The following day Zach met with Luke in the weight room, while Mark hung-out with Trey.

Luke walked into the weight room, looking his typically messy self. Luke was a junior, and Zach and he had played together for three years now. Zach set Luke up on a bench press and started to bark at him like a drill sergeant. As he spotted Luke, he started to ask him about how things were going. Luke was mostly evasive at first. As Zach continued to push him physically and Luke was struggling to push the weight up, he snapped at Zach.

Luke was pretty upset that Zach moved in on Mark. He thought that he was getting close to “closing the deal” when Zach had his very-public conquest of Mark. He also knew that they were continuing to hook-up.

Luke had been close friends with Jacob, who had graduated the previous year. Jacob was a backup shooting guard who had a magnetic personality. Since Jacob left, Luke had become a bit depressed and increasingly messy. Mark had been the first person that Luke had attempted to charm since Jacob had left. The fact that he felt “shot-down” by Mark didn’t do any favors for his confidence.

Zach couldn’t really let Luke know about all of the details of why he had seduced Mark that night, but he did apologize. He built Luke up quite a bit, focusing on his best qualities. He also told him that he needs to step up his game if he wanted to land a choice guy like Mark. He told him that he needed to tidy up his appearance a bit and spend a couple of days in the gym each week with him.

Zach continued to push Luke physically for close to an hour. Luke seemed quite motivated by Zach’s comments and was working hard. The two guys hit the showers and then headed over to practice.

~~~

In the meantime, Mark was having his practice with Trey. Well, he was supposed to, but Trey was nearly a half-hour late. When Mark asked him what held him up, he didn’t really have an answer. Mark headed out onto the court and tried to set some stuff up, but Trey just lounged around giving minimal effort.

Mark knew that he had to change his approach. He knew that Trey was a gamer, so he started asking a few questions about what he was playing and his energy-level started to increase. After connecting with Trey on that level, Mark started to dig a bit deeper. Aside from the family-issues that Mark already knew about, it would seem that he had experienced a one-timer with some fellow named Zach. Apparently, Zach was one of his first partners and afterward he didn’t have much contact with him on that sort of level.

Trey was a bit of a sensitive guy and he felt a bit used-and-abused by Zach. After that, he started to put on additional weight and he gave even less of an effort on the court. Watching Zach be with other guys didn’t help his outlook, either. Trey’s introverted nature meant that he didn’t have a lot of close relationships or meet many people. Even though Trey was a senior and would be graduating soon, Mark felt like he needed to do something to boost his confidence before he left.

The two “hugged one out” and headed to the locker room to get ready for practice.

~~~

The next day, Maxi met with Zach in the weight room. Zach set him up doing arm-curls and was challenging him face-to-face. Maxi had a lot of determination and willpower, but couldn’t keep up with Zach, even using smaller weights.

It was obvious that Maxi looked up to Zach in a lot of ways. He started to ask Zach about some of his sexual-conquests. Zach told him a couple of stories, including one about Mark. It was clear that Zach’s stories piqued Maxi’s interest in more than one way. Never bashful, Zach called him out on it. Zach told Maxi that he was a stud and that all that he needed to do was show it and the boys would be lined-up for a ride.

He advised Maxi that he needed to tone-up a bit in his upper-body area and he needed to add a bit of style to his appearance. He also mentioned that he needed to do some serious man-scaping.

They finished their workout, showered, and headed to practice.

~~~

Meanwhile, Mark was hanging out with Lee. Mark showed Lee some of the signals that he was using with Justin and Zach on the court. Lee was very enthusiastic to learn. They also worked on a few things of their own.

Afterward, Mark challenged Lee to a game of horse. Neither of the two were terrific shooters, so this threatened to take a while. While they were clanking basketballs off of the rim, Mark started to ask Lee about his personal life. As Mark suspected, there wasn’t really much to tell. Lee was the typical nice guy that was always being overlooked. The fact that he was pretty shy, didn’t help matters any either. Lee indicated subtly that he liked to be both top and bottom.

Mark told him that he had to be more confident. Others wouldn’t believe in him if he didn’t first believe in himself. He asked Lee to pretend like he was trying to pick up on Mark. He was pretty rubbish at it. Mark gave him a few tips.

Overall it was a nice chat, but Mark didn’t feel like he was getting anywhere. So he decided to drop the bomb on him. Out of nowhere, he said, “Maybe you and I should fuck sometime.” There was nothing but silence. Lee’s face turned bright red and he acted like he didn’t hear him. “OK, I guess not then,” Mark added.

“Are you being for real?” Lee asked.

“Yeah, sure. Why wouldn’t I? You are a good-looking guy and you are probably the nicest guy that I know. I think that we would have fun,” Mark said.

That was all that Lee needed to hear. He was absolutely beaming. Trying to play it cool he said, “Yeah. I think that I would be down for that.”

Mark chuckled at him, “You may want to be the top, though.”

Lee smirked at him confidently and said, “With you, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They finished their game and Lee was a completely different person, at least for now. They headed to the locker room joking and flirting a bit.

~~~

After practice, Mark and Zach took a quick shower and then requisitioned the treatment room to discuss what they had found out. Zach told Mark that Luke’s boyfriend had graduated the previous year and that Mark was his first attempt to get back out there. He said that he wanted to try to get Luke in better shape and to tidy up his appearance. He added that some positive-reinforcement from Mark as he made strides would go a long way.

Moving on to Maxi, Zach explained that Maxi just hadn’t found his way. He knew that Maxi admired him, so he wanted to get Maxi toned-up, add a bit of style and do a bit of hair removal. Then he joked that Maxi got an erection when Zach was talking about Mark. Mark tried to get Zach to explain what he had told Maxi about him, but Zach left him to wonder.

It was Mark’s turn to dish. He told Zach that Trey was very inexperienced. With Trey already in a bit of a depressed state because of his home-life, his brief encounter with Zach really hurt him. Mark asked Zach if he ignored Trey afterward as he had said. Zach admitted that it was true. He said that they just weren’t very compatible and that he just didn’t want to drag it on. He knew that it meant a lot to Trey, but didn’t know how to soften the blow without stringing him along. Zach offered to hook-up with Trey again, but Mark told him that it was a bad idea. Mark suggested that they could try to arrange something with either Maxi or Luke.

Mark told him that Lee was a versatile. He said that he was trying to build up his confidence and wasn’t getting anywhere with him. Then he admitted that he offered to have sex with Lee.

Zach barged in, “You are fucking Lee?” He said chuckling.

“No. I just told him that I would.” Mark explained.

“So, what did he say? Did he turn you down?” Zach joked.

“Actually, he totally lit up. I have never Lee with that much energy and positivity. He understood it would just be for fun, I think.” Mark added.

Zach asked somberly, “So, you are going to do it?”

Mark said, “Yeah. Yeah. I think that I need to.”

“You don’t have to. You can just tell him that you made a mistake.” Zach retorted.

“It wasn’t a mistake, and I want to,” Mark said.

The room got very quiet.

Mark said, “I think we should have a talk with Coach about all of this.”

Zach answered, “You can let him know. I have to be going. I have an assignment due tomorrow.”

Zach headed out of the room and left the locker room. Mark had a brief meeting with Coach and let him know what he and Zach had planned.

~~~

The next day Mark decided to join Zach for a workout even though it was a game-day.

When he entered the weight room, he saw Zach, Maxi, and Luke all working out together. He was so happy for Zach that the guys were buying-in to his plan so far. As Mark continued his workout it became pretty obvious that Zach was ignoring him. Mark finished his workout and took his shower. Maxi and Luke didn’t seem to be as upset with Mark as Zach was, particularly in the showers.

Mark headed to the lockers to get ready for the game. As tip-off approached, he still hadn’t spoken with Zach.

The game was pretty clunky. The tension between Mark and Zach was obvious. The fact that Mark and Lee were interacting well on the court, didn’t seem to set well with Zach either.

A bit into the third quarter, they were down by twelve points. As the opposing team missed a shot, Lee cleared the rebound and hoisted the ball up the court to Mark as he broke free. As Mark went up for the layup, a defender jumped in to contest the shot. As he did, he contacted Mark’s lower body and cut his legs from underneath him.

As Mark hit the hardwood, you could hear a splat followed by a clunk as his forehead bounced off the floor. Mark was motionless. A scream filled the gym as Zach charged down the court toward Mark. He knelt over Mark screaming for help. But as the defender closed in to check on Mark, Zach grabbed him and launched him against the wall. All of the refs, coaches, and trainers closed in to check up on Mark and to restrain Zach.

Zach was instantly ejected. He had to be escorted off of the court immediately. After a bit of attention from the trainer, Dillon, Mark got to his feet. He didn’t have any physical injuries, but he had to be checked for a concussion. When he passed it, he was able to return to the game. By that time, without either Mark or Zach, the lead had ballooned to over twenty points. They were able to close the gap a bit. Lee had by far his best game of the season and Justin knocked down a couple of shots, but they still lost by fourteen points.

Mark was disappointed. It was his first game as the starting point guard and they lost convincingly. He felt like he had let the team down. He also had a rapidly growing knot on his forehead that was throbbing away. He paced around the court for a bit until finally returning to the locker room. When he got there the locker room was nearly silent. At first, Mark thought that everybody had taken the loss as hard as he did. Then he noticed the large, sobbing man sitting in front of Mark’s locker.

Mark was absolutely heartbroken. He imagined Zach down here, by himself, in this sort of state and he could hardly keep it together. Mark crouched down near Zach and said, “It’s okay, man. I am fine.”

Zach mumbled, “I am glad that they got there in time. I would have hurt that guy. I know that he didn’t mean to hurt you, but I would have beaten him down. When I heard that ‘thud’ and I saw you lying there… I lost it.”

Mark replied, “I would have felt the same if it was you.”

Zach finally looked up and noticed the knot on Mark’s forehead. He mumbled, “You look like shit.”

Mark fired back, “Get your shower, meathead. We’ll have a talk once things clear out a bit.”

They got showered and met up in the treatment room. Zach immediately apologized for ignoring Mark all day. He explained that he was having trouble dealing with the fact that Mark intended to have sex with Lee. Mark already knew that. He also knew it was time to take control of this situation.

He took a deep breath and said, “Zach, you are my best friend, you are a fucking stud, and I really do care about you. But you need to understand that my personal discovery started less than two weeks ago. You have already had the freedom to play around as you wish, and I really don’t mean to upset you, but I need the opportunity to find my own way too.”

“So what does that mean for us?” Zach asked.

“I guess that it is up to you. As far as I am concerned, it doesn’t mean anything for us. We can still be best friends and we can still have our fun together. We both also get to have the freedom to have fun on our own with somebody else. Also, how are we going to bring these guys out of their shells if we can’t do it personally? It’s what we need to do for the good of the program,” Mark said.

“I know and I agree with pretty much everything that you are saying, but I thought that we were something more,” Zach confessed.

Mark smiled at Zach, “Zach, do you know where my dorm is? Do you know what kind of car I drive? Do you know what my favorite movie or TV show is? Do you know my favorite fast-food place? Have we ever done anything outside of the athletic-complex together? We have a long way to go before we are a couple. Maybe we will get there someday. But we aren’t there right now. I think that the worst thing that we could do right now is to hurry this. Besides, we always have someone looking down on us if get too far off of the path.” Mark pointed toward a camera.

Zach nodded his head in agreement and the two shared a lengthy embrace. Zach gave Mark a tender kiss on his swollen forehead. The two grabbed their belongings and headed out with arms around each other.