The Apprentice
by and © N Fourbois
Chapter 54
After school that Monday William was in a bouncy mood. While Kieran and Jack were chatting away on the bus home, he texted his mother to touch base and say that he was okay and to confirm a pick up time at eight fifteen outside the gym. When Jack got off, William moved into his seat and started telling Kieran about his weekend. Before he got too far into the narrative, Kieran calmed him down a bit with one or two realities.
"When we get to my place, you'll be meeting my mother for the first time, and possibly my dad, but that depends on how late he's working tonight. So remember they'll be quite interested in you and getting to know you since you stayed with me when they were away. The next thing is that because we both had weekends away from home, not a lot of prep got done and so we need to settle down to that, you more than me because I've got some free periods tomorrow to catch up. You can use my room to do your prep, as I can go into the office. Don't forget to bring your school uniform with you to the gym as you'll be going home with your mother this week." That appeared to debounce William a little, but didn't stop him carrying on with his account of the weekend.
"First of all the rugby. As you know we won, but their team was a bit disorganised. Then at the end we only had squash and biscuits. So Toby and I were starving when we got to his place. His mum makes the most fantastic bacon butties. He sleeps in the loft with his brother, but he was away for the night with a friend from his school. By the way he's coming to College next September." They got off at Kieran's stop.
"But William, the important thing. Did you steal his cherry?"
"Nah. He said he lost it ages ago, someone from his last school, didn't say who. Still, he was good fun 'cos of his experience. Yet the funny thing was, he had never snogged anybody." William giggled. "He has now. So we had a great time. Then Sunday evening his brother Oliver came home and do you know what? They look exactly the same."
"Is he gay?"
"Who? Oliver? He says he's not and Toby says he's not, but Toby and him do stuff together, but that doesn't make him gay because they're brothers and that's okay. But he'd certainly had fun on his sleep over."
"So are you two an item now?" Kieran asked William.
"I wouldn't think so." Then eh whispered "Fuckbuddies, maybe, but it's the C-word again. You know he's got his sights set on you, Kieran, don't you? And I must admit I'm dying to find out what's in Jack Bastion's trousers."
"All I'll say about that is you'll find it interesting, Will." That left William wondering and from that day forth Jack represented for him a bit of a challenge.
They'd reached Kieran's house and he unlocked the front door to let them in.
"Hallo, Mum, we're home." Colleen appeared out of the kitchen to greet them and Kieran said "This is the famous William you've heard so much about." She said hello to William who turned the charm on to maximum flow and used his smile and big brown doe-like eyes to best effect when he answered. Kieran went on "We're on a bit of a tight schedule this evening because we've both been away for the weekend. I'm going to put William in my room to get changed and to do his prep and I'll do mine in the office."
"I'll bring you both some tea and cake in about ten minutes and let you get on. What time is Eric coming?"
"About twenty to seven."
"Tell him to call in when he brings you back. We haven't seen him since before we went away - and if he wants feeding, tell him I'll do that too."
"Okay, Mum."
The three went off to the gym, got changed and started their warm up exercises prior to embarking on their circuits. They were warmly greeted by Olaf who said to Eric
"Great weekend. Thanks a lot. Must do it again sometime."
"Hey, Eric, did you have Olaf as your guest this weekend?"
"Yeah, sure and..." but he stopped there. "I'll tell you about it later.
They got on with their individual circuits. Kieran and William were learning to spot for one another, at least how to do it properly, when they heard a cry of pain from the direction of the rowing machines. The boys looked up immediately and saw Eric in agony. William went to fetch Olaf while Kieran went across to his uncle.
"What's the matter, Eric?"
"I've pulled a muscle on the inside of my thigh. This one," he added, pointing to his right leg. Kieran grinned.
"Too much use over the weekend," he giggled.
"It's all right for you to laugh, but it's bloody painful." Meanwhile Olaf had arrived.
"I think we had better get you to the emergency room. If I support you, can you walk?"
"I can limp."
"Just help me get Eric to the emergency room, boys, and you can carry on with your exercises."
Once there they helped Olaf get Eric onto the bed and went back to their session. Olaf felt the inside of Eric's thigh through his one piece. It had a strange effect. On the one hand it was pinpointing the source of the pain and on the other it was arousing.
"I'll be back in a minute. While I'm gone, try and start taking your suit off. If you can't, I'll help you." When Olaf returned with a freezer bag, Eric's suit was around his knees and he lay there in a thong. He put two packs of frozen peas on the inside of Eric's leg. There was immediate relief.
"Haven't you got any proper freezer packs?" asked Eric?
"No. What's the point? These do the job perfectly well, are much cheaper and you can eat them afterwards. Insufficient warm up I would say." While Eric lay there clasping the packs of peas to his leg, Olaf went to find Kieran. "Eric will be okay. Grade 1 groin strain, I suspect. When you've finished your session, just get changed and I think he'll be able to drive. I'll know by then." With that Olaf went back to the emergency room. He locked the door behind him, fondled Eric's thong, pulled it down, bent over the bed and gave him head. Eric made no protest.
Olaf grabbed some tissues and cleaned himself and Eric up. "If you can take that, there's nothing much wrong with you." He took the frozen peas away and put them back into the freezer bag. "What we call a grade 1 groin strain. Does it hurt?"
"A bit, but it's better than it was."
"I'll put this anæsthetic spray on your leg. That'll stop the pain for the time being. When you get home, a hot bath if you can manage it, then some Deep Heat, if you've got some at home, or an infrared lamp, and rest it as much as possible. If it gets worse, then go to your doctor or A & E, but I don't think it will come to that. But whatever, definitely no gym next week. Understood?" Eric reluctantly said yes. "Okay, give me your locker key and I'll fetch your clothes and I'll help you get dressed. Pull your thong up in case anybody barges in while I'm gone."
Olaf went off to the locker room where he found Kieran and William showering. He reassured them about Eric and said he'd be ready to go home in five minutes. It also gave him a good opportunity to check the boys out. He was still feeling horny after giving Eric the blowjob. Olaf took Eric's kit back to the emergency room and helped him to dress. By eight fifteen he had managed to limp to the foyer where he bumped into Mrs McLarney. A short conversation explained all and he re-assured her he was fit to drive. At that moment the boys arrived. William said good night and went off home with his mother.
"You're sure you're okay to drive?" asked Kieran. "I can always give Mum and Dad a ring."
"Yes, I'm all right. I can't feel any pain at the moment."
While they were driving, Eric explained about Olaf spending the weekend in his flat, and also his friend Leslie was there. 'Phew!' thought Eric. 'I got away with that one.'
When they got back to the Williams' place, Kieran rang the doorbell and went back to help Eric. Colleen wanted to mother him, but he insisted he could manage. Finally they got settled in the front room and Colleen brought in piles of sandwiches.
"I hope you're hungry," she said.
Eventually Eric was allowed to go home on the understanding he rang Colleen to say that he had got there safely and that he rang again in the morning to report on his state of health.
The following Monday at the gym seemed strange without Eric. Mrs McLarney offered to fill in with providing transport. Kieran and William went back to the McLarney house when school had finished. Watered, but not fed, they got on with their prep. She took them to the gym and used the time they were there to stock up on shopping at the supermarket. She could do that and have a coffee before picking the boys up.
This was a particularly important session for William. Kieran was interested in selective bodybuilding and keeping fit. He didn't want to end up as beefcake, yet he was proud of the way his sixpack and flat stomach were developing. His recovery time from the exercises had vastly improved. William on the other hand was getting Olaf's personal attention on certain apparatus. The fact that he knew William's gym master meant a certain amount of collaboration and tuition based on what he was doing at school. William still could not successfully perform the splits and because of his age he was unlikely to do so, which would prove a limitation, but he was being introduced to floorwork, vaulting and the parallel bars. He had the right body shape and metabolism. He ate generously and put on no fat. He was sinewy and his muscles were tight. What weight he did put on was from the natural growth of his bones and the addition of muscle. All this just added to his natural beauty.
Mrs McLarney took Kieran home and Colleen invited her and William in for a cup of tea. This was the first time Kieran's parents had met her and the boys found it politic to stay and be sociable. As Kieran said next day at school
"If that happens again, we could disappear up to my room and find something to do."
"What sort of thing were you thinking of, Kieran?" teased William. Still all that was theoretical for Eric was fit the following Monday and it was back to the normal routine.
The Autumn Term at College soon turned into winter and before they knew it Christmas was upon them. Whatever happened among the other fags and their fagmasters, a bond developed between the quartet of Jack, Kieran, Toby and William. The morale they developed between them could easily be dismissed as four gayboys together, but it was something greater than that, greater than the sum of its constituent parts, as the saying goes. There were other gayboys at College, some known, some securely in the closet, some gradually pushing the door ajar as they gained confidence in the school and knowledge of others in their situation, but none of them developed the bond that existed between our four boys. It would have been easy to attribute it to their active sexual relationship, but as yet that did not exist. Kieran had carnal knowledge of Jack and William, William of Kieran and Toby. Jack and Toby were, as it were, still monogamous, at least as far as relationships in College were concerned. What they wished for, and what they certainly didn't know was going to happen, was that all this was going to change with little effort on their own parts.
The College term ended in the traditional way: a few days earlier than the local schools, after the school play, after the rugby dinner, which of course Kieran was not entitled to attend, and after the Christmas carol service. He had kept going to the end, a fully committed member of school society, but as soon as College term ended he went home and collapsed. He didn't want to do anything, he slept late and went to bed early, slept in the middle of the day. At first Colleen was worried and wanted to send him to the doctor. She had never experienced this when he was at St Sergius's, but before acting rashly she had the good sense to phone William and Jack's mothers to ask if there was a bug going around. She was relieved to learn that those two were the same and having more experience of College life, Mrs Bastion was in a position to explain that something similar happened at the end of every College term. It was at its worst at Christmas because it was the longest term and because of the short days and was least troublesome in the summer for the opposite reasons. Food, sleep, TLC and tolerance rather than nagging formed in her opinion the best recipe for a quick recovery. After the weekend things had noticeably improved.
On the Monday Kieran was finally put out of his misery because his school report arrived in the post. He had settled into his new school and made good progress with his work. He could go skiing and not have to break into his piggy bank.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
