“Know what, I’m gonna hit the shower,” I say and start to get up all over again.
“Wait.” He reaches over and pushes me back down.
“Sure. Why the fuck not?” I grind my teeth together.
This is beginning to feel like Groundhog Day. Will I never get up from this damn couch?
And why is he looking at me like that? Like… like there’s something on my face? Or my chest? Or…?
“Drink your coffee. I need advice.”
Fuck that. “Advice on what exactly? How to ogle your friend jerking off in the shower?”
He winces, and I glare back, because now the words have left my mouth, there’s nothing left to do but own them.
“No,” he says. “To get a girl.”
“A girl.”
“Yeah, the girl, in fact. You know who.”
“Wait. The nerdy one?”
“That’s the one.”
“Dude, I didn’t know you were serious about her.” Joel often mentions girls, but he’s never stuck to one for more than a night.
Then again, maybe it’s because he still h
asn’t banged this one? Hell if I know.
“I… like her.”
A beat of silence as I digest his words. “Like her.”
“Like her, yeah. Why are you looking at me like that?”
Because my chest hurts. Because Joel is all I have, and he seems serious, and scenarios that only seemed hypothetical until a moment ago seem all too real now.
Of course one day he’ll find the perfect girl and leave. I knew that. I just didn’t expect it so soon.
“And what’s the problem?” I ask.
Joel’s mouth twists. It’s a firm, wide mouth, and I should stop staring at it. Dammit, I used to have more control than that.
“You know how to get girls,” I go on. “Chat her up, take her out for drinks, go to the movies. What’s the problem? She’s nerdy, and deep inside you’re nerdy, too.”
“I know.” He’s glaring at me like I’m an idiot. “Talking to her isn’t the problem.”
“Then what, fucking her?”
He winces again. “Shut up.”
Wait a sec… “Fucking her is an issue?”
He slumps back, pinches the bridge of his nose. “No.”
“Then what? Can’t get it up?”