A story from Ned's Collection of Stories...
After Practice…

I had just made varsity for the basketball team, and though I was not a starter as yet, I was happy to be a part of the team. This year, all of the other varsity teams were seniors so I was pleased to have made it as a junior. I worked harder than I had expected that I would have to do, but I was certainly able to hold my own as a varsity player, and I saw a lot of game time. I was the leading guy on the bench-strength.

I looked up to the senior guys, and worked hard to be a buddy as well as a teammate and I was gaining acceptance even early on. One night, just as I was leaving practice, the ever-popular senior with bright red hair, Dick Becker (“rhymes with pecker” he would say) ambled out of the gym at the same time as I did. We fell into step together, he was headed for the faculty parking lot in back of the school. Dick had his own car and he lived on a farm several miles outside of town, and was permitted to park in the “school board members” area of the faculty parking lot since his Dad was on the school board and had special parking privileges. We shot the shit for a bit as we kicked along in the crisp autumn air. When we got to his car, he asked me if I wanted to get in for a minute to warm up, and of course I did. For some reason, we seemed to really click. I knew that first night that we were going to be really good buddies, I felt it.

It became routine for us to finish up in the locker room at about the same time every day, so that we could slot into our routine to leave together and get into his car for a few minutes and shoot the breeze. As autumn drifted on and wintry weather set in, he would run the heater full blast to get it warm. Sometimes the car would actually warm up enough for us to peel out of our heavy coats and sit and talk. We found that we were able to chat about anything and everything until one of us would insist we “had to go”. Usually Dick was the first to say it since I always hated to go. Sometimes he would drop me off at my house, but I preferred to not draw attention to our togetherness. I did not want to explain to my parents, or anyone, how much I enjoyed being his bud.

I started watching out for him a lot more around school during the day, and he would notice me and we would wave to each other in the hall or say “hey” as we encountered one another. We both worked hard at practice and even though the varsity-starter-guys usually stayed a bit longer for free throw practice, we ended up in the shower room at the same time on many occasions. I felt his eyes on me more than one time and I felt he was checking me out physically, and I liked that for some reason. At the same time, I never did get a good look at his naked body though I tried to check him out. I saw just