Joe Tom

During the summer of our junior year, someone burned a huge cross on Joe Tom's lawn. We naturally assume that it was the Ku Klux Klan although no one ever acknowledged seeing who did it. The incident made the local newspapers and there were several stories about Joe Tom and his family being Jews. The articles were all sympathetic and trite. I felt embarrassed for Joe Tom and I understood how he felt. I'd suffered tremendously when my father was in the news for the collapsed building and through the several court trials that followed. Shortly after the cross burning incident, I was at the Albany Mall just hanging out and getting a few things for the coming senior year. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned quickly to stare into the gorgeous face of Joe Tom.

"What's up, dude? And what's in the bags -- porno?" he laughed.

"I wish, man," I laughed back, "but I don't think there is any porn in the backwoods of Georgia."

Joe Tom winked an eye. "You just haven't been to the right places, my man."

"Yeah, I'll bet you have a stash as big as the Library of Congress."

"Not THAT big but I do have a decent collection. You know how it is, dude!"

"Yeah,' I replied. "You need something to jack off to three times a day."

He playfully hit me in the shoulder. "I suppose you're going to tell me you damn Yankees DON'T jack off three times a day, huh?"

I laughed at him. "Goddamn right us damn Yankees don't jack off three times a day."

Joe Tom lightly smacked the back of my head with his hand and laughed.

"Is that right, Einstein? Is the precise figure more like FIVE times a day?"

I could feel my cock getting hard from having this conversation. I couldn't get the image of him jacking off his big cock out of my mind. I was looking forward to further banter with him when his mother called to him, telling him they had to leave for home. Suddenly, Joe Tom grabbed me into a tight hug.

"I've enjoyed knowing you, Marc, and I'm gonna miss you," he said softly.

"What's going on?" I asked, panicking that something was really wrong with him.

"Oh, this cross burning incident really got Mom's panties in a wad. Dad's never liked Albany anyway and this was the final straw. He requested a transfer from the Albany Piggly Wiggly grocery store. A managerial position has opened up in Columbus, Ga. so we're going there. Gramps has opened a jewelry store branch in Columbus so Mom's going to manage it and Dad is going to manage the Piggly Wiggly. And they're both gonna manage to drive me out of my goddamn mind. What a motherfucking piece of shit this is! This is like the eighth move we've made all over the Southeastern United States over the last twelve years. I feel like a goddamn ping pong ball!"

Suddenly, his mom yelled at him again.

"I'm gonna miss you, too, Joe Tom. It's like I was just getting to know you and I'm sorry to see you go."

I was not just blowing smoke out my ass here. I was deeply depressed that I'd never again see the most beautiful man I'd ever met and the friendliest guy at the school. I could feel anger and despair welling up in me. I was certain that Joe Tom was straight as an arrow and if I'd shown anything remotely gay in my response to him, the farewell hug I received would turn into nasty queer bashing comments and I didn't want our relationship to end on that note. I reached out and shook his hand but he pulled me to him again in another quick embrace.

"Good luck, Joe Tom. Knock the socks off them at your new school."

He laughed and waved back to me as he walked away. I had to steel myself to not get girly and start crying. He was the nicest guy I knew at Albany High. I'd masturbated with him in my mind a thousand times over and had dreamed one day we'd be closer friends. Now it was never going to happen.

The following school year began and without Joe Tom to compete with me, I was able to take his lead spot on some of the school teams. Within a few weeks of school beginning Joe Tom was just a pleasant memory like those of my many friends in New York. While I was academically leaps and bounds ahead of most of my classmates, I did have some serious competition. I had a brief bitter rebellious period during my senior year that cost me a few academic points for being suspended for cutting class, smoking, and disrespect. My dad believed in old fashioned discipline and my ass was tanned hard for each infraction plus he added some real shit chores to my load as punishment.

My grandfather's cancer finally caught up with him and he died right before Christmas. My parents were always careful to never discuss finances and problems in front of the kids but even so, Alex and I were not too surprised to discover that Granddad's illness had seriously depleted our family financial resources. Dad was relieved when I took an after school job at a local McDonald's restaurant. Mom tearfully objected to my working while still in high school but I overrode their arguments and gave my parents every penny of every check I earned. Dad continued giving me my small allowance to cover school lunches and necessities. I didn't realize until much later in life how that job with McDonald's increased my stature and image within my family. Josh and Jane later told me that my father had told them that he was truly impressed with what a responsible man I'd grown into. Jane told me that he actually had tears in his eyes as he told them how I'd have my check direct deposited into his and Mom's checking account. The trials and tribulations of our suffering as a family made us an even stronger and more cohesive unit.

I graduated fifth in my class of a hundred and eighty. It didn't disappoint me to not make valedictorian. I was more proud of my ability to hold down a job and still keep a good academic record. Fifth in your class is not something to hang your head in shame over but it doesn't qualify you for academic scholarships. I was offered a couple of athletic scholarships. My best offer was from a small college north of Atlanta and about two hundred miles from Albany. They were the only school to offer me a full baseball scholarship. They'd been known for an outstanding athletic program for many years. I was the best baseball player in my high school, a multi-talented player who could pitch, play first base, and my batting scores helped put my high school in state championships both my junior and senior year. I did a lot of soul searching before accepting the scholarship and came awfully close to turning it down. You see, it was a Southern Baptist College and I was brought up as an Episcopalian -- and one who only attended when I absolutely had to do so.

There would be no Ivy League schools for me like Josh and Jane. I refused to graduate owing a half million dollars before I worked the first day in my new career and my parents could only provide limited assistance. Therefore, when the Southern Baptist College of North Georgia (SBNG) offered me a full scholarship, I finally accepted after much deep thinking. I had the deep secret of my bisexuality that I'd kept inside me my entire life. Everyone was always so certain that I was totally straight. I've never openly supported gay causes but I've also never been a person who was critical or acted homophobic. My own sense of honor would never let me take anti-gay stands and it was not until SBNG offered me a full scholarship that I was first forced to confront some painful issues.

I didn't know much about the Baptist religion and had never been inside a Baptist church in my life. I'd never attended any church other than Episcopalian and while I was comfortable with the only faith I'd ever experienced in my short life, I also knew that I had about as much in common with the Bible thumper types as a chimpanzee has with a fish. My father's brother, David, had married a Baptist woman, Deborah, and they ended up divorced because ultimately he could not come to terms with her faith and her preaching to him. I never understood why he didn't figure this out BEFORE they got married but he always said that she was an easygoing woman who was quick to fall into bed with him until she got a ring on her hand. Then she turned into Saint Deborah. David always says that he became convinced there really is a God when Deborah had a miscarriage with their first child and ended up having a hysterectomy, saving him a lifetime of child support. Within weeks of the miscarriage, David had filed for a divorce, thankful to be rid of the relationship. My own parents were not sorry to see Deborah leave the family because they dreaded any visits from her with her Bible quotes. That was two years ago and David swears he'll never marry again under any circumstance. Anyway, the negativity that I experienced with Deborah gave me an indelible impression of the Baptist faith. I never heard her mention anything you could do that was right but maybe it just got lost in her litany of everything we did that she thought was wrong.

With this backdrop of the faith, it's easy to see why I was distressed to think I could be put in a position of attending one their schools. My parents kept telling me there was no requirement that I join their church to attend the school. Just attend class, play baseball, and get my degree. Mom insisted if I did well I could probably transfer to another university for my junior and senior years. With great trepidation, I accepted their offer and enrolled. The first two years are usually the basic array of courses that provide overall general knowledge much like advanced high school classes and one does not usually begin their major courses until the third and fourth years.

In orientation I discovered I was required to pass at least one Bible course and I'd be required to attend thirty minute chapel services once a week on Wednesday mornings at ten a.m. There was a progressive fine for missing chapel. It began as one dollar for the first miss but then doubled for each successive miss so that at the end of a semester a student who missed twelve chapels could owe over two thousand dollars. University rules were explicit. A student who failed to pay chapel fines would not be issued grades or a transcript. I decided I'd attend the chapel sessions and see if I could use the time to study. As I later found out, anything other than the appearance of rapt attention was unacceptable. When I was asked to indicate my religion on college forms, I naturally entered Episcopalian. This led to my being singled out for religious tracts and ministerial students harassing me to join the Baptist church. I was nice about it for a few weeks and then I got ugly.

I went to my baseball coach and asked for his intervention while at the same time telling him I was considering filing a lawsuit and going to the newspapers. Coach Taliaferro told me to just ignore their bullshit; that he was a practicing Roman Catholic and when he first started working at the school the same groups harassed him. He put a statue of the Blessed Virgin in his office and began to carry a rosary with him everywhere he went. When approached he would tell them he would pray for them as they suffered in their erroneous religion. Coach's brother is a state senator and when the president of the college called him into his office to complain about his aggressive Catholic stance, Coach very diplomatically informed the president that he was in a position to affect state funding to the college and to embarrass them publicly. Coach agreed that if the Bible thumpers would leave him alone, that he would do likewise. He also told me that it was his skill that brought SBNG its titles and athletes, that before him the school was floundering on the verge of closing. Coach had been offered other jobs and only stayed because he enjoyed being able to have such an impact on students in a smaller school. Coach and I became friends and suddenly the Bible thumpers didn't bother me as much anymore.

After Christmas in my freshman year, I was faced with the prospect of a new roommate. When I returned to school after the Christmas break, I discovered that my roommate Randy had left school to do a tour of duty in the Peace Corps. I was told I'd get a replacement roommate who was transferring from another university in the second week of class. Randy had been a religion major, planning to become a Baptist pastor, and while he was an okay guy, we only got along because I wouldn't let him bait me. I did everything in my power to avoid spending time with him. The most time we were together was at night when we were sleeping in our separate beds. He was a nice guy, just deluded to the point of near insanity in my personal opinion.

I don't pray a lot but I found myself sending up silent prayers to the Almighty to preserve me from another Holy Roller or worse. At least I was able to change sides of the room to what had been Randy's bed and desk. My dorm room was on the third floor. The morning sun lit my bed brightly every morning while Randy's remained in shadow. Even worse, at night a fluorescent parking lot lamp post light beamed onto my bed. It made Randy's side of the room look even more pitch black because it robbed me of my night vision. This created a problem for me because if I wanted to masturbate, I was in a spotlight. Once he'd caught me jacking off in the middle of the night and had asked me to take it to the bathroom so he didn't have to watch. I'd never been one to masturbate for an audience and certainly not in front of that prude Randy. We had a few tense days and then everything was back to normal.

I was told my new roommate would move in either Monday or Tuesday of the second week. On Monday, I had a crucifying day with a full array of morning classes and then the basketball team had to travel eighty miles to another college in Atlanta for a late afternoon game. We got back to campus at 7:30 PM and I decided to have a short workout before going back to my dorm room. The lights were on in the weight room and I heard voices. I figured it would be the usual evening group of weight lifters with whom I regularly worked out. We had a fairly decent relationship. On Tuesday and Thursday nights I worked at a local pizzeria across the street from the campus, also sometimes a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. I often worked out in my basketball uniform after games so it was no big deal for me to just walk into the weight room and start lifting. I didn't really pay attention to the other guys in the room as I went directly to a corner alcove where a leg lift machine was located. I had my earphones on listening to music. From the leg lifts, I walked over to a weight bench, set my level, and lay down to press. I didn't try to press hundreds of pounds, just 120 because I was not interested in developing Mr. Universe muscles, only in keeping my wiry tone.

Suddenly, I felt, more than saw, a shadow over me and a voice said, "Can I spot you, dude? Then you can return the favor for me, if you will."

My heart jumped. I immediately recognized Joe Tom Aronoff's deep voice. I looked up to see his gorgeous face smiling down at me. I started to sit up but he pushed me back down.

"Talk to me and do your lifting, Marc. Since when did you start working out like a demon? These guys here tell me you practically live in the weight room."

I grinned up at him. "Well, it's like this. Lifting weights beats the hell out of dealing with a pain in the ass roommate."

Joe Tom laughed. "I wonder if the athletic staff ever considered using that as a method to get students to work out more."

"Around here, it's de rigueur. So what brings you here to our great university?" I said sarcastically. "Surely, it is not an improvement over where you came from. Speaking of which, where DID you come from, man?"

Joe Tom animatedly began to tell me about transferring from Auburn University over a dustup with a dean and some kids he swore were anti-Semitic. He began to relay the details and I looked up at him as he talked. I also got the view of my life looking up his shorts. He was wearing loose athletic shorts that barely covered his ass cheeks, shorts that had a thin net inner pouch to keep the family jewels intact. The net was so thin I could see Joe Tom's cock head and nut sack hanging loosely. His crotch hair poked through the net wildly. Joe Tom's hairy legs pressed into my shoulders as he spotted for me. I suddenly realized that Joe Tom was asking me a question. I was mesmerized by his cock head which I was certain was increasing in size. I jerked myself back to reality, reminding myself that this was the guy who laughed about feeding queers to alligators.

"So, which dorm floor are you on, Marc?" he was asking.

"Third; and you?"

"Sweet, dude, I'm on the same floor. Maybe we can hang out together sometime."

We switched places and I began to spot for him. The difference in weight was significant. Joe Tom was lifting 350 pounds and really needed a spotter. I looked down at his beautiful body wanting to lick those hairy armpits as he lifted the weight bar. He continued to chat with me about his studies. I hadn't realized Joe Tom was also science and math oriented and had plans to major in aeronautical engineering. At the same time he was hoping he could do well enough in college football to play professionally for the NFL. As we talked, I told him my concerns about professional football players who play for a few seasons -- if they are lucky to last that long -- and then suffer with physical ailments until they die.

"You sound like an old woman, Marc! Where's the adventurer I knew in high school?"

"We'll see who the old woman is when you're walking with a cane with your steel hips, kneecaps, and elbows and your dick doesn't work anymore from all of the steroids you'll end up taking. Plus, you'll hardly know what's going on because you will have suffered so many concussions that your brain will be fried."

Joe Tom chuckled. "I'll be rich enough to hire you to take care of me. I'm ready to call it a day. You ready to go back to the dorm?"

"Yeah, I'm tired and ready to take a shower and hit the sack. I've got a chemistry test in the morning so I need to get some rest. Oh and when was I ever a fucking adventurer, Joe Tom? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

We laughed and joked around as we walked across campus to the men's dorm. We took the elevator to the third floor and headed to our rooms. When I stopped at my door, Joe Tom burst out laughing.

"You dork! I'm your new roommate! Didn't they tell you the name of your new roommate?"

I was surprised. "Hell no, they didn't tell me a goddamn thing about the new roommate, only that you were coming either today or tomorrow."

We went inside. Joe Tom's things were all over the room. From the mess, it looked like we'd been burglarized.

"We don't have a room service, Joe Tom. And don't go thinking I'm the maid."

"What's the problem?!"

He gave me this innocent babe in the woods look and walked toward the bathroom.

"I've gotta take a shit. Okay if I do that and then take a shower or do you want to shower while I shit?" Joe Tom looked at me with his eyebrows raised high.

"Frankly, I'd rather you do your business and shower, then I'll shower after you. Put the suction fan on, dude. I don't really want to take a shower in eau de shit."

He laughed and I went to my desk to do homework.

I was still working at the desk when Joe Tom came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. I sucked in a deep breath. If anything, he was even more handsome than I remembered him from junior year. He'd developed more muscle and his chest hair was more pronounced and covered a broader swath. The hair on his legs was a bit longer and thicker. I could see he was definitely developing into a man who was going to be a major bear hunk. For some reason, I just could not watch him remove his towel and swagger around the room naked so I almost ran into the bathroom. I took my shower and jacked off thinking about Joe Tom. When I came back into our bedroom, Joe Tom was asleep in his bed. I could hear his soft steady breathing. He was totally covered with a sheet and facing the wall so all I could see was the back of his head and one gorgeous foot hanging off the edge of his bed. I went to bed and dreamed of Joe Tom.