Opposites attract - 3. Chapter 3

I awoke with a start, when someone said my name. I looked up at Kev who stood at the side of my bed. It was early morning as a quick glance out of the window confirmed.

“Leon? I wondered, whether you would like to come jogging with me.”

“I…I am not a good runner. I would be more of a burden than a partner.”

“I don't mind. Running isn't really part of my training. It's more like a morning ritual. To get started… to have some energy for the day. I'd be glad to have you with me.”

“Okay, okay. But don't complain that I didn't warn you.”

Kev chuckled and the more often I listened to that sound the more I liked it.

“Boy scout's promise: no complaint will come out of this mouth.” He crossed his heart.

It was a childish gesture, but it was sincere. The look on his face left no doubt.

“I’ll just change into something more appropriate and off we go.” I said.

The both of us running must have been a very grotesque picture. Both dressed in similar sweat suits, one a huge bear of a man, the other more like a slender weasel. We talked about my lack of interest in any sports and Kev's affinity to them. I was surprised at my own stamina. I lasted through the entire run, which led us through the park like parts of the campus. I was sweating and panted a little bit, but overall I had performed quite well.

“Hey, you liar! Not a good runner? You are kidding me!” Kev joked afterwards.

“A little more training and you simply leave me behind, eating your dust.”

“Who is the liar now?” I retorted in mock exasperation.

We both laughed.

“No, really. If you ran every day, you would soon see some progress. Trust me. You are a natural runner. Remember: I am studying phys ed. I know what I am talking about.”

“With you as my personal trainer… sounds like a plan.”

It was intended as a joke, but Kev stopped and extended his hand.

“Deal?”

“Deal.” I shook his hand.

“Welcome to Schneider's running school then.” Kev’s face radiated a cheerful light and his good mood was contagious.

We arrived at our room.

“What about taking a shower and then some breakfast together?”

“Everything the trainer instructs me to.”

Kev raised a finger, like giving me a lecture. But he couldn't keep his face straight for more than a few moments.

“Ok, my pupil. Then off to the showers!”

Now it hit me that we would be showering together. Moreover, the dorm showers didn't have stalls. There were several shower heads attached to the wall in a line. I had wondered before, whether this lack of privacy had been intentionally created to “give a space to freely exchange thought and idea even when grooming yourself”. My mind raced to find an excuse, a delay, for not to have to go there with him, but I couldn't come up with anything plausible. So I gathered fresh clothes, my towel, a bottle of shower gel and followed Kev to the shower rooms.

Dead man walking.

Why did the mind always resort to irony, when confronted with hopeless situations? The showers had a small changing room. The mixed gender policy discouraged most students to cross the floor clad in a towel only. The shower room had white tiles everywhere, except on the ceiling. In the changing room, there were two wooden banks and several hooks for clothing. The changing room was separated from the showers by a half-wall. Kev was talking to me, but nothing he said really came through to me as soon as we had started to undress. I would see him naked, all of him and not only the back side like yesterday. What bothered me even more was that Kev would see me without clothes. I felt embarrassed. But this feeling was replaced by shock, when Kev had finished undressing and had turned to me. I should have seen it coming: everything about Kev's body was approximately twice the size in comparison to me. This scaling was obviously valid for all body parts. My cock was pretty much average in length and diameter, perhaps a little tad on the longer side of average, but Kev's member was far beyond any mean value. It was long and thick, veins showing on its surface. I wondered, whether it would grow much more, when he became aroused. Below his cock dangled to full balls, surrounded by short blond pubic hair.

Don't stare, don't stare, don't stare…

I wasn't sure, whether he had seen my interest in his groin or not. If he had, he very convincingly pretended not to have noticed and continued his friendly chatter. Showering itself was without incident. I was even able to add to the chat, which was necessary to distract myself and to avoid getting rock hard. Soon we were clean, dry and dressed again, back in the ‘safety’ of our room.

“Any suggestions for breakfast? You are the campus expert.”

“The cafeteria by the lecture hall center has pretty decent stuff and quite affordable prices.”

“Affordable sounds good.” Kev's mood changed. His bright eyes had lost some of their sparkle.

“I thought you are on a full scholarship and with some help from your parents…”

“Full scholarship: yes; some help from my parents: definitely not.”

I punched myself mentally for being an insensible asshole.

“Kev, I am sorry, I did not mean to…”

“Leon, there is nothing you have to be sorry for. It's absolutely not your fault that I have two ignorant, uncaring bastards for parents.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No. Leon. Not yet. Are we cool?”

“Of course, we are.” I managed an encouraging grin and gripped Kev by his left arm.

“If you didn't know: our personal training contract comes with a full breakfast provision.”

“Leon, you don't have to. I am not THAT poor.”

Nonetheless, brightness began to return to his eyes, lighting up his entire face.

“Kev, I don't have to, but I want to. How am I supposed to feel having you as a trainer, if I am not allowed to compensate for your time and effort?”

I tugged at his arm and he followed.

“Thanks, Leon.” He said, barely louder than a whisper.

It had never occurred to me that other students might be struggling financially. Who was an ignorant bastard here? My Dad was quite a successful lawyer and Mom had a flourishing shop for upper class bridal and evening wear. My parents paid my studies and gave me a very generous monthly allowance. Most of it went to a saving account. I called it my ‘picket fence fund’, because it was supposed to be a cash-down for a nice home in the future. Some of it would be diverted to Kev now. I knew I was skating on thin ice here. He was never to know, what I was doing. But this nice guy deserved to have some worries eased of him and if my money was able to buy that, it would do. I would find ways to accomplish that. I could be very creative, when it mattered.

By the time we had our breakfast on our tablets (scrambled eggs with bacon, hot rolls and coffee for both of us) Kev was back to his joyful manner. He told me about his body building training plan. He trained every day, but concentrated on different muscle groups each day.

“Muscles need rest to grow.”

He went on with details about muscle anatomy and, to my own astonishment, I found myself interested in his explanations. He told me, he would do the training same time as yesterday. Before training he would have to get done some paper works with administration and some errands.

“But after training, we can hang out together, if you like?”

“What about cinema? There is this action flick.”

“Sorry, Leon. But at the moment I have to sit on every dollar. I will try to get a job soon, but till then…”

“Don't worry, Kev. I know someone working at the cinema. She sometimes has spare free tickets for me. If I ask nicely…”

That wasn't exactly the truth. I did know someone working at the cinema, a fellow math student. But she never had any spare free tickets. Nonetheless, I could easily afford two tickets, popcorn and stuff. I felt a little guilty for lying to Kev. However, he would never accept me paying for cinema.

“Cool. I'll be finished with training by eight o'clock. Showering, dressing… I could make it for a nine o'clock show, okay?”

“Sounds fine for me.”

We parted our ways. I did tutoring lessons from 11- 2 o'clock, had a small lunch by myself and went to the city by bus to buy the tickets. They offered gift certificates for popcorn, candies and soft drinks, their design being very plain. So I bought one of those as well. Seemed like I had found some creative ways to hide my funding schemes.

Kev returned by 8:30, fully dressed. We took the bus and I showed Kevin the tickets and the certificate.

“Cool. Entertainment and food.” He grinned.

I could have sworn that there had been a slight frown on his face, when he had looked at the tickets. But the lighting in the bus was poor.

We had two trash cans full of popcorn, at least the buckets were the size of trash cans, some candy bars and two cups full of cola. The movie was a very typical action flick: high body count, extensive use of explosives, cheesy one-liner dialogue. Perfect entertainment! We replayed parts of it in the bus on our way back home; Kev being the hero and me being the foul-mouthed sidekick. It was hilarious. The other passengers on the bus may have differed, but we didn't mind.

In our room, we both quickly dressed for bed and kept talking about the movie. But after another hour, we finally switched our bed-side lamps off.

I let the day pass by in my mind and realized how wonderful it had been: from the running to the showering (that hadn't been so wonderful live, but was definitely good on the replay), to breakfast and finally to the cinema. Even tutoring lessons had felt less frustrating today.

“Leon?” Kev's voice came hushed from the other side of the dark room.

“Um?”

“Free tickets normally don't come with credit card numbers on them, do they?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

So much for being creative. The plan had been good, but had flatlined due to lacking attention to details. How stupid do you have to be to pay ‘free’ tickets by credit card? The frown had been for real then…

“Kev, see… I… “

“I should be angry, because you lied to me…”

So I had succeeded in turning this wonderful day into a catastrophe.

“… but I can't remember when someone did something that nice for me the last time.”

Kev switched on his bed-side lamp and was looking directly into my eyes.

“You asked me how you should feel, if you were not allowed to pay for the training. I ask you: how am I supposed to feel for being dependent on charity?”

I had no answer to that question.

“Promise me: you will not pull such a stunt again? Okay?”

“Kev… I didn't do it to embarrass you or make you feel small. I just wanted to treat you to something nice. I just wanted to share.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

He gave me a short nod and a smile. Kev switched off the light again.

“And Leon?”

“Um?”

“Thanks for caring for me.” He added in a very low voice.