Loading...“Fuck.” Jason gulped as he pulled up to the curb outside of the rented house he shared with his best friend Ryan. He’d been on edge all day. Today was the day that Ryan’s little brother was moving in. Being a senior in high school, Nick still lived with his parents, but when a job prompted them to move back to the town that all three boys grew up in, Ryan suggested that Nick live with Jason and himself so he could finish up the semester without transferring. Jason was fine with the idea of Nick living with them. He’d always liked the kid. It was just that lately he was worried that he might like him a little too much…
Jason and Ryan had been best friends since they were toddlers, before Nick was even born. So Ryan’s little brother was the definition of off-limits– and that was before you even consider the fact that he was five years younger than Jason and still in high school. And that was fine. Or at least it had been until Nick had been so unceremoniously pushed out of the little brother box in Jason’s brain a few months back. Jason hadn’t seen Nick since then and to be honest, he was kind of glad. The last thing he wanted was to do anything to mess up his relationship with Ryan and Jason had a feeling that lusting after Nick might fall somewhere in that category.
But now, here was Nick, standing in the driveway, pulling boxes out of the back of a minivan. When Ryan brought up the idea of Nick moving in, Jason knew that his plan to simply avoid Nick until things cooled off needed amending, but seeing Nick actually moving in (and looking damn good while doing it) really hit home.
Nick hadn’t noticed Jason pull up and Jason took the opportunity to watch the boy momentarily. Nick was only a couple of inches shorter than Jason’s own six feet. His brown, typical teenager skater-boy bangs clung to his forehead with sweat from the uncharacteristically warm late March weather. Jason felt his cock twitch as Nick lifted the bottom of his sleeveless t-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, revealing the perfectly flat stomach and chest beneath. Jason drank in the nearly hairless torso, his eyes following the hint of a treasure trail down to where the waistband of Nick’s boxers were visible above his basketball shorts. Nick let his shirt fall back into place and straightened visibly when he noticed Jason sitting in his car outside of the house. Jason tried rather unsuccessfully to look like he hadn’t been staring. He quickly grabbed his jacket from the passenger seat and got out of the car.
“Hey,” Jason said, shutting the car door and walking toward the driveway. “How’s it going?”
Nick ran a hand through his hair, attempting to look less nervous than he felt. “Not too bad. I think my help ditched me, though.”
Jason almost breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Ryan call out from the side door that led from the kitchen to the driveway. “I didn’t ditch you. I just needed a snack.” He appeared in the doorway and punctuated his defense with an emphatic bite of sandwich.
“Sure,” Nick drawled, rolling his eyes. Ryan shoved Nick’s shoulder and Nick mocked offense.
“Jason, go put your stuff down and help us,” Ryan said. “You’re officially part of the Nick welcoming committee.” He pushed a box of clothes into Jason’s chest.
Jason grabbed the box with a chuckle and headed inside. As he set the box down in Nick’s new room, Jason gave a little sigh of relief. He wasn’t quite sure why he had worked himself up so much. With Ryan around, it would be just like old times, Jason reassured himself. This wasn’t going to be weird at all.
Jason put his bag at the bottom of the stairs leading up to his room on the second floor and stepped back outside to find Nick and Ryan chatting while Ryan finished his snack.
Ryan turned to Jason and said through his last mouthful of sandwich, “I was just saying that we should have a bit of a house-warming for Nick. Introduce him to our friends and stuff. The last time he was here was New Year’s, wasn’t it? And I don’t think anyone has a real clear memory of that…” Ryan chuckled and turned his attention to the rest of Nick’s belongings still in the car.
Jason blanched as he was forcefully reminded of the admittedly quite hazy memories of New Years. His brain flooded with flashes of his tongue seeking entrance into Nick’s mouth, his hands on the bare skin under Nick’s shirt, and the uneasy look on Nick’s face when he had pulled back to say something to Jason before walking away. Ryan had his back to Jason as he was trying to wrangle Nick’s bike from the car, but Jason’s reaction did not go unnoticed by Nick. Nick’s face flushed red and he suddenly became fascinated by a small scratch on the back of his hand. Jason’s stomach flopped with regret and maybe a bit of disappointment. He hated to think that he’d pressured Nick into something he hadn’t wanted. Jason quickly busied himself helping Ryan to avoid whatever Nick might say or do.
Nick watched the two older boys pull his bike from the back of the minivan he’d borrowed from his mom. He could feel his eyes start to sting and a lump was forming in his throat. “I, um, I’ll, er… be right back,” he stuttered before rushing inside to the downstairs bathroom he would now be sharing with his older brother and locking the door behind him. Nick should have known better. He did know better. But knowing that Jason didn’t feel the same way about their kiss and seeing him react so strongly to even being reminded of it were two different things entirely. Nick leaned against the counter and splashed cool water on his face.
Nick had known this was going to be weird. Living in the same house as the object of his unrequited attraction with his older brother there as watchdog sounded worse and worse the more Nick thought about it. He’d fantasized about that night and come to the memory of Jason’s lips on his own and Jason’s fingertips tracing the top of his jeans more times than he could count. Nick groaned, replaying the scene in his head for the umpteenth time, as if this time he’d figure out what he’d done wrong.
It was New Years Eve and Ryan had invited Nick to the party he and Jason were throwing. Everyone was more than decently inebriated- everyone but Nick, that was. He’d had a drink or two, but the fact that his obsessive mother was coming to pick him up at 12:30 kept him from getting visibly intoxicated. It was nearing midnight and Nick had by that point resigned himself to the role of the loner in the corner. That was until a very drunk Jason spotted Nick and took it upon himself to make sure Nick was having a good time.
“You need to drink more!” Jason announced over the blaring music after making his way through the throng of people dancing in his living room.
“I can’t. I’m leaving soon.” Nick said dolefully.
“Noooo! Don’t leave! Drink!” Jason produced a full shot glass from seemingly nowhere and pushed it towards Nick.
“Really, Jase. My mom’s gonna know if I’m drunk.”
“Oh, fuck your mom. She’s always hated me anyway. If you’re drunk, you can just blame it on me and my terrible gay influence!” Jason raised his eyebrows and looked expectantly at Nick.
Nick giggled at Jason’s logic and accepted the shot with a roll of his eyes and a shake of his head. He drained the glass quickly and set it down on the table next to him. He tried to hide his shudder and cough from Jason, but he could feel Jason’s eyes burning into him more than the alcohol was burning his throat. Jason looked Nick over like he’d never really seen him before and scrutinized his every move.
The general noise around them increased, alerting them that midnight was only a minute away. Jason leaned into Nick to be heard. “You’re cute when you drink.”
Nick blushed, the feeling of Jason’s breath on his skin making him suddenly aware of how close Jason’s body was to his own. Jason looked down into Nick’s eyes before leaning back in to speak again.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” Nick nearly shouted back, dumbfounded.
“At midnight. Kiss me.”
Before Nick had a chance to protest, the countdown had begun and Jason was shouting along with the crowd. He yelled “Happy New Years!” to the room before turning back to Nick and pressing his lips to Nick’s.
In that instant, Nick felt stone sober and totally drunk at the same time. His mind went into overdrive while not producing a single coherent thought. The fact that Jason- the subject of nearly every fantasy and wet dream Nick had had since puberty- was kissing him had Nick nearly unhinged.
Jason pulled back and met Nick’s eyes. Jason smirked and Nick’s eyes instinctively focused on Jason’s lopsided smile. Before he knew what he was doing, Nick leaned in and met Jason’s lips again. The obvious approval emboldened Jason who responded by parting his lips and sucking Nick’s bottom lip into his mouth. Nick moaned softly. Jason put his hands on Nick’s hips and walked Nick a few steps backwards until Nick’s back was against the wall. Jason eagerly began to explore the younger boy’s mouth until their tongues were moving together with building intensity.
Nick brought his hands up to Jason’s shoulders. His fingers ran along the nape of Jason’s neck before burying themselves in his hair. Jason’s hands roamed Nick’s hips until they were pushing Nick’s shirt over his stomach and touching every inch of exposed flesh they could.
Jason kissed along Nick’s jaw and nipped at his earlobe. His mouth lowered possessively onto Nick’s neck. Nick moaned louder this time and Jason reveled in the feeling of the vibrations against his tongue. Jason wrapped his arms around the small of Nick’s back, forcing their bodies into even more contact. Nick could feel Jason’s erection as it pressed into his hip.
Everything began to feel terribly surreal to Nick. That last shot was hitting him harder than he was expecting and Jason sucking on his neck still made no sense to him. He was pulled from his weird reverie when he heard Ryan call his name. Nick’s eyes snapped open to find his brother standing a few feet from him, holding Nick’s jacket and watching Nick with a bemused expression. Nick lowered his hands to Jason’s chest and pushed just enough to break Jason’s contact with his neck.
“I’d tell you two to get a room, but I think that’ll hafta wait for next time. Mom’s here. And kind of cranky,” Ryan informed Nick.
“Shit. What time is it?” Nick checked his phone and found that it was already past 12:30. Where had all that time gone? He turned his attention to Jason who still had his arms around Nick’s waist. He was suddenly very aware of how strange this entire situation was. “I, uh, gotta go. I’ll see you around.”
Nick disentangled himself from Jason’s arms and followed Ryan toward the front door. Nick glanced back at Jason leaning against the wall, watching him leave. Before opening the door, Ryan grabbed a random scarf off the row of hooks on the wall and handed it to Nick. Nick gave Ryan a confused look as he slipped on his jacket.
“I didn’t think you wanted to explain that massive hickey to Mom,” Ryan clarified.
Nick’s hand shot up to his neck as his face flushed bright red. He put on the scarf. “Er, thanks. Sorry about, uh…”
Ryan cut him off with a small laugh. “Happy New Years, Nick. Now go, before Mom decides that you’re never allowed over here again.” With that Ryan pushed Nick out the door and waved to his mother sitting impatiently in her idling car.
And that was that.
Nick hadn’t actually talked to Jason since then until just a few minutes before in the driveway. He wondered if they were ever going to discuss the events of that night or if he should just forget it even happened, like Jason seemed more than willing to do.
Nick was startled by a knock at the door, followed by Ryan’s voice. “Nice try, dude. You can’t just hide out in the bathroom while we finish moving you in.”
Nick hastily opened the door and rubbed at his slightly teary eyes. “Sorry, I just got something in my eye and I was trying to get it out.”
Ryan eyed his brother skeptically. “Everything alright?” he asked. Ryan felt guilty for talking about New Years. He hadn’t spoken to Jason or Nick about it, but as soon as he’d said it, he’d known he shouldn’t have brought it up with both of them there. Clearly, there was something there that Ryan was curious to find out more about.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nick huffed and walked past Ryan out to the driveway.
Once the three boys finished bringing Nick’s stuff into the house, Nick shut himself in his room to settle in and get some homework done. He needed time with his thoughts, away from Ryan giving him concerned looks and Jason stoically feigning ignorance. More than anything, he needed to figure out how he was going to make it through the next few months in that house…