Page 5 of Drag Me Up

“Hey, Matt. I’m Eli,” the guy says and offers his hand. “Jackson’s brother is one of my roommates, so I’ve gotten to know him pretty well. You just visiting or…?”

His question trails off as his eyes focus on something over my shoulder. I turn to follow his gaze and the only thing I can see is a couple of people speaking at the bar. The one guy is the typical jock type, stocky and looks like he couldn’t add two and two. The other person is probably the most gorgeous being I have ever laid eyes on. I can’t tell if they are a man or a woman, but my dick apparently doesn’t care. I feel it start to take notice, so I quickly turn away.

I’m not gay, bi, pan, or anything other than straight. I’ve never felt attraction towards a guy. Logically, that means the person must be a woman, right? Science says there is a difference in pheromones or something with the hormones.

Yeah, I’m going to go with science and say they are a woman because my dick perking up for anyone else is just too much for my sober brain to process right now.

“Excuse me,” Eli pats me on the shoulder as he stalks past me up to the couple at the bar. When he reaches them, he sends the jock away with a glare to start arguing with the other person. Part of me wants to go over and intervene, but Jax pulls my attention back to him and the extremely tall man beside him. It’s almost comical seeing the two side by side. Jackson swears he is five seven, but I say that’s when he’s on his tip toes. There is well over a foot difference in the height of these two men.

“Matt, this is my little brother Jace. Remember him?”

I look up at the man in front of me and it takes a few seconds to see past the giant to the tiny shy boy I could recall from when we were younger. Jace was always small for his age and from what I understood, bullied pretty badly before he was brought to the Franklin household. Never in a million years did I foresee that little Jace Franklin would be this hulking man standing before me.

“I don’t think I can call you Squirt anymore,” I chuckle as I pull him in for a hug. One thing I’ve never forgotten about Jace is that he loves hugs.

Stepping back, the boy I remember is closer to the surface as he gives me a small smile from behind his bushy beard. “You can still call me Squirt,” he mumbles barely audible over the music. “I like that you remember me when I was still tiny. I like remembering those days with you guys.”

He slides a shy glance toward his oblivious older brother as I reach up to ruffle his hair on the top of his head, or at least what I could reach of it. Over half a foot difference in height makes it a lot more difficult. Now I understand how Syl felt doing this to me.

And there I go again…

I need to fucking forget the fact that my fiancée dumped my ass and made me homeless without warning and is now letting her friends villainize me online.

“Let’s get some drinks in our systems, boys,” I tell them and turn toward the bar. Eli is leaning against it with his head in his hands. The mystery person is nowhere to be seen, so I take it their argument was not productive. Signaling for the bartender, I decide that I’m going to just let it all go tonight. Worry about an apartment, my failure of a love life, and everything else can take a backseat for the evening.

“That an ex?” I ask as Eli straightens up to rejoin us. He shakes his head and glances toward the door with a sad expression.

“A friend,” he tells me as he pats Jace’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow when he cools off.”

It’s obvious they all know the mystery cutie and areworried about them. I place the shots I ordered in front of my friends, new and old, and decide we all just need to let loose for a bit. Professor Barnes needs a fucking break, and I need to not sucker punch Eli for upsetting that gorgeous person.

5

MATT

Waking up on Jackson’s couch is something I haven’t done since before I moved to Boston, but the vibrating weight on my chest makes up for it. I crack open my eyes to see his adorable tortie queen, Bella, staring right back at me. As soon as she knows her minion is awake, her purring intensifies as she starts to knead at my naked flesh.

Wait a second… naked?

Shooting up, I displace Bella and receive a slight scratch and a disgruntled yowl for my disrespect. I pull the blanket away from my lap and am relieved to find that I am at least still in my underwear. Lord only knows what could be living inside of Jackson’s couch with the crazy parties that this piece of junk has seen. This thing could honestly be older than we are.

It takes me a few minutes to locate my clothes from last night since someone threw them in the wash for some reason. Most of the night is a bit fuzzy. Okay, it is alot fuzzy. I remember two rounds of shots and a lot of heavy whispers between little Jace and Eli before they loosened up. We started dancing, and then it goes blank.

A knock at the door has me pausing with only one leg in my pants. Jax won’t hear a knock that soft, so I just keep quiet hoping they will just go away, whoever they are. One good thing about his living in this trailer is the fact that there are no more shared walls. His neighbors at the apartment he used to rent were loud as fuck all day, every day. And the lady upstairs liked to run her sweeper at three in the morning.

I’m still bent over with my ass toward the front door when I hear a chuckle behind me.

“Now that is a sight I did not expect to see this morning,” Eli says while I grab onto the dryer to keep from faceplanting when I trip over my own pants in my rush to pull them up.

“Jackson still asleep?”

I turn around as I fasten my belt and nod my chin toward the bedroom. Eli hands me a travel mug of what smells like the best coffee ever and turns for the door at the end of the short hallway. Setting down the mug of liquid ambrosia, I pull my button down out of the dryer and over my shoulders. I hear a grunt come from Jackson, whether it is pain or surprise I’m not sure I care, but right now I’m focused on trying to locate my undershirt. Digging through the other clothing in the laundry area, I can’t seem to find it.

“Dude, your shirt was a lost cause after that twink puked on it,” Jax mumbles with a yawn as he comes outof his room. Of course, the little shit is wearing the same pajama bottoms he wore back in high school. The guy hasn’t grown since the eighth grade.

“Your button down and jeans weren’t too bad, but we used my knife to cut off your undershirt so it wouldn’t get in your hair. Don’t you remember?”

I vaguely recall trying to help someone to the bathroom and the car ride home with my head practically hanging out the window. Bits and pieces are starting to come back to me, but I have never had this much trouble remembering before.

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