8. Chapter 8
One of Jake’s roommates, Neil, got drunk last night and tried to bake a cake.
Neil had cranked up some Coolio, mixed up a lumpy batter full of eggshells, stuck it in a cold oven, and left it there while he passed out on the couch.
He also left a sink full of dishes, flour all over the kitchen, and a whole bunch of trash and spilled cake batter on the table.
And then Neil just woke up, went to work, and didn’t clean it up.
Jake wasn’t about to clean it up.
And with the table a mess, that meant when Ezra came over for their final tutoring session, they were going to have to go to Jake’s room again.
Jake tried to get it ready. He changed his bedsheets and picked his underwear up off the floor.
He kicked his towels and shoes under the bed and sprayed Febreze everywhere.
He even checked himself in the mirror a few times to make sure he looked okay.
He also looked at his ears since Ezra seemed to have a thing for ears.
Jake didn’t know if an ear kink was a thing, but whatever floated the guy’s boat.
And Jake thought his ears looked better than Sean’s.
So, Jake should win Best Ears then. Best Looking and Best Ears.
That’s what he’d win, if there ever was such a thing, and there wasn’t, but Jake didn’t think there needed to be, since he hadn’t thought about it all that much or anything.
When Ezra came over, and up to Jake’s room, Jake expected it to be a little awkward. And it was. Ezra looked nice, though. He wore one of his T-shirts under a short-sleeved button-up. The T-shirt said Pudding on the Ritz with a cup of pudding wearing a top hat and monocle. It made Jake grin.
“What?” Ezra said, putting his books down on Jake’s desk.
“Your shirt,” Jake said. “I like it.”
“Oh yeah.” Ezra glanced down at it. “I just figured I’d wear one of them since I’m not seeing Sean today.”
“Why wouldn’t you wear it around Sean?”
Ezra shrugged. “It’s just not his sense of humor, I guess.”
“But it’s yours,” Jake said.
Ezra shrugged again. “So, did you do the practice test?”
Jake sighed. “Yeah. This morning. Here.” He handed it to Ezra.
Ezra looked it over for a few minutes, then he turned to Jake with a big smile. “Jake, you got every single question right!”
Jake smiled back. “Well, it was all thanks to you.”
Ezra looked back at the practice test. “You’re going to ace it for sure.”
Jake figured he would, and his Stats professor’s eyes might bug out upon seeing all the right answers on Jake’s exam. And Jake wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without Ezra.
Ezra went over a few more things with Jake, and Jake barely listened.
He got the sense that Ezra wanted to avoid talking about anything else.
But then the hour was up, and it was time for Ezra to go.
Jake sat on his bean bag chair and watched Ezra gather up his books and slowly put them in his bookbag.
After Ezra was done, he looked over at Jake. “You’re going to tell me how it goes, right?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Good.” Ezra smiled faintly. He looked around Jake’s room.
And Jake looked around his room as if he might see something he’s never seen before.
“Well.” Ezra lifted his bookbag onto his shoulder. “Guess that’s it.”
Jake stood up. “Guess so.”
Ezra rubbed his lips together and looked at Jake for moment. “Listen. I really appreciate everything you did for me. Helping me and, well, you know.” He laughed softly, and ran his fingers through his hair, making Jake’s belly flip-flop. “Everything, um, from before.”
Jake’s mouth smiled but his eyes didn’t. “Yeah, sure. And I appreciate you tutoring me and stuff.”
Ezra lingered for a moment, then he went toward the door.
“Oh, wait a second,” Jake said. He went over to a shelf and pulled out a T-shirt. He handed it to Ezra. “Here. I got this for you.”
Ezra unfolded the shirt to look and laughed.
The caption read May the Forks be with You and it had a picture of Darth Vader holding a bunch of forks.
Jake got it at a shop at the mall that had silly gag gifts like that, along with a shelf full of vibrators that Jake did not look at a couple of times.
“It made me think of you,” Jake said.
“That’s awesome.” Ezra smiled a bright dimpled smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Jake said.
Ezra looked at Jake, and Jake looked at Ezra. Moments passed and Jake didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to say. Or rather he did, he was just afraid to say it.
“Well.” Ezra turned toward the door again. “I guess I’ll see you in choir practice.”
Before Ezra could open the door, Jake called out, “Wait.”
He went over to Ezra, standing in front of him. There were all kinds of words on the tip of his tongue— don’t go, I like you, Sean’s ears are weird —but he didn’t say any of them. Instead, he cupped Ezra’s face in his hands and kissed him.
For about three seconds, Ezra didn’t react. Then he kissed Jake back. His bookbag and the shirt were dropped on the floor as his arms came around Jake and Jake’s arms went around him. Jake's hands went up under Ezra’s shirt and felt up his back and his stomach.
Jake pulled away from Ezra’s lips and began kissing his neck. His lips brushed by Ezra’s ear. “Would you sleep with him?”
Ezra was starting to breathe hard. His hands slipped under Jake’s shirt and gripped his back. “I-I don’t know. I might.”
Jake kissed up Ezra’s throat to his jaw. “If you want to, you can pretend that I’m him,” he whispered. “For practice.”
“You really want me to?”
Jake replied, his voice almost pained, “You can do whatever you want with me, Ezra. I’ll be whoever you want me to be.”
If it means you’ll stay the night with me.
Ezra moved his head so he could look into Jake’s eyes.
Then he cupped Jake’s face in his hands and kissed him slowly and tenderly.
His whole demeanor changed. He removed Jake’s clothing all slow too, kissing Jake here and there on his cheeks and on his neck.
Jake thought he was going to melt until he realized Ezra was only acting this way because he was imagining Sean.
It hurt. It did. But what else was Jake going to do? He’d fallen for Ezra. He’d fallen hard, right on his face, and he couldn’t get up.
Ezra ran a hand up Jake’s bare stomach to the middle of his chest. “I, um… I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time.” He blinked nervously a couple of times. “Because I’ve… I’ve always liked you.”
Jake decided he could play along. He could pretend too. He took Ezra’s hand on his chest and kissed it. “Me too.”
Ezra smiled. He blushed. He kissed Jake again, but it was deeper. Heated. Jake kissed him back, his hands working at the button and zipper on Ezra’s jeans, bumping into Ezra’s hands doing the same thing.
Jake turned them in what he thought was the general direction of his bed.
But Jake was so distracted kissing Ezra and trying to get his pants undone that he didn’t realize they were already pretty close, and when the backs of Ezra’s legs hit the edge of Jake’s bed, Ezra fell back, pulling Jake on top of him.
Jake thought he couldn’t have choreographed that move better himself.
As Jake rolled around on his bed with Ezra, kissing him like some kind of Kissing Maniac, and only pausing to remove clothing, he told himself that he would have to be okay if Ezra wanted to stop this little pretend game they were playing.
Because it was probably going to happen.
Ezra was going to realize at some point that the person he really wanted to be with was Mr. Weird Ears Crooked Nose for real. Not Jake as a poor substitute.
So, as Jake got naked and got Ezra naked, he braced himself.
He waited for that moment to happen. He waited for Ezra to pull away and apologize.
He waited as he frantically dug around in his messy bedside drawer for a condom and lube.
He waited as he took Ezra’s dick into his mouth and licked it and sucked it like it was a goddamn piece of candy.
Jake thought for sure the moment would come when he lubed up his finger and started to push it into Ezra’s hole.
He thought it might happen when he groaned at how Ezra felt just around his finger—hot and tight—and Ezra groaned back as Jake twisted and pushed his finger in deeper.
He kept fingering Ezra for a time, giving Ezra a chance to change his mind, and giving Jake a chance to find his gland and make Ezra squirm and moan.
Jake even took his time putting on the condom and lubing himself up while Ezra watched. Jake wasn’t sure just how much lube he should use, so he just used a lot. After his cock was properly slick and he’d put some around Ezra’s hole, he hesitated. He looked at Ezra.
Ezra nodded. “I want you to.”
So Jake did. And holy hell. Ezra felt so good . Jake found that after slathering on so much lube he could almost slide right in with minimal resistance, but he didn’t. He didn’t want to hurt Ezra. Jake looked down at him. Ezra’s eyes were closed, and his brows were pinched together.
“Are you okay?” Jake whispered, sliding a hand across his cheek.
“Yeah,” Ezra replied, breathlessly. “Keep going.”
Jake did, but he went really slow and that wasn’t easy.
His hips wanted to start pounding away, because this felt incredible.
And Jake thought maybe it wasn’t so much he was having sex with a guy, but that the guy was Ezra; even if Ezra was just pretending he was Sean.
But Jake didn’t want to spend a single second imagining how Sean might fuck and what he would say.
Jake didn’t pretend to be anybody but himself.
He leaned down to kiss Ezra’s neck, his cheeks, and Jake even kissed the outer shell of his ear, which Ezra seemed to like a whole lot, so maybe an ear kink was a thing.