Chapter 18 #2
“Do they know?” He gives me a quizzical look as he continues to clean me up. “That we’re really dating? Not just a fake thing anymore?”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I told them.”
“And they’re okay with it?”
He hands me the cloth and helps me stand. “Yeah. They like you.”
That makes me smile.
We clean up and step out of the shower. When I’m dressed and Ethan has a towel wrapped around his waist, we exit the bathroom and I head to the guest room. He grabs my hand. “Where you goin’?”
“My…room?”
“No. Come to mine. We can hang out and talk. Please?”
He doesn’t have to beg. All he has to do was look at me with those puppy dog eyes and I’d follow him anywhere.
I toss my clothes into the hamper in the guest room, then follow him to his.
I climb into his bed while he goes into his insanely large walk-in closet to get pajamas. I tuck myself under his blankets, nervous about what’s next.
I hadn’t expected any of what happened in the shower. The hand job or the blowjob. Zero regrets, though. But does he expect more since we’ve crossed that line?
Dressed in a pair of loose pajama pants and an undershirt, Ethan smiles at me when he walks out of his closet. He climbs in with me, scooting over to practically glue himself to my side and breathes me in. “Koby?”
“Hmm?” I know it might be serious since he said my actual name. If he’d said my full name, I might have been scared.
“Was that…did you think…I didn’t…pressure you, did I? Coming to your bathroom with just a towel on. I was … I don’t know. I didn’t think it all the way through. I want to make sure I didn’t cross any boundaries.”
God, he’s fucking perfect. My heart is totally his.
“No, Ethan. I can say no. I’m strong enough to say no.” I put some force in my voice to drive the point home.
“I know—” he starts, but I cut him off.
“If it was too much, I would have told you.” I turn around in his arms to face him. “It wasn’t. It was perfect. But thank you for checking on me.”
The radiant smile he gives me makes me feel warm all over. It’s like I gave him a gift, even though I’m already his. Hopelessly.
“I’ll always check on you.” Ethan kisses my forehead and brings me closer to him.
“Are you freaking out?” I ask.
I mean, he just figured out he was into me—a boy—and he grabbed my dick like he’s done it before. I want to make sure he’s okay with what just happened.
He leans back and meets my eyes. “No, creep. Not at all. I liked what just happened. I told you I’ve been thinking about it.
Well, not the blowjob part, but that was good too.
” I chuckle and feel my face heat. I try to duck my head but he puts his finger under my chin, making sure I look at him.
“I will never freak out about anything we do. I promise.”
I nod, grinning up at him.
Ethan kisses me quickly, then tucks me closer, my head on his chest.
I’m suddenly very tired. Maybe it’s because I feel so warm or how safe I feel. Either way, coupled with the orgasm in the shower that blew my fucking mind, I’m beat.
Ethan takes a deep breath, nuzzling me before kissing the top of my head. Then his breathing gets deeper and more even. Although I want to stay up for a little while longer, to think about what happened in the shower, I feel myself drifting off to sleep.
With a long exhale, I slide in as close to Ethan as I can and close my eyes, falling asleep between one breath and the next.
When I wake up, I know it’s still early morning. How early, I’m not sure. The sun looks like it just started to peek over the horizon, but I don’t feel sleepy. In fact, I feel well-rested for the first time in a long time.
Ethan twitches and I peek up at him, watching his eyes blink open slowly. In a groggy voice, he says, “Good morning, creep.”
Shocking myself, I twist my head and lightly bite his nipple through his shirt, making him jump and laugh. “Good morning, Ethan.”
“What was that for?” he asks in a less sleepy voice, rubbing his chest.
I shrug, kissing where I bit him. “Sorry. Does it hurt?”
“No, you weirdo. Shocked me, though.”
Chuckling, I kiss his chest again and rub it with my finger. “Tell me about the meet yesterday? How did you do in your other events?”
Ethan runs the fifty-five meter, two hundred meter, four-by-two-hundred, and the four-by-four-hundred.
The first two are the most important, as they’re solo events.
When they record his personal records, it’s those times they’ll take into account.
His splits for the other two are important as well, but USC wants him more for his individual events than the team events.
“I did good. We got fourth in the four-by-four, but that was a really close race. We were barely a second behind. Since it was an invitational, Coach didn’t give us too much shit about it.
Like I said, I PR’d in the two hundred and came in first.” I poke him in his side and he squirms away laughing.
“The fifty-five was the same. Got third there. So Coach is going to make me do extra drills to take time off my start. I struggle sometimes coming off the blocks in a short race like that. The four-by-two was good. We got second. It was a good meet, overall. Hope to do better when we have our first home meet. You gonna come, right?”
“Of course. Crystal and I already made plans. Want me to come here after the meet or the day after?”
“Right after. My parents are going to be there, so we can ride back with them if you want. You can either bring your clothes with you or leave some in the guest room.”
“Okay.”
After that, we lie in silence. It’s still pretty early and I’m sure Ethan is still tired from the meet yesterday. Even though he didn’t run the entire time, they’re long events and he had to run really hard to hit his personal records.
I’m not sure what happened, but I feel like I blinked and the next thing I know, Ethan is shaking me awake. I jolt, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I didn’t even realize I fell back asleep. I wasn’t even tired. But I was extremely relaxed, lying next to Ethan and his big, warm body.
I stretch and look up at him, rubbing sleep from my eyes. He’s smiling down at me, probably at how ridiculous I look with drool on my face.
When I’ve collected myself, he asks, “Hungry?”
Stretching again because it felt so good the first time, I arch like a cat and Ethan starts to tickle me.
I yelp and inch away from him, but he chases me across the bed, tickling me more, his light fingers dancing across my stomach and chest. I snort-laugh and roll over, and he rolls with me, his lithe fingers finding all my tickle spots.
Out of breath, I manage to get out, “Okay, stop please!” Laughter still bubbling up my throat, I turn to face him, my head resting on my hand. “That wasn’t fair.” I’m breathing heavily and I feel like I’ve run a mile.
Being tickled is hard work.
He laughs and kisses me lightly. “Why should I fight fair?” I give him a dry look, making him laugh. “Come on,” he tells me, dragging me off the bed. “Let’s get cleaned up and go get some breakfast.”
Once I wash my face and brush my teeth, I change out of my pajamas, then head to the living room. He’s standing by the door, with his phone, wallet, and keys in hand.
“Ready?” he asks. I nod and we head out, riding in a comfortable silence.
We pull up to a small diner downtown that I’ve always wanted to try but never had the money to go.
A waitress greets us as we step inside and tells us to have a seat anywhere. We head to a back corner, and I slide into a booth with my back to the door and he sits across from me. I put my hands on the table and he grabs them in his.
“What do you wanna eat?” he asks.
I shrug. I hate that he’s going to pay for my food, since I’m way too broke to cover it. He doesn’t seem to mind, but I’ll always feel like I owe him.
He sighs, like he’s reading my thoughts. He lets go of my hands and comes over to sit beside me.
Putting an arm around my shoulders, Ethan brings me in close so he can whisper, “Creep, it’s fine. I don’t mind paying for breakfast. Or anything else. I still don’t want anything from you. I’ll never want you to feel like you have to give me something in return for me taking care of you. Okay?”
I nod, because what else can I do? I’m sure he’d hold me hostage in this booth until I gave in. “Okay.”
“Good,” he says brightly.
He grabs a menu from the holder in the middle of the table and puts it between the two of us so we can look it over. I decide on a spinach omelet, and Ethan, ever the growing boy, gets the pancake platter with four pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and fresh fruit.
No wonder he’s so big.
Our waitress comes and takes our order a few minutes later.
Once she leaves, we talk about Thanksgiving. Grace is going to cook, which I’m really looking forward to. I haven’t had a full Thanksgiving meal in years. I’ve been going to Crystal’s, and her father isn’t the best cook, though he tries.
Grace has cooked a few times since I’ve been staying some nights with Ethan, and her food is amazing. My mouth waters just thinking about her cooking.
It'll just be me, Ethan and his parents. Elle, Mitch, Ryder, and Crystal will come over after, and we’re going to hang out while his parents go to a homeless shelter to volunteer like they do often.
Ethan usually goes with them, but they told him to stay home since he’ll have company.
I told them I’d come too, because I’ve never done something like volunteering, but they told us to enjoy being out of school and hanging out with our friends.
Our food comes and we don’t talk much more. Just stuff our faces with the greasy but tasty food.
When we’re finished, I ask Ethan to let me out so I can use the restroom while he goes to the counter to pay.
I handle my business and wash my hands, and when I walk out, I run into someone’s chest. I jump back, looking up to apologize and the words die in my throat.
It’s Tim. He looks almost as shocked as I do. I take a step back and put my hands in my pockets. I move past him and try to walk away, when he calls my name. I startle and turn around quickly, pasting my back to the wall. I’m not sure why I’m afraid of him, but fear lances my heart.
“Jakoby, listen,” he says after blowing out a breath. “I’m sorry. About what happened. I shouldn’t have…done that. After…I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
I nod vigorously, not expecting an apology. I’m not sure if I even want an apology from him. I think I did when it happened, but now I couldn’t give a fuck less. Ethan has already told me I deserve better.
But an apology is nice to hear. I think, even if I don’t need it, I deserve it.
“Thanks,” I murmur.
Tim blows out another breath and says, “You’re welcome. I’ll see you around.”
He goes into the bathroom while I head to the front, looking for Ethan.
He’s standing by the door, talking to one of his old football teammates.
I stand beside him and he smiles down at me, kissing my forehead.
“Ready?” he asks. I nod, then he tells his friend, “We have a date. I’ll see you around. ”
When we get in the car and Ethan pulls off, I tell him what happened when I came out of the bathroom. He clenches his jaw and looks over at me when he gets to a light. “You okay?”
“Mhm. I’m good. I don’t know, it’s weird. I’ve wanted an apology for so long, wanting him to know he was wrong, but when I got it, I didn’t really care either way. I know he was wrong, and that was enough for me.”
Ethan grabs my hand and kisses it. “I’m still sorry you went through that. I’m glad he apologized, though. Even if you don’t care about it, you deserve it.”
“Thank you,” I murmur, looking out of the window. I did deserve an apology, and now that I’ve gotten it, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.