Cross Country Romance : Part 1

"Hey, let's show these guys a thing or two about cross country!" Justin yelled to his best friend, Colton. Colton grinned in response and the two sprinted ahead of their teammates with ease.

"How about we take the longer loop?" Colton suggested with an even voice, despite the speed the two were running. "We can probably do the 10 miler and be back at the high school before they even begin to finish the 6 mile loop." Although it was suppose to be an easier practice for the Varsity high school Seniors, they sped away from the main group into the woods on a barely visible trail, one the two friends new well from years of running it.

Colton eyed his friend while they ran, it was hard to keep his eyes off him. Colton was gay but wasn't out yet, planning do deal with that after he graduated and went to college. He lost focus on the run to stare at his attractive friend, running a list of all of Justin's physically good qualities through his head:

"Justin's 6'0'', blond hair, blue eyes, amazing white teeth, great toned body, I would know we work out all the time together, tanned skin from all those time at the lake, and that bulge, what I would give to see what's under those shorts." Colton himself was equally attractive: he was 5'11'', toned body, green eyes, chocolate brown hair, and had an equally impressive set of straight white teeth.

Several minutes of this passed, and both boys, eighteen, were beginning to feel the workout. Their breathing became noisy and they both started to get sweaty. "Damn, it's fuckin hot!" Justin exclaimed, and almost immediately took off his shirt, tucking it in the back of his shorts. Colton, who had been sneaking peeks at Justin for almost the whole run couldn't help but take a more pronounced look and Justin's toned stomach, muscular pecs, and large biceps. While doing so he completely lost track of what he was doing, too engrossed in adding this visual to his hot memories of Justin, and he slipped on some loose rocks, twisting his ankle and flinging himself into a tree.

"fuck! Oh, mother FUCKER!"

Justin skidded to a halt when he heard that, and turned to see his friend lying on the ground, pinching his throbbing nose with one hand and grabbing onto his ankle with the other. He managed to help him to a nearby log and set him down on it, all the while Colton flinging a menagerie of curse words into the empty forest. Justin couldn't help but laugh at how Colton was acting.

"Shut the fuck up Justin," Colton spat at him.

"Ha sorry, but seriously, you just ran into a tree!" His friend responded with a snicker.

"Gah, this REALLY hurts! you wouldn't be laughing if YOU simultaneously twisted your ankle AND fell face first into a tree!"

"Haha quit being a pussy."

"Shut up."

"Ha you're so gay sometimes Colton."

"What if I was?" Colton responded without thinking, still upset that his ankle hurt and his nose was smarting.

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing, forget it."

Colton wasn't sure what to say, or even sure how to even approach this situation, he hadn't been planning on THIS conversation for about a year from now. But Justin was Colton's best friend so he decided to just go for it. "Fuck it, yeah I am, OK? I am gay. And hopefully you don't care because you're my best friend and to be honest, that would be fucked up if you did care."

Justin wasn't really sure how to respond, after all, nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and to be honest, he was surprised. Both were good looking and had their share of girlfriends in the past.

Justin sat down next to Colton, put his hand on Colton's shoulder and said, "Ok, well that explains why you've been staring at me this whole run, so much that you ran into a friggen tree!" He couldn't help but start laughing after that!

Colton was taken aback by this response, "You know I'm being serious right? I'm a homo. I like guys. That doesn't bother you?"

"What no, of course not!" Justin said with wide eyes. "We've been best friends since kindergarten! You really think I would care about something like that? I'm kinda offended now that I think about it." He added with a laugh, "You think I'm some gay-bashing bigot or something?"

"No of course not," Colton responded, smiling at the way the conversation was going. "It's not the easiest thing in the world to do, coming out that is." He was so grateful for his friend, so filled with joyous emotions, he couldn't help but cry in that moment. Justin understood and hugged him, Colton returning the embrace.

"So, do you think I'm good looking or something? That's why you run into the tree isn't it you dumb-ass?" Justin said to Colton playfully as they pulled apart.

Colton blushed and looked down at his ankle. "Like you don't know you are. What with all the girl's you've dated." He looked up, "What, you think they like you for your personality?" he added in mock horror.

"Ha, thanks for that confidence booster!" Justin replied. They sat together in peaceful silence, all the while Justin was deep in thought:

"So my best friend is gay. He thinks I'm good looking. I don't know about that. Sure it's flattering, but I always thought he was the cute one.. wait.. did I just call Colton cute?? I can't believe I'm thinking that.. I mean, I've thought about it, but never enough to act on it. But maybe, I didn't know I would have the opportunity to act on it." I've known for a long time that I was gay, but I didn't want to admit it to myself. But, with my best friend coming out to me, maybe we could share something together. We're already best friends, we know each other so well, a relationship would almost be too easy! But how do I tell him? He'll probably think I'm joking or mocking him. Well there's one way to let him know for sure."

"Hey Colton?" he said quietly, almost a whisper.

"Yeah, what's wrong bud?" replied Colton, catching the uncertainty and hesitation in his voice.

"I don't know how to tell you this without thinking I'm lying or being weird.."

"I kinda thought we were past not being able to tell each other stuff," joked Colton.

"Fuck it," blurted Justin, using Colton's earlier choice of words, and before Colton knew what was happening, Justin had his lips on Colton's and kissed him with more passion and romance than he had with any girl he ever dated.

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That concludes Part 1, let me know what you think, I really want to write a Part 2 but won't if my writing is terrible haha! First time submitter here.