Chapter Three
Bryce
He’s been in the bathroom for ten minutes now.
I don’t want to freak him out even more, but damn , Amber fucked with his head.
I put some clothes on and wait for him in the kitchen, hoping he’ll come out here instead of going straight to his room.
When I finally hear the door open, my eyes find his as he comes down the hallway.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, Bode.”
We both speak over each other and laugh.
“You don’t owe me an apology. I shouldn’t have pushed you if you weren’t ready to talk about what’s bothering you.”
“I know, but I shouldn’t have snapped at you either. You were only looking out for me—like always,” he says as he sits next to me at the kitchen island.
There’s an awkward silence that’s never been between us before, and I hate it, but I won’t push him again.
“I’m sorry I stared at your dick,” he says as I’m taking a sip of my water—and then it’s everywhere in a fit of laughter. “What the fuck, man?” Bodie gets up and starts wiping the water off his arm and the counter, while I’m busy hiding my laughter behind a hand.
“It’s not funny, Bryce. I was fucking gawking at you like a teenage boy and their first naked girl experience.”
“Or naked boy,” I add with a smirk, and wind up getting the hand towel thrown at my face. “Sorry, you set yourself up for that one.”
“Can you please stop making a joke out of this? It’s not helping.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. But you know this is just Amber fucking with your head. It’s not what you’re really feeling.” I pause when I see his brows furrow. “Is it?”
His gaze meets mine and then darts away again. “I don’t know. There are a lot of things going through my head, and—”
I wait for him as his slightly shaking hands pick at his cuticles.
“My dick got hard.”
I attempt to control the look on my face when his eyes meet mine again, but I’m stunned by his admission. “Umm, not sure what to say.” I search for the right words. “How did it make you feel?”
“How do you think it did?”
Still not sure of the right words, I keep quiet while he continues.
“It made me horny, Bryce.”
“Bode, I know I’m a good-looking guy—”
“Don’t crack a joke, Bryce. I swear I’ll body slam your ass on this counter.”
I can’t help but laugh. “But, don’t you think maybe it’s because you haven’t slept with anyone in months and your mind is just messing with you?”
“How do you know I haven’t been laid?”
“You know these walls are paper thin.” His incredulous look tells me there’s another thing he has zero clue about in our apartment. “Bode, I’ve heard you jerking off every day—multiple times a day. Even when you’ve been in the bathroom while Amber was sleeping.”
His gaping mouth shocks me—is he that unaware? “You heard me and didn’t say something?”
“Dude, it was like you were training for the Olympics. What was I supposed to say? Bodie, slow down before you grow calluses? Owww.” He gets me with his infamous dead arm. The fucker perfected that shit when we were teenagers.
“You’re an asshole.”
“Not to mention your phone is extra loud when you’re watching porn. You should really invest in earbuds.”
“You’re real close to that body slamming.”
“Okay, but seriously. Did your dick ever get hard for me or another guy before today?” He doesn’t answer, and again his eyes drift away—fuck. “Alright, so you have.”
“Yeah, once when—umm…”
“I don’t need the details if you don’t want to tell me.” He nods with tight lips. “But, if you have any questions or want to discuss anything other than that one time—”
“Two times,” he says, accentuating the number for clarity.
“Sorry. Two times.” I fight back a smile at his firm stance. “You can come talk to me. Ask me anything you want to know. And I don’t know, maybe it’s not a me-thing, Bode.”
“Amber was very specific that it’s you and not men in general.”
“Maybe she only took notice of it around me because she was jealous of our friendship.”
“That’s true. She always hated you.”
“Yeah, and look at it this way. Now she hates both of us.”
“Ha ha. Dickhead.”
His chest puffs before he releases the air trapped in his lungs.
“Are you good now? Can I go back to my breakfast, or do you need a hug session first?”
He nods, waiting for me to pull him in for a hug. Poor guy. People must think he didn’t have the most loving parents on the planet. We don’t talk about how this whole thing started back in middle school. Hell, I don’t even know if Bodie remembers.
“Bryce. Bryce. I got onto the team. I can’t believe it,” Bodie says as he runs up to me in the hallway.
“Dude, that’s awesome. Congratulations.” I’m so excited for him, but I can see he’s freaking out by the way he’s trembling, and his cuticles aren’t looking so great.
“Bodie, take a deep breath.” I pull him into a hug to ground him.
I know his mother bought him that weighted blanket, and I looked up what it was for.
I’m hoping a hug will do the same for him.
When I feel his chest expand and I hear a sigh as he exhales, I think it did the trick.
“Thanks, man. That’s just what I needed.”
From that moment on, I knew I had to be his anchor sometimes. A few weeks later, he discovered why it was helping and put the twenty-second rule in place.
So, I give him his twenty seconds to release the most endorphins since he’s so stressed out. I’d do anything for him, and he knows it.
“Am I allowed to walk around here half-naked again, or do I need to wear a snowsuit all day every day?” I whisper from over his shoulder.
“Fuck you, asshole. Get off me.”
I stumble and have trouble catching my breath between chuckles when he shoves me and stomps down the hallway.
It’s still pitch-dark outside when I wake up in a sweat and with my balls aching.
This bullshit Amber spewed is fucking with my head now too.
I’m used to not getting nearly enough sleep—the dark hours of nighttime are not my friend—but I’ve never had sex dreams about my best friend.
This is the third night in a row I’ve had a dream about Bodie on his knees with my hard cock in his mouth.
The way he looked with his full lips around my shaft and his deep Cupid’s bow still perfectly visible, and his black curls hanging over his baby blues, was porn-star worthy.
I’ve never dreamt or even thought about him like that until we had the conversation in the kitchen the other day—now it’s like I can’t stop.
I head to the kitchen for a bottle of water but stop dead in my tracks in front of his door when I hear moaning and the smacking of skin on skin.
I panic when I hear two men’s voices. Did he really bring someone home?
I get closer to the door and sigh with relief that the sounds are coming from his phone.
For some reason, I feel better knowing he didn’t hook up with a random guy to experiment with.
When Bodie gasps and lets out a moan, my dick twitches to life, and I know it’s time to leave.
I take a minute to shake off my dream and the sounds Bodie was making before heading back to my room—I also don’t want to hear him coming.
That’s the last thing I need when I’m trying to get my dick to calm the fuck down.
As I’m about to swallow the last bit of water, he steps out of his room, and immediately I see the glistening remnants of cum still on his chiseled bare stomach. Fuck, why is that so sexy right now?
He covers it with his hand when he sees me. “Damn, I’m hungry. Needed a snack.” He’s the worst liar. “Umm, how long have you been awake?”
“I just came—out here to get water.” I stumble over words that shouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t want to make this more awkward than it already is—why is it awkward, though? It’s not like we’ve never talked about sex or jerking off before.
“Uhh, yeah, me too.” And that’s the tipping point. We both double over with laughter, and I can’t help but remember all the times we’ve laughed and enjoyed each other’s company.
“Okay, on that note, I’m going back to bed.
” I stop and cup his shoulder as I walk past. “Everything’s going to be okay.
” He lets out the breath he was holding as I release him from my grip—I didn’t realize I tightened it until I see the redness left over on his skin.
“Goodnight, Bode.” He doesn’t respond by the time I close my door, and I’m left wondering if I said the wrong thing.
“What do you mean? Like Bodie, Bodie? Your best friend since forever, Bodie?” Calisse’s response doesn’t surprise me.
She obviously knows how platonic my relationship with Bodie has always been—no matter how many times she insisted we must’ve fucked at some point.
“He’s finally admitting he wants to do the deed with you? ”
“Calisse, what the fuck?”
“What? You can deny it all you want, but that man has been in love with you for years.”
“Shit, not you too.” Typical Calisse, laughing at my pain. “It’s bad enough Amber saying it and fucking with both of our heads, and now you?”
“Listen, I’ve been saying it for years. You just haven’t been hearing me.”
“I didn’t say he wants to fuck me.”
“But you want to fuck him?” she says with a smirk.
“For fuck’s sake. All I said was my dick twitched listening to him.”
“So, your dick wants to fuck him?”
“Why am I here at a waffle joint at 3 a.m. with you again?”
“Because you love me and know I won’t bullshit you like everyone else in the world does.”
“Why do you always have to be right?”
“Stop being a pussy and just kiss him already.”
“You’re literally zero help.”
“Maybe, but I’m pretty to look at,” she says with a wink and a devilish grin.
An incoming text interrupts us, and my stomach twists.
Bodie
Hey can you come home? I need you
Me
You okay? I’m coming.
“I gotta go,” I blurt out, then I drop two twenties on the table and rush out the door.
“Bode, you okay?” I say, barreling through the door, only to see him passed out on the couch. When I lean over to wake him, I get a cough in the face.
“Fuck. Bodie, are you sick?”
“Ughh, I feel like shit.”
I finally notice the stack of tissues above his head on the couch.
“Alright, let’s get you into bed.” Lifting a six-foot-three hockey player is hard as fuck on any given day—add on the dead weight of a sick one, and it’s nearly impossible.
I position him in a fireman’s assist and carefully walk him to his bedroom.
Before I set him down, he goes into a coughing fit, followed by a couple sneezes.
“Geez, man.” I settle him in his bed and hand him his phone.
“Wait,” he says between coughs.
“I’m just going to get you supplies.”
I come back with water, tissues, a thermometer, a cold med that’ll help him sleep, and a book for me to read while I watch over him. I take his temperature first. “101.8 degrees. Not too bad. You’ll survive.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.” He looks at my book and smiles. “Who’s falling in love this time?”
I laugh at his teasing. “Ezra and Josh.” He knows I’m a hopeless romantic with my books.
“I won’t even ask if it has an HEA. I know you won’t read it unless it does.” He coughs through his chuckling.
“Okay, enough of that. Drink.” I help him sit up and give him two cold and flu pills.
“You should’ve been a nurse.”
“Are you saying I’d look good in scrubs, or are we talking a white skirt with red stripes like in the old movies?” His eyes practically pop out of his head. “Dude, I’m kidding, relax.”
He lies back down with a sigh and a few coughs, then finally closes his eyes to rest. I settle in by his feet, resting my back against the wall and trying to finish the book I started the other night.
Soft snoring fills the room in no time. It doesn’t take long until I start nodding off, and Bodie’s voice startles me.
“Come lie down. There’s—cough—plenty of room.”
He shimmies over to make sure there’s plenty of room for both of us, and suddenly I feel like we’re ten years old in the tent in his backyard. Soon, the familiar sound of a sleeping Bodie fills the room again as I drift away.