Page 26 of Offside

Why was it like it was just Knight?

“So, what? Am I gay now or something?” I finally asked, making both of them snicker. “What? I don’t really know what’s going on here.”

“Just, uh,” Ash sighed, sitting up straight again. “Keep moving, man. Keep talking to your buddy if you like him, and don’t worry so much about what label you need to slap on your forehead…and don’t come banging on my door while I’m getting laid again unless you actually fuck that guy–”

“Stop it,” Thayer warned, side-eyeing Ash enough to make him drop back onto the couch. “Hand me your phone again?” he asked me, reaching out.

The guy had already seen my dick today–my self-preservation level was really low when I was handing it over.

“If you like the guy,” he started, tapping away on my screen before flipping it around to show me. “Try this. It’s a feature ingrained into the app that I never really had a reason to use, but maybe it’ll help you. It changes audio, so you can actually call this guy and talk to him without him knowing what you sound like or anything.”

My heart did a slightly harder beat in my chest, but not from nerves. That comment didn’t make me nervous or anxious.

It made me excited.

Even if it wasn’t really going to be Knight, I could talk to him?

Like, actually talk to him?

Not just reread a message and try to figure out if he’s joking or actually upset with me–that would be really nice.

I took my phone back from him, thanking them both again before getting up to leave, but not before finally texting Knight back.

Chapter 11

Landon

MetalMonkey: So, yeah. I’ll be home the rest of the night, and we can watch whenever, but if you’re down, I would really like to try this.

It wasn’t hard–how did I get almost three years on this app and not know you could do this?

Change our voices.

Not that I would have ever really cared much to use it–I would have only been interested in calling one of these guys if it were a video, so I could watch them live. I would keep my camera off and my mouth shut every time, but just the idea of watching Metal live had my mind in the whole gutter.

Once I was sure the setting was on, picking a voice that still sort of sounded like me, but maybe just a different tone, I stared at the call button.

He said I could call whenever I was ready, but something about calling felt like a crossroads for me.

Like, calling suddenly confirmed he was unlike any other guy on the app…but he already was, so what was calling going to solidify for me?

Fuck–feelings were confusing, and I didn’t really like them.

But I really liked Metal.

The phone rang a few times, with some weird beeping instead of a dial tone. I felt my anxiety spike the longer it took for an answer, but when he finally picked up, neither of us spoke at first.

Metal was an anxious person and had some social limitations, so even if it felt weird, I had to help him through this.

So we could get to the part where this was normal.

“You know, I like the idea, Metal, but this only works if we both talk,” I chuckled, leaning against my counter with the phone flat on top.

Silence for another thirty seconds that felt like an hour.

“I know it’s not really your voice, but I like it,” he finally said quietly, his own fake voice a matching softness and depth.

One I might have thought he’d have anyway.