Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Jude
EVERYONE AROUND THE CAMPFIRE groaned except for Ty.
“You can’t be serious,” Jude said. “We’re staying up late for ‘Never Have I Ever?’ Are we back in high school?”
“Stop being lame,” Ty said. “It’s going to be fun. Wake Finn up. We’re going to start as soon as Elijah and I get a beer.”
Part of Jude wondered if he was going to suffer some sort of deserved calamity for waking Finn up for such a silly game, but he nudged their shoulder anyway and gently coaxed them out of their light doze. They grumbled, but when Jude passed them an opened beer, they took a long swig of it. To be honest, Jude was probably as upset as Finn. Having them sleeping against him while they sat around a campfire was just about the coziest Jude had been in his entire life. He could have stayed like that forever if they let him.
Tonight, however, they apparently weren’t going to get any more snuggling in until they crawled into their tent. Ty was hellbent on this game of his, and he wasn’t letting any of them wriggle away.
“Okay, here’s how it’s going to work,” Ty said. He stood before the campfire, the flames throwing his tall, lean frame into silhouette. He clutched an opened beer in one hand. “Everyone has a beer. Put up five fingers. Every time someone says something you’ve done, you put a finger down and take a drink. First person out loses.”
“Sounds like the first person out wins if they’ve done all the crazy stuff no one else has,” Mylo said.
“He has a point,” Finn said.
Ty sighed at all of them and shook his head. “Whatever. Then the first person out is the winner. Think of it however you want. The point is, the person whose turn it is says something they haven’t done. Everyone who’s done it puts down a finger. And takes a drink, just for fun. Got it?”
Everyone nodded, and Ty settled down beside Elijah.
“Okay,” he said, “Jude, you’re first.”
“Hold on, why me?” Jude said.
“Because you’re the baby gay,” Ty said. “And the baby gay goes first.”
“Hey, I’m not a baby gay. It’s been like a year.”
“It has not been a year until we’re in the lead climbing season,” Ty said, “and we haven’t even gotten to bouldering yet. You have several months left on your baby gay calendar. Now go. You’re first, baby gay.”
Jude sighed, resigned to his fate. He was definitely the baby gay of this group, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what he was doing. He liked to think he’d more than made up for lost time with Finn these past several months, diving into every new experience with as much information and enthusiasm as he could. It had been a hell of a fun education. Finn was patient and careful, but also seemed to know when Jude could take more, which was a good thing considering Finn often left him speechless. Whether it was fingers, toys or anything else, Finn’s every touch was magic for Jude. He’d yet to find something that didn’t upend his whole world.
Speaking of Finn…
What had Jude done with Finn that any of these guys wouldn’t have done? They’d definitely all sucked a dick. They’d probably all ridden one, too. The thing with the necktie? No, Jude vaguely remembered Ty mentioning something similar in one of his stories about Elijah.
Toys, then? Jude doubted anyone here didn’t own a toy. Maybe Lukas, but if he was living with Mylo and keeping that guy satisfied, there was probably something special involved.
Jude dug through every single encounter he could think of, growing more flustered as his memories of his time with Finn flashed through his mind. The more he thought, the more he wished he could just get into his tent with Finn and not have to think about anyone else.
“Come on, Jude,” Ty said. “You have to name something.”
“I know, I know, gimme a second,” Jude grumbled.
“If you don’t have anything, then I have to admit, Finn, I’m impressed,” Mylo said. “You’ve put this straight boy through everything already?”
Finn didn’t dignify that with a response, but Jude wasn’t so cool and collected.
“I’m not straight, obviously,” he snapped at Mylo, who simply laughed.
It was true. He wasn’t straight. He was … bisexual? Pansexual? Jude mostly just used the word queer. It felt the most true. But Mylo wasn’t far off in alleging that Finn had put Jude through just about everything in their time together. Sometimes when they visited each other Jude was afraid they would never actually get out of bed and to a climbing gym. Well, maybe “afraid” wasn’t the right word. Part of him knew he needed to keep up with his training even when he and Finn had time together, but it was a very small, quiet part of him when Finn was in his bed, their long hair splayed all around them, their beautiful body on display for Jude and Jude alone.
His thoughts drifted to lazy mornings spent kissing his way up Finn’s slender thighs and long, sun-draped afternoons when they would squeeze into the tub in Jude’s apartment and touch each other under the water until both of them were so on edge they couldn’t stand it for another second.
Yet nothing in all of that was especially unusual, not to a bunch of other queer people. What Jude and Finn did was probably downright vanilla compared to the others. Ty had shared plenty of wild stories with Jude over the years, and Mylo made very little secret of his escapades. Even their more stoic partners probably got a dose of adventure simply by being around them.
Think, think, think!
There had to be something, something that was just Jude and Finn’s, something special, something no one else shared.
Jude gasped when he found it. Everyone else was drinking and chatting around him, completely forgetting about him as he churned through his memories for so long. The moment he looked up, every eye focused on him.
“Never have I ever,” Jude said, a slow smile creeping across his mouth, “slept with a man.”
Everyone around Jude groaned. Finn smacked him playfully on the shoulder.
“You absolute bastard,” Mylo said.
“Hey, it’s true, though,” Jude said. “Drink up.”
Everyone put down a finger and took a drink. A few rolled their eyes. Jude could hardly keep from laughing. Yeah, he’d probably only done things all of these people had also done, but there was one thing Jude had on his side. Finn wasn’t a man. And since everyone Jude had slept with before them was a woman, that left Jude with one single trump card in his arsenal.
“Well played,” Ty said, “but you are totally going down now. Prepare to chug that beer.”
It was exactly what Jude deserved, but he didn’t really care. Finn was smiling over at him, a gleam in their lovely, dark eyes. Jude couldn’t help stealing a quick kiss before the game resumed. He liked being able to talk about them being non-binary so casually. It felt easy; it felt right. Not a single person here and had questioned it for a second. That’s what made this trip and these people so special. They didn’t actually care if Jude was a comparatively inexperienced “baby gay” or if Finn was non-binary or if Elijah was slightly older than the rest of them. Everyone could come to this camping trip as themselves and count on the group embracing them.
The game continued, and sure enough Jude immediately had to put down a finger for “never have I ever had sex in a car.”
“Wait, Jude, for real?” Ty said. “I can’t believe you never told me. I feel so betrayed. Explain. Now.”
“Hey, everyone else except you and Elijah also put down a finger,” Jude said. “Why am I back on the spot?”
“Because you’re my best friend and you’re supposed to tell me these things.”
Jude hung his head, resigned all over again. He’d barely gotten out of that first question alive and now he was right back at the center of attention. He took a swig of his beer.
“Fine,” he said. “But it really wasn’t that interesting. It was just, uh, that one time back before the all-genders comp. We decided to road trip back to Salt Lake City after. And it just sort of … happened.”
“I’m going to need a lot more than that,” Ty said.
Jude looked over at Finn. “I mean, it’s not really… I don’t know if I can…”
Finn shrugged. “Whatever. It’s fine. I blew him at a truck stop. It was very ‘classic gay.’”
“It wasn’t a truck stop,” Jude rushed to add. “It was one of those fancy rest stops. It was really nice. You’re making it sound like we were in a dirty bathroom somewhere but it wasn’t like that at all.”
“Okay, okay, okay, hold on,” Mylo said. “You two pulled over for sex? Wow. I didn’t know you had it in you. I’m so proud.”
“We didn’t pull over just for sex,” Jude said. “We did need gas, too. It just … the lead season was over. It had been a while since we got to see each other.”
“You looked sexy pumping gas,” Finn said, definitely playing up a silky, sultry lilt. “My big, strong man taking care of things.”
Jude was instantly red, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Their dynamic wasn’t like that at all. Finn probably topped Jude more than the other way around. But Finn also loved playing with gender and presentation, and every once in a while they put on something tiny and lacy and talked about Jude as their “big, strong man” and it damn near drove Jude insane.
“Anyway,” Finn said, their voice right back to normal, “the rest stop was basically empty, so we parked kind of out of the way and climbed into the back seat and I blew him. It was hot.”
“I reciprocated!” Jude said. “N-not that any of you asked. But just, you know, for the record. Finn started it, but I, uh, I did my part too, of course.”
He was burning right out of his skin, red to the tips of his ears, but at least it was dark around the campsite. Night encroached, pushing back against the flickering orange light of the campfire, swallowing up the forest all around them. Jude could barely even see past their tents to their cars.
Finn patted Jude on the leg. “He certainly did reciprocate. Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t, but he kind of insisted.”
“I-I wasn’t going to let you just … you know … not get anything in return.”
“I got to suck your dick,” Finn said. “That’s reward enough, darling.”
If Jude got any redder, he was going to burn his skin right off. He put his head down, hiding his face in his hands, and Finn patted his head. Laughter bubbled around Jude, but it wasn’t unkind.
“I take it back,” Ty said. “It wasn’t fair to call you a baby gay. You really are diving in mouth first, huh?”
Another round of laughter. This time, even Finn joined in.
“Mouth and other things,” Finn confirmed.
“Can we please just keep playing now?” Jude said, his voice muffled by his hands.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Mylo said. “I promise I’ve done worse stuff.”
“We all know you’ve done worse stuff,” Ty said. “Actually, I’d like to know exactly what kind of worse stuff. Who’s next? Elijah?”
The game moved on, but Jude wasn’t ready to unbury his face from his hands. It was hard being the baby gay in such an experienced group. Jude feared where this game could lead as it kept going. What if they made him reveal that one time when… God, no. Please, please, no. If there was any mercy in this world, he wouldn’t have to tell that story, too. He had never stopped exploring since meeting Finn, and that was mostly awesome. It was just way less awesome when he had to tell all his friends how he got a blow job at a rest stop because he was so horny for his gorgeous partner he couldn’t wait until they reached their destination.
He took a deep breath and finally extracted himself from his hands, grabbing for his beer on the ground. This was going to be a really long night. Jude was ready to hide under a rock and never come back out … and they hadn’t even gotten to Mylo yet.