It was a chilly, frost-covered New Year's Eve evening in the North-East of England. Like just about everyone else, David Roberts was out with his mates; downing pints and knocking back shots and making sure his year would begin in some state of drunkenness. He'd been robbed of the previous two boozy New Years Eves thanks to COVID, so he was intent on making up for it here.
David was a strapping 24 year-old lad, a defender for the local Sunday League team. His 6'2" frame and broad, stocky build may have been better suited to rugby truth be told, but football was his sport and he'd always been good at it. He sported neatly cut, short brown hair and accompanying stubble on his face, complimenting his chiselled jawline and baby blue eyes nicely. He was a good looking lad, and he had the confidence to go with it.
He was out this night with a group of lads he'd known since uni. They stumbled from pub to pub, exhibiting typical 'lad' behaviour such as screaming football chants obscenely loudly and using awful chat-up lines on girls. I say awful, but it must have worked for one of the lads, Dean, who bailed from the group with a girl he'd met in a bar at 7:30.
"Can't believe that prick has binned the lads off for a lass," David said, downing the rest of his bottle of Corona he'd bought five minutes earlier.
"Tell you the truth mate I'm thinking of binning yous off as well," came the reply, from Bradley, one of David's closest mates. "I'm still rough off yesterday."
David laughed. "You absolute fanny!" he cried, giving Bradley a playful push on the shoulder. "Looks like we're down to three lads! Lads?"
David and Bradley both looked behind them. Dan and Joe were there a second ago, they could have sworn. There were a sea of bodies all around them, but none seemed to belong to Dan or Joe. David and Bradley waited for five minutes, perhaps the other two had gone to the toilet, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"That settles it," Bradley said, "As much as I love you mate I'm not staying out all night with only you. Gonna get Jess to pick me up, you want a lift?"
David scoffed, as the barman passed him another bottle. "Fuck off mate," he said, not even looking Bradley's way. "It's New Year's Eve, I'm out for the night now."
"Suit yourself," Bradley said. After a few minutes, his phone buzzed and his lift arrived. He shook David's hand and left, leaving him alone.
No worries, David thought. He'd just find a lass to take home. He hadn't had a shag in a few weeks and now he didn't have any of his mates cock-blocking him. He'd see in the New Year balls deep in some slut. That was a good plan.
David had barely time to take another sip he felt a hand land on his shoulder. "That's never fucking David Roberts, is it?" a familiar voice said behind his right shoulder. David turned around quickly to be greeted with the face of Ben Summers, an old teammate of David's.
"Fucking hell, alright Ben!" David said, standing up off his seat to shake the man's hand. "I haven't seen you since...since you moved down to Manchester! What you doing back up here?"
Ben sat down on the seat vacated a few minutes earlier by Bradley. He was a tanned, athletic lad, with blonde hair and a slender yet athletic frame. "Just spent Christmas with my Mam and Dad," he said, in his broad North-East accent. "Brought Sam up to meet them as well, we've been together nearly a year."
David smiled. "You managed to get a girlfriend have you?" he teasingly said. "Will I get to meet her tonight or is she another imaginary one?"
The words hadn't come out of his mouth when a large, hairy arm appeared behind Ben and placed a pint down in front of him. David watched as the hand wrapped itself round Ben's chest, as a bearded face came down and kissed him on the cheek. "There you go sexy," the man said, before pulling a stool round and sitting down.
David stared, open-mouthed. It appeared that Sam was not a female. He tried to speak, but what came out was a series of confused and surprised stammers.
Ben began to laugh uproariously. "The fucking look on your face!" he said, as Sam smirked and tried to hold him own laugh in. "This is Sam."
David tried to compose himself, before offering his hand out for Sam to shake. "Pleased to meet you mate," he managed to blurt out, before turning back to Ben. "I didn't know you were...you know..." He took a second to look at Sam. He seemed taller than David, and sported a black beard with short black hair. He had a proper rugby player's build, wide and girthy. The two men were quite different physically.
Ben laughed again. "Didn't go round advertising it when we played football mate," he responded sarcastically. "You're alright with it though aren't you? Isn't your sister a lesbian?"
David had another drink. "Yeah mate, I'm fine with it." he said. "Just unexpected that's all. Didn't you go out with Grace Peters for like a year?"
"First person I came out to," Ben responded. "She agreed to cover for me all that time."
David just laughed. He had so many questions, he didn't know where to start.
"So, err, how did yous two meet?" he eventually asked.
"Do you want to tell him?" Ben asked Sam, placing his hand quite high up his thigh. Sam smiled.
"I was working in a gay bar one night and Ben came in. We clicked straight away. Ended up taking him home that night. Rest is history."
"Whoa lads, spare me the details." David said, only half-jokingly. The two men laughed.
"Thing is, I was on a date with another man," Ben added. "Binned him off for Sam. Rest is history." Ben turned and looked Sam in the eye, before pulling him closer by the chin and entering into a deep, five or six second kiss. David tried to look away, but seeing his old mate so proudly kiss his big, muscular lover was weirdly fascinating.
The men sat for the next hour catching up and getting to know each other, reminiscing about old times and sharing new stories together. As the drink continued to flow though, David found himself more interested in the two men's relationship, and the alcohol made him more open to asking potentially risque questions.
"So, how does it work then? I mean I know it's like anal sex, but doesn't it hurt?"
Both men laughed. The alcohol seemed to have made them more open as well.
"Nah, you just have to prep. I douche, it's basically squirting water up your arse so it's all clean up there."
"Fucking hell!" David said, equal parts disgusted and curious. "That's grim mate. So does that mean you're the girl?"
"We're both men." Sam said sternly, losing the jokey demeanour he'd had a few seconds prior.
"It's called being a bottom, Dave," Ben said, placing his hand on Sam's lap again. "And yeah, I am with Sam. Before I'd met him I preferred to top though. Still do. But they both feel amazing."
