Page 18 of Learning to Change

Looking down at his cock made Joel giggle and he reached between us to grab his cock and wiggle it against my ear, sending the weirdest shivers through me. “He’s saying good morning, so you have to say good morning back.”

We needed a rule that I got coffee before I had to figure out how to talk to Joel’s penis.

Chapter 5

Tate

“Up.” Saving Dean from Joel’s penis seemed like the first step in making sure our morning went well. Dean was looking just a bit too wide-eyed and was already overprocessing the situation. “Remember, the new rule is clothes in the kitchen so no penises get damaged.”

Scrunching up his face, Joel slouched back and sighed as Dean nearly sprang off the floor. “Aww. What if I promise not to break it?”

No.

“You burned your foot making pasta. And not even a first-degree burn. I’m not taking you to the ER and trying to explain you were just distracted and it wasn’t a sex game gone wrong. We’ll end up in a YouTube video.” I was not going to end up in a video where some idiot was playing a mindless game while a computerized voice said we were dumbasses.

“Alright.” Joel might’ve thought asking the internet for advice on how pretty his dick was reasonable, but as he climbed up off the floor, I was glad to see he understood where I was coming from. “And it might make my penis ugly.”

And we couldn’t have that.

Dean was still trying to work through everything logically and was coming up short. “Safety and a pretty penis are more important. You can show off again later.”

“You’re right.” Perking up again like some kind of windup toy, Joel kissed Dean’s cheek and then mine. “Clothes on and then the mission is to find food. I’ll save the day.”

I was starting to understand why his dates ended up so confused.

As Joel stretched out his arms and pretended to fly off to his bedroom, I turned to Dean. “You have a point on the not-an-adult thing.”

Whatever else Joel was had confused his dates because no one was expecting someone that squirrelly and that sexy to be a slow-burn date who only wanted a peck on the cheek.

Yep, we were going to have to sit down with Joel and explain a few things…and ask a few more questions.

“He’s…he’s really comfortable with us now, so that affects things too.” Dean was the most comfortable talking about anything else but himself, so I let him.

Joel’s voice filled the apartment as he started singing the Winnie the Pooh song.

Shaking my head, I smiled. “Do you remember how quiet he was for the first year we roomed together? I think he said five words that first month.”

“He left notes, though.” Dean chuckled. “My favorites were the ‘good job’ ones he left when we had tests and stuff.”

“Yeah, he couldn’t manage to tell me my dirty clothes on the floor were driving him crazy, but he could leave ‘atta boy’ notes all over the room.” I’d known there was something different about him, but I’d just assumed he was closeted and kind of weird.

I’d still been right on both those things, but there’d definitely been more we hadn’t discovered.

“One time he told me that his parents were neighbors for two years before they said hi to each other for the first time.” Dean glanced between me and the hallway Joel had disappeared down. “Do you think being demi is an inherited trait?”

Fuck if I knew.

“He’s lucky he’s gay.” The current generation of girls wouldn’t tolerate that level of interesting. Men, on the other hand, would tolerate a lot of weird if the dude in question was hot. “Come on. If we don’t get going, he’s going to decide it’s worth the damage to his elbow.”

Dean couldn’t seem to decide how to react to that. He opened and closed his mouth a few times and almost laughed as we went into the bathroom before he finally just dropped his voice and whispered. “Is he having sex with an imaginary friend in here?”

“That’s kind of what it sounded like?” Honestly, I wasn’t sure. “It explains the bruises on his arm, though.”

I was going to stop letting Joel get away with weird shit and start asking more questions. Dean looked like he would agree with that as long as he didn’t have to be the one asking, but I distracted him by turning on the water.

It worked, but it fried his brain. “I…you…”

Blink.

---