Page 43 of Pucked Up

“So when he tried to sneak up on me again, I floored him and put my knee on his neck. He promised to leave me alone after that.”

“Damn it,” I swore under my breath.

His head whipped around to face me. “Did youwantme to be dirty touched, Bodie? Is that what you were hoping?”

“Don’t be an ass,” I snapped at him. He winced,and guilt slammed through me. I didn’t need to be taking my issues out on my friends. “I just meant it would have been really nice to knock someone out, and a guy like that would be the perfect target.”

He hummed softly. “I see. So what size was the bug that crawled up your ass and died tonight?” He held up his fist. “About like this?”

Yeah, I was the dickhead here. “I’m sorry, Micah.”

Likely because I didn’t apologize often, he immediately went soft and smiled. “I forgive you.”

When I pulled up to the next red light, I turned to face him. He looked exhausted, his mouth drawn down around the corners, his eyelids more relaxed than they usually were, but that was a sign he was stressed.

Micah and Jonah talked a lot, but they didn’t always open up. The guys and I knew details about the way they grew up only because we’d known them for so fucking long that little bits and pieces had come out during nights where one of them would get tipsy and start telling childhood stories.

I knew that Micah not being able to use prosthetic eyes pissed their parents off because they accepted their sons’ blindness but wanted him to look “normal”—whatever the fuck that meant. And while it wasn’t his fault he’d nearly died under anesthesia during his first surgery, they always kind of blamed him for it.

And one night, when Micah and Jonah were about half a dozen shots into a bottle of Maker’s Mark, they told me the worst story. Micah had comeout as bi at eighteen, after being drafted into the PPHL. He was making his own money, he’d said. He felt safe to be himself.

And then his mother came over, and in order to “save his soul,” Jonah had sneered, his words slurred, she took his phone, turned off all his accessibility settings, then hid it in their apartment and left. It took three days, then Jonah eventually calling his partially sighted coach and several members of the team with lower levels of blindness to tear apart the place and find it.

When he and Jonah confronted their mom about it, she simply said, “I know you’re on those apps, and if I can’t convince you to give your life some real purpose instead of condemning yourself to hell, I’m going to have to take steps to force you.”

And that was the last time they talked about her.

But I knew moments of him going on dates with men were more than just being attracted to them. It was also one more fuck-you to his parents, who had only accepted him for parts of who he was.

And I understood that more than I ever wanted to admit to anyone.

“You didn’t fall asleep, did you?” Micah asked.

My gaze shot up, and I realized the light had been green for probably a while. I gripped the gas too hard, and the car jerked forward, making him gasp.

“Bro. Fuck.Wereyou asleep?”

“No. I was thinking about your mom,” I told him. Oh Christ, what?

He grimaced. “Dude. Keepthatfetish to yourself.”

“No, no. Shit.” I took a deep breath. “Don’t be disgusting.”

“Youdon’t be disgusting! She’s a monster.”

“No, I mean, I was thinking about shitty parents.” I paused for a second, then said, “My dad called. He wants me to go to this fuck-ass benefit thing for the PPHL.”

“Oh, the Reid Martin benefit.”

“That’s the one,” I said.

“Right. I won that,” Micah said. “They’re making me go this year.”

I immediately felt better. “Oh, shit. Really? Do you want to be my date?”

He grimaced. “Dude, I wouldlovethat, but they’re literally making me take that guy you hate.”

“You’ll have to narrow that down,” I said as I pulled onto his street. “It’s a huge list.”

---