As soon as he sat back down, I turned to him.
“Why’d you do that?” I demanded, although I was grateful.
He smiled. “You’re the new guy. Didn’t want you to start off on a bad toot… I mean foot.”
I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing. “I’m Kip,” I informed him.
“I know. My name is Mason.”
This wasMason? The guy I said I didn’t want to be friends with? Man, hadIgotten it wrong. All the people I’d been buddies with? I remembered how they hadn’t kept in touch, but right then I forgot about them. Mason was a hero in my eyes, and he was gonna be my best friend, whether he knew it or not. Nothing would dissuade me from that belief.
From that moment on, we were thick as thieves. Mason wasn’t one to back down. He’d give as good as he’d get. When people tried to tell him what to do, he’d look to me, then back to the others who were bullying him, puff up his chest, and say loud enough for everyone to hear, “No.”
If anyone gave him crap, I’d step up and they’d back down very quickly.
The years passed and our friendship deepened. We got to the point where we could finish each other’s sentences, which was usually something filthy. He’d remember my birthday, and would buy me a gift that had a great deal of thought put into it, not like some crappy gift card. My big thing was Legos. And every year without fail, Mason would buy me some large, beautiful set to add to my collection.
Mason got gift cards. Now, this wasn’t because I didn’t know my friend. It was the fact I got to go shopping with him, which allowed us to get money from our parents to hang out at the mall, gorge ourselves on greasy food, and watch a movie at the theater.
It wasn’t the gift, it was the fact we got to spend time together. At least for me. And, I hoped, for him too.
Chapter Two
Mason
“Dude, did you see her tits?”Kip’s voice rippled with excitement as he held his hands over his shirtless broad, furry chest, showing off what would be massive boobs. “I wouldn’t even be able to fit one in my mouth, but you’d better believe I’d die trying.”
I sighed. I really liked Kip. He’d been a great friend ever since his family had moved into the area. The parents and siblings were quiet, keeping to themselves for the most part, but not Kip. He always stood center stage and stole the whole freaking show. Big, buff, and irreverent, he set the standard at Milton Holbrook Junior High School. Girls wanted him and boys wanted to be buddies with him or, better still, to be one of the five guys in his inner circle.
And for some reason, he’d chosenmeto be his best friend, earning the ire of the others.
While the goodwill he fostered was appreciated, sometimes it could be exhausting. Kip had a sharp mind when he applied it, but normally, the only thing in there was a string of horny thoughts held together by some pornographic images.Which he always felt free to share with me, much to my consternation.
“I wasn’t looking,” I answered honestly.
That earned me a frustrated sigh. “Oh, I forgot. Gay boys don’t look at boobs.”
When I’d realized I was gay, Kip was the first one I’d told. My declaration was met with little more than a yawn and a ‘duh’. He said he’d known it for a while, and was waiting for me to tell him so he could show me it didn’t matter to him in the least. After that, I came out to others, and most of the time all it got me was a shrug from them as well.
I grinned and reached out to tweak Kip’s nipple. “We like them fine. Lean in a little closer and I’ll show you.”
Kip’s eyes widened as he covered his barrel chest. “Back off or I’ll smack you,” he barked. “No one touches my nips but the ladies.”
And therewereladies, lots and lots of them. Kip was a dog. He couldn’t go one day or maybe two without a girl on his arm. It wasn’t uncommon to see them backed against a locker, lips dueling, his hand on her breast while he massaged it gently. When he got caught, he’d smile and give an aw-shucks expression and say how sorry he was before promising it wouldn’t happen again. The teachers were always more than willing to look in the other direction. Kip was a superstar athlete, incredible at nearly every sport, and even those he wasn’t champion-level at, he buckled down and got good. Looking at him, you could tell how natural it came to him. He was a shade over six-foot-two inches, weighing in at one-eighty-five pounds of solid muscle. And as for his chest?
I’d seen wolves that were less hairy.
“C’mon, man,” I teased. “One little tweak. Those nipples are begging for a pinch.”
Kip quickly got to his feet, covering his chest with those big, thick hands. “I will punch you,” he promised, but I knewhe wouldn’t. I’d egged him on more than enough to earn that punch several times over.
“No, you won’t.”
He huffed out a breath. “Then I’ll think about it real hard.”
I snickered. “So you’re saying I make you hard?”
“I can’t stand you,” he groused, putting his shirt back on, depriving everyone of perfect eye candy. Except me, of course. I didn’t think of Kip that way. Trust me when I say I needed friends more than I needed to get laid. And besides, if my parents even caught a whiff of someone’s sexual scent on me?
