I stretch my legs and feel something against me but don’t open my eyes. It’s too nice keeping them closed. “Creed, why the fuck are you calling me so early?” I groan.
He sounds strange. “Uh, dude, I didn’t. I called Otter. Why are you answering his phone?” he asks, and a hand falls gently on my side.
My eyes flash open, sleep the furthest thing from my mind.
“Bear?” I hear a tinny voice say in my ear. “Dude?”
I look over at the other side of the bed. My movement has knocked the covers back and Otter lays sprawled out beside me. He lies on his stomach, his head turned to the side, facing me. His eyes are closed, and he hasn’t a care in the goddamn world. His hand is still on my thigh, hot and hard through the fabric of the clothes I wear. His clothes. I can’t help but stare at him, strong and tall and tan and… and….
“Bear?”
“Uh… yeah?” I say hoarsely, trying to keep my voice down.
“What are you doing?” Creed demands. “Why do you have Otter’s phone?”
Oh, Bear! it laughs. I can’t wait to see you work your way out of this one! Just what are you going to say to him? That his big brother bared his HEART and SOUL to you? That when he was done, you had never been more fucking aroused in your entire life? That even though you were scared of what it meant, that you thought once or twice that his admitted obsession will tear you apart piece by piece, that even beyond all that, you couldn’t help but groan when you felt his BIG, STRONG ARMS wrap around you, and he started to SUCK on your TONGUE….
“I… I was here because… Otter wanted to make breakfast for Ty,” I finally choke out. It sounds lame even to me.
“It’s really early,” Creed says. “Otter never wakes up before ten unless he has to.”
Goddammit, Creed! I curse. Just shut the hell up and believe everything I’m saying! I’m panicking now. I want to kick Otter awake and make him help me. I want to hang up the phone and grab Ty and get the hell out of there. I want to leave him with Mrs. Paquinn and go to Anna’s house and beg her to take me back. I want to fuck her senseless so I can stop feeling my cock growing hard at his touch. I want Otter to run back to San Diego and go back to the stupid fucking boyfriend, who I’ve never met but cannot stand. I want to ask Anna to marry me, and then we’ll get a house and have babies and grow old together, and I’ll never have to remember any of this, and if I do, I’ll look back on it with fond disdain, knowing it was just a phase.
Uh-oh! the voice cackles gleefully. Trouble in paradise already? And things were going so WELL! But hey! Keep lying to yourself like that, Papa Bear! We both know you want nothing more than to crawl back under the covers and press your body against his and forget the way the world really works. But you just keep on thinking of marriage and kids and a future that will never be. What’s the point of life if you never second-guess EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE?
“I guess he wanted to get an early start,” I say weakly.
Creed laughs in my ear. “Does that mean you’ve got him to stop moping?”
You could say something like that….
“Uh, sure,” I grunt. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry anymore.”
“That’s my boy!” he howls into the phone. “I don’t know what you did, but thank God you did something. I don’t feel so bad about not coming home when I said I was.”
“What?” I say half-listening. I am trying to slide my leg out from underneath Otter’s hand without waking him. It doesn’t work too well, as he curls his arm around my whole leg and hugs it gently to his chest.
“I’m going to stay up here for a few more days,” Creed says, completely oblivious to the fact that his best friend is partially stuck underneath his older brother. “Another friend of mine came up, so I won’t be back until Friday. I just wanted to check in and make sure that things were cool. Sounds like you’ve got everything under control.”
“Yep,” I say, resigned. “Everything’s cool here.”
“Good,” he says with a laugh. “So I’ll see you when I get back, okay? Tell Otter when I’ll be home so I don’t walk in on him fucking some guy on the floor in the living room.”
My face grows hot. I try to picture something like that, knowing it’s probably not the best time to be doing so. We had made out last night to the point where I started to wonder what would happen if I took off Otter’s shirt, but I had stopped myself. Otter had respected this and seemed content to just be near me. I haven’t really thought through the… mechanics… of what the next possible steps could be. Images flash through my head, and my mouth grows dry.
“Sure,” I say, trying to brush a naked Otter out of my thoughts. “I’ll let him know.”
“Thanks, dude.” I’m about to hang up, when he excitedly says my name.
“What?” I say, annoyed.
“Make sure that you get Mrs. Paquinn to be able to watch the Kid the
last Saturday in August. We are going to throw a motherfucking party like Seafare’s never seen before I leave. I got some people coming into town, and I figure it could be like a last hurrah before I have to go back and be an adult.”
“That sounds… nice,” I say.
“You sure you’re okay? You sound weird.”