The Strongman
17
Acceptance and Rejection
I WORKED WITH SYDNIE, Lena, and Eva for four hours, took a two-hour break for lunch, and then went back at it for another four hours. We were really having fun.
That seemed strange. I tried to remember when I last just had fun in the gym.
I was still depressed about being 3,000 miles from Tara with no real hope of ever getting back together again. She was the only woman outside my family and Jennifer who ever treated me nicely. I don’t mean just having sex, though I sure missed that, too. I mean… Like the cheerleaders did their best to ignore me and only recognized me to tell me what position they needed me in for them to climb on. Madison, I decided, was full-on psychotic. She wanted to control everything I did.
These three girls were actively working to see how good they could make me look. They were working hard with me. For those hours we were working, we were having fun. Some other students stopped by during the day and a few gave us tips or suggested poses before they went to their own training sessions.
I guess… Well, the students here didn’t just train together, most of them lived together. Several stopped to say, “Welcome to GAC! Hope you like it here.”
I was going to like it just fine—if they liked me enough to offer me a place. And if I could afford it.
I talked to Dad Saturday night after we’d finished dinner and he said there were some funds set aside for my education that they didn’t figure I’d ever use. He also said he’d cosign a loan if I needed more. I almost cried when he told me that. I didn’t particularly want to go in debt for the expense of a college education and just get gymnastics training. But knowing the resources were available for me to follow my dream was important.
On Sunday, we worked on putting our elements together to some music the girls had. They said the academy had a library of pieces and when I was ready for music for my own performances, the librarian would help select and cut the piece of music of my choice. I hadn’t really considered where music came from before. When I was working with Tara, our choreographer brought the music which set the theme for our performance. Madison had all her own music and never asked me about it at all.
After another hard day’s work, we felt we had something we could show with pride. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would show what we could do. And we had an attentive Lena and Eva there to act as our spotters, just in case.
We didn’t have time to really coordinate our costumes. When you compete, the rules say the costumes should be essentially the same or at least coordinated. They asked me what I had available and I said my best was a black unitard with gold braid and piping.
Sydnie said she had a black and gold leotard and that would work fine. Eva and Lena would wear white, indicating they weren’t part of the act.
When they walked into the gym on Monday morning, though, they stopped as though they’d only seen me for the first time.
“Hey. You guys ready?” I asked.
“You’re him!” Sydnie said.
“What?”
“It never occurred to me that it could even possibly be you! You performed at Nationals with Tara White!”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you with her? What happened?”
That led to me having to explain that Tara couldn’t really perform to the standards of national competition and she’d taken a teaching job in San Jose. I wanted to find a place where I could get back into my gymnastic apparatuses and possibly compete in the 2028 Olympics.
“I should have known just based on how strong you are,” Eva declared. “You’re right. Tara probably weighs twenty pounds more than Sydnie now. But you supported her through everything. There was no question in anyone’s mind that while Tara was beautiful and wonderful, she wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without you. You kept her stable.”
“Thanks. I didn’t think I should talk about what Tara and I did. I guess I’m glad you noticed.”
“I got hours of lectures from Coach Li about what I could learn from you as a base. No wonder she wanted us to work with you over the weekend. And she was right. I’ve learned a ton.”
“Well, let’s get warmed up and show them what we can do,” I laughed. We got started.
“There are a lot more people here than I expected,” I said when we went to the performance mat.
“The coaches and your committee all have classes this morning, so they brought their classes with them. Just like I did,” Coach Li said. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered. “You gave me great partners.”
“Let’s see what you’ve done with them.”
She took our tariff sheet with her and shared it with the committee as we waited at the edge of the mat for our signal to begin.
“You may proceed,” Coach Li said into the speakers.
We walked out onto the mat and assumed our opening pose. A few seconds later, we heard the chime a beat before our music started, so we were able to start our first pass cleanly with the music. This involved a couple of dancelike moves where Sydnie spun under my arm and our spotters turned a somersault to pose with their hands raised toward us. Then we were in action.
I did a cannonball launch for Sydnie and she did a pike position flip with a twist and landed with her feet in my hands. From there I threw her into a forward flip and caught her as she landed in front of me. I did a dead lift of her as she held her arms rigid with her hands in mine. Once she was over my head, she continued up into a handstand with a Mexican arch.
At one point, I heard some polite applause from the stands, but I just blocked everything out from my consciousness except our music and my partner. It came time for our tumbling pass and people were surprised to see our spotters go first across the mat. Then I went with my double layback with a twist. When I landed, I dropped to one knee. Sydnie was right behind me. She did a double tuck position salto and came down perfectly on my shoulders. I held up my left hand and she grasped it in both of hers, elevating herself into a splits.
As soon as our spotters were certain they were no longer needed, they went into their own handstand with the splits as I stood, holding Sydnie above my head with my left hand. I launched her into the air and she did a half flip to land on one foot in my right hand. From there she did a needle stand, which is a kind of vertical splits with her other foot vertical in the air and her extended hands above her head catching her foot.
That was the position she held as I returned to the floor and held her above my head as I put the other hand down on the floor and elevated myself into a table. That’s the move I call a right triangle because my floor hand is supposed to be vertical and my body extending as the hypotenuse of a triangle to my feet. The hand supporting my partner is supposed to create a continuous line from my lower arm straight into the air and on into her position in the needle stand.
We hadn’t done many throws at this point and Sydnie flipped from my hand onto the floor with her spotters watching carefully, but not needing to rescue her. From there, we went into a number of throws, each landing and going straight to another. At that point, Sydnie and I separated, spinning in opposite directions. Eva and Lena stopped our spin and sent us directly back into each other to collapse to the floor in our final pose.
There was considerable applause at that point. Without the music and concentrating on our moves, my hearing seemed to open up to the sounds around us.
“It’s too bad there is no ‘mixed group’ category in AG,” Coach Li said. “Well done. I especially liked the way you integrated your spotters into the action. It was obviously a pair, but the presence of two others on the mat did not detract from focus at all. Again, well done.”
“That was certainly impressive,” Dr. Davis, the director of the academy, said. “Paul, obviously we were gauging your strength and ability to work with others. Coaches Li, DiCello, Devault, Pleshenko, and Desmond all had good reports on your work Friday. The committee has all handed their decisions to me and I am happy to welcome you to the Tampa Gymnastics Acrobatics and Circus Academy. Congratulations, Paul.”
The girls quickly gathered around me and Sydnie gave me one of her ‘friendly’ kisses. Wow!
Everyone in the gym had their own classes and routines to work on. I was escorted to the administration office and filled out a bundle of forms and enrollment documents. I had a high school transcript (which was not particularly impressive), my certification as a massage therapist, a letter of reference from the coach of the basketball team, and even a letter of reference from Coach Dawson at the Hennepin Gym. It was signed with his regrets that I’d chosen to leave Hennepin Gym and good wishes for my future as a gymnast. It was nice that he had come around that far.
When we got to the point of paying for my tuition, room, and board, I was stunned by the amount. I was pretty sure I’d need that loan Dad had promised.
“Paul, a resident gymnastics program is not cheap, as I’m sure you are aware,” Dr. Davis said to me as we met with the bursar. “I don’t believe anyone here can afford it. We are not a college or university, so state grants and academic scholarships are not available to us. We do, however, have sponsors. These are often companies associated with athletics who want to be associated with the US National Team and Olympic Team. They understand there is a risk involved in taking on an athlete. But the amount we are prepared to offer toward your time here will make a significant dent in what you owe.”
He showed me a paper that held a promise of 80% of my tuition and board for my first year at GAC. I was stunned. Signing it held a promise that I would pursue a berth on the 2025 Team USA and the 2028 Olympic team with everything I could do. I signed the paper.
“I don’t know what you were prepared to pay when you got here,” the bursar said. “Will you be able to advance the remainder of the funds within ten days?”
“Yes, ma’am. I will arrange a wire transfer,” I said. The remaining amount was within the limit of what Dad said was set aside for my education.
“I’m also told you are a certified massage therapist,” Dr. Davis said. “You presented your certificate this morning. We’ll sponsor you for licensing, but when you are employed internally, we don’t need to wait for the license to get you started. We’ll have a couple of tests from both students and coaches to assure ourselves that you are capable, then we’ll approve you for specific massage hours. That will be worked out with your counselor for your schedule. The coaches will have input in your schedule as you will need to work into their schedules as well as a couple of general classes we want you to participate in. For now, head off to dinner and celebrate. I think everyone wants to meet and greet you.”
I was exhausted, but the party atmosphere in the cafeteria was far more exciting than it had any right to be on a Monday evening. Sydnie, Eva, and Lena met me in the cafeteria and exercised their right to introduce me to as many people as possible.
I just hoped I’d be able to progress as well in the classes as I did in my physical development. I could see already that there was speculation as to whether I would be a gymnast or an acrobat. Well, I guess there were worse possibilities.
When I was in Minneapolis, school, work, massage, basketball, all seemed like an interruption to the one thing I wanted to be doing—gymnastics. Suddenly, I was in an environment in which getting better at gymnastics was my primary task: To get stronger, more artistic, and more able to compete.
But you really can’t work out twelve hours a day every day and expect to make progress. My training day was basically three hours early in the morning and three late in the afternoon. Wednesdays and Saturdays I had only morning sessions, and I had Sunday as a rest day.
I had to take a couple of classes in order to get my massage license. They were on Florida laws and regulations, but the licensing board recognized my education under Jennifer because she was widely known as a member of the certification board.
I didn’t start any real classes at the academy other than my training until the second semester. So, mostly, I had Wednesday afternoons, Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and my evenings free if I wasn’t in one of the massage classes. After a couple of coaches and students had tried my massage and approved the work, the school took over scheduling massages, much like the gym in Minneapolis and the basketball team had taken charge of scheduling me. With the tuition, room and board covered, I was able to bank the two or three hundred a week I made from massages at $50 an hour! That also meant that when Sydnie, Eva, and Lena suggested a movie or going to the beach on Sunday, I was free to go and had enough money to pay my way.
I also had my car, which was very popular with the girls. My car had plenty of room in it, so I never objected to having one or two additional invitees along. Somehow, those were always invited by the three girls, so were usually other girls. It was common for us to head out someplace with five girls in the car with me.
I didn’t expect anything from them. The whole academy had about a three to one ratio of females to males in residence, ages maybe 13 to 26. In addition to that, there were day school classes for children who came for sessions to get started. Resident students usually taught those classes as their way of earning expense money while in residence. The classes I took during the second semester were focused on teaching gymnastics, coaching, and physical development.
When I started doing massages, I just set up my table in my dormitory room. Nobody considered that an ideal situation. There was a training and therapy center that had a few private rooms on the side and soon, I was given one of those rooms where I could leave my table set up and store my supplies—like clean sheets, towels, and oils.
Since my things were in the room and exclusively for my use, I did a little decorating, too. I put up a couple of anatomy posters, set a couple of lamps with low wattage bulbs in the corners so I didn’t need the fluorescent overhead while people were trying to relax, and set a speaker up so I could pipe in music or nature sounds from my cell phone.
It was a pretty sweet setup and my clients appreciated the environment.
Time seemed to rush past. I didn’t compete my first few months there. After the first of the year, though, I was included on the rotation of competitors heading to meets as part of the GAC team. We competed mostly in the southeast, but we did spend one week in the spring at a meet in Texas. It was my first opportunity to see the training center that Tara had been at when she rose to a national championship.
I guess that’s when the loneliness really started to settle in. I’d been at GAC for six months and had only gone home to be with my family for a week at Christmas. Having a training routine that my body was really attuned to made it difficult to take a break anywhere I couldn’t continue training.
My conversations with Tara had become fewer, degenerating into text messages or even comments on social media. I was reluctantly coming to the conclusion that we were no longer a couple. It broke my heart.
I returned to Tampa after the competition in Texas and tried to compose a letter to her, but I ended up just asking her for a time I could call and talk for a while. When Sydnie came to see if I’d take them to the beach Sunday, I just tossed her my keys. She looked puzzled and I just shook my head. We’d celebrated her eighteenth birthday a couple of weeks earlier and she’d moved into the adults’ dormitory. It was really unusual for me to not want to go out with the girls. They were good company, but I was really feeling down and I wanted to talk to Tara.
I’d turned twenty in March and Tara and I hadn’t even talked. I got a ‘Happy birthday’ text from her. Now I punched in her number.
We talked. I wanted to know where she would go during the summer and if we could travel together a while. I just missed her so much. The conversation didn’t go the way I thought it would. Me and my romantic brain.
“Why would you stop training for the summer? It was hard enough last year. Don’t risk losing all you’ve gained this year,” she said.
“But I want to see you,” I complained. “I miss my girlfriend.”
She sighed loudly enough that I could hear her over the phone.
“Honey, you’ve got to stop thinking of us as boyfriend and girlfriend. We just aren’t anymore. I can’t be where you are. I’m making huge progress with my team here. And there’s nothing here for you. The university doesn’t even have a men’s program. Paul, you need to focus on yourself and your goals. Don’t let thinking of being my boyfriend hold you back from what you have there. I know you go out with all those girls. I’ve seen the pictures on our social. Enjoy them. I can’t be what you need right now. Oh, Paul…”
“I love you, Tara.”
“I love you, too. Goodbye, Paul.”
I was still crying in my room when the girls got back. There was a knock on my door and I opened it a crack to see Lena with my keys. Her face immediately fell and she pushed her way into my room.
“Paul! What’s wrong? We missed you today. What happened?”
“I… um… My girlfriend and I… We broke up. I… um… Thanks for bringing me my keys. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Like hell. This is not a time for you to be alone. Talk to me and tell me all about it.”
I felt like a real idiot. I talked a while and told her about Tara and me. I’d never told the girls who my girlfriend was. Lena was shocked to find it was the injured national champion. She insisted that I go get some dinner with her and when I said I really didn’t want to see anyone, she grabbed my keys and just said, “Let’s go.”
I didn’t argue with her about who was going to drive. I just got in the car and she drove us north and then west until we got to Tarpon Springs. We drove through a funky old town waterfront sort of place and then walked all the way out to the end of the wharf.
“Have you ever had a grouper sandwich?” she asked.
“Um… No. I don’t think they serve them in the cafeteria.”
“And none of the places we’ve all been out to serve them either. I save this for special times. If I ate like this all the time, Eva wouldn’t be able to support me in the middle.”
“Fish? That’s not fattening.”
“Not the fish so much as the hush puppies.”
We were seated at a table covered with butcher paper and a brown bag of hush puppies was immediately set in front of us. Lena ordered before I even had a chance to see a menu.
“Grouper sandwiches are not the only reason to come to Florida,” she laughed. “But they are a sufficient reason. Relax and enjoy. This is my treat.”
Our diet Dr Peppers arrived and soon I was lost in the sensations of eating this incredible fish sandwich and the hush puppies. Lena was good company and she had comments that left me laughing.
“Ya know, the fishin’ boats arrive over there on the wharf and the chef goes out and chooses the fish he wants by clubbing ’em over the head. Then he brings ’em back here and starts cooking.” With just the two of us and being away from school, Lena’s deep south accent was coming through.
I was busy licking my fingers.
“Ya know what we din’t do this year? We din’t go to any spring trainin’ games. I din’t think about it till I saw the number of Yankees at the beach on spring break. Most of ’em was sunburnt and drunk. Would you believe one guy tried to pick up all six of us who went out today? He said he was tryin’ to set a campus record for the number of girls he could do in a single day. We said, ‘Six?’ and he said, ‘Nah, eleven, but I’ve already got five done.’ We laughed at him and told him to try some of the drunk girls.”
“That takes a lot of balls,” I laughed.
“More ’n two, I guess. I saw him passed out on top a girl who was out cold when we left. Din’t look like they actually done anything other than drink.”
We finished our dinner and Lena paid, declining my offer. Then we headed back to the academy. Sort of. Lena took a turn and we crossed the bridge and headed west instead of east and south. She pulled up at Sunset Beach just in time for us to watch the sunset over the Gulf. It was pretty nice, and before long, the darkness surrounded us.
This beach isn’t popular with most of the spring break kids because it’s kind of isolated and there are a lot of trees growing out of the sand, but really no services. You can’t just pop into the bar for a drink or anything. Lena took my hand and we walked along the water around to a spot where we were pretty isolated from everything else. She pulled me down on the sand and laid back.
It was peaceful and I might have dozed off a little. I became aware of Lena cuddled up to me, gently kissing my face.
“Um… I… uh…” I wasn’t sure what I thought I was going to say. She felt incredibly good in my arms. Wasn’t sure when my arms had circled her. I knew her body pretty well because she’d had three or four massages. Of course, it never felt quite like it did while she was kissing me.
“You’ve been really stressed out,” she whispered, losing her accent. I wondered how much of it had been put on. “Let me take care of you. Let me show you what you mean to all of us here in Florida.”
I didn’t think she could possibly mean that everyone I’d met in Florida would be kissing me, caressing me, and letting me feel what a luscious body she had in places that I never touched during a massage. Well, maybe Sydnie would kiss me like this, but that was kind of her thing—kissing people. Just being friendly.
Lena wasn’t going to stop at making out. I didn’t realize that for a bit because I was just lost in the sensations of having a girl in my arms and in my hands. Then she had my shorts open and was stroking my rigid cock.
“Wow! You’re really ready for this, aren’t you? I’ll just… um… take the edge off a little before we get to the main course.”
With that, she dipped her head and enveloped my dick in her soft warm mouth.
Yeah. Six months since the last time Tara and I had made love. I’m not really big on masturbating, mostly because I fall asleep before I get anywhere. But feeling Lena’s mouth on me gave me just enough time to grunt a warning before I was firing my spunk into her throat.
“Mmm. There. Now you’ll last a little longer,” she said confidently.
She pulled my hand to her middle and I discovered that somewhere along the line, her shorts had been kicked down and off one foot. I knew what to do. I wasn’t completely inexperienced. I found her moistening and spread that lubrication up and around her clit as we went back to kissing. I certainly wasn’t going to soften up much with this going on. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into, but I knew it was soft, warm, and wet.
Lena straddled me and sank onto my cock with a moan—which might have been mine, or possibly ours.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a guy in me,” she breathed. “Sometimes I feel left out when Sydnie and Eva get going. This is nice. You feel so good in me. Don’t think that just because we’re making it on the beach in a romantic clear night that I want to be anything more than what we’ve always been. But I think tonight, I needed this as much as you did. Yes. Touch me there some more. I’m almost there. Can you wait for me? Just a little more.”
She kept sliding up and down my cock while she continued to talk and plant kisses on me. Then I felt her begin to tense and she pressed her lips against mine and kissed deeply as she fluttered around my cock and whined into my mouth. I let go with a few really strong spurts up into her. It was unbelievable and she lay on top of me just breathing deeply and occasionally rising to kiss again.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said. “That was really wonderful and intense. I didn’t mean to push myself onto you.”
“You’ve got the positions mixed up, Paul. It’s me who’s on top. We just both really needed that. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Lena.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
