It was about 8:30 in the evening, and Kyle and Sammy had just finished eating a light dinner in their apartment. The two boys were both 18-year-old freshmen in a small private engineering college new New York City. There were roommates, jointly renting a tidy two-bedroom apartment a few blocks from campus.
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Both boys were gay and both still deeply in the closet, not having had any experiences with other boys yet. They were also secretly in love with each other, but neither one knew of the other's feelings.
They came from very different backgrounds and met essentially by chance.
Kyle was a tall and muscular massively built black boy who grew up in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Detroit, surrounded by poverty, violence and crime. At 18 years of age Kyle stood 6'7'' tall, heavily muscled, and even beefy. He weighed about 210 pounds, all of it hard lean muscle, with not an ounce of fat. In middle and high school Kyle played basketball, and got extremely good at it. From the sixth grade he also started running and weight training, and by the time he entered college he was in superb physical form. Everybody in high school thought that Kyle would get into a good college on a basketball scholarship, and maybe even end up playing in the NBA. Assuming, that is, that he won't end up in prison or dead first.
However, Kyle had other ideas. He knew that he was good at basketball and maybe could even make a career out of it, but basketball was never his true passion. Kyle had a sharp and inquisitive mind, and really enjoyed school work, even though his school did not offer much in the way of real education. He particularly enjoyed science and math, with was even more unusual. In his spare time Kyle had read most of the physics and math books that their high school library had, and did quite a bit of reading from the internet. He was determined to use his brain rather than his muscle to get ahead in life. Kyle got a few snarky comments from some of the black kids in school about him trying to do the "white thing" on account of his studiousness. But, in view of Kyle's imposing and intimidating physical presence and his status as an athlete, nobody had the nerve to try to seriously mess with him and he was mostly left alone. Kyle realized pretty early on, by the age of around 12, that he was gay. He decided to stay in the closet, knowing that as a big black guy, he was fully expected to project a hyper-masculine heterosexual macho image. Kyle was already getting some flak for being so academically oriented, and he did not want to break another social taboo by coming out as gay. Even his parents, who were both civil service workers for the city, did not now. The decision to say in the closet through high school compounded Kyle's isolation. He developed a reserved and somewhat introverted personality, even though deep inside he was a softie and a hopeless romantic. Kyle tried to ignore the gang and drug violence plaguing his neighborhood and to concentrate fully on his school work and on staying fit. His perceived aloofness actually made it easier for Kyle to stay out of trouble. From his early teens Kyle shaved his head completely bald, and he shaved all of his other facial hair too, preferring a clean smooth look. He had dark deep brown eyes and a very dark skin that sometimes got him mistaken for a recent African immigrant.
Kyle aced his SATs, which, together with his math and science competitions participation, landed him a full scholarship in a fancy private engineering college in the New York City area.
Kyle was really looking forward to college. He was hoping to finally explore being gay and wanted to experience some of New York's gay scene as well. Kyle was one of the few black students on campus, and he noticed, with quiet bemusement, that quite a few of other students and people in the neighborhood reacted with obvious fear to his towering imposing figure.
Sam, or Sammy as he was known to his close friends, came from a totally different background. He was a small Asian boy, of mixed Vietnamese and Filipino ancestry. On his mom's side, Sam's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Sam's dad was a first generation immigrant, who came to the U.S. from Philippines to pursue a medical degree and later settled in Connecticut. Sam's mom run a successful Vietnamese restaurant, and his dad worked as a doctor in a local clinic. Whereas Kyle was the only child, Sam had two younger siblings, ten-year-old fraternal twins Judy and Jeremy. Sam was a small, slender and almost skinny kid, standing at 5'5'' tall and weighing about 120 pounds. He had short spiky black hair and almond shaped bright amber eyes, which were his most striking feature. Sammy had milky smooth creamy skin of warm golden complexion. Like Kyle, Sammy realized that he was gay at a pretty early age, and he also decided to stay in the closet. His mom had rather conservative family ideas, and Sammy knew that he was expected to marry a respectable girl and to father several kids.
Unlike Kyle, Sammy dealt with his sexual insecurity by developing an extroverted and even gregarious disposition. His sharp tongue sometimes got him into trouble, but Sammy also had a warm, open, kind and generous personality and was generally well liked by the other kids in school.
To his father's delight, Sammy quickly developed a strong interest in sciences and excelled at school academically. Hid teachers thought that he was a math genius, and he probably was. Sammy's dad would have preferred for him to also pursue a medical career, but engineering seemed like a solid and respectable alternative. Sammy got into college easily, on a partial scholarship, taking into account his parents substantial combined income.
While being mostly concentrated on his studies, Sammy did a bit of gymnastics as a kid, and later in middle and high school he became quite a serious swimmer. He really loved swimming, and the sight of many fit and cute boys in the showers was a secret added bonus. Swimming kept Sammy's body slim and nicely toned, with firm and lean although not massive muscles. Like Kyle, Sammy was very much looking forward to exploring gay life while in college, and he desperately wanted to finally have sex with a boy.
In the summer before their first semester as freshmen, Kyle found a nice and tidy two-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a three-story building a few blocks away from campus. Kyle posted an ad looking for a roommate, and Sammy was the second person who responded. Both boys were immediately attracted to each other. When Kyle saw Sammy's trim graceful figure, bright amber eyes and a broadly smiling face, he knew right away that he wanted this boy as a roommate, a friend and maybe something more. Sammy, on his part, immediately felt week-kneed and aroused when he saw Kyle's massive tall muscular frame. Sammy had a secret fetish for black guys, and to him Kyle looked like an epitome of male beauty and perfection.
The two boys rented the apartment together and started their college life as roommates. Although their personalities were quite different, Kyle and Sammy quickly became good friends. They both enjoyed fitness without being too interested in the competitive side of sports. They often run together in the mornings before school. Kyle taught Sammy how to shoot hoops, and Sammy got Kyle somewhat interested in swimming. Both boys turned out to be health food fanatics. They had frequent spirited discussions about nutrition and often cooked together. Kyle and Sam also discovered that they both liked classical music and both were huge fans of Bach. They went together to several concerts in New York City, each boy secretly thinking that it was "almost a date." Both Kyle and Sammy also really liked animals. The apartment they rented belonged to an older woman living nearby who owned several cats. She told them that they could get a cat if they wanted to, and the boys jumped at they idea. They went to a local animal shelter and adopted a tiny grey tabby kitten whom they called Dusty. Playing with Dusty and taking care of him became one of the boys' favorite activities. Sammy was happy to see that interacting with Dusty brought out the warm, gentle, tender and compassionate side from the usually reserved Kyle. Sammy really dug that, he dug that very much. Over the first two months of living together the boys' friendship grew, as did their attraction to each other. Each was too scared to act on his feelings, afraid of rejection and of ruining their friendship. And yet each was the object of the other one's jack-off fantasies and secret longing. By the middle of the first semester both Kyle and Sammy were desperately in love with each other, and yet blinded by fear to the other one's feelings.
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After a delicious dinner that they cooked and ate together, Kyle was sitting at the computer in the living room, working on his calculus homework. He was wearing a white A-shirt and very short athletic running shorts, intending to go for a run later. But there was one particularly stubborn differentiation problem where he still could not get the answer right, and the online grading program kept rejecting his responses.
"Damn it, why isn't it working!" Kyle exclaimed in frustration.
Sammy, who had been sitting on the sofa, playing with Dusty and trying to read a book, looked up.
"Do you need help, buddy?" he asked.
"Yeah, maybe. I just can't figure out this calculus problem!" Kyle answered.
Sammy put down the book and walked to Kyle, standing behind him. Sammy had taken some advanced math classes while still in high school and he got credit for this calculus course so that he did not have to take it again.
He leaned towards the screen next to Kyle.
"Ok, show me," Sammy said.
"Thanks, man, I much appreciate it! Here it is, take a look."
Sammy, being quite a math wiz, quickly saw what the issue was and he explained to Kyle what to do there. Kyle followed Sammy's directions and quickly got the right answer.
"Finally, it works! Thanks again, kiddo!" Kyle exclaimed.
