Page 5 of Dickathlon

“Who is it?”

I glanced at the screen before answering. “Luke. This may take a while.”

“Hey, bro. What’s up?”

Covering the phone, I told her I’d be back and she could watch whatever, then headed to my room. It sounded like Luke might be crying.

“Are you okay, Luke?”

“No.”

He was barely audible. I laid on my stomach across the bed and pressed the phone harder against my ear, checking the volume in the process.

“I miss him so much, Ty.”

He needed to reach out to his ex, Cam, in any form, or Erika, Cam’s best friend, for that matter, or just write his feelings down as a release. I had suggested as much, but he was bound tightly in the fear of his parents and the regret of his decision to leave Cam and their relationship behind. Based on past conversations, I knew he didn’t need to hear that again. It hadn’t worked before and it wouldn’t work now.

He just needed someone to listen, so that’s what I did.

After maybe ten or so minutes, he came around and started asking questions about my life. He laughed a little at my lack of progress with dudes, so that made me feel good. If I couldn’t get a laugh out of him, then it would’ve been really bad. But that got me thinking, and before I could run it through the rest of my brain, I just blurted it out.

“You wanna come out here for the holidays?”

“You mean it?”

“Of course, bro. I haven’t seen you since Brisbane. It’ll be great. My family would love to see you. We can go to all the zoos you want. You can watch me fail at picking up guys. Quinn says I’m picky.”

“You are picky!” she yelled, through the door.

“See, Quinn agrees with me.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure, Luke.” I paused. “I think it would be good for you.”

I heard him take a deep breath. “Yeah, I think it could be good for me too.”

2

Tyler

December

“Luke!”

Our teams competed in their last meet of the season a week ago, and my muscles were still sore from yesterday’s ass-shaping workout, but Christmas vacation was finally upon us. No kids for two weeks. All my finals were done. We would have the gym all to ourselves, and Luke was finally here.

“Hey, Ty,” he said, pulling me in for a hug.

I felt his body weight sag against me, so I squeezed extra tight. “You look good.”

“Shit, did you get taller? I feel so short.”

“Must be my new tennis shoes,” I said, pulling back. I splurged last week and bought some bright green ones.

“Trying to match your eyes?”

“More like trying to smother my loneliness.”