6. We’re all assigned a beaver upon birth #3
But he didn’t give up, he begged for acting lessons, and his dad, feeling like a failure from the divorce, paid for them.
He landed the next commercial he auditioned for at fifteen.
Some Canadian restaurant Colby had never heard of that sold burgers named for family members like Teen, Mom, Grandpa.
“It paid what felt like huge money, and my mom wanted me to save it for college, but my dad let me buy my first car with it.” A used Toyota Rav4.
He wanted something more fun, but his mom insisted on practicality. He named the car Martha.
“You name your cars?” Colby asked, stunned. He didn’t know many dudes who did that.
Hunter nodded emphatically with a look on his handsome face that said Colby was insane for even asking. “Of course. I used to name my bicycles when I was a kid too.”
Colby stared, open-mouthed. Hunter shifted, and Colby watched as his cheeks pinked a little. For some reason, that delighted Colby way more than it should have. “You don’t name things? Like your guitar or the van?”
“No, but maybe I should.” Colby smiled and slipped farther down the wall.
The weed had kicked in, and he was feeling loose and sleepy.
He stretched out, his bare feet bumping Hunter’s ankle.
He didn’t seem to mind. “Although now it’s probably naming it posthumously. The thing is likely a write-off.”
“Don’t let it go into junk yard heaven without a name, Colby.” He said it so seriously that Colby giggled. Hunter grinned at him. “Does it feel like a boy or a girl?”
What a fucking weird question. But Colby considered it anyway. “Dude energy, I think.”
“Okay… then I think maybe a retro name. Because this living in your car thing screams hippie Woodstock vibes to me,” Hunter told him.
“I mean, I didn’t have much of a choice. Rent is stupid expensive in LA, as you know.”
Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I was in student housing when I first got here, so I lucked out there,” Hunter said. “And then I lived in a one-bedroom with two other people. I lived in the dining room with a curtain as a door, another dude lived in the living room, and a girl lived in the bedroom.”
“When did you move in with Leandra?”
“Like not long after I met her at a club. She was a cocktail waitress at the time, finishing nursing school, and had just started teaching yoga,” Hunter said, and he almost sounded whimsical.
Nostalgic, like he was longing for a time that no longer existed.
“She had this place by herself and was really struggling. We were totally locked into each other from the beginning, so we just went for it.”
“Cool.” Colby didn’t know what else to say.
He hadn’t been “locked into” anyone ever.
His last real crush was when he was eighteen, on a guy he worked part-time with at a catering gig.
He was the owner’s son and very out and proud and everything Colby wouldn’t allow himself to be. He never did a thing about the crush.
“It was cool. For a while. Now we’re in a rough patch… at least I think it’s a patch,” Hunter muttered. His words were coming out slower, heavier, the weed hitting him too. His eyelids were drooping.
Colby shivered. Hunter noticed. “You’re cold. You shouldn’t sit around in your wetsuit. Change.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Colby mumbled and reached for a pair of sweats on top of a neat pile of clothing he’d stacked on the platform where the foam mattress used to go.
He held the pants in his hand and looked at Hunter. Hunter blinked, and without a word, his eyes dropped to his lap. “I can step out.”
“No, it’s fine.” Colby turned around and quickly dropped his wet bathing suit.
He started tugging on the sweats with no underwear.
The fleece inside felt good against his damp, cool skin, but it wasn’t helping the way his cock was trying to grow.
He willed it to stop, and it mostly worked.
“What happens if you break up? You and Leandra.”
“Then I buy a van,” Hunter said with a sleepy smile. His eyes were closed now. “And I’d name her Dolly.”
Colby sat back down across the small space from Hunter, his legs extended, his left foot brushing the side of Hunter’s thigh lightly. “I think this one is named Crosby.”
“Good name. Why Crosby? After the hockey player?”
Colby closed his own eyes, which were getting heavy as he asked. “What? No. The singer. David Crosby from the Byrds. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.”
“Mmm…”
“Why Dolly?”
“Dolly Parton, of course,” Hunter mumbled. “She seems like she’d be a wild time, and if I live in a van, I want it to be wild.”
Colby was going to tell him it wasn’t wild. It was sometimes scary and very lonely, but not wild. But instead, he reached for his guitar. “Mind if I play? Edibles make me wanna play.”
“I’d love it,” Hunter murmured. His eyelashes fluttered, and his smile loosened. His long legs stretched out across the length of the van.
Colby started to strum the chords for a Green Day tune, but Hunter shook his head. “You have originals, right? Play me an original.”
Fuck, Colby swallowed. The nerves swirling were stupid because he played his originals all the time in front of rooms full of people.
He also played them at small gatherings and with just Briar in her apartment.
But this felt weird. He played anyway. There was something about Hunter Law that made Colby Keaton want to step out of his comfort zone.
He picked a song he wrote last year called “Want Me To Be” and it was fast and kind of angry, yet Briar said the chorus got stuck in her head for days every time she heard it, making her want to dance, so that was good.
It was about disappointing yourself by not being who other people wanted you to be.
“Jesus, fuck, Colbs, you’re really good.
” Hunter’s words when Colby finished the song were soft but weighty.
They made Colby’s chin tip up and his shoulders push back.
Hunter’s eyes were heavy but focused on Colby and full of awe.
“Seriously, dude. How are you not rich and famous from that voice? And those lyrics? Fucking hell, this town is bullshit.”
Colby smiled. He wanted to ask Hunter if he had a clip of his acting he could share, but words suddenly seemed like a lot of work. And Hunter was snoring ever so faintly.
Colby woke up, and everything was dark. Hunter was in a dead sleep.
His head was tilted to the left, and he was half-sitting—slumped was a better term—against the wall.
Colby was freezing from falling asleep in sweats and nothing else.
He needed a shirt. He wondered if Leandra was looking for Hunter. Was she worried?
He carefully started to move, as slowly and soundlessly as possible.
He got to his knees and leaned across Hunter to reach a USC hoodie he stole from Brodie a billion years ago.
He glanced down at Hunter and wondered if he’d seen Colby naked earlier.
Would Hunter have snuck a peek? The idea of Hunter seeing him made him warm, and not in a bad way.
He purposely ignored that feeling as he yanked on the sweatshirt.
He sat on the edge of the bed platform and grabbed a pair of thick socks to shove on too, and that’s when Hunter’s long, dark eyelashes fluttered. “What time is it?”
His voice was raspy. Colby tapped his phone screen where it sat on the bed, hooked up to a portable charger. “Almost one.”
“Fuck. I told Leandra I was just going out for a walk.” He started to get to his feet.
“Roof!” Colby warned because Hunter was about to try to unfurl to his full six feet. In an effort to protect him from the dented roof, Colby lunged forward and shoved his hand on top of Hunter’s head.
Hunter froze, Colby’s hand sliding through his thick, silky hair. So silky. Fuck. Colby’s cock stirred. He immediately stepped away.
“Thanks for the save.” Hunter smiled, still hunched like Colby was. “Between that and the earthquake, I owe you.”
“Between the tree on the van and letting me squat in your parking stall, I’d say we’re even,” Colby said as Hunter got the door open and stepped out, rising up fully next to the van.
He looked at Colby for a long, quiet minute and then said, “Thanks for tonight.”
Colby nodded, smiled and pulled the door closed.
He dropped onto his bed, pulling the sleeping bag on top of him, too tired to zip it up and sleep in it properly.
He needed to slide right back into sleep, so he didn’t think too much about Hunter, or how charming he was or how good his hair had felt against his skin.
If Colby did that, he might jerk off to him.
And jerking off to the dude with the girlfriend letting you squat was not a good idea.