The Trainer by Jamie Lake Page A

up, and well, when nature calls...”
    “I feel you,” Chris said, wiping his tears from laughing so hard. “I’ve been so horny la tely, I think I’m going to explode.”
    “Yeah?” Mason said, sounding interested, just looking at him for awhile. Chris swore he saw him adjust himself a bit, but passed it off as wishful thinking.
    “Oh Jesus, yeah,” Chris responded, sighing perhaps a little too transparently.                 Mason smiled at him. They sat there in what would normally be a very awkward moment; however, it felt fine. Comfortable. There was this buzzing rapport between them; this energy of calm, excitement, but simultaneous ease.
    Mason had rarel y felt this trusting this fast, much less with a male friend. He usually bonded with stronger women:  one of the reasons his girlfriend was so jealous. For example, his best friend Vivienne, a Haitian trainer who taught him a lot of his techniques, was a perpetual source of conflict between himself and his ex, even though all three of them knew there was no sexual energy whatsoever between Mason and Vi. She was a lesbian.
    Mason had realized from early on that Chris reminded him of somebody: his best friend from his school days, Kevin. He and Kevin had gone camping together in rural Maine where they grew up; they had tramped around in the woods and streets of their little podunk town, and been infamous for pulling off the senior prank at their high school: releasing ten chickens into the halls on the last day of class.
    Mason had always admired Kevin in more ways than could be explained by simple friendship or bromance. Kevin’s blonde hair, big brown eyes, and lithe ectomorph body had once been a source of great excitement and confusion for Mason. He often forgot it, but there had been nights in boy scouts when they had masturbated together, fantasizing about the same girls. Eventually, they stopped fantasizing and just masturbated together, staring at one another’s bodies in the dim moonlight. After that, in his earlier teens, Mason had often jerked off , fantasizing about Kevin; however, as soon as his muscular physique blossomed and girls were interested in him, he forgot all about his brief foray into the homoerotic. In college, he chalked it up to crazy teenage hormones and never ever spoke of it.  He wasn’t gay, or even bi. However, something about Chris reminded him of Kevin’s same mixture of strength and vulnerability, of boyish charm and sexiness. On the one hand, it was sort of confusing. On the other hand, it wasn’t confusing at all. His body knew exactly what it wanted, right? He was an open-minded guy. He knew theoretically that sexuality was fluid, and could change depending on different situations. Theoretically. Was this happening in practice?
    Now, Chris was grinning widely, his clean, perfect rows of teeth glinting along with his big brown eyes. They were talking about their exes. Mason told a story from last year when Victoria got so pissed that she actually took a crowbar and smashed out the windows of his car. The way he told it, with growing insanity in his imitation of Victoria every time, was making Chris crack up; soon he was laughing so hard his already boyishly rosy cheeks were beet red and tears were streaming from his eyes.
    Mason watched Chris’ mouth. His lips looked full and soft and moist, just the way he liked them. He stopped himself. Was he actually thinking of another dude this way? He hadn’t had feelings like this in his whole adult life. All his conflict with his ex and the chaos of the past year had really made him re-evaluate everything, and to be honest, he had found himself so tired of and even disgusted with the thought of sex with his ex that he had wandered onto some gay porn websites to get off. Nothing hardcore, just pictures of fit young guys and their hard cocks. But the feelings he was having right now, for another actual human being in the flesh?  That was taking things a step