Queer Camp (Rock Jocks)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Elijah

THEY WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

Elijah breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled into a gravel spot shaded by tree cover. He almost expected the paper tacked to the wooden post to have someone else’s name on it, but when he got out and checked it, there it was: Elijah Reed.

They’d gotten this campsite just in time. Southern California put on a hell of a display in March, especially if you were here for the sake of ruining your hands on sharp, perfect, biting rock. The sun shone most days. The temperature held steady around a cool and comfortable 70 degrees. And the chance of encountering rain that could leave everything too wet to climb was super low. It was climbing paradise.

“I told you we’d be fine,” Ty said as he rounded Elijah’s hardy two-door sedan.

“I believed you,” Elijah said.

Ty raised an eyebrow and leveled a heavy look at Elijah. They’d gotten together almost a year ago, and in that time Elijah had learned to love and fear that look on his boyfriend’s handsome face. Ty was tall and lean, an ideal climber body, and a sexy one to boot. Even that heavy look held a hint of playfulness that tickled at Elijah’s gut.

“Uh-huh,” Ty said. “Sure. You definitely weren’t a ball of anxiety all week long thinking you’d messed up the booking somehow.”

Ty had him there. Elijah didn’t even bother denying it. After this much time together, Ty saw right through Elijah’s quiet, reserved exterior to the anxiety often churning underneath. But that was one of the many things Elijah loved about Ty. Despite the gap in their ages (Elijah being a full thirteen years older), despite their different backgrounds, Ty understood Elijah without the need for anything more than a look.

Elijah smiled, striding up to Ty and cupping his soft, brown cheek to draw him into a kiss. He longed to slide his hand up farther and tangle it in Ty’s wild brown curls, but they still had a whole campsite to set up before he could enjoy that wiry body he’d come to love so much. Yet even as he pulled away, tired brown eyes raked up and down Elijah’s stockier, muscular body. It took an effort to remember why he’d driven all the way out here from Colorado in the first place when Ty looked at him like a meal to be devoured, but Elijah steeled himself with an effort and returned to the task at hand.

“I’m not a ball of anxiety now,” Elijah said. “I promise. Let’s get set up so we can help the others when they get here.”

Ty grumbled, but they returned to the car, popping open the trunk to dig out their tent and bags. They staked out a nice spot on the small plot of land they’d managed to claim in the crowded campground. Then they started laying out pieces of the tent, plotting how it would fit alongside the two other tents expected to arrive. They had to work around a campfire pit in the center of the plot that still held the dusty remains of prior camping excursions.

They’d just started banging sticks into the ground when another car pulled up to the campsite. Ty jumped to his feet, forgetting the task at hand as two men emerged from a rented Civic.

“Mylo, Lukas! You made it,” Ty said.

He rushed up to the car, nearly tackling one of the men as he emerged from the driver’s side. The blue-haired, tattooed Mylo laughed as he caught Ty and they thunked against the side of the car.

“Of course we made it,” Mylo said. “Wouldn’t miss a trip like this. You promised all the way back in Brixen, remember?”

“Yeah, but back then you didn’t live in freaking Germany,” Ty said.

“I didn’t have a good reason to live in Germany,” Mylo retorted with a sly look at his partner on the other side of the car.

Mylo and Lukas shared a secretive little smile, a whole conversation passing silently between them in that single gesture.

Elijah suppressed a smirk. The professional climbing world had been shocked by Mylo and Lukas getting together, but clearly it worked for them. They were just so different, though. Where Ty and Elijah seemed different on the surface, Mylo and Lukas were truly utter opposites. Boisterous, bright-haired Mylo had barreled into the pro climbing scene seemingly from nowhere, while reserved, serious Lukas had been a mainstay of the comps for a long, long time. No one had even known they were interested in each other until they were suddenly dating, not least of all because Lukas hardly interacted with the other climbers on the circuit. It had been a shock to say the least, but just like Ty and Elijah, Mylo and Lukas had something that went deeper than their superficial outward differences.

Ty and Elijah quickly finished setting up their little tent, throwing their backpacks and sleeping pads inside. Then they helped Mylo and Lukas with the tent they’d rented from a nearby sporting goods shop. Flying all the way from Germany meant leaving everything except the essentials behind, which really meant everything except their climbing gear.

All four settled around the firepit when both tents were up. Elijah glanced at the sky peering between the scattered tree tops. Plenty of daylight still poking through, but that depended on the final duo set to arrive. The longer they sat here waiting for the last pair, the more antsy Elijah grew. He was just about to suggest the four of them start climbing before they lost the light when a car pulled slowly into the parking spot, blocking the other two cars in as it sat sideways in the tight space.

Ty jumped to his feet the moment the car stopped and the engine turned off. If he had very nearly tackled Mylo, he actually did tackle Jude as the lanky American attempted to slip out of the driver’s side of the car. Ty’s arms wrapped around Jude immediately. He was practically screaming at the man in his arms, his excitement so plain it drew a couple looks from nearby campsites.

“Oh my god, you’re finally here,” Ty said. “I thought you’d never make it, dude.”

Jude rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, about that, I kind of got us a little lost on the way here. It’s totally my fault or we would have been here sooner. I hope we didn’t delay you guys too long.”

Despite his eagerness Elijah shook his head and said, “No, it’s no trouble. We still have plenty of daylight. Let’s get you set up.”

Elijah spoke to Jude, though it was his partner, Finn, who nodded their head and headed for the trunk of the car. Finn was graceful even when they did something as mundane as unload bags from a trunk. Their long black hair spilled down their back like a sheet of silk. They were nearly as tall as the likes of Jude and Ty, but that was just about where the similarities ended. Where Ty and Jude were bundles of happy energy, Finn was a lot more quiet and reserved, though not in the anxious way Elijah was. Rather, they seemed supremely self-assured, supremely confident of who they were at every moment. Even just bringing bags to a campsite had a certain quiet confidence to it that Elijah couldn’t help but admire. Of everyone here, he probably knew the least about Finn, but his few interactions with the non-binary climber had given Elijah a strong impression of someone who deserved his admiration.

Elijah and Finn had gotten started on setting up the final tent when Jude and Ty finally realized that their partners were hard at work. They rushed over to help, a bright spotlight of energy and chatter that washed over the quieter Elijah and Finn. The four of them swiftly set up the tent, and Elijah’s mind went right back to climbing, the thing they were all here for.

“It looks like we’re ready,” he said. “How are you all feeling about going out and getting on the rocks?”

Ty and Jude shot each other toothy grins. Mylo nodded, his hands on his hips. Lukas didn’t even bother with a response, simply started gathering up his gear. Finn did likewise, grabbing bags from out of the tent they’d just set up.

Elijah couldn’t help but let a small smile tug at his mouth. This whole thing had been a wild dream not so long ago. Ty had suggested it while they were all sitting around eating a meal after a competition, and it had seemed like a wild, improbable fantasy. Everyone except Elijah was so busy with their careers. These folks were all a bit younger than Elijah, young enough to still be competing on the professional climbing circuit. That life was behind Elijah now, but he’d been there not so long ago. He knew that hectic schedule of bouncing from country to country and practice to practice, all in service of trying to grab a couple medals in the short, brutal competitive climbing season.

But that season had ended months ago, opening up a brief window in which they could all just relax and climb simply for the love of climbing. That was something every single person here had in common, no matter how different they might have seemed in personality, climbing style or appearance. The thing that drew them all together, the thing that led them all to this campsite for this one special week, was climbing. Even if they had different specialties within the sport, different strengths and weaknesses, that wouldn’t matter out here. Outside, on real rock and not plastic, all that mattered was testing yourself, finding your limits, seeing how far you could push before your body couldn’t keep up anymore. There was nothing waiting at the top, no prize, no award, no cameras or live streams or interviews. There was no one waiting to quiz you about your identity, about what it felt like to be a queer climber, or maybe even a non-binary climber. None of that shit meant anything out here. That whole world of identities and interviews and representing your community — it just didn’t matter when you were out in the woods with a group of friends. The rocks didn’t care where you were from or who you were or anything like that. Out here, there was just you and the rocks, and getting to the top meant more to Elijah than any medal he’d ever earned in a competition.

When he took in the climbers around him, this diverse, queer group of folks shifting from foot to foot as the prospect of going climbing on real rock loomed before them, he knew they felt the same.

“Let’s get going,” Elijah said. “We’ve got plenty of daylight left, but I don’t wanna waste it.”

“Hell yeah,” Ty said. “I looked up this crazy wall, it’s going to be insane. Mylo, you’re going to love this thing.”

Suddenly, Elijah’s stomach dropped into his feet. “I thought we were going bouldering today,” he said.

Ty turned a sheepish grin on him. “I know we talked about that, but there’s this really cool wall and I really wanted to make sure we all got on it as soon as possible. I swear we’ll get on the boulders tomorrow, for real, we will.”

Mylo was hiding a laugh behind his hand. He might have been the best big wall climber out of the entire bunch gathered here today. It wasn’t shocking that he found Elijah’s resistance to being on a rope a little bit hilarious. But Elijah had always preferred climbing closer to the ground, on big boulders that required nothing but climbing shoes and a crash pad in case you fell. Roped climbing involved a lot more equipment and a lot more height. Not that Elijah hadn’t done it before, it just wasn’t his favorite way to go about this.

But this trip wasn’t just about him. It was about all of them. Some of them climbed on a rope, some of them climbed on boulders, but all of them did at least a little bit of both. This trip would take all of them through both styles of climbing.

And they would support each other through it, no matter what, no matter how different they seemed on the surface. Elijah would go along with the plan, even if being on a rope wasn’t the most exciting way for him to get out on the rocks.

He hefted his backpack onto his shoulders. Carabiners and trad gear jangled as Elijah started out of the camp. He glanced behind him and found five pairs of amused, surprised eyes watching him.

“Well, what are you all waiting for?” Elijah said. “Queer climbing camp has begun.”