Love 'n' Stuff

Jack

‘What are you doing?’ I groaned, exhausted.

‘Oh. Um, sorry. I was trying to get up without waking you,’ Freddie said guiltily.

‘And why would you want to do something like that?’ I growled, pinning him to the bed and leaning over him, kissing his neck seductively. And I had only just woken up. He must have mystical powers of attraction or something.

‘Mmm... Ahh...’ Freddie let out whimpered noises of appreciation as I moved my lips softly over his soft spot. The hickey I’d given him last night was starting to show and I felt smug. Freddie’s hands clutched at my shoulder blades helplessly as I rubbed my thigh against his crotch. ‘You do a really bad job at showing someone you hate them,’ he breathed.

‘Oh yeah?’ I could feel how hard he was against my leg.

‘Yeah.’

‘Huh.’ I rolled back to my side of the bed and laid there, pretending to ponder his words. ‘And say, bringing said hated person to the brink of orgasm and then just stopping – would that be a better way to show him?’

Freddie looked crestfallen, then his expression changed. ‘I wasn’t on the brink anyway,’ he muttered, trying to crawl over me again. I grabbed his waist and put my hand on his crotch.

‘Little Freddie says otherwise,’ I smirked. I could feel his precum even though the thin material of his boxers.

Freddie grabbed my wrists and pinned them to the pillow above my head. ‘Bringing someone to the brink and then just stopping, right?’ he asked, his thigh now moving slowly against my crotch... How had this happened? ‘I can work with that,’ he said, and leaned down to nibble on my bottom lip. I probably shouldn’t have made it quite as obvious how much that turns me on last night, but it was too late to do anything about that now. ‘Or,’ Freddie went on, as I closed my eyes and tried not to moan, ‘what would be even better would be letting the guy come in his pants. Right? Wouldn’t that be way worse for the guy you hated?’

‘Hey Freddie,’ I managed to gasp, as he continued to stroke my crotch with his thigh.

‘Mm?’

‘Remember last night when we were arguing about who would be bottom?’

‘Yeah...’ he said, suddenly stopping all movement.

‘We established that I’m stronger,’ I said, and flipped him onto his back.

Freddie

Oh, bollocks.

Matt

So Freddie’s room is empty. I know because I went to apologise for disappearing last night, not, of course, that he probably noticed, what with the whole he-and-Jack-raping-each-other-on-the-dance-floor thing. But, you know, he’s chosen to hang out with me over random scores before; there was a small chance he’d noticed my absence. But it was starting to look like he’d either gone home with somebody else, or not come home at all. Like, maybe he was asleep in a ditch somewhere.

I sighed and closed his door on his abandoned room, then traipsed dejectedly up the hall towards the sitting room and kitchen. As I passed Jack’s room, I heard a moan. Which would have been fine, as I had suspected that Jack was looking for a score last night before we’d even left the apartment, except that I have been best friends with Freddie since we were little and would recognise his voice anywhere, even in moan form. How many times had I sat in the passenger seat beside the taxi driver while Freddie moaned and elicited moans with some random guy in the back seat on our way home from a club? It was practically burned into my memory.

I stopped short, glued to the spot. I didn’t want to listen to Jack and Freddie having sex, or whatever they were doing, and my brain frantically urged my feet to move, in any direction, just to get me away from here, but my muscles weren’t responding. Images flooded my head of them together, twisting and writhing in no particular order inside my brain like snakes squeezing all reason and sanity from my mind.

‘Matt,’ a voice said quietly behind me, and suddenly a small hand was gripping my elbow, tugging me up the hall towards the sitting room. My feet dragged as my brain began slowly to clear of the fog of thought. ‘Come on,’ Benny said in the same quiet, serious voice, pushing me down on the couch gently but firmly. Staring into the middle distance, I let him manipulate my body until a splash of cold water assaulted my face.

‘What?!’ I spluttered, rubbing water from my eyes frantically.

Benny shrugged. ‘I tried offering you a glass of water and you didn’t even react. So I threw it at you instead.’

‘Thanks,’ I said sarcastically, shaking droplets from my hair and shivering as a few slid down the back on my neck and inside my t-shirt.

‘So,’ he said, sitting on the edge of the coffee table and facing me. ‘It’s safe to say that it’s considerably more than a crush.’

I swallowed. ‘It’s not,’ I argued, trying to convince myself as much as him. ‘It can’t be. That would be really weird.’

Benny raised an eyebrow. ‘Stellar argument there Matt, but I don’t think you’re being entirely honest with yourself.’

I dropped my head into my hands for a few seconds and rubbed my face harshly, trying to wake myself up enough to come up with a legitimate excuse.

‘You like him,’ Benny said softly, and paused. ‘Do you love him?’

‘Of course I love him,’ I muttered.

‘Okay, badly phrased. Are you in love with him?’

‘No.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Really, really?’

‘Shut up, Benny.’

Benny sighed. ‘I’m not trying to be annoying. I’m trying to help. I mean, it’s not like I don’t know what you’re going through, I’ve liked people who don’t like me back before. I’ve only ever liked people who don’t like me back.’

I lifted my head out of my hands and looked at him, really looked at Benny. At his earnest, heart-shaped face, his big eyes, his rosebud lips. His pale, flawless skin. The need that seemed to overtake me every time he was around to just bundle him up and give him a hug.

‘I’m not accusing you of lying or anything,’ I said monotonously, ‘but that’s really hard to believe.’

Benny bristled and scowled at me. ‘That sounds like you are accusing me of lying.’

I sighed. ‘I’m not. I just can’t see why anybody you like, wouldn’t like you too. You’re adorable.’

Benny blushed. ‘You keep saying that,’ he muttered, ‘and yet I’m the only one in this apartment that nobody has a crush on.’

I laughed, a little bitterly, and pointed to myself. ‘Nobody has a crush on my either.’

Benny’s eyes widened a fraction and he cleared his throat. ‘I think Freddie is a little torn between you and Jack,’ he said, though he sounded a little reluctant.

‘Why do you think that?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m the most observant person in this place. You think I don’t notice how you all look at each other? He looks at you the same way he looks at Jack.’

My heart started thumping rapidly in my chest, and I stared at Benny is shock.

Benny

Nice one Benny.

First, I nearly admit to Matt that I have a crush on him.

Then, in an effort to back my way out of it, I tell him about Freddie obviously having a thing for both he and Jack.

God, this mess is getting bigger and bigger each day. Why did Freddie have to like either of them? Why couldn’t he just keep it in his pants and look for someone else? He was hurting a lot of people with his indecision.

I opened my mouth to say something else, but clamped it shut again when the door creaked open slowly.

Freddie

‘You’re a dickhead,’ I muttered, staring down at my crotch in disbelief.

Jack reclined on his bed, grinning smugly at me. ‘You started it.’

It was true, and there was really no use in arguing. But, obviously, I was gonna do it anyway. ‘I didn’t mean it! I would never have done this to you.’ I lifted my hips off the bed and started peeling off my boxers gingerly.

‘Liar,’ Jack countered. And I was lying – if I had managed to get Jack to the point where he’d been about to come in his pants, I would have let it go ahead too. And I would have enjoyed it. But that didn’t mean I would take the fact that he’d made me soil my boxers with any sort of grace.

I reached across him and dropped them on his floor. ‘I need a clean pair.’

‘Well you’re not having any of mine,’ Jack said, his eyes shining and his voice full of amusement. ‘What if you do it again?’

‘Well then you have to go to my room and get me a fresh pair,’ I said through gritted teeth; he was seriously testing my patience. The fact that the orgasm he’d given me was so powerful it had curled my toes meant nothing compared to how mortified I was. And he’d done it on purpose!

‘Fine,’ Jack sighed, drawing out the syllable and pushing himself up off his bed. ‘Do I need a key?’

‘It’s open.’

Jack slouched across the room with his trademark laziness, pulled on the jeans he’d been wearing last night, and left, the door swinging shut behind him.

Half an hour later, it was pretty clear he wasn’t coming back.

Benny

Jack stood in the doorway, grinning, and I glanced at Matt. He was staring at the ground.

Jack shut the door gently behind him – was Freddie asleep or something? – and walked towards the kitchen. He was still wearing what he’d had on last night, but didn’t seem to care as he downed a couple handfuls of cereal dry, chugged back a glass of orange juice, and left again without a word. We heard the front door closing; it seemed like he was the only one bothering to go to college today.

‘Do you think he heard anything?’ Matt whispered once he was sure Jack was gone.

I shook my head, trying to reassure him. ‘I doubt it. He would have said something.’

Matt bit his lip, but nodded. ‘You know him better,’ he conceded, and let out a breath of relief. ‘We have English in ten minutes...’

‘Cool story, bro,’ I said, standing up and moving to sit beside him on the couch. I grabbed the remote and switched on the TV. ‘But Jeremy Kyle is starting soon too.’

Matt grinned. ‘Good point.’

Matt

Twenty minutes into another riveting tale of incest and infidelity, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. When I pulled it out, I saw Freddie was ringing me. I showed the screen to Benny, who shrugged.

‘Answer it?’ he suggested.

I frowned in indecision, but did as he said.

‘Hello?’

‘Um, Matt?’

‘Who else would it be?’

‘Could. Um. Could you come down to Jack’s room for a second?’

‘Why?’ I asked with unnecessary coldness.

‘Please?’ he asked meekly.

I rolled my eyes, but told him I would and hung up.

‘Did he really just ask you that?’ Benny asked, staring at me incredulously with wide eyes.

‘He doesn’t know I... like him,’ I reminded him.

‘Even so...’

I shrugged and stood up, bracing myself for what I was gonna find in Jack’s room. Freddie collapsed in a state of coital satisfaction, needing my help to carry him back to his room because he’d been fucked so hard he couldn’t walk, probably.

I knocked lightly and walked inside without waiting for an answer. Freddie was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, the covers pulled awkwardly around his waist.

‘What’s up?’ I asked, raising my eyebrows involuntarily.

Freddie

I didn’t want to call Matt. Really, really didn’t want to call him, of all the people I could have called. But obviously Jack wasn’t gonna come help me, and I didn’t have Benny’s number yet.

Matt is my best friend, this is what best friends do for each other right? When situations like this happen? Just because I had a crush on him now didn’t mean that changed, did it? The only difference, surely, is that now he would know that I, apparently, am the kind of boy who ejaculates in his underwear with the right stimulation.

‘I sort of had an accident,’ I muttered, my cheeks blazing.

Matt

‘What sort of accident?’ I asked cautiously. I wasn’t sure I could keep a straight face if I found out he’d peed Jack’s bed.

‘Um,’ he said, his face going even redder, and pointed at a pair of black boxers on the floor. There was a very obviously white, sticky substance covering them, and I choked on my own spit as I registered what it was. ‘Could you go to my room and get me a fresh pair? All of Jack’s are dirty...’

‘Yeah, okay...’ I said, but took a step towards him. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ he said, going redder still. ‘Mortified though.’

‘How did it happen?’ I asked, not sure I really wanted to know.

Freddie bit his lip and averted his gaze. ‘He did it on purpose.’

I felt my jaw clench. ‘Are you serious? What a douchebag!’

‘I started it,’ he admitted, still not looking at me. I walked over and put my finger under his chin, forcing his gaze to meet mine. Then I put my hands on his cheeks, cooling them.

‘You know you never have to be embarrassed in front of me,’ I reminded him, then, on impulse, kissed him quickly on the forehead and darted out of the room, down to his, where I stood in front of the mirror, willing my own cheeks to stop burning and my heart to stop racing.

Freddie

Matt kissed me again. On the forehead, but still.

Jack: makes me come in my pants and then abandons me.

Matt: comes to help and reassure me, and kisses me on the forehead.

Can’t help but feel I came home with the wrong guy last night. I mean, not that I think there’s a chance Matt and I will ever fall into bed together again, however much I might secretly want us to. Jack makes me all hot and horny... But so does Matt, and he’s not a total dickhead on top of it.