“I guess it’s not like I have anyone else to discuss this stuff with, back there.”Saying that felt disloyal, somehow, to Catherine and Kyle.“Not who really understands it, anyway.But you must have gay friends here?Or there’s William?”
He drained his glass.Set it back down on the ring of condensation it’d slowly sweated.“Sure.And they understand the growing-up-gay part.Just not the growing-up-gay-in-the-sticks part.”
I gestured to the bartender; pointed at Flynn’s empty glass and my near-finished bottle.“I feel like it’d have been easier.If I’d known about you, I mean.”
“Bit presumptuous,” he teased, eyebrow raised.
I shook my head.“I didn’t mean like that.”Then tried to forget the fact that he’d seen me naked.Not just that: naked, hard, and fucking like a rutting animal.
By Flynn’s smirk, you could almost figure he was thinking of the same thing.
“Did you do anything?”He looked curious, now.“With other guys from school?”
I smiled, at the memory.“Danny Harrison.We were fifteen, and he was crashing at my place, telling me about his girlfriend and how she’d let him put a hand on her chest.Next thing you know, I look down, and it’s dark, but I can still make out Danny jerking off under the blanket.And so, y’know...”
“You sucked his dick?”
I snorted.“God, no.I jerked off too, listening to him do it, and then afterwards he got real earnest and told me that as long as we prayed hard at church, we wouldn’t go to hell for doing bad things.”
“Ah yes,” he said, rolling his eyes, “the old ‘get out of damnation free’ card.”
“That’s the one.Valid every Sunday, as long as supplies last.”
The bartender set down fresh drinks.I waited for Flynn to clink the rim of his glass against my bottle.
“What about you?”Now it was my turn to be curious.“Any clandestine hookups in your school days?”
Flynn shook his head, as he drank.“Nope.A hopeless virgin, until I moved away.”
“And then?”
The grin was positively wicked.“Then, I made up for lost time.”He laughed, at my raised eyebrow.“But you don’t want to hear about that, do you.”
The bottle felt cold against my lips.Grounding, somehow, even as I knew that the alcohol would only lower my inhibitions.“Absolutely not,” I lied.
He nodded, slowly.Still smirking; the expression of someone who knows your words aren’t to be trusted.“Have you thought about telling your parents?”
“Thought about it?Sure.And I invariably come to the conclusion that it’s a terrible idea.”
“So you sneak away to sleep with guys instead.”His expression was mischievous.
I gave him a pointed look.“Who’s sneaking?I’m not a kid any more.”
Flynn glanced down at my crotch.“Yeah, I saw that.”
Scolding him only seemed like it would encourage him.I took another gulp of beer, feeling the cold score its way down to my belly.Grateful, in that moment, for the distraction.
“Do you ever date?”He was still grinning.
“Long distance?”
A shrug.
“Too much effort,” I continued.“It’s not like anyone on the apps is looking for anything that serious.”
“Just sex.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, smiling myself.“And long-distance stuff is...”