“What’d he say?” Michael said a little louder and closer to the phone this time.
Jamie must’ve moved the phone to his shoulder. He softly said, “I was kiddin’. Calm down.” Then, after a pause, “Do you need the phone?”
“You gotta go?” I asked.
Michael took being a few months older to new levels, and Jamie gave in to his bossy brother way more than I thought he should. But Michael was a scary fucker, and I’d never say no to his face either.
“Not yet. What were you gonna say?”
“Oh, uh. Talkin’ to him at the charity thing went well. Like, too well, and he asked me to go get food with him.”
“Asher.”
“I know.”
Over the summer, we’d had many conversations about how dating worked in college. More like how hooking up worked. Hickory Bend was too small for such fantasies, but not Cressmann. I’d wanted to take full advantage as if fucking were my major.
This with Luke, though, was not at all how I imagined dating. Technically, he wasn’t a student here— Okay, fine, I couldn’t use technicality to get out of this. Luke thought I was a girl. The date didn’t count.
“And he doesn’t know you’ve got a dick?”
“Don’t be talkin’ gay shit, Jamie,” Michael said, still from way too close, as if he had Jamie in his lap so he could listen to every word. “Daddy’ll be home any minute.”
“I ain’t, so hush.”
“No, he didn’t,” I rushed out before they escalated into an argument. “Not until he kissed me.”
“Asher, what the fuck?” Jamie snapped. “Is he a big dude? Did he kick your ass? Do I need to kick his ass?”
“He’s bigger than me, but not scary like Michael.”
“No one’s scary like Michael.” Jamie said under his breath, then started laughing. “Stop it,” he hissed.
“God, you two, get a room.”
“We share a room, dumbass,” Michael said.
“Just put me on speaker, Jesus, fuck.”
“No,” they snapped together, and then Jamie said, “Can’t. Daddy might hear somethin’.”
Right. I was also the only one outside of his immediate family who knew their daddy used to kick the shit out of him on the regular. Supposedly, Michael put a stop to that once he was big enough, but the pair still tiptoed around their house.
“Hurry. Tell me what happened.”
“I got the feeling he only asked me out to make his momma mad. And she sure was.” I laughed, thinking about it.
“Sounds like a loser,” Michael said.
Loser, he was not. Luke had been much more interesting than I assumed at first. Reserved and snooty, but then he teased like someone with a bit of wicked underneath all that polish.
That posh style doing it for me was a right change of pace. I’d assumed his kind looked down on us uneducated, low-middle class, but he hadn’t given that vibe. His mother sure had though, and I’d loved putting that appalled look on her face a little too much.
“He wasn’t. Everything was fine until the end. I’d kinda hoped he’d just been using me to pass the time. I mean, he’s older, and we’re in two different places. My college ass to his grown-up, business-suit-wearin’ ass. Then he got all nervous and kissed me—”
“Really?” Jamie gasped as Michael snapped, “The fuck?”
“Yeah, so I had to tell him the truth.”
