Chapter Thirteen
Dylan texted Rus off and on during his weekend trip, but let him focus on some important essay when he returned to campus.
Honestly, Dylan needed a bit more time with his feelings.
Well, he needed a bit more time with the perfect bubble of possibilities.
Until he knew for certain how everyone else felt, he could daydream about all the positive outcomes.
It sucked that Kaiden continued dodging Dylan, giving short replies to any message, and insisting he was too busy with work to hang out.
So, Dylan focused on his work all Monday, running errands, fixing broken equipment, and pretty much anything to distract himself.
Then he prioritized cleaning on Tuesday.
Jasmine let him be but reminded him not to clean too thoroughly, as house chores were divided among the residents.
She was a stickler for day-to-day life skills, knowing each of the teens would have to fend for themselves soon enough.
By Wednesday, he’d taken on the highly dreaded task of inventorying all the recent donations. It was a mountain of work.
After realizing no amount of busy work would settle his nerves, Dylan reached out to Rus again, planning a meetup on Thursday. Once he’d cleared the air with one person, he could theoretically work on sorting things out with Kaiden, too.
Dylan drove to Rus’ on Thursday, a little after lunch, to give him a chance to finish his classes.
Feeling a bit antsy, Dylan casually walked around the apartment complex.
He hopped onto a wheel stop in an empty parking space, extended his arms wide, and walked along the concrete slab much like he walked a plank.
The asphalt became lava in his mind, and Dylan carefully jumped to the next wheel stop, wobbling a bit, but catching himself before tumbling to the pavement.
“Aren’t you quite the acrobat?” Rus called out.
His sudden arrival startled Dylan, and his footing slipped. Dylan braced for an embarrassing and painful crash flat on his ass, but instead found himself swept into a secure embrace.
“Careful,” Rus whispered in his ear. “What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”
Dylan smiled, lost in the warm hug of Rus’ arms.
“Well, I obviously would’ve been fine, considering I was just waiting until you got here to stage my very own damsel in distress moment.”
“Clearly.” Rus grinned, helping Dylan properly stand before releasing him. “Since you didn’t cringe when I caught you, I’m hopeful for our conversation.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Rus shrugged sheepishly. “Mostly nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?” Dylan asked, fighting the quiver in his voice.
Did Rus have to break the news? Was he going to try and awkwardly steer their brief make-out session back to friendship?
Dylan wouldn’t be upset by that. He swore to himself he wouldn’t be.
Friendship was something he could definitely do.
He was lucky to have Kaiden and Rus in his life as friends.
And truthfully, dating was horrifying. He had no idea where to begin when it came to dating and relationships, so why was he yearning for one with Rus so badly? With Kaiden?
No. Dylan needed to put that out of his head before he found himself swept away by daydreaming again. Right now, he needed to play it cool and salvage his friendships. He already knew those worked. No point in ruining a good thing over a silly fantasy.
“I like you,” Rus admitted. “A lot.”
“Really?” Dylan quirked a brow.
“Yeah, and not in a friendship sort of way,” Rus clarified.
“I mean, I do like you as a friend. But I also like hanging out with you. Which I suppose friends do, too. Um, well, it’s just when I think about you, I don’t just think about friendship.
I think about you. Kissing you. More than kissing you.
More than moreing with you, if you catch my drift. ”
“I may have a vague inkling of what moreing is in this situation.” Dylan chuckled. “I might also be thinking about moreing with you too.”
A rush trailed along Dylan’s skin, sending a surge of excited goosebumps that made him involuntarily shudder. That little tremble of excitement quickly twisted into one of dread when he realized these reciprocated feelings meant Kaiden would be crushed.
It wasn’t as if Kaiden couldn’t handle Dylan and Rus dating, exploring this possibility, but surely after sharing a first and second kiss with them both, Kaiden would be left feeling like an outsider, an unwanted consolation prize.
It dawned on Dylan that this was the real reason Kaiden avoided his friends.
“It’s going to crush Kaiden,” Dylan muttered.
Betrayal ate away at him and devoured all the joy he had swelled with a moment ago. It also left him with this sinking regret. Regret that he was missing something. Missing Kaiden. Missing the possibilities with Kaiden.
“Why?” Rus asked. “I might have moreing feelings for him, too.”
Dylan didn’t find the silly little wordplay funny anymore, too consumed by guilt and confusion.
“I figured you felt the same,” Rus said.
“For you, yes.”
“For Kaiden.”
Dylan stared, dumbfounded. What was Rus getting at?
“That kind of puts us back in the same situation.”
“Yeah, I spent the last few days sort of pondering the same thing, until I had a lovely chat with my ex.”
“Oh?”
“She’s wise beyond her years,” Rus said with an eye roll.
“Yeah?”
“She reminded me poly exists for a reason.”
“Wait, what?” Dylan had a vague understanding of polyamory, which extended to an open relationship. “So, how open exactly are you thinking?”
Rus snorted. “What?”
“Poly’s just dating around, right?”
“I mean, in some cases, sure.”
“Yeah, so it would be us dating each other, but we could also date Kaiden? Or would it be like I date you, but you date Kaiden, and Kaiden dates me?”
“Yes and no,” Rus replied. “It wouldn’t be open perse. It’d be more like expanded. Instead of a couple, we could be a throuple, so we’d all be dating each other.”
“A throuple?” The word sounded hilarious and bizarre all at once, but Dylan did find himself intrigued. “Consider me piqued.”
“Hey, throuples are becoming way more common these days,” Rus said with a playful shoulder shrug. “And honestly, in this economy, a throuple is practically necessary for basic necessities.”
“Oh, yeah. I could probably get a nicer ride with three incomes,” Dylan teased.
“Nah, for luxuries like that, living the high life with a new car, you’d definitely need a bigger polycule.
Like an octa-couple, octa-ouple, octagon-l-ouple.
Coupl-a-gon… No, that doesn’t work.” Rus lost himself in the word play of combining octagon and couple into some terrifyingly massive dating pool.
“I don’t want that.” Dylan shook his head.
“The nice life or larger polycule?” Rus asked, stepping in closer.
Somehow, even as he looked up at Dylan, he possessed this domineering presence. Rus’ authority sizzled in the air between them.
Dylan gulped. “No big octopus polycule thing. Just the throuple.”
“Octa-cule.” Rus smacked his forehead at the realization, then smiled at Dylan. “And good, because that’s exactly what I want.”
That still presumed the potential third in their arrangement was on board with such things.
“How about we message Kaiden?” Rus held up his phone, revealing the group thread.
“It would be hard for him to dodge both of us,” Dylan replied. “But he’s probably just going to say he’s busy at work.”
“He still works at that art gallery, right?” Rus commented. “What’s he even do all day? He never really talks about it except when they have some party he’s forced to work.”
In which case, Kaiden would complain nonstop about his million and one tasks to complete before whatever fancy gala was scheduled.
“Mostly cataloging stuff by day,” Dylan replied. “Maybe showings to potential buyers, but that’s more Alison’s thing.”
“So, then maybe we just drop by,” Rus said. “If he’s actually busy, we won’t pester him, but if he’s not, he won’t be able to deflect either.”
“Sneaky.” Dylan smirked. “Let’s go.”