Play Underground

Part 1

"The Wall"

Disclaimer: events may or may not have happened. Names are fictional. Any resemblance or similarities to people in real life is purely coincidental.

—Foreword—

As our youth flourishes, we discover more of ourselves. We discover our capabilities and push the boundaries of what is, what can, and what may have been. I recently acquired more "time" and have found myself sulking and moping around. Wasting energy on being depressed so instead, I'll devote my energy in telling you the story of Damien.

——

It was another weekend in the life of a college student. After electronics lab, I might decide to go home. Theatre practice last night was hell. Our Director, sir Jeremy, gave all of us a beating. I nearly dragged myself out of bed just to make it to class. Thank god today's experiment was just minor and our group finished without any hiccups.

I decided to visit our "tambayan" to see if any of my fellow thespians were there for a quick roundup of last night's events: both the funny and the horid ones.

And by the gods my best friend is there, all perky and with his abnormally high energy, you would either love him or hate him. Basically Obnoxious. Adrian is not your typical bestfriend. We met when I was part of a recruit team for our guild during our University week. When it comes to energy and optimism, he could compete with mine. It's just that today of all days I felt as if all the calories have left my body after last night's beating.

"Damien, Focus!", I remembered our director's voice as he threw a bottle of water at me.

"Damien? Did you hear what I just said?" Looking worried, my bestfriend asked.

"Sorry, what?" I replied

"I said, would you like to go to rockwell and hang out by powerplant mall? I think you needed the distraction" Adrian invited.

"Sure. What's the plan?"

He then enumerated an elaborate scheme for the weekend's activities. Well, the plan is rather simple. Go to the basement of powerplant mall, where Play Underground is located, jump around in the trampoline or sweat vigorously while wall climbing. It's a hidden place and we discovered it accidentally when we were parking our car near it a few weeks back. Then have dinner and drink some booze back at Adrian's place.

"Who else is coming?" I looked at our other friends present but unfortunately they all had plans already.

I agreed with Adrian but asked if we can drop by the campus canteen first. He countered by saying we just go to the mall to look for a place to eat. After a week, you either grow tired of the canteen food or get used to it. And, if you know Adrian, he always gets his way so no matter how the hunger pangs have been clawing on the inner walls of my stomach, I had to bear it during the drive to the mall.

The ride was uneventful, it seemed like hours has passed yet only minutes have elapsed. I saw a glimpse of the play underground while Adrian was parking. There's a group of teens playing on the trampoline and a couple of guys climbing on the wall in the beginner's area. Amateurs, I thought to myself. Me and our friends have recently completed the intermediate area. Then I laughed at the thought. Are we really so different from these teens? Adrian was staring at me with a weird puzzled look.

"Our friends are right. You are crazy" he said before laughing.

"Oh shut it" I retorted

We got out of the car and decided to get large burgers to satisfy our famished tummies. We strolled around and bought extra shirts for change after wall climbing.

When we got there, the teens we saw earlier on the trampoline have just called it a day. But in the wall climbing area, the same guys we saw earlier were still there. I thought wait, why are they in the most difficult area? I thought they were amateurs? Can they climb that wall already?

But what really got my attention is that their bodies seem toned, but not bulky. Their sweat plastering their shirts, showing off those well defined pecs and abs. One was as tall as I am, getting ready to belay. His biceps, like his pecs and abs, are toned. I felt the urge to climb his abs while hooking my arms on his instead. Then I looked at his friend. He was shorter but showed more definition in his abdomen area. A thought lingered on how would it feel running my fingers on them. He turned to face us and smiled. He looks familiar, I thought.

"You guys climbing too?" The shorter one asked.

"Yeah, weekend sweat, better than going to the gym" Adrian replied.

I didn't notice but Adrian suddenly looked at me and mouthed off "they're hot". I laughed a little and nodded.

This is gonna be interesting.