The physical requirements of moving all my things a mile away were more than I had expected. I had a lot of junk, I thought to myself as I boxed up personal things, I will have to do a yard sale sometime. But the labor was good, it took my mind off of my mom and her health issues. She was being transferred to a hospice home not too far away and I was moving in with my uncle Travis.
Travis was my mother's brother, about five years younger. He had helped look after me when I was younger, and increasingly so as my mom's cancer worsened. Now I was 18 and done with high school. I didn't have much of a plan because I assumed a simple job and helping out my mom. But now I was officially moving in with my uncle. Looking back it was a coming of age for me, but at the time I was nervous. Yet, I was very comforted by my uncle. I always felt at home in his two bedroom house. We would play games on Xbox together, cook food together, or hit the hot tub out back. He was what I needed many times.
"You got it? Or do you need a hand?" Travis asked, waking me out of my day dreaming.
"Uh, help please." I responded as I knelt down to pick up a heavier box. Travis knelt down on the other side of the box and we lifted at the same time. He probably could have carried it himself. He has some muscle that you could easily see in his shoulders and arms. He had a chub belly but obviously had been a gym rat at some point in his life. Lately his body was more relaxed, less disciplined.
I had taken note of his physical stature ever since I was younger. I'm gay and so is Travis. I always found him attractive, along with most of the guys at school. Guess I'm not too picky, but Travis was always very manly. The guys at school might be cute, but they weren't men that could throw me around. Well, maybe some could. You see, I'm 5 foot 10, 230 pounds. I have moobs and a belly. Mom says I have a baby face and I don't have to shave often. I've kissed a few guys, but otherwise I've been really shy and reserved.
It took a few hours to get my things moved to Travis' house and by the time we finished it was getting dark. Travis had pizza delivered and we were able to take a break.
"Beer?" he asked as he pulled his shirt over his head. I stared while slowly answering his question. He had a decent amount of chest hair, nice looking pecks, and a firm back. There was sweat shining from his strong shoulders down to his belly button that lead to a happy trail into his shorts.
"Sure, if that's okay..." I was hesitant also because I wasn't 21 and I didn't want to get him or myself in trouble.
"In our house, yes. It's okay. You just need to ask me first, and not be going out afterwards." He replied with a smile as he popped the top off of a couple beers. I drank some and he laughed at the face I made. "That's alright, I will educate you about beer. That one is a lighter beer, but you might be more comfortable with a flavored beer. Here, try this one." He handed me his beer and I tasted it. It was even stronger, so Travis chuckled again at my grimaced face. "I taste chocolate in there too." I thought out loud.
"Correct. That's a chocolate stout. Might not be your thing either, but we will keep your palette educated. Here, let's take these beers out to the hot tub." he said as he handed me a cooler. We loaded up a variety of beers and he told me about each briefly.