Kendall
CROSS-LEGGED ON THE cushy gaming chair for the desk setup in my bedroom, I guided my MMORPG character through the somewhat repetitive task of leveling up my botany skills by gathering materials and using them to craft useful potions and items. It didn’t feel tedious, though.
With the gorgeous music and beautiful graphics, I could never get bored playing this game.
I’d been playing for years and hadn’t come close to maxing out.
After a handful of minutes, I heard a little ping through my headset and got a notification that Benji had logged on.
He teleported over to me like always, and called me through Discord so we could chat.
Despite the fact that we were verbally talking, I had my character wave at his as he approached.
My character was sort of a self-insert, a pink-haired catboy, while he’d opted to be a giant, muscular humanoid dragon instead.
“You want to farm for mounts?” He asked. “Or we could queue for a deep dungeon.”
“A dungeon sounds good,” I answered, switching over to my healing class so I could support him while we cleared floors.
As we went through the familiar process, we chatted about what was going on in our lives.
I felt bad leaving out what was most definitely the most important thing going on in mine at the moment, but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t want to hear about Rhys and I having some kind of…
Hookup thing going on. And I was certain Rhys didn’t want anyone knowing.
So I kept it vague and talked about how my limited drop of pride themed cheesecakes on my store front had sold out in only a couple of hours.
“That’s awesome!” He said. “You’re going to save one for me though, right?”
I laughed, maneuvering my fingers on the keys to cast a protection spell on him so the boss of the floor we were on couldn’t nuke him and wipe us.
“Of course,” I promised.
I always made an extra of whatever my special dessert for the month was to give to him.
He had a serious sweet tooth, and he’d really been the one to support my dream of doing this from the beginning.
If not for Benji convincing me that it wasn’t a stupid idea to make an account all about baking tips and hacks, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.
“There’s a passionfruit glaze on the top,” I added.
He groaned dramatically, and I could practically hear him drooling through the headset.
“Oh my god, don’t tell me that! It’s going to be weeks before I can eat it!”
“I’ll put a rush on yours.”
We finished up the dungeon without incident while he regaled me with a story of him waking up in the middle of the night to find Josie in the kitchen eating shredded cheese right out of the bag like a hungry mouse.
“I almost had a heart attack,” he admitted, while I laughed. “I swear when she turned to face me, her eyes were glowing.”
I picked up my phone off the corner of the desk when it lit up, and saw I had a text from Rhys.
We’d been texting for a few days, ever since I’d told him he could at the pride parade.
It was simultaneously sweet and sort of stressful.
I hadn’t had such a crazy, all-encompassing crush on someone since…
Well, since Rhys. But at least I’d had the excuse of being a hormonal teenager then.
We’d skirted the line of being flirty, but I could tell he was being cautious. Maybe having the evidence of our conversations available for anyone to see freaked him out a little more than secretly jerking each other off in an alley.
Do you have any idea of what gift I should get for Josie’s baby shower? I’m totally lost.
I blinked, tilting my head as I stared at his message. She had an online registry that I could have easily sent him a link for to make it easy, but…
Do you want me to show you some stuff that would work? There’s this little boutique with a lot of really cute nursery stuff Josie and I have gone to a few times.
I sent the message and waited, half-listening to the rest of Benji’s story as my mind raced with excitement. I really, really wanted him to say yes.
You don’t want to spend your day helping me, do you?
I nearly snorted. I would give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that was both a sarcastic and rhetorical question. It was still early in the afternoon. We had plenty of time.
I can pick you up? That boutique is only like a 30 minute drive away.
“Do you want to run another one?” Benji asked, and I ran my tongue around my teeth, staring down at my phone screen.
Well, if you really don’t mind slumming it with me all day…
“I can’t,” I said. “I have plans.”
“What kind of plans?” Benji inquired.
It would be way too easy to get caught in a lie for this kind of thing, and there was technically nothing weird or sketchy about what we were doing anyway. Technically.
“Official co-uncle duties,” I said, before sending a final text to Rhys.
I’ll pick you up in 30.
“Something with my brother?”
“Shopping for baby shower gifts,” I confirmed, hoping he wouldn’t consider the fact that all anyone had to do was click a link and add to cart.
“Ah, okay!” He said. “That’s nice of you to help him out.”
Of course Benji wouldn’t be suspicious or assume the worst of anything.
He wasn’t that kind of guy. And on top of that, I had a feeling that the idea of holding a crush on someone for a fucking decade of them being gone was probably unfathomable to him.
His fixations had never lasted long, always hopping from crush to crush when we were in school together, until Josie had locked him down.
“Yeah, well, it’s no trouble,” I said, hoping I sounded casual and like the amount of effort I’d be expending was any determining factor in my decision to help him. Like I wouldn’t have crawled on my stomach through broken glass to spend a day with Rhys. “I’ll talk to you later, Benji.”
“Later,” he responded, before I took off my headset and scrambled into my bathroom to take a quick shower.
As I rubbed gritty sugar scrub all over my body and massaged strawberry-scented shampoo into my scalp, I tried not to think too much about how my instincts were telling me that Rhys seemed to really like the pretty parts of me.
He liked that my skin was smooth and that I smelled soft and sweet.
I’d always gotten the sense that the guys I’d dated before had tolerated my quirks and preferences regarding hygiene and style and fashion.
Or, if I was being really generous, most of them had been neutral about it.
But Rhys seemed really into it, which was simultaneously surprising and felt kind of obvious. He liked girls. Of course he was going to like the parts about me that leaned more feminine. But that didn’t mean he was thinking of me as a woman… Did it?
Uncomfortable with the idea, I forced myself to remember that he hadn’t flinched away from my dick in the alley or begrudgingly touched me.
He’d been totally into it, devouring me with his eyes and panting with arousal while he stroked me.
No, I was being weird and paranoid just because he’d only been with women before.
Even if he wasn’t ready to actually admit it yet, even to himself, Rhys was definitely not straight.
In my bedroom, I yanked clothes out of my drawers and closet, tossing them on my bed to inspect.
Deciding on my favorite pair of jeans, the ones that fit me like a glove with rips up and down the legs, I tugged them on along with a high-cropped tee that was just a little too big for me, tending to slouch over to one side to expose my shoulder.
I pulled open my top drawer, the one with all my socks and underwear in it, smirking a little as I remembered the way Rhys had practically drooled at my stringy cat print panties.
He’d definitely been into it. I didn’t usually wear stuff like that when I was just running errands around town and stuff, but…
Maybe I’d play it safe and dress up for him just in case.
Nothing too fancy, just a cotton pair with black and white polka dots that rode low on my hips and were cut high in the back to show some of my butt.
But the edges were trimmed in black lace.
If he didn’t end up seeing them, that was fine. We were just shopping for baby stuff, anyway. It wasn’t like the world was littered with empty alleyways for us to duck into so he could bend me over and split me open on his giant cock.
Okay, so he probably wasn’t ready for all that yet, even though I’d kind of already forced him to verbally admit he wanted to fuck me. But a boy could dream.
WHEN I PULLED up to the Kensington house a bit later, Rhys was already waiting for me on the shady front porch.
When he stood to make his way down the steps and toward my car, my eyes roamed all over him, drinking in all of his features as my heart stumbled in my chest. He pushed his dark hair up off his forehead and slipped the aviator sunglasses he’d had hooked on the collar of his shirt onto his face before sliding into my passenger seat.
“Hey, Sparkles.”
All of my attempts to look cool and casual and totally unaffected by his raging aura of hotness and general perfection was obliterated, dissolving like snowflakes on my tongue.
Suddenly I was thrown into the past, when I’d been an awkward, stuttering nerd and he’d been a popular, confident jock. And I’d had absolutely no chance with him, a fact that had definitely weighed on my sensitive, lovesick heart.