“The point is your family is a bunch of bags of dicks,” Dylan retorted.
“I concur,” Rus teased.
It didn’t take much to convince them to come inside. Everyone made their way inside and sat on Rus’ bed, much like they always did, with the television on in the background as they unwound from the evening.
Rus kept his attention discreetly fixed on Dylan, who was lost in his phone, smiling so deeply it brought out his dimples. Kaiden, on the other hand, seemed lost in thought. The evening had gone well, more or less, but Rus worried Kaiden pushed himself to go just to prove it wasn’t a big deal.
“You okay?” Rus nudged Kaiden.
“Yep.”
“You sure?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You have fun?”
“Meh.”
“Noticed you got a little flirty for a minute, then just sort of fizzled.”
“Ouch. I fizzled out?”
The awkward sound Rus released made Kaiden grin, and even drew Dylan away from his phone.
“No, I just noticed there was that guy you were chatting up, then sort of broke off the convo midway.”
“He wanted to dance. I wasn’t feeling a dance,” Kaiden explained with a defiant huff. “Well, except when Dylan dragged me out, but how could I possibly say no to Dylan?”
“Okay, cool. I mean, I had no problem playing buffer,” Rus clarified. “I just want to make sure you’re not avoiding guys because of what happened. Like avoid them because they’re not your type all day long, just I would hope—”
“It’s not that,” Kaiden said. “That’s completely out of my head.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I mean, maybe not all the time, but that wasn’t why I was dodging the flirty guy on the dance floor.”
“Okay, then why were you dodging the flirty guy on the dance floor?” Dylan asked, locking his eyes on Kaiden in this suggestive, authoritative way.
Rus felt the pressure of their friendship, the way Dylan could ask so much with a simple look. Meanwhile, Rus still found himself in the learning stage, trying to decipher each of their quirks, mannerisms, inside jokes, and so much more.
“Okay, embarrassing, and I’ve never said this out loud…” Kaiden took a deep, sharp breath, holding it for a beat as he hesitated with his next words. “I’ve never actually kissed a guy before. Or anybody, really.”
“What?” Rus and Dylan blurted at the same time.
“How did I not know this?” Dylan had this baffled expression that Rus tried to gauge, tried to read. “But you’ve… I mean, there was… I could’ve sworn…”
“So, you’re a virgin?” Rus asked so quickly, he couldn’t bite back the words or the unintentional judgy tone that accompanied them. “Not that that’s a big deal. I mean, virgins rock. It’s why they’re sacrificed. And they survive the horror movies. Weddings have a whole archaic color-coded system for them. Also—”
“Stop.” Dylan playfully slapped a hand over Rus’ face.
“Sank ooo,” Rus muttered in a muffled voice, grateful for Dylan’s intervention and the gentle touch of his palm on Rus’ lips.
“To answer your question, I’m not a virgin,” Kaiden said. “Not since I was like twenty. But I am a twenty-four-year-old lip virgin. Or not lip virgin ‘cause, you know, oral, but like I’m a lip kiss or kiss lip virgin.”
Dylan slowly lowered his hand, the gears in his head slowly piecing together the new info. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”
“I never said anything. It’s embarrassing.”
