NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Evan didn't let go of Jake; rather, held him and then kissed his best friend on the nape of the neck. Immediately after feeling Evan's lips on his neck, a tiny alarm went off in Jake's head, making him wondering what was happening until he felt the plop of the warm tear hit his neck, just above where Evan kissed it. Jake felt Evan's hands roam across his muscled back and then lower until they rested on top of Jake's glutes. Jake shuddered, wondering what was getting ready to happen, wondering if it was fueled by the beer they had been drinking or something more powerful.
Jake relished the feel of his wingman's strong hands resting on top of his butt. In the light coming in through the window, Jake took note of Evan's strong arms, noting the definition of the bicep as well as the bulk of the tricep. "Not sure where you are headed with this bro, but don't start something you can't finish," Jake said with almost a tone of warning in his voice.
"I'm not, I just need a minute," Evan said with the slightest sniffle to clear his nose but not easing up on his grip.
Evan couldn't see it but Jake said with a smile, "take as long as you need buddy."
"Jake," Evan said.
"What bro?" replied Jake.
"I'm so going to miss you," Evan started, "I can't believe the next time we are on the same field together we are going to be playing against each other."
Cautiously, Jake returned some of the physical affection he was receiving from Evan, gently tracing the outline of the lats and delts on Evan's back and replied, "I know all your tricks Navy man and I'll use them against you."
"No doubt," Evan replied, "Jake, I need a favor."
"What's that?" replied Jake.
"Got another pair of lax shorts I can wear to bed?" Evan asked.
With the marathon hug ended, Jake tossed him a clean pair from his overstuffed equipment bag that was Jake's suitcase for the week as he headed into the bathroom for a long beer piss and to brush his teeth. Jake grabbed his own shorts hanging from the hook on the back of the door and looked at the mirror over the dresser as his best buddy stripped down and then slid his model-like body into Jake's shorts. Jake marveled at Evan's form, noting how perfect it was and beginning to kick himself for not letting Evan keep going with what he started and not sure where it was headed.
With Evan taking his turn to piss and get ready for bed, Jake surfed through the channels trying to find something besides the inane late-night infomercials until he heard the toilet flush and saw the light go out. It had been almost two years since Evan slept over with Jake, owing to Jake coming out to his parents and the rules they imposed within the Grimke household. "You know we are going to be calling you admiral or something someday," Jake remarked to his buddy.
"Well, we'll see, have to make it through Plebe Summer first," Evan reminded him.
"You will bro, confidence is high," Jake said with his usual ease, "just take it one day at a time, one play at a time and just imagine I'm there to back you up."
The serious look came over Evan's face again and he asked, "one more favor, please?"
"Sure," Jake offered, remembering how easy the last one was.
Evan shut off the rest of the lights in the room and took the remote from Jake's hand and clicked off the TV before sitting on the edge of the bed and then screwed on his courage one more time before asking, "hold me bro, hold me tonight."
It was only one of the few times in Jake's life that there was any hesitation about what to do, a brief pause before he answered, "of course."
Evan cautiously slid into the bed, pushing his back against Jake's pecs, the curve of his butt against the front of Jake's shorts and the back of his quads into the front of Jake's. They both settled and got comfortable before Jake draped his strong right arm over Evan's upper body and kissed the back of Evan's head before saying, "you're safe, I got you wingman. Thanks for guarding my secret and being there when it was time for everybody to know."
"Welcome bro, good night Jake," Evan replied.
Not too long after the sun came up, Will woke up in Evan's room with Jackie and it took a few seconds to realize he was in the wrong room. He got up quietly and let himself out and into his own room and was shocked at what he saw. The stunned Will Hurley whispered out loud , "Oh my God! What happened in here? I go away for one night and look what happens."
Jake ever the light sleeper smiled, held an index finger to his lips asking Will to be silent, "shhhh, nothing happened, just like I'm sure nothing happened next door."
Evan stirred and woke up startled, not sure where he was and pushed Jake's arm off of him and pulled the sheets up before his mind processed what happened since they got back from the beach. He looked at Jake and then Will before asking Jake, "nothing happened, right?"
Jake smiled wickedly, "nothing happened, nothing has changed between us."
With Evan back in his own room, Will had an idea, sensing that the idea of a week of total irresponsibility was not on Jake's radar and offered it as they dressed to meet Evan and Jackie for a pre-beach breakfast, "What do you say we head up to Rehoboth for the day, let Jackie and Evan alone to have some time together before Ev goes to the Academy."
"What's in Rehoboth?" Jake asked.
"Our people," Will said with a bit of whimsical smile that elicited a quizzical look from Jake.
"Our people?" Jake asked.
"There are lots of gay people in Reho. South end of the beach is called Poodle Beach. Gay guys come there from all over: DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, even New York."
"Really?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, time for you to experience little more of gay life buddy," Will said.
"I don't know," Jake said.
"C'mon, it will be fun, should be some fantastic eye candy if nothing else," Will said to sweeten the offer.
"I guess we can do that," said Jake, caving to Will's suggestion.
"It's not even a half hour north of here," Will said, "we'll pack some towels and stuff and head up after another round of pancakes and if you don't like it we can come back here to this craziness."
"Deal" Jake said offering his hand to Will for a shake and then pulled him into a hug, "thanks for being my best gay friend."
"Welcome bro, thanks for being there for me Jake Grimke, you made my senior year," Will replied, patting Jake on the back, "I want the best for you, and Jose too if that's in the cards."
"Thanks Will, I'd like that too but we will see what happens. He's going to be at Hopkins and I'll be at UVa," said Jake reminding Will of the distance.
Will showered first and then packed their small beach cooler with bottled waters and ice from the machine down the hall in the hotel while Jake took his turn in the shower. Jake came back into their room with a towel wrapped around his waist and then found his navy blue square cut Speedo and pulled it up while Will watched before sliding up some board shorts and capped off his perfect upper body with a long-sleeve tee shirt from a by-gone lacrosse camp.
"That's a hot look Jake, you are going to turn some heads today," Will said with just a touch of jealousy that Jake was keeping himself for Jose.
Jake just smiled as he slid his feet into some flip-flops before meeting Evan and Jackie for the all-you-can-eat breakfast bar in the hotel's dining room. "We're headed up north to check out the gay beach at Rehoboth," Jake announced to his wingman and his girlfriend, "you're welcome to come along if you want."
Jackie looked at Evan and just shook her head no once before Evan answered, "Nah bro, I got to start getting used to you not being my constant shadow, you guys have fun but be back here for dinner? We're invited to Port Deposit's lacrosse team party after that."
"We'll be back," Will said, "sevenish?"
"Perfect," Jackie said before adding, "enjoy yourselves."
As they crept north on Coastal Highway towards the Delaware line, Will asked, "think you could teach me to drive a stick?"
"Sure," Jake said, and downshifted and turned into an empty church parking lot.
Before switching seats, Jake explained the gearbox and clutch and how they worked to Will. "Also," Jake continued, "I double-clutch, it's the way Dad taught me but if you are really good, you can speed-shift too which I only tried a few times."
"Double-clutch? Speed-shift?" Will asked.
"Speed shifting," Jake started to explain, "is when you just move the shift lever from one gear to the next without engaging the clutch, either to the next higher or lower gear based on matching the engine speed with the road speed."
A puzzled look fell over Will's face who couldn't understand now why it was even necessary to have a clutch.
"Double clutching," Jake continued, "is engaging the clutch twice quickly, once in the lower gear, then disengaging momentarily in neutral before re-engaging in the next gear."
Jake put his left hand on top of Will's right on the shifter knob and instructed him, "Okay push in and hold the clutch down," Jake said while moving the shift lever through the gears, "first is up here, then down to second, up and over is third, straight down to fourth and fifth is up over here to the right; got it?"
"I think so," Will replied, "so, clutch in, move the lever into first and then ease it out?"
"Yes but don't forget to take off the parking brake," Jake said with a point to the lever rising frontward from the rear of the center console.
"Gotcha," Will said releasing the hand brake and finding first gear on his own.
With a little lurch, the Saab moved forward and Will gently accelerated as Jake coached, "clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, clutch in and shift to second."
Will picked up the skill quickly in the parking lot, only stalling once before they eased back on to Coastal Highway for the trip into Rehoboth. After stopping to fill their cooler with drinks, sandwiches and snacks in Dewey Beach, Jake drove the Saab the rest of the way under Will's direction until they found a parking space, paying for a day parking pass as soon as they entered the beach town.
They carried their stuff up to the beach, arriving with the first beach-goers just before 11:00 AM. Jake had brought his UVa course catalog and the guide sheet from the Journalism Department with its suggestions for incoming freshman. With a Warrior lacrosse baseball cap on backwards and his Oakleys, Jake smeared sunblock on with the help of Will to get the hard-to-reach places.
Will took the lead to get a beach umbrella and chairs from one of the rental stands manned by some jock-looking dude that were evenly spaced along the dunes backing up to the Rehoboth boardwalk and set them up facing the ocean. Once encamped, Jake's eyes surveyed the beach, noticing the hot lifeguard up in the chair stand less than a dozen yards away. Not too far off the beach, Jake and Will watched a pod of playful dolphins bob up and down just beyond the obvious rip current as they swam southward towards Ocean City.
Jake lost himself, texting Jose while Will focused on the eye candy in between flipping through pages of the current issue of GQ. Guys their age, guys in college, guys in there thirties and forties of all shapes and sizes with everybody's eyes constantly roving and wandering. Three sharp blasts on the lifeguard's whistle brought Jake back to reality as he watched the lifeguard jump down from his chair, grab the red rescue buoy and splash into the water.
In what seemed less than a minute, another buff red-trunked lifeguard sprinted up and was heading into the water to catch up with the first who was swimming out to a panicking bather being pulled out further from the shore in the rip current. On the boardwalk, a Baltimore TV crew was filming a story about the contentious mayoral primary race about to be held in the beach town and made their way down to the surf to try to catch the rescue in progress.
Jake and Will got up and moved closer, like any spectator does as they drive past a wreck on the highway. Both lifeguards were helping an older man out of the rip current and back into calmer water when Will spotted another swimmer in trouble and pointed him out to Jake.
"I'm going, Will; get help," Jake said handing Will his shades and ball cap, before sprinting into the water, remembering the water rescue classes he had taken years before at Park Severn pool.
Jake flattened out into a prone position and began a crawl stroke, keeping his head above the waterline and eyes focused on a man not much older than he was fighting to get back to shore. Even though he devoted most of his athleticism to lacrosse, Jake was still a powerful swimmer and reached the scared man in just over two minutes while Will was directing the lifeguards to the second rescue in progress.
As he approached the swimmer in distress, Jake told him to calm down and relax, keeping himself out of the swimmer's immediate reach, knowing that a panicked victim would probably grab at anything including another person in an effort to save themselves.
"Let me help you," Jake said in a commanding tone, cautiously extending his right arm and trying to slide it under the victim's right arm pit and across his chest, "I got you, let me do the work,"
Jake clutched him hard so he couldn't flail, just as he was trained at the age of 16. With powerful kicks and strong strokes of his left arm, Jake swam them out together, just outside of the rip current and off to the side into calmer water just as a member of the beach patrol arrived.
The lifeguard escorted Jake and the swimmer back to shore, the whole rescue caught from beginning to end by the Baltimore TV crew. On the beach, the gathered crowd applauded as EMS personnel began to assess the swimmer. Will was pretty sure he didn't blink at all the whole time Jake was in the water and now, the reporter was jamming a microphone in Jake's face as Will walked up to his buddy.
"What happened out there?" the reporter asked.
"We were watching the lifeguards rescue a swimmer from the rip current and my friend Will pointed out another swimmer in trouble," Jake said nervously.
"Then what?" the reporter asked
"I sent Will to get help and swam out to him," Jake replied.
"Were you scared?" asked the reporter.
"A little I guess, but I think my adrenaline just kicked in and over rode my fear factor," Jake said remembering how his father never bragged about the work he did.
"What's your name? Spell it," the reporter said.
"Jake, Jake Grimke, J-a-k-e G-r-i-m-k-e," Jake said.
As the reporter finished her interview, the lifeguard who assisted came up to Will and Jake and introduced himself, "Great job, you're a natural! I'm Duncan Doughtery."
"This is Will Hurley, he spotted the guy; I'm Jake, Jake Grimke," Jake said.
"Well, like I said, you're a natural and after what I saw today, I can say we wouldn't mind having a guy like you on the Rehoboth Beach Patrol. It's too late for this summer but if you're interested next summer, look me up. I'm a local down here and I'll be glad to help you get on," and then turning to Will, Duncan continued, "Will; thanks for your help too, you two make a great team."
Another lifeguard came up to Jake, identifying himself as Lt. Walsh of the beach patrol and began to ask him particulars about the rescue and was about to tear Jake a new asshole for undertaking such a rescue before Will explained that Jake had been a local swimming champion and had completed water rescue and CPR training. Lt. Walsh backed off and then finished getting Jake and Will's personal information for his incident report.
Back in their hotel room, Jackie was watching the end of "The View" while Evan talked and texted on his phone to other guys from Severn. The highlights for the noon news came on with the lead story being breaking news from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and caught Jackie's attention as she finished packing their beach bag with towels.
"Evan! Come here, quick!" Jackie cried out.
"Two beach-goers had to be rescued late this morning by lifeguards from the Rehoboth Beach Patrol after they were caught in the rip tide near the resort town's border with Dewey Beach," the news anchor blathered on as the video of Jake helping the second victim out of the water onto shore played over her shoulder.
"Isn't that Jake?" Jackie asked.
"I missed it," Evan said with his eyes now glued to the TV, "maybe they will show it again."
The TV anchor droned on, announcing they were going live to Rehoboth for the full report. A pretty blonde gal parroted the opening lines by the anchor while the video feed clearly showed Jake swimming out, rescuing the tired swimmer and swimming back to shore with him in tow just as a lifeguard met them halfway to the shoreline.
"What happened out there?" the reporter asked.
"We were watching the lifeguards rescue a swimmer from the rip current and my friend Will pointed out another swimmer in trouble," Jake said nervously.
"Were you scared?" asked the reporter.
"A little I guess, but I think my adrenaline just kicked in and over rode my fear factor," Jake said remembering how his father never bragged about the work he did.
Immediately, Evan texted Jake, "You made us proud wingman, A&4VR."
Minutes later Jose texted Jake, "WTF Bro, I told you to stay out of trouble not make the noon news! Way to go!!!!!"
Accolades poured in from almost immediately from many of the contacts in Jake's address book before the phone rang, "Hi Dad....I'm fine....we're good...I know....did Mom see it....Dad, I'm shaking like a leaf....okay...I love you guys too."