September, 1983-
Autumn in Vermont is awesome. Peak color for the trees is still weeks away, but the days are already getting cooler and I can feel my most loved season in the air. Summer at home with my family was nice, but I'm happy to be back on campus. I've missed this place.
I'm Mike, I just turned twenty and I'm starting my junior year of college. Now that I'm an upperclassman, my days of having a roommate are behind me. I am in a single dorm and I feel like I won the lottery. Not that I don't enjoy sharing and playing nice with others, but nothing beats having my own private little space.
For two hours this afternoon, my private little space will have a visitor. I am on the wrestling team and I have an appointment with the college doctor for my preseason physical and a therapeutic massage. It's standard stuff with college athletic programs. It's been a long summer and they need to check my height, my weight, my heart, my blood pressure, my pulse, my lungs... Basically, a full physical. They need to give me a clean bill of health before I can compete. Plus, it's these results that officially determine my weight class. The doctor is busy having to be available for the whole student body, so his assistant is coming to my dorm at noon to do most of this stuff here today. He'll chart my results in advance of next week's in-office appointment with the actual doctor where I'll have blood and urine testing and get an official onceover.
I have headphones on and my rad Sony Walkman clipped to my waistband as I head back to my room. I just finished two hours in the weightroom and I plan to shower, change and grab some lunch in the dining hall before my noon appointment. It's 9:45 right now, so I have plenty of time. My two-hour workout flew by with the help of Duran Duran, Men At Work, Michael Jackson, Adam Ant and ZZ Top.
I'm about to strip off my sweaty sweats, slip on my robe and head to the showers when there's a knock on my door. I answer it revealing a guy carrying a briefcase. He smiles and says, "Mike, right? I'm Paul. I'm here for your physical and massage."
"You're a bit early, aren't you?"
He checks his watch, "About ten minutes. I'm sorry. Are you not ready for me?"
"Umm, my appointment is at noon. You're two hours early."
He shoulders his way past me and sets his briefcase down on my desk. He pops it open and pulls out a folder. "My schedule says Jason is at noon. Mike is at ten. You are Mike. It's just about ten." He takes my hand and shakes it. He tells me again that his name is Paul. I hadn't forgotten.
"There's been some sort of mix up. Someone else must be expecting you right about now, because I was expecting you in two hours. Maybe it's Jason."
He checks the schedule again. "Even if that's the case, Jason's dorm is on the other side of campus. I'd never make it on time. Then I'd be behind all day. You're here, I'm here... Is there any reason we can't do this now?"
Well, I'm a smelly pig from working out. I haven't even stopped sweating yet. I say, "I was hoping to grab a quick shower."
Paul looks me up and down. My face and neck glisten in perspiration. He says, "I have days of back to back athletes to examine and massage. If a little sweat bothered me I wouldn't be pre-med. You are just another face in the crowd. I'm sorry for the scheduling mix up, but please Mike, can we do this?"
I look at Paul. His smile is warm and his eyes are kind. I feel my shoulders begin to untense. These preseason physicals happen every year. The other guys on the team all complain that the doctor's assistant is never a girl. They would much prefer that a hot chick give them their therapeutic massage than some random dude. And it is random. This is my third year and Paul is the third different guy. I tend to agree with my teammates. I would prefer a chick too, but for the opposite reason. I am very much a closeted gay guy so I wouldn't be attracted to or affected by a hot chick's hands all over me. A hot guy though...?
The first two years, the guys weren't all that hot and I managed just fine. Paul is another story. And he is still looking at me. His steel grey eyes seem to see through me. His black hair is gelled into haphazard spikes and his striped Izod Polo shirt hints at some nice toning through his shoulders and arms. I already feel a little twitch in my crotch and, other than a handshake, Paul hasn't even touched me yet.
I let out a breath and close my door, slipping the lock into place. "I would hate to be responsible for making you late or causing you trouble."
His smile widens.
~~
Paul sits in my desk chair and I sit on my bed. He asks me a bunch of screening questions about such things as new medications, recent changes in my health, my dietary habits, my sleeping habits, alcohol use, tobacco use, drug use, etc. Next, he pulls a stethoscope out of his briefcase and asks me to open my robe. As long as Paul keeps his shirt on, I think I'll be okay. With my robe now open, I catch a waft of my own post-workout funk. My cheeks flush. Paul is a really polite guy because there's no way he doesn't notice that I reek.
Having checked my heart and my lungs, he asks where my scale is. Being on the wrestling team, I am required to check my weight regularly. Fluctuations can lead to changes in class. We all keep personal scales in our dorm rooms. I slide mine out from under my bed and step aboard. The scale reads 180. That's fine for a six foot tall athlete like myself, but it is a bit more than I weighed at the end of last season.
Paul asks, "Are hoping to move up to a heavier weight class?"
"Not really."
"I'm sure we can fix this," he touches my shoulder and I sizzle from the contact. "Slip out of your big, clunky shoes. They look heavy."
I forgot to pack flipflops when I moved back in, so I slipped my sneakers back on for the walk to the showers. They are size eleven Reebok high-tops. They're not light.
"Is there anything in your pockets? Keys, wallet? You know what? Just lose the whole robe."
I'm about to protest, but there's no point. I'll be wearing nothing but a towel for the massage anyway. I drop the robe and get back on the scale in just my undies. Does a body weigh more with an erect versus a flaccid penis? It's just a matter of displacement, right? And it's only a partial that I'm concealing at this point anyway.
Paul says, "That brings you down to 175. Still a couple pounds more than last spring, but you're safely in range."
"I worked out a lot over the Summer. My waist is actually an inch smaller but I have more muscle."
Paul's eye's roll up and down the length of me, all tan skin and scant, threadbare tidy-whities. He clears his throat, "Muscle does weigh more than fat."
He validates my height at six feet and measures my waist at 29 inches. Checking my chart, he says "You were a 30 last year." His eyes slide down my chest and zero in on my stomach, "Soon you'll be able to skip the laundry room and clean your clothes on your washboard abs."
He winks at me and I blush again. My dick also twitches again. I need to tread lightly here. The last thing I need right now is an embarrassing full-on boner. Just because I'm a twenty year old virgin, doesn't mean my body has to behave like I'm in the midst of a raging case of puberty.
Paul instructs me to trade my underwear for a towel and then to lie face-down on my bed with the towel over me, but uncinched. It's time to begin the massage. There is nowhere to hide in my tiny one-room dorm, but fortunately, Paul busies himself with making notes in my file. His big strong hand wrapping around that pen is making me think things I have no business thinking. In moments, those very hands will be kneading into me. This massage is not supposed to be erotic, sensual or really even enjoyed. It is supposed to be therapeutic. Almost a medical procedure. Why couldn't Paul be an ugly dude, like last year's guy? Or a girl like my teammates want? Shit.
Once I'm in position, at least I can't see him anymore. His grey eyes, that cute face. I bury my own face in my pillow. I hear the top pop on the bottle of massaging oil and brace myself for contact. Last year's guy drizzled it cold out of the bottle all over my back, making me flinch. Kind Paul pours oil in his hands, warming it as he rubs his hands together. He starts with my neck and I can't quite stifle a moan of pleasure.
Hoping to distract my own thoughts, I start peppering him with questions. Where does he live? Boston. What kind of doctor does he hope to be? A GP. What are his favorite subjects? Biology and photography. Is he into any sports? He was on the basketball team his first two years, but with his job in the medical office this term, he has to give basketball up due to time constraints.