I look at Gavin, confused. He knows I know how smart he is.
Gavin shifts uncomfortably. "I maybe... sometimes play dumb when I don't know what to say? Or when I'm uncomfortable?"
Rex leans over and smacks him upside the head. "Well, maybe you are a dumbass if you were uncomfortable around us." He laughs. "Dude, you literally judged a fart competition last year. You've seen us at our worst and didn't care. Why would youthink we'd care that you're a frickin' genius on top of everything else?"
"What else?" Tyler's eyes narrow playfully. "Would you like to tell us anything… before Gavin gets a boyfriend?"
Rex's face goes red. "Fuck off, he's not my type. He's too... big and pretty and just… fuck off." He grabs a pizza slice and stalks off while the guys try not to laugh.
Max leans forward, eyes wide. "Do you really have fart competitions?"
The room explodes with laughter.
"For charity!” Tyler defends through his wheezing.
Once everyone calms down, Jaren turns to us. "Actually, we have questions. About gay stuff."
"So many questions," another brother agrees.
"We tried googling," Jaren admits, "but..."
"I blocked most of it," James says from behind his laptop, not even bothering to look up. "For your own good. Trust me."
Caleb, sitting next to him, shudders. "I've been gay forever and trust me, there are things you do not want the internet to teach you."
James and Caleb high-five without looking, perfectly in sync.
"What do you want to know?" Leo asks, clearly delighted.
"What's 'gagging' mean?" Rex calls from across the room, where he's apparently been hiding. "In the gay way, not the choking way."
"Being left speechless by something amazing," Max explains. "Like 'her outfit has me gagging.'"
"Oh, thank God," Rex mutters. "I thought it was something way different." Everyone cracks up knowing exactly what Rex thought, 'gagging, in the gay way' meant.
"What about 'snatched'?" someone asks.
"Looking flawless," JP supplies.
"And 'serving looks'?"
"Presenting yourself in a visually striking way," I add.
"Reading someone?"
"Calling them out on their shit," Leo grins. "Sometimes it's 'reading for filth' which means absolutely destroying them."
The guys are actually taking notes on their phones, which is both hilarious and oddly touching.
The questions continue: what's a twunk, what's trade, why are so many of the types animals? The frat brothers are genuinely trying to understand, and it's... nice?
Jaren, who's been quietly sitting on the floor by the coffee table, suddenly speaks up. "Why are there so many types of gays?"
Everyone stops talking for a second, and his face immediately goes red. "Oh shit, is that— I didn't mean— Like, I'm not saying it's bad, I just—" He looks mortified. "Fuck, that came out wrong. I meant like, the categories? Not like why do gay people exist, obviously people are just gay, I just meant?—"
"Breathe," Max says gently, saving him from digging deeper. "It's not a rude question. Honestly? We ask ourselves the same thing." He grins. "Us gays just really love a good classification system. It's like Pokémon but for dating."
"Gotta catch 'em all?" Tyler jokes, and the tension breaks.
