Chapter 9-Fun in the Sun
Rob knocked on Thomas’s door the next day a bit after noon. The rocker was still feeling a bit woozy, having just woken up not half an hour ago. He yawned behind his hand as the door swung open, revealing the accountant standing there looking a bit nervous. He was wearing those tan shorts again, along with a short-sleeved shirt with the words:
The Accountant’s Prayer
Lord, help me be more relaxed about insignificant details,
Starting tomorrow at 10:53:16 am,
Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
Written on it in black letters. Rob laughed heartily when he read the shirt, which made Thomas turn rather pink even as he smiled. “That’s pretty good,” he said when he could speak again. “I have a t-shirt like that I could wear. It says: Rockers do it for a song. What do you think?” he said slyly, eyeing Thomas’ face with a smirk on his own.
The accountant turned even redder. “Umm…” he began, which made Rob chuckle a bit.
“You ready? Did you pack your sun block?” he asked tactfully, trying to change the subject to ease Thomas’ obvious embarrassment a bit.
A nod. Thomas displayed the bag he was carrying over one shoulder. “Cool. Hope you have a towel too. We’re both gonna get pretty wet,” he remarked.
“I do,” Thomas said quietly.
“Okay. Then let’s hit the road. You’re really gonna love this. Water parks are totally fun.”
Thomas looked a bit skeptical as they moved toward his car together. Rob grinned at his expression. “Trust me,” he said easily.
Thomas sighed, but the truth was he did seem to trust Rob for some reason. He couldn’t say why – although perhaps it was because the rocker seemed very open and simple. Even when he’d been a lousy neighbor, there hadn’t been any real malice or duplicity in his actions. Just carelessness and thoughtlessness, with more than a touch of grumpiness mixed in. His lips twitched at this thought as he buckled his seat belt. He started the car after he’d seen that Rob had put on his own seat belt, which caused the rocker to make a face at him.
“You’ll have to direct me there,” he told Rob.
Rob gave him directions to the water park, and Thomas drove in silence for a bit. Rob yawned lazily, stretching back in his seat. The accountant glanced at him. “Did you get enough sleep, Mr. Carleton?” he asked.
“Rob. And I did – it's just I was up pretty late last night. The band worked this club until closing. We usually have a gig on Saturday nights.”
“It must be strange to work until all hours of the night. I can’t imagine it,” Thomas remarked with a shake of his head.
“You get used to it. There aren’t many jobs for a rock band at two in the afternoon,” Rob pointed out in amusement. “We don’t tend to play bar mitzvahs or wedding receptions.”
“I gather that your form of music wouldn’t be appropriate for those venues anyway,” Thomas said primly.
Rob guffawed. “You got that right,” he chortled. “Although I have an image in my head of Cocks of the Walk rockin’ down while the Jewish people all stare at us like we’re an alien form of life.”
Shocked silence from the driver’s seat. He looked over and saw that Thomas’s face had turned a rather brilliant shade of red, rather like a cherry tomato. “What’s the matter?” he asked in concern.
“Err…I had never heard the name of your…band before this, Mr. Car-Rob,” the accountant managed to say rather hoarsely.
“Oh,” Rob’s lips twitched wildly as he fought not to bellow with laughter at Thomas’ blushing over the name of his band. The man was just so cute! Made him want to attack the accountant right here and now, to molest him in every way possible. Lord, the fantasies of the things he could do to Thomas right here in the car…
Rob squirmed in the seat a bit; glad for the loose shorts he was wearing over a pair of swim trunks. Being trapped in a fairly small vehicle with a man he REALLY wanted to fuck was a pleasant form of torture. His dick was throbbing, communicating its desires plainly to the larger head. “It’s sort of a pretentious name, I suppose,” he remarked aloud. “We might as well have called ourselves Rulers of the Universe or something. But I suppose all musicians are arrogant, especially rock bands. Hard not to be when people worship you as though you’re gods.”
Thomas had gotten over his embarrassment enough to glance curiously at Rob. “Worshipped? People really worship you?” he asked.
Rob shrugged. “All bands are worshipped to a certain extent. It’s why we have groupies and other rabid fans. All hail the gods of rock,” he went on sardonically.
“I see. How peculiar,” Thomas replied. “I don’t always understand people,” he went on.
“Neither do I,” Rob drawled. “Maybe nobody does except for psychologists – or maybe sociologists. They might be able to tell you why people do the weird stuff that they do. I can’t.”
They had arrived at the gates of the water park. Thomas could see banners waving in the wind as he turned into the parking lot. It took him a bit to find a free place to park. There seemed to be a lot of people here, which wasn’t surprising considering the fact that it was a hot summer weekend. He got out of the car, looking around with a slight moue of distaste. He didn’t like crowded places at all. Then he jumped as a hand touched his arm. “Hey, relax,” Rob said to him, patting his elbow reassuringly. “Stick close to me, I’ll show you all the delights of a water park. Come on.”
Thomas reluctantly went with him toward the entrance of the park. He could hear yelling and screaming and giggling as Rob bought them two tickets. He felt tense and rather disoriented as the rocker took his hand, and led him through the stiles into the park beyond. So many people! Only Rob’s hand in his kept him from fleeing altogether. He looked around wildly, seeing the bustling crowd moving through the park. “We’ll go here first!” Rob called, leading him to a line for a tall, twisty slide with a wide pool at the base. “This is my favorite,” he explained. “You’ll love it.”
Thomas wasn’t at all sure of that. The slide looked rather dangerous, and listening to the squeals of the excited children riding it did not reassure him in any way. Rob stood by his side, a stalwart presence that helped a little. But only a little. Surely he wasn’t really expected to get onto that monstrous thing? His heart was beating too fast as the line began to move, and he felt a little sick. His brown eyes were fixed on the top of the ladder that he’d have to climb to get to the beginning of the slide.
Rob glanced down at his companion, seeing how pale Thomas had gone. The man looked like a rabbit which had seen a fox bearing down on him, one with homicidal intent in its eyes. The rocker frowned. Had this been a bad idea after all? He touched Thomas’ elbow, cupping it with the palm of his hand. “Listen, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he told the accountant, leaning down so he could speak into one small ear. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to.”
Thomas tore his eyes away from the slide and looked at Rob instead, seeing the concern in the dark eyes. He gulped. “I-I will be fine,” he replied with as much dignity as he could muster. If a group of seven and eight-year-olds could ride this slide, then so could he. He was a grown man, after all.
“Are you sure?” Rob asked, studying his face intently.
Thomas nodded firmly. He was not a coward. He was NOT going to be shown up by a bunch of little kids. Rob wanted to smile at his show of bravery. “Okay. Don’t be scared, it’s perfectly safe. Just relax and have fun. I’ll be right behind you,” he added, thinking to himself that that was exactly where he wanted to be at all times. Right behind Thomas Merriweather…
The accountant took deep breaths and tried to control his nervousness. But he wasn’t totally successful; he could feel a slight tremor running through his limbs. Slowly, inexorably, the line moved forward. Now they were climbing the steps, with Rob at his back. A hand came to rest at the small of his back, alternately comforting him and making his shaking worse. The feel of it, so warm and hard, made his breath falter. And then they were at the top, and there was no one else ahead of him. The attendant waved him on, and Thomas took several shaky steps forward. He could see the tube spiraling downward, with water running down the middle of it.
“Just sit down and push off,” Rob’s voice said behind him. “You’ll be okay.”
Thomas gingerly sat down, grimacing over the feel of water soaking into his shorts. But he had trouble pushing off, since he froze as he stared downward. His hands gripped the sides of the tube in a violent spasm. Then hands fell on his shoulders, and Rob’s face appeared beside his. “It’s all right,” he crooned softly. “You’re doing great. I know you can do it, Thomas. You’re brave. Come on, just let go.”
Somehow he did. Somehow he found the strength to lift his fingers and push himself forward. Then he was in the tube, sliding inexorably downward at an amazing speed, smooth as silk. He was like a bird. Thomas felt exhilarated terror as he went down, down, down…he wanted to scream, but his vocal chords were frozen. Then he turned the last corner, and splashed into the pool. He floundered around in the shallow warm water, finally getting his feet. He stood there shaking, hearing a war whoop as Rob began his own descent. Thomas felt amazement rush through him. He’d survived. And it…hadn’t been as bad as he’d imagined. Actually, it had been…sort of fun. In a terrifying way, of course, but still…
He found himself laughing. It was the near-insane cackle of a person who’d just survived a car crash or other similar horror, but it was still laughter. Rob landed and came splashing toward him, seeing that the accountant was still intact. And was actually laughing! His brown eyes were a tad too wide, but he didn’t look panicked or terrified anymore. The rocker clapped him on the shoulder. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he bellowed over the roars of the crowd.
Thomas shook his head. It hadn’t been that bad at all. “Great! Come on, let’s go on something else!” Rob yelled, and dragged him out of the pool and off to the next slide before he could protest.
Rob enjoyed himself after that. Thomas slowly relaxed once he realized he wasn’t going to be killed by going on the slides, and he began to actually have a good time. And the rocker – well, he had a good time too. But not just from riding the slides. Those clothes that Thomas was wearing…they began to cling to him more and more, outlining his slim body very clearly. He could see little nipples rucking under the fabric of the shirt, and when Thomas leaned over to pull the towel from his bag to dry himself off a bit…Lordie. Rob actually moaned, having to close his eyes to control himself at all. ‘Do not grab, hands off, this is a public place, you’ll scare him’ he chanted in his head.
Thomas, unaware of Rob’s struggles, ran the towel over his head and face. He’d worn contacts today – he didn’t often, because he tended to lose them too much. It was a waste of money. But he did have a pair for situations like this. Although not totally like this, since he’d never come to a place like the water park before in his entire life. “Hey, are you hungry?” Rob asked from behind him.
He found that he was. “Yes,” he said, turning around. He blinked his eyes to get the last of the moisture from them.
“Cool. Let’s go grab something from one of the concession stands,” the rocker remarked, wringing water out of his shoulder-length hair with his hands.
Thomas couldn’t have said anything at that moment if his life had depended on it. Rob’s arms were raised, and his t-shirt was sticking to him like a second skin. He could see all of those muscles outlined as though the man weren’t wearing a shirt at all. And water was beading on his skin, oh, God, he wanted to lick it off…Thomas was nearly panting, and his…penis was stiff inside of his shorts. He felt rather faint, his whole body flushing and tightening as desire coursed through him. He’d never felt like this in his entire life. His orderly life was going topsy-turvy, and he seemed helpless to stop it from happening.
Rob lowered his hands. “What’s your pleasure?” he asked Thomas, making him jump.
“W-What?!” the accountant stuttered, turning beet-red as he mistook Rob’s words because of what he’d just been thinking.
The rocker gave him a puzzled look. “What kind of food do you like?” he asked, cocking his head as he wondered about why Thomas was blushing again.
“Oh. Oh! Uh, anything is all right with me,” Thomas said hurriedly, feeling morbidly embarrassed for having taken Rob’s question the wrong way.
“Okay. You all right?” Rob said, eyeing him in concern.
Thomas managed to pull himself together. “Yes, I’m fine. Really,” he replied hastily.
“Huh. Come on, then, let’s grab some grub.” Rob led the way to the concession stands, with Thomas trailing after him trying to recover from his flustered state. It didn’t help any that Rob’s swim trunks were both clinging to him, and also sliding down a bit. He shouldn’t ogle his neighbor’s ass, he knew that. It was stupid. Rob Carleton was straight. But no matter how many times he reminded himself of that fact, it never seemed to stick.
They arrived at a concession stand selling pizza and hamburgers. Rob bought him a hamburger and fries, which Thomas eyed doubtfully. “Try it, you’ll like it,” the rocker urged him, plopping down at a table with his own basket of greasy food.
Thomas hesitantly bit into the hamburger. It was pretty good, which surprised him. He chewed, feeling a little strange. He was actually enjoying this experience, far more than he would have imagined possible. As a child he had never done things like this, because it had never occurred to his parents to take their unwanted child to places that would be fun for him. Rob Carleton was giving him the time of his life, and a new experience that would stay with him. Thomas felt gratitude toward his neighbor, probably for the first time since the rocker had moved in next door to him and had completely disrupted his life. Of course, he felt something besides gratitude for Rob as well, but he was going to ruthlessly suppress that because he had no choice but to do so. None at all.
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Rob knocked on Thomas’s door the next day a bit after noon. The rocker was still feeling a bit woozy, having just woken up not half an hour ago. He yawned behind his hand as the door swung open, revealing the accountant standing there looking a bit nervous. He was wearing those tan shorts again, along with a short-sleeved shirt with the words:
The Accountant’s Prayer
Lord, help me be more relaxed about insignificant details,
Starting tomorrow at 10:53:16 am,
Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
Written on it in black letters. Rob laughed heartily when he read the shirt, which made Thomas turn rather pink even as he smiled. “That’s pretty good,” he said when he could speak again. “I have a t-shirt like that I could wear. It says: Rockers do it for a song. What do you think?” he said slyly, eyeing Thomas’ face with a smirk on his own.
The accountant turned even redder. “Umm…” he began, which made Rob chuckle a bit.
“You ready? Did you pack your sun block?” he asked tactfully, trying to change the subject to ease Thomas’ obvious embarrassment a bit.
A nod. Thomas displayed the bag he was carrying over one shoulder. “Cool. Hope you have a towel too. We’re both gonna get pretty wet,” he remarked.
“I do,” Thomas said quietly.
“Okay. Then let’s hit the road. You’re really gonna love this. Water parks are totally fun.”
Thomas looked a bit skeptical as they moved toward his car together. Rob grinned at his expression. “Trust me,” he said easily.
Thomas sighed, but the truth was he did seem to trust Rob for some reason. He couldn’t say why – although perhaps it was because the rocker seemed very open and simple. Even when he’d been a lousy neighbor, there hadn’t been any real malice or duplicity in his actions. Just carelessness and thoughtlessness, with more than a touch of grumpiness mixed in. His lips twitched at this thought as he buckled his seat belt. He started the car after he’d seen that Rob had put on his own seat belt, which caused the rocker to make a face at him.
“You’ll have to direct me there,” he told Rob.
Rob gave him directions to the water park, and Thomas drove in silence for a bit. Rob yawned lazily, stretching back in his seat. The accountant glanced at him. “Did you get enough sleep, Mr. Carleton?” he asked.
“Rob. And I did – it's just I was up pretty late last night. The band worked this club until closing. We usually have a gig on Saturday nights.”
“It must be strange to work until all hours of the night. I can’t imagine it,” Thomas remarked with a shake of his head.
“You get used to it. There aren’t many jobs for a rock band at two in the afternoon,” Rob pointed out in amusement. “We don’t tend to play bar mitzvahs or wedding receptions.”
“I gather that your form of music wouldn’t be appropriate for those venues anyway,” Thomas said primly.
Rob guffawed. “You got that right,” he chortled. “Although I have an image in my head of Cocks of the Walk rockin’ down while the Jewish people all stare at us like we’re an alien form of life.”
Shocked silence from the driver’s seat. He looked over and saw that Thomas’s face had turned a rather brilliant shade of red, rather like a cherry tomato. “What’s the matter?” he asked in concern.
“Err…I had never heard the name of your…band before this, Mr. Car-Rob,” the accountant managed to say rather hoarsely.
“Oh,” Rob’s lips twitched wildly as he fought not to bellow with laughter at Thomas’ blushing over the name of his band. The man was just so cute! Made him want to attack the accountant right here and now, to molest him in every way possible. Lord, the fantasies of the things he could do to Thomas right here in the car…
Rob squirmed in the seat a bit; glad for the loose shorts he was wearing over a pair of swim trunks. Being trapped in a fairly small vehicle with a man he REALLY wanted to fuck was a pleasant form of torture. His dick was throbbing, communicating its desires plainly to the larger head. “It’s sort of a pretentious name, I suppose,” he remarked aloud. “We might as well have called ourselves Rulers of the Universe or something. But I suppose all musicians are arrogant, especially rock bands. Hard not to be when people worship you as though you’re gods.”
Thomas had gotten over his embarrassment enough to glance curiously at Rob. “Worshipped? People really worship you?” he asked.
Rob shrugged. “All bands are worshipped to a certain extent. It’s why we have groupies and other rabid fans. All hail the gods of rock,” he went on sardonically.
“I see. How peculiar,” Thomas replied. “I don’t always understand people,” he went on.
“Neither do I,” Rob drawled. “Maybe nobody does except for psychologists – or maybe sociologists. They might be able to tell you why people do the weird stuff that they do. I can’t.”
They had arrived at the gates of the water park. Thomas could see banners waving in the wind as he turned into the parking lot. It took him a bit to find a free place to park. There seemed to be a lot of people here, which wasn’t surprising considering the fact that it was a hot summer weekend. He got out of the car, looking around with a slight moue of distaste. He didn’t like crowded places at all. Then he jumped as a hand touched his arm. “Hey, relax,” Rob said to him, patting his elbow reassuringly. “Stick close to me, I’ll show you all the delights of a water park. Come on.”
Thomas reluctantly went with him toward the entrance of the park. He could hear yelling and screaming and giggling as Rob bought them two tickets. He felt tense and rather disoriented as the rocker took his hand, and led him through the stiles into the park beyond. So many people! Only Rob’s hand in his kept him from fleeing altogether. He looked around wildly, seeing the bustling crowd moving through the park. “We’ll go here first!” Rob called, leading him to a line for a tall, twisty slide with a wide pool at the base. “This is my favorite,” he explained. “You’ll love it.”
Thomas wasn’t at all sure of that. The slide looked rather dangerous, and listening to the squeals of the excited children riding it did not reassure him in any way. Rob stood by his side, a stalwart presence that helped a little. But only a little. Surely he wasn’t really expected to get onto that monstrous thing? His heart was beating too fast as the line began to move, and he felt a little sick. His brown eyes were fixed on the top of the ladder that he’d have to climb to get to the beginning of the slide.
Rob glanced down at his companion, seeing how pale Thomas had gone. The man looked like a rabbit which had seen a fox bearing down on him, one with homicidal intent in its eyes. The rocker frowned. Had this been a bad idea after all? He touched Thomas’ elbow, cupping it with the palm of his hand. “Listen, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he told the accountant, leaning down so he could speak into one small ear. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to.”
Thomas tore his eyes away from the slide and looked at Rob instead, seeing the concern in the dark eyes. He gulped. “I-I will be fine,” he replied with as much dignity as he could muster. If a group of seven and eight-year-olds could ride this slide, then so could he. He was a grown man, after all.
“Are you sure?” Rob asked, studying his face intently.
Thomas nodded firmly. He was not a coward. He was NOT going to be shown up by a bunch of little kids. Rob wanted to smile at his show of bravery. “Okay. Don’t be scared, it’s perfectly safe. Just relax and have fun. I’ll be right behind you,” he added, thinking to himself that that was exactly where he wanted to be at all times. Right behind Thomas Merriweather…
The accountant took deep breaths and tried to control his nervousness. But he wasn’t totally successful; he could feel a slight tremor running through his limbs. Slowly, inexorably, the line moved forward. Now they were climbing the steps, with Rob at his back. A hand came to rest at the small of his back, alternately comforting him and making his shaking worse. The feel of it, so warm and hard, made his breath falter. And then they were at the top, and there was no one else ahead of him. The attendant waved him on, and Thomas took several shaky steps forward. He could see the tube spiraling downward, with water running down the middle of it.
“Just sit down and push off,” Rob’s voice said behind him. “You’ll be okay.”
Thomas gingerly sat down, grimacing over the feel of water soaking into his shorts. But he had trouble pushing off, since he froze as he stared downward. His hands gripped the sides of the tube in a violent spasm. Then hands fell on his shoulders, and Rob’s face appeared beside his. “It’s all right,” he crooned softly. “You’re doing great. I know you can do it, Thomas. You’re brave. Come on, just let go.”
Somehow he did. Somehow he found the strength to lift his fingers and push himself forward. Then he was in the tube, sliding inexorably downward at an amazing speed, smooth as silk. He was like a bird. Thomas felt exhilarated terror as he went down, down, down…he wanted to scream, but his vocal chords were frozen. Then he turned the last corner, and splashed into the pool. He floundered around in the shallow warm water, finally getting his feet. He stood there shaking, hearing a war whoop as Rob began his own descent. Thomas felt amazement rush through him. He’d survived. And it…hadn’t been as bad as he’d imagined. Actually, it had been…sort of fun. In a terrifying way, of course, but still…
He found himself laughing. It was the near-insane cackle of a person who’d just survived a car crash or other similar horror, but it was still laughter. Rob landed and came splashing toward him, seeing that the accountant was still intact. And was actually laughing! His brown eyes were a tad too wide, but he didn’t look panicked or terrified anymore. The rocker clapped him on the shoulder. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he bellowed over the roars of the crowd.
Thomas shook his head. It hadn’t been that bad at all. “Great! Come on, let’s go on something else!” Rob yelled, and dragged him out of the pool and off to the next slide before he could protest.
Rob enjoyed himself after that. Thomas slowly relaxed once he realized he wasn’t going to be killed by going on the slides, and he began to actually have a good time. And the rocker – well, he had a good time too. But not just from riding the slides. Those clothes that Thomas was wearing…they began to cling to him more and more, outlining his slim body very clearly. He could see little nipples rucking under the fabric of the shirt, and when Thomas leaned over to pull the towel from his bag to dry himself off a bit…Lordie. Rob actually moaned, having to close his eyes to control himself at all. ‘Do not grab, hands off, this is a public place, you’ll scare him’ he chanted in his head.
Thomas, unaware of Rob’s struggles, ran the towel over his head and face. He’d worn contacts today – he didn’t often, because he tended to lose them too much. It was a waste of money. But he did have a pair for situations like this. Although not totally like this, since he’d never come to a place like the water park before in his entire life. “Hey, are you hungry?” Rob asked from behind him.
He found that he was. “Yes,” he said, turning around. He blinked his eyes to get the last of the moisture from them.
“Cool. Let’s go grab something from one of the concession stands,” the rocker remarked, wringing water out of his shoulder-length hair with his hands.
Thomas couldn’t have said anything at that moment if his life had depended on it. Rob’s arms were raised, and his t-shirt was sticking to him like a second skin. He could see all of those muscles outlined as though the man weren’t wearing a shirt at all. And water was beading on his skin, oh, God, he wanted to lick it off…Thomas was nearly panting, and his…penis was stiff inside of his shorts. He felt rather faint, his whole body flushing and tightening as desire coursed through him. He’d never felt like this in his entire life. His orderly life was going topsy-turvy, and he seemed helpless to stop it from happening.
Rob lowered his hands. “What’s your pleasure?” he asked Thomas, making him jump.
“W-What?!” the accountant stuttered, turning beet-red as he mistook Rob’s words because of what he’d just been thinking.
The rocker gave him a puzzled look. “What kind of food do you like?” he asked, cocking his head as he wondered about why Thomas was blushing again.
“Oh. Oh! Uh, anything is all right with me,” Thomas said hurriedly, feeling morbidly embarrassed for having taken Rob’s question the wrong way.
“Okay. You all right?” Rob said, eyeing him in concern.
Thomas managed to pull himself together. “Yes, I’m fine. Really,” he replied hastily.
“Huh. Come on, then, let’s grab some grub.” Rob led the way to the concession stands, with Thomas trailing after him trying to recover from his flustered state. It didn’t help any that Rob’s swim trunks were both clinging to him, and also sliding down a bit. He shouldn’t ogle his neighbor’s ass, he knew that. It was stupid. Rob Carleton was straight. But no matter how many times he reminded himself of that fact, it never seemed to stick.
They arrived at a concession stand selling pizza and hamburgers. Rob bought him a hamburger and fries, which Thomas eyed doubtfully. “Try it, you’ll like it,” the rocker urged him, plopping down at a table with his own basket of greasy food.
Thomas hesitantly bit into the hamburger. It was pretty good, which surprised him. He chewed, feeling a little strange. He was actually enjoying this experience, far more than he would have imagined possible. As a child he had never done things like this, because it had never occurred to his parents to take their unwanted child to places that would be fun for him. Rob Carleton was giving him the time of his life, and a new experience that would stay with him. Thomas felt gratitude toward his neighbor, probably for the first time since the rocker had moved in next door to him and had completely disrupted his life. Of course, he felt something besides gratitude for Rob as well, but he was going to ruthlessly suppress that because he had no choice but to do so. None at all.
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