Page 43 of Frat Around and Find Out

He heads out, leaving behind this ease within me for allowing me to share this part of myself.

And a taste I hope lingers for the rest of the night.

13

Lance

I’m in afunk, and I know it’s because of my conversation with Ty last night.

“I have an uncle…Hadan uncle.”

As soon as he said those words, my heart ached for him. I could tell by the way his voice cracked, how he left behind the playful Ty I’m used to seeing around campus, just how special his uncle was to him.

But now, all I can think is how shit I was at being there for Ty. I’ve thought of all the things I should have told him so he’d know I understand what it’s like to watch someone you love fading right before your eyes.

But he knew, he must’ve. Not the details, of course, but the way he said it—“Everything okay with you, Lance? If there’s something you want to share, I’d listen too”—and the way he looked at me, it was as if I were transparent and he could peer into my soul, see this part of me I’m so good at hiding from the rest of the world. I considered sharing what I went through with Kacey, but then, it felt like I’d be making his horrible tragedy all about me. And I didn’t want him to feel like he had to comfort me when he was the one hurting.

The other issue was, I wasn’t sure I could keep it together if I started thinking about all the fun times I shared with Kacey. Christmases and Thanksgivings. Walking around theneighborhood on Halloween with friends in our Dragon Ball Z costumes, him as Goku, me as Gohan.

I’ve always felt like Ty and I understood each other—our competitive streaks, the way we care about our frats and our buddies. But what we discussed last night made me feel closer to him than any of the messing around. That stuff feels special too, no doubt, but in a very different way.

Even just imagining his mouth around me, how beautiful his face looked streaked with my cum, is enough to make my cheeks hot.

But now that I know what had him in such a weird state last night, I’m wishing I could have been the one blowing him, giving him relief. Although, I know from everything we’ve done it wouldn’t be entirely selfless of me.

As I walk around the rec center gym, picking up equipment that’s migrated throughout the day, I wish it were a more hectic day so I could get my thoughts on something other than the fact that I rushed out after Ty shared something so important with me.

“Hey, sexy,” I hear behind me, and turn to see Ash and Marty approaching.

I tense up.

“You headed off in a hurry this morning,” Marty says.

“Yeah, we just wanted to swing by and make sure everything’s all right.”

I’m not surprised they noticed I was acting strange. That’s one of the reasons I hurried through breakfast and left as soon as I could. And now I’m worried I’m as transparent as I was to Ty last night. That they might pick up on what’s on my mind too.

“Just wanted to get to work,” I lie.

“What time you get off?” Ash asks. “We were gonna grabsomething to eat in a bit.”

“Oh, it’s cool. I was gonna go straight back to the frat and finish up some homework.”

“Then get ready for your beauty pageant this evening?” Marty teases.

“It’s a bachelor auction, not a beauty pageant,” I remind him.

Activate Kindness’s auction got big a couple of years ago after Alpha Theta Mu’s own Troy Locklear brought a lot of attention to the event. Now it’s become an annual tradition for the frats to support the cause.

I’ll be there, and so will Ty.

“Gonna get a pump in at the gym to show off the guns?” Marty asks. “Or maybe practice your speech about how to end world hunger?”

Ash and I share a laugh.

“Could you imagine if we had to listen to some Sigma Alpha ass giving a speech about the solution to climate change?” Ash jokes, and I tense up.

I normally wouldn’t think twice about ragging on Sigma Alpha, but now I feel protective because of Ty.

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