My Friend and Protector - 9. Four Gay Boys at a Water Park - What Could Go Wrong?

Wednesday

We all agreed the following Saturday would be a good time to hit the water park. Mid-September can still be pretty warm. After discussing it a little bit, we decided to see if Karl and Mark would want to come too. With no football practice on Wednesdays, that was the day Karl usually ate lunch with us, rather than his football buddies. My idea, so I asked.

"So, Karl, Mark, if you're OK spending the day half naked with a bunch of gay boys, we were talking about going to Adventure Landing next Saturday, weather permitting. Care to join us?"

Mark, always the one to freak out about anything that even resembled gay, had reservations.

"You guys aren't going to make out on the lazy river or nothing, are you?

"Hmmm. Hadn't thought of that. Sound good Brand?"

"Definitely."

"Then count me out."

"We're just busting your chops, Mark. None of us are really out. Doing that in a massively public place would not be anywhere near to being on our bucket lists."

"As usual, I gotta check with the parentals, but they think you guys are pretty nice for letting me into your circle so quickly. So it'll probably be OK."

"Cool. Karl?"

"Game Friday night, I'm sure I can miss one Saturday light workout. I'll let the coach know, he gives me a little break occasionally."

“He’d better, all-state last year!”

"Um, one thing Carlo?"

"Yeah Lance?"

"When I mentioned the possibility of going to my parents, I had to agree to bring Travis too. No Travis, no Lance."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but it's fine with me."

Nobody else had any complaints. We all had pretty much adopted Travis and Carson as little brothers.

"I can check with my parents, see if Carson can come too. That way Travis won't feel like a fifth wheel."

"Sign Brand up for remedial math. He can't count to seven."

"Ha, fucking, ha, Ken. I've never heard anybody called a seventh wheel, the phrase is fifth wheel."

"Well, they all chuckled, so I succeeded in making a joke."

"Somebody mark the calendar, Ken made a funny."

"I'd mark you if I didn't know you could kick my ass Carlo. Oh, wait. That's right, you kick knees."

Snickers all around. Well, except me.

"Two in a row. He's on a roll kids."

"Shit. I can't tell you to shut up either, Karl. Damn, did I pick the wrong gang to join."

So it was settled. Carson is able to go so there'd be eight of us going. As the day got closer, the weather forecast kept getting better and better. They were talking maybe record highs for the whole weekend. We were all looking forward to having a great time. Since it was going to be so hot, and we wanted to get an early start on Saturday, everyone asked and was allowed to sleep over at Brandon's. He had a huge great room where we could set up sleeping bags and all be together. Ken, Lance, Brand, and I had to promise Mark we'd behave. Not that he thought we would do anything with Carson and Travis there, he just wanted to make sure. Brand and I conspired to somehow get alone with Mark and share a kiss in front of him, just to see his reaction. It was fun pushing his buttons. If he even pretended us acting gay around him was OK, we wouldn't do stuff like that. But he's always cool with the teasing, at least verbally.

Friday Night

Everyone got to Brand's by 7:30. His mom set up a pretty nice buffet of snacks and drinks. His dad had to go to work early on Saturday, so we had a strict noise curfew at 10. We paid real close attention to the clock. We didn't need Brand and Carson getting punished and not be able to go. The opportunity never arose for Brand and I to kiss in front of Mark, but in hindsight, we figured it was probably better that way. We remembered his reaction when he first played basketball with us. We actually quieted down around 9:30 when Brand put a movie on. We were restricted to PG-13 for Carson, but we were able to find one that was OK with everybody. I mean what teenage boy doesn't like Marvel movies? After changing for bed, brushing our teeth, and final thoughts about the movie, we were all in our sleeping bags by 11:30. Brand and I made out a little after everybody else quieted down. Well, almost everybody else. It sounded like Ken and Lance had the same idea. Of course, none of us wanted to push any limits and do more than that.

Saturday

The day started out good. Hot but not unbearably so. We got to the park before it opened. We knew we'd have to wait in line, it was going to be crowded. We got lucky and were under a couple trees while we waited to get in. I almost felt sorry for everybody else that didn’t have trees above them.

"Oh, shit."

"What is it Ken?" Lance asked.

"Please tell me I'm wrong, but without making it obvious, turn around and look behind us. I didn't bring my glasses, so I can't be sure. About 10 people back, who do you see?"

"Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's Armstrong, Rose, and Lancer. What a way to spoil a good day."

"You sure Lance?"

"Believe me, Mark. I'd recognize the asshole who beat me any day. And I hate almost sharing my name with one of those jerks.”

"OK, everybody face front. If they didn't see us, it's packed today, maybe they'll never know we're here."

"Hope you're right, Carlo."

"Just in case I'm not, Ken, nobody goes anywhere alone. You gotta take a piss, at least have someone else go along, even if the other guy doesn't need to piss. If we mostly stay together, they have to leave us alone. No way they'll try something with all 8 of us here. And no matter what, Travis and Carson are never alone."

Everybody agreed, but as Robert Burns wrote: The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft agley. We were in the wave pool when we were 'discovered.'

"Hey look, it's the faggot gang. And there's more of them. I thought gay boys couldn't reproduce? Or did you just recruit more? I can't believe they let faggots in the pool. We're all gonna catch AIDS."

I started to say something, but Karl cut me off.

"I told you before, Mike, none of us are gay. So piss off if you know what's good for you."

"Shit, look, they recruited Birch. I always suspected you were a fag."

"That's why YOU sucked MY dick in 7th grade, right 'Lancer?'"

"Fuck you, I did not."

"What was it you said, 'your cum tastes like licorice?' (with air quotes) Yeah, that was it."

Holy shit. Steve got so red. He really did suck Ken off. I tried not to laugh, but failed. Miserably. I wasn’t alone on our side of the battle line.

"Is he shitting us, Steve? You sucked him?"

"He, um, said he was going to suck me too. But he wimped out."

"I never had any intention of sucking your teeny dick. Hell, I could barely see it even if I wanted to."

Steve turned around and started swimming away. He may even have started crying. Mike wasn't done yet, though.

"You guys better be careful the rest of the day. I catch any one of you alone, you're fucking dead."

"Rock, paper, scissors, Carlo to see which one of us we let him catch alone?"

"Sounds good Karl."

"Fuck you all."

"Bye Mike. Don't let the diving board hit you on the head on the way out. Oh, wait. Let it."

We all snickered at Ken's parting shot. When they were gone, though, I circled the wagons.

"OK, that's it. Nobody ventures off alone. The rest of the day we're the eight musketeers. Where one goes, we all go."

Nobody wanted any trouble from the remnants of the idiot bunch. We all agreed to stick together the rest of the day, now that they knew we're here. Turns out we didn't need to worry about that. But it was a good thing both Karl's and my parents included us on their AAA accounts. All four tires had been slashed on both our cars when we went to leave. Two flatbeds and two Ubers later, we all made it back to Brand's house. Ken, Lance, and Travis got a ride home from there from Ken's dad. Mark, Karl, and I lived close enough, so we just walked home. We went to Mark's first so he wouldn't be alone, just in case.

Sunday

As if we didn't have enough water fun yesterday, we all went back to Brandon's to swim again on Sunday. Once again, Mrs. Gordon pulled out all the stops with snacks for us. We all agreed that if we spent too much time over there, one of two things were going to happen. We'd drive them broke, or we'd all get fat. There wasn't a huge chance of them going broke. OK, so maybe not one of two things.

Monday - Back at school

Steve Lancer walked up to all of us, sans Karl, meekly, during lunch.

"Um. Can I ask you guys something?"

"You sure you're allowed to talk to us without Mikeee around?"

"Give him a break, Ken. What do you want to ask?"

"Thanks Carlo. Um, I just wanted to ask if you guys were going to spread it around, you know, what Ken said on Saturday?"

I looked at the others, none of them seemed to be leaning either way.

"We won't. But after what you put Lance, Brand, and me through last year, we should."

"Yeah. And I know I would deserve it. But Ken knows. We didn't dare go against Mike and Joe. Once was enough."

"Once was enough? Sit down, tell us about it."

He looked a little stunned and worried about my request, but the rest all nodded, so he sat.

"Well, last year, around Christmas I think. Maybe it was closer to Thanksgiving, anyway, Mike wanted to pick on some girl. I don't want to say who it was, but it wasn't Karl's sister, she was out of school already. Anyway, I refused to go with Mike do do what he wanted to. Ken, you probably remember when I had that black eye?"

"Yeah. It was around Christmas."

"Well, I wasn't goofing around with my brother and took an elbow, it was MIke's fist."

"Wow. All I got was name calling when I said I didn't want to go along with the, um, attack on these guys."

"Well, we all knew he was a asshole to us, but damn, being an asshole to one of your so-called friends. What a real dick move."

"Yeah, it was Lance. Well, thanks for listening and not saying anything about, you know. I'll go finish my lunch somewhere else."

I looked around the table. They all knew what I was thinking and nodded.

"You can stay. We took Ken in after he broke from you guys. We'll give you the same title we gave him at first, probationary friend."

"Really? I figure you guys still hated me."

"We do, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends."

He looked at me like I turned periwinkle.

"Just kidding. If you can show us you've changed, the hate will be gone."

Everybody else agreed.

"Thanks guys. I should have hung out with you, well you all that were here, back in 4th grade when I moved in."

(Quietly) "Awww, if you did, I would have never gotten my first blowjob."

"You're an ass, Ken."

"Yeah, I know. Hehe."

Next up - "Three Squared Musketeers, and the Idiot Bunch Remnants Get Schooled"