Page 13 of Burning Up

He forced his gaze away from Toby’s twinkling hazel eyes and onto the game. Watch the ball, no not Toby’s balls. How would he react if Bryce toyed with them, tugged on them, took them in his mouth? Toby scored a point and danced around just like he had with Matt. Toby was so goddamn adorable Bryce couldn’t even manage to be pissed at himself for being distracted.

“Ready?” Toby asked, holding up the ball.

“Yep.”

“You seem distracted.” The grin on Toby’s face told Bryce that Toby knew why.

“No, I’m good.”

Toby winked and sent the ball onto the table.

Bryce managed to concentrate well enough to keep the score tied until the very end, and sheer luck gave him the final point just as Matt returned with more drinks.

“Go again?” Toby asked.

“Nah, let’s sit for a bit,” Matt said.

They drank in companionable silence for several minutes, and then Bryce asked a question he’d been curious about since he’d met them. “Did you meet at the Academy or did you know each other before?”

Matt glanced at Toby, a nervous look. Why would Bryce’s question provoke that? “We knew each other before. We were friends in high school, and…” He looked at Toby again.

“Well, we started out as friends, and then we…”

“Got closer?” Bryce asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, kind of.”

Toby’s and Matt’s answers ran into each other. Matt’s leg was bouncing and Toby was watching him. What was Matt so reluctant to say? Bryce wanted to understand, especially if they were going to… But they weren’t. They were definitely not going to fuck.

“Remember the first day at the Academy?—”

Toby’s comment brought Matt out of whatever funk he’d fallen into. “Oh God yeah. You were such an idiot.”

“What happened?”

“Toby was running late. We were both living at his parents’ house then, in a garage apartment.”

That was interesting, but Bryce didn’t interrupt to ask questions.

“So I thought—” Toby lost his obvious battle to hold back giggles.

“Toby didn’t want to make me late too, so he convinced himself it would be fine to come to training dressed in the pink shorts he was wearing.”

“They weren’t really pink, just light red.”

“Pink shorts and a white undershirt,” Matt insisted.

“Holy shit.” Bryce shook his head. He could only imagine what the officer in charge of their workout had to say about that.

Toby rolled his eyes. “How dumb could I be? Obviously everyone else was in uniform and it was not in any way okay for me not to be. I probably got twice as many extra laps as I would have for just being late.”

“I’m not sure you’ve run that far in a single day since,” Matt said.

Toby grinned. “I hope I never do.”

Bryce laughed as he pictured the two of them at the Academy: Matt trying to keep Toby focused and Toby cheering Matt up, just like they were now. He hadn’t quite had enough to drink to come right out and ask them how long they’d been fucking each other.

---