Stamina

For several days, they tried to go back to their normal routine: basketball in the afternoon, sometimes a jog together in the morning. Riley worked every other day as a lifeguard at the local pool, a band of sunscreen permanently marked on the bridge of his nose, while David had odd tutoring jobs mixed in with helping his neighbors mow their lawns and clip their hedges. It was going to be a long, lazy summer.

It was like a dream, what had happened two, three days ago. But the farther they got away from it, the clearer it became. Each one of them, unknowingly, was replaying the afternoon in their heads.

Finally, five days after the first incident, before they could reach the court, Riley turned around and said, "You know what, man, I can't do this anymore."

David stopped cold. For a moment, he thought Riley was announcing that because of what had happened, and because of the awkwardness between them, he had to end their friendship.

They stood there on the sidewalk, just yards away from their old high school. David could see the goalposts, the field where he had thrown countless winning touchdowns, behind the plane of Riley's shoulders.

"Do what?" David asked. His question came out more aggressively than he had meant to.

"Not talk about what happened."

To his own surprise, David felt relieved. If Riley was willing to talk about what happened, that meant that he wouldn't try to just brush off the whole thing.

David came up to Riley and looked him square in the eye, going for hopefully the right balance of assertion and, well, not seeming like he wanted to bring this up again so that he could get a blow job from a guy. "So," he said, "let's talk about it. What do you think we should do?"

"Let's just...look, let's just shoot some hoops, and then..." Riley trailed off.

Nothing but the sound of cicadas filled the air. "And then what, exactly?" David asked.

Riley was determined to hold us his end of the bargain. "You won fair and square," he said. "So I gotta do this."

"Are you sure, dude?" David blurted out. He stared at Riley, looking for signs of heatstroke. "It was really just a joke. We were both...you know...

Horny? Yeah, Riley knew. It was all he could and had been thinking about.

"Fine," David said, "I'll give you another chance. If I win this game, you suck me off, like we agreed. If you win this game, we lower the penalty."

"To what?"

"I don't know, Riley. Just lick my balls or something."

"I see you thought this through," Riley said, grinning.

"I didn't, because I don't expect to lose," David shot back. He stuck out his hand. "We have a deal?"

Riley took David's hand in his own, feeling his warm, tight grip. They met each other's gazes. "Deal."

That afternoon, Riley played more aggressively than he had since he had been on the water polo team. For about twenty minutes, he was in the lead, and it seemed that he wouldn't get to-have to-taste David's dick anymore.

David stripped off his muscle tee, and not just to give Riley a gratuitous view of his shimmering pecs and abs. Riley followed suit. With the afternoon sun beat down, and both guys were becoming drenched in sweat. Soon, they were colliding into each other, skin-to-skin, as Riley tried to maintain his lead and hit 21 points first. But David's extra height (OK, it was probably only like two inches), and perhaps a natural knack for basketball, slowly began to win out. They were tied at 21, then 22. Riley concentrated everything into making the next shot, and he was up at 23.

"Guess you won't be getting off after all," he shouted down the court.

"Don't fucking bet on it."

There was something else in David that then came forward as he barrelled down the court. He easily got past Riley and made the next shot from just inside the three-point line. Riley took possession and nearly made it down to his end before David swiped it from him and raced to the other side. The swish of the ball through the net told Riley it was over.

David picked up the basketball and tucked it under his arm. They headed back to Riley's house in silence, leaving the lengthening shadows of the hoops and goalposts behind them. When they reached the house, once again, they stopped for a drink of water. While Riley tipped the glass up to his lips, he watched David do the same, the rim of the glass rising to his lower lip, the water trickling slowly past his tongue. A drop managed to slip past the corner of his mouth and landed on his upper pec, until gravity slowly teased it down to David's dark nipple. Riley gulped.

They went deeper into the house, through the cool hallway, until they reached the closed door of Riley's room. Riley led the way, with David only a few paces behind him.

Riley sat down on the edge of his bed, and he heard the snap of David closing the door. Neither one was too sure about what to do next. They sat there for a few minutes, neither really able to read the other's thoughts. Finally, David hitched his thumbs into his waistband.

"It looks like you're having some trouble there," he said, getting off the bed.

Riley got up off the bed too and turned to face David. He wondered if he should put his shirt back on, but he suspected that David would cum quicker if he didn't, and then they'd be done with this.

Now they were stuck again, standing face-to-face, at arm's length. David, almost imperceptibly, cast his gaze downward. Riley looked down too.

"What, do you want me to get on my knees and do this?" Riley asked.

"It's either that or I lie back on your bed and enjoy watching you give me a grade-A blowjob."

With a sigh, Riley got down on his knees in front of David's muscular thighs. For the second time that week, Riley found himself on his knees in front of David. Looking down at David's bulge, and then sneaking a glance at his own, a strange but somewhat familiar palette of feelings went through his head: apprehensiveness, slight disgust, but also intense curiosity to know what it would be like. That is, what would it really be like to pull down David's shorts, open his mouth, and take David's hard member between his lips? David would stand over him, one of his large hands palming the back of Riley's head, while the other-

Riley felt, and tried to suppress, a twitch below his navel. He was doing it again. He didn't need to enjoy this. He just needed to get it over with.

"You ready?" David asked.

Riley nodded. His knees sank down and came to rest on the cool hardwood floor, inches away from David's bare feet. The outline in David's basketball shorts was nearly at eye-level. He looked up and David one more time to see that he too was nervous.

And, with a note of surprising gentleness in his voice that was almost tender, David added, "Only if you actually want to, of course. Not going to make you do anything you don't want to."

Riley acknowledged this with a nod, and when considered David's expression, looked into those deep, brown eyes, he saw lust, obviously, but also quiet tenderness and, behind that, a vulnerability. What had he been thinking, David seemed to think, getting a guy from high school, whom he had just reconnected with, to blow him? But would it be so bad, Riley thought, to do this for him?

He slipped the tips of his fingers under the waistband and began to pull down. The elastic felt unusually tight, as if daring him to pull harder and get all of the fabric, everything between him and David's cock, off in one go. He wondered if David would change his mind at the last second and stop him, and a growing part of him didn't want him to.

The shorts came down, leaving only David's boxer briefs between Riley and what was about to happen. Riley admired David's bulge, ample and heavy, like a plum. He almost wanted to run his fingers under it, just to feel the weight. But that would be too much; he had to resist. Now to remove the final separation. The elastic band slipped over the head of David's cock, then over the shaft and his full, heavy balls. For a second, he felt comically unsure of what to do with it, though he had known very well just a few minutes ago. His hand drifted upwards until he took hold of the warm, thickening shaft. A slight shiver coursed through David's body.

He wrapped his hand around David's thick pole. A pearl of precum had just emerged from the slit. He looked at the dark glans, thinking about how he was about to put his lips over it and taste the oaky musk of David's cock. After stroking David's member to full erection in no time at all, Riley wetted his lips. His head inched further and further towards David until, finally, his lips came to rest on the mushroom head of David's cock. David, who likely still had as much trouble processing this as Riley was, couldn't even let out a moan, just a deep gurgle from his throat. Riley opened his mouth.

Without any other thoughts, the head of David's cock slipped in. He began to trace his lips down the shaft, which was surprisingly smooth and spongy. Soon, the tip hit the back of his mouth; there was no way he was going to fit all of David's seven inches down his throat, and Riley began to retreat, accidentally grazing his top teeth against David. He let out a gasp.

"Sorry," Riley managed to get out, his lips still on David's cockhead.

"No, it's fine. That was..."

"Good?"

David swallowed and broke out into a nervous smile. "Yeah."

Good-that was what Riley needed to hear. He was emboldened. He began to suck faster, more confidently. David stopped looking down at Riley as if he couldn't believe what he was doing and closed his eyes. He let out a pleased sigh. Riley found that he was hard again, and leaking. He had to resist the urge to bring his hand to his own cock and started pumping. David, who hadn't known before what to do with his hands, was using his right to play with his nipple. Riley took his left in his own and brought it towards him, until David was gently resting it on the back of his head.

Riley looked once more at David. Each was beginning to understand what the other wanted. David ran his fingers through Riley's sandy blond hair, ruffling it into a windswept, rugged look, as if he'd just got off a motorcycle. Then he palmed the back of Riley's head, applying light pressure. Riley glanced up for a second and gave an encouraging nod, never letting David's member leave his mouth. With less apprehension, David pushed down, forcing Riley farther down his cock than he had been able to go.

David looked down to see Riley's broad shoulders and neck strain to keep his head all the way down on his cock. He began to gag but he suppressed it. For a first-timer, Riley was doing a commendable job of taking as much of David's dick into his mouth as he could.

Then, to David's surprise, he felt his friend's throat open up, as if he were swallowing. The pressure on his cock temporarily eased, then returned as he nearly slid the remainder of his length into Riley's mouth. Riley spluttered; his eyes were wet with tears, and David instinctively pulled back. But he felt strong hands seize his buttcheeks, forcing him to stay right where he was. Riley closed his lips around the shaft of David's cock again. Try as he might, it did not appear that Riley would be able to swallow all of David's meat. But the fact that he was trying turned him on so much.

After a few more seconds of attempted deep-throating, Riley had to relent. David released the grip he had had on the back of his head, and Riley's lips dragged sensually back up his shaft, coming to rest on the glans. David was sure his precum leaking into Riley's mouth. And not a moment too soon. David couldn't hold back any longer. Just as Riley completely pulled away, David was seized by a shuddering, blissful wave that grew from his throat, reverberated through his chest, his core, and out through his cock. His first spurt of cum hit Riley on his square draw, and by some miracle he was able to angle his cock downward and release the rest of his load onto Riley's shoulder and collarbone. Cum hit muscled chest with audible splatters.

Riley could feel David's release dripping down in the crease between his pecs. The drops of semen on his shoulders made him feel like he had been standing outside in a surprise thunderstorm; he was soaked through and through.

David, through his post-orgasm haze, could see that Riley was hard. While using tissues to clean himself up with one hand, he was gently rubbing the head of his cock through his shorts with the other.

"Fuck, Riley, are you gonna..." David asked, trailing off.

"Yeah. Do you mind?"

David helped Riley to his feet and said, "No, not at all."

As Riley took off his shorts, he expected David to turn around and start putting his clothes back on, make himself busy. But he all but stood there so that they were eye-to-eye once again. David glanced down at Riley's member, and noted that it looked even bigger than when they had jerked off together a few days ago.

Both men processed that neither one of them was going to back away: David would continue to stand there, a mere foot in front of Riley, while Riley closed his hand around his cock and brought himself to orgasm. The development of any awkwardness was cut short by the fact that Riley, just having sucked David's cock and still drenched in the result, was incredibly and unspeakably aroused. The power of David's hand on the back of his head, David's firm buttcheeks in his grasp, the firehosing of cum he had subjected Riley too. God, what more could David do to him? What more could he do to David?

Those questions threw him violently over the edge as his own ejaculation rendered him incoherent. He knew that his cum was hitting David in the navel, on his hip, onto his well-defined quads. Riley stumbled forward, and David caught him by the free arm. Two more shudders, and the cum to David's abs, brought them out in low relief.

"Fuck, Riley, you-" David said. Riley came back to his senses, afraid that David was furious for being doused like that. But it was David who had reached out and caught him, and when Riley opened his eyes-he hadn't even remembered closing them-there was a wide grin on his friend's face.

"-you asshole," David joked. "You got it all over me."

"Sorry, dude."

David gave him a gentle push. He then dipped a finger into the cum that had pooled in his belly button, inspecting its viscosity. "Next time," he said, "use some tissues, you know? Or a sock? You gotta have a Fleshlight under your bed, right? Since you can't get laid and all."

Riley glared at him. "Dude, I just blew you. A thank you would be nice."

David rolled his eyes. Whatever. It definitely wasn't grade-A.

They kept ribbing each other while they got cleaned up and dressed. Riley asked if David wanted to stay for dinner; he could probably whip something up for the two of them. David said he couldn't, his parents were waiting for him at home. They'd meet again tomorrow for basketball. They'd meet all this week for basketball. Maybe they could go catch a movie sometime.

"Sounds good," David said.

They reached the front door, chatting easily, as if nothing other than the afternoon on the court had happened. When it seemed that nothing more could be said, David turned around to leave.

"Wait," Riley called out. "I just had to ask you something."

David was all nonchalance as he got back on his bike.

"I think you said 'next time.' Like there's gonna be a next time. For what we just did."

"I did?" David asked.

To Riley, it felt like a stone had dropped into his throat.

David appeared to consider what he had said, "I did, didn't I? Well, we'll see how this goes. That was fun, but-"

"But?"

"But we'll see how this goes."

And he pedaled away. But before he could get too far, he looked back. Riley saw David flash a knowing smirk. He rounded his lips into an O, stuck his tongue into cheek, and began miming what Riley had just done to him. For him. David gave him a thumbs-up.

"Oh, fuck you!" Riley yelled. But David was already halfway down the block, his laughter dancing off the pavement.