Thank you for hanging with me, it’s been a busy week. This chapter will be two different stories. It will feature Hudson on his trip and Austin at camp. Next Chapter will be all Cole and Jacob on their trip. A lot will unfold separately here and then in part 8 things will develop. I know a lot of you are waiting for what will happen in the lives of these guys. I hope you are a little more patient with them, and me.
Austin:
I drove the 8+ hours to the football camp. It was a good drive; it allowed me to do a lot of thinking and get some alone time. At the first stop I checked my phone and there was a picture from Hudson, it was of the debit card I hid in his wallet. Caption just said, “why”. I just replied, “in case you need anything”. He just sent a pic back it was a close up of his face smiling. Oh man, that melted me. I sent him one back of me smiling. I also immediately made that his profile pic on my phone. I checked in with my parents and got back on the road.
I arrived on campus and went to the designated check in station. They gave me my parking and room assignment. I already knew that I was sharing a room with a kid from Arizona who was a highly rated wide receiver. I must admit I watched some of his plays and man this kid was fast and talented. I was just a small-town dude; this kid had like 5 stars and recruiting videos everywhere. I was not sure what to expect when I met him. I parked and headed up to where we would be staying. The rooms were in their Athletic dorms. They had been set up like studio’s with two twin beds, a couch, small kitchenette area and bathroom. All in all, pretty dang nice. I guess they were trying to impress us all as potential recruits as well. I had just set my bag on the floor and decided to go exploring a bit. I was about to walk out the door and was greeted by my roommate. He smiled and introduced himself, he said, “hi you must be Austin, I’m Jackson Wyant”. I shook his hand and said, “yup Austin Tucker here, nice to meet you”. For a moment I just stood there like a fan boy or something. He then said, “well you are the mountain of a man I expected, what the heck do they feed you in the Midwest”? I just chuckled and said, “mostly corn”. We both got a chuckle out of it. It did not go unnoticed that he was a very attractive individual, about my height, more of a slim build, with big hands, a great smile and dark eyes. Certainly, was nice to look at, but there was no way that could be on my mind. Then he said, “man I have watched your videos, and I am so glad my lineman are not trying to block you”. I looked at him quizzically and said, “you watched my videos”? He said, “absolutely, I wanted to learn more about you, it’s kind of what I do”. I laughed and said, “well I must admit I watched some of yours too, you are incredible, like that catch you made against Brophy Prep was stellar”. He smiled and said “yeah that one propelled us to the championship”. We chatted a bit then decided to head out for a look around.
We were walking out of the building and who is walking towards us. It is none other than Alex Roberts and Dalton McCann; Alex you may remember is the ass hat that is our rival and thankfully we have beat recently. Dalton, on the other hand went to school with us until his dad got a job in Texas and they moved. I honestly did not expect to see either of them here, but there they were. Alex walks up to us and in his posturing form says, “well it makes sense that you two would be together”. I look at him and just say, “what the fuck are you talking about Alex”. Dalton is quieter and says, “hey Austin how have you been”. I respond, “good and you”. What I want to say is what are you doing hanging out with this douche canoe. I then take notice that Jackson is sort of stiff and quiet. So, I just say, “well see ya never hopefully Alex, and later Dalton”. Then walk on, I can tell that Jackson is beside me. He says, “you know him”? I explain and tell him what I know about him and some of the shit he has said. He then says, “ahhh that makes sense”. We grab some snacks and look around a bit, then head back to the room. I can tell Jackson is still tense about something. We get to the room and he relaxes a bit.
We both unpack and are setting on the couch watching spring training baseball. He then mutes the tv and says, “you know why your friend Alex made the comment right”? I said, “because he’s an ass”. He replied, “well no, well yes, but it’s because I am gay and clearly your he has read the rumors online”. He went on and said, “It was as shit deal, I messed around with a kid, and he outed me in a social media post, I was stupid. There were a few people that picked it up but mostly everyone was supportive. But there are some I guess that aren’t”. I just sat there staring at him. I could see he was waiting for me to say something. So, in all my eloquent speaking abilities, I said, “uhhh oh”. I could see in his eyes the pain. Then he said, “so yeah if you want to go ask for a different roommate, I get it”. I finally came to my senses and said, “what, new roommate, no fuck that”. I went on, “wait, let me start over, first, that sucks what that kid did to you, I cannot imagine how that would feel, second, who or what you are is no one else’s business, third, I completely know how you feel, I am right there with you”. He looked at me and said, “thank you for saying that it did suck, but wait, what do you meant you are right there with me”. Oh shit, what do I say, what have I done. He then bails me out, “anyhow, it sounds like that Alex dude must have heard and is going to be a dick about it”. I was setting mind spinning, I felt like I was stuck in the mud. Jackson waved his hand in front of my face and said, “Earth to Austin”. I just looked up at him, blinked and said, “I think, I’m gay”.
If I was shocked by what Jackson said, he was equally stupefied with my admission. I then out of nowhere said, “and I’m in love with my best friend”. Oh fuck, where did that come from. Jackson smiled and looked at me and said, “anything else bud”. I just said, “um no, and I have never said that out loud to anyone else”. He said, “well that can be a lot, and I guess with that second admission, we will not be having lots of wild crazy sex this week, darn there goes that fantasy”. I said, “uh, no I guess not, plus, uh I’ve never had sex”. He said, “well this is quite a night of admission for you bud”. I said, “I feel like a thousand pounds lighter, dude and I am sorry to word vomit to you”. I was thinking, I did not know this guy why I just tell him three of my most guarded secrets. What was I thinking, was I going to end up a social media post now. I was reeling and Jackson could tell. He reached out for my hand, I flinched at his touch and then relaxed. He said, “thank you for confiding in me, I will keep your secret, but I can tell you secrets just eat at you”. I said, “I know it has been difficult”. I went on to describe everything that has taken place recently between Hudson and me. He just started laughing. Then once I said it all, I could not help but laugh too. Our laughter was broken by my phone ringing, and guess who it was. Hudson. We chatted a bit, he asked what I was laughing about and I made up a story, then I told him his best friend Alex was here, and his only response was “fuck that guy”. He said they had made it to the tournament and played their first game tomorrow at 10:30 am, I told him good luck and to text after it was over, I would probably be a camp. We hung up. Jackson looked at me and said, “dude I do not even have to ask who that was, as soon as you heard his voice you relaxed and your face lit up, so anyone who sees you together can probably tell how you feel”. I thought, oh shit, is he right, could Hudson tell? I just said well, “I can’t think about that right now”. We then decided it was time for bed. We brushed our teeth and laid down. I had the overwhelming urge so I sent a pic of me in bed with the words “good night” to Hudson. Within 30 seconds I got a pic back of him saying “good night, I have to sleep in clothes”. I blurted out a laugh.
The next day at camp were divided into groups I was with all the defensive ends and some other D-lineman. It was pretty much what you would expect sort of like the NFL Combine, we did agility, and skills, and walk throughs, we did some film breakdown too. All in all, it was a great day for me. Toward the end of the day one of the coaches pulled me aside and asked about my interest in colleges, and if I had any offers. I was honest, I said I have kind of ignored most of that noise. He laughed and said, “I get that, but this summer and next fall you are probably going to be hearing from a lot of schools kid, just don’t forget about us”. I smiled and said thanks Coach Robinson, I won’t. We walked back to the locker room together, I ran into Jackson and he asked if I wanted to go work out, this was a great idea. We had a great workout, there were a few others in there, some were players here at college and some were here for the camp. We talked to a few of them, and everyone was very nice, their facilities were definitely top notch. We got done working out, and went back to the locker room, grabbed our stuff and headed out. While walking back to the room we talked about our day. I told him about coach asking about offers, he said, “you don’t know who offered you”. I said, “honestly I don’t think anyone has”. I really had no clue. He talked about his college interest. We got up to the room. Without hesitation I stripped off my sweaty shirt and shorts, I announced, I was going to shower. Then peeled off my underwear, well ok admission time here they were actually Hudson’s, I brought 2 of his old compression shorts from the wash, I hope he doesn’t notice, they were a bit tight, but damn it felt good to have my junk where his usually is. Jackson just stood there, in stunned silence, mouth open. Oh shit, this was not something he was used to. He said, “well I guess you aren’t shy, and from the looks of it I see why”. I blushed. I headed into the bathroom and showered. I came out he was waiting in his shorts, without a shirt on, and he headed in. I dressed and evaluated the past day. I checked my phone and had 6 texts from Hudson and a couple from my mom. Hudson won the first game and threw 6 shutout innings, he was playing right field the other games, he had already hit 2 home runs and had 7 RBI’s. There were pictures of them celebrating and him smiling. When Jackson came out, I must have had the goofiest grin on my face. He just said, “must be him if you have that look”. I looked up and before I could say anything he dropped his towel. Holy shit, that dude was hot and packin, dear lord. I was transfixed on him. He put on his underwear and turned, and looked at me and said, “hey, you have some drool there on the corner of your mouth”. I was embarrassed and said, “oh sorry”. He just laughed. Damn he was very attractive. This might be a long week. We both got dressed and headed down to get something to eat. There were a lot of guys in the cafeteria we ordered pizza and set down to wait for it. We were talking with a couple of guys one from Sam from Florida he is a tight end and Cooper from Louisiana who is an offensive tackle. We chatted about a few things just kind or shooting the shit. They seemed pretty cool, they said they were going to head back to their room and play Monster Hunter Wilds and wanted us to join, we decided it was better than going back to our room and more Spring Training Baseball. We stopped grabbed our pizza and they got their food and we were headed out. In walked Alex, Dalton, and a couple of other guys. In passing Alex looked at us and said, “hey ladies, where are you off to”? We just responded that we were headed up to Sam and Coopers to play a game. He then says to them, “better watch these two butt pirates”. I turned and handed our pizza to Jackson and bucked up to him and said, “what is your fucking problem Alex, just leave everyone the hell alone, all you are doing is making yourself look ridiculous”. He spat back at me, “what can’t you and your little fag friend take the heat”. That was it, I was done with him. I was about to punch his lights out when Coach Robinson stepped up and said, “problem boys”. Before I could respond Cooper said, “well coach it seems you have a bit of a bigot here at your camp”, then he looked at Alex and said, “sure hope that doesn’t hurt your recruiting little man, just remember who is supposed to block ole Austin here on your blindside”. Coach looked at everyone and just said, “gentlemen might I suggest you just head on to where you were going, I’ll handle this”. We walked off.
We got to their room, and I apologized to them and let them know he was really a sore loser and the history we had in games. Cooper, just said, “don’t apologize for someone else man, he clearly has some issues he needs to work out”. Then he turned to Jackson and said, “hopefully with all you have been through recently guys like that don’t get under your skin, because honestly not that others know they will use it against you”. Jackson just chuckled and said, “oh I know, I have heard worse from better, but he might need me make him look good during scrimmage because I saw the squads and I am his number 1 wide out”. We all found the humor a bit in that. Anyhow the rest of the night went well we joked, played the game and truly enjoyed our time. By 10 we were headed back to our room to bed. We were about to the room and Dalton was in the hallway, he stopped us and said, “I just want to let you two know that I do not share my roommates’ views, feelings or verbiage, in fact, I’d say tomorrow he will have a much better attitude”. I just said, “thanks for that Dalton, I never knew you to be like that”. We all made peace and headed back to our room.
While Jackson was in the bathroom I called Hudson, we had a good chat, and it was great to hear his voice. He sounded like he was having a great time they had won both of their games. I congratulated him and we said good night. I got up and brushed my teeth and came back out. Jackson was laying there, “he said, ok dude, I know it is your choice, but I think you owe it to yourself and Hudson to tell him the truth, at least that you are gay”. I said, “yeah I just don’t want it to be weird between us then, I just don’t want our lives to change, but you are right I shouldn’t lie to him”.
The next morning Alex was waiting outside our room; I had a snarl on my face when I seen him. But he clearly was singing a different tune. He just said, “I apologize for my behavior, it’s it childish and I just hate losing to you, and we have lost so many times, and it sucks”. I said, “ok but man the slurs need to stop”. He said, “yeah I know and I am sorry, I’ll be better”. We just said, “good, that is welcome”. We accepted his apology and went on our way.
We had two more days of practices, then Thursday, we had our first walkthrough and no pads scrimmage. It went great, and I did much better than I anticipated. I also noted that Jackson certainly lived up to his hype, and I hated to admit that Alex was pretty talented. We finished up and had meetings and planned our full pad scrimmage for tomorrow. After we showered up and headed out. We grabbed some food and went to our room. We watched some tv and then Jackson said, “well, I’m going to go to the bathroom and get ready for bed”. I got a text from Cole, he said, he had a lot to share with me, and he and Jacob were having a blast. Then one from Hudson, saying they finished up their week 5-0 and had a great time. He was ready to be home. I shared a bit about Alex and the happenings, and that we had our scrimmage tomorrow and I would be home Saturday. We said our good nights, and I had to pee, damn Jackson was taking forever. So, I got up and went to the door, I was about to knock when I heard, him grunt and then growl, fuck yeah. Oh, shit, glad I did not knock. I went out and down the hall and used the common bathroom. I got back and he was out of the bathroom. I joked, “everything come out ok”. He just laughed and said, “yeah dude, I’ve been kinda pent up and had to relieve myself, I mean staring at your ass in those way to tight compression shorts, I mean come on man.” I said, “oh, um, ok”. He said, “what I know you’ve done it in the shower hell I seen the wall once when you were done”. I just said, “oh yeah that”. He winked and said, “I’d offer to help you but I think you are saving yourself”. I giggled like a kid and said, “yeah, but I might be saving a while”. He just said, “dude that’s on you”. And true it was.
The next day went very well for me I rang up 2.5 sacks, 6 tackles, and a fumble recovery. You are probably wondering if any of those were against Alex, well they were not, I played the opposite dives from he and Jackson, not sure if they designed this, probably so. But Alex and Jackson sure turned it up they Jackson had 2 TD’s and definitely made Alex look good, I’ll admit Cooper did a bang up job protecting him too. All in all it was a great week. The scrimmage was over about 2, and I dropped Jackson and Sam off at the airport, and decided I wanted to just head home. I called my parents and let them know and asked them to not tell Hudson, I wanted to surprise him.
Hudson:
The bus ride to baseball tournament was pretty uneventful they had chartered a nice bus; I watched movies on my phone mostly. We stopped at a convenience store somewhere in Arkansas. Everyone was going in and getting stuff. I knew I had cash that Alice had given me, but I really didn’t want to spend much. I grabbed a bottle of water and seen a card in my wallet, with a note. The note said, “use this for anything you need, what’s mine is yours”. Fuck man he is always looking out for me! I snapped a pic and sent it to Austin, caption “why”. He just replied, “in case you need anything”. This guy. So, I sent him a close-up pic of me smiling at him, I wanted to wink but afraid that might be weird. He sent back a smiling pic of himself. Damn he was cute. I immediately set that as his profile pic in my phone. I really wish I could express how I feel about him. Hell, I wish I could explain to myself how I feel about him. All I know is when I am with him, I am grounded, relaxed and I feel wanted. I really was not sure what this meant, I just know I like that feeling. To pass the time, I played games on my phone and slept. We arrived and checked into the hotel. I was rooming with Clay our catcher, he is a cool dude. We got to the room and coach said we have practice in and hour then back here for a team dinner, and then curfew is 10 pm, and there will be bed checks. Clay and I settled in, I could already tell he was not going to be the meticulous clean person I was used to sharing a room with. It is odd, when I think about it I can remember Austin’s smell, damn, I kinda missed that. I shake my head, anyhow I neatly unpacked my stuff, I noticed that I had mostly new underwear with only one pair of my old compression shorts, thankfully at least my lucky ones were there. I must have left the others in the laundry. Oh well, we headed down for the meal. We hung out and chatted a bit, Clay brought his PS5 so we made our way back to the room and played that for a while, I was getting tired so I laid down in bed, as soon as my head hit the pillow I got a text from Austin, it was a pic of him and he said “good night”. This made me smile, I texted a pic back and said, “good night, I have to sleep in clothes”. I knew this would make him laugh. I put my phone down and went right to sleep.
We were up the next morning we had a 10:30 game and I was the starter. I threw a gem of a game and we won. The rest of the time I would probably be playing in the field due to pitch count rules and coach was a stickler for rules and I appreciated that and so did my arm. If anything, I might come in to close. I had a great two first games I threw 6 shutout innings and then had 2 homeruns and 7 ribbies. I was pretty proud of myself, and sure Austin would be too. I then called Jimmy to tell him; he was very happy for me of course. We got back to the room after a meal out at Texas Roadhouse paid for by the booster club. Everyone was pretty tired, we got back to the room and Clay, and I chatted a bit, he asked about Sara, and I told him the truth about what I had seen on her phone and how it ended. He just said, “and you didn’t call that bitch out”. I just said, “nah that really isn’t my style”. He asked, if I knew who she was messing around with. I said, “all I know is she had the initials JG in her phone”. Clay thought for a second and said, “Justin Garrett”. I looked at him and said, “what, that dude graduated like 3 years ago”. Then Clay said, “yeah and he’s fucked or tried to fuck anything on two legs, that dude is a dirt bag”. Somehow, this did not help my confidence at all, she cheated on me with dirt bag, great. Well, all I could say back was, “good riddance then”. We played video games for a bit, then were getting ready for bed. I decided to shower, jerk off and brush my teeth. While jerking off all I could picture was Austin in the shower, was he fingering himself, fuck that was so hot. Why was I thinking about that, what did that mean, I closed my eyes and came with such force my legs buckled, I held the wall, fuck that felt great. After I just stood there, what does this mean, I usually jerk off to girls with big boobs, and shit. I’ve watched porn, I always focus on the chicks. But the only guy I can’t seem to get out of my head is Austin. I honestly don’t understand these feelings. Anyhow, I finish up and head back out into the room, when I open the door, damn it smells like a locker room, I definitely miss our clean room now. There is baseball gear strung everywhere, I find some underwear and put them on and go to bed, of course, I texted “good night” to Austin. The rest of the tournament went great, we won all our games, coach was happy, the guys were happy. Clay and I bonded, I opened up some to him about my family and now living with the Tuckers. How happy Jimmy was, and I said, “and now I’m not from the wrong side of the tracks”. Clay said, “what does that matter where you live”. I said, “buddy look around our town, there are some that look down on those of us that have less”. He just said, “well just know most of us see you for the good guy you are, the one that takes care of his little brother, and has maybe been a little less fortunate in the family lottery, but we all have our shit, I live on the same street as Cole and the new kid Jacob, I hear how bad Cole gets yelled at, hell the entire street knows. Jacob, I honestly have noticed that his mom has had a different guy there every week, not sure what is goin on there. My parents are good to my brother, sister, and me, but the work their fingers to the bone just so we have a roof over our heads and food on the table. I work in the summers and the only way I’m goin to college is on an athletic scholarship, I sure as shit ain’t getting an academic one”. Damn, I hadn’t even thought about college, shit one other thing to worry about, could I go to college, where would Jimmy go. Hell, I can’t think about this now. I should really ask Mrs. Tucker to meet with me when I get back at school, so I can look at my future.
We were done and headed home by Friday, it was a good trip home and I was glad to be there. We arrived at the school, Mike, Jimmy, and Loki were there to pick me up, and Jimmy had a million questions, and Loki a million licks to my face. We headed straight back to the house. When we got there Mrs. Tucker was in the kitchen and Mr. Tucker and Jimmy went to the barn to check on some heifers that were calving. I set down and said, “Mrs. Tucker, can we talk”. She replied with a warm smile, “no, not until you call me Alice”. I laughed and said “sorry ma’am, I mean Alice”. She then set down beside me and said, “what do you want to talk about Hudson”. I said, “well I was thinking about college, and my future, and I have no clue, then I started in about Jimmy, and my mom, and dad in prison, Tara, and everything else. About 10 minutes later I think I stopped talking. She took my hand and said, “ok hun, I can tell you have a lot on your mind, have you talked to anyone about this”. I said, “usually I talk to Austin”. She said, “good, now for the college stuff, lets meet at school, and go over your transcript, and requirements, we did this a group when you were sophomores but most of you guys didn’t listen. Next, with you living here I may not be the best person to counsel you on personal issues, I love you and I will want to protect you and that might not be the best combination for advice on emotions, so I will recommend you talk to Mrs. Hinkle, the middle school counselor. I have sent other friends of Austin’s to her too, she is wonderful. I just got up, hugged her and thanked her. I said, “I’m beat, I am heading to bed”. I went upstairs, threw my clothes in the wash, and got in the shower. I decided to crawl in bed naked, fuck it felt great. For some reason, I gravitated to Austin’s side of the bed and crawled in, oh man his pillow smelled like him. I thought it was odd that I did not get a good night text from Austin, he texted how he had an awesome scrimmage, but radio silence after that. Anyhow, I was tired, so I texted him, “good night” and fell asleep.
I was sound asleep, when I heard something in the room. I woke up and there at the end of the bed was Austin. He said, “wake up sleepy head, and umm, why are you on my side”. I sleepily replied, “is comfy, smells like you”. Oh shit! My eyes, flew open, I stammered, I mean um I was just tired. I got up, forgot I was naked, and fully aroused. Shit! Austin, kinda laughed and said, “all good”. He phone pinged, the screen lit up and he had this look on his face and texted something back. I was now curious, “I said what was that”. He said, “oh it is the kid I roomed with at camp, letting me know he was home too”. I just said, “oh”. He put his stuff down on the bed and went into the bathroom, I was about to crawl back in bed, and his phone lit up again. Message from Jack, “you need to talk to him”. What did that mean? Talk to who? I was beginning to hate accidentally seeing other’s texts. I just crawled back in bed, without thinking I went right back to Austin’s side.
He came out of the bathroom and said, “hey, man are you naked on my side”. I just laughed and said, “you know it, remember what’s yours is mine”. He said chuckling, “fine, well surprise, I came home early” to which we laughed. I thought about getting up, but Austin just grabbed his fan and moved it to the other side of the bed, plugged it in, turned it on, and climbed in bed. I suddenly felt his body heat, smelled his scent, and immediately my heart slowed and I relaxed. I sleepily murmured “good night, Aus, love you”. His breath hitched, and he replied, “good night love you too Hud”.
In the next chapter we will explore Cole and Jacob, but don’t fret I won’t keep you waiting long. The next Hudson and Asustin Chapter is about done too. Thank you all for reading and I am loving the feedback. Keep the good vibes coming.
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