Chapter 3Asher （18）
I leaned my head against the front passenger seat as the shots I took back home coursed through my system.
Theo and Rafael were sitting in the back seat while Cody drove, and things were…
well, tense would be an understatement. Theo had run into Rafael at a liquor store and invited him to tag along with us. Needless to say, Cody was incensed.
I turned to my left and watched Cody’s jaw clench as he gripped the steering wheel. He kept looking in the rearview mirror, and I turned back to see if someone was trailing us, or something.
I hope it’s not the cops.
Rafael’s gaze was forward, and that’s when I realized Cody and he were basically having a stare-off.
Jesus, those two are dramatic.
Theo, in typical form, hadn’t shut up since we left the house. His voice bellowed in the car as he mused over how he was going to woo Cynthia Rowland, so I leaned in and whispered to Cody, “You good, man? I’m sorry Rafael is here. I swear I had no idea. ”
If Theo had asked, I would have told him not to bring Rafael. I’d gotten a little bit of the backstory on what a colossal shitshow Rafael was at their parents’ wedding, so I knew how bad things were between them.
Cody didn’t take his eyes off the road as he said, “I’m cool. Everything’s cool.”
Everything is definitely not cool.
Oh well, it wasn’t my business, and I didn’t feel like worrying about it. So, I decided to distract myself by making fun of Theo, who was still talking about how he was gonna get Cynthia to slobber all over his beef stick. His words…not mine.
“You’re not fucking anyone tonight, Big Boy. You’re already too drunk, and your dick’s gonna be like one of those inflatable tube men outside of a car dealership.”
The whole car cracked up. Good. We needed to ease the tension between the stepbrothers.
“Fuck. You. Red. My dick’s gonna be so hard it’ll poke a hole in Rowan’s Jacuzzi,” Theo spat out.
“The only reason you’re so jazzed about the Jacuzzi is because the water is hot and nobody will notice when you piss yourself again,” I replied.
“I DIDN’T PISS MYSELF THAT NIGHT! How many times do I need to tell you someone spilled on me, you carrot top fucker!”
“Carrot top? That’s the best you’ve got? You look like Vin Diesel’s inbred cousin,” I retorted.
“That’s it!”
Theo grabbed me by the shoulders and started pulling me into the backseat, but I gave him a titty twister and he released me.
“Fuck! That hurt!” Theo rubbed his nipple, and the whole car was cackling .
“You might be bigger than me, but I’m scrappy,” I said through my laughter.
“Just you wait, Red. I’m gonna get you when you least expect it.”
Cody and Rafael both made mocking “ooh” sounds.
“Oh yeah? What’ll you do to me, Big Boy?” I asked.
“Oh, no, I’m not giving you any clues. You’ll know when it fucking happens, though. Just watch your back tonight.”
I turned around, half-worried that I had actually pissed him off for a second, but Theo was giving me a devilish smirk that had my heart aflutter.
Did I mention that I was madly in love with Theo?
Yeah, I got over Cody real quick when a six-foot-six Italian stallion with a buzzed head and muscles that rivaled an amateur bodybuilder’s decided to be my shadow during our rookie year.
He’d only gotten bigger and hotter over the years, and it was getting harder and harder to keep my feelings in check.
But I have to.
I’d finally found friends I could enjoy myself with, and I wasn’t going to compromise that. Ruining my friendship with Theo was a thought I couldn’t bear. I loved Theo. He put on this big macho exterior, but I knew he was just a big sweetheart, and nobody made me laugh like that big himbo did.
He and Cody had been my everything for the past two years, and I thanked the Hockey Gods every day for their friendship.
That’s why I couldn’t tell them my secret.
When things got really bad at home, I’d close my eyes and think of Theo—the two of us skating side-by-side, making some sort of awesome play, then feeling his arm wrap around me.
Theo was a touchy guy, and I lived for the moments when he’d pull me in and just hold me.
We always acted like a couple of bros palling around together, but it was more than that for me.
So much more.
We rolled up to Rowan’s palace and hopped out of the car. The level of wealth that some of my teammates came from was shocking to me. Who needed the NHL when your parents owned a home that rivaled some pro athletes’?
The music pummeled my eardrums the minute we entered.
A shirtless Rowan ran over with a plastic red cup in each hand. “What’s up, you chodes!”
“‘Sup, fucker?” Theo replied. “One of those for me?” he asked.
“Hello, no! These are mine.” Rowan pounded one drink after another before throwing them both in a potted plant sitting beside the door. “Juice in the kitchen, fags. Go get some.”
My jaw clenched. I hated the F-word.
Louie, Mom’s latest shithead, called me that constantly. I couldn’t stand that some guys on the team said it, too. Who the fuck did they think they were? It’s not like it was the nineties for Christ’s sake.
Whatever. Just chill. Asher.
I grabbed a cup and drank the most disgusting liquid of my life. Being rich didn’t mean Rowan knew how to make a punch that didn’t taste like death in a bowl.
With my throat burning and my eyes watering, I took another sip, hoping I’d get used to it soon.
* * *
I got used to it, alright. I was fucking trashed. The entire party was. Even Cody was dancing. Had he gotten drunk, too? He and Rafael suddenly looked super chummy—like, really chummy. It made me wonder what the hell was happening with those two.
Am I not the only gay one on the team?
I ambled about the kitchen, looking through the cabinets for a cup not coated in booze. The alcohol was coursing through my veins, and if I didn’t get some water in my system soon, I’d end up puking my guts out all over Rowan’s floor.
“You’re coming with me, Red!”
One moment, I was minding my own business in the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets for a clean glass, and the next, I was over Theo’s hefty shoulder. For the second time that night!
“What the fuuuuuck?” I slurred out.
Theo was completely naked, which I didn’t hate but definitely didn’t need at that moment.
My will was weak, and the globes of his muscular ass looked good enough to bite as he walked me to wherever the hell he was taking me.
I kind of had to focus on his ass because the tiles that comprised Rowan’s patio had a pattern that made me queasy.
I was so drunk, I didn’t even have the wherewithal to fight back. I just hung over his shoulder like a damsel in distress as he kidnapped me.
I didn’t hate that feeling either.
Theo was so strong. He slung me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. The thought of Theo dressed in some kind of knight’s regalia, taking me to a dark corner of a forest to ravish me, made my cock stiffen.
Fuck.
What happened to whisky dick? Why did my entire body feel like Jell-O except for the one appendage that could get me into the most trouble?
I didn’t have time to worry about it, though, because Theo threw me into the Jacuzzi.
The hot water shocked me out of my boner distress.
My head emerged from the bubbles to find two of the most popular girls in school, sitting on the ledge of the Jacuzzi in nothing but their bras and panties as they cackled at my soaking state.
A moment later, a Theo-induced tidal wave consumed me.
“Get naked and make out with one of them, fucker!”
Theo’s body glistened as droplets of water, illuminated by the fairy lights hanging above, highlighted his muscular form. He had a smile as big as the crescent moon hanging above, and his brown eyes twinkled with mischief.
Fuck, I was so in love. He looked delicious. All I wanted to do was lick the water off his chest, but the shrieking girls watching us pulled me out of my fantasy.
I shook my head, trying to snap myself out of my yearning, and remembered that the big asshole had just thrown me, fully clothed, into a jacuzzi.
“You dick!” I reached into my pockets and thanked God that my phone was still sitting on the counter where I’d left it, but my wallet and all of my IDs and money were drenched. “My fucking money is soaked! I’m gonna kill you!”
I lunged forward and pulled him into a headlock.
I was actually pissed because nobody on this team had to worry about money like I did.
Nobody, except for me, had a part-time job, and I actually had to use my own money to support my life.
It wasn’t just spare cash to buy useless bullshit.
“I have to work for my fucking money,” I bellowed.
Theo wrapped his big arms around my waist and pulled me under the water with him. We started wrestling, and he quickly got the best of me.
“Your money will dry, dude! Chill,” he screamed through gasps of laughter.
Our wrestling turned playful, and soon I was cackling too. I didn’t even care that I was wet anymore. I was just so happy to be his friend. He tossed me about the Jacuzzi, the water spilling out in heaps and soaking the patio around us.
“That’s fucking hot,” one of the girls called out.
“Hockey boys wrestling in the hot tub,” another yelled in the direction of the house.
Soon, a bunch of girls started running onto the patio, chanting, “Get naked, Asher! Get naked!”
Oh no. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
That wasn’t good. I stopped tussling with Theo and attempted to climb out of the jacuzzi, but he pulled me back in.
“Get naked with me, fucker! Emily wants to make out with you,” Theo yelled.