Page 13 of Dire Straights

“I’m not really supposed to have stuff like this.”

“Oh, live a little, Michael Phelps,” Aspen said sarcastically. “A couple extra calories aren’t going to kill you.”

“I’ll split one with you, if you want,” I offered. I’d seen my dad do that for my mom when she didn’t want to eat a whole dessert. His eyes widened instantly with a hopeful spark in them, before darting down to the table.

“Well… If you don’t mind, I guess.” He shrugged a shoulder, like he tended to do when he wanted to downplay something, but the corner of his mouth was perked up just a bit.

“I don’t mind,” I promised. It was odd and hard to explain, but just the fact that I could do anything to make him smile, even a little, gave me this incredible sense of accomplishment.

“I’ll just work it off tomorrow at the pool,” he said decisively. I wondered what it would be like to be so devoted to something that I could barely convince myself that a single treat was okay. Did swimming really make him that happy?

He picked up an eclair with a thick layer of chocolate on the top, ripping it half and handing me my piece. After I took it, he brought his thumb to his mouth to lick the frosting off. As I watched his tongue slide over the surface of his skin to sweep the sugary substance off, I felt the muscles in my stomach clench right before my cock twitched, suddenly half hard.

Shocked at my own reaction, I subtly adjusted myself behind my zipper, glad that no one could see me through the table. Maybe I wasn’t jerking off enough? But I was already kind of doing it a lot, so…

“Aw, you guys make such a cute couple, sharing food like that,” Arie crowed, yelping a bit when Che elbowed him in his ribs, giving him a dry look.

I knew he was joking, but having the statement follow the weird boner I’d just popped watching Maddox, it hit a little too close to home. Maddox froze, mid-chew, looking extremely uncomfortable with the statement. I felt heat flood my face and was immediately grateful my skin tone was pretty good for hiding my embarrassment.

“Christ, Arie,” Aspen said, rolling his eyes. “Stop trying to convert our token straight guy. If you mess him up, we won’t be able to get another one until Old Navy’s Fourth of July Sale.”

Arie laughed at that, dissolving the tension that I’d felt form in the air at the couple joke. My heartbeat slowly returned to normal as Che asked Aspen a question about his job at the bakery, where’d he brought the pastries from.

Gathering up my courage, I locked eyes with Maddox again. He looked relieved that the line had come and gone with no real intent behind it. Had he felt as embarrassed as I had? Or had he just found it annoying to be referred to as in a couple with someone like me, even as a joke? Forget the fact that we were both guys. Even if I’d been a girl, someone like him probably wouldn’t have been caught dead as the boyfriend of someone like me.

When it came time to watch the movie, we all settled on the floor in front of the TV, with Maddox and I on the end. In the dark, with the only light coming from the screen, I found myself hyper-fixating on the sensation of his arm pressed into mine.

When the screen flashed with a jump scare, I heard him let out a tiny gasp and jerk, grasping onto my forearm. I swallowed hard, trying not to move an inch. I didn’t want to make him think I wanted him to let go. My skin felt like it was a billion degrees where his fingertips were digging into it. When I couldn’t take it anymore and had to drag my gaze over to him, he was completely focused on the screen, entranced. Biting down on mylip to keep from grinning, I ended up staring at him for way too long, glad that he didn’t glance up to catch me in the act.

When it was over and the credits rolled, he finally realized he’d been death gripping my arm. He let me go and cleared his throat, shaking his head.

“Sorry,” he said, looking awkward.

“It’s okay. I barely noticed,” I lied. “I was just so… Um, I mean, the movie was really…”

“Yeah,” he finally said, sparing me the agony of trying to complete my sentence. “Yeah, it was really good.”

“Ah!” Arie let out a little squeal of delight as he flipped the lights back on. He ignored all our groans of pain as our retinas were blasted by the sudden change. “You guys liked it!? We absolutelyhaveto watch the rest of them! They’resogood.”

“How many more are there?” Maddox questioned.

“Six! Plus some spin-offs that aren’t necessarily canon.” Arie answered, lifting a hand and resting it on his hip at the flurry of shocked exclamations. “No, no, no. I’m not letting any of you chicken out now. You’re all finishing them, even if I have to hogtie you and drag you in here. Although some of you might like that, you naughty little freaks.”

I didn’t have a problem with finishing them. I actually had liked the movie, even if it had been a little hard focusing on it with Maddox so close to me.

When Maddox said he had to go because he had swim practice early in the morning, part of me felt like I needed to walk him out or walk him home or something. But I reminded myself we weren’t on a date or anything, and we’d already gotten teased once about being a couple, so I forced my butt to stay glued to the floor as he walked out.

But I worried until about twenty minutes later, when I got a text from him, identical to the one I’d sent him the night before, minus the emoji. He’d made it home safe. Then when he sentanother one saying he’d had fun and he’d do it again anytime, it felt like my heart was pounding overtime against my ribs.

What was wrong with me? Did I actually… Have a crush on a guy? Not just a guy, but a guy like Maddox Holmes? Was I that much of an emotional masochist? Or was I just happy to make such a cool friend? It was impossible to tell. I’d never liked a guy like that before, but I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t feeling weird stuff about him.

My ex-girlfriend Gwen’s criticisms of me, my social skills, my hobbies and interests, and basically every aspect of my personality echoed mockingly in my head. During our relationship, I’d been at such a low point that I’d actually believed her assertions that no one but her would tolerate having me around. I didn’t believe that anymore, but she did have a point about some things. I wasn’tcoolorcharming, and I never would be. Even if by some bizarre twist of fate Maddox was into guys, he’d be into someone like him, not awkward guys like me. And anyway, I wasn’t even completely sure how I felt.

I wished I could talk to someone about it, like Aspen or Arie, but the idea of that was borderline humiliating. So for now, I’d just keep it in the back of my head and try to make sure I didn’t do anything too crazy until I figured it out.

MADDOX

BORED SENSELESS, Irestlessly scrolled down Instagram, hoping something would catch my interest. The bikini selfies that littered my feed each and every summer were usually pretty enjoyable to look at, but today I could barely bring myself to zoom in on the good bits. I was mutuals with lots of cute girls from my high school, so their looks definitely weren’t the problem. I hadn’t cared about any of the girls at that party either. Maybe I was just too tired from all my classwork and swim club practices? But I’d always been heavy into extracurriculars, at the insistence of my dad, and I’d never had problems with interest in girls before.

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