The Apprentice
by and © N Fourbois
Chapter 45
Kieran carried on with his usual routine while Olaf took a personal interest in William and showed him how to use the machines he was permitted to use. In between actually exercising they talked and talked and towards the end of the session Olaf had extracted most of William's life story, apart from the catalyst to their instant relationship, the fact that they were both gay. But then it was probably not necessary for that to be stated explicitly. For William the words 'my friend Mr Bridgeman' had been enough and for Olaf the fact that the boy was staying with one of his gay regulars for the week had been sufficient. Besides that what full blooded gay could resist the charms of this wiry and athletic boy, dressed in his tight comp top and short shorts, with the doe-like eyes and the enchanting smile.
"Olaf, could I join this gym?"
"Naturally. How old are you?"
"Fourteen... well, nearly."
"Then for the next two years you qualify for junior membership. It's set at a low rate because we hope that once you're sixteen you wouldn't want to leave, but you'd want to become a full member. So how did you come to know Kieran?"
"Just through school. I'm his fag."
"Fag?" The Scandinavian's knowledge of English had not encountered the word in the British sense before and his mind immediately thought of the American meaning. William explained. He then climbed onto the exercise bike, tightened up the flywheel and gave it his best go. Conversation ceased. After five minutes he climbed off and was taken across to the walking/jogging machine.
"So he's not a special friend?"
"Who?"
"Kieran."
"He could be enigmatically," he replied, giving Olaf an enigmatic smile. How he was enjoying this encounter, how he was enjoying the attention, how he was enjoying playing the tart. 'Go for it,' he thought to himself. "Is Mr Bridgeman a special friend?"
"He could be," replied Olaf, aiming to imitate William's sang froid, but Olaf was the one who blushed. William was pleased with himself.
"Can I go on the rimming mach... I mean the rowing machine now?" William carried off his slip of the tongue nonchalantly, but it was his turn to blush.
"I think I'd better go and see how Kieran's getting on," said Olaf hastily. "The rowing machines are over there. You'll be perfectly safe on them."
Back in the locker room Kieran and William compared notes. Kieran was gobsmacked, chiefly at William's temerity. They quickly got out of their gym kit and slowly put on their speedos, ready to go though to the pool. William's were of a bright, but intricate pattern.
"You look absolutely stunning," said Kieran. "They're worth another photo session, but I'll give you a tip. If you're really out to impress the boys, get yourself a speedo in a single colour. Light blue or red are the favourites, and avoid black. Yellow and light green are okay, but you don't see many of those about. White looks as if you're swimming in your Calvin Kleins."
Mid-morning now, the pool area had begun to fill up. To begin with our boys swam lengths, then they just fooled around together, playing tag, ducking and divebombing each other. Finally they were beginning to feel the strains of their earlier efforts and so they sat on the side and boywatched. There were women and girls using the pool, but they escaped Kieran and William's selective vision. As the club attracted the more serious athletic type, the members were more conscious about the dress code. In the far corner there was a family whose two boys were wearing boardies and they stuck out, but the majority wore regulation speedos. However, there were a couple of boys who were wearing jammers. Unfortunately they were black, but when they caught them in profile, the impression they gave was positive, to say the least. However, to beat that, there was another boy in a full length one piece swim suit, but he was difficult to admire for he was obviously in serious training and when they did eventually see him, they held their breath at the appearance of his body, but were disappointed because the goggles and swimcap removed all trace of character from his face.
"He's still bedworthy," commented Kieran.
"What? Smelling of all that chlorine," piped up William.
"Now then, that's just sour grapes because you can't have him."
"Let's go and chat up those two in the jammers."
They slipped into the pool, swam across to the two boys in jammers and conspicuously got out onto the side right by them. William was as ever the bold one.
"You don't see many of those around," he said, pointing at their jammers. "Smart. Where did you get them from?"
"The sports shop in the High Street, but they don't stock them. You have to order them."
"And they're not cheap," added his friend, "but then coolness never came cheap. You like them then?"
"Sure do," said Kieran.
"We'd better go and get dressed," said one of the jammers. "We're starting to get cold."
"We'd better too," said William. "We did an hour in the gym and we're beginning to feel knackered."
They walked round the pool together, went through the footbath and into the locker room. It had filled up since they were there earlier. The four boys took their kit off ready for the shower. As soon as Kieran had dropped his speedo, one of the jammers said
"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" They looked each other up and down and Kieran shrugged his shoulders. They made their way into the showers, continuing their conversation. "What school do you go to?" Kieran told him. "Can't be that then. We go to St Sergius's."
"I used to go there," said Kieran.
"Hey, aren't you Kieran Williams, the kid who got expelled after the prefects stitched him up?" said his friend.
"Yeah, something like that," mumbled Kieran.
"And then the Headmaster had to retire because he had a nervous breakdown."
"I didn't know that," said Kieran.
"Yeah, got kicked out by the Governors more like it," said jammers number one.
"You did us a good turn, you know," said jammers number two. Since Mr Hambrook took over, the place has improved no end."
"In the end they did me a good turn," said Kieran. "If I hadn't gone to my new school, I wouldn't have met my fa..." He stumbled over his words. "I wouldn't have met my friend." Kieran realised he had said too much.
"Oh, he's a friend," said jammers number two.
"We thought he was your brother," added jammers number one. "Sweet."
"We've been watching him across the pool," said number two. "You've got taste, Kieran." William cupped his hand under his balls and waved his dick at them.
"Whoo," he went to remind them that he was there.
"Sorry, mate," said number two.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Kieran," said number one. "At least we can walk around the school with our heads held high now."
"We'll tell the lads we met you and that you're carrying on the good work," jammers number two said with a more than obvious glance at William. They turned the showers off and all four went back into the locker area to towel themselves down and get dressed. Kieran and William obeyed Eric's rules for getting dressed in the most tantalising way. Finally they were ready to go and cycle home.
"Well, what did you think of that, William?" said Kieran once they were indoors.
"Coincidence," he replied. "Sounds as if you did a good job."
"I didn't intend to," protested Kieran.
"Still, at least I brought a little bit of sunshine into their gay lives."
"They were gay, were they?"
"C'mon, Kieran. I sometimes wonder about you. You don't even have to have gaydar to know they're gay. They more or less said so. I'm flattered at the way they were checking us out across the pool."
Kieran read Mrs Crater's note. He was pleased it wasn't a bollocking; it usually was.
"Mrs Crater will be in tomorrow, but won't be on Saturday. At least we get one lie-in. When does your mother get back?"
"Sunday, but I don't know the time. It won't be that early. It's quite a long journey and across country. The earliest would be lunchtime."
"I've got an idea. Let's cook her a Sunday roast. It was a part of my apprenticeship and you can do most of it under my supervision."
"I can't do that."
"Exactly my reaction, but it's easy-peasy and very impressive. Phone or text her and tell her what we're going to do and all we need to know is what time she'll be arriving. Now, more to the point, what are we going to do about food?"
"Let's snack now and eat early this evening. Then I'll be ready for you to steal my front cherry."
"What about this afternoon?"
"Why don't we cycle over to my place? I want to pick up a couple of things and there's something I want to show you. If we stop here, we'll only have fun and I want to save myself for the big one tonight."
"I'd better put that cock cage on you then."
"Yeah, but then I won't be able to cycle and that won't stop you, you randy old goat."
"Oh, just love the compliments. Now, if we're going to have sandwiches, I've got to cycle round to the shop and buy a fresh loaf of bread. You stay here. It'll be quicker and you can go through the fridge and decide what we're going to put in the sandwiches. Oh, one other thing. We've got some telephoning to do this evening. Must report in."
"Yes, I must admit I'm surprised my mother hasn't called," said William. "On the other hand my mobile is switched off. I'll check it while you're out."
William took the last of the sandwiches and Kieran started to clear away.
"We'd better get going soon. It gets dark so early now and your bike hasn't got lights on it."
"I'll pick up my fluorescent jacket."
They were soon ready and set out for William's house. They'd have a couple of hours before they had to cycle back. William picked up the post as they went through his front door. He looked through it and saw a postcard addressed to him in his mother's handwriting.
"Oh dear, what do they call these in Harry Potter? Howlers." In fact it wasn't. It just said how busy Mrs McLarney had been and she apologised for not phoning.
They went up to William's room. Kieran boned up in his jeans when he saw William's bed and thought back to what he and William had been doing together before Mrs McLarney's ill timed intervention. William wanted to show Kieran some photos from his earlier life. He took a shoebox down from the top of the wardrobe and showed him pictures from the time the family was still together, then of mother and father separated, then of father and boyfriend together. Kieran could see how much these pictures meant to William and so he looked at them patiently to begin with, but with the explanations given he gradually became genuinely interested. He particularly liked the ones from school, but here came the transition. As the printed photos ran out, William went over to the digital ones he had stored on the computer. There were some from his short time at College. One was a portrait of him and Toby Cholmondeley with Toby behind William, resting his chin on his shoulder and his hands in William's trouser pockets. The photo showed exactly where Toby's hands were, playing pocket billiards, and the big grins on their faces confirmed how much they were enjoying themselves.
"Will you e-mail me that one, please?" asked Kieran.
"This is the one I really want to show you," said William. He took the picture of him and Ashley Pennington from the shelf.
"I remember that one. You showed me."
"Ah, yes, but not properly." It was a typical official school photo in a dark green cardboard frame with the oval cut out. He carefully slid the photo out and handed it to Kieran. Yes, it was the one in school uniform, claret blazer with cap, but now the photo was out of its frame, Kieran could see that the boys were wearing shorts, proper old fashioned grey flannel shorts. He was impressed.
"I'd like to go gold digging there," said Kieran.
"Which one?"
"Both of you."
"You had to wear briefs with those shorts. Turn it over." Kieran did. He read out:
"'William, I shall always love you and never forget you. Perhaps one day we'll meet again. Yours for ever, Ashley' and three kisses." Kieran was quite touched. He hadn't understood the intensity of their relationship till now. "You never forget you first love," he said, thinking back to Orlando.
"You notice three kisses?" Kieran read the message again, to himself this time. "What I want to do is get it enlarged and framed like the one of you and Orlando."
"I think I can help you there. Not with making it into a poster. A friend of Dad's did that. You see, I've got a laser colour printer. If we scan it in high resolution, we can do almost anything with it, including printing the message on the back. If we can't, I'm sure Dad knows a man who can. We'll have to buy some photo printing paper tomorrow, but we can do the preparatory work tonight."
"I didn't tell you about Ashley, did I?"
"You said he was the first one to jerk off in your year."
"That was the odd thing. We became best friends almost immediately when we started at Broadwater Oaks. We were eight. When he started, his dick was ever so small, about an inch, and he had no balls, just what looked like an empty scrotum. Poor kid, he used to get the piss taken out of him and called a girlie, among other things. Then when we were in Lower Shell..."
"What's that?"
"The second to last year of the prep school, the equivalent of Year 7. We were twelve. At the beginning of the summer term he began to grow hair, you know, pubes. Over the term his voice broke, his prick and balls grew and by sports day at the end of term his dick was five inches and his balls were really big. That showed them and during the last year he didn't let his tormentors forget it." Kieran's face acknowledged suitable surprise. "Do you want to see the pictures?" He didn't have time to answer before William had decrypted a folder and there was the story in weekly instalments just as William had told it.
"Come on," said Kieran. "We'd better be getting back." William put his dirty washing in the linen box and collected the things he wanted.
"I'll show you this later." He waved something at Kieran, but he didn't see what it was. William closed down his computer, checked around to see everything was okay, put on his reflective cycling jacket and they left the house.
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