Page 81 of Ours
“Cory, Nic, and I split up.” Derek sighed.
“Oh. Sorry to hear that.” Carl always thought the three of them together was kinda sweet.
“It happened at the end of last year. It was Cory’s decision, ultimately, but it was my fault. It started the day before.” Derek started mentally ordering the events leading up to the present.
“What happened the day before?”
“Two different things, actually. First, someone had seen Nic and Cory fooling around at the party I told you about a while back.” Derek grimaced. “They started spreading it around school, which made Nic freak out. That oneisn’tmy fault.”
“Shit. Are they both okay?” Carl sat up a little. “I was outed in high school myself. It was awful.”
“Cory actually didn’t seem that phased.” Derek hadn’t thought much of it at the time. “Nic freaked out the first day, but he’s fine now. And I wouldn’t exactly say he was outed. He still thinks ofhimself as straight. He just waited for the rumors to die down and used his girlfriend to fuck the gay away.”
“Come again?” Carl cocked his head like a dog.
“Yeah, that’s like a whole other thing.” Derek waved vaguely off to the side. “Nic has never exactly been comfortable with his sexuality. Falls into very bro-like behavior when his masculinity is questioned.”
Carl sat, mouth slightly agape, at the insightful teenager on his couch. “And what about you?”
“I figured I was at least bi a while ago. Just never really came up before.” Derek shrugged. “I think I still mostly lean toward girls, but I don’t think you can have as much gay sex as I have without being at least a little bi. It doesn’t really seem like a big deal.”
“I envy you. Do you know the mental and emotional hoops people my age had to jump through to come to terms with their sexuality back then?” Kids these days reallydidhave it easy.
“People are gay, Carl,” Derek joked.
“What about Nic?” Carl was curious about the other boy.
“I said it wasn’t a big deal for me.” Derek shook his head. “Nic is another story.”
“And what was theotherthing that happened?” Carl pushed on.
“It was the end of the day, and Cory and I were in my car leaving campus. He had told me he wanted to talk.” The exact thing Carl told him was important for a sub to be able to do.
“Uh huh.” Carl nodded and waited for Derek to continue, already not liking the direction this seemed to be headed.
“He told me had talked to his friend about the three of us, and I … freaked out, a little,” Derek admitted. “I thought maybe she might have been the source of Nic’s rumors. She wasn’t, but Cory did talk to her about other things. Like parts of ourarrangementhe was having problems with, things he couldn’treally talk to anyone about. The way Nic and I would keep him in the dark about a lot of things. The times we put him in a few … compromising positions. Or, uh, the way I kinda went about starting this whole thing.”
“You know, I was always curious.” Carl leaned back, sure he was in forquitea story. “Howdidyour little arrangement come together?”
“It started after me and Nic found Cory’s porn. Not just vanilla stuff—full kink. We both tried to pretend like it never happened, let it fade away, but it wouldn’t stop nagging at our minds. We were both way more into it than either of us wanted to admit, but we didn’t know what to do about it. So we made a plan.Imade a plan.” Derek took a deep breath before continuing.
“That weekend, we took Cory up to my family’s cabin, and we got him drunk. Once he was a few beers in, we went for it. We told him we found his porn. He freaked a little at first until we told him that we were more than okay with him being gay, and then we … convinced him to suck our dicks. I had done a little research on BDSM, and usingthat, we spent the rest of the weekend … training Cory.” Derek looked up at Carl to see his slack-jawed, wide-eyed expression.
“Jesus titty-fucking Christ, boy.” Carl sat up. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I know. Iknow. I’m a piece of shit who was only thinking with his dick. It gets worse.” Derek took another deep breath. “He brought that night up and how we … took advantage of him. And I… I lost it. I started yelling at him, kicked him out of the car, and left him in front of a Burger King. Told him that he shouldn’t be forced to ride with his … rapist.” Derek couldn’t bring his eyes up from the floor this time. He was thankful Carl was silent and barreled forward.
“That was the night I talked to you about the party stuff, which wasn’t entirely just about the party. I wanted to find Cory thenext day and apologize. He was angry but said we could talk. I grabbed Nic, and we met in one of our usual spots. I tried to apologize … for more than just the day before. I wanted to give us a chance to start over, start therightway.
“I don’t really understand what happened next. I started talking, but then Nic jumped in and said he wanted to end the whole thing. It caught me off guard. Cory too but not nearly as much. I think something happened between them, but I don’t know what. Cory was as angry with him as he was me. He said he was done too—with everything. He had me take off his collar, and he walked out.” Derek thought sadly about the discarded chain sitting in one of his drawers at home. “I haven’t spoken to Cory since, and Nic has been doing everything he can to keep me at arm’s length too. Can’t say I really blame them.” Derek sniffled, not realizing his eyes had started to water. He waited a few moments before finally looking up at Carl, who was giving him a thoroughly unimpressed look.
“I don’t even know where to start. I can’t believe… All the times we’ve talked, and you never once told meanyof this.” Carl was bewildered. “My own damn fault. Should’ve thought to question a little more about how the three barely-legal young men came to find themselves in a kink-based triad. That’s what I get for thinking with my own dick,” Carl mumbled to himself.
“I know but… What do I do? How do I fix this?” Derek almost whined.
“Fix this?” Carl boomed with laughter. “Youdon’t. There’s nothing to fix. You count yourself lucky the worst thing you lost was your friend, and you leave that boy alone.”
“What? No, Ihaveto fix this! Ever since that day, Cory’s been hanging out with this other guy, and Iknowthey’re fucking, and I just have a really bad feel—”
