Chapter 1
One
Baby
“What in the actual fuck?”
“Language.”
My eyes zip up, but the mess on my phone screen pulls their attention back instantly. “Sorry, Mom. It’s just… my roommates got married.” I think. Maybe.
No, it’s for sure fake. It’s gotta be. I mean, it is a photo featuring a Dolly Parton impersonator with insanely huge tits, so I’m leaning towards fake. But then again, if they were going to get married, a tacky Vegas wedding would make sense.
I can’t help but huff a quiet laugh at that. It’s not real. They can’t be married. They’re in college and living in an apartment with two other guys. They’re like babies. Adults get married. Hell, their parents are married!
There’s no way.
Except, I kinda think they did—Cade just swore on his left nut in the group chat that it isn’t some stupid prank. It must be true.
“To each other?” Flo asks calmly, obviously not at all as shocked as she should be.
“I didn’t know any of your roommates were also gay,” Gen cuts in, clearly upset by the news.
But the look on her face is exactly why I never disclosed any of my roommates’ sexualities—except the straight one.
And that was mostly an accident because I can’t help but complain about it every time I think about him.
Most of the time, I think my moms’ overprotective habits are cute, but Gen sometimes takes it a little far.
If it were up to her, I’d be attending an Ivy League school and living on campus.
There’d probably be a camera pointed at my door that she had complete access to.
I’d have an AirTag sewn into my skin. She’s kinda nuts like that.
My current life isn’t something I thought was possible as a teen.
It’s why I appreciate her so much. She may not always agree with me and my choices—and sometimes is very vocal about that—but she loves and accepts me.
Like when I told them that I’d picked a state school—Gen sort of freaked, but not as much as she had when I told her I didn’t want to live in the dorms. But in the end, she accepted it.
It’s why I have roommates—she and Flo agreed that they wouldn’t be spending a crazy amount of money just so I could not take school seriously.
I was given a tight budget that they—mostly Gen—didn’t think I could make work.
She wanted to take it back when I found my solution.
Her gay son having male roommates was almost the boiling point, but Flo managed to calm her ass down.
No going boy crazy was a rule, so girls or guys of the hetero variety were a must. In my defense, they were straight, or pretending to be, at one point. It’s not like I lied.
And it’s not like any of them want me anyway. “Relax, Mother. Nobody’s sexing me up.” And if I sound bitter about that… no, I don’t. I ignore it when she purses her lips at me.
“Not even Logan?” Flo thinks she’s funny.
I set my phone down to give the glare I send her way the emphasis it needs. “Logan actually is straight.” And if I sound bitter about that… no, I fucking don’t.
“Are you sure? You do talk about him a lot.” When I deadpan, doing my best to ignore the way my face starts to flame, she adds another “A lot,” like I didn’t hear it the first time.
“No, I don’t.” It’s becoming a mantra of sorts, but it’s a lie.
A big, fat lie, and everyone in the room knows it.
Flo even snorts, letting me know that not only does she know her son is a godless falsifier, but that she happens to think it’s funny.
“I don’t! I talk about him a normal amount.
As much as I talk about…” Nothing. There is nothing that plagues the sullen, lonely depths of my horny-for-straights mind as much as that himbo motherfucker.
“Whatever.” I waive a flimsy hand around, ridding my breathing air of this bullshit topic.
“Nic and Cade got married. That’s what we’re talking about. ”
“Nic? Who’s that?”
“Cade’s stepbrother.”
“Wait…”
There’s the shock I was looking for.
“Mmhm.” I’m a little giddy about it now. Good gossip has that effect on me. “You heard it right. Stepbrothers.”
There’s a moment of silence before Flo finally speaks. “Kinky.”
“Hun, that’s—it’s inappropriate, no? Francis, maybe you should move back—”
I make a face as she calls me by my old name—something that never happens these days—but she ignores it.
“No! Mom, honestly. It’s not like I’m gonna turn around and marry my stepbrother just because my roommates did it first.” But in Cade’s defense, that’s only because I don’t have one as hot as Nic.
“You know who else is getting married?” Flo interjects, but she doesn’t give either of us the chance to answer. “Audrey!”
“Hun, she wanted to be the one to tell him.”
She shrugs. “Then she should have.”
“Flore—”
“Why didn’t she?” I ask before they get stuck in a back-and-forth. We’re nowhere near as close as we used to be, but we were inseparable at one point. It stings that she wouldn’t tell me something this huge. Or at least invite me.
Oliver was one of the asshats we hated in high school, one of the guys who bullied me, even.
It took her a while to tell me they were dating for that very reason, so I guess I can see why she’d keep this from me.
But I told her I was over that. I definitely wouldn’t let it keep me away from such a big life event.
She could have told me.
And why the fuck are so many people getting married?
If I had a nickel for every time I found out a couple of twenty-somethings were getting hitched today, I’d have two—and it is a lot.
Ten cents in thirty seconds. If it keeps going at this rate, I could end up the sort of rich that the kids I went to school with made fun of me for not being.
“When did he propose?”
“I’m not sure,” Flo answers me thoughtfully. “We just found out a few days ago. Seems like they’re in a rush though—the wedding is this spring.”
Hm. Tying the knot so soon only barely makes a little bit more sense for Audrey because of her life, the culture that comes with money and a religious family. Nic and Cade are just… idiots in love.
“She’s planning on doing a bridesmaid proposal… box-thingy.”
“A what?”
“She told us she wants you to be a bridesmaid—man. Bridesmen?” She waves a hand in the air, similar to the way I did just moments ago. “You get it.”
“Oh.” I perk up at that. I’m the teensiest bit honored, and it feels good that she’d think of me for something like that, especially after I went ahead and assumed the worst.
But I don’t know. I’d rather just be a regular guest and have as little to do with the ceremony as possible.
It’s been years since the mess that was my high school fling, but pretending like I’m not bothered by Zeke’s presence is still a bit tricky.
And does my high school bully want me standing up there with him while he gets married—my guess is no.
Plus, I’m sure Zeke is going to be one of the groomsmen, so I’d have two haters up there with me.
Anytime I’m around him, he tries to act like none of it ever happened, like he didn’t treat me as anything more than a dirty secret.
If it were up to him, I probably still would be exactly that.
The last time I spoke to him, I turned him down.
And that’s how it went the time before last as well, and that rejection didn’t seem to prevent him from trying again.
He dates women, hides a big part of who he is everyday and then acts like I’m crazy because I don’t.
He never understood me. When I gained the courage to start going by Baby, it had him all different sorts of confuzzled. Explaining the why—that I was simply tired of being afraid to be who I am—had him acting stupid. Mean and judgy and loud about it.
And he somehow doesn’t understand why I want nothing to do with him.
I get it to an extent, why he is the way he is.
I grew up near him, gave him a front row seat to how much being a boy who likes boys can suck when you’re surrounded by people who don’t understand you and love to hate.
And I didn’t even have it nearly as bad as it can be.
His and Audrey’s family—everyone but her—aren’t exactly allies.
I wasn’t even allowed at her house because of how much shit her parents talked about mine.
My lesbian moms never ceased to piss them off just by simply being in the same circle as them.
Sometimes it’s hard not to get angry when I think about my mom insisting I go to the same school she did.
Gen knew how well it would go over, how mad people would be that I was there, but she was raised in a godfearing household and refused to let her sexuality push her away from her faith. She swore it made her stronger.
And Audrey, she’s never really cared about catching any heat from being associated with me, but having a gay guy standing up there with her on her big day… in a room with so many boring snobs, it’d be scandalous.
I’ll have to say no. I don’t necessarily want to, but I’ll have to. I haven’t even turned her down yet, and I’m already disappointed. I sigh as the weight in my stomach starts to feel heavier.
It’s for the best. I don’t know when she plans on asking—proposing—but I’m sure it will be when I’m here in town.
“I gotta go home.” Back to apartment thirteen.
∞∞∞
With my hands full, it’s a struggle to open the door, and when I finally manage to unlock it, it only gets harder.
Cade and Nic are off in Vegas nursing what I’m sure are some deadly hangovers, and Liam doesn’t live here anymore.
So the chain lock being latched and preventing me from being able to walk into my very own home has to be the doing of him.
“Logan!” If I could pound on the door, I would, but all I can do is yell. “Logan!”
A second later, I hear his muffled voice moving closer, telling me to hold on.