Page 14 of Pet Project

“They’re only seven,” I grumble as I pick at the carpet. “They don’t know what they like yet. I didn’t think of anything like that until I was a teenager.”

Eric pokes his head into the room and proudly exclaims, “I knew I was gay around the time I started second grade and was excited to get Valentine’s Daycards from the boys more than the girls. My father didn’t find out until I was eleven and got caught cuddling with another boy on the playground.”

Shaking out my body, I know when to admit defeat on a topic.

“Alright, so my little brother and sister can grow upknowingtheir mother is a bigot. That doesn’t mean I’m not a screw up.”

Eric saunters into the room and plops down to sit on the bed next to my head. Carding his fingers through my hair, he gives a little scratch behind my ear that makes me twitch. The fact that I’m ticklish there makes pupspace even more interesting.

“You are the farthest thing from a screw up, Tobias, and anyone who says differently will have me to deal with,” he says as he grabs my chin to force me to look at him. “You fucking shut down a conversion camp with Bob this summer. You saved fifty kids who were currently trapped in that hellhole and God knows how many others who might have been sent there for their ‘leadership retreat’ in the future. You didn’t screw that up.”

Pulling away from Eric’s hand, I shrug. It’s not like I really did anything. I could have reported them three years ago when Dad put me on the plane to Pittsburgh. Instead, I ignored it, too hurt by the fact that I had to cut off all contact with everyone I had ever known. If it wasn’t for running into Uncle Robert at Pride in the City, I would have kept my mouth shut about it. Only Shilohever knew about the real reason I was hiding from my family before that.

“That was Uncle Robert, not me,” I tell them as I climb to my feet to leave the room. “Just because I’m around when something happens, doesn’t mean I’m responsible for it.”

I shouldn’t let them chase me out of my own room, but I don’t want to hear how they all think I’m some amazing person. I’m nothing more than a fuckup who can’t even protect the person I love more than anything else in this world. Today made it glaringly obvious I will never be the man that he needs. Maybe it’s time for me to step back and let my best friend find someone who can actually take care of him the way he deserves.

18

DONNIE

Leaving Jess in charge of the shop for the rest of the day is an easy decision to make when Matt invites me back to his place to have a discussion about the pets, as he calls them. Shiloh looked like he was ready to pass out when Dean Winslow was talking to him earlier, so it was pretty unavoidable that I would end up making sure he was alright.

After Matt pulled in at his trailer, Shiloh jumped out of his backseat and ran to the big house across the street from the mobile home park. I had already pulled up on the street in front of the mobile home, so I was waiting for them. I had to resist the urge to yell at him not to run, as if it is somehow my place to police the behavior of a fully grown, adult man.

“He gonna be alright?” I ask Matt as he unlocks his front door and waves me inside with a nod. A squeak and the pounding of footsteps down the hall makes merealize that Eric must have been on the couch waiting for his boyfriend.

Matt only shakes his head with a chuckle as he hangs up his keys. The place looks a lot more lived in now that Eric has been officially moved in for over a month now. The old futon got moved into the office slash laundry room while the cheap particle board furniture got relocated to Jackson’s place. Now, the living room boasts a matching couch and loveseat, glass tables, and three bookshelves filled with knick knacks and various fiction books, mostly LGBTQ romance books.

“You’re supposed to give me a heads up when you’re bringing home company!” Eric’s voice calls from the back of the trailer. “I’m not wearing my makeup… let alone pants!”

Matt barks out a laugh as his boyfriend comes back into the living room, pulling on a silver crochet crop top to compliment his tie dye leggings. As the two of them share their intimate greetings, I go to the fridge an get a drink. I grab out a Sprite for myself and a bottle of water for Matt. I hold up a can to Eric and he shakes his head at me.

Alrighty then, it looks like I’m not going to be graced with his presence today. We’re still working through how to really interact with each other. I saw him at the absolute worst moment of his life when he was his most vulnerable. I know things that he has never shared with anyone else, not Matt… not even himself. I can never forget the sight or those sounds, not in a million years.

“I’m only going because the pup is probably going todo something stupid without intervention, and Scott is currently the most dominant one in the house,” he says as he smacks Matt on the ass on his way to the back door. “Eli and Jace are doing inventory at McKinley’s and Jay had to go to some mandatory meeting for the big box store of depression.”

“Where is Spencer?” I ask as I lean against the breakfast bar. “He doesn’t have a case, does he?”

Eric grabs his man-purse from the hook by the back door and turns back to face us with the door open next to him. “He took his boy to Urgent Care. He’s worried it might be something serious since Lucky actually agreed to miss classes.Ithink he’s overreacting, but if anyone deserves to be doted on, it’s that little one…And I thoughtmyparents were bad.”

Matt legit growls at the closed door before plopping himself down on the couch and putting his feet up on the glass coffee table. Handing him the water, I take a seat on the loveseat and crack open my can of Sprite. I don’t even know where to start, but apparently my friend does.

“So, are you interested in Shiloh, Toby, or both?”

I sputter and choke on the carbonated beverage before coughing up a lung in the middle of Matt’s living room. Bubbles up the nose burn like a mother fucker!

“I’m not blind,” he says with a smirk. “But like I said before, those two are a package deal. If you’re only interested in one of them, you have to be cool with them sharing a lot more than society deems acceptable for grown men in a platonic relationship.”

“Are they only platonic?” I ask when I manage tocatch my breath. “It feels like more when they look at each other.”

Matt shrugs like it’s no big deal and sips his water before leaning forward to snatch the remote off the table. “Even if they have feelings for each other, they’ll never be able to make it work, not for long anyways. They need the same thing that neither one can provide.”

After a few minutes of my silence, Matt finally glances away from the television to look at me. I’m wracking my brain to try and figure out what he’s talking about. Neither of those boys look like they give a shit about money, race, or social status. They’re obviously not homophobic considering who is included in their friends circle.

“You still haven’t figured out Kink Manor yet, have you?” Matt asks as he mutes the show he had put on. After a glance at my face, he leans forward in all seriousness to tell me.

“This isn’t my place to share, so I’m not going to give you specifics,” he says. “But how much do you know about pet play or age play?”

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