Strong Enough
by Nico Grey
XI
Caleb was exhausted. And he had only been back in school for less than four hours.
"We needed a longer vacation!" he complained to Tyler and Abby.
"Longer vacation!" Abby feigned shock. "Sixteen days of sloth and indolence wasn't enough for you?"
"I wasn't being slothful," Caleb defended himself. "Tyler had me out skiing almost every day! I even ended up in Canterbury once!"
Abby glanced at Tyler and raised an eyebrow, demanding confirmation.
Tyler just shrugged and nodded.
" We had already explored most of the trails in Judah and Antioch," he explained. "Canterbury was the next stop on the tour."
"Your poor legs!" Abby turned back on Caleb. "And you never came back to see me?! I've been waiting to see all the other colors that your panties come in."
Caleb's first instinct was the check nearby tables, to see if anyone had overheard Abby's remark. But when he noticed a light starting to shine in Tyler's eyes. . .
' Maybe we should have a little talk with Abby about panties,' Caleb's expression suggested.
Tyler eyed Caleb warily. Caleb eyed him back, competing with his friend in a battle of wills. Silence won out, their pact sealed by the threat of mutually assured destruction.
Tyler was grateful to be distracted by two freshmen brushing past their table; the red-haired skier with his little, dark-haired friend trailing bare inches behind him.
"Should we ask them to join us?" Caleb wondered.
"You know those guys?" Abby was surprised.
"We saw them out skiing," Tyler explained.
" Yeah," Caleb backed him up. "Way north of Antioch. Way, way up north."
"That little guy looks a lot better than he did last fall," Abby observed critically. "He's definitely taking better care of himself."
She considered something. Naturally, that made Caleb anxious.
"Maybe we should ask them to join us," she decided. "Take your time. Earn his trust. Then you could ravish him," she concluded with a chortle. "Unless your boyfriend objects."
"Abby!" Caleb and Tyler chorused. Caleb noticed Tyler peering about anxiously.
"You can't just say stuff like that, Abby," Caleb scolded. "People could get the wrong idea."
Abby's enthusiasm fueled Caleb and Tyler's anxiety for the rest of lunch. The end of the period provided no relief. As Caleb carried their lunch trays and escorted Abby to the return line, he was interrupted by a look of pure hatred in his peripheral vision.
Caleb had only seen the face this clearly once before. But it was etched permanently in his memory. Van Cross. And he looked very cross.
Caleb didn't notice Van at lunch again for the remainder of the week. But he had plenty of additional cause for anxiety. Abby seemed fixated on resuming her career in sports medicine. Worse, he was becoming aware that his table was attracting sporadic attention from Lexxi Sprague and her friends. He noticed their occasional furtive glances in his direction, followed by hushed conversations.
" Did you get a look in his underwear drawer?" Abby had discovered that Tyler spent a night with Caleb over the holiday break.
Tyler shot a cautious glance in Caleb's direction. He rolled his eyes.
"I'm really not asking for much," Abby insisted. "Just a precise catalogue of style, color, size, and location in the drawer. But I'd rather not know about any dirty underwear left lying on the floor. Boys!" She wrinkled her nose.
"You know you would." Tyler had become increasingly comfortable with Abby during the past two months.
" Okay!" She leaned forward eagerly. "Dish! Has he ever left more than three dirty pairs of his panties lying around at the same time?"
"Abby," Caleb tried to feign boredom. "You know that someday we're going to succumb to one of your little perversions, tell you what you want to know, and it will completely freak you out."
"Try me," she suggested. She turned to Tyler. "Did he even change his underwear before going to bed?"
"Define 'change'," Tyler smirked.
It took her a moment to figure that out. Then her eyes got huge.
" How would you know?" she demanded. "Unless he didn't make you use the guest room."
She eyed Caleb suspiciously as she considered the possibility.
"We shared his bed," Tyler deadpanned.
Abby's squeal attracted attention from dozens of nearby tables.
Caleb considered embellishing the story further. But he wasn't sure how he would explain it if Abby exploded from the excitement. And only from thinking that he and Tyler had shared a bed? Well, it just looked like she might!
" You didn't waste much time trying to corrupt that poor boy," Abby accused when she called Caleb that evening.
"Abby!" Caleb groaned. "There were no dirty underwear on the floor and I didn't sleep naked! Jeez! Tyler was just messing with you. It's so easy to get you worked up when you fixate on sex!" he snorted.
"So. . ."
Caleb didn't give her a chance to continue.
"We spent the holiday skiing! The only smutty stuff that happened was inside your head!"
" How did you spend sixteen straight days skiing without once needing the services of my magic fingers?" Abby was clearly in denial. Then realization dawned. "Oh my god! You made Tyler massage you!"
"Abby. . ."
Caleb wasn't sure how, but before the call ended he had promised to submit to another bout with Abby's magic fingers. He was sure that he'd regret it. But he was just as sure that distracting her with that prospect was better than letting her keep digging into what he and Tyler had done together over the Christmas break. The combination of her libido and her natural curiosity was more powerful than his ability to dissemble for very much longer.
"We're probably going to have to visit Abby today or tomorrow," Caleb informed Tyler when they met early Saturday morning. "She kept digging into what we did together over the holiday. I had to promise to let her give me another massage, just to distract her."
"That seems reasonable."
Caleb noted cynically that Tyler seemed quite content to sacrifice him to the cause.
" I guess I'd better be there to protect you," Tyler concluded. "Your chaperone to make certain that nothing untoward happens."
"You're not even trying to sound sincere," Caleb accused. "You just want to be there to watch me squirm."
"Well, if that's all you're going to do," Tyler smirked, "I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with that."
Tyler eased Caleb back into the routine of skiing with an easy circuit near the Bradford home. Then he worked them both hard for the remainder of the morning.
Caleb was definitely feeling the effects by the time they broke for lunch.
" How can you do this?" he demanded. "You've had five days off, just like me. But this morning doesn't seem to affect you."
"Good genes," Tyler informed him smugly. "And a bit of cheating." He rolled his eyes. "Three or four days every week, I usually ski for close to an hour when I get home from school. It's easier to manage my conditioning that way."
He noticed the wheels turning in Caleb's head.
" You probably shouldn't yet," he advised. "Until you have more experience, you really shouldn't push yourself when skiing alone. By this time next winter, you'll have enough experience to manage your conditioning, deal with emergencies; the sorts of things that can cause problems for new skiers."
"What time should I expect to see you two tomorrow?" Nicole wondered after they finished lunch and the boys were preparing to depart.
"I think my mom is planning to feed us lunch," Tyler said. "If that's all right with you, I think that Caleb and I would probably be here by mid-afternoon."
" That's fine, sweetie," Nicole assured him. "I know you're experienced being out on your own, and you both have phones, but it's good to know your plans. If something does happen, I won't be waiting for hours wondering whether I should do anything."
"We'll let you know if there's any change in plans," Tyler promised.
"And if Caleb misbehaves. . ."
"I come down on him like a hammer. Just like I told you I would," Tyler grinned.
"Your mom calls me 'sweetie'," Tyler gloated as he and Caleb slipped into their ski bindings.
" You really don't want to know what that means," Caleb grumbled.
Tyler shot Caleb an uncertain glance.
"It means she'll expect to host a bridal shower for you when we get married," Caleb smirked.
He regretted the suggestion immediately.
"I'm kidding, Tyler. Seriously," Caleb assured his friend. "I know Mom likes you a lot. And when she does find out about us, she isn't going to treat either of us differently. She'll see us as equal, just like I see us as equal."
That seemed to mollify Tyler.
" I'm glad I won't have to bring up the pink panties," he shot Caleb some side-eye. "It would be awfully embarrassing for her to find out that you're wearing them now."
"I'm not wearing those things!" Caleb insisted.
"But tonight!" Tyler protested.
"We're going to see Abby this afternoon," Caleb reminded him. "There is no way I'm even letting her know about them. She certainly won't see me in them!"
"You're not wearing panties?" Tyler seemed very disappointed. "There go my plans for tonight."
" I'm wearing panties. . . I mean briefs," Caleb corrected himself. "If I wore boxers, there's no way of telling how far Abby's talented fingers might 'accidentally' slip up inside. But I am not wearing those pink briefs outside of my own bedroom. Not ever!"
"I should cool down for a while before you begin treatment," Caleb told Abby. "Tyler's been driving me hard all morning. I need to wash up a bit."
He'd experienced mixed emotions when he and Tyler noticed that neither of the West's automobiles appeared to be at home. He wasn't at all surprised when Abby answered their knock.
"I'll draw you a bath!" Abby offered. "I got some scented oils for Christmas that will be just perfect for you!"
"Um, Abby," Tyler tried to be the voice of reason, "I don't know if your parents would take it well if they found out you had a naked boy in your bathroom."
" I won't!" Abby insisted brightly. "I'll have two naked boys. There's enough room in my bathtub for two. And you do look like a gentle hand wash would do you some good."
"I can't do this!" Tyler squeaked.
"Relax. I'm just teasing," Abby informed him. "You both could benefit from sponging off a bit. But you can use the bathroom alone if you're going to be such a prude."
Caleb was thinking about a certain pair of pink bikini briefs.
"Come on, Tyler!" he encouraged. "A bath. It'll be fun!"
He couldn't decide whether he appreciated Abby's excited hyperventilation more, or Tyler's panicked hyperventilation.
Caleb was worried about the possibility that the Wests would return home early, despite Abby's assurances that they were gone until evening. But he also thought that a quick bath would make him feel better.
He just wished that he could trust Abby to behave herself. Young girls, gay boys, and sex created a toxic behavioral cocktail, in his experience. He didn't want to go through it again.
He left Tyler in Abby's bedroom to distract her.
The bath did feel wonderful, although he had a hard time fully relaxing when his heart wanted to jump into his throat every time he heard any sudden noises outside the house.
"Make some room," a voice squeaked.
Caleb's eyes bugged open.
"Abby?!" he panicked.
"She went downstairs to heat her massage oils once I convinced her that I wasn't going to let her sneak in here for a peek."
"Jesus, Tyler! What if she comes back?"
"I locked the door," Tyler insisted. "If she tries to come in, we'll have enough time to cover up."
"Why did you decide to do this now?" Caleb wondered. He was trying very hard not to stare.
" I figure that we will sooner or later. And this way, we're really going to mess with Abby's head," Tyler grinned mischievously.
"Well, as long as we're here. . ." Caleb tried to relax. "You can wash anything you want to. I won't mind. Or you don't have to wash anything," he assured Tyler.
"I still want to take my time about stuff like this," Tyler said. "We can wash each other another day. But I really would like us to kiss now."
" You bastards!" Abby had raged when they stole cautiously out of her bathroom twenty minutes later. "You know I wanted to bathe you!"
Caleb still chuckled over her reaction. . . just as he blushed every time he relived the embarrassment of that moment of discovery.
They had made it up to Abby. Both stoically endured very thorough massages. Abby teased around the leg openings and waistband of Caleb's bikini briefs. He complained just enough to let her know that she could play, but that plunging down inside and grabbing a handful of anything wasn't on the menu for her. And despite the vigor of her efforts, he did feel a lot more relaxed when she was done.
He had enjoyed observing Tyler's discomfiture. With his eyes, he reminded Abby that she really shouldn't go too far. With his fingers, he gently massaged Tyler's hands to distract him from Abby's ministrations.
Abby observed them both curiously while Caleb kneaded Tyler's palms and rubbed his fingers.
" Abby's going to be even more suspicious of us now," Caleb groaned as he and Tyler skied away from the West house. "I really need to control myself better when other people are around."
Tyler, surprisingly, was less concerned.
"I'm going to tell you a secret," he explained. "I'm pretty sure that Abby wants us to get together. Part of the reason that I suspected you're gay," he admitted, "was because of the way Abby talked about you. It was like she wanted me to get interested in you."
"But she loves you!" Tyler's news really confused Caleb. "And I'm pretty sure she knows that you like her."
That really didn't make any sense to Caleb.
"I know," Tyler agreed. "I don't understand why she wants us to get together. But I'm pretty sure that she's been encouraging it for weeks now."
"So do we tell her?" Caleb asked.
"Caleb," Tyler shook his head. "After today, I'm pretty sure that she already knows!"
Caleb and Tyler decided to pass on practicing martial arts that evening. They enjoyed dinner, followed by a movie with Grace.
Caleb was concerned that he was becoming paranoid. But after Tyler's observation that Abby was probably already aware of their relationship, he became anxious every time he noticed Grace watching him and Tyler closely. If Abby was already picking up clues, he couldn't help wondering what Grace might be noticing as he and Tyler became increasingly comfortable with each other.
It was almost a relief when Tyler announced that they needed to get ready for bed since he was planning another early start in the morning. He made sure not to follow after Tyler too closely as they climbed the stairs to his bedroom.
"Are you sure you wouldn't sleep more comfortably in those purple briefs?" Caleb asked, eyeing Tyler's boxer briefs.
"I thought you saw enough of me this afternoon. And you'd better not claim you couldn't see anything," Tyler growled.
Tyler appeared to be inviting some teasing, but Caleb preferred to answer seriously.
" I didn't see a lot. Only because I was trying not to stare," he added hurriedly. "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. But, Tyler," he tried to emphasize the sincerity in his tone, "you know I think you look great. I hope I've made that perfectly obvious to you by now.
"I'm just worried that I'm making it too obvious to other people," he added. "Like Abby. Or your mother. I'm worried that she's starting to notice me ogling you, or something."
"Ogling?" Tyler snickered. "Is that another one of your weird New Hampshire words? What does it even mean?"
"It means that my eyes keep doing what my hands want to do!" Caleb grumbled.
Tyler laughed out loud.
"Abby was right. I really do have to be careful around you!"
"Abby said you should be careful around me!" Caleb was outraged.
"Yeah," Tyler agreed. "But she's one to talk after what she did to us this afternoon. Calling it a medical emergency doesn't change the fact that it bordered on sexual assault!"
"You know," Caleb reflected, "She's probably planning to get more out of bringing the two of us together than she would if she were dating either one of us."
" So we should just tell her," Tyler said. "We're together. Thanks for all you did. We don't need any more help."
Caleb wasn't so certain.
"She'll still guilt us into doing stuff," Caleb sighed. "However we try to manipulate things, she'll always be five steps ahead of us. I suppose it's a small price to pay for her support."
Tyler eyed him quizzically.
"You don't mind?"
" As long as you don't," Caleb assured him. "And as long as we're in it together. I like Abby. And I'm pretty sure that I can trust her. But I feel a lot safer when you're there with me."
It may have been the sentiment. Something made Tyler decide that it was a special occasion.
"It's weird," Caleb explained when they came up for air, "but it felt awfully sexy just to be rubbing your hand while Abby was assaulting you. Being in the bathtub with you was at a whole other level. But holding your hand and watching you relax while Abby worked on you just made me feel so close to you."
Tyler sighed as he relived the memory.
" I'm glad you're willing to take this slow," he said. "Little things like that really are special. If we were just all about having sex, we'd miss out on a lot that we're learning about each other."
"Yeah!" that triggered Caleb. "You're the one that always talks about taking things slow. Whatever possessed you to get naked and climb into the bathtub with me?!"
Even out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't miss Tyler's brilliant red blush.
" That was my fault. I do want to go slow. For a lot of reasons. But all the time I was distracting Abby from barging in on you, I kept thinking that you were sitting naked in her bathtub. I guess I just had a moment of weakness. I wasn't thinking with my head."
" I swear! I tried not to notice!" Caleb insisted. "But you did seem to be possessed by. . . something."
Tyler turned his face away. Even without words, Caleb understood the message.
" I understand that you don't really believe what I'm about to tell you. Again. I understand that it's hard to ignore what other people have said to you in the past. But I know they were wrong.
"Whether it's out skiing with you, or just sitting across from you at lunch, or climbing naked into a bathtub with me," Caleb felt his voice starting to break as he said the words and decided to just let it happen, "I think you look completely amazing! I think you are absolutely amazing! And I'm going to keep telling you that until you're strong enough to believe it in your own heart."
He reached out and squeezed Tyler's hand, and was encouraged when Tyler squeezed back. He felt even better when Tyler decided they were experiencing another special occasion.
Finally, Tyler rolled under the bedding and against the wall. He pulled Caleb into his arms.
"My bed," he insisted. "My rules. Here you sleep in my arms."
"I can live with that," Caleb decided. "And when we sleep in my bed, you sleep in my arms."
Caleb considered the idea for a while.
"But what should we do if we ever find ourselves sleeping in Abby's bed?"
"Run?" Tyler suggested.
They spent Sunday morning skiing around the Antioch area. They didn't encounter Eric or his red-haired friend again. But they did visit the rise where they had observed them the previous week. Tyler felt that marked another special occasion.
As they were skiing back toward Judah after lunch, Tyler wondered if they should drop in on Abby.
"Her parents are probably home today," Caleb reasoned. "Besides, I don't think it would be good for her if we just drop in all the time. We really should make her work for those moments."
But he did seriously consider the possibility before they skied on.
Nicole was working in the kitchen when they arrived at the Bradford home. She greeted both boys with a hug. Caleb tolerated his mother's affection. Tyler appeared to melt into it.
Nicole prepared a snack for the boys, then watched them disappear upstairs to Caleb's room.
Tyler cooperated while Caleb re-positioned him several times until he was satisfied with the result. He had been meaning to sketch Tyler performing martial arts ever since his birthday. After some experimentation, he decided that a jiu-jitsu defense in guard made for an even more dynamic pose than skiing uphill.
Tyler caught on after a while. Caleb was a serious artist. But even he found it hard to ignore the distraction once Tyler started making subtle adjustments to his pose.
After working for close to an hour, Caleb thought that he had the image roughed out enough to continue work from memory. Besides, the light thought his window was already hinting at late afternoon. Tyler needed to be starting for home.
Apparently Tyler's enthusiasm for Nicole's affection had made an impression. She presented him with a care package of cookies before he had to depart.
"You can use them to make a trail in the snow if you're in danger of getting lost," Caleb suggested.
"There's no way I'd do that!" Tyler said. "If I think I'm lost, I'll eat them. These cookies are incredible!"
" Time for you to get your skis on and head home," Nicole ordered Caleb. She wrapped a protective arm around Tyler's shoulder. "I'm keeping this one."
"Thanks for sharing your boy toy with me," Abby greeted Caleb when he answered the phone.
"Boy toy?" Caleb queried.
"Don't even try to deny it," Abby admonished. "You guys were all over each other yesterday."
"Tyler isn't a boy toy. He's my boyfriend," Caleb corrected.
"Busted!" Abby cackled. "I knew it!"
" We aren't trying to hide it," Caleb explained. "At least not from you. We already decided that. But we aren't telling anyone else. So please, Abs, keep it to yourself!"
"Abs? I think I prefer 'Fingers'," she chuckled. "After all, they are my trademark. And speaking of abs, you should plan to see me tomorrow after school. I loosened up your back and legs pretty well yesterday, but your core really could use some work."
"You'll just have to dream about that until next weekend," Caleb teased her. "There's no way I can stop by on a school night."
" Okay. I've already got it in my book," she declared. "My parents are almost always away on Saturday afternoon, so I'll see you then. And bring your little friend with you. His. . . they're called 'glutes', right? . . . His glutes were looking pretty tight."
Caleb ignored the cackle.
"Abby? Go easy on Tyler. We'll plan to be there sometime Saturday afternoon. Okay? But can we please just get through the week at school first?"
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
