Thank you to an anonymous comment on chapter 2 for inspiring this chapter!
All characters are above the age of 18.
*
The guys came over to my place for lunch one day. We ate hot pot stickers. We had never made them before, but Elijah thought it could be fun since the co-op had a giant kitchen and everything available. We definitely burned half of them, but they were still edible!
We ate at one of the outdoor picnic tables in the yard, and- Omg! It was Gale. He had muscles on muscles and the most charming smile. I saw him come over to our co-op house a couple times over the semester with his friends, and I had a mini, okay, huge crush on him. I'd never talked to him, so my crush was pretty much purely physical. He looked like walking sex.
He looked up at me, and I flitted my eyes away, trying to seem like I was just looking around, and not staring at him again. It was kind of weird that Patt and Elijah were with me right now, but also not, because we were best friends before their gay curious expolrations started. I promised myself I wouldn't get weird about it and be fine when they were done exploring. We'd still always be friends. But it wasn't fair to me to just wait around to be their sex toy when they were likely still hooking up with girls, though they hadn't mentioned anyone in a while... They were probably trying to be nice by not bringing it up. Whatever, this guy was seriously hot and actually gay.
I got up to get seconds of dessert, ugh, I kept thinking of the other day when Patt and Elijah, no no no, don't think anout it.
Smack, I just ran into someone! Someone's very hard very firm and big chest. "Whoops! Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I looked up. It's Gale! "Oh!" I blushed. He's even hotter upclose.
He was smiling his big charming smile. He leaned down close to my ear and whispered, "Aren't you cute?"
I blushed, said, "Thanks!" and ran away! Why did I walk away instead of starting a conversation with him? Ugh.
When I got back to the table, Elijah turned to Patt, "See there's other straight dudes here, and they get close to Brycen, too." Patt shrugged and kept eating.
"Wow, you guys have the worst gay-dar ever. He's totally gay." I peaked over, and he smiled at me again! "And I think he's going to come over to our table."
Elijah's jaw actually dropped. "He's gay?"
At the same time, Patt's eyes narrowed, "Mhmm."
The guys are obviously not homophobic. Why did they react that way?
We finished up our meal and chatted, sipping on some sodas. A little while later, just as I predicted and hoped, Gale strode back over. He gave a 'sup nod to Elijah and Patt and leaned against my side of the table. When he lifted a hand to brush a strand of hair out of my eyes, Patt beat him to it. What what that? Elijah switched seats to my side of the table, completely unneccessarily, moving himself between me and Gale.
"Wow, you have two body guards with you, huh?" Gale joked.
"Uhh... these are my best friends. They can be a little overprotective. Cut it out, guys."
"No worries, cutie. See you around," he smiled and walked away. I just stared at his back.
"Guuyyyys!! Why did you cock-block me? He was soooo hot. I've wanted him to talk to me all semester!"
"All?" Elijah emphasized.
"Semester?" Patt asked.
Why were they so in synch? Usually I was the tie-breaker. They both seemed upset. Angry and a little sad? Disappointed? Were they... jealous right now? No, that couldn't be.
We ate the rest of our food in a tense silence, until Elijah lightened the mood, and we continued on as usual.
......
Gale came over to the house again the following week and asked me out! I dressed nicely, but not too eagerly.
Gale had wanted to pick me up, but I was adament anout meeting him there. For some reason, I felt like Patt or Elijah might see if he picked me up, and after their weird reactions the other day, I didn't want them to ruin anything. And, to be honest, I didn't want to keep thinking about them, like now. My goal was to try to focus just on Gale, the super hot gay guy who is actually interested in me that way.
I was about to head into the Italian restaurant when Patt showed up, out of nowhere, walking on the street! Do we have some sort of magnetic pulling tether between us or what.
"Brycen, hey! You look nice in this pink shirt." He fingered my shirt collar. "Are the twinks meeting for dinner or something?"
I'd be offended if that wasn't something we actually did.
"Um, no, uh sort of? Not really... I'm meeting a friend!"
We both looked to the restaurant where through the door's window, we could see a side profile of Gale.
Patt lifted his cellphone, pushed speaker, and calling someone. "Guess who I found on a date at the Italian restaurant with that guy from the co-op the other day?"
Elijah replied blandly, "The one trying to grope Brycen and eating him up with his eyes?"
I squeeked! "Guysss!"
"I'll be right there," Elijah replied, not missing a beat."
"Don't embarass me!"
I walked away, trying to ignore what just happened. Gale looked towards the door when he heard me enter.
Wow, he looked good dressed up in tight fitting black jeans and a crisp white collared shirt and jacket.
"Hey, Cutie!" He greeted me with a hug and bent down for a kiss to the cheek.
"You smell really good," I said against his neck. I felt him shiver slightly.
"Glad you like it," he replied confidently and winked! He walked us to our table and pulled out my chair. Elijah and Patt have never pulled out a chair for me... Our table was really pretty by a window. He must have actually made reservations well in advance. The guys always only took me out to last minute dinners... focus!
