“But if you’re both guys,” Brent said from the bottom bunk, “and guys like sex….”
“I’m pretty sure girls like sex too,” Aiden said. “I mean, maybe not withyou. But in general I think they’re in favor of it.”
“But not likeguyslike it,” Brent clarified. “I mean, I would have sexall the timeif I could. I’d drop out of school, I’d only eat enough to keep up my strength, and I’d fuck, fuck, fuck, all day long.”
“Maybe you should look into a career in escort services,” Aiden suggested.
“I only want to fuck young hotties,” Brent said.
“Ah. Now you’re adding important qualifiers.”
“Is that the problem with you and Cade?” Matt asked from above. “You not hot enough for him?”
“I’m hot enough! Jesus, you guys, we’retaking it slow. And it’s exams and he’s busy studying.I’mbusy studying, kind of. But mostly we’re taking it slow. That’s all.”
“Okay, I can see, like, savoring things,” Brent said. “Like, you smell the cookies baking, you take a moment to enjoy their golden-brown color, maybe you even take a little nibble before your first bite. But you eat the fucking cookie, Aiden! You don’t put it back on the cookie sheet and shove it in the fridge for later!”
“Cade isn’t a cookie. He’s not a snack of any sort. He’s….” Aiden was pretty sure he was making a mistake opening up to these two, but he couldn’t resist. He needed to talk tosomeoneabout the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. “He’s every meal I ever want to eatfor the rest of my life. So right now we’re still on appetizers. But that’s cool. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
His roommates were quiet for a moment. Then Brent said, “Little Aiden’s in love.”
“They grow up so fast,” Matt sighed. He sounded more serious when he asked, “So are you taking him to the Christmas formal?”
It was something Aiden had been thinking about for a while. “I don’t know. How do you think that would go over? I mean, I’m not in the closet, but I’m not exactly flaunting it, you know?”
“How would it go over?” Brent sounded outraged. “Who the fuck cares, Aiden! If youlovehim, which, okay, that whole meal thing? You love him. So you should take him to the formal! It’ll go over as well as we make it go over!”
“He might not even want to go,” Aiden said quickly. “He’s not exactly into the whole frat scene. Or formal occasions. Especially with only two days’ notice. I’m not even sure how he feels about Christmas.” And he wasn’t sure how Cade would feel about being dragged someplace where he might not be completely welcome.
“So you’d go stag?” Matt practically threw the top half of his body over the side of his bunk so he was able to stare fiercely at Aiden. It would have been more effective if he weren’t upside down, but even with that handicap, he looked pretty intense. “Don’t eventhinkabout asking some random last-minute girl! I know you went with Andrea What’s-her-name last year because she just got dumped, and that was nice as a one-time thing. But, seriously, if you take a chick to the dance this year, you should stop saying you’re not in the closet.”
“Jesus, you guys are kinda over the top with your interest in my sexual identity. I think fag hags are supposed to be female!”
“Not fag hags,” Brent said from the bottom bunk. “Brothers.”
Aiden wanted to have some sort of smart comeback to that. Some retort about it being a little late in their lives for adoption, and the word “brothers” being a figure of speech. But he couldn’t do it. These guys had accepted him without question as their roommate, and they were ready to push for him to be accepted by everyone else, if he had the guts to ask for it. “Yeah. Okay. Thanks, I guess. And, I don’t know about thedance. I’ll ask him, I guess. If he doesn’t want to go? I don’t know. I guess I’ll figure that out when I get there.”
“He could borrow my brother’s tux, if he wants,” Matt volunteered. “Liam’s still travelling and he won’t be back until spring, probably. He’s about the same size as Cade, I think.”
“That’sthe best thing about dating dudes,” Brent declared. “You can share clothes. And toiletries and shit. And you don’t have to wait around for three hours while he does his hair and his makeup or whatever.”
“That’s a bonus,” Aiden said. He thought about Cade’s warm, strong body, and how good it felt pressed against Aiden’s. He let himself imagine, just for a moment, how perfect it was going to be when they took things further, when they got naked and horizontal and…. “The clothes are good. But, no. Not really thebestpart about it. Not for me.”
“Okay, Romeo, no details,” Brent said. He didn’t sound any more disgusted than he would have if Matt had been talking about some girl. It was more like he was reminding Aiden to be a gentleman and keep his mouth shut.
“Thereareno details,” Aiden said. “Taking it slow, remember?”
“Boring,” Matt declared.
They fell silent then, all of them drifting off to sleep on their own. It was one of the rare occasions that they had all turned in at the same time, and Aiden wondered if he shouldn’t try to make it happen more often. He’d been pretty wrapped up with Cade lately, but it was good to remember that he had other friends too. Not friends he wanted to have sex with, but friends all the same.
But the next day, when Cade suggested they have dinner at his place instead of going out, Aiden forgot all about his frat brothers. “Absolutely,” he said enthusiastically.
Maybe a little too enthusiastically, judging by the expression on Cade’s face. “Dinner,” Cade emphasized. “Like, I’ve bought food and I can cook it. Dinner.”
“Yeah, okay.” Aiden smiled. It was so easy to smile these days. Not that it had ever been hard, except for a few days there when Cade had been making him crazy. “Dinner. You’re cooking me dinner. Very domestic. Cozy, even.”
Cade nodded, then shrugged. They were walking through campus, and Cade seemed to like to have any potentially difficult conversations while they were moving. Aiden was pretty sure it was so Cade could avoid eye contact if he needed to, and Aiden tried to be okay with that. It was easier to accept that form of evasiveness when he could ground himself somehow, so he grabbed hold of Cade’s hand and laced their fingers together. There. They were both prepared. And sure enough, Cade sounded hesitant when he said, “I need to stop eating out so much. I’m burning through too much money.”
