CHAPTER 25 #2
Victor fought back a smile as he poked Johnny in the side. “You really need to brush your teeth before you’re within five feet of me.”
“Someone’s got high standards,” Johnny joked as he released Victor and headed for the bathroom.
Once he vanished inside, Victor realized his breath probably wasn’t much better.
He decided to head out to his truck for some gum, but after stepping outside, he spotted someone driving Johnny’s truck up the driveway.
Once he saw Sarah’s face through the windshield, he decided to leave her to it and rooted around in his glove compartment for his gum.
By the time Sarah parked and stepped out, Victor was ready to face her with freshened breath.
There was someone else in a sedan pulling up behind her, probably her ride home.
“Thanks for bringing Johnny’s truck,” Victor said.
“You stay the night?” Sarah asked with a lifted eyebrow. Her tone implied she knew something, but Victor didn’t want to read too much into it.
“Needed to make sure he didn’t die.”
“I admire the dedication. I would have left him.” She turned at the sound of the front door clapping. “How you feeling, Johnny?”
Johnny leaned on the sideways-leaning porch railing with his elbows. “I’ve felt worse. Thanks for bringin’ my ole girl home.”
“I know how it works by now. You’re lucky to have this guy as your babysitter.” Sarah jabbed a thumb at Victor. “Most guys woulda let you rot.”
“I appreciate you callin’ ‘im.”
“You should probably have his full name in your phone instead of leaving it an initial like you would a girl you’re texting your dick to behind your girlfriend’s back.” Sarah turned to Victor with half a smile on her face. “I think you deserve all five letters in his phone by now.”
“Six letters,” Victgor replied.
Sarah snorted and laughed. “Wow, look at this guy. Expert counter here.” She slapped him on the arm before stepping closer and lowering her voice. “Thanks for looking after Johnny. He never shuts up about you, so… I’m glad you’re here for him.”
“Yeah.” Victor swallowed around a dry lump in his throat.
Sarah was definitely implying she knew, and considering she’d attended the queer rodeo with Johnny, Victor figured she approved.
For a second he wanted to hug her, even though he’d been pissed as hell at her last night.
Maybe she wasn’t the greatest friend to Johnny at all times, but she loved him when not many others seemed to, even when he was at his ugliest. That was worth something. “Me, too.”
She patted his arm again, more gently this time, before nodding and walking off. Johnny and Victor both watched her ride’s sedan drive down the driveway and onto the road before vanishing over the top of the hill.
“You gonna head out?” Johnny asked, breaking the silence.
“I really should. I have a lesson at nine-thirty.”
“Alright. Well.” Johnny stood straight and tapped his fingers on the porch railing before descending the several stairs to the gravel in a pair of fluffy slippers he must have put on before stepping outside.
Victor didn’t have much time to prepare before Johnny grabbed him by the collar, pushed him up against the side of his truck, and kissed him.
Victor swallowed the gum without thinking before Johnny’s tongue pressed against the seam of his lips.
Thankfully he now tasted like mint toothpaste, so beyond a bit of sweat, no scent from last night lingered.
Victor thought about pushing him back because Johnny had yet to accept Victor’s conditions for this sort of thing, but at the same time, he spent too much time craving this affection to fight it off now.
The fact that Johnny was so tall was both an inconvenience and a turn-on, and for once Victor wasn’t bitter about being five-foot-seven.
He looped his arms around Johnny’s neck, pressing his palms against the knobs of Johnny’s spine exposed by his tank top.
Only then did he realize Johnny was out here in the cold in a sleeveless shirt.
He felt Johnny’s right hand sliding across the front of his jeans, and he pulled back, placing a hand on Johnny’s chest to keep him from diving back for Victor’s mouth.
“Nice try,” Victor muttered. “But I have my terms.”
“Goddamn it, Vic,” Johnny pouted, dropping his forehead against the top of Victor’s head. “You tryna kill me?”
“I’m not the one standing in your way. That’s you.”
Johnny let out a heavy sigh and stepped back, running his hands through his hair and then down his face, as if it could get any more red and puffy.
As much as Victor wanted to kiss him into oblivion, Johnny certainly looked more desirable when he didn’t have bloodshot eyes and several days of grease in his hair.
“You and your damn principles,” Johnny muttered. “Shoulda known you weren’t born a man. No man could keep his dick in his pants this well.”
“Johnny,” Victor replied with some warning in his tone.
“What? Can’t I say that?”
Victor pushed himself off the truck and walked past Johnny on his way to the driver’s side.
“I’m just joking,” Johnny continued, sounding like he was holding back a laugh as he followed Victor around the truck. “Aw come on, Vic. It don’t mean nothin’. How am I supposed to know what to say about all this? Ain’t ever heard of… you know, what it is that you are.”
“It’s called transgender. You can say it out loud.”
“Fine. Transgender. Happy?”
Victor sucked in a deep breath. He’d had such endless patience for his family that he had so little left for anyone else.
But Johnny was not the shitty strangers online feigning ignorance simply to insult him after he’d been more than accommodating.
They still hadn’t really talked through any of this, but so far it seemed like Johnny was willing to learn.
It wasn’t his fault Victor had certain triggers from years of being purposely misunderstood.
When Victor met Johnny’s eyes, he felt the tension leave his body.
Goddamn it, as stupid and stubborn and complicated as Johnny was, Victor wanted to kiss him again.
“Can you make me a promise?” Victor said softly.
“Yeah?”
“However I act, I’d really prefer you didn’t imply that it’s because I was assigned female at birth. Everyone is unique in their own way, and just because I can keep it in my pants doesn’t make me any less of a man.”
“I ain’t sayin’ it makes you less of a man,” Johnny explained. “I was just makin’ fun of men’s low standards, that’s all.”
Victor must have still looked unconvinced, because Johnny stepped forward and gripped Victor behind the neck.
“Whatever stupid shit I say and whatever parts of you I don’t get, I respect you,” Johnny insisted. “And no matter who you were as a kid, I literally can’t see you as a woman. You don’t gotta worry about me on that front. I have a terrible imagination.”
Victor scoffed and shook his head before dropping it against Johnny’s chest. “You make it really hard to be mad at you.”
“That’s what all the girls say.”
Victor wrapped his arms around Johnny’s waist and hugged him.
When Johnny hugged him back, Victor wished they could just stand like this for a while.
Kissing and fondling aside, it had been a while since Victor got to enjoy the very basic intimacy of a man’s embrace.
He was now remembering how much he needed this.
Keeping their relationship as friends-only was really going to kill him.
“Soooo… you change your mind at all about your terms yet…?”
Victor pulled away with a sigh. “I’m leaving.”
“I’m joking.”