Whit sits on my bed for a few moments longer and then stands up, leaving me to my thoughts.
* * *
It did not die down. Not that I expected it to. Sem and Luke are in my living room when I wake up from dozing, playing video games, while Whit reads his Kindle in his chair.
Like it's all perfectly normal, having them here.
“Ah, you’re up,” Sem says, towering over me. He slaps my back roughly, and I stumble slightly. I’m a big guy, but Sem is even bigger. He hulks like a Viking.
“Your boyfriend here almost didn’t let us in. Said you’d be sleeping a while,” Luke adds, not taking his eyes off the TV, his fingers smashing into the controller, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. “But you know how persuasive we can be.”
“Plus, we had food to deliver,” Sem adds.
“Ah,” I reply and then shift awkwardly on my feet and scratch at my stomach.
Sem lowers himself down onto the couch, leaving me nowhere to plant my ass.
Why is there only one small couch in this apartment again?
“Don’t stand there fidgeting, Caleb. You’re making this damn awkward. You know we’re accepting motherfuckers. You’re gay. No big deal. Sit on your boyfriend’s lap, for god’s sake,” Luke adds, cussing when his character online is shot and dies. “Well, hell. I suck at this game.”
“Go on,” Sem says, staring at me intensely and gesturing toward Whit.
Whit makes no move to help me. He just watches this all unfold like it’s no big deal.
“You’re seriously going along with this,” I say to Whit, who just arches an eyebrow at me.
Gah, that look he gives me.
“I’m going to smother you with your pillow later. I’m stronger than you.”
Whit’s lips twitch. He’s getting me back for the past three days. I’m sure of it.
I turn to my cousins and say, “He’s not my boyfriend. I’m not gay. You delivered the food. Now go away.”
“That rhymed. Good one,” Luke says before whooping loudly.
“He’s ashamed,” Sem says, and I want to smack my face. And then his. And then Luke’s and Whit’s as well.
“Nothing to be ashamed of, cuz,” Luke says, folding his arms and leaning back. He smiles crookedly at me.
“Oh, for fucks sake,” I mutter. I know they won’t let up on it. They will harp about it incessantly. The best thing is to just give them what they want. So, I make up my mind, walk over to Whit, and lower myself roughly onto his lap. He grunts from the impact of my ass on his thighs.
Good.
Sem and Luke watch it unfold and look pleased by this new development. I’m seriously not sure if they really think Whit and I are together or just messing with me.
I can never tell with them.
Whit’s hand cups my hip, and he pushes lightly, trying to get me to move to my left.
“What? Not comfortable?” I say, wriggling around on him. “That’s what you get.”
I outweigh him by at least fifty pounds. He cannot be comfortable.
Although he let me sleep on top of him for three days, so he’s got to be okay with it.
He sighs heavily, and then in an impressive move, he lifts me up just enough to shift me where he wants me.