Spring brings many things.
The sun, fresh air, birds returning from wherever they go (probably someplace we'd rather be) and the grass grows thick and green.
In front of our dorm, barefoot boys play winter sports wearing only their shorts as of to triumph over the months of clasutrophobic weather they no longer had to endure.
And I watch.
I am a watcher especially when the sights of healthy, near naked young classmates offer themselves for my appreciation.
These are the same young men I see running to and from the dormatory shower wearing wet towels. These are the same mischevious co-residents who flip towels at each others naked buttocks. And these are the same guys who share beer, pot, pizza and many hours of questions about life, lies about sex and anger about the various adults to seem intent on inhibiting the first two activities.
But there's something different about seeing their bare skin under the sun - Their smiles of childlike delight at being able to run around the lawn - Their laughs and curses at the sport performance of themselve and others - and their bodies moving inside the least amount of clothing they dare wear in public.
As muscles stretch and tighten, their shorts ride on them like a loose fitting blanket. Their modesty required hidden gentialia moves as they run and after rising from a pile of their classmates seems enlarged reacting to the physical contact they have just had without shame.
My own body reacts as well. My gut churns, my penis hardens, I keep shifting the way I am laying on the grass..until my cohorts ask if I'm ok.
I nod and say the ground is uncomfortable yet I refuse their suggestion that we move to bench, to a softer seat or even to put coats under where we lay.
He won't let me.
His name is Craig. A tall, naturally darker skinned youngster then I am and one whose body I have touched intimately. He's not as smart as many but street wiser than most. His view of life, love, women, sex and a range of pleasures has introduced into my life a new value of my fellowman.
The snow and winter kept us close. The long nights of cramming kept us needing each others' company and help. And our natural needs kept us drawing closer and closer until one night, using the freedom that some ill gotten beer provided, we shared bed, hands, bodies and pleasures.
Throughout the winter the quiet knock would tell me he had arrived. I left the door unlocked knowing of his impending return. And without words his silhouetted would enter my world again and again. I prayed for moonlight to illuminate his body as it became bare....there was always something more exciting seeing he outline of his althetic form moving towards me and then stepping into my bed.
Maybe it was because I had one of the few private rooms. Maybe it was because he knew I wouldn't tell anyone. Or maybe it was because he wanted me. I dared not ask less he choose A. , B., or none of the above forgetting the third choice.
In the spring sunlight that same form moved unfettered by clothing or modesty. The same muscles that my hands had explored stretched and flexed in plain view. Standing with his hands on those manly hips as he caught his breath, now and then his glance would aim in my direction..but I knew better then respond.
I watched in silence hoping he heard me.
The sun would eventually set and the air grew chilly. Those shirtless young men would let their newly sun exposed skin wrinkle and their nipples grow harder then the day had made them.
I wondered how many thought of each other the way I thought of Craig. I fantasized that there were many more erectional reactions then mine. And I anticipated how many might think of their day in the spring sun, their bodies moving against each other and their bare feet on the green green grass as they held their erections under the privacy of their blankets that night.
"Hey" he said to me. I looked up to see his body standing there. "Can I use your shirt?" he asked. I had worn a tee shirt and had another around my waist..the fashion of the day.
I stood and handed it to him wishing I could wrap the needed shirt around him with my arms.
He leaned over and pecked me on the cheek. I didn't shrink away..but stood in delightful embarassment. He pushed me and laughed as if it were all a joke as the girls who had been sitting with me laughed and taunted us both.
He trotted away..my shirt tail hiding his round buttocks which flexed as he moved away from me.
"I thought you were in your room" he found me still laying on the ground and reading as the sun continued to take the day away from me.
"Wanna walk?" he asked and I arose, stretching myself despite his advice I ought to start working out.
"Where to?" I asked and he jerked his head and I followed then moved beside him. We didn't talk.
The dorms dissappeared, behind the trees. The sun too was gone leaving only a little reflected light around us. I was beginning to chill.
He must have seen me shiver or perhaps he too felt the night coming. His arm moved around my shoulders and we continued to walk.
"Where are we going?" I asked. He didn't say anything.
The lake was a long way from the campus. His car was parked there waiting for us. And from the back seat he retrieved a blanket and a cooler.
We sat on the grass...and let the blanket support our dinner he had arranged for.
I moved my bare feet in the grass.
"Feels good doens't it?" he said
I imagined his thoughts that day running in the thick grass, tackling and being tackled, standing and looking out towards the horizen or perhaps it WAS at me after all.
I unbuttoned my shirt that hid his body from me so my hands could find him. He let me.
We kissed and made love ignoring the dinner, the wine and the night air while nesting in the deep green green grass of spring.