I give them what I hope is my usual smile as we take our seats around the table. Julian pulls my chair out and waits for me to sit before taking a seat beside me. His hand lands on my thigh for a minute before he helps unpack the items we brought.
They talk hockey, as if a lot has happened since they talked hockey yesterday. Maybe this is a ritual between hockey players. They must speak of the thing that connects them first before they can move on to other topics.
“Where’s Horny?” Julian asks.
“Texted and said he’s running late,” Keno says.
“He’s going to need to reheat his breakfast then. Everything is already less than hot. Let’s eat,” Julian says, and everyone reaches for something.
He passes me the dishes once he’s finished, but if my hands are full waiting to pass something on, he’ll put some of whatever he has on my plate. It makes me smile and reminds me we’re not just friends. We’re more.
This needs to stop bothering me. Even I’m frustrated with myself over it.
Horny arrives just as we’re beginning to dig in. He’s all rumpled, as if he just rolled out of bed.
“Dude,” Lo says, laughing. “What’s with your hair?”
Horny’s eyes roll up as if he can see it. His hands rise, patting lightly as he tries to figure out what his hair looks like.
“You look like you just sucked some good dick,” Keno says with a smirk. “You hook up with that guy last night? Is that why you’re late?”
Horny’s confused for a minute before he starts laughing. “No. I stopped seeing him, though I did suck his dick. I’m now—” He stops abruptly when his eyes meet mine. “Uh… sorry. Maybe you don’t want to hear about my sex life.”
“I can tell this is going to be a far more entertaining breakfast conversation than I grew up with,” I say, shrugging.
“Yeah? I can talk about dick for a minute?” Horny asks.
“Dude. Indian culture invented the Kama Sutra. He’s likely not a prude,” Keno says, still laughing.
“Ohh,” Horny says, looking at me with new consideration.
Beside me, Julian chuckles. I don’t say anything as I continue to smile at him.
“Okay, then. Let me catch you up. I’ve maybe always been a little curious, but the world never felt like a safe place for exploration, and I didn’t have a long college experience since I was drafted early. But when Keno and Etna got married, I started asking prying questions, and they were nice enough to support me. I joined Thrustr a few months ago and met this guy who sucked my dick a few times. That’s where we are.”
“Got it,” I say, amused.
Horny nods and goes back to his meal as he shares the things he wanted to share. “So, I did suck that guy’s dick once, but itkind of freaked me out and I wasn’t really good at it, so I blocked him.”
“Ouch,” Hilt says.
Horny shrugs. “It was really awkward. I think he was probably thankful that I blocked him. He probably didn’t even notice since he probably wasn’t going to message me again after that, anyway.”
“You were that bad?” Lo asks.
“Did you bite him?” Caulder asks.
I’m not the only one who flinches and nearly chokes on my bite. The table is filled with sputtered laughter.
“No,” Horny says, bemused. “I might have made some unpleasant faces and… you know what? I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway. I hooked up with a couple more guys, but—” He shrugs.
“You’re looking for a diamond in the rough on Thrustr, aren’t you?” Lo asks. “Dude, you need to try Spark or something. The dogs are on Thrustr.”
“You know this from experience, Lo?” Etna asks.
“Yes,” Lo says. “Thrustr is everywhere, and hookups when you’re not close to home feel the safest since you’re incredibly unlikely to run into them in the grocery store later.”
I flinch. That sounds awkward.
