I was a bit ticked off, as Noah just assumed I was available to do what he asked. I didn’t really have any afterschool plans, but I also didn’t want to let the big guy down. I knew what a privilege it was for the baseball team’s captain to acknowledge a guy like me. He was one of the most popular guys at school, and I was the complete opposite of him in every way. We were quite the polar opposites of one another. 

“Okay, Noah.” I meekly texted back. 

“The locker room will be open around 3 p.m., and the boys will already be in there. They’ll show you where my stuff is.”

“Sure thing, Noah!” I immediately texted back. “You got it, bro!”

“LOL,” Noah replied. Was he laughing at me or the fact that I called him “bro”?

I didn’t like the thought of going to the locker room. Noah’s jock friends bullied and picked on guys like me. But at the same time, no one as cool as Noah had ever given me the time of day, and I wasn’t about to blow this opportunity. After all, Noah was now my friend!

Wasn’t he?

So, I parked by the gym before heading inside. I located the locker room and took a moment to psych myself up before stepping through the door. I heard some of Noah’s meathead friends laughing it up on the other side. I thought the best approach was to try and blend in and act like I was one of them, but that plan completely fell apart the second I walked in. As soon as I did, all eyes were on me, and the room went silent.

Vogelbach, one of the heaviest guys on the team, looked me up and down.

“What the hell do you want, faggot?” he asked with absolute disdain on his face.

I was taken aback by how rude he was. It caught me off guard and left me speechless.

“Hey everyone, we’ve got a visitor in the house!” Vogelbach shouted to his friends. “Who knew it was faggot Friday!”

Laughter filled the room.

“Let him come in, Vogelbach.” I heard Trout respond. “He’s gotta be here for a reason.”

Vogelbach moved aside, and I walked into the locker room. There was no shortage of shirtless jocks in there. I did my best not to stare at their bodies. The place reeked of sweaty armpits and dirty feet.

“Try and talk little faggot.” Vogelbach said as he pushed me right into the center of the room.

“Hey there, everyone!” I said with a timid voice. No one replied, and my face turned as red as a tomato. No one in the room was going to be nice to me, I feared. The jocks sensed my timidness and were ready to have some fun.

“What do you want, bud?” I heard someone in the background say.

“I...uh, just came to grab Noah’s gear,” I stammered.

Trout, the tallest baseball player on the team, was chilling on one of the benches. He was super good-looking, and he knew it. The cocky grin on his face screamed confidence. Every guy envied him, and every girl wanted to fuck him. It took some effort to tear my eyes away from him before looking down at the floor.

“So, you’re here to collect Noah’s things? Are you like his minion or something?” he joked, and the guys burst into laughter. “Boys, Noah sent his faggy little minion to get his stuff!”

“Wait, wait…” I began, looking downward, but Trout cut me off.

“Hey, keep your eyes on me when you speak to me.”

His eyes were filled with contempt, and it was hard not to feel intimidated.

“I’m just a friend of his,” I replied, but it came out sounding like a grumble. Ugh!

“Friend? You seem like more of a fuck-boy to me.” Trout laughed.

“Can I just grab Noah’s bag real quick?” I said, my voice cracking. “It won’t take long, and I’ll be on my way.”

Trout pointed towards a bunch of clothes casually thrown on a bench beside him. A pair of white socks was carelessly left on the unwashed floor.

“That’s Noah’s,” Trout said. “Let’s get started on packing them up.”

I quickly shoved Noah’s stuff into the bag: a damp towel, a stinky t-shirt, funky socks, and sweaty compression boxers. There were also ankle wraps, boxing gloves, and a headband... Did I manage to pack it all? Nope, these filthy white sweatsocks were chilling on the bench next to Trout. I had noticed them in Noah’s room before, so I cautiously grabbed them with my fingers, avoiding touching him.

Trout had been eagerly waiting for that moment, and just when I was about to toss the smelly socks into the bag, his voice stopped me in my tracks.

“What are you doing, fuck-boy?”

“Wait, what? I was grabbing Noah’s...”

“Noah’s?” Mike replied. “Those aren’t Noah’s socks. You were clearly trying to swipe my socks, you fucking faggot! Give me those!” He shouted, snatching the socks right out of my hands.

“My bad,” My voice cracked. “I messed up. Sorry about that!”

But Trout wasn’t about to cut me any slack.

“Guys, this fucking creep tried to steal my sweatsocks!” He said as loudly as possible. “I don’t even want to know what you woulda done with them if I didn’t catch you!”

“Gross, what a faggot!” I heard someone say in the background.

“Disgusting, fucking homo!” Someone else said.

“How do you think we should resolve this little dilemma, buddy?” Trout asked.

“It… it was an honest mistake,” I replied.

Trout simply laughed in response.

“You’re Noah’s fuck-boy, so you outta know better,” he said, whipping out another white sock. It was the same as Noah’s socks with the Nike swish on the ankle. He chucked in front of me, smirking. Trout stretched out his arms while glancing at his fellow jocks surrounding him.

“Since he’s he’s clueless about what Noah’s socks look like. Maybe he’ll recognize their scent. What do you think, fellas? Should we make him take a whiff so he knows better next time?”

Everyone shouted, “hell yeah!”

“Shove it in his face and have him take a whiff,” somebody yelled.

Trout gave me a look and gestured towards the socks by my feet.

“Well, you heard what he said, fuck-boy. Pick ‘em up and start sniffing!”

“No!” I whimpered.

Trout scowled at me.

“Did you just say ‘no’ to me, faggot? He said with anger, getting right in my face.

The room went quiet, and everyone was waiting to see what I would do next. I tried to back away, but I bumped into what felt like a human refrigerator. Vogelbach was standing right behind me, blocking me from escape. Feeling hopeless, I scanned the room desperately, hoping to find anyone who sympathized with me.

“No one is coming to help you, faggot,” Trout laughed, cracking his knuckles. “Pick the fucking socks up and take a whiff. Do it now. I won’t tell you again.”

With my eyes about to well up, I grabbed the sweatsocks and looked down at them. The scent was already teasing my nostrils. They smelled and felt like they had yet to be washed.

I begrudgingly brought the socks up to my nose and took a deep breath.

I recognized the scent of dirty feet. Trout, though, wasn’t satisfied.

“Noooo, that was not good enough. Try again, fuck-boy!”

I couldn’t help but let out a sob. But instead of feeling sympathy for me, all of the guys in the locker room laughed.

“Haha, this pussy is about to cry!” I heard someone chuckle.

All I wanted to do was leave the locker room, but I knew there was no way out of there without doing what I was told. So, I again brought the socks to my nose and breathed in harder.

People cheered, but Trout and Vogelbach seemed unimpressed.

I was about to toss the socks in Noah’s bag, but Vogelbach grabbed them and forcefully smothered my nose and mouth.

“Here, lemme give you a hand with that, little faggot,” Vogelbach whispered in my ear as I struggled to breathe. Now, instead of just Noah’s socks, I could smell Vogelbach’s body sweat. He hadn’t showered yet.

Everyone was cracking up as Vogelbach tied the socks around my nose and mouth. The only thing I could breathe was the scent of dirty sweatsocks.

“Fucking sniff, faggot!” Trout barked at me, making me jump. More laughter ensued from the small crowd which was now surrounding us.

The aroma of Noah’s sweat was powerful. Trout saw how wide my eyes were getting and laughed.

“Hell yeah,” he said. “That’s what an alpha male is supposed to smell like after running the bases. Sniff away, buddy, sniff away!”

I followed his instructions and breathed in and out like I was meditating. People around us were shaking their heads, repulsed by my wimpy behavior.

“Okay, that’s good enough for me,” Trout said. “Pack up Noah’s shit and get outta here.”

“And next time, think twice about showing your face in here, buddy,” Vogelbach said behind me, ruffling my hair with his big catcher’s mitt hand. “It’s a faggot-free zone.”

I did what they wanted and hightailed it out of the locker room. Someone stuck their leg out, and I tripped before I could make it to the door, my face landing right in the open bag of Noah’s gear. I got one final whiff up close and personal. More laughter ensued. I tried to get up, but I felt a large bare foot on the back of my head, pushing my face into the open bag.

“Can’t seem to leave, can ya?” Vogelbach said. “Just love the stench of real men, don’t ya?”

Once Vogelback took his foot off my head, I got back to my feet and scrammed out of the locker room.

“And fucking stay out!” I heard one of the jocks scream as the door closed behind me.

It was one of the most humiliating moments of my entire life. At least the bullying was limited to the baseball team, as opposed to the entire school.

I drove as fast as I could, parking in front of Noah’s house. No cars were in the driveway, so I figured I’d leave his bag at the doorstep, sending him a message that I did so. But as I grabbed the bag, I saw Noah’s socks sticking out of it. Suddenly, images of Trout’s smirk filled my mind. I remembered what Vogelbach’s sweaty body smelled like standing so close to me. I took the socks out and held them against my nose, breathing in the stench as hard as I could.

“That’s what an alpha male is supposed to smell like after some hard work,” I heard Trout’s voice in my head say. “Sniff away, buddy, sniff away!”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

I quickly turned my head around and saw Noah standing on the other side of the window. He must have just arrived. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t see him coming.

“What in the actual fuck?!” He shouted. “Roll the window down now!”

I did as I was told, and before I knew it, Noah grabbed my hair and yanked it out the window.

“I did not just see you taking a whiff of my dirty socks,” he said, bewildered. “Tell me I didn’t just see that!”

“I…I…” I stammered, not knowing what to say.

Suddenly, a pair of vehicles pulled up and parked around us. The drivers of each car got out and headed our way. Oh no. It was Vogelbach and Trout. Noah must have invited them over after practice.

“Hey, fuck-boy!” Trout shouted, seeing me in the car from outside. “Dude, you don’t want to know what he was doing with your socks in the locker room.”

“Oh, I got a pretty good idea,” Noah said, shaking his head without taking his eyes off me. “Get out of the car. You’re coming with us.”

“But I---” I tried to say but was immediately cut off.

“He told you to get out of the car!” Vogelbach shouted, banging on the roof of my car. “Fuck, this faggot doesn’t take direction well.”

“Well, let’s fix that, shall we?” Noah said as I got out of the car and closed it behind me. Noah grabbed me by the hair and walked towards his house. I was practically dragged across his driveway before we reached the front door.

“Let’s teach this fucking faggot how to behave around real men,” Noah said, throwing me on the floor as the door opened. Looking up at the three jocks above me smirks on their faces, I swallowed hard, not knowing what was about to happen next.

“Well?” Trout said to me. “These sneakers aren’t gonna take themselves off!” Right away, six feet surrounded me.

“We got the place to ourselves for the next hour,” Noah said to Trout and Vogelbach. “And my feet are killing me.”

Laughter filled my ears once again as the boys fist-bumped each other above me.

END