PHOTOS above and below - Cabel

A Startling surprise awaits Jason in the city ...

I was talking to Ginny on the phone while Johnny was driving on the Columbus beltway. It was a huge freeway that wrapped all the way around the city and fed off of various interstate highways that connected to it from every direction. Located almost in the exact middle of the state, Ohio's biggest city was indeed at the very heart of America.

"I thought Cleveland's bigger," Ernie said from the back seat.

He and Shondo and Johnny had been discussing it as we all gaped ahead at the skyline of huge skyscrapers. It looked more like Houston or Dallas than a city in Ohio.

"The Cleveland metro area is bigger," Shondo explained. "Metro Columbus is smaller but the city itself has a population larger than Cleveland's."

Johnny was struggling to look at the skyline and still stay in his lane. "I used to live here but I only have vague memories of it. And, of course, I've been up here to watch the Buckeyes play."

That was the Ohio State football team, that perennial championship college team it was now looking like I'd never play on. I heard myself groan as I looked away from the skyline. It was so fucking hard to chew up your life-long dreams and spit them out.

"Are you all right?" Ginny asked me.

"Yah, I'm okay. Johnny just mentioned the Buckeyes and it sure looks like I'm not ever gonna be one of them. You should see the freakin' traffic here. We're not used to traffic in Kenton." I snorted. "We don't have any."

She had told me what happened. Mark obviously had known about her hidden lock box. He'd smashed it open, took her money, some jewelry, and the flash drive, and put the box back under the floorboard. She discovered it this afternoon when she went to get some cash. And she'd been going crazy apologizing about it now.

I'd told the guys about it and we'd all had a big laugh. No biggie if the vid was online. Johnny and I were out. Kenton High might not like it if they found out, but we weren't the ones who put it online. Maybe the notoriety it might cause could do us some good. At this point I just didn't see how it could do any more harm than had already been done.

"Ginny, just don't worry about it," I told her. "Go on your date tonight with Trenton and have a good time. He spent Wednesday night with me and Johnny and he's so awesome your focus should be on him and nothing else."

"Ohmygod. The three of you together all night long?  I'm already dead just thinking about it."

I laughed. "It was definitely a killer. You think you like him now? Just wait. And remember, he's shy with girls. You gotta take control. Make him your own personal love slave. Forget about Mark and the video and everything else."

I ended the call as we approached the ramp to Interstate 71 which went north through the city.

"Get off here," I told Johnny. "It goes right downtown then up to Ohio State."

Ernie tapped me on the shoulder. "What's the website for your sex tape. We want to see it."

"It's not a tape, dude. You sound like Trenton. I made it with my laptop. It's a digital video."

Ernie snorted. "Digital schmidgital. Screw that crap. I live on a farm and milk cows in the morning before I go to school."

I laughed at him. He was way too hot a hunk to even go near a cow. "You are holding a smart phone in your hand and planning to go on the mobile net with it. That's all totally digital."

"Yah, and I can just barely do it, and there are days I don't even remember how. I'm lucky if I can make phone calls. What the hell is the website?"

I gave him the website name and he repeated it to Google on his phone. I wanted to lean over the seat and kiss him, but Shondo was sort of his boyfriend and I didn't know how he'd react to that. Johnny had merged onto I71 and we were in thick multi-lane traffic speeding toward the Oz-like city, the summer sun reflecting on all the glass and steel skyscrapers.

"Is Ginny okay?" Johnny asked.

"She's upset but she'll get over it. She's going out with Trenton tonight. That'll sure get her mind off her brother and what he's done. Somehow Mark got one of our followers to post the website link on our Facebook pages and there's even a short censored preview on YouTube. It links to the video on muscleboyvids and already has over a thousand views."

"Yow. I guess we're popular, huh?" Johnny mused. "So he's with somebody who knows how to do all that? It doesn't seem like Mark would know much about video editing."

"Probably not. There's that after-school class for media production at Kenton High, but Mark wasn't in it. For all we know he could be a real geek and hang out online with others. He doesn't seem to have many real friends, but some of the guys say he knows some really weird redneck dudes up in the hills."

Johnny snorted. "Screw him. So I guess we're keeping up with the Kardashians, huh? Sex tape and all."

"Ha. You're another Ernie.. Sex video and all."

I had a zillion messages and notifications to check but I put my phone back in my pocket to help guide Johnny. We were going out to the campus first to look around and then get something to eat. Then back downtown to the hotel, check in, and rest a little before going out for the night. I was really excited about going to a gay club. Just to see hundreds of other queer dudes in a place made just for us where we can really be ourselves was something I was looking forward to.

The boys in the back seat were laughing, hooting, and making some pretty crude remarks. Apparently Ernie had found the video.

"Mother fuck!" Shondo slapped the back of the seat and made both me and Johnny jump. "You guys look like professional porn dudes. Awesome."

They were hunched over Ernie's phone, taking it all in.

Ernie looked up at me with a big grin. "Jeez you guys are hot. You're getting' us all turned on. We're gonna have to stop somewhere for a quickie after watching this."

Johnny turned his head a little to look back at them and I caught the gleam in his eyes. "We can always go to the hotel first," he suggested as the downtown loomed up right in front of us.

I knew he was thinking to get his hands on Shondo and I sure was too. I didn't agree with Ernie that he was hotter than everyone we knew put together, but he was fucking close. And, of course, I didn't know if Shondo was even interested in getting it on with me and Johnny.

But the uber-hot dude had an evil grin on his face. "The Frontier Baths are nearby the campus. We could make a pit stop there."

I figured that meant he was interested. "Yah, that'd be awesome. I'd love to go to a bath house. What's it like?"

"Nice, Jason. Like a spa. They've got steam and sauna, a gym, a pool, rooms to rent, dorms, nice dark rooms with bunks and mazes and little nooks and corners for gettin' it on."

"That sure sound like a good time. Who goes there?" Johnny asked. "What kind of crowd?"

"Mostly the dudes you'll never see at gay bars. Bi guys, and ones who live straight, married men too. Body builders and athletes. Older guys. Daddies that'll get your eyes poppin'."

I sighed. "I'd like that. My dad hasn't talked to me since I came out, and I fucking miss him. I could sure use some lovin' from somebody his age."

'Fuck. As well-known as you and Johnny are," Shondo said, "they're probably showing this video on the TV screens in the bath house right now. Those daddies see you walk in, dude, they'll all line up. But you gotta be careful at bath houses. Risky sex is still dangerous and it's best to go there with somebody you already know." He chuckled, adding, "Or a group of them."

I'd sent out tweets about our coming to Columbus and announced it on Facebook too, mentioning we'd be at Xanadude in case any of our followers wanted to come see us. Johnny wasn't a fan of technology (although he'd put it that he wasn't addicted to it) and he didn't crave attention like I did. But if I had to give up my future and deal with all this crap, I wanted the social media excitement around as a distraction. We had thousands and thousands of followers on Twitter already. It just kept growing the more I tweeted sexy pictures of us. They'd get retweeted all over the world and new followers would show up. And I hadn't even had time to start up accounts on Instagram and Snapchat.

Facebook too. It was amazing. There wasn't enough time to deal with it all, especially all the private messages from young gays everywhere pouring their hearts out about the problems they face, like Channing had. There was a twenty year-old dude from France who'd lost his lover in a gay-bashing attack, living now on a ranch in the Australian outback trying to rebuild his life. He'd written to me three times already.  A teen girl who wanted to be a boy wrote a couple times from a small South American country. Caught in a cycle of bullying at school and abuse by her parents at home, she dreamed of going to university in Mexico City to escape it all.

They were only a couple of the many who'd written to me. I was being educated, becoming aware of young gay people all over the world who were struggling to be their authentic selves in a world still hostile to homosexuality. Kids like Braden, right at home in Kenton, who'd been so severely wounded by life and so desperately needed help. I was so full of it, from head to toe, it was fucking coming out of my ears. I desperately wanted to help, to make a difference in others' lives and give new meaning to mine which had so impossibly changed in just a week.

The car sped through the downtown sector of the city, the high buildings flying by. I watched Johnny as he tried to keep his eyes on the road and read the highway signs too.

"It's the next exit," I told him. "Gets us off right on campus."

Ernie and Shondo were still hooting and hollering at our antics on the video when we pulled off the highway a couple minutes later. Johnny and I were used to coming up here with my dad in the fall for football games, so the campus seemed dead to us now in the middle of the hot summer. The grounds around all the big buildings and the parkways and center strips of grass that connected them were just about empty in comparison

He drove down one of the parkways toward the Olentangy River. I knew exactly where he was going.

"Do you have to go there?" I asked him.

He didn't even look at me. "Yes. You need to face it and make a decision."

I immediately tensed up and groaned, wanting to beg him to turn back. But I bit my lip as we crossed over the river and turned up another road that led past the arenas and sports facilities. Another turn and the big building I was dreading loomed up ahead and my heart began to thud as he pulled into the parking lot by the entrance. The sign in front stated The Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

It was a massive modern building, brick and glass, and my dad had taken us here last year to watch the Buckeyes practice. He was so happy that I'd soon be going to college here and playing on the team. It'd been exciting for me too, but all it did now was make my stomach churn.

Johnny pulled into a parking space that faced the fenced-off playing fields alongside the center. A bunch of dudes were out there playing football, some shirtless, some wearing tees. The team itself wouldn't be here practicing till the first week of August.

Johnny shifted into park. "Whaddaya think?"

I grunted. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Do you want to leave?"

"No." I edged closer to him and grabbed his hand. "Stay here. I just want to ... to look."

The Jacey video had ended and Ernie, who surely knew the significance of where we were, asked from behind in a suspicious tone, "Why'd you stop here, Johnny?"

"So he can drive me fucking crazy," I groaned in answer..

"What the hell is this place?" Shondo asked. "It's so huge. You could fit jumbo jets in there."

"It's where the Ohio State football team just about lives," I said. "It's the football practice facility. There's an indoor football field in there, laid with astro turf. A thirteen thousand square foot strength-training gym with the best equipment money can buy. The coaching staff offices, players lounges, game rooms, everything you can imagine a football team needs. It's where I'd be spending most of my time if I was gonna come here to college and play ball."

I squeezed Johnny's hand hard as I watched the dudes play on the private field, wondering how they got allowed in there on the team's holy turf. He'd really put me on the spot, knowing how I used to want so bad to be part of all this here. And it was a tough fucking spot to be in, feeling melancholy about what I'd wanted for my future yet knowing that now I didn't want it at all. Like I almost had an aversion to it.

I made up my mind right there and then, no more football. Not even for Kenton High this season. If Johnny wanted to play, he could. But I was done. And I wasn't copping out or running away. With all the time I'd devote to football I could be doing something more constructive. I could take college prep courses at Kenton High that would count toward credit at Ohio U. I could start Monday, do something now to help young gays all over the world, even if it was something as simple as starting an online chat group. Yah, I'd leave that sexy video online. Watching that would surely get them to talk to me, confide in me, listen to me.

Listen? What the fuck did I have to say to them? Not much. But what they really needed was just somebody to listen to them.

My life would be better spent doing that than running around these fields and the stadium here playing ball. Braden's painful confession this morning and the awful part I'd played in his abuse had broken the last link to my future. Now I was ready for a brand new one.

I hugged Johnny and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm okay, babe. I don't want this anymore. There's more important things to do,"

Ernie and Shondo started beating on our shoulders.

"You guys gonna make out right here in Ohio football heaven?" Ernie asked. "After that video, we're having post-porn depression. Seeing the real thing live and in action would be awesome!"

I looked back at them feeling sort of tingly all over. "Don't get your hopes up. I'm just feeling good. I made up my mind I'm not coming here for college. Even if they offer me that fuckin' scholarship." I didn't dare break the news yet I wasn't going to play for Kenton High. "Johnny and I are gonna go to Ohio U. in Athens and then come up here for law school afterward."

"That's a great idea," Ernie responded. "Football's fine for high school, but being gay on college and pro teams is still just asking for trouble. You'd only be a target and it'd be a miserable life. With law you could thrive, dude."

"Lawyers, huh?" Shondo said. "Man, football's loss will sure be some law firm's gain."

Johnny laughed,. "Fuck. We can start our own firm."

"And in the meantime," Ernie added, "you can be porn stars and make a fortune. That tape is insane, dudes. You guys are awesome. Your bods look so good. Gotta get that on Pornhub somehow."

"Mark Rydell's probably working on it right now," I agreed. "But I think that video will be our only attempt at muscleboy porn if we want to be taken seriously as lawyers."

"You gonna call it the Jacey Law Firm," Shondo asked, "or Landon and Sands?"

"We'll have to go with the latter," Johnny said. "We'll be too old to be teen idols by then. We'll locate here in Columbus and have offices in one of those towers downtown. Specialize in gay law for all Ohio."

"And the Midwest," I added happily.

"Then I say we celebrate Jason's decision," Shondo suggested, "and get some grub. I'm starving. There's a cool gay sports bar out on High Street. Wanna take it over there?"

We did exactly that and I sat right next to Johnny with my arm around him as he drove out to High Street. Fuck this whole place here – who needed it? Fuck my dad's dreams that he pounded into my head throughout the years – who needed them? It was sort of like what had happened to Braden. His mom had forced him to be a girl. My dad had forced me to be a football player. It was all pretty sick what obsessed parents could do to a kid.

High Street cut right through Columbus, north and south, and here it was a mile-long commercial strip of bars, restaurants, book stores, and other businesses that catered to the students. The side streets were lined with apartment buildings and houses built in the first half of the twentieth century, many of them used now as fraternity and sorority houses, and student rentals. Even though it was mid-July, crowds of young people were roaming up and down the street.

Shondo directed us past this strip to an artsy revitalized industrial area adjacent to downtown known as the Short North.

"There's Xanadude." He pointed out the old warehouse the club was housed in. "And there's the Frontier Baths," he added, further down the block toward downtown. "And there, Johnny, that place Jocko's. That's where we're going. You can park in the lot next door."

Jocko's lived up to its name. The walls were filled with vintage sports equipment and photographs. The clientele was young and male and mostly hot and fit, keeping in with the theme. Johnny and I fit in perfectly with our football pants and numbers, and all four of us got a real intense look-over by the other patrons as a short muscular dude who looked like a wrestler led us to a table.

Ed Sheeran was singing Photograph over the music system as the hottie brought us some glasses of water and went off to get us a waiter. We started looking at the pictures of past and present sports stars from football, baseball, basketball, and golf, swimming and tennis, trying to name them all.

"That's Jim Brown from the Cleveland Browns," Ernie pointed out. "They haven't won a championship since he was on the team in the early Sixties."

"And there's Joe Namath," I showed them. "One of the best quarterbacks ever in the NFL."

"And Greg Louganis, the swimmer," Shondo said, pointing. "He's gay and out and HIV-positive ... and jeez ... fucking beautiful."

"There's Billie Jean King, the tennis star," Johnny joined in. "Up by those old tennis rackets there. She was one of the first athletes to come out, way back in the Seventies. She used to ..."

He paused a moment while we were looking at Billie Jean's picture, then I heard him gasp, " ... wowfuck! Ohmygod."

We all turned to look at him and followed his startled gaze up to the waiter who'd just come over to the table. When I saw the dude I literally almost shit, as Ernie let out a "Holy crap!" and Shondo muttered, "Whoa! What the hell?"

The waiter was smiling pleasantly, looking at the guys with an upcocked eyebrow, obviously wondering what the hell they were exclaiming about. But when he saw me his eyes popped and he almost dropped the menus he was holding.

He was speechless, just staring. But I wasn't. "Ohmygod dude! Who the hell are you?"

If I had an identical twin like Carey and Corey did, it would've been him. Pins and needles were ziztzing all through my body and it felt like ants and spiders were crawling on my skin. Dressed  preppy in shorts and a black button-down collar shirt, he was slimmer than me, not as muscular, maybe fifteen or twenty pounds lighter, and his eyes were brown. But in every other way he looked exactly like me – the blond hair, the facial features, and the pale pink skin.

He found his voice while the others kept looking back and forth from me to him. "My name's Cabel. I live here in Columbus, right up the street, and I go to Ohio State. Who the fuck are you?"

He seemed to be having the same kind of reaction I was. Shocked. Spooked. Fascinated.

"I'm Jason," I said. "I live in Kenton, down near Athens. Jeez, you goddamn look just like me."

"And you look just like me," he croaked. Even his voice was similar, just a little higher pitched. He forced a laugh and tore his eyes away from me, started placing the menus in front of us. "You're built up more, more muscular, like I always wanted to be. But I'm too damn lazy to work out that much. How old are you?"

"Just turned eighteen a few weeks ago. How about you?"

He walked around the table to place a menu in front of me. "Gonna be twenty next month. I'm almost two years older than you. So I guess we're not twins parted at birth."

That made me laugh. "Nah, my mom would've told me if there'd been another one like me."

I could tell by the look in Johnny's eyes that he liked the idea of two of me. It was obvious he'd like to cart this dude off somewhere and have a good time with him. Ernie and Shondo seemed to be having similar thoughts. I couldn't blame them. So was I.

"They say everybody has a double somewhere," Ernie reminded us.

"Double is right." Johnny placed his hand on top of mine on the table top. "You guys look almost as much alike as Carey and Corey do."

I loved looking at the dude. I'd only ever seen myself in mirrors. This was like being out of my body and looking at me. I knew I looked good and was often feeling myself way too much because of it, but this dude was absolutely beautiful. If I looked that good to others, jeez that was awesome.

I pushed my chair back and stood up next to him, offered him my fist. "Really cool to meet you, dude."

We were the same height. Our eyes were exactly even. He bumped my fist with his and it felt like electric shocks ran up my knuckles.

"Nice to meet you too, Jason."

"Are you Cable, like the cable TV man?" I asked.

"Nah, it's C-A-B-E-L. I was named after my dad."

"Cool name," Shondo said. "I never heard it before. Unusual."

The dude nodded. "Yeah. My dad was pretty unusual too."

I introduced him to Johnny, then Ernie and Shondo. "Johnny and I are a couple. And Ernie and Shondo too ... sort of."

He bumped fists around and said to Shondo, "Talk about cool names, dude. You sure have one. And that hair is amazing."

Shondo grinned. "It's the mark of a man in my culture."

Cabel nodded. "Well, it sure marks you." His eyes flew around to other nearby tables and he added, "I have to check on other diners. Why don't you guys look at the menus and I'll be back. Can I bring you anything to drink?"

We ordered cokes. Ernie and Shondo would've definitely liked a beer, but the drinking age in Ohio is strictly twenty-one. We all had some time to go yet before reaching that eventful age.

Ernie was laughing at me when I sat back down. "Looks like somebody's in love. You just turned as red as I am brown."

"Fuck yeah," Johnny said to him in my defense. "You'd turn red too if some dude turned up looking exactly like you."

Ernie punched Johnny's shoulder. "Dude, I can't turn red. It doesn't work on me. But I'm sure I'd cream in my jeans just seeing him and then totally jump his bones."

"I have to admit, I almost did both," I laughed, only realizing just now that my cock was hard and throbbing.

So I flirted shamelessly with Cabel the rest of the time we were there. Johnny kicked me on the ankle a couple times to stop, but I didn't. And Ernie and Shondo kept laughing at me.

We ordered burgers, fries, and onion rings and when Cabel brought us our food I exchanged phone numbers with him. I snapped some pictures of him and he took a couple of me. I made the others take pictures of him and me together. He seemed to be a really sweet awesome dude. I loved him. How could I not? I felt like I'd found something so epic amazing.

Yah, another me. I always knew I was narcissistic, but this was ridiculous.

"We're going to Xanadude later," I told Cabel right before we left. "About ten-thirty or so. Why don't you meet us there?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I seldom go there. Not my kind of scene, a wild place like that."

"You in a relationship? Or do you just stay home and study?"

"I'm single." He almost blushed, and then went on. "And I take classes all year round, so I do a lot of studying. But I go out. There's a couple bars nearby more to my liking."

"Aw c'mon," I begged him. "Johnny and I have never been to a gay club before. We're just small town boys. We gotta hang out."

He looked dubiously at Johnny. "There's two of you and only one of me."

I grinned at him. "With me, you get him too."

"Dude! That's an offer you can't refuse," Ernie told him.

"But hey," I said. "I almost forgot. Johnny's got sort of a date tonight anyway. A bud of ours from Canton. Johnny'll be busy with him. So you can be my date, Cabel."

"Oh jeezus." Now he was totally blushing. "A couple who date other guys? That's really a stretch for me, boys."

"Come on, join us," Shondo insisted. "We'll be an even six then, and we all wanna spend some time with you. You're just like Jason."

"Yah dude," Johnny agreed. "Stuff like this doesn't happen every day."

Cabel looked around at us, his eyes uncertain. But it must've been our pleading expressions that convinced him. How could anybody say no to a night with us four dudes begging?

"All right. Okay. Thanks for the offer. It's not like I get asked out on group dates all the time. I'll meet you guys later tonight at the 'dude'."

On the way to the hotel, Johnny said, "Looking like he does and working at that bar, you'd think Cabel would get hit on every day."

"He probably does," Ernie said from the back seat. "But he seems to be the stay-at-home type. Which would be fine with me. I'd stay at home with him. Every night. And fuck him over and over again, all night long."

"Hey," I growled at him. "Watch your mouth. That's my twin you're talking about."

Ernie hooted. "Not to worry, dude. I'd do the same to you. All fucking night long!"

**
Thanks everybody for reading and voting and commenting!

NEXT!  High drama at the hotel before an amazing night out on the town ...