and sleep this off. But a hot knife of pain jabbed him in the side when he tried to lift his arms up to tug his T-shirt off. “Fuck.”
Hunter blew out a breath and crossed the room. “Here. I’ve got it.”
Hunter grabbed the arm of Devon’s T-shirt and held it out so that Devon could gingerly guide his arms out of the armholes. When he was free of it, Hunter pulled it over his head for him. He tossed it to the side and straightened, peering down at Devon with an unreadable expression.
“You need help with your jeans?”
Dev cleared his throat and toed his shoes off. “I can get them undone if you can pull the legs down. I’m not sure I can bend over all the way.”
Hunter nodded and guided the jeans off, leaving Devon in just his boxer briefs. It was a view Hunter had seen before. Nothing new. But the way Hunter’s eyes roamed down Devon’s body was altogether different.
The silence stretched between them. Devon wet his lips. “Hunt . . .”
“I’m sorry that Jones called you those names. It was about me. He got booted from the team after he blew up over losing the starting pitcher spot. He knows we’re friends, was trying to get to me.”
“It’s not your fault the guy’s an asshole. And he’s not the first and won’t be the last to call me names. I can handle myself.”
“I know you can, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t want to demolish the guy for saying all that shit. I don’t know how you deal with all of that on a regular basis. I’d probably be in jail.”
Devon sighed. “You’re probably going to have to figure out how not to beat down everyone, because that guy and twenty of your not-so-close friends heard you say you’re sucking my dick every night. The guys figured out you were joking, but the rest of the rumor mill is going to eat that shit up like candy. People are going to say stuff about you, to you. Doesn’t matter if it’s a lie.”
Hunter sank onto the foot of his bed at that, running his hands through his hair and looking a little pale. “Shit. I didn’t think. I just wanted Jones to see he hadn’t gotten to me.”
“You were drunk and pissed. Bad combination. But if you want to squash this, you need to be proactive. Get yourself a girl quick. Be seen with her. Make out in front of people at parties like you were doing tonight. It’ll go away quicker that way.”
Hunter grimaced and laced his hands behind his neck. “It shouldn’t matter if it’s the truth or not. Why should anyone care who I sleep with?”
“They probably wouldn’t if you were a regular guy on campus. But you’re not. You’re a star baseball player with the senator father. People are going to pay more attention.”
“People need to get a life.”
“Agreed.” Devon pushed slowly to his feet so he could grab some ibuprofen out of his dresser drawer. His teeth ground together at the pain. “God, I hope that idiot is hurting worse than me. I can’t believe I let him get a rib shot in.”
“He looked way worse than you.” Hunter got up and went over to the mini-fridge to grab a bottle of water. He brought it over to Devon. “You sure you’re going to be all right?”
“I’ll live. I’m just going to be hating life in the morning.” Devon popped two pills and swallowed them down.
Hunter gripped Devon’s elbow. “Come on. Get in bed before you hurt yourself worse moving around so much.”
Hunter guided him to the bed and pulled back the blankets. Devon eased down, leaning on Hunter more than he wanted to, and tried to find some position that didn’t feel like knives were filleting him from the inside out. Hunter grabbed an extra pillow off his own bed and brought it over to put beneath Devon’s head.
“Thanks, man.”
“No worries,” Hunter said, face creased with concern as he looked down at him. “Need anything else?”
“Powerful narcotics”
Hunter smirked. “Fresh out.”
“Fucking useless roommate.”
“I know.” Hunter walked over to the door and flipped off the lights.
Devon closed his eyes and tried to think about anything but the pain. He could hear Hunter leave to go wash up for the night and then heard the creak of the door when he returned a few minutes later. Clothes rustled as Hunter undressed and got ready for bed. It was the comfortable sound of home for Devon. And he tried to focus on that and relax enough to fall asleep, but he never slept on his back like this and all he wanted to do was roll on his side. His eyes grew heavier and his thoughts begin to drift, but then he got a white-hot pain racing up his rib cage. He hissed through the agony, realizing he must’ve dozed and automatically tried to flip to his side.
“You okay?” Hunter called from his side of the room.
Motherfucker. Son of a bitch. Devon ground his teeth trying to keep his curses to himself. “I’m fine. Sorry.”