Lariats and Lacrosse Sticks Ch. 01

But quickly he hit a rhythm that caused his body to shake with ecstasy. With his finger wedged deep inside his gut, Randy was pounding his throbbing cock. The wet sound of his precum-coated cock ramming through his fist created an erotic symphony that ran through Randy's system.

"Oh, oh, oh fuck!" moaned Randy as his orgasm began. The first belch of cream instantly created a pool of cum that mingled with his pubic hair, each shot after served to cover his pelvis with a thick coat of marbled white cream. Randy tensed and released with each spasm of his body, his cum flowing from his twitching cock like white lava. At last, with a final toe curling crescendo, Randy's climax ended.

He collapsed onto bed, his lower body covered with a mass of jizz. Unwittingly his fingers trailed through the pools as they liquefied and began running across his body. With his eyes closed and his breathing still rapid, Randy lifted his semen covered fingers to his lips and cleaned each one of his seed, wishing as he did that it was Tanner's cock he was cleaning of cum.

Eventually the January cold crept into the room, reminding Randy that he was lying nude and covered with spunk. With a smile, he grabbed a towel he'd dropped beside the bed after an earlier shower and wiped the thickest pools from his body. Tossing the used towel into his pile of dirty clothes, he pushed himself off the bed and slowly made his way to the shower.

As he kicked the bathroom door shut, he smiled to himself and wished again that he could share this part of his life with Tanner.

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Marc was walking rapidly back to his dorm. He hadn't intended to be out as late as he was, but he'd been in the library working on a paper. His girlfriend had texted to check on him a few minutes ago, and made him realize how late it was. He'd left the library with the paper consuming his focus, but now he had started walking faster, having an uncomfortable feeling that some guys were following him. In spite of his increased speed, it felt like they were keeping up with him. Suddenly, they were gone, and he breathed a sigh of relief, just before he rounded a corner and was grabbed. Struggling silently, Marc realized there were three men, two holding him and a third who was standing menacingly in front of him.

"You damn fag! Fuck'n queer!" said one, quickly followed by a punch to Marc's midsection.

"Oh god!" gasped out Marc. "I'm not gay. Come on guys, Please leave me alone," said Marc between spasms of pain from his stomach. Suddenly Marc felt the hands holding him tighten.

"Come on! Let me go!" screamed Marc.

Without a word, Marc suddenly felt another punch sink into his stomach. His body curled as he tried to protect himself, hanging from his pinned arms. Eventually, he was just trying to survive the beating he was getting as punch after punch rained on his body. Suddenly released, he fell on the grass, writhing and gasping in pain. Dimly aware of one attacker drawing his foot back, Marc tried to escape the kick, but his damaged body wouldn't respond. He felt the boot drive into his side, and the sickening snap as ribs broke.

Marc lay on the lawn, gasping for air with a trickle of blood leaking from the side of his mouth. The attacker grabbed him by the hair, pulled his head back and spit in his face. "Fuckin perverts, this'll teach you fuckin' fags to fuckin' stay away from real men." Marc saw a huge fist draw back, then punch him in the face, which was his last conscious thought for quite some time.

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Both men's phones started buzzing at the same time, marking the arrival of new text messages. Tanner looked at Randy as he grabbed his phone and they both started reading. It was a message from the university announcing that an undergraduate had been attacked on campus and was hospitalized in fair condition. The message went on to say that the assault was being investigated as a hate crime. Tanner quickly scanned the rest of the message for details, but it was the typical appeal for any witnesses to come forward and what steps the university was doing to keep everyone safe.

Tanner looked up just in time to see Randy's grim face as he finished. Randy looked up with a frown on his face.

"What the fuck? I thought this was a safe campus. I hope the guy's alright," said Tanner.

"I know. But what're we gonna do? I don't know about you but I'd like to go out and give the bastards a taste of their own medicine," said Randy through gritted teeth.

As they were trying to absorb it all, Tanner's remembered that his phone had buzzed again while he was reading. As he pulled up the new text, Randy's email chimed. They both read through the messages. With a deep sigh Tanner said, "Someone thinks jocks beat up a gay guy."

"One of the guys on the team just got confronted by a bunch of students outside the student union. They thought jocks were responsible too."

"Oh shit . . ." said Tanner with a sigh.

The rest of the day was a flurry of messages flying across campus as blame and accusation became the communication style of the day. Allegations against student athletes expanded in spite of an appeal from the campus gay community for calm. The widespread blame of student athletes, in spite of many calls to wait for the facts to be given, infuriated Randy. Eventually the uproar became so tumultuous that another communication was issued by the university asking for calm while police conducted their investigation.

As the afternoon wore on, Randy and Tanner became more and more upset. Just when both of them were ready to burst from frustration, buzzes and chimes filled the room, marking the arrival of more incoming communication. Glancing over, Randy began to read, as did Tanner.

"Student Government is calling a rally. The guy is apparently still in the hospital and they want to have a candlelight vigil," said Randy.

Confirming that his text was the same information, Tanner hesitated for a few minutes, then announced, "I'm going. It's important to show him support."

"Hell yes we're going!" said Randy. Then Tanner heard Randy mutter to himself, "If I knew who the fuckers were, I'd give 'em a taste of my stick."

Tanner was slightly surprised that Randy was so adamant about going to the rally. He'd somehow expected some athletic homophobia from his roommate, but he was actually relieved to find out he was wrong. Tanner guessed that most of Randy's reaction was due to the fact that the student athletes were being blamed, but he was still pleased with his reaction. Turning, he grabbed a hoodie and headed toward the door. He glanced over his shoulder to see Randy following him closely with jacket in hand.

The pair raced across campus toward the quad. When they rounded the final corner, they were surprised to see a huge crowd milling around on the lawn. Sticking close to each other, the pair moved through the masses of people, talking with friends and acknowledging acquaintances as they went. What they found was a common anger, a shared disgust and an overarching demand for justice.

Randy was surprised to run into several of his lacrosse team members, who all seemed just as incensed as he was. Tanner stood at Randy's elbow and nodded agreement as each of them expressed their anger over the attack and distress that athletes would be blamed, because none of them could believe any of their teammates would do anything so horrible. There was a part of Randy that was feeling hopeful as he ran into teammate after teammate who were showing their support of the gay student.

By the time they had worked their way to the steps of the administration building, it seemed to Randy that at least half the team was in the crowd. It was a relief that so many of his teammates were supporting the student. He wasn't foolish enough to think it was 100%; there were assholes in every group. But even if some of his teammates were homophobes, they all knew better than to mouth off or do anything on campus.

The pair stood quietly with what seemed to be thousands of other students listening to the president of the university as he announced that three men had been arrested in conjunction with the attack, and none of them were students. The cheer at that announcement was almost as gratifying as the earth shattering response he got when he told the crowd that the student was improving and expected to make a full recovery. The president also indicated the attack was still being investigated as a hate crime because of what was believed to be the attackers intent. He continued on with a general appeal for calm and inclusion on campus. There were a few other brief comments from various administrators, as well as an emphatic commitment to an increased police presence. After the last of the speakers, candles began to magically appear and soon the quad was glowing.

As the crowd began to thin, a girl from one of Randy's classes walked by, and he suddenly remembered that she was a reporter for the school paper. "Hey! Tina," called Randy.

The girl turned and walked over to the pair, "Hey Randy, what's up?"

"Do you know anything about the guy who was attacked?"

"Actually his girlfriend is my roommate. I took her to the hospital last night. He looks awful, has two black eyes and some cracked ribs. But like they said, the doctors think he'll be fine given some time. But those asshole townies gave him a pretty good beating. Apparently they thought he was gay just because he was small, thin and dressed nice. Damn homophobic hicks."

"Thanks Tina, that's great to hear," said Randy with a smile. Randy met Tanner's look and knew they were thinking the same thing. Everyone had been willing to blame the jocks, and now everyone from the area were being marked as brutal, homophobic rednecks. It was a sobering realization for the two freshmen. In a heartbeat the connection between the two had vanished and without another word needing to be shared between them, they made their way through the crowd with extinguished candles in hand.

When they arrived in their room, Tanner silently took Randy's candle and laid it with his on a vacant shelf. Almost reverently to preserve the feeling of the vigil, they pulled out their schoolwork and began to work while their minds tried to reconcile everything that had happened.

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Several days had passed since the attack, and Randy had been watching for news about the student. He had been surprised at the continual support the victim had gotten, and perhaps even more surprised to find such a high level of support for the victim and condemnation of the attackers among his teammates. For Randy this was especially poignant given that everyone had thought the victim was gay. He actually had begun to think about coming out to a few people as a result. But he wasn't sure about the reaction, and he certainly wasn't sure how Tanner would react.

It was one thing to support gay rights, it was quite another to be sleeping in the same room with a gay guy. Randy couldn't help but think it would freak out most men. He was still contemplating the choices and possible repercussions when he heard Tanner slide his key in the door.

Tanner walked in with a smile on his face. "I ran into your friend from class. What's her name? Tanya?"

"You mean Tina? From the rally?" asked Randy.

"Yeah! Tina. Anyway, the guy was released from the hospital today. Apparently everything's going to be fine. They thought he might have some eye damage from the punch to the face, but it tested out fine."

Randy let out a sigh of relief, "Thank God. I'm so glad he's going to be ok."

"Yeah, I thought you might want to know. You old softy," Tanner said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, whatever. But I'm starved. Let me take a whizz, then we can grab something. I'm thinking the new Indian place, I'd love some decent curry," said Randy.

"Curry? Ick," started Tanner.

"Yes, a good Lamb Vindaloo and other shit you wouldn't normally touch, but you will tonight or I'll put my stick up your ass!"

"Oww, I'm so afraid of the badass lacrosse player," teased Tanner.

"Yeah, you better be. Or stick, Tanner's ass, hello!" said Randy with a laugh.

Tanner leaned back in his bed, and thought about the past week, and how supportive Randy had been of the poor guy, even when he thought the victim was gay. Tanner was surprised, by the whole campus actually. But he didn't think he was ready to come out to one of the biggest studs he'd ever seen. He wasn't sure Randy was ready for that little bombshell, not anytime soon anyway.

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Randy and Tanner only grew closer as the semester slipped past. They became inseparable and by the time finals rolled around, they could almost finish each other's sentences. Randy suddenly looked over at Tanner.

"We should move in together," said Randy.

Tanner chuckled, "We already live together, dude."

"No, no," said Randy, waving his hand. "I mean we should get an apartment for next year. We get along better than most roommates, hell, better than most couples I know. I think it would be great."

Tanner contemplated this for a moment, recognizing that he had developed a serious crush on Randy over the past semester, but he decided living in an apartment couldn't make it any worse. Besides, he wasn't sure he could handle not living with Randy.

"Sure, that sounds amazing. We can start looking after finals week. You have some time before you go back to Maryland, don't you? I have to go back home for a few days to help out, but afterwards I can come back to help look," said Tanner.

"Yeah, I've got a week break," said Randy. A smile broke out on his face, "Hey! I could come home with you to the farm and help out. Then we could come back and apartment shop! Whatda ya think?"

Tanner grinned at Randy, "First, it's a ranch, not a farm you illiterate Yankee. We ain't no sod busters!" Tanner chuckled and continued, "No, that sounds great. We can get the calves worked faster with another guy. We can search for apartments online, then once we've narrowed it down, drive back to look at them."

"Outstanding!" said Randy, excited about getting to spend an entire week with Tanner and his family. They sat chatting about the break until Tanner held up his hands.

"Ok, ok. If we don't do well on these tests it won't matter, because our families will kill us. Back to the books."

"Damnit! You're right. Gotta study," agreed Randy.

With that declaration both men refocus on their schoolwork and the impending finals.

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Randy wasn't sure what he had thought "the ranch" was going to be, but several thousand acres of rugged hills and small mountains covered with native grasses that grew to the horses shoulder in places wasn't it. The open spacious countryside was a wonderful mix of native prairie and almost impenetrable timber. Tanner had always talked about his home being in the Arbuckle Mountains, but Randy had equated it to someone from Illinois talking about their ski runs to someone from Colorado, quaint but not really the same thing. These were certainly no Colorado Rockies, but they were challenging in their own way. Randy could see why Tanner said very few people had the fortitude to exist here before modern conveniences came into the area. For Randy, somehow the rugged terrain forged a connection that he wouldn't have thought was possible before experiencing it.

He also found out rather quickly that his hours of riding the trails around his dad's place in Maryland had not prepared him for working cattle from horseback, fortunately he had picked it up fairly quickly. His horse lurched up another steep, brush-covered hillside in search of cattle, while Randy recalled his trip so far. The last few days had been spent scouring the ranch for cattle, and this was the final, and worst, section of the ranch. Fortunately Tanner's Dad had a pair of Blue Heeler's and they were eager to force their square muscular bodies into the heavy brush. Without them, Randy knew this would have taken three times as long.

Tanner waved and caught Randy's attention, signally that he was circling the current thicket and would meet him on the uphill side. As the young cowboy rode away, Randy couldn't help but sigh at his growing feelings for Tanner. His grace on horseback was amazing, and the fact that Randy found him drop dead gorgeous didn't hurt either. More important to Randy, he enjoyed being around Tanner. Randy found that he could talk with Tanner about anything, and pretty much had. Except for the fact that Randy was gay, that was the one topic that he just hadn't been able to bring himself to tackle, he couldn't face the thought of losing the best friend he'd ever had.

Hearing one of the dog's begin to bark, Randy snapped back to the task at hand and watched for any cattle that might erupt from the short trees.

Tanner heard Digger's 'hurry, I found a rat' bark and sighed in frustration. He agreed that the dogs were a help, but he wished his dad would spend more time training them. They were useful; Tanner was willing to admit that, he just thought they had a lot more potential. Catching a last glimpse of Randy before the trees cut off his line of sight, he had to smile. Randy had charmed Tanner's family completely. They had not been happy when they'd found out that Tanner's east coast roommate was coming to the ranch. Their experiences with Easterners were not very positive. They always seemed to think if you were more than an hours drive from New York City or Washington, or even worse if you hadn't at least been to one of those cities, then you were a backward hick.

Tanner thought his family was going to be proven right when Randy introduced himself as Randall Warfield Preston VI, but was relieved when he quickly smiled and followed up by saying that no one actually called him that and if they yelled for Randall, he probably wouldn't know who the heck they wanted. That bit of innocent humor had gotten Randy quite a chuckle from Tanner's family, and it hadn't taken much more to work his way into their hearts.

Randy had worked hard to help wherever he could, and his vibrant personality, combined with a strong work ethic, had quickly finished winning them over. Tanner could tell that he had struggled with the horses at first, but Randy had stuck with it and soon was riding the pastures like he'd been doing it his whole life. That kind of dogged determination was the sort of thing that had allowed Tanner's family to survive in ranching for several generations, so they appreciated it in Randy.

As for Tanner, the incredibly handsome lacrosse player was all he could think about. He was becoming completely and obsessively enamored with Randy. It didn't help that with any opportunity, Randy would strip off his shirt. The combinations of his rock hard chest and muscular torso were enough that Tanner walked around in a near constant state of arousal.

Tanner scolded himself when he almost let a cow and her baby slip past. He needed to focus on what he was doing or not only was it going to take forever, someone would get hurt. They didn't have time for delays this afternoon since they were getting a load of alfalfa hay for the horses, and it had to be stored in the barn in case they had a spring thunderstorm roll in. Tanner's horse jumped as yet another cow tried to make an escape. Tanner scolded himself again, gritted his teeth, focused on the task at hand, and almost immediately horse and rider were again working in harmony.

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Randy ran the back of his leather glove over his face and wiped off some of the sweat dripping from him. He and Tanner had been trying to put the last load of hay into storage before being hit by the thunderstorm that had been bubbling up in the west for the last hour. The impending storm had also created a hot, steamy May afternoon and Randy's clothes were soaked with sweat. Glancing over as he carried another bale into the barn, he saw Tanner was in a similar condition, but the sweat running down his back and lightly haired chest, made him all the more desirable to Randy.