by accident. And right when he was done, Jasper managed to
drop his hands in such away that he could have almost grabbed a hold of
him.

"Dude! You are rock hard," Jasper said, sounding fully amazed, both
eyebrows raised.

"No shit doofus, you kept feeling me up!" Jeremy retorted, slightly
embarrassed, cheeks reddening.

Things suddenly got a lot worse though, as they saw light appear at the
other end of the boathouse. A door opening.

Jeremy quickly turned around and grabbed hold of a sandbag. He tried
holding it up against himself, kind of like how he would hold up a
backpack when he found himself in the same predicament at school.

Jasper looked down at himself and saw that he was pretty much presentable
again already, as he watched Rick coming closer walking briskly down the
aisle.

Jeremy made a show of slightly lifting and dropping the sandbag, all the
while hoping with all his hopes that the damned thing would just go down.

"We have to stop doing this!" he whispered to Jasper.

"What?" Jasper asked.

"Someone will notice if we keep touching each other." Jeremy answered.

Jasper got that it was not necessary to have anyone see him touching
Jeremy's dick, not even on accident. Well, accident? But it wasn't a
big deal otherwise, right? They were friends? Jeremy often threw his arm
around his shoulders.

"Whatever," Jasper said, not all that worried.

That irked Jeremy even more. "Just, don't!" he said.

"Don't what?" Rick asked, approaching the guys, looking them over
quizzically.

"Nothing, really," Jeremy quickly said, feeling busted. He could no
longer hold up the sandbag. To his relief though, his annoyance had made
his boner go down again to something more decent.

Rick shrugged, he did not really care. "Okay guys, enough is enough. Hit
the showers and go home." He started walking away, but turned around.
"Oh, and can you guys lock up? My girl is waiting for me at home," he
smiled mischievously.

Jasper and Jeremy looked at each other. "Sure, no problem," Jeremy
answered, as he felt it was his place to answer as the oldest of the two.
"Ehm, have fun?" he tried.

Rick continued down the aisle, and he just waved at them. They could see
him leave the boathouse.

Jasper picked up his towel from the chair, spun it around a few times,
tightening it up and flicked it at Jeremy with a quick wrist movement.

"Ouch!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"That's for being such a grump!" Jasper said. "What were you making
such a fuss about just now!?"

Jeremy rubbed the sore spot on his upper leg. "You should be more
careful with what you do," he told Jasper, "what if someone sees?"

"So, what?" Jasper asked. "We act silly all the time. We're friends.
Is it about our hug? The shower?" he continued. "And you were the one
sporting a huge boner over my face just now," he added accusingly.

Jeremy got irritated as well now. "Well, sor-ry! As if you are mister
perfect, having complete control over your body all the time." he
replied. He was feeling all riled up, but did not really understand where
it was coming from. Puberty was a bitch, in more ways than one.

Jeremy sat himself down on the bench again. What was happening? Where had
this argument come from? He dropped his head in his hands.

Jasper let out a big sigh, willing himself to calm down. His mom had
taught him meditation ever since he was really young, and it helped him
now when he wanted to calm down. As he felt the air leave his lungs, the
pang of anger subsided. He sat himself down next to Jeremy on the
weightlifting bench.

"I just don't get it," Jasper said. "You let me come all close first,
and then you just clamp down completely and shut me out."

Jeremy considered that. Did he do that? Yes, he thought he might actually
do that. He could not reconcile how he was, on the one hand, so very
excited about Jasper actually allowing him to come this close. And on the
other hand being so very afraid of being found out by anybody else. A
tremor of fear went through his body as he experienced a short flashback
of how he had been bullied at his previous school.

Jasper had thrown an arm around Jeremy and felt the shudder go through
him. "Dude, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if I can tell, not right now," Jeremy started, "some
bad things from my old school. Sorry, I never really told you about
that."

Jasper had an idea what might be wrong. Being a school-going kid himself,
he was not unaware of bullies and what effect they had on other people.
He had a suspicion that whatever worried Jeremy, had something to do with
getting bullied.

"People gave you a bad time?" he asked carefully, not wanting to pry
too hard.

Jeremy only managed to nod his head.

"Was it... really bad?" Jasper ventured.

Jeremy nodded his head again, tears welling in his eyes.

Jasper did not really know what to say, or what to do. He could think of
only one thing. He grabbed hold of Jeremy and pulled his older friend in
a close embrace.

He whispered, "I'm here for you..."

_______________________________________

That's it for part three. Thank you for reading!

And thank you for the suggestions that I have received by mail. Special
thanks to Arch, for inspiring me to spend extra time working out the
characters. It's going to be worth it! And I enjoyed spending that bit
of extra time on them.

Also, for the people just dropping a short message to encourage me to
keep the story going, thank you. To be honest, I had not expected any
response at all, and I really am very appreciative and pleasantly
surprised. I did not know the readers here would be as kind as the
authors!

Email me at writersblock404@protonmail.com if you want to let me know
what you think of it so far.

And remember, if you can, consider a donation to Nifty!