Chapter Nine
The night turned into a blur between the drag performances, the loud music, the crowd of bodies, but Rus relished what sense he made of the small parts. Kaiden had declared this a night to wash away the memory of their last outing, and Rus hoped that in some small way they’d achieved his wish.
“Okay, okay, they’re putting lights up at the bar,” Kaiden said with a heavy breath, pulling away from the dance. “Which means they’re about to do last call.”
“Yikes,” Dylan said with a playful shiver. “It’s past midnight? Does that mean I’m a pumpkin again?”
“That’s the carriage, not the princess,” Kaiden corrected.
“Really? Shame.” Dylan grinned. “Because I like to let people ride me.”
They all laughed, and Kaiden nudged Rus and Dylan off the dance floor.
“Say your goodbyes, it is way too late.”
Rus made his way over to Daysha, who had started disassembling a booth with some of the other Pride Club members.
“Heading out,” Rus said, wiping sweat from his brow. “Hope your event killed it.”
“Hmmm, since we’re raising funds for starving kids across the world, I hope we did the opposite of killing it.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rus retrieved his wallet and handed Daysha forty bucks before she could press him with a late-night discussion on morality.
“I see why you’ve been so busy as of late,” Daysha said, tucking the cash away.
“Huh?”
She eyed him from head to toe and then craned her head past Rus and over to Dylan and Kaiden. “Got a little crush, huh?”
“What?” Rus blanched.
“I saw the way you were looking at…um, well, honestly, both of them.”
“Okay, so maybe I’ve thought about Kaiden once or twice.” Rus cleared his throat. “But I might’ve also been thinking about Dylan.”
“At the same time?”
“Well, not at the same same time, you know?” Rus responded, a bit flustered and trying to make sense of his crush. Crushes.
“Flip a coin,” Daysha suggested, somewhat aloof.
“You’re the worst. You realize that’s not how feelings work.”
“You realize you’re asking an ace chick for romance advice?”
“What? It’s a wide spectrum.”
“And I’m on the dead-end side. No butterflies, warm and fuzzes, and certainly no interest in smooches or cuddles or rubbing bodies together.”
Rus rolled his eyes. “Point made.”
“Why don’t you just try both?”
Rus snorted. “They aren’t ice cream samples.”
“Of course, not. More variety there,” Daysha said, focusing on disassembling her station. “Just grab one of them tonight, pull him aside, and give him a kiss. See if you have those electrical sparks or whatever. Then excuse yourself, grab the other one, and test out his lips.”
“With another kiss?”
“Or whatever else you wanna try.” Daysha shrugged. “I know where those dirty lips of yours have been.”
They both broke out into laughter, and Rus nudged Daysha, playfully knocking away her concentration from her game.
“You are terrible at love advice.”
“And you’re terrible about following your heart.” Daysha’s matter-of-fact comment stumbled Rus.
She’d been friends with him since orientation, when they mockingly joked about all the campus policies and were both annoyingly too edgy to care about the school spirit of the college.
That evolved over time, much like their friendship.
In fact, Daysha was the person on campus who really knew how little Rus dated, how he avoided it after the messiest high school breakup ever.
Still, he chased his feelings most days, but unfortunately, his follow-through often fell short.
It was easier not to take a chance on romance than to risk it.
“You ready?” Dylan squeezed Rus’ shoulder as he wrapped an arm around him. He held Kaiden in the same embrace with his other arm, ushering the trio out of Himbos and into the streets of downtown.
Maybe it wasn’t a risk. Maybe it was a chance. An opportunity. A possibility. Only, Rus didn’t know with who.
He kept close to Kaiden and Dylan, carefully eyeing the street as they barreled out into the night.
Downtown had mostly died out at this point, with drunken stragglers roaming from one greasy restaurant to the next, slowly pouring themselves into rideshares, or simply passing out on a friend’s shoulder.
Kaiden’s smile kept Rus afloat. Seeing the joy of the evening had taken hold and kept him vigilant. All Rus wanted was to ensure this night would be cemented as fun. Mostly, he wanted to keep his friend safe, wash away the bad taste of bitter memories, and swim in this good time a bit longer.
“A perfectly drama-free evening,” Dylan said with a bit of a swagger.
The sway of his hips kept Rus’ attention fixed.
“No drama at all.”
“I can wrangle up a little drama if anyone wants,” Rus said, mimicking Dylan’s swagger.
“Wrangle?” Kaiden asked. “You a cowboy now?”
“Maybe I always was,” Rus said with a dreadful Southern accent while tipping his imaginary hat.
They all broke out into laughter, following Dylan back to his car, where he drove to Rus’ apartment to close out the evening.
When they arrived at the complex, Rus caught Kaiden lingering, staring at his beat-up car.
“Come on in,” Rus insisted, then turned his attention to Dylan, who still sat in his car. “It’s late. Sleepovers are no biggie.”
“Hmmmm.” Kaiden pondered loudly. “On the one hand, I do have work in the morning, so I should head home. On the other hand, I’d rather not get yelled at for slipping through a window again.”
“I can’t believe you have to break into your own home.” Rus scoffed.
“They keep it locked and tight for safety.”
“But they know you break in,” Rus added. “What’s the point then?”
“The point is obstacles.” Kaiden gestured with arms, quite dramatically.
“The point is your family is a bunch of bags of dicks,” Dylan retorted.
“I concur,” Rus teased.
It didn’t take much to convince them to come inside. Everyone made their way inside and sat on Rus’ bed, much like they always did, with the television on in the background as they unwound from the evening.
Rus kept his attention discreetly fixed on Dylan, who was lost in his phone, smiling so deeply it brought out his dimples. Kaiden, on the other hand, seemed lost in thought. The evening had gone well, more or less, but Rus worried Kaiden pushed himself to go just to prove it wasn’t a big deal.
“You okay?” Rus nudged Kaiden.
“Yep.”
“You sure?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You have fun?”
“Meh.”
“Noticed you got a little flirty for a minute, then just sort of fizzled.”
“Ouch. I fizzled out?”
The awkward sound Rus released made Kaiden grin, and even drew Dylan away from his phone.
“No, I just noticed there was that guy you were chatting up, then sort of broke off the convo midway.”
“He wanted to dance. I wasn’t feeling a dance,” Kaiden explained with a defiant huff. “Well, except when Dylan dragged me out, but how could I possibly say no to Dylan?”
“Okay, cool. I mean, I had no problem playing buffer,” Rus clarified. “I just want to make sure you’re not avoiding guys because of what happened. Like avoid them because they’re not your type all day long, just I would hope—”
“It’s not that,” Kaiden said. “That’s completely out of my head.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I mean, maybe not all the time, but that wasn’t why I was dodging the flirty guy on the dance floor.”
“Okay, then why were you dodging the flirty guy on the dance floor?” Dylan asked, locking his eyes on Kaiden in this suggestive, authoritative way.
Rus felt the pressure of their friendship, the way Dylan could ask so much with a simple look. Meanwhile, Rus still found himself in the learning stage, trying to decipher each of their quirks, mannerisms, inside jokes, and so much more.
“Okay, embarrassing, and I’ve never said this out loud…” Kaiden took a deep, sharp breath, holding it for a beat as he hesitated with his next words. “I’ve never actually kissed a guy before. Or anybody, really.”
“What?” Rus and Dylan blurted at the same time.
“How did I not know this?” Dylan had this baffled expression that Rus tried to gauge, tried to read. “But you’ve… I mean, there was… I could’ve sworn…”
“So, you’re a virgin?” Rus asked so quickly, he couldn’t bite back the words or the unintentional judgy tone that accompanied them.
“Not that that’s a big deal. I mean, virgins rock.
It’s why they’re sacrificed. And they survive the horror movies.
Weddings have a whole archaic color-coded system for them. Also—”
“Stop.” Dylan playfully slapped a hand over Rus’ face.
“Sank ooo,” Rus muttered in a muffled voice, grateful for Dylan’s intervention and the gentle touch of his palm on Rus’ lips.
“To answer your question, I’m not a virgin,” Kaiden said. “Not since I was like twenty. But I am a twenty-four-year-old lip virgin. Or not lip virgin ‘cause, you know, oral, but like I’m a lip kiss or kiss lip virgin.”
Dylan slowly lowered his hand, the gears in his head slowly piecing together the new info. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”
“I never said anything. It’s embarrassing.”
“Not at all,” Dylan said. “But how does that work exactly?”
“Well, I’m not exactly a catch, so I’m not swimming in dates or anything.
” Kaiden paused long enough to eye Rus and Dylan, and Rus gathered from his stern stare that he wasn’t fishing for compliments and didn’t want Rus to throw in some polite commentary, so he stayed quiet and listened.
“I’ve never been in a relationship. Not even those bad middle school relationships where you get together in first period, then send a breakup note through a friend during lunch or some shit.
I’ve just never done the whole dating thing.
Yet. It's coming. Once things are right.”
“Why aren’t they right?” Rus asked, genuine and curious.